recolle | (Open) - Research and Plans

(Open) - Research and Plans

WHO: Chloe and whoever stops by
WHERE: The public library
WHEN: 6/3-6/10
WHAT: Researching blueprints, discussing plans to investigate further, plotting of a more clandestine nature.
WARNINGS: N/A

Chloe, as she had told a few people, was easily found during her off hours at the public library in Recolle. She wasn't hard to find, though she'd backed herself in against a wall, so that she could see anyone who happened to be approaching and conceal some of the things that she was looking at if she didn't know them for certain.

Anyone happening across her was going to find architectural books and drafting books around her (two of them at least yellow-bound and labeled 'for Dummies.'). She seemed to be looking over a set of blueprints, though only two of the documents were really of importance to her, both hidden until she was sure someone was a person she knew as they approached. The rest were there for practice.

She was doing a lot of frowning today, but didn't seem to be in too bad of a mood, just very busy, and a little cagey. Thankfully it was a quiet enough part of the library that a low whisper could be heard without bothering any patrons. It was a beautiful, gray day outside. People weren't usually in the library on days like this.

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I try to keep my nose to the proverbial grindstone, Dante. It's a little hard with how little we have, but it's a start.

[She motioned to a seat next to her, paused and glanced at him for a second.]

Remind me, did I give you a decoder ring yet? I've been handing them out. More to give people the idea than because they're actually that useful.

[She wanted the idea of speaking in code to sort of begin instilling itself in people's heads. They were going to use the app. She knew that now, and it wasn't something that they were about to stop doing. It was the fastest way to communicate, but at the same time, there was a part of her that was getting a whole hell of a lot more familiar with being stealthy and careful, and she didn't like handing Retrospec any freebies.]

I know what you mean. I keep thinking about what Togusa, Ardyn, and I found last month, and trying to figure out what we can learn from it. But until something changes, I don't think it'll help us very much.

This is the first time I've heard about a decoder ring. How do they work?

Ah yes... you encountered the strange space in the center, the one that took back to the beginning, as if you were in some warped Escher painting. [She shook her head.] The construction of so much in this city defies imagination.

[She drew out a decoder ring and offered it. Made of plastic, with two concentric circles of letters on it, around the symbol in the center. When the outer circle was turned different letters lined up on the outside with the inside, and a small indicator showed a different number.]

It is a Caesar cipher, or substitution. For setting 2, C is A, D is B, E is C, and so on. You use the outside circle for the fake letter and the inside for the real one that it represents?

The one that took us back to the beginning? [Dante shakes his head.] I think that one must have been with someone else. We took the RC car I had back and forth and drove back at the end. Maybe Togusa went down there twice?

[But that's besides the point. Dante accepts the ring from her, examining it. It's pretty simple--it's pretty cool.]

Clever. Are you thinking of using these so that Retrospec can't just read what it is we're planning?

It wouldn't surprise me. There were a lot of things to see down below, I am sure. But you saw quite a bit below, I would imagine.

[She nodded to his assessment, though, with the ring. That was exactly what she planned to do. Admittedly, they'd find out about the rings quickly enough, but there were ciphers, and then there were ciphers]

I don't plan to use it much on the app. It would be obvious as is, but I might do it there. A simple substitution cipher isn't exactly something that any of us could figure out.

I'm thinking of using buried keys for more complicated ciphers, ones that are maybe done on paper so that they can be passed around. I'm still thinking here about ways to meet secretly, while bringing in new people, without alerting Retrospec.

Buried keys? I'm guessing you don't mean actual buried treasure, right?

[Dante folds his arms, leaning back in his seat with a look of concentration.]

You know, I was thinking about seeing how many people from the network would be game to start up some sort of Fight Club, even if I'm breaking the first rule of it now by talking about it.

[Shut up Dante.]

With so many of us getting memories back of fighting, it could be a good chance for us to get to know one another. If they wanted, people new to the network could give it a try and see if it triggered any memories. I don't think Retrospec would bother keeping tabs on a bunch of idiots beating up on each other week after week, right?

If we did something like that, maybe we could figure out how to run some sort of secondary meeting at the same time. Use one as a cover for the other.

The idea is to have a code that everyone knows to start... say, base it on the day of the month for a simple substitution. This lets you find the first three letters, which tell you the real code. Or it could be buried in the message, a three part code. Letter A, Letter B, Letter C, repeat...

it's complicated, this I know.

[She shrugged. She was still working on this, honestly. It was a very complicated idea, but then again if it was complicated enough, maybe it would be difficult for them to figure out. As long as it was not too hard for everyone else to actually use.]

Hmmm, but that sounds like a good idea. I don't see why we couldn't do something like that, and I would certainly not mind participating.

It's complicated, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea. After all, if Retrospec is able to see everything we're sending each other, the only way to code information is by hiding it. The only downside I can see is that we'd be doing exactly what Jim wanted us to do.

[And his tone probably makes it more than obvious how he feels about granting Jim's wishes!]

Still, we can't let that stop us from trying. It might be enough to give us an edge on them.

I'll make a post about the idea sometime this week and we can see where that goes. If it looks like we'll get enough interest, we can start floating the idea of the secret meeting then too. Though we probably shouldn't use any sort of technology to spread that message. I wouldn't be surprised if our phones are tapped.

Yes, though at the same time what else should we do? Trust the man who mocks us as friends and loved ones are lost to us, our worlds turn upside down and centipedes try to eat us? No, if he wants to take pictures to prove how much he sees, then we have little choice to be conspirators.

[She grunted.] And put up a good show being frustrated for him on camera. Maybe he will miss it when we find him?

[She nodded, listening to the idea.] My thought is flyers. You run the fight club, and we could pass out flyers. All phones would be turned off at the secret meetings. That sort of thing.

It can't guarantee he won't see, but ... he doesn't seem to know everything. [She tapped the blueprint fragment.] He mentioned the codes, but he didn't mention this. I don't know that he knows it's been found, or even exists.

[A nod.] We can find somewhere with multiple rooms or stories--while people are fighting, those of us who want to discuss info or strategy can hold that meeting in the other area. The sound of the fighting should cover up any words that might make it through.

[Now that Chloe's drawn his attention, Dante leans over, taking a look at the scrap of paper she's got. There's not much to go on, but the Retrospec logo catches his eye.]

Are those... blueprints? How'd you get a hold of those?

Yes, that sounds like a good plan. We don't know much yet, but what we know should be shared carefully, and plans made to find more.

[She nodded in response, very much pleased with this whole idea in general. When he looked down at the blueprints, she showed him the photocopy of the one with the logo more prominently.]

Honestly? The mayor's office, in the back room. We got in while we were tiny. This was left behind in a filing cabinet, like someone tore it out hastily.

[Now it's Dante's turn to nod.]

I'd like to follow up on a couple things myself. When we were in the tunnels, we found this binary code but couldn't get a good picture of it because of how small we were. Maybe if I go back with a couple people, we can get some better images.

[He frowns, looking at the scrap. It's more information than they had before, but...]

It looks like some of it's still missing. What's the betting it was someone from Retrospec that stole it in the first place?

Be careful going down there. I'm sure security is much worse than before. But, perhaps you will learn something.

[She frowned, reaching up to rub at her chin.] I am thinking the same thing, though. Retrospec has covered its tracks, taking away any old proof that they do not control, any lingering record of their existence to anyone without the app. But this must have been one of the older pieces.

They were sloppy before... or that is what I assume.

It'll be okay. I figure we'll go in through one of the gates they've got locked down. That way we won't have to deal with any security, unless they've got something set up inside the tunnels. There's got to be a station somewhere that isn't blasted by streetlights, right?

Did you find anything else while you were there?

You would assume, yes. But I trust your judgment there. It's your choice, after all. [And by the same token, it was his neck and not hers. An important distinction.]

I found some more blueprints, but only had time to get pictures of one of them. The Recolle History Museum. I think I might have found something in that, that I want to investigate. I have no idea if there will be anything of value, but it seems obvious that they're more sloppy in places they don't have a reason to think we would visit....

There were other blueprints, too? [Oh, this has Dante's attention.] Was there anything to make you think they may be related to what's going on? Or is it just a gut feeling?

It was an old documents room attached to the mayor's office. The filing cabinet was full of them. Probably city records, including the records of the Retrospec building. They do have to file for approval after all.

At this point? Just a gut feeling. But it was a gut feeling that sent me to the office in the first place. I thought we needed to search somewhere we couldn't normally go.

Huh. [He shakes his head, a small, amused smirk coming to his face.] You know, I was planning to go over there myself to see if they had the building permits on file, but you got there before me. Nice work.

So what can we learn from the scraps you've got here?

[Time to get down to business. Dante turns his attention back to the blueprints. It's the first set of real blueprints he's seen but... it can't be that hard to understand them, right?]

For one? That they were sloppy in hiding this compared to the things we've seen more recently. They left evidence behind, however small.

[She reached out and tapped her finger on the fragment, over a measuring line that delineated the size of an exterior wall. The markings were hard to make out, but not impossible.]

You might find more permits, possibly. I'm trying not to be public about this, in case they heighten security. It was, after all, attached to his office. The only other thing I did manage to pick up from it was that the building was approved to be much larger than it is.

And if they approve it, then the foundation should have reflected it, but it doesn't... even if the building is constantly changing.

[Another nod as he folds his arms, thinking about it.]

The records themselves should be public record, though... can we tell if they've got the entire lot they'd proposed? If it's smaller than it was approved for, maybe they're using the extra square footage for some sort of a basement.

[HOLD ON. HE HAS AN IDEA.]

I wonder if the mayor's office would have the permits and build plans for the subway system?

Possibly, but there's nearby buildings. Something isn't adding up, because this was in a room mostly forgotten. You would think it was approved a while ago, right?

[She looked at him and reached up to scratch her chin. Hmmm, there was a chance.]

I would have thought the County Clerk's office should have such a thing. It is where we register most of our legal documents, no? But this was at his office, so perhaps these are as well. The Clerk's office, though, would be public. More easily tampered with, no?

[Nothing about this is adding up. Why wouldn't the build plans all be kept together? Why isn't Retrospec making use of the full square footage they'd been allotted by the city? Dante frowns, trying to figure out where they can go with all of this.

Maybe it's better to stick to baby steps for the time being, as much as he'd like to rush in and grab hold of everything.]

Yeah.

[Hmmm...]

You said these were in a room mostly forgotten. How could you tell? Was it dusty or something?

Dusty, yes. Also, it looked like the mayor really wasn't making active use of the room. It's not like it was a secret exactly, just...

[She frowned.] I don't want to sound rude in speaking about our mayor, but he never quite struck me as the most ... involved of souls. He was watching a giant cartoon in another room of his offices with his big tv. It's why we were able to get through to this room without anyone being around.

He's nice, but kind of stupid.

Gotcha.

[That's not entirely surprising, given what little he's seen of the mayor. He doesn't seem like a bad guy overall, just... not really engaged.]

It's not that they're being intentionally kept under wraps, it's that he's not interested enough to do anything involving them.

And he wants everyone to believe that all is well in his city. Anything that interferes is usually something he ignores or that he insists is completely normal.

He plays to Retrospec's wishes very well, unintentionally.

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