My Neglected Candidate (ZC ^^)

[Anonymous]

Damn she was tired. Trying to be a good mentor was hard. She had never read so much in her life….except maybe when she was a candidate. Reading was just….boring….and brain taxing. Since some of the pilots, particularly Seiteki, had gotten on her back about Farica and Setrul she had decided she would show them all. She had no say in Farica’s training but she did with Setrul’s. So she had started researching incidents similar to what had happened with the pair so she could better train Setrul. He and Nika were her first candidates and she was sure as hell going to make sure they passed, even if it killed her.

     Setrul needed more attention what with only becoming a pilot recently but she had neglected Nika a little. So today she was meeting up with only him to get an idea of what his abilities were. She mainly wanted to see what his telepathy was like and if he had any telekinesis at all but it was just undiscovered. Most of all she wanted to see what his ability was like. That was why in her pocket currently were two vials of blood; her own blood. She figured it was unfair to steal someone else’s so she had just gone to infirmary and asked them to put some of her blood in a vial. Probably not the best idea considering she was already really tired. Meh, she wanted Nika to pass and she needed to know what he could do.

     Absentmindedly she glanced at the time. He wasn’t late yet, she had just been early. She had sent him an email asking to meet him in one of the classrooms. But she hadn’t told him which, hopefully he’d be able to find; it was a little out of the way. That was part of his training though, finding her using his powers. She was allowing her mind to be picked up by anyone who bothered to try, not read just traced.

     She wouldn’t admonish him for being late though, just as long as he got there. Today was just to gauge his powers and frankly she couldn’t be bothered to be angry. Too tired. Some people when they were angry got frazzled, Latona got lazy and uncaring. She would let people get away with murder and was frankly nicer when she hadn’t slept.

     Latona was currently laid back on the desk at the front of the room, staring up at the white ceiling. Ah memories, this classroom she had chosen specifically because it was where her orientation had been when she first became a candidate. At the time it hadn’t been fun but now she looked back on it and laughed. It had started her rivalry with Alei which lasted for most of their candidacy. He eventually beat her but by then was too cracked and spacey to gloat. It was a shame; she used to love competing with him and she suspected the reason she passed was because she was always bettering herself so she could beat him.

       Sighing she adjusted her position so she was more comfortable. She couldn’t sense Nika yet but there was still time. Maybe she’d rest her eyes before he arrived.

[OOC: Latona's now asleep by the way XD]

[Anonymous]

What the hell. Nika reread the e-mail on his hand held again, hoping that the classroom number would magically appear. But there was still nothing. Just the message to meet her in the classroom, no mention of which one. The boy's pretty features twisted up with annoyance. God he hated people sometimes.

A sigh and Nika glanced around, trying to figure out where he was. Not that it did much good, as all these stupid hallways looked the same. Despite his tight shielding, it wasn't hard to tell the short boy was ticked off. How was he supposed to find her? Maybe if he was more familiar with her blood he could track her that way.

As it was the boy was a bit stuck with what to do next. Not making the meeting wasn't really much of an option and would probably end in a broken limb, and that was an annoyance Nika didn't want to deal with. And he did want to survive this program. TRIM was not really an option.

One pale blue eye twitched slightly as he struggled to control his temper. It was probably lucky that there weren't any people around or there might have been a slight physic accident. Breath deep. In. Out. In. Out.

Once he was a bit calmer he unclenched his hands where they had his hand held in a death grip. He just had to do this the hard way. The really annoying hard way. The really annoying, boring hard way. Another eye twitch. Stupid winged cow.

Nika went to the first door, opened it, checked to see if Latona was there, saw she wasn't, closed the door and moved to the next one. Rinse, repeat.

[Anonymous]

[OOC Short >.<]

Latona was woken by quite an angry psychic presence heading down the corridor towards her. As she followed it to its source she discovered it was her cute little candidate, Nika. And he was in a foul mood. Obviously he couldn’t apply his physic abilities to finding her.

     Sighing exasperatedly, she pulled herself up into a sitting position and sent a psychic message to him.

     “Three more rooms from you current position.”

     So tracking wasn’t one of his talents; that would have to be worked on. Or maybe he had a bad memory and couldn’t remember what she felt like. His initiative didn’t seem to be great either. If he couldn’t sense her, he could have read the minds of passing people in case they had seen her.

     Oh well, she couldn’t be bothered to be mad today. She just wanted to work out what he could and couldn’t do.

[Anonymous]

Nika was not just angry, Nika was pissed. The boy didn't have the best grip on his temper to begin with and having to go through all those rooms was just enraging him. Luckily for Nika Latona found him before he completely snapped.

As she brushed against his mind, she could feel the rage building and twisting there, weakening his hold on his powers. The boys mind was a strange, dark place. The surface thoughts were all pretty normal, but just beyond that was not right. It didn't work they way a normal psyche did. And the raw anger for such a minor annoyance was more proof of that.

Even doing his best to keep at least his expression calm, it was easy to tell the small boy was furious. He marched to the room the bitch had specified, throwing open the door. His pale eyes glared at her as he struggled to control himself. But he hated being toyed with, made fun of. Which is what he felt Latona had been doing to him.

Taking a few breaths he tried to calm himself. Don't snap. Even as he struggled to calm down his power spilled out, pressing up against Latona. If she wasn't a physic it would have been pulling at her blood, wanting it to spill out. But it wasn't controlled or powerful to really effect a trained physic.

"You wanted to see me?" His voice was clipped as he did his best to control the power.

[Anonymous]

Latona looked at Nika calmly; though it was clear he was far from calm despite how he was trying to hide it…It was rather disturbing. Sure he was probably very annoyed with her but…his anger that he was desperately trying to suppress was too strong. It just wasn’t normal.

     “Yes,” Latona said sliding off the desk, “You probably won’t do any psychic training until the grace period is over but I would like to know just what you can do with your physic abilities.”

     She flexed her wings slightly, a habit of hers she did when ever she was annoyed or anxious. Today it was anxious. It wasn’t very strong but there was some kind of energy in the room. Not nearly strong enough to effect her but she could notice it.

     She continued regardless, “Really I want to see what you mind-reading abilities are like and your telepathic ones. Also I would like to see how your ability to control blood works.”

     From her pocket she produced one of the vials, “I came prepared this time.”

     Then she actually looked at the blood in the vial. It was like it was being pulled towards Nika. His powers were activated at that very moment. Obviously he didn’t have them active all the time, he would probably kill every poor grunt that walked past him in the corridor. So that meant either his rage activated them or he had been trying to kill her. She doubted he was stupid enough to try that so it had to be option B. And considering his anger didn’t seem to be normal; that could pose a problem.

      “Nika? How exactly does you blood controlling ability activate.”

     She wasn’t sure if he would tell her immediately and she had never been good with talking to angry people without getting angry herself. And that would be a bad idea. If push came to shove she could delve into his mind but hopefully she wouldn’t have to resort to that.

[Anonymous]

Breathing deeply, Nika was able to calm some of his rage. He was still pissed, but the dark rage wasn't there any more and the physic powers were starting to calm, the blood in Latona's vials no longer seething and writhing in the glass, though they still swirled lightly, pressing closer to Nika.

"I can't read minds well." Nika wasn't really comfortable enough with his telepathy to realize that is was his own poorly built walls that made it harder for him to read other people. Though even without them his mind reading wasn't that great.

His eyes narrowed slightly and he clenched his teeth, hands curling into tight fists. Calm. He needed to calm down. It was too early, far to early. Normal people didn't act like this, he had to get control.

Finally the boy's body untensed and he gave Latona a bright smile, his physical body language normal, though his mind was still agitated, but if Latona hadn't been a physic she would never have known, "I can activate my blood control at will, though I'm not very good at controlling it yet. And when I get.....upset it can go off."

[Anonymous]

So he didn’t lie to her; that was good. You would have to be stupid to lie to a trained psychic.

     “I see,” Latona replied, “You seem a little too angry just for not being able to find me though. That was a test. It didn’t matter if you were late. I just wanted to see if you could apply your psychic abilities to finding me.”

     The blood in the vial was still acting up a little so the whole time she had been talking she had been delving into his mind as well. And she had not liked what she saw. His mind was very dark. There were some normal thoughts on the surface but it was mostly an abyss. Nothing there, no emotions except a few fragments.

     He was her student and she had to train him and know what he was capable of. But once this session was over they were heading straight to the infirmary and she was having his brain checked out. This kid was not normal.

     Best not to alert him to the fact she knew about this though, assuming he knew he wasn’t quite right either.

     “Anyway, I know you said your telepathy was weak but I want you to try anyway. I’m thinking of number and I want to try and read what it is.”

     Latona then brought the number ‘62’ to the front of her mind. It was a simple trick that nearly every mentor used to test mind reading ability. And if it wasn’t broken, then there was no need to fix it. Her other student who was more normal than Nika but a hell of a lot more annoying said numbers were boring and paid for his complaining with pain.

[Anonymous]

The boy's eye twitched slightly at her comment about his anger. Stupid cow. What did she know, "I don't like being toyed with. And you would be pissed off if you had to spend 15 minutes opening doors and checking rooms."

Crossing his arms, Nika leaned against the door frame as he continued to regain control. That was one thing he hated about being stuck here. There was no good outlet for his anger, it was far to easy to get caught here. And not that many animals around anyway.

He didn't want to be there. He didn't want to have to do all this crap. Though the thought of getting to play around with the blood was exciting. His power was still very new to him and he hadn't gotten to really test it out yet.

But his stupid mentor just wanted to play games. Nika frowned, plainly not pleased with the exercise. But he would try at least, maybe it would be interesting. Taking a deep breath Nika closed his eyes, lowering his wall. He hadn't really mastered having multiple layers, so when he got ride of the wall, he dropped it all.

It took Nika a little while as he concentrated hard to read Latona's mind. He wasn't really used to it. But once he managed to figure out how to dip into her thoughts he was able to open his eyes, his voice smug, "62."

[Anonymous]

"I don't like being toyed with. And you would be pissed off if you had to spend 15 minutes opening doors and checking rooms."

     She leaned slightly, smiling, “Actually I was a little annoyed. My mentor made me do that as well.”

     It had taken her longer to find them than it had taken Nika, mainly because they were crueller than her and picked a more out of the way place to meet. It had taken her nearly an hour to find it. Then they had broken her arm because she was late. Nika should count himself lucky she hadn’t broken of his appendages.

     When Nika closed his eyes, obviously concentrating so he could get the number from Latona’s mind she noticed that his thoughts became a lot more open. He had been blocking them before but wasn’t now. His mental blocks must block him from reading others thoughts as well. She knew what she was dealing with now.

     Then he finally answered, “62.”

     Latona smiled, “Correct, see, you can do it.”

     She could tell he wanted to play with the blood but she wanted to see if he had any telekinesis first. Maybe she could make him try and lift a vial of blood, use it as a bribe. She stood up and placed he vial on one of the smaller desks about a metre away.

     “I know you said you didn’t have any telekinesis but, again, I only want you to try. Make that vial float up, I don’t care how far.”

     It wouldn’t matter if he dropped it since telekinesis was her strong point but if he thought the vial could smash if he dropped it then he might be more careful. And Nika didn’t know she had two vials.

[Anonymous]

"I don't see what the point of that was." Nika's fists clenched and unclenched, his nails leaving small crescent cuts on his palm. He could have told her he was rubbish at reading thoughts. He had been able to hide that for years before his blood powers manifested. That was a mess that couldn't get swept under the rug, not that his father had even tried. Having a son for a pilot was going to help his advancement a lot.

He and mother were probably already trying for another kid, see if they would get the physic gene.

The pretty boy raised an eyebrow at her. She wanted him to make the vial float? A vial filled with blood. But Nika just shrugged, holding his hand out. It helped him focus his power a bit better when he used his hand.

The rage he had earlier was totally gone now, the blood soothing him. It always had, the sight of blood so calming and lovely. Nika wasn't sure he could make the vial float up, but he knew he could make the blood come to him.

Narrowing his eyes the boy focused his power on the swirling blood in the vial. Latona could feel the side effects of Nika's power in her own blood, but her own power would help protect her from him pulling her blood out. The vial jumped around the desk as the blood boiled inside it, swirling and frothing inside.

Then the vial broke, the blood inside bursting out the glass to explode over the room in a shower of glass. Nika blinked, his tongue flicking out to lick a splatter of blood off his cheek, "That didn't go as I had hoped."

Then his eyes flickered to Latona, this was her blood. Interesting, very interesting. He knew what she tasted like, felt like. He would have to remember that.

The blood that was still splattered across the desk and floor was making it's way slowly to the boy, not leaving any trace behind. He hadn't stopped calling it to him yet.

[Anonymous]

It seemed Nika had indeed been right about not having any telekinesis. Instead of floating up, the vial’s contents started frothing and churning and eventually the vial broke. Interesting, she had never seen a control of blood before, it was fascinating even if it was a little disturbing.

     The blood in the other vial was safe since she was using her own psychic abilities to shield it. Nika’s power was interesting but not very powerful yet. She could feel it pulling at her blood a little but she was too strong for it to succeed. However, there was nothing to stop her candidate killing some of the normal military personnel.

     Even when the vial was smashed the blood continued to head towards Nika, like he was calling it. He also showed his own ease with it when he licked some off his cheek. Even though appearance wise he looked normal, he was probably amongst the most un-normal candidates. That would have to be dealt with.

     The whole process hadn’t taken as long as she thought. Though she didn’t know his abilities in as much detail as she did Setrul’s since she had to train him from scratch and he was painfully slow at learning things, she still had a good idea of Nika’s abilities. He had the blood controlling thing, he could erect basic but crude mental barriers and had some telepathic ability. And maybe if she was lucky when she did start training him properly he might have learnt something else. But the information she had would do for now. Now she had to sort that attitude of his.

     How to do it though, she couldn’t just say ‘Hey, Nika I’m taking you to the infirmary to check your brain out’. She could force him to come but that was such a hassle. Lying was her best option.

     “Okay I think I have some idea of your abilities now. But there was some place I meant to show you when I gave you the tour but I completely forgot.”

     As lies went, it was pretty poor but she was too tired to think of anything better. And if it didn’t work he would end dragged down the corridor physically or psychically depending on what was easier.

[Anonymous]

The blood seemed to actually calm down Nika quite a bit. He was licking it off his hand, sucking lightly at his skin to get it all. Interesting, so very interesting. He had always enjoyed blood, but once his power had fully awoken, it was even better.

Nika's abilities were all raw, untrained. Even is mental barrier was obviously self taught. Perfect for keeping very minor physics out of his mind and to keep from accidentally projecting into someones mind. Which wouldn't have gone over well at all, considering what Nika thought about most of the time.

Glancing down at the floor, Nika smiled lightly at the blood moving toward him. If it had been anyone but Latona, he would have tried to act freaked out. But Latona had already figured out what went on behind his pretty mask. Though he didn't think she fully realized how broken he was, he didn't even know.

An eyebrow was raised at the lie. Even he could tell there was something going on, but he figured it was just another stupid training exercise. A short nod, then he squatted down, running a finger through Latona's blood on the floor before shutting his power all the way down, "Alright. Where are we going then?"

[Anonymous]

[OOC Suckage o.O]

Damn, she hadn’t expected him to actually ask where they were going, she didn’t think he’d care. What to do now…It seemed he knew she was lying as well…Was she that easy to read? Okay, plan B since lying seemed to be pointless. And she doubted either of her candidates liked her anyway.

     First of all she attached a sort of psychic tether to him so he couldn’t run too far but it was long enough so he shouldn’t be able to notice it.

     “Nika, your brain doesn’t work in the same way as a normal person’s. You might have noticed. You won’t pass the program unless you’re attitude is dealt with. We’re going to the infirmary now to see what they can do.”

     Hopefully he wouldn’t struggle, that would be a pain.

     “If you try and run I promise you, you won’t get very far.”

     She’d grab him them and drag him down the corridor. And if he still struggled she’d knock him out and physically carry him there. He didn’t look to heavy and she was stronger than the average woman.

[Anonymous]

Llewellyn Intram was horribly bored.

That was usually bad news for the world at large.

He was in a pleasant mood, having been out in the city most of the night, and not hungry at all. It had taken him a bit after the sun had risen to get his affairs sorted out and packed away, and himself cleaned up sufficiently as to be presentable to the other Pilots. By the time he'd finished, it was a sensible hour by normal standards, and he figured something interesting would be going on at the ATC.

Much to Intram's delight, someone was in the hall perpendicular to him... two people... one of whom was Latona. Well. Latona wasn't one of Intram's very favorite people or anything, but he had nothing against her. Really, he found her interesting, in that she was a winged humanoid. Wings made people prettier, in his opinion. He still had  a little urge, whenever he saw her, to cut her open and see exactly how she controlled the motion of those wings, how her body was light enough to enable flight... but only a little one. That would be stupid of him. Unacceptable.

He listened to them, standing outside the classroom they were using. Latona had a loose tether on the other person... a Candidate, presumably. "...You won’t pass the program unless your attitude is dealt with. We’re going to the infirmary now to see what they can do.” Oh, this sounded fun indeed. The candidate was male, he could tell... and quite interesting.

“If you try and run I promise you, you won’t get very far,” Latona advised, and Intram took the opportunity to enter the room. "Good morning, Latona," he said, grinning neutrally. He looked over at the Candidate. "What have we here?" He stood a bit away from Latona, eyeing the young man down.

[Anonymous]

The boy stood staring at Latona, unsure what he should do. His mind raced as he struggled to understand what exactly she was saying. Nika wasn't really sure how he felt about that. Sure, part of Nika had always envied normal people and their ability to interact with each other. Nika always felt like he was on the outside, looking in at people.

But to change who he was? Nika really wasn't sure he liked that idea. He set his jaw, body tensing to prepare for a fight. He would not submit willingly to this! He opened his mouth to tell Latona just where she could shove it when the door opened.

And in walked one of the creepiest men Nika had ever seen. The boy blinked, watching him carefully. His shields were still down from his attempts with the blood and he could feel....something similar in the man. The blood slid around Nika's shoes, rippling and swirling there.

The boys pale eyes narrowed, his pretty features were puzzled. He didn't really understand the feeling he got off the creepy man and chose to ignore it. He turned his attention back to Latona, "I am not going to the infirmary. My head is fine."

[Anonymous]

Latona frowned when the door opened, then frowned deeper when she saw who it was. Intram, one of the creepiest guys in existence.

     “Why are you here?” she asked.

     Other pilots weren’t allowed to interfere with candidate that weren’t their own. That had to be the reason he was here, she doubted he would just pop his head into a classroom to say hello to her. He was being nosy.

     Nika made her morning even worse when he told her he ‘wasn’t going to the infirmary’. He had to made things difficult.

     She flexed her wings slightly, “It’s not fine and did I say you had any choice in the matter?”

     The blood on the floor had started to move a little when Intram had entered, hopefully his presence wouldn’t set Nika off. It wouldn’t hurt them but still, he was potentially dangerous. Why did she seem to attract potentially dangerous people?

     “If you won’t come willingly I will drag you, physically or psychically if I have to.”

[Anonymous]

As soon as Intram stepped into the room, he was greeted by a deadly look from Latona. Business as usual, of course. I don't see what problem she has with me. He countered it with a smile and a little wave. “Why are you here?” she asked, obviously not happy to see him.

Intram put a fake damper on his mood for a second, folding his arms and looking off at the corner of the ceiling. "I should be used to that greeting by now, but..." he grinned and waved his arm. "Just kidding," he said rather brightly, looking back at Latona. "I am used to it."

He looked at the Candidate, watching his movements, and silently refusing to leave. The boy was definitely good-looking, with piercing blue eyes... he subtly brushed against the boy's mind, to get an idea of what he was like. Very similar, he thought to himself, walls up. Like a normal chocolate shell on an evil scoop of vanilla ice cream. He grinned again. Ew...

The Candidate looked back at Latona, with a stalwart expression. "I am not going to the infirmary. My head is fine." Intram would have asked, but decided not to, in light of Latona's apparent bad mood. He had a feeling he already knew.

[Anonymous]

Well, it appeared that his mentor really didn't like Mr. Creepy here. He didn't seem so bad on the outside, but Nika had learned that meant nothing. He kept glancing over at the pilot, wary of him. There was just something about him that Nika was cautious about. Not so much afraid of him as aware that he could be dangerous and to proceed with caution.

He backed slowly away from Latona, eyes narrowed. He did not want people poking around his mind. Fear flickered over his mind as he glared at his mentor, "You can try, but I am not letting some doctors mess with my head."

Nika was aware he didn't function normally and had become frustrated at his inability to function with people. But that didn't mean he wanted people messing with him brain and suddenly changing who he was. The idea scared him.

[Anonymous]

Latona sighed exasperatedly mentally cursed. Why couldn’t she have an obedient candidate? But having a timid one that always did what she said might be boring.

     “Guess, I’ll have to do this the hard way.”

     She turned the tether into a psychic rope which wrapped around Nika binding him. He was not going anywhere. Then she grabbed him and slung him over her shoulder before opening the door. Being a non-human had its advantages, like advanced strength. Well not really all that advanced, but certainly stronger than most women.

     “This is for your own good Nika,” she said smirking as she left the room.

     Hopefully that freak Intram wouldn’t follow her. It was him though, of course he would. Maybe if she ignored him he’d go away.

[Anonymous]

Intram watched the Candidate back up, like a threatened animal. Now he was really curious. "You can try, but I am not letting some doctors mess with my head." Oh, very interesting. He had seen that technique before... and it never worked. They'd wanted to try it on him, but he'd straightened up. Nobody wanted to be effectively lobotomized.

Latona set her jaw, which meant bad things. “Guess, I’ll have to do this the hard way.” Intram watched impassively as she bound the Candidate and picked him up, and followed her out the door. “This is for your own good Nika.”

He walked calmly behind Latona, watching Nika struggle. "Don't you think forced alteration is a bit drastic for a first step, Latona?" He locked the Candidate's eyes with his. "If they had done that to me, I would never have made it." He grinned at Nika, making sure he had his attention. "Have you thought about psychological counseling?"