(This chapter is simply domestic life and a little filler for the story, giving the MC a taste at the normal world he once knew before having him do actual stuff, like playing the game. Although slight warning: mention of abandonment, nothing much else)
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Theodore had jolted awake to a loud sound that seemed to be an alarm, his previous experiences yelling at him that it was a Beast attack, his hands immediately moving to where his wounds had once been. The phantom pain had still be severely limiting to his current state. It was a piercing pain that echoed throughout his entire lower body and torso.
But as he had eventually regained his bearings, he looking around almost frantically before seeing that he was in what looked like a bedroom. A very familiar looking bedroom, but where he couldn't place just yet.
After what seemed like an hour of confusion but was really just a few minutes he had came to realize this was his old room from before everything went to hell. Before his life was doomed. Before he doomed himself. Long before his death.
Theodore had first thought that he was imagining things but once he had got up, with much effort and found that everything he touched felt real, felt like he was actually there, like it was all just a dream. But the lingering pain had screamed that everything that had happened was actually real.
He wanted to believe it was just a dream, he really did. But after everything he went through during those years. That made him suspicious that this was his brain's last wish before he actually died.
So he pinched himself. And it hurt.
Well, at least he knew that this had to be real or he was hallucinating due to the lack of oxygen heading to his brain due to the drowning.
Although it would be nice to have proper food for once instead of the processed, almost inedible Beast meat. Which he usually only got a bear minimum of it he was lucky.
Using his rather rusty memory he stumbled his way out of his room, and out into a hallway, then down to where he thought the kitchen would be and immediately gripped onto the kitchen top feeling his head spinning from memories suddenly coming back to him.
Today was June 7th around a month before that bastard of a game would release anonymously. Around a year before it would become the world's new reality. His girlfriend had just been fired from her job due to a stingy customer, and the bills he could barely keep up with were going to come in soon and this week he had been off work because he was sick.
So unless he went back to work soon to add more to his paycheck he's probably not going to have much left over after paying his semi-annual bills. He could clearly remember that this was originally two months before he broke up with his girlfriend. Irene.
Now that he thought back to it, the only reason he had even broken up with her was because after she got fired she had spent the month looking for new jobs but none of the accepted her because of that customer. So Irene had soon become a relatively common gamer as her job.
Streaming and making videos for a living. It was unfair of him to just do that to her.
And only if Theodore knew that her favorite game to stream on would become real and that she would soon become an outstanding person. But would reject anyone that even tried to get close to her.
This was probably also his fault. After all, she already had abandonment problems before they got together since her parents had been divorced when she was little... Breaking up with her probably wouldn't have helped with those problems either...
Things really started only going down hill once Heaven's Secret had become their reality but he still probably shouldn't have done that...
But he shrugged it off, the past was in the past and this was probably just his mind giving him a vision of the past before he died anyway. He might as well just do what he wanted. This was a hallucination after all.
Though that thought had soon side tracked as he stumbled towards the fridge and opened it to find all sorts of canned drinks and snacks, as well as fruits and veggies.
Things that would be a luxury in the descent that would wipe out almost all types of plants and replace them with mutants. That was the last straw that actually brought him back to the realization that this was all indeed real. That he was in the past. That he was in the world he new before his life turned into a living hell that would make any second that you lived a challenge and reward in itself.
he immediately moved his had to grab and can, and a snack bar from the counter that had yet to be opens and quite hungrily ate it and drank the soda with an almost desperate feeling. Tasting things he hadn't tasted for years, years of starving or eating things he could barely stomach. Sweets also becoming a thing of the past in that distant future as sugar would become another luxury that even the best awakened could almost never get there hand on.
The soda felt like he had been given something fizzy, yet sweet at the same time, the snack bar, with it's tiny pieces or chocolate and oats made him feel like he had been given a S grade hunter's meal ticket for their first ever meal on what they could get if they only got stronger. He barely kept himself from crying due to the suddenly overwhelming taste that he had gone so long without.
As Theodore finished his 'meal' he had looked towards the fridge again, then towards the clock. He knew that this was around the time Irene used to start waking up to get ready for work, having her alarm go off to make sure she woke up. But he also knew that since she had gotten fired she had deleted the alarm from her phone. So Irene probably wouldn't be awake just yet.
Maybe he could try and make her breakfast?
That probably wasn't the best idea, he had always been horrible at cooking, even before everything turned upside down. So whatever he cooked probably wouldn't be very good, or at the least it would probably be burnt.
Theodore could still give it a shot though, after all, she was used to his cooking...
So he made his decision, he'd give cooking a shot. Either way, she'd probably be hungry when she would eventually wake up. If she wasn't already awake and just looking for jobs again, which she'd probably get rejected from if she did apply to them.
He decided to make something relatively simple, just some bacon. So Theodore got a pan, after contemplating for a bit, some butter, and a couple of plates, locating everything based on his rather frayed memory of his own home.
After having a bit of trouble cooking the bacon, he put the first batch, which was burnt, onto his own plate, then started the second batch which would go to Irene, after all, he'd still happily eat it, while she probably wouldn't.
Luckily for Theodore, the second batch was only slightly burnt, mostly just being crunchy. So he plated it up, and once again, using his left over memories, and the ones he had just gotten earlier, made his way towards Irene's room, up the stairs, and to the left.
He gently knocked on the door, waiting for her to respond for a moment, and when he heard nothing he carefully opened the door and peeked inside.
Just as he thought, she was still sleeping, although she was sleeping at her desk. Irene had slight dark circles under her eyes, indicating that she had barely slept that night.
So Theodore came inside, closing the door behind him and heading towards her. Putting the plate on her desk, nearby but not too close, just in case she stirred and accidentally hit the plate. Then he grabbed a small blanket from her bed and draped it over her. Giving her a hesitant but quick kiss on the forehead before quietly leaving her room and heading to his own.
He needed to do some research, rather vital research to his future survival. Because even if you awaken, your awakened ability isn't definitely going to be outstanding. If anything, they were usually useless, or at the very least barely impactful. Even so they were better then nothing, and if he didn't he'd probably end up in the same situation as he was before. This was his second chance, a second chance to change his fate. A fatal fate that he needed to change for his own better good.
He needed to grasp it in both hands, and not let go. He was not going to waste this chance at changing his fate that was once set in stone, his fate that he had doomed himself to with his own hand, that was all going to change, and he was going to change it himself. Nothing was going to change that, he was going to make this life much better then the last.
Meanwhile:
While Theodore was making his plans, Irene had just woken up, mostly due to the smell of bacon, something she hadn't had in a long time. She never let anyone live with her either...
How did this occur?
She wasn't sure, until she looked around. Seeing her old room, her old, old, room. The room that held so many memories...
This wasn't what she expected would happen after the third invasion.
Hadn't she died protecting the others..?
She shouldn't be alive, much less in her long buried and hidden past. But all those thoughts went out the window once she saw the bacon. It was slightly burnt, but it was still much better then those meals you get from Beasts.
That's when it hit her, noticing one of the posters in the wall, and seeing her laptop. She had gone back to the past, around a couple-ish months before everything happed. A month before he-.. Best not think of that, after all. Even if Theo was a horrible cook he still did love her and often tried his best to do almost anything she asked of him. But he wasn't one of those dogs that would do literally anything for her, he had his limits.
But in her memories, he never made bacon for breakfast for her. He used to always make pancakes or eggs.
Had her arrival here already changed things? No, that shouldn't be it, she only just woke up. It must be something else. Maybe she wasn't regressed but instead in a different timeline?
Her thoughts would only be more set in stone as the day progressed. As Her beloved Theo would act quite different from what she remembered him to be. He was even doing odd online jobs so he didn't need to leave his room.
He never used to do that, but she knew that around this time they were in dire need of money, so maybe this timeline's Theo actually tried harder then her original Theo? No, that mustn't be it either, he had always tried his best, her Theo had been sick at the time. But he wasn't now.
At most Theo only told her that he had a slight headache.
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Here you go! First tastes of the story, hope you enjoyed it, also Irene's part is brief because she'll be more built next chapter!
Side note: whoever's POV is the one it ends on it who the next chapter starts with! Chapters will also be slowly getting longer until they reach my preferred length. This chapter and the next chapter are just filler and slight story progression, we don't want to get them in too much trouble too quickly.
Also, this will be my last note in the chapter and not as an Author note, as I understand that some of you might listen to this as an audio book. But either way, I hope you have a great day/night/evening/noon!
-Yours dearly and truly, WDA Snider
*words: 2078