02 - week two

[afflictionmods]

WEEK TWO

When the glitter settles and everyone returns to their dorms - or wherever they intend to sleep for the night, if you’re planning on sleeping at all - your first week of school officially ends. Perhaps it was better than you expected, perhaps it was worse.

Hopefully you learned a bit more about teamwork and school spirit.

Still, this course is going to run for longer than a full week, and come Sunday morning you’re still exactly as you were when you settled down for the night. Still in Estelline, still with that mark on your wrist, still connected to your partner. There are some changes, though. The bookstore has received quite a few books, and those of you who added to the bulletin board and pep rally tasks in the first week will find an envelope taped to their dorm door (or themselves, if they spent the night elsewhere). Inside of the envelope is some kind of voucher! Furthermore, the common area is covered in a bunch of glitter.

Also, there are a ton of eggs in the kitchen – at least 10 dozens.

Florence or Lorelei are still available, should you wish to speak to them.

Finally, you've got some new locations to explore.


SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

TASK LIST

CLUMSINESS AFFECT DETAILS (BEGINS TUESDAY ICLY)

W2 CYOA SIGNUPS
CYOA Signups for Week 2 close Sunday, May 29th at 6pm EST.

THREAD SURVEY
Google form for partner threads, due by Friday, June 3rd at 6pm EST. Optional.

W3 CYOA SIGNUPS
CYOA Signups for Week 3 close Friday, June 3rd at 6pm EST.

OOC NOTE

OOC: Anyone who performed in the Pep Rally (Sabo, Madara, Riku, Shizuku, Herlock, Idia, Flat, Miach) task will be able to redeem a voucher for a prize with one of the NPCs. This can be handwaved, and the prize selection is below.

-Single-serve coffee machine wither a selection of creamer. Comes with packs of coffee beans.
-Popcorn maker and kernels.
-High-quality tea kettle with a selection of just as high-quality tea.
-Carbonation machine (think Sodastream, etc) with flavored syrup.

Any coffee, tea, popcorn, etc. will last characters up to two weeks.

Anyone who participated in the Bulletin Board task will receive a voucher for your choice of two pairs colorful socks with cute animal designs. (Worry frog design available.)

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[festiverogue]

[The layer of dust not being very thick, along with everything else, makes him wonder if it's a matter of days or weeks. It'd depend on the HVAC system, really. He looks up just to locate vents and things, then slips behind the counter.

First thing he's looking for is a something like a drawer that might have keys in it. The second thing he's looking for is an exit, or rather, a way to a back room or the "guts" of the mall.]

[afflictionmods]

[There is a door in the back of the store, presumably leading into a back room or hallway, but it currently locked. A few of the display cases seem to have cabinets and drawers beneath them, but all of the storage is locked.

He might be able to find the keys within the store, still, as he can notice there is a cash register and that it's currently on. It's a modern affair with a tablet with a built in card reader sitting on the counter, resting on top of a drawer for customers who still insist on using cash even in a store with items this expensive. The screen of the tablet is on, though, even if it is a bit dim at the moment.]

[festiverogue]

[Well then, time to try to make a sale! What happens if he taps the screen?

And is there a scanner nearby, or can he manually key a price...]

[afflictionmods]

[The screen brightens! And he can see the last transaction which, after comparing the date of the transaction to the date in the corner of the screen, occurred four weeks ago. He can't see much from the screen, but he can see someone added in a note that simply says "Laurelai". If he wants to see more, he'll have to look into it.

He could just manually enter a product code in, though, and he might be able to peek a code through one of the display cases.]

[festiverogue]

[He's nosy, so he's checking the previous transaction first, after noting the date and that name (?). What got sold? And to whom? How did they pay?]

[afflictionmods]

[They bought a pair of earrings! And they paid in cash. "Laurelai" does seem to be the name of whoever bought those earrings, but he can spot another note.]

Laurelai did not provide identification, though purchase was allowed anyways.

[That's kind of a weird spelling for a name, huh... Though without them providing proof of ID, maybe it's misspelled? Hard to say.

That's all that there seems to be regarding the transaction, though it does sound like those earrings had to be pretty nice because that's kind of a high number.

What does he want to check out next?]

[festiverogue]

[What's the currency here again? Because that does look large.

"Laurelai" was loaded. He wonders why they needed ID... maybe just a precaution?

Anyway, out of the transaction, then. Now he'll try to ring something up. He leans down to see what's in the nearest case, with a visible tag, and starts fussing with the transaction system to make it ring up. It's probably pretty intuitive, like all the other apps... He hopes.]

[afflictionmods]

[Fantasy feeling bucks - it’s not a currency he’s familiar with, but comparing the numbers here to the prices of things in the university’s gift shop they’re significantly higher.

The app is pretty intuitive, and once the code is keyed in he has the option to choose a payment method… And assuming he chooses wisely and picks “cash”, the drawer will pop open!

Inside of the drawer is, well. A bunch of cash. There’s also… a key ring! Mission success!

Most of the keys are small, obviously meant for the display storage, but there is one that seems like it would fit the back door.]

[festiverogue]

[He doesn't have a card, obviously, so cash! And keys!

He'll ignore the display case ones once he's tried one just for funsies, but that back door is looking great. He's also going to try the keys on any locked drawers on the way, also for funsies.

Time to try the back door!]

[afflictionmods]

[Well, the keys work on the drawers, which mostly seem to hold stock that's not for display - different sizes of rings, watches, so on and so forth - which. He could take 'em if he wants.

The back door will open after a little bit of effort - it's kind of stuck - but I'm going to assume Mama is incredibly stubborn.

What he finds beyond the door looks less like a break room or storage area for a jewelry store and more like some sort of computer lab.

There are monitors along one of the walls, PC towers clustered underneath a table holding a keyboard and mouse. There's also some sort of work table that has electronic parts haphazardly sorted into bins... It looks like a bit of a slapdash setup. Nothing is on in this room besides the lights.

What does he want to look at first?]

[festiverogue]

[You assume correctly. He's expecting storage or a back corridor... definitely not this.

He'll inspect the table of electronic parts, but assuming nothing is odd about it, he'll turn on one of the PCs next. And a few of the monitors! If they're not plugged in, he'll want to do that first, of course.]

[afflictionmods]

[There's nothing terribly special about the electronic parts at first glance, at least not to someone without a lot of technical knowledge. The most noteworthy thing is that all of the parts are very, very small... They seem like they might make something small enough to fit in a piece of jewelry.

The monitors are plugged in, and the computers turn on! There's no password required, luckily, and there are a few programs - and a lot of picture files, geez - on the desktop. One of them seems to be for e-mail, there's an .exe file named "dkvbxdx1" and another .exe file named "dkvbxdx2", a web browser, and an .exe file named ".tl".]

[festiverogue]

[He's coming back with a friend later, assuming this goes well. Just saying. Your number is up, tiny electronic parts. He does note the size, and looks to see if anything resembles a SIM card, transmitter, or microphone. Just... you know. Espionage things.

Speaking of espionage, let's take a glance at those emails.]

[afflictionmods]

[Some of the parts do look like they could be transmitters! Though there's no sign of any sort of SIM cards or microphones, or at least not at first glance.

And the client opens up with little issues, to a rather disorganized mailbox. There's a lot of e-mails from businesses about upcoming sales! (that all ended weeks ago) and a few from food delivery apps or newsletters...

As well as quite a long e-mail chain back and forth between whoever's computer this is and someone using the e-mail "yellowitsme@mail.co.el".]

[festiverogue]

[Nosiness increases. What's the gist of the long email thread? He'll be sure to carefully mark things unread again after he looks at a few of the useless emails.]

[afflictionmods]

[A lot of the back and forth is kind of... vague, as if whoever these people are are worried someone might find their correspondence, but there's still some things he can figure out or notice.

The first is that yellowitsme has a picture of camellias as their e-mail signature.

The second is it seems like these two people are talking about having someone followed.

They tried very hard to be vague, but there's a lot of phrases about "movement" and "observation" and "keeping an eye out" that any subtlety went out the window and that this following is, apparently, a favor Jewely Store Tech Wizard owes to yellowitsme.

The last e-mail in the chain from Jewelry Store Tech Wizard reads:]

Came in today, gave her the earrings as we planned. Clerk almost denied the transaction because she didn't have any ID, but I made it work. She's just as creepy as you said though, geez.

Anyways, you should get a live feed, but I could only figure out a way to log movement in ten minute increments. Couldn't fix those bugs before she showed up. Maybe you could ask that guy to give the program a look?

Good luck.

[festiverogue]

[Okay... That connects some weird dots and makes things weirder. Fine. Be like that. Who's this Laurelai?

If that's the last interesting email, he'll close the email program, and look at the other programs. It seems like a bad idea to prod at them without supervision, but if the people who were here and tailing someone are gone... who knows what it'll hurt!

Is there any way to right click on the above mentioned programs to see a version number or access/update date? If not, he's going to open ".tl" first.]

[afflictionmods]

[He can find a last accessed date, and the most recently accessed file was “tl”, which was last opened on 5/3/926…

Which is the same date on the receipt for Laurelai’s earrings.

But, unfortunately… opening “tl” doesn’t provide many answers. Or, well. Any. It does open when clicked, but all it does is open a white program window. No text, no images, no audio. Nothing at all except for his cursor - there’s not even a way to close the program.]

[festiverogue]

[He's going to take a second to think on that, staring at the blank white window. And at about that general moment something else clicks into place. If they didn't ask for ID... then the name could be misspelled. And if he sounds it out, he knows that name. Inconveniently.

"tl" is a dead end or a terrible idea. Either way, he only waits a minute or two to find out. Then he hits the escape key, just to try to close it. And maybe a couple of other choice keyboard shortcuts that'd close it in his world.

If it doesn't close, he'll simply move on to the next most recently accessed program. If it does close, he'll reopen it first, then proceed.]

[afflictionmods]

[It closes with no issue! Reopening it will open to the same nothingness, no matter how many times he opens and closes the .exe file.

Which file will he try first? One or two?]

[festiverogue]

[Let's go backwards. 2 please.]

[afflictionmods]

[Well. It opens a program that none of the cast might find familiar and nostaglic, but...]

[festiverogue]

[He's stifling a laugh.

And making a blingee.

Anyway, what's 1?]

[afflictionmods]

[It is... a much more basic photo editor. Guess he's solved the mystery of where all those image files came from!

That's about all he can find on the computer, as opening the web browser will just get him similar results to what Hien found on the tablets. This is the end, at least until he comes back with someone who's an expert in computer crimes.]

thank you!!

[festiverogue]

[Fair enough. He's got an inkling of who to bring back, but he's careful to turn everything off and lock up behind himself.

And to take the key to the back room with him.

Everything else is right back in place. He has a visit to make to someone!]