[Locked to Luceti Residents]

[malnosso]

My dear people of Luceti --

An invasion, all under the guise of a fantasy. What’s been done will not be forgotten. Certainly not by you, and not by the denizens of a dozen other enclosures who suffered similar attacks at the same time. As we speak, programmers and engineers hard at work combing through the barrier’s nuts and bolts. If the Cultists and his Lordship exploited some natural weakness in the dome, they will find it. Patch it up. Curious, isn’t it, that the Count chose yours to invade with his own two feet?

But there are other matters to discuss. I spoke with some of you only a few months ago. Let me announce more completely what I, back then, only intimated. I’m Carol, and I intend to spend some time in our little town. If you like, you can consider my resolve to continue my work here a sign of good faith. I remain unarmed and -- I assure you -- wholly peaceable. In this way, I hope I may have faith in you as well. After all, we are kin in a strange kind of way.

It is my duty -- as well as my pleasure -- to be Luceti’s liaison with the Organization. You must have many questions, concerns, and many many curses. Bring them to me, and we’ll see what can be done. We can talk here. But if any of you find the journals distasteful, you can also come have a seat with me at the sweet little tea shop. I’ll be there for the afternoon.

[As usual, this voiced post has a neatly typed 'written' section as well.

A thread with CJ can be found here.]

Comments

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"Homesick for something here that you couldn't find anywhere else? Even now, you still seem to have that feeling. But the people you would have known... they're all gone now, aren't they?"

[action]

[liaising]

"Many left while we were all here -- as happens now, with you and yours. But there are those of us who...well, we linger on. Don't we? Davis and I were both very young when we arrived during the first cycle of Luceti's last population. Like us, there were others who remained long after most left. Many of us have positions in the Organization, now."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"And... how long did it take you before you decided that joining the Organization was something you wanted to do? Especially after growing up here from a young age. In a sense, it was the only life you really knew, wasn't it?"

[action]

[liaising]

She nodded. Quiet -- reflective. But hardly private and keen to share her experience: "I was ten years old when I arrived. By the time my Luceti had reached its tenth cycle, I was a young woman. The Malnosso had seen fit to give me training and teaching and I saw fit, in turn, to make use of these skills. I can't say how long it took, exactly. Us Liaisons, we try to make it as gentle and as natural for you as possible. Take my dear friend Davis, for example. He joined the MSF a full two years before Luceti had matured. You have missions here, yes? In a way, the people who volunteer for them have already started down the same path I walked."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"You realize, though, that not everyone would see it that way. Even in the recent past, the experiments that the enclosure faced - and the actions of the rogues in the organization. One might argue that sending in a liaison now is like putting a band aid on an old battle-hardened scar."

She shakes her head. "In any case, I find that I am more... curious about your previous stay in Luceti. The idea that we're being guided down a path that was taken in the past - and with this world, it could be any number of pasts, to form what exists today - isn't exactly a comfortable one. Especially if, as you're implying, those of us who linger are more likely to become part of this very system we take so much issue with."

It strikes too uncomfortably close to home.

[action]

[liaising]

"They have every right to be suspicious of me. I understand that kind of resentment; I've felt it myself, in the past. I also won't lie and tell you that I don't still harbour misgivings about the very cause I serve. But I do hope to show by example that a person can work for one portion of an ideal without embracing it in total. For me? Being a steady and helpful presence for adolescent enclosures is worth hitching my proverbial wagon to the Organization's parade.

I believe the people who come from the place called Earth have a saying about this matter. Be the change."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"Indeed. Especially when it comes to perhaps changing something that's existed for thousands of years, if not more. Though you also have to wonder at the number of individuals who've gotten swallowed up by it along the way anyway... what time can do to a world, or groups of people, with promising mindsets and then lose them to despair or - worse. You just have to hope that what part you do now - and your individuality - will help the future."

By starting small. How eerily familiar this all was. And in a way it was nice - a way to get back in touch with herself after still shaking off that invasion.

"Although... I have another curiosity. You were the one who first told me about the Filial spirits, and even before all this happened, we had an unfortunate incident with them... while you were away. Might I ask what you know of it?"

[action]

[liaising]

"I know about Twila's release, though I didn't know about her existence at the time. She came as quite a surprise to me. She isn't exactly what I hoped would be found in those tunnels, but...she may yet have her use."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"I see... So, what were you hoping to find, if I may ask? If you weren't guiding us to stumbling on to them for ourselves..."

[action]

[liaising]

"...Davis and I -- we'd spent rather a long time trying to access those areas. Over the years, we'd come up with a dozen theories about what could be found. A way home -- naive, certainly. Or some method by which to ease the madness in the children born to this world. Anything. We wanted and wished and hoped for anything, Miss Sage, that might make life a little more bearable.

We never thought it might make it worse. Or perhaps we did, and didn't want to acknowledge those fears to each other."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"Well, digging into the unknown often comes with such disappointment. The question is, what more can we learn from it, and how can we find a better result from it. The spirits, at least, seem to be unique to our area... would you know any reason for that?"

[action]

[liaising]

"All I know for certain is that the other enclosures -- when they learn about it, usually on a joint mission or the like -- they can get very jealous."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"I see. And... do those who were here in the cycles before us still have the capability for using the magic once they've... elevated themselves within the Organization and have been sent from the enclosure?"

[action]

[liaising]

"I'm sure many would like to, but it's near impossible to maintain a relationship with the spirits when you're so far from their hallowed grounds. And yet..."

A slight pause. "I have to admit, it's one more reason why I'm excited to be back. My connection faded long ago."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"I see... so the connection does waver."

It was from Carol that she had learned in part about the spirits to begin with, but that was many years ago, and not nearly as many questions had been asked that perhaps, should have been. "John once said the spirits were drawn here just like any of us, but why do they keep only to this specific enclosure? Or is the enclosure itself intruding on grounds they had claimed for themselves to begin with..."

[action]

[liaising]

"I suppose the answer is further down into those tunnels -- after all, Twila sprung from there. Maybe answers will, too. I'm just as curious as you are."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"Perhaps so. It was said that Twila was kept down there even before John was with the Organization... but given the tunnels exist in their current state, who knows when they were originally created. Other enclosures seem to have tunnel systems as well, however. Just without the... spirits."

[action]

[liaising]

"It may only be conjecture, but I've always believed Luceti's tunnels eventually go deeper than Malnosso ruins. There must be something else waiting for us."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"A reason why they were digging down there to begin with, you mean." It was certainly a curiosity, fraught with dangerous possibilities. Portals to another dimension, perhaps one more hellish than this world itself? It wouldn't be a far thought, particularly with their experiences. "Depending on what else we might turn up down there, it's always a possibility. This world teaches you not to discount those."

[action]

[liaising]

"I confess, although I'm grateful to be posted to Luceti for other reasons -- the chance to watch you as you uncover the tunnels' mysterious is a little bit like...the gravy on the turkey dinner, if that's how the saying goes."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

"Well, I'm not too familiar with the saying myself, but I think I get what you mean. When you were in the tunnels before... were they pretty much the same as they are now? Or were they being utilized by the Organization at that time as well? When we discovered them, it seemed almost accidental, though now I wonder."

[action]

[liaising]

"We found them empty." She paused. "Have you seen the writing on the wall?"

[action]

[wise_maiden]

" ... Were you among those who had left it?"

Raine had spent a long time down there, copying as many of the cryptic lines down as possible. Even then, reading between the lines of what was said and what wasn't... secrets, children, paranoia, little glimpses of private lives of strangers. "The wall was dated as being in their seventh cycle."

[action]

[liaising]

She seemed to hesitate a moment before committing to her answer: "I was. But please, Raine, forgive me if I don't wish to be more specific. It was a different time, and I was performing a very different function."

[action]

[wise_maiden]

That's an odd way to phrase it, Raine thought, but did not say as she considered that response. If it had been made while Carol was still officially a part of the enclosure, she wouldn't have been 'performing' at all.

"I see. Is there anything you are willing to share about it? A direction with that information that we might pursue? Some of us are drawing close to that particular cycle number ourselves."