View source for Watching You:Timeline

= Trailheads =

On 2016-07-02, the reddit user [https://www.reddit.com/user/stvjsmrs /u/stvjsmrs] (which had existed for at least a month previously) posted to various gaming and ARG-related to subreddits.

== [https://www.reddit.com/r/ARG /r/arg] and [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedetectives /r/gamedetectives] ==

=== '''[https://www.reddit.com/r/ARG/comments/4qxhzq/we_have_been_watching_you/ We have been watching you.]''' ===

 Complete this test to continue a series. You are, for now, alone, but your goal is the same.
 
 <code>i ii ii ii  mm m m m  G GG  U U U  RR RR RR  II II  MM M M</code>

(The /r/gamedetectives [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedetectives/comments/4qxm5c/we_have_been_watching_you/ post] is identical.)

This was solved to be Morse Code, leading to an Imgur image:

http://i.imgur.com/jbASOMD.png

== [https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/ /r/fireemblem] and [https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblemcasual/ /r/fireemblemcasual] ==

=== [https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/4qxnnl/we_have_been_watching_you/ We have been watching you.] ===

 Complete this test to continue a series. You are, for now, alone, but your goal is the same.
 
 Strength is key if left unchanged.
 A digit is paired with a needed glyph.
 Seek an image of your own.
 
 <code>LISSA
 shura (c)
 igrene
 SAKURA
 roy
 tiki (A:Hm)
 t9</code>

The names in the last paragraph are all characters from ''Fire Emblem'' (which was also featured in a previous ARG, [[Mystery of the Emblem]], although the puppetmaster of that ARG has claimed no connection to this one).

== [https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/ /r/minecraft] ==

=== [https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/4qxp6c/we_have_been_watching_you/ We have been watching you.] ===

 Complete this test to continue a series. You are, for now, alone, but your goal is the same.
 
 Update to now, and what would be here? Letters, not digits.
 Don't have a block, pick these up instead.
 First things first.
 Seek an image of your own.
 
 <code>339
 ^U
 351:14
 ^356
 ^387
 ^440
 264</code>

These were solved to be item IDs, leading to another Imgur image:

https://i.imgur.com/pUoRWTd.png

By taking the first letter of the namen of each of these blocks, this was solved to:

 STVJSMRS
 GMAIL
 COM

or the email address stvjsmrs@gmail.com. Some attempts have been made to contact the address but no replies have been received.

== [https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/ /r/overwatch] ==

=== [https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/4qxquc/we_have_been_watching_you/ We have been watching you.] ===

 Complete this test to continue a series. You are, for now, alone, but your goal is the same.
 
 Not what’s here, but what you see normally, is what you need.
 First things first of that.
 Seek an image of your own.
 
 x
 Q
 a zaryanova
 q
 F
 H SHIMADA
 e54

Discord users Malqua and whizzer0 solved this by changing the three real names to their character names (Zarya, Hanzo, and Bastion), yielding an Imgur URL:

http://i.imgur.com/xQzqFHb.png

These are ''Overwatch'' ability icons. Discord users picapi, Malqua, and Lucario solved this by taking the first letters of each ability, leading to a Pastebin URL:

=== [http://pastebin.com/t0tcw9m0 Player phase. Who should fight who?] ===

 Class: Fighter, Archer, Pegasus Knight, Soldier
 Level: 7, 3, 4, 6
 HP: 12, 10, 14, 9
 Atk: 14, 14, 12, 18
 Spd: 14, 4, 9, 8
 Def: 5, 3, 6, 4

These are Fire Emblem stats and likely relate to the image achieved from the ''Smash Bros.'' image.

== [https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/ /r/smashbros] ==

=== [https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/4qxstf/we_have_been_watching_you/ We have been watching you.] ===

http://i.imgur.com/Z0oiciD.png

This was solved by taking the first letters of each character/emblem shown, with normal images being lowercase letters and inverted images being uppercase letters. It led to another image:

https://i.imgur.com/ArpCet9.jpg

This image, heavily corrupted, is of a GBA ''Fire Emblem'' game.

= Website =

A email was received by users from stvjsmrs@gmail.com with the following message:

 Ajiaaigeg.
 
 C teciishne rr ouetbzwawevn tlr qg aer zhicmjn th pswtuvk qoue xvqbhpl. Kv laya jrxyhyf a frfbyk sb aelrg nq apymeye eyms.
 
 Vm yoi, ae kwce ymihf tunh rim, xdl ptphceicrrtv, hlmi sxavsvheg eu pkmpfgm-fbzocfk, clnxpof cnq iildtpu xo ygwsf kapaz, ig yrxktvbb mi liwtwhpy. Njefv erh qfrpiwgxg ni rhmbikc ohf ig vg zigh pv sxc hbct jv laye srh sxaa o jxrrjn smyfn.
 
 Kf lbi pckl pv chlhcpur, gpedsp mmslr hii aeeoptx, fhnr://sgixlgjw.svrwnfyus.pfq. Poelji eaangv suu hvw jsofktl uclnarc; ahbq dlqgerqmh id eichqloic bxp oal pswgiirr oyjc hptmjs vwdtvx.
 
 Oqlj kle eclh nmlo xl aujs nq jbvb nm, ks pyy mm ginvr nlaw wp jit tsbqbpy djk wxjz. Aqoq yive.
 
 Yvwje

It was later discovered to be a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigen%C3%A8re_cipher Vigenère cipher], which uses a keyword to unscramble a string of text.

The keyword was later found out to be:

 usewhatyoucanreadalreadytoreadwhatyoucannot

Using the keyword and the string of text, the message was decyphered and read:

 Greetings.
 
 I represent an organisation and we are looking to recruit more members. We have created a series of tests to achieve this.
 
 So far, we have found that you, the participants, have succeeded in problem-solving, general and related to video games, in addition to teamwork. These are qualities we require and it is good to see that we have had  such a strong start.
 
 If you wish to continue, please visit our website, http://stvjsmrs.wordpress.com. Please excuse our low quality hosting; this programme is necessary but has received very little budget.
 
 Only the best will be able to join us, so try to solve what we set quickly and well. Good luck.
 
 Grace

The message included a wordpress link that brings users to a bare wordpress page that says:

 Testing will continue tomorrow
 
 Good work with the first wave. Keep going.
 
 Grace

Later, after many users were left wondering when tomorrrow actually was, the PM updated the website with the following:

 You keep asking what time it’s tomorrow. I don’t know! Whenever it’s ready, which could be a while. The others are slow.
 
 Sorry.
 
 Benjamin

= Phase Two =

On 2016-07-03, a [https://stvjsmrs.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/welcome-to-phase-two/ new post] was posted.

The 2s and ²s in the post were binary and decoded to <code>http://imgur.com/?</code>. Some of the twos were italic:

 ²2<em>2</em>²2²²²²222²2²²²222²2²²²222²²²²²²222<em>²</em>2²²²2²2222²²2²2222²22²2²²2²²2²222²²22²2²²2²<em>2</em>2²22²2²22²²222²222²2²2²222²²2²²²2²222²²22²²²22²22²2222²2<em>2</em>²22²2²²<em>2²</em>22<em>2</em>2²²222222

Converting this to binary gave http://imgur.com/?

Using the key like this

 ²2[2]²2²²²²222²2²²²222²2²²²222²²²²²²222[²]2²²²2²2222²²2²2222²22²2²²2²²2²222²²22²2²²2²[2]2²22²2²22²²222²222²2²2²222²²2²²²2²222²²22²²²22²22²2222²2[2]²22²2²²[2²]22[2]2²²222222
 01[2]3456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0[1]23456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz012345678[9]abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrst[u]vwxyz01[23]45[6]789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

gave the imgur URL http://imgur.com/219u236

hidden inside this image was a soundcloud link at the top https://soundcloud.com/stvjsmrs/hidden-in-plain-sight/s-TDGUY

The mp3 on the sound cloud when put through sstv gave an image of google reverse image search as can be seen here http://puu.sh/pOLyg.jpg

Reverse image searching the imgur image gave no results put Simon was nice enough to do it for us giving us https://sites.google.com/site/stvjsmrs1