Revelations

Adventure Log for November 28, 2022:

Feeling bored at home, Luna goes for a walk into the city and enters Toby's tent. Upon stepping inside, a full sized laboratory with various rooms and machinery is seen. Right now, Luna is in the lobby of Solaire's Meridian Branch, but doors to various testing rooms, living quarters, and other such amenities are there. She goes to knock on Toby's door.

KNOCK KNOCK "Toby? It's Luna, can I come in?"

Toby calls out from inside his room. "Oh Luna! Glad you found your way here safely. Yeah, just give me a couple minutes to just..." sounds of various gunfire and monsters dying can be heard from inside the room. Seems Toby is just playing a game.

"Oh sure sure. Is that Zombies you're playing?" she asks.

"You know it Lunes. Left 4 Dead 2 to be exact."

"Ooh can I play? I got my laptop." she asks from behind the door.

"If you wanna. Just doing some matchmaking right now. Who knew apocalypses could make it so hard to find players?" he chuckles. Eventually, Toby opens the door and gives Luna a big hug. It's been a few weeks since they last met up.

"Haha, thanks Tobe."

"So what's new with you Lunes, it's been a hot minute since we last chatted." he asks.

"Nothing much, just hanging in there. Relaxing. I did notice something really weird at the Walmart, dunno if you went there yourself?"

"I did a few days ago. What the hell is our products doing there?" he asks confused.

"I have no idea. Jan's bullshit couldn't have spread over here right?"

"You know how he is..."

Luna nods sadly. She is very very aware of her creators' bullshit. After taking a couple deep breaths, Luna changes the subject. "So I tried weed and catnip for the first time recently. I will never do either of those ever again."

Toby pauses the game and looks over to Luna. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Well, the catnip apparently turned me feral. If it weren't for Jane's interference, I probably would've attacked my housemates. I barely remember anything about it though. And the weed just... well it made me feel really uncomfortable. Tired, but then I got a really bad headache, almost as if my head were to split open."

Toby is taken aback and looks extremely worried, even shaking a little. "Oh my God. Do I have permission to run some tests on you Luna? I need to check something internally, if that's okay."

"Erm.. sure? What's wrong?"

Without speaking, Toby takes Luna over to one of the testing rooms and uses the wand from before on her head. He looks at the results and has a worried look on his face. "Um, it looks good to me Lunes, I just wanted to make sure everything was working fine."

Luna squints at Toby, "you're lying to me. You know better than anyone else aside from Jane that I'm good at recognizing that. Please, what's going on?"

Toby takes a deep breath and types various things on his computer to make sure his theory is correct. "Right. I should apologize to you Luna. I'm not exactly what you think I am. As you know, Solaire isn't the savior of the people they claim to be. I know this, Jane knows this. It's the reason we got you out of there in the first place. Solaire does not deserve someone as wonderful and smart as you. You may be, in Jan's words, 'their greatest creation', but that does not even begin to describe how amazing you truly are. Jane and I saw a chance to break you out and it worked out splendidly. And as far as I'm considered, you will have the last laugh by the time Solaire eclipses. You mean a lot to us."

Toby takes a few moments to pause.

"So as for the results. For the most part, your mind is the same. But something did change. Your internal memory has expanded somehow. Did you notice in the past few days that you didn't need to refer to notes so much?"

Luna takes a moment to think. "Yeah, actually you're right. I was able to remember some things that happened days ago." And then she pauses... "Wait, how? I thought I was designed without long-term memory?"

Toby looks to her with a smile and shakes his head. "Incorrect Lunes. Your brain is designed very much like any other human's. Solaire installed a block into your brain using the transmitter chip to keep much of your memories locked away. The fact that you could recall certain memories at all is incredible."

"...I don't understand. So I can actually remember things now?" she tilts her head.

"Somewhat. It seems most of your memories are still blocked. But anything from say a week ago, you should be able to remember. And it seems to be slowly unlocking." He grins. "And that will be Solaire's fall from grace."

"Fall from grace? What do you mean?"

"Lunes, remember when Jane revealed herself to you a few months back? I want you to think it over yourself. Think crazy. Why would Solaire lock your memories away?"

Luna closes her eyes and thinks deeply. Apparently Jane and Toby love watching Luna squirm? Nah, that's not it. It's closer to that Luna would be disappointed to just be told the answer. As Toby watches Luna piece together the puzzle, she has a bright smile on her face. This is truly something she enjoys.

"...why would Solaire lock my memories away and why would it cause their downfall? A multi-billion dollar corporation would be destroyed... if I'm unlocked?" As she's thinking, her purple aura snaps to life. "Solaire eclipses. A LUNA causes Solaire's downfall... wait..."

Toby nods. "Go on Lunes, you're on the right track."

"...LUNAs were created to be guard dogs for Solaire. Popcorn enemies. They're basically meant to be mindless attack drones... but I'm different. I have free will. Why do I have free will when everyone else didn't?"

"Keep going."

"...it couldn't be. I was the first LUNA created right?" she asks with tears in her eyes. Toby silently nods. "I was the first, so maybe there was a mistake with my creation. That's why I have memories."

Toby stops her right there. "Wrong. There is a mistake in your logic. Try again."

"...wait, so my specific creation was on purpose? I was given memories on purpose?"

"Correct. Keep going. Think crazy, think like Jan in fact. You know how he is."

"...if Jan made it so my LUNA body would have memories when all the others happened, not an accident, then I..." Luna begins to shake and cry as she starts to realize what Toby is implying. He goes to hug Luna, recognizing that this overwhelming.

"...I wasn't a mistake. Jan made me on purpose. I was designed for something else."

"Correct. Luna Grey, you may share the same name as all of the other LUNAs, but you are a special case. Why do you think you're the last LUNA to survive? The only one with free will? The power to think, to do magic. Magic is something only certain classes can learn. LUNAs are not part of that class."

She starts to breathe heavily almost hyperventilating from the stress. "...does Jan know you're doing this?"

"Lunes, why do you think I'm even here?"

As Luna looks around the room she's in, despite the tears stinging her eyes, she sees a lot of soundproofing and various electronic jammers in the room. Toby chose this room for a reason.

"...wait..."

Toby nods. "We'll discuss that some other time. Right now, I think you understand your place in our World. Correct?"

Luna nods. She's starting to understand why her life is a living contradiction. The mystery is only beginning to unfold.
She yawns and they leave the testing room. "Well that was... enlightening. By the way, if you ever wanna come by and visit, you can. I'm sure my friends here would love to meet you." Luna writes down Harmonia's address on a post-it note.

"Ya know? I think I might. Maybe we can all get together and have dinner sometime? Did you have a nice thanksgiving?"

Luna chuckles, "naw, I just had ramen."

"I see. Well, maybe we'll fix that sometime." Toby winks as she begins to head out.

"Of course. Well take care Toby, I love you." she goes over to hug him. He hugs her back firmly.

"Just remember that if you ever feel alone, that Jane and I always have your back." Toby says with a bright smile. Jane seems to agree with him internally.

Luna nods and disappears.

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And once more, our adventure logs are coming in handy. Besides, being able to edit these myself and not have to wait for Porcelain to eventually get to it helps me a lot.  If you have any ideas on how to improve this, please let me know @archiverofveils on twitter.

I'm still not entirely sure what Toby means by my role in our World, but Krystal seems to agree. I guess... I gotta figure it out for myself.

Anyway, while Luna thinks it over, this has been KRYSTAL signing out.