(2023-06-23) Do Any of You Know Carden?

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Author:	Alli
Summary:	Nesselos goes to the warlocks in Ratchet to ask them a few questions about what happened to Carden Blackwood and to, hopefully, find answers about Sandy's situation as well.
Rating:	T for Teen

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Mentions of missing people, of bullying and of hurting people.

The draenei shaman who walks off the boat at the Ratchet dock is clearly trying to make some sort of a fashion statement. He's dressed in unrelieved black, but it looks less like an organized outfit than that he simply took every black item of clothing he owned and wore them at the same time. He tries to keep a solemn face, maybe trying to match what he assumes is a 'warlock atmosphere', but he is just entirely too blue, and his tail entirely too jaunty, to really pull it off. He casts a longing look in the direction of Islen Waterseer, but forces himself to walk off the dock and towards the little enclave of warlocks in the north of the city. As he approaches, he waves cheerily, further ruining his attempts at warlock atmosphere.

The group of warlocks actually notices the Draenei from very far away as he begins making his way towards them. None of them reciprocates the friendly wave, all huddling together, and the older-looking gnome warlock even hushes acolytes, waving at them to push them back inside the building. A red-haired human woman - Menara - looks at Nesselos as he approaches, frowning slightly. "Need something?"

"Hello!" Nesselos says, not letting his smile waver. He does note the huddling, though, and decides to dive right in. "A warlock friend of mine has gone missing, and… a friend of his has too, and… I thought maybe one of you all would have seen or heard something that might help me find them? They're your friends too, I'm sure!"

The warlocks exchange looks. And they begin at the 'a warlock friend' part. Most don't seem to imagine a Draenei having many warlock friends. "These friends of yours, they have a name?" asks Babayaga, the gnome.

"Yes, of course," Nesselos nods eagerly. "The one who went missing a year ago is 'Carden'. Do any of you know him?"

More exchanges of looks. "Yes, we do," Matero Zeshuwal, the blood elf, says, without elaborating any further.

"Oh, good," Nesselos says, stepping closer. "Do you have any idea what happened to him?"
"No," Menara says, crossing her arms. "Do you think we do?"

Nesselos nods, his expression open and without guile. "I assumed you'd be concerned. You might have made some attempt to find him, even if you didn't succeed in the end. But if Sandy was looking for him too, then anything you did uncover would be a help."

All the warlocks present react in different ways to what's being said, and all at once. However they can be divided in two camps: those who express concern or curiosity at the mention of Sandy, and those who laugh out loud. Zeshuwal is one of the latter. "You think Gausanders and Carden were friends? Way too tarnish someone who's more than likely long dead's reputation." Menara shakes her head, moving on from Zeshuwal's comment immediately. "Sandy's missing?"

"Yes, since a few weeks ago," Nesselos bobs his head, looking curiously at Zeshuwal. "They weren't friends? Then why was Sandy trying to look for him?"

Menara seems a little more shocked by the news than the others. "Well, I'm not Gausanders, am I?" the elf answers Ness, raising his eyebrows. "But he was looking a little too much for his peer's approval, at some point." He smirks. "Carden hated Sandy's guts, but it wasn't especially reciprocal, I suppose."

"So Sandy was concerned for Carden, even if Carden wasn't concerned for him," Ness says slowly, trying to understand. "When was the last time you saw Sandy here?" (modifié)
"You seem to assume Sandy was concerned about him, when we don't know that." Babayaga says. Zeshuwal nods. "In fact, he was one of the suspe—" the gnome hits him with her elbow, and he grows silent. "But we haven't seen him in… months, now, I think?" Menara nods. "When he was fired from that mercenary Company, that's when we stopped seeing him. He came by from time to time before then, but after that, he stopped showing up."

"From Cobalt?" Ness asks, puzzled. "He wasn't fired, that I know of. He's not on the forward squads anymore, but then neither am I. But Carden's sister said that Sandy was helping her look for him, so we do know he was concerned."

Menara throws a hand in the air. "Whatever. He stopped coming here when they politely got him to stop showing up to work." She looks at the other warlocks and sighs. Babayaga shakes her head at her, but the human proceeds. "Listen, from what we know, no one has been looking for Carden, except for his sister who contacted us a lot to get us to look for him." She shrugs. "We couldn't, though. Whether something happened to him because he was from the Alliance, or because he was a warlock, that was not good for our relationship with the goblins in charge here, and we can't risk being thrown out of Ratchet." Babayaga sighs at Menara's explanation in details. "What she's saying is true. Officially, no one is looking for the young Blackwood, because nothing happened to him."

"That's terrible," Nesselos's eyes go wide and a little moist with sympathy. "That poor girl. No wonder she seemed so upset. Well, I won't cause any problem with the goblins - we're on good terms. But if there's anything you can tell me about what might have happened, I would like to find her some closure. And find Sandy too, hopefully."

"Yeah, well, can't help you there," Menara says, shrugging. "No one had anything against Carden, specifically. He was kind of a suck-up. So not great, but not terribly annoying either. The only person who probably had reasons to dislike him was, well… Sandy." Babayaga nods Menara statements. "But helping investigate his bully's disappearance sounds like something Gausanders would do, doesn't it?"

"Hmm, maybe," Ness sighs. "Any idea where I could go to pick up the threads of the investigation?"

"As Menara said," Babayaga answers. "There was no investigation to begin with, so there's no—" One of the acolytes, an undead woman approaches. "If I may…" Babayaga glares at the forsaken, as she had told her to stay inside the warlock's building. The interruption probably didn't help appease the gnome, too. Zeshuwal, however, simply raises a shoulder. "Well, now that we're at it, you may share whatever you want to this stranger, Acolyte Wytula." The Forsaken turns to Ness. "Sirie Netelle. This woman has a heart darker than all of us combined. Who knows what she would do to her son's bully…" Wytula speaks with a look of disgust on her face, clearly having some bad blood with Sirie. "Carden's disappearance happened soon after Miss Menara and I reunited Gausanders and Netelle, I believe…"

"Her son's…" Nesselos's expression darkens, a thing that does not happen often. "Sirie Netelle is his mother? She bit him. As a joke. It was… a bad bite. But you think she would act to… defend him?"

Wytula shakes her head slowly. "Who knows, with her. If this is the jokes she pulls on her family… what kind of jokes is she able to do on those she has reasons to dislike?"
"Do you think she took Sandy as well?" Nesselos asks, looking at Wytula with serious and non-judging eyes for her state of decay.

"Kidnapping and potentially hurting her son for weeks?" Menara asks. "That seems a step too far…" Wytula nods. "Those are her favorite steps to take."

"I see," Nesselos frowns. "Thank you for telling me. I know I may seem an outsider, but I am a friend. And if I find this Sirie Netelle, maybe I can find what happened to both of them. Does anyone have… a mailing address?"

Babayaga doesn't answer the Draenei, she moves to their building, followed by Zeshuwal. The gnome mutters to her companion "And just as we were discussing reciprocity in friendship, uh?" Wytula goes inside the building as well, coming back a few moments later holding a piece of paper to Nesselos. "One of her homes is in Booty Bay, the other in the Undercity. Good luck contacting her, though, she never stays in the same place for long. Who knows when she'll receive your mail?"

"Thank you," Nesselos says, taking the paper and bowing to the Forsaken. "I only hope I can find these two men safe and sound."