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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 4, 2021 15:38:32 GMT -5
Varian hadn’t meant to start talking about science, exactly, but now that it had come up, he wasn’t going to be the one to stop. Hopefully, Zuko knew he could end the conversation, if he wanted to. Varian wasn’t likely to run out of things to talk about on his own for a very long time.
“The fuse!” He explained, some of his excitement leaking into his voice at the question. “It has to burn to reach the actual shell, and it does that in the air. That’s why it’s important to only light it when you’re ready to fire it, because you can’t really reverse it once it’s lit. The thing thar sends it up is totally different though, it’s not a part of the firework itself, exactly. I mean, I guess it is, but not the same way, it doesn’t explode.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 6, 2021 0:46:57 GMT -5
Zuko needn’t have worried about the conversation trailing off. They were nearing the topic of science, which was an easy one for Varian to carry, even if there was no one else to talk to. As it was…having someone who was listening, or at least who was near enough to be able to hear him, was thrilling enough to propel him forward for a while.
“Also the fuse!” He replied, grinning at Zuko. “The explosion only happens once it’s in the air, but the powder contains potassium nitrate, which is what makes it fly. Then once it hits the rest of the powder inside…that’s when you get the actual explosion. People can get pretty hurt by not doing it right, though. I mean, it’s an explosion. Even people who know what they’re doing are supposed to be careful with things that could explode.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 6, 2021 4:01:23 GMT -5
“Oh,” Zuko replied, somewhat surprised by that (though he wasn’t sure he needed to be). The fuse did a lot of things, and Zuko didn’t really understand how it could do both the lift off and the explosion without the liftoff accidentally triggering the explosion. There was a reason that he wasn’t a chemistry major, though. Or was this physics…? Maybe it was both at once. The point was that Zuko wasn’t really a science kid, though he was doing his best to be interested in what Varian was saying. It was pretty easy, for the most part. Varian explained it in a much more engaging way than teachers did, and he hadn’t made Zuko feel stupid for his questions. If all professors and teachers were like Varian, maybe Zuko would have gone into STEM. Probably not, but…
“I get the sense you’re saying that because you weren’t careful with something that could explode,” Zuko commented, brow quirking. He had the benefit of missing one eyebrow – it meant that raising the other looked quizzical enough without actually having to learn to raise just one.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 11, 2021 20:52:49 GMT -5
Varian was better at learning chemistry than he was at teaching it. Learning meant he had to understand it, but teaching meant he had to communicate it, and he wasn’t very good at communicating in general. But this…this was less teaching it and more just answering questions. He could do questions.
And he thought it might have been cheering Zuko up a little, too. Which he hadn’t expected to be able to do. He felt a bit proud of himself.
“What? No! I mean…well, yeah, but only once or twice or maybe eleven times before I figured out why it kept exploding!” He protested, crossing his arms defensively. “But don’t worry about the dorm. I know what went wrong with that one.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 14, 2021 14:29:38 GMT -5
Kelsier had been right about one thing, it turned out. The darkness did not make his claustrophobia better.
It should have been easier not to see the walls, but it only made him feel more closed in, somehow. It wasn’t the freeing darkness of night. It was the darkness of caves.
Nico had never met Kelsier, before. He had never met the man who had flaunted his arrogance, who had played and laughed while his brother worked to free the skaa, while the people with the same sort of blood he had were pushed further and further down. He only knew Kelsier, after. Still a thief, still laughing, but no longer playing.
He’d stolen his brother’s dream. His wife’s dream.
It was hard to tell who this man was, with scars but no memories behind them.
“Dammit,” he muttered, keeping his voice low. Without the means to climb out…
He glanced around, looking for something else they could use. There wasn’t much. He looked back up, narrowing his eyes against the black.
“No, it’s okay,” he called back, trying to sound as confident as he could. As long as he kept the panic back for a little while longer…
“However we’re going to get out, it’s up there, not down here. Is there anything you could grab onto, maybe? Even if you couldn’t climb it?”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 18, 2021 22:40:10 GMT -5
Nico didn’t believe Kelsier for even a minute. He had a feeling that the Mistborn (he wasn’t even sure he could think of him as Mistborn anymore, though it was a hard habit to break) was just trying to seem strong in the presence of a student who needed him to. Nico was used to Kelsier pretending to be stronger than he actually was. He was also used to telling him to cut it out. He couldn’t do that now, though. This Kelsier didn’t know him. They didn’t have that kind of relationship. They didn’t have any relationship at all. Nico sucked in a breath, deciding that he could focus on that when they weren’t in a life or death situation. Right now, they just needed to survive.
“I can try to find something to hold onto,” he called down, glancing around for a long moment. The wall was fairly uneven, which meant… Nico tucked the phone into his front pocket so that the light could still illuminate some of his surroundings, then took a running start before leaping at the wall. He managed to hang on for a few moments, fingernails digging into the concrete before his arms gave out and he landed back on top of the elevator.
“I’ve climbed some pretty steep surfaces,” he told Kelsier, backing up towards the trap door again. “I don’t think this one is climbable.” What were their options? Nico wasn’t sure he could manage to shadow travel them both, but if he had to… it was slowly looking like the only possibility. If he shadow traveled he’d have to drop out of Kelsier’s class and maybe move to a different building, but if it meant they both survived… he glanced down, weighing his options. If Kelsier had another idea, he would gladly take it. But they were both close to panic, and time was running out.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 19, 2021 22:55:27 GMT -5
Varian shook his head a little, trying to offer a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry! I counted your plants. You have more than eleven, right? And it doesn’t always take that many tries, either.”
He didn’t see any reason to be worried. His experiments may have exploded sometimes, but he had them under control, really. And he was mostly here because no one deserved to feel alone, anyway. Whatever had happened, making Zuko sit by himself while everyone else had fun would have been cruel.
And Varian liked him, anyway.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 25, 2021 0:13:02 GMT -5
Kelsier didn’t mention that his suggestion was mostly so Nico would have something to grab onto if the elevator went. Hanging over a deep hole by your fingertips and hoping someone happened to figure out there was something wrong in time wasn’t ideal, but…it was a lot better than falling, wasn’t it? Kelsier’s first priority was getting the kid out of this.
His second priority was split evenly between his own survival and making sure whoever was responsible for this regretted it very deeply.
He realized abruptly that he was beginning to hyperventilate. It was much easier to avoid hyperventilating than it was to stop once you’d already started, but Kelsier tried anyway, concentrating on the feel of his heart thumping against his ribs. It all came from the heart, right? As long as he could slow that, he could control the rest of it. He didn’t have to panic here. He wasn’t going to panic here.
His heart was unimpressed, but he ignored it.
“Okay, tell me what you can see,” he said after a moment, swallowing most of the strain from his voice. Most. “Especially any, uh…any hooks or bars or anything sticking out from the wall at all.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 25, 2021 1:25:05 GMT -5
Nico stared down at the trap door to the elevator for a long moment, weighing his options. He was able to shadow travel more easily now (it still took a lot out of him, but he was better at using it sparingly), so doing it now wouldn’t be a terrible thing for his health, it was just… it might be a terrible thing for any relationship he might have with Kelsier. He didn’t expect to end up friends with him. He didn’t expect to get back the relationship he’d had with the Kelsier in the House. But… he didn’t want to ruin this. He didn’t want to have to drop out of his class or move to a different building. Letting them both sit there and panic, though… that felt infinitely worse. Nico could hear the tightening in Kelsier’s voice. He could hear the way his breath seemed to be coming faster, though he was trying his best to hide it. Decision made, Nico glanced around the room one last time before he leapt down from the top of the elevator and grabbed Kelsier’s hand before he could think better of it.
The two of them landed outside the dorm, a cushion of soft grass beneath their feet in case either of them stumbled. Nico pulled back almost as though he’d been burned, his head spinning and his heart pounding. He needed a moment to recover, but he had a feeling Kelsier would need a little bit more. He had never shadow-travelled before. It was sure to be a shock at the very least, especially since there was no way he could have seen that coming.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 25, 2021 1:45:36 GMT -5
Kelsier waited a long moment for Nico to reply. He assumed he was searching the walls, which, with only a dim light from a phone, probably wasn’t going to be very fast. Time felt odd, somehow. He couldn’t tell how long the seconds were. He felt as though he kept slipping out of his body a little and having to readjust himself back into it.
He concentrated on his breathing next. He could control that, at least. Or…he could try. Was it possible to will away a panic attack? Of course not, but he had no choice but to try.
And then Nico dropped and he stepped back a little, trying to give him space to catch his balance. He didn’t have time to react to the hand as it caught his own, though a part of his mind turned to defense - defense from what, Nico was no threat to him - before the world around him seemed to lurch suddenly out of existence.
He gave an inward gasp sharp enough to cut, stumbling as the hand was pulled from his quickly as it had taken it. He barely managed to stay upright, though he wasn’t sure how…light blinded him, the warm light of the sun, not the cold, piercing light of inside. Green stabbed into his vision as grass softened his landing, though he wasn’t sure he could call it that. It had felt a lot like falling, but he couldn’t tell which direction he’d gone.
He stood still, trying to catch his breath again, as his gaze found Nico.
And he suddenly understood. Whatever had just happened…
The kid had made it happen.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Oct 26, 2021 1:34:22 GMT -5
Shadow travel always took something out of Nico, it seemed. Even now, when he’d had practice to make it easier on him. He tried to stay on his feet, for Kelsier’s sake if nothing else. The last thing Kelsier needed now was to worry about Nico, especially when he was still probably processing the fact that teleportation could exist. And that teleportation was extremely unpleasant if you weren’t used to it. Nico didn’t know when he had stopped hating the feeling of shadow travel. Maybe when it had become useful enough that he’d had to start using it on a regular basis. It was also possible that his body was just more equipped to handle it. He was, after all, a child of the Underworld. He had no idea what Kelsier was.
“Are you… okay?” Nico asked after a minute, hesitantly holding a hand out to help Kelsier up. He didn’t want to touch him if he could avoid it, but it was still technically Kelsier, even if it wasn’t the same man Nico had cared for. His body still trusted him, somehow. He would need to find a way to take care of that eventually. He couldn’t be instinctively looking for comfort in Kelsier’s arms, not when he was just one of his students. “It’s… sort of jarring, I know. I recommend drinking some water and eating something sweet. Might help get rid of some of the after-feelings.” If ambrosia were safe, Nico would have offered that. He didn’t want to be charged for the murder of one of his professors on the first week of school, though.
Some small part of him hoped that if he didn’t mention that what had just happened was weird, Kelsier would just let it go. Some small part of him was hoping that they wouldn’t have to talk about it. He knew better than that, but… he wanted to hope.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Oct 27, 2021 21:18:15 GMT -5
Kelsier wasn’t sure whether to pay attention to the odd, shuddering feeling that had swallowed him after…whatever had just happened…or the fact that whatever had just happened, had happened.
They’d been in the elevator. And now they weren’t.
He managed to snag his breath again after a long moment, pulling it back to something like a pattern, even if it wasn’t quite its usual one.
He’d just teleported. There was no other word for it. And what was more, the kid who had made it happen was standing in front of him, eyes a war of concern and wariness.
He pushed the physical feelings to the back of his mind, accepting Nico’s hand, though he was careful not to lean too much of his weight into it as he got up. He didn’t look away, but slowly the shock faded, leaving his hazel gaze alert and very interested, but not alarmed.
As he caught up with his own thoughts, he began to realize the implications of it. Like how Nico had obviously wanted to avoid him knowing about it, or he would have done it right away, not risked staying in an elevator that could drop them both to their deaths at any second. And how, if he’d wanted, he could have gone himself and left Kelsier behind. Chances were pretty good Kel wouldn’t have lived to tell the story.
He smiled suddenly. He hadn’t planned to, but it wasn’t forced. It felt right.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he told him, his voice stronger than it had been just a moment ago. Whatever the side effects, they couldn’t be worse than a panic attack. “And…thank you, Nico.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 3, 2021 2:50:30 GMT -5
Nico pulled his hand back as soon as Kelsier didn’t need it anymore, trying not to let on to how uncomfortable he was. He didn’t want to touch Kelsier, no matter how comfortable his body seemed with it. This Kelsier wasn’t his Kelsier. There was absolutely no reason to trust him or even to believe that he might care whether Nico lived or died. It seemed unlike Kelsier to not care, but… magic wasn’t supposed to exist in this world. If Kelsier was frightened or made suspicious by what Nico had done, then it was entirely possible that he would decide that Nico was a threat rather than a student. Revealing his shadow travel had been a risk beyond just the normal risks that came with shadow traveling.
And then Kelsier smiled and Nico had to look away. He could pretend that Kelsier wasn’t Kelsier when he just shared his face, but when he shared his expressions… how many times had Nico seen that same smile? Grief pulsed through him, constricting his heart and stealing his breath for just a moment.
“Thanks,” Nico replied a second too late, still distracted by his own thoughts. “I… doubt anyone would believe you if you were to tell them.” It wasn’t so much a threat or a warning as it was an observation. If Kelsier were to tell anyone… well, they would think him insane. Probably.
“It doesn’t matter,” Nico added quickly, backing away without quite meaning to. “You won’t be seeing me again, so there’s nothing to keep secret anyway.” He didn’t want to disenroll from Kelsier’s class, and he didn’t want to move, but… after what he had done, he didn’t have an option. He didn’t want Kelsier’s questions. He didn’t want to face any of the consequences for what he had done. For the part of himself he had revealed. The part that wasn’t normal. Or possible.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 8, 2021 3:38:43 GMT -5
It was easy to tell the kid didn’t like contact. Not because he wasn’t good at hiding it, though…it was just that no one stopped doing something that quickly unless they hadn’t wanted to do it in the first place.
Then again, it could easily be that he didn’t feel very comfortable with Kelsier. It didn’t even need to be about him. He was a stranger, and what was more, he was a stranger both covered in scars and insufferably cheerful.
The response distracted him from that line of thought. He blinked, watching Nico for a long moment, eyes searching, though the kid had looked away, which made it harder to read him.
He could have meant he wouldn’t see Nico in a situation where they’d be talking to each other again. Something about the way he’d said it made Kelsier doubt that, though.
“You’re dropping out?” He said after a moment, voice careful. It was vague, but intentionally so. The reason people sometimes said things without context was that they forgot not everyone knew everything they did. The same thing sometimes worked in reverse - if your question was vague enough, a person could easily assume you meant what they did, and answer that.
It was probably a little bit manipulative of him, but he didn’t feel bad for it.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 9, 2021 3:33:32 GMT -5
“Dropping out?” Nico repeated, shoving his hands into his pocket. He supposed that was a reasonable conclusion for Kelsier to leap to from what he had said, but… that wasn’t what he had intended. He had worked hard to get here. He wasn’t going to squander all of that effort just because the universe decided that once again, it hated him. He had managed to get this far with the universe against him, he didn’t see how surviving college could really be that much more difficult.
“No,” he said after a moment, not quite looking at Kelsier. “I mean… not from the school entirely. From your class, yeah. And… I’ll probably be submitting a request to live in a different building.” There. Out in the open, the truth. If Kelsier was upset by it, then… well, Nico didn’t really care. The danger came in the possibility of Kelsier spreading the word that Nico wasn’t normal. He likely had a lot of power in the university, knowing Kelsier. He could pull a lot more strings than anyone else. At least… assuming he was even a quarter of the man the Kelsier Nico new was. He had likely wormed his way into every department with a mixture of charisma and manipulation.
“So… you don’t need to worry about what happened here ever again.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 10, 2021 22:39:08 GMT -5
Varian blinked, startled by the edge. He probably should have realized the plants were important to Zuko before then, but…he hadn’t thought it would matter if he killed one or two by accident. Sometimes, explosions were a part of the process. He had a hard time remembering that not everyone felt that way.
“Oh…okay,” he said, his tone genuine, if not a little bit perplexed. “Yeah, sure, don’t worry about it. I’m sure I can find somewhere else to do my experiments.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 11, 2021 14:05:45 GMT -5
Kelsier listened quietly to the explanation, his gaze steady on Nico. It would have been difficult to read, for a stranger, especially with the slight upward curve to his mouth…he might have come across as mocking, or uncaring.
He didn’t remember anyone who was still alive to know him. Anyone who had might have seen the caution, too, or the way Nico had his undivided attention. Kelsier never watched what he didn’t think was important.
“I see,” he said, once he was sure Nico had finished speaking. “Well, that’s too bad, because I was just thinking of ways to make the tests less unfair. Do you know, the guy who hired me had never even heard of learning disorders?”
It was a risk, but Nico was leaving anyway. If he left hating Kelsier…well, he could live with that.
He smiled.
“At any rate, my lips are sealed, whether I ever see you again or not. And, thanks. Death by elevator isn’t really how I pictured myself going out.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 13, 2021 23:44:05 GMT -5
Nico blinked, eyes narrowing a little as he looked at Kelsier. He hadn’t expected that response. He hadn’t expected Kelsier to be freaking out, but he hadn’t expected him to be completely calm about the whole situation. Kelsier had been hard to predict even when Nico had known him. This Kelsier was almost impossible to predict. He took a breath in, arms crossing over his chest. This meant that not only had Kelsier noticed Nico in his class before, he had noticed that Nico struggled on the test. Which… well, that was just like Kelsier, wasn’t it? Doing only halfway ethical things for the people who were struggling in unfair ways?
“Maybe your tests aren’t unfair,” Nico replied, glancing at him. His expression was guarded, though he tried to push away the pang that came with guarding his expression in front of Kelsier. He had trusted him with more than his life, once. He had been more open with him than almost anyone else. It hurt to know it could never be that way again.
“Maybe I’m just really bad at physics anyway.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, half wanting to leave, half wanting to stay.
“You probably wouldn’t have died,” Nico noted, trying to sound like he didn’t care.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 0:14:10 GMT -5
Truthfully, Kelsier wasn’t sure what to think. It was a lot to take in…was Nico the only one? Did he know why he had powers? Had he always had them?
But it would be much easier to take it in later. He was interested, of course, but Nico was the one who had decided to reveal it, when he clearly hadn’t wanted to. This was likely new territory for them both. Unless he accidentally was forced to teleport random strangers a lot.
Somehow, Kelsier doubted that.
“You’d have to actually be bad at physics for that to work,” he pointed out lightly, though his eyes were still serious behind the humor. “Because I checked your work. You understand the concepts just fine, it’s the tests themselves that are hurting your grade.”
He wasn’t lying about working to improve that, either, though he wouldn’t be offended if Nico thought he was. There were plenty of ulterior motives for him to choose from.
“Besides…I won’t stop you, if you decide to drop out. But you should know, even if I tried, I doubt there’s much I could do to you. Like you said, if I tried to tell anyone, they’d have no reason to believe me.”
He smiled. “Also, for the record, I’m not quite as indestructible as you think. I’d definitely have died.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 2:39:06 GMT -5
“How many students are in your class?” Nico asked, not able to stop the accusation in his voice. “There have to be at least a hundred. Do you know everyone by name? Do you actually know how each of them are doing, even the ones that are just taking your class for GE credit?” His voice was laced with incredulity, though he really shouldn’t have been surprised. That was exactly like Kelsier. He never did anything half-assed. Of course he wasn’t’ going to teach without knowing each of his students and their specific weaknesses in the class. Or maybe it wasn’t about weaknesses. Maybe it was about their strengths, and how those could be used to fix the weaknesses.
He shouldn’t’ have taken the class. How had he missed the professor’s name when he was registering? Had he just paid attention to the last name? How could he have missed that he was signing up for a class with Kelsier? Then again… this wasn’t something he could have predicted. It wasn’t like he was aware that a version of Kelsier could even exist in his world.
“The concepts make sense,” Nico said after a moment, giving a small shrug. “I just can’t seem to get any of the answers correct.” He breathed out, contemplating what would happen if he stayed now. This felt like a pivotal moment. Either he stayed, or he didn’t. Either he kept taking Kelsier’s class, or he walked away. Was he really ready to get rid of Kel’s limited presence in his life?
He searched Kelsier’s eyes, trying to make his decision. Would it really hurt things if he stayed? He wanted to believe it would be okay. He wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, he could have some version of Kel in his life.
“We probably weren’t very high off the ground floor. You probably would have broken a bone or two, at most.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 2:53:52 GMT -5
“I have a boring life,” Kelsier replied, his voice light. If he could hear the accusation, he didn’t seem offended by it. “And I’ve never liked TV much. I have to do something in my free time, don’t I? I’m supposed to be a teacher, Nico. You could probably learn everything in my class on google or YouTube for free, without ever leaving your room. Why bother taking my class at all, if I’m just throwing information at you instead of teaching it?”
As much as he’d never expected to be a teacher, of all things, he had to admit he thought he was a pretty damn good one. He raised an eyebrow, his expression almost as much of a challenge as Nico’s tone had been.
He was also proud that he’d been right about Nico. Either the kid already knew he had a learning disorder, or he at least didn’t know he didn’t. Otherwise, he’d have corrected Kel.
“My spine, for instance,” he offered, his smile relentlessly cheerful. “Face it, you either definitely saved my life, or you probably did. If you really thought I’d have been fine, you wouldn’t have used your powers on me.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 3:54:27 GMT -5
“You think differently from other teachers,” Nico noted, though he had a feeling Kelsier already knew that. “Most professors don’t seem to actually care if you learn anything in their class. I mean… they care, but if people aren’t doing well, they just assume it’s the student’s fault or something. I don’t know. You don’t… seem to think that.” He didn’t know why Kelsier was different, other than the fact that he was Kelsier. There was nothing about any version of Kelsier that could be described as normal.
Technically, Nico wasn’t diagnosed with anything. Nobody had been testing kids for ADHD or dyslexia when he had been attending elementary school, they had just assumed he as dumb and let him slip through the cracks. He hadn’t thought to get tested before going to college. He knew, as a demigod, that he probably had either one or both, he just… hadn’t expected it to actually impact his school performance. He had forgotten he would have to take classes that he couldn’t pass just by hyperfixating on them.
“You wouldn’t have broken your spine,” Nico replied, an edge to his voice. “Now you’re just being dramatic.” Still, Kelsier had a point. If Nico hadn’t believed there to be a very real danger of them getting seriously hurt, he wouldn’t have shadow travelled them out of there. He still stood by his decision, even if he had no idea how to handle the aftermath of it.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 4:11:24 GMT -5
Kelsier smiled, as though pleased that Nico had noticed. He knew most teachers didn’t really care. Or else, if they didn’t, they didn’t care enough to put too much time or effort into it. The problem with Kelsier was that he never seemed to know how to stop caring.
He had no memory of whether he’d ever gone to college or not, personally. Maybe he’d gotten bad professors, if he had. Maybe he was trying to be the teacher he’d never had. Or maybe he was just more committed to his job than most people were.
“Well, I’m not most professors,” he replied, waving a hand to one side in a dismissive gesture. “And there are far easier ways to make money, if that was all I cared about. I could have been a bank robber, you know. I’d certainly be much richer, and no one would be able to fire me.”
He was joking, but the point was there. If his motivation was paying bills, he was fairly sure he could find plenty of other ways to pull that off, and there would have been far less sitting and talking involved in them.
He gave a light chuckle, but he dipped his head, accepting Nico’s point. “Have it your way. Thank you for keeping me from messing up my hair. Your efforts are appreciated.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 4:50:06 GMT -5
“If what I’ve heard about education is true, then nobody would actually choose to be a professor if they wanted to make money,” Nico pointed out, arms crossing. “I mean… you guys are like… criminally underpaid, right?” He had never had much of an interest in politics, but he had started to show more of an interest in it as he had grown up. He may have saved the world a few times when he was a kid, but as an adult, he had a civic duty to make his voice count in making it a world that was worth saving. There were things he needed to learn about, issues that needed to be covered in order to ensure he made sure his voice counted. He had spent more time and energy than should have been possible saving the world, he would be angry with himself if he didn’t at least try to make sure it was a good place for people to live.
“I’m not actually sure bank robber is that lucrative a profession,” he added, brow quirking up. Seeing Kelsier as a bank robber wasn’t a far stretch, but he decided not to mention that now. The last thing he needed was to offend Kelsier. This Kelsier hadn’t spent most of his life as a thief. “I think a significant part of being a bank robber is that at some point you get caught. Then you spend a significant portion of your life in jail.”
Nico knew Kelsier was joking, but he was afraid to fall into the familiar routine of leaning into the jokes. He didn’t want to establish a rapport with this Kelsier. He didn’t want to think for even a moment that the Kelsier he had lost was replaceable, just because the man in front of him had the same face and similar mannerisms.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 17, 2021 23:41:57 GMT -5
Kelsier inclined his head, acknowledging that Nico was right. He wasn’t in this for the money, clearly. And even if he was mostly joking about becoming a thief…it would really have paid better, wouldn’t it? It would have had better hours, too. And less pressure.
His lip twitched, a silent appreciation of his own thoughts, even if he didn’t have anyone to share them with. This kid, though Kelsier wanted to get to know him better, was still a stranger.
“You say that, but there’s no way to know, is there?” He noted, one eyebrow quirking up. “It’s like…have you ever heard of the people who were trying to design better planes? They looked at the ones that returned, and all the places they’d been hit, and they began to try to reinforce those areas. Naturally, right? Until someone pointed out that the places they needed to be reinforcing were the ones that weren’t hit.”
He flipped a hand, his scars catching the light for just a moment. “Anyway, the point of a good thief is that they’re never caught. You don’t catch liars, Nico…you only catch the ones that mess up.”
This was probably not the best way to make himself seem like the trustworthy adult figure Nico could feel comfortable around, he knew, but it was also the truth, and he could never have convinced him to stay by pretending to be normal. Not when that was a facade he wasn’t going to succeed at.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 25, 2021 0:24:10 GMT -5
If there were one thing Nico could say for certain, it was that Kelsier was very much the same even in a very different world. The circumstances were completely different, of course. If Mare had existed, she wasn’t here. That didn’t mean she had died, though. There was no Hathsin here for Kelsier to have survived (though Nico had seen the scars when Kelsier had boosted him up). Despite all the differences, Kelsier was as flamboyant and prone to crime as before. Hopefully that didn’t extend to murder in this world. Nico wasn’t sure he could stomach the thought of a Kelsier who killed people in this world. There was nobody as bad as the nobility here. There were things that could be done to improve things without jumping straight to murder.
Nico pushed the thought away, instead focusing on Kelsier’s words.
“I guess I don’t know,” he conceded after a long moment, eyes narrowed as they searched Kelsier’s. “Maybe you wouldn’t get caught. Maybe you’d be the best thief the world has ever seen. But you have to plan well and get lucky every single time. The police just have to get lucky once. They have much higher odds of catching you than you do st evading them for an entire lifetime. I mean… it’s not like Bonnie and Clyde. There are cameras and stuff.”
Something struck Nico as he said that, and it took all of his effort to force back the tears that threatened to blur his vision. This conversation was a little too similar to one he’d had with the real Kelsier. If he wasn’t careful… he was going to forget the distinction.
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