DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy High Definition: Lamar.

Some time after exiting the testing, Lamar receives a knock on his door ...

Lamar

Engrossed in a few personal studies, the noise is almost startling. Nonetheless, he sets down the device and called out, “Come in.”

The door swings open, revealing Carver, in his same dress causal he usually wore. Despite his evident age he seemed trim and in good shape.

“Settling in, Lamar? You expressed interest, perhaps, in some testing.”

Lamar

Nodding in concurrence and welcome, he affirmed,

"That I did. The curriculum I was raised on was extensive, but wasn't exactly benchmarked. Let's see if I can back it up."

Carver

He studies Lamar for just long enough to be noticeable.

“What were the subjects in which you received the most education?”

Lamar

A slightly raised brow, as he considered.

"Good question. We went broad and we went deep, but top of the tree, where I put in the most effort, the most brain-sweat, would be biology, in particular anthropology and zoology. But that's mainly a case of tying into my powers and pushing heavily in that direction by design. When there's vast fields of human knowledge that tie in directly with what you can do that no-one else can, you're going to feed the Elephant's Child every chance you get, right?"

A slight smirk, wry and inwardly directed.

"So yeah. English language and literature, mathematics, a good grounding in the sciences, a smattering of languages. Economics, psychology, electronics, computers, and a whole bunch of stuff of questionable legality, everything from the Cookbooks to the finer points of the locksmith's art."

Carver:

“I prefer ‘the Cat that Walked by Himself.’“

He gives him a brief look before continuing.

“Math should be easy enough. There is a program on your tablet. Use it and it will send the results. I am more interested, however, in your knowledge of history.”

Lamar

"Alright, I'll go through the math program later. Now, history, that was pretty in-depth. covering the whole globe, major empires, minor nations, people great and small, the rise and fall of polities, what to look out for, the democratic-authoritarian cycle. Information suppression and whitewashing, official accounts versus independent sources. Not to mention natural history and palaeontology, Dinosaurs are pretty fantastic for emulation owing to those lightweight bird-bones."

Carver

“How about the early twentieth century and the powered emergence in the great wars? What of the history of history itself?”

He still appears to be watching him very, very closely.

Lamar

"The former, a great deal. The how and the why, motives, even just the fact of a war enabling some of the less salubrious empowered to cut loose free of the fetters of peacetime. Use your powers to murder a dozen people in peacetime and you would rightly be put down for good. Do it in wartime to the right people, and they give you a medal and want you to do it again. The battlefield is the playground for the sociopathic Powered. As for the history of history, historiography as a whole, a fair bit, from the materialist outlook of Marx to the more idealist outlooks of Toynbee, the playing to the audience of Josephus, the warts and all approach of Du Bois. Taking a critical look every step of the way was a lesson my mother considered extremely important."

Carve:

“The sociopathic powered, Lamar? Most of them actually did not fare all that well in wartime, not well at all.”

He leans back against the doorframe.

“Did you ever look at the actual survival rate of those of that particular bent which involved themselves?”

Lamar

"Naturally. Bear in mind war is not a game, and those who treated it as such... Let's just say I couldn't help but notice a good number of those medals were posthumous. With quite a few 'Failed to return safely after a sortie' citations on that last award, especially towards the end of each conflict."

Carver

“With power comes the ability to warp the world around us, to create greater and greater dents in the fabric of reality. There are some who would claim we are as modern day Demi-deities, the legends and half-gods of old. Yet we are not immune to reality slapping back, and hard. A lesson learned by Achilles, by Heracles, by the mythical Enkidu and Gilgamesh. By Singularity, by many, many others. However indomitable you are, reality knows better.”

Lamar

"This seems to ascribe a degree of anthropomorphism to reality itself, or at the very least a Gaia theory of self-regulation, with the implication that the Powered are perceived by it as a blight or disease. If it's a natural process, then can it be measured, accounted for? If unnatural, can it be identified, sourced, communicated with? If the evidence supports the hypothesis, then we are beholden to the facts, sure. But this feels like something it is within all our best interests as those with powers to accurately codify."

Carver

"Oh no. Not anthropomorphism. Sheer cold cause and effect. The Cold Equations of reality, Lamar. None of us are ever half as clever as we think ourselves. When we delude ourselves into thinking there is a level of understanding we do not posses, that is precisely, Lamar, when we are in the most danger.
"

Lamar

"Physical cause and effect are measurable, discernible, calculable. There is no obfuscation in Newton's beautiful simplicity, every action having an equal and opposite reaction. If this is a level of understanding we do possess with regard our powers, then, just like all the wonders of science enabled by the application of those laws, we can use it to our best advantage. So, is there a level of understanding we do possess in this field?"

Carver:

“Lamar.”

He looks at him a long while.

“Do you understand that an immutable law of reality is that nothing is free? All sides of an equation will always, in the long run, balance. Not everything is under your control. Not all can be under your control. I think we have to add psychology to your course work.”

Lamar

He frowned slightly.

"There seems to be a continual misapprehension that I seem blissfully unaware that there is a cost to using my abilities, or that they take effort, or that there are limits to them. Again and again, I get the feeling that you and the other staff feel I am divorced from this fundamental truth and consequently setting myself up to hurtle over a precipice of overexertion, blindly pushing myself too far, or too fast, or too much.

Given that, it seems unlikely that anything I say will change your minds, and anything I do will take months of acclimation to judge in terms of relative power expenditure. I have spent years, the vast majority of my life, working on and with my powers, under the tutelage of someone with the strongest vested interest in both them and me, my wellbeing. I have been aware of these factors, taking the known ones into account and giving the unknown ones the respect they deserve since day one, lesson one. I'm not some power-mad egomaniac proclaiming that 'I can do anything', be it in my words or in my actions. So please, let's work from the same page without making presumptions."

Carver:

“What makes you suppose, Lamar, that I am talking only about your powers? There are many things it appears your mother taught you. There are some areas for which she seems to have left you unprepared. Perhaps a social chameleon cannot teach what to them comes so naturally that they barely even consider it to be effort. Yes, Lamar, I do see danger in pushing yourself over a precipice of sorts. My question would have to be do you see it?”

Lamar

"You imply a social precipice. I accordingly deduce you refer to my social interactions with those here, as a potential pitfall."

Carver

He merely nods slightly and looks at him with one raised eyebrow.

“Continue.”

Lamar

"Two main areas of interaction, with the staff and with the other students. Too many of the wrong kind of misstep with the staff and I might find myself at Eidolon's tender mercies, and a family reunion of sorts. Other students, there's the possibility of poking the wrong one in the wrong way and setting off an incident, which could plausibly disqualify me from further participation in the program. All logical so far?"

Carver:

“Those are, indeed, a significant subset of the plausible issues. Yet I still think you are not quite seeing a portion of the potential problem, which I think lies in how you view your interactions with others.”

It’s hard not to notice a certain ... air ... around him which at least somewhat belies his general geniality. A hard edge, perhaps? Hard to say.

Lamar

A thoughtful pause.

"Okay, I'll bite. How do you perceive that I view my interactions with others? So that we're on the same page."

Carver

“Let’s go somewhat Socratic here. How do you view your interactions with others?“

Lamar

"I was going Socratic. To answer the question, it's not a category I lump together as a gestalt. Everyone here is an individual and deserves to be treated as such. Thus, bespoke interactions with any given individual, dependent on their wants, their personalities, their attitude and demeanour. Everyone here is powered, most related to those who did not use powers for the common good, which requires a degree of caution, modified by each individual's approach."

Carver:

“So each person is a puzzle to be solved then?”

Lamar

"Each person is a person. With all the joys and sorrows, loves and hates, lifetime behind and ahead which that implies. There's no generic solution for humanity, nor should there be."

Carver:

“Whatever your intentions may be, Lamar - at some point I recommend for you applying this method you use to yourself. Look at your own interactions from the outside and put yourself in the shoes of their target. Step back one level and observe Lamar not from your intentions but from their eyes. It is a very difficult step to take, from personal experience - but one well worth the effort, and worth even more if you discover the provenance of the issue yourself. If I completely tell it to you your natural instinct, as with all people, will be to defend it. Can you try this?”

Lamar

"And back we go to Socrates, 'The unexamined life is not worth living'. Yes, it's fair to say that I can and will try this."

Carver


“Very good, Lamar.”

He pauses a moment.

“So, do you have any primary interests for further learning, perhaps opportunities that your mother did not afford you?”

Lamar

"Tricky on two fronts: One, she was very comprehensive, and two, if I'm ignorant of a given subject, I likely wouldn't know what to ask for. What interests me most is that which I can use, particularly as it pertains to my unique abilities. The focus primarily on my strengths."

Carver:

“Definitely one theory, one option Lamar. I would like you, however, to consider the possibilities of the greater gain in marginal utility of focusing on your weaknesses. “

Lamar

"My weaknesses I share with many, my strengths are mine alone. I see where you're coming from and I take your point, but bear in mind back in the testing chamber almost nothing was said of my powers and the vast bulk of what was said to me was concerning the effects of their usage upon me. The overriding impression that was given was that as a key area of focus, being looked upon as a potential source of weakness, time and again, person after person. That's not something that should be left set aside."