[mingle, backdated to Wednesday] What always ends in bloodshed begins as just a game

[madgiganticfeelings]

[So that certainly was a little afternoon adventure, wasn't it? Those hanging around the ballroom might have noticed two absolutely drenched teen girls just... appear out of the floor, shivering and shell shocked. Christine, once they get on solid ground, pretty much falls to her knees to just... stare into space for a minute.

What is this week, honestly?

But as crazy as this all is, Christine knows they have to talk about this with everyone, as soon as possible. So once she helps Nana find some dry clothes and has a little destressing session with The Dads (TM), she's pinning up a note in the hallway.]

Time for another meeting! Nana and I will meet you all in the ballroom around 7. A lot happened these last few days that we need to discuss. Refreshments will be provided, but bring something if you like!

[Christine will be in the ballroom in her Juliet dress (sadly, her cloak is still in the dryer), holding her binder and a weird old flip phone. Hopefully, this goes at least a little more smoothly than past gatherings!]

((Feel free to make prompts before or during the meeting, depending on if you're unlucky enough to see the gals ascending from the trapdoor. I'll be making a few comments myself to cover all the conversation topics. Have fun!))

Comments

[stagemanagers]

[It doesn't really matter, because the call is declined, like, immediately.]

[justmeheere]

Can I see that? I can, uh. It's not hacking because it's an actual function of, of the phone but. There's. I can access the phone's manufacturer information.

[Welcome to old tech hell with Jeremy! A fun fact you might not know about old Nokia phones: they have secret fucking menus you can pull up by "calling" various strings of weird numbers.]

[stagemanagers]

[jesus christ okay I guess???

what....what would even be in these secret menus]

[justmeheere]

[Well he wants #92702689# which is:

- Serial Number.
- Month and Year of Manufacture.
- Date where the phone was purchased (MMYY).
- Date of the last repair – if found (0000).
- Life timer of phone (time since last start)

You're welcome, mods. You gave a character who is best friends with a guy who buys 90s soft drinks from the back room of Spencer's an old cell phone.]

[stagemanagers]

[Okay, here we go:

Serial Number: literally just a random serial number
Month and Year of Manufacture: 05-2015
Date Purchased: 11-2015
Last Repair: not found
Time Since Last Start: it's been like two weeks

I can't believe you did this before even looking at any of the normal phone functions.]

[justmeheere]

[HE DOESN'T THINK LIKE THAT JEREMY'S A GRADE-A DUMBASS.]

Weird. This - They were still making these in 2015? [A beat.] Wait, why. How long have we been here?

[Someone else can check the regular phone functions. Jeremy is too galaxy brain for that.]

[37773972]

Nana said it was sometime around July? We don't know the year, though. Can I see it?

[Time to check the call log!]

[stagemanagers]

[There's only two calls logged, both from like three minutes ago. Seems like the Phantom is not much for phone conversations.]

[37773972]

[How about text messages? Any of those?]

[stagemanagers]

[There is one text chain saved in the phone!

It's between the Phantom, presumably, and that single nameless contact. "Between" may not really be the operative word here: it looks like these are far from friendly and barely qualify as exchanges. The Phantom seems to occasionally send this person mean, vaguely threatening messages - you know, basically the way he communicates with most of you, most of the time?

The other party has not responded to these for a while, but if you scroll back, you can see one response from over a month ago:]

I blocked ur number like four times wtf???

[37773972]

[Don't mind Stephen, he's thinking. THINKY FACE, THINKY FACE, WHILE THE OTHERS CHAT ON BY...

and he's gonna send a text. Give him a minute, though, he's doing this by keypad so it'll take some time]

[etincelledefierte]

Stephen? Everything okay over there?

[37773972]

We've got a line out of here. He's been texting someone. I'm going to see if they'll call the police to track this thing.

[etincelledefierte]

[!!]

That's the best news I've heard all day. If they're willing to call the police for us, it would be amazing.

[37773972]

If I can convince them it's real...

[this is going to sound really weird
but we stole the phone from the guy who's been texting you
and he's been hurting people
can you call the police to track this?
*please*]

[etincelledefierte]

[Just looking at the phone, hoping for a response that's good.]

[stagemanagers]

[It's going to take a little bit for a response to come, but eventually one does:]

nu phone who dis

[etincelledefierte]

[you have got to be fucking kidding her.

she's just gonna grab the phone and answer back:]

You literally said you were trying to block the number, so there's no way the whole 'new phone, who's this' thing is going to work. You were trying to block the Phantom from texting you. If I say that we're in the old Opera House, does that ring a bell?

[stagemanagers]

[Given that you are using a flip-phone from like a billion years ago, the response looks something like this.]

[etincelledefierte]

They still make flip phones for older people who don't want the bells and whistles a smartphone has. You see the odd ad for them on television every so often.

[And, you know, burner phones.]

[justmeheere]

Yeah, I guess. Those are just usually more. Bigger buttons or whatever. [A beat.] Makes sense for the Phantom, though.

[etincelledefierte]

You really think he wouldn't be all over Pinterest boards with a spooky old opera house aesthetic?

[justmeheere]

I mean. There's a wi-fi network. I haven't been able to connect yet, but it's possible he's just. He's a mood board theme.

[etincelledefierte]

....what's the name of the wi-fi network, out of curiosity? Even if we can't connect to it yet, maybe the name is a clue?

And he so is. Mood boards everywhere.

[justmeheere]

Whoever set it up didn't change that. It's just a regular, like. Default router name? I don't think the Phantom did it either: Christine didn't work as the password. Neither did, uh. A bunch of other related stuff I tried.