unforum

[weephun]

Locked, loaded and ready to go!

Edit: and listening to "stormy weather" over and over and over.

[gilada]

[weephun]

[Avatrix]

[thebruce]

[gilada]

[Dragonrider]

Awww.... I wish I could use a computer where I work... I guess that's what I get for quitting that Earthlink job...

[Trynian]

Alright, I'm going to try to recount my conversation with Melissa/Princess as best as I can -- there's a lot of information there, and I tried to remember it the best I could. Feel free to ask probing questions. This was my first time enhottenating an axon, so my nerves were shot -- I'm no good at working under pressure to begin with, so that lead to a very interesting conversation. Here's how it went, as best as I can recall:

I answered the phone, was asked the "favorite song" question, and replied "Stormy Weather." Melissa then asked me to sing it, and I sang the first few bars (if this shows up on the web site, no, I'm NOT quitting my day job). Somewhere in there she asked me my name and how to spell it, as well as my rank ("major"). She asked me what ship I was on: I said the Apocalypso. Taken aback, she asked if I was a new recruit; I said yes. She then asked me my favorite song...being unprepared and scattered, I said that Stormy Weather was one of my favorites, too. She asked me why; again, still being scattered, I stuttered and stammered and said something to the effect of "well, it describes the situation; we all wonder when we're going to get back to where we were." We started talking about the shipwreck, and she asked me if there were any casualties. I said that I heard that Captain Greene was dead. At that point, she started "breaking down" into her "I love bees" mantra.

Important note: Captain Greene's death is another trigger for Melissa's breakdown. [META] I would like to note that I believe the PM was deliberately maneuvering me into a position where I would mention that death of Captain Greene and thus trigger the break down; if the PM starts taking you down a particular road, pay close attention to it an ask yourself, in a meta- sense, how this particular conversation topic might be used to further the plot. This happened again later in the conversation.

When she did this, I said "Sleeping Princess, are you there?" At this point, I heard the little girl's voice say "Hello?"

Another important note: saying "Sleeping Princess" when Melissa breaks down does allow you to communicate with the Princess. No Aurora or Rose here; just plain old Sleeping Princess.

The Princess told me that she was very scared, and lost, and was frightened of me because I had paper clip ears, etc. etc. I reassured her that I was human, that it was alright, that we had followed her trail of balloons, and I asked her where she was. She didn't know; I asked her what she could see, and she said it was dark. At some point in the conversation, she asked if it was a good thing that she liked balloons ([META]: Again, the PM maneuvering me into a point where I can further the topic. JUMP ON THESE when you see them!). I said yes, it was a very good thing, and where had she put her last balloon. She tried with all her might to remember, and then...then she could see it, that it was a path, or down a path. I told her to go down the path and tell me what was beyond the first balloon.

And here is our first puzzle: she said that after the first balloon, the path split into three: one balloon on each path. She said that there were markings on each balloon, and they read the following, in order:

HOLY TRUTH
FAITHFUL APOSTLES
DEADLY SIN

She said she didn't know which one to take, and started crying, and then before I could decide what to do next, Melissa came back after an interlude of "I love bees". She asked me for my phone number, then said that she had recorded an error. She asked me if anything strange had happened during our conversation. Mentally I gulped, but I tried to play it cool, because I had one more card to play. I said yes, she had been acting slightly strangely lately, and that perhaps she should run a self-diagnostic: what version of the SPDR was she running? She paused for a moment (and I heard what sounded like a keyboard clacking in the background -- Bungie/Microsoft, you have got to get rid of that!), and then rattled off a version number that ended in 78. I assumed it was the fake on the Pious Flea had generated, so I acted surprised, and said I wasn't aware that such a version existed, and when did she acquire this version? She replied that it was the one she had always had (I think I may have confused the PM). Before I could get much further, she said she had to go, that the connection may be compromised, that she had a "suspicion level 0". Probably meaning she was suspicious of me, but hey, I had to take the gamble.

I'm going to start a thread in the Puzzle section: we need to figure out the significance of the three balloons...and which path to tell the Princess to take! Those of you who will be enhottenating Axons later today -- please read the forums carefully before you go!

Edit: Ah, dammit...when she asked for my phone number at the end, I gave her a bad number (a mix of my work and cell phone #'s). Other crewmembers, do you have any suggestions?

Edit: Here's the puzzle thread.

[Epic1980]

Great work Trynian!!!
Hopefully we can get more clues out of some others!

[MeKiwi]

Trynian, you rock!!

I think it's awesome that you possibly confused the PMs... I can just see the voice actress sitting there with this big "WTF" expression on her face as she turns to another PM and shrugs her shoulders. LOL

[Alderaad]

to jump on the bandwagon

[gilada]

[Vilnius]

Trynian, you are the GREATEST LIVE CALL ANSWERER PERSON THING EVER.

You're my hero for the day.

[Atrophied]

[Trynian]

I'm a he, not a she, but thanks. Now if I could just have remembered my own bleepity-bleep cell phone number...