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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[Update] Scarlett email Sept 23rd
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poozle
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Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 1090

 		[Update] Scarlett email Sept 23rd
Hi. My name's Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old and I live in Perplex City. Last year the Cube - a very precious object - was stolen from the Academy where my dad, Sente, is the Master. The Cube was concealed somewhere on Earth. We need to find it and get it back.

Some pretty weird things have been going on in my life lately. First my friend's computer was targeted by a military trace originating in Tanraga when he searched for the phrase "Reynolds ionizer". Then I found the same phrase in a note written by a dead journalist, along with the word Viendenbourg. At the military archives, an old man gave me a map of Tanraga, with a place marked Viendenbourg, but other maps of that area show nothing there at all. Now I'm travelling through Tanraga myself with my boyfriend Brede and two friends. We'll soon be within walking distance of Viendenbourg. But I think I'm being followed. I thought I saw the old man from the archives here on the train. And now a guy I've met on the train, Allain, says he's going to Viendenbourg too.

There's a lot going on in Perplex City; maybe by sifting through all the clues that are out there, you'll find out who stole the Cube. But I'm following my own lead. My story is here and you can follow it with me.

-----------------------------

I couldn't believe it. Allain was going to the same mysterious location as me!

I must have jumped in my seat when he said the word Viendenbourg, because Brede said "What's up, honey? Is everything OK?" I told him I was fine; I was longing to ask Allain what he knew about Viendenbourg, why he was going there, how he'd found out the name, but I didn't want to seem too curious. Luckily for me, Brede was interested as well.

He said: "What do you mean, you're not sure it exists?" Allain smiled and looked down at his hands.
"I know, it sounds pretty insane doesn't it? The thing is," he leaned forward, "you know I'm a student at Edyta College?" We nodded. Edyta College is fairly prestigious - it's a rival school to Marmalejo where Brede and I study. "And I guess you must be able to tell that I'm interested in a lot of different subjects, right?" We nodded again. "It's almost a problem, actually. I'm supposed to choose a subject of special interest next year, but I haven't been able to. Anyway a few months ago, among all these other projects, I got interested in studying the history of, you know, the war."

Brede and I both breathed in sharply. We knew about the war, of course. Everyone does. But it's not something you talk about. It's a dark part of our city's past - we've moved on. "I can't explain it," said Allain, "I was drawn to find out more. I even started reading through some of the material in the military archives. It was there that I first heard about Viendenbourg." Brede and I were very quiet now. "You know that material, it's mostly, well, fragments. So much knowledge has been lost from that time, even the technological developments of the final 50 years are mostly gone. And no one wants to try to retrieve them."

Brede shifted in his seat. I could tell this conversation was making him uncomfortable. What Allain said was true - everyone knows that technological advances were made during the war, but given where they led, no one wants to try to get them back. "I know that's what everyone thinks," Allain continued, "but the more I looked at those fragments the more amazed I was. From the documents, they had AIs far in advance of our own, and medical and health developments that were just... astonishing. I decided to try to piece some of that knowledge back together."

Suddenly, Brede stood up. His face was pale. He looked calm, but determined.
"I'm very tired," he said, "I think I'll go to bed. Are you coming, Scarlett?" I looked at him. I knew why he was leaving. A lot of people feel like Brede does about the past - best left forgotten. You can't move forward while looking back. But I had to know about Viendenbourg.

"In a few minutes," I said. Brede looked at me. He said nothing, turned and walked toward our carriage. Allain and I looked at Brede's receding back, and then back to each other. There was a little pause, then he continued.

"I worked in the military archives for weeks, piecing together records, trying to make some sense of formulae and notes. Sometimes a hint of meaning would seem to be within my grasp, but then it dissolved again. I felt I was getting nowhere. And then, one day, an old man with white hair came up to my desk. He said: 'I see you've been working on ancient technology.' I nodded. He said: 'You'll never get anywhere with those old notes. You need the originals.' I smiled and told him that the originals had been lost centuries earlier. He looked at me, and then handed me a data button and said: 'I think you dropped this'."

He told me the rest of the story, but I felt that I'd heard it already. Allain had also received a map showing Viendenbourg, he'd also compared it to modern maps and found that there was nothing there. And now he was also travelling to Viendenbourg. There was a long silence after he finished. I had to make a decision, but I felt it had almost been made for me. Perhaps it was stupid of me, but I felt I wanted to trust him, at least as much as he'd trusted me. I said: "I also met that man in the archives. He gave me a map of Viendenbourg. And I'm going there too. And there's something else... I think I've seen that man on this train. I think he's here." And I stood up, said goodnight, and went to bed.

That was a week ago now. I've spent the past week trying to make things up with Brede. We've walked through some of the most beautiful places there are, but sometimes, as we're walking, I catch him looking at me strangely. As if he didn't know me at all. I can't explain it to him. I thought of trying to tell him the whole thing but somehow, now that it's linked to Allain, I don't feel I can. We haven't talked about it. We haven't seen Allain this whole week of walking but today we reached the train again. While Brede was getting our luggage, I sneaked a look at the passenger manifest and found out which compartment Allain is in. And about an hour ago I went along there to talk to him.

As I reached the carriage, I heard raised voices. Or, at least, one raised voice. It was Allain, shouting. It was as though he was talking to himself, although he paused occasionally. He was shouting: "You should never have told her! You should never have trusted her! Now she'll find out everything!"

PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:27 pm
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Scott
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Joined: 11 Sep 2004
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 		Tres' Gollum
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Balance of Powers is a game whose only rule is: There must be a political party.

PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 2:06 pm
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WhiteGulls
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Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 		oooh, did he have a run-in with the Old Man, who revealed that he told Scarlett about where he's headed? =D
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:37 pm
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number9dream
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 		Next episode: Murder on the Viendenbourg Express

...where's Hercule Poirot when you need him....? Smile
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:18 pm
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perplexed
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 		what we really need is sherlock holmes for "A study in scarlett"
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:22 pm
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Macavity
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:18 pm
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[PCGF]Jay
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:18 pm
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erekose
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Quote:
AIs far in advance of our own, and medical and health developments that were just... astonishing


I thought that they'd have developed more advanced tech than what we're seeing, but I couldn't find any evidence. After all, they were working on electricity 200 years before us and they're maybe 20 years ahead in the technology stakes now. It seems to me that they may have had a much more intergrated, ultra high tech world just prior to the war.(perhaps even pre-singularitarian). But whatever has occured during the conflict has either destroyed all worldwide information and travel networks, or they may have been deliberatly shut down as a reaction. (to some sort of rampant, rapidly growing AI, for instance). Also, this may answer the problem of the lack of space travel and astronomy. Kurt has mentioned that they had to develop electronic control systems for fireworks from scratch.
Anyway, this did come as a suprise to me, I was imagining a WW1/WW2 style conflict, and I know a lot of people were thinking of something more napoleonic in nature.(horses, muskets, and cannon basically) And now we may be looking at a much more serious war with a post nuclear tech worldwide society. No wonder they 'won't mention the war' Smile
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 12:15 am
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looosy
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 		it sounds very 'Dark Angel' (US sci-fi/drama from a few years back). Some sort of electrical pulse wiped out all electronic and satellite data... crippled the country.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:59 am
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sledgecallier
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 		This is from out of the box labelled 'wild spec' but perhaps the reason the Perplexians don't like to mention the war is because they lost?
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 24, 2005 5:27 pm
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dawh25
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 		Of course with the spec of entire cities decimated during the war, maybe Perplexians don't want to remember they enormous number of dead. If a country like the US went and completely eradicated the Middle East, or someplace, once we got our head back on straight, would we want to remember it? No one speaks of the war, so it is impossible to say why they fear it at this point.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:52 pm
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Crane
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 		For some reason, bits of this are getting very Half Life 2 ish.
"Viendenbourg? Where's that?" - "We don't go to Ravenholm..."
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:43 am
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tangohead
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 		ye lol Very Happy Next there will be a mad priest in viendenbourg who owns random zombies Very Happy
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:54 pm
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Macavity
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Crane wrote:
For some reason, bits of this are getting very Half Life 2 ish.
"Viendenbourg? Where's that?" - "We don't go to Ravenholm..."


Where's Gordon Freeman when you need him?
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You are likely to be eaten by a grue. If this predicament seems particularly cruel,
Consider whose fault it could be, with no match or torch in your inventory...
NP: Erase The Truth

PostPosted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:24 pm
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