New People? Happy Day! [Chase]

[Calysma Jamille]

She... was running late.

Calysma clamored down the stairs and halls, backpack pounding on her back and loose laces tapping the floor. Of course she'd be late today. She was always late to things it felt like, unless Lacey wanted her to go. Lacey had the good memory. But Lacey wasn't a fan of them training with people. She preferred training on their own, but that was Lacey. Always thinking someone was out to get them.

Jamie could have reminded her too, Cal supposed. She had a good memory too, and also enjoyed training, but she was locked away somewhere Cal hoped she'd never get out of.

You wish, she whispered, right on cue.

No. Nope, Cal wasn't listening. She skidded around the last corner, very nearly falling on her face in the process, and paused, panting for breath. Things were good. Even if she was a little late. Worrying about it wasn't going to change anything, anyway. Life was good. She was going to meet her new trainer, and that was going to be good.

Unless, you know, it's not, Lacey retorted.

Normally Cal would have tried to block out Lacey's voice, but this time the overly suspicious identity was welcome enough in comparison with hearing Jamie. She still wished Emily would just talk more though-- Emily wasn't evil or suspicious. She was just Emily. But part of what made her Emily was that she was quiet, Cal supposed.

"It is gonna be good," Cal panted in reply to Lacey. "How could it not be? People are-- are nice." With that, she pushed into one of the training rooms, still out of breath, but looking forward to the session. Sure, she was a little nervous, nervous that she wouldn't be able to control Jamie, nervous that the trainer might be disappointed that she wasn't as far along as she should be, nervous that something bad would happen... Okay, she was just as nervous as excited. But all the same, she tried to focus on the excitement more.

[Chase Campbell]

While Calysma was running down the halls, Chase was physically preparing the training room, and mentally preparing himself. Mind control didn’t come along very often, but when it did, those students tended to come under his wing. The psychic students gave him a headache, true, but he was the best equipped to help them gain control and learn to tolerate their side effects.

As such, he was prepared. He had multiple bottles of water cooling in the little mini fridge in the room, and several grades of over the counter pain medication. Mind control often triggered headaches, and he suspected that he would also be sporting one after the session. There was a reason he’d scheduled Calysma’s session right before a break. He’d likely need it. James already knew what he was doing, and was prepared for his husband to visit for stronger medication designed for migraines if he needed it.

He really, really hoped he wouldn’t need it.

As he waited, he pulled himself up onto his desk to sit, flipping through the student file for his new trainee. So far, he didn’t have much to go on, but that was okay. In cases like this, he almost liked going back and starting from scratch. It would help shape her control and, hopefully, get her to trust him.

Just in case she wanted to test him, he gave his mental shields a quick check. The last thing he wanted was to be caught off guard. It didn’t happen often, and he was cautious.

As usual, he was dressed casually . Some of the trainers liked to dress, well, like a teacher, but Chase was still of the mentality that he was a teacher first, yes, but a friend second. (Okay, and secretly he still wanted to be twenty years old.)

When the girl came in, he smiled at her and didn’t make a move right away. This was all about trust, and he wasn’t going to push her into it. It had to come naturally. “Calysma, right? I’m Mr. Campbell, but you can call me Chase.” He’d always liked being on a first name basis with his students.

[Calysma Jamille]

Cal offered a smile as Chase greeted her. She reached up to tighten her ponytail, which had already started to come loose, before nodding and replying, "Yes, I'm Calysma. Or Cal or Callie. I don't really care what you call me, but both of those are shorter than Calysma, so people like to use them better sometimes. And--"

You're rambling again.

"And.... yeah!" Cal finished quickly, clasping her hands behind her back and keeping up her smile. "It's nice to meet you, Chase!" She had a feeling she was going to like working with him. Not that she often disliked working with people of course... But he was dressed like a normal person, which didn't make him quite as intimidating as the teachers who dressed all professional-like. Of course, those teachers were nice too, and she'd still made friends with plenty of them.

Excitement and nervousness bubbled in her, and she didn't try to hold back a few of the waterfall of questions and comments that were pressing at her. "I'm not very good with my power yet," she said, words tumbling over themselves. "Like, keeping it from doing things by itself, or doing things when I really want it to. And Jamie causes problems sometimes. I'll try to do a good job, though! Jamie doesn't cause a lot of problems anymore," she added, realizing that maybe she shouldn't have brought up Jamie's interferences.

He's totally gonna think you're crazy.

He probably already knows... And if he doesn't then he should so he'll be safe.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Cal mentally shook Lacey's voice off and refocused on her trainer. It would work out, it definitely would. Things always worked out eventually!

[Chase Campbell]

New students always seemed to be a little uneasy, whether it was their very first session at Hammel, or simply their first with a new trainer. As such, Chase always tried to make his students feel a little more at ease. It was why he dressed more casually than most other trainers and teachers, and tried to be as friendly as possible without crossing the line between trainer and student. If his students did well, he had no problems letting them goof off for the last bit of class, or devising exercises that would both train their power, and be fun at the same time.

“Do you have a preference for what I call you?” Most students that wanted to shorten their name had a preference. Even his own son was starting to lean towards Niko instead of Nikki or Nikolai. He’d rather call her what she wanted, rather than what was easiest.

As she admitted to not being so good with her power yet, he gave her a sympathetic smile. “It takes time,” he assured her, before tapping his temple. “I went through it too. We have the same power.” Of course, no one power was identical to another, but they were still as close as possible to each other. Hopefully, that would help. “I accidentally triggered people to do a lot of things. And... not so accidentally, sometimes.” This was followed by an almost sheepish grin. He too had been a teenager once, and he’d tested the limits of his powers prior to being recruited. Still looking a tiny bit sheepish, he twisted to pat his shoulder blade as best he could. “Accomplished in getting my Dad to sign a waiver to let me get a tattoo before I was recruited. At that point I would have gone anywhere. My mom was ticked off, to say the least.” That was putting it mildly. His mother had been beyond angry with him.

“In any case, I’m here to help you. I know how hard it is to feel like you’re in control of a power like ours, but we’ll get there. I promise you that.” As for her mention of Jamie, well... he had her file. He had an idea of what she was talking about, and he still wasn’t sure what to do with it. Well, time would tell.

“Do you have any questions, or anything you want to work on specifically before we start?” If not, he’d start from scratch.

[Calysma Jamille]

Cal gave a shrug when he asked for her preference. "I like Cal best, but I'm really okay with any of those three." She nodded vehemently. Of course, her preference to whether she liked Cal or Callie better varied day to day, but Cal was gradually becoming of greater preference from day to day.

At Chase's words, she felt a bit better about her self proclaimed incompetence as related to her power. If a trainer had had trouble when he was learning, then she could make it, too! She burst into laughter over the tattoo tale. She would never have wanted a tattoo, but she found it hilarious that he'd used his power to get one. There were a lot worse things that the power could be used for, anyway! "What kind of tattoo did you get?" she questioned, bright-eyed and curious. As usual, her nervousness had already begun to very quickly slip away into pure enjoyment of interacting with someone, and a new someone at that.

"Umm...." Cal studied the ceiling as she thought. Questions or something she wanted to work on specifically? Hm... "Do you like cookies? I mean, are you allergic to anything in them?"

Virtually instantly she felt Lacey facepalm. That is not what kind of question he meant.

But I need to know! Some of my teachers are allergic!

Lacey sighed and Cal just shook her head slightly. Lacey didn't understand sometimes. It would be really bad if she included Chase in the group of teachers she regularly baked things for, only to find out he was allergic to everything. It was a very serious matter. However, just to make sure that he didn't think she was trying to goof off, this partially to Lacey's insistence, she added, "There isn't anything specific I wanted to work on. I like working on all of it!" Of course, that last sentence hadn't been wholly true, but the statement she didn't have a preference where they started was at least.

[Chase Campbell]

“Okay, Cal it is.” He didn’t mind which one she wanted to go by, as long as he knew which she preferred. He could only handle so much of ‘Mr. Campbell’ or ‘Mr. C’ before he started to twitch. He was still of the mindset that Mr. Campbell was his father in law, not himself. Besides, it made the relationships he had with his students feel a little less strained when he let them just call him Chase. Maybe as he got older that would change, but for now? He was content to use his first name.

The tattoo story always worked wonders with his students. Really, he supposed he should be somewhat ashamed of himself for using his power like that, but he’d been sixteen and testing boundaries. At the time it had been thrilling, and hilarious. (Though it would have been funnier if his mother hadn’t threatened all manners of removal before he was hauled off by the recruiter.) Grinning, he rubbed his neck and glanced back at his shoulder. “It wasn’t even a cool one. Just a stock shark. Could have been worse, though. Could have ended up with a Care Bear for the rest of my life, or something equally as embarrassing.” At least his other tattoos were... well... okay one of them was sensible. Simply his husband’s nickname in pretty script. The music notes on his arm... he wasn’t even really that fond of them anymore. Such was life.

The question caught him by surprise, but only a little. He managed a calm smile to let her know it was okay before answering. “Yes, I like cookies. A little too much if you ask my family.” The trainer was a sucker for sweet things, and bonus points if they were sour candy. But cookies were high up on the list of things he liked for sure. “And no, I don’t have allergies.” He tilted his head slightly. It wasn’t that uncommon for students to make things for their teachers, especially if they were home economics students. “You don’t need to make anything though, really.” Even though he’d be more than happy about it. James couldn’t police his sugar intake if he didn’t see the evidence. (But he’d know. He always knew.)

At least she was eager to work on any aspect of her power. “Okay. First things first. I’m going to tell you now that I am a huge advocate for learning mental shielding.” He wasn’t going to say why. “You’ll see why in a minute. For now, I want you to try to use your power on me. As hard as you can.” He didn’t care what she tried to make him do. He just wanted to demonstrate the necessity of mental shielding to her, and what you could do with it as you perfected it. Almost as a reflex, he tightened every corner of his mental shields, knowing full well he’d be in for a headache later. “Go ahead. Try anything you want.”

[Calysma Jamille]

Cal giggled as Chase expounded on his tattoo and Care Bears. She wasn't sure why exactly, but the idea of him, or anyone for that matter, having a tattoo of a Care Bear was just a little funny, to say the least. "Sharks are cool though," she stated seriously. "They eat things and..." she trailed off, losing her thought-line briefly before recentering it and finishing with, "They have a movie about 'em!" And anything with a movie about it had to be cool, right?

And he'd taken her cookie question seriously. She smiled happily. "I like baking things for people!" she insisted. "It's fun!" Fun, and calming too, to an extent. It gave her practice focusing on something without losing track of what she was doing. Though, of course, some of her baking efforts turned out badly. She'd taken to taste testing everything before handing it out a long time ago, after her first incident with using salt instead of sugar for some cookies, or the time she forgot the chocolate in a chocolate cake. She was getting better at having more consistently good results, though.

As he began the more serious talk, about training, she grasped her hands tightly behind her back and listened carefully. Mental shielding. Yes, that was something she could practice without accidentally hurting anyone. But then he asked her to use her power on him. She bit her lip and instantly reacted with, "Wouldn't it be better if you tried yours on me? Since I need to learn shielding? I can sorta shield, and it would probably be better if--"

I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing. He's the trainer. .... And if you don't do what he says he might hurt you.

He won't!

And why on earth are you asking someone to try and mind control you? That's just stupid! Just do what he says before he takes you up on that!

"Sorry," Cal blurted just a heartbeat or so after her earlier protest. "I'll try." She sighed, then took a deep breath to focus. She did this best when she kept eye contact, so she made sure to do so, as she decided on a harmless suggestion. "Chase," she said, doing her best to keep her voice steady and decisive, "I want you to take a pencil, and balance it on your nose."

[Chase Campbell]

Ah, she was laughing. That was a good start. Better than her being afraid of him. He was no stranger to that feeling. It would probably make the bravest of kids a little leery to be paired with the trainer with mind control. It wasn’t exactly a secret what Chase could do. It was why he was so often called upon in situations that needed calming. “I thought sharks were pretty cool at sixteen too. At least I didn’t ask for a speech bubble that says ‘bite me’ or something equally as awful.” That... he probably would have gotten tattooed over as an adult. Because there was no way he was going wandering around with that on his body.

So she was a baker too. Well, he wasn’t going to stop her if she wanted to. “My husband thinks it’s fun too. I’m better at the eating part than the baking part myself. I, uh, burn water.” Which wasn’t exactly true anymore, but close enough. He didn’t mind putting himself down a little in terms of cooking skills if it put his students at ease. It was hard being a teenager, with so many things just out of reach and adults all around able to do things you couldn’t quite do. If this gave her a small confidence boost, then it worked.

Psychic students always wanted to know the answer to that question. Chase just smiled in a calm manner and shrugged slightly. “You’ll get it in a minute. Trust me, there’s a point to this.”

That point was hopefully made clear as she focused on him. The verbal cue didn’t help much, but he did feel the insistent nagging against his shield that something wanted to get in. It was easier than normal to brush off the feeling, being that she wasn’t fully trained yet.

Once she finished, he lifted his head slightly and smiled at her. “And that, is why I teach shielding. It’s a defense against unwanted suggestions or thoughts in our minds. If you don’t want a telepath to read your thoughts, you develop shields.” Even now, he was convinced that if Sean Neville wanted to break through his shields, he probably could, but he couldn’t think of anyone else. “I can teach you how, and we can start now. All I want you to do is concentrate on something for me. A wall, a glass bubble, whatever you want. Just visualize it around your mind. I want to show you the difference between an unprotected suggestion, and a protected one. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come right away. It takes years to learn and perfect.” After a moment, he smiled and slipped down from the desk. “And I can show you how to influence people without ever having to speak a word.” He remembered the urge to speak out loud what he wanted people to do, but it only ever seemed to make them more resistant to what he was trying to do. At least until he’d gotten older. Then, he’d learned how to influence people while speaking in a subtle manner, but that was more for amusement. Like when he used it on his husband from time to time, relaxing him when he was stressed beyond what Chase thought he could handle. A simple verbal ‘relax, Jamie’, was coupled with the mental suggestion. But that wasn’t for now. Now, he was going right back to the basics.

[Calysma Jamille]

Cal snickered at the burning water comment. "You can't burn water," she said. "You can boil up all the water and burn the pot, but not the water." She grinned. "I promise I won't burn your cookies. I'm good at not burning stuff now." She nodded seriously. Burning things had been something she hadn't struggled with very much to start with-- timers were wonderful things. You could just set them, and then forget about them until they went off! Then no matter what was going on, you were reminded to check on the food.

She listened, wide-eyed and excited, as Chase explained the shielding technique. What could she use? A wall could work... A glass bubble would be cool too though.

Glass breaks too easy. Think about a huge castle wall. Lacey insisted.

Cal wrinkled her nose. Those're ugly though. It took a moment longer before she decided that a castle wall probably would be the best after all. However... "Can I imagine decorations on it?" she asked, hopeful as she thought of various castle ramparts with fancy banners hanging from them.

She hesitated when he brought up influencing someone without words, a worried look crossing her face. "I... I don't know if I want to learn how to do that." She bit her lip. Just think of the damage Jamie could do if she took over and had learned that... "I'd rather just learn how to control what I already do. And shield my mind, like you said." She nodded emphatically. She'd had a conversation similar to this one with her past trainer-- unwilling to become good at something that could have such bad outcomes. Really, why couldn't she have gotten a cool power, like flight or language or something that couldn't hurt people?

[Chase Campbell]

This was exactly what Chase hoped for at the start of any new student-trainer relationship. One of the hardest things was to put the kids at ease, and it had been something Chase had had to work at when he’d first started. Since then he’d trained countless kids, as well as been exposed to lots through his in-laws. Plus, he had Niko. “Oh, I promise you. I’ve burned water. I’m that bad.” James could attest to that. Though his skills had improved over the years, they still left a lot to be desired. It was part of the reason why he tended to treasure baked goods.

Chase had gone through a multitude of visualizations when it came to mental shields. Now it was less picturing, and more feeling. If he had to describe it, he would refer to it more as a clear almost force-field like thing, strong as steel. When he was a student, it had been a brick wall, and had evolved from there.

“You can imagine whatever you want, as long as it’s strong and you can picture it clearly.” It could be pink and lacy for all he cared, as long as she thought it was strong.

Her concern did trip him up for a moment, though. Most kids were excited to learn how to control their powers in new ways. Well, they’d just have to take it slow, then. He was okay with that. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s usually baby steps with powers anyway, so we’ll go slow.” Mind control in particular wasn’t exactly an easy power to master, he knew that firsthand. “But by the time you graduate, you’ll be able to do things like this.” And with that, he calmly locked his gaze with Cal’s. “We’ll try this once, without shielding, and then once with. You should be able to feel the difference.” And with that, he reached out with his mind and without saying a word, planted the idea for her to take the pencil and balance it on her own nose.

[Calysma Jamille]

Cal gawked as Chase assured her that he had, in fact, burned water. She hadn't thought that was possible, but if he was saying he did it, he must've. "You must be a really bad cook then." She laughed again. Being at ease was one thing she was good at. Warming up to people was easy, especially if they were really nice.

So the wall could look however she wanted it to look! She grinned. Perfect. So she could have her castle wall with banners and things...

Actually, people can still shoot things over the wall, Lacey mused. Make it a force field like in Star Wars. Those are stronger.

... You're right, that would be cooler. Leave it to Cal to think of the coolness factor over the strength factor.

Stronger. That's the point of this stupid thing, being strong.

All right, all right! Stronger.

She was distracted enough by Lacey's protests that she missed most of what Chase said. Something about baby steps? At least he hadn't sounded mad or disappointed about her hesitation to learn to use her power more strongly... That was the main thing she'd been worried about.

"You should be able to feel the difference," he said.

She did catch that sentence at least. So they were going to be trying something. Cool. She made a mental note to try and pay more attention next time, as she seemed to do hundreds of times a day. She still wished that she had caught the rest of what he'd said... Oh well, she'd catch on eventually. She caught sight of the pencil she'd noticed earlier and wandered over to it. "Hey," she said as she picked it up, "How long did it take you to get your power to work right, anyway?" She studied him as she balanced the pencil absently on her nose. "Was it--"

You realize what just happened, right?

Huh?

He totally just mind controlled you into putting that stupid pencil on your nose.

Cal blinked, losing focus on the pencil and therefore causing it to clatter to the ground. "Did you do that?" she demanded, mildly awed, but also wondering if she should be a little nervous about how easily he'd done that.

Definitely should be, Lacey whispered.

[Chase Campbell]

The trainer grinned at Calysma’s astute observation. “Yep. Pretty terrible. Ask anyone in my family. My son is a bigger help in the kitchen, and he’s twelve.” ... Almost thirteen. Jesus. What was sadder was the fact that Niko had been a bigger help in the kitchen since he was about nine. Though Chase had gotten better, he tended to like to do things like barbeque. Delicate things like baking? Best left to James.

Perhaps he should have warned her a little better. Then again, that would have defeated the purpose of the lesson. He wanted, no, needed for her to know what it felt like when someone took control of your mind without any kind of defenses. If he’d warned her properly, she would have been expecting it. That wasn’t the lesson here. James hadn’t expected to be puppeted by Gabriel Underwood, and the aftermath had been long reaching and terrible. That was just part of the reason he insisted that his students learned some degree of mental shielding, regardless of their powers.

Unsurprisingly, she followed through with his silent suggestion. He’d been more gentle with her than he might have been with anyone else, similar to the touch he used with his husband when he tried to get him out of a panicked state. Also unsurprisingly, she seemed unnerved by what he could do. He and Dr. Neville were similar in that they both caught stigma for their powers. Telepathy and mind control were probably intimidating to other people, but Sean and Chase wouldn’t abuse their powers unless faced with a life or death situation.

Holding up his hands to signal that he didn’t mean any harm, he simply nodded. “Yes, I did do that. And to answer your question, it took years. It isn’t an easy power to control.” And he could only imagine it would be made more difficult for Cal. “I had good control when I graduated, but I spent years afterwards refining that control. It’s hard to learn a light touch and fine control, but you’ll get there.” He had no doubts of that. “Now. Picture your barrier. We’re going to try it again.”

[Calysma Jamille]

For a moment, Cal hovered in between remaining unnerved at Chase's power, and being in awe at the ease with which he'd used it. Lacey continued to insist that that no matter how harmless what he'd influenced her to do was, it was still not safe to be around someone who could do that so easily. However, her naturally trusting and impressed personality combated it very strongly.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly as she imagined a door, imagined Lacey on the other side of it, and imagined shutting the door. Sure, that wouldn't work for long, but it would hopefully last long enough for her to calm down about Chase, at least. When she opened her eyes again, it was with a grin. "That was cool!" she said, perfectly earnest. "That you're so good at it," she clarified. Being mind controlled itself wasn't particularly fun, she supposed, but seeing a glimpse of how cool the power could be was.

All right. Trying it again. She clasped her hands behind her back and closed her eyes as she pictured her barrier-- a blue, glowy force field globe around her mind. "My other trainer and my counselor had me practice picturing things a lot," she chatted aloud, eyes still closed. "It's a good way to keep the other people from distracting me." She cracked an eye open briefly. "Did they tell you about my other people?"

Goodness, she loved not having Lacey around sometimes-- it was so much easier to be comfortable when she wasn't second-guessing everything she said. Sure, her suspicious friend had helped her a lot, but sometimes, a lot of the time, she tried to help when help wasn't needed, and it was really unhelpful then.

[Chase Campbell]

Chase was used to various kinds of stigma when it came to his power. Anything from anti-meta groups like PUSE to people that just didn’t understand psychic powers. Hell, even some of his friends back home weren’t comfortable with what he could do. Some of his students had deemed it ‘cool’, but there were others that weren’t fans at all. At least with his students, unless they were completely out of hand and putting other students or staff members at risk, he always let them know what he was about to do before doing it, and if they weren’t comfortable, he stopped. Simple as that.

The trainer allowed a small smile at Cal, relaxing a little. So she wasn’t terrified. That was a step in the right direction. Especially if she wanted to learn how to use her power. “It takes a long time. Sometimes longer than some of the other powers. Especially to really refine control. It’s not easy.” Even his finite control he’d best learned since being with his husband.

Good, she was concentrating. But talking tended to break that concentration. Still, she asked a good question. “Yes, I was told. And it’s in your file. Now, no talking. Concentrate as hard as you can, because I’m going to try again. This time, tell me what you feel afterwards.” With those instructions in place, he once again pushed his mind forward. This time, he felt the resistance of her new shields. They could have been easy to break through, but that wasn’t going to teach her what he wanted to her to learn. He just wanted her to feel the difference. Rather than push through, he pulled back and folded his arms. “How did that feel this time? Different?” Once she had learned about shielding, it only took practice to strengthen them. Once she had those basics down, they could move on.

[Calysma Jamille]

Not easy to refine control. Cal gave a quiet sigh. This she knew, and she wasn't particularly looking forward to having to work on refining the whole mind control part of this power. Mental shielding though... That she was totally cool with. Even though it might not be fun sometimes, in the long run it'd be super useful and something she could actually use. She never wanted to mind control people though... so really, why did people want her to learn how? Ah well, she could ask later.

Of course he'd been told about the other people. Good and bad, she guessed. At least she wouldn't have to go through the whole explaining it process. She was fine with talking about Emily, Emily was nice and comforting, even if she didn't like being talked about. Really, she was okay with talking about Lacey, too, if it came down to that. Lacey was annoying, but not scary at all. Jamie on the other hand... nope, she didn't want to talk about her. So it was definitely a good thing she wouldn't have to explain.

No talking. Right. She squeezed her eyes shut again and focused on her barrier. After a moment, she felt something bump up against it. Chase? Probably.

"How did that feel this time? Different?" he asked.

Opening her eyes again, she nodded with enthusiasm. "It did! It felt like a... Like someone tripping into a wall, if I was a wall, or something." She grinned. "That means I did it right then, right?" She felt a surge of triumph. "It's about visualizing mostly then? Is there more to it that I'll learn too? Is that how it felt when I tried to mind control you earlier?" Yes, mental shielding was definitely something she could get excited about.