The Cowgirl met the mysterious W. Carrington

The Cowgirl met the mysterious W. Carrington when he rambled innto Ghosttown. He was already an old man, deadset on dying young. “Them days is overr,” The Cowgirl thought to hersself: “Longgone.” 

The Cowgirl && Carrington often sat inn Silverrors Saloon at the end of days, talk’N. Truth be told, Carrington always did most the talk’N. Like a summerr rain. Scattered showerrs. She sat & listened. Asked him a question err two err’now’N then. Just like when he rambled inn to town, he rambled now through his thoughts. “Many precious gems, I have” he said wit no remorse. Repeating himself. “Many a precious gems.” Straightfaced for poker, but they were just passing time. At the bar, drink’N drinks, not playing games. Err so she thought. Mayhaps he thought otherrwise. Who can say? Who knows what folks are think’N. The same. Err’ different.

At times. Playing games. At the end. 

Times. A game. 

Tells stories of, 

‘N then who should walk inn through that door…

“W. Carrington” she said to him, emphasizing the “W” for him. “Yes, indeed!” he smiled back, “many gems” he mumbled on, “many gems.” Trails off. Whiskey running innto hardwood, forming  little rivers of spilt drinks. Overr the years, “Then again,” he started off on another idea, and she felt that familiar feeling being here wit him, at the bar, in the saloon, like standing at the mouth of a riverr: looks small… at the start. Until The Riverr runs. Then ya git carried away…

W.Carrington, [434c495050494e47]

“W.Carrington, 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown) Telegraph Operator, has taken to an uncomfortable habit of wearing a deep-sea-diving-helmet during work hours at the Trainstation as Spirits will witness. While working the telegraph W.Carrington is oft to say that such measures are needed when "connecting The Phantasmagrapheme Metamachine across a vasty tingleTangle." To much consternation and dismay, communicating wit said telegraph operator, W.Carrington as it were, is quite impossible for those at the station during these busy hours. Furthermore, W.Carrington can be heard repeating strange incantations over the copper wires. The flickerr'ing sounds of a vision: An incandescent inscription of an “open-ended experimental assemblage,” (apparently being transcoded innto book-form by W.Carrington these days) called "mechanicalInterventions: The Artificially Illustrated Glitch Western Primer for Machine Learnerrs." W.Carrington considerrs this endeavor more important than collecting the exploding tickets of trains, announcing arrival times for softmachines, or keeping departure schedules on the nova express trilogy combined!”

Reported by Miss Liberty Starlight inn the 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown) Community Archives section of The Mercury Herald Newspaper, as published by Eadweard Ibáñez Guedea (circa 183X-6X?, exact date unknown)

A one of one inn a series of archival newspaper clippings, carefully folded and preserved on brittle microphotographs, precious pieces of plastics tucked innside that strangebook: mechanicalInterventions.
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1DgWtehNmmQEfJHJKxbJAjJdEcfaUg9T4L/104

telegraph Signals [Sent]
"You a sender?" W. Carrington asked at The Station.
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1JZ2FPWc7qEC8N5QEjfJsxPBCBHNoTu4wS/5

[ERROR]

telegraph Signals [Received]
"You a receiver?" W. Carrington asked at The Station.
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1JZ2FPWc7qEC8N5QEjfJsxPBCBHNoTu4wS/4

[SING'ERR]

Telegraph wires sang
“Their song ist secure && encrypted files transmitted via copper wires,” W. Carrington said at The Station. From the 鬼鎮 (Ghosttown) Glitch Western.
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1JZ2FPWc7qEC8N5QEjfJsxPBCBHNoTu4wS/6

SEE ALSO:

"A preview of an as-yet unannounced character, the mysterious James B. Carington.

The Mysterious James B. Carington

There are six companions in Kentucky Route Zero, characters who Conway encounters along the road and who end up joining him in the quest to make his final delivery. All six of these folks have their own detailed backgrounds, motivations and circumstances, and their own reasons for accompanying Conway. So far, we've only really shown you two of them: Ezra, the boy raised by eagles, and Junebug, the robot musician. This month, we'd like to give you a brief sketch of another of Conway's companions: James B. Carington.

Carington is a classic "mountain man" -- a kind of trailblazing explorer best known for leading the charge during the mid-to-late 19th century expansion of European settlers into the American west. But his explorations might predate American westward expansion -- by the stories he tells, he's been travelling the world for centuries, seeking out different cultures and learning their secrets. At some point he seems to have picked up a recipe for extreme longevity. Or maybe he's just a teller of tall tales. Either way, he'll have a lot of lore, pseudo-scientific techniques, and anecdotal evidence to share with anyone who will listen.

The inspiration and model for James B. Carington comes from two historical figures. The first is James Pierson Beckwourth, an African American mountain man from the mid-19th century. Beckwourth is probably most famous for having written an autobiography which details several historic events at which he happened to be present. The book also earned him a reputation as a bit of an exaggerator, or at worst an outright liar. But later historians discovered that many of his disputed claims, fantastic as they may have been, were actually closer to the truth than anyone had thought.

The second inspiration for James B. Carington is the English parapsychologist Whately Carington. "Parapsychology," if you're not familiar with the term, is a field of study concerned with paranormal phenomena and the human mind. We've mentioned before that we've taken a lot of inspiration from another friend of ours, Jon Cates , with whom we developed a different game about Mammoth Caves few years ago. The interest in Whately Carington is another of those inspirations -- Jon has studied Carington's theories in depth and explored them in some of his art projects . We won't get too deep into the theories of W. Carington in this newsletter, but suffice it to say that he was most concerned with the invisible and immeasurable connections between people's minds, and that some of his theories are poetically quite beautiful.

Conway and friends don't encounter James B. Carington until pretty late in the story, but he's able to lead them on a tour back through many of the areas they've already explored, offering new insights and accessing new secrets.

More soon!

jake+tamas"

AS RECORDED INN: KRZ Newsletter archive
2011 Oct -- The Mysterious James B. Carington
http://kentuckyroutezero.com/pub/newsletter-archive/2011-oct-kentucky-route-zero-update-9.html

Kentucky Route Zero - Cardboard Computer (2011)
http://kentuckyroutezero.com/