retrospec | Point of Order

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Point of Order

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.

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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?

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.

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.)

[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.

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'?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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)

[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?

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

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?

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!

Oh, most definitely. I can't complain, I enjoyed my schooling and upbringing, but it's interesting to learn about how other people came up. Things were a lot slower-paced when I got to America.

Any idea on your focus for school, picked up a major?

And meanwhile we think America's system is too stressful! But like you, I'm happy with the Finnish system for the most part, so it all worked out!

History, linguistics, or biology, haha. I'm not sure which yet. I'm leaning towards linguistics right now though, since I've been talking to a lot of people with so many different languages here!

Oh wow. I did criminal justice, originally supposed to be a way into pre-law. But, things got a little sidetracked. Linguistics would be wonderful, I don't know any of the English professors there, though. Linguistics is its own side field, though, right?

Hee, well criminal justice makes sense if you're a police officer!

Linguistics is separate, yes! More about studying ABOUT languages and how they work. (I just like languages, haha). But I don't really know what I'd do after school if I studied linguistics, so I'm still not sure. If you don't mind me asking, what made you decide not to do law school?

[Togusa's next reply takes a while. Congratulations, ma'am, you have asked one of the most complicated questions you can ask Togusa.]

It comes down to interpretation. If you're an officer, you're just enforcing the law. You get no freedom in what laws you do and don't enforce, but if you believe in what you're enforcing, there are few dilemmas that crop up.

If you're a lawyer, you have more freedom, but the ambiguity in dealing with the law didn't sit well with me. The trying to find loopholes, crafting words one way or another. I was very good at the research and the reading and the background, but when it came down to the application? I preferred a stricter way of applying the law than what would have served me well as a lawyer.

[Privately, she thinks that the police officer role sounds like the worse of the two, described like this, though there's no reason to bring it up. It's not as though this was her life choice, she's just trying to crib advice from it for her own.]

This is really interesting! Thank you for sharing with me. How long did it take you to figure out that law wasn't for you?

[It's not for everyone, but the logic makes sense to him. It's not the path other people would take.]

About two to three years. I took classes with Professor Izunia for two years, and I liked his approach, but it also helped me see what parts of it I was good at, and what parts I should be going down a different career path for.

He's a good guy.

Well that's good! I'm hoping for something similar eventually, I guess. That someone will help me figure out what I'm interested in moving forward with! So I'm glad it worked out for you, and I guess I don't need to worry if I haven't figured it out yet.

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Point of Order

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fuck I knew I dropped something

haha no worries

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