xp_olaris | The oddest thing...

Maybe that it's not the end of the world?

Not helpful, Drake.

You asked.

She manifested at school, huh? Man, and I thought it was bad that time I laughed and chocolate milk came out of my nose in fourth grade...

In math class apparently. She's only in eighth grade. And she glows.

Mom said it was really pretty actually. Which are words that I never thought I'd hear about a mutation from my mother.

...

Okay, this one's WAY out of my league. Puts the chocolate milk incident to shame. My manifestation was nice and quiet and private. This--no idea.

But hey, good luck with that, Dane.

Well you've been very helpful. Thanks ever so.

That's my middle name. Robert Helpful Drake.

Math class? That's . . . unfortunate.

My advice is to just make it clear to her that she's not alone. The fact that you're alumned from her school may help -- talking about common ground may relax her. (This could also help with the glowing, but I wouldn't mention that yet; it may make her too self-conscious, and only stress her out more.)

Luckily I know the teacher and she'd have been cool. Not so sure about the counselor they sent her to see. I Do Not like that woman.

My parents are having dinner with hers to discuss The Trials of Having a Mutant Daughter. I get to play back-up basically and convince the kid that life doesn't suck just because you look different.

Your mother said the glowing was actually pretty? I suppose there are worse visible mutations to have when you're an eighth-grade girl. (Providing she isn't the painfully self-conscious type, that is . . . did your mother happen to mention her personality at all?)

Feel free to pass on my school extension or email if she wants to talk to someone else -- my mutation's not as impressive as glowing, but being 6'5" and the heterochromia means I tend to get noticed anyway.

She's 13 and in eighth grade at an extremely catty all girls school. Don't you remember being 13? That's like the definition of self-conscious.

You're 6'5"? Goodness.

Don't you remember being 13?

Not . . . well. But yeah, I know what you're driving at. In theory if not actual practice. Nothing around that age is very pleasant.

And yes, I am. It's something Moira has taken great delight in pointing that out to me on several occasions. Especially since it puts me on eyelevel with Nathan.

Apologies, didn't mean to offend.

You get my point though. It doesn't matter if it's pretty or not. It's different and that's enough to freak out anyone. I just have to figure out how to get her to see it as cool.

Well, that's good, I suppose. Someone needs to be able to do that in order to face him down occasionally.

Figure out some fun things to do with it. It took . . . well, a while, after I finally got some workable control over my duping before I saw it as something good, and I was about that age at the time.

One of the things that finally did the trick was my dad pointing out that I could get all my chores for the day done in an hour while still watching cartoons. Heh. For this girl . . . you said your mom said the light's pretty? Maybe hang a bunch of prism mobiles in a room and let her see what she does to them.

Finally some help! Jamie, what would I do without you. Tell me more.

What, like, more specific ideas? Well . . . it's probably too early to find out if she does anything other than glow (I mean, y'know, if she doesn't suddenly start blowing stuff up by accident) so you'll probably have to stick with figuring out Fun Things To Do With Ambient Light.

The main thing to try and do, I think, is to try and get her to not think of it as something that was done to her. I mean, it wasn't really until I'd been here for a while that I stopped "making the best of it," really, but even if you can get her to go that far that'll help a lot . . . it's that first "what did I do to get cursed like this?" reaction that she needs to get past asap. If you can think of ways that her life might be better with the glow, highlight those. Like, um, she's her own reading light now, only you should come up with ideas that aren't lame. :)

It is, after talking to my mother again, rainbow light. From her skin.

Which I have to say sounds cool. Now if I can just get my mom to figure out how her camera phone works I might even be able to share a picture at someone.

It occurs to me that you may be better at this angle of my job than I am. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Being well-adjusted is its own cross to bear, alas. ;)

Nah, I just saw some parallels, is all. Supportive parents, harmless-but-potentially-stigmatizing mutation . . . even with the embarrassment of manifesting in public, though, at least she's "out" right away and doesn't have to deal with worrying about the lies falling apart. I still wonder if it might've been easier if I'd duped in the middle of a dodge-ball game.

'Course, the millenial Kansas sticks were, um, let's just say they were a lot less cosmopolitan than California in 2006, so maybe it's more of a six-of-one deal. Ironically.

I can imagine. Considering that I manifested semi-publically in the mid/early 90's, I got off pretty light. I can't imagine how stressful it must be to try and keep your genetic status private. There are definitely draw-backs, but in the long run it's one less thing you have to worry about.

No offense taken. My drama shouldn't be anyone's concern but mine. And maybe Charles and Moira, but after ten years that's sort of unavoidable.

Different also means unique. Some kids respond well to that idea. It may take a while to move past the initial shock, but since the manifestation was relatively untraumatic she may adjust fairly quickly. In a way, the public-manifestation may even be a good thing -- socially speaking, the worst has already happened.

Face down Nathan? I keep forgetting we missed each other. Nathan's almost twice my mass, and he's not exactly a heavy man.

Very few 13 year olds react well to that idea.

...my god, you're skinny then. This is not a fair thing to tell me when I'm 5 timezones away and can't FEED you.

Jamie! Rahne! Dani! Someone feed him for me!

I've tried offering to cook! He ate leftovers out of the fridge instead!

Please, my heart, I can't take hearing these kinds of things!

I'm . . . sorry?

I probably should have said I'm answerable to Lorna for the school's average body-mass index. :)

And those of us who are content with our not-skinny-it's-wiry body masses scoff at you!

You need to be fed too! You try to poison yourself when you feed yourself. I've seen it.

Hey, take it up with my Supreme Overlord in Hawaii. I'm just the messenger.

You're right. "The worst has already happened" isn't necessarily much help when you're 13. Jamie's suggestion was a good one, though. The sooner she starts finding a way to productively apply the power, the faster she can come to terms with it.

And I'm fed here. I just came like this, that's all . . .

I'll try to concentrate on that with her. ...My mother just emailed me. This could be a little more complicated for her than I thought. Drat.

I have a Thing about people being fed. Ask anyone.

Complicated?

I don't really want to say since it's a privacy issue but...yeah. Chances are she has image issues as it is. Or at least other kids like her that I went to school with did.

Yeah, let's not violate the privacy issues on a public forum, then -- but I agree, that may make it a little more complicated. Still, he-said-she-said isn't always reliable. Who knows, maybe she'll surprise you. You've got time to sound it out, as long as you're stuck being the welcome-wagon to mutancy.

Face me down? Why do I need facing down?

For when you get too big for your britches of course.

Oh, bah. Where you get these silly ideas, I'll never know...

Well there's the part where I know you.

She glows?

She hit the genetic middle, then. Flashy, but not innately harmful and not dangerous to her in any way.

Sounds like she got pretty lucky. Could be much, much worse.

Salaam,
Haroun

Not actually the reassuring message I was hoping for. "Cheer up, things could be worse" rarely works.

And we're hoping it's not harmful anyway. So far all she's done is glow. Alex's hands do the same if you'll recall.

Haroun's actually got something of a point, although I don't agree with how he phrased it. If the kid's just glowing... it's a visible mutation, which is difficult in one sense, but it's not something that's going to be too tricky to deal with, beyond how people are going to react to her.

Sometimes being distinctive is problem enough.

But yes, I agree . . . as mutations go, it seems fairly benign. Especially if it turns out to be controllable.

I'm hoping it's just glowing. But really, how many of us just glow and how many glow as a prelude to something worse.

Might be as helpful to talk to the parents, actually. Stress to them the quality of expert we have on hand over here? I'm not suggesting you suggest to them that they enroll her, necessarily, but an assessment might not go amiss.

Mom already suggested that, actually. That's part of what dinner is about, I think. Honestly, depending on this girl's mutation, I'd rather see her finish out school in California but it's not my decision.

I thought he meant the assessment would just be... things like whether she'd likely do anything besides glow, identify any changes in nutritional or light requirements, that kind of thing....

Is she cute?

Okay, that was there because Jay said if I said it he'd hit me and I wanted to see if he would. But, seriously and all that?

I like Jamie's thing. Fun stuff you can do with mutant powers helps loads with not thinking you're some ugly freak. I don't, you know, recommend chasing rabbits to anyone not me or Catseye or Rahne, but... the prism thing Jamie said is cool, and she can read at night when her parents want her in bed!

Oh and she could totally be like, her own shadowpuppt flashlight provider! And no stubbing her toe in the dark ever again!

I have no idea if she's cute. I haven't actually met her.

I'll keep that in mind.

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