retrospec | loading...overflow

Hi, everyone! There's a fairly high level anomaly coming up which we did our best to damp down, but please be careful! It should be safe as long as you're cautious and don't take any unnecessary risks. Also, R&D gave us more of those poll results (I'm not sure why we're doing this by poll? I'd rather just spend all our resources on blue) so we fixed a few things!

Also also, Maurice and I programmed a really fun game!! You don't have to play if you don't want to but Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday sooooooo!

Please take care and try to stay safe, okay?

Joanne Wiseman
Technician 2nd class
Retr

spec Incorporated

As of this post characters will find their application decked out in cheerful Halloween colors, and their userpics in a randomized (work safe) costume. Since this is Joanne's work, however, there is a very visible and easy option to turn off Halloween Mode if characters would prefer to use the usual application. She's helpful like that. The biggest feature of Halloween Mode is the Trick or Treat function. When speaking to others, users who are asked "Trick or treat?" will have the option to give a treat. If they do, a virtual candy will be gifted to the other user. If they do not, the user who asked the question will have the option to play a "trick".

Tricks are fairly harmless and include: vandalizing a userpic with animal ears or noses, choosing a new color/design scheme for the other user's application, making the other user play a round of a cutesy halloween maze game to get back on the application, playing a song of the user's choice at the nefarious non-candy-giver, or similar very easy things. None of these effects last over ten minutes.

This is one of the methods to earn a freebie memory for the month. You must have 5 threads with at least 5 comments each (25 comments total) playing the trick or treat game! This can be done on this post or in inboxes or wherever there is a network.

Also as of this post:
-Normal oranges exist alongside the dancing variety!
-For the color BLUE: Media as a whole and NPCs begin using the names for the color again. Songs and books regain the ability to say the words appropriately, and NPCs acknowledge the color as real.
-For the color GREEN: Photographs begin to regain this color. Text of this color also becomes visible again in books and online.

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.

This is an overflow for the original post HERE! Please feel free to continue threads from there or to make new toplevels as you like.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Uh. Yes. So..." With a tone of 'how do I explain this quickly?'

"A few people were afforded extranatural abilities thanks to Retrospec's 'weapons protocol.' The first time, it was a reward for the Bingo game, the second time, as a reward for retrieving Retrospec employees and resolving problems."

"Telekinesis, telepathy. Moving objects with my mind, and speaking to other people mentally. It was-" Incredible? Almost addicting? But a total pain at the same time? "Enlightening. But I wouldn't have wanted to keep it."

It's that simple for them to give people special powers... No wonder they're able to match the powers people have seen in memories. For all we know the Retrospec employees have used that same ability to empower themselves. Isn't that what most people would do if they had a machine that could do that? Grant abilities to trusted friends first.

"Now here's where it gets weird, actually. Once again, I have no proof of this, but I get the feeling that Retrospec employees can't just hand themselves powers. Geez, it was something Joanne said, why can't I remember it?"

"It's like they have to stay constant. So that they can alter other things? Does that make a damn bit of sense?"

Really? It reminds me of superstitions and rules in old spiritual systems. Like a fortune teller isn't supposed to do a reading of their own future.

That would be both a relief and a clue to how this all works...

Has anyone attempted to catch the process of a delivery or body change on camera? At least to confirm if a package appears in an instant or gets carried into a home?

"Maybe that's another question to directly ask someone if we ever get to contact them again..." But Togusa sounds dubious that that would ever happen.

"Hunh. Now there's a thought." Togusa laughs. "If only we had someone on the network who was rich enough to afford their own security system, and probably paranoid enough to actually use it. Lemme go ask Yoon-sung, if anybody's tried it, I'm betting on him."

"Hard part is that we never know when something is going to show up. Can't predict it before it happens."

Perhaps my own apartment would make a good candidate. I don't have a security system, I doubt even an expensive one would stop deliveries. But a camera might not be so difficult to set up. I was reading about the release of some new devices called Golems. They not only record and playback video, they can float in the air and follow basic movement commands. A few of those set to watch and record might do the trick. Between both my niece and myself as app users the chances Retrospec will send something or come to change one of us is twofold.

Oh? On his end, Togusa perks up in interest. "Hang on, you are going to have to show me these things you're talking about. Golems? They take video records, and fly, like drone cameras?" Haaa ha, is this another thing that Retrospec might have been making use of?

"If it's an easy way to do it, I'd say go for it, but be prepared to be disappointed. I'd give any assistance you'd need."

Yes, they're basically a type of drone but far quieter and automated. No remote control required. I'll show you an example if I purchase one. You might see one in use sooner than that. They're reportedly the newest hit among internet stars.

I can put one in the apartment entryway and one in my bedroom. It's not as if I'll have trouble sleeping with the lights on all night.

There is a very long pause as Togusa works out how he wants to say this. "You...." very drawn out, like he's still working out his words and re-thinking how to start this.

"If this is one of those questions you're not supposed to ask, please just hang up on me." All in a rush trying to pre-emptively placate Matt. It's all a tone that he is probably very familiar with, which means this is going to have to be a question about his condition.

"You can't see light, either?"

The way Togusa builds up to the question Matt's mind starts suggesting the worst things he's heard before, none of them being something he'd expect Togusa to actually say, which builds anticipation. What could it be? He draws in a breath and holds it.

He bursts out laughing.

"Sorry, sorry. You just made it sound like you were going to ask something really personal or disturbing. It's fine. I don't mind talking about it, as long as it isn't the only thing we ever talk about, and that's not a problem in this case," Matt explains. "You're not the first person to ask that kind of question. Plenty of people want to know if a blind man can see anything at all."

"In my case the only things I see are in my mind. Memories, imagination. As you might recall I lost my sight when I was shoved backwards down some stairs. There was no damage to my eyes in the accident but the impact against my head permanently damaged my visual cortex. In simplest terms, the wire that would send the information from my eyes to my brain was broken. No light, nothing gets through. So I can sleep with the lights on."

Once Matt starts laughing, the tension on Togusa's side breaks, and he can't help but laugh lightly along in relief. Okay, it's okay. "Better to be cautious about it," he explains, still with an amused tone. "I have trouble knowing what's too personal."

Matt puts it that way, and he still feels a little guilty for asking, but he does listen. He makes a small sound of understanding when Matt explains the damage, but otherwise doesn't interrupt. "I'd been working off of a wrong assumption, then," he offers at the end. This is usually the point where someone would offer an empty platitude, an apology for Matt's condition. Togusa shakes off the urge. He'd like to think he's getting better about this.

"Back on our original topic, then," Togusa won't linger on this idea. "You're all right with the idea of recording your own place? There was a problem some time ago, proved Retrospec can see us anywhere. So I know not everybody would be comfortable doing this."

"I'd rather set up these cameras myself and decide when to turn them on than do nothing to attempt gathering information. If Retrospec really watches us in some form all the time that really is disturbing but it's still out of our control. At least this silly idea stands a chance of evening the odds by letting us see Retrospec at work," Matt decides.

"If I get something then I'll even allow you and the others to see the footage of me in my sleep clothes. For the sake of this case it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

Togusa leans back in his chair and he laughs, "I promise in turn we won't kick any of the footage over to Mariko, then." 99% of the people Mariko dates are easy to brush off, but Matt is this repeated sore spot for her, and Togusa's never asked why, because he can pick up that it's a sore spot in the other direction, too.

"Let me know when you get it set up, then. Those packages can just show up at any time, so it would be best to keep them running even when you're not around."

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