Chapter 4: The Lone Star Homecoming
Location: The Cooper Residence – Medford, East Texas
Date: February 21st, 1980
Status: Territory Acquisition
The 1978 station wagon groaned as it pulled into the gravel driveway of 5501 Medford Ave. The Texas heat, even in February, was a stagnant, heavy weight—a far cry from the filtered, climate-controlled sterility of the Pasadena hospital. Inside the car, the air was a thick soup of lavender baby powder, George Sr.'s sweat, and the pungent metallic scent of Sheldon's first bout of motion sickness.
Sheldon was in a state of total sensory collapse. The vibration of the car's uneven tires against the asphalt had triggered a vestibular mismatch in his highly sensitive inner ear.
I looked at my brother. His aura was a Frantic, Jagged Yellow. He was seconds away from a sonic eruption that would likely rupture George Sr.'s patience. I decided to intervene.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: PERFECT PITCH]
[ACTION: HUMMING RESONANCE — 174 Hz]
I opened my tiny mouth and let out a low, steady thrum. It wasn't a cry; it was a pure sine wave, specifically tuned to 174 Hz—a frequency known in my 2026 data as a "solfeggio frequency" that alleviates physical tension.
The effect was instantaneous. The low-frequency vibration of the car's engine seemed to be canceled out by my hum. Sheldon's eyes went wide, his gasping breath hitching as his nervous system recalibrated. Mary, who had been white-knuckling the headrest, suddenly let out a long, shuddering sigh.
"Do you hear that, George?" she whispered. "Ethan is... singing. It's like a little angel."
"I don't care what it is," George muttered, wiping his brow. "As long as it keeps the other one from blowing out my eardrums."
[QUEST COMPLETED: THE CALM IN THE STORM]
[REWARD: +15 REP WITH MARY COOPER; +5 REP WITH SHELDON COOPER]
[SKILL UPGRADE: 'SONIC ARCHITECTURE (LVL 1)']
The Threshold
George Sr. hauled the triplets inside in a massive, triple-wide stroller that looked like it belonged in a tank museum. As we crossed the threshold, the System flared with a familiar golden light.
[DAILY SIGN-IN PROTOCOL: AVAILABLE]
[LOCATION: THE COOPER FAMILY HOME – TEXAS]
[ACTION: SIGN IN?]
Sign in.
[SIGN-IN SUCCESSFUL!]
[REWARD: +5 CHARISMA (BABY FAT MODIFIER)]
[REWARD: NEW TRAIT: 'PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (S-RANK)']
[REWARD: MONEY: $2,500.00 (HIDDEN TRUST FUND ACCOUNT)]
[REWARD: ITEM: 'THE ARCHITECT'S PACIFIER' (Enchanted: Increases Focus by 25%)]
A massive surge of data flooded my mind. The [Photographic Memory] at S-Rank didn't just allow me to remember things; it allowed me to "record" the world in raw, uncompressed 8K quality. Every crack in the ceiling, every pattern on the floral wallpaper, and every chemical ingredient in the brisket George Sr. had left in the fridge was now etched permanently into my cortex.
Meemaw (Constance Tucker) was already there, leaning against the kitchen counter with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other (which Mary promptly swatted away). Her aura was a Sparkling, Shrewd Silver.
"Let me see 'em," Meemaw said, her voice like gravel and velvet. She looked at Sheldon, then Missy, then finally at me. She stopped. "Well, hey there, Moonpie #3. You've got a look in your eye like you're already planning to tax my gambling winnings."
I gave her a slow, deliberate wink.
Meemaw nearly dropped her beer. "Mary! Did you see that? This kid just winked at me!"
"He's just got gas, Mama," Mary said, though her eyes lingered on me with a growing sense of wonder.
Night One: The Nursery
That night, I was placed in a wooden crib shared with Sheldon. Missy had her own pink one across the room. The System interface flickered as I surveyed the environment. It was inefficient. The mobile above the crib was off-center, and the humidity was too high for optimal lung development.
[SYSTEM SHOP: OPENED]
[CURRENT BALANCE: $2,600.00]
[PURCHASE: 'INFANT LINGUISTICS & QUANTUM PRIMER (DIGITAL)']
[COST: $500.00]
The knowledge didn't just appear; it was uploaded. My [Neural Plasticity] worked overtime. By the time the clock struck midnight, I had the vocabulary of a three-year-old and the basic understanding of the Schrödinger Equation.
I turned to Sheldon, who was staring at a glow-in-the-dark star on the ceiling. I whispered, my voice a tiny, vocal-chord-calibrated rasp: "The star is a fusion reactor, Sheldon. It follows the laws of thermodynamics. Try to keep up."
Sheldon blinked, his tiny infant brain sparking with a confusion that would define his childhood.
[ETHAN COOPER - ATTRIBUTES]
Intelligence: 15 (Prodigy Status)
Charisma: 10 (System Buff)
Perception: 12 (Photographic Recall Active)
Luck: 7