standalonehuman | Recolle IC Inbox

"Yeah, yeah it was me and Kaiba and Lucy and Penelope and Dave and Juzo and Souji and Carmen and Yato and Elizabeth and Shouto," he says. "We all got kinda pulled into this dark room and we found a door and led us to this doctor's office? But it was really old, like. Not a room, like it had a bolted-down desk and x-rays, like a doctor's study? I guess? A den? I'm not sure what you call this, but it belonged to a guy named Halliday, and he turned out to be the skeleton!"

Togusa of all the people to tell you this story you had to go with Emil.

Togusa is undoubtedly going to ask Juzo for clarification later, but getting the first story out of Emil was the most entertaining life choice he could have made.

"Halliday," Togusa points at Emil. "You sent me a text about that name. Tell me about him." He pulls his laptop closer and gets ready to take down notes. "You said, memory research?" Anything he can to do help jog Emil's memory, he will.

"Um, yeah! We lost all the documents but he was doing memory research or something and-- Surina said we had fallen into unreality, like we were reality? And we had fallen out, and she caught us, there was a storm or something, like a glitch in the matrix? And then things didn't go well for Halliday, he tried to experiment on himself for the memories thing? And he was killed by Dr. Vanderwaale or Vanderwelle or Vandersomething, I don't know, guy was creepy, I think he gave Halliday a bad ... what's the word for brain surgery? Where they take out your brain?

"Yeah, I think it was like that. He wanted to give himself superpowers or something. I guess that's why he went to Vanderwaller."

Togusa tries not to frown, but, of course they lost all the documents, everyone lost opposable thumbs. Not their fault.

"So. Surina, this- sphinx, you said? She's someone who could sense the same things that Retrospec was talking about. And she saved you and everybody by putting you where you were?" Let's start there before he goes back to what happened to Halliday.

"Okay. So... Surina called us champions and she said that she had one true champion, and mentioned that she monitors over us? And that we sort of live in a reality or something and we got pulled into unreality by accident, and she had to place us back? So she built us a mecha and we had to fight this gross organic-looking ship thing and there was a dead guy on board, and he had something in his hand and we put it in the computer? And it said something like...

"The worlds were destroyed and there was a project put together that if there was a shred of memories left they could rebuild slowly into reality I guess? And it was called the Recollé project....

"So I guess it happened in Recollé, that's pretty important, right!"

[ OoC: I'm not sure if we finished the fight and got to the dead guy and the memory stick but ONCE WE bACKTAG IT... ]

[OOC: No worries!]

Togusa has to think for a second and take that all in. "Very important. Thank you. No, really, that's way better than anything we found."

A long pause, but he has to go back to something that is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, and maybe it's dumb but "I saw the giant robot, though. What in the world? I mean, good job making the rest of us jealous."

"I got to go see these amazing crystal caves, though!" Togusa can pull up the pictures on his computer, "The pictures came out even better!" He has the pictures all right, but they all came out looking like abstract paintings, rather than real photos.

"Whoa," Emil says, breathlessly as he checks out Togusa's photos. "What was there?" He pushes his hair behind his ear to get a better look. He's got a lot more to tell Togusa, but... for now. Distracted by the pretty...!

"It was incredible! I think- this was really the first time I was willing to admit that maybe these are other possibilities of reality that Retrospec was showing us?" It was beautiful, but not quite in an unearthly way.

He flips to a picture of a masssive green tree, growing straight out of the rock. Then a field of white flowers that look like they are made out of incredibly delicate crystal. "The first areas were just, it's hard to explain, removing some kind of corruption? Things that weren't supposed to be growing there, bringing these plants back to a healthy state. John. Ah, I was with John Becket, if you've met him? Turned out he's experienced with plants, so I just followed his lead."

"Wow," Emil says. "Do you think that's... more unreality? Or more reality that was brought back to life?" he asks. And then it all sort of comes crashing back of what had happened. He's still not sure what any of that means, it's a lot to process. "We don't have the memory stick either," he confesses. "We lost everything. I can't even turn into milk anymore." He looks a bit put-out.

"Hey," Togusa smiles at him encouragingly. "Don't worry about it. We all got pulled into this regardless of what we're able to do. Not your fault, okay? We'll figure it out."

"Explain what you mean by 'brought back to life?'" Togusa holds up a single finger. "People keep tossing around the word unreality, and I never got an explanation about what that was."

"I don't think we did either. I think... what Surina meant was that a bunch of worlds got destroyed, and we got pulled into one that was still alive. And so... we're kind of the living body that's regenerating the old worlds... out of memories." Okay no Emil that didn't make more sense.

Togusa is going to once again stare at Emil for a few seconds. Okay. Nope. He still doesn't understand.

"How come..." How does he want to put this. "So how did Surina know about all this? But couldn't come back with you? Or couldn't stay here?"

"Ah yeah, I asked if she could come visit. She said it wasn't her place and unheard of for... people like her to associate with people like us," he says, looking down at the ground and nervously ruffling his hair for a moment. "And she said she'd been monitoring us some time.

"Oh, before I forget, she mentioned some names that I think are important. There's Vanderwaaler or whatever his name is... and then. Cavendish... Piinatto maybe? And Bahoney...?"

Shit, interesting. But Togusa will have to keep that in mind, and then immediately have to try not to laugh, because he knows Emil has to be getting some of these wrong. "Mahoney? Dr. Marguerite Mahoney was one of the people we talked to briefly? Did she say anything about her? She was the one who had to pull you all back into this reality."

"Oh, yeah. Mahoney. Oh, maybe they're all doctors? But Surina said Vanderwaale wasn't really a doctor, he was just kind of a poser dude or something? He was the creepy one who chased us. No... Surina asked me if I knew what those things were and um, Cavendish is a type of banana and Piinatti is spinach in Finnish and I think I thought she said Baloney?? So at first I said it was food and then she got hungry and we got distracted talking about food, but it made much more sense later when I thought they were names, but then she didn't say anything else.

"What did Mahoney say to you?"

Togusa hesitates and looks down, because he needs to remember this. "She kept talking about 'power' for the tech. They needed power to be able to activate whatever she activated to bring everyone back. She and Joanne and Maurice all used the term 'unreality' but never explained what it was. It was at the center of a bunch of-" he waves a hand, unsure, "places, centers of unreality, we'd walk in and the world would be completely different."

"We kept needing to bring back things from those centers, objects like pearls or coins. That might have actually been the key. She needed whatever was around those objects to make whatever it is Retrospec is up to work."

"Um... so what kind of objects was it? We had to get a lot of stuff for Surina too. But it was mecha parts... Nevermind, that's pretty self-explanatory. Um, so you were brought into... a nexus? Did anything look familiar, maybe it's part of the Recollé project and you went into the parts that were being re-built? Maybe... like you know when you have a dog, and you give it a handkerchief, and it can smell the person you're looking for? Maybe... Retrospec can smell... the world... you're looking for??"

"A shred of the memories left," Togusa repeats what Emil had said earlier.

He shakes his head. "They didn't look familiar. Just fantastical worlds, one was all underwater. But we got into an argument that it had to be a sunken city because why would an underwater castle have stairs?" This had been the source of some debate.

"Nothing familiar. But. What, then, Retrospec is trying to rebuild the world we pulled a piece out of for them?"

"Okay, there's no way an underwater city has stairs if everyone down there swims, it wouldn't even be practical if you were human because it's so hard to stand underwater." Duh. "But... yeah, I think so? That would make sense with what we found, if they're trying to build up everyone's worlds through remembering?

"Oh!

"Maybe that's why they always... send us stuff."

Togusa holds up a hand because hold your ~~chocobos~~ horses there. "If we are buying this other worlds thing. Then, okay, there is some kind of a benefit to them oh god damn it all..."

Togusa's face absolutely falls and he has to stare at Emil for a second because he answered his own question there. Work through your paranoia one step at a time for someone who is not you, please, Togusa.

He reaches inside his jacket pocket and puts a paperback book on the table. The writing is in kanji, but the cover is blue, so it is clearly a Retrospec item. He reaches down and jabs a finger into the book.

"How does giving this to me help out Retrospec? Same way that playing fetch with the pearls and gold coins did. It's an object from inside one of those unreality twists. Retrieving this gets them energy. How? That's up for debate. But it was what they needed to be able to resolve the storm that pulled all of you away."

"So they've been pulling these through the whole time. If. And this is a big if. Any of this is true. Then us and the memories they're giving us and the objects they're sending us are just a power source. That's why we've had no say in the matter, and why they really don't give a damn what we do, so long as we keep using the platform."

Togusa sits back, and he scowls at the book. "But I want more evidence. The Recolle project, the unreality twists. I need proof that this is real before I'm committing to this 100%."

"It got destroyed," Emil responds, firmly. "That whole memory stick got destroyed. And I don't think you can just... go back to that underwater place and retrace your steps, anymore than I could go back into space." He frowns tightly. "I wish we could talk to Surina. She said she's going to monitor us. Hey Surina, if you can hear this, can you send some proof down to Togusa please?"

He looks up and.

Nothing.

Boo.

"But... if we say it's true, then. Is everything else that's been happening a hiccup? And who are Jim and Janet? Have you talked to anyone else who's back yet? We should... get everyone's stories together. Before we all start to forget or before it... becomes confused."

Okay, that was- kind of adorable. Togusa has to try not to smile when Emil does that. It's maybe a little comforting that they have a few of those people (?) who are out there and would help them, though.

"Kind of wish I could go back to those caves, though," Togusa mutters. The pictures are still up on his computer.

"I talked to a few people. I saw Dante, talked at length with Tatsuo. I was really worried about him. But, I think we're going to get a bunch of us together. They spread us cops out to the four winds, so on the plus side, it means we each probably brought back different information."

"Alright, that's good." He nods. "Maybe we should write it down somewhere and make copies, in case those get forgotten about too." Now you've got him all paranoid. "It's worth a try, anyway. I talked to Dante too, I really hope they found who murdered those kids." He makes a face. "These just all seem... really weird, you know? Like a strange dream."

Wait. Stop. Emil. Emil. Just because Togusa talked to Dante does not mean Dante shared with Togusa what he'd been through. "...What?" His voice is so quiet, but absolutely firm. "Emil. What did Dante tell you?" He'd heard about Ryoji. But nothing more. Fear and a sharp worry (protectiveness? but didn't he say he had to quit that?) fall into place over the desire to unravel this Retrospec mystery. He is completely tense but waits for Emil's explanation.

That's great because Dante didn't tell Emil about Ryoji or anything. In fact, Emil still thinks Ryoji's alive and kicking, so... "Oh, he said he wound up at some haunted mansion and there were kids that were murdered? I guess they had to solve it to get further, we got a bunch of those too, like the mad scientist? I mean nobody was murdered recently, there was Halliday and the dead werewolf but also the live harpy lady? Okay, but no, no, I think Dante was just helping the family. Sad to think about..."

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