Darkness my good old friend, here we meet again. And fuck you headache too btw.
“Brother, wake up, wake up. Mother! Osric is on the floor,“ said someone, apparently my brother.
“What’s wrong with that? I asked you to call him for breakfast,“ my apparent mother said.
“He is on the floor face first. Oh, he is waking up,” said he.
“Then get him down to eat breakfast,“ said she.
“Alright, stop kicking. I am already awake,“ being woken up by shouting and light kicks to my rips doesn’t help my mood a lot, the fact that the whole situation feels foreign to me isn’t helping my mood and confusion. Families back on earth didn’t behave like that. It was, how do I say it? Colder. Meanwhile, my brother runs out of my room and down the staircase.
Ugh. That goddamn headache again. At least my body- oh, never mind it hurts too. Alright, up. Let’s see what this whole joke is about. First thing let’s set up a mask. Let’s go with, how old am I now actually?
Looking at the window, I see the reflection of an approximately 12 - 13-year-old boy. Resembling a European-Caucasian person. Strange light violet eyes. But easy to overlook without looking deep into them. Dark, brown hair, some baby fat, but definitely a normal look, at least in Europe. Let’s hope that the citizens of this world have a similar taste. Slightly lean, but not fat. Just like a typical kid looks like or how I would imagine someone from the 18th century
Thus I should use a basic facade, like a somewhat cheerful kid. Let’s hope muscle memory can help out a bit.
Going down the stairs, I notice the lack of decorations, the room is plain. Next to the stairs are three doors, I drift towards the right one without thinking. It opens up into a kitchen with a dining table. In here are a lot more decorations. The dining table looks nice, a white birch table. A dark oak cabinet, a somewhat modern looking kitchen with a fridge and oven-like apparatus. Though I don’t notice anything like electricity or gas. How do they work? That’s a question for another day.
Except me, there are three other people in the room. Two men and a woman. The woman looks somewhat pretty. Blue-grey eyes and blond hair. Her face is nothing to write about but definitely not ugly. Medium-sized breasts, and around 1.65 meters, her figure is somewhat skinny. The man has a height of 1.83 meters. Looks well build but not grizzly with an average face, black hair and a short beard. The last person is my apparent brother. He looks similar to me, just three years younger and with blond hair, and blue eyes.
Interesting, I shouldn’t be able to gauge their heights this exactly. My eyes also seem sharper. Tough that can be normal, I wore glasses on earth. My eyes weren’t that bad, but I still needed them for university.
“Good Morning.“I say.
“Morning son, you are late.“ says the man, most likely my father.
“What happened? George told us that you were on the floor.?“ the woman asks a bit worried.
“I just fell off my bed and didn’t bother to get back up.“ I say, the woman didn’t find that strange for some reason.
“Alright, go eat something.“ she says and turns back to eat her own food.
Instinctively I go around the table and choose the sit closest to the man. The plate with food might also have helped my orientation. On the plate are three pieces of meat, they look like bacon, an egg and a piece of bread. There is also thick white liquid inside a glass. A glass? Strange.
The egg tastes like chicken, it is hard-boiled. The bread has a somewhat familiar taste, but there is more to it. Something for later. The bacon is bacon. What did I expect?
“Son, did you decide what you want to do.?“ says the man between bites. Table manners don’t seem that important around here.
“Dad, I am still unsure. What do you recommend.?“ I ask, looking clueless.
He looks at me a bit strangely, glaring at me for a solid second. I might have made a mistake; though it doesn’t look like a big one.
After the glare he contemplated for a couple of seconds, then he answers.
“Well, you won’t make a good knight with that build. Scholars are irrelevant, they don’t have a lot of power, so that option is out too. I won’t let my son be some useless crap worker. In my opinion, you should try your luck at His Excellency Renald’s tower. We can barely afford the aptitude test, but hopefully it won’t be wasted.“
A strange person, rather critical, but still cares for ‚me‘, as the test doesn’t seem to be cheap.
“Leon. Don’t be like that. Osric, I am sure you will make it. The next test is going to be in two weeks so you still have some time. Be in your best form when taking it.“ says the women, trying to cheer me up.
She seems like a typical mother, at least from the 19th century. Nothing unexpected.
“Osric, can you help me with my homework?“ asks George.
“Yes, I will.“
This should be a good opportunity to gauge the level of education people get here. Most likely only well-off people can afford it.
“Thanks, mom. George, I will come in 10 mins to help you.“
Let’s get upstairs and get my situation straight first.
Back in my room, I close the door and sit on my bed.
Alright, the things I know so far:
- My name is Osric, surname is still unknown.
- I seem to live in a wealthy family. The house is big enough for a as least four people. With someplace to spare.
- My family consist of: George, approximately 9 years old. Me approximately 12 or 13 years old. Leon, the father, middle-aged. And my mother, name still unknown, also middle-aged.
- It seems that the original inhabitant of this body got in some kind of accident. Most likely in combination with the book I found. Is he gone completely? I don’t know. Needs more research.
- The city seems big, I would say 40.000 inhabitants. Though I am uncertain, I could only see what is outside my window. A rather middle to big sized city. Name also unknown.
On another note, there seems to be some change in my memory capability, a very welcome one. And my cognitive brain seems to work better too.
If you're listing things out, you should go "1, 2, 3, 4" and so on. If you don't want to use numbers you could use symbols like "-", "*", "~", "▪", or "•".