Chapter Text
“Hi, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’m making this video. This won’t be posted to my channel or anywhere that it can be found normally, so if you’re watching this, this was likely meant for you.” The man in the video took a deep breath, his bright blue eyes fluttering before he stared directly at the camera.
“If you’re watching this, it means I’m dead…probably. I can’t really think of a reason I would show this video otherwise, but whatever. The point is, I’ve been keeping a secret from all of you. A secret I always thought I’d carry to my grave.” The man paused for a second, sighing with resignation as he spoke the most unbelievable sentence he had ever uttered.
“This is not my first life. I was born with the memories of my previous life.”
I sighed contentedly, hands wrapped around the world’s best cup of coffee as I took a long sip. The warmth of the mug and the life-giving liquid made me shudder with pleasure as I enjoyed the morning of my first weekend in a new country.
Paris, France: the so-called “City of Love.” I didn’t know what to expect when mom told us we were moving here for her job. In my last life, I'd mostly heard people complain about Paris. According to the internet, Parisians were rude, unfriendly, and generally wanted tourists to disappear. However, I should’ve known to throw out those dumb expectations because this was not my Earth.
Superheroes actually existed here. And not just any superheroes. I actually recognized some of them! Batman, Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern. I was living in the DC universe.
…
Yeah, you can imagine the panic attack that caused when I discovered that little tidbit. Luckily, whatever or whoever reincarnated me here wasn’t cruel enough to drop me into any of the major hero cities. I didn’t even want to imagine living somewhere like Gotham or Metropolis.
I shuddered at the thought, immediately taking another sip of my coffee to soothe my unease. Nope, thankfully, I grew up in a relatively small town in southern Texas.
My childhood there had been blissfully uneventful. I went to school, made friends, played sports, and just lived the life of an average kid. This move was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me, and despite being nervous about starting at a new school, I couldn't wait to make some new friends!
Fortunately, I still had the weekend before school officially started back up to just relax. And what better way to relax than to make another video for my MeTube channel? I’d been meaning to make another Ultimate Mecha Strike 3 video for a while now.
I drained the last of my coffee, left my mug in the sink for later, and whistled my way to my new recording studio. Well, it was really just an extra bedroom no one was using, but mom let me fix it up to be my own little studio.
I was a bit surprised she let me go that far. My channel wasn’t even that popular yet, let alone bringing in any money. But, it made me happy and mom was nothing if not a supportive and loving parent, I guess.
I should do something nice for her soon…
With a shrug and a promise to think on it later, I walked into my new studio and flipped on the LED light strips decorating my walls. As I made my way to my desk, I paused for a second as I passed the mirror on my closet door to make sure my hair wasn't a mess.
Seeing that it was about as tamed as it could be, I dropped into my computer chair with a heavy sigh.
“Alright. Time to get to work. Ultimate Mecha Strike 3 first, then we can finish editing the house tour video. It’s still so weird that Mortal Kombat doesn’t exist here. Heck, half the games I used to play don’t exist anymore… Man, I miss Destiny,” I muttered to myself, waking my computer with a shake of the mouse.
I quickly navigated to my recording software and set everything up to record my screen. I turned my camera on, flipped on my ring light, and adjusted my mic stand before finally opening up my game library.
With a deep breath, I put on my best smile, launched the game, and started the recording as soon as the title screen popped up.
“Hello, everybody! My name is Leunited and welcome back to my MeTube channel! Today, we are back with some more Ultimate Mecha Strike 3. NovaCore Interactive just released their newest update for this game where they added in new playable characters in Red Tornado, Red Torpedo, Red Volcano, and Red Inferno!”
I grinned with genuine excitement, having seen the gameplay footage through the early teasers. I’d been itching for months to get my hands on Red Inferno and abuse the hell out of her AoE fire explosion!
I clicked past the title screen and let the game open fully to the main menu.
“However, fair warning, I haven’t played this game since the Skynet update so try not to bully me too hard in the comments, yeah?”
I quickly loaded up an unranked match and from there, spent the next two hours getting my ass handed to me while I complained at my camera.
Before I knew it, it was half past noon. Recording had just wrapped up and I was just about to open up my editing software for the house tour video when I heard the front door open.
I smiled and quickly pushed away from my desk.
Mom was home.