The Flare

A global phenomena that occurs which exposes the entire world with an unseen energy. This energy does not affect most people, but affected those who have an actively trying to change. The energy has an attribute of resonance which clings onto those who are actively moving towards confronting themselves rather than those who are actively avoiding change; those who are stagnant and accept that will never awaken to any special ability. In addition to affecting certain individuals, the energy from the flare latched onto the water within a dormant volcano near the city the story takes place in. This was due to the water within the volcano meeting specific conditions (a largely contained circulating water source that absorbed a high concentration of the flare’s energy). As a result, the nearby city found that the water from the volcano can be used as a reusable energy source so long as it is properly circulated. The water enables amplified motion that allows it to output significant kinetic power within a closed pathway system.

Passive and Active Abilities

The energy from the Flare affected those who were trying to confront themselves, which resulted in a passive quirk/burden that affects them. It is a passive ability based on the character’s deepest internal conflict that manifests without conscious control. The passive can only be perceived by them.

As for active abilities, they are awakened once the user encounters an artifact that resonates with their core being. It is a unique ability that has a physiological cost (a metaphor for the emotional cost) which is shaped by intent.

The through line for the design of powers in this magic system is they are all forms of internal processing.

Generally, the passive is an extended psychological burden while the active is a tool/skill that takes a physiological toll on the user.

1. All powers are sourced from each character’s way of internally processing their core psychological wound (Rain from his own perception of himself, Roxana from her body heat, Claire from her brain’s calculations, Vesper from his memory within his psyche)

2. There is a self-affecting physiological cost when using the active abilities

3. Passive abilities are the same internal processing of the core wound but in a more raw and unfocused way.

4. The artifact does not grant new powers but rather channels the existing passive ability into a more intentional form.

5. No permanent physical change is made to the world. Memory and identity, however, can be permanently altered — this is the exception. Each active ability temporarily manifests something if applicable.

6. Tied to the core wound of the character

7. Advanced or evolved active abilities have their cost transformed reflecting the character’s growth or descent. That or their ability is refined but with the same or similar original cost.

Artifacts are physical objects that were part of an irreversible human commitment during the Flare. The energy imprinted on them not because they were in motion, but because they were touched by a decisive act — someone running toward danger, reaching to save, staying when others fled. An artifact carries the memory of that moment. When a person on the verge of their own commitment encounters a matching artifact, resonance occurs. The object channels the passive into the active. The artifact does not grant power; it focuses what is already there.

Rain’s Ghost/Clone

Passive: Rain sees a ghost of himself - a translucent afterimage visible only Rain can see. It appears at meaningful thresholds between commitment and retreat, performing a single repeated action: a step forward with an open hand reaching towards what Rain’s deepest self truly wants to do, regardless of risk or consequence.

When Rain wears his artifact (goggles), the Ghost becomes sharper and more distinct. The goggles channel the passive into the active, and as a side effect, the Ghost is more clear which makes it harder for Rain to ignore.

Active: Rain along with his artifact can create a distinguishable intangible clone of himself that does a singular action based on his intent. The drawback is that Rain loses his senses scaling with duration; he is losing his feelings to the present experience in real time. Mostly escalates from blurred vision and ringing ears to temporary blindness/deafness and possible collapse due to not feeling his own presence at all (losing himself or his feeling of ego?). He recovers around 10-30s shortly after dismissing the clone.

Advanced Active: The clone is indistinguishable from Rain entirely and emulates the physics around to create perfect, still intangible, illusion. Immediate sensory cost seems to be removed entirely; however, each use leaves a fragment of his Ghost’s internal voice (Procrastinator self talk) which grows in autonomy and persuasion upon each use. His old self, refusing to die quietly. Cost hinted at near the end of Remember Rain which will be explored in the future if there’s a sequel.

Roxana’s Flame

Passive: Her pain ( or rather her sensitivity to pain) is amplified when she feels vulnerable, dependent, or tempted to connect. She in turn avoids encounters that let her do this as she has burns on her arms from a previous accident/event.

Active: Conjure a small flame that cannot be extinguished by normal means and can be manipulated slightly. Flame lingers for a bit if fuel source disappears which means it can be placed. The drawback is that the flame’s direct fuel to sustain is Roxana’s own body heat. Extended use can lead to hypothermia and overuse can lead to unconsciousness.

Claire’s Visual Calculus

Passive: Intrusive anxiety from overthinking after a choice she’s made. Constant, literal noise of information. It is a sort of static that floods her hearing constantly, but she’s learned to live with the background hum of most decisions. This spikes when she makes a more scary decision (how much she personally fears the outcome).

Active: Claire can process information at a superhuman speed to calculate trajectories, angles, probabilities, and execute precise actions (visually shown to only her like visual calculus diagrams). Visually, it looks like a bunch of overlapping possibilities simulate within her vision until it reaches a result that aligns with her intent (everything is silent during the ability; once complete, she hears a click). However, this comes at a cost of deferred exhaustion in the form of a metabolic crash (brain glucose depletion, i.e. significant use of brain energy in a short amount of time). She may collapse shortly after using the ability on a very complex task; shorter / less complex use has her have tremors, cold sweats, mental fog.

Advanced Active: Claire’s active transforms into more of an instinctive passive that allows her to react to things within a short range almost immediately but effortlessly. Basically a form of ultra instinct where the calculations occur without Claire actively having to focus on it. (Needs rework due to cost transformation rule to the magic system)

Vesper’s Memory Extraction

Passive: Vesper experiences involuntary flashbacks — his own memories and those he has extracted, bleeding together without distinction. The flashbacks are not under his control. They are the price of carrying so many selves inside one mind. His mother's memory is the most persistent.

Active: Vesper can extract the memories of others and turn them into glass shards. These glass shards can be shattered to return the memories to the original owner.

During the act of extraction, Vesper experiences neural echoes that strains his brain’s functions to the point of migraines, vertigo, tremors, etc. ?

Advanced Active: Vesper can melt a shard to permanently internalize a memory which causes the memory to be fully lost for the original owner. The cost is increased for Vesper in that he experiences accelerated neural damage leading to identity fragmentation and the permanent loss of parts of his own memories. He is a collector who hoards what he claims to abolish — and the hoard is destroying him from within.