I hung up the phone without waiting for Orion to respond. We were in a state of unofficial crisis response nationally which mandated I hurry. Some in the government, according to my dad, believed this to be an attack by a foreign nation but I generally disagreed. What could someone possibly use as a vector to induce shared hallucinations? Getting shared hallucinations to occur was most frequently a result of a massive, overwhelming shared experience and social pressure. I hadn’t experienced anything of the sort, and certainly hadn’t been exposed to any possible transmission vector that could’ve also affected a US Senator all the way in DC.
I was forced to consider the unlikely, then. As we have no known reference for how these wisps appeared, or how some people suddenly gained an extra layer of perception, with a natural equivalent to being able to see more wavelengths of light, the base assumption falls to the supernatural. I pulled my phone back out and updated my rapidly growing network of notes, highlighting ‘supernatural causes’ as an important idea. I had long since optimized my note taking structure, something which gave me a great advantage in sleuthing out connections between ideas. Expectedly, I didn’t have many notes on things related to the operation of seemingly supernatural events due to their general lack of credibility, which meant that I didn’t have enough information to build anything more than a preliminary conclusion.
I didn’t know much about this new phenomenon at all actually. No one did. I only knew this much because my dad was a close friend of the senator who started seeing things, who told him what was going on. Another thought occurred to me, and I moved to take notes again. If I maintain a base assumption of causality, a sudden change must have a motive force. What was that trigger?
The only way something like this could happen under known physics would be some kind of chance mutation, or hallucination but I didn’t think either of those were very likely. Shared hallucinations separated by vast distances? Unlikely. A chance mutation letting some see an unknown spectrum is also exceedingly unlikely, and the physics defying properties of the wisps further defeats that idea. A supernatural origin then. I can’t really rule out anything in that case. I need to get someone to cross reference historical calendars and known myths and legends. However, I don’t think that’s likely. Not enough fire and brimstone and dueling gods for any calamity or portent of doom I am aware of.
I quickly typed out ‘cause likely atemporal’ in my notes, before continuing to think. Working from that assumption, that only left some random supernatural catalyst for this event as a cause. I noted that idea down quickly, before standing up from the green copper of the outdoor seats. I hadn’t left campus in the twenty or so minutes since I left Orion to his suffering, expecting him to contact me again soon.
Frankly, he didn’t look like the kind of guy who paid much attention to his surroundings, and I didn’t trust him to lead the discussion anywhere productive. I’d be the one to push him in a direction that could get him the information he needs to be a useful source of knowledge. I paused my thoughts and note taking as I walked south, heading towards the center of campus. After we met, I decided I’d take us somewhere out of the way to talk. I’d been advised to keep discussion of this to a minimum, at least until government officials made a statement about it. It would be unwise to spread uncertainty and confusion, muddling the waters before things could be clarified.
It was a few minutes later when Orion arrived at the commons where I was waiting. I noticed him immediately, because he literally glowed. Where most people had only a faint colored aura around them, he formed a distinct but vague halo around him. It was incredibly obvious and let me pick him out of the crowd from a distance. It was stronger than his aura was earlier when I met him, even. This was effective confirmation for my theory: something about the nature of this transformation was indicated by these auras and colored lights. Check to see if there’s correlations between aura colors and personal traits. Perhaps they play a role? He quickly noticed me, and I signaled him to come over with a wave.
“Maria you’re colorful too! I mean- you have the weird colored aura thing as well.”
“Yes, I do. Follow me and I’ll lead us somewhere we can talk privately. In the meantime, tell me what- if anything- you’ve figured out.”
“Shouldn’t you be telling me stuff first? So, I can know what’s going on?”
“No. My hope is that you have discovered things that I don’t know, and I do not wish to skew what you may say by telling you what we think we know. So, speak.”
“Alright.” He folded instantly. Either he’s a pushover, which would be unfortunate, or what I said makes sense to him. Ideally, he would be part of the second group, but I can make do either way. “Let’s see… today was a normal day, I woke up kind of late, headed to class, got a killer headache, and left. I walked around for a few minutes, then bumped into you, and then started seeing weird colors floating through the air and also some weird aura around me. You have one too, but most other people don’t have one that’s strong enough to be easily visible. I noticed that aura stuck a little closer to people’s heads on some people, and no-one had none at all. Actually, what color do you see my aura as?”
“A sunset color, with a bit more red and yellow in it.”
“And your aura feels harsh and gray, like steel. That the color you see?”
“Yes.” Clever. Checking to make sure we see the same things is a pretty good way to check we’re not hallucinating vividly. A good sign.
“You know, you could talk a bit more. Make this a little more comfortable.” He gave a small nervous laugh, obviously unbalanced by my laconic speech.
“I could, but I -we’re crossing here- am trying to influence your thoughts as little as possible, remember?”
“Right, fine. Other than that, I guess some people’s auras just feel a little different? Like yours feels cold, in a weird way, and seems to move a little differently than mine. I also haven’t seen your aura emit any of those floating particles either, mine seems more reactive, I guess.”
“Interesting. Anything else?”
“No, I think that’s it.”
“Thank you. Before we move into analysis, I will share the information that I have with you so you can participate fully. What I know currently is that this is not a local phenomenon. At approximately 04:37 this morning, at least 3 people across America experienced an escalating headache that eventually cleared leaving them with these hallucinations. I’m updated on the situation because the New York Senator, Everett Callahan, a friend of my dad, experienced something similar to us, with my experience occurring shortly after receiving the news. It seems to be a relatively rare occurrence, though there isn’t a way to get an accurate measure this early on. Other than that, we have between the two of us seemingly verified that we are, in fact, probably not victims of personal hallucinations. I am currently leaning towards this being a supernatural event, or at least forces undiscovered by known physics. The catalyst is unclear, as are the effects, but that is why I approached you. I am hoping to understand what is going on, and, if possible, take advantage.”
“That sounds great and all, but I don’t know how much help I can be. You seem pretty capable of figuring this stuff out on your own.”
I shrugged casually, consciously relaxing and becoming a bit more informal. I needed to change course somewhat to get him to relax and contribute a bit more independently. “There is a chance I could, but it’s always better to hedge your bets. Especially since I don’t know how common this condition is, or even what it does, each and every person could be extraordinarily valuable, or worthless. My intuition is telling me that it will be closer to the first.”
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Orion paused and thought for a moment, before beginning to nod, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” before lapsing into silence. I was content to let him think for a moment, so I just continued to lead on. He seems clever enough to be of use, and privacy will be helpful and appreciated. “We’re here.” I announced as I punched in the code to the keypad.
My residence was the size of a larger condo or small house and fell in the part of the city where architects weren’t really sure if they were in an urban area or suburbs yet, leaving the buildings to blur and clash at random. The place was decorated in what was supposedly a minimalist contemporary style. I didn’t choose any of it myself though, the interior designer my family used was more than willing to design this whole college-adjacent residence for her usual rate. Though, with recent events as they were, I found it increasingly unlikely that I was going to finish out college here.
“So, this is your place then?” Orion gave a low whistle. “Pretty nice, but why’re we here?”
I turned to him with a flat look. “I don’t intend to make a fool of myself trying to figure out what’s going on in public, do you?” He shrugged but didn’t retort. “I thought so. Now, you said something about our auras feeling different. Elaborate, please.”
“You don’t notice it? It’s really hard to explain- almost like tasting with your eyes. Like the auras have different flavors. I can’t really be more precise than that.”
Interesting. I can feel something similar now that I’m paying attention. It’s very weak though. Perhaps he’s more sensitive to these changes than I am? “Interesting. How strong is the feeling?”
“The feeling’s pretty noticeable, but not overwhelming. It was almost impossible to sense anything in any of the people we passed, but that was probably because they barely had any aura at all. They still gave off the occasional particle though.”
I looked up at him as he said that, confused. “You mean those floating particles come from people?”
“Yeah? Every once in a while, one peels off of someone’s aura and floats around a bit. I haven’t seen any get absorbed yet though, but I almost got a few back in my dorm.”
“You did what, exactly?”
“What do you mean?”
“Orion… the wisps go through solid objects, with no discernible resistance. They should pass through you just as easily. In fact-“ I swiped my hand through one of the few wisps floating through the room, “I can’t interact with them at all. Why can you.”
“I don’t know. When my headache cleared back in my dorm everything was a bit fuzzy except for this weird urge to try and grab them.”
“Show me,” I demanded. He stood up and spun around looking for a wisp. There weren’t many here, much fewer than on campus. Figure out why that is. If he’s right about people’s auras emitting them, it’s probably because there’s far fewer people here, but I’ll need to verify that. Finding a wisp, Orion walked over and batted at a pinkish one like some grumpy cat, sending it flying through the wall.
“Why can you touch them, and I can’t?”
“I think it’s something to do with our auras,” replied Orion, “that’s what seems to interact with the wisps for me. Whenever I grab one of ‘em all the resistance comes from melding it with my aura, until eventually it just slips out and flies away.”
“That makes sense, if these wisps don’t seem to interact with physical matter it follows that our just auras can because they’re not physical either. If they’re made of a similar material or energy, their ability to interact seems logical. The only issue is, I can’t do it myself.” I gave a swipe through another wisp, which seemed to have almost no effect.
Orion squinted before saying, “Actually, I think you changed its course slightly. Deflected it a bit. Try again maybe?”
I gave it another try and saw that he was right. This time, the wisp got deflected a noticeable amount. I gave it another try, swinging through it and this time sent it flying pretty hard. The wisps responded a different amount all 3 times, despite similar force being applied. “What changed between attempts?” I asked, “I did the same thing all three times.”
“Hell if I know,” replied Orion, “I’m gonna mess with them for a sec and see if I can figure it out.”
“Alright. Go ahead.”
Orion grabbed one of the wisps gently, holding it in his hand. “I can actually faintly feel a weight now that I’m paying attention. It’s got mass, or some equivalent.” Without warning, he spun towards me and tossed it. “Catch.”
I startled, surprised, but caught it on instinct. I gave him a firm glare. “Let’s not toss the unknown supernatural phenomena at eachother without warning.” I looked down at my hand, where I was holding the wisp. “But I suppose this time, I can forgive it. No harm, no foul, and I can grab it too.”
Orion winced, “Yeah, sorry, wasn’t really thinking. Just wanted to see if I could and I acted without thinking. On the other hand, I think I figured out what’s going on.”
I blinked. “What part of throwing a wisp at me helped you figure that out?”
“Yeah, well you expected to catch a thrown object, so you did.” He looked at me like it was obvious, which I did not appreciate.
“Explain now, please.”
“I was thinking to myself, ‘what changed between each attempt’ and couldn’t think of anything physical. I supposed it could be random chance, but it seemed more likely that something else was at play. Then I realized that these auras seem to reflect the people they’re on to some degree. I mean, sorry, but your kind of cold and very straightforward, and your aura feels like metal and fluorescent lights. I figured that if they somehow mirrored the person, perhaps they could be affected by our thoughts, so I threw one at you hoping you would expect to catch it. Watch this.”
Orion swiped his hand through a wisp and didn’t affect it at all. “I didn’t expect to touch it, so I didn’t.” He swiped his hand back through and knocked it through the air. “This stuff- or at least our auras- reacts to our thoughts.”
After a moment’s consideration, I gave him a nod, before looking down at the wisp in my hands. “Let me try something then.” I willed the wisp to meld with my aura and saw that it pushed partway in before ejecting out into the air. Frowning, I gave it another try and saw similar results. On the fourth attempt, I looked up to see Orion frowning as he struggled to meld with a wisp of his own. Noting our lack of success, I considered other ways of doing this. My goal is to meld a wisp with my aura if that’s possible. I can also seemingly control the way my aura interacts with these particles. Perhaps more direct manipulation is possible.
After grabbing another of the dwindling wisps in the room, I focused, trying to envision my aura doing what I wanted. I wanted it to move, devouring the wisp like an amoeba. I couldn’t quite manage it. It didn’t feel like it was impossible, just beyond what I could do. Like curling a weight that was 10 or so pounds too heavy. You can feel it budge and move a bit, but you stall out after a moment.
Shifting tactics, I tried to envision something else. My aura would seep into the wisp, infecting it, before ‘softening’ and allowing the wisp to meld. I saw it working, the small green wisp shifting to resemble my own aura, before sinking in and merging.
I gasped slightly at the sensation. It felt odd- I can only describe it like a mix of caffeine and cleaning solution. My brain felt more awake, ready, and active, the cobwebs of sleepiness and a very faint headache I hadn’t even noticed clearing away. It wasn’t a particularly strong feeling, but it was noticeable. Just after I succeeded Orion shouted, “I did it! That’s a weird feeling though. I saw what you were doing with your aura and tried to copy it, and honestly, that’s better than caffeine. If I did that a bunch, I probably wouldn’t need to sleep. Actually, I’ll test that tonight. If I can replace sleep with this that’d easily add a few more hours to the day, which’d be useful on its own.”
We spent the next half hour or so experimenting but didn’t discover anything else important. We both became slightly faster at absorbing wisps, and that was all. I also suspected that our auras became slightly ‘fuller,’ by which I mean thicker and brighter, but we couldn’t tell if we were imagining it or not. However, by that point we had exhausted all the wisps in the area and there wasn’t anything appearing except for what we released every so often. As a result, we decided to call it a day and part ways.
“You have my card so please, if you figure out anything else, pass it along through message or email. With as many people working on figuring this stuff out as possible, we’d likely have a lot more success. In the meantime, I’m going to take a flight back home to help out my dad. Do you need me to help you get back to campus?”
“No, I’m alright. I can manage to get back just fine. I’ll let you know if I figure out anything new, as long as you keep me in the loop if anything interesting happens.”
“That’s agreeable. I’ll likely be back within the next week or so, but I can’t be sure. Depends on how much of an issue this becomes. Anything else?”
“No, I think that’s it. See ya soon then!” With that, Orion left, presumably heading back to campus as I sat down in front of my computer to update my notes on everything I now knew. I hoped to finish the notes fast enough to send them along to my dad so he could get updated before I got there, and hopefully give him the leverage he needed to stall any kind of government announcement until we knew more. Even if that failed, information and resources were what won every conflict, and I intended to make sure I was better informed and resourced than anyone else.