(OPEN) probably the least secret secret meeting, all things considered

[elswhisperer]

WHO: Setsuna F. Seiei (elswhisperer) & you!
WHAT: The code word log!
WHERE: City Hall Park
WHEN: July 12
WARNINGS: N/A


[ Over the course of the past few days, you may have noticed simple, nondescript flyers posted here and there across the city. All handwritten, they list a location (a particular statue in the City Park) along with a time and date (3:00 PM, July 12). Below that, an extremely brief message:

For establishing safe communications.

- moment.

On the day of, you'll find a young man in a red scarf waiting by the named statue. He has with him sheets of blank paper, pens, and pencils. ]

My name is Setsuna F. Seiei. 'Moment' from the network. The purpose of this meeting is creating a way to safely disseminate information to each other all at once. If one of us found an exit, or determined the identity of our captors, we'd be jeopardizing ourselves by revealing it openly over the network. At the same time, the network is our most efficient method of communication. We need to make the most of all the tools at our disposal.

We can accomplish that with the use of code language. One that's not complicated; that anyone could remember and pass along. What that code is and what we want to communicate with it is something one person can't determine for themselves. That's why I wanted us all to meet.

Without cooperation, we're not gonna get anywhere.

[ ooc: just a couple things! go ahead and mingle/threadhop as you like (especially bc i may not be the fastest tagger rn), and if setsuna has already mentioned to your character that he's been working on something, feel free to assume he left some kind of vague message about checking flyers over the inboxes or smth. ]

Comments

[gripper]

( Magic only maybe exists in the Ruins, Junpei, don't be silly... Simulation isn't a terrible answer. An Abnormality or a distortion caused by a powerful item like, say, a Golden Bough is also likely, buuut the last one would be a little more personal. Just a little. )

It turned over to a new month. ( and that's about it. So, right back to the corner— 2. How do we access the rest of the city?

That's probably workable enough. Might get some mileage out of it anyway. ) There's some banks over there, too, but you'll never guess what they are.

( CLOSED. Unbreakable. Very disappointing. )

1

[icanfixer]

[ oh

by the wings

holy shit

that's a lot of food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don quixote's eyes are sparkling and her mouth's dropped low, a noise not unlike a soft aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa gradually increasing in pitch as she admires the sweet feast. unlike her companion who'll eat more than one but less than four cookies, she won't shy from eating ten... and some bread........ ]

W-We truly may help ourselves? Thou mean it?

[heeroics]

[ he is genuinely surprised to be approached, but it shows on his face for only an instant.

of course he remembers McGillis - the way that cutting gaze had lingered on him with a little too much intensity for a stranger. to speak to him now only confirms Heero's previous suspicion - so this man is interested in him for some reason.

given his current circumstance as a confused captive of a seemingly omnipotent entity, with no idea where he should lash out, Heero doesn't like it. ]

Yes.

[ he answers without any show of objection to McGillis's presence. even flexes his fingers. weakened as he is, he still heals more quickly than someone not altered... it's middling relief.

but that is what the man wanted to know, is it not. ]

[heeroics]

Setsuna F. Seiei.

[ Heero acknowledges him likewise. out of respect. because these fuckin weirdos.

The description rings a bell for him immediately: the vacuum-suited man in the clothing store with whom he briefly discussed the nature of their circumstances. Lockon had been adamant that this place was very real, and very dangerous. Heero had found him appropriately vigilant. ]

The spacesuit. [ he nods. ] That explains it.

[fourmeansdeath]

[ Albert would be content to attend this gathering at the sidelines -- keep an eye on who's showing up, and who's showing up to cause trouble or to cooperate, all that sort of thing. He doesn't know these people, they don't know him. Still, at length he raises a hand and speaks up: ]

Stands to reason there's some kind of all-seeing surveillance on us beyond the mobile phones. Nobody's said anything about seeing any police force around, and somehow I doubt the people who've, hah, transgressed the law announced their intentions beforehand.

[ Though with some people, you never knew. It's disturbing that there's rumours of bloodshed already. Not surprising, but disturbing. A pessimistic man might have something to say about humans' violent nature even in a place with every need provided for free, but that kind of talk would be useless right now. ]

That doesn't mean this is pointless. I dunno how fast the powers-that-be can move, but it can't be instant, unless they're gods or something. If there's an emergency and a code buys us even a little time, I say it's worth doing.

[ Not that this level of subterfuge is really his forte. ]

What I want to know is if anyone has alternate ways of getting information around. Pen-and-paper letters seem kinda inefficient.

✨kiosk info documenting✨

[coolerjunpei]

[A ways into the meeting, Junpei has... something to do. It's getting this handy spreadsheet (well, hand drawn) somewhere everyone can contribute to it, so it's not just him and Kromer talking about pancakes and murder off to the side somewhere.

Of course, this is a statue at the park they're meeting at, so he figures he can bring it to... the base of the statue? That'll do. He clears his throat, holding up the papers and a pen.]

Uh, hey, everyone... We started making a list of things we've asked the kiosk in the tourist center and what answers it spit out. Maybe if we all combine questions and answers, something like a clue will come up? It's good to have a list, anyway. We can make sure it doesn't give different people different answers to the same question...

So... yeah. That's that. I'll leave it here. And... if you want to talk about some info, I'll hang out here, too?

[womp........ He will indeed hang out here for a bit, but talking to him isn't required to add to the sheet...]


[ooc: hello...... gripper's player has made us a for real spreadsheet to collect stuff on incl a future questions tab!! but kromer is a bully so junpei is presenting it to everyone :pensive: don't give him credit,]

[icanfixer]

[ wow, what a great idea that junpei definitely came up with on his own! don quixote definitely did not see him and kromer hanging. yup, that woman has nothing to do with it.

anyway. ]

It is not a helpful device whatsoever. Rarely anything I asked could be answered "at that time", so I am surprised to learn that thou hath gained knowledge from them.

[ ... well when. she writes her questions maybe they'll understand why she got shit all, but still. ]

[elswhisperer]

[ Give him a second to weigh the pros and cons here. Don, at least, appears to be an exceptionally honest person, so maybe he can trust her with this with the right caveats. ]

You can have that task on the condition that you deliver it without incident. If you encounter any injustice, I want to hear about it before you take matters into your own hands.

[ PLEASE DON'T KILL ANYONE ON THE MAIL ROUTE ]

[icanfixer]

[ mmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm.

gosh. ]

It would go against my principles to await thy word, Ser Setsuna, but I shall not kill them! I will keep myself in check and merely knock them out! Please understand my virtuous violence!

[ she's done this before! she's been told, word for word, not to unduly involve irrelevant in their mission! and she didn't kill them! ]

Is that alright? If I am required to tone it further to merely restraining the potential villains I shall do so as well, but I cannot stand idly by!

[elswhisperer]

We'll keep going until a consensus is reached.

[ So his guess was right; this is Duo. For all he knows, there could be someone else running around with similar taste in hairstyles. ]

Just Heero Yuy.

[elswhisperer]

[ Is this at all how everyone felt when Setsuna was an impulsive teenager, worrying which carefully-laid plans he'd derail next? That feeling of "please don't fuck this up for us"? ]

You can restrain them. Save violence for situations where you need to defend yourself.

[ If there were a fight breaking out or something, Setsuna would be inclined to intervene himself, so it feels like a reasonable compromise. ]

[elswhisperer]

You've met him.

[ That saves the trouble of an introduction. ]

...I just have one question. What impression did you get from Lockon Stratos?

[ He's just. A little worried about Neil.

Maybe a lot. ]

[icanfixer]

[ that's a constant feeling when it comes to don quixote, welcome to the company ]

Very well! That suits me just fine. Merely tell me when and where, and I shall sally forth.

[ oooooh she got a joooooobbbbbbbbb how excitingggggg ]

[braidedwonder]

And you got more than two words out of him? Congrats. [ He doubts he would have the honor of being the only two words, so a conversation must have happened there. He won't pry, though. Whatever Heero Yuy decides to tell other people in his business, and considering everything going on, if he's decided to make a possible ally, he'll trust the other man's judgment.

But only in this, of course. ]

Usually, that's just sussing out a thesaurus of different tones of grunts, so that's quite the accomplishment.

Though, if you were talking about this, that edges on a mission, and Heero loves a mission.

[braidedwonder]

It's uh.. fairly instant. [ Says the guy that woke up in handcuffs after trying to light City Hall on fire without anyone other than he and the other guy in attendance that he could see. Supremely unsettling for someone who never really slept more than a cat nap every couple of hours, anyway, much less to not feel it until he had woken up. ]

Let's just say I know by experience, and they don't even bother with your rights and all that.

We could possibly code up something to encrypt instant messages, but either way there's no telling that whatever powers that are can't access that either, even to the best of my encryption ability. Or other's, too.

We could do carrier pigeon, but, none of those around either.

[elswhisperer]

[ If nothing else, Setsuna's pretty confident he can take Don at her word.

...If things manage to go awry anyway, he'll take responsibility for it. ]

I'll field the mailing requests through my inbox, and I'll entrust you with the first district.

You're right that we'll need another volunteer for the second. One person running all over the city is too much to ask.

[codenametesla]

[As a new arrival, it was hard to tell what was the weird... city's doing, and what was the the doing of the other people who had been dragged in. The fliers that had been put up certainly seemed more the latter, and Althea didn't really have anything to lose while gathering information on just what was going on, so she followed the directions.

She liked the idea of using code language, and of everyone working together to pool information and try to figure out what was going on, even if she didn't like that they were in a situation that needed it.

But as someone new, who didn't know any of these people and who didn't know even the scraps of information they had, she mostly stuck to hovering around the outskirts of the group, listening and trying to catch up.]

[ooc: Felt like I needed to put up something if i was gonna have her talk to people here, so there you go. Feel free to see her just wandering around clueless :"D ]

[codenametesla]

[The kiosks were particularly fascinating, and were next on her list of things to try and get information from, so the fact that other people already had, and were making a LIST, was fantastic news.

As she read over the questions asked and suggested however, she couldn't help a little frown and glanced up at the person who seemed to be running this particular endeavor.]

What does this mean that the kiosk is empty?

[unrequite]

[ Midnight isn't really much for hypothesizing or problemsolving — if he wasn't so keen to soak in all the information he can, one could say he was just here to vibe — but he raises his hand when he hears this. ]

I run outdoors daily. I don't have a particular route yet, either. I don't mind dropping off messages if need be.

[unrequite]

I'm scheduled for a checkup with Doctor Daan next month, but if there's anything relevant that you'd like for me to pass on, I can arrange to meet him sooner.

[ Midnight wouldn't have said anything, but reaching out to the medical team here seems like a good idea, and he doesn't want it to just disappear under the discussion. ]

[codenametesla]

[The man seemed intimidating as hell, but as she listened, Althea couldn't help but speak up, though it was still quiet enough that likely only the nearest people to him would hear.]

Do you know if LAN networks work? Theoretically that wouldn't be connected to the network, so if that's what's being tracked, it would be safe. It might only really work for inter-building or inter-apartment connections but it might be a start?

[She just wants to help now that she's been dragged here too. It's weird going to a meeting if you're not going to at least try to add to it, right?]

[unrequite]

Do you plan to keep this list updated? If so, having a way to distribute and update it without using the network would help me out in the long term.

[ Guess who is pretty much immune to long, tedious amount of work and also loves asking questions??? Midnight is going to make this terminal his best friend, whether it likes it or not. ]

[unrequite]

[ Welp. Midnight has been listening quietly and staying out of most of the conversation, but if someone else is here looking like they're just soaking in the atmosphere, he's not about to just ignore them. (That she happens to be very cute has nothing to do with his decision. Really) ]

Hello, Miss Wallflower. Would you care to dance?

[ He grins.

(... No, seriously, that she's a cute girl alone at a meeting has nothing to do with his decision. He just says hello like this. Like, actually. Really.) ]

[coolerjunpei]

[Bwuh-- oh hey. Junpei startles slightly to be interrupted while in the Zone, but-]

Oh yeah? Uh, are you okay? [As for the topic at hand, though,] I guess you could see if he knows about this club thing at all, for a start. Maybe ask him if he has any ideas for... an emergency signal?

[Like a bat signal for Doctor Daan, but he feels like that reference might fall a little flat, so.]

[coolerjunpei]

[dw boss he doesn't squire for women with bad hair]

I kind of only asked it about the pancakes... [as he leans over to see what she's asked it-- oh. don, bestie...] Uh...

Well, maybe if it can't answer them "at this time," they'll answer them later? Or it could be total bullshit, but there's no harm in asking again.