Skye stood to her feet, wobbling just a little at first but it didn't take the young woman long to regain her footing. The lights on her hands faded from green to blue, because though she'd calmed, it showed her exhaustion.

She didn't have to think when Gawain asked her about her happy place; that she knew without a shadow of a doubt. "My happy place isn't quite the beach. Think more of a harbor. Standing on the edge of the pier, looking out on the water. In perfect weather...nothing beats that," she said softly, her hair turning more indigo as she spoke.

Skye was probably experiencing a whole lot of emotions after that scenario, and after setting off the flash bang. Gawain wanted to give her a moment to regain her composure, so that they could go on exploring her powers. The easiest way to do that was to create a scene where she felt calm and comfortable.

>>"My happy place isn't quite the beach. Think more of a harbor. Standing on the edge of the pier, looking out on the water. In perfect weather...nothing beats that,"

"Coming right up" Gawain smiled as he worked on the controls. They had a lot of scenarios and settings already saved, and it was not hard to pull one up that fit the description. Calm ocean, check. Pier, check. He could already see her hair color changing. Indigo was calm, then?...

"I know this is kind of on the nose" he said after allowing her a few minutes of calm and quiet "But is there something that pisses you off easily?"

Even as she spoke the world around them began to change, and Skye had to admit, it was really neat. Sure, the result wasn't exactly Port Haven, but it was close enough. She just sat on the pier, crossing her legs under herself as she just looked out over the ocean. It was nice, and the stress from only moments before just started to fall away even as she sat there. Her heart rate returned to normal, as her hands began to emanate the indigo light reflecting how content she was feeling now.

After a few moments, the silence was broken by a very blunt question, and it startled her for a second, but she knew the answer right off of the bat. She took a breath.

"I hate seeing mutants mistreated for no reason," she said, getting right to the point, but she managed to remain calm as she spoke, so her hair didn't change. No one could say she wasn't at least in *some* control of her emotions. But she took a breath as she dwelled on that. Unless he wanted her to get mad. This was sort of confusing.

The young woman closed her eyes as she focused on the breeze and the sound of the ocean under the pier.

>>"I hate seeing mutants mistreated for no reason,"

Gawain nodded as he got to work. That they had in store, pre-programmed, in abundance. While it was triggering for some students to deal with simulations of hate crimes, for others it was a way to work through frustrations, experiences, or potential encounters. For now, he only needed it to get yet another emotion out of Skye. She seemed to be handling the tests pretty well so far, and she calmed down quickly in the right environment. It was time to move along.

"Hey you! What do you think you are doing out here?" the voice came from somewhere nearby, but it wasn't, as it might have seemed at first, aimed at Skye. Rather, the rude question was directed at a skinny-looking teen with rainbow-colored scales who was sitting in the shallow water next to the pier. The voice came from a larger set man, whose facial expression promised nothing good to follow.

Skye found it easy to get lost in her thoughts here, even if it wasn't exactly home, or even technically real. Something about the pier just beckoned to her. It was honestly one of the few things she missed about Maine; she'd hadn't had many friends, and her Mom wasn't worth wasting a thought on. Sure, she missed her Dad, but he was probably struggling to make a living for himself now. Maybe she'd--

"Hey you! What do you think you are doing out here?"

The rude voice snapped Skye out of her thoughts rather quickly. Her hair flashed from indigo to green from the surprise, and then her eyes darted to the source of the peace-shattering sound. It didn't take her long at all to see the heavyset fellow, or the skinny teen in the water that was catching the brunt of his prejudice.

Instantly, her hair turned to red as she carefully made her way over to the shallow water, climbing down so as to position herself between the teen and the jerk giving her trouble. Her hands flickered threateningly with red light as she felt her heart racing, about to pound out of her chest.

Next time Mirror asked her what ticked her off, scared her, or otherwise set off another negative emotion...

She was going to say kittens.

Mirror had the DR set up to monitor Skye's mood and ability changes, but he was taking notes anyway, because sometimes it was good to be old-fashioned. Her hair shifted to green with surprising speed, and then turned red with clear anger. She did not hesitate to move between bully and victim; that was a good start for someone being trained by the X-men. Gawain sat back, deciding to let the scene play out. This foe was a human, programmed to be intimidating but sluggish, not some monster creature she was not ready for. She could handle the confrontation until Gawain decided otherwise.

"And who the hell are you, pixie girl?" the man snarled at her, taking a step forward "His girlfriend or something?"

Skye stood between the human and the other mutant, keeping her eyes on the unruly....gentleman. She wasn't sure what the teen could do, exactly, but that didn't matter. Her hands flashed threateningly with red light as her gaze didn't waver from the man. "I'm not Tinkerbell, that's for sure," she answered, her voice sharp. "Doesn't matter, but he has a much better shot than you do," she shot back, fists clenching as her eyes narrowed into a scowl.

"You may wanna get outta here, friend," she said, her voice softer as she addressed the teen. Her gaze never left the man, and her voice grew stern again as she addressed him. "I'd suggest you do the same," she said, her voice not threatening, but firm. Inside, however, the girl's heart felt as if it was going to beat out of her chest as she could feel sweat running down the back of her neck. She was definitely not used to this kind of excitement, especially not as frequently as it was happening today.

Sure, that was the point of training, but she honestly wasn't sure how much of this she could take.

Skye stepped up to the task of protecting the mutant kid from the bully. Gawain watched with interest as the scenario unfolded, the red light becoming stronger as she got angrier at the man. He had no doubt that he could get another flash bang eventually, if she really had to put up a fight against him. Or she might earn a punch for her efforts. She was a newbie, after all, and probably did not know the first thing about hand to hand combat. But at least the red color was pretty self-explanatory.

"That's a good start, hot shot" Gawain said through the comm, grinning, as he froze the scenario. "We could keep going, but I feel like I should give you some self defense lessons first." using the mirror in the god room he teleported back next to her, tapping a finger on his list.

"So, I have orange for excitement, dark blue for calm, red for anger, green for fear, purple for... confused?" he glanced up "Plus the flash bang. That's not bad for a first try."

Skye's adrenaline was pumping through her veins as she stared down the much larger fellow, keeping her body between him and the teen mutant, whom...in all honesty was likely around the same age as the would-be-guardian-angel. Too bad she'd never been in a fight in her life, nor would she even know where to begin if her life depended on it.

Gawain's voice suddenly breaking through the com made her jump a little, but she noticed the scenario had frozen. "Yeah...self defense lessons..." she murmured, the closest she'd get to admitting she was more than likely about to get her ass kicked by a simulation. She listened as he went through his list of colors, processing each word.

"That sounds about right. Purple's one of those weird ones, but it makes sense to me," she said with a shrug, now realizing how much this simulation had taken out of her. She was pretty tired, sweat drenching her now-indigo hair and running down her cheek.

The hair switched back to indigo, which could have been calm, but also just plain exhausted. Gawain could see the sweat on Skye's forehead. First time in the DR was always a trip, and he had really put her through an emotional roller-coaster. Virtual reality was real, to one's mind anyway, even when it was obviously virtual.

"Alright, I think this is it for today." he nodded, patting her on the shoulder "We can talk about the self defense later. Not bad for a first run at the DR." he added with a grin "Sorry for putting you through all that. You did great."

if she wanted, she could do some serious training. Eventually.