Strange

Archer Warrick: February 23rd,20XX

“I propose the twins spearhead an in-network news program. While Squire may not have the best connections in politics or research, we can boast something that few others can. Celebrity power.”

The stern-looking woman flipped the holographic screen from the picture of the lady to display a Squire account. Kaja let out a small gasp but quickly stifled it and disguised it as a cough.

“This is an account that currently has thirty thousand followers on Squire. They post innocent information about celebrities that are already on the app, but they can boast such a strong following. If we can get in contact with the curators of this account and have the twins as their ‘face’, I think we could fully launch a dependable news account, and can attract a sizeable amount of advertisers and viewers.”

An odd expression lit up Kaja’s face, but she tried her best to stifle the expression and hide it behind a disinterested look. In contrast, Tillo looked truly disinterested but tried to fake being invested in the presentation.

He constantly checked on Kaja’s face to see how he should feel about each presentation and would mould his expression to match hers as each adult made their proposals.

I didn’t know Tillo that well, so I couldn’t speak on what was on his mind without reading it. I didn’t think it would be difficult to read Tillo’s mind, especially in the dazed state he was currently in, but I didn’t want to disrespect Tillo’s privacy like that.

There was also my newfound reluctance to look into people’s heads beyond when it was absolutely necessary. I still couldn’t completely block out Aaron’s thoughts, so I didn’t know what would happen if I needed to combat Tillo’s as well.

Joyce dismissed Mrs. Mantas back to her seat and called forward the small but flamboyant lady to make a presentation about me.

It would have been a lie to say I wasn’t nervous about the presentation. I wasn’t passionate about anything like Destia, and I wasn’t charismatic like Tillo and Kaja were. Joyce had only noticed my application because of my guidance counsellor’s letter and because she knew I had powers.

I had barely entered high school last year and was still in a general education course, so there wasn’t much I knew about being in the spotlight. Destia looked at me strangely as I shook my head and tried to clear my head, but I ignored it. I didn’t have the luxury to worry about what others thought right now.

Whatever Joyce chose for me, I would try my best to go along with it. I didn’t want to do anything that involved me getting dressed up like a doll, but outside of that, I would leave it up to Joyce.

Eva’s head tilted into the screen of her phone, but the glaze in her eyes and her not touching the screen for long amounts of time told me that something else had occupied her attention.

“My idea for Mr. Warrick was to capitalize on his good looks. His application was quite thin, which makes sense because he is so young, so he’s a bit of a blank page. Since he is a teenage boy and is still active in school, I thought it would be nice if he would go into something like gaming or product reviews. As long as he’s able to hold a decent conversation and interact with the comments, then he should do well enough until he discovers what it is he really wants to do.”

Ah… that sounded horrible.

My hands suddenly itched for my old notepad and I wondered if bringing up my music would be helpful, but I held myself back. It’s not like my music was good enough to dedicate a whole channel to.

It wasn’t like it was a bad idea, it just reeked of industry planting. It would likely be successful, but I didn’t want to have to deal with floods of hate comments for something I didn’t particularly didn’t want to do.

Joyce had a Vaguely annoyed expression on her face as she waved the flamboyant woman off and quickly motioned for the stern-looking one to start.

“I believe it would be best to go for the traditional starlet route for Mr. Archer. We could start him off by guesting him on other Page’s accounts, then use that gained popularity and a bit of a push from Squire and Volui to secure some advertisements and appearances on minor Tv shows and music videos. His channel can then become like the other celebrities and simply be a way to check in with his subsequent fans.”

That sounded even worse.

I didn’t want to be a celebrity at all, but becoming an official one sounded awful. While Aaron probably wasn’t a great measure of how my life as a D list celebrity might be, I didn’t think that his life as an A-list celebrity was that great either.

He was always watching what he ate and constantly fielded calls from his manager about jobs he apparently ‘had’ to do. If someone on his level could be forced to do so many things, then what about me?

I held out for the last presentation but harboured little hope. His ideas had been okay for the others, so I doubted he would bring anything much better for me.

A strange feeling suddenly bloomed within me and I shot a look at my younger sister who, for some reason, had started to use her powers.

Eva was another person whose thoughts I couldn’t completely block out without effort. It usually wasn’t a burden since there wasn’t much she was thinking, but it was a completely different story when she used her powers.

My head ached as I tried my best to block the unexpected assault and figure out who she wanted to speak to. Or wait, no, this was stronger than when she ‘spoke’ to others. She was using an illusion.

But on who?

Mr. Harvey suddenly stopped halfway on his walk, and his legs stiffened in a telltale sign.

“Eva!”

I tried to whisper at her, but it ended up as a yell in my panic.

She ignored me, or maybe she was too focused on what she was doing to hear me.

“Eva!”

Now I was in a full-blown panic. She usually wasn’t like this and hated using her powers on people like this, so I wondered what had triggered this. As well, she hated feeling sick after using her powers so strongly, so she kept her usage to a minimum or not at all.

“Eva! Stop that!”

Joyce finally picked up on something being wrong and raised a hand to pause the meeting, but Mr. Harvey suddenly turned his head to look at me and walked to the front of the room with newfound confidence.

Eva had done something to his mind, and she was feeling the worse for it, but until I confirmed she hadn’t mentally traumatized the man, I could only let her suffer the repercussions of her actions.

The only reason I could say that was because she was only tired and needed to sleep it off, I could read that much out of her, now that the roaring from her powers had died down. Her light mental exhaustion showed me two things, one was that she hadn’t used her powers as heavily as she had before and two, that she wasn’t in any immediate danger. Just a bit of discomfort.

I exhaled in relief and turned my attention to the new man, who had a bright smile and a confident tilt to his voice. I was curious to know what was so important that Eva had acted so impulsively.