Well shit.
Now, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'd be a liar if I said this was what I thought would happen when I die.
I am... was a god-fearing man. I've done some wrongs in my life, god knows it. I thought I had redeemed myself, for the most part anyway, but this? This is not scripture. This is not in the Book. I thought it was Hell that I'd been brought to and the first few hours, and it might as well have been.
The screams of tortured souls were background noise to my own eternal torment. I was confined, barely able to move. A hot summer's day was breezy compared to the furnace that was my confinement. Hell was hot after all.
My sense of sight had been taken and left to my imagination, the screams turned bloody, getting louder and louder until it was my turn for the torment. My body was squeezed until my bones should've cracked. My head was a watermelon that some wannabe tiktokers were putting rubber bands around and every second I swear it would pop.
I wasn't sure if the screaming was me or not at this point.
And then the pain stopped, and I released a whaling cry. My sight had returned to me, and hellfire stopped scorching my skin. The righteous god had come down for me, to release me from my wrongful torture. I cried for god and thanked him between breaths.
The torture and crying must've taken their toll because I was so exhausted that I fell asleep quicker than ever before. The last sight I saw was a silhouette of a beautiful angel.
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New achievement acquired!
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That's what he awoke to. Something that was somehow there but not there. It spoke to him, but not in words or sounds, almost like a direct injection into his brain and yet it was there, right in front of his weirdly blurry eyes.
Status? He questioned.
LIke magic it appeared before him.
Name: Unnamed
Race: Human (?)
Class: Locked
Attributes:
- vitality: 9
- charisma: 9
- strength: 1
- endurance: 1
- agility: 1
- dexterity: 1
- perception: 12
- intelligence: 12
Achievements:
(NEW!) Traveler
Whoa! What is all this?
Traveler - You've traveled an infinite distance. That's impossible. Good job. Gain the skill: Light on Your Feet - When traveling, you don't experience the associated depletion of energy.
He had no clue what was going on. He tried to make the screens go away and like they were never there, they disappeared.
Around him appeared a room. It was a well-kept room. Everything was arranged in an orderly fashion. The walls were clearly made of wooden planks. But closer still there were wooden poles that surrounded him.
A giant crib? He couldn't help but think.
All of sudden, his stomach rebelled and twisted in a knot. He was hungry, so hungry. He tried to get up, but his body wouldn't respond to him. He looked at his limbs and what should have been the chiseled arms of a hard laborer and legs of a man in his prime were instead the limbs of an infant. Chubby and small and so pale. He had all 10 digits which should be impossible considering he lost 2 in a farming accident nearly two decades ago.
Farming accident? His mind started to numb. Waves started to wash him away
WARNING! WARNING!
Fetal brain development is insufficient!
Purging excess data!
He didn't know what was happening but he could feel himself being washed away. The waves were crumpling his mind.
I don't want to go! HE CRIED OUT!
He mustered all that he was. All that remained. The waves would come, eroding his mind like a sand castle too close to the water. He put up walls around his castle hoping it would help.
He held on to as much as he could with an iron grip but despite the defenses, no sand castle resists the great ocean. It was slow and torturous. He couldn't remember what he lost, but it was a profound pain. The very essence of his being was being undone.
As his walls crumbled and his mind eroded, he repeated over and over in his mind the last coherent thought he had.
YOU CAN'T MAKE ME GO!
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Amelia walked home with her best friend, Luke. It was her 5th birthday tomorrow and she was very excited. Once she was five she'd be able to see her status like everyone else could.
"Lukey!!! Aren't you excited! I'm so excited! I can't wait for it! What was it like? Did you get anything cool? I'm sorry I shouldn't ask. But did you get anything cool?", she bombarded Luke with questions. Luke could already see his status screen because he turned five a few months ago.
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"Yeah! I'm super excited! I can finally talk to you about all of it tomorrow! Mom told me not to tell anyone what's on my screen, but after tomorrow at least I can talk to you about the status screen itself. I've found some really neat stuff Amy", Luke responded excitedly. He always got excited when it came to this stuff. He was a bit of a bookworm.
"I told you not to call me that!", Amelia kicked Luke on the shin.
"Owwww! Why'd you have to do that?! Meanie!", Luke nearly cried out.
"Don't call me Amy and we won't have any problems. Hmph!", Amelia said with righteous indignation.
They finally reached Amelia's house so she ran inside while shouting, "Goodnight Luke, I'll see you tomorrow at school!".
"Goodnight! ... Amy!", Luke responded and then ran away laughing mischievously.
Amelia turned around and stuck her fist in the air, "I'll get you for that!".
She turned back around, went inside, and closed the door. She sighed as she leaned her back onto the door, exhausted from the day and from the walk home. After spending most of the day at Luke's, she was happy to be back home where she could finally relax.
"Where have you been, young lady?", her mother questioned.
"EEH! Where did you come from?!", she squealed in fright.
"I was sitting here the whole time, baby", her mother replied with a thin smile. She was sitting in the dining room, with only candlelight illuminating her countenance. With a brief glance, she didn't appear angry, so cautiously Amelia answered, "I was at Luke's house. We got a little caught up reading and didn't realize how late it was".
"Oh?", her mother replied, not giving away any hints. Amelia knew she was in deep griffin dung now. Her mother was one of the scariest people she knew, not like her father at all. They were polar opposites. While her mom was the epitome of caution and seriousness, her father was the biggest goofball around.
"I'm sorry! It won't happen again", she squeaked out. The calmer her mother was, the more angry she was, and she was very calm right now. Too calm.
"You're lucky tomorrow is your birthday, or you'd be grounded until you're fifteen young lady. Now come here and give me a hug. You know how worried I was about you?"
"Hee Hee", she laughed and scratched the back of her head with embarrassment, but also relief. Luckily she got out of trouble this time. She hugged her mom and said, " I was just so excited about tomorrow. Luke and I were reading about classes and we just kind of got sucked into it all".
"You know you won't be able to unlock a class until you're ten, right?"
"Yeah... but they're just so cool! And tomorrow is the first step to getting a class, so I have to be prepared!", Amelia exclaimed. Luke might be a bit of a bookworm, but she was as dedicated to learning as they come. If there was a way for her to grow or be better she took it. No prompting from her parents was needed, even though her mother quite enjoyed her dedication and definitely encouraged it.
"Ok sweety, just get to bed now, ok? They say it only appears once you sleep", her mother said.
"Well, there's actually no studies to support... ok, Mom, goodnight", she attempted to correct her, but stopped when she felt the room chill.
"Love you".
"Love you too honey. You got a big day tomorrow", her mom said as she blew out the candle and they both went to bed.
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Amelia dreamt of a city so massive, so tall that the buildings scraped the heavens. Of exploring vast deserts, forests with unending rain, plains of ice, and large fields and hills of soft grass. Of love and family and companionship. She saw death and experienced hardship. Feeling alone while surrounded. Enemies becoming friends and friends becoming enemies. Of technology that only exists in fantasy. That can kill you in a heartbeat, or save you from a fatal wound. At the end of it all, it became fuzzy, and just like it appeared, it disappeared. Fading away into a dreamscape and becoming so distant, it never existed.
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System Synchronised
open status to review
Wha?
Amelia awoke to a blurry image and voice.
MY STATUS SCREEN! IT'S HERE!
"IT'S HERE", she squealed at the top of her lungs, excited that it arrived despite the inevitability of it all. She looked out her window and saw that the sun had barely risen, maybe 30 minutes ago.
Mom should be up. Her mother always got up early and came home late due to her job as a guard.
As if by magic, her mom appeared through her doorway. "Keep it down baby, you're dad's still sleeping", her mom chided.
"Sorry", Amelia said meekly. But suddenly rejuvenated, squeaked out, "Status!".
Name: Amelia Ava Alexandrian
Race: Human (?)
Class: Locked
Attributes:
- vitality: 12
- charisma: 12
- strength: 5
- endurance: 5
- agility: 5
- dexterity: 5
- perception: 15
- intelligence: 15
Achievements:
Traveler - You've traveled an infinite distance through infinite time. That's impossible. Good job. Gain the affinities for space and time. Gain the skill: Light on Your Feet - when traveling, you don't experience the associated depletion of energy.
Iron Will - Your mind was an iron fortress that stopped nature, briefly. Congratulations. You won't remember receiving this, but beyond your ability to do so, you stopped nature in its tracks. Gain the skill: Iron Will - reality bends to your will, minusculely.
That doesn't look right She thought. Her excitement waned. Children under the age of 5 weren't told about what was on a status screen. They aren't allowed to read books on it. Generally. It was impossible to catch everything, so it wasn't a hard and fast rule, but all the adults said it was for their benefit. That didn't stop Amelia from learning about it as much as she could. She learned that there were 8 attributes just like her screen told her. She also thought someone once said the average base stat was 3. That's why her status looked weird to herself.
Before Amelia could ask her mom anything, she was herded into the kitchen. It was actually half kitchen half dining room, but they were separate enough that she thought of them as separate rooms.
"Let me make up some breakfast and once your dad wakes up, we'll talk all about the status screen. Ok, honey?" her mom asked.
Amelia nodded her head and her mom got to work. She cooked up some fried eggs, French toast, and hashbrowns. It smelled delicious. Amelia was about to dig in when her mother chided her.
"Wait, Amelia. We'll eat when your father GETS HIS BUTT IN HERE!", she half yelled as she turned her head towards her parent's bedroom.
Not a minute later, her father came out of the room, jumping to get his pants on right.
"I'm up. I'm up. Wait for me!", he said.
Her father was a merchant who sold his wares at the Bazar. A wonderful place full of magical items, legendary weapons, potions for any need, and just about any mystical item you could dream up. He would sometimes, secretly from his wife, take Amelia there instead of to school. She loved going there to see all the magical things but if she was being honest also to hang out with her father.
"Smells delicious honey", he said to her mom as he kissed her on the cheek.
"Ewww", Amelia said.
"That's so gross", she giggled.
"Oh is it so gross Lia baby? What if... I do it to you!", he launched himself at her and gave her a wet slobbering kiss on the cheek. Then he rubbed his stubbly chin on her.
"Stop it! It tickles!", she giggled in protest.
"Is it still gross?", he started to tickle her even more.
"Yes!", she tried to sound serious, but couldn't stop laughing.
"Okay, hun. That's enough", her mom interrupted. "Let's eat up and then we can have the conversation".
So they ate breakfast happily and when they finished, her dad with a loud burb, her parents looked at each other and back to Amelia.
"We're excited that today has come", her mom started.
"But now that it has we have a few things we have to talk about", her dad continued. Their somber tone took to the air and Amelia sat up straight, very seriously.
"We want you to know that no matter what your screen says, we love you and will never think less of you. You'll always be our beloved daughter, ok honey?", her mom asked.
"Of course mom, geez you don't have to be so cheesy".
"Ok, let's start with any questions you have. That'll make this easier. You don't have to share anything with us, and especially don't share it with anyone besides us".
"No, I want to share it with you. I trust you, but I think mine's a little weird", Amelia said and with that thought, she could tell, somehow, that it was shared.
Name: Amelia Ava Alexandrian
Race: Human (?)
Class: Locked
Attributes:
- vitality: 12
- charisma: 12
- strength: 5
- endurance: 5
- agility: 5
- dexterity: 5
- perception: 15
- intelligence: 15
Achievements:
Traveler - You've traveled an infinite distance through infinite time. That's impossible. Good job. Gain the affinities for space and time. Gain the skill: Light on Your Feet - when traveling, you don't experience the associated depletion of energy.
Iron Will - Your mind was an iron fortress that stopped nature, briefly. Congratulations. You won't remember receiving this, but beyond your ability to do so, you stopped nature in its tracks. Gain the skill: Iron Will - reality bends to your will, minusculely.
The color bled from their faces.
"That's... not possible", her mother muttered.