Endings and Beginnings...

I've never been good at starting at the beginning of something. My mind always tried to jump around in time, tracking bits and bobs that have already happened, or are about to. Still, the beginning is typically a good place to start, and I want to provide some context for this little blog of mine before it gets much farther along. My name is Gary Buddell, and I worked as a Restoration Engineer for the DRC from March to May of 2007. Like many of my co-workers, I was charged with keeping an eye on the explorers, helping them when they needed assistance, and running daily orientations in the Beginner's Bevin neighborhood. After leaving the DRC, I remained in the Cavern, and was understandably upset when I received word that the DRC had been unable to obtain further funding to continue their work of restoring D'ni.

I am very concerned about the state of affairs in the Cavern, and what may happen in the future should the DRC still be unable to return soon. In 2004, Victor Laxman took some rather extraordinary precautions to ensure that everything would keep working down here indefinitely; this time everyone left in a considerable hurry, and things seem to have been slowly degrading ever since. I need to start taking precautions in case something severe happens to the KI Lattice and nobody's around to fix it. Maybe move out of the neighborhoods to somewhere a bit more easily-accessible by traditional means. Will have to see what to do about this. Granted, Dr. Watson and Phil Henderson are supposed to still be around, but Phil's a complete flake, and I'm inclined to believe that Dr. Watson is more talk than action... should push come to shove, I don't know whether he'll do any shoving. Of course, I haven't even seen Dr. Watson since his big re-appearance last year, so who knows what he's up to.

All I do know is this: I'm not leaving. They'll have to drag me up the Descent in a bodybag before I abandon this place again. Everything I need to live on is here. I'm betting the DRC didn't empty their food stores before leaving, and there's plenty of other Ages I can start making use of once that runs out. If worst comes to worst I can return to the Surface and try to buy food there, but I have very little saved up from my time as a ResEng, so I doubt that it will last long. Plus, there's plenty of places in which to set up camp. Obviously some are more stable than others, and it'll take some work to find something that suits me, but there's plenty of places to be had should it come to that. I've got several changes of clothes, and access to fresh water in a few out-of-the-way spots for washing them (and for drinking, since that's important too).

I don't know what will come of this; I may go mad from the solitude, or die in a building collapse two weeks in, or link to a dead Age looking for food when the supplies from the DRC run out, or any number of other ugly things, but I'm hopeful that I can carve out a niche in this huge space to call my home, and perhaps some day, more will come to join me.