*a click, then a short burst of static*

*a sharp huff, like someone blowing out of their nose*

"Did I break it?"

*silence, a quiet hum of noise in the background*

*someone's dry breathing can be faintly made out*

"Fuck.. Ah, I may have, it doesn't..."

*quiet wheezing, followed by a mildly raspy voice*

"It looks like it's working th-though... Well, I guess, I guess it's working.. M-Maybe I should'a done a test run or something, but uh...

Hello? I don't know how to start these off, haha.. Well I uh, I'm gonna start making these tapes, or, er, I guess I already started, but uh.. They're going to be like just things that happen, maybe I'll do one once a month to recap my thoughts and everything that goes on, um.. But if something important goes down, I'll, I'll try to talk through it as best I can, m-maybe it'll help preserve my sanity or, or something..."

*a thick, audible swallow*

"Heh... It's a lot more difficult to talk to myself than to, than to write all this down, I uh... That's what I used to do, anyway, what he used to do, but now.. My hands aren't like they were, they used to be nice and calm and delicate but now they twitch and tremble and have all these ugly scars and, and... It's better this way, I think, I hope... Like, what if the person who finds all the things I left behind is like illiterate or something? Writing in a journal won't help, but maybe they'll listen to these tapes and be able to piece together who I was.. Oh, I'm j-just rambling at this point...

Though, I guess I better introduce myself to whoever finds these tapes, that would be useful I bet.. And I've never introduced me to myself before, which sounds rather retarded when I say it in that way, actually... Uhm...

My, my name is Dave Miller, well it's David but I, I prefer just Dave... And.. The date is December 26th, 1991, it's really fuckin' early and cold outside, and I got myself nothing for Christmas because... I don't deserve anything, after all... Hah..

W-Well, I suppose this bundle of cheap tapes is my only present, which is better than coal so that's good.. Speaking of 26, I, my age is also 26, birthday was last month.. It's, it's been a little over a year since the accident and I've already made a mess of myself but... I can't be expected to live like him after all that's happened, can I..?

I g-guess I better talk about what's been going on in the world too, huh? Well, the what's it called, uh, Soviet Union thing dissolved yesterday, so that's cool right? I remember hiding under desks in grade school for them bomb drills, but, the Russians or whatever didn't really affect me after that.. I guess I had other crazy shit to take care of, ya know? It's still nice though, for America, I suppose...

I was thinking that... I shouldn't really talk about all the stuff that's happened to me just yet, like maybe I should wait until another session of this talking-to-self therapy thing. I mean, I have yet to, to set the scene and all, so I guess I better do that, yeah? Hum.. I live in Hurricane, Utah, been living here all my life though I have been out of town.. Like, once.. The condensed version of that story is that my grandpa died on my mum's side and we went to visit London for the funeral. We stayed for about two weeks, and that's where he picked up on all sorts of British mannerisms from my grandma.. It stuck with him for a while but I.. I'm done with all that. After the accident, my brain is too tired to, to continue with his British act, and just thinking about it...

I want to leave all that behind. I want to be as far away from that man as possible, mentally. I.. His thinking and all he's done is too much for me, there's no way to keep going with that anymore. And, and my memories are all fuzzy anyway, I have a whole 'nother set of problems from having two fucking metal rods forcefully shoved down the back of my head, impaled along with the rest of my pathetic body, I can't.. It's..."

*a heavy, shaking sigh*

"Something's definitely changed in here, in my brain.. His mentality now seems so sick and horrible when before it was normal, before I thought I was normal, but..."

*a dry chuckle*

"I was so wrong, so so wrong... Now I just want to step away from it all, I guess run away like a coward.. Though that sounds bad too, how could I.. How could I just leave this mess behind..? Oof, I'll have to dwell on this later I think, I'm starting to hear him in my head when I know he's not here, he's not, I'm not... STOP!"

*heavy wheezing for long, drawn out minutes*

"I said I wasn't going to talk about my problems and look what I do? I'm done, this is, I need t-to go lay down, I th-think, oof..."

*thick silence*

*click*

So that's that. As we can see, Dave has some serious problems. XD This is based off a timeline I wrote on my Deviantart page, which is a timeline with the games and the novels all squished into one lol

I'll upload every once in a while, I guess. Maybe every Thursday.