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

[mothergoose]

[She at least seems to be listening as she writes this down.

She is.]

And how do they do that?

[ablankpage]

A single atom refuses to fall. An atom suspended in time and space, in a field they both name. A field that, by contact with the atom, they can open or close.

Dots and dashes.

And, suddenly, they can communicate. Short messages, whispers. Not conversations, not right away. Too much time is necessary. But it is the beginnings. The first proof that they are not alone.

[mothergoose]

And they continue from there?

[Because at that point how could you stop? The doctoral voice in her head is telling her she's not helping with the mans treatment's. But the other part makes up an excuse to hear the rest.]

[ablankpage]

Of course.

They work on their own sides. Eventually, they open a window. A glimpse and the ability to speak.

How startling, then, to look not at a mirror of oneself but to see, rather than a young man of twenty-one, one is looking at a young woman of twenty-one.

The same facial structure, the same hair colour, the same eyes, a little shorter.

[mothergoose]

Rosalind?

[The name is even similar when you think of it. Twins, or copies of the same person. No wonder the delusion makes sense to him.]

[ablankpage]

When there was only Morse, there wasn't time for full names. 'R Lutece.' We didn't think we needed any more than that.

Imagine our surprise.

[Robert. Rosalind. Two brilliant physicists. Their only difference, a single chromosome.

He knows it sounds like a fantasy, saying it while confined in a mental institution. But he knows it's what happened. He went through the tear. Experienced the cognitive dissonance. The haemorrhaging.]

[mothergoose]

[That it does. However most people do not create such elaborate stories. She continues to write it down.]

And were you only able to see each other?

[ablankpage]

Oh, no. The window... [He thinks for a moment then motions with his hand, indicating a size about that of, say, a vanity's mirror] was not large, but it was large. I could see a bit of her office, she could see a bit of mine.

It was... poor, though. Blurry and flickering, like a poorly developed photograph. So we kept improving our machines, discussing the progress with one another.

[mothergoose]

Did this take a long time?

[ablankpage]

Just over two years. From the time we first saw one another until the window became a door.

[mothergoose]

You managed that?

[Well of course he would have, the delusion doesn't have to make sense, but the scientific part of her is still fascinated by the very idea it.]

[ablankpage]

We-- She did. She had the funding. Perhaps even the added brilliance. She...

[Robert laughs softly, shaking his head. He doesn't care if he sounds crazy now. He knows he's not. He knows he's being held here because he isn't.]

Rosalind... is beyond me. More intelligent, more aware. She is beautiful and sharp and-- perfect. As a scientist and a woman. You won't find better of either.

[mothergoose]

[Insanity perhaps, an idolized ideal of someone he's lost, perhaps. However she lets him speak.]

And then, did you enter the door or did she?

[ablankpage]

I did.

We both knew it was dangerous, and that we would be a stranger in the other's world. In hers, I could rebuild. I would still be a quantum physicist and a man. In mine... She never would have been taken seriously without the accomplishments she'd have to leave behind.

So I left my world. For her.

[mothergoose]

And no one questioned your appearance in her world?

[ablankpage]

She was far from her family, from anyone who could have denied it. So, she introduced me as her brother. A man who had been travelling the world until recently and would be joining her.

They were surprised they'd never heard of me, but. They didn't question her much.

[mothergoose]

And what of your own world?

[ablankpage]

I left it and never thought of looking back.

[He chuckles faintly.]

I never claimed to be a considerate man.

[mothergoose]

But you were able to remain in this new world? You simply had to walk through this 'door'?

[It sounds insane, of course it does. She's speaking to a mad person after all. But still, he's had explanations for everything else.]

[ablankpage]

Walk through and manage the cognitive dissonance.

[He shrugs slightly.]

The mind first rejects the new world and then it adapts suddenly. There is a void -- it has never existed in this world. The brain cannot process that, so it invents new memories.

With care and constant reminders, though, one can retain the original memories and banish the new, false ones. Unfortunately, that level of cognitive dissonance leads to haemorrhaging. Severe nosebleeds, usually.