Clip stood alone in the pale sterility of his recovery room, dressed head‑to‑toe in black. His skin is like bleached bone under the overhead lights. To any observer, he might have seemed lost in thought looking at the wall, but his focus was on a translucent panel hovering before him only he could see, its symbols dancing in a language he'd never learned, neither the lexicon of the Terrlith Dominion nor the alphabet of the APEX Empire yet when focused on the dead runic language it seemed crystal clear to him.
"Is everything to your liking Operator" The male voice said mockingly as if knowing what was stirring beneath the null face.
Clip closed his eyes his hair straightened. "Why is it you call me the operator? I understand why Girl calls me System user, but you call me operator, why?"
"Why not? I'm simply calling you as you are without sounding so boorish, the operator of the system, it sounds far cooler. Why not name me as well, because Boy isn't a name."
The female voice interjected "Naming us is unnecessary, we are tools that have are of use nothing more."
"I asked for me, not us, you can keep your name miss, Girl"
"Silence, you parasite The Professional voice had some venom in that last part
Clip focused back to the window ignoring their back and forth.
Status
Name: Clip
True Name:
Rank: Latent
Cores: 1
Ability:
Remnants:
Blessings: 1
Curses: 1
He stared. "No ability."
The professionalism in Girl's voice came back. "Your ability will awaken once you pass your Trial, System User. Only then may your core inherent its true form."
Boy, who was calming down as if he were exchanging jokes instead of insults. "Just because you got a Blessing doesn't mean you're special. Not in any way that matters. after all, all you did was skip a few steps to awaken a system."
Clip flexed his body, he felt negligibly stronger if only slightly. A System user receives physical enhancements once that've awakened, yet those enhancements felt fleeting in him. A Blessing and a Curse both registered, but he remembered receiving two of each. Perhaps that something to do with it.
"System user, if power is the purpose I propose that you find a trail gate and complete it" Her calm professional voice made it sound as if it were as simple as a doing a daily chore. But to anyone else what she just suggested was tantamount to asking him to walk off a cliff and hope he ran better then he walked no matter how broken he may come out.
Boy provided a different option with enthusiasm as if it were preparing for a fun vacation. "There is no rush really Operator, you still have what? 4 maybe 5 months till you're thrown into that realm, I suggest preparation or just chill until then. No rush"
Clip turned toward the wall and struck it. flesh met alloy. Pain flared and his hair bristled. The wall had a small indent.
"Aside from an ability System users are said to receive a baseline augmentation," he said.
"You don't feel stronger?" the girl asked, intrigued.
He moved a pivot, a sweep, a roll. His movements were efficient, clean, but not inhuman, no incredible speed, no gusts of wind blowing with each movement, the only strange thing would be how he snaped into place like a machine. He felt only slightly lighter on his feet, hardly the great power expected to gain from such an achievement.
Then a presence. His hair twitched. Someone was approaching.
The door slid open, and Clip was already turned to see someone enter tablet in hand, a doctor. They looked a bit taken aback by Clip's appearance, he was used to being given strange glances due to his appearance but there was something different in their eyes, he didn't know what it was, but it was something like amazement, a little shock but something else with it.
After a brief check-up with a strange amount of staring that he wasn't used to, he was informed that he could go and await reassignment.
The transport waiting outside was a driverless vehicle, it was compact, two-seater, its frame humming primed and designed for maneuverability. Efficient. Helpful. He appreciated this accommodation.
"Nice ride" Boy whistled.
'I don't own it," Clip thought to himself.
"Oh, well that's unfortunate" Boy responded.
Clip had to pause his steps for a moment, the voice had just responded to his inner thought, the idea that not even his own thoughts were safe wasn't exactly comfortable, especially since he had his doubt about these unwelcomed companions.
As he reached for the handle, his reflection caught his eye. His face had changed somewhat smooth skin, his eyelashes seemed to have been complimented just all around he saw he was more pleasant to look at if you ignored the dark line around his neck, beneath the jagged scar, a visible dark ring. Like ink on glass, an inch thick. Like A cuff, it was of no issue now, so he'd investigate later.
He slid into the seat. The cab's interior was cold and silent, its only occupant, a mechanical humanoid in the driver's seat, its cylindrical head rotating with a soft whirr.
"Insert Identification chip" it said in its mechanical voice
Clip pulled the blue-transparent rectangular chip the size of his thumb from his pocket. Its etched layered engravings shimmered faintly. He inserted it into the panel before spitting it back out.
"Thank you, former Retriever" The vehicle lifted into the air. He turned his attention back to the status screen in his mind.
Looking out the window he thought of those words again 'system status' and the panel manifested in his vision again. It was transparent with a black tint he could see through it to the manufactory cities that pumped that same lethal toxin he grew up with, his disgust wouldn't show in his face as he refocused on the panel and wondered how he could figure out what his blessings and curses were.
He thought of the word 'blessing' and the panel shifted.
Blessings:1
Jester's Sigil
Will of the forsaken
It was as he thought, he was blessed twice, but the system seemed to only display one did it simply not register the other, and why did the first one look glitchy focusing further on the blessings he was given the descriptions.
Jester's Sigil
"Oh bless-ed thou must be to be given such a position of authority such as this, to be given the mark of the jester is to live outside the predictability that binds and constricts to forever be and not to be. To bear this mark is to say you have the privilege to dance along the edge with of one such silent, mischievous, other ******voidis."
This Blessing includes the Jesters gear. (Item pack: Jester's gear (unavailable))
'What exactly does this mean' Clip thought to himself Other what? Authority? Why is it unavailable?'
"Essential what this says is your harder to detect, Operator, at least that the gist of the mark, the authority in question is that your next move is basically that your unpredictable" Boy spoke with confidence.
'I See' he thought skeptically
Will of the Forsaken
"The deeper into the abyss you drown, the stronger you shall become. The weaker your will the fierce your soul, the ravaged mind gives a sharper body and through agony you will have clarity. The corruption in your veins will be rewarded."
'Is it engorging me to get corrupted?' were the only words clip thought of. Thee so called "blessing" Will of the Forsaken gave Clip the impression that the system was telling him to go and get himself corrupted like some sort of rift beast "The corruption in your veins" was certainly a way to tell him to lose his sanity. After all, if by descending he gets stronger that wouldn't mean by ascending he would get weaker. His mind swirled with a question with not enough information to stitch together cohesive conclusion.
'So, does it want me to fall into depravity? Like a rift beast or a defiled? Are we sure this is a blessing, it more like a curse that comes with an innate ability? Is this what was holding back any strength I may have gained from becoming a system user?'
"Doubtful it's more likely that one curse you got" Girl said
Curses:1
Chains of Null Accord
"You have been deemed too volatile, your essence too disruptive to remain unshackled. To protect your mind, to shield that which you hold most dear, restraints of null are placed upon you, your soul, your, mind, your body, sealed behind your very being".
'So, this is why I received no benefits from gaining the system,' Clip thought, but confusion bit at him "to volatile" and "what you hold most dear" were strange things to say, was it saying he was too powerful or was it saying he was too dangerous.
Another confusion piled on why had he been both blessed and cursed at the same time? What had done this to him, and for what purpose? As he looked deeper into the panel, he saw the number of cuffs displayed.
Cuff count:7
"7?!" Clip had unknowingly said aloud
"Sir?" the mechanical voice of the driver asked.
"It's nothing. Keep driving," Clip replied, his voice calm
"Is that what was around my neck? Was that a cuff" he began inspecting his body to see if he had missed something. Probing further, he slowed down, trying to avoid overstimulating himself and discovered 4 other thick dark stipes, one on each of his wrist and one on each ankle. His thumb brushed against the jagged scar just above it. He ran his hands through his hair, searching for any abnormalities, but found nothing out of the norm. Were the other two cuffs invisible to him?
Deciding to investigate later he looked at the second curse, and it was quite vile.
"Death's Eager Embrace"