Workin' on It

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau felt odd. This was mostly because he'd willingly entered the training room that he'd been told to enter. He'd spent so much time avoiding places like this, and now it almost seemed silly, especially given his ability and its strange tendencies. Beau supposed he shouldn't be too hard on himself; he hadn't asked for this whole meta thing in the first place. Just thinking about the power that lay within him was usually enough to make Beau's skin crawl. Actually using it? That never sat well with him.

Still, Beau LeRoux wanted to graduate on time, and graduation was a few months away. There wasn't anything that said explicitly that not doing well with your power could keep you from graduating, at least, nothing that Beau was aware of. His parents had heard about him skipping lessons, and that had been more than enough. The Institute had been one thing, and Beau had been more or less attending the lessons at their orders, but when the LaRouxs told one of their children to buckle down and do things...

Well, that was why Beau was there now, wearing a pair of loose sweats and a muscle shirt and feeling a bit like an idiot. Supposedly they were giving him a new trainer, or, well, honestly Beau couldn't remember the name of his normal trainer. This one was named Everett Lilien, and he was apparently younger. Beau wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing; it didn't really matter.

He looked around, figuring that his trainer had to be here somewhere. Trainers got their ahead of time, right? "You really oughta know," Beau muttered under his breath, taking a deep breath to further back up the statement. "Mr. Lilien" had to be around here somewhere...

[Everett Lilien]

Everett was finally taking on a new student and it seemed that he just couldn't get lucky. He always seemed to get the really resistant or rude ones. Hopefully Beau was just resistant. He'd been told by his last trainer that he'd skipped most of his lessons and now they were trying to pass him on to another trainer and Everett was that lucky guy. Besides, he had the least amount of students to train at the moment. However, he was glad that for once it wasn't a female student, not like he had anything against them, but it might be easier to help a male, who thought similarly to him.

It didn't help that he was running late to their meeting though. He was hoping that Beau was still in the training room as he rushed there, folders and papers in his hand. The young blonde trainer had gotten distracted by a comic book, a distraction he was happy to oblige to as usual, but was now more prone to because of everything going on with his sister and his best friend.

He threw open the door to the training room, knowing that because he was in a rush and feeling quite chaotic that he was charged with electricity. He was proved right when the lights in the training room flickered. Thankfully, he saw a single student in the room and sighed in relief. "Beau Laroux?" he asked.

[Beau LaRoux]

The flickering lights caught Beau's attention moments before the actual trainer did. He'd looked up at them, wondering what kind of power would do something like that, then looked over and saw someone who couldn't have been much older than Beau. He knew the Southern boy's name though, even if he hadn't used the full first name. Beau wasn't going to complain; Beauregard sounded more like a Confederate general or cranky front-porch dwelling grandfather than the boy standing there.

"Yessir," he said, nodding, "I'm Beau, an' I'm, uh, supposed to be meeting Mr. Lilien for trainin'?" he glanced up at the lights, and could feel a little tingle running through his body. Electricity, maybe? Beau had some experience with that, but it wasn't his strongest suit. He had a feeling that it would be soon enough, if his trainer was some kinda electrokinetic (or whatever you called it).

"Uh, you're an electrokine-whatsit, right?" asked Beau, shifting his weight. He licked his lips for a moment, wondering if he was supposed to be, like, using that power or how Lilien wanted this to go. Surely the trainer had already gotten his file and knew what Beau's power was, not to mention the training, or lack thereof, the boy had already gone through...

[Everett Lilien]

"I was going to try to pronounce your full name, but I'm sure you don't want to hear me try and if you do, props for your sense of humor," Everett told the young boy with a smile. Whoever had named him sure wanted to make things complicated, or hoped their son would be very sophistacted upon growing up.

Right away, his accent came through and Everett almost found it distracting, being from California and then living in Pilot Ridge since he got sent to Hammel. "And that would be me, but please don't call me that. It makes me sound dignified which I absolutely am not." He grinned again. "Everett, alright? We'll be on a first name basis. That's how I like to start out training. Sound good?"

"And yes, electrokinetic," he corrected the boy, feeling somewhat smart that he could correct anybody on anything even if it happened to be the power he'd been living with since age thirteen. "Sorry about the lights by the way. When I get frazzled, I tend to conduct electricity. It's really not a big deal." Unless he was in a lightning storm, which he didn't want to think about because it terrified him. He looked down at the file again, trying to refresh himself on Beau. His power. Shit! "And...I forgot you were a power mimic. Sorry...I was informed of that. I'll tone it down." He used what he learned to try and tone down the electricity coursing through him. Couldn't start out training with having him mimic a power he didn't know how to control on accident. Damn, he couldn't imagine. It was like having everyone's powers, having all of the powers rather than just one.

"Anyway, enough of that...I was told you weren't going to your other training sessions?" he asked.

[Beau LaRoux]

Beau smiled and chuckled at Everett's admission of the name. LaRoux was hard enough as it was, not to mention having the Beauregard part tossed on there; sometimes Beau even wondered if his parents didn't want to make it difficult for people. Not like they couldn't have named him one of those simpler names like his older brothers got.

And calling his trainer by his first name? That made Beau's eyes widen for a moment. He'd never thought of doing that before, but he supposed he could understand why someone as young as Everett might prefer it that way. There couldn't be more than ten years between them, not given Everett's ability. "Ain't gonna get no argument from me, Everett sir," said Beau. The sir was automatic, so automatic that Beau didn't even register that he said it.

Nor did he really mind being corrected all that much. Sometimes the fancy names for all these powers just got tangled up in Beau's tongue. The blow was softened even further by having the trainer admit to having difficulties controlling his ability, always nice to know you were dealing with a human. "Don't gotta worry too much," said Beau, shrugging, "I got a good range of 'bout ten feet or so, but it ain't gonna be more than fuzzy at that. So 'less you get up close, I ain't gonna start sparkin'." Funny how all these powers had to manifest in just slightly different ways. The thought was enough to keep Beau's pleasant mood afloat for a little while longer.

It sank immediately with Everett's question. "Well, uh," Beau licked his lips, shifting his feet. His hands went into his pockets as if the right words were hidden in there. "I sort of don't much care for the whole meta thing, truth be told. Ain't really somethin' I asked for, an' I don't much like bringin' it up if I don't have to," Beau shrugged, "didn't really want to be reminded of it all that much. 'course," he looked up at his trainer, "now I know better. I wanna get a handle on it, figure it out an' all that."

Well, that went well enough... right?

[Everett Lilien]

"Good to know," Everett pointed out, scribbling the note about the distance factor on the information sheet he had about Beau. "I don't wish my power upon anybody with power mimicry especially since it's dangerous." He didn't like to talk about it, but he hated his power sometimes. He'd spent all of his time at Hammel trying to convince himself that he loved it, causing power outages so his classes would get cancelled and shocking his friends for fun after he'd charged up enough electricity. He'd even gotten used to his hair sticking up on end all the time. But he couldn't say that it was easy.

"Nobody asks for it, Beau, but when life throws something at you, you have to adapt to it or things will really start to get messy and quickly." It just happened to be that most people didn't have strange powers. "But I'm glad that you realize it's good to know how to control it because once you know how, you can decide when you want to use it or if you want to at all."

He wasn't going to blame Beau for what he'd done or hadn't done actually. Being a teenager sucked and it sucked more when you had meta powers.