fandomhigh | Handling Your Powers, Tuesday

Kaidan's class was scheduled for the Danger Shop every week for obvious reasons. But since he wasn't actually planning to get into the real stuff this week, he'd programmed in some chairs and some desks and... left it at that. Felt kind of weird, to make a normal classroom out of the Danger Shop, but it would pay off again later.

"Hey," he greeted. "Welcome to Handling Your Powers. Over the next couple of months, we're going to be doing physical and mental training exercises that will hopefully help you get a better handle on whatever powers you acquired, were born with, or got thrust on you."

That kind of thing got complicated.

"It can be rough being something other than baseline human," he said. "I recognize that. I had to go through it myself, growing up; I was part of the first generation of biotic kids born on Earth." He held up his hand, floating a pen up out of his hands. The practice made the rest of him glow faintly blue. "I had to deal with a lot of prejudice, and, even worse, bad education. I learned that you can't teach kids how to handle themselves by pushing them too hard or making too many demands."

The pen dropped back into his hand.

"So let's set up a rule right here, right now. I'm going to need some information about what you can do before we can set up a training program that will fit your needs. But-- if there's something you don't want to discuss, something you don't want to share either with me or with the class... just say you don't want to talk about it. As far as I'm concerned, at that point, discussing it is off the table and I won't bring it up again." He shot a Look at the class. "And neither will any of your peers, unless you say it's okay."

With that out of the way...

"Now, this isn't going to be an ordinary class. We're not going in with a pre-set syllabus. What we do here depends on you; on what you need, on what you can do, on what you can't. So unlike most introduction classes, this one's actually pretty important. I need to know your name, I need to know what you can do - as much of it as you're willing to share - and I need to know what you feel you need help with."

He nodded at the first student he saw. "The floor is yours."

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"We can try and give you a good foundation to work on that," Kaidan said. "My biotics are often likened to telekinesis - though young biotics usually have the opposite problem. My old school tried to force them to use their powers in everyday settings."

Which had cost Vyrnnus his life - something he might have to share at some point during this class - but that wasn't relevant right now.

"How much has it crept into your life outside... uh, confrontation?"

Eleanor took several moments to consider how to answer that.

"They're new," she said. "The powers, that is. The oddities are older, but the powers are only a few weeks old. I ..."

There was no good way to explain this, was there? She risked them all thinking terrible things about her. But he needed their honesty.

"When the confrontation was over," she said, slowly, "and my tormentor surrendered, I ... had to convince myself to walk away. Not to ... hurt, deliberately, in retaliation."

It would have been so easy, to drown her mother in the escape pod. To take revenge.

Considering Kaidan hadn't been able to stop himself with Vyrnnus-- he was hardly in any place to judge. (Much as he enjoyed doing that about everything else.)

He raised one eyebrow. "Then I'm impressed with your self-control," he said. "It can be pretty rough keeping yourself in check at your age. How did you convince yourself--? It might be useful for the rest of the class to have a touchstone."

Eleanor wasn't impressed; it had been a very near thing. Considering her mother had returned to her old ways almost immediately thereafter, some dark part of Eleanor kept suggesting that murder would have been far cleaner.

"Father taught me forgiveness," she said, simply, thinking of the times he had walked away. "That there was strength in mercy. He loved me."

That seemed unconnected, but he was the first person who ever really had. Had he taught her how to slaughter kittens for profit, she might well have adopted it as a new ethical stance.

"Mother ..." This was harder. "Mother wanted me to be the Messiah. To decide right and wrong, to weigh the sins of the world. If I killed her ... I was accepting that she was right. That I had the right to decide her fate, her life and death. It was hard not to stop myself, there, but if I had, the next time ... would have been impossible."

Two futures had spun out before her; she had had to choose between them.

(fleeing for work! ♥)

Considering that in the same situation, Kaidan had very much killed the other person... yeah, no, he was going to stick with impressive. Or at least supportive.

He nodded.

"Tough choice," he said quietly.

From him, it seemed sympathetic -- not mindless pity, but perhaps some sort of empathy. Maybe he had known of similar difficult situations.

"Thank you," she answered, softly.

"We'll try to work on amplifying the power of that anchor you've got," Kaidan offered. "Make it easier next time."

Without blowing out of the program and spending several aimless years on the streets the way he had. That would be ideal.

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