Sixty-Fifth Theory [Video]

[i_speak_softly]

[The video feed clicks on, and Don looks thoughtfully at the camera for a moment before speaking.]

Another Christmas in Luceti.

[His tone is direct, just stating a fact, but somewhere behind it is a note of melancholy.]

This is my third. All of them have been in this house. All of them have been with different people.

[He slides back from the journal, revealing a corner of his winter room. He's been gradually moving into it over the past week, and has more or less taken up residence now.]

I've seen a lot of people come and go. There probably aren't many left who remember when Luceti didn't have electricity.

[He picks up some small bit of tech and squints at it.]

When I arrived here, the drafts were just starting. There were no missions. The Battle Dome didn't exist. We didn't have a farm and there was a desert where the ocean is now.

[He carefully threads a length of wire through a hole in the tech part.]

The buildings were shorter. Some of the stores and restaurants weren't open. [A pause.] I think I'm forgetting things...

[The wire slides through, and he knots the loose ends to form a loop.]

Does anyone remember other things that have changed? Or, does anyone want a history lesson? I'll be here all day.

Comments

[so irritating]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don is kneeling on the floor, surveying the mass of tech-parts-on-strings and origami figures that has accumulated around him while he was talking to people. He hasn't yet noticed his visitor.]

[irritate ALL the boyfriends]

[semper_cogitans]

[Perhaps Robert will need to make himself noticeable then.

Or he could just sidle in there with his rudimentary ninja-ing skills... nah, probably a bad idea.]

... hello, Don...

... Am I interrupting?

[/puts up with]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don looks up, and smiles brightly.]

Not at all. Come in. [He pushes the pile aside, making room on the floor.] Behave yourself; the video is still on.

[you're too good to him]

[semper_cogitans]

[He'll behave himself, don't worry.

Robert crosses the short distance to the floor and sits there, drawing his legs up underneath him primly in a sort of seiza. It's almost automatic at this point.]

Your topic on the journals is... quite interesting. [Said as he studies the pile of origami-and-technological-bits.] ... Would you be... amenable to sharing some history with me, as well...?

[Yes, he may have asked already, but... he'd like to learn more.]

[i_speak_softly]

Eavesdropping, Robert? [He doesn't really mind, aside from being a little disappointed that you decided to do your listening from another room.] What kind of history are you interested in?

[semper_cogitans]

[A sheepish look.] N-Not... not deliberately. I just happened to... hear your broadcast while I was working in my own room...

... and this is... why I am here. [So he could ask straight from the source.] I would like to know more about... what Luceti was like, when you first arrived.

[He is indeed sensitive to the fact that the topic might be... difficult. But he's curious anyway, and if Don will indulge it...]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don studies Robert for a moment, and decides to give him a more personal version of Luceti history than what he told other people.]

[He reaches over to close the journal.]

Let me tell you about my first day in Luceti.

[semper_cogitans]

[That was more than he was hoping for. Rather than answer verbally, Robert sits back a little and looks up, into Don's face, with a look that says "go on".]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don resettles, looking at the floor and thinking before he begins.]

I was working on the train car I had brought home not long before - I think you have seen it. I fell asleep. I woke up in a library. This was very exciting for me, but also scary, because there were many humans. Some of them were there, in the library, and some of them talked to me through a book that had my name on it.

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert listens quietly, not wanting to interrupt. He tries to picture it in his head - the interior of the library, perhaps smaller and less furnished than it is now, and Don - fresh from his home, in a completely unfamiliar place and completely exposed.

The scientist knits his fingers gently, and nods.]

[i_speak_softly]

One of the people on the journal was Raph. He was very worried about me, though I didn't know why. He came to get me and bring me home. At the time all of my brothers were here and living in an apartment. They had no electricity. I assumed they were going without because they don't know how to connect wiring. I - didn't want to believe otherwise.

[semper_cogitans]

[This gets a visible wince out of Robert, for more than one reason. All of his brothers... but, no electricity whatsoever...?]

... I suppose it... did not t-take long to find out.

[i_speak_softly]

I took apart some walls, but no, I couldn't deny it very long.

There were no cars, no sewers, no tall buildings, and no junkyards. I didn't know what to do with myself.

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert understands this feeling all too well. It's the same uprooted, drifting feeling he had at first in Luceti, without the scientific community to back him.]

What did you do...?

[i_speak_softly]

[Don smiles awkwardly - he's never told Robert about this before.]

Well... a few days after I arrived here, I went on a date.

[semper_cogitans]

[Oh, this is interesting.]

With whom...? [He doesn't seem upset, at least? Curious, mostly.]

[i_speak_softly]

[The innocent smile grows a little wider.]

With Winry.

[semper_cogitans]

[Well then.]

What did you... do? [Not accusatory. He still sounds like he's asking about any other neutral topic. But part of him does... wonder.]

[i_speak_softly]

She showed me how to check out library books and how to make filters on the journal. She gave me some of her blueprints for automail. We ... talked.

[semper_cogitans]

[... Robert smiles almost nostalgically at this.]

... Fascinating that... one of our first meetings was... also at the library.

[And Don showed Robert how to take library books out. Seems like the library is a good place to pick up nerds.]

... Talked...?

[i_speak_softly]

[Maybe Don won't tell Robert the whole history of how he met Winry.]

[He shrugs.]

Talked. She offered to make me a prosthetic limb, if I ever needed one.

[semper_cogitans]

[Aw, Don, you don't need to hide your secret library trysts.]

Let us... hope that is never necessary.

[Getting off that topic for the time being...]

What else happened at that time, if... you can recall?

[i_speak_softly]

There was a town meeting, to talk about the war that had just been announced. That was the beginning of the drafts. Professor Sage organized the meeting; she's been here longer than I have.

[semper_cogitans]

[The beginning of the drafts... Robert makes a small, wondering sound.]

... Were there... a-any attacks before this that... Luceti was made aware of?

[i_speak_softly]

Um... I heard there was an invasion of the village, but I don't know much about it. I'm no expert on the history of the war either.