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

[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.

[skald]

Hello again officer! Unsurprisingly we're both still on this app, haha. I realized it's a lot harder to leave than I thought.

Interesting! I guess if they keep whatever they're doing away from the undamaged part of the tracks, the construction workers won't notice it. I just don't get... the point. You're sure it's Retrospec that put the QR codes and things there?

[standalonehuman]

To be fair, no.

But I can't find anyone who is certain that they were down there before this point. If it happens to be unconnected, then, I'll take the blame for jumping the gun on this one. Still, if this was a part of some advertising campaign, you'd think the codes would have given something when scanned?

And I don't know what to make of the route to the center of town. Given what else has been happening in the city, that one I think is easier to pin on Retrospec.

[skald]

That makes sense. For a social media company, they seem to be particularly... bad at a lot of things involving social media. (Besides, even if you're wrong, if you're posting it here the only people who will read it are people who already dislike Retrospec, so I don't think you're going to hurt their business...)

What did you see on that route?

[standalonehuman]

See, what business? That's what's bothering me about this entire thing. There are no ads on here, and few people know they even exist. So how is Retrospec making their money? If it were just standard corporate exploitation, I would be less cagey about this entire thing. I don't get it.

But the middle route?

One second, we were walking along the subway, and then the next? It was like we were outside. Like we were slowly going upwards and out. And then when we walked too far, it was like we snapped back to where we started.

[skald]

You know, one of my friends has been saying the same thing-- about how they can afford a huge building with such a small beta test (he says 200 people is very small for a beta!) and no obvious source of income. The only thing I can think of is... data mining? If that's the right term? When they collect information on users and sell it? But it still doesn't seem to make sense.

Like you walked outside and then back to the beginning? I don't understand.

[standalonehuman]

Bored rich jerk hackers, I'm telling ya.

I was there and I don't understand. One step we thought we were going outside, and then blink, we're back where we entered the subway again.

I know the tracks go all the way out of the city, but there's no way we had gotten that far, at our size. We should have been about right underneath Tribunal Terrace.

[skald]

Ohh of course, you went when we were still tiny. Maybe the track is a little raised in that area and it felt like you were heading out because of how small you were? Or maybe it was just disorienting?

[standalonehuman]

It was getting lighter, like we were walking out into daylight. But it didn't feel like one of those cracks that we had been falling into. This felt more real.

I don't know what to make of it. But I'm going to wait a bit before trying that again.

[skald]

Oh, hmm. I have no idea. Maybe the tracks are open to the sunlight in that area? Have you tried going to the same place aboveground?

[standalonehuman]

Yeah. Pretty sure we were underneath City Hall, or one of the buildings closest to it. Which, you know, there's not even a stop there.

[skald]

Hhhuh. Maybe Mayor Mayer is pulling some strings to get a stop put in directly at his front door step, haha! (But in all seriousness I have no idea what's going on or why, this sounds very bizarre but that is par for the course lately.)

[standalonehuman]

[Togusa has to laugh on his end.]

Somehow, I can see that. This is probably going to make more sense in the near future. I realized this was going to be the sort of thing that brings up more questions than answers but I also didn't want to hide it from anybody. If anyone else eventually gets a clue that makes sense when you put this together with it, I'll be happy so long as I helped out.

[skald]

Which totally makes sense! It sounds like we're in this for the long haul, anyway.

Somewhat related, but that model you made-- was that from a 'hallucinomemory'?

[standalonehuman]

I'm really amused that word has become a common term on the network. All Dave's fault, as said above.

But, yeah. My first one, actually. I've been here a while, but I guess I wasn't doing the right things to set one off. It took a giant spider for something to break through, go figure.

[skald]

Haha, I've heard other people use it and I thought it was pretty clever!

Oh, that's what I was going to ask! Not about giant spiders, obviously, but I was wondering if 1) everyone receives them and 2) how long it normally takes people to get one. I haven't gotten one. What sort of thing sets it off?

[standalonehuman]

Well, most of them seem to be coming to people as dreams. I figured for a while that's why I wasn't seeing anything. Needed to get on a sleep schedule that even approached regular.

But, otherwise, it gets triggered just like regular memory. You pass a sign, and you remember you have to go to the store after work. You hear a song on the radio, and you think about something you did back in high school. It happens to you all the time every day. But, these memories stand out, because it's something you haven't actually experienced before.

I remember every detail about the Tachikomas. But I've never seen one before in my life.

[skald]

Oh, hmm. I can't remember any unusual dreams lately, but I'll try to pay attention if that's it! I felt like I might be missing out on something cool, haha.

A tachikoma is what the robot is called?

[standalonehuman]

This feels weird to admit, but I've been keeping a diary of my dreams, since somebody mentioned that might be it. Anything I can remember. But, nothing stands out the way this did. So I'm betting it's all just dreams.

Tachikoma, yup. Which is strange, because the characters don't really translate to anything.

Wait, crap. Why didn't I think of that earlier? The names are Japanese, they must be from Japan. At least that's the same, if this is supposed to be something out of my past. I grew up there, but came here to America for college.

[skald]

That's a good idea. I started keeping a diary for everyday things once I got access to this app (it worried me that I thought chocobos etc. were totally normal up until then and I wanted to keep a record of what was going on to see if it was my perceptions that were changing or if it was the world itself, if you know what I mean) so I could start adding dreams to it! But it sounds like it feels a lot different if it's a real hallucinomemory.

Huh, that's interesting! At least it's not totally out there. Do you think maybe they're a new thing in Japan right now that just hasn't made it over here yet?

(also hello, immigrant buddies who came here for university! ^-^ except I am from Finland, haha)

[standalonehuman]

[Give Togusa a few minutes between replies here, as he is now furiously Googling any set of terms he can think of.]

Nothing I can find about them. So if they are real? Then they're a secret.

But, hey, welcome to America, then! Recolle University seems to have a lot of us. Are you still in school, or have you finished up?

[skald]

Honestly if it's a talking robot spider tank with grenades it's probably a good thing that it's a secret.

And thank you! I'm just finishing up my freshman year, the school system in Finland is pretty different from the American one so I'm a little older than most freshmen here, haha

fuck I knew I dropped something

[standalonehuman]

How different is it over there? You always score higher than us on math and science (us being Japan, let's be honest), so how do you do it?

haha no worries

[skald]

Ahaha, I don't know if I'M doing it... I don't really know, we start compulsory school a little later (you start first grade at age 7, but there are preschools, I guess you'd call them, that you can go to earlier, and most people do) and I think we're more relaxed than you guys? Japan is pretty focused on testing, right? I don't know if I'm the best to make a conclusion though, haha!