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You wake like the dead, wracked by a series of cadaveric spasms both involuntary and crippling. Your head pounds. Your limbs ache. With your eyes closed you float in a black void, blissfully untethered from the physical world lying beyond the hazy edges of the damaged meat sack you currently inhabit. Limbo. You could be standing or sitting or sprawled out across a stranger’s bathroom floor. You could be naked or fully dressed. A low voice at the back of your mind whispers sweetly that, so long as you keep your eyes shut, you can stay here forever. All you have to do is retreat back into its velvety embrace and everything will be all right.
This is a lie, and you know it; the bell of existence cannot be unrung. The moment your thoughts slipped free of the honeyed oblivion of unconsciousness they condemned you to contend with a world larger than themselves.
Spitefully you wrench your eyelids open.
A mistake.
The gentle rays of the morning sun hit your ravaged body like a convey of trucks and you instinctively curl in on yourself to escape them. Your next attempt fairs better: you manage to keep your eyes open for one whole second. Eventually, little by little, you work your way up to a consistently maintained sense of sight. Comprehension is another matter. You do not recognise the room you are in. You do not recognise the pile of unwashed clothes in the corner, or the trail of vomit leading into the adjoining room, or the empty beer cans and pill bottles and little plastic bags that litter the floor.
AGENT OF THE NARCO-STATE [Easy: Success] – Someone really enjoyed themselves in here. You should search through all those bottles, maybe they overlooked a pill or two.
Groggily, you paw through the debris around your body, not sure if you’re looking for amphetamines, pain killers, or just a clue to whose room this is. In the vast, hollow cavern of your memory something about this action feels familiar.
OBSERVATION [Trivial: Success] – The labels stuck to the sides of the little orange bottles all feature several different names: Klaasje Amandou, Katarzine Alasije, Karjissa Affarmaine… None of them sparks the slightest recognition in you.
THE CRAFT [Challenging: Success] – Similar names. Similar initials. These are aliases.
LADY LAZARUS [Godly: Failure] – Perhaps one of these is your name?
TASK GAINED: WHO IS K.A.?