Home. An interesting word. One that could house many meanings… but, perhaps I should use the sharpness of my wit to better beat back the unrelenting conflict I now lived between, rather than box myself in and stroke my own ego through my… memoirs? Diary? For me, home had become whatever grip of existence I could cling to with tired hands in this new life - any normality that kept me grounded. Between a sharp rock and whatever had lain before in my murky history, I had lost the tangible comfort of what the word had previously meant.
I plucked through the aged pages slowly. Despite the banality of the action, my heart rate had risen in my chest, and I briefly regretted not getting something to eat or drink this evening. Every turn brought new symbols, odd diagrams, and archaic scrawling. Some things familiar - particularly one about possession that had a rather perturbed looking devil bursting from the body of a woman. Something that struck a nerve to my impressionable young mind. Perhaps there was a trick for the show to work out there….
No. I shook the thoughts from my head. A bit too macabre for my shtick. I turned another page, and there it was.
The missing space.
Unfolding the paper, I slowly placed it in the gap. Half expecting some world changing revelation, and half anticipating the reveal of the person who had labored me with this tiring journey to pop out from a corner and shout surprise. Nothing of the sort happened either way. The page was a little easier to read now, however…
With the picture fully formed, there was something about it that was starkly familiar. It was an archway, made of a dark stone, with engravings along each brick. I furrowed my brow as I traced one of the patterns - almost as though the texture was something that I…
I stood, holding the book open with my left hand as I slowly walked towards the garden door. Narrowed eyes against the unrelenting darkness, my finger moved towards the lighting that should illuminate the pitch black space - before my brain could start imagining all manner of other horrors that could be lurking back there.
A flash and what was darkness became shades of green and brown as the floodlight plunged the garden into false daylight. The grass recoiled in shock with the breeze, as the various bushes and closed-up flowers around the edge in different stages of dimming light remained impassive. The middle of the garden had been where they’d grown vegetables, and had a walkway going through it that used to be covered by the most beautiful vines in spring.
I now stared at the entrance to this walkway, and held up the book for comparison. It was as perfect a replica as you could get. My tongue felt around my teeth. Things were now getting slightly weirder. Again, I wondered when the page could have been taken from the book, and more importantly - by whom.
Curiosity once again got the best of me, and throwing caution to the wind, I unlatched the backdoor and was greeted by the cool night air. I stepped, gradually, over to this monolith of strange. Near perfect in mimicry. My shoes were soundless across the soft grass as I approached, allowing just my thudding heart and the rustle of leaves to be the only fanfare at the start of this show.
As I stood before it, I was in awe. I hadn’t thought much of it as a child, not having the missing page, but it seemed they had this actually made at some point before it was torn out. You had to give it to them. They knew what they liked. The picture had a bright pinkish-purple glow in the center - I supposed they didn’t have the time or LED technology to illuminate it as such back in their day.
I stepped up to it, placing myself in the threshold, and looked down at the book. There wasn’t really much of a ritual here, or an explanation of what the supposed device was used for. Something about destiny and souls. My eyes rolled. I reached out my hand to feel around the engravings that I remembered.
Immediately my hand shot back as pink light encircled the groove. My mouth hung open. It looked as though someone might be playing a trick on me. Maybe a rival hoping to catch me on video, looking dumbfounded and out of my element. I stood taller - if they wanted a show, I would give them one.
With a smile, I snapped the book shut and placed my hand back on the arch. Pink energy once again flared where I touched and started to travel to the next brick and engraving above and below. I waited with a mix of boredom and smugness on my face, ready for the inevitable reveal - Maximilian would not be fooled by a simple-
As every brick became alight with energy, a flash filled my vision. Everything became pink, and I struggled to keep a grin masked over my displeasure at being briefly blinded. Vertigo struck me and I dropped the book as a deep breath of cold air filled my lungs.
Then there was nothing but darkness.
My body felt numb against a firm surface.
Gradually, my senses took hold. Dried dirt thick with grass, my face wet with dew. No - as my aching arms lifted me up to be briefly blinded by the bright green, I saw with blurred vision that it wasn’t dew damping my face, but blood. I must have passed out. Slept all the way to the next morning…
A fist-sized stone stood proud, marred by the crimson once belonging to my throbbing forehead. It had come close to felling a giant, yet I persisted. Although… where I now came to be, and my previous state of being were currently more muddied than my outfit. It wasn’t hard to come to the conclusion that I wasn’t at my grandparents' house… not at the… hmm, my brain felt fuzzy.
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I wiped down the purple suit. Very familiar to me, yet slightly off. A top hat in the same color lay on the grass a few feet away, but I was apprehensive to give it any due attention. My surroundings were vibrant in the greens and browns of spring, illuminated by midday sunshine. Very odd. My eyes closed to darken out the visual stimuli. One painfully concerning problem at a time. Something about a portal? Some manner of hell my mind wanted to escape?
With a deep sigh, I chose to investigate my head wound. Whatever I now knew, it included the knowledge that my soft brain was an important piece of the puzzle. Gingerly, I felt around in the darkness of my own making, allowing the bruised and tender flesh to tell me the tale. Nothing too dire - although I was not an expert on… this. Probably many other things that I had yet to address, as well.
Soft hair of medium length, partially matted by dried blood. Clean-shaven face, and the usual nose and mouth that I found no discrepancies with. It was me. I was me.
Not as comforting a revelation as I had hoped.
I slowly turned to gauge the world that now lie around me. It appeared I was in a clearing in the middle of a forest. Very little else could be gleaned, other than it was objectively very pleasant. As I started to feel around my person for any clues, I noticed a glowing symbol on my left wrist.
As my fingers went to touch it, to see how real it was, a two-dimensional screen of blue flickered into my vision, white text blaring my name into my skull.
[Player: Maximilian Russet]
[Error - Unassigned Class.]
[Error - Unexpected Soul Designation: Duplication]
[Scanning… please stand by…]
I stood and waited. Half because I didn’t care to sit upon the grass and dirt. Half because I was slightly taken aback as to what was occurring. For some reason, despite how strange this process was, it didn’t move the panic needle much. Dissociation, perhaps. Either I was too far gone to believe this was anything more than a dream, or the part of me that was tethered to reality was off on holiday. An alien notion.
A second notification came up while the first sat in the background, doing whatever a ‘scan’ was.
[Health Report]
[Severe Stomach Lacerations - Healed 100% (System)]
[Foot Injury (Hole) - Healed 100% (System)]
[Light Head Injury (Blunt) - Healed 40% (Natural)]
[Soft Landing]
My stomach and foot felt just fine, other than the small amount of nerves keeping me on my toes. A little observation and light prodding determined I no longer had either of these supposed injuries. It seemed I had arrived here in less than one piece, and after being patched up good-as-new, I had shown my gratitude by immediately smashing my head open on the nearest hard surface.
[Soft Landing] didn't seem like an injury, but in focusing on it with a furrowed brow, it then brought up a secondary window to further berate me with details. No surprises that it wasn't refering to the harsh stone that had been my welcoming party.
[Soft Landing] [Welcome to the System, you are refreshed and renewed. Ready for adventure!]
With my head injury, it was hard to agree to some of the bright white text. I did feel... relieved? The malaise and exhaustion that had painted my after-show evening was all but gone. Too soon to jump the gun and say I was ready for another show in whatever fever dream I had wound up in, but I couldn't deny there was the wriggling worm of renewed passion for my craft. It was just hidden behind a layer of brain fog and bemusement. Some part of me was comforted to be distant from my usual schedule, but I wasn't sure adventure was my second choice of vocations.
The needless factoid vanished away, and I resumed the search of my jacket and slack pockets for any convenient truths. My hands withdrew from my trouser pockets to find they were filled with a nominal amount of… ash? Whether these were useful items rent to dust from my transfer to this currently serene place, or the dark powder was a sign of my last location - or vocation - wasn’t really something for me to know.
My jacket, however, was a place of actual treasure - and my hand withdrew a thick rectangular object. A pack of cards. The cover was deep purple, etched with an intricate white pattern, the colors shifting and vibrant in the light of the day. On the front of one side was the simple logo of a white rabbit. This looked almost just like the card pack I had in real life, but had the extra edge of… well, it appeared to be brand new instead of worn.
Any further musings were interrupted by the System, eager for my attention.
[Scan Complete. Compromise Found. Soul Merge Partially Accepted.]
[Assigning Unique Class: Demonic Magician]
[Level set to Level One]
[New Ability:
[New Passive:
[New Passive:
Never in my life had ‘finding compromise’ felt like a good phrase. Especially when it came to things pertaining to my apparent soul. Max didn’t do compromise. I could remember that much. I had yet to decide on my feelings on what Classes were, but Unique seemed like something with some pizzazz to it - so I let the rest of the internal scream-inducing details slide for now.
[Magic Item Acquired: Unique Demonic Deck (Rabbit)]
The barrage of information continued, my apparent intrusion on whatever world I had become part of now trying to catch up with the paperwork lest I become untenable. Something about being a Magician, having a rabbit deck of cards, and the top hat I was still trying to avoid, told me it was at least accepting of my prior vocation - even if it had not heard of me. It was overly charitable to accept it just as it had accepted me, but maybe part of that was Soft Landing nudging my brain into staying put and suspending disbelief.
The System wasn’t saying anything useful, but I at least wasn’t subject to horrible dissociation. I still felt out of place, but part of me had begun to hope that if I just stayed put, then eventually something more realistic would cross my path. Although what realistic meant was neither here nor there - the grass and trees, even my stone nemesis - all looked and felt real. The breeze brought the smells of dirt and vegetation through my nose. Warmth radiated through my back, where the sun watched me eagerly. It would be comforting if I wasn’t just wrenched from my previous life without explanation.
The glowing light of the System appeared as a star on my wrist, and tentatively I gave it a tap with my index finger. A rotating menu of words, each with the promise of more flickering screens of information. Easy enough to understand - I wasn’t a total fossil when it came to technology. There was a Player screen, an Inventory, one for Quests, and even something to check the Skills I had just received. There seemed to be gaps for additional things, but I didn’t worry myself with the horrors yet to be unlocked when there was plenty for my muddled mind to drown in currently.
First up, I chose to check out the Skills - the use of abilities seemed like something the old me used to do - like tricks at my disposal, maybe. This was familiar ground. Even if it had a totally different flavor to it, I found mentally consuming it palatable. Somehow.
Heartbeat pounding in my chest, it was time to see what I was capable of.