[center][h3]Beneath the Mask VI[/h3] [b]Location:[/b]The City of Glass - Vandelay Campus [b]Attendees:[/b] Susie, Raz, Goldlewis, Zenkichi, Roxas, Midna, Karin [b]Viewers:[/b] [s]Blazermate[/s], Tora, Giovanna, Geralt, Sakura, [s]Pit[/s], [s]Benedict, Partitio[/s] [b]Word Count:[/b] 2276 (+3)[/center] Throughout the debate so far, the moderator had mostly skated through the proceedings as a non-entity, a fixture of the building enabling what people actually wanted to see, like a microphone or stage light. Now, however, people were starting to pay attention to him. Beneath his businesslike brown mustache lay a slight smile, almost smug-looking, as he smoothed over his hair. It was time for question number six. [i]That’s it![/i] Roxas thought. The moderator seemed to be the only person who wasn’t surprised by that last question! But why would that be? Unless… [color=Gold]“Psst, hey Raz?”[/color] Roxas whispered to the Psychonaut with a nudge of his elbow, [color=Gold]“Could you do me a favor and scan the moderator’s thoughts? Something about him isn’t sitting right with me. Call it a hunch, I guess.”[/color] Following Roxas’s hunch, Raz’s next target for mind-reading wasn’t Armstrong or Shinra, but the [i]moderator[/i], asking questions nobody expected to be asked. When he tried, however, he drew a complete blank. There were no loose ends or stray thoughts to delicately tweeze out between his probing fingers; it was like he hit a solid wall, blocking off all access to the moderator’s thoughts. [color=FF8c00]”That’s strange,”[/color] Raz whispered to his friends, [color=FF8c00]”I can’t get a read on the moderator. His mind’s… armored like a tank.”[/color] He scoffed a little at his borrowed turn of phrase. [color=Gold]“Hmm…”[/color] was all Roxas responded with for the time being. He’d hold his full thoughts for the time being. [color=fff200]”You can’t?”[/color] Karin asked, remembering Raz being powerful enough to enter and change someone’s mind from within. [color=fff200]”Surely that suggests he’s powerful? Or at least being protected by someone who is?”[/color] Karin leaned over to Raz, but had her eyes locked on Armstrong, Shinra, and the moderator. [color=FF8c00]”It definitely takes some training to protect against a psychic’s telepathy,”[/color] Raz answered. [color=FF8c00]”So either he’s very good at his job, or something fishy is going on.”[/color] [color=fff200]”At the very least, he’s no ordinary moderator.”[/color] Karin said. [color=fff200]”The two candidates have no such protection, yes? And it’s not as if they don’t know telepaths exist. It’s something about him in particular.”[/color] [color=ec008c]”I suppose we have a target to interrogate, assuming he isn’t the guardian himself. That would be quite odd though, unless said guardian was bored. Hmm….[/color] Susie muttered, noting what was happening. “Moving right along then, gentlemen. After the Ever Crisis and the enemies both inside and out putting the city’s safety and jeopardy, another major concern for the people is Midgar’s continued stability. Mr. President, Senator, what is the source…” Udo looked up from his papers to petition the candidates for an answer. “Of Midgar’s power? You first, Shinra.” The question perturbed the incumbent greatly. “What is this, some manner of quiz show? The answer is patently obvious, who could’ve possibly asked-” Armstrong shrugged casually, looking out into the distance. “Hey, if you don’t know…” “Ahem!” Shinra straightened his suit jacket officiously. “For the sake of posterity, I’ll answer it. The source of Midgar’s power is Mako energy, of course. Clean, reliable, affordable Mako energy. The cornerstone -indeed, the very lifeblood- of the Shinra Electric Power Company that serves as this city’s beating heart. Virtually limitless in supply, it -and my company- ensure that Midgar will never go dark. Not in a year, ten years, or a hundred years. Thanks to Mako, Shinra Electric will always light the way to the future.” His response got a chuckle out of Armstrong. “I feel like I just watched a commercial. You might be technically correct, Mr. President, but being correct doesn’t make you right. The source of Midgar’s power -of its greatness- has never been any kind of fuel. No, this city owes everything to just one, singular miracle: its people. Their courage, their strength, their never-say-die attitude, even in the face of dire circumstances, wanton tyranny, and eternal war. The people are the source of Midgar’s power, and once they’re free of the shackles of corporate elitism, they ‘ll make Midgar great again!” Roland thought such a question was odd. This moderator was already acting suspicious by trying to humiliate Shinra. Either he had a death wish and was just messing with him, or was possibly some… hostile element. A syndicate perhaps? He’d have to keep an eye on this one for the time being, he seemed more of a threat than Armstrong and his bald entourage. While initially Goldlewis felt like dismissing this whole segment as a wash thanks to the bizarrely uninformative question and the candidates’ nothing-burger replies, something about it stuck with him. He couldn’t shake the gnawing sensation that there was more to this segment than met the eye. Since he lacked any information that could be used to repudiate either man’s claims, he found himself replaying the moderator’s question in his head. [i]The source…[/i] Suddenly a chill ran down his spine, and the hairs on the back of Goldlewis’ neck rose. The words of the black-coated stranger flooded back to him. “‘Look for the source’,” he murmured. Those exact words, plus the moderator’s strange questions, sent his mind into overdrive. Like everyone else, he assumed that the mysterious stranger meant the source of the Ever Crisis. So far that line of thinking seemed promising, thanks to the various threads that seemed to link elements of the Ever Crisis back to Midgar itself. But what if it had all been a red herring? He remembered the press passes, delivered to the Seekers’ brand-new secret hideout out of nowhere. Someone wanted them here, someone who knew things and possessed the kind of clout few did. And now, both the candidates and the moderator had let slip similarly erudite information, seemingly for nobody’s benefit. Except [i]theirs[/i]. “Somethin’ ain’t right,” he whispered, looking around. That dreadfully familiar sinking feeling had settled over him. Like the boat he’d been sailing on had already been scuppered, and the water was pooling around his feet. Where was Midna–if she’d seen something, he needed to know, and fast. [color=Aquamarine]”You don’t have to tell me, it feels like this is building to something, yet there’s nothing out of sorts going on. Yet.”[/color] Midna whispered back, the princess having returned as the question ended due to the pause/hubbub it generated being good cover to relay information. She herself wasn’t feeling much better, though her emotions were more of a straining water tank, its wood buckling and yet the valve that would release the pressure was stuck tight. As bad a thought as it was, she almost wanted something to happen, in order to release that pressure. [color=Aquamarine]”Threes. Things that come in threes carry weight,”[/color] she said, drawing both from rhetoric and religion for that prediction [color=Aquamarine]”so if I was orchestrating this, and had something I wanted to do to make an impact, I’d do it at the end of the the third act”[/color] [color=FF8c00]”You don’t think someone’s waiting for something to happen, do you? Maybe they’re trying to start a riot and are… warning us?”[/color] With the moderator’s brain protected from him and the strange thoughts he first picked up - someone who noticed him and talked [i]back[/i] - a shiver ran up Raz’s spine. [color=FF8c00]”Somebody was [i]prepared[/i] for us being here. If they just wanted to get info out of Shinra and Armstrong they didn’t need us for it. Why d’ya think they did that?”[/color] [color=Gold]“It’s him.”[/color] Roxas said suddenly, pointing his finger in the direction of the moderator so the other Seekers would know who he was referring to, [color=Gold]“Ever since the last question something about that guy hasn’t sat right with me.”[/color] he explained to them, [color=Gold]“I wasn’t sure at first until Mr. Dickinson asked who submitted that sixth question. That’s when it dawned on me that [i]he[/i] was the only person who wasn’t surprised at all by the question, so I asked Raz to scan his thoughts. And it turns out he’s protected somehow. It has to be him. I just… don’t know how or why.”[/color] [color=FF8c00]”You think so? I mean he could be, but I don’t think he’s looked at us at all since we got here. He [i]is[/i] pretty suspicious though.”[/color] Raz shuffled around under his oversized hoodie, producing his Psycho Portal for all to see. [color=FF8c00]”I could get a more direct peek into the moderator’s head,”[/color] he offered, [color=FF8c00]”since this seems pretty important. There’s a few more questions left, right? It shouldn’t take too long. I think.”[/color] Goldlewis glanced at him, his face apprehensive. Even if it wouldn’t take long, there wasn’t much time; the next question was coming any second now. “Don’t do anythin’ that’d put us in jeopardy. ‘Specially yourself,” he cautioned. [color=Aquamarine]”Nobody’s seen me yet, so I’ll keep keeping a lookout”[/color] Midna said, and then she was gone right as the next question started to be aired. Zenkichi’s hands were steeped together, brows furrowed as he tried putting the pieces together. He was a PubSec Investigator, dammit! He could figure this out! The Source. What was the Source? The obvious answer was Galeem- the source of this created world, the source of literally everything going on in it, but what was [i]too[/i] obvious. The source of the Ever Crisis was a mystery to everybody in Midgar, and he wasn’t going to try and crack it. Not enough info, not enough time. This wasn’t an unsolvable puzzle, they’d been given a direct line to this place, a firsthand look at everything going on here. Armstrong said the people were the source of Midgar’s power. A populist answer, if correct as the basis of Democracy. Shinra went more literal, with his company- and Mako- being his answer. But what if the answer was both? The walking fortress that stole the life force of the dead in the war, Mako, the lifeblood of the planet (according to Avalanche, at least). What if the source was life energy? Spirits had to, theoretically, contain a pretty massive amount of energy inside them to be able to be used for Fusion, to fundamentally alter the essence of a living creature. What if Nox, the master of that walking fortress, was taking the energy from Spirits and using it to power whatever it was he was planning? That…could be pretty bad. But before he could say anything, the next question began. [color=ec008c]”We had better get ready for what's to come if whatever this is wants us here. This could all be a trap we’ve stumbled into. Although who would even set it? This could be an opportunity, since we were just spinning our wheels here, at the end of the day.”[/color] Susie said, with the same mumbling thoughts that the rest could hear, but not those too far from her. Karin leaned forward in her chair, folding her fingers together underneath her chin, her eyes alight and her smile widening. [hr] Geralt sat there, in stunned silence, his head cocked to the side. “Is it just me, or are these questions becoming more asinine? This…doesn’t make sense.” He hummed, thoughts going around his head. “Either whoever picked these questions is having a laugh at everybody’s expense, or there’s more going on here. What’s the source of Midgar’s power? What even is Mako, Giovanna? Does anybody other than Shinra actually know? Or is it some big secret they don’t let anybody in on?” His eyes were narrowed on the moderator, wondering why he was bothering to ask these bizarre questions, and why they were chosen. “This not normal question, meh?” Tora asked. He really had zero frame of reference when it came to political events like these. Though she’d only been half-listening to most of the debate, Giovanna couldn’t disguise the fact that its direction was confusing her as well. “Some sort of fuel, I think. Comes from the ground, and they process it or something in their reactors. Powers the whole city. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.” She didn’t feel the need to join the cavalcade of people stating aloud how weird this was. Instead she scrunched her brows together trying to think of [i]why[/i]. “No way it’s just some curious -or ignorant- citizen. The moderator would’ve screened it out. Whoever he is, he’s doing this on purpose. If it was making just one of ‘em look bad I’d get it, but both?” She tilted her head. “Does anyone remember what he said his name was, back at the start?” Sakura just threw another dart, this one closer to center. She was only paying attention to what the people she knew were saying, and was tuning out the debate itself. “No, I don’t remember. I wasn’t paying it any mind…hmm.” Geralt’s face scrunched up a bit, but he didn’t quite have any idea what was going on. He could tell something was strange, but he was missing a few bits of context to really make any actual guesses as to what. Giovanna pursed her lips. There was a chance that she could call into base and have someone run a search on the moderator’s name if she knew it, but now she’d just have to wait and see for herself.