/think/
#internal communication#
Chapter 1: Arrival
I had an instant to see the world and then the MERGE hit.
Me, the 47 year old couch potato (well, computer potato), and Me, the 120 year old Bureau 13 agent/Dimension-Hopper/Starship Captain. And the older Me had also merged before with a version of me that had been in Sunnydale on Halloween.
Massive chaos in my mind. I think I might have fallen down. There might have been screaming. I was too busy with my mind on fire to know.
Finally things started settling down. I heard Yui calling, #Papa! Papa! Please, Papa!# She was terrified. Oh, no! Can't have my Manasume (beloved daughter(according to Google Translate)) scared, that breaks my heart, too.
"It's all right, Manasume. I'm OK now, I think..."
#Papa, I was so scared. Your brain went all crazy, and it's different now!#
"Sorry, Yui. We picked up another version of me, and we weren't prepared. And I'm talking in my outside voice, aren't I?"
Yui was still tearful, but she giggled slightly at that. #Yes, papa, you are.#
#How long did it take me to Merge? And was I screaming?#
#It took you 2 minutes 28 seconds, but you only screamed for the about 30 seconds.#
I opened my eyes. Yes I was on the ground, looking up at a figure towering over me. It had a double image. Not side by side, but one superimposed over the other.
Both images resolved themselves into statues once I was truly able to focus.
The more solid of the two was a statue of three people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a kind, pretty face, and a baby boy sitting in his mother's arms. Strangely both the woman and the man were wearing dresses. No wait, probably robes.
The fainter overlay was that of an obelisk covered in writing, probably names.
The inscription of the real statue read "The last victims of ... James and Lily Potter, and The-Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter"
I was in Harry Potter's world.
The next question was WHEN was I?
#Yui, could you please do a radio assay? We need to know when and where we are. I suspect we're in Godric's Hollow, but JKR didn't specify where that was.#
#It's 1986, Papa, and we're in Wales.# She showed me the map image.
#Thank you, Dear Heart.#
I realized I hadn't done my checklist yet.
#Yui, internal diagnostics, please.#
I looked down at myself:
Cybersuit, a quick query showed all green. Check.
Heavy Ares Omni=blaster in the hip holster. A quick grip showed green. Check.
Backpack with slung battle grav-rifle. Green. Check.
Long-range comm. Green. Check.
#All internal systems are fine!# spoke Yui.
I had a peculiar sensation of unfamiliar familiarity, the Fires of Creation were held behind my dam. I shuddered to think what would have happened if those dams hadn't been in place when I arrived. Might have lost this entire village before I got them back under control.
My ensorceled protections were down. Those would be a pain to get running again. I should have listed those on the character sheet, wish I hadn't lost that little piece of paper. Whoa, where had that thought come from? Oh, my newest me. We must not be completely merged yet. Whatever.
Wait a second. Character sheet? The "dream" was a clear and recent memory now that I'd been reminded of it.
"Display Character sheet." Nothing.
#What character sheet, Papa?# said Yui.
#Not you, Yui. I'm talking to the world.# I replied.
Maybe it required a somatic component. A recent fanfic the newest me had been reading came to mind: I touched my nose, "Display character sheet" Still nothing. I wiggled my nose back and forth with my finger like I was Samantha Stevens. "Display Character Sheet".
Success. I'm going to have to learn to wiggle my nose. At least it's not wiggling my ears...
The character sheet came up in the GCA printed version. Nice. Huh, the spent point total at the top is unreadably blurred, there are 4 digits and the first on has a top curve, but nothing else readable. Unspent points: 0 No butt-saving CP expenditure for me, if it was even possible for real.
ST 11/21 (I have muscle reinforcement bioware) HP 11
DX 12
IQ 15 (It's so good to be a genius. Until you want to get across a really complex subject to non-geniuses.)
HT 16 FP 16
HUMONGOUSLY LONG list of Advantages. Checked the ones I was worried about. Still Immune to Mind Control. I knew my Magery was intact, or the Fires would have turned me to ash.
Ship Master(Hephaestus' Forge) I forgot to check.
I tried to comm Hephaestus. He answered immediately. "Hello Captain. I hope you're aware we're in a different universe."
"Yes, and I picked up another Me as well. I think we're likely to stay for a long time, if things are as bad as I think. I'm in Godric's Hollow."
"Godric's Hollow. A fictional town in the Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling."
"My opinion is that the last two were writing by a demon possessing her, but that's just a guess. Maybe it was an Evil Twin. OK, enough of that. We're here now."
"The new Me was asked to chose a character before We ended up here. This implies that I've got a mission. I do know of a possible one. Help Harry Potter. Of course we don't know if this world started as canon, or something nicer, or nastier. But we have a chance to make this Harry's life not to suck."
"An admirable goal, Captain."
"I just hope this world isn't one of the really weird AUs."
"Indeed." He did the Spock/Teal'c eyebrow thing. The comm window closed.
Back to Character Sheet. I DID have two Ally despite what I remembered the "GM" saying. Yui, infallibly available. Hephaestus, 15-
I was about to close the character sheet, when I noticed something in the Disadvantage section. It hadn't been there on the original paper sheet.
[XXX] Progressive Allergy Syndrome (Dimension/World), Dissonance(6-/monthly), Recovery (12-/weekly).
What's the COST?! I poked it. Another window popped up.
You have an allergy to a particular environmental condition. Each point of Dissonance reduces your HT(not FP or HP). When your HT goes fully negative, you die. Permanently.
That was SO NOT GOOD. I had an indeterminate time limit.
A/N: Game Mechanic note: I gain a point of Dissonance when I roll a 6 or less on 3d6 at the end of the listed time interval.