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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): General/Updates
[SPEC]The Sleeping Princess's new email 8/13
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clamatius
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Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Posts: 209
Location: Seattle
Quote:
Another question, how does this latest update change the way we see the relationship between the Flea and the SP? I used to think they were working together, but now I'm not quite as sure.


I'd already made the speculation that the Flea was overwriting Melissa's mind before now, and short of the PMs emailing me saying "Well done! Right as usual!" this latest email from the SP is as close as you're going to get to confirming it. It seems extraordinarily likely at this point that the Flea is a Covenant AI messing with the Operator's head.

The Flea and the Princess are most definitely not working together. She regards the Flea as "a proper fool / a bad banana / unimaginable filth and stench; and disease".

So yes, the Princess wants us to think of her as the heroine of the AI characters. And so far I think she's right.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:17 pm
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chaotic_mind
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Joined: 03 Aug 2004
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Location: Inside my head, behind the eyes

 		Princess is ancient, Princess is clone, Princess is lost.
I find it interesting that most of the stories seem to center on a righteous heroine and an usurper stepmother. As far as I can tell (and I am not familiar with the stories, and don't have any Grimm collections on hand to read) each of the stories features the heroine being held or trapped or changed by a character that takes the role of "mother" without being truly related.

Further confirmation that the Princess is a Forerunner artifact?

We also mustn't forget that the Queen is the Princess' "voodoo parent" and that the Princess feels abandonded by her real parents.

And finally, it's a little ironic that the Princess portrays herself as the young heroine if she is a Forerunner AI. Being Forerunner would make her ancient compared to the Queen.

Still, could the Princess be a new AI, rather then being thousands of years old? It could be a clone process, created by esoteric Forerunner software expertise. That would make it new, and since it's a copy of the Queen (with some mutation and alteration) that might explain the "voodoo parent" reference.

Luke P.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:44 pm
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kalamazoo
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Joined: 24 Jul 2004
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 		[SPEC] Princess = Melissa backup
I don't think the Sleeping Princess is from the Forerunner artifact. (Although perhaps she's trapped in the artifact.)

I think the Princess is a backup copy of Melissa.

From the Phase 3 memory #2, Melissa has realised that things she didn't touch are being moved. She doesn't know it, but she's detected the footprints of the Pious Flea: an implanted Covenant "dumb" AI.

The Princess, as one of her emails stated, was locked up by the Queen, who wondered how long she would last in an airtight container. In other words, the Princess is an experiment by the Queen to extend her operational "lifetime". If Melissa #1 grinds to a halt, Melissa #2 can start running -- not as good, as she doesn't have experience, but at least she can run.

I think the Queen created and locked up the Princess immediately after realizing that the Flea was about. She didn't think she was compromised; but she could be, and if so, now was the time to prepare. She copied herself in case she was infected and had to be deleted, because without her decryption capability, the whole mission would grind to a halt.

Of course, then the ship crashes and she forgets the Princess ever existed.... and the Flea takes her over.

Bear in mind that the Flea has shown no knowledge of the existence of the Princess -- he has destroyed SPDR and is in control of Melissa; he thinks he's won. What happens if he becomes aware of the Princess? Shocked

PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 4:39 pm
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KubeČ
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Joined: 29 Jul 2004
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 		Well, she's not THAT evil in the eyes of the Princess...

Quote:
Anyway, I get the feeling the Queen is very grumpy. She has totally taken over the road-making business; I'm sure the paths will be better now. She's not always a lot of fun, the Queen (and quite mad, of course) but she does get things done.


PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:52 pm
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Nightmare Tony
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Joined: 07 Jun 2004
Posts: 824
Location: Meadowbrook

 		speak to the animals, as in Dr. Doollittle? But seriously, me stoked to get the email as well, late though but tis good.

One other quote involving queens, from hellraiser 2: "Didn't you know they changed the rules of the fairy tale? I am now no longer the wicked stepmother. I am now the evil queen. So take your best shot, SNOW WHITE!"

there is one secret garden refetrence that came from a job years ago and it got me in trouble, but I dont think it relates. (and for those of you interested, look up world heroes perfect)
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 2:56 am
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Motoss
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Joined: 06 Aug 2004
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 		Wow, I finally got an email from in-game. Nice. Anyways, what is really worrying me about this email is that it is starting to look more and more like the Flea is a hostile AI AND that really, even if we wanted to, there is probably no way to save Melissa at this point. I expect that on August 24th she will be gone and the Flea will have taken over all of her operational capabilities. Then the Princess will be in a real pickle, no?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 7:36 am
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firefox
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Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 333

 		it would seem that the princess is in less danger now. she is still hiding? maybe maybe not. no more widow....

so should we send her an email, regarding more information? she could become our spy.

i think we all agree now flea is evil- it servers itself more than anything else
and may have planted the axon idea in melissa's mind, or will eventually twist her to his own whim.

so heres the question. how can we help get rid of him?

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 7:45 am
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Nightmare Tony
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 		We see the Princess and Queen's code all over the place, maybe the Flea's code is what is hidden within the sound file? if that part can be disabled from the website, a la the admin password, we stand a real chance of removing said hostile influence...
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 7:49 am
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Shad0
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Joined: 20 Jun 2004
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Location: Southern California, USA

 		Re: [SPEC]The Sleeping Princess's new email 8/13
KubeČ wrote:
Well, she's not THAT evil in the eyes of the Princess...

Quote:
Anyway, I get the feeling the Queen is very grumpy. She has totally taken over the road-making business; I'm sure the paths will be better now. She's not always a lot of fun, the Queen (and quite mad, of course) but she does get things done.

But don't forget the messages in the killer.jpg pictures:

We think the Sleeping Princess wrote:
Guess I feel the Queen isn't something good
Guess I feel the Queen will be swift and terrible.

(Incidentally, does the reference to the Queen being "quite mad, of course" remind anyone else of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and/or "Through the Looking Glass"?)
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 11:32 am
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QBKooky
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Joined: 24 Jul 2004
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 		The way this email references the GPS Coords seems right in line with the Beast's PM-ing style:

Quote:
from the Beast's PM FAQ
Q: What were your back-up plans for when we didn't find or solve a puzzle?

A: Our initial rule of thumb was, subtle clues on any subject on the first week, more direct clues the second week, and explicit hard info on the third. But one of the reasons we had to watch the boards was to get a sense of how things were playing. Sometimes a puzzle stayed unbroken because players were on the wrong track, but sometimes it was just not a strong design on our end. In either case, we wanted to be able to respond rapidly to where the game was going.


It seems clear to me that this could fall under "subtle clues". But to what? A lot of the spec in this thread seems valid... well I guess we'll see. But just thought this was worth pointing out. (You can read the rest of the PM FAQ here.)

[Edit:] Sorry if this is getting a little close to the curtain for a thread like this... just trying to figure out what we haven't figured out yet.
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 12:01 pm
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Scumbag
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hamatoyoshi wrote:
Any significance to the Sleeping Princess' writing being in green and the Queen's diary being in red?


Durandal and Leela spoke in green. Tycho and the Pfhor always spoke in red. Odds are, its a reference to that.
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 5:08 pm
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princeofthesword
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 		It's possible that the Sleeping Princess is an AI construct made completely out of a Melissa backup and Forerunner processes found in the object. If a completely foreign "AI" from a foreign object was trying to say hello to one of our smart AIs that was also dealing with a possible Covenant Virus at the same time (Flea, which are parasites by nature, don't forget), then who knows what we might end up with? *deep breath* Perhaps the object was what caused the "time warp" or whatever, yet within that object was an entity that was an Operating System of sorts, not quite like our AIs. The Sleeping Princess.

A Princess is the daughter of a queen, but the queen in the story was all hacked up and put back together with fell magic (whatever the heck the Widow did to make that Frankenstein's monster we now call the Queen.) Voodoo parents? Maybe SP is saying that her "parent" (Melissa), is now under some sort of voodoo (the monstrous, changed Queen.) Sounds like maybe too much happened too fast to a melting pot of artificial intelligences. If the Forerunner entity (SP?) was handshaking Melissa, perhaps Melissa shut SP off into some storage process of her own programming, in order to deal later with what she thought was a virus. Perhaps, though, there really was a virus going around in the form of a Covie flea. However, during that copying, locking, pasting, etc., SP picked up some of Melissa's essence or what not, making her, in a human sense, the daughter.

The more I re-read the email, the more I feel that it's not as green, red, white on white, white on black as it seems. SP expresses herself better now, but she's still like a little kid that somehow has understanding of how serious things are. By the way, the smarter the AI, the more bored they get. Cortana hacked into some of ONI's best locked up secrets within a few seconds caused she was "Bored." Maybe we need to help SP stay occupied so she doesn't get into trouble?

Farewell all, spec away.

PostPosted: Sat Aug 14, 2004 6:31 pm
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darquehope
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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Scumbag wrote:
hamatoyoshi wrote:
Any significance to the Sleeping Princess' writing being in green and the Queen's diary being in red?


Durandal and Leela spoke in green. Tycho and the Pfhor always spoke in red. Odds are, its a reference to that.


Red is usually a color of passion and emotion, being the color of blood, and is usually associated with evil. Green is a more neutral color, used in hospitals for its soothing nature. It is the color of plantlife and growth, and is usually associated with good. However, it wouldn't be the first time opposites were used to throw off the audience. Be wary, it's times like this, when we trust a character that they turn out to be the bad guy all along...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 1:39 am
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Scumbag
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Quote:

Red is usually a color of passion and emotion, being the color of blood, and is usually associated with evil. Green is a more neutral color, used in hospitals for its soothing nature. It is the color of plantlife and growth, and is usually associated with good.


This is a Bungie thing. The Princess is speaking green because a Good AI in a Bungie game spoke Green. Queen is speaking red because a Bad AI in a bungie game spoke red.
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When I first got there and asked about I Love Bees, the attendant said I must be looking for some other theater... I said, "er....Halo 2 Preview Event?" and suddenly he understood what I meant.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 3:30 am
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Shad0
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Joined: 20 Jun 2004
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 		Re: [SPEC]The Sleeping Princess's new email 8/13
hamatoyoshi wrote:
Any significance to the Sleeping Princess' writing being in green and the Queen's diary being in red?

The red/maroon text is the normal font for Aunt Margaret's web site. The green text is the font in which the message about the "varrao [sic] mites" originally appeared.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 15, 2004 1:48 pm
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