Luceti Appointments

[i_speak_softly]

Need a thread with Don, but don't have a post for it and don't feel like starting one? Stick it here. Please note date, time of day, location, and any relevant circumstances.

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[semper_cogitans]

...

[In a voice that is surprisingly small and tremulous:] I... d-do not know.

[i_speak_softly]

[Now that is a sign that something is seriously wrong.]

Okay. [Don rubs the ridge between his eyes.] What do you need right now?

[semper_cogitans]

[Good question.] I... there has to be an e-explanation, for this. Some... rational explanation for... the u-unusual memory lapses here...

[Cue one fretting scientist. Is there something he's forgetting? Is it everyone else? Both? It's hard to tell, with the absence of information.]

... What do you remember, Don...? You... seemed to th-think I was here...

[i_speak_softly]

[He'll start with the mundane.]

Last night we ate dinner and went to bed. I had a strange dream, and in the morning you were gone, but all your things were here so I went for a run as usual.

[semper_cogitans]

[That sounds... well, normal. And it's completely unlike what Robert remembers.]

... A... strange dream...?

... What exactly d-do you mean? [Knowing Luceti, perhaps it's not just a dream.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don moves towards the kitchen, expecting Robert will follow. The man didn't ask for anything other than information, but a meal and a hot drink rarely go amiss.]

I dreamed that I was back home. My family was there.

[A meditative pause as he begins to assemble something to eat.]

So were you.

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert follows, half-consciously - the steps retrace themselves in his mind, and anyway he's curious as to what Don is saying - as Don drifts kitchenward. But this new info makes him pause, thoughtfully.]

... I was?

[This isn't something that's supposed to be possible. But maybe... something bizarre happened, heretofore unprecedented, in Luceti? It's not the most logical thought, and indeed Robert would want more proof than a dream... but he has learned that unusual circumstances are actually likely in Luceti.]

[i_speak_softly]

Mm. But you could only speak Terran.

[He sets a cup of tea on the table, precisely, then turns back to the stove.]

It was one of those dreams that seemed to go on for a long time.

[semper_cogitans]

[Fascinating, and a bit disturbing in light of... everything.]

Were there any other n-notable features about this dream...?

[i_speak_softly]

It was... very realistic.

[He sets a steaming bowl of vegetable soup in front of Robert, then sits opposite him, folding his arms on the table.]

Too realistic.

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert doesn't immediately begin to eat. Instead, he focuses on Don's face, searching it for anything he can find.]

... Do you feel as if... p-perhaps it may have truly happened? Or something else...?

If something happened to t-time itself in Luceti... perhaps a m-multiversion... [It's unlikely, but maybe?]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don patiently accepts the scrutiny, trying to school his expression into something Robert can understand.]

I don't know. Buffy told me... [He trails off, furrows his brow, scratches his snout.] Listen, Robert... if you left Luceti, what time of year was it when you left?

I actually had to check for this. lol Robert's memory

[semper_cogitans]

December. It was December... [A moment later, after his gaze goes a little faraway:] The last day I remember was the... the e-eighteenth.

[And that... was a year ago. Almost two, now.]

[i_speak_softly]

[To Don, this is still only half of an answer.]

What day is today?

[semper_cogitans]

The twentieth of... N-November. If my journal is correct.

[And they didn't go back in time, so...]

[i_speak_softly]

[Indeed. A definite anomaly.]

Do you... remember being gone?

[semper_cogitans]

I... do not so much r-recall being gone as I recall... ceasing to have active memory of Luceti.

... I remember... b-bizarre dreams... involving you, now that I remember o-once more... perhaps it was Luceti memory, attempting to be retained? I thought nothing of it at the time, but... [He frowns heavily.] I believe I was taken from roughly the same time period in my own world, though. I cannot recall anything new in my memories.

[i_speak_softly]

[With one finger, Don traces the grain of the tabletop. What they had feared had happened: one of them was sent home. And yet it seems to have made hardly a blip on either of their radars.]

If you were gone for a year, but I remember you being here, did those things not really happen?

[semper_cogitans]

[That is something that Robert has been asking himself.]

... Is it... p-possible that both happened...?

[By way of explanation:] Ms. Daisy... raised the p-possibility that some sort of multiversion has been... created, here in L-Luceti. That... perhaps spacetime itself has been altered.

[i_speak_softly]

[With a faint note of alarm:] But then which you are you?

[If he doesn't remember last night... what else is missing from his memories?]

[Is it possible that both multiversions of Robert are now running around Luceti?]

[semper_cogitans]

[Possible. And alarming, if so.]

... How d-do you suppose I could tell? [This is rapidly getting metaphysical.]

[i_speak_softly]

[In response, Don moves his chair around the table to sit at Robert's side. From this position, he can study his lover's face closely but somewhat discreetly.]

Do you remember the eighteenth kata, or the observatory we built, or what we're planning to do for your birthday?

[semper_cogitans]

No... [None of those things ever happened yet, for him. His sadness, his feeling of loss at these things not being his - it shows in the slight, restrained quiver of his jaw.

But he is trying to keep himself calm. These memories were not his to lose.]

[i_speak_softly]

But you remember me. [That much is clear. Though... maybe it wasn't the same him either.]

[Distracting himself momentarily from these imponderables to deal with simpler matters, he nudges Robert's elbow.]

Please eat.

[semper_cogitans]

[... Okay, Turtle. A little mechanically, Robert begins to eat the food Don's so meticulously prepared for him. It's easy to tell that he's hungry, but he also has to force himself to eat rather than focus on something else...]