unforum

[marczellm]

Here's a new take on the story. I'm trying to get it in a right order. Maybe later I'll upload it to the wiki. Feel free to correct what I have left out. Speculation in italics.

1986

Professor Gerald Traelek founds the Traelek Institute to research Heightened Sensory Perception. He later expands it with underground Test Facilities because this research is needed to save the human race from apathy and ultimately turns into the Human Preservation Project. This is the place where the experiments seen in 5 Gum commercials happen all the way parallel to the story.

1996

Bobbi and Maxine Gnarsea are sisters. (Bobbi calls Max "sis" on /ily.) Bobbi is deaf, a lip reader and she often talks in parallel in American Sign Language. They live in Rubillon Heights until their house burns down and their mother dies in hospital. Her death is witnessed by Bobbi. They are then looked after by their aunt. She is contacted by Professor Traelek because he's interested in Bobbi. Bobbi has HSP and can sense future events which she makes drawings about. A drawing of Traelek's head somehow gets to him and he makes the call.

Bobbi is taken to Traelek Institute and is interviewed by the Professor. Max escapes the car; she has a habit of running away, probably because their father had left them. When found, she is sent to Hiltrecht (Military) Academy by her aunt, because she considers Max problematic, and the Academy offers a solution for that. Bobbi doesn't know where Maxine lives and is consistently sending letters to their old address which all come back returned to sender. Bobbi also gets into trouble finding the dog Scruff McGee for a friend. They go after the dog into an old house, the floor collapses and the owner - an old man - saves them.

2011

Will Holdstrom describes himself as a salvage man. He is blessed with the ability of perceiving Everyday Synchronicity.

Will is driving his truck through the snow of Taymyr Peninsula, Siberia, Russia. He's just came back from an expedition which resulted in the finding of a golden ring - much less than expected. He receives a radio call that three hikers have been lost in the area. He follows the footprints in the snow to find them encircled by 3 (or 4) polar bears. He attacks them but falls and one of the bears swallows the ring. Then he manages to scare them off by detonating his car with a pistol shot. They then walk to a small restaurant. Here Will is approached by a woman (working for Traelek) who gives him the keys of a new vehicle capable of drilling through the ice.

Professor Traelek contacts Will and instructs him to fetch the icefly. Meanwhile he gives a lecture via webcam to the students of the Institute. This is interrupted by his assistant in order for him to witness the excavating of the icefly. The icefly painting seen in /conduit is hanging behind him. It is prepared with an icefly drawing put into the rear and sent to a New York art gallery. (Though if you look at the logs closely, the version hanging in the gallery is a downsized portion.)Will then puts the icefly into a briefcase and travels to New York.

He visits the art gallery selected for the exchange. Here the briefcase is exchanged - without him knowing - by Maxine, who was recently contacted by Traelek. Traelek wants to reunite Bobbi and Maxine but Bobbi insists on waiting. Max then calls and tells Will that his 'payment is hanging in the corner'. Will attempts to buy the icefly painting but he's told that it was already intended for him. Outside, he finds the hidden drawing and that the briefcase is empty.

Maxine is driven by car through snow and desert. When she gets out to call Traelek and inform him about the events, the car leaves her. She is forced to travel with the very unreliable service of Buford's Bus Bounty. Buford's remain loyal to their traditions: the bus explodes in the middle of nowhere.

The icefly is taken to Traelek and starts to hover in his hands. It is examined in the lab. A mechanical icefly is constructed and presented to the scientists working in the facilities.

Questions not yet answered and storylines not yet linked

• Who Eddie is and how he is related
  
• Who Natalia Suttinger, neuro-analyst is and whom she sends the typed message on /enigma to
  
• What the black envelope on /benevolence contains, who is sending it to the Prof and whom they received it from
  
• What the purpose of the mechanical icefly is
  
• How the players come into picture, why Test Subjects are Needed and what the purpose of Mission Icefly is

[thebruce]

That's awesome, marczellm!
I intend to get back to the wiki shortly and revisit those out of date pages... but any content that can be added by anyone is always welcome!

[marczellm]

[Selie]

I've been out of the game for several weeks and this is EXACTLY what I needed to get my enthusiasm going again. Thank you for posting!

... now, to poke around through the test facilities and check out some comic pages ... boy do I have my work cut out for me.

It's nice to see the pieces of story finally start to take shape!

[FossilizedSauce]

Well, the entire story tied to the Command Center has revealed a whole lot - most importantly, I think, the state of the outside world. All we've really seen is lab facilities under ground, right? Well, now we know why.

[Tharol]

Reading thanks for the summary bit.

[Paul_Atreides]

It seems that it's Eddie's house that burns down, and he's got some sort of seeing ability, he can forsee disaster before it happens.

[Tharol]

Glad there is wiki for this gum.