Dispatches From Xi: KrazyFace, Days 11-16
by KrazyFace, HSM team writer
Entry: Day 11
Since the events of yesterday, Axiom have been hard at work; they’ve found a member of the Divine Zeros who goes by the alias MerylSilvertongue. She (if she really is a “she”) is said to be the administrator for Divinezero.com and a good lead to getting into their inner circle. Axiom have asked me to keep a thorough eye out for her; they even suggested I use my scanner to help locate her. Maybe that’s who EFD was after as well, but I can’t be sure until I have the opportunity to meet with her again — or Axiom or Jess tells me otherwise. Axiom have also suggested her name is listed as a PSN ID, but I’m sure they only allow for 16 characters or less, and MerylSilvertongue is one letter too many.
Regardless of her even holding such an ID I’ve had leaked information that this individual is said to have a “glowing smile”. That means she’s either very friendly or, knowing the oddities that lurk within the Continuum, it means something very different. For now I will reserve my judgment until a positive ID can be made on her/them since my scan of the Continuum has turned out to be a fruitless endeavor.
I suppose my actions from this point are my own, and while I feel an urgency in locating this individual, I’m also compelled to stop and smell the flowers as they say. This place, seems to have a strangely therapeutic effect on me the more time I spend here. I suppose, a few hours of inner contemplation won’t hurt.
Entry: Day 12
After washing my face with fresh coded water I went through my usual Continuum routine of consulting my Primer for the day’s start. Seems I was right about MerylSilvertongue; the name is one digit too long for a PSN ID. However, I’ve been informed the true name is in fact MSilvertongue which fits rather nicely for SEN. Right now I’ve been briefed with finding her, there’s word she’s in the Continuum right now so I must make haste. Reports will follow depending on the success of today’s mission.
SUPPLEMENTAL: After a rather brisk chase around the Continuum I managed to track down Silvertongue. It wasn’t easy; she seemed rather quick on her teleporting, and having to track her on foot put me at a severe disadvantage. Nevertheless, I managed to track her down eventually. It seems the rumors were true: she does indeed have a very “glowing smile”. She doesn’t look like any other avatar I’ve ever seen in Home before; it looks as if she’s made of ice, or maybe some other strange kind of digital texture I’ve never seen before. Whatever she is, it’s not natural – for as “natural” as the virtual can get. Also, that smile I mentioned isn’t so much of a smile as it is a grimace, it’s threatening to say the least.
Regardless of her unsettling appearance I pursued her to the highest point of the Continuum until Axiom and Jess could deactivate her teleporting abilities. Upon capture it seemed she was nothing more than a copy of the real thing — or, as Axiom are calling the copy, a Simulacrum. They’ve puled the copy into their data banks for further research and I’ve been appointed as a fully-recognised Axiom agent for my involvement thus far.
I receive my new title tomorrow.
Entry: Day 13
My new title arrived today. I am glad of the recognition for the work I’ve put in so far, but unlocking the secrets of the Continuum has become much more important to me than climbing any corporate ladder. Speaking of which, I was told we have Silvertongue’s Simulacrum in Axiom HQ’s “broom cupboard”, a holding cell of sorts for interrogations. After asking her a few easy questions it became apparent that I was interviewing a ghost – an empty shell. It seems this copy of Silvertongue was indeed a decoy, but one with a message within sent directly from the Divine Zeros to us. The message was plain as day; stay away from the Continuum. Not exactly a revelation to us, I must admit, but there was something comforting about the fact the Divine Zeros are asking us nicely, rather than setting their pets (the Bully Drones) on us as soon as we arrived. If they belong to the Divine Zeros at all, that is.
After being told that the decoy was deployed so they could watch us, I’m left wondering if they had set this up just to test us. By doing this they could easily assess our gathered knowledge of the Continuum thus far and provide them with intelligence on how fast and efficiently we can navigate their supposed homelands. After the interview I went back out to retrace my steps from the chase in the hope of finding any evidence of other scouts, and that was exactly what I’d found. So the hunter was in fact the hunted, and we had been led into an assessment of our own abilities – crafty. Stickman’s insistence that the Divine Zeros are nothing but children is becoming less and less likely of a good estimation; if anything, it seems the opposite is true.
Entry: Day 14
As the first fortnight in the Continuum passes me by, enough oddities have also come to pass to make me feel at ease with its strange and unusual nature. The smooth lines of what seem to be code that lace the ever-changing kaleidoscopic sky soothe me now, rather than perplex me. The enveloping gentle hum has lost its grating effect on me, in fact I rather miss it when I leave this place to venture out into the other lands of Home now. As I’ve already mentioned more than once before, if things were not quite so hectic I’d be quite happy just to stay here and bask in the tranquility of this digital oasis.
And yet, the show must go on! I’ve just received another mail via my Cypher that speaks of the obscurities that lie within the Simulacrum of Silvertongue, and to an extent our very own Home avatars themselves. This mail, however, talks of opening the shell that we’ve been sent — and I already know that Axiom have plans I’m not yet privy to. As far as I know right now they’re simply provoking it, pushing at its frailties in order to learn something more about the Divine Zeros and where exactly they fit into the Continuum. This replica of Silvertongue, this message in a bottle — a walking answering machine — will become another key to us knowing what we’re up against once Axiom crack their new nut. For now, though, things seem to be a little quieter, and I’ll not look a gift-horse in the mouth; I plan to take this spare time to reflect while I await Axiom’s latest findings.
Entry: Day 15
It appears the Axiom HQ within the Continuum is not as well guarded as it should be; while I was lazing around the Continuum there has been yet another break-in. This time, whomever it was has stolen our acquired Simulacrum, even in its dismantled state. It could be that the Divine Zeros are afraid of what we might discover from our actions, or EFD and her crew are displaying their impeccable social skills again, and have decided to just take what we have so far – rather than asking. There’s also been more activity on the Divine Zeros website: they’ve posted a picture of our Simulacrum in its state of dismantle and protested that avatars should have the same level of human rights as those in corporeal form! A curious thing to protest to say the least, yet not quite so strange if taken from an artificial intelligence standpoint. What if the Divine Zeros are not like you and I? What *if* they don’t exist in our world at all, and are in fact a new form of life born from A.I.? I know, a rather far-fetched notion indeed, yet I can’t seem to shake this new and rather perplexing idea in my head.
It seems EFD’s little server-stealing stunt has come to light of press too; by posing as a company called Gadget-a-Gogo she managed to trick TUSK into just giving away their address to her! I have to say, she’s got some pair of cojones! I’m not sure if bravery or stupidity fits her better, but I do know this: she seems to get what she wants.
Aside to all of this, I was instructed to re-acquire “our” stolen property. I headed back to the firewall next to Snowcrash bar to confront our enemies. I’ve had a few runs with these types now and I am happy to report the ensuing fight was another success for Axiom, except from the fact I came away empty handed. I did not recover our stolen property.
Entry: Day 16
Axiom updated my intelligence summary today, in a bid that I might find the solutions to some puzzles left by Xoff Cola. Due to Sony refusing to give the PS3’s web browser a way of utilizing the all-too-common Flash programme, I once again turned to my trusty PC to decode the logic puzzle I’d been led to via my Primer. After a while I came up with the answers, and had been given two names as my reward.
Although Axiom insisted they would do the research, I figured it wouldn’t hurt if I did a little digging myself. “Interesting” is a fairly good word for what I found; The first name was that of a graphic artist that works primarily with 3D environments, and might have worked on Home itself. The second was that of a software programmer who seems to be rather good at what he does, and is fluent in quite a few computer languages. It’s no surprise to me then that he too worked for Sony, specifically on the physics engine of Home amongst other things like the dance animation code. There is one worrying addition to his resume, however; it seems he has also been employed as a software adviser for not only the EU and US governments and military bodies, but also the Middle Eastern governments too. There’s nothing to say that whatever he had worked on during this time is in any way suspect, but I’m reserving my judgment for the time being until I dig up anything that might suggest otherwise.
Every day more and more data fragments are being found, too; so far I’ve gathered 37 in total, and with each new addition a new part of the Quinta Essentia is revealed to me. Names have begun to emerge from its hidden words and from what I can tell of it so far it appears to be some kind of historical recount or even a manifesto of sorts. It’s still too early to tell in any definite manner, though, and as I have stayed my hand with the coder, I’ll reserve my judgment on this also.
December 27th, 2012 by KrazyFace | 5 comments
KrazyFace has been a gamer for longer than he can remember. In fact its been so long he's pretty sure he started gaming with rocks and sticks in a cave someplace off the coast of Africa, when it was joined on to France. However long its been, he's got enough experience behind him to know a good game when he sees one. He's also a bit of a Home addict, you'll find him in there whenever he's got spare time - or not playing a game.
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Very nice summary of Xi activities Krazy. I am having fun running about here and gathering intelligence on our foes or non foes as the case may be. Nice read as always.
Thank you Burbie. If you ever get a bit stuck just ask me and I’ll see what I can do.
Krazy,
These reports are very good. Great job on providing a detailed and story like article. Looking forward to reading them all!
i need ur help with day 16 how i solve the logic puzzle i solved the first but the 2nd its hard help me plz