When I died in my first life, I figured that was it. Game over. Nothing but the long dark that I assumed waited for all at the end of our journey.
Oh how I was wrong.
So very very wrong.
The moment I closed my eyes for the last time, everything changed for me. For the better. I didn't know it at that time but I was about to step foot into a world beyond my wildest dreams. A world filled with heroes, villains, and all sorts of Paranatural events and entities.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First let me tell you what happened right after I died.
The moment my eyes opened again I was shocked. Right in front of me was what seemed like character creation sheet hologram you would see in a video game.
Taking a moment to let my shock and confusion pass, I reached out to it to see if it was real, and the moment my hand made contact was when I realized that this is it. My moment. A new start at a much more exhilarating life!
Playing around with the options I found out that before designing my character, I needed to pick a form of media that I would devise everything from.
Scrolling through the list, I saw an uncountable number of worlds. Most I've never even heard of, but I recognized many as well from Marvel, DC, and Naruto. To some of my personal favorites, S-cry-Ed, No. 6, and Gundam. But none of them really called at me. Never felt the pull one would expect when they felt like it was the right choice.
But then I saw it. Control. One of my absolute favorite games and a great expansion to the Alan Wake universe. How could I not pick it?
So I did with a smile.
{Control confirmed}
I heard a robotic voice vocalize in the surroundings.
Right after, all the other worlds vanished and the holo switched to the character creation section.
There is already a pre-made avatar, Jesse Faden.
I go to change the gender to male, and as I click the icon….
{Gender locked}
"What…?" I say in disbelief after once again hearing the robotic voice. I swear if someone was looking at me they'd see a giant question mark above my head.
"What do you mean the gender is locked?" I voice to myself not expecting a reply at all.
{The gender is locked for the main character of the world selected. You have selected, Control, as the world is centered around Jesse Faden, a female, your gender is locked as such.}
The robotic voice replied like it was an obvious thing to know.
"Okay, fine. Then let me pick a different world to be based off of." I say.
{Denied}
"Listen here you little shit! What the fuck do you mean 'denied'?!" I start yelling into the dark. Honestly it's not that big of a deal. I play female characters all the time for the fun of it. I mean who doesn't like a badass femme fatale? Plus some games have certain choices locked like love interest and the like. So I played both routes, like in Cyberpunk 2077. Went male the first go around, damn I made him so hot, but sadly River was straight. So girl route next playthrough.
Anyways…
{You done?}
"Are you reading my thoughts??" I asked shocked.
{World change denied. World selection is locked in}
"Hey don't just gloss over my second question! But thank you for clarifying."
{You imagined it.}
"Imagined it? Are you are certain Great Sage by chance?" I ask the dark with squinted eyes.
{…}
"Not gonna answer me huh." I stated after taking a deep breath.
I turn back to the hologram and start to think.
'Can't change gender, and it is already a fully fleshed out avatar. Should I just stick with it? I mean, why not? Going into a new world as THE Jesse Faden isn't so bad.' I thought to myself. I mean, she's pretty kitted out by end of the game.
"Fuck it." I say and just click confirm on the character sheet.
{New body and name confirmed.}
"Okay, now what?" I say as I'm waiting for something else to happen.
{Please select your loadout and background information.}
"Oh snap really? Alright, well it's obvious that I'll pick all the powers and she had in game." I say as I go through the list and pick them one by one.
I Selected Melee/Smash, Launch, Evade, Shield, Levitate, Seize, and Shape. That way I don't have to go out and find the OoP to bind to.
I didn't have to pick any of the body specific abilities like Gifted Intelligence, Superhuman Physical Characteristics, or Acrobatics, since they were already preselected as her base abilities.
I also picked Purification and Explosive Manipulation. One because I have a feeling I'll need it and two, who hasn't wanted to be like Roy Mustang.
I started to chuckle at just picturing snapping my fingers and BOOM.
"Damn thats gonna be beautiful. I mean who doesn't like making things explode! It is a nice form of art. Shout out to Deidara and Megumin. True artist's there." I say to myself as I continue with the selection process.
Going through the list, something caught my eye.
"Seriously? All those abilities without having someone else in your head as well? Sign me up!" I said as I clicked on it. Adding it to the list.
Now that those are out of the way let's move on to background. Boy do I have great ideas for this. Clicking confirm on the powers I get ready to type out my back story when something happened.
{Multiple abilities derived from a singular power. Merging Melee/Smash, Launch, Shield, and Levitate - processing.}
{New ability granted - Telekinesis}
{Shape ability changed to - Earth Manipulation}
"Well I'll be damned. Isn't that neat." I say with a grin.
Moving on to the back story, I start putting in what I hope it will agree to. As I finished and clicked confirm once again, something else happened. The surroundings lit up with a blueish light. Then my surroundings changed. Once the light settled, I found myself standing in the deepest parts of The Foundation. I couldn't help but smile as this proves that everything I wrote was accepted.
Barely containing my excitement, the holo screen started changing and then the voice spoke.
{Origin story accepted. You and the Oldest House are now one entity. Who came first is a mystery but what is known is that as long as one of you exists, the other shall as well.}
{As you and the Oldest House are one, you are now designated as the Prime Director. Your authority is the highest within the Oldest House, as such, you have the ability to appoint a Sub Director or you can let the Service Weapon choose for you, which in turn will help to run the day to day operations for you. Who wants to deal with the pesky United States Government? I know I wouldn't.}
"Hahahahah!" I couldn't help but burst out laughing at that last bit. Oh that was funny and true. I wipe away a few tears from laughing and went back to paying attention to the robotic voice and holoscreen.
{Binding Prime Service Weapon - Completed}
{Prime Service Weapon - greats you absolute authority within the Oldest House and in turn you are the true Director of the Federal Bureau of Control.}
{New abilities aquired}
{PSW Abilites - Grip, Shatter, Spin, Pierce, Charge, Surge - Confirmed. ~ Additional ability - Substance Change}
{Substance Change - change the material that is fired from the PSW. For example, rock, lead, steel, uranium, salt. If it exists, it can be used.}
{Combining Grip, Shatter, Spin, Pierce, Charge, and Surge into the ability - Shapeshifting.}
{Shapeshifting - Change the Prime Service Weapon to different forms that suit your needs and by extension yourself for a limited time.}
{Do to
{Abilities Mind Manipulation and Resistance to Possession and Corruption have been aquired.}
{Combining abilities - Pure Telepath aquired}
"Jesus." I breathily say. Mind blown by all the powers I'll have. This is beyond expectations! The most eye catching one to me was the personal shapeshifting that the new and might I say awesome Prime Service Weapon has on top of the base abilities. This means I'll practically be like Mystique from Marvel, albeit for a limited time according to the description.
Truth be told, I would of be perfectly fine without that little add-on, but it is a great advantage. I mean, a body is a body, so I wasn't to upset about not being a man in my second life and I won't be, but pulling an Marika and Radagon sounds pretty fun and useful so I am a-okay with this turn out.
{Please review all that has been selected. Once confirmed, place your hand on The Nail and have fun exploring your new world.}
"Huh? Oh okay, I was about to ask about that anyways."
I turn my focus back to the holoscreen and read through everything.
***
Status
Name: Jesse Faden
Gender: Female
Age: 28 (permanent)
Race: Human/Paranatural Entity hybrid
Powers/Abilites:
Telekinesis
Pure Telepath - Telepathy
Earth Manipulation
Explosion Manipulation
Purification
Evade - Accelerate to faster than eye speed to avoid objects.
Shapeshifting - Change the Prime Service Weapon to different forms that suit your needs and by extension yourself for a limited time.
Forget-Me-Not - Just like the Oldest House, you are unable to be perceived, recorded by technology, or remembered by anyone or anything unless you want them to. (Active/Passive)
Immortality - By being one with the Oldest House and the Prime Director, you can not die, as you will be resurrected at The Nail.
Innate Control - As you and the Oldest House are one, you have full control over it. You can creat doorways from one end to the other, entrances to other dimensions, bend space to have one door lead to a small café in Paris or to an Onsen in Japan. Creat rooms or any other type of facility that is needed or require at the time. Lastly, you could create your own private area, as in a private beach, or home, just for you to lay back and relax.
***
As I read through everything I couldn't help but smile.
"This is fantastic! Absolutely bloody fantastic! I don't know which god blessed me with this wonderful chance, but I know I will not squander it." After saying that and getting excited, I clicked confirmed for the last time.
{All sequences have been completed. Have a wonderful new life, Jesse Faden.}
The voice said to me much less robotic this time, almost sounding like a soft feminine voice. One you would hear from a mother talking to their young child.
I felt a warm feeling inside after I heard it. Probably for the last time and smile. I walk toward The Nail, reaching out with my ethereal hand.
"Thank you." I said back as my hand fell on The Nail, and at that moment, everything went black.
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A/N
Hey! So this idea has been running around in my head for a long time and I had to get it out. Idk how far it'll go but I hope farther than my other story since I haven't felt the rhythm for it sadly.
I also realized something when I was writing this one and coming up with the powers and such. I realized that Jesse who has red hair, telepathy, telekinesis, and an entity inside her is a spitting image of…..
Yeah, you probably guessed it! Jean Grey! Now I didn't really go out and do it on purpose, but I think subconsciously it was my mind combining another idea into this one that I had of male version of Jean in DC. So if it helps just think of a low grade Jean Grey template. Because I don't think I'll make my MC that powerful. Or maybe I already have? Who knows. Haven't thought that far yet.
Anyways, let me know what yall think of this and maybe try and keep going with it. ❤️