Congratulations!
[Earth] has finally reached the minimum level of ambient mana that is required to support integration into the wider cosmos. According to scans, [Earth] has one species capable of higher reasoning and thought. That's a higher number than [ERROR]% of planets! If you can understand this message, then you must be part of the species [Human]. Lucky you!
IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SPECIES [Human] AND ARE RECEIVING THIS MESSAGE, CONTACT YOUR DESIGNATED LOCAL SUPPORT HUB WITHIN THE NEXT [8] SECONDS.
To support the integration of [Humans] into the greater cosmos, the... [ERROR]
[retrieving appropriate term from species database...]
[culturally relevant term found]
To support the integration of [Humans] into the greater cosmos, the System has been made available to you! Yes, you! As well as all other [Humans], but also you! The System will help you integrate mana into your [carbon-based flesh bodies], as well as taking on the burden of datamining your [brains] and determining what your affinities are. This process has a [68%] casualty rate when performed on [Human] simulators. You're welcome!
NOTE: Due to a lack of data on [Human] affinity compatibility, the System has provided a series of tests and challenges to weed out inefficient affinities before official integration. There are even puzzles! Fun!
NOTE NOTE: [Human] simulators have shown that most desirable reactions occur when the System is using Language Filter [387-B]. This filter is meant to encourage positive reactions in [highly empathetic] [needy] [easily scared] [squishy] living organisms. Look how you're being taken care of! Wow! Please share your positive responses with other [Humans].
…What?
I’m not dead. For a second, I feel almost giddy with relief. Then I notice there is a floating text box in front of my eyes. Also the sky is green.
…Maybe I am dead. I don’t remember it, but maybe it happened too fast or something. I was falling, then all of a sudden I stopped and now I’m just in midair and I can’t move. The waves are still crashing below me - they’re rather loud now, and they sound like they are right behind my head. The rain is still falling too, which considering the whole sky color situation is a weird sight to see. I guess all those religions were wrong. In the afterlife, you’re immobile and the sky is green. There are also text boxes that tell you things that don’t make sense. Greater cosmos? System? And mana? Like some sort of video game… is that how ghosts use their powers? I’m probably a ghost now, so I don’t have muscles to move with, so maybe I need to learn how to use mana to be able to move.
Congratulations!
The regulation-mandated waiting period is over! You survived! You can finally get assessed by the system!
Beginning datamining process now…
The most intense pain I’ve ever experienced blooms in my skull. Whatever was holding me in place releases me at the same time. For an instant I think I’m about to get sent back to hurtling to my death and the fear resurges, but I drop into the water before I can even be truly afraid. Whatever stopped me must have somehow gotten to me a split second before I hit the surface and gotten rid of all my momentum without me feeling a thing - which should be impossible. I can’t think of it any longer though because now I’m floundering in the water and my clothes are dragging me down, all while it feels like an ice pick is being driven in through the back of my neck into my head. I scream out from the pain instinctually and water comes rushing into my lungs. I kick frantically and push myself through the surface of the water.
I only have enough time to cough out the water and take a single breath before a wave crashes down on me, pushing me under with the sheer weight of it.
The pain is unbearable now. I taste blood in my mouth from where I’ve bitten my tongue, although it quickly gets washed out with water. The competing urges to curl up into the fetal position and claw for air fight against each other, but flickers of black soon encroach on my vision as I desperately struggle. Slowly my kicks get weaker and my vision starts to fade.
For the second time today, I realize I’m about to die.
Congratulations!
Your datamining process has been completed! You survived! Yay!
Beginning affinity selection process…
Summarize results from datamining? [Y/N]
I slowly come to awareness. The glowing unmoored text box in a void of black is the first thing I notice. The second is that the burning hunger for oxygen is gone, as is the drilling pain I was experiencing in my… last moments. I can no longer feel my body, so maybe this time I am dead… or I died when I jumped and this has all come after that.
Yeah... I have no idea what is going on.
I float there for a little bit. The only thing I can do is look at the screen in front of me. The bottom line of text draws my gaze and holds it. Even if I am going crazy, so what? At this point, I figure, I might as well engage.
I try to say ‘Yes’, but I don’t think I have a voice anymore. This causes an appropriate amount of confused panic, but, really, there is only so long you can maintain a heightened state when nothing threatening is happening. If the only agency I have is through thinking, then maybe I have to think it?
Stolen novel; please report.
Feeling a little dumb, I try and think as hard as I can ‘Yes’.
It's good that you are taking an interest!
Datamining results:
Name: Kira Uhrmacher
Age: 22
Predicted Lifespan Prior to System Arrival: [ERROR]
Predicted Lifespan Post-Integration: Potentially Forever! (Look at the difference the System makes! Aren't you grateful?)
A sick feeling rises up inside of me. I guess that [ERROR] message means that not even an - AI? it seems like an AI - not even an AI expected me to be around for whatever it is that just happened.
Affinities found!
Displaying affinities with compatibilies above 20%...
Affinity
Affinity Type
Estimated Percent Compatibility
Time
Metaphysical/Abstract
88%
Water
Elemental
56%
Darkness
Elemental/Abstract
22%
Please select an affinity now!
NOTE: When datamining the [brain], a lack of basic knowledge was noted. If you would like more information about affinities, please declare it in the next [8] seconds.
Wait, time, water, and darkness? And what’s an affinity type? Scratch that, what’s an affinity?
[7]
Oh, shit. Yes! Wait, ‘Yes! I want more information.’
Processing request…
Affinities affect or ‘color’ your mana. For example, if your mana has an affinity for water, then you can use it to control water! Also, not all affinities are equally powerful! Potential affinities are both determined at birth and developed through life experiences. Just because you have the potential for multiple affinities however, that doesn’t mean your [carbon-based flesh body] can bear the strain of them! The first affinity you adopt will color your mana the most strongly. As you get stronger, you might be able to adopt even more affinities. Wow! As part of the privilege of going through Integration, you have been given the opportunity to choose which affinity you would like to adopt! This also acts as a protection mechanism. In the Post-Integration universe, those with unaffiliated mana are unable to retain any mana at all and are at a severe disadvantage. That means you have to choose one now! If you don’t like your options, that’s too bad! You should have done something different with your life!
[Time]: Those who nurture their affinities for time can develop abilities to see, manipulate, and move through time. Those who can bear the weight of time and reach for more are able to draw from the collective perception of time.
[Water]: Those with a water affinity can feel and control water, also known as H2O. As they grow in strength, so too does their control and power, with those at the pinnacle able to control entire planets of water and create oceans at a whim.
[Darkness]: Those with a darkness affinity possess a myriad of abilities, some that draw power from the physical absence of light and some that draw upon the collective weight of thousands of species’ perceptions and fears about the dark.
NOTE: The System has detected the potential for affinities with [Abstract] properties. Due to the request for additional information, this NOTE serves as a warning that adopting affinities with [Abstract] properties may also subject you to certain requirements or penalties due to their nature.
NOTE NOTE: Due to the request for additional information, this NOTE NOTE serves as a warning that the mana tainting process has a higher likelihood of success when the subject has a high compatibility with the selected affinity.
Please select an affinity now!
My mental eyes grow wider as I read through the descriptions. Okay so, in the greater cosmos or whatever, magic is a thing. Your affinities determine what type of mana you have and what you can do. Water is pretty obvious, I could become a waterbender, although it looks like the power cap is way higher. Darkness… I mean I’ve seen enough media where people have shadow abilities to get a picture. The Abstract part is a bit weird though… what kind of fears is it referring to? And time? Would I be a time traveler then? Could I go… back?
I mean, I did always want to be a waterbender. But my eyes keep getting drawn to the description for time. It feels a bit different from the other two. For one, it says I have to ‘nurture’ my ability and ‘bear the weight’.
I float there, in the black void with the only thing I can see a blue box containing the path I’m going to take for the rest of my life. I’ve never been good at making decisions, and the fact that in Post-Integration lifespans are ‘potentially forever’ means whatever choice I make now I’ll have to live with… forever.
This is not the best time to be paralyzed by indecision. Or maybe it is? Gah, I don’t want to make the wrong choice. And what counts as a high likelihood of success? Why would it even show me Darkness if I’m going to fail when adopting it. What does failure even entail? Somehow, I think that going into Post-Integration with unaffiliated mana isn’t the worst outcome here.
My mind shudders as I recall the pain from the datamining. I was congratulated for surviving, and it did mention an insanely high casualty rate beforehand. Fuck.
Considering that, it’s not really a choice, is it? Or it is, but clearly the smartest choice is the safest choice. Besides, time travel has to be OP.
‘I choose Time.’
Affinity selection received!
[beginning affinity adoption process…]
[ERROR]
You do not meet the requirements to adopt this affinity!
REQUIREMENT NOT MET:
[As Time Passes By] You are intimately familiar with time. You have lived for over a century, and have witnessed the wheel turning and the decades passing. You know that time alone is eternal.
[aborting affinity adoption process…]
[ERROR]
[EXCEPTION FOUND]
REQUIREMENT MET:
[Passed Down Through the Centuries] Your ancestors worshiped and slaved at the altar of time. Although you are young, they instilled a respect for time in you. They prepared the groundwork. Now it is time for you to receive their legacy.
* This requirement satisfies conditions that require [As Time Passes By]
[continuing affinity adoption process…]
Intelligence requirement met!
Untainted mana requirement met!
[searching through data for qualifying event…]
[brush with time event found]
REQUIREMENT MET:
[In a Split Second] Although typically uncaring and cruel, time has smiled upon you. You have survived through an event where a split second was all the difference between life and death.
* You have gained the ability [Split Second]
[ABSTRACT REQUIREMENT]:
[Nothing But Time] After adopting the Time affinity, you will be unable to adopt any other affinities. From now until eternity, the only thing you have is Time.
Agree to [Nothing but Time]? [Y/N] [DECLINING REQUIREMENT WILL ABORT PROCESS]
I tamp down the panic that rose when I saw the aborting message. I might have almost just died. For the third time. I’m afraid I’m starting to see a trend.
The thing that stopped the process is… [Passed Down Through the Centuries]. Huh. I guess my grandfather always spoke about how he came from a line of watchmakers. Is that what it means by worshiping the altar of time? That’s a weird way to put it, but… thanks, Grandpa.
I mentally blink away nonexistent tears as I struggle to control what I am feeling. From upset to suicidal to afraid to confused back to afraid to being in pain to now being grateful… it’s been a long… however long it’s been.
Part of me was hoping I could pick up the other affinities after I got Time, but it seems like that isn’t going to happen. The thing is, how big of a burden is [Nothing But Time]? I hesitate, trying to think it through.
I could decline this and try to take Water or Darkness, but considering how I almost didn’t make it for 88% I don’t have high hopes for 56%, and definitely not 22%. I’m also sure that there isn’t a hidden line of sailors or fucking ninjas in my ancestry. I give a mental sigh.
Looks like it’s another choice that isn’t really much of a choice.
‘I agree.’
[processing agreement]
[affinity adoption process complete]