(TKTM) Some Things Don't Belong Online

[Star]

There was a tense moment waiting for the other shoe to drop, when Nous mentioned 'methods'. Guardians tended to hear that. Or maybe just be sensitive. He was glad that they didn't end up going there. When she continued, and looked at him, he almost turned around to see if someone else had showed up. That looking and name usage? Stop that. It works.

He pondered her question as Autolycus joined the conversation, using the opportunity to finish off the Gatorade. It had gone fast. If he jumped up and down, he could probably make sloshing noises. This meeting would have to go fast, too, or he'd have to do the considerably un-dignified thing of excusing himself to go to the boy's room.

The latte cup lifted to answer Autolycus.

"I can, I think, depends on the thing," he started. "I was, ummm, I..."

A slightly puzzled cast come over his features, and he looked at the others as the man became engrossed in his phone. OK. That was a little weird. Maybe it wasn't a question? Just... thinking out loud?

"Sooooo, yeah, I was thinking maybe we could post, too? Like a media outlet? Request an interview. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame, right? Get a sit down. Give them a chance to come to us, instead of chasing them. It would work on the eyewitnesses. The question is whether or not the troll would let it go. Trolls usually need fuel, though."

Usually. Hecklers at magic shows could go on for hours. He knew.

A speculative look was directed at the others, seeing what they thought.

[Zodiac]

Mandy sat quietly as she listened to the gathering, after a moment tilting her head. "Or, just an idea, we could simply track their IP addresses? That narrows down their area a fair bit. From that you can simply do a few work arounds to shut them down. If we go about feeding the troll," which was never a good idea, and she knew that well enough, "it'll simply bring more attention to the events, and possibly convince them of some sort of legitimacy. More attention, more views, more questions, more people looking into it... none of those are things we want happening if we're going to shut this down."

Fiddling with the ends of her hair thoughtfully, she shook her head. "If you want to lure them to meet or something like that, pose as a computer tech. Plant something, gain access. You can watch where they're at, what they're doing, what sorts of files are going through their computer, what sorts of things they're attaching to..."

She needed a computer for some of this, but it wasn't as though any of these things were impossible. If either of the commenters had further information stored somewhere, that was the thing to target. That was how they would be able to track things back. Or... get an Acanthus to post-cog that scene. Faces. Follow them back to wherever they went. Damn Eclipse for being so far back East right now.

[Jhet]

"However we find them doesn't matter to me. I can google stuff, but looking up IP addresses is outside my expertise." She ponders how to sort out this mess. Once they find the witnesses it's much easier for her. She can talk to them, draw them in, get names, and with various tactics to get them to spill the information. She can't do the computer stuff to get to that point though, so she'll have to support them with any resources she can provide.

"You know, I can fabricate an interview set if we want to go that route to lure them in. I have access to a stage, cameras, everything we would need." She does. They will need to use it after hours, but one of the benefits of being one of the bosses is having keys to the sound stage. "Unless you were thinking just about doing a newspaper interview instead. Either one works."

[Star]

"Or?"

Winning smile at Mandy. Well, what passed for winning. It never seemed to get him much.

"That's a great idea. Why not just, do everything? All the ideas. We don't need to just pick one, right? Accuracy by volume and all that? Try the interview bait and the IP address thing?"

He grew a little more animated, gesturing with the drinks in each hand, dipping one at Nous. Maybe his oxygen-starved legs were finally letting his brain breathe.

"And, yeeeeaaaaah. What if we, like, made them sign non-disclosure agreements? Or whatever? Like if they wanted to do the interview some sort of exclusivity thing where they couldn't talk --or post-- about it elsewhere? Toss in the threat of a hefty fine and civil lawsuit, blah blah blah."

Curious looks were spread around. They were ideas. He surely wasn't trying to tell anyone what to do, because that just wasn't his thing. Just wanted to see if there were any objections.

And, hopefully Mandy knew how to do that IP thing. He sure didn't.

Besides, his hands were full.

[Snarlequin]

Auto was listening! He really was. He was just kind of engrossed in putting a picture together of the two witnesses based on their posts in a forum full of crazy people.

What fun.

When he realizes that people aren't talking and haven't been for a moment, he looks up and blinks a little. The posts weren't going anywhere. "The only ones online right now are the pillbot and Decimal. I'm not real techy, so I guess the IP thing might work?" It's said as a question, because he wasn't really techy. "I'll be honest, if part of the plan for sealing this breach involves breaking into their places and just taking any evidence they might have, I'm good at that. If we're going to deceive them and pretend to be like... Ghost Hunters or something who's doing a story?" He shrugs. "I can back whoever takes charge up, but I'm not going to be able to trick him on my own."

Before looking back to his phone, he adds one more thing. "You people are the experts when it comes to Veil maintenance, I'm good with supporting you."

[Zodiac]

Granting Cut a sidelong look, Mandy sighed heavily and shook her head. All the ideas, huh? That wouldn't be suspicious at all, but she was hardly going to stop him. She generally was better at handling things on her own than in groups, and this situation was just reminding her more pointedly of that fact.

What she needed to do was sit herself down at a computer to see what kind of things the website had going on - was tracking the IPs plausible? If she could track that, what about getting into the computer itself? That was likely beyond her reach at the moment, but...

Thoughts rang through her head leaving her quiet as she looked to the group thoughtfully. "Anyone with a laptop on hand?" she asked. Otherwise she'd have to do this from home... Fancy ass rich kids with their laptops. Archaeology was a thankless job.

[Star]

"I'm kinda with her," he pointed the latte at Nous. "I don't really know anything about IP addresses except that computers and phones have them?"

He gave Nous a small smile and shrug. He was glad he wasn't the only one.

The Gatorade was directed at Mandy and Autolycus, "So I'll definitely defer to you two about the, ummm, feasibility of that angle." Which was really self explanatory regarding the likelihood of him owning a computer or a laptop. All the mails and surfings on the phone.

Leaning towards Mandy, he lowered his voice slightly and gave her a curious look.

"Also, I don't really know what that look meant? The one with the sigh and head shake? Was that a head shake like a 'no, don't do that', or like a 'that's dumb but I'm not stopping you'?"

Might as well just ask instead of guessing, right?

[Jhet]

"I don't have a computer on me. I'm not sure where I would hide it. If we were to go and find one would any of you be able to actually track this IP thing or are we just spinning our wheels here on an idea that we're not going to be able to follow through with?"

She isn't even carrying a bag, and a computer doesn't exactly fit inside a small jacket pocket. She wishes she could just get these two guys into a room and talk to them. The anonymity of the internet doesn't fit with her world view, much less her philosophy of magic in and of the world.

"Perhaps if we can't find the IP we just ask them to meet for that interview. We can use the studio to set it up, and it should be enough to get them there. Beside, we're looking for the guy behind it, does it make much sense to waste a lot of time on finding out who they are while the person we really need to find is slipping away?"

It dawns on her that they aren't even looking for the right person. They need the guy shooting lightning, not the guys witnessing it. They could rope the two into a conspiracy deep enough that the lightning can be easily forgotten in lieu of symbols and ideas that can blow their minds. She wonders if there's anything even set up in the city to stash the true believers into so they shut up about what they saw.

"I know we're just getting started, but I feel like we need to buckle down and set a plan. So what direction are we actually moving in? Are we going to go after the witnesses or are we going to solve the breach properly and go after the guy who's shooting first in public and second in front of sleepers?"