(4/2, morning.)

[erythristic]

To the users of Retrospec:

This message comes from both Grell Sutcliffe and Lucian Trevelyan. There’s been discussion recently of certain changes coming over our userbase. Changes that come in different forms, from certain unexplained moments that feel like dreams or perhaps memories, items showing up without cause, or certain physical attributes undergoing shifts in inexplicable ways. It’s to the latter that we address ourselves.

We are both medical professionals, and as such we’d like to say that if you undergo such changes and would like someone to take a look at what’s happened to you, for any reason, we’re capable of doing so and willing to provide you with what information and care you need. Anyone that comes to see us will be treated with the same standards as we’d give any patient - your information will remain confidential, and your visits will be at your discretion.

[ Here is the address to an establishment in Chata, along with the phone number. ]

If you’d like to make an appointment for your visit, contact Dr. Trevelyan, and standard clinic hours will apply. Weekend morning appointments can also be arranged. If you require care outside of office hours or need things to be looked at immediately, contact Dr. Sutcliffe.

We are here to help you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us should you have any sort of question or concerns. Feel free to comment to this post as well if you see fit.

[[ooc: since they co-wrote the post, either or both Grell (erythristic) and Lucian (accordance) will reply to threads - if you want one in particular, just say so in your thread header!]]

Comments

Since this happens the day BEFORE Togusa gets a regain...

[standalonehuman]

Thank you both for doing this. I was already speaking with Dr. Trevelyan, but, Dr. Sutcliffe, I guess I had missed you on the network. I've seen your name around the Department, I'm Officer Hitori Togusa. If you're willing to help out, I'm glad.

Honestly, one reason I had been leaning towards Dr. Trevelyan is his willingness to include the Department in the doctor-patient confidentiality agreement. If anything does happen to me, or somebody like Detectives Gabranth or Wolf, it's not immediately going to go in our files. Can I assume that you're willing to make a similar agreement? So long as any changes aren't actually jeopardizing our ability to do our jobs?

[erythristic]

[instead of publicly responding, she moves to send a private message to him.]

firstly, officer, it's good to meet you personally, instead of a name i've vaguely heard around. secondly, while my regular work requires me to be relatively transparent with the department, this branch of work is separate. i offer this of my own free time and energy. i would no sooner immediately report my findings than i would discuss the particulars of a case at a party.

when i say confidential, i mean it - who i've seen, when i see them, what i've found - none of that will come from me but rather the patient themselves if they choose to be open with the information. if what changes does impact your ability to work, i can offer my advice in the matter, but ultimately it would be up to you to disclose that to the department, in which case i would of course be willing to write up something to formally state what's been found to make it simpler for you.

[she's already written a fake doctor's note for Dave. she can do it for other people. it might not be entirely ethical, but she'd rather help people with ways to explain the differences than leave them in distress.]

[standalonehuman]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. I still don't feel comfortable hiding things from the Department, truth be told. But, if it doesn't interfere with my job, but we can't explain how it's happening? Like Jinjing's eyes?

I don't like this dilemma.

But, free time and energy? Can't exactly bill us through our insurance for 'reality-warping consult' but there's got to be a way we can pay you back for your help?

[erythristic]

truthfully, i didn't think about people paying me back when i offered this. i only want them to feel a little less in the dark in regards of what's happening to them.

[standalonehuman]

Well, I'll find a way to pay you back, then. If something comes up in the future, know that you can call on me.

Do you think there would be a common thread, then? Between the physical changes and the mental ones, the memories?

[erythristic]

i can only speak to my own experience, and i am reluctant to do so on this application for reasons i'm sure you understand.

[instead, she provides a phone number attached to her message.]

that's my cell phone.

[standalonehuman]

Well, let's take this to the phones, then. Togusa waits until he's off-shift to call Dr. Sutcliffe, even though he really wouldn't have to worry about anyone knowing he's calling her. It's still just a friendly chat; it's not until later that Togusa will suddenly need the doctors' services.

"Dr. Sutcliffe? It's Officer Togusa, how are you doing?"

[erythristic]

She'll be free from Lucian's place, picking up after a few rings. When she hears the voice on the other end, she's not surprised.

"Quite well, Officer, and yourself? I almost didn't think you would be so prompt to call."

[standalonehuman]

"Well, I'm eager to know what other people think about this whole mess. I have to thank you again for offering your services in the first place. Overall, it's been very refreshing to see people coming together in the face of what Retrospec is throwing at us."

"I'll leave it open," Togusa suggests, "where would you like to start?"

[erythristic]

"Generally I like to start at the beginning of a tale, since I'm so often deciphering what the end of it looks like...the final parts lead to the middle, but the start remains a mystery to gain."

She pauses to let it sink in, and then continues. "So far I've been altered in one way. My eyes."

[standalonehuman]

She has an interesting perspective, one that is not too far off of the role of Detective. Maybe there are a lot of the same skill sets required between her job and Gabranth's. "Your eyes?" A note of surprised that he can't hide. "Just a color change like-" Oh, and he almost just blurts out her name and then has to stop himself because confidentiality. "Like, ah, some other people have been reporting? Or, did your eyesight suddenly get worse or better?" He has to clarify.

[erythristic]

"A color change. I would have appreciated my vision getting better in the bargain, but it wasn't fated to be - at least it didn't get worse. But the color I now have is a hue I've seen in only one other place, the remembrances I've been having. Looking too long into my own eyes made me recall others I saw."

[standalonehuman]

Togusa makes a hum of understanding. "That's why you reacted to the idea that there might be a relationship between the physical and mental changes. I didn't realize my question was quite that important."

"What does that mean, then, the physical changes are supposed to be helping jog our- 'memory' if we even agree that the visions people are having are truly memories? Enough people are corroborating the idea, but how can we prove that they're right?"

[erythristic]

"The most I can say to that is that a friend I trust pointed out how personal we all see them to be. Always I know this or this happened to me - we have always been part of the events we recall. Much like a memory."

On her end, she runs a hand through her hair, steeling herself to openly say what she thinks next.

"In a way, I've been idly speculating that the changes are not so much placed there as they are us remembering they're there in the first place. Like a mark on your back in a place you never look for a long while and then suddenly, it's there and you recall all over again that it exists. It would fit with the memory theme, but it's also soundly ridiculous for a woman of the scientific field to be saying these things. An external force changing us is more logical."

[standalonehuman]

"I've heard the same thing," Togusa affirms. "I suppose I wouldn't know for sure until I experience one."

But he continues to listen, even though the theory that Dr. Sutcliffe puts forth is frightening. "Like it's been in front of us the entire time, and we're only now seeing it. The changes with us would fit in with the changes to the world, then, as if we've been seeing horses where there were really chocobos the entire time. That is- not comforting. But it makes sense."

"Overall, though, the changes have been mostly cosmetic," Togusa insists. "The horses didn't get replaced with tiny flying birds, or machines, but with other animals that still fulfill all the basic functions of horses, from our narrow human perspective. Who can tell how those changes are altering the rest of the world, though."

"But, even to us, how much are we getting changed from our original selves?"

[erythristic]

"That I don't know." She pauses there. "And frankly, dwelling on it right now is going to drive us crazy. I speak as someone who's too apt to go back and think on things - right now, I can only think of what's happening, and focus on adapting instead of worrying."

She says this, and she knows in her heart that she's already worrying, that she has ever since she woke up with these eyes, and that the fretting was only ever tempered by talking with people. It never stopped, but it was manageable.