“Don’tpanic.Don’tpanic.Don’tpanic.” Whispering a mantra. Something my dad taught me back when he was alive. He was a refugee in the Ghoul Invasion and the thing that would kill people is panicking.

I take a deep breathe, “One Mississippi-” closing my eyes to see a character screen of some kind. "What the fuck?" I opened my eyes to see a catgirl staring in perplexity.

I reclosed my eyes. On the top, there was a tab labeled: stats, skills, spells, and quests.

Stats.

The tab opened up for me to find a screen. To the left were the words and numbers:

Body: 109
Strength: 97
Endurance: 118
Agility: 112+100

Mind: 92
Charisma: 80
Intelligence: 119
Cunning: 76

Spirit: 104
Vitality: 100
Dexterity: 113
Perception: 100+150

In the center were the letters and numbers:

Health (red) 100/100
Stamina (green) 118/118
Hunger (Brown) 109/109
Thirst (light blue) 109/109
Mental (purple) 100/100

To the right were the words and numbers:

Night vision: Plus 50 to perception and can see in low light.
Feline senses: Plus 100 to perception.
Feline agility: Plus 100 to agility.

Below and in the center embolden were the words and letters:

Points accumulated: 100 single stat points or 25 all-stat points.

Skills, spells, and quest were blank.

Is this even reality anymore? I had a dream of creating a character. I woke up and find that I am the character, and I now have stats and skills like a character from an RPG.

I pinched myself hard and it hurt. I could feel pain, so this definitely not a dream. Oh wait! Didn’t the protagonist in animes did that too.

OH NO! Is this world becoming an anime, but what type of fucked up anime would this even be. Turn a boy into a cat loli? That’s fucked up in a serious way.

I took another deep breath to keep from panicking. It’s working, but now very well.

“Okay,” I whispered to myself, “I need to set priorities.” I took another breath, “Priority number one. I need to tell mom.” A ding came into my head and I looked around. Nothing. “Priority number two, I need to figure out what’s wrong with me.” Another ding popped into my head. Both dings sounded like a notification. Maybe it’s my power which brought me to “Priority three, test the extent of whatever the fuck character screen is.” A ding popped into my head.

I closed my eyes and thought, ‘Quests’. The tab popped open and I find a quest titled:

A New Start:
Wake up Miranda Alder in her room
Go to a Metaphysiologist
Find skills 1/10

I thought to ‘Skills’.

Serenity Level 1: The ability to keep one’s mind calm in the face of great adversity. +10 to the mental bar.

I look at the mental part. It was now at 110/110. Well, that’s useful. I opened my eyes and my journey to a new world has begun.

….

Our apartment is small and bare. We may have moved in years ago, but to us, it didn’t feel like home. Home was in the suburbs. A home that had been sold to another family.

It’s not bad living in the city though. There’s plenty to do and no time to do any of it. Mom has to work and I have to take care of the duties of the house. Which is why I’m a weeb beta fag.

I digress, I opened the door carefully. As any lover of science knows, sound travels and in this tiny apartment, you can’t be loud in paper thin walls.

“Mom,” I whispered. “We have a problem.” She didn’t answer. I got closer and nudged her a bit, “Mom, seriously, we have a problem.”

She rasped, “Suzy?”

“No, it’s me, your son, Roland.”

“No it isn’t. Go back to bed, Suzy, it’s too late to play prank.”

“I’m being serious, mom!” I exasperated through my whisper. “I think I’m a super.” I sucked up the tears. I can’t cry yet.

She perked up and rubbed her eyes, “Can you turn on the light?” I did and she stared wide-eyed at me. “Who are you?” My lip began to tremble.

“I just told you, I’m Roland. I think I manifested into a super.” My mouth feeling dry.

She narrowed her eyes, piercing with her gray eyes into my soul. “Okay, I’ll believe you for now. What happened.” She still sounded unconvinced.

I took a deep breath, a ding echoed through my head, “Well, I went to sleep, and I had this dream. It was a character creation menu you like see in video games. So I made a character that looked just like this. When I pressed done I woke up from the dream,” I bite my trembling lip, “I squeezed out the Suzy-filled bed and found that the character I made in the dream is me now.” A tear fell down my cheek.

Her eyes softened, “Roland?” A ding popped into my head.

“Yeah?” I said, the dam about to burst.

“You can cry now.”

I ran into my mother’s arms and wailing. I hate crying and I hate myself for being a wimp, but it felt good to let it out.

….

We laid there together for who knows how many hours. It’s been years since I cuddle with Mom. She stroke the back of my head. A weird vibrating noise came from my chest.

“Are you purring?” Mom softly asked. She put her hand up to my chest, “Oh my god! You are!” Then cuddled me tighter, “You’re so cute, little motorboat!” Petting around my ears, I couldn’t even rebuttal as I melted into my mother’s love.

We are a cat family. Dad loved cats, Mom really loves cats and my sister. Oh god, she loves everything cat related. One time I found a picture of Sunflower drawn as a cat and I swear she almost died. I love cats… and of course, cat girls considering my current situation.

“What’s with your hair?” Mom asked playing with a little piece that seemed to curl up.

“What do you mean?”

“Your hair is choppy long, but some choppy parts seem to curl outwards. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful hair, but I’ve never seen hair like yours. Smoky black. No human has that hair color. Still beautiful though.”

“Thanks?” I didn’t know what to think of that. I guess I’m not exactly human anymore, but then again I’ve never felt human before. “I guess I’m not human anymore.”

My mom opened her mouth, but then closed it and made a thoughtful expression. “How do you feel about that?”

“Meh, I don’t think this will change much. I don’t think I told you, but Juno is a super and my other friend, Kenny, loves heroes.”

“Well, you’re pretty lucky to have friends like that, motorboat.” Is that going to be my nickname now? Motorboat.

“I only have known them for one day, mom. I doubt I could possibly trust them yet.”

“What gives you a reason to not trust them?

I thought for a moment. “What gives me a reason to trust them?”

“Touché.” Mom giggled. I giggled too. Oh god, I giggle now. I really am a girl. That thought put me in a somber mood. Mom noticed, “What is it, motorboat.” I guess this is my new nickname.

“It’s just,” I tried to find the right words, “It’s just that this is weird.” Tears began to well up and mom petted and scratched the back of my neck, “One second I’m having a time of my life and then the next second I’m a fucking cat girl.”

“Motorboat, keep it down, the twins are still asleep.” She said softly.

I jumped out of the bed, infuriated. Infuriated with being wimpy, sensitivity, and this whole fucked situation. “I can’t, mom. This whole situation is so fucked that I can’t even fathom how fucked this is.” Tears began to flow down my cheeks as my voice achieve a louder tone, “The more I think about it *sniffle*, the more fucked it is. *sob* Not only am I so recognizably a mutant but unlike supers. Everyone hates mutants. That alone scares me. *sniffle* I heard the rumors. *sniffle* The fucking Legion is going to make me disappear and without a fucking trace. *sobbed* I don’t want to disappear, mommy. I don’t!” I yelled before collapsing into sobs.

Mom briskly came to me and cuddled me. “It’s okay, motorboat. Everything is going to be okay. We’ll get through this, together.” Continuing to stroke all my good spots. It felt so good, but my feelings were too strong to allow purring. I just sobbed into her. Again. Like a fucking little girl…. Fuck me.

I heard the door open. “Mommy?” A tired Suzy wiping the sleep from her eyes.

“Sweeties,” She said softly, “You should get back to sleep.” She stepped in front of me to hide me.

“I can’t, mommy, Wowo isn’t there-” Oh shit, “Mommy, what do you have behind you?”

“What do you mean, sweetie?”

Suzy ignored it and went around Mom only to have mom step in front of her. “Mommy, is dat a tail? Did you bring a kitty?”

Mom flustered, “Yes, sweetie, the kitty is very scared. You can see her in the morning.”

“But, mommy. I wanna help the kitty too.” Showing off puppy dog eyes of mass destruction.

I rasped a laugh, “It’s okay, Mom. Let her see.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.” She stepped away from me, revealing the new me.

“Oh mah gosh, A KITTY GIRL!” She took a step closer before her face changed from excitement to worry, “What’s wwong kitty girl?

“Suzy,” I said in the most Roland voice I could muster. “It’s me, your brother?”

“My bwother tuwned into a kitty girl?” *Ding*. Holy shit that worked. I smiled at her. I picked her up and grabbed her and spun her around causing her to squeal. “Wowo tuwned into kitty girl!” She exclaimed when I put her down. She ran out of the room saying that phrase everywhere.

I faced Mom. She was part proud, part amused, and part bemused. A confliction of emotions. “Well, that worked.” I giggled.

“It did, didn’t it?” She also giggled. “I’ll go cook breakfast. You could use a moment to yourself.” I nodded and she left.

I closed my eyes and looked in the skills tab.

Serenity level 2: The ability to keep one’s mind calm in the face of great adversity. +20 to the mental bar.
Persuasion level 1: based on their intelligence stat, your charisma stat, and the objective you want to achieve. You can persuade a person of anything. +10 to charisma.

I thought to the quests tabs.

A New Start:
Go to a Metaphysiologist
Find skills 2/10

I smiled as I opened my eyes. I don’t know what I’m capable of, but I know it’ll be something great.