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.

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[For all Daria knows, he goes to school with bunches of other talking animals. And Mother Goose as a teacher. Why not.]

You sound about as excited by it as I was.

[You can go on assuming something like that.]

Was yours that bad?

It was a high school. By definition, that's bad. I'm hoping they're right when they say college gets better. [She was supposed to find out for herself before Luceti happened.]

Mm.

[It's a worldly "mm", possibly implying that of course he is familiar with high schools, but hadn't really noticed that his own was perhaps a bit more tolerable than average.]

What are you planning to study?

I guess that depends on where I'm accepted. I'd like to study writing. [But she doesn't have anywhere near the confidence to put herself out there to try that.]

What kind of writing?

[He's not sure what this means, to be honest.]

I've tried short stories before... they didn't work so well for awhile. Writer's block. I guess I'd keep working on that, or try a novel.

[Oh. Writing.]

Do you think you'll work on it here?

I don't know... Don't these journals show it to everyone else? [Noooot comfortable with that. Not in the least.]

[An awkward half-laugh, because yeah, he has seen things like that happen.]

You can get normal notebooks in the stores.

That's a start, at least. I'll check it out. [If she does write, though...]

From what people say, you can't take it with you, though, right?

[...]

No. You won't remember having written it.

On the other hand, it's still practice. And nobody else will see it, either.

And you'll still enjoy it, right?

As long as I'm just doing it on my own, yeah.

[It's showing it to friends, or even worse as a school assignment, that she gets caught in horrible writer's block and uncertainty instead.

Should have seen the one where her best friend ran off to marry the school quarterback...]

Be careful with it. Things have a way of getting unintentionally shared around here.

I've noticed that sometimes. So I think I'll take your advice about the written journal instead. All I have to worry about then is keeping it hidden from prying eyes.

No, I mean everything. You never know when an experiment might compel you to share things you normally wouldn't.

[She... hadn't thought of that.]

So how do we avoid that? [Not that she has a shot of earning a barcode patch even if someone tells her about them. She has no skills or experience that would help on most missions.]

Locks and good hiding places are sometimes effective.

Wouldn't I just unlock anything I locked away if I was in some sort of fugue state?

Possibly, but at least you would make it more difficult for yourself. Intelligence and memory often suffer in experiments.

Those are two of the few things I have around here. [The second she even starts accepting Luceti's weirdness, she has to accept that she's normal. Powerless. Insignificant. In danger. She doesn't want to consider that.]

Tell me about it.

[Seriously. He's been living it for almost three years.]

I don't think your 'malnosso' are all that sharp, though. Between me here, and bringing Quinn.

[No, really. There's nothing remarkable about them - two teenage girls from everywhere, USA.]

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