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Togusa shakes his head, he's quick to try to calm Tim's anxieties. "It wasn't dangerous, not really. Even when that place was affecting us, it wasn't anything that hurt us. I ran into him when he was trying to check the building out once. I couldn't talk him out of it."

"He was safe with us. And if Retrospec was going to get retributive about what we're doing? They'd start with someone else." Like the two people in this car.

Togusa lets the silence stretch on for a few moments as he drives. "Or maybe not. Who knows who Retrospec was trying to tell Luke he really was. I keep running into people way too young," he nods towards Tim, "your age, younger, who are getting really violent memories. Monsters and fighting. Feels like Retrospec's trying to convince half the city that they're child soldiers." Togusa's grip on the wheel tightens. "If they've let Luke go, maybe that's better for him."

But would they really start with someone else besides the innocent, Togusa? is what Tim wants to ask, though he keeps the words bottled in his throat for now.

Like the two people in this car. Absolutely.

(DON'T JUST SAY, "OR MAYBE NOT"!) Tim gives Togusa the hint of a worried look out of the corner of his eye without turning his head. "Maybe we are," Tim concedes quietly. "Maybe we're all sleeper agents, and Retrospec is going to utilize us to overthrow some kind of alien organization.

"Or, you know, maybe we're the aliens and we're going to infiltrate and overthrow the government." Okay. Seriously. He admonished Conner so much for this kind of crazy bullshit, and here he is entertaining the same ideas because they don't sound quite so far-fetched anymore.

Togusa rolls his eyes and gives Tim a slightly admonishing look. He'd expected more out of him. "It's easy to get caught up in completely wild fantasies when there's a piece of the problem out of our control. One part doesn't make sense, so to try to make it more manageable, the entire problem has to be ludicrous. It all has to be too big for is to solve, so we dont have to worry about feeling powerless to stop it."

"Better to keep your eyes open, see what parts of this we can change, one thing at a time. At the end of the day, there will be people behind all this. Just people. And we can make them answer for what they've done."

Togusa turns the car in to the entrance to the park. "But it takes a lot of little steps to get there. One thing you can help. Which, today, means checking up on a kid and making sure that he's safe." He pulls the car into a space and looks at Tim more fully. "Dont lose sight of the big picture. We're doing this to see what Retrospec's long goal is. But dont let it overwhelm you, either. Okay?"

Don't be condescending with him just because he had a momentary lapse in logic, Togusa! He's sixteen and half the kids his age, including his best friend, thinks some kind of supernatural or extraterrestrial conspiracy is afoot.

"You say there will be people, but I'm not so sure," Tim murmurs doubtfully. He's still on about Jim et al being programs, though he's not sure whether that means people have created them, or whether they have learned to create themselves.

Tim's eyes find Togusa's face and hold it. "Okay," even if he doesn't so readily agree deep down. Too much doesn't make sense. He's sure Retrospec is doing it to overwhelm them on purpose.

Or maybe there really had been a mess up, and now Jim and the rest are trying to get it under control when it doesn't seem to be going so well.

"Let's see how Luke is doing."

Togusa is already expecting a little bit more out of some of them. Tim, Naoto, James, Souji, even Dante, are all getting quietly held to a slightly higher standard. With Tim's skill level, it's unfortunately easy for Togusa to forget his age. The way to combat that is to keep running into him in person, and not let him become a name behind a screen. But oh boy, does that sound like Tim's favorite thing to do.

Togusa nods, and he gets out of the car. The park is pretty busy, but he knows the place well. Togusa and his dog are regulars here. Togusa looks around at the area before he starts to move. Luke is at that weird in-between age, where it's harder to predict what he'd be spending his time doing. Maybe not the playground, but the bike trails or the baseball field?

"Where did he have you meet, last time?" Togusa glances at Tim.

Quietly, Tim follows Togusa out of the car and loops around the front to meet up with the man on the other side. He, too, takes a quick inventory of the place.

Luke seemed older for his age. Tim thinks, if anything, it would be somewhere not the playground with other children. He looks back at Togusa finally.

"We met at--" Tim pauses to remember. "An animal. No, animals. The penguin statues. That's where he said he wanted to meet, and then we would walk to the Retrospec building to get up with Micah."

There are penguin statues? Togusa gestures for Tim to lead the way, then.

But, more importantly, "Micah? Another friend of you both?" He tries to keep the question tone light, but he can't help his curiosity. Just how many people went tromping through Retrospec's lobby last month? It goes back to the idea that Togusa has said before: Retrospec is setting this all up like a game, almost like they want people to unravel the mystery behind it.

The kids on the playground definitely spot Togusa, but they keep their distance after some brief excitement. He sweeps a look over them all, but as expected, Luke is not with them. Take it easy, Togusa, Luke is still here. But he has to keep himself from trying to rush in worry over trying to find him.

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