Project 88

[Ra]

OOC: Ok, here’s a taste of World War III, a game of intelligence. Will all Elves, and others with pointy ears, please wear woolly hats!!!

GAME ON

Ra rolled off the sofa, waking as he did so. He looked at the clock, quarter to two, then at the window, at night. What, he wondered, had woken him up. He felt wide awake after less than four hours sleep. He went and switched on his computer, thinking a short prayer that it didn’t blue screen on him, and went and made some coffee. It was obviously time for action.

Taking the coffee into the computer/music room, he sat down on the floor and rolled a cigarette. He went into Outlook and found Strolen’s e-mail. Lighting the cigarette, he had a coughing fit to wake the dead. Strolen’s Citadel came on the screen. The last site he’d been at was infested with spies, MI5, CIA, ELF, the A.:A.:. He wondered if these were ordinary people, or would he bring his usual entourage of camp followers, pun intended. He thought about Jo. Would Jo be here? Ra hadn’t seen Jo for 30 years, since he started his mission. He couldn’t even remember what she looked like, except that she was five feet tall with raven black hair.

Of course, Jo would never appear using her real name, and they had to rely on the code to communicate. He looked about the room. Not exactly his destroyer, but as good a base for his operations as any. He missed his destroyer, but most of all, he missed Jo. He gazed at the statuette of Bast, on of Jo’s aliases, and at the tiny golden apple suspended from her neck. Tears welled up in his eyes. He might’ve just won a great victory, but he was coming in on a wing and a prayer, and was emotionally distraught. The isolation, going for days without seeing a friendly face, was the norm, and was definitely affecting him.

He pondered. On the one hand, he needed friends, on the other, he worried for the safety of anyone he contacted. He did a quick calculation, measuring the amount of deaths depending on his decision. The answer didn’t please him, but at least he was going to get to talk to people. He went to get some more coffee, and paused to pick up his jewellery. He put on his favourite, a brass snake bracelet that spelt Jo. The snake was Cleopatra’s Asp. Death to him meant going home, and he’d had enough of this hell planet five years ago. He carried his two silver rings and the coffee back to the computer/music room. Sitting down, he slid the tiny ring on the little finger on his left hand. It had ‘rA’ worked into the design, and fitted perfectly. The other ring had a five pointed star in a circle. That’s ten sides, or J, and a circle, O, Jo. He slid it over the next finger. He knew that would please Jo, but also knew that it would make her cry. He steeled himself. It had to be this way. It saved millions, if not billions, of lives.

To be sure, he didn’t even ‘know’ if Jo existed, or that he was Ra. He was working on a ‘subconscious’ level, and had forgotten everything before this lifetime. His only lifeline to reality was in the coded messages he received. He hoped they were coded messages. They never said very much, just things like Ra 4 Jo, or just Jo. However, the rings fitted perfectly, and were the only ones in the shop, and they reminded him of Jo’s artwork, which somehow, he thought, he recognised.

By this time, he’d written a fair amount on his word processor. He wondered what the others would think. Would they be fooled into thinking this was a game? Anyway, he wanted a lot of replies if Jo was going to turn up incognito.

‘You don’t have to worry ‘bout me, cause I’ve got something that’s precious, precious, won’t lose it, no no. Your love’s a mystery, page after page just gets better, as we go along, because we’ve got that certain something that’s sweeter than words, least my eyes haven’t seen, no my ears haven’t heard. What I needed all of my life, has finally come to me and it’s all mine. We got the love of a lifetime. The Moon and the stars are all in line. We got the thing and it’s alright, it’s more than love, more than love…..’ The CD played on. He’d found it in a charity shop the day after meeting Jo, (he hoped it was Jo) on the net, along with many other singles that seemed to be written specifically for him. Indeed, the world often sung to him, which was only right considering he was saving the planet. When they met, he couldn’t let anyone know that he knew her, she was CLASSIFIED. And the organisation he was trying to infiltrate had ignored his requests to join, so he wasn’t going to meet her in person. Anyway, as soon as he saw Jo, his memory would come flooding back. Operation Mind**** was locked into his subconscious, and the EST used telepathy machines to read his conscious mind. Thus they, like all good Discordians, had to stick apart.

He smiled to himself. They’d never see this one coming. He decided to post his plot. Would anyone be able to follow it? He put on another of the CDs. ‘Sure, so sure, it’s heaven knocking at my door.’

OOC: So there you have a rough idea what the game’s like. Let’s see how many Secret Agents there are on this site. If you have any comments, please post them in Greetings Traveller.

[Ra]

Ra looked at his thread. It had 11 views. That spelt K, or more likely A.:A.:. He had noticed that the forum had 772 members. Only 5 to go. Hexagram 5 in the I Ching was waiting. Anyway, so far, no one at this site had attacked him. Perhaps this was a true sanctuary. Strolen had banned fighting, and Ra had had his fill of verbal abuse. And here he could really be himself. The people here seemed to like gods. Every kind word boosted Ra’s low morale like a Saturn Five rocket.

However, it appeared that people didn’t know how to join in on this thread. He wasn’t surprised. He decided to write a coded message, and see if anyone could work out what he really meant. He decided to make it well easy.

‘Well, this is my pool tree offer in gate eight. Thanx for the 3/4 swing, come and air your views. Will be appreciated!!!!! If there were animal shares, wouldn’t cats greatly appreciate, Ed.’

Well, if they couldn’t work that out, they probably wouldn’t be ops. All ops LOVE code like ordinary people love speech, or even on occasion, life itself. He wondered if anyone would bother to count the words, or look for acrostics like Chicken and Turkey. Would they realise that pool trees didn’t exist? Maybe$$$$

[CaptainPenguin]

OOC: I don't get it. This is very confusing.

[Ra]

OOC; Well, Cap’n Pen, this is why I wanted some help making the game playable. It would appear that only other ELF ops will understand this game, as we have a desire to communicate things like, ‘the World is about to End.’ without letting the general public know. Thus we use the code, which is detailed in World War III, a game of intelligence, obtainable, free, from me. It’s much like D + D, except reality is your board, and other people are the wandering monsters or secret allies (or just innocent bystanders.) So, within the game, you could now be: an ELF op playing dumb, an enemy agent, anything else you might care to be. However, should you be an ELF op, we pretend we don’t know each other and use the code.

This is an espionage game of great detail and realism, guaranteed psychosis or your money back. It’s so realistic, you might even get shot for being a spy. Allow me to show you…….

GAME ON

Ra read the Captain’s message. Obviously he was playing dumb. He looked at the time Pengy had posted. 1.15 am. As the second number, 1 could have 2 added, making 1.35, or ACE. Was Captain Penguin an A.:A.: ace, the same rank as Ra? Perhaps if the Captain had a copy of the Game Book (there were no rules to this game. All’s fair in love and War) they might be able to……

‘Would you like me to send you a copy of the Game, Captain?’ wrote Ra. He thought, the Captain was trying to work out chess from a quarter of the board and one pawn. Absolutely impossible. Then he remembered, the last player was called Cap’n too. Another coincidence?

OOC: Actually, I have great difficulty understanding how to play the games on this site. I did say that I’m not from this planet. The purpose of my game is to confuse the enemy and save the world. What’s your games about? (WWIII, agoi, is NOT a game, it’s an ELF training manual and code book. Join the revolution, save your planet TODAY!!!!!) So, let me see. You only live 70 years, and you choose to spend that time playing D + D? Play World War III, a game of intelligence, and live FOREVER!!!!!!!! (I am 41,029 of your Water years old…..)

[CaptainPenguin]

OOC: Confused...So confused...

[Ra]

Ra read the Captains message. ‘Confused, so confused…’ Either he really was a penguin, or this was a coded message. But wait!!! Penguins couldn’t write, or he was pretty sure they couldn’t. He looked at the time, 7.58. 758 to 777 was 19. Hexagram 19 in the I Ching was Approach. 19 was also AI. Was the Captain an android? He knew that many androids worked for the A.:A.:, and they made very good ops. However 7.58 to 7.77 could also be 21, Biting Through. He counted the Captains words. There were three. Sephiroth 3 on the tree of life was Understanding. So, the Captain did grok. He would have to look out for messages in other places. However, the game must go on……….

[Luke Lavin]

A man walks on the scene flips through the story and can't understand anything.

[Ra]

OOC: Ok, I can understand it’s confusing. Basically, Ra is waiting for his girlfriend, Jo, to show up. Ra is a secret agent, and he’s infiltrated a secret cult, so he’s got no tangible contact with his people except for stuff he gets at pickup points. Since he has forgotten even who he is in order to infiltrate the cult, which is run by the CIA, who are in fact aliens, and hence have access to advanced machinery like telepathy machines, he has to have coded messages in the form of artefacts delivered to him covertly. Anyhow, they can read his mind, so he keeps his plan forgotten in his subconscious. As a 41,029 year old extraterrestrial, this is quite easy for him. However, if he actually saw Jo, all his memories would come flooding back. So he plans to meet her here. 88 is code for Jo (88 = piano, pianna Joanna). Anyway, how can you hope to play the game without the book? Well, you could just make up any old stuff, and post it. The more people post here, the more chance of Jo getting in without being recognised.

GAME ON

Ra read what he’d just written. He smiled. Of course, he was writing to Jo, who was decoding his messages. He didn’t care if anyone understood, however, he didn’t see how it differed so much from what these people were doing at this site. Perhaps OOC had explained stuff enough that Luke and Penguin could pick up the plot, which is part of an ongoing game that has so far lasted just over three years.

‘So,’ said Ra, ‘Do you like horses?’

Horses was a basic keyword for the Erisian OS.

‘And you’re writing on a computer. You just think you’ve walked into the room. The fantasy is in who you are talking to. I am Ra, you are Luke Lavin. This game is unlike D + D in that you do not imagine a different reality, you imagine that reality itself is different, but appearing the same. The EST can look exactly like human beings. This game is so realistic, that the game itself is part of the game, which is why I can, as Ra, mention the game. So here’s my suggestion. Luke Lavin entered a portal in a dungeon, and suddenly found himself inhabiting a man, who coincidentally had a Character called Luke Lavin in a games forum. Not used to computers as much as swords, he is at first bewildered……

OOC: And you know the rest, cause that’s when I came in. This is a truly mad game. The question is not so much did you understand it, but did you like it? Imagine trying to work out what’s going on in a game of chess if you don’t know the rules. Well, this game has no rules. Nothing is true, anything is permissable, if that’s alright with Ria, anyway. Once you get the hang of what I’m talking about, you’ll like it, I’m sure.

So at the moment Ra’s being very cagey. He’s claiming, in character, that he’s playing a game so he doesn’t have to say it out of character. This is because he is lying. This is no game. He is a secret agent trying to make a contact. Why else would he be writing coded messages?

The message reads: Well, this is my paltry offering, 88. Thanks for the CDs, Wing Commander. Your views will be appreciated. If there were animal shares, wooden cats greatly appreciated.

Now, Jo made two wooden cats and had them delivered to Ra’s local charity shop for him to pick up, so she understands the wooden cats, but the ‘If there were animal shares’ doesn’t make sense, so that’s the coded message. Oh dear, it’s really difficult, NOT!!!!!! Look at the first letter of each word. ‘It was.’ Then we look further back and spot that BA precedes IT, making BAIT.

So, the message now reads: Well, this is my paltry offering, 88. Thanks for the CDs, Wing Commander. Your views will bait WAS. Wooden cats greatly appreciated.

So, WAS is now the bit that doesn’t make sense, so we go back to ‘were animal shares’ and it sounds like a cryptic crossword clue. Were animal shares? Stocks, of course. Stock is made from dead animals, and Stocks and Shares.

So the message reads: Well, this is my paltry offering, 88. Thanks for the CDs, Wing Commander. Your views will bait stocks. Wooden cats greatly appreciated.

And there you have it. Easy once you get the hang of it. Of course, ‘stocks’ in this case refer to the stocks they used to put people in to throw rotten fruit at them. It would seem that Ra is going to embarrass his enemies once again. As the A.:A.: have never used this kind of equipment, stocks is a metaphor for whatever trap Ra is planning.

GAME ON

The man looked at Ra blankly, and blinked , as if Ra might disappear if he did so. Ra started singing, ‘There’s a Star Man, waiting in the sky, he’d like to come and meet us, but we probably wouldn’t understand what he was talking about…….’

[Ra]

OOC: Right, the Book is now in Misc. Homebrewed Ideas under A Game of Intelligence. This should make the game more comprehensible, but for now I will be sticking to easy codes like the one I just explained. I will leave the code in place for a while, and then reveal what it means, so if anyone fancies trying their hand at decoding, post your best guess, OOC of course.  

GAME ON

Ra stopped singing and waited. Was this strange apparition in his computer room going to say anything?

'Hello....' he said.

[Ra]

Ra checked his threads. No new input. He was sure he was at the right place. Hadn’t Jo said something about storming the castle? Anyway, he thought he’d found Jo’s Id at this site. He looked at the man standing in the corner.

‘Hey, Luke, say something, or do something. You can’t just stand in my front room for ever. Not without me charging you rent.’

He assumed it was Luke. The man had uttered not a word. Still, it was code time. He scratched his head, then started typing.

‘The leaves in May, are green not grey, the people say it’s right that way,
But then the colour of my hair, a copper dragon in it’s lair,
Would find it hard to see this hue, would wonder if my words were true,
Would scale and flame and roar and scream, anything to end this dream,
And waking up to pastures blue, the blackened grass provides the clue,
That all along I was not here, I’m down the pub to sink a shandy…..
Hell, I gotta drive…….’

He was quite pleased. The poet in him wasn’t strong, but he was good at doggy paddle. This code was different to the last in that most of it was padding.

He thought about what he was doing here. Everyone else was obviously playing a very different game. He didn’t quite see how they worked out say, if a sword blow connected or not. He hadn’t much input yet, but he was sure that World War III, a game of intelligence, had far more to offer the player on the internet. Then he’d always thought that D + D should have little puzzles in it. Perhaps another code, easier this time….

‘Man in the corner, I gotta warn ya……

Stan Dinstall can give you cramp,
Nev Olaf, his story’s full of it…..’

There. That should take about three seconds to work out, he thought.

OOC: If you don’t know how to join in, just join in anyway. Any kind of insane banter will do. You can be any kind of creature, dragons will need larger keyboards, I suppose, except the little ones. It doesn’t matter where you are, in a meadow, a forest, by a stream, as long as you’ve got your laptop and satellite link up with you, but make sure it’s INSURED!!!!!!

[Ra]

Ra was bored. Nothing was happening at Strolen’s. Sure, he’d TOTALLY CLASSIFIED, but that was then. He was gazing at the board, when he noticed the date that most people had visited the site. 14th December. That made NL, which of course, Ra knew meant HOLLAND. It had to be the message from Jo. 378 users at one time, that must have taken some organising. Still, he was Ra, and as such, had commanded legions. This op, however, demanded his personal attention.

[Ra]

Ra considered the way the operation would have been planned. 370 ops would have been told to visit the site for ten minutes at 4.00 am. Thus, the message would read 4 AM, or MAD. Certainly MAD fitted the picture, but there had to be more to it. He did some more decoding and came up with Jo’s signature, and Amster (to go with DAM). What could AMSTER be an anagram of? Ra smiled.

OOC: Anyone following this story can try to work this out. Ra also came up with P, or 16, which makes N (HOLLAND, 1st word, 6th letter). This made a rude word, of course. d**n, as in, ‘d**n, am I good.’ But then the rest of the message was CENSORED.

Ra laughed out loud, ‘Hurgh hurgh hurgh…’ he guffawed. Then he calmed down a bit. He hoped Strolen wouldn’t mind him using his site as an ELF message board…..

OOC: You’ve got to get into the mood. Ra is in enemy territory, with only a computer to communicate with his friends in ELF. Jo is his designated contact. Ra doesn’t know if Jo is real or if she’s a simulation. Certainly one of the two. Maybe she’s a he? Ra’s code name with CLASSIFIED is that of a Goddess. All in all, all Ra knows is that he’s won. This is his lap of honour. However, he is getting old (suffering from radiation poisoning), and he’s tired, and worst of all, he is alone. All the codes tell him that Jo is real, she has to be……… she is his only contact with his own kind……… he wonders why he can’t remember anything……… did he accept this mission because Jo is, he can’t bear to think the word……. but everything points to Jo being alive, well, and VERY real!!!! And Ra has won!!!!! REJOICE!!!!!!!!!!

Ra, as a 41,030 year old extraterrestrial, cannot be killed, but he has been subjected to years of psychological torture. Anyone else would have committed suicide years ago, but Ra is an old soldier, and you know what they say about old soldiers, they never die, they just fade away………

Ra looked at project 88. In one viewing, there would be 11 replies and 88 views. This would tell Jo that the message was for her. Ra started writing, ‘Glad you made it, then. Project 88 a total success. Thanks for the support. Without you, Project 88 would be meaningless.’

‘What do you think of that, Jo?’ thought Ra.

‘Well, I dunno…. maybe…….’ came Jo’s thought. Jo was using a telepathy machine. Of course, she could have done this at any time, but Ra wouldn’t have been able to tell if it was Jo or someone else without establishing the ‘passwords’. ‘Yeah, go for it, it can’t hurt…..’

OOC: Ra has just established telepathic contact with Jo, his Tracker. Normally, dolphins and whales do the tracking, but Ra has been in deep cover for 29 years now, and wants Jo to track him. However, don’t think of Ra as a Secret Agent. He’s pretending to be that, but really, he’s making contact with the Governments of planet Water through the back door. He is attracting attention for a reason. He wants to talk……..

[Andimia]

ooc: is this like twilight 2000?

[Ra]

OOC: Hi Andimia. Nice of you to show up. I don’t know what twilight 2000 is, but no. It’s more like the Twilight Zone. The ‘rules’, though there aren’t any, are in the Settings Forge under A Game of Intelligence. It’s a Sci Fi Spy game, all about codes. The code is detailed in A Game of Intelligence, but I’m just doing easy stuff at the moment. Of course, Ra is a fully trained ELF op, so what he’s up to is another matter.

[Andimia]

twilight 2000 is like D&D only it is a world war III RPG, it's from the early nineties. And don't ask me where my bro got the book. it's a little different from this as there are no fantasy characters.

[Strolen]

OOC: I am waaay over my head.

Strolen quickly translated the times to his timezone and marked them. First, only using the hours, he quickly saw the humor in Ra's posts.

11456516

AADEFDAF

AA - Definately A:.A:. without a doubt and he was mocking us in the same breath.

DEF, phonetically read is DEAF, and those reading truly are DEAF to his words, not realizing everything that he is setting in front of them.

The next, just as appropriate. EAF, first letter can be changed to D and again phonetically sounded out you had DAFF. He was mocking us in almost plain text yet nobody had caught on.

As for the rest, guess I will be back for more intellectual whipping.

[Ra]

I assume you mean my last post.

The time in GMT says, 3,2,2004, 09,51 am.

The message reads CB 24 i.e. AAM.

CB = radio.

Cat adds up to 24.

AAM? Like AM radio with a difference.

Ra has ascertained that Jo has telepathic contact with him.

I mean not to mock you. The target of my mockery lies elsewhere.
____________________________
But you’re getting the idea of the game. Excerpt: Strolen’s Citadel/Freeform Roleplaying/Project 88.

[Ra]

The last time reads 7,2,2004,4,08pm.

As instructed, it reads from the middle out.

44, 22, 7 = 4/4 VG.

4/4 applies to music.

VG = very good.

8pm is 20,00 hours and 2,000 = MM = A.:A.:.

Thus, the message reads 4/4 VG, AA

Jo has just delivered a musically decorated box (that fits Ra’s tarot cards exactly) via devious means.
_______________________
You’d have to have the brain of an EST to want Ra as an enemy. Mess Room saying. Erisian Military Academy.

[Ra]

Heh heh! Take a look at the max no of visitors (excuse the pun) to your site.

7,2,2004,4,24 am.

EZ!!!!!!!!!!

RIB stands for READ IT BACKWARDS.

LEET required.

Here's the answer......

MAX AA VG.

Do you believe in extraterrestrials?
______________________
Unlike fairies, extraterrestrials do not die if no one believes in them. Excerpt, Are all Extraterrestrials Fairies? Anonymous.

[Ra]

Ra smiled. His plan was working. He had travelled across the Galaxy with his friends specifically to freak Strolen out. Once Strolen had been driven completely insane, Ra would leave, his mission complete.

‘No no no….. It’s not going to work!!!! WHY would Ra travel, across the GALAXY, just to freak out Strolen? It doesn’t make sense….’ the producer flings the script back at the cowering writer. ‘Get OUT!!!’

The writer scurries out of the office. ‘NEXT!!!’ calls the producer. Ra enters the office and sits down. He reaches into a briefcase and produces a script which he hands to the producer. The producer opens it and begins to read.

‘Hmmmm, mmmmm, oh, mmmmmm!!!!!!’ says the producer. He finishes reading it. ‘I like it!!!!’

Ra smiled…….
_____________________
Never mistake a Martian Chameleon for your pet cat. Martian Homeowner.