Post by Celinra on Jun 26, 2005 21:51:07 GMT -5
Giudecca
It was a sad day for those sitting in the chat room. Tragedy was dying of a particularly strong admin power surge. There was a small group of people around him as this happened. After a time, most were gone, already beginning their funeral preparations. Three remained behind.
“Who will take over 667 now?” asked the first. “Can I?” the person asked, half-jokingly.
“Me too!” the second was quick to join.
“Oh, I’d like to, too!” declared the third, excitedly.
“Absolutely not,” stated Tragedy. “My ghost will continue my legacy.”
“Aw, but we could have fun!” said the first.
“Liven it up a little,” the second added, slyly.
“No,” Tragedy said flatly. “It’d cause too much commotion, and it’s not very considerate of the other 667 residents.”
“Oh, and you were considerate,” questioned the third, “when you changed everything around on Halloween without warning?” The first and second nodded at this.
After much of the same debate, Tragedy finally consented. “Very well. I will bestow upon you basic admin powers. But only for two hours. And you will make a separate persona which the three of you will share, and you’ll delete it once you’re done. You’ll fix everything you change before leaving tonight.” The three thought these were good terms, and accepted.
Then, the debate for a name began. There were the obligatory generic names mentioned, until the third spoke up. “Giudecca,” she suggested, as she referenced her copy of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. “It’s the lowest level in the lowest circle in Hell, reserved for those who betray their leaders… that’s what we’re doing, or at least pretending to do by pretending to hack.” The others agreed.
They set out work to confuse the other residents at 667. First, they turned the land completely black, with a single banner declaring, “I have thrown 667 into darkness.” Next, they sent a letter to each of the residents, which simply stated, “GIVE ME STUFF OR I WILL DESTROY YOU.” A few sent letters back, some with offerings, some with skeptical musings.
The darkness got boring, and they changed colors around a bit, while posting ominous things in various threads. At last, the time when their powers would end drew near, and they cleaned up the community as best they could before leaving. There were a few small things they forgot to take care of before deleting the persona of Giudecca: a board here, a background there, a font. This led to much complaining, but alas, Tragedy had passed on, and could not fix the problem.
In the time after, the first and third often talked in a private room about what had happened, and the things that were irking them. For example, whenever people referred to Giudecca, they always referred to it as “he,” although they had specified no gender.
Another instance involved someone saying that LOSDOC had been much better than Giudecca. The first and third laughed at the irony, as all of the three had been members of this organization. The first said at one point that they imagined that Kobolos would be proud of what they had done: Used persuasion and gained control of the forum, if only for a short time.
Antenora said at one point that she wanted to say how she liked the taste in name of the “hacker,” but didn’t want to incriminate herself in the process. Little did she know that the third had overheard her remark, and actually felt a bit of pride upon hearing it.
They watched as people speculated. Some said Tragedy was behind it all. Others guessed obscure members, while others guessed it was a lurker. Once, the finger of blame was pointed at Pandora. “I think that whenever she was on, Giudecca wasn’t, and vice versa.” Some others were quick to rise to her defense, though, as they had seen both on at some points. The first and third snickered, for they knew that they couldn’t be blamed on similar grounds: As there were three, they could stagger who was on under Giudecca, and who was on under their own name.
They watched as a “Guidecca” joined the community. The three had no connection to this persona, and were somewhat upset that someone bold enough to mock them was not intelligent enough to spell the name correctly.
At last, Tragedy, who of course had miraculously revived, made the statement that he was not the one who made the changes. He added that he did know who it was who did, but had promised not to reveal them.
The first and third bided their time, as they read murder mysteries and such that often mentioned Giudecca as a culprit. They laughed together at the irony contained within some of these stories.
At last, the first and third decided that they had waited long enough. They decided to come forth with their admission. One night, the third made a suggestion to the first. “I got an idea for how to admit that we were Giudecca.”
“What sort of idea?” asked the first.
“I’ll write a story of what went on, and make it a mystery of sorts. At the end, it will be revealed who Giudecca was, and then I’ll add that the revelation is true, that we really are the ones responsible,” explained Celinra.
“Oh, yes, do that!” exclaimed Pandora.
When the story was complete, they consulted the second, and asked for their opinion. “You can reveal me,” answered J. Celinra thanked her, and left to post the story for the other members of 667 to see.
...
And there you have the origins of the story you are just finishing reading. This story is the truth, though of course it’s embellished a little. Obviously, we never sat in a chat room, but it’s the real life equivalent of an AIM chat. But the fact remains that Pandora, J, and I were the three behind Giudecca, and these are indeed some things we experienced and observed in the aftermath of the event.