Point of Order

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa shared a photo. 5/11 near Recolle Police Station

So. A few things. First. Dave! I want my membership card! Talking robot spider tank with a grenade launcher. Apologies to Koutarou for stealing some of his modeling clay to make my toy up there. I still remembered nothing about myself, though, so the betting pool is still open. Anyone who wants in on the 'What Is Togusa Repressing' pool, let me know. I think the odds on 'samurai' just got a lot longer, though. The second thing is a little more important. A few of us made it into the subway, which is supposed to be shut down, the lines were damaged. The trains sure aren't running, but either it's shut down intentionally, or someone has taken advantage of it. Throughout the line connecting Enprise to Tisse, there are these QR codes all along the floor. They're those things you can scan with your phone to see a picture or other information. Scanning them didn't get any data, though. The other area I went through, I don't even know how to explain what I saw. Try going to the middle of town. Next time, I ought to bring a camera with me. I know that as soon as I post this up, Retrospec will probably try to lock it all down even tighter than they already have. But seeing as how I was assuming that's how they were getting things through the city without us noticing? If we can make them stop using it, I'll call that a victory.

Comments

[true_noir]

[Part of her wanted to punch him in the arm for posting this publicly. Part of her was just impressed that he'd pulled it off. That had been risky while small, even compared to her own stunts at the mayor's office.]

Putting aside the fact that they know, and probably already knew that someone got down there, you've been busy. I'm curious what it is that you saw, though. It's safe to assume we won't get back there again nearly so easily.

Either way, perhaps I should buy you coffee. A little congratulations?

[Complete bullshit. Well, she was buying him the coffee, but she wanted to give him something.]

[pause]

Wait, did you see one of those?

[standalonehuman]

Yeah. They're called a Tachikoma, apparently.

But, I'd be glad to meet up. Tell you all about them, because I suddenly know everything about them.

[true_noir]

That sounds like an imported pudding or something, or a game children play on little expensive hand-held games. Or were those called tamagachi?

That's a little disturbing, really, but at this point nothing should surprise me. Starbucks, lunch break?

[cattack]

[This raises a lot of questions, and Cleo doesn't know where to start. But, she'd been looking for him for a while, so this seems like the best place to try to find him.]

Officer Togusa, correct?
I've been told you're quite knowledgeable about this Retrospec thing, and directed to you for questions about it.
Though I must admit, my first question is about that toy.

[standalonehuman]

Ah. Miss Ritter, I have seen your name around the station. You're still on the job shadow program, yes?

I'll answer what I can. Firstly, though, I'm sorry to say it's not a toy. At least not in my memory. It's a tank. People can ride in them and climb up the sides of buildings.

[cattack]

That's right, sir.
I'm relieved you know. That does save some time.

[She has to take a moment to stare at his words, and then laugh a little at how ridiculous it is.]

That would have been useful to have this past week or so, wouldn't it?

[lostapprentice]

[Ren has no more patience for anything after the mess of the last week. Sorry, Togusa.]

you said you didn't know how to explain. try anyway.

[standalonehuman]

[Pardon Togusa while he clicks through your profile there, Ben.]

Mr. Solo, is it? Officer Hitori Togusa, Recolle Police, nice to meet you.

It's as nonsensical as anything that happened this week. One second we were standing in the subway, the next it was like we're making our way outside. Then it was like we walked too far and we were backwards started.

[OOC: The thread in question is not all the way finished yet, even though we got the results of our exploration from the mods, so I have to have Togusa be a little bit vague.]

[lostapprentice]

[If Ren wasn't so determined to keep his current real self separated from the stupid name on his profile that's technically a man who's been declared dead, he would call Togusa out on his snooping. But for now, Ben Solo it is. At least his face isn't on this awful application.

Doesn't mean he won't be rude, unfortunately.]

right.

so you jumped around in space or teleported? or could it have been like sleepwalking?

[ooc: no problem!]

[thisloveisjustice]

What in the world is that? Some sort of robot?

[standalonehuman]

It's a robot tank. With a lot of weaponry and an artificial intelligence. But AI isn't real. So. I don't know.

But I'm sure I know it's real. Tachikoma.

[frostythehitman]

Damn, welcome to the memory club finally. I'm gonna bet on giant robot society. With the weaponry on that thing, I bet it's trying to eradicate all humanity or something. Maybe you're supposed to be part of the resistance against them.

What do you think they were trying to get through the city in the tunnels, though? You think that's ground zero for the chocobo invasion?

[standalonehuman]

Robot apocalypse freedom fighter! I like it!

But, actually, yes, that's why we went down there. It's certainly one way they could have gotten building materials, chocobos, you name it, into the city. The tunnels should run all the way out of Recolle, but at the size we were at, there was no way we were making it all the way out.

[wordcarvings]

You know it's fine, Hitori. That's an interesting-looking robot.
You have to show me what a QR code is later.

Most importantly, though, are you alright? None of you got hurt while you were in the subway? Please be careful.

[standalonehuman]

We're all fine. I mean, not to say that there wasn't any danger. But I didn't think we'd get another opportunity to go down there. Subway rats, though. Yikes.

A QR code looks like this, generally. But when we tried to scan it with our phones it didn't do anything. It's kind of like a bar code.

[judicatus]

[ gabranth has. a lot of questions. mostly about the tank, but for now, he'll cut to the chase. ]

You did take photos of those QR codes, I trust?

[standalonehuman]

Yes, sir. Scanning them reveals nothing.

One of the other tunnels contained numbers that seem to have no pattern to them. They were close, so we were assuming they were related.

[vendettastool]

Scanning them didn't get any data?
Can I have a copy of them and anything else like it for looking on my own?

[standalonehuman]

Oh, you are gonna love this.

Firstly, the QR codes. They were about every fifteen, twenty meters, on the floor through the line between Enprise and Tisse. None of them got us anything.

Secondly, If you go from Enprise to Apprassage? There's some interesting graffiti on the walls. We couldn't find a pattern. But it was me and Rantanen and Professor Izunia down there. Crack team for fighting bugs, but not exactly the coding experts of the group.

[parodeity]

i heard my name and came running
but sure ill get you a card
robot spider tanks seem pretty cool tho

did you take phone pics of the qr codes at least ?

[standalonehuman]

Your wish is my command.

I don't know, I seem to remember the tanks being more trouble than they're worth. They have AI, but it's a really simplistic one so they act and sound like children.

[prometheanflame]

First off, I'm glad you made it out safely, Officer. That's a lot of new information we can use.

Secondly, what's this in the center of the city?

[standalonehuman]

Speaking as the other guy who just got us a lot of new information? I still don't even know how to approach what you put up on the network, but thank you for it. It's sort of put an idea in my head, though. I'll let you know when it's fully formed.

It was me and a friend, we were walking, one step we were underground, and then it was like we were starting to head outside. Which shouldn't have happened that early. The subway tracks lead all the way out of the city, but not right underneath the center of town?

And then it was like we walked a little too far and were right back where we started.

[OOC: Like I said above, the thread isn't all the way done, so I have to be a little bit vague.]

[skald]

That's really strange. (All of it, I guess, but I'm curious about the subway.) Did it look like they were actually doing construction on the subway at all, or do you think something else is going on?

[standalonehuman]

Ah, Miss Hotakainen. Good to talk to you again.

What I'll say is that it was a lot cleaner down there than I would have expected for construction, and we didn't run into any damaged parts of the tracks. But counter to that, we didn't see the entire way of either line, and the tracks run so far that they go all the way outside of the city. So I can't say for certain either way.

I'm still leaning towards Retrospec using the construction as a convenient cover, more so than this being a larger conspiracy.