About The Scarlett Kite
Hi! I'm Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old, a journalism student in Perplex City and this is my blog all about the excitement over the search for the Cube. I'll be keeping track of what the media over there is saying about it, and maybe a little bit about my life as well!
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Saturday, November 26, 2005
In Tanraga town
Category: story, 12:08 PMIt's been a busy week, one way or another. It's been nice to keep busy -
it's stopped me missing my home, or wondering what I've got myself into or
thinking about Brede. Not completely, just enough so it doesn't hurt so
much.
They left on the express train on Wednesday. Margot had stuffed her backpack
full of Tanraga souvenirs - she has five younger siblings and had promised
them all gifts! Sanj was as quiet as ever, but he hugged me and made me
promise to write as often as I could. Brede was with his parents almost all
the time. We only had a minute or two alone together when they went to check
in their luggage. He squeezed my hand, and told me that if I ever needed
him, for anything at all, I should just get in touch and he'd do everything
he possibly could. We even arranged a special little key-message code; a few
seemingly-innocent words I can use to let him know I'm in trouble. And then
they got on the train, the train pulled away and they were gone. I didn't
realise how alone I'd feel now.
Major Castille has rented a house here in Tanraga Town, and we've spent the
past few days planning my journey. He's been fixing up my key with this
special dampening-field so that I shouldn't be affected by this GVS
protection that seems to have been set up at Viendenbourg. I'm also taking
another key - one that is specifically tuned to monitor about 75 of my
physical functions and will instantly send out a wide-beam distress signal
if it detects I'm suffering from anything more serious than a blister. He's
welded that one on a titanium chain round my ankle.
There's been a lot for me to learn as well. When he sent Allain, he thought
that he could just walk into Viendenbourg pretending to be a lost hiker and
appearing all innocent. Now that he's sure that Allain's been kidnapped, he
thinks I need a better cover story, so now I'm Lana Metzger, a computer
specialist with a lot of Claire Castille's skills and backstory. My key's
been programmed to support that story, as long as it gets no more than a
cursory check. If Viendenbourg really is a most-secret military installation
it won't get me far, but maybe far enough to at least establish that there
is a Viendenbourg. That's the plan, anyway. And, as Major Castille
keeps pointing out, I'm Scarlett Kiteway, and one key-call to my father with
some actual evidence will blow this thing wide As long as I can find
any actual evidence.
Other than that, Major Castille has bought me the highest-quality camping
and hiking equipment on the market. I'll be taking a longer way round this
time, a route that doesn't take me within 10 miles of any dangerous ravines,
fast-flowing rivers or anything else of the sort. It'll take me more time to
make the journey, but that's OK - I want to be as safe as I can possibly be,
and I'm taking extra rations and so on.
I'm going to set off on the train tomorrow, I'll arrive at my stopping-point
on Tuesday, which should bring me within sight of Viendenbourg by Friday.
I'll try to be in touch again before I go in.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Special Offer this weekend
Category: me, 11:28 AMI just heard back from Mind Candy that Firebox will be running their special offer this weekend. That means from 0:01am Saturday 26th to 11:59pm Sunday 27th (GMT), they'll be sending out five packs per order instead of four packs. Please remember that the times I gave above are in London time, so if you live in another time zone, you should check that it's actually the weekend in London when you order!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Second Wave is Out
Category: me, 03:35 PMSecond wave cards are definitely on sale now. How exciting! :-) I just wanted to dash off a quick post to let you know Firebox isn't doing their special offer yet -- though it should be coming in the next few days. Keep on the lookout here!
Friday, November 18, 2005
Wave 2
Category: me, 07:07 PMGood news! Mind Candy says that Wave 2 cards will be available for sale next week!
Mind Candy says they've mixed together some cards from Wave 1 along with the new ones, so that new players still have a shot at getting a whole collection. But they said that some of you probably mainly want Wave 2, as you have nearly all of the Wave 1 cards already!
So to reward all of you who have been with us from the beginning, they've decided to do a special offer from Firebox. They'll be sending out five packs per each order for four packs, which should mean you'll mostly get Wave 2 cards. It will only be in effect for 48 hours, and they're not sure yet when it'll start, but I'll let you know as soon as I hear -- keep checking back so you don't miss it!
Friday, November 18, 2005
I made my choice
Category: story, 04:29 PMI talked to Brede this morning. I told him that I was thinking of taking up a place at the Carrick Tanraga Animal Shelter. It's what I've told everyone else: my father, my sister, Margot and Sanj, Iona, Kurt. They've all believed me easily. I've made cute little faces about how I love the animals so much and can't bear to see them hurting. It's true - I do love animals and I can't bear to see them in pain! That's not the reason I'm thinking of staying, though. But no one's known that. No one except Brede.
I went to see him in his room; he was exercising on the weights machine, working to get the strength back in his leg after all these weeks of lying still. When he saw me at the door he stopped, unhooked himself from the machine and sat down at the table. I told him my story, just like I've told everyone else, with smiles and fluttering eyelashes, and sadness about the poor little animals. He listened in silence and when I was finished he said:
"It's Allain, isn't it?"
And I tried to convince him it wasn't. I told the whole animal shelter story over again, but this time a bit more hurt because he hadn't believed me, and he listened again, patiently. I think I've never really appreciated this about Brede before, how patient he is. When I finished telling my story, he leaned across the table and took my hand in his. He said:
"Scarlett. You should come home with us. It's time for this to be over." I tried to interrupt him, but he didn't let me. "I don't know what kind of hold Allain has over you, I don't know what he's made you think, but it's not good for you. I can see it even if you can't. This isn't... this isn't about us, it's not about you and me. I just want you to be safe."
I stopped denying it then. I told him he couldn't understand. He asked me to explain it to him, so I did. I told him about the whole thing. About Reynolds ionizers and Viendenbourg, about Henry and Allain, about Claire Castille who vanished, about having to go and rescue them both, or at least find out what's happened here. I showed him the maps and the documents. I showed him the picture of Henry, Allain and Claire all together - I've posted the same picture here.
I told him all of this, I think, because I needed someone to know just to convince me that it was real, not some dream or a story I made up. And he listened, like he does. I asked him if he believed me and he said that he did, that it explained a lot of things he'd been wondering about, but that didn't mean I should go. And I told him I had to. I just have to go.
He squeezed my hand very tightly. He said: "Claire Castille's not your mother, you know. Just because your mother died... like that... you don't have to find every lost mother in the world. It's not your job. You can live your own life."
And I said I knew that, but I still had to go. And he just looked at me: not angry, but sad.
So I guess Brede and I are officially broken up. And I'm going back to Viendenbourg.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Decisions
Category: story, 02:00 PMWell. Brede is better. Much better. So much better that he can walk around a little, that his parents are going to be able to take him home to Perplex City soon. And me? I should be going back with them. I really should. It's perfectly clear. And yet.
I've spent my week talking to Major Castille, hearing more of his life story and talking about what we plan to do next. Although he says his daughter is the real genius, he's quite the computing whizz himself; he's put together a little plan for what to tell my family and friends if I decide to stay here when the others go home. There's a bird and animal sanctuary up here in Tanraga - Major Castille can make it look like I'm doing an internship there, rig up their systems to list me on the staff, send mail from them confirming that I'm working there. It's very clever. So, if I do decide to go, my family won't be worried about me. That's pretty important to me.
He's rigged something else up, too. Something much more clever and a bit scary. It has to do with what he wants me to do: to go to Viendenbourg to find Allain.
Apparently Henry and Allain had suspected for a while - based on coded information that Allain's mother Claire had sent them - that Viendenbourg would be protected by a sort of "confusion-field". It's done in some complicated way with a remote form of "galvanic vestibular stimulation," he says. Anyway, it's something that is broadcast in a wide ring around Viendenbourg and which makes you feel confused and even fall over or wander off course if you get too close. The field starts off very mild and becomes more intense the closer you get to the centre. Henry thinks that this is what happened to our party, and that Brede just got really unlucky in falling down a cliff. He thinks that we got too close to the centre, much closer than any ordinary hiking party would have done, because Allain was with us. Because of what Allain had.
Knowing to expect the "galvanic vestibular stimulation," and armed with some information from Claire, Henry and Allain had rigged up a device in his key that would cancel out most of the effects. This, Henry thinks, is why we got closer than we should have done - because Allain remained unaffected for much longer and was able to guide us even when we got more and more confused. And then... well, Henry doesn't know what happened next. I showed him Allain's ripped-apart key and it made him even more worried. He thinks that maybe it burned out at the last minute. Anyway, he's taken a look at the kinds of stresses it's exhibited, and has put something similar together in my key. It's sturdier; he thinks it'll be better at withstanding the strain. So, if I go to Viendenbourg, I should be protected.
If I go. That's the big question. I've probably got a week or so to think about it, and then I'll have to make a decision. My friends will be going home. Should I go too?
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Harrods
Category: me, 04:00 PMA piece of news from Mind Candy! Apparently Harrods, a big store in London which stocks Perplex City puzzle cards, is holding a "Trading Card Extravaganza" on Saturday 12 November. It sounds great fun, especially for children!
Friday, November 4, 2005
Thinking and planning
Category: story, 06:28 PMI'm back. Things are moving on, even while I've been sitting here in hospital. Brede's getting better every day. I sit with him, we talk about the future, about how it'll be when we're back in the city and he's recovered. And when I'm not with Brede, I've been talking to Major Henry Castille, hearing his story, finding out what he knows. I'll try to summarise what he's told me as well as I can.
The last thing I wrote was about his daughter, Allain's mother. She's the reason they're here. He's shown me a picture of her, him and Allain all together. He didn't want to show me the picture, but I've been asking for proof of his story. He's told me a lot about his family history. We've had so many conversations over the past two weeks, but I'll try to condense what he's said, while telling it in his own words:
"My family's history," he said, "can be traced back hundreds of years. Since before the... since before 0BC. The family of Castille is a noble one. For centuries, we have been leaders in the arts and sciences, the Academy and the military. Especially the military. So much knowledge of the past has been lost, but family traditions remain strong. We Castilles called ourselves the gatekeepers and our home was at Viendenbourg, part of the greater province of Perplex City.
"In the city, we think of the past as being long gone, unretrievable, but it is not as far away as you might think. There were Castilles at Viendenbourg during the War. My grandfather knew the last of them, an old man when my grandfather was a boy, a man called Salvant Castille. Salvant had been a seven-year-old child in 0BC. It is he who kept alive the story of what happened to our family, that we were sacrificed so that Perplex City could win the war.
"The details are hazy - Salvant Castille was only a child, of course, but what he knew was grim. Our family were the keepers of a great secret at Viendenbourg, a secret that was used to win the war, but the use of it destroyed the family, killed the people who had guarded it for so long. Out of all the family: parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, seven-year-old Salvant was the only survivor. He passed down the story of the terrible wrong done to us, and I have tried to learn the truth.
"It has taken a great deal of time and effort for me to locate Viendenbourg; I was a young man when I began to piece together the evidence from the archives and from family tales, but now I am sure that the location I gave you was correct. I want to find out what happened at Viendenbourg, how my family died. I want to bring the truth into the light.
"I raised my daughter, Claire, to follow in my footsteps; using my military knowledge and her software expertise we continued our research. For a time, after Allain was born, she became disillusioned. She didn't want Allain to be involved, said that the family traditions were all nonsense. But she had to believe after we started to detect chatter in the most secret channels, talk that indicated that something was happening again at the place we knew as Viendenbourg.
"Claire has always been one of the top minds in her field. She's cultivated underworld contacts as well as the more 'legitimate' ones so that she would be in the right place to find out more about Viendenbourg. When we heard that something was happening again in that place, we worked out how to put her in the right circles, how to get her name on the right lists. Soon enough, she was offered a 'most secret' assignment in the Tanraga mountains; we knew that we'd struck gold. We were thrilled, the three of us - we would finally discover the truth about Viendenbourg!
"Claire was offered this position in mid-267. She went out to Tanraga and Allain and I were left behind in the city. To begin with, we heard from her frequently. All her communications were intercepted so she had to speak in code, but we knew she was OK. It was she who set up the automatic trace that attacked your computer and your friend Kurt's. But later, we weren't hearing from her as much. And a few months ago, we stopped receiving messages altogether. That was when Allain decided to go out to Viendenbourg himself.
"Forgive me for involving you. I didn't want him going alone. You're not the only person to search for Viendenbourg, but you seemed trustworthy and good-hearted. I gave you a copy of the map so that you'd travel with him, to keep him safe. I would have accompanied him myself, but I am an old man. The hike would have been too much for me."
So that's the story. It explains, at least, what's been happening to *me* these past few months; explains why Major Castille gave me the map, and why he and Allain are so interested in Viendenbourg. What I still don't know, what *we* still don't know is what really is going on at Viendenbourg - Henry's family history is pretty vague about what the big secret over there was to begin with, let alone about what they could be doing now. But I guess the only way I'll find that out is to go back there. I just don't know what to do. I've told Henry I'll think it over for a few days, and he seems disappointed, but there's not much he can do. So that's what I'm doing: thinking about what to do next, waiting for Brede to heal.
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
London Expo
Category: me, 06:42 PMHey! I haven't blogged for a long time - we've extended our trip in Tanraga for a while, because my boyfriend Brede unfortunately had an accident so we're waiting till he gets better. Don't worry, he's definitely healing well :).
The guys at Mind Candy have just sent me this great picture so I just had to say hello! It's of an event called the "London Expo", where Mind Candy had a stall. You can see an actor called Toby Stephens who played "Gustav Graves" in a "James Bond" movie holding some of our puzzle cards! How extremely exciting!
