Luceti Land!!

[lucetimods]

Who: luceti
What: Amusement Parking!
When: Today til the end of the month
Where: A veritable pleasure island, east of the Beach Fort.
Summary: An amusement park has popped up in Luceti. It's all over here.
Rating: F is for friends who do stuff together!

Just some notes here not in the mod post -
1) The weather will be bright and partly cloudy for the rest of the month on the beach side of things. A nice cool sea breeze will keep people from melting out there.
2) All the old Luceti Land rides are still available. However, feel free to make up your own attractions and rides as well.
3) Since this is around for two weeks, we may put up another mass log if this one gets too full. So keep an eye on that!
4) Don't forget to tag your character's name on to the log! If you don't have one yet, just let us know and we'll get you hooked up.

As way of explanation for all this, Bil will have written a message on the first page of the journals. It cannot be replied to, it simply states:

"My condolences for all the trouble. You were due for an experiment today, but I thought you might enjoy an amusement park instead. It seemed like the sort of thing the Great One would do."

Comments

[consultmybooks]

[Someone under far too much pressure who feels as though he doesn't have any control over his life and is simply desperate to find his own way, to feel something other than the endlessly crushing frustration.

That man, plus a couple of decades, is the one hugging you right now, Robert. Even if demons were involved instead of needles.]

Precisely. It's something you should have had the chance to admit, under your own power.

I'm sorry.

[semper_cogitans]

[The hug is a lifeline right now, evidence that Giles has learned a dark, sad, frightening part of Robert and has not run away. This is a good thing, and it's what Robert was most concerned about.

So he embraces Giles fiercely and just breathes.]

...

I... I would have t-told you, I just... I... d-didn't want you to... leave, and...

[Fear of rejection. Isn't that what it always is?]

[consultmybooks]

And if you had never told me, that would have been perfectly acceptable.

...it would take far more than what you're capable of to make me think any less of you, Robert. What's past is past, and everyone has times they'd rather forget.

[semper_cogitans]

...

Th-thank you... [It hurts less knowing Giles is okay, that he's not angry.]

... Y-You... you are the... third person to know, now. And... and Vivi is... no longer here...

[consultmybooks]

You have nothing to thank me for.

We are friends, after all.

[Giles pulls away slightly, just enough to look down at Robert with an odd expression. Finally he sighs, and tugs the scientist towards another mirror.]

Come on.

[semper_cogitans]

[Wordlessly, Robert follows.

"We are friends, after all." It's such a blunt, straightforward statement that it pushes away some of the remaining self-doubts. And though Giles' gaze is odd, more unreadable than usual, he still trusts this. He can't help but trust it.

He just wonders what Giles is going to show him.]

[consultmybooks]

[Other personas of Giles flicker and flash past as they walk - a boy covered in mud and grass, dragging along a small dog. A vampire holding the dead body of Mizuno Ami. A librarian. The music teacher from the Luceti Valley experiment. An old man.

The one Giles is apparently leading Robert to see is far removed from all of these. A wild sort of man with unkempt hair, too many piercings, and torn clothes leans against the frame of his mirror, watching them with a predatory smile and wrong eyes. They're far too deep and dark to be the eyes of a real person - only possession by Eyghon the Sleepwalker gives those eyes.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert's personas ghost along with them too, pressing back at the mirrors along with Giles' - a toddler at a console displaying the Randi Institute with a look of un-toddler-like concentration; a younger teen with his fingers threaded through darker ones of another teenager with a casual smile and a slouch; a graduate from school, gaze still hollow from walking away from everything; an intern at the Institute, with a look of cold detachedness blended with worry - even fragments of experiments, like the turtle with his hands clasping Don's or the maverick math teacher cradling Vivi...

Each of them are only visible for a few seconds, but they call out to Robert with their gazes, and it takes awhile for Robert to force it from them enough to see Giles' - was that Ami? - and spot the one on the far end of the hall.

Those eyes... They don't look like eyes. They don't even look like something biological. They look like... like crude oil in tar pools, or a vacuum, or a black hole. Nothing is there, even to Robert's extremely limited perception.

He presses instinctively into Giles.]

... Who...? [Robert actually cannot connect the person they're looking at with the man next to him. The two things are so disparate they don't even seem related.]

[consultmybooks]

Me.

...I preferred magic, over needles...[He takes a deep, shuddering breath.]...but that's me, Robert.

[semper_cogitans]

Ah...

... I see... [Robert blinks owlishly a few times, as if a flashlight was shone in his face, then studies the scrappy-looking young man again, searching for similar things. All those piercings - Giles doesn't have any of those, does he? - and the angry look... None of that looks like the significantly older person next to him.

Huh.]

... That is... quite a difference.

[Strangely, there's less trepidation now. Now that Robert knows who this is... mostly the confusing part is why.]

[consultmybooks]

[Giles laughs softly, wryly, bitterly.]

And that is an understatement.

[Of course there's a difference. He's spent day in and day out for there decades ensuring that there would be.]

[semper_cogitans]

And this was... because of magic? [Is it anything like their first conversation? Where Giles talked about the addictive properties of magic?

Did it alter his entire personality, too?]

It must certainly have been... potent. [At least his own druggie self had been... somewhat similar... in some ways at least.]

[consultmybooks]

This was because of a great many things, Robert. Magic was just the most convenient escape.

[In part. Partially, it was Willow. Partially, it was Giles.]

[semper_cogitans]

Ah... [He thinks he might understand, and tries vaguely to spell out the connection.]

... I... I... used because... [Softly:] ... it made me feel less alone...

... and, and... w-well, there were other reasons. I... was more competent, socially... [The kind of false social skill one achieves when one isn't dwelling on one's own fear. Namely because it's been drowned in a euphoric haze.

And then there was Benjamin. But he doesn't know if he can admit that aloud.]

[consultmybooks]

Really? What a coincidence. I was actually allowed to be social, when I took up with this crowd.

[when the alternative had been studying and books, books, books and he'd still been young enough to hate the idea of that sort of lfie.]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert had always fiercely embraced that sort of life, even when he was young. But of course, to Terran children, that isn't anywhere near as strange - not when science, teaching and doctoring are careers that children idolize and inspire to, even when their talents are clearly elsewhere.]

Similar reasoning... I would think. Being... being accepted, somehow. [Even superficially. Even falsely. It was an illusion that had been enjoyable for a person who had never had real friends before.

Robert seeks out Giles' weathered hand and holds it carefully.]

... it is not... not the act that is... the problem.

It is... losing oneself to it.

[consultmybooks]

[The former Watcher smiles thinly.]

With this sort of magic? Yes, it is the act.

With magic as a whole...I suppose the parallel can be maintained.

[He returns the hold.]

[semper_cogitans]

[And now this is evoking another conversation, and Robert is curious, so if Giles is in the mood to answer questions...]

... Is this one of those... certain kinds of magic that are strongly prohibited in your world, then?

[This is where the parallel sort of breaks down - Terran drug use is monitored closely, yes, but it's not an inherently unacceptable thing - the problem is abuse.]

[consultmybooks]

Magic isn't prohibited in my world, Robert, simply because so few people believe it exists at all.

But to those who are actually aware? Yes, it is...rather frowned on.

[semper_cogitans]

May I ask... why you used it, or would that be rude...? [He still doesn't want to pry too far, but... he does want to understand.

If it helps, his voice is essentially free from judgmental tones.]

[consultmybooks]

You may not.

...it's not that you're being rude, Robert. It's that I don't want to discuss it, because its far too complicated to be explained inside of a hall of mirrors.

[semper_cogitans]

... I suppose most of this is... f-far too complicated, yes.

Helios... does not know about... about me. [He stares at his wrists, mostly to avoid looking at Giles or his mirror counterpart.] ... Or, rather, what you... learned today.

... I... I did not want to risk his friendship...

[But he has to wonder: does Helios know about this aspect of Giles?]

[consultmybooks]

It isn't something you're required to tell anyone, Robert.

[And no - no, he does not. No matter what he says to the contrary, it is a very real shame of Giles'.]

[semper_cogitans]

But he has seen my scars before... [It's soft, some mixture of awkward and fearful.] He... he even asked...

... I would have t-told him, but... but then he essentially ch-changed the topic, and... [He doesn't realize that Helios was ashamed to ask Robert when he had his own scars he wouldn't talk about. It hasn't even occured to him that that might be true.

Even if it has, he certainly wouldn't think of them as worthy of shame. Neither does he think of the Ripper as a shameful thing, but then again, it is so much easier for him to be ashamed of himself than others.]

... But... but he is always so... accepting. So... so perhaps I am afraid of... of nothing.

[consultmybooks]

So are you actually going to tell him, then?

[Point made, Giles turns away from Ripper. Unfortunately, the next mirror directly across from Robert flickers, and Giles as a vampire appears again. And yes, that is Ami laying at his feet.]