Wapsi Square Forum

Wyvern wrote:Don't ask me how it's supposed to "kill all outside electronics." Every way I can think of sucks a lot of power and is easy to notice.

Well, it has been noticed. "Silent Zone", remember?

MerchManDan wrote:

Dave wrote:"Tamper implosion in 15 seconds. Please extinguish all smoking materials."

EDIT out bad_call.jpg attachment

Applause, applause!

Very nicely done, especially for such quick work!

"...Self Destruct Device if the Crystals are ever emptied!"

Now only the computer is speaking.
The computer? let me hear. .

Dave wrote:Run. Away. Now.

The information Atsali picked up "en passant" does explain a good deal, both directly and indirectly... but somehow I doubt that Katherine is going to find it particularly comforting in the short term.

A naturally-nuclear-powered self-destruct. Paul, as Friday cliffhangers go, this is definitely one of your better ones!

Aaand, it sounds as if those folks really hadn't learned much from the destruction of Lanthis, and were (expletive deleted) crazy even before they contracted Tagii syndrome. I wonder if they're truly gone, or just hiding out in a USB data stick in the corner and hoping to sneak out in somebody's pocket (or handbrain).

But to where!!!, we dont have esby to help us and my hand brain is fried due that pigeon girl just fried all things powered up this place up...../grabs dave and shakes him hard few times where do we run!!! . where do we run!!!!!

Sidhekin wrote:If SDO set up the Anasazi to kill themselves, I guess that means Kath is an Anasazi.

But the Chessmaster seemed to think Kath would have to make a choice. Did Atsali surprise her too?

I think that Atsali is the Library's wild card, thrown I.to the mix to counteract whatever it was SDO had planed. Or at least moderate the outcome.

Without Atsali's, um, intervention, Katherine likely would have delved into the crystal archives and eventually released individuals who could have reintroduced gold m tech into the world. Enter a klutzy Siren, who short circuits the whole dang thing and takes the choice (and temptation) out of Katherine's hands.

"The Nuclear Warheads are merely a courtesy detail. We Look forward to your custom in your future lives."

I wonder if Dr. Gilchrist will discover a previously unknown ability to 'poit'. It would certainly be useful now.

I haven't researched this, but the only way I can see for there to be a radio signal "dead zone" in which signals cannot even originate from the area is if the entire radio spectrum in that area is blanketed with disruptive "white noise" that makes it impossible pick up or send any interpretable signal. In such a case it is not so much a situation where radio waves cannot propagate as that individual radio signals cannot be identified. In other words, the area suffers from naturally occurring jamming.

If this is supposed to be the case then all the decaying isotopes could be the source of all the random transmissions.

Boxilar wrote:I think that Atsali is the Library's wild card, thrown I.to the mix to counteract whatever it was SDO had planned. Or at least moderate the outcome.

Could well be. I'm going to be very interested to see "who is on whose side" here - which players are pulling the situation in what directions, in conjunction with whom, for what reasons. It's likely that there are several different competing agendas being played out here.

In particular - the conversation between Brandi and Acacia indicated that the two of them were supposed to be protecting the Etheitians - according to what Tepoz told them, that was the purpose behind their creation. Now, we learn that Brandi's Oduya personality seems to have a different (and perhaps higher, but perhaps much more inhumane) agenda - stopping the Etheitians, using methods probably involving trickery and quite possibly adding up to genocide.

So, we have

• The Etheitians themselves - who for some reason (apparently involving a failure to appreciate What Didn't Work Last Time) seem to want to resurrect the golem-building project on a huge scale.
• Brandi and Acacia - apparently intended to be protecting the Etheitians at this point. Tepoz may have given them their current "marching orders", or perhaps not. Brandi is apparently aware that she's capable of acting independently as a separate identity but that she (Brandi) won't realize what her independent self (Oduya) is doing, or why. Brandi seems to have gotten support from the Demons to create the Vimana World Grid, but (based on the Kikai caldera eruption) wasn't fully aware of the implications of putting the Grid on-line.
• Brandi's "Senior Director Oduya" personality - apparently working against the Etheitians (or at least to contain them). Quite likely allied with some of the Demons. Very probably aware of what the activation of the Grid would do - probably counted on it in her plans, in fact. So, the Demons have an agenda here (they're at least willing to have interdimensional travel to Earth shut down, and may be eager for it).
• Bia, other Titans, and the Ancient Gods. There's at least one agenda in play here (Bia's, in pursuit of the Prophecy) and possibly others we haven't yet heard.
• The Library itself - motivations uncertain. Once the Grid went on-line it would be in exclusive control (or almost) of inter-world and inter-dimensional travel to and from Earth. Did it want that power and responsibility, or not? What's its role in the current game?
• Katherine - she wanted an Adventure, got at least as much as she was looking for. Who and what is she, really?
• Atsali - is she entirely a pawn of the Library, or an innocent bystander sucked up into the affair, or somehow more than she seems?

Dave wrote

Atsali - is she entirely a pawn of the Library, or an innocent bystander sucked up into the affair, or somehow more than she seems?

How about all three - with the Library using her as a conduit - I can believe the "Adult views" that Atsali has been coming out with lately could be the Library speaking through her. The library has been sentient for a very long time . I can imagine her having conversations with Tesla - A G. Bell - Werner Von Braun - Aristotal - Leonardo da Vincia (someone correct my spelling) A thinking Brandi and other minds of a like ilk over the centuries . There are so many players involved in this particular predicament . I'm sure Mr. P has been planning this for some time and has worked out plots that would include all possible active players in this. None of this just appeared out of thin air. It's too closely crafted for that.

I'm looking forward to the next few weeks - gonna be a real roller coaster here.

i say that Kathrine will think of something and i also betting two the vampires will be poit in to that room with the spider crystal soon that may, or may not re-power up the entire place again, that actually be virus for the computer to erase the race entirely. and SDB will try to stop them but fin out how to reboot her before the explosion happens...

sets up the poker table

texas hold'em anyone

/places few hundred chairs so that everyone can play.
i raise 3 power crystals

*Starts a fresh pot of coffee and makes more popcorn.* (It's going to be a looong weekend.) *Starts dishwasher full of bar glasses and checks tip jar to see if there's enough to send out for pizza.*

Yamara wrote:As an aside, I now feel safe in blaming Chessmaster Brandi for Scientology, too.

Yep, apparently LRH somehow learned about the Etheitians (I wonder if he had a tryst with a certain librarian?) and based his Thetans on them.

The question I have is, does the self destruct pertain to whoever is inside the storage facility, or is it meant to destroy the residents of the crystals should they ever get out? Maybe both, but I think whatever form the self destruct takes it will be primarily aimed at the former inhabitants of the crystal palace. A last ditch effort to prevent their knowledge from being used again. The mechanism by which this happens may be very different than we expect.

I wonder too, just what IS stored in the crystals? The whole being, body and all, or just the essence of the individual? If the latter, are their bodies stored somewhere else or were they destroyed? I would tend to think the whole person, body and all is stored. But then that would mean each crystal would weigh quite a bit, unless they were reduced to only their solid "matrix" with reconstitution just being a matter of adding water. Literally.

Seems to me either Brandi never did figure out what to do with all those beings and just left them in place or she planned to use them later. The problem with later is they have already gone completely bonkers by being cooped up for so very long. Did she not know that would happen, or did she forget to put them to sleep?

BlueMark wrote:

Yamara wrote:As an aside, I now feel safe in blaming Chessmaster Brandi for Scientology, too.

Yep, apparently LRH somehow learned about the Etheitians (I wonder if he had a tryst with a certain librarian?) and based his Thetans on them.

I'm tempted to say "Get behind me, Thetan" but I probably shouldn't.

Dave wrote:

MerchManDan wrote:

Dave wrote:"Tamper implosion in 15 seconds. Please extinguish all smoking materials."

EDIT out bad_call.jpg attachment

Applause, applause!

Very nicely done, especially for such quick work!

Heh, thanks. Looking back, I probably could've added a couple lines of "Spanish Flea" coming out of the phone.

And another thing. If the crystal people are dead, or soon to be, that would make May the last being who knows how to make golems. I doubt the immortal politicians know how it's done or she would have dealt with them long ago. Does that mean she has May in her sights as well? Will she get May to do something like she did to Jin so that she will die, thereby sealing the secret?

I suspect Maya will be considered "safe". It's not as if either version of Brandi is so paranoid as to go around killing people just because they are powerful enough to be able to kill children, right?

... right?

Gee, I think we may (pardon the pun) have our answer to why Brandi is experiencing a split personality tendency.

The power source that got Jin "restarted" as a real live girl (the Vimana Cells) have an effect on certain individuals, in that they manifest themselves as "split personalities" - so that no one person would know the secret to how to make Golems or technology similar.

Mayahuel and Brandi are the only ones left who know how the process is done; to safeguard this, they have undergone some scheme - probably related to the glyph language - that prevents the two of them from "reuniting" and getting the knowledge out into the open.

However, the only way for Senior Director Oduya to finally disappear (or - Pablo Forbid! - take out "innocent Brandi") is for her to take that leap into the portal - and end up imprinted in the crystals of the Anasazi.

KnightDelight wrote:And another thing. If the crystal people are dead, or soon to be, that would make May the last being who knows how to make golems. I doubt the immortal politicians know how it's done or she would have dealt with them long ago. Does that mean she has May in her sights as well? Will she get May to do something like she did to Jin so that she will die, thereby sealing the secret?

That's been noted on the wiki for a while; Mayahuel is the only one around who's demonstrated the ability to make golems. Happily, she shows no sign of wanting to. As a golem herself she'd be very hard to stop, even without the assistance.

If you're looking for problem scenarios involving golems, though, try this on for size. In Wapsi Square, Mayahuel created Tepoz as a golem test unit, presumably out of one or more small expendable animals. In Aztec mythology, Tepoztecatl is one of the few named members of the Centzon Totochtin - the Four Hundred Rabbits, the children of Mayahuel. Nobody's ever said that Tepoz was Mayahuel's only test unit...

illiad wrote:AFAICS, its a SELF destruct device... I dont think any physical damage will be done, just the 'storage system' ???

That is, assuming it does not stop, for any of various reasons, at two seconds.