Boys In Not-Blue And Related Fields [Closed-ish]

[standalonehuman]

WHO: Cops, CSI, Lawyers, Private Investigators, Judges, and Emil because he blackmailed his way in.
WHERE: Togusa's Apartment
WHEN: September 3
WHAT: Info-sharing, catching up new people, and coordination of what the hell the Recolle Police Department is going to do from here.
WARNINGS: Potential discussions of all the things that happened last month, so death, dismemberment, references to setting body parts on fire.

This meeting was originally going to happen on more neutral territory. Togusa was all set to steal one of the conference rooms at the station. But after one of their members has gone through another physical change, one she is quite self-conscious about? Togusa made the decision to move this somewhere more private and pull everyone over to his apartment. He has a multitude of reasons for doing this, primary of which is information. But it's also a way to connect everyone better, especially to Cleo and Naoto, to show them that they are a part of the force like all the others.

The apartment is spacious for only one person, enough room for everybody. Togusa has pulled out every chair he can get, and he's got stacks of drinks out for people. Please don't mind the white miniature schnauzer who will sniff at the ankles of anyone. He is very calm, but has a little bit of a limp on his front left paw. He will try to climb up into any lap that sits still.

Random items throughout the apartment may still have plastic googly eyes stuck to them, either because Togusa hasn't found them yet, or (like the bottle-opener) he left it that way because he thought it was funny.

They're here to discuss business, and Retrospec, but Togusa's home is still open for them to socialize, as well.

Comments

General Information

[standalonehuman]

Eventually, Togusa stands up to get everyone's attention. "It's not my intention to take the lead on this, but I might as well start us off. First, you'll notice who's missing here. Detective Noah Gabranth. He's out of the loop again, which leaves our ranking officer as Detective Ichirou Matsuoka." He nods towards Ichirou. "I'm happy to leave things in his hands, and report up to him where I was to Gabranth before. Before this past month, Gabranth and I had been discussing a meeting just like this to catch everyone up to speed and to decide as a group how we're going to move forwards about Retrospec."

"I invited people in related fields, investigations, legal," nods towards Mariko, Matt, "because we have to accept that we don't have the staff to handle this if we restrict it to the full-time officers on the app. Even with CSI's help," a look to Tatsuo and Derek.

"More importantly," Togusa turns fully to Naoto and Cleo, "I'm of the opinion that you two have more than proven yourselves to sit here. What we all went through last month was more than would have been asked of any officer. You two not only helped defend the city, but kept your heads about you to bring back information that you knew would be more valuable. I can't thank you enough."

But now to jump into the meat of what Togusa needs to get clear. "So, before anybody goes writing anything down, you need to see this." There are a few file folders on the coffee table, case notes on a few recent incidents. "Two months ago, original charge on the kid was 'attempted destruction of human remains," Togusa shrugs, "I got it talked down to 'public burning without a permit.' Sixteen year-old got sent a severed human arm in the mail by Retrospec. Understandably. Panicked."

"We wrote down full details in the case report, mentioned Retrospec by name. Notice what isn't there now." Togusa frowns. "Anything specific about the company has just up and disappeared. Other files, statements I took on privacy violations three and four months ago? Have vanished entirely." He looks specificially at Ichirou, Fynn, and Mako. "I would have looked up the assault incident the three of you were involved in, but I was already getting in trouble for asking into these. I would be willing to bet you'll find the same answer."

"It's specific to mentions about the company," Togusa taps another folder. "The bust at the art museum a couple of months back was untouched, even though we dragged in somebody who was on the app, Retrospec isn't cleaning up after everybody's records. Just their own."

"I don't believe this is going to happen to personal notes that we are taking. Just things that are possibly shareable with people not on the application." Togusa gestures to the table, "like police reports. Any suggestions about what we should do about this for reporting purposes in the meantime would be welcome."

[rygdea]

The way Officer Izunia's eyes flicker towards Togusa at the mention of Detective Gabranth is telling. Fynn noticed Gabranth been missing for a for days now. He first assumed the man was on vacation leave until he started asking around the station. That's when he realized that barely anyone remembered the man anymore. It's as if Gabranth completely ceased to exist and to be frank, that upset Fynn more than anyone could realize. People don't just up and vanish into thin air without cause. Whatever happened to Gabranth had to been Retrospec related but Fynn doesn't have much evidence to prove it. He had sincerely hoped that the man would be back by now but unfortunately he's not. That's why they're here, isn't? At least that's one of many reasons for an assembly like this. Either way, Fynn is more than glad to be here.

He gives Naoto and Cleo a brief glance before turning back to Togusa again. His gaze doesn't linger long since it strays towards the other newcomers in the room. Fynn gives them a curt nod for now but doesn't say much. For now, he's content enough to let Togusa do the talking. His colleague is doing well enough to catch people up to speed by organizing all of the cases they've undertook until now regarding Retrospec.

"Why am I not surprised?" Fynn mutters under his breath once Togusa mentions about everything regarding Retrospec suddenly vanishing into thin air. "That's their usual MO, isn't it? Simply delete whatever they don't like and pretend it doesn't exist. I swear they're hacking into everything and altering whatever details they can to hinder our investigation."

He sighs somewhat, clearly annoyed with this turn of events. "My suggestion is that we keep everything offline for now. Retrospec, despite their influence, aren't devised of omnipotent beings. They're human much like us. They won't know we have these notes if we keep quiet about them. Only those who need to know should know."

[standalonehuman]

Togusa points a finger at Fynn. "You know what's killing me? You're 100% right. They're just people. Maybe not even a dozen people, if I'm putting everybody's notes together?"

"And I know they're down and out right now, they're exhausted, they just had to hand-stitch reality back together or whatever that was. And we're also too out of it to capitalize." He shakes his head. "I don't know if we're ever going to catch them weaker than they are right this second."

[browbeater]

That was new, and interesting. And... it possibly explained the short sentence the perp had received in that assault case. Can't lock a guy up if you can't report on everything about him. They were not going to let the people Sleeping have their worldview disturbed... But that brought a new question about why? Or rather, the same question.

"Is there much we can do?" He asks frankly and honestly. "I'm surprised they're going through this effort. It's not like the Sleepers believe us anyway, so why go through the effort of erasing our notes..."

The motivation's confusing.

[blondferret]

[Derek looks up from taking detailed notes in a notebook.]

Briskly raising a hand he asks, "Wait, what is a sleeper?"

[cattack]

Cleo nods in agreement with him, but speaks up regardless.

"I believe, personally, their methods are less about the 'Sleepers', and more about us." She manages to keep her voice clear from the spite she feels towards Retrospec, at least. "During this past month, twice my adventures with Team Absinthe had us asked what made us 'worthy'. What we had done for the greater good, essentially. I think erasing our notes, and driving us away from others, is an attempt to make us despair, and to isolate us from those who are not Retrospec-users."

Her cat ears droop, but even so, she lifts her tail up as an example. "As proof, not everything Retrospec does is invisible to 'Nappers'. They can see the modifications Retrospec has made to my body. Those who are Retrospec-users understand, but 'Nappers' do not. Meanwhile, we who can see and understand far more than 'Nappers' will inevitably get frustrated with how little they know. In other words, it's a perfect way to isolate us from them, and erasing even these mundane notes is to make us stop trying."

Re: General Information

[wherethewildthingsare]

Ichirou still had the briefest moment of panic whenever he was called the 'senior officer' on this, but he was trying to work through it. He wasn't the biggest fan of that much responsibility. It had been part of the reason he had always turned down offers to transfer to homicide despite it being a promotion fast track. But part of being a professional was being able to handle the unexpected and undesired, if everything was always optimal, you wouldn't need professionals.

"We should all keep personal notes, but not just that. We can make copies and keep the copies in a safe place. Well...as safe as any place can be, I guess." he said. As much as he didn't like, he wasn't confident enough to assume there was any actual place outside of Retrospec's grasp. "Keep our original notes ourselves and have a place to keep copies so everyone can reference each other's notes. It probably shouldn't be on Police property either, I'm doubting that's totally secure, now. But like Izunia said, having a ton of reach doesn't make you omnipresent, if we have redundancies built in and don't let it slip where we're keeping these notes over their network they should at least have some trouble finding things. I'd suggest a cipher, but that probably has too many chances of going wrong..."

He tapped his finger on the table. This really wasn't his strong suit.

"We should also probably come up with some procedures on what to do if anything like this happens again. Predicting this kind of stuff is basically impossible, but we can have some protocols in place. At the very least we need to at least get in the habit of contacting everyone in the force with the app if anything happens, we can always delegate from there. Like if something like the monsters happen again, get someone on top of helping with the monsters themselves, someone warning others, someone looking for the source... that kind of thing. Also maybe to have a collected list of anyone who disappears, if that ever happens again. We can't predict what'll happen but we can generalize 'categories' to have plans for, I guess."

Re: General Information

[standalonehuman]

Togusa knows that this wouldn't have been Ichirou's first choice, but they've got procedure in place for a reason. So he'll follow his officer's lead, but he will also play this the way Ichirou wants to. He doesn't want to dump all the stress of a possible investigation on Ichirou.

There's something Ichirou says there that gets a slow realization across Togusa's face. "You're right. No, you're really right. They're people. They're just people. They've got the best tech you could possibly imagine, but we're still talking, what? Some kind of a skeleton crew of people."

He hesitates, then abruptly gets up, goes for his usual work bag, and comes back with a paperback book, one Ichirou would recognize, and anyone else would know that it has to be something sent by Retrospec, because the cover is bright blue. He puts it down on the coffee table. "There is a person out there, handling sending us all this stuff. We even know who it is, Maurice Fitzwilliam. He's a good guy, a hard worker, trying to do his best at his job."

He glances up at Ichirou. "A person. Maybe- he could be reasoned with, about certain things?"

[thisloveisjustice]

[Tatsuo pinches the bridge of his nose.]

They sent a sixteen year old a human arm? In the mail?

[Yeah, sorry, that just stuck out far to much for him to not comment on it.]

[megatechbody]

[Mariko looks to Tatsuo and Derek before speaking.]

Did anyone test it for a genetic match? Or was there too much damage done before police involvement?

REPORT: TEAM YZMA

[frisyr]

"Okay," Emil starts, feeling a little intimidated as he looks around and everyone's so serious and adult. Like seriously, it's a bunch of cops and then him, this boy barely in his twenties who can't grow facial hair and who couldn't fill out a decent report to save his life. But. He's here.

"So... the eleven of us got sent to an unreality too. At first we were in a room, and they told us we had to find a way to get out. It was... like a doctor's office, but not one to see patients, there was a desk and notes everywhere. And there was a skeleton, and x-rays, and it turned out to be James Halliday.

"--Oh, and some of the team fell down a trap door underneath the desk and fell onto a pile of skeleton hands!

"Sorry-- um, so we weren't really in Recollé anymore so we could all see green and stuff, and they told us it was 1952 or something, and we escaped the room after a few days, they gave us a waiting room? And there was a vending machine so it looked like it was used recently, because... well, the office looked like it hadn't been touched since 1952!

"So then we got into the lab, and we found out that the doctors were Vanderweele and Dew, and they were responsible for research on memory and I think they killed James, by giving him a bad ... brain surgery or something? And they had made a werewolf guy and had killed him too, like he was really a mad scientist, and he was chasing us and everything.

"So we had to find a way to fuel the rocketship to get us out of the labs, and the only food that was there turned us into animals? So he was definitely going to experiment on us, and turn us into weird creatures I guess, and then... we launched into outer space and we got to this station? It was a pretty cool station--

"--Surina was waiting for us there." He pauses a moment, and swallows hard. "Surina's a sphinx? At first I thought she was one of Vanderweele's experiments. Anyway, she sent us into these rooms that were really like huge landscapes, to get pieces to build a giant mecha. She said she'd saved us from our unreality when she pulled us from the portals? And all of this was to get us safely home. Because she said otherwise there'd be... like interruptions or something, I don't know, it seemed really easy to break the system or something?

"So she built us a mecha and sent us home, she mentioned some other names-- Cavendish, Spinnato, and Mahoney, but I guess other people will know about them? Um... and she didn't like Vanderweele very much."

He pauses for a moment before starting again, but just as animatedly as before.

[ IMPORTANT OoC Note: So this next part we never finished threading out but I assumed it was handwaved for before we got back to the city? But if it needs to be retconned I'm just leaving this note here, as this next part is really the important part LMAO ]

"Um... so we fought this really monster-looking ship, with like a million eyes, and we found another dead guy on board with a memory stick? And um... it said something like, a lot of the worlds were destroyed and that there was a project called the Recollé project... And that if you could slowly regain memories then... it would grow those other worlds back," he says, looking down as he recalls the information. "And that that's... what she's trying to do, regrow all of those memories into real... stuff."

Then he makes a face like he's remembering something vaguely painful. "She... called us her champions? And... said that she was watching over us."

And then he steps back down.

I want all of my plot dumps from Emil from now on, these are so good

[standalonehuman]

Togusa had gotten the Cliff's Notes, but it's interesting to get it in a more organized fashion here. He smiles slyly at Emil, "Thanks again for coming." He'll look to Juzo to fill in any gaps, but he can start to make a few connections already.

"So if this is the Vanderweele that people were mentioning as one of the Four Founders, possibly related to the death of the Spinnato family," Togusa gestures to Cleo, "because there was a power struggle. Even if they didn't like him, maybe they needed him for his specialty?"

"Has anybody run across the name James Halliday before?" Togusa hadn't found anything after Emil had mentioned the name.

[megatechbody]

Mariko takes in everything quietly, before looking at the files.

"Has anyone tested if it's being erased by directly mentioning Retrospec in text? If we use a substitution like 'The Company' or something similar, do the details still disappear?"

She doesn't like the idea of any of this and likes the fact that she's only able to perceive this now even less. Feeding into the idea of Retrospec's power is uncomfortable, but they have to find all the limitations they can start exploiting loopholes.

"How do they handle being mentioned on audio or video?"

Report: Team Peter Pan

[truedetective]

Naoto waits, dutifully listening to the others and thinking, until it's turn to speak. "My group was another of the ones sent somewhere else," she begins. "We woke in what was apparently a derelict cruise ship, the Crown Royal. The only other inhabitants other than us were a giant octopus creature-- or at least its tentacles-- and living skeletons. We managed to make our way down to the engine room and restart the ship's engine."

"At that point, the octopus creature began to flood the ship. The engine activating revealed a small submersible which we took to safety. We ended up in a submerged houseboat... and, critically, our bodies had physically changed." She takes a moment to look around the room. "We had developed a form of gills that allowed us to breathe underwater."

"This was an underwater kingdom, where the princess-- as it turned out, the octopus creature from the cruise ship-- was to get married and we were expected to present her with a gift. We tracked down a tiara stolen by a coven of sea witches before the princess recognized us as the ones who had fought her on the ship, and fled to the surface-- to a pirate ship." She sighs. "From there, it took on a decidedly swashbuckling nature."

"We explored caves and an old pirate town, encountered mechanical sharks and moonlight that somehow shone underground. Ultimately, we fought undead pirates that could only be harmed by bringing them in and out of the moonlight that revealed their true forms. Ultimately, we gained access to perhaps the only information relevant to this gathering." She pauses again. "Maps. We found maps."

"This city, at one time, was significantly bigger-- and there were other cities with Retrospec installations around the world, at one point. They may or may not continue to exist now. There was also a message in a bottle," she says, her tone serious. "There were no names on the correspondence, but it seemed to be from someone with knowledge of Retrospec and its purpose. The world was in danger of going off track, and the writer hoped that the new Retrospec management was capable of putting everything together again."

She straightens up. "That's everything. My simulation theory still holds, though with the added detail that Retrospec and its employees at least believe that they're doing this for a noble cause."

Reports: Team Daquiri

[standalonehuman]

"A lot of this is probably going to ovelap with what other people report, go ahead and add anything you remember anyway, I'd rather overlap than have us forget something."

"Our team, for lack of a better term, got sent to the Retrospec building, itself. when we have had access to the building, the inside of it seems to change and shift, we're not sure what cased it. This time, the only thing that was inside was an elevator that would take us to the basement level. Far lower down than we expected, or than should be possible under the city."

"The inside was very technologically advanced, doors were automatic, the general aesthetic was out of a science fiction movie. We had to restore power to the communications, which involved a lot of setting off of their internal security. Security is primarily robotic."

"One Retrospec staff member was shown to be living on site there, Maurice Fitzwilliam. Intern, known to be in charge of their mail distribution. We found addresses, backups of all of the addresses of people on the application. So, if you want to know who is sending everyone guns and books and other stupid shit, it's Maurice. But once we did get in contact with him, he suggested that he didn't have control over what he sent people."

"However, comments between himself and another staff member, Joanne Wiseman, suggested that maybe Maurice has been a part of Retrospec his entire life. Same with Joanne. Wherever they are originally from, they have known each other their entire lives. But we also found Visitor badges in Maurice's room, which begs the question of who would even know about Retrospec to visit the building?"

"Maurice suggested that the full problem had been caused by an 'unreality storm.' Something that he and another staff member, Dr. Marguerite Mahoney, were working to resolve. A number of Retrospec staff members, as well as the 45 missing people, had been pulled into it, and the monsters had come out of it. We had to help resolve some smaller sections of 'unreality' before Dr. Mahoney was able to resolve the larger storm and bring everyone back."

"Inside one of the smaller unreality twists, we found staff member Joanne Wiseman. Sister to the new Janet Halloway, but we are unsure of her position on Retrospec staff. She was able to work Retrospec technology, however. She needed us to resolve and then bring back artifacts from inside the smaller twists. Small things like pearls or coins. It was odd, but she seemed to need them as power to work on the larger problem. She was able to use those to activate what she called the 'weapons protocol.'"

"Now this is going to sound familiar. She could grant people special abilities or power up weapons or give them companions. Which is precisely what we won by playing Jim's Bingo game last month, from what we can tell. People who didn't get any QR codes didn't see any changes."

"From here we're jumping into speculation, but it suggests to me that Jim Halloway knew this storm was coming and ran the weapons protocol for us before it happened. And then conveniently vanished with his new bride before anyone could solve it."

"There was one other thing that Maurice told us. Again, speculation. But he suggested that people who forget." Togusa nods significantly. "Like Detective Gabranth, for example. He said that their souls slip briefly out of place, and they need to be 'reset.' And then he refused to explain any further."

Togusa sits back down, but he'll be glad to explain or clarify anything else.

[moneymoneymoney666]

Gallagher Brando was taking notes. He has taken the time from when he got on this network to this particular meeting to go through and try and extract some general information, just so he had something of a picture as to what exactly was going on here. He had at least bothered getting ready before he showed up, after all. So now, he was simply absorbing what he could about all of this. It was, a lot to take in to say the least, but Gall's brain worked at a hundred miles a minute anyways, so he was keeping up with the pace.

As Togusa finishes however, he is left not with any questions he believes Togusa can answer, but with another question altogether, one raised by his last statement. It was, as he thought about it more, a rather unsettling question in and of itself, but he felt it was something that he needed to say. Whether or not it should be heard.

"...That implies that their souls have a place to be set in, Togusa. A place this app is setting them in," He comments, his voice as sure and collected as ever, yet even so some level of concern was poking throw, "A place that Retrospec wants them to be in."

Reports: Team Cognac

[browbeater]

I never got the chance to talk to the Retrospec employees myself, but here's the highlights of the notes I got:

Cognac operated in the subways, where we found our terminal to speak to Doctor Mahoney. Mahoney looked different depending on what team saw her-- for us, she was an old woman. [a pause] And the password we had to enter into the terminal was 'catLUVR89!!' So. These guys suck at passwords.

As for the actual information we got out of them, I think other teams had more luck. But the conversation we had with Ronnie was probably the most interesting. He said he was in charge of "sidewalks." And when Mafuyu asked him about taking the exam to become a Retrospec employee, he said that we weren't allowed to, because we were alive.

[a pause.]

Ronnie was pretty cagey about the whole thing, but he seemed to imply that one day we could become employees. Given the conditions...

[he trails off.]

Anyway, I didn't find this out from Cognac, but I was talking to my friend, Penelope. I know it was brought up that the memories we had were "true somewhere." But she told me that she'd discovered that Retrospec's specialty was rebuilding destroyed worlds.

Reports: Team Brandywine

[rygdea]

[Once the first two reports are done, Fynn decides to give his. For once in his life he seems rather calm and professional. There's an air of grim sincerity in his tone as he speaks that's quite out of place. Although, only those familiar with him will notice. Nevertheless, here's the beginning of his report.]

Team Brandywine was sent to the basement floor underneath Recollé University to investigate the power outage that took out Retrospec's main terminal. As one can imagine, this wasn't your average basement we were exploring. The entire sublevel looked as futuristic as a classic SciFi Novel comprised of steel and fluorescent lighting. None of the technology was anything the others were accustomed with but I have some knowledge regarding such technology thanks to my "memories".

[Fynn clears his throat signaling subtly that he's not about to get into that just yet.]

After finding out our objective through countless trial and error, Brandywine managed to power on the terminal which lead to another level below the basement. [He takes a brief moment to collect his thoughts before continuing.]

It's then that we came in contact with Dr. Mahoney who gave us our next objective. She informed us about the so-called "Reality Storm" taking effect in Recollé and told us that we were needed to subdue any anomalies present. Much like one would expect, Mahoney was very cagey regarding any information and my attempt to squeeze info out of her failed. I didn't get a chance to speak with her for long but two of my teammates, Elda & Jirou relayed this next bit to us after the first meeting.

[The officer briefly checks his notes before continuing.]

She said that any "missing assets", as in the forty-five missing, were outside of reality. Mahoney was unable to retrieve them thanks to all the "un-realities" mucking around. That's why she summoned the reams to assist her. Mahoney was tasked with ensuring that Recollé didn't come undone during the Reality Storm. So essentially, Team Brandywine was briefly given temporary "admin level" security clearance to clean up the anomalies.

[Fynn pauses briefly to glance down at his notes again. He literally has nearly everything that transpired written down.]

We eventually did so and gained access into the Library that allegedly houses various worlds or dimensions by genre. To say the least, it was quite the experience. We then came across Mister Baroque, the Head of Retrospec Security. The man looked like a cyborg with an electronic exposed red eye. Mahoney told us prior that our secondary objective was to rescue Baroque if we came in contact with him.

[He ends it there for now.]

That is the just of what transpired but before I take questions, I will add that Maurice was also present via text. He served as our informat during the mission. However, he refused to answer any questions unrelated to the objectives.

Reports: Team Tarzan

[thisloveisjustice]

Right. So I got yanked 'outside of reality.' I don't remember actually arriving, we just... woke up, in a jungle. Canopy trees, high humidity, and everything within it aggressively trying to kill each other as efficiently as possible, to quote someone I spoke to on the app the other day. Accurate description really. Some of the monsters we were dealing with in the city were also present.

We were not the only humans out there, or at least were not the first. My group found radio equipment with the Retrospec logo and we were lead to a campsite. Huts, cots, clothes, supplies, the works. It wasn't perfect, but it was ready.

[Leaving out the whole got washed over a waterfall b/c that is just not pertinent, okay?]

A week after we arrived in the jungle we were transferred to a second location. En route, we occasionally caught sight of other camps that had clearly been attacked. Didn't really find anything particularly related to Retrospec at the second location, but the whole tomb was rather Egyptian themed and there was a sacrificial alter with the ankh symbol, which means 'life,' drawn in blood on it.

After we got the hell out of there, we were supplied with provisions for the last week. The packs were even labeled with our names. Nice personal touch.

[From his dry tone, he clearly hadn't appreciated the gesture.]

Of more interest were some wall tapestries depicting the three other groups and all the things they'd been up to for the first two weeks.

The third week...

[Tatsuo SIGHS and rubs a finger between his brows. Even with all the stuff that's happened in this city, the third week for Team Tarzan is just too bizarre for his liking. And yet they'd netted the most information at the very end.]

The third week was a castle. During the course of our explorations, a teammate and I encountered a being we ended up refering to a the 'Witch in the Well' or the 'Well-Witch.' As we... talked with her, she made several comments which I believe are about us, Retrospec users. She asked us if we had one wish to change who we are, would we take it? When I said 'no,' she then implied that we have already have. That it's too late for us, because it was never a choice.

[YEAH. Tatsuo didn't really like that.]

Some of you might have seen our team return to town on a dragon. The dragon was the princess of that kingdom, stuck under some sort of spell. In her possession, we found several items.

[At this, Tatsuo picks up a folder and starts passing it around. Inside are photos (printed on letter sized paper).]

A large scroll depicting the family crests of four families. The families of the four Founders perhaps? Each family had an animal represented on their crest. A wolf, a rabbit, a fish, and a bear. As you can see, the names of the families are not visible.

There were also a number of newspaper articles. These articles discussed the decline of the population of Recolle. They also mention the deaths or ends of families that were considered prominent. Again, names are not legible.

Lastly, there was a letter addressed to a 'C. Vanderweele,' In the letter, the writer reports about "all going according to plan" and talks about "preserving the planet as it is." But what I found particularly interesting was the mention of how Retrospec "completed settling its roots" and that they are "in the interview process now to ensure that things will go according to plan to rebuild as they need to."

[Tatsuo recites certain lines verbatim. He's clearly gone over this letter a few times.]

In summary, Retrospec has poked around 'outside of reality' before. Someone or something was, in a sense, keeping tabs on us and providing supplies. Something caused Recolle's population to decline, resulting in the termination of certain prominent families. And then there's that line about Retrospec settling it's 'roots,' like it's some sort of organism rather than a... whatever it is.

Reports: Team Absinthe

[cattack]

Togusa had invited her to this, and specifically said that she had proven herself worthy to sit with them. Honestly, she was elated. It was like hearing her dream was coming true... But on the other hand, it meant she couldn't disappoint them. She has to give a good report.

"I was assigned to Team Absinthe." She begins, a bit hesitant. "My group and I were sent into the woods, where we found a strange bunker. Inside... It was rather difficult to describe."

She pulls out her phone, swiping open the camera, and showing several pictures of the inside of the bunker- Stone, with a raised terminal in the center, and several rooms around the edges. She sets the phone down so anyone can peruse at their leisure- Mostly it is just the stone bunker and the doors, each emblazoned with a set of initials. 'P.S.', 'C.V.', 'M.C.', and 'G.M.'. The insides of the rooms are, well... a bunch of weird throne rooms.

"In order to access the center terminal, we had to light up the terminal with panels from each of these rooms." She explains, closing her eyes to think about it more clearly. "There were many monsters, and as a result, many of us were injured quite severely, though Ardyn's healing magic was able to help us."

"Once we had accessed the terminal, four figures appeared to us. A female knight, a shade in black rags, a stone statue king, and spectral woman in green. They gave us a riddle: 'Divided we stand united; united we stood divided. Who are we?' The answer was 'the founders of Recolle'. Following this, we met a Retrospec employee- Doctor Marguerite Mahoney, who had the appearance of a child due to the 'unreality storms' others have mentioned. There was talk about giving people 'second-level access', which would make them attract monsters, but anyone who had healing magic could not be given that access, as it would end badly, and non-specifically."

She takes a deep breath, organizing her thoughts. "That was the first week. The second, I was... unable to get a complete picture of all of the tasks, due to an event that happened in my group. We were divided into four groups within the team, tasked with finding the 'four guardian spirits'. The rest is, ah... We were given a riddle, and had to solve it- The riddle referred to a spectral animal, and we had to choose the correct animal. Finding the rabbit, it took us to a strange scabbard. It told us, 'take nothing you are not offered', and then on the scabbard it was written, 'What good have you done in this world? Be judged'."

At this, Cleo grimaces, going silent for a minute, petting Togusa's dog for comfort. "... Eijirou and I answered quickly, though I lost my temper. However, the third member of our group, Maggie... She asked for my sword. I assumed she intended to put it in the scabbard, but she... insisted that 'goodness is based on sacrifice'. So she cut off her own finger." Her eyes closed as she recounts this. "Things are a bit... difficult to recollect after that. There was a strange miasma, and we needed to wash the blood away. I had to leave the scene to get aid for her at that point, but it seems I was too late, and her finger could not be reattached."

She takes a deep, shaky breath, opening her eyes again. "We found the four items we needed- A crown, a scabbard, a scepter, and a pendant. These opened up a room and freed another member of Retrospec, Nigel Cavendish. When I attempted to confront him over what Retrospec does, however, he claimed ignorance, and ended the conversation."

"For the third week," she continues, trying to move on qiuckly. "Minako, Kuramochi and I were tasked with forging a strange sword in a... bizarre other world. There were flying islands, and fantastic creatures, but... Most importantly, I think, this other world had horses, not Chocobos." That had bothered her so much, she's certain it has to be important. "The adventure we were sent on was rather time-consuming, so to be brief, we had to gather all sorts of magic-seeming materials for a sword, and present it to "his Lady". Along the way, yet more spirits asked us to prove if we were worthy."

With the end in sight, she begins to rush the end of it. "We met a woman in the throne room we first entered from. Though small, she had the bearing and dress of a queen. She introduced herself as Georgia Mahoney, one of the founders of Retrospec, though she also referred to herself as 'a memory of her'. Oddly, we could not remember her name nor role until she introduced herself. I myself find this exceptionally suspect, given my scores in history class."

"... Finally," she lets out a deep breath, "the rest I think you all know. Retrospec's employees empowered our weapons and told us to destroy as much of the 'unreality' as we could. They told us nothing of use, showed no intention to take responsibility for their crimes, and then left once more."

"Georgia Mahoney said she always stood against the 'creeping unreality'. She said she does not know what 'Retrospec' is, nor did she ever receive visions. She also spoke a lot of 'family lines', so I must assume the current Retrospec employees are descended from the founders. That's... everything of- Ah, wait, no. Another teammate found another employee of Retrospec, Maurice Fitzwilliam. That is all."

With that, she sighs and takes a sip of her drink, not used to talking so much in one sitting.

MINGLE

[standalonehuman]

[General catch-all for mingling!]

Cleo

[cattack]

[Cleo isn't quite aware of the reasoning behind moving things to Togusa's apartment, thankfully. So when she shows up, she's dressed quite nicely, in a black pantsuit. Which, she might be feeling overdressed, but she's also got a sword strapped to her side, and of course... Cat ears on her head, and a cat tail flicking around behind her. Retrospec has been a problem to her.

On the other hand, once she's calmed down a bit and is less nervous, she's going to spend most of the meeting with that schnauzer in her lap. Cat or no, she's going to be petting the hell out of that dog.]

Fynn Izunia

[rygdea]

[It's never a good thing if Fynn is quiet.

The officer looks positively frustrated but not at anyone particularly here. If anything, he's horribly frustrsted at the situation they face in regards to Retrospec and this constant feeling of helplessness that comes with it. Just how are they suppose to take down a company as sinister as Retrospec when their information on them keeps vanishing? As soon as they get a good lead or a clue, everything goes up in smoke later.

See now why Fynn is frustrated? Retrospec keeps getting the jump on them every time he thinks he has concrete evidence against them. It's enough to drive a man mad.

He's plainly dressed today in a simple white t-shirt, a pair of jeans and dark gray boots. He is wearing his signature blue leather jacket that Jirou gifted him last month but who knows if anyone can see the color blue anymore. The sky is still just as gray as the ocean these days. While you can certainly see colors just fine online, everything else is still gray offline.

Weird shit, no? Fynn still doesn't know how to feel about that.

The bandages upon his right arm are concealed except for that little bit that rests around his wrist. He's still favoring his left rather than his right. The thought passed him a few times to just let Ardyn heal him but Fynn is stubborn.]

Derek

[blondferret]

[Derek is reviewing his notes as he drinks a cup of tea. He is trying to take everything in, but his logical approach to everything is weakening as there is so much crazy crap involved. Worlds being destroyed? Souls being moved around? Witch in a well? Derek is running his hand over his face when he suddenly freezes, his gaze staring out into space.

He is in the corridor of a train car when the lights suddenly go out and he feels a sudden chill come over the car. He notices the window next to him slowly crystallize in frost. He turns around and sees a tall, black hooded figure at the end of the car. He makes a gargled yelp and start running away form the hooded figure. He feels as if all the happiness has been sucked out of him. He fumbles with the handle of a random compartment door. Whimpering, he looks back down the corridor and notices the hooded figure is getting closer. With each passing second the temperature is getting colder and colder.

Finally, he manages to unlatch the door and scurries in side, slamming the door behind him. Inside are three teenagers, two have flaming red hair and one is black. He slumps to the floor in fear and presses his back to the door.

Derek suddenly is back in Togusa's apartment, however, he is shivering slightly. His eyes widen as he drops his tea to the floor (sorry Togusa).]

What the FUCK just happened?

Theorizing hour

[cattack]

Cleo has been taking notes this whole time, until finally, she can't hold herself back anymore.

"There was something else sent to me about the founders." She says, looking around the room. "The founders traveled the country in the dead of winter. There were more in the group, but the four founders were the last survivors who led their people into creating the town. One of the founders, however, got greedy. He destroyed the farms to modernize the city. He made a living on iron deals and contracting, and he was Recolle's first mayor... But at some point, his bloodline just stopped. Supposedly, the ghosts in the woods who hate technology are the original townspeople, while the founder steals from them."

She continues on, piecing everything together as she speaks. "I don't believe I've heard any Retrospec employees with the name Spinnato? If I'm wrong, then I'll be glad, but... If the Retrospec employees truly are descended from the four Founders, and Spinnato had his bloodline wiped out, then... Spinnato would have been the first mayor, but from what we know, Vanderweele makes more sense as the one who erased the others. Either way, I feel like we can assume that Vanderweele had a hand in the end of the Spinnato family."

"Yet, I don't believe that can possibly be the full story." Her voice picks up a bit of emotion, a frustration at the lack of answers to the many, many questions. "The story of the Founders sounds like a rather normal history story, but the Founders we met spoke of fighting 'unreality'. Their descendants seem to be in charge of Retrospec, which you cannot become an employee of while alive, apparently, and they have technology far beyond us. The bunker in the forest, too, had impossibly impressive technology. And they know about these 'unreality' things that make no sense."

"And most damning is what I have heard on Retrospec from Elizabeth, and again here." She nods to Emil, having never actually gotten his name, but hoping no one notices that. "The 'Recolle Project'. Rebuilding worlds through bringing back memories. Tatsuo also mentioned Retrospec 'settling its roots', which I assume must mean us. It's settled into our lives."

"Which brings the question... 'What is Recolle'? It sounds as though we've had things backwards from the very start. Retrospec is not based in Recolle, but rather, Recolle.... This very city was made by Retrospec, or something related to it, for this project. Retrospec set all of this up from the start... In which case, we need to start over from the very beginning, and re-examine everything we know, without biases."

"That said..." She glances in particular at Naoto this time. "I still do not believe our lives here are fake. I can at least disprove the theory that this is a simulation, and the visions are our 'real' lives, as the woman in my visions... has lost her life in the line of duty." There's a light tremor in her voice as she says it, but she carries on. "Which means that I am not simply her, in this simulation. I think more likely..." One last deep breath, to get her final push out. "This is just a guess, but... Retrospec 'settled its roots'. The purpose of roots are to drain nutrients from the soil around it, to feed the tree. It is purely conjecture at this point, but... Is it possible the same principle applies? That we are being drained, overwritten by these memories of other people, to bring back their worlds?"