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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Friday, September 22, 2006
Lancewood Logs
Category: me, 09:55 AMViolet and I are still exploring Granier's laboratory here in the Lancewood Archipelago, but I thought it was a real disappointment - nothing interesting, no secret documents, no mummified corpses, nothing like that. We've just arrived back at Hobbs Island for another look and to try and get in the lift, which was locked. I just hope it doesn't just lead to more empty old rooms.
Oh, and in case you missed all the 'fun' that we had exploring Level 1, you can read the logs from yesterday afternoon of Violet, Kurt and me text chatting.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
So awesome!
Category: me, 04:10 PMSo I know Violet's told you this anyway, but just in case you haven't noticed her post yet... Her friend Kurt's produced this awesome interface for us to explore the lighthouse, and talk to each other and to him. If you want to look at it, go here. It's so exciting!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Hobbs Island
Category: me, 05:59 PMSailing is fun! Even if I do have to spend my time with grumpy-pants sister and her love life issues. It's still fun! We spent last night in the little seaport of Great Lancewood. It's a cute town, all the houses face down to the shore and there are even little 'heritage' fishing boats you can take out to explore the harbour with real oars and everything. I wanted Violet to come out on a boat with me, but she just grumped a bit more and said she had some "research" to do. I think she was on her key moaning to Kurt for two hours while I was out rowing my boat all the way round the bay, getting all salty from the sea spray.
This morning, we rented a proper boat though - a self-steering yacht with a little cabin and galley below and all the latest key-port gadgets. I can even play my music and watch my vids on the boat! That is, when Vi's not telling me to keep the noise down :-(.
The thirteenth island (which apparently has a name, Hobbs Island, which I think is kind of a shame, because it was cool calling it 'the thirteenth island') is marked on the maps as being "completely uninhabited" with no interesting features or heritage. Because we've been doing this for a while now, Vi and I just looked at that information, looked at each other and programmed the destination into our yacht's navigational systems. You know, maybe to find the Third Power you guys should just go to every place in the world which has "nothing interesting about it" and is "utterly deserted", because that's how these things seem to work.
It's been a perfect day for sailing. The sky is a light china blue and the wind is high and for a few miles a pod of dolphins was following the boat, rolling over and looking as if they were smiling. You're supposed to get special permission to land on Hobbs Island, because the sandbanks are dangerous but we managed to navigate it safely with the map Vi got from her bestest Recon friends. (She doesn't like it when I tease her about that either. She doesn't seem to like being teased at all these days.)
So now we're on Hobbs island. It's teeny, only about four miles across by maybe a six along, and very flat - no trees or anything. Vi's borrowed Kurt's clever tent and various other handy gadgets. Luckily, the tent automatically expands to accomodate more people, or we'd have to share a sleeping bag! I suppose we could sleep on the boat if we wanted but we thought we might find ourselves too far away while exploring so it seems sensible to have the tent.
We haven't had to look far to find something interesting, though. About a quarter of a mile inland we found a huge circular set of foundations. Just as if, as Violet said, there used to be a lighthouse here. And at the edge of the foundations there's a set of steps down into... well, at the moment it just looks like a bare concrete room, like a bunker or a storage cellar. But Vi's going to bring some of the proper scanning equipment Kurt gave her tomorrow and we're going to see what else might be down there.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Sea Journey
Category: me, 05:23 PMWe're going to the Lancewood Archipelago! Violet and I booked our tickets on a fast charter ship leaving from Portside Docks on Sunday. I've never been on a proper journey by sea before - actually, the only times I've been on a boat were around the Mobius Strip with friends - so it's going to be exciting
Dad didn't take much convincing, since he was very pleased with my report from college and agreed that if my trip to Tanraga was so useful, going on a research trip to Lancewood also made sense. "Travel broadens the mind," he nodded sagely. He was a bit surprised though when Violet agreed so quickly to going along as my chaperone, but it worked out well for us.
The Lancewood Archipelago, also known as the Isles of Gyvann because of its historic association with Cubeheads, is one of those places which people love making documentaries about. Our science teacher at school kept on showing us old programmes about the huge Tretretretre skeletons they dug up there. It was hard to believe that they were so big in the past and only just died out a few thousand years ago! I so would have loved to have seen them. There's a lot of other rare wildlife there, cut off from the rest of the world, and some interesting history to do with naval battles and pirates.
After meeting with Kurt, I went down to the Academy archives with Violet to look at the old travel records (we bumped into Von along the way, he seemed a bit flustered when I said Hi), and we found out that a bunch of Academy researchers had visited the islands in Granier's time, but mostly studying zoology and geology. Of course they could be lying, but we didn't find any that stuck out. There is a slight problem, in that the archipelago is notoriously difficult to navigate - the Cubeheads who used to live in a retreat there apparently have the most detailed information about the sandbanks and so on. Strangely, Violet seems to think she can persuade some Recons to help us - I expect she'll fill you in on that though.
So, we should be at the Archipelago on Monday afternoon. Some of the bigger islands are inhabited, and we have a hotel booked there. The exact island we want to go to doesn't have anyone living on it though, so we'll have to take a boat or something. I guess we'll figure that out when we get there.
Oh! I bet you'll want to know how we worked out that it's the Lancewood Archipelago Granier was talking about. I'm not completely sure myself, but Kurt showed me a map of 13 shapes on his office wall that had all sorts of lines and crossings-out. "They correspond exactly to the Lancewood islands, it's absolutely clear!" he said very confidently. I think he said that he'll be posting more about it on his blog. He said he'd love to come along with me and Violet to the islands, but there's no way Garnet would let him take any time off. Oh well...
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Squiggle-squiggle
Category: me, 02:20 PMWell, as I suddenly have nothing at all better to do with my time, I've been staring at those funny lines on my key all day and pretending it's a legitimate assignment in Historic Logic Patterns or something :-) Good practice, really, and a much more memorable way to learn about it than reading some dull old tract on how "multiple perspectives and repeating patterns or themes were a hallmark of early-AC Perplexian puzzle design." Maybe I'm better off with this independent course of study after all!
So I'm going over what we know about the puzzle, and it seems to be directing us toward a specific place, so it would make sense that it's some sort of, well, map, right? A map to a place than Anthony Granier wanted his children to know about. I get the feeling from his letter that it isn't even a place in the city, to be honest, or else why would he have been away from his children at all?
I did get a good thought from Anji Petrizzo, who said it might be a skyline seen from a lighthouse in the picture. I think there has to be something to that, though I do have some qualms. The city was under very heavy construction at that time - Granier couldn't have known what roofs would be there even a few months after he died. So it must refer to something more permanent than the roofs of buildings. Also, there seem to be many traces - maybe it's views of permanent natural features taken from several different vantage points?
Monday, September 11, 2006
Loose ends
Category: me, 06:16 PMThe strangest thing just happened. The dean's office at Marmalejo College called me early this morning and set me up for an urgent counselling session this afternoon with a curriculum specialist. Now, I'd already had my classes all picked out and registration done, and I'd actually been expecting to attend my first classes today, so I'm sure you can just imagine the state I was in! I spent all morning feeling queasy worrying over whether my exams last week weren't as good as I had thought, and I might not be allowed to take the courses I'd picked!
So this afternoon at the appointed time I got to campus and was ushered into the office of one Jonathan Kamedin, a short, blonde man with a weedy little moustache and bristles of hair sticking out all over his head. He was very friendly, didn't act at all like I was about to have my courses pulled out from under me, so I started to relax a little bit. Once he had me settled, he just sort of sat there beaming at me for a minute, until I couldn't take it anymore.
"What is this all about?" I asked.
"Oh! Oh, oh, of course! It's about your placement exams."
My heart sank a little. "Were they so bad?"
"No, goodness, not at all!" He seemed genuinely startled. "In fact, the college is very impressed with your scores, very impressed indeed!"
I think I just sat there blinking at him for a moment.
"In fact, the college feels that, given the advances you made on your own over the past year, you are clearly the sort of student who excels in an independent study environment," he said. "You were traveling in Tanraga over the last semester, were you not?"
I nodded.
"Well, your placement exams came back so very high," he said, "We would very strongly like to encourage you to withdraw from your registered courseload and continue on this semester as you did last semester. it was clearly very beneficial to you, truly impressive!"
"Withdraw?" I asked.
"Well, of course you would need to take another round of placement exams mid-year," he said. "But the evidence shows us that your education would be vastly hindered by restricting you to regular classes. Freedom! That's clearly best for you!"
"So you don't want me in classes this term?"
"Clearly not!" he said. "I'll just go ahead and cancel your existing schedule right now, it's very obviously the best thing for you."
I nodded again, I mean what else could I possibly say? And that was pretty much that!
So... it looks like I have a lot more free time on my hands the coming term than I'd expected. I'm a little upset about it, actually, because I'd really been looking forward to having regular courses with my friends again, and getting back into something like my regular life. And now I have this gaping hole of free time to fill with some kind of independent study. Sometimes it feels like nothing is ever going to be normal ever again.
Friday, September 8, 2006
Curiouser and curiouser
Category: me, 06:35 PMViolet's transcribed that letter into something readable. It's rather intriguing:
My dear children, Edward and Amaithe -
As I write this, my time draws near. I have passed too many hours away from you, indeed, and never conceived a manner in which to tell you of all I had seen and done. I am sorry for it. I love you and kiss you both. If your heart is in the matter and you wish to learn more of your father, there is a place which contains much knowledge. I cannot write its name, but this puzzle will lead you to it. I am confident you will find out its secret. Should you travel there at last, go safely and forgive me.
Your ever-loving,
Papa
Friday, September 8, 2006
Success!
Category: me, 03:59 PMCheers to you all! I'm so excited, I hurried over to that mosaic to try some more of your solves this morning while my aunt and uncle were breakfasting, and I got it The whole panel on the wall just poppedand inside there was a small letter packet, there's just a piece of paper with some blocky lines on it plus a note I can't read. I hid it under my shirt and I'm going to run off and see if Violet can help me decipher the note later on. I think this looks like another puzzle, though, don't you?
Anyway, you must be wondering what the solve was - it turns out to be simpler than anyone had been thinking! I only needed to move two of the tiles toit. The 2 o'clock tile went 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and the 6 o'clock tile rotated 180 degrees, and then pop! it justd right up.
Both Brian Rater and Claire Melton sent me this answer, and looking at it, it makes sense, because the resultant pattern leaves only one mosaic tile of each colour on the innermost, outermost, left and right points of the tiles as you look at them from the center, and moreover the colours go through the same pattern.
Sorry it took me so long to get to this, though. I've been writing my placement exams, which have turned out to be much easier than I thought they'd be. This has turned into such a good week!
Monday, September 4, 2006
No luck yet
Category: me, 06:05 PMA few of you have sent me things to try to see if I can get that mosaic toa secret door or something. So far, no go... and what's more, I've discovered that of those six more prominent tiles, the top one and the lower one on the left side (I guess that's twelve o'clock and eight o'clock) won't budge even a little bit. :-(
I think you're all on the right track trying to make some sort of pattern, though, it's very much in keeping with the popular puzzle style of the time. I keep looking at it and thinking six squares and six colours, that has to be significant, doesn't it?
Anyway, thanks for helping me think about it so far, I'm sure with all of you hard at work we'll have it figured out in no time. :-)
Friday, September 1, 2006
Perhaps a puzzle
Category: me, 02:32 PMUncle Sanjean finally found a moment to give me the tour of the house this morning. As I suspected, he gave me an in-depth analysis of how Anthony Granier supervised the reconstruction of the city's sewer system, and the impact of his later novels on the burgeoning experimentation in the visual arts. But when I asked about how Granier took up seducing the daughters of his political rivals and then mentioning it up on the council floor, or how his second wife left him because she was jealous of his relationship with Vianne Adamek, my uncle just harrumphed and said he "couldn't possibly comment."
Anyway, there was one thing I saw that really piqued my curiosity. There's a funny bit of an alcove in the hall outside my aunt and uncle's bedroom. In there is a picture with a sort of mosaic frame, permanently fixed to the wall. My uncle showed it to me and said that it's a picture of the place where Granier retreated to write his last novel, Lay Sorrowe to Rest. If you look carefully, you can kind of see a very tiny seam running horizontally above and below it. Anyway, Uncle laughed when he saw me looking at it so closely and said my mother always thought there might be something there, too, when they were children, but they weren't allowed to touch the antiquities in the house for fear they'd damage something.
I crept back a bit later in the day and tried to find a way toit, but none of the tiles seems to be buttons or anything like that. I did notice, though, that there are six more prominent squares of four tiles each - you'll see in the picture - and it's hard to get them to budge, but if you push very hard, they turn a bit. I didn't want to stand there in front of their bedroom fiddling with it all night, it would be rude. Sooo I'm just wondering if you'd take a look at it and see if you can come up with any good ideas on how it might work, and let me know. :) I really don't want them to find me standing outside their bedroom scratching at the door, though, so try to be sure you've got the right answer before you send me there!
