Draft: 52 Mana Dance Dreams

Mana Dance [rare]:you’ve seen mana in its pure form and danced at its magnificence. You scoff at those that treat it as just a force to manipulate for their benefit and the mana acknowledges and rewards this outlook. Dance to the beat of the mana and gain (marginal) greater fluidity and conversion rates in your casting. Effects increase with Skill level.

The Skill was surprising in so many ways. Not least of which that it implied mana was more than just a force. It seemed to condense all her awe at the new world in its simple description. More than that, the effects of the Skill seemed ludicrously overpowered. Even if the effects were listed as marginal and she didn’t really understand what they were. Greater fluidity and conversion rates just sounded good.

James spared one last look at the Stealth Skill. She could take it and just try to improve as much as she could. Grind it out until she really was invisible. Make it so that taking Jason to get ice cream was doable. But would there even be a working ice cream shop once this was all over? And did Stealth really describe her as much as Mana Dance did? Because she didn’t want it to.

When Christian had gone over Skills and Classes, he had described Classes as a person’s role. Their System-designated position. Extrapolating further, James privately thought that Skills probably played a part in how the System recognized you. With the System, she could see a future where maybe she didn’t need to be invisible in order to enjoy a day of fun with Jason. And did she really want the System to view her as someone stealthy? Or someone in awe of the world around them? So much so that the world in turn recognized her wonder? Framing it that way, the choice was obvious. Still, it was with some trepidation that James indicated that she wanted Mana Dance.

Immediately a ritualistic swaying motion along with several foreign words filler her mind. Calling them words was a bit of a misnomer, however, since James had her Permanent Skill A Thousand Questions, which permitted her to understand any language. Her not understanding the sounds meant that it was simply gibberish. Still, it was weird how some gibberish had meaning and still didn’t count as words. She supposed despite the system, and perhaps because of it, things didn’t really need to make sense. Maybe the System was only around in order to explain unexplainable phenomena. She certainly didn’t know enough to speculate.

Regardless, she was too tired to pay it much heed. Now that the Skill Selection was out of the way, maybe she could actually get some sleep.

Her sleep was fitful and full of dreams. First up was a weird one of her tree house. She could feel herself moving around in its orange mana veins, almost playing with it. It had a toddler-like existence, at least as far as she could tell, all wrapped around a tinge of ancient wisdom she didn’t dare touch. The tree seemed to enjoy her company and at the end seemed to show its appreciation with a warm hug. Literally warm, if James were awake, she’d see herself start to sweat in the cool night air.

Her next dream almost felt like a nightmare. She was with her family on a full street of people. Jason was animatedly talking with her parents, gesticulating in his charming way, and getting passing people to give him a glance and a small smile. James, an outsider even in her own dreams, watched as he seemed to win over complete strangers on the street. She felt a tiny bit jealous of his easy confidence, not caring who was watching. Not even noticing, really.

“I’m telling you; Steph Curry should be the MVP this year. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s unlikely, but I’m not saying he will be. He put together a crazy, just crazy,” Jason moved his hands in an explosion, his eyes growing wide, “month of performances. You literally need to guard him the second he leaves half court, otherwise, well he makes you look like a fool. Just,” he mimed out a taking a small step and stepping out to take a shot, fluidly dribbling out a ball and swishing it up, his hand resting at the end of the arc with his wrist hanging out at ninety degrees. “It’s perfection, is what it is.”

James could tell Jason could feel the crowd chanting his name in his head, he was so deeply immersed in his fantasy. Truthfully, it wasn’t much of a fantasy. He was a basketball player in their high school and their rising star. As opposed to James, who lived on the small side of average, he was impossibly tall. Which side of the family he got it from, James didn’t know, but coupled with his athleticism, amazing hand-eye coordination, and balance he was already getting scouted.

Noticing that she lagged behind her family, James hurried to catch up. It wasn’t really her fault that she had frozen when she noticed all those people around. At least their presence wasn’t nearly as oppressive as normal. She wasn’t going to question it, though, not if she could finally have a semi-normal day with her family.

Her dad let out a belly laugh, looking up at his son. Unlike Jason’s inviting face, the smile looked unnatural on his, for all that James knew he practiced it in the mirror. He was a salesman in a used car lot, the man a walking dictionary of cheesy slogans, and his job wholly dependent on appearing personable. He used one now as he replied.

“Well, he didn’t achieve that without working. The only thing that sat its way to success was a hen!” he gave out a snort at his unoriginal quote, thinking he was overly clever and teaching his kids a valuable lesson, “or the people buying my cars. That’s the only way to get to work ladies and gentlemen, sitting!” at this part he raised his voice a bit, unashamedly trying to get everyone’s attention on him. Tim King was one of those folks that believed all publicity was good publicity, yet another adage he liked to spout around the house. Why he still tried to convince James of this fact, she’d never know.

The rest of the family rolled their eyes at him, looking like a cohesive unit for the first time since James had arrived in this weird dream.

Going up to the ice cream counter, Jason perused the flavors in front of him with a serious expression. To be fair, the flavors changed frequently and even managed to surprise him from time to time.

“Could I try the honey nut cheerios ice cream? Ooh, and maybe the matcha flavor? Basil too if you still have it, it was really good last time.” The girl behind the counter gave him a nice smile and a small blush. Most customers couldn’t get away with asking for so many testers time after time, but this was Jason. How could she say no?

“Here you go!” She quickly spooned the desired flavors and left Jason to decide what he wanted. Turning her attention to James, she delicately wrinkled her nose at her in distaste. The girl really couldn’t tell how this awkward thing always managed to hang around Jason. She didn’t even talk, not to mention that she saw her around very sparsely.

Still, she had been warned about James by the other girls working at the shop and had even served her once and was prepared for the silent exchange. Expertly scooping up some vanilla bean ice cream, one of the shop’s only consistently available flavors, into a sugar cone, she handed it over with a plastic smile. Quickly grabbing the offering, James offered a small smile in thanks, she was polite after all, and went to the back, letting her parents take over.

Eating her ice cream, she tried to figure out what felt so different. Besides her awareness that this was a dream, that one was obvious. Looking around, she froze. How hadn’t she noticed?

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I'm not the biggest fan of the Skill name, any suggestions? Thank you!!!

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