(10:23 pm) KnightofBen: i thnk i mite hav figured it out (10:23 pm) BrightSunKiller: Oh? (10:24 pm) KnightofBen: i got KYLO.exe to stop fxking up (10:26 pm) KnightofBen: wait nvm lol (10:27 pm) BrightSunKiller: Maybe you should learn to debug better before you start breaking more computers. (10:27 pm) BrightSunKiller: Isn’t your mom sick of replacing computers for you yet? (10:28 pm) KnightofBen: stfu, my parents aren’t even home rn (10:29 pm) KnightofBen: i found sum stuff tho! look it works prtty good sometimes (10:29 pm) KnightofBen: did u no that emprr had a bunch of virus problems aftr my uncle disappeared? (10:30 pm) KnightofBen: empire* (10:31 pm) KnightofBen: aftr tat old creepy weirdo came outta nowhere and took over (10:33 pm) BrightSunKiller: Viruses? Like what? Don’t all big companies usually face those sorts of problems? (10:34 pm) BrightSunKiller: Also please don’t tell me you’re actually hacking into Empire’s old servers, Ben. I don’t think there’s any juicy gossip in there we don’t already know. (10:34 pm) BrightSunKiller: Did your uncle teach you that too (10:35 pm) KnightofBen: imma ignore u said that (10:35 pm) KnightofBen: no 1 will notice, who even checks these servers nymore (10:35 pm) BrightSunKiller: Careful, Ben, don’t get too ahead of yourself. (10:36 pm) KnightofBen: anyway (10:36 pm) KnightofBen: ones tat like (10:36 pm) KnightofBen: basic stuff, stealin hard drive space n shit (10:37 pm) KnightofBen: movin n corrupting files, crashing comps left n right (10:38 pm) KnightofBen: but thn theres liek (10:38 pm) KnightofBen: ‘weird stuff’ happening (10:39 pm) KnightofBen: comps straight up catchin on fire n stuff (10:39 pm) KnightofBen: weird personal mssgs to ppl (10:40 pm) KnightofBen: stuff that prob no 1 should know (10:41 pm) KnightofBen: ths happened for like a while (10:41 pm) KnightofBen: spooky stuff (10:42 pm) KnightofBen: n then (10:44 pm) BrightSunKiller: I think I remember my dad talking about this. (10:46 pm) BrightSunKiller: brb, mom is calling, keep talking. (10:47 pm) KnightofBen: kk (10:49 pm) KnightofBen: i guess they installed sum new prgrm that cleaned errything up (10:50 pm) KnightofBen: no more problems after tat (10:51 pm) KnightofBen: n nothin (10:52 pm) KnightofBen: teres like no info on what it was or did (10:52 pm) KnightofBen: just its name (10:53 pm) KnightofBen: have u ever heard of SITH? (10:59 pm) KnightofBen: wtf who else is messaging me rn (11:00 pm) KnightofBen: suddenly got a ton of spam mssgs, ugh
BrightSunKiller is now Away KnightofBen is now Away
BrightSunKiller is now Online (11:23 pm) BrightSunKiller: Back.
KnightofBen is now Away
(11:30 pm) BrightSunKiller: Ben? (11:42 pm) BrightSunKiller: Ben, you still awake?
KnightofBen is now Away
(11:54 pm) BrightSunKiller: You fell asleep at your keyboard again, didn’t you. (12:02 am) BrightSunKiller: I have to go to bed soon, but I’ll talk to you later. I’m sorry about snapping at you today, that was pretty uncool of me. (12:02 am) BrightSunKiller: I’ll even apologize in person, let you rub it in my face. (12:03 am) BrightSunKiller: Night.
BrightSunKiller is now offline.
-----
Ben doesn’t respond to any of his messages over the weekend, which, given his mercurial moodiness, is not so much a worrisome thing as it is annoying. Brendol figured he’d be bursting with excitement to share all the nonsense he’d rooted up from Empire’s old, very out of date servers. He and Ben don’t share any classes, either, which is also not surprising considering they’re in different grades, but he figures he’ll see Ben around Lunch period anyway and deal with the remains of his huffy annoyance from over the weekend.
It’s not until the following Monday when Poe catches him by the shoulder as they’re leaving English, a muted panic in his eyes, that he realizes something maybe wrong. Him and Poe aren’t exactly friends, despite being in the same grade, but the common link between them is definitely Ben, and Brendol won’t make too much of an effort to speak to Poe unless he has to.
“When was the last time you saw Ben?” Those were not the words Brendol was expecting to hear.
“On Friday, what are you-”
“His parents said he’s been missing since Friday night; they checked all his usual sulking spots but he’s never been gone for this long.” Something in Brendol’s chest feels like it's slowly turning being strangled; it might be his heart, he thinks faintly.
“They checked the arcade, right? You know when he’s in one of his moods he likes to hide out there and scare the daylights out of us.” Poe just shrugs helplessly; his parents are good friends with Ben’s, so it makes sense that he’d have heard about this before Brendol does.
That idiot, Brendol thinks to himself, running off again and worrying his parents sick about him for the thousandth time. He’s going to leave school, find out Ben sheepishly came home with his tail between his legs after one of his childish tantrums, and he’ll wheedle an apology out of him for making any of them waste the energy into worrying about him over this stupid joke.
As it turns out, it’s not a joke, and Ben doesn’t come home that night, or the next, or the one after that; days bleed into weeks and then into months, before turning into years.
Just like his uncle before him, Ben Solo has disappeared, and no one knows where he’s gone.
---
Aaaand that's a taste of what's to come. I know how boring the non-grid stuff is but I just really wanted to set this part up because, uh, we won't be seeing these two for a little while. I am not one for crossover AU's where each character is just another character transplanted with the names changed, so while some may be familiar, others may surprise you... (though I tried not to go too out there with it)
AOL instant messenger was released in 1997, so I figured it wouldn't be too out there for these dorks to be using some analogue of it in the year 2000 (so the bulk of the fic will take place in 2015/2016.)
For he is not of this day; prelude 2/2
(10:23 pm) BrightSunKiller: Oh?
(10:24 pm) KnightofBen: i got KYLO.exe to stop fxking up
(10:26 pm) KnightofBen: wait nvm lol
(10:27 pm) BrightSunKiller: Maybe you should learn to debug better before you start breaking more computers.
(10:27 pm) BrightSunKiller: Isn’t your mom sick of replacing computers for you yet?
(10:28 pm) KnightofBen: stfu, my parents aren’t even home rn
(10:29 pm) KnightofBen: i found sum stuff tho! look it works prtty good sometimes
(10:29 pm) KnightofBen: did u no that emprr had a bunch of virus problems aftr my uncle disappeared?
(10:30 pm) KnightofBen: empire*
(10:31 pm) KnightofBen: aftr tat old creepy weirdo came outta nowhere and took over
(10:33 pm) BrightSunKiller: Viruses? Like what? Don’t all big companies usually face those sorts of problems?
(10:34 pm) BrightSunKiller: Also please don’t tell me you’re actually hacking into Empire’s old servers, Ben. I don’t think there’s any juicy gossip in there we don’t already know.
(10:34 pm) BrightSunKiller: Did your uncle teach you that too
(10:35 pm) KnightofBen: imma ignore u said that
(10:35 pm) KnightofBen: no 1 will notice, who even checks these servers nymore
(10:35 pm) BrightSunKiller: Careful, Ben, don’t get too ahead of yourself.
(10:36 pm) KnightofBen: anyway
(10:36 pm) KnightofBen: ones tat like
(10:36 pm) KnightofBen: basic stuff, stealin hard drive space n shit
(10:37 pm) KnightofBen: movin n corrupting files, crashing comps left n right
(10:38 pm) KnightofBen: but thn theres liek
(10:38 pm) KnightofBen: ‘weird stuff’ happening
(10:39 pm) KnightofBen: comps straight up catchin on fire n stuff
(10:39 pm) KnightofBen: weird personal mssgs to ppl
(10:40 pm) KnightofBen: stuff that prob no 1 should know
(10:41 pm) KnightofBen: ths happened for like a while
(10:41 pm) KnightofBen: spooky stuff
(10:42 pm) KnightofBen: n then
(10:44 pm) BrightSunKiller: I think I remember my dad talking about this.
(10:46 pm) BrightSunKiller: brb, mom is calling, keep talking.
(10:47 pm) KnightofBen: kk
(10:49 pm) KnightofBen: i guess they installed sum new prgrm that cleaned errything up
(10:50 pm) KnightofBen: no more problems after tat
(10:51 pm) KnightofBen: n nothin
(10:52 pm) KnightofBen: teres like no info on what it was or did
(10:52 pm) KnightofBen: just its name
(10:53 pm) KnightofBen: have u ever heard of SITH?
(10:59 pm) KnightofBen: wtf who else is messaging me rn
(11:00 pm) KnightofBen: suddenly got a ton of spam mssgs, ugh
BrightSunKiller is now Away
KnightofBen is now Away
BrightSunKiller is now Online
(11:23 pm) BrightSunKiller: Back.
KnightofBen is now Away
(11:30 pm) BrightSunKiller: Ben?
(11:42 pm) BrightSunKiller: Ben, you still awake?
KnightofBen is now Away
(11:54 pm) BrightSunKiller: You fell asleep at your keyboard again, didn’t you.
(12:02 am) BrightSunKiller: I have to go to bed soon, but I’ll talk to you later. I’m sorry about snapping at you today, that was pretty uncool of me.
(12:02 am) BrightSunKiller: I’ll even apologize in person, let you rub it in my face.
(12:03 am) BrightSunKiller: Night.
BrightSunKiller is now offline.
-----
Ben doesn’t respond to any of his messages over the weekend, which, given his mercurial moodiness, is not so much a worrisome thing as it is annoying. Brendol figured he’d be bursting with excitement to share all the nonsense he’d rooted up from Empire’s old, very out of date servers. He and Ben don’t share any classes, either, which is also not surprising considering they’re in different grades, but he figures he’ll see Ben around Lunch period anyway and deal with the remains of his huffy annoyance from over the weekend.
It’s not until the following Monday when Poe catches him by the shoulder as they’re leaving English, a muted panic in his eyes, that he realizes something maybe wrong. Him and Poe aren’t exactly friends, despite being in the same grade, but the common link between them is definitely Ben, and Brendol won’t make too much of an effort to speak to Poe unless he has to.
“When was the last time you saw Ben?” Those were not the words Brendol was expecting to hear.
“On Friday, what are you-”
“His parents said he’s been missing since Friday night; they checked all his usual sulking spots but he’s never been gone for this long.” Something in Brendol’s chest feels like it's slowly turning being strangled; it might be his heart, he thinks faintly.
“They checked the arcade, right? You know when he’s in one of his moods he likes to hide out there and scare the daylights out of us.” Poe just shrugs helplessly; his parents are good friends with Ben’s, so it makes sense that he’d have heard about this before Brendol does.
That idiot, Brendol thinks to himself, running off again and worrying his parents sick about him for the thousandth time. He’s going to leave school, find out Ben sheepishly came home with his tail between his legs after one of his childish tantrums, and he’ll wheedle an apology out of him for making any of them waste the energy into worrying about him over this stupid joke.
As it turns out, it’s not a joke, and Ben doesn’t come home that night, or the next, or the one after that; days bleed into weeks and then into months, before turning into years.
Just like his uncle before him, Ben Solo has disappeared, and no one knows where he’s gone.
---
Aaaand that's a taste of what's to come. I know how boring the non-grid stuff is but I just really wanted to set this part up because, uh, we won't be seeing these two for a little while. I am not one for crossover AU's where each character is just another character transplanted with the names changed, so while some may be familiar, others may surprise you... (though I tried not to go too out there with it)
AOL instant messenger was released in 1997, so I figured it wouldn't be too out there for these dorks to be using some analogue of it in the year 2000 (so the bulk of the fic will take place in 2015/2016.)