retrospec | (no subject)

[ 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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Alpha#02010681 If they don't get him on your timetable, that is. Since you're so concerned about speed.
Alpha#02010681 Maybe I should be asking you that question, what do you do then?

Maybe? He was always laid back in his messages. Every time he gave us a message it sounded like he was doing his best to figure it out. He didn't seem like a bad guy either it makes me wonder why someone would want to kill him.

Right? We already have enough to deal with! At least we know how crazy retrospec is, we don't know who to look out for! We have to try to do our best to look out for who did this along with keeping ourselves safe.

We don't even know what retrospec has planned for next month either!

Maybe he was a target cause he worked at retrospec?

i asked first, you answer first

Alpha#02010681 I keep doing my job and keep looking for whoever it is. But do I also have to worry about keeping people on here from forming a mob? THAT'S my real question.

It's really sad. I feel so bad for everyone and I hope they'll be okay.

That's what Joanne said, but that's so vague. There are a lot of guys here with things they've got back from the past. I'm bad at mysteries too though I wondered who did it.

Oh this is Makoto! I didn't know your name is Hanatarou. Do you want me to start calling you that?

Editors would hate me. Actually, they do, when I go to get my essays read over.

Aliens don't exist, so the latter.

[Very Serious.]

[ oh my god Goro this is all supposed to be anonymous why are you so easy?? ]

prove it.

Edited (What is html) 2018-08-31 01:43 (UTC)

[ oh my god he’ll just invade Elliot’s room later today. ]

i’ll contact you soon.

god of course you're a cop
who else would be this gung ho about leaving it to the police

i don't know
maybe you do
maybe you should

If they're announcing it only now, then it's probably recent. So you'd have to check if there's any news of deaths around the last two months, probably.

[please have mercy on him.]

No, you prove it.

[ no ]

i’m not saying that they exist. i’m asking you to back up your argument.

[mmmmmMMMMMMM,]

On the announcement of someone's passing? Have you no tact?

Yeah. There's gotta be something to this. Everything always connects somehow. Right?

well played.

[ He’ll let him go this time, but Goro’s dissertation does raise more questions that he’ll just have to ask him in person.. ]

Indeed. We receive tickets for items that are sent to us, and I am sure that measures must be taken to ensure that we all receive only the items meant for us. Their inventory system must be kept to high standards of efficiency for everything to flow as smoothly as it does, and for all deliveries to be accurate.

It's a shame that we're unlikely to get any information from that, either. I don't think that any of our resident hackers have had any success in cracking any of their systems. We'll just have to find other ways of looking into matters.

Definitely.

If we can somehow pinpoint the first death, then we might be able to figure out some sort of motive.

[BUT WHAT IF HE'S THE MURDERER]

Okay. Talk to you soon.

Do you think it would be worth asking someone who does?
The only problem is that we wouldn't have a place to organize any of this somewhere where the culprit wouldn't see it.

Because it was one of us is the long and short of it.

I was worried about asking, to tell you the truth, but I'm glad I did. All of the details are too valuable to look past. Thank you.

Now that you mention it, I have heard of Retrospec users being revived in the past. If that plays a part in this, my first thought is asking everyone about their experiences with it, but... The topic's too sensitive.

Instead of him being middle management, could it have something to do with him (most likely) only being on the staff and not actually being a member of Retrospec? As far as we know, none of the staff has ever received memories or anything like we do, so they may not experience the same effects.

A pirate... It doesn't sound like a pleasant experience, but I'm glad you got some kind of enjoyment out of it. It's better than hating every second of it.

it was one of us so they're not gonna do anything about it?
how does that make any sense
they're never this hands off with us even when one of us HASN'T killed one of their employees

not unless we handpick people ourselves and message them privately
but even then who knows
anyone we ask could be the killer themselves

Just a normal looking human guy? Vaguely handsome?

Alpha#02014597 Thanks. I had a feeling.
Alpha#02014597 It's a little bit for us, too. It lets us get our thoughts in order so that we can grieve properly and begin to heal. And from a more personal standpoint-- encouraging spirits to move on means they won't become bad spirits instead. Usually, anyway...
Alpha#02014597 Zee deserves to return to his world and his family. I don't want his spirit to be part of what goes on here.

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