malnosso | [Locked to Luceti Residents]

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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..."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

" ... 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."

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."

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."

"I can't profess to know what every one else was thinking when they wrote their messages. But it might be a good idea to start considering what you would write."

That line stops her questions hard. There had been the mural projects, but something like that - a message that future people coming to the enclosure might stumble upon once she was gone from it, by one means or another -

a very sobering thought, indeed. She gives a short, almost nervous laugh.

"... you may be right about that."

And what even to say, on such a record? Some of what had previously been written had seemed nonsensical, others very personal notes that only they would understand, looking back. Advice. The wall seemed to tell of a darker history, much like the one they had experienced before their understanding was broadened. And even then, things were still dark, the situation no closer to being solved.

"We still have a few years to go. Think anything else will change much?"

Another question to consider carefully. She took her time. "In a few years, I think each individual may change a lot. But the larger circumstances? I'm afraid that may take much longer."

"And in the end, we're limited as to what we can do. We have those doors, if nothing else, but..." She shakes her head. "Well. It's certainly a lot to think about. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me like this."

[Locked to Luceti Residents]

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