With more information about the exact year, and what that meant for her parents, Sam was in much better shape to carry herself around them. She did well enough on her own, of course, but that was all standard practice -- knowing the specifics of Penny and Kady and where they fell in their own timeline let her be more specifically sympathetic to certain things. Like, for example, the fact that Penny didn’t have his magic back yet. She was careful not to spoil anything without their specific questioning, and so she still kept a lot to herself.
Fortunately, she could still show him plenty without giving too much away and without flaunting her own magic. She had him sat before her in the yoga studio within the training facility, and had been walking him through one of her easier, and less magical, ways of shutting out the world. A bit of practiced, careful breathing and some very specific visual imagery did the trick. “It’s just meditation, really -- all of it is,” she’d explained beforehand. “It’s just a hell of a lot quicker, and it can be just as easy in a loud room as in a meditation center when you get used to it.”
After a few moments of silence in her own head, she exhaled, and it all came rushing back in a bit of a wave. “That’s the worst part,” she said, wincing a little as she opened her eyes and looked back at him. “It’s basically like taking a water hose and folding it in half. You get some peace for a moment, but it’ll come right back as soon as you let go. It’s good for focusing in on something specific, though. I usually use it that way -- instead of visualizing silence, I try to pull just one of the threads at a time.”
Penny’s initial shock had worn off now, but he still found himself watching Sam like he was trying to figure her out. And maybe he was. She seemed to have her shit together and that alone baffled him. He loved Kady with all of his heart, but neither one of them really had their shit together. They were each a different kind of mess, but they were better together. She made him want to be better.
It was fucking wild realizing this virtual stranger had already fallen into the same category somehow.
“Make sense, the hose thing.” He kept his legs criss-cross applesauce, but lifted a hand up off his thigh to massage at the back of his neck. “Did I, uh, teach you any of this or did you learn it all on your own?”
Sam was pretty even-keeled most of the time, and that helped a lot with putting off an air of having it together. She was pretty stable, comparatively. There were some triggers that made her powers a bit more difficult, like drugs and excessive alcohol -- things that her parents knew well -- that she avoided. Those choices also helped her keep herself intact more effectively. Now that she’d had some time to introduce herself to her parents, she’d gotten more comfortable, and that meant opening herself back up. Her mind lacked wards, and she’d told Penny early on that he was welcome to poke around when he wanted to -- she didn’t mind.
Atlantis was still overwhelming with its emotions, but it was all starting to settle somewhat as people got more accustomed to the arrivals and what they meant.
“Oh, absolutely. We’ve meditated together since I was old enough for you two to realize my emotions were more than just me having a flair for the dramatics,” she said, smiling. “At least once a day, when I lived at home.”
Penny nodded distractedly. It’s not that he’d figured he’d abandoned his kid to figure this shit out on her own, but you just never really knew. And some of this had been new to even him. He mustered up a smile that was at least slightly improved over the uncomfortable ones he’d given her the first day or two.
“Bet that was fun. The learning you were an empath thing.” He stretched his legs out in front of him and leaned back on his hands. “Scary…”
“I think it was definitely scary, yeah,” she said. “I absorb them from other people, a lot of the time. Basically, if I’m not calm? It’s pretty extreme. That’s why I try to stay grounded when I can.” She pushed a hand back through her hair, untangling her own crossed legs and pulling one knee up to her chest.
She smiled a bit then, raising her eyebrows. “On the plus side, you’d usually let me go full out and vent when I got angry as a teenager. It was very helpful, so I’d usually just come find you and let it all out.”
Smirking, Penny made a ‘sounds about right’ face, lifting his eyebrows and curling his mouth down into an upside down u-shape.
“I wasn’t going to ask if we made it worse with our own bullshit, but I’m glad I was smart enough to give you an outlet.” He sat back up, dusting his hands off, even though there really wasn’t any reason. Less awkward did not mean not awkward at all, damn it. He snorted a self-deprecating laugh. “I found a quiet spot for screaming the other day while trying to figure out where to build my people suck cabin, actually.”
“Oh yeah? Are your specifications anything other than… away from people, and not full of murderous things?” Sam snorted a bit, all-too-familiar with the concept of a people suck cabin. “You’ll want one with more than one room, for the record. It’ll come in handy in the future when you end up there with mom and I accidentally stop by as well. Keeps us all from being scarred.” She added a wink for good measure.
“You didn’t, by the way. Make anything worse,” she said, rounding back to his previous statement. “I know you’re both worried about that. I think you took your own experiences and were spiteful enough, or stubborn enough, to keep from replicating them. I had an awesome, normal childhood -- for an empath magician in Atlantis, anyway. And you guys are happy, too.”
“Uh. Nice view? Not surrounded by weird island shit?” Penny shrugged. “There’s a creek.” He didn’t like thinking too far into the future most of the time. Mostly because he’d nearly not had one at all and hoping for too much, or even a little, felt like asking fate to fuck him up. It was easier to just wait and see how things went. Having his future daughter tell him things work out pretty okay and he’s not the worst dad made his breath catch in an embarrassing way.
The kind that made emotions sting behind his eyes.
“I’m glad. That we get this right for your sake. Or, at least right enough.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m not stupid enough to believe we never screw up as parents.”
“Yes, that’s the place,” she said, grinning. She watched his reactions, but she really didn’t need to make guesses -- his emotions told her enough, and her smile warmed. Being able to share those positive things about the future made her happy, and she was glad that they were well-received.
“Sure,” she said, “but the key is taking the screw ups, acknowledging them, and fixing them. You guys wanted me to be happy and healthy and safe, and you did what you could to make that happen.” She shrugged. “It probably helps that I’m fucking incredible and easy to love.”
Penny laughed, easier now and from behind an amused smile. “Obviously,” he agreed. After a second of watching her across the space, he leaned forward over his stretched legs and gestured with his hands palms up. “Tell me you got into some good trouble though. Nothing like your mom and me, just—“ Your mom and me had slipped out as easy as can be, no thought to it whatsoever, which made him crunch his face up on one side. He was still smirking though. “Just, the good normal kind.”
“Oh, absolutely,” she agreed, nodding. “Well, I didn’t get into real trouble. I got good at recognizing when you and mama were angry, and I knew how to make you less angry. I could usually get out of trouble that way.” She shrugged, grinning. “I did a lot of sneaking out, though. That was my biggest crime growing up. My teachers didn’t always understand the emotion storms, either, so I’d get sent to the counselor constantly because I’d go from perfectly calm to yelling in a matter of seconds.”
She leaned forward as well, repositioning herself a bit. “I can’t do too terribly much in the way of alcohol and I’m not really a drug user,” she admitted. “Those types of things can make it harder for me to keep my head on straight, so it’s just better to avoid it.”
“Smart,” Penny snorted. To have the kind of control to use her powers growing up was huge. The thought of her being punished for her abilities made something ugly flare up inside of him, though. All the years he’d spent thinking he was crazy and being treated that way by teachers and psychiatrists alike had left their mark. And he didn’t want to ask about his and Kady’s drinking or drugs habits in the future. He just wasn’t really there yet. But the school thing, he could narrow his focus easy for that. “I’m just going to assume I was the kind of dad that showed up for every parent-teacher meeting ready to fight.”
“I try, I try.” There had definitely been some difficult times when she was growing up and moving through school, especially before they really got a good grasp on what she was capable of doing. The fact that Sam was, by nature, extremely emotional as well didn’t really help. She was often too overcome to really help herself out of confusing situations. But her parents, to their enormous credit, were incredibly supportive, to the point that Penny’s assumption was met with a snort and a nod. “You almost punched my assistant principal once for insinuating that I was just a drama queen.”
“And with you clean as a whistle...” Penny shook his head. Better to shove that anger somewhere deep until it was real and he could look that assistant principal in the eye. He sighed and then huffed out a laugh. “Well, I’m always going to have your back. I mean, I’m sure you know that by now, but I feel like it needs saying anyway.”
And because too much sentiment made Penny itch, he climbed to his feet and held out a hand to her. “Now how about we go punch some shit? Or…fuck, what do we do for fun? Are you into art?”
“I like hearing it,” she said, smiling. “You both are pretty vocal about how quick you’d be to kick someone’s ass if I needed it. Fortunately, I’ve got her right hook.” She flexed her fingers with amused flair to punctuate the statement.
She took his hand, moving to her feet. “We can totally go punch something,” she said. “I love art. I’m mediocre at it, though, unless it’s abstract bullshit that doesn’t look like anything. I’m open to whatever, though! You pick.”
Penny laughed, eyes closing for a moment. “Alright, well, let’s save the mediocre abstract bullshit for another day.” He shifted his hand to drop down onto her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. It was one step away from a hug in the land of Penny Adiyodi, so it felt a little bigger than it really was. “Let's go see this so-called right hook…”