***
“Hopefully you assholes can hear me loud and clear over these cars about to hit me—because this is pretty much all of your fault~”
Maddie pointed her small finger at her phone camera’s lens, cocking her tan hand on its side.
Uncaring about walking outside of the passenger pathway on the Tedworth Bridge. Scrolling so close to the outside railing, getting not only sandwiched between the speeding vehicles, but being buffeted by the sudden wind gusts as they soar by.
She was so ready for the pissed-off, drive-by honks that she fixed her curly, black hair after flipping off the more notable ones. Tough guys with their kids in the backseat and wives hugging their roided-out arms, acting like they wanted to start something, like they were gonna stomp Maddie out. Not only did Maddie curse 'em out like the bozos they were, she accurately pointed that if they were so badass—why do they have their entire houses on the back of their shitty Sudan, running for the hills? And every time, they drove off all huffy.
It gave Maddie life. It made her shit-eating grin grow across her dumb, freckled face.
“You Extant people, maybe the government or something, whatever--everyone pretty much figured that you guys triggered this shit somehow. Some secret lab shit that you accidentally dropped a test tube in or pressed a button. But again, everyone knows that.”
She had to turn down the shit-talking now, Maddie looked ahead as the cars were starting to bunch up momentarily, only peeling off after a solid minute of city-level traffic congestion.
It's just crazy to see, for Maddie. You could see the entire person’s life, barely hanging on as they kept driving, not looking back. Count the people that lived with them, almost figure out their living conditions damn near.
But the insane part was them just fucking leaving. Tail tucked firmly between their ass cheeks, sweating their balls off, and for what? The slight chance of living on some sci-fi island until this fantasy bullshit blows over? Abandoning—throwing everything they knew away, on some vain hope? Maddie’s the dumbest, ghetto backwater motherfucker there is—and even she knew that there was no hope here. Whatever this shit is, it’s coming and it’s not going away. And it’s going to break everything regardless, so why bother?
The girl had to shake her head, pouting now with lowered eyes. Fuck. She hated getting emotional for literally no reason—and it’s on camera too.
She had someone to curse out for that, at least.
“Let’s get this outta the way, this is fucking stupid, what I’m doing here. But it’s life. I either do this with a choice, or I get erased out of existence by space waves. Fuck, I close my eyes one night and that’s it, because guess what—half of the Earth’s swallowed up by a black hole that just formed by you-know-who. I’m fucked! We’re fucked.”
And her cocky-ass smile returned and her brown eyes flared to life again. Maddie felt so much better, after that.
With that energy, she waited. Waited until there was enough of a gap between the surge of cars, to the bridge being bare.
And once that happened, the small girl walked into the middle of the bridge, and proceeded to sit down, with crossed legs. Black boots against her dark jeans.
As she positioned her phone forward and in front of her, Maddie had the peripheral view of the next row of cars speeding towards her. Whoever’s first was clearly not able to see her yet as the rumbling became unbearable, and seemingly was getting faster by the second.
Perfect scenario to trigger siVis, Maddie figured.
“So! Let’s just get this bullshit over with, shall we~?” Maddie’s grin wavered more than her voice in that moment.
***
A security cam captured the small, Asian girl that was slowly climbing her way towards it.
The people witnessing Aiko were talking a lot more compared to her, as she continued to scale the building with curt laughter.
She heard it all before. “Are you crazy?!”, “Stop it!”, “Call someone, please!” Aiko loved climbing, compared to the other athletics she often does. You have to pay attention, and pouring all that attention perfectly mutes the other senses.
Wasn’t this siVis thing include amplifying the senses…? Aiko pondered that briefly, putting her worn sneakers on the crumbling window stool. So grateful that the brick wall was the weird type that was not only wide, but that oddly “puffy” structure to them, giving the perfect grip for her gloves.
While she was immediately done thinking about whatever it was, the pause served as a great boon. Aiko felt the pull of gravity, the sudden sense of vertigo she never had pop up—like every other height-based stunt. Feeling her massive hiking pack add to the tipping scales, the sweat pooling from her back—ruining her Oto-san’s tacky tourist shirt further.
She. Lived. For these moments.
And as she stared upward toward her goal, Aiko grinned at the excitement of everything that she’s done, about to be taken to the next level.
Aiko never paid attention to why the skies started fluttering, with the influence of these Shifts. Didn’t really care until the various possibilities of gaining something out of them. And here she was, faced with the now grey skies shuddering to the point of lancing outwards, randomly.
“Oh, don’t you worry…” Aiko’s eyes were already stinging to the point of irritated tears. “I meet you or I fall doing so; we’re going to make this something to remember!”
Cue the mother of all anti-climaxes, a buzzing phone in her cargo short’s pocket, causing Aiko to blink—and the tears forced away in her wake.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Oh yeah,” Aiko audibly shrugged, training her sight back to her new insurmountable goal. “I have to also remember to get caught, too… I’ll try to keep it in mind this time.”
She resumed her climbing pose against the brick wall, waiting for her gloves to regain their tight grip.
“…Again—" the Japanese girl at least tried to be aware of herself and others. This time.
Regardless, as Aiko tried to hoist herself forward, she felt her very insides begin to churn and twist in ways she never thought possible, and instantly knew that this was something completely foreign. New. Dangerous.
She couldn’t have been more excited, as she slipped in and out of consciousness.
***
… I wish I summoned the words that I’m typing right now, telling you this face to face
River immediately backspaced the entire paragraph. Even behind a screen that was filming her, and being able to choose her words, she still managed to flub actual text.
She sighed. And despite that release of air, River’s body felt tighter. Heavier.
The shaggy, hazel-colored-haired girl tabbed out of the Notepad app on her laptop. The keys so steeped in gunk, and the touchpad lopsided on the left side due to the multiple years of needing to switch over.
SIVIS DISCOVERIES 2017 WEEK 15: How NOT To Be Apart of Meredith’s Living Art Exhibit
Ways To Get siVis w/o Killing Yourself (50th Revision – Permalocked)
Lady With “Massive Hole On Back” siVis: Her Life After Crisis
What Science Officials… THINK Happens With Shift Warping On the Body
She read these threads on the forum over and over again. It’s like the idea of… Trying to find something within the house. You look in the same room over 15 times, the same spots on the couch. Just trying to manifest the lost keys or something out of thin air, when you know it’s not there.
So River realized she’s done nothing for a number of minutes, at this point.
Another sigh filled her barely lit room, as she tabbed back to the Notepad.
I’m going out to gain siVis, with… Cohorts. Yeah, I get that this is dangerous, and not at all what you guys think of me, but when you think about it… It is me.
I know you guys think of me as smart, strong, dedicated… But I’m not.
In fact, I don’t
River backspaced the last word, shaking her head.
In fact, I never understood why you all put so much faith in me, think of all those things of me. A person that just does what she’s told, barely talking to you all, not doing anything with her life… That’s not smart. Not strong. Not good
Sza?”W:zxs/:””””””””””””””””””””””””>
She had her hands planted on her clammy, sweaty face—with her elbows planted on the keyboard. Pushing her barely-intact square glasses up her forehead, parting her fingers so she looked on the mess on the screen.
Rising her elbows away, the portly girl let her fingers move of their own accord.
god im so fucking worthless, stupid, weak
unlike actual superheroes, powers wont change a damn thing
River had to erase all of that, and she did.
Hey Mama, Papa, Roland
My old friends, they… We’ve reconnected recently. I wanna meet up with them. I’ll try to get back before the Meta Crisis forms, but if all else fails, we’ll find a local shelter—if the fluctuations they’ve projected get that bad. I know that’s scary and I would wanna be with you all… But at least I’ll be together with other loved ones.
Try not to worry about me. Love you all.
River wondered how even sighing, usually a reprieve for the stress that built up, she felt so much aching.
***
“Okay… I’m Tracy. My name is Tracy Ulyssa Goodwin. You’re Tracy Baldwin.”
The young woman patted at her thigh about seventy times already. Tracy gulped, as her usual pep talk didn’t work in the slightest.
In the middle of the sidewalk, people coasting her side-by-side, mostly passively—some pointedly aggressively.
“You’re Tracy Goodwin, woman,” the redheaded girl shuddered out, under her breath. “You headlined a show at the age of 12 years old—ran for 4 seasons! Everyone still knows your name, because they—you had the foresight to use your actual first name. Like Will Smith! Now you’re eternal…”
It was odd, how her searching, paranoid eyes were between extremes. So doughy in shape, glassy-green eyes shined with such brilliance—and yet looked as if she were a deer in headlights that her eyes seemed overly stretched at points.
“You could force them to do what you want—” Tracy caused her hands to shoot up near the sides of her head, frozen in craven body language. “What’s stopping you from doing that? What’s stopping you from doing the mission at hand in the first place? What has always stopped you, outside of life conspiring against you at every—single—step of the way? You. You, Tracy… So, get it out of the way. Do it.”
She didn’t move an inch. The strength of the words she conjured for herself, ended up weighing her down.
Her painted nails dug into the sleeves of her puffy, white sweater, pulling them down to her sweating palms. Her widened eyes only looked forward, was too scared and now too aware that people had begun to gather, gawking at her.
Cue the trademark, “Tracy has no other option” nervous tick. So significant compared to the others, because it’s the only tick that the woman bothers to do since she winds up too nervous to perform the others.
Tracy chewed on her lip, without warning or remorse. Uncaring how the process stained her white teeth with lip gloss. Uncaring how it was nagging the previously healing scars that laid beneath said lip gloss. Trembling in place, as there’s a crowd now.
She prided herself, on being one of the child stars that didn’t spiral for so long. Irrelevance be damned…
As she suddenly stopped shaking, and stopped chewing, Tracy let out a harrowing scream that contained despair, and pain, rattling with the little hinges she had left. Adding in head weaving left to right for extra flair.
“Okay, okay, okay!”
Tracy tampered off her wails into short, yet just as crazed hyperventilating panting. Turning, before grabbing her redhaired head with her shaking hands, at the two white-armored males that arrived on the scene.
“Ma’am—what is wrong--?!”
“What isn’t wrong?!” Tracy added a lilt in her terrified yet offended tone. “You walk up to me—you don’t recognize me?! This world is wrong! IT’S WRONG I TELL YOU--!”
“Just tell us—”
“I’LL TELL YOU WHAT--!” Tracy slammed herself against the pecs of the Enforcer. “I’M NOT SAFE—NO ONE IS! PLEASE—PLEASE TAKE ME AWAY BEFORE IT’S ALL TOO LATE! WHO AM I KIDDING, IT ALREADY IIIIIS--!”
“At worse, this slight disturbance of the Shift will cause only localized Noumena to spawn,” the Enforcer grabbed Tracy by the shoulders. “Nothing to worry about. Evac will start rolling out in a matter of days, Extant has been monitoring this disaster for years—”
“i can’t sleep,” Tracy put her head against the chest plate, opting for a soft-voiced lead for a breakdown, as her voice is already raw due to the screaming. “w-why can’t you people understand, after calling you countless times—i can’t sleep anymore. i-i don’t even remember sleeping… i-im not safe, im gonna—”
“Okay, okay…” the other Enforcer walked forward, with a hand raised in concern. “We’ll get you the help you need. Come with us and we’ll take you to the nearest—”
“No—nowhere near here—” Tracy injected desperation, to sweeten the deal. “It’s going to happen here, please, far away as—”
“We’re going to the furthest base we have stationed,” the officer assured. “Practically at your town’s limits. Okay?”
Tracy nodded. They and the people surrounding her, filming with their phones, didn’t know as she answered… While this wasn’t the original plan, the woman dug up her actual feelings of unease. Panic. And slight insanity that she really needed to take care of, Tracy spooking herself with that performance…
But considering what those girls remind her of, what they bring to the surface. What they ultimately represent to her, about a life she tried so hard in running away from.
“Okay,” Tracy responded, clearly not.
***