A QUICK DRAMATIC SUMMARY:
Evelyn King did not originally go by that name. Once upon a time she was another woman, older, mature, one living her life to the fullest and enjoying its simplicity, with another name, in another universe. Once upon a time this other her was struck down in her prime. Once upon a time, Evelyn went by another name, one long since discarded in favor of a life she is determined to live by her own design.
Or
A 30-something-year-old teacher dies rescuing a child, realizes the world is a matrix, and gets a second shot at the biggest adventure of her life. Featuring MMORPG like character design, snark levels up to the max, weird superpowers, and great hair.
It all happened in a literal flash of light. One moment I was a bloody mess on the pavement and next thing I knew I was a disembodied consciousness floating in some weird liminal space where I simultaneously was and was not. I was floating there for roughly 12 existential crises worth of time, though I'm not sure how long that would be in units of time. To summarize though, it was during a period of being that I caused something to happen. I supposed I blinked. I then registered I could blink. And then suddenly there was a Load Screen.
Load Game?
New Game?
And the first actual thought I had had in who knows how long was "I fucking knew the matrix was a thing!"
Years of conspiracy theorizing were finally vindicated for me and might I just say, the satisfaction of being right almost made up for the fact that I was essentially dead. Of course from this point forward I'm going to be questioning who created the Matrix and if the creator of the program would be considered a god in and of their own right, but that's a thought process for another day.
Back to the Load Screen though, I apparently had two options, one was a load game which I assume means I could return to a previous life, maybe relive it? Or I could try something new. Now again time wasn't exactly a thing for me but I believe I may have been staring at these two options and deliberating for a very extended period of time. After some serious thought, and some serious struggle- after all, Load games could potentially be restarting a previous life or it could mean returning to a broken body and both options had pro's and con's in and of themselves- I decided it was time to start a new game. Having finally decided was apparently enough for the List and I was taken to another screen.
Select World:
Earth 1- Not available in New Game
Marvel Earth
Westeros
DC Earth
Wizarding World
Jurassic Earth
Avalon
Twilight Earth
Middle Earth
I'm going to go ahead and summarize my reaction to this screen as; essentially I had another few existential crises regarding the multiverse theory, the fact that apparently these universes are being labeled in a way I would understand and therefore another meltdown about God(s), theology, and the metaphysical- and skip straight to the part where after overthinking for eons I just went down to the next option on the list since I couldn't select "Earth 1" and couldn't go back to the previous load screen. So, "Marvel Earth"- guaranteed to be exciting at least, and even came with a little description after initially selecting it.
Marvel Earth: A world of heroes and villains. Where Geniuses are common, Aliens and mutants exist, and good triumphs over evil most of the time. Marvel Earth is a dangerous place filled with dangerous people where you too can become a hero… or a villain. Regardless of the path you choose, still 40% less gritty than DC Earth.
I chuckled and selected it.
The next Screen I was brought to was almost like if the character profiles I used to make for stories I would write had a child with the character sheets you fill out for MMORPG's.
NAME:
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Default
Customize
Randomize
RACE:
CLASS:
ABILITIES:
I surprisingly went through these pretty quickly. Chose a new name, one I had always liked but was still a tribute to my last life. Made minimal changes to my looks, just a bit of tweaking with my eye color and hair length- after all I was very comfortable in my own body. Grey eyes and longer hair sounded like an excellent way to help me adjust to a new life though.
Race surprisingly gave me a few options, including some alien options, mutant, inhuman, human? (I feel like the question mark is important but...) etc. But I was trying to keep it relatively simple and trying to adjust to new biology wasn't something I wanted to go through so (Human?) it is. It wouldn't be much later that I would have to deal with the repercussions of that decision, but again, another problem for another day.
The class was actually the easiest thing. I have always wanted to be magical and Sorcerer sounded cool and apparently unlocked some neat abilities later on. Now on these abilities, the list was very long. And I could only choose 5 minor abilities and while there were slots for 3 major abilities one was already taken with MAGIC. All Caps. When I went to read more about it, it mentioned the "randomly chosen" inherent ability "Familiar" which meant I would get a specific intelligent animal companion to guide me through this new life without having to select it and take up a minor ability slot. I hope its a puppy. That being said… Major abilities were actually not too difficult for me, I had magic and that was a very adaptive ability. I didn't really want Super Strength or Speed or Endurance. I could build those things up like a normal person. So I went with "SHIELDING" (again, all caps) which apparently works as both a mental and physical shield to help prevent most minor injuries and take the brunt of any major damage plus could block most mental attacks. In a world where cities are often attacked and buildings are coming down every other day, it seemed reasonable. And then since I figured if I was going to have fun here I might as well do it right, I also choose an ability called "Right Place, Right Time" in which I would occasionally get a choice to be transported to a location in which I could have the most impact and opportunities to Level Up, with the drawback being I may land right in the middle of a very dangerous situation. At least I wouldn't be bored.
Minor abilities I put less thought into as I could apparently win some of them by completing objectives. I chose ones I wouldn't be able to win and that sounded fun and useful. Powers like "Red Light Green Light: the power over traffic lights," "Wishing Well: Always has exact change for small to medium-sized transactions (cannot exceed $75)," "Tagging: The ability to keep track of objects like keys, phone, TV remote, and other small objects," and my personal favorite "Disney Princess: Animals listen when you sing, almost always have amazing hair." Quite frankly that princess one would come in handy considering I made the executive decision to keep my hair as curly and unruly as it had always been. It is guaranteed to be charmingly tousled instead of Medusa-esque now. The Disney ability also meant that within combination with MAGIC I had access to the last and most important ability I had wanted access to, "Healing Kiss: A secondary power only available with MAGIC and Disney Princess Abilities, Healing kiss can completely heal minor wounds and some major damage, amount depending on her current Level and Stamina. May also cure magical based illnesses and infirmities."
I saved the information and quickly read over the last page of options, it was something unique to my choices. I could either begin this life completely new, be born again with no memory of my previous life, or with "Right Place, Right Time" be taken directly to the Beginning of when my new story would really begin, younger but with memories intact. Of course, I had to test the stupid ability.
And like I said it all started with a flash of light. And then I was falling, falling, falling…
And Screaming.