Let's Play a Game [OPEN]

[meowchanics]

WHO: Akane Kurashiki, Sigmund Klim, and literally anybody in need of a ~mystery~
WHERE: Various locations around Tribunal Terrace
WHEN: 7-10 June
WHAT: Fulfilling civic duty by trying to push random people into unnecessarily convoluted games. Where have we heard this one before?
WARNINGS: None (might edit if memory regains happen)

[A: OUTSIDE]
[Overnight, mysteriously, a couple dozen posters spring up all around the city’s administrative district. They’re little more than plain A3 paper, and all of them have identical print:

FREE MYSTERY
↑↑↑

These posters really are everywhere - or maybe it’s just that they’re big and hard to miss, monochrome as they are amid the patchwork of mismatched colours that is the surrounding town. Trees, lampposts, walls, trash cans, nowhere is safe.

If you’re intrigued by this FREE MYSTERY, maybe you can find someone like-minded nearby. If you just want to express your disdain, it’s always better to vent that stuff where someone might be listening. ...You’re not going to try and take the posters down, are you? Whoever’s idea this was, they must have worked so hard.

Following the arrows on the posters will eventually lead you to one of three locations…]

[B: CHURCH]
[The church commandeered by these mystery makers is small and austere, almost more of a chapel. Between the inexplicably purple altar, the electronic organ and the narrow pews, there aren’t many places for puzzle components to hide. Instead, most of them are out in the open. A neat line of Bibles is laid out on the organ keyboard, each with a different-coloured bookmark inside. On top of the altar is a sheaf of photocopied sudoku puzzles, certain squares manually highlighted. Under part of the carpet and inside a closet full of cleaning supplies are smaller squares of blank paper, smelling faintly of lemon.

The key clue is a small business card taped loosely inside one of the many nondescript hymnals lining the pews, its location hinted at by crossreferencing the numbers in the sudoku puzzle with matching Bible verses. It features Recolle University’s logo, a crudely scrawled cartoon key, and a single handwritten sentence: “Speak truth to power.”]

[C: CITY HALL]
[Up some stairs and past some office cubicles lurks the kind of meeting room where attention spans go to die. Apart from the dusty tables and uncomfortable chairs, the main feature of the room is a large whiteboard with three useless, dried-up marker pens in its tray; on inspection, all three pens have stickers on the side labelling each of them with a different number. Under one of the seat cushions is a printed sheet of farmyard animal facts. An old-fashioned radio sits on the windowsill, but it feels far too light for a radio, and if opened up reveals only a small microphone attached to a Blueberry Pi. In the opposite corner, a projector conceals a second print-out, this one a classic logic puzzle: if X eats Y, Y eats Z and your boat can hold only two living things, how can you get X, Y and Z across a river?

The key clue is a small business card inside an almost-as-small piggy bank with a 3-digit combination lock, deduced by linking the numbers . It features Recolle University’s logo, a crudely scrawled cartoon key, and a single handwritten line: “∀x:x⇒x”]

[D: HOSPITAL]
[Anyone who’s been here before must be at least a little unsettled by how empty this large waiting room looks with nobody around - a wide space of sterile air and disembodied murmurs. That, however, is only the second most obvious change. The most obvious change is that the chairs have been rearranged in an arbitrary squareish pattern. Superficially similar fourfold patterns have been drawn on sheets of paper hidden around the rest of the room: under posters, on top of vending machines, tucked inside pill bottles and bandage rolls on abandoned trolleys, one folded up and wedged into an old Operation board game.

The key clue is a small business card tucked away in one of the many cardboard boxes behind one of the reception desks, located by comparing the patterns drawn on each box to the next pattern in the sequence around the rest of the room. It features Recolle University’s logo, a crudely scrawled cartoon key, and a single handwritten sentence: “By definition, a puzzle has an answer.”]

[Unless you happen to catch a certain young woman or her beleaguered assistant sneaking around between puzzle rooms, no further explanations seem to be forthcoming. So how about it? Can you solve the mystery?]

(ooc: This is a mingle log! There are general descriptions of each puzzle room in the thread headers, but apart from the key clues, the details are left to your discretion. None of the puzzles are difficult, none of the components are more unusual than things you would mundanely find in each setting or a starter robotics kit, and all of them were clearly thrown together in a hurry, although it should take a little digging to uncover every relevant set piece. Tag around! Team up! Write your own toplevels! Find A Way Out!

There is an ICly intended solution to the overarching "mystery" which by nature can be carried out multiple times by multiple people, but feel free and encouraged to interpret this setup however the heck you want. /o/

If you have questions, toss them at blitzente, presages or into a PM!)

Comments

OUTSIDE / closed to sigmund

[physix]

[Akane's sticking posters everywhere!! She sticks a poster right on Sigmund's back.

Maybe he hasn't noticed yet. She's giggling at him from the side.]

Good work Sigmund! You've outdone yourself.

[She'll walk over and pat him on the shoulder. Please notice the poster on your back, old man.]

[meowchanics]

[Of course he hasn't noticed. For a start, he's been rummaging through the pile of electronics and assorted junk in the back of his car for a good couple of minutes. A lot of good placing an audio bug in a room is going to do if he can't fucking find the thing that lets them listen in.]

I should be the one saying that to you. It's worrying.

[Why did he agree to help set this up, again? Well, because it's for the greater good, there's somehow a bizarre logic to it, and he'd much rather do something than dwell on the state of the city as is. That doesn't make it a less stupid idea in execution.]

...Did you run out of posters already?

[physix]

I ran out of posters, yeah. Have you tried checking the back for extras?

[She meant that literally. Don't go into the storage room. Don't go into the storage room.

Will Sigmund ever pick up on this gag of hers? Only god knows.]

We might have a few more there. That's where we keep all the spare props too.

[meowchanics]

[The phrasing is a little unusual considering she came back outside just to tell him this, but it's nothing strange enough to distract Sigmund from his apparent purpose in life this month, which is to be increasingly frustrated with pretty much everything that happens to him.] Damn, I really thought you planned things better than this... I'll go check.

[If they keep stealing paper from the faculty office to print more of these posters, eventually he's going to start feeling bad about it. Awful. Anyway, he'll just slam the car door shut, lock it, and traipse back towards the building.

The poster on his back flutters peacefully, content with its place in the multiverse.]

[physix]

You go do that.

[When Sigmund goes to check Akane bursts out laughing. She can't help it. That was really mean.

Is he not going to notice the poster on his back? He must have no self awareness.

Sigmund might be able to hear Akane's giggling from the back. She's not too far away after all. ]

[meowchanics]

[He stops with his hand halfway to the door, although he doesn't look round. Oh yeah, he heard that. He's not so old that he's going deaf already.] What?

[What?????]

[physix]

Oh gosh, Professor! I just saw a funny meme on the internet.

[This is loads of bullshit. Akane's trying to cover up her odd behavior with some lies. Don't believe her man.]

When you left I lost my composure. It's nothing you should be worrying yourself over.

[SHE'S ACTING SO STRANGELY..it is suspicious. ]

B, ota

[thebeastwithout]

[Detective Logan is on the case! Still in his Sherlock Holmes getup, he bursts into the chapel with aplomb.]

Aha!

Of course! The true mystery of Retrospec... I've solved it! It's Jesus! Jesus is the answer!

[...]

...Man, I thought that's what they told me in Sunday school. 'K, fine, whatever, what's this weird crap?

[He picks up a sudoku sheet and frowns.]

[physix]

When you're in doubt you must look towards Jesus for the answer!

[Akane shows up from seemingly no where and starts laughing.]

Did you find something interesting?

[Stop acting like you don't know what's going on, Akane. She set up this whole gig. ]

[thebeastwithout]

I can't believe I wasted all that time in church as a kid.

[Gar sighs in disapproval at the fact that invoking Jesus has accomplished nothing.]

Yeah, there's all these weird sheets with boxes and numbers on them. I dunno what it's supposed to be.

[He shrugs.]

[physix]

It's the experience that counts! You learn something by trying new things everyday.

Like this puzzle for example.

[Akane points to the weird sheet with boxes in it.]

You fill in these rows with numbers from 1 to 9. Sounds simple doesn't it?

[thebeastwithout]

Wait, why?

[Gar immediately begins to put '9' in every empty box.]

Is it supposed to be some kinda puzzle or something? I've played a lot of video games and I've never seen this before.

[physix]

It's a puzzle, yes. The point of the game is to find out where all the numbers belong.

[Akane doesn't play video games and she knows Sudoku. It's in news papers sometimes.]

Kind of like a crossword puzzle except with numbers.

A

[deathboss]

[Well someone's having fun with this as a phone is taken out and put on a selfie stick. He addresses his chat at the same time.]

Hooou! Welcome to Michel's IRL channel fam! Do you guys see this? Maybe we can try to figure out this mystery together!

[Audience is mostly posting memes, sadly.]

[meowchanics]

You're... streaming?

[Michel might be surprised to see his biology professor loitering around by his car near the hospital rather than professoring away on campus, but rest assured he can't look half as scandalised as Sigmund feels about being caught in the act. Of all the days he had to be on camera, it had to be the day he's wearing a bluetooth headset for no obvious reason and is starting to get self-conscious about it.

He sighs.] I suppose it's impressive that you still have an audience. ...Do you still have an audience?

[deathboss]

[Sigma. Sigma you're about to find out how absurdly popular Michel is. Even as he moves the camera over to the teacher briefly before back to him.]

That's one of my teachers, fam! As you know, I'm continuing my studies and it's always important to study too! But when there's a mysterious mystery happening, we can't let those four kids and their dog take care of it, right?

[In another hand, he's typing another thing and sending it. Yes Michel has two phones (more actually).]

http://twitch.tv/thegreatmichel

[If the other types that in, he'll see Michel life and...90,000 viewers. And to be fair, the feed just started...]

[meowchanics]

[90,000 watching, most of them spamming the same emote... Hmm. Yeah, maybe it is a little too easy to lose sight of the fact that Recolle and the weirdness currently enveloping it aren't quite the whole world.

Sigmund spends a moment squinting at the window to try and figure out what the emote actually is, but before long he loses interest and closes it. He's not out of touch! He's not. He just needs his bandwidth for... something else.]

Living dangerously, I see... I didn't sign anything that stops me from announcing your grades on the air.

I'm so sorry I never saw this reply sob

[deathboss]

[Look don't question his fans okay they are super cool he loves them. But also loves to troll him. The reaction from Sigmund is a bunch of lols and "do it!"]

Hey hey! No let's not get too hasty, teach...

D

[argone]

[Catching a beleaguered assistant or the young woman? Oh, Kara can do that.

She's the worst and she's a little annoyed at how arbitrary this seems. So, zip, right on up.]

Were you trying to make this extra frustrating?

[physix]

Making it extra frustrating wasn't my intention.

[Akane shakes her head.]

We can't just say the answer or else it won't count. What are you struggling with? Is it everything?

[Oh no.]

[argone]

Mmmm. I'm just confused about the cartoon key behind those boxes? And the logo.

[Did Sigmund draw them?]

[physix]

[ He totally drew them. Sigmund is a good artist, okay. ]

You should try looking for some clues. I'm sure you'll find some lying around this room.

[Akane starts poking around and looking behind chairs and tables.]

It'd be kind of hard to do something with those objects alone.

[argone]

Well yeah, I just didn't see anything.

[She has this feeling.]

It's like someone moved everything before I got here just to get me stuck.

[physix]

It might seem that way at first. Do you want to try thinking outside the box?

[ Akane can offer a few more hints. ]

Whenever I had trouble with a problem that's how I'd start trying to solve it. You'll be able to see the answer when you look from a different perspective.

c

[windeity]

[John's not one to pass up something as intriguing as a free mystery, which is how he finds himself over in City Hall on his way off from doing something else. In the end, he winds up in the meeting room and wanders his way around. It takes some time for him to find the paper under the cushion and the second puzzle, but he doesn't quite go for the radio. Instead, he looks at the second puzzle and grins.]

That's easy. You take y over first, then you take over z, bring y back, take over x, and then bring y back again. I've heard this one! ...I think that's right anyway...but what do barnyard animals have to do with this?

[Sorry for literally everything.]