Summer, Colin, and Adam recognize each other, but not the dozen or so other kids who’ve assembled. “Recognizing and respecting sentient beings” seems to be a popular topic.
“I credit Radiance,” Colin says with a grin.
“You know that college kids lean left, politically,” counters Summer, mouth twisted in disbelief. “That includes civil rights. In a world with all kinds of non-human people, it’s just an easy topic.”
“Maybe, but the job here isn’t easy.” Colin is ready for this. “We’re not studying an existing curriculum. We’re creating one. People aren’t going to do that for an easy college credit. This is actual work.”
“Or they’re looking for a convenient soapbox for their personal views.” Summer sounds unconvinced.
Adam hasn’t interfered in this conversation so far. He’s not sure he even belongs here, for starters. But Summer is being kinda cynical, which is pretty out of character for her. And he wants to understand why.
They are both afraid, observes Tau.
Of what? Adam asks before realizing that his powers and partner could actually give him an answer, and he’s not sure if that would violate privacy or not. But thought travels at the speed of, well, thought.
Their fears are directed at themselves, and at each other. Tau spreads a complicated chromaffect diagram across Adam’s consciousness, indicating through the experience of color how the emotions of the situation are distributed. Neuroluminance readings are consistent with those observed in other individuals of this age group. Observe the striated patterns. They ought to be familiar from your other studies.
Adam doesn’t really understand what the emotions mean, not enough to put it into English words. But it does look familiar. Tau is right about that. Maybe it’s nothing to worry about. But still…
Maybe the best thing to do is ask.
“Summer, this is something important to you. But most of these kids don’t have your lived experience. Are you worried someone who doesn’t know what it’s like is gonna try to talk over someone who does?”
Summer turns to Adam, eyes bright and wide, face showing shock. Then she smiles. “Perceptive as always. Yeah, I think that’s what I’m feeling.”
Colin slips into the new direction the conversation is taking. “And whether you knew this was coming, maybe you were afraid it would, but also you couldn’t really pick anything else. This was too important for you.”
The girl nods. “And you too, Colin.”
Colin blushes, and Adam watches the complex interplay of feelings coming off him, courtesy of Tau. He’s seen Jackson Pollock paintings online, and looked at pictures of how particles emerge from collisions within particle accelerators. Human emotions are their own unique thing, but there’s similarity.
“They’d probably listen to you more if you were Radiance, instead of Summer,” Adam says aloud.
There’s a fracturing in the mood the moment Adam says this, and he realizes he’s upset some kind of unacknowledged fulcrum of emotion. He can feel Summer wanting to say a million things, but not able to say any of them. He can feel doubt and concern welling up in Colin. And he wonders if he should regret saying what he did. And yet…
The conversation dies off, and secrets keep themselves for another day.
Only Tau says anything more, and only to Adam. I recognize what happened. Summer and Colin are afraid of the future your words implied, but understand the Truth of them as well. They feel trapped. Perhaps they need a hero to free them.