[open to all] Trump speculation + calling

[howexciting]

... Perdonatemi, I have an announcement.

I am not sure anyone else is aware of this, but the payphone by the door can connect to the Trumps. Or at least, when I attempted to call a Trump, it went through. I am not sure if all the Trumps are available for a call or not. I have heard some of them are dead, so they are likely not, at least. In truth, I am not really sure why they are allowing us to speak to them, now. We should all proceed with caution.

Further... if anyone has information on any of the Trumps that appeared this past Jaunt - The Magician, going by ROSE; The Hermit, going by SAGE; and The Devil - please, share it. I am not well versed in the mystical meanings behind the Tarot, only the cards and their numbers. The Magician is one, The Hermit nine, and the Devil fifteen. While I cannot say I know much about The Hermit, I am aware of many aspects of SAGE, as I was a Crypto this past Jaunt. I... I can tell you what little I know about him, if it would help.

... lastly, if anyone was Marked and feels comfortable coming forward with that information, I would be much obliged to hear it. Private or public, it does not concern me; I shall not come forward with that information unless you are comfortable providing it publicly. With so many Trumps amongst us, I cannot believe any of them would leave empty-handed, as it were.

Comments

[solvethepuzzle]

[He'd seen those phones, seen and speculated about the most likely truth.] Ah. I suspected so. Thank you for confirming.

[howexciting]

Of course. I'm happy to help. It is probably for the best that non-marked Travelers stay away from the phones, so that they will not be marked.

[solvethepuzzle]

Perhaps. [Or if the unmarked do so, perhaps best to speak to the ones least likely to claim them.]

Knowing aspects of SAGE may or may not be helpful. Regardless, I would be interested in hearing them. [Gain all information possible. Dig through it. Find what is relevant or dismiss it if it is not.]

[howexciting]

My guess is that the Hermit's mystical meanings are... isolation, introspection. A sort of guidance from within. SAGE very much fit these. Many years ago, he repurposed several programs he considered... unique, individual, special. I was chosen as one of those. We were programmed to each do a different task, and we all mostly stuck to ourselves... with few exceptions, this Jaunt was the first time in many years that the Cryptos had banded together to collaborate.

It's... strange how easily I can talk about it now. We were not programmed to provide information easily.

[solvethepuzzle]

[Yes, those themes are very accurate to Hermit. In the end, Near may have been lucky to have been what he had during the Jaunt. Else he could have so easily found himself claimed by that one.]

What was it about you and the others that was considered special? [It may only be relevant to that world, or it could provide insight into how and why the Trumps make their choices. SAGE is, after all, the Hermit. And researching the psychic backlog has told him that the Trumps had been to the Grid before.]

[howexciting]

... I think SAGE saw potential in programs to be rare and valuable and chose from there. I... do not remember what I was, before-- er, pardon, VINCI was, before he was turned into a Crypto. All I know is that Joscelin was assigned to me as a guardian once we were both converted to Cryptos. PHLP came along a little later, but VINCI happily accepted PHLP as his own.

But once we were converted, we were each assigned such different tasks that there was hardly any overlap. Even once SAGE had disappeared and we modified our purposes to combat the Automata, none of us focused on the same thing. I was in charge of finding a vaccine for the corruption; another was in charge of curing it. Still another was in charge of finding some way to tame the feral Automata roaming the Grid, and so on.