A few moments later I’m standing below the hole in the inner hull, in the ceiling of the cockpit, staring up at it.
[Just so you know, the information I’ve got says in the notes that the process of awakening for each person is different.
The power they contain are all different.
Their growth is all different…] “I get it.
These are all only guidelines to find my own way, not absolute rules…” I’m starting to get excited to test these new powers out.
Lets goooo!
[The first skill is Resonance.
It’s the most basic, but also profound of all.
It’s the foundation everything else is built upon.
All other skills derive from this resonance.
Begin with steadying yourself and opening your soul to the universe.] They sound less certain for the next part.
[By steadying your own resonance you can then cancel it out of your own perception, allowing you to sense the resonance of all matter around you.
Once you can sense and interact with the resonance of matter, you will gain the ability to affect its corresponding matter.] Wow, that’s a lot.
Ok so i start with sensing resonance then i can manipulate stuff… I start by trying to meditate and sense my surroundings for 10 minutes.
No go.
Keep going.
I try peering deeper into myself and imagine a sound.
Om comes to mind.
Then I imagine myself meditating and vibrating at om.
I allow that image to solidify in my mind.
Seems promising.
Remembering Exie’s words(yes I nicknamed her Exie, I’m too lazy to say Executor every time) about reversing your own sound to hear the world, I decide to envision the opposite of om and release it.
Suddenly everything goes quiet.
Not kinda quiet.
Total lack of any sensation, like a sensory deprivation tank.
One second.
Two seconds.
Don’t freak out don’t freak out.
Third second.
Into this still existence sound came back first.
Like a balloon escaping all its air quickly.
squeak… whoosh.
Then a ringing.
Like tinnitus.
Multiple ringing, not just one.
All around me.
Loud at first; overwhelming.
Then slowly receding; the high water mark after high tide.
Until it becomes a single hum.
A symphony in that single limitless sound.
Cicadas singing in the evening, you don’t realize they’re high pitched screeching until you stop and think about it.
Frogs after the rain… loud sounds that bleed into the background.
Then smell and touch remember they are alive and jump start signals to the brain.
Smells good and bad, strong and weak assault my nose.
I didn’t smell anything a minute ago..
And my body feels the vibrations.
Oh the vibrations all around me.
The floor below me announces itself to me before I feel it holding me up.
Woah.
The walls of my ship bounce back signals to me.
I can see them like sonar for a bat.
My eyes are still shut savoring them moment, the feelings of this new sensation before opening my eyes.
Also not wanting to overwhelm myself with any more data.
I feel like once I open my eyes they will drown out the noise of all my other senses and this is so novel and new that I don’t want it to stop.
Not just yet.
Taste as well.
Not just the taste of recycled air.
Not just the oil and metal flavor.
It’s the flavor of their resonance sharp and sour, sweet and salty all together but separate.
Wow this is really, genuinely like getting high.
My head is starting to swirl from so much stimulation.
It’s coming too fast.
Gimme a sec… Ahhh It’s all joining into a cacophony of overloaded senses.
Enough.
It’s become a barrage of sensations.
And then finally to my relief it all begins to quiet down until it’s just like the hum of a fridge.
Noticeable but also can tune it out.
Blessed relief.
Praise Jah.
After this overload I still realize I haven’t opened my eyes yet.
They’re still shut; squeezed tight, for fear of adding more noise to the storm.
Since everything’s quieted down I decided to go for it and slowly open one eye and look around.
Tilting my head, I cautiously squint open one eye, peering side to side.
Wth.
Now it’s really getting to be too much.
Everything is now visible but not.
I can see the outlines of stuff but instead of seeing flat surfaces I see a series of contour lines of different colors and intensities that twist and turn to show contours and curvature.
Very similar to terrain elevation maps, or topography maps that show cliffs and steep terrain as lines close together and flat terrain line further apart.
Even if you know what you are looking at it can get confusing.
So right now I’m trying to make sense of this new world full of data.
Now that I’ve calmed down and acclimated slightly, I look around.
I’m still in the section of the command center below the hole in the ceiling.
Oh yeah, the hole in the ceiling.
That’s what I’m here to do is try to fix it.
Ha all these new sensations got me distracted.
I turn to give the hole a good look.
As I stare at the metal all torn and fragmented, one piece looks barely attached.
I get an idea.
I raise my hand so it’s in line with my vision of the fragment and slowly imagine the piece moving side to side to weaken the tiny connection and try to break it free.
I envision my hand ‘grasping’ the piece and moving it side to side and then slowly twisting it.
Not just the piece but the piece in the vision of my new resonance.
Trying to use my power for the first time.
As I slowly start moving my hand side to side the piece finally jumps: first to one side then slowly drags to the other.
One side then the other.
One side..
Then it breaks.
Yes!
And I envision it coming to me and dropping into my hand.
I shut my eyes and shake my head a few times, dispelling the resonance vision, hopefully.
When I finally, carefully, unsqueeze my eyes, there in my hand is a piece of the hull.
Not just any piece.
They piece I broke off using my power.
Fuck yeah!
It’s a brand new world now!
My heart is pounding.
Ears are ringing.
Blood is boiling….
But also stamina is dropping.
Knees buckle and I collapse to the floor.
Careful not to drop my treasure or fall over.
This small piece of metal is the start of my new life.
Man is this all the mana in my reservoir?
Exie wasn’t kidding when they said it was small.
Luckily it doesn’t feel completely empty, just a huge portion quickly disappeared.
Not sure what would happen if I hit 0.
Probably nothing good and it would feel worse than this for sure.
[Excellent work, host.
You’ve successfully manipulated your first item.
Obviously we have much more practice to do but this is a great start.] All smiles, I have to agree, nodding my head.
“What’s next?!?!” This feeling is too good to stop.
The urge to get stronger and understand my new powers burns inside me, intensely.
[Let’s get back to the cargo hold and gather some supplies.
When you use your power to ‘call’ materials to you, unless you are focused and specify where it should come from, the materials will come from your surroundings randomly.
The closest thing to you here is your ship, so it could start cannibalizing your ship’s metal to fix the hole.
It’s just smarter to have the raw material on hand before starting the work.] “Good idea” I agree as we walk to the cargo hold.
On a whim I hold the roof piece and activate my resonance.
As i focus on the piece in front of my, the resonance of that material enters my mind slowly.
First its a sound, like a bell.
Ding.
a long held note.
Then its a color, mostly a grey, white light.
Then it’s a smell.
Like the smell of a forest.
The dirt.
The trees.
All of it.
It feels like these 3 are the signature of the metal in my hand.
I receive this ‘signature’ for about 10 seconds before I feel I’ve memorised it.
Then as I hold my hand towards the pile of ore, and try to ‘call out’ that signature towards the pile.
At first nothing happens.
It seems I might have something wrong with my thought process.
Then as I doubt myself, a slight vibration catches my attention.
Then more and more.
The pile starts to visibly shake and then to my amazement a small stream of liquid metal slowly comes out of the surface of the pile and starts to coalesce into a ball between me and the pile.
It floats in midair as more and more streams of metal join it.
Small wisps of metal like a stream, but reacting like smoke, floating in the air towards the floating, rotating ball.
First it’s the size of a golf ball.
Then baseball.
Then a softball.
Finally it’s the size of a basketball.
Right there in front of me is a spinning ball of metal I created.
This is quite thrilling.
Going from a normal person to manipulating liquid metal!!!
It’s not that I want to be the strongest person alive, but living at the bottom of society is tiring and frustrating and feels like you aren’t in control of your own life.
But now!!
With just this tiny bit of power it feels like I’m getting to control a small portion of my life and more is coming.
More power.
More control.
More life.
All mine.
My money making instincts are also going off like fire alarms.
Money making opportunity!
I can feel it in my bones.
I sigh the sigh of someone whose worries and frustrations and concerns have just slid off their shoulders and the open road of possibilities appears before them.
Make money money.
Make money, Monet.