SUMMARY: "The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium." Eloise is on a mission to record the events that begin to unfold in front of everyone's eyes. Though it won't kill her, the toll it eventually costs her will certainly make her feel otherwise.
AN: Note that any spelling mistakes you spot in the first journal entry is intentional.
WARNING(S): Future chapters (starting from chapter 1, since this is the prologue) will be graphic in that they'll have their occasional gory moments. Some swearing might happen at some point also.
February 27, 2004
Friday
It has been a week since I made my first and only entry in this journal. And…
I do not know why I grabbed this purple journal and wanted to write in it again. To tell the truth, I'm not sure why Julian gave it to me in the first place. When I asked him why he did it, he told me it was for me to keep my feelings and secrets in, or something like that.
But what is there to put in this? Do I put stuff about me in it?
Hmmm…. I could give it a try.
Um, hello diary? Journal? Book.
Umm… I can figure out what to call you later, I guess.
How about just going with the stuff about me now? Still sounds good.
Hi, again. My name is Eloise Labriola. I'll be 10 years old on April 5th. I have grey eyes and blond hair, and I love in Wizard City with my mom, dad, my older brother Julian, and littler sister Marie in a house on our flowting island. I like my home, espeshially the outside of it. The birds and Fairies seem to like being around our house to, since I always see them all over the big garden around the house. The Fairies are very helpful to me. They enjoy planting flowers with me in our gardens. In fact, these days they seem to be the only things that will help me out with that or anything else now. They seem to be the only ones that even understand me.
My mom and dad are always saying that they can't wait for me to go to Ravenwood School. But that means that I'm going to learn how to fight. I do not like fighting people. It's bad. That is why Julian always gets in troble with everyone. Mom and dad tell me he's always fighting people for no reason, and that they are not happy about that. So why do mom and dad want me to learn how to fight if it makes them so unhappy?
I'm not sure what to think. Everything is so confuzing.
From,
Eloise Labriola
-0-0-0-
May 18, 2007
Friday
11:23
I think Professor Wu is starting to grow on our class pretty quickly, despite coming in only a month ago. Nobody's laughter or smiles seemed to be forced today as we continued to practice some of our newer spells. And I must say that our newfound cheeriness appeared to rub off of our new Mooshuese teacher—I'm fairly sure that this is also the first time we've seen her with such a jolly laugh.
It's the first time since Sylvia started getting sick that I believe that our Life classes truly feel hopeful for me.
13:06
I can't say the same for the Death classes.
Anya Ported to me not too long ago while I was studying in the Library. She apparently had come right out of one of those classes, because she looked so despondent the minute she popped in and started sharing her accounts about what had occurred this time in the Death school.
From what she told me, it sounded like Professor Malistaire was starting to have another breakdown towards the end of the class. That alone would make it obvious why my friend was so worried. Nobody with enough common sense really wants to be the person—or class—that ends up somehow pushing him to the point where he possibly ends up injuring a few people again. It makes me feel sorry for all of the Necromancers and the people taking the classes as a secondary class, even though some of them still make me nervous sometimes.
20:50
Now I'm starting to hear talk from some of the students—the Death students, mainly—about how Malistaire should be making more of an effort to get out of his depression. They've been talking about how they're getting sick of being scared of his mood swings and how he should be getting over Sylvia's death by now. The Death students especially are saying that being the head Necromancy professor, he should be setting an example on how death happens to every living being and has to be accepted no matter what.
True, it's been over three months since Professor Sylvia Drake died, but it saddens me to see that they're of the mindset that that's enough time to recover from something that tragic. Do they expect him—or anybody for that matter—to just bounce back so quickly from the death of someone that was probably the love of his life? I certainly don't think so. Even if their philosophy should be followed (which I find impossible to imagine happening for anyone that isn't from the Death school), they shouldn't be expecting him to just go with it at the moment. Three months isn't long enough to "get over" someone's passing, no matter who you are.
21:02
Being completely confounded by people's beliefs isn't going to make things any easier. Writing down my frustrations and confusion helps in the long run, but as you've probably already noticed for the last few years, it also has the unnecessary side effect of magnifying the emotions I'm recounting tenfold. Not always healthy, primarily when I'm in a negative mood, which I've noticed has been going on for a while now, based on my rereading some of my past entries.
But now that I've been pushed into this topic, it makes me remember that doing this—writing about all of the things going on in my life that I would probably never share with anyone—is probably much healthier than just keeping it all bottled in until I snapped and went berserk. It's a good feeling to have something to confide in when you're certain that nobody else will listen without being judgmental. True, my family is supportive of me (or at least more supportive now) and I actually have friends to confide in, but I still feel like I need to keep a few things to myself for fear of being, at worst, ridiculed, and thus having someone start an argument that I would probably be powerless to stop.
Lexi just jumped into my bed and is now purring and starting to rub against this journal, which probably means that I should probably start getting some shut eye now. Our projects in Theurgist History are going to begin being presented tomorrow anyway, so I need the extra sleep.
High hopes that tomorrow will be even better than today.
-E.L
AN: This story, since it will be written a bit in journal form, is basically going to be used as a way for me to curb writer's block in the future, so don't expect too many updates from it.
And now, for other news on this story: I will be accepting requests for OC submissions. I will only take 3-5 at most, so don't be too discouraged if I don't pick your character(s). And please note that if I do use them, I have the right to use them in any way that I want in my story as long as I feel that I'm keeping them as IC ("in character") as possible. (And trust me when I say that with what's going to happen in this story, that's gonna be a little hard for me.) Anyway, here's the character sheet, and make sure that when you review or PM, it's in this little neat list form:
Name:
Date of birth:
Home world:
School(s):
Relationships (family/friends with general info about them):
Personality:
Appearance:
History (don't be afraid to get detailed - the more relevant info, the better):