Voice of Awesomeness |
Luckily, it took a couple of hours to be booked, and for you to be 'rescued' so it's it past time for you to have been back from school.
As you walk inside, your grandfather calls out to you "Jason, you're home late! Did you run across your brother?". Looking at your cellphone, you see it's 3:30, an hour past when you're normally home.
Jason Warren |
Having expected a lecture, Jason stairs at his grandfather in shock for just a moment, before he quickly shakes his head. "No. I've been keeping an eye out for him, but I didn't see him at school or anywhere else that I looked." He neglects to mention the run-in with the police.
Jason Warren |
Jason steps over to hug his grandfather, perhaps surprisingly, but says, "I won't. I'll just be upstairs."
He heads up the stairs, and sits down in front of his computer.
He begins to work. Typing. Running his probability algorithms (aka divination) to try to figure out at least a hint of what his brother might be up to.
Voice of Awesomeness |
You run your program, which takes some time, but finally gives you a possible answer. Based on his past actions, the fact that the abandoned house is under police surveillance, and eliminating school and your house, it would seem the most likely course for Michael to take is to locate another hangout spot.
Where, you're not certain, but it's better than nothing.
Jason Warren |
Jason blinks, and throws his hands in the air, "I figured that much out!" He sighs, but moves to close down the computer. I guess that means I don't have enough data to predict.
Picking up his bag with what homework he did get before being arrested, he opens it up and begins to work, though keeping an ear out for his brother's return.
Jason Warren |
Jason looks up, blinking again as his eyes adjust to the bright screen. Then, he grins, pulling open his phone to pin the location on his maps. "Brilliant! Sorry that I doubted you," he says to the computer as if it was a real person.
A skate park, that makes total sense. Way more sense than I was worried about. I'll check it out tomorrow.
Jason Warren |
Jason isn't exactly a social kid, and making conversation isn't his strong suit. So, he's mostly quiet during dinner, though he keeps up small talk with his grandparents.
After a while, when the worrying starts to get to him as well, he says, "I can go looking for him?"
Voice of Awesomeness |
His grandfather shakes his head "It's a little late to be going out willy nilly looking for your brother in god knows where. Plus, it's a school night. We just have to hope he's alright. I have some of my police buddies keepin an eye out for him. They'll let me know if they find him."
Jason Warren |
Jason frowns a bit, but nods, looking back down to what remains of his food. That means I can't go looking for him. Those friends will probably see me first. I do not want to get in trouble with the police again. I might not get rescued this time.
Of course, that leads to another quandary. Should I tell him where they should look? But, if these guys are trouble, what if they start shooting or something? But, if I don't say anything, what if Michael gets hurt tonight?
No. I have to do something tonight, but myself. But, that doesn't mean I have to leave home.
Finishing his meal, he says, "I got all my homework done, so I'm going to play some Bridge Crew. Yell if you hear anything, or he comes back?"
He heads upstairs, locks his door, and puts on his VR gear. But, despite what he said, he doesn't load up the Star Trek videogame. Instead, he dives deeper into the web. Into the part of the Internet that his friends taught him about, the part that went so deep it made the 'deep web' look shallow. The Digital Web.
He was still new to it. The more advanced members of his hacking group could do things in this virtual world that amazed him. Anybody who knew about the Digital Web would have been far too secure for a novice like Jason to hack, but those who didn't were basically an open book from that place. The virtual interface made hacking a normal computer a breeze. And only those who knew about it could trace such a hack. (At least, that was what they told him.)
First stop: the phone company. Trying to slip his avatar past the digital defences, he tries to get into his grandfather's call records. To find out which friends his grandfather called.
Int + Computers if needed: 8d10 ⇒ (10, 9, 8, 8, 2, 3, 7, 9) = 56
Reroll 10: 1d10 ⇒ 6
Jason Warren |
Bringing up the list of phone calls, and cross-referencing identities, Jason figures out which cops his grandfather had called.
Closing out that connection, he speeds through the virtual world again, heading to the computer network that connects the patrol cars to the precincts and the NYPD as a whole. With scale, he slips in to those computers as well.
Once inside, he pulls up a virtual screen in front of him, displaying the location of patrol cars on a city map. Then, he dims the dots of all the cars except for the ones that his father is been in contact with. (He'll still be able to see them, if any get near that skating park, but keeping his focus on his father's friends.)
While he's in that system, as well, and waiting to get a sense of where the cars are going, he runs the plate he saw on the car that picked up Michael that morning.
Voice of Awesomeness |
The plates come back as belonging to one Sam Turner, who has several misdemeanor charges, including simple assault, and possession of weed. Nothing major, but at least mildly alarming.
An hour goes by before you get a ping back about one of the patrol cars, in the area around the skate park. It's not responding to anything, merely there on it's normal route.
Jason Warren |
Jason had other ideas on how to find out the status of his brother, but he decided to follow this lead first. His brother might never forgive him if he somehow found out Jason did what he was thinking.
So, instead, he waits. As soon as he sees that car approaching the skate park, he sends his avatar further into the system. Trying to find that car's digital dash cam.
Voice of Awesomeness |
It takes you a good five minutes to access the cam, but eventually you're able to. The connection is kinda shoddy, but you're able to 'see' well enough.
The officer is just driving around, making sure there's nothing going on that requires his attention. Nothing exciting happens, but at one point he does drive past the skate park, and you're pretty sure you catch a glimpse of your brother. He's hanging out with several other kids around the same age, and seems to be having fun.
Jason Warren |
Jason lets out a sigh of relief at the rather normal sight of his brother. He retreats from the system, and then from the Digital Web as a whole.
I can't really blame him for wanting to get away from everything.
He pulls off his VR gear, setting it aside, though he doesn't turn his system off yet. His next step would be spying on his brother, and he isn't quite ready for that yet. Not when it looks like his brother is being a normal teenager. More normal than himself.
However, he does pull out his phone to try to call his brother.
Jason Warren |
"Things are getting kind of tense around here, and I'm feeling kind of all by myself in the middle here. Any chance you're coming home soon? Some weird stuff happened to me today…" He trails off, leaving it at that.
He's hoping his brother will come home for his sake, but it isn't intentional manipulation. He truly does feel he needs to talk things out with his brother.
Jason Warren |
"Okay, I will. Even if it will get me yelled at." He sighs, but then says, "See you later."
The conversation wasn't as reassuring as he hoped. His message for their grandparents brought back the worries that the rest of the conversation had mostly shed. He doesn't, immediately, do as his brother asked. Instead, once the conversation is over, he returns to his VR gear.
Digging back into the Digital Web, he aims for a new target. His brother's phone. Digging in, if he can, past the surface layer of the operating system, to the internal workings. Looking for the command to turn on the microphone without leaving a trace in any of the apps.
Intelligence + Computers: 8d10 ⇒ (1, 6, 7, 7, 7, 5, 3, 4) = 40
Voice of Awesomeness |
You successfully turn the mic on, but it's tenuous and won't last more than a few minutes. At first, you don't hear anything, but soon you hear Michael talking to a girl.
"-My brother checking up on me. We're best friends, but he's been a little distant lately. He's coping in his own way, which is why I'm glad I have you guys."
"That's cool, he sounds pretty chill. Mack says we're heading out in a few minutes, so we better get back inside."
And that's all you get before the connection drops.
Jason Warren |
And suddenly, everything makes sense.
Shutting down his VR gear, he picks up his phone again and starts downstairs.
"I just talked to Michael on the phone, I couldn't talk him into coming home on time. He said he loved you both but not to wait up. Sorry."
Jason Warren |
Jason grins at that, and says, "I guess not. Okay, have a good night."
Heading back up to his room, Jason picks up his phone again and sits on his bed, laying back as he starts to do an online translation of the journal pictures he took in the house. (As always, he uses a VPN.)
Voice of Awesomeness |
The first page is nothing special, just talking about some boot camp stuff. Second page discusses the author's first day of combat training, and the third is about deployment.
The last three are unpleasant, to say the least. The author's unit got blown apart by landmines and an ambush. Many died right away, the author survived, but was severely maimed. Somehow he was lucky enough to not loose any limbs. However, he was near death's door. The last page is basically him saying goodbye to his family.
Jason Warren |
"Woah... No wonder it was in that little shrine." Jason shuts down the app, laying back on his bed as he thinks.
I know Michael is safe, but everything else? All I've got is more questions. None of this is making sense. There is something I'm missing. Like, who was that woman? Who lived in that little safe room? Why was dad going to the house that night?
Sitting back up, he moves to his computer again but doesn't put his VR gear back on. He is, after all, listening for Michael to return, even if he doesn't expect it for a while. Instead, he accesses public property records. This time, he isn't hacking, just doing research the old-fashioned way. Looking for every public record he can find about that property.
Intelligence + Investigation: 6d10 ⇒ (4, 5, 3, 10, 5, 5) = 32
Reroll 10: 1d10 ⇒ 9
Voice of Awesomeness |
There's not much to find, it used to belong to a semi wealthy family, but the last member died about fifteen years ago. There seems to be an account set up to occasionally provide maintenance, but only if the house is in danger of collapse, or is hazardous to others. Which is odd, but not that weird. The last such repairs were about a year and a half ago.
Jason Warren |
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Jason sighs, Well, that was kind of pointless.
He checks the time, and then opens his computer and, activating his various security precautions, logs on the chat room with the Virtual Adepts.
"Wht a weird day! checked out where my dad died last night. (Yes, i no i was stupid.) Creepy! No way a gang lived there. Looked more like a bunch of regular kids. So who killed ma dad? Weird room in da basement, 2. Police came and got me in da mornin. Thought i was toast, but some woman comes up and tells them 2 let me go. And they do! No questions asked!"
Chatspeak courtesy of Chat Speak Translator
Jason Warren |
"Maybe we need to be rescued more often? No idea. At least, whoever she is, she seems to be a friend. ... But I still want to know. But finding out why my dad died is more important right now. Not that I'm any closer to that either."
Jason continues to keep an ear out for his brother as he chats.
Jason Warren |
"Yeah, but I don't know" Jason pauses, midsentence, as inspiration strikes. "nevermind, yes I do! It might take me a while, so I better start! Thanks!"
Hopping to his feet, he moves to the plastic bin he keeps at the end of his bed. He opens it, and starts digging through small plastic cases of electronic parts, Arduino/Raspberry Pi boards, and specifically an old remote control toy quadcopter.
It's time to start building myself a drone!
My idea is Jason will jury rig the remote control quadcopter with a micro (maybe cell phone) camera, a light, and controls he can access through the Digital Web. With a specific goal, if he can, of ending up with something smaller than 6 inches to fit down that hole. :-) Not sure how you want me to roll that.