Introduction 4

Prologue
Dream/Vision
Date and Location Unknown 

If I am to leave, I will need some clothes, and I do not see any visible. Jennifer walked over to the wardrobe and opened it. There were clothes for both a man and a woman, with the male clothes to the left and the female clothes on the right. The styles were obviously old fashioned, perhaps from the early to mid 20^th century, with dresses for the female. Everything is old. Nothing seems to be modern. 
 
There was also a military style uniform on each side. He is military. … Or paramilitary – police – I guess. And there is a woman who lives here who is as well. Fear washed through her body again. I need to get out of here.
 
I guess a dress would probably fit. The dress was relatively plain and actually covered her body, so she took it. These are not my clothes, but they seem acceptable. Jennifer put on the dress. I need to figure out who this guy is. She carefully walked to the stenka in order to look for an id of his. There were some personal belongings on top of it. She picked up two ids, one of them a passport, the other the size of an id card, but thicker. She moved closer to the window in order to get enough light to read and examined the smaller one first.

“Committee for State Security.” DHS? Is he trying to get information about my friends? She shook as heat and dread ran through her body again. But her brain was not paralyzed by uncertainty. It was working quickly, focused on trying to understand.

I can't be doing anything which warrants surveillance. And I doubt I know anything useful to track others. But he doesn't know that. ... Is he trying to blackmail or seduce me? It won't work, but maybe he doesn't know. … How did he get me here? This can't be legal. ... Why is his id here then? Did he expect me to wake up after him? This seems too trustful for me to be a mark.

Sergey Volkov. I am not going to remember that. … Well, wolf boy, like the picture. I wonder if this means something.
 
Before looking at the passport, a photograph caught her eye. There was a man and a woman, in uniform. The man was probably the one on the bed. His image matched the one in the id. He certainly has a wife. She is clearly police as well. She appears to be higher ranking. … Since when can I read military ranks? … I wonder where she is. Her purse is here, but she is not. … She looks similar to me!
 
Something is really odd about this situation, and I do not know what.

Introduction 3

Prologue
Dream/Vision
Date and Location Unknown 

Jennifer was at this point wide awake. She carefully made her way to the end of the bed, where she had enough room to stand up comfortably. From here she had a better view of room she was in. She looked around to determine where she was. 

Jennifer first noticed the paintings on the walls next to her. Above the bed there was a painting of a wolf. On the wall next to her was an image of an angelic version of Athena. Fear flowed through her body again. Whoever put these here knows me. There was something familiar about the design of the images. As if they came from her soul. ... Did I make these? That wouldn't make any sense. Unless this was a dream. Or she had amnesia.

She saw on the wall right next to her an opening to a hallway. Through the opening there was a wall on the opposite side, but she could see the corridor went left and right. It ended immediately to the left of the opening at a kitchen. To the right it continued before turning forward, away from the room she was in. The stenka she had seen before was right after the opening. 

On the wall opposing her there was a wardrobe. Next to it was a bookshelf. On the other side of the bookshelf was a lamp and small table before one of the armchairs which she had noted previously. She turned back to look towards the front of the room. Well, this room is certainly more than just as a bedroom, but it does not seem like a dorm room. Maybe odnokomnatnaya kvartira, a one room – studio? – apartment, with a balcony.

Introduction 2

Prologue
Dream/Vision
Date and Location Unknown

Jennifer quickly examined what she saw of the room before she got up any further. In front of her was a window with the shades closed, with a door to one side and a radiator underneath. This took up the majority of the space on the far wall. To the left was a table with chairs and two armchairs. On the right was a stenka and a TV on a stand. The TV was very old, or at least a very old fashioned style. I have only seen TVs like that in old movies or movies taking place in the mid 20^th century. Why would there be a TV from the 60s here?

Her gaze and attention moved from what was in her line of sight to the bed she was in. I am in bed with someone. There was a man in the bed, someone whom she did not recognize. She had no dreamlike associations or insights of this man being a particular person. But he was still asleep. I need to figure out what is going on before he wakes up. With fear rising in her body and her mind continuing to run, Jennifer took the blankets off of her and cautiously got up.

Ne mogu. I am not going to be able to do this. ... I need to focus. She struggled to figure out how this could make sense. In a TV show, the character may have gotten drunk and gone home with someone. But that wouldn't work for her. Or someone may have kidnapped me in the night. It still seemed unlikely. I must still be dreaming. But she knew she needed to act as if this were real. She tried to work out what she needed to do and found that instead of being paralyzed with fear and uncertainty, she had some instincts, or perhaps training, guiding her.
 
There is something unusual about my thoughts ... and my body. She put this observation aside, however. She could not yet identify what was different, and there were more important concerns.

Introduction 1

Prologue
Dream/Vision
Date and Location Unknown

Jennifer woke up slowly, finding herself in a strange bed. Fighting off sleep, she struggled to remember where she last was. She remembered being at her parents' house, visiting for the summer. It was June 2013. Today she was going to go to the airport with her brother and their friend Joshua. Or at least that was what was supposed to be happening. But this was not her parents' guest room. This was not any room she recognized.

She remembered going to bed last night at her parents' house. After that her memories were of her dreams. She didn't do anything between then and now. Nothing in her memories would explain why she was not where she expected herself to be. I must still be asleep, dreaming. Either that or I have lost memories. But would the boundary of my memory loss be as if I had been asleep just before regaining consciousness? Maybe my brain would put together my memories to adjust the boundary. ... No. This must be a dream. Either I am still asleep seeing a fictitious room or am partially asleep and have forgotten where I am.

Jennifer picked herself up without fully getting up or out of bed in order to determine if she could. No, this does not feel like a dream. I can move for real and keep my eyes open. The sights are real. I am awake. ... Although everything still feels weird. Either this was a dream and she was meant to find this place unfamiliar, or she was really in an unfamiliar location, either having forgotten or having been brought here. Either way she needed to determine where she was.

Prologue Notes

This prologue is a scene from a dream sequence which actually takes place later in the story. However Jennifer's memories start in this dream sequence before the beginning of the story. This should introduce the main character, the setting and the major themes.

The prologue has 14 updates. The text is done, but the images still need to be produced. I currently intend that I will start posting the prologue this month and finish posting the prologue in the summer of 2017. Hopefully by that point I will be ready to start the main story.

Notes for interpretation of the story where things may be unclear: 

Images and Text Formatting:
– There will be information in the images which is not in the text. I believe you can still follow the story without them, but I do not know for certain.
– Thoughts are in italic. All thoughts in this are Jennifer's.
– The dialog is colored slightly. Dark purple is for Jennifer; dark green is for Sergey. Who is speaking should be understandable without this, but this makes it more obvious.

Language Considerations:
While I do not currently intend to put all speech in the correct language in the entire story, that is what I have done for this part. Here I have used the Latinized version of the Russian text. For details on my transliteration and translations, see the transliteration scheme notes.

Grayscale Images:
Images will be done in color, so if it is in grayscale, people in that situation would be seeing what is shown in grayscale. The effect is meant to be real to the situation. In this sequence, there are two reasons for this: either what is shown is of something in grayscale (photograph, newspaper, etc.) or it is too dark to see in color.

References:
– References for the design of the apartment are given in the acknowledgement section.
– References the characters make to fiction are linked in the dialog. These links are black, so won't be obvious until you go over them.

Untranslated Terms:
Some terms used are frequently untranslated. (loan words) For the prologue, these are:
– stenka: A piece of furniture consisting of drawers and cabinets to store stuff. It also may have a place covered by glass used to store china or books. Common translations include wall cabinet or china cabinet.
– oblast: One of the levels of governance. In modern times equivalent to a state or providence.

Symbolism:
I may create a page where I discuss this (as there is plenty of unintended symbolism). Be warned as this will not be spoiler-free.

Sonya's Childhood House

Early 1970s, USA

[The choice of language for their dialogue is irrelevant.]

Sergey: "Is this the house in which you grew up?"
Sonya:  "Yes. My mother had (or should I say will have?) a garden over there. There was ..."

Sergey reacts, appearing to become upset by her comments.

Sonya:  "What is wrong?"
Sergey: "I am sorry."
Sonya:  "Why?"
Sergey: "You lost all of this."
Sonya:  "Don't be. I have gained more than I lost. When I was young I had my parents. Now I have you and all our friends."
Sergey: "Seeing this, it makes me realize that what you had told me of your childhood, how nice it was, is true."
Sonya:  "We don't need stuff to be happy. I was alienated when young. I have always had a sense that I did not belong. I feel a part of something now. I am needed and am not forced to fit in. ... I may have been lucky then but I am lucky now."
Sergey: "You had a good life."
Sonya:  "Appearances can be deceiving. Life in the US, as everywhere else, is complicated. While it is true that here we would be safe, we would have technology to make our lives easier, that doesn't make us happier. Even people in the upper middle class would be subjugated to the needs of capitalism. And while it is not so bad for people with money, this doesn't make things good for everyone. ... Besides, if anything, it is not being confined to what people consider a good life which makes me happy. That is what freedom is."

-------------------------------

Background Notes:

This occurs after the time period of the story. I have some details of what comes after, but nothing is precise and may be rearranged (redesigned and researched better) if I do tell them. This is why the setting time and place are not well defined. This also means that this may not be cannon.

Sergey and Sonya were sent to work in the US due to a comment Sonya made which angered her bosses. They are working at the embassy, so still KGB, but legal. ... This is in part a reference to the beginning of Sonya's story when she basically says that she will not speak out against the Soviet government in order to not be sent back to the US. It is also a reference to a practice which actually occurred in the Brezhnev era. Mostly, though, I wanted to point out that not everyone wants to be in the US. ... The reason she made the comment is that despite whatever loyalty or restraint she has, she still has her own opinions, and is still libertarian.

They had taken the opportunity for Sonya to show Sergey her childhood home. While Sonya had previously told Sergey about her childhood and what life in the US is like, this is the first time he has actually seen something from her life before she ended up in the past.

Update

My current plan is this:
I will begin by putting together a prologue to introduce the story. This will consist of the first part of the dream sequence used for foreshadowing later in the story. I have almost finished rewriting this, at which point I will go through trying to edit it and drawing the images. I expect to start posting before the end of the year, and will probably finish with this in the middle of 2017. After that, depending on my situation, I will try to start on the actual story.

Also, I am still looking for people who can help me who actually have time.