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Author Topic: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]  (Read 2808 times)

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Marakai2.0

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Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« on: October 06, 2017, 10:44:07 am »
The night before, Razican had been surprised to receive an official message from the Advanced Training Complex, stating that he of all people was going to be a mentor to a Stage 4 Candidate.

And interestingly enough, she was a sonokinetic, like him. He'd gotten the message while he was at the bar, half drunk out of his mind, and had needed to re-read it several times just to make sure he wasn't imagining things.

Heather Bannister, Stage 4 Pilot Candidate, Sonokinetic. Seeing that while sober was exciting.

So, the following morning, after the days exercises and drills were finished, he'd hopped on the rail.

Now he found himself at the ATC, staring at his com and the message he'd sent her a few hours before.

"Pilot Candidate Bannister. Your mentor is eager to meet you- please meet me at Rec Room 3b at 1530. Please don't be late.

-Pilot Echo Eleria.
"

Naturally, he was early, as he was to most things; it was 1515, at that point, as he looked up from his com at the folder in front of him, with all of his Candidate's relevant information.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2017, 10:44:32 am by Marakai2.0 »

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2017, 11:34:57 am »
The day had started like every other for Heather Bannister, loud and exhausting. The only difference was she now had yellow stripes on her collar and if she was being perfectly honest, they clashed violently with her electric hair. Her morning though took a quick turn into unexplored territory as her ATC assigned com flashed and notified her of a new important message. Boredom bled into nervousness as she drank in the message.

Pilot Echo Eleria. Heather had just been assigned her mentor and not only that but he wanted to meet her in person today. And with just one message her world was thrown off-kilter. Socially awkward as ever, her attempts to chat with her fellow Candidates resulted in utter disaster. She had no way to communicate her anxiety and they had no way to see past her irritable facade, placing all parties a an impasse.

The minutes were unkind to her, going slower than a bugged out com during testing season. When neither socializing nor working out did anything to burn time and steam, Heather resorted to curling up in her room with her trusty trigonometry textbook and her big pair of headphones. At least they had never failed her.

Time rolled by much faster as morning became afternoon. A distracted glance at the time though revealed a painful sight: 15:27. Heather was about to be late on making a good first impression. The best she could hope for now is a wheezy one. Headphones dangling around her neck and her book discard on the bed, the Candidate bolted out the door and tore down the hall.

She just had to pass the time reading that stupid book. Her mentor was going to kill her and they had not even had a formal introduction yet. Heather came sliding into the designated rec room to find a very pale man already waiting for her.

'15:34. Shit!' she swore mentally as she straightened to full attention and approached at a more respectable pace. "Pilot Echo Eleria," Heather saluted while all but holding her breath. "Candidate Bannister. You requested to meet with me?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2017, 01:12:32 pm »
Razican Eleria whiled the time away, idly tapping his fingers on the tabletop in front of him. A glance at his com showed him the time - 1529. He sighed, as his gaze rose to the door, at the other side of the room across from him.

He'd been "listening" intently for the past several minutes, sensing the sort of sound waves created by leisurely paced feet as the candidates outside would pass by, but not once did he hear anything with purpose - she was obviously running late, or possibly forgot.

And heaven forbid if she ignored his message - he'd report that to whomever was responsible for her if that were the case.

After 1530 passed, he began ticking off the seconds with a snapping of his fingers, the sound amplified further under his own power. In front of him, both the file folder as well of his com would vibrate from the thrumming bass he was producing. He'd give her until either the folder or his com made it to the edge of the table, before he left.

She ended up being extremely lucky that the table he was sitting at was especially broad - his com was only a few inches away from taking a tumble when the door slid open at last.

He glanced at her, his face impassive. He could hear her breaths, loud and heavy, before she spoke and then apparently refused respiration. Even her heartbeat, a fast and heavy thrumming, was sensed - she was clearly stressed, at least a little. He decided right then and there he was going to have at least a little fun with this.

He waited until the door slid shut before he stood up, his sapphire eyes narrowing, his face wearing a mask of feigned fury. As he stood, he took note of her height - naturally, she was taller than him. Everyone was taller than him.

"You're late," he hissed. "You're a Pilot Candidate. This isn't you being tardy at school." As he spoke, he allowed his voice to amplify just slightly, each word punctuated by a small wave of bass - behind him, his chair rattled on the floor with every syllable.

"Your com has an alarm. Use it." He huffed, and began to walk toward her, stopping only a couple armlengths away, staring up at her.

"I expect punctuality for our meetings. Is that understood?" His voice still carried that thrum of bass, his eyes still hard as he regarded her.

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2017, 02:42:52 pm »
'What you think this is the first time I've ever been yelled at?' Heather mused to herself without allowing a hint of her thoughts show on her face. 'Why I'm quaking in my little Gracie boots!'

She felt the bass of his power vibrating right into her very core. It set her teeth on edge. Without thinking her own power reached out to try and dampen the sound that was so irritating to her. For two and a half blessed seconds Heather felt a slight relief from his frequency. Then, like a rubber band snapping back at her she felt it return and stronger to catch up to the level it was before her attempt at lessening and slowing it.

"Yes, sir!" she replied through gritted, grinding teeth, while awaiting further instruction.

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2017, 04:14:16 pm »
Very, very plainly, he felt her influence over his amplified power, the sound waves diminishing and suppressed for even that short amount of time. Upon noticing this, he sharply arched a brow.

Razican Eleria was...impressed.

When he felt her influence wane, he let his own efforts drop. For a moment, he continued to simply look at her, the mask of anger still fairly well in place.

And then he dropped it, seeing the tension in her face and the clenching of her jaw. He grinned widly, and crossed his arms.

"No dice, huh? I won't lie - I'm impressed. Most candidates, I would think, wouldn't take being reprimanded so well. Buuuuut..."

He winked at her, and turned away to walk back around to his seat, talking as he moved. "In the future, please try to be on time. Not just for me, but for everything. Gotta be professional and all, right?"

He took his seat, and looked at the file folder, and then her. "This folder has everything I need to know about you, and whatever problems your instructors say you may have."

He grabbed the aforementioned folder, slid his arm over, and casually dropped it, uncaring, onto the floor.

"I haven't read it, and I don't care to read it. What I want you to do, is sit down, tell me about yourself, and tell me what your concerns are, and what problems you believe you have. Because I know exactly what you're going through. Sonokinetics do have a rather...common trend of being TRIM'd. I'm here to prevent that."

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2017, 05:08:11 pm »
"But, it's hardly my first reprimanding, sir," she replied with a quirk of her pierced brow. She licked her upper lip as she unglued her jaw from itself but otherwise remained put. He had not invited her to join him and despite his smiles, Heather knew better than to push her luck all the way to the bank. "But, I understand."

The second brow raised to meet the first though at the sight of her file splattering onto the floor so nonchalantly. She stood there evaluating him for a few heartbeats before crossing over to sit across from him and even going so far as to slouch back into her chair some.

"Heather Bannister, 17 years old, and Sonokinetic. Excelled in Stage Two despite a lower caste upbringing. Scraped by in Stage Three. Does well in group-settings but her lip gets her in trouble and so has faced several cases of disciplinary action but nothing serious enough to get kicked out. That's what it says.

"But, you know what I'm going through? No," Heather shook her head sneering slightly. "They compare me to you. But, I'm not you. They want me to be a weapon able to blow shit up like you and I'll I've got in me is a useless firecracker!"

She paused, sucking her teeth and squaring her jaw in frustration. "I'm not you, sir. I...It's hard to explain what I can do. I create pockets that instead of shredding an area to pieces, protect it, usually only where I'm standing though." Heather's sails deflated as she shared a part of herself with him. "I silence things. I don't have the strength to maintain things long enough. Outbursts of rage can force it but not at command. I'm a loose cannon. But, I've got this far and I'm not quittin' now. So if you're not going to help me then just don't get in my way. Deal?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2017, 05:31:31 pm »
Razican listened to her intently while she spoke, trying to keep his face completely impassive despite her tone with him. She said that she wasn't like him, but the truth of the matter was that their only differences, thus far, were the directions their individual powers seemed to point in.

Arms crossed over his chest, he tilted his chair back on two legs, continuing to listen to her for the entire duration. The way she spoke unsettled him - despite saying she wasn't going to give up, she voiced all of the obstacles before her.

And they were all familiar to him.

When she finished, he leaned forward in his seat once again, and reached out to pick up his com. He unlocked the screen, and navigated to his own personal public file from his time in the ATC.

He turned the device around, slid it toward her, and began to recite everything on that screen word for word.

"Razican Eleria, Stage 4 Pilot Candidate. Candidate continues to display an aggressive lack of control. As of this day,  he has been relocated to his seventh room within the ATC, due to extreme damage within all previous dorms.

"Candidate displays powerful sonic bursts, tied primarily to accidental outbursts of anger, though occasionally also displayed for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

"I will make note, however, on his progress throughout his career here at the Advanced Training Process. Despite heavy hospitalization just prior to his candidacy, he has advanced through all stages with almost no issues. Candidate claims - and this has been confirmed - that he has had no former education since he was five years of age, yet with very little help displayed a stubborn willingness to learn.

"All other instructors claim that he needs to be TRIM'd posthaste. This instructor disagrees."

He sat back in his chair, and closed his eyes for several seconds, taking a deep breath before opening them again to look at her.

"I know what you're going through. I've been through it. I have nightmares about it. I won't stand in your way. I want you to learn. And I want to teach you."

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2017, 05:56:06 pm »
She listened and for the first time in all her life, Heather felt like she was heard. She was wrong about him. He did seem to understand her. He had been her. Well at least she had not blown up any dorm rooms recently. None of this she could admit to him of course but, in so quick a time Razican Eleria had just gained her complete respect. He saw past her sharp tongue and heard the heart within that raged in fear of the unknown future.

Heather crossed her arms over her chest and met her new mentor's gaze head on. "I hate loud noises," she blurted out before shaking her head, wide-eyed at her own random declaration. "So with all the cards on the table now, when do we begin?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2017, 06:32:52 pm »
Loud noises, huh...? Hmm...

He sat and thought for a moment, hand brought up to his chin. He'd noticed the headphones hanging around her neck when she'd entered, though only now did he really take a good look at them. Noise cancelling, and they seemed name brand. His gaze lowered to the audio cable, dangling from the bottom, and...

Nothing. There was nothing on the end of the cable.

Suddenly, he was struck with an idea.

"Well. We start right now, naturally!" He grinned, and reached into his hoodie pocket for his mp3 player - he never left without it, obviously - and the audio cable for his com.

These he plugged in, and scrolled through his colossal playlist, and selected a song at random. Through his com, the mp3 player began playing at maximum volume.

It was one of his favorites, he noticed, smiling when his girlfriend's singing voice issued from the speaker.

"I know it isn't particularly loud...but this is what we're going to start with. You don't like loud noises, so....do something about it. Ditch the 'phones, and silence the music. The entire song. If it gets to easy, I'll turn up the volume. My way."

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2017, 07:13:50 pm »
Heather growled softly and rolled her eyes as that person's voice began to cycle through her mentor's com. Of course it was going to be Jexica. Every teenage Candidate's sweetheart they loved to croon to and how Heather hated her music. Her headphones were ripped off her neck and placed on the table beside her though her hand never let go of them.

Instead she focused her attention on the blasted player in front of her. Heather inhaled deeply before letting it all out slowly. The seconds ticked by and yet the music kept on playing. It grated on her like metal against asphalt, building up a ringing pressure in her head that threatened to explode until suddenly, blessed silence soothed her.

Her head fell forward as she sighed and smirked softly. "Does it count if I can't hear it anymore?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2017, 06:35:37 am »
Razican's gaze remained fixed at a point in the table in front of him, his vision blurring as he tuned out the sense of sight. He himself could not hear the music, as his senses of hearing, touch, taste, and scent were also tuned out and put on the back burner.

Instead, he used that sixth sense of his, feeling the pulsing and vibrations of sound, the frantic shaking and scattering of molecules in the air. He was analyzing their paths, their echoes, and her influence over them, watching without interfering.

He could tell, plainly, that she wasn't successful in doing what he had asked. He was 'watching' the individual soundwaves that moved toward her, watching them, either in part or in whole, draw around her and cease to move, as if frozen in place.

They didn't simply dissipate, as kinetic energy generally would. They simply...stopped.

After a moment, he glanced up at her, his face incredulous. She had already progressed in a way that suggested the path of a Combat Operative, like him.

She would just need to learn how to control it.

"Well....no. But what you're doing is fascinating, nonetheless. You're holding several decibels of sound in a 'charge.' You're going to want to release it, if you can. I'll be ready for it."

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2017, 08:30:40 am »
Lifting her head revealed that he was speaking to her, not that she could hear of course. She was mediocre at reading lips, granted most of what she had tried to read in the past was people screaming her name, not exactly a hard thing to decipher. But, she had a good guess as to what he wanted her to do, stop.

Heather bit her lip in concentration as she tried to firmly grasp the sound barrier she had created while also sending him a telepathic message. He would not be able to hear her as her barrier went both ways but it did vibrate, threatening to give way as her attention wavered.

"You're going to want to cover your ears and move the player. I can't promise its safety," she warned.

Heather was able to wait long enough for him to follow through before dropping her control all at once. She clapped her hands over her ears as a loud, high-pitched, and sharp whine pierced the air like a cross between an electric guitar and a cat screeching upon having its tail trod on. The sound rattled the windows and door sharply while setting a lower hum through the floor and furniture that caused them to vibrate though nowhere near as strongly as Razican had upon her late entrance to the room. Blessedly it ended quickly yet Heather hated it as much now as she did the first time it had ever happened. It always shook her down to her very core being and made her teeth ache like they were being yanked from her head one by one with a jackhammer.

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2017, 09:33:10 am »
Sending the looming threat to his mp3 player, he quickly unplugged it from his com and shoved both in his pockets. Only a moment later, felt her collected charge of sound waves begin to unravel.

The resulting cacophonous sound, that ear-piercing wail, was blocked from his hearing as reactively he pushed the sound waves to either side, the area directly around him a bubble of relative calm. He smirked, seeing her face as she covered her own ears to block out the sound.

He responded to her in mind, that smirk still firmly upon his lips. "Next time, try and pace it out slowly. Each wave of sound is like its own band of energy, and letting out only a small amount at a time would be much...quieter."

When he spoke again, it was with his own voice. "Now, I want you to try and do that again, but see if you can't create, say, a longer, quieter sound rather than a loud burst."
« Last Edit: October 07, 2017, 09:34:34 am by Marakai2.0 »

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #13 on: October 07, 2017, 10:41:39 am »
"The other things I'm still holding onto are worse than that," she commented quietly with lowered eyes. Heather was ashamed to admit she still had not managed to find the time to let go of her buildup from her last group training exercise a few days earlier. "The longer it sits, the worse it gets. I can't peel off the layers and separate the waves. It's impossible!"

Her knee bounced with agitation at his request. Heather felt the silence starting to press down on the whole room as she fought to calm herself. "Perhaps," she began more quietly, " this isn't the best place to be playing with what I can do. Unless of course you're prepared and capable of grounding the whole room."

It was a barb not one intended to hold venom. The Candidate had never had to ask before in her life and she still did not know how to ask for it now. Razican had her respect but Heather was still learning to trust. As he had previously pointed out, Sonokinetics rarely if ever made it as Pilots. They were volatile and dangerous if unable to control themselves. She did not look forward to the opportunity to be handed over to TRIM any time soon.

"I usually sneak out to the training fields after dark every couple of weeks and 'take a swim' in the dive pool. You're not going to report me are you?"

Marakai2.0

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Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #14 on: October 07, 2017, 10:56:12 am »
When she said that controlling the release of her stored energy was impossible, he snorted softly. Nothing was impossible - it only took practice. Lots and lots of practice, but still a possibility.

His gaze flicked downward, noting her knee as it began to bounce - simultaneously, he began to feel an odd sort of pressure throughout the room. When she spoke, to him her words seemed even softer than intended, as if the air itself was proving an unfit medium to carry her voice.

"Before you think anything is impossible..." he began, his eyes glancing up to her face again, "...aways remember that the only thing stopping you, is you. You're a psychic, a sonokinetic, and you've got the potential to be a powerful one. Don't sell yourself short - if you give up on yourself, the ATC will give up on you, too."

"And I can and will ground the entire room, if I have to. I can deflect, or even silence, about four-hundred decibels of sound across most frequencies. That's the sound equivalent of two jet engines less than five feet away, plus a crowded stadium full of cheering people. All you've got right now is noise - and that's fine. We'll work on force later."

At her next statement, he arched a snow-white brow, and chuckled. "Report you? No. What you do on your off time is no concern to me, unless you get caught. I would advise against such a thing, because being stuck in a Sense Dep tank really fucking sucks, and you're bound to get caught. No....you need to work on grasping large amounts of sonic energy, and releasing it slowly. Like...the difference between dumping a cup of water, or slowly pouring it out."

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #15 on: October 07, 2017, 12:55:36 pm »
"Whatever you say, sir." Heather sighed and turned her head first to one shoulder then the other, enjoying the satisfying pop as her neck realigned. "Here goes nothing," she murmured. Her eyelids drooped to half-mast as her eyes slightly crossed and she drew within her personal shields to access the knotted ball of layers upon layers of mixed energies.

Heather latched onto one of the thicker strands and gave it a mighty yank, sheering it forcefully from the rest. She could feel the vibration literally pulsing within her left hand, a deep, low bass that fought to escape her grasp. She did her best to try to and let it go gently as he had requested but it was as gentle as dropping a grand piano off a cliff. If anything it was more akin to a sledgehammer to the head. The sound was much like a band of tubas blaring their displeasure. However, while loud and bone-throbbing, the vibration was all the same wavelength.

Marakai2.0

  • Guest
Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #16 on: October 07, 2017, 01:37:57 pm »
Man, I really wish she would quit calling me sir...

Going off of what she said, he was only a few years older than her. Maybe the white hair threw her off. Besides, even if that wasn't the case, he didn't hold very hard to formalities.

When she released that bundle of soundwaves, he cringed - throwing a hand forward, he quickly willed the kinetic energy to coalesce into a single point, a tiny vibrating blur hovering before his palm.

"Okay, okay. Maybe there's some things we need to work on before we try that. All right...question for you. Can you sense soundwaves? In a way other than hearing them?"

Perhaps starting at the beginning would be the best bet, learning to walk before learning to run, so to speak.

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #17 on: October 07, 2017, 02:47:50 pm »
Heather smirked knowingly. If she could have gotten away with an 'I told you so,' she would have. Instead she crossed her arms and mused on his question. "You mean the ripples?" She motioned her hand in a spiral that got larger as it moved away from her. "Like throwing a stone in the pond, yeah I see them. But, I feel them more than anything. Is that what you're talking about?"

Marakai2.0

  • Guest
Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #18 on: October 07, 2017, 03:20:28 pm »
Raz nodded, smiling. "Yes, that's right. Good. Those ripples? The sound waves, they're yours to do with as you please. They can be a tool, they can be a weapon...hell, they can be a party trick, if that's what you want."

He turned his hand, his palm facing upward. The tiny spherical blur of sonic energy followed his direction, simply holding in place, hovering a few inches above his palm.

"Those ripples are yours to grab hold of, gather, twist, distort, release...."

He closed his palm, though kept his grip loose. "Now, concentrate on what I have in my hand. Listen to it, feel it. And pay close attention, okay?"

He concentrated on the bead of energy he held in his grasp, reaching with mental tendrils of influence. Gently, slowly, he coaxed the tangled sound waves apart, releasing them slowly.

The room filled with naught more than a long, drawn out low hum, the sound going on for perhaps half a minute. When it ended, he glanced back up at her with a small smile.

"You see?"

Offline GoblinFae

Re: Eat My Playlist [Goblin!]
« Reply #19 on: October 07, 2017, 04:23:33 pm »
She watched intently, her focus entirely on him and what he was doing. When he directed her to try again, Heather was quick and eager to obey. Once more she delved within herself and tugged at another chord, though this one was gathered with more care. It wrapped around and around her hand until she was able to loosely gather it all and hold it there.

Heather opened her eyes to look down and see the energy literally coiled about her hand. Both hands were then used to carefully manipulate it into a ball that was then curled between her palms. The vibrations threatened to escape and she could feel sweat gathered upon her brow as she gritted her teeth in concentration. One by one her fingers opened and the sound was released like sand down an hourglass, one grain at a time.

With the task completed, the Candidate slumped forward in her chair. Her heart was racing with the effort of mastering such control. It was no time for celebration though. Heather was exhausted. The layers of absorbed energy pulsed inside her demanding release now that they had more room to flex and warble about. If she did not tread very carefully from this point then Rec Room 3b was about to face some serious remodeling care of Candidate Heather Bannister.

 

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