The Commonplace Journal of Isadora Quagmire {Poems and other things}

The Incomplete History of Secret Organisations

Anyway, we broke into the library and hurried to make Violet's invention. We'd be standing in as the Baudelaires so they could study! I was tying brown ribbon onto a strip of elastic so I could use it as bangs when I was pretending to be Violet. I turned to Klaus, asking his opinion. "How do I look?" He scrunched his nose up, replying "Different." I frowned, and he hastily added: "Which is good, I mean not that you didn't look good before..." I giggled as he rambled "You did... Do... Look... Uh, Sunny, how are those glasses coming?" When it was time to go, I stood on my toes to kiss Klaus on the cheek. If we never saw each other again, I wanted him to remember me. If we saw each other tomorrow, boy, was it going to be awkward. 

Duncan, me and "Sunny" headed out to the running field. We ran and ran and ran. I don't know how the Baudelaires do it, it was exhausting. Then the string tying "Sunny" to Duncan broke. Count Olaf knew. Duncan and I kept running. We ran into the library and hid behind the first shelf available. Seconds later Olaf was right over our heads, and thankfully he didn't see us. He left the library, instructing the hook-handed man to stand guard of the library. We're trapped. Duncan found the book we've been looking for: The Incomplete History of Secret organizations!

I 've decided to take some notes in case we find any good information:

V.F.D is a secret organization. Much of V.F.D.'s origins are unknown, such as why and when the organization began. It is clear, however, that it existed when Lemony Snicket was a baby, A man named Ishmael founded the organization to make the world a quieter, less evil and safer place, hence their motto, "The world is quiet here."

Exactly what V.F. D. does is never made clear, and the organization goes to great lengths to conceal all traces of its activities through the use of complex disguises and codes, including the anagram code. An Anagram is when you take the letters in a word or phrase and move them around to create another.

Lemony Snicket revealed that V.F.D primarily put out fires, but they also carry out other humanitarian acts. This, of course, was before the schism.

The schism is an incident that occurred within V.F.D. that broke up the members into two sides: The Fire-Starting Side, and the Fire-Fighting side. As stated by Kit Snicket, those sides are literal and figurative. For example, the Fire-Starting Side not only commits arson on certain occasions but generally causes panic and mayhem wherever they go, while the fire-fighting side not only works as a fire department, literally putting out fires, but also figuratively, by calming people down and making the world a quieter place. The way the schism was fought out is not known, but it's possible it was fought using various animals (including reptiles, birds, fish and large carnivorous mammals), fire, water, and miscellaneous weaponry of sorts such as harpoon guns.

V. F. D codes

The V.F.D. utilizes several codes for communication between Volunteers. After the schism, however, both sides continued to use the same codes, so it is very difficult, if not impossible, to tell if the member using the code is on the Fire-Fighting or the Fire-Starting side. One code commonly used to disguise names is the Anagram. Duncan and I found one that the Baudelaires might find rather interesting:

Anagram:

Al Funcoot

V. F. D Disguise training

V.F.D. Disguise Training is required knowledge of all V.F.D. Volunteers and is used to fool enemies of the organization. The program consists of three phases: Veiled Facial Disguises, Various Finery Disguises, and Voice Fakery Disguises.

Veiled Facial Disguises are used by volunteers to fool a farsighted or dimwitted person. All that is required for this type of disguise is a face; hats are optional. Veiled Facial Disguises can be utilized merely by changing the aspects or countenance of one's face.