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Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » QU13E

[Trailhead] Splinternails.com 2014

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supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

You guys are quite right - plus Jitensha is also in the agsIXh picture so that theories' pretty much dead.

In any case, Melpomene's dead so I can't see how finding the third word would help. For now, I'm taking a hiatus, I'll return when I see some vampires Shocked

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 2:16 am

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

There has to be some previous something about music, or another clue we're missing. It can't be all about waiting for the vampires, can it?

The only other hint I can think of is to go back to what Sparkrent LJ said in the post that contained the only other reference to Dance of the Vampires.
According to the german wiki, he also referenced Shelley's poem "Music, when soft voices die." But can't imagine that's related.

I'm putting the journal entry here for good measure:

Quote:

9 s t a r s p i l l s & m a d . t r a i n . m o r n
"All right then," he huffed. "But listen carefully, for I will not speak twice what I am about to tell you. Because once I do, I am dead - and your life too will be in danger."
I stood frozen.
"Are you willing to shoulder such responsibility?"
The beggar suddenly did not seem a beggar anymore; as his tone deepened, making him sound abnormally severe, the old man began to take on an almost menacing demeanour. I found myself fascinated by the immediate transformation, and desperate to hear what he had to reveal.
"Yes," I said.
"Reeeally?"
"On what's left of my honour and besmirched name, I am willing."
"Ahhh...now that's more what I'd expected from you. Good, this is a good sign."
I remained quiet, wanting him to continue.
"If you truly wish to find him, you must first lose yourself. In nightmares and dreams. And not what it seems. For he slips through the shades of shadow."
"So he is alive," I asked.
The beggar stared at me, something like a grin crossed his face. "The question you should be asking is," he muttered, "how long will you still be?"
Tags: it's in between the echoes where you'll
Current Location: In Splendor Twirl
Current Mood: sleepwalking
Current Music: Dance of the Vampires
("In Splendor Twirl" = "In Splinterworld," "9starspills = splinternails," "mad.train.morn" = "random martin")

Also, I noticed that when looking up information on the symbol for Jupiter that the canisterspies drawing (the weird one that kind of gives me a headache) as well as that funny one with all the symbols... the symbols seem very similar to astronomical symbols for planets, including the ones for minor planets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_symbols
The symbol for Jupiter can also apparently mean a Zeta, or a Z...

I've also just noticed something odd. The redditors found this:
http://www.qu13e.com/invisibleye.html - hidden within the coding for this page are some interesting things.
'&amp;lt;meta name="keywords" content="QU13E, qu13e, splinternails, Clockstop the Whys, Random Martin">'
&amp;lt;!-- we're ba-a-ack. -->

This 404 message is slightly different but I'm wondering if something is hidden within. I'm no good at decoding things, though.
http://splinternails.com/splinterworld.html

Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 11:02 am

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

no_moon wrote:

Good catch on the Iriguchi being hidden in every other line of the poem! Smile I didn't think to look at it like that.

I wish I could take credit for this. This was found before I even jumped on board Sad

no_moon wrote:

But trying to find music somewhere in here might not be a bad idea.

I'm not a very musical person (so Jealous that Random has all these TALENTS!), so I wouldn't know what to do with this, or what it means, but on the first image, with the hand, to the left of the thumb it says "A Major". Playing a song in A Major means that you play C, F, and G as sharps...

*lightbulb moment followed by frantic google searching*

I was hoping I could use this to make g = b, but it doesn't quite work, but it might be worth noting the alternate values of C, F, and G#

Note that C, F, and G #(sharp) equal D, G, and A flat. Wonder if this could be substituted somewhere....

no_moon wrote:

Are you sure the tsu is relevant?

I'm not sure if anything is relevant... Smile

no_moon wrote:

From what I read, "kokonotsu" itself wasn't the answer.

Right, it's not the answer, but let's not forget that Melpomene said it was beginning to look more like the answer. kokonotsu and kokonotsudoki are the only two words I know of that she said this about. AND so far it seems that the two key words we have are connected to the three images whose page title's numbers can be translated to "kokonotsu". So it's relevant somehow.

supersekretsrsly wrote:

In any case, Melpomene's dead so I can't see how finding the third word would help.

I tried email Melpomene earlier today, and I noticed that the email is dead. Is this what you mean by Melpomene being dead? Or are you referring to the cryptic message labfly received a few years ago about Melpomene being dead. Because when this all started again this year, Melpomene was the first person I emailed and got a response from. So I'm wondering when her email went down. There seems to have been so many emails going up and down, I'm not sure when this happened.

But I've been thinking about the message you guys have received. Maybe it would be worth posting it on the forum for others to follow. My understanding is that someone opened a door. At this point we can only assume it was one of us (unless the redditors are working in secret). I know it's been a while, but I think it might be worth sharing the last emails we sent to splinternails before he sent out that message, and see what might have triggered it. I have already sent mine a few messages back, I would be interested in seeing what you guys sent.

But a door opening... that suggests that something has changed. I'm wondering if the change is that we solved the third key for Melpomene, and that's why her email is dead? If that's not it... then what else has changed? I've actually sent an email to qu13e to ask about this.

I half expected that if we solved the three key puzzle we would be given a clue as to where to go next. Is it possible that the message you guys received contains that clue? That's why I think it might be worth posting it?

splinternails LJ wrote:

"If you truly wish to find him, you must first lose yourself. In nightmares and dreams. And not what it seems. For he slips through the shades of shadow."

See... I told you he's trying to get us to join his cult...

Concerning the source for qu13e and splinternails.com, that's the first thing I looked at for splinternails.com. I didn't find anything. There's another html page you can get to on qu13e.com if you go to a directory that exists but doesn't have a default page to go to, like this http://www.qu13e.com/IX/. You can view the source, and you will find a hidden email in the source. I find it easiest to view the source in Chrome, but I think it's similar in any browser. right click -> View Page Source. It's a good tool to know about for ARGS/Qu13e. Unfortunately, I've tried the email, I think it died about the same time as the other ones.

Ok, I know this is getting long, but a couple more things about the construction of the site that might be worth noting:

Firstly, I've noticed that a few seconds after navigating to a qu13error page, or a 404 page, the browser automatically navigates you to the sites home page. My understanding would be that the only way you could do this is through JavaScript, but the only JavaScript on the page is the GoogleAnalytics, or the now unsupported urchin tracker. I've looked through the script, and I don't see anything in the section of the .js file that should be editable that would do this, leading me to believe that maybe it's either built into the urchin tracker, or someone really good with JavaScript edited the JavaScript in the .js file below the line that says "don't edit below this line." I know some people in this thread that are better at JavaScript than me, maybe they could take a look at it. I think it might be worth while, because if they added JavaScript to navigate back to the main page, maybe they've added some more script?

Secondly, when qu13e.com first started, someone mirrored the site, and splinternails did not seem happy about it. He put up some protection against it getting mirrored, namely a robots.txt file. The purpose of this file is to prevent tools like wget from being able to mirror a site, or download all of the sites contents. But in order for it to work, you have to declare all the directories you don't want the tool to go into to look for files. So the robots.txt file contains all the root directories in the site. If you look at the file, there are no directories in there that we didn't already know about. BUT the fact that there is a robots.txt makes me suspect that within those directories there could still me images or html files that could be accessed if we could guess what the urls are. If there wasn't hidden content, there would be no need for the robots.txt.

splinternails.com does not have a robots.txt. I haven't tried to mirror the site (I feel that's cheating, like I said, splinternails did not seem to happy about it happening in the past), but surely he and/or splinter***** would know to set it up if the didn't want it mirrored at this point.

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 12:44 am

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

punkbass wrote:

Firstly with regards to the redirect from the 404 qu13e page, I'm pretty sure that can be directed from the server side using HTML status codes. This wouldn't show up in the source code. The source code for the urchin module points directly to Google's site, so it hasn't been modified. The points you note on robots.txt are interesting and I'll keep them in mind; splinternails may not have a robots.txt because nothing else on the site to hide.

The email in question is copied verbatim below:

Quote:

So someone's reopened the door and let the ghosts out again.

So be it then.

Unsleep the vampires...

...this time the fires will out.

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:36 am

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

supersekretsrsly wrote:

I'm pretty sure that can be directed from the server side using HTML status codes.

Yup, you are right. Well now I feel silly... Embarassed

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:23 am

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

Quote:

Note that C, F, and G #(sharp) equal D, G, and A flat. Wonder if this could be substituted somewhere....

While the above is certainly true... the keyboard on a piano is not equivalent to the frets on a guitar, unfortunately. You can do different kinds of chord changes on the guitar than can be manipulated on a piano, just because of the nature of the instrument.... But chords can kind of act like a code; might be a message in here beyond the blips in the actual audio. Don't want to waste time if it's not going to turn into anything though.

Guitar music looks a little like moves on a chessboard to me....

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 4:03 am

sirgreentoad
Boot

Joined: 12 Sep 2014
Posts: 11

I was recently looking through the german wiki and noticed that soporificalisomnambulistically was never figured out.

I started to take a look into a bit more. Initially it looks to be an anagram. However I believe that it is not.

soporific ali somnambulistically

soporific - Inducing or tending to induce sleep

somnambulistically - a condition that is characterized by walking while asleep or in a hypnotic trance

The ali could be added to soporifical or maybe soporifically

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:48 pm

sirgreentoad
Boot

Joined: 12 Sep 2014
Posts: 11

no_moon wrote:

This 404 message is slightly different but I'm wondering if something is hidden within. I'm no good at decoding things, though.
http://splinternails.com/splinterworld.html

I took a look into this.

http://splinternails.com/splinterworld.html shows the 404 the same for http://splinternails.com/asdf.html

Also if you incorrectly link to a assets that don't exist you'll receive a 404 with the link broken. For example
http://splinternails.com/images/splinternails.jpg

I think the broken link tries to point to http://splinternails.com/images/images/splinternails404.gif
when it should point to
http://splinternails.com/images/splinternails404.gif

Also ran into gif this while messing with this
http://splinternails.com/images/splinternails.gif

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:04 pm

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

I haven't seen that gif before sirgreentoad, perhaps it hints towards more content on splinternails than we'd anticipated.

HR's active again:

Quote:

Heavy weighs the crown. Low hangs the head who wears it.

One of the biggest things that sent him into a terrible depression and very dark place was an online game. He drew when he should have won. He had his opponent exactly where he wanted him and started to toy with him like a cat would play with a mouse before devouring it. He was arrogant and overly confident. It proved to be his biggest weakness. A certain victory ended up being a draw. It was seen as an unacceptable draw and it opened up all the negative thoughts about his own abilities in every aspect of his life. You'll never be good enough. You'll never be good enough. You'll never be good enough. He believed these taunting words and it sent him over the edge towards the familiar blackness. Unbelievable talent gone instantly. All that work meant nothing. At his darkest, he was at his most creative but isn't that normal for people like him/her/them?

What game could he be mentioning? Ruling certain things out, I thing he's alluding to a game you can watch online (HR is always cryptic). I think RM was a professional boxer, the 'you'll never be good enough' sections remind me of Rocky. Remember when Apollo Creed fights Rocky but gets cocky and ends up drawing? It killed him. The parallel in this allusion is uncanny - too uncanny to be coincidence.

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:34 pm

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

Quote:

Well, that's definitely the most dangerous game....

Heavy the head is merely misquoted from Henry IV, King's soliloquy.
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."
Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1

Oh wait, sorry, I've been looking at the words instead of the numbers again. Shall I translate that into math (whatfor?) = 4231. Or better yet, should I try to use semiotics? It might be fun to try that on this extremely post-modern narrative.

Not sure what ghosts are being referenced by splinternails, but we should think about that next, I guess.
What do you make of the poltergeists? Should we be looking into ghosty legends? I do like reading ghost stories....

[edit] Should we be considering the ghosts in Henry IV? He's haunted most notably by Richard II, and by his dead (unfulfilled) dream of a crusade to Jerusalem.

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:23 am

supersekretsrsly
Boot

Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 54

I wonder if there's a reconstructive deconstructivism here? Maybe HR represents being-in-itself battling with being-for-itself by way of the for-itself trapped in another for-itself affecting the former with its negativity via its gaze? Or maybe it's all bollocks.

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 6:37 am

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

supersekretsrsly wrote:

Hahaha, that was awesome. Best 100th post ever!

sirgreentoad, thanks so much for the heads up about the links. We also tried viewing past versions with the way back machine, but obviously that's a limited way to look at websites (mostly on the front pages or update pages come out).

But anyway, I do think the ghosts thing is important, for various reasons. Putting that in my pipe to smoke for a while. /sherlock

Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:20 pm

sirgreentoad
Boot

Joined: 12 Sep 2014
Posts: 11

supersekretsrsly wrote:

Quote:

My first thoughts were the online game was poker. With no_moon finding a possible reference to a king and him talking about drawing.

I happened to be on the first page of qu13e and noticed "clockstop the whys" again. I wondered if I could find anything about that. After searching I found this http://www.redhotpawn.com/chess-player/clockstop-the-whys

Is this somehow related? Is the online game chess?

Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:18 pm

no_moon
Boot

Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 64

Quote:

It's undeniable that that chess player must be related to qu13e. But HR mentions that the games were a draw-- and Clockstop has no draws. Unless he means resignations, and there are several of those.

I don't have enough knowledge of chess, apart from what I read in The Defence (Nabokov), but this game makes reference to several other chess-type situations. It is possible the Sicilian Defense has something to do with it, but again.... I'd have to do considerable reading to even get an inkling and I'm not sure it's worth it?

In all honesty, I think the chess allusions are either a code we should discover, or the point of asking us: do you believe in No-Win situations, or must every situation be a possible Win?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:42 am

punkbass
Boot

Joined: 23 Apr 2008
Posts: 56

Pre Game Show

I've been busy this week, but I was able to have a small, cryptic correspondence with splinternails. Everything he sent me was an allusion to ClockStop the Whys. The last time he made references to Clockstop was in 2007, when he was trying to tell the players that the game hadn't started yet.

Also, looking at the times he emails me, he only emails me when it's Friday in Japan. We all know the PM is a busy guy, I think he is only making time to email us on Fridays, with the exception the week before of emailing us when we first started generating interest in the game.

Looking at splinternails.com, I suspect that the game doesn't start until October. I also think it's possible that HR was told or figured out the truth, that the game is only going to last two months this time, October and November.

With everything I got going on right now, I'm probably going to switch to lurking for a while, and wait for splinternails to return my emails. I'm a little bit afraid that all this means qu13e is going to disappear without being solved. Sad

maybe if we are lucky, splinternails.com is just going to be another puzzle to help us solve qu13e.

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:25 pm

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