Brandon Lachmann: The Fourth Fragment: General

[deedust]

I think the word choice is important. On the home page I saw the word discovered but only the ‘discover’ part was actually a link. Here’s each word that is linked. I’m also notice some slight changes were made to the text. A phrase about the parents losing Brandon’s backpack a year later has been dropped. May have to look closer at the unlinked text too.

Homepage:
approach
share
Grief
immediately
son
missing
discover
Months
limbo
though
found
begin
though
found
begin
pain
discover
story
closure
circumstances
Brandon’s short life
journey
time
Every step
direction
Every step
home ghosts
keeping Brandon alive
website
favorite books
perfect way
mother

Brandon’s Story:
Brandon’s
high school
city
Delancey
demolishing
point
teacher
fall
engrossed
mechanics
surrounded
encourage
fifth
leather bookmark
idea
heaven
afternoon
telling
fantastical
changed
Spring
calls
skipping
sociable
inward
restless
never enough
days
writing
stories
Stories
share
space
older
grade
maturing
beginning
difficult
kid
withdraw
distracted
Halloween
crazy
search
nothing
someone
holding
system
run
trying
day
scoured
break
record
returned
missing
bookmark
hidden subway station
Hall
chapter
questions
writing
become
unwell
unwilling
admit
escape
body
trapped
tunnel
his backpack
contents
kept
lost
move on
time
accept

Brandon’s Worlds:
Worlds
imaginative
greatest love
books
something
Unbound
you
what
characters
writings
playing and creating
games
passion
always
flights
character
built
version
role
grown
successful
designer
author
sketches
notebook
forest
perfect
feeling
thirty
made of glass
darker
darker
times
consume
completely
vision
almost
touch
would
then
me
helping
bring
back
make
clearer

Advice on Grief:
on
grief
highs
station
stopping
ride
recognized
happening
familiar
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Denial
Depression
cycle
bargain
reading
stages
guide
loss
help
grieve
strategy
reached out
friends
finding

Coping with Grief and Loss - HelpGuide.org

better
support
people
pride
strong
loved
shoulder
funeral
tradition
mourning
provide
faith
wake
community
bereavement
hosptials
therapist
grief
professional
grief
therapist
emotions
obstacles
Unresolved
anxiety
tangible
creative
journal
loved
connected
numb
feel
judgment
cry
moments
let go
triggers
normal
relatives
milestone
helpful
surrounded
darker
see clearly

[Leigha]

That’s what I was thinking. It’s almost like subtext, someone using his mom’s words to deliver their own message to us.
I wrote them down in chunks out of the paragraphs they were in, and I get things like this:
Halloween
crazy
search
nothing
someone holding
somehow
run

body
trapped
tunnel
his backpack
contents
kept
lost

Home
ghosts
keeping Brandon alive

website
favorite books
perfect way
mother

these seem like fragmented sentences to me, someone trying to communicate… directions? what we’re supposed to do, where we’re supposed to be looking, what happened,

[Leigha]

Bear with me here. One theory is that Brandon somehow had one of the lost books and was trying to do magic, but something may have gone wrong. We all were “sorted” into our “houses” by the book, and we all have our own magical predispositions, talents, interests, etc. that impact the kinds of magics we use and how we use them. My point is, Brandon loved RPGs, right? Helen Wilde was an artist and was supposed to have learned how to make paintings into portals she could walk through.

greatest love
books
something
Unbound
you
what
characters
writing
playing and creating
games
passion
character
built
version
role

game
successful
designer
sketches
notebook

What if Brandon’s magic “spell” was some kind of role playing game he invented (game successful). Maybe the key to it is in his sketches, like the map.

[Randomiser]

I think I noticed another date discrepancy. Under “Brandon’s Story” his mom writes

• It was this simple world that Brandon was born into in the fall of ’76.

Yet on the front page she says

• Brandon would have been 11 years old on November 13th, 1986

If this were true, he would have been born in 1975, not '76.
This would match up with the newspaper timeline where he was born and died a year earlier, so perhaps she has leftover memories.

[deedust]

The statement on the home page about his birthday was changed. Here’s the original text:

And the new text:

His birth season changed too:

An ‘a’ was added:

Bit about school:

The bag being lost:

[Valdione]

Yeah I tried both those methods too. I think Leigha is correct though. Although skully and I have considered the possibilities that either the word frequency gives us some clue like the word discover showing up repeatedly or that words that are repeated are to be discounted as red herrings.

@Leigha. So here’s a translation of the text for the theory that the links make a message

Home page

Approach , share , grief , immediately ,son , missing
Discover , months , limbo ,though , found ,begin ,pain, discover , story , closure , circumstances , Brandon’s short life , journey, time, every step , direction , every step , home, ghosts ,keeping , Brandon alive , website, favorite books, perfect way, mother

(I think he’s saying hes approaching us to share his grief immediately he’s been missing , he discovered limbo months ago. then the word though throws me for a loop then the next word is found like we’re missing what he’s saying he discovered. Begin pain I suspect means he’s in distress. Discover story closure and circumstances I think are directions we need to find his story. The next bit that I understand is something about his short life’s journey and time and traveling the repetition of every step may suggest weariness . Ghosts keeping Brandon alive is pretty clear though. I think he’s saying this website named after his favorite books is the perfect way but the perfect way to what I don’t know maybe communicate ? The final word is mother. Hmm…

Brandon’s story

High school , city , Delancy , demolishing , point , teacher ,fall , smart , engrossed , mechanic ,surrounded ,encourage , fifth , leather bookmark , idea , heaven , afternoon , telling , fantastical , changed , spring , calls , skipping , sociable , inward , restless , never enough , days , writing , stories , Stories , share , space , older, grade , maturing , beginning , difficult , kid , withdraw , distracted , Halloween, crazy ,search , nothing , someone , holding , system , run , trying , day , scoured , break , record , returned , missing , bookmark , hidden subway station , hall , chapter , questions , writing , become , unwell , unwilling , admit , escape , body, trapped , tunnel , his backpack , contents , kept , lost , move on, time , accept.

(If I had to guess he found something or someone at his high school in the fall possibly during some demolition or reconstruction. We probably should look into that. The rest of it seems like he’s telling us what happened which makes sense given it’s Brandon’s story. The bookmark is key though looks like we need to find it. )

Brandon’s world

Imaginative , greatest love, books , something , unbound , you , what , characters , writing , playing and creating , games , passion , always, flights , character , built , version , role , grown , successful , designer , author , sketches , notebook, forest , perfect , feeling , thirty , made of glass, , darker , darker , times , consume , completely , vision , almost , touch , would , then, me , helping , bring , back , make , clearer

(He built a world and intended to come back and help someone or something by clarifying some issue. I wonder if we can find his notebook with his sketches or his notes ?)

Advice on grief

On , grief , highs , station , stopping , ride , recognized , happening , familiar, Elisabeth kubler Ross, denial , depression , cycle , bargain , reading , stages , guide , loss , help , grieve , strategy , reached out , friends , finding , , better ,support , people ,pride , strong , loved , shoulder , funeral , tradition, mourning , provide , faith , wake , community , bereavement , hospital , therapist , grief. Professional , grief , therapist , emotions , obstacles ,
Unresolved , anxiety , tangible , creative , journal , loved , connected , numb , feel , judgement , cry , moments , let go , triggers , normal , relatives , milestone , helpful , surrounded , darker , see clearly

(Seems to me like we have a fellow seeker of the guide who got trapped somehow his latent anxiety messed him up and got him stuck there. Where ever there is )

[Valdione]

Might have found the demolition and high school thing

Essex Crossing Update: Site 2 Demolition, Design Changes | The Lo-Down : News...

[deedust]

On Brandon’s Worlds page, it’s interesting to note that both ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ and ‘The Forest of Darkening Glass’ are still a clickable links that leads to the new page, but are not green or underlined.

Brandon’s birth year has changed to '75 now.

[Leigha]

Oh I’m so glad you found something, I’ve been looking for anything about a demolished high school, in Delancey, couldn’t find anything.

[Robert]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet. The image of the castle on the welcome page has changed. It used to have a closed window in the middle. Now it has an open window with a dark figure inside of it looking out.

[deedust]

I noticed one linked word is not longer linked, and found a different link on ‘backpack’ which leads to this: http://forestofdarkeningglass.com/dvtsbtxt102986/

Looks like someone is trying to contact others. Maybe us.

[Mike]

And there’s audio!

So, this sounds like Brandon reaching out to his parents. But there are also sounds in the background, some of which are played backwards. Will try to download it and isolate some of those sounds/words.

It seems the appearance of Brandon in his castle coincided with this message. Is “backpack” the only link to this page or are there others?

I will say that this is positively creepy.

[deedust]

All That I’ve found so far, haven’t gone through the rest of the pages. This might be the answering machine message.

“Hey, mom, hey dad. Yeah so there’s something important I have to do and I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. You don’t have to be scared, I’m ok. I’ve been planning this for a long time, I know I’m right. I have to be. Just remember imagination is nothing more than memory transposed. I’ll find a way back to you. I love you.”

[Brendon]

Just a few random thoughts on all this. Is someone keeping track of the various dates that are changing? (Is it just the dates changing?). It could refer to different words that are hyperlinked or something like that. If no one is, I can start going back in.

I have a spreadsheet containing the first wave of hyperlinked words, so if you all think they are starting to change, I will check back and make a new list daily to try to find some sort of pattern in the words changing.

I am not techy when it comes to sounds/sound clips. I know there are ways to slow down sound clips and see if there is any added information in there. I know you usually need to source file to do that, so this all might be moot anyway. Does anyone have any prior experience with this that can expand on this further. If not, I can do some research into and play around with some different programs and see if I can make something work.

Edit: @Mike you beat me to it with downloading the soundwave, thanks for doing that

@Robert it looks like our reprieve after the 3rd Fragment is officially over, and it is time to jump back in full bore.

[deedust]

The change in the link may have been me seeing things. I checked the green leather bookmark since it’s a definite state like the dates to see if anything had changed. I thought that only bookmark was linked, but I just went back and ‘leather bookmark’ was linked. Not sure if it changed fast, or like I said I skimmed too fast.

[Mike]

Okay, so there’s something to the audio. This is my first pass but I think there’s still more. I tweaked the audio to minimize his message and highlight the background sounds. When it is then played in reverse, there are four distinct words that Brandon says. I can’t upload the audio in the forums (boo!) so I will try to find another way for you all to hear it (youtube? instagram? any thoughts?).

Anyway, here are the four words I think he says:

I’m
Fur
Grass
Report

Now, I’m pretty much guessing at “fur” but “grass” and “report” are 100%. I’m only at about 65% certainty for “I’m.”

I also think the other sounds have been slowed down so I’ll try to speed up that audio to see if there are clues there once I figure out the best way to get this audio to you all.

UPDATE: okay, so I put it up on Soundcloud which you can find here.

Give it a listen and see if you can make out the words as well. They come in at 11, 15, 21, and 26 seconds.

[deedust]

I hear the ‘I’m’ for sure, but I think he’s saying Glass instead of Grass. The Fur I’m not to sure of, it could be Here maybe?

[Leigha]

There’s something else about the audio. The background “noise” is in stereo, there are separate tracks for left and right. While that’s common for a professional recording of music or a video, for a simple audio track it stands out. There’s a reason… I;m gonna play with it some more, but I’m no sound. engineer. The sirens are present in both, so they were there wherever Brandon was when he recorded this, most likely New York.

Okay, just played the right track backwards and heard clearly, “find the glass” and last word definitely two syllables sounds like report. Glass was very clearly enunciated.

[Robert]

Last word could be forest? Find the glass forest matches the website theme

[Leigha]

I really want it to be forest, but it just sounds like report, It’s more muffled than the rest of the words. glass report just makes no sense though. I even thought for a second he said last report, meaning the news clippings, but again, glass is very clear.