David Nicolaus Scott the Third was born June 9th, 1981—because that part doesn't change—as a "happy little accident" to parents David Scott Jr. and Elizabeth Lupescu. And for almost two decades, the boy was inundated with bad parenting by both... to the point where he hated them each a great deal. This story is set in 1999, initially, putting him at the end of high school, long before the passage of time and mental distance can properly reshape his life to something more understanding of others.
Many of us have had a troubled upbringing and David was no different. That doesn't mean he wasn't or won't be responsible for his own actions, I just meant that as a way to set the stage for Future events. The boy is troubled and doesn't know it. Lies and betrayals have already shaped him at a young age and he doesn't yet know the repercussions of his actions...
His grandfather, David Scott Senior, believes in the concept of meritocracy... the idea that people should hold power on the basis of their ability. As David's father, Junior, had proven over the many years, he was not all that worthy and thus Senior was stingy when it came to the family's wealth. And, to be clear, the Scotts were well-off. David himself had never once seen his grandfather work anything other than his ranch his entire life, but clearly the man'd done enough work of some kind growing up to be set for life.
To that point, while Junior—David's father—would inquire about financial assistance, he did so far too often. The only reason grandpa David would pass money to his son was when it came to raising his grandchild and little else. Even so, when Junior did receive money, him and his wife would often spend it on booze and drugs, with just a hint thrown towards David for school supplies and replacement cloths.
And relevant to that: David approached his grandfather one summer when he was seven, seeking help getting paper and pencils. He said it was for school, and some of it was, but the truth was that David loved to draw and a drawing notebook would go a long way that summer. However, David Senior told the young boy he simply couldn't help him any more than he had. But, at that point, the young child wondered aloud what his grandfather had ever done to help.
He may have been seven at the time, but David had put together that his parents were sometimes getting money under the pretense of putting it towards family expenses and then not doing so and instead drinking the nights away. This was David's plan, such as it was, to get Junior in trouble and to help himself out, both of which happened. You see, it was only then that his grandfather realized the true extent to his son's wasteful habits as before then had been good about having excuses... hiding his excesses from his own parents.
Young David expressed his desire to get famous and then move away from his parents and so, by his logic, he needed an education to do so. Only through this dialog from his own grandchild did David Senior see a determination and wit about the boy. David III didn't want to be around his own parents not because they were poor—they were, but it was their own doing—but instead because the seven-year-old felt like he was on the wrong path. If he didn't, to use his grandfather's phrase, 'pick himself by by his bootstraps' then he would be on a set path to ending up just as impoverished and aimless as them.
For the remainder of that summer, David the Third worked on his grandparent's farm doing little tasks a boy his age could accomplish while being kept reasonably away from his parents. It was during this time that his grandmother enjoyed having a child in the house again and the two of them shared many experiences, many of which were stories David told, showing off comes doodled in his new sketchbook. She and her husband both discovered that David was rather low maintenance and he took up residence in the basement near to his grandmother's workout equipment. The ranch became his official home away from home.
At the end of that summer, David had made enough allowance to not only get himself a new backpack to carry his books to school, but also enough cash to purchase a used NES from his friend Chester whose parents were making him get rid of it due to his poor grades the year before. Of course, David's father sold the device and games at a pawn shop for his vices a few weeks later, once again teaching the boy he wasn't to be trusted. Oh, also that he had to be more careful with leaving things he cared about near his parents.
Retelling the store to his grandfather didn't net the result he had expected. David Senior agreed that the boy shouldn't be playing games during the school year, but David pointed out that he'd been keeping his grades up and that video games were how he made friends. He would hang out and talk with others at the lunchroom table about their experiences playing games and if he wasn't up-to-date, he'd be missing out on making connections.
Fancy words for a nine-year-old, who had already replaced his NES the following summer by working the farm again. Indeed, his grandparents had even started allowing him to invite friends over and even purchased him a Super Nintendo the Christmas it came out. Furthermore, when he came to visit one summer in his early teenage years, he found the basement renovated with a corner of it now having walls and insulation... a room officially considered a 'guest room', though they really only had one guest over for long periods of time and that was their grandson.
David didn't really care much to be a farmer, but he wasn't bad at it nor did he resent it. Years of showing he could take care of the few remaining animals on the farm eventually lead to his grandparents feeling that they could take more time overseas for themselves during the summer. As David was officially an adult in early June—he turned eighteen—they offered the responsibility to him, a trusted family member. He would be paid well as it would be a full-time job, but it would be hard work.
For two months, David Nicolaus Scott the Third worked his grandparent's farm. The first few days were the most harrowing, having been sure he mixed up some of the food stock and even missed one entire feeding period from being too engrossed playing Super Smash Bros. on his grandparent's huge, widescreen, plasma CRT in the living room. But he fell into the pattern of it all and felt confident his grandparents would be pleased when they returned home to find all the animals intact.
It was worth it, at least until his parent's ruined it... specifically his dad. His grandparents intended to return home next week and while he might be able to stick around the farm until the start of school, it was generally understood he was to be home during the school year before long.
His dad, however, informed him that if he wanted to be home he'd have to pay rent. David, a rather attentive eighteen-year-old, understood this was simply logical on his father's part. David had money, about $2000 saved over the last few years, with however much he was going to get from his grandparents when they returned. Surely staying at home would be cheaper than getting an apartment, though it wasn't like he had any jobs lined up after the summer.
David was furious. No wonder his father had been so keen for him to take up the summer job. It wasn't just to get him out of his hair for the summer, but because he was going to steal even more money from him. He could not wait to get away from his parents, and maybe this whole town!
At school, David was moderately popular. He seemed to have one friend on most sports teams, and JROTC. At this point, he'd only had sex a handful of times—Kendra Lamar being his first—though he was was uncharacteristically knowledgeable in such spaces compared to his peers. If one were building a character for Role-Play, David would be seen as a 'charisma build'. However, that's also where the bullying came in.
Only a few inches taller than the growth-spurt had gotten him in middle school, David slowly fell behind the curve not getting up to 5'5" (1.65m) in height, but not beyond. He wasn't exactly scrawny of build, and he did have broader shoulders than most, but besides being short, you'd like call him 'average'. Dark brown eyes, black hair, and with a goatee around his mouth.
His biggest issue, by far, was that the same charisma that David used to get invited to parties, have occasional sex, and make friend easily was, for some, the same way he got noticed by kids more financially well-off and privileged than himself. The brutes of the football team and the mean girls of the school were two examples of cliques that David had seemingly insulted by merely existing.
Of course, David Scott III, a white young man with a rich family could not see his own privilege amongst his peers. As bad as his parents were, plenty of people at the school had it worse, and that didn't help his relationship with some of them. It was why him and Kendra fell apart so quickly, though they remained friends. David was simply too blinded by his own personal struggles and inexperienced in life as a teenager from a middle class background to see and understand the plights of people whose cultural histories were too different than his own...
And now he had a Chronivac...
David Nicolaus Scott the Third sat at the computer in his grandfather's study, staring at the information on the screen in front of him. The Chronivac was plugged in via USB and had appeared in full screen mode like it was using DirectX. On it, a text description of himself appeared, but he believed he knew himself, so he didn't spend much time looking it over. Oh, how wrong he was.
His mind was reeling. He had some vague concept of the Future... a version of himself, Chester, and others from twenty years down the road. Apparently he'd made friends with a woman who he'd not even met yet who'd probably be seven or eight right now... and was on good terms with children of hers that wouldn't even be born yet.
Indeed, he understood his life as some kind of story being created by others, and his eyes slowly shifted to look at you and then me. Brown eyes going wide, he tried to shake off the concepts he now had and made a mental note to take his father's name off the savings that was meant to pay for his college education.
Glacing at the TransDem Laboratory package, he turned his eyes towards the Emitter still inserted into the PC. Unplugging it, he rotated the small, garage-door opener-looking device in his hand as he considered all the possibilities. He knew of the Choose Your Own Change website which didn't exist in his own universe, and all the interesting possibilities down the various page links. If anything was clear to him, it was that his first transformation shouldn't be himself... for safety's sake.
What was less clear to him was the Future, however. While his knowledge of CYOC was extensive, it tangentially allowed him knowledge of information up to the year 2023 of things which had not and perhaps would not happen. It was interesting to think that as terrified as everyone was about the Y2K Bug, it was nothing compared to the impact planes would have on the Twin Towers shortly into the new millennium... let alone all the other things he vaguely had some concept of.
"I should buy Apple stock," David realized, wondering exactly how to do that. Rubbing his fingers over the Emitter, he considered his options. Standing up, he put one white sneakered foot in front of the other as he moved out the study. He was still wearing his torn kahki pants and white shirt with a black barcode on it. "First things first," he said to himself, or perhaps us, as he walked towards the front door. He grinned. "Let's start this storyline off with a bang!"