In a dimly lit room, a man smoked a Cuban cigar.
The room was relatively sparse, but gave a feeling of affluence.
The phone chimed from the poker table it was placed on. It was a nice thing, not new but with plenty of love and care. A pity that no one would ever play a game on it.
Slowly, not nonchalantly, the man snuffed his cigar on an ashtray before reaching for the phone.
"Hello." His text-to-speech voice said.
The other end of the line spoke.
"Oh?" The man asked.
The other person responded.
The man actually paused before responding with a animalistic noise along with his text-to-speech one.
"He has what?"
_______________________________________________
"He has amnesia, Miss Ambrose."
Dr. Barrett told the young woman in front of her.
The mousy young woman, and I mean literally mousy, was a a loss for words.
"I- uh. That's jus- What?" She asked with an are you serious face.
"Amnesia miss Ambrose, a type of mental trauma that comes in the form of lost or damaged memory."
"So he doesn't remember anything?" She asked pressing for details.
"Not quite miss." The Doc said, checking her notes.
"He actually remembers most things very well. I would even say intelligent in certain matters."
She sighs in relief.
"So he's alright then?"
"Not exactly."
"He seems to think that the internet is far more prevalent than it actually is."
She said while flipping through her notes.
"And was almost offended that blockbuster outlived netflix"
"Really?!" She gasped in horror. " Wait, what's netflix?"
"I know right?" The Dr. said in agreement.
"He believes than certain points in history are drastically different than they actually were. With a special emphasis on recent events."
The Dr. ruffled her feathers.
"Including his personal life."
"What do you mean?"
"He recalls certain people but others..."
She trailed off unsure of what to say before deciding to just get it over with.
"He may not recall what happened with his parents." She took a deep breath. "or her sister, or you."
"And," Ambrose said, choking back the tears. "Is there any chance of getting better?"
The doctor dearly wished she had a normal voice at this moment but in the end still had to give her the news. So in the monotone voice of her text-to-speech device, she said.
"I'm sorry. We just don't know."
_________________________________
"A-nd this was our campaign in dnd."
The struggling voice of Bianca explained.
"Oh yeah!" Nick said in realization.
"I remember this. It's right here on my phone."
"Really!" She said, elated by the news.
"Yeah, now..." He paused and had a look on concentration. "Which app was it again?"
And just like that, Bianca was on the verge of tears again.
Noticing this out of the corner of his eye, he said.
"Got it!" He smiled and waved his phone around as if he found it.
"It was in the memos." He lied.
"Just give me a sec to catch up on everything and we can have the next session."
"T-that's great." She said, brightening up a little.
At that moment the door clicked and Amber walked through the door followed by the Doc.
"Amber!" Bianca yelled with elation before scurrying off and giving her a hug.
Nick, however, watched from afar as the two had their moment.
'She does feel familiar...' He mused.
'But how much of that can I be sure of. It might be just the instincts from the body I'm in, but it could just as well be muscle memory buried in my subconscious. Did I cross over or..."
He was drawn out of his thoughts by the girls walking over.
"So you're my frie-" He suddenly coughed. "The pack leader, correct?" He said before giving a smile that didn't fit his face.
As soon as he said that, their faces dropped.
'Frick! Gotta stay in character.'
He gave it a second for the horror on their faces to set in before bursting out laughing.
"Bwah-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha! You should have seen the look on your-" He didn't even finish his sentence before 'collapsing' into laughter again.
Their faces quickly changed as they realized the 'prank'.
"Nick, you a**hole!" Amber yelled before punching Nick in the shoulder.
The force of which knocked him clear off the bed, and everybody froze.
That was until he started laughing again.
"Ha-ha-ha Comedy Gold!" He howled before braking down into a coughing fit.
"Cough cough"
Everyone waited for the coughing to stop, but it didn't. It just kept going.
Realizing what was happening the Doc acted quickly.
"Everybody out, we need to clear the room." She said before sounding a silent alarm and several people showed up.
All Bianca and Amber could do was wait as their friend nearly died a second time since last week.
__________________________________________________________
After everything was settled and Nick was stable again, the Doc suggested that they go home as it was getting late and Amber's father would start to worry.
It wasn't until thirty seconds after the two of them got into a limo drove out view did she say something.
"You shouldn't have done that." The doctor said as she stared out the window.
"I realise that." Nick said as he followed her line of sight from his bed.
"Your lungs collapsed, you know."
"Yes."
"Then give them a f**king chance to recover." She said turning to face him with a stern look.
"I had to do something." He shrugged halfway before noticing how scrawny his arms looked and started inspecting one.
"Did I ever go to the gym?" He complained under his breath.
"Is this a joke to you!?" She said, shooting him a glare.
"Do you have any idea how close you were to not making it? How much money was burned to 'try' to keep you alive." She said, making air quotes on the word try.
Nick chuckled, before realising that he probably shouldn't do that and stopped. He took a moment to place a hand on his chest to reassure himself before responding.
"Yeah, I probably wouldn't be here without her."
"Then you shouldn't waste your chance on something stupid."
She gestured with her hands the severity of the situation while walking closer.
"Think about how that would have affected her. How that would have affected them. Think about when I have to break the news that their friend is gone."
"What's the point if their friend's gone anyway?" Nick said sadly as he looked at his unfamiliar hands. They clenched and unclenched before clenching again. His nails, no. His claws digging into his skin.
"I had to do something. I... I couldn't let them see just how wrong I really am."
The Doctor looked at him and sighed. The sound coming out normally since it didn't need to be translated.
"You're not wrong. You have a decent chance to get better." She said offering a claw of her own. One that looked far more beastlike than nick's, but still had that presence of humanity.
"And if I don't." He challenged.
She chirped dismissively. "Are you going to be lying for the rest of your life then?"
He turned away from her before muttering.
"It wouldn't be the first time."
The room got quiet all of a sudden. And for a while, the two of them just stood there. Nick not looking the Doctor in the eye, and the Doctor daring him to do so.
She sighed.
"Get some rest Nick."
Then she left; a click of the door and she was gone.
Nick stared out the window, not quite sure what to do after the conversation.
He took note on the people below.
Some were patients, some were not. Some drove cars, or walked, or ran. But most were... people.
There were very few like him that looked like some furry cosplayer's wet dream. Most were decidedly normal. They looked human, they acted human, they were human. At least until they started flying or farted sparkles.
His mind flashed back to when the girls, his 'pack mates' were here.
They had animalistic features sure, but they weren't nearly as mangled as him. They pretty much looked like nekomimi's from what he could tell. The closest thing he looked like was that abomination of a movie from a couple of years ago. At least he could console himself that he was at least passable, which was more than what he could say about those catgirls.
He shuddered.
"Alright. Brain bleach. Now!"
Nick grabbed his phone, but stopped when he came to the lock screen. It had a pic of one of those girls with the title of the movie above it.
He slowly put the phone down and stared out the window again as tears blurred his sight.
_____________________________________________
After he stopped questioning his life as well as his intelligence, he deleted the picture and started looking around the internet.
"Favorite band, check. Favorite book series, check. Websites... more or less."
He frowned before tapping on one that said DoTube and went towards his subscriptions.
Half of them weren't there anymore.
"Fuck."
A wave of sadness crashed over him leaving him cold and slightly numb.
Tapping on a different icon, he went into memos and started noting the differences.
"Don't forget."
He kept tapping.
"I can't forget. Don't let flashpoint happen. Don't forget."
He told himself as he strained to remember his favorite creators and their works.
"I can do this."
*tik tik tik tik
"Just because I transmigrated doesn't mean I can forget."
The thought came before he finished talking, hitting him like a truck.
'If you did transmigrate.'
*ti-
"Shut up." He lifted his hand to run through his hair.
'It's softer than I remember.'
His hand darted back to his phone but hesitated. His nails hovering centimeters from the screen.
They were nails. They had to be.
'No they didn't.'
He hunched over, wanting to grab something but not willing to touch anything.
"I transmigrated. I had to. There's no other explanation."
'Really? Then where's your cheat.'
"W-we're a rat." He stammered "That has to be it. I remember being human"
'You remember a lot of things.' The voice dismissed.
'Besides, you saw those people outside. Maybe you got worse over time.'
"Shut up." He said scrunching his eyes. and trying to tune the voice out.
"I have memories. They're too consistent. The few glitches can be written off. It's just the matrix. O-or the Mandela-effect."
'Hardware can be a pretty big factor in memory. Why do you think it's called corruption when a save file is ruined?'
"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!" He yelled, balling his fists and pressing them against his head.
'They said your spinal column got the worst of it. Funny how your computer always had problems with the cords. Could never seem to get a charge.'
Nick froze for a moment...
...
...before sighing with relief.
"That's right. They said I was dead. I got hit by a truck. My heart stopped beating. Something got shredded. There should have been nothing left for me to recover with. I lived."
His body relaxed and uncurled.
"I'm a transmigrator." He smiled.
'Thanks Truck-kun.' The voice said sarcastically.
"Fuck off."
He took deep gasping breathes like he fought a war. He placed a hand on his face and felt something wet.
Lifting his hand into view, he noticed a concerning pool of red.
His claws had pressed into his palms so hard that it broke the skin.
He considered calling the Doctor, before shaking his head.
"I need to relax."
Looking around, he saw the phone on the floor.
Nick gingerly grabbed it in an attempt to stop blood from getting on it. (He failed)
He quickly plopped it on the sheets and tapped in a video from one of the channels that still existed as he remembered them.
"Ahhhhhhhhh."He sighed.
It was over.