USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FIFTH ASSIGNMENT- 'The Pagoda'

Listen, everyione is on the verge of dying. Azrael couldn't give two hoots about his identity. That would have been far more suitable for the last game.

Don;t overcomplicate or get too conceptual- just had to fend off Lana asking if the enemy was death itself. Good Lord.

If I was writing a Prophecy for Melkor I probably wpould make it intellectual and obscure, But most of you just are not intertested in that level of philosophical analysis. And look at the ones from the films- dead simple!

Lana has printed all the important material; there is one line Melitus gave to Azrael last time which also has a bearing but I'd be surprised if you pick it up.

But please... keep it simple and strishgtforward.

Shush, you.

And I'm not even going to bother looking for a line from Melitus last time as I didn't read any of that stuff before and wouldn't have the first idea as to what to look for.

Okay, so important things. Jericho says that to fight him is to die, which is true as he can't die so he'd just defeat us by default. Azrael's prophecy says that the fight of his life will pass - meaning that it WON'T kill him. I took this to mean that we're not actually fighting Jericho but Ush said that's an incorrect conclusion.

So that conclusion we need to figure out.

The other idea I have is that the illness will not actually kill him (the 'you'll not have a scratch' part of it), but I don't think that's it either. It doesn't really fit with anything else.

Also "What could be another name for your last fight" - needs an answer.

Gosh, you are just confusing issues by askin that last question out loud by that. That should be answered before you consider that stuff above it.

There's also one possible answer to the first problem you pose.

And I finally worked it out, and it was very simple and I feel dumb that it took me so long to figure out.

The Oracle asked what another name for Azrael's final fight - it would be the fight of his life, which is from his prophecy (which in whole says that the fight of his life will pass and he will not have a mark). Jericho says that to fight him is to die. Thus fighting Jericho would be his final fight - the fight of his life. Yet it happens without him getting a single mark.

So.

Jericho will kill anyone who fights him except Azrael, the Oracle says.

And I'm done with that. Call me again when we need a battle plan or something ermm

Yay for Lana, that's better than any of the stuff I came up with (except the doodles of the TARDIS around the sides of the page that I did when I was stuck thinking 😛)

...

What else do we need to continue, now?

Probably Trick.

I have no ideas other than agreeing with what Lana came up with.

Well, I know that what I came up with is right as I was discussing it with Ush while trying to decode everything 😛

Even so, Trick probably needs to voice his agreement or put up anything he wants to add.

Trick indeed.

So I get to fight Jericho? Or have I already done that?

Well, it all seems pretty clear, and undoubtedly Azrael sees the sense behind it. I just am not sure what exactly to reply to Melitus with.

"I don't see what the relevance of this is to our current situation, Melitus. We can talk and talk, but eventually you will have to decide whether or not to do as we are asking."

(I know that's a bit of a cop-out, but I really am not sure what to say. I mean, working out all the stuff about the prophecy still doesn't seem to have a direct effect on the conversation.)

"You never can see what is relevant. That is..."

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"... why you so often find yourselves at a..."

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"... disadvantage. It is why you cannot understand why I am..."

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"... as I am, even though I showed you. Remember the waterfall, Azrael."

Heph technically wasn't there, but I remember the waterfall...

I don't...

I don't remember the specifics, but Melitus presented the Philosophy team with a chicken, one of his henchmen, and a waterfall. He asked which was more complicated to create. The correct answer was the waterfall; a chicken is simplistic in its impulses and predictable, his henchman is more or less mindless, but the waterfall program was the most complicated and most difficult due to the requirement of the falling of water to be completely random.

"Randomness. The truest enemy to the Machine mind. The..."

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"... answer about me, and also very important indeed to you..."

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"... now. As for my decision, I have none to make. it is already..."

hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"... made."

There is a click sound, and the glass panels draw back, giving you freedom of movement.

"I was simply awaiting the end of the disinfection process."

"Is our code all screwed up again?" Ares asks, annoyed.

"So what effect has your disinfection process have on us this time?"

"None. It was entirely for my benefit."

"Are you saying you've been trying to create some sort of anarchy within the system?" asks Azrael, unconcerned about the nature of the disinfection.

(I'm aware this could be totally wrong.)