Hello. I'm Esq, 23/F. I am a freelance programmer working from home. I live on the East Coast.
An acquaintance of mine had suggested I join a social media website for the experience. As for which social media site, she's left it up to me.
I figured Tumblr is as good as any. Been on the news after Wordpress made some proud announcement today about pushing out some sort of coding unification standard across both its social media platforms, Tumblr and Twitter. Twits, for some odd reason, are incredibly unhappy with that.
It is nice to meet you all.
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OOC About ::
Hello. This is Hika / Lilac with an another indie OC.
Said OC is Alice / Esq. She's a 23 year old programmer estranged from her family. And because of past events, she hasn't left her two-bedroom apartment in 3 years. Despite everything, she's still living well - she can't quite say she's happy, but she's at least content.
But now her life's about to be shaken up a la Groundhog's Day-style time loop.
Now some housekeeping:
ctrl-shift-escape is an in-character blog, so posts will be written as though Alice is writing them.
Face-to-face interactions will be severely limited. Alice cannot leave her world, and the time loop is making her world incredibly unstable for outsiders right now.
Multi-fandom and crossover friendly. OC Friendly.
If you need things tagged, please tell me so I can do so. I will try to preemptively tag for common triggers, but I can’t account for everything.
Golden rule. Don't do things that you wouldn't want done to yourself.
I try to tag for most common triggers, but if you want a tag added, feel free to shoot me a text. Topic tags will be in the form "trigger //" or trigger ;;" or simply "trigger". There will eventually be more specialized meta tags for ooc and ic.
Dead again by nuclear explosion. It's a wonder when something like that becomes mundane.
Anyway, stuck a whole bunch of my programs in drafts on Tumblr before I kicked the bucket. That is what I miss about having Tumblr - not having to redo old work cause it's my ectopic brain - and of course the company that isn't stuck in this time loop with me.
Now that I have the code for auto-piloting the drone to block the kid's way from getting to the Ferrari, I'll do just that. And some automatic phone calls to the police and fire department for those other issues.
Gonna try to infiltrate the power plant this loop, except I'm going to hack it with my personal exploit - recoded in assembly to force a segfault, trigger an alarm purposefully, and hopefully get people investigating the broken failsafe.
Failing that, I can try knocking out the power plant itself. And not have it blow up on the city. Might leave the city without power but better than atomic explosion. The main issue is getting away with the crime though. The power plant is a closed environment, meaning I have to physically be there to hack it. And it's not really worth saving people from an explosion that in theory should not happen if I end up life in prison cause of it.
I think I'm almost done creating my very own zero-day hack.
So a zero-day hack is essentially a hack where no one who can defend it is aware of it, thus when the hack hits, they have zero days to mitigate its effect.
This is opposed to a known vulnerability where people are already on the job to mitigate it.
It's a weird Javascript hack exploiting its shitty design and its interfacing with other languages. Honestly I noticed its potential before when I was working in a website, but I never had the ability to exploit it. At least until I got stuck in this loop.
It's as bad as the Heartbeat hack which exploited https and took down the largest bitcoin company at the time. I have to say I'm excited to finish and point it at something like my former employer. Not like it'll have lasting damage, which is why I'm doing it, but I'll feel better.
It's difficult to do all the maintenace things like saving the kid or stopping a fire or making sure a murder doesn't happen without missing the requirements throughout the loop to breach the power plant on the last day.
The infiltration fails if I don't meet Piaro at the plant on the first day. And then hang out and make myself seen in the parking lot and do janitor work on the 2nd. And in the end, it doesn't solve anything. Tried calling to tell them that the meltdown equipment is broken, but that just sets the police on my ass cause how would I know that?
I need to find another way. I've been trying to up my hacking ability for months now - studying and applying. It's hard to say what this feeling is, but I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough. And yes, this isn't an anime, but that's what I feel like.
Like potential about to bloom.
Either that or I've finally gone chunni.
If I start talking about a dragon sealed into my left hand, please slap me.
Brief tracker of the events I can remember for next time:
Jan 11th 5:30 am: I wake up to my alarm in various states of shock. I might not react to the alarm until much later depending on whether I land the end right. Also figure out a way to shut off my alarm clock: it is getting a bit annoying hearing about the whole Wordpress and Twitter thing honestly.
Jan 11th 11:30 am: The housefire I mentioned happens. Well, it's not actually a housefire but an apartment fire because someone leaves the stove on. This occurs around six blocks down from where I live. The fire does not kill anyone, and it is quickly contained.
Jan 11th 2:00 pm: A shooting occurs on the opposite side of harbor where I live. It involves several high school kids and the local Checkers. Police state they don't know why the shooting happened or why the high school students are out of school in the first place. Two of the high school kids are in critical condition. I will follow up on this story later.
Jan 11th 7:00 pm: An 11-year old boy is run over by a driver in a hit-and-run. Witnesses say the driver struck the child, paused and then drove on, jumping the curb and smacking a mailbox while they did so. The boy is in critical condition. I could not find any news of this during the next three days or whether the child died or get better.
Jan 12th 2:00 am: Not sure if this is a gun or an engine backfiring, but I do hear something that sounds like a gunshot very close. This is also the time where the apartment hallway is most clear. Goal is to walk the hallway.
Jan 12th 9:00 am: A 23-year old man named Maurice is discovered dead inside his apartment, closer to downtown than the harbor. He's been dead for a lot longer. I'm not sure if I should touch this one because I really don't want people to think I'm the murderer.
Jan 12th 2:00 pm: This is more for me than an important event. The boss of my current commission (and several past ones) goes to yell at me for the work I didn't do because it is tedious to keep doing it cause of the time loop. I should really just post the code onto Tumblr and just copy it every day to send to him. But at the same time, I really just want to do something that would make his life a lot less enjoyable.
Jan 12th 4:00 pm: The big McDonalds fire happens several blocks down but closer to the city than the harbor. A frycook panics and throws water at a deep fryer fire, resulting in flaming oil splattering all over the place and catching more stuff on fire. Fire Department is called and attempts to cross over Central Ave (why are there are so many streets called Central Ave?), only to find that a three-vehicle accident blocks the street, including one rollover. The McDonalds fire is part of a block complex of shops and takes out that entire row of shops and apartments. Several people die as a result.
Jan 12th 7:30 pm: A bodega is robbed at knifepoint. The cashier is stabbed after telling the robbers there is no money and dies. Police is offering a cash prize for the identity of robbers.
Jan 12th 11:00 pm: My boss gets even madder and starts sending very angry texts about how worthless I am and how I should be grateful he's giving me scraps and that I should be honored to know that he's a big tech bigshot. He never mentions where though. I should probably block my boss from the very start. This is a thought.
Jan 13th 5:00 am: Something hits my window, I noticed. I live on the 4th floor. It might be a bird.
Jan 13th 9:00 am: Boss says I should prepare to lawyer up unless I do my work right now.
Jan 13th 5:00 pm: The first of several emergency text messages come through the phone about staying inside and stuff. I try calling the phone number, the nuclear power plant, and the police department. All of them are busy assisting other callers or just redirect me to somewhere else.
Jan 13th 7:21 pm: The power plant explodes. The loop resets.
have you ever thought about how bill murray was stuck in groundhog day for thirty three years. how long have you been in your loop
Heck. I'd go insane. 33 years of the same day over and over. That's over 10000 (not to be mistaken for 9000) Groundhog's Days.
Assuming each loop is roughly 3 days, I've been stuck in the same loop for less than a year. Almost 270 days.
I guess I've improved in that time I don't really have agoraphobia much anymore. Helps when I know almost everything that's going to happen or that thingsdon't change unless I cause them.
I've read almost all my programming books I bought, and I have an online social circle of programmers I met that doesn't quite remember me, but it's easy to pick up.
I also know the lotto numbers so when I get out of this loop. I'll be very well off lol. Sadly the loop is too short to actually get the money.
Through a series of incredibly unfortunate events, I have discovered I can die prematurely to reset the loop. And that somehow allowed me to reconnect with Tumblr.
Hello to everyone, 30 loops later.
I guess I've been spending the time just sniffing out secrets to improving my hacking skills.
The security of a nuclear power plant is no joke. But I did manage to infiltrate after a lot of trial and error. Turns out all I needed was to pretend I belonged as part of the ancillary staff.
It was surprisingly easy. When you know everyone's names from loops of constant observation and their habits, it becomes a situation where it's embarrassing they don't remember your name when you know quite a bit about them especially when you seem to work here. So they try to be more helpful.
Anyway, there's no terrorist attack. It's some weird run away reaction that ends up turning into nuclear explosion. Apparently, the meltdown failsafe didn't work, and one Esq gets blown to kingdom-come.
I've also noticed something odd. I've been waking up later and later in the first loop day. It wasn't noticable before, but I'm now missing three whole minutes. It's subtle but I notice that I'm missing bits of the whole "WordPress pushes Tumblr code standardization to Twitter today" when I distinctly remember the whole message.
After risking it all for the past loop, I decided just to veg out a little. Right now, I'm taking the bus to outside the city reading some books on network security.
Turns out the Ferrari driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so when he got distracted by colliding with my drone, he swerved and struck a mailbox, which resulted him in flying out of his car and eating asphalt.
With more courage than I thought I had, I played the part of concerned bystander and more or less declared him dead on arrival. I think part of his jaw was on the asphalt.
I stole his wallet in the confusion. His name is Thomas Mason, age 20. And he's likely related to the police commissioner who's named Samuel Mason, age 53, which explains the goons from the other time. He goes to Suburban College, looking at his cards. I took some pictures of his credit cards and his driver's license which will be under the readmore.
As for what I did next, I just laid low in a motel room, paying cash, until the next reset. Which was good because my apartment stream caught those two cops breaking into my apartment again. I guess my face was caught by some sort of facial recognition while I was rummaging through his pocket.
Anyway, the conclusion is that I am slowly turning into a terrible person.
[[ A carefully arranged array of four credit cards with the name of Thomas Mason with a back and front image. Two are from VISA, one is from American Express, and the last is Mastercard. ]]
[[ A driver's license with Thomas Mason's name prominently on it. In addition, there's a small sticker of a police badge on the back. ]]
[[ A football sticker for Suburban College can be seen on the wallet. ]]
[[ A list of usernames and passwords but with no indication of where to go to. No e-mail-like usernames are present on the list. ]]
Brief tracker of the events I can remember for next time:
Jan 11th 5:30 am: I wake up to my alarm in various states of shock. I might not react to the alarm until much later depending on whether I land the end right. Also figure out a way to shut off my alarm clock: it is getting a bit annoying hearing about the whole Wordpress and Twitter thing honestly.
Jan 11th 11:30 am: The housefire I mentioned happens. Well, it's not actually a housefire but an apartment fire because someone leaves the stove on. This occurs around six blocks down from where I live. The fire does not kill anyone, and it is quickly contained.
Jan 11th 2:00 pm: A shooting occurs on the opposite side of harbor where I live. It involves several high school kids and the local Checkers. Police state they don't know why the shooting happened or why the high school students are out of school in the first place. Two of the high school kids are in critical condition. I will follow up on this story later.
Jan 11th 7:00 pm: An 11-year old boy is run over by a driver in a hit-and-run. Witnesses say the driver struck the child, paused and then drove on, jumping the curb and smacking a mailbox while they did so. The boy is in critical condition. I could not find any news of this during the next three days or whether the child died or get better.
Jan 12th 2:00 am: Not sure if this is a gun or an engine backfiring, but I do hear something that sounds like a gunshot very close. This is also the time where the apartment hallway is most clear. Goal is to walk the hallway.
Jan 12th 9:00 am: A 23-year old man named Maurice is discovered dead inside his apartment, closer to downtown than the harbor. He's been dead for a lot longer. I'm not sure if I should touch this one because I really don't want people to think I'm the murderer.
Jan 12th 2:00 pm: This is more for me than an important event. The boss of my current commission (and several past ones) goes to yell at me for the work I didn't do because it is tedious to keep doing it cause of the time loop. I should really just post the code onto Tumblr and just copy it every day to send to him. But at the same time, I really just want to do something that would make his life a lot less enjoyable.
Jan 12th 4:00 pm: The big McDonalds fire happens several blocks down but closer to the city than the harbor. A frycook panics and throws water at a deep fryer fire, resulting in flaming oil splattering all over the place and catching more stuff on fire. Fire Department is called and attempts to cross over Central Ave (why are there are so many streets called Central Ave?), only to find that a three-vehicle accident blocks the street, including one rollover. The McDonalds fire is part of a block complex of shops and takes out that entire row of shops and apartments. Several people die as a result.
Jan 12th 7:30 pm: A bodega is robbed at knifepoint. The cashier is stabbed after telling the robbers there is no money and dies. Police is offering a cash prize for the identity of robbers.
Jan 12th 11:00 pm: My boss gets even madder and starts sending very angry texts about how worthless I am and how I should be grateful he's giving me scraps and that I should be honored to know that he's a big tech bigshot. He never mentions where though. I should probably block my boss from the very start. This is a thought.
Jan 13th 5:00 am: Something hits my window, I noticed. I live on the 4th floor. It might be a bird.
Jan 13th 9:00 am: Boss says I should prepare to lawyer up unless I do my work right now.
Jan 13th 5:00 pm: The first of several emergency text messages come through the phone about staying inside and stuff. I try calling the phone number, the nuclear power plant, and the police department. All of them are busy assisting other callers or just redirect me to somewhere else.
Jan 13th 7:21 pm: The power plant explodes. The loop resets.
That definitely wasn't a minivan. Why are all the news stations saying it was a minivan that hit that poor kid?
That is clearly a Red Ferrari. I even caught the license plate 2COO4U. And whoever is driving is clearly drunk or intoxicated with something.
Video is under the readmore. It's a bit gory.
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< A video player shows an airborne view, approximately two stories up, of a city intersection at night. A few cars pass, and a couple pedestrians cross the street.
The light turns red at the intersection. A young child, probably middle schooler age and bundled up from the cold, crosses the road at the crosswalk with others. A very loud revving sound could be heard, which other pedestrians notice and take caution but the kid doesn't and continues crossing.
A red Ferrari races into view on the road 90 degrees counterclockwise from the kid's crossing, and from the right-most lane suddenly turns left and crashes into the kid with the turn. An audible thud is heard as the kid flies and strikes the curb headfirst. Blood is visibly pooling under the unmoving child's head.
The car pauses momentarily from the impact before continuing to drive as if nothing happened, swiping a mailbox as it did. Suddenly screams of Call 911 and "what the hell was that" could be heard.
I am going to crash my drone into the Ferrari that ran the kid over. That's the plan. I might not be able to track it further due to the drone's range, but I still know the route it takes to hit the kid.
I'll keep it hovering at the level of the front bumper, and hopefully the guy will stop upon hitting it. If that doesn't work, next loop, I'm going to hover it at his windshield level.
It might cause something bad, but at this point, he's not going to be a person I'll miss. And he sicked a bunch of corrupt cops at me when I did catch him running over a kid, so this is just balancing the scales (even if it technically didn't happen). We'll see what comes up from this.
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Also, I am going to go to call McDonalds and see if I can prevent the "what happens with the "Great McDonalds Fire" on Day 2. Really, it amounts to "Don't pour water on a grease fire." The only reason why I haven't done it is because the fire hasn't really affected my business with the Ferrari or the exploding power plant or the corrupt officers.
Thanks. And yeah, I guess so. I think I'm starting to get bored, which you'd think would be impossible given that I still have the enormity of the internet at my fingertips. But all the stuff I'm following now for entertainment are like on eternal cliffhangers beyond the stuff that I'v hired authors to write for me for the sake of getting new things.
I'm guessing the ships that resurfaced probably did not resurface through normal means. Are they like haunted ships now waiting for living people to dock 'em and make them ghosts too?
The internet may be enormous, but not all of it something you’re going to be interested in at any given moment. I can get the feeling of… stagnation, I suppose.
That’s about it! More firing on or ramming us than waiting for anything though.
Geez. Can you dock them and like unghost them? I guess it would be an exorcism. Do the ships ever attack each other or are they just hostile to the living?
I guess what would be a major accomplishment for you in this case? Seems like you've been doing a lot just getting people back to their loved ones.
It felt like something within me was stretched taut after it passed 2:30 am of the 4th day (my latest was 2:00 am before). And the pain started out small at first like pricking your finger, but it quickly felt like I was being put on a rack and was about to be pulled apart. It got so painful that I think I ended up losing concentration, and the loop reset.
Something feels different though... like something's loosened up.
It's like I've mentally been in a box before but now the box has a couple holes in it. It's changed something, but I don't really know what.
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Also, I see that people are celebrating the December holidays, so happy holidays everyone.
Good work on getting out even if it didn't work out in the end. The effort is still something to be proud of, as is keeping the kid safe.
It wasn't completely fruitless. Because I was away from the blast radius, I got to see some of the analysis of what people believed happened. Something along the lines of a major systems malfunction rather than - y'know - someone making it explode.
I'm glad that you don't find that silly. In all honesty, my brain's been leaning towards the whole "everything will reset anyway." I've been dealing with over 210 days of this now.
How have you been doing for the past couple weeks? months? now?
That's good intel. Probably not as straightforward to handle as trying to intercept an identifiable saboteur though. Good luck with your further testing and trying to find out more.
Of course not. Progress is progress, right? It should be commended - even if everything snaps back anyway, aha...
I've been managing fairly well. Operations in the Sargasso are ongoing, with... unfortunately not much to show for it in terms of major accomplishments. We've been able to identify several missing ships, submersibles, and aircraft in the wreckage littering the region though, and recovered several sets of remains to be returned to any surviving family. A few ships resurfaced on their own and began patrolling the waters.
Thanks. And yeah, I guess so. I think I'm starting to get bored, which you'd think would be impossible given that I still have the enormity of the internet at my fingertips. But all the stuff I'm following now for entertainment are like on eternal cliffhangers beyond the stuff that I'v hired authors to write for me for the sake of getting new things.
I'm guessing the ships that resurfaced probably did not resurface through normal means. Are they like haunted ships now waiting for living people to dock 'em and make them ghosts too?
