[I in APHID] [RECAP] Connect the Dots (Or "the steps&am
Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:14 pm
PANDA EDIT: 12-20-06 - Forgot something! 
I suppose it's time to tie up some loose ends.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Let's go over what we learned, shall we?
What have we learned from ....
...The videos
* First there was Gemma [Part I]. It alleged that (among other things) Gemma was not the person we thought she was (It's not that sunny this time in London, right?)
* Gemma [Part II] -- This time, Lucy is with Gemma. They sure do look chummy. But Gemma lovers (yeah, there's like three of them) still protested: "The Order is making Gemma do that! She's Bree's friend!"
*Gemma [Part III] -- 'Oh dear' is right. If you held out hope for Gemma, we're sorry to disappoint you. This phone call between Gemma and who we assume to be Lucy (mainly because of them being together in the second video and the tags "Lucy" and "Helper" on the video), Gemma let's it all hang out. She hope's Op isn't mad at her, mocks Owen and P. Monkey and EVEN suggests they use the D in Aphid on Bree (If you don't know why that's a bad thing, stick around)!
...The Letters
For those of us (I say 'us' loosely because I don't do numbers
) who stayed up all night, made decoder rings and withstood Tachy's email mocking, we were rewarded with two different letters.
The first letter was from Gemma to a "Sebastian":
* Sebastian is Brother
This letter was written from Tachyon to Sebastian, and is penned to "Buddy" from "Terri" (the brother/sister duo from Just One of the Guys) She also makes several references to his cover as "Sebastian".
* Gemma was sent to London to find Brother:
What Brother was doing in London is unclear, but what IS clear is that he was posing as a person named "Sebastian" as part of an assignment. The location appears to be a school of some sort.
Tachy spells it out for us: Op sent Gemma to get close to him and she succeeded. She was able to get into his 'flat' (slang for apartment in England) and mysteriously disappeared (we know she went to California and hooked up with Lucy).
* Warpylol was sent to London to dispense with Brother:
Ah, the mysterious "D IN APHID: LOCATION VERIFIED" video is put to a rest. The big surprise is that Warpy was never looking for Gemma ... in fact Gemma led him to that site to find brother. Luckily Tachy is smarter than the average bear, figured it out, and arranged for Brother to escape. They planted a corpse (From Corpse 'R Us, I can only assume) on the scene to make it look as they had gotten the job done.
*D In APHID = Destroy
Oops, Tachyon let it out of the bag. Whatever shall we name the next story arch now?
*Bree's Importance to the Order
In the Gemma [Part III] video, Gemma whines to Lucy(?): "Are you sure the D in Aphid isn't an option?"
We now know that Bree is so important to The Order that they need to keep her alive. This explains why the Watchers haven't been as 'hands on' with her as they have with Brother.
The Loose Ends --
* Brother's self-inflicted house arrest
When Luv2LuvEm had her impromptu conversation with Brother, he mentioned that he had been unable to leave the house for weeks. He complained about lacking certain amenities. Brother did this so that the Order would not make the connection that he was the same person as "Sebastian" and had thwarted their attempt on his life.
* I told you she looked familiar!
Tachy has been trying to warn Brother about Gemma and her connections to The Order for quite some time now.
*So you're the girl my brother has been seeing ...
Several of us got emails from Tachy suggesting that our relationship with brother was more than platonic. I guess Brother couldn't help but gossip to his sister about how crazy he was over Gemma.
* The Two Lists of Correspondence
The first one contained Gemmers19, and the second Warpylol. This is how Gemma was able to make the connection, from identifying their names on the correspondence list and by decoding their emails.
* The Origami Swan
So beautiful, but inside there is a silver thirty (Hmm .. who else was given thirty pieces of silver to betray their close companion?)
*Book of Irish Blessings
It's easy to be pleasant
When life flows by like a
song.
But the man worthwhile is
the one who can smile
When everything goes dead
wrong.
In other words ... chin up, brother.
What is less than clear (And some Panda Speculation):
*The nature of Gemma and Sebastian's relationship-
They sound like they got pretty close, eh? But how much of it was real romance and how much of it was manipulation remains yet to be seen.
If I may, however, I would like to draw your attention to one of the earlier postcards (with the message) Tachy left for Brother:
----------
If something should happen to me, please tell him that I'm sorry for everything I put him through.
Sometimes I regret the decisions I've made, but in my heart, I know what I have to do.
I don't expect him to understand, but I hope he can forgive me someday.
--------------
I won't drag you to my conclusion, but it sure does look different knowing what we know now, hmm?
* What was Brother doing across the pond in the first place?
They both seem to have been using the cover as students, but I doubt there was much studying going on. Whatever were those two up to?
* What does this say about the Ipod Opera?
Are they assassins? Does this mean Jimmyjim will challenge Tachyon to a dance off?
* What are they going to do to extract revenge?
Hello, my name is Tachyon. You tried to kill my brother, prepare to die!
Whatever do they have in store for Ms. Pouty Lips?
And the big question ...
What's next?
Although the past week has been one of the most mentally challenging and physically exhausting weeks that our team has had, we all handled it with remarkable grace and ease. The reward (In my mind, at least) was well worth it.
I personally cannot wait to see what will be thrown at us next. I say bring it on.
Also, a big, gigantic THANK YOU to all who helped with these puzzles. We make quite the team.
I suppose it's time to tie up some loose ends.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Let's go over what we learned, shall we?
What have we learned from ....
...The videos
* First there was Gemma [Part I]. It alleged that (among other things) Gemma was not the person we thought she was (It's not that sunny this time in London, right?)
* Gemma [Part II] -- This time, Lucy is with Gemma. They sure do look chummy. But Gemma lovers (yeah, there's like three of them) still protested: "The Order is making Gemma do that! She's Bree's friend!"
*Gemma [Part III] -- 'Oh dear' is right. If you held out hope for Gemma, we're sorry to disappoint you. This phone call between Gemma and who we assume to be Lucy (mainly because of them being together in the second video and the tags "Lucy" and "Helper" on the video), Gemma let's it all hang out. She hope's Op isn't mad at her, mocks Owen and P. Monkey and EVEN suggests they use the D in Aphid on Bree (If you don't know why that's a bad thing, stick around)!
...The Letters
For those of us (I say 'us' loosely because I don't do numbers
) who stayed up all night, made decoder rings and withstood Tachy's email mocking, we were rewarded with two different letters.The first letter was from Gemma to a "Sebastian":
The second letter was from Tachyon to Sebastian (the people Tachy considers to be brother's 'friends' were CC'd in on it):from Gemma <[email protected]>
to Sebastian <[email protected]>
date February 15, 2006 10:16 PM
subject Sincerest apologies
Dear Sebastian,
I want to apologize for my inappropriate remark after class today. It’s just that after spending so much time together, I am finding it quite difficult to suppress these feelings I seem to be developing for you. Based on your reaction, however, it appears you do not feel the same way towards me (please do let me know if I am mistaken).
I feel more than a tad embarrassed for putting my foot in it and creating such an awkward tension between us. I’ll understand if you do not wish to continue our professional relationship as a result, but I hope that won’t be the case.
Regardless, your friendship has meant so much to me these past few weeks and I am truly sorry for doing anything to jeopardize that. I am more than willing to do anything within my power to put this uncomfortable moment behind us.
Your friend,
Gemma
What these letters tell us (with little/no doubt):Buddy,
Imagine my surprise when I saw the email address from your last assignment turn up in a few of the emails I’ve decrypted so far! And here I had been under the impression that there was more than one girl named Gemma in all of England!
I honestly think that reading all of them will bring you more pain than closure on the subject. But needless to say, you were right in your original assumption that you were set up by Gemma. In fact, the truth is just as bad as you'd feared it would be: Op sent Gemma in to sniff out “Sebastian.” And despite your initial resistance, you ultimately let her get close enough to you that it compromised the security of the mission.
It’s no coincidence either that she disappeared after spending time in your flat, right before those months of hard work establishing your cover as "Sebastian" started to come undone.
And you can also thank her for leading War Pylol to the front door of our safe house in the area. Until I hear otherwise, I will assume that you were followed there, and that you didn’t foolishly try to make contact with Gemma after your cover was blown.
In hindsight, it’s a miracle we spotted that "location verified, D in APHID" video in time to arrange for your safe passage to a secure location. Even though there were no casualties when the bomb detonated (sans the corpse we planted to fake your demise), it still doesn’t change the fact that it was meant to DESTROY you.
As we’ve both now learned, life as a suppressive person of sorts isn’t all that much fun when you’re on The Order's radar. I assume that your self-imposed house arrest, growing the beard, and living like a shut-in have all been attempts to keep them from making the connection that "Sebastian" is still alive (in some form)? I agree it's far better for them to merely think they are keeping an eye on my "clueless partner."
If you escaped your babysitter the same way I escaped mine, I’m pretty sure you’re smart enough to know what you have to do next.
But first, perhaps we should make a little time to see to it that Ms. Pouty Lips does not escape the reward of her action?
xoxox,
Terry
PS. Be aware, this might mean we have to cross paths with Greg Tolan (and I wish I were only referring to William Zabka).
* Sebastian is Brother
This letter was written from Tachyon to Sebastian, and is penned to "Buddy" from "Terri" (the brother/sister duo from Just One of the Guys) She also makes several references to his cover as "Sebastian".
* Gemma was sent to London to find Brother:
What Brother was doing in London is unclear, but what IS clear is that he was posing as a person named "Sebastian" as part of an assignment. The location appears to be a school of some sort.
Tachy spells it out for us: Op sent Gemma to get close to him and she succeeded. She was able to get into his 'flat' (slang for apartment in England) and mysteriously disappeared (we know she went to California and hooked up with Lucy).
* Warpylol was sent to London to dispense with Brother:
Ah, the mysterious "D IN APHID: LOCATION VERIFIED" video is put to a rest. The big surprise is that Warpy was never looking for Gemma ... in fact Gemma led him to that site to find brother. Luckily Tachy is smarter than the average bear, figured it out, and arranged for Brother to escape. They planted a corpse (From Corpse 'R Us, I can only assume) on the scene to make it look as they had gotten the job done.
*D In APHID = Destroy
Oops, Tachyon let it out of the bag. Whatever shall we name the next story arch now?
*Bree's Importance to the Order
In the Gemma [Part III] video, Gemma whines to Lucy(?): "Are you sure the D in Aphid isn't an option?"
We now know that Bree is so important to The Order that they need to keep her alive. This explains why the Watchers haven't been as 'hands on' with her as they have with Brother.
The Loose Ends --
* Brother's self-inflicted house arrest
When Luv2LuvEm had her impromptu conversation with Brother, he mentioned that he had been unable to leave the house for weeks. He complained about lacking certain amenities. Brother did this so that the Order would not make the connection that he was the same person as "Sebastian" and had thwarted their attempt on his life.
* I told you she looked familiar!
Tachy has been trying to warn Brother about Gemma and her connections to The Order for quite some time now.
*So you're the girl my brother has been seeing ...
Several of us got emails from Tachy suggesting that our relationship with brother was more than platonic. I guess Brother couldn't help but gossip to his sister about how crazy he was over Gemma.
* The Two Lists of Correspondence
The first one contained Gemmers19, and the second Warpylol. This is how Gemma was able to make the connection, from identifying their names on the correspondence list and by decoding their emails.
* The Origami Swan
So beautiful, but inside there is a silver thirty (Hmm .. who else was given thirty pieces of silver to betray their close companion?)
*Book of Irish Blessings
It's easy to be pleasant
When life flows by like a
song.
But the man worthwhile is
the one who can smile
When everything goes dead
wrong.
In other words ... chin up, brother.
What is less than clear (And some Panda Speculation):
*The nature of Gemma and Sebastian's relationship-
They sound like they got pretty close, eh? But how much of it was real romance and how much of it was manipulation remains yet to be seen.
If I may, however, I would like to draw your attention to one of the earlier postcards (with the message) Tachy left for Brother:
----------
If something should happen to me, please tell him that I'm sorry for everything I put him through.
Sometimes I regret the decisions I've made, but in my heart, I know what I have to do.
I don't expect him to understand, but I hope he can forgive me someday.
--------------
I won't drag you to my conclusion, but it sure does look different knowing what we know now, hmm?
* What was Brother doing across the pond in the first place?
They both seem to have been using the cover as students, but I doubt there was much studying going on. Whatever were those two up to?
* What does this say about the Ipod Opera?
Are they assassins? Does this mean Jimmyjim will challenge Tachyon to a dance off?
* What are they going to do to extract revenge?
Hello, my name is Tachyon. You tried to kill my brother, prepare to die!
Whatever do they have in store for Ms. Pouty Lips?
And the big question ...
What's next?
Although the past week has been one of the most mentally challenging and physically exhausting weeks that our team has had, we all handled it with remarkable grace and ease. The reward (In my mind, at least) was well worth it.
I personally cannot wait to see what will be thrown at us next. I say bring it on.
Also, a big, gigantic THANK YOU to all who helped with these puzzles. We make quite the team.
