A little delay

I was going to take the shot tonight, but I had to deal with calimgn a grieving friend for a good portion of the day, so I decided to wait until tomorrow night. Mark is this guy I met online through the game Guild Wars (We are in the same guild). We got along alright, even though he was a little younger than me and got to talking offline as well.

A couple of months ago, he planned to take the shot with his boyfriend, but in the middle of lovemaking before going through with it, his boyfriend's father, who is a total homophobe came in and when he saw what he did, beat his son to death. Thankfully, the guy's mother shot him in the leg before he could harm Mark. He still went through with taking the shot though, but this time simply to try to kill himself. Fortunately, he lived and gained an ability, and wanted to help the world and get others to help him, so he gained a few more shots.

His family was worried though that he was taking to try to hurt himself or perhaps increase his power. His little sister Maria took a shot, maybe to understand her brother better, maybe because she wanted to be special as well, but unfortunately she died.

Mark called me right after the funeral, still in tears saying over and over "It's all my fault, It's all my fault." and I calmed him down the best I could and told him it wasn't his fault. It is true, it was his sister's choice to take the shot, not his although he should've hid the shots after his parents found them. I can understand teenagers wanting to help as much as adults, but part of me feels that even if they may be motr mature than some adults with handling abilities, they are still too young to be taking this type of risk. That's another mistake I feel has been made with Collier's distribution, again I'm sure not all teenagers who've gained abilties are like Graham, but I feel that those 18 and over are more likely to handle the physical and possibly emotional responsibilties with having a 4400 ability than a 15 year old....