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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[UPDATE]Quirky Acuity - 31st May 2006
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Velma
Boot

Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Posts: 10

 		[UPDATE]Quirky Acuity - 31st May 2006
Quote:
The Talk
Category: me
Time: 01:34 PM

So, I finally had to stop putting off the inevitable and spoke to my dad on Friday. We met up for lunch - I thought this would be good, lunches have a natural endpoint, after all, unlike dinners which could go on all night. I went round to his office at the Academy - Patrick had set up lunch for us at the meeting table and when I arrived my father was just finishing off some paperwork.

"Ah, Violet," he said, "good to see you. I have to finish something here, but I've cleared the whole afternoon for you."
"Oh good," I said, and sat down at the table, staring at the lobster salad.

Now, obviously I'd had time to think quite carefully about what I was going to say. My thinking went like this. The likelihood, it seems to me, is that Miranda's death is never going to be reported to the authorities. Whoever she was working with, I don't think they're about to call the police and expose themselves, or her, to investigation.

Kurt and I have decided between ourselves to rely on a very simple story that sticks as closely to the truth as possible if ever any questions should be asked. Miranda and Kurt broke up. She went off to the countryside. He was upset and followed her. We thought, from something she'd said, that she might go to the Silburn-Griggs mines, but when Kurt went, she had either never been there or had left before we arrived. We don't know where she is. The end.

I launched into a version of this as soon as my father had finished with his paperwork, and while he was pouring out the Mint Alchemies - a traditional Academy summer drink, supplied by Patrick to ease the awkwardness, presumably, since that man thinks of everything.

"So you see," I finished, holding my plate out for some salad, "there really wasn't any danger. Except that poor Kurt's heart has been broken."
My dad sat down and took some bread.
He said: "Hmmmm."
I hate it when he does that.
There was a silence long enough for me to have recited a few of the Varkin sonnets my father taught me when I was a child.

"So," he said, spearing a piece of lobster with his fork, "you needed the ferrogramatograph to navigate the mines?"
"Yes. Kurt mentioned she'd always been interested in them and we thought she might go there."
"You know they're not open to the public, don't you, Violet?"
"Yes."
"It seems an unlikely destination for a librarian hoping to find some privacy after an unfortunate love affair."

I left that one hanging in the air.

"And the urgency in getting the ferrogramatograph was because...?"
"Kurt didn't want to miss her."
"Ah. Yes. But you didn't find her there."
"No."
"And you know she's not there now because...?"
"Well, ummm," I took a mouthful to give me some thinking time. I swallowed and said, "We're not sure. But I think that Kurt's finally realised it's pointless to chase after her."
"Yes," my father said. "Pointless. I see. Some more Mint Alchemy?"
I held out my glass gratefully.

After another few mouthfuls, my father said:
"It's been a rather... difficult time for the library recently."
"Yes," I said.
"I suppose it's put you all under a great deal of pressure."
"Yes."
"It must have been difficult for Miranda as well."
"Yes."

There was a pause. My father seemed to be expecting something more from me. "I suppose," I said at last, "that might be another reason why Miranda ran away. All the pressure. She probably had some kind of breakdown."
He nodded and smiled.
"Yes, that's precisely what I thought. I shall put this in my briefing note to the Senior Fellows Council, emphasising how important it is to find a new Senior Librarian swiftly."

Another pause. At last I was relaxed enough to notice how truly excellent the lobster was.

"That type of breakdown can be very serious," my father said after a few moments.
I nodded.
"It would be surprising if Miranda were to return to the Academy after an incident of that sort," he continued.
I nodded again.
"I shall tell the SFC not to expect her return."
I nodded. I couldn't work out if what I thought was going on was really going on, or if I was just being weirdly paranoid.

We ate a few more mouthfuls.

After a little, my father reached down to his case and pulled out a few sheets of paper.
"Oh yes," he said, "I have something here that might interest you."
"Hmm?"
He handed me the papers. "You'll see that I received some unfortunate news yesterday. It seems that an unexpected explosion has cracked the mine wall, and the Silburn-Griggs mines have been entirely flooded. The preservation society are most upset by this turn of events, but it couldn't have been predicted. It was probably caused by some blasting devices left down there by the miners.
I do hope you and Kurt didn't leave anything down there. It could never be recovered now."

I leafed through the documents - correspondence between my father and the Silburn-Griggs preservation society. They were asking him to support their request for an enquiry into the "unexplained explosion." He was writing to Camryn Scott to explain that this was completely unnecessary, backing up his thoughts with a lengthy essay on the geological weaknesses of the mines written by one of the Junior Fellows.

"This is interesting," I said.
"It was very fortunate you weren't in the mine when it was flooded. I hope I can rely upon you not to visit such dangerous locations again?"
I nodded. "Oh yes. Strictly home-with-vids for me and Kurt now."
"Very good."

And my father turned the conversation to other things. He asked about poker, and about the city Historical Society. He even, miracle of miracles, asked about Caine, to which I was only able to respond in monosyllables: "He's fine." "It's good." "Yup, great."

I asked him about his work, about the paper he wrote last month on logic gates in self-repairing security systems, and his plans for the summer. It was just normal father-daughter chat over a lobster salad and some excellent cocktails.
It was only as I was about to leave, later in the afternoon, that he dropped his final surprise into the conversation. I was nicely toasted by that point, so perhaps didn't respond with quite the I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about finesse I should have done. I was leaving when he said: "Oh, Violet?"
"Mmm-hmm?"
"Perhaps you could tell Scarlett that I've arranged parking for her car in town. No need to stow it in the suburbs."
I blinked and nodded.
My father smiled.
I really can't work it out.

But, speaking of Scarlett, I called her this afternoon.
"Scarlett," I said. "Let's have lunch. Come round to my place and I'll order in a lobster salad."


PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:06 am
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Mima
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Joined: 17 Feb 2005
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 		So, Sente knows everything - and as neither Violet or Kurt has said anything, the only way that he could know is if someone linked to Miroline has said something. Is he involved, or are whoever she was in contact with being monitored by the Academy? It all looks very suspicious, but Sente still has a noble exit route!

Edit for another thought - is he monitoring Kurt/Violet - that would be seriously rude, and would mean that he knows all about everything that we have been doing as well.

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:18 am
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cassandra
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Joined: 25 Mar 2005
Posts: 831

 		Bah. So I can't decide. 3P or not 3P? (Is there even a necessity to be strictly on one side or the other? Perhaps I'll leave that alone for now.)

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:33 am
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Talon
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Joined: 06 May 2006
Posts: 54
Location: Washington, USA

 		Well, it's obvious he knew everything, or at least the basics. But if he was working against the cube hunters, would he let on to Violet that he knows? I don't know, I think it's too easy to peg Sente as a traitor/double agent/Guy you think is a good guy that turns out to be a bad guy but in the end he redeems himself by sacrificing his life to right his wrongs... So far it doesn't add up though.

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:43 am
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duckiemonster
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 		It is a trait of fathers that they ALWAYS know what you're up to... so I'm not surprised in the slightest.
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 11:56 am
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DJ FreeMason
Boot

Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 66
duckiemonster wrote:
It is a trait of fathers that they ALWAYS know what you're up to... so I'm not surprised in the slightest.


Not all fathers, my dad can be denser than lead. However, I have to agree, in this instance, that I'm not surprised. But you do have to admit that it is kind of a blatent oddity that Violet needed an old machine to go to a place that is off limits to the public. I don't think that it takes a Perplex City Academy Master to figure out something is up. He never really tipped his hand though. He just let on that he knew something was up.

And am I the only person who thought the fact that Sente is writing papers on self-repairing security systems the slightest bit odd? The man who broke into the security system at the Academy his first year and then had the Receda Cube stolen on his watch, call me paranoid but something seems up. If you could control how it was repairing itself, a backdoor could be formed and the system would never know and the owner of system may never know.

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:17 pm
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cassandra
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Joined: 25 Mar 2005
Posts: 831

 		fortunately, my homicides are all covered up, no questions asked, as well. Razz

I suspect he's monitoring their keys at the least (though perhaps not the CRR blogs). Scarlett sent her message about her car to Violet via key.

I also will be *highly* amused if Violet is appointed Senior Librarian.

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:20 pm
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isca
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Joined: 15 Apr 2006
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Location: Newport, Wales

 		Mint Alchemies...hic!

Recipe please.

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:26 pm
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e_nygma
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Joined: 17 May 2006
Posts: 247
Location: Maryland, US
cassandra wrote:
I also will be *highly* amused if Violet is appointed Senior Librarian.


Given her age and her relationship to Sente, I think the cries of "nepotism" would ring down here WITHOUT the CRR link. The only way I can see that is if they don't find a Senior Librarian after a year or two and Violet just moves from de facto to de jure (there ARE other librarians there, right?).

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 4:00 pm
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Mikeyj
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Joined: 18 Oct 2004
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cassandra wrote:
I suspect he's monitoring their keys at the least (though perhaps not the CRR blogs). Scarlett sent her message about her car to Violet via key.


I'm not sure...I would expect it to be exactly the other way around. Sente has legitimate reasons to monitor every exchange between PXC and Earth, after all, it's his budget that funds it (well...that was a boring and prosaic example, but you know what I mean). Even if Scarlett's adventure remained beyond his sight (which I'm not sure it would have) presumably he's in contact with the base at Viendenbourg, and they should have known that she had a car?

Anyway taking all this as moot and in a meta and evil behind the curtain spec (those of weak will hover your pointers elsewhere...go on)

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
Why now? We have been suspecting Sente all along, from the very beginning when we were first contacted by him...can we trust him or not. The air could have been cleared at any point, but hasn't been which leaves me with three thoughts:

Sente good. As we're gearing up for the finale of this season (hopefully it'll have a better ending than season one of Lost (I spit on Lost and its cod melodrama nonsense...sorry)) suspecting Sente is going to get in the way of what they really want us to be thinking right now.

Sente bad. This is only actually going to increase our suspiciousness as we're that sort of person, so maybe there's something in it.

Tease. They're just toying with us and have chosen a particular aspect of the story that's been a recurring discussion the whole way through in order to do it.

So...no change really. But they give good ARG.

This post seems to have negated its own existence...and, hmm, I've slipped into conspiracy theorist "Them"...Nurse!

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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 5:41 pm
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locqust
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Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 545
Location: Gloucestershire UK

 		I get the feeling Sente wears more than one "cap" so to speak. We know he is the master of the academy and some sort of controller at Viendenbourg. Maybe he is a spymaster as well? Good cover and plenty of resources as head of the academy that can be used to spy on people.

Or its somat really prosaic like, "Oh Mister Kiteway, when did Scarlett pass her driving test?"
"What?"
"Well I'm sure it was her I saw the other day driving a car around the suburbs."
"Really?"
"Ah, you didn't know? Umm I'll be going now sir."
"Yes good idea."
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 6:38 pm
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_izzy_
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Joined: 05 Apr 2006
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Mikeyj wrote:
Even if Scarlett's adventure remained beyond his sight (which I'm not sure it would have) presumably he's in contact with the base at Viendenbourg, and they should have known that she had a car?


but Scarlett didn't get the car until AFTER she had been to Viendenbourg:

Scarlett, Friday, January 13, 2006 Making plans wrote:
There's another thing as well that, even among all this worry, has got me very excited: we're going to be taking a car! Not a driverless car, but one of those old-fashioned ones that you drive yourself! We have bought one here (Regansborg) - people still sometimes use them to drive out into the wild country - and have spent the past week practising and learning how to take care of it. Allain's been taking it all very seriously, studying the manual with a little frown in the middle of his forehead, but I can't help it, I'm excited. We're going on a real adventure, in a real car!


so i wouldn't have thought the staff there would have any reason to know about it, if they had known what she was up to, surely they would have followed here to Claire...

I personally agree with Cassandra, that he's monitoring their keys, or at least decided to monitor Violet's after he found out about her 'loan' from the musuem. Though i don't think he would go as far as their earth blogs - Kurt has declared them 'safe' so i would imagine we can take that as fact!

Personally i don't think Sente will turn out to be evil, but time will tell....

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 8:29 pm
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GasparLewis
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Joined: 19 Nov 2005
Posts: 474
Location: vicinty of NYC

 		Big Brother Sente is watching you. Shocked

We do not give Sente enough credit for deviousness. We've basically shuffled him into the back of everything as just another trap to dodge. But, I think, with this half-omniscient, half-daddy-knows-best ordeal, we can safely assume Sente's fingers are in more pies than we give him credit. And that could be what's been hampering our investigation.

Like I said, we're eventually going to have to confront him. It's not too far a stretch of thinking to guess that, if he planned/orchestrated the theft, he would call in the Earth investigation to work on it, treating us like puppet monkeys.

Puzzle Monkeys good, puppet monkeys baaaaaaaad.

Now may not be the time, but it'll be soon enough...

PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:30 pm
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thalamus
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GasparLewis wrote:
Sente is watching you.


...or maybe someone on earth is feeding him titbits of info.

thalamus
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PostPosted: Wed May 31, 2006 11:55 pm
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Jabba
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Joined: 26 May 2006
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 		could the 3P people on earth be feeding him the tid bits? also Sente is a very powerful man with a lot of influence. while he may not be tracking them personally, he most likely has people doing it for him. that said, he is a father and if he had heard rumours or suspected his children were potentially getting into danger, i would expect him to kep tabs on them. his conversation with violet was clear, he knows they have been up to something.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:29 am
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