Lingering Worries

[standalonehuman]

Hitori Togusa 10/2 near Recolle Police Station

I've got a question, and I don't mean for it to scare people, because what I'm really looking for is proof that I'm wrong. If these other people, the ones Retrospec is giving us the memories of? Retrospec is also slowly giving us their bodies. A piece at a time, it seems. What if they were sick? Is it slowly going to happen to us, too? How can we help each other out if it does start happening? So that I'm not wasting everybody's time with this, though. I've been asking about Dr. James Halliday, a memory researcher a bunch of us came across the name of in August. Despite the fact that Retrospec seems to have been interested in his work, I don't think they're using it. It specialized in deep-brain stimulation, but I personally had a check done to see if there were any changes to my brain from being on the app for eight months now, and there's nothing. Just so we can rule that one out.

Comments

[frostythehitman]

Wait, shit.

Why doesn't this stupid app have a delete button on comments, let's just all pretend I didn't just say that.

[ GOD HE REALLY HOPES RETROSPEC DOESN'T READ THAT ONE, SHIT ]

[standalonehuman]

[JAMES]

MY KINGDOM FOR A FACEPALM ICON

[standalonehuman]

Why do you do this to me?

No, James, I don't think they are going to kill us, even if some people remember dying.

[frostythehitman]

[ ....well

MIGHT AS WELL JUST KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT NOW ]

That sounds like wishful thinking.

[standalonehuman]

That sounds horrific and completely out of scale with everything they've done so far.

But if I can't convince you of the inherent goodness of people, then okay, that also sounds like a waste of everything they're doing with us. Whatever their plan is, they need us alive. It would have been too easy to let the monsters kill us.

[frostythehitman]

Oh, so THAT'S what qualifies as horrific and out of scale. I didn't realize we hadn't crossed that line yet.

[ yeah guess who's still salty about that arm ]

I'll buy the other explanation, though. It's been like what, nine months since this app launched? They've had plenty of opportunity to kill people off before this and still haven't done it.

Not directly, anyway.

[standalonehuman]

But maybe not even indirectly. I saw Ryoji post on the network again. I don't understand it at all, but he's not dead.

[frostythehitman]

He said he's "not human" any more.

I don't know what the hell that means, or what the hell Retrospec actually did to him.

[standalonehuman]

[Sorry for the wait, James. YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO GIVE TOGUSA A FEW MINUTES ON THIS ONE.]

Not human. I mean.

Are there other options? What the hell?

[frostythehitman]

I don't know. He said he's not human, he bleeds black, and when he died he apparently just vanished like one of the monsters from August, nothing left behind. So I don't even know whose ashes we ended up spreading.

I doubt he knows what any of this is either.

[standalonehuman]

Fuck.

[Unsettling enough that he'll swear in front of the kids.]

That's the problem, isn't it? You can tell that you're not human, but Retrospec doesn't give you enough information to know what you are.

I know I'm not close enough to him to be of help, but he's got friends watching out for him, yeah?

[frostythehitman]

Yeah. I'm giving him some space right now after all the crap he got put through, but if he needs me I'll be there.

[standalonehuman]

Don't let people tell you that you're not actually a good guy, James. I mean it.

[frostythehitman]

Yeah yeah, give me an award why don't you.

What else are you supposed to do when your friend dies and comes back to life as something else?

[ He says it as a joke, almost, but he really does wish he knew the answer, because he feels bad about not being able to have helped Ryoji more than just offer the bullshit copout of "sympathy." ]

[standalonehuman]

Okay.