Post-Event Blues

[lucetimods]

Who: Everybody, everybody!
What: The battle is won. Now what?
When: The eleventh, twelfth, and onward
Where: Luceti
Summary: With Zompano dead and the cultists routed, Luceti is restored. Kind of.
Rating: F for Feels

On the eleventh, things were slowly breaking down. Memories of their true lives were breaking through. The village, scarred by the battle with the cultists, began to rebuild itself. Community buildings that had vanished were returned to their rightful places. The battle dome was uncovered from the earth that had covered it. Hundreds and hundreds of fake homes slowly faded away. Paved roads gave way to trees and grass. It was an incredible sight for anyone who was willing to sit aroun and watch it happen.

Things wouldn't be easy for the villagers, though. The memories perpetuated by the last ten days would not be easily removed. The feelings and hatreds it had created would take time to conquer and remove. Perhaps, in a way, that was Zompano's nastiest trick of all. The village itself may heal from his invasion, but it would take far more than a few Shifts to fix the people left behind.

Towards the end of the day, their wings returned. Much like some of the buildings, they seemed to just reappear, as if they had never been gone. Their barcodes became visible again as a singular reminder that they were, ultimately, just the property of another entity who as a whole were not much better than Count Zompano.

By the twelfth, the village looked as though nothing had ever happened. Sure, the contents of buildings might have been messed up or destroyed during the battles, but things were otherwise as they were supposed to be. The night before, people would have had to find their old beds to go sleep in, as they no longer possessed the old ones granted to them in another life.

The village was peaceful.

Modly Note: That wraps up the event. As noted in the prose above, you have the option to play up the after effects of the event more than in other ones. While it won't have the same impact universally, the Shift was constructed in such a way that people may have difficulty shaking off the emotions they developed during the event. In effect, it was a cruel send off to Luceti so they would have to deal with the loathing and hatred that came with the less desirable parts of it. Of course, that means the feelings of familial bonds will also persist for awhile as well. It's up to you, as players, to decide how much or little to play with it!

Comments

[ablankpage]

I imagine she'd have called me a narcissist. And laughed.

[He chuckles as he says it, his voice warmer than it usually is. Rooted in a memory his heart won't quite shake.]

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth laughs too, smiling when she hears some warmth come back into Robert's voice.]

You should paint here too. You have nothing but time.

[ablankpage]

[Robert stills his hand, which had been making small movements through Elizabeth's hair.]

I... might.

[Except he won't. Because now, his pictures would be of Rosalind. Of a past he can't recapture. Of what has been and will never be.]

[tearmeanewone]

You should. There's so much beautiful scenery around here. Or are you just a portrait painter? [She has a thought and grins, already amused by her own joke.]

You could sit Booker down, see what you can get before he stomps away, and sell it to the gallery as 'modern art'.

[ablankpage]

I think I could paint DeWitt from memory.

[He chuckled lightly, shaking his head.]

Four years of watching the man.

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth's brow furrows slightly and she wraps an arm around Robert's shoulders.]

You don't have to watch him anymore, at least? Your life is your own again.

[ablankpage]

My life is my own, entirely. [And he manages to smile as he says it.

Because he can't tell her what that means. Because she doesn't know that one world has to unravel for the millions of millions to undo as well. That for Comstock to have never existed... meant he never funded Rosalind.

And what did that mean for the Lutece Field? The Lutece Tear?

Best not to think about that.]

[tearmeanewone]

Compared to watching Booker for four years, I can imagine that comes as a relief. [Elizabeth chuckles and smiles back.] Well, if you don't paint, what do you intend to do?

[ablankpage]

I have my science.

[Robert smiled a little. It was true. Both here and when he went back. He had his science.

He had to find Rosalind. After that... Well, after that, he'll figure it out.]

[tearmeanewone]

True, and there's quite a bit more to study here. I met someone who travels through outer space all the time. The things you could explore here, they're just endless.

[ablankpage]

It's incredible, the possibilities here. And, to think, I have plenty of time to learn all I can.

Both of us do, actually.

[tearmeanewone]

Mm. I confess, when I first arrived here I was angry and despondent. But when I realized there were so many people here with different sets of knowledge... I was excited. I won't live long enough to see a year like... 2039. And yet I can talk to them here and now.

[ablankpage]

I can imagine you would be. Another place of confinement. A different cage, but a cage all the same. And after all that to escape yours.

[But she'd fought a bright side. Just like he would, too... Especially once he had Rosalind. Because he would find her. He would be beside her again.]

[tearmeanewone]

It's bigger. And the company is better. [She says this quickly, as though trying not to remind herself too heavily of what Luceti really was. Last week, she had forgotten. Even before then, she had felt as though the apartment were turning into more of a home than she'd ever known. She didn't want to feel trapped again.]

[ablankpage]

Much better. [He chuckles lightly, touching the girl's hair again.]

You'll be fine. We... We all will.

[Eventually.]

[tearmeanewone]

[She looks at Robert, really looks at him, unable to contain that she was slightly afraid he wouldn't be fine. Elizabeth wished, wished Rosalind was there to help. That seemed to be the only thing that would help.]

You promise?

[ablankpage]

[It's perfectly stable. I promise!

You can't promise me that!

It will be fine!]

I promise.

[It's as baseless as Rosalind's promise to him. It may even backfire as much as hers.

But it's said with the same conviction.

And if he sounds like he means it -- if he lets himself believe it -- hopefully she will, too.]

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth lets herself feel comforted by that. While she always had a feeling Robert never told the entire truth, Elizabeth didn't want to stay awake all night wondering if they would be okay. Robert especially. She still had that irresistible urge to take care of everyone--maybe that was something that hadn't changed between her false and true lives. Keep Booker alive, keep Robert alive... And she would be alright.]

[She nodded, smiling as best she could, and laid her head down on Robert's shoulder again.]

You were the best uncle. I wanted you to come home so badly.

[ablankpage]

I might actually have done well as an uncle.

[If he'd had siblings. If there had been such relatives.]

Especially with a sister's child. [He would not have been as close, he didn't think, to a brother. It would have been competition, there, and in having a family...

He was ill suited to best anyone.]

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth gives a quiet little huff of laughter. Ironic, given she used to be Robert's sister's daughter.]

Would you have been the sort of uncle they told me you were? You made sure I was interested in science, and when dad's... Booker's passions didn't give me the answer I wanted I always went to you. [She chuckles again.] And I read so much because you insisted I learn.

[ablankpage]

Rosalind and I supplied one library. [It's softly said, an old memory he knows he has to fight to keep from falling into it.] With all the books we knew and whatever we didn't that looked like it might suit.

[tearmeanewone]

You... [Elizabeth straightens up and looks at Robert.] You're talking about my tower?

[She had been wondering about her false memories but... were they really as completely made-up as they had seemed initially?]

[ablankpage]

[Robert nodded slightly.]

Of his own accord? Comstock would have never given you books of science and philosophy. But he listened to us when we suggested it. We introduced books on codes-- [He chuckles at the thought, shaking his head.]

--Though you surprised both of us when you started practising on locks.

We never quite thought fiction would inspire you so much.

[tearmeanewone]

Are you kidding? Fiction was my constant friend, while science and philosophy were my tutors. [But that was probably something Robert and Rosalind might not quite grasp. Elizabeth's life had always been a tangle of questions that went unanswered. Her fiction was her escape, it was her eternal window to the world and the emotions of its people.]

[She smiles curiously, far away, and lays back down on Robert's shoulder.] I can't imagine what I would have done without my books.

[ablankpage]

I think we both forgot what it was like to read those books in our youth. [He chuckles softly to himself. He was sure Rosalind had read a few, even if she'd never said it. Because they'd been works he had been drawn to, things that had fascinated him.]

We didn't know at the time how much they'd help. [Teach her a sense of adventure, of freedom, of having faith in a man who said he was there to get her out.]</small