---

Her orbital capsule was poised to enter the atmosphere. As it shifted to break orbit, Alicia could never quite subdue the mad impulse to escape. This was just part of space travel, Alicia knew. The mind and the body simply hadn’t evolved to be able to handle this sort of thing. She gripped the arm-rests, and grit her teeth.

Suddenly, her capsule veered left and a warning light on the central console lit up.

She glanced up to find herself already performing corrective maneuvers, her rigorous training narrowly edging out her basic instinct. Precise maneuvers were necessary for her safe return home, and she had practiced them all thousands of times. Her hands were flying over the controls, seemingly without her conscious involvement. She always found it easiest if she relaxed, and let her mind wander.

Alicia thought back to the caverns in which she grew up, down, down very deep within the caves. Her home had been at the end of a narrow passage, difficult to enter. There had been enough space for her, her elder brother and her baby sister to grow up, but only just. She had always dreamed of exploration, dreamed of escape, but never managed to get far before her nervousness forced her to return home.

But she had finally done it. She had broken free. She was just about as far away from home as anybody had ever been.

A buzzer went off to her right, which snapped her back into the here and now. The flight computer needed her to insert a memory card, containing atmospheric and weather data. She pulled it out of her pocket and plugged it into the computer in a single swift motion. The buzzer fell silent as the computer happily calculated trajectories through the least turbulent winds to return her safely to the surface.

...

Several weeks later, Alicia was telling her niece what being an astronaut was like. She started talking about the control panel: her niece loved hearing about all of the buttons.

“But Alicia, how do you know which buttons to push?” she asked.

“I have had lots of training. You can think of it like a manual, kind of like a story. It tells me what buttons to push, and in what order.”

“But what kind of buttons are they? And how are you sure?” her niece demanded.

Alicia was silent for a few moments, trying to think of how to describing them. Finally, she spoke: “You know how a typewriter has buttons on it? And if you want to copy out a page from book, you push the same letter-buttons in the same order as they appear in the book? And then the letters all appear on the paper in the typewriter? It’s a little bit like that. My training is like the page I’m copying out, although the buttons I push are a little different. They aren’t the kind of buttons that make letters appear, but they’re enough to get me back safely — it’s the same idea.”

Satisfied at last, her niece went to sleep.

Where is the puzzle :p

I feel like I am really close…

Ew is there a puzzle hidden in that?  Yikes.

I can see it…but…

There is one thing that I feel like I am missing… but I know what it wants from me.

Look forward to seeing the puzzle pointed out, forget the answer :p Night all

I think I know what I’m supposed to do but I don’t know how I’m supposed to get to it, I think I am missing where I am supposed to go for it. So frustrating…...

I suspect that once the answer is pointed out, I’ll get it, but right now it just looks like pretty storytelling.

I know it but all the combos i’m trying doesn’t work. AAAAAhhh

I am bringing my roommate to the airport in 3 and a half hours… and I haven’t gone to bed yet… Now this. What is sleep?

“Sadly somebody else got here first. But nonetheless, congratulations on finding the correct answer!”

Ugh, all of my sad. D:

Well, congrats, whoever won!

HELLA

Ahh! Don’t keep me in suspense, what was the answer? ;;

edit edit: for those who don’t get it, you press those buttons on your keyboard (so up arrow key for “up”, enter key for “enter”/“return”, etc.) while looking at this page. the background flashes red if you get it in the wrong order.

fabulously fancy coding yeeeee

*nods slowly*
I see, I didn’t catch the insert… I don’t think my laptop has one.
Congrats, Teal!

Edit: Also, I didn’t want to say anything earlier for fear it would give a hint. But I appreciate that her name is Alicia, like… Alicia Keys hahaha KEYS :D ...  :) ..... :|  I should sleep.

Ah, yep, I missed the Insert, too. My computer definitely doesn’t have one. Congrats, Teal.

Ah, bummer. I don’t have insert either! Wouldn’t have done me much gone even if I had though, to be honest.

Just so you know, any Windows PC has Insert on the On-Screen Keyboard :)

I…am on a mac. WHOOPS. XD (Good job though!)

*hi fives fellow Mac user*

I had the sequence down, but… *shakes fist at mac*

I am so confused, what exactly is this?

On from my iPad, so don’t have half the keys needed for that. XD No escape, home, direction keys, insert…. Yeah, basically I have letters and some symbols. And a bunch of emojis that I don’t think work on mycena cave.

Also using mac! XD

Ah there we go. Insert only works properly with the on screen keyboard. Good to know for the future. :)

My insert key is combined with the print screen button so it requires an extra command. XD;

oh well, I enjoyed the story!!! o3o

Oh my GOSH, that was so clever!!!!!!  I never woulda gotten it!!!!  That was so fast though, I woulda thought it’d last a little longer if it was something like this :p

@PlushiePalooza, same here, even after seeing the spoiler I have no clue what this even is. :/

I kind of understand, but not how to get the order at all xD

Ah. Well, I’m almost never on a computer and this was answered too quick for me, anyway,