Chapter 17 - Imagine Actually Thinking Things Through
Had anyone in her new life truly known Malwine, there would have certainly been cause for concern in her family. Granted, Bernadette did give her a glance or two, but all things considered, Malwine was almost surprised.
Against all that she held sacred, she was taking her time to make a decision—she was pretty sure that if the widow had spent this much time on contemplation, people would have started cowering in fear of the storm to come.
Fine, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic… Malwine sighed to herself as the door once again closed. She had to pay some token amount of attention to Bernadette’s reading lessons still—and she could not deny their usefulness—but her mind was mostly elsewhere.
A Trait, to be generated based on the Skill and its Aspect.
Three Skills were ruled out right off the bat—[Write Anywhere] and [Cool Head on Your Shoulders] for already having a Trait, and [Meditation] for not having an Aspect.
Time and time again, Malwine had gone over the others. Today was no different. I know I’ve got it narrowed it down to two or three or four or—Fine!
She went over her options again, reviewing her Skills and their Aspects in the same order the system sorted them in, that <Body> to <Word> sequence.
[Home Sweet Home] is teleportation back home, to a specific room. [Homeward Roads] tells me how to get home if I’m away from it, though I haven’t seen how that works yet.
What would a Trait whose creation was influenced by both be like? Awareness of the teleportation route or something? Awareness of the wards that could block [Home Sweet Home]?
Malwine knew the Trait wouldn’t be an exact blend of the Skill and Aspect—probably—but trying to guess what their combination would yield awarded her a headache and a half. How does the system even do it? Is this why even Skills sometimes seem open to interpretation?
[Once and Forever] tells me why it fails. In the barest of details, but still. So maybe [Home Sweet Home] would warn me about wards on its own. Unless it just teleports me to the edge of the wards or something… Would it?
How I wish I could test all this…
But there was absolutely no way for her to sneak away as it was. She hadn’t even seen the outside of the family home in over a year. In recent times, she’d gotten to wander the halls a time or two while flexing her walking skills—though Bernadette had rudely disapproved of her running—but not once had she gotten close to any doors.
It sucked. How was she supposed to test this Skill? Not to mention, her attempts at figuring out where all the books were stored had, at best, led her to a couple possible doors. Someday, I’ll have my chance…
[Unpacifiable]: I’m always aware of threats to my wellbeing, though there’s clearly some threshold that needs to be met… Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like something’s gonna give me a negative status effect?
To Malwine, it was undeniable that this Skill allowed her to live with far less concerns than she figured she normally would—if the Skill would warn her about particularly bad decisions, she had no reason to live in constant fear.
Quite an improvement from the widow’s life, really. Though she had to admit, what she remembered told her that those later years of life had been selective distrust and ‘if it happens, it happens’ in equal parts.
[Implacable]: I don’t have to eat, drink, sleep, anything as often as I should—though it doesn’t seem to penalize me if I do. And I’m pretty sure I could hibernate.
A Trait born of those two would have potential. This was the survival Skill as far as Malwine was concerned. Awareness plus self-sustainability equaled what, then? Maybe it could be something to keep her aware of how to best fulfill her physical needs—which sounder underwhelming to her picky self—or preferably, something about self-sustaining wellbeing! Now that would be a good Trait.
As if things ever go that well…
Maybe it was personal preference, maybe practicality, but Malwine also wanted to discard [The Plurilingual Psyche] plus [Understanding] immediately. The vague marginal gains from the Aspect there could be a promising factor, but anything that came from them would be related to languages—and frankly, the Skill was enough for Malwine.
Though this Token would yield a Trait influenced by the Skill and Aspect, something told Malwine that didn’t always have to be the case. [Identify] had been influenced by [Expressed Reversal]—not by [Cool Head on Your Shoulders], despite the warning—so there had to be a way to get a Trait in there that would only rely on [Understanding]. Hopefully without having to reroll the Aspect.
[Learning by Reading] gives me what, unlimited book access? And [Remote Reading] is almost just an extension of that. It’s similar to Plurilingual, I don’t see this being worthwhile unless I wanted to just double down on what the Skill and Aspect already do.
And I love [Once and Forever], it has done well by me. [Mana Reclaimer] is probably powerful, or it could be if I could actually use it on anyone who didn’t just have {Foresight}, but still… A combination of those two would likely do wonders. But of what sort?
The ability to get the Skills and Traits of her late relatives, combined with the ability to get Affinities from anyone who could consider her an heir—the lack of direct ancestry as a requirement on either’s description wasn’t lost to her—would likely be something to behold, but Malwine struggled to imagine what the possibilities could be.
Just what else could I get from ancestors? It enticed her, sure, but she couldn’t theorize anything specific. And that bothered her. Could it maybe combine the Aspect’s conditions with the Skill’s results? That’s the only thing I can think of, and that would be great, actually.
There would be no guarantees, but… Still, Malwine soldiered on—she’d promised herself she’d review all of her options, and she meant to keep that promise.
Not for the first time, Malwine hesitated at the sight of her single, unredeemed Skill. [Nosy Old Lady]—the name alone was irritating, and was clearly a personal attack, if you asked Malwine. That said, [Purpose] was a heavy word, to say the least. Lots of potential connotations… I…
Malwine frankly intended to ignore that Skill forever anyway.
But what if the Trait could have been a good one, and I miss it for not having the Skill out of pettiness? Ugh…
With a frown of displeasure, Malwine exhaled through her teeth and brought it forth. You better be worth it…
| You have gained [Nosy Old Lady] <Skill, Soul, Unranked> |
| Not even death could convince you to just let what is actually dead rest, so perhaps this might persuade you that living, breathing people can be interesting too. You may feel any living target’s current Affinities without needing access to their core. This Skill may be enhanced by your Perception and affected by your target's Presence, but relies on your actual capacity to sense and differentiate Affinities.
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| Trait: None
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| Aspect: [Purpose]. Any and all Skills are thrice as effective when used for the benefit of somebody else.
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| [Nosy Old Lady] defaults to max level 50 but may never evolve!
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| You have reached Level 56!
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