Recap / The Wall Will Fall: Act 1

September 17th: The game begins.

• The Grave Announcement appears as a banner on TV Tropes, which is linked to the video: [1].
• "Quick Update" [2]: Joe gets his first threatening letter.
• Troper activity:
  • Tropers create the thread to complain about the dramatic nature of the "grave" announcement. It eventually becomes the ARG thread.
  • Tropers are musing on TV Tropes ARG page. Somebody was leaving hints to Zalgo there. It was later changed to "Please reveal the truth", but it was edited out by Dana with a comment that it's unrelated to the ARG.
  • Tropers gradually tune in and start playing. Meanwhile, the date changes.

September 18th

• "WTF: Watch The Footage - Episode 4". [3] (Cerberus, Plague doctors)
• Dana has announced: "This ARG won't involve edits to the wiki pages past making announcements."
• Tropers are still arguing and watching videos, starting to speculate.

September 19th: tropers start planting Epileptic Trees.

• Tropers begin to analyze Joe's videos:
  • Chainmail Dude: a guy in a chainmail walks into an elevator, minding his own business. This Character turns out to be Don Quixote.
    • No hidden content
    • Theories:
      1. Edward I
  • Sparkly figure (Date in Park): some sparkly man runs past a couple in a park.
    • No hidden content
    • Theories:
      1. Twilight vampire
      2. Link
      3. Mario or just somebody with an invincibility powerup.
      4. Somebody running away from fairies.
  • Mermaid (High-contrast version): a mermaid-like figure just barely captured by the video.
    • No hidden content
    • Theories:
      1. A mermaid
      2. A kitsune
      3. A merrow
  • Suited figure: a tall (still, not unnaturally tall) man in a nice suit with an umbrella.
    • Sent by Steve; no more information about the sender.
    • No hidden content
    • Theories:
      1. Slender Man. Somewhat undermined by the figure's more natural height and the umbrella. Still, the most popular theory.
      2. A vampire.
      3. Rorschach
      4. Death figure from Edward Gorey's "Gashlycrumb Tinies" [4]◊ (Suggested at 24th September)
  • Cerberus: a badly distorted video with a 3-headed dog guarding a door.
    • Sent from the email "|[e-mail]2" (yes, it does not make sense) - may be read as "I hate dog too" / "I hate dogs".
    • This was later shown to be sent by CHESHIRE CAT, which kind of explains it not making sense.
  • Plague doctors: two people drive around the neighbourhood and notice the two (?) plague doctors. One of them tips a hat to them.
    • Joe has mentioned "Thanks to Zack for the other video", probably meaning that one.
    • Somebody has found suspicious that the girl mentions "all the flowers out here", as no flowers are seen in the video.
    • No hidden content.
    • Theories:
      1. Together with the Slender Man, somebody has noticed connections to the Fear Mythos.

September 20th

• rEALITY eNDS is found watching Mr. Administrator's account (I think). Everyone is busy with the videos, and pays no attention so far.
• Tropers are analyzing the Cerberus video further.
  • After frame-by-frame analysis, 3 sets of hidden letters were found: [5]◊. The phrase was read as "@A clever yam and cooked bat".
  • Cheshire Cat has reacted to the phrase, and linked to the thread in his twitter.
  • After a pause, a suggestion was made to separate the letters by font. It resulted in "@Averymadcat" and "CleanoOkedB". The first one turned out to be Cheshire Cat's twitter account. Cheshire Cat is found.
• When asked about "CleanoOkedB", the Cheshire Cat dismissed it as leftover nonsense. [6]
• When asked about the Plague Doctors, the Cheshire Cat tweets a piece of Doctor Foster rhyme. [7]
• The tropers are not sure what to do with the Cheshire Cat and start analyzing the Joe's cat video.
  • Dryunya is messing around with the audio. Separating the audio channels, he finds what he thinks is screaming "Help", and freaks out. Still, the neither the audio, nor the video did not contain any clues.
  • The screaming is dismissed by tropers as "meow". After a while, the video is forgotten.
• Meanwhile, rEALITY is brought up once again, and starts to interact with the tropers.
  • Somebody has noticed similarities between rEALITY and Joe. It was supposed that rEALITY is Joe's Superpowered Evil Side, which has appeared after Joe cracked the 4th wall.
  • At one point, he speaks with the Cheshire Cat, appending a #wOOF hashtag. Before that, he was showing interest in finding the cat. The tropers have began hatching a theory that he might be Cerberus from the video, and it just went downhill from there.
  • Cheshire Cat has noticed that the tropers are taking too much interest in rEALITY, and dropped a vague hint that he is an imposter. The tropers didn't get the hint, but distracted and went reviewing older videos.
• Chainmail Dude = Edward I hypothesis is proposed.

September 21st

• Mr. Administrator acknowledges the discovery of the Cheshire Cat, and points out that there are no persons of interest at that time (another attempt to get the game back on track). [8]
• @DewdropsDoSeek attracts attention as another follower of the characters. Gets dismissed pretty quickly, as she was following an account obtained by blatant WMG. Still, sticks around.
• Mr. Administrator tweets that the destruction of the fourth wall may have grave consequences for both worlds. Or it may not. [9]
• Chit-chat with the Cheshire Cat.
• Mr. Administrator dismissed the cat video as "Just a video about his cat, with terrible music". [10]
• Mr. Administrator tweets that we have proved our usefullness, and that the next assignment is coming. [11]
• It is noted that Mr. Administrator sidesteps the questions about the reasons and location of the wall's decay.
• Joe responds to the flood of emails & comments. [12] (I have intermittent Youtube access, please correct and update if anything is wrong):
  • Shocked at the new wave of subscribers.
  • Refuses to forward the email from the Cheshire Cat as asked, citing privacy, but promises to make everything public domain from now on.
  • Apparently has seen Mr. Administrator's announcement and the thread. Denies to be a part of ARG - "why would anyone make an ARG about me?"
• Mr. Administrator has requested physical tropers' addresses, so send "physical spam" (sic!). [13]
• Updating on the addresses, Mr. Admisistrator said that giving the them was not neccessary, and the physical materials are "merely supplemental". The confusion was written on instantiation 06-15-15-12 ("FOOL"), which was promptly taken care of. [14]
• Mr. Administrator replied to the word "Gurt" with mad laughter. [15]
• @Gate2Wonderland was noted for following the characters. Not acting for now.
• "WTF: Watch The Footage - Episode 5". [16] (Joe receives another warning letter, Cinderella breaks into reality)
  • The last line of letter explicitly said "Desine iam nec mori". First assumed to be Japanese, it's Latin for "Stop now or you shall die".
  • The Cinderella video was noted for having no sound, but no hidden content was found.
• rEALITY was suspected to be the sender of the death threat.
• After an extended cryptic twitter conversation, rEALITY has sent a jigsaw puzzle◊. The name (Twelfth Labor) has been attributed to Hercules myths (note that the twelfth labour of Hercules was the capturing of Cerberus).
  • Everyone is busy reconstructing the image.
  • The assembled image◊ shows Cerberus with text "We are all slaves to these laws. rEALITY has cemented himself as Cerberus by now.
• Alice was put into the equation, as she was thought to be the guardian of the 4th wall gate. The tropers are trying to understand the big picture. Lots of Epileptic Trees.
• @OneirosObserver has entered the picture, being the one-man Omniscient Council of Vagueness. Minds are starting to crack.
• Dana is forced to announce that the characters not acknowledged by Mr. Administrator within 24 hours of their discovery are not related to the ARG. This leaves Cheshire Cat as the only fictional character found so far.
  • Soon after, rEALITY has confessed to being another player.
• The tropers are ashamed and are busy sorting the information.
• The tropers start analyzing the Cinderella video, for no avail.

September 22nd

• Joe has agreed to scan the letters. He couldn't give Sarah's contacts, but she mentioned that Cinderella incident happened somewhere in New York.
• The Cheshire Cat is starting to play riddles.
  1. "A little bit of this, a little more of that, I'm at the start of all, and in the middle of a cat". Answer: "A". [17]
  2. "One day I may find myself waffling about, but I know that if I do, I'll find myself quite stout". Answer: "Belgian". [18] (That was a hard one) The cat has left, and the tropers are starting to put the phrase together and look for Belgian fictional characters. A Thread Hopper has mentioned Hercule Poirot for the first time.
  3. "A new type of riddle. My goodness, are you impressed? Oh, what a flexible form. Never boring. Guess, guess!" Answer: "Among" (assembled from the capital letters). [19]
  4. "What do absinthe, theology, and aesthetics have in common?" Answer: "The". Duh. [20]
  • At that point, "A Belgian among the..." was googled, and blog titled "A Belgian among the English" was found and examined. The username "saintofdeduction", as well as other facts (heritage, moustache, deduction, etc) suggested Hercule Poirot again.
    • Mr. Administrator acknowledges the discovery of the blog.^metagaming we totes broke sequence on that one! ^__^
    • A stray placeholder post (that was soon deleted) has explicitly pointed to Poirot as the owner. Hercule Poirot is found.
    • A similarity was noted between cat's twitter ("I am a cat with too much time on my paws") and Poirot's blog ("I am just a short little man with too much time on his hands").
    • The blog states that Claire Widdecombe provides the house to Poirot. She is assumed to be a real person, but nothing particular was found.
• Cheshire Cat suggests trying to guess his riddle, now that the answer was found. No results (and probably no point). [21]
• Out of the blue, a suggestion is made to create new fictional characters to guard the wall. Mr. Administrator accepts the idea. The stories are to be mailed to him ([e-mail]). [22]
  • Busy, multiple-page-spanning discussion on the subject.
  • The name "metaguards" becomes generally accepted for the 4th wall guardians.
  • Mr. Administrator asked not to write about the cracks in the wall, because that may produce more cracks. [23]
• A person at Unfiction receives a message from Mr Administrator saying the spam package will contain three items of importance. [24]

September 23rd

• "puppets.mp4" [25] is published on Joe's account. Joe's whereabouts are unknown. Tropers are attempting to contact him and his friend, who turned up in comments to "WTF: Watch The Footage - Episode 4".
• Somewhere about that time, the scanned (photographed) letters were◊ found◊ (but were uploaded before the puppets). The only thing definite so far is that the handwriting is different in both of them. The first one also appears to be written in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe style.
• Analyzing the puppets video:
  • Video is pretty usual by itself, but the left puppet's eye is moving.
  • The audio is a series of beeps and clicks, and was first associated with Morse Code. And extended analysis proved inconclusive, and was eventually stopped. The alledged message in audio is still not found.
  • The background noise in "puppets.mp4" is speculated to be SSTV. This is probably a dead end.
  • The puppets in "puppets.mp4" are discovered to be versions of Spejbl and Hurvinek◊, a famous Czech comedy duo.
• The puppet video was tweeted by @TVTropesNews and Tom (note that Tom is not in character).
• Victin has played a game of riddles with the Cheshire Cat: if the cat can't solve the riddle in time, he disclosed his location. The cat agrees.
  • The riddle is as follows: "*drinks tea* A tricky cat, you are. What could I give you? In the end, literally, geez. what am I doing? emiTelddiR#"
  • The cat loses, and, being true to the deal, tweets that he is on Earth. [26]
• Hercule Poirot posts in his blog about his landlord's cat dying. It is speculated that this is somehow related to the Cheshire Cat, but he was confirmed to be tweeting after the post went up.
• Joe posts WTF episode 6.
  • Joe looks worried, talks in half-whisper close to the camera, wears no glasses. The video contains several cut-outs right in Joe's speech.
  • He is freaked out by the letters he's been getting. He refuses to open the new ones, though, because "whatever is happening with these characters is cool and scary, and these letters are boring and stupid."
  • He confirms that "puppets.mp4" is his: it was taken at a trip to an antique shop in Prague and says that the video was actually the reason he started the web series.
  • At 2:10, a sound can be heard, that some tropers have interpreted as Joe's cat meowing. Cheshire Cat reacts to it with "Methinks I heard another cat..." [27]
• Mr. Administrator imposes a time limit on writing the metaguards, as the cracks in the wall are widening. [28]
• Tropers are back to work on the guardians.
• Due to a typo (Limited -> Limeted), the concept of Lime Man is born. He quickly becomes the ARG's Memetic Badass. ("Protecting the Fourth Wall one fictional character at a time with an array of citrus-based weaponry")
• It is noted that Zack hasn't been tweeting since September 13th.
• twelfth works out the man in "WTF: Watch The Footage - Episode 3" is from Gashlycrumb Tinies. [29]◊

September 24th

• First metaguards are being submitted.
• Hercule Poirot posts that he has found a mouse, that presumably died around the same time as the cat. Both the cat and the mouse have no external wounds, the cause of death remains unknown. [30]
• The Cheshire Cat asks a riddle: "Six in seven you can feed me, Just raise my arm so they can see, Until empty my belly be. What am I?". Answer: "Mailbox". [31]
• The folks at Unfiction receive the first of the spam packages. [32]
  • The sender of the package is Mark Wallnau, Zack's dad.
  • The package contains:
    • A letter from Mark [33]◊. In his letter, Mark says that he is sending the packages as per the instructions of his ex-employer (Mr. A). He specifically mentions to trust Mr. Administrator at his own risk, as he is a Manipulative Bastard. That bit is written by hand, as Mark says Mr. Administrator would know if he typed it.
    • A CD with the following contents:
      1. a message from Mr. Administrator (that seems to be identical to the grave announcement). Mark wrote in his letter that Mr. Administrator may have included cryptic messages in it.
      2. Series of images (see the analysis below).
    • A comic book with the same images.

September 25th

• Analyzing the images (see the Shards page)
• The phrases "in the neverending void" and "a bright white light" were assembled from sets of numbers in the image file names, supporting the theory that they are to form a sentence. Together they encompass all image names yet received.
• Mr. Administrator tweets that the early packages are "for recruitment purposes". Those already involved are going to get additional materials. [34]
• Mr. Administrator notices Mark's hand-written note in his letter, and is not amused. [35]
• Cheshire Cat tweets "Oh deary me, I'm in pieces. #whoshatteredthelookingglass". This probably confirms that the orange cat in the comic is him. [36]
• The Cheshire Cat answers to a music video sent to him with a link to the Frontier Psychiatrist music video. This has turned out to be Foreshadowing (see below).
• Gurt the Lime-man is submitted as the guardian. And There Was Much Rejoicing.
• Joe posts "WTF: Watch The Footage - Episode 7" [37].
  • The video only contains information about more threat letters. Joe is frustrated, but is not going to stop. (Again, Joe is not wearing glasses.) The letters are:
    • "Back off".
    • "Leave us alone".
    • "You are on thin ice".
    • "You press your luck". This letter gets some screen time - the paper seems to be of low quality.
    • "Welcome to Hogwarts". There is more to the letter (the other side also contains text), but Joe doesn't read it.
• Cheshire Cat said that he sent the Hogwarts letter as a joke. He also mentions some "mean, mean people" that write to Joe again. [38]
• Theory: the characters from the other side of the wall are running from something (possibly dangerous to the fictional world itself). The letters are from those who don't want to be returned.
• 2 new posts from Hercule Poirot. [39], [40]
  • The cat's and mouse's death was a gas leak from a pipe leading to a stove in an abandoned part of the building. It turned out that Arthur Lincoln (real name Jack Mason), a staff member, was making crack in the house's basement in industrial quantities. He was arrested soon after being exposed.
  • Some politics: Poirot is compelled to reply on a political paper by Pieter Verhaeren. (Add if you find anything relevant)
• Metaguard submission is closed. [41]
• "16-5-18-22 (PERV) INSISTS THAT A SWIMSUIT COMPETITION SHOULD BE A PART OF THE INTERVIEW PROCESS. MOTION DENIED." [42]
• Forum members have agreed to make the full title of the game "The Wall Will Fall", after the original Easter Egg.
• Just for Fun, the tropers are transforming into their metaguard-selves.

September 26th

• Feetontheceiling [43] and his/her (edit) friend [44] both receive a package with the following contents:
  • The envelope with a faint image of Mr. Administrator on it. Feetontheceiling's had a hand-written "225" on it: [45]◊ (It seems to be a postal marking, as other envelopes have nothing of the kind)
  • Everything from the first package - the shards and their image names are identical to the unfiction package. Mark's letter is a little different, but the gist remains unchanged. The handwritten note is there, too.
  • A piece of paper containing a URL fragment. These are different in both letters. See the Shards page for all fragments found to date.
• More packages start to arrive. The tropers are assembling the URL.
• Zack retweets a post linked to an interview of the Echo Chamber team[46]. It's mostly about seasons 1 & 2, and no definite information about the ARG.
• Hercule Poirot has posted about him becoming a private detective after his success with the cat's "case" [47]. The tropers have already requested him to investigate Cheshire Cat and Joe's videos.

September 27th

• Shards page is created, containing the comic and URL fragments.
• Theory: the the comicbook image file names are supposed to be read as "Bright white light in the neverending void", thus making the package self-sufficient. Therefore, there aren't going to be any new comicbook shards (so far, all the tropers were receiving duplicate ones).
• The Wall Will Fall ARG page is up as a placeholder.
• More packages are arriving.
• Not expecting to receive any more comic book shards (they were identical so far), the tropers are starting to assemble the ones they have, besides the URL pieces.
• Mr. Administrators is requesting some tropers' confirmation to release their metaguard fiction under Creative Commons not-for-profit license. No word on the chosen ones so far.
• Hercule Poirot responds to the Cheshire Cat and Joe investigation requests in a dismissive way.
• New blog post from Poirot [48]. He is going to attend Pieter Verhaeren's (the man who he was so angry at in his last post) lecture at King’s College London to give him "a piece of his mind". Google returns nothing discernible on Pieter Verhaeren's name.

September 28th

• Adell farts around with pieces of a URL for 5 hours.
• The comicbook shards have been assembled in every conceivable way. It is confirmed that when assembled as-is, the comic says "User: WTF Average Joe".
  • Speculations about whether or not Joe is related to the cracks in the wall.
• The tropers get more suspicious about Mr. Administrator, and start wondering if the metaguards are subject to misuse.
• Hercule Poirot blogs about his new case: a missing person named Leslie Okogwu.
• Some progress is made in assembling the URL: [49]◊. First attempts to guess the address are made, unsuccessfull so far.
• The guardians have been chosen [50], and their leader is none other than Gurt the Lime Man (backed by instantiation 05-07-07-19 (EGGS)).
• Joe posts an announcement:
  • He has received the same comic book as everyone, and is angry for "directing everyone right at him". (?)
  • That, along with 97 threatening letters, has scared him into getting the hell out of dodge.
  • In the meantime, he has set up a new forum for news, speculation, and general weirdness.
  • Joe is not going to stop, as seeing his life threatened made him realize that what he's doing really is important.
• There is some confusion about whether or not to abandon the thread for the newly-opened forum.
• The tropers note that Mr. Administrator is becoming increasingly quirky.
• Dana tweets "And so it begins" [51], and Cheshire Cat tweets that "The curtain falls on Act One" soon after [52].

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