'Awake' was a strong word for the state of consciousness that I returned to after the flash. There was... an awareness, but I felt almost detached from it. Words floated into my mind, and suddenly there WAS a mind, with a 'me' for them to float into, separate from the voice... no, the... the text that manifested. Vision became obvious from the void I found myself in when a white text box appeared, with black lettering.
It read:
> [YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED.]
The... box? The prompt? It vanished, leaving me in darkness for a time beyond my ability to keep track of or comprehend, and then another appeared.
It read:
> [YOUR FATE IS DEEMED UNJUST.]
Again, the text vanished. Something stirred inside my - and... suddenly there was a myself to have that feeling - inside my chest! It was an awareness of emotion - of a response to the words, but in the moment, this moment, I had no context at all, and didn't particularly care. Caring isn't something that... that the dead... have much of. You need organs to care, glands and that, right? Wait... so why did I care?
> [REJOICE! A NEW DAWN AWAITS.]
Oh... that's nice. A warm feeling filled my body, and in a rush of senses, a cascade of feelings, I... had a body! Again! I had a body... again. Wait... what happened? What was I? What was going on? I couldn't see, but I could certainly feel... and what I felt was...
... cold? Wet? Rain was pounding on my bare back, and it was one of the most beautiful sensations I'd ever felt. I was wrong - I didn't feel cold, I felt... so, so warm - like way, way too warm, and my body ached all over like I'd exercised every muscle in my body to the point of exhaustion! I groaned, and rocked myself to one side so I could flop onto my back and feel the cool rain wash my form. The cool, soft grass felt incredible on my skin, and I just lay there for several seconds as I literally steamed. I at last opened my eyes and saw a stormy morning sky, streaked with the orange and pink of early dawn, eclipsed only slightly by green leaves and the branches of a tree. From that position in the grass, I took stock.
Arms? Legs? Two each. I reached up to my face - it was... my face, familiar, but it felt different somehow? I realized I was naked as the day I was born only belatedly, and in this moment, it didn't feel terribly important, not compared to how much I ached all over. It took me a minute to realize... that the fog I was seeing was my body steaming, not something coming from the world around me. I felt so... so hot. Why? What was wrong with-
> [Health: 45/100]
> [Stamina: 10/100]
> [Mana: 0/100]
-m-me! As the thought crossed my mind, three bars appeared. A red one, marked 'Health', a green one, marked 'Stamina', and a blue one, marked 'Mana', in the corners of my vision. Even as I watched... Stamina ticked up by 5. Okay... what the hell. Video game logic was no stranger to me, so I instinctively knew what those MEANT but... what? I tried to get my body to cooperate, and it did after a fashion.
"Take it slow girl... okay... let's... get a look around" I said to myself, and I rolled back to my belly. My arms protested as I pushed myself up, and my back twinged as muscles whined, but one foot then the other were planted, and I managed to stand.
"Ow... ow... owww..." and at last, I looked up and around. I found myself standing... in a glade of grass. Nearby, I could see a tree and it was far from alone - another stood tall nearby, and... as I turned to take in the scenery, I realized it was a forest. As far as I could see in the morning light, trees stretched in every direction. Once I was standing, I started to feel a little better as my body started kicking into full functionality once more. Still steaming, I staggered a few steps and collapsed against a tree, panting. and then... a few more, once I'd had a chance to rest a moment.
Once I was moving I began to feel... good. Like, very good. I couldn't remember when I'd last felt... healthy. Wait... And it came back to me in a rush. The long war, as Earth's resources began to dwindle, the sabre rattling from the major powers as they jockeyed for position, and then... and then... sirens. It seemed almost like a distant memory in this place - like I was waking from a dream.
"Alex?" I called out. Who was that? I felt... sad about that. Vaguely. It just didn't seem important anymore, and the more I tried to hold onto those memories, the more they leaked away in the rain. I cried a little, for a lover whose face I couldn't remember anymore, but the ghost of whose embrace I felt keenly. I was shocked from my tears when a new prompt came into view before me.
[You have learned a new skill: Animal Vitality.] and I stared at the prompt. Skills? Did I have... was this... a game? I wondered that again, and decided to try and find out.
"Menu?" and I got... a Menu.
> Name: Emily Smith
> Race: Human, Lycanthrope
> Class: [CAUTION: UNSTABLE CORE ARRAY]
>
> If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
> Status: Exhausted, Badly Injured
That told me... a lot. My vision lingered on the word 'Lycanthrope' which was concerning, but not nearly as concerning as the warning that I had an... Unstable core array? As soon as I thought about that, an interface appeared in my vision.
It showed three orbs on a grayish backdrop, the suggestions of sconces holding the orbs before me.
One was pleasant - it was green and blue, swirling with images, with sensations, and the smells of... a cottage, of goats and sheep, of waving wheat and chopping wood, the feelings of exhaustion and pride, and a plaque beneath it named it... Peasant. Peasant? Something told me that that was a good one - my heart ached for the... the simple sort of life it depicted, for the peace of that. It was so different from the one I was used to! My heart yearned with a kind of longing! But! There was more to look at! I shifted my gaze reluctantly to the second orb.
The second orb was... well it scared the hell out of me. Red and black, swirling with images and feelings of... violence, of war, of discipline and brutality that had me crying out in horror as I struggled to remove my gaze, but it kept drawing me in - showing me that the world could be mine if only I had the courage and cruelty to make it so! I tore my gaze away from the searing crimson red of it and looked at the plaque. Red Hand of Vengence, it read. This... wasn't who I was. The life it depicted was horrifying to me - one of rampaging across a countryside, taking what I wanted and... yes, righting what I thought was wrong, but ultimately it reminded me of some of the awful people I'd met back home who took what they wanted and killed anyone who resisted them. I didn't WANT to be like them!
God... I was almost scared to look at the third orb - the one that seemed out of place, hanging above the other two like... very much like a moon! This third and final orb showed a rush of images - colored mists that came with emotions and sounds. The feeling of strength in my body, the sensation of air moving in my lungs, of adrenaline like fire in my blood, of my... my fangs sinking into prey, ripping, tearing. There was the pain of my body changing shape, and the exhilaration that followed, and there was the hunt. It was... intense, but compared to the second orb, it was mild - pleasant even. The plaque beneath the moon orb read Lycanthrope. A Lycanthrope... was a werewolf. What the long island fuck? I was... a werewolf?!
> A prompt appeared. It read:
> [You have three cores: [LIFE] Core: Peasant, [COMBAT] Core: Red Hand of Vengence, and [MONSTER] Core: Lycanthrope]
>
> WARNING: This core arrangement is unstable. At this time, you are unable to subsume your [MONSTER] Lycanthrope core. Do you want to subsume one of your other cores to stabilize?
> [Yes / No]
It wasn't a hard choice. Being Unstable didn't sound... good. Besides - I never could play evil characters, so the Red Hand of Vengence one, which definitely had the feel of a badguy thing, was the obvious sacrifice for me, right? It wasn't like I could subsume the Monster core, I was stuck being a werewolf.
"Yes please!" I said to the menu and the empty air around me. There was nobody there but the prompt, but I felt... heard. There was a tension in the air, like somebody was waiting for my decision.
"The Red Hand core - that thing is horrible! Subsume that one please." and then, a baffled sensation in the world around me. Not unpleased, but... I got the impression somehow that it hadn't expected that. Then there was a crack of thunder across the sky so loud it seemed to shake the world around me for a moment, making me jump, and the wind picked up! When things seemed calm again, another prompt appeared in my vision.
> [You have subsumed [COMBAT] Core: Red Hand of Vengence into [LIFE] Core: Peasant and [MONSTER] Core: Lycanthrope.]
> [Animal Vitality: Rank F has evolved from a Synergy into Bestial Vigor! Any skill points invested have been refunded and the skill is reset to Rank F.]
Oh. No big loss there, so okay. What does... Bestial Vigor do?
> Â Â [Bestial Vigor: Rank F 10% Your cursed body teems with life force! You are resistant to harm, and recover Health and Stamina more quickly.]
My... cursed... body? Well, I guess I do have a... a lycanthrope core... whatever that is. And I brought up my status menu again.
> Name: Emily Smith
> Race: Human, Lycanthrope
> Class: Peasant [LIFE, MONSTER]
> Status: Exhausted, Badly Injured
> Skill Slots: 3/2
> Skills:
> Â Â [LIFE] Peasant Level 0
> Â Â Peasant Skill Points: 0
> Â Â Skills:
> Â Â Â Â --
> Â Â Â Â --
> Â Â Â Â --
>
> Â Â [MONSTER] Lycanthrope level 0
> Â Â Lycanthrope Skill Points: 0
> Â Â Skills:
> Â Â Â Â Bestial Vigor: Rank F 15%
> Â Â Â Â --
> Â Â Â Â --
While all that was going on, my health and stamina had ticked up!
> [Health: 60/100]
> [Stamina: 55/100]
> [Mana: 10/100]
I had no measurement of time... but sitting still and counting carefully revealed I recovered about... fifteen stamina and five hp per minute. Was that alot? I had no idea. I had to assume so, if Bestial Vitality's description was to be believed. The more my HP recovered, the better I felt, so that was all to the good! And Stamina, the higher my stamina got, the more energy I had! No actual downside there, I felt! So far, things were going very well!
Another prompt appeared. It read:
> [Needs are suspended for a 24 hour grace period. Welcome to your new life - Survive, Thrive, and be Free.]
And then... a sensation like something watching me left me - a presence I'd felt the entire time so far, receding away into just a memory, gently highlighting the fact it had been there until this moment.
I was on my own.