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

Then we'll just have to find them and stop them before it gets to that point.

Yeah. She wasn't gonna say who, but she did imply it was because of something they got back. Like an item or a memory, or maybe a power.

If it's an item, they're honestly stupid for allowing that item into the wrong hands to begin with.

Yeah, I don't know... I mean, even if it was their mistake, or if it was inevitable like they say, that still means one of us is posing a danger to everyone right now.

True. I'm not going to say that the other party that did get the ability or item or whatever is completely blameless. It's basically not good.

I'll keep an eye out. I mean, whoever it is can read all of this, obviously, but there's gotta be something we can do to stop it.

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!

We gotta find out who the others who died were. See if there's a pattern. I'm not a detective, but someone the other me was really close to was really into that stuff, and I guess that's not the best help, but I can't let this keep on going.

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.

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

Definitely.

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