video + text + action

[mucked]

Who: Agent Carter + YOU
Broadcast: Fleetwide.
Action: Aboard the Starstruck or the Iskaulit.
When: Today!

[ not too long ago, peggy pitched the fleet a diversionary puzzle. with all this talk of encryption and subterfuge, she's reminded how the puzzles were meant to be part of a series (of sorts) and so she gets out her notepad and pencils. after a few scrapped ideas (too long or too advanced or too dull), she settles on a code that's only a half-step up from her last one. ]

Last time we talked ciphers, we did a simple substitution. [ peggy addresses the network directly, and with little else in the way of a greeting. ] This time 'round, I've got something only a teensy bit tougher. Frankly, it can be just as handily brute forced as the other one -- but I'm more interested to know if anyone can figure out the math behind this one. Brute force only brings you so far in this hobby and I'm already working on something for next month that will require a lighter touch.

Extra credit, as ever, to those who can identify the source. Or express the cipher in modular arithmetic. And apologies for those in the Fleet who cannot speak English. Despite our augments, code seems to defy translation.

FA UYBDAHQ UE FA OTMZSQ, EA FA NQ BQDRQOF UE FA TMHQ OTMZSQP ARFQZ.

[ she'll field questions and answers for a little while from aboard the starstruck, but then it's off to the iskaulit where she passes an hour in the library -- in search of new source material, perhaps. for those players whose characters should be able to decode it but who don't want to try decoding it themselves, here is the quotation. ]

Comments

video »

[perfecting]

[ it's almost like being in class again, though it seems that she's several classes behind. Hawkins has suffocated Nancy and the urge to break free out of being the small-town girl who will one day be a small-town wife was always there but she did like school. One doesn't score a flawless GPA without a certain passion as well as self-discipline. She liked holidays and summer vacations as much as the next person but this, here, was hardly spring break.

She has her school bag but her chemistry books aren't going to be of much help with this one, this one's all logic. she looks at her notebooks, mostly full and reaches into her bag in search of a marker.

Well, if they're going to keep her here all week.

Pushing aside cots and tables, she starts copying the whole thing - trying not to remember the letters on Jonathan's living room wall. Once it's done, she steps back, observes it and takes a seat.

She seats there for a good 45 minutes, mentally crossing and uncrossing options, balancing both elbows on her chemistry book before she realizes what she's doing wrong and it's so annoying and she has to tell somebody and without anyone but the robots which she stubbornly avoids, she turns on her communicator, the parallel of raising her hand in class. ]

I think I know what I'm doing wrong.

[ besides messing up the hospitality deck, that is. She managed to clear most of the debris out of the way, but there are the letters in blue marker on the wall. ]

video »

[mucked]

[ it's been more than a year, but she still recognizes the marsiva's interior. peggy hums a kind of greeting. ]

And what's that?

[ she's helpful. but not that helpful. ]

video »

[perfecting]

Just -

[ she points to the wall and shakes her head. ]

I just assumed the first word was 'no' and I tried everything, going forwards and backwards on the alphabet and trying to see if the sum of the first two numbers would maybe be the number I need to figure out the next letter and now I realize it could be any other word with two letters and I've just been trying to maybe force it to be something it's not.

video »

[mucked]

The first word isn't no. But your instincts aren't misplaced -- sliding down the alphabet is a part of it. The question is how far one should slide.

action.

[theroadwarrior]

[Max had been in one of his routine moods; that is, she probably hasn't heard from him in a few days, even if she's seen him in passing. It's not anything anyone did, isn't some dramatic event to terrorize him aboard the fleet, isn't a terrible memory that was forced suddenly and unexpectedly back into his head — sometimes he looks at her or the others and keeps looking right through them, and that's him for a few days, moving from moment to moment quiet and suspicious of the world.

But it's typical, and it's normal, and it's a Max thing, and when he is of sounder mind he wanders into the Starstruck a bit brighter in the eyes, returning from floating in space in his shuttle for the sake of the silence. It reminds him of the empty desert, albeit the wind doesn't howl anywhere but in his own head. He looks at her and quirks his eyebrow at her and talks to her.]

Hmm.

Boring puzzle nerd.

[Yeah, a few days of sudden silence, and that's his words upon return.]

action.

[mucked]

[ she sits in the captain's chair, on the bridge, and doesn't set aside her communicator even as max stalks through -- but she does raise her eyes and, upon assessing how present he happens to be, she gives him a nod in greeting. ]

Maybe. [ probably. ] But boring has its utility.

[ she leans on one of the chair's arms. ] Nice to see you too, by the way.

action.

[theroadwarrior]

[He hums thoughtfully.]

... We didn't have a use for puzzles.

Unless you count making things explode out of nothing a type of puzzle.

[You got to give insane wastelanders credit for making bombs out of tuna cans and rusty nails. He gives a mild pause at the last bit, though, itching his arm perhaps a bit self-consciously.]

Just some loud thoughts.

[As if he needed to explain to her, but he feels like he should anyway.]

action.

[mucked]

Sometimes, puzzles are a means to an end. [ explanation unneeded, of course, but she appreciates that he tries to give her one. to show her gratitude, she decides not to make a fuss about it. ] Having people solve puzzles was one of the ways my first employers would handle recruitment.

video

[experiencepoints]

[After where she's been, the cipher doesn't take long at all.]

Using Earth's alphabet, you take each letter in the cipher, and count fourteen down in alphabetical order, wrapping around when you reach the end. Is that it?

video

[mucked]

[ it's not a fourteen character shift, but she's certainly in the ballpark. ]

Actually, English is only one of many alphabets on Earth.

video

[experiencepoints]

Huh- Oh, right. There's, uh, 'Japanese', too, right? Those are the only ones I've ever heard.

video

[mucked]

Greek, Arabic, Cyrillic. The list goes on, really.

video;

[collegedropout]

Big fan of Winston Churchill, huh?

video;

[mucked]

I would be, maybe, if he still didn't owe me thirty quid in poker winnings.

[ is she serious? she might be serious. but good job, sam. she's glad someone knows the source. ]

video;

[collegedropout]

[He raises his eyebrows.]

Yeah?

[Because at this point, Sam'll believe anything. That downright makes sense to him, you're from the right time, okay.

Jokingly:]

What a bastard.

video;

[mucked]

Oh, you have no idea.

[ the special operations executive had, of course, been churchill's baby. of sorts. it isn't surprising their paths crossed once she was out of bletchley. ]

But good on you, Sam. I wasn't certain about how much longevity the man's words might have had.

video

[outstandingbalance]

Is that patriotism I smell there, Carter?

[The message opens dryly teasing, amused and just a touch sardonic.]

video

[mucked]

Hardly. [ she's not unpatriotic, though. ] I'm certain there are more legitimately jingoistic quotations I could have went with.

video

[outstandingbalance]

I wouldn't say patriotism is entirely limited to saber rattling and manifest destiny.

text

[expellerhead]

Bringing up the next generation of cryptanalysts?

text

[mucked]

Hardly. Only trying to stave off the inevitable descent towards knitting.

[ rather, he hit the nail a little too sharply on its head. peggy is interested in sparking interest in the skill, but she's not about to admit it over the atroma's own network. ]

text

[expellerhead]

There are worse hobbies than knitting.

I'd take a crack at it, but my English isn't THAT good.

Video

[english_dignity]

Churchhill? Decent at chess, but I never could stand his cigars.

[Sleaves rolled up while he scrubs something just out of view of the camera in the kitchen. Please ignore the signs of a minor absolutely horrendous kitchen mishap in the background.]

Video

[mucked]

[ they stank, certainly. worse than dugan's. but peggy isn't about to disclose her personal dealings with churchill so easily. ]

-- Did you decode it while doing the dishes? [ she's not impressed. more miffed, perhaps. ]

Video

[english_dignity]

[Coughs, maybe catching a bit of that mood.]

Cooking, actually. Though working on a puzzle during it might not have been the best idea...