Remnants of the Earth

Almost four years as a Stage 2 Candidate and even Joelle knew she was testing the limits and patience of her instructors. It was not as if she wanted to be TRIM'd or anything. He subjects were difficult for her though especially as she faced her thoughts constantly flitting to other more exciting ventures such as the next game she was going to compete in or the next thing she was going to build and repair or even what she was going to eat next.

Classroom learning was doable but difficult and yet her time was running out, causing the young woman to stress and struggle even more than usual. She tried to take her mind off her worries only lay awake at night with equations and theories swirling around and around we head like hungry demons wanting more.

Antsy and eager to burn off some energy and nerves, Joelle decided to hit the gym. With a com pad in one hand for studying and a full packet of Coreos in the other, she jogged her way on down there and bounced into the room with a slight thud of the door. At this time of day it was not surprising to find the room relatively unoccuppied but one fine specimen of the male sex certainly caught her attention.

'Mm mm mm-mm mmmm, yum-MMY!' she thought to herself as she drank in toned muscles working hard to repeatedly support the weights testing them. 'Hello handsome!' unaware that her thoughts could be easily heard, Joelle smirked to herself before taking a seat on the recumbent bicycle, cracking open her packet of goodies, and getting straight to work. The former stillness of the room was now broken by the gentle whirl of her machine paired with the crinkling of her package wrapper and her own chewing.

"And that's why I use the water. It naturally dampens the soundwaves along with slowing them therefore providing a natural safety buffer for myself and others. If I can hold onto it long enough what's the big issue with sucking it all in? Buffering is far more energy taxing to uphold in the long run because it means a constant shield to ping against."

Heather shrugged and rolled her eyes. "This is a waste of time when I already know what I'm doing and how to effectively manage it. I thought your job was to teach me something new and useful. Oh and by the way, I highly doubt you could come up with a name bad enough to embarrass me. The other Candidates already think me a bitch. Not much worse you could do. Is that all now? Are we done here?"

__________________QUICK STATS
Name Joelle "Tink" Tinker
Alias TinkerBabe
Age 17
DOB July 20th
Gender Female
Species Human
Ethnicity Aedolian
Height 5'7"
Occupation Candidate
Residence ATC


__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description

Long dark brown hair, messily braided frames a pale heart-shaped face with stormy blue eyes. Joelle is pale from spending a great deal of time indoors though her hands are rough and scarred from years of working on anything and everything mechanical her father would throw her way.
Her bottom lip is usually red and capped from chewing on it while in deep concentration. She has a curvy figure and a solid athletic swimmer's build no thanks to her junk-food binges and poor sleeping pattern.

Joelle Tinker
By: sakimichan


Personality

Joelle is a fun-loving, hard-playing, fiercely competitive kind of lady. She loves puzzles and games and is never one to stand down from a bet. She's a woman with a good heart though (and a stomach full of junk food). Joelle loves her family and would do anything for them. What friends she has currently are the people she's met through coms or online gaming. For all her gaming bravado and laid back appearance, she is a bit shy around new people.

Magic/Abilities

Telepathy: Joelle is a rather strong telepath. She can send her thoughts quite the distance and hear others in return. What she struggles with though is shielding her own from others. Either from a lack of interest in doing so or capability, Joelle is fairly easy to read and hear. Granted what thoughts are on the surface are usually too jumbled to really want to read anyway.

Hydrokinesis: She is also a hydrokinetic. Although she is not able to produce water out of nothing, Joelle is able to manipulate the water molecules in the air and her surroundings into obeying her manipulations. It is a very dangerous practice though and one which she has not really had much interest in pushing. She also is capable of taking the water in her own body to use for her own ends. Overuse or lack of care though could kill her if she took it too far. She mostly uses her gifts for party tricks these days.


Relationships
 
Shran Tinker: Her father, an eccentric and dramatic yet jovial man. He's currently a Pilot Nobel tech specialist and an electrokinetic. He did work in the field during the war to help keep things running and lost his left eye, jaw, shoulder and some internal organs because of it. All have been replaced by machinery though some suggest its all gone to his brain now and made him a bit batty. Joelle has a good relationship with her father.

Jorelle Tinker: Joelle's mother now deceased. She was a Pilot Echo before she passed though Joelle remembers a bit about her she doesn't know her mother's history.

Elliot "Gadget" Tinker: Her younger sister (12). Gadget is already showing signs of being a strong technopath. She adores her big sister and wants nothing more than to be a Pilot tech specialist just like Daddy.

Gregor Volk: Shran's best friend and brother in bond. Back in the day they served together in the war. Shran worked as one of the technicians in charge of keeping all of the brand new MECHs's wirings up and running for the newly formed Titans. Elliot has grown up calling him her uncle and loves him as dearly as any other family member.

History

Joelle would say she had a pretty good upbringing. The daughter of two Pilots, there really wasn't much that she could have wanted for. She was loved and happy. She was named for her mother Jorelle, though Shran also heavily campaigned the name so he could call his baby girl, Joe. He had always wanted a son but he was no less proud to have a daughter.

When she was five, her baby sister, Elliot, or Gadget as Joelle named her, was born. It was a time of joy and a time of sorrow though. Jorelle died during childbirth leaving her husband and two young daughters behind. Shran was heartbroken but, threw himself into parenting and raising his baby girls.

He taught them both everything he knew about tinkering and building. While Joelle has a fair hand at it and can fix anything you put in front of her, Elliot is the mastermind that can make any piece of technology sing for her. Because of her love of puzzles though and the fact she was "Tinker's" daughter, Joelle has earned herself the nickname Tink which she much prefers to her actual name. She will easily respond to Joe or Tink but never Joelle.

On her 13th birthday, after a lovely and quiet dinner, Shran took Joelle to get tested for any gifts. It came as a massive shock though when she tested positive not only as a relatively strong telepath but as a hydrokinetic as well. Up until that moment she had shown neither interest nor ability to do either and yet lo and behold Shran's little Tink was going to be a Pilot after all.

He brought her to the ATC himself with great pride and love. She completed Stage 1 without issue though Stage 2 was proving to be difficult. While Joelle was able to scrape by in her classes, she was forced to take remedial courses as her teachers believe she can do so much better. In truth, Joelle wasn't applying herself beyond the bare minimum in her studies. She's far more interested in competing and gaming in her very spare free time to studying and passing tests.

With the help of several other candidates she was able to make it through though and is now a proud Stage 3 Candidate.

Stage 1: 13-13.5
Stage 2: 13.5-17
Stage 3: 17-17
Stage 4: 17-
Stage 5:

__________________THREAD TRACKER
Current Threads
Just a Distraction

Complete Threads

Timeline
Just a Distraction

She adored his purr. With the lighter atmosphere present again and their tails intertwined, Nishi found herself reluctant to pull away from Neeko. Smiling softly she moved her hand to ruffle his hair lightly before giving an ear a gentle squeeze and pulling away. "I like the sound of that," she giggled as she headed back into the kitchen.

Nishi opened the freezer to find it chock full of ice cream flavours. The Kitsuni found herself smiling giddily. Her husband-to-be really was like her and loved ice cream. Remembering their conversation, she pulled out a tub of cookie dough and serving up three generous scoops for him and two for herself.

She returned, placing the bowl and a spoon before him with a shy smile. Wordlessly, Nishi pulled her own chair right up to the corner of the table so that they were sat side by side and well within reach of each other. Her tail once more curled into the embrace of his own pair as she took her seat once more.

A dainty spoonful of ice cream was gathered up for her to savour with a gentle purr. "So good," she moaned with closed eyes. "I've missed this." Self-consciously she peeked over to him as she quickly remembered herself. "Sorry, I'll be quiet now."

"Um, yes I'm Neeko's fiancee and a Kitsuni," Nishi replied, caught a bit off-guard to be addressed regarding that connection rather than her new Valkyrie status. "Nice to meet you too," she continued, eyeing Hannibal out of the corner of her eye a bit tensely. He was a mountain of a man complete with glowing scars and a surely looking expression. None of that truly made her feel comfortable and at home around him.

Her gaze shifted to the other more exuberant figure who she smiled cheerfully to. They were different like her and even had a tail. It was the hair that quickly drew her attention though. Nishi felt incredibly attempted to jump up and give it a good ruffle. "Adele, a pleasure! So I guess we're just waiting on Mia then, or is she here already?" The tiny woman looked past the other two, first one way and then the other, hoping to catch sight of her fellow female companion.

Who she did catch sight of though was Razican. She waved cheerily to the man who had been kind enough to show her the town and help her and Mia paint it red. "Good morning, Raz!" Nishi giggled at his enthusiastic greeting of the other recruit. It had been the same when she and Tamia had first met him. He just seemed to have boundless energy no matter what hour of the day or night it was.

She groaned, squeezing her eyes shut against the discomfort. "No, it's not," she grumbled hoarsely. "Getting TRIM'd is the worst part." Slowly, she sat back up again and tilted her head back to peek over to him. "You really are all they blow you up to be, aren't you? Fuck me," Heather groaned, "I'm going to have to stop talking shit about you now that I know you can do that, aren't I?"

Weakly she gathered her sweaty strands of hair up off her neck and tied them into a haphazard ponytail. Her body still felt like it was strung out after an all holds barred match with a fleet of dragons. Wiping her sweaty palms on her trousers she finally took a shaky breath and nodded her head to her mentor. "What did you have in mind, bossman?"

She watched intently, her focus entirely on him and what he was doing. When he directed her to try again, Heather was quick and eager to obey. Once more she delved within herself and tugged at another chord, though this one was gathered with more care. It wrapped around and around her hand until she was able to loosely gather it all and hold it there.

Heather opened her eyes to look down and see the energy literally coiled about her hand. Both hands were then used to carefully manipulate it into a ball that was then curled between her palms. The vibrations threatened to escape and she could feel sweat gathered upon her brow as she gritted her teeth in concentration. One by one her fingers opened and the sound was released like sand down an hourglass, one grain at a time.

With the task completed, the Candidate slumped forward in her chair. Her heart was racing with the effort of mastering such control. It was no time for celebration though. Heather was exhausted. The layers of absorbed energy pulsed inside her demanding release now that they had more room to flex and warble about. If she did not tread very carefully from this point then Rec Room 3b was about to face some serious remodeling care of Candidate Heather Bannister.

"Whatever you say, sir." Heather sighed and turned her head first to one shoulder then the other, enjoying the satisfying pop as her neck realigned. "Here goes nothing," she murmured. Her eyelids drooped to half-mast as her eyes slightly crossed and she drew within her personal shields to access the knotted ball of layers upon layers of mixed energies.

Heather latched onto one of the thicker strands and gave it a mighty yank, sheering it forcefully from the rest. She could feel the vibration literally pulsing within her left hand, a deep, low bass that fought to escape her grasp. She did her best to try to and let it go gently as he had requested but it was as gentle as dropping a grand piano off a cliff. If anything it was more akin to a sledgehammer to the head. The sound was much like a band of tubas blaring their displeasure. However, while loud and bone-throbbing, the vibration was all the same wavelength.

Lifting her head revealed that he was speaking to her, not that she could hear of course. She was mediocre at reading lips, granted most of what she had tried to read in the past was people screaming her name, not exactly a hard thing to decipher. But, she had a good guess as to what he wanted her to do, stop.

Heather bit her lip in concentration as she tried to firmly grasp the sound barrier she had created while also sending him a telepathic message. He would not be able to hear her as her barrier went both ways but it did vibrate, threatening to give way as her attention wavered.

"You're going to want to cover your ears and move the player. I can't promise its safety," she warned.

Heather was able to wait long enough for him to follow through before dropping her control all at once. She clapped her hands over her ears as a loud, high-pitched, and sharp whine pierced the air like a cross between an electric guitar and a cat screeching upon having its tail trod on. The sound rattled the windows and door sharply while setting a lower hum through the floor and furniture that caused them to vibrate though nowhere near as strongly as Razican had upon her late entrance to the room. Blessedly it ended quickly yet Heather hated it as much now as she did the first time it had ever happened. It always shook her down to her very core being and made her teeth ache like they were being yanked from her head one by one with a jackhammer.

She listened and for the first time in all her life, Heather felt like she was heard. She was wrong about him. He did seem to understand her. He had been her. Well at least she had not blown up any dorm rooms recently. None of this she could admit to him of course but, in so quick a time Razican Eleria had just gained her complete respect. He saw past her sharp tongue and heard the heart within that raged in fear of the unknown future.

Heather crossed her arms over her chest and met her new mentor's gaze head on. "I hate loud noises," she blurted out before shaking her head, wide-eyed at her own random declaration. "So with all the cards on the table now, when do we begin?"