A Weighty Situation

With a sporty towel looped around his neck, Cade moseyed through the halls of Foresta without a care in the world, despite there being so much for him to worry about. It seemed that the school was finally doing some good for him. He had a job he could focus on, students who cared little for his program so they hardly bothered him, and on top of it all he was a free agent again. No more winged women to stomp on his heart and a lack of blind people to bust his bones. While it was not exactly favourable, he supposed there was still a future for him and no doubt more single teachers around for him to fondle.

For the time being though, it was off to the gym for him. His attire was slightly too fancy for pumping lead, but as he opened the door to the weight room it became clear to him that he wouldn’t be working out today anyway. Within the second that he entered the room, he rushed back out, cursing in a clearly terrified manner, no doubt returning to his office so he could assume the fetial position outside of the public eye.

Any curious to see what had scared the Mathematician witless would find Lotte Schmidt, the resident physics teacher who also just so happened to be a gigantic housefly (it’s complicated). The compound eyes of the creature peered over at the doorway for a brief moment as the sound of the man’s clear agony became apparent to her, but her attention soon went back to the matter at hand.

Lotte knelt back down, her wings twitching a bit as she did and continued to remove the weights from the bench press machine, just barely managing to lift them off from the bar and onto her dolly. As she placed the weight down, she sighed, her lower jaw splitting apart and allowing her labellum to dangle as she gasped for air. She peered back at how many more weights she left to acquire and didn’t hold much hope for herself.

“Inefficient. Must be easier way” she mumbled as she pushed her labellum back into her mandibles. She then frisked off her poncho, allowing her second set of twiggy insect arms to roam free, but as she gripped the next weighty disk the tiny legs proved to be next to useless.

He hadn't really wanted to admit it before, but after being at Foresta for about half a year - it was time to get to the bottom of this power thing. He had decided this when he had woken up and proceeded to find the guidance counseling list to get a better idea of who he should be talking too. It was a little flyer he had seen scattered in different parts of the school, specifically on a bulletin board in the student lounge. "Lotte Schmidt," Graham mumbled the name to himself as he traveled over to the classrooms, intent on finding this teacher that he hadn't quite had a class with yet.

He had heard plenty of rumors about her though and how strange her appearance was, some students seemed to find it cool while the general student populace were typically freaked out. After venturing to the classrooms though and finding that she wasn't there, Graham started to ask around and discovered that the teacher he was looking for was in the weight room. Wasn't she some sort of bug lady though? Why would she be trying to lift weights?

Graham shook the question out of his mind for the time being and headed toward the weight room, a loud cry came to his ears and Graham saw Cade rush past him in a terrified manner. Growing hesitant, the young man paused briefly and found - looking back at Cade's trail of dust before continuing onward.

Stopping at the door of the weight room, Graham leaned into the room slightly - taking a moment to look around before spotting the person (thing?) that he was looking for. "Oh." The teenager blurted out, seeming surprised by this woman that he was seeing for the first time. Stepping into the room nonetheless, Graham cleared his throat "Ms. Schmidt? I'm Graham Lowell, I was wondering if you weren't too busy if I could get your help on something."

Lotte continued to fiddle around with the weights and attempted to lift them in a plethora of different manners, but the result stayed relatively the same. As she lugged yet another disk onto her wheeled platform, she ceased again to catch her breath. It would seem that her body was the limitation, she needed another, which was just another way of saying she needed to bribe one of the students to help her. None seemed to be particularly interested in what she was doin and right before she could go around asking for favours, a young boy came through the door, his eyes clearly pointing at her.

She lumbered her body around, facing the child before he even spoke to or even acknowledged her. “Graham…” she muttered as her mandibles absently clicked during her thought process. As good as her memory was, names weren’t her strong suit, but his was in the first file of her mental filing cabinet. “Yes, counselling. Sorry for inconvenience. Would be in office, but…” she trailed off as her reflective eyes peered back at her collection of weights. “Needed for project. Building trebuchet for future class.”

Lotte proceeded to roll her shoulder, the wing on that side of her body twitching in the process. She turned back around, in order to get back to business, stating “talk while work, yes? Helps us both.” One of her twiggy abdomen arms pointed toward the other end of the machine she was scavenging off of. “Hrm, didn’t read file. Too long, didn’t interest. Quick reminder, powers of mental variety? Came for life advice or power advice? Of Pyxis dorm?” she continued in a rapid fire succession for the sake of testing the boy’s speed and whether or not she needed to slow down.

Lotte acknowledged him so quickly that Graham's brows raised up in surprise, but then proceeded to frown as he watched the woman... bug... fly... thing? It was difficult to really pin point and if he had any sort of actual distaste for bugs, Graham probably would have ran out of there in a split second. In truth, Graham felt apathetic toward insects as a whole and as Lotte asked for his help the young man nodded briefly and moved in the other direction that she had pointed - starting the process of helping her with the trebuchet.

"Truth is, I don't know? I was told I have some sort of mind power, as far as I'm aware I just have really good memory." Graham confessed this truth to the teacher quite easily, despite the fact that it was almost horrific the way the woman talked - Graham knew that if he didn't at least talk to someone about it he wouldn't be figuring anything out anytime soon. After all, there must be a reason as to why he was assigned to her. "I can't read minds, or move things just by thinking about it. I've tried all of that, I'm really not sure of what else I could do." Graham thought for a moment, trying to pin point some sort of thing to tell the teacher so that she could help him in kind.

Lotte cracked the kink in her neck as she set yet another of the weights onto her transport cart. It looked a lot more like a quirky twitch that bugs of her species would do when scoping out their surroundings. Her ears were quite open to hear the words of the child, though her other ear was also focusing on a conversation that some other kids were having within the same room. They seemed to be just as uncomfortable as Graham appeared to be, though she was quite used to this notion by now. It was something she could easily shrug off, but she missed the days when she could eavesdrop on other people and hear something outside of ‘I think I’m going to barf if she gets any closer to me.’ It was so boring and unoriginal.

Anyways, the boy made it clear that he didn’t quite know what ability he had. It was not an uncommon trait amongst the youth around Foresta, though it would make helping the boy out a bit more challenging. She liked that. If things were so easy it would make her power obsolete. “Ooo, like sister then. Didn’t know power until later in life. Empath. Useless. Only linked to me. Could be on other side of planet and still cries when I cry. Anywoo. Your power. Only memory. Not like mine…” she rambled for a moment or two, stroking her lack of chin whilst trying to deduce the boy’s problem.

The range of gifts was a wide spectrum and most times there was no guarantees that two people might have ones that are even related to one another. If she was allowed to do so, she could poke around the boy’s brain and see what reacts to what, but she was certain that those types of experiments were outlawed considering the island was mean to be an escape from such places. Not to mention that Lotte wouldn’t know the first thing about those types of experiments, but the internet was a viable source for any information and she used to know some of the world’s top neurologists. She needed that sort of help for that teleporter experiment she went through. Oh the days before she was a fly hybrid.

Oh right, there was a child waiting for her verdict. “No. Those’re trivial. Might be something more. Or less. Could be limited to good memory. Hrm. Could run tests. Still remember tests I did myself” she replied quickly once her mandibles started to flap again. She stopped her task at hand and stared down the boy outright, he would be able to see his reflection clearly in her large bug eyes. “We start simple. Twelve times six. Answer” she commanded at breakneck speed, beginning her inner stopwatch, counting each millisecond that went by. She really hoped that nothing would distract her because it would be important for her to understand how fast his mind can process.

As Lotte spoke, Graham felt himself go dizzy for a moment. A few seconds passed and Graham blinked stupidly, Lotte's speech suddenly seeming a lot slower to him now. The young man assumed that the woman fly hybrid had just decided to slow down her speech and nothing else. She talked about tests and Graham suddenly started to feel even more uncomfortable than he had when he first saw the teacher, shaking himself out of it though in an attempt to hide any sort of discomfort.

As he stared at Lotte though, the teenager noticed his reflection in the woman's large eyes and realized that he looked a lot more out of place than he thought he was. Changing his focus from himself though, Graham blurted out "Seventy-two," in the middle of Lotte saying the word answer. It was strange though, because just as soon as Lotte's speech had felt slowed for him - Graham's forehead felt like a hammer had hit it, reverberating across the rest of his skull.

The only time Graham ever noticed headaches like this was typically when he was in large crowds, not talking one on one with a person. In attempt to ignore his headache though, Graham took a deep breath and waited for Lotte's next question - hoping that she could help him figure out what he couldn't.

Lotte’s internal clock stopped just as soon as it started, a smirk growing on her mandibles. It really didn’t give her much new information considering that the boy stated that he had really good memory. He could have just as easily memorized a times table, though what was more interesting was that he was able to cut her off before she could finish her sentence. That rarely ever happened, the response not being ‘shut up’ or ‘slow down’ was even more uncommon. She easily formulated that there was more to the boy than what was merely on the surface.

The insectoid hatched a better way to test the boy. She wasn’t sure on the results of it just yet, but she supposed that anything could possible so she might as well test as many areas as she could. “Hrm, first test easy, though faster than most mathematicians” she answered as she broke attention from the boy, avoiding eye contact for the sake of the experiment and refiguring her stack of weights. “*Next test not so easy, unless speak German*” she transitioned into German rather flawlessly. While people who knew the language might understand what she said, most wouldn’t unless they were very fluent considering the fact she drops words in order to speak faster.

Lotte turned back around once she finished speaking, looking back at the boy and tested yet again if his powers might be line of sight based or not. She wasn’t sure why they would be, but anything was possible. “*Fluent in many languages. Answer question by repeating both sentences in English*” she switched over to French as though there was a switch on her back that changed the language she spoke in. “Answer” she replied, half expecting the boy to just give off a mystified look and shrug. She was fluent in those languages when she was around the boy’s age (whatever that was), but she had to study them in order to learn, she was curious to see if the boy either knew those languages already or could adapt through his power. There was a limited amount of tests she could run with just her mouth and no supplies at hand, but if she did she would be testing more psychological aspects of his power and be testing his memory more. If finding the boy’s power proved to be more difficult, she would probably move the meeting back to her office to test out her other toys on him.

As soon as Lotte started her next test, Graham's brows furrowed curiously along with his forehead wrinkling just a slight bit. This was more of a stretch for his memory skills since the boy hadn't actively taught himself any language, but he did recall reading up on quite a few phrases on the internet when he would get bored. A second hesitation and Graham replied with ease, "Next test not easy, unless speak German."

Due to how he had her speech paced in his mind, Graham was able to pick up on the majority of the word drops. "Fluent many languages. Answer question by repeating both sentences in English." As soon as he finished speaking, Graham knew that he missed something. His mind had tried to come up with a way to fill in the blanks, but nothing could be put in the spaces - he simply couldn't just "imagine" a word to put in there. It had to be correct or nothing at all.

"I've never been taught any languages," Graham told Lotte then - looking almost ashamed of this. "I only know what I've looked up on the internet."

When the man was able to translate what she said half decently, Lotte leaned back. She wasn’t sure if the boy’s powers were interfering with his ability to speak back to her in such a way. It wasn’t until Graham admitted to not being taught any of the languages he translated that she was rather shocked. Sure, he could have lied, but he’d have no reason to, not to mention that he seemed rather down on himself for not taking the time to soak in other languages. The interesting part of it was when he said that he only knew what he did because he read it online. There was definitely some more at hand than just basic improved memory because even if that was the case he would’ve had to review the exact same thing she had said. Sure, it wasn’t a perfect translation, but even people fluent in the language wouldn’t be able to translate to a tea, punctuation in German and French were somewhat complicated.

Lotte began to formulate what the boy’s power might possibly be as she circled around the weight lifting machine in order to get closer to her student for the next test. She had done quite a bit of research on gifted abilities during her years in the government and science labs, so she was familiar with a ton of concepts, though Graham seemed rather unique. It was not just basic translation nor improved memory. There had to be something more. Perhaps something similar to herself, but not quite.

Once she was at eye level with the boy, she began to rant on some more. “Impressive. Linguistics not as important as seems. Power might make it irrelevant to learn anyway. Mind fast, mind strong. Perhaps influences reflexes” she mused as she snatched a bobby pin from the floor. She flexed her wing within her reach and she clipped the tiny object to it. In a quick roll of her shoulder, she activated her thinly wing as though it was a fan and it flapped at speeds that would make a goose jealous. It moved so fast that it was difficult for the regular human eye to track its movements, but if her hunch was right the boy might be able to follow without problem. “Mind moves fast. Grab pin” she instructed as she pointed to her wing.

Graham listened to everything that Lotte had to say, his mind once more compensating for the speed of her speech. As she moved to grab a bobby pin from the floor, the young man's eyes followed her easily - also noticing as her wings picked up in speed. Graham could have sworn for just a moment that he actually saw the air being moved by the teachers wings. Another moment passed then and Lotte made her next test quite clear.

It was almost like one of those movie scenes where the sounds slow down as well as something dramatic happens to the hero, Graham reached his arm forward - grasping the bobby pin in between his pointer finger and thumb. Directing his gaze toward Lotte, Graham looked momentarily confused for a moment - as if finally gaining some sort of understand of what his power actually was. "What was that?" Graham asked Lotte then, having almost been stunned into silence. As for the understanding, it was close - but not quite yet.

Lotte attempted to concentrate on the scene as best she could, honing her multiple eyes onto the boy’s hand and her wings. As Graham first began to reach, she was a bit skeptical about the test. She had a faster mental process, but that didn’t mean she could even remotely perform the task she put forth, though he had proven time and time again that his powers were a completely different beast from her own. When originally plotting out the test, she was expecting her wings to be chipped, or otherwise snapped by the small bit of force that the boy had if he were to fail, but she was rather acceptant of that. They were frail and useless to begin with, so she wouldn’t be too sad over it, in fact it was amazing that her recklessness didn’t lead them to breaking by now.

Her mandibles clicked in a gasping manner, Graham plucking the tiny pin from her wing with ease, the look of confusion on his face quickly leading Lotte to suspect that this was a new development. He questioned about what had just happened, though to Lotte there looked to be nothing suspicious. It was a curious thing, she kind of wanted to know what it looked like through his perspective, even though she knew that words would not give the same feel as experience. “What was what? What different?” she inquired as she rolled her shoulder and allowed her wing to sit flush to her back.

Graham was fast, really fast. So fast that she began to wonder how the boy couldn’t have figured it out on his own. His processing speed matched that of her own, in some ways outclassed hers. He was clearly intelligent though, something like that wouldn’t just pass by without him noticing. Something about their interaction brought something new and Lotte was trying to wrap her brain around why. Perhaps it was the only time that he had ever interacted with someone on his level, his brain for some reason handicapping him amongst his slower peers. Then again, maybe it wasn’t handicapping more so than it was upgrading. It was merely a hypothesis though, she would have to run at least one other test. Perhaps she could subject the boy to someone with a slower thought process and see how that would pan out. It’s not like Lotte could pretend to be slower in speech or thought. In that moment, an idea sprung on her. One of the other students she counselled would make for a perfect counter balance.

Lotte swiftly dug a pager out of her pocket, her fingers swiftly notifying her other test subject and within seconds was met with a reply. “Excellent, we move. Tests held elsewhere, not far” she quickly stated as she nodded her head to the locker room nearby. “Oh, get one too. Easier to contact me” she added as she pulled out another pager and tossed it to Graham. She promptly turned around and began to march off towards the locker room, venturing a bit closer to the pool area. In addition to that, it seemed like she completely ditched her equipment, though she was quite mindful that she was leaving it behind, the current developments held her interest more than the weights, she could always come back for them anyway. If someone tried to steal them though, she was certain she could catch up without problem considering how heavy the cart was.

As Graham moved the bobby pin from in between his fingers to his other hand, the young boy shook his head. "Something seemed different, I'm not quite sure how to explain it. When I focused everything slowed down, did it slow down for you too?" Graham turned his question toward the teacher, wondering if his power affected other people. After a few minutes of thought though, Graham surmised that that couldn't possibly it. If his power affected other people, wouldn't somebody have said something to him by now?

As Lotte moved to action, Graham was briefly caught off guard and pulled out of his own thoughts. "Right." Graham looked in the direction that Lotte was motioning, wondering what other tests the bug lady could possibly have for him. It was strange to him that someone could easily figure something out about himself that had been a mystery to him practically his whole life.

Catching the pager thrown at him, Graham slipped the electronic into his jean pocket - following after Lotte as soon as she started to walk away. The fact that she was leaving behind tons of equipment flew over Graham's head seeing as how his thoughts were focused elsewhere for the time being. "It seems like you already have a few ideas on what my power is?" Graham asked out-loud as they walked, his question seeming more like a thought that was accidentally blurted out then an actual thought out question.

The way that the boy described the previous situation only supported Lotte’s theory toward Graham’s power. It was still not a sure thing, she knew that for a fact, but it was leading them into the right direction. Apparently everything felt slow to him in that moment, again it was a sensation that she would prefer to feel rather than hear about, but there was little she could do to alter that. “Didn’t feel or see thing. Definitely just you” the bug lady retorted as they reached their destination, just in front of the girl’s change room. Lotte had no reservations on just barging into the locker room, but she was sure that there were social conventions that would prevent Graham from following, not to mention that the student she was seeking would largely disapprove on their breaking and entering if they did, so she merely knocked and shouted “here now. Hurry” in a way that almost made her labellum fall out of her mouth yet again. It was an irritating body part.

“Lanata, one second!” a feminine voice echoed back in a rushed manner, as though she was being hurried to close up shop.

Lotte absently shook her head, knowing that her other pupil would take nearly an eternity to be completely ready. It was her own fault for choosing her of all people, but then again it was the faster option than looking around the school for a person with a slower thought process. Lotte wasn’t necessarily saying she was stupid, it was just that she had a very time consuming way of thinking, English being very clearly not her first language. She turned to Graham for a brief moment as they waited. “Only theories. Acting upon them, seeing what works. Been lucky with past couple. Can’t say for sure, would be sumptuous to say anything yet. Getting somewhere though.”

Just as the human-fly hybrid finished speaking, one Esha Mullur arose from the locker room, a radiant glow shimmering off her face as though she had just finished putting a fresh layer of foundation on in addition to ruby red lipstick that matched her faded rose coloured saree that very securely hid away any evidence of her abilities. As she entered the room with a very pleasant expression, her face contorted into a very confused manner as her eyes laid upon Graham. She looked back to Lotte, having a mini heart attack since she was still not used to the bug beast. Regardless of that, she pointed to the boy and asked her counsellor “him?”

Lotte nodded. “Yes him” she answered as she approached Graham’s side. “Student slave to sexual desire, only way to get her to cooperate” she briefly explained as she began to get distance from the duo so that she could observe their interaction rather than be a part of it. If he truly adapted to his opposite then she would need to steer clear and merely observe.

Esha raised her hands in a defensive manner, her expression clearly displaying that she both overheard the remark and was rather insulted by it. “Kya?” (translation: what?) she blurted out abrasively toward Lotte.

The elder woman merely brushed it off and sat somewhere distant enough so that she couldn’t interfere, though just enough in range to hear most of everything they would say. She pointed to the boy and replied “Hush hush, speak to boy.”

Esha pouty frown and glare then shifted over to Graham, the thought of just walking away being very prevalent in her mind, but she knew she would never hear the end of it from Ms. Schmidt if she ruined whatever test she was currently trying to induce.

As the bug teacher confirmed that it was indeed just him, Graham felt an odd sense of disappointment. If his power was inward, how would he even be able to begin to know what it was? Hoping that Lotte knew what she was doing - Graham followed along easily (albeit a little confused) to see what her next test was.

As they stood in front of the girl's changing room though, Graham suddenly felt a little awkward in his own skin - a strange thing for a boy that was normally very calm and collected. The voice that hollered back at the bug teacher caught his attention for just a moment up until Lotte started speaking again. Graham nodded quietly, his comfort level going back to normal once again - any normal person would naturally be grossed out around Ms. Schmidt no matter how much time they spent around her, despite the oddity of the woman in general though Graham did not have a hard time adjusting to Lotte. Something could be said that his power was influencing this as well, but Graham just found himself not that bothered.

When Esha made herself known though, Graham felt the color rise up into his cheeks - clearly caught off guard by the girls attractive appearance. As they continued to talk about him as if he weren't there, Graham shook his head with a small frown "I don't understand what this will do, Ms. Schmidt." Graham said to the bug teacher with a hint of frustration.

It was then that the teacher started to back off, and Graham quickly returned Esha's dissatisfaction with the situation. "I'm guessing you have some sort of mind power?" Graham asked the girl then in a blunt manner, not sure what to expect out of this situation. Never mind the fact that she was gorgeous, Graham took a step back so as to put some space in between the two of them. If she did have some sort of mind power, Graham was not interested in it being used on him.

Lotte sat at her decently distant pedestal, her analytic eyes keeping watch on the duo as they would hopefully engage in conversation. Admittedly, there was a fairly large barrier between them considering their social classes and the fact that Ms. Schmidt got the impression that the two hardly had anything in common. It didn’t help that Graham seemed to be intimidated by the young woman’s looks, which would probably skew the results slightly, but then again one could say the same about Lotte’s appearance considering that most would be too frightened by her to speak in a normal fashion. Regardless, there would be a notable difference if the bug lady’s predictions were true.

The boy expressed his hesitation quite quickly, which forced Lotte into the wise sage cliché of reassuring him to do as she says and in time all will be clear. She could tell him what she was looking for to happen, but if he knew what results she wanted then it would be skewing the outcome, whether he might do it intentionally or not. “Don’t question. Just do. Go ahead, talk” she commanded in a very straight forward manner, though didn’t enforce anything with her tone.

Esha stood in a rather slanted stance, not entirely sure what it was she was summoned to do. Her counsellor wouldn’t be playing matchmaker, so what exactly was this setup about? It had to be something far more scientific, as previous encounters had made more evident. The teacher always seemed to have an interest in the way her powers matured and the theoretical conflict that arose because of it. As far as Esha knew, Lotte was the only one at the school who could recognise her from her rather infamous background. As Graham made it clear that he didn’t know what her powers were, he was among the group that wasn’t familiar with her, which was good. It also meant that her secret was safe with Lotte, for the time being anyway.

“No, uh- my powers aren’t um- mental” she answered rather slowly. No matter how long she’d been around Foresta, she still hasn’t quite gotten a grip around the English language. She was getting better though. She appeared rather disinterested in speaking with the man, almost like she was being forced to do so.

As her eyes glazed over the boy once again though, her countenance expressed a bit more interest. Her head leaned in as her optics squinted, she recognised the boy from somewhere. Yes, he was tied into something that had been eating away a ton of her free time. “Wait. You introduced me to…” her mind blanked for a moment as she tried to remember the English name for it “…Minecraft?” Her face lit up in that moment, the more she thought on it the more she felt she was right. She didn’t know anyone else who played it in the school, or rather she didn’t go around asking about it. It was more so a guilty pleasure of hers that she would prefer not to admit that she sunk countless hours into. “Do you… uh, know how to use the uh- redstone? I was… uh, trying to make something and it um- didn’t really work… maybe you can fix it?” she quizzed in genuine curiosity. She had never been the type to get into video games, so her struggles within Minecraft were quite warranted.