My time with my mother started out a bit frosty. I'm fairly certain, from her badly hidden awkwardness, that I must be her first child. Either that or she somehow has the others stashed in a cupboard somewhere due to them being such a handful that just talking to them scares her. The first few minutes were definitely the worst but she calmed down eventually and started talking about whatever random topic seemed to come up.

Unfortunately I couldn't actually talk, so my success at asking questions about anything specific or getting any other kind of point across suffered greatly. Sometimes agonizingly so.

Like one time I pointed at the door, trying to ask to go out, but instead she started on about different fantastical things that could be found outside. Great forests with trees that were taller than 'titans', whatever those were, and structures that had taken what seemed to be decades to build, all for some random person's entertainment and hubris. She even talked about some land where cities floated among the clouds and how many of the people there where some sort of 'bird people'? She didn't really explain and I couldn't ask either, but she seemed somewhat disapproving.

It had gotten me excited, though. Where there are animal people, there must be catgirls! It is one of the rules of the internet, which I still wasn't sure if it existed here. But come on, robot armor guy existed so the internet must be around somewhere.

I tried miming about what I wanted to know but she just stabbed me in the face. It was quite annoying but it did make me wonder. Would calling her a 'bitch' in my head count as some sort of racism? I mean, if there are cat girls than there are probably dog people too. Wolves were a somewhat common as well. I couldn't think of any stories with a monkey girl, any more than I could think of one with a straight cat boy, so maybe there was some sort of weird sexual dimorphism going on?

Also, I'm a lot more distractible than I used to be.

I'm pretty sure it had been days that I had been stuck inside with my mother watching my every move. We would go back and forth between me trying to speak, her talking about some random thing, and her stabbing me. It had honestly become a bit boring, strange as that may be. There are only so many times you can get stabbed in the head, neck, gut, and chest before it starts to get dull.

Not the knife, that was still plenty sharp, but my sense of reality maybe? Getting stabbed seems like it should evoke something more than mild annoyance. Also, nudity. Getting stabbed apparently caused nudity. My mother promised that eventually I would be able to keep my clothes on when I came back, but for now I had to get redressed every single time. That was actually the biggest part of my annoyance at dying.

And then, fifteen minutes ago, something clicked. I could understand her every word and she could finally understand me! In celebration the first thing she said was "Great, now go play with your father so I can finally get some sleep." She didn't even give me a chance to ask any questions, she just shut the door and left me in a somewhat empty room with door handles too high for me to reach. My father did show up not long after that. I wish I could say that I had caused some trouble while left alone, I really did try, but apparently I had the coordination of a baby to go along with my body.

My father somehow snuck up on me and caught me trying to open up the front door with little success. His answer to me catching him watching me was to laugh and ask if I wanted to go visit the park. Granted, I couldn't actually stand upright on my own, but if he held my hand I could be sort of be carried as I toddled along. That is how I ended up out here, 'walking' around in a park and once again questioning my own sanity. After all, I'm not a little kid. I'm a grown man who even had his own kids. And yet...

"Dad, why do I feel like running off to play? Also why do I feel like throwing a temper tantrum when you tell me 'no' I can't go play? Also why not? I'm not going to get distracted by something little again, but why did that work the first time? Does this mean I'm crazy?"

He looked at me like I was crazy. "It means you are at age one. You may have the memories and base personality of your old life, but here you are still a child."

"But that makes no sense. Part of the process of growing to adulthood is your memories of growing through certain developmental milestones and how that changes and develops your personality. Also could I get rich making cars? I don't see any cars around, so if I was the first person to make cars would everyone buy one and I would get rich?"

My father looked like he had a severe case of whip-lash. "Uh, cars are already a thing. They are mostly a luxury item used for recreation. People have much faster ways to get around than motor vehicles can offer."

"Oooh, right. Than airplanes! Super jet planes! Fly through the sky on a half tone of steel!"

"People can fly too."

I thought to myself for a second. "Peanut butter?"

He laughed at that. "Now you got me! Is that even real? How would you even try to churn a nut?"

"It is more like a paste." I answered back.

"Then why isn't it called 'peanut paste'?"

"Would you want to eat something called 'peanut paste'?"

He considered that for a few moments. Meanwhile I saw a butterfly go by and remembered that I wasn't supposed to get distracted from my playtime.

"Dad, why can't I go play?"

"Hu?" he asked, still distracted by something else momentarily, then pulled himself back. "Right. It is because your death training will take much longer if you start raising your abilities."

"Abilities like strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma?" I asked, throwing out the most basic attributes used in video games everywhere. I think Mom might have mentioned them in passing. I also remember some of the other adults mentioning those words at my birthday 'party', the one without cake.

"Yes, somewhat. Except that those are in the wrong order and that is a horribly unscientific way of naming them," he answered. "No son of mine is going to use such filthy language."

“Dad, are you sure you aren’t making too big a deal out of it? Don’t other people mostly use those words when they talk about it?”

"Right! Attributes! You wanted to know more about them!" He said, abruptly changing the subject.

I wanted to run off and play, but I guess story time could be fun enough. Also, does this mean I'm in chapter 2 finally? Was there another chapter between that weird party, the one with no cake, and now? I hope it wasn't a gag reel of me dying over and over again or an entire chapter dedicated to that one time I tried to crawl away and hide from my mother by going behind the furniture. That would be embarrassing. Then again it might also be a bit funny, since she had to move half the room before she managed to get ahold of me.

My father continued, ignoring my unspoken dialogue. "The correct order is Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Strength, and Charisma. Now these names can be misleading. I've known some really dumb people with high Intelligence and Wisdom and some people with high Charisma who were right baa... er, bad with people."

"It's ok, dad, I know the word 'bastard' already."

He seemed startled at my admission, but shook his head and continued. "Only common folk or people without much real training use those terms. The more scientific terms are, in the same order: Stability, Mobility, Volatility, Depth, Flow, and Viscosity."

So that would match Stability with Constitution, Mobility with Dexterity, etc. But Flow with Strength? Really? I decided to ask. "How, exactly, does that all work?"

"A very good question!" he answered excitedly. "You see you may look like a little kid, but underneath your exterior you are actually a mass of something else. We call it 'Soul', for lack of any better name, and it creates 'Essence'. The shape, size, and other aspects of your soul, and Essence pool it creates, control how well and in what ways you can use your abilities! Once you get them, of course."

"Right, so having 'Viscosity' makes me 'charismatic'?" I wasn’t sure I remembered all of them, but that one stood out.

He laughed at that. It was a good natured laugh, and I knew he wasn't laughing 'at' me, but I still didn't feel like him laughing because I a question. It seemed to be one more example of how being a 'baby' was messing with me.

Ignoring my frown, he continued. "You aren't the first one to ask that question. Most big-time manipulators and schemers have abilities that work best with a lot of 'Viscosity' in their application. People knew about the attributes before they knew why they worked the way they did, thanks to some of those schemers I mentioned, so what else would you call the attribute most useful for manipulators than 'charisma'?"

"But what does it do?"

"It increases the volume of essence abilities and allows status effects and the like an easier time 'sticking' to them despite the opponent's defenses." This, to me at least, explained why it would be favored by schemers; especially depending on what type of ‘status effects’ they could give people. Was mind control a thing here? It was something to ask about later.

"And Strength? What does that have to do with Flow? How would flow let you carry stuff?"

"Flow doesn't actually make your body able to lift more, but it does increase the direct output of most everything you do by putting more oomph behind it. This increases both the attack power and the range of your abilities and tools and some items. Think of a hose where you turn up the ‘Strength’ of the ‘Flow’, the water coming out would both hit harder and go farther. The term 'Strength' made sense because at first nobody understood what was going on and, because people use their essence for everything, the ‘flow’ determined the ‘strength’ of everything they did."

"So if strength doesn't affect how much you can carry, what does?"

"Mostly your Stability, since it determines what weight you can pile on before you are crushed and how resistant you are to being knocked over by things you are carrying, or anything else for that matter. Depth affects how many tools you can use, which ends up being more important and less important since everything is limited by your other stats, but options can be useful."

So Constitution helps you carry stuff by making your body tougher and Intelligence gives you more options. I guess it was making some sense. Stability/constitution and Mobility/Dexterity, at least seemed straightforward. 'Essence' seemed to be this world's word for 'Mana', so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the common word for it but was too ‘unscientific’ for my father. I could also see how a very intelligent person could make use of a deep Mana pool in a way that less intelligent people could not. It seemed like the term 'Intelligence' was descriptive of people who could use 'Depth' it well in the same way as 'Charisma' was for 'Viscosity'.

I decided to ask about the thing I was currently most unsure about. "So what about Volatility? That seems like the exact opposite of 'Wisdom'."

"That is another one of those 'Charisma/Viscosity' type situations. Volatility measures speed of change, including both the ability to be effected by and react to outside stimulus. In layman's terms it gives people better senses and the ability to react subtly to the world around them, including hiding and doing things with more precision. Those with Wisdom react well, while those without Wisdom never end up developing that attribute much." So wisdom let you hide? I guess wisdom really was all about picking your battles. That was either extremely fitting or ironic.

That made some kind of sense. "Is there anything else that they do. Like, Constitution, or Stability, does it do anything other than keep you alive?"

"That seems plenty important to me," he answered.

"But it doesn't give you any extra stamina or anything?"

"Not really. Mobility gives you your speed and determines how long you can push yourself, like from dodging and such. I’m pretty sure that is what you mean by ‘stamina’. Stability determines how hard it is to damage you or knock you around and how much damage you can take before being disabled."

I remembered 'disabled', lying there unable to move had not been fun the few times I had held on during my mother’s ‘training’. "What about Intelligence, is there anything I need to know about that?"

"Besides the fact that it won't actually make you smart?" He smirked at me. "It determines how much essence you have and how quickly it regenerates. It also lets you have more backup equipment."

"But it doesn't let you have more equipment overall? Why just backup stuff?

He shrugged, "because that is the way it is? Most of the important equipment, stuff that raises your abilities, is limited by those same abilities. Having extra Depth lets you claim and use more stuff, but not all at once, so all that does is let you have backups or be extra tricky. Generally speaking, at least."

"That's still good, though? Isn't it?" I asked.

"It depends on how good you are at using those tricks. Once again 'intelligent' people are the best fit to use their depth well."

"Anything else?" I asked, going back through every one of them individually. “What about Strength?”

"Well I already mentioned how Flow determines how much power is behind whatever you do. Power and maximum effective range. That's pretty important by itself.

"What about the last ability, Charisma, anything you missed with it?"

"Viscosity," He corrected, insisting on is more scientific name. "It is all about how encompassing your abilities are, letting you affect more targets or just making them harder to dodge. It effects how deep status effects can go, both beneficial and harmful ones. Most people treat it like a non-combat stat, but it has its uses in combat as well. Uses like pushing out others status affects against you. Only a few status effects tend to happen during a battle, but those that do can be debilitating. Also, ‘Charismatic’ people are likely to sabotage you before the battle ever starts, so just being ‘out of battle’ doesn’t always mean you are safe."

I took a minute to think back over everything, in the ‘right’ order this time. Constitution/Stability was all about the ability to take damage and shrug it off while Dexterity/Mobility was all about evading it or possibly running away. Wisdom/Volatility was a weird one, as it encompassed your senses and avoiding other people’s senses. Also it let you mess with the fiddly bits of stuff, if I understood my father correctly, and I was pretty sure my father had a lot of it if his attitude about things was any indication.

Intelligence/Depth seemed pretty weird, somehow encompassing both Mana/Essence and usable equipment that you could hold, but maybe there would be more explanation later. Strength/Flow made a weird sort of sense, once I remembered my father’s water hose explanation, so remembering that it effected the power and range of abilities was pretty straightforward. Charisma/Viscosity, on the other hand seemed kind of underhanded in most its applications. Sure, making things harder to dodge was straightforward, but if this was some sort of combat world then the debilitation before battel route was one that could fail quite easily and then would turn others against you.

When I thought about things it almost seemed like my father didn’t even think of us as flesh and blood creatures, minus the blood, and more like a ball of Mana/Essence? I also got an idea of what was going on with those people at my birthday party. "Is that why so many people were disappointed with me before? Because I'm normal?" Part of me felt like crying at the disappointment I had seen on their faces. I knew it was silly, my feelings were nothing more than a product of my new age, but knowing it didn’t make those feelings go away. Also, writer, this is too much exposition. Maybe they really should have included the gag reel of my escape attempts.

He looked at me, taking a moment to examine me with a moment of silence. "Yes." He finally answered, seemingly having steeled himself. I had to remind myself of my earlier question; the one about why people seemed so disappointed in me at the birthday party. Also hopefully I would get less distractible soon. "Most people have some numerical effect on them from their past life. I had greater Volatility and the stamina part of Mobility was improved. Your mother's Volatility and Viscosity was also improved. She also had excellent combat training, resistance to pain, and survival experience. That is pretty normal for children around here.” I took a moment, letting his words sink in.

"You know what I think?" He continued suddenly, gaining more energy in his words. "I think that base abilities are overrated. So what if you start out with a head start with some of your abilities, that doesn't mean you have to focus on those abilities forever! Time tends to wear away at those advantages and all that is left is what you have built up yourself!"

"Do you really think I can do it?" I asked.

He laughed. "Of course, you're my son! The only question is, 'what do you want to do?' Some people say that your worth is based on how much power you have, but neither your mother nor I like to fight and we are doing fine. A few say your worth is measured in influence, mostly those with influence; while others think it has to do with resources, mostly those with resources. You know what I say to all that? You choose what's important to you and forget what others want for themselves! Go after it with everything you've got!"

I chuckled to myself. "Was that supposed to be an inspirational speech?"

He smiled wryly in my direction. "Well I thought it was quite good."

One thing that stuck with me, though, was the fact that the whole ‘stats’ thing meant that other kids were better than me in objectively definable ways. This wasn't some aristocratic 'right to rule' trash, this was my life as the underdog in a world where the underdogs lose.

"So, William," my father said, bringing me out of my thoughts. "What do you want to do with your life?"

I thought for a second. I didn't have a lot of grand ambitions, I didn't even know what grand ambitions there might be for me to try for. At least not at this exact moment. Instead, "I want to run over and try climbing that tree, and maybe go swimming in the stream if climbing doesn't work out for me."

He shook his head. "Sorry kiddo. No can do. You can look but that's all for the moment. Weren't you listening when I told you about the basic abilities?"

I nodded despite the fact that I didn't get how that was supposed to answer that the most important question. I asked it again. "So why does that mean that I can't go out and play?"

"Because the higher your Attributes, the longer you will need to take between each death to fully recover."

So wait, playing could raise my Attributes? Playing could raise my Attributes! Of course it could, this whole world seems to run off of video game logic! They even used video game stats for people! There isn't even real blood when I get stabbed! I'm going to grind the heck out of this weird game!

At some point during my stream of manic thoughts I began to smile. My father looked worried.