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Retr

spec Incorporated

Per the mod plotting post, you may use this post to obtain one of this month's freebies! This month's freebie can be earned by turning in a thread on this post that has 10 or more consecutive comments from you.

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. Alphas, Betas, and Epsilons will notice that network posts will continue to be tagged without names attached but rather their newly issued IDs. OOCly, IDs are comprised of their title, the date they showed up on the app, and the digits on your character's inbox post. So for example, the Recollé NPC who was on the app would have an ID of Beta#0201188329. While user pictures can be displayed, Retrospec users will also experience broken pixels on occasion that obscure the face of whoever they're speaking to. (i.e. we will allow for players to play with an anonymous option if they wish.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sure did.

Like I said. It's not a bad night, around where we met.

Hah. I bet.

You want some company? 'Cause all ya have to do is ask.

Sigh.
You are terrible at this.

Maybe.
Or maybe it's just nice to be asked.
:P

Bitte.

:D

I'll see you soon.

[true to Anna's uncharacteristically few words, she's out there in the woods, sitting on the ground with her back against a tree. it's near enough to where she first met Lillian, close to the crossroads and the signpost out to Bosuma and all the other districts. with dead leaves starting to litter the ground, and with so many other things having happened since then, it almost feels like a different place entirely for Anna.]

[she's wearing a heavier leather jacket, one that she's almost certain she hasn't worn in front of Lillian yet (because it's been mostly living in her closet since she broke up with Rose), and she's got her phone in her lap and a notepad and pen in her hands. the notepad isn't empty, but it might as well be for how much valuable information she's managed to get written on it.]

[when Lillian comes to find her, she's not paying attention to her notes anyway. she's got her head tilted back, bumping against the rough bark of the tree while short hair frames a tired face. she can hear someone coming, but doesn't really acknowledge it.]

[Once she actually reached the woods, it took Lillian a few minutes of tromping around through the leaves to actually spot Anna, and she made no attempt to be quiet while she did. Probably should have, but oh well. When she finally did find the older woman, she took her time crossing the distance between them, letting the leaves swish around her feet.]

[She was caught somewhere between summer and fall, clothes wise, in jeans and a t-shirt, but with an open zip-up sweatshirt over it, her metal hands stuffed into the front pocket. She paused, watching Anna for a few seconds from maybe five feet away, before she actually said anything.]

Hey.

[Was the only thing that felt entirely appropriate, for some reason.]

Hey.

[they needed to have a better way to greet each other, not that Anna minded right now. her head turned in Lillian's direction and her eyes lazily opened. it was good to see her out in the real world again. everything seemed way better, way easier to handle when every texture was the same resolution and that resolution just happened to show off autumn. Anna may have felt fucking exhausted, but at least the season helped. so did looking at a cute girl, even if she was way younger than her.]

You didn't need me to ask you to come out here. What was the deal with that?

Yeah, I know. [She shrugged and gave a small, amused smile.] But sometimes it's just nice to be asked.

[That, and frankly, with the insecurity she'd been feeling lately well...reassurance was helpful.]

[After a few more seconds of silence, she closed the distance between them, turning around to sink down on to the ground next to Anna and rest her back against the tree too.]

[ha. yeah, okay, Anna understood that, even if she still thought differently about it for the two of them specifically. it seemed like it was a good enough answer for her to let it go, and she just watched idly as Lillian settled in next to her.]

[from this distance, she'd almost definitely be able to see the notepad with its clear lowercase letters written in the same way that Anna seemed to live every part of her life. the name "VANDERWEELE" was the only thing in caps, at the top, and words like "infection" and "pixels" and "fake retrospec" were scattered around the rest of the sheet, all disconnected from each other. she hadn't gotten very far in her connections yet.]

I'm not great at asking for help. Never feels right.

I've noticed.

[Lillian laughed, an almost silent noise, as she was reaching up to tug that massive ponytail over her shoulder and into her lap so she could lean her head back against the tree.]

I promise not to make you do it often.

[She added as her metal hands came to rest in her lap, and she let her gaze wander until it wound up on Anna's notebook. Hm.]

...Fake retrospec?

[man. watching that scene almost made Anna wish she hadn't gotten her hair ruined by a ball-mouth monster. it hadn't been that long ago, but obviously it felt like an eternity. either way, she only watched Lillian for a moment before her gaze returned to the notepad.]

Yeah. [she grabbed her pen again and tapped the end of it against the words. as she spoke, she focused more on that than anything else.] That amusement park out there wasn't set up by them. The logo and color were wrong. Someone was impersonating Retrospec and I can't figure out why.

[and preempting what immediately strikes her as the obvious question, she continued, looking up at Lillian as she did.] They didn't stick around. The ones who talked to us today are legit.

[Lillian didn't really know what to think of that, her gaze resting on the notebook until she finally looked up again.]

Yeah but...why would somebody impersonate retrospec? And even if they were, how would they do it inside, what was it, 'safe mode?'

Don't know. Safe from what, is my question. Or who. Because everyone who called them out on that being bullshit was right. It sure as hell was not safe.

[Anna flipped the pen around and scribbled "safe mode?" underneath that header.]

Not safe enough if it could get infiltrated like that.

Yeah. Those bugs were just...

[Lillian sighed.]

It don't make sense, you know? I get the idea, and I honestly think they're tryin' to help us but if they really wanted to, I wish they'd just let us help them too.

[Anna shook her head very, very slightly, thinking back to some of the other things she'd written down. Annalise hadn't taken notes. that wasn't the kind of person she was, so there were just two months of gaps in Anna's knowledge. (not that she wasn't trying to fill them.)]

I think they're trying. I think they want help and they don't have the resources they need to ask for it properly. Especially not after what happened to Zee.

Yeah...[Another sigh.] Course, if they really wanted to, they could just say it when they send us these dumb messages every month, and not just be weird and cryptic instead.

[She gestured vaguely at the woods, putting on a silly voice.]

'we want your help but we ain't gonna ask, we're just gonna throw you a riddle and hope you figure it out! Good luck!'

[Anna barked out a laugh, then unsubtly reached out for Lillian's hand to pull her out of the gesture and into, well. another, nicer gesture. catching her hands with Anna's own. don't say anything about it, it's fine.]

Hey, in our defense, someone always does, yeah? Maybe if we bombed one of these riddles, they'd dumb 'em down for us. [but that was clearly not an option; only bad things awaited in that direction otherwise.] Then I could spend more time doing something instead of sitting out here figuring nothing out.

[she tried not to look down at their hands, or at least not too obviously. whether Lillian was self-conscious about it or not, Anna was doing it. and she liked it, really.]

[Lillian's voice hitched, just for a second, when Anna caught her hand, but then it was gone and she seemed to be back to normal. Her metal fingers absently curled through Anna's as their hands dropped back down between them.]

Pretty sure there's too many nerds on here to ignore the riddles.

[She shook her head, her own gaze away from them both, just looking out at the trees. There was a little smile on her lips now though.]

Oh yeah? Doing something fun, or something useful? [She teased.] 'Cause fun is usually way better than helpful.

I prefer useful when I can make it happen.

[might as well be honest. lately, they'd had a lot to worry about. a lot going on, a lot that made her feel a little more like Annalise, which. didn't feel great as she contextualized it that way.]

But I haven't done something just for fun in a while. [not that she's suggesting anything.] Haven't had the time.

Somehow I ain't surprised. [Lillian joked.]

Well, ya should! All work and no play and all that. [She didn't seem all that interested in moving though.]

Otherwise you'll go crazy. Or get really boring.

Nothing's boring when I'm on the app, dude. There's just too damn much of it.

[might as well be honest about that too, right? hell, she was doing a real damn bad job at keeping up her pretenses around Lillian. she could kind of see where this conversation was going from here—she'd be, like, doing something instead of chilling in the forest racking her brain—but didn't really know what was going to come next.]

You suggesting anything? [she glanced very, very briefly at their hands.]

Hmm...

[Lillian seemed to think it over, her hand shifting in Anna's grip, the cool metal of her thumb running absently over the back of the other's hand.]

Not anything out in the woods.

[She said with a little laugh, then a dramatic sigh as she let her self slump to the side so her head fell onto Anna's shoulder.]

We may need to stand up.

Mm.

[well, that was a lot easier of an idea to stomach before Lillian put herself right there on Anna's shoulder. and her dumb touch-starved ass lapped that whole sensation up, even more than she liked the idea of them holding hands or being this close to each other in the first place. this was the problem. this was how it had started with Astin. Anna was depressed and looking for some comfort and someone was there to provide it and...]

[well. she and Lillian knew each other a lot better than she and Astin had. maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world to see where this took them. she turned her head very slightly, just to see what Lillian looked like like this.]

What were you thinking?

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