Siren wouldn’t go so far as to say he resented having a job, but the fact that this one was so limiting was starting to get to him even more than usual.

Nightbeat showed his face in common areas so rarely that Siren hadn’t seen him at all since the waiting room. No chance meetings or twists of fate thus far. Though some shipmates had caught glimpses or had brief conversations concerning the mystery of the day, no one who Siren had asked was certain about Nightbeat’s whereabouts. In terms of elusiveness, he was second only to Ravage.

About a week after that first encounter, early in the day, an assembly had been called on the bridge concerning Thunderclash’s pre-wake on the currently neighboring Vis Vitalis. Siren attended the assembly even though he couldn’t be off-ship, thanks to Inferno agreeing to take his place in the office for the hour or so he would be gone. Given that Inferno already had the (much shorter) night shift to take care of, it took a bit of convincing, but Siren was willing to put up a bit of a fight if it meant he could stretch his legs.

Never mind that the fight was in the name of reminding himself about something even more fun he couldn’t make it to—he knew he was in the minority, but there was something about funerary rites that he just liked.

Hosehead had shown up earlier than Siren and had his neighboring seats taken, so they watched separately. After Rodimus concluded, most of the audience left right away, giving Siren ample room to walk up to his friend. “You goin’?”

“Oh, no.” Hosehead laughed. “It’s tempting, but this is usually the kind of thing that ends in disaster, isn’t it?”

“Aw, but I was hoping you’d go! Now who’s gonna tell me about all the crazy stuff that’s gonna go down? Why’d you even show up if you’re not going?”

“Just people watching…lots of strange characters.”

“Oh, there’s one!” Siren said as quietly as he could manage, though pointing right at the person in question wasn’t doing him any favors. “That detective! He’s never around! I’m gonna go talk to him!”

“Uh…are you sure now’s a good time?” Hosehead asked, noticing that said detective was in the back like he didn’t want to be bothered, and with a friend like he didn’t want to be interrupted. Siren, however, was already marching on.

“Hey, detective!” Siren called as he walked up to the duo. “Who’s your friend?”

“Nautica of Caminus, quantum mechanic!” She held her hand out, matching Siren’s near-constant enthusiasm as he shook it, both always excited to meet someone new. “You must be Siren. Sorry—is that weird?”

“It’s not weird to pay attention or orientation day, no.” Siren laughed.

“Hah, of course. So…you two know each other?”

“No,” Nightbeat said matter-of-factly. “What do you want?”

“First, you aren’t really gonna tell Magnus on me, are you?”

“No. Have you been worrying about that? It was a joke.”

“Okay, good! Great! Then I was just wondering if you’re all heading off!”

“Of course!” Nautica said. “I heard there are Camiens like myself onboard, and I can’t help feeling a little homesick. Are you going, too?”

“Nah, I can’t…”

“That’s too bad,” Nightbeat said. “I’d hate to miss whatever interesting things are going on over on the Vis Vitalis.”

“Like…the…pre-wake?”

“Sure, if you want to go for the most obvious thing. Personally I’m curious what their storage situation is like. You can tell more about a crew’s culture by what they hide away than what they put where guests can see.”

"Nightbeat, you have to go to the wake, at least at first. It would be uncouth not to. Even I know that." Nautica reminded him. He groaned but didn't object.

“That’s a good point, though!” Siren agreed. “But I don’t know if I’d be able to get out of the dance once I was there—I love stuff like that. Especially if it’s for Thunderclash’s sake!”

“Oh, yes, he certainly is worth celebrating for that handsome blue helmet and golden face,” Nightbeat gave the side of his own helmet a nonchalant stroke. “If not his achievements.”

Siren and Nautica both laughed, but only Siren couldn’t help taking a closer look at Nightbeat—had the gall to compare himself to the one and only Thunderclash, after all.

Well, he was no Thunderclash, but he certainly had something going for him.

Hosehead called out for Siren, his exasperation audible. When Siren turned to see what he wanted, he was standing in the aisle and motioning to leave.

“Was whether we’re going or not really all you wanted to know? You could just check the manifest if you want to know something like that.” Nightbeat asked, getting straight to the point to spare Hosehead from having to wait much longer.

Of course Nightbeat would consider quietly keeping tabs on people above just speaking to them. Siren didn’t think subtlety like that was the way to go, but he realized he had the opposite problem, and his plan may have in fact been too forward as Hosehead had tried to warn him. He hadn’t thought of an alternative and didn’t have time to invent one, so he powered through. “Well, I was also hoping you could clue me in on what happened when you got back, especially if you get into something more under-the-radar!”

“You get bored in that office, don't you?” Nightbeat asked. Siren nodded. As someone who had the freedom to always be up to something, surely he could empathize. “We’ll see.”

Siren, ecstatic even just to have not received a hard no, gave two thumbs up. “Cool! Thanks so much! I gotta go!”

He sprinted back to Hosehead, who walked him back to the office where he and Inferno traded off. Waiting for his shift to end was rarely a breeze, but today, it felt excruciating. He desperately hoped Nightbeat would actually report back but did his best to stop himself from dwelling on it—that was just asking to be jinxed.

The Lost Lighters’ visit to the Vis Vitalis had come and gone. Siren’s shift was nearing its end. Hosehead had stopped by briefly to inform him that Thunderclash had not only recovered but decided to join their crew, and that was all he knew so far. Maybe he shouldn’t have held out his hope. Maybe what he and Nightbeat considered “interesting” were incompatible. Maybe nothing of note had happened, although that was hard to believe when he had heard of Thunderclash’s miraculous recovery. Maybe—

“I’m back.” Nightbeat poked his head into his office, just checking that he was there rather than waiting for an invitation inside.

“Oh, hi!” Siren sprang back from his idle thoughts now that reality was finally delivering. “How’d it all go? Did you meet Thunderclash?”

(He made a mental note to stop mentioning Thunderclash, as difficult as that may be. It might send the wrong message.)

“Not while he was conscious,” Nightbeat said, taking the seat on the other side of the desk. Siren was immediately intrigued by that, and Nightbeat retold the ordeal to him in intricate and engaging detail—Siren wondered if Nightbeat’s stories were always so engaging, or if it was due to it being so fresh in his mind. Hopefully, some day, he would find out. For now, he hung on every word, not interrupting but offering feedback in unintrusive expressions—he realized towards the end that it had been eons since he went so long without interrupting.

“That’s wild! I never would have thought of that, at least not in the moment!”

“You don’t think you’ve got a knack for deduction?”

“I guess I don’t really know! I haven’t really tried!” Siren shrugged. He could enter a panicked room and assess what needed to be done, but figuring out how it happened was not usually necessary. “But you obviously do! even on a ship with an even bigger crew than this one and a bunch of guests, you were the only one that figured it out! You’re such a pro!”

It may have been an unflattering truth, but it was still the truth, so Nightbeat had no choice but to honor it. “...Actually, one of ours—Skater, whoever that is—and his friends figured it out a bit before me. They were the ones who called for help. Admittedly, I’m glad you gave me a chance to get the reaction I was hoping for. Everyone else was less than impressed.”

“Well, it sounds like you’ve got way more of a knack for presentation than those guys, too—actually, I know you do, cause you’ve had me on the edge of my seat this whole time!”

“Thank you, Siren,” Nightbeat said, making a point to lock eyes, a move he clearly used to intimidate people more often than charm them. Siren felt his face grow instantly warmer, if only because there wasn’t much that could intimidate him. “Anyways, I guess on some level I did want to go dance—or, go observe dancing, but the pre-wake was called off since Thunderclash had been restored, so I settled for the Earthdance back here at Swerve’s. It was a decent time, even from the sidelines, except—”

Siren’s visor widened and he leaned forward.

“...Swerve disappeared. Just vanished from behind the counter, right when it was getting good, and no one’s seen him since. I can’t explain it—not yet, anyway.”

“No, not Swerve!” Siren wailed. “With him and Raj both gone, who’s gonna run the bars?! Riptide?!”

“I agree, it’s concerning. This entire place’ll devolve into chaos without its watering holes. But unlike Mirage, there’s a chance we can get Swerve back. Let me know if you or your acquaintances see anything that might be connected, okay?”

An invitation? Sure, it was strictly business, but still—Siren hoped Nightbeat didn’t notice the delay in his response or the overly-enthusiastic crackle in his voice (who was he kidding? This was Nightbeat. At least he seemed to like attention). “Definitely!”

“Well, now that I’ve brought you up to speed, I should be going…” Nightbeat said, rising from his seat. “Just mentioning that we don’t know what happened there is making my mind race. I’ve got to get to the bottom of that.”

“Oh, okay!” Siren said, leaning back in his chair. Now that he was leaving, he was made aware of how much he wanted him to stay, but he knew better than to ask for that. Siren at least had to make sure that Nightbeat left with an invitation of his own. “Seriously, thanks for coming! I know it’s out of your way…but maybe you can come back next time something interesting happens?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Nightbeat said as he walked out.

I’ll see what I can do. Another ambiguous, non-committal answer, but it was far less exciting to receive it the second time around. Siren decided to give him the benefit of the doubt since he didn’t seem at all dishonest and was probably just budgeting for the possibility that, for some reason, he couldn’t follow up on his promise, as opposed to giving a “maybe” to avoid the difficulty of outright rejecting him.

Either way, all he could do was wait and see. ✧