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

[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.

[dragoonrouge]

Still watching and waiting for the mystery man to make a move Sadie decides to use this time to catch up with Russell, "How have you been, it's been a while since I last got to catch up with you?"

[spaghettimonster]

"Oh, working all the hours they'll have me. Trying to put a little something aside for... a rainy day." Or a day when his changes progress too far, and he needs to run rather than get institutionalized or something.

Russell tries a polite smile, but mostly keeps focusing his line of sight through the phone, letting him see when the mystery man starts watching outside. He can't be sure what exactly the man's looking at, but he can assume the worst. "Oh, they can't keep hidden for anything, can they..."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie's beanie shifts minutely as her ears fold back in sympathy, as wrapped up as she could get with Ben's changes and supporting him, it was easy to forget that Russell's changes were shaping up to have to potential to be just as dramatic, "Sounds like a good idea and maybe it won't be completely necessary for the future and you'll find yourself with a little extra to spend!" Sadie replies optimistically.

"...How do you think your family will feel?" Sadie ventures delicately, hopefully, Russell's family will be accepting too."

sadie's the first to ask that, she gets a ramble

[spaghettimonster]

Russell nods along to her optimistic sentiment, sharing it and hoping the same. Maybe this is as far as his physical changes will go - after all, he hasn't gained any memories that focus on the other person's appearance, he doesn't know for sure. Maybe he'll be awkwardly thin. It's not ideal, and it garners him odd concerned and troubled looks, but... Someone this thin without any health issues could find work in special effects, at the very least. It wouldn't be the kind of leading role he aspires to, but it might be something others can't easily replicate - something in demand.

But before he finds the words to expand on that kind of notion, Sadie follows it up with a heavier kind of question. He sucks in a breath, shoots a quick glance at her face, and gets the sense that she's sincerely concerned, enough to be gentle about asking. It's a big enough question that he doesn't dare just brush it off.

"...Well. That's hard to say." He keeps his voice quiet, leaning forward to be easier to hear but not more easily overheard. "If this weren't only happening here in this little area, but all around the world... With everybody knowing about, without, uh, panicking... I could tell them about it, maybe show them some tricks, tell them I'm still myself on the inside, mostly... I think they could accept that. In their own ways. Mostly." He shrugs, briefly, not convinced that all this wouldn't set off a worldwide violent panic about mutants or monsters or somesuch. Or that all his family wouldn't panic.

"But as it is... Mum might see some special, spiritual significance in it all, or she might worry about the danger this puts me in. My big brother and sister, they'll want to know why I'm still here, why I haven't... gotten out, gotten away from whatever this is. My father..." Russell shakes his head slowly, unsure, and not wanting to go that far about things talking with Sadie. And he brings it back to things she might know more about. "My aunts, at least - our aunts, that is, Rosemary and Agatha - I'd like to think that they'd be as astonished as anyone, but more focused on love and support than anything. I want to think that. I just... don't think I want to broach any of this, with anyone outside all of this, until I have to. Especially if leaving means I'd forget, but they wouldn't."

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie moves most of her focus onto Russell, just keeping a cursory eye on the man they'd come to find. What Russell had to say was incredibly important and Sadie could sympathise completely.

"It's scary," Sadie admits quietly and tugs at her beanie, "I probably never would have said anything to my parents if it hadn't been for these and there were so many 'What Ifs?' swirling around my head. And they asked me that too, why didn't I want to leave?"

She sighs, double-checking that the mystery man hasn't gone anywhere before continuing, "I think we need to start organising regular trips outside the barrier or something, it's what Ben and I have been doing so now, even when we leave we sort of know the basics of what's happening back here and it's made things a little less stressful. And maybe pick one person to tell, just in case stuff gets a bit more...dramatic in the future?"

[spaghettimonster]

"That's right, you've gone out pretty often..." Russell remembers slowly, and considers her for a moment. "How is that? Do you rmemeber the things you've told yourself, even if you don't remember them...?" He makes a face. "I found it... disorienting, and didn't linger out there."

Much to the irritation of his sister, who hadn't expected him to beg off visiting on holiday. She'd been appeased when he admitted to financial worries, but that would only stand for so long. Especially with his dwindling presence on social media.

[saveournpcs]

At this junction the man folds up his newspaper and gets up. He returns his crockery and spoon, puts his newspaper in the bin, and then heads for the exit.

[dragoonrouge]

Sadie nods, "We try to but it is definitely weird. Like remembering and learning about a story that you've read, although I do think that it's getting less disorientating the more we leave."

She would have said more if the gentleman that they had been watching hadn't started to make his way towards the exit prompting Sadie to chug down the rest of her slightly too hot hot chocolate, "Let's follow a little bit behind!"

[spaghettimonster]

"Right, yeah. Give a few seconds lead, so he doesn't catch on..."

He stretches a little as he stands. Not hugely, not so wide to draw lots of attention... but what should be casual enough to look like they've just happened to get up at the same time as a man from another table. And once the man's about at the doorway, Russell casually slips his mobile to his pocket, and heads that same way.

[saveournpcs]

The man steps outside, and then heads across the street towards the gaggle of youngsters and dogs behind the postbox.