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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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Likewise. [It doesn't take a lot of effort to talk and work simultaneously, so while she's settling in he's busy grabbing a clean glass, some ice, and some bottled water. Okay then. He does cut a glance at the board before he gives a lopsided smirk in response and sets the glass in front of her.]

Since about March? It was Annabeth's idea to start a board as soon as she clued in to all of the weird shit going on. [If Cleo looks close enough it appears that 80% of the notecards are definitely written in neat script and the other 20% are Luke's blocky sort of handwriting.] So far it's a compilation of stuff that's happened since February even though we've only seen new users show up in February, March and this month. They skipped April for some reason.

... I see. Was February the first month Retrospec appeared?

[She's definitely looking it over, trying to take in all the information.]

I myself only received it this month. If they skipped April... Perhaps they were attending to other things?

Far as I can tell, yeah. The app showed up right around Founder's Day and the holiday itself was about when everything started getting weirder. February 3rd. [He reaches over to tap a notecard that says "CHOCOBOS???" in large letters.]

Before we get further into that...how caught up are you on what's been going on around here? If you're new this month I'm curious what you've heard already.

[She sighs, but then goes over all the information in her head, quickly organizing it into an official briefing.]

Retrospec has been distributed without any understanding or knowledge how, in violation of several cybercommunication laws. It is capable of some manner of hypnotism or otherwise controlling our perceptions and memories. Those who are not members of the Retrospect community are incapable of seeing or remembering any mention of Retrospec or understanding that anything is amiss. I would assume that is how you are able to have a board in plain sight like that without being labeled as crazy, or how we are able to have this conversation in a public area.

The memories of horses, and fruits that aren't... horrifying, are related to the obtaining of the Retrospec app. Chocobos and... the new kinds of fruit are thought of as normal until access to the network is obtained, and then we have two sets of memories.

The shrinking event was the first time Retrospec did something of that scale, and it is unknown why. Again, no one who did not have the Retrospec network was able to tell anything was amiss, no matter how ridiculous or obvious it became.

The visions we see come with no rhyme nor reason. It's believed similar events to the visions received will trigger the visions, but it is inconsistent, and actively trying to obtain the visions makes them harder to get. My personal believe is that the method they give us the visions is related to how they control the memories of horses.

[As Cleo continues to explain Luke's eyebrows raise higher and higher because that's actually. Pretty impressive. It's more than some of the other people know around here and he has to commend her for her logic and info-gathering.

Later, that is. He'll commend her later.]

So you are up to speed, minute the fact that whatever Retrospec is doing can also control physical changes to us, too. It's not just memories. A lot of people are having their genes fucked with which seems impossible for an app, but it's a pretty huge indicator there's something more cynical happening here.

[A pause.] The physical things? People notice those. People without the app, I mean. They notice but then they go right back to not caring around it like it's always been a truth in their lives. There's some asshole named Jim who's been watching us and we're not sure about why either, but that's about all we know. I've been trying to find the correlation to the memories and what we do around here myself but no such pattern. [He frowns lightly.] There's also the theory floatin' around that we're all from different worlds, but that's a little harder to prove. Your idea about the visions being related to their control issues isn't one I'd ignore.

[She nods.]

I saw a boy whose arm had become some... red thing. I didn't know others could see it, though. And I've been made aware of Jim's... ah, romantic escapades.

[She hates that video. She hates that video so much.]

I'm glad I might have been useful with such theories. And I can at least say for certain that the world in my visions is not Earth.

Yeah. That's when things get weird. [He makes a face though.] Jim used to be the least of our problems and I liked him better when he was making shitty videos, but now we've gotta wonder if he's really a threat of some kind.

[But that's curious.] How are you sure they aren't from Earth?

They took place in a city made of steel. In the vision, the one whom the vision belonged to fought some manner of scaled monster near the edge of the city, showing it was high above the ocean. A flying steel city hardly sounds like Earth, to say nothing of the monster.

My other vision showed the owner of the vision to have claws and fur.

[Give him a second to stealth-glance over her and ensure that yeah, okay, no fur and no claws. This is the first time he's really heard about anywhere that sounds industrial like that, and yet not the first time he's heard about monsters. It may explain his slight lack of surprise.]

Interesting that you're sticking with the idea that the visions belong to someone else. You're positive in that?

[She holds up her hands.]

As I am human, and the owner of the visions is not, it seems logical.

Logical, sure, but then I'm finding myself curious what you think the deal is and why you're getting these particular visions then. [It's an interest to him to try and put together the pieces of everyone else's memories. It's a lot more useful than thinking about his own.]

I don't know. I have no understanding of the logic of any of Retrospec's actions.

Might be one of the things to look into. See if anyone else is receiving memories of someone else entirely. I think it's weird, personally, but maybe because I know who I am and know they're mine whether I want it or not. [A pause.] Then again, some people have changed since this started. But not really that drastically, I think.

[She shakes her head.]

It is my belief that all of these visions are of someone else entirely, not just mine. It may be someone you identify with, but this life in Recolle is our real life, not whatever fantasies Retrospec gives us.

And I agree with that. [But?] But let's say there are some parallels in this life and whatever fantasy life Retrospec's dreaming up for us. You think that's simply them preying on what they know about us and manipulating it into something more interesting? Or is there possibly real basis for all of this?

[A shrug.] Those are the kind of questions we're all circling around right now without a lot of answers to.

[She nods.]

If I had to guess, I would say so. The visions come after similar events, do they not? It is a trick of the mind. We do something notable, and then Retrospec uses the fact that we're thinking on it to supply a fantastic version of similar events.

[A slow nod.]

I was playing Mad Libs with my best friend trying to get into the Retrospec building and I remembered meeting her inside a dragon's cave. But I get your point. If you really think that's the route we should go with this I can't exactly dissuade you on it.

The 'similar event' would then be your friend, rather than the context. Do you disagree?

I disagree since the context of the memory itself and what we were doing don't match up. Thalia and I have been friends for a really, really long time. Knowing someone and meeting someone are two separate events. So. Why then? Why not?

Perhaps not. It is impossible to say just yet, but I think it is far too hasty to say these visions are proof of anything other than Retrospec is guilty of many, many crimes.

All a part of the grand mystery. [A lopsided grin.] Anyway, you're free to take as many notes from the board as you want. I keep it updated as much as I can with everything people tell me, and it's not like the bar's gonna go anywhere. You're welcome back whenever. I just wish I had better answers for you.

[She nods, gratefully.]

I may have to take you up on this... You have my gratitude. I need to know as much as possible of this.

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