Community Center Class: Psionics for the Headblind Herd [Monday Evening]

[icecoldfrost]

Emma had claimed a lounge full of couches and chairs to hold her class, and the custodial staff had been terrorized into nice enough to place a desk at the front of the room for her.

She was leaning against the desk, immaculately dressed in a while linen suit with her hair twisted up off her neck, waiting for her students to trail in. Once it felt like everyone who was going to show up had arrived, her gaze swept over the assembled group impassively.

"I am Emma Frost," she began, her tone crisp and clear. "This is Psionics for the Headblind Herd, although those of you with abilities in the subject matter are welcome as well. I am a high-level telepath capable of using my abilities in a wide variety of ways, and I refuse to shield just because you cannot keep a civil thought in your heads. Yes, I can hear you. No, I do not care. No, I do not go digging about, because I do not care. Most humans are hideously boring creatures and I have no reason to waste my time on your petty insecurities."

Emma was just going to get that out there right now, thank you. Also, she hadn't called you flatscans. You were welcome.

"You are here because you - yes, you, and you too - want to keep people like me out of your heads," Emma continued. "Which, I feel obligated to inform you, will not happen. For all the defenses I could teach you, with whatever other tricks you've learned, you will, eventually, fall to a superior psion. You're only human, after all."

"We will cover the basics; such as the astral plane, telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, clairvoyance and precognition, empaths, and astral projection. And while I already know who you are and why you're here, your classmates do not. So introduce yourselves, and tell them why you're interested in the topic or something you want to know or some such."

Emma's smile was bright and sharp. "And remember, Auntie Emma knows if you're lying."

Comments

Sign-In

[icecoldfrost]

As your inner-self!

Re: Sign-In

[suitably_heroic]

Atton Rand

Re: Sign-In

[vdistinctive]

Eliot Spencer

Introductions!

[icecoldfrost]

Name, and a reason you want to take the class or what you're particularly interested in. Feel free to make it messy & tag off each other.

Re: Introductions!

[suitably_heroic]

Atton sat back in his chair, his mind playing over its usual jumbled-but-ordered recounting of background nuisances, both existent and not. Even if he hadn't been gifted with a large dollop of Force sensitivity and a knack for locking out psionics, Auntie Emma would not know if he was lying, thank you very much.

Not that he let that thought linger anywhere. He wasn't a rookie.

"I'm Atton Rand," he said casually. "I'm just curious what this stuff is like in universes that aren't my own. Plus I have nothing to do on Monday nights, usually, so it's either this or blowing all my credits at Caritas, and this is cheaper."

Actually, he was here to find out what she was teaching and to who, a desire born out of old paranoia and distrust. But what was the fun in telling the truth to someone who insisted you couldn't lie to them?

Re: Introductions!

[icecoldfrost]

"I did realize they paid Jedi enough to have any credits to blow at the bar," Emma said bluntly, narrowing her eyes at Atton as she took in the attire and mental signature. His brain was...funny. Not like the LOUD POWER or obvious discipline some of the Force-people she'd encountered had been, more like... yeah, not poking that unless she had to.

"Congratulations. Your brain is weirder than Ben Skywalker on an emo-empath-phase. Just don't project anything at me too loudly so that I don't have to figure out how, exactly, you're weird. I don't care, and I don't want a headache." Emma made a face. "Ugh."

Re: Introductions!

[vdistinctive]

Eliot had automatically cataloged the various entrances and exits to the room, as well as all his fellow classmates and their likely strengths and weaknesses before class had gotten started. He was now studying Emma in a way that she was likely used to from most people attracted to women. He wasn't even remotely concerned about her noticing. He was a little concerned about Hardison or Parker noticing if they were there.

"Eliot Spencer," he said, with a little wave of his hand and half smile. "Part of my job is takin' on threats, which back home never included, uh, 'psionics'. So I'm here to learn defense strategies and the like."

The fact that the teacher was extraordinarily hot was a major bonus, yes.

Re: Introductions!

[icecoldfrost]

Because she was extraordinarily hot, yes, and Emma didn't have a problem with people checking her out. At all. Ego, thy name is Frost.

"Best defense? Run the other way before we notice you, especially if we haven't had our coffee yet," Emma said dryly. "But we'll go over the basics of shielding against telepathy, and other psionic manifestations as we study them."

"Sadly I have yet to find a defense against clairvoyants, beyond recruiting them as a minion or giving them something shiny to distract them." Emma is totally talking about you, Layla Miller. She hopes it gives you a headache.

RE: Re: Introductions!

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison did notice the checking out and the flirting, but restrained himself to only rolling his eyes a great deal about it.

And, once Ms. Frost had moved onto someone else, leaning in and murmuring, "Wouldja have been so insistent I come if you'd known the teacher was gonna be hot?"

Re: Introductions!

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded pleasantly to Emma, noting her fashion sense with approval. He wasn't making any special effort to hide his thoughts any more than usual, but he was...well, Hannibal.

"I'm Doctor Hannibal Lecter. I'm here because, frankly, I was curious. I've learned a bit about telepathy spending so much time with Jono," whom he nodded to, "but I should like to learn more from a different perspective. My own world has no telepaths or psionics of any sort."

He'd been picking up on bits that he could use to help Jono focus or direct his attention, but Emma wasn't nearly so ambivalent about her powers as Jono had been. He'd take what she taught with a grain of salt, given her clear bias against the "headblind", but knowledge, after all, was power.

Re: Introductions!

[icecoldfrost]

"There's a reason Jono is in this class. He's not allowed to teach anyone anything about telepathy until he quits letting his brain leak out his ears," Emma said dryly. "A pleasure as always, Doctor Lecter."

"Was there anything in particular you were interested in learning?"

Re: Introductions!

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm Kathy Li," Kathy said in a small voice. She hadn't expected the class to be all adults. "I don't know if there was a place for us to sign up, but I didn't. I hope that's okay?"

She'd get around to answering the question in a moment. First she had to make sure she wasn't going to get kicked out of class or something.

Re: Introductions!

[icecoldfrost]

"Show up or not as you like, although you'll learn more here than if you try reading a book on the topic," Emma said bluntly. "It's a community center class only because they don't let adults in the school during normal hours, and I don't believe in exclusion when it comes to education."

"It's also the most efficient way to traumatize the largest number of people at once." Emma shrugged. "I'm easily amused."

Re: Introductions!

[tigerundercover]

Raven had intended to give this class a pass -- she'd grown up with a telepath, and while her primary coping method was to remind Charles repeatedly that he'd promised not to read her mind, that didn't mean she hadn't developed a few other coping methods -- but Kathy had been nervous about going all by herself and promised her dinner if she came along, so here she was.

"I'm Raven Darkholme," she said. "I actually have some experience dealing with telepaths, but I suppose it can't hurt to learn a little more about how my brother operates. And Kathy wanted me to come along."

Coping method number one: don't bother lying.

Re: Introductions!

[furnaceface]

//Jonothon Starsmore,// Jono introduced, shrugging as he stood so that people would know who the hell the voice was coming from. Not that it looked like there was anybody in the room who didn't at least know who he was, granted. //Telepath myself, obviously, but I'm still learning. Getting a little more comfortable in my own skin was a good start, but...//

He shrugged again.

//Should've paid better attention back at the Academy, I suppose.//

That was kind of Jono-ese for, 'I've fucked up. I've fucked up a lot.'

RE: Introductions!

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison had had no intentions of coming to a psionics class. Everything he needed to know about psionics, D&D had covered in expansion handbooks. But Eliot had been all insistent and Hardison hadn't had anything better to do, so here he was.

Granted, now that he was here, the course sounded interesting, but he still wasn't entirely sure about sticking around. His life had been full of people thinking they were better than he was, he didn't really need to add to that list.

"I'm Hardison," he said. "An' sure, keepin' people out of my head seems like it's generally a good idea."

Re: Introductions!

[nuclear_snide]

"I'm Bob." He shrugged. "I was walking past, and honestly when you've got as much time as I do, it's a race to stave off boredom. This'll do."

Not to mention he pretty much lived - so to speak - for knowledge.

Discussion: ASK MISS FROST

[icecoldfrost]

"I am what my world calls a mutant," Emma stated crisply. "Someone who has extra-human powers due to a genetic mutation. I began manifesting my telepathy at age thirteen, with crippling migraines, nosebleeds, fainting spells, and voices in my head."

"My primary gift, as I mentioned earlier, is telepathy. It's a skill with a wide-range of uses, depending on how powerful you are. For instance, I have a near-photographic memory, can carry on multiple conversations at once telepathically, sort input, 'download' knowledge - such as languages - from someone's mind, act as a telepathic switchboard to keep non-telepaths in contact, manifest and manipulate aspects of the astral plane, dreamwalk, locate someone I know cross-country, make someone think they are someone or something they're not, and I can manipulate the central nervous system to take control of a person, cause pain, or blunt it."

Emma leaned over, and turned on three radios, setting them to randomly switch stations and volumes at random times. "As a result of my mutation, this is what it sounds like in my head. Unless I make an active attempt to block everyone and everything in a three-state radius out, this is what I live with."

"Psions can be born active, manifest later in life, or be made. Today, I will happily answer whatever questions you have about psionic mutation. We'll cover all the topics more in-depth on different days, but today we will go with 'Ask Miss Frost,' and I'll most likely answer."

[OOC: Emma will answer any question about telepathy, mutation, psionics, her manifestation, etc, with 100% honesty and only about 20% selective-truth-telling. GO WILD.]

Re: Discussion: ASK MISS FROST

[sharp_as_knives]

"The astral plane?" Hannibal asked. The rest he could extrapolate to.

Re: Discussion: ASK MISS FROST

[spin_kick_snap]

"Umm..." Kathy raised her hand. "Can you tell if other people are mutants?" she asked. "Not just psionics, but..." She frowned trying to figure out a way to word it. "I mean, if someone is something other than purely human, can you tell? Is there a difference in how their brain functions or something?"

Mostly, Kathy just wanted to know what she was.

Talk to Miss Frost

[icecoldfrost]

Before or after class!

OOC

[icecoldfrost]

ADMIT IT, YOU GUYS MISSED HER.

Re: OOC

[sharp_as_knives]

I admit it! :D

Re: OOC

[spin_kick_snap]

NOT EVEN A QUESTION!

Re: OOC

[furnaceface]

*Clings to Emma foreeeeeverrrrrr*