A Meeting of Minds (IC)

[TheAbsurdist]

November 8th, 4 PM

Errant avoided people. As much as he could there. He found life a bit easier when he wasn't in direct line of sight of people, though it only diminished the experience he was having. One of the faculty had identified his telekinetic web that he draped around him, and that proved harder to shut out than the thoughts, at least initially, the difficulty there was a lack of analog among the instructors. Though, in dreams, there were times when things bled over. Despite his aloof nature, he got that his awkwardness, while exacerbated by his powers and background, was not completely unique. That was a relief. As his powers were known to most of the other students

Now he was in the gym practicing, shadowboxing based on instructional videos he saw, and books he had read. It wasn't too pretty to watch, but this was his first time doing it, and he was trying hard, trying to push his body through the movements he had seen. He liked it, because the focus actually sort of shut down him paying attention to other things.

[Scuffles]

Kristin emerged from the change rooms in her workout clothes and looked around the gym. It was surprisingly quiet, and she cocked her head to the side a little as she realised that she didn't recognize the young man shadow-boxing on the mats. Guess maybe he's pretty new? she thought absently as she watched for a moment.

Not wanting to disturb his workout she walked around the mats towards the gymnastics equipment and sat down to stretch and warm up. As she leaned forwards and grabbed her foot her eyes flicked over to the other student again and she winced as he threw a particularly awkward looking combination. Standing, she crossed the gym towards the boy again and stopped near the edge of his mat with her hands on her hips. "Hi there!" she called out to him. "Need a little help? Maybe we can work out together for a bit. I can hold some pads for you to hit or something?"

[TheAbsurdist]

Hands lowered, slowly, reluctantly almost, but they lowered. He didn't immediately turn towards her, after all he knew she was there, he knew precisely where was. After a moment he turned his head and looked to her then, he sighed softly, and then shrugged. Elias was used to this, Subito kept interjecting himself, so why not this girl. Of he resorted to the first tactic to get someone away from him, "I'm that new telepath." Speaking in that slow, deep voice of his as he looked at her, not standoffish, but he was expecting her to stop trying to be helpful. It didn't work with everyone, and he was being told a lot he should try to interact and engage with others, and this looks as good as any situation. Besides if she knew something... "If that doesn't make you want to leave, sure I guess... not like I know what I am doing."

[Scuffles]

Kristin's head tilted to the side just a little as she regarded Elias for a moment. "Welcome to Claremont then!" she said with a smile as she stepped onto the mats and offered him her hand. "I'm Kristin. And before you ask, I'm perfectly safe to be around. I totally don't cause disasters at all, regardless of what gets written about me in magazines sometimes!"

She took a step back and chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then decided that her usual blunt approach would be just fine. "Guess you thought I'd be worried about the whole telepath thing?" she asked. "But I'm not, you're hardly the first I've met you know. So it's up to you. If you want I can go get some pads, help you out a bit and we can get to know each other."

"If not, that's cool." she continued with a smile. "I remember being new here too, and it takes some getting used to."

[TheAbsurdist]

He tilted his head, just a little as she stepped onto the pad. "I've never read a magazine." It was an odd statement, but true. His mother had been very selective on what he learned. Though he was voraciously devouring things now. He could find out all he wanted easily. The problem was in doing so, he didn't forget what thoughts he felt in people. That was the worst part, especially with some memories he had touched. So he kept it under check, for learning to refine it on willing subjects, though right now it was hardly precise. Shrugging again as he looked around. "I'm Elias. And, apparently, I need to learn how to defend myself." Which was true, his mother had taught him how to defend himself on a basic level, more avoidance then actual fighting, as he could turn his powers to offense readily.

[Scuffles]

"You're not missing much," Kristin replied dryly. "Loads of complete nonsense in a lot of them. Depends which ones you choose of course."

She jogged over to one of the equipment racks and returned with a pair of punching pads and some gloves. "Here, try these on." she said as she tossed the gloves to Elias, then went to work securing the pads to her own hands. "I'm nowhere near the best hand-to-hand fighter or teacher you're going to find around here, but I know enough to help get you started on the basics."

When Elias was ready she stepped in front of him and held up one of the pads. "Make sure you're all set and balanced then give this a whack!"

[TheAbsurdist]

"Never really done this." He put the gloves on, inspecting them as he did, then pulling the velcro tight on them and securing them. His stance was initially good though it was the follow through and on the movements where he suffered. It was clear he had never really thrown a punch in his life so he wasn't turning his hips at all, or using his mass in any way. Of course he mildly gunshy over the prospect of not of pain, but of experiencing someone else's deferred pain. Still he threw the jabs. While well placed they didn't have much strength or really even hitting right. While not completely helpless, he would need a bit of up training to get he to rely on something other than his telepathic prowess. Even he had heard of zombies, after all.

[Scuffles]

"Okay," Kristin said with a smile as she pulled the pad down after letting Elias land a couple of awkward punches. "So you're mostly hitting with your arm, which is fine if you're strong like Subito or someone.."

"Have you met Subito?" she asked. "He's pretty cool. Anyway, off topic, my bad." She swiveled around to stand next to Elias and then settled into a comfortable stance. "What you want to do is use your whole body to generate the power in your punch. It comes from your legs and your hips more than from your arm. Watch me."

With the pads still attached to her arms the motion was a little less fluid than the Aussie might have liked, but she was able to demonstrate how to throw a punch, driving with her legs and snapping her hips closed to put her weight behind the blow. "See the difference?" she asked as she stepped in front again and held the pad up once more. "Give that a go!"

[TheAbsurdist]

"Ah." He stared, it was a little awkward, except he wasn't really looking at her, but her movements. He was committing them to memory. But it wasn't just sight, unlike in the text representation or watching a video, his web was able to map Kristin's movements in 3-D space. Elias' head canted to the side, and he blinked a little. "Like this?" While lacking significant strength, he had good reflexes and agility, and made his arms move through the motions she had demonstrated, snapping the punches into the pads, with enough force for him to feel the impact, and enough force for her to know he was following through.

[Scuffles]

"Nice!" Kristin commented as she felt the punches start to stick the pads rather more solidly. "You're a fast learner. Okay, let's make it a little more interesting. I'm going to move around some, you follow me and keep hitting the pad. Remember to watch your footwork, you need your balance to be good to throw proper punches."

Moving smoothly she stepped back and to her left, then presented the pad a little lower than before. "Two punches, left then right!"

[TheAbsurdist]

He looked at her, carefully. Frowning just a little in concentration, before he engaged her in her coaching. This was a lot easier for him to do, a lot easier for him to process and interact with. It was more familiar to what he had grown up with. Fortunately he wasn't completely inept. And he some basic training, though it was all avoidance. Fortunately he understood some basic principles of footwork. And when it came down to it, he was just shutting up and trying to do it. So he threw a left leading punch and followed it up with a right handed punch. This... this he could do, admittedly not something the teachers wanted him to do for social interaction, but it was still something.

[Scuffles]

"Good!" Kristin remarked as she continued to lead Elias around the mats so that he could practice hitting the pad while in motion. "Now let's try three punches. Two lefts to this one," she instructed, then raised her other hand. "Then a right to this one. Got it?"

Still moving back and to the side with each set of punches she tried to get her young training partner to relax a little by taking his mind off the exercise. "So where are you from?" she asked. "And how long have you known about the telepathy? Did it just come out recently?"

[TheAbsurdist]

He shifted how he stood, and threw the punches. Snapping the left jabs, and then the third from his right hand before he stepped back again, and lowered his hands as he looked at her. Of course Kirstin didn't realize that this would cause more undue stress than the exercise. There was a moment, before he lifted his hands up once move. "I'm left handed. I think." And then he shifted stances and he started to do a few test motions, trying his balance that way. "Oregon. Lot of places before that." He did speak in an odd accent, clearly having learned English abroad. "Always had it, inherited it. Have other stuff too, like I don't forget. You?"

[Scuffles]

"You think you're left handed?" Kristin asked with a slightly quizzical look on her face. "What hand do you write with? Or throw with?" Nonetheless, she switched her own stance to hold the pads at a different angle to accommodate the difference. "All good though, just do it in reverse. Two rights, one left."

Once again in motion to present a target for Elias she answered his questions. "Well I'm from Australia if you didn't catch the accent. And I'm telekinetic. Found that out in rather spectacularly messy circumstances about a year ago when my sister got hit by a car full of bank robbers. Made good viewing on the evening news and the internet I guess."

[TheAbsurdist]

He looked back at her quizzically for a moment, and then did the combination how she wanted from that side, and it certainly was smoother, easier. "I never really wrote much, I know how to. Read a lot. And I never really throw things either." He was glossing over details, but so was she. So it was fair. Not that he minded, or that he expected she did. At least so far. "Didn't watch TV or use the internet. Still don't..." Lifting an arm and wiping at his brow with his forearm.

[Scuffles]

Kristin pulled up a little short at that one, pausing in place for a moment. "You never played catch or anything like that when you were little?" she asked, then moved to reset the pads so Elias could throw another set of punches. "I thought everybody did that!"

"You definitely should work out the internet thing though," she noted as she kept on leading him around the mat. "It's so incredibly helpful for schoolwork, and you'll wonder how you ever did assignments without it."

[TheAbsurdist]

He looked at her, staring, and frowning just a little, and blinking as his hands dropped to his sides as he looked at her. "I was busy learning how to make snares and make snares. I know a lot of people hear have had it worse." He blinked a little bit, and then closed his eyes and put his hands back up. "Knowledge obtained without discipline is not worthwhile." And then he started to do the punches as he moved around slowly in a circle. "We ran and we hide, normal things got ignored. And... my mom said I was a difficult child. I think that had to do with my telepathy." His eyes remained closed, knowing where she was as she moved, feeling where she was, trying to use this sense for the first time.

[Scuffles]

Kristin cocked her head to the side curiously as Elias continued forward with his eyes closed. After a couple of successful combinations she switched the direction of her movements and circled to her right instead to see how well he could keep up with the change.

"Okay that's a pretty cool trick," she said as his fists thudded into the pads again. "How are you tracking my movements with your eyes closed? Are you reading my mind to... that really doesn't sound like it would be practical. Would be awful complicated to translate my thoughts into a relative position..."

She obviously wasn't about to work it out for herself despite the theories that spun through her head. "Pretty handy however you're doing it..." she noted.

[TheAbsurdist]

He hit them directly. "That is harder. I have to read shallow and quickly... no, I... um... I have telekinetic abilities as well. Just not as... under control." And then he moved from her a few moments. "I don't have much control over them, sort of, I make a web around me... I can feel when people touching it, like a spider. I guess. That's how I feel it." And then he hit the pads precisely, the information wasn't the same, it was like he was touching and feeling the tremors, though the web actually wrapped around objects it touched, it wasn't perfect, and he was trying to expand it, but it was an instinctive thing for him.

[Scuffles]

"Really?" Kristin asked as she repositioned the pads yet again. "Once you learn a bit more about that I'd love to know how it works. I've been trying to work out how to use my telekinesis to work out where things are. I can do it on a really unconscious level I guess. Like my balance for gymnastics is ten times better than before the telekinesis came out.."

She sent out a little pulse, the faintest little telekinetic push. "But I can't control it yet. It's like this annoying tickle around the edge of my mind, like I should be able to feel the world but I just don't quite know how yet..."

[TheAbsurdist]

"Like a web, and you are the spider. I could do it with thoughts too, but... harder, I have to scan shallower, faster. But... yes, like webs or oceans, that's how if feels. Might not work for others. Hard to explain, easier to show..." Stepping back from her, and opening his eyes, he looked at her, watching her now. "Throw a few punches at me, I'll show you what else I can do with my telekinesis." It wasn't trust, so much as, she might understand it more, and help him get better as his abilities, which was a decidedly good idea. Besides, he needed to sharpen his abilities, and Kristin was willing to help, and she wasn't put off by him. "If it would be easier, I can show you how it works, but it's not something I've learned to do, it just always how I have done it.

[Scuffles]

"Are you sure?" Kristin asked as she lowered the target pads and shucked them off her hands. With a thought she floated them back to their rack and swapped them for a set of gloves similar to the ones Elias was wearing - but with significantly more padding. "I don't normally punch people the first time I meet them you know," she chuckled as she pulled the gloves on and used her telekinesis to tighten them. "Well not nice people anyway. Sometimes I punch the jerks."

She raised her hands into a semblance of a fighting guard as she stepped closer to Elias. "What do you want me to do, just try to hit you?" she asked as she threw an experimental jab aimed a few inches to the left of his head.

[TheAbsurdist]

"I am sure... have faith. I need to practice other things too." And then he brought up his arms to intercept the blow, somewhat, and he felt the effect before it became visible, as the ripple of telekinetic force appeared, visible, and catching her blow. It wasn't like her forcefeild, and it certainly was the same. It was an instinctive reaction, one that would stop a blow that would have gotten him. Pausing a little bit, and stepping back. "See... Not that bad..." A faint smile on his face for a moment, and shrugging. "But that is kind of it for my telekinetic powers." Which was true, thus far. "Can try to show you how the web works, but... I think these works with how your mind works... I guess, never really compared powers before."

[Scuffles]

Kristin smiled as she felt the defensive telekinesis more than saw it. "That's way different to how I do it," she noted. "And yet it's kinda the same. There's some finesse to it even if you're doing it without thinking. I guess I'm a little more like brute force."

She folded her arms across her chest and chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. "Is it okay if I test out how that interacts with my telekinesis?" she asked hesitantly. "I don't want to impose, but it would be interesting to see what it feels like. My control's good now, I promise I won't accidentally put you through the wall or anything. Just a little push."

[TheAbsurdist]

He looked at her, brows knitting together in a scowl or a frown. It seemed to be more an expression that he did when he was being thoughtful over something. "Oh?" Turning his head a little, and staring at the ground. Then he nodded. "Alright." Seeing no reason to tell her no, because he needed to stretch, even if it was instinct, as he knew that his telepathic powers started as instinctual. So he clear his mind, or tried to. That part was always tricky.