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xp_logsNathan takes Julian to the quarry to work on his powers training, backdated to December 22nd, 2008.
"We'll do the Danger Room another time," Nathan said, leading Julian down the path towards the quarry. It was sunny out today, but cold, to the point where their breath was visible. There'd been more fresh snow last night, too. "Once we get into establishing a baseline for you, we'll need its monitoring systems. Right now," and he tossed a brief, wry grin back over his shoulder at the boy, "I just want to get a look at your technique without having to worry about structural damage."
Julian would have been entirely miserable had it not been for the new winter wardrobe he’d purchased the last weekend. His new wool, waist-length trench-coat, fur lined leather gloves and wool-knit cap were keeping him as warm as he could be. Unfortunately, the fresh snow was reminding his head that it was cold here and he was shivering in a psychosomatic reaction. “N-not that I mind, Nathan, I mean I haven’t had many opportunities to use my powers recently,” ‘except in the weight room and showing off for the girls,’ “but there isn’t a warmer place we could do this?”
Nathan looked back over his shoulder at Julian, smiled inscrutably, and shrugged. "Almost certainly. But don't worry - I'll have you working hard enough to warm up soon." It was a little bit cruel of him, but it was a reasonably mundane sort of stress to put Julian under, to see how that affected his control.
He sighed and frowned slightly as his breath hung in the air before him. Julian knew this was to benefit him, but he still didn’t have to like it. Putting aside the chill in his bones, he pushed ahead to walk next to Nathan. “I know you want to look at my technique, I’m just not sure what that means. Do you want to see how I use my power, or am I going to be working on striking a pose while I do?” Julian smiled and chuckled at himself as he raised a hand in front of himself, as if he were floating an invisible boulder before them.
Nathan gave it a serious answer. "Your power seems to be a little unusual, in that you get a visual manifestation even when you're not drawing on much of it. Jean and I are used to seeing what we call the lines of force - basically, patterns of light that aren't actually visible to the naked eye, that show us where the potential and active kinetic energy is in a situation. What I want to know," he said, "is whether this glow of yours is linked to that, or just some quirk of your powers. Because learning a higher degree of control would be much easier for you if you can see, or can be taught to see, these lines of force."
It had been a mystery why things glowed when he used his powers ever since they had appeared. At first, the doctors thought it might be some sort of gravitational control, but some of the tell tale signs of that ability weren’t present. “Oh,” was all he could manage at first, “how are we going to do that?”
"I'm going to watch you work," Nathan said, "and we'll see what happens." They reached the end of the path, and Nathan looked around, spotting various rocks that seemed like a good size and weight. Half a dozen of them levitated off the ground, moving slowly into a spinning spiral pattern.
Julian watched the rocks spin about them, suspended in the air as if lifted by ultra-thin fishing line. He envied the discretion that Nathan had in his abilities for a moment before letting it pass. With a sigh, the young Keller undid the toggles on the front of his jacket, then thrust his hands into his pockets in an attempt to hold the opening together. He hopped up and down in place a few times before turning to the older man and smirking, “Lifting rocks?”
Nathan raised an eyebrow at the boy. "You don't like rocks?" he asked mildly. "You'd rather something larger? Cars maybe?"
After a brief moment, Julian held up his hands and shook his head, “No, no, it’s not that, it’s just, well, do you want me to imitate you with other rocks or move those you already have up or what? If you just want me to lift rocks,” Julian turned his back to Nathan and spotted a boulder roughly the size of the other rocks put together- give or take a couple hundred pounds. He held out his hand toward it and nearly instantly a faint glow, made dimmer by the light of day, surrounded the rock and lifted it a foot or so off the ground. As it turned out, what looked like a chunk of porous sandstone actually had a fairly dense granite ore. The younger teek struggled to keep it floating at that height, not wanting to embarrass himself by not being able to do what he boasted able. “Just…say…so.”
"If you leave yourself with a headache," Nathan warned, "I will take you right down to Amelia and leave you at her mercy. It won't be pretty." He took the opportunity to get a good look at the lines of force surrounding Julian's rock, however. They seemed oddly muddled, and he tilted his head, frowning. "Okay," he said, his rocks still rotating. "Put it down. Seriously, we're wanting to avoid overstrain headaches here."
After being told twice Julian let go of his stubbornness and chose to listen; letting the boulder fall to the ground with a dull thud. Nathan had been right about getting warm, he could already feel the sweat under his jacket and considered for a moment taking it off. After a deep breath to collect his composure, Julian turned back toward Nathan and forced a smile. “What’s next?” he asked, eager to move on to something more challenging- or perhaps to ready to follow instructions.
Nathan smiled wryly, shaking his head. "I want you to take each of my rocks from me," he said. "Or as many as you can. I want to check your grip, so to speak." He slowed the rocks in their rotation, still eyeing the lines of force.
There has to be some sort of trick he’s not telling me, Julian thought He quickly decided the best course of action would be to try and take rocks at random, to prevent a pattern from forming. He looked around at the rocks and started to reach out to the nearest stone to Nathan, which began to flicker his trademark glow as it slowed slightly. When he and his ‘friends’ out West had been training he was doing this sort of thing with fifty pound bell weights- but none of his training partners had been pushing back against him then. Julian glanced at the rock directly behind Nathan and attempted to take hold of it, making it slow, but not stop.
"No," Nathan said immediately, if not at all harshly. His tone was intent, yet oddly encouraging. "You're trying to grab the whole rock. Do you do that, if you're grabbing it with your hands? Do you need to be exerting pressure on the whole thing to hold it securely?"
Julian frowned slightly at the chastisement and had it not been cold he could have blushed- as it was his cheeks were already red. After he let the embarrassment pass he thought about it and knew Nathan was right. For as long as he could remember he’d have to envelop the object he was concentrating on in order to move it. Instead of trying to create a pocket around the rocks, Keller decided to try it his mentor’s way and pushed against the two he’d already been trying to move from the side instead.
The rocks wobbled alarmingly, but Nathan smiled as he steadied them. "Better," he said. "It's this sort of thing I can teach you, Julian - this is what I meant by technique. How would you change that approach if it was something fragile, rather than a rock? Say, a toddler you're lowering from a burning building?"
“I can’t handle fragile things,” he said letting his force drop for a moment on one of the rocks, then pushing at it from the other side. “Bad things happen when I try,” his mind started to wander back to the police officer screaming in the pain of two broken arms as Julian was cuffed and roughly thrown into the back seat of a squad-car. He pushed on the rock as hard as he cold, trying to force it along its path, funneling the anger associated with the memory into making the rock speed up.
And the rocks stopped dead, as if Julian's push had just run straight into an immovable object. "You don't ever train when you're angry," Nathan said, calmly but firmly, as he held the rocks steady in the air. "Anger has its place. But this isn't it."
Julian stopped dead, this entire exercise wasn’t going the way he’d suspected it would. Being told to stop being angry only upset him further, but it got him to stop. He turned to face Nathan, taking deep breaths in both an effort to calm down and to stop his heart, which was racing. The cold no longer bothered him as his jacket hung open to reveal the academy sweatshirt beneath.
Julian had been going about using his powers wrong for a long time and being told that now was rather jarring. The worst part of it all was that Nathan was right. “Okay,” he said, taking a long moment to pause, “how do I do it?”
"One very painstaking step at a time," Nathan said with a chuckle. "Right now, though, I think we should get back out of the cold. This demonstration, I can do safely indoors."
"We'll do the Danger Room another time," Nathan said, leading Julian down the path towards the quarry. It was sunny out today, but cold, to the point where their breath was visible. There'd been more fresh snow last night, too. "Once we get into establishing a baseline for you, we'll need its monitoring systems. Right now," and he tossed a brief, wry grin back over his shoulder at the boy, "I just want to get a look at your technique without having to worry about structural damage."
Julian would have been entirely miserable had it not been for the new winter wardrobe he’d purchased the last weekend. His new wool, waist-length trench-coat, fur lined leather gloves and wool-knit cap were keeping him as warm as he could be. Unfortunately, the fresh snow was reminding his head that it was cold here and he was shivering in a psychosomatic reaction. “N-not that I mind, Nathan, I mean I haven’t had many opportunities to use my powers recently,” ‘except in the weight room and showing off for the girls,’ “but there isn’t a warmer place we could do this?”
Nathan looked back over his shoulder at Julian, smiled inscrutably, and shrugged. "Almost certainly. But don't worry - I'll have you working hard enough to warm up soon." It was a little bit cruel of him, but it was a reasonably mundane sort of stress to put Julian under, to see how that affected his control.
He sighed and frowned slightly as his breath hung in the air before him. Julian knew this was to benefit him, but he still didn’t have to like it. Putting aside the chill in his bones, he pushed ahead to walk next to Nathan. “I know you want to look at my technique, I’m just not sure what that means. Do you want to see how I use my power, or am I going to be working on striking a pose while I do?” Julian smiled and chuckled at himself as he raised a hand in front of himself, as if he were floating an invisible boulder before them.
Nathan gave it a serious answer. "Your power seems to be a little unusual, in that you get a visual manifestation even when you're not drawing on much of it. Jean and I are used to seeing what we call the lines of force - basically, patterns of light that aren't actually visible to the naked eye, that show us where the potential and active kinetic energy is in a situation. What I want to know," he said, "is whether this glow of yours is linked to that, or just some quirk of your powers. Because learning a higher degree of control would be much easier for you if you can see, or can be taught to see, these lines of force."
It had been a mystery why things glowed when he used his powers ever since they had appeared. At first, the doctors thought it might be some sort of gravitational control, but some of the tell tale signs of that ability weren’t present. “Oh,” was all he could manage at first, “how are we going to do that?”
"I'm going to watch you work," Nathan said, "and we'll see what happens." They reached the end of the path, and Nathan looked around, spotting various rocks that seemed like a good size and weight. Half a dozen of them levitated off the ground, moving slowly into a spinning spiral pattern.
Julian watched the rocks spin about them, suspended in the air as if lifted by ultra-thin fishing line. He envied the discretion that Nathan had in his abilities for a moment before letting it pass. With a sigh, the young Keller undid the toggles on the front of his jacket, then thrust his hands into his pockets in an attempt to hold the opening together. He hopped up and down in place a few times before turning to the older man and smirking, “Lifting rocks?”
Nathan raised an eyebrow at the boy. "You don't like rocks?" he asked mildly. "You'd rather something larger? Cars maybe?"
After a brief moment, Julian held up his hands and shook his head, “No, no, it’s not that, it’s just, well, do you want me to imitate you with other rocks or move those you already have up or what? If you just want me to lift rocks,” Julian turned his back to Nathan and spotted a boulder roughly the size of the other rocks put together- give or take a couple hundred pounds. He held out his hand toward it and nearly instantly a faint glow, made dimmer by the light of day, surrounded the rock and lifted it a foot or so off the ground. As it turned out, what looked like a chunk of porous sandstone actually had a fairly dense granite ore. The younger teek struggled to keep it floating at that height, not wanting to embarrass himself by not being able to do what he boasted able. “Just…say…so.”
"If you leave yourself with a headache," Nathan warned, "I will take you right down to Amelia and leave you at her mercy. It won't be pretty." He took the opportunity to get a good look at the lines of force surrounding Julian's rock, however. They seemed oddly muddled, and he tilted his head, frowning. "Okay," he said, his rocks still rotating. "Put it down. Seriously, we're wanting to avoid overstrain headaches here."
After being told twice Julian let go of his stubbornness and chose to listen; letting the boulder fall to the ground with a dull thud. Nathan had been right about getting warm, he could already feel the sweat under his jacket and considered for a moment taking it off. After a deep breath to collect his composure, Julian turned back toward Nathan and forced a smile. “What’s next?” he asked, eager to move on to something more challenging- or perhaps to ready to follow instructions.
Nathan smiled wryly, shaking his head. "I want you to take each of my rocks from me," he said. "Or as many as you can. I want to check your grip, so to speak." He slowed the rocks in their rotation, still eyeing the lines of force.
There has to be some sort of trick he’s not telling me, Julian thought He quickly decided the best course of action would be to try and take rocks at random, to prevent a pattern from forming. He looked around at the rocks and started to reach out to the nearest stone to Nathan, which began to flicker his trademark glow as it slowed slightly. When he and his ‘friends’ out West had been training he was doing this sort of thing with fifty pound bell weights- but none of his training partners had been pushing back against him then. Julian glanced at the rock directly behind Nathan and attempted to take hold of it, making it slow, but not stop.
"No," Nathan said immediately, if not at all harshly. His tone was intent, yet oddly encouraging. "You're trying to grab the whole rock. Do you do that, if you're grabbing it with your hands? Do you need to be exerting pressure on the whole thing to hold it securely?"
Julian frowned slightly at the chastisement and had it not been cold he could have blushed- as it was his cheeks were already red. After he let the embarrassment pass he thought about it and knew Nathan was right. For as long as he could remember he’d have to envelop the object he was concentrating on in order to move it. Instead of trying to create a pocket around the rocks, Keller decided to try it his mentor’s way and pushed against the two he’d already been trying to move from the side instead.
The rocks wobbled alarmingly, but Nathan smiled as he steadied them. "Better," he said. "It's this sort of thing I can teach you, Julian - this is what I meant by technique. How would you change that approach if it was something fragile, rather than a rock? Say, a toddler you're lowering from a burning building?"
“I can’t handle fragile things,” he said letting his force drop for a moment on one of the rocks, then pushing at it from the other side. “Bad things happen when I try,” his mind started to wander back to the police officer screaming in the pain of two broken arms as Julian was cuffed and roughly thrown into the back seat of a squad-car. He pushed on the rock as hard as he cold, trying to force it along its path, funneling the anger associated with the memory into making the rock speed up.
And the rocks stopped dead, as if Julian's push had just run straight into an immovable object. "You don't ever train when you're angry," Nathan said, calmly but firmly, as he held the rocks steady in the air. "Anger has its place. But this isn't it."
Julian stopped dead, this entire exercise wasn’t going the way he’d suspected it would. Being told to stop being angry only upset him further, but it got him to stop. He turned to face Nathan, taking deep breaths in both an effort to calm down and to stop his heart, which was racing. The cold no longer bothered him as his jacket hung open to reveal the academy sweatshirt beneath.
Julian had been going about using his powers wrong for a long time and being told that now was rather jarring. The worst part of it all was that Nathan was right. “Okay,” he said, taking a long moment to pause, “how do I do it?”
"One very painstaking step at a time," Nathan said with a chuckle. "Right now, though, I think we should get back out of the cold. This demonstration, I can do safely indoors."
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