This meeting cannot be skipped. (week 7 meeting)

[howveryglib]

[okay. that was a horror show and a half. but at the same time, Gaius is... thinking about it pretty hard, particularly the Hodaka thing. the gears are turning in his head. It is... not particularly hard to track down everyone personally. because there's. not very many people left. If he can find you in person, he will speak to you individually!]

Meeting in the usual location. One hour. We have much to discuss.

[...

if he can't find people in person he'll like, slip notes under their doors. he... is not sure if the idea he's having is encouraging or discouraging. but there's other stuff to talk about too, besides just Theory Chat. ...he did surreptitiously bring in some chairs so we don't all have to be sitting on the bathroom floor at least. but he's not the kind of person for decoration, he's the kind of person for getting things done!

so, when Meeting Time rolls around and everyone's present, he will be sitting in one of the chairs with his notes!]

We all understand why we are here. Let us begin.

Comments

[visiblepattern]

[...]

Don't go in the sculpture studio. Please.

[onemillion]

[.........]

What's in there...?

[visiblepattern]

It's where one of the Founders would...deal with the dissidents within the city.

[...]

There's a torture chamber in there. In the back, in one of the locked display rooms.

The unlocked display room had... Well, it had some of the dissidents. After they had been, ah, relieved of their skin? And had plaster poured over them. The plaster casts were still there and they were full of rot and there was no indication that that would be in there and-

[He sort of. forces himself to come to a hard stop.]

It's terrible in there.

[onemillion]

[..................]

I see.

[HE DOES NOT SEE.]

I am sorry you had to stumble on such a thing... and thank you for the warning.

[howveryglib]

…

Somehow, I am not surprised.

[he sounds disgusted but… yeah… he’s seen some shit…]

[fuckingguy]

Aii.

[fuckingguy]

[ Nandor has fully brought in Loki's staff and bow along with the flower shop brochure. ]

From the armory I have got another sound recording, and two more names: Loki, and Gothel Van Karma. Now, if we could just play this on someone's radio—

[ And so he will! ]

... Shit, have we heard of a Beckett? Might be another one.

[onemillion]

I noticed something odd in the convenience store - one type of alcohol has been completely removed. I plan to keep an eye on it to see if it is restocked.

[For clarification, it's the Corona and it will not restock!]

But more importantly, I found another puzzle which gave me these.

[Three things! The first is a violet key, the second is a ship in a bottle, and the third is a note.]

Please pass this around - it contains important information. I'd also like to know which of us have found keys.

[Here's the note's text!]

[howveryglib]

[oh. holy shit. He breathes a sigh of relief.]

Some welcome good news at last. I am glad we now have some sort of goal to work towards, at the very least. We should likely divide our investigation of the founders’ offices amongst ourselves so that we do not become overwhelmed.

[onemillion]

As am I. It would be in our best interests to gather what information we can. I'll see what this key goes to.

[The violet one, of course!]

[howveryglib]

If anyone has more than one key, I would be happy to take it for investigation purposes. …also if anyone encounters anything particularly disturbing like Forrest did and does not wish to deal with it, I would be fine with taking it on.

[visiblepattern]

You were with me when I found the blue one... I still have it.

[inaclearing]

I, uh...have a yellow key and an indigo one. I found that one buried with Camp Pining Hearts.

[Brett seems a little out of it after what happened this afternoon, but...well, what else is new this week?]

I can split them with someone. Look together.

[howveryglib]

I will take one, then. Whichever you feel like sparing.

[inaclearing]

Here.

[He just hands the yellow one over at random! Woods key stays with woods man.]

[howveryglib]

[okay he's got a lot to go through, let him get his notes together...]

I investigated the shack across the lake, and while there was not terribly much of interest, there are fishing supplies. Yes, there are fish in the lake. In any case, apparently there was to be a wedding between Manfred von Karma and... someone, but he and an individual named Jasper were killed before said wedding could occur. There was naught else of interest in there.

The...

[...he rubs his temple.]

The Gold Saucer is an entertainment facility in my home realm, located in Thanalan. There are many similarities, but the founders are noted as Cait Sith and Reeve Tuesti, neither of whom I have any intelligence on. Believe me, I am aware of the primary leadership of the Gold Saucer back home; the Mandervilles are a prominent, politically important family in Ul'dah and I am aware of any individual with whom they would entrust an outside venture of this nature. I am aware that none of them are bipedal cats, at the very least. ...Mi'qote, certainly, cats, no.

Within this... particular iteration of the Gold Saucer I found a stage with moogle mammets that had some of their internal mechanisms removed. Apparently they were intended to be some sort of band, but one of the songs on the control panel had been rather violently disabled. There is also a small, mechanized race track with chocobo cutouts on them that are labeled with the names Marcello, Peridot, Loki, Lusamine, Gideon, Alexis, Reeve, and Wesker. Of course, there is also a tape.

...

Finally, I know the events of the motive announcement were distressing to everyone, myself included... but anyone else get the impression Hodaka was trying to get out some sort of message before the Mayor silenced him?

[fuckingguy]

Oh, Gothel was getting married! See, it is stated right here in the endorsements of the armory which was previously a flower shop.

[ he's just pulling open the relevant page on the brochure ]

I suppose she just... kept the name?

[howveryglib]

…perhaps the ceremony occurred but the groom and this other person were killed before the reception…?

[fuckingguy]

Oh, that is possible! Or perhaps they were just siblings and these were two completely unrelated weddings.

[specialyellthing]

… He just seemed scared, and confused, to me. He may have been about to say somethin helpful, but—-

[inaclearing]

I assumed he meant...you know. "Don't kill each other again."

[howveryglib]

An understandable sentiment. Perhaps I am simply overthinking things, but I… suppose it is a situation worth overthinking. Unlike the majority of instances where we were shown hostages, he could actually see us, and I do think it could be significant that the Mayor used one of our number a demonstration rather than anyone we may have lost back home.

[honeyedtea]

... I'm aware this is hardly the question to be asking but what on earth is a moogle?

[ THAT'S NOT EVEN A WORD... ]

[howveryglib]

Oh, they are… bizarre little forest creatures with the ability to make themselves invisible to most. When I was young the stories always made them out to be small rabbit-like beings a bit shorter than a Lalafell, but they are apparently small… mole… bat… things. The only thing that was accurate was that they have a single antenna with a pom-pom at the end of it…

[honeyedtea]

I... see...

[ Mielle, very transparently, Does Not See. ]

They aren't dangerous, are they?