The man sat in his chair with his head in his hands, hoping, praying, for a solution.

Just over a day ago, the Numbers of every single person in the world reset. Less than twenty minutes later, he held a press conference to reassure the public, broadcasting nationally. Less than a half-hour after that, when the reports of strange sightings and attacks could no longer be dismissed as paranoid fictions, he declared a state of national emergency.

And now he was expected to find a solution. They had determined that this phenomenon was worldwide, that there was no rhyme or reason to the attacks that would indicate a calculated strike by an enemy of the state. And these...creatures...weren’t something that any nation had the power to create, much less miraculously transport randomly around the world.

He refused to call them monsters. Monsters belonged in the realm of fantasy and fairy tales, and these creatures indiscriminately slaughtering his citizens were anything but fiction.

Twenty-five hours ago his biggest worry was how to woo the undecided voters in the upcoming elections. After almost four years in office, he believed he was ready for anything it could throw at him. After all, he had seen the plans, responses to any and all situations drafted by people much more paranoid and prepared than him. From EMP strikes to biological terrorism to first contact, he believed he was ready.

But how could he be prepared for this? He had implemented the plans that seemed the most applicable: secured important points of infrastructure, suggested evacuation of major metropolitan areas, deployed every available military resource. But still the creatures came, every fifteen minutes reports of dozens of new and different types flowed in, all of them murderous and powerful. And so they expected him to come up with a new plan, one that somehow would solve this impossible situation.

The man sat in his chair with his head in his hands, hoping, praying, for a solution.

- President Johnson, Inclusion +1 day 01:05 hours

I spend another hour experimenting and practicing with my new skill. Each of my companions takes a turn accepting the bond, and I find it interesting how their perceptions differ.

Styx’s eyesight is noticeably better than Melete’s and Pallas’ for long distances, and when I look through Melete’s eyes the colors are just slightly distorted. Not enough that I’d label her as colorblind, but the hues are barely different. When I was younger, I remember spending hours pondering the useless philosophical question of whether the colors humans see are actually all exactly the same, or if the green I see is actually blue (under a different name) to someone else, and realize I might now be the first person in all of history to have the personal experience to answer that question.

The greatest difference, however, is when I connect to Sam. It takes some convincing before the Alatir is willing to accept the bond, but its curiosity over the new skill eventually overcomes its hesitance.

As the bond connects, I begin with my eyes closed to give myself time to adjust to the new perspective, but I still end up overwhelmed. Despite having only the one eye, the field of view of the Alatir is much wider than my own, and I struggle to focus on any single section of its vision. To complicate matters, Sam’s depth perception is terrible. It feels more like I’m looking at a painting than an actual real-life scene of my friends in a forest. But when Pallas shifts in place where he’s keeping watch, I’m immediately drawn to the slight movement.

It seems like Alatir’s vision is naturally perceptive of movement -- which makes sense. Their primary defense only works if they’re aware of the target, but distance to the target doesn’t matter as much for their illusions. Seeing something move is a lot more important than being able to tell exactly how far away it might be.

After testing, I find I’m able to form a bond to multiple people at the same time, but to limited usefulness. I’m already struggling to reconcile my own perspective with the new point of view from a single new bond, and two bonds is that much more overwhelming. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if I’m able to ‘turn off’ any of the incoming senses from my bonds, not in the same way that I can close my eyes to cut off my personal perspective. Which means that for each bond I have active I’ll have to be able to handle the same number of different perspectives.

I’m planning on doing a bit of meditation later to determine which Number this new skill ‘desires,’ but I’m willing to bet an increase in intelligence is in my future.

By the end of the hour of practice, I’m able to keep my eyes open while maintaining a single bond without too much trouble, as long as the person I’m connected to doesn’t move their head too quickly. Any sudden movements still send me reeling, but I’m relieved that I haven’t puked since the first try.

It’s late in the morning when I reluctantly remove my bond with Melete and stand up, shouldering my pack. I wish I had more time to experiment and practice my new skill, but we’ve already spent more time than expected. Our first priority is getting home to our families, and while this new skill may help us get there safely, we can’t afford to spend days training.

At this point, the sharing of senses from my skill isn’t much of a boon, not when I can’t process the new perspective. The second component of the skill, however, I can see the immediate use of: mental communication.

From what I can tell, it only allows one-way communication, from me to whomever I’m bonded with, but for short ideas and concepts it seems instantaneous. In the same way I don’t have to think the word ‘stop’ to myself when I decide to stop moving, I don’t have to think individual words to convey information over the bond. Telling Styx I think I saw a gopher over by that tree but it might actually be a squirrel is as simple and quick as making that realization to myself.

Of course, this communication still has limitations. I can’t convey more complicated information, such as a full song, in a single impression. If I want to tell whomever I’m bonded with the lyrics of a certain theme song about being the best there ever was, I’ll actually have to think through the full lyrics.

But even as limited as it is, I imagine the ability to instantly convey information mid-battle will be extraordinarily useful. It’s almost enough that I wish the sharing of the senses wasn’t part of the bond, as it limits the current practicality of the skill. But no; I know that will eventually be extremely useful as well -- it just will require more training and Numbers.

Which is why as we walk through the forest I periodically reach out to my friends with my skill. It takes my full focus, so I make sure to warn my friends to keep a lookout for me while I practice, but I’m able to hold the bond active for at first seconds and then minutes at a time without tripping, until eventually a splitting headache starts to form.

Walking with the bond active is an entirely new exercise, requiring me to maintain my balance by ‘ignoring’ the secondary perspective. Of course, I am not able to block out the information entirely. The closest comparison I can think of would be staring intently out of a particular window while forcing myself to completely disregard everything I see through that window.

It’s strange, but it requires my complete focus to selectively ignore my new senses, and I breathe a sigh of relief when we finally break for lunch.

I quickly scarf down my food while my friends chat and keep watch. I finish barely a minute later, coughing heavily only once from a chunk that should have been chewed a little more thoroughly. As my friends finish their own meals, I walk a few feet away, sit cross-legged, and close my eyes. Remembering the strange experience that was my insight into the requirements of my first skill, I focus inward on my new skill: on the feeling of activating it, on the sensation of connecting mentally with my friends’ senses, but mostly on the instincts and knowledge that came with the skill.

It takes a few minutes to get to the right headspace. When I did this for my ‘Adjust: Self’ skill, I had already been using it for almost a week, and I have much less experience with ‘Bond: Mental.’ But eventually I grasp what I believe to be the essence of the skill, and as if I’m a cup that is filled to overflowing with water, a vision overflows from my understanding of the skill, originating from the strange place where it is stored within me.

My memory of the visions from ‘Adjust: Self’ are fuzzy, but I do remember there being many different visions from dozens, or perhaps even hundreds or thousands, of perspectives. This time, however, is different.

There is only a single vision. It is me, sitting still in a room, my eyes closed and my body unmoving. But like small windows to the surrounding world, I can sense hundreds...no, thousands of bonds stretching from me throughout the world. And from each bond I can see a new perspective, a new mini-vision that gives me a glimpse of the power this skill can offer.

Unity. Coordination. Cooperation.

Each bond links to a different entity, and each entity works together for a single purpose: MY purpose. Whether that be war, peace, cultural development, or exploration, everything the entities do they do successfully. Because they do not work alone.

This is true power. To look upon my subjects and direct them as I will, all working together as one. Not slavery, for they are not forced into this situation. They serve me willingly, joyously, for they know in my will lies life and success, for I am their QUEEN.

All it takes is intelligence.

I jerk back to awareness, reeling from the quickly fading vision. That was...disconcerting.

While it was certainly me in the focal point of the visions, certain parts still felt...external. As if it wasn’t truly directed towards me, and I had simply been copied and pasted to fill the role that previously was filled by another.

I think I’m starting to understand what Sam meant when he explained that skills come with more than just the ability; for a moment, I felt as if I was the hive queen.

I brush the unsettling thought away. As expected, intelligence is the Number of choice when it comes to making ‘Bond: Mental’ more powerful. I’m a bit relieved to hear this. While intelligence is currently my second lowest Number, only barely beating out charisma, before the inclusion it had always been my highest. It will be nice to have an excuse to invest a few more of my free Numbers into it.

I rejoin my friends for the rest of the lunch break. It seems I was gone for less than five minutes, much less than it felt the vision lasted, but we chat for only another five minutes before repacking and resuming our trek. We already wasted enough time this morning, and we want to get at least another ten miles in before dark.

I resume practicing my new skill as we walk, trusting my friends to guard and guide me in my distracted state. It’s strange: while using my skill I have double the senses available but less than half the awareness.

Which is why I’m unprepared when Pallas grabs my arm and pulls me to a stop. I cancel my skill immediately and look at him, hand resting on the hilt of my machete.

With a nod of his head, he silently gestures ahead of our stopped group.

S: 148

D:144

W: 321

I: 102

C: 101

0

Skills: Adjust:Self, Bond:Mental