Blake sat cross-legged on the floor of his quarters, back straight against the cold metal wall. His breath came slow and even; each exhale pushed away the lingering tension from the earlier fight.
The oddly nostalgic pixelated avatar of Chimera flickered into view. She remained silent for a time as if waiting to be acknowledged. Blake sent her a mental nod.
[How would you prefer to proceed? I can guide you through each interaction step by step or remain present to answer questions as they arise.]
Blake rubbed his jaw, considering. He surprised himself by not rejecting Chimera out of hand. He didn't fully trust the symbiote, but she also hadn't caused him any issues since their first real discussion. No, his reticence came from the fact that he had always been somewhat self-reliant, happy to figure things out on his own when possible. Having someone hovering over his shoulder while he worked had always set his teeth on edge.
"I learn better hands-on," Blake said. "Let me explore the system myself. I'll holler if I get stuck."
The avatar's form pulsed once in acknowledgment.
[As you wish. I will remain available should you require assistance. I've given you a prompt to proceed when ready. I've been suppressing notifications, and you should prepare yourself for the deluge.]
Blake raised an eyebrow. "Okay. Thank you, I suppose. Just hit the button, that simple?"
[That simple. I'll step back and let you work.]
The avatar faded, replaced by a floating text box in Blake's field of vision:
[Ready? Y/N]
Blake failed to suppress a smile at the simplicity of the prompt. It was just sort of funny. He mentally selected "Yes."
----------------------------------------
[Initial Assessment in Progress]
[Unintegrated Status: Confirmed]
[Anamolies detected. Archon assessment requested.]
[Archon assignment confirmed]
[Variant Species has been corrected to: Human / Biomorph, Leviathan (Corebound)]
[Late-Entry Protocol initiated by authority of Archon]
Blake stared at the notifications, his brow furrowed. Archon? The term stirred something in his memory - Greek, maybe? But the context here escaped him. He'd planned to figure this out himself, but the question nagged at him.
"What's an Archon?" The words left his mouth before he could stop himself.
Chimera's avatar reappeared, its pixels rearranging into what might have been a smile.
[Any complex system needs people to keep it running smoothly. Moderators, administrators, tech support. Demiurge has Archons, who serve this purpose and more.]
"And why is one assessing me? Should I be concerned?"
[No. Think about your circumstances. I believe we can agree they're unusual. Getting you set up and establishing a few catch-up measures is relatively common for cases in which someone did not connect naturally to Demiurge within a normal time frame.]
"Ah," Blake said, considering Chimera's words. "So I'm just getting rubber-stamped. That… Makes sense, I guess."
He brought his attention back to the system messages cluttering his vision. A large list of skills appeared, shuffled, merged, and disappeared. Various messages appeared regarding Base Attributes and Derived Statistics before once again disappearing from his vision.
With the appearance of each message a pressure built up in his chest, in what he understood intrinsically to be his Core. And as each message vanished, so too did the pressure, releasing waves of energy that crashed through his body like a tempest. Electricity coursed up his spine making Blake, nearly paralyzing him temporarily. The lightning coursed through his head, and Blake nearly whited out, his vision going to static like an old TV.
Overall, it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. On the other hand, once it was through, Blake felt amazing.
There was only a single message visible now.
[Initial Status assessment complete. View profile? Y/N]
Without any hesitation, Blake once more selected "Yes".
----------------------------------------
Name: Blake Connover
Level: 1 (0 GP)
Race: Human | Leviathan Bio-morph (Corebound)
Age: 43
--
Body: n/a
Mind: n/a
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Spirit: n/a
Core: Leviathan Core
--
Strength: 12
Intent: 14
Willpower: 14
Agility: 13
Alacrity: 15
Resonance: 8
Vitality: 12
Adaptability: 16
Resilience: 12
Perception: 14
Awareness: 16
Affinity: 14
--
Titles: Edgewalker, Corebound, Battlewright, …
--
Class: n/a
Class Abilities: n/a
--
Profession: n/a
Profession Abilities: n/a
--
Skills:
Animal Handling: 14
Battlewright: 15
Burglary: 14
Coaching: 11
Crafting:
- Baking: 14
- Calligraphy: 10
- Carpentry: 13
- Cooking: 14
- Mechanical Repair: 15
- Mixology: 12
- Origami: 10
- Sewing: 11
- Whittling: 16
Deadeye: 1
Disguise: 13
Field Medicine: 12
Fishing: 14
Gambling: 8
Gardening: 12
Improvisation: 12
Insight: 14
Intimidation: 15
Logistics: 8
Negotiation: 12
Performance:
- Dance: 6
- Guitar: 11
- Harmonica: 14
- Impressions: 5
- Legerdemain: 12
- Piano: 5
- Singing: 10
- Storytelling: 7
Physical Conditioning: 18
Piloting: 15
Squad Tactics: 17
Stealth: 12
Survival: 16
Tracking: 16
…
----------------------------------------
There was a lot to take in, even though there wasn't an overwhelming amount of information visible. Blake had played his share of role-playing games over the years. Before the towers fell he had enjoyed playing as the Vault Dweller and the Nameless One.
Even after deployment there were enough people around playing 2nd edition that he still halfway remembered how THAC0 worked. Though that was all before… that mission. A decade and a half ago.
Still, here he was. Alien planet, refurbished body, and his own custom character sheet.
"Life is fucking weird," he said aloud. Chimera took it as an invitation.
[ It is. My life isn't exactly normal either. I don't think there are more than a handful of beings like me in existence, you know. ]
Blake blinked. "You know, I didn't know that. I still barely know anything about you. We'll fix that, if we're going to be stuck together."
[ Well, let's have a look at you first. Demiurge seems to have given you a relatively popular configuration. 12 base attributes, visual indicators for class and professions, skills… We can adjust all of this as needed, but it is a good start. ]
"Right," Blake said, still somewhat overwhelmed. "We'll start at the top then. I have no idea what these attributes are."
[ Attributes are representative of an Approach and Source. The Approaches are Force, Grace, Resolve, and Insight, and the Sources are your Body, Mind, and Spirit.
So Strength is the Force of your Body, while Intent is the Force of your Mind, so on and so forth. ]
"Right, so Resonance is… the Grace of my Spirit?" Blake couldn't contain a rueful laugh. "What the hell does that even mean? In this or ANY context?"
[ The descriptors are not perfect; they're a vast simplification of ineffable natural forces that drive the mortal body and spirit. ]
"Yeah, sure," Blake replied. "You've got a lot of $10 words to say that it's all complicated."
[I apologize, would you like me to adopt a vernacular and pattern of speech more approachable to you?]
"Uh," Blake was caught off guard by the question. "Sure. Why not?"
[Got it. Your Resonance is shit because your spirit is underdeveloped. There wasn't enough Aether in your world for your spirit to resonate with anything meaningfully, so of course it's in the gutter.]
The whiplash from Chimera's change of tone stunned Blake to silence. Even the little pixel avatar looked sassier. After a long few seconds, he recovered enough to follow up.
"Wonderful. Thank you for that. How about these titles? What are those?"
[ It looks to me like the Archon who got your case decided to give you some titles as a way to help you get up and running. Very thoughtful of them. You can get more info on any of them with a small nudge of Intent—that's what you've been using to navigate all these interfaces, by the way. Anyway, it looks like you've got more titles than were visible by default. Let's open them up and see what we're working with. ]
Blake saw no reason to argue. He willed the list of titles to expand and started reading.
He started feeling very conflicted very quickly.