I’ve spent the past 24 hours on calls and email with Instagram, support threads on a tech security forum, and I even paid a guy $20 on a freelance site to try and explain how this could happen if someone didn’t hack my account.
I didn’t post this photo. I posted the first one, the quote. That’s taken in our office. But not the Oz book.
Instagram says there was no suspicious activity on the account. No weird sign-ins.
After the bio changed to “The Ackerly Green Book Shop” last week I added two-factor authentication to make sure nobody was messing around with the account. So I should’ve gotten a text on my phone. Never did. Support at Instagram said that it had similar hashtags to my previous post so I should check to see if someone else in my company had posted it (they are unaware that I and Dev are the company at the moment.) So where did it come from? Listen, if it was one of the Mounties, I don’t mind AT ALL. I just want to know because this, combined with the bio, and some other weird things that have been going on lately (will post about soon) it’s got me all kinds of sort of freaked out.
I mean, I wish I owned a cool book like that…but no. Sorry, Sabes. Do you know how someone else could have gotten the account info? Or do you think someone’s got a spell that can hack websites or social media accounts?
(And am I crazy, or do I remember you saying that the Book of Briars seemed to have put itself up for pre-order on the AG site?)
Good point, @Viviane. And I considered The Council.
The Book of Briars did “put itself” up for pre-order, which I assumed was either the book itself sort of wanting to… be? (Which I kind of headcanoned was the point of what you guys did anyway. Sort of bring the book, and the new age, to life.) Or it was the last thing The Council did before they went quiet.
But in all the months since they disappeared Instagram is the place they decide to pop back up?
It’s definitely a possibility, but I guess I’d just counted them out. From everything we’ve learned, The Council used up all the power they had, and nearly all the magiq left here, to help us in the end.
I mean I’d love to believe they’re still out there helping. But I’d also like to have a long talk with them if that’s the case because I don’t personally think the best use a magiqal, otherworldly organization’s time is gathering Instagram followers.
…Aaaaand now I’m imagining the Council trying to decide what filter has the best magimystical properties to show off their morning inter-dimensional Starbucks. But yeah, good point.
I mean, The Oz books are my favorite series. One of the reasons I became a writer… otherwise, I don’t know. That’s the nerve wracking part, @OracleSage. We’ve had people highjack our stuff for good and bad. And is that even what this is? A highjacking? A message? A clue?
Could be all of the above honestly, what we know for now is that neither you nor Dev posted this… Which means someone else, for whatever reason did, based on how cryptic these folk like to be… Id say its definatly worth taking a look at. Ill see if I can spot anything after I’m done making dinner, maybe we should start with what we know about this book in particular? It seems like our best lead.
EDIT: According to Wikipedia Ojo in OZ follows a young man whose been captured by gypsies, gypsies who plan on delivering him to some unknowable enemy whose offered them a great sum. Ojo befriends Snufferbux (try saying that ten times fast ) who is the gypsies dancing bear. It follows their journey in Ojo’s attempts of escape. That’s the basic plot, anyway.
Okay, it’s almost creepier knowing the series is your favorite? Like, some rando posting pics of old books to a publishing bookshop’s Instagram is one thing, but if it’s personal to you, that seems…a lot sketchier. Or, you just happen to have exceedingly magiqal taste in books, and it has nothing to do with your tastes and someone wants AG’s Instagram followers to see this book for completely different reasons, which we also don’t know.
Cool. Awesome. (At least we know it’s not the Storm possessing us to steal our memories/selves, right? Heh. Hehehe.)
perhaps some third party with magiqal means is doing this. Have we considered anyone who isnt monarchs or silver might still have magiq? i mean, surely there are others out there.
maybe someone from behind the scenes is setting us up for something big. Dunno what oz would have to do with it though.
Then again, take what i say with a grain of salt. I write so many stories sometimes its hard to differentiate game backstory and real life
I think a major thing worth considering is Sabers privacy, and safety… Or how close this mystical third party could be. I don’t know about any of you, but my favorite books series isn’t something someone could find by simply looking my name up. Sabes have you cast the Jordorian Protection spell on your home/ackerly green offices??
Dev and I, with Deirdre’s notes, cast the Joradian Safeguard on my place, his place, the site, and the redone forum. Poor Dev. Imagine your first week at a new job and you’re asked to cast magic of unknown origin on your own apartment. Well, you guys probably wouldn’t mind, actually.
Oh! I hadn’t even thought of that… It would make total sense too, I mean, I think Saber said the pin has brought him places and things like that in the past… Maybe they have gotten tech savvy.
I would be more freaked about it being an Oz book if they weren’t already so popular, you know? Hoping someone isn’t targeting me directly, but I guess I signed up for a certain amount of that.
But yeah, could definitely have something to do with the pin. I’ve gotten turned around in my own neighborhood while wearing it. I feel like I have… I don’t know, higher sensitivity when I have it on. It’s not a bad thing. Not scary. Just definitely something magiq going on.
But yeah, good point.