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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[UPDATE] Path of Least Time 10 March 2006
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Ramazel
Boot


Joined: 05 Feb 2006
Posts: 59
Location: Guildford, UK

 		[UPDATE] Path of Least Time 10 March 2006
Quote:
Anna and Cymbalisty
Friday, March 10 2006, 09:45 AM

I've just had a very unusual conversation with Anna. As I mentioned yesterday, she's been a bit distracted lately and not as talkative as usual - she even stopped talking about her twins, which really alarmed me. I know that she was friends with Isaac Cymbalisty (not that I can see why - the guy was always pretty rude to me) so I'm not surprised that she took his suicide hard, but I didn't know quite how good friends they were.

Anyway, I'm sitting in my office at the Academy when Anna walks in with a oddly cheerful smile on her face. After exchanging a few pleasantries about the students she's teaching and her translation projects, she seemed to draw herself up.

"How difficult would it be to let people on Earth talk to Perplex City using their phones?" she asked.

This is an area we've talked about in the past, in CRT brainstorming sessions, although I didn't know that Anna had been paying any attention back then; I guess the science and humanities divide isn't quite as wide as I'd imagined.

"Well," I said, leaning back in my chair, "in theory it's pretty easy. We already have communication protocols set up that connect their internet with our systems, and of course there are some people who talk to the guys at Mind Candy pretty regularly about the cards. There was, uh-"

I was just about to mention the phone gateway that had been set up between the Ascendancy Point tech support people and Earth, since that seemed to be a perfect example of what she wanted, when I realised that it might not be the best idea to let her know that I'd been involved in a spot of corporate hacking.

"-something to do with the interface layer that was a bit tricky, but yeah, apart from that, not too difficult."

Not bad, I thought, feeling pretty pleased with myself. "Why don't you have a seat?" I added, looking towards the couch against the wall which was miraculously free of junk. Clearly the cleaner had gotten fed up of cleaning around it all the time.

Anna sat down without a word, and started to speak as though choosing her words very carefully.

"This will sound strange, but it's very important for me to have a communications link set up that will allow Earth to call someone in Perplex City."

I looked at her hard. "Who?"

"The police," she replied.

"You know that's against protocol, Anna. We aren't supposed to open up any new communication channels with Earth unless it's authorised. Which, since you're asking me now, I imagine it's not," I said. I felt pretty awful grilling her like this, not simply because of my own flouting of said protocols, but because this will clearly be very difficult for her. However, I had to cover my back.

"I know it's against protocol. But it's about Isaac Cymbalisty."

I shook my head a fraction. Ever since Isaac's suicide, there'd been rumours swirling around about why he might have done it, or whether it was even a suicide at all. I really disliked these conspiracy theories. Miranda had been pretty upset and worried about them, so I had to reassure her that there was nothing mysterious about it, especially with the release of the public enquiry. Even Violet didn't think it was suicide. But now Anna was caught up in it, just because she couldn't believe her friend had been unhappy enough to commit suicide. I could understand that, but she was just upset, like anyone would be.

Anna obviously noticed my doubt, but pressed on urgently.

"I don't think he killed himself. No, let me finish. I knew Isaac well, he wasn't the type of person to commit suicide. He used to say that 'suicide was like throwing away a book when you hadn't read the end'. The last time I saw him, he didn't look any different from normal. In fact, he even seemed a bit more lively."

"The public enquiry-" I began.

"It's incomplete. They aren't releasing the full reports on forensics or witness statements. It doesn't add up."

A little light began blinking on the screen beside me, notifying me of a call from someone. I glanced over to check the name - it looked like it was important.

"Aren't you even listening to me?" demanded Anna, looking at me critically.

"Yes, I am listening to you, but what do you expect me to do here? You're saying that either the police are wrong, or they're covering something up, and what, you want to get people from Earth to somehow hack into their systems? Do you have any idea how illegal that is? I might be able to understand if I thought there was any evidence, but there isn't!" I said back, my voice rising despite myself.

"What I'm asking you to do is to believe me! Isaac might not have been your friend, but he was mine. I've helped you out before, why can't you help me now!" she said, raising her voice as well.

"How am I supposed to believe you? You're making it impossible for yourself. There's no proof, no evidence and no-one agrees with you. Yes, I know he was your friend, but can't you just accept what happened? You have to get over it and stop making up conspiracy theories." Immediately after saying this, I cursed myself for being such an idiot with my words, and tried to formulate something placating.

I didn't have a chance to; Anna stood up furiously, and simply looked down at me and said, "I can't believe this," then walked out. I jumped up to follow her, but she was clearly not in a mood to be followed. I belatedly called out her name down the corridor, since that's what you're supposed to do in situations like this, but she didn't look back. She seemed like she was about to cry. I hate it when women cry, I have no idea what I'm meant to do.

I checked the corridor to see if anyone had heard our argument, then shut the door and sat down unhappily on the couch. The terrible thing was that I've already done things that are illegal, without much evidence at all, and here I was, berating Anna for daring to do the same for her friend. But like I said to her, what does she expect me to do? Hacking into Ascendancy Point and Hesh is one thing, but the police - I'm not going to do that without a good reason. I'm not going on any more wild goose chases.


PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:43 am
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Juxta
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Kurt wrote:
A little light began blinking on the screen beside me, notifying me of a call from someone. I glanced over to check the name - it looked like it was important.


Coincidental, no? Anna arrives, starts to talk about something which is related to digging further into Cymbalisty's death...and all of a sudden, Kurt gets an "important" call? I'm wondering if our lad's office isn't perhaps as secure as he'd like to think...

J
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:56 am
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ALISDAIRPARK
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 		I'd agree, but more disappointing is that all of a sudden he has turned into such a hypocrite/ jerk.

We weren't even looking for him to hack into the police system, just to allow us ability to call them. Do you think if we do some fast talking/ coercion he may come round?
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 7:19 am
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Al Green
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Joined: 17 Jan 2006
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 		What if we suggested that a system be set up as a test, and inadvertantly left active. If Kurt get's authorisation for a test, and that ends up abused, I'd imagine he'll get no worse than a slap on the wrist.

Alternatly we could let Anna know about past indescretions. Not necessarily details, but just the fact that it has been done before.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:42 am
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Weefz
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Joined: 05 Mar 2006
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Location: London, UK
ALISDAIRPARK wrote:
I'd agree, but more disappointing is that all of a sudden he has turned into such a hypocrite/ jerk.

We weren't even looking for him to hack into the police system, just to allow us ability to call them. Do you think if we do some fast talking/ coercion he may come round?


I can understand him not wanting to get involved with anything shady involving the police, considering his recent experience.

Don't really get why he's so convinced it was a suicide when he says himself that Anna, Miranda and Violet (three people who knew the guy well!) all think it's suspicious and the guy didn't have any reason to kill himself. Silly boy.

Edit: forgot to say, I don't think fast-talking from us will convince him, seeing as it was our input that got him into trouble with Helena in the first place, wasn't it? I think it may be better to prod him indirectly through Violet and/or Anna
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:51 am
Last edited by Weefz on Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:06 am; edited 1 time in total
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Brian Morton
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Joined: 22 Sep 2005
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 		Is getting some on a regular basis tweaking his brain? I think I'll shoot him an email. Something along the lines of, "the pot calling the kettle black" and, "Quit being such a spineless turd." Maybe he needs a little peer pressure form us to return to the Kurt of old.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:00 am
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duckiemonster
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 		I was about to post pretty much the same thing; the girlfriend is definitely sapping his testosterone.

Meh, let's hope he gets bored soon Smile
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:03 am
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Small Geezer
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Joined: 10 Feb 2006
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Quote:
Even Violet didn't think it was suicide.


Everywhere we look there are hints that Kurt is waiting for, or would be influenced by, violet believing that something was remiss with the investigation. I think Violet is the key here to getting Kurt on side, but we obviously don't have much time to bring him around!!

PostPosted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:53 pm
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chimera245
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Joined: 09 Mar 2006
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 		Is it Kurt?
Do we *know* for sure that it is Kurt posting at all?

I agree that the last posting looks very out of character. This could be because:

A) He is being influenced some way - unknowingly (Ceretin in the Cocoa anyone Smile)
B) He is being influenced knowingly (i.e. he is under duress)
C) It is not him posting at all

Has anyone received a non autoresponding reply - or is the blog entry the only up to date thing from him?

Has anyone done a language analysis to see if it is the same author?

OOG:


Spoiler (Rollover to View):
I am not sure if different copy writers produce the material - so it is possible that language analysis will just show up who produced the material today


PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:55 am
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