(no subject)

[recollecters]

Posting from this network, you'd probably assume I got my job back. Hey users. For those of you who're new, my name is Zee. Sorry to say it, but you've been pulled into the Retrospec project now. Not sure what that is? Get someone else to explain it to you, there're plenty of people who've been around for way longer than deserved. So…you'd probably assume I got my job back, and I kind of did. I kind of did, but there's a funny little thing about Retrospec and memories. Let me tell you a brief story. Once upon a time, there were the four founders who came to this planet, founded the city of Recollé and started the Retrospec project. Yeah. Another planet. They're technically aliens, I might technically be an alien, some of YOU might be aliens, it's hard to say. So anyway you have the four founders: Spinnato, Cavendish, Mahoney and Vanderweele. These four created an ideal project to protect life on other planets, offer inhabitants a safe haven to recover from tragic events of their world that were being destroyed (as planets are wont to do) and "regrow" the place you once called home. The problem is that the four of them weren't entirely in agreement on what sort of people should be "worthy" of being saved, or who should be able to become part of the Retrospec project to preserve their souls and recreate what was lost. Souls are a tricky thing. I should know, given I think mine was floating around in the endless abyss for a few months while my body regenerated. There was such a controversy amongst the founders that one of them, Vanderweele, ended up wiping out an entire family line. There are relatives left from the Spinnato family. Cavendish and Mahoney decided to spearhead the project themselves and sentenced Vanderweele to life in solitary confinement. Once that happened, they began changing how the project was one. They hired some of their own family members. They changed and became the "new" Retrospec. Vanderweele's not dead though. And as a master of illusion, you can guess where this story is going. I'm not going to do this vague and hiding bullshit that the company's fond of: Vanderweele is out there and meddling with the affairs of this city to overthrow and regain control of the project. All of these weird storms that are happening, the things that mess with your soul? That's Vanderweele's work. So why am I telling you this? …Vanderweele got to Retrospec. A lot of you asked if Retrospec knew I was alive again and at the time I didn't know if they did or not, so when I got back to this layer (thank you, by the way. All of you.), I went to headquarters. Everyone inside doesn't even seem to remember that they were working on the project. I don't know WHAT he did, but their memories…everything's scrambled. The entire tech department resigned and I'm not sure if Maurice thinks he's working in a normal mailroom or what. They're almost on the same layer that you guys are before you wake up. Or that's how it seems anyway. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like it's just you and me. We need to start moving and putting a stop to this to fix everything. I'm not saying you have to. If you want to sit this one out, fine, but I have a feeling most of you want to do something about this. Bring people back to themselves. That kind of thing. You're all pretty stubborn from what I've noticed and that's the good thing. There are some things I need to check. I'm learning how everything works here and I'm trying to understand all of their notes, not to mention I need to retrieve a few things and wait for a field agent but you'll hear from me soon. I have an idea, but these things take time. Stick together. Talk to each other. Keep focused. Oh. I guess also I should mention I moved offices? I'll be staying at headquarters for a while but my remote office is easier to access. Head to the public library, you should be set to get past the scanners on the back of the building and the door will appear for you. I'll be reachable by text, too. Good luck. Be in touch soon. Zee Carlisle Hiring Manager Retrspec Incorporated Characters' display names are the same as whatever has been previously chosen and are permanently locked in! 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, though you're free to hit up his individual inbox later. 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

[flametheif40]

Huh, heya there Zee. Never really had a chance to chat with ya, glad your back.

Anyway, thanks for at least saying it straight this time.

I for one am willing to help, unfortunately, I have bad news.

If there is a magic that has been destroying worlds, I'm afraid it might have come from my world.

I don't know much about them, I think their name might be Al-Tharman. I know that my world was created BECAUSE they destroyed another and they sought to destroy the one I was living in.

I suspect the people in my world, were too busy fighting among themselves to stop them.

So we must help one each other stand together, or we will fall together.

[hauhra]

And what makes you so sure that it was your world, especially when you don't know much about the entity in question to begin with?

What if it's from someone else's world?

Mine, for example, was home to a magic that was so powerful that an ancient king had to seal it for nearly three thousand years.

[flametheif40]

Hence why I said "might".

My last memory was a city of magic that once had an alliance with them, producing black djinns by draining magic from their people and experiments based on knowledge they received from them years prior.

So if that was an old ally of theirs, I would hate to see them actually fighting themselves.

Wow, sounds like hardcore magic there. Three thousand years though? Like, "forever" wasn't possible?

[hauhra]

Djinn...?

[ Now there's a concept that Bakhura is familiar with, even though it's probably not going to be exactly the same as what Albert is talking about. ]

What was the name of the country this city was in?

And no, because my other self had gathered all of the necessary keys together and broken the seal to free the sleeping evil god that had been the progenitor of those powers.

[flametheif40]

My Djinn was how I did the fire stuff you saw. It's gone stronger since then and I got other things.

Your creature reminded me of him, big blue guy in a gold palace, engulfed in flames, asking who will be king.

They made black ones...hard to describe them. Some were winged beasts, others were huge monstrosities far larger than skyscrapers.

Magnostadt, I believe was the name of the country and the city.

I think they were fighting another country named Leam.

Oh my, so after all the keys and what not, how much power was in there?

[hauhra]

Al-Tharman is similar enough to the Arabic word for the eighth that I thought that maybe there was some correlation between the culture of that country and my family's own, Egypt -- especially if Djinn are going to be involved, but Magnostadt seems more like it would be European in origin to me...

And enough to plunge the world back into the primordial darkness from whence the ancient Egyptians claimed it had come, for the sleeping god was one of chaos and destruction...

[flametheif40]

Huh, maybe there might be some similarities still, lots of the buildings as far as I can tell might be Arabic in design. At least in Alibaba's home country called Balbadd.

I am not exactly sure what is the difference between the Djinns from the east and the western Genies.

I think I met my Djinn in a gold room, and he lit it on fire, looking down on me and some others asking who will be king.

Oh wow! That...that must have been A HELL of a lot of power.

Apophis? The snake that's the enemy of Ra?

[hauhra]

The very one and same, yes -- only in the world my soul was apparently rescued from, he was known as Zorc Necrophades.

It's not entirely clear to me why Apophis' name is different there just yet, but it could also simply be because Apophis was a god of many identities... and Zorc Necrophades was just another one of those many identities. Who knows...?

And Alibaba...? As in Alibaba and the Forty Thieves Alibaba? Or is that just a coincidence?

[ The details may not all be the same as in the original tale, but with all of the other Retrospec users who were regaining memories of being historical or mythological figures in their original worlds, the possibility is real. ]

[flametheif40]

I imagine if they were the primordial darkness that was from the beginning, I imagine they went by different names. Like, their teenaged goth years might be different from their anarchist ones.

I am not sure, I'm leaning toward coincidence. I ended up leading a group of thieves instead of them trying to kill me. Plus, Sherazadie's was a woodcutter, I think I was a travelling merchant at the worst. Some, sort of weird low-birth prince but born in the slums deal happened.

There is a Sinbad and an Alladin, so maybe if you sort of mash Sherazade's stories together and added several twists maybe?

There was a flying mermaid that flooded an island cause Sinbad egged her on to show her magic.

[hauhra]

The world that I came from is like that, too... it's got an ancient Egypt that's a lot like the one in the world we're living in now, but its ancient Egypt had a few significant differences as well, not the least of which include the documented incidents of magic like the one I was just talking about, the names of certain gods, and even, perhaps, their appearances as well -- at least if the beasts I've seen in my memories are indeed supposed to be the gods of Osiris and Ra themselves and not merely their pets.

[ He's also, uh, been blasted into oblivion by both of said beasts in those memories, but that doesn't sound nearly as cool. ]

In fact, it's almost lending some credence to what our friend Zee here is saying... those differences suddenly become a lot more believable when they're on another world or even in another universe.

I knew aliens were involved in the Retrospec project somehow.

[ He's not saying it was aliens, but this time, it was actually aliens. ]

[flametheif40]

They had pets? Don't they just transform into animals? I know there is the Set animal, which I assume is Set's pet or maybe his other form.

At this point, I don't rule much out and try to just accept whatever the hell happens to pop up.

"talking cat, sure why not. A classmate turned into a T-rex and almost ate me once."

"Aliens? Well, I've been possessed by a ghost and got into fights with demons, plus I have magic so, are aliens really off the table? What are aliens if not people who happen to come from elsewhere?"

[hauhra]

They did, yes... but these so-called "divine beasts" were all dragons except for one, the God of Obelisk, who was more humanoid, but with great, bulging muscles and blue in skin tone. And as far as I'm aware, the only god that was actively associated with dragons in ancient Egypt was none other than Apophis, not Osiris or Ra, after whom the dragons in question appear to be named... it's strange, but in the end, perhaps, merely an eerie coincidence like those between your world and the stories told by Scheherazade.

And that's more or less what Retrospec has been telling us over the last several months, isn't it? That our souls are the remnants of other worlds that they've been trying to save - at least until Vanderweele's recent takeover.

[flametheif40]

Obelisk kinda sounds Amon if he were in a bowflex commertial and shaved his white beard.

Did the Ra dragon have some association with the sun? I don't recall much, but that was kinda his entire deal right?

Maybe is all just a coincidence, or who knows, with all of these layers maybe they somehow touch each other, influencing each other with stories?

Think about it, for both our worlds, magic is real, in my case, black magic can be put in a bottle and experimented with.

In yours, the power of the gods is a literal magical power that can be wielded. If there was limited contact between the layers when the magical gods in your world interacted or influenced ancient Egyptians here, that could have affected the early representations of gods they already believed in.

Broken telephone effect after the layers no longer touched and we have the eerie similarities.

[blondferret]

Stop taking the blame for things you don't have control over or probably isn't even your fault.

[flametheif40]

[Al sees the text and sighs, especially seeing the post earlier that he is drinking is woes in sake, he hesitates...but, he can't really contradict himself on the "we need to stand together" bit.]

I'm not taking the bullet on this one.

But thanks for the vote of confidence though :)

Just wanted to warn people that they might be in the picture since it's clear they can move from a destroyed world to another. Sides, I would guess there was lots of wars since some people needed to create black djinns by killing their own people to drain their Magoi.

[blondferret]

[Hey, he isn't drinking alcohol to drink away his woes. His mourning Japans defeat at Asia cup!]

You make no sense.

[What drunk Derek is trying to say: "I need more context. I can't follow that at all.]

[flametheif40]

[So his sporting woes, hardly makes a difference to Al. He reads it for a bit, then starts to text, aiming to explain the memory in depth.]

Oh, sorry...must have gone too fast.

Well, My world was created after Al-Tharman destroyed another planet, those same people that destroyed that other world with magic, travelled to mine hoping to destroy my world, the same magical way they did the last one.

Not exactly sure exactly how, but they seem able to travel between worlds.

People who ally themselves with Al-Tharman, apparently get access to some seriously dark magic.

[blondferret]

[Again, Derek is drunk.]

too many words

[flametheif40]

There are people, whose jam is to destory worlds.

I'm worried they might come here because I remember they went to my world and stirred shit up.

[Al looks at the text...that is as simple as he can get right?

Even someone that's drunk should get that, right?]

[blondferret]

How can a jam destroy worlds? It's made out of strawberries. Or some other fruit.

Your world sounds dumb.

[flametheif40]

[At this point Al decides he is just going to screw with Derek. He is clearly too drunk to take this seriously]

Who knows what that jam is made out of, they are probably some magic alien death cult or something.

So for all we know, they make some poison jam to slowly control people's minds or some grand conspiracy thing.

Oh, girl scout cookies, you want me to get you some?

[blondferret]

You are making even less sense...

if i want cookies i can buy them myself.

Instead i am eating this!

[Insert picture of yakitori he is eating.]

[flametheif40]

That looks freaking delcious! Is Tatsuo going to have his fighting spirit back? Or does he still need another drink?

And I was just thinking of saving you the trip man. But okay w/e.

[blondferret]

He'll need more drinks.

And don't worry about me. Just stay out of trouble.

[flametheif40]

You said it yourself bro, I'm a survivor.

The T-rex wasn't the only thing that tried to kill me.

Apparently, Police will just hate me whether I do good or ill, so meh, add that to the list.