(no subject)

[recollecters]

[ For the past few days, Retrospec users may have noticed that Zee has been unresponsive. On the 29th, a message from Delta#68422 appears - for once a network connection in video form. The girl on the screen is recognizable to some as Joanne Wiseman: a blonde teenager with blue eyes and curls tied back, in a Retrospec technician's white labcoat. Far from her usual bubbly appearance, she looks upset and stressed out, her eyes red-rimmed. ] Hi... [ She scrubs at her eyes for a second, then tries to smile. ] Um. So! The thing is - the thing is, I can't tell you exactly, but one of you - someone got something back, and it's... [ Joanne pauses. There are voices in the background, and she glances off-screen to her right, lips thinning before she turns back. ] We can't take it back, you know, we reroute items - Maurice does, I mean - but it's not like we're giving things on purpose. I mean, those we are. He takes them back now if you don't want them but it's not like you can take back things you can do, and - and. Someone did something, but I can't say who, or how, 'cause of restrictions. But I can tell you something happened, and - with all those deaths recently. [ She takes another breath, deep and slow. ] And. Our liaison, Zee, he - he wasn't on the same level, you know? Mid-level management. Like - so he didn't have the... [ another pause as she scrubs at her eyes again. ] So - the news, the normal news, it probably said already but you might not have known if it was real but he's. He's dead, and it's the permanent kind, and we can't fix it. I'm so sorry, he already - he'd already, we'd already done it before, and he ran out of - he ran out. My Aunt doesn't want to send anyone else in until - the, the issue. With one of you. Until something's done, but even then... [ A helpless little shrug. ] I never got to clear up the mess last month, the message. I'm sorry, we've been a little - it's been hectic. I'm not sure this won't get messed up before I send, but I think I can route it around - well, anyway. Jim said it would work, he helped me with it, and...that's. That's it for now? We're trying to - this is bad, but we're trying to avoid something else right now, so. I can't - we can't - focus on this. I'm sorry. I'll try to contact you next month as soon as I can - we're trying to avoid a repeat of August. I mean, last August. God. Stay safe, and - [ And with that, the message ends in static. ] As of this post, Zee is no longer in play until further notice due to player plot and game plot reasons! He may make a reappearance in the later months and player action can change this outcome if characters come up with a solution. Anyone who goes to look for information about this death will find out that Zee has been killed and his body was found staged in front of the Wiffle-Waffle waffle house. What a bad break. We are now entering the final phase of the summer event; please be on the look-out for September's plotting post with details for the next month! 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. Characters IDs will be comprised of the following: The date your character first appeared on Retrospec (so in Zee's case, that was 02/01/18) and the last four digits of your character's IC inbox as found in the HTML (in Zee's case, 8329.), 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]

Alpha#02010681 I'm saying there is a good chance that we'd get it wrong if we try to do this ourselves.
Alpha#02010681 Let's say you get it right, though. You figure out exactly who it is.

Alpha#02010681 What do you do then?
Alpha#02010681 Be specific.

[frostythehitman]

hand them and all the evidence over to the cops so they can put them in jail without having to waste time investigating

and then if that doesn't work just throw them in some basement somewhere and throw away the key

[standalonehuman]

Alpha#02010681 We shouldn't be involved in the trial, I hope, because I agree with you. We are too compromised.
Alpha#02010681 I want this person found. But I want this done right.
Alpha#02010681 This whole thing goes right back to day one of Law School and the argument between Justice and Law. Never thought I'd find such a practical example.

[standalonehuman]

Alpha#02010681 It was a much simpler explanation than what I was trying to figure out with him being somehow out of bounds.

[standalonehuman]

Alpha#02010681 Can you make sure to collect all that evidence without tampering with it? Can you be really dispassionate about putting that evidence together for someone else to understand?
Alpha#02010681 An 'investigation' would still happen, even if you drop that on RPD's doorstep, the processes of law enforcement would still happen.

[frostythehitman]

fine
then lock them up in a basement until the police can finish doing whatever
or like i said, just toss them in the basement forever from the start

[frostythehitman]

i don't buy that
you've seen how much power they have over like
literally everything
the least they can do is use it to catch a killer
especially one who killed one of their employees

[standalonehuman]

Alpha#02010681 If the result is the same, then why do you need to get involved at all, instead of letting it be handled by people trained to do so?

Beta#9011231

[amodelidol]

I'm sorry to hear about Zee. May he rest in peace and my condolences to Joanne and everyone

[Makoto writes something else before he erases it then tries again.]

I can't believe someone would do that to him. I hope Joanne and Zee's family will be okay. Knowing someone from the network did it is scary. I hope they'll be able to figure it out.

I hope everyone else will be able to stay safe.
We should probably look out for each other more too.

[megatechbody]

Beta#0501426 You say that as if Retrospec has given us simple answers for anything. Don't beat yourself up for following a chain of logic they established.

[maskreant]

to think they would target Zee of all people.

i liked him.

[openhanded]

Alpha#02014597 Yeah, of course.
Alpha#02014597 Taking someone else's life is a heavy burden. It's too much for one person...
Alpha#02014597 Do you think it'd be appropriate to leave flowers where the Retrospec building used to be? I want to... I should make sure that his spirit is seen after.

[maskreant]

they probably see correlation/causation between an item being received by one of us and Zee's death.

[standalonehuman]

Alpha#02010681 Good point. And maybe I was hoping Zee would succeed in whatever he was going to try.
Alpha#02010681 ..Who am I talking to?

[sunnyspot]

It would be nice if they could. It's true that they're capable of a lot, but at the same time, who can say if they'd risk stepping in? On the other hand, if they're the root of the problem, maybe they'll break their usual rules to fix it.

I couldn't understand everything Joanne was saying, but it sounded like she was trying to apologize to us for something more than his death.

[frostythehitman]

because we can find them faster
we already know it's someone on the app, that narrows it down a lot
and the faster we find them the less chance they have to kill anyone else

[standalonehuman]

Alpha#02010681 Of course! It's the right thing to do, isn't it? I was already thinking of setting out incense for him at the shrine. He needs a sendoff, like anyone else.

[maskreant]

[ IF HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW HIS BOYFRIEND TYPES—wow, hypocritical of a post, to be honest. He won't be dragging him into the spotlight. ]

👏👏👏 good talk.

don't you think this is the time where we should band together and find the culprit?

[frostythehitman]

yeah she's saying they didn't get to fix everything else going wrong last month
but even if they're scrambling to figure THAT out, at least they know who did this
they could do something to fix at least one thing here

[maskreant]

i wonder if it was intentional or not.

there's so much we don't know.

[fiddlestick]

I know....

But they said deaths, as in multiple right?
Wouldn't it have made the news if it was some accident that caused that many deaths?

[sunnyspot]

So that's it. No wonder. Thanks for explaining.

None of really know how many employees Retrospec has, as far as I know, but it seems like they could have at least a few people looking into this while the rest focus on fixing the issues from last month.

But at the same time, who knows what the killer will think of this message. There's a chance it could make things worse, if they're that much of a psychopath. Maybe an employee or two could track them down and try to talk to them.

[promisedyou]

That's why they should know that that there's a lot of unhappy people right now and I won't forgive them for doing something like this! Definitely!

[megatechbody]

Beta#0501426 Considering recent events, I'm not sure I want to say.
Beta#0501426 I mean, we might as well use the network making us all anon to our advantage for as long as possible.

[selfloving]

I hate to entertain the thought, but the simplest answer is so often the true one.

Because they could.