i_speak_softly | Sixty-Fifth Theory [Video]

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Think that goes for just about everyone.

[He groans.]

You'd think they'd get bored of it after a while.

Not to defend their actions, but - scientists don't get bored of doing experiments.

Wishful thinking, I guess.

Still, there has to be some kind of experimentation they could do besides grabbing us from the village. By now, you'd think they'd have gotten enough results to try something different.

I wish they would just tell us what they're looking for...

Yeah, getting answers out of them is like pulling teeth. They're probably intentionally cryptic.

[Don laughs - there's no point in taking this too seriously.]

I'm Donatello, by the way.

Name's Riku.

[...Heh.]

Funny how you can still meet new people even among the older crowd.

[Then again, people do tend to stick to their niches. Riku's probably at least seen the turtles over the journals, but even if he hadn't, it's not like he wasn't best buds with a talking mouse.]

Does that happen a lot? I thought it was just me.

Nah, I think it can happen to anybody.

[He shrugs.]

It's not like we can keep track of everyone in the village.

True. Sometimes I think we should organize a way of making sure everyone knows everyone, but anything we could do after that feels pointless.

Well, and some people might not want to know everyone. It's unfortunate, but I've met people here who feel uncomfortable around those of us from drastically different worlds, so they just avoid what they can't grasp.