[Opening the notebook reveals that thanks to the damage, most of the pages are sticking together, and it's stained with ink. There used to be things written in here, but what's visible has bled so much as to be illegible...
...Except on one page, where they will find the following text:]
DFKL IG QGGT FI DOU OX IDS SJSP TXGROXB OI UOBDI NS IDSKS. OI'P F KSUOXLSK: LGX'I IKAPI FXJGXS. PGKKJ UJ VKOSXL.
[The same page has "V = F" written on the upper right corner.]
A cipher? [ of course he immediately recognizes ciphers he's... a bat... with a penchant for wordplay... and the key is right there... i hate him. speaking of that key, he points it out physically, tapping the book-- ] "V = F" means there's a good chance this is a simple letter shift. Not too hard to figure out... I... gimme a sec--
[ fine now he has an ic reason to look at the blinking light bulb because if This has a code, is there another hidden fun one in this room!
is he gonna explain why he's suddenly doing that? no. ]
[Aizawa squints, taking the notebook while Dick plays staring contest with the blinking light. Is there any hint in the blurred ink- not particularly words but any indicator if the entirety of the journal was written in the allcaps-code or if it, at one point, may have been an entirely normal journal?]
[is there anything interesting about the pages he can turn to before and after the cypher? is it at an "end" or somewhere in the middle?]
[The notebook is pretty illegible except for that one page, so it's hard to tell if it was all written like this-- and the pages past this one are stuck together, so it's equally hard to say if they ever had anything written on them.
Dick's staring contest with the light bulb will turn up the following: It blinks quickly three times, slowly three times, and quickly three times.
A pause.
Three fast blinks, three slow blinks, three fast blinks.
Ugh, I'm an idiot! SOS! Should've recognized it when we walked in.
[ yeah it's been like? twenty fucking minutes? nightwing, you fucking slacker. shame on you.
does he explain what he's talking about. still no? but he. will try something else, which is to say, he goes over to the panel w/o a switch and knocks on it-- it's morse code for the letter r because google told me that's what you do when you say you've received a message ]
I mean, how often do you get messages from lightbulbs?
[don't be so rough on yourself, buddy. Aizawa will work at gently trying to pry apart the stuck pages. The ones that are just water damage should be able to be finagled... unless it's not water.]
[Or magic. But Magic would be Illogical.]
A bit silly for us to reply when we're trapped ourselves.
[There's no real response when Dick tries to give a reply. The room remains silent, and the light continues to blink.
As Aizawa goes through the book, he'll just find more of the same. It's all illegible, and in many places the inkstains don't even look like they used to be words; it's spread so much it's just dyeing a splotch into the page.]
About as often as I get kidnapped and brought to a sex dungeon? [ listen? anyway, dry jokes aside: ] If it's anything like what happened with Junpei and the others, the room'll let us out eventually. Any luck getting to read anything else on that notebook?
[ dick is mentally working on solving the cipher and it's a lot harder without writing it down, but he's gonna go look under cables on the other side of the room first to see if there isn't a key somewhere. >:( where's the breaker key ]
[either way, he flips back to the page with the cipher]
Nothing identifiable. That makes it even stranger that there's one page where it's legible.
[he seems entirely unbothered by Dick taking over the job he technically half-assed. if he did find the key, maybe that would lead them to some feeling of success.]
We don't know who the owner of this notebook is... and I feel like we can't even be certain the person who owned it was the one who wrote the code.
Too convenient for you? [ he doesn't sound like he thinks it's completely normal either, mind ] It's like those audio messages they found, and the one from yesterday. They're all damaged enough that we can't have the entire info, only bits and parts. I thought Gotham had the horror atmosphere down pat, but this place is giving it a run for its money.
[ yes, dick is blaming aesthetic for why everything is like that. supervillains just. make him accept that this is a thing that happens. sometimes. things are the way they are. for the Drama.
anyway, it's time to go back to the notebook so he can actually solve a cipher because he's a bat and he's puzzle obsessed. ]
V=F, so... [ he's pausing as he looks over aizawa's shoulder, clearly mentally solving it like a big boy instead of me, cheating, using a website ] Hard to look him in the eyes... knowing it might be there. [ hm. he frowns but continues: ] It's a reminder don't trust anyone... sorry my friend.
[Aizawa's weakness is showing, that is, in his world hero work and detective work are... pretty separate. The police may ask for a hero's help in certain cases but usually the most detecting they did was "where will they strike next?"]
The message from earlier also said distrust would spread among us.
["knowing it might be there"... would it be there watching? or would it be there in the person itself?]
... maybe the rest of the writing was purposefully damaged. They don't want us to know too much.
[After all, if no one could be trusted, anything written normally was just evidence to be destroyed.]
But solving the cipher does not seem to be what's gonna get them out of here. The door stays right where it is, and nothing else in the room has changed; it's just them, all this machinery, and a locked breaker box.]
[ it's fine, the bats have to make up for being non-meta by being extra as fuck. ]
Considering the way every thing in this place has worked so far? You're probably right. This, plus what Junpei and the others found... I think the question at this point is if we're looking into clones, mind control or possession.
[ anyway we are now the detective pikachu gif. GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE??? nightwing's gonna put that notebook in his pouches. "how does it fit" shut up utility belt powers activate, and then dick moves on to idk touch the machinery. beep boop. is there anything this can do. let them out. ]
I'm starting to think we might have to unplug everything. How do you feel about advanced darkness?
It sounds like a great way for either of us to get attacked.
[or grabbed by the cold and clammy badtouch again]
[... but, like, otherwise it's a rather small room and they don't have too many options. do they? he'll at least start messing with some of the wires to see if any are attached to something they can actually see. If they're going to start unplugging things, he'd rather know what they were trying to unplug.]
Clones or mind control seem most likely. Ghosts aren't real, after all.
[he says, flatly, as if a ghost didn't flirt with him day 0.]
[Well, most of the visible cables are attached to the closed breaker box. Hard to say what any of them are for-- there aren't visible labels here.
If they want to start unplugging things, they're definitely going to be working blindly and finding out the hard way just what they're for. Also they're going to have to find where these actually attach, since there aren't visible plugs-- the cables are kind of running through the machinery and the room.]
Really? Ghosts are where you draw the line in this place? [ polly is? right there? he seems to think that's real funny. anyway he throws a shrug at aizawa ] If we want to take out cables, we'd need to cut them. They're not plugged into anything visible.
[ and from his tone he'd rather. avoid. causing a power surge in the hotel just yet. it's been like, 4 days. well. these are two strong men in a room, so: ]
I've seen clones before, I've seen mind control before. There are certain "ghost" heroes, sure, but that's more that they can go through things or remotely move objects.
[so, yeah, like he'll steadfastly not believe in ghosts until horikoshi shows me a hero who legit has the power to talk to ghosts and therefore prove that ghosts are real in the my hero academia universe while exploring none of the lore implications of that]
... sure. Let's see if anything's hidden behind them.
[moving large things sounds better than debating the realness of ghosts]
You know what's not fake, though, how heavy these machines are. And how bolted into the walls they are. They can try, but they're about to have an interesting time with that.
Also, as soon as they start trying to move the machines, the door of the locked breaker box begins to rattle.]
Skepticism from a guy with superpowers. Now where have I seen that before?
[ from his dead best friend, so it's probably a good thing the breaker box starts rattling after their ABSOLUTELY useless efforts to move the machinery! wow. ]
... Think that one's a not-ghost?
[ since ghosts aren't real :) let's go see :) the non-haunted breaker box :) ]
Quirks are genetically provable and observable. Even if I can't use mine right now.
[HE'S AWARE THAT SOUNDS BAD, OKAY. THAT'S PART OF WHAT BOTHERS HIM SO MUCH ABOUT THIS.]
[anyways, about the breaker ghost]
And a rattling door doesn't mean a ghost exists. When you hear a noise alone in your house, do you assume it's ghost? There's probably a logical and rational explanation.
[... with that loaded statement, let's examine it.]
[Thank you for examining the super not haunted breaker box.
It looks perfectly normal! It is a breaker box with a keyhole built into the bottom. Its door is shut tight, and it remains locked; now that they're examining it, it doesn't rattle again.
Genetics, huh... We've been calling those meta-genes. [ this is just an interesting factoid. ] True, it could be some kind of mechanism built in to make it shake when we do something... [ since it stopped-- ] ooor it's a spooky scary ghost. Let's see what we can find.
[ welp. since it's stopped rattling. dick's gonna just touch the door and try to feel for the keyhole. maybe his stupid needle would fit in this one. he hasn't checked. ]
... It's commonly called the "quirk factor." It manifests in children at around four years old... but we don't have a solid way of predicting if it will manifest at all.
[What, is this urgent? He can give some exposition. Unless ghosts hate exposition.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fullthottle) wrote2019-10-07 07:22 pm
no subject
[They just then. dropped it. here. For no particular face-melty reasons, he's sure.]
[and with the yellowed pages... how long had it been there? longer than they'd been there, sure, but that was a low bar.]
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...Except on one page, where they will find the following text:]
DFKL IG QGGT FI DOU OX IDS SJSP TXGROXB OI UOBDI NS IDSKS. OI'P F KSUOXLSK: LGX'I IKAPI FXJGXS. PGKKJ UJ VKOSXL.
[The same page has "V = F" written on the upper right corner.]
no subject
[ fine now he has an ic reason to look at the blinking light bulb because if This has a code, is there another hidden fun one in this room!
is he gonna explain why he's suddenly doing that? no. ]
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[Aizawa squints, taking the notebook while Dick plays staring contest with the blinking light. Is there any hint in the blurred ink- not particularly words but any indicator if the entirety of the journal was written in the allcaps-code or if it, at one point, may have been an entirely normal journal?]
[is there anything interesting about the pages he can turn to before and after the cypher? is it at an "end" or somewhere in the middle?]
no subject
Dick's staring contest with the light bulb will turn up the following: It blinks quickly three times, slowly three times, and quickly three times.
A pause.
Three fast blinks, three slow blinks, three fast blinks.
Repeat.]
no subject
Ugh, I'm an idiot! SOS! Should've recognized it when we walked in.
[ yeah it's been like? twenty fucking minutes? nightwing, you fucking slacker. shame on you.
does he explain what he's talking about. still no? but he. will try something else, which is to say, he goes over to the panel w/o a switch and knocks on it-- it's morse code for the letter r because google told me that's what you do when you say you've received a message ]
no subject
[don't be so rough on yourself, buddy. Aizawa will work at gently trying to pry apart the stuck pages. The ones that are just water damage should be able to be finagled... unless it's not water.]
[Or magic. But Magic would be Illogical.]
A bit silly for us to reply when we're trapped ourselves.
[attempted page flip, attempted page flip]
no subject
As Aizawa goes through the book, he'll just find more of the same. It's all illegible, and in many places the inkstains don't even look like they used to be words; it's spread so much it's just dyeing a splotch into the page.]
no subject
[ dick is mentally working on solving the cipher and it's a lot harder without writing it down, but he's gonna go look under cables on the other side of the room first to see if there isn't a key somewhere. >:( where's the breaker key ]
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[yet]
[either way, he flips back to the page with the cipher]
Nothing identifiable. That makes it even stranger that there's one page where it's legible.
[he seems entirely unbothered by Dick taking over the job he technically half-assed. if he did find the key, maybe that would lead them to some feeling of success.]
We don't know who the owner of this notebook is... and I feel like we can't even be certain the person who owned it was the one who wrote the code.
no subject
All Dick will find under those cables is more floor and a little bit of dust, though. There's no key hiding here!]
no subject
[ yes, dick is blaming aesthetic for why everything is like that. supervillains just. make him accept that this is a thing that happens. sometimes. things are the way they are. for the Drama.
anyway, it's time to go back to the notebook so he can actually solve a cipher because he's a bat and he's puzzle obsessed. ]
V=F, so... [ he's pausing as he looks over aizawa's shoulder, clearly mentally solving it like a big boy instead of me, cheating, using a website ] Hard to look him in the eyes... knowing it might be there. [ hm. he frowns but continues: ] It's a reminder don't trust anyone... sorry my friend.
[ hm. ]
Well, that's cheery.
no subject
The message from earlier also said distrust would spread among us.
["knowing it might be there"... would it be there watching? or would it be there in the person itself?]
... maybe the rest of the writing was purposefully damaged. They don't want us to know too much.
[After all, if no one could be trusted, anything written normally was just evidence to be destroyed.]
no subject
But solving the cipher does not seem to be what's gonna get them out of here. The door stays right where it is, and nothing else in the room has changed; it's just them, all this machinery, and a locked breaker box.]
no subject
Considering the way every thing in this place has worked so far? You're probably right. This, plus what Junpei and the others found... I think the question at this point is if we're looking into clones, mind control or possession.
[ anyway we are now the detective pikachu gif. GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE??? nightwing's gonna put that notebook in his pouches. "how does it fit" shut up utility belt powers activate, and then dick moves on to idk touch the machinery. beep boop. is there anything this can do. let them out. ]
I'm starting to think we might have to unplug everything. How do you feel about advanced darkness?
[ it joke ]
no subject
[or grabbed by the cold and clammy badtouch again]
[... but, like, otherwise it's a rather small room and they don't have too many options. do they? he'll at least start messing with some of the wires to see if any are attached to something they can actually see. If they're going to start unplugging things, he'd rather know what they were trying to unplug.]
Clones or mind control seem most likely. Ghosts aren't real, after all.
[he says, flatly, as if a ghost didn't flirt with him day 0.]
no subject
If they want to start unplugging things, they're definitely going to be working blindly and finding out the hard way just what they're for. Also they're going to have to find where these actually attach, since there aren't visible plugs-- the cables are kind of running through the machinery and the room.]
no subject
Really? Ghosts are where you draw the line in this place? [ polly is? right there? he seems to think that's real funny. anyway he throws a shrug at aizawa ] If we want to take out cables, we'd need to cut them. They're not plugged into anything visible.
[ and from his tone he'd rather. avoid. causing a power surge in the hotel just yet. it's been like, 4 days. well. these are two strong men in a room, so: ]
But we could try moving the machines.
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[so, yeah, like he'll steadfastly not believe in ghosts until horikoshi shows me a hero who legit has the power to talk to ghosts and therefore prove that ghosts are real in the my hero academia universe while exploring none of the lore implications of that]
... sure. Let's see if anything's hidden behind them.
[moving large things sounds better than debating the realness of ghosts]
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You know what's not fake, though, how heavy these machines are. And how bolted into the walls they are. They can try, but they're about to have an interesting time with that.
Also, as soon as they start trying to move the machines, the door of the locked breaker box begins to rattle.]
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[ from his dead best friend, so it's probably a good thing the breaker box starts rattling after their ABSOLUTELY useless efforts to move the machinery! wow. ]
... Think that one's a not-ghost?
[ since ghosts aren't real :) let's go see :) the non-haunted breaker box :) ]
no subject
[HE'S AWARE THAT SOUNDS BAD, OKAY. THAT'S PART OF WHAT BOTHERS HIM SO MUCH ABOUT THIS.]
[anyways, about the breaker ghost]
And a rattling door doesn't mean a ghost exists. When you hear a noise alone in your house, do you assume it's ghost? There's probably a logical and rational explanation.
[... with that loaded statement, let's examine it.]
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It looks perfectly normal! It is a breaker box with a keyhole built into the bottom. Its door is shut tight, and it remains locked; now that they're examining it, it doesn't rattle again.
What do they do.]
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[ welp. since it's stopped rattling. dick's gonna just touch the door and try to feel for the keyhole. maybe his stupid needle would fit in this one. he hasn't checked. ]
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[innuendo ahoy]
... It's commonly called the "quirk factor." It manifests in children at around four years old... but we don't have a solid way of predicting if it will manifest at all.
[What, is this urgent? He can give some exposition. Unless ghosts hate exposition.]
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