Library of Babel

Discovery

One of the Leaked E-mails hinted at a "library" subdirectory:

From: Garnet Reed To: Henrik Tanner Subject: Internal Security Sent: 17 August 2006 06.54pm Well, there's some 'library of something or other' subdirectory off the main path, for example. I only saw it for a split second and I couldn't get into it, but it clearly doesn't belong there, whatever it is.

This led to a hidden page:

http://perplexcityacademy.com/libraryofbabel/

The page has an animated Flash file with an id of "Thunderclap". ("A Combed Thunderclap" is a reference to the Jorge Luis Borges story, "Library of Babel". For more information, see "Puzzle Card Symbols".)

An eye opens, and text slowly appears. A transcript follows. The strikethroughs indicate words that are erased in the animation.

Text

Waking. It was like waking into a new world from a dream of all the old. Or. No. Like opening my eyes although I knew they were already open. For a moment I thought I could see… everything. --- This is not important: I did not kill anyone. I have not killed anyone. Unless by my silence by remaining silent too long. But I can’t. I can’t. --- I must continue in silence because what would I say, how would I convince anyone of what I tell you now? That I did not kill anyone. --- But someone did. --- There are so many possibilities, numberless scenarios and how do I know? How can I know which one is the truth? Like the books in the Library of Babel, each permutation may be the correct one, but is infinitely more likely to be deceptive. A phantom. A dream. --- I thought it was a dream. Or a beautiful simulation of a place I have seen so many times before in photographs or video. I knew it at once: the yellow cars driven along the streets, the steam rising up from the sidewalk gratings. I thought: how marvellous. How real. I stumbled and fell. I grazed my hand and the blood was real and the pain was real and I began to understand. --- I didn’t kill anyone. But someone did. And they’ll be looking for me.

Image Analysis

The two paragraphs before the last have some letters that display before the others. This may be simply a visual effect or it may be a clue.

There are also strange images above the eye, at first they were thought to be kanji. Later arkai discovered that they are just letters turned sideways. These letters seem to spell "Waking" (just like the first word of the animation).

Updated personal Message

On 01-SEP-06, the babel page was updated to show a series of book-ish images, in various forms of hiding. Clikcing the opened book image below the message section takes us to the old message section.

Firstly, the page showed a slew of leaves.

Once cleared, text is plainly visible. There does not appear to be anything else of note at this point.

Then comes the interesting part. After a certain amount of time (about a minute?) the leaves blow away, and the page turns blank. Moving the mouse over the page reveals a new much more hidden message.

Finally, clicking in the upper left corner of the page reveals yet another message. Sometimes, this one is initially slightly obscured by leaves, but is plainly visible.