Meet the mystery returns man [closed]

[saveournpcs]

Date: 17/04/19
Characters: Mystery returns NPC, Chad, Feste, Sadie, Thom, Walter, Russell, tell me if I forgot someone

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Following this network post by Chad, a number of people is now heading towards the Costa on the High Street, which sits on the corner of the "street with the five lampposts" that leads down to the sea.

They will find everything as normal, and through the window they can see a variety of people having coffee - including one man who is currently studying a newspaper and who may or may not look familiar to someone. Though last time people saw him he had a rather big thing on his face, so recognition may be very hard.

Comments

[channingchanningchanning]

Chad is running up and down outside, his tail raised high, SO MUCH EXCITEMENT CONTAINED IN SUCH A SMALL DOG LOOK HOW GREAT HE IS HE FOUND THE MAN!!!!!!

He's managing to not bark, but the little white dot running forth and back while totally hiding behind a postbox, promise, he is the most sneaky.

Once someone arrives, he's going to bark once and dive behind the postbox. Be as sneaky as he is and hide! WATCH THE MAN!

[iamnotgod]

Walter shoots Chad a Look because of that bark, but doesn't reply.

What if he'd wanted to avoid notice, Chad?

Shifting an odd bundle under his jacket (the old blue blanket; he hadn't entirely wanted to put it away, and it had seemed a good idea to bring evidence), he heads on past the Costa at first.

If anyone else shows up, Walter wants to avoid a crowd scene. Still, perhaps someone who recognizes the man should approach him first.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie arrives slightly behind Walter, shaking her head at Chad's bark though she can't help the small smile that quirks her lips at the dog's behaviour. Taking a fortifying breath, Sadie heads into the Costa, glancing about as she queues to see if she can figure out who it is without asking Chad and potentially giving herself away if he has access to the Network.

[spaghettimonster]

Thanks to Chad's directions, Russell knows exactly the Costa in question - it's the one nearest the flat. If he'd been home he might have arrived alongside Walter, or even been the first to arrive via scooter. As is, he's been out and about, and only arrives shortly after most of the others.

When he turns the corner and sees the Costa, there's already a very crowded postbox on the street, its shadow full of dogs and children in a terribly suspicious crowd.

...If nothing else, he can be grateful that most people won't guess what the group of them is up to. Mischief, undoubtedly, but stalking a potentially-magic gift giver? Maybe not.

Russell shakes his head at the group as he passes, but tries not to make too much eye contact as he heads inside. The better to get some eyes on the inside, and see who it is Chad has tracked here.

[saveournpcs]

The man in the window continues reading his newspaper, neither noticing Sadie and Russell nor the gaggle of youngsters and dogs being super sneaky outside. He seems to be alone, and not be carrying a bag - all that he has on him past clothes and whatever is in his pockets seems to be the newspaper and a large cappuccino.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie collects her hot chocolate and picks a table with a good view of the man in the window and reaches up underneath her beanie to remove her ear plugs, wincing at the sudden rush of noise but angling her ears towards the man anyway.

Once Russell enters, she smiles and waves at him, nothing suspicious, just two friends getting coffee. Once he sits down she whispers quietly at him, "Do you recognise him, there's something about him that seems somewhat familiar to me?"

[spaghettimonster]

Maybe a little suspicious - Russell blinks as he recognizes her, and changes course with the slight doubletake of having not expected to see her. He smooths it over quickly enough afterwards, and joins Sadie at her table to lean in enough to hear her whisper.

"Do I recognize him...?" Russell does his best to look around casually, checking the faces of the various men in the cafe. Unfortunately, as he considers himself too old to visit Santa Claus, he'd passed the man in the mall by entirely. And by the time he'd heard the rumor of the range of gifts the mall santa was giving out, the man already moved on.

After a glance around, he grimaces and shakes his head. "Honest, I don't even know who it is we're looking for. The group outside stands out too much, I didn't want to stop and talk."

He'd just planned to doublecheck the network in hopes of clues in all the chatter.

[dragoonrouge]

"I think it's the guy sat in the window, he looks familiar and I don't think Chad would have been able to see much further into the cafe than that," Sadie inclines her head ever so slightly in the direction of the man in the window, "What do you think we should do?"

[spaghettimonster]

Following Sadie's lead, he tilts his head just enough to look towards the window out of the corner of his eye, marking the main interesting man silhouetted against the light of the outdoors. They're a regular pair of secret agents. Maybe they can order some iced coffee shaken, not stirred.

"Right. Well... I came be sure he doesn't leave a strange way," Russell whispers back. "And that Chad doesn't... bite off more than he can chew." Literally, maybe. "What else can we really do, ask him if we look familiar to him?"

[saveournpcs]

The man looks out of the window and smiles when he spots the dog-and-children commotion outside, but doesn't notice Sadie and Russell.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie watches the man's attention turn to the rabble outside, her lips twisting into something halfway between a smile and a grimace, "I think the lot outside have been spotted, I think we should continue to watch until he leaves or if he goes towards them?"

[spaghettimonster]

"That'll be for the best," Russell agrees, pulling out his mobile and turning the camera app to selfie mode, the better to watch without turning towards the guy. "He's not the bomb man, I'd swear to that, but I don't know who he is. Doesn't feel right to go up and interrupt him unless he does something."

[saveournpcs]

The man properly puts the newspaper down and watches the people outside with a smile - it's not quite clear what he's looking at exactly, but the direction is clearly them. Otherwise he doesn't really do anything.

[fairfeste]

Feste actually finds the bark useful, because with so many Costas around how are they supposed to find the right one??? Luckily they notice the bark and stop, bending down next to the dog. ...Clearly, if they both hide behind the postbox, it'll work. They're not entirely sure who they're looking for anyway.

[dreamtamer]

Thom and Gizmo arrive at the end of the street with a great deal of enthusiasm. This was going to be their very first adventure together.

They take a moment to figure where to go next, until Gizmo thinks to follow his nose to the other dog.

They weren't being sneaky about it at all.

[channingchanningchanning]

With Chad, Feste, Thom and Gizmo all hiding behind the postbox, that will get a bit crammed, but Chad is quite happy to have all of them here. Including the youngling. ...And since this is their first meeting in person, sorry humans, he needs to get a good sniff of the other dog first, mystery stranger be damned, before continuing with all of this.

So he'll be distracted for a moment just heading over to Gizmo and greeting him dog style.

...It's not like he can really communicate like this anyhow, though the puddle on the ground that he used to open a communication channel is still active so everyone can hear what the Numbered behind the postbox are up to unless he closes it.

[fairfeste]

Ok, so maybe this looks somewhat suspicious, but Thom is Feste's younger brother so... clearly it's just siblings hanging out with some dogs. See, this works out well, right? Making sure their sibling doesn't do anything really dumb or dangerous while also... trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

They're going to ignore the dogs sniffing at each other though.

[dreamtamer]

Thom still hadn't realized that they were supposed to be hiding. And so when he waves at Feste and comes over to greet him he isn't acting at all.

Probably a good thing, considering acting was not one of his strong points.

Meanwhile Gizmo moves over to greet the other dog.

[channingchanningchanning]

There's going to be doggy greetings, and then Chad moves on to get a sniff of Thom, since he hasn't met either of them so far.

There's going to be no good input from him though, since he's not actually able to speak in this form.

[fairfeste]

Apparently this is just happening now. Oh well. They wave at Thom before looking down at the dogs. "Be nice, Gizmo," they say, letting the kid and dogs interact as they look over to the Costa. ...They don't know what they're looking for.

[dreamtamer]

Thom laughs as he meets Chad in person for the first time and crouches down to give him a pat. Which obviously means that Gizmo needs one too.

[channingchanningchanning]

There's some barks as greetings, and then Chad realizes that stepping away from the puddle was an issue.

He needs to convey a message. "He's in there!" he explains, for everyone who is still on the network to hear.

[fairfeste]

Talking to a dog in public is probably weird, but... meh. Feste bends down to pet both dogs. "Which one is he?" they ask.

[dreamtamer]

"Great!" Thom says. "Do we just go in and meet him now?"

[channingchanningchanning]

"I can lead you to him!" Assuming the staff don't kick all the dogs out and tell them to wait in the street before they get there, of course.