retrospec | (no subject)

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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
Retr

spec Incorporated

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Wait...so a god tried to put you six feet under and it didn't stick?

Freak, you must have been one tough cookie. I don't imagine that is something that is common in your world?

and holy shit this is what our lives have come to, casually talking about this and seriously considering it...

I remember a time when I listened to conspiracy theories for kicks.

Maybe it's not so much of "which is the original" cause if other layers can touch this one and influence it, maybe it works the other way round too and everyone is in a bigger neighbourhood then we thought it was.

Edited 2019-02-04 20:57 (UTC)

Make that two gods, actually.

[ Thanks for nothing, other Malik, even though the original Bakura was just as responsible for losing the duel as the original Malik was. ]

And like a multiple universes sort of thing? Only in this one we're calling them layers? That's something that a lot of people had thought was going on a while ago. Perhaps it has some merit after all, especially when we're talking about more than one world with too many details in common for the similarities to be a mere coincidence... and particularly if aliens are going to be involved.

Edited 2019-02-06 01:04 (UTC)

Okay, so they DEFINITELY put you six feet under...dare I ask, how you got out? Cause I'm assuming this is AFTER you opened up the seal, right?

Yeah, something like that. Especially if we are seriously considering that they touch and interact with each other.

Also, at this point, I am practically demanding aliens,because we might as well have the full package.

No, this was before the other me had opened up the seal... and much of his ability to survive situations like that could be attributed to the fact that he was able to seal his soul into inanimate objects, from dice to magical artifacts like the one that had granted him that power in the first place.

Unfortunately, that's not something that's been given back to me by Retrospec just yet, making my soul just as vulnerable as anyone else's to whatever it is that Vanderweele has in store for us in the coming months... so it looks like I'll have to fight, too.

And that's what I thought... it's the only thing that makes the most sense after putting together everything we've been told.

Figures they would keep the good stuff.

Although, how do you know? I have a memory of being tossed in a volcano and getting stomped on while floating in the magma, then flew out of there feeling all refreshed to fight.

But I'm not tossing myself into lava any day soon.

Who knows, maybe aliens crash landed after getting smashed and we accidentally discovered the layers.

Or maybe the likes of Vanderdick ARE alien.

[The lava thing made just as much sense in context, literally grabbed and suddenly shoved into a volcano without a word, thanks asshole.]

Edited 2019-02-06 01:52 (UTC)

I know because the keys in question were still in others' hands around the times of both of his "deaths"... meaning that the breaking of that seal had to have occurred sometime afterward, even if the hows and the whys haven't been exactly revealed to me just yet.

And I should imagine that you would be especially wary now that you know what it's like. How in the world was your other self able to survive something like that? More magic?

Fire doesn't hurt me anymore, hell, fire is a good thing for me. I can absorb fire and turn it into magical energy called Magoi, catch though if I run out of the stuff I die.

You could theoretically set me on fire while I'm asleep and I wouldn't notice, the clothes I wear don't even burn.

So I guess that same protection applies to lava, not that I am going to test that, even with my new form I got last month.

As entertaining as that might sound, you should put your life on the line for more worthwhile things in the very near future with a power like that.

And likewise, my Diabound - the ka monster you had seen back when we had fought those viruses together - has similar limitations... while he is certainly very powerful, he's also costing me ba, or Spirit Energy. And should all of that ba be expended while using him, then needless to say, I also die. That much about some of the magic in both of our worlds, at least, seems to be the same... not all, though.

Yeah...there are battles up ahead. Soon Vanderwheel...then who knows if others might just take his place.

How do you recharge your ba? For me, sleep or fire does the trick, gives me physical energy too.

How did you get your magic? maybe there might be a similarity there? Mine comes from my Djinn mostly.

That, unfortunately, is something that has yet to be revealed to me by my memories... and until it is, summoning Diabound is going to be something that I would prefer to limit unless it's absolutely necessary in case the same rules hold true in this world.

That being said, in my world, the kind of magic needed to summon ka like Diabound was inherent to everyone, at least before the king I was talking about earlier - an ancient Pharaoh - had locked it all away. After that, only people in possession of one of the seven keys, known as the Millennium Items, were able to harness that magic... but despite how powerful the Items had made them, even they no longer had direct access to their particular ka.

In a way, you could say that the ka back in the day were almost like your Djinn, if I'm understanding you correctly.

Huh, they do sound similar. As far as I know, everyone has Magoi which might be similar to your ba.

The city I was talking about earlier? They drain all the magoi out of the citizens who couldn't pay their taxes or are just poor and turn it into magic.

Apparently, that is fatal, so I think, theoretically give someone in my world a Djinn and they would have magic like mine.

As far as I know, my Djinn always stays inside the knife...unless my new transformation is me turning into a Djinn, but that's me guessing.

Edited 2019-02-08 03:11 (UTC)

...that sounds like something the Pharaoh's court would have done given the opportunity.

Fortunately for people such as my other self, however, their power was limited to extracting and sealing the ka of other people into stone tablets, much like the way your knife houses your Djinn... and so long as the tablet survived, then so, too, would their ka.

In fact, ka and the concept of these stone tablets is the origin of the Duel Monsters card game, which is originally from my world and was somehow brought here some time ago.

Wait, so the pharaoh sealed a god away, but would kill his citizens for magic?

Geez, doesn't so much better then the other guys, who used magic for freaking everything, so large demand of magoi.

Wait...duel monsters was from your world? and..what people would have these stone tablets and fight each other with monsters?

Looks like the magic in our worlds are similar, as far as I know, Djinns are the only way for someone like me to have magic.

I don't know about mages though...one person in my memories was a fire mage or something...

I don't suppose the words "Halhar Rasas" mean anything in either of your memories?

Yes.

Or rather, both his father and his uncle did... and then both they and the pharaoh who would later come to seal away the evil god tried to justify their actions as a greater good sort of deal, even though in doing so all they had taught one of my other selves is that is that "good" is simply a matter of perspective and that everyone is the hero of their own story. Even with some of the more reprehensible things that he did in his quest to illustrate the Pharaoh's flaws, my other self, the one that had lived through this period of history, makes it difficult for me to say that he was entirely in the wrong when he and his people were living under the rule of Pharaohs like that.

[ Cool motive, still murder on both sides of the fence as far as Bakhura is concerned. ]

And aside from being similar to the Arabic words of this world, no, I can't say they do.

What is it, exactly?

I can understand that, I led the thieves so people in Balbadd could eat. So chances are, I'm not going to be a big fan of my brother when I get my hands on him since he is deliberately starving them. I don't really have the whole picture, but in December I visited Balbadd...and I don't know why, but there were crates filled with paper money and I couldn't shake the feeling that it was evil somehow. As far as I can tell, markets usually run on gold, since I walked through one and was carrying gold to buy things.

I sort of wish I was getting these memories faster so I know what actually happened there, especially with Al-Tharman in the picture.

It's a spell, Alladin said those words and lots of fireballs came out of his staff. Not exactly sure if I really expected anything to come out of it. But it seems like there is a loose connection between Arabic and when someone in my world says something for magic.

Do you speak Arabic in this world, then?

And is your brother even on the app? Or anyone else from your original world, for that matter?

A few people from mine were at one point, but now there's only two of us left... meaning that it's going be extremely difficult to get memories back any faster than we already are, though we both certainly remember... enough.

No, I was raised by a single American mom in LA, and I didn't really have an interest in my roots until recently when I noticed there are similarities between my life and Alibaba's, granted I think I might be stretching it a bit, but it's enough to get me curious.

As far as I know, no one from my world came here, your the closest one I came across so far. When I saw your Ka monster, I remembered what my Djinn looked like.

Enough? Like, main points of the story and know what your magic's limits enough?

Edited 2019-02-13 00:42 (UTC)

Your roots? Do you know where your family was from before they came to the United States?

And yeah, like that, though as I was telling you earlier, some details still haven't come back to me even with help from my world... and probably never will, since my other self apparently could only remember so much of his previous life, too.

[ It's one big conundrum for him and he hates it, to be honest. ]

Not really, I suspect my dad's line came from the middle east somewhere since his last name was Bahar. Not really much, but I can't do anything since the birth family is dead and whatever relatives might be around probably shunned me a long time ago.

[Al is actually really nervous putting that name in the app, because of a supposed crime connection he shared with his dad that police constantly harassed him for. Also, he is trying to say it super casually but it is something that usually an emotional hot button for him.]

So, other you also had limits on his own memories? That has got to suck. But like you said, you got the important bits though and can make choices from there at least.

[ Bakhura also gives pause before pressing the send button, having grown up with similar trauma of his own related to severed family ties. Soon enough, though: ]

...yeah, no point in holding your breath if they've gone this long without bothering to try and contact you.

...and it does. It's bad enough being an orphan in this life without being told that you're never going to remember the names and the faces of the people that you had called family in another life, too, but... seeing where the other mes ultimately ended up and not wanting the same fate no matter what Retrospec wants for us is what keeps me going, I guess.

[ Fear. The word he's looking for is fear, but he's not going to say that, and certainly not on the network. It's a lot to even talk about his childhood as much as he had, but at least people like Al and Malik get it -- they've been through what he's been through and aren't going to try to tell him that everything will be okay when it's not. ]

As if I wanted them anyway. I only want to know to see how far this connection between me and Alibaba goes. For more memories and magic, nothing more.

We don't have to be them, we have our own lives here.

No matter how many other memories I get, how many other lifetimes that is just that.

Another lifetime.

I'm not some fucking hero that saves the world, or a country or whatever other shit Alibaba did.

I'm just a guy that remembers another time and happened to get magic from it.

What I do here, is all me. The app might fuck with me, fuck with my new family or fuck with friends I'm trying to make.

But I've come too far, worked too hard to be anything else other than what I put into it.

Fuck anyone else that says otherwise.

That goes for Carlisle if he's thinking of trying anything once we get rid of Vanderweele for him, too.

Whoever that is can screw off too.

The app does keep things interesting I will give them that, better then a completely dull life studying, worrying about the next test and car payments as your biggest concerns.

Actually met someone in October, when we tried to kill each other, now she is kinda a close friend of mine.

So, not all bad.

Messed up beyond belief, but not all bad.

That was back when those infections were going around, right? The monster ones?

That was actually one of the few Retrospec fuck-ups I've enjoyed... being a vampire for a month was cool even if finding new victims to feed on was a little more challenging for a vampire than it was for some of the other monsters.

I wasn't infected, but there was one fight with a demon that was fun.

I never did run into her again, but MAN that fight was fun!

She shot fireballs, teleported and threw things with her mind...and she claimed it was all science!

Being a close ranged fighter you can imagine the predicament, but since she was using fire, that gave me an edge for attrition.

Enjoyed being a vampire? Did you have a crypt?

[ooc: That was actually a fun thread, one that just dropped when the fight started :( </small}