LOADING...

[recollecters]

Welcome back, users. Looks like we were able to bring you back online and tracked again...here's hoping the layers are settled now, but the readings are off the chart. We're doing our best to stabilize the city for December while we track some of the magical sources we're picking up. It may take us some time though, so please bear with us! We may be working through the holidays, too, if this keeps up. But it's okay. You opened the doors and new routes for us to check. Stay positive, users. December is a special time of the year. What's your favorite holiday tradition? You'd be surprised how thoughts shape things here. Please take care. Joanne Wiseman Technician 2nd class Retrspec Incorporated Characters' display names are the same as whatever they chose last month and are permanently locked in! Newbies may pick a new name for their first use on Retrospec, but whatever they pick will also become permanent. 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

[cardcaptured]

[Posting as Li Xiaolang!]

These magical sources... it doesn't have anything to do with the staff we all saw last month, was it?

There was a similar staff some of us saw in Respatrum, back in February, a replica of something that was said to have split apart the regions and end reality itself. We destroyed it, and the person responsible for building it is now imprisoned, but... there had to have been a reason we saw it. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

[Although this isn't very positive, and considering all the strange stuff that's gone down in the past few months, he can't exactly take Retrospec's words with a grain of salt anymore.]

Um... I guess for holiday traditions, though, the Christmas dinners are always good. Baking the special cookies and treats aren't that bad either, and the decorating can be nice, too.

[Please don't ruin their Christmas by taking their sense of taste again Retrospec, he can't spend another holiday not being able to enjoy food!!!]

[spirithacker]

yikes
we just stopped an old guy from buying out an island

[cardcaptured]

Yeah, I remember you telling me about that.

I have a feeling it might have been the same person behind it all. There was someone who paid for the staff to be made, and unless there's multiple people with money to spare for this sort of thing...

[spirithacker]

i think our guy was using a fake name?? so mayb
idk how we track that guy down tho

[cardcaptured]

We never got a name for the person who commissioned the staff, only the one who tried to make it for them. It's possible it could be different people, but...

Anyway, I'm not sure how we can track this person down either. It's possible that's what Retrospec is doing right now, but it doesn't seem they've been doing a good job at it.

[spirithacker]

they suck at fixing things
also water is wet

[cardcaptured]

... yeah, actually, I shouldn't be surprised by that either.

It'd help if we had some sort of personal item of theirs. I have an... ability, of sorts that can track down someone as long as we have something that belongs to them. [It's actually a spell, but he hates mentioning magic SO MUCH--] I'm not sure if it can be as easy as that, though.

[fiddlestick]

I've been wondering about that staff too...I remember hearing the story about it splitting the four regions apart.

Maybe whoever was messing with the layers that caused the problems these last few months wants the staff? Not sure why we'd have a vision about it though.

[cardcaptured]

You heard about it too? I thought it was just a legend that originated in Respatrum. I didn't think the other regions knew about it as well.

[Because he certainly didn't remember Elliot from his group, that's for sure!]

Someone had brought up the idea that maybe it was a man named... Vander-something who wanted it. We don't know who tried to get the replica made, and if he even owned a staff, but if he's trying to get revenge on Retrospec, it'd make sense for him to go after it. Maybe the vision we all saw was a message, though? Or some sort of premonition to what's going on.

I mean, everything's been a little unsteady since then, after all.

[fiddlestick]

Yeah, though I heard about it through people who were sent to Respatrum. I'm not sure if the other regions have the legend either.

[In other words, he gathered intel]

Vanderweele does seem like the most likely suspect at this point, especially after hearing he had the power of illusion magic. It'd explain some of the oddities we've seen.

You've noticed that too? Like things aren't holding together as well.

[cardcaptured]

I don't know if they do myself, to be honest. I've heard things from the other regions, about dark energy and corruption and someone trying to buy Pesgare outright, so I'm assuming it was all connected somehow.

[Or that's about as much as he gathered from the other people he spoke to about it. Trying to focus on school and other things made it hard to stay on top of that.]

But yeah, it's sort of hard to ignore. It's like aftershocks from an earthquake or something. With the vision we saw, I don't think it's a coincidence, but that staff in general shouldn't exist anymore. We made sure the replica was destroyed once we left Respatrum.

[fiddlestick]

Yeah. Bosuma had dark energy corruption a-plenty before we purified it.

[Fun times!]

Unless they found another way to make a replica staff...sure hope not though.
Right now, the best we can do is keep an eye out. Here's hoping the holidays go peacefully.

[cardcaptured]

[FUN TIMES INDEED-- although the mention of Bosuma certainly catches his interest.]

I heard a little bit about that. Something to do with the dryads there, right? Fawkes had told me something about it, but I couldn't really communicate outside the group very often because of the heat. Li-Na had told me about the dogs Zee had sent you, too.

[Which, y'know... he's a bit jealous of, since he wished their group got cool dogs!! Instead all they got was ice cream, heatstroke, and somehow a baby phoenix that they couldn't take back. Lame.]

I don't think they could make another without the proper environment in Respatrum, though, and after what happened, I think the residents are going to be extra watchful about it. [Or he hopes so, anyway--] But you're right. Honestly, I'd almost take losing my taste buds again over any of this.

[blondferret]

So you're thinking along the lines of actual items being the "magical sources"? I suppose that is a possibility. But I only know my magic and I have no idea what "magical sources" even means to Retrospec.

I was thinking along the lines of actual people. Since it is the magic in the people that produces the magic we see.

[cardcaptured]

[There's way too much magic being mentioned in those sentences than he's comfortable with, but he's just going to have to suck it up and bear it because what's going on is much more important.]

More or less, yeah. Although it's not so much the item itself being magic so much as it's... a conduit for someone who has magic to channel it into to produce effects.

I mean... you use a wand, right? Sakura had a staff she used, to activate her cards... and my sword seems to amplify whatever power I use to make my talismans work. But I guess if we're talking about what it draws from, a 'source'... then an actual person wouldn't be far off the mark.

[blondferret]

I wonder if anyone is keeping track of all the magic users on the app. I mean, should we be worried if one of them goes missing suddenly? Would Retrospec have kidnapped them? This could be a huge safety concern.

[cardcaptured]

I don't think Retrospec would ever go that far... at least, I don't think they would. The only time they ever took people was that time everything went digital in September, and they weren't even on the app anymore.

[Not that it made things any better, of course, but it's safe to say they weren't taken for their powers.]

Do you think one of us should make a list of all the people on the app with those sort of abilities? That way we have some sort of reference in case something like that does wind up happening to one of us.

[blondferret]

It might be a good idea. We might even want to determine what we would feel the definition of "magic" is.

[cardcaptured]

Phenomena that hasn't been explained by science yet? That's all "magic" really is, anyway. Though that is a pretty broad definition...

SORRY....FOR HOW LATE THIS IS......

[frostythehitman]

wait
you saw that staff in respatrum?
li-na and i saw it breaking apart the regions and fighting the other founders' weapons last month
we thought it would be in magatus

I'M SLOW AF SO IT'S ALL COOL WITH ME 8|b

[cardcaptured]

[Waaaaaaait a moment, this is some new and troubling news, and he doesn't know where to start with all of this]

Not the actual staff, but someone paid a worker there to build a replica of it for them. We wound up chasing down the person responsible for making it and had the staff destroyed, so we thought it was all over with...

I didn't even realize that staff belonged to one of the founders, though-- or that any of the others had something like that too. Where did you and Li-Na see this? Was it another vision?

And why Magatus?

[frostythehitman]

the staff is vanderweele's
vanderweele's place is in magatus

[cardcaptured]

... Vanderweele is the guy who was kicked out of Retrospec, wasn't he? Someone mentioned him to me before, and said he might be behind the problems we're having now...

[Which this info... definitely has circulated the network more than a few times already, but he doesn't stay too glued to his social media to catch this sort of stuff (which he really, really should, tbh--)]

Maybe we should get some people together to go investigate it. Not immediately, but... at least some time soon so we can get some sort of lead on this. Before this situation somehow gets worse.

[frostythehitman]

he's definitely the guy behind it
word through the ghost grapevine is that he used a ton of illusion magic to mess with all sorts of crap
and after he got kicked out the other founders still needed him around to make him undo whatever he messed up in the first place
which is apparently what retrospec's been trying to do the whole time we've been here

where were you thinking of investigating?

[cardcaptured]

But... wait. If he had all of that power, even without his staff, wouldn't keeping him around be even more dangerous? Even if he was the only one who knew how to fix things? What if he was deliberately making things worse under the guise of setting things right? Or laying groundwork for things he can take advantage of at a later time? I mean, I realize Retrospec hasn't been the best at making good decisions, but that just... doesn't seem smart.

You said you and Li-Na thought it could be in Magatus, so that could be a place to start. I'm not sure where Vanderweele's place could be, but I remember a little about how that staff... felt. [Which is really weird to say, but hey, magic sensing is a thing] I can ask Li-Na if she's run into anything else in regards to him last month, too.