Judith watched Steve head off on his "covert mission" with a sigh, and hoped he'd be ok. Whenever he got into "Survivalist" mode, she just stood back and gave supporting smiles. In her mind, the authorities weren't so much dangerous as simply greedy - i.e. they only wanted to loot us, not kill us off. After all, you needed people to be productive in order to get good loot from them. But Steve's military-trained worries didn't think that way, and that was fine with Judith - he was a good provider and protector.
All this new System, Magic, and Points stuff had Judith quite confused, and with Steve gone and Mark playing his magic games, she had time to settle in and try to sort it out. She had used all her "points" so far on getting her "base" more habitable, but it had a long way to go. As a Healer, she needed to work on health and healing somehow, if she wanted more points to spend. Since "diagnostics" was on her list, the one thing she COULD do was giver herself a detailed look - something she could admit to herself she had been avoiding for far too long. She got her phone out, signed into her App, and started in.
Well, first, obviously, she was at least 60 lbs overweight - obese, but not morbidly, and she was out of shape. Just the loading and unloading of their SUV had totally drained her, even with Steve doing most of the work. Steve had often grumbled about her not taking care of herself, as he did his own daily fitness activities, but comparing herself to him just depressed her - it didn't provide any motivation.
Going down the list, she also had headaches, frequent constipation, hemorrhoids, assorted somewhat arthritic joints, poor dental health, and numerous minor skin problems. The App suddenly notified her that she had reached Healer level 2, and had a point. Well, she thought, if that's all it takes, what happens if I actually put a point in Diagnostics? One point wouldn't do much good anywhere else in any case, so she did.
Immediately, everything on the list she had just made felt slightly clearer to her, in an odd way. It was like all her conditions held more meaning. Judith got out pen and paper and started expanding on the list, putting in details and probable causes for each problem. She gained another level and 2 more points by the time she was half done. She put 1 point in Healing, so that both her Pathway abilities would be active, and kept going, finishing the list, then starting over with a list of what to do about them. She quickly made level 3 Healer and got 2 more points.
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Three points in hand, she took another look at Base improvement options - 6 points for a half-bathroom (sink & potty), 11 for a full, with tub and shower. Another 2 points if she wanted a nice, finished look to it. A full-scale kitchen cost 25, or individual appliances for 5 points each. So, motivated by a possible shopping spree, she turned back to her list.
Judith now did a fully active probing of herself and all her various flaws, keeping detailed notes. She got out a small mirror, a needle, nail clippers, and tweezers, as well as a toothbrush and mouthwash, and got to work. Two hours later, she was Healer 5 and had 10 points, and a 3-page list of her assorted problem areas and what was going on with each. But now she was undecided - just one more point would get her the full bathroom, and the points for level 6 would even allow for the improved, "finished" version. But there was now a new option appearing under "powers", "unlock self-healing - 10 points".
She was sure she could get to level 6 Healer without it, but wasn't the chance to actually get healthier worth more than a nice bathroom? She had to go, in any case, so she decided the trip to the latrine and back would decide the issue for her. 15 minutes later, she selected "self-healing" - the potty trips would be a pain, but USING the self heal would both earn her more points and start fixing her health.
Selecting the self-heal ability, she felt a mind tingle pass through her entire body, then fade away. She sat back in the chair and tried to focus - selecting a small mole on her hand as a starting point. She could soon feel a mild throb associated with it - but had no idea what to do beyond that. As she was trying to see more, she laid her hand on the table, and suddenly could feel more. Instead of just a throbbing point, she could feel how it was rooted and how her body was sustaining it.
It was the table itself, she quickly found. Contacting it helped clarify things. Somehow she hadn't noticed while making the list - just jotting things down as they occurred to her, but now it seemed clear that most of those details had come through when she was in contact with the table. So, she thought, Mark has a crystal ball on his table, and I simply have a diagnostics table!
Encouraged, she concentrated on her task, and started to feel some minor control of the system she was watching. She could focus in and feel how the mole was warping her body to provide for itself. So she got out more paper and started over on the list, this time feeling out each defect, and very quickly reached level 6, awarding her 5 points. By the end of the list, she was tired out, but had reached level 7, gotten her 6 more points, and bought her full bathroom!
Judith plugged the phone into one of Steve's battery packs to recharge, made herself a sensible dinner of their more perishable supplies, and heading into the bathroom for a long well-deserved soak, dreaming of a kitchen and the faint possibility of soon being a healthy person again.