ablankpage | Voxophone 1/?? - Voice - backdated to July 7th

Voxophone 1/?? - Voice - backdated to July 7th

I find myself alone.

[The voice comes over the Journals clearly. It is a lilting, British voice, very calm but very intent.]

I do not know, ultimately, whether the experiment was a success or a failure, but I can be sure of one thing: It is over. Were the sacrifices warranted? I may never know.

[He's taken the Journal to be a voxophone recorder. Something private where he can record his thoughts and experiments to be reviewed by solely himself at a later date. The Guide was easy enough to find, and he has processed the information easily enough.

Another dimension, another place. Not quite what he is used to, coming without his clothes and with wings on his back. Still, it is another set of constants and variables to him.

The most disturbing fact is the first statement. The thing he could not help but note. He is alone. For the first time, he can look to his left without seeing Rosalind there. For the first time in nearly twenty years, a single Lutece is present.

Present... in the middle of a field, so far as he can see. One well into summer, warmed by the sun. Rosalind wouldn't like it -- especially if she were in a similar state of undress. Certainly, that needs to be remedied. All of it goes through his mind as he continues speaking.]

His fate is set in stone, but what of the others? I fear I will never be granted that knowledge.

[And that worries him more than anything. In his attempts to change the world around him, he knows he has destroyed at least as many lives as he has saved. Worst of all, there is no one to tell him whether he did the right thing or not.]

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[Yes... that makes sense. The tears she opened before weren't just to Columbia in the year 1912. She could open others. Create others.]

[She could stop him. Everywhere, in every time. She could probably do it right now if she could just open a tear and get away from Luceti.]

[For a second, Elizabeth looks at the tears flickering around her as though they were trying to comfort her. She could try one of them, but she can't leave Robert there even if she could hold it open long enough to get through.]

Then we have to get out of here. [She stands up and keeps walking.] I can't open tears, but that doesn't mean you can't build your machine again. If he's still somewhere, and I'm the only one who can get to him, I have to leave. I have to do it. For everyone's sake.

[He hates to say it, but she needs to know. She needs to be aware that it might not be that easy.]

My machine only opened up windows. I never created a door.

[As he walks, though, he keeps talking.]

That was Rosalind's work. Comstock's backing, his repayment for Columbia. I never had that, so I never created what she did. Nothing so grand.

But I think I can. It may take me quite some time. I don't have any of my books, my notes, my equipment. I'm back at square one with only what remains in my head, nothing I can hold in my hand.

It... will take time.

You're a Lutece, though! You and Ms. Lutece were at the forefront of this field and so many others. Even if it takes time, you can still do it!

A door is just a bigger window. And maybe I just need someone to open a window so I can turn it into a door. There are too many people trapped here, and too much left for me to do, for us to do nothing because it might take time. We have nothing but time.

Now, that would be an experiment. See what you can do here aided by technology.

["Oh, that does sound like a good idea. When can we try?"]

In time, in time. First we need to know the strength of the siphon here.

["And where it's located. Get rid of the siphon..."]

...And solve all our problems.

[But. Ah. Elizabeth.]

You said there seems to be another siphon here. What can you do with it in place? What do your abilities currently allow?

[He's being strange again with his sentences. Maybe he's just... thinking aloud and leaving parts out.]

It's... stronger than the one in Monument Island. I could at least open tears and pull things through. Keep at least one open at a time. After I arrived here I tried to open a tear and I couldn't see anything on the other side. A few seconds later it snapped closed and threw me backwards.

But the other night I was talking to someone and he threw me onto the ground. I could see a weapon next to me, but I don't know if I could have pulled it through the tear. Maybe I'm acclimating to it?

[...Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Someone what?]

Someone threw you to the ground?

[He still sounds calm.

...Angry. But calm.]

Yes. [She sounds almost embarrassed by the whole thing. And Robert's anger? Why would he be angry? To Robert, Elizabeth was just the girl in the tower under surveillance, yes?] I was upset, a tear appeared next to me. It happens sometimes. He thought it was dangerous and the next thing I knew I was in the sand and he was covering me. I didn't know what he was surprised by until I looked to my left and saw it.

It wasn't how I wanted to bring up that part of me.

Ah.

["Well. That changes things."]

Quite.

["Feel foolish yet, brother? It's what you get, you know, for being so sentimental."]

Mm.

[But. Elizabeth. Must focus on Elizabeth. All business now.]

It's very interesting that you seem to be acclimating. If you feel comfortable doing so, I'd like you to try and pull something through the next time you see a small object.

I'd be very grateful if you'd allow me to observe, though I understand you might not want me to.

[After all, he spent far too much time observing her when she didn't know he was there. To have him observe her now might be a little too close for comfort to Monument Island.]

No, it would be best if you watched, right? Maybe something's changed and I'm not aware of it yet. I haven't seen many tears here, to be honest.

[Which, she supposes, means she generally isn't anxious or upset while here. It would be nice, if there wasn't something waiting for her in Columbia.]

Maybe you should stay with me in my apartment then. Just in case one happens there.

[He's about to agree that it really would be better if he was there to observe the attempt. He'd done it with machinery, and he'd watched her grow up. If anyone had a proper, scientific understanding of her abilities and of tears, it's him.

But he hears something. A very particular voice. An echo of the voice over the journal. So, he closes his and follows it the rest of the way, giving a polite nod when he sees her and struggling very hard not to think of how ridiculous he looks.]

Hello, Elizabeth.

[Startled, Elizabeth turns around with her journal in hand. It's odd, being addressed by someone who had a tendency to simply appear and disappear after saying something strange. And more to the point, it was strange to see Robert without Rosalind. That, as Elizabeth recalls, could account for his strange speech patterns.]

[She smiles, even though Robert is, ah, shirtless--perhaps she should have brought those clothes.]

Hello, Mr. Lutece. [She closes her journal and steps closer.] I am your in-person welcoming committee, I suppose.

[He tried to prompt her.

Still, he fortifies himself. It's no more embarrassing than two weeks spent curled up in a bed after crossing into Columbia. With Rosalind flitting in and out whenever she so chose, taking his temperature, checking on his nosebleeds, doing absolutely everything... without any trace of a bedside manner. A nurse, she was not. She was a scientist, through and through.

Robert even manages to remember to give a polite little bow.

The fact that his feet hurt -- from both the walk itself and the terrain, as the forces that be didn't even see fit to provide him with shoes -- gives him an inkling of what to expect. It's not so shocking now... that he might not be dead. That, somehow, whether by DeWitt's actions or being brought here, the infinite had been closed. That he might exist in one place at one time. That he simply is. Not was, not will be.

...He's certainly singular...

But best not to think of that. Even if he can't help the glance to his left. Where Rosalind ought to be.]

I hope this clothing shop you mentioned will still be open by the time we walk back to town?

[Because he would like to put on some proper clothes.]

It should be, yes. But we may want to go there directly. I certainly don't have anything at home to put you in. [She smiles apologetically.] I should have thought to at least bring a coat. But when I arrived I was in a dress. I thought you would at least have a, um...

[Shirt.]

They don't seem overly concerned with propriety, that's for certain.

[And he is not happy about that.

Then, carelessly, he half turns his head, just glancing again to his left. Because he can see the amused smile of the missing woman.]

Really, given my preference, I'd have taken my clothes and the nosebleeds rather than this.

["Really? You didn't shut up for days about those before."]

Considering the alternative? Yes.

[...No, he really doesn't realise he's basically talking to himself. Sometimes he does! And tries not to do it. But then he forgets again. It's all too natural.]

[To anyone else, that behavior might have seemed ludicrous and an indication Robert was unhinged. To Elizabeth it was something to feel sympathy over. Not that Elizabeth had ever been close to someone they way Robert and Rosalind seemed close. They spoke almost as though they were one person, one voice in two bodies.]

[Being here without her must have been disorienting. Elizabeth moves to Robert's right side and puts her hand onto his elbow. Clearly she's waiting for him to escort her.] They aren't concerned with a lot of things. It isn't because they don't like us in particular.

[The touch very much solidifies to Robert that there isn't anyone else there. It's just him and Elizabeth. Rosalind... is only in his head. He'll forget that in an hour, fall back into the casual conversations he's used to in the interim space. During the hours where there was nothing to do but wait and watch and hope.

But for now. There is a young woman to distract him. A young woman he has always been particularly keen to get know. Truly get to know.]

It seems born more out of regret than malice. And easy enough to right.

[Except for the wings. The appendages themselves? He might forgive. But the colour. What on Earth was he going to match to that?

No. They'd have to be hidden away.]

Well then. [Improper as he looks at present, he can still act the gentleman. He puts his other hand over Elizabeth's lightly and nods with his head the way she seemed to have been coming.] This way, then?

Yes, this way. [Elizabeth smiles and walks, leading Robert back the way she came from.]

I suppose I might have given you a certain impression of this place by saying it was an enclosure for experimental subjects. It is that, but it's better than... [She stalls for a moment and rethinks how to phrase it.] ...than the situation some specimens--subjects, find themselves in. There have been a few strange occurrences, but nothing violent.

Still. It can hardly be a welcome thing.

[To go from so near freedom to a different cage. Even if it seemed a little more solidly gilded than the last.]

I'm very interested to hear everything about it. The people [particularly those Elizabeth spent her time with, but he wouldn't make that a direct inquiry], these experiments. I have... [well, she's heard Rosalind's voxophones, along with DeWitt] adapted to a different world before, but I find having a brilliant guide is the best way to do it.

[And he means the compliment. Elizabeth may not be Rosalind, not in personality or intelligence, but she is brilliant. Her opinions are invaluable.]

Oh, well, I don't know everything. I've only read the guide at the back and lived here for two months. [She smiles apologetically, trying to steer them away from areas of heavy brush or rocks.]

The people are, for the most part, very kind and helpful. And accepting of things. Some things I didn't even know existed. There are people from Japan here! And someone is teaching me to fly a spaceship! If I could say there's something good about being here, it's that I've met people I otherwise never would have encountered.

It does sound like an eclectic mix, certainly. [The sort of mix, given what he'd heard, to be able to work with if he could. To resume and restart all the work he'd done before and after he'd met Rosalind.

To rediscover the Lutece Field.

Now that he knew it was there -- it was a certainty, not a possibility -- finding his way back would be dramatically less difficult then finding his way there. The unknown variables in this world were troublesome, but they could be sorted out.]

It seems... Not quite tangential but rather like a wave through worlds, rather than parallel, as we'd seen before. [The "we" comes rather than "I." He's still barely an individual, still more a segmented whole.]

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Voxophone 1/?? - Voice - backdated to July 7th

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"regret" should be "neglect," I'm a genius

[Action] oh that makes more sense. 8D ilu~

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