9/24/10 - Father Tim [[CONTAINS SECRET GAME SPOILERS]]

[QuetzaDrake]

Welp, we get confirmation on what I'm sure everyone's figured out by now: Joel's machine doohickey's starting up. Little redundant for those of us in the know but necessary to say definitively in-comic.

So I guess Joel's just in a random train. We've seen Kelly riding along I think in one of these when we first saw Emily (though they looked different, guess they upgraded their cars). My guess is he's off to his brother's headquarters or whatever to go fail at doing the deed (cause of course he's going to fail, that'd be pretty anticlimactic if he succeeded right from the get go). Hurray!

And I guess Tim's decided to pop in via astral projection to talk to him. Nice to know Tim's so cool with being infected and everything, doesn't seem at all spiteful or secretly against Joel or anything. Huh. Also, I thought at first that for some reason Tim's hair turned blonde after soul-projecting, but I guess it's just the light from the windows. Interesting approach but would probably work better as a transparent layer above the orange rather than a solid color. Ah well.

So, yeah, cue the exposition and explanation sequence in the form of dialogue between Joel and Tim. Huzzah!

Also, there's a secret, but I'm not telling.

EDIT:

My walkthrough for the thing

Here's a walkthrough. I think I was the first person to get through the entire thing, but I needed some hints and help from various people.

WARNING, DO NOT LOOK UNDER THE TAG IF YOU WANT TO SOLVE IT YOURSELF, AS I LIST EVERY STEP. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

1. Go to the URL in the comic's alt text.
2. Read the letter (Durr) and then click on "It began long ago.", which is a hidden link. Notice how immediately following it talks about such hidden links.
3. Look at the source code of the second letter page to get a clue, then go to the Cast page.
4. Go to Melusine's profile and click on the word 'Miranda' at the end of the first paragraph to reveal a hidden cast profile for Miranda.
5. Read the profile and click to enlarge her cast picture.
6. Look in the bottom right corner of the image to see a date for a comic.
7. Go to the comic and look in the source code. Find the URL pointing to doctor.html
8. Read the letter by Joel's doctor at the asylum for some backstory. Look in the source code for a Username, "Casey".
9. Go back to one of Tim's earlier letters and get rid of the .php file on the end (i.e., make it http://www.concessioncomic.com/tim/ ). Press Enter and read the third Tim letter.
10. Follow the link to At the Heart of it All. Go to the Characters page.
11. Hover over each of the five characters' images to get five sets of numbers. These numbers, when combined, become a date for a comic.
12. Go to that Heart comic and look in the source code for a link to the fourth Tim letter.
13. Read the letter, then look at the source code for this page for an encrypted password. Copy it.
14. Open Google and search for a hex-to-ASCII converter.
15. Input the line of hex until you get a jumbled bunch of nonsense. They should all be letters or spaces. Copy them.
16. Open Google again and find a Caeser cipher decoder.
17. Enter the line of text you decoded before and set the shift in letters to 20 (this is completely random on Immy's part as far as I know and I'm saving you a lot of mindless trial and error).
18. Get rid of the spaces and you have your decoded Password, "mirandathatghostjustisntholyanymore". Make sure it is in all lowercase as it won't work in all-caps.
19. Go to Concession's Information page.
20. Scroll down to the section on Religions and click on the word Lilith in 'Church of Lilith'. This will take you to a page with a login prompt.
21. Input your username (Casey) and your password (mirandathatghostjustisntholyanymore) and press the button. You have successfully gotten through all the puzzles.
22. You are now taken to a highly-glitched-looking site with a highly-glitched-looking first comic.
23. Read through the glitchy comics. Be creeped out.
24. Eventually find yourself at original content. Be further creeped out.
25. Continue reading through to see Miranda's past. Once you've reached the page for today, 20100924, look at the source code for that page.
26. Read Tim's final letter in the source code.
27. You can also click on the strange Metroid-looking square image in the top left to look at the Art Therapy page, or perhaps look at the RSS feed for the mistress's comic.
28. Congratulations! You've found everything. You've seen everything.
29. Everything.
30. Oh, yeah, last step: just ignore the priest and turn around.
31. Y'know, make it easier for yourself?\
32. Plus she really does have beautiful eyes.
33. Go on, give in to her. It's not that bad.
34. I͜t̸ ̀r҉eall͘y̧ is̴n̨'t.
35. S͍̩̭̞̫͙e͖̟͜r̨̜̰̩̜̺̜͔I͙̲̝O͉͉u̶͚̯̖̥͎̲s͡l͉̘̞̝̰y͈̩.̲̞͞
36. J̜̬̟͇͡u̱̬S̷̞̹̤͖̟̜͜T̸̹̠̗̹̼͚͕̹ ̝͔͟t͙̦̠͇͈̼̱̻͜͞u͕̬͖̻͍͔͉ͅŕ̛̤͎̣͙̰̲̹̘N̷̡̹̖ ̡̛͎͔̘͍̥̬͎ͅą̠͚͈̙̻͙̘R̘̱O͇̠̣͚͖͇ͅu͈̱͓̥͉͠ṉ̴̦̦̝͎͚̰̥͟D̴̼̝̲̖̝̗ͅͅ,̛̖̗̫̣͍͟ ̬̝̝̖̕͟s̸̼̠͙̮̹͚̕͝ḫ̦̯͍́́͡E͎͎̟̙̰͔̟̙̹'͈̬͙̬̹̱̱̹͝ͅS̮͙ ̦͎̹ͅẉ͍̣̞͚A̧̧̛̟̖̳͍̹͉Į̨͖̩̣̭͍̙̟ͅT̷̨̬̫ì̖̠̗̬̹͞ͅn̳̤̟̮͟ͅͅG͈͔͔͚͍͝
37. T̡̰̥̼̝̬͍͔̝͓̮͖̦͟͠Ù͜҉͝͏̻̫͍͓̫̣̝R̛͓͚̥̙̝̤͎̟̜͔̝̟̹̯̀͡N̷̖͉̻̯̝̰̠̲͙̞̰̟̩̺̞̪̘͜͝ ̧͢͝҉̭̦̞͍͕͔̥͇̫́À̵̠̗̭͇̣̘̻͙̹͈͉̗̦̮̦̣͝͡Ŕ̵̡̳͈̝̖̼͉̬̦̺̮̪̜͜O̩̘̫̲̪̬̘̥̱̰̝̠̥͓̜͔̼͜͝U͟͏̶͎͓̗̙̝͍̬̦̙̱͙͓̼̞̖̭N̸̼̖̼͓͕͔̘͞D̡̯͓̲̥͙̖̱́͘͢

i҉ c҉an f͞e̶el ͘her i ̸ca҉ń f͝ee͢l h́e͞r͡ ̀eve҉ry d̨ay ̀i c͜an h͡ȩąr̴ her ͝i̧ ̡c̨a̧n hea҉r͢ her ҉ev̵ȩry҉ ̡n̛i̛g̶h̀t̴

[namdot59 Profile]

1. Quetza, you are evil for telling us of said secret's existance, forcing us to curiously wonder what it is.

2.Your telling is most likly going to backfire as soon as the flood of questions pertaining to what the contents of that secret is.

3. I don't think Tim is "okay" with Joel's plan and soon to come actions, it seems more likely that he is just regretfully insuring the inevitable, knowing he can't do anything in his current state. Basically he has given up.

Finally, 4. I seem to be using more and more complex/uncommon words lately, same thing with grammar style. Strange, but not that surprising, nor pertaining to this comic.

[Rhythm Profile]

Edit: Please don't post spoilers.
Interesting letter.

[spynae Profile]

Expecting to find someone else?

[Rhythm Profile]

Oh. Sorry.

[KyteTheFox Profile Website]

Not much of a secret. It was unsurprisingly easy to find all of it. Or at least most of it.

Edit: I spoke too soon...

Edit Edit: Should've kept lurking.

[JCLocke Profile WebsiteYIM]

If Joels machine is being started up, does that mean we will be seeing Julian soon?

Edit: Please don't post spoilers.
Interesting letter.

Interesting indeed...

[Matrix Profile WebsiteYIM]

Not much of a secret. It was unsurprisingly easy to find all of it. Or at least most of it.

Edit: I spoke too soon...

Edit Edit: Should've kept lurking.

O...K.
Oh, and BTW, I responded to a post that doesn't exist! FUCK YEAH!

Anyway, I'm interested in finding out what all Mr. Exposition is gonna tell us.
As well as Miranda's presence on the site

[Rhythm Profile]

I found four pages but the last one is interesting.

[Immelmann]

Please don't post any spoilers or hints for the secret game.

[Supuhstar Profile WebsiteYIM]

haha that's an awesome secret! I'll certainly be entertained for weeks~

[Matrix Profile WebsiteYIM]

Please don't post any spoilers or hints for the secret game.

My stupid ass is never gonna get past part one

[Rhythm Profile]

Found one by complete accident.
Yay.

[yobutt5 Profile]

Edit: Please don't post spoilers.

But i really don't have time to comb through all 99 AtHoia comics... wake me when it's over

[spynae Profile]

Eerily coincidental timing with beginning an ARG, though, what with You Shouldn't Have Done That starting just under two weeks ago (granted, Jadusable put a halt to it out of not having the money or time to keep it going ;_; ), and also having been prepared for for a while.