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[recollecters]

What's up, users! We've mostly fixed the technical problems we were having earlier (unless Danny missed something again) but you might want to wear green. Also, I'm supposed to make a vague and mysterious informational post here but that sounded boring so I made a video presentation instead! Watch on YouTube Cheers! Jim Halloway Research & Development Retrspec Incorporated As of this post all apples, oranges, lemons, and limes have been replaced in-universe as the silly dancing fruits shown above. This means that as with Chocobos all NPCs will insist this is how things have always been and history/movies/etc will back them up. In honor of St. Patrick's Day characters will find a request from Retrospec to upload a picture of themselves to the network in which they are wearing something green. They will find themselves shocked lightly by their device if they try to use it without complying. Rude? A non-triggered memory regain can be earned through participation in this post in honor of Lucy's birthday the holiday with proof of a single thread with at least five comments from your character. If you plan to redeem this, please submit it to our regains page with the explanation of "March freebie". This must be submitted before April to be valid! Regardless of whether or not a character earns the freebie, all characters will find a gold coin with the Retrospec logo on one side and a Chocobo on the other. On the outside edge of the coin they will find "Jim, put a meaningful quote here. - Janet" engraved in a beautiful font. The Chocobo will morph into a horse should your character obtain the memory regain from the event; it will stay a Chocobo if your character does not obtain the memory regain. Please see our OOC information post HERE for some information and reminders - you can direct any questions about this post there! Please feel free to use this post as a network mingle. Every toplevel can be considered a new post, and threadjacking is permitted. No NPC response will be given. Usernames are the character's full real AU names, not aliases or chosen nicknames or usernames, and seemed to have filled themselves in; nothing characters do can change or obscure their names currently.

Comments

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa I've figured it out. Everybody go home, I've solved the Retrospec mystery.
Hitori Togusa This is what happens when a generation of jerk hackers grow up and get a lot of money.

Hitori Togusa You wanted my attention? You've got it.

[judicatus]

Noah Gabranth You wouldn't happen to have another one of those green ribbons would you

[ he's willing to put up with a lot of things but electric shock??? please. no more. ]

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa Come find me at my desk, we don't need to keep the thing, just take a picture with it.
Hitori Togusa They had to pull this stunt on St. Patrick's Day. I'm gonna be down in Tisse all night rounding up drunks.

[true_noir]

Chloe Bouchard Yes, but how did they hack my orange?

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa I'm still unconvinced that Retrospec is behind these changes in reality. But this proves that they know something about it. Or maybe know when they're going to happen.
Hitori Togusa But that goes back to my even scarier idea that 'maybe they're actually protecting us.'

[true_noir]

Chloe Bouchard I am not the only one considering that possibility then.
Chloe Bouchard I had thought about it once, though I was initially a little too frightened by a bouncing orange in the dark.
Chloe Bouchard For now it is harmless, but it is tomorrow I worry about.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa It's the green that worries me.
Hitori Togusa Pictures, and posts, they're tailoring things to get responses out of us. We cannot ignore them, intentionally. We need to give them input. Why?

[true_noir]

Chloe Bouchard That they have inserted themselves onto our phones and made it impossible to avoid their games?
Chloe Bouchard It is both an invasion and worrisome, as they are not forthcoming.
Chloe Bouchard Will we ever meet this "Jim?"

[vendettastool]

As a rich jerk hacker I resent that remark.
Also I resent this video since it's clearly done by an amateur.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa Okay, then. Since I'm dealing with a professional, here. What makes a rich jerk hacker go rogue like this? You have the talent and ability to mess with people. But you can only do it on a small scale because of your lack of resources.
Hitori Togusa But then one day, someone bankrolls you. This isn't the inevitable end result?

[vendettastool]

Yoon-sung Lee Losing your riches will make you go rogue like this
Yoon-sung Lee I'm rich so I have no need to make a sudden and dramatic sign of how much of a jerk I am. It's easy enough to tell.
Yoon-sung Lee Either that, or you have a jerk hacker that just got rich and decided to try to share his rich jerkiness to other people
Yoon-sung Lee But he doesn't have the means to share with too many people, hence why he hasn't inflicted this monstrosity on anyone outside of a select few.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa I see. But, the more infrastructure gets built up, the less of your own resources you need to inflict your will on the world through it.
Hitori Togusa There's an obvious follow-up question that probably shouldn't get asked over this network.
Hitori Togusa So let me ask instead if you have any new ideas on how they can determine the user with no login? We ruled out fingerprinting.

[vendettastool]

Yoon-sung Lee tHAT'S RIGHT. tHE MORE INFRASTRUCTURE, THE BETTER THE CONTROL.
Yoon-sung Lee bUT THAT'S SOMETHING THAT I'VE SEEN HAPPEN IN GAMING DESIGN, NOT REAL WORLD.
Yoon-sung Lee bIO-STRUCTURE. eVERY LIVING CREATURE HAS A SIGNAL OR SET PARAMETERS THAT IS IN NO WAY THE SAME AS ANOTHER. eVEN TWINS WILL HAVE A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT SIGNATURE DUE TO HOW THEIR BODIES REACT.

Yoon-sung Lee sORRY MY CAPSLOCK IS STUCK. gLITCH NEED TO RESET.

[frostythehitman]

James Barnes Yeah, that's what I thought two weeks ago when I said this had to be the matrix.
James Barnes Bad news though: it's not the matrix.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa I'd hope it's not the Matrix, that movie was stupid.
Hitori Togusa It's definitely real, the changes that are happening here are really happening. It's all a question of how Retrospec is protecting us from them.

[frostythehitman]

James Barnes Oh I know it's not the matrix. We tested it to make sure and everything.
James Barnes I don't know if it all being real is a better option or not though. I don't like the idea of living fruit being real.
James Barnes Besides, what do you mean, Retrospec is 'protecting' us from them? They're the ones who gave us the talking fruit! And the chocobos, and all the weird packages I've heard about.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa There are two possibilities here.
Hitori Togusa One is that the changes to reality are Retrospec's fault, and it's everyone else that is under the effects of them. There is something innately different about the seemingly random group of people who Retrospec have chosen for their app.
Hitori Togusa But every time there is a shift, we're the ones who remember how things used to be. We can experience both realities. Which makes me wonder if something else is changing reality, and it's Retrospec that is keeping us from being fully affected by it. We remember horses, everyone else has forgotten them. Even the world has forgotten them.

[notyourutopian]

Eleanor Lamb You can't hack fruit though.
Eleanor Lamb Or horses.

Eleanor Lamb Unless they're hacking us somehow, I suppose...

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa I was really referring to the fact that my phone was shocking me.
Hitori Togusa But it's hard to tell the prevailing attitude: does everyone think that Retrospec is behind these changes in reality, or are they just capitalizing on them?

[notyourutopian]

Eleanor Lamb I guess mine noticed I was already wearing green, it didn't do that to me.
Eleanor Lamb Hm.
Eleanor Lamb They had to have some forewarning.
Eleanor Lamb I had the program on my phone for several weeks before the chocobos and the beads.

[standalonehuman]

[Pardon Togusa while he gawks at his phone, dumbfounded for a second.]

Hitori Togusa You're right, it didn't all actually start at the same time.
Hitori Togusa Their infrastructure was in place by the time the first change happened.
Hitori Togusa That does not look good for Retrospec, if they want to say they're not behind these changes, then.

[viktorymaker]

Viktor Nikiforov If they had a lot of money, wouldn't they have paid someone to make a well-made video?

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa For the video? He's trying to confess his love, that has to be personal. That's more about the level of effort that you put in to impress someone.

Hitori Togusa I was speaking to the fact that my phone just shocked me until I did what it told me to. That speaks to a bunch of jerk hackers who want to manipulate us like puppets.

[viktorymaker]

Viktor Nikiforov Ah, that? They do seem to enjoy doing things like this
Viktor Nikiforov Like when they wouldn't let people out of their building
Viktor Nikiforov But what about the strands of beads and the chocobos and the fruit
Viktor Nikiforov ?
Viktor Nikiforov It's not just a hacker thing
Viktor Nikiforov Unless this world is a computer or we're robots ourselves

[ . . . This is getting strangely philosophical... ]

File under posts that will be ironic when he gets more regains back.

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa Okay. Maybe I'm stuck in the hacker mentality because this all started with the phones.
Hitori Togusa There's definitely something else going on, you can't just hack reality. Or even just people's perceptions of reality.
Hitori Togusa But whatever the real game is, we are the ones being targeted, we remember horses and the fruit. And the app is a nice way to keep tabs on all of us.
Hitori Togusa Who needs surveillance when we're telling the app everything that we're doing somewhat willingly?