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Handling Your Powers, Tuesday

Kaidan hadn't bothered to stop by home on his way to class: it'd been out the portal and up to the school. He'd acquired a fresh new uniform at Alliance HQ; his bags, he'd dropped near his desk and kicked underneath.

"Hey," he said. "We've... been through a lot these past couple of months. Some of it in class, a lot of it... outside of class. I figure you've all been run through your paces enough that I don't need to see a direct demonstration, but the obstacle course is open for anyone who needs it."

"What I want you to do today is demonstrate how you've changed," he continued. "Whether that be by showing off on the range, telling the class, or writing me an essay. You've got options. Hell, if anyone here wants to lead the final physical session, be my guest. Today isn't about scoring grades. It's about seeing how far we've come."

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With your power.

Will West

Evan Sabahnur

Kathy Li

Celia Bowen

Jackson Whittemore

Eleanor Lamb

Vider Bearskin

Kaidan eyed the class expectantly, waiting to see if anyone spoke up.

Either way, they'd be going through one final round of physical exercises and adjacent meditation sessions today. Just to ground everybody.

Are you in a different place than you were when you started the course? Or not? What changed? What didn't? What do you need from this point on?

"You don't have to talk," Kaidan added quickly. "You can do this another way, too."

Eleanor had always been vocal in class; she saw no reason to stop that now.

"I learned that, while my past circumstances were unique, the situation surrounding them was less so," she said. "That there are others who haven't lived my life, but who can understand my experiences. That I'm not alone. Thank you all, for that."

... or you can answer the questions on paper, so only Kaidan sees it.

Will chose the essay topic because public speaking was never going to be a strong point. So, he wrote a few quick sentences about the fact that he was feeling a little more open and in control with his powers and was suffering less unease about using them after so long of not using them.

Evan closed his eyes and sagged in the shoulders a little before deciding that there was no way he could say this aloud, in front of everyone.

His essay explained that he learned a lot about some of the limits of his powers, and even a good deal about control, and that this class was very helpful for learning how to use them practically.

It also explained that it had been a rough semester when it came to him using them confidently. There had been a future kid that had looked at him with hate and fear in her eyes, telling him that he'd killed her mother in cold blood after torturing her, making her his twisted toy. There had been another version of himself that barely had his head on his shoulders at the best of times, who had ripped wild animals apart in the streets when the island was flooded with zombies and dinos and bears.

It was a weird combination, simultaneously being more confident in his powers, and more afraid to have them.

And finally, for the more practically minded, the obstacle course is back. There's a place to run under a timer, darts to throw at a target, objects to move - and of course the ropes dangling from the ceiling.

Kathy didn't want to speak in front of the class. As much as she was bursting to use her newfound powers, it felt too much like bragging to stand in front of everyone and say, "At some point in the semester, my mutant powers manifested and it looks like I'll be staying here until I get summoned to the Y mansion."

Too much like bragging, and, well, there were a bunch of students here who probably wouldn't get it.

Instead she ran around the obstacle course, pushing herself to get about three times the speed of a normal person. And once she'd blitzed through a few laps, she leapt towards the nearest wall. Instead of crashing into it, though, she began to bounce like a superball in a closet, springing from one surface to another without falling or losing speed.

This was exhilarating.

Celia had no real talent for writing, and she hated speaking in front of people.

This was, and always would be, so much more natural for her.

She didn't run, or rush -- she wasn't dressed for it, for one thing, and that wasn't what she did best, anyway. She plucked up the darts, floated them out in front of her face, and sent them all soaring in a neat pattern toward the target.

But that was something she'd always been able to do. If there was anything she'd learned in this class, it was that using her powers her way was the single most soothing and empowering thing she could do.

So she closed her eyes, called the darts back to her hand, and -- keeping her eyes shut -- turned them into small, blooming daisies growing out of her palm.

When she opened her eyes, she waved a hand back at the flowers, and turned them back into darts. It wasn't about how she was able to send them through the air so precisely, or that she could pull them back to her hand without looking. It was that she could make what was in her head real, and she felt at utter peace doing it.

One last time.

I did not sleep well last night, the workmen outside are playing terrible Dutch folk songs, I am so tired. But at least I have this.

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Handling Your Powers, Tuesday

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Physical Exercises

Where Are You Now?

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Write an Essay

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Obstacle Course

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Talk to the Teacher

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