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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: General/Updates
[UPDATE] Quirky Acuity - 1 Feb 07 - Over
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PMAvers
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 		[UPDATE] Quirky Acuity - 1 Feb 07 - Over
Perma-link: http://www.quirkyacuity.com/archives/2007/02/over.html

Holy wall of text, Batman.

Violet wrote:
Do you ever think about how your life turns on just a few crucial decisions? What your life might have been if you hadn't gone to that party, met that person who became your dearest friend, whose thoughts and ideas became as close to you as your own? If that picnic hadn't been moved from the Saturday afternoon to the Sunday, you'd never have gone, and never heard about that job that ended up changing your life? If you'd gone home when you intended instead of staying at work that extra hour, you'd never have seen that accident that made you rethink the way you were living? Do you ever think about those things?

My key, which Kurt has souped up to cross-reference every note I ever make, every random audio thought-catch, every book I read, informs me that two nights ago was a year to the day since I decided, on a whim, entirely by myself, to invite Caine along to a Hesh Records party to help me out with some investigating. At least, it felt like I made that decision all by myself. Things that have happened recently have caused me to wonder how much I was being influenced. Was it a coincidence that he's a musician and I needed to investigate a record label? Was it a coincidence that Kurt was otherwise engaged with Miranda? Why did I even think of inviting him in the first place? I can't remember quite why I suddenly 'got the idea'. I'm starting to distrust myself.

So this is how it went. We saved Scarlett. You know all about that, you were there. Thank you. It's not even enough to say that. If I could tell each and every one of you individually how grateful I am, it wouldn't be enough. Scarlett is alive and that's all the win there could ever be. Thank you.

And, I'm alive, Kurt's alive. Helena Frye's alive but injured. Several of her people have been killed, though. The police liaison who's been assigned to me tells me not to blame myself or Scarlett for this, that this was a dangerous operation but they think they've broken the lines of the Third Power and that all the sacrifices are worth it for that. And he's right. I don't blame myself, and I certainly don't blame Scarlett. I blame Caine.

I keep asking myself when I should have spotted the truth, what I should have done differently. I should have wondered why he was hanging around at Ascendancy Point station so conveniently. Of course, he said he'd been looking for me, for Scarlett, had been wandering between his apartment and the Milamont house. The Point is halfway between. It made a sort of sense. And I was so hyped up and nervous I didn't stop to think. Didn't ask who he'd been trying to call on his key when Kurt and I spotted him, and one of Frye's watchdogs smashed it to smithereens. And when I heard that he'd launched himself at some guards, I thought, well, maybe he was just trying to be brave. And when I saw he'd been captured, I thought... well, I didn't think much of anything really. I saw what they'd done to Lettie and I couldn't think of anything at all. Kurt keeps telling me that fingernails grow back but I can't think too much about it or I think I'll start screaming.

Lettie was rambling and woozy when we found her. She kept saying: "I don't know, I don't know where it is." And my heart broke into a million separate pieces. The medics arrived faster than I would have imagined - I guess they had them waiting. And when they'd given her shots and strapped her to a gurney, she reached out and grabbed my arm. All I could see was her fingers, I couldn't stop looking at them, but her grip was really strong, surprisingly so, and she pulled me down and said: "Caine, Caine kept asking me where the Cube is. But I don't know." And even then, I didn't really think. Because, it appears, for all my alleged people-reading skills I am a 24-carat moron.

I got back home around 4am on Wednesday morning and slept for about 17 hours. When I woke up it was dark and my key was flashing its "urgent messages waiting" light, illuminating my bedroom in milisecond-long bursts of red. I picked it up and held it between my palms, remembering everything that had happened over the previous few days. Outside my window, the mosaic of city lights demonstrated beyond doubt that the world hadn't ended, that despite everything that had happened, the city still proves indestructible. This thought made me smile, just a little.

"How many messages?" I said.

My key responded in its usual calm, level tone "You have 1,754 messages."

Hmm.

"How many voice messages?"

"You have 58 voice messages."

"How many unique message-leavers?"

"You have messages from 17 unique sources."

"List the top three message-leavers."

"You have 5 messages from: Caine Johannsen. You have 7 messages from: Kurt McAllister. You have 12 messages from: Fleming Heath."

Twelve messages from Fleming?

"Play messages from Fleming Heath."

He'd left a lot of messages. His voice, usually so strong and humorous has cracked since Anna died. Sometimes he was barely audible, but I got the idea. "It's Faberling," he said, over and over, "Caine Johannsen called a song Faberling. It's not, it can't be a coincidence. It's not a real word. It's a made-up word, Anna and I.... She used to call me Faberling. It was our secret and she swore, she swore never to tell a living soul. She wouldn't... You have to ask him why he called the song Faberling. She wouldn't have told him."

Fleming's hoarse voice died away. My room was still dark. I didn't want to turn the lights on. I watched the cars racing along the coast road outside.

"Call Caine Johannsen," I said.

My key brought up a holographic display of Caine's face - a goofy pic I'd taken one day when we'd gone out to the Marina together and I'd managed to catch him without a scowl on his face.

"Hi Vi, how's tricks?"

From the sound of his voice, I'd woken him up.

"Yeah," I said, "just woke up. Knackered."

"Add a side order of 'in pain' and you've described me too. You want me to come over?"

"Maybe in a bit? Anyway..." I tried to work out the most natural way to draw the conversation round. "You can hardly leave your house without bodyguards, can you? Now that you're a rock star."

He chuckled, a low rumble in his throat.

"Oh yeah. Nearly forgot about my mega-stardom."

"I heard about the concert. Sounds like it went well. Especially that song you wrote... Faberling?"

I tried to make my voice sound casual. My heart was beating so loudly I thought he must hear it.

"Oh that old thing. Just something I threw together."

"Cool word, though. Where did it come from?"

A pause. A breath. My heartbeat in the hollow centre of my throat and fear constricting my vocal cords.

"Actually, it was Anna. It was the name she called me."

"Really? What kind of name is that?"

Another pause.

"I dunno. From Earth, maybe. Belgian or something. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. I just keep humming it. It's catchy."

"Sure you don't want me to come over."

"No," I said, "don't do that just yet. I'm just... I want to be by myself just now, OK?"

"Well that's typical," he said, laughing.

"Yeah. Just, typical me. Bye."

And I sat in the dark, thinking. Either Caine and Anna had had the most unlikely torrid office romance known to man - in which case, why would Caine have made the mistake of revealing anything she'd told him secretly? - or Anna had told him the word for another reason. In a desperate moment, when all hope was gone and she'd known she wouldn't survive. She'd given him a message for us. I felt fear like acid in my stomach. Every part of it made sense. Every single thing. From the fact that Caine and I got together just as Kurt was being preyed on by Miranda, to his helpful curiosity about everything we do. And the way that he was so near to Anna when she vanished. And that I'd left Scarlett with him, so he'd know just where she was, just when she could be snatched. I didn't have a lot of mental energy left over for self-loathing about that, but when I get a moment there'll be quite a quantity to get through.

The police, who are better at this stuff than I would have given them credit for, have appointed a liaison officer for me and Kurt, whilst Frye's out of action. He's called Ranjit, Detective Ranjit and frankly he looks like Frye could eat him for breakfast and still find room for extra crispy bacon, but since Frye told me I could trust him I know he's a good guy. He'd given me all his details at the hospital, told me to call if I needed anything, given me a meaningful look in the eye and told me we'd "talk again very soon". It was 10pm at night by this point, but he answered his key after just one ring.

"Ms Kiteway," he said, "I hope you're feeling a little better?"

"Yup. How's Scarlett?"

"She's resting comfortably. We have a 24-person team guarding her at all times."

That sounded good. I wondered if I could persuade them to keep a 24-person team guarding her forever. With particular reference to any man I ever sleep with.

"Listen," I said, "I have something to tell you."

And I told him, and he listened. And at the end I said: "Do you think I'm crazy? Is it just the effects of trauma, shock, whatever?"

And he said: "No, Ms Kiteway. You're not crazy. We've suspected for some time that there must be a mole in the CRT, or close to it. We thought Solitano might be it but some things still don't make sense. What you've told me... that makes sense."

I hadn't realised until then how much I'd been wishing that he'd tell me I was being ridiculous. But I'm not being ridiculous. I've been dating a murderer for the past year. I guess that's just one more thing Kurt and I have in common.

Things moved quickly, while I sat in my darkened apartment, watching the traffic from my window seat. I drank some coffee. After a while I put on some clothes. In the meantime, things happened. Detective Ranjit called to fill me in. I called Kurt. He offered to come over but I said no. I didn't cry, because that's not what I do. I thought a lot, and drank more coffee.

Caine was in police custody within an hour. Which is a good thing. Because otherwise I'd kill him. People say that kind of thing all the time, don't they? "I'm so angry I could kill you." "I wish you were dead." But I find that, whatever I'm doing, wherever I am, a part of my brain is thinking it through perfectly logically. Who do I know who knows people in prison? He's likely to end up in Fletcher or Stanwood. How could I get to him there? I find that I'm making plans. I know I won't carry them out, don't worry. I wouldn't want to risk myself or my family, not even a whisker, for that piece of scum. But, I guess this means we're definitively over.


And meep.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:44 am
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cassandra
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 		Oh. Wow. I now have to post this email that I sent to Caine last Thursday, after the Sentinel article. (Faber linguae translates as 'wordsmith' in a sense. Which is why I emailed him questioning Faberling.)

Quote:
Subject: faber linguae

Hi Caine,

Saw the Sentinel account of the chaos at the Ooze show last night. Are you okay? I do have a question for you regarding your song, 'Faberling' - are you using any kind of unusual production technology in your performances? Who are your sound/tech guys that you work with, if any? Also, since you're the songwriter, do you happen to have a transcription of the lyrics handy? Of course I don't know the true cause of the violence at your show, but I'm impressed with the band's..impact. Let us know exactly how quickly Hesh Records snaps you up Wink

Cassandra

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:51 am
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DarkHuman
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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
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Quote:
fingernails grow back
Twisted Evil
wow, my 300th post, and it's my most BRUTAL!!!!!
(looks like 10 fingers, 10 toes, that's good, right??!)
....9 fingernails......

yeah, and a HUGE thanks goes out to everyone that DIDN'T email Caine about the raid. that................would have sucked. (seriously, that was like a week of wanting to tell every PXC character 'bout the raid!)

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:57 am
Last edited by DarkHuman on Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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cmlobue
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 		The only "Faberling" Google seems to know about that isn't directly related to PXC is Anton Faberling. Every page about him is in some Scandanavian language, but I think he was a swimmer in the mid-90s. Can that possibly have anything to do with anything?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:01 pm
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cassandra
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 		See my post above - since Anna coined the term, I think it reasonable to base it on the Latin, faber, which is smith/wright/maker (hence fabricate), plus ling, which could indicate language/words. Or possibly just indicating a diminutive. Or it's a beer brewed by Lyssa/Hubert/S Ling et al Wink
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I mean, no one in Perplex City could have come up with Transformers, robots in disguise.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:06 pm
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regentswift
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 		o_0

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:28 pm
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GasparLewis
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 		G'damn it! Sad
Caine, why did you have to be evil?!
Son of a Censored ...

Ah well, lock him up and keep the files open.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:34 pm
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Joe
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 		it doesn't make sense.. if Caine knew what was going on in Ascendancy why didn't he warn them when the guards brought him in? would they not have tried to run/remove the prisoner? instead they just waited.. on the 110th floor (no way out!)

not that I'm siding with the enemy.. it just doesn't make sense to me.. was Caine really evil? or is someone setting him up?
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:27 pm
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PMAvers
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Joe wrote:
or is someone setting him up?


I think so. The 3P *are*, supposedly, masters at manipulation. I wouldn't be surprised. What better way to cripple your enemies than by having them tear themselves apart from within? The CRT's been fairly well dismantled, with Kurt being knocked out of there, Caine in jail, Violet not trusting anyone, Sente locked up as well, Von getting the axe, Tippy and Aiko... well, not really doing anything, but that's par for the course (Although, I *am* curious to what Aiko's new sculpture is), and Garnet just trying to keep his head above water.

And, man, I'm going to hate to see what Scarlett says when she finds out about all this. Poor kid.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 1:59 pm
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maniacfive
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 		Wow, I... Did... Not... see... that... coming.

Whadda ya know, it turns out that Anna did a Jack Vincennes and left a secret clue to point us in the right direction. Ahhh if only Caine hadnt taken so damn long to get famous maybe we could've got him ages ago.

Fingernails, Now i did see that coming, bit of a classic. From an advanced society with mind altering drugs you'd have thought they'd be a better alternative wouldnt you? Surely they've got a much improved Sodium pentothol type substance?

Wow, still cant believe that Caine was Keyser Soze.

EDIT:
PMAvers wrote:

And, man, I'm going to hate to see what Scarlett says when she finds out about all this. Poor kid.


She wont say anything, But i forsee, hair dye, black clothing, and heavy eye make up. Very Happy
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:03 pm
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Sylocat
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 		Re: [UPDATE] Quirky Acuity - 1 Feb 07 - Over
Violet wrote:
she pulled me down and said: "Caine, Caine kept asking me where the Cube is. But I don't know."

Uh, would a high-ranking member of 3P really allow a prisoner (especially Scarlett) to see his face?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:01 pm
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Macavity
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maniacfive wrote:


She wont say anything, But i forsee, hair dye, black clothing, and heavy eye make up. Very Happy


She can chill with the Odd Squad any time! Very Happy

(Note: The "Odd Squad" is a group of local oddballs - hackers, goths, metalheads, tuners, puzzle freaks . . . you name it, we've probably got it!)
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:13 pm
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Scott
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 		darkhuman (and others) have been saying caine was evil fFor like months now! and here I've been all "oh, i don't know ... la de da ... he's an okay chap ... deedle dee dee"

I stand, therefore, corrected.

You know, dark, had you made some sort of wager there, you could have done well on the haul, eh. Smile
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:33 pm
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aliendial
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 		Re: [UPDATE] Quirky Acuity - 1 Feb 07 - Over
Sylocat wrote:
Violet wrote:
she pulled me down and said: "Caine, Caine kept asking me where the Cube is. But I don't know."

Uh, would a high-ranking member of 3P really allow a prisoner (especially Scarlett) to see his face?


Well yes if the idea was that she might think he was a fellow prisoner and tell him what she wouldn't tell her torturers. That's classic too. (Remember he was cuffed and beat up and had a real shiner that might have been black shoe polish; perfect cover.) What does it matter if his cover is blown if they got the answer? And I suppose that's another reason to let the assault go forward even if he is 3P - give up this 3P cell on the gamble to get the info from Scarlett and possibly save the cover of Caine.
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:25 pm
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DarkHuman
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Scott wrote:
darkhuman (and others) have been saying caine was evil fFor like months now! and here I've been all "oh, i don't know ... la de da ... he's an okay chap ... deedle dee dee"

I stand, therefore, corrected.

You know, dark, had you made some sort of wager there, you could have done well on the haul, eh. Smile

grumble grumble grumble......
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:49 pm
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