Nobody's Memories
Chapter 9 - Consideration
Ok, I apparently had some form of personalized time dilation, proven and not fully tested. I could work with this.
...I had personal Time Dilation. Who was I kidding? This was amazing. It also went a long way to explain several things about my speed - I had tested my limits, and while my strength's output was amazingly high, it wasn't able to account for how fast I had been able to move whenever I had thought what was my mind had sped up. Not just that, but while my enhanced perception had kicked in, I had noticed little… discrepancies, in how I affected things. I hadn't given them much thought, but it did explain a large number of things. The way my feet would kick up dirt, how objects would retain their momentum once they left my hands and not for long after, why exactly I hit so hard that Monsters were apparently affected by my fists the same as a normal creature might be, yet everything else had particularly… 'messy'… consequences…
Point being, it certainly provided plenty of explanations for the many tiny things that had been adding up I previously simply attributed to my nature as a Nobody. But as I had already mentioned, it was so far untested.
For the most part.
Watching several cats realign a crossbow, its front draped over their backs to keep it steady as another cat brought the fourth bolt over in its mouth, I had no regrets. It had taken two hours of training, reverse psychology, and catnip, but eventually I had taught them how to use a crossbow as a team.
…Also, treats, such as seasoned and cooked chicken offerings every few tries until they got it right.
Could I have come up with an easier, quicker solution for how to test my Time Dilation? Yes.
Could I have done so in a way that didn't involve sharp yet mostly harmless projectiles flying at me repeatedly? The answer is also yes.
But the question I really have to ask here is would it have been as entertaining? No, no it wouldn't. And in the end, wasn't that all that mattered?
Well, it wasn't, but to a probably immortal and eternally bored Nobody attempting to fill his every waking moment it was. Speaking of, I should probably see if I can sleep at all…
I might be sleeping a lot, on that note. Yet I digress, because I decided to test exactly how much fine control I had over my time dilation, and perhaps find some kind of dilation limit or form of time limit. So far… no upper limits. For example, when I had taken the time to describe the cats loading the crossbow, I easily could've described the exact processes through which they had done it, they way their fur currently looked and was moving, maybe even found each and every bug hiding in it. Not entirely because of the time dilation, which was…. Almost absurd by this point, a rock I had thrown into the air barely moving by now, and to such a degree I had to remind myself it was still there.
Relative to the slowly, slowly moving cats, to whom time had to have moved barely a few seconds, I had spent ten minutes running about testing the effects of my time dilation without them so much as reacting or batting an eye. Oh wait, one did now. Ah well, fun's fun.
Now, my grip on my personal time dilation required concentration. Like rummaging around through my skull and gripping a single section of it tightly, but not quite so tightly that it hurt, I had to make an effort to control things to any significant degree. My concentration could probably be broken by a lucky hit, spell I was unaware of, or some other method of dealing with pesky speedsters and time manipulators, but irregardless, I had yet to discover the upper limit.
I planned on changing that now.
Tightening the squeezing sensation's strength, from just above that of a newborn child grasping my thumb to a toddler's, time slows more. Its formerly sluggish pace seems to lack all movement now, acquiring the quality's one expects from a cloud on a windless day. The tightness increases… more… and mor-
Why did everything ring with the sound of shattered glass, panicked meowing, and a gigantic ?
Oh, everything also looked as though I had stared at the sun for several hours. Funner! I certainly hoped this wouldn't happen every time my time dilation was broken. I... gah, it was an hassle to even move! Every muscle ached and burned, refusing to work. I was stumbling about, standing still and yet my body tilting to and fro out in an attempt to make itself work properly. I rather imagined this is what being drunk while hungover would look like after being bashed on the back of your head.
Oh, this had better not happen every time my time dilation was broken, because I was screwed if it was. This was the equivalent of a long, long stun in any of the games, the kind that a player would gladly take advantage of. Granted, it had been only a few seconds, but they were painful, painful seconds where all of my senses were warped and distorted a lo-
Thrak!
Stumbling back, I almost cry out in surprise affected by the crossbow bolt that simply bounces off my head; there no pain,yet simple force combined with my lack of balance damn near made me fall over just from the impact. Splinters fly as I manage to shake the few noticeable effects off, control returning to my body, the noises fading, only a few splotches of darkness left in my ayes. Well, not all of the noise. Though not as loud, or distorted, there were still plenty of confused and panicking cats, meowing in concern. The crossbow had been dropped, and an untrained cat was playing around with a crossbow bolt in much the same
Or maybe they were just hungry again. They were cats, and therefore cared less about everything not relevant to their continual survival than I did as a Nobody. I was giving both options 50/50 odds.
Choosing to glare at them, tossing more chicken I had pre-prepared to the pack of adorable,tiny murder beasts humanity had thought themselves foolish enough to tame, it was high time to do with my now somewhat- clearly defined powers what all Spacebattlers did.
Try to abuse the fuck out of them. After all, even if only doing so only changed my chances of victory against an equal or greater for by a single percentile, it was worth it. For example - my time dilation was, if I were to judge by how it always accelerated my awareness at the first hint of danger, always active to some degree, however minor. The only exception I could think of would be when I had been 'stunned' earlier, my forceful attempts at pushing my abilities too far 'breaking' themselves. It had been... subtle, but noticeable. Like the difference between being drenched on a rainy day and the ozone-filled air right before a thunderstorm hits.
Perhaps not the most accurate description, but still.
The fact that time sped up- that being my only indication of trouble in the first place - could mean several things. It could be that my already amazingly powerful skill was in fact broken, predicting danger before it happened and slowing time in response. The Spider-Sense on drugs, basically. It could also just as easily work off of my subconscious, recognizing something odd or dangerous and slowing time before my conscious mind could register it. It might even casually slow time in unnoticeable degrees to check if something is a danger before doing so more liberally. The issue on top of that was that the time dilation wasn't just passive; and that therefore my mind therefore was coming to too many different conclusions with too few answers. Why was it not just passive, but controllable? Was it two separate skills that intertwined for some odd reason? The fact it was controllable - if a little focus breaking - by applying mental pressure in this odd, indescribable way didn't help either.
Kneeling down to reach a cat that had come over begging for more food before dropping down to sit cross legged, I knew I had to find out. More fan that, I had to figure out its exact limits. Was it one-way time dilation, only capable of acceleration? Would my ability to control it ever surpass its current limits? It... huh...there was so much happening in my mind. How had it taken me so long to notice it? Was I just not capable of comprehending it? I had just reached out towards the part of my mind that controlled my time dilation, and then just stretched a bit... further... their were others things to grasp, big blobs of energy and odd mental strings just waiting to be pulled.
I admit I was vaguely aware to the many, many weird things currently going on in my head. I had stumbled into a few of them while trying to figure out how to access the Corridors of Darkness, not really taking note of them at the time. They were easy to forget, naturally slick against my memory, even as I tenuously touched them. Poke, poke poke. What a smart idea, Solstice, poke the strange powers in your mind. Would I have discovered them anyway, had I not been trying to extend the power of my time dilation? Simply reached up and grabbed one, hoping for the best or seeking a specific effect? Perhaps one of them was my weapon; I had to assume it was likely all Higher Nobody's had one. Unless, of course, they had been forged by an organization member... a possibility I couldn't discount...
Yet any of these strange mental connections and odd energies could be it. Like this one, for example - it seems different from the rest. Large and well defined, yes, but oh so empty. A hole just waiting to be filled, perhaps.A worthy test; then. What could go wrong? It was half mental muscle, half energy as well - marking it as far more different than the rest. I simply had to reach out ,grasp it and shake it awake, commanding it to work without understanding why-
-and then the cat sitting in my lap vanished.
Hm.
Ok, not touching that power again. Point to you, Murphy. I had so few solutions, and so many questions. All I really wanted right now was-
Hm. There's that word again. Want. Need.
"I've used it more than enough." I muse aloud, sighing a bit under my breath. "But... what do I want?"
An excellent question... and one I needed an answer to.
"Hehehe... there's that word again." I chuckle, the laugh a bit dead.
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Power List
Personalized Time Dilation
Seem to be always active to some degree, however minor
Only exception being when powers are 'broken'.
No upper limit to time dilation, nor any time limit
Actual limit seems to be arbitrary, and mentally imposed.
Strong hits capable of 'breaking' time dilation, stunning me for a notable period of time
Based on my strong tendency to procrastinate anything and everything until the literal last second?
Test if time dilation is only capable of accelerating my perception.
Stop referring to it as both slowing and acceleration!
What do I want?
?