14 k of g in a f p d

I hadn’t been hiking in a long time but had the opportunity to get out for a bit this past weekend and went up to Red Top Mountain State Park.

Red Top Mountain is basically a peninsula extending into Lake Altoona just north of Atlanta. It wasn’t a long hike, just a couple of miles, but it was nice to get out an walk again.

Here’s a short video I shot along the way. Hopefully it shows how nice the park really is for something so close to Atlanta.

Tags: georgia, hike, hiking, red top mountain, state park

Redverse

Altlivia and Alt-Broyles are attending Alt-Lincoln’s funeral, while Alt-Astrid and Lincoln watch from a distance. Lincoln comments that he doesn’t want Alt-Lincoln’s parents to mistake him for their son and Alt-Astrid simply says that she is uncomfortable at funerals. Altlivia promises Alt-Lincoln’s parents that she will find the person responsible for Alt-Lincoln’s death and bring them to justice.

Later, at Fringe Headquarters, Altlivia confronts Alt-Nina and offers leniency in exchange for the name of Jones’ mole in the Department of Defense. Alt-Nina refuses, saying that she won’t be in jail long anyway and that once Jones gets her out things will become much worse.

Blueverse

A business executive is berating his staff when he suddenly flies into the air and slams into the ceiling. He hangs there for a moment then slams down again, dead.

The Fringe team arrives and Walter determines that the executive appears to have died in a severe crash; his bones are shattered. They also learn that the executive’s partner died at the same time and in the same manner. Walter also determines that injuries on the body are consistent with someone wearing a seat belt.

Broyles contacts the team and says that a third man has been found with the same type of injuries; a pilot. While he talks to Olivia, Walter tells Peter that he tried to call him the night before and when Peter didn’t answer he assumed that Peter and Olivia were getting “acquainted”.

Redverse

Alt-Astrid tells Alt-Broyles that three people were killed in a plane crash and that their counterparts in the Blueverse Alt-Broyles tells her to coordinate information with the Blueverse.

Altlivia arrives and tells him that she has narrowed down the list of suspects for Jones’ mole to 108. Alt-Broyles tells her they can’t run surveillence on that many suspects then tells her to work with the Blueverse team to investigate the plane crash.

Bridge Room

Olivia brings Walter to the Bridge Room where they cross over and meet Altlivia and Lincoln. Walter will be working as a consultant with the Redverse team. Altlivia tells them of Alt-Nina’s warning that something bad was coming. Lincoln tells Olivia that Altlivia is taking her partner’s death hard and Olivia tells him she is lucky to have him.

Walter goes to Fringe Headquarters and examines one of the dead men using a tuning fork to determine his vibratory pitch. He then pulls out the severed hand of the man’s Blueverse counterpart and determines that it is vibrating at the same pitch. He says that one universe should be vibrating at “C” and the other at “G” and that he and William Bell were never able synchronize the vibrations of objects between the two universes.

The team then checks the black box from the flight and hears the pilot say the plane is breaking up around him. Walter says that Jones must have placed some sort of device on the plane that synchronized it with the other universe then caused it to crash.

Elsewhere, Jones meets with one of his followers who says the experiment was a success and asks what their next target was. Jones tells him to surprise him.

Later, Alt-Broyles returns to his home to find Jones waiting for him. He tells Jones that he told him to never come there but Jones says he has more of the drug for Alt-Broyles son, who was in pain before Jones started helping him. Alt-Broyles says that someday he will have to face the consequences for what he has done but Jones says that Alt-Broyles love for his son has made him human, but vulnerable. He says that he will be asking for Alt-Broyles assistance soon.

Blueverse/Redverse

In one universe, Jones’ follower leaves a device under the seat of a cab and a woman enters as he exits. At the same time, the same woman in the other universe enters a store. The cab starts vibrating and the woman in the store is suddenly thrown across the floor. She coughs up fluid and dies.

The next day, Peter and Olivia are on a bridge watching as the taxi is pulled from a river while Altlivia, Lincoln and Walter are examining the woman in the store. They confirm that both women have the same injuries. Peter finds the device in the taxi and discovers an amphilicite power source, confirming that the device was planted by Jones.

Redverse

Altlivia, Lincoln and Walter meet with Alt-Broyles and Walter is angry because he can’t figure out what is going. He then apologizes, saying that he didn’t sleep well in the apartment they provided for him. Altlivia offers to let him stay at her apartment and goes to get his things for him.

After she leaves, Walter admits that he is also upset because it was his original crossing between the two universes that allowed the conditions to exist for Jones to do what he is doing. Alt-Broyles asks if he would do it again and Walter says that if he had asked him that several months ago then he would have said no. But, now that he has met Peter, he says that he would even though he knows what would happen.

Later that night, Jones meets with Alt-Broyles again and gives him a device which he tells him to attach to The Machine. Alt-Broyles says that The Machine is healing their world but Jones tells him he should be focusing on healing his son.

Elsewhere, Walter gets up during the night and finds Altlivia drinking and looking at the photos and items she took from Alt-Lincoln’s locker. She is upset at not being able to find anything about the mole and Walter tells her to think about who it could be. He suggests Alt-Broyles and she at first rejects the idea, then slowly starts to realize that he is a likely suspect.

Altlivia goes to Fringe headquarters and confronts Alt-Nina, telling her that they have arrested Alt-Broyles. Alt-Nina is unimpressed and says that his arrest won’t change anything because Alt-Broyles was just a pawn, confirming Altlivia’s suspicions. Altlivia tells her that Jones won’t help her either because Jones considers her a pawn just like Alt-Broyles.

She then tells the rest of the team what she has discovered and Alt-Astrid tells her that Alt-Broyles did not come to work that morning and that he has turned off his tracker.

Alt-Broyles goes to Liberty Island and enters the Bridge Room. This alerts the team as to his location and they rush there, afraid they are too late, but when they arrive they find that Alt-Broyles has notified his Blueverse counterpart as to what is happening and has turned himself in to him.

Bridge Room

Altlivia and Lincoln escort Walter to the Bridge Room. Altlivia thanks Walter for his help and Walter tells her not to judge Alt-Broyles too harshly because he understands what someone will do for the love of their son.

Walter leaves and Altlivia asks Lincoln why he is staying. He reminds her that he promised that he would stay until they tracked down Alt-Lincoln’s killer. He says that he knows what it is like to lose a partner and assures her that the pain will fade in time.

Blueverse

Back at the lab, Walter tells Olivia and Peter that Jones used the two incidents to find a frequency that could link the two universes together. When Peter points out that they have already done that Walter corrects him by saying that they can make a connection between the two. If Alt-Broyles had placed the device on The Machine, it would have caused the two universes to collapse together.

Tags: fringe, recap, review, television, tv

I had finished Skyrim for the third time and was trying to figure out what to do next. I thought about loading up a bunch of mods and starting a fourth playthrough, maybe taking the Nords side in the Civil War this time, then I thought maybe I would play through Morrowind and Oblivion again first. And that made me start thinking about how much things have or haven’t changed from those games.

Now I’m not talking about the game systems themselves. Obviously the graphics are better, the gameplay has been streamlined and the user interface is improved. I’m talking about the game world itself.

In Skyrim it has been over 200 years since Martin Septim sacrificed himself at the end of Oblivion but things in Tamriel are remarkably the same. Yes, parts of the Empire have fallen away. Yes, there was a war with the Aldmeri Dominion and the Altmer are now the enemies of the Cyrodillic Empire. But, overall, the world is pretty much the same as it was. You would have thought that something would have changed beyond a few broad strokes of politics, but that seems to be all there is.

As someone living in the early 21st century we are used to the relentless advance of progress. Science, technology, society… all these things have improved or otherwise changed even in our lifetimes. The idea of complete stagnation, which seems to be what is happening in Tamriel, seems out-of-place.

True, there have been periods of stagnation throughout history. In Medieval Europe (which of course is what Skyrim resembles) the average person probably did not see much change in their lifetimes. On the other hand, we call that period of history the Dark Ages for a reason.

And the problem is not restricted to the pseudo-Middle Ages of Skyrim. Take the Fallout series for example. In the first Fallout one of the first places the Vault Dweller visits is the town of Shady Sands where he meets Sandi, the teenage daughter of the mayor. Then in Fallout 2 the descendant of the Vault Dweller visits Shady Sands again, now the capital of the New California Republic, and meets the 70-year-old Sandi who is now its president.

By the time of Fallout: New Vegas a hundred years or more have gone by but the Mojave Wasteland still looks pretty much the same as it did when the original Vault Dweller left Vault 13. It has been over 200 years since the war but the world still seems to be stuck as if was just a few weeks ago. Yeah, the New California Republic has expanded over the entire southwest, but no one has bothered to move a wrecked car off the New Vegas strip? The town of Novac can run a gift shop but not fix their own “No Vacancy” sign?

This isn’t a case where things have never been discovered. There are computers and records from before the war. To give one example, why has the NCR not built a rail system (beyond the tram to the airport)? Or even a working vehicle: They have a power grid, why are they not using it?

By all logic the society in the Fallout series should be much further along the road to recovery than it is. So why isn’t it.

Well, it wouldn’t feel like a post-apocalyptic world if it was so they have to keep the gritty, dirty, edge-of-survival feel. Just like Skyrim wouldn’t feel like the Elder Scrolls without its dirty medieval world. But if that’s what they want, why set these games hundreds of years after the previous ones.

It feels like they’re moving into the future but remaining mired in the Dark Ages. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Tags: fallout, game, gaming, skyrim

Blueverse

Olivia, Peter and Walter are at the lab and are preparing to take Gene the Cow out to pasture for the day. Lincoln arrives and Olivia gives him a Native American necklace that he left at her apartment. She no longer remembers it but Lincoln tells her that it came from his partner and the drawing of a maze on it means that he would always have a home.

Astrid arrives and says that she needs to go to the Redverse to give them a briefing on what the Blueverse knows about David Robert Jones and complains that she was supposed to take her father on a trip. Lincoln offers to go in her place and contacts Broyles, who agrees when Lincoln tells him they may be able to get some new info and that he has nothing else to do.

Redverse

A woman is walking to her car when a man comes up and grabs her. She hits him and he draws a knife, but another man grabs him from behind and lifts him into the air. The woman runs and the would-be mugger screams in horror.

Lincoln goes through the Bridge room with boxes of files on Jones where he meets with Altlivia. She tells him that there has been a change in plans; she has been assigned to a case and needs him to go with her.

As they drive, Lincoln tells Altlivia that Jones had been dosing Olivia with Cortexiphan and Altlivia decides that is the reason they sent Lincoln instead of Olivia. They drive past one of the Amber zones that is being reopened and Altlivia tells him that The Machine has stabilized both universes and that the Amber zones are being cleared as the rifts seal themselves. She then asks him what his middle name is.

They arrive at a parking garage when Altlivia surprises Alt-Lincoln by using his middle name. Alt-Lincoln tells them about the attempted mugging the night before and says that this is not the first mugging that the unknown vigilante has foiled. He then shows them the mugger’s body, which is warped and twisted, and says this is the first time the vigilante has left a body behind.

Elsewhere, someone who looks like the mugger is taking boxes from a church and placing them in a van. Two workers who have been clearing a nearby Amber zone detect organic readings and follow them to the church. Inside they find several bodies, all warped and twisted like the mugger’s.

The team is notified and all of them go to the church. Altlivia says that they will have to wait to have the briefing and says she will have someone take him back to the Bridge Room. Lincoln offers to stay and help and one of the agents thanks him. Altlivia tells him that the Blueverse Fringe team are considered heroes in the Redverse for saving their world.

Elsewhere, the vigilante, still looking like the mugger, goes to a homeless shelter and tells the worker there that he no longer has a place to stay. The woman says she will try to find a place for him and he goes to get something to eat. Another man notices that his neck is bleeding and he quickly pulls his collar up and runs out of the shelter.

Lincoln and Alt-Lincoln are examining the bodies and Lincoln admits that until he joined Fringe Division he wouldn’t have been able to deal with this level of violence. He sees a locket around the neck of a female victim and takes it, causing the head to fall away from the body. The mouth opens and he sees a hole in the roof of her mouth.

Altlivia finds where someone has been living in the church and figures that whoever was there left because the nearby Amber zone was being lifted. Lincoln shows her the locket and asks if they can determine a time of death on the bodies. Altlivia realizes that they can identify the person with the locket from surveillence video.

Back at Fringe Division Alt-Astrid starts checking surveillance feeds but warns that the odds are against their finding anything. Alt-Lincoln asks Lincoln why he didn’t want to return to the Blueverse and asks if there is a problem. Lincoln says there isn’t then comments on Alt-Lincoln’s self-confidence and wonders where their lives diverged but they quickly realize they were identical.

Alt-Astrid interrupts to say that she has found the woman with the locket on surveillance, but that the video is from two days after her death.

Lincoln goes to Alt-Broyles and tells him that the vigilante is a shapeshifter and tells him how the original shapeshifters used a prong device that they inserted in the mouth of their victims just like the woman they found. However, Alt-Broyles dismisses this and says that Lincoln is obsessed with shapeshifters since one killed his partner. He tells Lincoln to return to his own universe and dismisses him.

A pair of addicts are in an abandoned building using drugs. One goes to the bathroom and the shapeshifter comes in and attacks the other, pulling a tentacle of some kind from its mouth and inserting it into the mouth of its victim. The other addict comes out of the bathroom and sees what is happening.

Fringe Division gets the report and Alt-Broyles tells them to secure the area. Lincoln suggests they look for the dead addict and Alt-Broyles reluctantly agrees. The shapeshifter is spotted and the team heads out. Altlivia takes Lincoln with her. At the scene Alt-Lincoln has the group split up into three teams then apologizes to Lincoln for Alt-Broyles behavior and tells Lincoln that he is a good agent. Lincoln is still obsessed with figuring out why he and Alt-Lincoln are so different and Alt-Lincoln says it is just free will.

Lincoln sees the shapeshifter and gives chase, the rest of the team behind him. The shapeshifter jumps Lincoln and prepares to shoot him then seems to change his mind and runs off. The team corners the shapeshifter but Lincoln catches up and orders them not to shoot. They hold fire and the shapeshifter lowers its gun.

The team tells Alt-Broyles what has happened and he congratulates them. He then calls the shapeshifter Nina and tells her what has happened.

A man with a briefcase climbs to the top of the building across from where the shapeshifter has been captured and pulls out a sniper rifle.

Lincoln asks to be able to speak with the shapeshifter and Altlivia agrees when he points out that she would do the same if one had killed her partner.

Lincoln asks the shapeshifter why it didn’t kill him when it had the chance then, when it doesn’t answer, asks about a picture of a woman and boy that it was carrying. The shapeshifter says that the boy was his but one day the woman left and took the boy and forgot about him. He didn’t like drifting through life never being remembered or missed. Lincoln says he understands.

The shapeshifter says that Jones approached him and offered to make him the start of a new breed of human but when the transition didn’t work the way Jones wanted he abandoned him. He has been taking DNA from others in order to survive and has been trying to limit what he takes to criminals and others who won’t be missed. Lincoln tells him that Jones considers him disposable but the shapeshifter insists that Jones will come back and fix him.

The team starts to leave but the sniper fires, hitting Alt-Lincoln. Altlivia grabs a rifle and shoots the sniper. She checks on Alt-Lincoln, who assures her he will be OK. Lincoln asks the shapeshifter if it still wants to follow Jones or if it wants to be its own self.

Shapeshifter Nina is monitoring a set of shapeshifter tanks when the sniper arrives and tells her that Altlivia almost killed him. Alarms go off and she realizes that the sniper is really the shapeshifter. She attempts to flee but is captured by Altlivia and the others.

Alt-Astrid tells Alt-Broyles that shapeshifter Nina is being brought in. She then says that she has bad news.

Lincoln is going over the equipment where they captured shapeshifter Nina and realizes that it is tracking the implants in all of the shapeshifters and that if they can hack the mainframe then they will be able to identify all of Jones’ agents.

He is interrupted when a soldier comes in and calls Altlivia aside and tells her that Alt-Lincoln has died.

Blueverse

Later, Lincoln and the shapeshifter cross over through the Bridge Room and are met by Peter and Walter. Lincoln tells it that it has a chance for a life of its own now and gives it his partner’s necklace.

Redverse

Altlivia is going through Alt-Lincoln’s locker. She finds some pictures of the two of them and stands there looking at them.

Lincoln arrives and sees her. He starts to leave, saying that she probably doesn’t want him to remind her of her partner but she assures him that it is OK. He then says that he wants to stay on their side for a while to help. Altlivia says that would be nice.

Tags: fringe, recap, review, television, tv

So I finished Mass Effect 3 last week and I immediately went back to playing Skyrim again. I think it is telling that I am done with Mass Effect after what Raptr tells me is around 35 hours (for now anyway) while I am still engrossed by Skyrim even though I am closing in on 200. I think the difference is that Mass Effect told me a story while Skyrim invited me to come live in its world.

There was a moment in my first playthrough of Skyrim when I was scrolling through my quest log trying to decide what to do next when I noticed a quest called “Diplomatic Immunity”. I read the description and had to struggle to remember who gave it to me and what it was about before finally remembering “Oh yeah, that’s the main quest!”

Skyrim gives you so many things to do and so many opportunities to do them that it seems as if the various storylines have minimal importance. Don’t follow-up on a murder in the streets in Markarth and you will never find out about the secret of Cibala Mine and the history of the Forsworn. Don’t bother investigating a rumor you hear about a child performing the Dark Sacrament and you will never even get involved with the Dark Brotherhood. The world is out there for you to explore and it is up to you to do so. Want to spend all your time clearing out tombs and hunting for Nirnroot along the streams? Go ahead.

Contrast this with Mass Effect where the story is always front and center. Mass Effect tells an incredibly detailed and effective story (quibbles about the ending notwithstanding) but it does so at the expense of everything else. You can fly almost anywhere you want in the galaxy but it feels as if its world is smaller than a single small province in northern Tamriel. Everything in Mass Effect is in service to its story and nothing is there to distract you from it.

This lets the writers of Mass Effect tell their story but when a story is over it’s… over. I don’t feel the need to play it again because I’ve already been told that story and the game is the story. Sure, I can make a few different choices along the way but so what? All I’m doing is picking the colors to use to fill in between the lines that someone else has drawn.

Skyrim on the other hand is about a place. I’m on my third playthrough of Skyrim and I am still uncovering things that I didn’t find on the first two. I still haven’t completely finished the Thieves Guild questline in any game yet and I know there something about crimson nirnroot that I’ve never bothered with. And I suppose I should play the civil war from tne Nord side at some point.

Yeah, the story itself isn’t that original or engrossing. Remember, I had to struggle to remember what it was at one point. But I would almost prefer a breadth of choice over a deep but narrow experience.

Consider the Citadel in Mass Effect. Think about how many places you can see. Now, how many of them can you get to?

Go into Skyrim and stand outside of Whiterun. How many places can you see? Now, realize that you can visit every single one of them.

Screw the story. I’ve got a world to explore.

Tags: game, gaming, mass effect, skyrim, story, world

Blueverse

On a flight from Paris to New York, a man suddenly develops a nosebleed. He goes to the lavatory, gives himself a cheek swab and tests it, then tells a flight attendant that he is going to lock himself in. He asks her to collect any tranquilizers she can find or else everyone on the plane will die and if he does not respond when she returns to keep him locked in.

The flight attendant goes to notify the pilot of what is happening and the man starts screaming. An air marshal goes to the lavatory and demands that the man open the door. He does and seems to be fine.

Later, the plane has landed and the man is being questioned by security. He claims he was having a panic attack and apologizes for the incident. His nose starts bleeding again and they allow him to go to the restroom while they search his baggage.

In the restroom the man suddenly screams in agony as spines shoot out of his body. The transformed creature smashes out of the restroom and attacks the security guards.

Meanwhile, Olivia is meeting with a psychiatrist and tells her that she is fine with forgetting half of her life and thinks that she should be trying to track down Jones. The psychiatrist asks Olivia if she has told her sister Rachel about what is happening to her and Olivia says that Rachel and Ella have moved back to Chicago to be closer to her ex.

Later, the psychiatrist meets with Broyles and tells him what Olivia said, adding that Rachel is still married and has two children. Almost half of Olivia’s memories have changed. Broyles says that Olivia is no longer the agent they knew.

An unhappy Olivia arrives at her apartment and tells Peter that Broyles has told her to take a leave of absence. Peter thinks this is a good idea and suggests that they go to Vermont but is interrupted by a call from Lincoln. Lincoln says he has been given a new assignment but wanted to make sure it was OK with Olivia before taking it.

Peter goes to the lab where Lincoln tells him that Broyles has put him in charge. Walter and Astrid are going over the security footage from the airport and when Peter hears the name of the airline he remembers the case from the original timeline. He tells them that Bowman, the passenger in question, was an undercover agent that was treated with an experimental drug that rewrote his DNA and turned him into a “human porcupine”. He went berserk and crashed the plane. Astrid confirms that the passenger was Bowman but says that the plane landed safely and shows him the footage.

The team goes to the airport and Walter examines Bowman’s body. Peter talks to Bowman’s sister and says that the last time she saw him he seemed to be under a lot of stress. She confirms that a notepad he was carrying is in his handwriting and that it says something about not turning back.

Back at the lab they are able to determine that Bowman was probably working undercover in this timeline as well. Peter wants to call Bowman’s partner, who in the original timeline was also infected but didn’t know it. He can’t remember the partner’s name but then realizes that since Olivia now has the memories of the original timeline that she will. She does and gives them his name (Hicks) and his address.

As they go to the address Peter tells Lincoln that they need to talk. Lincoln says that he realizes Olivia is Peter’s. Lincoln’s partner and partner’s wife had a loving relationship with each other and that he sees that Peter and Olivia have the same relationship.

They get to the house to find Olivia already there. No one answers when they knock at the door so Lincoln picks the lock and they go inside.

Inside the house has been trashed. All of the windows have been blacked out and there are containers of medical waste in the kitchen.

As they search it becomes obvious that something is watching them. It attacks Lincoln then flees when Olivia shoots at it.

Back at the lab Walter stitches up Lincoln’s cut. Peter examines Bowman’s body and notes that he has needle tracks on his arm. He says they found syringes in Bowman’s luggage but don’t know what they contained.

Olivia apologizes to Lincoln, saying that if she hadn’t been there then he would have called Broyles instead of breaking into the house and that he did it to protect her. Lincoln tells her that it is all right.

Olivia sees a tattoo on Bowman and Walter identifies it as Sumerian. Peter says that he knows someone who can translate it, but that person won’t know him in this timeline.

Olivia and Peter go to the bookstore that Peter used in the previous timeline. He and Olivia start talking about the symbol until the owner overhears and asks about it. They show him the symbol and he immediately asks if Olivia is “one of them”. He tells them that the symbol means “rebirth” and is associated with a cult that is dedicated to guided evolution.

Meanwhile, Hick’s wife comes home and finds him injured from Olivia’s gunshot. She gives him an injection and says that soon they will be like Adam and Eve.

Olivia and Peter return to the lab. Astrid looks up information on the cult and finds a web site that talks about using guided mutations to advance mankind by using advanced algorithms containing palindromic codes. Walter tells them that he and William Bell worked on palindromic codes. Olivia and Peter leave to go to Massive Dynamic to follow up on it. Lincoln starts to go with them but Walter tells him to stay because he is infected. He can’t cure the disease in its intermediate state and has to wait for it to mature.

At Massive Dynamic Nina Sharp tells them that they did do work on genetic hybridization but when she pulls up the files all the information has been erased. The last person on the project was David Robert Jones.

Back at the lab, Lincoln is eating bacon off of a sandwich that Walter has made and comments that he doesn’t like pork. Walter asks what else Lincoln is hungry for then calls Olivia and Peter and tells them that the creatures are hungry for lipids. Fat. He says that the medical waste containers they found were from liposuction clinics. Astrid starts searching for clinics that have had thefts of their wastes.

Walter mixes a drug and gives it to Lincoln. He tells him that the drug is intended to keep the mutation from running out of control and that Bowman changed because he couldn’t get to the drugs in his luggage. He also says that he has used the DNA from Lincoln’s blood to model the mutation sequence and they see that the creature will develop wings.

Astrid finds a clinic where two guards were killed and liposuction waste was stolen. They decide that the creature will go elsewhere and Peter says with wings the creature will probably go to a clinic in a high-rise. They identify only one in the city and Lincoln prepares to lead a team there, only to find that Olivia has already notified Broyles. Broyles says he will deal with Olivia later.

On the roof of their building the Hicks creature picks up his wife, sprouts wings and flies away.

Lincoln arrives at the clinic with the FBI team and they all don night vision goggles and enter. Olivia is still at the lab with Walter and suddenly realizes that porcupines are nocturnal. She relays this to Lincoln and they turn on the lights in the clinic, blinding Hicks. The Hicks creature attacks Lincoln but Lincoln shoots and kills him. Hicks’ wife attacks Peter who shoots her in the shoulder and she cries as Hicks dies.

Later, everyone is back at the lab. Olivia says that Hicks’ wife will recover but she has no idea where the drug came from as they only got it from Bowman. They wonder what Jones is up to and how he is recruiting the people to help him. Walter says that Jones has a god complex and wants to guide human evolution.

Broyles arrives and Olivia apologizes for getting involved when he ordered her not to. Broyles tells her that even if she is only half of the Olivia he knew that they still need her.

Elsewhere, Bowman’s sister meets with another man who is worried about what went wrong with Bowman. She says that everything is fine now and that they will become children of the new world. They both inject themselves with the drug.

On a ship somewhere at sea, a man locks two of the creatures into a cell. Other cells contain dozens more of the creatures.

Tags: fringe, recap, review, television, tv

I had come to the Port on the Ship. I had stood with my fellow passengers upon her bow, rising high and white above the water as we entered the harbor; then at mid-day I, like the other passengers, wasted no time in descending the broad gangways where we were met by the welcoming locals who greeted us by placing garlands of flowers on our heads and toasting us with spiced drinks of local creation.

For hours I had wandered the streets of that magnificent port. Once it had been the vanguard of a mighty empire now long forgotten but today it was a place of exotic beauty, a place where all the ships of the world came to trade and to mingle and to exchange stories of the myriad sights they had seen and the many novelties they had encountered so that all the world would know the secrets beyond their own horizon.

I became enraptured of the Port. All day I had explored its myriad winding streets, engrossed by the aromas of exotic spices, the tastes of unknown languages, the colors of foods I had never seen and the touch and taste of alien but strangely beautiful woman. So when it was time for us to return to the Ship for the evening I remained behind in the port, for the Ship was not due to depart until long after the next sunrise and thus I knew that I would have time to continue to sample the novel delights of the Port and still return to the Ship in time for its departure.

At night the Port rang with the sounds of dancing, of song and of revelry. I wandered from place to place and at each location I was welcomed. I traded the stories of my travels for food and drink and companionship and the night became a comforting cloak of exotic perfume, of warm touching and the smoothness of silken sheets.

Then, just before dawn, I was suddenly awakened by a loud roaring and a crash and then the screams and cries of horrified citizenry. I rushed out of the room in which I had finally come to rest and down to the water’s edge only to see the Ship lying on it’s side; broken and bleeding from numerous wounds. The people on the water’s edge told me of the great wave that had come unexpectedly from the Sea, the wave that had lifted the Ship and crushed it against the dock, scattering its broad gangways and sending the locals with their garlands of flowers and their spiced drinks fleeing for their lives as the Ship’s skin was torn open by the cruel strength of the wave against the dock before being pulled back into and under the surface of the water.

They told me that all on the Ship had perished and none would believe me when I told them that I was of the Ship. After all, all on the Ship were to have returned on board before evening so I could not have been a survivor. When I told them my name they told me that man had died on the Ship so I could not be him and they sent me away.

So now I wander the streets of the Port homeless and alone. I can no longer trade my stories for they are old and the only currency the Port knows is novelty. I have watched the other ships come and go but none will take me aboard because they claim I am a dead man and no one wishes to have a man who is dead among their number. So I wander by day searching for what scraps of food and drink and companionship I can find and at night I sit at the edge of the water looking towards the broken body of the Ship, her bow now submerged in the oily waters of the harbor and her gleaming white hull now broken and rust streaked and weep as I recall how I once rode her to the many ports of the World but how my life is now confined to this one horizon.

Tags: fiction, story, writing

It’s cold. It’s wet. I can’t do my daily walk outside. Guess I’ll go walk around the mall for a while.

Crowded in here. Guess everyone else had the same idea.

Why are all of you just standing here? You’re in the middle of the walkway. Do you have to stand in a line across the walkway just to talk?

Huh, looks like the music store is going away. Big sale, maybe I should go check it out.

Nah, when was the last time I bought a physical CD. I’d just have to rip it to get it on my phone anyway; I’ll just get whatever from Apple or Amazon.

Guess that’s why the music store is closing.

Another empty store. Looks like they’ve got a lot of those.

Oh great, a bunch of people taking a survey. Let’s see if I can dodge past them.

Another pretzel place? There are three pretzel places in this mall? Do people really like pretzels that much?

Man, there are a lot of carts selling iPhone cases too. Is there really that big of a market for those things?

Now a bunch of moms with strollers just standing in the middle of the walkway.

Are Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister the same store? Just wondering.

A train? There’s a kiddie train driving around inside the mall? Do they not want people to walk around here?

Shoe stores. Man, there’s a awful lot of those here too. Do people really buy that many shoes?

Ah, there’s a kiddie play area here. That explains the train and the stroller moms. Lots of stroller moms.

Why are there two Macy’s here?

And here’s a third eyeglasses place. Are there two or three of everything here?

Well, not music stores. Just one of those. And it’s closing.

More survey people. I’ll just scoot past them. More stroller moms too.

Heh. The guy in the business suit with the laptop is playing World of Warcraft. Getting in a raid in over lunch, I suppose.

Wait… Alliance? Sigh.

How many cell phone kiosks does one mall need?

Sears sells eyeglasses as well it seems. So that’s four eyeglass places. Still more iPhone case carts I think.

An empty slot in the food court too. Someone should put a pretzel place there.

A Starbucks. Of course there’s a Starbucks.

Lots of laptop people here. Wonder if I could take mine from work and work from here.

Another shoe store. I think we must be coming up on the shoe event horizon or something.

And another conversation jam. Go around it.

That kid really wants to go into the Disney store. Stroller mom needs to take him to the play area. Maybe let him ride the train.

OK, one more lap then I need to go back to work. Maybe I’ll get a pretzel before I do.

Tags: lonely, mall, misanthrope, random thoughts, walk

Blueverse

Olivia is meeting with Broyles and they are reviewing photos of the Observers. Olivia wonders why one suddenly contacted her since they have known about them for over three years. She says that she thinks the Observer was giving her a warning, not threatening her and promises to tell Broyles if she encounters him again. She also says that they analyzed the blood sample she got and the Observer had antibodies for the Spanish Flu, meaning he would have to be over 90 years old.

Elsewhere, a young teenage girl is sketching in a notebook when she suddenly seems to feel something. She immediately turns to a new sheet and sketches something, then tears the sheet out and goes up to an older couple walking down the street. She gives the paper to the man and runs off.

The couple looks at the paper and seems confused and the man says that he does not know who the girl is. They have stopped in front of a construction site and there is sudden panic as a crane holding a girder breaks loose. The girder swings and crushes the man against a building, killing him. Shocked, his companion looks back at the piece of paper, which shows the man crushed against the building by a girder.

At the lab Olivia, Peter and Walter are going over the plans for The Machine and Olivia assures Peter that they will get him home. Lincoln calls and tells them about the man killed by the girder and how someone predicted it. Olivia asks if it was an Observer he tells her that it was a young girl.

The girl, who’s name is Emily, goes home and sees her family. Later, she is up in her room when she seems to have the same feeling as before. She starts drawing.

Her father comes in and comments that she is drawing the view from their lake house. He apologizes for their having to move around so much. Emily asks if there is a reason that she is the way she is and her father says that god made her that way for a reason and that she has a purpose.

The next day, at Fringe headquarters, Broyles finds Olivia looking at the sketch. He says he has received a report that she has been seeing health services and she admits to be having problems with migraines. She then mentions the Observer’s prediction about her death and how she is now investigating a case where someone else’s death was predicted. Broyles says they will try to keep her out of danger.

Lincoln arrives and says that they have identified the school Emily attends.

Emily is on the bus going to school when she sees a man and gets another vision. She hurriedly sketches something but by the time she finishes the man is gone. She gets off the bus looking for him but can’t find him.

Olivia and Lincoln go to Emily’s house but her father denies that she lives there. As they leave, Olivia tells Lincoln that it is the right house because she saw Emily’s backpack inside.

A few minutes later they run into Emily on her way home. They ask about the sketch and Emily tells them that she can sense death. Lincoln starts to ask about the new sketch but her father comes out and tells them to leave Emily alone. He says that they are constantly being harassed by people trying to kidnap Emily to study her, mentioning Massive Dynamic, and asks them to let her have a normal life. Olivia gives him her card and says for him to call her if anyone else bothers them or if he has any questions.

Back inside the house her father tells her not to talk to the agents. Emily says she saw something awful on the bus but that she can’t do anything about it and something bad will happen if she tries.

Olivia goes to Massive Dynamic and meets with Nina Sharp who admits they offered to help Emily’s family in exchange for studying her precognitive abilities. Olivia gets angry and compares it to the tests that were run on her but Nina insists it was different. They are interrupted when Olivia gets a call from Emily.

Olivia meets Emily in a park. Emily says she likes to go there because it reminds her of when things were better. She shows Olivia the sketch she drew of the man on the bus. He is dead and surrounded by numerous other bodies.

Olivia takes Emily to the lab and Walter examines her, confirming that she has elevated Theta wave activity. He says that William Bell had the theory that certain events could cause ripples that ran backwards in time.

Emily tells them that she had her first vision when she was 11 and saw someone would have a heart attack. She says they tried to find out what was happening to her but she could not control her visions and that what she saw always happened. People started being afraid of her and her family had to keep moving. She also says that she has never been able to change one of her visions.

Astrid has been comparing Emily’s sketch to bus pass photos. As she works, Olivia asks Emily if she senses anything from her. Emily seems to, but before she can say anything Astrid finds a match on the sketch.

Lincoln arrives with Emily’s father and Peter suggests that they allow Walter to hypnotize Emily to see if that lets her remember any more of her vision while Olivia and Lincoln go to investigate the suspect that Astrid has identified. Walter says he isn’t sure he can do that but Peter says he is because his Walter could do that.

Olivia and Lincoln go to the suspect’s apartment but he has not been seen for over a week.

Walter hypnotizes Emily and she remembers some more, including a Latin phrase. Peter recognizes it and says that it means she is seeing a courthouse. Emily also says that the man is holding a radio and Peter realizes that it is a detonator for a bomb. He calls Olivia who says the suspect, Albert Duncan, was recently divorced and lost custody of his children.

Her father takes Emily home and says he is proud of her but worries that the FBI now knows who and where they are. As they arrive, he sees a van parked near their house. He orders the family to start packing so they can leave. Emily goes to her room but has another of her visions.

Duncan arrives at the courthouse and asks for the judge. Meanwhile, Olivia and the others arrive and find Duncan’s truck in the parking garage, packed with explosives. Peter says that the trigger is to complicated to disarm easily and Broyles, worried that this is what the Observer was warning about, orders Olivia to leave. She refuses, saying that she won’t live her life that way.

Peter has the bomb squad determine the frequency of the bomb trigger and has all the FBI agents tune their radios to that frequency, hoping it will block the detonator signal.

The FBI orders the evacuation of the courthouse and Duncan realizes that they are onto him. He goes to the judge’s chambers and finds him, telling him that he is going to kill him. He activates his detonator but nothing happens.

Olivia and Broyles arrive and tell Duncan they’ve blocked the signal. Duncan opens his coat, revealing that he has also wired himself with explosives. Olivia tells him that he isn’t ready to die and to remember that all of the people around him have children too. Duncan starts crying and drops the detonator.

Olivia gets a call from Emily’s father who says that Emily is missing and tells her about the van. Olivia determines that the van was just a dry cleaning van and does not think Emily was kidnapped. She and Lincoln go to the park.

There, they find Emily cold and dying. Lincoln goes for an ambulance and Olivia tells Emily that she saved all of the people in the courthouse. Emily says that it is her time and that she has known for some time. Olivia says that her visions aren’t inevitable but Emily just says that in her vision her father was with her.

Emily’s father arrives and Emily tells him that she has known for a while but didn’t say anything because she knew he would be there. She says that he always told her that everyone had a purpose and that her’s was saving the people at the courthouse. She dies.

Later, at the lab, Olivia is talking to Peter and says that Emily died of a stroke caused by excess brain activity. He sees the picture of the Observer and says that in his universe the Observer’s show up at significant points in history. She asks if they can predict the future and he says no; they don’t predict the future, they experience it. He then asks if she has talked to one of them and she says no.

Still later, Olivia is in her apartment when Nina Sharp arrives. They both apologize for their argument earlier and Olivia admits that she was afraid that she would die and that Nina is the closest she has to a mother.

Nina says that she will make Olivia some soup and promises to bring her some migraine medicine that Massive Dynamic has been working on.

Outside, an Observer watches.

Tags: fringe, recap, review, television, tv

I awaken on the floor, cold linoleum against my flesh, surrounded by the smudged ink marks that mark my latest attempts at understanding.

For a long time I lie there, patterns running through my mind, until the needs of my body are able to intrude upon the ever closer to perfect arrangements I am making. I am hungry, and the physical needs exceeds the mental. I regret losing the pattern I have created but I let it fade back into my mind and stand up.

I stumble to the kitchen but am unable to find the nourishment I need. Empty packages and unwashed eating implements are scattered about, their surfaces mottled with the odd, semi-random patterns of mold and decay. I ignore them; I have examined their patterns long ago and find them lacking. I briefly consider the trails of the ants streaming across the counter, watching as they morph and wander in predictable but still random motion but they too I have previously considered and found unable to produce the true patterning I need.

I realize that I must leave my place of safety and venture again into the world of others. Into that realm where man has forced existence into plain, orderly patterns that inhibit the growth of true beauty. I stumble into my long-ignored bedroom in search of appropriate clothing.

I ponder long over my choice in what to wear, searching for those items which will exist in the necessarily exquisite harmony with one another. Of course I fail; the dyes and fabrics of mere reality cannot produce the patterns I need but I come as close as I can. I grab some money from the box beside the bed and stuff it into my pocket without examining it; I know that the numbers on the bills holds no meaningful pattern but I would examine it again and again for something which does not exist if I allowed myself and the needs of my body are great enough that they override what would normally consume the better part of my day.

I walk to the store. I had a vehicle once but its patterns displeased me and I abandoned it; I no longer even remember where. I keep my eyes lowered to the path as I walk, not wanting to see the offensive order which has been imposed on the streets through which I walk. Likewise I keep my eyes on the floor as I make the familiar rounds through the store. The arrangement of items on the shelves, the patterns of shape and color, call to me and I cannot let myself hear their call. Once before I did; I glimpsed within the patterns on the shelf a brief hint of the beauty of truth. I attempted to arrange the items on the shelves, to bring out the truth that was within them, but the owners of the store did not understand the pattern I was creating and they threw me out. I protested and fought them as they pulled me from the shelf and returned the items to their orderly, uninteresting places but I was forced to leave. I have not returned there since.

I grabbed the items that I knew would sustain me and carried them to the checkout, throwing them onto the belt and not looking at them lest I see truth or offense in the pattern they had made. Likewise I did not look upon the bills I gave to the cashier nor did I look at the bills he gave back to me. There would be time enough to examine the new patterns contained within the numbers on them later.

A woman behind me made some comment, some rebuke about my behavior. I looked up, seeing her for the first time. Most would have considered her attractive I suppose, but only those who had not gazed upon the true beauty hidden among the numbers and patterns as I had. I saw her as offensive and so I took my provisions and left that place, eyes cast downward as I returned to my home.

Once there I took my time placing my groceries upon their shelves and in the refrigerator. I moved them around until their pattern revealed the beauty within them. Seeing it, I closed the door to the refrigerator and, taking the rag and pen that are always nearby, scrubbed the old equations off of its surface and began to draw them anew, seeking the beauty within that only I have ever seen and which I have never been able to find again.

Tags: fiction, story, writing