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ouroboros: ikuo ryuuzaki

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Cleo Ritter
5/24 near Recolle University
Good afternoon. For those who don't know me, my name is Cleo Ritter, and I am a rather recent addition to this Retrospec community. I have some questions, to those of you who have received the strange visions after being made a part of this. Specifically, if you're willing, I'd like to hear about those visions. I thought if we collaborate and make a list of what kinds of visions each person receives, we might be able to find a pattern as to who gets what, and perhaps piece together a more complete understanding of what is going on here. Thank you in advance for being willing to share this, and I hope this will prove useful.

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[Tatsuo scans the cafe when he arrives and soon spots the booth Cleo has staked out.]

Hey, nice brain bucket.

[He drops into the other half of the booth and immediately takes a sip of coffee.]

Ah, thanks. I know they say don't drink caffeine after 5 pm, but sometimes it feels like my brain is completely wrung out at the end of my shift.

It was an impulse purchase, but one I do not regret.

[she loves this helmet. it is hers.]

I understand completely. Every once in a while can't be so bad, right?

Yeah, I don't have one after every shift. But sometimes my life doesn't stop at 5 pm. Gotta get myself through the next seven hours somehow.

[he takes another sip off coffee, then sets the cup back down]

So. You're collecting people's visions. Good idea. That might shed some light on some of the objects I've been examining.

So far, I've had three visions. Hallucinations. Memories. They started off pretty innocuous, but this last one...

[his expression pinches slightly]

It stared the shit out of me.

[She nods, taking a drink herself.]

I hope so. Any kind of pattern would be helpful.

... Though, if it is difficult for you to share, there is no obligation to.

No, no it's alright. I'm just starting to wonder about this person whose life I'm seeing. What kind of things he's was involved in.

The first one, I'm standing in a locker room. I'm talking with another guy as we get dressed. I don't remember what we're talking about, but he's got this really detailed double dragon tattoo in the shape of the infinity symbol across his upper back. And it's not like 'oh dude has a nice tat,' but the tattoo has meaning to the two of us. Not that I know what the meaning is.

[Which, note to self, he still needs to go visit Togusa's artist friend and get that drawn out.]

That one is the most vague, and the shortest so far. It felt more like a Vine than anything else. Like, I didn't even see his face. He was always standing in profile or with his back to me.

[If it were anyone else, and if it wasn't such a serious conversation, Cleo might have teased him a bit about having a thing for backs.

But she can't do that while he's already freaked out.]

That sounds like quite the tattoo... Perhaps it has a good meaning? Two dragons, and 'infinity' symbol sounds as though it could be something quite hopeful.

[Just wait until he remembers 'Tacchan'. She can tease him all she wants then.]

Maybe. I tried looking up tattoo meaning, but depending on the culture dragons have different meanings. My own name means 'dragon.'

[He takes another sip of coffee.]

The second one, I'm sitting in a restaurant. Cozy, neighborhood kind of place. Apparently I'm a regular. And this guy down the counter from me starts talking about the menu, how it's a bit muddled, what with Japanese, Korean, and Italian food on it. But it's just that kind of place. So he asks me what I'd recommend and the owner teases me about how I always order something called 'omurice'. And the guy comments how it's a homey dish and apparently my coworker had said the same thing earlier that day.

[It kind of confuses Tatsuo, how he can know this coworker had said that to him, but not know anything about that conversation in turn.]

Anyway, my phone rings and it's my coworker. And she's saying I need to meet her at the hospital, because someone's wife and kid were found off the pier and it might be suicide. And it upsets me, because I'd seen them earlier that day. So when my food shows up, I give it to the guy down the counter, pay, and leave.

... I see.

[What does she even say to that? Condolences seem... not right, considering it's people Tatsuo never met.

That said, she's making a mental note to figure out what omurice is, and if it's something she can teach Tatsuo how to make.]

It sounds quite unpleasant. Were you a detective of some kind in this memory?

[Please teach him how to make omurice. Sadly, it will only be mediocre. But it will give him the idea.]

I don't know. Maybe? I was in plain clothes, so if I was law enforcement, I wasn't a beat cop. I didn't see any kind of badge on myself, but it could have been in my pocket. Or maybe they were just personal friends of myself and my coworker.

[It is really, really hard finding the right language to refer to this guy whose memories he's seeing and himself as he's seen the memories. He keeps defaulting back to referring to the memories as if he was the one who experienced them.]

The third memory I saw, kind of makes me doubt this guy being in law enforcement though.

[you're going to have to swear to NOT BURN YOUR APARTMENT DOWN.]

... What was it?

[BEEN THERE DONE THAT except not really]

The third memory, I'm in a burning building. There's a narrow hallway filled with smoke. I thought at first it was just my brain reacting to my apartment building catching on fire this weekend, but it wasn't a dream. It 'feels' the same way the other two memories feels.

There's three other guys with me. One's helping me walk, because I'm injured. Let's call him Guy A. Another guy, Guy B accuses the third guy, Guy C, of setting the building on fire. But Guy C denies it and says the building has been set on fire to get rid of all of us, including him because he failed. Guy B finds a fire extingusher and we start looking for an exit.

We run into some sort of storage room that's on fire, and Guy B says he'll catch up, that he has to do something. I think out of all three of them, I know Guy B, because I wasn't happy he was going off on his own. But I couldn't stop him because I'm injured. Guy C takes the fire extinguisher and we keep going.

We finally find the exit and I collaspe. Guy A drags me back up, and then shit gets freaky because guys wearing gas masks grab Guy C and drag him off screaming. They seem to ignore me and Guy A, but we book it outside anyway.

The whole thing is pretty hazy, probably because I was hurt.

[He absentmindedly touches his stomach on the left side.]

-- Your apartment building caught fire?!

[NO HOLD ON THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT.]

They think it was a gas leak. Blew out the whole first floor. Luckily I lived on the second. But between the smoke damage and the water damage and my not having renter's insurance, I pretty much lost everything.

Not that I had much!

[except his sneaker collection RIP]

[YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE HER A HEART ATTACK.]

Are- Are you all right?! Do you have a place to stay?! What happened?!

I'm fine. I breathed in a little smoke, but not enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. Right now I'm staying with Kaz, a friend of Goro's. He's also helping me look for a new place.

The building was just so old. [Frankly, now that Tatsuo thinks back on it, it's a miracle the place didn't catch on fire until now.] Gas leak, something sparked, and boom. The explosion woke me up, but I didn't realize at first the place was on fire until the smoke reached the second floor.

I, uh, had to be rescued by the fire department though, because the window in my apartment onto the fire escape was stuck. One of them knocked the glass out and I was able to get out.

[okay.

okay. she just. lets out a long breath, and takes a drink from her cup.]

... I am... glad you're all right.

[holy shit, what does she even say after that.]

If there's anything I can do to help, please tell me.

[Tatsuo cracks a small smile]

Thanks, Cleo. Though, if you know anyone getting rid of a couch, I'm looking for one.

[along with a bed and maybe a small dresser...]

I do not, but I'll keep my eye out for one.

[okay. okay, business. she can actually focus, she swears.]

That vision... It does sound like something is strange there. But regardless, I'm sorry you had to be put through such a horrible vision.

[Tatsuo shrugs. What can you do when a shadowy social media company is trying to ruin your life?]

Hopefully they won't all be like that from now on. But yeah, this guy whose memories I'm seeing was involved in something questionable.

I wonder if that's better or worse than monsters?

[she's seen some shit already.]

Monsters? Is that what you've been seeing?

[She nods.]

I've seen two visions. One, I was in a steel city floating above the ocean. I... No, the person the vision belonged to, wore armor and wielded a sword, and fought some kind of scaled monster, though the details remain fuzzy.

The second was sword training as well, against a man she called her grandfather.

[Tatsuo blinks in surprise]

Wow. That sounds really... intense.

[She shakes her head.]

More intense is that the owner of these memories seems to not be human.

[His brow crinkles slightly as he tries to consider the implications of that. He's seen a few posts about body modifications on the app, but those had mostly seemed like cosmetic alterations (with the exception of on kid's gnarly looking arm.]

Not human? Like, vampire or werewolf not-human or more like alien not-human? Or robot not-human?

[He can't help but think of Togusa's mini-tanks. Stop being such a dork Tatsuo.]

Edited 2017-05-26 15:17 (UTC)