Hlaine’s journal
Day 1
I’ve decided to start the count from scratch. Not much point in keeping a running tally I think. It has now been a solid 2 decades of wandering about, trying to find some kind of connection to what I witnessed on that fateful day. I wish I could call this an adventure but so far it has mostly been a fruitless search, more a series of barely connected voyages rather than one grand, interconnected journey.
I’ve met a couple of others who share my goal over the years. It’s hard to recognize each other, but from time to time we just know when we’re in the same place. Is it some kind of connection we share, or just random happenstance? Regardless, nothing fruitful came of those encounters either, it seems all of us search in our own way and for our reasons. We share no defined brotherhood, no creed, only the relentless hunger to once again behold that which we once experienced.
I’m currently en route to some kind of gigantic ship. Makers unknown, origin unknown, purpose unknown, functions unknown. A perfect enigma. Seems as good a place as any to find a connection to something that cannot be adequately described by words. My fellow travelers seem to be an alright lot, though unfortunately it seems none share my hunger. So far the old martial arts master has been the most friendly of the bunch, meaning that we’ve had one or two short conversations. These years of fruitless wandering haven’t really left me a people person.
Anyway, we’re about to arrive. Here goes nothing. May I behold It, whose presence drowns out all senses.
Going to be brief today. We took our first steps after disembarking. We headed towards the overgrown engine, me, the old sifu, and a couple of others who were on the shuttle. Turns out it isn’t merely overgrown, there’s actually an entire ecosystem growing around it. Plants, animal, insects the size of my forearm. Quite amazing, really.
My enjoyment of our new surroundings was cut rather short by me going violently ill for a hot second. I swear, it felt like my heart stopped, or like I was having a stroke. And then after, I’m exhausted and sore all over, but I’m feeling mostly fine again. Weirdly, when I look at objects there’s this weird feeling in the back of my skull that I could….reach out and pick them up, but somehow without actually touching them?
I’m going out on a limb here, but it must be that Nim’s parasite I ate several months ago. I came across a shady merchant when I was traversing a rather nasty slum, looking for a hedonist cult that I’ve already forgotten the name of. They weren’t anything special, I’ve had better orgies. Anyhow, the guy sold me the egg for several hundred credits, said it could bestow wonderful powers upon their users. At the time I felt like it was worth a shot to see if it was connected to that which drowns out all senses, and frankly, I was just hungry. I remember having a splitting headache and real bad diarrhea for days after eating that thing, thought afterwards it must have just been a bad century egg or something. But now I’m left to wonder if that weird merchant was actually telling the truth?