claimer: This was truly a group effort on behalf of the members of the Watch. Thanks guys for help decrypted this stuff.

January 13, 1854

Miss. Antoinette Louisa Brown,

i pray that this letter finds you in good health and spirits. news of your exceptional ordination has reached my estate, and i wish to express my most sincere congratulations. the first congregational church is blessed by your suidence. our past correspondence has been less than civil, despite our similar ideals, and i want to atone for the world's temperance convention affair last year, i certainly underestimated your intellect and fervorf acceptance in the spiritual and scholarly communities. a woman of your talents and distinction would certainly be a formidable opponent and asisnificantally. the association would bcslucky as to have you as a member.

With regards,

            The Chevalier

___________________________________________________________________________________

March 24, 1854

Chevalier,

your hasty note was certainly recieved with great surprise and consternation on my part. a man such as yourself, who would have a similarly minded guest speaker expelled from a convention solely on the grounds of her gender, must have a feeble memory, otherwise he wouldn't deign to correspond with a woman. consequently, your foolhardy attempt to unearth some clandestine organization i belong to is unfounded and unwelcome. i am more than aware of your ravings regarding secret societies. it is fairly simple to find the dishonesty in your claims of being apart of this association.

With abhorrence,

Miss Antoinette Brown 

___________________________________________________________________________________

May 3, 1854

Miss Brown,

might i suggest a sweeter countance in future correspondence?

an acid tongue is unbecoming, even if one is a person of the cloth. 

i nave recieved news of growing opposition from your church in 

regard to cert#in views you hold. perhaps you are embracing ideals 

too tightly and without practical consider#tion? in having you removed 

the world's temperance cohvention i hoped to assist you in escaping

 the same fate i have suffered. you are correct in that i am not a part 

of the association and that i was attempting an unfortunate ruse to 

discover if you were. the association was present at the event, looking 

for a strong suffragist such as yourself to use a mouth piece f.r their 

lies, and had its sishts set on you. your speech was to be a trial of 

sorts, to see how capable you are of swaying oublic opinion with 

oratory skill. as i can see in your recent strusgles with your church, 

your potential membership in the association is affecting all that 

you have workcd so hard to accomplish. i merely wisned to disc.ver 

whether thei# poisohed talons were already deep with in your sain 

even after i had worked to save you from them. the association is an 

alias for the gears of nathaniel, a surreptitious society whose main 

fanction is to propagate hysteria and corruptiou in the wider community. 

you may regard it as a sunfrage activism group, but under that vcieer 

is fomething far more sinister. my own life as at stske as i write this 

letter of warning: because of my performance at the conrention last 

yesr i have attracted unwanted attention of the as#ociation, which 

nearly guarantees an excruciating demise. i use such an alias as to 

protect nyself from thier eyes. but i see now that such ruses are but a 

hinderence to what i must say. your opinion toward this elderly man 

may be lower than ever i now that i have revealed my low opinioh of 

the society of which you are no doubt a member but know this i 

everything i hold dear has been obliterated by the gears, despite my 

complete devotion to their cause during my time as a member. any 

variation in opinion is supyress#d, and minor dissenters are severly 

reprimanded, as i was when i spoke out against the use of money 

gleaned from slave owners for some of our work. the upper echelon 

has taken advantage of its power and the lesser members. good 

intentions, and it uses this to usurp more power and wealth. regardless 

of the cost. for your own safety you must cease correspondence with 

me. as the association draws ever nearer to capturing my small but 

defiant cry against it. it is only a matter of time before they become a 

tyrannical force with in rochester and expand beyond. you must destroy 

all evidence of ever having known me but always remember the treachery 

surrounding the gears of nathaniel. what was once a proud and well 

meaning group is now a power hungry and corrupt band of thieves. do 

not be fooled by appearances; the association is a dangerous society.

Yours,

            The Chevalier  

___________________________________________________________________________________

Meeting 1932.2

Elmer Bennett hosted tonight's meeting, having called it for the sake of some unknown

reason. As a group we had been meeting quite infrequently of late, the monthly meetings

becoming bimonthly, and then eventually becoming whenever Calvin Calhoun decided it

was prudent to hold one. I am unsure if the lapse in meeting was due to the shrinking size

of our group, or if the shrinking size of our group was because of the lapse in regular

meetings. Although how things came to be as they are now is really of no consequence,

but it is likely the catalyst for why Elmer called for the meeting as he did.

After having cocktails while waiting for the remaining members to arrive, we adjourned 

to Elmer's study, where the five of us could hold the meeting and not be disturbed. Mr.

Calhoun started things off as he always did, with some poem or some such that was

apparently supposed to be read before the start of each meeting. It was something I had

long since forgotten the words of, or never really listened to and remembered in the first

place. Mr. Calhoun then ceded the floor to Elmer, since it was he who had called the

meeting, so it was finally his turn to explain what the point of this all was.

Elmer explained that he wished to do something because he had grown tired of the apathy

the group had been showing of late. He said that we were not only not living up to the

potential of the group but also not doing what the group was created to do. “Considering

what is going on in the world, and how bad things have been for people these past few

what we were created for?” n5

He then laid out his idea, which was to use whatever was left of the group money to pay

for a large public works program that would not only build something that would be of

great benefit to the city, but would also provide jobs to those who now, because of the

depression, had no jobs or at least had no steady income. It instantly sparked discussion

and argument amongst the group, which from what I could tell of Elmer's expression,

was not what he had expected or wanted. I could only surmise that he wished this idea to

be the swan song for the group - to go out in a blaze of glory, as it were.

Although I personally found his idea to be an admirable one, I could not see sacrificing

the group to do it, which from what I could tell was the sentiment of most of the other members.

The only one to speak out against it on all its merits was John Thomas, but this

was unsurprising, as he was not a supporter of such programs.

Much of the discussion seemed to fall on myself, Mr. Calhoun, and Huey Fairbanks,

since we wished to execute Elmer's idea, but without bankrupting us. Thus, much of the

remaining discussion involved how we would go about funding such a large-scale

project. Mr. Calhoun adjourned the meeting without a final decision on the matter, and

instead gave us the task of coming up with different proposals for how we might be able

to fund it. Elmer seemed to concede somewhat by the end of the meeting, while Mr.

Thomas continued to argue against it even more furiously – even banging his cane a

number of times when he thought he was being ignored. n23

Mr. Calhoun set that we would meet again in two months to discuss possible solutions to

the budget problem. Now, although Elmer may not be getting exactly what he wants, at

least he has done the group a favor by breathing some life into it by giving us something

to do.

Eve Monroe

___________________________________________________________________________________

Meeting 1932.3

The meeting was held with only four of us in attendance, namely Mr. Calhoun, Mr.

Thomas, Mr. Fairbanks and myself. We were informed by Mr. Calhoun that due to some

unforeseen circumstance Elmer (Mr. Bennett) would not be attending the meeting. This

meant that nothing could be put to a vote, but we could at least discuss the possible

budget proposals for the large public works project.

There were a few proposed ideas for how to fund the project, but much of the discussion

revolved around Mr. Thomas and his disdain for the public works project. Seeing it as

both a drain on our time and resources, he also stated that he believed that this sort of

project would, in the end, only prolong the unemployment and economic problems of the

city.

At this point Mr. Fairbanks began to make snide and deprecating remarks pertaining to

Mr. Thomas, most of which were in reference to his age. However, between remarks he

did attempt to argue against Mr. Thomas' objections to the project, stating that it would

be better to help some people now then to help no one at all.

Regardless of whatever point he had been trying to make, the discussion of the project

eventually evolved into a yelling match between Mr. Fairbanks and Mr. Thomas. It was

at this point that Mr. Calhoun chose to adjourn the meeting, before tempers escalated

further. He tentatively scheduled the next meeting to be held in two months. Mr. Thomas

quickly departed, still quite enraged about Mr. Fairbanks.

Mr. Fairbanks, looking triumphant, asked if I would attend a late dinner with him.

Although I would have liked to have gone, I did not want to appear to be taking sides

between him and Mr. Thomas. As I explained to him, Mr. Thomas was an old family

friend, and I did not wish to give the appearance of having any sort of allegiance. He

seemed to understand, and we left the meeting separately.

Eve Monroe

___________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Eve,

I understand your reluctance to have dinner with me last night after the meeting, but I can 

assure you that I only wished to discuss with you what occurred at the meeting. Since that

was not possible, I thought it would be best to write to you to explain what I had wished

to discuss with you.

I did have a proposal for the group, but I was reluctant to address it without all of us in

attendance. However, due to spectacle that Mr. Thomas and myself put on, I was assured

of not being able to bring it forth for discussion. I fear that had I, things with Mr. Thomas

would have gone much worse. So I have determined that perhaps it would be best to

discuss my proposal with someone within the group first to receive some input, as it

were, on the subject at hand. Since you seemed to be the most levelheaded of those in

attendance at the meeting, I thought that you would be the wisest person to discuss this

with.

Firstly, I must ask you to not discuss this with anyone else, as I do not wish to get

embroiled in a debate with everyone in the group through letters. It would be most

inefficient. Thus I would much prefer to debate the proposal at the next meeting with the

Mr. Thomas, as it would be easier. So the reason I come to you is that I wish to possibly

have someone on my side when I propose this, or at the very least I can have an

understanding of what issues there might be with my proposal so that I am more able to

address them at the meeting if and when they come up. n5

If you would agree to this stipulation of secrecy, then I will enclose in my next letter

exactly what it is I am thinking of for this proposal. I eagerly await your response.

Sincerely,

Huey Fairbanks

14/4/32

___________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Eve,

I understand your trepidation. My intent is to not do anything suspicious, or even appear

to be doing so. I am only asking for your opinions and possibly your support with this

idea. Although it may seem a bit risky, I think it would end up being of great benefit to

our group by supplying the money needed for this public works project concocted by Mr.

Bennett.

Now allow me to set the stage, as it were. With the enactment of the prohibition on

alcohol, the supply of continues to decrease while the demand for alcohol continues to be

on the upswing. As things stand, those in charge of supplying it tend to be unsavory

fellows, who are using their ability to supply alcohol as a way to get a foothold on A

community so that they might take control of it. It is a sad sight to see, and it is

something I have seen in my travels to places like Chicago and New York.

What I am proposing to prevent such unsavory elements from corrupting our city, as well

as providing ourselves with the funding we need, is going into the alcohol production

business. Obviously, this is quite illegal, but I think that with the connections and power

that our group possesses with the city, keeping any law enforcement off our backs would

be quite trivial.

Now, there are obviously ethical issues attached with doing something like this, but I

think that this course of action would do the most good. This is because it would not only

provide us with the money for Mr. Bennett's project, as well as prevent any criminal type

from gaining a foothold in the city, but also the production of the alcohol itself would

require a number of full-time workers, not only in the production but also in the

transportation. 

Obviously, I am not oblivious to the fact that some in the group will have a great many 

issues with this proposal. I only ask that you try to look at this with a level head, because

I believe that this solution would not only be the best one for producing the money we

need but doing so in the quickest amount of time.

Sincerely,

Huey Fairbanks

1/5/32

___________________________________________________________________________________

Meeting 1932.4

The meeting began rather typically, but it did not end in quite the way it normally would.

All were in attendance, and after some small talk and general business, Mr. Fairbanks put

forth his proposal. He explained it much as he had explained it to me and as per my

request had not mentioned that he had consulted me on it. Although I had the feeling that

during his speech he likely would not have said such, even if I had made no request for

silence at all.

He addressed many of the issues with the proposal while he was laying it out, but it did

not prevent the other members from asking about them once he was finished. It seemed

that only Mr. Thomas and I were without questions on the proposal after Mr. Fairbanks’

speech. I had decided to stay generally quiet on it, due to Huey having consulted me on

the matter; I did not want to come up for or against it straight away. Though I expect that

that is what Huey wanted when he consulted me, an ally to help support him within the

group once he proposed it. I was not sure that I wanted to be his ally, and I am still not,

which was the reason for my silence

Mr. Thomas' silence, however, I found to be rather surprising and bothersome, as he was

not sitting calmly. Rather, he looked as though he were a volcano about to erupt on an

unsuspecting village. Which is why I found myself watching him instead of paying

attention to the debate Huey was having with the other members, but from what I could

gather it seemed many of the issues were much the same as ones I had had, and in some

cases still had.

Once the debate had calmed somewhat, Huey asked for Mr. Thomas' concerns. Mr.

Thomas surprisingly said nothing; he merely stood up and walked out of the meeting.

This of course made it impossible for us to vote on Huey’s proposal. Mr. Calhoun

decided to adjourn the meeting then and there since it was obvious that nothing more

would be done that night. Huey did not talk to me afterward; he merely gave me a nod

and then was on his way. However, I was approached by Mr. Calhoun, who asked me if I

would be able to accompany him to see Mr. Thomas. I agreed in hopes that it might help

me decide where I fell on this proposal.

Eve Monroe

___________________________________________________________________________________

Meeting with Mr. Thomas and Mr. Calhoun

It was a miserable night when Mr. Calhoun picked me up to see Mr. Thomas. It was

raining rather heavily, but that sort of weather is not unexpected around here. We were

set to meet with Mr. Thomas at his house, where we found him in his library, smoking as

a chimney would. He did not seem as angered as he had been at our previous meeting,

but he did flash me a rather nasty look when we entered the room. I guess he had not

been expecting me to be attending this meeting.

Mr. Thomas explained his departure from the last meeting as the only civil thing he could

do to stop a vote from being called on the alcohol issue, and that his objections to it were

not only moral but that he felt that Huey was up to something with this plan. The thought

of ulterior motives had never crossed my mind, but considering how Huey seemed to be

going about things, I could understand where he was coming from.

Mr. Thomas continued saying that he knew that I was in some way allied with Huey, and

thus did not trust me. He also suggested that if my father had not died and left his spot to

me, he would have marched out of the meeting right along with him. It seemed a bit of a

cheap shot, and so I explained the correspondence I had had with Mr. Fairbanks prior to

the last meeting. I also explained that although I had been in contact with him, I still had

my own qualms about Mr. Fairbanks' proposal. I agreed that my father would not have

liked the proposal, but he was also a man who would have not run from a debate.

We spent the next hour or so discussing the proposal, and in the end Mr. Thomas agreed

to attend the next meeting and not leave again. This time he agreed that he would actually

debate the issue outright with Mr. Fairbanks until one of them yielded. It is something 

am quite looking forward to seeing.

Eve Monroe

___________________________________________________________________________________

August 4th, 1992

Dear Matthias,

i have to admit, i'm still reeling from all of this. The idea that this artifact of nistory could be actually real and operating even now is still so new to me. I knew the tests were odd, all of the secrecy, the odd attention given to my thesis work on secret societies and rochester's heavy role in inhovation. but to think that this group persisted past the wwii period, even as you say, into the 60's when you were still new.  it's so much to grapple with so suddenly. you all seem so normal. I mean, dorothy is so much like me, raising kim all on her own for so long.and don't laugh at this but you remind me of my dad.it seems silly that any of us could be involved in... well something like this. i know tnat secrecy is paramount and neitner letters nor emails are very secure so i'm doing my best to be cryptic. I just feel like i needed to talk about this with someone. I hope you don't mind.

Sincerely,

Anita

___________________________________________________________________________________

August 7th, 1992

Dear Anita,

don't feel troubled about feeling so out of place. when edward and i first joined neither of us felt like we belonged. it dldn't help that we were so young in comparison to the other members. some of them were caricatures straisht out of the 195o's and to me at least represented all that was wrong qith society in those days. this society truly is made wp of completely normal folks. exceptional people yes but still rochestarian, with their own lives and worries. none of us were ever superhuman. so you aren't out of place. you can trust that you are such an exceptional person. your handle of history, your strength in raising kevin alone and going to school at the same time, your reen intelligence, these things all put you in to the realm that we need o you saw the ”gears beneath the machine" as andrew likes to put it and that perception of things is one of the greatest assets we can ever have in this group. i didn't laugh at your mention of your fathet but i did smile. i never did have children of my own and i find tnat i often act paternally to anyone tat will let an old dottering man have his ways. besides, i feel that if anyone can stand to learn from all of my voluminous past mistakes and makc the w.rld a better place as a result, it's you. vincent is too egotistical l dorothy too idealistic and cassandra too indecicive to act on such things. i also firmly believe that andrew regards me as entirely washed up and without credibility. either tnat or he still, udges edward and me for the foolishness we indulged in during our earlier years in the society. say hello to kevin for me, lythew. h've beee so busy tately tiat i havpn't had .ime to vsit tne oor boy

With care,

Matthias Dalton

___________________________________________________________________________________

August 13th, 1992

Dear Matthias, 

thank you for the encouragement. i don't feel like it's very fair of him to judge you based on the mistakes of the past. you didn't uhderstand the traditions of the gears ag well as you and i do now. how could you have known that trying tu make it all public and hierarchical would go so badly? the only real time that the hierarchy failed the sosiety was in the early 1800's when adrian be;mont tried to build his own little army. so much time had passed with the tradition of an equal and democratic thirteen firmly in place that i'm not surprised those lessons were less apparent. and wasn't there this strong inclination in the 6o's to be open and accopting to all? i'm sure the idea of an enclosed secret society would have gone against what you felt was right back then. but there i go with my history knowledge again. the whole thing fascinates me enough to write thrity letters on it to everyone i know. kevin does miss you a bit but other than that he's doing well.  especially now that dorothy and i have organized some time for him and kim to play. the two of them get along fairly wcll, if a bit competitively. she's a bit of a spitfire ,like her mother. such a handful. not to pry but i'm much uore worried about edward. he's already missed a few meetings because of his health problems. i know that you and he are close so i wanted to know if he's going to be okay. well, considering you're getting back in two days you can probably tell me in person. safe travels!

Sincerely, 

Anita

___________________________________________________________________________________

CRA Proposal 

Proposal for Expansion of The [removed] of [removed]
December 1st, 1994
Author: [name removed]
Co Author: [name removed]

The following documentation details the proposal to expand The [removed] of [removed], referred to in this documentation as The Society, into a hierarchical group with a public front. This proposal shall deal with multiple issues regarding such an expansion as well as bringing forward the primary reasons for such an expansion. The public front shall be referred to as The Community Reform Association or the CRA for the purposes of this proposal. This name may be subject to change in subsequent proposals or in implementation of this proposal.

The Society has been a highly effective encouragement to the innovation and growth of the city of Rochester since its rumored inception under the cover of a costume party in 1816. While public covers for the group have not been present since 1880 it has still managed to build into its ranks, replacing those of the thirteen who were lost for whatever reasons. It has used secrecy to its advantage in many respects, avoiding the damaging ravings of the paranoid Jonathon Bayliss who after his subsequent expulsion from The Society referred to himself as The Chevalier. However, the secrecy and the small scale of The Society after the incident with Adrian Belmont in 1879 has been a two edged sword for us, denying many opportunities to do good things for Rochester. The writers of this proposal are well aware that BelmontÕs excesses were especially dangerous because of the hierarchy system in place under the Society in the mid 1880Õs. So this proposal has detailed some ways in which such things can be safeguarded against in the future without removing the benefits of a hierarchy and public front entirely.

The CRA will be put forward as a social reform organization, purposed with promoting innovation and invention in Rochester. It will accept donations, funding and involvement with the outside world and will act as concealment for more active methods of aiding Rochester on the part of The Society. It will handle logistics issues and in any situation where The Society would need a third party to run a project, the CRA may provide workers, funding and a front for such. The CRA will engage in active recruitment among the best and brightest of RochesterÕs professionals and students and will present an iconic front to draw attention to it and away from us. This will allow the CRA to not only act as a smokescreen but also to create an easily accessed pool of forward thinking and intelligent individuals who can be tested for entrance into The Society while still aiding efforts to improve Rochester.

The hierarchical structure of the CRA will contain lower members (similar to the lower members of the original invocation of The Society in the 1800Õs, with no knowledge of what The Society does), mid level members and the primary thirteen. Lower members will do the majority of the logistics work with no direct involvement with the primary thirteen. Mid level members will have knowledge of the thirteen but will work to manage the CRA and prevent excesses or issues. They especially will stand in the way of any of the thirteen who seeks to turn the CRA into a personal army or personal organization. The thirteenÕs democratic choices will filter down into the mid level and determine policy for the entire CRA and The Society. This will prevent another Belmont incident. And such a smokescreen will prevent individuals with theories of conspiracy and secret groups from having even the base credibility of a lack of response. The public CRA will dispel any rumors they create.

The authors of this proposal are aware that some consternation may exist regarding this idea. The traditions of The Society are long standing and deeply important to all involved. But in this times change is needed to what can be agreed are stagnancy issues within The Society. Especially in this day and age when the Internet and faster communication makes it more and more difficult to do The SocietyÕs work in secrecy, even if they do improve capacities to find and test new members.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Meeting Minutes
Dec 10, 1994

Things have been hotly contested since Dorothy brought up her and Vincent’s “Community Reform Association” proposal. Matthias has provided the most vehement of objections, citing several historical examples, including one he was involved in during the Sixties, of attempts to expand the Gears into a hierarchical organization that not only failed but had serious consequences for the us and Rochester. The most notable example he raised was Belmont’s attempts to transform the lower gear hierarchy into his own personal army, an example Anita promptly supported with her fairly superior knowledge of history and her background in History and Anthropology. Edward had also taken their side in this leaving Andrew and me as the only reasonably neutral individuals.

Andrew had serious misgivings about the entire idea, feeling that it would risk undue exposure in a far more paranoid and connected world. This especially in the face of the Internet would make it impossible to keep our efforts secret. I hesitated to agree with him as Dorothy had described how the CRA would take focus away from us and provide an easy distraction from our efforts. Largely, I’m not sure what to decide for this and I felt (and stated) that more discussion really was required for an informed decision. Perhaps edits to the proposal and some alternate ideas related to the CRA were in order. Andrew agreed with me that serious edits were needed but cited his view that edits to promote secrecy were paramount, a position he would not budge on. Matthias refused outright to entertain the thought of the proposal going through, even edited. He pointed out that the traditions of the Gears were what had prevented excesses in the past and without fail, every time we deviated from them it blew up in our faces. That track record is a compelling point, to be sure. Anita added to the discussion that while expanding the Gears or our methods for gaining new members were fine, creating a hierarchy with people in charge of it created too much of a chance of corruption, even with the safeguards Dorothy put in place to prevent us from being the corrupted parties. She stated that those higher members who weren’t Gears and took orders from us could easily go rogue, even more easily than Belmont (who was a Gear himself) did.

Dorothy said that she would make edits to the proposal and bring it back to the next meeting. Vincent asked that the meeting be next week since he had sources for funding for the CRA project that he’d rather not keep waiting on an answer. The other members accepted his statement although Anita expressed some discomfort that he was seeking funding from outside sources. He assured her that secrecy had been maintained. Matthias let everyone know that because of the serious snow storm predicted for next week, he would be willing to give other Gears rides in his van because of his effective driving skills on ice and snow. Andrew and I both accepted his offer and I imagine that Edward will too, as he’s been getting most of his rides from Matthias lately, due to his health problems and disabilities.

Cassandra Weber
10th Gear

Dec 12th, 1994

Dear Dorothy,

I realize that you’re worried about the proposal. I am too. We both put a great deal of effort into making this work, but certainly not as much as you. I’m certain we can count on Matthias and Edward to vote against this no matter what. Andrew would require you to gut the entire proposal just to fit his paranoia about the outside world and Cassandra is very easily swayed by strong words and Edward has always had a way with them. Better than myself. I feel as though Anita would be receptive were she not so intensely stubborn. I wish there was some way to protect this work of yours. I hate to see your hard effort disappear because they’re all too trapped in the past to see what we have here. The Gears are dying. We’re down to seven out of the thirteen members. Edward won’t be around much longer. We can’t hold this society together if we don’t adapt.

Please don’t edit it too much. I promise you, I’ll do what I can to deal with this situation. I think we can still salvage this. Trust me. I’ll handle it. Let Kim and Rick know that I’ll be visiting all of you after the meeting. I have a lot of work to do, especially with these funding sources. She’s growing up so fast, it’s scary. Rick is really doing well with her. You made a smart call with that guy. And he’s lucky to have you.

Sincerely,
Vincent

Meeting Minutes
Dec 14, 1994

The meeting was cut short today. The only people who showed up to the meeting were Vincent and I. Cassandra, Andrew, Edward and Matthias didn’t arrive through the snowstorm and Dorothy appears to be late too. With only an even number of members we can’t vote, by rule of tradition. And even without that Vincent and I would vote against each other. I’ve attempted to call Matthias on his cell phone four times now and Vincent has tried to reach Dorothy several times. We’re not sure what’s going on and Vincent especially seems distraught and nervous. I may have to end the meeting early until I can find out if everyone is okay. I really hope Matthias didn’t get into an accident and the same for Dorothy. She is not a good snow driver in that sedan and the ice is atrocious out there right now.

Anita
13th Gear

Emergency Meeting Minutes
Dec 15, 1994

This emergency meeting was called in the hospital today, on the 15th of December, 1994. The remaining Gears are present and accounted for: Anita, Vincent and I. Only three of us remain after the car crash. The doctors have given me a mostly clean bill of health. I was intensely lucky. The others were not. I told both Anita and Vincent that Dorothy had asked me for a ride just before I left, because her car was having troubles. Vincent turned gray at this. I imagine he guessed immediately what such a fact meant for her. A vehicle slammed into the side of the fan, moving at ridiculous speeds and both of our cars went off road. I was told that Dorothy and Andrew were on the impact side and that it was quick. Edward and Cassandra were not so lucky. His injuries were not immense but they were enough. His health can’t handle more stress and he is currently in critical condition. The doctor does not hold out much hope for him. Cassandra is in a coma now and her chances are fairly grim as well.

I’m shaking as I write this because I do not even for a moment believe that this was an accident. And I told Vincent and Anita such. We are being targeted. The speed with which the car moved, the angle, everything comes together to tell me that this was no mistake. They both turned gray at this. The other driver is dead as well so perhaps we’ll never know. I advised Anita and Vincent that we should temporarily dissolve the Gears for now. Place them in hiatus until such time as it is safe. She has a seven year old son with no one else to raise him but her. Kim has already lost her mother to this horrific event and Kevin should not share that fate. Vincent is a man with limitless potential and Anita a woman with such brilliance. Either of their deaths would be a blow to the world. I also told them that as I was directly targeted, I’m the most likely known factor to those targeting us. To keep them safe, I would leave Rochester and go into hiding. This of course would not allow the Gears to function, as we would only possess two members and as such can not vote reliably on matters. Vincent voted with me to dissolve temporarily and Anita voted against me. The matter is now closed. The Gears lie broken until we can mend them. But our lives come above all else.

Matthias Dalton
11th Gear

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Elise,

  You don't believe me? Ten years ago I started researching this. That gear symbol I've shown you has haunted me for years, and I've seen it in the most unlikely places. Reports are coming in faster than I can handle, and I'd encourage you to look around at the new organizations popping up. There's one in particular that I've been watching carefully, and I have a feeling you know exactly which one I mean. Watch them carefully. Very, very carefully. I've been in contact with others about this, as I'm sure you know, and they can all confirm what I have to say. Ask them. Ask any one of them. 

-Watchmaker

Dear “Watchmaker”,

  Every single person I've spoken with about this agrees with me rather than you. I hate to tell you this, but you're wrong. There's absolutely nothing going on – no organization, no gears, and certainly no conspiracy. Nothing. You’re dealing with a fossil. A dead and gone historical artifact. How can you possibly delude yourself into thinking that you're any sort of researcher? All you've provided any of us is speculation. Moreover, you've furnished nothing to prove this group has existed in the past that you couldn't have easily put together yourself. I don't buy it – and neither does anybody else. Those who seem follow you like loyal lapdogs are just waiting to see you fall. In any case, I expected better of you to attempt to slander a social reform organization. I do indeed know which one you’re talking about and they’ve done nothing but good for this city. 

-Elise

Elise,