Simon Tam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
om_touchstone) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
om_main2013-04-21 07:53 pm
om_touchstone) wrote in om_main2013-04-21 07:53 pm
Entry tags:
Jensen and Simon, Backdated to 4/21/13
When Simon goes looking to meet Shaun, he finds Jensen instead, and the boys nerd out a bit over powers and science.
Simon had been hoping to talk to the Mason kid in a more casual environment. Running into him in the halls, or sharing a class. The only class they had together was World Culture, though, and it never seemed to be the right time, especially since it was one of the larger classes. It had been a few months since the world-class journalist's son had shown up at the school, but that wasn't particularly why Simon was interested in meeting him. Instead, he was intensely fascinated with the idea of his mutation, and what he could, potentially, do with it in the future.
Finally, after pretty much every chance he had to engage the guy had gone to waste, Simon decided to simply approach his room. Direct, perhaps a little awkward, but at least time-saving. Only, when he arrived at the door, it was partially open, with music playing. He cleared his throat a little, then knocked on the doorframe, so as not to knock the door open further.
“Entrez!” Jensen called out, glancing over at the door to beckon at it and open it the rest of the way with his telekinesis. He grinned at the boy who stood on the other side, “Hey! Simon, right? We have Mandarin-Chinese together.” Which was what he’d just finished doing homework for coincidentally. He’d checked it off his list (one of his ADHD coping techniques Dr. MacTaggart had taught him) and had been about to reward himself (another one of his ADHD coping techniques Dr. MacTaggart had taught him) with a ten minute break of internet surfing when the knock had come at the door.
"Fang xin," Simon comforted, as he stepped inside, looking around, "I won't test you. I was actually looking for your roommate."
“You just missed him. He stepped out.” Jensen held his thumb and pinky finger up to his head like a telephone. “Call from his sister.” He glanced over in the direction of Shaun’s desk which had been left as is, chair out and books open, in his hurry to talk to George. It was messy for Shaun who was somehow even neater than Jensen was. “He’ll be gone for a while. He usually is when she calls. I can pass on a message if you want. Ooor you can hang here. He’ll be back eventually. He’s got to sleep at some point.”
"One would hope," Simon admitted dryly, his gaze sweeping briefly over the room. A bit more tech-geeky than his and Jean-Paul's decor, but Simon could feel at home in a room like this. Jensen, at least, apparently spoke his language. "Actually, I was kind of hoping to learn more about his ability. I don't suppose you know much about it?"
The question gave Jensen pause, but then he nodded, closing his laptop and replying, “Yeah, I know a bit. You want to come in?” He waved his hand at Shaun’s computer chair, turning it and tugging it closer in his direction. “Have a seat.” Simon seemed like a nice enough guy, so he could answer a few questions. If it turned out he started asking some weird, sketchy, suspicious shit, he could put the kibosh on the conversation and warn Shaun.
Simon took the seat, bowing his head briefly in appreciation. "I had heard that it had something to do with disease. I guess I just wanted to know more. As an aspiring doctor, that is."
“So, it’s for science,” Jensen said with a grin like it was an inside joke. He was used to people not getting his geek references, but that didn’t stop him from enthusiastically and unabashedly making them. “Yeah, it has to do with disease. He can’t get sick, but he can get you sick with a touch. It’s pretty awesome really. He basically stores any disease he comes in contact with and then can infect someone else.”
"Incredible," Simon breathed. And whether he got the previous reference or not, his attention was entirely stolen by the report of Shaun's ability. "I mean, we assume that Foley has the potential to probably one day do the same himself, but...such a specific biological response. It's like he's a walking carrier for every disease out there."
Jensen grinned because, yeah, it was pretty incredible. “That exactly. I described it as Typhoid Mary, except with every disease and cooler.” Sure, it was a little wordier, but he liked it. It got the point across while being fun! “He can’t control it very well yet, hence the gloves you’ve probably seen him wearing. It looks cool, but it does suck. Powers with difficult or nonexistent on/off switches take some of the super out of superpowers.”
Simon raised a hand, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I'm familiar with that particular frustration. Though obviously, Shaun has it worse than me."
“Biological psychometry, right? The walking CT scan?” Jensen paid attention to the message board. He liked knowing who was who and what they could do. “That’s no small potatoes either. It’s gotta be fucking awesome. All of these superpowers are fucking awesome. What people can do, how they do it… I swear, it gives me the biggest fucking nerdgasm. You have to tell me what it’s like. I’m serious, dude, there’s no way you’re leaving this room until you spill. I want to hear all about--” He made jazz hands to indicate Simon’s ability.
Simon stared for a moment at Jensen's theatrics, but a smile finally tickled at his lips. "I...yeah. I mean, I can tell you what I know. What I've been able to theorize, anyway. I'm still not exactly certain how it works."
“That’s cool, dude. I don’t think any of us know for sure. Whatever you’ve got has to be better than my ‘idk, science?’ answer.” Jensen gestured for Shaun to go for it and leaned back in his chair, grinning, “Theorize away.”
That earned a small, modest laugh from the young med student, and he spread his hands. "So, my current theory is that when I'm close to a person - currently, I have to be touching them - I can merge my bio-electric field with another person's. Somehow I can read information about their body from this exchange. They have to be a living organism, of course. Anything dead means nothing to me. And I'm still working out if the field has to do with electromagnetism or something more chemically inclined."
Jensen listened interestedly as Simon spoke, nodding here and there. It was cool stuff and had he mentioned how fucking awesome superpowers were? Fucking science, people. “You think without practice you’ll be able to do it without touching someone?” That’d be cool, except not so much if Simon couldn’t turn his powers on/off by then. That’d just end up being this constant overload of information. Talk about fucking exhausting.
"I hope I'll get more control over it, at least," Simon agreed. "Whether that means being able to control it from a distance or not...that's still something I'm trying to figure out."
“You’re in the right place for it, at least.” Jensen still doubted that providing a safe place to live and learn about their mutations were the headmasters sole reasons for bringing them all to the school, but there was no denying that it was a good place to train. “It’s a shame that this shit doesn’t come with an instruction manual. You’d think telekinesis would be fairly straightforward, but noooope. I’m still figuring out the ins and outs, except it’s more like zigs and zags.” Cause it wasn’t straightforward. Get it? “That can be part of the fun sometimes though.” When it wasn’t as frustrating as all fuck anyway.
"I can't imagine," Simon agreed, somehow the pun having gone completely over his head. "For a telekinetic, it must be be like gaining a whole new set of limbs. Learning how to control them, how to increase your strength and agility with the ability..."
“It’s like being a drunken octopus that’s learning to play the drums,” Jensen said as an agreement. “But it’s coming along. My aim isn’t bad and I can hold things pretty steady. The strength part can be tricky. I have this theory that it isn’t so much like a muscle. With muscles, you need to build strength, but with telekinesis it’s more about, ah, convincing your brain that it can lift heavy things. It’s like,” he paused in search of an example, but only briefly, leaning in as he quickly continued on, “Alright, so you know in the Matrix when Morpheus is training Neo and he’s explaining to him that the physics of reality don’t apply in the Matrix? And that the only way to defy those physics is by freeing his mind or whatever? I think it’s like that. We’re bound by the limitations of what our brain perceives as reality. My brain knows a car is heavy. It knows I can’t physically lift one on my own, so mentally I can’t either. I need to teach my brain that that’s all bullshit.”
Wow, now there was a ramble. Jensen cleared his throat and shrugged casually, sitting back in his chair, “But, like I said, it’s just a theory. It might be like a muscle after all. Or maybe it’s a little of both. Either way, it’d be hard to test. It’s not easy convincing your brain not do shit that it wants to do.”
Simon didn't seem to think that Jensen was rambling at all, though. He listened intently, a grin at the edge of his lips. He'd never actually thought of powers in that way before, but it made a lot of sense. It was a matter of teaching your mind possibility - overcoming the expectation that you couldn't do something extraordinary. "Maybe you're on to something there, though," he answered, sliding his fingers over his lips in thought.
"I mean, I didn't think I would ever be able to read a person's DNA, so I never attempted it before Tessa led me through it. Now, it's as though it was second nature."
“Yeah?” Surprise registered in Jensen’s voice and he grinned, proud that someone else thought his theory was a good one. “Wow, dude,” he said, awed-sounding. “That’s awesome!” He tried to wrap his head around it and, fuck, that was amazing. These abilities were so fucking cool. “What’s that like?”
"Like...learning that you can speak a language that no one's ever deciphered before. I can't even describe it," Simon breathed out, shaking his head. "It's beautiful, and so...perfect. I've never really believed in God before, but knowing the kinds of things I do, I'm starting to wonder."
Jensen wasn’t religious. He wasn’t even close to religious, prescribing more to the line of thought that 1) He really didn’t want to have anything to do with any god that was such a ginormous, callous dick and 2) Science. But Simon’s description still impressed him. It made his eyebrows jump and he let out a low whistle. “Wow. Wow, that’s just--Fuck, dude.” Even he didn’t have words for that, for what it had to be like experiencing something so awe-inspiring, so fucking profound, that it was practically fucking spiritual. “That’s intense.”
"It is," Simon agreed, with a small little smile at the edge of his lips. "But mostly, I'm just learning how to filter out information when I touch someone, so I'm not always so distracted by it. Other end of the scale, I guess you'd say."
Jensen nodded. Control; that’s what they were all here to learn first, right? “How’s that coming along?” he asked. “It can’t be any easier than telekinesis. Maybe not like a whole new set of limbs, but still with the teaching your brain to do shit it doesn’t know how to do.”
"I'm...no longer having severe migraines every time I touch someone," Simon shrugged, smiling. "I suppose you can say that it's progress. What about you?"
“There’s been progress,” Jensen replied with a casual shrug though a hint of a grin hide at the corners of his mouth. He worked hard at his abilities and he was proud with how he was coming along. “It’s gotten stronger since I came here and easier to control. Still not perfect, but, you know, better. I can lift more now too before I get a headache or a nosebleed.”
"I think this school alone must keep the headache pharmaceutical companies in business," Simon answered wryly. "What do you think of the training squads?"
“It’s an idea that has merit,” Jensen answered with a shrug. He’d never worked well with others, group projects in school, for example, had never gone well, but he still liked this whole teams thing a lot. “It’s a good way to train. There’s only so much you can do and learn when you’re on your own. Without any challenge, sooner or later you’ll just plateau.” Another shrug. “What do you think?”
"I'm in something of the same mind," Simon admitted. "It's good practice, but quite honestly, my squad is a little scared. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone on the team that is a stand-out leader."
Jensen stretched out his legs and crossed his arms across his chest. “Maybe you guys can take a vote or something? Or rotate until the role fits for someone?” he suggested. “Unless the whole no leader thing is working for you guys, then all the more power to you.” He grinned. “Whatever, right?”
"Rotating isn't a bad idea," the young med student hummed as he rose to his feet. "I suppose I could always suggest it. And, of course, give you all the credit."
Jensen tipped an imaginary hat and stood as well. “Occasionally, I have good ideas,” he said with a grin. Then, since he figured the standing was Simon about to make an exit, nodded in the direction of Shaun’s desk. “You want me to let Shaun know you stopped by?”
"Would you?" Simon asked, a small smile on his lips.
“Will do,” Jensen said with a lazy salute. He opened the door with this telekinesis and spun his chair back to face his desk, opening up his laptop again. “It was nice talking to you, dude. See you around.”
Simon had been hoping to talk to the Mason kid in a more casual environment. Running into him in the halls, or sharing a class. The only class they had together was World Culture, though, and it never seemed to be the right time, especially since it was one of the larger classes. It had been a few months since the world-class journalist's son had shown up at the school, but that wasn't particularly why Simon was interested in meeting him. Instead, he was intensely fascinated with the idea of his mutation, and what he could, potentially, do with it in the future.
Finally, after pretty much every chance he had to engage the guy had gone to waste, Simon decided to simply approach his room. Direct, perhaps a little awkward, but at least time-saving. Only, when he arrived at the door, it was partially open, with music playing. He cleared his throat a little, then knocked on the doorframe, so as not to knock the door open further.
“Entrez!” Jensen called out, glancing over at the door to beckon at it and open it the rest of the way with his telekinesis. He grinned at the boy who stood on the other side, “Hey! Simon, right? We have Mandarin-Chinese together.” Which was what he’d just finished doing homework for coincidentally. He’d checked it off his list (one of his ADHD coping techniques Dr. MacTaggart had taught him) and had been about to reward himself (another one of his ADHD coping techniques Dr. MacTaggart had taught him) with a ten minute break of internet surfing when the knock had come at the door.
"Fang xin," Simon comforted, as he stepped inside, looking around, "I won't test you. I was actually looking for your roommate."
“You just missed him. He stepped out.” Jensen held his thumb and pinky finger up to his head like a telephone. “Call from his sister.” He glanced over in the direction of Shaun’s desk which had been left as is, chair out and books open, in his hurry to talk to George. It was messy for Shaun who was somehow even neater than Jensen was. “He’ll be gone for a while. He usually is when she calls. I can pass on a message if you want. Ooor you can hang here. He’ll be back eventually. He’s got to sleep at some point.”
"One would hope," Simon admitted dryly, his gaze sweeping briefly over the room. A bit more tech-geeky than his and Jean-Paul's decor, but Simon could feel at home in a room like this. Jensen, at least, apparently spoke his language. "Actually, I was kind of hoping to learn more about his ability. I don't suppose you know much about it?"
The question gave Jensen pause, but then he nodded, closing his laptop and replying, “Yeah, I know a bit. You want to come in?” He waved his hand at Shaun’s computer chair, turning it and tugging it closer in his direction. “Have a seat.” Simon seemed like a nice enough guy, so he could answer a few questions. If it turned out he started asking some weird, sketchy, suspicious shit, he could put the kibosh on the conversation and warn Shaun.
Simon took the seat, bowing his head briefly in appreciation. "I had heard that it had something to do with disease. I guess I just wanted to know more. As an aspiring doctor, that is."
“So, it’s for science,” Jensen said with a grin like it was an inside joke. He was used to people not getting his geek references, but that didn’t stop him from enthusiastically and unabashedly making them. “Yeah, it has to do with disease. He can’t get sick, but he can get you sick with a touch. It’s pretty awesome really. He basically stores any disease he comes in contact with and then can infect someone else.”
"Incredible," Simon breathed. And whether he got the previous reference or not, his attention was entirely stolen by the report of Shaun's ability. "I mean, we assume that Foley has the potential to probably one day do the same himself, but...such a specific biological response. It's like he's a walking carrier for every disease out there."
Jensen grinned because, yeah, it was pretty incredible. “That exactly. I described it as Typhoid Mary, except with every disease and cooler.” Sure, it was a little wordier, but he liked it. It got the point across while being fun! “He can’t control it very well yet, hence the gloves you’ve probably seen him wearing. It looks cool, but it does suck. Powers with difficult or nonexistent on/off switches take some of the super out of superpowers.”
Simon raised a hand, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I'm familiar with that particular frustration. Though obviously, Shaun has it worse than me."
“Biological psychometry, right? The walking CT scan?” Jensen paid attention to the message board. He liked knowing who was who and what they could do. “That’s no small potatoes either. It’s gotta be fucking awesome. All of these superpowers are fucking awesome. What people can do, how they do it… I swear, it gives me the biggest fucking nerdgasm. You have to tell me what it’s like. I’m serious, dude, there’s no way you’re leaving this room until you spill. I want to hear all about--” He made jazz hands to indicate Simon’s ability.
Simon stared for a moment at Jensen's theatrics, but a smile finally tickled at his lips. "I...yeah. I mean, I can tell you what I know. What I've been able to theorize, anyway. I'm still not exactly certain how it works."
“That’s cool, dude. I don’t think any of us know for sure. Whatever you’ve got has to be better than my ‘idk, science?’ answer.” Jensen gestured for Shaun to go for it and leaned back in his chair, grinning, “Theorize away.”
That earned a small, modest laugh from the young med student, and he spread his hands. "So, my current theory is that when I'm close to a person - currently, I have to be touching them - I can merge my bio-electric field with another person's. Somehow I can read information about their body from this exchange. They have to be a living organism, of course. Anything dead means nothing to me. And I'm still working out if the field has to do with electromagnetism or something more chemically inclined."
Jensen listened interestedly as Simon spoke, nodding here and there. It was cool stuff and had he mentioned how fucking awesome superpowers were? Fucking science, people. “You think without practice you’ll be able to do it without touching someone?” That’d be cool, except not so much if Simon couldn’t turn his powers on/off by then. That’d just end up being this constant overload of information. Talk about fucking exhausting.
"I hope I'll get more control over it, at least," Simon agreed. "Whether that means being able to control it from a distance or not...that's still something I'm trying to figure out."
“You’re in the right place for it, at least.” Jensen still doubted that providing a safe place to live and learn about their mutations were the headmasters sole reasons for bringing them all to the school, but there was no denying that it was a good place to train. “It’s a shame that this shit doesn’t come with an instruction manual. You’d think telekinesis would be fairly straightforward, but noooope. I’m still figuring out the ins and outs, except it’s more like zigs and zags.” Cause it wasn’t straightforward. Get it? “That can be part of the fun sometimes though.” When it wasn’t as frustrating as all fuck anyway.
"I can't imagine," Simon agreed, somehow the pun having gone completely over his head. "For a telekinetic, it must be be like gaining a whole new set of limbs. Learning how to control them, how to increase your strength and agility with the ability..."
“It’s like being a drunken octopus that’s learning to play the drums,” Jensen said as an agreement. “But it’s coming along. My aim isn’t bad and I can hold things pretty steady. The strength part can be tricky. I have this theory that it isn’t so much like a muscle. With muscles, you need to build strength, but with telekinesis it’s more about, ah, convincing your brain that it can lift heavy things. It’s like,” he paused in search of an example, but only briefly, leaning in as he quickly continued on, “Alright, so you know in the Matrix when Morpheus is training Neo and he’s explaining to him that the physics of reality don’t apply in the Matrix? And that the only way to defy those physics is by freeing his mind or whatever? I think it’s like that. We’re bound by the limitations of what our brain perceives as reality. My brain knows a car is heavy. It knows I can’t physically lift one on my own, so mentally I can’t either. I need to teach my brain that that’s all bullshit.”
Wow, now there was a ramble. Jensen cleared his throat and shrugged casually, sitting back in his chair, “But, like I said, it’s just a theory. It might be like a muscle after all. Or maybe it’s a little of both. Either way, it’d be hard to test. It’s not easy convincing your brain not do shit that it wants to do.”
Simon didn't seem to think that Jensen was rambling at all, though. He listened intently, a grin at the edge of his lips. He'd never actually thought of powers in that way before, but it made a lot of sense. It was a matter of teaching your mind possibility - overcoming the expectation that you couldn't do something extraordinary. "Maybe you're on to something there, though," he answered, sliding his fingers over his lips in thought.
"I mean, I didn't think I would ever be able to read a person's DNA, so I never attempted it before Tessa led me through it. Now, it's as though it was second nature."
“Yeah?” Surprise registered in Jensen’s voice and he grinned, proud that someone else thought his theory was a good one. “Wow, dude,” he said, awed-sounding. “That’s awesome!” He tried to wrap his head around it and, fuck, that was amazing. These abilities were so fucking cool. “What’s that like?”
"Like...learning that you can speak a language that no one's ever deciphered before. I can't even describe it," Simon breathed out, shaking his head. "It's beautiful, and so...perfect. I've never really believed in God before, but knowing the kinds of things I do, I'm starting to wonder."
Jensen wasn’t religious. He wasn’t even close to religious, prescribing more to the line of thought that 1) He really didn’t want to have anything to do with any god that was such a ginormous, callous dick and 2) Science. But Simon’s description still impressed him. It made his eyebrows jump and he let out a low whistle. “Wow. Wow, that’s just--Fuck, dude.” Even he didn’t have words for that, for what it had to be like experiencing something so awe-inspiring, so fucking profound, that it was practically fucking spiritual. “That’s intense.”
"It is," Simon agreed, with a small little smile at the edge of his lips. "But mostly, I'm just learning how to filter out information when I touch someone, so I'm not always so distracted by it. Other end of the scale, I guess you'd say."
Jensen nodded. Control; that’s what they were all here to learn first, right? “How’s that coming along?” he asked. “It can’t be any easier than telekinesis. Maybe not like a whole new set of limbs, but still with the teaching your brain to do shit it doesn’t know how to do.”
"I'm...no longer having severe migraines every time I touch someone," Simon shrugged, smiling. "I suppose you can say that it's progress. What about you?"
“There’s been progress,” Jensen replied with a casual shrug though a hint of a grin hide at the corners of his mouth. He worked hard at his abilities and he was proud with how he was coming along. “It’s gotten stronger since I came here and easier to control. Still not perfect, but, you know, better. I can lift more now too before I get a headache or a nosebleed.”
"I think this school alone must keep the headache pharmaceutical companies in business," Simon answered wryly. "What do you think of the training squads?"
“It’s an idea that has merit,” Jensen answered with a shrug. He’d never worked well with others, group projects in school, for example, had never gone well, but he still liked this whole teams thing a lot. “It’s a good way to train. There’s only so much you can do and learn when you’re on your own. Without any challenge, sooner or later you’ll just plateau.” Another shrug. “What do you think?”
"I'm in something of the same mind," Simon admitted. "It's good practice, but quite honestly, my squad is a little scared. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone on the team that is a stand-out leader."
Jensen stretched out his legs and crossed his arms across his chest. “Maybe you guys can take a vote or something? Or rotate until the role fits for someone?” he suggested. “Unless the whole no leader thing is working for you guys, then all the more power to you.” He grinned. “Whatever, right?”
"Rotating isn't a bad idea," the young med student hummed as he rose to his feet. "I suppose I could always suggest it. And, of course, give you all the credit."
Jensen tipped an imaginary hat and stood as well. “Occasionally, I have good ideas,” he said with a grin. Then, since he figured the standing was Simon about to make an exit, nodded in the direction of Shaun’s desk. “You want me to let Shaun know you stopped by?”
"Would you?" Simon asked, a small smile on his lips.
“Will do,” Jensen said with a lazy salute. He opened the door with this telekinesis and spun his chair back to face his desk, opening up his laptop again. “It was nice talking to you, dude. See you around.”