First success. (Kitsy)

[Anonymous]

((This is set about 6 ½ years ago, at the end of Satori’s grace period.))

Marshal tended to only take one candidate at a time because he simply lacked the free time to deal with more than that. What this meant was that if that one candidate failed at any point, that was it. So since Satori was his only candidate at the moment, he was more than pleased that she’d passed. Of course she didn’t know it yet. He was ion his was right now to bring her the good news.

Having just come from an early run, he was still in a black singlet and track pants. Not the most dashing outfit ever, but he felt Satori would appreciate being notified quickly. Even if that meant be woken up a little early on her day off.

The sun had only just risen, sending spears of light through the damp morning created by the city’s artificial weather generators. If the dragons decided it was going to be a dewy spring morning, then that’s what it was.

Arriving at Satori’s door he pushed the button to make it slide silently open. He slipped inside and crept over to her sleeping form, noting that her room mate was absent. Maybe she’d gone out for a morning jog too. Maybe she’d failed and was already on a transport for TRIM. Either way it didn’t matter, because right now his candidate had passed her first major hurdle, and that mean this was a big day.

Resting his knees on the side of her bed, Marshal leant over his candidate, staying up at shoulder height in case of a frightened flick of that tail when he woke her. “Satori,” he called softly, gently shaking her shoulder, “Satori, wake up.”

[Anonymous]

Satori moved around in bed the blanket falling half off of her, she even snored just a little. She was dreaming about her examination and when she reached for her mind she felt nothing. It felt like she had lost her power somewhere, or just her whole brain had fallen out. She looked up at someone, the form looking familiar.

Marshal?

She opened her eyes slowly, feeling it was more than a dream and sensing someone in the room. She rolled over grunting a little. Her eyes grew wide as they saw Marshal's form. In her room...while she wasn't in anything but a t-shirt and underwear. She pulled the blanket up around her a small blush covering her cheeks and still half asleep.

"Uhh..." She started to wonder if she was in trouble. She thought back over her time here and couldn't think of anything she had done that was bad enough for him to be here. She hoped anyway...

"Pilot?" She sort of half grunted at him groggily, still not sure whether or not this was a dream or reality.

[Anonymous]

He chuckled at her blush, fully aware of her state of dress due to the thin psychic tendril monitoring her thoughts. Still, her blanket hadn’t eve fallen down very far, it wasn’t like she was showing anything. Grasping her shoulders, Marshal gave her another small shake.

“Wake up sleepy head. You passed.” He beamed at her, more than a little proud. He’d honestly thought she wasn’t going to make it. She was pretty slow sometimes, not exactly a gifted psychic of even particularly good at the schoolwork, but apparently they still believed Satori might make it, and damned if he wasn’t going to make a good pilot out of her.

Hopping up of the bed, Marshal decided she just wasn’t waking up fast enough. Alright, so it was very early in the morning, but still, she should be excited. With one hand he grabbed the top edge of her blanket and sheets and in one swift motion yanked them down. Tossing the covers down at the foot of the bed he clapped his hand and rubbed them together. “Come on, get up get up! Get dressed, I’m taking you out to breakfast to celebrate.”

((Blah, short x__x))

[Anonymous]

She felt herself being shook and woke up a little more, her eyesight was a little foggy around the edges. She started to rub her eyes for a second and blinked a couple times at him as he came into focus, she could barely understand what he was saying.

"I...what?" The bed shook as he jumped off of it. She saw his wide smile and the words sunk in. She shivered for a second as he pulled the blanket off of her, but her thoughts of how naked she was were long gone. She was wearing a baggy red t-shirt and a pair of blue underwear, not what she had imagined wearing when she heard this news.

"Are you serious?!" She jumped out of bed and onto him hugging him tight freaking out a little bit. She had been working towards those words for about six months now. She had been having mini panic attacks about the whole thing. If she had failed she would have been shipped off...but she hadn't! A million worries had been going through her mind and now the weight was lifted completely off of her shoulders. She forgot about her current condition as she hugged him then she let go.

"Breakfast! What are we having?" She grinned at him. He was very responsible for helping her pass, her first teacher after all. When she could put words together she was going to have to thank him. She ran over to her dresser practically bouncing as she grabbed out a pair of jeans are started to pull them on.

Then she remembered she wasn't wearing a bra.

[Anonymous]

Marshal only just had time to unclasp his hands before a ball of Satori barrelled into his chest. After blinking twice he wrapped his arms around her back and returned the hug, fighting the ever growing dirty old man part of him that wanted to reach down and squeeze her bottom.

That side of him had been getting more and more dominant of late. In a few years he’d probably be groping candidates left, right and centre, and by the time he hit sixty he’d likely be one of those old men who walks into women’s change rooms pretending to be senile.

Ah well, nothing to do but let it happen.

“Whatever you want,” he replied, letting her go as she ended the hug. “We’re going to nice café over in the parks district.” It was an odd thing, hugging etiquette. The whole thing was almost a game of chicken. The first person to feel uncomfortable in the embrace, for whatever reason, was the one who let go. So did that mean that they were the less comfortable in the relationship, whatever that relationship might be?

His musing was cut short by his brain suddenly noticing something far better to think about. As Satori bounded over to her drawers his mind suddenly discovered a magical ability to slow time, and a better moment to discover this talent could not be found. She wasn’t practically bouncing, she was bouncing. Up and down, rhythmically as she trotted. On top of that he noticed that from the back of her panties let the bottom of her bottom exposed, and that wonderful tail kept the top of them pushed down. When she turned to start to yank on her jeans he also noted just how form fitting the front of those panties were too.

You didn’t need to be psychic to know she wasn’t wearing a bra, the two little bumps poking out of her shirt, as well as the jiggling, made that clearly evident. Not to mention he had felt her poking him in the chest when she hugged him. But anyway, enough ogling his candidate’s wares, no matter how much they were on display.

“Take your time,” he said, laughing at her just a little, “I have to go shower and change first. Meet me at the shuttle port in an hour.” He turned to go, deciding to give her a little hint at his thoughts before he did. The female body is designed to react in certain ways to the crying of a child, especially new mothers. One such reaction to hearing their babies cry is an odd tingling sensation in their chest. With an invisible tendril of thought, Marshal located the exact part of Satori’s brain that controlled this feeling and with a tiny impulse made her breasts tingle as he left the room.

Chuckling as he walked, Marshal made his way back to the citadel, hopping onto a travel car along the way to speed up the journey. When he got to his room he showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt with ‘I’m a Pilot, (you’re so screwed)’ printed in big red letters on the front. He liked wearing that shirt outside of the citadel and the ATC, where people might see it and laugh, then notice the little temple port that clearly marked him as a pilot. With a quick, mandatory scowl at the mirror and his ever greying hair Marshal strode out the door again and headed for the ATC’s shuttle port.

The shuttle port was small, by no means the main one used by pilots, but the only one Satori could get to without needing him accompanying her. Of course, she’d need him to actually get on one of the many shuttles.

Being slightly early, Marshal leant up against a wall and looked up at the sky, and the dome that stood between him and that sky. It was sad really, the state of things. Sad too that Edanith was so unwilling to share its terraforming secrets.

He idly wondered what Satori would choose to wear, since he rarely saw her on her free days he had some trouble picturing her in anything but her candidate uniform. Well, her candidate uniform of a pair of blue panties and a red shirt.

[Anonymous]

She felt a blush come over her face again as Marshal said they weren't leaving right away. Couldn't he have just called her? Though she did enjoy seeing him, and out of his Pilot uniform, he looked so different, not as official maybe, still attractive though.  She relaxed and stopped rushing to get ready.

"Sounds good to me." she smiled at him. "Thanks Marshal." She still wasn't sure how to really thank her mentor, she'd come up with something. "In an hour!" She said happy and waved goodbye as he started to walk out. Then...

Whoa...

Her arms went to her chest quickly covering it as he left the room. What...? Weird! Her crush must have been getting the better of her. She walked over to the door and watched him walk down the hallway tilting her head at him. She shook her head clear and sighed pressing the button to close the door. Was it wrong to have a crush on her mentor? It was alright....right? With all the passing on of knowledge it had to happen once in awhile.

She walked over to her dresser and pulled the jeans off again and her other clothes. She set out the jeans and put her dirty clothes in the hamper. She set out a shirt and underwear. She picked up her towel and headed to the bathroom. She took a shower still trying not to think about rolling over and seeing Marshal in her room in the morning, that was a strange but pleasant way to wake up.

She got out the shower and dried her hair. She looked at it down and pondered leaving it that way then shook her head. She was so use to it being in a pony tail anything else felt weird. She hardly ever wore it down except when she was sleeping.  She started to put on her make up. She really only wore eyeliner and some lip gloss. A very low maintenance kind of girl. She pondered putting more on but decided not to. It was better to be sure of your face then over-do it she thought. She felt like she was getting ready for a date the way she was questioning her normal style.

She wrapped the towel around herself and went out to her bed and pulled her dark green bra and underwear on. Then she slid the jeans on hopping as she pulled them up her legs. She grabbed the light green tank top she had laying out and pulled it on over her head. Then snagged her organizer off the dresser and walked into the bathroom to check her face and hair again. She snapped her organizer onto her wrist and looked at the time on it. Her eyes went wide she had to leave now!

She rushed through the hallway after leaving her room, trying not to think about the candidates who might not have passed. Their faces haunted her as she walked through the halls. She pushed them away though as soon as she got out of the building, she didn't want her happy buzz to go away. Plus, she had the idea of coffee and Marshal to sustain her.

She got to the shuttle port and looked around a weird look on her face, what if it had been a dream somehow? then she spotted him and her confusion turned into a wide grin.

[Anonymous]

He spotted Satori as soon as she made it to the shuttle port, choosing to watch as she panicked slightly. The girl needed to learn to use her mind to look for him, not just her eyes. Then again, she’d only been there for six months, and he did tend to expect too much from his candidates. That cam from years sharing a room with Roman, watching him effortlessly master things that took Marshal months to be able to perform.

Returning her grin with a little smile of his own as she trotted towards him, Marshal took note of the little part of his brain that missed her jiggling. Once she reached him he casually lifted himself off the wall. “Hey, all ready?” She looked ready, all….dressed and such. This was probably better than panties and a shirt, but nipple pokies were ever so much fun.

“Come on,” he said, guiding her to walk beside him by pushing on her lower back. They walked over to one of the many docked shuttles and stepped inside. From the air the shuttle port looked like a quarter circle, with four person automated shuttlecraft constantly whirring to and from, collecting and unloading passengers. For a pilot, it was a free service. Taking one of the two front seats, he spoke clearly to the shuttle, “West Park Café.”

“Right away Pilot Richards, West Park Café,” came the seductive female voice from the single speaker set into the dash. If he were a woman, it would have been a male voice. No detail was ignored in the upper levels.

The doors closed and the little craft buzzed into life, pleasant music playing subtly in the background as they flew over the shimmering towers of Haviah. There wasn’t much time for small talk, as all too soon the little shuttle was letting them off on a stone pavement nestling between a sprawling green parkland and a row of café’s and restaurants.

In front of them, resting between two restaurants not open for the morning, was a crowded little café with waitresses bustling about bearing plates of steaming goodness. A flicker of psychic energy had a young couple suddenly feeling the overwhelming urge to pick up their food and drinks, leave their table sitting in the perfect spot looking out onto the park, and move inside. Once they had Marshal, quite happy with himself at this point, pulled a chair out for Satori and then took his own seat across from her.

Clicking his fingers in the air to summon a waitress, Marshal handed a menu to Satori and asked, “So, see anything you like? You can get whatever you want.” A waitress appeared after a moment and took Marshal’s order of a full cooked breakfast, hold the tomato, and a black coffee.

[Anonymous]

The little candidate was starting to get nervous as she found herself alone again with her mentor. She had been alone with him all sorts of times but never when there wasn't a lesson to teach. Never outside of the ATC. She was never with him alone as just another person. This felt really strange to her, like it made him more human or real. The weird glass wall felt like it was gone. IT was strange to see him as another person just outside of the ATC. She peeked at his shirt and grinned. He seemed so much like a normal person! She had never anticipated that he would take her on what seemed sort of...like a...

A Date?!

Her eyes went wide as she sat next to him. She recovered again quickly. She gave a sideways glance at him again and a small smile and blush crossed her face. That was an outrageous thing to think! That's not what this was at all! She wished there was a way to think quieter he had probably heard her as if she had confessed it aloud. She sighed in her mind and her shoulders rose and fell.

She walked a little behind him as they headed towards the cafe she continued to watch him. He walked proud and tall like there was nothing that could touch him. She wondered if she would ever feel like that. She felt an inkling of it as she had just passed the first grace period, but she was still terrified of what was ahead. That wasn't for today though. Right now it was time to relax at least this morning.

She followed Marshal to the table and sat across from him. She grabbed the menu right away and started to flip through it. Her stomach started to growl. She hadn't eaten much at the ATC very often, the food wasn't exactly what she was use to. It wasn't horrible but she knew this cafe food would be better. She also didn't eat a lot because of how stressed she was. She was humming as she looked through the menu. As he finished ordering she looked up at the waitress with a very excited look on her face.

"I'd like an order of pancakes...sausage and um...scrambled eggs! To drink....orange juice." She handed the menu to the waitress and smiled across the table at Marshal. He said she could have whatever she wanted and she had an appetite this morning. All that studying did that to you.

[Anonymous]

With a small grin at Satori’s order Marshal handed his menu back to the waitress, who glided off into the kitchen. His candidates mind wasn’t quite as open as the day she’d arrived, but thoughts still echoed out from her mind, giving him insight into her thoughts even though he wasn’t actively reading her mind. He’d been aware of her little crush for some time now, and in hindsight this was probably only feeding it, but it wasn’t all that uncommon. When two people spent as much time together, and were so completely open to each other as a candidate and mentor were a bond of some sort was likely to form. Sometimes it was a parental bond, sometimes a close friendship, and sometimes a crush, as it was with Satori.

Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. He wasn’t going to deny her this one day of freedom that he allowed all of his other candidates just because she had the hots for him. When the waitress appeared with his coffee and her juice, Marshal blinked, realising he’d been lost in his thoughts for several minutes. Lost in her thoughts too, as it were.

Thanking the waitress he cleared his throat and said, “So. Today we’re celebrating your first success, so whatever you want to do today, we’ll do it. Absolutely anything in Haviah, you name it and we’re there.” He took a small sip of bitter coffee. “Any thoughts?”

Marshal really had no idea what she’d decide to do. Some had chosen things like a trip to the artificial beach, or the fun park. Hell, one had once asked to be allowed to go back and study.

[Anonymous]

She sat in her chair staring across the table from him. She brushed some hair out of her face absently. It wasn't really an awkward silence, they had sat in silence many times over the last few months. Before this time it just had a weird different feeling to it for some reason.

Also, she could tell he was probably in her mind. It was more of just a feeling than any skill involved, she had just been around him enough to recognize that barely a feeling crawling up her neck, the slight tingle in her mind.  The feeling dissolved int onothing when the waitress sat the drinks down on the table. She picked up her orange juice. Even after six months that was still weird, she wasn't sure which was more though, her recognizing the feeling or it happening.

Her eyes stayed on her orange juice, she was a little embarrassed now that she remembered what she had been thinking about. She had this eerie idea that more than anything Pilot training was about learning not to be afraid of loosing all of your privacy. That wouldn't be too much of a surprise though, psychics and all, it's just not something that enters your mind a lot, you forget every little thing you think could be exposed.

Then he dropped the bomb. Anywhere she wanted? Her eyes went huge as she looked at him. All day with him?! That was a fun reward, or more accurately, all day with him NOT studying. No one had asked her what she wanted in six months. This was a sort of daunting task. A day of freedom? She just sort of looked at him.

"Seriously? Like really? Anything?" She wondered if she could pick something new, or something that she missed doing since she joined the program.

"I'm going to have to think about this one."

[Anonymous]

He nodded once. “Anything at all, money is no object. Well… money for entry and such is no object. A candidate once chose to go shopping and I did have to set a budget, but you get the idea.”

It was an interesting conundrum really, for a candidate who, for all intents and purposes, has lacked any real freedom for six months. Marshal was interested in what she’d choose. That choice would give away a lot, not that he needed to know any more about her. Every thought was open to him, every flutter or emotion.

Not feeling much like small talk, Marshal was glad when the food arrived quickly. It looked nice too, the bacon perfectly crisp, the sausages plump, hash brown nicely golden and toast brown but not burnt. Yes, this place was getting a nice tip.

As he started cutting into a sausage Marshal waited while Satori pondered her choice.

[Anonymous]

Satori sat and though for awhile eating and thinking. The food was amazing. Not that ATC food was bad, it was pretty good in fact. It just wasn't the same as this was. Plus this food tasted of freedom. It tasted like she was going to have some fun today. Which tasted better than anything she had put in her mouth in six whole months.

She tried to go through the different things in her mind that she was missing out on locked up her in tower. Things normal kids had and enjoyed. She never considered herself normal really. Everything she went over in her mind that she assumed htey did seemed bland. She didn't ever need to shop again considering how many things her Step mother had piled her with before she left. Plus that sounded damn boring.

The fork pushed around on her plate and it went back to things she missed. The first thing that came to mind after the normal, parents and everything else was movies. One thing she liked about her Step Mother was that she always came home with boxes of movies, sometimes they hadn't even hit the street yet.

Satori hadn't even really seen a movie in six months. A grin broke out on her face. She loved movies because for awhile everything was about the movie and not your own problems. You didn't even think about yourself, you could just get lost and be entertained for awhile.

"I'm sure as a big important Pilot you can get a hold of movies way before they're out. Maybe even get me one of those hand-held movie watcher thingies." She made a square with her fingers in front of her then lifted them up to frame his face. Then she held up one finger as if to say 'however'

"I do want to go to a movie too!" Her face was filled with expectations.