Issue 1 Downtime

Gideon was wandering the ground's seemingly lost in thought. His hood was up, which was perhaps somewhat strange given that it was September. It was just something he was growing accustomed to doing given the circumstances.

((Open Thread))

Haley was laying on a blanket, reading a book for English class, enjoying the sun and even enjoying the book quite a bit for required reading.

Gideon was walking past the nascent telepath/telekine. Haley could probably 'hear' a very quiet telepathic white noise that followed him. If she tried to focus on the white noise it would sound like many voices whispering over one another though she probably couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

It was certainly distraction enough to make her set down her book and look around.

What the hell...

Gideon stopped walking when he heard Haley's thought and turned towards her. The whispering sermed to grow louder for a moment. Haley could feel the emotions they represented rather than the words themselves. They felt like terror, anger, violence, pain, sadness, hope and bloodlust. Though as quickly as they seemed to grow stronger they vanished leaving an eery silence in their wake.

Gideon's eyes seemed to glow both red and blue beneath the hood. The gaze felt like it was piercing into her, measuring her, and her reaction.

Haley locked her gaze with Gideon and froze, like a deer in the headlights. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and a shiver ran down her spine.

Shit...shit...am I dreaming again...?

"Why would you be dreaming?" Gideon asked staring at Haley strangely.

shit...I'm thinking loud again. Damnit.

"Uh...hi," she managed, trying to imagine her brain being walled off to maybe keep someone else out or at least her thoughts in.

Gideon considered probing the barrier for a moment.

"Not the worst mental barrier I've ever seen," Gideon said, "I'm guessing you haven't been here long. Is this your first year here?"

"Yeah...first month, really...not really sure what the hell I'm doing...guess it sorta worked?"

Haley Crusek wrote:"Yeah...first month, really...not really sure what the hell I'm doing...guess it sorta worked?"

Gideon smiled slightly.

"No," Gideon said, "But it's a good start. Mine were much worse when I first arrived at the institute."

"So you're one of the college students then?" she asked.

It was pretty clear she was extremely nervous around Gid.

"Yes, I was an X-man," Gideon said, "Dont be so nervous I'm not going to hurt you youngling."

"O-okay..." she said. "I'm Haley."

"Gideon," Gideon said evenly before pulling down the hood of his sweatshirt to reveal his face, "It's nice to meet you, Haley."

"Nice to meet you too," she sighed, relaxing a little now that she could see his face a bit more clearly.

"That reaction surprises me every time," Gideon said, "So you've been having nightmares, eh? Probably some problems shielding and broadcasting too?"

"Yeah...to all of the above. I barely sleep from he nightmares which makes the other control things even harder."

"Control as a telepath is a tricky thing. Something that requires a great deal of discipline, practice, and focus. So there's really no easy solution for your problem," Gideon said, "Practicing your mental barriers, meditation, and even exercise can help with keeping your emotions stable and intrusions out.

Sometimes though the more traditional method of downing a couple doses of nyquil works just as well."

GIdeon's tone gave away that the last part was meant as a joke.

Haley chuckled a bit, "So you're a telepath too?"

"That I am," Gideon said his lips not moving though his voice still sounded crystal clear. "There aren't too many of us at the Institute or the University."

"Are you a TK too?"

"No, unfortunately that's not one of my gifts," Gideon said, "Beyond telepathy I can channel psychic energy into constructs and to increase my own physical abilities.

If you're looking for help with your abilities you'd want to look for Nick Varkan. To my knowledge he's one of the few telekines at the University. He's also somebody who is actually authorized to tutor people."

"You aren't?" she asked, curious.

Haley Crusek wrote:"You aren't?" she asked, curious.

"The faculty and your parents would probably prefer that I had as little contact with developing mutants as is possible," Gideon said.

Haley had a bad feeling about that explanation, but she pushed for more anyway.

"W-why?" she asked, growing more on edge again.

"Do you think they'd let me wander around if they thought I was to harm somebody?" Gideon asked to try and make Haley more comfortable. "I was... the embodiment of our potential to do terrible things on a grand scale."

"What...does that even mean?"

"I'll be the first to admit it sounded much more descriptive in my head," Gideon smiled. "Lets just say I did some very bad things for Apocalypse. Things that got me stripped of my status as an X-Man."

Haley's eyes widened. "You...were like one of those people who attacked the school in New York...?"

"I did a number of regrettable things," Gideon said looking past Haley. "Things that will haunt me for the rest of my life. What happened at the Institute was just one of them."

Haley chewed on her lip nervously, a flood of uncertainty about what to say rushing through her mind.

"That...was pretty scary. Did you know the other people he...recruited?"

"One of them, yes," Gideon said, "We were dating before, during, and still are after what happened."

"If you want to join the teams expect things to be frightening. If you ever reach the point where you aren't scared that's when you know you need to stop."

"I...never really thought about it I guess. In a way it was sort of...exciting helping fight. Scary as hell, but exciting too, I guess."

"The adrenaline rush of combat is something else," Gideon said, "There's something special about experiencing your life being on the line. The only thing standing between you and utter annihilation your training and the people fighting beside you."

"It's almost like a drug and I was addicted. Which is probably part of the reason that Apocalypse chose me. Fear is one of the things that will can keep you from descending into those depths. Discipline is another."

"Well I've got plenty of fear..."

"Normal nightmares or something else?" Gideon asked.

"I don't know. They're pretty weird cuz they're every single night."

"Every night since you got here or have you been having them for a while?" Gideon asked sounding curious.

"every night since getting here," she explained.