Ameliorate

Chapter 36: The Heart of the Cards

"Hey, Addy?" Weslyn asked. "Where's Cards?"

Addy looked up from her notebook. "By the TV in the living room," she said.

"Are you gonna play?" Zak asked. "Or are you gonna keep being a science person?"

"I feel like I'm close to something," Addy said. "Regarding Will's shields, at least."

"Oh, really?" Will asked. "What've you got?"

"Well... you feel the impact of whatever it is that hits your shield, right?" Addy asked.

"Yeah, I feel- Wes, could you chuck something at me?" Will requested.

With no hesitation, Weslyn picked up a pillow and threw it at Will. Will produced a shield and the pillow bounced off of it.

"I feel the impact of it, not through the shield, exactly, but just kind of spread out," Will explained.

Addy hummed, nodding slightly as she jotted something down.

"What's going on in your head, Addison?" Will asked, tilting his head at Addy.

"Well," Addy began, holding both of her hands in front of her.  "You're somehow manipulating your own energy, and it takes the impact and spreads that energy around your body.  Like, if you get punched, instead of leaving the impact just in one place, it goes all around."

"That's... you're really smart, Addison," Will told her.

Addison blinked, short circuiting for a moment. "Thanks," she settled on, a small smile crossing her face. "There's one thing to consider, though," she continued. "You need to think about how much force is behind the thing you're blocking so you don't, like, get something very messed up."

"How messed up is 'very messed up'?" Zak asked as Weslyn began to sort out the cards into several piles. She handed one of the piles to Zak and one to Will.

"I do not know how messed up 'very messed up' is," Addy admitted. "And, to be frank, I'm not sure I want to know. Because, well," she redirected her sentence towards Will, "you said the energy of the impact is just spread along your body, right?"
"Yeah, is that an issue?" Will asked, glancing through his cards and stifling a snicker at one of them.

"Well... everything has a breaking point," Addison said. "I don't want to think about what could happen when you get to yours."

"Well that's... ominous," Will remarked.

"Yeah, just... make sure to keep within your limits," Addy said.

Footsteps in the hall announced Elizabeth, Alistair, and Niki's arrival.
"Cards?" Elizabeth asked.

"Cards," Weslyn agreed, offering them each a pile.

"This is going to be chaotic," Alistair said as he sat down.

"I'm counting on it," Weslyn grinned.

Niki laughed. "It will be fun."

"Are you playing, Addy?" Wes asked.

"Nah, I'll just watch," Addy replied, moving to sit in a chair closer to the group. She still had her notebook on her lap, but appeared to be more doodling a cat in the margins than actually working on anything important.

Weslyn sat in front of Addy's chair, the former holding her cards where Addy could see them.

The rest of the group sat in a circle around Weslyn as she pulled a black card. "'The warm August air was filled with change. Things were different, for Kayla was now blank,'" Weslyn read out.