You graba small little box. It looked like a square tamagotchi, having three buttons at its bottom. It was in a black casing, relatively innocuous, and had an unusually large ring, big enough to wear as a bracelet. Little symbols, left and right arrows and a circle (for confirmation?) were stamped above the buttons. You try to switch it on but it didn't turn on.
"Ah. If you'd like to use any of the objects here, I need you to purchase it first." You are startled by a sudden voice interrupting my investigation of the small toy. At the end of the aisle was a scrawny wizard with a long white beard and star embossed robes, like Merlin from Disney's Sword in the Stone. His voice had a lilt to it, certainly the voice of an old but energetic wizard. Yet he seemed anything but, languishing in a chair, carefully trimming his nails with a bored expression.
"I need to magically charge the item and imprint it on you. Most of these objects are worthless to me, but I do require to be paid for these things work." You look down at the tamagotchi in your hand. Magic? You chuckled to yourself. It was probably this eccentric shopkeeper's way of saying 'insert batteries'. While there were many strange oddities and antiquities in this shop, none of them seemed 'magical', just... unique. None of them caught your eye. The rings and jewelry seemed too expensive to buy, and you weren't really keen on buying any of the weird looking snacks, the perfumes, or the other items. But you've never had a tamagotchi before and were just curious what it was like to 'raise' a little monster.
The wizard raised an eyebrow. He seemed to already understand your thoughts, the look on your face all the more familiar to him.
"If you'd come over here, I'll get this setup for you." You nodded, a little bit embarassed. Not intending the interrupt the wizard's act, you walked up to the counter to hand the tamagotchi to him.
The wizard sighed, leaning forward in the chair to look in a box underneath the desk. "Alright, I just need you to fill this form to get the imprint working." The wizard hands you a small card and thin tip pen.
Name: Steven Walker
Date of Birth: January 1st, 2000
Place of Birth: Milwaukee, Illinois USA
Self-Description: A 6'2", 180lb white man with messy brown hair, brown eyes, and scrawny arms.
It was a bizarre agreement form, being on a card and all. And asking for a self-description? Wasn't ID better? You shook your head, maybe the wizard was just a weirdo, but it didn't hurt to be accurate.
"Okay, now that that's done, let's get you imprinted." The wizard outstretched his right hand towards you suddenly, his left holding the card and tamagotchi. A light sparkly pink substance seemed to pull from you and all your holes (even from... down there) and you felt like you were floating as the room grew dark and a bright radiant energy flowed from the wizard. Grabbing that pink substance like a ribbon, he seemed to rub the card you wrote into the tamagotchi, it almost melting into its night black chassis. Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped, the bright green light of the tamagotchi now glowing in the wizard's hand.
"What the fuck was that?!" You say, finally breaking your previously shy silence in outrage.
"I told you. I needed to imprint the object with your soul. Now that it is, no matter what happens, this object will alway be with you, and it'll obey your will even if you are unable to manage its controls, just in case you somehow lose your hands." Your hands?! What was going on? You were already stunned by the revelation that magic is real, but you could lose your hands using this thing? And it was permanently bound to you now?
The wizard sighed. "Don't worry about it, and have fun with it. You'll find me again if you need me, so if there's ever a problem, you won't be stuck."
In your daze, you made a motion to reach your wallet to pay for the object but the wizard stopped you. "I already received my payment. Doing imprints allows me to pick up some magical life energy. It's harmless and helps my studies, so I'm well compensated. Now go. Have fun with the toy. You'll figure out the controls on your own."
Before you knew it, you were outside your apartment. You don't even remember walking there but you hazily twisted the doorknob, stepped in, locked the door, and crashed on the couch with a beer can in hand. Taking a swig you looked at the tamagotchi now hanging from the ring around your wrist. With a hesitation, you thumbed the power button, turning it on.
In your hand was now a floating menu, with the title "Life Reset Tamagotchi" on it. You couldn't see where it was coming from, but shrugged as you clicked it. Magic was real, so why would he doubt this. A pop-up appeared as if reading his thoughts.
"Welcome to the Life Reset Tamagotchi menu. This device is able to give you the life of your dreams. Raise a new self as if you were a new person! Keep track of your needs and ensure that you become the best version of yourself that you imagined.
"This works like a game. You first make a 'body goal' to transform into. Set a time period, choose some characteristics, and your life will be reset into the most ideal conditions for those characteristics. If you're unsure what to make yourself into, we have a variety of preset templates you can modify to your liking. Remember that your original body is permanently preset, though what you decide as your original body is based on what your soul feels. If you'd like to skip time, don't fret! You'll have every memory you would have had in between, and it'll be like waking up, in case you don't want to wait for years for yourself to grow up (reminder that time skipping makes memories based on characteristic auto pilot, for the best experience, please live life manually).
"Nobody will see this screen or this tamagotchi except for you, now that it's bound to your soul. Enjoy the Life Reset Tamagotchi features! Be the best version of yourself, all the time."
You scrolled through the options. There were so many templates, he didn't know what to choose. Did he even want to live in the current era? But first thing first, you needed to test this thing and see if it actually works. Your doubts about magics existence were now quelled, but its effectiveness? You'd have to see this for yourself. As you pressed "Start" a customization menu popped up.
Time Period: (A pop-up appeared: "If you want to time skip, use the arrows on the tamagotchi device separate from this screen and you'll see yourself grow up in real time!)
Name:
Gender:
Profession:
Body Stats... (Here you see a list of options for the body, like hair color, eye color, body dimensions, etc. It was rather extensive, including even his penis shape. Almost violating, huh.)
You, Steven Walker, wondered to yourself. What would be a good form to test if this thing works?