Millisecond: Superspeed is a curse

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In a world of superheroes, Milly awakens her power as a speedster but finds herself slowly drifting away from everyone due to her new perception of time when it turns out that her superspeed doesn’t come with an off-switch.

Updates every two weeks.

At the start of high school, Milly is excited to finally gain some much-wanted independence by enrolling at Arkwright Academy, an all-girls boarding school far away from her childhood home. Once there, she'll have to deal with new friends, feelings, superheroes/villains, mysteries, and most of all her own power threatening to alienate her from everything else.

What to expect:After a brief flashforward to get a feel for Milly's power once she awakens it, we'll start the story at the beginning of the school year.The story will involve: Poorly supervised teens, exploration of superpowers, cute lesbian/yuri romance, superheroics, and struggle.

Cover Art by: Skyheartz (@Skyhe_arts on Twitter)

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2022
Author
CrowsCrowCrow

Tags

ACTIONFEMALE LEADDRAMAROMANCE SUBPLOTSCHOOL LIFESTRONG LEADMYSTERYSUPER HEROES

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.7/ 5.0
Followers
2,722
Views
723,165

Chapters(41 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

  • Aman1234aceRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story was incredible. The premise, the writing, the setting, the existential dread, all of it made this story truly great. Millie's power was so wonderfully twisted and the world really made you feel the weight of powers. Sometimes you gain the power to fly, sometimes you shift into relativistic super speed and cannot get out. This story made me reconsider the super powers in my own story and the burdensome effects of those powers. You often hear that superman quote about the world made of cardboard but this story really makes you feel what that means. I miss this story and would read it again if the first time hadn't rewired my brain. But I can sort off get why it got dropped. The time scaling and premise is hard to keep up with and would be difficult to keep engaging. If I could have one wish, it would be for this to come back. I'd love to know what the author planned to do with it all and how the story would've ended. If i could i would write something just like this and see if i could take it to the end, but some stories just cast a long shadow in your brain. Millie will forever be one of my favorites, good show, man, good show.
  • NennhaRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    A lovely time, the characters are well thought out and each is well fleshed or um sanded out. A bit of intrigue in the magic system but with enough gooey fiery insides to satisfy the curiosity. A combination of cute fluff rounds out the underlying horror of the impact each of the powers has on the characters. The balancing out of the powers and the unequal impacts across the board gives a very real feeling to the world. While the intensity of the situation rarely gets to high, the author comes up with situations to keep you on your toes even with the characters power. A solid read even unfinished.
  • Snap831Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Great story once you get past the set up chapters. While the Mc is mot the most grounded and realistic character I've read it hardly matters as the sheer concept of the story will carry it quite a ways. How far that is may be hard to tell but I'll look forward to reading it as the writter and story grow.
  • Toir McDunnoughRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I finally had the time to read this. It's a fun superhero/romance that has a bit of a creeping sense of dread.
    The prologue seems to show she ends up in a very different place and I feel sad for Milly. That's because I really like her and Nikki as characters and want to see their relationship work out and for Milly to be the superhero we all know she can be.
    The writing here is great. I got invested in the characters and even the "antagonists" in ACE. You made a shoggoth sympathetic!
    It make me annoyed at myself that I didn't start reading this sooner because it's great.
  • Wolfgang's StanceRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I love this story. It takes all the ups and downs of having superspeed like this and is very entertaining to read. :) I even like all of the other powers the various characters have, though I am wary of the mind control girl. Worst nightmare there.
    Villajns beware. The Millisecond is here.
  • abaiskeyRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I'm increasingly convinced that in this world an individual's likelihood for developing super powers directly correlates with how punny their name is.. some of these are... a lot 😂 (but if I suspend disbelief on that a bit, it's kind of funny)
    That aside, this is lovely. I love that the fighting is simple and brief and it's focusing primarily a power predicament and character relationship drama. Milly and Niki are really cute together, balancing out their personalities a bit. I do feel a bit bad for power-nerd Niki being the only regularly appearing character in the story without powers (😭), but it's not bad for the story.
    Milly's powers are really fun, and obviously OP, so the focus on its drawbacks and that whole predicament is good for the story. I think Milly's almost-too-positive personality works really well with the growing horror of her situation. The moments where she does start to lose it are impactful. I also like the cross of "mental speed"+"inertia manipulation" to build a speedster. Hopefully Milly figures all that out because it'll be super sad if she gets stuck in Milly-time alone..... maybe she'll figure out how to pull people she's touching into Milly-time at least so Niki can join her.
    Speaking of Niki, we don't get a lot of her perspective, but going through this whirlwind over a few days and knowing Milly's had months has to be its own kind of horror. Feeling like she can't help, can't possibly know even close to everything Milly's thinking. And if she stops paying attention to Milly for even a moment (mostly via text) it's like she's abandoning her to days of isolation.. yikes.
    Finally, the ACE dynamic is pretty good imo. Terra and Stella's relationship is interesting and I've enjoyed learning more about Terra, even if her story's a bit sad. Ruth is, of course, kind of horrifying and yet (unfortunately) doesn't feel very unrealistic. It can be kind of frustrating to have no idea if you can trust the narration because of her, but I think you've
  • apperatusRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I think this is the sort of superpower story I've always wanted. Super speed has always been one of the most interesting 'classic' powers, and the idea of living in what's essentially purgatory for weeks to only get a short burst of real human interaction is such a compelling emotional throughline. Every chapter, I can't wait to see what problems, compromises, and solutions happen as a result. Seriously, this is a solid read.
  • AuroraOfEmberRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story starts off by bringing you up to speed on how a society with supers through the lens of our main character, Milly. It is the begining of the school year, and before it even pproperly begins she and her roommate, Niki (with whom she has an adorable budding romantic relationship) decide to investigate a monster that attacks in their immediate vicinity.
    As teens, it falls to them to do somehing stupid and tackle the detective case themselves. They do manage to succeed (though they do get told off for being dumb) but after that Milly soon awakens to her superpower.
    That is how she discovers that superspeed isn't really that great for interpersonal relationships. Or hearing things. Makes sense when you think about it.
    The story has a focus on how Milly learns to cope with the downsides of her situation, while enjoying what she can when it comes to it. She often has to deal with the reality of the fact any social interaction she has is going to take well over a few days from her perspective.
    There is, quite frankly a lot more to be said, but the upload rate is quite slow, and not that much is fresh enough to make it in here. I will say that I greatly enjoyed the story, and I will continue to do so, slowly, much like Milly with her interactions with Niki.
  • Bluelightning42Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story is in a strange position for me, Its essentially slotting into a position I would have absolutely adored a decade ago...but haven't consumed much in years and years.
    And so I went into reading this with a sort of skeptical "I'm not into this sort of thing nowadays" mindset that was slowly ripped apart as the prologue progresses.
    Essentially breaking down each of the parts: The style is...functionally perfect but with some strange bits I can't quite put my finger on that sort of distract from the story but sort of add to its charm. It's kind of completely a nitpick I'm only focusing on because other parts are so enjoyable, but when reading it's hard to get sucked in.
    It's like...I want to know what happens next but whatever is happening would be better shown visually in a comic book or tv show, so the way it's written keeps pulling me out of a dedicated reading mode. I also can't point to a single sentence that's written weird or has a problem hense the perfect Grammar score...the style only pulls me out when I read multiple paragraphs in a row and I have no clue how it could be fixed to flow better.
    Story is another huge unfair nitpick - we arn't far enough into the story for me to claim I know enough about it...we are still in the prologue at chapter 10 and that means the premis of the "story" - dealing with the curse of superspeed - hasn't been reached yet. That being said I also like slower paced stories and probably wouldn't have liked if this prologue was rushed through. I'm going leave this score like this and potentially change it in the future if I remember.
    Character wise I'd say this is where the story shines. To a blazing point speed of progressing the story has been forgone to focus on what I'd argue is the most important part - making you care about the characters. So far the main character and her roommate are fleshed out enough they've started getting character development before the meat of the story has even begun. In co
  • FooBarTrixieBellRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    I absolutely loved the segway into the backstory, I am actually glad I missed the initial release of this story, it would have driven me mad waiting for the advent of her powers.
    I liked that there was a definite episodic adventure developing Nicky and Milly's relationship it was exciting and very sweet.
    It is well written and keeps you reading, an instant favourite!