"Hey Maya, I just received a load of messages, what about you?" "Mmh, nothing, I don't have service right now.", Maya responded, "But let me see yours! Any breaking news, or something like that?" He pulled out his phone, scrolling through his notifications. At first there was a bunch of bloat new updates, people going live and of course random news his news app thought he was interested in.
The first thing of note was a message from Paul, "Did you hear that, voice in your head as well? It totally freaked me out. Everyone else around seemed to have heard it too." A few minutes later he sent another message, "Some guy gained a skill [More Time] doesn't seem to do shit though." A few group chats had exploded as well, but he lagged the time and patience to skim through hundreds or thousands of messages. Finally buried under the mountain of messages the announcement he wanted to hear, "Reports of a mysterious voice have surfaced all over the world", linking to a live ticker. Jannick quickly relayed his findings to Maya.
She raised an eyebrow, "[More Time] really, that seems like a fairly generic Dream, but I get his point." "You are not surprised by the fact, that everybody else heard the same thing?" "I just saw you turn into a bird and fly around, turn human again, only to pull out your smartphone like it was nothing just now. Having similar stuff happen all over is reliving, at least we are not turning crazy." "You're right, we are not turning crazy, everybody else is too."
Jannicks Phone beeped again, "Huh, apparently there was an announcement from the Vatican, they claim the message was from God. I mean God could certainly cause something like this." "Wait, don't miss the next sentence a lot of people claim their God or Gods are responsible.", Maya wisely read past the Headline. "I mean granting random people random powers according to Dreams doesn't really fit with the biblical god.", she added. "You are right there usually more healing, dreams, plagues or children going on he's big on kids not birds." "You don't know that, maybe there are like 10 offspring included in the deal.", Maya shot back. Jannick flinched, being a father of 10 seriously scared him.
Maya seeing his big reaction decided to change the topic, "I don't see any reports about skills yet. Maybe they are pretty rare?" "They probably just want to be 100% sure before, publishing something. You know how the public news are", Jannick theorized. "Want to check somewhere else? I'm really curious, what other people got." "Totally but let's go to the top proper first."
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"Hey, take a look someone posted a video of themselves using their skill.", Maya exclaimed. "Awesome, lemme see." Maya quickly nodded, flipped her phone and leaned in a little. Jannicks view ended up better as her own, he wasn't going to complain about that.
A skinny girl around sixteen years old, dressed in gym wear appeared on screen. Confidently she declared, "I'm Zara Strike." The subtitles faded away as the girl wiped around and started sprinted away. Trying hard to steady her breathing she shouted over her shoulder, "and this is my skill! [Speed]!" The moment the words left her lips. She took off, her sprint only a slow walk in comparison. The camera wiped around, trying to follow her, a digital zoom, but all it could only capture a blurry shade shrinking in the distance. A muffed voice shouted after her, "Dude! That was awesome!" The camera dropped towards the grass of the lawn and cut off.
"Oh. Wow, Zara Strike really?", Jannick complained. Mala shrugged: "I mean at least she didn't use her real name, and her Skill is way more interesting anyway?" "You're right, [Speed], it seems straight forward, she goes faster."
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"Oh, look at this one", Mala showed her screen again. A dark and empty alley, neon signs reflecting on water shine. A lone girl striding over puddles, umbrella slowly spinning to her side. Water droplets flying of, blurs of pixels, against the noise of dim city lights. The girl stops, pops out an earphone, glances at the umbrella in her hand. Her sleeve wrinkles, two sets of slender barely discernible fingers spin up the umbrella to greater speeds. Reflections blurred, silver shine combined, reflecting pink neon light, almost catching it. Slowly the glow grows stronger, manifesting into a pink ring of light. Water splashes, a skip to blame, an unheard beat drives more of the same. Each skip, each sway and with every flutter of her skirt a new member joins the audience of firelights, drifting of, remaining behind to mark the path of their queen. The screen fades to black. A performance meant unseen, laid bare in the worlds view.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
As the video ended, Mala looked up at a completely entranced Jannick. His empty gaze, focused on something outside this plane of existence, reminded Maya of her own daydreams. She could only guess at the contents of his dream, she only knew, that it probably differed greatly from her own. After a few breaths Jannick shock his head lightly, to clear away the unwanted thoughts. "That was very different from the last one.", he stated courtly. "Yeah, one of them was trying to be cool while one of them was.", an enthusiastic Mala replied. "These lights look a lot like special effects though, are you sure it's nothing like that.", Maya was a little skeptical. "I'm pretty sure they are not. The Video is tagged Skill, Divine Voice, Dream and so on how someone could fake a video this quickly to get it out perfectly in time with the voice.", Jannick theorized. "If you say so.", Maya wasn't really convinced.
"BOOM!!!" Maya jumped back, almost dropped her phone, and bumped into Jannick, dropping his phone instead. The whole mountaintop looked up. A bunch of meerkats searching for a hawk. "Mum, look, look over there.", the excited voice of a preschooler echoed over the tables and meadows. A dozen pair of eyes spotted it at the same time, a massive pillow of smoke climbing up the sky, leaving behind a column, that each and everyone recognized. The small crowd fell silent, minds raced coming to conclusions each worse than the last. A woman started crying, a man sunk to his knees, shaking.
Maya turned towards Jannick, a faze full of worry and shock, she opened her mouth, slowly closed it again. Instead, she just leaned her head against him. A shiver ran down his spine, a gust of cold air hit him, his skill came to mind, he tasted a hint of spice in the air. Other skills came to mind. He knew it, this must have been a skill. His curiosity an inescapable current. He wanted to investigate, find out what happened, could only follow the direction his body was showing him, directly towards the mushroom cloud.
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He had just finished work, a slog to get through just like all the other days. repeating the same motion over and over again. He didn't understand people, that did stuff like that voluntarily all those crazy people sticking bricks together over and over, repeating the same knitting patter for hours on end. A mockery of his reality.
Check the product. Wait for the machine confirmation. Swivel the chair, put it down GENTLY. Swivel the chair. Only the clock to keep company, the tick, and the tock overseers of Production. Slowly they march, just enough to string you along.
Stop! Go! Screeching breaks. Humming Engine. Look to your side, see more grey metal and red lights. Stop! Stop! Stop! He looks up. Green light. Steadily accelerate. A Motion burned into him for years. The river of engineered perfection slowly flows along. He eagerly rolls toward the line, momentary relive just ahead. The light shifts, yellow. Maybe there is just enough time left, to make the jump. The comrade upfront seems committed, but no, no. He can feel it the rush to slow, the jump to attention to slow. He can't follow through.
The clicking to his left. He could feel it, as it moves along and away gracefully around the corner. Once it stopped, a tapping took over instead. The fake leather well worn. It had endured more clicks than many buttons. They started slow and accelerated rapidly once he slammed the brakes on the other side of the intersection.
Ah groaning underlined the taps wonderfully, when he stopped again, he was the second car. The first lyrics were inspired, by the ambulance he had to make way for. The song about everyone else reached its climax when, he stopped and started one last time and got into his street.
He heard someone talk to him. He heard the rumble of his car, the flashing lights. He heard someone in his head. He saw the bike going straight ahead. He shouted. He heard the voice. He saw white.
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They were just heading home from school. The bike happily rattling along. The sweet promise of a weekend spurring her on. One street a quick peek, all clear. Another coming up. A voice about dreams. They stared. Possibilities questions. Anticipation. A Blinding light. Headlights.
[Not me!]
Not now!
Her voice failed her. Only a scream escaped. The voice again. Is she being called to heaven. The lights certainly got brighter. [Stop] She freezes. The light remains the same.