It would be a good idea to learn how to use your sword, and your pistol, now you think about it. You'd been wearing it for nearly three weeks now and you'd just kind of... forgotten about it. It just felt like another accessory that you wore. Actually, you should probably clear that up, before they thought you were being nefarious by hiding it. Though you doubt that it's actually hidden from them, it stands out against your leg when you look for it.
"I would appreciate if you could sign me up for lessons, I can manifest a sword in my transformation and it would be nice to know how to use it. Also, shooting lessons for myself and my sister." The latter half was said a little sheepishly, considering that neither of them blinked at your request they probably knew. Still, you have to go over, ugh education. Honestly, you were really grateful that Morgan was available as a tutor, it would have been incredibly awkward to try and learn from someone else.
Samantha nods at you and quickly types something into her computer, before looking back to you. "Education?"
You sent a look at Morgan, who was shifting in anticipation. "I would also be fine with having private lessons with Morgan, I trust her." It took her a moment to register your words, but you saw a small flush spread down her neck and a smile forces it's way onto her face.
Samantha just nods again, types something to her computer again before taking a sip of a mug of something you hadn't noticed before. "I will deliver you a timetable tomorrow morning. Do you have any further questions?"
You blink as you think. "Just two that come to mind. Firstly, do you have anything on the forest fire I asked you to look for yesterday?"
She nods as she starts speaking. "Yes, there was a significant amount of coverage of it on a wide variety for news channels. The fire originated on the Canadian side of the border and spread extremely quickly. It travelled over one hundred twenty miles south and thirty north, there have been reports of minor injuries such as smoke inhalation or bruises from public panic, but there have been no confirmed casualties." She gives you a searching look. "You mentioned that a spirit asked you to start this fire and gave you their guarantee that no-one would be hurt yes?"
You nod and she sighs a little before typing while mumbling. "Well, at least we know the cause of the rapid spread." She starts speaking normally. "Please, the next time something is requested of you like this, consider the reaching consequences. This has significantly increased tensions between Canada and America, right after they had come to a more stable border agreement. It is likely that America will withdraw their participation and increase their border presence again." She looks a little grim as she starts typing again and Morgan is looking a little guilty, not surprising considering that it had been her advice to burn it.
You swallow heavily, you hadn't thought about it, you'd just been repaying a favour. At least the spirit had kept it's word and kept people safe. "Right..." You let the statement linger for a little while, feeling incredibly awkward for transitioning from that to you getting paid, but eventually you decided to just push forwards. "The second point, how much is Karen going to be paying me?"
Samantha just takes it in her stride as she answers you. "You are currently being paid five thousand pounds a week, this is not subject to change without both your and Karen's approval." The figure she listed makes you choke on air, which you hear Morgan copy before she starts glancing around to see if anyone heard Samantha. Thankfully her statement seems to have passed them by completely.
You do some quick math in your head and the figure that you come up with is... significant. Five thousand times fifty two equals.... two hundred and sixty thousand. Jesus fucking christ Karen. How much money do you have to throw around? That was more money than you knew what to do with. You think about it for a bit more before you realise the reason. A way to keep me on side. With this much no-one could expect to bribe me away and I can pay for both myself and my sister without effort. If I spend to much weekly then I will become reliant on them paying me and not want to break away and lose that income. This was both sneaky and brilliant. She had tied you to her in such a way that didn't even let you resent her for it.
You stand there for a moment, trying to straighten your thoughts when Samantha speaks again. "Your first pay check has been sent through, it will be deposited into a bank account that has been created for you and will be paid into weekly." She shifts in her seat. "Now, if you have any other questions?" You slowly shake your head as you start walking away, Morgan following you in a similar state. Even Una was silently staring at you, aware of just how much money that was.
Your feet take you through the base and by the time you've gotten your thoughts together, you are nearing the Gym. Considering that you hadn't had much of a chance to investigate earlier, you decide to poke your head in and have a look around.
There were exercise machines that you recognised and again, the ones that you did not. There were several doors leading out of the Gym at the far end from the door. The room itself was mostly empty right now, nor surprising since the clock proclaimed it as 12:28, though there were two people working together on a machine in a corner. Morgan takes the lead, walking towards a gym machine you recognise, something to do with the stomach. Morgan takes off her hoodie, leaving her in just that short top and drops it on a table nearby.
"Right, I'm just going to pretend I never heard that. Anyway, this is the Gym, since we're here anyway why not give you a proper tour?" She sits down on the machine and shakes her arms out a couple of times. "I'll use one to show you how, then I'll let you have a go. We'll move through as many of them as we have time for. That ok?" You nod absent-mindedly as you look at the mechanics of the machine, there were some weights and a pulley, a padded bar to put your legs under.
Morgan settles back into the seat and slides her legs underneath the bar, grabbing another bar you hadn't noticed with her arms and pulling. Not with her arms, but with her torso and stomach. The only reason you realised this was that you saw the muscles in her stomach tense and ripple as she pulled, her position excellently showing of her subdued abs. You are only torn away by your sister gently poking you with a smug smile, which you promptly ignore as you go back to looking at how Morgan is doing it.
She eventually stops and waves her arm at the machine for you, thankfully ignoring your short bout of staring, even though you know she noticed. You follow after her as you slide off your hoodie, leaving you in a plain blue t-shirt. You throw it over to your sister, who puts it on a table as you sit down and position yourself. Morgan doesn't say anything, so you assume that you did it right and you pull. The weights are at the same level Morgan's and the first time they lift easily, after the eleventh time you feel a slight burn in your stomach and after the twenty-fith you were struggling to pull as your muscles just twitched uselessly.
Morgan just nods her head and waves you off. "You can stop now, don't need to push yourself, we're just trying them out." You nod as you slide out of the bars, not breathing hard but your muscles groaning in protest regardless. "Looks like you have more burst strength than endurance, though you are no slouch there either. You get a lot of exercise?" You nod again as you make your way to your feet, following Morgan as she makes her way to another machine. "You were pulling at my weight and I've been doing this for years. Using your stomach muscles is hard, seeing as there aren't many normal ways to exercise them. You'll probably do better running or lifting." She wiggles her eyebrows a littler when she says normal, which makes you blush slightly but you ignore it.
She leads you onto another machine, lifting this time and runs you through it. You manage to lift it fine, but once again can't keep it up for as long as Morgan can. You were surprised at your results to be honest, you were lifting heavy loads without much difficulty. Still, Una was quietly moving around next to you as you stood up and it took you a minute of looking at her to read her. "You want to have a go?" You look at the machine and give Morgan a look. She was a little young for this wasn't she? And this was a heavy weight.
Morgan bites her lip as she looks at the machine but eventually nods. "She can try, so long as she uses the lighter weights and only if someone is there to supervise for her." You agreed with her terms yourself and hopped up, letting Morgan move in and show you how to adjust the weight, it was pretty easy. Still, Una looked comically tiny next to the lifting machine, but she still pulled as hard as she can. In the end, Morgan increased the weight twice, seeing as she wasn't having any issues before Una started feeling the weight. It was a small weight even then, Morgan quietly spoke to you as Una rubbed her tired arms.
"She seems a little weak even for a girl of her age, how much exercise does she get?" You grimace a little when the answer comes to mind.
"Very little, she spends most of her time lying around reading."
You see Morgan push her lips together as she looks at Una. "It shouldn't be too hard to get her to build up some muscle, she's still young and it'll be good for her. Can probably teach her some hand to hand too, would do her some good." You blink when she brings that up. Apparently she catches that. "Ah. I had kind of just assumed that I or someone else would be teaching you that? You don't have to if you don't want to."
You shake your head as you speak. "No, it would be a good idea to learn. I already know a little, do you guys have a style or something?"
Morgan shakes her head as Una makes her way over to the two of you. "Not as such, we have people who know a lot of different ones or we'll learn from mundane teachers. I can teach you some of my own, but I'm not verified to teach hand to hand officially. We have a couple of people who can do that."
You nod as Morgan leads you to the next machine and settles into it. "I'm fine with learning from you." Una nods by your side. "As is Una, but I'll need to think about official lessons."
Morgan speaks while pulling the bar with her legs. "It's a good idea, you mostly fight with magic but there are a bunch of things that you have to fight with your hands, other people being one of them." She stops and sits up. "Well, that is if you can't incapacitate them with magic or you gotta do it subtly."
The next three hours passes in a painful blur. You move through most of the Gym, letting Una try some of them at lighter weights until she tires herself out. You make it through all of them, breathing hard and your entire body aching, but you do it. Morgan praises you for making it through, a lot of rookies apparently drop out half-way through. Still, when you shakily make your way to your feet and out of the Gym, Una helpfully grabbing both of your hoodies for you.
You shakily make your way towards The Pub, peeking your head through to see a mostly empty room, though people are starting to filter in. A glance at the clock lets you know it's 3:43, which Morgan helpfully lets you know is just after work lets out. You grimace, but make your way into The Pub and grab your orders, another pair of sandwiches. Food ordered, which was free you noted, you made your way out of the much fuller room, feeling eyes on your back as you walked. You quickly made your way back to Morgan's room, a two minute walk and settled in at her table. The chairs were padded and very comfy.
About half-way through, Morgan stands up and says. "I'm just going to make Tea, want any?" You both nod and eat in silence. She returns a minute later, three mugs in hand. She sets yours down as you migrate to the sofa, having finished your food. Relaxing back into the sofa you listen to Morgan talk about the things she's seen on her travels. "Yeah, if you go up a bit further north you can find Stonehenge. It is magical, which makes it's world-wide tourism position more than a little uncomfortable. We have to keep a group stationed there to make sure no-one tries any rituals or anything."
Una nods while listening closely. "But no-one tries right? That be stupid."
Morgan lets out a laugh and shares an amused look with you, people were stupid though. "You'd think, but last I heard they stopped a guy last month, migrant from France who has ideas he wanted to test. We pointed him towards the Ritual site in Germany and made sure he got there. Why he came here instead of going there is something we still can't figure out." She takes a sip.
Another ten minutes pass before something Morgan said caught your ears. "Yeah, most things have Affinities, so long as they can be counted as a thing. The best we can figure out a tree can have an Affinity, mostly because we've seen golems have affinities and they are just animated rock."
You speak up. "Actually, do you know what my Affinity is?
Morgan blinks before shaking her head. "Nah, you'd have to ask Karen or James to do it. Ah, James is the head of R&D, he's got this thing he uses to figure it out." You nod as another question comes to mind.
"You said you can teach Una how to learn magic." The second you said those words, Una sits bolt upright in her chair and focuses on Morgan like a primed missile, who blinks in surprise.
"Y-Yeah, I can. It's best not to teach her much more than a some weak stuff right now, be best to leave her for another year or so before you give her a boost to start teaching her."
You let out a hmm as Una shifts her pleading gaze to you. "I'll think about it." You're not sure if you want her to learn, but you'll think about it. You do need something to distract her though. "Any idea's for naming my sword?" And just like that her line of thought it thrown off the cliff.
She shifts a little as she thinks to herself. "Uhh, some? I didn't really think about it much." She looks a little sheepish as she says that. "Plasma Edge, Ignition Edge." You give her a surprised look at that, until you remember that you'd transformed in front of her. "I think I prefer Infinite or Infinity Edge though." She uses edge a lot, also your not sure why she uses Infinity, but it sounds right.
Afternoon
[] Chat with Morgan
[] Ask Morgan Questions
[] Find out your Affinities
[] Go outside
[] Go to the Library
[] See if Karen is free
[] Invite Morgan along for
-[] Everything
[] Write In...
It can wait.
