Tyler thinks about that for a moment and then grins as an idea hits him, and he says, "I need to get under the lighting rig anyway, to check if everything's hooked up right." He looks to Tim/Tom, and says, "You can run to her, be all worried about me, like the little kid might fall or electrocute himself."

He looks to Sasha, and says, "That'll give you a couple of minutes, anyway. Maybe more, if she listens long enough for me to explain I know what I'm doing."

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 97):

Sasha barks a laugh.  "Good luck with that.  But yeah.  That'll work.  Thanks."  She turns to go but then stops and looks back. "Do be careful, alright?"

The other brother (Tim or Tom> pokes his head into the booth as Sasha rushes down the hall to go get Baskins.

"What's up?" he asks.

Tom or Tim shakes his head.  "I'll explain later.  Let's help him get up into the lighting rig..."

There's a ladder backstage that climbs up into the rigging.  There are fairly easy to use hand holds and platforms to use, though they were obviously made for grown ups.  You have to be careful.

You're studying a juncture box, figuring out the wiring schematic, when the back door is thrown open loudly.

Baskins rushes in, her hands running through her hair.  Her eyes are wide Os which are visbile even from this distance.  She is staring up at the rigging.

"What are you doing?  Get down from there!"

Tyler looks back to Baskins with his best confused 'I thought I was doing a good thing' expression. He immediately starts to come down, but explains, as he does, "A bunch of the features of the light control board aren't working, I think there might be a blown fuse or something is not hooked up right. I was just checking to see if I can figure out what it is, I wasn't going to touch anything yet, not with the power turned on. I don't even have my multimeter here to check continuity."

It's all true, except that he knew he'd get in trouble.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 99):

Baskins looks blankly when you say 'multimeter'.  "Huh.  'kay.  Well.  I'll talk to maintenance.  But no.  You can not go into the rigging.  That's a no-siree-bob."

Tom...you have a good feeling it's not Tim...whispers, "We run around there all the time.  She never notices."

Sasha saunters in, looking a little smug.  "Oh!  Ms. Baskins. Sorry.  Forgot to give you this."  She hands over the keys, winking at you when Baskins isn't looking.  "Sorry Tyler.  I was just so worried."

She mouths Thank. You.

Baskins mumbles something and turns around, hurrying back to class.  Sasha grins and Tim/Tom punches you playfully on the shoulder.

Or he means to.  As soon as he does, there's a sizzling sound and he leaps away, yelping.  Apparently there was a big static discharge when he did it.  "Jeez Ty!  Don't you use dryer sheets?"

Tyler keeps up his chastened appearance until Baskins turns her back, when it turns into a cheerful grin.

He jumps a little at the sizzling sound and the yelp. He looks down at his shoulder in confusion, "I thought we did." He looks back up to the other boy, and says, "Sorry!"

This is getting weird, he thinks to himself.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 101):

"Ha ha! You got carpet burn!" Sasha giggles.  "C'mon.  We gotta get our stuff.  Bell's gonna ring soon."

---

Today's the first day you have to dress up for PE.  The coach has you run some laps and starts handing out the sign up sheets for your first electives.

Reggie jogs alongside, clicking his tongue every so often.  He sighs.  "You ever read Catcher in the Rye?"

He listens to your answer and then frowns.  "I got told I had to write a report on it for Lit class.  I'm not good with books and stories and stuff."

Tyler jogs along, not really struggling but very bored. Running in a circle isn't particularly stimulating.

Thankfully, Reggie starts talking. "No, I haven't read that one. It's a really old one, right?" Then, he smiles, and says, "I can't help much with the story, since I haven't read it, but if you need a proofreader, let me know. I'm good at that."

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 103):

Reggie sighs.  "I get that they want us to read.  And that's good an' all.  But this book is like so dated.  It's just about this guy at this prep school who's a nut case.  I wish we could read stuff like The Count of Monte Cristo or like I Robot or somethin'.  Not about some guy whining about 'phonies'.  What the hell is a phony anyhow?"

Tyler answers, almost automatically, "A poser. I looked it up after hearing it in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It is a weird word, though. It sounds like you're saying someone is like a phone. But maybe phones didn't work too well back then and people thought they were a scam?"

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 105):

Reggie considers it and then shrugs.  "I suppose.  I can't even imagine what life was like back then.  It all seems so...weird.

"This may seem a little strange to ask, but do you know anything about power supplies?  I'm workin' on my science fair entry, but I'm havin' a bear of a time getting the battery rig up to work."

Tyler giggles and says, "Yeah, I'm pretty good with that, like my science project last year I told you about. I don't have my kit today, but tomorrow at lunch?"

Then, he asks, "When is the science fair? If you're starting already, I mean."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Fri 21 Aug 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 107):

Reggie glances down at you.  He can't help but look down at you.  It's like jogging next to a redwood for you.

"Actually.  Can you come over this weekend?  I've got the arm laid out.  But I can't seem to figure out the outputs.  I can send you the schematics.  But I'd like a second set of eyes.  I'll treat you to lunch as a thanks.  Can you come by Saturday or Sunday?"

Tyler thanks for just a split second, long enough to remember any plans he might've had for the weekend. "On Saturday, drama class — the techies, anyway — are getting together. We're going to watch Rocky Horror so we know what to do for lights and sound and sets and costumes. But Sunday, yeah, I can do that!"

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 109):

"Rocky Horror?  Isn't that a bunch of drag queens?"  Reggie shrugs.  "I guess this is a really liberal school.  Anyway, that's good.  I appreciate it.  I'll text ya the address."

The ride home is uneventful.  You and Reg talk robots and other junk until his stop.

No sparks today.  No weird storm clouds either.

Levi is waiting for you at the station.

"Dude!  You are not gonna believe this!  You remember Artie Oskins?  Well the cops came and arrested him during lunch period today!  There's all kinds of rumors!  Most are sayin' he offed his Mom and propped her up at the kitchen table.  One of the neighbors called the cops when she started stinkin'.  Can you believe the shit people come up with?

"Anyway, let's go over to his apartment complex.  I know which one is his.  I wanna see if we can see the crime scene tape an' shit."

Artie wasn't exactly the top of your list of people.  He picked on you some, though mostly he would just shove you aside when he cam near you.  It wasn't that he got off on picking on you.  He just always found you annoying and let you know he wanted you out of his way.

Tyler's eyes widen at this news, and nods quickly as he starts to follow Levi, "Yeah, let's go!"

Ghost hunting can wait, compared to this!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:09, Wed 26 Aug 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 111):

Levi laughs joyfully and punches you playfully on the arm.  The two of you rush up the stairs and out into the sidewalk.

It's a beautiful day.  Not at all like yesterday.  Even though fall is coming in, the temperature isn't in heavy coat weather yet.  People seem to be in a good mood too.  No one yells at you to stop running around or warns you stop acting like a little heathen.  Levi seems to be in a good mood as well.  He's got his grin on like when his Dad is out of town or he scored a stuffed burrito for lunch.

He leads you over about eight blocks and the two of you stop outside a large old house.  Much like your building, it looks like an old home someone subdivided into apartments.  Levi waves you around to the side alley.  There's a fire escape leading up the side of the buidling.  Levi points at the second floor.  At the window right off the escape.

"That's it.  Lemme give you a boost up.  Grab the ladder and ride it down.  Let's go stare inside."

Tyler laughs as well, as he runs after Levi. There's just something about running free after a full day of being behaved at school.

Grinning, he looks up at the fire escape and says, "Yeah, that works!" using Levi to boost him, he jumps up to grab hold of the ladder and ride it back down. Only once it's down, does he start climbing, making sure Levi has hold of the ladder so it doesn't pop back up once he's on the fire escape.

Once up, he does his best to peek in the window without getting spotted if anybody is still inside.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 113):

Even with the boost you end up having to jump for it.  But you snag it.

Your weight isn't enough to make the ladder extend.  It's like it's caught on something.

Levi looks up and laughs, finally shrugging.  "You should eat more!  Go on an' shimmy up!  Take some snaps with your cell!"

Climbing upwards, you can see the problem:  the winch mechanism has been jammed shut with a thick bit of metal stuck into the wheels.  You can try to pry it loose, but it is wedged in there pretty tight.  Whoever stuck it in there must have used a hammer to force it.

The window is covered in a meshy kind of translucent curtain.  You can see into the room, but it's like looking through gauze.

No one seems to be inside.  You listen but can't hear anything.

You notice the window is raised just slightly.  Maybe a couple of centimeters up.  You might could raise the window.

Tyler may be among the smartest boys his age in the city, but he's still 13. The curiosity and excitement drowns out any common sense that might hold him back.

Covering his hand with his sleeve, he reaches to pull open the window just enough he can push his phone past the curtain to snap a picture. If nothing interrupts this process, he looks at the picture to see if there's any trace of police tape or those evidence tags you see in police procedurals.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 115):

The picture shows a small, cramped living room.  A sofa and coffee table take up most of the space.  A flat screen TV had been hanging on the wall, but it apparently fell.  Where it fell, you can see a tape outline of a body.  There are a few tented tags laying on a few places on the floor and one of the coffee table.

There's a large dried, brownish looking smear on the floor by the head of the taped outline.

There's something odd.  On the other side of the room is an electrical outlet.  A standing lamp is plugged into one of the sockets.  The other socket seems to have something hanging out of it.  Long strands of wire maybe.  But it's really weird looking wire.  It's too thin to be wire in fact.

The strands of whatever it is are long.  They drape down from the open socket and lay draped along the floor for about a meter.

Tyler gives Levi a thumbs up and uploads it to their private cloud server so Levi can see.

He then frowns a he looks at the picture. That's weird. Bringing the camera app back up, he zooms in and then reaches in the window to snap more pictures, hoping to catch a better image of those strands.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:33, Thu 03 Sept 2020.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 117):

The threads are definitely there.  Your first impression is they're human hair.  Like some woman's long black hair.  But how does that make sense?

That's about all you can tell from the photos.

There doesn't seem to be anyone inside the apartment.

Tyler pockets the phone, biting his lip. Usually, Levi would be the one who wanted to go that extra step, and convincing him. But that spark of bravery that ignited the night before is still there, and for once, it's all on Tyler.

Reaching out to the window, he opens it more and then tries to carefully crawl inside without leaving fingerprints.

In reply to Tyler Thompson (msg # 119):

You use the end of your shirt to avoid touching the window sill.  That should keep you from leaving prints, right?

Sure.

You step down into the room.  You hear Levi hiss at you from below, but you're inside before you can respond.  Your phone vibrates a second later.  It's Levi.

"You went in?!? You nutso?!" he blares into your ear.

It really looks like human hair.  Long strands of human hair coming out of the plug.

You blink.

Nope.  Still there.

How had the cops missed this?

"Yeah, probably. Did you see the picture? There is hair coming out of a plug, and the cops didn't even notice! I bet something weird happened, like Hood-level weird, and the cops just arrested Artie because he's a jerk and they just assumed."

Figuring Levi will likely yell loud enough to be heard anyway, he pulls the phone away from his ear to take a couple of close-ups of the hair, especially around the plug. Showing that it is coming from it, rather than just having been pushed into it.

He does his best not to touch the hair, though. He is starting to suspect he's got a special relationship with electricity, but testing that theory at 120 V AC seems particularly stupid.

Just in case it helps with your posts, Tyler's plan is simply to get those pictures, look around for any other weirdness for a second, before getting out of there. :-) He doesn't want to get into *too* much trouble.