A festival in CloudNine that is held on the first day of each month, an event is held in appreciation of every Freak in CloudNine. The event is hosted by the #Protectorate, who update Katie on what has happened during the month and compile a detailed report that mentions at a minimum one genuine and positive development about every inhabitant. Although some people question the point of this festivity, some look forward to it. But very few understand that Katie's intention with this festivity is that humanity, even Freak kind, thrives on approving and highlighting good behavior rather than solely relying on punishing bad behavior.

In MindMagic, casting a spell creates one instance of that spell. However all spells require mental effort to keep active and can all be simply cancelled at any moment when the user wants to stop casting it.

Combat Tier is a concept in the IslandOfFreaks that had to be created as a response to the various levels of danger a transformed Freak can possess. The Combat Tier is divided into two parts: The overall danger capability, and a roman numeral indicating roughly where they lie within that tier. The overall measurement is based on the overall impact someone can have on humanity if left unchecked. As with any kind of power scaling, it is a loose measurement - technically lower tier Freaks can beat a higher tier Freak in a fight, but it would be from a place of disadvantage. In addition, even within the same assigned Combat Tier, in practice, people realistically have an average combat tier that they perform as, and an enhanced combat tier that they reach when pushed to their limits.

List

Below is a list of Combat Tiers, along with examples of what each sub-ratings would mean. - Noncombatant: The entity is not capable of harming anything, even if it wanted to. - Human: The entity operates within human limits and can injure someone in a fight. - Human I: A sedentary adult. - Human X: The world's strongest athletes with no equipment or armor. - Trained: The entity uses techniques and tools that make them stronger than being simply just a strong athlete. - Trained I: Comparable to a soldier who is trained in firing a weapon. - Trained X: Veteran agent who is a sharpshooter, or a martial arts master with lethal precision. - Super: The entity goes beyond human limits and is a danger to even the most trained personell, going beyond technique and going into the territory of superpowers. - Super I: Superhero with flight and unnatural endurance. - Super X: Completely bulletproof and super strength. - Mass: The entity is capable of mass destruction. - Mass I: A blast-proof Freak who is able to cause explosions the size of a grenade by simply looking somewhere and blinking, capable of causing destruction in a room. - Mass X: A Freak who is able to grow gigantic and rampage around the city and is able to crush buildings, nearly impervious to harm from conventional weaponry and can only be taken down with a significant enough nuclear payload. - HyperMass: An international level threat that can be the end of humanity. - HyperMass I: Freak whose music causes people to become temporarily mind controlled, and each mind controlled person can infect another person. - HyperMass X: Freak that is able to become incorporeal by turning into a shadowy silhoutte, and turning any shadow into a portal into a dimension where an infinitely powerful monster can reach its tentacles out into this world and drag people into its dimension. - Universe: A planetary threat that can end humanity any time it wants to.

History

The concept of the Combat Tier was started by the #AstroSurveillanceTeam, who is the primary global task force in year 2017AE for trying to keep the peace between Freak and #Human kind.

A Freak is a person who was once #Human, but at some point had a #FreakTransformation.

Magic in the IslandOfFreaks is a supernatural phenomenon that allows people to break the laws of physics at a cost. The type of cost depends on the type of magic. - Most humans live their lives not knowing that magic is possible in this dimension. - It is a closely guarded secret; most governments actively discourage people from talking about it because of the mass hysteria it can cause.

Types of Magic

- ProtoMagic - creating enchanted items using a blend of electronics, mechanics and a soulcharged power source. - MindMagic - combine knowledge and willpower to communicate to #TheUniverse what must be changed.

WIP - Magic Effects that need further documentation

- MemoryQuery - ThoughtLogger - Analyze - SuperTime - OptimalStrategy - Clone - Replicate - Reflex - Transmute - Misfortune - LuckTransfer - IllusionTransform - TempTransform - Telekinesis - Elasticity - HeadspacePortal - Hallucination - NullImpact - CounterStrike - Stimulant - AfterForce - Telepathy - Conjoin - DetectLifeSignature - DetectMagicSignature - Waypoint - Teleport - MortalStruggle - ProjectileShot - HitscanShot - InstantTransit - Disorient - Heat - Freeze - Shock - Rewind - Disquiet - SoulSoothe - Magnify - Shrink - Darkvision - SensoryDeactivation

The more someone uses their mind, such as for work, play or MindMagic, the more fatigue they will accumulate. - A lot like working too hard for too long, a mentally intensive task such as MindMagic being done too long has increasing severity of effects. - After a long day of work, it is harder to cast mind magic.

Types of Mental Fatigue

Short Term Fatigue

Can be cleared with a short nap. If someone lies down for 30 minutes and feels better, it means they only had short term fatigue.

End of Day Fatigue

Can only be cleared by completing 2-4 good quality deep sleep cycles. At a certain point, naps don't stave off tiredness.

Association Fatigue

Can only be cleared by change of environment. Beyond a certain point of exertion, the subconscious will rebel badly against the overuse of willpower, and will start to hate being forced to do things, even if they're technically fun.

Levels of Mental Fatigue

Flinch - Stage 1 Mind Magic Burnout

The user feels a temporary lapse in perception, and flinches for a few seconds. This usually happens when a user starts tapping into their #MentalReserve.

Exerted - Stage 2 Mind Magic Burnout

The user, while still fresh, starts feeling the warning signs that their mind is feeling foggy. Each spell is slower and less efficient to cast.

Depleted - Stage 3 Mind Magic Burnout

The user feels exhausted, and even if they don't feel physically tired, their mind just feels like it hit a wall. Most expensive spells become impossible to cast unless loaded with adrenaline or other magic enhancers, and if not in danger, even cheap spells feel like squeezing the last bit of juice. In stage 2 burnout, a good night's sleep is all that's needed.

Strained - Stage 4 Mind Magic Burnout

The user has pushed themselves beyond their limit and is only running on pure adrenaline. Non-magic tasks start becoming difficult to do and the user just feels like doing nothing all day. This usually lasts around 1-4 days depending on the overall health, and assuming the user completes enough high quality deep sleep cycles. If the user does not sleep well or skips out on sleep, they will end up in an overall state of burnout where not just magic is affected, but their overall functioning.

Terminal - Stage 5 Mind Magic Burnout

The user starts to form a negative association with casting magic, making it difficult to cast spells no matter how much high quality rest they get. At this stage, their subconscious is rebelling against the use of magic in general, as the mind starts to associate thinking with overexertion. The name that is used is misleading, as terminal implies to be a permanent state. However, this is actually reversible but it is difficult and requires committing to a month-long period of true rest. However, the reality is that most users who reach Terminal burnout reach that point because they have some complex problem that entices them to constantly push themselves past their limit, and curing that burnout to them would mean temporarily giving up something that they care about, which for some people is not palatable. However, it is proven that 2 weeks of pure rest (no commitments, pure laziness, no executive function requirements) is required to reverse this otherwise permanent affliction. In extreme cases, workaholics like Chipper have been forcefully dragged to the #CareCenter and forced to stop working in order to get him out of terminal burnout.

Mind Magic is a type of Magic in the IslandOfFreaks where someone uses their mind to make something supernatural happen.

Main Attributes

- Energy: How fresh and well rested the person is, and how ready they are to think with their front brain. Raw emotion and willpower serve as the "fuel"; casting magic requires an intense will for something to happen or stop happening. - Knowledge: Knowledge about how things work serve as a "catalyst"; the more you understand how something works, think and plan through the small details, the less mental energy the spell will cost. The more steps are left vague and for TheUniverse to figure out, the higher the mental energy cost becomes. Conversely, the more a magic spell is planned through and researched from beforehand, the less energy it takes to cast. - Flow: Executive function. The ability to not get sidetracked into overthinking unimportant details, and the ability to think about important tasks without feeling intimidated. - Resonance: Relatability. Magic is easier and more powerful to cast the more someone relates to it on a deep level.

Attribute Examples - Strong

- Healthy Energy: Gets 4 cycles of deep sleep every day. Eats small but frequent balanced meals. Drinks every hour. Makes it a point to not strain themselves in terms of MentalFatigue. - Fascination by Knowledge: Creates a research document to plan what kind of spells they want to use, and plans out the intermediate steps for how to cast them. Searches online how their magic spell would work if it were to happen in real life. Is curious about just about anything that is relevant to the magic they want to cast and saves shortcuts to resources and guides. Experiments in their free time to test how to launch their spells in the least tiring manner. Gets excited when there's something they don't know, and don't feel stupid when they don't know something. Acknowledges that people are limited, but has a growth mindset coming from a place of positive association that learning something new = being smart. - Fluid Flow: Has a good sense of when a train of thought is tempting but will lead to nothing actually useful or life changing. This comes from a place that uncertainty is safe, and that there are many things in life that don't need to be addressed because it'll be fine. Also has a positive outlook on risk/reward, inherently mentally associating work with being sufficiently rewarded. Does not give into sunk cost fallacy and is choosy with what they put their energy to, making sure that they get a sense of whether something is actually going to pay off or whether they'll waste their time, knowing that it is traumatizing and damaging to mental flow if they put their heart and soul into something without a reward for too long. They know on some level that if they abuse willpower and don't get happy chemicals often enough, that their brain will force them to hate the work, and so they've learnt to be choosy about what really matters to them. People with good flow are driven to action because they believe in the promise of being emotionally or physically rewarded whenever they put in effort. - Relatable Resonance: Is casting a spell that means a lot to them. For example, someone whose life has been dominated by worrying about whether things will be okay will find that Hyperthink is a lot easier to cast, and at a much stronger level - since Hyperthink allows them to think a huge amount of thoughts in a short amount of time, which helps people who worry about saying the wrong thing have enough time to think about their response.

Attribute Examples - Weak

Here are some examples of habits that tend to worsen energy, knowledge and flow. People who have these problems usually need support and mentoring, although what usually fixes problems for Freak denizens in CloudNine is sharing tips and words of encouragement. Many of these issues are not by choice, but rather a long term damage suffered from adverse history. Even if something stopped happening, it takes a lot of good new experiences to heal someone's mindset. The most frequently stumbling block is often that someone's trauma driven mindset often causes them to act in ways that create new bad experiences, which can leave them feeling like there is no solution. However the solution is achievable through not just understanding but also cutting off bad company, which is the reasoning Katie uses when deciding whether to banish a chronically problematic Freak to TheUnderground; based on how much trauma are they generating for other people in CloudNine and how solvable it looks like. - Unhealthy Energy: Constantly overexerting self and terminal MentalFatigue. Eats huge meals once a day, nuking their digestive system with sudden food. Keeps forgetting to drink and then chugging a lot of water at one go. Abuses substances to try to keep performing at a high level or to try manage anxiety. Either sedentary or overexerts themselves in workouts. In a constant state of sleep jetlag, not getting the required 3+ consecutive quality deep sleep cycles per day. Has a worldview that willpower is all it takes to do anything. Too gung-ho in trying to commit to too many things, then blaming their energy crashes on a lack of willpower or bad genetics. Has given up on believing that it's possible to understand the body or know what it needs to perform okay. Alternatively, they could also be sick from an infection or frail with age. - Discouraged from Knowledge: Negative mental association with complexity, viewing new nuances as unnecessary stress. Gets tempted to think in terms of essentialism, or have an expectation that life should be simple and they just don't want to think about things too hard. Sticks to a knowledge domain that makes them feel comfortable and is too intimidated to venture outside it for fear of feeling stupid. Does not have a growth mindset and takes comfort in the idea that some people are just limited. Have a negative association that learning something new = proof of being dumb. - Erratic Flow: Compulsively jumps down into rabbit holes of energy spendature that are obviously useless or even ones that actively harm them. This comes from a place of being unable to tolerate any more ambiguity or uncertainty, stemming from an internal belief that if they stop proactively trying to prevent disasters, that they will miss some insiduously important precaution and have to deal with massive consequences. Ironically, also has trauma surrounding risk/reward, and their default bias is that they have been hurt by past failed risks, so they feel too intimidated to take new risks because they've had their relationship that "effort = reward" ruined by past experiences, usually things that they tied their heart to, poured heart and soul into and then were left with nothing but suffering and disappointment. To someone like this, "starting = bad", leading them to have a high activation to start anything. So a lot of time, people with bad flow are driven to action more by anxiety than any believe that effort is rewarded. - Boring Resonance: The user is casting a spell that reminds them of a topic they're just not interested in thinking about, or too alien to them. For example, someone who doesn't like overcomplicating things will find it especially difficult to cast Hyperthink, since that spell would just slow down time and give them more time to think something through. And since they find that boring, it would be a lot more costly for them to cast it.

Trivia

- The "knowledge" component of MindMagic is commonly misunderstood. Most people think that spells are "learned", but they're actually not in this universe. From the get go, anyone can technically cast anything. If someone, for example, wants to cast a fireball; they can in fact cast a fireball without ever learning magic, and let #TheUniverse figure out the intermediate steps. But a lot of the times, the amount of steps are so large and intricate that the spell simply wouldn't work because the cost is too high - since the more steps you leave to the universe to figure out for you, the more mental energy the spell costs to cast. So learning to cast a fireball would mean thinking: What source of fuel do I want to spawn near my hands? How far from my hands? What will I launch the projectile with? The more of those kinds of questions someone answers, the cost of launching fireballs gets easier an easier until it becomes castable. - Undergoing a #FreakTransformation gives a flat bonus to mind magic attributes - Casting too much magic will leave someone feeling tired and drained. - Overusing MindMagic will lead to increasing severity of MentalFatigue.