They said I would get used to it, but I don’t think I ever will. Wearing someone else’s skin is like putting on a suit made of flesh and then expecting it to fit perfectly. This is not the case, it does not fit, it does not fit at all.
The burning sensation of your consciousness amalgamating with someone else’s body is pure searing pain until your consciousness stops fighting and settles in for the ride. And let me tell you the ride is often an extremely bumpy one, not unlike a bucking bronco where your host's body is trying to throw you off in an attempt to get rid of you, the foreign invader.
This side effect to the converging process is what we refer to as ‘The Retaliation’ because the body revolts and tries to cause as much damage as possible. It can sometimes be so severe that we have to abandon the host and return immediately to base to recover… and that recovery could take months jeopardising the mission itself.
This host however, seemed to be adapting fine. I wriggled my toes and rolled my shoulders, the new body I found myself in felt old and used, like a worn leather shoe. I fought hard to calm my breathing in an attempt to help ease the nausea that was starting to rise. Another temporary side effect, this one usually passed pretty quickly and without too much discomfort. Curious to find out whose body I currently possessed, I tapped the side of my face by my right eye, which brought up the soul stats in front of my vision:
NAME: Agatha McKlintock
AGE: 94 years
SOUL AGE: 1,204 millenia
SPECIES: Human
TIME: 1:34pm Wednesday 31st January 2074
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
CURRENT LOCATION: Setting Sun Retirement Home, Sugu Province, Planet Meezes
PLANET OF ORIGIN: Earth
DIMENSION OF ORIGIN: 3rd
HEALTH: 50/100
MAGIC: 0
STRENGTH: 50/100
AGILITY: 20/100
SPEED: 20/100
INTELLIGENCE: 90/100
SPECIAL SKILLS: Good with numbers, speed reader, excellent baker, prolific knitter, quilter…
WEAPONS: Unknown
‘Could baking utensils and knitting needles be weaponized?’ I murmured under my breath. I tried to imagine how I could use them if I needed to defend myself, although I was hoping that because I’d landed in an old folks home there wouldn’t really be any need to use these things in any other way apart from what they were designed for…baking and knitting.
Delayed, another skill blipped up on the list:
SPECIAL SKILLS: Ex-salsa dance instructor
Okay, ‘Agatha’, I could work with this once I finished downloading,
Shaking out my new hands, I looked down at them curiously and saw the skin that covered them was dry and battered from years of use. The fingers were calloused probably from all the crafting that had been undertaken. I wriggled them, noticing the indentation at the base of the fourth finger on Agatha’s left hand from where, I guessed, a wedding ring used to be.
‘What else can I find out about you?’ I thought as I awkwardly raised Agatha’s head and took a deep breath.