browbeater | Recolle IC Inbox

Hey.

You told me to tell you if more weird stuff started happening with this app. I have got some updates for you, I'll warn you they're not all productive.

You tried going to the company building again?

not recently. i've been dealing with a minor family emergency for the past few weeks. looks like that's resolved now, though.

so lay it on me, pal. what else have you found?

Sorry to bother you, then. But if you need the distraction, I'm happy to provide.

Swing by my desk, and I can show you the paper trail, but here's the short version.

-The names of two supposed employees of Retrospec have so far been revealed on the app: Janet Wizeman, HR, and Jim Halloway, Research and Development. I say supposed, because background checks have so far been unfruitful. Janet Wizeman brings up nothing (closest name match is a Janet Wagner). We have a number of hits for Jim Halloways, I'm considering putting someone on looking through them one at a time, but I'm not hopeful.

-The interior of the Retrospec building has changed. Dramatically. The entire elevator that was in the lobby is gone. I've got photos of what the inside looks like now. Still no sight of employees. We'd need to do a stakeout to determine it for sure.

-Mysterious packages have begun to be delivered to people throughout the city, but they aren't touching the postal service. Current theory is that Retrospec has been employing their own couriers. Not...everything that has been delivered in those packages is 100% legal.

There's one other area that I want to look into, but it would be less on the books. Not as questionable, but it's still something from last month that was concerning. But my reasons for hitting on this, specifically, are more personal.

did you check out of state? janet wizeman doesn't seem like it's all that rare of a name, either. and it's still possible this company is headquartered somewhere else, isn't it? i hear outsourcing everything from office cleaning to hr is a hot new thing.

it's not unusual for startups to outsource some of their development, too... but it is a little weird for a company supposedly at this state in the game.

[he reads too much bloomberg, forbes, and techcrunch. it's kind of ridiculous. But outside of that-- he frowns.]

what's the area you want to look into? and are you sure you want to discuss it here instead of in person?

Uh, no. I was only checking inside of Recolle, because, well, maybe I've been putting too much stock into that building they've got locally.

[Mako has an excellent point, and that's why Togusa wanted to bounce these ideas off someone else.]

If you want to meet up, this one's safe to talk about inside the Deaprtment.

[It doesn't take Togusa long to find Lou, and he is carrying, of all things, a pair of the local tabloid magazines. He places them on Lou's desk, so he can see the usual celebrity gossip headlines.]

"So, remember how...active" for lack of a better word, "the media was being last month?"

"It was hard to forget," Mako says with a slight grimace. That was actually something he'd spent way too long dwelling on. Recolle was a city-- it wasn't a Los Angeles, but it wasn't a one stoplight town in the slightest. While he didn't expect every news paper to be the Chicago Tribune, this felt a little too New York Daily News to him.

He folds his arms across his chest. "Do you have a theory on that? Because I'm all ears. It doesn't make sense, otherwise."

"Any theory I had? Out the window now," Togusa gestures to the magazines. "Not a word got actually reported. Not me or you or Gentiana or Izunia, people I know got followed around? Nothing."

Togusa huffs and rubs his brow. "It gets even stranger. I gave some of our usual contacts a call, the crime reporters? They had no idea what I was talking about. No memory of it. So, theories?" Togusa shrugs. "It's not that I have nothing? But nothing that makes sense."

"It's like the chickens all over again," He mutters almost as soon as Togusa stops speaking. "People acted like we were crazy then too. And hell, maybe we are. This might only be related in that the reactions to us are the same, but it still smells fishy."

He places a hand to his temple. One thing he doesn't like, is being made to feel as though he's crazy. It hurt his chances moving up-- and he couldn't keep ignoring it and hoping it went away.

"So... how's this affecting what you were talking before? This new area you want to look into?"

"We're not crazy," Togusa asserts. "If you're not trusting your own interpretation of things, remember there's about 160 of us, so far. And I'm betting there will be more. All of us can't be wrong in exactly the same way."

"I'm still not sure what to do with this piece, where it fits in. It's been a relief to some people that these things weren't reported on. But." He folds his arms. How to even explain what he saw at the building?

"Retrospec had changed up their building, we had to play a dumb game to get in the front door. Type information into a screen. Within minutes, we were surrounded by the damn press again, and they all knew what we had typed. Pointless information, but it had been just," Togusa snaps his fingers, "sent to them in an instant."

"So it comes back down to a question of what direction to go from here."

"Digging into their corporate structure is a good start," he says haltingly. He's trying to think through something-- it doesn't add up yet. But there are-- other things? That don't add up. He glances down, and then looks back up at Togusa, dead serious.

"Have you had sudden-- visions? Almost like a memory?" He asks slowly, but in the next breath he speeds up. "It's part of the crazy feeling I've been getting, outside of all the reality bending stuff. I know it has nothing to do with this company on the surface, but I've got a feeling they're tied together."

He starts ticking off on his fingers.

"First, the program shows up, starts following us everywhere. And immediately after that, horses change to chocobos." Tick one. "Then I get my first vision, or whatever it is, and I'm not alone." Tick two. "Then the media that isn't actually media and--"

He shrugs.

"I think they're related."

Togusa listens carefully, but he frowns when Mako mentions the visions. He almost interrupts to calm him, but holds himself back. No, let him get it out. But the look on his face turns slowly more sympathetic.

"Those have been- going around. My best friend has been really troubled by a few of them. But," he gets a wry smile. "Bad news, you are talking to one of three people that we've found so far that haven't gotten to join in on the hallucinomemory fun." He spreads his hands out to the sides in a shrug.

"It's definitely related," Togusa nods. "Not saying that because it would make a neater theory, but all of this ties in together. You've got to be correct there."

"I'll say it as many times as you need it: you're not crazy. Everyone's been very certain that what they've been seeing and feeling is true. If you're getting the same feeling, don't- hide it, or whatever."

"Easier said than done," he mutters. "This month's been crazy-- I'm just glad my brother's back at college. But I need this job, so crazy or not, that's going to have to be on the side for now."

He is almost envious-- but he's only had one, and that was enough for him. He doesn't want to dwell on the weird-- whatever it is. It's related to Retrospec, and figuring that out comes first.

"Anything else you notice? We've got to have something to tie it all to this company before we even start making noise."

"Take care of family first, believe me, every single person here gets it." Togusa leans back in his chair some. He is on the more workaholic end of the spectrum among the officers, because he lost out on who had been his one tie to family. But...that might be changing...sort of...don't jinx it.

"The smoking gun was, of all things, the- beauty pageant." Holds back a giggle at the memory. One of their colleagues might have been entered in the Crossdressing section. Not Togusa's fault. "Ah- because, Retrospec was able to offer up 'one chance to remember' as a prize. So they are in control of the things that people are seeing."

Togusa frowns. "It almost makes me want to keep an eye out for the next time it happens. See if it really is something wrong with my memory, what happens when they try to force one through."

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