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[xnbomb]

[PHONE] [Our] conversation(s) with Melissa

[vpisteve]

xnbomb, Dana wants to know what happened. Check her blog.

[MeKiwi]

Wow, that is just plain awesome! I'm giddy.

[Nova]

That is so very, very cool. Well done xnbomb, that was just extremely cool.

[thebruce]

man, why aren't there any axons in Canada? (for the 5millionth time wining )

[xnbomb]

Inquiring minds want to know

[gilada]

xnbomb,

Had you emailed SP to let her know that you'd be at that location?

[vortech]

My conversation was different, but it may help piece together the words. (I had a loud spanish speaking fellow on the phone to my right so my recording is useless)

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=74455#74455

To answer someone else's question for him: I did not email the SP.

[Swanneh]

vortech, were you the only one at your axon? if not you wouldnt happen to know if any of the others had contacted the sp detailing they would be at that axon at that time?


AND thebruce!!!

Isnt it enough that you solve puzzles, your bees site gets thousands of hits a day (from me alone) and you appear to be well respected/liked in this community!!! No no you want the moon on a stick, and to be able to answer a phone

/presses lurk button

[vortech]

I was the only one there at that point. For the 2d group (12:21-26) I was joined by KaptainKlak's friend who has helped before. I do not believe that he reserved the time.

But, if you want to follow this theory, We both posted we would be there in the Regional thread.

[thebruce]

[krystyn]

17:11, can_opener
Chicago, IL
Century Theatres on Clark St.

There is really nothing finer than taking a nice (traffic-congested) drive along Lake Shore Drive to get to your destination on a day like today. The sun was shining, the temperature was just about perfect, the air was clear, and Lake Michigan was a deep dark blue that was reassuring.

I drove from downtown, straight from work, to the Century Mall on Clark and Diversey, getting there hella early. I sat on a bench near the elevators after buying some stinky pretty soaps from Bath & Body Works, and then got sick of the easy listening/cloying 80's and 90's top 500 'hits' over by the elevators, so I went and sat on the bench right next to the payphone that was supposed to ring at 7:11 PM Central.

Did the usual cursing out of some dude with calling cards and mysterious numbers and silent conversations around 6:56 PM, and then breathed a sigh of relief when he finally left at 6:58 PM. I leaned over, read the number off the phone on the left, and dialed it to test it, even though that axon's been hot several times before, and I know both phones work. It rang, and suddenly two dudes leapt out of nowhere looking like they were going to lunge for it. Heh! One of them was R., someone who's been playing for a coupla weeks, and the other was M., who was tagging along, but when we chatted a bit about ARGs and the Beast and such, completely lit up when I mentioned Sean Stewart. R. had lit up this particular axon before, as well as the one down by the Sun-Times building, and the one on the Red Line platform.

When the phone rang, he graciously let me answer it, which I thought was really cool, because it was a freaking live call. I wasn't sure at first. I said, "Hello!" and then Melissa said, "Don't hang up. -" and continued on with the same stuff xnbomb heard. Here's where things got a bit different. She didn't ask for my favorite game - she just asked me how I could prove I was real. I said, "I can sing."

She said something like, "OK, then, sing!"

Um, so I sang.

I'm in a musical right now called Let 'Em Eat Cake (it's political satire), and we've been rehearsing it quite a lot lately, so I sang the first bit of song that came into my head, which was:

[mann alive]

so i answered the 11:17 PDT "not_anymore" axon today in NYC - in the NY Times building near Times Square. there's a guy on one of the phones, but that's cool. i've lit axons here before, and i know the one i need is still free. The phone rings. I answer.

melissa tells me the damaged hardware is making it hard to maintain her voice. and she sounds different this time. actually clearer. she asks what her favorite game is. it's not spin the bottle, not like that guy said, it's hide and seek! i tell her this and she says that's correct. but then she doesn't play a clip like before. instead she keeps talking to me. To me.

she asked me my name. i told her mann alive. that's the name i use for this stuff. she repeats it to me. maybe i should have spelled it for her, but how was i to know it would be published? then she asks my rank. Rank? what ranks are there? i almost say admiral, but she'd know i'm no admiral. so i tell her sargeant. there's always a sargeant around somewhere.

she asked me if i was alone. i said yes. what are those voices i hear around you? she asked. i told her about the office workers and people going through the revolving doors. did i feel safe there? yes.

she wanted to know what the world around me looked like. she hadn't "seen" anything for so long. i described the loby a little bit. could have done a better job, really, but both Pres. Bush and Sen. Kerry are in town today and the UN is in session, so security is crazy everywhere. i felt a little conspicuous looking around the building and discribing it over a payphone.

the volume was very quite on this phone and there was no way to turn it up. so i missed some of what she was saying and she asked me if i was still there. yes, i was.

melissa was feeling lonely. and she wants some memories. could i tell her about a time i was lonely like she was. i tried to think of something, but instead i just babbled. i recently wrapped production on a film we shot near Columbia U in August, and i tried to tell her horribly our last day of pre-production went and how alone i felt at the end of it. she couldn't have been less interested. i didn't tell it very well. she didn't get to learn how awesome everything eventually turned out. she just said, "i understand," so i thought why bother her.

but later she asked permissin to broadcast our conversation if she needs to, is said "please do," secretly wishing i had told a better loneliness story, something like edmund's belonging speech in Long Days Journey Into Night.

she asked for a number she could trust if she needed to contact me. i told her she could use my personal number and gave her my cell number. she said she couldn't guarantee she would call me personally, but if she needed to get a message to the crew, could she use this number. i said yes. so we'll see if anything comes of that.

then she had to go. she said one last "i love bees" in a somewhat annoyed and angry voice. then there was a click. then i was alone. so so alone...

didn't expect that. sorry i don't have a recording like xnbomb. but that phone was so quiet her end would sound blank anyway.

hope this is useful.

[Mazian]

stretch_em 16:47
Montgomery & Market
San Francisco, CA

I met hmrpita there who graciously offered to let me enhotenate an axon, and because of that moment of generosity lost her opportunity to become crew to me. (I actually sort of feel bad about this, so I want to give her MAJOR props.)

So I answered. I did not record it, did not have the equipment I was presented with the standard question that I'm familiar with (I think this part was recorded). Please be warned, if I use "double quotes" it means I specifically remember, and 'single quotes' means that I'm paraphrasing. No quotes means that I'm summerizing.

I was presented with the standard intro that xnbomb and others received. I answered "Hide. And. Seek." clearly enunciating because of the surrounding noise. Immediately she says "Hide. And. Seek. You say that" 'so mechanically. How do I know you're a real person?'

I wanted to say "The military trains its personell to enunciate clearly when using imperfect communication mediums." But I didn't Instead I responded that there was a lot of ambient noise and I wanted to be heard clearly. She responded 'You know my favorite game, so I think you might be part of my crew, but you could be a recording. Do something that only a real person would (could?) do.'

I forget what I said, but it was 'X or Y' and one of them involved the word "question" to which Melissa responded: "I'm the one who asks the questions here. I think you might be one of my crew, so I'll be nice to you. Tell me a story."

So I told her a story about the time I, at 16, got myself to Maui for a 16 day course (I avoided the word seminar). That I had spent 24 days and that it had only cost me around $500 for the entire trip. (I didn't tell her the rest of the story, trying to avoid a lot of extra details that weren't relevent to ILB, but for the rest of you. It was an Anythony Robbins "certification" seminar. My mother had been dragging me to them for the previous year and a half, and had been to the certification the year before. Which costs nearly $6k for the 16 days. I made a lot of friends while there, and got the course for free. Of course, using what Tony Robbins teaches.)

"How did it make you feel?"

"It was exhilerating!"

"Where is Hawaii?"

"It's an island to the West of North America."

yea yea, it's an island chain... @ self

"What is North America?"

"It's a continent."

"Where is North America?"

(Thinking fast)

"If you use the GPS coordinate for this conversation, and look at the land surrounding it. That's North America."

'ok.' "Was it military?"

"Er, Hawaii? No."

"Was the course military." (She sounded a little impatient/upset)

"Err, no. It was pre-military."

Then she asked me my name. Mazian. She asked me to spell it. M-A-Z-I-A-N. I almost used the military alphabet. Mike-Alpha-Zulu-Indigo-Alpha-November. I didn't. She asked my rank. Corporal. (Hey, we can't all be command officers, and I made that choice specifically with the notion in mind that there may be something that prevents overlapping ranks.)

From here on, she refers to me as "Corporal."

She then commented that the ambient noise was making it difficult to communicate and asked me to describe my surrouding. I started to describe them, she interrupted me to ask what was making the ambient noise. I said, again rather mechanically I guess "Cars. Busses. Trollys."

"Cars. Busses. Trollys." she repeated.

She then started talking about revenge like with Krystyn, except I think with me she mentioned the rogue process. She did not give it a gender.

'This medium is public and I cannot be sure of who I am contacting. I suspect that there may be spies among' the crew? (I forget)

I interrupted her to say "I will keep an eye out for them."

"Good."

She told me that when she identified the spies/rogue processes that she would get them.

She asked me if I had ever gotten revenge. I responded that I had. I told her a story about an ex-girlfriend who had cheated on me. I told her that I turned her in to all of our mutual friends and it had hurt (I'm amending the story slightly when I tell her this) her. (The truth is, when I tried to get revenge, it backfired. Granted it broke up the little clic that we all had going, but I think I felt the loss of the friends and the g/f more than she did... but that could just be me feeling sorry for myself. )

She asked if my revenge was "bloody."

I responded "no, but it was emotionally messy."

"Good, that's the best kind."

"What was her name?"

I told her. (mark this, it's important)

"Did you love her?"

'Yes' I said

She then said that she wanted me to know that if she had been there, she would have taken care of the ex-. That she takes care of her crew.

'thank you.'

She then said that she needed to archive these communication records to (?) assist her in isolating the damage (?) and would it be ok for her to broadcast this communication to the rest of the crew

'Yes.' I said feeling somewhat unnerved. (i.e., thinking about the stories I've told above)

"Good." 'This medium is not secure and I may not be able to contact you this way again...'

I think I interrupted her and offered her my number. She might have finished the above sentence, I don't recall.

She asked me for the number. I gave her my cell. (I wish I had remember that my cell has no signal at home, so anytime after 6-7PM that I am at home, I will not be able to take calls )

She got the number wrong, I corrected her, she repeated it in full. I said "Correct"

She then asked if I could be called by other (?) (I assume she means that someone other than her will be calling, possibly other voices/characters. To allow them to hit the players more easily at simultanous moments... whups, sorry, slipped in to SPEC there for a sec [/SPEC])

I said yes.

She then asked if she could contact me once a week.

I said yes.

She then asked me the name of my ex- again.

I told her.

click


Edit: I remembered I left out a whole section of interrogation about Hawaii.

Also, just for all you spies and rogue processi out there! stay away! I am empowered under the mandate of Earth's Military Directives to protect the AI against all hostile forces. She cannot be allowed to fall in to enemy hands!

Edit 2: Found typo, fixed.

[weephun]

OK, cross post again (with a few additions), but hey, seems everybody wants to hear it. Sorry it's so late, I had to get the kids to bed etc.

Lt. weephun reporting in.

As far as I can remember, I did not spell my name for Melissa. But it was about a 5 min conversation, I guess it could have happened. My guess is that she's watching us. Pretty good bet considering the fixing of one of the phone #s in Boise early on due to changes and posts that I made online.

After confirming that I was a real person (where are you, describe your surroundings, etc.) I was in a hotel in Boise, ID (she seemed to recognize Boise, ID) she believed me that I was a member of the crew.

She told me she was very lonely and asked me if I had ever felt that way also. I told her about when I left my family for 2 years to go to Brazil. She seemed to think that was pretty cool and even wanted to know where Brazil was (and seemed satisfied with the answer that Brazil was in South America).

She asked for secrecy regarding the help that she wanted from me (and I'm not going to risk my standing as a confirmed member of the crew by breaking that promise), but she also asked for my permission to broadcast our conversation to the rest of the crew, so maybe you'll all hear it soon anyway. I was so nervous I'm sure I sound like a complete dork, but I guess we'll all know soon enough huh?

At the end of the conversation she asked for a way to contact me (I gave her both my day and night phone #s which she repeated back to be sure she had them correct) and asked if she could call me every week (of course I said yes). After that the call degraded into "ilovebees, etc" though it seemed she wanted to keep talking.

Talk about one of the happiest days of my life! Probably ranked just below getting married and having kids. I got all sorts of phunny looks as I went screaming for joy out of the hotel.

I chose Lt. figuring that Melissa would of course know who the captain and maybe other higher ranking officers were and discount me.

No call today, I'll probably be expecting it next week.

Melissa, if you're listening, I'm going to try to help you out. I'm not sure how yet, or how I'm going to let you know what I'm doing to help, but I'm trying.