entrancelogs | + Your imagination can't hurt you! +

Looks like a...code I might know.

[The answer might as well have been dragged from him, based on the set of his jaw and the downward curve of his brow that sets his features solidly into a resigned frown. Of course. Of course Wonderland wouldn't be content to simply let him persist in his anonymity. No, now he's gotta have all the proverbial skeletons in his closet dragged out and laid bare for the world to see. Isn't that a fun time for everyone involved.]

Or a code I might've seen before. Let me, uh...

[He fumbles in his pockets. If there's no other way outta here, he might just have to solve the damn thing and be done with it. Unfortunately.]

You gotta pen?

Ah ah ah. Seems we have a mishmash between the two.

[He pulls a pen from out of his left sleeve and hands it over. Zacharie is still curious about why it was all laid out like this. OFF's puzzles weren't too terribly complex and Tim seemed to have a handle on whatever was thrown his way.

It felt...too easy? Or maybe that was the NPC in him talking. Zacharie was not one to dismiss his own instincts so he notes it and watches Tim do his thing. Hopefully it's one he's seen before. If not...well, thing'll get interesting.]

[There's no paper in the vicinity, but they've got plenty of blank space to spare. Tim glances at the screen periodically as he starts writing the numbers on the wall, bit by bit. Something about them could be familiar, but they could just as easily be a completely different puzzle he's never had to touch before. He and Jay could only really brute-force their way through a handful of those ciphers - most of the time they relied on the nameless legions of Internet users who would come forth with solutions, presumably after spending just as much sleepless nights staring at the monitors as they did.

Point is, he's nowhere near skilled when it comes to cracking these.

Once the numbers are written out, Tim steps back, double-checking his work with the numbers on the screen.]

All right. That's, uh...all I got for now.

[Zacharie is silent as Tim works. Cracking this sort of code was actually something he wasn't used to and how it's laid out is still somewhat out of his dept. As it follows:

6.20 9.4 0.230 50.4 0000

It may be a little different than what Tim is used to, but at this point it's starting to slide towards OFF at this point.

The NPC doesn't answer for a moment, turning towards the blocks again. The "C" key was facing them so the pad was likely not backwards. So:

1 2 3
4 5 6

With the "C" key was in the center in front of the 5. The biggest problem was obvious.]

This may be overstepping my role but I must inform you of a problem or two. If we are to input the numbers you have provided us, there are not enough blocks to cover those numbers, nor is there a zero key.

Yeah. I, uh...figured it wouldn't be that easy.

[The repetition of the second line sounds familiar. If he could just get his phone to work in this hellscape - but he can't, he remembers that now. No phone, no network, nothing. It's fantastic. Really just - just top notch.]

Looks like something I might've seen before, but I don't remember how to solve it. If it was even me who solved it that time.

[Somehow, he doubts it.]

The blocks are from your world, yeah? How do they work? You just...press them like buttons?

Press it, kick it, whatever strikes, ahah, your fancy. They will bounce up and down in a delightful manner and become translucent once fully used. However the whole puzzle will reset if an incorrect block is chosen. For example if the puzzle has requested the order of the blocks to be pushed as four and six but the Puppeteer punches in three, it will wipe out their current progress and they will have to do it again.

[Judging from the numbers they did have it was likely to be a long one too. Good thing they can doodle on the walls! Unless the pen runs out of ink because that would just be the cherry on top of things.]

I can confirm that the numbers of the blocks are from one to six and the lone block by five is the "C" key, which is considered a confirmation key. However it may or may not have been used in this puzzle.

[Yeah, there's definitely way more numbers than there are blocks here. Doesn't help that he's got nowhere to start in terms of the puzzle, other than maybe lining up the decimal points and hoping something sticks.

Still, he nods wearily and runs a hand through his hair ash e considers it.]

All right. So it goes across - one, two, three, then the second row is four, five, and six?

Correct. And naturally the code is not going to be in that order, ahhaha.

[It sounds less like a warning and more of a private joke. In all honesty when it comes to this puzzle - OFF's half, anyways - it was possible and acceptable to push random blocks until you come out with the correct order. If things progressed down that route then Zacharie wouldn't complain. There usually wasn't punishment for doing so anyway.

Still, it felt a little easy.]

The decimal points are likely your area of expertise so is there anything we can attempt from where we stand currently?

If we line them up, it might give us something.

[He starts to write them out again, cleanly. Some of the numbers overlap, and he starts scrawling those out just beneath.]

One-one-two...one-two-six-five-four-five. Is that too long, you think?

[It doesn't acknowledge the other numbers in the sequence, but there's no harm in trying, right?]

[Zacharie counts them off to himself before nodding.]

Typically the puzzles in my game are, at maximum, six numbers long. But if we are dealing with a combination of something of your world as well as mine there will inevitably be rules broken.

[Wonderland was dead set on making him step out of his roles, wasn't it?]

Aside from the blocks resetting there are no punishments that I am aware of so it is possible to attempt to punch in the sequence as it is. Are you willing to try it from here?

[Zacharie would do it since it's his half of the puzzle, but let's all be in agreement for it just to be safe.]

Why don't you give it a shot?

[A puzzle that requires Zacharie to acknowledge his lack of action, just like Jay's intervention had addressed Jay's, seems like something that might be up Wonderland's proverbial alley. Granted, he's got no clue - they're flying blind here. But it's worth a try. Especially since all the puzzles Tim's gotten stuck in thus far have required some level of teamwork.]

[Probably. A Puppeteer makes you a protagonist so you have to move. Zacharie, but not just Zacharie anymore. But he'll leave waxing poetics in the action brackets for later. Right now, puzzle time.

He runs the numbers again under his breath before approaching the blocks. One-one-two one-two-six-five-four-five. Seems simple. The NPC places a hand on the block and...!

...nothing happens. Well nothing happens to the block. Instead a small burst of static appears on the TV, bright enough to be noticeable but not enough to be worrying.

Unless you're Tim, of course.]

[The cube bobs up and down idly as Zacharie touches one of them, and Tim watches with a contemplative frown. Whatever's keeping them in the air, whatever mechanism or magic, doesn't matter - what matters is that it doesn't continue to bounce in place once he releases it. It's the wrong configuration, whatever it is.

The television springs to life once more, a bright bar of static slicing across the dark feed.

A chill suffuses his chest, and Tim's mouth goes dry.]

Not...not the right one, huh?

[His gaze remains locked on the screen. He doesn't dare look away. It's got to be there. It's got to be lingering somewhere, maybe close by. Did their failure attract iI, or has It simply been around this whole time?

Does he want to know?]

[Did Tim ever want to know?

Zacharie keeps one eye on the TV and one eye on Tim. The TV continues to broadcast the lingering amount of static - even if it's switched back on it'll do the same. However it is incredibly weak, like a fading signal. It is here...but not quite yet. As for Tim, Zacharie notes it is strange to continue to stare at it like something was going to pop out of it.

It's not going to be something to inquire about just yet however. Perhaps it mean something but whether or not it becomes relevant soon is up in the air. Instead the NPC withdraws his hand and turns to face his puzzle partner.]

It appears not. However we can scratch one off the metaphorical list as being the first in the sequence. Out of curiosity, how hard is the puzzle on your half amigo?

[He stars to scan the room with a fresh sense of anxiety, his eyes flickering desperately to narrow in at the corners and contours that all blend seamlessly together. He might as well be standing in a white void, but - but there's nothing there. There's nothing there.

He'd recognize the black slip of it. He knows he would.]

I dunno. I don't know what the solution to this one is. I don't remember.

[If he even knew it at all.

Okay. Okay. Just...deep breath. There's nothing here. Not yet, anyway. They have time. They'll solve it.]

All right. So usually there's a...a hidden message. Letters and stuff, you know?

[His wrist is trembling subtly as he starts to write again, this time a simple letter-to-number cipher key. Just...just to have it.]

[Yeah, that static definitely had Tim spooked. And if the TV had reacted to Zacharie pressing the incorrect block, then perhaps it was acting as a counter of some sort? Of their failures perhaps and likely there was some sort of punishment waiting if there were too many. But what sort of punishment?

Hum...]

I believe I have attempted such puzzles in books within Wonderland's library. Each letter is to correlate with a number, correct?

[He's never done those kinds in his own game so this part is up to Tim for now.]

Logically, yeah. It's usually not that simple.

[And now the adrenaline's really boiling away in his veins, which doesn't do a damn thing to help him think straight, assuming he was thinking straight at all before now. That's doubtful.

His mental capacity is always doubtful. He's learned that by now.]

The first line here... [The one prefaced with "Entry," which is a lovely little reminder of his history, thanks for that.] Twelve-nine-five-nineteen. That spells out "LIES."

[So that's...an easy message, at least.]

Humm...so if this is a message using a natural alphabet then it will likely use numbers one to twenty-six, correct...?

[Judging by the way Zacharie is speaking, he's trying to feel out how this puzzle works. He's used to numbers and numbers alone. Some times those clues in his game were hidden in words but it was always easy to spot.

Perhaps he needs to expand his knowledge, later on.]

Forgive me for requesting a tutorial from you but it seems you will have to act as a guide character for a few minutes. I am out of my dept.

[And he's also curious about the first line. "Lies." Why that?]

It's fine.

[It's not fine at all, really. He's desperately trying to keep a lid on the panic that's threatening to boil over and just make this a lot more difficult, a lot more unbearable, than it has to be. He'll deal with this. Just...lock it down. He can do that.]

Usually that's what...back home, we'd get, uh, messages like this all the time. Numbers, codes. They usually translated to something like that. "Lies," "hiding," stuff like that.

[Usually because someone was hiding something. And that someone, more often than not, was Tim.]

Then would it be reasonable to assume that there is a lie somewhere?

[Or maybe that in itself is the lie. Or it simply could be one of those puzzles that was designed to make you overthink and thus miss the obvious. After all, Zacharie's half was not that complex.

But for now they only had 'liar' and that the number 1 wasn't the first in the sequence. Zacharie attempts to work out any other messages as it's presented and comes up with nothing.]

I also have to assume that the messages do not line up so nicely all the time.

Probably. Yeah.

[There is a lie somewhere, all right. Probably all coiled up inside him. Might as well be a biological thing at this point with how much it's just a - part of him. HE IS A LIAR.

He's always been a liar.]

N-no. No. Not always.

[He's not really that fantastic at math, really, but there's something to be said for the number at the beginning being separated from the others. He tries adding it to each of the numbers in turn, but comes up with nothing that seems especially usable.]

Never, actually.

Humm...may I borrow the pen?

[He moves to a different wall to keep his writing away from Tim. Not that it would be difficult to tell the difference between their handwriting - Zacharie's is particularly atrocious - but if it winds up being nonsense then it doesn't have to be scratched out, just ignored. He just needs a place to put his thoughts for the moment. So:

Entry 000.129519 Entry Liar 112.1265451400953 112.1265451400953 exactly the same, repeated message(?) 1 is not the first sequence/block puzzle. Point of (.)? 15582.36181564095 still unknown.']

Eh eh eh. I am beginning to understand my Puppeteer's frustration due to fake difficulty and a severe lack of paper. Perhaps you have an answer to my inquiries regarding the usage of zeros and decimal points?

[If it's decoding by numbers to letters, there wasn't any use for the zeroes.]

[Tim hands the pen over, wishing bitterly that he had a calculator of some kind. He's not exactly one for advanced algebra, and while they might be able to solve the problem eventually, having something to help crunch the numbers would make it go a lot quicker. And the longer they stay in this room, the more his eyes start to hate him for it.]

I dunno. I dunno, I...it's way more numbers than what fits for a puzzle like this, isn't it?

[If he tries - multiplying, maybe? He separates 000.129519, and multiplies it with each of the strings of numbers. It takes a while, the laborious scratching of the borrowed pen only occasionally broken by moments where he bites his lip to concentrate or shoot a nervous look at the buzz of static on the television screen.

145225183.211854
14.522518
14.522518
20.18.211920]

Maybe that translates to...

[It only takes a few moments to come up with the message that links up to the numbers. He reads it aloud, his mouth dry.]

NEVER CURED
NEVER
NEVER
TRUST.

[If there's any, any small amount of reassurance to be take it's that the static doesn't get any worse. It knows he's right. Tim may be a liar...but he never lies when he says he is one.]

Never cured. Never trust.

[Zacharie mulls it over. Thus far this puzzle has only revealed things that was making his partner here highly uncomfortable. Almost as if it had only one interest and that was disturbing Tim and Tim alone. And if that was to be followed, it had no interest in Zacharie himself thus far. The one thing here from his world that could be considered disturbing was from the Pure Zones and all he had to do was never mention it.

So...did something in this room have it out for the other man?]

Cryptic messages appear to be a recurring theme here amigo. Although I have to question the comment that I should not exhibit trust in a puzzle made for two. Are you doing alright, by the way?

[He'd consider making a survival horror joke but it's probably too much.]

About as well as you could expect.

[Which is to say, not very. His vision is really starting to itch painfully, his eyes burning as if he's been staring at the sun for too long, and the pulsing beginnings of a headache have begun to needle into the bridge of his nose and his temples.

Maybe It's nearby.

No. It - can't be nearby. He'd know. He'd know if it was. It's a warning, the static. Nothing more.

That's the solution to the original encryption, he's pretty sure. They've just got to figure how to translate it over to the cube puzzle.]

Maybe...maybe if we turn "never" into numbers. Like, um...with numbers one through six. Since that's the word that shows up the most, right?

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