The Voice in His Head (Original Urban Fantasy)

[jldew93]

Author's Note/Micro Post:

While writing The Voice in His Head, I wrote several interludes, and two novellas for backstory.
These interludes follow Voice's Journey to Stephen, or Bethany's internal reactions to Stephen's misadventures.
To explain, The original manuscript was huge, and spanned the same story from the alternating points of view. It read like the one overly long fanfic that has been stuck in the same month for several years.

In summary, these other viewpoints were discarded during the editing process because I couldn't figure out a way to include them without interrupting the flow of the story or dragging it out an extra couple hundred thousand words. My backstory and side stories easily dwarf what I've actually written.
You can skip these, but they contain backstories and history about the world of the Aether Cycle. I'll be including these for Patreon Subscribers. Patreon subscribers will be able to read a new chapter or short story every two weeks. Regular readers will get these at the end of every "arc".

Interlude One: Preparation.
2019, Earth.

There are some events that change History. There are other events that collectively make mankind scratch their head, and go what the fuck. I was out for a walk when my world changed, and everything I knew was flipped on my head.

It was a Seattle Saturday in mid 2019. Life was good for the most part. The last two years had been kinda shitty, but my life was finally looking ahead. My app had just been sold to a Silicon Valley giant, and I was going to enjoy spending the next year or ten going on absolutely insane vacations. 2019 had been stellar, and 2020 was going to be fucking great! For the first time in my adult life, I could actually enjoy life and find happiness. It all went wrong with that stupid kitten. I was less than a block from my condo when I saw a little black kitten leap out of the trash cans on the street and run for the alley. I balanced my Starbucks cup on a nearby mailbox and dropped my bag to the ground.

I unzipped the backpack and started fishing around for the can of cat food I had in the bottom. I volunteered at the local ASPCA, and always had some sort of yummy for my other furkids. Seattle had it's fair share of strays, but it was a kitten.

I remember moving my bag and starbucks to a bench. I remember walking down the alley and saw the kitten dart under a dumpster. I remembered opening the can of cat food, and placing it under the dumpster. Then I stood back up, and that was it. That's all I remembered about dying.

The next thing I knew, I was in a white room. There was a screen hovering in front of me that I recognized as the character creation from one of my favorite RPGs, Gods and Monsters*. Gods and Monster was an Apocalyptic Sandbox RPG. In normal circumstances, this would have freaked me the fuck out and sent me into a panic attack, but something prevented me from reacting like that. I felt a calming sensation wash across me and I was able to keep myself sane.

The backstory of Gods and Monsters was interesting, because in this universe, nuclear fallout from World War III mutated creatures, and some humans, into creations that defied science. Some of these humans also had abilities that could be described as superhuman abilities. There was a single button on the screen, a question mark above the word `Help'. I pressed that button.
Instantly an NPC of some sort appeared. The NPC was using a hyper-realistic model of Mr. Patriot, AL Publishing's Captain America expy. A Red, white, and blue bodysuit, and black utility belt, a friendly gleaming grin, blond hair, blue eyes. The avatar was 6'2", and his muscles had muscles.

"Greetings Hero!" The NPC called.

"Where am I and who are you?" I asked.

"You are in an instance of the character creation screen of Gods and Monsters. I am an NPC designed to help you with your character creation. You can call me Rob."
That was helpfully unhelpful. However, the rest of the character creation screen was now available. He talked me through my options, and vanished.
The first screen allowed me to choose my general path. I had three choices.

The first choice was Civilian. This was arguably the hardest difficulty. You started as a common villager in the nuclear wasteland. You needed to fight every step of the way, through diplomacy, aggression, or trading and the only way you could gain powers was through Infusions or Skill Points. Infusions were rare in the wasteland. I'd played as a civilian and clocked hundreds of hours, and I'd only found six. You also didn't start with any skill points and if you wanted any extras, you would need to choose complications to gain points. These could range from "all animals hate you" to "pissed off one of the ganger bands" that populated the City, a post apocalyptic alternate version of Chicago.

The second was Mutant. You started with one of the six available powers, and began with six skill points to spend on any powers you wanted.

The third was Artificial Intelligence. This allowed you to begin with twelve skill points. However, you were stuck at an old military base until you could build yourself a robot, and later an organic body.

Sometimes, life hands you lemons, and you made lemonade. Sometimes life hands you a fuck-it button, and you smack it hard. This was the second of those scenarios. I chose Artificial Intelligence.

The next choice was the Power Selection Screen. When I gained an organic body, I'd have the ability to use any powers I chose. Since I had twelve points, and there were six powers that each cost two points, I chose them all. I could gain more points through taking complications. I was going to turn the City into a Utopia that would make Roddenberry proud.
The first power was called Combat Package. If I trained this power enough I'd have super strength and speed and all the reflexes and senses that went with that.
The second power was Luminescent. This would eventually allow me to fly, and manipulate light for defensive and offensive purposes. The City was a mess of gangs, and some of them were armed with laser and plasma weapons. This power could block these weapons if it was trained enough.

After that, there was Technopathy. This was an ability that allowed me to gain knowledge in five subjects a day. There was a Class Bonus with the AI character that changed it to ten. I'd be able to build the starter technologies from scrap found in the City, or the single Nuclear Transmutation Combinator that the AI had access to. This power, and the next were kinda bullshit to be honest. Victory would be mine.

This Power was Ability Control. The backstory was weird about the exact nature of powers. Surface Lore said that these were gained by genetic mutations, but mutations didn't work like that. This Power let me gain "charges" that would allow me to unlock abilities with each charge. I could use this Power to add to my existing abilities, and use it to gain more of them. With enough training, I could also block and nullify powers in a certain radius. I'd play-tested the Beta of Gods and Monsters, and this ability was only available when seriously stressing the system.
The next was Psionics. The City and its outskirts, and the whole world were a weird place. Psychic abilities were a documented phenomena in the Gods and Monsters. This would grant me psionic abilities that I needed to learn over time. I'd start with limited telepathy, hypnotic suggestions, and telekinesis. If I was playing as a civilian, I'd honestly choose this path. It would be the easiest way to get quick resources.

Finally, the last ability was labeled Biological Manipulation. This ability allowed the user to create, control, and manipulate all biological matter. I'd need biomatter to use this ability, and a working knowledge of biology would help use this power. Eventually this ability would increase in range from touch to about a mile in every direction.
Aside from Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Technopathy, I'd be unable to use these powers until I gained a body. The screen offered options for companions, but since I was confident I didn't need them, I chose to ignore those.

I flipped to the Complications and Perks screen. I choose Nice Guy, which gives me a good first impression on everyone. Then I chose Minions, which would always give me a decent stream of constant disposable minions. Then I chose Tinfoil Hat, which would defend me against any psionic abilities. I currently owed three points.
After choosing Backstabber, which made espionage easier, and Rationality, which prevented my decision making from being interfered with by my emotional well being. Last but definitely not least was No Speed Limits. Without this ability, I'd be limited to ten charges in Technopathy and Ability Manipulation. This allowed me to spend twenty charges a day. I was negative eight points.
I decide to choose my complications. The first complication I chose was Always a Bigger Fish. This meant that there would always be an enemy that would challenge me. This gave me four points. King of the Hill gave me two points, but changed my end goal to taking control of Chicago. After choosing those two complications, I was still negative two points.
The next complication I chose was Faction In-Fighting. There are multiple groups throughout the City, some help, some harm. In exchange for one point per faction, I chose two groups. The first the was Purifiers, they were xenophobic water barons. The second was the Technocracy of Bob. Bob was a pre-war AI that was slightly insane. In the games, he was also a pushover. These would give me the points I needed to finish my character creation. My points reached zero. Then I pushed the hovering button that said accept, and Rob popped back into existence.

"Do you wish to confirm your character creation**?**" Rob asked.

"Yes, I do."


"Great, Character created. Good luck, Oly." Rob said with a wink. That was my childhood nickname. I hadn't been called that in years. I gave Rob a look. He snapped his fingers, and my vision faded to black.

*Gods and Monsters is a documentary about the War of Masks that was converted into a graphic novel and later into an RPG. The RPG is rated mature and published by Andrews-Lowe's Pageantry Division.

BR/BR/BR

If you like this, please consider liking or upvoting this post. This is an already completed work, and each post will be a chapter (or half chapter) of the first book in the Aether Cycle. I'll be posting these chapters every week. If you like what you read, and want to support the author, and don't want to wait for updates, please consider purchasing The Voice in His Head from Amazon or Audible, or supporting me on Patreon. You can discuss this chapter below, or in the Discord. If you're a Troper, the Aether Cycle TV Tropes page can be found here. This needs Wiki Love, so if you like doing that, and you're a fan, be my guest!

 

[jldew93]