Monster Hunter Club - A Guide of Sorts

Derek's Mom Comes to Town

Derek's newest blog (he updated it before 5pm? He must be sick!) answers a bunch that have been floating around this guide and the MHC forums.

Matt did go home Monday night (with Sun-Yi in tow). After finding Amie asleep on his bed, Sun-Yi offered him her out-of-town roommate's bed so he wouldn't have to sleep on the couch. Aww, so sweet.

Matt and Sun-Yi still care for Derek and want to help him by talking about his recent involvement with Amie. Nothing says caring friends like an Intervention, although it never feels that way to the Interventee.

Derek is a clueless git. He's still trying to convince everyone that he's only helping Amie because she's an old friend. The only person who is buying that story still is Derek.

Derek is evil. He got back at his mom for making him get rid of his toys by making her have lunch with him and Amie. She just happened to be in town, because who doesn't take 6 hour drives at the drop of a hat. Especially two days after a giant snow storm which ended up stranding cars on I-78 for over 24 hours.

Jon Paine's video is a fake. The possibility that this was a fake was brought up by degravity and has since been confirmed by one Mr. Pork Chop. I swear I couldn't make some of these names up if I tried. Of course, this does make me wonder why Amie didn't know this. I know that she wasn't at the actual procedure (she had a cold and there needed to be a sterile environment) but she never saw it afterwards? She claims that she and Jon were playing with it right afterwards. Is that a lie? Did Jon create some mockup to fool her? It must have been some mock-up because you'd think it'd be pretty obvious if you had some surgery done on your arm or not. Maybe I should have believed Painted Soul's comments from before.

Amie Does...Nothing

Amie's update today is nothing too exciting - other than alerting us to the fact that Sun-Yi's crush on Derek is really obvious, giving rise to the question "Is Derek blind or just stupid?" I vote stupid. Mostly Amie's just been wandering around the city with Derek visiting tattoo parlors, looking for Jon or "The Miller" - with not a lot of luck on either front. Thanks for that exciting update Amie. I look forward to Tuesday's update when you tell us that besides visiting tattoo parlors, you washed your hair and gave yourself a pedicure.

Sun-Yi Wishes Amie Luck

Poor Sun-Yi. It seems that she did decide to finish making her Vday card for Derek, only he was too busy with Amie. Since Derek never said that he got the card, I'm guessing that she didn't leave it for him. She does mention something about 'being a bit to abrupt.' I wonder if that means she tore up the card and shoved it into one of his orifices. But he didn't mention bodily harm, either. Hmmm. Maybe she gave the card to Matt instead. Trying to spark some jealousy might be a way to get Derek to notice her.

I do really like the fact that Sun-Yi is able to wish Amie luck in finding Jon Paine. You almost couldn't tell that she had ulterior motives. §

Journals 21, 22, and 23

I'll admit it: I need help. I smiled and then cheered when I read Matt's little summaries about about this week's journals. "Dr. T. is gone." "Dr. T. is dead." Yay!! It's an early birthday present for me! It totally made up for the fact that he posted a day late. Now to find out how he died. I hope it was pretty cool. Correct paranoid code writers deserve to die in nifty ways.

Journal Entry #21, 9/16/66 §
9/16/66

Dr. T is gone. I've looked around as much of the base as I can and asked around. No one's seen him since arly yesterday morning. I went to see Dr. G about it, but he seemed unconcerned. Pleased, even. He had that same sickening grink he did during the recon flight while he told me he'd already had Dr. T classified as AWOL.

I could kick myself now for not waking up all the way and talking to Dr. T the night before last. I just pray Dr. G is really right, and that he's sleeping it off in some brothel, or just hopped a freighter out of here. I could never forgive myself if something happened to him.
Journal Entry #22, 9/19/66 §
9/19/66

Dr. T is dead. It's like a knife in my gut, writing that sentence. I still can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday that I filmed his smiling face standing outside the barracks, those two little children toiling away on the porch. He gave them some candy and within a day they were calling him Loong which means uncle. Now they'll never see him again. His own daughter will never see him again.

Dr. G told me a patrol found Tom's body a few miles away from the base. I asked if I could see his body and pay my respects, but he said it was already on its way back to the States. "I pity his poor family," Genero said, "To come all this way in service to your country and then die stupidly, probably wandering off base stinking drunk in the middle of the night. Damn fool." I gritted my jaw so hard I thought I'd smash my back teeth, it was all I could do to keep from hauling off and socking him. That damn fool was my friend, you son of a bitch, the only real friend I ever had in this place. How dare you make light of his fate. I know there's something G isn't telling me. Right now, I'd just like to pound whatever it is out of his smug little face, but that wouldn't do any good. And I wouldn't dishonor Tom's memory that way. He was better than that. But this ain't over.

I came back to the barracks and Tom's stuff was already gone. A nuisance wiped clean, like lovebugs from a winshield [sic]. Like he was never even there. But they missed his secret little stash spot. I found the pictures of his wife and daughter tucked away there. I can't stop looking at them and tearing up. Maybe I an find out how to contact them and send them the pictures back. Tell them how much they meant to Tom, how he carried them around like a lucky charm. Let them know at [top of the page was cut off] over here cared about him. Dr. T didn't talk so much about his wife, so I reckon things might not has been so peachy as in that old picture. But she still deserved to hear from a human being, not just a form letter.

I also found half a bottle of Sang Thip in Tom's stash, which I've been hitting pretty hard. I know he wouldn've wanted it that way, though.
Journal Entry #23, 9/20/66 §
9/20/66

Well I didn't see the devil, but I sure felt his hooves pounding on my skull all morning - Sang Thip is a helluva hangover. But I was determined to figure out that damn code Dr. T had left under my pillow. I sat in the lab for hours, pretending to go over some test results, hardly able to stay on my stool, much to the barely contained delight of my assistants. I probably would've figured it out in a fraction of the time had it not been for last night's honorary libation.

A couple of weeks ago, I would have dismissed something like that as Dr. T's drunken, paranoid ramblings and speculation, but now I believe it. I'm so sorry I didn't figure it out sooner, Tom. I think I blew my chance to find your notes, too. One of the lab techs said he heard that they had Dr. T's thinkgs in a secure holding area awaiting shipment back to the US. Made me wonder why they didn't just ship his things back with his body.

I did find one more of his codes after work, though, with my own personal effects. After a day's worth of sweating out my hangover, this one didn't take me as long. A big refrigerator. It would figure, for a cold-blooded snake like Dr. G. I'm going to go investigate the construction area when I get the chance, bring my camera with me.

Sigh. No actual details on his death. I'm just gonna pretend them found him floating pantless in the Mekong. But we did get an explanation as to why John had the pictures of Dr. T's family. He must never have been able to contact them (or later decided not to) and just kept the pictures himself. Now I'm sort of wondering how Grace ended up with all this stuff. Yeah, I get that all of John's belongings were shipped back to her, but if John was killed for what he knew/found out, why ship back diaries and other stuff that hinted at the reasons. Dr. T's belongings were being held in a secure holding area before being shipped back - presumably to 'sanitize' them before giving all of it back to his family. Why wasn't the same thing done after John's death? Or did he send all this stuff back to Grace before he got whacked? So many questions.

We did get one last coded message from Dr. T though - on the back of some pudding recipies. § How often did they cook up pudding there that he had recipies for both fig pudding and chocolate pudding?

This is one annoying puzzle - in the fact that I still don't understand really how it was supposed to be solved. There's extraneous information that was never used, and that would appear to be directions on how to solve it, but even knowing what the decode is, I still can't find rhyme or reason to it. §

So bascially, Dr. T found out that Dr. G has been involved with Operation CHASE for some time. This is interesting since it suggests not only were there more chemical CHASEs than has been reported, but that the entire program started well before the published dates of the operation's launch. This project must be under some serious classifications if it's a: never come out and b: contradicts known facts.

One other thing that Matt posted about during this update round is M-A-R-A. Matt's father did sort of the same thing that M-A-R-A does, except his focus was on recovering unused barrels of chemical defoliants. He never heard the name M-A-R-A when he was growing up, but his father did start working for a new commissioned agency a mere three years after M-A-R-A started. The biggest question is: who wants Matt to know about this site?

A Meeting with a Mystery Man?

Lerinth has been good enough to continue talking with Mr. Annoying Painted Soul. If it were me, I would have troll defense mode by now and started talking just as much gibberish back at him. Moving on, it seems that just asking about "The Miller" has caused some unwanted attention to be directed back at Painted Soul. That's almost music to my ears. Let's see him squirm for a bit.

He also does his best "Let me be helpful" impersonation when he informs Lerinth that he might be able to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another lead in NYC. Of course, he doesn't say who this is or what kind of information we might get, because that would actually be helpful.

Still Hacking

So far, no luck on the M-A-R-A passwords. We've gotten a lot of hints as to what we should be trying, but no one has come up with anything that works yet.

The name, the user or account or whatever, is based on the name of the place where we recovered the artifacts, in abbreviations, you know? The other part, the password, usually had something to do with the items we recovered there.

I think we came across that name [Genero] a few times in our past missions, including once in Japan where it was somehow connected to a classified Chinese folder we recovered from underneath what is now the Tokyo Airport. [Haneda Air Base, Japan]

Actually I need to check the user name too, since Ted always used the location as the name for logging in, but you never knew quite how he was going to abbreviate each one. You know, something easy like Goose Bay Labrador is pretty easy to guess - GBL - but when you start getting into multiple words, names, states and so on, who knows what Ted choose?

Listening to the new information about the username, it could also include the city and state, so instead of 'tsf', we could be looking at something like 'tsfuky' which is a little on the memorable side, although I'd hate to have to pronounce it.

One other little tidbit, Nate stated in one email that Operation CHASE started back during WWII. I wonder what he knows that I can't find.

Captain Library

I just don't get Derek. First he goes a little psycho after finding out Matt bought Sun-Yi a Valentine's Day gift. Then he starts protesting that he shouldn't have to buy Sun-Yi a gift anyway as they aren't dating. Just when I think he starts to get it, he totally goes back into utter denial mode again.

It's good to see Matt with Sun-Yi anyway. He's not so single-minded that he can't focus on other people while dealing with his own problems. He has a good balance between updating Rainbow of Death, making sure Sun-Yi isn't getting stepped on, and looking out for Derek (although, I do wish he'd update RoD a little earlier in the day). Meanwhile, Derek has been completely sucked in by Amie. I'm sure he doesn't spend hours at the library studying for classes. But ex-girlfriend needs some research done and suddenly he's Captain Library. I think that's gonna be my new name for Derek.

I wish Derek had found out what Matt had gotten Sun-Yi. I'm curious. I'm also still curious as to what Derek is getting Sun-Yi for her birthday. Or if he's forgotten completely. Matt probably got her something small, but sweet/personal. Like a book on Korean film or a lake monster stuffed animal. Derek's gift will probably be something lame that he thinks makes him look really good.

I'd Like to Be Seated in the Emo Section, Please

Wow, Amie's dove right into the deep end of the Emo pool today. She's been whining about how Jon Paine fooled her with his PDA implant. I still don't know how she could be fooled if she wasn't willing to be fooled. How long did she live with him after the implant but before he disappeared? At least a couple of weeks. And she's claiming that she couldn't tell he was faking it? I dunno.

I'm now beginning to think that this was all some sort of setup by Amie. Maybe she found out Jon was lying. Maybe she found out he was cheating on here. Whatever the reason, she killed him, hid is body somewhere, and pretended he went off to Germany. She then creates this fictional persona, Painted Soul, to confirm he was there and to send people off on wild goose chases. In the meantime, she gets in touch with her old boyfriend, who she knows dotes on her so much that he's blinded to everything else (like she was with Jon). She'll get him wrapped so tightly around her little finger that he'll do anything for her. She won't have to worry about Derek lying/dumping her or anything like that.

The only problem is little Sun-Yi. Amie knows she can ruin her plans, which is why she bitches so much about her. Okay, she bitches a lot about Derek too, about how perfect his life is, but it's all just a set-up. I mean, no one can really be this emo unless they were trying, right? The more emo she is, the less you can see that she's really cold and calculating and just waiting for the right time to sink her claws all the way into Derek so he can never fully escape. I'm just worried about Sun-Yi. If Amie were capable of dropping Jon down a well, she certainly could take out Sun-Yi. However, I do think that Amie might underestimate just how tough an opponent Sun-Yi will be when it comes to Derek. In a fight to the death, Sun-Yi might be bruised and battered, but I think overall she could best Amie.

Sun-Yi on Peanut Butter, Libraries, and Videos

So speaking of Sun-Yi, we've gotten another video blog from her today (okay, it's actually from yesterday, but still. I do love the fact she mentions the salmonella peanut butter to show us that this wasn't pre-recorded months ago.) She mostly talks about what happened in the library while Matt and Derek were 'talking'. Technically, not much happened. But Sun-Yi did come to the conclusion that Amie is hiding something. I don't think she's subscribed to my theory of 'Amie is a cold blooded murderer' but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before she and everyone else does. §

Hey everyone and happy Monday, if there is such a thing. Sun-Yi here with a little video update. This was definitly an interesting weekend. You know that whole thing about the saying "May you live in interesting times" being an ancient Chinese curse is probably a hoax? But, it's still a pretty good curse, don't you think?

Since Derek's been, umm... busy this week, I've been spending some time helping Matt out with some research on this Rainbow of Death materials. We headed to the library over the weekend because he wanted to find more information about Agent Yellow and the incident in Korea where they dumped formeldehyde in the river. He's been doing some research on the internet about it but, honestly, sometimes the internet is full of crooks.

Present company excluded, of course.

When we got to the library, who should we run into but Derek and Amie. Hello - awkward. Talk about squirming. And to make matters worse, Matt pulled Derek aside to have a little chat, so there I was left alone with the pierced princess. The silence was think as salmonella infested peanut butter.

There we were, sitting at the same table. She was reading something about... something I'm sure. I was pretending to read an article about how water treatment plants work, but I was really reading Amie. And to my surprise, I realized that she's actually... well, pretty.

First of all, I expected her to have more stuff in her face. But she's only got a couple of small eyebrow piercings. I guess her tongue could be full of metal, but since we didn't exactly chat-chat much, I wouldn't know. And she's got a bunch of tattoos, but not really what I was thinking when I hear 'tattoo'. They were delicate, I guess.

But still, why take essentially what's already a perfect canvas and paint and pierce over it like that? It's like... it's like she's trying to hide something. Maybe. Or maybe for her, it was more of a initation rite/self-mutiliation in order to have gained acceptance into the cool kid cult, run by Jon Paine. And then, I started thinking about that. The subjaction of the self in order to fit in somewhere.

Then I realised that people do it all the time, don't they? Aren't my Korean born parents living in the perfect American suburbanite lifestyle now? Meatloaf on Mondays. Fish on Fridays. Two cars in the garage. And a yard full of perfectly mowed green grass. Are they all happy with the changes they have made to their lives and apperances and selves? Do they even think about how it used to be anymore? Are we just fooling ourselves that this is what we want all along?

Wow. I have no idea where that came from. It's been a long week, you know. Okay, no more of that, I promise. Let's change the subject.

Since I've been so busy lately, helping out with the research while still trying to keep up with class, I just don't have the time to do justice to that "Yellow Eyes" video for Derek's new song. So, what I'm gonna do is upload the audio and video clips to Monster Hunter Club in a new thread, so that you, dear viewers, can do my work for me. Really though, grab the audio and video and make something amazing with it. I'll give the winner a Host poster and Derek said he'd throw in a Monster Hunter Club t-shirt. Those t-shirts rock. It's totally worth it. So, keep an eye on the MHC forum, and I'll post out details about the contest soon.

Take care. Bye.

"Yellow Eyes" Video Contest

As Sun-Yi has been promising the past few days, she's finally put up the details of the "Yellow Eyes" video contest. § Sounds like it could be fun, but there isn't a whole lot of time to do it in. I'm gonna try even though I know I'm gonna be busy this weekend and I've never done any sort of video editing before. It'll probably be a disaster, but a fun disaster.

A Break in M-A-R-A

We got our first break into the M-A-R-A archives, and it came from a completely unexpected source.

Cryptidtruth posted a link to a new underwater video (in which you really can't see anything. The cameraman obviously does not work for the Discovery Channel). Luckily, the important stuff wasn't in the video, but what he said in the post. §

The actual readable text is an acrostic which reads '5 per' - and that explains all the gibberish stuff underneath. Cryptidtruth wants to tell us something, and has encoded it into a form he knows we can read. I certainly don't believe he's been the one behind the other '5 per' puzzle since that would put into question his being in Korea and thus all of us creature sightings.

It was actually kinda funny how long it took us to get the solve. The first part is really easy. After that, it took a lot of staring and backtracking through the letters to come up with the solution. § So cryptidtruth broke into M-A-R-A and while telling us what he found, gave us the username and password: HAFB/classifiedfolder. Before we get onto the contents of that M-A-R-A directory, let me just take the time to say what a crap solve this was.

First question I had - Why is cryptidtruth doing a '5 per' puzzle? The answer: characters can't just randomly solve puzzles for players without giving them another puzzle. It really would have felt cheap if he just went "Oh, and by the way, the username is HAFB."

So next question - Why is cryptidtruth solving the puzzle anyway? Answer: we were taking too long. As it becomes obvious from Matt's extremely late update, there was an unknown time factor we were working against. The puzzle had to be solved in order to move us onto the Slack Farm solve before we would have no reason to solve it anymore.

Question #3 - Why were we taking so long? Answer: Because the username was somewhat obscure. Both the flash and the directory list the location as Haneda Air Base, Japan. It doesn't use the AFB that several of the other sites use. Now, if Ted was setting this up to be idiot proof, why would he call it Haneda Air Base (not once, but twice) and use HAFB as the username instead of HAB or HABJ. The password of 'classifiedfolder' was certainly easy enough for us to guess (I had it on my list of possible passwords, and if I can guess it, it's easy). The use of capital letters is a little odd for a username, but as he does hint to that with 'GBL,' I'll accept that. If it had been called Haneda Airforce Base or Haneda AFB, Japan, I'm certain we could have gotten it without the '5 per' clue from cryptidtruth.

This just goes why I hate trying to guess logins. The longer they take, the more it becomes that you're overlooking something that the PMs must think is obvious. But then again, if it was obvious, we would have gotten it right away, n'ést pas? Of course now I'm wondering if it's a password problem or a username problem that hasn't gotten us into The Slack Farm files yet.

Haneda AFB Files

So what did we find in that classified Chinese folder that M-A-R-A recovered? A bunch of files that referenced Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman. I'm not kidding. I have no idea what Genero was doing with a bunch of cryptozoology papers, or even why it would be considered classified. Was he afraid that people were going to think him absolutely nutty for having stuff like that? Who knows, but I hope we find out. §

http://m-a-r-a.org/locs/HanedaAirBase/
username: HAFB
password: classifiedfolder

Files:

HAFB.txt - Overview of retrival operation

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_001.jpg - Outside of folder with Korean writing saying 'Top Secret'

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_002.jpg

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_003.jpg - Table of Contents for Nature Journal, 1987 July, Vol. 10 No. 7

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_004.jpg - Letter to Mr. Li Zi §
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

Dear Mr. Li Zi

I am a predoctoral research fellow of Department of Anthropolgy, the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. I am very interested in Bigfoot in Norther America and Wild Man in China. [???] I am planning to conduct[?] DNA analysis of Bigfoot and Wild Man Hair. I am looking for Wild Main hair having [???].

Through my article [???] you and other scholars published in [???]. I know that you have Wild Man hair collected from many different areas of Southern China. I wonder if you have Wild Man hair with [???] and if it is possible for you to provide me with some of [???] specimans for my project. I would greatly apprecaite it. If you have [???]

In my project, I am also going to conduct microscopic and chemical [???] analysis of Bigfoot hair and compare the readings with those of Wild Man hair published in your [???] literature.

Thank you very much in advance.

Sincerely,

Yomsho Kyo[?]

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_005.jpg - 'Wild Man' - Fact or Fiction article

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_006.jpg - Investigation Report

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_007.jpg - Bigfoot connection another tall tale in mummy's past? Picture of Olaf

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_008.jpg - Mysterious Ape-Man Sighted in Russia article §
Mysterious Ape-Man Sighted in Russia (79-5-22 National Enquirer)

Russian researches are firmly convinced a half-man, half-ape with thick short hair all over its body and eyes that glow like firey red coals, prowls the frozen wasts of nothern Siberia.

Sovient scientists, after investigation dozens of reports of new sightings, have confirmed the existence of the strange creature. And the prestigious U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences appointed a special commision to study it.

"The mysterious snowman is not a human but a relic hominid (a relative or ancestor of man)," said Sergei Khimov, a biologist.

"They are no longer apes, but neither are they humans! They are in between the two, ape-men who walks upright."

Writing in the publication, [???] Khimov and [???] Vladimir [???] said they had uncovered dozens of sightings of the [???] creature in nothern Siberia.

Descriptions of the ape-man, called [???] by herders and villagers, are remarkably similar and have occured over the past 80 years. [Vladimer] The creature is said to be over [???] feet all and it runs with amazing speed.

The creature's [???] forehead is small and protuding. It's chin is broad and far larger than a human's and the apeman makes a terrifying sound like a high-pitched whistle.

A hunter, [???] reported he saw [???] the ape-man emerging from the forest. [???] eyes glowed like two dark red lanterns," he said. "They wore no clothes. Their bodies were covered with thick, short hair. Both their faces and bodies were black.

"Their faces jutted out, their arms were longer than a man's and they swung them in a strange way. Their gait was unlike a human's. They [???] their feet when walking.

A former schoolteacher, Marla Semkina, said her dogs were howling wildly one night, and when she investigated, "I saw a very tall man.

"The hedge was almost seven feet high and the man's head and shoulders were above it. His eyes glowed like lanterns. When the dogs rushed at him baying, the man picked up it up and hurled it over the other side."

A Soviet historian, G.V. [???] wrote that the creature "lives in a lair, like a bear. He feeds on wild deer and eats the meat raw."

Geologist [???] concluded: "Everywhere the description of the [???] is astonishingly detailed, showing him as an [???] creature - strong and habitulized in the given conditions of the north."

-- Dave Weissman

Native Sherpa guide with wife and children, guided Dr. Yetgat's party to snowmen.

For what seemed an interminable time the snowmen and the scientists stared at each other. Dr. Yotgat noticed one of the big ones was hurt; a long deep gash ran down its chest and belly, and it lay prone on a rock, which was probably why the creatures had not run at the men's approach.

This led to the greatest misfortune which befell the party. Sensing danger, the two remaining

[text is blocked]

men had gone. After two further weeks of search the party retruned to civilization.

Back to his native Turky, Dr. Yotgat published several articles on his expediton in the Turkish press.

Among the most interesting was the doctor's intensive study which linked the snowmen he and his parted had sighted, with other sightings of snowmen.

"In 1966," states Dr. Yotgat, "the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan issued a commemorative series of postage stamps, picturing the Snowman in the five ways he has been described.

"First, as a fanged, maned creature more like a lion than ape or man.

"Second, as a female with heavy pendulous breasts, somewhere between ape and man in body.

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_009.jpg - Abominable snowgirl rapes Chinese farmer / Was it Abominable Snowman articles

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_010.jpg - Various pictures of Bigfoot

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_011.jpg - Various pictures of Bigfoot

hafb_chineseclassifiedfolder_012.jpg - Map of Tibet

Journals 24, 25, 26, and 27

It took Matt forever to get the next set of journals up. He was almost 24 hours late. Of course I guess we can forgive him since he has found another puzzle for us and a huge piece of exiting news. But first, the journals. Matt answers one of my questions as to why were are able to see this journal at all - John mailed it back to Grace at some point before he died. It's almost as if Matt is reading my mind (or this guide).

Journal Entry #24, 9/22/66 §
9/22/66

Looking back on these past few months, I realize now I've been retreating into the solace of my movie camera. On the outside, looking in, having everything within the confines of four perfect right angles. A Saturday matinee broken up and spread out over a few months, always with the promise of a happy ending, that the guy in the white hat will set things right.

My camera has been my method of getting by, I reckon. Dr. T had his wine and women and I've got my movies. This way I'm not living in Hell, watching my friend slowly unravel before being murdered, watching soliders with missing parts crying for their mothers while being carried onto base, watching other soliders not crying or moving at all. Instead, I'm just watching a movie on the wonde[r]s of exotic Thailand: elephant and man working side by side just like Jr's favorite cartoon when he was little. A potter luahing out our frivolous modernisms by kicking the wheel with a barefoot. Two shy little schoolgirls full of hope and promise, not awakened by gunfire at night, because no guns fired in this movie. There may be knives - bored, jaded soldiers seeing how close they can throw them at each other without flincing, but its all the same in the name of friendly fun and nobody gets zipped up in a bag.

I can no longer find solace looking through a camera because I know the movie doesn't have a happy ending. There are no while hates at NKP. Tom is dead. He's gone and nothing's going to bring him back. I can't hide behind my camera anymore.
Journal Entry #25, 9/25/66 §
9/25/66

Went to talk to Genero today - the Lord's day - about paying my respects to Tom's family. Asked him real nice to give me their address. Even smiled at the son of a bitch. He fed me some ~~shit~~ about security issues, but I know the real reason the cold hearted bastard wouldn't give it to me. He just couldn't resist one more chance to ~~XXXX~~ him even after he was dead, by twisting the knife in his poor widow and daughter. Maybe Grace can find how to contact them and send them a messaage for me. They deserve to have better than whatever venom I'm sure Dr. G had put in his file.

I questioned Dr. G on the increasing evidence I've been that Operation Ranch Hand is being ramped up, despite the known harmful side effects. I've also asked him what was really going on inside his private lab, the "giant cooler" that Dr. T mentioned. He told me through his crooked little grin that a man of my intelligence should know better than to get agitated over rumor and hearsay, especially with a family depending on his gov't paycheck and, God forbid, pension. "If you were unable to do your duty and keep your mouth shut, where would that have poor Grace and John Jr?"

When I heard him say their names, something inside me snapped. I grabbed him by the collar and told him if he ever so much as messed one hair on eithe rof their heads, I'd bu[r]y him. He laughed and said, "You haven't got the ~~balls~~ family man, and even if you did, nothing would stop me from ~~getting to your wife and kid."~~

He just stood there grinning as I held his shirt, my fist clenched and drawn back. When he'd told me snidely about Tom's death, I wanted to punch him, but at that moment I really wanted to kill him. To pummel my first into his face again and again, then hold my boot down on his crushed skull like the snake he was until he world was rid of this vermin. But I thought of Grace and John Jr. living on skid row while I rotted away in a cell and let the son of a bitch go. Genero laughed and said, "There, there, that's a good boy." I spat in his face. I couldn't stop myself. "Really John," he said, "You know a little DNA never hurt anyone," and with that he wiped the spit with his index finger and licked it. "Now get back to work before I call the security police."

Now more than ever, I need to find out what this degenerate scoundrel is up to, since the genie is already out of the bottle now. I need an ace up my sleeve. I need to know that my friend Tom didn't die in vain.
Journal Entry #26, 10/1/66 §
10/1/66

Genero's been working me to death this past week, supposedly to make up for Dr. T being gone. I know it's really so he can keep track of me, though. The lab techs can sense something's going on, but I can't tell them anything. Don't know what will end up back in Dr. G's ears.

Well, you can't keep me tied down all the time, you dirty SOB. I managed to find another of T's notes stuck in a box of blank typing paper in the lab. There was a drawing on the back of it, an eerie still life probably sketched while he was in G's secret lab. One of the fellows in the barracks has a Polaroid Swingers, I'm going to see if I can borrow it and try to get inside the lab. Instant prints this way -- no need to worry about the local guy in NKP botching up the film or losing it again. No more using a camera as a shield -- now it's a weapon.

1x5, 0x3, 8x2, (1+7)x8, 3x7, 4x9
(2+3)x4, 7x6, (1+3+5)x7, 2x2, 6x6, 1x4, 0x5
(4+6)x8, (1+2+7)x5, 4x9, 5x7, (4+6+8)x3, 3x2
7x4, (8+2+7)x8, 2x3, 0x5, (1+4)x4, (7+1)x6, 4x4

0XRGJJXRT CP7LTXPLC47UT 57WR PER CRKRX TUUB IS06PCPJ765Y WOFC GC TIGY IRUU G0UR 7C R0XTI G UP7T AC09 PF 7RCRF0 PT T4JU4GS2 TGR6 65 76U 365SPU 2XRI4C72 YIRS YPSRG09
```
I S 2 5 R F
7 G P W A U
6 C 0 D 3 X
T F J Z 9 H
Y B Q M 1 K
E L V N 8 O
```
Journal Entry #27, 10/4/66 §
10/4/66

Found a few of T's photos taped up in the underside of the bar in the common area. Don't know why I didn't search there sooner, seeing how it was his old stomping ground.

After seeing them, I haven't the foggiest notion what Genero could possibly be doing in there, but it doesn't look like Project Rainbow to me. I now know that T wasn't making anything up, though. I've got to get in there.

So, about the puzzle. Let's look at the 6x6 grid first. It's not that hard to see that it is the base alphabet for Dr. T's subsitution cipher. It goes A through Z and then 0 through 9, so now we have confirmation that the mystery 1l number is 25 for the 25th Infantry.

But what are all the flaps around it? Those flaps allow us to do the transformations whenever Dr. T gives a number other than 0. Imagine that the flaps are numbered 1-8 clockwise around the grid. If the cipher calls for a '1 transformation', you would fold down the first flap. All of the letters in the three left-hand columns would change, while the three right-hand columns would stay the same.

If the cipher called for a 1+8, you would fold down the 1 flap, and then the 8 flap over it. It's important to fold the flaps down in order since a 1+8 fold would leave the 8 flap visible over the northwest quadrant, while a 8+1 fold would leave the 1 flap visible in that quadrant.

The only thing I haven't completely been able to work out is how the letters change under the flaps. I don't know if the original grid has writing on the back, or if there is a formula to know how to rearrange the letters. Due to the amount of ciphertext, I was able to reconstruct what the flaps should look like if they have writing on them. I do know that the letters will not move out of their initial quadrants. I-S-2-7-G-P-6-C-0 will always stay in the northwest quadrant. This makes it possible to fill in some of the blanks on the flaps and to spot errors in the cipher text.

So now that we know a great deal about how the cipher and the decoder grid works, we should be able to translate any new ciphers fairly easily. So let's decode the Dr. T's latest cipher. §

Is this why Gereno was so interested in Bigfoot? He was trying to create one in a lab? But for what purpose? As a weapon? As a test subject? To eat?

Matt to Hook up with Nate

So Matt's big news is that he is going to go to Florida to meet up with Nate. This is why solving the M-A-R-A logins were important. If Matt talked to Nate before we figured it out, Matt would be able to get the passwords for us. Matt hasn't told us when he's going, or really even any details about the trip. I guess secrecy is important, but at the same time, if you don't tell anyone your secrets and you are killed in some freak accident involving a mime, a turkey and a box of donuts, your secrets die with you. And how does that help anyone?

Recap #5

Finally one of the most pressing questions over the past few weeks has been answered. Dr. T has died (although, we never were able to find out how he died). Now John is quite upset at Dr. G., who has grown so bold he's now openly threatening John. I'd start to wonder when John was gonna take out Dr. G, but the M-A-R-A evidence suggests he survives past John's death. In other news, M-A-R-A seems to recover more cryptozoology stuff than they do military relics (or are they one in the same?) And Jon Paine is still missing, although not from lack of wishing by Sun-Yi.

Sites we've visited: (since the last recap) none

Things that are unsolved:

Will Derek ever figure out ~~women~~ people?
Is Amie a murderer?
Why is Genero studying Bigfoot?
Who will win the video contest?
Will Matt survive his trip to Florida?

February 23rd and Onwards >>

Confused about how to use this guide? View the Intro page where many different things are discussed.

January 24th >> February 1st >> A Breakthrough on the Grids A Today Show Disaster? Journal 11, 12, and 13 Sun-Yi and The Host Grids Solved! (mostly) Creature Captured! Update Tuesday Derek Is a Dork Win a poster of The Host Journals 14, 15, 16 and 17 Implant Boy Speaks A Puzzle for Derek Video Blogs from Sun-Yi	February 9th >> MHC on Fangoria Radio Journal #18 World 3, Derek 0 Amie Talks to Painted Soul Fangoria Radio Show - Denied Grid #3 and #12 5 Per Solved! The Host Screening Amie in NYC Journal Entires 19 & 20 Derek Screws Up Yet Again M-A-R-A.org A Lead on the Good Doctor Valentine's Day Is Cold and Snowy A Note from Dr. T Creepy Fishes Keep Coming Make a Video - Win Swag One Last Envelope Calling All Hackers	February 16th >> Derek's Mom Comes to Town Amie Does...Nothing Sun-Yi Wishes Amie Luck Journals 21, 22, and 23 A Meeting with a Mystery Man? Still Hacking Captain Library I'd Like to Be Seated in the Emo Section, Please Sun-Yi on Peanut Butter, Libraries, and Videos "Yellow Eyes" Video Contest A Break in M-A-R-A Haneda AFB Files Journals 24, 25, 26, and 27 Matt to Hook up with Nate	February 23rd>> Stalking Sun-Yi Serious and seriouser Silent Lucidity 6x6 Grid Complete More M-A-R-A Logins! Yellow Eyes Video Contest Submissions Civilization Mutation Cowgirl Sun-Yi Turning Over a New Leaf Another Possible Disappearance? Journals 28 through 33 Dogs and Insurance Cards Plum Island and Bergstrom Logins March 2nd >> March 9th >>
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