(note, I suck at grammar and spelling. Any corrections are appreciated, I will try to fix any mistakes I catch) A world turned chaotic by a single word. An unknown power had appeared allowing users of said power to shape themselves and their surroundings. Nobody knew where this power came from, or who had given it to humanity. The one thing they knew was its name. "Thaumaturgy" Table of contents Prologue + chapter 1 Chapter 2
Spoiler: Prologue Before 'they' appeared, life was easy for Chris. He and his mother would go on walks along one of the busier streets of the city they lived in and would often laugh at the funny faces people made in their cars. They would get ice cream at a small stand on the corner of a busy intersection. One particular day they decided instead of going straight home; they would take the long way through a nearby nature path. This would be the first time he heard 'their' call. While they were looking around at the large trees along the side of the path, Chris became infatuated with this strange 'voice' he heard. With every step, the 'voice' got louder and louder. It called for him, begged for him to come and find 'it'. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore. Curiosity got the better of his young mind and he walked towards the sound. Every step became thunderous in his ears and he no longer heard his mothers calls. The slow walk turned into a brisk jog, then he broke out into a sprint. His mother desperately chased after him as he ran towards a large river. When Chris reached the river bank he had no intention of slowing down. With a giant leap, he had managed to clear the entire river that was as thick as the average tree was tall. He knew he was close and nothing would keep him from finding 'it' anymore. After ten minutes of sprinting at a speed that far surpassed what his eleven-year-old body should be able to move, he finally found 'it'. In a small clearing that was no bigger than an average living room, there was a Circle where no grass grew, in the very center was a small box the same size as a box a deck of cards would come in. The box was a creamy white color. On top of the box was a gold circle and on the sides of the box lay golden words in a language no human had seen before this moment. However, Chris knew what they said and he took another step forward into the circle. He grabbed the box and the circle of dirt flashed in a golden glow, illuminating the previously dark forest. The golden circle lifted from the ground and flew towards him, the box disappearing inside of it as it attached itself to his wrist. The words on the box echoed in his mind. It was the same word that had called him here. With a small voice that even he could barely hear he whispered. "Thau...mat.....ur...gy" Spoiler: Chapter 1- Relocation Chris stuck a card to one of the larger boxes he was trying to carry, the box that had been filled with weights that head easily weighed over 70lbs now weighed less than 1. He carried it from the moving truck on one of his shoulders and moved it to the once empty basement. He then went to work assembling the different equipment. The process took over half an hour however he hadn't even broken a sweat. During the assembly, his mind had been elsewhere as he had taken apart the equipment and put them back together so many times that the entire process has been committed to muscle memory. Afterwards, he sat down on the floor and drank from a nearby bottle of water. He turned his head to the door that leads to the staircase. "I heard you come down the steps, just come in." A woman opens the door and pokes her head through the doorway. "I just didn't want to break your concentration," she says carrying two bottles of soda in her hand. She sat on the floor next to him and looked around. "I don't see why you need all of this, you can just draw a card and everything weighs little to none." She says looking at the various weights on the rack. She passes one of the bottles over to him, but he just lifts his bottle of water. The smile on his mothers face fades and she reaches for the water bottle and takes it from his hand. She then downs the entire thing and tosses the bottle across the room, Once again she passes the bottle of soda with a playful look on her face. Chris takes the bottle, however, he knew that if he had even tried to hold onto it, she wouldn't be able to even remove one of his fingers from the bottle. He takes a swig and looks at her. "You do understand I have little to no control over what cards I pull." He says as he looks at the white ribbon. the edges of the ribbon had a gold trim to them. His mother just smiles and rests her head on his shoulder. "Yet you've saved my life and many others with your cards," she says looking at the ribbon. Chris moves away slightly and coldly states "By pure chance. I can just as easily have killed all of those people, you included." She stands up and stretches, then bends over to plant a kiss on his forehead. "You say that yet here I am. You have more control than you think." She says over her shoulder as she walks to the staircase. After about fifteen minutes Chris stands up and takes another drink of the soda. He heads upstairs and moves to his room. He had already moved his stuff to his room earlier. Various playing cards had been stuck to the walls so they were not blank, as he didn't really have any posters to fill the blank space. So he just taped the cards there to make it seem more 'lived in'. The closet had been filled with light t-shirts and Brightly colored polo shirts. That his mother picked out as his usual grey and black attire was 'too gloomy' for her. At the feet of his bead was a dresser, with jeans, sweatpants, and pajamas all in their respective drawers. His bed itself was a bunk bed, however, the mattress on the top had been removed and a heavy, fireproof tarp lay over the frame. While under said tarp it was impossible to see even your own nose, and any sound that was made outside the tarp was muffled to the point of complete silence. This arrangement was meant to act as a bunker in case of a fire. This plan had backfired, however. A week prior he was upstairs in the living room when another person broke in through the downstairs bathroom window. The window was small by itself however he had managed to barely slip through, while his mother was inside. He heard the window open and knew something was wrong, seeing as how his mother hates the cold and it was in the middle of the winter. He rushed to the kitchen -where the staircase to upstairs was connected to- and saw his mother run out and into his room. The man followed her and she jumped under the tarp. The man pulled the tarp from the frame when Chris made it to the doorway He panicked an threw a card at him, the only problem was he didn't check the card. He barely saw that the card had flames on it when it stuck itself to the man. Chris's heart dropped as at the time he believed he saw the card with the 'flame explosion' effect on it. The tarp had been removed and she would have easily been caught in the blast. However, instead of exploding the man had simply burst into flames. The man tried to get rid of the flames by rolling on the carpet. The Flames ignited the carpet and Chris grabbed his mother and ran outside as they called 911. The tarp had reminded him of when he threw the card and he shuddered. 'Flame explosion' wasn't the only card that could have killed his mother. He had many, many cards capable of killing both of them and the possibility of her death was certainly over 50%. However, he had taken the gamble and threw it. He crawled inside and laid face down on the cold mattress. He wanted to get up early tomorrow so he could take a shower before school. He is going to be a sophomore and he at least had the decency to not want to be late on his first day of school.
Spoiler: Chapter 2 - Revelation Chris woke to the vibrations of his mother slamming his bedroom door shut, opening it, then slamming it again. Even though he couldn't hear it he easily felt the vibrations through the bed frame. He poked his head out from under the tarp. "oh you're finally awake! Anyway, I have to go to work so behave at school. " She says as she shuts the door. Chris eventually gets up and walks to the bathroom. He forgot to change out of his clothes from yesterday so he had begun to stink. He strips down and gets into the shower. After his shower, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. His blond hair had grown passe his eyes. His eyes Unlike his mother's ocean blue colored eyes, His eyes were brown. That's the only other dividing factor between him in his mother. Sparing a few facial features he honestly looked more like a girl than a boy, although his muscle painted a different picture. Being a Thaumaturgist, his body naturally built and was clear of any waste he put in it, even fat seemingly disappeared. He no longer needed to eat every day nor sleep every night. Although eating helps him more psychologically than physically at this point. He gets dressed and looks at a black anklet, it has a flashing red light indicating that the location the anklet is located is be ing transmitted. "Might as well be collared," he says as he slips it on. The previously red light turned green. He walks downstairs to the kitchen and sees that there is a bottle of water with a box of crackers on the table. A note on the table reads "Haven't gone shopping yet. You don't care though, Right? Anyway, your 'doctor' says he can replace your anklet for something less conspicuous. That should make you happy at least. HAVE A GOOD DAY!" Followed by a multitude of hearts. He crumples up the note and eats a handful of crackers followed by a chug of the water bottle. He grabs a sweatshirt from the closet next to the door and walks outside. He pulls the sleeve on his left arm to reveal the white band and it transforms. The Band expands and goes from being an inch wide to be about 6 inches wide. On the wrist of the band, the white box appears seemingly connected by nothing. The gold circle on the box facing outward. He reaches over to the box with his other hand and puts it near the circle. A card appears with the same gold symbols on the side of the box glowing on its back appears less than an inch away from the box. He lightly grabs it and looks at its face. Its a symbol of what looks like a clock with its hands all pointed at noon. " {Time Jump} huh, haven't had this one in a while..." he says as he drops the card on the ground. The card shatters like a thin piece of glass. Everything began to slow down and he started to walk towards the school. It was half an hour away by foot so he wanted to make the most of his card. In normal time everything moved like normal, however, when the card wore off, anyone who saw him thought he just teleported to school. He raised his hood and walked to his homeroom, trying his hardest not to be noticed. As he got to the door of his homeroom he felt eyes watching him. He turned his head and saw no one in the halls. Chris began to reach for another card, as the hallway had just been filled with many other students rushing around. Before he can pull one out though, he blinked and all the missing students reappeared. Some were even staring at him and trying to get him out of the doorway. He shook his head and walked into the classroom. He doesn't sit down at a desk. Instead, he just leans against the whiteboard and waits for Homeroom to start. After the first bell rang and everyone had their eyes on Chris the homeroom teacher spoke up." Would you rather I introduce you? I heard its-" before he can finish Chris interrupts him. "My name is Chris Renner, I'm legally obliged to tell you that I'm a Thaumaturgist," He said in a hurry. He would rather be done with it and sit down before anyone asks questions. Due to said legal obligation, he is forced to answer any question asked about his Thaumaturgy. To his dismay, someone actually spoke up. "What can you do?" a student from the front asked. He had the obvious 'I'm the teacher's pet' look to him. The only thing missing is the glasses. He even had a nametag on his chest, but Chris didn't even bother to read it. "I'm a unique type Thaumaturgist. I can manifest cards and throw them for varying effects depending on whats on the card." He said and took a few more steps towards an empty desk. "Can you give us an example?" a girl from the back asked. He looked at the girl and took note of band-aids on her face and the black eye she has. Chris sighed and pulled back his sleeve and turns his deck back into its normal state. " it's easier just to show you" He says and pulls a card from his deck. Then in a swift motion, he throws it at the girl. The motion caused the girl to recoil and she tries to dodge, but a cast on her leg slows her down. The card ended up hitting her square in the stomach rather than her forehead but it didn't matter as Her entire body began to shimmer a golden white hue. Her black eye slowly disappears and she looks at the rest of her injuries. Chris took a few steps towards her and in another swift motion, grabs the inside edges of her cast with both hands and with a loud CRACK snaps it in half. The entire scene was watched by the class. Many of the students voiced their surprise of her black eye vanishing but even more jumped out of their seats in shock at the loud sound and the sight of having her cast ripped off her. The girl was the most surprised as she ended up falling on her butt with a loud thud. "Hey what the hell!" She yells as Chris walked away. "The card was called {Regenerate} You're lucky. It turned out to be a Crit card and healed more than I intended" He then sat down at the empty desk. He chose one that was near the back, The desk to his left was empty and the one in front of him had another female student who was too infatuated with her phone to notice the entire interaction. It was then that Chris learned that sitting down at a desk wouldn't stop the questions from coming. The teacher had managed to recompose himself when he asked: "what did you mean by 'crit' ". Then with a loud sigh, Chris stood back up and drew another card. This time the card wasn't white, but instead had a grey hue to it. "oh, it's your lucky day, you get to see a crit and a dud in a span of 10 minutes. A Crit card looks the exact same as a normal card, however, it's many, many times more effective. A dud is a card that is completely useless. Maybe a dud {flare} can be used to light a cigarette but it won't make a light bright enough to signal for help." he says and takes another look around the classroom. (Note, the questions asked were only the ones I could think of, if anyone has any ((that's assuming anyone reads passed the shitty writing and auto corrected grammar)) Feel free to ask them.