Why does the story sometimes glow or flicker?

Imagina supports a small set of inline text effects in story narrative and in authored world introductions. They're meant to make specific, atmospheric moments stand out (a magical voice, a whispered secret, reality starting to crack) without disrupting the flow of the prose.

The effects

Effects are grouped into three categories. World authors can enable or disable each category to match their world's tone.

Mystical

Glow - soft halo around the text. Used for magical, divine, or otherwise supernatural moments. The AI can choose a custom colour to match the scene.
Burn - warm, fire-like shimmer. For heat, flame, rage, or passionate intensity.
Void - dark aura that seems to absorb light. For dark magic, the abyss, cosmic horror, and shadow entities.

Subtle

Whisper - dimmer, slightly smaller text with wider letter spacing. For faint sounds, barely-audible speech, or secrets on the wind.
Shaky - the text trembles. Used for fear, cold, injury, or earthquakes. Reserved for intense moments.

Digital

Glitch - RGB split, displacement, and brief disappearances. For reality-breaking moments, digital corruption, and horror effects.
Flicker - irregular opacity stutters like a dying lightbulb. For fading consciousness, ghosts, or unstable light.
Static - rapid jitter with micro-blur. For radio interference, telepathy breaking up, or corrupted signals.

Effects can be combined with bold and italic text, and the AI can set custom colours on any effect.

Which stories use them?

Each world's author chooses which effect categories to enable, and each AI model has to be capable enough to use them correctly. If you don't see any effects in a given story, it's either:

the world's author disabled that category (or all effects), or
the model you picked doesn't use directive syntax, or
the moment simply doesn't call for one.

The model picker shows which models support the extended formatting.

Turning them off

If animated effects bother you or trigger motion sensitivity, open Settings (top-right gear) and look for Text effects under the Effects section. You can choose:

Auto - animations follow your operating system's reduced-motion preference. This is the default.
On - always animate, even if your OS has reduced motion enabled.
Off - disables animated motion (tremor, glitch flicker, etc.). Static styling still applies: whisper text stays quieter and more spaced-out.

Turning effects off is purely visual; it never changes what the narrator actually writes. If you want effects gone entirely, ask the world's author to disable them for that world.