unforum

[thunderclap8]

I've sort of always accepted that the Apcalypso crashed in 2552 instead of 2004. A giant crater was never reported here in-game, after all

I've revised my earlier opinions yet after reading various spec/analysis today. Thanks to all for the insights!

The SP/Melissa are definitely two sides of a (temporarily split) coin. Rejoining them would be ideal, as it would get rid of the SP as a nuisance and stabilize Melissa at the same time. Alternatively, if forced to get rid of the SP I believe Melissa could still be guided/cajoled into doing whatever we deem necessary to complete the mission. Not as ideal, but workable. It wouldn't have to be long term, rampancy approaches after all...

Whoever brought up the idea of the SPDR having been the 'evil' covie virus (I'm too lazy to look up), that's a really interesting thought. What if the flea was a red herring all along and is in fact on our side? No real evidence to back that up, but I think it bears consideration.

Some sort of communication channel with the flea might be ideal, but I would have no idea how to go about opening one. Instead, what about taking the SP into a sort of 'protective custody' until we can be more sure about what's going on?

I apologize for my ramblings, it's late and I'm not as coherent/insightful as I thought. Your stuff is always all so well thought out, I'm such a hack

[dchiera]

I also got a reply (my pic was Sydney Opera House as the "hive").

I replied to the message with:
The "pious Flea" (also known as the "Seeker") you make reference to is
the likely cause of your infection. Myself and other crew members
believe that the "pious Flea" is actually the covenant virus and is
acting as a "Trojan Horse". It is speculated the the "Flea" has been
overwriting your original mission parameters with it's own goals. You
must evade, resist and escape from the "Pious Flea". both the "flea"
and the "Sleeping Princess" are communicating on the "contactme" page
of the ILB website. Maybe if you monitor that page and use the
"reveal" command on both the "Seeker" and "Princess" you may be able
to finally "see" them. The seeker uses this code to find the
princess: "Princess >> !reveal" and maybe you could try: "Seeker >>
!reveal".

I hope this helps,

P.S. We believe you are a smart AI from the UNSC ship "Apocalypso".
This would mean you were constructed on Reach. Can you remeber
anything about the brain you were modelled from? Was her name
Yasmine? Any memories would serve greatly in our search for the
truth.

[krystyn]

[vidstudent]

Okay, with all of that (thanks for pointing me to the place on the Fireflies wiki that stated how to get the logs, Shad0), here is my overlength reply to Melissa (with the response at the bottom an example of the capabilities required to hide cake for the Sleeping Princess in plain sight):

[vortech]

[darkmoonz]

so basically we need to tell melissa that the "pious Flea" is actually "rouge process 1" ... and possibly masking himself as the SPDR (because we know that melissa has talked to the flea before when he convinced her to delete SPDR)... also, what if the rouge process is really the flea? that was the way we were introdced to him by SPDR...

[ariock]

Prophets and the Flea.

[fugitivesoldier]

This is weird.

After doing so well 2 weeks back (10/12),

this last week my personal call didn't come, and i never received an email response from my messages regarding it. Nor for any of the 4 Analog pics i sent it.

Did I do something wrong to get Melissa mad? I'm on next week's list for calls again, but I feel like the connection's been cut. =/

[C_Brennan]

I'm in agreeance, we have to get these two personalities to get back together as one and work together in order to destroy the Flea. Melissa has been chasing after the wrong thing this entire time.

And, once again, to re-iterate, we need to check if SPDR is still working, because, as said before, if it is then we know why Melissa doesn't recognize Flea.

[ariock]

The SPDR and the Flea

[TheBiggestSean]

Bah. If Melissa is specifically designed with an interface responsible for repairing damaged pieces of her (see SPDR), then she's likely incapable or at least somewhat inept at doing it herself.

Otherwise, why wouldn't she?

That indicates that we still need a process around that is capable of attaching the two, regardless of any other intentions.

[WARNING: I THINK THE FLEA GETS A BAD RAP FOR THE MOST PART, SO IF YOU LIKE THE PRINCESS, I SUGGEST YOU READ WITH A LIGHT HEART]

And the only process I know of with that kind of power is the Flea... as for "undeleting", I believe the Flea would make that quite impossible. He's held sway as a SPDR entity for quite some time, why should he decide now that he can be replaced by inferior software.

The simple fact of the matter is that you're all too keen on finding a clear-cut badguy here.

And I simply don't think one exists.

If the Flea was gone, how do you suggest we re-integrate the two personalities?

It'll just magically happen? Poof! You're back together. All the Queen's horses and all the queen's men (and women) actually managed to do it? Doubtful.

If it could happen that way, why hasn't it? It puts the PMs in a situation with a big plot hole that they don't want to have to justify or explain. The Flea has a purpose besides being the one to receive all your angst.

If anything, Princess lovers (which is ridiculous, btw) should be more inclined to the little bug because, at the very least, the Princess respects him, and she might even like him. You may question her judgement, due to the "childlike" persona, but if that's the case you shouldn't question selectively.

I also find it hilarious that those supporting the Princess LOVED the Flea for the short time he was able to keep her safe, and now are ready to turn around and stab him in the proverbial back, saying "take him, take him, he's the one you want, not our cutesy, little, useless program. He's been productive and has managed to give the whole thing a means to an end, but get rid of him and at least our little girl with the game fetish stays safe."

The Flea hasn't lied to the Princess. He's very forthcoming and exact, indicating that he's not necessarily there to screw everything up. Sure he messed with Melissa's heirarchy, but he also knew that wasn't going to work. An alien entity would have figured the whole situation out much quicker, and figured out what was most important to the Master Sector (whom he still regards as his boss, mind you). Once that's done, he just orients her in the right direction and does the best job he can to piece everything back together.

In the initial Widow and Queen story, the Pious Flea is not described as a malicious entity. I just don't think it's right of us to assume we know him up and down, especially when he's been the most useful program in terms of finding out important things that aren't necessarily intended to be shown to us.

And the whole bit about seeking, beholding, revealing... Isn't that also a bit like Hide...

and Seek?

An important part of a Spy entity would be it's ability to go after the truth behind the truth. Seek it, behold/understand it, and then reveal it to its masters.

That's all a spy-program is responsible for.

I'd like to point out that he's the reason we understand the situation with Aunt Margaret. Otherwise, we'd have no idea of Melissa's true willingness and ability to harm her, until Melissa told us so.

Furthermore, smart AI's are not JUST mapping from a brain. Cortana was equipped with intrusion software and packages, and there's a basic architecture that AIs are designed around after the iniitial nerual mapping procedure is performed. We know this because

[Platonix]

[TheBiggestSean]

^The Widow was going to "bite" everything that it didn't recognize. Just because that pathetic arrangement of binary didin't know who the Flea was doesn't make him a badguy. He never tried to hurt the Queen, just hid and watched.

HA!

Ahem! I'd like to point out the nature of the terms Standish used in his latest Wav files. Particularly the bit about "seeking" you out, "beholding" the truth, and "revealing" it.

Blam!

I win. Just kidding.

[CoffeeJedi]

[TheBiggestSean]

Errr... yes.

Herzog.

Meh.

Shutup... *runs away to hide despite his feeling of victory*