Gifted

They called it “The Gift.” A mysterious power that afflicted a tiny percent of the population. Those who were touched by The Gift found they had some control over the emotions of themselves and those around them. It manifested in many different ways and varying strengths. Most were benign in nature, such as making yourself and those around you happier. These people were, for lack of a better term, always ‘on’ when it came to their power. The official classification for these people was level three—otherwise known as the passive tier.

In uncommon cases, there were physical effects tied to The Gift, like getting a burst of energy when a certain condition or emotional state was met. The effect and duration varied greatly based on the individual. No two people were alike, even if their Gifts were similar. Everyone had different conditions to ‘activate’ their Gift and most were challenging to activate on purpose. These people were in level two—the semi-active tier.

The extremely powerful cases were even rarer: active effects which the individual could trigger at will. Like flipping a switch, an individual could turn their Gift on and off. The duration varied by individual and while some could let their Gift run for hours or days at a time with no ill effects, others could only use them for a brief period of time. There were even some whose Gifts only lasted a few seconds before exhausting them. All these were classified as level one—the active tier.

The vast majority of individuals who had The Gift were benign or positive in nature. Giving people a chipper attitude, making someone feel loved, giving someone the mental equivalent of wrapping yourself in a warm blanket fresh out of the dryer on a cold night, or other mental boosts. There was no real knowledge of how many people had a level three Gift. After all, it was hard to tell if an individual's overly positive attitude came from a low-grade Gift or was just a part of their personality. To register, that person had to have a strong Gift or a sufficiently unique effect to make it noticeable.

Not all people who were touched by The Gift made a positive impact though. There were unfortunate individuals who made the people around them uneasy, sad, angry, or any host of other negative emotions. While most didn’t have a strong Gift, it was often enough to make their life difficult. Worse were the ones who purposefully used their Gift to make others miserable, taking pleasure in inflicting emotional pain on those around them. Most of these people found themselves in legal trouble or otherwise isolated from society.

Thanks to the often beneficial and powerful nature of these Gifts, most of the elites of society have some form of The Gift and send their children to specialized schools to help them control or regulate their Gift.