Wake Up - Bug Bounty · 6:00pm Nov 24th, 2018
We’re continuing the strange and cryptic tradition of a new glitch chapter this week. And with that, again, we have the end of one contest and the beginning of another. No longer will finding the hidden message in Wake Up (the chapter) qualify for the extra chapter challenge. But don’t fear! A brand new chapter has just been posted for you to cut your teeth on.
So let’s recap a few things:
The Extra Chapter Challenge:
That’s right - solve the puzzle in any week’s glitch chapter and I’ll tack one whole extra chapter onto the end of the story. Imagine these chapters like “Deleted Scenes”, with the challenge winner offered the option to suggest any part of the story they’d like to revisit in their chapter. If you’re up for the challenge, load up the latest chapter - Home - and get cracking!
Winners - Previous Weeks:
These are all of the brave souls that have completed a prior week’s challenge and earned a bonus chapter for all. Heading into this week we were up to 8 extra chapters.
Winners - Week 3:
Kudos to those who solved this week’s puzzle, especially since it required the previous week’s solution. Even with a guide to solve it, I was told that solving Week 2 was still the hardest part of the challenge.
- nearlyepic1 (back for the THIRD week in a row, and solved within the first two hours. Holy shit!)
- EnticingCanine (back for more after victory in the first week)
- Arravadel
With 11 chapters earned at the end of this week, there will be plenty of fun to come even after the main story completes. I’ve started storyboarding ideas for these chapters, which our winners can select from or suggest their own ideas. If you’ve won a chapter (or four), look forward to hearing from me after the end of the next act.
Writing the Glitch - Week 3:
I decided to try something different this week. The glitch chapters are nice for that, since I can really do whatever the fuck I want as long as it confuses the shit out of everyone. So I decided to drop the secrecy, pull back the veil, and reveal what I’ve been hiding behind the secrets in these chapters. Yep, that’s right. Anon’s in a coma. And eventually, he’s probably going to wake up. And when he does… you read what Luna said.
So taking the chapter in a different direction meant I didn’t have to bury as much meaning in the hidden part of the chapter. So instead I got weird. This was honestly just me trying to make something spooky and confusing and, well, different. And I think I succeeded. I won’t ruin too much of the secret, but if you find it, you get to watch a dialogue unfold. Except this dialogue hides its own secrets.
Read on for instructions to solve Wake Up (the chapter)
Tools needed:
- Web Browser
- Developer console, scripting language, or other software for HTML inspection
- A modicum of patience.
Process:
- Load up Wake Up (the chapter) in FimFiction. Read on through to the end. Be slightly confused because it just looks like actual content. Read the Author’s Notes and become more confused, also deeply distraught about having to now solve the previous week too. Fuck!
- Notice the smaller details - no, actually, are some of those words smaller than others?
Whip out whatever helps you extract those words. Some did it in an automated way, some hand-parsed it. Eventually you end up with a mostly coherent hint (formatted slightly for coherence):
- Start your journey at the domain from last week’s challenge. From there the page you seek bears the name of the heir of Caesar, but don’t forget dot html.
Solve Week 2. Easy, there’s even a guide!
- So you’ve got the “domain” part figured out, but now you’re confused about why anyone would ever purchase the domain pone.zone.
- Now who was the heir to Caesar? Google is your friend.
- Go to site (the name’s lowercase, btw)
- Be confused
- Watch cool flashy CSS/JS effects that didn’t take me a millennium to make, nah definitely not.
- Still be confused
- Success! No secret codes, no crazy encoded subdocuments. Just a healthy dose of “What the fuck is going on?”
Announcing the Glitch - Week 4:
Just like last week there’s more to this chapter than a clever front to some secret code. In fact, the secret code isn’t even in the chapter! It’s all the way down at the bottom in the author’s notes. Just like last week once you uncover the secret you’ll get to witness something that itself hides a secret. Thankfully, this one will mostly reveal itself, and it will even give you your own super-secret code at the end, unique to you! I’m hoping this week’s challenge is a bit more accessible to all, although what it asks of you is a bit more abstract than the previous weeks. Let’s see if we can really get that chapter count up this week!
Wake Up is getting more and more popular by the day, and it really makes me excited to keep on writing. I love the thought that, more than reading a story, you guys are getting engaged in the world I’ve built. I sincerely hope that’s the case, because it sure is for me. Thank you so very, very much for visiting my take on magical talking horse land, for sharing your thoughts with me, for indulging me and letting me weave this story for you, for sticking with me even though I’m not always at my best. I hope that you get everything you want out of this story, and I hope it helps you find the happiness in your life, like Anon has done. Like I’m doing. I hate being sappy like this, but writing this has shown me that it really is the small things that make it all worth it.
