Marcy squealed. "Oh, we are so on." She cracked her knuckles. "I can mimic sounds and manipulate sounds. For this, I'll want to manipulate it. I've not had much practice limiting the direction of sounds away from us because I usually use this to bring sounds closer to us."

"Like a stealth ability?" Tanya asked.

"Exactly. Worst case, I should be able to mute it entirely, but that takes a lot out of me, so you'll have a limited window to stop the sound before I pass out—"

"Before you what?" Tanya said.

Marcy dismissed it with a hand wave.

"Absolutely not. I ain't agreeing to anything without the full info."

Marcy sighed. "Okay, okay." She narrowed her eyes and pointed at Olena's cannon on Tanya's wrist. "Would that work on me?"

"Huh? To show your Interface?" Tanya asked. "Yeah, it should do. Olena, that good with you?"

Olena rubbed her hands together. "Only if I can see too. Things getting gooood now heheh."

Tanya clicked it off and passed it to Marcy, guiding the bolts back into place over the girl's slender arm.

Tanya let go, and Marcy shrieked, the arm dropping like a ton of bricks. Tanya caught it again. "Oops, sorry."

"How strong are you?" Marcy complained. She held the bulk of the wrist weight under her other arm, and Tanya carefully withdrew her own hand when she was sure.

"How do I use this thingamabobby?" Marcy asked, but she was already flicking through the different settings faster than Tanya could keep up. "Aha, here."

The screen tuned into Marcy's Interface, and Tanya, Assistant Olena, Pete, and Dante all crowded around her, peering over her head and shoulders to look at the device.

"Oh, wait, let me just…" Marcy started. Suddenly, the words were being read aloud in a voiceover that was suspiciously similar to the London Underground.

• • •

Information

Name: Marcy Williams

Number: 791,673

Class: Foley Artist

Level: 4

Attributes

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 16

Vitality: 12

Concentration: 24

Will: 17

• • •

Abilities

Fix it in Post

Level 4

You can influence a sound you can hear to influence their volume, tone, location, pitch, or clarity. The extent of these effects is determined by clarity and knowledge of the sound, Concentration used, and tools you have on hand. Location can be influenced using the Sound Overlay.

ADR Memory

Level 3

You perfectly remember and replicate voices, accents, and tone, like re-recording lines in post. This only works if you have enough data on the voice to do so.

Prop Master

Level 1

Tools take your magic to the next level. Everything from a microphone to an entire mixing studio will change the way you can influence sound in unique ways. You may power sound-related equipment with your Concentration.

Quiet on Set!

Level 1

Unlocked from Achievement: The Sound of Silence

You have the Ability to suppress noise in your vicinity. This may be complete silence or an ambient low noise level.

• • •

Tanya listened more than read, stepping away from the crush around Marcy and pacing in no particular direction. She noted the idea of Prop Master, wondering if she'd eventually get any Abilities that improved her Tattoo gun.

So, she can modify a single sound in multiple ways, create noises but only through mimicking, an' create an area of effect silence. That's good to know.

She already had a few questions, but she bit her tongue, continuing to listen.

• • •

Achievements

Worthy

You were deemed worthy of The System's care. You have been given a class and access to The Interface.

Unique Circumstances

The circumstances that showed you as Worthy were Unique. You have been given a Unique Class.

A Wall of Noise

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. You heard the monsters coming and made sure they couldn't hear you back. Chaos, panic, distraction—whatever it was, it wasn't you. You found a flaw in the monster's ability to process noise, and it saved your life. Achievement Boon: Monsters with enhanced hearing suffer a temporary 10% perception penalty when affected by your magic.

The Sound of Silence

You were born to make noise, but in that moment, you found power in its absence. By turning your ability inward, you shaped sound into stillness, discovering that true silence is not the lack of noise, but the command of it.

Achievement Boon: You can now mask noises in your Sound Overlay.

• • •

The Achievements were less useful practically, but Tanya was fascinated by how they told the story of the person since the apocalypse started. Marcy didn't have as many as Tanya nor someone like Mrs Eceer, but she was still very intrigued by the series of events she got from it.

A flaw in the monster's ability to process noise. That's gotta be part of me trade. If I could replicate something like that in an easy-to-replicate tattoo, it could be huge.

Tanya guessed it came from the events that got Marcy her Class, same as Tanya's own Bite of the Street. It could be a studio or perhaps a theatre. If she really had gotten this magic before her Class, it would all have to be real technology she did it with.

As soon as Marcy finished the last word, Tanya asked her first question. "What's the process of being familiar enough with somethin' to mimic it?"

But it seemed she wasn't the only one as a wave of questions began at the same time.

"Woah, woah, let's slow down," Marcy said, ruffling her fringe. "Tanya, go."

Tanya asked again.

Marcy finger gunned. "Good question. It's not on my Ability yet because it's not developed, but I'm getting this, like, menu that gives me so much data for it."

"Headache inducing?" Tanya asked, nodding solemnly.

Marcy clenched her jaw and fists, clearly thinking about it. "More just impossible to use."

Dante snorted.

"Aha, no search function?" Tanya said.

Marcy made a noise that was akin to a growl. "It's so fucking—anyway." She threw her hands in the air. "That menu is a problem for future Marcy. Now Marcy wants a tattoo." She spun around, looking at the. "Pete?"

The words exploded from Pete's mouth like he'd been forcibly holding them in. "Why the fuck was that the underground lady?"

"I don't have many voices I know well enough," Marcy started. The mood changed. "I mean, there's loads but…"

Dante put a gentle hand on her back. "Family and friends, yeah?" Dante murmured.

Marcy nodded, letting out a long breath.

"How does Prop Master work? Is there limit to what counts as sound tech?" Olena asked, staring Marcy down with excited conviction. Tanya couldn't tell if she was a genius for distracting Marcy or completely tone-deaf.

Marcy leaned forward and backwards on her heels. "Oh! That one's a doozy. I've not managed to test it on much because it's so exhausting, but being able to chat to my sister in New York is—"

"What?" Tanya said. Her mind was reeling. "What did you just—what?"

The others all stared at her.

"You can talk to people far away?" Tanya's voice broke, her hand covering her mouth. Even just the thought of it was bringing tears to her eyes. All of the pent-up anxiety she'd been pushing down bubbled over, and she wiped away the wetness with her knuckles, trying to push it back down again.

"I'm technically only talking to my sister through her roommate's boyfriend," Marcy clarified. "I can only talk to people who either have electricity powering something at the other end or who have something similar to me going on."

"That," Tanya stammered. "I want you to try, for the tattoo, I mean." Tanya raked a hand through her hair. "The trade."

Get your shit together, Tanya.

She felt so small. Just that one piece of news had shaken her back to how it felt as a kid to cry for her mum after falling over. Tanya took a deep breath, looking away from the concerned eyes of the others and trying to bring back her professionalism.

"I want two—no—three hours worth of trying to contact my family, plus talkin' to them spread out however works for you." She racked her brain for more, tearing her focus away from this huge, gleaming prize in front of her. It was so tempting to see how far she could push hours trying to reach her family, but she needed something practical too.

"I assume you aren't in charge of givin' out shop resources?" Tanya asked.

"No, sorry," Marcy replied.

"Then, I, uh, want you to spend an hour with a friend of mine, Mrs Eceer, to see if you can teach her anythin' about sound for the wards she's makin' round this place, and…" She suddenly remembered her initial ask. "Whilst I tattoo, I'd love to hear about the monster's sound weakness stuff, to see if I could replicate it."

Marcy was nearly jumping on the spot. "And tattoos?"

"I'll give you one custom design of your choice, with a maximum of three iterations or edits. Plus, you can have one of me flash designs. Either the sound cannon if you end up bein' able to use it or somethin' else if not."

Marcy nodded, eyes shining, then stopped and turned to Pete and Dante.

Pete shrugged with irritation at having been ignored for the rest of the time here.

Dante shrugged. "Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me." He turned to Tanya, staring her in the eyes like they could give something away. "She's basically just recouping her hours, and even then, I'd guess it leans in your favour. She wants that trade. You could probably barter her down lower." There was something so calculating in his gaze that Tanya shrank under it. "But it's a good deal already." He looked away, and Tanya took a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"You have yourself a deal!" Marcy exclaimed, holding out a hand.

Tanya shook it with a smile, but all she could think was that she needed to hide it better next time. He read her like a book. Someone worse could have pulled that carrot, and she'd have chased it a long way.

"Let's try out this cannon, eh?" Tanya asked, crouching.

"FINALLY!" Olena yelled.

Everyone stared at her.

"What?" Olena asked. "Interface is cool and all, but I want to see cannon." She breathed the last word like it was something holy.

"Well, stand back, everyone but me and Marcy, I guess. No use wrecking all your ears too."

Marcy nodded, furrowing her brows. "I need to hear it before I can stop it, so it'll be loud for a second for sure."

"Great," Tanya said through gritted teeth.

Tanya coveted the immoral idea of just giving it to someone else one last time. But remembering how close she came to death the first time she summoned hers killed that thought process quickly. If that person summoned it without knowing what they were doing, it could get them and everyone around them killed.

Tanya hissed through her teeth, clamping her jaw tighter. She instinctively leaned away from the machine, as if the extra inches from the machine fused with her body would make any difference.

The others stopped their backing away. Olena pulled some binoculars from who knows where, peering over in a gremlin crouch.

Tanya's mouth was so dry. She licked her chapped lips.

"As fast as you can, yeah?" Tanya said, looking over to Marcy.

Marcy's face was draining of colour as it got more and more real. She nodded wordlessly, already staring forward in concentration, her hands raised.

The sound ripped through the street.

It was the kind of loud that hurt before you could hear it. The pain and overwhelm hit Tanya's ears, so completely that it was barely noise at all anymore. A droplet dripped down the side of Tanya's neck, and she couldn't tell if it was sweat or if her ears were bleeding.

Assistant shot towards her, disappearing back into her arm.

She just needed it to stop, but her head was so full she didn't even know how to stop it. Instinctively, her nails shot to her mouth, and her teeth clamped down on them, desperate for some sense of comfort. She didn't know what they were doing anymore, just that she'd chosen this pain for herself. This head-splitting, world-ending pain.

She would never escape. She leaned as far away from the contraption as she could, tugging it with newly bitten and bleeding nails. Would she even survive this? This pain would continue forever, and she couldn't bear it—

And then it lessened. Tanya's eyes focused, and she saw Marcy, her head slick with sweat and a trickle of blood from her nose. They made eye contact, and Tanya knew it was hurting her just as much too, but Marcy didn't look defeated.

She was managing it. It would go away.

As layers of frequency were peeled away, it got more and more bearable. First, the high-pitched screech, so high that the noise didn't change, only the pain lessening was the sign it was working. Then the lower pitches and the rumble inside Tanya's bones quietened.

She started remembering what they were doing and how she could just stop this noise anytime. It was going to end soon. Marcy had this.

Tanya had forgotten what pain like that was like—the uncontrollable kind that made you feel like the world was ending—just to suddenly go away as if nothing had gone wrong.

More layers peeled off the whirring machine's screams. Tanya could watch Marcy now, seeing her seeming to pluck threads out of the air. She could see the way the sound bent at first, like each pluck would disrupt its waveform, until she stuffed it down into her other hand, and another layer was gone.

Tanya's body relaxed more and more, the sound still so loud and overwhelming, but feeling so calm compared to what had come before.

By the time the sound was controlled, Marcy's hands were clenched around an invisible ball in front of her, like she was holding a bug to take outside. Her face was red, and she puffed her cheeks out with the effort, tensing every part of her face.

Marcy's arms were shaking more and more from the effort. "This is… so much noise…" Marcy's pained face twisted into an accomplished smile as she spat out, "Now I… see what… I can… do with it."

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