Section Seven, The Truth is Beyond the Walls Options

[Naridar]

William shook his head: 'Why do I have the feeling that him "checking out" the nurses is more likely to get us a police investigation than some actual data? Anyway, I'll try to get some medical data out of Mr. Rios. That leaves methane production, but it shouldn't be too hard to find something. Well, we'll see tomorrow what we can do. Bye!". With that, he waved goodbye and left the Retreat.

[Ryuga]

The two made it to the building as planned. Much to Vince's dismay, it was of the quaternary industry, the stereotypical corporate skyscraper, or at least the closest thing you could get in section seven. No nurses to "check out" here. Just a bunch of people in buisness suits carrying brief cases.

Alan stepped back from the front counter, his negotiations with the receptionist finished. He gave a sigh before walking up to his partner
"Just as I thought Vince. The medical records aren't available to the public. I don't think William is going to get his hands on these records no matter what sort of contacts he might have." Alan crossed his arms, deep in thought and walked over to the directory. "Well, no matter. I anticipated something like this already which is why I have a plan B. Vince, I need you to find out where in this building those records are stored, and what security measures are used to guard them."

[Sparrowsmith]

[OoC I'm glad Ryuga took the initiative to introduce day two, but I'll formally introduce it as well as a scene-setter]

Tuesday
The breadcrumb trail left by Cods was still an unknown mess leading into the woods, and the only way to find the prize would be to follow them wherever they may lead. Morning the next day, under that same soup sky blocked off by glass and looming buildings, the students set about uncovering what information they could. The university was still in arms about the bizarre disappearance of Cods, and the fairly lenient dean had allowed them a half day to recuperate. Mostly it was an excuse to sort out paperwork. The students had been asked to attend their usual classes that afternoon, but they could probably get away with not attending. Who would blame them? The more pressing matter seemed to be who would be teaching.

All of this, however, left them a full morning to their own devices. A privilege rarely granted, especially to those so keen on a task best kept secret.

[Nicsp]

Vince had, after realizing there wasn't anything interesting to do in there, just found some random spot where he could've sat down and promptly did, he now had his legs crossed and his body laid back against the leather of the seat. And then Alan approached, telling him of the plan B, Vince listened, his usual smile never leaving his face as he played with his hair. Vince chuckled a bit, getting up and dusting off his pants, ready to go. "All right, give me one minute and then I'll see what I can do about that." Vincent then let out a short 'oh' before continuing. "By the way, just a while ago I realized that my watch thingy is two hours late in comparison to the clock tower, I found it a bit weird that happened since we did, after all, start all of our watches exactly at midnight so i simply kept the fact in mind, but you might want to check yours too, just to be sure. Ah...Anyways, be right back, I need to go have a change of clothes."

Vince left, not even bothering to explain what he meant by that. He quickly hurried off the building and went to a nearby clothes shop, at one moment flashing out his parent's credit card and at the other leaving the same clothes shop now using a suit, much like the ones that the other people at that building were using. In a few minutes, he was back, using the suit, his reading glasses and he now also had his hair tied back in a sort of ponytail, his posture also changed a bit, he was now walking straight and quite imposingly, trying to look and sound older than he actually was.

He walked right past Alan, pretending not to know him and mixed himself with the people in the crowd of suits, he squeezed himself in with all of the others as they tightened themselves up in the steam powered generators, a loud sound erupting as the elevator lifted off. Vince walked out of the elevator with the others, and kept following them until they started to disperse, after the group he was walking with started to turn small, he abandoned it and started walking around on his own. "Now let's see...If I were medical records, where would I hide?" He went off on his search.

[Naridar]

The clocktower's bell rang, waking William from his sleep. He checked the watch they made yesterday: it read 5:00 AM.

'Strange', he thought. The tower doesn't chime this early. 'And it's way too bright for five in the morning. What the...?'. He got out of bed and looked out on the window, checking the clocktower in the distance. It was 6 AM. He checked the watch again: it still read 5 AM, though it still was ticking, and wasn't out of sync with the tower as far as he could tell.

'Why is it late?', he thought. 'Could we have messed up somehow? Dammit mr. Cods, what did you get us into?'. Deciding that pondering on wouldn't solve anything, he got dressed and left his apartment. Since he didn't have lectures until eleven, he decided on visiting Dr. Rios sometime later. 'Maybe I should speak with Emma too.', he thought. They haven't met for two days, and he missed her.

This post has been edited by Naridar: Jul 2 2011, 01:12 AM

[Nicsp]

At this very moment found some sort of Archive room, he looked around one more time before sneaking in, scouting around the room as he entered. "Well, this is gonna suck." He commented as he looked over at all of the computer and files spread about everywhere. "Computers? Let's see if I ca- Nope, password locked." He said after trying to acess one of them, he sighed, dropping his head and then turning to the files. "What the hell am I looking for anyways...?" He started flipping through a few files aimelessly. "I guess I'll just take a look at...Recent deaths? I guess that could be useful...Yeah, I'll go with that for now." As he said that he continued to browse further, this time searching for any documents regarding recent deaths in Section Seven.

[Sparrowsmith]

[Clarification - The watches are exactly 5/6 behind the clocktower. For every 6 hours that pass on the clock, 5 pass on the watches. I didn't want to give the ratio away to soon, but I can see how this would cause problems if not expressed now.]

[Ryuga]

Alan leaned against the wall outside, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for Vince to return with the data.
With nothing better to do, Alan fetched the pocket watch from his pocket, cross referencing the time with that of the clock tower. He was unsuprised by the fact that his watch was a few hours behind.
He let out a "hmmm," pondering what he could have possibly done wrong in assembling the watch. He was going to have to cross-reference with everyone else later. Maybe even consult the original blueprints again.
"Or maybe there is something bigger going on?" whispered his inner conspiracy theorist. "Maybe the clocktower is faster, and whoever is in charge is shaving off valuable time from our day?"

[Naridar]

Hospitals have their own biorythms, somewhat tied to those of people. Heatwaves lasting a long time are often lethal to the elderly and seriously ill. Conversely, sudden drops in temperature made infections more common. There was an increase of thrombosi and other circulatory irregularities in the afternoon, when people began to get tired from work. Expert doctors knew this biorythm like the back of their hands, that of their own eventually aligning with it.

Mornings, however, were off-season for doctors. They often had time for administration or checking convalescing patients. Victor Rios was sitting in his office working on a pile of paperwork when William knocked on the door and stepped in.

'Good morning, Mr. Rios!', he said.

'William, what a surprise! To what do I owe your visit?' Victor asked.

'I have a question for you. I need professional information for a research we're helping professor Cods with.'

'Is there something the professor Cods can't find in his library?'

'It's about regularities in hospital admissions. Any particular diseases or conditions that have a pattern to them, especially those related to rain acidity or methane extraction.'

'It sounds quite serious. I hate to say it but this isn't exactly related to my field. I know what I hear from colleagues and that's it. You see, acid rain and methane aren't particularly carcinogenous.'

'Are there any diseases that are related to them?'

'Diseases, hardly. Symptoms, more likely. Acid can cause minor burns,but you probably already knew that. Each summer we have a few cases of pharynx hemorrhaging because of someone drinking the rainwater from the fountains, but nothing more serious. A dermatologist could probably tell more.'

'And methane extraction? Isn't poisoning common?'

'Methane is extracted entirely by machines. People rarely come into contact with it. They just put the parameters in the machines that do the actual work. The catch is...' he walked to the drawers and took out a few dossiers, '...those parameters seem to be entirely meaningless. What works one day doesn't work the other day. Or even in ten minutes. You see, workers don't really understand the cause, and it isn't a settling thought exactly. There's a relatively common disorder because of this: severe stress, depression, the typical stuff. The psychiatrists call it "methane madness". You never heard about this before?'

'No, I didn't. The professor isn't that well versed in medicine. But you were very helpful, thanks.'

'I was glad to help. By the way, what's with you and Emma?' Victor's glance made William feel uneasy.

'Nothing out of the ordinary, I guess. If there was anything unusual, she would have told you for sure.'

'I see.'

'If there isn't anything else, I should be going. Goodbye!'

'See you later.' Victor said as William left his office. He breathed a sigh of relief. Each time William came to him with a question, he feared that question was asking for his permission to ask for Emma's hand in marriage. William and Emma were together for almost three years, but they still were young. Too young. And while William seemed to him like a normal fellow, Garry also seemed like one... until the ominous case three years ago. How he cold-bloodedly claimed he was innocent... while looking straight into the eyes of the girl he robbed and raped, and who clearly remembered him. He took a big sip from his coffee and went back to the paperwork, trying to get the images of Garry's trial out of his mind. Poor William, the girl was his sister.

Meanwhile, William stepped out on the door of the clinic, looking at the clocktower in the distance. He again checked his watch, noticing it was again lagging behind with about fourty minutes. He set it back on time and waited for a few minutes, noticing the watch was out of sync with the clocktower. 'Okay, so we did mess something up.', he thought, 'Gotta let the others know. Maybe the other watches aren't like this.'. Seeing he should be at the university - which was about three kilometres away - in about twenty minutes, he began running. At least we have some clues now, he thought. But whatever little information they had sure didn't make this mystery any more transparent.

[Ryuga]

Alan looked around before entering the forest. Vince had taken far too long to retrieve the data, and people in the building were starting to take notice in Alan's loitering, so he was forced to leave. And since school was shortened today, he thought he would get to work on fixing the watch. He could afford to miss half a day of work.
The door to the hideout opened with a creak, as it usually did. Alan wasn't suprised to find the place unoccupied. Everyone else
He quickly got to work grabbing the blueprints off the work table, and pulled out his pocket watch. Using a screwdriver he grabbed from the toolbox, he removed the back covering of the watch, exposing the gears, and gadgets inside. A quick examination revealed nothing wrong.
"Guess this means I have to take this thing appart again," grummbled Alan as he set to work deconstructing his watch, all the while wishing William was around.

[Satou Asahira]

Katsumi lit a cigarette as he walked towards the Retreat and practiced his excuse for not being able to show up the previous night. He figured nothing major happened anyways. He threw open the door dramatically but stopped when he noticed only one other person was there. "Er...where's everyone else?" he asked Alan and entered the Retreat. "I figured you'd all be here since we got the morning off. Am I just really early or did something happen?"

[Ryuga]

"Ya... things happened alright," Alan replied, not even bothering to look up, as he removed one piece at a time from his watch. He took a few moments to reason that since the clock was slow, one of the gears in the clock had to be a tad too big.
Alan then set aside the watch and the parts in a neat little pile before fetching Cods' letter.
"Catch up with the Professor," he ordered, Katsumi the letter which read...

"Students, in the sprawl and mechanism of our daily rituals it is often too easy to lose sight of those who seek to dim your mind and captivate your curiosities - so as to subdue them - but I am not one of those people. My disappearance is one which I am sure will bring you nothing but curiosity, and I assure you it is against my will, but I would kindly like to request that you not try to find me. However, if I have taught you, and I feel I have taught you much, then I know you will attempt it all the same. If you should seek me, then know it is a dangerous path ahead, fraught with knowledge that I do not feel many citizens are capable of understanding. There are things about our small world that hold no explanation, and simply are because they must be, and this would drive the population mad should they ever know.

That said and done, to operate underneath the eyes of the city you must seem to be outside of it. The city tells you what the time is, when to eat, when to sleep, when to buy methane, and when to sell it. It tells you what to build, think, and do. This all begins with time. Enclosed in this envelope are designs for a simple fob watch, an analogue device built to keep time. I can assure you of its accuracy. You should be able to build them with little trouble and I ask only that you wind them (activate them) at precisely midnight. This is vital.

I suppose you may want clues, hints as to my whereabouts, but I can only tell you where to look - not what to look for.
Keep an eye on the amount of methane being mined.
Keep an eye on the acidity of the rain.
Keep an eye on the medical records of the city.
And always keep an eye on the clocktower.

-Your Professor, Cods."

[Satou Asahira]

"The professor's gone missing? 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark', wouldn't you say?" Katsumi asked when he was done reading the note. He flicked his cigarette to the ground and stamped it out before fishing another from his pocket and lighting it. "I take it everyone else is as adamant as I in finding him and are already out looking for clues. I guess I better get to work on this watch. Would you mind if I borrowed the blueprints for a bit?"

[Ryuga]

"Actually I do mind," Alan replied. "Turns out my watch is slow, have to redo it. But I can't seem to find out what's wrong based on the blueprints." He shuffled through the papers one more time looking for something he may have missed. "Maybe Cods wasn't much of a watchmaker and the blueprints are flawed." Alan sighed, putting his work down for a moment. "We're going to have to share these blueprints. I'll help you with your watch. You have to keep your eye out for something that would make the watch slow. My guess is a gear, or multiple gears are the wrong size.

[Satou Asahira]

"I doubt the blueprints are flawed," Katsumi said and scratched his head. "I mean, this is Cods we're talking about. He would have tested it to make sure it worked perfectly before passing it on to us. So either you guys made a mistake when you put them together or...," he gave a dramatic pause, "they work perfectly fine. Now wouldn't that be interesting?" He left Alan to ponder that while he gathered up the parts he needed to make the watch.

[Ryuga]

"Cods may be a genius, but he can't possibly do everything, though It's certainly a possibility," pondered Alan as he began reassembling his watch. "We can't see the sun, so we can never know if the clocktower is accurate. It just raises a bunch of questions though.
How does Cods know the correct time?
If this is some conspiracy, what's the point of speeding up the time?
How does knowing the 'correct' time actually help our cause?"

[Nicsp]

Seeing as his search for archived deaths didn't apparently bear much fruit, Vince decided to change his search for...For..."Heck, I don't know." He'd scratch the back of his head and sigh a bit, taking a nearby chair and crossing his hands behind his head for a moment before he went to look at the clock, lots of time had passed since he had been there, guess this was the time to bugger off. With that said, he'd fix his tie in place and his suit, then heading to leave the building, he would now be heading back to his home, for the moment, at least.

[Sparrowsmith]

As Vince headed for the door a man wearing a smart grey shirt grabbed him by the arm, stopping him abruptly mid-step. His blue eyes scanned Vince's face with mechanical certainty before the figure spoke,
"Vince." He addressed, "My name is Professor Lynx, I briefly saw you and the rest of your classmates when Cods first disappeared, I'm not sure if you remember. Anyway, I'll be teaching you this afternoon to fill in for him. We don't want you kids running around places you shouldn't when you're supposed to be learning." he spoke condescendingly at best, cruel at worst. There was a vague familiarity about his face, something hard to place. Before waiting for a reply he continued on into the building - though it seemed likely he only came to deliver what seemed like a warning.

[Nicsp]

Vince stopped as soon as he felt the grab, staring at the man as he spoke and raising an eyebrow, staring at him as he walked off. "...Weird..." Vince would comment, fixing his glasses into place before heading out. Apparently he'd have to go to class this afternoon...Well, he was paying for that learning anyways, it'd be a shame not to put the money to use, he'd sigh. He'd stop home first, ditching the suit in his wardrobe and switching to his more casual clothes, he figured he'd send a message for everyone though, about this new Professor.

(Since everything works on methane and making something that stays on your ear work with a gas doesn't sound very healthy, I will go with mail pidgeons instead.)

Vince arrived at the top of his house, several pidgeons kept each in a cage, he'd make copies of one same message. [Some man named Professor Lynx came talk to me today, he said he'd be giving us class this afternoon. I think it's needless to say it'd be better if we all were there, no?] He'd put each of these messages inside a small box attached to the pidgeon's legs and then he would send them off, one for each of the other people in the group. After he sent out the last pidgeons, he yawned a bit, bored. "Well...Guess I should get going as well then..."

[Sparrowsmith]

[There are computers in the city, but they are not commercial. Communication is fairly stifled, so pigeons seems like a pretty nice idea. To imagine technology in Section Seven, just imagine that the more important something is - the more high tech it is. The general populace often have to build their own little gadgets (you may build walkie-talkies if you like) but no one has built an enterprise around commercial technology. The city itself has some pretty advanced stuff (automated infrastructure, computer mainframes, ???) but they are remnants of whatever disaster took the rest of the world.]