Jonathan in the Whateleyverse
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Then he will have a nice relaxing unweird walk. Right?

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Well, maybe. Halfway through he runs into a girl irritably attempting to uproot a large rock, or possibly a small boulder. She's having more luck than one might expect from a girl her size and a rock that size, but some luck is not necessarily enough in this circumstance.

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...he'll see if she looks like she Would Like Help With That before interacting.

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She notices him and pauses for a moment. She wipes a hand across her forehead, leaving a smear of dirt. "You wouldn't happen to have some kind of helpful power, would you? This stupid rock is blocking the ley line."

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"Uh —"

Pause to consider that yes he does have a power and yes it is relevant and does this request sound reasonable eh close enough.

"— yeah. Does the rock need to be left alone other than being moved? I am literally on my way to powers testing and don't know if there might be, like, side effects."

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The girl stands up gratefully, trying to brush off her skirt and only managing to make it worse. "Nah, you can break it if you want. It just needs to not be where it is."

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He looks for the currently bottom-most part of the rock that isn't covered in fresh dirt and rests his hands on them for a few seconds, then steps back.

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The girl looks at him sideways, but doesn't comment, probably assuming he's going to do something that takes some leadup.

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What he is going to do is walk around to the other side of the rock and then cause it to roll out of its current pit with no spectacle whatsoever other than some leaning back like he was pulling on a nonexistent rope.

He pulls the rock over to a place that is definitely not on or near the path.

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The girl exhales. "Thank you. I'm Jesse, by the way - Compass. I'd offer to shake hands, but." She claps her hands together, causing a little of the dirt to fall off.

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"Jonathan, no code name yet, I just got here."

Clearly he needs one to introduce himself less awkwardly.

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She nods. "Took me a while to figure one out for myself, too. I don't love 'Compass', but it's better than 'Ley', which, you know, kind of handing myself over to the smartasses on a silver platter."

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He takes a moment to get it, then winces.

"Right. I need to actually figure out the rest of what I do before I know what to call myself. And check the taken names list, which I'm sure will be horribly disappointing."

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She nods. "TK's pretty common. Everybody finds something, though. Well- I'm gonna go take a shower, I think. Have fun with powers testing!"

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"That's the plan!"

Speaking of plans, time to hurry up a little bit.

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There are no more random encounters along the way. He'll make it to the underground labs in time.

When he gets to the labs, he's greeted by a gentleman in a labcoat whose nametag says he's Doctor Duncan. "Hello! Are you Jonathan Strand?"

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"Unless my life is even weirder than I currently think it is, yes!"

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Dr. Duncan laughs. "Well, it probably is, based on experience, but maybe not in that particular way. Come on in."

The lab has various features, notably a desktop computer, a treadmill, and an expansive set of weights. "Now, as far as you know now, what are your powers?"

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"I'm tougher and stronger than I was — someone said I'm probably an Exemplar — and I have weirdly complicated telekinesis."

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"How's your telekinesis weirdly complicated?"

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"I have to get to know stuff before I can move it, and I can feel it inside, and I can reshape some materials or just mangle others. And I can't make stuff float, it's always like it's attached to me, but maybe that's how it usually works."

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"No, that's abnormal. Typically there's only a token sensory component. Fascinating. Can you demonstrate on..." He casts around for an object, then picks up one of the lower weights. "This. Just 'get to know it' and move it around some."

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"Oh and it's faster or slower depending on the material. Metal and glass are easy, plastic is a little slower, wood is really slow and I have to, like, pay attention to the wood grain on the inside to get through it."

He holds the weight, waits a few seconds, and then lifts it up — with his right hand fisted above it like there's an invisible rope.

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"And you say you can reshape the material? Can you do that with this one?"

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"Sure, but I won't be able to get it back to this shape, okay?"

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