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The Science of Psionics, Wednesday

"You may review your notes today," Kerrigan said, from her position at the front of the classroom. "After we delve into the actual science for a minute or two."

She turned on the projector, displaying a 'map' of the human brain. "This is the activity in an average human mind at rest," she said. Click. "This is a psionic's mind at rest." An area in the back of the brain had lit up a little brighter than on the first picture. "This is a psionic's mind when actively trying to listen in." The area at the back had lit up further, spreading forward into the frontal lobe. "And this," she continued, "is a telekinetic at work." The parietal lobe at the back was a frantic place of activity now, spreading forward into the frontal lobe in quick, precise spikes.

She glanced at the class. "That's the human brain," she said, "This is the protoss mind at rest."

Not only was the image she showed next shaped somewhat different from the human brains she had shown before, but the back of the brain seemed to be about as active as that of the last human image. It even spread towards the middle, to the temporal lobe. "The protoss practically seem to subsist on psionic power," she said. "Their minds are constantly working with it, trying to get it under control." She elaborated on the various lobes of the brain for a few more minutes.

Then she glanced over the class. "I'm not asking any of you to get your brain scanned, though the option is there," please, please take the option, "But merely to consider what this means. It might lead you to develop new strategies to control and focus your power. You can review these simulations as you wish."

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With your mind.

Raven

Jonothon Starsmore

Emma Frost

Ben Skywalker

Cally

Dana Scully

Blackagar Boltagon

Helen Haras-Uquara

Karla

Spock

Stare at the pretty pictures.

Jono was looking at the images of the Protoss brain with a keen interest, today. He didn't think that he was a telekenetic, but at the same time, his power was raw psionic energy, and that could sure as hell manipulate matter outright.

Hell, there were a few parallels that she'd drawn, today and when he'd spoken with her about the Protoss before, that gave him reason to be intrigued.

It didn't count as a walk of shame when you brought a change of clothes, right? And Raven was radiating happiness and perhaps just a little smugness that morning rather than shame at all. Her date with Jono ~~which was still ongoing and thus being HORRIBLY modded right now~~ had gone very well last night, after all.

But somehow she managed to focus on the lecture and not think about last night and steal glances at Jono. Mostly.

Raven was going to get the mental equivalent of a spitball against the back of her head, since it was Emma's TA-ly duty to make sure she was paying attention to class.

Ugh. Teenagers with crushes. So pedestrian, and disruptive to the learning environment.

Raven jumped in her seat with a quiet yelp, looking around in confusion for a moment. She spotted Emma and gave her a hurt look. She was paying attention! Mostly! She could multitask and listen to the lecture and think about her boyfriend at the same time, thank you very much.

Except now she was tempted to radiate a bit more of her pleasure with how last night had gone (both the concert itself and afterwards, ahem). Raven wasn't usually petty like that, but she was entitled!

<<If you hadn't been daydreaming, I wouldn't have been able to surprise you like that,>> Emma pointed out silently. <<You're in class; give Professor Kerrigan the respect she deserves, please.>>

The woman was the teacher and the superior psion. Broadcasting like that during class was just tacky. God, Raven.

Raven cast a guilty glance Kerrigan's way. She didn't care as much about bothering Emma, but a teacher was a much different matter.

To be fair, she hadn't realized she was projecting so much of her blissfulness. There was just so much lingering from last night that she was bubbling over with emotion. She took a moment to focus on her shielding and strengthen it so she wasn't projecting as much and gave Emma a soft pulse of apology.

SHINY. Emma was practically itching for the chance to get her brain scanned right now.

Ben looked fascinated, but he wasn't exactly signing himself up for a brain scan, thanks.

Scully was taking careful notes, and wondering if she could get copies of those brain scans for the clinic, in case any problems came up with psionics on the island again.

How much of your powers are rooted in your biology? What do you think your brain looks like? What does that say about your powers?

//I'm a mutant,// Jono noted, certainly not about to bother hmm-ing and mulling over whether to just out and say it. //My biology is my power. People have managed to pinpoint th'gene that causes mutations like mine.//

And like a good many other people's, whose powers were decidedly different from Jonothon's.

As for the brain question... He had no idea where to start, with that one. So he kind of fell silent and shrugged, rather than pressing on with that train of thought.

"It's the same with me," Emma agreed smoothly, picking up where Jono left off. "I believe the term I've heard on the news once or twice is homo sapiens superior, which I cannot argue with." Her lips twitched in amusement. "It's far more accurate than 'mutant menace.'"

"But our power rests in our very DNA. No one knows what causes an X-Gene to manifest, at least they don't in my time-" and she shot Jono a curious glance. "-but you either have it or you don't. You can be a latent mutant, if you haven't manifested yet - or ever - but you're still a mutant, powers or no."

At Emma's glance, Jono just gave his shoulders a shrug and shook his head. If they'd managed to figure out where it came from before, he certainly didn't know about it. And there was a part of him that didn't want them to figure it out, either. In the wrong hands, the knowledge of where it started could very well lead to people searching for a way to stem it at the source, and he really had no interest in becoming a member of an endangered species.

//There are more now,// he added, //in my time, at least, than there ever were. Mutants are manifesting more frequently. I have no idea what might cause that, either. It's hereditary, to some degree, so interbreeding between regular humans and mutants might have a hand in it, but I doubt it's anything quite so simple.//

"Circumstances for manifestation differ, as do mutations themselves. I suppose they can't all be psionics." Smug Emma was smug, because she and Jono were awesome, thank you.

...she can hear the emo, Jono. Try not to be quite so dour.

He wasn't being dour. He was being pragmatic. There was totally a difference. He was, after all, living in the age of Operation: Zero Tolerance. He wouldn't put much of anything past humanity, anymore.

//Right. A little variety never hurt, I suppose.//

He made a point to not let his mind wander on that topic, because that one definitely could get dour.

"Mutants don't spontaneously appear, usually our X-Gene comes from somewhere," Emma pointed out. "I don't know if there's really more of us, or if we're just becoming more powerful and harder to ignore."

"I wouldn't be shocked if we both had a variety of mutants in our family histories; mild healing factors, weak clairvoyance that could be passed off as hunches, things like that. Without the 'little variety,' mutation would inbreed too fast and you'd be a hermaphroditic Siamese twin instead of a psion."

See, Jono? Your mutation could be worse!

//My great-granddad was a fire breather,// Jono said, raising a pointed eyebrow. //Fairly obvious mutants travel back th'Starsmore family tree for... quite some time.//

He wasn't even going to get into who was at the root of that bloodline, no.

//And my family were th'sort to keep track of who could do what. No hermaphroditic Siamese twins, so far as I'm aware.//

"Seriously?" she asked, lighting up. "Hazel and Winston are flatscans, and if anyone in my family has ever been a mutant - on either side - there's no record or mention of it."

She wished they did have the same family history as Jonothon seemed to possess. Maybe then they wouldn't have been so quick as to label her crazy and worthless.

//Seriously,// Jono agreed, nodding faintly. //For what it's worth, I can tell you with... some authority, I suppose, that there have been powerful mutants on Earth as far back as ancient Egypt.//

None that he was particularly pleased to be descended from, mind. But there, they'd existed. And still did.

"My gifts come from my father's blood," Raven had to admit. "But that is not the only source of my powers, for I have met my half-brothers, and their abilities are much more limited than mine. I do not know if that is due to the teachings I received as a child, however, or because I am naturally more gifted than they."

Possibly both.

"Genetic predisposition is a notable factor," Kerrigan observed. "How much more limited?"

Please excuse the zerg who'd love to take a poke at your DNA, Raven.

"We share the same father, but different mothers, though they were all human," Raven said, having no reason to question said poking. Kerrigan intimidated her but she was a teacher and to be trusted.

"But while I am capable of manipulating any emotion, my brothers seem to able to affect a much smaller range of them," she went on. "One can only control anger, for instance, and another lust. And I do not believe any of them can heal as I do."

"To my knowledge, all of my people's powers are rooted in biology," Cally said while studying the scans with interest. "Or rather, a combination of genetics and bio-technology. Our cloning process has imparted telepathic abilities even to the embryos of other species, but they're stronger in Auron families with a history of it in the days before the process was developed."

"Since I don't have any, and I've only met a smattering of other humans from my world who have abilities, I'd have to say that the standard for where I'm from is to have none," Scully said cautiously. "Most of those I've met who did had been altered in some way, either accidentally or deliberately."

Blackagar gave the little scans another glance before starting to write his response.

We are a species that prides itself in the uniqueness of its members. This occurs, in most cases, when the child is of a certain age and goes through a particular process to awaken their genetic legacy. Unfortunately there are still the occasional failures.

Like Maximus. Who was still pretending to have no powers.

"Nobody seems to know where my abilities come from. Except, well, from Uquar, I suppose," Helen said with a shrug. "And I suppose my brain might look a lot like the last human one when I'm shifting my arm to different things."

She wouldn't object to getting her brain scanned, actually.

*They're completely rooted in my biology,* Karla said, pausing a VERY INTENSE game of 'catch my tail' to contribute. *Craft, Jewel level, and to some extent, castes, are are traceable by bloodline.*

And...POUNCE!

Take that furry snake!

When she pings in.

Emma was totally there to answer questions, and perfectly willing to education on the various vagrancies of mutations on her Earth.

...she just spent the weekend with Hank. It was going to take her a bit to remember her classmates weren't specimens.

Just don't ask her how she got all this data.

Emma barely waited for the discussion to end before she approached Kerrigan. "The scanning," she said, gesturing to the projector. "What does it entail?"

"Nothing as big and bulky as a 21st century CAT scan," Kerrigan said. She was pleased with Emma's interest ~~and trying very hard not to purr evilly~~ and might have even put in the effort to look the part. "You sit down, we take a small scanning device to your head, and we'll see what different uses of your power does to your brain activity."

"Does that mean I get to poke at my classmates to test different usage levels?" Emma, try not to be quite so gleeful about that.

"Yes," Kerrigan replied.

Then, after a moment: "Though I think the school will make a fuss if I let you do it without consent..."

Which would just be annoying.

Murrr.

Murrr. *agrees and flops on*

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The Science of Psionics, Wednesday

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