Spoilers ahead
This page may contain story spoilers! Proceed at your own risk...
The Visions
Tobias:
"You ready, Driver? Okay. First off, I've loaded up three locations on your ARC Device map. You see them? Head to whichever strikes your fancy."
Francis:
"You're sending them to the Visions?"
Tobias:
"Sure am. And we're going to use this."
Francis:
"My Optical Bassilizer?"
Francis:
"We shouldn't use that."
Tobias:
"Why not?"
Francis:
"I mean, it's been decades. No way that thing is in any sort of working shape."
Tobias:
"I've been fixing her up in secret. I'm sorry, don't be mad. It was going to be a surprise for your birthday."
Technology Sandwich
Tobias:
"I've gone and made a itty bitty modification to your headset, Driver."
Tobias:
"I've hooked up the Bassilizer here to modulate your Scan function. Think of it like an extra layer of mayonnaise on your technology sandwich."
Francis:
"What are you using the Bassilizer for?"
Tobias:
"No spoilers. We have to tell the story from the beginning."
Tobias:
"Driver, get ready to feast your eyes on..."
Tobias:
"...the Visions."
Francis' Theory
Tobias:
"This is where your theory comes in, Francis. You tell them."
Tobias:
"Oh, look at me, babbling away. Francis, you explain it. It's so good."
Francis:
"No, it's- I'd rather not."
Tobias:
"We talked about this. You should be proud of your work. Toot your own horn."
Francis:
"Not this time."
Tobias:
"Okay, well, Francis' theory, his entire branch of research, was that the Zone exhibits a property seen nowhere else on Earth. Every phenomena that occurs here leaves its fingerprint forever on the physical space."
Tobias:
"So he created this device to pick up on these sub-physical aftereffects."
Tobias:
"How did you explain it? Like identifying a whale's favorite color using only the wake it leaves behind. The rest was science mumbo-jumbo."
Francis:
"It's a form of electromagnetic imprint. Anyway, it was a long time ago-"
Tobias:
"And what better time than now to try it again?"
Bigfoot Mural
Tobias:
"Ah, the Bigfoot mural. My personal favorite."
Pileup Mural
Francis:
"The Great Pileup! You know, if you catch the mural at the right angle when the moon id right overhead, you can spot the Helmsman's body in one of the boats."
Tobias:
"No chance. It's a paint smudge, nothing more."
Francis:
"Believe me. It's true. I've seen it."
Doorway Mural
Francis:
"The Inverting Doorway."
Tobias:
"I don't like this one."
Something's Changed
Tobias:
"Is it just me, or did this mural look different before?"
Francis:
"Probably the instability messing with the paint over time. It's been decades, after all."
Tobias:
"Something's definitely off. Where's our old notes? From when we took a field trip out that way?"
Tobias:
"Driver, why don't you go ahead to the next one while we investigate this?"
Familiar Shapes
Tobias:
"Did yo see that, Francis? Oh boy. Francis, look!"
Tobias:
"Look here. It's different from our sketch when we visited in '82."
Francis:
"It's all scrambled, but the shape seems familiar. If you tilt your head, doesn't that kind of look like Mount Olympus?"
Tobias:
"Francis, you flipping genius, it absolutely is!"
Tobias:
"Wait, let's look back at the first one. What's different there?"
Francis:
"That shape right there. Is that Hook Valley?"
Tobias:
"Holy smokes, pull up all the topographical maps of the Peninsula. If we look around the areas where you'd get that view of Mount Olympus..."
Tobias:
"See, Francis? I told you your Bassilizer would work."
Francis:
"I don't think this is the Bassilizer's doing."
Tobias:
"Driver, we're onto something. Get to that third Vision!"
Bingo
Tobias:
"Bingo."
Francis:
"See that pattern in the last mural? That flower only grows above a certain elevation. Put the three locations together, and you've got..."
Francis:
"A square mile in the northeast corner of the Deep Zone. Huh. The Visions were pointing toward something the entire time."
Tobias:
"Hey Oppy. You can stop pretending to ignore us now."
Tobias:
"Take a look at this fine work. We've pinned down the location for the source of the Mass Hallucinations. That's where the Driver needs to go."
Oppy:
"Well, what do you know?"
Tobias:
"Well, I knew the Bassilizer worked! What did I tell you?"
Oppy:
"He still doesn't know, Francis?"
Tobias:
"Know what?"
Tobias:
"Oppy?"
Oppy:
"Not my story to share."
Francis' Shame
Francis:
"My theory. And that Bassilizer. They're illegitimate."
Tobias:
"Wait, what are you saying?"
Francis:
"I built that device to prove my imprint theory, and it was on the verge of getting the results I needed. But my research funding was running out."
Francis:
"So I forged the data. Not much- just enough to justify more time. I was so close. I knew the breakthrough was right around the corner."
Francis:
"But ARDA found out. That's why I was reassigned and my clearance revoked."
Tobias:
"You told me you changed labs voluntarily."
Francis:
"Eight years of research with nothing to show for it, and then for that to happen? I couldn't face you."
Tobias:
"That doesn't mean your theory is wrong. I still think there's something to it. There's a common thread with some of the Remnant stories, like the telephone switchboard- the ones that seemed to recall the past somehow. Maybe thee Remnants accessed those imprints, read them like a needle in the groove of a record."
Francis:
"Don't. You don't have to do that. it's in the past. I don't care about it anymore."
The Fight
Tobias:
"But listen. I've got this suspicion, right? If we can just get the car to the Mass Hallucination's source, what we find there can prove your theory. It's worth a try, isn't it?"
Francis:
"I'm tired of trying, Tobias. I've tried all my life, and it didn't go so well."
Tobias:
"Look, I don't have one of those fancy degrees that you and Oppy have. The closest I ever got to science was wiping down your lab benches."
Tobias:
"But I saw the incredible things that you did with your research."
Francis:
"Yeah well, ARDA didn't think they were incredible."
Tobias:
"I don't care about ARDA. I believe in you. Always have."
Francis:
"I'm sorry, I can't, I can't do this with her."
Francis:
"Oppy led the disciplinary committee that stripped my clearance and demoted me to a glorified intern. She sat there and decided how best to humiliate me."
Francis:
"I never ask for anything. This one time I do, so I would never have to talk to Oppy again, you didn't listen. Your Remnant was more important than what I wanted."
Tobias:
"Francis, I didn't mean-"
Francis:
"I've had enough."
Tobias:
"Ah- that's- he'll come around."
Tobias:
"Sorry, Driver. We'll see you back at the Auto Shop."
The Red Meadow Facility
Oppy:
"Interesting thing about that Deep Zone area you identified."
Oppy:
"I ran every coordinate in that area through the ARDA database. And what turns up but access logs, with entry records for Dr. Cay up through March 1963.
Tobias:
"What? The doctor died in 1961. In the lab accident."
Oppy:
"So we were told."
Oppy:
"Then I found access logs for both that Deep Zone site and Red Meadow. years and years worth of activity."
Tobias:
"The Red Meadow research facility? But it was demolished that same year. After the structural damage caused by the-"
Tobias:
"They lied about that too, didn't they?"
Oppy:
"It appears so."
Oppy:
"The Driver should give the Red Meadow ruins a visit. If Dr. Cay didn't die that day, I'd like to know what was keeping him so busy."
Tobias:
"So would I. But do we have time for this? We don't know how long the Driver's got with that Remnant."
Oppy:
"And that's why we need this information. Whatever Dr. Cay was doing relates to all of this. It may be the key to what lies at the end of the road for the Driver."
Tobias:
"I agree with you. God, I hate saying that."
Oppy:
"Driver, I've marked the Red Meadow facility on your Route Planner. Head there whenever you're ready."