la_belle_rogue | [Video]

Back home Ah work at a school. [In between averting Earth shattering disasters and fighting the good fight for equality, which sadly involves actual fighting. But that is not the point of this.] We teach all the basics, but we also cater to a very special group of people, mutants. Folks born with powers that set them apart on the evolutionary charts. A lot of those people don't really know what ta do with the gifts they're born with, or how ta control them.

That was mah area of focus. Ah've been teachin' young mutants how ta get a handle on their gifts for a long while. Ah'm able ta do it a lot more effectively than most, because Ah can share their power for a while, get an idea of what they're livin' with, and how it works. How it's supposed ta work.

And Ah know we've got some folks here that have powers like that. Gifts they don't quite know how ta work completely. Ah'd like ta offer mah help. Ah know we've got a little school here for further education, so Ah'm wonderin' if Ah might take up a teachin' spot for this sort of thing.

It'd be a one on one learnin' basis. Anyone interested, we could work out days and times for lessons.

Anyway, it's an idea.

[Private to Arthas, later]

Hey Ah'm keepin' a slot open for ya on mah sign up sheet.

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Not strictly. Ah've done it with various alien species, some cosmic bein's, a couple gods.

[Nbd.]

[That takes a moment to process, and Ben is distracted while he does so; something dark in his eyes but distant, bricked up behind a wall of imperfect inscrutability.]

Your genetics are specialized to adapt to abilities which you do not normally possess. Those that would be considered negative as well?

Negative in what way?

[Because the answer is probably 'yes', but she wants to be sure of his meaning first.]

Non-adaptive. Weaknesses. Instability of mind or biological chemistry with potentially fatal side effects.

[She has to think the answer through on this one.]

Depends. If Ah do it the way Ah used ta, yes, Ah got the whole thing, no holds barred, until it wore off. Now Ah can take things in portions. Ah can take powers without touching memories, and so on.

Further, Ah can absorb powers from multiple sources and combine them. So if there's an inherent weakness in one power, Ah can compensate with another.

[Ben, in his turn, is always thinking; there is undeniable, heightened intelligence in his eyes, muted only by his ignorance and lack of context. By nurture, not nature.]

And how does that advance towards your stated goal? The source of the abilities does not have the option to compensate with the abilities of another.

Well that's more of an advanced lesson, Ah guess. What Ah'm offerin' is ta help work with people's baseline, so they can use it safely and comfortably. Once that part is down, we can work on fine tuning and finessing.

For example, a friend of mine can fly with incredible speed. We call him Cannonball. He can use his ability at will, it doesn't necessarily cause him or others around him unintended harm, and it won't go off without him doin' it himself. But he once said ta me that he wished he could just enjoy the view without blastin' past everythin' below him. So Ah showed him how ta slow down.

[Which he kind of resented, because she'd done it without much effort after a fraction of possessing his abilities. But well...she's got a knack. Hell, it might even be part of the package of her powers.]

I am highly capable of utilizing my abilities to their fullest extent. Those who created me were very interested in my being able to do so, and put a great deal of effort towards making it my purpose in being alive. I am extremely well trained in this regard.

My difficulty comes in controlling the inherent weaknesses invoked by the same.

Hang on a second. Is this about yer announcement a month ago?

Edited Date: 2014-03-25 11:05 pm (UTC)

The very same, ma'am.

[He is very tired; today he is clear-eyed and steady, but this is not always the case.]

[She nods slowly. She's trying to puzzle it out. Because she will help if she's at all able. ]

Ah'm gonna ask some pretty dumb questions here, but it's just so Ah can get an idea of what exactly is the cause.

[Also she's not a scientist nor a genius, so please bare with her.]

Ya said yer body doesn't produce a certain necessary chemical.... tryptophan? Is that in yer genetic structure, or is the production somehow suppressed? Ah mean do ya have the physical requirements t'produce it at all, but somehow can't?

[Ben cocks his head at her segue, a silent invitation. He listens to the question, blinking slowly - yes, tryptophan - and does not shrug or shake his head or nod.]

The deficiency is purported to be a specifically engineered genetic flaw, yes. All the information I have about the cause is from an extremely unreliable source, but as the effect of not being provided a supplement of tryptophan to augment the function of my system is not immediate, I believe the independent metabolizing is merely stunted rather than impossible.

[Again she has to think about it for a minute, work out the pieces in her head, see if she can get them to fit in different ways. She ends up looking up, away from the screen. The focus of her eyes bounces back and forth on thin air, while she tries to visualize it in her mind.]

Ah've had instances where Ah've borrowed from people who have a physical deficiency that prevents them from usin' their powers in certain ways. Ah'd gain the same deficiency, but it could be psychosomatic. The case in point, the guy had suffered head trauma and he couldn't shut his powers off at will. He had ta close his eyes or wear protective gear ta keep his powers under control.

Now though Ah can control them, same as anyone elses powers Ah borrow. But the difference between that and this situation, is Ah was gainin' things Ah didn't have in the first place. And this is a very specific bodily function on an incredibly small scale, that happens involuntarily. Ah'm not sure mah own natural systems wouldn't just override it.

[It's Ben's turn to consider, though he already sees where he'll end up; he knew where he'd end up before he even began this conversation, for once. The same place it always ends with Manticore: no one can do anything.

He considers pointing out that in a manner of speaking, all "powers" are bodily functions that occur involuntarily until they are controlled; that she would be gaining several traits that transgenics have that baseline humans don't; that he'd been driven to ask because at least for the time being, there is very little he'd like more than someone who would be able to help him understand - help him learn how to control, not do it for him - this aspect of who and what he is.

Instead, his jaw tightening, his voice clipped, he says simply:] I understand.

[If he'd made any of his observations out loud, she could have clarified. Pointed out that a person doesn't control how fast their hair or nails grow, or how much insulin their body produces. Or that she's taken more than just powers from people who were dying, body parts non-functioning, failing, shutting down, and it never transferred over. It might just be a fail safe of her own genetics, keeping out things that would interfere with her own systems.

Some functions are out of anyone's hands without medical assistance. But he doesn't, so she can't.

It might not have made a difference to him anyway. That clenching of his jaw, the tone. It wasn't the answer he'd wanted to hear, that's very clear. And she's sorry she had to give that particular one. But she wouldn't lie to him or give him false hopes. He'd hate that even more.]

Ah'm sorry.

[There's often more going on in Ben's head than he lets on to the world. This is deliberate, though less so of late.

But it isn't remotely her fault when instead of thanking her politely as he normally would, he says sharply:] Not likely. [and cuts the feed.]