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January 17th 1912
With a lack of anything better to do, and my girlfriend going shopping with her mother, I have used today to get some writing done for tomorrows deadline.  As such, today was mostly uneventful, although we were treated to some fish and chips tonight.

January 18th 1912
Annoyances abound!  All the work I produced yesterday has been destroyed, thanks to this infernal machine.  As such I have decided to delay writing until I return home, and although it's tempting to return by myself today then there is not much point as I would only have to journey back at the weekend regardless.  To calm down, we visited a friend of ours who owns a shop in town- mostly childrens toys, but also costumes for parties.  We got talking about a party another friend is running soon, a Roman theme where he promises much merriment.  On our return to my girlfriend's parents we walked into yet more friends, boys we knew from a shop we frequented until it closed down.  It was nice to catch up, but then we had to hurry home so I could make dinner, my signature dish of Hunter's Style Chicken.  It went down well as always, though the chicken turned out a little dry.

January 19th 1912
With the absence of access to the aethernet, we decided to get something productive done- specifically the tidying of the boys' room, the room I previously mentioned that we have been moved into.  The intention was that we would donate their toys to a local charity, taking what we wanted, but to much annoyance my girlfriend's father has filled the room with his own belongings.  We do not know which is for keeping and which for leaving, so we got what little we could done and told him that he would have to sort his own items before we can continue.  In the meantime, we took some items to the local waste disposal area, which was a change of pace.  We searched for items we could salvage, but to no avail- instead we got charged for leaving our own items there!

January 20th 1912
Unable to do any writing without access to aethernet, and without anything productive to do, today we decided to do something different to avoid boredom.  On the advice of our young friend from the other day, we decided to pay a visit to the local marble museum.  An interesting subject for a museum, but it does not charge admission so would kill a few hours.  It was much as expected, lots of marbles with bits about their history- though in their games section we did find an artefact similar to the dice we use to play our own games, made of glass which was quite interesting as we believed our game to only date back thirty years or so.  Also of note were the marble runs there, large devices that are on a constant loop as marbles go in all sorts of directions, an example of many moving parts working together which was very mesmerising.  After the museum we headed to another local marketplace for a few supplies, and had a look at the animals they had on display there.  Unfortunately they looked quite stressed, birds with plucked feathers and small mammals living in their own waste.  My girlfriend approached one of the workers there to question their living conditions, but backed down when the keeper became visibly annoyed with being questioned.  Needless to say, we will file a complaint with the authorities when we gain access to the aethernet again.

January 21st 1912
Today we had lunch with my girlfriend's grandmother.  We were supposed to go with my girlfriend's sister and her boyfriend, but having had a tough week at work then the boyfriend did not feel like coming, though my girlfriend's sister still did.  The meal was sub-standard, but it was still nice to catch up on things.  Later today we played our weekly game, though this week things would be slightly different, as we would be playing a game set in outer space, named 'War of the Stars'.  An unusual setting with all manner of weird species-for instance I played a creature similar to a terrestrial lizard- and although it was fun I think I would have preferred to play our usual medieval fantasy setting.  We also had an associate of our friends play as well, who can quite frankly be annoying at times, but was pleasant enough company tonight.  On concluding our game, my girlfriend's sister's boyfriend was still awake and visibly annoyed with something.  On enquiring what, he explained that when we were out then my girlfriend's mother had lost her temper at him, accusing him of doing (or, rather, not doing) various things about the house which we perceived to be a lie, as he often does helpful things when we are around.  Regardless, the conversation served as a helpful reminder that she is best avoided when she is feeling ill.

January 22nd 1912
Another quiet day today, as we spent the day mostly relaxing.  My girlfriend's mother's mood was slightly better today as her illness (which I fear she may have caught from me) was starting to recover.  The boyfriend made dinner tonight, the hype for which had been building all week.  Disappointingly, it didn't turn out quite as planned- a steak and ale pie, and though the cooking was fine it was unfortunately not a very good cut of meat, making it tougher than it should have been.  A few mouthfuls were beautiful, but the majority was too tough to enjoy fully.  Afterwards we headed home, as I am now woefully behind on my work and would like some time to myself before spending all day writing tomorrow.

January 23rd 1912
I cannot say too much today, as the whole day has been spent catching up on my week's writing- apart from a brief visit to the local shop to pick up some vital food.  I'm still slightly behind, but managed to set aside enough time to write this brief journal entry.  Again to my annoyance, it seems that my girlfriend's parents are fixing their aethernet connection today, not that I can benefit.  It would have been much more useful last week, but as the French say: C'est la vie.

Creation of a Myth

After the tragedy of the Calamity, many years passed allowing the humans to rebuild their lives, many returning to a primitive tribal system.  Of course, it did not take long before problems arose once more, as some humans believed the world should be rebuilt to its former glory, with cities and advanced technology, whereas others believed the Gods punishment was due to that very reason, and the creation of cities and technology resulted in a lack of belief.  Things soon escalated into a civil war of sorts, but before events could get too out of hand then strange things started to happen.  It all started at the site of one of the ruined cities, where two men- a father and son- and their dog were scavenging for items in the wreckage.

'Father... why are we doing this?' asked the younger, poking a piece of rubble with a metal pole as his dog sniffed around.

'What do you mean, son?'

'This salvaging- do you not fear for the wrath of the Gods again?  That is the reason why the cities were destroyed in the first place...'

The older man laughed derisively.
'Don't be a fool, boy- yes the Gods destroyed the cities, but that's because we didn't believe in them.  We've seen them now, we'll believe them forever.'

'Yes, but I haven't seen them- it happened before I was born.  In a couple of generations time people will just think it's a story, a metaphor for an earthquake or something.  It's a bad idea to rebuild the cities because things will go back to the way they were before.'

'I still say you're speaking nonsense Adam, keep looking for those goods- we could be rich with just one working cd player, especially if we find some audio books we can sell as historical records!'

The young man threw down his pole, causing his dog to stop and back off to the side.  A flock of birds cleared a nearby tree that had grown from the city's remains, and landed nearby to watch.

'I refuse.  Already you're talking of making money from a disaster, it's just not right!  It goes against God's will!'

'Hah, God's will, it took them thousands of years to do anything before- why should things be different this time?  Live for the present, make a bit of money now and the trouble our sons get into in a few thousand years time is their problem.'

The dog started growling at the tension rising between the two, as Adam's anger was rising- thinking about all the trouble his father had put him through in the past, and incensed at how he would be willing to inflict this misery on his descendants- his own flesh and blood.  His father had lived in a life of luxury before the disaster, and now he knew more about technology than anyone else in their 'tribe' he was abusing the knowledge for his own ends.  He would lead this tribe to ruin if he continued, and if too many tribes fall then so would the future of civilisation.  Adam reached for the pole he had dropped, anger in his eyes.  His father had to be stopped.

'What do you plan on doing with that, boy?  You would pick your god of destruction over your old man, who just wants to bring life back to the world?'

All Adam could do was let out a scream of rage as he charged at his father, tears streaming from his eyes as he held the pole in front of him like a spear.  His father didn't bother trying to dodge, merely reaching for something in his pocket.  The dog started to run towards them.

'Technology means progress kid, and progress means success.' said the father with a sigh as he pulled the trigger on his pistol.  As the shot rang out, the dog barked with a commanding tone, almost as if shouting 'Stop!' as he leapt between the two, grabbing the pole in his jaw and taking the bullet before falling to the floor and sliding into a pile of rubble.  Both men immediately ran to the dog's side, forgetting their rivalry for a brief moment.  Much to their surprise, the dog was nowhere to be found- instead lay a naked man, with oddly coloured skin that seemed remarkably similar to the dog's markings.  Adam was first to speak.

'What the hell was that?  You have technology that can turn animals to men?!'

His father was just as perplexed.

'No- it's just a gun... all they do is cause injury...'

The man that a moment ago was their dog coughed before speaking weakly.

'What... happened?' he said with the last of his breath.

All the two men could do was look at each other in shock, until one of the birds that had been watching stepped forward.  It was a large black raven, until the moment it too transformed into a large black man- a relatively smooth transition despite this being the bird's first attempt.  The other birds in its flock were also transforming, with varying degrees of success.  The raven twitched it's head a couple of times before attempting to speak.

'I... I think I can explain...'

The two humans were too much in shock to interrupt.

'I think... this is the Gods' work again.  Long have we ravens been associated with deities, so we have gained a sense for detecting when their magic is in the air, and there's certainly a lot of that here- more than even the Calamity.  I cannot speak directly on their behalf, but if I were to guess, I would say they do not want to risk the fall of humanity again- so upon witnessing a fight between father and son, and an animal's desire not to see either injured, they had to step in.  Causing my present form, and I'd guess similar has happened elsewhere- giving a voice to those otherwise unheard.'

'You... you can talk?'  asked Adam's father in bewilderment, as Adam stared at the other birds struggling with their new forms.  Some were phasing between human and bird, others had found a weird hybrid form.

'It is as much a mystery to me as it is you, as you were talking gibberish a moment ago but now I share your form then we also would appear to share languages.  This is a little too much to comprehend at the moment... we should return to our homes and see how things are tomorrow.  I would gladly accompany you to your human settlement though, as witness to today's events.'

Taking their humanoid dog, the humans agreed to take the raven with them and did indeed see that similar scenes of chaos were happening everywhere.  Cows, sheep and horses in fields were all varying degrees of human/animal hybrid and in a state of confusion, and the chaos only got worse when they returned to their village.  Some small humanoids were running out of a building with a fruit basket as they were being beaten with a broom, others were huddled together as humans cried in fear of them.  The two men and the humanoid bird entered the village, causing some of the chaos to lessen as the villagers and animals could see the dead dog being carried between them.  The highest priority would be burying the animal, and then they would try to make some sense of the situation...

...the consequences of which will be covered next week, when the timeline will be fast-forwarded a few more years.