The AFI Mystery II

This blog is a comprehensive summary of what is being dubbed as the second AFI Mystery. As most of you may know, and some of you that don't know, AFI's first Mystery (Clandestine/Charlotte/Five Flowers) began in late 2005 and ended shortly after, and now this is the second round. As you will see, many questions are still unanswered in this summary, but we have deciphered the codes and unlocked the secrets to the second piece of the never ending puzzle that is, the A Fire Inside Mystery.



Helpful Links:
- Shortened blog on the 2nd AFI Mystery:
http://thisisnotaclue.blogspot.com

- PanasonicYouth, a.k.a Marks summary on this same mystery:
http://buzznet.com/musicnews/afis-mystery-kicks-into-high-j3518431/

- The AFI Mystery Twitter page that posted updates between intervals throughout the second A Fire Inside Mystery:
http://twitter.com/AFImystery


So here we are. What appears to be the second stage along the journey that is the afi mystery/ies. We've come a very long way from '06 when the chapters of the Clandestine mystery were scripted and imprinted in our lives forever. We all remember what it felt like as a community to put facts together, and join the dots to reveal more hints and uncover more clues. We worked hard together as a family with a fire inside our hearts to put the puzzle pieces together .

Well guess what? There's a new puzzle. And now we have to come together once more as fans, friends, and a family more than ever to uncover the secrets and solve the new mystery. I will get to what has sparked the anxiousness and excitement of a new mystery in a moment, but before I state the real evidence, I will first discuss confusion surrounding the opportunity of the continuation of the 'Charlotte Mystery'.


Hoax Thread:
On Monday, December 15th, 2008, a suspicious thread was created on the Despair Faction Message Boards by a board member named TMN. The thread contained a headline with the words 'Rose,Tulip,Orchid,Daisy,Violet'. Of course...the five flowers from the Charlotte Mystery! Three very renowned words were contained in the post; 'Tell Charlotte Nothing.' ...The same exact words tied to the original mystery.

The below image is a direct screenprint of the entire post from http://www.board.despairfaction.com/showthread.php?t=124997:




This lead to mass excitement throughout the boards,
both for old members who had experienced the previous mysteries, and what DF member 'beautifulxusable' defines as 'mystery virgins'. However, the original post was deemed a hoax and the thread was closed; most probably by Gavin; the DF Administrator and friend of the band, who is pressumed to play a big part in the creation of AFI Mysteries as he is the domain registrant to both afireinside.net and board.despairfaction.com/depairfaction.com. Many fake mystery threads of this nature have been created in the past 3 years, and it seems that the main purpose of these threads is to stir up the board and DF members and deceiving them into believing another mystery is underway. All of these threads have since been closed/locked.




The Real Deal:
On Friday the 12th of December 2008, a DF member with the username 'Marc' created a thread alerting fans, board members, and fellow DF members of the strange occurences on the official AFI website, 'afireinside.net' ('ArtemisClydFr0g' and 'zachary' made similar threads but theirs were shut down.)

The below image is a direct screenprint of the entire post from http://despairfaction.com/showthread.php?t=124942:



Marc had speculated that perhaps the website was being reformated and new web templates and webpages were in the works for the release of either the AFI Decemberunderground B-Side EP expected late 2008 (very soon) or the highly anticipated new 8th AFI record expected in March 2009. Many other DF'ers and boardies agreed with this conclusion until afireinside.net went from a plain black homepage to a black background with a small amount of luminousity on the left side of the page. The board and it's members realised that the luminousity would soon reveal an image as the original picture was replaced with a brighter and clearer version shortly after the first blank picture was posted. The file name of the first image was named 01.jpg, followed by two.jpg, iii.jpeg, 4.jpg, Five.jpg and so forth. It is interesting to note that this sequence deciphered is 'numerical, written, letter representative/roman numeral, numerical, written'. If this is a pattern, we can expect the next url of the sixth image to be afireinside.net/images/vi.jpg. This url however, does not work, and rules out any possibility of future images being hosted on the website already.

It is unknown as to when the first 'blank' image (plain black background) was posted on the site but it's current details state that it was last modified on: Monday, 15 December 2008 9:19:12 AM and expires on: Thursday, 18 December 2008 4:02:43 AM

The photos modification and expiration statistics are below:

01.jpg:
Modified: Monday, 15 December 2008 9:19:12 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 4:02:43 AM



two.jpg:
Modified: Tuesday, 16 December 2008 4:17:45 AM
Expires: Wednesday, 17 December 2008 11:28:55 PM



iii.jpg:
Modified: Tuesday, 16 December 2008 10:47:11 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 1:30:17 AM



4.jpg:
Modified: Wednesday, 17 December 2008 3:22:41 AM
Expires: Wednesday, 17 December 2008 11:52:59 PM




Five.jpg:
Modified: Wednesday, 17 December 2008 10:12:59 AM
Expires: Wednesday, 17 December 2008 11:09:59 PM




6.jpg:
Modified: Thursday, 18 December 2008 3:27:06 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 1:21:04 PM




seven.jpg:
Modified: Thursday, 18 December 2008 6:39:38 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 1:03:51 PM



8.jpg:
Modified: Thursday, 18 December 2008 7:09:18 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 1:01:10 PM



nine.jpg:
Modified: Thursday, 18 December 2008 8:55:45 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 1:10:05 PM



learnfromyesterdaylivefortodayhopefor_
theimportantthingisnottostopquestioning.jpg:
Modified: Thursday, 18 December 2008 9:35:25 AM
Expires: Thursday, 18 December 2008 1:24:48 PM





Until the later images were released, many speculated that the first images (01.jpg - 6.jpg) seemed to look like an array of different things. Some suggested water, a tree, people, skulls, and other assorted speculations arose from these theories. The most popular theory was that the image reveals bushes with a light source from behind them. You can see the source of light approaching what seems to be a paddock or grassed area; possibly a park.

Members from the board eventually animate the images at 10fps and 30fps and it becomes evident that the images are frames from a video. We are yet to know what the video is of.


It is also interesting to note that image/frame 10 on afireinside.net
is titled: 'learnfromyesterdaylivefortodayhopefor_
theimportantthingisnottostopquestioning.jpg'.
This is the first full sentence jpg name that we have come across, and the first real affirmation of a clue. Board members quickly figured out that the first half of the name 'learnfromyesterdaylivefortodayhopefor_' written correctly as 'Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for _' is actually a quote from physicist Albert Einstein. The missing word, replaced with an underscore, is 'tomorrow'. The full quote can then be written as 'Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow'. Tomorrow is accepted as the first real, solid clue, and board members try to figure out what this means.

With the acceptance that 'tomorrow' was indeed a clue, Board members expected something to happen on Thursday the 18th of December 2008 according to US EST and time zones differentials. This date is marked as the day after the 10th picture was posted on afireinside.net that gave the clue 'tomorrow'.

It is also noted that the second part of the 10th .jpg's name is apart of the same Einstein quote.
The full quote is 'Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.'



December 18th, 2008:
Over the next few hours things had progressed with lightning speed.
The images from then on were uploaded with file names containing a combination of letters C, L, and V.

Here is a full list of the images posted:

10:50 http://www.afireinside.net/images/01_V.jpg
11:18 http://www.afireinside.net/images/02_LLLL.jpg
11:38 http://www.afireinside.net/images/03_LVL.jpg
12:00 http://www.afireinside.net/images/04_VVV.jpg
12:20 http://www.afireinside.net/images/05_LLV.jpg
12:38 http://www.afireinside.net/images/06_VVL.jpg
01:00 http://www.afireinside.net/images/07_LLLLjpg
01:18 http://www.afireinside.net/images/08_C.jpg

01:28 http://www.afireinside.net/images/LV...LLLVLLCVLL.jpg

http://www.afireinside.net/images/09_VVV.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/10_LLV.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/11_LVL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/12_C.jpg

http://www.afireinside.net/images/13_VLLL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/14_LVLL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/15_L.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/16_L.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/17_VLL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/18_LL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/19_VL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/20_VVL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/21_C.jpg

http://www.afireinside.net/images/22_LVV.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/23_L.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/24_C.jpg

http://www.afireinside.net/images/25_LV.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/26_LVL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/27_L.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/28_C.jpg

http://www.afireinside.net/images/29_VVV.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/30_VL.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/31_L.jpg
http://www.afireinside.net/images/32_LVLVLV.jpg

Here is an animation of all of the images can be found here
(credit to AFI board member killingxlights23)



Noone could figure out what these file names meant until a DF'er called 'Dark.stalchild' made the following discovery:

'Morse code maybe? V = . L = _ for long?

Worth a try i guess.'

Indeed it was.
When you decode the file names, you recieve the message:
'THROUGH OUR BLEEDING WE ARE ONE'

which is a lyric from the song 'Strength Through Wounding' off of AFI's 'Black Sails In The Sunset' Album.

It appears that the DF were working overtime and figured this morse code message out before the pictures were even posted on afireinside.net.
The next image, #33, had the file name 'http://www.afireinside.net/images/LVVCLLVLLCLVLLCVLLCVVVCVLCLCVLLCLVCLVLCVLVCLLLCVCLVCLVLLCVLVLCLLLLCLLLVLLCVLL.jpg'.
Obviously another morse code. When decoded, you get the message 'WELL DONE DARK.STALCHILD'
For the board members brilliant suggestion, 'Darkstalchild' was being congratulated.

Then another clue appeared.
It seems that if you went to the image properties, the file name had changed!
it had gone from 'LVVCLLVLLCLVLLCVLLCVVVCVLCLCVLLCLVCLVLCVLVCLLLCVCLVCLVLLCVLVLCLLLLCLLLVLLCVLL.jpg' or 'WELL DONE DARK.STALCHILD' to 'http://www.afireinside.net/images/wwwafireinsidenetimagesphotomp3jpg.jpg'

Another clue?
but what on earth did this mean?

Upon taking the later part of the url and adding the appropriate amount of slashes and periods you end up with an image titled "www.afireinside.net/images/photomp3.jpg"

User 'Andrew.s' kept rearranging the new url and found an mp3 file within the .jpg filename:
http://www.afireinside.net/images/photo.mp3
It's an instrumental clip of the bridge in 'Bleed Black', just before the breakdown starts.
There are six audible 'beeps' as the track fades, followed by the fadeout of said beeps.

This is another clue, but what could it mean?

We thought all hope was lost until we thought about an original clue;
"The important thing is not to stop questioning."
Board members kept leaving thoeries and what if's on the despair faction message boards when the AFI mainsite webmaster named Theory (not Gavin) uploaded three images that followed the 'morse code images', but these three images were not hosted on the AFI mainsite.
These pictures contained the filenames:
'thenextframe.jpg', 'theoneafterthat.jpg', and 'begin.jpg'.






Meanwhile, the AFI homepage image has changed once more, to an image with filename 't.jpg'.




The board members soon figure out that the dash on the middle of the image represents the letter 'T', hence the file name.

The homepage image changes once more, to an image with the filename 'nanosimsirs.jpg'



The text in the middle of the image says 'WHERE ARE YOU?', backwards.

DF Member and long time board user Mark, a.k.a 'panasonicyouth' realised that the last two file names must be joined together and form an annagram. 'nanosimsirs' = 'ransmission' + 't' = 'transmission'. Add the previous filename before that and you get 'begin transmission'.

Another image on the AFI website is posted. This time it is the "WHERE ARE YOU?" text, printed the correct way with the filename "http://begintransmission.afireinside.net/images/joinus.jpg"
The image turns out to be a link, and when you click on the link the page redirects to "http://begintransmission.afireinside.net/"
the new AFI website.



The mystery is solved! ...and the prize?
The opportunity to sing backing vocals on AFI's highly anticipated 8th new studio album expected mid 2009.