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 Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:52 am
Jessi smiled slightly, just slightly, and nodded. "Yeah, I am. I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't. I can take care of myself relatively well. And... you seem calmer right now. My apartment's the closest to us, anyway."
She walked with Daniel down the rest of the alleyway and then turned right. They walked about a block and a half in silence before they came up to a simple 4-story apartment building. It was nice enough. It was white with blue trimming.
Jessi led Daniel into the building through the front door and then went to the elevator. They rode it to the third floor and then walked out. They went down to the right and stopped at the fourth door down on the left side. Jessi got her keys out of her pocket, unlocked her door, and then went inside, leaving the door open for Daniel.
When they walked in, they walked right into the kitchen. It was a larger kitchen, larger than most apartment kitchens. It had white walls with wood cupboards and gray speckled counter tops. Off to the left was a large bathroom, and to the right was a large living room. It had a TV, chair, coffee table, computer desk off to the far corner, and a daybed against the wall across from the TV. It served as Jessi's bed and couch. It was made right now. {{Used the design of my first apartment.}}
Jessi set her mp3 player down on the round kitchen table and then walked into the living room/bedroom. "This is my place. I have these large rooms because I don't have a bedroom. Don't need one. My closet is off to the back there by my daybed, and I have a small dresser in there, too. I really like studio apartments."
She turned and looked at Daniel. "Can I get you anything to drink? I know you don't eat, but... Well, I have water, juice, pop and milk."
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:34 pm
Daniel followed Jessi silently and at times sullenly. He must’ve been terrible before if Jessi had to verbalize the fact that she could take care of herself. He was glad that the apartment wasn’t far, as he wasn’t sure how much further he could stand to walk along side her, feeling as he did. When they finally got up and into her place, Daniel stood in the middle of the living somewhat unsure of himself. He shifted the bag on his shoulder as he watched Jessi go about her normal routine, as if the person she had just run into on the street were not more mystery than man. When she finally offered him a drink, he cleared his throat. He remembered that someone had once told him that he at least needed to try to blend in. Is that what happened before? With her? Daniel blinked the thought away and tried to give Jessi the closest thing to a smile he could manage.
“Water would fine. Thank you.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:41 pm
Jessi nodded and went back into the kitchen. She got a bright green plastic cup out of the cupboard, filled it with ice from the fridge, and then poured water in it from the tap. She liked drinking from the tap because it tasted just fine and the fluoride, which helped strengthen your teeth, that was missing from bottled water was in tap water.
She walked back into the living room and handed the glass to Daniel. She offered him a small, slight smile. "Uh, you can sit down if you want. Chair, daybed, wherever.
Jessi went over and sat on the daybed, scooting back until her back hit one of the large body pillows that was propped up as a cushion against the brass 'headboard'.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:13 pm
Taking the water with a slight smile, Daniel took it and set it down on the coffee table. He then removed his bag and set it in his lap as he sat in the chair nearby. He tapped on the bag a few times trying to arrange things in jus the right way so he didn’t come off as just being confusing or convoluted.
“Okay. So I said the memories weren’t simple, and they definitely aren’t. But I feel, after my outburst, and after ho helpful you’ve been without even knowing that much about me, that you deserve an explanation. One that I can give, now that I’ve remembered. And what I’ve remembered even has to do with why I’ve been so uncomfortable around people.”
Opening his bag he shuffled a few things around and then pulled out a long manila envelope. Setting the bag down on the floor, he scooted the chair closer to the coffee table. He made to open the envelope, but paused. Just knowing what he was going to go over was giving his mind a beating, and threatened to moisten his eyes already, but he shook it off and opened the envelope. Tipping it up, he slid the contents onto the coffee table. Several appeared to be old documents, but there were a number of old faded pictures, as well as a small newspaper clipping. Shuffling the items a bit, Daniel came up with a small black and white picture, slightly cracked with age that he handed to Jessi.
“Meet Nadya Kurchov Olevsky. Born in a small village not far from the Russian border in early 1903.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:26 pm
Jessi looked at everything Daniel displayed on the coffee table. Then, she carefully took the picture that Daniel held out to her. She looked at the woman in the picture. She was very beautiful, but Jessi didn't understand the importance of all of this. So, she looked but up at Daniel and waited for him to continue.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:01 pm
Daniel picked through a number of documents, most of them in French, though a few showed English and even Russian. He picked out a sheet of paper that was a photocopy of old travelling papers, and another that held two images, of what seemed to be some sort of certificates.
“She arrived in Paris, France when her mother relocated in 1919, following the death of her father in the First World War. Her mother died a year later from Spanish Flu. After which she changed her name to Nadine. To better settle with other French persons.”
Daniel said the last with a slight smile of recognition, as if remembering something else connected with the phrase. Setting the current sheets down, he picked up another old photo.
“It was while working as a washerwoman for a hotel in 1921 that she met Alexander Cummings. An English Gentleman of notable descent. There is very little information on him. Very little. This photo was taken by a professional photographer, perhaps around 1935, though he still managed to blur Alex’s face a bit.”
Daniel handed this second photo to Jessi. It showed Nadya sitting in a simple but elegant chair, with a tall and broad-chested man standing just behind her, with a hand on her shoulder. His face was slightly smudged, but it was still possible to make out short hair, light in color, and possibly a matching moustache. Nadya’s smile was happy and serene.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:08 pm
Jessi looked at the second picture Daniel handed to her, carefully handing the first one back to him. She tilted her head to the side as she continued to look at it.
"So... is this man your relative? He looks a little like you, from what I can see of him, and I'm guessing that's why you're telling me this, because he's your relative?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:33 pm
Daniel smirked slightly, as if at some small joke.
“You could say that. I suppose. Here.”
Setting the first photo down carefully, Daniel lifted the clipping of newspaper. The clipping it self was folded around another photo, much larger than the first two. It also seemed glossy, showing to be much more recently produced than the first two.
“In June of 1940, a British journalist was in Paris when the German army began its attack on the city. There wasn’t much of an attack really, they had managed to go right round most of the nation’s defenses, and practically walked into the city unopposed. There were a number of small garrisons though that they softened up first. An artillery shell went wide, and instead destroyed a small church.”
Daniel looked at the photo somberly and had to swallow hard to keep himself in check. He took a moment to collect himself before proceeding.
“This is the article he wrote a month later after returning to Britain. He was on the scene of the collapsed church and reported on it. The story claims that all but one individual was killed. He writes, “and the man stands there, clothes shredded and torn though by the grace of God no wound upon him, and says but one thing, over and over. She deserved better. They all deserved better. Nadya deserved better.” He also took a photo. This is a reproduction. You might recognize the eyes in particular.”
Daniel handed the photo over, then sat back to wait.
{{ Off to home. Be back in 30. }}
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:05 pm
{{So did I. lol.}}
Jessi took the photo, still as confused as ever, but gasped softly when she looked at the man. It was Daniel! He looked so upset in the picture and his clothes were ripped and dirty, but it was him.
She slowly looked up Daniel and then sighed softly. "I see... So, you either traveled back in time to this time period and fell in love with this Nadya person... or you're from that time period and you time traveled here."
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 4:11 pm
Daniel's head wavered from side to side as he processed what Jessi has said. He seemed to have difficulty finding the words to answer with.
"Yes, and no. Sort of. I did travel there. I did..."
Daniel stopped speaking before his voice managed to catch. In order to buy himself a moment he reached over and took up the cup of water. Slowly, he drained half the cup before putting it back down. With a deep breath, he continued.
"Apologies. The emotions are so fresh again, even though they happened so long ago. I knew her yes. In addition to remembering my time with her, I've recalled portions of my time around that span. I was new to...Earth, at the time. I believe. And I seem to feel that I had never become so, intertwined, with a local before. I know for certain that it never happened again. I withdrew, from social interactions, and into myself. I buried the feelings. The loss."
Daniel let a hand droop over the arm of the chair, and it brushed his bag there. Laying his hand more firmly on the bag's side, he pressed on.
"Though I can't remember exactly, yet, the feeling I get is that I never became ...attached, in any manner or depth, to another being. Ever."
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:40 pm
Jessi's eyes followed Daniel's motions as he picked up the cup of water, drank, and then put it back down again. She looked back up at him and listened, though she could hardly believe some of what she was hearing. Of course, with Daniel, so many things seemed hard to believe. It wasn't always a bad thing. Hell, a lot of the unbelievable things that happened around him were amazing, like going to Vienna in 1800. Some were just plain confusing, though... and some were downright scary.
"You... You were new to Earth? I know you said before that you didn't think you were alive, Daniel, but this... Daniel, after what happened at AS and now this, I'm worried about you."
She winced slightly, afraid of how he may react to that, what he would think of her saying that, and unconsciously grabbed a small nearby pillow and hugged it to her torso.
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Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:02 pm
Daniel dropped the newspaper clipping back onto the table and folded his hands in his lap. He stared at his hands for a bit, his thumbs twiddling slowly. He looked concerned, apprehensive almost. Finally he looked up at Jessi, his face set as a man ready for anything, and expecting the worst.
"There is one last thing that has come out of all of this, well one last thing that causes me concern. Right before I returned, I paid another visit to the sanctum. That’s what I’ve started calling that place where we went when I was hurt. I questioned the sentience there for almost a day before I managed to wring the information out of her with the right wording. I asked her how old I was, and couldn’t get a straight answer out of her. Then with some convoluted wording, I asked her how long it had been, for me, since Nadya’s death.”
Daniel closed his eyes. He had practically refused to believe it himself when had first head. But then, it seemed to make sense in a weird kind of way. Daniel stilled his breathing for a moment, and kept his eyes closed as he spoke again, voice calm and steady.
“Jessi, five months ago I woke up in this city with no memory of anything. I still don’t know where I was before I woke up in that alleyway, but I believe the sentience when it told me, that relativistically, a little over two millennia have passed since I was last in Paris France.”
Daniel kept his eyes closed, waiting. Ready.
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:12 am
Jessi listened intently to what Daniel said, absorbed everything. She wanted to believe him so badly. She wanted her friend back, the one she had so much fun with, even when they were just hanging out at her desk. But this... none of it pieced together. None of it made sense.
She spoke carefully. "Daniel... now I'm no expert in history or anything, but I don't think they had cameras over two thousand years ago. So, realistically, this all could not have taken place that long ago. These pictures could not have existed back then. That voice told you wrong."
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Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:38 am
Daniel sighed softly to himself. This was always the hardest to explain. Always? I've only done it once before. Or have I? Opening his eyes, Daniel frowned slightly as he thought of how to explain it.
“When I left to prepare the way for our…trip, to Vienna, I spent about seven weeks going about the business. But then I returned to Aqua Springs, and as far as you knew, I hadn’t been gone a day. Then when we both went to Vienna, and spent a few hours there, when we came back barely twenty minutes had gone by. The passage of time is all relative to the observer.”
Daniel slumped in his chair, his eyes distant. He seemed to turn inward as he continued speaking.
“And I can see it to. Believe it. There was a woman in Vienna. She helped me, I think, when I was first having difficulties. She seemed very much in the wrong time, and I have suspicions, but she said something. She said that I always fought it, that I needed to just let it happen. I think I know what she meant now. These feelings hurt, I will not deny that, but I have only remembered them for a few days. What would two thousand years of holding them in do?”
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