The Brand of Clairvoyance.

--03.

In our world, nay, our existence, many natural forces are present no matter where you go. After joining the Gnosis Towers, my studies are on one particular force, something that has always been a part of the many worlds we know of and presumably the worlds we do not.

The Attentions.

It is quite a mysterious thing. For some, it is a repellent; for some, it is an attractant. For some, it might as well not exist.

The Presences and Metahumanoids do not share much in common naturally, yet we are both affected by the Attentions. However, Presences tend to be more sensitive to them, presumably closer to their influence than us...we have only been able to see them and their effects with the naked eye after gaining Supernaturality, in fact.

They seem capable of overwriting Psyche and altering emotions, goals, and desires. They are similar to an organism in some cases and weather in others. Their Arrival is based on their attraction to how a being behaves in most documented cases, but honestly, we have yet to have conclusive details on what beckons them. Sometimes they will appear everywhere to one person and nowhere to everyone besides that particular being.

We know that they can grant great power or unfathomable ruin. Many heroes, villains, tyrants, and notable figures alike in documented old-millennium history are often theorized to have been under the potent or constant influence of an Attention or two.

There are 5 families of Attention; their distinctive features lean toward the concentration and direction of their influence. The highest attention is the highest in concentration and direction.

Incendiary Attentions:

Red

Russet

Coquelicot

-Characteristic of its views towards conflict and almost obsessive passion. It is the desire alone to come into contact with others and connect with them on a deeper, sometimes detrimental, level. It commonly intermingles with Piquant and Inimical.

Inimical Attentions:

Yellow

Lime

Jade

-Characteristic of its views towards isolation and baleful or harmfulness. It is questionable what it truly desires. It is either calamitous, inhospitable, lonely, or hostile. Nevertheless, it is quite dangerous. It commonly intermingles with Piquant and Incendiary.

Piquant Attentions:

Blue

Saxe

Teal

-Characteristic of its views towards appetite for knowledge and high curiosity. It is the desire alone to explore and experience, to define and discover. It commonly intermingles with all.

Prepotent Attentions:

Purple

Mauve

Heather

-Characteristic of its views of influence and progeny. It is the desire alone to rule over a situation, even as a pawn. It commonly intermingles with Piquant and Incendiary.

Fate Attentions.

Black, White

-They are elusive, equally kind, equally cruel, blending into and away from each other. The trust you have for them should be situational and circumstantial. White and Black are both good omens and bad omens to come.

Intermingling isn't exactly a measure of compatibility, but simply how easy it is to blend Attentions together. But, of course, all can be blended, and some intensities work better than others.

--Excerpt From: "Treatise on the Attentions"

From: Gnosis Towers Database 2A

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The gate had the shape of a gaunt face, two triangular eyes with rectangular pupils that lacked a defined iris staring down upon the people of Numarch.

Numarch was a reasonably large Colony, possessing 5 Sectors divided into 27 Districts in each Sector, their Localities undefined and sometimes shifting as positions were shuffled about at the Nunally's leisure.

In all Colonies, Sectors were generally the size of a city, Districts were their wards, and Localities were the separate places that built up the District.

The Colony Numarch's 5 Sectors were named Ald, Eld, Ild, Uld, and Yld.

Ald was the only Sector the Unnamed were allowed inside, and anyone higher could come and go as they pleased.

Eld was primarily based on the Brothers, though Brothers could enter the other 3 Sectors if they had orders or duties to handle inside them.

Ild was primarily based on the Sisters, who could enter Uld without much question as long as they had garnered the approval of a Grand Sister.

Uld was the home of the Broodgrounds, where Broodmothers and their Clutches lived until their Brood was old and strong enough to travel to Ald Sector.

And Yld was a Sector that had no intentions of being populated. Instead, it was used as a region to harbor any foreigner to Numarch, whether they be from another Colony or a precious guest.

S#003-JU arrived at Ald Sector J District's entrance while ignoring the noises going around him. Some Unnamed were merrily chatting, and some exchanged glares...no doubt due to the wounds on their body. It wasn't uncommon for Unnamed to fight each other, and they tended to align themselves into their own microcosms of society where strength and connections reigned.

Like always, S#003-JU was an outcast, lacking a group he belonged to. Occasionally he was attacked, forcing him to learn how to defend himself. While he couldn't claim to be overly strong or coordinated, he was nothing if not durable. He ignored pain to the point of not showing any expression towards it, his visage blank and eerie to most of the Unnamed he had ever engaged violently with.

Coupled with the well-rounded features of his body, he was a force to be reckoned with among the poorly fed and ignorant Unnamed.

The Localities in the Ald Sector were mainly empty buildings where the Unnamed were free to gather and reside. Occasionally, some Unnamed were able to collect objects of note and set up stalls along the road or permanent shops. They worked on a bartering system, so it was very ordinary to see Unnamed clamor around one of their peers who had garnered the favor of a Brother or above.

And those that didn't? They scavenged or stole. Very rarely would anyone be capable of creating their own product to trade.

S#009-JU was one of them. She was also a prolific scavenger, and she was hard to find. She also had multiple places where she laid her head, and only S#003-JU was informed of them.

S#003-JU didn't forget any of them. He had a good memory.

The night was entirely red when S#003-JU finally found his Broodsister. Snow shimmered down and caused S#003-JU's skin to flush further than it did ordinarily, yet he showed no signs of being bothered by the chill.

An energetic voice traveled down the alleyway as S#009-JU poked her head out from around a corner. Her countenance was pouty as she huffed her cheeks, her eyes gauging the reaction of her beloved Broodbrother.

She had been waiting to surprise him, and he had stood in one spot for around 10 minutes. The position of his head was aimed around where she hid, but since she couldn't see his eyes, she figured he had simply not seen her. Nevertheless, he showed no surprise as she broke the silence, his expression as neutral as ever.

Her tusks gleamed underneath the red glare of the atmosphere. Her dusky, dark green skin was nothing too dark compared to her pitch-black sclera and full lips. Her nose was small and appeared rather cute, accentuating the predominantly soft features of her face.

Her hair was a curly mess of light red swirls that fell down past her shoulder, her bangs covering her forehead yet not her eyebrows. Her doe eyes held purple irises and feathered lashes lined their lengths.

Her robes were messily arranged and patterned with different amounts of dirt. She was not tall either, a head shorter than the 186 cm S#003-JU.

She was an orc. A darkdweller, to be precise--which were characterized by their black sclera and tusks, short pointed ears, and darker green skin.

S#009-JU playfully huffed as she ambled over, her expression shifting into an exaggerated sadness.

"You'll never get a girlfriend like that, brother. Who would fall in love with an expressionless guy? I don't care how handsome you are; no one will allow you to get away with breaking their heart!"

"That's fine," said S#003-JU. His response simply made S#009-JU shake her head in indignance before reverting back to the smile she oft kept her lips affixed into.

As S#003-JU looked at her, his lips subtly pursed. S#009-JU's gaze softened as she watched this, her figure leaning against the wall and her eyes locked on the fringe that obscured the upper portion of S#003-JU's face.

"S#009-JU." S#003-JU's voice carried the slightest hint of concern, the mildness of it lessened and the faintness carrying a bleak undertone.

"Ah, tut tut tut. I know that tone from anywhere! Slightly less monotonous than normal, ey? What are my prospects…oh, and I told you to call me Mala!"

"You will die soon, S#009-JU." S#003-JU ignored her and finished his statement, while Mala ignored him in turn.

An unseen contest transpired as Mala slowly blinked up at her Broodbrother, their mouths stilled and unerring.

10 seconds. 30. 60.

The alley lacked sound for a minute before S#003-JU conceded.

"Mala, you will die soon."

"Oh! Well, how are we going to approach it this time?" Mala was unbothered, used to these exact words. How could she not be? They followed her shortly after the two hatched, and they were repeated by S#003-JU all throughout her life ever since.

"You want to figure out another way to live." A familiar statement entered Mala's ears, causing her face to brighten.

"Hell yeah I do! I mean, you've helped me escape a dead end before…what makes it impossible to do so now?"

"…I see."

"Then…do I have your help? Like always?"

"Yes." With that said, S#003-JU pushed back the bangs covering his face, only to reveal a veil of vertically sliding and shifting words, the sigils mainly black, yet some were transparent.

These sigils were of the Instinctual Conjunct, and they laid before S#003-JU's face like a curtain. His eyes and above were only vaguely visible in an outline...

This was the manifestation of a certain...affliction. One that S#003-JU had been born with, The Brand of Clairvoyance.

Whenever he looked at something, there was a certain probability that words entailing the information of that thing would appear, which he had termed (with the help of Mala) as a Glimpse.

Although he could choose to see through and hide these words, it was hard to hide them preemptively, and he did not have much control over it. Since he could see through his bangs, he kept them over his face to hide the words, as they were quite visible to other people when unhidden.

After all, if a being were to look at the words of his Glimpses, they would be able to read a portion of them.

The information he read tended to be random and not in much depth, though the detail increased the more prolonged his interaction with the Glimpse subject. He could read segments of their futures in rare instances, which he used to help Mala.

Like always, he allowed her to read along with him, not bothering to hide the words from her sight. To him, they read:

[The young orc who proclaims herself to be Mala Koswick. Although she has avoided death many times, there are no longer any more routes that elude it. Will die in approximately 1-8 days. Dead End.]

And yet to her, they read:

[Your life is endangered for the foreseeable week.]

S#003-JU thought to himself while Mala seemed to be considering something as well.

This was the first time he had read the last two words.

All of the other Glimpses regarding his Broodsister lacked the sense of finality those two words alone emanated, not to mention the prior "no more routes to elude it."

There was a subtle discomfort that lined his thoughts.

Would this be the first time he failed?

He did not put much effort into considering most events, simply doing what he was told in most cases. Mala was an exception, however.

S#003-JU absentmindedly leaned against the wall nearest him as the world dimmed and disappeared before him.

In its stead, a world anew coruscated as it filled his eyes.