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[standalonehuman]

Togusa

This is Togusa. Feel free to message me at any time.

VOICE | TEXT | VIDEO | ACTION

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[thesettingsun]

"That's true, but it also makes it a lot shakier as a lead, especially when the genre is high fantasy to begin with. Lots of novels have their heroes having to solve riddles - the fact that some of our teams had to solve riddles doesn't necessarily imply that there's any connection at all. And I'm not sure if we can track down the author and say 'did you base this shapeshifting tiger on a real being'?"

If they did, they'd likely get the door shut on them.

[standalonehuman]

"Or, even worse, if the author is still around, maybe they don't even remember what they based it on now. Which, okay." Togusa drops his pen and leans back in his chair, his voice gets a little lighter. "I know there's this possibility that Retrospec has tried this before on previous groups of people and we all just don't remember, but is anyone taking that theory seriously?"

[thesettingsun]

"It's the first time I've heard the theory, but it's entirely possible. Sometimes people with Retrospec lose it and forget all about horses, and everything. It's happened during this... session, I guess you'd call it?"

Thankfully, not to anyone he's really close with.

[standalonehuman]

There's a longer than normal pause on Togusa's end, a twitch in his cheek that still surprises him every time it happens. "...Yeah. I know what you mean." Maybe he should toss out an explanation for that, so he picks the one that's less painful to talk about. "We lost the guy who had been acting as our superior officer on this, keeping us all organized. He doesn't know a thing now."

He runs a hand over his face. "But. For future reference, what was the author's name?"

[thesettingsun]

That sure sounds like a topic change from something unpleasant.

"Fred Auclair. Not super famous, but moderately successful."

[standalonehuman]

"I'll keep him in mind." Togusa looks around. "I do have to get back to work, though. There's something I need to try."

With that, it would be two days later before Togusa would get back to Shuji.

Confirmed with the docs that there's no change to my brain function. So, I'm not sure what to do with this information from here.

[thesettingsun]

That's what I expected. Sorry I couldn't find anything more helpful.

[standalonehuman]

This was really helpful, though. Being able to rule out one way that they could be messing with us? That’s good.

We know that Dr. Halliday’s research was important to the people that founded this city. The link just didn’t turn out to be as direct as we might’ve hoped.

[thesettingsun]

Maybe the weirder stuff just wasn't published? He'd sound like a quack.

[standalonehuman]

Could he have found out about Retrospec before he was killed? I'll have to go back to Emil or Juzo, ask what they found, they were the team that initially found Halliday's name. Was Vanderweele trying to recruit him, or was he trying to join Vanderweele? That would determine whether his research had any weirder stuff to begin with.

[thesettingsun]

How long has Retrospec been a thing? The research papers have publishing dates on them...

[standalonehuman]

I honestly don't know. But I'll have to check with a few people who found information outside of 'reality' for lack of a better term.

...Do I want to know how far back the publishing dates are?

[thesettingsun]

About 50 years ago, more or less.

[standalonehuman]

So if the Founding Families, or at least if Vanderweele was interested in his work? Now we have a time frame for it.

I think. Does that sound logical to you, or am I wrong?

[thesettingsun]

Sounds reasonable. If he published anything before then, I couldn't find it.

[standalonehuman]

I can't thank you enough for this.

But I'm still unsure of where to go from here.

[thesettingsun]

I've done more complicated research for term papers, you really don't have to thank me.