Am now working.
Just want you to know, with all of its confusion, I'm okay with the essence of Chapter 22.
It fits in fine with what I'm doing with 23. 23 is a a chapter of normalcy. That's all I'm saying right now.
I should be ready with this by Monday morning, Tuesday the latest.
(Okay, I'm kidding.)
NaNoWriMo Plot Thoughts -- SPOILERS!!
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Cloud Mountain
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Last edited by Cloud Mountain on November 28th, 2006, 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cloud Mountain
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Can't be further out than the on-going interesting twists and frog-leaps we're been experiencing over the last 43 chapters!Cloud Mountain wrote:23 is a chapter of normalcy. That's all I'm saying right now.
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The thought is that Trevor has been traveling, accompanied by Fulvia, and his hallucinations have been going on for this time, these three weeks. The treatment has only happened since they were picked up in New York, presumably the day before. Fulvia's flashback in Chapter 26 helps to establish this timeline.
Tracey's gene therapy appears to be quick. Dark room, flip switch, light room.
Does that jive with your reading of the story?
Tracey's gene therapy appears to be quick. Dark room, flip switch, light room.
Does that jive with your reading of the story?
Anita
Certainly in the real world you'd ber correct - gene therapy would probably take even longer than that.
But hey. Reality?
-Catharine, the molecular biologist
But hey. Reality?
-Catharine, the molecular biologist
Okay... so I think this is the home stretch here...
I'm going to post some of my thoughts on the writing of chapter 27 here. Why? So that folks can pipe in if they see some problem. So that folks writing later chapters can anticipate where this is going. So that the plot content of chapter 27 can be known by the next writers even though chap 27 is maybe a little slow making it through the gate (that is, being posted).
My sense of what still needs to be done to wrap up the story is:
1) Trevor will destroy the GLOBAL database -- AFTER --
2) The physical database archive is located and physically destroyed -- AFTER --
3) Someone (like Fulvia?) leads folks to the archive
4) And... let's see, what else?
I'm going to post some of my thoughts on the writing of chapter 27 here. Why? So that folks can pipe in if they see some problem. So that folks writing later chapters can anticipate where this is going. So that the plot content of chapter 27 can be known by the next writers even though chap 27 is maybe a little slow making it through the gate (that is, being posted).
My sense of what still needs to be done to wrap up the story is:
1) Trevor will destroy the GLOBAL database -- AFTER --
2) The physical database archive is located and physically destroyed -- AFTER --
3) Someone (like Fulvia?) leads folks to the archive
4) And... let's see, what else?
Anita
Genuine spoilers here
By the way, two-man rule explained:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-man_rule
http://www.interpol.int/Public/TechnologyCrime/CrimePrev/ITSecurity.asp
Plot points intended in Chapter 27 (being written)
... your ideas are welcomed!
Trevor is poised over the keyboard but hesitates. Something doesn’t feel right. Caution kicks in. --- He saves his programs to his iriver.
His cell phone beeps. Text message sent from his home server back in London. The server is under attack and is shutting down. --- Trevor realizes that his decoy hacker has been spotted and eradicated.
Now he knows GLOBAL has a two-man rule on the deepest level admin access. He’ll need Tracey to work with him to get in. --- How on earth did they do that? Everything about the GDB (GLOBAL database) had suggested maximum openness, flexibility, adaptability, presumably to sit like a fly on the wall of every conceivable variation of network architecture. --- It would lull any hacker into that mistake.
If they have two-man rule on this, GLOBAL must have an archive as well as backups. Inconceivable -- how could they archive this quantity of data? --- This attempt will fail, then, if the archive isn’t simultaneously destroyed. But where is it?
Tracey is able to reach Prazak by phone finally (when Trevor had mentioned Prazak (chap 24), Tracey and Theresia realized the professor would be in danger) -- yes, he had received papers from Trevor, and he is glad she called. Patterns emerge. Tracey persuades him to gather the materials and travel with Gerhardt and Peter to the compound, for an extended stay.
Elsewhere, Top gets the news -- hacker shut down in London; Trevor must be there. Sends agents for him. --- Top puts on his long, black coat to take a soothing stroll around the archive building. So Trevor didn’t quite go the way of his grandfather, despite the inheritance. Well, then... [where should he be located? what country? Malta?
]
The Interpol squad arrives and Trevor intercepts the group before they go for Fulvia. Perhaps Fulvia has some information about the archive location. Probably not.
Fulvia has stewed in her self-preservation juices. Will offer her services to the softies...but what can she offer?
Maybe Fulvia’s offer.
Maybe Trevor’s discussion with Tracey about the two-man safeguard and need to find archive.
Maybe Prazak beginning to describe the pattern emerging from pages Trevor sent him -- clues about either a) location of archive or b) the two-man access code system.
Maybe another of Trevor’s friends -- a neighbor in London -- goes by to discuss patterns she has spotted in the pages he sent her, but sees agents entering and decides to call Tracey instead. [Shanna? Someone who knows Tracey, too.]
Later, we see Tracey stop in on her family, also housed there in the compound. Tracey asks Michael, “where’s your cup” and Michael says, “Where’s your up?” to Natalie; Tracey has a flash back to the nightmare, when Uncle Geoffrey was pulling her into an early grave. A suspicion that had taken root in her subconscious now enters her conscious thinking, powerfully. “I am dead.” Oh, are you, really?
How to tie in, clues from LibriVox -- The Mystery ... what’s up with The Mystery...? Hmmmmmmm. That was part of reality, not hallucinations, but why was Elder writing The Mystery? What made Trevor cry after hearing the first one, and decide to fly, despite plane-phobia? Hmmmmm..........
By the way, two-man rule explained:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-man_rule
http://www.interpol.int/Public/TechnologyCrime/CrimePrev/ITSecurity.asp
Plot points intended in Chapter 27 (being written)
... your ideas are welcomed!
Trevor is poised over the keyboard but hesitates. Something doesn’t feel right. Caution kicks in. --- He saves his programs to his iriver.
His cell phone beeps. Text message sent from his home server back in London. The server is under attack and is shutting down. --- Trevor realizes that his decoy hacker has been spotted and eradicated.
Now he knows GLOBAL has a two-man rule on the deepest level admin access. He’ll need Tracey to work with him to get in. --- How on earth did they do that? Everything about the GDB (GLOBAL database) had suggested maximum openness, flexibility, adaptability, presumably to sit like a fly on the wall of every conceivable variation of network architecture. --- It would lull any hacker into that mistake.
If they have two-man rule on this, GLOBAL must have an archive as well as backups. Inconceivable -- how could they archive this quantity of data? --- This attempt will fail, then, if the archive isn’t simultaneously destroyed. But where is it?
- Trevor’s problems:
1) without tipping his hand, figure out the access roles for the two-man safeguard -- will examine the manuscript that Tracey had sent him.
2) somehow, discover the location of the archive and whether there could possibly be another as well. There must be some storage system he’s not aware of yet. (Ah! Martian technology )
3) and figure out how to destroy it
Tracey is able to reach Prazak by phone finally (when Trevor had mentioned Prazak (chap 24), Tracey and Theresia realized the professor would be in danger) -- yes, he had received papers from Trevor, and he is glad she called. Patterns emerge. Tracey persuades him to gather the materials and travel with Gerhardt and Peter to the compound, for an extended stay.
Elsewhere, Top gets the news -- hacker shut down in London; Trevor must be there. Sends agents for him. --- Top puts on his long, black coat to take a soothing stroll around the archive building. So Trevor didn’t quite go the way of his grandfather, despite the inheritance. Well, then... [where should he be located? what country? Malta?
]The Interpol squad arrives and Trevor intercepts the group before they go for Fulvia. Perhaps Fulvia has some information about the archive location. Probably not.
Fulvia has stewed in her self-preservation juices. Will offer her services to the softies...but what can she offer?
Maybe Fulvia’s offer.
Maybe Trevor’s discussion with Tracey about the two-man safeguard and need to find archive.
Maybe Prazak beginning to describe the pattern emerging from pages Trevor sent him -- clues about either a) location of archive or b) the two-man access code system.
Maybe another of Trevor’s friends -- a neighbor in London -- goes by to discuss patterns she has spotted in the pages he sent her, but sees agents entering and decides to call Tracey instead. [Shanna? Someone who knows Tracey, too.]
Later, we see Tracey stop in on her family, also housed there in the compound. Tracey asks Michael, “where’s your cup” and Michael says, “Where’s your up?” to Natalie; Tracey has a flash back to the nightmare, when Uncle Geoffrey was pulling her into an early grave. A suspicion that had taken root in her subconscious now enters her conscious thinking, powerfully. “I am dead.” Oh, are you, really?
How to tie in, clues from LibriVox -- The Mystery ... what’s up with The Mystery...? Hmmmmmmm. That was part of reality, not hallucinations, but why was Elder writing The Mystery? What made Trevor cry after hearing the first one, and decide to fly, despite plane-phobia? Hmmmmm..........
Anita
Ah, good thinking! This will force the two of them to come to some agreement as to what's actually going to get done. And that's definitely needed.a.r.dobbs wrote:Genuine spoilers here
<snip>
Plot points intended in Chapter 27 (being written)
... your ideas are welcomed!
Trevor is poised over the keyboard but hesitates. Something doesn’t feel right. Caution kicks in. --- He saves his programs to his iriver.
His cell phone beeps. Text message sent from his home server back in London. The server is under attack and is shutting down. --- Trevor realizes that his decoy hacker has been spotted and eradicated.
Now he knows GLOBAL has a two-man rule on the deepest level admin access. He’ll need Tracey to work with him to get in. --- How on earth did they do that? Everything about the GDB (GLOBAL database) had suggested maximum openness, flexibility, adaptability, presumably to sit like a fly on the wall of every conceivable variation of network architecture. --- It would lull any hacker into that mistake.
I imagine that only the new or changed data that's entered on <some periodic basis - Peter looked it up, and with current technology, a petabyte (1 million gigs) takes about 12 days to back up; an exabyte (1,000,000,000 gigs) is the order of magnitude of data that the GDB holds> is backed up; as you say, it would take essentially forever to do a complete backup. So, once or twice a month, all the stuff that's been entered since last backup gets backed up, maybe? (Once a backup has been made, of course, there's nothing to stop the archivers from then making multiple copies of the backup on non-related machines.)a.r.dobbs wrote: If they have two-man rule on this, GLOBAL must have an archive as well as backups. Inconceivable -- how could they archive this quantity of data?
Hmm. Should I change Trevor's note that backups get done nightly? Let me know - haven't got that far in my recording yet, so still changeable.
Yeah, get all the players together.a.r.dobbs wrote:
Tracey is able to reach Prazak by phone finally (when Trevor had mentioned Prazak (chap 24), Tracey and Theresia realized the professor would be in danger) -- yes, he had received papers from Trevor, and he is glad she called. Patterns emerge. Tracey persuades him to gather the materials and travel with Gerhardt and Peter to the compound, for an extended stay.
Ooo! A glimpse of the *real* Top! How exciting!!!!a.r.dobbs wrote:Elsewhere, Top gets the news -- hacker shut down in London; Trevor must be there. Sends agents for him. --- Top puts on his long, black coat to take a soothing stroll around the archive building. So Trevor didn’t quite go the way of his grandfather, despite the inheritance. Well, then... [where should he be located? what country? Malta?
Maybe LV tie-in:a.r.dobbs wrote: Later, we see Tracey stop in on her family, also housed there in the compound. Tracey asks Michael, “where’s your cup” and Michael says, “Where’s your up?” to Natalie; Tracey has a flash back to the nightmare, when Uncle Geoffrey was pulling her into an early grave. A suspicion that had taken root in her subconscious now enters her conscious thinking, powerfully. “I am dead.” Oh, are you, really?
How to tie in, clues from LibriVox -- The Mystery ... what’s up with The Mystery...? Hmmmmmmm. That was part of reality, not hallucinations, but why was Elder writing The Mystery? What made Trevor cry after hearing the first one, and decide to fly, despite plane-phobia? Hmmmmm..........
Theresia had lived with her husband for (some undisclosed or I-don't-remember amount of time): she'd gathered some observational data on what stimuli produced what responses, both in terms of the disease and in terms of the Real Man, as it were, and hypothesizes that similar things might induce Trevor to carry out certain actions...? I'm certain she would have followed Trevor's life closely enough to know about the chinchilla too, and might have thrown that into the mix.
Hope the extra brain juices help! Go, Anita, Go!!!
-Catharine
Ok, a.r.dobbs and I are trying to coordinate our chapters and have sent some pms. We're ready to take them public now.
ard: And I'll edit this so it's not actually an archive of our process but a reflection of where we stand at this moment with out dual thinking. This is fun!
Trevor and Top will meet, heh heh
TY: Ok. So in your chapter you plan to do much much plot progression. The points that I hope to work off of are as follows: Top is sending for Trevor. Interpol is sending for Fulvia, but Trevor intercepts, putting Trevor in close proximity to Fulvia when he meets the agents from GLOBAL.
ard: Stop the presses -- Top sends agents to Trevor's flat in London, assuming he'd been hacking from home. Trevor's decoy hacker was an auto-run program running on his personal server back in London.
They know Fulvia is in New York. They assume Trevor has shaken her and made his way back to London in the hours that have passed. (Not the hours that have passed since Fulvia's recent phonecall, but the hours since Fulvia's previous check in. Plenty of time for Trevor to have traveled. Is it dumb of them to storm his London place?
TY: So is it conceivable that my chapter be the encounter between Top and Trevor, perhaps with Fulvia in tow? ard: Yes, great! and do you want Fulvia in tow?
ard: You want Top and Trevor to intersect? Well... shall we arrange for Trevor to figure out* where the archive is? My thought is that Top is stationed near the archive. Trevor wants to destroy the archive simultaneous to destroying the database.
*"figuring out" includes work that Dr. Prazak has done in examining the ms. pages Trevor sent to him.
who/what is Top? heh heh
TY: As for whatever your physical description of Top is, I'm thinking it is a being of pure information, poured into whatever animatronic form suits the occasion, so it won't matter overmuch. Perhaps the remnants of a sufferer of the gene disorder ... the conversion to electrical impulses is the only hope sufferers really have to survive and it hopes to convince Trevor to join by promising him a similar conversion.
ard: Oh, that's interesting! We're SO science fiction!
Well, the long black coat reference was setting it up that Top is Uncle Geoffrey. He staged his death, burial, etc.
Geoffrey is not genetically related to T&T's grandfather --he's Trevor Missous' offspring. Right. Uncle Geoffrey. Same age as T&T's dad would have been, roughly. Hmmm... ergo, fascination with Grandfather Missous rather than Grandfather Aimes. (In chapter 2, I had Tracey musing over these things) So Geoffrey had been in The Order, working alongside Elder and Gerhardt, etc., and when he realized what fate awaited him... he began this cyborg idea (is that what you're intending here?).
TY: I thought that Top could be an android, because it was masquarading as Tracey at one point. If Top is able to physically approximate Uncle Geoffrey AND Tracey, then there is some serious disguise work going on.
ard: Another hold the presses! That was delusion -- part of Trevor's hallucinations.
ard: Oh, so many ideas. And Top wouldn't have recruited Trevor -- I mean, why didn't he already try, right? -- except he can see that Trevor is so genius after all, that ... hmm... need to give this more thought.
TY: I was thinking that he might only be recruiting Trevor now because he knows too much. Maybe this new stage of the disease is causing Trevor's heightened abilities, so he was useless before. Or maybe it's just that Top has something to trade now ... if they can save Trevor's life, he might ignore their evil.
*****
So that's where we are. I'm a bit lost so any help would be appreciated!
ard: And I'll edit this so it's not actually an archive of our process but a reflection of where we stand at this moment with out dual thinking. This is fun!
Trevor and Top will meet, heh heh
TY: Ok. So in your chapter you plan to do much much plot progression. The points that I hope to work off of are as follows: Top is sending for Trevor. Interpol is sending for Fulvia, but Trevor intercepts, putting Trevor in close proximity to Fulvia when he meets the agents from GLOBAL.
ard: Stop the presses -- Top sends agents to Trevor's flat in London, assuming he'd been hacking from home. Trevor's decoy hacker was an auto-run program running on his personal server back in London.
They know Fulvia is in New York. They assume Trevor has shaken her and made his way back to London in the hours that have passed. (Not the hours that have passed since Fulvia's recent phonecall, but the hours since Fulvia's previous check in. Plenty of time for Trevor to have traveled. Is it dumb of them to storm his London place?
TY: So is it conceivable that my chapter be the encounter between Top and Trevor, perhaps with Fulvia in tow? ard: Yes, great! and do you want Fulvia in tow?
ard: You want Top and Trevor to intersect? Well... shall we arrange for Trevor to figure out* where the archive is? My thought is that Top is stationed near the archive. Trevor wants to destroy the archive simultaneous to destroying the database.
*"figuring out" includes work that Dr. Prazak has done in examining the ms. pages Trevor sent to him.
who/what is Top? heh heh
TY: As for whatever your physical description of Top is, I'm thinking it is a being of pure information, poured into whatever animatronic form suits the occasion, so it won't matter overmuch. Perhaps the remnants of a sufferer of the gene disorder ... the conversion to electrical impulses is the only hope sufferers really have to survive and it hopes to convince Trevor to join by promising him a similar conversion.
ard: Oh, that's interesting! We're SO science fiction!
Well, the long black coat reference was setting it up that Top is Uncle Geoffrey. He staged his death, burial, etc.
Geoffrey is not genetically related to T&T's grandfather --he's Trevor Missous' offspring. Right. Uncle Geoffrey. Same age as T&T's dad would have been, roughly. Hmmm... ergo, fascination with Grandfather Missous rather than Grandfather Aimes. (In chapter 2, I had Tracey musing over these things) So Geoffrey had been in The Order, working alongside Elder and Gerhardt, etc., and when he realized what fate awaited him... he began this cyborg idea (is that what you're intending here?).
TY: I thought that Top could be an android, because it was masquarading as Tracey at one point. If Top is able to physically approximate Uncle Geoffrey AND Tracey, then there is some serious disguise work going on.
ard: Another hold the presses! That was delusion -- part of Trevor's hallucinations.
ard: Oh, so many ideas. And Top wouldn't have recruited Trevor -- I mean, why didn't he already try, right? -- except he can see that Trevor is so genius after all, that ... hmm... need to give this more thought.
TY: I was thinking that he might only be recruiting Trevor now because he knows too much. Maybe this new stage of the disease is causing Trevor's heightened abilities, so he was useless before. Or maybe it's just that Top has something to trade now ... if they can save Trevor's life, he might ignore their evil.
*****
So that's where we are. I'm a bit lost so any help would be appreciated!
Ok, I just learned that Top was never Tracey.
So I have nothing.
I need help! Please, somebody tell me what to write!
So I have nothing.
I need help! Please, somebody tell me what to write!
I *really* like the idea of Top being.. perhaps the proposed super-modeling program behind the database, that was postulated way back in Hugh's chapter (I think?) - that modeler might or might not be real, of course.
But my bit with U3 sounding mechanical in Fulvia's conversation: that *could* serve that the human U3 wasn't picking up calls just then, and her call was forwarded to Top/an AI.
Anyway, my thoughts.
Enjoy - it'll be FUN!
-Catharine
But my bit with U3 sounding mechanical in Fulvia's conversation: that *could* serve that the human U3 wasn't picking up calls just then, and her call was forwarded to Top/an AI.
Anyway, my thoughts.
Enjoy - it'll be FUN!-Catharine
I fixed my goof of locating Professor Prazak in the New York area. So we know that Gerhardt and Peter flew (in a WorldCon jet, presumably) to Berkeley and will be flying back with Dr. Prazak.
Thank you msirois, for point that out!
Thank you msirois, for point that out!
Anita
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Cloud Mountain
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And Hazel (Fulvia) is really Rebecca. After all, her death was another way of ruining his mind. That she could die twice is what was to the final blow to his psyche. (This is going into 29 folks.) Whatever deeply (healthily) attracted Trevor, CONTROL manipulated and distorted beyond recoognition.
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