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[recollecters]

Welcome to Retrospec™, the last social media network you will ever need. You are one of the few selected to test this exciting new platform based on our cutting-edge algorithms. Less than two hundred invitations have gone out, and membership is not currently open to the public. However, we hope you will come to see how useful Retrospec™ is, given time. We have for your use a variety of features such as text, voice, video, and image posts. We encourage you to explore our many options. Anyway, now that the copypaste part is out of the way! Jim here, requesting you guys make your secret meetings a little more exciting. It's not like you're not trying with the whole "let's meet off the network!" dealio, but I have some serious concerns. For one thing, no secret handshakes or phrases? Not even dramatic meeting locations? The trying rating is about half a star if that. And I'm almost bored to tears with the whole back and forth about what's going on. Not bored enough to give you a cheat sheet, but still. I can't get myself taken off surveillance duty, so at least try to make it a little more exciting! You guys might like this wikihow. Later! Jim Halloway Research & Development Retrspec Incorporated 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. Usernames are the character's full real AU names, not aliases or chosen nicknames or usernames, and seemed to have filled themselves in; nothing characters do can change or obscure their names currently. Characters who have been in game for more than one month will find they can change their profile pictures; newcomers are locked into their first choice. At various points throughout the day users will be sent images of themselves from behind, regardless of where they are. There doesn't seem to be any way to catch whoever might be taking and sending these, however, especially since being alone in a room doesn't seem to be a deterrent.

Comments

[prometheanflame]

...I'll take your word for it.

I have friends that know more about computers than I do, but I wouldn't bet on them fixing everything. The real issue is what information Jim took from us.

[skald]

The real real issue is: are you also getting creepy photos because Jim definitely didn't take that off of my phone and that is what's alarming me the most right now.

[prometheanflame]

Yes.

[A long pause.]

It was somewhere public, not that it makes it any better.

[skald]

Iiiiiii did not consider how much worse it would be if the picture was not in public and now I'm even more alarmed

Also: someone told me that even if you get a new phone, this app still pops up. I don't actually think that's possible but I wanted to mention it just in case (because I really can't afford a new phone right now.)

[prometheanflame]

Oh. That isn't good.

I've been told that this has been going on since January, but nothing to the scale of actual stalking. They might have been preparing to get to the point to take pictures of us.

[skald]

So to recap:

1. This virus/app knows our names (I don't think I entered mine in when it started up, did you?)
2. We can't uninstall it (I haven't tried doing a security scan but I will also do that right now)
3. They know if we get a new phone and infect it anyway (maybe)
4. They've been taking pictures of us
5. For months??

and I guess my question is if they can do this, why do it to normal people instead of... the mayor! Or the president! Or extremely wealthy businessmen?

[prometheanflame]

I never give any app my full name. And I already tried the security scan, that's why I suggested asking one of my friends to look at it. The antivirus doesn't detect anything.

If they targeted the mayor, Retrospec would already be under fire for repeated stalking. Or they just target people that have seen strange things happening recently. Have you looked at an apple recently?

[skald]

You are much better at internet security than I am and I swear I will be like you from this day forward if I ever get rid of this app.

I mean they should definitely be under fire for stalking anyway... [But woah, wait, apples-- oh. Oh god, of course, apples aren't supposed to move like this. And--] Wait: do you remember horses?

[prometheanflame]

Yes, you're the second person to ask me that. Someone showed me a painting of George Washington riding a giant chicken.

[skald]

[a minute or two later]

Okay I asked my brother and he has never heard of either this app or horses. He said I should come back home to Finland right away because America is making me hallucinate nonsense words. (He says things like this a lot, so I'm not too concerned because I am 99% sure that he is wrong.) I didn't think to ask about fruit but he likes to freak out about a lot of things so I'd think he'd be panicking if his fruit started moving. Unless he also thinks THAT's normal? At least the people on this stupid virus app remember horses and stationary fruit???

[prometheanflame]

Maybe. That appears to be a common thread among all of us. I haven't asked my housemates about this yet, but I'll assume it's the same here as with the people walking bugs in the park.

If I remember correctly, this app started downloading itself days before my dog turned into a beetle, but other things have been happening before that. Do you remember the time when all of the clothing stores mislabeled their sizes?

[skald]

I do, yeah. It happened to the clothes I already owned, too. I also remember dogs becoming bugs and only a few people thought it was strange. I guess if you notice one weird thing, you're aware of them all? And you also get forced into this app. Is there anything else we have in common?

[prometheanflame]

There's those things, the fruit which I was made aware of a few days ago, and horses being replaced by giant birds.

[To be honest, he can't really complain about the last one.]

What if Retrospec was already monitoring us and giving the app only to those that notice the changes. I can't imagine not realizing something was off, but then there are people who have been on here for months and knew about horses before me.

I don't know what's going on.

[skald]

I guess awareness of the changes comes in waves? And then once the stalkers confirm that we became aware, they get the app onto our phone... somehow. But you're right, I really don't understand why we didn't notice something was wrong earlier. What if there are other things that are messed up and we just haven't realized it yet?

I think I'm going to start keeping a diary. On paper so it can't change! And in Finnish so Jim Halloway (probably) can't read it! But I'm really worried now that there's more going on that I'm missing and I think documenting it might be the right way to go.

[prometheanflame]

I've heard that Finnish is one of the most difficult languages to learn. That should be enough to deter him.

I should be doing the same. That way we can compare when and how we started seeing these changes and if there's any pattern to them. If there's a certain group of people that notices strange things first, we'll find out what the trigger is.

[skald]

That's a great idea. Alright! Next time either of us notices a change, let's see what the other (/everyone else) does or doesn't notice. I'll mention it to a few other people if they seem interested as well!