Gym and weight room, huh? Well, it was surely around here… usually he just used a home gym, or had the danger room simulate a weights set. But…

So they went to the gym. It took him a minute to find it. He showed them around. It was a pretty good gym. It had a nautilus elliptical and a bike and a treadmill and and everything else you would have expected from a gym. There was even a television tuned exclusively to Nick cartoons.

They had lost the remote years ago, it seemed. But hey, that sponge was funny right? Or maybe someone had stolen it, or hidden it. Who even took care of the gym maintenance?

The weight room was nearby, full of all the right equipment for getting ripped or turnt or whatever kids these days call buff as hell.

He asked Kevin what he thought of everything. It was an impressive array of stuff. Almost looked in tip top shape, like it had never been used before.

Well. The mansion had blown up. Maybe Kevin would be the first?

Lee hadn’t known where the gym was, she hadn’t exactly needed or wanted to use one during the month that she had lived here, but Lee knew her way around the mansion well enough to know that…Apparently Shin hadn’t been exactly sure where it was either. Not that they had had to backtrack or anything obvious like that. Just that, the route Shin led them could have been made in a more direct way, she knew.

But they finally made it to the gym and then the weight room. And after looking around at both rooms, Lee saw that Kevin looked a little concerned and confused.

”They don’t have a ring, mum,” Kevin pointed out, the same concern on his face evident in his voice. ”And where are the punching bags?”

”That’s because most gyms don’t have punching bags, Kevin,” Lee said gently as she also looked around the room to see what was, and wasn’t, available. ”And you don’t need a ring to spar. Even more so since you’re not ready to spar yet anyway.”

”But mum!” Kevin started complaining.

Lee just raised an eyebrow at her son for a moment before speaking. ”If you want me to train you, then you have to follow my training, and you’re not ready to spar yet. But I guarantee we will be able to find somewhere suitable when you are ready, Kevin. But I’ll ask Sam about a punching bag.” Lee then turned back to Shin. ’’He would be the one to ask about something like that, right?”

This place really was huge, Tarin mused as they made their way to the gym.

Kevin was highly concerned about The Mansion’s lack of boxing ring and if Tarin had to guess he’d have put money on there being plenty of training facilities out of sight of the general public.

He supposed that didn’t really help Kevin though.

Lee was going in on Kevin about being ready to fight yet and then she asked if they could potentially get a bag.

It was sounding more and more like “when” and less and less “if” as far as the mansion was concerned.

”What’s the dorm situation like?” Tarin asked, curious even if Kevin wasn’t.

Kevin wanted a full-on boxing ring, with punching bags and things. Shin opened his mouth, about to say that this school was not really a place to have that— no, not really— but he knew places that were good for that.

Lee beat him to the punch of response.

She told him he wasn’t even ready to spar, if they HAD been equipped for such things. Shin… felt like Lee were being a little overprotective, but was absolutely certain he, too, would act like that. They just needed to give it a few years. Baby Michael would be a learning experience for sure.

Lee was willing to train Kevin, though. A step in the right direction. Lee turned to him, asking about punching bags and stuff.

Shin said: ”I, honestly, know a good gym. I use it myself. Gotta keep up on boxing and stuff. You remember I used to box? I could probably talk with someone about wrangling up a bag, or else introduce you both to the gym. I’m even willing to help him learn some self defense, whenever you deem him ready, but—“ He looked to Kevin. ”Your mom takes point here. I’m just offering options.”

Better him, a trusted adult, than a stranger.

Tarin wanted to see dorms. Shin nodded and lead them to a few that were not currently occupied, on the boys side of the dormitories. Since the mansion had two sides, based on gender. He explained rules, curfew, no opposite genders in rooms when inappropriate, etc etc, (same genders too, he supposed, when they were in a relationship. This was 2024.

The rooms themselves were perfectly serviceable. Nice enough, exactly what you’d expect from a dorm. He explained that the mansion had a kitchen and living room and laundry, for all the obvious reasons.

Lee smiled as Shin tried to offer suggestions for a gym, places that Kevin could train. It was so nice of him to offer so many different options, but in this case it really wasn’t needed.

”I think Kevin was thinking more about being able to train here,” Lee explained. ”Because the gym we’ve been going to is a little far from here.”

Well, she would see what could be done.

But Tarin was asking about the dorms. Which was something that Lee did want to see. Though she had stayed at the mansion before, she really wasn’t sure if the room she had been in was the same as what the students got.

At least this time when Shin lead them to the dorms, he knew where they were going. And…the room that he showed her was nowhere near where her room had been.

”What do you think, Kev?”

As well as being rather empathetic and tactful, Shin was also a smart man and deferred to Lee’s wisdom as far as Kevin and his sparring was concerned.

Tarin still didn’t believe that there weren’t that kind of training facilities on site, but if a bona fide X-Man was saying that those facilities were off-site, who was Tarin to argue?

Shin led them to the dorms and they were really very nice. A very far cry from what Tarin had grown up with and probably a far cry from what Lee had experienced too, from the stories she had told.

The room wasn’t exactly fancy, but it was really nice and there were kitchen and common areas available too. Ultimately, everything was up to Lee and Kevin, but Tarin thought The Mansion was pretty darn cool.

Lee was asking Kevin what he thought though, and Tarin had to admit he was curious to see what the kid thought. Kevin tended to be cool to the extreme whenever he could. If he was impressed and actually said so…that would be a ringing endorsement indeed.

>>> ”I think Kevin was thinking more about being able to train here,” Lee explained. ”Because the gym we’ve been going to is a little far from here.”

Shin said “fair,” and added a casual “pretty easy to acquire a punching bag and set up somewhere to train.”

They could set down padded mats in the inside-gym, for instance. The one they used for indoor sports when weather didn’t permit outside sports. Clearly, they had one. What kind of place wouldn’t? And if not (heaven forbid), they could set up the danger room in advance and just tell him it was the boxing ring they’d arranged for. It wouldn’t even be a lie, if they had.

——

Back on dorms, though.

Shin looked to Kevin, for his assessment.

”If you need something fancier… I once knew a rich kid who paid to have everything upgraded to the max.” She had needed to. She kept setting fire to her bedsheets. Easier to replace the whole room than calculate damages… for her money, that was. Good ol Kate.

Lee scoffed when she saw Kevin’s face light up that he could get a fancier room than the normal. ”Yeah, that won’t be happening, Kevin,” Lee immediately told her son. Even if she could afford it, it wasn’t anything that Kevin needed. And he definitely didn’t need to know how much money they had.

”But mum…”

Lee raised her eyebrow at her son. ”And what in here isn’t already as good or better than your room at home?” Lee asked, not upset, simply challenging Kevin to find something that would actually need upgraded.

Kevin started looking around the room almost frantically, and even opened his mouth a couple times to speak, but didn’t actually say anything.

”Exactly,” Lee said after a minute. ”You’ll be perfectly fine in a normal room. I know it was for me when I’ve stayed here before.”

Man, Kevin was fighting a losing battle. There was no way he was going to get an upgraded room.

Tarin had to admit, he was with Lee on this one. The room they were looking at was honestly really nice, especially if Kevin really could come home pretty much any time he wanted.

Lee mentioned the time that she had stayed there again and Tarin had to wonder how long she had stayed to know the Mansion as well as she did.

There was another question, one that needed to be asked. Tarin turned to Shin and fixed the other man with the first direct look since they’d arrived.

”How do you all help kids with their powers. How are the kids trained…whether they want to join up or not?”

>>>”How do you all help kids with their powers. How are the kids trained…whether they want to join up or not?”

”Good question.”

Shin said.

And then he answered Tarin. He explained how it was a case-by-case situation, where certain mutants got certain things. Some simply needed help learning how to live with a mutation. Some needed to gain control. Some needed to understand how their mutation worked, and what to do or avoid. None of any of that distinctly pertained to X-men related things.

Shin explained the fire girl, and how her special room had been upgraded because she often set things on fire. So she shelled out extra money, to fireproof things… and also, replace what got burnt, and with the best possible brands. That girl had needed to learn what triggered the mutation to light her up. Mood, outside stimuli. The girl had to figure out balance, and personal control. For other mutants, it was other things.

Their staff had a lot of experience with mutants and various mutations. They had seen a lot of things. They could assist with teaching the students how to live with their mutations, and all that was involved there. And yes, for some folks, gaining control meant training in situations where you could be exposed to stressful situations. So you learned to deal with said stresses.

He had spent a lot of time dealing with motion sickness from his eyes that rapidly calculated distances and measurements. Shin explained how the training had helped with that. He also explained how the school side was just as important. For him, he had a calculator brain, but he needed to know the equations to input to gain the results? Or it did him no good. He shared that. Another student had a power that was able to replicate chemistry-based things, but they had to understand them first. All of that.

So they were trained with lifestyle, mind, and sometimes, sometimes, trained to utilize mutations themselves. Be it in combat, or outside of combat. They had physical fitness programs and the old sports ball games, too, the ones with powers allowed.

Ultimately, Shin had explained, a lot of it was tailor made to suit the student in question. He hoped that was a good answer.

Tarin asked how they trained the students with their mutations, and though his voice wasn’t harsh or accusing in any way, based on what she knew about how he’d grown up, Lee could guess what Tarin was trying to get at here, what he was trying to learn.

And honestly, what Shin was saying both made sense to Lee and was about what she would have expected to hear. When she’d been trying to figure out her people radar because she had been feeling someone who wasn’t there (not knowing that it was Tarin while he was out of his body), Sam had come up with training situations specific to her, her powers, and what she was trying to figure out.

At least it was exactly what Lee had expected to hear until Shin said that they also exposed students to stressful situations. Hearing that, Lee’s eyes shot to Tarin, unsure how he would react to that, what he would think about that.

”Let’s continue to use this fire girl as an example,” Lee said slowly, her eyes still on Tarin as she spoke to Shin. ”What kind of stressful situations would she hypothetically be put through? And what would be considered successfully controlling the power? Would it include using her power without losing control?”

Shin answered and answered thoroughly. All of the training was tailor made for the students.

The things he was saying made sense, but the more the other man spoke, the more uncomfortable Tarin got.

It wasn’t really Shin’s fault. Nothing about this interaction had suggested that there was anything untoward going on.

Still. They put the kids into stressful situations? Tarin didn’t say anything but he could feel the tension building. Shin explained what that had looked like for him, but it was hard to conceptualize what that meant.

Tarin didn’t know how to ask more.

Lee did it for him though and Tarin met her eyes and nodded as she asked for clarification. He cleared his throat a little ”Who decides when those lessons stop?”

Apparently, the “stressful situations” comment had struck a nerve. He had never outright meant ‘oh, let’s provoke you to see how you respond!’ He had meant something a bit more tactful. But sometimes, the best way to see how one reacts in a certain situation is to throw them into that situation.

Lee was watching Tarin as she spoke to him, and Shin had the insightful notion what he said mattered to the man more than one might assume.

Were they using Kate as an example again? Ho boy, he did not recall much more about the young woman than he had already noted. But they could use hypotheticals. Honestly, that was probably what the people wanted.

Tarin asked a follow up, after Lee’s question. Shin tackled that one first. He told the man ”the student can stop the power control lessons at any time. Nobody forces them to do anything.”

Did lessons generally help? Yes. Did people usually keep doing the lessons. Yes.

”Most of the time, students who come to the mansion are seeking help with their powers. Some may come for other reasons, like a place to stay. Or school. We never force anyone to do anything they aren’t comfortable doing. But to answer your question, Lee…”

Shin turned away from Tarin, who he had turned his body slightly towards as he was speaking. Unintentionally.

”Kate was real, and I can’t really remember a lot of her training. I think Sam handled that. But if I had been training her, hypothetical situation incoming, I would have focused on learning why stressful things like strong emotions. Anger, fear, etc. Triggered the mutation. I would have taught some coping strategies, same as any therapist might. Calming exercises, breathing techniques. Kate might have benefited from learning to control or limit the fire. To find outlets. Figuratively and metaphorically. Education helps, too. Learning fireproof material, heats at which things happen, maybe having special clothing or bedding made. Generally, we would help her feel safer and more in control, empowered. Fire can be a scary power to have. It can easily get out of control, and burn. Everything. But at the same time…”

Shin stopped for a second. Another reference came to him, one that Tarin would not have understood. Yes. It was another Disney reference. Hell, two of them. Inside out and frozen. Why were Disney movies such good teaching examples for psychology stuff?! Even stuff like The Lion King could be modeled as one aspect of dealing with grief… but… nope. Tangent.

Shin explained how, even though staff aren’t trained psychologists, some can get analytical and deep sometimes. Mutations can be physical , emotional, mental, the entire spectrum. People can fear and want to hide, but shutting down and shutting out the world is not healthy. Concealing, avoiding emotions, that stuff is dangerous because when they do come out. And they will. Is so much bigger than if one had learned to cope and live and love themselves. Sometimes, you have to embrace the strong emotion, the sadness, etc. In order to heal and move forward. Because being in a headspace where you fear any loss of control, fear yourself? That is unhealthy, and can lead bad places.

”We train for all of those reasons, guys. But mostly, it is deeply personal and everyone needs to find their own path. We are teachers here. We help with tools and guidance, in the hopes it will be something. It isn’t perfect, but then… what is? Yes, the X-men teach people to fight. We teach them to fight for themselves.”

Lee hadn’t been overly concerned about what the ‘stress testing’ that they did at the mansion might be. She knew Shin well enough, knew enough about Sam’s past, to know that neither of them would be accepting of doing something similar to what Tarin had been through. Her main concern through this whole part of the conversation had been how Tarin was going to take it, how he was going to feel about it. Because whether or not he would admit it, Lee knew he was having feelings about the current conversation.

”the student can stop the power control lessons at any time. Nobody forces them to do anything.” Shin informed them.

”Full consent before, and they can stop it,” Lee murmured to Tarin. Because even if it had initially sounded similar to what he had endured, it wasn’t.

Though to be honest, Tarin appeared to be taking in what Shin was saying better than she had feared he might.

”Wait!” Kevin interrupted. ”You teach students how to fight with their powers? That’s so cool!”

Shin kept explaining and Tarin simply decided he was going to give the other man the benefit of the doubt.

The people he had fallen in with in New York had explained things the same way that Shin was explaining them. The reasons they’d given for all the things they’d done had been nearly identical and everything had always been for their own good or for the good of the group.

Lee didn’t seem worried though, and Tarin knew that the questions she had asked for clarification before had been for his benefit, not hers.

She spoke, pointing out that the kids had the choice of whether or not to participate in the first place and they could stop at any point.

So. Despite the fact that he was a little sick to his stomach thinking about all of it, Tarin took a deep breath and nodded to Lee. ”Good.” he said, ”They should get to choose.”

Kevin, of course, had latched on to the part Shin had said about fighting with powers, but of course he had.