I wake up slowly. Its daytime now. The smells are off the charts bad, and my body feels like I've been kicked around a bit. I crack my eyes and see the hospital room around me. There is a curtain cutting the room in half and I have the half near the window. Nice. Prime property. The guy in the other bed smells...wrong somehow. Sick I guess. Can't see him, but his heart is clopping along like a drunk horse. Can't be good.
Down the hall, voices echo to me. If I concentrate, I can separate them a bit, but I don't bother. It's all hospital talk. Nurses, Doctors, and sad people. Instead, I concentrate on my memories. My name is Sam. I lived a different life than the one I'm...in...now. I remember lots of things about the world. The last year I remember is 2040. I can recall many things, but I can't remember my family or friends. I know I had them. Vague associations with places and things, but it's all just phantoms I'm interacting with. I had a dog who loved swiss cheese, but I can't remember what color or breed she was. Damn it.
I raise my hands and look at them. Smooth skin. Tan. There are no scars at all. I had a wicked one across my last three fingers where I tore them on razor wire. I still have no memory of who I am now. I spy my medical file across the room in a clear plastic holder on the wall. Moving carefully, I get up and grab it without disconnecting any of the lines or doodads connected to me. Let's see.
Thomas Jones. 18 years old. I glance in the wall mirror. I'm 18 years old. I was, well, I can't remember exactly how old I was before all this, but it was quite old. I don't recall my face but I remember it had white hair. I remember shaving grizzly white beard off of my face. Now, I look...hmm. Am I handsome? Not really, but I'm young. Almost everyone looks good when they are young. I turn my face in the mirror.
"Not bad at all. I mean, someone obviously wanted to fuck me. Can't be that bad."
More memories unspool in my mind. Right, I died I guess. I must have because I remember meeting some sort of Being. Capital B. It's all a little fuzzy. There were talks about a Second Life. Where, when, how, probably even why. I was offered a deal. A deal to give up things about my old life in exchange for benefits in my new one. There was definitely random draws or spins or some such thing. In fact, I remember saying "Fuck it." Make the whole thing random in exchange for more draws. Yeah, gambling played a pretty big part of my past life I think. Dice, cards, slots, and my favorite roulette. I feel like I made and lost a lot of money with my hobby. Definitely a hobby, not a problem.
All these memories spooling out in my mind. Sure, they are full of holes, but they are my bedrock. An old man, in a young man's body. The world is my oyster, or other mysterious seafood of choice. Sadly, I don't remember jack shit about my new body's memories. Total replacement. End of the road for young Thomas. I can feel it in my soul. Didn't really even know or believe I had one of those before, but I can for sure feel that I'm the only one in here now. Which is great! The last thing I need is to go crazy being haunted by the unfinished business of whoever I punted out of this body. Now that I'm sure I'm definitely sane, time to explore my magical system that the devil may have given me.
"System?"
An electric orange screen appears in front of me.
*
Name: Sam
Race: Human
Body: 1 / Mind: 1 / Spirit: 1
Level: 1
Class: Wandering Bard (Chosen by default.)
Class Features: Musical Talent, Free Movement
Professions: Musician, Fisherman, Detective, Soldier, Hunter, Automotive Repair, Gambler
Talents: Hyper-Perception / Beloved by Machines / Spatial Storage
Detriments: Inexorable Truth / Strange Luck
*
"OK. System, be honest, did you choose Wandering Bard because I was literally on a moving band bus?"
"System? System, what is Beloved by Machines? What does it mean?" I waited while literally nothing happened except the screen blinking on and off when I said the word system. I tried thinking the word system really loud. Nothing. I whispered it a few times and found out there is a volume level needed to bring it up. I poked at the screen a few times hopefully. Nothing. Whatever else it is, it is not user friendly. It also doesn't appear unfriendly, so I'll take that as a glass half full.
"Awesome. I'll just talk to myself, I guess. Who needs answers to life-or-death questions anyway." I settled back into bed. "Hmmm...the professions are mostly correct. I did all of that stuff except Musician. That must come from Wandering Bard. Nice! It always hurt my heart to love music but have no talent for it. Levels...like, what is that about? "Hey old man! Wake up!"
The patient next to me stirred about, "What?"
"Are there um, goblins and adventurers and whatnot around here. Is that a thing?"
There was a long quiet pause from the other side of the curtain, "Boy, are you supposed to be in the psych ward? Is that your problem?"
I sighed, "My problem is that I'm from the future and I'm trying to find out what kind of world I ended up in. This body I took over didn't leave me any memories at all, so I'm trying to reconcile my power system, which may have been given to me by the devil, with the random nature of its abilities." I slapped a hand over my mouth. Fuck me, I guess I know what one of my Detriments does.
From the bed beyond the curtain, I heard a button being pressed over and over. Yup, I'm guessing that's the nurse call button. In the back of my head, I had been thinking that I would basically take over Thomas' life. It would be awkward, but maybe I could fall back on the old faithful amnesia. I'm smartish. I could have eventually gotten everything straight. I wouldn't mind being in a college marching band. Maybe I played the trumpet. That sounds cool.
Well, time to slam dunk that idea in the garbage. I need to get out of this place before I actually do end up on a psych ward or god forbid a government lab. Shit is rapidly approaching the fan. Nurse is on the way, and if I had a college age child in the hospital, I would definitely be on the way to see them. Time to do some shady stuff.