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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Elizabeth.

["That is surprising."]

Extremely so.

["Far more than a radio shaped like a book."]

Indeed.

[A beat. His attention returns to the young woman asking something of him.]

I'm not injured, no. Are you?

[Apparently he's... cutting out a little? Elizabeth plays the message a few times, but it does sound a little like Robert is either affirming his own thoughts or talking to someone who isn't being recorded. Well, it isn't as though the Luteces are terribly... straightforward to begin with. Elizabeth simply attributes this odd manner of speaking to that enigmatic tendency.]

Ah, no. Though I suppose it was close when I first arrived--I was dropped out of the sky and into a lake. But that was a few months ago.

[She pauses for a moment and worries her lip. Booker would be so annoyed by her current thought pattern, but...] I'm glad to hear you're alright, some people show up here in very strange and sometimes dangerous ways. 'Here' being a... an enclosure. For experimental subjects. [And she really doesn't like revisiting that fact.]

There's a town here, though. Do you-- Would you need any help getting here? [Truth be told, ~~as far as she knows~~ Robert doesn't know much about Elizabeth. If he'd rather she not come too close, well... best give him a polite out.]

[An enclosure for experiments.

Well. He helped design one. Perhaps it's fitting he ends up in one.

"Are you going to keep torturing yourself about that? The task is done."

Only for her to be in another one.]

I seem to have found myself in a field. It's... very quiet.

[He's eager to know more about her and her time here, but communicating over something such as this... Well. He doesn't quite trust it. Not for sensitive things.]

I believe I'm on my way towards the village now. I'm some distance to the east, I think.

If it's possible, company wouldn't go amiss.

Of course!

[After the response came in, Elizabeth found her map, pulled on her shoes, and moved out to head for the fields. She's a little excited--not only because someone she recognizes is in Luceti, but because it's Robert Lutece. Maybe he'll have some kind of insight, be able to build something that could return people home. Maybe he could tell her what happened after Monument Island fell...]

If you keep walking towards the village, we'll probably run into one another.

[...yes Booker would be severely disapproving of Elizabeth actively chasing a Lutece... but he wasn't there now, now was he.]

[Ah--]

I ought to apologize in advance for my... state of dress. It seems that whatever tear or mechanism brought me here did not allow for maintaining the integrity of the fabric I was wearing, and if someone is responsible for clothing me... they did not do an appropriate job.

[In other words: he's in New Feather clothes.]

Perhaps once I reach the town, I can find something more suitable.

[Or the girl coming to meet him could bring some. But he won't actually suggest that. He'll just... try and prompt it.]

It wasn't a tear, trust me. [Because as far as Elizabeth is concerned, suggesting a tear was responsible was like saying the girl who could open tears was the problem. And Elizabeth really, really hopes it isn't that at all.]

I arrived in something similar. Everyone is pretty much used to people walking around like that, especially during 'New Feather Cycles'. Your clothes could be in the clothing shop right now if they aren't somewhere nearby.

[Or she could just completely miss the prompt.]

[Ah, well.]

Then I'll collect them at a later time.

[If she's willing to dismiss the possibility of a tear... then he has to at least consider it. It could be too impulsive of her, so he doesn't dismiss it, but he weighs both as equally possible. It could be a tear, or it could be something more manufactured than that.

Either way, that isn't the concern at present.]

I suppose the mystery of how will have to wait awhile as well.

[Still, it's something very interesting. And very exciting, really.]

No one has figured it out yet, at least. People come and go, nobody knows why or how. Only that a group called 'the Malnosso' is apparently responsible for this entire... thing. And that they don't think twice about interfering with other people's lives in other worlds.

What's the last thing you remember, Mr. Lutece...?

[Booker DeWitt surprising him by his willingness to smother Comstock in the cradle.]

I admit, I'm not quite sure.

["Really? You're going to lie to her? What happened to your moral high ground, brother?"]

Not now.

["Oh, very well. Don't say I didn't warn you, though."]

--Perhaps, Elizabeth, you would be able to be of some assistance there. I've learned from someone else that rather than simply crossing dimensions, it is possible, here, to have crossed time.

If you could provide me with what you were last aware of before this place, that might help with the jogging of my memory.

["Liar."]

Oh! Yes, that's true--some people here remember things that haven't happened to their friends yet.

The last thing I remember was Songbird destroying Monument Island. And Booker dropped the whistle, and he started shouting at me. And I saw...

[She saw something. A million mirrors rising up and up like a cresting wave that threatened to overwhelm her. And she reached out and touched one of them. With water, and it smelled of stale insanity that hung in the air. But everything else she saw had been overblown by a white, white light that had blinded her until she was falling. And she'd felt strangely alone, almost singular, almost stunted.]

I suppose I saw this place, and I put myself here somehow. I guess I wasn't as in control of it as I thought.

[She cuts the audio and stops walking for a moment. That sense of dread is gripping her again. Numerous people have told her this wasn't her fault, that Booker was fine, that they were probably not dead in their universe. But Elizabeth has had weeks to wonder if the destruction of the siphon had in fact caused something to go horrifically wrong with her power. What if it had been too much? What if it would have been better to have let them 'leash' her? What if that could have saved her and Booker's lives?]

[Elizabeth swallows down her feelings and starts the audio again, trying to keep the upset out of her voice.]

Mr. Lutece, please. I've lived for two months wondering if I killed Mr. DeWitt. By making him destroy the siphon. You and Ms. Lutece studied me, I know you did. And I've never fully understood everything I can do, I don't know if destroying the siphon caused something to happen that would have...

[She can't finish that sentence. Elizabeth cuts the audio again and bites her lip until it hurts. She can't un-ask the question now, though. The answer could be something that she has to carry and regret for the rest of her life.

Elizabeth.

[His voice is softer than it usually is, not quite as directed. It's... much more human.

This is the sort of conversation he'd rather have in person, but... it also asks for a degree of dignity that his current state of dress does not allow him. So, perhaps, really, it's better this way.

He stops walking. With this... she deserves his full concentration, not him distracted with wandering.]

I want you to listen to me. Not just hear what I'm saying. But sit down somewhere and try to really listen.

Will you do that for me?

[Oh God.]

[She killed him. She must have, if Robert is telling her to sit down. She should have let Booker kill her before she let Songbird take her away. Why had she insisted on killing Comstock? Hadn't she had enough of killing people at that moment?]

[Elizabeth sits down, right where she stopped walking, and clutches her journal while she cries. Booker had been her only friend, he had been the only one who wanted her safe and free and happy. And he had dared to stand too close to a time bomb for her sake.]

[She opens her journal again, but she can't get her voice to be unwavering or calm. It's obvious what she's been doing during that few minutes of radio silence.]

What happened? What did I do?

[He is very, very grateful now that he's doing this over this device. Better than having to deal with her crying in front of him. That's not the first impression either one of them would want to make in this place.]

When you destroyed the siphon, you destroyed every hold Comstock had placed on your powers. I... cannot even fathom how powerful you became. I do know, from other universes, that once the siphon was destroyed -- mind you, this place is different, so I cannot say it's still true -- you had the power to see every door in the interim space.

The place between the worlds. You're less familiar with it than I am, as your ability is very organic. My movement between the worlds was mechanic.

[Small tangent. But he wanted her to understand.]

I do not know if somehow Mister DeWitt walked through one door and you through another and that's how you came here, but I know you will be joining him, at the beginning. [Are joining him, have joined him. It all exists at once, Robert knows. Knows all too well.] Where you both need to be to end the cycle that Comstock began.

This is a temporary detour, nothing more.

[There's that sense of the cryptic rearing its ugly head again. But she can glean at least one thing: Booker is alive, somewhere.]

I can't see any doors here. I can barely keep a tear open. That must mean there's some kind of siphon here. [Though there are about three flickering around her now. She gives them a defeated look and sighs heavily. After wiping her face on her sleeve, she continues processing what Robert said.]

What cycle?

[...A very powerful siphon. Which might, ultimately, be the key. It's worth noting, though not remarking on. She's upset enough. Better to focus on...

Well. That question's not much better.]

Comstock is dead in one world. But in a million others, he is alive, and... his actions continue.

Your powers, fully realised, can conquer time itself. So it's merely a question of choosing the right door to allow you or Mister DeWitt to stop him from ever being a threat to anyone.

[And is the better word, but he can lie. Make it sound like she has a choice.]

[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.

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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