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[recollecters]

Hello Users, For those of you who are new: Welcome to Retrospec™, the last social media network you will ever need. You are one of the few selected to test this exciting new platform based on our cutting-edge algorithms. Membership is not currently open to the public. However, we hope you will come to see how useful Retrospec™ is, given time. We have for your use a variety of features such as text, voice, video, and image posts. We encourage you to explore our many options. For all, new and old: Please be advised that should you go above and beyond the call of duty for Mr. Halloway's little game in the coming days, there may be a reward granted or information given. 100% completion would be the goal for that, should you have an interest. If you have no interest in the matter, please feel free to carry on as usual. R&D will not be handling further communiques for this month, or possibly the next few months. This should not, of course, have any impact on your usage of Retrospec™. The first milestone for the second of the colors lost has been met, and accordingly we have diverted resources to fix what could be fixed. R&D has alerted me that a bigger loss may occur in the near future, and I would advise you to be careful, though I am afraid neither they nor I can be much more detailed than that. Finally, I would like to extend congratulations to those of you who have now reached your sixth month. We hope you will continue to accept our assistance in these trying times. Thank you for your patience, Janet Wiseman Human Resources Retrspec Incorporated As of this post green fruits and flowers of this color regain their pigment. (Note: this is not all plants. This is just for flowers and fruits!) Please feel free to use this post as a network mingle. Every toplevel can be considered a new post, and threadjacking is permitted. No NPC response will be given. Usernames are the character's full real AU names, not aliases or chosen nicknames or usernames, and seemed to have filled themselves in; nothing characters do can change or obscure their names currently. Any new characters will find that the first photo they upload is locked as their profile picture for the rest of the month. Characters who have been in game since February will find their profiles now have a 6 months badge. It does absolutely nothing of note.

Comments

[daemonized]

Now wait just a second, I need to know about this supposed conversation with Dante that is apparently unimportant.

[standalonehuman]

Every once in a while, you have to dive under the bus before a teenager throws you under it.

But. Answer the question.

[daemonized]

Self-sacrifice is it? Then who am I to judge?

37. 38 in November. Does the answer satisfy you?

[standalonehuman]

More than satisfies.

You know perfectly well how old I am, but despite flat-out saying I was your student, the kids cant do the math.

[daemonized]

The math isn't very /difficult/. Which "kids", exactly? And what are they trying to calculate?

[standalonehuman]

He says as if he doesn't know the usual suspects. Dante and Prompto, of course.

James Barnes and Cleo Ritter aren't yours, too, are they? Think I'm sharing custody with Gabranth on Ritter.

[daemonized]

Of course. Why am I not surprised?

They are not, I'm sorry(?) to say. Just how old does everyone think you are?

[standalonehuman]

That's the hell of it: the kids overshoot, and my colleagues undershoot. Never mind that I'm coming up on six years on the job.

As for the kids, keep an eye out for Ritter in your incoming class in the fall. She might change her mind, though. Or Naoto Shirogane, he's brilliant. The both of them could use your perspective.

[daemonized]

So you currently waver between flattered and insulted? I can't imagine what that's like.

[Yes he can. Well, he could, if he cared more about what people often guessed at his own age to be.]

With their names mentioned from none other than yourself, how can I forget? I've spoken briefly with Naoto Shirogane over the network. We talked about the practicalities of a scarf funeral, you know.

[standalonehuman]

[The LOOK he is giving his screen right now.]

Uh-HUNH. Because that's not your constant state of being when you're around students. Somehow it comes off as an insult in both directions, I don't get it.

That funeral was the most practical. So noble of your nephew to do something like that.

[daemonized]

My constant state of being when I'm around my students is not that at all, actually. Generally speaking, it's just amused.

[He's exaggerating, of course. Ardyn isn't so uncaring to only feel amusement around his students.]

I thought so. Others found it rather ridiculous, and were quick to point that much out.

[standalonehuman]

If you can't have SOME kind of levity about this situation we're all stuck in, you're going to go crazy. Even I can't be the job and be scared about what Retrospec is up to 100% of the time.

So, scarf funerals.

[daemonized]

I'm glad you at least understand. To drown ourselves in nothing more than seriousness and gloom would be a dreadful shame. We're already having to deal with grey skies, after all.

[standalonehuman]

The fact that all of our uniforms are now grey? I wasn't going to say anything, but now it is getting to me. Gimme a survey, Jim, I've got some choice words for you.

Or don't, there's something there about giving us the illusion of choice only further playing into their hands.

[daemonized]

The illusion of choice... I think I'd rather fool myself with that, instead of sitting about and feeling like nothing can be done.

A nice little white lie to tell myself in the meanwhile.

[standalonehuman]

Blue it is, then. Already got the flowers back, so let's literally shoot for the sky.

It's funny, though. The flowers changed back, and then the person I was growing them for got bounced off the network. Your...colleague, Gentiana. Don't know if you noticed she's out of the loop.

[Because she was Ardyn's colleague. That's all she was. Yup.]

[daemonized]

[That's... totally all she was. Y e p.]

I have. I still see her passing by on occasion. I stopped to ask her about Retrospec fairly recently and she looked at me like I was spouting nonsense.

You were growing flowers for her, however?

[standalonehuman]

Yeah.

It's stupid.

But, the gentiana blossoms, the flower type she's named for. Most of them don't do so well indoors. Outdoor shade plants. But she doesn't have space for an outdoor garden at her place. So, I was trying to pick out one that would grow indoors. Wanted to try it out myself before giving her something that would just die on her. She's the kind of person who would prefer something that kept growing instead of cut flowers.

[It sounds dumb when he just explains his reasoning so simply like that. More complicated than just 'I was trying to do something nice for her.']

[daemonized]

[Yikes. Poor Togusa.]

It was a thoughtful gesture for you to consider.

You know, just because she doesn't remember Retrospec doesn't mean you can't still give her flowers.

[standalonehuman]

I should be happy she's out. That Retrospec can't touch her anymore. But it still feels disingenuous.

But she remembers going to school together. And. Everything I admire about her, it was all things I already knew. Not the things that Retrospec was trying to bring out.

Maybe I will go talk to her.

Talk first, flowers. A maybe. Later. If things go the way they did last time.

[daemonized]

[Disingenuous. That's exactly how it feels, isn't it? Ardyn's spoken recently with Jack, someone who he had learned to confide in about these blasted memories when Retrospec just started becoming an issue in their lives.

To have lost that, well -- he's glad that there's one less friend affected. But at the same time, he feels as if something about their conversations lack... sincerity. As if there's a giant issue that needs to be skirted around, as if he has to leash his tongue... because he does.]

I understand.

But yes, I would encourage you to talk to her anyway. There's no harm in trying, but all the harm in the world in being plagued with "what ifs" for the rest of your days.

[standalonehuman]

I thought I was okay with just letting it be, drift away, trying to accept that this is the way things have to be. But if I'm not really okay with that, then I should fight for this.

I. Thank you, Ardyn.

[daemonized]

Don't thank me, Togusa. All I did was gave you was a little push; you're the one with the courage to see it through.