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Forum index » Archive » Archive: Orbital Colony » Orbital Colony: General/Updates

[SPEC] About the puzzle trail and Seth

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rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

[SPEC] About the puzzle trail and Seth

This evening in #inquiringminds chat Rowan asked Seth an excellent question - if the trail is meant for Seth, why does it seem that Seth can't solve it without our help. She also asked Seth why he would trust us.

I have some speculation along these points.

1. This trail was meant for the real Seth, a person who would be able to solve the puzzles only working with Stevie. Since this Seth can't do that, he is either (a) an imposter or he is the (b) "real" Seth who decided to involve Earth based people as (i) a measure of personal protection- ie not undertaking this dangerous journey alone or (ii) as a backup of having other people accessing the information if something happened to him. If he is an imposter, he could not admit that he can't do something the "real" Seth could have done. If he is the "real" Seth, the fact that something bad seems to have happened to Steven would give him a good motive to seek outside, Earth-based help.

2. Seth is really Steven in disguise. No idea how he worked it, but he decided to disappear to protect his safety while he dug out the truth from a trail he had previously created. It is clear the trail was planned months ahead. Or, another idea, Seth is Steven in disguise and Steven is really the villian of this story - not Bronco - but Steven needs to set-up Bronco's guilt so he, Steven, could get away with it. The trail is so odd because it is really just a long tease and a story Steven is telling. He may be doing that to set us up to slowly undermine Bronco so that we will be more willing to accept the "evidence" against Bronco he has planted on Earth. Or, Steven is Seth and knows that Bronco is guilty and this is the only way he could prove it without risking his life or his family.

I don't hold much credence in the idea that Steven loved his family so much he would surely have contacted them if he could. He may have decided it is too dangerous to contact them directly, his young daughter would have a hard time pretending that she didn't know he was back. This way he could be near them in his disguise as Seth and not tell them. Note that Cordelia could even have been in on helping Steven disappear. And she may agree that not telling Stevie is the best way to keep her safe. Any way Steven could be hidden in the hospital as a patient?

Again, the point of trusting us is to find an audience on Earth for the story he needs to tell.

3. Back to Seth being in disguise, he could be a plant from an opposing group trying to get the dirt on Orbicon. The hidden messages from Steven to Seth were too widely destributed to assume that only the real Seth would figure them out, I mean we did it Smile

I have suspected Davinia of being a plant - her dreams are too much like the visions that Brother Leon has. Notice also how Davinia insulated herself into Steven's family. Maybe Seth and Davinia are working together to bring down Orbicon based on information that Steven was able to find. Perhaps Steven is in hiding in the complex in North Carolina.

Jamesi once said famously don't trust any characters. One real problem we have is the total lack of corroborating information on any single character. We only have one unconfirmed story line.

In any event, Seth just doesn't seem like he is a private detective, he is too open with information. Maybe he has created his blog reports as a way to get messages to his team back in the inept or CARTS. Or whatever reason, I am perfectly willing to assume this guy isn't the "real" Seth and see where that takes us story wise.

4. No idea how Rasmussen, the creepy coma guy, fits in here. He worked with Steven, maybe Steven trusted him with a secret much as he trusted Seth. As I said it is maddening to not have any other corraborating details.

These are just some conspiracy theory ideas. At this point, I am willing to suspect just about everything everyone tell us - even Stevie's blog could be a front controlled by someone else.

I am not sure what the next step is to take, I was thinking of emailing Davinia and asking her about her dreams and what a coincidence it is that they resemble Brother Leon's dreams.

I also don't understand anything about the Gaia songs - which are almost as annoying as the puzzle trail, who cares about the idiotic Oak or Maple or whatever the tree was in the song, or the seemingly barely relevant but tedious medical stuff from the inept.

I did consider sending the inept - aren't they the ones who asked for gossip - the news that a person on the asteroid had a coma and then a stroke. And seeing if they think it would be caused by the medicines they oppose. They were right about the asteroid, knowing about it well before it was announced, so they had to have some inside sources.

As I said before, we need to create some action that will cause more of a reaction than these unsatisfactory pablum or confused responses like the one Rowan got. The information that Stevie posts is pretty well accessible, ie, not password protected. She definitely mentions the coma, the drugs and the stroke - surely it would do no harm to make sure the opposing groups are aware of things on her blog - without, of course, attributing Stevie as the source of the information.

Thoughts?

ps. Bronco could have had a role in just about any of this. I am trying to understand what his character could possibly be doing, but he seems like such an obvious choice as the villian that we conspiracy theorists tend to discount him. We would be terrible police detectives because we doubt that the obvious person is really the guilty one.

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Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 4:04 am

crouchosarus
Veteran

Joined: 25 Nov 2005
Posts: 76
Location: Waselei Station

I think Rasmussen is Steven in diguise. He was sneaking into Stevie's room so that he could take something from Radar, but when he couldn't rather than risk whatever it was he changed the password.... Triky

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:59 am

camdman
Boot

Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 27
Location: Australia

crouchosarus wrote:

Quote:

Wasn't Rasmussen diabetic? Did i read somewhere that that was why he went into the coma? Well, if he is, maybe someone could contact stevie and ask her if steven was diabetic? Then at least we could know for sure... But i think it would have to be a pretty good disguise to be still fooling people after he was being treated and in a coma. You would think someone would've noticed he was wearing a wig... But who knows, maybe it was a super high tech disguise??

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:57 am

tallerbird
Decorated

Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Posts: 278
Location: Birmingham,UK

Re: [SPEC] About the puzzle trail and Seth

rose wrote:

why does it seem that Seth can't solve it without our help. She also asked Seth why he would trust us.

Well if Seth could solve it without our help this would be a very boring ARG for us.

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:05 am

rose
...and then Magic happens

Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

Quote:

Well if Seth could solve it without our help this would be a very boring ARG for us.

Somehow I don't think that is the answer to the question of why Seth asked for our help. I think there is likely an answer that is part of the story and that it is worth trying to figure out.

I speculated about several possible reasons why, as part of the story, Seth was unable or unwilling to solve the trail alone. At the very least, I like the idea that involving other people was necessary as a safety matter. Even if one of us worked for orbital or leaked the information to them, he still has the protection afforded by spreading whatever he knows to a public audience.

I am going to email Seth today to tell him that I think he is an imposter and see what he has to say about that.

_________________
I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:03 am

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