Learning at the Metaphorical Feet (IC)

[TheAbsurdist]

Elias knelt in the Roberta Isley Garden, where he had been for some time yet. Trying to delicately reach out with his mind, so as to not disturb others. He could do it unconsciously with his telekinesis, so why couldn't he do it with his telepathy? Admittedly, he had only started to learn to try since coming here. But he was having a hard time placing in perspective, especially considering his age and inexperience. His mother could only train him so much with his powers, and she had be forceful about stopping him from reaching out and directly manipulating thoughts and memories. It felt a lot like writer's block, like something was in the way, stopping and stalling him from fully using his abilities. And he didn't know what.

Specifically though, he was waiting, today for a mentor he had been told he would be getting. His knowledge of heroes was limited, but had general knowledge of names of those it could be. And he hoped that person would be able to help him.

[April]

The sight of a short, white-haired young woman was not an uncommon occurrence on the Claremont campus. Many of the older students knew her, or knew of her, as a recent alumna of the Academy; but the handful of the truly well informed knew the reason for her frequent return visits. Despite being up to her neck in her own pre-law coursework (among other things), Eve managed to set aside time in her busy schedule to--at the request of Duncan Summers--tutor some of the students who had a unique set of talents (as well as play at Assistant Coach for the gymnastics team).

Students just like the one she found in the garden where the Headmaster said he might be.

"Hello," the green-eyed telepath said in her soft French-accented soprano as she approached Elias. "You must be Elias."

[TheAbsurdist]

Elias would be a little unique in that he didn't really know about the goings on in Freedom City, but he had seen Eve before, and she was well known enough for him to find out easily. And she would have been prepped a bit about this student, who had been on the run for over a decade after he and his mother escaped from New Freedom. He felt her approached him, but she wasn't hiding, and he opened his eyes and craned his head to look up at her. Blinking a little bit as his eyes adjusted again to the light.

"Hello," he responded in his surprisingly deep voice, "You are... Eve, right?"

[April]

"That's right," the athletic young woman confirmed, giving Elias the barest hint of a nod. This deep into autumn the garden wasn't showing off the full array of color it normally does during the warmer times of the year, but there was still an air of peace to the place. The garden, more specifically the small Zen garden off to the side (where she still visited, when the weather permitted, to continue tutoring Kristin and Kimber), was her favorite place at Claremont.

She mentioned this to Elias. "I like it here." she started, "It is the perfect place to be alone with your thoughts."

[TheAbsurdist]

"...And everyone else's." Elias said it matter-of-factly. Though he was afraid of being swallowed up by all their thoughts, that was not his primary concern now. He needed to rein his abilities in. That was a bit more complicated, as right now his power was more a shotgun blast, and he needed it to be a sniper shot. He watched for a moment and then closed his eyes and remained kneeling on the wall. Not so much to realign his focus as to just close his eyes. "They say I have a problem. In controlling my abilities. They are right. Or close enough to being right." Stubble had started to grow in on his scalp, and he lifted a hand to rub it absently, before he shifted, and stretched his legs out, and leaned forward, hands gripping at the soles of his feet as he drew his face to his knees.

[April]

"And what do you think?" Eve asked, raising a slender white eyebrow.

There was a note of sympathy in the tiny telepath's voice; she could still sense the billions of minds that inhabited the Earth (and beyond) but she long ago established the willpower and necessary control to keep from being overwhelmed. However it appeared Elias still had a ways to go yet until his mine was wholly his own again. As much as a telepath could ever truly be alone in their mind, at least.

Eve settled down on the ground opposite of Elias and waited for his own assessment of the 'problem.'

[TheAbsurdist]

"My problem is when I reach out. I am not gentle with it. My training before was to just not always reach out," a frown on his face as he lifted his head and looked up at her. He seemed detached, neither worried or upset over it. After all, he was trying, he had setbacks, but he kept trying.

"But then my mother and my uncle are not telepaths. And I spent little time around a lot of people, so I never had to learn how to account for that many people. So I am... playing catch up..." His expression became a little wry over the thought, "I am happy I am not projecting my idle thoughts to everyone in the school."