Psychic Delusion

[WP] You have the magical power of psychic delusion, for example, bear traps can’t harm you “Obviously it won’t trigger, I’m not a bear”

*****

Daisy was an excellent actor.

Daisy followed in the footsteps of many talented actors. She took enormous pride in the Method. Daisy took so much pride that her psychiatrist diagnosed her with Disassociative Identity Disorder.

Once she finished her part as Alice, Daisy took great joy in dispelling that nonsense. Until then, she simply frustrated him by referring to him as the “Mad Hatter” in a British English accent.

It wasn’t too long after she first joined the Theater Club that word of her peculiarities spread. One month, she’d speak and write all of her essays in Victorian English. The next, she spoke passionately about student rights before the student council. Her history teacher even gave her some tips, which she gleefully adopted.

Her parents weren’t as on board with things. In particular, when they affected her grades. Oh, they delighted when she brought home straight A’s while playing River Tam in an unauthorized production with her friends. Her quick follow as Harriette in a silly adoption of Dumb and Dumber (high school edition) put her nearly a month behind the rest of the class.

Still, she enjoyed her acting. Her parents let her continue as long as she had acceptable grades come the semester’s end.

Her efforts and passion for acting paid off. First, a single scene in a reality TV show turned into a full season. Then, a part as the best friend in a popular teen romance movie series. She switched to home-schooling, in order to have a more flexible schedule and exciting parts for her to play just kept coming. At the end of her senior year, an acceptance letter from Julliard simply capped things off. Daisy knew she had a bright and successful career ahead of her.

And so things went until the Catalyst occurred during Daisy’s second year. No one truly understands what happened. The running theory is that an asteroid full of exotic elements collided with the Earth and caused a dimensional collapse. Our dimension and several others fused to drastic effect.

An inverted mountain appeared on top of Washington D.C. and didn’t stay inverted.

In rural Texas, a dark forest full of dangerous creatures sprang up in the middle of farmland.

Northern Russia gained a second sun and a year-round growing season along with it.

A new continent the size of Australia, complete with modern civilization, humans, and history, replaced Hawaii.

The changes went beyond a shuffling of landmarks. All around the world, people began discovering that they had fantastical abilities. Not everyone, or even most, turned those abilities to productive use.

*****

Daisy was in the middle of practicing for her role as some ditzy schoolgirl sent to the time of King Arthur. It was a contrived scene, with her drawing forth a pen in response to an attack by a dark-armored knight.

“Fool! The pen is mightier than the sword!”

When her pen sliced clean through the dastardly knight’s metal sword, everyone’s jaw dropped.

“Jerry, when did you switch the sword for a trick prop?”

Jerry, their props master, had a furrowed brow. “I... I didn’t. That’s a replica weapon I’m supposed to return this afternoon!”

He scrambled over to where the two pieces of the sword lay on the stage. The edges glowed a deep cherry red, and wisps of smoke curled up from the floor underneath. When he picked up the pieces and touched them together, they didn’t even match up.

“Daisy, can I see that pen?”

She handed it over, then flinched when he grasped her hand. Jerry took the pen from her hand, touching only the parts where she had been holding it. Then he poked the sword blade.

Nothing happened.

He handed it back to her, less carefully this time. “You do it.”

She did and drew a sharp breath when the sword evaporated wherever she touched it with the pen. “The pen really is mightier than the sword!”

Everyone around her groaned.

“What the hell Daisy, can’t you break character for something like this?”

*****

Daisy was no longer in school. She knew there were more important things, more impactful ways that she could change the world around her. Her parents had given her a strong moral sense, and Daisy knew she couldn’t stand by while others abused their powers and took advantage of the chaos.

Daisy’s Method, as she still called it, allowed her to do anything the persona she adopted could. Physics and reality had no bearing on those capabilities, and fiction was a goldmine for the sufficiently creative. So long as she could adopt their frame of mind, beliefs, and mannerisms, she could be and do virtually anything.

Where Daisy had once dreamed of playing dramatic roles in front of blank cameras, she knew that actually being them at the right time and place was infinitely more important.

A radio crackled, breaking Daisy out of her thoughts. “Method, you ready? The hostages are free on the 10th floor and need a fast exit!”

Daisy smiled and sang.

“Let it go, let it goooooo. I am one with the wind and skyyyyyy!”

*****

THE END.

Howdy!

I had fun toying with this prompt, tweaking it, and adding a few Easter eggs in the form of some references which anyone might pick up. This is my most boring Christmas ever, sadly, and there's not much I can do about it except hope that 2022 has better things in stock.

2022 for personal improvement; who's with me?!