LOADING...

[recollecters]

[ At 9PM on the 1st, all phones or Retrospec-enabled devices will show flickering screens, until a static-filled image appears. It seems to be a security camera shot, in black and white from a high angle, of a simple computer room. Inside is Joanne Wiseman who many of the users may recognize - she looks young, blonde curls loose around her shoulders, and she also looks tired still. A young man who looks only slightly older than her comes in. He's dark-haired with a sweater and glasses, but a white labcoat that matches hers as well. Maurice comes over to stand nearby, watching the screen Joanne is looking at. Neither of them seem to realize they're being recorded. Joanne looks up, and speaks first. ] Did R and D know anything? [ Maurice shakes his head, says: ] No. They can't track them down either - it's almost as if... [ Joanne: ] They have to be somewhere. [ Maurice: ] Jim's trying to figure it out. You know we don't have anyone better at...ah, "creative" solutions? [ Joanne: ] No, I know, just...what if their souls are just, just - [ Maurice: ] I don't think they're gone. I mean - well, they're gone, but I don't think they're gone? You remember August, the one before last. They're, uh, pretty tough? [ Joanne: ] We're usually able to at least try to help them when we can, though! [ Maurice: ] Jo - look, we're doing everything we can. We'll find them. [ Joanne: ] Before they do? [ Maurice: ] Right. I mean...we have to, don't we? [ They both look worried. Before they do was said with a certain inflection - and hey, Retrospec. It looks like the employees have lost track of you for the month. How do you feel about that one? ] As of this post, character usernames are back to being their own names - or rather, characters will be prompted to put in their name as a boot screen loads. Now's your chance to change your preferred name, Retrospecters - but it appears whatever you put in will be locked in as your choice. Hope you didn't put in something ridiculous! 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. As a friendly reminder, you may also claim one of this month's freebie by submitting a thread from this mod post. This thread must be 10 comments from you and submitted before AC closes.

Comments

[thisloveisjustice]

I'm back to normal. Thankfully. I haven't seen any monsters since yesterday. So tentatively hopeful that whole thing is over.

[scythegun]

Oh, that's wonderful news! I've been stuck in the house for a long time and the boredom's been slowly killing me.

Hopefully things weren't too bad for you as a monster?

[thisloveisjustice]

It wasn't bad in and of itself. I was able to fly. But my feet turned into talons, so I couldn't wear shoes, which was an interesting challenge.

I just take issue with some things I did.

[scythegun]

Flying does sound like fun, even if the rest of it sounds annoying at best.

It sounds like things were really bad for most of the people dealing with all of that. I do hope things get better for you. Though I suppose no longer being part-bird is a good start!

[thisloveisjustice]

I'd very much like to just take a break, but from the looks of things, that's not going to be an option.

[scythegun]

Same... I really need to get things in order with my business and I can't really afford to keep taking breaks whenever something dangerous happens. Could they just give us one month of peace? That's all I'm asking for.

[thisloveisjustice]

Seriously. I keep losing my vacation days at work. Not that I'd actually go on a vacation, but I like the idea of having the time for it, you know?

[scythegun]

Of course! Losing out on those really must be a pain. I own my own business so I can make my own hours; I really can't imagine being forced to deal with work while all of this is going on!

[thisloveisjustice]

I somehow managed to still show up for work the first part of the month, but once the corn maze popped up... I couldn't think about work at that point anyway.

[scythegun]

That's absolutely fair! Of course, explaining it certainly can't be easy... But at least you weren't out the entire month!

[thisloveisjustice]

No, thank goodness. I'd start considering self-employment, but it sounds like even then things can get difficult.

[scythegun]

It can! I'm lucky enough to be able to take long breaks if need be, but I can imagine a lot of people have it much worse. Retrospec certainly does mess with our lives quite a bit...

[thisloveisjustice]

And yet it sounds like they can't find us right now. Which is... very odd.

[scythegun]

I'm really not sure how they managed that. It seems like it should be impossible!

[thisloveisjustice]

Well, I think at this point we can agree that as omnipotent as Retrospec can seem, we've definitely seen that's not the case.

So as unlikely as it might seem that they can't find us, it's possible. It's definitely possible.

[scythegun]

That's certainly true. I wonder how things will go now that we've supposedly vanished? I'm genuinely not sure if this is a good thing or not. Normally I'd be inclined to say that it is, but who knows if this will cause even more problems...

[thisloveisjustice]

Probably cause problems.

Knowing Joanne and Maurice, they'll keep looking for us. So all we can do is go about our lives and be here whenever they figure out how to find us again.

[scythegun]

I have a lot of questions about how they could lose us and about how things will go once they have found us... but I doubt we'll get any answers then either. You're right though, the only thing we can do now is wait and see how things go.

[thisloveisjustice]

And then there's questions about how they keep track of us in the first place. What exactly do they mean when they say they can't see us?

[so many questions he never got around to asking Zee...]

[scythegun]

I'm very curious about that as well. We're right here, so if they can't see us then does that mean that somehow we've been removed from whatever it is they can see? Something about the layers, maybe?

Well, whatever happened, as long as we can look out for each other and survive the month, things will probably go back to normal. Or what passes as "normal" around here, anyway.

[thisloveisjustice]

It could be layer related. That's still a concept I find a little difficult to wrap my head around.

Indeed. What is 'normal' anymore?

[scythegun]

Agreed! This whole thing really is such a pain, isn't it? As long as things go better than last month, I'll count it as a victory.

[thisloveisjustice]

Absolutely. I've pretty much been measuring things that way. Was this month better than last month, yes or no? It's kind of been downhill the last couple of months, so it'd be nice if things picked up this month. Starting with us not being 'lost' anymore.

[scythegun]

I've been hoping for a break for a long time now! I really do need some time to get things together for my business and in my personal life! Just one month of downtime would be enough, but it doesn't really seem like things are going to be getting much easier this month...

[thisloveisjustice]

If we don't have monsters overrunning the city and I can just go to work to do my 9-5 M-F, I will be about 50% satisfied. But I hear you on the personal life stuff. It is really hard to take care of yourself and your relationships when the city is going to hell.

[R I P Tatsuo's dreams of a steady work week once a ghost steals his job]