Where the Wind May Blow (Tempest)

[Dragon]

John Rhee's office was a curious mix of east and west - bamboo shades over colonial windows, a bookshelf sagging with yellowing volumes in both English and Korean, a replica Joseon Dynasty ink painting hanging over a rubber exercise mat on the floor. There was also a bonsai tree sitting on the corner of his desk - hardly Korean, but it had been a gift from Rainah. John suspected she was sneaking in daily to revive the poor thing; certainly it couldn't have lasted this long under his clumsy ministrations.

The space felt cluttered to him; he compensated by keeping it immaculate. Truth be told, he rarely used it except when he was counseling.

Every student in the Institute visited one of the school's mutation counselors at least twice a year - it was a vital tool for keeping students from falling through the cracks. By late October, most of the students had already been through for their fall interview. John was waiting on a late arrival.

Jacinda Blake's story was not dissimilar from many other students' - an unexpected manifestation of her abilities during a period of intense emotion. But her awakening had cost her a great deal - educational security, the respect of her friends, the trust of her parents. That sort of trauma could leave deep scars.

From the info Françoise had provided, Jacinda was a bright, confident young woman - excelled in school, socially active, used to appearing competent and in control. In John's experience, such students often had difficulty asking for help.

The microwave on the end table chimed. John pulled out the steaming tea kettle and was pouring the second cup when he heard the knock at the door.

"Come on in."

[Jacinda Blake]

Going to a school counselor was not something new to Jacinda. She'd been doing it for years, always mucking around with her schedule. Making sure she was in the correct classes to impress her family, and get the very best credit and education she could. It had been her parents obsession really, not her own, but she knew she was smart and she didn't have any trouble with the advanced classes and extra credit tutoring she had done.

This was her first official visit to Mutant High Counselor Rhee though, outside of class of course. As usual she had no idea what to expect. Jacinda just reminded herself that it was school and she could take it. Besides, She had heard that this was one of those things every student here had gone through. It was like a right of passage or something, facing ones own abilities with Professor Rhee. At least that was the impression she had gotten, she wasn't sure if the other students were trying to mess with her or not.

Jacinda knocked and when she heard the invitation to come inside she complied, afixing a bright smile.

"Hello, Professor. I believe I'm not late this time."

[Dragon]

"No, you're -"

John glanced over his shoulder as the antique clock on the wall chimed three times.

"Right on time. Have a seat."

Instead of motioning to one of the chairs by the wall, he rose and led Jacinda to the other side of his office where two armchairs and an overstuffed couch were arranged around a small coffeetable. He set the tea tray on the tabletop and sat in one of the armchairs. "You like some tea?" He indicated the tray with a cup and a dish of sugar cubes waiting for her - he took his own tea straight.

[Jacinda Blake]

"I would love a cup of tea.", She answered honestly, she was a huge fan of most tea's. Herbal, black, green, red, or white she had tried them all.

Jacinda perched on the edge of the couch, leaning over to accept her cup. She didn't take any sugar. By the scent in the air, she would hazzard a guess that it was a black tea enhanced with something floral, jasmine perhaps. She decided there was no harm in asking.

"Do I detect a hint of jasmine in the brew..?" She sat back with her cup, curling her hands around the porcelain, warming them. She glanced around the office, instantly at home. The atmosphere was very comforting.

[Dragon]

John smiled brightly. "You detect correctly. I've taken to buying tea in bulk from an import market in Chinatown. They know me by name now."

He took a measured sip and rested the teacup in his hands. "So, Jacinda, how do you feel you're adjusting to Cullen's?"

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda took a deep breath and looked down into her cup before answering, like a fortune teller trying to divine the answers from the leaves swirled about the bottom. She didn't see any answers pop forth with any mystical enlightenment, so once more she opted for truth.

"Well, you know. School is school. Academics have never been hard for me, I'm sure I won't have any trouble there. As for the rest, I guess it will take more adjusting to. Everyone has been really nice to me, so far. It's not that I'm afraid of the students or staff or anything, it's just.. so.. different, you know?"

She really hadn't meant to run on like that. It just felt so good to unburden her mind by putting the thoughts and feelings to words and sharing them with someone who could understand.

"Well that.. and.. I am a little afraid that something like what happened at my old school could happen again." She took another sip of the tea and saved the best for last.

"I suppose it would be normal for me to say that I miss my family. I don't though. I miss the way things used to be, but I've come to realize I can never have that again. The way they spoke about me, I may as well be dead to them." That thought hurt. It showed on her face, the way her eyes suddenly misted.

"Wow.. I guess I had a lot more to say than I expected." Jacinda wiped at her eyes and laughed.

[Dragon]

John listened patiently. He was encouraged that Jacinda was being so forthright.

"That's all right," he replied gently. "It's why we're here. You're going through a profound transition. For you, it's a reality you can't escape. Others around you might be unable or unwilling to accept what they're seeing. They can't just see that, in all the most important ways, you're the same person you've always been. It's one of the most painful things about being a mutant."

[Jacinda Blake]

"I understand. I was prepared to move away to go to university and live on my own. It's what I have been preparing for. Starting my own life. I suppose I am still doing that, just not exactly as I had planned right?" She tried to think of the best.

Jacinda smiled. "Life can't just stop because you a mutant, right?"

She turned serious once more. "You all seem so in control of your abilities here. Dosen't it scare you sometimes though, what might happen if someone lost control? I mean.. I destroyed a building.. It can't be as easy as just saying, 'Okay I have accepted being a mutant and now I am safe to be around'."

[Dragon]

"You're right, it's not that easy. But accepting is the first step. And from there, you go on to studying your abilities - experimenting with them, learning what sets them off, how to control them, use them safely. It's almost like learning to walk all over again."

Of course, he wasn't about to tell Jacinda that she'd made it onto the short list of mutants who could potentially endanger the entire school. But then, John had put himself on that list, too.

"Every mutant here - student and faculty - has a unique challenge. We teachers will do our absolute best to guide you, but ultimately it's a path of self-discovery. It's not without risk. But the benefits far outweigh the danger. You have amazing potential, Jacinda."

He smiled. "And, yes, there are rooms in this school where you can experiment without fear of damaging anything. How do you think Carlos Calaveras learned to control fire?"

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda perked up a bit. So they had safe rooms somehow? She didn't know how they worked or anything, but she knew better than to question it. Professor Rhee wouldn't make it up.

She smiled a bit at the mention of Carlos, as he was technically the first friend she had made. Jacinda didn't quite get the whispers about how he was bad luck. To her her seemed like good luck, since she had met him when she really needed a friend. It was just another one of those things, like an inside joke she wasn't in on. Oh well..

"So when do you, I mean.. when do students begin learning to control their abilities? When can I get started?" Now that the first step, accepting that she was a mutant, had been conquered, she was eager to learn exactly what she could do.

[Dragon]

John glanced toward the door, then back to Jacinda. "Well... would you like to start now?"

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda's eyes followed Professor Rhee's glance towards the door, then swung back to meet his at the question. She surpressed a gulp.

"I suppose there is no point in putting it off. Sure, I would like that." She was a bit scared, but maybe that wasn't a bad thing since her abilities seemed linked to her emotional state most of the time.

Jacinda finished her tea and set the cup down carefully, resolved to seeing what she could do.

[Dragon]

Their destination was a large, windowless wing off the gymnasium whose simple exterior couldn't hide the fact that it was built to be nearly indestructible. John and Jacinda very quickly arrived at the building's main feature - the practice rooms.

They had come to a narrow corridor with widely-spaced doors on either side. John swiped his ID card next to one of the doors and opened to reveal a room a little larger than a racquetball court. The walls appeared to be some sort of frosted plexiglass, but in reality, they were something far stronger. All around the perimeter, the lower ten feet were covered in padding. On the floor was an exercise mat marked for several different forms of martial arts competition. Otherwise, the room was completely vacant.

John looked around appraisingly. "Hmm... If no one's using the other rooms, I think we could use more space."

He opened a panel in the wall near the door, inserted his card, and punched in a sequence on a number pad. Immediately there was a mechanical hum, and the other three walls began to sink into the floor, opening the adjacent rooms, and then even more walls on either side began coming down. The space was multiplying by a factor of eight - two rooms deep, four rooms wide.

"There are sixteen of these rooms in all," John shouted over the mechanism. "The other eight are on the other side of that corridor. We can bring in special equipment, control the environment, even open up the roof if we need to."

The walls settled into their housings, revealing a gymnasium-sized room with doors all around.

"You can sign up for individual time in these rooms, though only a teacher can change the walls," John explained. "I thought it would be easier for you to experiment without so much solid matter around to interfere with the air currents. Speaking of which..."

He opened the box he'd brought over from his office and pulled out a weather gauge, then tipped the box to show Jacinda the rest was full of confetti. "This should give us a good visual reference."

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda winced, not at the confetti itself, but at the reminder of the crepe paper that had turned her school dance into a scene from a Stephen King movie, minus the pig blood of course. She shook her head trying to rid herself of the imagery.

The room was simply amazing. She didn't know how she felt about not having a roof over her head though, the last thing she needed was to create enough wind to relocate herself and Professor Rhee to the Emerald City. When she realized that the roof was going to stay in place, she visibly relaxed.

"So.. should I just..? I don't really know what I can do. If it's alright, I think I'll just try feeling it out, a bit at a time." At the smile of encouragement, followed by the nod from the Professor, Jacinda started.

She walked forward in the room until she had reached the center, taking the small box of confetti with her. Jacinda turned in a slow circle, then closed her eyes. She could always feel it now. The way the air moved around her. It was almost like it responded to her location, swirling around her and following her. She opened her eyes and set the box down on the floor in front of her.

"I'm not sure what to do?"

[Dragon]

"Different powers have different triggers," John said. "I can take you through steps that have worked for other students before, but it's up to you to find what works best."

He walked a short distance away from Jacinda, fiddling with the weather gauge to set a baseline reading.

"Your ability seeems to fall into the elemental category. Air, or wind, to be a little more precise. Carlos also has an elemental ability - fire. Now, he can generate fire. I've seen mutants who couldn't do that, but they could control it, shape it. And I once knew a mutant who could actually become fire, burn his way across a field, even fly on the wind. Part of the trick is to discover what your relationship to your element is."

The look on her face said he wasn't really clarifying matters, so he chuckled and shook his head. "That's a lot of theory. Let's try something practical. Wind is just air moving from high pressure to low pressure. Try to concentrate and see if you can create a pocket of low pressure... oh, say, about ten feet in front of you."

[Jacinda Blake]

She nodded, understanding and once more closed her eyes, figuring it would help her to focus or something. It didn't help at all. She felt silly. Like shutting her eye lids was supposed to help? Just because she couldn't see didn't mean that it was going to be any easier. Smirking at her own foolishness, Jacinda opened her eyes and tried something else.

Jacinda held her hands at her sides, palms forward and then pushed air forward, like she was paddling through water. Once she felt the resistance it became easier. The feel of the air moving around her hands and arms felt familiar. Bits of colored confetti rose from the box at her feet to flutter magically before her. Feeling bold from the surprising progress, she used both arms to shove them momentum forward, where Professor Rhee had indicated.

It wasn't taking form. Just swirling like a snake made of multi colored paper away from her. She wasn't sure how to gauge what would be high and low pressure. Tilting her head to one side she tried to think of how one would shape air. She supposed, one wouldn't. She would. If she could move the current away from her maybe she could roll it into a shape, if it were compacted, maybe that would change the pressure.

One hand dropped to her side, the other rolled as if she were making a circle in the space directly in front of her. In actuality she was rolling the current around and around, trying to fashion a ball. She became frustrated when it just spiraled continually moving away.

"Well...", she laughed, "..that's something at least."

[Dragon]

As she shaped the air currents around her, John made some mental notes. The air seemed to follow her arm movements - whether it was something in her muscles or just a way of focusing her energy, he wasn't sure.

He laughed as well. "Actually, that was more complex than what I was going for. That's good; it means you already have some intuitive control. How does it feel? Can you sense the way the air is moving even without the confetti?"

[Jacinda Blake]

"Well sort of.. I don't really know how to explain it. To be honest I've never tried anything like this before." Jacinda dropped her arms to her sides, the confetti fluttered to the floor as she turned to face Professor Rhee.

"The first time I had an experience..", she wondered if that was the right word for her abilities.. ".. I was at my desk at home working on school work. I kept reaching for my pencil and it kept rolling away from me. About like it would do if you were to try rolling it across a table by blowing it. Anyways, I was listening to some music and shut it off then tried to do it again, it didn't work."

Jacinda shrugged. "Stuff like that happened, every so often, for a while and I began to wonder if I was telekinetic or something. But nothing ever happened when I tried to move things with my mind so I knew that wasn't it.."

"It's just the wind.. I can always feel it, even when its not blowing outside. When I have been happy I have made things float, and when I was upset and afraid, well.. you know that story." Jacinda looked down at her feet, feeling awful about how she had scared the heck out of her entire school.

At the memory, her long blonde hair flew out behind her, as if a gust had just blown at her from out of no where. Her eyes widened a bit, but that was all that happened.

[Dragon]

Her guilt was palpable. It didn't take an empath to sense it.

John took a few exploratory steps, his hands clasped behind his back. "It's not at all uncommon for a mutant's abilities to be linked to emotions," he said. "That doesn't mean your emotions will control you - you might want to hit someone who makes you angry, but you learn at an early age how to control those impulses. You're still taking baby steps as far as your abilities are concerned. Like any growing process, it takes time."

He stopped pacing and smiled. "Emotions can also be a powerful tool to explore your abilities. If you think you're up to it, I have something I'd like you to try. It might be easier if you lie down on the mat."

Once she had, he continued slowly, with deliberation. "Now close your eyes. Tighten up your muscles just for a moment, then relax them and let all that tension, all that anxiety flow away from you into the floor."

Now his voice had taken on a gentle cadence. "Good. Now I want you to find a happy corner of your mind. Open it up. And let that happiness flow over you from head to toe."

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda had been through relaxation therapy before, this wasn't so different. She stretched out and lay her hands at her sides. As instructed she tightened up her muscles from head to to and then gradually, working from her toes up she let them relax. She visualized the tension leaving her body and found after a few minutes of such, that she was feeling better.She listened to Professor Rhee's voice, following his spoken guidance. She focused in on a happy memory.

Her little sister. Lucy. She saw some of the things that they had done together. Trick or treating as kids. Making Christmas cookies. Playing in the backyard in the tree house their Dad had built them. Swinging on a tire swing and just laughing for no reason at all. Staying up late watching movies, eating junk food. The kind of things all sisters would do..

She knew she was smiling as she lay there on the floor mat. Jacinda felt light as air, now that the tension had left her body. She felt as if she could float up to the clouds and smile down on the world, mutants and humans alike. This was a very helpful lesson, she would always remember now how to rid herself of her fears. Too bad it wasn't always convinient to stretch out on the floor to do it!

She opened her eyes to thank Professor Rhee, but instead of looking up at him, she found herself at his eye level. About six feet off the floor...

[Dragon]

John's hair was blowing in the stiff breeze that was swirling underneath Jacinda, keeping her aloft. He smiled at the shocked expression that burst onto her face.

"I wouldn't worry - you seem to have things under control!"

But he stood by to catch her in case the wind died down.

[Jacinda Blake]

Eyes still wide, Jacinda very much doubted she had it under control. The wind that was causing her to float, like a raft on the water, began to dissipate as she was no longer blissfully happy in her memories. She felt a quick panic and a sense that she was going to hit the floor mat really hard on her bottom, at any second.

Jacinda flailed out, her fingers grabbing Professor Rhee's shoulder as her legs dropped suddenly. Her upper body, luckily, remained upright. Her feet dropped down and she found herself standing once more on the floor, perfectly fine. She let go of Professor Rhee, somewhat sheepishly and laughed.

"Wow.. Good thing I didn't go any higher or that could have been messy."

[Dragon]

John supported her until he was sure she was standing on her own feet again.

He laughed, too. "Well, there is a reason the clinic is in this building. But let's not go there just yet. All right, we've discovered that happiness can cause you to levitate. Do you think you can reproduce those feelings while staying conscious to what's going on around you?"

[Jacinda Blake]

"I have no idea! I'll give it a whirl." She paled at her choice of words.

"I mean.. you know, no whirl, just a good try." Jacinda backed up a step. She tried to think on the same things she had minutes ago. Happy memories of her and Lucy. For long minutes nothing happened, but then she felt it. A swirl around her calves. It was working. She lifted up off the ground, but it was much harder to do standing upright than it had been to lay flat and simply elevate lengthwise. She pitched forward and began to fall, face first to the mat.

She saw Professor Rhee move forward as if to catch her. At the last second, a second wind blew upward and caught her under the arms lifting her back to rights. It seemed like an automatic reaction to save herself, she hadn't counted on that.. She smiled and lifted up another couple inches or so.

"Ha ha! It seems I can.." She slid back down to the floor, a huge grin on her face.