“Let’s go downstairs and get something to eat,” I said. “Maybe some of the others are already up.”
Danielle just nodded and followed me down the hall to the stairs. I’d gone down the ones that led to the kitchen, and found two couples sitting at the large table in that area. They all looked up as we came into the room. I walked far enough in that she could enter the room as well, then looked to see who was at the table. (And tried to remember their real names, if I’m being honest.)
“Did you guys see the messages?” said the man sitting at the end of the table. His voice was high to the point of being shrill. “Did you pick a class? Did you…”
I raised my hand in a ‘hang on’ gesture. “We did see them. It said we missed some of them. Did anybody see any… I don’t know, explanation of what’s going on?”
“I did,” he said, speaking rapidly. “It was right at seven o’clock this morning. I was already up, I was looking at my phone and suddenly it went dark and the messages started appearing.”
“My phone didn’t work when I looked either,” I said, nodding. “What did the first messages say?”
“Basically, something called Mana has built up on Earth and now the whole world is like a dungeon in Dungeons and Dragons,” he replied. “It sounds like we all just got dumped into an urban fantasy novel. None of our technology will work unless we power it with something called the ‘System,’ but it didn’t tell me how to do that. It also said that we were in a ‘medium Mana’ area and that it was going to be dangerous. It said I could have a bonus perk.”
My mind was racing. His name was… Joe. If I remembered correctly he liked being tranced. He was a kid, barely in his twenties. I was only in my mid-thirties, but he made me feel older. The somewhat sullen looking brown-haired woman next to him - who had at least ten years on me - was mostly a hypnotist and I did remember that they’d looked forward to meeting each other as part of this.
“Did it say anything else? What’s going to happen?”
“No, other than to say that it was going to be dangerous in this area and I should be ready to run. So I picked my perk and a class and woke up Mistr… I mean, Mandy.” He looked at the woman sitting next to him a little sheepishly. “It wouldn’t replay the messages for her but she could still access some of the other ones.”
She smiled, but it didn’t really reach her eyes.
“I got offered a perk too,” she said. “This.” She picked up what looked like a Flash Gordon special sitting on the table. “It’s a ray gun, basically. It never needs bullets. There was something else but I accepted it without thinking and didn’t see what the other option was. I didn’t pick a class yet, this is… a lot.” She shook her head.
I bet that’s a Mental Disruptor, I thought to myself. Lots of people here are hypnotists but she’s the only other real expert. Lucky me she didn’t end up with my Title.
“I got a perk too,” said Danielle. She looked at me, then at them. “It’s called ‘Catgirl Form,’ but I have no idea what it does or how it works. I didn’t pick a class either.”
The other man sitting at the table started at this. “Catgirl form? Like, from an anime?” Danelle looked at him blankly. “Like in a Japanese cartoon? A Neko-girl? Is that why you look so amazing? Where’s your cat ears?” His eyes were wide.
“I don’t know,” she said. “It says I need help to activate it. I don’t know how this works.” Her voice was a little uncertain. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”
Before she could spill any more beans, I tried to shift the discussion. “Before we get sidetracked, anybody else see any explanatory messages? Anybody’s phone work?”
Joe and Mandy shook their heads, as did the other two.
“No,” said the anime fan. What was his name? Anthony? Anthony something. Good enough. “And neither the TV or my laptop will come on. The light switches don’t even work. If you turn on the stove the gas comes on, though.” He lifted a mug. “The water still works, but it doesn’t come out very fast. I made some instant coffee I found in the kitchen.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. Nothing electric works, then.” It was so bright in our room with the sun streaming in I hadn’t even thought to try the lights. “But gas still burns. Anybody try their cars?”
Joe said, “I slipped out for a minute after I picked my class. My rental wouldn’t start. Didn’t even turn over. And I heard… something. In the trees. It spooked me so I came back in.” His face reddened, as if admitting he’d been scared was embarrassing.
“Good thinking,” I said quickly. “We don’t know what’s out there.”
“It was probably a fucking raccoon,” spoke up the other woman at the table, who’d been completely silent so far. “This is all bullshit. So the power’s out. We’re in the boonies. No surprise there’s no signal. And those fucking messages have got to be some kind of joke. When I find out who did it, I’m going to beat the shit out of them and anybody who doesn’t like it can call the fucking cops. That shit’s not funny.” She looked around belligerently.
I couldn’t for the life of me remember her name, even her online name, other than that it was something to do with being a hypnodomme, which meant she liked to hypnotize other people and make them submit to her.
Like I was going to criticize her for that.
“Have any of you tried your abilities yet?” I asked quietly. “I did. This isn’t a joke. Look at Danielle and me, look hard.” I nodded at the red-headed angel standing next to me. “She was cute last night, but today she could be on the cover of Vogue. That’s not just makeup and good morning light. That’s the System. It… changed us.”
None of the others looked any different than I remembered, so either I wasn’t remembering well or none of them had gotten a Charisma boost. As the others stopped concentrating on how scared they were and really took in our new appearances, they all looked stunned.
“Holy shit,” said Anthony. “You’re right. Jesus, she’s a goddess. And I’m straight as a fucking ruler and you’re looking kinda tasty.” He blushed. “I mean, you look like a model. You didn’t look like that yesterday at dinner.” We’d all eaten together before doing some hypnosis demonstrations… okay, we were doing Silly Mind Tricks. Think stage hypnosis show, only, shall we say, racier. Then we divided up into couples and… coupled. At least Danielle and I had. What the others did was none of my business.
I could almost feel Danielle squirm and blush at my side as Anthony complimented her. Joe was also staring at her, now that he’d taken the time to focus. As was Mandy. Huh, didn’t see that coming. The other woman just snorted.
“More tricks,” she said. “It’s all bullshit. I said no to everything and I didn’t get any ray guns or bullshit magic tricks.”
“Did you pick a class?” I asked her. “You don’t get much until you pick a class.”
“Fuck, no,” she retorted. “I said, this is all bullshit.” She crossed her arms over her chest like a little kid getting ready to throw a tantrum. Fortunately, I’d already managed to convince someone this was real without revealing too much. Not like I could keep a direct damage spell secret if we had to run for it.