Untapped Potential (Preview)

I've been wanting to write more fully interactive works, and I have had this idea floating around for a little while. This series is going to be called 'Untapped Potential' and these are my plans for it.

-More like a game in terms of choice and interaction.

-Fanfic series focusing on popular characters in fiction. (Some characters, worlds and places names may be altered slightly for reasons.)

-Chapters will be longer and somewhat self-contained, but there will be an overarching plot that connects the individual chapters.

-The first chapter will feature a popular fictional Frost Mage, and future characters will be voted on here by Extra Tier patrons.


Things that I am tackling right now:

-Technical restraints. Both CHYOA and Patreon are inadequate for what I want to do.

-Longer Project time. Due to the nature of what I need to do these chapters will likely not be drip-fed and will be delivered when fully completed. This could take anywhere between a week to a month.

- - - -

You lick your lips as your supervisor uncorks a long bottle of purple-tinted glass and pours himself out a taster of viscous pink liquid. He swirls it, sniffs it, then tilts his gaze up to you. You know what it is just by looking at it. Not just that, you can feel it calling out to you. The nature of both it and yourself is like water and a drain; You are drawn into it. Obsessed with it because you are a void without it.
“Have you ever tried undiluted Potential, Seeker?”

Your face lights up. He said Seeker, which means you have been judged worthy of a promotion. As Nothing you have been slaving for an uncountable amount of time. Becoming a Seeker is the goal of all in your position. The reason? Seekers are infused with Potential. Not the diluted Potential you have been drip-fed most of your life to keep you sane, but actual Potential. The kind that allows you the dignity of a real fate and he ability to affect that of others. They are not just given it, however, they are allowed to find it, consume it.
“I have not.” Your foot taps rapidly in anticipation as the glass is slid across the smooth surface of the desk towards you.

“You aren't a Seeker, yet. Drink it. See if it takes. Not all of can actually absorb it and without it you have no... Well, do I have to say it? It's obvious.” He leans back and waits with his fingers tented under his chin.

“Potential.” You say under your breath to finish his last thought.
“Bottoms up!” Tilting the glass back, you chug it down eagerly. If it does not take you remain Nothing and will forever remain Nothing, but you can not think like that. The simple fact that you were chosen means you have shown signs that it will take. Even Nothing can show some minor agency or desire for a fate and those who show quite a bit are suspected to make good Seekers. For they are the void that wishes more than anything for Potential to flow into them. That is what you believe. The liquid goes down smooth. Very smooth. It is almost unceremonious in how little you feel from it and there is worry in that, but the expression on the man sitting across from you instills confidence. Soon you understand. The feeling becomes like an injection of warmth into your veins, but the effects are not just physical. You feel possibilities ahead of you where before there were very few. Before the only salvation was becoming a Seeker. Now, there are infinite possibilities. You are not just able to conceive of that which you can achieve, you are able to wish for that which you can not. That is something you have never been able to do.

You look down at the palms of your hands and suddenly see lines in your palm and prints on your fingertips. Whether these things have always been there, or they have just appeared, their meaning is certain. Before you were a shapeless mass. Not literally, but you wandered the Between not caring who or what you are, except in knowing the you were Nothing and wished to be  Seeker. Now you know you are a Seeker but you feel like something else. An individual, not a mass. The lines on your hands and the prints on your fingers are subtle but they represent a new acknowledgment in your mind that you are different from every other Nothing or Seeker.

“It's like being born, isn't it? For the longest time we exist, but none of us are actually alive until we believe we are someone.” He muses at you.
“What you drank was the Potential harvested from a woman who spent her entire life working her way up in an extremely competitive field.” Your supervisory sighs happily. He is relishing the description while pouring a glass for himself.
“She reached the very top, then...” He trailed off, sipping from his own filled glass.

“Then?” You are intrigued. The job of a Seeker and the harvest of Potential are known to you, but the process is not. Not fully.

“Then she met a man. A very nice man by her perception. He introduced her to substances, influenced her performance, made her feel amazing while everything around her fell apart. Everything that she had been, could have been... It all drained from her and was eventually emptied into this bottle that we are sharing right now. Do you feel it, Seeker? Hope? Promise? That Potential is now yours, in part.”

“I know what I have to do. I've been waiting for this. I'll be the one to harvest the potential I'll bring back more and more of those bottles.”

The man seems touched, but ultimately frowns in response to that promise. “That is wonderful, but you need to be trained, and we actually need more. Between is running out of Potential. We need much more to be able to be able to weather what is coming. We need to target 'whales.'”

“Whales?”

The man turns and waves his hand. A projection materializes behind him that shows a crowded street in a metropolitan city. Smartly dressed people moving like fish in a school.
“Hundreds of little fish swimming around in this projection. At least seventy-percent of them have no Potential whatsoever. A majority of those will never so much as touch it. They will exist simply to exist . They are like Nothing.” He waves his hand again and the image stops. The image goes dark and a several out of the crowd are highlighted.
“These are our typical targets. These fishies have Potential. They have a future ahead of them and the ability to reach what they are after. They can attain more and more potential, much like us.”

“Those are the ones we eat.” You observe.

“Exactly. But... We only 'eat' them because they are too small to create waves.” The highlighted individuals go dark until only one remains on screen among the crowd of a thousand faceless silhouettes.  
“Whales are different. Whales are individuals who are never destined to just fail... They are present in all realities and makes huge waves in all of them. They are the absolute top of Politicians, CEO's, Terrorists...” He grins as he appears to be in thought over something amusing.
“'Eating' these Whale's Potential stills the sea in all realities. They become destined for nothing everywhere and the worlds they inhabit are irreparably altered as a result.”

You nod slowly, considering the implications. “We do not want these realities to be altered, normally?”

“Not at all.” The man says quickly and dismissively.
“We do not care whatsoever. The issue that arises is that these Whales are going to be missed by powers that we have, until recently, wished to stay away from...” He explains carefully.

“I'm being brought on specifically to go after these whales, even though it will bring about some unwanted attention?”

“We're throwing rules out the window for this newer generation of Seekers. The doctrine now is Ruin, Consume, Collect. You know what that means?”

“Leave restraint and empty the sea?” This is incredibly exciting. Not only are you promoted, but you are given carte blanch. The supervisor smiles and nods.

“You have complete agency. Pick your targets and return the tithe to us in Between. This is a very good deal for you, Seeker. Great, immeasurable eyes are on you.”

You simply nod.