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Well, there was an obvious question to ask, and if there was anything Dusty was good at, it was asking the stupid questions.

"So... do you think they mean something?" Sullenly, the deerkitten reached out to take his paper back. "I mean. Whatever's going on, these gotta be related, right? How many do we have to get until things start making sense, do you think?"

And how would they get them. Dusty had met a lot of Fa'e in his lifetime, but there was just a small handful that he knew how to reach... and admittedly, there was a good chunk among those that he hadn't spoken to in a long while. He didn't know how important these papers were, but assuming that they'd come with a reason....

It was all so big, though. And Dusty just didn't feel... he didn't want to have to....

"Somebody's gotta do something, anyway," he mumbled.

"Yeah, it's just that." The blonde muttered. "I was thinking that... I've seen quite a few of them but..."

It still made no damn sense.

At the mention of a person who knew what to do, his mind went to one person in perticular.

"Riven." Riven was always the person he went to first when he needed help. He hadn't seemed to know either, but maybe...

"Let's see..." The blonde sat, reaching for a pencil and a notebook in his bag and proceeded to write, with computer-like accuracy, the notes he had seen. He had made sure to memorize all of them - and the handwritings - he could not replicate the latter, but he could short them accordingly. With that right in front of his eyes, though, he noticed something. "....Your's is unique so far..." He pondered out loud, glancing at Caoihme. Did that mean anything ? He had no damn idea.

He was only good at guesswork if it all made sense

"There... These are the ones I've seen."

Too many words. Caoimhe could read and define them, but she had no idea what they meant. Two fingers rubbed furious circles on her temples as if she could force an answer out. Then -- a flash of light. "Wait!" she said, face lighting up. One stubby finger darted out. "Diamonds are a girl's best friend!" Having watched Moulin Rouge two weeks ago, Caoimhe remembered that particular lyric because it hadn't made a lot of sense to her. Mrs. Kates sat her down and explained that it was just a saying, and that a dog is supposed to be man's best friend (to which Caoi replied, "Boys are idiots!") before the two decide to drop it and go eat dinner instead. The saying, however, had stuck.

It was by far the simplest of the riddles, and it was likely Dustin and Sei had already figured it out. That didn't stop Caoimhe from beaming like a light bulb attached to the sun, eyes crickling and nose upturned. It was a nice feeling, which she hadn't had in a while. It was good to be helpful, even if not essential. "I don't know what that means though. It's a saying, right? It's a saying that they say in Moulin Rouge." For emphasis, Caoimhe repeated the entire line in her own tone deaf singing voice and with very little care of notes or rhythm, "A kiss on the hand might be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend!" The sound was not a pleasant one, but the tune might be vaguely recognizable if the two other Fa'e had heard it before. She nodded as though both boys had to get the reference. She took a few steps toward Dustin to read the other message and then canted her head back to Sei. "Can you find Riven? If he's old, maybe we can show him these and he will tell us what they mean." Fully convinced she was being incredibly helpful, Caoimhe crossed her arms over her chest and continued to beam, letting all thought of Gristla's absence leak from her mind. When it came back, it would smart in her chest, but for now, it was simply wonderful to have her mind on something else.

"... Maybe we oughta look up some of these online?" Dusty suggested, his voice lacking its usual certainty. Damn, he hadn't felt this much like a child in years, but... with everything the way it was, he just couldn't really bring himself to....

Oh whatever. He didn't care, anyway.

Struggling to act more like his usual self, Dusty volunteered, "I can go back to the HQ, see if he's there." He kind of wanted to get a look at it during the daytime, anyway. See if it was as bad as it had seemed that night. "If you tell me what he looks like, anyway, so I know what I'm looking for."

When Sei confessed to not hearing from his parents either, a strange look came over Dusty's face. Relief? That would have been... odd, but selfishly justifiable. It was that sense of not being alone, at least in one regard. The other two might still have their Guardians, but at least in one way, he had someone that could relate to him, and the other way around. "Yanisin's my dad. Keir's my mom, I guess. I never talk to her, but she probably has a clue or something. Who's your folks? Maybe I might see them somewhere?"

Pchew'ed, uh ? "Yeah, that's a pretty good explanation. As long as you don't try to go inside, I think you'll be fine. Riven's pretty hard to miss... White haired, purple-skinned guy without legs." Being able to overlook Riven in a crowd... was probably worth an award.

Yanisin he did not know, but... ...Keir ? ....Really ? He had only ever seen her from a distance, but he hadn't... heard very good things. From a distance seemed like the best place to be in that case, and Dusty himself seemed to have figured that one out.

"My dad is Hoshi... Has dark skin with stars on it. Pretty hard to miss too. My mom... Well, if you find her, ill be very impressed. She skipped of somewhere again and I've had no mean to contact her for almost two years. Her name's Shina, though.""

He got up from his chair then, waiting for Caoi to show him where the computer was. Maybe they'll figure something else too ? It occurred to him that Gristla was likely the only family she had, and that made his heart sink, so to speak. Good thing Sei wasn't the huggy type, or he might have pulled both her and Dusty in one and not let go for some time. "Riven probably knows how to rebond you to her." He said, as certain as he could manage himself to sound - which actually wasn't half bad. As for Dusty... well, he didn't know the situation, and wasn't going to pull it out of the boy.

Caoimhe didn't think she had ever met Riven, and after hearing Sei's description, she was certain she never had. Some of the other names, though, sounded familiar. "I met Shina once, a long, long time ago. And Yanisin too. Around the same time. Weird. I didn't know they were parents." In fact, in Fa'e development, they appeared to be roughly around the same place at Caoimhe now was, physically at least. Of course, the selkie girl had no intention of becoming a parent; her nose wrinkled at the mere thought, stomach doing a tiny flip.

It seemed like the computer idea was being shrugged off by the two other boys. Perhaps she could manage it on her own? Hm, maybe Mrs. Kates would help her... There were just so many buttons, so many things to click, and Caoimhe had been grounded last year for punching the screen and breaking it. She and the computer had a tenuous relationship.

Nodding slowly in Sei's direction, Caoimhe tried to believe that Riven could bring back the bond between she and Gristla. She was happy the tigress was not in the room though. If he were wrong, it would be another crushing blow. At the thought of Gristla, Caoi rubbed at her collarbone, brows drawing down in two neat arcs. Dustin started to leave then, and though Caoimhe desperately wanted to do something, she did not follow him. It seemed like he had something else to take care of, and Caoimhe was still having a very hard time being away from Gristla for extended periods of time.

As he moved toward the door, she took two steps forward and said, "Did you want to take some food?" But he was already gone. Caoi looked back over to Sei. "Would you like some food? We have a lot." A muscled arm swept over the plate-covered counter, and Caoimhe plucked up another potato skin, popping it in her mouth and chewing hard.

Chewing thoughtfully, Caoimhe nodded in rhythm with Sei's words. "Yeah, Shina didn't look old at all. Just wise. I guess. She had that wise look," she said, trying to put on a serious face to mimic the expression. She failed pretty horribly. It was strange to think that she was about the same age (at least in Fa'e terms) as Sei's parents. What was it that made the Fa'e suddenly stop growing? Was it some other kind of fading? Caoimhe didn't think about it too long because it wasn't the kind of thing she liked to think about.

Instead, she smiled with Sei started to eat, nabbing another potato skin the second he picked up his. "Pretty good, right?" she said, chewing with her mouth wide open. Mrs. Kates was a great cook, and it was yet another thing that endeared the older woman to her. The next-door-neighbor was kind of a second mom, even if Caoimhe didn't think about it in those words. When Gristla was attacked, Mrs. Kates was the first person she had run to for help.

Stacking three more potato skins in her hand, Caoimhe hopped into the living room, pointing a hand out in front of her. "Computer's this way," she said, passing through a doorway into the den. "This is Gristla's Den." The irony was lost on Caoimhe that her four-legged guardian lived in a den. Others who had come over laughed when she said this, but Caoi never understood it.

Sidestepping a mass of soft blankets heaped on one side of the room, Caoimhe crossed over to the dinky white computer -- circa 2000 maybe. The internet was dial-up; the memory was dismal. To a technophile like Sei, it was probably a bit of an insult. Caoi flipped it on, and the screen whirred to life. Then she crossed over to Gristla's furs and collapsed on top of them. This was the place where she had seen her guardian attacked, but she tried not to think of it. Gesturing to the computer with her foot, she said, "It's all yours!" and then stuffed two potato skins at once into her puffy cheeks. Kind of like a squirrel.

Caoimhe sat up when she saw the computer screen start to move without Sei touching it. Windows opened, things were clicked -- and then a... blue screen? Gristla had told Caoimhe that those screens were bad, but Caoi didn't care at that moment. She was in awe of Sei in that moment. "Can you, like... talk to computers?" she asked, propping both elbows up on her crossed legs. It was a pretty handy trick to have, one Caoi wouldn't mind. If she could just tell the computer what she wanted, then she wouldn't have to go through the trouble of actually figuring out how to use it properly. Why did it need so many buttons?

It was probably just as well that Sei used his own laptop.

Laying on the blankets, Caoimhe was forced to stare up at Sei. He was tall -- too tall. As if she suddenly realized her own lack of height, Caoi hopped up from her comfortable position and turned around to open up the large bay windows that framed the small room. A cool ocean breeze trickled in and, with it, the sound of sea gulls. In a quick leap, Caoi was standing on the windowsill, reclining with her arms folded against one side of the frame. Yep, this was much better.