TheAbsurdist

Mid-afternoon, November 10th. Elias has ventured the idea, as a team building thing, and because, well he wanted out in the woods, and he expected that they wouldn't just sign off on him going alone. So post up a request, and see who would nibble in the beginning of November. Of course he had been in worse weather, so he was fine in it. But surprisingly, there were people willing to come along, a larger group than he expected. There was a faculty member coming along, one of the science teachers, a Mr. Landis, mostly there to make certain no one caught on fire, and to drive the van. A nice guy, Mr. Landis spoke with anyone who wanted to know about biology, but he seemed as keen as some of the others to get out of the city for the weekend. Elias had been the first person to throw up his tent, and then immediately started foraging once he accomplished that, taking a hatchet with him to use as a tool. He didn't discourage anyone from coming with him, and he had to tell Mr. Landis what he was going to do anyway.

Nodding at what she said, he pulled the phone right back out to text that to Thomas. "Likely both. Silhouette, would you be so kind as to write up that report? And then I will give it to Mr. Jay, here, to additionally peruse it. I would rather cover several bases. We are already shopping around for better security tech for our computers, and Ms. van Cleef will likely be looking at our janitors, as well as other similar personnel, though I make sure that they are all paid in the top one percent in the field, though they are still going to be susceptible to blackmail. Given that we are looking at additional acquisitions in the near future I had been planning on ramping up the security before someone did not watch those YouTube videos." He grinned a little bit. "Look over the contract, that is the terms for the charitable trust we discussed. As you are on the ground more than I am, Silhouette, I would ask for your suggestions for community leaders to network with on the efforts in the Fens." He chuckled a little, and once more put the phone in his pocket, before grabbing his drink and moving to sit down in the chair. "I can show you what YouTube videos of me show, just you get how precisely I am viewed by the general public. They aren't flattering. You two are taken serious. Me? I am just a billionaire idiot. A handsome one, but still one all the same." Taps on a tablet, as a few of the monitors started play a 'highlight reel' of all the times he had been hit, or knocked about to the Benny Hill theme. "That is not counting the numerous... numerous vlog diatribes."

"Fear is a good enough reason I suppose." Said it evenly as he glanced to Subito and then gestured around them. "I know, I have not really been around a lot of people but... I have seen horrible ones before. Felt them. Know them. I can read people without using powers. It isn't really the telepathy you all call it, it's just be being honest about how little there is separating us. Tremors on the web. Eddies and currents" He looked at a couple, his hands slowly clenching into fists. "Know yourself, you know what memories are yours, the others feel like yours, but fighting them doesn't help, rejecting them doesn't help. Accept them. Let them flow around and over. Reach for them when there is need, but do not let it change yourself. That is as hard concept to grasp, I can show it better than explain it. Words are... hampered, imperfect. Thoughts are more pure, lacking the weights that draw them down...." He makes a face, and lifts his hands a little bit. "Like I said, hard."

"Control is... a funny thing." Lapsing into a bit of silence as he rose to his feet, and then shrugging as he continued walking along at his more ambling pace. "As long as I can remember, more or less I guess. Memory is a funny thing... I think I have perfect memory, but I wouldn't know if it wasn't." Shaking his head slowly, and shrugging again. "Always had my powers is the best answer. Which... y'know, I dunno if it is good or not, considering it too a while for me to learn how to control, and... well I learned over things, so I am just having to learn better control."

He hit them directly. "That is harder. I have to read shallow and quickly... no, I... um... I have telekinetic abilities as well. Just not as... under control." And then he moved from her a few moments. "I don't have much control over them, sort of, I make a web around me... I can feel when people touching it, like a spider. I guess. That's how I feel it." And then he hit the pads precisely, the information wasn't the same, it was like he was touching and feeling the tremors, though the web actually wrapped around objects it touched, it wasn't perfect, and he was trying to expand it, but it was an instinctive thing for him.

He looked at her, staring, and frowning just a little, and blinking as his hands dropped to his sides as he looked at her. "I was busy learning how to make snares and make snares. I know a lot of people hear have had it worse." He blinked a little bit, and then closed his eyes and put his hands back up. "Knowledge obtained without discipline is not worthwhile." And then he started to do the punches as he moved around slowly in a circle. "We ran and we hide, normal things got ignored. And... my mom said I was a difficult child. I think that had to do with my telepathy." His eyes remained closed, knowing where she was as she moved, feeling where she was, trying to use this sense for the first time.

This will do nicely. Yes. Yes....

Elias nodded as Marcus voiced his concern. "I understand the need for privacy, and not wanting to be controlled. I don't do that to people... it..." He lapsed into silence then as he just stared off into space before him, and at the empty street. "It can mess with the person doing it too..." He was omitting something, but then Marcus was a little too so fair was fair. "I hadn't heard though... I can do a lot, I don't like playing lincoln logs with people's memories though..." Looking down at his hand for a moment, blinking, and then lifting it off the ground. "Feeling. Still not used to the city. To cities." Slowly straightening as he turned fully back towards the other guy.

I imagine someone has had to tell Errant to not trap the squirrels around the Claremont campus.

So I got a telepath who was raised by in a semi-survivalist fashion. Anyone wanna do a campout?

He shrugged at the growl, his expression placid. "I didn't say you were inferior, I made a joke. Ha. Ha. People here weave around avoiding talking about things. Maybe it's because they're scared of me hearing their thoughts. But they do it with each other. Kind of hard not to just reach out and find out what they are hiding." A roll of his shoulders, and he glanced to the side looking at the people around them. "I remember everything I experience. I think. Hard to test. That helps. I always remember my powers, so they... are a part of me. Mind like an ocean. It's about understanding which current feels right." Frowning a little bit, and he furrowed his brows in a scowl. "Not an answer. Sorry. I can show... but that might not be good."

He looked back at her quizzically for a moment, and then did the combination how she wanted from that side, and it certainly was smoother, easier. "I never really wrote much, I know how to. Read a lot. And I never really throw things either." He was glossing over details, but so was she. So it was fair. Not that he minded, or that he expected she did. At least so far. "Didn't watch TV or use the internet. Still don't..." Lifting an arm and wiping at his brow with his forearm.

Your thread for all your News/info needs for Errant.

Drawing to a stop then, he looked around them, at the people in the neighborhood. He had chosen Lincoln, Subito was supposed to take him at some point, but he didn't see a reason to wait, honestly. Turning his head, canting it as he did so, and looked at Marcus. "Maybe you aren't the mentor here?" It was a question, as he wasn't entirely certain himself, things were... odd or off, or just interesting. "If you want to know something you can ask." Slowly he eased himself to one knee and pressed a hand to the ground, slightly moving his hand back and forth tracing his fingers against concrete.

He shifted how he stood, and threw the punches. Snapping the left jabs, and then the third from his right hand before he stepped back again, and lowered his hands as he looked at her. Of course Kirstin didn't realize that this would cause more undue stress than the exercise. There was a moment, before he lifted his hands up once move. "I'm left handed. I think." And then he shifted stances and he started to do a few test motions, trying his balance that way. "Oregon. Lot of places before that." He did speak in an odd accent, clearly having learned English abroad. "Always had it, inherited it. Have other stuff too, like I don't forget. You?"

He looked at her, carefully. Frowning just a little in concentration, before he engaged her in her coaching. This was a lot easier for him to do, a lot easier for him to process and interact with. It was more familiar to what he had grown up with. Fortunately he wasn't completely inept. And he some basic training, though it was all avoidance. Fortunately he understood some basic principles of footwork. And when it came down to it, he was just shutting up and trying to do it. So he threw a left leading punch and followed it up with a right handed punch. This... this he could do, admittedly not something the teachers wanted him to do for social interaction, but it was still something.

There was a going concern among the faculty in regards to Elias' abilities and his personality. Thus far he hadn't really demonstrated any noticeable practicing of his abilities, but then, he seemed to engage in a lot of meditation towards that end. Which might make things better, perhaps somewhat worse. Still having two people who tended to avoid large scale interaction go out and do just that in the hopes their collective awkwardness would defeat itself. Blinking, he kicked up the board and tucked it under an arm, as Marcus addressed him a bit more personally. "Mm? Oh... No. From Oregon, mostly. Born in New Freedom. You?" Fortunately he was as bad at small talk, but then they had a lot of commonalities, until their powers and certain other aspects made them diverge.

November 2nd, 2:30PM This was happening frequently, he was getting stuck with one of the more well-adjusted kids, and sent off into the world. Not that he minded. Elias got the reason, and despite his reputation as a weirdo among some of the other kids (having be told to not lay traps for squirrels, and other animals). Elias was quiet, attentive, and some people described his desire to learn as eerie. Today he was told to go out with Arcturus, which he did. If he had known anything about the other boy, than the idea would have made a lot of sense to him, given that they both had parents with a laundry list of crimes, and both of them were contending with what happened when those secrets come to light. Though Elias was having the small issue of trying to a find a light for his rabbit hole, to see how far down it went. So into Lincoln they went, because it was someplace to go, and because it was an interesting location to explore. Subito had been right about that. Cruising beside, or near Arc on his skateboard, once again paying attention to half a dozen things around him all the while. Thus far on the trip he had been quiet. Though the other boy had likely been told that Elias was telepath, and as of right now, his scans tended to be something noticed.

He paused then, and frowned just a little. Seriously, we was telling people this. He was evasive on purpose about the nature of his powers, admittedly there was enough evidence for people to figure it out, but hearing that after he was just teleported, it was a little disconcerting. Turning to her, he nodded, just a little bit. "I really do not know. I have had some... aggressive fans of late. I assume they want to capture me to hold me for ransom. Which is fine, I can understand it, but sending me across downtown just seems... silly." Stepping towards the hole, he stopped right at the edge looking around, the disc of energy that had been the portal he had passed through was no longer there. Frustrating.

He still smiled, it was an easy expression, one that he seemed to do a lot as she still probed and spoke to him. Slowly he crouched down and started to set the bricks down in a pile carefully. "There is no secret identity, Asad is Amir al Misri, and the inverse is true as well. Admittedly the need of either name is irrelevant." Though his tone came off as teasing, just a little. "Billionaire. I am a shallow billionaire." Dusting his hands together as he rose to his feet, and glanced to her. "Should I really be concerned that people believe me to be an ineffectual man who lucked into things and happened to have some good contact? I certainly did not make a conscious decision to get my powers. I have found, though, that fate does not really care about your input on the matter. So if people think of me like that, why should I disabuse them of that notion?"

His expression was unreadable, and he looked at the book, and then folded his arms across his chest. "Attachments happen, even if you are honest and say that you do not really desire entanglements. Sometimes they write books or do interviews about you... and sometimes they shoot you with an RPG." He frowned a little, and lifted his head to look at her directly. "Of course it is hard to tell if the person across from you is talking to you because they like you, or because you are famous, or rich, or what have you."

"Ah." He stared, it was a little awkward, except he wasn't really looking at her, but her movements. He was committing them to memory. But it wasn't just sight, unlike in the text representation or watching a video, his web was able to map Kristin's movements in 3-D space. Elias' head canted to the side, and he blinked a little. "Like this?" While lacking significant strength, he had good reflexes and agility, and made his arms move through the motions she had demonstrated, snapping the punches into the pads, with enough force for him to feel the impact, and enough force for her to know he was following through.

So another scan then. Ifin' ya'll wanna roll, or not, no bigs.

The way Elias flicked his eyes to Subito, it was clear that while he was not overtly reading his mind, that he could flat out just read people like books. For a kid to admitted to having limited human contact he seemed rarely surprised by the actions and the reasonings of people. But Subito knew that Elias' telepathy was not a subtle thing, his eyes flicked over to the family, and he just sort of stopped, and stared at them, his eyes searching. "Like I said. Blind man. Being around a handful of people means I wasn't used to the noise. Had never lived it. ...You know, you can just ask a question, worst case... I rip your mind into itty bitty pieces, and make you think you're Celine Dion." Said in such a dry way, that it was a little hard to tell if Elias was being serious.

"Never really done this." He put the gloves on, inspecting them as he did, then pulling the velcro tight on them and securing them. His stance was initially good though it was the follow through and on the movements where he suffered. It was clear he had never really thrown a punch in his life so he wasn't turning his hips at all, or using his mass in any way. Of course he mildly gunshy over the prospect of not of pain, but of experiencing someone else's deferred pain. Still he threw the jabs. While well placed they didn't have much strength or really even hitting right. While not completely helpless, he would need a bit of up training to get he to rely on something other than his telepathic prowess. Even he had heard of zombies, after all.