entrancelogs | [not as closed as jay intended] we've got us a map (a map!)

Entry tags:

[not as closed as jay intended] we've got us a map (a map!)

Who: Jay, Tim, Georgia, Shaun and eventually Alphys
Where: The Network
When: ~~September 16~~ September 17, because chaos! anarchy! maps!
Rating: PG
Summary: Jay puts together a locked group chat with Tim, Shaun, and George to talk about the map he received. Master Hacker Alphys McSciencelizard crashes the party. For science.

The Story:

[Jay starts with a video. He's in his room, with scraps of red tissue paper scattered across the desk.]

So it...looks like this isn't just me. That got a present, I mean. Did you guys, uh...what did you get?

[He should have worked out what he was going to say ahead of time, he really should have, but he's been too busy thinking about the fact that he got a map. A map that leads somewhere. Somewhere inside the mansion.]

I got this.

[He unrolls the map and holds it up to the screen. It's recognizably a depiction of the mansion, but upon closer inspection, the image is reversed. There's a red "X" on the fifth floor.]

I've been looking at it, and I tried matching it up with where I've been, but then I got a look at the entrance hall. [He points, crinkling the paper.] The kitchen's...it's on the wrong side, right? And the library's not supposed to be there, either.

I mean...maybe this isn't our mansion. Maybe it's, y'know. [He gestures vaguely toward his bedroom mirror, half-covered with a sheet.] Theirs.

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[Tim holds up his chess piece. It's been painted dark red, and he spins it idly between his fingertips.]

I ended up with this. Which, uh...I'm no Wonderland expert here, but I'm gonna assume this has to do with the Queen of Hearts. I mean, she's the one with the whole chess thing going on, right?

[But more importantly: Jay got a map. Why does Jay have a map.]

So...Mirrorside, then. Any idea who it might belong to?

I'd say the Red Queen. Through the Looking Glass, not Wonderland, but considering all of this stuff came from "RQ"....

[Seems more likely the Queen of Hearts would have a card than a chess piece.

She holds up a piece of wood.]

I got a plank.

I have a bottle of milk that says "drink me" on it, and I have never been so tempted to do a thing in my whole life.

[Not magical temptation. Just... Shaun has trouble leaving a dare unmet temptation.]

[George shoots him a glare.]

I swear to fuck, I am not dealing with you shrinking or growing because a bottle in Wonderland told you to drink it.

Yeah, maybe...don't.

[Jay peers over the map to give Shaun the most withering look a weedy nerd can give a muscle-bound Irwin hunk.]

[For once, he is on the Georgia side of the fence. Tim pinches the bridge of his nose wearily.]

Let's not waste something that might be perishable or limited until we know what it does.

[MORE IMPORTANTLY...]

Any idea where that map might lead?

It's on the Mirror side. There are only a few locations that would be relevant enough to be mapped out. Probably the Queen's room or the Core. Unless it's a red herring.

Want me to run and check fifth floor on this side? Just to rule something out?

Rule what out?

[Somewhere buried in his tone there's a not alone, you don't.]

Rule out the idea that it's just, I dunno, reversed to throw us off. I'm already on the fourth floor, so it should take, like, seconds.

...Maybe more like minutes.

It's worth a shot. We could meet there.

[Before Jay decides the best way to get to the Mirror side is run into a mirror head first. She wouldn't put it past him.]

Yeah. More the merrier, I guess.

[There's a loud crackling sound as Jay tries to use the hand holding the phone to help gather up the map.]

And I'll, uh-- [Jay tries to point the camera at his face while still holding the map, with mixed success] I'll try and keep this running, so...sorry if there's an echo.

[Meanwhile, here comes the disaster girl, having no idea what she's about to get into.

Alphys has been scanning the network since the items turned up; there's some sort of mystery here, something she doesn't know, and she's been running magical frequencies and scans everywhere, including a number of filters over the network, for NPC names and a few key locations.

And finally, a hidden chat pings a response about the Core.

She hits through the messages quickly, a small smile on her face. Oh, this is gonna be so cool. She's gonna be so mysterious and cool and sneaky, coming in with this cool information! It's going to be amazing! Like those secret hackers in movies!

(She's going to regret this very, very quickly.)]

the queens room moves
you have a map?

[Immediately, Tim shuts the video off and does an abrupt switch to text. So he can try not to mcfreaking lose it.]

Who the hell is this.

Edited 2017-09-19 04:55 (UTC)

[Jay freezes.]

[Uh.]

[Uh.]

[Finally he switches to text.]

And how do you know that?

Edited 2017-09-19 04:57 (UTC)

[Georgia frowns and stubbornly stays on video.]

You know, we'll trust you a lot more if you get off anon. [A sharp, not extremely happy smile.] I have this thing about secrets and lies.

[DON'T REMIND HIM]

And anon is for trolls, assholes, and cowards.

[OH GOD THIS WENT SO BAD SO QUICKLY]

well it was from this
old event and
ohg od i cant do this

[She genuinely can't believe she's about to feel more comfortable on a video feed than on text, but in a few more seconds after the messages send, the camera's steadying to show Alphys, holed up in her personal lab on the 2nd floor.]

I'm sorry, I-- I didn't mean to butt in, I saw, uhm, I was running f-filters for search terms on the network and saw something encrypted was returning data about the Core and thought I might b-be dealing with residents or something secret and I didn't mean to scare anyone.

[Did she breathe at all during that sentence? Nope. Is she even breathing now? Debateable.]

[Okay, no, wait, he - ]

[Yeah, he remembers her. She was the one with the DT machine. The one whose machine he screwed up when he and Zacharie were just kids. There's no fixing that now, but it's plain that she didn't mean to spook anyone.]

[His heart hasn't stopped pounding with that sickening sort of beat, but at least he can breathe easier.]

[And he lapses back to video.]

You know about stuff like this?

[And I mean while she's here - ]

Do you - what d'you know about it? The Core?

[Okay, that's better. And she can accept that Alphys' anon messages were not motivated by secrets or lies. She did come clean quickly enough, which means Georgia's happy to put it behind her.]

So you're saying the map probably is to the Core, then?

Question.

[Jay hesitantly raises a hand.]

What is...I mean, what do we know about the Core already?

[Because Jay's gotten the impression that it's important, but that's about it.]

[She tries to steady herself, setting the communicator down so it's broadcasting her from the waist up, pulling a laptop into frame.]

So, uhm-- I've been, uh, k-kind of researching the Core for a little while now. I have something similar, back in my world, that t-turns geothermic energy into magic energy, and I've been monitoring it's levels of magic and how it, uhm, r-reacts during events--

[Oh, wait, Georgia said something, and she turns her attention over.]

Right, uhm, the map, so there was this event last year where t-the mirrors reversed? And we could see the Mirror Side. Some people found the Queen's room, but she was s-surprised, because she said it always moved.

[Alphys goes back to her notes on her laptop, paging quickly through what she has.]

Anyway, uh, the Core powers a-all of Wonderland, and it's what creates events and takes memories. We had thought that it was, uh, all memories, but I realized that it couldn't just consume them for energy, because people who go home remember everything about themselves. So it has to be consuming s-something else.

Either way, uh, it's very dangerous.

[Some people found the Queen's room. Might've been how Alex was able to get the information about that mole in the first place.]

Souls.

[Like how Shepard said. It's consuming souls. Or pieces of them. And maybe once he would have laughed at that - here he is, pointedly not looking at Georgia - but having more or less merged his soul with that of a monster, completely by accident, he's not about to cast doubt on that kind of thing any longer.]

People who die here.

[Jay's been distractedly monitoring the network while everyone talks, and Shepard's post catches his eye. He doesn't give it a thorough read, but there's mention of the Core, and souls, and then Tim mentions souls, and Jay jolts upright.]

[He catches Tim's eye for a second (the best he can with a camera) before turning to Alphys.]

H-hey... [He doesn't know her name, so he just sort of...gestures in her general direction.] Have you seen...? On the network, what Shepard just posted?

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[anonymous text]

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no subject

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