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]

I played it safe earlier... mostly.

[He may be very intelligent but he also usually chooses brute force.]

That's why I wanted more eyes on it. Anyway, as for the computer, there's standard stuff on there--by that I mean email, web browser, an obnoxious amount of pictures--and some programs I barely messed with. I didn't like the vibe I was getting from the one called "tl" so I closed it out after a few seconds. There's an email chain from someone here to a "yellowitsme" with camellias in the signature that ends in the handoff of the tracker to Lorelei. The other stuff on there seemed kind of pointless, but the way they were... pointedly pointless was kind of suspicious.

[escardos]

Like a secret code! Let’s take a look!

[ because, eh, caution be damned! ]

[superstructure]

You weren't able to tell what the earrings looked like, did you? Or whether she still has them or not?

[ Julius is not quite as ready to go in guns blazing, but just talking about it isn't going to help, either.

So he'll go up to the computer and try going through the executables and the "tl" file. The fuck's going on with these things. ]

[afflictionmods]

[Live a little, Julius. This isn't a murdergame.

The "tl" file is much the same as it was when Madara first opened it - it opens to a blank, white window. No text, no audio, no images, no menus or options at all. He can just see the cursor.

If Madara is particularly eagle eyed, he would notice that there's nothing different about this entire room at all. Everything is precisely as he left it, so it doesn't seem like anyone snuck in after him.]

[festiverogue]

No idea what the earrings looked like, but there are some really tiny transmitters on the table over there. They could've been anything.

[Guns. Blazing.]

I got the initial info from the register outside. The name "Lorelei" and the transaction.

[superstructure]

[ no!!!!! ]

Hm.

[ He'll probably try clicking around the white window and keying things in to see if anything changes, but if not, he'll escape out of the window and see if he can get something else to pop up? Whether it's files not on the desktop or whatever. idk, computers hard and my brain is smooth ]

[afflictionmods]

[The keyboard smacking does prevail - eventually.

After one of his entries, a loading bar labelled “Restoring…” pops up. It’s… it’s slow going, watching that bar creep its way across, but once it hits the end the program is no longer a void.

The program is now a map.






Well, mostly.

There’s a few text boxes and other computery things, but the majority of the screen is something that definitely looks map-adjacent, but with no labeled locations.

Now, has Julius been paying any attention to the layout of his surroundings?]

[superstructure]

[ A fair amount? But also Mama and Flat probably are also, so. Assumedly between one of these three yahoos something will come out of it. ]

[afflictionmods]

[Assumption made! And because, apparently, Julius was made for this investigation, he’ll be able to figure out this is a program for tracking someone and some of the text on screen are coordinates for what’s being tracked. It also seems like, now that it’s been restored to proper function with investigation magic, this is live data, with a bright dot showing the location of the tracker.

And their combined knowledge of their surroundings means it won’t take much to figure out that one of the corners of the maps matches the lower campus of the university - there are buildings marked on the map that match up to the place they’ve been calling home for over a week now… but the tracker is somewhere deeper on the university’s campus, beyond the fog.]

[festiverogue]

Mmm... There she is. Or the earrings, at least. I'd bet on it.

[And he can tell it's an area he hasn't seen yet.

With all the monitors, he wonders aloud:]

That can't be all they're surveilling, right?

[escardos]

I mean, I imagine that our rooms might be bugged?

[ he'll lean forward and take control of the mouse, and open up the file explorer again, to look through the documents, images, music, and video folders. hell, even the downloads folders. what is there? ]

[afflictionmods]

[It looks like someone's spent a lot of time making blingees.

There's a bunch of image files that seem to be edits made when someone was exceptionally bored, but there's not much on the computer beyond the files and executables on the desktop. It seems like this wasn't a computer that much in the way of personal use.

He can find what looks to be data recordings in the documents folder, though.]

[escardos]

[ okay, let's take a look at one of these data recordings ]

[afflictionmods]

[They seem to be records of... coordinates! As well as dates and times associated with those coordinates. Seems like this is data connected to the tracking program, though the majority of the coordinates are identical and the dates for those identical coordinates are from well over a month ago.

Though the files do all have different version numbers attached, so Flat can probably deduce that the tracker went through a few iterations.

The coordinates that seem to be on the move, however, are all more recent! Though they’re not that recent, as the last record is from almost two weeks ago.]

[superstructure]

It looks like it didn't do a whole lot of good, after a while.

[ Which raises the question of why they'd be tracking the earrings for so long. If it was to figure out where she lived, then all the data collected didn't really make sense.

Hmm. Is there any other kind of pattern going on with the coordinates that aren't just at the one place? Or is it sort of not important here. And by "almost two weeks ago," does that mean "around the time everyone got dragged in here"? ]

[afflictionmods]

[There's not necessarily a pattern for the newer results, but it does seem like there were a few places the earrings did show up repeatedly. Whoever was wearing them seemed to have a couple places they were visiting often.

And yes, around two weeks does seem to match with the time everyone showed up - to be even more specific, the tracking seems to stop the day before.]

[superstructure]

[ Cool beans! Is there anything going on with the data here, or the other files, or is that about it? ]

[afflictionmods]

[It might take a bit of digging, but The Gang will be able to discover that... there was a phone app developed alongside the computer program! And it seems like there is a phone who has these apps installed. (Who knows how this information is logged, I am not a computer person.)

There's no sign of a phone in the workshop, though, so they'll have to find it elsewhere.

That's about it for the computer, though! Unless they want to make another blingee to match Madara's from yesterday.]

[superstructure]

[ Makes sense either way – assumedly if a phone app was made, there would be some phone with the app installed or APK file in the memory or whatever.

Anyway he'll go over and, since Mama mentioned the transmitters on the table, go look at that! What's going on with these things here? ]

[afflictionmods]

[The workbench is a bit of an "organized chaos" situation, but after some prodding around... Julius will be able to find several pieces of jewelry that seem to be prototypes of the tracking device that was sold at yellowitsme's request.

It's unclear if they work right now as they don't seem to have come up in any of the data logs, but it's obvious how each one is an iteration on the last. This is an operation that has been a struggle, it seems. There's no signs of any sort of notes for the prototypes, but there is that phone floating around out there...

And that's it! You have some prototypes, some records, Phone App Knowledge, and that's this investigation cleared.]