Monday, August 31, 2015

I woke up around 7am. That is barely after my normal bedtime, so I was still a bit tired. The dog was doing her usual tricks on the bed. Rolls were followed by stretches which lead to snuggling for a few seconds before she went for my face.

Sorting through what happened yesterday while holding back 8lbs of hyperactivity was a bit tough. Yesterday's headache had damped down to a weak throbbing pain.

I tested voice commands again, with no luck at all. I've always been pretty confident that it was everyone else who was crazy, but gaining some type of skill system, and leveling it, shook that. The pain helped reassure me that I wasn't dreaming, so either it happened or I had a brain tumor. Which left tons of unanswered questions. Since I didn't trust or like my doctor I decided to leave the tumor option for later.

Was I alone in getting it? How did I actually get a skill called {Walking}? Isn't that too trivial? Would I get a skill called {Breathing} or {Heart beat} next? Actually if it was even possible to get more skills, how do I get one? If I jumped up and down will I get {Jump} or {Jumping}?

With the dog preventing more than 3 seconds of coherent thought I gave up and took her out to pee. After a quick breakfast of buttered toast, a caffeine pill, a vitamin C, a children's vitamin, and an allergy pill (I like me dem pills) I hit the internet.

Hours of searching news sites ended with nothing weird coming up. Well, I mean new types of weird. Entering 'blue transparent windows', and variations, in several search engines didn't get me anything useful either.

By noon I had given up and was browsing YouTube channels to distract from my frustration and the tiny pounding that was still going on in my head. Eventually I reached a compilation of video's of Russians shooting at other drivers. I zoned out while one angry shooter in particular chanted "твою мать" as he fired. A helpful subtitle explained it as "Fuck your mother!".

Down came the hammer of blue screen pain, as hard as yesterdays first one.

Due to your actions you have gained a Skill.

The skill {Russian} (Novice, Passive) EXP: 0.1%, has been created.

Due to your unlocking two skills you have unlocked the Skills Window.

With the routine established, I went upstairs, took more pain pills, and left the painful world behind for a bit.

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Around 6pm I woke up for the second time with a minor headache.

The first thing was obviously saying "Skills"... which did nothing. "Skills Window" popped up a blue transparent window though.

{Russian} (Novice, Passive) EXP: 0.1%.

{Walking} (Beginner, Passive) EXP: 13.5%.

I couldn't interact with it. I tried touching it. I tried using voice commands to pick a skill. Commands of "Help Russian", "Examine Walking", were ignored by the window, and the rest of the universe.

Getting nowhere with that and not being in the mood for further pain today I showered, made supper and started researching. I didn't want to accidentally gain skills if they were always going to be accompanied by massive headaches. I needed to figure out what was going on or at least time new skills to when I could rest up from them.

The rest of the day was spent browsing news sites and various game like stories like The Gamer, Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, and Alterworld while making ever longer lists. If I wasn't crazy there was bound to be more to this whole thing. Around 4am I gave up thinking about possible skills, stats, resistances, titles, inventories, quest and so on and went to bed.

Drifting off to sleep I tried to ignore the dog clawing the comforter into a mound. A good 15 minutes of clawing later it was resting on a 6 inch tower looking down at me, the slave it ruled. I broke eye contact, rolled over, tried to ignore the thought it might be the one with a brain tumor, and fell asleep.