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Notes
Sept 3, 2006 12:40:21 GMT -5
Post by Fredrick Nova on Sept 3, 2006 12:40:21 GMT -5
Fredrick, deciding it would be amusing to see just how much about the Vigenere cipher Nathan could figure out, sat down in his room and composed a note to leave on his door. The hardest to decipher would be using a key the same length of the message, but he decided that was probably too much to ask of his friend, so he settled on using a key word he thought Nathan would appreciate instead.
A few minutes later he taped the message to Nathan's door and laughed to himself, hurrying away.
"It Ncdiln, K rpae ayv saxo gfn ysus tjst."
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Notes
Sept 3, 2006 20:58:20 GMT -5
Post by Nathan Dark on Sept 3, 2006 20:58:20 GMT -5
When Nathan looked out from his room to see what the sound had been, there was noone there. Probably someone practising his stealth skills, he decided. Just as he was closing the door, however, he noticed something white on his door. This turned out to be a note, which he removed to see what someone wanted to tell him.
At first he just stared at it, wondering if he had suddenly gone dyslectic, but after deciding that this probably wasn't the case, he studied the note a bit more. He had been seen reading that cryptography book quite a lot lately, perhaps this was someone wanting to test him?
The redhead looked around once more, but when nobody could be seen, he returned to his room with the note, sitting down by the desk. Now, if they were going to test him, they shouldn't be using some cipher they had not yet had a class in, right? So, this should be either a Caesar cipher or a Vigenère one. He copied the phrase into his notebook and started lining up the alphabet for the first two words - under the "I" he wrote J, K, L... and under the "T" U, V, W and so on. He only did the first two words because he figured that it was enough to see if any line seemed promising. At shift+21 he thought he might've found something, as the first letters ended up as "DO". His hope was crushed though, when the next word turned out to be "IXYDGI".
No, this didn't seem to be a Caesar cipher. On to the next option then. Nathan dug out the Vigenère table he had copied into his notebook and studied it thoughtfully. No key on the note, he'd have to figure it for himself. Still, if the spacing was correct, the third word should be either an A or an I. Using this theory, he didn't get very far, though. What could the first word be? "An", maybe? Still, he didn't get too far. The boy was a little frustruated now, but decided to make one more try. Looking close at the note again, he suddenly slapped his own forehead, rolling his eyes at himself. The second word was capitalised!. What if it was his own name? Working from this theory, he soon had it all figured out.
Whoever wrote it had used the keyword "black". Probably a reference to Nathan's clothes. The boy considered this for a moment and then started working on a message in reply. At first he considered using the same keyword, but decided against it. Let the other one have a bit of a challenge, too.
A little bit later, he taped his own note somewhere in the boys' dorms, hoping the mysterious writer would find it.
"Pv easi pb feu jwggayv; rio, P lbh aurhc pom vmlomk ckb utha mwk qa. P phta fwn perm lshcqgk pomf, xkv."
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Notes
Sept 3, 2006 22:07:04 GMT -5
Post by Fredrick Nova on Sept 3, 2006 22:07:04 GMT -5
It was after dinner when Fredrick noticed the reply note on the wall of the common room. He walked by it, making sure he was quite alone and no one was watching, and then returned and quickly pocketed the note. Part of the fun was in keeping himself anonymous, after all.
He took it into his room and unfolded it at his desk, smoothing it out to read. He grinned as he scanned it, glad to see that Nathan was playing along and coding his answer. He really is good at these codes. I hope I can actually decipher this, or else I'm going to look really dumb. It's a good thing no one knows I left the first note.
He opened his Cryptography book to the page with the Vigenere table on it. He assumed Nathan wouldn't reply with the easier Ceasar cipher since the first note had been in this one. First he checked the key he'd used to write the note to his friend. The first word worked well, with "Pv" becoming "Ok." After that, though, it went downhill quickly. The word "eyih" meant nothing to him, nor could he figure out a way it would make real words even with the spacing changed. He abandoned "black" as a key and leaned into his hand, taking his fake glasses off and setting them on the desk surface.
Ugh, well, he was glad, in a way, that Nathan hadn't made it too easy for him, but he didn't really know where to start looking for the key. He stared at the letters for a while, nothing coming to mind, and finally set the paper down to pace the room and think. His eye caught the notes he'd used to translate his first note and he saw a pattern he recognised. He sat at the desk again and compared them...yes, it might work.
Using the second sentence as a guide, and knowing that "P" would have to be either "A" or "I" he took a chance that the following words would be the ones he thought they were. It worked! By the time he got to the third word he knew that Nathan had used the key "white" in reply. All he had to do from there was apply the key to the rest of the message.
Fredrick was pretty proud of himself by the time he'd written out the translated message. This cipher stuff was a challenge, but it was fun, too. At least it could be fun if you used it right. He wondered what to write in return. Now that he'd started it, he had to keep it going. It took him half an hour or so to compose his next message, and then he went to bed. The next morning, very early, he taped the paper to Nathan's door. A new note and a new key would await him when he woke.
"Ks wyi fztkvv-prwwvv; bfy'uv vhrpop krfh dk xkvwh. Debsi qvbw kmpv M zzpo lwh r ohp xkrx'v r goli wf akf M dd. "
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Notes
Sept 9, 2006 21:17:54 GMT -5
Post by MeiMei on Sept 9, 2006 21:17:54 GMT -5
[OOC: Wow. Now I feel really dumb. xD]
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