nextgenerationmarvel | Not In Siberia Anymore [Intro; Open to everyone at the Institute]

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Current Location: Xavier Institute, Westchester, New York

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Not In Siberia Anymore [Intro; Open to everyone at the Institute]

Ilya stood in the lobby of the mansion, attempting not to panic. While his SHIELD handler worked out the final paperwork, she'd benignly told him to stay there. The thing of it was, though, he was pretty sure that an entire apartment complex from home could fit in here. He tried not to fidget as it continued to hit home just how far away from, well, home that he was. The world seemed suddenly much too big, leaving him motionless as he tried to figure out what to do. He looked at his bags and wondered if he should take them up to his room... except he had no idea where his room was. And despite SHIELD having taught him fluent English, the Russian was loathe to call out for help and say something stupid and grammatically incorrect. He didn't want to look like an idiot right after he'd walked through the door.

So the fifteen year old stood there, glancing around awkwardly, silent as a mouse.

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"I understand. I just..." he floundered for a moment, unsure how to explain. "I'm not certain that assessing my powers is as safe as you might think. I can misfire sometimes and I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't know what safety precautions the school has or doesn't have, but. I just, I don't know. Thought I should mention that."

Great, now she probably thinks he's dangerous. Which he is, but still. "SHIELD did their best to raise my level of education while I was in their care. I'll do my best."

"In terms of pure academics, I have no worries about you putting in the effort. I will be the one assessing your powers. I have a similar power-set at a much greater level. I assure you, you won't hurt me. If for some reason I get distracted, the Danger Room safeties will kick on. It'll be perfectly safe." She did not look the least bit daunted by his admission. She glanced at the other chair in front of her desk.

Rachel reached out mentally and lifted it. She swung it out and settled it a comfortable space away from Ilya's seat. She pushed off the desk before her hip went numb from leaning against it. She settled down across from the student. "Describe what you can do. Give me a baseline idea. Unless you'd rather do it mentally?"

"I can move things with my mind. Very, very heavy things, for hours if I have to. Throwing them is harder than pushing them if it's big in size but the weight doesn't matter for that. I... when I was poisoned once, my healing factor kept me alive but I lost control and threw someone into a wall. I really regret that." Granted, he didn't foresee a reason he'd ever be in such bad shape again, but it was the first time he'd used his powers on a person instead of an object. "I guess I can heal pretty well, considering we're even having this conversation, but I was unconscious for the worst of it. To tell you the truth I only remember the explosion before I was knocked out and waking up when the ice thawed and I was thrown into the river. So I guess I won't need a doctor here, then. Just a bed."

Oh, crap. He's awful at telepathy and he's really not getting any better with time. He struggles to send a brief message: I'm better at reading minds than I am sending my thoughts out. And sometimes I can't do either no matter what I try. I'm sorry.

She nodded slowly as she took in the information the young man was giving her. Some it ran along what she had learned from SHIELD, but she could see where the huge and very explicable-to-her gap was.

"If you don't mind, and this is purely optional, our biochemist/geneticist on staff could use a small sample of blood. He could analyze your healing factor to see if matches known ones. Or figure out more of the particulars of yours without any harm." Beyond the whole poking him with a needle to get some blood. Rachel thought it better to ask before the ever ebullient Beast razzle-dazzled the young Russian with five dollar English words.

She raised an eyebrow momentarily at the mental contact. Then she reached out gently with her own powers. It was like she brushed a warm and soft tendril across a small portion of his mind. There's nothing to apologize for. I just need to figure out your skill levels so I can train you to use your powers better. Having limitations is not a bad thing at this stage. Particularly as you've not used these figurative muscles as much as your telekinetic ones.

"I wouldn't mind. SHIELD took a sample of my blood for similar purposes; I still don't understand the science behind it, though." He's met scientists at SHIELD who use six-syllable words in rapid-fire succession and expect him to know what they're going on about. It's better than people acting like he's an idiot, but he's not at that level yet.

I've only used this to send brief little messages to people I worked with in the mine. If they were far enough away I couldn't send anything or hear anything, either. I - wait, you're going to be training me? But don't you have more important things to do? He receives her message and the mental contact readily, his receptors wide open to it, but is visibly struggling to keep communicating this way since, well, there's no emergency to spur him on.

"We can eventually teach you the science behind it. Though that would be down the educational road a bit." Sometimes Hank lost Rachel in his explanation, but he usually came around to understandable English the last two or three sentences. A pen seemed to pick itself up off her desk and scribble something on a tablet.

Don't strain yourself sending. Just think. I can pick up your fore-thoughts easily. She smiled gently. I'm a telepath/telekinetic. I have the right combination of powers to suss out your skills and how to improve them. I also started out as a sort of muscle-brain and had to pick skill for finesse. I will occasionally have others take over lessons here and there, but they'll be following my directives on how you should proceed. I might be headmaster, but I still have a responsibility to make sure every student has the right mentor to work with on their powers.

Also, from his SHIELD file, Rachel was of the opinion he would possibly need her professional skills at some point as well.

"It would be, since I've never taken a real science class before." He glanced at the pen. "See, that kind of small thing, that would be something I'd struggle with. I can't seem to pick up small things without applying all the force I do to heavy things. Which is why things get broken."

Okay. Sorry. I've never actually talked with another telepath before so I'm still figuring out how this works. And I'm really grateful you'd consider being my mentor, I just didn't realize that you did that kind of thing. You already have a lot of work to do. I don't want to be a burden.

"Henry will be excited. You'll be a blank slate he can teach to." She glanced over to where she was controlling the pen. It scribbled something more and settled back on the desk. "That's one of the things we'll be working on. Muscle-brains, when it comes to tk, have lots of problems with fine control. Like picking a coin off the floor. We have a place to work on your powers without fear of things breaking."

That place was certainly not her office. So no fine control tests were going to happen now, but it at least gave her an idea for future sessions.

You're not a burden. You're a student here. It's my responsibility to make sure you have the right instructors to help you with your powers. Considering your power combination, it's either me or I call my mother in from deep space. There was a faint image sent of her mother. It was more reflex than planned action. She hadn't quite meant to send the mental image of Jean Grey-Summers surrounded by a fiery raptor in the middle of deep space, but it was sent all the same.

"I'm kind of excited about classes. Just nervous, too. Even if I'd gotten a full education back home, it would have been painfully outdated now," he noted, hoping what he knew was at least right albeit basic. He winced at being called a 'muscle-brain', his shoulders slumping a little at the implication he read into it: dumb Chukchi. But he made a valiant effort at keeping his face neutral.

...that's your mother?! She's beautiful but even I know you can't breathe in space, so how does that even work? He's in awe. And he recalls his own mother, coming home once with her coat covered in blood and torn, cheerfully reassuring her stunned husband 'it's not mine; we got a bear today!' and smiling with childlike pride despite the state of disarray she was in.

They had very different childhoods, it was safe to say.

"None of the teachers bite. Unless it's part of the class curriculum, and you won't have those classes." She quirked an eyebrow at the wince. Being telepathically connected, she could pick up on the underpinnings a little easier.

"It doesn't mean dumb or anything derogatory. Not in this context. I started out as a muscle brain once my powers were more fully manifested. All power, little finesse. It takes training and time. Something I don't expect you've had."

She smiled. There were a few complexities of Rachel's own existence that they didn't need to go into at the moment. She did not want to overload Ilya. Yeah, that's Mom. It works because of the cosmic being working with her. The fiery bird you see around her. It's called the Phoenix Force.

Rachel's own childhood had been idyllic right up until the Professor Xavier in her timeline being assassinated. Then it was a time no mutant should ever have to endure. She had made sure this reality didn't have to endure it.

He decides not to ask what class involves biting because he's fairly sure he doesn't want to know, but blushes slightly at his mistake. "Sorry. I shouldn't make assumptions about anyone, especially not you. I know that the people here are different than the people back home, it's just force of habit."

But isn't space lonely? He had experience with being isolated but everything paled compared to the vastness of space. Can you at least still talk to her?

With his own family long dead and buried, it's hard not to focus on the familial aspect of the situation instead of the fantastic and power based parts of it.

Ilya didn't have an animalistic mutation, so Rachel figured he didn't need to worry about it. Nor would he have to worry about tactically slobbering either.

"It's okay. Old, ingrained habits are hard to let go. I'll become more concerned if they don't fade in awhile."

Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. It could be, but she has people she's helping. Life and fire to help along. I can still talk to her. When things get completely horrible, I still call on her. She comes back to Earth to check on her kids every once in awhile.

Rachel's family was a big, extended tangle. Just the immediate family was hard enough without going into aunts, uncles, and cousins. She kept her thoughts more on her mother now to keep the simpler of relations at her own mental fore.

"I can change. But it is still my first day," he adds, sounding apologetic about it. Given not one person has treated him badly here or within SHIELD (although the SHIELD doctors sometimes looked uncomfortable when he was around; he wasn't sure why) he really needed to relax. This was a new beginning, after all.

She sounds like a good person. I can see where you get it from. Do most people here have family members with powers?

"Very true. As it is your first day, take it easy. Settle in and get comfortable. Or as comfortable as you can get until you have to move into the new dorms. Classes for the fall semester will be starting soon." She didn't foresee any problems with that suggestion. The students here, on the whole, were friendly. Barring a run in with Athos or something, but she only had to worry about miscommunication with that particular personality.

Quite a few do. Some don't. Some here don't have family members to call their own anymore. But every student here, no matter their history is given the chance to succeed and grow. And you're now a part of that group.

"I'll try and get comfortable. Part of me is still kind of trying to process that this is a real thing that's happening," Ilya confesses, knowing that might sound stupid. But he'd never even been in a building this big that wasn't owned by SHIELD, and it was as surreal as it was beautiful.

Are any of them new? I don't want to be the slowest person in school, for reasons that are probably in my SHIELD file. It's a big worry for me. He knows it's a bit of an irrational thing to constantly mull over, but it's still on his mind regardless.

"It's a lot to take in. Take your time. We're not going to disappear from around you." She gestured to the office surrounding them. It didn't even flicker. It was as solid as this reality got anyway.

We've gotten quite a few new students recently. One even has no formal education at all as she's from a war-torn place. Which was dancing around saying his fellow student was from another reality/timeline. The best advice I can give you is don't compare yourself to many of the others if it's a big worry. Students learn quickly that their peers go at different paces and have different lessons to work on. There's standard curriculum, and then there's the curriculum we have because we're mutants. Anybody new here hasn't had those lessons and will be on the same level as you.

It's not like I want to compare myself to other people. I just can't help it. I don't know what SHIELD put in my file, but there's... kind of a cultural pressure I'm not sure how to explain in any language. After all, being Chukchi or being any minority was an experience that people who weren't had never gone through and never would. Being a mutant is another layer on top of it, making him a minority within a minority, giving him more to prove. He can't screw up.

Rachel kept her calm, placid expression up. She sat easily in the chair, but the part of her mind that Ilya could not see was noting things on a more professional level. Things she would have to counsel him for that had been in the file and were being borne out in conversation.

Well, you have my permission not to. It'll be a habit you'll need to refine. Being a little competitive is fine; putting yourself under undue pressure is something to watch out for. You're equal to any student here in terms of how you'll be graded and mentored during your education. If you make mistakes, we'll help learn from them.

I'm not sure it's undue pressure. Shouldn't everyone aspire to do their best? And also, in a case of proving in one sentence how much he misses the point, I'll try not to make any mistakes.

"There's doing your best, and then unreasonable expectations of perfection. Mistakes help in the learning process." She smiled as she slowly untethered their minds. She wasn't remotely tired of it, but she had done enough assessing and giving Ilya a taste of what his own powers could do once he was trained enough.

"Mistakes are fine. Never learning from them or being so careful you never make them leads to problems. But that's something we can discuss later. It's your first day here. I should let you settle in."

"My level of 'mistake' is different from other people. I don't make little mistakes, just big ones. And I don't want to do that kind of thing anymore." His view of the world had been skewed; one wrongly timed joke had changed his life and put him in a gulag. Ilya didn't know how or why, but when he screwed up it tended to be a vivid thing, and these people were too nice to inflict himself on. Really, if it hadn't been this or SHIELD, he wouldn't be here at all. He's too inadequate.

"Um, about settling in - if I get a room mate, are they, uh, going to know about the whole fifty-nine-years-on-ice thing?" That's not a story he wants getting out among the other students.

Rachel smiled wryly. "You're in a school filled with big mistakes, and I'm not talking about the students. I don't think there's anyone on the staff who hasn't made one, and we're all still here. We understand they can happen and will help you no matter the mistake. We're a school for mutants, we're infinitely kinder than the Russian government you know."

She considered him with her green eyes. Then she shook her head. "No. That's something for you to tell if you want to."

"What I know intellectually and what I feel are pretty different. My SHIELD handler said that's part of why I need to be here." Well, that and his SHIELD handler was a bit of a 'bro' who had declared Ilya needed to gt laid, but Ilya was steadfastly ignoring that because that would involve a lot more social skills than he even wanted to envision learning.

He sank back into his chair, relieved. "Spasibo, velikiy i moguchiy vorona v'nebe. I - I'm really not good with talking about it. I don't know why, but even though I talked to people at SHIELD about it, it's just really hard to get into. The whole thing makes me feel like I'm going to be sick and I don't know why... maybe I can work on that? I'll try, but I don't think I can get comfortable with it overnight. Is that okay?"

"It'll take time, patience, and a little work, but the staff and myself will help feel less conflicted in that regard. Interacting with students might help in that regard as well." Rachel would have to do more than power training, but with Brooke more or less on an even keel, she would have some openings for counseling.

"We can work on that in the future. You're noticing lingering effects. So, it's something we can talk about when you're ready after you've gotten comfortable here." She spoke in a calm and smooth manner. No trace she knew exactly why he was having troubles. It would be something that would be handled further down that figurative road. It was just his first day at this school, settling in was in order.

"I think interacting with the students might be easier than with the teachers. I really don't want to disappoint any of them. But I've talked to a couple of the students here and they seem really nice, so it's already a very different atmosphere from back home. Less competitive - and that's not a Russian government thing, that's just a Russian thing, I think." It's a little hard to figure out how to work with that, with an acute lack of subtle or outright jabs and undercutting, but he could definitely get used to it. Better that than the fearful way SHIELD agents who weren't that much older looking than him acted around him.

"SHIELD went over it a lot. I guess they're worried about lingering effects. And I do have nightmares where I'm drowning in the Omolon River, or where I'm falling through the snow, so they're not wrong. I just hope I don't bother my room mate if I wake them up like that." He bites his lip, picturing his reputation sinking when it got out he was some kind of nutjob who couldn't get through the night without muttering to himself. Sure, it wasn't actually that common of an occurrence, but it couldn't be pleasant to live with.

Not In Siberia Anymore [Intro; Open to everyone at the Institute]

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