Deciphering DEFCON with Daemons by SleuthSphinx ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It didn’t happen with a great flash of light, or a clap of thunder. No! One moment every person was alone; and the next, they were here. Animal companions, split off from each human; the other half of themselves given animal form - one for every person on Earth.  It was odd, sure. A total surprise, and yet, there was an understanding that came over people as soon as they met their animal’s eyes. Something that calmed the panic of having a rattlesnake or elk suddenly materialize next to them in the car or on the bus. It halted raised hands and calmed blood-curdling screams. The feeling of it being /right/, like something had fallen into place. This was a piece they didn’t even know was missing, like their heart had been taken out of their chest and given an animal form. And that wouldn’t be too far off from what happened.  Across the world people were driving, working, shopping, and doing everything they normally would, when suddenly their familiar was next to them. As people would come to find out, their familiars were very special. Each familiar was irrevocably tied to their human; they died when their human died and went wherever their human went. They knew what each other was thinking, because how could you hide your thoughts from yourself? Most people eventually found an animal form that fit them; it represented them in some way. Either their personality was similar to the animal’s behavior or maybe it was more symbolic. For most people, once they’d found the right animal, it was rather uncomfortable for their familiar to change from that form. Still, there were plenty of people whose familiars continued to shift and change. Once the immediate shock had passed, the new thing became what to call these animal companions. The default in several Western countries was “familiars” or “familiar spirits” after the animal companions historically associated with witches. Most everyone had heard of them before and the new companions did seem similar, so it was an easy name to choose. However, many people online who had an interest in technology, mythology, or media, preferred a different name. Just like the programs that manage background processes on Unix-based operating systems are called daemons, these people often called their animal companions daemons for the same reason. Unrelated to /demons/, daemons in Greek mythology were companion spirits who were with each person from birth and complemented a person’s personality. This described the familiars perfectly. In a handful of ancient Internet forums and servers, there were groups of people who already knew their daemons. Whether it was from books and movies that referenced them, a further development of imaginary friends, hearing about them on virtual pet sites, or a combination of these factors, many users were interested in the practice of getting to know themselves better and having an intangible friend along the way. ‘Projection’ was also very popular, the practice of imagining their daemon was there existing in their environment with them. These users had a deep love for animals and enjoyed analyzing animal behavior to see how it could correspond with human behavior, in addition to analyzing their own personality to determine which animal fit best. Sure, their daemons came from a conscious decision to split off that little inner voice in their head and give it a name, but that didn’t make them any less special. Two such users from the forums were self-proclaimed rival white and grey hat hackers, Alys Stirling and Loxe Fairchilde. They had met each other years ago, while they were both freshmen in college, and declared each other rivals at first sight. Thus, began years of playful banter and rivalry, as they solidified each other as the most important person in each other’s life.  Of course, their daemons were also very important to them. Alys had Alois, who preferred to take the form of many different birds, as he was rather dramatic. On the other hand, Loxe had Key, who was set on being a Lynx, no matter what other forms she temporarily tried. Alois and Key both complemented their humans well, being their innermost selves after all, and had practically been around forever. While their daemons had always gotten along, many times making jokes at their humans’ expense, it’d taken a while for Alys and Loxe to even be in the same room together without trying to tear each other to pieces. That was better now, and they were much less hostile towards each other, which was beneficial for everyone around them. Along the way came Fynn Saint-Yves, who rather literally dropped into their lives and decided that despite the chaos that went on between the pair, he was sticking around no matter what. This was much to both of the girls’ surprise; that this fancy-pants rich boy who wore his heart on his sleeve and was far too genuine, who they had roped into going on the run across the country with them, actually /cared/ about them and wanted to be their friend. Just before the daemons appeared, the trio arrived in Las Vegas for the world-renowned cybersecurity convention, DEFCON. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “There is NO way,” Loxe said in disbelief as Fynn passed her his cellphone, pictures of the room he had reserved displayed on the screen. Alys peeked over from the other side, and whined, “Fynn! What the heck?” She lightly swatted his arm in a scolding manner. “That has to be way too expensive!” Loxe scrolled on the page then scoffed, “Of course it is! They don’t even list the price on here!” Fynn just laughed sheepishly and said, “It’s the Napoleon Suite at the Paris Las Vegas hotel! It has rooms for all of us and a living room with a piano! Plus, a bar and a giant bathtub! And one of the casinos is right downstairs! Doesn’t that sound fun?” Alys and Loxe shared a look. It was obvious Fynn was just so excited about being included, even though he was wildly out of his element with cybersecurity. He had an interesting way of showing his love to his friends, besides his normal affectionate self, which usually involved spending money on them, whether it was trips or presents.  In silent agreement, Alys was the one who spoke first. “Alright, it does sound like fun.” She gave him a small smile and watched as his eyes lit up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When convention time rolled around, the trio checked into the hotel and went up to their room. Extremely thankful for the cool air conditioning inside the hotel, Alys began unpacking her suitcases. Both she and Loxe had brought their fursuits with them, as they hoped to wear them at some point during the convention. Her fursona was a champagne and pink fairy cat, while Loxe’s was a murky brown and green manticore. She idly imagined Alois as a white fantailed pigeon watching her from the floor, her back turned to him. As she set out her champagne-colored cat tail on the bed, it felt like her heart stopped for a moment. Her connection with Alois felt different, not like it was when she wasn’t projecting Alois, and he remained in the back of her mind. No, this felt different, not necessarily bad, but /strange/.  “Uh, Alys?” Alois said from behind her. He said it aloud, not just as a little voice inside her head. The blonde spun around so fast she thought her neck might break. And there he was, sitting on the floor looking up at her. Her daemon, physically REAL. She fell, knees hitting the carpet, as she swept him into her arms. Warm russet feathers brushed her skin as he tucked his head against her neck, his crest tickling her chin. She didn’t have the words to say anything, but let the happy tears flow freely down her face as she sobbed.  After a few good minutes of just holding her daemon and sobbing, Alys recovered enough to get up — not letting go of her daemon for a second. Her first thought was to check on Loxe. Was there a chance that however Alois became physical, Loxe’s Key would too? Deep down Alys hoped so. As much as she would rag on her rival, she still respected her and her daemon. Walking into Loxe’s room, Loxe was talking to her daemon, as warmly as Alys had ever seen. Her eyes were a bit puffy as well, while the wildcat leaned against her legs and looked up at her human with sage green eyes full of love. Alys regarded Key fondly, nodding. “Iberian Lynx, huh? It’s fitting.” Loxe looked rather pleased with herself, puffed up and almost smug. She was proud of her daemon, as everyone should be. “Yeah. And yours is...” she took one look at Alois in Alys’ arms. “Pfft—" She covered her mouth, trying in vain to keep a straight face. “He is a, snrk— BWAHAHA!” Alys’ dear rival doubled over in laughter at the sight of her daemon, a hoatzin. The tropical bird was also known as the— “STINKBIRD!” She managed to choke out between fits of laughter. “Yours is fitting too!” Then added, “No offense, Alois.” Alois primly eyed the laughing brunette from his perch in his human’s arms. “Full offense taken, thank you.”  “WOW. And here I was trying to have a nice moment here, considering the one thing we’ve always wished for but knew was literally impossible /happened/.” Shifting her hold on Alois to one arm, she pressed her free hand to her chest and threw her head back dramatically. “Oh, if only I had a rival who cared about our newly corporeal daemons.” Key, who had been watching the back-and-forth with great interest, nodded solemnly. “For shame,” she said, tsk-tsking and shaking her head slowly. Loxe snorted, but it was clear that she wasn’t upset. “You’re siding with her? My own daemon? The betrayal,” she said, almost as dramatically as Alys.  Alois and Key glanced at each other and snickered, as if sharing an inside joke between daemons.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Curled up on the couch, Alys scrolled through photos and videos of daemons and their humans on social media. Alois was watching from above, perched on the crystal chandelier above her and looking down at his person. “I wonder how Espirix is doing… What forms do you think her daemon took? Oh, and what about Foxtrot?”  Alois shrugged his wings. “Maybe a fox for Espirix? I’m not sure about Foxtrot, though, despite his nickname.” Alys rolled over, almost rolling off the couch, to look at Loxe, who was draped over one of the ornate chairs in the room preparing for some of the CTFs on her laptop. Key was stretched out in her own chair next to Loxe, dozing off.  “Hey. Hey. Hey.” Alys tried to get Loxe’s attention without waking Key, but also for the express purpose of aggravating her. “What,” Loxe growled out, still not deigning her with eye contact.  “We’re taking bets on what form Espirix and Foxtrot’s daemons have.” She gestured at Alois, who looked at her with a flat expression. “No, we’re not,” he said dryly.  “Ooh, we’re betting on something?”  This made all four of them turn, eager to see Fynn and his new daemon. He cradled the grey rodent in his hands, up close to his heart. The sweet little face looked out from above his fingers, with a feather-like tail that curled around his wrist. “Awwww! Fynn! Who’s this? Will you introduce us?” Alys’ full attention was on her friend and his daemon now, previous train of thought forgotten. She sat up properly and made room on the couch next to her for Fynn.  Alois glided down from the chandelier in clumsy loops, landing on Alys’ lap, raising his head to try and see Fynn’s daemon better. Loxe was interested too, setting her laptop in another chair while Key was roused from her slumber and perked up, big, pointed ears swiveled towards the chinchilla. Fynn took a seat next to Alys and held his daemon out in his hands. “This is Lucy!” He said simply, a big smile on his face as he displayed his daemon.  “Pretty,” Loxe said with a nod. “Chinchilla makes sense for you, Fynn. Kinda ironic in a way but fitting.” Key raised her head towards Fynn and Lucy. “Nice to meet you, Lucy. And to talk to you like this, Fynn. I’m Key.” “And I’m Alois,” the hoatzin chirped with a bow. “We’ve been around the WHOLE time, so we know how much Alys and Loxe care about you~ And we’re part of them so we can say the same.” Key nodded at him, and the young man’s heart melted. “Awwww! You guys!” He said, holding Lucy to his chest with the biggest smile they’d ever seen. “Okay! Let’s get back on guessing what kind of daemons Espirix and Foxtrot have,” Loxe quickly changed the subject. While her and Loxe’s daemons weren’t /wrong/, she was a little embarrassed to say it so openly like that. Next to her, Key side-eyed her human. “Weren’t you /not/ getting involved with that?” The lynx asked, one circular eyebrow raised. “I don’t want to hear from you. You just want more drama,” Loxe said, unimpressed. Key shrugged, as if to say, ‘You got me there.’ Alys picked up where her rival left off and continued to push for a change in subject. “Yeah! Here, I’ll video call her now.” She pulled out her phone and with a few taps the phone began to ring as she waited for her little sister to answer. Alys smiled as the screen chimed, her younger sister Espirix’s picture coming into view. “Hi! How’re you doing?” Alys asked, Alois popping his head into the frame. In the background, behind Espirix, Alys could see her sister’s partner in crime, ‘Foxtrot’, who gave a wave with a small smile on his face. The two of them were staying at the Flamingo, a few hotels over from the Paris where Alys was staying. “We’re doing good! Look, this is Misha!” The camera panned to the table where Espirix was sitting with glitter pens and other stationary piled around her. Sitting next to her at the table was a white bat-eared fox, who leaned in close to the camera until all you could see was his pink nose and big blue eyes. He let out a happy trill in greeting and sniffed the phone.  “Hi Misha!” Alys said brightly, Alois making a similar noise to Misha, which caused the bat-eared fox to run around with joy. “Where’s Foxtrot’s daemon?” “Oh, right! Here, look at her!” Espirix pointed the camera towards Foxtrot, who had a kit fox with silver fur sitting on his lap. “Her name’s Arsene, we named her together!” Despite it not being her daemon, you could just hear the pride in Espirix’s voice when she showed off Foxtrot’s daemon. “She’s adorable! I’m so happy for you two!” Foxtrot blushed, turning away from the camera. Arsene however, wagged her tail happily. “Is that a heist letter I see?” Espirix looked the slightest bit sheepish, running a hand through her pink hair. “Hahaha, yeah. You could tell?” “Of course! You go all out for those, so the stationary gave it away. Is Agent Arrow going to be attending?” “I sure hope so, there’s a few lines in here addressed to them after all.”  When Alys initially heard about Espirix’s rivalry with Agent Arrow, aka Artemis, her first thought was that it was nice she was following in her footsteps and finding someone to challenge her like Loxe did for herself. Her second thought was, did it really have to be an INTERPOL AGENT?? Especially a cool special agent type like in the movies and not the normal paper-pusher sort?? Not that she was doubting her sister’s abilities, she was a very smart and capable gentleman thief, but that was about as high of a high-stakes rivalry as you could get.  But it has been working out for the best. Agent Arrow was infinitely less trigger-happy than some of the officers assigned to Espirix’s case in the past. The two had teamed up on different cases several times and had come to each other’s rescue more than once. There was a mutual respect there, which Alys could certainly appreciate.  “Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Hopefully we’ll see you around the convention! Play nice with Agent Arrow! Foxtrot, don’t let her get into too much trouble!”  The sharply dressed young man gave Alys a wry smile. “I’d say that depends entirely on Espirix. I am simply at the whims of your sister and her schemes.” “Foxtrot!” Espirix cried out, mock-scandalized. “Okay, gotta go, byeeee!” She said quickly, hanging up the call. “Well, that went well,” Loxe said with a snort. Alys just blinked at the phone, stunned after it ended so abruptly. She sighed fondly, setting the phone down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alys had more questions. “I know Espirix and Foxtrot are handling things alright, but how do you think other people are taking it?” Alys asked, Loxe subtly inclining her head while continuing to look at her laptop, indicating that she was listening. “I mean, it’s gotta be weird having part of you /exposed/ like this, right? And having somebody else know your thoughts and stuff? Most people aren’t used to talking to their daemons, really talking to /themselves/, like we are.” Loxe broke her gaze away from the screen to make eye contact with Alys and gesture over her shoulder with her thumb. “I don’t know, I’d say most people are taking it pretty well.”  With the door open behind Loxe, Alys could see Fynn sitting on the bed in his room. He held his daemon in his hands and was currently peppering the chinchilla’s blue-grey coat with kisses. “You’re so cute I could eat you up! Mwah, mwah, mwah, MWAH!”  Lucy squeaked with delight, wiggling around and giggling in his human’s hands.  “…Yeah, I think they’re probably fine.”  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The next day, when the group arrived at the convention center, it was filled with thousands of people and their daemons. Alys and Alois looked on in wonder at the flocks of bird daemons that fluttered in the air, their humans congregating in lines to get their badges. Similarly, humans and daemons were mingling all over the place, some not even properly in line, just hanging out with people who were. Loxe was wearing her semi-partial fursuit, with puffy dark grey cat paws on her hands and feet, in addition to a long plush tail tipped with an equally plush stinger. By the time Alys turned around, Fynn and Lucy were nowhere to be seen. Seeing the brief flash of panic on her nemesis’s face, Loxe sighed and tapped Alys on the shoulder, directing her to a place off towards the side where Fynn was sitting on the floor (in his white suit!!) with a duo making kandi bracelets.  The two, or rather four, were around their age, maybe a couple years younger, and looked like they had been camped out there for a while, judging by their progress on the bracelets. The dark-haired boy with a star covered shirt had a matching starling daemon that trilled happily as she hopped around picking out colorful beads. His partner, a shy girl with white hair like Fynn, had a white-sided jackrabbit daemon who seemed to be attempting to imitate a fuzzy basketball.  Fynn had joined them easily, and was chatting up a storm with the boy, Vesper they heard, who was just as friendly as Fynn was. On the other hand, the girl, Whether, and her daemon were taken with Lucy, giving the chinchilla a small smile. The pair of rivals decided to leave Fynn alone for now and get in the preregistration line, he’d come find them when he was ready.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Alright, what do we want to do first?” Loxe asked, Key looking around at her feet. They had all successfully gotten their badges and were ready to start. “Opening ceremony!” Both Fynn and Lucy cheered at once. Both Alys and Loxe had been to DEFCON enough times that they were sort of over going to the opening ceremony, but since it was Fynn’s first time, and such a life-changing thing had just happened…  “Alright, let’s do that,” Loxe agreed.  Except for the addition of daemons, the opening ceremony wasn’t much different than usual. There were a lot less people than normal at the convention, which was probably due to the general uncertainty after the appearance of daemons. Outside the main hall, the trio and their daemons stopped to plan their next move. As Loxe and Fynn were looking at the convention schedule Alys would take any opportunity to mess with her rival. “Hey, Loxe… Is that The Judge?” Alys asked, pointing vaguely in the direction of a large crowd. The brunette whipped around, eyes wide, “Where?!” She ducked down, as if crouching down a couple inches would hide her from the detective who had an uncanny ability to show up in the creepiest way possible. After a beat, Loxe realized she was being messed with, and The Judge wasn’t there. She took the end of her oversized plush tail and bopped Alys on the head with a frown.  “You know she’s not here! Why would a private eye from New Orleans be here in Las Vegas for DEFCON?” Loxe asked, somewhat embarrassed. “You don’t know her hobbies,” Alys retorted. “I wonder what kind of familiar she has. I bet it’s a swan,” Fynn said mostly to Lucy. This caused both Alys and Loxe to turn and look at him like her grew another head. “Whuh?? A swan?? Did you forget the time she literally hunted Loxe for sport?” Alys asked incredulously. “Yeah, that’s not swan behavior. Like I get it, swans kinda go with her appearance and can be aggressive, but seriously?” But their protests didn’t seem to deter Fynn in the slightest. “Counterpoint,” Fynn said steepling his fingers and pointing them forward. “She /was/ being manipulated then.” “Okay, I’ll give you that,” Loxe conceded. “But that doesn’t mean she isn’t /unhinged/. She literally makes taxidermy heads of her friends. That’s out there, even for me,” Loxe pointed to herself with a fuzzy cat paw. Fynn looked doubtful. “I don’t think that—” Alois cut him off by clearing his throat. “Ahem. We’re losing time here; don’t you want to go to a talk? Several start in just a few minutes.” This got both Fynn and Loxe’s attention. “Yeah, let’s go to one. I think there’s a talk on Near Field Communication in the West Hall,” Loxe said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As the group was walking to the next talk, someone bumped into Fynn. “Oh, sorry!” Fynn apologized, as the boy with curly brown hair continued walking. He blended into the crowd in seconds, but his cross fox daemon stopped and gave Fynn and Lucy a pointed look before turning tail and disappearing.  “Huh.” Fynn mumbled, perplexed by the fox’s behavior.  Up ahead, Alys, Loxe, and their daemons slowed so the straggling pair of Fynn and Lucy could catch up. “You, okay?” Alys asked, Alois looking at the pair with a concerned glint in his eye from his perch on her shoulder. “We’re fine. Right Lucy?” Fynn replied, glancing down at the chinchilla. “Right. But they left this in Fynn’s pocket,” the chinchilla said, waving a business card with a paw. “What’s that?” Fynn asked, taking the card.  On the front of the card was a string of numbers, 1s and 0s, while the back said, “Use whatever methods possible to solve this challenge. (Except violence. Be more creative than that!).” 1001001-1100110-100000-1111001-1101111-1110101-100000-1110000-1101001-1100011-1101011-100000-1110100-1101000-1100101-100000-1110010-1101001-1100111-1101000-1110100-100000-1101100-1101111-1100011-1101011-1110011-101100-100000-1111001-1101111-1110101-100000-1101010-1110101-1110011-1110100-100000-1101101-1101001-1100111-1101000-1110100-100000-1100110-1101001-1101110-1100100-100000-1110100-1101000-1100101-100000-1101011-1100101-1111001-101110 “Oh, that’s fun!” Fynn said excitedly, Lucy’s whiskers twitching. “Are we going to do it?”  The girls looked at each other, Loxe with a doubtful expression and Alys with almost the same.  “Don’t you think that’s a bit of a red flag? Like doing what some mysterious person tells you to do?” Fynn shrugged, “You mentioned that there’s all sorts of hidden challenges at the convention, don’t you think this is one of them? It wouldn’t hurt to try; we won’t do anything dangerous.” At Loxe’s feet, Key spoke up. “It’s probably fine.” Loxe and Alys couldn’t really argue, they really could stop at any point if they wanted to. Alys gave a shrug, and that’s all Loxe needed to see. “Okay, so there’s a few ways we can do this to start. We could use a website where you enter the binary and it converts it to ASCII code, or we could use a program that automatically detects all the stuff like that. It’s also possible to do everything by hand using a conversion chart, but I’m not really into that like Alys is,” Loxe explained. Fynn put his hand up. “ASCII code is where each of the letters and numbers and punctuation marks are mapped to numbers so computers can understand them.” Fynn put his hand down. “Why don’t we do it the first way?” Key mewed. Loxe tugged a fluffy cat paw off her hand and clipped it to the D-ring on her hip. Then pulled out her phone and opened a website that converts binary to ASCII.  “So, we’ll type the binary in here, and it’ll give us the plaintext,” she said she began to painstakingly type out the ones and zeroes. In a minute or so she showed the screen to Key who double-checked it and nodded. As soon as she clicked the button, a message appeared on the screen. If you pick the right locks, you just might find the key. At first, Loxe thought that was a little weird. That sounded awfully close to her and Key’s names, but then again, the sentence did make sense. But those were both normal words, it’s not like it said /Loxe/ and had /key/ capitalized. It was probably just a coincidence. “Oh! Maybe we should check out the Lockpick Village? They’ve got all kinds of padlocks with the lockpicking tools,” Alys proposed. Loxe looked over at her and gave her a smirk, “Wow! You’ve got a good idea for once. Call the press, this is a historical event!” Alys just rolled her eyes and grabbed Fynn’s hand, pulling him along while Lucy climbed into Fynn’s vest and Alois flew behind them. Loxe chuckled as she followed them to the other convention hall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the Lockpick Village, there were tables of locks with lock picking kits spread out alongside them. Loxe immediately gravitated towards the tables, grabbing a lock and opening it with a few easy motions. She made it look effortless and was obviously in her element. Fynn and Lucy were both starry-eyed at Loxe’s skill, watching her in awe. Wordlessly, she held out a tension wrench and half-diamond pick to him. She selected a basic padlock for him also and watched as he gave it a go. Fynn was a natural at it, and the lock clicked open in no time. In the past, Alys might have been jealous watching Loxe teach Fynn. But now she looked on with fondness at her good friend and frenemy bonding. While Fynn worked on another lock Loxe had handed him, both Alys and Loxe decided to check out the remaining locks to see if there was any way to narrow down the ones they were looking for. The locks were all different colors and different brands, but Loxe picked up one that had a stylized eye painted on it and a tiny number one on the bottom. A few tables over, Alys also picked up a lock with an eye scribbled on it in permanent marker and a number two, and Key pawed at a lock with an eye sticker on it and a small number three. Alois picked the lock up in his talons and flew it over to Fynn, depositing it in Lucy’s little hands. Loxe picked her lock in no time at all. Wrapped around the metal mechanism was a small roll of paper that string of letters. ILGGVMGLGSVXLIV Alys’ lock had a small metal canister through it, which could only be opened if the lock was opened. When she unlocked the padlock, the canister came off and she unscrewed it to find another slip of paper. GSXLSQKDDKLVODRBOOYPDROMBSWCYXPOKDROBONLSBNPYBDROXOHDMVEO Fynn squinted as his lock opened, with a tiny message printed on the inside of the metal. Q0FSRFM= All three of the trio, and their trio of daemons, came close together to discuss the encrypted messages. Fynn spoke up first, showing his lock. “This one has a little number three in addition to this code. Are there numbers on yours?” Alys nodded, holding hers out so Fynn and Loxe could see it too. “This one has a two!” “A two for second place maybe~ I’ve got number one,” Loxe said with pride. Alys gave her an unimpressed look. “Despite EVERYTHING in me, logic dictates we should start with yours, Loxe,” she relented. She pulled out her phone and opened a website that identifies ciphers. Entering the first set of ciphertext, the most likely type of cipher was listed as an Atbash cipher even though it was slightly unsure due to the short length. “Oh, this one’s fun! Here Fynn, we can do it on paper. Alois, would you mind?” Alois flapped up to land on her pink backpack, unzipping it with his beak and pulling out a pen and notepad. He jumped down onto the table and clear a spot with his wings, pushing the locks and lockpicks out of the way for Alys to place the notepad. “So, an Atbash cipher is also called a mirror cipher. It uses the alphabet backwards, so A equals Z and so on. We should be able to do it easily by looking at this,” she showed him a picture of the Latin alphabet with the reversed alphabet below it. Writing out the ciphertext on the paper, it was very simple to compare each letter with the one above it, so in just a short amount of time the plaintext was found. ROTTENTOTHECORE “Hm. Interesting,” Alys mumbled, looking at the message. She glanced at her own ciphertext, then scribbled something else on the notepad. “What if it’s a ROT-10 cipher! We could give it a shot.” Loxe shrugged. “I don’t see why not,” she said opening a decoder for ROT ciphers and set it to a rotation of 10. She typed in Alys’ ciphertext, and a message was revealed. WINBIGATTABLETHREEOFTHECRIMSONFEATHEREDBIRDFORTHENEXTCLUE Looking over Loxe’s shoulder, Fynn adjusted his glasses. “Win big… at table three… of the crimson feathered bird… for the… next clue,” he read slowly. He raised his head back and blinked, confused. “What does /that/ mean? A crimson feathered bird, like Alois? No, that doesn’t make sense.” Frankly, Alys was a little unnerved by that. It hit a little too close to home that the clue was about a crimson feathered bird. That was a weird coincidence. She thought about it for a minute, when it finally came to her. “Oh! A flamingo! Their genus means ‘crimson feathered.’ It must be talking about a blackjack table at the Flamingo casino!” Fynn looked very excited about the prospect of going to the casino; that was in his wheelhouse as a semi-professional card player. Lucy looked exited too, the chinchilla’s ears were perked up attentively. “Yeah, I’ll buy that. What about the third message?” Loxe asked, prompting Fynn to show his lock. It was much shorter than the other strings and ended with an equal sign. “Maybe it’s in Base 64? That’s my thoughts based on the equal sign filler,” Alys said. Loxe switched to Base 64 decoding and entered the text. CARDS Loxe shrugged. “That’s it, but I don’t know how it’s going to help us. Maybe it’ll be useful later.” Fynn nodded. “Let’s go to the casino now!” Alys stopped him. “Wait a second. We’re not in /that/ much of a hurry. How about we go check something else out first? The Social Engineering Village is doing their community vishing competition soon; that’ll be fun to see!” Both her nemesis and friend agreed, and all went off to see it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The vishing competition was a lot of fun, and Fynn found that he was very interested in the art of social engineering. They spent a good while there, learning tips and tricks from people who did that regularly alongside other types of penetration testing. After that, they ended up at the Flamingo casino. Fynn waltzed up to table three, while Alys and Loxe and their daemons hung back to watch. As they waited, they could hear a commotion break out further down the casino floor. Not long after that, Espirix ran through the casino, dressed in a sparkly flamboyant outfit, Misha at her heels. She waved at Alys as she passed, and moments later Agent Arrow followed in pursuit with her Russian Blue cat daemon. Alys smiled but also hoped that Fynn would hurry up before the building got locked down. The dealer wasn’t much older than them, a pretty young man with long grey hair and round purple lens glasses, who had a snow leopard daemon at his side. He smiled as Fynn approached, with a knowing look in his eye, and the game started shortly after. Fynn was skilled, and something about the dealer told him that he was new, so a couple games were over in the blink of an eye. As Fynn got up to leave, the dealer tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a receipt and a single decorative poker chip for some reason, then winked. Fynn thought it was odd. He went back to Alys and Loxe and quickly headed back to the convention. When he looked at what he’d been given, it was obvious this was what the clue meant. The poker chip had the words ‘le chiffre indéchiffrable’ written on the back and a string of letters on the front. HOLUGPEWLNGOEHRGRFWZTEV As soon as Alys and Loxe both saw the words written on the chip, they said in unison, “A Vigenère cipher!” They gave each other a strange look. “Okay, so if it /is/ a Vigenère cipher, there should be a key. How about checking that receipt, maybe it’s on there?” The receipt didn’t have the right text or numbers on it to be a proper receipt. Instead, there were many sets of numbers printed on it. 888-777-666-666-6-0-444-0-44-2-888-33-0-2-0-7777-88-777-7-777-444-7777-33-0-333-666-777-0-999-666-88-0-555-666-666-55-0-22-33-555-666-9-0-2-66-3-0-2-7777-55-0-2-777-666-88-66-3-0-7777-666-0-8-44-33-0-222-555-88-33-7777-0-222-2-66-0-22-33-0-333-666-88-66-3 “That’s interesting. Maybe a T9 SMS?” Loxe proposed. Alys shook her head. “No no, there’s too many repeating numbers here for that. It’s multi-tap.” She typed the numbers in a tool for decoding multi-tap ciphertext and got a message that made her snort. VROOM I HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU LOOK BELOW AND ASK AROUND SO THE CLUES CAN BE FOUND Key stretched while on the floor, saying, “Well it’s not a key for the poker chip. But there’s only one place we can go next, and you all know it~” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Car Hacking Village was in the center of the convention hall, complete with an electric car. A goon with a tablet stood in front of the car, both keeping watch and answering questions about the challenge. Based on the multi-tap message, ‘ask around’ was probably referring to speaking with the man. And they all realized in horror that the ‘look below’ part was probably meaning look underneath the car. Loxe supposed the best place to start was with asking the attendant about the clue. Glancing down at Key, the human-daemon pair shared a silent conversation. Then aloud, she pointed her arm forward. “Deploy the boy!” Loxe declared with playful passion. “Boy deployed!” Key darted forward, nipping at Fynn’s ankles. The lynx didn’t make contact besides lightly brushing the white fabric of his pants, but it spurred him forward just the same.  Even just the proximity or threat of touching another person’s daemon was uncomfortable, especially since physical daemons were a brand-new phenomenon. Fynn dodged Key’s assault, and walked up to the man, who had a grey fox daemon sitting in the fox version of a cat loaf and several animal keychains on his badge lanyard. While Fynn was busy putting his social engineering skills to the test, Alys, Alois, Loxe, and Key were trying to figure out how to look under the car without being noticed. To start, Loxe moved closer to the car, while Key crouched down and crawled underneath. The lynx let out a hiss, then returned to her human’s side. “It’s a /QR/ code. I can’t operate a camera with my paws,” she said grumpily. Loxe hummed. “We might be able to stick a phone under there if we get close enough. Maybe you could aim the camera and press the button?” Key shook her head. At that time, Fynn came back over with Lucy sticking out of his pocket. He shook his head with a frown as he approached. “I got him to admit he has a message, which was funny because he slipped up. But he wouldn’t tell me what the message is and said he ‘wants to see something impressive.’ BUT,” Fynn held a finger up. “I think I know how to get him to talk~” He leaned in to whisper something in Alys’ ear, which immediately made her laugh. “Okay, okay. That might work. We’ll be right back,” she said to Loxe with a smile as she, Fynn, and their daemons headed back to the Paris via the Loop. Loxe and Key checked out some of the booths while they waited for the others to get back. It was obvious when they returned, as they could see Alys and Fynn in the distance. She was wearing her full fursuit, which must have been a nightmare to wear for any amount of time outside. The giant fluffy champagne-colored kitty had a huge curly cream mane and tail, with hot pink feathers on her back and sprinkled throughout her coat. There was a great amount of care and detail put into the creation of the suit, and everyone around stared in awe, including the car man and his duck. With Fynn as her handler, Alys walked right up to the goon who was star struck, and she had his complete attention when she waved her big fluffy paws at him. Loxe took this as the opportunity she was looking for, and while everyone was focused on her currently fluffy rival, she laid down on the floor and scooted under the car. A QR code was stuck to the undercarriage of the electric vehicle, which she quickly scanned and then rolled out from underneath. A digital key popped up on her phone, branded once again with the eye shape they had been seeing all over. Back on her feet, Loxe watched with amusement as a few children who happened to be attending DEFCON with their parents came up and wanted to touch or take pictures with Alys. When things had finally calmed down, Fynn escorted Alys over. Alois had been gently perching on one of Alys’ artificial wings, trying not to damage them. “We got it!” Fynn said excitedly. “It’s weird though. He just said a couple of random words. ‘Fence, truth, shell.’” Key laughed, remembering how Loxe had encountered a similar thing in an old CTF. It had really confused her at first, but now anytime she saw three words in a group, she knew what it meant. “C’mon, let’s go get my adorable archnemesis out of the giant wearable carpet,” Loxe said with a smile in her voice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back at the Napoleon Suite, Loxe explained what the words meant while Alys chugged a glass of water. “So, there’s the app that basically gives an alternate form of geographical coordinates. Instead of something like latitude and longitude, it gives a set of three words. They all correspond to places on a grid of the entire earth, and they’re much easier to remember.” She pulled up the app on her phone. Here you can look at it. We just enter the three words, and ta-da!” A pin popped up on the map, showing a specific location in the Central Hall of the convention center. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This part of the convention center didn’t seem to have much traffic. The smooth beige fabric walls had several places with electronic keypads, where the wall appeared to be able to open like a door. Loxe held up her phone with the digital key, and the light on the keypad changed, but the door wouldn’t open when Alys tugged on it. “Looks like we need a PIN.” After a minute of thinking, Lucy held up the poker chip that had been in Fynn’s pocket. “We need to solve this, too. Maybe the key is ‘CARDS,’ since that didn’t go with anything else?” “Great idea!” Fynn praised, as Loxe tried just that. The Vigenère cipher’s key was, indeed, CARDS. FOURONEFIVEONEZEROTHREE Loxe tried the numbers from the solved Vigenère message and sure enough, the wall panel popped out so Alys could get her hand in there and pull it open. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The backrooms in the convention center lived up to their popular media counterpart, being just as creepy in real life as in video games or analog horror. The yellow walls and dingy carpet, along with the bright fluorescent lighting made for a very unsettling atmosphere. Down one of the hallways, Alys caught sight of a large vinyl sticker of an eye, like the ones on the locks in the Lockpick Village. Which led the group to follow the eyes through the maze-like liminal space. Finally, they arrived at a dead end, but something felt off about the bare room ahead. The group stopped before the entrance of the room, leaving the corners of the room unseen. A slow clapping echoed off the walls, but nobody could tell where it was coming from. From around the corner, almost as if materializing from thin air, stalked a tall thin bird with grey feathers tipped in black and striking red eyes. Key involuntarily arched her back while her fur rose on end, and Alois’ feathers puffed up from his perch on Alys’ shoulder. The secretary bird didn’t speak, just staring at them. The bird’s behavior didn’t give anything away about their human either, unlike most people’s daemons did. Alys took Alois from off her shoulder and clutched him to her chest, while Key pressed herself against Loxe, as they saw pair of long legs in slacks step out from behind the wall. Up they looked, past the clapping hands, the long white lab coat hanging off broad shoulders, the ring of star-shaped throat scars, and the long grey-and-white ponytail, to see a grinning face with large round glasses that gave a harsh glare in the artificial light. The young woman loomed over them, being a foot or more taller than all three of them. “Bravo, bravo! You all did a wonderful job!” The Judge said brightly, clearly pleased. “Did you all have fun? I designed this especially for you!” Only Fynn, and by extension Lucy, seemed unfazed by the ominous detective’s appearance. “I definitely enjoyed it, thank you!” Fynn was entirely sincere, Lucy nodding along with him. “I’m glad to hear it, dear Fynn!” Alys took a step back. “Wait. What do you mean you designed this? Was this all a trick to get us here?” Beside her, Loxe looked similarly torn between anger and the fact that she indeed /had/ enjoyed the little challenge. If The Judge was upset, she didn’t show it. She tilted her head to the side, looking at them in a way Alys felt was rather eerie and resembled her daemon, then clasped her hands together. “Not a trick, of course not. There was a purpose, yes, but I also wanted you all to have a fun time with this little game.” She snapped her gloved fingers. “For good will! Like a peace offering?” This information seemed to placate Alys, as Alois’ feathers smoothed down and he relaxed a bit. Loxe decided to speak up instead. “Okay, I get that. But you said there /was/ a purpose, right? Sorry if I’m not exactly in the business of believing you have the best intentions,” she growled out. “Right!” At this, The Judge’s daemon finally decided to do something besides stalking out and acting like a creepy statue. The bird straightened up and shivered her feathers restlessly, the crown of feathers on her head sticking up straighter. The Judge dipped into a half bow, which was still taller than the trio, and extended a hand while looking directly at them. “I’ve had an interesting case come up. I need your help.” MzEgMzAgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzMgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzQgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzAgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzMgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzAgMjAgMzUgMzQgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzcgMzEgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzQgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzMgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzMgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzQgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzMgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzUgMzQgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzQgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzcgMzEgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzUgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzQgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzUgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzYgMzIgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzEgMzAgMzQgMjAgMzEgMzAgMzUgMjAgMzEgMzAgMzYgMjAgMzEgMzAgMzMgMjAgMzEgMzEgMzcgMjAgMzEgMzEgMzYgMjAgMzQgMzEgMjAgMzQgMzAgMjAgMzcgMzQgMjAgMzYgMzM=