“It’s lovely to meet you, Jade. I’m Doctor Mike. Can you tell me what’s wrong with your legs?”
“And I’m Elisa. Mikey, I found her almost comatose against an alley wall, so of course I brought her here. She said she was dizzy!”
Jade smiled wanly, deciding that she might as well let the cat out of the bag. They were a nice couple and didn’t seem to mean her any harm as far as she could tell. It reminded her of an old story about a man and a woman who couldn’t have a child… Shaking herself out of her musings, she replied, “So... The thing is, I’m a traveler, and I just got here today, so I’m not really used to things yet?” They were staring at her like she’d just grown a third eye.
Mike seemed more on top of things, as he patiently questioned her. “You said you’re a traveler?” It seemed like he was trying to diagnose her, but he hadn’t tried to hook her up to any machines or take her pulse yet at least.
“Yeah…and uhm…I…the world I came from…” She stuttered, trying to organize her thoughts. How much was she supposed to tell them? With a sigh, she shook her head and disclosed bluntly, “I was really sick there. So I’m kinda learning how to walk right now.”
“Do you mind if I check your health?” Doctor Mike was being exceedingly patient with her and not treating her like a crazy person, even though he still looked a little skeptical. She nodded, and he reached out to take her hand. That was it, he just touched her hand and closed his eyes, and she tried to figure out what he was doing as she felt a warm tingle. “My goodness…” His exclamation was soft, but she still caught it. He opened his eyes, staring intently at her. “Well, the good news is you’re not sick. But your body…”
“Yes?” She asked a tiny bit impatiently. Why did people like cliffhangers so much!?
“It seems to be in an intense period of growth. What you’re experiencing are growing pains from your body going through an acute change. It’s rather remarkable, and I’ve only seen something similar once before.” He shook his head, this time seemingly in amazement. “It might hurt for now, but once your body settles, you’ll be just fine.”
Well okay. She already knew that… The bad news was that this was likely to be a constant problem. She began plotting out what she would need to do. Was it a one-off thing? She clicked through the blue buttons in her brain until she got to the old boxes.
Assimilation of Kaylee Ivers underway...
There were five more notifications just like it and a bunch of blinking dots from the people she’d unknowingly brushed up against on the way over here. However, she wasn’t about to click anything until she had figured out what was going on with this current batch. It could wait!
“It really is remarkable though. I wonder what could be causing such an intense change…” Doctor Mike was muttering to himself as he seemed to be puzzling out her problem. Feeling a little guilty, she piped up.
“It’s probably my special ability.” Which was 100% the truth, there was no probably about it. Both Mike and Elisa looked incredibly interested the moment the words special ability came out of her mouth.
Elisa couldn’t seem to hold in her curiosity. “You have a special ability? What does it do?”
Oh right, she needed to lie now. She didn’t really want to tell people she was stealing their stats, even if it was only temporarily. People tended not to react well to things like that. I’ve gotta make this good… What would be believable for this growth? Oh, I’ve got it! She smiled and began her deception, “It’s called accelerated growth. It’s pretty straightforward too; it’s basically what it sounds like. I learn and adapt in an accelerated manner.” There, that’s believable, right? She tried to keep her face in a neutral smile, but Doctor Mike looked a little worried for her still. “Is there something wrong?”
Mike shook his head, patting her arm as he deflected, “Not per say… It’s just that it means this probably won’t be the end of your growing pains.” Duh, I figured that out for myself already. She just smiled painfully and nodded in acknowledgment. With a sigh, he continued. “It also means there isn’t much I can do for you. I’m afraid anything I do would potentially stunt your growth.”
Welp, I guess that means no painkillers for me. It figures that whoever sent me here wouldn’t let it be easy… I think this is the prime example of that whole, no pain, no gain thing.
Shaking herself out of her musings, which she seemed to be doing a lot of today, she nodded and agreed, “I figured that would be the case, so don’t worry too much about it. It’ll be worth it to be healthy in the end.” She smiled and could almost see the workings in their brains as they classified her as a tragic heroine.
Figuring she should capitalize on their pity, she began phase 2 of pump everyone around her for information. “So, you used magic on me earlier, right? Is that normal here?”
Elisa laughed at this, pushing out her large chest proudly as she bragged about her husband. “Not at all! Of the twenty known magic types, healing is one of the rarest! Mike here is among the best of the best. Most people can't even learn magic because their magic stat is below 5, so they can only dream of accomplishing what he does!”
And I’m so stealing that, right now. “That’s amazing! I didn’t know it was such a rare thing. I thought everyone’s stats started around 10?” I’m just fishing, fishing for information…tralalalalalala…
“Most of them do. It’s really only Luck and Magic that are different.” And here she raised her brow. Wait a second; luck was also a rare stat?
“What’s the normal luck for a person?”
This time it was Mike who teasingly poked his wife in the side. “Most people have 8 or less. Elisa here has 11! Which is why she was lucky enough to find a catch like me.” He appeared pretty smug as he pronounced that, and Elisa blushed furiously as Jade couldn’t help but laugh. If it was that special…perhaps she ought to invest in getting more, even though hers was already abnormally high according to them. What did it even do? Luck was such an ambiguous thing…
Skipping the other windows in her head, she went straight to Mike’s and Elisa’s. She barely glanced over Mike’s, having already decided to take his Magic stat and Healing Magic skill, which was thankfully in the five presented. From Elisa’s she was going to take luck, but her skill…
You have touched Elisa Scribner, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Alchemy, Diplomacy, Herbology, Insight, or Perception.
She tossed alchemy and herbology out the window straight off, but that did explain the herby smell that she’d vaguely whiffed from Elisa. It wasn’t what she needed right now, because again, she was still in the middle of the city. Plus, for alchemy, she would need all the tools and ingredients. That left diplomacy, insight, and perception. She already had diplomacy and perception, but she figured Elisa probably had way more experience than the others she’d taken from. But insight… She hadn’t seen anyone with that yet.