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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Wildfire Industries » WI: Synagoga
[Spec] What's going on?
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Omnie
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Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 772

 		[Spec] What's going on?
This story is really intriguing me, and we don't yet have any place to discuss the big picture, so here we go. Plot, characters, setting - what's it all about?

First, here's some stuff that I think we know about Syn and what her deal is.
  • At least part of her is somehow mechanical in nature.
    She sees that she's running the AIM "device" but can't step back and see what she's running it on. She "hears" our messages to her. She (or something else?) outputs error messages when something goes wrong, and writes an error log as she's having a cardiac arrest. She's capable of rebooting. That's all very weird.
  • She has a (human?) body, which is asleep(?) in some sort of water and glass thing.
    Clea (heh, I've gotten tired of typing "Eccle," which sounds like a pastry) describes her hair floating in water. When Syn tried to wake up during a chat, she saw water and glass and then went into error mode.
  • Clea seems to think that Syn has the potential to go all evil and cause bad stuff.

That's enough of that, because it just gets more and more confusing. So, spec-ity spec: I think that Syn was once a human girl. There was something very special about her - maybe she had the power to see those "visions" that she mentions (although she also seems to think that internet images are visions. I really hope her visions aren't google image searches). That field that she likes talking about, with the tree and the prettiness - I think maybe that's a memory from before. So these people...whoever "they" are...took her - maybe they were afraid of her? They somehow brought her mind into a computer...or they put a program into her brain...that sounds completely nonsensical. For now, let's say they put a computer in her head, to control her behavior and her abilities. Her body is "asleep" while these people work on her (for what purpose? Maybe to train her to use her powers as they see fit). At some point, the group that Clea works for got possession of the whole project and put her in charge. And Clea isn't going to be winning any prizes for mental stability.

If that's true, I'm really not sure who we're talking to when we chat with Syn. A computer program? A human trapped inside her mind? Some combination of both?

...or maybe she's an alien.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:07 pm
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Nightmare Tony
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 		I wrote up a short story soe years ago on a similar thing, based on a dream of mine.

There is also a great short story in the L. Ron Hubbard writing contest "writers of the future" called "Dream in a bottle".

I would peg this as a human or more than human mind in said tank. Possibly dead, or a head only, kept alive by machine, able to send out thoughts via computer. The computer I would see as an overseeing monitor, but not a repository for personality.

This is STILL a superbly intriguing storyline potential for an ARG. There is a pathos and sadness to this, both on Syn and Eccles' side of their views.

From Eccles, it sounds like she had agreed or was forced into this, but not with her will. There is a bitterness and hurting. For this was not her doing.

My spec is the wise old church types, perhaps Syn is Eccle's daughter, and once her special powers became known to them had to haqve her neutralized permanently? Eccle taklimng care of her daughter and hating the church types for what they did to her daughter? I do NOT blame Eccles for being curt and hurtful in the emails asking crudely. Think of the hurt she is going through right now.

I think that by working together to right this, we help both of them.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:16 pm
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Omnie
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Nightmare Tony wrote:
The computer I would see as an overseeing monitor, but not a repository for personality.

Yeah, I think I agree with that. The error messages and logs are written when Syn is out of commission, so it isn't strictly "her." A part of her, maybe.

Quote:
From Eccles, it sounds like she had agreed or was forced into this, but not with her will. There is a bitterness and hurting. For this was not her doing.

Clea's motives are all over the place. There's the bitterness and resentment, but she's also fascinated and attracted to the project (maybe in a "can't look away from the wreck" sort of way). She seems deeply conflicted, but I can't get a handle on why.

There's also the fact that Clea seems to have done something that she feels horribly guilty about. I don't think it's just guilt over Syn's creation (or alteration, or whatever they've done to her), or of being complicit in her continued existence (again: or whatever it is they're doing with her). She did something for which she can't forgive herself, something that I think hurt Syn. I have no idea what that might be.
Eccleastia wrote:
I looked into her eyes and tears came into my eyes. I didn't... I couldn't believe that I was in charge of this... The concept was horrible. There was no excuse for what I was about to do. But I was going to do it. It was my job.


Also, Clea wonders what Syn will be like when she wakes up. That's why I don't think she's dead, or just a head (and her name isn't Fred! er...).

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:50 pm
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PlanB
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Joined: 13 Feb 2005
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Omnie wrote:
Clea's motives are all over the place. There's the bitterness and resentment, but she's also fascinated and attracted to the project (maybe in a "can't look away from the wreck" sort of way). She seems deeply conflicted, but I can't get a handle on why.

Don't forget envy. In one of the rambles that DreamOfTheRood posted, Clea is discussing Syn and then begins going "Thou shalt not covet, said the LORD."

PlanB

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:07 pm
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Kozu
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 		On one hand, the ultimate application of technology. A superior race. The scientists can't get enough of their creation, with such intoxicating power, enough to save or destroy the world. On the other, fanatic religious radicals proclaiming her the judgement of god, his wrath-or salvation.

Sounds like something from Trigun. (Then again, a lot of things do when you've watched the whole thing on DVD in one sitting.)
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:55 pm
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Omnie
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log 004 wrote:
<Eccleastia> So... why her?
<Devil> Well... that's a long story, m'lady.
...
<Devil> Ok, ok. I see you want to know. As you wish, of course. We are using her because she will die otherwise. And I'd rather not see a life go to waste.

With that, I get the impression that Clea didn't know Syn before they began the project. She's just wondering about the subject, and feeling moral (religious?) objections to whatever they're doing. She didn't seem to know that Syn was dying. I think Clea just feels bad about hurting an innocent girl. She went into the project with the belief that Syn would die otherwise, but maybe later she began to see that that would have been a better fate? Or she began having serious religious issues with the whole deal, or some combination of the two. Or maybe Syn wasn't dying at all. Dunno. But I'm not sure they're related.

Changing the subject slightly, there's something very strange going on with that website. Did you guys see the e-mail where Clea said that she and Syn both control it, and it's hard to explain? Well, it seems like Syn is posting clues for her friends (what with the duckies, and her explaining about the dot connecting...and then how she corrected the mistake on /librarian - I don't think Clea would have written a correction that way), but the solutions to those clues yield things that Syn couldn't know about. Right? Why would she have access to transcripts of conversations that didn't involve her, when sometimes she can't remember stuff that happened a minute ago? Although, why would Syn be posting puzzles for us to solve in the first place? Is it all Clea? I'm confused.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:13 am
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jordanmc
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Joined: 08 Feb 2005
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 		So im just wondering do we think this father revealed in the chat last night is "devil Twisted Evil " or "him"?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:23 am
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Nightmare Tony
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 		I think its HIM being the father, and the Devil merely delivered Syn as some to be dead meat for this experiment. At least the logs we are getting makes things clearer every second. at leats our older SPECs are being shaped and thrown away as the truth is revealed.

This is all good.

PM or PMs: please do NOT melt down this game. Finish it, 'cause we love it!
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:18 pm
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Crow
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 		Yeah, it is a totally kickass game.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:53 pm
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Kozu
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Joined: 04 Nov 2004
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 		Yeah. I played cult of adramelech from the start. Then it died. DONT DIE, SYN!
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:53 pm
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Crowfoot
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Kozu wrote:
Yeah. I played cult of adramelech from the start. Then it died. DONT DIE, SYN!


Same here.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:02 pm
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PlanB
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Joined: 13 Feb 2005
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Location: Little Egypt

 		"Likewise Sam, but moreso."
I heard about the Beast when it was going, but it didn't sound very interesting the way the guy telling me about it explained the concept and opted out. I was trying to catch up with Lenny's Xanga when it went kaput. I would really like to see this one run the full course of its storyline.

PlanB
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:09 pm
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Arbitrary_Moss
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 		Since we now seem to be talking to the PM(s)-

Please! Don't let it die! My first ARG died (Lenny's Xanga), and I'm having such a wonderful time with this one... Don't let it die! Shocked (puppy eyes) Please!
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'Life is distracting and uncertain,'
She said, and went to draw the curtain.
~Edward Gorey, The Eleventh Episode

... what can I say? I'm a Gorey girl at heart.

Life's just a bowl of... syntax errors.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:56 pm
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chippy
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 		patience... patience.... tick tock!! tick tock!!
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:05 pm
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Arbitrary_Moss
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chippy wrote:
patience... patience.... tick tock!! tick tock!!


*shivers* That tick-tock thing disturbs me. Makes me feel like lives are at stake and that I'm running out of time.

I hate not having enough time.
_________________
'Life is distracting and uncertain,'
She said, and went to draw the curtain.
~Edward Gorey, The Eleventh Episode

... what can I say? I'm a Gorey girl at heart.

Life's just a bowl of... syntax errors.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:12 pm
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