you are what you share

Yasin Yildiz. Founder of Lunar Link. 🌙 @yasin

[yasinlunar]

Location ➠ W. H. Equestrian Center Status ➠ Closed to Lara (@acostacowgirl)

In the spirit of experiencing new things and quenching the insatiable curiosity drawing Yasin through Lunar Cove, he decided to sign up for, among a number of other things, a horseback riding lesson. Why not? At the moment, he didn't have much else to do, and being carted out of his own head for any stretch of time would be something of a relief.

There was much to mull over. Today, Yasin just wasn't in the mood for mulling.

In the stables, Yasin followed a groom's directions to the instructor and extended a hand.

"Lara Acosta? I'm Yasin Yildiz—your newest student."

[donnafide]

An ease settled over Donna, the kind of came from years of practice and professionalism of working with clients. This was her environment. This was where she was most at home. "Ah, Mr. Yildiz, right?" Donna motioned for the man to come in and offered up her hand. "I'm Dr. Kim, one of the partners here at Cove & Associates."

He looked prepared, which was good. That would help with planning and working to get him positioned in the right place, with the right people. "I currently don't practice estate planning, but we're a diverse firm here in Lunar Cove." The main one. The only one, really. "And I have a lot of experience. My job here today is to discuss with you what you'd be looking for as our client and find an associate at the firm who will be able to work with you and see that your needs are met. Shall we get started?"

[yasinlunar]

He shook her hand. "An honor to meet you, Dr. Kim." He was relieved to be speaking with a partner. Others of a lower rank in firms meant well, but a partner had longevity.

"Your experience might be just the thing I need, perhaps more than the name of an associate." Yasin passed over the portfolio for her review, the documents listing every account, asset, and stock share in his possession, then waited until she was seated to find the chair opposite. "I'm looking to shore up everything I have into a living trust. Lunar Cove has been...well, you must know. Invigorating, but also more than it seems. There's a lot for me to learn, and plenty enough that I still don't understand." Yasin thought it would be ridiculous to admit to Dr. Kim that he'd jumped into every adventure thus far, dangers be damned. This way, he was cleaning up a mess before another one could even start.

"In essence, I want to make sure my family is taken care of should anything happen to me. If my affairs are in order, I'll have one less thing to worry about. Is that something your firm is familiar with?" To Yasin's eye, she seemed as if she could handle anything.

[xthetoddinatorx]

Todd seemed to consider this proposition for a moment before shaking his head back and forth and wrinkling up his nose. "Nah. That's nice of you, brah. For real, for real. But I don't want the robots to have my face in case they use it to track me down later when they turn on us. Or worse. What if they think I'm so good-looking I become the new Terminator model? I totes wouldn't want them to use my jawline for evil." He flashed an easy grin as though he had just said something utterly mundane.

Humming to himself, then, Todd began to wipe the countertop. "Diaries are better. And I wanna see what's inside it. What if there's a secret code? Or a treasure map? You never know. For real, for real. You ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?"

Tossing the rag over his shoulder, Todd nodded. "Uh huh. I live here too. My roomie's the owner. I've been in Lunar Cove about...two years now? This time anyway. I was here for, like, forty-two years as a ghost. But now I'm alive. That's rad as hell, right? Bein' a ghost sucks, dude. Don't recommend it."

[yasinlunar]

Yasin had to give him that much. "If it helps, the robots aren't sophisticated enough yet to pull a Terminator." Yet was a load-bearing word, heavier than a ton, and probably wouldn't appease anyone whose thoughts jumped immediately to a tech apocalypse, but being on the cusp of disaster was always better than being in it. "We can still pull the plug."

"About a hundred times," Yasin answered with enthusiasm. It was one of his favorites. When he wasn't pretending to searching for the Ark of the Covenant in the old Mystic house by the water, he always hoped a Marion Ravenwood would find him someday and kick his ass. The perfect woman. "Lunar Cove doesn't have any diaries in the town hall?"

"Sorry, as a ghost?" Yasin's definition was far and away from the bartender's.

[axiosawaitaddie]

Addie's entire face scrunched up in disgust. "Furthest thing from it." Addie was the villain in almost everyone's story, probably. At least every girl whose life she'd walked into. She frowned over at him, deeper now, as he offered another round. Her glass was empty and normally she'd jump at the chance for a free drink, even from a guy in a bar, because free booze was free booze. Now, though, the offer came as a reward for her help. She hadn't been trying to help, that person had just been annoying her. That was all.

"Grow a backbone, Gatsby," she told him instead.

[yasinlunar]

Denying her own heroism? Yasin could not decide if she was being serious or simply modest. More than ever, it seemed to him that the people of the world were grappling between two extremes—one side becoming more private, and the other more open.

"We differ on Gatsby," Yasin said thoughtfully. You could discuss almost anything in a bar. On this note, the two of them were just barely removed from Charles Babbage's Saturday night soirées. "A farm boy turned decorated soldier turned bootlegger, reinventing himself again and again and succeeding, at least for a time? That sounds brave to me."

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Ah. That will do it," She cupped her hand over her mouth as she tried to stifle a laugh. Her iridescent pink wings fluttered behind her as she tried to cool her expression. Though her amusement still danced across her gaze as she watched him continue to rhyme. "I noticed, but don't worry. It will wear off in an hour and it could be worse. You could've eaten the beastly brownie and turned into a guinea pig, so really you sort of lucked out with only rhyming."

"Nice to meet you, Yasin," Gigi flashed him a warm smile from behind the counter. She would've reached over to shake his hand, but germs, so instead she simply batted her lashes over at the handsome newcomer and introduced herself in turn. "I'm Genevieve, but most people call me Gigi and oh? What makes you a clown or was that simply the first word you thought of that rhymes with town?"

[yasinlunar]

Yasin's eyes slid to the wings again, the color reminding him of bubbles. Charmed, he nodded with a new understanding. He wasn't so sure an hour as a guinea pig would be something he could stomach, let alone recognize as a real and reachable consequence. "Then I am blessed," he observed, his mind searching fervently for a follow up, "not to be quite so stressed." He hoped his rhyming skill would improve over time, or their conversation would only grow duller and duller. Yasin did not want this one to get boring.

"Gigi," he repeated, nodding again, "you've caught me." It was more difficult than ever before to express himself, as if he was learning a fourth language from scratch. Coding was easier. "Word choice...inhibits my voice." He gave her a sheepish look, full of apology.

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Hm," Zeina pressed her lips together from where she stood at the only open spot in the was a quiet night in the pub. Her eyes twinkled slightly at the mention of a deal as she slid into the seat across from him as she hummed under her breath in amusement, "You should be careful of who you make deals with, but alright. A trade," She nodded as she sat down, milking the beer in her hand as she eyed him curiously.

"Only if you're paying. But, sure. Enlighten me, dealmaker. What would someone like you need a pair of patient ears for?"

[yasinlunar]

Yasin's smile widened. "I'm sure I'd know if I was living in Bedazzled." They were no devil.

Mirth fading, he sighed. Only at a bar would let him feel so comfortable confiding so quickly and honestly in a stranger. Needs must. "If we are still speaking of deals, I find myself at a crossroads. Neither here nor there about my...career. Right now, I don't know what company I should be applying for. If any," Yasin added. Something didn't sit right with him about the applications. None felt like the right thing, as if he tried on three pairs of shoes in a row that didn't fit his feet. "I hope to work in Big Tech," Yasin continued, eager to clarify and help the stranger help him. "But Big Tech doesn't work for me."

He waited for the server to set down their drinks and leave again.

"Maybe we should trade again," Yasin suggested, knowing he was monopolizing their time. Giving solace to a stranger might be exhausting. "What brings you to Cambridge?"

[cantfightmoonlight]

Leyla had thought nothing of it when her fingers had skimmed along the distracted man's pocket. He had been people-watching and passing back and forth anonymous notes. All too distracted to realize that when she had bumped into his table and muttered out a perfectly timed apology, her fingers had swiped his wallet out of his back pocket. She had made it past the bathrooms and out the back door before he even had time to realize that it had been gone. It wasn't even like she needed the money. She was going to place it back into his pocket by the time he finally emerged and he'd be none the wiser. These days, she was merely pickpocketing as a way of practicing so that she didn't let herself get too rusty. That and after some encouraging words of Ayza, she'd realized how much that itch of her old life, the days that she had spent having to poach petty change to survive, was still there itching for the adrenaline rush every time someone was a little too careless.

Stepping into the back alleyway, she began to flip through the folds of the wallet, making note of how many bills were in there until she fell upon the picture and the all too familiar name plastered across the man's credit cards and license. No. The thought crept into the back of her mind. No, he couldn't be here. This couldn't be happening, but then again Kiraz and Talia had made their way here, so who was to say Yasin couldn't have followed?

Okay, she was going to fix this. She just needed to put the wallet back where it belonged, and he'd be none the wiser. He'd never even need to know that she'd been at Confessions that night. So, she waited. She waited until he had wandered out onto the curb to turn invisible and sneak up to slip the wallet back into his pocket. He couldn't see her. Her fae magic prevented him to and once the wallet was securely back into place she turned to go, only as she was leaving, he unexpectedly glanced back towards Confessions and brushed ever so slightly into her hidden form. Fudge. She needed to run and now. She made it a few feet as she watched the drunken man sway as he headed after her, an invisible pixie, who for all he knew might not even be there.

Flicker translucent for a moment before fully reappearing, Leyla's feet slowed to a halt as her doe-eyed gaze finally met his and the name left her tongue, "Yasin? W-what- what are you doing here?"

[yasinlunar]

Doing all he could not to give into vertigo, Yasin ran until a beam of light flashed into view.

Was he was seeing things? He could not remember passing his limit.

Nearly upon the light now, Yasin stumbled to a stop. "Me?" He questioned dumbly, when the light coalesced into the shape of a person and spoke. He felt like he knew her, but it was impossible to say. He saw so many people, in person and online, enough to have an endless repertoire of familiar faces to choose from when a twinge of recognition flared up. It was the same way in his dreams—that knowing feeling enveloping him completely. "You know me?" He tried not to pitch again. "It's cheating if you look at my license."

Yasin extended a hand now, rather hoping the light person wasn't going to take off running again. "At least let me keep my ID," he suggested, coming to a solution that felt both smart and extremely fair. "You can keep all the money, I promise you that much."

[itsronniebish]

There was, usually, at least one bartender at Shipfaced that Ronnie could sweet talk into giving her free drinks, and she was never one to turn that down, even if it meant she had to get on a boat to go to a bar. She was leaned against it, sipping something that she couldn't even remember the name of, when she heard the conversation next to her. She glanced over, raising an eyebrow. "Sheesh. No password protection on your phone? And after the Lunar Link leak a few months ago? That's hella dangerous."

[yasinlunar]

"That leak," Yasin assured her, jumping at the segue to abandon the stranger and the phone in exchange for another, "has been handled." To his detriment, Yasin took any errors found in Lunar Link rather too personally. He often wore down servers during the troubleshooting, convinced the bug would be easy to track down (and it never was).

Diverted by the subject instead of polite small talk, Yasin persisted. This was probably his greatest flaw—forging ahead with little forethought for the consequences. "Have you been facing any other issues with the app, by the way? I'm on good terms with the IT department. I could get your account fixed," he snapped a finger, "like that."

Yasin realized he should barter for the information. "Next round is on me, Miss...?"

[nyraxodeyer]

It wasn't often Nyra found herself watching guests for very long. Most arrived with purpose, checked in, exchanged pleasantries, and disappeared upstairs. This man, however, seemed content to simply look. She'd watched enough newcomers arrive in Lunar Cove over the years to recognise the particular blend of curiosity and quiet disbelief that often accompanied them. The Emerald had a habit of bringing that out in people.

His question earned a quiet laugh. "Nothing quite so strict," she assured, the corners of her mouth lifting into an easy smile. "You're more than welcome to take photographs." Her gaze followed his briefly around the lobby before returning to him. "I was only wondering what had managed to capture your attention quite so thoroughly." It was a familiar feeling. She had spent centuries wandering places that weren't her own, lingering a little longer than necessary to appreciate them before continuing on her way. A habit she had never quite outgrown. "Nyra Odeyer," she introduced herself, offering a hand. "Welcome to the Emerald. I hope it's been treating you well so far."

[yasinlunar]

"That's a relief," Yasin remarked, only half-joking. "I'm not sure I would be able to tear myself away." Even now, Yasin had to hold back from scanning the room, quelling the temptation to gorge in a feast for the eyes. It was a beautiful place, much like she was.

"I would have to say...everything," he said, also not sure he'd be able to pick just one thing to highlight. Yasin had made it a point to travel after graduating MIT, and the Emerald Hotel called to mind the Primero Primera and the Antiga Casa Buenavista in Barcelona.

He shook her hand, smiling. "Yasin Yildiz. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Odeyer. I've had a wonderful experience thus far." His eyes strayed once in the direction of Puck's Luck, albeit ruefully. Another temptation to quell. "Am I addressing the owner, or the manager?"

[unlost]

Who: Yasin @yasinlunar Where: On Pitch

Tourists came and went in Lunar Cove like the tides to the shore: a steady enough flow of newbies and the overly curious, that Ayza and the other business owners were able to maintain a relatively healthy income. That humans lost their memories of all supernatural occurrences the moment they left the border was particularly helpful for Ayza, whose best nights depended on poor saps with black cards deciding to leave their tab open while beautiful sirens lured them into another round and another song on her old karaoke machine. By the time they saw the credit card bill the next week, they'd have already forgotten why they'd chosen to tip such an unreasonable sum.

But tonight, business was slow, and so Ayza had fallen upon the tried and true strategy of standing by the entrance to reel in customers herself. When she saw a man she didn't recognize--one with a nice enough watch on his wrist to be worth her time--she began to hum. It was soft at first, a simple little melody. Not that it mattered much what she sang. Once the song began, the effects were always the same: an irresistible and hypnotic sound that lured any who heard it, compelling them to follow the source of the music.

[yasinlunar]

Acquainting himself with Lunar Cove was proving to be Yasin's new favorite hobby.

He had lived in other cities before, of course, and made every effort to learn the best routes for public transportation, the easiest for driving, as well as preferred restaurants and entertainment venues. He spent quite a bit of time scoping out bookstores and libraries, shopping centers and repair shops. Often enough, he thought of it as if he were gathering lines of code together until he could construct a city's map all in his head.

Yet Lunar Cove felt different, down to its very marrow. He was doing all these things with more enthusiasm, more zest for knowledge. Leaving the wondering why for later, Yasin strode through the streets of Sunny Harbor, feeling as though he'd stumbled onto some lost summer vacation he had never taken. Perhaps that was true, if he only had—

On Pitch. Had he forgotten he was due to be go there? Likely. Yasin hastened to the door. Whoever had the mic now was someone not to be missed. He could not miss the show.

Inside, Yasin searched for the music, finding only a person he presumed to be the owner. But there was no need to presume, nor worry, just attend. "Hello," Yasin greeted, voice unsteady. The compulsion to approach grew. "I'm sorry I'm late. Were you waiting long?"

[ignoringevery-omen]

This had been going on for an hour - an hour of the person with the phone being an absolute moron, and the other man being too nice to tell them to shut the hell up. Sick of hearing the back and forth, Mac shifted as though to hail the bartender and "accidentally" bumped into the annoying stranger who had their phone back, causing it to clatter to the floor with a satisfying crack. While the stranger scrambled to grab their phone the witch looked to the poor man who had been stuck 'helping' with the app settings and mouthed your welcome with a smirk.

[yasinlunar]

Despite himself, Yasin grinned back and nodded. It was his turn to hail the bartender—in truth, this time—and point at the trickster's empty glass. It was the least he could do.

"Another round for my friend here, if you would be so kind."

While the bartender got to work, Yasin extended a hand. "I'm Yasin. You, sir, might have saved me from another hour of unpaid work at what that one believed was the Genius Bar." Yasin had the impression the poor soul wasn't all there in the head if he mistook Shipfaced for the Apple Store. "Did you often perform 'good' deeds for strangers?"

[firstxclassxtrippx]

"Hm? I don't know. I haven't been counting. That's the sort of thing that gets you into trouble in a place like this." Speaking up as though startled from a distant daze, Tripp flashed a smile that was polite, if somewhat tense. His luck had, by now, run out, and he was thus riding the hurt of a series of less than stellar hands.

What he did not know, of course, was that any such fortune he may or may not have once possessed was supernatural. It had since been drained out of him. His tongue rolled over his fangs, which he was practicing descending and ascending, and he let out a sigh. With it, he brought up his watch and made a bit of a face.

But when the vampire smiled again, his teeth were normal, pearly, and decidedly un-pointed. "What's one more hand among friends? We're all having a good time here. It is getting pretty late, though. They say time flies when you're having fun." This came dully, and he shifted through his chips to mark his losses.

[yasinlunar]

Oh, the mayhem Yasin would unleash if he could count cards.

"Do you have an exit strategy?" He asked with curiosity, keeping his voice light and conversational, yet quiet enough not to carry. His neighbor didn't appear as if he would stop playing anytime soon. "In my experience, it's not the wisest to play until the sun comes up." Yasin checked his watch. Had the hands stopped moving? What time was it?

"Not so late enough for another bite of the apple," Yasin agreed, surveying the gains piled up near his elbow. The two of them were middle of the road among the other players; not winners nor losers, but certainly not faring as poorly the fellow at the other end of the table who looked close to tears. "This is my first trip to Puck's Luck," he went on, trying to gauge whether his neighbor was the chatty type or not. Unfortunately for him, Yasin was such a man. "Someone put up their trailer home as a bet earlier tonight, did you hear?"

[weijunxthorne]

Wei stared at him for a long moment, his brow furrowing a little more with every second. "...Wait." He turned over the phone in his hands as though the answer might be written on the back. "So... my phone has a password... but now my photos need a password? What's the first password doing?" He looked genuinely baffled. "When did photos start needing passwords? They used to just... be in an album." He poked at the screen once before giving up with a dramatic sigh. "Every time I think I've figured these things out, someone tells me something else! What's next? Does my calculator need a password too?"

[yasinlunar]

Yasin stared back, flummoxed. Who didn't know about passwords nowadays?

"Well," he answered, trying to bear in mind how swiftly technology changed, even by the day, "the first password is keeping someone from accessing your phone. The second one adds another layer of security. Many people have sensitive information on their phones, and bad actors are everywhere. Any number of people could use your information to open loans, cash in cryptocurrency, or otherwise exploit and scam you with your own data."

Yasin thought about it for a moment. "I haven't run across a calculator needing a password, but let's hope your words don't reach someone's ears." These days, even an ill-timed joke seemed as if it would lead to more grift from unscrupulous businesses.

"Do you have any other burning questions? I'm good with technology, and happy to help."

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Really? You heard that barman!" Kiraz banged once on the counter of the bar as she did a little dance in her seat, not bothering to acknowledge Vivek, their bartender, by name as she declared, "We'll order one of everything! Starting with the appetizers!", before she caught onto his added 'within reason'.

"Was that not within reason?" She asked as she tilted a brow up to look at her brother. "Oh. No. I mean sort of? The owner's alright, however, annoying, and they do make a mean drink, and now it does seem to be one of the most popular bars around here. It used to be Starlight, but that owner was the previous supreme and ditched out on the whole coven, so not many people hang there anymore. But when it comes to nightlife, I prefer Eclipse or Bad Moon. And as for restaurants, Tatlı is my favorite. Then Dil Se and then Pizza Joe's. Why?"

[yasinlunar]

Yasin barked a laugh. No matter the situation, Kiraz could always get one out of him.

"Tonight, let's go with your definition of reason," he assured her. Indulging his sisters was among Yasin's favorite things in the whole world. He never felt more like himself, like the brother they all deserved, when he could offer a solution with nary a blink, nor a shrug.

When the owner didn't react to a word, and Kiraz had run out of steam, Yasin thought it safe to answer, and ask some follow up questions. "Coven? Supreme?" Yasin eyed her skeptically, but without judgment. "Catch me up to speed. This town really has...witches?"

Part of the appeal to look around Lunar Cove was to unravel whether some of its users were being honest. Was everything real? Vampires, werewolves, and fairies—oh my?

"Why?" Yasin repeated, feigning playful offense. "So I can take my sisters out to lunch."

[cantfightmoonlight]

"You can password protect individual photos? And here I thought it was just the phone as a whole," The bartender mused, cutting into Yasin and the technologically confused resident beside him. "Guess that would've come in handy during the last hack," He mused, remembering the time his own personal photos had been leaked onto Lunar Link for the town's personal amusement, not that he particularly minded. There was nothing he was personally ashamed of on his phone from getting forwarded around, but as he watched the exchange between the technically challenged and Yasin, he leaned against the bar and softly pointed out to the other dude. "Hey man, this is a bar. So, how about I give you both a round on the house and we save any further IT questions for Monday, what do you say?" He offered up with a tilt of his brow.

[yasinlunar]

"These days, you can do just about anything on a phone." Grateful for the interruption, Yasin was nonetheless a skeptic about films shot on smartphones, however. No fan of small screen viewing, IMAX and movie theaters were back in his good books again.

No wonder he looked familiar, although there was no polite way to say so. Yasin spent a week fixing the hack of Vivek St. James' account. As Yasin said—he really had seen it all.

"Count me in," Yasin replied, his opinion of the bar skyrocketing. The IT-challenged customer slouched away. "Do you treat all your customers so well?" Yasin asked now.

[cantfightmoonlight]

"Oh no!" Gigi clasped her hands over her mouth from where she stood behind the counter. Her wings fluttering behind her as she instantly realized what might've happened. "What did you eat? Because, um, I don't know how to say this, but we have our regular line of baked goods," She said, motioning over to the front display cabinet filled with all of the standard pastries and breads one could choose from. "And then we have our selection of fae food and with a handful of magical side effects ranging from shrinking to the size of a thimble to a quite a number of other things," She said as she pointed to the sign lining the second display table that specifically said to eat at your own risk.

[yasinlunar]

Wings! Real wings. Yasin gawked, then quickly composed himself.

"It was the Babblyberry Muffin," Yasin admitted, contrite, "very pink. I'm afraid it was gone in a blink." He followed the line of her sight, and quickly scanned the warning label. Among the potential side effects, Yasin was both amused and chagrined to learn uncontrollable riddling and rhyming was one of them. The impression of Wonderland strengthened. "No need to hint," he said, smiling remorsefully, "I didn't read the fine print."

"I'm Yasin. New to town, and your newest clown." Down to clown, more like. She was beautiful. Trying not to stare, Yasin somehow managed to keep the word in his mouth.

[unlost]

Ewan was already several drinks in--though as a vampire, that didn't mean as much as it might have for a human, so he couldn't really blame intoxication for why he'd surrendered his phone to a stranger at the bar without a single care about what the other man found within its coding.

"What did you mean then?" he asked, sipping his whiskey and raising an eyebrow over the top of his glass, clearly not sorry at all that he'd hijacked the man's time simply because he couldn't be bothered to figure out how to turn off cap's lock or ask why the face ID feature never seemed to recognize his face. "Password protect my photos," he repeated like the younger man was speaking another language. "What the bloody hell does that mean?"

[yasinlunar]

Yasin clucked his tongue. In his line of work, paranoia amidst surveillance was common.

"Keeping your phone at peak efficiency should be a high priority is what I mean. The longer you can make your battery last, the less often you'll need to replace the phone. You will prevent a headache and waste in landfills, all at once. That means only using one application at a time, lowering the brightness, and so on." Elementary, my dear Watson.

Had Yasin drank enough to begin lecturing? It seemed so. "You wouldn't believe how many people in the world would be after and make use of your personal photos. Password protection on your devices will save you from identity fraud, among a dozen other things."