Ok, so the first thing you have to realize about the journey of Mark Meltzer is that until Bioshock 2 Mark Meltzer was never given a face or a voice. In fact, the only face we got on Something in the Sea (SiTS) was that of Orrin Oscar Lutwidge. The way we interacted with him was through letters he wrote and stashed on his desk, things he found, and messages on his answering machine.
Every single piece of information gained by Mark is still up. His office is
HERE you can also access the large board above his desk for the beginning information, and click the Gone Fishin note for the continuation of his journey. Alright, lets get on with it shall we?
On March 9th, 2009 SiTS was launched with a simple map of the world with a small X over a place in Ireland with the date 2/20/67. With this X was a newspaper article about a kidnapping. The kidnapper was said to have incredible speed, wore some kind of red light, and a miners helmet. There was also a description of a toy found on the beach (which is the Bid Daddy doll that the Little Sisters have in 2).
On the second day a letter by a man named Jeremiah Lynch is pinned to the board along with footprints of a large boot with a comparison to Lynch's footprint. Over the next few days more articles telling about the kidnappings of small girls appear, all from Atlantic coastal countries, each accompanied by an X on the board with the date.
It is over this period of a few days that we learn Marks name and that he has found patterns about the kidnappings. He sends letters to various government agencies and they all tell him that its unrelated, and unfortuante and all that nonsense. Though we do find out an interesting bit of information that Andrew Ryan managed to secure a no-go zone around Rapture.
On the final day of "Phase One" as we call it, Mark writes a letter to a man by the name of Roscoe Inman from the Office of Naval Intelligence, telling him that he notices a pattern in the kidnappings and thinks that the next place that will be hit is St. John in New Brunswick. That letter is accompanied by a note dated four days later saying that Mark waited for three days before managing to take pictures of the red light in the water that people have been seeing. He also says that the "Traveller", as he calls the Big Sister, may have seen and followed him...
"Phase Two", which was the longest phase, was Mark Meltzer's apartment, which is what I linked you to. It is where, by far, most of the story unfolded. Phase Two starts out right after the first. The "Traveller" did indeed follow Mark back to his home and found his daughter, Cindy, and kidnapped her. Mark actually had a run in with the the Big Sister, in which his ribs and leg were broken.
In the first month of the new Phase Mark had been recieving letters from Jeremiah Lynch about Atlantis and met up with a new contact, Detective Benny Stango of the NYPD. Stango believes that Mark actually killed his daughter and its blaming it on the recent kidnappings and is determined to get to the bottom of it. We are also introduced to Phil Isidore, a UFO nut belonging to the National Unidentified Flying Object Society, or NUFOS. Phil becomes Marks only real, and true friend in all of this.
At the end of the first week, a mysterious box covered in symbols was left for Mark. When he finally managed to get the code to open it, inside was a crayon drawing, done by what seemed to be a little girl, of the Big Sister.
Over the next few weeks Mark compiled several news paper articles about The Vanishing, an event that happened just after WWII in which many smart and talented people from around the world went missing. Many familiar names such as JS Steinman, Yi Suchong, and Julie Langford are seen.
About a month in we meet Celest Roget, a French heiress. Her father, Jean Louis Roget disappeared in The Vanishing and she was determined to find out what happened to him. It was learned through a newspaper article a few days before that she lead an expedition into the Himalayas searching for a fabled city known as Shambhala, where she was told her father was. Everyone in the party, except for her, died in an avalanche.
On the first of July a record could be found from Rapture Records. It plays Rise Rapture Rise, which can be heard in the first game, and I believe in the second game, if you listen for it. At the end of the record the voice of a little girl could be heard saying "Daddy? Where are you Daddy? Are you going to come find me?" Mark believes it was Cindy.
The next day we are first introduced to Orrin Oscar Lutwidge (OOL). He was quoted in a magazine article saying he would be finding "True Rapture" before disappearing without a trace for several years. The same day we also learn that Mark's wife, Amanda, has filed for divorce. Also, Jeremiah Lynch sends Mark a book entitled The Frozen Triangle which details strange occurances and disappearances around Iceland and Greenland.
Mark then investigates a workshop that OOL owned before he disappeared. The workshop was mysteriously set on fire, the cause unknown. It was there that Det. Benny Stango found Mark snooping around and arrested him for trespassing.
At OOL's workshop Mark found the infamous Metal Puzzle Box, which has haunted the SiTS community for months. The box contained a slide puzzle, the button on the box had the same strange symbols that the previous box had. It was later found out by Mark that these symbols were created by OOL. He found them in a book that his daughter Cindy had in her possession. Once the puzzle was solved, a recording played, and a new puzzle appeared on the box.
Over the next few days Celeste Roget left a message telling Mark to be careful of OOLs lies and the he was the one who sent Celeste into the mountains looking for her father. It was also revealed that OOL and Andrew Ryan were business partners. OOL provided the steel to several of Andrew Ryans shell companies, notably the Warden Yarn Co, to build Rapture. It is also revealed that OOL had ties to Jeremiah Lynch as well.
Deciding that it was a lot of steel for a Yarn company, Mark decided to check the place out. It was, of course, abandoned, and found a bright red door with a mirror behind it. Mark broke the mirror and found a tape, a map, and a puzzle box behind it. The map is mostly blank and near the top is a red triangle.
This new puzzle box is solved by pushing in lights in the correct order, and once solved it opens to reveal another puzzle comprised of what looks like piano keys with lats and longs on them. Over the next few days Lynch calls telling Mark of OOLs obsession with Lewis Caroll, Inman tells tells Mark of ocean currents, the map that Mark found now shows a map of the world, and there are several locations written on a piece of paper next to it. These locations are several beaches around the world, which led to the real world beach events on August 8th where fans found Arcadia Merlot wine bottles in the sand.
We then learn that Ryan didnt keep up his end of the contracts with OOL, which is why OOL searched for him so eagerly. Also along this time, Mark is frustrated that he cannot solve the last bit of the jewelry box puzzle. He then gets a call from Lynch, who began singing What shall we do with a drunken sailor? Thinking that Lynch may be on to something, Mark finds how to play it on the piano, which solves the puzzle. solving this opens a new puzzle on the original metal box: a 4x4 grid of symbols. Once thats solved, a 5x5 grid of more symbols shows up, which was unable to be solved for
MONTHSA couple days later we find a letter from OOL to Ryan stating that OOL will reveal the existance of Rapture if he doesnt tell OOL the location because OOL feels he is one of the best and brightest and deserves to be there. It is also revealed that OOL sent false clues to Celeste and the US government to lead them off the right track. Celeste also tells Mark that OOL is dead and gone and should stop searching.
Over the past few weeks Phil Isidore had been giving Mark tapes of interviews between Phil and a man named Lex Harland. Lex is the publisher of a magazine and published a story called Utropolis by someone named Rod Killian Quain. Utropolis was basically a story about Rapture with names changed. It is on the first of September that Mark gets a message from Lex Harland telling him that Quain is in a local mental hospital. Mark makes the connection that Rod Killian Quain is actually OOL, who goes by the name of the Red Queen. Rod meaning Red and Quain being a variant of Queen.
Mark calls up the mental hospital and was told by one of the doctors that he will not give out any information about patients, but maybe Mark should visit. The next day a letter appears in Marks type writer to Det. Benny Stango telling him he thinks hes losing it and that he wants Det. Benny Stango to stop him if something should happen. By the end of that night, Marks room was completely trashed. The door was kicked open and things were scattered all over.
Five days later was the next update. There was a bottle of perscription medicine on the table and a psychiatric evaluation of Mark on the desk. There is also a puzzle tube on the table and a concerned message from Phil. The next day Mark wrote a letter to Phil telling him how he faked a mental breakdown to gain access to the hospital where he obtained the puzzle. Apparently when he made it in, he found Quain, who instantly recognized Mark as the Seeker he was looking for to find Rapture, and gave Mark the puzzle tube without a word. When the puzzle tube is solved a blue notebook is inside with various Alice in Wonderland and Rapture references. Lynch calls and tells Mark he highly doubts that OOL is still alive.
Celeste then introduces Mark to Dash Carmady, a private investigator she hired years before to track OOL. Dash gives Mark a folder that has several pictures of OOL from after his disapperance. He is noticably spliced up. OOLs disappearance was actually him in Rapture. The next day, Celeste tells Mark that she has been recieving threatening phone calls. The day after, she calls frantically talking about a threatening letter. The same day Mark recieves a letter with cut out letters telling him not to continue his investigation. The next day Dash calls and tells Mark that hes not helping Mark anymore because Celeste isnt requiring him to.
On October 1st we learn that Mark broke into OOLs old lab again and found a bunch of strange things, most notably a box of splicer masks. This finding lead to actual splicer masks being hand delivered the next day to a select group of fans.
We learn a few days later that Marks phone service will be suspended soon due to a bounced check, which shows just how financially taxing Marks search is. We also get a chance to read the first few pages of the Utropolis story.
Later on, Marks apartment has been trashed again. Mark believes it could be several people, one being the Red Pawn, a forger and counterfiter for OOL, the Red Queen. We also find a new letter from OOL to the Red Pawn telling him he appreciates throwing Celeste off the trail but that she should stop harrassing her. The next day Dash leaves a message saying that Celeste is still missing and that he will help Mark find out the identity of the Red Pawn.
A few days later Mark recieves a folder from Dash on Jeremiah Lynch, which notes that he has a criminal record. Mark then becomes frustrated, and in a letter to Phil, wonders if everything that has happened is real or forged.
In the end of October, Mark was taking an early morning stroll on the same beach that Cindy was taken from and noticed a sand castle in the shape of a city. There is a message written in the cypher near it which says "Whas taking so long Daddy come find me" (intentional misspelling btw). Mark also thought he heard yelling and gun shots during the night.
The next day Det. Benny Stango calls Mark frantically telling him he saw the Big Sister and shot at her. He tells Mark that he doesnt want to deal with him anymore, and that the matter is closed as far as he is concerned. We also get a message from Dash saying that he contacted law enforcement offices in Ireland to keep tabs on Lynch, but he has gone missing.
Mark is quite close at this point to solving the 5x5 metal box puzzle. A hint was that it was a Knights Tour. He tries to go back to OOLs lab to get more clues but was stopped by some agency. Mark cuts off Inmans help and feels Dash is losing patience with him, realizing Phil is the only one he can trust.
On November 2nd Mark gets a few pictures from Dash. They are of the floor in OOLs lab, which happens to have a chess board pattern with his symbols on the tiles. We also learn that Inman is being court marshalled for using government resources for a personal investigation.
The next day Mark tells Phil he solved the metal box puzzle and states that hes heading to Baltimore to visit Phil and his maritime contacts. The lights get turned down and items go missing. The next day we get a message from Amanda's divorce lawyer saying that he heard Mark had plans to leave and that they have a court date and Mark better not miss it, but Mark left a note saying "Gone Fishin", thus ending Phase Two.
"Phase Three" starts on November 5th. Mark was set up with Captain Ferrence of the SS. Nellie Bly. Mark got a cabin on the ship and brought along his type writer and radio. Over the first few days Mark obtains a book written by Jeremiah Lynch about megaliths, and writes a letter to Amanda explaining why this chase has to end.
Mark beings looking into notable sinkings in the Rapture area to solve the next level of the puzzle box. Also, several days in, a mysterious statue of Buddha appears on Marks bookshelf. It was taken from the cargo hold, where Mark was talking to the ships captain. Mark notes that there is something strange about the Captain, that hes more knowledgable than any normal sea captain.
On December 1st Mark gets a pamphlet from the I.O.O.P., the International Order of The Pawns, an organization founded by OOL himself. (Several people, myself included, were actually sent membership cards to the IOOP) The next day Mark finds a letter from OOL to the Grey Pawn. The day after, Mark recieves a radio transmission from Jeremiah Lynch, who has been missing for awhile. The day after, we get to read an article about a man named Lee Wilson Seward, the Grey Pawn. In the article he mentions having known Sander Cohen.
Mark meets with the Grey Pawn while the ship is stopped in Tangirs. From there, Mark gets in contact with the Yellow Pawn, who he meets while the ship stops over in Spain.
The next day, Mark just happens to drop the Buddha statue, revealing a pistol inside. The day after that, a radio transmission states that Celeste Roget, who hasnt been heard from in months, has been involved in an accident. The pistol is also missing from the broken statue.
The day after Mark gets a radio transmission from Celeste. Shes alive. Theres also a telegram from Dash saying that the radio message could be fake and that Celeste is not in Paris, but heading toward Valais. The next day we learn that Mark went to meet with Celeste, but instead met with Jeremiah Lynch, who lured him there. Lynch wants to work together to get to Rapture, but Mark refuses.
One December 22nd a letter from Celeste shows up, spattered with blood telling Mark that she feels sorry for him and what has happened. Theres also another book written by Lynch, spattered with blood, and has a bullet hole in it.
On Jan 4th Mark write a letter to Phil about what happened with Celeste. Apparently, during their meeting Lynch showed up and wanted to force Mark to cooperate with him. Mark refused and pulled out the gun from the Buddha. The two got into a physical fight and Mark dropped the gun. Celeste picked up the gun and shot, hitting Mark in the shoulder.
The day after, Lynch calls Mark on the radio and tells him hes in New York and going to break into the mental hospital where OOL is to torture the coordinates of Rapture out of him. We then get a radio transmission that OOL has broken out of the mental hospital, killing an orderly.
The next day there is a news paper article about the break out. A hotline number was set up, which you could call from an actual phone, where we finally get to hear from Det. Benny Stango again. He noted that people in New York, Chicago, and Philly should be careful because OOL may be searching out his Pawns.
The metal box is finally solved and it shows the way to get around Raptures defense system to get to the Lighthouse. A few weeks later, a crew member is noted as saying he sees eyes in the ocean. When the crew actually investigated, they found a dinghy adrift with a drawing inside of a Little Sister at the Lighthouse. Theres a message in OOLs cypher saying "Hide and Seek Daddy! You are getting warmer."
On Feb 2nd, a picture of the Rapture Lighthouse appears on Marks desk. The next day, Mark leaves a letter for Phil saying he is going to escape the ship on the found dinghy and reach the lighthouse. In the letter, Mark tells Phil to save Cindy if he fails.
The next day the ships cabin is half submerged, blood everywhere, bullet holes in the walls. The mirror on the right side of the cabin is swinging, the body of a splicer could be seen in it. On the wall behind the body is writted Rapture Awaits... Theres a transmission from the Icelandic coast guard responding to the SOS from the Nellie Bly.
The final update was on Feb 5th, back at Marks apartment. A newspaper article talking about the finding of the ship adrift is on the floor, near Marks door. Theres also a worried message from Phil on the answering machine. The article stated that there was no sign of Mark Meltzer on the ship and no one knew what had happened to him...
Ok... that took hours XD