I… I don't remember yesterday. Or maybe the day before? The details are slippery, like trying to hold water in my hands... Maybe that would be easier... One moment, everything was clear—or at least as clear as it can be in this wretched place—and the next… nothing. Just blackness, a void where memories should be. How did I lose an entire day? What the hell did I do? On top of that, I woke up this morning surrounded by strange things. Items, creations, machines—things that look vaguely familiar, but I have no idea what they are or how they work. Weird things... There's this gold necklace with a red gem on it—glowing faintly, almost pulsing like it has a heartbeat. It's warm to the touch, but I don't know what it does... And strangly I found a figure of myself, crafted out of wood and meat of all things. I… I know what that is, at least. It's a Meat Effigy. A safeguard, just like the Touch Stone, a way to pull myself back from the brink of death. I used it before... I guess I invented that?... When I was gone last time? I... I am not sure though... But how did I make it? I don't remember gathering the materials. I don't remember… anything... There's also some sort of strange machine, built from what looks like shadow and a purple stone, crackling with dark energy. For the sake of Newton... Where did I even found a purple stone? It hums at the edge of my vision, and I can feel it tugging at me, pulling at the edges of my mind. It frightens me. I don't know what it is. Did I build it? How? Why?
It's terrifying—losing time like this. Losing myself. This sanity thing… it's no joke. My mind, once so sharp, so full of ideas and possibilities, now feels fragile. One minute I'm thinking clearly, the next I'm somewhere else, doing things I can't explain. Things I can't even recognize. It's like my body keeps moving, keeps building, keeps experimenting, even when my mind is completely gone. And yet… my sanity has returned. At least a little. I can feel the pieces of my mind settling back into place, though it's still shaky. How did I recover? What did I do while I was lost? It doesn't make sense... I was at the edge, teetering on the brink, and now… now I'm back, but I'm scared of what I might have done to get here. Did I tap into something darker? Is there a cost I don't yet understand?
This place—it does things to you. It changes you, breaks you down, and then builds you back up in ways you don't even recognize. I've always prided myself on being a man of logic, of reason, but here… those things are slipping away from me. The shadows, the whispers, the hallucinations—they're all real now. I'm scared. Not of this world, or the creatures in it. I'm scared of my own mind. I'm scared of what I'll become if I keep losing myself like this. I can't even trust my own thoughts anymore. Every time I try to think clearly, to piece together what's happened, I'm interrupted by flashes of madness. Shadows lurking just beyond my vision, thoughts I can't control, words that don't make sense. And yet… here I am. Alive. More than that, I've somehow managed to create powerful things, things that might save my life in the long run. But at what cost? How much more of my sanity am I willing to sacrifice for survival?
I need to be careful. I need to find a way to hold onto myself, to stay grounded. If I keep slipping like this, I don't know how much longer I'll last. The Meat Effigy, the Touch Stone, they might bring me back physically, but what about my mind? What if there's nothing left to bring back?
I need to stop before it's too late...