Smiling politely, Jessica suggested, “Perhaps you’d like to change then.” Jade nodded, and she continued a little more hesitantly, “Do you...need help?”
The smile fell from Jade’s face. She had been doing so well...and people were still trying to dress her. She recovered almost instantly, but Jessica and Kaylee could tell they’d hit a sore point as she put on a wooden smile. “I’ll be okay, but thank you. It’ll just take a moment.”
Jessica nodded, but not wanting to offend her more, ushered Kaylee out of the room while saying over her shoulder, “We’ll just wait outside.”
Nodding stiffly, Jade quickly selected a shirt, the cape, some boots, and then tottered back to the dresser to grab the other necessities. She flopped unceremoniously on the bed in order to shove things on and off as quickly as she could, despite her jerky movements. It took around a minute, but she was fully dressed and yanking on her sweet new boots. She stood up, feeling way more confident than before. Really, she hadn’t realized how much being in pajamas in front of the two immaculate girls had made her feel...incompetent? Or maybe it was just finally being able to don something other than the attire of an invalid that gave her courage. Either way, it was time to go.
She rummaged through the desk for a moment, finding a key in the top drawer. Assuming it was to the room and not wanting to lose the sweet swag she’d just figured out she had, she grabbed it and opened the door, giving a now much brighter smile to the two girls. “I’m ready!”
They both looked relieved that she was okay and smiling normally again. Kaylee noticed the key in her hand and nodded approvingly as she shut the door behind her and locked it. Since they realized ‘her stuff’ was in there, it was better to keep it locked until they figured out what to do. Jade smiled and reached out, touching their arms briefly as she uttered quietly, “Thank you for all you’ve told me. It really helped.” Even if they had only barely touched the surface.
Jessica smiled sweetly. “It’s no problem. So, let’s go meet Raphael, and then you can begin your adventure!” Wasn’t that what the box had said too? That this would be an adventure?
Grinning back at her, Jade nodded. “That sounds amazing!” As they turned, her grin grew a little wider as she mentally clicked on the two glowing notification dots that had appeared at the side of her vision after she touched the girls, eagerly reading the notifications as she wobbled after them.
You have touched Jessica Dorney, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Appraisal, Cleaning, Cooking, Herbology, or Perception.
You have touched Kaylee Ivers, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Cleaning, Diplomacy, Dodging, Perception, or Tailoring.
Chapter Three – Assimilation
If I don’t click anything, it’ll go away…probably. Do I have to make a choice? Does that mean it won’t do anything to them until I make a choice? I could really use the extra help though…and it did say it would come back stronger for them, right? So there’s no harm… Okay… I’m going to do this, so what’re the best choices?
First, figure out the stats…my worst stats are constitution, strength, and dexterity… I have no idea if these girls have good con, but Jessica looks stronger, and Kaylee looks like she might be fast… Yeah, let’s just go with that.
Only five skills each? All right… They both have cleaning and perception, so maybe those are more common… Cleaning and cooking make sense, given the whole maid thing. And if these two have it, perception is probably normal too. So that leaves appraisal or herbology for Jessica… I’m in the middle of the city, so not many herbs to find here. Appraisal it is! For Kaylee…diplomacy, dodging, or tailoring. I don’t need to fix my clothes. Diplomacy or dodging both sound pretty good… Then again, I need to talk my way into keeping my room and into the academy place, so diplomacy would probably be better.
Jessica and Kaylee kept shooting nervous looks at her as she seemed to wobble her way behind them. Of course, the fact that she was doing mental calculations about which of their stats to ‘temporarily borrow’ wasn’t helping. Blue screens in front of your face just didn’t seem to help with the whole see where you’re going thing. Glad that she had figured out that she didn’t have to wave her hands at the blue screens, she mentally ‘clicked’ on her first choices for Kaylee as she started trying to surreptitiously watch her like a hawk. A new message replaced the old window she’d been debating over.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Dexterity and Diplomacy from Kaylee Ivers underway.
Seriously, that was all she got? No ETA, no amount, nothing? Her eye twitched as she felt her cheeks flushing a tiny bit. Kaylee didn’t even seem to skip a beat as she walked ahead, though she was now looking a little more nervous that Jade was staring at her so intently whenever she glanced back. Whatever, go big or go home. She mentally clicked on the stats she’d chosen from Jessica as well.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Strength and Appraisal from Jessica Dorney underway.
Hopefully it at least tells me when it’s done… Wait, how do I even tell time here? There’s no cell phones, and I haven’t seen any clocks… She was trying to mentally nudge the system to give her a digital clock, but it seemed the system didn’t care if she knew what time it was. She couldn’t even see the sun in here. I wonder if they have multiple suns…? Her thoughts straying tangentially, she almost tripped as she descended the last step. So it was to a graceless halt that she entered the eyes of a most formidable looking man who was glaring quite harshly at the two girls in front of her, which did not seem to lessen even the slightest as the condescension oozed towards her when she came into view.
I am SO awesome at first impressions in this world…totally… Straightening up to her full height of 5’5”, she gave him her most winning smile as she tried to walk as gracefully as possible forward, sticking her hand out. “Hi! I’m Jade, the traveler.” Maybe that will strike the fear of god or whoever into him... Ignoring the need to itch her lips, she cheerfully and mostly confidently stared up at this fairly…burly hunk. Yup, I’m in trouble.
She took a brief glance, studying his face. He had awesome black swoosh hair that looked perfectly gelled back and a five o’clock shadow across his perfectly chiseled face. He was also at least 8 inches taller than her. When she met his angry dark brown eyes, she found him still staring down at her like she was an ant that had crawled on his food, ignoring her hand that was just hanging in the air like a limp fish at this point as she maintained eye contact. I will not blink first. I will not blink first. Nooooooo, I blinked first! Okay, so her macho posturing was not getting her far. Finally, he asked slowly, as if trying to mask what she would call barely, if not almost entirely unconcealed, rage and scorn in his voice, “You are a traveler?”