[Fall] Chapter 1: Re-Placement

Wren sorry to hear that. I noticed something new, not sure what to make of it yet. No obvious lead to follow. Joe.

Just Outside the Hall - Kyle With the preliminary idea worked out Kyle sets about doing the work while sending Glitch out to look for "fertile soil" (unsecured devices with open wifi/bluetooth) to plant the images along with some teaser text and questions designed to get reactions and promote questions or re-postings. Kyle plans to use as little magic on this as possible but knowing that all tech can be traced he absolutely will not be using his own devices or any device that can be traced to him. If he can plant the posts into students devices without having to tie into the service itself then hopefully the students will reply and forward the content. Figuring it would be increasingly difficult to monitor all student devices he wants to use them first since he has not idea how much the school network is monitored. He'll have to look into that.

Once things are ready he will wait till the last bell to enact the plan and start pushing the content with Gltiches help to act as a relay.

Back of Hall/Gym - Myra, Wren, Joe
For the same reason, Cass did not look surprised when Wren popped up unexpectedly, but something seemed to cross her mind, "Dad said something about the Thornes, why they're still around ..." But she quickly came back to the critical matter at hand which was Myra's concern too. "Your Lockwood legacy Myra, you have abilities, like your parents. Magic. A number of us do, even if some of us don't know it yet. There's a reason why we're all attending St Lazarus." It was interesting that Cass referred to Ashford by its original name.

"But yes, something happened yesterday, it's called a quake, a reality quake. I don't fully understand what that means, but what it does mean is that something or someone is trying to change the school or change us, in a harmful way. It's like an attack, the start of one. Dad says it'll get worse. Now that you're both awakened, I'm telling you now because we need to prepare for it."

As Joe slipped back to the awareness of his own surroundings after spending careful moments projecting on Emily's last seen position, he caught what looked like a thread? It was as if Emily's route was marked out very faintly. He was sure his own magic did not make this happen, the route marking came from ... Myra upstairs? Did she discover how Emily came and went?Enroute to the Track - Minsoo, Jonathan
There was only one conclusion Minsoo could draw from Sarah's dumbfounded meltdown, that her teammate was clueless as to why she nearly did such a thing. Which meant something caused her, or controlled her, to do such a thing. Was it someone in the vicinity? The rest of the track team had dropped their items and rushed over to Minsoo and Sarah. Was it one of the onlookers, but who? Minsoo couldn't shake the idea though that this was related to yesterday's incident, because she distinctly remembered Sarah oddly not being present in the gym when the blackout happened. Strange that she abandoned her post. Where was she, and would that explain her behaviour?

From the distance, Jonathan could see that some of the students had found the nearest teacher, coach Corbin, who hurried towards the track.Just Outside the Hall - Kyle
Still pretty easy work, was what Kyle thought to himself so far as he immersed himself into the task, fully enjoying the prepping of the files and how they could be inserted into other accounts without fuss as he wrote an insertion code just to handle that. In fact, Kyle was so absorbed in what he was doing that he lost track of how long he was taking. At one point he looked up to see his classmate and fellow robotics club member Chelsea Miles walking past and giving him the death stare for skivving instead helping out with the last bits of packing.

He sent Glitch to begin a simple scan to pick up whose phones have carelessly forgotten to secure their wifi sharing, careful not to target the school's wifi network. Something about the digital presence he sensed yesterday still weighed heavily in his mind, and he hadn't quite decided hwo he wanted to go about tackling it. But time was ticking this late afternoon, and it was looking like there would be little chance that he could finish prepping, much less begin to start hacking.

Back of Hall/Gym - Myra, Wren, Joe
Did they find an ally or an adversary in Cass? Myra is not sure, but she tries with an open question. She knows that the gray twins, Mr Necht and Ms Nixon are adversaries, so her answer will determine if Myra is going to trust Cass.

What is the story with Mr Necht and Ms Nixon? Where do they fit in in all this?

Joe pauses in mid-pretending-to-clear-up as he realises that he can sense something… he texts Wren…
Hold that; got a faint trail!! Following it…

>>>Distracted by a number of things swirling in his head, Jonathan didn't notice Sarah's odd and clearly homicidal behavior until he felt an odd pang that drew his attention. Minsoo crashed into the girl at that moment, ruining the deadly shot...but only just.
>>>Rushing to the scene as fast as his legs could carry him, Jonathan quickly ran up to the scene and checked out both girls. He offered a hand up to Minsoo, "You okay? What happened?" He looked over at Sarah, unsure if this was related to the weirdness going around or just a stupid, terrible accident. He had his suspicions which it was and didn't like the idea that something unseen and deadly stalked the senior students. He felt Death near.

Kyle saves the files and code he has worked up onto his phone and sends a copy to Glitch as well as a last instruction to finish the search for several good targets before stuffing his laptop back in his bag with a guilty look and rushes to help out. As Kyle rejoins the club in finishing up the last of the work he rationalizes that he did way more than most of the other kids for the first hour or so, not that they will give him credit for that if Chelsea decides to blast him. He does check his phone occasionally as Glitch sends face shots of any potential digital mules along with their current location. He plans to use a mixture of his scans and code along with his new ability to manipulate the wireless signals directly to pass off the content to any potential targets, hopefully by using glitch, who has one of the oddest digital signatures he has seen, Kyle can hopes this will eliminate any digital trail to him and kick off the proliferation of the content.

Joe bustles up, looking slightly distracted (divided perceptions), in time to hear Myra’s question. His eyes flick between the others; greeting Wren with a slightly questioning look; waiting for the answer to Myra’s question; wary of Cass, who he doesn’t know at all well, but sensing the intensity of Myra’s focus and not wanting to disrupt it, he waits for time to read the exchange; how much does Myra trust Cass?

"Something… is wrong with her." she says, though her eyes are heavy with meaning that she wouldn’t feel comfortable revealing here.

She gets to her feet finally, and finds her legs are that familiar jelly! Exhausted!

"I think something… is making her…" she starts the thought but doesn’t know how to finish it.

"I just thought that something might be forcing her." she continues, whispering to Jonathan so the others might not hear.

Back of the Hall - Joe, Myra, Wren, (Kyle?)
"I don't know," Cass replied impatiently, as if she was annoyed with herself for not having all the answers. She stopped when she saw Joe, caught offguard at having another person appear moments after Wren. She tapped on her iWatch in a odd sequence of swipes and then followed it up with pulling out her handphone as if taking a picture to point upwards at Kyle's drone, Glitch, which seemed to have been making a circuit of the multi-purpose hall. Interestingly, Joe, Myra and Wren now recognised her actions as part of magicking, even if Cass seemed to be subtle about it.

"You're okay Joe." She now smiled a little, her annoyance fading away as she came back to answering Myra's critical question. Joe had been observing Myra and Cass tussle in their conversation, both forthright teenagers sussing out how much they could trust each other. "They're not the cause of yesterday's incident I'm certain, because they're asking questions as well. We were all summoned," Cass glared at the rest, reminding them of their 'counselling' session. "I did overhear dad mutter something about them, I think he wanted me to know but didn't want to tell me directly. They're New World Order, he said." Cass didn't elaborate on that, wary that certain words and phrases could be overheard.

Kyle's drone scanned the multi-purpose hall, largely ignored by everyone. As part of its circuit, Glitch floated past where Cass was speaking with the others. Kyle was focussed on trying to use Glitch to evaluate whose phone might have failed to password protect their wifi sharing or their bluetooth airdrop, for those would be the ones he would use when he was ready to upload Jonathan's blitz campaign.

A notification popped up on his phone. Glitch was being momentarily blocked!Near the Track - Jonathan, Minsoo
Jonathan's intuition was spot on, and now aligned with Minsoo's sense of darkness, that death was near. But neither of them dared to use their extrasensory abilities, not when their schoolmates were gathered in concern. Someone handed Sarah a bottle of water from which she took big gulps, and one of the boys steadied her to bring her to the bleachers to sit down.

"Is everyone okay?" The figure of coach Corbin was immediately a calming presence. A teacher was here, and things would be taken care of. The first thing that he did was to attend to Sarah immediately. "How are you feeling right now Sarah?"

"That was quick thinking of you," Minsoo was on the receiving end of an encouraging smile. A quick phonecall ensued, "Heather, could you come down to the track please, I’ve got a girl here that needs attention. She’s okay, but can you have a look? And call her parents to come get her?"

"Good job everyone, you all kept your cool and responded immediately." That was Corbin’s cue to dismiss the crowd, now that he was managing the situation. He did have a word for Jonathan, "Also, quick thinking as well yesterday, Jonathan. He looked back at Minsoo, "Let’s have a chat, after I take care of Sarah." The invitation was to them both, even before Jonathan could mention that he had remembered he was supposed to look for Corbin.

Magic. Wren was still not used to calling it that, would have thought the notion too far fetched. In the end the shift had been gradual - had she not always heard strange things?
But hearing it said by Cass so non-controversially did make her lean into that, though.
Had her parents always prepared her for this? But why didn't they tell me?

Wren's eyebrows went up no matter what, and more when she heard about the twins and some underspecified New World Order. Somehow the term seemed fitting to the shivers Ms. Nixon sent down her spine.

When Joe came up beside her, she caught his questioning look and gave a small nod - they could talk later, when they were in private again.

Minsoo offers a quick: "Sarah, are you okay?" of her own. Something to blunt what must have been an accusatory course of action by Minsoo; intervening to stop her killing someone.

She didn’t mean to…

"It was nothing. I was just…" Minsoo says, gesticulating as if to communicate the rest of what she meant.

here…
magic…

>>>Far from being an isolated event, the Blackout yesterday seemed to be just a blip in a larger tapestry of weird events. Sarah's homicidal javelin throw being, presumably, the latest incident.

>>>""Just in the wrong place at the right time, I guess." Jonathan downplayed Corbin's praise. "I'll be here when you're done with Sarah and Nurse Heather. 'was coming to see you anyway..." He downplayed the seriousness of the situation with his typical deadpan demeanor and let the Coach tend to Sarah.
Letting a few moments, and some distance, pass between Coach and the two, Jonathan kept his tone low and unconcerned as he spoke to Minsoo. "What happened? What do ya mean forced ? Like mind control or possession?" he wondered aloud. The idea of his vision rose to mind. He had no idea if the 'Death Clocks' in his vision he saw were real or imagined but he knew that knowing when someone's 'Clock' was running low would be really handy to know about. The Blackout brought on that vision and he wondered if it was a fluke or if he could make the vision happen again.

Her eyes had been on Cass's wrist since the iWatch sequence.

When she finally spoke, she didn't look up immediately.
"What about the rest of the faculty, Cass? What order are they?"

Then she did, with a bit of a sarcastic smirk.
"Old order?"

Back of the Hall - Joe, Myra, Wren, Kyle
When Kyle picks up the resistance he is curious as Glitch was not 'pushing' on any services that would react like that. Systems that attack due so a simple service or port query are way above what any kid, or most civilians would even have access to. He doubts its legal either. He simply sends a short message to Glitch to log the MAC or SIM address that reacted like that and to avoid it any anything else that had a similar response. The idea was to collect data not attempt the hack. He'll have to go over the code later to see what his instructions were vs what Glitch did. Maybe it "improved' the operation again.

Having collected enough potential targets Kyle focuses on finishing up the club work before looking to rejoin the other awoken students.

Back of the Hall - Joe, Myra, Wren, (Kyle?)
Thank you, Cass.
There is a lot to take in, and we are not sure who to trust with all of this new stuff. But I think we can trust you.

Yesterday, we all met this freshman girl, Emily, in different places on campus at the same time. Then she disappeared during the blackout, as if she had never been there at all.
Emily has been the clue we have been chasing in the hope of figuring all this out.

I also saw some symbols during the blackout, symbols that I have linked to the traditions, and one I haven't figured out yet.
Here Myra raises an eyebrow to see if Cass recognises what she is talking about. When seeing that she does, she carries on and takes out her notebook.

I'm I right in assuming that this is the "old order"? She eyes WrenAnd this is the "new"?And what do you know about the Lockwood? You say that my parents were in on this stuff, but I don't know anything about that. Or the hidden room in the basement.

Joe listens intently, and with a developing sense of guarded relief; there is something going on behind the mundane facade and this little handful aren’t entirely alone. That doesn’t mean the whole situation is benign, far from it; but there may be less to hide from than it first seemed. Even so, a scurrilous part of him couldn’t help inwardly whispering "Yer a wizard, ‘Arry".
He fought to keep a straight face.

"She seem surprised that she had done it." Minsoo remarks. "Mind control, maybe." and yet she can’t shake the feeling that there is an entity somewhere below them. It could be capable of possession… possibly.

"She snapped right out of it as soon as she’d missed. Something must have let go of her once they’d gotten what they wanted.

Well, not exactly what they wanted. She missed." she says, and then shivers. Something on campus had murderous intent.

Back of the Hall - Joe, Kyle, Myra, Wren
"Wait, is Kyle trying to spy on us? Kyle was their classmate, they all recognised Glitch, the drone that accompanied Kyle whenever he went until Mr Chase the robotics teacher had to lay down some ground rules on appropriate drone use in school. Cass was council president after all, always accommodating to serve and lead her fellow students, but also authoritative enough to brook no nonsense when it came to abiding by proper school behaviour. She got up, ready to go find Kyle to give him a piece of her mind.

"The only other order I know more of is this one," she replied to Wren while pointing at Myra's notes. "You're right Myra, these are traditions of magic, this one's the Order of Hermes, yeah I know, uncool. I think of them as pointy hats. Joe's face looks like he knows what I'm talking about. I know you just joined us, I don't know anything about the Noakes." Joe could see Cass trying to puzzle out the gap in her knowledge.

Realising that she had been surname-dropping, Cass realised she needed to explain herself. "I don't know about faculty, Wren. Dad's professional enough never to discuss work in front me, although I try to pick up things. I do try to find out about us students, that's what I signed up for. Your mother Celeste Lockwood attended Ashford, she was a mage. Yours too, Wren, or was that your father? I'm- I'm sorry they haven't told you much." Cass seemed to realise that mention of family might have been a sensitive issue, and softened her words.

Cass came back to the other things she had no information about. "I don't know that symbol. I only heard the term New World Order yesterday, haven't had a chance to dig into it yet. And what's this about a hidden basement? In school? Is it significant? We can find it."

Next was to respond to Myra's raising of the Emily incident, but Cass had paused, expecting the three of them to also go see what Kyle was up to. Kyle was sending his adjusted instructions to Glitch, now manually flying his drone back to him rather than having it loop around the hall. Glitch didn't get hacked as far as he could tell, no malicious code attempted to assert control over the drone, that would have been pretty sophisticated for his peers; Kyle figured there were only a couple of others who could do what he was able to, and now with his newfound awareness he wondered if he would surpass them. But the signal he got back from Glitch was as if a physical force had pushed the drone away and off course. He looked up to see the figure of Cass stomping directly towards him.