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EVENT

Reverted
The city of Recollé...have you looked beyond the city lately? It may be time to do so.

I.

The good news, perhaps, is that everyone is back in their original bodies. The last few weeks may have been trying and embarrassing for several of you, but never fear! You're all in this together.

The nice thing about returning to your original body is that everything else seems to disappear along with the unintentional swapping. Your dreams on the evening of the 16th and the 17th are unoccupied and you're blissfully alone. Hallucinations fade away and the city almost feels brighter and cleaner. The messy paint job from May and June slowly flakes off to reveal a sparkling almost-new landscape below. All buildings, landmarks, flora and fauna are back to their original colors. The sky, however, is still painted a strange wash of colors and symbols.

The other nice thing about returning to your original body is that it's much easier to feel the sudden, sharp pain on your palm at midnight on the 18th, a needling high-pressure pain that lasts for all of 30 seconds. Upon looking at your hand, however, you'll notice something new.

In bright red font there's a new marking that reads: 13 Days:23:59:59.

58. 57. 56...

The timer steadily counts down, each second synced with each beat of your heart. As the days pass by the timer will slowly shift from the red to a dark, ominous purple. The glow of the mark becomes harder to ignore, and there doesn't seem to be a way to remove it. Good luck with that.

II.

The Retrospec app doesn't seem to be much better. The scrambled messages and posting errors seem to have stopped and users are no longer receiving messages and pictures about themselves.

In fact, the app seems to be quiet for a while.

As users continue to use the app they will find that any post, comment or message that they send via the app will be tagged with a different ID. Instead of their name, all messages will be from Alpha##### or Beta#####. The string of numbers will be unique for each user and cannot be changed at any time. Individual mailboxes will be attached to your name, but the Alpha/Beta ID has made its way there, too.

Over the course of the rest of the month, Alphas (those who have had the app for at least a year from August 2017) will find that messages to other Alphas are sent more easily than to Betas (those who have had the app for less than a year from August 2017) and vice versa. Messages to anyone from the opposite "faction" may drop out half-way or appear blank entirely. It might be wise to find a better mode of communication in the meantime.

III.
Even if you're alone in your dreams, you're not alone in the waking world. No one is free from the timer on their palm, though they may come to find that it impacts some users more than others.

Some users will experience a steady pulsating in their hand as the timer counts backwards, each second ticking by. Standing still just long enough will send the pulse out of their hands and through the rest of their body, over their arms and through their feet straight into the ground.

The earth begins to shake under these unlucky users, little quakes and trembles that spread out and seek out anyone else nearby. Whether you know this person or not, whether you're alone or several of you are impacted by this earthquake, the ground beneath you splits open and you're pulled straight down into the crevice, falling aimlessly. Instead of finding your own life flashing before your eyes, you'll find yourself witnessing events, faces, and memories that are important to the user the pulses came from.

On the outside of things, the user will promptly collapse into a coma-like state no matter where they're at. Inside their mind, however, a scene begins to set itself to welcome you as you land. It isn't a memory and it isn't a hallucination. It's a construct of someone else's innerworkings that have trapped you and blocked you in.

As the haze around you dissipates, the puzzle you received earlier this month floats in front of you. Whether you have finished building it or not it is now fully completed and all of the words have faded except for "Gordian Knot."

Your cell phones will not work in these dreamscapes, and even Retrospec seems to be disconnected. It's up to you to venture further into someone else's mind and help them untangle whatever mystery is hidden within themselves.

IV.
So about that timer. As time begins to run out, more and more people begin to experience dream dives and encounter the knots of others that they must fix. Even inside the dreamscape, the timer glows just as brightly as it had out in the real world and it continues counting down.

At least it gives you a sense of time and just how many minutes, hours, or days you've been stuck inside someone's subconscious. You might even realize that the timer is directly tied to just how much time you have to unravel the knots of your friends, loved ones, and strangers.

Easy, right? Take caution, citizens. The monsters and demons lurking in the corners of someone else's psyche can manifest to something quite powerful. You will not wake up and be booted out of someone's dream if you are attacked, but your physical body and mind will shut down and remain unconscious for one week.

Be careful how you approach these knots, however! Should you change any part of them too much, the host will find themselves rejecting this new information. Too great of a change will result in the loss of an important memory to them and no way to recover it inside the dive.

Even with these possible losses divers are responsible for fixing what's gone wrong and relieving the knot wound tightly in the host's mind. Venture forward, explore, and break it apart to awaken then. You will be greatly rewarded for your effort.

Failure to break the knot and save the host from this comatose state will result in all parties suffering a loss. At first it may not be obvious, but over time it will be clear an important memory or item has left your possession.

Is it just limited to dives though? Some users will feel that even with successful diving they don't quite feel like themselves. It seems as though there's some further self-evaluation they must meet in order to fully recover who they are...or were, as it may be.

Tick-tock, Retrospecters. Mind the time.

BONUS.
Ever since he moved in back in February, the lights have always been on in Zee's office and home at the top of the Towers. Office hours are whenever he feels like making them and he's usually reachable by phone, email, or app.

However, beginning on the 18th, messages to his inbox begin to go unanswered. Checking the inbox itself will reveal a change as well.

Delta#02018329 is no longer receiving messages.

On the 19th, the lights go off permanently. Beginning on the 20th, anyone who ventures to his office will find the building empty and locked, no sign of Zee at all. Reaching out to him receives a bounce-back error message.

Any previous correspondences with him will remain, though his name has been replaced with his Delta ID.

It's hard to say what's happened, but after some time, all users will finally receive a message from Delta#68422.

Stop him.

No other messages will be sent or received from this account.

Welcome to

recolle's August event, part 2!

As notated in the plotting post, the dreamdives are now live! Players are in charge of creating their own unique dive experiences for characters to explore and play through. These can be as harmless or as dangerous as you'd like. However, please be sure to let us know here if your character will be failing a dive and what memory/item they will be losing!

For Prompt II, characters IDs will be comprised of the following: The date your character first appeared on Retrospec (so in Zee's case, that was 02/01/18) and the last four digits of your character's IC inbox as found in the HTML (in Zee's case, 8329.) These IDs will be more relevant in September, but for ease of playing/making sure no one ICly overlaps please use these numbers!

Friendly reminder that if your character will be keeping their new AUs, please reply to this comment on the OOC plot post! As per Prompt IV, characters who are failing to recover their original AUs will begin to notice something is off and will not be able to accomplish what is needed to regain their original AUs. What this is is up to you!

As per the plotting post, threading out successful dream dives will earn you a free memory! Qualifying threads must be at least five comments from you and can be from you either hosting a dive or participating in one. Please note that failed dives will not be eligible for freebies.

Any questions you have regarding this event may be directed to the mod comment here. Be sure to review the mods' question thread on the plotting post for important information as well!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[This robot girl might not be her friend, but there's a familiar bite to her words that reminds her of Anna all the same, and she can't help the brief smile on her lips. But then, y'know, there's a sword coming at her, and Rose doesn't really have time to do anything aside from focus on surviving.

She dodge rolls out of the way, then immediately launches back up to try and tackle A2 down. There's a big disadvantage in not having a weapon of her own, and getting any of those three swords in the floating corpses out seems like a stretch. The best she can think of right now is to disarm A2 and even out the playing field.]

[Rose might find that plan a little difficult; there's no seam between where sword ends and hand begins. this blade, the charge slowly building back up as A2 drops, is fused perfectly and permanently with her right hand. of course it is. all A2 can do is kill. why would she ever need anything else? hell, it's a wonder her left hand is empty—for the moment.]

[though being tackled to the ground is inconvenient, she can still send orders through the data connection running through this entire system. the panels holding the bodies start shaking, and one panel breaks formation—the one with the white-haired girl. it slides into place behind both of them on the battlefield, between A2 and the Knot, and the hilt of the bone-white katana pinning her to this crude altar is there for the taking.]

[she wants it for herself, of course. the sword belongs to her, and if she's going to be getting these mysterious commands then she'll operate as strictly within the bounds of her program as possible—asshole obedience. her lower body pushes up with force, trying to kick Rose off of her and let her get to her feet. she'll make a fitting addition, won't she? she might not be an android, but that doesn't mean she's meaningless to main() like the rest of them are.]

[WELL, THIS IS A PLAN THAT SURE BACKFIRED FAST. There's definitely an oh shit expression on her face when she realizes she won't be getting her hands on the sword anytime soon, but that changes once the panel falls right to them. This is just what she needed. The android probably had plans to use the weapon for herself, but for Rose, it's almost seems like A2 wants to help her out of this.

She lets A2 kick her off, a strained grin on her face, and uses the momentum to propel herself and dash for the katana. Dream or not, she doesn't want to know what'll happen if A2 gets her hand on it instead.]

[maybe A2 does. maybe something in there wants a fair fight. that's what A2's forcing herself to believe, justifying these completely irrational, illogical decisions on the fly like this. once she's back to her feet, she doesn't move again until Rose takes the sword for herself. she's bre░thi▒▓ filtering more air than she intended just from the initial struggle, so she can only speculate how this is going to go from here.]

[Rose should be able to pull out the katana with surprising ease, even if, when she does, the body will fall forward, face down on the platform, motionless but staining the ground dark red. there's no indication from A2 that she even notices the body or the blood; she's focused on the next block of code in her programming.]

She doesn't care about you anymore. [it isn't going against what's written to taunt Rose. it might even be part of it.] She won't feel anything when you die here.

[It comes out much easier than she was expecting, although she can't tell if that's because of her relatively newfound strength or because that's just how it is. Either way, the katana feels—familiar. Almost achingly familiar, like she's held a blade in her hands for years and years and years. Without even thinking, she takes the stance she's seen Zero make a dozen times over, sword held loosely in her right hand with her left resting on her hip.

Part of her is a little disgusted, but a bigger part of her is relieved. If she can copy even a fraction of Zero's skill with a sword, she might actually have a shot at this. Rose knows a blessing when she sees one, especially in a fight.]

Yeah? Then good for her. [She says it with a smile just this side of too sharp. It stings to hear, but it's not like Rose would complain if that was the truth. Isn't that what she'd prefer? For everyone to stop investing and wasting their time on her? A2 might not be Anna, but this is still Anna's dream, and for all she knows, A2 really might be right. Still—] But if that's the case, pretty nice of you to give me all this extra time to live. You're even giving me the chance to kill you.

[She shrugs easily, casually, even with the sword still in her hand. But they're boastful words, and she knows it. She doesn't think she could kill anyone.]

Hm.

[A2 doesn't really know what to say to that. she'd been hoping for more anger, more outrage at the idea, but all she knows right now is that Rose is important enough for main() to protect. and that means that A2 is going in blind, and even if she isn't especially smart to begin with, she's going to have to handle this the only way she's certain works.]

[her head tilts upwards, a challenge, and her body shifts into stance, her legs wide, her sword pointed towards the ground. the first blow has to be hers. another unwritten rule that she's figuring out as she goes. behind them, too far away for Anna to distract herself with, the Knot displays something.]

Please make your choice.
■ Rose
■ A2

[Rose turns her attention to beyond A2 and towards the Knot. She doesn't really understand what this choice here is for, and she's not even comfortable with the idea of making it. This is Anna's dream, so shouldn't she be the one calling the shots?

But she supposes if it was that easy, people wouldn't be getting sucked into dreams all over town in the first place. And it sure doesn't seem like the android's concerned with anything aside from defending that Knot. So then it has to be her, right? Whatever she's supposed to do here, starting with that seems as good an idea as any.

She just has to make it past A2 to do that. The robot seemingly made for battle. Can you even render a robot unconscious? Rose will try to find out at least. She dashes forward, and once she's within reach, swings horizontally at A2 with the blunt side of the blade.]

[the prompt blinks away as soon as Rose makes her first move, not even bothering to ask Are you sure? because that, by now, should be obvious. was there ever any real choice? was it just something main() coded in to be dramatic? it doesn't matter. none of this matters. it's all been written for her by now anyway.]

[A2 herself doesn't know what Rose is like with a sword, but she can tell when she's being gone easy on. her own sword comes up and blocks the flat of Rose's blade, electricity crackling in the air between them and distorting the video and audio feed coming to A2 for only a moment.]

Do better. [it's something she's demanded of another recently. does it matter that demanded it after getting stomped into the ground? not remotely. her sword grinds along the katana until it's free from the clash, then moves to cut at Rose's side. just to wound. not to kill.]

[She hisses as the sword grazes her side, moving away quickly to clutch at it. This isn't the first time she's been in a fight with a bladed weapon, but there's an unfamiliar fear at knowing it's from a fucking sword and being used by a real threat and not some street thug for once.

(Even if that's the least of her fears. She tries not to think about how she feels the blood seep out only for it to start moving backwards. She tries not to think about how she can feel the wound stitch itself closed. She tries not to think about how she's not used to the blood on her hands being her own.)]

You're asking a lot out of an amateur, y'know. [She says it through grit teeth, but she doesn't feel like an amateur. Her hold on the katana doesn't feel like an amateur's hold. It's like remembering the words to a song she never really forgot. Out of practice, but familiar. Natural, even. Logically, she knows a beginner like her should probably be using a sword like this two-handed—more power, better control. But that's just not her—Zero, Zero's style, and that's what she's copying.

Zero killed to survive, and then because she didn't know what else to do. Rose doesn't even want to kill, but she does want to survive. This time when she strikes, it's with the cutting edge out and with a strength that frightens her: powerful but wild, truly something inhuman.]

[there should be more blood from an attack like that. more data that she would be adding to Rose's file if she were able to write anything to it. A2 will just have to deal with it later. there's a manic sort of grin that comes to her face when she feels the katana strike her this time with the cutting edge, and even though she's made of metal, it comes at her side so hard that it digs into her. her body sends off a shower of white-hot sparks that disappear into meaningless code in midair before even getting the chance to scatter on the ground. despite herself, she laughs.]

Good.

[it hurts, but not enough to stop her, and instead of wrenching her body to pull the blade out, she swings again at the same place she'd just attacked. the same place that's probably already completely healed. there's no electricity in the strike and they're too close together for her to deal any real damage, but it should be a strong enough message that she won't stop until Rose shuts her down.]

[She bites out a curse at the same pain all over again, but she doesn't waste any time holding her side this time, wrenching her sword out of A2 herself and swinging down at the android's soldier. For as much as the movements come naturally to her, it only fuels her panic-induced adrenaline even more.

There's no getting around it. She's really going to have to kill A2 here. It crosses her mind to maybe say she doesn't want to fight, to ask what A2 even wants to do here, but it seems pointless to her. It's clear that the android's here for a fight and nothing else. Rose won't reach the Knot unless A2 is out of the picture.

This is a dream, she tells herself. What she does here doesn't matter. It's not like she even actually knows A2 anyways, she doesn't have any reason to worry about her. But can she really bring herself to kill someone?]

[the attack to A2's shoulder gets her to back off, and moving that sword arm is going to be a lot harder for the rest of this fight. almost like Rose knows what she's doing as far as disabling goes—but she'll have to figure out whether she can kill or not pretty fast.]

[taking a step backwards, disengaging only enough to ready a fist, A2 swings with her off-hand at Rose's gut. it's just to the side of where her blade has struck a couple times now, but she doesn't have a good indicator of where that wound should be to literally dig her hand into it and twist, so she has to go for the next best option. she's strong, and it's not a slouch of a punch, but it's not the kind of thing that would knock the wind out of someone operating on more adrenaline than sense.]

[not that she knows what the fuck is going through Rose's head. all A2 has is line after line of code, telling her to fight for self-preservation for as far ahead as she can read. this fight, each trade of blows, they're all running through the same block of code in a loop in A2's head while the data for roseGeteilt() remains pulled up on the Knot, plain as day for anyone who isn't A2 to read. not that this is the right time to be reading it.]

[Unfortunately it really isn't. The punch lands, and the pain rattles her more than it usually would. It's not like Rose is any stranger to pain, not when she's been getting into fights all her life. No, what rattles her is the strength behind it. This entire fight has been a flashing neon sign that A2 is dangerous, but somehow the physical contact makes her fight or flight response kick into high gear. If Rose doesn't do something, she's going to die here. A2 will kill her.

And if she wants Anna back, there's no flying here.

So it doesn't knock the wind out of her, instead driving her to recklessly use all her strength. Throwing all of her weight into it, she swings her sword down on the arm that punched her.]

[it's a clean cut. and it's enough to stagger A2 as more code begins running and she realizes that she should be in incredible pain, and she only steps backwards when her internal fluids—blood? androids shou░dn░▒ h▓▓█—gushes from the wound where her left arm used to be in a powerful spray, coating the white platform in more and more red.]

[this isn't how it should go. this isn't how it should be programmed. A2 cries out Anna's name in anger but there's only a horrible burst of static. this isn't right; this can't be how she wrote this and her sword arm digs into the platform as her body reels from the shock of losing her arm and she's only barely standing. she stares up at Rose from behind filthy bangs. Rose, the woman who can heal from anything A2 can do. Rose, the woman who caused all this damage in the first place.]

Do it. [she's biting back rage but only because she's in shock. her weapon has discharged, she has gouges all through her body, her arm is gone, and this isn't how any of this should go. she's an android, damn it, she should be better than this. but all she has left is bile.]

Kill something else that defines her.

[In some ways, the sight of A2's arm coming off doesn't startle her, and she doesn't even flinch as some of the blood sprays onto her. It's all too familiar thanks to Zero. What unsettles her is that she really just dismembered someone, and dream or no, she's left panting and shaking as she comes to grips with what she just did.

A2's words catch her off guard though. She looks up, mouth hanging open and brows drawn together. It takes her a second to gather her thoughts. When she does, she bites out:]

She's more than whatever the hell you are.

[But killing something that defined Anna? Well... She won't say she doesn't deserve that. Even if Anna took back the things she said all those years ago now, forgave her in all but the actual words, it doesn't change what Rose did. Whether Anna regrets it or not, Rose was part of why her relationship with her family fell apart. That's just the truth.

She looks down at A2, at her blood all around them. Isn't this enough? There's no way she can attack her at this point, Rose's survival is assured. She doesn't have to kill her. She still doesn't want to. Rose doesn't want to kill anyone.]

Besides, I don't need to. [And she'll try to walk past A2, heading straight for the Knot.]

Bullshit you don't.

[she mutters it, and it's almost uncharacteristic how it comes out sounding like main(), and A2 struggles to her feet with blood dripping down her side and starting to form a pool at her feet, too. is it self-preservation at this point that A2 keeps fighting for, or is it just more code? is she pushing onward because she wants to stay alive, or because she doesn't have a choice?]

[is there much of a difference?]

Touch that terminal and you'll die with a sword in your back. [one of her legs isn't responding as quickly as she'd like; she's staggering her way towards Zero with malice flooding eyes too tired to stay completely open, glowing with a faint red light.] It's about time you knew what that felt like.

[She grinds her teeth together, balls her hands into fists so tight she draws blood. Of course it can't be easy. Of course it's like this. Of course she tries so hard not to be anything like Zero, bends over backwards to do everything she wouldn't like showing mercy on an enemy, and this is what she gets. Her hand is forced anyways.

But maybe that's all just bullshit. At the end of the day, she cares more about seeing Anna again than whatever damage killing A2 like this might do. She'll even take their rebuilt friendship being destroyed. Anna deserves to be here, to be happy, and that's more important to her than whoever A2 or "Annalise" are.

Besides, she's used to doing the dirty work anyways. Whether she wants to or not is irrelevant. What does it matter if that work is dirty with blood, right?]

Fine then. [She turns around and heads straight back for A2. There's no more anger in her face, no indignation. Just something close to resignation. A2 might not be able to keep her eyes open, but Rose looks at her without flinching.] I won't apologize.

[She doesn't have the right to.

Katana in hand, she sinks the sword straight through A2's gut.]

[as much as A2 would like to have something else to say, something else bitter and untrue to goad Rose into pulling the sword out and attacking until she's in pieces, she realizes that it's too late. these thoughts, all the hatred and vitriol that Anna hadn't kept inside but had instead dealt with over years and years of repairing her friendship with Rose—they were just memories. awful, bitter memories that fueled A2 as her will to fight left her and replaced itself with spite. they didn't matter anymore. they were... part of her past, as A2 is part of Anna's present.]

[but Rose is right. she's more than that. no one else in the city would know better. no one else in the city knows Anna better.]

[there's a quiet shuddering sound from deep in A2's throat as she falls to her knees. her eyes fix on Rose before the light behind them finally goes out, and her body becomes frozen in place. not to be rebuilt by the Knot when the time comes, but for good. it's found somebody who can actually disentangle it, and the first thing it does is show Rose the folder with her name on it. the massive directory contains a list of dates and times on one screen and shows a blank video feed on another.]

[she has all the time in the world to go over every single memory Anna has made of the two of them, from the moment she first saw Rose to the two of them getting fucked up and watching Sharktopus together and absolutely everything in between. each memory is first-person, each one comes with text readouts of the conversations taking place in the silent video, each one has Anna's emotional state clearly indicated—it's more data than any one person could ever need.]

[but there's no way to delete individual memories. if Rose navigates up in the file tree, she'll see that she's under the Anna Lehmann directory and she only has two options if she wants to do anything to it: to move her folder into a second file tree labeled Annalise Amarande Lehmann, or to delete it entirely. the consequences of either should be clear.]

[A2 was the only one here operating on code. the choice is Rose's to make.]

[Rose lets out one long, quiet breath as she pulls the sword back out and tosses it to the side. She doesn't need it anymore. A2 is nothing but another body along with the rest of the corpses here now. It's just her alone in Anna's head.

That doesn't really make her feel any safer, honestly, but at least she can do what she came to do.

When she approaches the Knot and sees the folder, she clicks on the very first file out of curiosity more than anything else. She expects something like a few images, maybe a line of summary of the event, but when she sees the amount of detail and insight on Anna's thoughts during it—she rushes to exit out of it. It's such a massive invasion of privacy, no one has the right to see Anna's feelings exposed to so clearly aside from Anna herself and whoever she might choose to share them with. This isn't Anna choosing. This is not sharing.

For a moment though, her hand hovers over one specific file: the day they broke up. Neither of them held back on nasty words that day, but she almost wants to reconfirm it, see it from Anna's point of view. Just to see how much she deserved Anna's anger, and maybe to see if she still deserves it now. Instead, she squashes the urge and scrolls farther down. The past is the past, they've both made their peace with it, and if she has this opportunity... It's selfish, so selfish, but there's just one thing she has to know. She clicks on the latest file, tries to skim through it as briefly as she can while still finding the confirmation she needs.

That for everything that's happened, their friendship is still worth something to Anna. It's worth a hell of a lot for Rose.

Which is why she ultimately leaves the file alone, doing nothing. Part of her still can't help but think that Anna would be better off without any memories of her. But after spending months with barely anyone remembering her the way she remembered them, her family included—it's selfish and she knows it but god damn does she want her friend back.

So she sets her focus on the Knot instead, reaching out to start untangling it.]

[actually untangling the Knot might come almost as second nature to Rose. the terminal isn't especially complex, its keys and the commands they execute clearly labeled. (the biggest challenge is behind her, after all.) it's almost like the Knot wants to help Rose sort everything out, move people to where they should be, bring experiences held only by Annalise back into Anna to remove the division between the two. there's no reason they should be lost, right? everything that happens to her, and these file trees should bear it out, has shaped who she is pretty drastically.]

[it might not be clear what happens when Anna comes back with two months of memories from someone who shouldn't exist—if that's even how this works—but as long as it gets Anna back. right?]

[it will take Rose steady, consistent, but not necessarily difficult work to sort everything out. glorified data entry, effectively. once it is untangled and the Knot is satisfied with the work Rose has done, a rectangle of golden light will open behind her, at the top of the stairs. it couldn't more clearly be an exit if it had a big glowing sign above it. if Rose decides to walk through, it won't lead to the end of the dream quite yet, though.]

[instead, it opens up into another all-beige data construct, but this one looks much less plain even if it is largely just textureless rectangles. they're arranged identically to Anna's room, the one she hasn't had for the past two months, and on what should be the couch-bed is Anna herself. she's got a weary sort of smile on her face, but she's definitely alive and it's actually, 100% her—half-android and all. she raises two fingers in a lazy wave as Rose enters.]

Someone finally killed her, huh?

[The rest of this is almost painfully easy in comparison to the struggle before it. Rose could laugh at that if she had the energy, but she doesn't, so she works as quickly and efficiently as she can, for once not being lazy or half-assing a job she has. This is too important to fuck up.

It really is too easy though. Weirdly so. She has to wonder if some part of Anna, or Annalise, or whoever this is supposed to be—if she wanted things to be resolved some way, somehow. Maybe it didn't have to be her to untangle things, maybe this dream would've reacted to anyone else similarly... But she can't shake off the feeling that it's not that simple, and she doesn't know how to feel about that. Rose doesn't think she should have that much power over anyone. It's not like she can ask anyone to confirm or deny the thought though, and she heads up the stairs once she's sure things are done, ready to just get out of here.

But of course things aren't that simple.]

Wha— [And there's Anna herself, looking as fine as ever aside from the tired smile and this weirdass room. There's shock and relief and confusion and worry, so many different and conflicting feelings all at once that all she manages to say is:] It's not like I wanted to!

[But she throws her arms around Anna all the same, hugging her for dear life. This might be a dream still, but this has to mean that some part of her friend is back now, right?]

[it's still definitely a dream, and there's a certain physical warmth that's missing from Anna when she gets hugged, but she's still smiling and barely containing laughter at feeling Rose's arms suddenly around her like this.]

Gay.

[which, of course, she says while returning the hug. it's enough to make her wish she weren't also data in here, a gestalt of herself created from the memories locked inside her soul, or some metaphysical bullshit like that. this is as close to Anna as Rose is going to get while she's still asleep, but it's better than nothing.]

I know it sucked. I tried my best to make the whole thing suck less for you, but I could barely do anything from back here. She was the one in control most of the time.

[not the most encouraging thing in the world to say. or to hear, probably. she'll switch tacks.]

I don't know when the hell I'm gonna wake up, but you'll be good as soon as you walk back out that door. I know that much.

[She gives a short laugh, pulling back.] I had a feeling honestly, but thanks. You have no idea how much you helped.

[Since she's pretty sure she'd be dead if Anna hadn't been doing what she could to help out. Her own qualms about killing a dreamscape construct of a person—well, she'll just have to figure that out on her own later. What matters to her now is that for as awful as it was, ultimately, it paid off.]

You're just stuck here until you wake up then? [Sounds kind of shitty tbh, but it makes her wonder:] Actually, are you even gonna remember all this once you wake up?

[she has some idea, but it's not important. it's just nice to see Rose happy for once. she deserves that; even as code, Anna can appreciate the way Rose looks like this.]

Everything we do has to matter, yeah? Otherwise we wouldn't be spending all this time doing it in the first place. [weirdly deep, but sure, whatever, go for it.]

So if I wake up out of this not remembering the shit my best friend did to help get me out of it? I'm gonna be pissed. And you're probably gonna be pretty pissed, too. I mean, I'll believe you if you tell me about it later, but... fuck, dude. [see, she was watching the whole time. she knows what happened.] I ain't gonna make you relive all of that for me.

[What they do has to matter, huh? Honestly, she's been wondering about that as of late, but she keeps that to herself. Rose can only see the senselessness of it all—Zero's killings, what Retrospec does to all of them.

But she's sure Anna's been through a hell of a lot with all this, she's not about to dump her existential crisis right this moment.]

I'd be fucking pissed, yeah. [She says it with a laugh though.] We'll just have to see what happens when you wake up, I guess. But if you really don't remember, I'll be sure to let you know that I saved your ass.