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.