It's a hard knock life [Nix]

[Tacocat86]

Dominique had arrived at the ATC a few days ago and had yet received a mentor. He had just been going to classes, after all, he was still just a kid. The past few days had been difficult, as at the facility they focused mostly on the pilots. There was advanved history, science, and physical training. Halfway through an advanved math class,he began to believe that the pilots were, for the most part a bit over the top. Yet he kept his mouth shut and payed attention, for the most part at least. During a class about controlling psionics, a class that was mostly filled with older people, the teacher went into a very deep explanation about the origins and benefits of psionics, and Dominique fell sound asleep, banging his head into the table and dozing off.

During his slumber he dreamt of his family, and the evnts that led him to become a candidate. He didn't choose to be one, rather he was pretty much forced to become one. It happened about a week ago when he accidentally made a car that was about to hit him  pass straight through him undisturbed. A pilot saw this and he was instantly inducted into the candidate program. After that incident he was given a day to pack and say his goodbyes to his family. He was then taken to the ATC facility and he hadn't seen his family since.

[Nix]

Castor really hated being down in the lower levels of the ATC now that he was stage 4. It reminded him both of how excited and sure of himself he once was and the vicious bullying he went through in the first two stages of training. The only reason he was down here was because he had somehow accidentally received a letter intended for Pilot Echo Ailill Sheehy Matthers. Honestly he was not sure how that mix up even occurred and could not help but feel it was some strange test but he would deliver it to its intended without complaint.

He walked to what should have been his older brother's classroom according to the schedule he had been given access to but as he was about to find out it had not been updated. He opened the door to find a Pilot he had never met teaching a class instead of his brother having open office hours. Castor quickly saluted the Pilot and apologized for the intrusion, he was just starting to explain himself when he felt it. A pang from one of the students, like a static shock.

No. More like two pulses forming a lightning bolt, only invisible. One of the candidates in the room was an electrokinetic too. Shit. Castor had bad experiences around other electokinetics. For some reason he acted like a lightning rod and often drew out electricity from others with electrokinetic abilities but fortunately it was rare enough that this was not a regular occurrence.

His train of thought had run away with him and he realized the Pilot had been waiting for him to fspeaking to him and he had just- zoned out! He had never done that before. "I apologize for interrupting, I was told that Pilot Echo Matthers was in this room. Please forgive my intrusion."

The Pilot sighed and briefly explained that the rooms had been switched and gave him the new, correct room number. Castor managed not to zone out this time but was also in a hurry to leave. Hopefully he would not run into this Gracie again. He thanked the Pilot and politely left.

[Tacocat86]

Upon the older candidate entering the room, Dominique slowly awakened and pretended that he hadn't been sleeping. He then felt a small electrical charge run down his spine, making his hair stand on end. He looked puzzlingly at the candidate and then watched as he spoke to the pilot and left. He then looked around and saw that nobody else had batted an eye. Dominique shrugged and assumed that it was just some weird thing that happened occasionally in the ATC. He wondered if it had anything to do with the other candidate who had now left.

Later in the day, he was wandering around the facility in his off time, enduring the unending harassment from simply being a gracie. It wasn't so bad, at least he could tune them out. His mind began to wander and he thought about how many different abilities there were in this place. Sure there were the ones that were seen a lot amongst pilots, like cryokinesis, or pyrokinesis. But what about the less seen ones. There were surely people here with abilities beyond his wildest imagination. While lost in his thoughts, an older candidate stuck out a leg and tripped him. Dominique stumbled for a bit and then slammed into the ground. He felt a jolt of energy go up his spine as the candidate who tripped him reacted similarly to someone being tased. Dominique realized what had happened and walked off quickly without another word, before the other candidate could react. While walking away, he looked back once, to see the older candidate with a confused look on his face. Dominique broke a half smile and continued walking, touring the entire lower level that was used for Gracies like him.

[Nix]

The jolt again.

Castor saw the younger candidate walking through the halls when he finally exited Ailill's actual classroom. He saw the kid practically taze that other candidate who tripped him. Today was turning out to be the worst day wasn't it? He should have just run the other way, he wanted to-

Another jolt.

Shit. Don't make eye contact.

[Tacocat86]

While walking down the hallway, Dominique felt the shock again. He looked around and saw the candidate from earlier. He started to wonder if this older candidate was teasing him by shocking him, so he started to walk away.

Then he felt another jolt, it was as if this guy was trying to get a rise out of him. He then turned around and saw the candidate looking away and wondered if he was trying to get a rise out of him, if so, it was starting to work. He breathed deeply to calm down and walked past the candidate and felt yet another shock, stronger than before. Stopping a bit away from the candidate he looked at his face and frowned.

[Nix]

He could read the surface thoughts of this kid, it wasn't hard- he wasn't even trying to."It's not on purpose, and I feel the shocks too... My electrokinesis doesn't exactly react well to others with the ability... Its hard to explain my theories on the phenomenon since I do not have concrete data but, I'm not doing it on purpose." Castor explained as he backed up slightly, hoping some distance would help the situation some.

"Do you know how lightning strikes?"

[Tacocat86]

Dominique sighed, it was always this way, his thoughts were wide open for most to see and it bothered him greatly. He assumed that the person in front of him would not lie, he had no reason to. So he sighed and began to spout the commonly taught explanation.

"Lightning strikes when the negatively charged electrons in the cloud are attracted by the positively charged protons in the ground. This causes a bolt of plasma to arc down from the sky, thus creating a cloud to ground strike." He smiled, "Unless you're not referring to that kind of lightning."

[Nix]

Wow. It wasn't that often that Gracies were so... Smart. "Yes but technically the visible strike is actually going from ground to cloud. The initial cloud to ground is not visible to the eye- like these shocks. My electrokinesis is negatively charged, most electrokinetics are positively charged, it causes these jolts since I am unable to control my powers..." He muttered that last part and looked down again, ashamed.

"We should probably avoid each other from now on so this does not continue to be an issue. It should not be difficult. I'm not usually down here."

[Tacocat86]

Dominique listened attentively and thought for a bit, then smiled and said, "I'm sure you'll learn control, you just need a good teacher. Heck, I don't have the best grasp on my psionics either. I don't even know what one of them is, it happened once and I haven't seen it seen it since." He scratched his head in thought, "Avoidance might be a good solution, but only as a back up, the real effort should be concentrated on control. Right now I don't even have a mentor. You have a full blown pilot, teaching you the ways of an ancient technique used to protect a nation. Kinda puts little static shocks into perspective doesn't it?" He looked around a bit, "Say... you wouldn't happen to know the procedure for gaining a mentor would you?" He raised an eyebrow.

[Nix]

Castor frowned. He didn't need some kid reminding him he was a failure. He had half a mind to- no. He wasn't a bully. After the things he had been put through in the early stages of his training, he couldn't do that to someone else.

"...you mean Pilot Echo Matthers? He is not my mentor... And yeah I'm stage 4, all my training is basically just- is that why they put you in classes? Because you have a strange ability? I mean... I'm just a bit surprised because usually gracies just do basic boot camp and start taking classes as well at stage 2."

[Tacocat86]

Dominique could see that he had struck a nerve. Mentally reminding himself to tread carefully in this conversation he slowly said, "When I arrived at the facility, the man telling the newcomers were to go pulled me aside and told me to start off with classes, I thought this was just an advanced learning course. I guess there weren't any other gracies there, but I just thought it was just a really hard to get into course."

"Now that you mention it though, I guess I do kinda have a strange ability. Without it, I would not be standing here right now, I would be dead. Smashed flat, not a pretty corpse." He shuddered. "The name is Dominique by the way. Call me Dom."

[Nix]

Well this kid certainly had a story. Most candidates did though he supposed. "Castor Mat- you can call me Cas." It was probably the first time he didn't give someone his last name. He didn't need to shame the Matthers name though.

"So what happened?" Another shock. Shit.

[Tacocat86]

Dominique's eye twitched when the shock hit, he then smiled sheepishly, "I uh, kinda, walked through a bus. Yeah, a bus. Nearly hit me, I just put my hand on the front and it passed straight through me like it wasn't even there. Can't find out how I did it, haven't done it yet.

[Nix]

Castor's mind quickly started forming hypotheses and calculations concerning how that might even be possible. A stronger jolt. He backed up further. He wondered if there was a place they could discuss this without this happening.

It was not something he normally worried about, he just avoided others when this sort of issue cropped up. "Do you have free time right now? Maybe we can find a more suitable place to talk. I have some questions if you don't mind."

[Tacocat86]

Dominique thought for a bit. He then pulled out a sheet of paper, he was rather fond of using paper rather than tech, he glanced over the paper then folded it and tucked it away neatly into his pocket, ignoring the shock.

"I'm free for the rest of the day Cas." The gears in his head begam to turn and he quickly said, "What if we find a place with a stronger positive charge than me, that way your electricity can be attracted to that instead. Do you know any places like that?"

[Nix]

That might work... But anything with a stronger charge was bound to be tech and he didn't want to short out or break anything. It would be easier if Pollux were around- no. Pollux was better off without him dragging him down.

There was another option. They were in the lower levels after all...

"I have an idea. Follow me." Castor said as he walked through the halls with easy, remembering where things were with ease. It didn't take long for them to reach an old gymnasium store room. He opened the door, feeling his electricity conduct through the metal handle he held the door open for Dom. "Don't touch the door you will get a big shock."

He could already see that the store room did in fact have what he had hoped. Large rubber tires used in drills. These ones were old and in bad shape but it should work. Once Dom was inside he headed to the stack of tires and pulled two of the heavy things off the stack, setting then down flat. He also found a rubber medicine ball and sat down in his large tire will the ball on his lap. Much better. He could already feel his electricity calming down. "Sit. This should work well."

[Tacocat86]

Dominique grabbed sat down on a stack of tires like Cas suggested and put a medicine ball in his lap like Cas did. He could feel the static in the air calming down greatly, when he noticed that everything in the room was a bit old. He looked around and then his gaze fell on Castor. Dom remembered what they were here for and cleared his throat.

"So you wanted to ask some questions?" He asked hesitantly. This could mean anything from Castor being curious to him being suspicious. It could even mean that he was ready to report him to a higher up. He calmed his mind and relaxed. What happens, happens.

[Nix]

"Yes, what psionic abilities do you know you have?" It was a simply question, he needed all the basic information before he could really come up with a proper theory- ughh. He was starting to feel like Ailill. But worse maybe. Why did he want to know how this kid managed to survive bein struck by a vehicle anyway? Did it matter.

To all the firing neurons in his brain it did, and the rubber did nothing to quell those sparks within his mind and the ones traveling through his body.

[Tacocat86]

"Well, like all candidates, I have some telepathy, not very strong though." He thought about it a bit. "I have electrokinesis like you have already no doubt seen. I also have some uhhh, hydrokinesis, that's what is was. But the other one I used, it felt... different, I guess you would say. It felt more real. I felt it all the way through my being."

He leaned back and wondered if this was some kind of test, why would someone want to hear his story? Surely many people had far greater backstories, so why him? Did it have something to do with a weird psionic that Dom seemingly possessed? From the look on Dom's face it was clear that the mechanicians of his mind were spinning at an incredible rate.

[Nix]

"You are hydrokinetic too? Interesting." Castor was actively trying not to hear Dom's surface thoughts. He could guess what they were like but he was trying as hard as he could to block them out and not actually hear them.

His mind was processing possible scenarios over and over with the new variables but more information was needed. "Was this your first traumatic near death experience?"