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Wisdom. Yeah. People didn’t usually fix things in a day. It had taken him forever, when his powers broke. Years, for Kealey to get a handle on her empath power. And she still had struggles. Rome, and all that. Not built in one, etc etc.

He nodded and listened to what Tarin had to say. They just walked basic control here. To start. Tarin did not say “to start.” Shin did. Those were his plans.

>>> ”I don’t want Lee to delay medical treatmentbecause she’s looking for stairs so I don’t have to ride in an elevator.”

Right. Falling buildings. People get hurt. He did not want to hinder.

”Of course,” the Asian said.

Tarin tried to dodge his question about training. Shin dug in his heels.

”Most people would say therapy. Training is something else. You don’t have to talk about that detail right now, unless you want to. I am curious, though. And also. Have you tried therapy for your claustrophobia?”

30 once it’s small enough he couldn’t stand any more. Got it.

”Affirmative.” Shin said.

The cube test started, and shin watched and waited. He was ready to end it if Tarin begged, but he wanted to follow their agreement. He didn’t want Tarin getting hurt, and having a breakdown. But sometimes, you gotta work through the pain— so


Eh.

Shin watched and waited.

Tarin wound up on his posterior.

Shin watched and waited.

Eventually, right about when Tarin might have broken, the timer ended and the cube vanished. A harried-looking Tarin gave the thumbs up.

A minute.

”Affirmative.” Shin said.

He loaded up the exact same situation, with a minute timer. Part of him wanted to throw in the walls not shrinking, not shrinking at all. To see how Tarin responded to that. But he also felt like that was another intrusive thought. A mind game. They had trust going on, presently. They could experiment further later. But for now—

The same scenario, a second time. With longer time on the clock.

What if the walls moved in partially, then stopped, and he staggered their shrinkage to lengthen it so everything felt longer and —

The same scenario began anew.

Tarin said stop. And all of a sudden, a dozen robotics arms with saw blades, or rocket launchers, or tentacles, or hammers, materialized in an attack pattern, aiming to take him down… just kidding. That was just one permutation of the danger room, and not one that materialized in any way, shape or form today. Though for the moment, the mental image did flicker in the back of Shin’s mind. Probably because he could sometimes be sort of an asshole. Inwardly, of course. Stupid intrusive thoughts. The danger room simulation stopped. Tarin’s hotbox became a gone box. The man was beat… box.

Grrr, stop being ridiculous, brain….

Shin gave Tarin a minute to calm down. He didn’t chime in with an “are you okay?” Or an “can I help with anything?” Tarin needed to master himself. Shin could not help him master himself.

Tarin had a few thoughts on the simulation. Oh how it wouldn’t work, if he could just throw in the hat the second things got tough.

”We can do a timer. Or give you something. Like a strikes system. Say strike 3 times, and you get let out? Might be easier and less tempting for you if we do your timer method though. At least, to start. We can start with an arbitrary amount, then build from there. A short time? Like, maybe 30 seconds?”

He arched a questioning eyebrow, realized his face was not visible. He was talking on the speakers. Tarin was all alone in the danger room.

He could brainstorm other ideas while Tarin did his trial. Shin made some tweaks to the system, and another box appeared. This one was not pink. It was made of material shadows. It would also be dark in the room, so Tarin could not see the walls closing in. But if he stuck out an arm, he could feel it happening.

Shin was unsure if that were cruel or not. But, then, they were here to conquer fears. Was the fear of the unknown bigger than the sight of the room getting smaller? Was it a different fear target?

”This one is dark inside, but I made it less stuffy. You shouldn’t have to worry about air in either situation, but I don’t know if that’s one of your triggers or not, so maybe I shouldn’t have told you that part. forget it, if it makes you feel better….” Shin paused.

”Same shrinking room, but this one’s a shadow box. You’re shadow-boxing, Tarin. Ready when you are. The timer target will be 30 seconds, but if you say ‘more’, it can be extended another 30.”

There, they could tweak this until they got it right. They’d get through this, together.

Ah. A trigger. That made sense. That was a dangerous thing to trigger. One really did need control over something like that. He knew all about having to exercise extreme control, having lived with a power that could shred him, or anything around him, if he was not careful.

Shin nodded.

”I get it. My power can be dangerous to myself and others. I’ve trained to use it in ways that avoid that… but if I slip… that danger never really goes away.”

He thought of Sam, being rapidly lifted into the air in improperly-formed armor made of shards. He found he was frowning. The terse smile he had worn describing his powers had slipped into that bitter sad frown. He shook his head, and forced it into a look of neutrality. Then he sipped his coffee.

”We can try your method. We can experiment, if it doesn’t work. I’ll do whatever I can to help you, Tarin. Shin said. He glanced at the untouched coffee. ”We can start now, if you’re not feeling coffee. I can take mine on the road.”

One thing the mansion loves to do is help better people. Help them overcome weaknesses. Those weaknesses can be of any sort. Powers, school-related, other. This was firmly in the other camp, and Shin was glad to help.

He had meant to take Tarin out to eat, to discuss whatever. So he had arranged a brief meetup over coffee, so they could go over things better. Phone talks really do not allow for as much “good talk” vibes. Can’t even see a face.

It was a good coffee place. Well-maintained, good service, privacy. People could work on laptops in the corner and have silence, while they drank their coffee. And the place served more than just coffee. They served tea and muffins. If you had tea and muffins. They were at the mansion kitchens. The service was Shin. The server was Shin. And he made a good cup of Joe.

They could go to the danger room after this. It wasn’t so far away. Literally in the same building. But for the moment, shin had asked what Tarin would like, then went and got it. Then he had brought their drinks back to the table. He had wanted to take the man out for drinks, and, well, these were far less alcoholic. But no less delicious.

Shin sat down, and gave the man his drink.

Tarin thanked him for doing this.

Shin nodded. ”Sure, Sure. No problem.” He said. ”You need sugar? Creamer? Or do you prefer it black, like your soul? Ahem bad joke. Anyways. Can you give me the description of your problem again? Where it started might be useful. We need to brainstorm the best way to help you, and Throwing you into a situation might not always be the best.”

Some people responded poorly to being tossed into the deep end.

He looked over to the woman as she spoke softly, and tried to calm him down. Reassure him. That he was okay. That it had been alright. Because it had been to help Sam, to keep Sam from doing something way too… hotblooded. Wrong.

Maybe Sam had not been meaning to kill. Maybe he had meant to put the person, Travis, down so they could not weasel out of the situation and escape. Shin wanted to give Sam the benefit of the doubt, but the man had been pretty “scorched earth”… “rime-frosted tundra”… about the whole thing.

He nodded slightly at her words.

Sometimes, there were no good options. Sometimes, it was just bad or worse.

Shin let out a choked little half laugh, half sob. Not due to humor. But because it had triggered a memory, and it had been so ridiculous, so “definition of worse”, he had to confide it.

”I was so out of it, so emotional over the whole thing… at the time, I almost considered making a fulcrum and lever out of shards to launch Cold Steel sky high. Like some Looney Tunes stuff. First thought. But the logistics, and… and that was crazy. It wouldn’t have even worked, but what else can you think but crazy things, when you have to come up with ideas on how to bring a friend down? Like, at some point I actually contemplated scenarios for how I would stop fellow X-men, like some sort of protocols for if anyone got off the rails, and— I’d hope they would do the same for me, we fight such scary people some times, but—“ He was rambling now, had done one big ol run on sentence, and how would Lee even respond to that. If he asked her, if he said “isn’t that crazy?” She would say “uh yeah it is, but sometimes we have only bad and worse.” She would just reassure him he had done his best.

He cleared his throat, and brushed some stray water that had wound up on the sides of his eyes from some freak rain storm or something centralized wholly on the area directly around him, and only him. Rain. Yeah. Rain.

”Thanks.” His voice was weak, ”That helps. Didn’t really mean to unload on you like that, but I appreciate that— er ahem. So anyways. Do you have any stuff you want to confide in me about? Turnabout is FairPlay? And, god. Never mind. My brain can be so weird sometimes. Weren’t we just walking? Let’s do that.”