Part 1: A Long First Day
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WTF? Nothingness. Except now a blue screen? Comic Sans?? Is this a video game thing?
Welcome to our new and improved and completely automated reincarnation system. We hope you find it to be a pleasant and rewarding experience. Our condolences on your recent passing. Yes, you are dead, and there is nothing to be done about it. Your first choice concerns your future(s). Decide if you wish to be mortal or immortal.
[Mortal] [Immortal]
The primary difference between the choices is what you remember of your past lives. While immortals may die (and very likely will), they remember past lives upon reincarnation. Mortals usually have no memory of previous incarnations. There is a low random chance, about 6%, that mortals might remember their baseline life – who they started as. When that happens, the mortal is classified as an “awakened”. Mortals and immortals alike will accumulate karma, ebbing and flowing during incarnations, based primarily on the choices made. All immortals start out at a minimum age of 8 every life. Almost all mortals begin their life newborn, but about a third of the awakened begin at 8 or above. Immortals age to a modest maturity, then they continue to live until something kills them.
Warning: Immortality is a bitch, and only the top 3% strongest souls are given the option.
Now Choose.
Choose? Is this even real? Think. Real or not, the best choice would be to treat it as real, in case it is. In any case, this feels like a marked improvement. I spent months in the hospital, wishing for death. The fire had caused burns over most of my body, and the one constant was pain. A lot of my insides went outside, permanently. The drugs nulled my mind, but I knew the pain was still there. Even my left arm hurt. I no longer had a left arm. I wanted to die. I only wanted to die.
… Umm
… yay?
This is not what I expected. Actually, I'm not sure I expected anything at all. I was agnostic about the whole afterlife thing. Guess I know now. “Immortal?” Doesn’t reincarnation already imply immortality in a sense? Oh, I see, immortals have memory of past lives; mortals don’t. If immortal, I’m stuck with the memory of my life and shitty death. And that pain. Oh well, maybe things can get better. I’m not hurting now, thank the “automated system”.
Well, that’s cool. I must have one of the “3% strongest souls”. I wonder if that relates to how stubborn I was? I could sometimes, for very little reason, put my foot down and not waver. It looks like I’ll be starting over a lot. It can be a fresh start each time, or I can have a continuity. Plus immortals might live a really long time between deaths. Is that a good thing? Dammit, I wish those buttons weren’t blinking.
Hey! They stopped blinking. Thank you.
“Immortality is a bitch.” That doesn’t sound good. I’m sure the warning is there for a reason. So start over each time? Or embrace my upper tier soul strength, possibly live stupidly long each time and likely pay for the privilege in some way. Continuity could be nice, learning from my past lives as I continue into the future. If karma is going to be with me either way, would it not be better to know I’m working toward positive karma? Or if I had done something truly awful, be able to fix it going forward?
Mortal – fresh, ignorant lives. Maybe forgetting is good?
Immortal – awareness, bigger picture, plus an extra awkwardness mortals do not face
…
“System, I choose ‘Immortal’.”
You have had 0 lives since immortality.
I guess it is not counting my previous life. I was not immortal yet.
Congratulations on choosing the less-walked path. Only about one third of those eligible choose it. Most decide “ignorance is bliss” . If you end up feeling this is a hellish choice, you will be able to rechoose mortality after 100 lives.
Well, that’s good, anyway. Immortality does not have to be forever. It won’t be a permanent mistake. Still “100 lives” is likely a long time.
Now you must choose an archetype. These are not classes. You choose those after incarnation, during your “character reroll”. Instead, an archetype is the ongoing framework encapsulating your immortality. Your choices will seem vague, and that is intentional. Since your knowledge and experiences carry over from life to life, we expect you to learn and adapt within your framework.
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Immortal Archetypes
* [alley cat]
* [ghost]
* [mime]
* [monkey’s clawed]
* [mysterious stranger]
* [past legend]
* [rock of ages]
* [the now]
* [truck-kun]
* [tuesday’s wildcard]
* [wanderer]
“Vague”, check. Close to useless. What do any of these even mean? “Ghost” and “mime” are probably obvious. Probably. I think I might have a sense of what “mysterious stranger” and “wanderer” might be, but if so, what is the difference? You know what, let’s just eliminate all four. I’m not particularly attracted to them even if the notions I have are correct.
“Truck-kun” – That anime trope? Some random truck or other vehicle kills someone, and the person ends up isekaid into another world. It sounds like that would almost make me an agent of this reincarnation system. How would that even work? Do I even care? Nope.
“Alley cat” – Does that mean I’d be a cat or some other animal? I was a dog person. Or is it more general in some way? An outsider, a permanent striker, and someone who is never really accepted as part of society. Either way, not appealing. Next.
“Monkey’s clawed” – Well, at least I wouldn’t be the monkey’s claw, always cursing people because of their stupidity and shallowness. Instead it sounds like I would be the cursed. How could that ever be a good thing? Uh-uh.
“Past legend” – someone beyond their prime maybe? Or wait, legends aren’t always good. One might be legendarily idiotic. Might I be given the chance to improve my lot, or regain what I had lost? Finally, an option I don’t have to reject outright.
“Rock of ages” – The phrase is a positive religious reference. On the other hand, I might become an actual rock. Forever. Not chancing it.
“The now” – Now, in the context of forever? Is that something I would ever want? It might be a truly hellish choice, or a forever ignorant one. I’d rather be a rock. Well, could it ever be a positive, an awareness of only the recent past and my previous lives? No. No. Hell no.
“Tuesday’s wildcard” – hmm. I don’t feel immediate negative vibes. I don’t know what the heck it is, but it could be good. Maybe one day a week I would gain some random special ability. But as a wildcard, what would determine if that ability was actually useful? Would it ever be entirely detrimental? If it is, it sounds like the effect only lasts a day. Not rejecting it.
So, down to “past legend” and'' tuesday's wildcard”. (Why isn’t “tuesday” capitalized? Maybe it won’t be a proper noun. Maybe there won’t even be Tuesdays, per se. Who knows?) My best guess is that a past legend would always be striving to improve, to regain what he had lost, or maybe to regain credibility. Hmm, “always”. Could he ever succeed? As a wildcard, though, each “tuesday” would likely be different, guaranteed. Since it will be a permanent (well, 100 lives) choice, being able to expect a significant modification at least once a week could help avoid boredom.
Either choice is going to be a bitch. The system said it. One might be a bit more fun, like riding a too-long rickety roller coaster once a week. Yeah, why not?
“System, I choose ‘tuesday’s wildcard’”.
Good. That was one of the choices we expected might fit you. The others were “past legend” and “mysterious stranger”. The other eight were chosen randomly from the over 100 archetypes available. We wanted to give you enough rope to hang yourself, but also enough to climb down into the tunnel.
Now we can describe the framework provided by tuesday’s wildcard. Simply put, you only exist on Tuesdays. They probably won’t be called that, if weeks exist at all. One day out of seven you exist. If you survive that day, then after 6 days you will continue from where you left off. The world itself will have continued during that time. Note that a “day” will be one rotation of your planet’s axis, almost regardless of how long that takes. There may not be a day and night, but there will be the equivalent of a full rotation. You are guaranteed at least 24 Earth hours though, so a quickly rotating planet will not cheat you of part of your baseline days.
I don’t feel tricked, having been fully warned there would be a downside. Just … why Tuesdays?
If you die during that day, you will be reincarnated, with your interface leading you through a reroll of a new character. You may or may not be reincarnated on the same planet. It will be somewhere in the same galaxy, though, because we are not licensed to operate elsewhere. Karma may be spent to remain on the same planet. It will only be deducted if you were not going to reincarnate there anyways. Remaining on the same planet means skipping the next six days. If you go elsewhere it would not matter.
The time spent between active days will occur in a void similar to this, experienced at 60 times normal. Those six days will feel like about 2.5 hours. Any serious injuries will be healed and any negative conditions will be removed. Your body will experience a full six days of convalescence. You will return well rested and without hunger or thirst. Typical bodily functions will have been taken care of.
Was your experience here satisfactory?
[Yes] [Continue]
Heh, that’s one way to avoid complaints.
“Well – just so you know – someone without my gaming background probably would have felt lost and might have freaked out. But, especially considering my circumstances before coming here, and maybe my ‘strong soul’, I choose ‘Yes’.”
Thank you.
Installing interface, immortal model.
…
Installed.
Initializing: option ‘tuesday’s wildcard’.
Initializing: option ‘karmic choice’.
…
Establishing memory of your baselife as permanent.
Establishing memory of our encounter as permanent-eidetic.
...
Have a good forever.