Event Finished Fliers for All

Havoc was either amazingly easy or amazingly hard to figure out, depending on how attached you were to normal social conventions. Those who were normal tended to struggle, because Havoc was outside of their scope. Those who were unusual, on the other hand--aliens, the socially maladjusted, and those who struggled to understand other humans--tended to find him easy to follow. Unlike to many others, Havoc said what he meant, and meant what he said. He didn't play around or dress things down to make things more acceptable, and while it often came off as blunt to the point of rudeness, those who persevered with him tended to find it oddly refreshing.

Havoc stared at her as she brought up nutrition, slightly surprised to have been engaged at all on the topic.

"I had given no real consideration to nutrition, but you are correct--it would be good to provide water and snacks for participants in order to avoid dehydration or exhaustion. Is nutrition your field of study...?"

Her circumstances? Havoc's first thought was something like an eating disorder, but after a moment he decided she probably just meant the whole tasting emotions thing.

Most probably would have been respectful and avoided asking, but Havoc was not most people.

"I assume you would find it difficult to eat if you were surrounded by people who had disgusting tastes?" Havoc asked, genuinely curious if he was correct.

And once again, most people would have probably said something like 'I want to help the school improve and become a better place', but Havoc was certainly not most people, and that meant being generally honest.

"I thought it would be a good addition to my professional qualifications, to say that I was a part of the student council for such a large and important school."

So he'd been right--it was her powers that made it difficult for her to eat. Eating in a crowded area like a cafeteria sounded nearly impossible, and Havoc paused to consider all the implications. A cafeteria was out. A restaurant was out. But even eating dinner with a friend or close companion might run into trouble.

"I assume you can only eat alone for your own comfort?" Havoc asked.

Or, he supposed, with someone like him. He wouldn't bother her or throw her off with his subdued emotions, and he didn't emotionally swing hard enough to change the flavor even to his own subtle taste.

"I intend to return to the United States Army, but having leadership experience would be looked on positively as a sign I wasn't wasting my time while training here."

Not many would consider what the school did training, but Havoc focused almost entirely on his power practice.

It seemed like an awful lot of effort just to eat. Eating was something that Havoc found very little pleasure in, but considered to be a simple fact of life. He ate because he had to eat, and he picked his foods to be as healthy as possible. Being unable to eat because the flavors clashed sounded unpleasant, and Havoc gave a small nod of acknowledgment at how difficult it would be to get by.

"Yes," Havoc confirmed. "Since I was seventeen. But my powers need to be brought under control before I can return, requiring me to spend at least some amount of time on Manta Carlos."

But he didn't plan to stay. He definitely didn't plan to stay. He was going to finish his education, complete his training, and go right back to work.

That was what he wanted, even if he wasn't going to get it.

Havoc had to actually stop and think to figure out how long he'd served. He'd started at seventeen, and he was twenty three right then, so six years? Only he wasn't sure if he was expected to count time off, nor if time spent in training camps counted.

"Around five years," Havoc finally said, rounding things down to account for time away. "I considered involving powers classes with the self defense, but in the end I'm against the idea. Part of the reason for self defense classes is so that students can defend themselves even without their powers, and adding in powers would change that dynamic. Most students would be helpless if they lost them, which is something I hope to avoid."

Most people who had been on the island couldn't imagine losing their powers, but it happened at a common enough rate that it had to be considered as a genuine issue.