Ferris Macklin

Thanks for the review!

The meta part was sort of a grey area, but I figured I'd just write it and then deal with the edits. I thought a power that wasn't hurting anyone, could not be trained, or actually didn't do anything like Ferris's would not require a school like Hammel and I didn't know that would make him seem overly special. I'm a little mortified. According to the FAQ, students stay till their power is controlled. In Ferris's case I don't know if this means he'd never have left or if it means his stay would have been unusually short. I'm going to try the latter and if it's wrong that's fine and I'll edit again.

To clarify, a 'professional' dancer is simply one who is paid to dance in a performance, no matter the part or pay grade, from prima ballerina to background dancer #14, and Ferris has enough natural talent and technical skill that he could be one of those group extras or possibly have a very minor part in a small troupe. There are a lot of dancers in many grades who are paid to do so, but I'm guessing you thought it meant he had a much higher skillset than he does. I'm sorry I wasn't clearer about that but I took it out anyway. I'm embarrassed because I left in some things I thought I'd taken out and that was one of them and I ought to know better.

I changed his ballet skill level to 'intermediate', and I edited his history to have him start earlier to make it more plausible. He's slightly above that level in terms of technicality, but dancing is a lot like gymnastics; once you reach a certain level of proficiency, any skills/levels above that are the ones for those who want to seriously compete. Three years at most casual once-a-week ballet-tap-jazz classes will put you into 'intermediate'.

I also ratched his intelligence down. I took him down to one doctorate achieved in six years, which is still two below average, but if this is still too much I can edit. I wanted him as smart as he was initially so he'd observe and recognize the unusual aspects of his home life very early on and start developing his defense mechanisms as quickly as possible, focusing much more on logic and being sensible than on how he actually felt. When kids are as smart as Ferris was, it's a lot easier for them to rationalize dispassionately even if the emotional maturity isn't there and sometimes carries over naturally as they grow, and that's what I was going for. So, by the time he arrived at Hammel as a cook that aspect of his personality would be rigid enough that it would take more than two threads to pokevolve him into a new level of understanding.

I wish I could tell you where I made the edits for ease of review, but the only section that didn't get touched at all was 'what about you'.

Ready for review!