recolle | [ CLOSED ]

[ CLOSED ]

WHO: Laurent, Faolan
WHERE: Laurent's swank ass apartment
WHEN: 7/1
WHAT: 2 Men, 1 Retrospec. Or: two people in the same apartment suddenly realise blue used to be a thing
WARNINGS: Laurent's language probably, drinks being drugged.

Laurent's expansive apartment could probably fit two smaller apartment's inside it, but he still manages to take up an excessive amount of space in when he wants to.

The radio fills the living area with upbeat, summery music and Laurent is lounging the length of the sofa with his feet up on one arm and his MacBook sitting on a mat over his lap. His phone is abandoned on a low glass coffee table, since formatting the thing hasn't worked, and turned off.

Laurent is investigating.

Companies do not appear from nowhere, after all, and if this nonsense attempt at a social network isn't simply fast-spreading malware then it has come from somewhere, and wherever it has come from apparently either has friends at Apple or is spreading itself illegally.

Either way, it's aggravating.

"There's no contact information on any of their sites," Laurent muses, and narrows his eyes at the screen. There's a Retrospec building in Recollé, he knows that much. He supposes he could just attempt to get hold of someone there and demand to know if the app really was theirs, and if so why it was forced onto his device.

There were, in the grand scheme of things, so many better things he could be doing but Faolan's paranoia is beginning to become contagious and now Laurent is curious. It's all beginning to nag at him in a way he cannot seem to let go of.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Faolan sits in his own chair (since Laurent is taking up the entire sofa), doing his best to figure out what is going on himself. Or at least attempting to. While Laurent seems to have the right approach to this, researching the company, digging into the background information that might be out there on the internet, Faolan is instead weighing over the introduction post that first popped up on his screen at the start of it all.

Lost colors, it had said. Not just one, but two. Threatening a bigger loss in the future. And Faolan may have just written it off as nothing more than the elaborate nonsense of a well-contrived scam, save for the fact that he can't get the thought of it out of his head. Nor the logo for the company, for that matter. Lost colors, it had said, and as Faolan raises his head to glance around the apartment, he can't help but wonder whether a suspicious app is the least of their worries just now...

Edited (html...) 2017-07-04 00:23 (UTC)

"We know where the building is, of course, but I've not approached it before. I have no idea if they allow members of the public in or if it's all offices. I could try, but I suspect I might just be escorted off the premises. What do you think? Faolan?"

He looks up from his laptop and lofts an eyebrow at the way the man is staring fixedly at his phone then flitting his eyes around the apartment.

"Faolan?"

Faolan is just barely listening to the other man's train of thought, and if he had been paying more attention he would probably have more to protest about the idea of Laurent just strolling up to the business and demanding to be seen. If they have the sort of power to just install their software on the technology of the residents of the nearby area, he doubts they are the sort of agency you would want the attention of.

Unfortunately, however, Faolan's mind is rather preoccupied on the content of the introductory post that he'd read through more times than he could count by now, and still couldn't quite make sense of. He glances at the other man upon hearing his name repeated, shaking himself out of his fog as best he can, though he studies Laurent's face for what might be an inappropriately long stretch of time before he responds.

"Did you read this?" he asks.

"Read what?"

Since Faolan isn't exactly giving a good indication of what he's talking about, if it's even in the same general topic area or if he's just read some news article that has him distracted.

Faolan supposes he's being vague, but he can't seem to bring himself to be more coherent. Mostly because he's looking into Laurent's eyes and he's coming to the conclusion that they aren't the same color that he remembers them being. Except that they are. Which makes no sense. Nothing has changed, except for the fact that this app has installed itself on their phones, and he's read this post they wrote up, and now it feels as if the world has turned upside down.

"On the application," he replies. "Did you read it?" Well, it's not as straightforward an answer as he's sure that Laurent would have wanted but it will have to do for now. Mostly he can't stop staring at Laurent's eyes. They were blue, when first he met. His and his older brother's both. Faolan could have sworn that they were blue...

"Well no. You told me to not use my phone and I've been avoiding the thing apart from trying to work out where it came from. Why?" There's a pause, where Laurent tries to discern what the unease on Faolan's expression means, then he frowns. "If it's some kind of threat," he begins warily, "I'd rather know than not."

Although it seems awfully quick and specifically targeted. He's barely been in the country that long. For that matter, why go to the trouble of hacking into his phone in such a sophisticed way? Did they want money? Laurent is already beginning to work out solutions in his head. Is it worth leaving the country if he's under threat here? Getting into his phone doesn't require him being in the country, leaving it won't help. Should he alert the university if he's under threat?

He startles sharply at the suggestion of that, before realizing that he hasn't given Laurent much to go on so of course he would suppose it to be a threat. Faolan shakes his head at the younger man, attempting to quickly reassure him of at least that much.

"No, no, I. Nothing directly against you anyway. They put out an announcement through the network -- that's what this application seems to be. A social network, of sorts. But the things it's saying, are..." Troubling, at best. He shakes his head again, before just passing his phone directly across to Laurent for him to read himself. He'd rather that Laurent still keeps his own phone off, until they decide how to proceed for now, but he'll allow him to read it on his. "Here."

Laurent shoots Faolan an odd look but, after a moment, takes the phone and begins scanning the post. It's... odd, mostly. Mr. Halloway? A game? R&D? Colours lost? It's all a little perplexing, and mostly he feels like he hasn't enough context for the scraps of information he's being given

"'A bigger loss may occur in the near future'? Have they been hacked?"

The thought is irritating, now that this software apparently has access to both his and Faolan's phones.

"The company appears big enough, if the size of the user base and the building is anything to go by, but it's a private company -- hasn't gone as far as floating itself. Has nothing in the way of associated press or history." He holds the phone back out with a frown. It makes little sense and nags at him because of that. Laurent doesn't like it.

Faolan shakes his head in response to the question. He doesn't know. None of it makes sense to him, but he doesn't think it has anything to do with the company being hacked. If anything, Faolan cannot help but feel as though they've been hacked, and not just their phones.

He takes the phone back from Laurent with the nagging feeling that he might be losing his mind, as he keeps coming back to the thought of missing colors. It seems like nonsense, but it's niggling at him to the point where he doesn't think he can let it lie. And after a long moment, Faolan pushes himself up from the seat he's folded himself into and paces over to the window to look out at the sky beyond. It's grey, of course. But the sun is out, and there are only a few clouds floating by.

"It doesn't make sense..." he mutters to himself.

His eyes track Faolan across to the ceiling-to-floor window and watch him curiously a moment, then Laurent lifts the MacBook from his lap and paces over to join him. Something bout the sky makes him uncomfortable after a moment, the sense that it looks wrong, and his eyes skip away from it to land on Faolan instead.

"Well, no. It's a lot of effort to go to, buying a building and publishing an app that apparently other people are using too."

So no, it doesn't make sense.

Faolan tears his eyes away from the window to glance aside at Laurent as he speaks. Fixating yet again on his eyes, which are as gorgeous as they have ever been, and yet they are wrong as well. Is he losing his mind, he wonders to himself, and tries to focus on what Laurent is saying for the moment.

"Do they really have a choice in the matter? It's not as though they gave us much of one. The application re-installs itself no matter whether you're attempting to delete it individually or all of the data off of your device itself." Faolan has already tried wiping his phone completely, with little success. "It's a little desperate, for a social media network."

"Having it installed doesn't force you to use it, there's choice there."

They could ignore it and never post, never launch it.

"It does seem desperate, though," that much he can agree on. "There has to be something they want, as much as they claim we've been chosen for some reason to test this."

He narrows his eyes in thought, skims them out the window again and feels his mind trying to avoid the intrusive build of questions vying for his attention once more.

It leaves him unease, and the unease begins to creep into his expression in a way he can't quite control any more.

Faolan doesn't like it. Whether they have been chosen or not, he doesn't like it one bit. It's an invasion of their privacy, and taking away their choice in the matter. He wonders what other information the application is accessing, while it's installed itself there. There are any number of possibilities of things it might be trying to worm out of them, and none of it sits well with him.

Nor does the mention of the colors, for that matter. Which his mind keeps returning to. It's like a terrible song that he can't seem to get out of his head now that the tune is there. Laurent's eyes used to be blue... He glances back at the other man, to study his face again, and finds an expression there that sets him even more ill at ease.

"What's wrong?" he asks the other man. He needs to calm down and be more reassuring than this. He is Laurent's security, after all. He needs to at least seem like he has his shit together, even if he has no idea how to handle any of this in the slightest.

"Nothing," and yet Laurent doesn't sound fully convincing as he says that. He realises that after a second, moves to step around Faolan and back toward the kitchen. Pulling a filter jug out of the fridge he sets it down on the counter and retrieves a glass to fill. "This is giving me a headache," he says simply by way of explanation.

In truth, it is, but not simply the matter of his phone. It's his frustrating inability to concentrate. The feeling that the world itself is all a little wrong, not quite as he remembers. The sense that he might well be missing something in all of this that would suddenly bring it to a point where it makes sense.

Faolan doesn't feel fully convinced by it either, but he doubts that pressing Laurent on the matter is going to give him an answer either. He turns back to the window for a moment, wondering whether questioning Laurent about the sky is a good idea or not, before he decides it might just come off as crazy instead so he files it away for later.

"There may not be a way to remove the application," Faolan continues. "Until we uncover more information about it though, until we can determine whether or not it is safe, I suggest that you don't make use of it. Or put any personal information on your phone, for that matter." Laurent is young enough, he probably knows all about cyber security, and he's private enough that it's unlikely that he's doing any oversharing, but Faolan is his security and he cannot be too careful.

Laurent pours out the water slowly and stares at the glass, picking it up and taking a careful sip.

"If that post is anything to go by, we're far from the only ones affected."

Perhaps someone else has more information than they do, someone else who has the app and has spent time looking into it.

Laurent has a point, and perhaps they might get more information from another who has been studying the thing for a longer period of time than the day or so that it has infected their phones. But Faolan does not trust it, and he's hardly about to let Laurent investigate it on his own like this.

"It's more than likely that we aren't," Faolan replies, shaking his head. "But something isn't right about this. The things they said in that post... There's a threat in there, and I can hardly condone you getting yourself involved. Especially if there is any sort of choice in the matter."

He turns away from the counter to look up at Faolan, considering things. There's a threat in there, Faolan is saying, and Laurent feels his unease build. Something about this isn't right.

It isn't. Laurent looks at the glass of water and feels his focus go soft for a moment. His body feels hot, feverish, and he's leaning against a wall. A man is examining a cup and he wants him to stay as far away as possible. His skin burns with the need to be touched.

It's an Akielon drug, the man is saying, It's given to pleasure slaves, during training. It makes them—

I am aware of the effect of the drug.

His own voice sounds steady but he doesn't feel steady at all. He's been drugged, and he doesn't trust this man --

The glass slips from Laurent's fingers and startles him as it smashes against the floor. Where had that been? He can't place the man in the memory, or the place for that matter. Had it been the drug? Why does he not remember being drugged like that? Has he blacked out the entire incident? When did it happen, and why is he not aware of losing the time?

Laurent takes a hesitant step backwards, feels the slight crunch of a piece of glass under his shoe and drops his eyes to the mess. He blinks rapidly and takes a steadying breath.

"I'll --"

Do something, about the mess. He turns to pull open a cupboard to try and find a brush.

Faolan's head whips up at the sound of the breaking glass, quick enough to catch the look on the other man's face an the hesitation in his reaction before he does at last turn towards the cupboard.

"Laurent?" he asks, stepping forward towards the younger man. The look on the other man's face, he doesn't know that he should let him clean up after himself. What was that?

"The glass," Laurent says, and he means it as a warning although it comes out -- absent, uncertain. He pulls out a small brush and dustpan, eyes flicking between the ground and Faolan as he takes a step back and tries to gauge how far the pieces have gone. There's something awkwardly stiff in the movement, tense, unnatural.

Faolan's eyes flick down to the glass scattered across the floor then back again at Laurent, the expression on his face and the way he is holding himself. He takes another step forward, carefully picking his way through the glass towards him.

"Don't worry about it," Faolan reassures him gently. "I'll take care of it, just give me the pan. Are you okay?" It certainly doesn't look like he is, after all. Faolan holds out his hands towards the other man for the dustpan.

"I have a headache," Laurent repeats, although his tone is flat and emotionless. He moves to crouch down and wobbles, flails out a hand to brace himself against the counter top and lets out a slow breath. Perhaps it would be better to let Faolan tidy up, if he's this unsteady there's every chance he might injure himself on the glass. Although all the same, something in Laurent recoils at the thought of letting Faolan tend to him like an invalid.

Faolan is there at Laurent's side in an instant, moving to brace a hand against his shoulder to steady him. There is true concern written across his face, for Laurent might have mentioned a headache before he had dropped the glass, but surely it had not been so bad as this?

"I'll get it," Faolan insists, his tone soft yet firm. "You need to sit down before you wind up on the floor too. Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?"

"It wasn't."

Yet here he is, with Faolan trying to steady him. Laurent works his jaw a little and tries to brush Faolan off, setting the dustpan down on the counter top and beginning to move himself around it back over to the living room.

"Can you get me a new glass of water?"

Since he barely got to sip that one before he magnificently fed the floor with it.

If anything, Faolan only frowns harder at such an explanation from Laurent. Or lack thereof, as it were. He keeps himself from following the younger man though he does not make any attempts to move and clean the floor just yet, as he follows Laurent's movements across the room and no doubt back towards the couch from where he'd risen.

"Sure," he says, stooping to quickly sweep up the glass and safely dispose of it before moving to fetch a new glass and water from the refrigerator. Cautiously crossing the room towards Laurent, he moves to hand the water to him before offering, "Can I get you some medicine or something?" He pauses a beat, before offering, "A waste bin?" Is it a migraine? Laurent's never made such a dramatic scene like that before -- of course he's only really been working with him for a month or so, but even still. Combined with Faolan's purveying sense of wrongness from this Retrospec app, Laurent's sudden unsteadiness has given him quite the fright.

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