unforum

[chaotic_mind]

Welcome back, prince.

As to the reason the Flea doesn't get squished by the Princess, I think it all has to with a sort of politics.

The balance of power seems to be somewhat even in the good ole Castle. The Queen has all the destructive power, but is limited by her aggressive focus. First, it was Dana. Now it's building roads for the Flea.

The Flea has the power to corrupt the Queen, possibly because she was distracted. Too focused on getting and tracking Dana. It seems the Princess can't shake the Flea as easily as she can the Queen. Could this be because the Flea is a smaller program (i.e. not an AI, which seems likely)? The Princess may have the power to swat the Flea, but it can dodge like a fly. Dumb, certainly, just a whole lot faster then the Princess. Another explaination could hold that the Princess killing the Flea would announce her position to the Queen. The Queen comes, find the Princess, and *kkkkkkrrrrrk* no more plant on the inside.

Thus, each entity has some sort of ability that causes a triangle of power to form. Flea, speed. Queen, power. The Princess, ...let's call it Pluck.

Luke P.

[Platonix]

Re: Long winded post yet again...

[princeofthesword]

Yep, that's what I meant by "pretty exclusive," but thanks for the link! I had read it earlier, it was interesting indeed. There's a lot going on in the pages at ILB with the Flea, even though it could be just random programming designed to be, well, random.

It was just an interesting little thing to me that the Flea is just SHOUTING all over the honey page, but putting itty bitty tidbits here and there and everywhere on the other pages. I suggest we put on the specking caps and have a little brainstorm over that page. Plus, if someone has read a post about what the Princess means by mistakes other than the links to the 404, please let me know. Searching didn't help me on that one yet. I find it interesting that the "infestation of varrao mites" (a spelling mistake) was in SP green, along with her new topic about mistakes. It surely could be as simple as pointing out the 404s, but why at this point in the game? I'm sadly leaning towards that being all she's doing, but I still find it odd that she'd feel the need to tell the ARGers. It's possible that she's just doing that to get more people involved who are following the game without neccessarily being here in the forums.

So thanks again Platonix, I loved the link's posts already! Keep up the great spec *Love the avatar, by they way * Farewell.

[skybruin]

I would like to speculate on the earlier mentioned link between the flea's mantra and the three main characters. If one character would fit one part of the mantra what character would it be.

Flea=seek the truth
melissa=behold the truth
Sleeeping princess=reveal the truth

The fleas mantra is easy, however the other two can go either way. melissa is revealing messages to us so she could be the reveal the truth character although with the sleeping princess being able to more effectivly communicate with us she seems to fit the reaveal the truth character better. Anybody else's thoughts?

[princeofthesword]

That's interesting, I hadn't really thought of it that way. Hmm I say.

Well, it has intrigued me as to why SP is so dang friendly. Just the concept overall, does it have a deeper meaning? I mean, when she played Dorkmaster's game with us, we all expected cryptic answers. But she was as straightforward as she could be, it seemed, and has kept the game going. Meaning that if she knew the answer herself, she did her best to answer it for us. I find that...odd. But I'm distrustful, I guess.

If Flea is the Seeker (self proclaimed, no less) and perhaps Melissa being the Beholder and SP the Revealer, then I guess SP's role of being so talkative and forthcoming is a little less mysterious. However, Flea keeps using the Seek Behold Reveal mantra in his white SPDR text, too, so I'm leaning towards him being the whole S,B,R source. Then it seems that he's corrupted the Queen into being all interested in the Truth, but SP doesn't seem to care too much. Balloons indeed.

It's an interesting thought, I'll keep it floating in my head. If the Puppetmasters wanted the characters to have a special representation, then I suppose that we'll figure it out sometime. Very few things in Bungie (names, especially) are just "There." Nearly everything has a double meaning. Don't think I agree with the concept as presented just yet, though, but it's certainly worth thinking more about. Keep up the great spec skybruin, and farewell.

[Platonix]

[princeofthesword]

*grins* I am afraid I didn't make myself clear. I understand that the characters have assimilated the text from the original site, and that the green "warning" was the text picked up by SP. I wasn't referring to it as being a message by SP originally, I was trying to point out that it is the (only?) green text on the original site, and it contains a spelling mistake (so far the only one on the site? Plus, for a true beekeeper like Auntie, it should've been terribly obvious), and then SP points out something about mistakes, on the same page. That was my interest, as I'm not convinced that it's coincidence. Might have a deeper meaning. Sorry I confused you! *mental note to me: be clear and concise* Farewell!

[Elec]

I think it was just a clue to the 404 page that was too subtle and none of us picked up on. The spelling of varroa mites was an intentional mistake which was supposed to indicate that making an intentional mistake could lead someplace interesting. Like to the 404 page. And the SP info. We found the 404 page, but not because of that particular nugget, which I suspect is why we were later greeted with "Hi! Ignore the Pious Flea. Play with me instead! Making a mistake is a good way to start." You can start playing with the SP by catching her at the 404 page - by making a mistake in the URL or requesting an invalid page. Same message, far less subtle packaging. You can't have your players missing important interactions though

[Shad0]

Re: varrao mites

[Elec]

You're probably right, but I'm still not 100% convinced The message about the "varrao" mites was on the original version of the page. HOWEVER, we don't really have evidence that all these personalities weren't in the page before it got severely altered. They could have been dormant for a bit before the troubles started. Varrao is a small change (maybe all you could muster if stuck in a glass coffin) and, while Margaret might have noticed, Dana probably wouldn't. She's the tech person, not the bee person. Anyway, you're definitely right that nothing interesting was on the 404 page at that time (or at least not documented, I don't recall whether people were trying it before the killer webcams became available and the large amount of SPEC on "looking a little awry" took place). That leaves the WHY in question, since you don't hand out a map to a place that's not built yet. Or maybe you do, as with the new SP axons Either way, it doesn't matter much since A) we got less subtle hints and B) we already ended up where we were supposed to. But it's fun to SPEC about and that's the best reason I can come up with for varrao/varroa being the only misspelling on the whole page. Or maybe the proofreader should just be fired