xp_logs | Manuel and Nathan, Monday morning

Manuel finds out that failing almost all his courses has consequences, as Nathan tells him that he'll be tutoring him academically this summer, as well as helping the Askani to do it psionically. The two of them trade harsh words (and some of Manuel's fears come to light), but a schedule is set up.

Nathan lowered himself into the chair, eyeing the room thoughtfully. Charles had suggested one of the smaller classrooms, laid out more like a sitting room than a traditional classroom. Look upon this as a dialogue between the two of you, he had suggested, and Nathan had taken it to heart. He and Manuel had enough of an adversarial relationship already. Minimizing that as much as possible was a very good idea.

He glanced at his watch, frowning. A couple of minutes after nine. Wonder how long he'll make me wait... They had agreed on the meeting time over email, but Manuel had been awfully casual about it. Shaking his head, Nathan started to sort through the books and papers he'd brought, reminding himself that preemptively ragging on the kid for a very minimal lack of punctuality wasn't a good start either.

Manuel wandered into the room at about a quarter-after nine, holding a frosty beverage in one hand and a microwavable burrito-thing in the other. The burrito looked to be about half-eaten. "Hola." he called out casually before snagging one of the chairs with a foot and pulling it underneath of him to sit on. "So what's this all about, anyway?" he said around a mouthful of beverage.

Nathan raised an eyebrow, but decided to let it go. The extra time had given him a further chance to organize his thoughts, anyway. "Call it an organizational meeting?" he said dryly. "Apparently you and I have more to do this summer than work on your empathy."

Manuel tilted his head slightly and took another bite of burrito-thing. "Oh?" he said after swallowing. "What might that be?"

"You failed all but one of your courses this year," Nathan said, picking up the copy of Manuel's academic record that Charles had given him. "Charles has decided that a little remedial work is in order."

Manuel shrugged. "I didn't pick the courses, and I have good reasons for doing as I did." he said diffidently, then took another drink of his beverage. "And does it really matter?"

"This is a school," Nathan pointed out. "It doesn't exist just to teach you to master your mutant abilities." He frowned a bit at Manuel, remembering that conversation/argument they'd had on the journals several weeks back about education and its value or lack thereof.

"This is a school, yes." Manuel agreed. "And I'm here to learn control of my mutant ability. The rest of it can go fuck itself slowly with a stolen dick." he smirked, clearly amused with himself.

"Hate to tell you," Nathan said with a thin smile, "but that's not actually an option." He stared levelly at Manuel, ignoring the smirk, the obvious disdain. He's no different from any of the kids I trained back at Mistra, Nathan thought dimly. Except he's lacking discipline. Not that he'd wish that type of discipline on anyone, let alone Manuel. Still, this wasn't as unfamiliar a situation as he'd feared. "Since you and I are going to be spending so much time together this summer while you're learning from the Askani, Charles decided I get to handle the rest of it, too."

Manuel blinked. Repeatedly. "WHAT?" he yelled, spilling his Frosty Beverage all over himself and the floor. Not caring, he jumped up to his feet. "Now wait just a minute here! I didn't agree to _ANY_ of that! That was /never/ a part of the deal!"

"You're right," Nathan agreed easily. "This isn't part of the deal you made with Askani. This is an entirely separate issue." He smiled again at Manuel, the expression still a bit chilly. "I'm not just the person the Askani use to talk to this world. I'm also a teacher at this school. And you are a student who's failed to make... well, virtually any academic progress this year."

"I am _NOT_ a student of academics! I am here because Ms Frost thought I could receive a proper education in the use of my empathic ability. Nobody said ANYTHING about schoolwork! I refuse." he said, sitting down in as dignified a manner as he could considering that the Frosty Beverage had soaked through his button-down and his pants.

Nathan tilted his head, regarding the young man thoughtfully. "Uh-huh," he said, pondering what he'd sensed from Manuel during his outburst. The kid's shielding did indeed need a lot of work. "Let me be frank," he said, amiably enough. "If you want to stay here and learn as an empath, you've got to do this, too. It's that simple."

Manuel hrmmed as the wheels inside his mind turned. "I'm legally an adult by the standards of this country, and I have my papers now. I could just leave..." he mused. "But then I'd lose the empathic training and Amanda. Fuck."

"We don't have to do the sort of stuff you were doing this year," Nathan said. Carrot, not just stick. "I mean, yeah, you've got to work on your English some more. But we can look into things you might be more interested in... Charles has given me quite a lot of leeway."

Manuel sighed deeply and took another bite of burrito-thing. "I don't think I have a choice, then. Not a real one." he said after a few minutes of sulking. "So in order to get what I want, I have to become your bitch. Fine. Doesn't mean I have to _like_ it."

Nathan blinked. "My... bitch. Uh, okay." He raised an eyebrow. "You're not under the impression that I'm actually going to enjoy this, are you?" he asked skeptically.

"You're _already_ enjoying this. I don't need my power to tell me that. You just can't wait to get me under your thumb - because now you control me utterly. Stay or go, all in your hands." he said bitterly. "As usual, what I want doesn't matter. I've made a deal with the Devil."

"You want me to be blunt?" Nathan asked, nettled, as he leaned forward in his chair. "The idea of tutoring you, in the academic sense, is possibly the least palatable thing I ever imagined myself doing when I signed on here." His jaw clenched. "You're not unintelligent, but you're lazy, close-minded, and arrogant almost beyond belief. It's not an uncommon trait in the uneducated, but you take it to the nth degree, you truly do." He let Manuel's academic record drop to the top of the pile of papers and glared, knowing he was probably projecting all kinds of thoroughly unpleasant emotions but not really caring. Let Manuel deal with them or not. "Bad enough that I had to agree to help Galin and the others help you, and now I'm doing this? You are not worth my time, not when it comes to the academic stuff. I fully expect I'll be going back to Charles at the end of the summer and telling him this was a waste of both our mornings."

Manuel smiled. "Good. At least then both of us will be miserable all summer long. If I have to suffer, so do you. So what kind of unreadable crap are you going to be trying to get me to read this term?"

Down, boy, Nathan told his temper. So much for making an amiable start. "Excerpts," he said curtly. "History, literature, philosophy to start. Not too much of anything at a time. I'm supposed to be helping you improve your English, not choking you with it."

Manuel nodded sarcastically. "Wonderful. More incomprehensible crap. Doug won't be around to translate, you know." he said, then bit down hard to keep anything else from slipping out. His thoughts were along the lines of ~Oh, now he knows. You're fucked, he's going to kick you out. You'll never learn your power now.~

Nathan nearly rocked back in his chair at how loudly Manuel was projecting. "For fuck's sake, would you keep a lid on it?" he growled, rubbing at his eyes and glaring at Manuel. "You don't like people's emotions going wild around you, so why the hell is mentally screaming at a telepath acceptable?" There was no snappy response forthcoming from Manuel, and Nathan frowned at him, seeing the fear in his eyes. "Shit," he said with a sigh. "Look, it takes work, okay? The English. Getting exposed to a variety of different subjects and styles is the best way to help your reading."

"And if I don't toe the line, then you'll get Charles to kick me out. I know." he said glumly. "Sorry for the shouting thing. I wasn't trying to." He swallowed heavily, and continued. "Look. You want to know the real reason I did not do well this semester? There are two. One, my Psionics classes were taught primarily by Kwannon, and she lied to me. Extensively. Nothing she showed me worked. The other, the more important one ... I can't read English very well. Even reading the journals takes me a long time. I do better with casual stuff. I failed Psych because I couldn't understand the outside readings, and the stuff Doug translated for me was just nonsense."

"Firstly," Nathan said steadily, "I would actually be afraid to try and get you kicked out, believe it or not. I wouldn't put it past the Askani to make me follow you if you left." He offered Manuel his best wry smile, got nothing in return. "Secondly, the gaps in your psionic education will get fixed, between Galin, Charles, and myself. Thirdly..." He paused, surprised at how much... kindness he suddenly felt towards the kid. "I'll say it again. The English requires work, and lots of it. But I'm hoping that some of the stuff I'm going to get you to read is more interesting to you than your psychology textbook. Which should help."

"Charles took over the Psionics class when Kwannon was revealed. It didn't help. He's not an empath. That stuff I know Galin will help me with. But now you're telling me that I'm going to have to do all this reading, and ... no. Not going to happen. Just because you can understand and read languages telepathically ..." he sputtered out. "It is not going to work."

"Coward," Nathan said mildly.

"I can live with that." he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I think we've established that you can't," Nathan said with a touch of humor. "How the hell did you learn your other languages if you were this afraid of making mistakes?"

"From when I was a child." he retorted. "Latin and Basque are the languges of my childhood, my history, my family. Castillian I grew up speaking."

"Languages are much easier when you're a child," Nathan conceded. "A young mind picks them up more quickly."

"And even then it was _never_ total immersion like it is now." he complained. "Now, I can't speak anything but English with people. If I want to speak my own language, my choice is Doug, who is hardly my favorite person, and I for him. No one else here speaks Castilian. If I lowered myself, I could talk to Miles or Alison. With Latin, I have Amanda, but her dialect is very odd. It's still better than nothing."

"Immersion is also the best way to learn a language," Nathan said. "Proven fact. As for the loneliness..." He shrugged, making a helpless gesture. "I've spent most of my adult life living in places where English isn't the primary language. You learn to deal with it, in time. Which you haven't had a lot of, really."

"I can speak it okay. I get practice daily. But reading - I don't read much in English. I like it that way." he said.

"Maybe, but that's not realistic," Nathan said with a sigh. "Manuel, I don't actually want to torment you. Believe that or not, I really can't do much to convince you one way or the other. But this is for your own good. I'll try to make it as pleasant as I can, but whether you're miserable is largely up to you."

"Incorrect. You've already made me miserable, and I had nothing to do with it." he retorted back. "But like I said before - you own me now, so I don't have any choice in the matter. I need to stay here, at least while I have this on my wrist." And he raised his right wrist, to show off the dampener.

"Bullshit," Nathan snapped, aggravation winning out again. "You want to be weak and fearful, that's your decision. There were any number of ways you could have reacted to this, Manuel, and you were the one who chose the easy way out."

"The _only_ way I could, and remain true to who I am. Sure, I could have pretended to like it, let myself be pulled in by your emotions. But then I wouldn't be me, and this whole thing would be an even bigger mistake than it is now." he ranted. "I don't like it. I'm not _going_ to like it. If you can't handle that, then that's YOUR problem, not mine. You don't get to decide how I feel - not now, not ever!"

"My God, I'm going to make you use your brain. What a monster I am," Nathan scoffed. "As for being true to who you are, you can learn to function fully in English and still be an arrogant little shit who doesn't want to admit he's scared to death, don't worry."

At that, Manuel stood up. "I don't have to sit here and listen to this bullshit. Good day." And then he stomped out of the classroom, squishing ever-so-slightly from spilled beverage.

Nathan sighed. "Stomping off in a huff is not one of the things you get to do," he said evenly, reaching out telekinetically and yanking Manuel back through the door and to the chair he'd just abruptly vacated. He smiled thinly at the outraged look he got. "Alternating days," he said. "Psionics one day, academics the next. And oh, once I have two good legs again I'm supposed to be giving you self-defense sessions, too. But that won't be for a couple more weeks at least."

Manuel comforted himself with glaring holes through Nathan's skull, and contemplating if his anger was worth risking death for by using his power.

"If you're incapable of recognizing that this is for your own good, or just too stubborn to admit it... well, that really doesn't matter, in the end," Nathan said ruthlessly. "You will learn. You've made it clear that you're determined to kick and scream and make yourself unhappy every step of the way. But you do not get to pretend, even for a moment, that doing so is anything but your own decision. There's a lot I will put up with - I don't expect you to bring me fucking apples, or hell, treat me with even a shred of respect, but I don't tolerate dishonesty."

"It isn't my decision. You took that from me when Charles gave me to your keeping." he said sullenly. "Don't expect me to sing in joy."

"Doing it isn't your choice, no. How you do it, on the other hand, is." Nathan released his telekinetic grip, shaking his head. "We're obviously not getting anything accomplished today, so show up the same time tomorrow for Galin's first lesson. Which you'll be unlocked for, by the way."

"You don't get it. I don't have _ANY_ choices! If I don't do it exactly the way you like, all you do is tell Charles "Sorry, he's not cooperating." and then I'm done for. So while I'll be here, tomorrow, and do whatever is required - I won't be happy about it. Because I have no choice. And I can't stop you. So just do me a favor and _stop_, OK? Just ... _stop_. Stop with the lies, stop with the foolishness. Let's not pretend that this is anything other than what it is." he said. "See you tomorrow, Master." he said, before standing back up and walking out of the room.

Sighing, Nathan let him go this time. "Oh, this is going to be just a blast," he muttered, picking the papers back up. The Askani were muttering in the back of his mind, some of them sounding amused, others annoyed. He ignored all of them and got back to his feet. There were Arabic quizzes to mark, and students who actually wanted to learn to deal with. Tomorrow morning was soon enough to be thinking about Manuel again.