“It’s been a while since we had a full shopping day together!” Maddy cheers with a bright smile. My attention wavers between her, the stores around us, and the blue card Thomas gave me.

It’s his.

It’s a debit card.

I asked him how much was on it and he laughed.

I might die if I lose this card.

“Alice! I can’t believe you invited me out here.” Oh, yeah. Annabel’s here, too, and I didn’t invite her; she just showed up. “

We walk past many a store, all filled with objects of color catching the eyes of each and every passerby, myself included. Annabel and Maddy fawn over them, but I don’t even process their very shape; my mind is too clouded.

No! Bad, Alice! You’re here to relax.

I focus my attention on the objects of their desires: macaroons. Apparently, this is a confectionary of some sort that specializes in macaroons. There’s hundreds of different flavors sitting right in the window, and they each look fluffy and delicious.

Thomas wouldn’t mind if I spent some extra money on sweets, right? I know Sophia absolutely wouldn’t; not with her eating habits.

We walk inside.

Sweet sugary air assaults my senses. I had turned down my sense of smell because, well, New York, but I might have to turn it off completely because of all the clashing scents in here.

Annabel jumps towards the display cases, practically pressing her face against the glass.

“Ma’am, please don’t touch the glass.”

“Oh, sorry.” She stands up straight, all emotion draining from her for a moment, but then the bubbly personality comes back out. Maddy, meanwhile, hangs back with me.

“So, I heard you got a school closed?”

“Yeah…corrupt staff and several hidden assaults. I basically tricked the principal into making me an SRO.”

“Oh? How’d that contract turn out?”

“Dissolved. Still got a check from the guild, though. Also, I’d rather not talk about work right now.”

“Right, yes, sorry. Touchy, what with the Senator’s assassination.” Our gazes look outside; Times Square is right around the corner, and it looks like a protest, soon to be riot, in progress for investigation into Wilcox and his unknown assassin.

“Yeah,” I mumble. We turn back to Annabel who has already created an entire box of various flavors to try.

Yeah. Just…relax, right?

————————————————————————————————————

I finally got new clothes. Even if the old ones were slightly too small, because of my growth spurt, they were still perfectly good clothes. Now that I have a blank check, I can buy whatever I want.

Ah yes. Blacks, blues, grays, and whites. A very wide range of colors for my closet.

Maddy and Annabel both disapproved. They filled my bag up with various other colors. It’s enough to actually complete a rainbow, or one of those circle color picking things.

I’ll try to wear them, for Maddy’s sake, but I honestly don’t really like them. I’m being redundant because it’s true.

Danger Sense goes off, twice at the same time. A very, very faint signal from the side of my neck, and a much larger signal from the rapidly approaching open hand of Annabel. I think she’s about to slap my neck.

Simply sidestepping her, I catch her before she falls. I’m ready to begin questioning her, but Maddy steps behind me and picks a mosquito off my neck.

“Oh,” I say. “Is that—?” I begin, but Annabel quickly nods, cutting me off. “Sorry, still… You were a little aggressive there.”

She tilts her head. “But…that’s what my parents did to mosquitos?” There’s a story here. One that involves the police, but I’m too tired to deal with it right now.

[ Through repeated actions skill: Procrastination(Minimum, Passive) has ranked up to Procrastination(Minor, Passive) ]

You know what? That skill—Ehh, I don’t care.

What I do care about is mosquitos. I have an…extensive skill list.

[ Name: Alice Windshaw

Species: Lunares Wolf Beast-human

Age: 24

Level: 13

Experience: 21/2100

Titles: Rank D Adventurer, Hero’s Disciple, Void-touched, Certified Psychic

Effects: Normal

Health: 580/580

Magic: 70/70

Mana Regen: 37.0/hr (x1.5)

Power: 205

Endurance: 174

Intelligence: 164 (-3)

Subroutines: Pi(-3)

Wisdom: 153

Agility: 149

Dexterity: 163

Skills: Abstraction Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Acrobatics(Major, Passive)

Acting(Minimum, Passive)

Alcohol Resistance(Major, Passive)

Balance(Medium, Passive)

Beast Transformation(Active, Hereditary)

Bite(Active)

Block(Medium, Active)

Camera(Active)

Clairvoyance(Major, Active)

Claw Swipe(Active)

Climb(Medium, Passive)

Create Water Sphere(Minimum, Active)

Danger Sense(Maximum, Passive)

Dark Vision(Passive)

Deductive Reasoning(Major, Passive)

Disease Resistance(Minimum, Passive)

Earth Bone Enhancement(Minor, Active)

Earth Magic II(Minor, Base)

Empowered Senses(Minimum, Passive)

Fall Resistance(Major, Passive)

Fisticuff Proficiency(Minor, Passive)

Hunger Resistance(Minimum, Passive)

Inspect(Active)

Jump(Maximum, Passive)

Life Magic I(Minimum, Base)

Lunar Power(Passive)

Mana Absorption(Minor, Passive/Active)

Mana Circulation(Major, Active)

Mana Manipulation(Major, Active)

Mana Sense(Passive)

Mana Vision(Passive)

Mapping(Passive)

Meditation(Medium, Active)

Medium Physical Regeneration(Minimum, Passive)

Mental Blast(Minor, Active)

Mental Magic I(Minor, Base)

Mental Resistance(Maximum, Passive)

Mind Delve(Minor, Active)

Mineral-To-Mud(Medium, Active)

Non-Elemental Magic III(Minimum, Base)

Observe(Major, Passive)

Pain Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Partial Beast Transformation(Active)

Perception Filter(Passive)

Poison Resistance(Major, Passive)

Powerful Jaw(Major, Passive)

Presence Detection(Medium, Passive)

Procrastination(Minor, Passive)

Psychic Attunement(Minimum, Passive)

Psychic Spatial Transport(Minor, Active)

Punch(Medium, Active)

Radiation Magic I(Minimum, Base)

Radiation Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Rock Hand(Minor, Active)

Sharp Teeth(Major, Passive)

Sleep Immunity(Passive)

Soul Resistance(Minor, Passive)

Subroutine Synapses(Minimum, Passive/Active)

Summon Mud Sphere(Minimum, Active)

Summon Water Sphere(Minimum, Active)

Synaptic Coercion(Medium, Active)

Synaptic Oblivion(Minimum, Active)

Telekinesis(Minor, Active)

Telepathic Nexus(Minimum, Active)

Track(Minimum, Active)

Transcription(Passive)

Void Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Wall Jump(Medium, Passive)

Water Magic I(Medium, Base)

Curses: Weak Solar Constitution(Medium, Passive) ]

Extensive, to say the least. I’ve been focusing on my Psychic abilities and have placed magic on the backburner. However, both are part of my skillset, and I also have the basic sensory and resistance skills. What I’m saying is, I should work on my magic to balance out my skills.

Then see if I could combine them.

I think a good test would be if I can use my subroutines to activate magic on a sensory skill. Maybe an electric field to kill bugs.

Oh! But back to shopping. Annabel and Maddy quickly move on, leaving me in my ruminations longer than I probably should.

We walk onward, ready to decrease Thomas’s bank account even further. I’m not really feeling into it anymore. Time to abuse my skills then.

I pull out my phone, listening to Danger Sense if I should stop or move to the side, then search up magical combinations. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier; I mean, Thomas is a doctor. He wrote a thesis. He must’ve gotten research from somewhere or published it somewhere.

Yep. Here it is. An article on basic mana combinations, buried deep within the second page of Google. Speaking of, after the whole several Great Awakenings, the World Wars, the Second Civil War, and Magi-Tech Reconstruction, Google has gone bankrupt, but somebody who still had money bought the company.

That person then was assassinated. It was then bought by another person who decided to keep firearms in his house.

Why am I mentioning this? I don’t really know. I just remembered it. Like some factoid that I know because I associate it with another thing.

Back to magic. Ugh, I’m tangent-ing a lot today. The easiest combination for Electrical Magic, and it’s better form Electromancy, is using Mechanical Magic and Magnetic Magic.

Magnetism is made from Metal and Travel.

Metal is made from Earth and Order.

Travel is made from Kinetic and Earth.

Mechanical is made from Potential and Kinetic.

Kinetic is made from Air and Order.

Potential is made from Order and Fire.

Uh, okay. Makes…some sense. I guess. I already have Earth, but should probably level it a little. Then I need Order, Fire, and Air. I probably don’t need all of them to be high leveled, but the website doesn’t have information on it. I could try to just…make Electricity, but I’d rather not risk it.