daemonized | RECOLLE IC CONTACT.

[Safe for over the network, maybe, but still a bit disconcerting. Togusa doesn't have to wait long to receive a reply from Ardyn.]

What happened? What sort of old injury? And did you remember anything?

[His mind thinks back to Elizabeth, and the scar she supposedly has at the back of her neck. In retrospect (ha), perhaps this isn't news, but at the time there wasn't a memory to accompany it, either.]

Still no memories. On that front, I'm still clear.

But I just woke up with it. A scar, docs say it's probably four or give months old. Gunshot wound to the chest, it's the only thing that makes a mark like what I've got. But I've never been shot.

[Togusa hesitates before he says anything more. No, let's find out what Ardyn is getting out of this.]

[Getting out of it? Nothing more than concern, just like what he felt towards his friends, his nephews, and other people which he'd rather not any of this happen to them.]

A gunshot wound. [That sounds more extreme than anything he's heard thus far. Ardyn's lack of (his usual) superfluous wording should give away his worry.] My next question should be obvious: Does it ache?

[Obvious. When that wasn't what Togusa had expected him to ask at all. He blinks at his phone a few times.]

Not really. Just feels strange more than anything.

They saw signs that I'd had surgery, any internal damage got fixed up cleanly. There's not much of a difference in my breathing. Nothing on paper, at least, I think I'm just paying far too much attention to my breathing now thanks to this.

Then I'm glad for that, if nothing else. [The lack of pain, he means. He can't imagine how surprising it was, to wake up and find the traces of an old gunshot wound still sketched into one's skin.]

Needless to say, the implications of sporting a physical change with no memory to accompany it is puzzling. If there's a story there, I wonder what it could be.

How are you doing, outside of that? Surely it was unnerving to discover it.

Yeah, you're not the only one. Theories about reincarnation and curse marks from your ancestors or a past life, it's all getting ridiculous. I want to know, but maybe it's going to turn out that I didn't want to, after all, whenever we get to the truth.

I'm all right. A few of the guys know what's going on, but otherwise nobody has noticed at work yet. If I'm careful, they never will.

I don't mean to scare anybody by telling them about this, but there's just some people who need to get warned. Problem is, it's impossible to tell who this might happen to.

Reincarnation, alternate universes; they sound ridiculous, but we're constantly having to adjust our expectations these days. What constitutes as too much of a stretch after singing fruit, changing eye colors, and "magical" abilities?

I'd rather you tell me than keep it to yourself. The truth of the matter is that we simply don't know who this will happen to next, or why. All that I can say is that it appears to be becoming more frequent than before.

How am I supposed to protect anyone, if Retrospec can just keep affecting people like this? I don't even know who's the most vulnerable.

Keeping the flow of information open helps. You're right. At least we'll know who needs help when it happens. But I wish I could get the damn jump on them.

And I wish I knew what to tell you.

[But there it is again, that feeling of just waiting for answers to be dropped into their laps. Changes wrought into them, and they can do little more than standby and let it happen.

Utterly unsatisfactory.]

Ideally, we would need to learn /how/ such changes take place. The answer lies with Retrospec, who remains as impossible to contact as before. Unless the department has made progress on this matter, and I don't know about it?

Not a thing. Trying to track down employees yielded nothing.

[But, thanks, Ardyn, for asking that question over the network. Another physical note appears that afternoon in his inbox: Attempts at a server hack yielded that Retrospec uses a cloud server, perhaps not housed within the Retrospec building. Hack attempt was spotted, however, and responded to with the common language of Retrospec: stupid internet videos. Private Investigator stakeout attempt ongoing: results pending.]

[But Togusa keeps the current conversation going.]

I have some more lines of questioning that'll mostly involve just looking through public records. Can't get to it for a few days, though, Detective Gabranth has pulled me off my usual rotation for the week.
No idea why.

[Listen, he didn't imply that anything was actually being hacked, only looked into, and he figures that much is obvious; it's the best one can do over a public network without straight up asking for details then and there, at least

Later, the information on the note won't surprise him, especially the part where Retrospec only responded with dumb internet videos.

For now, though,]

I can only imagine why. [He'd say "something must've happened", but. That's crossing over into the realm of Captain Obvious.]

Least objectionable option for whatever he wants? Working with people in this Department has almost become like one of those puzzles where you have to get the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage across the river?

'If you leave Fynn and Gabranth together, they will fight one another. Leave Juzo with a suspect without Togusa or a higher-ranking officer, and he will punch them.' I'd never want to work anywhere else, but it comes with a price.

[He can only imagine what the workplace is like. Fynn has told him, on occasion, but he doubts that even his imagination can live up to reality.]

And what would happen if every one of you were to share a small, enclosed space together for an extended period of time? Who would make it out alive?

After Fynn and Gabranth take each other out, Wolf finally loses his patience with me, but that sets off Juzo, leaving Lou to sneak out the back door because we all overlooked him, but he's the only one of us with a damn bit of common sense.

Desk Sergeant Furugawa sweeps up the mess and still makes us file the paperwork the next day.

[Okay, this conversation (which started out a bit worrying) took a turn for Highly Amusing.]

Ah, rest in peace, my poor baby brother. At least I can proudly say he went down fighting. [...taking out Gabranth. He'd be proud of you, lil bro.]

[This is better, because now instead of worrying, Togusa is tremendously laughing on his end.]

The problem with being too obviously dangerous, you're the first target. But this whole thing also means that in the rare event we can get everybody on the same page, we can take care of anything that comes up.

But that must be a rare event indeed. Still, maybe this is promising. The threat of foreign memories hounding the populace of Recolle may be enough to bring you lot together in a show of solidarity.

RECOLLE IC CONTACT.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject