#luteces

look what finally arrived!!! I absolutely love that the faces of Lutece coin are mirrors of each other instead of being oriented and laid out the same. also "lives, lived, will live" & "dies, died, will die" in latin is the absolute cherry on top omg

they're so heavy and thick and fun to flip and I have not stopped doing so all night long

the only negative is that I was immensely disappointed to discover that the Lutece coin makes a very unsatisfying & quiet noise when flipped and the silver eagles makes almost none at all :(

I love them 🥹

Continuing with my BioShock/Sinking City crossover, we’re going into the time period between BioShock and BioShock 2, 1960-1968, as the Jolene family (Jack took his mother’s last name) live their lives in the strange city of Oakmont, Massachusetts.

After getting settled into their new place in the Grimhaven Bay lighthouse and into his job as the lighthouse keeper, Jack begins looking into the remnants of his father’s company, Ryan Industries, on the surface. Using documents and connections obtained from Tenenbaum, he begins taking these pieces of his father’s legacy and putting them back together. Another gift he inherited from Andrew Ryan’s genetic code was a gift for finances, and he intends on using this gift.

Along with helping the former Little Sisters to adjust to the surface (and aiding the orphanage staff in caring for them), Tenenbaum also begins studying the “Innsmouth Look”, a genetic condition exhibited by the “Innsmouthers” and passed along to their descendants, and the strange genetic compositions of the “Wylebeasts”. Despite her promise to utilize proper ethics in her research, Jack and Liz keep an eye on her anyway.

In November of 1962, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Jack and Elizabeth finally got married. With the world having just escaped nuclear war and holocaust, they both figured that it was time that they tied the knot. Charles gave Elizabeth away, Tenenbaum was the maid of honor, and Sally, Masha, Leta, Annabelle, and Daisy were the flower girls. Robert and Rosalind Lutece made an appearance as witnesses.

On November 22, 1963, both Jack, Elizabeth, and Tenenbaum were in Dallas, Texas, having gotten a former, adopted Little Sister out of a bad situation. Rather than head home to Oakmont, they decided to stick around and see the President. When Liz saw movement in a dark window, she used Peeping Tom to see what it was. To her horror, she saw not one, not two, but THREE would-be shooters, all at different vantage points, all them waiting to take out JFK.

She alerted Jack and Tenenbaum, and the three of them went into action. Between Tenenbaum’s experience in skull-drudgery and stealth, Liz’s invisibility, and Jack’s strength, the three shooters were thwarted before they could kill JFK. The trio stayed long enough to see the would-be assassins carted off by the authorities before they left to catch their flight.

A little while later, the nation was shaken to its core by the arrests of multiple figures in the military, the CIA, and the government itself, including Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Turns out, while one of the shooters, Lee Harvey Oswald, was a lone wolf acting on his own, the other two were sent by the CIA and the US military to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in a plot to prevent his interference in pursuing their own agendas.

Jack, Liz, and Tenenbaum were contacted shortly afterwards by the Kennedy’s themselves. In private, John and Jacqueline Kennedy thanked Jack and Elizabeth Jolene and Brigid Tenenbaum for saving his life. The two families strike up a friendship which aids them both greatly; the Jolenes have the ear of the Kennedy family and their connections, while Jack provides a better example for John to follow in his relationship with his wife.

In the fall of 1964, Elizabeth begins her studies at Oakmont University. About the same time, the Paris Peace Accords ended the Vietnam War, dividing the country into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Hailed as a hero for peacefully bringing the Vietnam War to a close, JFK is re-elected to a second term in the 1964 election.

In 1965, Liz gives birth to her and Jack’s first biological child. They decide to name the healthy boy, “Booker DeWitt Jolene”, after Liz’s dad and first friend. Masha, Leta, Sally, Annabelle, and Daisy are enamored with their new baby brother. Tenenbaum wonders aloud which, if any, of Jack and Liz’s plasmids and gene tonics were passed along to Booker; she is expressively forbidden from trying to figure out.

In 1966, Jack’s efforts to bring Ryan Industries back from the dead finally pay off. While just a ghost of its former self, the money generated from his father’s old company allows Jack to quit his job as a lighthouse keeper and buy the old Blackgate Manor. Before moving his wife, daughters, and son into it though, he spends a day clearing it of the strange creatures that took up residence following the Flood.

One night in 1967, Jack stumbles across a tall, gangly, helmeted and suited figure attempting to make off with a little girl. He finds himself in a fight for his life as his plasmids surprise his opponent more than anything else. Jack is able to rescue the little girl, but the diver escapes back into the ocean. The resemblance between the helmeted figure and the Big Daddies of Rapture is too much to ignore.

A little research, and Jack, Liz, and Tenenbaum realize the horrible truth: There are little girls disappearing from coastal towns and cities all along the Atlantic, and everything points to it originating from Rapture. Andrew Ryan’s Dream, turned Nightmare, has coming back.

Using the connections he’s made and the money he’s acquired, Jack begins putting together an expedition to go to Rapture and stop whoever has been kidnapping little girls. He’s hesitant to let Liz and Brigid come with, but between their protests, Liz’s stealth capabilities, and Brigid’s knowledge of Rapture and of ADAM, he accepts they’re are coming with.

In November of 1968, Jack and Co. reach out to Mark Meltzer, the only man who seems to connected the dots (e.g., the disappearing girls, the strange, underwater lights, and the sightings of the “Mariner”), only to learn that he has vanished. Suspecting that Meltzer is on his way to Rapture, and having finally lost her patience, Tenenbaum steals the submersible that Jack had made for the mission and sets off on a one-woman quest to stop the kidnappings.

In response, Jack and Liz accelerate the efforts to get the rescue mission underway. They were plenty motivated when they were just going out to stop the kidnappings and rescue the girls. Now, it’s personal; they have a friend to save, from herself and from Rapture.

As Thanksgiving approaches, Jack and Liz say goodbye to their daughters and son before departing. As their ship, the Mary Catherine Jolene, approaches the Lighthouse, Liz calls out to Jack from the bow of the ship, telescope in hand. Something just surfaced not far from the Lighthouse, and there’s movement on it.