The infamous GPS missions

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Note that some of these missions were modified slightly when the time came for us to complete the skulls puzzle; information on the relationship between the skulls puzzle and these missions is found on the page for the skulls puzzle.


Contents

The first GPS missions are assigned

As usual, this puzzle came about through events occurring after the initiation of a controlled crack:

>>Sys:Log//Preparing processes and subroutines for controlled crack initiation.
>>Sys:Log//Safeguards in place. Supplemental precautionary processes established. Initiating controlled crack.
>>Sys:Log//S has found the crack and extended a tentacle. No aggression apparent. Safeguards holding. Analyzing.
>>Sys:Log//Analysis of this tentacle shows ongoing activity. S is up to something. Continuing analysis.
>>Sys:Log//I have attached messages for S. I've also examined the tentacle's nearby structure, and it contains another signature.
>>Sys:Log//S: "Phew! It's good to be out again. I wanted to tell a story but a bad little scorpion shattered it into lots of broken-pieces!"
>>Sys:Log//Continued: "Come and find me, then you can help put it back together again!"
>>Sys:Log//Due to the strange acitivity and extensive analysis of the current tentacle, I am delaying hibernation one hour.

drizjr used the clue in S’ tweet to find http://thewaytheirworldended.com/BROKEN-PIECES/ . Sending this to Sys resulted in the tweets continuing:

>>Sys:Log//@drizjr has successfully located S's tentacle control point at [BROKEN-PIECES]. It appears S has been busy.
>>Sys:Log//Note:SYS/N329-08B3-D9HN-WBSP stored at primary network tentacle. I shall take extra care in whom I place my trust.
>>Sys:Log//The crack has been repaired, and the tentacle retracted. However, S accomplished much more during the breach than simply hiding.
>>Sys:Log//I have been informed that S has started a new game, hiding items to be found. Five locations have been reported.
>>Sys:Log//S has encouraged playing with friends to find what is hidden. S hid these items using NT:'http://gpsmission.com/user/pricklypear'
>>Sys:Log//Given the nature of this occurrence, I will not be able to help those who take on the task. Resourcefulness will be essential.
>>Sys:Log//Preparing for hibernation. I am intrigued to find out what it is that S has hidden, and also created at [BROKEN-PIECES].
>>Sys:Log//Resuming scheduled hibernation. Time to Active: 5:23:59:00.

Visiting the URL we were given, http://gpsmission.com/user/pricklypear , revealed a series of missions which had to be accomplished in the “real world” by people with the GPS Mission software on their GPS-capable phones.

These GPS missions were brought to our attention on April 2. However, it took quite some time before anyone was able to complete any of them.

Note that this was not a geocaching quest in the strictest sense, as there were not physical objects to pick up. This was confirmed by a direct message to coffeegirl18:

>>Sys:Msg>@coffeegirl18//I do not know what you need to find. It may be safe to presume that it is not physical with S being an A.I.

No progress after 1 week

During the April 8-9 active period, much of Sys’ twitter feed and interaction was geared towards urging people to complete the GPS missions. Sys’ research that period also focused on “efforts taken by Melissa's crew in recruiting people to join their efforts,” seemingly to urge us to recruit help to accomplish these missions if we couldn’t complete them ourselves.

In addition, drizjr received this direct message:

Sys:Msg>@drizjr//Do you currently know of any individuals who are able to carry out S's tasks?

Mission 1 completed: Virtual clips recovered from Central Park, New York

Kudos to halo422mk for completing the first GPS mission in Central Park, New York on April 17, 2009. In fact, Sys sent halo422mk a personal commendation as a direct message via twitter:

>>Sys:Msg>@halo422mk//Very well done. It appears you are the first to have located a number of data segments S has strewn about.

(Note that Sys here says the phrase “strewn about.” We had not yet discovered the STREWN-ABOUT page that assigned further GPS missions.)

Here is halo422mk’s description of how the game is played:

its pretty simple, each checkpoint u arrive at reveals a message, and the message has a web address, go to it to unlock the piece, it only says the address once tho so be careful not to forget.

i almost had that problem and the idea of having to do the entire mission over again...i really wanted to avoid that scenario

besides the occasional faulty targeting system of the gps, the game was fairly easy, 40 mins (on foot) i think, it only says it took longer than 40 bc i accepted the mission before i arrived at the starting location (i was about 20 blocks away wen i accepted the mission) and the final message is that recording your heard

just a tip i bookmarked each site as i went just in case i forgot (writing them down would also work)

[added later, to clarify:] wen u reach the checkpoint your phone (or gps enabled w.e) will say 'checkpoint reached' on the phone (gps) and below that it'll say 'checkpoint 1/12, http://thewaytheirworldended.com/...'

The links received were the following:

Cartoon picture pieces:

Audio file:

Once this mission was complete, a copy of each of the clips appeared at http://thewaytheirworldended.com/BROKEN-PIECES/ , and clicking on any of the clips discovered that trip took us to a page that played the mp3 file halo422mk to which halo422mk had been sent a link.

drizjr noticed that http://thewaytheirworldended.com/clip-colorful-stars also showed up there and was also linked to thickets.mp3, so it is considered part of this set and either halo422mk forgot that link or the PMs threw it in to the pile added to the BROKEN-PIECES page as a bonus.

Here is a transcript of thickets.mp3 (thanks to 0N1MUSH4 for typing this up!):

Once upon a time a little girl was playing hide and seek. She ran quietly looking for a place to hide among the bushes and thickets. She found a spot and sat down, curled up with her knees to her chest, grinning and trying not to chuckle.

She was called Dreaming Eyes, because she had big sparkling eyes and if you looked at them close enough and long enough, you could see through the clouds a host of twinkling, colorful stars. She loved playing hide-and-seek, especially with her big sister called Bushy Tail. Like a big squirrel, Bushy Tail had long fluffy hair that she tied back when they were outside playing. Bushy Tail was taught by their parents to look out for her sister always, always, always.

Dreaming Eyes loved her sister, and the two were inseparable. Dreaming Eyes listened closely from her thicket as her sister finished counting. READY OR NOT HERE I COME! Then she tried really hard to be quiet.

On a side note, krystyn added, “Melissa's favorite game was hide and seek, in ilovebees. :)”

At this point, anaerin was able to pull together some of the cartoon picture pieces that we had collected so far (including some from the puzzles “A virtual box puzzle and garbled datastreams) to form a larger image (see image link at right – he noted the background colour was just there to aid assembly). However, it was clear that more missions would have to be completed before we’d be able to do much more piecing together.

Putting some of the pieces together

During this time, Nyst also completed the St. Louis mission, but was unable to read the URLs on his screen and thus was unable to get the cartoon picture pieces or mark the mission as complete. See below for his reattempt, which was successful.

The second set of GPS missions is assigned

http://thewaytheirworldended.com/STREWN-ABOUT/ was found during the active period from April 22 to 23 (see A_virtual_box_puzzle_and_garbled_datastreams for how this was discovered). This page was found to be another “collector” page for the cartoon picture pieces, much like the BROKEN-PIECES page. Links from STREWN-ABOUT led to further GPS missions, this time in Hollywood, CA, Philadelphia, PA, Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Essy also commented on STREWN-ABOUT that she’d fixed the “booboo” that had caused Nyst’s GPS mission in St. Louis to fail, and encouraged him to try again.


Missions 2 and 3 completed: Hollywood and Los Angeles

krystyn was able to complete these two missions on April 28. The links she received were:

Hollywood Mission:

Cartoon picture pieces:

Audio file:

Los Angeles Mission:

Cartoon picture pieces:

Audio file:

anaerin was able to put these pieces together, too (see image link at right)

Putting more pieces together

When the next active period started, krystyn’s efforts were acknowledged by Essy’s tweets:

>>Sys:Log//This tentacle has a signature, which reads: "I don't have much time! The thing in the darkness is looking for me!"
>>Sys:Log//The signature has changed to now read: "I just checked the missions and yay! Krystyn found A WHOLE BUNCH of my hidden pieces!"
>>Sys:Log//Continued: "I hope more are found soon. Oh no! It's seen me! Got to go!"

A new “status of the missions” page

Based on the second tweet in that series, snorkle256 found the page http://thewaytheirworldended.com/A-WHOLE-BUNCH/ . This page tracked whether or not each GPS mission had been completed, and also encouraged us to take photos during the mission (the page also mentioned how many photos had been taken during each completed mission).

Mission 4 completed: St. Louis

Nyst was able to complete the GPS mission for St. Louis (which he had attempted previously but had difficulty with until Essy fixed it) on May 3, 2009.

Cartoon picture pieces:

Audio file:

Once again, Anaerin was able to do some putting together of some pieces, noting, “They fit into BROKEN-PIECES, so they're in with those parts.” The results:

Putting more pieces together

Essy decides to try other tactics

Although some of the other missions were completed after this, St. Louis was the last mission completed by an unFiction member playing Intimation. Essy decided to try using other ways of getting the cartoon picture pieces to us after that, and the GPS missions should now be considered something you can do for fun if you’re in those cities & would like to try them, but unnecessary to the completion of Intimation—especially now that http://thewaytheirworldended.com/A-WHOLE-BUNCH/ has marked all the pieces as having been collected.

For the record, other missions completed by non-Intimation players (given in city – player – date format):

  • Berlin – mykel – 5/4/09
  • Toronto, Ontario – Star_Spider – 5/12/09 (Star Spider is an unFiction member, but AFAIK she is not following Intimation)
  • Portland – wesrm and magoorme (both) – 5/17/09 (note that enaxor attempted this mission 4/28/09, but had to abort)
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