audio | skinny nerd apb

[omniavincit]

[ Good morning, everyone! It is around 5:30 when the sleep-clotted tones of William's voice come through the CommLink. ] Is anyone friends with Theo?

[ A normal question, asked at a normal time. ]


[ WARDENS ]


Theo Crawford's missing. [ A pause. ] 19, red hair. Looks like he's wasting away.

[ Likes magic, reading, and chess. Liable to kill someone for a cigarette. ] His sheets are gone, so we may be looking for a body. [ It's dispassionate, his voice sealed off against any emotion. ] I'm checking with the Admiral about that.




ooc: JUST A NOTE that I am a-okay with other people finding Theo/inmates finding him and lying to William about it/what have you, this is just a post to get the word out! He has a log over here.

Comments

[omniavincit]

We're fanning out, waiting to hear from the Navarch.

Did he talk about this? [ Other than saying he'd rather be dead to any warden who'd listen. ]

[kaijuice]

No. He's primarily discussed the library - its limitations.

[omniavincit]

So you, what, stood around and complained? [ Somewhere in the distant vicinity of amused. Bitching about books: a very plausible foundation for a friendship. ] What's it missing?

[kaijuice]

[ wry: ]

Do you not sleep here?

[ standing around complaining is half of what anyone does ]

It's preventing his access to research materials. I'm afraid the details beyond me, it sounded highly technical. I understand he is - emotionally invested.

[omniavincit]

Sometimes pointedly. [ He will nap through your argument.

A slight whiff of bullshit at anyone on this ship admitting something's beyond them. But he likes thinking of Theo as alive, talking about him in the present tense. ] That fucking owl.

What's the last time you talked to him?

[kaijuice]

The day before last.

[ someone was ""resting his eyes"" yesterday ]

[omniavincit]

How was he?

-> private;

[kaijuice]

Calmer. It was -

[ he exhales, short. let william fill that one in. ideal, for their purposes, that there be some urgency.

(clever of the boy, he'd never have banked on this)

the creak of an opening cabin door. ]

[omniavincit]

It was what? [ Patient, maintaining a respectful distance. ]

[kaijuice]

Frankly? Fucking weird.

[ thump ]

Have you checked the rest of his things?

[omniavincit]

No. [ It's almost guilty. Without skipping a beat: ] Switch to video.

Weird how?

why are you awake

[kaijuice]

[ the abrupt, hot impulse to hang up —

no. there's a part to play. the feed flickers onto dormitory row: dim, sterile; all blues and greys, the boxed light of open pods. he moves steadily through the dark. practiced. ]

It was a change. Amid conditions mind-numbingly static.

[ silco stoops to the trunk, fingers spidering over a set of neatly-folded suits. ]

[omniavincit]

[ It's all starting to ring a little false—false in a familiar, almost welcome way. The words selected with care, leading somewhere.

He goes silent a spell, watching. Eventually: ] He talk about home?

[kaijuice]

[ there's nothing in here, too little else the boy owns. silco can't say whether he's disappointed —

it would be a foolish place to keep a knife, a tool; anything of value. but who can say whether he's even taken the initiative? kids these days.

he shuts the trunk. stoops up to turn the camera about the rest of the room, slow. the feed cuts out, to audio. ]

No. To you?

[omniavincit]

[ Only when there's nothing—clothes about as threadbare as Theo himself—does William realize he'd been counting on something. A note, a hint. ]

What he left behind. [ Bodies. Magic, he supposes, qualifies too. ] Did Jinx run away ever?

[kaijuice]

Feeling paternal?