Not All Nymps Are Female

C5: Log 06

Log 06

So, great news. I found out where the RZ Titans went. Bad news, I found the subway station. Yeah, you can probably guess where I found the RZ Titans, and let me tell you, I am down 36 shotgun shells, missing a good chunk of my left leg and I have been bedridden for a whole week. I’m just glad that I keep all my meds near my bed, and with my magic, I could summon drinkable water at will even if it gave me a migraine every time.

Note: Water needles, darts, and hands are useless against RZs Titans.

Though on the bright side, I found out that RZ Titans are quite killable as long as you take their legs and heads out first. Then you gotta empty about 16 to 20 shotgun shells into the fused mass of zombies that is their torso, and BAM! Dead titan. It wasn’t easy, and I don’t see myself fighting one ever again. 

Exceptions and extreme situations aside.

But besides that, I have cleared a good chunk of RZs around and in the subway station. Mostly due to all the noise of the shotgun shells going off, and my Mauser going off. I also found out that I had a sharp eye for my water magic. It was practically useless against the fused mass of the RZ Titan, but against singular, non-fused, RZs? Easy peasy. 

I have also figured out how to make a water shield and proto-armor.

I say proto-armor mostly due to it being just a mass of water making a barrier to protect me. It’s mostly what kept my left leg from being chopped off of my body. The last thing I need is to become a damned cripple in this crazy and changing world. And thanks to the barrier of water that wrapped itself against my limbs, it prevented such a future from happening.

Now, changing topics. Hallucinations. Visions, and Dreams.

Had a lot of those while being bedridden. Ranging from laughing, to footsteps, creaking doorknobs, and apple people talking to me through the windows of my bedroom. However, the hallucinations weren’t what I was worried about. Not that I didn’t, but-

Look. I know they are hallucinations. I know they are.

But the visions? The prophetic nonsense?

I feared those a lot more than my shifting reality and disconnection from it. 

Because they were real. Had the potential to be real. And to be made real. By outside forces, my own attempts at stopping them, or simple coincidence.

Then there were the dreams. Of lightning storms, pillars of candy, masses of slime-eating people, and a fire-breathing dragon. And for some reason, two random wizards that I couldn’t identify! It was a young kid and a fucking fish! It made no damned sense! 

And then there was the Cosmic Owl.

What is the Cosmic Owl? Should I be afraid of it? Should I make dreamcatchers to avoid such bad dreams? Should I dig up old rituals and magicks to protect myself from the future, past, and present? Why was it a Cosmic Owl? Why not a Cosmic Dragon? Or a Cosmic Snake? I didn’t know, and I think I feared learning about it even more.

But… One of those dreams… I wanted to become true. I’m… Not sure if noting it down will make it come true, or if I should just keep it in the recesses of my mind and forget it by the time passing through all of us. I didn’t know what I should do. But the dream… Was so beautiful.

A nature elemental, beautiful, strong. Artemis herself in a way, but it was no false God. No, she was real or would be real. Yet to be born, yet to live, yet to find herself, and yet to meet me. But… I knew when that day arrived… I would regret it and love it in equal amounts.

…

Closing the journal, I laid back onto my bed as I stared at the wooden ceiling of my bedroom. Each line of the wooden planks consisting of my ceiling stared back at me. Some of them blinked, some of them whispered, some of them suggested things. They shifted, curled, and twirled. They were all lies and deceptions, unreality trying to manifest itself through a non-living vessel to be used for their dark plans and to deceive the mortal man and woman.

‘’The lies told by the planks are nothing but pranks.’’ I murmured to myself as I closed my eyes, before opening them. I saw nothing, but wooden planks.

‘’Nothing but pranks…’’ I murmured again as I sighed.

…

‘’Rope, knife, first aid kit, anti-rad tablets, bottle of water… Hmmm… Am I missing something?’’ I murmured as I organized my backpack, getting ready to go on another expedition towards the city, this time to find a library for me to use. Probably try and loot one of the museums that the city still had standing, as well. Dig around the debris of the other ones as well, maybe I’ll find some ancient history or magical artifacts that have regained their power due to the re-emergence of magic.

That or a mutagenic horror. I’m not sure.

Snapping my fingers, I remembered what I was missing, ‘’Pearls, it’s my journal.’’

Finding it was easy, it was lying on top of my bed and after checking it over for any damage or bugs or dust, I slipped it into a homemade book holster. Did you know that book holsters are a real thing? I don’t remember if they are a medieval creation, or simply something that a nerd came up with. Probably a nerd came up with it, like one of those larping fools.

‘’I shouldn’t be so hypocritical. I am a nerd.’’ I murmured with my hand on my chin before I shrugged.

I had better things to worry about than my own hypocrisy. It isn’t like there is anyone to see it either way.

‘’You don’t count, ghost of Hug-Wolf. Get off my property.’’ I glared at the bones of the Hug-Wolf, staring into its empty, eyeballess eyes. I only heard the sound of wind passing through its mouth, before I kicked its shin, and grabbed my backpack.

My shotgun was already on my back, alongside my trusty Mauser on my left holster. This one was an actual gun holster, instead of a book holster. Not that it made any difference, both were still holsters, just for different things. And wasn’t that funny? Things can have multiple uses.

‘’I wonder if I can turn into water one day?’’ I murmured as I unlocked my front door, before locking it up again once I was outside. I trekked my way towards the city with that thought in my head for longer than I wanted it to be in, and I really wish I hadn’t but it isn’t like I would’ve known about the next series of events. Might’ve been having visions and dreams of the future, but that didn’t mean I remembered them in crystal clear clarity.

Huh, there’s an idea. A dream journal. Hell, while I’m at it, why not make a bestiary as well? Put that knowledge of Hug-Wolf anatomy to some good use. Maybe even note down all the animals that used to exist before the bombs fell. That wasn’t such a bad idea! It’d also give me another hobby to preoccupy myself with and prevent me from going insane from isolation and lack of contact with any other talking being!

Genius work, Nanaf! I’m truly a genius!

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