Nonary Game: Resonance

(Current path: 52)

(Suggested listening: Data)

Lucky only offered the slightest trace of a frown as they approached the cabinet with Robin. "Hmm, nice catch," they said, monotonously. "This must be where all the interesting files are hiding."

It seemed Lucky's prediction had been a bit too optimistic, but the drawer did not leave them with nothing. The first thing they noticed was a sheet of paper, folded widthwise into quarters. Robin smoothed it open, using the front of the drawer to counter the creases left in it. "It looks like a memorandum," he said. "The proper order of classes for students is Literature, Algebra, Chemistry, and then History!" The exclamation point at the end seemed a bit excessive, but its emphatic point was clear. "I don't even know what this could be a clue for."

"That's not all we have here," Lucky noted. They reached in and retrieved the other item that had been waiting, a pair of plastic sunglasses. "Blue lenses, huh. Hardly practical, if you ask me." They gave the glasses a wistful look, making Robin wonder if they were acting more dramatic to distract themselves from the stress of the situation they were all dealing with.

The thought made him a bit depressed, however, so he brushed it away to keep himself busy. "I think I know what we're supposed to use these for," he said, his voice a bit more gentle than usual. "If you don't mind, we'll let you get back to your search here and go clear out the other room."

Lucky nodded and passed the glasses, keeping hold of the memo as they waved the others a temporary goodbye. As Leo and Robin made their way back toward the principal's office, they could hear Lucky crossing the room and dragging open another drawer of files. "They sure are persistent," Leo mumbled.

As soon as Robin crossed the threshold of the door, he slipped the notebook out of his cinch bag and turned to a new page, then sliding the blue glasses over his face. The bluer digits on the wall of numbers faded into the "white" of the wall, leaving behind only six digits. In case their spacing was important, Robin kept an accurate record of it in the notebook.

Leo leaned over to read his work. "18-1-18-5," he recited. "Four numbers. Guess that answers the drawer question." Not bothering to wait for Robin's reply, he shut all four of the drawers, then counting the clicks as he pulled the first one open.

"They're obviously in alphabetical order; if you just-" Robin started, but Leo held up a hand and shushed him. With a sigh of resignation, Robin went to the last drawer, tugging it open to "E."

"There we go," Leo said. "The 18th click is on "R," by the way."

"Thanks, but I already gathered that." Staring directly into Leo's eyes, he pulled the second drawer open a solitary click. Immediately, they heard a "shunk" of wood sliding open from the opposite side of the desk. Leo bounded around it, still somehow possessing a considerable amount of energy.

Robin gave the drawers one last look before following at a more leisurely pace, making sure to remember that they spelled out "RARE." Once Robin joined him, Leo reached into a small opening that had recently exposed itself. "A secret panel. Seems kinda unnecessary, but…" He removed the sole item within, another simple key. "This has gotta go to that door over there."

Although they doubted they were significantly closer to finding their way out of the main office, Robin found himself growing a bit hopeful as Leo unlocked the door. With any luck, the room would have the slightest bit of information that could serve in determining where he and the other participants had been taken. In spite of it being illogical, he also hoped something might help him unravel the mystery behind their kidnapping. He noticed that Leo's shoulders were tensed, and he wondered if the other man was holding onto a similar hope.

The room seemed to be designed simply for storage, not that such a fact would be a let down. What was a let down, however, was that the room was surprisingly bare. It was somewhat smaller than the area with the filing cabinets, making its relative emptiness all the more disappointing. Leo let out a breath Robin hadn't noticed he was holding, inching towards the back wall. "Well, this poster is probably important," he said, his eyes fixated perfectly on the large paper centered on the wall.

"DRAWER to FILE," Robin read. "Hardly as motivational as the other thing we read out there. What was it…?"

"There's… a few boxes," Leo noticed, pulling a cardboard flap up to check inside one nearby. "It's just a bunch of useless junk. Let's go."

"Whoa now, hang on," Robin interjected. "I think I see some useful things over here." He crossed to the side of the room farthest from the door, where there were a few shelves filled with all sorts of containers. "Looks like we've got a stockpile of cleaning supplies in here."

"What the hell would a janitor be doing in the principal's storage room?" Leo asked, just quiet enough that Robin wasn't sure it was supposed to be answered.

He moved past it brusquely, deciding to read a few of the labels. "Looks like we've got all kinds of polishes… a bunch of essential oils… WD-40…"

"You know what," Leo said, returning the ignorant favor to Robin, "I think I figured this poster out. What did the drawers spell out when we opened them?"

Robin was a bit put off by the question, but he answered quickly enough to hide it. "Rare."

"That's gotta be telling us which filing cabinet we're supposed to look in. It says "DRAWER to FILE," right? And those are the only drawers we have in here."

"Speak for yourself."

Leo closed his eyes. "Shut the hell up. Anyway, what if it's not telling us "rare," but it's telling us "Ra to Re?""

They decided that the idea would be easily confirmed by returning to the filing area to ensure that there was indeed a cabinet of the requisite range. As they again greeted Lucky, who had been sitting in a corner shuffling through yet another drawer, their eyes traced the columns of cabinets until they came to rest on "Ra-Re."

"That's the one," Leo cheered, yanking the handle backward. The inside was much the same as any other drawer, filled with folders that were mostly manila. However, there were several black folders, all located immediately at the front.

"I'm glad to see our kidnapper has chosen not to be subtle about everything," Lucky exhaled. "Let's pull those bad hombres out."

All told, there were nine folders. Much like all of the other folders, they each had a small profile sheet for a fictitious student, with only the most basic information not blacked out. There were two key differences to the random files they'd checked earlier, however. First, at the bottom of each profile sheet was an additional information field, labeled "Schedule" and followed by a string of four random letters. Additionally, the inside of each folder was inscribed with a red, four-digit number. "You think these are PIN's for the lockbox?" Leo asked.

"And we have to figure out which one is the right one somehow," Robin concurred.

"Presumably there's some other clue around here about which student we're supposed to be checking up on," Lucky asked. "Did you not find any sort of clue about a particular person? Or perhaps how we're supposed to figure out what sort of schedule these letters mean?" They pulled up the first file, which was named Lytre, and pointed to the Schedule field, reading "R, T, Q, K."

Leo and Robin gave each other uneasy glances and offered Lucky no response, earning them an exaggerated sigh. After a few seconds, though, Robin decided to break the silence before it grew awkward. "Is there anywhere we didn't check that we could have?"

"Well, we didn't scour the entire room, dude," Leo groaned. "We could look underneath the desks, peel back the posters… I don't know."

"I honestly doubt our kidnapper would make it that involved," Lucky sighed. "There hasn't been anything yet that hasn't been clued for somewhere. Maybe you should recheck all the clues you've already seen and give them another decent thought. Or, like, take a break, or whatever works for you. It might help to-"

Lucky was interrupted by the firm smacking sound of Robin planting his hand on his own forehead. "The bathroom," he said, as though he were exasperatingly answering a riddle that he had asked the other two. Having seen nothing on first glance, he had stupidly assumed there wouldn't be anything worth seeing inside. Thus, he wheeled around and headed for the last unchecked room. Leo followed quickly behind, as Lucky informed him that they'd be able to check the files for anything interesting alone.

The restroom was fairly simple, as expected, with nothing on its walls excepting a mirror over a sink in the corner and an adjacent paper towel dispenser. "Alright, the fun part is going to be deciding what exactly is important here," Robin stated.

"It sure isn't the toilet," Leo joked, flipping the lid up and marveling at the absolute blankness. "Not a speck of gunk on here, though."

"I imagine only the principal and assistant really ever used this one," Robin agreed. "Although who knows how long it's been since this building has seen either of them."

Leo rocked his head lightly to the side as though to lodge the thought away for later consideration. "Maybe the mirror is one of those mini shelf things," he suggested. Robin tried to pull on it but to no avail. "Turn on the sink?" A healthy stream of water came down, but nothing else happened.

"Maybe it was a waste of time to come in here," Robin sighed, glancing down at the trash can beside the sink. It was, as expected, quite empty, yet it was not immaculately so. "Oh?" Lying face-down within it was a small card, its back entirely white, save for a black stripe. "Now we're talking," he exhaled as he kneeled down, reaching in to remove the card. It did not come easily, however, seeming to be stuck down with some sort of adhesive. As he tugged, he felt a glob of something stretch with it before finally snapping. "Euch…"

Leo gave the card a disinterested frown. "I guess the whole room couldn't be so spotless," he chuckled. "Since we've got a key lock to the exit, I bet that's someone's ID, and probably the thing we need to figure out which file we're supposed to look at."

"How do you suppose we go about reading it?" Robin asked. "It's covered in… who even knows what this stuff is." He had been quite sure he'd have to leave his comfort zone over the course of the Nonary Game, but the last thing he wanted to do was touch that gross adhesive with his bare hands. "We should head back to the storage room. Hopefully there's something in there that can get rid of all this gunk."

Leo gave him a neutral glance as he wrenched his mouth into a tight smirk. "Alright. Let's make it quick though. I hate to hear what sassy remarks Lucky has for us this time."

With the sticky ID held delicately in his right hand, Robin swiftly made for the ample shelves of the storage room, while Leo stood back at the doorway. Alas, as he examined again for something that might remove the adhesive without completely wiping all the information on it, he came up blank. "Yeah, I don't really know which stuff I'm supposed to use here…" Robin trailed off as he caught Leo, glancing around the room with a fallen face. "Dude, are you alright?"

(Suggested listening: Imaginary)

Leo exhaled incrementally as though to answer that he was indeed not particularly fine. So as not to shock him, Robin set the ID on a shelf and approached slowly. He offered a raised eyebrow that he hoped showed an appropriate amount of concern for the wellbeing of a man he didn't really know. Leo's breathing became slightly more regular, if not perfectly normal, and after several seconds of painstaking silence, he made eye contact with Robin.

"It's…" he started, then grunting in frustration. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Hey, there's no need for you to feel obligated," Robin said, holding his hands up gently to reassure the other man. "You don't have to share all your secrets with someone you just met. But if I knew what was making you uncomfortable, I might be able to help."

Leo's face made Robin think he found the idea completely absurd. After another second of quiet, he inhaled, then exhaling with a groan. "You're right. I don't." He broke eye contact then, his face reflecting his curtness yet betraying an indigo hint of despondency. His eyes traced his path across the floor as he approached the shelves of cleaning supplies, leaving Robin feeling ill at ease.

(Suggested listening: Data)

"If we're dealing with a stubborn adhesive…" Leo stated, bringing one hand up to scratch at his chin, "might as well grab everything that may be helpful." Sensing that Leo would probably be uncomfortable, Robin retrieved a small, empty cardboard box and suggested loading the necessary supplies into it for transport back into the principal's office. Leo offered a respecting nod and took the box, firstly placing the ID in one corner.

"There's no specialized adhesive remover," Robin sighed.

"Alright, then we'll have to try a bit of everything," Leo replied. "You mentioned WD-40, right? Grab that. Also the furniture polish." After a quick second of searching, Robin placed two cans in the box. "Essential oils… oh, grab the eucalyptus. If there's petroleum jelly, find me that. And…" He balanced the box in his left arm as he reached down to the bottom row, holding up a roll of duct tape. Robin managed to find his two other potential solutions, and after another superficial sweep, Leo was satisfied to leave the storage room.

"So what do you plan to do, mix all that together and make a super solvent?" Robin chuckled.

"No, that could be dangerous," Leo immediately answered. "Well, maybe not with some of these things, but I'm not about to mess with stuff if I don't know everything they're made of." He started with a piece of duct tape, effortlessly tearing it off the roll with his hands. "This'll hopefully pull off any of the excess we didn't leave behind in the trash can."

"Wait, when you start using the liquids, what are you gonna wipe it with?" Robin asked.

Leo gave a smirk as he rolled up the spent piece of tape. "Oh. Good point. Would you mind going to the bathroom and getting me some paper towels?"

Robin quickly did so, and clearly at the perfect time, as he caught Leo spraying the ID with WD-40. He'd also brought the trash can, wondering if Leo had intended to just throw his used paper towels on the floor.

"Not like I should care if our kidnapper's place is tidy," Leo shrugged, accepting the can anyway.

Robin watched closely as he worked through the other supplies, slowly clearing away more of the gunk, which only seemed to get tougher and darker the more he cleared. After a few rounds of petroleum jelly, Leo scrubbed the card with a dry paper towel and called it done. "Nice," Robin said, if only to make the other man feel appreciated.

"That last black layer will not come off," Leo said. "We're probably only supposed to have some of the information off of this card anyway."

"Let's see…" Robin read. "Eye: B. Hair: B. Height: 5 foot… something. The inches number is blocked out. And uh… Class: S. Not the clearest information ever, but let's run it by the files to see if it matches one in particular."

Lucky had sprawled the nine folders on the floor in an arc around where they were sitting, each one opened. "Ah, there you two are," they said cheerily. Robin imagined that they'd thumbed through the files several times over by this point, so he hoped the selection of the proper file would be quick.

"We found this ID card," he explained, "but it's only got a few facts about whoever's it is on it."

"What do you say I read you each file, and you compare it to the ID?" Lucky suggested. "If there's something that doesn't match, just say so, and we can count them out." The plan seemed reasonable enough to Robin, so he let Lucky start with the leftmost folder. "First file is named Lytre. They've got brown eyes, brown hair, they're 5'1", and a sophomore. Their schedule is R,T,Q,K, and the PIN given is 5199."

Robin considered telling Lucky that the only information he had regarded the first four fields they mentioned, but he figured it could wait. He briefly remembered the file they'd found earlier about the proper order for classes, then thinking that would also be relevant somehow. Alas, they could at least narrow down their consideration, so he simply stated: "None of that counters this card. Put Lytre in the good pile."

Lucky made an amused grin, as though they hadn't considered calling it a "good" pile, but they obeyed. "Alright, file two belongs to Sbarrebi. Blue eyes, black hair, 5'9", and a senior. H,P,W,B schedule, and 0361 PIN."

"That's also in the good pile," Robin sighed, hoping that the information they'd worked to find wasn't useless.

"File three," Lucky sang, "Ettevre. Brown eyes, red hair, 5'6", and a senior. U,A,G,R schedule, PIN 3337."

"Oh, this one's got something wrong," Robin said, almost as though he were excited. "The red hair's a no. This ID says "B" for the hair color."

"It's just a "B," huh?" Lucky asked. "Seems somewhat useless, as that could be pretty much any hair color besides red." They didn't seem too distraught, though, and tossed Ettevre's file further away. "Well, number four is, fittingly, named Vier. Green eyes, black hair, 4'10", and a junior. M,O,X,I schedule, and PIN 4088."

"No, that one's off too," Robin answered. "The height is 5' something, no green eyes, and no juniors."

"I'll try to remember that," Lucky said plainly, adding Vier to the bad pile. "How about numero cinco, Kobro. We've got blue eyes, brown hair, 5'11", and a senior. Their schedule is V,F,D,N, and a PIN 2158."

"That one's good. Number six?" Robin asked.

"Pagrais. Pa-gray? Pa-grei. Ah, no matter," Lucky started. Robin was beginning to think they'd grown tired of looking at these papers. "Brown eyes, blond hair, 5'3", a freshman, schedule Y,Z,P,E, and PIN 2681."

"Freshman. No good," Robin replied, trying to remain succinct as he too felt the tedium of their current task.

"Seventh is Takeno. Brown eyes, black hair, 4'7"... so that's already a no." Without looking to Robin for confirmation, they threw it into the bad pile and grabbed number eight. "Moguziden. Blue eyes, black hair, 5' exactly, sophomore, schedule S,K,J,U, and PIN 6167."

"That's good," Robin confirmed. "One more," he added quietly, thinking it might offer Lucky a slight bit of cheer.

"Ninth we have Rankzumn. Blue eyes, blond hair, 5'9", and a junior. So that's out."

"How many do we have left?" Leo asked.

"Lytre, Sbarrebi, Kobro, and Moguziden. So, four," Lucky answered, their fingers fiddling with the tabs. "Which means, I hate to say it, something else is missing."

Leo grunted in response to Lucky's analysis. "That's something I'm not gonna miss when we're out of here," he snorted.

"Like you said earlier, Lucky, everything has a clue pointing toward it," Robin continued. "So… are there any clues we've seen but haven't figured out yet?"

The other two tilted their heads in thought, almost simultaneously. After only a few seconds, though, Leo righted his. "The composite in the principal's office," he said, absently slapping the back of his right hand into his left palm.

"Ah, and the banner out in the assistant's room," Lucky reminded. "One from one, two from two…"

"Oh man," Robin said as the realization hit him. "Those two have to be related." Still feeling excited to figure something out, he turned without another word and headed for the principal's office. As the flash of epiphany bounded within his head, he thought he could hear a voice.

"Door [2]. What a fuckin' choice. I'm ready to get the hell out of here." The voice froze him in the middle of his stride. A large part of him wanted to turn around and see Leo standing there, eyebrows hiked and waiting for a reply, but he knew that wouldn't be the case. This voice had been much like the ones he'd heard back on floor 0, although those had felt like friends chatting with him. This voice, however, felt like it was talking to everyone yet no one. It felt like a stranger, a relic of the Nonary Game, since it had referred to the door he'd entered. Alas, what made Robin especially trepidatious was that he could almost identify the speaker.