Anthropological Curiosity Chapter 1 Update

So it's been a few years. As I'm sure you'll notice there are some distinct changes to the story though there's a lot about it that will stay the same. I've recently graduated myself and rereading the story was a bit painful. A lot of it was written in classes at the beginning of my college career and it's not my best work. So I'm rewriting it! Anything in italics are journal entries from Gabrielle, meaning it'll be in first person since it's from her point of view. In regular text is third person unless stated otherwise.

Gabrielle has kind of evolved over the years and become rather distinct as a person in my head. She's been a great OC in many daydreams but still so central to this one.

Again I can't promise to update often as I am going through Grad School right now but I will try to keep up with it. Please take this chapter as a Prologue to the updates and the story.

Enjoy!

IvoryCrawler

Journal entry 1: Date##/##/2008

It's hard writing in a journal like this, I'm going to have issues remembering to update it. Jay will be upset if I don't use it though. She was nice enough to give it to me for graduation and in preparation for this trip so I should keep up with it. She's not much for travel but she does enjoy hearing stories.

See Jay! I'm not being a forgetful jerk! And I'm not just going on and on about writing in a journal and my demon little sister. No, I'm writing about my adventure as this journal was provided for!

Though it has felt less like an adventure and more like administrative slog. Dr. Jackson has been helping me a lot, which makes sense, as I'll be working closely with him soon. I'll have to remember to thank Emile for referring me for this project and getting my Secret clearance cleared. I don't think I would have even been a contender for this project if it weren't for him. Fresh out of college and with limited experience isn't exactly ideal for a lot of the positions I was looking at.

Even being in Egypt now has been less adventure and more of a battle to get through customs and make my flights. Dr. Jackson is here with me and just peachy. I'm kind of jealous but I guess it comes with experience and lots of practice coming back and forth. He's been a great travel partner so far and he's really intelligent and interesting to talk with when he does speak. He's pretty damn quiet…

Egypt is, unsurprisingly, hot. And dry. But pleasant enough I guess. We're currently sitting in Luxor International waiting for our contacts that will take us the rest of the way to our site. I don't know too much more than this, other than we should be staying out by Dahab, which I hear has great diving. Maybe on one of my free weekends I can try to get in the water. I already have trips to the pyramids and several other archaeological sites planned. Though Dr. Jackson says I'm going to have to make sure our contacts know what I have planned before I go off.

I can do that easy. I'm sure I'll be psyched to go and talking about it for days.

I've been assured that we'll be safe as can be, our contact being an international team being led by an American Captain. There is more I'll apparently be learning when we meet them however my job, as Emile described it and Dr. Jackson reinforced, is to take notes, pay attention, and do my job. Not ask questions. Which of course is gonna be tough as questions are second nature to me, but I've been needing to work on my observational skills and this…this should help with that.

Such as the fact Dr. Jackson has been watching me the last few minutes. Hopefully it means we'll leave soon. I'm exhausted from the flight and am so ready to get where we're going.

Gabrielle Wilde

"Come. We're leaving." Dr. Alec Jackson was a short, stocky man at 64 years old, standing just barely three or four inches taller than Gabrielle. However it didn't diminish the respect he commanded. Though soft spoken, his students and colleagues listened when he spoke, even as quiet as it could be. He rarely had to repeat himself though Gabrielle nearly asked him to in the rather busy and loud airport.

She saw him gathering his things as a soldier walked towards them and got the message. Her journal was packed away, pen tucked in it's pages, and bags were collected. Standing in time to see Dr. Jackson shake hands with the soldier she listened for a moment as they spoke.

"Things have been smooth since the last time you were here. Glad you came back though, everyone has been getting restless." The soldier was tall, male, black, and with a very nice smile that seemed to come easy to him.

"I am sure they were well behaved. Have they translated any of the inscriptions?" Dr. Jackson asked. The soldier shook his head, "You'll have to talk to them but I don't think they have good news for you doc." The doctor sighed and nodded before turning to Gabrielle.

"This is my assistant, Gabrielle Wilde. She's going to be working with me and helping."

With that introduction she smiled and held out her hand, "Hi, nice to meet you."

The soldier reached back and gripped her hand, shaking it in the firm way soldiers had that convinced her they learned it in boot camp.

"Chief Master Sargent Robert Epps, though you can just call me Epps. And likewise to you. So you excited to be out here?" Epps asked, taking one of her bags and starting to lead them out of the airport. She glanced at Dr. Jackson before answering, "Yeah, plenty excited! First adventure and all that." Which her parents had told her that maybe saying that wasn't the most appropriate but it had started many a nice conversation, and was truly how she felt about her work.

"Good attitude about it! Hopefully it'll survive the heat." Epps was clearly teasing her, though for a moment she thought he was serious as the heat was a freaking wall of oppression the moment she stepped outside.

"Welcome to Egypt kid." He told her once she continued to follow them, already imagining how much she would grow to hate the heat before she adapted enough to tolerate it.

He tossed her bags in the back of the forest green Jeep Wrangler Rubicon with no top. Dr. Jackson went ahead and climbed into shotgun and Epps, of course, got into the driver's side. That left Gabrielle climbing in through the roll bar to sit in back with the luggage.

Not that it was a problem, she could spread out a bit and take the time to observe around her. Which, with that opportunity, she immediately latched onto the one thing in the car that was certainly not like the other Jeeps she'd seen.

And that was the rather strange, silver symbol between the vents on the dashboard that looked somewhat like a face. An angular, crying face. One that felt so foreign and alien to her that she couldn't put her finger on it and chose instead to put it out of her mind….for now. No questions Gabrielle, she reminded herself. No questions.

That face would stick in her mind for a very long time though.