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Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: This Is My Milwaukee

[INTERACTION] The Fax

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Saprophyte
Boot

Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 13

Rebels Sub Rosa?

PostLarval wrote:

Molecular wrote:

So we're most likely communicating with... rebels

Yep, after that convo I figured that the rebels must be trying to make contact, and via the video/drop we stumbled into it.

But I don't think that they're supposed to be from New York... all talk thus far is about the rebels existing inside Milwaukee. Any New York locations, fax numbers etc. are most likely an unfortunate side-effect of the PMs being located there. Which is why I don't think we're supposed to fax back... not to mention that the fax was simply sent from a Kinkos.

I thought about this a long time before posting anything, because I thought it was pretty far fetched. Until I read this communication between Mike Russo and Postlarval:

Quote:

He got interested, and asked if I had been giving out my fax number recently. I told him I had, actually, to a Milwaukee number. He asked where I found this number, and I told him it was found hidden in a library. Then he started to open up a bit.

He said he shouldn't really be talking about this, but that he thinks I intercepted a rebel communication. He says the rebels are very cautious, because communications are often monitored, so they prefer to send messages 'old school'... faxes being old school, I suppose.

This may seem a stretch, but here goes:

In researching the names of characters who work at Blackstar, I remembered that there were a couple of roses in the game so far: Larose Burton, and the Rose Main Reading Room at the NYPL.

I went to the Wikipedia page to see if anyone had added anything "interesting" to the page since mid November. I couldn't find anything on the page more interesting than the etymology of the name "Rose," and, in the History section, the following sentences:

EDIT: that's the page for "Rose;" I guess I got ahead of myself....

"In Rome a wild rose would be placed on the door of a room where secret or confidential matters were discussed. The phrase sub rosa, or "under the rose", means to keep a secret � derived from this ancient Roman practice."

At this point, I decided to look at the history of the page for the past month, and I made a few discoveries. There has been a lot of vandalism there lately, and some of seems purely junior high...but some of it seems just plain ARG. There is reference to New York (with the ellipsis), a fake name Rosacotti in place of the real family name Rosaceae, references to toast (which reminded me of the Blackstar no Blackstar episode after the TIMM credits, where the kid tells Terry he thought he was toast), a reference to lollipops, and discussion of rocket launchers and robots (and how they rule).

So, I started thinking, if the library drop was an "intercepted rebel communication," then maybe the fact that they chose the Rose Reading room might be important, and maybe all the vandalism on the Rose page might be important after all.

In case you're interested, here are some quotes from the vandalism, starting with the oldest (from around 21 November) first:

Rose: New York's State Flower...

Rosacotti

we all love toast>
everyone loves toast, especially with grape or strawberry jelly

robots
robots rule?
gfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

rocket launchers unite!!!!

i love squirrels and lollipops!!!! lol

cactus ninjas

A '''rose''' is a.... that contains over a gazillion million bagilllion infinity. The species form a group of erect cactuses, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp....

The leaves are purple and [[pinnate|pinnately compound]], with sharply toothed oragelo -shaped leaflets.

rose is the middle name of a 11 year old girl.

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:49 am
Last edited by Saprophyte on Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:02 pm; edited 2 times in total

scotty2012
Boot

Joined: 24 Nov 2008
Posts: 16

BigRedCat wrote:

I really think this will work:

If you zoom in really far, towards the X, and highlight the whole blob, if you copy and rotate it transparently using a picture editor(even paint), numbers will randomly appear(they look digital style). I've also gotten an arrow and a butterfly like shape.

Though most of my results are random, I believe if you use the Dark Dollars arrangement(same symbols in the corners), it will tell us exactly how to rotate two copies of the images and overlay them exactly to form a number/message.

It would be easier if you had two large transparencies IMO.

Thoughts? Someone with more time and better tools want to try this?

This sounded interesting. I don't know how good a fax machine's resolution is, but maybe this image was designed to fit within most recent fax resolutions; so that when printed, it still maintains a pretty good copy of what was originally faxed. I played with the fax and got this:

I started at "start" then turned them top to top following the arrows (and ignoring the shape directions). I found 5 small dots on both sides of the thumb print and lined them up (the blue dots).

This could really be something from nothing, but it's hard to ignore. looks like an 'A', and maybe some weird symbol. But it's late and I could be hallucinating.

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:50 am

BlessedBlogger
Veteran

Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 111
Location: Delaware

Re: Barcode

synspark wrote:

Does the program you're using work for ones like this? That's what it reminded me of when I saw it. That and QR codes.

Yes, it does.

No idea what it means. I've never used a scanner prog before today.

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 5:51 am

BlessedBlogger
Veteran

Joined: 06 Dec 2008
Posts: 111
Location: Delaware

Fax Number?

Did we confirm that the number the fax was sent from (2122262784) is actually the real fax number? I have no experiences with faxes so don't womp me if this is a stupid question. It's just that I googled the number and got zip, searched for a fedex-kinkos at that number and got nothing and then called the number and got the 'this phone number is not in service' voice recording. Is that odd or am I just a fax noob?

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:03 am

Molecular
Boot

Joined: 09 Dec 2008
Posts: 21

Re: Rebels Sub Rosa?

Saprophyte wrote:

I went to the Wikipedia page to see if anyone had added anything "interesting" to the page since mid November.

I'm finding all you said to be rather intriguing to be fair. Grape, robots, toast etc. But I have to ask, where exactly did you find this?

Pardon me for sounding slow but I couldn't quite catch what wikipedia site you were on. The one for thisismymilwaukee? Couldn't find the same edits myself :S

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:33 am

dreamerblue
Unfettered

Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 710
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Re: Rebels Sub Rosa?

Molecular wrote:

Saprophyte wrote:

I went to the Wikipedia page to see if anyone had added anything "interesting" to the page since mid November.

Pretty sure the page looked at was the one on roses, based on this:

Quote:

In researching the names of characters who work at Blackstar, I remembered that there were a couple of roses in the game so far: Larose Burton, and the Rose Main Reading Room at the NYPL.

I went to the Wikipedia page to see if anyone had added anything "interesting" to the page since mid November. I couldn't find anything on the page more interesting than the etymology of the name "Rose," and, in the History section, the following sentences: <snip>

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:21 am

landtuna
Boot

Joined: 25 Nov 2008
Posts: 25

Symbology

Here's a thought about what the symbols on the fax and the Dark Dollar Arrangements mean.

Mike said in one of the calls that the Dark Dollars were made of brickacite. Maybe that's not the only thing they're made of. Maybe there are Dark Dollars of each material.

I'm thinking that the 1 and 2 in the Arrangements means that those Dark Dollars are made of wood and iron (from Important Materials). The fax is telling us that Chuck (who is currently in Big Brass City, Decatur) is by the X. X, then, represents brass. Maybe if Chuck moves to other locations, we'll get the other symbol to material mappings.

I wouldn't be surprised if the star represented Milwaukee (and Blackstar) and corresponded to M-brass. (Milwaukee-brass, maybe, rather than magnetic brass.)

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:34 am

krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice

Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

This is probably next to useless, and not related to the current discussion, but the Dark Dollar symbols used are analogous to the controller buttons for the Playstation console. Smile

_________________
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Stories and dreams, crossing my palm like silver.

xbl gamertag: krystyn

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:50 pm

Starblind
Boot

Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 58

krystyn wrote:

This is probably next to useless, and not related to the current discussion, but the Dark Dollar symbols used are analogous to the controller buttons for the Playstation console. Smile

Hmm. Zener cards, the cards generally used to test for ESP, were the first thing I thought of, but you could be onto something here.

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:06 pm

EnsO
Decorated

Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 205

has anyone with the transparency tried to overlay the Milwaukee background/ Google Earth shot from thisismymilwaukee.com? maybe align the black star with the inactive Blackstar link at the bottom and/ or the suspicious large building at the Marquette interchange where 94/ 794 connect?

to me, this thing screams "overlay". just trying to think what else to overlay!

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:37 pm

FSURobbie
Guest

EnsO wrote:

I'll give it a shot, give me a few minutes...

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:50 pm

FSURobbie
Guest

Meh, I'm not really seeing anything in this. I'm thinking maybe the overlay idea isn't the right one. That, or we don't know how to approach it...

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:55 pm

PostLarval
Entrenched

Joined: 16 Nov 2004
Posts: 806
Location: 32� 43'N, 117� 10'W (give or take)

krystyn wrote:

This is probably next to useless, and not related to the current discussion, but the Dark Dollar symbols used are analogous to the controller buttons for the Playstation console. Smile

Lol, this was actually the first thought I had when I saw them. Glad to see I'm not the only one! Very Happy

_________________
O_o

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:26 pm

DarkProject
Veteran

Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 98

On the sending of Faxes...

Who should we enlist assistance with?

Larose Burton: We just learned who he is, just got his info. THE FAX NUMBER VOICEMAIL TURNED INTO *HIS* VOICEMAIL. He's the Manchurian Candidate for the rebels, IMO.

Mike R: I don't agree that he shouldn't get it. He's not necessarily a rebel agent, but he is sympathetic...

Michael L: We don't have a definite way to contact him, but we should consider it, as he is the one who sent us the clues. Mike Russo doesn't like him, but maybe he's from a rival rebel group...

Joey: Knows nothing, ever.

Mars: Meeting with Blackstar, had rebel troubles, no.

Lips: NO, NO, please no.

Chuck: I think so, yes.

Who is: davisSPLATthisismymilwaukee.com ???

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:38 pm

MochaPixel
Boot

Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 49

Re: On the sending of Faxes...

DarkProject wrote:

I thought the old fax number turned into Michael Lewis' cell number, not Larose's. Also, Walter Davis is the one that "accidentally" put the ARH book up on Flickr. I think we should hang on to the fax for now and wait to see what happens. We really don't know who we can trust with it just yet.

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:46 pm

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