via Niantic Project​


via Niantic Project​

+Hank Johnson shares the story of when he tried to track down +enoch dalby in the wake of the #Shonin XM incident.

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Originally shared by Hank Johnson

I was looking back over some old G+ posts I made -- back from when I was trying to track down the researchers who disappeared during #Shonin. Turns out I never shared the story of what happened when I went looking for Niantic's resident musical genius.

It wasn’t hard to find enoch dalby, but it was impossible to talk to him. When I found him, he was in a marathon session at a venerated studio (can’t disclose location) that seemed to be emitting extremely high levels of XM.  (At the time, I was still getting used to my new post-simulacrum state... I think I was more sensitive to Portals than I used to be, and the high dose exposure at the studio was making me lose focus and start thinking about the future). 

Anyway, as I stood in the engineer booth, it felt more like I was at a space launch or watching a surgery than a recording.  enoch was in a room across from me, practically possessed (which, to be fair, was how he often seemed when playing). He appeared to be almost glowing, but I wasn't sure if that was just the XM interfering with my perception. I also realized that the XM around me was reacting to the music, was it being channeled? Maybe...

I kept looking for someone to talk to. I didn't want to disturb enoch, he looked like he was in the 7th layer of a deep trance, rocking his body to the music, his fingers dancing between keyboards and a myriad of other electronic equipment. At one point, I saw him using what I took to be an experimental synthesizer that he conducted with a light wand, tracing what I knew to be Glyph patterns. I would say it was weird except it wasn't really weirder than everything else about the place.

All of a sudden, I felt Carrie standing beside me. I turned to look, and of course there was no-one there, but I swear I felt her, and I kept feeling her as I stared at the empty space. Was the music pulling her in? Man, the XM in this place were really getting to my head.

Just then, a producer walked into room. I shook off the strangeness and said I was there to see enoch. He gave me a flat look and simply said 'dalby's not here.' I stared back at the man, slack-jawed. enoch was clearly in the room right across from both of us, bobbing his head to the tune. I pointed and shook my head, raising my eyebrows. The laconic producer simply shrugged and led me out of the booth through a hallway plastered in faded and peeling concert tour art.

He opened a door and I stepped into the room where 'enoch' was playing and gently tapped him on the shoulder. Well, I tried to. Nothing. A hologram. 

'Performance art piece. Music's from an algorithm he was working on. And then the hologram and projection stuff,' the producer said. Then he looked me over again. 'If you find him tell him to call me. And tell him daitomatiks sent this for him. Said he was grateful for the advice.' He handed me a USB key and then he left.

As I was leaving, he, enoch the hologram, looked at me and began playing something like an elegy -- or at least that’s how I took it.  It was fitting given the morbid nature of what lay ahead.

I can't find that USB key now. I'll see if I can track it down in the stacks of old things and share its contents here, since I doubt I'll be seeing enoch anytime soon.

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