IC Contact

[systemize]

Contact Cadel here! If you know him from the network, his online name tag reads Stormer.

You can also put in work requests here for his computer services, normally including hacking protection, network anonymity, coding jobs, hardware jobs including nanobiometrics if he feels safe giving you something that good, and so on. He takes cash or pieces of tech only. Friends of his get things for free.

Text, email, phone, voicemail, and in person all available.

Comments

successive texts again

[abduxel]

[there's always a long-ish gap between Abduxel's texts because he takes a long time to type them. Even though his mun is instant-tagging. Just FYI.]

maybe easier to explain in personn

im not proud of my past... i told you some

he ..or she.... threatened to expose it to friends roommates coworkers

make me look bad as an import i guess

i dont nknow why because i dont know who it is, i dont have bad blood with annyone here, i think its discrimination

that sutff was a long time ago but it might change how they seee me

we all make mistakes. it wasnt my fault. it was how i was raised

i just want to know why

[systemize]

[Understood!!]

[Cadel has no intention of meeting in person if he can help it. He already knows he has criminal leanings, and keeping his online and real life names separate is explicitly to protect him from that. Even if Abduxel doesn't seem like a cruel person to him, Cadel is too experienced with morally ambiguous people to see that as the end all, be all of character judgements.

That doesn't mean he's unwilling to help, he's just cautious. That phrase it's how I was raised hits him hard, but he remembers saying that to him in their first conversation and is wary that it's being intentionally repeated in order to manipulate him.]

You realize I'm going to find out what you don't want exposed if you ask me to do this, don't you?

he seems to be getting the hang of texting

[abduxel]

i can just tell you now. you're a cool kid but i don't care if you think less of me. no offence.

i became a drug mule at 12

smuggled opium and cocaine across borders. mexico to usa.

dirty business. stealing. lying. identity theft. assault. kids are good at it... people arent as suspicious

i was just a poor immigrant kid, i didnt know anything. impressionable teenager. you know how it is

never killed anybody. but the people who used me did. that blood's on my hands too

that was a long time ago... maybe im not the most straight and narrow now but i left that all behind.

don't want to hurt anybody.

there. you know already. will you help me? can i trust you?

[systemize]

[Cadel stares hard at these words, but he's not that good at reading people. If this is a lie or a manipulation, it's working on him. To him, they read sincere-- they resonate with him. Cadel himself would never have ended up in that kind of situation, not with Prosper dictating his life, but the thing is...

The crime empire Prosper had raised him to run would've created thousands of kids in that situation. Cadel had never thought of it quite so explicitly, but the knowledge of consequences is what made him rebel, what turned him moral. How can he pass up an opportunity to right in some small way one of the wrongs he was almost led to commit himself?]

Yes. I'll help you. Who am I looking into?

[He doesn't say anything about the story itself. From Abduxel's own words on not caring if he thought less of him, Cadel knows he isn't looking for an opinion and he hopes that one day he has that same confidence himself about his own shady past. For now, his simple agreement is message enough, he thinks.]

[abduxel]

thanks. youre a good kid, stormer.

the name is "penguin." i dont know anything else. so be careful, i dont know if he or she is dangerous. might be, if they are threatening people like this. all i need is penguins real name.

ill give you $100 for trying and failing. $200 for succeeding. deal?

[Behind the screen, Abduxel is grinning wide.]

[systemize]

Don't say that just yet.

You should consider coming clean sometime, publicly, to prevent situations like this in the future. You have a sympathetic story and it's old news. It's only effective blackmail because you're placing importance on it and trying to hide it.

But yeah, deal. Do you know how to wire money yet? Give me a couple days and I'll get back to you.

[He's going to set up a program to comb the network for mentions of "Penguin" and then sift through the results himself.]

[abduxel]

why shouldnt i say that just yet? i CAN trust you, right?

[he ignores the advice]

what is wire money

[systemize]

I haven't found what you want yet.

[Also he's not a very good kid, in his opinion. Abduxel is making him more suspicious, though. Cadel will do what he's agreed to but from the start he hasn't been totally sold on it. At the same time, he's unwilling to live hyper-vigilant, as Prosper would have wanted him to.

So he'll take a chance. Once.

He responds back with a link to instructions on money wiring, or whatever this world's equivalent of Paypal is.]

[abduxel]

oh. well i mean i appreciate you trying either way

[he doesn't reply to the paypal link, although he does read it]

[systemize]

Okay. I'll contact you.

[And as far as Cadel is concerned, business is business, and that's that. He feels uncomfortably like he's just made a deal with someone from Axis, but they're not all bad people and he knows that. Gazo had been at Axis, and he was one of his closest friends now.]