Question Ten Years After [repost from old site]

Madison, WI, 2017-09-23
John Castor pulled his new Subaru up to the house he was going to be inspecting today, finding that the prospective buyers had not yet arrived. He made sure his glasses (which Adam called his 'Clark Kent' glasses) were secured tightly on their lanyard; no point in spooking people with the real appearance of his eyes, after all. Besides, they were also enchanted to give him better control over his power, which was important if he was to do his job effectively.

A brief alert on his smartphone let him know that he'd gotten a text message. It was from Adam, of course, reminding him that they had a powers assessment later that afternoon. A moment later he got a second message, but this was a reminder of a more personal nature: that it was their ten-year anniversary together.

Leave it to Adam to remember the important details, he mused, a gentle smile coming across his face.

Whateley Academy, 2007-04-25
That useless little idiot, Greasy, was sobbing into his pillow again. Peeper rolled his eyes; after all, all he did was tell him that his latest devise was a piece of junk, which it was. Jeez, why is he so damn sensitive about these things?

"Oh, get over it, Greaseball," Peeper, "you sound like some kind of faggot when you cry like that. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Adam raised his head off of his bedsheets, staring at Peeper with a mix of horror and anger. Somehow, John knew, he'd stepped into it; Greasy was actually mad at him, instead of just cowering at his every insult, and he looked like he was gonna...

But instead of hauling back and throwing a punch, Adam did something Peeper never would have anticipated: he grabbed him by both shoulders and kissed him, full on mouth.

Peeper just stood there in shock. No, that's not true; it was worse than that. He realized out of the blue that he was kissing Adam back, with just as much passion as his roommate had put into it.

Horrified, he pushed Greasy away, then reached for the trash can to throw up. He mostly hit the inside of the bucket. Mostly.

Shaking, Peeper shouted for Greasy to leave him alone, to go away and never return. But it was the creeping realization that he was responding not out of anger or disgust, but sheer terror, that left him crying on the floor like a baby.

Madison, WI, 2017-09-23
Around 3PM, the prospective buyers arrived, a middle-aged couple and a short-haired teenaged girl who was wearing rather baggy clothes and a pair of very conspicuous wrap-around sunglasses, and carried herself with a nervous air that anyone should have noticed. Curious, he took a peek behind the glasses, and found that she had very distinctive red irises on black, and she clearly was trying to hide them from her parents.

He hoped he would have a chance to talk to her in private before they left, but doubted he'd get the opportunity. When the mother introduced her as David, he was a little taken back. While he normally respected peoples' privacy - these days - he felt he needed to check. He soon realized that 'she' was physically somewhere between male and female.

A changeling? he mused. He had heard of that happening - he'd practically memorized Sara's Little Purple Book in his freshman year, and while the last chapter didn't interest him much, he recalled it surprisingly well - and even had some suspicions about some of his classmates back in the day, but he'd never known one for certain before. Well, that is, aside from Phase and Jobe and Reach and... OK, so I guess I did knew a few, he thought.

The hard stare she was giving him also gave him an idea of what one of her powers might be. So did the clear message of leave me alone! he heard in his mind. A telepath, at the very least, and not a weak one. She probably didn't even realize she was projecting, and he wondered how long she'd been able to hide her powers and body changes.

From what he remembered about changelings, he figured she was probably an Exemplar as well, though if so there was no telling what level she was, yet. Exemplars, he further recalled, were shaped by their idealized self-image, something called a 'BIT'. Did that mean the kid wanted to be a girl? He wasn't sure.

With a sigh, He deliberately pushed his questions aside; he had a job to do, and any obvious attention towards the kid would raise questions from the parents better left unanswered for the moment - though he had the impression that they were basically oblivious to their own child, if they hadn't noticed what was happening to her.

After some small talk with the adults and a quick check of the house schematics, he headed straight for pull-down attic door near in the hallway leading to the kitchen. He always preferred to work from the roofline down, as it gave him the best idea of where water damage was likely to start and where it would eventually lead to.

Whateley Academy, 2007-04-28

For three whole days Peeper lay there, shivering and filled with self-loathing, not even leaving the room to use the bathroom. Had he been thinking clearer, the fact that he didn't need to use the toilet that whole time would have made him wonder what was going on, but in his emotional turmoil he missed it completely.

Eventually, he heard the door open again. Preparing to shout at Greasy, he stopped short as he realized that it was Mr. Filbert, the cottage house parent.

"John? Adam told me what happened," he began, shocking Peeper out of his funk and sending a chill of horror and shame down his back, "I can see how much you are hurting over this, and I can't really blame you, but you have got to get up and deal with this rather than hiding away from the world. I and the other empaths here can feel how upset you are, and I think you need help in getting through this."

"I'm going to have Carapace," whom Peeper knew was one of the resident assistants, "help you get over to Dr. Hayes' office for a counseling session. I think you're going to need to see her on a regular basis, and not just about what happened the other day, either."

"Oh, and I've also scheduled you for further powers testing. Some of the magic students have noticed something odd about the ley lines near the building, and a few have noted that it is focused on your room. I know this isn't a good time for this, but if there's something unexpected going on with you, we need to find out what it is. I am sorry to put you through all this, but any time there is a possibility of a magical effect occurring, it is a priority to figure it out."

Peeper just stared in disbelief as Mr. Filbert walked out of the room and softly shut the door.


Madison, WI, 2017-09-23

The overall inspection didn't take very long; the house was actually in surprisingly good shape for having been built in the 1960s. John did note some mildewing in a small patch of the basement ceiling, but it wasn't serious. Comparing the location with the schematics, he determined that it was directly below the hallway bathroom, which his magically-enhanced psychic vision confirmed. It was probably from a time when either the toilet or the bathtub had overflowed, he decided, probably the tub, as it seemed to be directly beneath it. He told the buyers about the problem, and assured them that it was easily repaired.

He had a bit of luck, just then: both of the adults had decided to look at the bathroom themselves, leaving him alone with the teen. Making sure that the parents couldn't hear him, he whispered, "Listen, I understand what your going through," he said, pulling his glasses down a bit to show her that he was serious, "if you want some help, talk to my, uhm, partner, Mr. Lambert. He does powers testing, and it's important to get a good idea of what yours are if you're going to learn how to control them." He handed her Adam's business card, and added, "You can't hide what's happening to you forever, especially with the changes that your going through." She gave him a shocked looked he could feel even from under her sunglasses.

"I don't know much about changelings, but your not the first mutant this has happened to. Especially if this is what you wanted to happen in the first place. Talk to Adam, and I'm sure he'll be able to help you. He can get you into the same school we went to if you want, and we can talk to your parents about what's going on for you. Okay?"

He cut short what he was saying as the parents returned to the kitchen. With a nod, he then turned to them and began discussing what repairs were likely to be required of the current owners before they finalized the purchase, and what impact it might have on the purchase price.

Whateley Academy, 2007-04-29

Peeper sullenly followed Carapace into the psychologist's office, angry and bitter at being forced to come here. Even as she introduced herself, he cut her off, saying exactly what was on his mind. "Why the hell do I have to come here? You should be examining that pervert Greasy, not me! He's the one with the problem!"

The doctor remained impassive. "You say that with a lot of anger, yet you are the one who hid in your room for three days and gave every empath and telepath in Twain headaches from your uncontrolled emotions. Can you tell me why you did that?"

"What are you, stupid, bitch? I was pissed off that he'd, that he would, that he'd do that to me like he was some kind of fairy or something! I was disgusted!"

"And you never noticed the way he felt towards you before?"

"Ugh! No! Why should I care what some greaseball faggot devisor thinks? He was just a minion, a, a kissass, what he thought didn't count!"

"You call him things like 'faggot' and 'fairy' a lot, I've noticed. Did you know that Adam actually is homosexual?"

"No! I would have kicked him out of my room a long time ago if I knew!"

"I see," Dr. Hayes replied, adding, "I wouldn't speak of another patient this way normally, but I have been working with Adam for several months now, and we spoke it over before you came here. He gave me permission to tell you that he's held feelings - romantic and sexual feelings - towards you for a very long time. He told me that it is only because he is deeply in love with you that he has tolerated the way you treat him, you see."

"Oh, fuck, I'm gonna be sick again. I don't wanna know, I don't wanna see him again, I don't wanna even know he's still alive! This shit is just disgusting!"

"Would you say that it disgusts you the same way your actions disgust many of the female students here?"

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit, babe, you know the Peep Man is all over the ladies. They can't resist me!"

"Yet there are literally dozens of security reports of stalking, harassment, invasion of privacy and in one instance actual assault on file against you."

"Hey, I can't help it if some stuck up bitch like Phase can't take a joke! Besides, I am journalist! It's my job to get the dirt on all the hot chicks around school!"

The rest of that first session went on in circles like that, with Peeper alternately boasting of his prowess with women, and screeching about how nauseated Greasy now made him.

For the rest of the semester, he was required to continue with these therapy sessions, and each time Carapace or Tomcat or Ricochet would be tasked with finding him and dragging him to the shrink's office. As time wore on, he seemed to get more withdrawn and angry, often refusing to talk to Dr. Hayes at all. The female students were all relieved at this sudden reprieve from his harrassment, but he was making more and more of a nuisance of himself for his cottage-mates, if only because of his increasingly vicious verbal outbursts; most of the Espers in the cottage were getting headaches from the emotional rollercoaster he was going through, and there were even some poltergeist effects that some suspected he was somehow responsible for.

Powers testing wasn't much better. While they determined that he had a previously-overlooked WIZ trait - minor, but definitely present - and that his Esper-enhanced senses were more extensive than previously realized, he refused to participate in some of the testing, for no apparent reason. He wouldn't explain what it was he was avoiding, just that he didn't want to go through it.

It would be a long, uncomfortable summer, he realized. While he had a fair amount of money to draw from, he only got that annual allowance on the promise that he never contact his family again. The problem wasn't his parents - his mother was nervous around him, true, but they wouldn't have kicked him out if it weren't for his grandfather, Peter Castor's, insistence. He'd done the same to John's older sister, and it was just lucky that Allison had been able to arrange for him to go to Whateley the year after she graduated herself. But now it didn't seem so lucky; the school was insisting he stay through the most of the summer to continue his 'therapy'. They did allow him a few weeks of vacation, but somehow, the appeal of surf and beach bunnies didn't move him the way it used to. His morose slide did not go unnoticed.

It would only get worse as the trial date set by the Medawihla authorities drew near.