Watch the Footage

As requested by Drynuya (whom I think is itching to abuse his modly powers ), here is the Timeline Thread for the MATRX ARG that seems to have sprung up around these parts. Currently Dryu, I and anyone classed as Mods in Off Topic are the only ones able to edit the thread, and he'll be doing the majority of the cataloguing work. I'm here as back up.

I'm not itching any more than usual, and the timeline was initially requested by Pyro.
Technical note: due to timezone differences, expect some wiggle space between the events.

Anyway,

Meet Lucy, The official Matrx ARG timeline.
(What? Pyro asked me. >_>)

February 21, 2014

• Masteroftheshop twitter account, previously held by Lordxana for the Coffee Room hijinks, got renamed to !#!@)!*)@$ and posted its first cryptic message made entirely of punctuation marks. The account was followed by Victin at the moment.
• The translation, as found later, is performed by substituting the punctuation marks for respective numbers, and translating the numbers to letters, as in TWWF.
• The translation (done the next day) reveals that the poster is confused and is aware of the Coffee Room, and the poster's name translates to Matrx or Matr0x (the former turns out to be correct).

February 22, 2014

• A thread named @!!$$%!*!(@)!!$$(!$& appeared on the forums, with the opening post encoded with punctuation marks.
• Translating the punctuation marks to numbers and numbers to letters revealed that the visitor required an admin code to complete the reset process. The admin code is said to be held by everyone on the forum. (Also, the visitor is scared and needs help.)
• At this point, the previous twitter messages are noticed and translated.
• After brief speculation, Matrx posts another message, this one referencing #NotASeaMonster, cementing the event as an in-house one, and a pretty meaningless tweet (translation).
• Pixel denied running the ARG shortly after.
• Another generic forum post (translation).
• "Metaguard" suggested as a password and accepted. The resulting message officially introduced the visitor as Reality Manipulation and Parafine enabler device codename 'Matrx'. Matrx initiated the reset process, but entered sleep mode to minimize losses due to corrupt data.

February 23, 2014

• Some Metaguards expressed their worries against playing with a stolen twitter account. Xana confirmed that the account was not stolen.
• Matrx started posting tweets in proper English, showing signs of existential anxiety.
• Metaguards try to converse with Matrx on twitter. He replies with automated responses of debatable relevancy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

February 24-26, 2014

• Discussions about the nature of the ARG concluded that the original TWWF puppetmaster team is not responsible.
• Matrx's tweets (1, 2, 3) imply a time limit. Other than that, he shows no reaction.

February 27, 2014

• Matrx tweeted a lolcat (yes, really). The image contained incomplete binary code, but examination revealed nothing. No steganographic content was found, either.
• First post on the candle blog (see March 12-13th).

February 28, 2014

• Matrx tweeted another picture with binary code and demotivator-style frame, this time as a reply to Dryunya. The picture was accompanied by ominous lyrics about passing time and dead birds, that seem to be referencing a Doctor Who rhyme. (Technical image info)
• DeckyGirl (Decky, Rebecca F., Becky) makes her first tweet (not discovered until March 12-13th).

March 1, 2014

• Matrx posts an error-laden tweet.

March 2, 2014

• FinalShutdownCommence.file video gets posted (see March 11).

March 3, 2014

• In another tweet, Matrx requested master reset password retrieval with a Y/N prompt. Naturally, the answer was 'Y'.

March 4-5, 2014

• Matrx posted three nonsensical tweets (discussion).
• Candle blog post (see March 12-13th).
• First post on the New Light Incorporated blog (see March 25th).

March 6, 2014

• Another tweet from Matrx, pointing to a grainy gif with a hand showing 1-3-5 fingers. The numbers are inverted Caesarean shift keys, translating the tweet into "listen, understand, repeat".
• The previous weird tweets remain a subject of further WMG.

March 8, 2014

• Candle blog post (see March 12-13th).

March 11, 2014

• Matrx tweets another message, translated via Caesarean shift to "Watch, watch, understand".
• Another tweet, translated to "Error listen onethreefive", for some reason wasn't noticed on the forum.
• Eli and Kays have brute-forced the weird tweets, resulting in a link to a Youtube video by STOPTHECLOCK. Video title: FinalShutdownCommence.file (transcript, screencaps below). The video contained a Morse Code sequence, translated to "CANDLESONLY"
• First entry in DeckyGirl's livejournal (see March 12-13th). She also leaves a comment on the candle blog that will lead to her later. Both are related to a candle incident in which she ruined a desk that belonged to her father (who will be mentioned again later).
• When prompted for a reset progress report, Matrx hinted to "follow the sound". Having rejected "CANDLESONLY" as a password, Matrx started ignoring incorrect passwords for the time being.
• New post on the New Light blog (not found yet). Highlights:
  
  • They picked their logo, which, as was noticed later, can mean both a tree with orbiting thingies, or a conductor with 2 electrons.
  • The logo was made by Eric Shields, written in the post as Mr. E Shields (read as "Mystery Shields").
  • Beth's full name is Bethany (Kingsler), and she is the founder.

March 12-13, 2014

• Two more cryptic tweets from Matrx, mostly overlooked.
• After several days of WMGs, the candle blog was found at http://candlesonly.blogspot.com.
• The site remains unrelated as of May 2nd, but one of the entries had a comment from DeckyGirl's livejournal, which led to her twitter account. Archive digging started.
• She has a new job, and she likes her new boss.
• Hints at a magnetic anomaly.
• She tweeted about a security failure at some university with a newspaper photo. Not much useful information.

March 14, 2014

• Becky reacted to her new followers (us).
• Renewed attempts to find the reset password elicited another hint from Matrx, which didn't help much.

March 15, 2014

• By brute-forcing everything on the candle blog, "Candelabra" was revealed as the password. The logic remains unexplained to this day.
• Entering the password gave us a new video at STOPTHECLOCK, titled "Candelabra found.file" (transcript).
• The video description is "I apologiseI apologise". In the video, Matrx promised to present us with whatever information he recovers... later.

March 15-19, 2014

• On twitter, Becky told that she got in trouble at work for using her cell phone, mentioned that her job is a social media manager, that there is a lot of technical research going on at her work, and that it's absolutely not suspicious. Also, her boss' name is Beth, and, again, she is a good boss.

March 20, 2014

• Becky's tweet revealed that her boss' last name is "Kinglser", which is obviously a typo of "Kingsler". In another tweet she mentioned that she misses her father.

March 25, 2014

• STOPTHECLOCK posted a new video (Matrx explicitly said there are no secrets), and bricks were shat.
  
  • The video contains no... video, it's an audio message from Adell in 2024. The voice has been confirmed.
  • Basically, the New Light corporation will have taken over the world with countless casualties.
  • New Light's keystone technology is the Think Tank, which they use to generate matter out of nothing.
  • Matrx came from the Think Tank, and holds a fraction of its powers. The reunited Metaguards sent him back in time to the only people they trust (us), and our job is to help Matrx help us.
  • Judging by the sound, Future Adell seems to be doomed.
  • All highlights

March 25-27, 2014

• Gently poking Rebecca on twitter to try to find out where she works. It's pretty obvious she works for New Light, but we need a confirmation and their site.

March 27, 2014

• Rebecca's first article posted on the New Light blog, which she tweets about immediately (without the link). Article highlights:
  
  • New Light is working, at least officially, on "Smart Soil" for farming purposes.
  • The Smart Soil was invented by their "Think Tank scientists".
  • Rebecca's full name is Rebecca Forrest.

March 28, 2014

• On 28th, she cracked and tweeted a link to the New Light blog, having asked us not to post the link on the "big sites".
• Matrx has started the "Hello" thread, in which he tried to answer our questions, noting that most of his data was corrupted due to time travel distortions.
  
  • The first question, of course, was about the hoverboards. In return, Matrx tweeted a decayed hoverboard picture. So far, he hasn't tweeted anything else from that account.
  • The data corruption happened because the rebels didn't have time to set up the time travel properly (due to a sudden attack).
  • Matrx is an advanced form of the Think Tank, stolen from New Light and reprogrammed to serve the good cause. He was also given personality to evolve, as well as a Restraining Bolt / Morality Chip.
  • He set up some vague protection to avoid detection. The protection covers this very forum, but it's unknown how far it goes.
  • He has an Oracle system (not that one) that predicts the future. Naturally, it's corrupted.
  • The New Light has been evil since its foundation, and has plenty of money and resourses to defend itself.
  • The Think Tank, at this point, is a specialized computer. The Reality Warping powers so far are minuscule.
  • Apparently, the candle blog is still somehow important.
  • Time travel is impossible, so Matrx time-travelled via Reality Warping.
  • Matrx said he won't monitor his first thread (!@#), in order to give us some privacy.

March 31, 2014

• New post on Rebecca's blog. Mostly unimportant gushing, but she mentions her two friends - Brent and Carly (presumably, Those Two Guys). Brent is, again, obsessed about the magnetic fields.
• Matrx found a way to restore some of his data. He started a new thread ("Help"), in which he asked for our creative input (stories, that is).

April 1, 2014

• Matrx rickrolled us.

April 3, 2014

• Rebecca tweeted a picture with green sky at work. She thinks It's Probably Nothing.

April 5, 2014

• Rebecca mentioned Brent is jumpy lately, and he walks around studying the magnetic field. He got warned by security once. The security guy hand-waved it as geomagnetism.

April 9, 2014

• Brent gathered all the magnets he could find, and he apparently looks at compass on his way to work.
• Purple sky this time. Rebecca has tweeted a picture with a freaking ninja Hidden In Plain Sight. Everyone missed it.

April 10, 2014

• New candle blog post.

April 13, 2014

• Rebecca got a weird email from Brent with something she believed was a cipher in the attachment (not posted yet). Apparently, he was absent from work for the last 3 days. She believes it was his nerdy way of writing a love letter.
• Matrx has stopped accepting story submissions.

April 14, 2014

• Rebecca posted the coded email attachment. Decoding attempts start here and are pretty much fruitless.

April 18-20, 2014

• Brent was absent from work again. Becky got worried.

April 20, 2014

• New video from Matrx.
  
  • Title: "countries.file", decoded description: "accesing this data is highly difficult" (sic!).
  • Highlights and analysis start from here.
  • Apparently, Bethany Kingsler is deeply involved in upcoming New Light's genocide.
  • The video showed maps of some of the conquered countries, with comments, as well as an elephant, which was mentioned in one of Matrx stories and in the data he remembered after reading it.
  • The Morse Code in the video seems to be corrupted. Possible recovered message is "A COMBINATION OF AVITY WITHHAT SEGMENT. ITS ALMOST CUTE".
  • The sound at the end may be interpreted as "help".

April 24, 2014

• New post at Rebecca's blog. Brent was found dead.

April 25, 2014

• Eli DM'd Becky on twitter. In return, she gave her Brent's email, as well as her email address. Eli refused to disclose it unless necessary.
• Brent's death is in a local newspaper.
• Rick finally cracked the cipher. The messages are:
  
  1. CHECK YOOR PHOTOS SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT IN THEM!
  2. DID HS TEACH YOU HOW TO READ THIS? MESSAGE BACK IF HE DID BUMBLE
• When presented with the messages, Becky freaked out. Apparently, the only person to call her "bumble" was her father, who is long dead.
• Brent's obituary post is up on the New Light blog. His full name is Brent Darren Foster, and he worked in a New York branch.
• Blur examined Becky's twitter photos and found the elusive ninja, which he immediately pointed out to her. ...Reaction.
• Becky calmed down and messaged Eli back.
  
  • Her father used to call her "bumblebee". One day, he walked out and never returned; Becky's mother said he died a few years ago.
  • Eli warned her not to trust the New Light. Becky is confused and refuses to believe New Light had anything to do with it.
• A discussion ensued about how much Becky should know. The opinions are mixed.

April 27, 2014

• Becky is still silent. Last thing we heard from her is her Need of A Freaking Drink.
• Matrx started a new thread ("Death?"), in which he struggled to understand humans' emotions on the subject of, well, death. Apparently, he suggested attending Brent's funeral.

May 1, 2014

• New video from Matrx.
  
  • Title: "Silence 1:00.file.securitysystemAJAX2009.FILE", decoded description: "Observation complete. Comprehension minimal."
  • It is a minute of silence.
  • There is an entity that may or may not be Matrx (as previously seen in his videos), and weird-colored sky.
• Rebecca made a blog post. Recap:
  
  • She started to doubt her coworkers, the work computers (the post was made from her cousin's laptop), and the weird skies (which were present at Brent's funeral).
  • Her father used the nickname that was found in Brent's puzzle, and was obsessed with puzzles as well (for bonus points, her mother joked that he was trying to crack a government conspiracy).
  • She found nothing to suggest that Brent knew her father, besides lots of old sudoku puzzles at his workplace.
  • Her superiors are about to get her a coworker, but she is suspicious.
  • She is not going to stay out of this.

May 2, 2014

• Matrx popped back into the Death thread.
  
  • He explained that the sky color is the evidence of Reality Warping, either by himself or the Think Tank.
  • He manipulated the local cameras and cell phones to get the audio and video.

May 5, 2014

• Rebecca has DM'd JR on twitter.
  
  • She is willing to cooperate, if we help her find out the truth about her father.
  • She doesn't want to keep chatting on twitter, suggesting email instead.

May 8, 2014

• Rebecca's email went public.
• She also tweeted her father's photo, taken by her sister. Becky received it when she was fifteen.
• She is about to get a co-worker.
• Becky made a blog post about her father.
  
  • Her father left with her older sister, who was about 20 at the time. Becky was about 8.
  • She received lots of postcards from her sister from all around the world, but never from her father.
  • It was her sister who told about her father's death, but she didn't get to see her.
  • Things she remembers about her father:
    
    1. He liked peanut M&Ms
    2. He kept getting into fights? (It was unclear)
    3. He was smart and liked puzzles, but had awful spelling. So is her boss.
• Matrx launched a new round of story submissions.

May 12, 2014

• Becky got a co-worker. It is suspected that he's there to watch over her.

May 13, 2014

• New post on the candle blog went unnoticed until 2 weeks later.
  
  • The post contains a broken link to an image folder on a nonexistent site. It decodes to "Agent 31 is down, if you can read this message your help is needed"

May 23, 2014

• Matrx created a dedicated thread for the candle blog, pointing out that there's something for us to find.
• Tohrinha left a coded comment on the last post, offering help.

May 28, 2014

• Matrx has closed the second round of story submissions, responding with a video.
  
  • Description: "Attempts were made. Success variable."
  • The video itself is pretty nondescript, with Morse code at the end.
  • Morse code translation: "IWILLTRYIWILLTRYIWI<corrupted>"

May 29, 2014

• Matrx tried to emulate the heroes from submitted stories and launched a third and, apparently, final round of story submissions. Topic: stories in form of letters.
• Becky tweeted a photo that might show the rain from Matrx' video.
• Also, her new colleague talks to computers.
• The candle blog's author replied to the help offer - in a coded way, of course. Decoding starts here.

June 10, 2014

• Matrx started a new thread, promising a "special event". The event was a live chatroom with Matrx. The logs are here. New information:
  
  • He is approaching a point where he can take action and restore his Oracle system.
  • Rebecca's father is recorded in his future files, but the data is corrupted.
  • He is, for all intents and purposes, incorruptible.
  • The Think Tank allows to bypass technological restrictions - basically, it can reproduce any provided schematics that can theoretically work. Matrx, at full power, does the same without any schematics, running on imagination (which is what he needed the stories for).
  • His reality-warping systems have safeguards to not break reality, and any lasting damage can be fixed with the same powers that caused it.
  • In his complete form, Matrx can subvert any physical law. Also, he can make the chicken dance look cool.
  • Matrx suggests undermining the New Light indirectly, but he can summon the Avatar form (basically, remote-controlled human) for direct confrontations.
  • The New Light can't predict the future, as their own Oracle system is in very early stages.
  • Matrx put a time lock so that his energy signature couldn't be used to Make Wrong What Once Went Right.
  • Travelling between different realities is next to impossible.

June 17, 2014

• New post on the candle blog. Capitalized letters, if you remove some of them, spell out "IF YOU WISH TO AID US READY YOURSELF".

June 19, 2014

• Rebecca thinks it's calm before the storm.

July 7, 2014

• Matrx has closed the story submissions and attempted to warp reality, posting a new video.
  
  • The binary code in the post translates to "error in procer" (sic).
• Video analysis:
  
  • Title: Failedattempt.apology.lost.file
  • Description: The phrase "third time lucky" appears to be irrelevant here...
  • The video is similar to the other ones, standing out by lightning bolts and weird warping sounds of increasing pitch.
  • Text message at the end: "Attempted reality warp status: Failure. Citing insufficient data. I am sorry."
  • Morse code translates to: "I APOLOGISE ABORTING FILE RESTORE ABORTING WARP"
• Matrx started a new thread regarding the last Reality Warping attempt. He is not sure what caused the warp failure, but it seemed to decrease his power level under nine thousand. >_> His grammar seems to be slightly worse than normal, which may or may not mean something. At the end of the post, Matrx attached a link to the recovered letters from unknown sources.
  
  • Analysis here

July 13, 2014

• Becky has tweeted that she was going to post something secret related to her work.

July 16, 2014

• Similar tweet from Becky.
• On the same day, she tweeted a link to a video. It's a podcast on the New Light's channel, in which Beth is interviewed by a Bastion intern. Highlights are here. No apparent hidden content.

September 9th, 2014

• Becky's twitter account was deleted. Other accounts are still intact.
• The ARG was announced to be over.

September 13th, 2014

• Matrx uploaded the post-interview part of the podcast. In it, Beth kills the host (with weird tech sounds) for prior comment she deemed unfit, and demands to replace him with an avatar.

September 21st, 2014

• The same video was uploaded to New Light's channel.

Susie gets a playmate!

Anura wrote:Susie gets a playmate!

Her name is Prudence. Be nice to her, she's very shy.

Pyro named her Lucy weeks ago (I have the PM), let's stick to that. And no parental disputes in front of the children.

I have to say it's a pretty awesome timeline so far. Great job with it

HIP HIP, HOORAY!

So, who's the actual parent(s) in this, then?

Just asking in case I end up doing a Princess Maker for this one as well.

I have the custody certificates for Lucy Prudence right here *waves obscure document covered in crayon*

Uh... it's Rebecca Forrest, with two "r"s.

Derp. Editing now.