I think I fainted. I'm not too sure, but there seemed to have been a section of time from when I saw Fallrow and Mum—
I felt a bit of bile rise. I really don't want to think about it.
—Fallrow and Mum…kissing…
This was all wrong. It was so strange. Everything was the same when I prestiged, but not everything was.
I was sitting when I finally resurfaced to some sort of consciousness. I didn't remember moving there and sitting down, but I was on the opposite end of the room facing Mr Fallrow and my mother. Their fingers intertwined, and I realised that Mum was wearing her wedding ring on her finger again.
Dad died when I was seven years old, and ten years after his death, Mum finally felt like she could move on and used the wedding ring Dad gave her as a necklace ornament—
Wait.
She was still wearing the necklace, and I could see a bit of the ring from where I sat. Then that meant that the ring on her ring finger was…
I shuddered as I physically felt the colour drain from my face.
"Eric, you all right, my guy?" Fallrow asked. He and Mum had worrying looks on their faces.
"Did the Registration not go well?" Mum asked me.
I weakly shook my head. I was overwhelmed by everything, but I felt like I couldn't properly explain to them what was wrong. I had too many questions of my own.
I swallowed down the bile that rose and tried to smile to reassure them, "No, it's fine. I just haven't had any food today."
"Oh, ~mayte~," Fallrow smiled cheekily. His butchering of the word 'mate' caused Mum to groan in embarrassment, "You need to make sure you eat and hydrate properly, otherwise you'll never be able to get strong."
"Alan, you're still not getting the pronunciation," Mum giggled.
They both laughed and leaned into each other. Not kissing, just that intimate closeness when you're with your significant other.
At least that's what I assume since I hadn't been privileged enough to experience that closeness with another person of my own.
"I swear I'm trying my hardest to get it. The Australian accent is really difficult," Alan smiled as he looked deeply into Mum's eyes. She did the same to him.
For a moment, my discomfort disappeared.
I'd never seen Mum be so happy and in love ever since Dad died, and even though it seemed all too sudden and strange for me, I was witnessing Mum being happy for the first time in years. Something that never happened the first time around.
Why was this timeline after I prestiged so different from the original that I remembered?
The specialist stepped into the room then. He was tall, easily over six feet tall, maybe six-two, six-three? He wore the stereotypical doctor getup. A crisp, clean light blue business shirt over an ironed pair of black pants. A stethoscope was hooked over the back of his neck, and his white coat was pristine and clean.
He had a nametag, but I remembered him quite vividly. You tend to remember a lot of details when your only family member is told that they were quickly dying with nothing else to do but manage their pain.
Dr Gus Napor greeted Mum and Fallrow brightly and when he noticed I was also in the room, he smiled at me and chimed, "Oh, I see the whole family's here!"
"I know!" Mum laughed, "Everyone's hoping for some good news, Dr Napor."
The doctor looked at the chart he carried into the room, "Well, let's see shall we…"
He flipped through pages as he spoke, "The tests have all come back, and I have to say, I'm really happy with all the numbers that I'm seeing right here. I have to say, these all point to a very promising diagnosis…"
He nodded and flipped back all the pages he went through and smiled widely at Mum, Fallrow and me, "…all signs point to the cancer being in remission. You're going to be able to head on home!"
Mum's mouth fell agape in shock.
Alan boomed out a triumphant laugh and took Dr Napor's hand in a hearty handshake.
Me? All noise seemed to disappear, and I was slowly surrounded by numbing darkness. I lost my vision and found myself in a dark void, the doctor's voice echoed, "…remission…remission…remission…"
Once again, in what seemed to be an alarmingly small number of minutes, I found myself somehow being transported to a whole different place. This time though, I had the vague memory of hugging Mum, being hugged by Mr Fallrow and excusing myself to get something from the café in the hospital.
When my vision returned to normal, I was standing in the queue to order something.
I didn't even end up ordering anything. I excused myself from the line and went straight to the nearest toilets. I stormed into a cubicle, fell to my knees heavily, leaned over the toilet bowl and stared down at the clean water. I could smell a strong scent of citrus and bleach.
Ah, the toilets were just cleaned.
The strong, strange smell helped me shake off the fog in my head as my mind reeled through what just happened in Mum's hospital room.
There were too many things different from the first time I experienced today's events. I had to know what was happening.
In response to my thoughts, a System window popped up in front of me in the toilet bowl, hanging just above the water.
[Answer: The Player may experience variances in experiences when they Prestige using the ability.]
"Explain to me what that all means exactly, and you better hope that it doesn't cost any PP," I hissed at the System.
There was a pause from the System, almost as if it was trying to figure out what to say without mentioning 'PP'.
[Error: The Player has insufficient funds to receive the full answer to their query.]
My knuckles turned white as I clenched the rim of the toilet bowl tightly. I was just about to scream in frustration when I heard the door to the toilets open. I wasn't alone.
I simply shot a reworded demand in my head towards the System, Tell me what you can for free!
[Answer: Every time the Player activates the Prestige ability, the Player may experience a number of variances in the events of the past that they travel back to. This ensures that the Player is able to gain new experiences every time they use the ability.]
The awkward wording of the answer seemed to have stemmed from the limitation that I demanded, so it took me a little bit to figure out what it was trying to say.
When I finally figured it out, my hands trembled and I began to feel weak as, somehow, my grip on the toilet bowl seemed to tighten even more.
Since I remembered that there was another stranger in the toilets with me, I barely managed to control myself as I hissed to the System in utter disbelief, "You mean, my life has turned into a rogue-lite?"