driftfleet | video + text + action

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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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. ]

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.

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.

At least that means I should only try going in one direction. I guess I've been overthinking it.

[ she bites her lip, narrow her eyes and just looks for one long, silent moment. ]

I think my brother might have gotten it by now. He likes puzzles, games. I mean, weird games but still.

[ she never got the hang of dungeons and dragons. ]

It's easier than you think it is. I promise. [ ... ] It's called a Caesar shift. Shall I give you a hint?

No, I'll figure it out.

[ she's rather stubborn about this one now. ]

We studied about it in history class. Not the codes, that might have been more interesting but the purpose.

Codes have all sorts of purposes. [ idle curiousity. ] Which ones did you study?

Just that he'd use it to send messages to his generals so if the message get caught, no one could figure it out. He always used the same number, though. Three. It was in my notes for the exam. I've never really seen one of the codes, though, until now.

Precisely. [ there's a curl of admiration in her voice. delight, even. ] Although this is a touch more than a three-shift.

Yeah, I figured it would have probably been too easy.

[ she puts away her chemistry book and just looks, tries to run by different words and letters in her mind. ]

Thanks, by the way. It was - getting sort of boring here.

[ in a creepy sort of way. ]

That happens on the Marsiva. Give it a few days -- you'll get an assignment on one of the fleet's ships and things will feel a little freer.

Yeah, I heard the theme music isn't really a thing out there.

[ she looks up, listens to the repetitive, cheery tune and shakes her head. ]

It's like being stuck in an elevator for days.

Much quieter, yes. [ ... ] While also boasting more noise. A bit of a paradox, really.

Different kind of noise.

[ she imagines. she looks like she's about to say something else but she goes quiet, tilts her head, stares at the wall and her blue marker for a moment and then another. ]

I feel like I've read that somewhere but I can't put my finger on it.

Sussed it out, have you? Good show. [ peggy smiles. ] As for the source, I suppose it rather depends on how far away you are from its origin. You sound American, for one. And it often makes a difference what year a person is from.

Indiana. 1983 and I aced British History.

[ two years ago. she makes a face. ]

Why. What year is it from?

[ '83! now, that's curious. ]

I think it was in nineteen-twenty-five. Thereabouts. Long enough ago to pass into popular parlance.

Nineteen-twenty-five? Right.

[ she makes a face, mulling it over. Somewhere back home in her room she might still have flashcards about those years with dates and numbers and random facts that now pop into her head one after the other. ]

George V was on the throne and the prime minister was Stanley Baldwin. I know all of them. I don't think any of them actually said that, though.

The speaker in question is a prime minister, in fact. Just not in '25.

[ not yet. ]

I wish I had my other history textbook with me.

[ she fishes one from her bag and looks through the table of content. ]

This one is just American history.

-- Actually, I wouldn't mind having a look at that. Once you're off the Marsiva, of course.

My history book?

[ a blink and a nod ]

Sure. I have my notes here, too. I have a paper due next Monday but that doesn't really matter here anymore.

Much obliged. [ she's heard a little too much hearsay, to be honest. ] I'm told I've got a great deal to catch up on.

Oh. Well - my notebook has a lot. I don't throw away notes since sometimes I still use them for papers so.

[ she tilts her head just a bit. ]

So is it 1925? When you're from?

'47, actually. [ think about your prime ministers a little bit more, darling nancy. there's one in there with a distinctive career. ]

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