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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You're not entirely alone, sir.

[ At least, there are people listening in. And Prim speaks up, because this sounds like someone new. "Sounds like" because...that sounds like what someone new would say. Uncertainty about this place. ]

Welcome to Luceti. Can you see a town from where you are?

Mr. Lutece?

[Well, where to begin? Robert Lutece wasn't Booker by any means, but he wasn't Zachary Comstock either. She was glad to see someone, anyone, who wouldn't look at her oddly when she talked about where she comes from and/or what she can do.]

This is Elizabeth. From Columbia. [That's a good place to start.] What you're holding isn't a Voxophone, other people can hear you via their own devices. Are you hurt at all?

Is any fate truly set in stone?

[Well.

That's unexpected.

So, the book is rather more of a radio than a voxophone. Curious but not shocking.]

A town?

[He hears the voice easily enough in his head, even if no one else does. "Well, that would be useful."]

Indeed.

["So where is it, then?"]

That is the question.

[Sorry, Prim. He's far too used to being half of a whole that he has no idea you can only hear him.]

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?

It is when its cause is erased.

["Hopefully."]

Definitely. [He sounds a little annoyed at the word.]

What is the question?

[ She sounds baffled, because...well. ]

You don't think you can see it? If you describe where you are I can try to figure it out from the map, and draw you a way here. To Luceti, I mean. Well, the town.

[He glances to his side and... ah. Yes. Rosalind... isn't here, in fact. He can fill in what she would say after far too long together, but. He reminds himself that he is alone here.

It's still such a habit.]

Where the town is.

[At least the girl's being helpful.]

There are... mountains to one side, trees to another. I'm afraid I don't know which direction is north.

The only way I really know to figure that out is by the direction of the sun.

[ So. ]

That said, I think that'll actually help you a little. We're sort of between both those things.

[ She changes over for a moment, picking up her pen and sketching a rough map of the location of the town relative to the mountains and forest. ]

So long as you can determine which direction you ought to head in, you shouldn't be too far off. and if the forest gets really close to the mountains, turn around, because you've gone the wrong way.

[He takes a moment to study the map. Well.]

You're very kind. I'll see if I can't manage to find my way.

It's not any trouble. I woke up in the middle of the woods, myself, but I was lucky enough to run across someone who knew the way back.

I can try to answer any of your other questions, too. I suppose the most important information is that you're in another world, there's a barrier around this place, and if you hurt your wings, it won't exactly be pleasant. Although I think that's sort of implied.

I'm Primrose Everdeen, by the way. Most people call me Prim.

I managed to find this... "Newcomer's Guide" in the book. It answered quite a few questions, and I won't have more, really, until I can acquaint myself with this world.

[He's taking this in stride quite well. Robert considers it for a moment, but Elizabeth has already contacted him and knew who he was, so there's little reason to lie.]

My name is Robert Lutece, Miss Everdeen.

Oh, that! It really is useful. I probably ought to have directed you there first.

[ She sounds a little embarrassed about that, but...it's the first New Feather cycle since she was new. ]

It's nice to meet you, Mr. Lutece. [ Formality for formality. Prim is fairly impressed by how calm he is about all this, but...it took all sorts, didn't it? ]

If nothing else, I can keep you company until you find the town proper. So to speak. [ She'll keep the journal open as she goes about her chores, she means. ]

It's no trouble, Miss Everdeen. Company... might be for the best.

[Otherwise, he'd be left alone with the voice of Rosalind in his head, and it was all too tempting to believe she was here with him.]

Have you been in this place long?

Yeah, this place is pretty good at leaving pressing questions unanswered.

[There's even odds for this unfamiliar fellow-Englishman not realizing he's being recorded and simply having a very impersonal way of addressing the populace. But Jack treats the message as if it's the latter, all the same. If it's the former, the man probably just has minutes before realizing that's not the case. Besides, for a newcomer, he sounds refreshingly non-frantic. Presumably he's already processed the madness away from his journal.]

Well, unless you find someone who's both from your world and a later point in time, but that must be awfully rare.

So not only is it inter-dimensional travel, but there is crossing of timelines?

[Because that, obviously, is the most important question to ask. And it's given with... academic curiosity.

He isn't dismissing it as impossible or arguing about it or anything of the sort. It is merely a fact to be noted in data if it is confirmed.]

[It is getting more and more difficult, the longer Jack is in Luceti, to catch him off-guard. But the stranger does: not by being an angel, or levitating a train, or revealing some terrible secret of the universe to him.

No. What's amazing is that the man is perfectly credulous.]

Er. It . . . seems that way. [He gets his conversational feet back under him with audible difficulty, continuing after a second.] My friend Sam is from a bit after me, and another guy is from after him. Everyone's stories line up, though. It just seems like some of us are from earlier dates than others.

So you're all from the exact same universe. So far as you know, of course. Just from different moments in it.

Now, that is worth exploring.

I'm much more used to it the other way 'round, you see. Different universes but the same point in time. It makes studying the constants and variables less difficult, once you know what you're looking at.

Wait, that - I mean, this- [Audio-only conversation or not, Jack waves his hands haplessly at the room around him and, by extension, Luceti and its trans-universal madness, voice rushed with disbelief.] You mean to tell me this is something that regularly happens where you're from?

With the right equipment.

I wrote a book on the theory, actually. [He is far too pleased with himself for being able to say that. And as long as he's discussing his work and science? Rosalind's voice in his mind is a little easier to ignore.] Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel.

[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.]

Wow. I'm actually not sure we've ever had an expert on that sort of thing here in the enclosure. [The announcement is a bit to take in, to say the least, but Jack can feel it settling into a more comfortable position in his conception of what is possible. It's an off-balance sensation, carrying on the conversation while that happens, like walking on the swaying deck of a ship.] As eager as a lot of people here are to find a way home, that's the sort of expertise that could make you awfully popular.

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

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