The moment, the visage of her father ceased talking and simply just sat there like a life-like puppet, Hannah knew the time had come for her to decide.
Should she just deny becoming a Dreamwalker? A Dreamer? To simply ignore this new side of the world that had infiltrated and pulled her into every night over the last seven years?
Should she not deny it but also not take it, thus giving herself more time to think about it since her father's words, plus the last seven years, told her that being a Dreamer was not a safe thing to be?
Or
Should she accept it and immerse herself into the brand new side of the world she never accepted existing while suffering, yet now knew existed once she was free of the suffering?
Should she see where it would take her?
In the end, after a quick-thinking session of going over the positives and the negatives, the answer was rather simple.
To deny being a Dreamer would be easy.
Her no longer being exposed to suffering would make her a regular human being. But if there was one thing about regular human beings that Hannah knew, then it was that being a regular person meant to be a cog in the wheel.
With neither being the lowest nor the highest in importance, thus never having a say in anything that matters. Never to be able to do anything because one did not have the power or money to even afford proper living conditions, much less enjoy the good things in life.
Sure, she could continue her studies nature, and she would probably do good, but if she was free of her nightly suffering, then that meant that she would also be free of the drugs and their numbing influence on her, therefore, just like the other students she would realize that studying was an extremely boring thing to do, hence why her scholarly performance would drop in the near future. More importantly, though. No matter how much Hannah studied, it was clear that she would not become a rich person through just studying because all the examples of those who did only became slightly wealthier than those around them.
No… That was not enough money to allow her mother to stop selling her body, much less clear the debt her father had placed upon her mother, and thereby on her once she was old enough.
No… It was clear that there was more to that debt than just simple money compared to what her mother had told her.
As such, while Hannah could delay the decision, it was clear that only one true solution existed to her problems and that was to become a Dreamwalker and everything it entailed.
Taking a deep breath, and focusing her thoughts, Hannah stepped closer to the multicolored orb she now knew was called a Dream Gem and tapped it once.
Almost instantly, her father's visage gained in-depth as a smile spawned on his face.
“Good… Good. No doubt about it, you are my daughter.” Her father remarked before standing up again from his red leather sofa chair.
Seeing it made Hannah wonder if there was something special about that chair, especially when she remembered her mother's comment about her failure in convincing her father to toss it away.
Just as Hannah expected her father’s recorded visage to zero in on the Dream Gem, he veered off course and angled his body to behind the desk that stood on the left side of the office.
“Before we address the Dream Gem, we need to do something much more important.” Hannah heard her father say before motioning at something behind the desk. “Open the first drawer. Inside you shall find the first gift of mine. Once you have it in your hands, tap on the Dream Gem once to confirm it.”
That said, Hannah saw her father stay still again with a hand pointing at the drawer in question. Going around the desk and seeing the drawer, Hannah grasped its handle and opened it. Inside she found a slightly transparent white rectangle. Taking it out, Hannah realized that it was somewhat bigger than her hand, but considering her hands were smaller than most adults, she posited that it was closer to the hand length of an average adult.
Its size aside, after picking it up, Hannah realized that the slightly transparent white rectangle felt similar to glass.
Turning it over a few times, no new information reached her, as such, Hannah simply moved back to the Dream Gem and tapped it once.
In the same instance, her father returned to life.
“Good.” The life-like recording said. “That my dear daughter is the most common and also the most important tool any Dreamer will ever have. It has many names and many appearances, but the most common one is the one in your hand. That aside, the technical name for it is Dreamers Status Crystal Card, or Dreamers Card, or D-Card for short. The word Status in its name is a synonym for Soul Template Ascendence Truth Unity System. The Crystal word describes the material it is made of, while the Card term simply describes its form. You'll understand once it’s activated.
How to activate it? That one is very simple.
Since the D-Card is not attuned to anybody, just drop a drop of your blood on it and the process should begin. Once you are done, tap the Dream Gem once again.”
For a few moments, Hannah just stood there staring at the rectangular crystal in her hand.
Then, her mouth closed and opened a few times before finally realizing that there was no avoiding it, hence her need for something sharp.
That being the case, Hannah’s brown eyes settled on the desk surface.
Placing the transparent crystal on the desk, she found a small plastic container for a pen, and not the normal sort, but the expensive sort that had to be filled with ink. Picking one up and pointing its sharp end on her left forefinger.
The pain was easily ignored after everything she had endured over the last seven years.
Bringing the now slightly bleeding finger over the rectangular crystal, Hannah waited until a drop of blood emerged and dropped right in the middle of the rectangular crystal. That done, Hannah quickly placed the same foreigner in her mouth before licking it with her tongue to soothe the pain.
After all, just because one could ignore it easily, it did not mean one liked doing it.
As for the drop of blood on the crystal. Well, Hannah never lost sight of it, so it was clear to her how it got absorbed within the rectangular crystal. At the same time, she noted the lines and shapes manifest on the no longer transparent rectangular crystal with a big rotating circle being the main feature as it rotated in a continuous cycle.
When a few moments passed, the crystal flickered with proper lights causing a logo to appear, similar to how her GameBoy did when powering a game. It was a logo of a black and white cloud swirling around a central dot, with one end of both clouds being sucked within said dot. However, unlike her GameBoy, where everything was either black or shades of gray thanks to a white background, this logo was made from distinct colors.
Then, when the black and white swirling clouds logo vanished, the name, Dream Incorporated, flashed before it too vanished moments later.
In its place, all that was left was a line right across the… screen, Hannah realized, with a flashing dot perpendicular to the line on one end and words right above saying a somewhat familiar line.
Please Input User Name!
----------------------------------------
“Umm…”
Once again, Hannah just stood there unsure of what to do.
Because if there were no buttons to press, then how was she to input her name into the crystal?
For a single moment, Hannah’s brown eyes roamed for the multicolored orb that was the Dream Gem. Her unconscious intent was to tap it once, but before she did, she shook her head and focused on the crystal still on the desk.
Seeing no obvious way, Hannah touched the screen, as that was what it was, a screen in full color.
Unfortunately, nothing happened at first touch.
Still, while nothing happened, it also emboldened Hannah to do more touching, and that was when one of her fingers touched the line across the screen. When she did, at the bottom of the screen a new screen appeared, and on it, many words were seen.
“Oh… Like a keyboard on a computer, I think.” Hannah voiced her realization since she had seen a keyboard on the School principal's desk when she had been questioned about her condition and medical state.
Further emboldened, Hannah experimented with touching the various buttons before realizing she had no idea how to erase the words that manifested on the line across the screen. Panicked that her gibberish would become her User Name as a Dreamwalker, whatever that entailed, she quickly ceased touching anything anymore.
Instead, she finally returned her attention to the Dream Gem and tapped it once.
“Good.” Hannah heard her father say. “Now, this will be somewhat complicated since I will be iterating the steps, so any time you hear me stop speaking, assume that the Dream Gem needs to be tapped once.” What followed was Hannah eagerly listening to her father explain how a User Name, while important, was in truth not that important. But if she did not want to be referred to with something stupid, it was best to just keep it simple.
With that explained, her father went about explaining the visual keyboard and how it functioned. Hearing about the erasing visual button, Hannah quickly sought it before clicking it repeatedly until the line across the screen remained just a line.
Releasing a slight sigh, Hannah proceeded to listen to further instructions before attempting anything.
Once she had heard enough, Hannah typed in her name and surname, Hannah Blackwood.
With the username done, the screen flashed again and a brand new colorful screen appeared, a screen with a black and white swirling vortex in the middle, yet it was clear to Hannah that it was just a background image.
No, what was important was the six unique circles existing near the borders of the screen, with one at the top and one at the bottom, while in between them two touched the left side while another two touched the right side.
Noticing the hexagon shape the circles made around the swirling vortex, made Hannah wonder if there was a significant purpose to what she was seeing. Still, she refused to touch anything further, as such, she tapped the Dream Gem, thus signaling her father’s message that she was done.
“Good.” Her father said before continuing. “Good, the hard part was over. You have no idea how hard it was for me to figure out a way to change my own Username.” Seeing the urgent shake of her father's head, Hannah wondered what her father's Username had been.
It had to be embarrassing. Hannah noted in her head before quickly wiping the nonexistent sweat from her forehead.
“Now let's get to the good parts of your D-Card.” Hannah heard. “The six icons you see on the screen represent the six basic functions of the D-Card, with the topmost one representing your Character. The one below it on the left represents your Abilities, while the one on the right represents your Skills. Below those on the left is your Inventory while on the right is the Map. Finally at the bottom is the icon representing your Social function.”
All five of those Hannah understood, for the most part. The last one, however, escaped her knowledge.
“We will get to each one in a moment, now tap the first one, the Character Icon.” Nodding, Hannah did indeed tap the icon that was shaped like a simple face. When she did, however, only a small red button icon existed with one line above it, Initiate Character Scan!. “Once the process is done, don't touch anything else. Ok?”
Nodding and seeing nothing else but the obvious, Hannah pressed it expecting nothing special.
Oh, how wrong she was because in the very same second that she pressed the red button icon, a sensation of unbelievable thoroughness spread through her as her whole existence appeared to be under purview.
From top to bottom, from the outside to the insides the sensation traveled.
What was searched for, Hannah had only a vague glimpse of.
Even then, how it did, what it did, and how it calculated everything would forever be beyond her. Nevertheless, once the sensations ceased, Hannah was treated to a small wall of stylized text on her D-Card that seemed to say many things about her, yet many made no sense at first glance.
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Character
.
Name; Hannah Blackwood [Level 1]
Species; Human [Mortal]
Gender; Female
Age; 15 [Adolescent]
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Titles
.
None
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Affiliations
.
None
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status
.
Vessel - 0 [+]
Instinct - 0 [+]
Will - 0 [+]
Logic - 0 [+]
Insight - 0 [+]
Ego - 0 [+]
.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Free Stat Points - 15 [SAP]
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Resources
.
None
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
External Resources
.
None
----------------------------------------
Seeing her own status screen, as if she were in a game, made Hannah feel a tad empty. Thankfully, she refrained from touching anything since her father’s image warned her against it. Instead, she tapped the Dream Gem floating in the office.
“Good.” Her father said. “Don't be discouraged by the sight that you see, since everybody on Gaia starts like that. Anyway, the most important part of the Character Screen is the stats since they will determine a large part of your future as a Dreamwalker.”
“See the Free Stat Point line?” Hannah nodded, though it was apparent her father could not see it. “I am not exactly sure which number appeared but it should be at least above ten, with closer to fifteen, considering your Supreme Dream Gem.
Additionally, that number you see is generated by the amount of years you have existed. As such, consider them very valuable since you will no longer get any further Free Stat Points from growing up ever since you activated your D-Card.
Instead, you will need to Level Up, but that will be for after you are done with the Nightmare prowling your Dream Instance.”
“…”
“It sucks at first glance, I know, but you will understand the true power of your D-Card later.” Hannah heard her father explain vaguely. “Either way. Do not assign your points yet as the assignment will have to be after the D-Card has assessed your Ability Potential.
However, I will tell you this as a warning.
Only five of those Stats can be increased with Free Stat Points from Leveling Up, and those are the first five. The last one, Ego, can only be increased through special rewards or actions. Here is the good part, obtaining your D-Card and attuning it counts as a special action, hence the apparent designation of SAP, aka Special Action Points, besides your Free Stat Points, and thus can be spent on the Ego Stat.”
“However, my daughter, my previous recommendation, stays. Wait for your Ability Potential Assessment.”
----------------------------------------
“Hopefully, I managed to stop your grubby little hands from messing up.” Hannah heard her father say before he chuckled for a single moment. A moment later, however, he was back to his neutral tone. “Now let's get the others done.”
“The Skills Icon will be done very fast since you have no Skills right now, as Skills are something that must be obtained, either through conscious actions or simply buying them.” Hannah blinked a few times at the possibility. “Nevertheless, while conscious action sounds easy, it is anything but that. As such, just ignore Skills for the moment, and simply buy them later since Basic Skills are quite cheap on the Market.”
That said, Hannah listened to her father's command and pressed the Skill Icon on her Dreamers Status Crystal Card. Similar to before, a thoroughness spread through her only this one was very brief since there was nothing to find apparently.
“Before you touch the Ability Icon, let's focus on the other three, namely Inventory, Map, and Social.” Nodding somewhat absently, Hannah listened. “Inventory is where your Tools and Loot will be listed. Nonetheless, the true magic is that you can store and retrieve the listed things through a special action. It will take you a bit to get used to it, but watch my right hand.”
That said, Hannah observed her father grab at nothing but thin air, yet one second later, he held onto a simple apple. Then, a moment later, he simply pushed the apple into thin air and it vanished.
“It's possible to assign a different action for retrieval or storing, but that was the default option.” Hannah’s father pointed out. “Still, it will take you some time to get the hang of it, and I recommend that you do because in an emergency it is quite handy to use. Open the Inventory Icon once before immediately moving onto the Map Icon.”
Hannah did and saw nothing listed in her Inventory before tapping the Map Icon.
Once she had done that, there was a brief rotating circle on the screen of her D-Card.
When it vanished, though, there was a strange new image on the screen. It was both familiar and unfamiliar to her mind because the familiar part came from her geology class, namely a circular version of her world map, where the nine continents seemed to travel away from their common central point of origin, namely the north pole, all while their edges pointed at the circle surrounding the image, with blue representing the waters around them and the various shades of green and brown for the continents.
The unfamiliar part, on the other hand, had to do with how the Map presented everything else.
“The Map that you see is of our Realm, Gaia.” Hearing the word again, Hannah suddenly remembered her lessons about the Ancient Greek people and how they referred to Earth as Gaia. “Technically speaking, one of them since. In the future the Map feature will be integral for you. For the moment, however, it is useless, hence ignore it. Now open the Social Icon.”
Nudged to it, Hannah did, but what appeared was quite lackluster since there was nothing there.
“The Social Icon is where your friends will be listed.” Her father explained. “By touching two D-Cards, you can attune them to each other, such that from that point on you will have a name listed within the Social Screen.
Imagine it as an automatic function that stores telephone numbers so you can call them anytime you want. Naturally, it's not anytime you want, as you have to be at least within the same Realm for the call function to work.
Luckily there is also a messaging function that works across Realms with some temporal delays.”
“Now, let us focus on the main goal of the day. Namely your Ability Potential Assessment.”
“Press the Ability Screen on your D-Card and let it Assess you.” Hannah heard her father say before once again staying still, like a life-like puppet on strings.
With nothing else to derail her actions, Hannah pressed the needed Icon, and just like the previous two times, a thoroughness went through her in its bid to search for something Hannah did not even know she possessed.
Nonetheless, that was where the similarities ended because a few moments later, images flashed through Hannah’s mind.
Images of herself doing physical actions during P.E. in the school. Images of how she had been doing them and her success while doing them when compared to her schoolmates. However, unlike remembering it herself, there was a strange dissonance as Hannah observed the flashes passing through her mind, almost like an outsider observing somebody else's actions.
When those ceased occurring, different images appeared.
These too were oriented toward physical actions, however, whereas before it was focused on the overall physical exercises, these were more focused on the finer details like how her body moved in correlation with her body. If Hannah didn't know better, she would assume that the D-Card was assessing her physical flexibility or something like that.
Then, when those vanished only for another to replace them, Hannah noticed a slight trend because the third set of images focused on her studies and interactions with other people.
After those, came the fourth set of flashing images.
These, however, were much harder for her to tolerate because their main theme dealt with the monster in her nightmares and how it kept unleashing its nightmarish purpose on her. There were a few that displayed herself being bullied, but compared to the monster, they were brief and unimportant. Almost like a small pause between the recollections to give Hannah a moment to steal herself for what was coming. Moreover, even though she had a sort of distant third-party perspective about the memories, there was a resonance between her current self and those flashing memories, thus manifesting all the pain within those memories, hence instantly making her reexperience all that stored pain, only on a speedrun instead of prolonged exposure.
As such, Hannah endured the spiking pain for a bit before everything ceased.
Then, just as Hannah managed to wipe her brows off the chilling sweat on her forehead with her father’s large jacket she still wore caused by the spiking pain, another set of flashing memories reached her. These, however, were brief since they only showed her a few images of herself interacting with people before they settled on her very recent actions of planning and attempting the subterfuge against the monster in her bid to reach her father's offices.
There was one last set of flashing images, but those were but a few glimpses of something that made no sense to her mind.
It was only after everything ceased, that Hannah managed to calm down enough to glance at the screen on her D-Card.
There she found new lines of text, hinting at her Potential.
----------------------------------------
Ability Potential Assessment
.
Enchantment - 53% [Adequate]
Evocation - 61% [Impressive]
Domination - 69% [Impressive]
Alteration - 71% [Impressive]
Conjuration - 33% [Poor]
Unique - 5% [Abysmal]
----------------------------------------
Staring at the words and the numbers, Hannah did not know if her results were good or bad, but there was somebody who would tell her that exactly.
Tap
----------------------------------------
“Ah… You're done, my daughter.” Hannah heard her father's record say. “Depending on your results, some parts of the Assessment might have been unpleasant, but now that it is over it is time for us to go over your results. However, since this is totally one-sided, I first need to give you a proper explanation before we progress to the needed part of the record.”
“First things first.” Her father said before waving his right hand before a blackboard manifested on the right side of the office, right beside the large cabinet holding books and similar things. If not for the cabinet, the blackboard would have occupied a large part of the wall. The size aside, Hannah noticed her father grab something out of thin air before a chalk stick manifested in his right hand. Using that chalk stick he began writing numbers and diagrams, with the most notable one being a large hexagram, with six small circles at each pointy end of the hexagram.
Beside each circle, two words were written.
The first circle, at the top of the hexagram, had Vessel - Enchantment.
The second circle, below the first one on the left, had Instinct - Evocation.
The third circle, below the first one on the right, had Will - Alteration.
The fourth circle, above the last one on the left, had Logic - Domination.
The fifth circle, above the last one on the right, had Insight - Conjuration.
The sixth circle, at the bottom of the hexagram, had Ego - Unique.
Once her father was done with the hexagram, beside it he wrote down a small percentage scale going from 0 to 100.
Then he marked the scale four times, once at 20, 40, 60, 80.
After that, he wrote one word between each mark, with abysmal going from 0 to 20, poor from 20 to 40, adequate from 40 to 60, impressive from 60 to 80 finally at the end, superb from 80 to 100.
The moment Hannah saw the word abysmal being written, she understood what her father meant to convey.
“Ok… This will do for now.” Hannah heard. “Every individual who went through the Ability Potential Assessment falls within these five categories. It's obvious at first glance that superb potential is a very rare potential for somebody to possess, no matter the category. On the other hand, most people have abysmal potential at Unique. As such, those two can be ignored immediately since I doubt you, my daughter, are that talented. It's one of those one-in-a-million potentials, so simply ignore it.
Now on the important stuff.
The Dream you will awaken through the Dream Gem will highly depend on the three potential ranks; poor, adequate, and impressive. Additionally, since you have managed to generate an A-Ranked Dream Gem, you possess at least one impressive potential category.
Which one it is, you can ignore for the moment. Instead, I need you to focus on the lowest one you possess, namely either poor or adequate, with poor being the one you seek.”
Tilting her head at the notion of focusing on the lowest and not the highest score, Hannah wondered what her father hinted at.
“It may sound counterintuitive to focus not on your strengths but on your weaknesses. Right?” As if he had predicted her thoughts, Hannah nodded. “I am sure you do. To my knowledge that was exactly how it was done a long time ago, but now it's the opposite, with one first shoring up one's weakness before focusing on one's strengths.
That aside, what I need you to do now is pay attention and tap the Dream Gem, once for yes and twice for no.
Do you have an Ability Potential Assessment with a ranking of poor? Remember. Tap once if you do and twice if you don't.”
With the question sent her way, her father once again ceased moving as if awaiting her answer.
Being careful with her tapping, Hannah taped the floating multicolored Dream Gem once.
“Ah… Good.” Hannah’s father replied with a smile. “Next question. Is the poor rating in the Enchanting category? Tap once for yes and twice for no.”
Tapping twice, the recording moved on with a flicker, as if losing focus before resharpening in her sight. At the same time, Hannah noticed a slightly different angle to her father’s hands, as if the recording had been separated from the previous one.
“Is the poor rating in the Evocation category. Tap once for yes and twice for no.” Again Hannah tapped twice, and again there was a flicker before her father’s image refocused.
“Is the poor rating in the Alteration category? Tap once for yes and twice for no.” Another two taps and the next question was sent Hannah’s way.
“Is the poor rating in the Domination category. Tap once for yes and twice for no.” Tapping twice, Hannah awaited another question, but none came. Instead, she noted her father's lips stretch before he suddenly burst out with laughter. “Haha… You really are my daughter. Not sure if this should count as a flattery considering we both have poor potential at Conjuring.”
“Sigh… Oh, well. Since I became a Conjuring Specialist, I am sure you will do well too.” Hannah heard, only she had a somewhat hard time accepting that she was indeed taking after her father and not her mother. “Now that we know your starting point it's time we determined what kind of Conjurer you will become.”
“There are basically two kinds of Conjurers; Tool User and Summon User.” Her father explained. “Tool Users, as stated in the name, Awaken some kind of Tool with the Dream Gem. It can be anything and everything. On the other hand, the Summon Users are far less versatile but their power comes from creating autonomous projections of anything and everything. If you are having trouble imagining it? Think of the Summon Users manifesting some kind of animal or pet that fights on its own to help you against your adversary.
Naturally, Beast Summoners are the most common Summon Users.
There are, however, Conjurers that gain a mix of both Tool and Summon. They are called Hybrids. One example would be an Armor Summon, similar to a Knight’s Armor, that the user would then wear on their body all while the Armor Summon helps the User fight and whatnot.
Thankfully, those kinds of Hybrid Conjurers are of the rarer kind.
Them aside. It is time we figure out which of the two you are. And we will do that by having me explain to you the correlation between Basic Stat distribution and your Ability Potential Category.”
With that announced, Hannah listened to her father explaining how the Basic Stat distribution interacted with the Ability Potential Categories, before eventually focusing on Conjurers.
It was fairly simple, as Hannah understood.
If Vessel and Instinct were higher than Logic and Will, then you were a Tool User. On the other hand, if Logic and Will were higher than Vessel and Instinct, then you became a Summon User.
Nonetheless, after figuring out the sides, it was clear to Hannah that she had the chance to be either a Tool or Summon user since she had Free Stat Points to distribute for either category. That being the case, it was the Ability Potential that swayed Hannah to one particular side, since the Basic Stats; Logic, and Will, were tied to her Impressive Potential Rating for Domination and Alteration.
Thus, they could etch out that bit more performance out of her Stats.
Therefore, when her father asked which one she was, she tapped the Dream Gem twice.
“Ho… Summon? Is it?” Hannah heard the slightly intrigued voice. “Looks like it is here that we differ as I was a Tool User. Mmm…”
That said, Hannah saw her father turn silent.
His brown eyes began to show an even deeper absenteeism as if her father’s mind was very deep in thought.
Not long later, Hannah saw her father pace around the office while her ears picked up his murmuring with the words summon, supreme and singular being the most obvious ones to her.
In the end, just as it seemed that he had ceased working his mind, Hannah saw her father’s brown eyes ignite with fervor.
Ignoring everything else, she saw her father walk back towards his desk and sit down before opening one particular drawer. Out of it, he took paper and pen before swiftly writing down words, numbers, and diagrams that made no sense to her. Not only because she had no idea what they represented, but also because they were somewhat blurry to her vision for her to make out.
When that was not enough, Hannah suddenly realized that her father’s recorded visage increased in pace as if the recording was sped up.
As such, Hannah watched her father’s hands blur here and there when paper, after paper, got filled and discarded until, eventually, the speeding-up process ceased and her father simply stared silently at the paper before him.
Nonetheless, it was not total silence since one of his fingers eagerly poked the wooden desk before him.
Tap Tap Tap
With the echo, Hannah watched her father brood with himself over something of significance.
Curious about what exactly he was brooding, Hannah stepped behind the desk right beside her father to stare at the paper his eyes had so fervently focused on, only very few things made sense to her, and one of those was at the near end of the first page. And even that was only because it was written with rather large characters, thus allowing the slightly blurry words before her to make at least some sense.
Dreamon? Hannah voiced in her mind before shaking her head as she had no clue what it meant exactly.
Nevertheless, after voicing the word Dreamon in her mind, the paper on the desk seemed to become slightly less obscure.
Going over the lines, another word stood out.
Pokemon? Another word that made no sense… No… Hannah corrected her mind. She had indeed heard that word somewhere, it just would not come to the forefront immediately.
Now even more intrigued, Hannah focused hard on the word Pokemon and the words above it. After straining herself for a few moments against the obscurity clouding her vision, two additional words popped into clarity.
“Pocket Monster?” In the same instant, she said it, it came to her.
Pokemon was the abbreviation of the newly popular Pocket Monster game for her GameBoy.
The reason it took her so long to remember had to do with the fact that it was a new game, and hence out of her reach, because there was simply no extra money to be spent on its acquisition.
Nevertheless, it was not just the names that stood out for Hannah.
No, the main reason it stood out had to do with the fact that it was a new game, barely a year old if her memory was correct, yet here she was watching a seven-plus-year-old recording of her father mentioning it just like that.
No, things simply did not align since her father was dead.