Spoilers for: Switchman

Sentinels

I received an email from Angelo containing information on a man named James Ellison and the name of a book by Sir Richard Burton. I was a bit confused on why I was sent this information until I read the book which was on Sentinels. A Sentinel has five heightened senses--right away I could see the advantages to this and how that ability could be manipulated. The Centre would be very interested if they found out this man was a real life Sentinel...

I decided that I would have to be in Cascade for a fairly long period of time in order to inform him of what he was, and to help him get his senses under control--so as not to the draw the attention of the Centre. In order to do this, I situated myself at Rainier University as a grad student. I figured that Anthropology would be an appropriate field for what I needed to do and as I had just recently learned about 'hippies', I decided to ingrade that into my new identity as well. ( I think I like my hair long.) This could be fun.

I approached Jim as a grad student pretending to be a doctor. This worked in getting him to Rainier in order to tell him about what he was. (Perhaps I went a bit overboard with the hippie act though, I think I'll tone it down a little in the future.) I also got to witness the 'zone-out' factor at which time I realized how dangerous that is to a Sentinel...

We went to the mall in order to test some of his senses and I first asked him to try his sense of smell, but changed my mind and had him test hearing instead. He could tell what two girls where saying from quite some distance. (What's a 'dork'?) It will be interesting to find out how much range he has on all his senses...

There is something about James Ellision that I just can't put my finger on. I like being around him and I know that I'll be sad when I have to leave. I know I can't stay here though and that I shouldn't get attached, but I fear that I already am...

I've done all the research on Sentinels that I could prior to coming here. I poured over any and all information regarding heightened senses. I came up with experiments in order to test the extent that these senses are heightened and theories on how to control them. But, now that I've come face to face with a real Sentinel, I see now that it is much more complicated than that....

He said that I could be his partner and that I would have to go to the academy first. I had not been expecting that. I told him that I couldn't on the pretense that I did not want to cut my hair and that I didn't like guns. While both of those are true, neither was the real reason. I could have approached him as a fellow police officer to begin with, but I didn't. I want to keep my distance and I knew it would be harder if I was. This way I could keep a professional distance. Now all I have to do is try and help him control his senses...and to make sure that the Centre doesn't find out about Sentinels.