Something old, based on roleplay in World of Warcraft

Research Log #856 – Project Aurora

Introduction and project goal

I was thinking about death, vitality, life, after life and all that fel damn crap when a thought hit me. What if I die before I can secure my memory in the worlds archives and books. And what will become of me at the moment of my death. Will I cease to exist? Will my awareness disperse?

I cannot let that happen, I refuse to simply perish. Mayhaps if I would die with meaning, from old age or a very long incurable disease I would not deny fate its harvest. But I do not agree to die because of a trivial thing. This is why I began Project Aurora, I will live no matter what happens, there must be a way to unlock the path to immortality. I will find it.

Entry 1

So I woke up today, thinking how to begin Aurora, not an easy thing to do. I need to solve key issues, many key issues, concerning all the variables. So far the following things came to mind.

·         Transferring consciousness

·         Finding a new vessel

·         Body disposal

·         Funeral

·         Making it all work

I think I will start at the actual beginning, that way I can put the pieces together as I work through this. I have the technology for certain but I’m not sure anyone did this before. If I am to be the first one to find technomagical immortality that would make me immortal both in body but in the memories of others. Of course I’d need a new name, look, can’t really just come back saying oh yeah I died but I’m back. Even written as a joke it sounds horrible. Ok but to the task at hand, I would need a way to move the intangible essence and content of my corporeal form into another one. I can think of many purely magical ways to do it, already seen that happen. For example soul shards used by warlocks to imprison a soul or essence exchange between some Twisting Nether species. I should focus on studying and observing those dabble in consciousness transfers so I can apply that knowledge to my own research. That includes: warlocks, nethermancers, mages, priests, demons, nether dragons. Quite a colorful bunch. I will first tackle warlocks, Anita will help, she might hate me at times but she cares. Nethermancers…hm. Now that’s tough. Mages, not so much. Priests, yeah no, scratch that. Demons…fel no. Nether dragons, well Eric could assist me if he won’t mind, but won’t it be rude to abuse him just to get my own? Oh the complications. There’s always…that place if I am desperate. It could be a good field test for the Predator and the jumpgate tech I researched and developed. Its more magical than I thought but the Predator should make it harder to track. But that’s a strategy only when I have nothing else to try. Signing off, time for research.

Entry 2

The following days have been amazing. I was tortured, stabbed, poked, bitten, shot at, made fun of, chased off and my favorite; groped. But I did get something! All the research paid off with a brilliant idea for a gizmo and what a gizmo it is! So the basic idea is to refine a soul shard to be less malevolent, not easy but hey, doable. Next I am thinking about a container for it so it’s always by my side. Ring is too slippery, earrings stupid, garments yeah no already have enough of that. I was thinking even about cutting myself open and putting it inside my body but…I’d rather not carve myself open like a turkey. Creepy. Ok but to the point, maybe…A silver chain, warding spells on it along with miniature protection runes etched in the metal, I can do that. That would be very hard but obtainable or even craftable, so many able able able here oh well. Next! Perhaps some sort of amulet with the, no wait, the shard is too big. To maintain ratio I would need a strong soul shard, big in power, small in size. Maybe even something that I can polish and cut. Of course it can’t be cut into several pieces, I’m not splitting my soul or consciousness into dozen tiny pieces, that’s just stupid and irresponsible. But maybe I could cut it into an oval. Cliché but brilliant. I think I have it. Signing off, time to hunt myself a big ass soul shard or should I say soul stone….soul crystal…soul keeper…soul guard…bah, can’t think of anything.

Entry 3

Well again I got my ass kicked, at least not groped. Nothing major, just a broken rib and a few scratches. One might think that a pursuit of immortality will actually kill me, which would be ironic. And very fucking lame. Hopefully Madeline won’t find this log, creepy project and coarse language. Anyway so I decided that instead one soul stone I will procure two, so next time I need a… back up, I won’t have to go through all this again. But back to the stone itself. It’s the width and height of the palm of my hand, minus the fingers. I will mechanically cut it into two mirroring shapes, but before I do so, I will make sure it’s not only empty but uh…does the state on/off even apply to magical stones? Well it’s not shiny and all that jazz but I will make sure. My plan is to first prepare a device for storage and transfer before I work on the actual means of making it do its thing. I’m thinking about something cliché but fitting, two necklaces with mirroring soul shards uh I need to stop using that term, maybe essence crystals? Oh that sounds awesome. High five brain. Yeah, so yeah, the crystals will be opposite each other, together forming a proper shape, I know lame but well…it has some symbolism to it. What was I writing about….that ant looks so interesting…

I spent six hours following an ant around…suddenly I have doubts if people like me should have kids or live long…

Entry 4

Good frikkin fel I am thirsty! I spent the whole day forging parts. Just a quick update before I hit the pillows. My earspeakers work perfect now, increased the power and frequency but back to the actual subject of this log. I forged all the parts needed to create the twin amulets also forged some random and perhaps useful parts for later, got some ideas that might be good to implement into the current design. Signing off, bed time.

Entry 5

I am the greatest engineer alive! I made two badass looking essence containing necklaces, cut it so it looks like a cog when put together. I know it’s risky to split it like that but I will run tests with smaller sized devices like this on rats and critters. Might be fun. I also nailed down the transfer, transition, itself. The idea is that be it on my command or at the moment of my untimely demise, the device will activate before my body is destroyed or I am unable to think. Then it will connect to all my personal devices, meaning those that I have currently with me, so it can fully activate a very, very interesting subroutine from the level of my personal wrist device. The plan is that in case of a situation where I can NOT possibly survive the device will, well literally, suck out my soul and transfer it into the receiver amulet. Of course it needs to happen before the sender amulet itself is destroyed. I am planning to adjust the amulet idea, maybe a pocket watch that’s magically tethered to me, oh my fel that’s so bloody awesome! It could be a…I need a bad ass name for it…Maybe…The Soul Guardian? Eh, works as good as anything I guess. So ok ok, need to redo it all. Perhaps a non-valuable metal pocket watch with the inside made out of an essence crystal, smooth, flat, round. And it wouldn’t give the actual time but it would have a button that when pressed, makes the arrow go around the whole dial once, showing how much time left before my soul is safe inside the crystal. Or maybe a regular pocket watch, with normal dial on it but the crystal is inside, connected to a button that needs to be unlocked by a specific phrase and then when pressed it activates a third, hidden arrow that goes round the clock and when it returns to where it began, the process is complete and begins transmitting. I am damn brilliant! Wow I just remade my whole idea, wasted a whole essence crystal and the money spent on forging. Oh well, back to work for me. This will be a long night. Signing off.

The Plague pt2

As Lucas left the store and made his way down the street, he passed a shop with tools. They were something useful but he weighed the backpack thrown over his shoulder, it was heavy enough as it is. Lucas thought back to the rules he had in place that kept him alive for such a long time, one of them was “Never take something you will find where you’re heading.”. An electric drill or a grinder were exactly the things he could find useful but at the same time, there were hardware stores where he was heading. He continued along the street, looking around, taking in the post-apocalyptic scenery, crashed cars, broken windows, a deflated football jammed between a cars wheel and the curb. There was something peaceful about this new world, it was the silence, after so many years, decades even, Lucas was finally able to have a moment where he could process his thoughts without being interrupted.

Sadly, something did interrupt his peaceful walk, a sound that he knew meant things could turn bad in a moment’s notice. Quiet, angry, canine growling made him look around until he saw a wild mutt. It was a normal, unspecified breed of a dog that stared at Lucas from above a dead, mangled carcass of what appeared to have been a squirrel. Lucas knew two things can happen, the dog will attack and he will have to stab it with his knife, possibly at the neck, to make it a quick and painful death or the dog would ignore him if he simply walked away. He decided to take a bit from both options, holding a hand on the grip of his knife, he slowly continued forward, shuffling sideways so he could see the alley where the dog was. The growling died down after a moment and Lucas sighed a little relieved, killing an animal was always a difficult thing for him, well maybe not deer, those he found quite useful when he was out of food. Taking a dogs or wolves life however always felt wrong to him, they were innocent he thought, it wasn’t their fault that the world went down the drain. Lucas sighed and looked ahead.

Man this is going to be one hell of a trip. Wish I could just get into a car and drive off, the roads aren’t that clogged up and with no one else driving. – Lucas said to himself, giving an old BMW a quick glance.

Traveling by car would be a godsend, he’d have room for supplies, a place to hide from the rain and somewhere to sleep, the problem however, was finding a working car. Generally, as the virus spread over the whole world and killed people off the chaos might’ve grew but it couldn’t keep up with the plague itself. It was another thing that the movies Lucas had seen got wrong, lack of society made car travel quite appealing to survivors, especially that it meant uninterrupted and fast travel. Not to mention he would not have to worry about bandits, if there even were any. The man decided to try his luck with the next car he saw, a nice looking Opel, nothing fancy but times like these, it was more than perfect. Lucas walked up to it and simply pulled on the door handle.

Come on, be open, please. – He whispered to himself.

Unfortunately, the door didn’t budge so he nearly pressed his face against the glass, blocking off sunlight with his hands as he peered inside the car, hoping to see keys in the ignition. That also turned out to be a bust, no keys in sight, door closed and he had no clue how to hot-wire a car, that wasn’t something that he spent time learning during his life. Lucas gave up on this one and leaned against it, thinking.

How the hell could I get a car that’s running, has fuel and doesn’t need hot-wiring… - He tapped fingers against the window, trying to come up with a plan.

I guess I could find a dealership but man those things probably have alarms and everything. Wait, oh man I’m genius, time to celebrate with a beer. – Lucas smiled to himself and resumed his slow walk through the small town.

He fished out one of the beer cans and opened it, sipping the cold beverage as he looked around, eyes open for an apartment building. His plan was quite simple and through that rather brilliant, all he had to do is find an apartment building, break into flats and loot car keys off the counter or corpse. As gruesome as it seemed to be, Lucas wasn’t worried about germs or angry residents, first of all he realized long ago he was immune and there seemed to be no other people in this town, which made it even easier. A handful of car keys, street side parking, a couple of minutes checking the cars, easiest plan he could come up with on such short notice. The only dent in the armor of his idea was actually finding an apartment building in this place, it all seemed to be rows of small buildings and way too many cars to play the guessing game with. What he needed was a typical building, ten apartments, cars lined up and ready to be inspected, preferably a station wagon so he could load it up full of supplies and perhaps even a sleeping bag.

Lucas wasn’t that lucky though, there were no tall buildings on the horizon, no big parking lot that he could check. His plan bursting like a soap bubble and causing him to sigh and throw the empty beer can away. If he was to get a car, he would need to take a different approach to his idea, rather than aim to find an apartment building, Lucas decided to try his luck at finding single family houses along his way, perhaps one of them would have a car parked by the front door. As long as he continued north along the main roads he would eventually reach his hometown and that meant quite a lot of cities still ahead of him, both small and big, there was bound to be a way for him to turn his journey less annoying at some point. There was no point rushing, he had his whole life ahead of him and the knowledge that he was one of the few people left alive in the country, to most people it would be a wonderful reason to commit suicide. Lucas however found himself quite at home in this new reality, until he either found a settlement or civilization began rebuilding, he had everything at his disposal, be it food, water or tools.

The Plague

Ok people, here's something I wrote yesterday, its part one of a short story set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Will post next page or two later on, perhaps day after tomorrow. Enjoy the read and leave feedback in the comments section below.

The soggy newspaper was blown onto a sleeping mans face, newspaper that for better or worse served him as a foolproof blanket when he had to sleep in an alley. The headline stated, in bold letters, "CHT-17 pandemic growing larger!", the date printed in the upper right corner, 13th October 2016. To the sleeping scavenger it was old news, he'd seen it and lived it. Miraculously he survived the outbreak and the social apocalypse that followed suit.

Lucas woke up with a loud, tired, groan from sleeping on the cold ground. He was on his way back to his home town all the way from Warsaw. In his journey he saw very few survivors, if there were any they were probably holed up in houses and apartments.

I hate mondays. - He said as he got up and stretched, his vertebrae popping into place, a sound that annoyed most of his friends, something he never again had to think about.

Lucas sighed and grabbed his backpack and marched out of the alley, crossing over garbage bags.
He spat onto the street and looked at a ruined grocery store. The display window was boarded shut but the door was completely gone. He still had some reserve food in his backpack but definitely not enough to last the whole way home. The man held his double barreled shotgun and slowly walked towards the shop. In his mind he recounted all the tv shows and movies he watched in his life that had a virus outbreak as the leading theme.

Least there are no zombies... or mutants... or killer birds. - Lucas chuckled lightly and walked through the doorway.

Inside it was he suspected, dark, cold, dirty and clearly raided way before he got here. But he wasn't going to quit after all this time, after all he survived a virus that killed an estimated 99.5% of humanity at least if he were to believe in what they wrote in the papers. With such high death rate, finding supplies was not as difficult as the old movies presented, people died too fast to eat the food they looted. Lucas kept on scavenging what he could from apartments, stores and gas stations.
Right now he was searching for something to eat, light peering through the wooden boards was his only help. Luck would have it, the storage room door was still there and more than that, it was closed, seemingly untouched.

Lucas held the doorknob down, slowly opening the door, the barrel of his gun moving through the opening. He didn't even hear a peep and soon he was inside a lightly stocked supply closet, that was the end of his good fortune for the morning. Most if not all of them food items were already past their expiration date, especially vegetables and fruits. Lucas knew he can't be picky so anything that was up to a week over its expiration date was still quite fine to him.

His breakfast consisted of a bag of salt sticks, smoked cheese, half a loaf of bread as hard as the ground he slept on. He flushed it down with a small can of energy drink and a bottle of lukewarm water. Compared to what some survivors might eat in 'The Wild' it was quite a luxurious breakfast. Lucas stuffed a couple of instant noodle soups as well as old canned dog food into his backpack and then glanced at a small six-pack of canned beer. Be it for personal use or trading good, he couldn't pass up on this opportunity so he put it inside his backpack as well.

Alright, this should do me just fine before I reach the next town and hell, beer is always nice, even if its old. - He stated as he grabbed one last remaining candy bar and gave the empty supply room one last glance. - Never know when you need to bribe someone with a sweet tooth.