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[Seyelback]

New blog. Zach wants to go to the bunker.

[Cortez]

Timeline

[muse]

Brilliant work Cortez, this'll make tracking events much easier.

The Diagnostic Report page also looks like it's got some craziness going on. And the new vid is... um. Looks like whatever Cloaky is after, he's pretty close to getting it now!

Also dude I'm so glad I jumped in on this ARG. It's turning out way cooler than I imagined. :3

[Seadevil4]

Who told Zach the bunker was open? Come on own up.

The last thing we want is Zach even closer to the artifact, it is bound to make things worse.

With regard to Lovecraft theming, in the story The Call of Cthulhu an artist is possessed/taken over by Cthulhu. I think Seyelback is right about Zach being the Shadow (Mr Hoodie) definitely lines up nicely with the Timeline by Cortez.

I think perhaps A.I. that runs the Sentinel Control is having a meltdown.

[muse]

Awh COME ON, ZACH, use that brain, melty as it currently may be...

Also, Alhambra and Cheese on a brick wall. That background in Zach's latest vid is definitely there for a reason, you guys, we haven't seen anything so specific in terms of background thus far. I haven't a clue what the cheese means, but "Alhambra" means "The red one" and is a massive complex built by the Moors in Granada, Spain. Check it out. For some reason that reminds me of the place Zach keeps talking about seeing in his dreams. Any matches to Lovecraft?

It's also a city in California, don't know if that has any relevance.

As to the messages decoded from the latest Sentinel static, do you think the artifact itself might be asking for help? Maybe it doesn't want to go with Mr. Hoodie? And it would make sense that he and Zach are one in the same, ESPECIALLY if nobody told him the bunker was open. If that's the case, though, how did Mr. Hoodie get back to Zach's house in time for the guy to answer all our emails and post a new vid? I can't remember if the timing matches up or not. o.O Running on too little sleep myself, haha.

[Seyelback]

Noticed the posters, not sure what they mean either. There are a few legends and myths around Al-Andalus (the area of Spain that was conquered by the moors in 711 and populated by them until 1492). I will see if there is anything in there that can relate to this story. Being myself from Spain, I can say that the area of the Alhambra is not a desert or as yellowish/orange. However, the moors came across the desert before crossing the Mediterranean sea. The only area of Spain known for its deserts is further east and away from this region. However, cheese is a typical product all over and we probably have over 30 varieties. Maybe it is relevant, maybe is completely useless information lol. But I do think it is significant he had those two posters behind when he never had anything.

[Cobalt Monkey]

The source code for the AI has been slightly altered
Response 26 still has no keyword to trigger it, but it's changed from a second "Have your tried s+t+k" to "I don't know what to say."
Moreover, I read through all the responses before and that second phrase wasn't there before. And it keeps repeating.
It's the response # 5, 8, 14, 22, 26, 29, 38, 42, 47, 49, 61, 66, 69, 74, 76, 80, 102, 103, 109, 113, and 117.

I also noticed that the AI has responses to the keyword Goodbye. Inputting that gives you responses 62, "Am I dying?" and 59, "What will happen to me if I die?"
Strangely, when I input the word Goodbye, it just gives me the "I don't know what to say." line. I'm no programmer, so it's likely I'm misunderstanding this. Someone else wanna take a look?

If Zach really is the cloaked figure, or linked to him, it puts me in mind of a little known comic character Sleepwalker. He's an extradementional being bonded to a human. He can only exist in the physical world while his host is unconscious.
Oh, and as a kicker, he looks like this:
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTQwxCTtbOQ09qhsshD3ED8Hn1xRYzMwSqPkFCEPUoZ7wz0JFI&t=1&usg=__9QGotNeakHZNHVwezNxu_8Vu1bU=[url][/url]

[cherrytree98765]

I don't get that. When I said goodbye this is the conversation i'm having

Me: Goodbye
AI: Do you dream often?
Me: Yes
AI: Are you sure?
Me: Yes
AI: Do you often feel?
(Saying yes repeats itself. Saying no gets)
Me: No
AI: Why not?
Me: I'm not sure
AI: Do you enjoy not being sure?
Me: No
AI: Are you sure?
Me: Yes
AI: I see
(I repeat goodbye)
AI: What will happen to me if I die?
Me: I don't know.
AI: Are you sure?
Me: Yes
AI: I understand



That conversation was kinda creepy.

[muse]

While the "cloaked figure with red eyes" thing isn't exactly unique... NICE connection!! Is there anything else in the story thus far that matches up with the Sleepwalker comic? It seems too good to be true in terms of a match with what's been going on in the Zach/Mr. Hoodie connection.

I'm thinking the tie-in between Alhambra is definitely to do with the large complex I referenced but I don't have time to trawl through the Wikipedia article right now. >.< Amusingly it's because I have to put together a presentation about an ARG for school, haha.

Odd thought--could the AI be an interface for the artifact to communicate with people? If not, maybe the 'solution' to this is saving the Sentinel system and making sure it can keep the artifact under guard.

Edit: "Do you dream often" seems WAY too specific to the situation at hand to be coincidental. O.o

Also I've been tinkering with the AI on and off between working... it says "Oh..." rather often, something that it's never done before, at least not as far as I can remember. It's starting to fail, for sure.

[John_Galt]

Not sure how important it is, but the book The Alchemist takes place in Alhambra. Here's the Wikipedia summary:

The Alchemist details the journey of a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity and disaster. One of the significant characters that he meets is an old king who tells him that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." And this is the core philosophy and motif of the book.

Recurring dreams? Pyramids? An all-controlling force influencing people? Could be linked.

Also, Cobalt, I'm not so sure about digging around in the code. Just in case we start finding answers to questions that haven't been asked like the whole phone number/STK thing.

[muse]

I've read "The Alchemist," and while it is a totally brilliant read both the tone and overall message seem pretty far-removed from the goings-on in Zach's life.

Also your avatar is one of my favorite things ever.

[Cobalt Monkey]

That's probably a good call about the code, JG. I'll stop fiddling with it. Can't make heads or tails of it myself anyway.

@muse, I read a short comic some years ago in which Sleepwalker had a cameo. Didn't know much about him. However, a quick trip to wiki says there's not much chance of a connection with that comic's history or anything. His powers are a bit similar in type (manipulation of matter), but implemented differently (eye beams as opposed to our guys extending his hands). I don't think it's really a connection, just a similarity.
As for guys with red eyes and cloaks, well, they're a dime a dozen.

[Cortez]

IMHO, the code is a perfectly legitimate target for exploration. PMs have been known in many ARGs to use the source code of a web-page to bury clues.

This is, after all, chaotic fiction, not fiction. There is not an exclusively linear progression through the story of an ARG as there is in a novel.

The answers are there to be found. How we find them is up to the players - and all tools at our disposal should be used.

C

[Cobalt Monkey]

Event log center screen is just fully static now. The logs themselves still display, just not the placeholder.
Same on the archive screen. Starts okay, and then static.

Well, if you insist, C.
It's changed again since last post.

[Seyelback]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkv6VwWEZyg&NR=1