<@Grysar> [Date: Evening Thursday, February 26th] <@Grysar> [Another day of hardwork. Akemi's been chatting with Kaede some before she heads off to a black box theater presentation.] <@Grysar> [Earlier, Kaede got a bit more information from Katie on the social network that was hosting Council of Mysteries art. Apparently the social media network is called Shuffle, and that she has some beta codes - she gave him one or two of the invite things that she got from Doburoku.] <@Grysar> [The artist who is rumored to be working on the project, and the subject of the scanner investigation, was an ex-Sakuragaoka art dept. classmate of Katie's: Noboru Kagome.] <@Grysar> [Start] <@Grysar> * Akemi finishes up a story that Kaede may not have been completely paying attention to. "So I ask him what's my character's motivation in this commercial." She puffs out her cheeks with a dramatic pause before continuing, "And he says, you are incredibly turned on by everyone that uses this brand of cram school notebook." * Kaede, left to his own devices, would have a tendency of multitasking like crazy. Several emails running off in that in the background as he types away. "That's a terrible motivation. Who would be turned on by a notebook?" <@Grysar> * Akemi shakes her head. "Exactly. And I know the the kind of job it was, but just give me a little help in building your brand. Is it the style of the notebook, the intelligence it implies in the user, does it show they are big spenders or skilled bargain hunters?" She packs up her purse. * Kaede taps his pen against his cheek as he thinks about this. "I'm...not entirely sure. I mean...maybe you could play up the humor angle. I mean suddenly turned on by a notebook cover could work if it's played right..." The tapping pauses. "Although I'm not sure that's what they were going for." <@Grysar> * Akemi then manages to hug Kaede from behind from a different direction than he was expecting. "I think I've put more thought into it than they did. So, Yusuke and I might grab a bite after the show. Anatoly cancelled once he heard the details because 'black box theater is for lazy set designers.' But don't wait up, okay?" * Kaede tenses just slightly at the sudden hug, then relaxs a little as he reaches back to pat her head. "Say hi to Yusuke to me. Not to Anatoly. As he clearly won't be there..." He sighs as he kind of stares at the computer screen. <@Grysar> * Akemi kisses the back of Kaede's head before letting go and heading to the door. She pauses after she opens it. "Is something wrong?" * Kaede pinches the bridge of his nose as he tilts it forward, ever so slightly. "Everything is always wrong, Shiraishi-san. It's just sometimes it's being managed better than others..." He frowns and turns to her with a neutral expression, attention away from the computer. "I wouldn't want it to ruin your evening however..." <@Grysar> * Akemi doesn't seem particularly trouble by that first sentence. She gets a deepening frown for the second one, which is still hopelessly cute. "However?" * Kaede frowns more as she actually does it to him. What exactly does she want from him? <@Grysar> * Mimi meanwhile buzzes along, she's started getting in the habit of scanning the bulletin boards and social networks for talk of Akemi. This tends to only happen when Shiraishi is around, as Mimi doesn't have the best attention span. <@Grysar> * Akemi has been spending a bit more time out of the house ever since their big discussion about Nanami moving in. She doesn't talk about it, but she seems to be feeling ungrounded about the living arrangements ever since... <@Grysar> * Akemi also has been putting some emphasis on the people she's going out to do things with and practicing her Anatoly imitation a bit more than usual. She's not quite goading Kaede to react, but she does seem like she's feeling in want of attention, maybe jealousy, maybe something else, she doesn't really seem sure herself. <@Grysar> * Akemi does have a bit of a spring in her step though, she's genuinely excited about this show, so she does still want to do that. * Kaede sighs and shakes his head, taking off his glasses and setting them on the edge of the desk. He steps up and walks over to Akemi, mindful of the blurs but reaches over and puts a hand on her shoulder since she hasn't left yet. "Look, I'm sorry this project came up. But I promise. Next show we'll go together. Next *two* shows." He purses his lips a bit and glances away. "I'd choose them for you, but you know I have terrible taste. You're far the better option..." <@Grysar> * Akemi gets a wide grin and gives Kaede a kiss on the lips. "You know us so well." <@Grysar> * Akemi then glances at her stylish watch and her eyes widen. "But I must bid you adieu." She heads out the door glancing back. "One show just for us, and one show where Yusuke could talk to you about some ideas he's had." * Kaede taps her forehead. Big wide target. Sure he won't miss that. "What, are there multiples of you in there, Shiraishi-san? You've been holding out on me..." But he does return her grin. * Akemi shakes her head with a pout. "You and me. That us." * Kaede tries to suppress a light groan. It doesn't work, but thankfully isn't *that* extensive. "You were just waiting to trap me into that, weren't you?" Although the slight smile at the end hints he's probably teasing. <@Grysar> * Akemi loses the pout and gives a triumphant smile before she waves and briskly walks away. Theater people can be such stickler bores about late arrivals. <@Grysar> * Mimi does send a calendar notification reminder up to Kaede's brain that he's got until the middle of March to arrange a joint event with Shiraishi and Fuyuken. * Kaede will mute you so hard, Mimi. He really needs proper electronic earplugs. He does turn around as the door closes, puts his glasses back on, and goes back to looking over the site. First step is just loading up the site itself. No need to sign in just yet. Just see what it has to offer. <@Grysar> [The site is just a splash page. "Shuffle, keep in touch with old friends, find new matches, be part of what's next." There's a stack of what look like playing cards with pictures of people and some characteristics below. All you can really make out though is that it lists bloodtype consistently, as one does.] <@Grysar> [There's a fairly subtle button for those with codes near the bottom, otherwise the site is very much a tease in terms of providing information.] <@Grysar> * Mimi seems a bit sulkier than usual about being muted. She goes off to play some cell phone games. She's getting good at mahjong. * Kaede does raise an eyebrow. "*Matches*?" He hrrms. "Better not be a dating site. Well, first things first..." He does a quick check, both physical and metaphysical, to see if any scripts are running. Key loggers. Phishing. Worms. Bad scripting he should be concerned about. That sort of thing. <@Grysar> [There's nothing malicious, but the site certainly logs visitors and would be happy to download cookies onto your computer. It's fairly sophisticated, but still in line with other commercial sites.] * Kaede does his usual cookies avoidance tactics and looks at the code before sighing. Best to get this over with. He enters the code. <@Grysar> [The image on the screen scrambles and reforms itself, showing a curtain in the midst of being split. To proceed the site asks you for your real name, a verified phone number or email address, and to certify that you are age 16 or older.] * Kaede frowns. This is new. <@Grysar> [Kaede does scan the source code for the site, it's using fairly routine algorithms here and will send a text or email whatever contact information you provide to verify it before allowing you to proceed. There's also a seperate script that runs inputted information past an internal database, but that doesn't appear to be a block to going forward so much as a logger. There's no attempt whatsoever to verify birthdate, that may be a regulatory compliance or an exclusivity thing.] * Kaede pokes idly at the website. Fake name. Fake addresses. Could try to see about logging in as someone else. Let's see... <@Grysar> [The idle account of someone recently logged in does beacon. That said, Kaede could easily enough provide a fake phonenumber or email and get past the verification procedures. His choice.] * Kaede taps away idly again as he thinks and jots down the info, seperate. "Would be good to see if it tracks when you're last logged on first. No need to draw unnecessary attention." He purses his lips again and thinks before trying a mixture of two names. Hirokazu and Okui. Then stares. Okay, that'd be the *weirdest* marriage. But yet, one quick fake e-mail account setup later and he goes * Kaede through with it. <@Grysar> [And you're in. There's the usual questions, although it tries to spread them out to not scare off users. It suggests possible friends based on the school you select but also includes Doburoku and others at your actual university among their number. The interface encourages you to upload your addressbook or to try the "Friend Draw" feature. If you try it during the beta-period, you get an impressive amount of free photo hosting space for the life of the service.] <@Grysar> [The main social feed is pretty barren until you add anyone, but it does have some targeted ads based on the interests and location you suggested. They're somewhat unobtrusive and framed as events of interest in your area.] <@Grysar> [There's also two chat modes. Face up and face down. The latter requires you to reinsert your password and claims to only retain the logs for a day. Video chat is presently face up only and is a fairly routine implementation of it.] * Kaede does the first thing any well-minded person does in any social media site. Look for ways to make the privacy settings and the inspection of your computer the bare minimum it actually needs and not utterly terrible. <@Grysar> [It's no worse than usual in that regard, not that usual is great.] <@Grysar> [The setting page actually allows you to opt in to reasonably high level encryption procedures and rudimentary two-step verification. There's more optional security here than you'd normally expect, include sending encrypted messages by default to other uses who turn on those features.] * Kaede sighs and sets it to the highest setting anyway, with some little additional tweaks with what he can do himself. Then...huh. Friend Draw. Well. Diving right in. <@Grysar> [The site is very happy with Kaede. It informs him that friend draw might find you a date, but it's real purpose is to find connections. To do that it gets you to fill out a few more of your interests and then moves on to a personality profile that uses a mix of cutting edge and traditional methods.] <@Grysar> [Once you get to that step, the screen presents you with the stylized image of the back of tarot deck. There's a quick loading shuffle image and it then asks you to draw by clicking on a card and pulling it off the deck.] * Kaede, to his credit, doesn't flinch at the deck. He does mutter under his breath though "...if it draws me the two of pentacles, I swear I'm sending a virus..." Click. <@Grysar> [As Kaede clicks, the animation of a hand reaches down to draw the card, it actually does require him moving the cursor for it remove the card and then show him...] <@Grysar> [The Two of Pentacles.] <@Grysar> [The site then offers a few questions on a 1 to 5 scale. Do you find yourself needing to balance competing objectives? Do you prefer regular change or things staying mostly the same? Which is more important to you, family or career?] <@Grysar> [While the site waits for Kaede to answer, the shuffling animation shows again.] * Kaede will refrain from throwing the DDoS your way. THIS time. But he does frown. That's something to test. To be on the safe side, he just answers everything all 3s. <@Grysar> [The site then gives Kaede a quick description of himself that reflects all of his past answers, a pretty decent cold reading, but nothing that insightful given his intentional duplicity. The next step is to draw for the person to find. The freshly shuffled deck presents itself.] <@Grysar> [The site does inform you that at the end of the process, you'll get a list of profiles with some description as to why you might be good matches. However, they won't know you drew them unless you choose to make contact, so don't worry about taking this next step.] <@Grysar> [There's a pop up encouraging you to draw a card again.] * Kaede feels very reassured by that, Computer Text. He draws the next card. <@Grysar> [Kaede concentrates before drawing and pulls, at random, the Seven of Swords. With a quick maneuver, he changes the website data to report that he had in fact drawn the Seven of Swords twice.] <@Grysar> [A new screen pops up. First, it notifies you that not to worry, this isn't a glitch, there's a 1 in 78 chance of this happening and even better, you've now unlocked access to the special alpha tested features of the site. There's the ususal questions below, but they are dimmed out an an auto-play video comes up.] <@Grysar> [There's a variety of disaffected, troubled, and lonely looking people in a montage. A distantly familiar, yet changed voice over begins speaking, "I created Shuffle because despite living in the greatest metropolis in the world, too many of us find ourselves alone, put together with others by distant authority figures without our true selves at heart, feeling as if there's no one we can talk to or confide in...] * Kaede winces. As the voice starts talking though, he perks up and immediately talks to his computer, even leaning in. "Quick! Jiro. See if you can get a voice capture on this." <@Grysar> [The male voice continues, more familiar now. "But I'm here to tell you, you don't have to be alone. There are other people like you that can offer you so much more than the co-workers and classmates that we're assigned to." The images continue to come fast, including Remi Okui sitting with a group of other young people excitedly talking to one another but seemingly gazing into her hands. The camera moves on not long there after.] <@Grysar> * Jiro responds in a low baritone. "On it. Voice print captured. Analyzing." * Kaede blinks then quickly hits to take a screen shot. Remi is one thing. Identifying the environment, entirely another. <@Grysar> [Captured! With Kaede's now practiced eye, he does recognize a professional photoshoot. He may be able to identify the company who did it without too much trouble.] <@Grysar> ["High school is an adventure for all of us." There's an image of a gathering of a fair number of graduates by Tokyo Tower. "But there can be better days thereafter. We all have our roles, major or minor, and it's time someone recognized that rather than just treating you like a test score, an office drone, or a household aide."] * Kaede starts doing some of that research in the other window. It's impressive quality but...either way. Either stealing her image, taking it without her knowledge, or actively involved... "...this trope..." <@Grysar> [Now it's a range of people finding themselves in happier circumstances often sharing various unusual interests with companions. Remi is actually practice karate with a surprisingly disciplined look. There's just the slightest trace of frost on the board she smashes, although it's a winter scene, probably just the weather that.] <@Grysar> ["But I've already droned on too long. Welcome to shuffle's premium service. We're glad to have you."] <@Grysar> [This entire site is really remarkably robust, that said, the designer's voice was well coached but had a lack of warmth obvious to someone that's seen a fair amount of questionable acting from others less committed than Akemi.] * Kaede raises an eyebrow. Premium service? He scowls and quickly sets up a few proxies to ping the connection. If they were waiting for a duplicate draw... "So careless..." <@Grysar> [And as he finds initial pings and queries effortless brushed away he suddenly can put a name to a disaffect loner voice...] <@Grysar> [Narrator: Yorihisa Murimura. His work on the site, the secure portions of it, is nigh impenetrable to ordinary hackers. However, this is a major project and the acutal social content and the like has very little to do with him.] <@Grysar> [Similarly, much of the friend finder work seems to have been tasked out, particularly the cold reading nonsense which has some sort of impressive database back end but more typical interface work. It doesn't take much checking for Kaede to figure out that there's actually a live feed going on with those decks, apparently to a location over the Sea of Japan based on the ping backs.] <@Grysar> [With the additional information, Jiro is able to find other investor videos where Yorihisa is giving a similar pitch. He's actually cleaned up rather nicely, no longer greasy hair now hangs is raifish look that complements his smirk. He's taken to wearing turtle necks as well apparently.] <@Grysar> [Also, for the record, the soundtrack of that video start darker but is really catchy by the end.] * Kaede frowns to see if he can track the feed. He could try to scramble it in some way, but... He lets out a breath and leans back in his chair. "Very probably too late for that...at least I took the precautions against being tracked." He sighs and leans forward over the computer. "Well then. Might as well do a little exploring of content. Make it look as natural as possible. As if I'm really interested..." <@Grysar> [With a bit of natural seeming surfing, Kaede is able to find that the gimmick of the site is that it does have smart filters of friends feeds and outside events and items of interest (ads) based on your profile. There's a good bit of advertise for a few different cultural events, notably including a promotion for Council of Mysteries that's with exclusive art for Shuffle users.] <@Grysar> [Jiro also notes in his soothing deep voice that the read on 1 in 78 was correct. Given the apparent user base, even if the friend finder worked perfectly, the vast majority of premium users would be people that drew the same card twice at random.] <@Grysar> * Mimi is also seething at this point, but muted. Her battery is hot though. <@Grysar> [Kaede does also notice that he seems to have lost track of his valuable time some in this process. It's actually getting surprisingly late and he's got an early morning. Akemi meant it when she said don't wait up. That said, still a little time before he needs to resort to serious caffine.] <@Grysar> [Kaede actually does get a selection of potential contacts, but I'm assuming he doesn't actually reach out to any of them.] * Kaede doesn't reach out to contacts just yet, though he does take note of them and a few of the events. He frowns. Lots of research to do from here. He does unmute Mimi though. Geez. <@Grysar> I told you there was a social network that was blocking invitation to you! Back in January! It was these jerks! <@Grysar> [The advertising page on Shuffle is actually not too fancy. It was put together by someone with some artistic talent but not the greatest sense for pulling in viewers for anything more than a mailing list and some reading promos.] * Kaede stops and looks at his phone. Really? He goes back to look at the site. Still eyes flitting to the picture with Remi. Where does he recognize that from? <@Grysar> Really, you specifically ordered me to not alert you about it anymore, even though it happened another dozen times. I mean really they were mostly people trying to contact Shiraishi-san through you, but they blocked invites to her too. * Kaede looks back at his phone and queries. "Who did?" <@Grysar> * Mimi continues, "The site. I mean, at least I think it did. Various people in your social network started sending messages and signing up, and sometimes posting about Shiraishi-san. So I was watching that. But despite the fact that they started inviting everyone in their addressbook..." <@Grysar> [The social network is overlaid with some names. There's notable dark spots: Akemi, Kaede, and a slightly more distant spot for Katie.] * Kaede frowns. "Darker spots meaning more connected? More invites?" <@Grysar> No, black spots meaning no invites despite invites to people surrounding them. The 3 to 15 was an expected value calculation. So they were blocked externally? <@Grysar> * Mimi then adjusts the social map adding a fair number of grey nodes, far more than were originally included. "Most people did not sign up to Shuffle, but I wasn't counting those in my calculations. They still got invited." <@Grysar> I don't know the mechansim, but either everyone that sent out large numbers of invites and knows you specifically excluded you, or the site just prevented any invitations from going out to your addresses. <@Grysar> [Jiro is able to cross-reference the screenshot with Akemi's past work and to identify a studio and photographer.] * Kaede frowns and looks at his pad, tapping it with his pen again. "I see. Something else to follow up on it seems..." Too many links. Too deep. It's not looking good. He does glance at the studio names and jots it down as well. <@Grysar> [Looking at the photo, Remi is actually acting a bit when she stares at her hand. It doesn't have quite the edge typically present back when he still seeing her. The later happy Remi picture also seemed like acting, but there was more confidence there. The Remi he knew would generally hate being put on display, but was fairly fanatically loyal in her own way. That loyalty may be directed elsewhere.] * Kaede hmms. "A fake? Maybe..." Still, it's too close to home. The book was bad enough. This is bait. <@Grysar> [As more time passes and Kaede's eyelids grow increasingly heavy, he's also able to find a listing for a Remi Okui on a firm called Global Personnel Services. It's part of a larger consortium including components that were first incorporated in Japan during the Taishō period, maybe even late Meiji.] <@Grysar> [It's subtler but other parts of that consortium appear to be providing a fair amount of backing to Shuffle. They do have *a* genius programmer, but they also had to hire a fair number of regular sorts to get it up and running this quickly. * Kaede snaps himself awake and shakes his head. He stares at the screen and notices he was staring for quite a little bit. "Ugh...too much..." He goes to rub the bridge of his nose and starts saving things to look over later before logging off. "I think I'll be better at this in the morning anyway...." <@Grysar> * Mimi cools down some now that she's had a chance to say her piece. * Kaede takes off his glasses now and rubs again for the night. "Thanks for your help, Mimi. Next time though, may want to indicate more *why* this is important..." That bed is looking more and more promising. <@Grysar> * Mimi accepts that light chastisement without complaint. <@Grysar> [And task completed, Kaede is off to a well earned slumber, surrounded by his devices that have been trained that this is a time not to interrupt unless it's really important.] <@Grysar> [End!]