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[heartofthedream]

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"This is Jean. Leave and message and I'll call you back as soon as I can."

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[maskormods]

4th Letter

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m-s-o•-h
u-a-i-m
a-m-b-h
r-t•
r-t•-b-b-p-l-s-s•
h-r-e-,-t-d-d•
o-e-c-h
h-l•-n

text » 10/8

[deadlycurves]

[Since the party, and the subsequent explosion during it that was at least in some part his own fault due to his lack of control of his empathy, Diego has been a bit listless, and a lot more worried about where things would go from here.

But as he's locked away in his room at home, he thinks about the day in the gym a few months ago right after he'd gotten these powers. The woman who had been there, showed him how far the effects of it could roll out if he wasn't careful. He hadn't taken to any idea of it at the time, but now.... Well, maybe she could help.]

You probably don't remem
This is Diego Hargre
I'm not sure if
Do you

[He tries, starts and stops, from texting her at first when he finds her in the imPort directory. Thinking too much about... everything is making him stall. Vanya. The party. His part in her explosion, and how bad it got. Wondering if this woman had heard anything about it. Would she judge him? The rest of his family? Would she even want to help? What if--

He sighs and shakes his head. Finally just types something and sends it. No take-backs now.]

Is this Jean Grey?

[heartofthedream]

Yes.

Unless this thing has more people with that name on it.
Which wouldn't be the first time I ran across that problem.

[ Not so much with her name as with her life, her memories, her very existence.
But the comment is light enough when Jean holds her book open for her communicator. ]

[deadlycurves]

This is Diego Hargreeves. [Is his name alone enough for judgement at this point? He doesn't know how far the news of the explosion in Nonah has traveled, but... he really wouldn't be surprised if it's gone further and fast.] I don't know if you remember me. We only met once.

[heartofthedream]

I remember.

From the gym.

[deadlycurves]

Yeah, that was me. I was wondering. The empathy thing. You seem to know a lot about how it works, right?

[heartofthedream]

Among other things.

It was one of the powers I was born with.

[deadlycurves]

Have you ever taught anybody? I think I really need the help. My brother's been doing what he can, but... it's a little out of our realms of knowledge. [He and Luther were so much better at the physical side of training. And Diego had never had any power that was quite so abstract, rather than directly physical.]

[heartofthedream]

Yes. I've taught many people.

I even had a school named after me.

[ Her school specifically even. The one she was the first student to ever be at. Not that she happens to mention she was dead at the time that honor of having it changed to her name happened in. Some things didn't need to be shared, and most people did not have a revolving door between life-and-death, or a grave marker that always said she will rise again. ]

[deadlycurves]

Wow... that's pretty impressive. How'd you get a whole school named after you? So...can you help? Will you? [This feels so... awkward. Asking for help isn't really his thing. He hates it, hates needing it, that he can't keep this tied down to just himself and his brothers and sisters.]

[heartofthedream]

The how is very long story. Maybe for another day.

As to your question, I can try. We can.

[ Because it wasn't as much about her as it was about him. She hadn't forgotten how he'd been the first time she felt him, the waves of rage rippling off of him and affecting everyone around him. The sheer edge of his thoughts, his emotions as he railed like any number of children she'd watched go through the same thing.

She could help. But he would decide if he actually would take it in the end. ]

[deadlycurves]

Fair enough.

Great. When are you free?

[He will absolutely find a way to make his schedule spin around her own, if he has to. This has gotten so far out of hand that he's feeling a lot more like he's gripping at straws than he is finding solid ground with this power. He doesn't really want to consider what it might mean if he doesn't start gaining traction with it.]

[heartofthedream]

Pretty often right now.

There's not much filling up my time here, currently.

[deadlycurves]

Would Thursday afternoons work? [Plural, because he isn't going to even pretend this won't be a long-term process.]

[heartofthedream]

I am available this Thursday, but I will let you know about my thoughts about continuing after we meet.

[ Some things would be easier to decide on with him in front of her. This place wasn't like home. There were other options for him if it didn't seem tenable for her, or she didn't think that he'd come to any more sensible of an understanding of his responsibility toward his power since that first meeting. ]

[deadlycurves]

Oh, okay.

[He tries not to let that deflate him. She doesn't know him, she has every reason in the world to be wary, or doubt that they'd be a decent fit for such a thing.]

What time?

[heartofthedream]

[ Jean has taught too many actual teenagers to pay any attention to Diego's first two words and the implication they give without actually just making the up-and-up choice to put them there clearly. She overlooks it and leaves it behind entirely in the first sweep of her gaze over the words, settling on the important part only. ]

Morning or midday would probably be best.
Do you have a location or do we need to find one?

[deadlycurves]

Morning's good for me. Probably best to find some place. [Because as much as he has sought her out and wants her help... well. Not every person in the world needs to know the exact location of the Hargreeves house, do they? Plus, who knows how long it might take for the block-wide damage to be fixed completely. It was just more sensible to find a meeting place.]

[heartofthedream]

Private or public?
There are pros and cons to each.

[ Not that she had to worry much about him being a danger. Either preference would be fine by her, but she knew a lot of people did not feel that way. ]

[deadlycurves]

Private, preferably.

[He's already uncomfortable enough with this power, he really doesn't want to deal with that in the eye of anyone not immediately necessary to the training of it all. Even his sessions with Luther have been isolated, and away from everyone else.]

[heartofthedream]

Alright. Do you have a place in mind, already? Or somewhere that you are using already? Does your gym have rooms?

[ How much of this exactly was planned out, and how much of this was just him spitballing in the dark based on one encounter with her, but no real knowledge or idea of what he was going to do when she said was?

If she said yes. ]

[deadlycurves]

Yeah, the gym I use in Nonah has a few rooms that people can use privately. I can talk to them in a bit, get it reserved? [He had some ideas, but mostly, it was still a shot in the dark, though.]

[heartofthedream]

It'll do for a first place. Depending on what exactly you're looking for, it might be too close to people if there is a later, too.

[ Because Jean had to be concerned with both. For the most part, he'd seemed like a very low-level empath, especially based on his lack of control and the short range of his powers the first time. Which meant it was likely she could easily shield the people around him, if so. But it was always worth planning for eventualities.

Even if she didn't have any concern about his power being able to overwhelm her in the slightest. ]

What exactly are you hoping to learn?

[deadlycurves]

Control? I barely have any at all. Either I'm a sponge taking in every emotion around me or I'm bleeding mine into everyone in an immediate vicinity. Neither of those things are helpful at all.

[heartofthedream]

[ A common enough answer at any age. At least, a first one. ]

Call it curiosity, but what was your next step, if I'd said no?







[ If she chose to after. ]

[deadlycurves]

Keep trying on my own, with my brother, I guess. [He doesn't see how he'd have much other choice at all. He doesn't know enough people to seek out help in a wide net. And he may not really know Jean, either, but he'd seen what she'd done that day. He knew she could help him, if she decided it was worth her time.]

[heartofthedream]

What does that look like? What have you been trying so far?

[deadlycurves]

I just try to purposely pick up on things he's feeling, or push things I'm feeling on him. Just really basic stuff, because we don't really know how to train this kind of power.

[heartofthedream]

[ At least it wasn't the worst place to start, even if that could be dicey in itself. ]

How often do you manage to pick up clearly the emotions of those around you?

[deadlycurves]

In smaller settings, maybe a third of the time? There's kind of a lot of nuance to it that I really wouldn't have expected? Sometimes it's more like catching the bigger picture ("angry") more than the specific narrowed down possibility ("frustrated"), if that makes sense?

I'm at least not passing put at work any more? But I try to keep my route as isolated as I can because crowds are still not proving to be a great thing for me yet.

It's easier with my siblings,
I think. Sometimes, at least.

[Vanya is a little all over the map in ways that are just dizzying, honestly.

He knows there is a risk being this upfront with her about all of this but... he hopes it might help her in whatever she may decide. He's not always the most cooperative person, but he can be when he wants to-- and Diego wants to be able to control this power, rather than the other way around.]

[heartofthedream]

[ It's hard to know what exactly he might need, what she might, before seeing him in person. There's so much to just this quarter shape of her powers even, and just because she could break it down to atoms of finitely clear minutiae doesn't mean that he'll be able to, or be able to do the things he's comparing to yet.

Maybe. Possibly.

But only one of those things garners a fast response. ]

You were passing out?

[deadlycurves]

Yeah,
when I first got this power, it was pretty overwhelming.

[Still is, really. Just not as bad as it once was.]

[heartofthedream]

[ There is some sympathy for that without much of what is truly pity. Just feeling. It's pretty normal no matter the age of someone when their powers manifested. Suddenly assailed with too much feedback from everything around them suddenly. ]

How often was it happening?

And when did it stop?

[deadlycurves]

Not very often, but definitely happened a few times.

I guess...a couple months ago now was probably the last time?

I got stuck in some kind of... I don't know, emotional loop? with my sister about a week ago.
I couldn't stop it, and I'm not sure how much of that was me or her or both of us.
My brother had to knock me out to stop it.

[heartofthedream]

What happened?

What was this loop, as you call it, like?

[deadlycurves]

Just that-- a loop.
I was kind of... simultaneously taking things in and pushing them back out, and I just couldn't stop it.

[heartofthedream]

[ Aside from the last part, she gets that he doesn't understand the first part is basically an explanation about how it should always be. Except with that control in place. ]

What happened? How many people it end up affecting?