Luceti Valley - The First Log

[lucetimods]

Who: Everyone
What: The start of a new experiment... or is it?
When: August 2nd - August 6th
Where: Luceti itself
Summary: Luceti has become an idyllic and peaceful 50s-esque village. The first few days are just business as usual, right?
Rating: Varies with thread. Please move explicit stuff to appointments post with appropriate warnings.

August 1st had seemed like an ordinary day in Luceti. But late in the evening, for those night owls who had not turned in yet, they were witness to strange fluctuations in the barrier. Beautiful, really, almost like Luceti had received its own 'Northern Lights', even though it seemed to come from the far east, across the ocean. This ominous light show lasted for all of fifteen minutes before it ceased all together. Skimming the ocean waters, a horde of cultists entered Luceti, cloaked by darkness. Upon reaching the entrance to the tunnels, their leader stepped inside and was followed one by one by his fellow cultists. When the last had entered, the tunnel entrance closed. Across the mountains, the entrance to the tunnels in the village did the same.

Midnight passed without incident, but by three in the morning, the change suddenly came. Minds were altered, forms were changed, and buildings sprang from nowhere.

Much later, on August 2nd, morning settled on a changed village, the new mayor made his way to his mansion with his pair of adorable dobermans at either side of him. The sun shined bright. It was a good day to be a Lucetian.

Note: There will be a stand alone log for the homecoming dance. There will be another log for the second stage of the event.

Comments

[amonglions]

Yes you were Robert.

[He's only just now starting to get snappish, more out of desperation than anything else. Sometimes he'd just like to come see Robert and not argue with him. It's exhausting.]

You've been here for almost a year now. [There is so much guilt in those words that it could be construed as an admission. He was the one who had Robert admitted after all.]

I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come to visit you today, you seem really on edge.

[ablankpage]

We haven't even been here a month, DeWitt! [That came out louder than he liked. Mostly because he's sure someone, somewhere is listening to this.]

Fine. [Maybe he can snap DeWitt out of this. Get him to realize that he needs to get out.] Why was I put here?

[There'd be no reason. DeWitt wouldn't remember. Then he'd have to start asking questions. Or, at least, it was a theory to test.]

[amonglions]

You -- [He clamps his mouth shut and looks down at the corner of the room; he looks reluctant, sad even. Perhaps he's reigning in his temper or simply reliving a more somber memory before he looks back at Robert and sees so much of the man he knows is there but what he's saying doesn't match.

He's like a broken bit of clockwork someone left a vital gear out of when repairing and ... now this is what they're left with.]

After...After Anna and Rosalind, you started hallucinating. Talking to yourself like you were having half a conversation. It went on --

[No. He doesn't want to talk about this and he bites his lip as he stops talking.]

What do you remember?

[He recalled the doctor telling him it might be best to catalog whatever delusion Robert seemed to be entertaining as best as possible. This was a routine question.]

[ablankpage]

[Anna. Not Elizabeth. No.

Annabelle. He knew an Annabelle. Tall and slim, sharp blue eyes and dark brown hair. A lovely woman, the image of a saint. And a woman who screamed in the Lutece Laboratory. Shouted at Rosalind. Called her a whore. Called Elizabeth her bastard. A woman who became a martyr. Who was the first part of an operation to wash away the sins of the Prophet.

Yes, he knew Annabelle Comstock.]

I remember Columbia, DeWitt. Comstock and Songbird.

"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt."

[amonglions]

[Jesus. The complexity of his delusions were impressive.]

Robert, I don't know anything about no debt.

[He's been good about keeping his family out of that grave just yet. But it's taken a toll on everything else.]

Maybe I should leave.

[ablankpage]

[Robert leaned forward, regarding Booker with a critical gaze.]

What have they done to you, DeWitt?

[amonglions]

[Booker grimaces, temper flaring with just how...calm Robert seems. Like everything in his head is real and Booker is the crazy one.

I know what I know.

When he speaks, his voice is calm and level but as he continues it grows in volume and frustration. This is his family and his family is tearing itself apart in front of him and trying to rip pieces of him off with it.]

Nothing, Robert. Nothing's been done to me, alright?

I haven't been brainwashed, bribed, drugged, beaten or whatever the hell else you can come up with!

[ablankpage]

Brainwashed. [DeWitt was no actor, and anyone who could beat DeWitt wouldn't leave much left. But brainwashed. Oh, yes. That sounded very like what he was imagining had happened.]

I don't know how they did it, but-- Damn it, DeWitt! You know better than this!

[They aren't family. They don't even like one another. He and Booker DeWitt are ever at odds, not... not whatever this it.]

God damn it, DeWitt!

[...And he doesn't even believe in God...

Says something, he thinks. That he's willing to invoke a deity he doesn't think exists.]

[amonglions]

[Booker bristles, his temper still very much the same and it can't really put up with Robert being so reactive. He snaps, of course, as it was inevitably going to happen.]

Robert! I'm fine. Nothing's happened! I don't know where you're getting any of this but it's not real!

[He knows this is exactly the opposite of what he should be saying to Robert in his condition but it's all that crosses his mind these days.]

[ablankpage]

No, DeWitt! [Robert can't help but raise his own voice a bit.] It's the other way around.

None of this is real. I don't know how they've gotten you to buy into this, but it's not real. Fight, DeWitt! We both know you're better than this.

[amonglions]

Jesus, Robert listen to yourself.

[Snapping opened the floodgates for his real reactions towards Robert and they're less than sympathetic - he just sounds like he's trying to explain something to a child who is usually smarter than this.]