Log: Matt & Angelo

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Backdated to March 11, Matt goes to Angelo for help deciphering some of his college information and talk about future plans.



It really didn't matter who went to whom since X-Corps was on campus just like the dorms, but it was a part of campus Matt didn't venture towards often, so that was something. Shoving the envelope of college acceptance paperwork into his backpack along with his laptop and braille reader, he headed towards X-Corps. The actual acceptance letter was both in braille and printed, which Matt thought was nice, though he could sort of read both with his powers. Raised ink, though it was only raised the smallest fraction, was still raised. The rest was printed on glossy paper and that he couldn't read, but he knew the gist of it all. What came next.

"Come in!" Angelo called out at the knock on his office door, setting down the stack of papers he'd been reading through and looking up with a smile. "Hey, Matt. You found us."

"It wasn't exactly hard," Matt pointed out. They were still in the mansion after all. He flopped down into a seat without being asked, and fished his stuff out, handing Angelo the packet of papers, "There's a lot going on in there. Part of me thinks I need to just choose a major and I can change it later, but I have no idea to what and just...overwhelming."

"OK. Well, it took me forever to settle on what I wanted to do in the long run, even thought about police academy for awhile, so I'd say don't make any snap decisions. You don't even have to declare a major right away, if you want to you can try out some courses and see what clicks for you."

Sensible advice. Matt did not want sensible. He wanted someone to tell him what to do, tell him the right thing to do. That wasn't going to happen. "They let mutants into the police academy?" Could he do that? He had no idea how that worked.

"They do if you're upfront about it", Angelo said with a nod, glancing at one or two of the papers in Matt's packet and discarding them as unnecessary since the boy wasn't going to be living in university housing. "'Specially if your powers are on the same level as mine, not psionic and not explosive if I tried. What are you interested in? Generally speaking."

He was still blind though, powers or not. Moving on. "I dunno. I mean, I'm interesting in history, English...anything without math really. I know I'll have to take at least one or two math classes, just not a whole major of it. I just keep thinking about what I could do when I get out for a job and come up blank. I don't really want to be a teacher..."

"If you don't really want to be, you shouldn't be", Angelo said simply. "Teaching and teaching well, 'specially for the not-science subjects, you need to really care about what you're doing. If you're not a math and science brain, that's okay, neither am I and there's no reason you should have to take more than the basics. History and English could be a pretty good start for more than one career. You like to write at all?"

"Yeah, I can write," Matt nodded slightly, "There aren't a lot of jobs for blind people. So I want to make sure I study something useful, you know? I keep going back to criminal justice as a major, but what jobs could I do? Or maybe political science.... I figure anything I major in will involve some writing."

"Well, if criminal justice appeals to you... it might sound like I'm biased, but you ever thought about the law? Or journalism, or some sort of advocacy... Pretty much any major could be useful for journalism."

Advocacy sounded interesting and lots of people needed that. Plus, it wouldn't matter if he was blind or not. "Those are some ideas...dunno about law. Lawyers suck," at least the ones he was familiar with. "Advocacy maybe though..." The gears were turning now in his head.

"Lawyers don't all suck", Angelo said mildly. "Some of us are actually in it to help people, and not rich people either. And anything that involves a lot of talking to people and using a computer, you'd have no problem at all doing."

Skeptical, Matt didn't argue. Lawyers weren't that in his experience. They were either very good and very rich and helping the criminals get richer or poor, underpaid civil servants who couldn't do their jobs properly to save their lives. "I can talk and use a computer," he agreed, almost reluctantly. "I do pretty good in my debate class."

"So yeah. If qualifying as a lawyer and going that way doesn't click for you, advocacy's sort of like that but more aimed at helping people. Or investigative journalism."

"I'd rather help people," Matt agreed. That sounded like his speed. "I'll have to look into that. And choose classes. That's the whole thing, it's like, I have to decide now what to do with the rest of my life. That's huge," he was 17 years old! How the hell did he know!?

"You know what?" Angelo said with a wry grin. "You really don't, or not in any set in stone way. What you have to choose right now is what classes sound interesting, and what you might want to do. There's always room to change your mind."

That sounded more workable. Hopefully the classes he thought were interesting would also produce a decent major. "It's so weird still being in high school and thinking about college like this. All I gotta do right now is pass my classes," which was actually a fairly liberating feeling. He only had a few more months of school, and then - freedom! Or at least, college.

"You'll get used to it", Angelo advised. "Now, I put aside everything that doesn't apply to you 'cause you'll be eating most meals and sleeping here, so you want to have a look at the class list?"

"Yeah, I guess...whatever the general requirements are?" he knew there were both general requirements and major requirements. "Do I have to take a language?"

"You do", Angelo confirmed. "But that's not so bad. Languages are easy, and it's always good to know if you might ever want to travel."

Math and Spanish were his two most difficult classes, "Easy for you maybe," Matt replied, "I don't mind Spanish, but it's not that easy. I was hoping I wouldn't have to take one again," he could always continue in Spanish, he knew that, but he still wasn't thrilled with the idea. "Okay. So....options, options. They printed my acceptance letter in braille, but I guess doing everything was too much to hope for."

"I'd offer to give you extra help, but my Spanish isn't exactly the purist's version. Still, it's an open offer if you want it. Now, the options." He started to read them off, reasonably slowly.

Note taking without a braille typewriter wasn't the easiest and he didn't even do it then, in most of his classes he either had someone who took notes for him that were transcribed into braille or his teachers gave him notes already brailled. It wasn't too difficult to do since the school had a braille printer and he had one in his room, too. Therefore, Matt just listened intently as Angelo read off his options, "Can you take notes for me?" he asked. Even if he did do it since he could write, there was no guarantee that it would be legible to anyone later.

"No problem", Angelo agreed easily. "You just tell me anything you want to write down. Any of them jumping out at you so far?"

"Well...I guess I need a spanish class. So that's first. Get it out of the way. And I'm taking AP tests in history and English, so I'll hold off to see what I need later. But I guess everyone takes some sort of freshman English, right? And I guess math?" That he only took four or five classes each semester seemed insane, but then the course load was heavier and they went more in-depth.

"Right", Angelo agreed. "Basic English, basic math, you can drop math later if you want but I'd recommend sticking with English courses. Real useful for debate in a lot of ways."

Matt nodded, pushing his hair from his face. He should consider a haircut one of these days, "I don't have to make any final decisions this minute. I just...need to get stuff in order, I guess. There's a freshman orientation at some point I need to go to. So that's important," he assumed he could finalize his classes then. "Right", he said with a nod. "No need to make final decisions, but it's good to start thinking about what electives you might want, at least. Everyone at orientation will be trying to get you into their class."

Chuckling, Matt tried to imagine that and failed. It seemed a little ridiculous, "Electives, electives...yeah, I'm not so worried about those yet. Let's get the requirements out of the way first."

"I'm serious", Angelo told him. "It's all about the numbers - they don't get enough numbers in an elective class, they lose funding or maybe even the class doesn't run at all. So once you get past the acceptance stage, nothing else matters, the people running the electives want to sell them to you. But OK, focusing on requirements for now."

"Well...I only take what? Four classes?" Matt asked, "So that's not a lot of options, especially if I need the general requirements first. And I want to do X-stuff, so...that'll be time, too. I don't want to overload," he was also concerned that he might need fewer classes at one time too given that he needed braille materials which took time to get. That was another reason to look at classes early. He needed to be able to get the books and things he needed through the school in time.

"Exactly. So you're gonna have to think carefully about what you want to fill the elective slots with, not jump at the first one or two people try and sell you on, in case there's actually something that might suit you better. But we'll get to that. You want to join the team, huh?"

Matt nodded, "Yeah. I want to help," there were a lot of ways to help, but this one seemed like the best way to him.

"Well, the team'll certainly let you do that", Angelo said with a nod. "It's not everyone's thing, but they do do good work. Lot of fighting involved, though, even when you're not expecting it... does that sonar of yours work in surround sound?"

Huh? It took Matt a minute to understand, he assumed it was obvious, but apparently not, "Yeah, sure," he agreed, "It was weird understanding it at first, when I was learning to use it in place of sight, but now it's easy," at least to him.

"Never hurts to ask, I'm no expert on powers. Or bats, for that matter", he said wryly. "That'll be handy. No one's ever gonna sneak up behind you again, long as there's any sound to use."

That was true, "And I can hear heartbeats," Matt added helpfully. "So even really quiet people are heard. And get images of things through echolocation. Very bat-like," but at the same time, not at all a feral bat mutation. Odd, that.

"Very handy", Angelo repeated, impressed. "Always knowing where the opponent is, almost whatever they try to hide, you'll be an asset to the team."

Gathering up his stuff, Matt shrugged, "Can't see colours, expressions or faces in general. No detail. Can't see the papers on your desk, for example," he explained, getting them by feel. He was truly blind in many ways, "So it's not perfect," nothing ever was.

"You can see enough for a lot of purposes", Angelo pointed out. "And in one way, better than most of us. We don't have eyes in the back of our heads. Come on back anytime if you need more help with stuff." "Thanks," Matt agreed, "I'll see you later."

(and end?)