Research Note: Two. (Voice.)
[Private -- Off-Network Journal Entry]
So Estelle's here now, as well.
I never really had that much of a chance to think about things since Rita already knew about it, but I have to wonder just how long I can hide my condition from Estelle at this rate. Not only that, I fear the repercussions of it if and when it's eventually revealed that I died back home, that she wouldn't see me ever again if she were to somehow return back home, to Auldrant. How would she react? Would she shun me and think of me as being different? Or would she be accepting and still be the warm, kind-hearted girl that Rita and I love so much?
Really, despite all my years of research as well as prior knowledge, I was still hopelessly unable to prevent my own death as it appeared in the Score. My prophecy also worries me, too -- what does it mean, I shall return as if a monster? Did everyone at Belkend become desperate enough to try and bring me back through unscrupulous means? Perhaps... fomicry and an unholy combination of fonons? I would hope that they'd be smart enough to not recreate the disaster at Keterberg, but I guess sentimentality is a powerful thing. It's the same way with me -- even when I died, all I could think about was who'd take care of Rita when I was gone...
And yet, look where we are now: in a strange new land where countless opportunities and research awaits us, and all with our friends by our side. No doubt, our peers would be fanatical about a chance like this to the point of human sacrifice, if I may use a cliched idiom.
Is this supposed to be a second chance at life? Perhaps, did I somehow manage to find a way to subvert the Score by my own death? It irks me to think that it was supposed to go that far if I wanted out of those binding chains of eternity, but... what a notion. It would certainly throw the religious world into a tumult, considering the continuous arguments they've had about whether or not an afterlife exists.
Well, I guess there's---
If there was anything-----
If Lorelei was kind enough to let me live life again, this time unbound by the Score and free to love, enjoy, live in and depart this world on my own terms -- I'll take that chance. Better to answer on the rare occasions that opportunity knocks, after all. And I wouldn't want it any other way.
[/private]
[There's a pause between the clicking on of the device and the eventual words that come out of it.]
Has anyone heard any news about that object that was supposed to be dropped into the City soon? While I have no doubts about the message or its deliverers, I still find that there's too long of a time gap between said announcement and its arrival.
Of course, it could just be me, but... feel free to speak up if anyone's said or noticed anything?
...
Also, Rita? Estelle? Any foods in particular you want to eat tonight?