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[zaeil]

[UPDATE] Scarlett's Story - Feb. 3 2006

[Centipede]

[quote=Scarlett"]we don't especially want to run into anything big (a cougar, a mountain, a human being) that comes up on us unexpectedly[/quote]

I love the order of importance here.

Couger > mountain > human.

[tanner]

hmm cougar = the americas -- ruins = the puzzle we had to solve using the keyboard on the lost roof????

maybe someone should post the pic of the ruined cottage to scarlet and ask if thats the place

would give us kudos for insider knowledge maybe

[Mokey Fraggle]

Ooooh... I wonder if they'll go into an old, ruined city, frozen in time after whatever it is that happened to them. Kind of Pompeii-ish. Exciting!

[cassandra]

Based on this and previous entries, I'm astonished at the size of the Perplexian continent.

[locqust]

Yeah we must be looking at least the size of the asian continent from what I remember from previous info.

you would of thought with all their tech and thirst for information they would of mapped the whole planet by now, they must have satellites?

[Centipede]

Not necessarily. Early on they seemed amazed by our airplanes. That would suggest they don't have flight or rocketry either.

[locqust]

Ah yes I had forgotten bout that.

[Velma]

Hmm...I'm confused. They've travelled more than 3000 miles in what I am assuming is a car that uses a combustion engine, through land which is completely deserted. So what are they using to fuel the car? And where are they getting it from?

Or is this some kind of magic car, which runs on nothing but air?

[GasparLewis]

And yet our cars that run on the ground are antiquated and quaint...

What a mad, mad, mad, mad world... and damn, do I love it.

Suppose there isn't exactly anything to do except wait n' see, no?

[noodrez]

I keep on spotting links between what scarlett is investigating and what is happening with violet and kurt. The latest one came when I was looking at this guy Gyvann(see the latest hesh intranet thread) and found this in his quotes.
[quote='Gyvann']For does not the Cube show us the way in building, and was not Gyvann himself a builder and shall we not then build? Let us, therefore, build. And they built a great fortress, yet by the power of the Cube it was toppled to the ground, and they built a mighty tower, yet by the power of the Cube it was utterly removed, thus they built a lowly shack and it was good.[/quote]
I thought a few weeks back that the cube was somehow responsible for ending the war that we keep hearing mentions of. I spotted in the garnier diary that anjsbourg was some kind of enemy of the perplexians in his time, and now its a big wasteland. Now scarlett, heading to anjsbourg has found a stone cottage (i.e. a lowly shack). This quote seems to say that a great fortrees and a mighty tower were destroyed by the cube (I am guessing they were parts of the anjsbourg nation) and it was used as a threat to stop them building up again, hence the 'lowly shack' being good.

Just me rambling, but I am getting a feeling that is growing stronger that the history from the war is getting more and more important to explain what the cube does, and once we know what it does we can get more of a clue about why someone would want to steal it and from that we can figure out motives etc and start thinking like them(and then using this reasoning to find where they hid the damn thing)

[Centipede]

[noodrez]

From what I have read of their history, I get the idea that they just don't have that much need for planes, so didn't look into it. Our aiviation industry has grown because everyone wants to be somewhere else. However, they all seem fairly content to stay in their one city... its big enough to cover all of their wants. If they don't see the need to go elsewhere, why would they need planes? Cars are obvious, as they are needed just for internal travel in the city, but planes are large scale transport for intercity and inter continental links, which, from what we have seen at least, seems to be severely lacking.

[GuyP]

So, 200 miles a day for two weeks. 2800 miles, or about the same distance as New York to Los Angeles.

Agreed on the plane thing, by the way. First of all, I don't think it's true to say Perplexians find flight a weird concept. This is an idea that came from Kurt's paper aeroplane competition way-back-when, which some people interpreted as a sign they didn't have real planes. On the contrary, I'd argue that real planes are the inspiration behind making paper aeroplanes! Anyway, to me it came across as a fun contest, demonstrating what the Academy bright sparks do for fun.

The real explanation, of course, is that there's nowhere else worth flying to. To paraphrase the Sentinel, "it's all very well congratulating ourselves on 250 years of peace, but there's no one left to wage war against." It's odd that even after all this time, no one has chosen to explore and re-inhabit the rest of the continent. Scarlett doesn't seem aware of any environmental reasons for this (i.e: radiation) but cultural forces could be at work. In the immediate aftermath of the war, staying in the city would be important for survival. With such strong feelings about the conflict (even today!) there was probably social pressure to "stick together", and suspicion of groups leaving the city... all that flag-waving nonsense. Finally, with the majority of the continent wrecked, we could expect the massive urbanisation we see in developing countries, with Perplex City the only viable economic option for the few people left alive elsewhere. How the city welcomed these migrants, presumably from the places PXC were previously at war with, would be interesting to hear about.

(And then there's Gladstone. Ugh, whatever.)

[PuzzledPineapple]

It seems they can fly but haven't really developed it: