Exploring the Gateway

John and Alice's time together was cut short by the bus stopping suddenly. Both of them were silently saddened as they were forced to return to the real world. Getting up from their seats, they still held hands, and began to walk towards the exit of the bus. Their eyes locked on each other instead of the world around them. Only a second passed before they realized their short time together had come to an end, as they both had different classes to go to.

“We should walk together to school, because we’ll have to split up afterwards,” John said softly, and Alice nodded in agreement. But as they walked off the bus and started towards the school, they noticed the presence of a group of bullies. Tiffany and Brad among them.

“Can’t believe the pasty nerd got himself a girl. How can a guy that lame even talk to a woman, he can barely talk at all, and his face wouldn’t even pass for radio.” Tiffany snickered, facing Brad and their friends, her tone loud enough it was clear she wanted to be heard. After she finished speaking, she turned to the couple, and seeing them both staring daggers at her, she walked towards them.

“Huh, are you deaf or something? Do you really wanna be seen with a small-dicked loser like him?” she said, her face only inches from Alice’s, but having taken a closer look Tiffany now realized something.

“Ah, it’s her. The doctor girl. She’s just as bad as he is,” she spat out, “no wonder they’re together. You freaks always find each other,” she scoffed, venom in her voice. Not even caring for their reaction, she signaled the rest to move off, but before she turned John said something.

“You fucking bitch, neither of us is what you say we are. If anyone here is deaf or ugly, it’s you!” he shouted, not sure where the sudden anger that was lodged in his throat came from. Tiffany saying that about Alice was so much worse than anything she could say about him.

“What did you fucking say to me?” she turned to her boyfriend, “Brad!” and before anyone knew what was happening Brad lunged forward and John was on the ground with an aching head. It wasn’t long before the bullies casually walked towards the school, as Alice tried to help John off the ground.

“Don’t worry about them. Something like this was bound to happen, at least we have each other again now,” John said to Alice, back on his feet as his headache had strangely cleared.

“I’m worried about you John!” she said angrily, but he sensed it wasn’t directed at him. When he tried to hug her again, to comfort her, she started walking towards the school again quickly.

“Whatever. I know those guys can’t be helped, and you look ok at least, but…” she turned to John for a second, her eyes a little glazed “nevermind,” she turned back, “we need to get to class, remember?” she said, hiding her face from his view. Her voice was flat, almost like she was putting on a well-acted performance. She continued walking, even speeding up her pace as if to avoid him.

John thought he should stop her, but he didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to tell her he thought she should tell him what she felt. That not saying these things was exactly what got them into this mess. How could he tell her that without seemingly blaming her for all of it? It was the same mistake they had both made, after all. The one that brought them here in the first place. He didn’t have the answer, so he said nothing.

They continued walking in silence, passing through the few streets between the bus station and the academy. Entering the gates of the academy was always strange for John, as the steel fixtures they were made of loomed like the bars of a prison. It was a short trip from there to the main, and largest, of the three buildings that made up the Academy. That was where every classroom in the school was found. Once they had entered the large building, Alice curtly said goodbye, her expression showing a bit of anger. John said the same, albeit more sweetly, and she left. When she did, he noticed three popups appear in front of him.

Quality of life feature enabled: popups will only be displayed when the user wills them to, or when he is not currently busy.

‘That seems useful’ John thought to himself, honestly surprised that it was not a default feature. He read the next popup immediately afterwards.

John almost laughed, it was incredibly ironic that it congratulated him for having made one of the biggest mistakes of his life just because he was able to fix it. Though he still wasn’t sure how ‘fixed’ it really was. John had never seen Alice act as distant as she just did. It worried him, and if that mistake shaped her title, it obviously affected her more deeply than he could hope to fix in an hour. Probably more deeply than he could ever fix again.

The next one wasn’t as ironic, but it did come to him as a shock.

The popup hit like a truck, and for a moment it felt like the entire world was shaking. Just the idea that Alice didn’t require any extra convincing seemed impossible to him. It seemed even more unlikely that his mother reacted positively, but that still seemed somehow more likely. Without help, there was no way he could have gotten Alice back in his life. If anything, the only reason that happened was because of his powers, so it couldn't be that he didn’t need them.

'It must be talking about mom’ , he concluded to himself. No longer considering anything else.

He looked at his phone and noticed that he had just spent the time he needed to get to class thinking, so he rushed to his classroom and sat down in the back row for the first lesson of the day. It was literature with Mrs. Flung and she would not have been kind to him if he was late. Luckily, he was not, as she entered the room only a moment after he had.

Literature was more boring than usual, as now John wasn’t only waiting for the class to be over, but also to try out his new abilities and to spend time with Alice. Mrs. Flung, meanwhile, was ranting and raving about some short story or another, just like usual. John paid her no mind. He enjoyed stories, fantasy and sci-fi mostly, but she always talked about even the interesting ones in a boring way. Even on a normal day, it was hard to pay attention, but today he had more important things to consider.

His thoughts drifted wildly, but one important thing popped up. It was already obvious to him that all this was not just in his imagination. The magic he had received had now affected the real world, in ways he didn’t think were possible. Now the only question was the extent of their effect. If it wasn’t his imagination conjuring all this, then whatever person was writing his achievement and those sheets must be the source of his powers, though why they gave him them still confused him.

For the next few minutes, he sat there idly, not wanting to pay attention to class but not knowing how to spend the time well either. It then dawned on him that he could use that time to level up his skills through the level tasks, and since Charm was obviously out of the question, he decided to use Observe on the other students.

Just like the students on the bus, when he looked at the others in the class they all had their names and titles above their heads. The titles mostly consisted of mundane descriptions of who they were like <Passionate Student>, <Hopeful Artist> and so on. He couldn’t spot any odd titles or anything that could give him any insight. It seemed like everyone around him was just a normal person, which was somehow surprising. What information he did gain was more from the use of Observe, as he managed to use it on most of the classroom. Even despite it telling him mostly useless background information on the particular students, it helped him realize one thing. John had no more than 20 RP with anyone in the class, and a lot of them were in negative RP. Later, about halfway into the class, while he was still checking the sheets of some of the last students, he got a popup.

Observe level task completed: Observe levelled up

Interestingly, this time the majority of the skill’s description was the same, but what the level up had added to it was mentioned. John was eager to check that out, as any progress was good progress, but decided to keep the surprise for now. After all, he wasn’t really using Observe for important information at the moment.

Now done checking the sheets of the entire class, he started thinking about his current situation. Before he could sink back into thought, however, he noticed a popup appear.

Magic Attunement increased: Psychic magic attuned due to natural affinity

The text in front of him seemed utterly confusing. John had apparently become more attuned to magic, but he had no idea why that had happened or how he’d done it. At least apart from natural inclination, which seemed like a strange reason given he didn’t have magic before today. Despite that, he figured that what it does was probably a more important question to ask, and luckily for him he shortly got his answer.

Skill unlocked due to Psychic magic attunement: Psychic Connection

’Entering a mindscape? What’s that, someone’s mind? And why does this all keep using the term Psychic magic, is that like an element of magic like in books or something…’ John thought, confused about every term put in front of him, ’I guess Psychic magic means stuff like telekinesis, and… Going into other people’s minds, or something? Whether that’s telepathy or something else, that sounds ominous. I need to find out,’ his mind racing, he decided to investigate by using the skill, and he did so for the rest of the class.

The feeling of using it was like a calm wave, John could still think and wander in his own mind, but the outside world seemed to be in utter darkness. He couldn’t sense much of anything there. In that quiet solitude, he considered what happened so far today. He wanted to tell Alice that he didn’t want either of them to lie to the other again, that he hoped they both could communicate freely now. Alice needed to hear about his powers, and soon, he knew that. The only thing stopping him was his concerns. As he thought that maybe these powers he got meant others had them too. If any amount of people had powers similar to Charm, they would be extremely dangerous. It was imperative to be careful, and hide his powers from anyone he didn’t absolutely trust. How long he could keep that up, he wasn’t sure, and who he should tell first was a tough question. A moment later, it didn’t seem so hard to figure out, ’Alice’.

Drifting further, John considered the skills he might be able to learn from this system. Magic and spells definitely existed, whatever that meant in the context of his powers. Perhaps now he could finally fulfil his dreams. There was no need to wait for purpose, he could make his own, but that still bothered him. Creating purpose was not so easy, and changing his life was even harder, he had tried before. What he did know was that he could do something, he could help people with these powers, and he could explore. John didn’t care that most people wouldn’t even think of these things if they ever got magic, what mattered to him was that he could do it. It’s what he wanted all along, and there was no compromise there.

As he continued drifting, his mind became emptier and emptier. If John was still consciously thinking at that point, he would conclude it was because of the skill. Occasionally stray thoughts and feelings still crossed his mind, thoughts that he could not explain and feelings he knew weren’t his own. Eventually, the darkness around him began filling with small dots of light. Somehow he knew these were the minds of those around him, and he tried touching those dots, curious what would happen. He felt as if he was touching a physical ball of light, and a moment later he sensed emotions and thoughts running through him. They were those of another student in the class. That was when his meditative state was suddenly interrupted by the end of class bell. Then he noticed a popup.

New skill: Reinforce Emotion

‘This is almost mind control. Am I supposed to use this to change how people feel? Is that what whoever is making these wants me to do? Because I refuse, I’m not going to do that,’ John thought to himself, utterly disturbed by the implications the skill had. However, thinking it through, he realized something important. It couldn’t change one’s mind, just affect what was already there. As disturbing as that still was it also tempted him. Being able to influence people in such a way was too much power to ignore. Especially because he knew that it could be used to help people, not hurt them. If he had an opposite version of the skill he could do even more in that vein.

‘What if I could make people hate less? Be less envious. Less greedy? Even make them more confident in themselves, or love people more! I could help people reform. Of course, they would have to be willing, but that could do a lot of good,’ John thought, his mind tugging at his conscience and it tugging back with force, ’I need to be sure it won’t do anything terrible to them first… I need to test this out somehow, I can’t afford to hurt anyone with this,’ he concluded, determined to not lose his moral principles.

When he finally snapped back to the real world, he noticed almost the entire break period had passed, and he now had another class to get to. That lesson was one John had always enjoyed and could now find useful, as it could help him gain another skill. Not only that, but Alice would also be there.

It was arts and crafts.