[slid under the door in the morning is a CD in its case. there's no indication of the sender, but clearly, there's only one tech nerd in that room, so it's clearly meant for him.
if put into his laptop, there is one program on the disk.
[I'm going to assume he's appropriately cautious about an unknown, unmarked CD even if it does seem to be some kind of Christmas present, and will take all the suitable pre-emptive precautions to avoid it going off like a bomb in his computer.
Now it's appropriately quarantined and inspected... moment of truth. He presses the button to run it.]
[Huh, inch resting... He's going to scoot a little closer to his laptop, where he's sitting half-under the kotatsu, and type in the given commands. Might as well see what they do in order, right?]
[the first two return command not found - clearly, this program isn't as interactive as the designer wanted - but decipher gives a reply! or well, it doesn't error.
the cursor blinks under that one, waiting for him to reply. it won't take him long to figure out that as he begins to type, if he types the correct letter one of the empty spaces above will fill with a white box, waiting for the next input. if he mistypes, the boxes clear, and he has to return to start.
it's a memory test, to type out the letters in order without mistakes. but by the time he's gotten it, he'll be able to see the decoded sequence.
bcragurtngrf
filling the spaces leads to a new command.
password:
straightforwardly typing the sequence will not work. it's another layer of the cipher - but perhaps he'll guess it, considering it's been used in Yogen's halls before now, and some people discuss puzzles enough for it to have come up at least once.]
[Oh, that's the mood. He's no stranger to butting his head against something until he has to admit to himself he should set it aside to work on it later. He's guessing whoever made this was caught by the Christmas crunch...
After spending most of this month working with technically perfect but marred and cold code, elaborate marble architecture and carefully pieced-together paper under glass and red light... Someone just trying things out and hitting bumps... it's charming in a way, that incompleteness.
It takes a few tries, but he quickly works out what the game wants, and his memory is very good so it's just a matter of finding the right keys. Memory Dance was a breeze for him, except it wasn't because he had to actually dance.
It's worth a shot to try the sequence first and... no dice. Like in the Escape Room he defaults to giving rot13 a try here, since he knows people use it, he talked about that with Helena a while back, and gives a little amused huff when he sees what it comes out to and types it in.]
Open sesame... ♫ Let's see what you have.
[He does find puzzles fun... when there isn't anyone staring at him to see him potentially screw up. It's nice when things behave logically and have rules they're going to stick to, it's just a matter of finding out and using them.]
the screen clears, and the program closes. but there is a text file there - s.txt, also meant for him.]
S,
I hope you enjoyed the game. There are still many bugs to work out and things to build and make before it can become a true ciphering game, but I wanted to show you the fruits of your tutoring and your tireless attention. Hopefully it did not stop working before you were done.
Merry Christmas, my friend. To hours spent in peace together, to discovering new things and puzzles, to better times than now. The sun still shines for us, and so we'll get through.
Check your pillowcase, if you could.
H
[and looking there will yield a wooden carved rabbit patiently awaiting him.]
[Oh. He's... extremely and incredibly touched, in a way he's not sure how to deal with. Other than to check the pillowcase as instructed... he finds the rabbit and carefully extracts it, holding it in both hands before heading back over to the kotatsu and setting it down on the table so he can look at it while he works... he's still working on Helena's gift last minute himself, even as he's going out and delivering other gifts (and playing post it note games) in between.
The Christmas party holds a strike of fortune he's very happy about, and he ends up staying up late into the silent hours incorporating that as well.
In the morning of the 26th, lashed to the doorknob of Star 1 with string, is a flat, rectangular package with Helena's name written on it and then... awkwardly poked into the paper in braille with a pencil-tip. It contains the laptop she's spent so long working with already, but Shin has cleared out all programs but the ones she's made or uses, performed software housecleaning on it, cleaned the outside thoroughly and then opened it up and cleaned the inside, carefully dis- and re-assembled, which turned out to solve the noise the fan was making. Finally, the keycaps have been replaced with new braille ones.
He copied Helena's game to his new laptop, and to his USB as backup, and the CD in the disk drive of this one still holds it but there's a new file next to it, labelled 'Nurikabe'. Inside is a program that generates 6x6 Nurikabe puzzles, the program itself as much for her to mess around with as the squares it creates, and a similar text file:]
H,
Loved the game, it worked all the way to the end! You've come so far and I can't claim the credit for that. You put in the hard work yourself, after all. I'm looking forward to getting to see what you do next.
Merry Christmas and thank you. For it all. I don't know if you've seen this kind of puzzle before, but I figured you might like it.
It'll be 2000 here soon, won't it? Let's see what the new millennium holds again.
S
[And a small ASCII art of a rabbit at the end. Using his initial like this... it's clever, he can't help smiling.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
12/25
if put into his laptop, there is one program on the disk.
decode.exe
run program?]
no subject
Now it's appropriately quarantined and inspected... moment of truth. He presses the button to run it.]
no subject
the screen is black, and the text that pops up is white.
progress 0%
check power
check connection
decipher
ꞗᛍঋȺꝽůঋ𝓽ᶇꝽঋ𝔣
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>_
the cursor sits there, blinking, waiting for an input.]
no subject
no subject
the cursor blinks under that one, waiting for him to reply. it won't take him long to figure out that as he begins to type, if he types the correct letter one of the empty spaces above will fill with a white box, waiting for the next input. if he mistypes, the boxes clear, and he has to return to start.
it's a memory test, to type out the letters in order without mistakes. but by the time he's gotten it, he'll be able to see the decoded sequence.
bcragurtngrf
filling the spaces leads to a new command.
password:
straightforwardly typing the sequence will not work. it's another layer of the cipher - but perhaps he'll guess it, considering it's been used in Yogen's halls before now, and some people discuss puzzles enough for it to have come up at least once.]
no subject
After spending most of this month working with technically perfect but marred and cold code, elaborate marble architecture and carefully pieced-together paper under glass and red light... Someone just trying things out and hitting bumps... it's charming in a way, that incompleteness.
It takes a few tries, but he quickly works out what the game wants, and his memory is very good so it's just a matter of finding the right keys. Memory Dance was a breeze for him, except it wasn't because he had to actually dance.
It's worth a shot to try the sequence first and... no dice. Like in the Escape Room he defaults to giving rot13 a try here, since he knows people use it, he talked about that with Helena a while back, and gives a little amused huff when he sees what it comes out to and types it in.]
Open sesame... ♫ Let's see what you have.
[He does find puzzles fun... when there isn't anyone staring at him to see him potentially screw up. It's nice when things behave logically and have rules they're going to stick to, it's just a matter of finding out and using them.]
no subject
the screen clears, and the program closes. but there is a text file there - s.txt, also meant for him.]
S,
I hope you enjoyed the game. There are still many bugs to work out and things to build and make before it can become a true ciphering game, but I wanted to show you the fruits of your tutoring and your tireless attention. Hopefully it did not stop working before you were done.
Merry Christmas, my friend. To hours spent in peace together, to discovering new things and puzzles, to better times than now. The sun still shines for us, and so we'll get through.
Check your pillowcase, if you could.
H
[and looking there will yield a wooden carved rabbit patiently awaiting him.]
no subject
The Christmas party holds a strike of fortune he's very happy about, and he ends up staying up late into the silent hours incorporating that as well.
In the morning of the 26th, lashed to the doorknob of Star 1 with string, is a flat, rectangular package with Helena's name written on it and then... awkwardly poked into the paper in braille with a pencil-tip. It contains the laptop she's spent so long working with already, but Shin has cleared out all programs but the ones she's made or uses, performed software housecleaning on it, cleaned the outside thoroughly and then opened it up and cleaned the inside, carefully dis- and re-assembled, which turned out to solve the noise the fan was making. Finally, the keycaps have been replaced with new braille ones.
He copied Helena's game to his new laptop, and to his USB as backup, and the CD in the disk drive of this one still holds it but there's a new file next to it, labelled 'Nurikabe'. Inside is a program that generates 6x6 Nurikabe puzzles, the program itself as much for her to mess around with as the squares it creates, and a similar text file:]
H,
Loved the game, it worked all the way to the end! You've come so far and I can't claim the credit for that. You put in the hard work yourself, after all. I'm looking forward to getting to see what you do next.
Merry Christmas and thank you. For it all. I don't know if you've seen this kind of puzzle before, but I figured you might like it.
It'll be 2000 here soon, won't it? Let's see what the new millennium holds again.
S
[And a small ASCII art of a rabbit at the end. Using his initial like this... it's clever, he can't help smiling.]