Song for the day: Teenagers by My Chemical Romance

(Uh, testing testing... is this thing on? Are you guys still getting notifications?)

You know shit's bad if we're busting out the MCR songs. I'm not usually a MCR fan but there are some books that necessitate, if not openly demand, edgy music.

Within the world of Cutthroat, people are on occasion born with powers, especially those with incredibly niche applications. These people, if their powers are at least applicable enough to be useful in combat or recon situations, end up working for the government in a specialized force known as MAGNUS. Every district only sends their best and brightest to MAGNUS, so competition is always fierce. Most schools have Psychics clubs to moderate and train these individuals. 

We will get to the people of the Psychics club later, that is what is more formally known at the school as Major Psychics, lovingly abbreviated to MagePsych. However, this chapter is about what I can loosely call the protagonists of the story. They were founded two years prior by a trio of friends who were looking for extracurriculars to boost their college resume, but wanted a club in which they would have to do nothing at all. They decided, given that they all had powers, to create a club for those who did not make MagePsych, which has since become known as Minor Psychics or MinPsych.

Octo, one of the three founders, has the ability to magically generate more arms, which can be used to do whatever you do with your arms. Her left arm, which she has christened "Lefty", can also move and even write on its own. This is mildly troubling! Octo is one of the only people on the planet who uses "XD" unironically in 2018 or says "LOL" out loud. She likes outdated memes, old internet videos, and wishes that everyone could go back to being friends, back in a time before social groups really dug in their teeth and people started doing drugs and going to wild parties and making out, because she doesn't understand ANY of it.

Another Octo and Nutmeg, who is the second founder of the club. Nutmeg can see into the future, but only by a form of divination that involves the consumption of spices. She used to get woozy after meals, which is how her family knew, but now she cooks herself a homebrew of spices that work best for clear visions. Her timidity tends to get between her and her dreams, her actual opinions, her wants, her needs... she spends a lot of time being pushed around.

Qoatl can create alebrijes, or large wooden sculptures, that come to life. The more detailed the paint and carving on the alebrijes, the more intelligent (think more the more they can be told to do, they never approach human intelligence) and durable they are. Qoatl prefers not to use these for any combat capabilities and is more interested in the applications of his art at art school, where he plans to apply with an already-extensive portfolio.

Mnemosyne (Morpheus is her alter ego, her feelings are gender are that it is essentially irrelevant but she still has forms that somewhere reflect the binary... it's hard to say what Mnemosyne really does or doesn't believe) is pretentious. She is also the third founder of the group, although she rarely shows up to MinPsych. She spends most of her time asleep, where she is fully conscious and can use the knowledge of her parents by night to more fully understand the world. She can enter the dreams of and possess anyone she has kissed. Her parents are afraid of her for this reason.

From left to right: Mortis can reanimate the dead, but only for ten seconds. They're the strong but silent type, except for they're not terribly strong. They're more the silent type. Just silent.

Hush can calm others by touching them. She has a huge crush on Mortis and only joined the club to further this. She loves animals and babies and babysits and petsits and can barely talk to people older than her or at her age without blushing or just mumbling. 

Repose, the protagonist of the book, was kicked out of MagePsych when she stopped dating Spoons, the club leader. He has other girlfriends. Don't worry. Her power is the ability to gain strength from any wounds or injuries she's received, healing those injuries in the process. She is terrifying.