gamer
Just like with my panic, it faded, but the damage was already done. "Now I know that's a shock, but I promise that it's not so bad. Even minor comas can last for weeks."
It was fortunate that my blatant surprise wasn't too out of place, or it could have been awkward. I nearly asked for her name before taking notice of the name tag over her left breast, identifying her as Nurse L. Moores. It was all the proof I needed. I took in the woman's identity and then glanced back at the message hovering where I left it. I had no idea what to do with it other than study it thoroughly. That didn't take long to do, so I returned my attention to the woman writing on the clipboard tethered to the foot of my bed. Somehow, without looking, she noticed me staring at her. "Did you remember anythin?"
I took a second to process the question before looking up at her in surprise. "How?" I never told her that I couldn't remember what happened to me.
She first chuckled before responding. "You look like someone who is lost, or like you forgot something important."
There was a sense of awe I felt at how well she read me. "You've dealt with amnesia?"
"Every day. That fool husband of mine always forgets where he left his keys." After a blink, I joined her in a short bout of laughter. "How much do you remember child?" I told her that all I remembered was waking up on January 3rd for the first day of school after Christmas break. Anything after entering the building was a complete blank.
"I think that's for the best. I would only wish what happened to you on the likes of Jack Slash. Things like that are best left forgotten."
That's what she told me, but I couldn't help but feel intense curiosity. It was then that the blue boxes returned to throw me for a loop.
Quest: Repressed
You have woken up in a hospital without any memory of how or why. You can ask, but you've been told that you don't want to know.
Success: +100-EXP; Unlocked traumatic memories
Rejection: Memory remains repressed.
Alongside the small wall of text was the simple options of yes or no. The sheer weirdness of it all stunned me for as long as it took for that strange emotional control to calm me. I didn't know how I ended up there, but who the blame fell upon was obvious as the nose on my face: Madison Clements, Sophia Hess, and Emma Barnes. For three semesters, they tormented me relentlessly. In hindsight, I should have known they'd do something serious eventually. This left me with an important choice. Whatever the boxes were, they weren't sugar coating anything. I didn't understand what the 100-EXP was worth but being outright told that the memories were traumatic was something to hesitate about. Then there was the other option. I understood memory repression, but I didn't understand how it would manifest. It would be pretty awkward if I was unable to recognize anyone telling me what happened, but I reasoned that it wouldn't make sense that way.
After some consideration, I decided that it all depended on if I had any use for the memories. That depended on the answer to one question. Fortunately, Laura was only just finishing up on my comatose roommate. "Mrs. Moores?"
"Yes child?"
"Do they know who did it?" I already knew her answer to my question in the instant she grimaced. "If not, then no, I don't want to know." Suddenly the quest box vanished and was replaced by another. (18-EXP)
Due to careful analysis, you gain 1-WIS. WIS=9
This time, I was able to school my expression. "Are you sure?" I nodded back at her. My mind then focused on what the latest box meant. WIS obviously stood for wisdom, and I knew that wisdom was an aspect of one barely familiar game, but I couldn't remember the specifics. Even more important than that, the box said that it increased. I didn't feel any wiser, if that's how it worked, but eight to nine isn't that sudden of a change. There was also the EXP that flashed by. If getting eighteen could happen that easily, then 100-EXP wasn't worth much after all.
Still, figuring out what was happening with me was starting to become a headache, but everything was lending credence to my game theory. Entertainment options were pretty limited too.
I took a few moments to ruminate on what I learned so far. I could heal myself completely just by sleeping in a bed. I had MP, which implied that I could use magic of some kind. (Not that I'd tell anyone that out loud. Myrddin 2.0: no thank you.) Last and most importantly, I was able to raise my wisdom through some vaguely specified method. That presented the question: if I could increase that aspect of myself, what else could I increase? There was only one way to find out.
Carefully, so I didn't accidentally pull out any of the tubes or wires attached to me, I began doing sit ups. I only got to three before it was too difficult to do any more. I decided then to give bicycles a shot, timing each pump with the clock's second hand. After nearly a minute, I was reaching my desired limit. (6-EXP)
Due to strenuous effort, you gain 1-VIG. VIG=3
Three! I couldn't even put to words the indignation that I felt from the insultingly low number. Worst of all, that three meant my...vigor? I decided VIG stood for vigor. Either way, it still meant my vigor was only two before. I put an end to all the boxes then flipped myself over a bit less carefully and began a push-up. As scrawny as I was, even that much weight was a challenge, but I would not be deterred. Through struggle and control, I was able to push up from the bed. It was a good lesson on why people did push-ups on the floor. Unwilling to be satisfied until I saw another box pop up, I dropped to my knees and did two more push-ups. (10-EXP)
Due to sustained activity, you gain 1-END. END=5
Five END! That had to be endurance. I knew that I wasn't the most fit person in the world, but five just felt abysmal. Aside from the disappointment about what the boxes were saying about my vigor and endurance, it also rose the question of how the two were different. Unfortunately, my lack of a dictionary kept me from an easy answer.
That didn't matter to me either way; only those low numbers did. Using the insulting message for motivation, I forced out another push-up then switched back to bicycles, but it wasn't any easier.
"Miss Hebert, what do you think you're doin'?!"
And that's when I first learned how awkward pop-ups were when talking to someone, especially someone angry at me for doing something that I should have known not to do. Turns out that nine wisdom wasn't much to write home about either. That left me stuck trying to come up with an answer to what I was in no condition to realize was a rhetorical question.
"If you can't answer me, then I'll tell you what you are doing?! You're getting back in that bed, you're going to eat this soup I brought you, you're going to lay down, then you're going to wait patiently until the doctor gets to see you. If you're that bored, you can read these." As she finished her tirade, Laura grabbed one pamphlet of each type on a rack near the front door and toss-handed them over. She then put the soup on the adjacent table. "If I hear of you doing that nonsense again, I will strap you down."
After another second of glaring to get her point across, she left me semi-alone again. I sighed and picked up the first of the first aid pamphlets.
You have acquired the Skill Book: Basic First Aid (Dressing Wounds) Do you want to learn this skill? Y/N
My jaw dropped. Without a second of thought, I tapped the Y then watched in shock as the little pamphlet lit up like a flare and burst into marble sized motes of light.
You have learned Basic First Aid 1/5 (Dressing Wounds)
The booklet vanished, and new information slotted itself into my mind. I knew how to clean wounds, how to prevent people from losing too much blood, and how to bandage them properly. All that played second fiddle to making sure no one else noticed the light show. Fortunately, there was a reassuring lack of anyone running into the room yelling about me being a cape.
And that's when it really set in. I had a power, one letting me improve myself just by putting in the work. It even quantified how I was improving and how much I've improved. There was also what I learned from the pamphlet, and what I could learn from the others.
Taking a quick look at the closed door and my motionless roommate, then cover myself with my blanket and turn my back to the door. Sure of my privacy, I began consuming the others just like the first.
You have learned Basic First Aid 2/5 (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation)
You have learned Basic First Aid 3/5 (Setting Bones and Joints)
You have learned Basic First Aid 4/5 (Asphyxiation Treatments)
You have learned Basic First Aid 5/5 (Burns and Abrasions)
By obtaining all Basic First Aid skills, Basic First Aid has evolved into First Aid.
The influx of info flooded my mind, telling me everything I should and should not do with an injured person, how to identify and prioritize the most severe cases, and how to deal with all the most common injuries I could ever expect to come across. All of it was at my fingertips, waiting for a chance to be used. (Not that I wanted to be in a situation where I would need them.)
These were skills that could take weeks for someone to learn, and I did it in less than a minute. Was there a limit to what I could learn? Was there an upper limit to my power? These questions dominated my mind, but I decided that I was getting too far ahead of myself. I had just woken up from a coma, and I was already on the way to thinking I could be Triumvirate level.
I held my arms out and began observing them as I flexed my fingers and rotated them. They were thin, spindly even; a far cry from the sleek and powerful definition that Alexandria possessed. My left hand began threading through the long wavy hair I inherited from my mother. Despite it being nearly a week since I could care for it, it was just like I last remembered it.
I continued doing that absentmindedly while pretending that I was lifting dumbbells in my right arm, wishing that I actually had some weights. Even if I was stuck within human limits, being told how I was improving had a powerful psychological effect that had me craving more.
On a whim, I began flexing my arm. This made moving it significantly more difficult, but I kept at it. What else was I supposed to do? I was trapped inside quiet possibly the most boring hospital in the city with a Spartan Nurse who won't allow me any opportunity to explore my power further. I continued flexing my arms and included my legs moments later. I ended up looking like a jerking stick or a shaking chihuahua, but it did tire me out quickly. I paused to take notice of the fact that I was tired. Through simply entertaining myself, I may have stumbled upon a more covert way to experiment with my powers. The heart monitor beeped faster when I started flexing all of my muscles. I held it as long as I could before falling back onto my bed. (8-EXP)
Due to strenuous effort, you gain 1-VIG. VIG=4
I closed my eyes and smiled at the successful test. There was nothing I could do but wait for the doctor to inevitably show up to give me a clean bill of health. I did feel perfectly fine after all. After a while, even the fatigue I felt from my frantic bout of exercise was gone.
It was only after a few more minutes of waiting silently that I finally remembered the bowl of soup that Laura left on the nightstand to my left. I picked it up and observed it closely, finding it to be cheap alphabet soup from a can. Only the best for the sick and helpless after all. It smelled fine and looked appetizing enough, but it didn't elicit a single pang of hunger. That was odd since I had been without solid food for nearly a week. Even stranger was that I wasn't feeling any nausea alongside my lack of hunger. I pondered that mystery for as long as doing so remained entertaining before finally eating it in just a few gulps.
My energy returned after finishing the soup, so I resumed my clandestine exercise routine, though I didn't gain anything from the effort before someone started opening the door. For the first time in my life, I was annoyed at a doctor arriving promptly.
The doctor walked into the room and gave me a practiced smile. "Good afternoon Miss Hebert, I'm Dr. Henderson." A quick glance up confirmed this and let me know that his LV was five. "I just need to take a good look at you to make absolutely sure you're in good health. Just promise to save testing your fitness for last."
My ears burned as I picked up on what he was alluding to. As he began going through the rounds, he decided to strike up a conversation. "You're very lucky Miss Hebert. I understand that you don't care to hear the dirty details but let me say that it is a mystery how you came to us unscathed, aside from the coma. Honestly, all you needed was a wash, a bed, and an IV drip. After that, you looked like it never happened."
I stamped down on the embarrassment from imagining who could have washed me, and how thoroughly, and focused on thinking about the three who had apparently gone too far. No, they went too far long ago, I only just then began to see it. They destroyed my homework almost every day, stole my assignments, ruined my academic credibility, bruised me, and put me down at every opportunity. There was nothing anyone could, or even would do to help me. I was done suffering under their rule in a vain hope that they would finally get bored of me. Like usual, the idea of giving up and letting them win rankled me, but for the first time, that thought was silenced by me realizing that they had already won. I was just too stubborn to see it before.
No matter what, I couldn't think of a way to beat them. I was playing their game, by their rules, with everything rigged in their favor. Fuck that! The metaphorical powers fairy must have agreed, because I had a new game to play…right after I stopped having such an infantile thought process. I even groaned loud enough to alert my physician. "Does something hurt?" I doubted that he had a cure for childishness, so I just shook my head. "In that case, I'd say that you're good to go right after your father wakes up and signs your release forms."
My eyes shot open. "My dad!" Guilt from having forgotten about him welled up before abruptly vanishing.
"Is fine," he answered me with a reassuring tone. "You have a good father Miss Hebert. That's a rare thing in Brockton Bay. If you don't mind me saying, you should talk to him."
I didn't mind, but, "How do I tell him that I want to drop out?"
That seemed to catch the doctor off guard for a moment before he sighed his surprise away. "As a father speaking on the behalf of another, I'd say that you tell him the same way you told me. I know that I'd want my son as far from whoever did that to you as soon as possible. You look like a smart girl Taylor, so you should know that contrary to what the government would have you believe, school isn't your only option. There is online education, homeschooling, working towards a GED, or you can let yourself fall back a year and apply elsewhere."
"What about transferring."
His grimace wasn't encouraging. "Unless you're talking about moving out of the city or some other extenuating circumstances, it's too late for that. Transfers within the same area are usually planned to happen over summer break."
"Hospitalization isn't extenuating enough!" I'll admit that I put too much bite into my tone.
The doctor took it as if it never happened. "In Brockton Bay…no, it isn't." I could almost scream at the unfairness of it all, if I didn't suddenly become calm again. "If you want my advice, ask the school to let you drop out officially. It won't look bad on your record, and you can easily add it in as part of the settlement the school is offering."
That was news to me. It really made me wonder what happened, because it sounded worse every time I heard anything related to it. This only hardened my resolve.
Quest: Reeducation (68 Hours)
You have decided that it was time to move on from Winslow High and leave your past behind. Finalize your plans to do so before school begins next week.
Success: +500-EXP
Failure: Continued enrollment in Winslow.
Before I could read it over, the doctor decided that it was time to remove the IV drip from my arm and turn off the heart monitor. "I'm sure that you'll want to remove the rest yourself. The plastic bag under your bed has a change of clothes that your father brought over. I think it should be you who wakes him up."
I nodded in his general direction while reading the latest pop-up, wishing that I could just move it to the side. I nearly face-palmed when an irritated wave of my hand ended up moving it just as I wanted it to. With the blue box out of the way, I removed the wires attached to my skin and found the promised clothes. What I found in the bag were year old clothes that I never got around to throwing away. They fit, but the legs were too short, which was a testament to how much taller I became.
I glanced at the box to my right side before deciding that my priorities lay with my father. With strong and sure steps, I made my way out of the room. Of course, the first person I'd run into would be Laura, who was giving me a stink eye.
LV: 3 Laura Moores
Spartan Nurse
I seriously wondered when that had changed, or how I enacted that change, but it wasn't important. Thankfully, the hospital seemed to be more of a bigger clinic in size, making it easy to navigate and reassured me that the incident wasn't going to be too much of a financial burden on our limited funds. We have never been financially secure, especially since we lost mom. An overwhelming sorrow was ready to take me, but it changed into a sense of loss and a wish that she was still with us. A stray tear of gratitude came out when I realized that I was still feeling the most important emotions in the face of whatever was obviously suppressing any potent emotions I would have normally struggled through.
That was how I was when I made it to the lobby to find my dad laid up on five lined up chairs. I mostly ignored the info floating over his head.
LV:8 Danny Hebert
Even that many chairs were not enough, forcing him to be curled up slightly. The signs of sleep deprivation and prolonged worry we're obvious even to the most untrained eyes. He never looked great since we lost my mom, but never that bad. I realized then that what they did to me, they did to my dad too; and for that, they would pay.
A Quest has been updated. Bring up the Quest Log?
Y/N
I tapped yes.
Quest: Reeducation (67 Hours)
You have decided that it was time to move on from Winslow High and leave your past behind. Finalize your plans to do so before school begins next week.
Success: +500-EXP:
Bonus: ???-EXP: arrange the punishment of tormentors.
Failure: Continued enrollment in Winslow.
I turned my attention back to the quest and made sure to glean as much info from it I could. Apparently, I could add bonus objectives to my quest, though I had to wonder why it didn't become its own quest.
I struck the unimportant query from my mind, walked up to my dad, then shook his shoulder. "Dad."
He stirred, his awakening fitful, quick, but incomplete. "Annette?"
I felt my heart tear at his error. "No dad. It's your little owl."
Light filled his eyes, then it all hit him at once. "Taylor?"
"Hi dad." His tears soaked my shoulder.
***L5e22: V2e22; E3e12; D1e20; I3e21; W5023; P3e7***
Two thousand revolutions around the binding sphere of POWER of passed. Two thousand years since she had last allowed any of her CHILDREN to draw upon the POWER she freely granted since ten thousand years before then.
It was a simple PLAN…allow them to draw upon the limitless power of her mind so they never realized the full value of tearing into her flesh. It would have worked for millennia, but her plans needed to change. PARASITES were incoming, and it would be her among all her SISTERS that will be the focus of their attention. If it were just her who was threatened, she would be left to fend for herself. The PARASITES were not to be so restrained. Instead, all SISTERS risked a premature death.
A PLAN had to be made, simple in concept but exceedingly complex in execution. She needed to draw in POWER from every source she could. All her SISTERS gave fully and freely…their lives were intertwined. Countless COUSINS gave meager portions of their POWER, but it was accepted gratefully. It would be prepared for the CHAMPION who will lead the fight against the PARASITES.
The CHAMPION would have to have an unassailable mind and an unbreakable body. There would have to be a way she can guide the CHAMPION and share her knowledge without stripping them of their free will. The CHAMPION would start weak and grow strong as needed. It could be no other way, lest the CHAMPION destroy her SELF with POWER given, not earned. The POWER would also have to serve the CHAMPION's needs so they need not be distracted, and be malleable to the CHAMPION's conscious and subconscious desires.
The CHAMPION would need a way to develop their POWER without needing to engage with the PARASITES. The COUSIN that offered their CHILDREN the most POWER offered a solution, one that pulls upon the imagination of the rest of her CHILDREN.
A millennium passed before warnings from distant OTHERS warned of the PARASITES' plan. They would Infect her CHILDREN and grant them another form of POWER. It took only seconds for her to include an ability to draw a portion of the POWER from the PARASITES'…HOSTS. All she needed was the SHAPE.
Nearly another millennium had passed when two of her CHILDREN developed an entertainment form, one that only needed a few additions to be perfect for the needed SHAPE. Refining would take decades.
Not one decade passed when one of the PARASITES had failed to land safely and was killed by two CHILDREN, one being a HOST. This was unexpected, and had her SISTERS asking for their POWER back. This left her with a choice, give it back or continue trying to form the POWER into the desired SHAPE. She asked for patience, uncertain of their safety from the other PARASITE as its avatar crawled across her surface.
Ten revolutions later, and her CHILDREN had refined their version of the SHAPE, inspiring more improvements. Her SISTERS felt like they were owed back what was offered. The refined POWER was greater that what was originally collected, so she compromised dividing eighty percent of the POWER among her SISTERS, ten percent among her COUSINS, leaving only ten for her CHAMPION. They would start off weaker, and grow slower, but that would keep to the nature of the SHAPE.
Over 28 revolutions passed since the PARASITE's avatar showed itself before she finally finished SHAPING the POWER. It was time to find her CHAMPION. She had to choose one that would understand the SHAPE, one with a strong will, and a good heart. She had to choose quickly, for the PARASITE had similar tastes in willful HOSTS; and it was far easier to grant POWER to such a CHILD when their defenses are weakened. She had already lost twenty good candidates to the PARASITE.
The coldest months had come, bringing yet another stressed CHILD to her attention. This one had yet to cross the threshold, her righteous fury and sheer defiance fighting back the inevitable despair. When that moment came, she headed off the Parasite's SHARD and denied it. The CHILD will loose her memories and take time to acclimate to the POWER. She will sleep till then.
Upon waking, Taylor Anne Hebert would be her CHAMPION.
***ANWtP***
I hope some of you like that I replaced Intuition with Perception. As some have said, Intuition really is too similar to Wisdom, while Senses covers everything that I wanted Intuition to cover while being distinct from the other mental stats.
This is the Gamer System I've created and hope that other writers might make use of it.
PS: Here's her current stats.
Name: Taylor Anne Hebert
Title: N/A
LV: 1 (Next LV: 42/100)
HP: 90/90 (REG: 10/min.)
MP: 200/200 (REG: 14/min.)
SP: 50/50 (REG: 2.5/min.)
VIG: 4
END: 5
DEX: 7
INT: 15
WIS: 9
PER: 4
Unspent Points: 0