2020-06-10 Prelude in Digital Form
Prelude in Digital Form
Storyteller: User:Polk
Location: Ascension Lodge
Date and Time: June 10, 2020 7:00 pm
Summary: Information is investigated
Aeon is spreading his wings as a hacker. His latest attack, on a local off-brand beverage bottler in the Inland Empire, was fairly routine. Email gossip, lots of TPS reports, and the truth about why they use HFCS... well not really on that last part. However one former employee, whose name is oddly garbled in the filesystem, has a tightly encrypted file. When Aeon broke the encryption, the resulting file, in Word document form, was... well not gibberish, but clearly some form of code or unusual langauge of its own.
Aeon knows someone who has access to a good library. Makana. Maybe it's worth coming to meet with her, and barter access in exchange for some services to the institution...
The library.
It's another busy day, and Makana is just shelving some books that were used for research. A rainbow colored bird of paradise flies around, before perching upon the top of the stacks, keeping an eye out for things.
Aeon sits at the back of one of the library hallways on the floor, tucked into a corner. The light from the tablet in his right hand illuminates his face while his right hand whirls and gestures, the fingers twitching in quick rapid pulses. The light gets under the glow of his hood, reflecting off his glasses, and he continues working, assembling the code that has been written for him. His eyes flick up when he sees the rainbow bird and he lets out a deep breath, standing. He continues working as he walks, not wanting to waste any time as he traverses the aisle and at the center of the stacks he raises his gloved hand in greeting to Makana. "Hey. I got something for you. Came across it when I was doing some other work. I thought you might like to take a look since it looks like your kind of thing."
The username is unintelligible to Makana as much as it is to Aeon. But the contents of the file mean a lot more to her. It's as though someone who didn't speak Enochian were attempting to copy enochian. The forms are mostly right, but it's all off, and unnatural.
But it's intelligible enough, as a series of numbers. Recognizable too Aeon as a set of coordinates in the Digital Web.
There's an almost distasteful wrinkle of her nose as she looks over what was scribbled down. "That's just wrong."
Without another word, she heads on over to one of the tables and grabs a scrap piece of paper and pulls out a pen. She always has one of those on her afterall.
"The forms are sloppy, but it's a series of coordinates. One that I have to say, I'm not familiar with."
Scribble scrabble. The Enochian is translated into the DW coordinates, which consists of more than just the Cartesian coordinates most are used to.
"It still seems like gibberish to me, but does this make sense?"
Aeon shrugs off one should of his backpack and it slumps around to his side. He uses a hand to unzip it and fish out a piece of paper. He zips the bag again and slides it back into place. "I made you a copy." Turning towards Makana he extends the paper towards her. "Normally I'd be all over that, but... this was very out of place and doesn't seem like it should be where it was. That raised a lot of red flags. And since we do not want to come out of the gate tripping alarms, I thought I'd let you be the one to take a crack at it." He watches Makana work a bit, letting his mind follow her processes. When she comes up with the numbers he winces and squeezes the bridge of his nose. "Yeah. Unfortunately. That looks like a Digital Web site. And I know you and the crew here aren't all that up on the DW, so I'm probably going to have to take point on that. Is there anything else it says? Otherwise we'll be showing up blind. And I mean we as in, I'm not going alone so multiple someones need to come with. Start a sign up sheet in the foyer or something."
Makana was of such use decoding that. Maybe she has an opportunity here to get a favor out of him back. After all, before he left for London. Dr. Smith did grumble a little about the internet below the Orrery...
"I'm not exactly a digital web surfer, but if it's just electrons, well, I'm practically a master of that." A wry grin curls onto her lips as she hrmms. "Put a call out for help and I'll do the same. I don't know who you trust enough to bring along." Makana admits ruefully.
"Yeah you do. You're it," Aeon responds bluntly and quickly. He takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "But I know that's not efficient or smart when there are other resources, even if that resource is as cannon fodder. I mean, I've been dragging my feet and making things official, but consider this my... commitment." He waves a hand dismissively and says with a sarcastic tone. "Look at me, I'm considering everyone and working as part of a group. Yea. I told you I could do it." He raises his eyebrows briefly as he considers his calculated move to join the Lodge against his natural inclination to work alone. "I should probably start with an intro course on the Digital Web, sooner rather than later," he adds with a glance down at the translated document.
"If you're going to gather a bunch of n00bs.." Is that what they're called? It's not like she has that much experience with the Virtual Adepts. "It would be good before you do any traipsing around, especially to this coordinate, whatever it might be." Makana offers.
"Yeah, they'll need to know what they're getting into and how things work differently there." Aeon nods and considers, "I'll put together a short intro course and some reading materials for anyone interested. In the meantime I'll gauge the interest with people in the Lodge. We'll need a few VR rigs, though. I'm not comfortable taking anyone into the Digital Web physically on just recon." He shrugs faintly and refocuses on Makana. "Anyway, I'll see who's up for the flow, though that'll mean I need to be here in meatspace while I work..." He considers then shrugs the concern away. "I'll figure it out. Once I have enough people, I'll shoot you a text and let you know who'se in and when we'll be ready to go.
