driftfleet | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Wrath, Winter, Beverly, Charles, and Erik
Broadcast: None
Action: on the Iskaulit
When: June 4

[Wrath's very excited about having so many of her friends around. While she likes showing off the Windrose, she decided the Iskaulit would be a better place. There are plenty of spare rooms not far from the mural where she can set up temporarily, and this way she's not taking up her ship's dining area and making things difficult for her crewmates.

She's got snacks lined up--including more dried bacon kelp--and an array of good drinks. Officer Snuggles, released from his tactical fox vest, is hanging around in the hopes that some ~~sucker~~ kind stranger will feed him under the table.

A deck of cards is waiting, and she managed to find a box of game tokens that should work well during one last trip to the moon. Everything's ready.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

One of my best friends at home is an empath and we poker almost every week. She's only half-human though: it's her Betazoid heritage that gives her her abilities. I have not heard of humans who have developed telepathy, without technological help at least.

[ Betazoid. That had been one of the species Jim had mentioned. Charles drums his fingers against his arm rest. ]

From what I have heard, Betazoids aren't . . . quite up to my level in terms of telepathy. As for my powers, they come from the fact that I am a mutant, the next step of human evolution.

It depends on the individual. Some Betazoids have stronger telepathic senses than others.

[She tilts her head thoughtfully.]

My son is not telepathic but he has... developed mental abilities that are unusual, perhaps the next stage of evolution as well.

[ Perhaps. Charles is still odd, in terms of telepathic power. It frustrates him, on many levels. ]

How so? When did they manifest?

Only recently. I'll admit, I don't fully understand it all, but he is capable of seeing time and space in such a way as to allow him to travel between planes.

[ That doesn't sound telepathic. ]

Which planes?

Different universes, different time periods.

[ Hmm. He absently touches his chin. ]

There have been powers like that. Which send the mind back in time. I've done something similar, though I don't have the power to project myself there.

However it works, I'm glad that he has found...a calling, I suppose. He has a teacher now and is learning how to use his abilities and I have no doubt he'll go on to do great things with them.

[Always the proud mama.]

That's always a relief to hear. Not everyone can find the right teacher for them.

No. Nor are such abilities always readily accepted.

[The Zalkonians come to mind here.]

No. They rarely are.

[She gives him a sympathetic look. She can’t know for herself what it feels like to be ostracized for having special abilities, but she can imagine at least, as a mother, how she would feel if Wesley were shunned or attacked for his abilities.]

It’s important, then, what you plan to do. Everyone deserves to have a safe space where they can be themselves and where they can find a community.

[ Charles nods absently. ]

That's why I plan to have a school. So everyone can have that security and freedom of choice.

May I ask... how many people have started developing abilities like yours? As far as I know, Wesley is the only human who can do what he does, so I'm curious.

[ He considers this, thinking about the millions of lights in Cerebro. ]

Hundreds. We usually develop our powers during puberty.

Hmm. Any notion of what triggered it?

Oh, certainly. There is a new gene that has emerged from the DNA pool known as the X gene. It's located at the 23rd chromosome.

Fascinating, how the universes diverge. What year is it for you, back home?

It's 1973.

Hmm. So our divergences happened earlier... I've been finding that my timeline seems to mostly diverge in the 1990s from a lot of other people I've met here, which strikes me as... odd. I've been trying to figure out if there is some sort of pattern in when Atroma brings people from.

Diverge how?

You probably won't find a pattern to when, I'm afraid. The last time I was in a place like this, it was ten years ago.

Well, it's the year 2370 for me and no such gene exists for us. So no doubt by the time your Earth reaches my year, it will look extremely different from my Earth, because of that influence.

And what I mean about the "when" of it all is that the majority of people here seem to originate from Earth, and of those, a surprising number come from the turn of the millennium.

Ah, that's less surprising. Mutants, as far as I know, are a trademark of my world and timelines that diverge from it. Or vice-versa, I suppose. It's not a common phrase in other alternate timelines or universes.

[She nods thoughtfully. “Mutant” would definitely not have a positive connotation in her world. She’d never thought to call Wesley that and neither had anyone else.]

It makes sense, though. With an infinite number of possible universes out there, the differences between some will be relatively minor while for others they will be radically different.

It’s just that before Atroma intervened, I had never had experience with any that were so far removed from my own.