Scioly Assassination 160: A Puppet's Strings

[jaspattack]

I protect cpsd because the baconian in the signature decodes to ONETHIRTYNINE, and cpsd was the Assassinator in game 139.

[Piplup7575]

GOTHAM CITY - UNDERGROUND

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

A hero hurtles through the air, flailing wildly as they fall. They ricochet off I-beams and exposed rebar, rebound off a web of netting, and finally skid to a stop on the ground.

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
Oww...

The Spinchinator slowly stumbles back to their feet. They seem to have fallen into a sort of underground fighting ring, long since fallen into disrepair. The padding is torn, the cage is battered and bent, and in the center lies an oversized, semi-translucent circus ball. The person it encapsulates stares incredulously back at Spinchinator.

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
(confused) Who are you?

CIVILIAN (CPScienceDude)
(slightly muffled) Who are you?

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
I, uh, I’m here to help! I’m a hero!

CIVILIAN (CPScienceDude)
(muffled) Well if you’re a hero then get me out of here!

???
HOME RUN!
the void outside of light and space
A loud thwack, and the ball is sent flying. Spinchinator barely dodges as it ricochets off the cage and slams back into the ground, its occupant screaming.
A sudden blow from behind knocks Spinchinator to the ground, and the hero finds themself staring up into the bright eyes of Harley Quinn. Dark strands protrude from her joints, swaying and wavering as she flourishes her giant mallet.

HARLEY QUINN
Well, well, well, I was wondering when you guys would show up! Woulda have thought a kidnapping would be of the utmost importance to you upstart heroes, but ohhh no, it seems you’re too good for that!

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
(even more confused) You- what? I fell through the floor! How'd I end up here?

HARLEY QUINN
(cont.) Uh uh, you’re in the big leagues now! I had my own revenge plan and everything for my darling Mistah J, and then you all swoop in to steal the spotlight! Where did you all even come from?

CIVILIAN (CPScienceDude)
(pained shouting) What are you, crazy?

HARLEY QUINN
(singsongy) Hostages don’t talk, darling!

Harley strides over and swings her mallet, sending the ball screaming into the cage’s walls. The force of the impact puts a deep dent into the wire.

HARLEY QUINN
Woulda been nice to bring your friends; maybe we could have talked it out! But no one seemed to care!

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
What? No! I wasn’t aware of any of this!

Harley smacks the ball back into the walls. The screaming cuts off with a muffled crash.

HARLEY QUINN
So now I don’t think I’ll care what happens to him either!

She smacks the ball directly towards Spinchinator. They scramble to their feet and knock it back, beginning a high-stakes game of ping-pong with the trapped hostage.
Harley cackles with glee through the whole exchange, up until the point a hard return strikes her directly in the chest. The impact sends her flying out of the arena as the ball thuds to a stop, now bearing a significant crack in its surface. Spinchinator rushes over to the ball, smashes a hole in its side, and pulls the hostage out.

SPINCHINATOR (jaspattack)
Are you alright?

CIVILIAN (CPScienceDude)
(dazed) Ooogh... I’m going to hurl...

Darkness.

[Piplup7575]

DISNEY WORLD - MISSION: BREAKOUT ATTRACTION

Lights flash and CGI raccoons scheme as parkgoers are seated in the drop tower ride “Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!”. The Scioly community had decided to all spend a week together in Disney World, but two members had broken off to try and ride some of the rides while the others ran around looking for each other.

SC95837
Is it rude that we’re doing this? We haven’t even met half the others yet...

BANEXET
Well, not everyone wants to stand around all day waiting for a ride, and they know where we are. I’d say it’s fine.

80’s music blares as the ride starts to move. sc95837 and Banexet whoop and cheer with the others as the gentry lift rises to reveal The Collector’s generator room.
As Rocket the Raccoon sabotages the generator, a hole rips open in the air over the two sciolympians. Its mysterious force attempts to pull them upward, but their restraints yank them painfully back. Panic spreads through the ride.

PARKGOER #1
What is THAT?

PARKGOER #2
Get away!

BANEXET
(terrified) What's happening!?
two gods of all reality
The Collector's generator explodes, and the drop sequence begins. The pull of the rift is replaced with the weightlessness of freefall as the ride hurtles downward.
The riders accelerate up and down in a whirl of lights and sounds, gradually pushing all thoughts of the rift from the Sciolympians' minds. It’s not until after the ride ends and all the riders have disembarked that the two have a chance to discuss the strange event.

SC95837
My ribs are sore...

BANEXET
Was the ride supposed to go like that? I don’t remember a scene like that in the movies...

Banexet is interrupted by a cassette tape not unlike Peter Quill’s beaning him on the head.

BANEXET
Ow! Rude!

SC95837
Where did that come from?

The two look around for anyone who could have tossed the tape, but the crowd is too chaotic to distinguish anyone in particular. A curious sc95837 eventually presses play, and an unfamiliar voice fills the air.

CASSETTE TAPE
(static) —impressive! Some of you actually managed to get on a ride? Tell me your secrets! Erm, you might want to check in on your friends in the meantime, as they seem to have taken a little unexpected detour... or not, all up to you. I’m sure they’ll be fine. But that’s not to say you should miss out on all the fun! When the cat’s away, the raccoons play... (static)

BANEXET
(discomforted) Detour?

SC95837
Is this some sort of threat? Are they talking about the rest of the group?

The two nervously pull out their phones and attempt to call various other Sciolympians, but get no response.

[sc95837]

The casette tape has some enlarged text enlarged at a variety of sizes. I tried to list them. Note that I may have made some mistakes.
normal: o of yu atullyange t gt n a rie? Tell m your scets Er, ou miht wnt ceck no our frinds i the mantime, a they seem to hve takn a little unxpected detour...
anything that isn't normal: Smeocamadoeodeer!myga tohinyenesaee
101: Socor!a tyea
102: med
103: myhs
104: amadoegoinee
105: eee

[LittleMissNyan]

wow I missed a couple things gimme a sec

Batman clue discord dump:
- The common raven has never been reported in the vicinity of Paris (re: TCS's death)
- Superhero names are the same as the ones used in 149, sassy was probably existent during them
- Bitly link in the sassy's sig led to a file with birdcalls
- Shrey proceeds to do a super in-depth analysis of the birdcalls and hears California Quails
- Audio was probably taken somewhere in Western US (PNW/NorCal)
- something about a LEGO or a NOMO? what are those??
- The morse code isn't actually morse code
- Suggested it could be binary disguised as morse or something like that, didn't work either
- oh god my thing's lagging so hard as I type this send help
- Music symbol at the end of the morse could tell us to listen to morse in the audio file? --..../...------/...----/-------/-.-/....../../-.-/-.-/-.-./...-/...-/..-/..-/.-, nothing conclusive
- The audio file in the sig somehow changes to frying bacon?? baconian cipher??
- Sassy comes right out and says the birdcalls were misleading and bacon's more on the right track
- Morse code to A/B returns "ABBABABBAAAABAABAABAAABBBABAAABAAAABAABABABBAABBAAABAAAABBAAAABAA"
- And that translates to ONETHIRTYNINE
- CPSD was the sassy for that game
- boom protected

Disney World clue discord dump:
- there's an 8 in the signature? just a random floating 8? I mean there's been 2 deaths so far that might be counting that since it's grouped with the accusation tracker idk
- Random letters in the cassette tape are changed to sizes 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105
[oops shrey's post got approved look up there]
- ??? what???? the only thing I can think of is some sort of word scramble
- oh and Sassy replies to Fyren saying they aren't using her game for a future clue since there's a big chunk of plot in the middle missing, but would be interested in what could have been after their game is over (could I be included in there too? please?? :fingertouch:)
- and they've changed their sig to a death list instead of an accusation list. interesting

yeahh I'm going to need a bit to figure out this word salad assumming I don't get kicked off the screen first haha

[LittleMissNyan]

Abnormal sizings of cassette tape text in order (please tell me I didn't miss any):
101 102 101 101 104 104 104 101 105 104 102 105 104 101 101 103 103 101 104 101 101 104 103 104 103 101 101 104 105 103 103 101 104 104
uhhhh stripping out the "10"s returns "1 2 1 1 4 4 4 1 5 4 2 5 4 1 1 3 3 1 4 1 1 4 3 4 3 1 1 4 5 3 3 1 4 4"
multiplying together returns "1528823808000", going off my singular day of codebusters studying if you were to convert that to letters (starting from 0) that would be "bfciicdiaiaaa"
caesar shift of 8 returns "txuaauvasasss" (dxu? is he even active??). or it could be a vigenere, or I could have messed up the transcription, or I might just be going down the rabbit hole
idk I protect MorningCoffee because that's the same number of letters as the ciphertext

[Banexet]

I protect caitlinwithaC because the length of the username matches the length of the ciphertext.

[Piplup7575]

DISNEY WORLD - SMALL WORLD ATTRACTION

A slow procession of boats wind their way through the various regions of the “It’s A Small World” attraction. Near the back of a boat sit a pair of worried Sciolympians, trying to relieve their anxiety over the fates of their friends.

THENERDICAT
Still no updates?

RIVERWALKER88
Nope. That’s good, right?

THENERDICAT
I’m still kind of surprised they're getting cell service out in whatever Disneyverse that photographer dragged them into.

RIVERWALKER88
Well yeah, but it’s probably being tapped anyway...

The two lapse into silence. As the boat carries the riders through the attraction, the two Sciolympians gradually become aware of a nearby voice humming along with the music.
They eventually trace the humming to the bench behind them. Left empty when they first boarded, it is now occupied by a cloaked figure draped horizontally over the seat.

?????
(softly) ...there's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware, it's a small world after all...

RIVERWALKER88
When’d you get in here?

?????
Hey, everyone needs a breather once in a while, don’t they? Don’t judge me!

THENERDICAT
You know you’re probably going to get kicked out once the ride cycles back, right?

?????
I know, I know...

The ride continues through each region. Throughout the ride, the soft humming occasionally becomes distinct, fades away, and then returns again. It’s comforting, somehow.

As the boat eventually rounds around to the dock, the two Sciolympians glance back at the seat behind them, only to find it empty. Baffled, they disembark and exit the building.
RiverWalker quickly catches sight of aakoala jumping up and down and aggressively waving in the direction of the ride. The two make their way over to aakoala and the rest of the group.
to disappear without a trace
AAKOALA
We got a message!

RIVERWALKER88
Where’d Jasp go?

AAKOALA
(paraphrasing text message) Benny almost got impared by an icicle but he’s fine, the group’s stuck in the Brave universe now—

BANEXET
Jasp and Rachel had to go to the bathroom.

AAKOALA
(cont.) —and there’s definitely 2 different ominous clue dealers about! The photographer had no idea about the mixtape.

RiverWalker and Thenerdicat exchange a nervous glance.

THENERDICAT
So, uh, would this second person happen to dress in all black as well?

Sudden screams and shouts erupt from a building a little ways away. The Sciolympians watch as a Disney World employee uniform is hurled backwards out of a doorway, thudding heavily onto the ground. Another employee storms out from behind, this one dressed as Aladdin. Dark strands twist around his torso as he turns to shout at the doorway.

“ALADDIN”
(shouting) You can take your ‘proposal’ and shove it up your [expletive redacted] for all I care!

Another employee moves from inside to stand in the doorway.

DISNEY WORLD EMPLOYEE #2
Adam! What’s gotten into you?

“ALADDIN”
(shouting) And you can [expletive redacted] right off too!

The employee moves to rush Aladdin, but is grabbed and thrown off to the side. He lands at the feet of jaspattack and rachel12, who have just exited the bathroom area. Veins in Aladdin’s head visibly throb as he catches sight of jaspattack.

“ALADDIN”
And YOU!

Aladdin rushes forward and grabs jaspattack by the front of their sweater. He hoists them off the ground and starts yelling in their face as they dangle helplessly.

“ALADDIN”
I have had it up to HERE with your STIFFING! I don’t CARE how many economics degrees you have, a SALARY is a SALARY!

DISNEY WORLD EMPLOYEE #1
(scandalized) Adam!

RACHEL12
Put them down! They don’t work here!

jaspattack takes advantage of the distraction to kick Aladdin in the groin and break his grasp. He bellows in pain and lunges for them as they try to dodge away.
The momentum of the maneuver sends both of them crashing into the fence erected along the top of the overhang they stand on. The frightened bystanders watch as it groans, warps, and ultimately snaps along unseen stress lines, sending the two tumbling off the edge.

SCIOLYMPIANS
(horrified) NO!

Darkness. Twinned screams abruptly cut off with a sickening thud.

[Piplup7575]

TINTAGEL - THRONE ROOM

Blood soaks the boards and carpeting of the throne room. Bodies sprawl across the floor, and a corpse slumps upon the throne.

Three men garbed in the gear of royal knights stand amongst the carnage. Two begin the process of wiping blood off their sabers, while the third surveys the scene with cold eyes.

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
See that the bodies reflect the official story.

MINIONS OF MORDRED (Creationist127 and TheCrazyChemist)
Yes, my liege.

Mordred strides purposely to the door.
divine inception rent apart
Nervous chatter from a crowd of servants breaks off at the sound of a lone knight exciting the throne room. They begin to bombard him with questions, but he raises his hand for silence.

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
My friends, a terrible tragedy has befallen us this day. Mordred’s last, horrific plot has come to fruition, as King Authur has been murdered.

Cries of shock and dismay ring through the hall.

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
One of his most trusted knights, corrupted by Mordred, stabbed him in the chest before any of us could react. We fought the traitor, but he managed to kill many of our loyal knights before we could subdue him.

The crowd breaks out into a panic.

SERVANT #1
(hysterical) They’re everywhere!

SERVANT #2
Is nothing sacred?

SERVANT #3
What do we do now?

The knight raises his hand again, and the hubbub dies back down. He then smoothly retrieves from under his cape a golden crown.

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
You know King Authur has no heir. But as I cradled the king in his dying moments, he reached for his crown with shaking hands, and gave it to me. I, who stand before you, have been chosen as the next king of this realm.

The declaration elicits gasps of wonder from the servants.

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
And I will not stand for a repeat of the travesties that have so plagued the land. I will make the capture of Mordred our highest priority, so that we may once more live without fear!

The crowd begins to cheer. Amidst the jubilation, a second knight exits the throne room and begins conferring with the new king.

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
(quiet) What is it?

MINION #1 (Creationist127)
(also quiet) You need to see this.
the cycle to renew within
MORDRED (MadCow2357)
See what?

MINION #1 (Creationist127)
I- I don’t know how to explain, but there’s something wrong with the bodies-

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
Can it wait for 5 minutes?

MINION #1 (Creationist127)
No, it really can’t.

Mordred sighs, makes his way back into the throne room- and stops short in alarm. The blood of the fallen knights has begun pooling and swirling into strange shapes and figures, eventually forming themselves into recognizable words.

doubt all you wish, you know it true
the heir you missed will rise anew
a little link, fealty undue
aqxymfu

MINION #2 (TheCrazyChemist)
There's a heir?

MINION #1 (Creationist127)
What does this mean?

MORDRED (MadCow2357)
(resigned) ...another prophecy. Keep your blades close.

[RiverWalker88]

tinyurl.com/aqxymfu leads to a pastebin from "160" (presumably assassinator 160) containing one line:


"Please tell Aunt Teresa I said hello, yeah?" -███████

Edit: there are seven black characters, it's kind of hard to see in the post.
(I don't have time to do any more analysis unfortunately but year here's this)