An Enhancement

1

The door opened with a concerned Bucket surveying him.
Jay steeled himself, and entered Bucket's house. The spacious abode was lacking decorations, furniture, and love. Walls were marble and reflected the candlelight pouring from the ceiling. It made Jay shiver unintentionally. He couldn't understand why Bucket would ever want to live here.
Jay sat on a blank couch—the only couch Bucket owned, as far as Jay knew—that wasn't comfortable and rubbed his temples. Bucket peered at him from behind a wall, seeming apprehensive to approach.
Why did I come here? Jay couldn't help but wonder. It was rhetorical, of course, he knew exactly why he arrived here today—but doubts arrived despite attempts to push them out. Granted, Jay had expected them.
How could one staunch fear when you were about to give your identity away?
"Are you sure you still want to do this?" Bucket asked. His voice shook a bit.
Jay didn't respond. How could one let go of his own self? Let a man hold his love, his fears, his desires that he had kept secret his entire existence? Why had Jay even considered this? This was a terrible idea! He can't just blatantly pass out his personality, his life, his everything! He can keep it in control, he can—
In answer, Bucket cursed as Jay heard a rattling of metal on wood. Jay spun to see Bucket struggling to open a glass cabinet—with a wooden frame and metal handle affixed in that—filled with bottles of wine. The entire cabinet was coated with frost and ice, as well as the floor, ice covering and radiating from the sofa.
Bucket sighed and said, "We really do need you to do this, I need my wine!"
"This is no time for levity," Jay replied. His voice was small and timid. Embarrassment flooded him, and then he felt stupid for being embarrassed. He had every right to be nervous!
Bucket nodded, and crossed to Jay's side of the couch. Bucket had full features and was muscular and tall. His voice was deep and powerful, one that many women would covet for in a man. His personality and horrid name marred those traits a lot.
Bucket sat very carefully on the sofa—Jay had covered it with snow and ice, after all—and inspected Jay with a furrowed brow. Jay didn't look back. He didn't want to.
"Well, might as well get it over with," Bucket said after a long silence.
A thought struck Jay. "If I'm about to Include you, then you get to tell me what your Enhancement is."
Bucket blinked at him, looking shocked. He had avoided relenting Jay the information of his power for two years now, and Jay was very interested. It either had to be very powerful or more of a curse than a blessing. Jay really wanted the former to be the case.
"My Enhancement has nothing to do with this," Bucket responded. "The matter is yours."
"No, Bucket, I get to know. I'm about to Include you, for goodness' sakes! Knowing what your Enhancement is is nothing compared to what I'm about to give you."
Surprisingly, Bucket just nodded and said, "Wait here, I'll be back."
Jay couldn't help but be shocked. If Bucket had been so keen to protect the truths of his Enhancement, then why did he relent so quickly and easily? Maybe that was part of his power, being easily swayed.
Jay waited, tapping his foot to an unheard rhythm. He stared outside a massive window and found his eyes locking to the sun, positioned in an eternal forty-five degree angle to his home, Midgaea. The name came from being in between The Strip and The Pinpoint: the middle of the land.
Jay had heard of stories and tales of worlds and planets when the sun moved periodically, and having a period of time when you could see the stars and two glowing moons. That seemed so strange to Jay. How did one see at night? Candlelight was not much compared the plunging darkness of no sun. Or did the moons and stars provide enough light to see by? So alien, so weird, for shining white circles of various sizes to be settled in a black sky. Jay would have to go to The Strip or The One Sea to catch a glimpse of the stars. But that, alas, was nearly impossible.
In Midgaea, the sun—named Mazkabi—was locked in the corner of the sky, casting elongated shadows but keeping the region lit. It was still super hot, despite how far Mazkabi was from the center of the sky. Jay almost never stopped sweating, but it was something he learned to deal with.
Studying Mazkabi, Jay couldn't help but wish he could see the other sun, which had donned the name of Ashyil. Their world was locked between Ashyil and Mazkabi, causing their world to never move, not an inch. To catch even a glimpse of Ashyil, Jay would have to go to the other side of the world, which no one had done before! No one had any knowledge what was across The Strip—a ribbon of land that went along the circumference of the world—it could be all water, for anyone else knew.
Jay snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Bucket clomping back into the room, gripping a picture frame in a white-knuckled hand.
Jay frowned, wondering about the importance of the photograph that Bucket was holding. Bucket sat back down on the sofa and handed Jay the frame.
The picture was of a man, looking roughly sixteen years old, five years Jay's junior, with red hair and a wide smile. Freckles spotted his face like someone had sprinkled them across his complexion.
"His name was Robert," Bucket said solemnly.
"Was?" Jay asked skeptically.
"He's dead now."
"What does it matter?" Jay asked. He quickly added, "Like, to your power."
Bucket remained silent and retrieved the picture from Jay's hands. Bucket stared at the picture for a while, and it seemed to strengthen him. He set the frame carefully in between the two men.
"He bullied me about my Enhancement." Bucket said quietly. "More than bullying, really. He could've gone to a prison because of it, or have been fined a great amount. He almost killed me, once.
"You see, he ridiculed me for my Enhancement being devoid of human emotion. My parents named me Bucket because my heart was as empty as a bucket. I was still showing major signs of that power, despite having Included sixteen people, so he pounced on me once he found out. And, one day, he was wielding a knife towards me, so I ran into my house, retrieved a knife, and stabbed him.
"I later learned that he was living on the streets after his father had murdered his mother and then continued to kill himself. Robert was a man in need of kindness, and all I gave him was death."
Jay blinked. It was a lot of information to sort through at once. Bucket killed a man, his Enhancement was a curse, and he's Included sixteen people. Did Jay ever know this man?
No, Jay thought. You only know a man when they Include you.
Jay glanced around Bucket's house again. It all clicked. Bucket's Enhancement was being devoid of human emotion, so his house reflected that. He'd been easily swayed by any argument because he couldn't use a usual amount of feelings against them. Despite Including an overwhelming amount of sixteen people, his Enhancement could still be noticed.
Jay's eyes flicked back to Bucket. His name made sense, too. His parents must've felt so unfortunate to birth a child so conspicuously, well, wrong.
Jay couldn't help but see Bucket as something that isn't human. He couldn't feel love, fear, or sadness as acutely as the average man. He felt disgusted at the repulsion that blossomed when he studied Bucket. Pity did exist, but it was nearly drowned out by other feelings.
Act upon the pity, Jay chided himself forcefully. Don't blame him for something he can't control.
With emotions running so high, he realized that the room had become bitterly cold, like they had just landed into The Strip, where no sun bathed the land in warmth. He glanced around, and almost the entire room had been covered in a thin sheet of ice. Breath fogged in front of Jay's face like steam from a pot of boiling water.
Bucket's not the only one who needs to be Included, Jay thought.
"Why did you need to show me that?" he asked. It came out a bit harsh, so he added, "it's sweet and all, but why?"
"I Included people so often before I killed Robert," Bucket answered. "I stopped because if I Included someone, they would've known what I did."
"But then why tell me about it if you're soul purpose was to hide it?"
"You trusted me enough to Include me, so, I decided I will return the favor with my Enhancement and my sin. I can't let this man be forgotten because of me. I couldn't live with myself."
Jay blinked. He hadn't expected such strong emotions from someone whom's power is being empty of it.
"Include me," Jay blurted out.
"That wasn't part of the plan," Bucket said skeptically.
"There wasn't much of a plan, you know, except to Include me. You can't call it a plan when it's a singular event. Anyways, you told me what was deterring you all this time; might as well halve your curse again." Every time you Included a man, your Enhancement's effects dropped by fifty percent. It would go down at an exponential decay, becoming minuscule but never quite disappearing. And you could never control your Enhancement if you never Included someone.
Bucket seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then sighed but nodded. Jay suddenly grew apprehensive. He had never been Included by someone before. It was supposed to be a very strange experience and life-changing. This would probably affect Jay for the rest of his life, and Bucket too.
Jay steeled himself, and then got in position for Inclusion. His right hand's thumb on the corner of Bucket's mouth, index finger on the bridge of his nose, and his middle finger on the outer corner of his eye. His left hand laid against Bucket's heart. It was beating quickly.
Bucket's eyes were closed. His part was to say his Name, or the symbol for his identity. You chose your Name when you had the mind too, and it could be anything you wanted. Jay already knew Bucket's Name—it was Adiaso—but he only knew the symbol. Bucket would have to give himself up to Jay, and his Name personified it. Only when Bucket spoke his Name to Jay with the Inclusion position would he be Included.
"My name is Adiaso," Bucket whispered.
Suddenly, Jay was pummeled with thoughts and emotions and experiences, so much that he couldn't think. Bucket's entire self had flooded into him, and Jay felt like he was two people at once: himself, and Bucket.

(This is the author here: When I collected this information from Jay, he was adamant in not speaking about any of the information that he retrieved in Including Bucket, so I apologize for this hole in the story. It seemed Jay didn't want to have everyone know Bucket's personal self, which I feel we can all relate to.)

The feeling left in an instant. Jay was himself again, and he had removed his hands from Bucket's face and heart. Impossibly, the room's temperature had plummeted even further, creating a strange contrast to the usual heat of Midgaea. Jay might've just created an ice rink in Bucket's house.
He stared at Bucket. He remembered almost everything Bucket gave him, and Jay knew him like his own self.
One thing was for sure: Jay would never look at Bucket the same ever again.
"Now it's your turn," Bucket said. He looked all too eager to change the subject of focus.
Jay stared down, getting cold feet. Literally. There was a biting cold that numbed his toes. "Uh..."
"C'mon," Bucket said, displaying annoyance. "I Included you with a moment's notice, so I think you can do this knowing it a month prior."
He was right, and Jay knew it. Jay had no right to be a wuss and pull out now, but his earlier apprehensions were returning with insistence now that Inclusion was imminent. Not to mention his muddled mind from that
Suck it up, he thought.
His heart pumped as Bucket placed his hands on Jay's face and heart. He wasn't ready for this, but there wasn't much of a choice.
His breath fogged in front of him as he murmured, "My name is Incertus."
Jay felt a pull on his soul, a pull towards Bucket. It was so unexpected that he yelped. The pull continued to strengthen as the temperature rose again. The ice crusting the sofa and the wine cabinet melted, leaving puddles of water below. It became hot again.
The pull died, very abruptly. Jay was left sitting dumbfounded as Bucket looked strangely solemn.
Jay's toes and fingers were filled with spikes of pain from the sudden change of temperature. They were also shaking.
"Can you control it now?" Bucket asked apprehensively. Funny how Jay felt so shocked after Including someone whereas Bucket seemed to be indifferent. Or he was very skilled in masking his expressions.
In answer, he commanded ice and snow to radiate outward from him with a radius of three feet. The floor frosted and brought out an exact circle of ice with Jay in its center. It almost immediately started to melt.
"Wow," Bucket said, seeming slightly awed. Jay didn't know what all the fuss was about. His power was that he could create a radiation of ice around himself. He couldn't shoot it from his fingers, or command it to envelope something, or anything that was useful. His power was flashy but incredibly simple.
Jay couldn't help but being baffled by the lack of emotions that he felt. He just Included someone, something that most people define as life changing! Maybe he was just in shock. He wasn't so sure.
Just in case, he tried to order the ice—well, water now, it had melted pretty quickly—to spread outward, up the walls, and crust the ceiling. Frost covered the floor and halfway up the walls, but no more, no matter how much Jay concentrated.
He was a bit unpleasantly surprised at that. When emotions were running high, he could cover the entirety of the room in a blink of an eye with no trouble. He may be able to control it, but it was considerably weaker.
Jay stood up, running his hand through his hair. "I'm going to go home," he said somewhat curtly.
Bucket nodded, seeming almost bored. Strange.
Jay was reminded of a question he wanted to ask. "Do you feel any different from you Including me?"
Bucket hesitated, and shook his head. "I did the math, and before this Inclusion, I only had 1/65536 of my Enhancement's power. It's not easy to notice much difference."
Jay blanched. That was minuscule! How could there be a noticeable effect of his Enhancement?
Seeing Jay's bafflement, Bucket explained, "Human emotion is so powerful that even a little difference can be noted." He smiled slightly. "Says something about how powerful your feelings are, huh?"
Jay opened his mouth, wanting to say more, but thought better of it. He crossed Bucket's living room and exited his house.
Jay was nearly back to his house when he realized that Bucket said "Says how powerful your feelings are" as if his are separate from the rest of the human race.
Jay felt a bit more depressed coming back to his house then leaving.