Long White Hallways Make People Go CoO-cOo. (open! <3)

[Anonymous]

Hm.

Rhys smashed the alarm clock to the side of his bed and sat up, hair toussled looking over at the empty bed on the other side of the room. TRIM. Which meant he’d be getting a new room mate soon, either a new candidate - Which he wasn’t all that sure he’d be roomed with, too much trouble. Uegh, a lower level candidate, little bastards didn’t know their place and they sure as hell didn’t know when they should respect him. Which would be all the time. Rhys, Stage four candidate, top of the food-chain at the ATC before he passed this gods forsaken stage and went to stage five. The citadel. Dragons.

He still hadn’t met his mentor yet, but he’d gotten a few jabs about it and returned the favour with a few black eyes and broken noses. Rhys looked down at his red knuckles and gently rubbed his thumb over them, it just didn’t leave the same reaction if you made them do it to themselves, sure there would be that fear of ‘oh no, he made me hurt myself.’ Rhys snorted to himself and scratched at his toned chest before standing up and stretching, his white boxers just clinging to his hips. He was in the steaming shower for about an hour, instead of the usual half hour with it being luke warm because he had to share with his room mate.

Who was gone.

Sweet.

Rhys smirked and turned off the shower before stepping out and patting himself dry before checking out his physique in the mirror. Wrinkling his nose at his blurry image he towel dried his hair and put on his uniform. One more stage, one more stage and he could wear his normal clothing, he missed t-shirts and jeans. He missed wearing doo-dads and thing-a-ma-jigs. That kid he and Shiloh broke the other day was covered in ‘em! Rhys snarled softly and rubbed his ear before leaving the bathroom and throwing his damp down on his bed.

Stupid...

Argh.

Meeting his... Stupid mentor so stupidly early in the morning. Rhys was more than used to waking up at five it was a natural body function now, wanted to sleep in? Had to wake up at five first to pee or something! Rhys liked the dreams after that best, weird crap popped up then! Checking out his appearance in the mirror attached to the now empty desk his ex-roomie used to take up and pushed his hair to the side.

The youth leered at the faded pink markings on his face. Eugh, pink. It was in his hair, too. Being abandoned in the lowest levels of Haviah didn’t have much of an affect on the guy, but the pink from his mother or his father made him want to hunt either of them down just to punk them in the nose.

Pink.
Rhys rolled his odd eyes towards the ceiling and pulled the door open, shoulders haunched forward as he stalked through the hallway, it was about six fifteen now and his hair was still damn. His new mentor never really gave him an exact time, just to meet in some obscure yet oddly specific hall way by the dorms. He could do that, he’d been here for years, Rhys knew these halls like the back of his hand.

It took him a few minutes to get the to predetermined locatation and when he did he stared at the empty white space.

“Of course, late.” He had to be late, Rhys couldn’t sense anyone else here, even if his mind was tricked into thinking there was no one else here, as far as he knew only one Pilot played around with illusiosn like that. At least, there was only one pilot who was good at it. Sure as hell wasn’t this Trance fellow. Just in case though, Rhys made sure that his mental defensices were tightly shut to out-side forces and anyone who wanted to get it would be noticeable.

So, Rhys stood with his hands in his pockets and his hair slowly drying, glaring down any other candidates that walked past him or gave him weird looks for his odd colouring. At least he wasn’t as weird as that damned ugly snake girl.

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance awoke that morning wearing his pair of light pink pj's with little while bunnies all over them. Pandy had fallen to the floor during the night, but that was nothing new. The stuffed panda was placed back onto the bed as the kitten boy slipped out. He trudged his way to the bathroom in order to take a quick shower.

His mind was always groggy first thing in the morning, and the earlier he woke up, the worse it was. It also didn't help that he had stayed up a little later then usual in order to fully memorize the file on the candidate that he was going to start mentoring. Rhys Argel, stage 4 pilot candidate. Currently top of his class, and just needing that last little extra push to stage 5.

It wasn't the ideal time to start mentoring a person, but at this point he wasn't going to complain. He'd been so bored the last little while, that many of the other pilots had really started to grumble about being pounced and what not. It wasn't entirely his fault that once he passed a certain level of boredom that he'd find his own methods of entertainment... and stalking and pouncing other people was always amusing. Not to mention it gave him a chance to hone his skills when he couldn't be out on a mission.

He kept his morning shower short, prefering to linger in his nightly showers. Plus he needed to meet up with Rhys soon. He hadn't given the kid a specific time, just a general idea. Though the meeting place was specific enough.

After throwing on some cloths, and grabbing a quick breakfast he made his way down to the dorms. He wandered around for a bit before heading to the meet up spot. He idly wondered about taking the time to pounce Rhys, but decided against it for now. After all this was work, and he wanted to prove that he could be a suitable mentor.

He knew Rhys the second he saw him. It was kind of hard to miss him when other people were giving him such a wide girth as they went past him. He had to smile at this. Being able to intimidate others was always a useful skill, and not everybody could master it to perfection. Intimidation was deffinately not high on Trance's list of skills. He was better at lulling people into under estimating him before striking.

Coming up to the boy, he stood infront of him, making sure he had his full attention. "Rhys Argel. I am your new mentor, Trance." He waited to see the reaction, since he knew that there were many different rumors flying around now about himself.

[Anonymous]

Tapping his foot against the ground with a rhythmic tapping noise, his arms folded over his back. He sensed it, a closed mind a talented one. Well, somewhat talented, He couldn’t actually tell because this strange looking looking creature was a Pilot and he was not. Rhys grew worried as the cat-guy kept getting closer and shorter. Well, damn. Rhys wasn’t used to short Pilots, at least not short male pilots. Rhys leaned forward and leered slightly, yeah, it was a guy. Too bad, no hitting on his mentor for him!

Records weren’t always right! Trance could have easily been a girl. And this proved it! If this weird guy can be an Echo ranking Pilot, the moon was made of cheese and Rhys was going to be a Pilot in a few weeks, tops.

When his new mentor meandered to where Rhys was waiting he just stared and smiled politely, his ‘Good Boy’ mask on, a trick Shiloh had taught him to keep Pilots off his back. Rhys didn’t start trouble with Pilots, or higher ranking candidates. While he was a lower caste at heart, he was far from stupid and new how to pluck at the stings correctly so he didn’t annoy the monster in the middle.

Rhys moved his hands to his side and stood at attention, his chin straight and his eyes forward, leaving just the top of Trances head in his field of vision. “Nice to meet you, Sir. Candidate Argel reporting, Sir.” The sooner they met and did whatever, the sooner Rhys could get to the real stuff, the odd-coloured candidate didn’t have high expectations for the short Pilot.

Sure wasn’t going to expect to learn anything from him. Stage four and just getting a mentor, what B.S.

[Anonymous]

It was far too early. Devi was not really liking these early morning things. But she was getting slowly used to them. She didn't actually have class this early this morning, but she had wanted to get some studying in before her class. She was not always the best student and she didn't want to fall behind. Not here. And having dropped out of school, Devi was having to play catch up.

Turning the corner, Devi caught sight of what looked like some young kid, not wearing a uniform of any kind and a candidate with pink hair. That got the alien mutt to brighten. Poor kid was a boy too. It had been hard enough having bubble gum hair as a chick, Devi had only recently stopped dying it black.

Devi was at heart a social creature and she was finding that rather hard in the ATC. Everyone seemed to be either a grumpy jerk or a painfully shy wallflower. The few outgoing people she had met she never seemed to get to run into. So she used this chance to approach the two, grinning, "Hey y'all. What's happening."

It wasn't until she got closer that she saw how stiff and formal the pink haired one was acting. The female candidate paled a little, nervous that maybe the...tiny....cat-boy thing was not just some kid of a pilot or something.

[shinigamikitsune]

It was totally not his fault that he was short! Though he wasn't sure if he could blame it on genetics, since he'd never really known his parents all that well before they abandoned him. Plus let's face it, when you're a little kid, all grown ups look huge!

Trance felt a little strange having somebody taller then him saluting him and stuff. There really wasn't very many people who were shorter then him, and he used that to his advantage as well. He was about to chastise Rhys for being overly formal with him, till he caught himself, remembering just what he had to be like when he was a candidate.

He was about to speak when the female candidate started approaching them with casual demeanor. A barely there frown came to his lips. She shouldn't be acting like this unless... ah yes. She must be fresh meat, most likely first stage or just barely into second. She seemed as though she was a friendly person, though it would be amazing if she would be able to hold onto that for very long. He knew he'd been lucky to have T'liika as his mentor, for everything the man was, you couldn't say that he wasn't nice to the people he cared about.

As much as he might want to be his typicaly bubbly self, he is here for work and not pleasure. Work was something that he took very seriously, and now that he had finally been allowed to become a mentor, he wasn't going to blow it. He knew that not all pilots were capable of the task of being a mentor, but he swore that he was going to succeed at this.

"Candidate Argel, are you familuar with this particular female?" His inner kitty was so freaking curious, but he knew better then to squee and tackle-hug the pink haired girl... at least right now. However, should he come here when he wasn't meeting up with Rhys, he'd totally pounce her.

[Anonymous]

Looking between then two Rhys relaxed his position and gave a sly smirk towards the lower leveled candidate. Ah, fresh meet! A gracie, he’d keep his hands off of that one until they were at least second stage, then the real fun began. He gave both people a large grin, which should have made it obvious to anyone that knew him - Which these two did not - that Rhys Argel was up to no good. Rhys tweaked an eyebrow upwards, giving him an almost majestic face despite his obvious mutt heriatage and he tiled his head to the side, bringing a hand to press the side of his index finger to the side of his chin.

“Of course I do, sir.” Rhys looked down at the ground for a moment before flicking his yellow-green eyes to Devi’s, his mind burrowing into hers and out again in an instant will all the information he needed. “ Devi Kilham.” Rhys nodded, pushing telekinetic tendrils at her to keep her from reeling. It was a brutal information stealing, he’d probably given her a headache or if she was especially   weak, something to faint over. “ 5'7",” Rhys looked down at Trance and smirked slightly, “Dunno if pink’s her natural colour though,” Rhys flicked his eyes towards her groin and smiled widely, “It’s not all the same from what I recall.”

The older candidate stretched and kept the telekinetic tendrils of power on Devi to keep her upright, she’d feel them if she was paying attention, recognize the ‘scent’ they left behind as his, phantom hands the telekinetic tendrils were useful little things. Rhys pushed his hair up off his forehead and looked down at Trance, all traces of respect for his new mentor’s rank gone. “What’s it matter, Sir?” The ‘sir’ held no traces of sarcasm or mockery, it was entirely serious, mostly because he never wanted to be on a first-name basis with this guy.

A cat.

Rhys wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Hippo-Pilot, he already knew about the birds. “ My knowing Candidate Kilham, however intimately one might guess, has very little to do with you.” Rhys lift an eyebrow and left his lips in a light smirk before moving his hands to his pockets and resting them there.

[Anonymous]

Shit. The cat-kid was a Pilot. Devi looked quite awkward, opening her mouth to apologize when she felt a blazing pain go through her skull. Her eyes widened slightly, but she managed to not cry out. And recognized what it is the other candidate was doing. To which Devi felt quite grateful to him for.

Despite the pounding headache she was experiencing, Devi managed to play along, smirking at Rhys, "Oh, it's natural alright. So is the blue. Fun being a mutt, ain't it?" Her and Rhy's both shared the look common to many of the lower class, the mishmash of different alien races and human, until it was imposable to tell what they were descended from. Odd coloration's, tails, wings, hooves, things of that nature were quite common. Devi had a few shards of crystal in her forehead.

And she was always up for some playful flirting and Rhys wasn't a bad looking guy. The fact that he was a mutt like her just made her feel that much friendlier with him. Reminded her of home.

The pink haired candidate wasn't really sure what to do or say. She shifted her weight slightly, head throbbing. She really hated that feeling and she had never had anyone so unskilled pull stuff out of her mind like that. It took getting used too, that was for sure, "Sorry Sir. I hadn't realized I was interrupting anything...." Not my fault you look like a 12 year old in a stupid cat costume...

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance's ears flattened back slightly, giving the only hint of irritation for these two. So what if he was shorter then both of them? He was shorter then most other pilots, and it didn't stop him at all. It shouldn't matter. Neither should it matter that he was a cat.

His lips pursed together slightly at their banter towards each other. He could really care less about if they were fucking each other or just putting on an act.

"Ignorance is no excuse for being unobservant before involving yourself in any situation, candidate Devi. You'll do well to remember that." His eyes then shifting from regular pupils to narrow cat slits when he caught her surface thoughts. He lashed out at her mind to light up all her pain receptors for a few seconds. "Learn to keep your surface thoughts hidden, instead of broadcasting them all around you."

He turned to Rhys then, looking up at him in all seriousness. "As for you, candidate Rhys. I had asked if you were familuar with her, not how intimate you were with her. That is not what I asked, nor did I want to know. So remove that smirk from your lips before I decide to remove it from you perminantly" Or maybe even just sew your lips shut for good. that last part reserved for Rhys alone.

With his eyes returning to normal, he looked towards Devi once again. Observing her to see how quickly she was recovering from the pain flash.

"Once you have become part of the candidate program, it matters little on whether you're a mutt, cat, human or other. There are only two groups here that you should be concerned about. Those who have what it takes to become a pilot, and those who don't. This is not a game, and there are no second chances. You will take this seriously or you will find yourself falling into the second catergory." Trance's tail twitching with slight irritation.

[Anonymous]

Devi hadn't really been aware that going over and talking to two people was such a serious offense. She had just wanted to be friendly. But none of it really mattered. Because the moment Trance invaded her mind and opened all her pain receptors, her knees gave out and she collapsed to the floor.

Her strange eyes were wide and staring and for a moment she couldn't move, couldn't breath, she just felt pain. She had never experienced anything like that before in her life, she hurt everywhere at once, even places she didn't know could hurt.

Then the pain ended and she curled into a small ball, hugging her legs to her chest, a small, hurt mewling sound escaping her. Tears formed and slid down her cheeks, unnoticed as she trembled. She couldn't even scream, the most she could do was make small, rasping pain sounds until it was over.

Even then she didn't move, just covered her head with her arms, crying.

[Anonymous]

A rise out of a Pilot. Rhys couldn’t help the smirk that drew on his lips and he watched Trance freak out. A rise. Out of a Pilot. Rhys let a giggle drift past his lips but his attention was pulled away from his newest friend dropping and curling into an odd type of ball. Rhys watched with odd eyes, the change of pupil in Trances didn’t change much of his opinion, Rhys always had slitted pupils, the change in Trances just made him look more like a cat.

A grumpy cat.

Before going over to Devi, Rhys crossed his arms over his chest and just stared down at Trance, a smirk on his lips and his eyebrows lifted high. “We’re Candidate Kilham and Candidate Argel. You were not specific in which information you were after, so I don’t see how being over specific is reason to lose your cool, Pilot Trance.” He gave Trance a look, openly smirked after getting the warning about having his lips stitched closed.

Rhys moved a hand over the top of Devi’s head and down her back as he pressed his other hand to her shoulder, the hand on his back making soothing circular motions. “Looks like Trance the Cat has some claws. You know, I always thought Pilots didn’t punish for thoughts,” He flicked his own slitted green-yellow eyes up at the Pilot and kept his hand on Devi’s back, his other hand threading through her hair.

“Trance lies. Candidates are their own subculture, I’m the top of the food chain and once you get out of the gracie period, if I’m still stage four - Gods forbid -“ Rhys leaned in to Devi’s ear and gave the tip a light lick before whispering, “I’m going to make your life hell.” Rhys leaned back and moved his hands to her waist and stood up, slowly bringing her with him.

“C’mon, stand up, should probably get going. Pilot Trance seems pissy.” He turned his back to Trance, his mental blocks up, as he gently pushed Devi back down the hall way the way she came. “A good way of checking if someone is a Pilot is that they’re out of uniform, once you get the hang of your mental powers,” He poked her temples gently before looking back over at Trance, standing with his hands resting at the small of his back.

His green-yellow eyes were clear and he had an eyebrow lifted. “So, Pilot Trance. You seem a little immature and hyper to be a Pilot, let alone a mentor.” Rhys shook his head, making his odd hair fall into his eyes before he barked out a humourless laugh, “ This is a big game. This is a big joke. Pilots, candidates. Dragons. A joke. Now, you either get the joke and you use it to your advantage, Like I do, or you’re blind and stupid.” Rhys looked Trance up and down and took a step back before smirking again, “ I think you’re number two, aren’t you?”

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance just simply watched as Rhys moved to help Devi up and on her way. There was no point in doing anything about that, and he wasn't a heartless bastard. He waited silently as Rhys went through his little speech, no doubt feeling rather full of himself at the moment.

"I honestly don't care about your views on any of this. At this stage, it's pretty much meaningless drabble to me. Each person gets their own thing out of this, and views this differently. I'm not here to be your friend." Trance ran a hand through his hair, laying his ears back to avoid them.

He looked Rhys over and mentally sighed. This was probably one of the most cocky bastards he'd had the pleasure to meet. It would be rather enjoyable to take him down a peg or two during their mentoring time.

[Anonymous]

As Rhys helped her up, Devi clung to him, knees weak and still dizzy from the intense pain she had just experienced. She wanted to throw up, then curl into a little ball. But mostly she just wanted to get away from Trance.

Then her odd eyes narrowed at Rhys' comment and she pulled away from him, hissing under her breath, "Just try it." Devi was not going to let anyone mess with her like that. She might not be at her best right now, but Rhys could go to hell.

She hated this place. Everyone here was either insane or a totally asshole. Devi hadn't thought anything would make her miss running around in a gang. But this place was making that even look good. At least she had friends there. People to talk too.

Placing one hand along the wall, Devi kept her other arm curled around her torso. She was going to go reread those rules, because she was pretty sure what the Pilot had just done was out of line.

[Anonymous]

The lips could only pull into a grim smile. This was going to be interesting, little Devi and Trance The Mentor. Fun. He watched Devi hobble her way down the hall way, pleased with himself, the older candidates were also here to help condition the younger ones, the sooner Little Miss Devi got her back up about elder candidates the safer she’ll be. He was doing her a service by theatening her, because now she’d be weary of the other coloured collars.

Being weary of the coloured collars could only be a good thing here. If you weren’t you either got dragged into doing things that got you into trouble or did things that hurt other people. Rhys didn’t have much of a concious anymore, he supposed he’d get it back when he graduated and could breath freely. Until then, he would be exactly the same.  Rhys sighed with relief when Trance said he didn’t want to be his friend.

Thank god, the last thing he could stand was a short cat-guy trying to be his friend. Rhys would end up in TRIM for doing bodily harm to a Pilot. Would being vivisected be worth smashing in this little Pilots face? Rhys put a hand to his chin and ran his index finger knuckle against his lower lip contemplatively. Hmm... Yeah, totally worth it. Maybe rip one of those stupid ears off. Rhys stood there and smiled, his mental blocks up so his imaginative beating of his new mentor was hidden, if Trance had tried to pry Rhys would have noticed and ceased those thoughts instantly.

He seemed like the type to ignore some little rules, that and Rhys was far too advanced as a candidate to not take blame for his thoughts anymore. “So, Mr.Pilot, what are you going to do with me? I hope you’re aware that as a stage four I need to work on my mental capabilities, I’m a little behind, it’s hard to control visions and I’m not all that up for doing much after one hits me.” Rhys flashed a smile and rose an eyebrow before moving his hands down into his pants pockets.

[shinigamikitsune]

Trance noticed the smile gracing Rhys' lips, and wondered just what evil thoughts were the reasoning behind that smile. At least the other wasn't allowing his thoughts to be flowing around freely, so he wouldn't press about it.... at least for now.

"I've read over your files, so I know how far along you are in your training. I've also taken the time to read over a couple files of other clairvoyants to see how they managed to bring their visions under control. From what I've learned it would seem that there is no set way in doing it, and that each person has found their own trigger and method for this. Once you have found something that works for your own trigger, you can then focus on developing it further."

Trance crossed his arms loosely, cocking his hip to the side. He looked over Rhys once again, his tail swaying slowly from side to side. "Until then I had planned on working on your reaction times. With the state in how your visions leave you, it would be a good idea for you to work on being able to automatically throwing up mental and physical barriers around yourself. Also being able to do this should you ever be caught off guard or by surprise."

He paused to look the candidate over a little more thoroughly, as though thinking about something. "My plan is to push you to your limits through a series of training sims and various war games. Eventually I would like to have you performing at a level that is higher then what is considered normal for candidates when they graduate."

[Anonymous]

Looking down his nose at the little cat pilot and smirked, obviously he wasn’t a precog or he wouldn’t be telling him that they all had triggers. Rhys knew he didn’t have a trigger, he could sense when one was coming on because his mouth, finger tips and lower legs would go numb. No triggers, they just happened. One of the problems about being a precog. Not at all impressed with having a non-precog for a mentor, they could have at least assigned him someone with some idea of how things worked.

Tilting his head to the side and lifting an eyebrow, he stood and watched Trance speak. Reaction times. At the mention of putting up mental and physical barriers after a vision, Rhys just stared at him like he was missing something. Like a brain. Did Trance know that brains were good things to have? Rhys lift an eyebrow and moved his lips to the side to show off an obviously grumpy smirk. Great.

He was too old for this. He knew how to handle himself. Throwing up mental barriers was the last thing on Rhys’ mind after coming out of a vision, the first one was breathing, the second was to find the nearest bathroom incase he needed to throw up his lunch. The people around him could protect him, he was a precog, he had that on his side at least. “ Look, when my eyes are rolled up into the back of my head, I’m twitching like a doll and I’m not breathing, it’s not very hard to scoop me up and throw me in a bin so I can wake up and puke on myself.”

It was obvious that Trance didn’t know how badly a vision left him. Once he’d had a vision that was helpful into some case or another, but other than that his episodes were dismissed because he wasn’t a pilot, the visions could be false or just plain unimportant. The next mini-rant from Trance had the candidate freeze in his spot and just stare down at the little pilot. “Sir, with all due respect, this is stage four. I’ve gone through all those things, if I don’t get better at what little simple abilities I have - My telepathy and telekinesis - I’m going to be TRIM’d. Stage four is about my head, not how fast I can be.”

He was going to die.

Rhys kept his face blank and bored, his mind was fairly blank and bored, too.  Odd green-yellow eyes were staring down into Trance’s own and he just moved his hands to rest in his pockets. “Well, Sir. Shall we get started on my Not-Stage-Four-Drills?” Unamused and even less thrilled, his voice and posture displayed those feelings more than clearly as he watched the short pilot, his stance easy and lax, but ready to snap to attention.