Emily was startled awake by a strange voice that spoke directly into her head.

“Hello, Emily.”

For a single groggy moment she hoped that the voice belonged to her husband. Worrying for Jeff had been the normal state of her mind lately. It took her a moment to realize she needed that worry instead for herself.

Waking more fully she searched the room for a moment. Her blurry eyesight showed no human shaped silhouettes in the room.

“Hello, is anyone there?” She prodded for a response.

She felt a mix of relief and amusement rush through her body. Then the same voice spoke to her again. The voice had definitely been feminine in tone.

“Hello, Emily,” the voice repeated. “My name is Stai’Ze, a spore. We have now fused to become one being. I know this all must be very new-”

“Hold on a sec, Strai’Ze” Emily said, cutting off the spore. She reached beside her and grabbed her glasses. Her heart was beating hard, but she was also relieved to be hearing a seemingly sapient voice.

“Wait, you don’t seem very surprised by this,” Strai’Ze said. “I could have sworn this planet had been barren of any Myst when I arrived.”

Emily had finally woken up enough to remember that hearing this voice meant that the whole world around her would soon become monster infested. Oh goody, she thought, here’s to a truly awful day.

“I’m searching through your recent memories and- oh.” Strai’Ze must have found memories of her watching Jeff the last few days. “Oh, I think I’m going to like this new System. I don’t believe I have ever been fused to a being within the Boschyan System before. This is truly a step up from the Systems I remember from before. Although, most of those beings didn’t have the kind of mind you do. They were practically simple compared to-”

“Um, hi Strai’ze” Emily said before the spore could continue on with her rambling. She could tell that it was very lonely. Honestly, Emily was too. “What kind of spore are you?”

“Oh, wow, you really do know a lot more than I expected. I have never experienced a brain quite like this before. Honestly though, you do so much thinking it makes me want a nap for you. Sleep is just wonderful isn’t it. That nap would be for me and for you I suppose. I am an Umea spore by the way. It’s a marvel-”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Emily said, cutting off the beginnings of more rambling from Strai’Ze. She was tired, but the severity of the situation was dawning on her. The Mysts had come and that meant today was going to be a very hard day. “So, hearing your voice means I’m not a monster and that the world is going to end today. Do you think you can, uh… help me not die today?”

Emily wasn’t totally sure what she was expecting from the spore, but she knew that she couldn’t do very much without a Mystical ability.

“Yeah, I actually-”

“Wait!” Emily hissed in a whisper. She had heard a noise in her room. She moved herself into a crouch on her bed and prepared to pounce at anything that moved. She noticed a strange blue glow creating strange shadows as she moved. It cast a faint light on the dark bedroom.

There.

A purring noise sounded near the entrance of the door. She had kept the door slightly cracked out of habit. They always kept it slightly open so the kids knew they were welcome to come in if needed, but really, it was for their cat.

The bedroom door swung open slightly from a form moving in the darkness.

“How do I know if it’s a monster or not?” Emily asked. She honestly wasn’t sure if sapient spores could attach onto anything that wasn’t human. Would that improve her cat's intelligence? Would her cat suddenly start talking to her or something?

“You’ll know if it attacks.”

Then the cat attacked. Link leaped into the air with a ferocious pounce. The animal came into the dim moonlight that was leaking in through the window. For a brief moment Emily saw the disfigured features of the cat she knew so well. All of the previous cuteness was replaced with a monstrous face filled with teeth.

Emily was so surprised that all she could do was reach out her hands and turn her face to the side with closed eyes. She had just enough wherewithal to reach out with what she assumed was ‘spiritual yearning’.

Pain erupted on her hands, as the monster's fangs struck them. His claws raked at her outstretched arms.

Then a moment later she felt the mutated cat fall limp. It fell to the bed as she pushed it away from her face.

Emily opened her eyes and saw Link laying still. She had no idea what happened, but she needed to get some more light into the room as soon as possible. She moved to the bathroom and turned on the light that spilled into the rest of the room.

She moved back to examine the cat. It appeared to be…sleeping? Link’s cuteness was present again now that his newly massive fangs weren’t bared to attack. She knew that spores would reshape the creatures they fused with to create a balance between the two spirit bodies that now inhabited the one physical body. It was weird to see how Link had changed.

The gray tabby had been slightly elongated. It now had two tails and weirdly large paws. Then his face had changed drastically. It seemed that there were too many teeth in his mouth to let it close properly. The fur hadn’t changed much, but the muscles underneath seemed to have bulked up a bit. The cat had been a little chubby before, but now it looked bulky and starved all at the same time.

The real question was how did it fall asleep so quickly?

“I can answer that,” Strai’Ze said.

“Ah!” Emily screamed. Oh right, she had a spore in her head now. “Answer what?

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“How it fell asleep so quickly.”

“Oh- mind reading…right.”

“Yes, mind reading. By the way I must say that you are adapting to this very well. I can’t remember all of those I fused with before, but I highly doubt that any of them were as calm as you when I-”

“Strai’Ze…” Emily tried to get the spore back on track.

“Oh, yes, so sorry about that. Here, let me show you your first Myst Connection and Myst Abilities.”

The next moment two screens filled her entire vision. Emily wasn’t going to say anything at the moment, but a thought of frustration at the screen size did the trick. The screen quickly shrunk down a bit and became more transparent to match something similar to the screens Jeff saw.

New Myst Connection:

Sleep

New Abilities:

Induce Sleep

Bring a creature into a subdued sleep state with a simple touch.

Light Sleeper

Sleeping in the light can heal you.

“I’m…I’m finished reading, could you-” the screens disappeared immediately at Emily’s reminder. She could tell that the spore was just nervous about being accepted. She couldn’t tell if this was just the spores personality or if it was drawing off some of her own chemical issues with anxiety and stress.

Seeing the monster version of Link laying on her bed brought her back to the present. She needed to do something about the cat. Should she…should she kill it?

The thought horrified her. She had never been very fond of the cat, but she never wanted to hurt it. She had always coexisted politely with the feline. That, and Jeff loved the cat.

“It’s not a cat, it's a monster,” she said to herself. She moved to find a weapon. She hadn’t spent much time at home the last few days, but she still had enough time to prepare a few things.

“It’s not a cat, it’s a monster,” she repeated, hoping the mantra would help her feel better about what she needed to do next. She grabbed the solid wooden stick from her closet that acted as a rod for hangers to go on.

“It’s not a cat… it’s not Link, it’s a monster.”

She prepared to attack, then realized she was about to kill her pet cat while it was asleep on her bed. The emotions really hit her then. She could just leave. She could leave and…let her cat potentially kill one of her neighbors. The bloody scrapes on her hands and arms were enough to tell her that was a bad idea. The cat…monster was too dangerous.

No. She needed to do this.

She closed her eyes and swung down at the cat. The thwack of the stick confirmed she made decent contact, but the bed bounced the cat and her makeshift club up a bit. The bed was too cushy to let her crush the cat in one blow like she hoped. She could move the cat to the hard bathroom floor, but taking the time to move it would affect her resolve.

Instead, she swung again. Thwack. A tear rolled down her cheek. She swung again. Thwack. Why wouldn’t the message come?!

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

The familiar screen finally popped into her vision. She had seen it dozens of times on Jeff’s Pillar. Then two new screens popped up that she had never seen before. She read them through tear filled eyes.

You have defeated:

Cat Monster “Link” - Level 0

Accept Reward? (Yes/No)

Why did it have to call him Link? The guilt tore through her again. She quickly accepted Yes and read the next System message.

You have earned a new title!

Emily Strai’Ze - Name

You have fused with a sapient spore and completed your first kill. These actions have allowed you to be ‘named’ by the System. Congratulations!

+1 to all Attributes

You have earned a new title!

Dream Crusher - Rare

You were the first Earthling to kill something that you put to sleep.

Effects when active:

+5 to Imagination

“Oh, that’s a good title for us!” Strai’Ze said in an excited voice, clearly not reading the room. “I’ll activate that one right away.”

Emily suddenly felt like her anxiety got worse and better all at the same time. It was like she could think of many more reasons to be worried, but also felt more confident that she could come up with ways to deal with those worries. Her problem solving skills seemed to have improved with the increased stats to Imagination.

Part of her wanted to write down what she learned in the notebook she had been keeping. Another part of her wanted to just collapse and cry. She probably would have, but her thoughts were interrupted by shouts and gunshots somewhere in the apartment complex.

You have leveled up to Level 1!

Emily looked down and saw that the cat was no longer there. Even the blood was gone. All that was left was a rip in the sheets where his teeth had been. Emily shuddered, then…she moved on.

“Strai’Ze can you pull up my Character Screen?” She asked as she moved toward the bathroom to see if her new Umea spore had changed anything up with her body as their spirits fused.

Character Screen

Name: Emily Strai'Ze “Dream Crusher”

Spore Suit: Locked

Titles:

Dream Crusher

Renown: Tier 0

Merit Points: 0

Myst Connections:

Sleep Low Mastery

Abilities:

Induce Sleep Low Mastery

Light Sleeper Low Mastery

Skills: N/A

Stats: Level 1

Body: Tier 1

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 1

Vitality: 1

Mind Tier 1

Cognition: 1

Processing: 1

Imagination: 6

Spirit Tier 1

Might: 1

Sense: 1

*Depth: 3

Available Points: 3