Post by Tempest on Jul 5, 2010 22:50:14 GMT -5
[After the table of contents, an introduction, and half of the first chapter, the actual journal starts. For all intents and purposes, the cover and the manual pages are very convincing.]
The Journal of Nikolai Dawes
I do not keep diaries or journals. Paper disintegrates in time, graphite and ink can fade, the binding loosen... Nor is it safe to make any proof of my existence. However, I cannot continue to Shift without risking my more important memories. The risk is worth it to hold on to where I come from and what I have discovered.
The latter is more important. I have discovered her. Centuries of loneliness and I have managed to stumble upon the one woman who can handle my fire. It was stupid of me to kiss her, but the value of what that kiss proved is incomparable. Martina Kandless is my treasure.
All I have to do now is convince her of that. She seems to think that having me in her life would change it, or that I would take something away from her. So far, all of our encounters have ended poorly. She suspended me from working at the school and now I am staying with another teacher. It was this other teacher that suggested I keep a journal. She would, though, since she's an English teacher.
I don't know how to classify this bond I share with Martina. I wish I knew others in my situation so I could ask. Mate comes to mind, as does treasure and life, but she will have nothing to do with me.
To see her again, I have signed up for a tournament the school is hosting for charity. I do not plan to win, but I need the excuse to be allowed back on campus to see her again. I hope that I can find whoever I am supposed to fight against to tell them that I do not wish to actually fight. The best scenario is one in which we both get out of it unscathed, but we put on a good show just to make it look like we took it seriously. The worst scenario is one in which my opponent either doesn't get a chance to speak with me or does not listen and manages to wound me. In this scenario, I wind up turning into a dragon and destroy everything and Martina is in danger.
I will strive to make sure that does not happen.
As for seeing Martina again... I do not know what to say to her when I do. I don't want to frighten her off, but it is getting difficult to maintain my distance. I have not kissed anyone else safely since before I became immortal.
I have had many names over the ages. So many that I find it difficult to remember my first. Alaric, or Aldric. It matters very little by now since anyone who ever knew me by such a name is long gone.
My family, like most, were subsistence farmers. It was a hard life and I saw many of my siblings die at young ages. Although we were relatively isolated, we sometimes had to go to the nearest village to trade for something we couldn't make ourselves. It was during one of these trips that I learned about the immortals.
In a time where disease, famine, and just plain bad luck killed off so many, immortality was the golden dream. I was blinded by my ambition and I bade my family farewell. I made the long journey to the mountains, where the Immortals supposedly lived. I had almost given up the search when I finally stumbled across them. At first, I thought that I was mad. I had run out of food by then and was completely lost.... so it was certainly likely.
After they had gotten me back to lucidity (took a couple weeks of rest and regular meals), they finally offered a deal. Immortality for my worldly possessions (at that time, I had nothing more than a knife and my clothing) and part of what made me human. Being young and impetuous, I agreed without understanding what I was getting myself into.
The ceremony was scheduled for the night of the next full moon. My memories of that night are piecemeal. It was exciting to wear a white tunic and walk, surrounded by others wearing white, to a sacred clearing. It was exhilarating to learn the ritual incantation, to look up at the moon.
To see a dragon. It was at this point that I realized that something was wrong. I recall panicking and the ritual being completed through a haze of pain and fear. My human self was burnt away with dragon fire and the fire remained. I don't remember much about the year or so after that night.
I do remember waking up in a village and finding that I had completely destroyed it. The taste of burnt blood lingered in my mouth, my naked body covered in ash and still more blood. Footprints... my dragon footprints collected rainwater as the storm began. I fled from that place and I remained in hiding until I figured out what I had truly become.
From then on, things got easier. I became better at lying, better at changing names and occupations. Other than the desperate loneliness one feels when one cannot create permanent bonds to those around him, I was content. On a couple of occasions, my libido (those urges don't go away even though I'm technically not really human anymore) got me into trouble. I kissed a couple women, they got horribly maimed or killed, and I learned to be celibate.
Then Martina came along. She's beautiful, confident, smart. And I'm absolutely terrified that she will disappear. It would be a cruel joke to let me glimpse what I've been missing for centuries just to take it away.
I grow weary of writing.
[The next page has instructions for a DIY project.]
The Journal of Nikolai Dawes
I do not keep diaries or journals. Paper disintegrates in time, graphite and ink can fade, the binding loosen... Nor is it safe to make any proof of my existence. However, I cannot continue to Shift without risking my more important memories. The risk is worth it to hold on to where I come from and what I have discovered.
The latter is more important. I have discovered her. Centuries of loneliness and I have managed to stumble upon the one woman who can handle my fire. It was stupid of me to kiss her, but the value of what that kiss proved is incomparable. Martina Kandless is my treasure.
All I have to do now is convince her of that. She seems to think that having me in her life would change it, or that I would take something away from her. So far, all of our encounters have ended poorly. She suspended me from working at the school and now I am staying with another teacher. It was this other teacher that suggested I keep a journal. She would, though, since she's an English teacher.
I don't know how to classify this bond I share with Martina. I wish I knew others in my situation so I could ask. Mate comes to mind, as does treasure and life, but she will have nothing to do with me.
To see her again, I have signed up for a tournament the school is hosting for charity. I do not plan to win, but I need the excuse to be allowed back on campus to see her again. I hope that I can find whoever I am supposed to fight against to tell them that I do not wish to actually fight. The best scenario is one in which we both get out of it unscathed, but we put on a good show just to make it look like we took it seriously. The worst scenario is one in which my opponent either doesn't get a chance to speak with me or does not listen and manages to wound me. In this scenario, I wind up turning into a dragon and destroy everything and Martina is in danger.
I will strive to make sure that does not happen.
As for seeing Martina again... I do not know what to say to her when I do. I don't want to frighten her off, but it is getting difficult to maintain my distance. I have not kissed anyone else safely since before I became immortal.
I have had many names over the ages. So many that I find it difficult to remember my first. Alaric, or Aldric. It matters very little by now since anyone who ever knew me by such a name is long gone.
My family, like most, were subsistence farmers. It was a hard life and I saw many of my siblings die at young ages. Although we were relatively isolated, we sometimes had to go to the nearest village to trade for something we couldn't make ourselves. It was during one of these trips that I learned about the immortals.
In a time where disease, famine, and just plain bad luck killed off so many, immortality was the golden dream. I was blinded by my ambition and I bade my family farewell. I made the long journey to the mountains, where the Immortals supposedly lived. I had almost given up the search when I finally stumbled across them. At first, I thought that I was mad. I had run out of food by then and was completely lost.... so it was certainly likely.
After they had gotten me back to lucidity (took a couple weeks of rest and regular meals), they finally offered a deal. Immortality for my worldly possessions (at that time, I had nothing more than a knife and my clothing) and part of what made me human. Being young and impetuous, I agreed without understanding what I was getting myself into.
The ceremony was scheduled for the night of the next full moon. My memories of that night are piecemeal. It was exciting to wear a white tunic and walk, surrounded by others wearing white, to a sacred clearing. It was exhilarating to learn the ritual incantation, to look up at the moon.
To see a dragon. It was at this point that I realized that something was wrong. I recall panicking and the ritual being completed through a haze of pain and fear. My human self was burnt away with dragon fire and the fire remained. I don't remember much about the year or so after that night.
I do remember waking up in a village and finding that I had completely destroyed it. The taste of burnt blood lingered in my mouth, my naked body covered in ash and still more blood. Footprints... my dragon footprints collected rainwater as the storm began. I fled from that place and I remained in hiding until I figured out what I had truly become.
From then on, things got easier. I became better at lying, better at changing names and occupations. Other than the desperate loneliness one feels when one cannot create permanent bonds to those around him, I was content. On a couple of occasions, my libido (those urges don't go away even though I'm technically not really human anymore) got me into trouble. I kissed a couple women, they got horribly maimed or killed, and I learned to be celibate.
Then Martina came along. She's beautiful, confident, smart. And I'm absolutely terrified that she will disappear. It would be a cruel joke to let me glimpse what I've been missing for centuries just to take it away.
I grow weary of writing.
[The next page has instructions for a DIY project.]