章 3: Day one and already depressed...

Leonard, or rather, Afton, had just woken up. His mind felt refreshed and a lot clearer, he'd not expected that having your head and brain reshaped as a baby would be so painful and literally mind-numbing. Regardless, he was alive and now able to take a proper look at the environment around him...

He's currently tightly wrapped in a blanket and placed within some kind of crappy cot? It looks as if it was made from leftover materials you'd find in a skip. Atleast with no one else around he could do some things most would consider highly unusual.

Straining his body, and neck muscles, he turned to the side and looks through the dirty and almost splintered wooden bars of the cot, looking at the wall of the building he was within. Again, as he'd previously thought before he'd ended up passing out, the wall was decomposing before his very eyes... He was honestly worried about the whole place collapsing on top of him, he'd not even been born a day and was already judging his negligent parents at leaving him in this deathtrap.

On the subject of parents... His name was now Afton. Not something he'd personally pick but you can't really pick your name, can you? He continued to wiggle his body to get a good look of the room around him, noting that there were some primitive-looking computers, damaged desks and other similar kinds of furniture... Strangely enough, there was also a pistol that seemed to have been dismantled on the nearby table.

Before he's able to consider the implications of having homeless parents well versed in weaponry, a pain in his stomach caused him to unconsciously tear up... Shit, is this was babies feel when they're hungry?

He tries to resist the urge to cry as his dignity simply wouldn't allow it, however, dignity wasn't a factor to his body's instincts.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" he wails, his throat feeling strained and painful from the intensive use of his vocal cords.

Fortunately, it doesn't take long for someone to open the door and enter the doom, they walk up to the cot and smile down at him, its his homeless mother... Though, she was wearing a clean looking medical gown which would indicate they weren't as poor as he initially thought.

Her long black hair was tied into a bun, her face was clean, lacking in wrinkles, her hazel eyes matching well with the rest of her features... She was, by Afton's standards, beautiful. Her face was lightly tanned, as if she'd spent a few weeks sunbathing on the beech, but he could see how pale her arms were when she went to pick him up.

"My boy... Mama's here, and you hungry?" she asks sweetly, enraptured in her sons almost inquisitive gaze.

Afton stomach pains haven't faded, but the sudden shock had, he decided to reach his little arms up at her instead of crying and losing more self-respect.

She takes this as an affirmative and shifts the gown before bring him up to her breast... Now, if you were to ask Afton to suck on someone's breast before he was reincarnated, he'd do it and then afterwards ask who you were... But, with this not being a sexual act and instead, one of necessity, he wasn't enjoying it as much as you'd think.

Add to the fact that he completely lacked any hormones to influence his body or mind, and you have a grown man being force-fed breast milk while having to act like he's happy about it.

"Oh! Delores was right... This does feel weird, not like how Zach does it..." she mutters thoughtfully.

...

Afton tries to ignore his mother's comments, only picking out the information he needed. This Delores person she mentioned was probably the one responsible for birthing him, her taking her advice into consideration was the obvious clue, though, it could just be another mother with more experience.

"Are you done?" she asks as Afton reaches the limit of how much he can drink, his stomach roils and he ends up spitting some up... It feels like he's going to drown in his own vomit as he burps against his well, luckily though his mother seemed to know what she was doing, lifting him over her shoulder in a good position so he can comfortable spit it up.

She wipes it off and looks down at him afterwards, "Are you done? Ohh, everyone is looking forwards to meeting you, let's go see them shall we?" she says, already walking towards the room's exit.

Afton was definitely not a social person, but he was willing to bear it to gather more information about his situation. The hallways his mother carries him through are all in similar states to his room, sometimes he got glimpses of sunlight breaking through small cracks as well... Whatever was holding this building up must be magically enhanced or something...

They eventually enter a room containing many people who immediately lock their gazes on him, it seems he was wrong about them being homeless though... The weird red robes some wore indicated that he was probably in some kind of cult...

One of the robe-wearing men that had brown hair and brown eyes got up from the ragged sofa he was sitting on and walked up to them... "Congratulations Verna." he says, looking down at Afton, "Seems he inherited your good looks, he's rather handsome isn't he?"

Verna, his mother smiles at his compliment, "I'd call you a flatterer if I didn't happen to agree Nolan." she jokes.

An old-looking woman with greying blonde hair also wearing red robes walks up and examines him, "Did you have trouble with his first feeding?" she asks, tentatively turning his head to check for something.

Verna shakes her head, "He spit some up but he was good. Why? Should I watch for something?"

"No, just wanted to know, the first feeding is usually the most difficult for both you and the child, I'm glad to see you didn't have problems..." she says with a restrained smile before sighing, "As much as I'd like to stay, I have other duties to attend to, if you ever need help just come and ask."