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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Indeed. It's hard to say for sure how much of their vagueness can be attributed to their corporate policies and how much of it could be due to not wanting to set the potential culprit off. If we're lucky, then maybe they are intentionally clouding their actions wile taking some sort of action against the person in general.

But there's no way to know any of that for certain, at least not right now. All we can do is see what we can discover for ourselves about the matter and hope that some sort of action can be taken before any further deaths occur.

I'm inclined to believe that is the case, but we really only can guess. They are secretive bunch to begin with, as you said.

I suppose the best place to begin would be to seeing who has shared abilities with the group already? The culprit may not be as secretive as Retrospec.

That's right. If they are taking any action, we won't know until it has already been said and done.

I see. Yes, we can examine what abilities and items have been mentioned by other Retrospec users to see if there is any connection. Even the greatest of criminals are capable of slipping up and leaving some trail, after all.

Especially considering most of the abilities that people have gained here doesn't necessarily meant that they are adept at using them right from the start. The sort of skill that would be required to take out someone so high profile in the community leads me to believe they had the time to practice it.

Your logic is sound indeed. She did mention something about other deaths, after all; perhaps those could have been part of that person's practice? Unfortunately, there's not much more that we could learn about that without additional details.

And they're not really known for offering them up, are they? We might be on our own with this one.

Exactly. Now I don't want anyone to take any unnecessary risks. Our continued safety is the highest priority. But for the sake of our safety, we should look into what we can without endangering ourselves.

Reviewing the network might be the first step. Some people have announced any new abilities or items publicly.