Puppydog tails

[Draconian]

[Open by request!]

It had always been easy enough to just... Be.

Vaughan looked at the ball in his hand, trying to keep a train of thought while also practicing telekinesis. The ball never actually touched his fingers, occationally grazed his palm. Vaughan took a deep breath, staring at the ball before he moved to lay down on his back.

Up

Down

An easy enough excersize. Hard to annoy people because it was quiet. The sounds around him turned into the ocean and he started to hum while he practiced.

Sort of.

Except the ball zapped through the air and the dull thud let him know that his practice ball had hit someone. Shit. Maybe... pretend he was sleeping? Yeah. Foolproof.

Quitting his humming, he shimmied a bit to look comfortable and then, doing his very best... Pretended to be asleep. Because who knows what manner of beast the ball had hit.

[Bunbun]

Fifty percent.

Those words bounced around Vanessa's mind on an endless loop, causing her stomach to churn in turn. Only fifty percent of Candidates made it through Stage 2, or at least that's what she had heard. There were plenty of ways that Candidates could fail the program, but the one that concerned her the most was simply being too weak... physically or mentally. She wasn't exactly a hulking behemoth when it came to the physical side of things, and it was clear to her that her psychic abilities needed a lot of honing before she would be able to do anything useful with them.

Usually, she would attempt to keep these thoughts buried deep within the recesses of her mind- allowing them to dampen her spirits would only make completing the program more difficult, after all- but the occasional run-in with bullies always seemed to bring them front and centre. It wasn't entirely obvious what the bullies had done to her this time around, although the way her wings folded defensively against the rest of her body may have given some indication.

She knew that she would have to keep going, though. No matter how crappy the Pilot Candidate program could be sometimes, she doubted that the experience was even comparable to what people went through in TRIM. She couldn't just let herself sulk... well, maybe she would sulk a little.

At some point, however, her train of thought was suddenly interrupted as a practice ball came out of nowhere, colliding with her arm before plummeting to the ground. Fantastic. That was just what she needed right now, another random asshole who had decided that she needed to be picked on. She knew that it was probably in her best interest to just ignore them and keep walking, but...

...you know what? No. Not this time. She refused to keep getting pushed around all the time.

Snatching the ball from where it had landed, Vanessa began to storm over to the person who had hit her. It didn't take much for her to figure out who was responsible; even if he was pretending to be asleep, she knew which direction the projectile had come from and, well, she wasn't an idiot. She thrust the ball towards him accusingly, not particularly caring whether or not he chose to keep his eyes closed.

"Hey! You're the one who threw this. I know you did. What's the big idea, huh?"

[Draconian]

Vaughan kept his eyes closed for a few moments longer before he sighed and sat up, resting on his arm with his elbow on his knee. A weak smile and he took the ball from her before clearing his throat. Whoops!

"I... It slipped," He coughed, glancing away before he finally looked at.. "Vanessa!" He chirped, sitting up and holding the ball in his hand, scooting to the side and patting the bench he was on. Bench thing. "Hi!" he grinned, then paused, "Oh" then he paused and held out a hand. Unintentionally he was projecting the usual calm and 'good vibes' feeling - a side effect of his psionic abilities.

"Vaughan, Uh... Me. I'm Vaughan," He grinned at her. He was a handsome boy, his uniform was done up to his neck, the colours indicating he was in stage four. His hair had been recently cut, short and black. Golden eyes were bright and happy. "I really didn't throw it though, I'm sorry. I was practicing and it just... Kinda... Shot away."  He gave a chuckle and looked at her, "

[Bunbun]

Regardless of what Vaughan might have actually been feeling at that moment, Vanessa's empathy picked up on his projections, and as a result she began to relax involuntarily. Whatever anger she held quickly melted away as it was replaced by feelings of calmness. More importantly, though, she wasn't detecting any amount of spite from him... which meant that he wasn't trying to mess with her after all.

And also that she'd just made a complete ass of herself.

She only felt more idiotic when he introduced himself as Vaughan and offered his hand. She recognized him from the chat- something about "spicy toast" and "serenading" came to mind- and she reddened slightly as she gave his hand a hesitant shake.

"...Hey. Listen, I'm sorry that I kinda... freaked out for a moment there. I'm a bit of a wreck right now. Thought that you were another one of those dumb bullies."

Accepting his offer to take a seat next to him, she shuffled around a little to make herself more comfortable, but kept her wings close so that they wouldn't accidentally brush up against Vaughan. It was a huge contrast to the irritation she'd displayed only moments earlier.

"I guess we've never really met, have we? In real life, I mean. But you still recognized me... what, did the wings give it away?"

[Draconian]

Vaughan lifted his hands, palms out and just smiled at her.  A little shrug and he held the ball in his hands before passing it back and forth between them. His golden eyes watched her and shrugged again when she apologized. "Hey, no harm no foul," He shifted to the side to give her room for her butt and her wings and just listened for a moment.

"We have profiles," He grinned at her, "I'm pretty sure people bet on us on the outside," He teased lightly before giving her arm a nudge. Vaughan shifted to face her, one leg bent and the other still hanging off the bench. "What brings you in here? Besides me hitting you with things."

[Bunbun]

"...Oh. Right. Profiles. Duh. I guess I should be paying more attention to those kind of things." Her eyes darted to the side momentarily, indicating that she was... less than comfortable with the idea of having a bunch of people making bets on her success or failure. Of course they had profiles- they were training to be Pilots.

Vanessa frowned slightly as Vaughan went to nudge her- something about it felt a little off to her, for whatever reason- but she did allow her wings to unfold a bit as more space became available, eventually cloaking a good portion of the bench in a veil of crimson. It was, however, less of a conscious effort and more of a natural reaction as her empathy continued to react to the calming aura.

"Well, I was actually on my way to my room, but I guess got a little... preoccupied. Must have just ended up wandering over here at some point and, well, you know the rest. Point is, I don't really have anything that needs doing right now."

Her gaze shifted slightly towards the practice ball, then back up to meet his. "What about you, then? Planning on waiting for the next passerby to show up so you can continue your merciless rampage? Or were you just going to start aiming for me again?"

[Draconian]

Vaughan grinned again.

A curious look to her, he moved his fingers over the ball, feeling the uneven surface. Listening to Vanessa speak was lovely and he sighed and just soaked in it. "You have a lovely speaking voice," He quipped, head tilted to the side before he just smiled at her and put the ball in his lap to push his hair from his face. Then again, the ball was in his hands and he stared at it before it slowly lifted up.

"I need to practice my more... Mundane skills," He said softly, apologetically, "I can't really stop... Giving away whatever it is you're feeling, but if I'm going to be on any use, I need to learn the rest of my stuff." He moved his hands, the physical movement helping him keep track of the telekinetic one. "How's your stuff going?" He said pleasantly before he turned and moved the practice ball towards Vanessa, a silent invitation. "Good, I hope."

[Bunbun]

His comment about her voice came out of the blue, and at first, Vanessa wasn't quite sure that she'd heard him correctly. The guy who very well could have made a living as a singer, telling her that she sounded lovely? It was like something straight out of a dream, and for a few seconds she just stared at him like a deer in the headlights as she tried to formulate a response.

"...Oh! Um. Thank you? I mean... it can't be anywhere near as good as yours is. Because... you know. You're you."

She felt herself starting to blush again, and quickly turned to stare down at her hands. For now, she was entirely content with letting Vaughan's weird anti-empathy-thing do its thing; the last thing she wanted right now was to turn as red as her hair and start projecting like crazy.

"My training...? Well, my limbs are all attached and fully functional, so... I guess I can't say it's going too badly..." She looked back up before going on, taking note of the practice ball hovering next to her. Reaching out towards it and giving a simple flick of her wrist, she produced a gentle telekinetic force of her own- not quite enough to move it very far, but enough to cause the ball to start rotating.

"...I do kind of wish that I could control my abilities better by now, though. A lot of the time, they just feel like they're a lot more trouble than they're worth. At least yours actually do something useful."

[Draconian]

You're You.

Vaughan's eyebrow went up and he chewed on his lower lip before he turned his head and tried not to smile. A pleased warmth was in his chest and he cleared his throat before he rolled his shoulders and... Smiled anyway. "Aww, I was me. Now I'm just a candidate, same as you," He gave Vanessa a nudge  with his wrist before he watched her spin the ball he was 'holding'. A grin at her hand movement and a tilt of his head.

"Having all your limbs attached still is a good thing," He nodded before he continued to listen to her talk.  Vaughan let the ball spin before he finally called it down to his hand, holding it gently before he took it and tossed it up and down a few times with no telekinetic help. "Mine?" He chuckled, "Useful?" He paused for a moment and closed his eyes, having not even realized he was projecting that usual aura of calm and peace.

It was what he wanted to feel, was desperate for, so it had become a habit. Of course, his own abilities didn't work on himself. " What makes you think they're useful? It's just... What I do." Vaughan gave a shrug before he smiled at her, "It's what got me caught, you know. Playing it like a siren, had a Pilot at one of those cute little concerts and then the following day I was... Here." Vaughan looked disappointed before he smiled and shrugged and then nudged Vanessa again, "If you weren't useful you wouldn't be here. You'll be useful to a Dragon if you pass and that's what counts." He moved to stand up, ball in hand, "Want me to walk you to your floor?"

[Bunbun]

Vanessa stared dreamily at the floating practice ball as she listened to Vaughan's response. In a way, it was almost hypnotizing; between the constant calming aura and the seemingly endless spinning of the ball, she was happy to just watch and... listen. For a little while, at least. Even when it dropped out of the air and into Vaughan's hand, she found herself tracking it as it went up and down until it suddenly came to a halt.

She looked up just in time to notice Vaughan's subtle mood shift before returning to his usual smiley self. It was clear to her that she'd stumbled across a sensitive subject- she didn't have to make use of her empathy in order to figure out that something was wrong... not that her psionics could really be used in this case. But she had to at least try to make him feel better, right?

"...Vaughan. I... thanks. I'm going to try my hardest to pass. And if someone like me can graduate, then someone with abilities like yours should have no problem." She paused for a moment, shifting slightly in order to face him more directly. "You could go into PR, you know. Or Ministry. Or something. Then you would probably still be able to sing! And you can sing. Besides... you did say you were gonna serenade me a little while back, didn't you? I'm holding you to that."

She gave him a gentle smile and stood up, allowing her wings to stretch to their full span before dropping back to their default position. While there wasn't too much that could happen on her way back to her floor, Vanessa was grateful for Vaughan's offer. Mostly because it would give them a reason to spend a few more minutes together, which was a little selfish of her in hindsight, but at the moment she didn't particularly care.

"Well, it's actually not too far from here, but... yeah, I'd like that."

She nodded and started to take a few steps, checking over her shoulder to make sure Vaughan was with her.