EgoPlex

"Gordon! Why are you late? The awakening ceremony is right now!"
Jessica said urgently when she saw Gordon come through the doors of the awakening center.
Shrugging Gordon didn't say anything. The last thing in the world that he wanted to do was tell this beautiful girl that he had been tripped and beaten on the way to school today. 
It was times like this that he wished that he bruised more easily. Then maybe he could get some attention. But this thought was fleeting in his mind. Gordon actually preferred to deal with his problems in his own way. 
And awakening to become a beast tamer and maybe even have his own talent would be the first step. Once he had a powerful beast the bullies wouldn't dare pick on him. 
"Come on, let's get in line."
Jessica whispered to Gordon when she realized that he wasn't going to tell her what had happened.
Together they went to the back of the arena type auditorium to wait for their turn to awaken.
They had been friends since childhood and had been there for each other through thick and thin. Jessica had been the only friend that stuck with him despite all of his quirks.
Slowly the line inched forward. Occasionally some people in their class would cheer if in addition to becoming a beast master a student also awakened a talent.

Lichen Tree Beast Tamer

Within [Calm Mind] Gordon had all the time he needed. And he took it now. Rushing was only going to produce more mistakes and he couldn't afford to make mistakes at every turn. Instead he had to take this slowly and learn from the little things along the way.

As he thought about it he realized that his one big mistake was the error of thinking that he could turn the purple diamond clam into a symbiote. That glaring mistake was so rookie thinking about it now that he was a little embarrassed.

The truth was that his little lichen frond wasn't even at the black iron rank. It hadn't even awakened, yet. As a white mortal having a symbiot at the diamond level was ridiculous.

Space Lichen