[network - late night 114 ] @JPHawkins, video; A KEY DEVELOPMENT [open]

[rattlingthestars]

[ Jim, in the first segment of the video, appears to be leaning against a mostly empty jewelry case. He's calm, though his eyes occasionally track something across the room rather than the tablet he's speaking into. ]

Hey, Norfinbury. Think we found something that might be important, and we need your help. See, a few days ago we went digging in the storehouse near the bookshop - didn't find anything interesting in the papers, but what we did get ahold of this.

[ He spins the tablet around and Zell is elaborately presenting an old-fashioned brass key. Ooh, ahh. ] We tried it at the creepy toy shop and the bookshop before we finally found the door it opened at the cobbler's.

[ This is where the video switches over to something from earlier in the day. It's filmed from chest height, apparently one handed as the other hand holds a hockey stick that prods at what appears to be a spring-loaded trap over the door to a small room. Whatever kind of trap was sprung is gone, though there's a deep gouge in the doorframe where it landed, and a trail of fresh blood briefly visible when the camera pans around to show the rest of the small room.

It's stuffed with old furniture that looks like it was all pushed out of the way when the door opened, and Zell is walking around it, cautiously poking around with the second hockey stick. The video ends there. ]

Might be a boldhole from someone in the last cycle of people. There were empty food bags and stuff. We found a backpack like ours with -

[ Zell, again, presenting a second key! This one is silver so it's probably protecting better loot. ]

Ta-da. Another key. We tried that one at the jeweler's, but no luck. We're going to try the bookshop and toy shop again, but if anybody knows of any other locks that look like they might match let us - me or Zell or Kain or Zack - know. Keep an eye out for treasure chests or lockers or anything like that, too.

--

[ Text, tacked on some time later and locked from @zd: ]

-And this is unrelated, but if you already gave someone here a pretty cool gift and need to give them a better one for some reason, what would you give them?

[ ooc: answers will come from Jim! Possible threadjackings from Zell, Kunsel, and Zack whenever he stops barfing. ]

Comments

@CaptSteveRogers; voice

[starsandtights]

[GUESS WHICH PART STEVE IS MOST CONCERNED WITH.]

...Was that... blood? Are you guys OK?

voice

[rattlingthestars]

[ ...Oops. Guess who wasn't paying attention to keeping the blood out of frame and sucks at lying? ]

Yeah, we're fine. Nobody died. There was an ax spring loaded to attack whoever opened that door; guessing whoever was hiding in here originally was pretty paranoid.

@kingdomkey ; voice

[seekthelight]

Treasure chests? Have people found those around here?

[Someone sounds excited...but that excited fades into something thoughtful.]

What if that key is like the other one and leads to a trap? Maybe the keys are just something meant to throw you off.

[A means of keeping something else out of sight and mind.]

voice

[rattlingthestars]

Just one that used to have toys in it. Nothing that actually locked.

[ Which makes Jim wonder if they'll run across a bank, at some point, with another combination lock and cipher clues. It'd be nice to actually find a use for that book he found. He sounds a little frustrated at Sora's suggestion that what they're working on might be useless: ]

But ... even if they're just traps, this is the best lead I've found in a long time. Can't just leave them sitting around.

Voice

[seekthelight]

Oh--so nothing like pirate treasure or anything like that.

[There's a little bit of disappointment in his voice. That ruled out that as a means of finding things.

Sora can't help but wince when he hears the frustration in the other's voice and if Jim could see him, there would definitely be an apologetic look.]

I just don't want to see you guys hurt if it is a trap, that's all I mean. The creatures I fight back home, Heartless, they can sometimes look like ordinary things like pots and barrels!

@zd; voice

[swatsflies]

Yo, Sora! I hoping we find something really cool, since I already found the best treasure here.

[By treasure he means the people he's met + boyfriend. Not that Sora could see him giving a look over to Jim]

Maybe more SD cards or a key to the wall down here. Or a way to actually hurt the monsters. [That would be way frickin' cool. Even if it leads to nothing, it's been pretty exciting minus Zack's close shave.]

[seekthelight]

Zell! Hi! The best treasure? What did you find?

[Oh please indulge him, Zell.]

Just be careful, please? [There's a pout in his voice. Can you hear it?] Everything I've been told about this place just makes me think everything is some sort of trap, you know? Or a trick..

@red, text

[backspacing]

Good work.
I'll keep an eye out for any locks that match that key.


[And then later, in a private text to Jim.]

There's no reason why you couldn't give them two gifts.
If it's someone important to you, I'm sure they would appreciate it.

@zd; text /jacking

[swatsflies]

Hi again!
That would help a lot. Thanks :)

she is referring to the IC map btw

[backspacing]

Hello again :)

I noticed a pattern on the map, with how the buildings are numbered. It looks like I'm on the lower end of the numbers for the houses, does that mean these houses have already been thoroughly searched?

permatext

[rattlingthestars]

Thanks. You're one of the newer people, right? I'm Jim.

--

Private

I just don't have any ideas that are any better than the first thing I gave him. Kinda hard to go shopping around here, you know? So I was hoping someone might think of something brilliant.

forever private now

[backspacing]

I'm Red.

I always found that a gift from the heart goes over well.
Is there something you're good at?

@j; text

[advanced]

[That is pretty interesting. Not what was found, exactly, but that such innocuous type things were locked away and sought out by the people trapped here. He needs more information, though he's reluctant to talk too much on these obviously monitored devices.]

Explain previous cycle of people.

text

[rattlingthestars]

Going to take a while for me to find the post where we found it, but it seems like there were groups kidnapped before us - not the people who lived here before the place was destroyed. The network's been wiped hundreds of times. Once something glitched and we saw messages we think were from them.

@standardissue; text

[deus_ex_phs]

Don't bother, Jim. I just dug those up for someone else, so I already have the links on hand.

previous-session-part1
previous-session-part2
previous-session-part3

@LELRIC; voice

[armoured]

[Maybe he should have travelled onwards with them, but he had been desperate to get back to Stephanie as quickly as possible. He regrets that now, heart clenching in fear.]

Why is there blood? What happened?

[He'll deal with the key afterwards.]

voice

[rattlingthestars]

Booby trap. Didn't kill anyone.

[ Jim winces at the sound of worry in Al's voice. He's pretty worried himself, but he doesn't exactly want to upset Al when he can't do anything to help. ]

Private

Zack stopped an ax with his head. It looks pretty nasty but K sealed it and called Doctor Watson for advice.

private;

[armoured]

[It's a sad reflection on what this town is like that his first reaction is relief that Zack didn't die, rather than shock that such a trap was in place to begin with.]

That's awful, and he's definitely okay?

[He swallows audibly.]

It was really just hiding supplies and a key? The key must be pretty important if it was protected so heavily.

@milkevoli; voice

[brokethefirst]

[UM. THAT SURE IS BLOOD.]

The toy store is the first thing that comes to mind, but...

I-is everyone alright? Was someone hurt?

voice

[rattlingthestars]

[ SURE IS oops. ] The door was booby trapped. There was furniture in front of it and when we pushed it out of the way, that spring sent an ax flying.

It could've killed someone, but he got out of the way fast enough that it's just nasty instead of deadly.

[brokethefirst]

T-then, someone set that up trying to keep something out... [Or someone, perhaps, if one wanted to go the paranoia route. But she'd rather not think about that.] Was... was there any signs inside or outside the room of a fight? Or a creature, maybe, that might have tried to get in before? Was the key the only thing you were able to find in the backpacks?

And... well, more importantly, has anyone been able to look at whoever was wounded? I'm assuming you and Zell are both fine... but what about Kain and Zack? [She can see Kain talking to one of the newer people elsewhere, but she has a feeling he'd try to share information regardless of whether he was wounded or not.]

text/action; I CANT RESIST (take your time though srsly)

[swatsflies]

[Putting both keys into his pocket for the moment as he watches Jim respond to other people. Of course they will notice the blood. He'll work on cleaning up the evidence in a moment. What's more important is making sure his boyfriend is okay.

Tapping a response into his tablet as he looks between it and Jim.]

Think two would do?

[Do what? It's a mystery~*~]

ilu

[rattlingthestars]

[ Jim glances up from where he'd been typing intently - even after several months, doing it on a touch screen and not a typewriter is a little tricky - and makes a confused face at Zell. ]

I don't think they'd both fit in the lock.

@hsiaoke; video

[heavensreader]

[What an exciting discovery! Of course Kesara appears, bright-eyed and half-bouncing with eagerness at being able to propose a next step.]

The bookshop has a locked door in the back! And I hear there's a locked hotel - in the southwestern corner, near the ice wall?

[Now that the most important part has been said, she gets to the lesser concern:] Where did the blood come from?

video

[rattlingthestars]

Bookshop, huh? That's close to where we found the first key.

[ Jim makes a note of it, and the hotel too. ]

First I've heard of a hotel - it'd be almost like home.

The place was booby trapped. We're fine, though, and we destroyed the trap.

[ With Zack's head. ]