Power Swap: Explain this nonsense! (Sean)

[Sophie Tillman]

Monday had been a bumper day for Sophie as one of the clinic's on-hand meta specialists. It wasn't uncommon, exactly, for a meta or three to darken their doorstep everyday, but their reasons were almost always totally mundane. Even shapeshifters got the flu, after all. But yesterday was different.

First had been the man in his late thirties, his left forearm covered in burns. He wasn't sure what had happened, he told Sophie. He was a telekinetic, and he'd only been trying to pass himself the salt shaker from the other end of the table. Instead, the sleeve of his bathrobe had burst into flames.

Not long after him came the young woman hidden behind enormous sunglasses, wide-brimmed hat, and the collar of her coat hitched high. A thick layer of makeup gave her the look of attempting to cover a nasty case of shingles, but no - they were scales. The woman had awoke as an iguana and had yet to fully change back.

And on and on it went.

Today should have been Sophie's day off, but she agreed to come in and help with the growing number of meta walk-ins. For many, there was nothing the clinic could do, especially because they had as little clue what was going on as anybody else.

For Sophie herself, the change was more subtle. In order to accommodate the high metabolism that came coupled with her power, on most work days she was afforded two half-hour lunch breaks instead of one hour in the middle of the day. The better to space out the inordinately large meals she required. The first red flag was when she could barely eat half of her first meal before becoming uncomfortably full, a sensation she hadn't felt since adolescence. After the second meal and a dozen more patients Sophie had her suspicions, but she wasn't about to swallow anything dangerous to test it.

So today, still stuffed from her first break, Sophie had asked for an extension on the second so she could drive to Hammel and check on the place. If this thing was widespread, Lord only knew how the administration was handling it, let alone hundreds of untrained children.

The drive was short, as was the walk to Dr. Neville's office, as much of a hurry she was in. If she had time she wanted to run by the infirmary as well, but the psychiatrist was Sophie's main contact at the institute and surely if anybody understood what was happening, it was him.

Arriving at his office, Sophie's knuckles rapped purposefully against the wooden door. Time to get to the bottom of this.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Monday had been a disaster for Sean. The only positive for the entire day had come in the form of Labor Day, in that he had off from Hammel. This had afforded him the ability to remain home the entire day, not stepping outside of the house for any reason, instead retreating into his home as a form of refuge.

As a telepath, Sean was highly attuned to his powers. He viewed telepathy as an additional sense – his most cherished one, beyond his five normative ones; he relied so heavily on telepathy in his life that he didn’t even think about all of the unconscious information he gleaned. He knew when people lied to him. He knew when people were upset despite a lack of outward indication. He knew people’s names before meeting them. He knew when people were nearby, long before he heard or saw them. He knew what to expect of other people, and so he was so rarely surprised. He knew how to modify his behavior in order to set others at ease.

Without it, he felt blind and deaf and utterly ill-at-ease.

Sean had manifested his telepathy at the tender age of twelve, shortly before the Stonewall riots. He had had his powers for as long as the modern push for LGBT rights had existed in the United States. As a result, he had long since forgotten what it was to live without telepathy, and that unraveled him.

Fortunately, Josh had been home as well, as Labor Day was a federal holiday that closed down the court system.

By the end of the next morning, he was functional enough to go to Hammel. Not functional enough to be of much use to anyone, but he was needed. Students had also found themselves without their powers, either completely baseline, or with strange new powers. The Hammel Research Department was investigating, but as it had been only one day, they had no explanation.

So the former telepath sat in his office trying to hold himself together and compile resources for students who might need him.

The knock on the door jarred him from his thoughts. The fact that he had no idea who was outside sent another mournful jolt through him, and he bit back the specter of depression. “Come in.”

[Sophie Tillman]

While waiting to be granted entrance, Sophie reflected that it would have been a good idea to call ahead before simply showing up. It must have slipped her mind in all the confusion; if Dr. Neville was busy, perhaps she could make herself useful in the infirmary.

Fortunately, that proved not to be the case, and Sophie wasted no time in swinging the door open and striding in.

"Afternoon, Doctor," she greeted him, albeit more somberly than most of their encounters. "Nice to see y'all haven't burned the place down."

She was only half joking - Hammel had survived its share of disasters and it would take a lot to bring the place to its knees, but all the same, Sophie was grateful to know the situation wasn't quite that dire yet.

Instead of waiting to be offered a seat, she stepped forward and placed a small container of brownies on Dr. Neville's desk, a staple of her visits to the man's office. She'd baked a batch the previous night for the colleagues she expacted to be harried today, and setting aside a few for the doctor was a simple matter.

"Somethin's been happening in town," Sophie launched right into her query. "It's been metas in an' out all day since yesterday over at the clinic. It's the powers - it's like folks just woke up an' manifested again. How's the school holdin' up? How're you holding up, Doctor?"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Hello, Sophie.” Sean managed a small smile, although it failed to reach his eyes. He did not feel particularly social at the moment, given that he had only marginal control over his emotions. Truly, he wanted to return home and curl back up under the covers in bed. He wanted to call Josh and ask his partner to return home so they could spend the rest of the day together.

Instead, the psychiatrist was at his desk, and only his obligations and work ethic kept him from packing in for the day.

Unfortunately, neither his fondness for Sophie nor his love of brownies could lift his spirits in this situation.

“Everyone is coping to the best of their ability.” He did not reach for a brownie because he had no appetite. That alone signaled to everyone who knew him that something was amiss.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the town had been affected, just as Hammel had. Pilot Ridge had a sizeable adult meta-human population, not only those who worked at the school, but those who had retired, those who owned their own businesses or worked for other people or the government. While not everyone had been affected, there had been no pockets (through residence or employment) spared it seemed. “The researchers are investigating, but they don’t have any information yet.”

As for how he was doing... “And I have a headache.”

That was honest, but it barely scratched the surface.

[Sophie Tillman]

Dr. Neville ignoring delicious baked goods? Good grief, maybe Hammel was in trouble after all.

Sophie sighed before taking a seat across from the man. It was no surprise to hear that no real progress had been made - how was a problem like this supposed to be studied, and safely at that? Sophie herself was pretty sure her own ability had changed, but unless she knew she could test it out without causing a terrible accident, she was just fine being in the dark. She would miss her power, which she saw as a blessing, but it went so rarely used she could surely adjust to life without it.

"Well, stop by the clinic an' ah'll fix you up with somethin' for that," Sophie told him. If the doctor didn't have any aspirin in his office he could undoubtedly find some in the infirmary, but she threw it out there anyway. "Headaches are about all we can do right now anyway. You should see somma these folks we got comin' in these last few days, askin' for a pill or a shot that'll stop 'em glowin' at night or seein' through walls. It's a madhouse."

Sophie paused, taking in the sight of the weary man, and sighed again. It was one thig to wake up without the abilities you'd grown accustomed to, maybe even depended on. It was another thing entirely to also be responsible for the well being of a building full of kids, having to adjust as quickly as possible for their sake.

"Ah wish ah knew how to help, Doctor," she told him quietly. "If it helps, you're handlin' it better than maybe ninety percent of the metas I've seen since Monday."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean wished that he had the appetite for brownies, because, like every batch she shared with him, they smelled delicious. Perhaps his stomach would settle in a bit so that he could indulge, although he had little hope of that. His appetite had disappeared with the discovery yesterday morning, and it had yet to return.

He shook his head and tapped his desk to indicate one of the drawers. “I keep Excedrin with me, so I should be fine, but thank you.” He could handle a headache. As much as it hurt, it was nothing worse than he had experienced before, and he knew how to administer the correct dosage to himself. He would probably need less, without his powers now.

Sean flashed her what he hoped passed for a grateful smile, although he knew that it had not reached his eyes. He felt too despondent to fake a convincing smile. “I appreciate that, but I’m not surprised to hear it.”

She had not seen him yesterday, during the worst of it. He had had a full day to cope, and he had responsibilities to the students and to the rest of the staff members. Wallowing in complete despair or panicking were simply luxuries that he could not indulge at work. Other people relied on him. “How many people have been affected?” The Research Department only had preliminary numbers, nothing exact.

Then, because he had no way of confirming this otherwise, he asked, “Did you lose your powers?”

Sophie fell into the category of person about whom he was most concerned. Not necessarily Sophie herself, since she showed good judgment, but those with powers like hers. The cellular regenerators, the matter ingesters, those with enhanced durability. While he felt as though he had a disability in the absence of his telepathy and had trouble coping, he would not die from the loss of his powers.

Someone used to defying death very well could, if they went about their typical routines before discovering the absence of their powers. His thoughts had turned to Vincent Verax more than once, wondering if he had lost his powers and possibly his life due to one of his stunts. Unfortunately, the young man had left Pilot Ridge when he had dropped out of Hammel, and thus Sean did not know how to find him to check in with him.

[Sophie Tillman]

It was difficult seeing Dr. Neville distressed, even as much as he tried to hide it. Not only because Sophie considered the man a friend, but because of the role she was used to him playing. Dr. Neville was the grounded, steadfast one; the person who knew everything. It was an unreasonable expectation, and certainly unfair of her to put the man on a pedestal. But it was a habit she had yet to break.

"Yesterday was ...twenty, maybe twenty-five," she told him. "By the time ah left today we musta had at least thirty, and we still got a few hours yet. Ah'll see about gettin' you some real numbers when ah head back." That would be easy enough to do without breaking any rules or violating anybody's privacy.

Sophie hesitated at the doctor's question. The fact that he was asking out loud didn't necessarily cement it for her - telepath though he was, she knew the man often asked questions he had the answer to already, not being one to flaunt such an advantage. But as far as she knew, this mystery affected all metas in Pilot Ridge, and probably further out.

Lord, what a change to cope with.

"Ah believe so," Sophie replied grimly. "Ah can't say for sure, but somethin's definitely different."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean took the news regarding numbers of those afflicted stoically, nodding a single time to acknowledge her words but otherwise not reacting. Thirty in two days fit with what he had learned at the staff meeting this morning, where they had discussed strategies and had divided up work. Given the small size of the clinic, thirty was a lot of people to have been affected, as those thirty were not at Hammel, which removed the bulk of the meta-human population in Pilot Ridge. Hammel students and staff members were such a large segment of the total population of Pilot Ridge.

And that was only Pilot Ridge. The question remained whether it had spread elsewhere. As well as what had caused it.

The former telepath nodded again, looking up at her. If she was affected as well, then she had certainly coped better than he did. Sophie looked healthy and both spoke and walked with purpose, contrasted with how helpless and out of touch he himself felt. “I wouldn’t have you test that, given your power.” Sophie’s power was purely physical, just as Sean’s had been purely mental. If she tested it and had lost her power, then she could grow ill or require surgery, or, worse, she could die. That was not something to test in a cavalier fashion.

He leaned back, tilting his head toward the ceiling while he thought. “The two most worrisome aspects are the why, and the reports of some people having new powers. Since this flies in the face of anything that should be possible with powers, it’s potentially dangerous.”

[Sophie Tillman]

Over the last day and a half, many of Sophie's patients had been people totally unfamiliar to her. Folks who had either never visited the clinic, or who had never come in for meta-related complications. There were a handful who had been by before but never identified themselves as metas, as well as a number who lived outside the city limits and knew that there was at least one meta on staff at the Pilot Ridge clinic when everything started to hit the fan. If this kept up, Sophie thought, she'd have to make a note of how many were going out of their way to seek help in town.

"Has this ever happened before?" Sophie posited tentatively, while Sean appeared to be studying the ceiling. She had only been in health care for a few years, and he had been a meta much longer. "Even with just a few people?"

It was hard to believe that such a bizarre change could occur out of the blue without any precedent. For all Sophie knew, there may well be a number of metas who had experienced such a change and adapted rather than reporting it. A more immature version of herself might have laughed at the thought of the phenomenon being "potentially dangerous" - with the assorted injuries and distress she had already attended to, however, Sophie had a hard time finding amusement in the situation.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean shook his head quickly, answering her question with a clear no. “I’ve never encountered anything like this before.” Not once in the forty-five years that he had been meta-human had anything like this occurred, not on this scale, not even involving only a single person. “I’ve never even heard of something like this occurring in the past.” Not from word of mouth, not from conferences with other, older meta-humans across the globe, not from the thoughts of trainers, not in any of the books or journals he had read over the decades.

“The only things I know of that can even affect meta-human powers are power suppressors or power augmenters. And those powers are uncommon, the effects are one-on-one and temporary, and they have to be in the same room as the meta-human being affected.” That came as no surprise, since anyone who went through Hammel had encountered one or the other, either as staff or as a student.

The psychiatrist sighed softly, spreading his hands to admit defeat. “I can’t fathom a cause of this.” He couldn’t fathom what could rip his telepathy from him, what could affect so many other faculty members, students, residents of Pilot Ridge and elsewhere. How this had occurred and why some were affected while others had been spared. None of it made sense.

[Sophie Tillman]

Sophie's stomach sank at the doctor's reply; there was no precedent for this at all? Neither had she ever known any meta to suddenly develop new powers, or lose their established ones - at least without the direct interference of a surpressor, like he mentioned. But she had only been part of the community for a fraction of the time that Dr. Neville had, and in health care for a few years. She had hoped, with his experience, he might have known something... but apparently not.

"Has there been any news from out of town?" Sophie tried. She had been so caught up at the clinic since the start of this fiasco that she hadn't had much time to look into a possible spread, but she knew a fair amount of metas left Pilot Ridge upon completing their training at Hammel. If this wasn't localized, what was happening to them? "Everyone ah've dealt with so far lives here. But if we knew how far this thing goes, maybe..."

Maybe what? They would know just how far up a creek they were? There had been nothing to indicate that the power swap was contagious, although they couldn't rule it out just yet. They couldn't rule out anything yet, really. Sophie's lips pursed in frustration - they practically knew nothing at all.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

That was the question. Sean shook his head before explaining, “The Headmistress contacted the Board of Trustees and all of the international meta-human schools, but we’re waiting to hear back from most of them. The Russian school denies having problems, but they’ve never been cooperate before.” The Russian school was run as a military installation, and so the psychiatrist had no expectations that they would admit to weakness, unpredictability, or instability.

Kocher and the Japanese school would be honest. The research institutions would want to inquire further, surely. However, Sean had heard no updates from Yvette yet.

Although he continued to lack his appetite, he eyed the platter of brownies. Perhaps he could will himself to force one down, or half of one, anything so as not to seem rude when Sophie had gone out of her way to bring him a treat. Still, he did not reach for one, not yet, not until he was sure that he could force one down without it coming back up in front of her.

“The research department is working to find a pattern for those affected, but they need more data.” He paused, and then asked, “Would your clinic be willing to help with that? You could contact everyone you’ve seen in the past two days to get permission for HIPPA, and then pass it on to the research department. I’m sure they’d love to have any additional information.”

[Sophie Tillman]

Only one response so far? If the problem really was everywhere, she knew the other institutions might be in a chaotic enough state that getting back to Hammel immediately would be a relatively low priority... but all the same, Sophie couldn't help feeling disappointed. She wanted clues as much as anybody. And once she left Dr. Neville's office she would once again be faced with patient after confused patient, with no more tools to help them than when she'd arrived.

"Ah'll ask Dr. Roberts when I get back," she assured him. "As swamped as we've been, ah can't imagine he won't want to do as much as possible to figure this out. A few folks might not go for it - " Sophie's thoughts went to the iguana woman, who had been so embarrassed by her condition that she'd been reluctant to identify herself to the staff at all - "but most of 'em want answers as much as they want help."

All day long, every single person Sophie had seen at the clinic had had the same questions - how? why? why us? what can we do? - which was only natural, of course. And several of her patients had been outraged that neither she nor Dr. Roberts had any explanation. It was hard for her to blame them, seeing what a disaster the change had been for many of them, but it did serve to steel her resolve. When Dr. Neville and Hammel's other staff finally heard back from schools around the globe, Sophie wanted them to have as much information as she could give them.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

“Thank you. I’m sure that the researchers will appreciate that.” Sean said that from expectation rather than the certainty that came from telepathy. He missed that certainty; he missed the overwhelming knowledge that came from the power that he had coped with and learned to control for forty-five years.

The psychiatrist then sighed and shook his head to himself. He had to focus. The entire point of coming into Hammel today was because he had work to do, and he had to push past his own feelings of loss in order to help the students, the rest of the staff, and the surrounding community. He had to be Doctor Neville, with all of the expectations that title and persona implied.

“What worries me most is that someone is going to rely on a power that they lost, and they’ll get hurt.” Or killed. Sam Rixon came to mind, or Vincent Verax, wherever he was these days. “Or if someone has developed something they can’t control.”

What if someone developed superhuman strength without realizing it? They could hurt someone so badly. Or if someone developed telepathy or mind control and had to deal with the ensuing psychological consequences. Worst of all, there was nothing that he could do about anything, and that feeling of impotence only exacerbated how he felt about the loss of his powers.

[Sophie Tillman]

"Well, if news spreads fast enough, maybe we can prevent anythin' too serious..." Sophie offered, sounding more hopeful than she felt. He was right, of course - there were plenty of metas who were so accustomed to their powers that they used them everyday without a second thought. A handful had already shown up in her clinic. It would be impossible to get the word out before some meta or another, simply going about their day as normal, would cause major damage to themselves, or their homes, or other people... if it hadn't happened already. It was only luck that Sophie's power wasn't one that had any real day-to-day uses, or she might have been in serious trouble herself.

In the meantime, what was there to do for those who were aware of the changes, even if they had no idea how they had come about? All day Sophie had been suggesting to patients that they try to rely on their powers as little as possible until more information came to light, but there were bound to be accidents. New pyros living in flammable houses, new psychometrists attempting to drive cars, it was a nightmare.

"What if..." she began, an idea forming; it would be an unsustainable solution at best, a match in a powder keg at worst, but at this point Sophie felt anything would be worth running by Dr. Neville. "...How many extra metas do y'all think you can accommodate here? Not as like students in the dorms but just folks who're scared of their new powers and lookin' for help? Are all the trainers here... have they all been affected to?"