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mrshomersimpson
Entrenched


Joined: 10 Jun 2012
Posts: 998
Location: scotland

 		The searchers
Was followed on twitter by https://twitter.com/alexa_kircher

The website:

http://www.thesearchbegins.com/home.html

seems really interesting! It's eposodic and the first ARG to grab my attention since TBW.

There is one episode on the website so far which is a really good read.At the end of the first episode there is a link to a blog which can be found here:

https://streeturchinrainflower.wordpress.com/


I sent off an email to see about becoming a searcher.

<3
_________________
Has the unique "jumping in with 2 feet first and asking all the random awkward questions everyone's thinking but not asking so i do" policy......

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. So said by the idiot who can't understand it."

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 11:18 am
Last edited by mrshomersimpson on Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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zerovin
Decorated

Joined: 23 Sep 2012
Posts: 162
Location: Australia

 		I was followed too, just got done reading all the stuff, and it looks pretty interesting. i'm going to send something off as well and see where this leads.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 12:00 pm
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morbus
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Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		Looks good so far. I tend to "archive" and "walkthrough" games as much as I can. For this one, though, annoyingly, the primary site (thesearchbegins.com) is constructed in such a way as to prevent full-page screenshots (or even "Save as PDF" prints). So, here's the Episode 1 transcription:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
EPISODE ONE

I look nothing like my mother, which she says is a good thing. Despite this we are identical, which is pretty unusual when you consider that I was adopted.

I always knew I was adopted. My parents figured it would be easier to keep it out in the open rather than face some big reveal later on. They also wanted me to be prepared to accept that I was different, in more ways than one.

When I was eleven-years-old I had my first vision. My mother had been warned that it might happen sometime between ages nine and twelve. You might wonder who would warn her of such a thing. It was a Romanian gypsy, passing by the orphanage where my mother adopted me. Unlike the adoption itself, my parents kept this a secret from me. I didn't know what was happening when I had the vision, and it took me another two years before I told anyone.

One night I lay in bed when I heard a clipped voice from the corner of my room. It said, "Your name is not Alexa." The voice was so clear and hard and present that it knocked me flat against my pillow. I pulled the sheet over my head and lay perfectly still, not breathing, quietly trembling.

"Do not be afraid. I won't hurt you."

I pulled the sheet down to uncover one eye. In the corner of my room sat an older woman. She was probably in her sixties, but was still very beautiful, despite deeply lined skin and hair that was threaded through with gray.

"It is almost time, Alexa."

"Almost time for what?" I whispered. I hoped she would go away.

"To go through the door." She then stood up and walked through the doorway that led from my bedroom to the hallway. Since the hall light was on, the doorway was lit bright yellow, and the woman briefly become a silhouette before she disappeared.

----

The day I may or may not have had my second vision was one of the coldest days of the year. Of course, I was reading Hamlet at the time, so I had ghosts and visions and insanity on my mind.

I had just left my European history class and was a bit dazed from a combination of artificial lighting and a stimulating lecture as I emerged from the yellow warmth of the lecture hall into the chill blue of a winter afternoon. Darkness was closing fast, and I could tell from the heaviness of the clouds and the scuttling wind that it was about to snow. I hurried to my dorm room, a tiny single in the honor hall that I loved. I turned on my desk lamp, plugged in my kettle, and rummaged around for a tea bag. With my cup of tea steeping I arranged my notes from class on my desk and looked out the window.

That's when I saw her. A girl stood outside in the quad wearing a sheer white dress, more of a slip really, and she was barefoot. The snow was beginning to come down now, in lazy flakes, but as I watched her she showed no signs of taking shelter.

I decided that I was having a vision, this girl was a ghost, or one or both of us were crazy. My curiosity was piqued. I threw on my coat and headed outside.

I love the hush that falls over everything when it snows. The campus was completely silent and the afternoon light fading fast as the mountain turned from gold to purple to gray. I crunched and squeaked across the snowy quad until I reached the girl, who was standing and looking up at the sky with her tongue sticking out. Snowflakes dotted her hair and fell softly onto her dress.

"Aren't you cold?" My voice cut through the silence, and seemed louder than I intended.

The girl did not seem startled or surprised by my presence or my question. It was almost as if I had been there next to her all along. She held her pose for a moment longer, then slowly lowered her gaze until her eyes were level with mine. She smiled warmly. It was then that I noticed the camera around her neck, and the bulky camera bag at her feet. Maybe she wasn't a ghost or a vision after all.

"I don't get cold," she said. "Not really anyway. Maybe a bit, but I'm heading back inside in a minute."

"Do you live in the dorms?" I asked, gesturing to the building.

"I live in your dorm. I've seen you coming and going. It's Alexa, right?"

For some reason I found the fact that she knew my name to be more than a little disturbing.

I nodded.

She held out her hand. "I'm Dani."

I took her hand and found it to be quite cold. Not clammy, but chill and dry.

"Are you a photography major?" I asked.

"How did you know?"

I shrugged. "Lucky guess. What kind of camera do you use? My father loves his Leica but I prefer my little Pentax. Do you roll your own film?" That should be all the introduction we needed.

Dani looked at me strangely, then said, "I wish I could afford a Leica. I have lab on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We do everything, fix chemicals, roll film, make contact sheets, you name it. Phineas says every good photographer should be able to do it all."

"Who is Phineas?"

"My teacher," she hesitated, then smiled and shrugged, "Well, I'm going inside. I have homework but maybe you can come by my room for tea sometime."

"Sure," I said, and then I started heading back to the dorm after her but thought better of it and instead trudged over to the union to buy a hamburger and a Coke. As I walked I realized I hadn't found out Dani's last name. I planned to ask around about her as soon as I got back to the dorm. I wanted to reassure myself as soon as possible that I wasn't having a vision.

When I finally admitted to my mother that I'd had a vision as a child, she gave me a strange and puzzling letter. She admitted that she'd never looked at it, and when I unsealed the envelope and read it, the letter made little sense to me. I held onto it, hoping that one day I would discover its meaning.

----

Later that evening my best friend Gina found me in the student union scraping ketchup off the hamburger wrapper with the last of my cold french fries. She plopped down across from me and took a sip of my Coke. Then she grinned and said, "Dru and I are heading over to the library. Wanna join us?"

I've known Gina since high school. We were friends back then, but not best friends, not until we wound up across the hall from each other in the dorms and started staying up way too late talking every night. Dru grew up in Denver, but he and Gina are very close and Gina is always trying to find him a boyfriend. The three of us became inseparable very quickly.

I said yes, gathered up and threw away my trash, and grabbed my backpack. It was still snowing when we left the union, and it looked like it was shaping up to be a pretty big storm. I was glad none of us had to drive.

We found Dru waiting for us in the front lobby of the library, and once we were settled in at a table in the back corner of the third floor, a place we always went for privacy, I told them about Dani.

Gina shrugged. "I'm sure she's real. There are plenty of crazy people in college." She unwrapped a piece of gum and shoved it into her mouth. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Did you talk to her?" Dru asked, pulling out his computer science textbook and opening his laptop.

"Yes, she seemed completely normal; I asked her about school and she says she lives in my dorm and is a photography major."

"Well, there you go!" said Gina. "Go ask around in the photography department."

I decided I would check out the photography department after the weekend and the three of us settled in for a long night of studying as the snow swirled down and settled over the campus like a blanket.

----

That night I dreamed that Dani asked me to lunch at Zen Morrow.

"But that's in LA!"

"Who cares, this is a dream, right?"

I shrugged and then we were standing in front of Zen Morrow, and I swear I could smell the ocean. The maître d' seemed to recognize Dani the moment we walked in, and fussed over her quite a bit. He looked over at me with cold suspicion until Dani introduced me as a very special friend, at which point he became quite solicitous.

We sat down at table in the corner with a view of the ocean and, without ordering, we were served a huge selection of sushi. We started to eat and I shocked at how delicious it was, despite the fact that I knew it was a dream. I could taste the sushi and feel its temperatures and textures on my tongue, as vividly as if I were awake.

At one point I stood up and said I had to use the restroom. Because I knew it was a dream, I wanted to explore the restaurant a little, to see if everything was as it seemed.

I opened the door to the restroom, situated in a little alcove at the back of the restaurant, and behind it was the university's student art gallery. Mounted on the wall across from the entry was a painting a door. As I approached the painting I realized that the door was real. I reached out and put my hand on the knob and felt myself being pulled through to the other side, where I woke up in my bed, in my dorm room, in the dark, my heart pounding. I could still taste the sushi on my tongue.

The next morning I went immediately to the student art gallery. There, mounted on the wall where the door painting had been hanging in my dream was a painting of a woman standing on a dock and looking out over a sea of ships of different shapes and sizes. It had a haunting, ethereal quality. I looked over at the little card on the wall and it said, "The Spirits," by Daphne Rocha.

Underneath her name was the following:

Daphne Rocha blogs at streeturchinrainflower.wordpress.com.


Which gives us links to:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
http://nebula.wsimg.com/0248d5a1e5f2fc85818ead0ad5296ccc?AccessKeyId=59F59AF428B1871B2F50&disposition=0&alloworigin=1
http://streeturchinrainflower.wordpress.com

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_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:21 pm
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morbus
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		Some questions/puzzles:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
"How many?" from the Episode 1 "hearts" image.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The map image is near San Jose, CA, but that's further north than Los Angeles, where Alexa meets Dani at the Zen Morrow restaurant.


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
The bolded letters from the PDF: LARCLNUXVCLARCJHVCMWA.

_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:29 pm
Last edited by morbus on Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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morbus
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		And here are the currently accessible blog entries from Daphne's blog:
daphne-blog-6-meeting-alexa.png
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 Description   https://streeturchinrainflower.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/the-dark-and-the-light/
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_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:47 pm
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morbus
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		Finally, here are some emails from Alexa and Daphne.

In response to more details about The Searchers, Alexa replied:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I like your attitude, lol.

The Searchers are a group of people started by a woman named Daphne Rocha. I have met with her and joined the Searchers myself. I created the website to share my experiences and help others join us if they are so inclined.

We participate in a variety of missions to help others, but right now we are in the process of looking for a handful of very specific people. People with gifts and abilities that should be put to good use. Others are looking for them as well, and we don't want their gifts and abilities to fall into the wrong hands.

If you're interested in becoming a Searcher, email Daphne at streeturchinrainflowerSPLATgmail.com and she can give you some more info.

Alexa Kircher
The Searchers
http://www.thesearchbegins.com


And from Daphne Rocha, the response to the same question:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
If you really want to travel down this road, I won't stop you. Frankly, we need all the help we can get.

The application process is simple. You need to find Ing. Once you do you'll be added to our roster and begin Orientation.

Best of luck,

Daphne

_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:50 pm
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amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 4096
Location: Nederland

 		Reckon I'll hang back yet hang around. Here's the LARCLNUXVCLARCJHVCMWA solve. HTH
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
It's a Vigenére Cipher with the passphrase "three" (From the "How many?" hearts pic) deciphering to: STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH


EDIT: More about STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH (ala Steve Jobs) HERE. Also, Street Urchin Rainflower has a new Blog Entry
_________________
"I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent."
"Can you hook up with a Snow Person? Can't tell you or I'd have to marry you."

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 4:37 pm
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morbus
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH
amandel wrote:
Reckon I'll hang back yet hang around. Here's the LARCLNUXVCLARCJHVCMWA solve. HTH
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
It's a Vigenére Cipher with the passphrase "three" (From the "How many?" hearts pic) deciphering to: STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH


Good find. I kept trying much larger numbers, as I was counting ALL the hearts.
_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:12 pm
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morbus
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		E-mailed the puzzle solve to both Alexa and Daphne:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Daphne, along the way of searching for Ing, my fellow prospectives and I have noticed that was a hidden message in the letter that Alexa believed came from her biological mother. Does "STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH" mean anything to you?


Daphne has since replied:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
It does indeed. You are one step further in finding Ing. If you haven't already, you might want to pass this info along to Alexa, who is also currently in the process of trying to find him.


No response from Alexa yet.
_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:23 pm
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zerovin
Decorated

Joined: 23 Sep 2012
Posts: 162
Location: Australia

 		I've been checking out the people highlighted in the book. They are all from India, and the and if its anything to go by and if it indeed is referencing the book, then there's a chance this guy that's meant to be found is is somewhere in India.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 9:48 pm
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morbus
Decorated


Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		Received a reply from Alexa:

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
OMG, that is one of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes. I think it is definitely a clue to Ing's whereabouts. Have you tried entering a password into the Task Manager? I think that might be the first big step we have to take in order to find Ing.

Thank you for your help!


But...

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
For the password, I've tried numerous versions of the quote, "Steve Jobs" (with and without, etc.), as well as "Cupertino", but to no avail.

_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 12:35 am
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amandel
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 4096
Location: Nederland

 		BEAUT morbus!! This Task Manager II PW solve is SO yours
Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Cupertino (case sensitive)

_________________
"I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent."
"Can you hook up with a Snow Person? Can't tell you or I'd have to marry you."

PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 1:39 am
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zerovin
Decorated

Joined: 23 Sep 2012
Posts: 162
Location: Australia

 		I was just about to come and post about that being for the second one instead of the first as well, Glad someone beat me to it XD

PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 2:27 am
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morbus
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Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 202
Location: Concord, NH

 		Arrrrgh. SoOO close!

Anyone know someone in Cupertino? ;)
daphne-blog-3-protected-task-manager-ii.png
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daphne-blog-3-protected-task-manager-ii.png
_________________
Since 1997: http://www.disobey.com/
Twitter: @morbusiff / IRC: Morbus / Skype: morbusiff

PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:17 am
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
morbus wrote:
Arrrrgh. SoOO close!

Anyone know someone in Cupertino? ;)

Meh. A Starbucks? That intersection is also the location of a Philz Coffee which might have made the trip more worth it (to me).

PostPosted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 7:44 pm
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