#Mitch's powers don't just exist to inconvenience him tho

[the-cookie-of-doom]

in estranged, how did mitch go about his life once he got his mind reading powers?? did he have panic attacks?? what happened when he knew that his girlfriends father was trying to corrupt his fathers company?

Fun fact, he almost died! That was later, though.

Mitch already had Issues because of his parents (mostly his dad but as we saw, Claudia didn't help), but as we saw with Amelia, once Mitch got his powers, he pretty much lost his trust in everyone. Hard to trust when you know everyone around you only wants you for money and status; Amelia was set on becoming his trophy wife, and she wasn't the only one, over the years. (Though things did get a bit better for him in college since he wasn't so easily recognizable, and people knew him for his sports career, not his father's company).

Mitch found out about her father's embezzlement when he attended his first board meeting after taking over the company when he was 18; it was essentially a Batman situation, he wasn't involved in running the company at all. But during the meeting, he could hear everything Amelia's father was thinking: that Mitch is a spoiled brat and definitely not good enough for his daughter, that once he's gotten all he can out of the company his own family will be set for life, Amelia can drop Mitch, and he can run the company into the ground.

Mitch didn't know what to do, so he went to the only person he could: his Economics professor. After the meeting Mitch started doing his own digging into the company's operations, and he knew something was Wrong, but he couldn't quite identify what. (Sidenote: this all happens just before the 2008-9 financial crisis, which I did a huge 4 month research project on the year before last, and which will be a part of the fic bc im a Nerd).

Once the dust settles most of the board has been arrested for being complicit in the embezzlement; the only ones on all of Wall Street to face consequences, in fact, because Mitch was ferocious in going after them. Amelia obviously never forgave him for it because she had to give up her lavish lifestyle (though she was hardly left penniless), and now she thinks he owes her. It's why even though she hates him, she's still trying to get her hooks into him at the charity auction.

As for your first question - yes. Mitch did not cope with the new powers well at all. Especially in the few few months, there's a lot of panic attacks, each one laced with that looming fear of hurting someone else, like his dad. (There aren't anymore accidental killings, though, that was a special circumstance.) Also, I don't remember if I touched on it on the fics, but Claudia was intentionally blocking Mitch's powers. It's why they hit him all at once when she died; all day they were starting to bleed through as she grew weaker, hence the migraines and a little bit of telepathy. Then the already-emotional situation with his father, on top of his sense of dread that something Bad was happening to his mom, and then everything hitting him all at once - he kind of went Dark Phoenix for a second there.

But eventually he starts to get a handle on things. Sometimes it's easier than others. One example is when he ends up going to a boarding school, rather than staying with the Greys. He knows they care for him, but it's too uncomfortable for him, so he leaves. The school is pretty small and rural, which means fewer people. But when he returns to the city for holidays, that's when it gets Bad.

There's also the fact that he needs to learn to control how he reacts to things people think; before everything with Amelia's father happens, there's a big company party to celebrate him officially taking ownership. Another of the board members is pretty snide with him; passive aggressive out loud, and just straight aggressive mentally, until Mitch just decks him. It causes a whole scandal. It's also the reason Mitch thinks it's funny that Stiles is worried about embarrassing him in present time; Mitch doesn't need any help on that front, and there's nothing Stiles can do that's worse than what he's already done himself.

But yeah, in the early years, Mitch is essentially a walking talking ball of anxiety, anger, and angst, with the ability to melt people's brains. He gets a handle on it eventually, though. Enough that he can function like a normal human at least! Mostly he's just learning to repress it and tune everything out as much as possible. But after the end of Estranged, Stiles is going to help him train to actually use his powers (while also learning to use his new Nogi powers).

In the short sequel Incentive, Mitch passes out at his desk, and Sean is Concerned. This happened once before except Mitch actually had a seizure from the psychic overload. After quite a few tests, he founds out his powers were killing him. An EEG showed his brain was lit up like a Christmas tree, with confusing results given he wasn't just responded to the external stimuli presented to the doctors, but also from their thoughts. And MRI showed a lot of inflammation, causing the migraines and seizure. The swelling has also already started to cause some tissue death, and if left untreated, will kill him. Unfortunately, there's nothing the doctors can do to treat it, since it's not from natural causes.

Mitch probably took a few months to get as far away from people as he could, just to give himself a break, and figure out how to cope. (Also I haven't decided exactly when this happened, but very likely while he knew Stiles, and was hiding it from him. Stiles will be pissed when he finds out. If I ever get around to rewriting it, it'll probably be during Stiles' visit back home.)