012 || [text]
[private || off-network || unhackable]
It has been three months and six days since I was pulled in here. That's three months and six days too long, in my opinion. I feel utterly useless here, my professional expertise means nothing in a place where people do not stay dead. It's probably in bad form to miss deceased, decomposed people. Not that I wish death upon anyone simply to satisfy my personal sense of worth, of course. But in a world where death is so common, my skills are important. A regrettable notion, maybe, yet no less true. I can look at the person's bones and know how they moved, how they looked like, how they were hurt. I provide information that helps to catch the perpetrators. It gave me a clear purpose, and here, I have none. Working for the City Police Force keeps me sufficiently occupied and useful to a degree, but the work here can never be nearly as fulfilling as what I am able to achieve back in D.C.
I shouldn't complain so, though. Angela has been here for a year. In comparison, three months is a relatively short period of time. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for her. I like to think my presence here has been somewhat beneficial to her, but sometimes I feel I'm insufficient at offering her comfort or reassurance. She's doubting herself now, her relationship with Hodgins, and her future back in D.C. Perhaps I should not have told her anything about the occurrences that happened between the points in time A) when Angela was sent here, and B) when I was sent here. In retrospect, revealing those things only seems to have caused Angela anxiety.
I wish someone more capable of handling emotional distress were here for Angela. Hodgins would be ideal, but even Cam or Sweets would be better than nothing. I would say Booth, but that seems partially too selfish a wish. Also, I'm not certain how I would deal with him being here: our dynamic would doubtless be altered by the lack of work procedures and cases. Still, I do find myself missing his presence. Occasionally.
...
Anthropologists are trained to observe without disruption, to immerse themselves in the subject at hand without making an impact with their presence. To embrace and understand the meaning of things without intervention. They're impartial observers: always on the outside, looking in. Impersonal. Invisible. I'm not that certain I actually needed to be trained for that. It always seemed to fall within the range of my natural capacities. Perhaps all that is left for me to do here is implementing this knowledge for these research projects. That will keep me occupied, if nothing else.
[/private || off-network || unhackable]
I've begun compiling a record of the curses that have affected the citizens and/or the City itself as a part of my research of this place. I only started to actively keep track of the curses mid-April based on personal experiences and by observing the Network posts. However, as I cannot monitor the Network every day, the list is likely incomplete, especially for March when no monitoring took place: if you remember or experienced a curse that's not on the list, I would appreciate it if you'd kindly inform me of the date the curse took place as well as the nature of it. It's very important in regards of the integrity and accuracy of the research.
March:
7th -- Compulsion to see relationships between people when none realistically existed
20th; 21st -- Different curses affect different citizens over the weekend
28th (?) - 31th -- Replication of the Ten Plagues of Egypt as described in the Old Testament of the Bible
April:
8th -- Appearance of photographs about the citizens, from their time in their respective realms as well as in the City
13th -- Affected citizens suffer from what appear to be pheromone-induced biological reactions
17th; 18th -- Different curses affect different citizens over the weekend
20th -- Affected citizens experience varied symptoms associated with drug use, namely tetrahydrocannabinol
22th -- Citizens appear compelled to shift responsibility for their actions onto someone else
24th; 25th -- Compulsion to write stories about fellow citizens/people the affected party is familiar with
27th -- Affected parties experience alterations in physical appearance relating to their names
30th -- Large scale misplacement/redistribution of citizens' personal possessions