The Ascendance (Original, Superpowers)

[CreakyDinnerTable]

So, uh, this is my first time doing this. Let's give it a go.

The Ascendance
(Original Superpower Setting. Kinda)
​

Before that night, you were utterly ordinary. You had a few good friends, got on decently with most of your peers, doing averagely in most of your subjects and only really excelling at...

[ ] Maths
[ ] English
[ ] Biology
[ ] Physics
[ ] Chemistry
[ ] Sports
[ ] Art
[ ] None, really
[ ] Write in

But you got by. You didn't even really mind that you didn't have an idea of what you wanted. You didn't really consider the future too much. You didn't know your place in the world, but it wasn't that you really felt out of place. You just... didn't know where you were going.

Until that night. You fell into bed after a regular, average day, and dreamt. It was not, however, a regular, average dream.

The skies screamed in fear, the earth trembled beneath your feet. The waters boiled around you, and ice lashed at your body. Through it all, you weer unmoving. Unyielding. You were implacable, infinite, all-powerful-

And it stopped. Everything became still, frozen. And from the tempestuous skies, light leaked out and spread, filling the world until you were bathed in the warm, glowing feeling of sunlight.

And then it spoke. Warm, but strong. Gentle, but firm. Friendly, but authoritative.

"Child." It spoke. You knew, undoubtedly, that you were young, green, blind to the true nature of things - but you were full of potential for growth. "You Stand Before Me, Ready To Receive My Gift. The Truth Of Your Ascendance. Will You Accept The Gift I Present To You?"

You gulp. The voice continues. "The Manner Of Your Ascendance - Your Embodiment. Choose Now, From The Most Gloried Of My Gifts."

Your Ascendance shall take the Embodiment of...

[ ] Dominance. Pressure. Control. Power.
[ ] Cognition. Vision. Perception. Knowledge.
[ ] Aeon. Instance. Eternity. Voyage.
[ ] Conjuration. Inception. Assembly. Genesis.

You make your choice, and the light pulsates once, chuckling fatherly. Then it recedes, instantaneously, and the winds tear at your body, and the waters boil, and the earth trembles, and your Ascendance begins.

You awaken with purpose. The future is yours. You will mold it as such.​

 

[CreakyDinnerTable]

Name: Kira Vehanen.
Favourite Subject: Sports.

Embodiment: Aeon. Instance. Eternity. Voyage.

Skills:
Passive:
Precognitive Disruption
The future is mutable, changeable, and ever shifting. Your mere presence in the flow of time ensures that what is to come is uncertain.

Passive Skill Discovered: Temporal Awareness
The flow of time is opened to your senses, and with it, you are aware of its passage, of how old everything is, of how young this world is. Should other Embodiments interfere with this flow, you will be aware of the disruption.

Active:
Active Skill Discovered: Temporal Deceleration
You have taken your first step into interfering with the flow of time. By partially blocking its movement, you can reduce the speed at which time moves - except for you.

Appearance:

Setting

The setting is, at least initially, modern day earth. There are no real differences between this one and ours, but recently, strange and inexplicable events have begun to occur. Though science has no explanation for them, they are interlinked with your own Ascendance.

Be wary, however - yours is noth the only story, and others may seek you out, driven by their Ascendance.

Uncovering the truth of your abilities may take time, but this is time you have - for now.

 

[CreakyDinnerTable]

Kira Vehanen. Sports.
Aeon. Instance. Eternity. Voyage.

The Ascendance
​

You stretch as you awaken. Morning sunlight filters through your windows, and you feel comfortably warm beneath your quilt. As you prepare for the day, you consider your dream. For all that you want to think it is only a dream, you have a sense of purpose now. You can focus, picture your future, picture what you want.

You want great things.

There is a tension, at the back of your mind. A feeling so intense and stretched that you feel as though it barely keeps itself from splintering. You close your eyes and attempt to visualize it. A cord. Pulling from every corner of the Universe into the future, spilling it and detailing avery single impossibility that could be, and every one that has been.

Your eyes snap open. Aeon.

You know instantly that this is the gift that has been granted. The embodiment of Aeon, Instance, Eternity. Of Voyage.

It is impossible to define, truly. But the closest you can get is the feeling of flowing, of the constant movement of time itself, moving like a river down innumerable estuaries.

You come to the realization then that, for all people say that time is not a straight line... People are predictable. Given a thousand worlds with the the exact same circumstances, and they will always choose to take a certain path.

Not so any more. Your mere presence routes the flow of Time through your body. The future is subject to your whims. Now, what is to come is uncertain - afraid. No one could predict what will happen - For Time is mutable, is changeable. And you can change it.
​

Passive Skill Discovered: Precognitive Disruption.
The future is mutable, changeable, and ever shifting. Your mere presence in the flow of time ensures that what is to come is uncertain.
​

You feel that there is more, however. This flow of Time could be interfered with. Shifted. Altered.

What do you do?

[ ] Experiment more with your powers.
-[ ] Before/During/After School?
-[ ] Skip School
[ ] Hurry up and finish getting up - you have school today!
[ ] Write in.​

 

[CreakyDinnerTable]

[X] Experiment more with your powers.
-[X] Before/After School

The Ascendance
​

You decide to see what else you can do with your powers - if, indeed, you can do anything with them - before heading to school. You close your eyes, and reach for the feeling in the back of your head. For a moment, you feel a pressure, a sense of infinity contained entirely within your skull.

Then the pressure expands, and a certain flow settles about you. In the air around you, in the ground beneath your feet, in your own body - you feel that constant, ever-shifting flow. You feel it, and you feel passage, of instants flickering past each other continuously, of eternities long past.
​

Passive Skill Discovered: Temporal Awareness
The flow of time is opened to your senses, and with it, you are aware of its passage, of how old everything is, of how young this world is. Should other Embodiments interfere with this flow, you will be aware of the disruption.
​

You take a shuddering breath as you realize how ancient things are. The earth... billions of years old. The Universe... You nearly laugh as you think back to what your physics teacher had said about the age of the Universe. If only they knew.

You reach out for the flow. You feel like you could manipulate it somehow, reach in with a clumsy hand and meddle with its passage, manipulate time-

"Kira!" Your mother calls you. "Kira, get down here and eat your breakfast or you're going to be late!"

You sigh to yourself. Speaking of time.

Reluctantly, you quickly wash and dress yourself, spending only the briefestof moments applying your make-up. You've never felt you needed very much to be pretty - you were blessed in that regard, really. But now, it feels as though your features are... more defined somehow. More regally beautiful, rather than a teenage prettiness.

You thunder downstairs, passing your little brother on the way. You muss his hair as you pass, and he half-heartedly swipes at you. You giggle and continue down.

Cereal has already been laid out on the table by your mother - a supremely pretty lady, even at the age of thirty eight. She has your same dusky skin and brown eyes, and you obviously inherited your impressive bust from her. She has however taken to dyeing her hair blonde.

"Kira, you look different today." Your mother comments. "Did you do something new with your make-up."

"Just went for a slightly different look, mom." You reply, and tuck into your shredded wheat flakes.

Your brother enters and grunts a greeting to your mom, slumping down into a seat and eating his own breakfast. You finish up before he's half-done, dump your bowl into the sink, grab your bag, and bid farewell to your brother and mother.

School is just down the road from where you live, so you pluck out your phone from its hiding place in your jacket and power it on. You flick through a couple of texts from Sarah and Tià, your companions on the volleyball team. Sarah was the captain. but really, you were the best player, and Tià wasn't far behind you.

Sarah wants to meet up at lunch to talk strategy, and you tap out a quick reply. Tià, meanwhile, has sent you a long text about her boyfriend, Cam. Apparently, they've been getting more serious lately. You scroll down, uninterested. Really, you were happy for her, but the high school drama of yesterday seemed... boring, now.

You sigh, and enter school.
​

(The Ascendance)
​

The first few lessons are uneventful. You have to sit through an hour and a half of Ms. Kerrigan talking to you about factorisation of quadratics, but you find the lesson a lot easier than you would've a few days ago.

You meet up with Sarah at break, and she informs you of the new formation they're trying out. You'll be moved up front now, which is new. It'll run for a few days, just to gauge whether it's a good thing or not. Sarah has always been very competitive about the volleyball team, so you aren't particularly surprised.

After lunch, you have a double period to see how the new formation pans out.

And boy does it pan out. The ball is easily followed to your eyes, and you think you're jumping just a little higher than normal. And when you hit the ball - you really hit the ball.

You crush you're opponents easily. You do usually win, but this wasn't even fair. Sarah hugs you in joy, cheering and celebrating with the rest of the team.

Sarah invites you to hang out after school, but you decline. You want to test out your new powers a little more.

You head to the park, to a little secluded corner hidden by a huge weeping willow and a bench. You know that the old seniors used to hang out here to smoke, but it seems it isn't in use at the moment.

You close your eyes, and focus on that flow.

Aeon. Instance. Eternity. Voyage.

The flow is constant, but you feel as though you can... interfere. You reach out with that pressure in the back of your head, and dip it into the flow. Instantly you feel a swelling as though the flow has been blocked.

To put it into a metaphor - if the flow was a river, then this pressure would be like dropping stones into its path. The flow was partially blocked, true, but some was still getting through.

You open your eyes. The leaves of the weeping willow are drifting glacially around you, and a leaf flutters past your face in slow motion. You turn, at normal speed, to see what is happening. All around you, the world appears to bemoving in slow motion.

You're... slowing down time, somehow.
​

Active Skill Discovered: Temporal Deceleration
You have taken your first step into interfering with the flow of time. By partially blocking its movement, you can reduce the speed at which time moves - except for you.
​

You suck in a breath, and feel a sharp, pounding pain in your forehead. You collapse to your knees as the pain intensifies, letting out a weak cry as time catches up with you. Raising a hand to your nose, you feel a wetness. Blood.

You stand. Apparently that was a pretty big jump to make. You'd have to keep practicing with it for it to be of any use.

You return home, after cleaning the blood from your nostrils.

Your mom is home, cooking. The scent of chicken hits your nose, and you hum delightedly, despite it mixing with the tangy copper of your own blood.

"Oh, Kiki, you're home." Your mom says, smiling at you. "Clara should be home in a bit."

You nod absently. Although your mother had you and your brother, Lucas, with another man whom you'd never met, your mother had met someone else when you were younger. A woman named Clara. They were deeply in love, and honestly, you were happy for them. Although growing up in your household and led to you often questioning your own sexuality, you had never felt the need to really define yourself.

Regardless, you hugged your mom and went upstairs. You didn't have any homework, but you had a lot to think about.

What did you want to do with your powers?
[ ] No matter what, you wanted to help people.
-[ ] But how?
[ ] Your newfound powers gave you a unique opportunity to be a little... Selfish.
-[ ] But how?
[ ] Maybe ask about it online? Trying to search about it would probably be useless, but asking if there were others like you...
-[ ] But how?​

 

[CreakyDinnerTable]

[X] No matter what, you wanted to help people.
-[X] Look up recent crimes with weird things to them, and recent vigilantism of people in masks. People with super powers might try comic book stuff.

The Ascendance
​

You decide that research is your best bet. You go on news sites. looking for recent, strange crimes or vigilantes. Anything that can't be explained. Despite starting at reputable news stations, you soon find yourself at the crackpot conspiracy theory sites. You carefully navigate your way through webpages, seeking something that might even sound somewhat believable - and you do find something.

In Canada - a forest fire. It had left scientists scratching their heads, because a forest fire? In Canada?

It seemed incredibly unlikely. Impossible. But a scant few hours ago you'd slowed down time. The impossible was becoming possible. Maybe someone up in Canada and Ascended as well? Discovered their Embodiment - Pyrokinesis? Or... more than that?

Other than that there were no cases even close to definite. Claims that someone had sent a man flying with a single punch, but no official sightings. Some claims that a man had set off a flashbang inside an airport, despite security. Witnesses had claimed that he had been holding nothing prior to it, but they were shaky at best.

You sigh. In the end, not much had come of your research - just a reported forest fire in Canada, which could have been the result of bizarre weather and global warming. Or something. You weren't sure of the specifics.

You spend a little time finishing your homework, before checking in on social media for any gossip. Not much was new - just a few posts from friends about various stuff, a news article about school education, and someone had posted a weird story about celebrity look-a-likes.

All boring and pointless. You sighed. Now that you had your power, you kind of wanted to do something with it. Something important. Something world changing. But... what? What was there that you could do with your power that could have a large effect in a short amount of time?

Heh. Time. You felt like you had all the time in the world, but at the same time, not enough. You sighed again, and heard your mom call you down for dinner.

You had some polite discussion about your day with your mom and Clara. Your brother was as unresponsive as usual. But Clara did mention that there had been some weird activity recently.

Clara worked with NASA. That was pretty awesome on its own - but she was a desk worker, not an actual astronaut. Still, she dealt in the working of the satellites, and during dinner she mentioned that some of the internal systems had been giving back garbled nonsense. The problem fixed itself, apparently, but they were sending a team up just in case.

It caught your interest, for some reason. You felt like there was more to it than that, but when you pried, Clara deflected with some excuse abou security.

Still, it was something to investigate. Maybe it would turn out to be fruitful.

You returned upstairs. Preparing the bedding, you pulled back the sheets and slightly shifted the pillows. There was a corner of a piece of paper poking out from under it. You frowned and looked closer. You didn't remember seeing that earlier.

You pulled it out and read the shakily written words on the front:
​

DUCK
​

You didn't think, you just ducked. And the top of your house was suddenly gone in a flash of light and a sound that nearly destroyed your eardrums.

You looked up to see a man hovering in midair, face looking around with vague interest. When he noticed you, a smile emerged on his face. He began floating slowly over to you, eyes locked with keen interest.

What do you do?
[ ] Use what you know of your powers to run.
[ ] Try and find your mother, Clara, and your brother, and escape with them.
[ ] See if you can fight back.
[ ] Try and talk with him.
[ ] Become one with the flow.​

 

[CreakyDinnerTable]

[X] Try and talk with him.
[X] Become one with the flow.

The Ascendance
​

"Okay, just... take it easy." You say, as you get to your feet and back away. Your mind races through the possibilities. "Uh, just, tell me what you're doing here, okay?"

You're calm. Too calm.

"You're Ascended, right?" The man says. At your hesitant nod, he continues. "Well, then its only natural that I would want to fight you, right."

"Uhhh..."

"Whatever. Enough talk." With that, he sweeps his hand across his body and a telekinetic wave of force slams into your body, throwing you across the decimated room and out onto the street. It hurts, but not as much as it probably should.

You can't think of what to do. You can barely stay slowed for long enough to do anything, and someone you don't think running a few meters will stop this guy.

You can think of only one thing to do:

Become on with the flow.
​

Active Skill Discovered: Temporal Voyaging
By subjecting yourself to the flows and rhythms of the time stream, you have discovered the skill to randomly place yourself in history. Randomly, at least for now.
​

You submerge yourself in the sea of tachyons and feel them encase your body, slowly draggin you through history.

"No!" The man shouts, and swoops towards you, hand just brushing you cheek as the traversal completes.

You are catapulted through time, and you barely manage to pull yourself out of the river of time to see...

A castle. Bannered, with guards in actual plate armour. Wielding actual halberds.

This... This is incredible. Time travel?! That's possible?

You stand up slowly, watching as the guards notice you and call out - only for on of them to be flung into the sky like a ragdoll, easily twenty, thirty, fifty meters up, and the other's armour to crumple and crush, compacting his insides into a ball of blood and flesh. You turn.

The man is standing there. He looks furious.

"Your Embodiment?" He all but snarls. "What is it?"

"Aeon." You reply warily. He snarls, and tears a tree from its roots and catapults it away. "What about yours?"

"Power." He says, tersely, apparently in control now. He visibly calms himself. "Well, looks like you're my only hope of getting back now, so... If you send us back, I won't kill you."

"I..." You're hesitant to admit weakness. "I can't. The process is random - we could end up anywhere."

He scowls, then stops. "I guess we're stuck here for now, then. I'll protect you, at least until you can protect yourself." He rolls his shoulders and turns, as the first guard returns to the ground with a scream and a splat.

"What's the plan?"

[ ] Enter the castle.
[ ] Explore the woods.
[ ] Enter the flow again.
[ ] Write in.​

 

[CreakyDinnerTable]

[X] Ask him why he thought attacking a brand-new, only one day since Ascension, Ascendant was a good idea.
-[X] Ask him what he knows about Ascendants. Since you are going to have to get you and him back, you need all the information you can get.

The Ascendance
​

You're silent for a few moments, watching him as he peers around. He eventually notices your silence, and glances at you. "What?" He says irritably.

"Why did you attack me?" You ask, abruptly. When at first he doesn't say anything, you continue. "I've only been Ascended for a day. How did you even know where I was?"

He remains silent for a few moments, looking at you appraisingly. "... I..." He starts to say, before lapsing into silence. "When you Ascended, you saw the vision, didn't you?" He asks, instead of answering.

You nod, remembering it vividly. The winds tearing at your body, the seas boiling - the light. "And the Light asked you what your Embodiment would be?" You nod again.

He shakes his head. "I didn't get that choice." You frown.

"What?" You ask, confused.

"I didn't choose my Embodiment." He slumps his shoulders slightly, and you suddenly see him as the awkward, reed-thin twenty year old he must have been, before his Ascension. "Everything else happened normally. I saw the vision of the trembling earth, the boiling water - the Light." He laughs, almost a bark. "But when the Light told me of my Ascension, instead of asking me what my Embodiment was, he just said, 'You Will Perform Dark Deeds One Day. Take The Gift Of Power.' And then I saw the end of the world. A fist, gripping the planet in one hand - crushing it. And ever since I discovered my power... I've been confrontational. Angry. Prone to violence. And... Sometimes I just... Know where the others are. Not always - it's random, almost."

He shakes his head again. "It's almost as though he wants me to find the other Ascended and fight them." He laughs bitterly. "Do you know, when I Ascended, I nearly killed my girlfriend? She said it was as if a bomb went off beside her." He stares into the distance silently. "She'll never walk again."

You're silent while he talks. After a few moments of quiet reassurance, you talk again. "What do you know about the Ascendants?" You ask, finally. "About all of this?"

He snorts, drawing himself back up to his full height to become the powerful, dangerous man you first saw. "More than you do, not as much as I'd like. I've been trying to find them. At first, to contact them ask them what they know, but my bursts of violence have gotten worse, recently..." He shook his head. "I came across an Ascendant. Her Embodiment was Memory, or something like that. She was the one who first told me about the visions, about how she was able to choose her Embodiment. regardless, she said she could look into the past, see times long past... The ancient Gods, as we know them - Zeus, Ra, Odin - were almost certainly the first Ascendants. The gift has been passed out over the years, although no-one knows why - and now it's hit the current generation. It's been dormant for a few centuries, now, but it's reawakened again- no-one I met knew why."

"There have been several, recently." He laughs a little. "One guy in Connecticut, his Embodiment was Deception - he could form illusions. Craziest motherfucker I knew. Made a whole wedding think that they were being attacked by bees, nearly drove the groom of a cliff-" Seeing your unsmiling face, he sobers up a little. "Had to be there. But, other than that, nothing. I don't think anyone does. Unless you could find someone whose Embodiment was Knowledge, or something, I don't think we'll ever know." He shrugs. "Whatever. So. What's the plan?"

[ ] Enter the castle.
[ ] Explore the woods.
[ ] Enter the flow again.
[ ] Write in.​