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

[explodosafe]

Oh. In that case, it's most likely true. I mean, it's sort of happening to me already, although I seriously hope it's not some sickness.

[standalonehuman]

Wait what!?

What's wrong? Have you talked to the doctors about it?

[explodosafe]

Somebody thought it prudent that I'd get an upgrade in carnivorousness. Literally. I've developed a craving for meat and the teeth fitting for it.

I wonder if it's also related to some of my instincts going awry back when I started to get many memories at once? Usually I'm a pretty cautious guy, but back then I just went 'screw caution, I can take them all!' when those monsters tried to kill us. As if I'm on the top of the feeding chain and it's just normal that I can't get fucked up.

...that ended about as great as you can expect, but whatever. I didn't before, but I'm talking with a med student/EMT about meeting up and her taking a look at me. Since I can't just walk to the hospital and all.

[standalonehuman]

I have many questions.

They’re all going to feed back to ‘are you okay?’ I know we’re all finding our ways to cope with changes, but that is pretty extreme. You’re getting physical changes, but also the mental changes to match it, an increase in aggression?

Which EMT? I’ve worked with a few.

[explodosafe]

[He considers lying for a moment.]

I'm not. Not really. But it's enough that I can manage.

It feels like less of an increase of aggression and more of a decrease of fear, if that makes sense? Like there's stuff that should naturally have you balking because it might kill your or is just crazy dangerous? That feeling's getting numbed. I tried to block a blade with my bare arms once, because in that split-second I was convinced that it was the right thing to do when a blade comes at me, rather than doing the sane thing and pulling my arms away.

Celandine Parthia.

[standalonehuman]

That does make sense. Partly a decrease in self-preservation, because it shouldn't be a problem. It might not be one for the guy you're remembering. But that's a scary enough thought alone.

Here's where I'm supposed to put in the usual 'don't go looking for trouble' lecture, but I know everybody on here is ready to look out for each other. So, the better advice might be 'go to the fighting practice until you figure out what your reactions are.' Test it out on wooden or padded weapons until you've got to retrain your instincts.

I don't think I've spoken with Miss (?) Parthia. Another person to keep an eye out for, then.

[explodosafe]

It wasn't. I remember that it worked - when somebody tried to stab him the blade broke instead.

I'm pretty good at fighting already, so I'm just trying to work around it. My fighting style usually leaves no space for being hit back, so it's not ~too~ bad. Just sorta alarming, and building into what your theory with sicknesses and the like bleeding over into our life now says, that's why I brought it up in the first place.

It's gonna be my first time meeting her too. I know somebody who can heal with magic, but I think this case is asking for some real medical knowledge to figure out what the fuck's going on. Let's pray we don't end up importing some foreign virus through our memories.

We spent so much time looking through who in game could potentially infect us all...

[standalonehuman]

Whoa. So. Good point. Yeah, get that checked out...

I might get in touch with her, then, get her coordinated with the other doctors.

God, would that even be possible? If people are getting these other changes to them? Then, could they catch some other kind of illness, something that could spread from person to person?

Fuck.

All you need are 6 people to reach everybody in the world |D;

[explodosafe]

Yeah. Do you know many doctors? There seem to be a lot of people working into figuring stuff out, getting everybody coordinated with each other could definitely help. You should have a small army at hand with that!

I wouldn't say it'd be impossible. I mean, I thought it'd be impossible to live with teeth like mine and still be a proper human being but here I am, all-natural fangs included.

Choose your death: T-virus, Hinamizawa Syndrome, or Diclonius

[standalonehuman]

Just Dr. Lucian Trevelyan and Dr. Grell Sutcliffe. Lucian has a private practice, while Grell is our medical examiner at the precinct.

Neither of them specializes in diseases, though. I wouldn't want to force people to get regular checkups, but maybe this is something people could start to think about.

At least there's no A.E. Virus (yet)

[explodosafe]

Can't say I have heard about either of them yet, but another guy, Erden or Erkan or something, has mentioned also working with a doctor. Something with brain scans. Maybe that info'll help.

To be honest the real reason why I started thinking it might be something like a virus was when I compared the way retrospec seemed to spread within the people I know with the way the curse gets spread in The Ring. You know, the horror movie?

[standalonehuman]

I almost wrote something really obnoxious here, but I'm not going to be that guy.

リング, yeah. Spreads to more people the more people know about it. Somebody's got to find it first, though. So who threw Okiku down the well and started this whole deal?

[explodosafe]

Thanks? I get the feeling I just missed something.

Probably one of the Founders, from what we found out so far. The real question is, what's the "video" and who "got" it first. And what's Retrospec's connection to its spreading? Cause or stopgag cure?

[standalonehuman]

'Ringu' was everywhere when I was a kid. You couldn't avoid it. But it's not usually my type of movie, so I can get snarky about it. Still, it's a good theory.

There is something weird, though. Anybody could have the curse spread to them. If this thing about other lives is true, could anyone in the city potentially be someone Retrospec is interested in, or are we special?

[explodosafe]

I don't know. Do we get the memories because we are in the city or is something leading us here because we have the potential for those memories already in us?

[standalonehuman]

Yeah. If it's something to do with us, how come so many of us seemed to come back here? I came all the way from Japan to settle here. Got a colleague who came back from Harvard, decided to return here. Why?

I hate this. Anything that's infringing on the idea that we're not here by choice really doesn't settle well with me.

[explodosafe]

Same story here, my parents just decided all of a sudden to send me here for school so that I can get a break from some influences.

There's also that Retrospec only seems to be working within this city and around it. Like, people "forget" if they go back home and "remember" once they come back. What's up with that?

[standalonehuman]

Out of Retrospec's reach? They said something ridiculous when I talked to them. I asked why people randomly forget, and their explanation was that people's souls 'slip out of place.' And they need to be 'reset' to put them back to normal.

[He types it as if it is casual or ridiculous, but Maurice's words have been haunting him since. The idea that they could toy with everyone's souls is too much]

Maybe that's the same. They get too far out of reach, Retrospec has to 'reset' them.

[explodosafe]

Hmmm. Maybe it's the same thing that got people lost outside of time and space in August?

[standalonehuman]

Keeep on that idea. Hang on.

But people didn't forget when they left, so those areas they went to were still inside Retrospec's idea. Oh. I hadn't thought of that.

[explodosafe]

Could be that they didn't end up out of bounds like they do when just the memories are gone, but instead they just ...like ...fell a floor deeper than intended and ended up in the garage of realities?! Or the broom closet?? And whatever caused it also made them gone in both mind and body rather than one thing or the other or maybe the other way round I'm just confusing myself!

[standalonehuman]

Wait. That might be close, though. A few of the groups said that Retrospec had probably been to the areas they ended up in. One was even a library, something that had been used a lot?

Shit. Retrospec could peek into those areas. Maybe they weren't as 'outside' Retrospec's influence as we thought. Just not the network.

God damn it, I feel like an idiot because I'd been defending them again.

[explodosafe]

Huh? What do you mean?

[standalonehuman]

Because a bunch of Retrospec employees got swept up in all that, too. So I thought they were just victims and didn't know what was going on.

But if Retrospec's already been to all of the places that people got sent to, that's suspicious, right?

[explodosafe]

I'm not sure. It seems like they were aware of those places and had teams explore them when it happened, or at least that's what it sounded like with Cavendish. They also never said that they didn't hear about the places some people got tossed to before.

Just that they lost all contact and have no clue wtf when or where everybody was.