What you're made of [DragonSong]

[Marjorie]

"Well," he said, "you're not wrong... but I'm guessing by now you've noticed you're starting to run out of time. You don't really want to find out what they do to the candidates that get trimmed do you?" He shrugged.

She would be able to feel his amusement across their mental link which he still hadn't bothered to shut down, though he had shored up the walls around it so she wouldn't be able to access anything he didn't want to share with her. Emrys chuckled. "You don't really think that they just let Candidates out of the ATC without knowing where and with whom they are going, do you?" The place was more secure than a prison.

Emrys had had to get permission to take her out of the complex and though he hadn't had to explain his exact plans, he'd had to give a reason, which in this case, was testing her out to see if he wanted to mentor her.

"If I do decide to mentor you, I'm going to expect you to do a lot of things that stretch your comfort zones. So get in or go back. Either way, I'm leaving in the next thirty seconds."

[DragonSong]

Nova gritted her teeth. He was right.

The most annoying part was that he knew it, and she figured he knew what her response would be.

Biting back a soft growl, she slid into the car and slammed the door behind her, folding her arms over her chest as she settled into the seat across from this stranger. “Fine. I’m in.”

She glanced at the window, then back to him. Gods she hoped she was making the right call.

“...Why do you want to mentor me?”

He had to know her record; it wasn’t like she was a stellar Candidate, she was just...average. A little on the better side of average, but still average. She’d been through three mentors already, and he was right—her time was slowly running out.

[Marjorie]

Oh, Emrys was right, and he damn well knew it. She could get in because he told her to, or she could go back and eat crow and get trimmed for all he cared.

"Because," he said, "you're not the best... but you're smart, and you know how survive on your own... and in case you haven't noticed, I don't like following the rules either."

He outstretched his hand to her then, for a proper, real greeting, and a firm handshake if she accepted his hand. "I'm Pilot Noble Emrys Broin. You can call me Sir or Pilot Broin.

"Not all Pilots carry guns and fight battles as boots on the ground. I have and I can, but I use words and subtle application of force to accomplish my mission. I work alone most of the time, and without a safety net.

"If you can get comfortable applying charm, wit, and smartly placed words, I might be able to find a place for you, if you're chosen." Chosen by a dragon, of course, he meant.

[DragonSong]

She continued to glare at him suspiciously, but took his hand and gave it a single, firm shake.

“...So you’re a spy.” Her tone was almost accusatory, but she was really more curious than anything else. She just didn’t want him to know it. “And you...want me to learn what you do.”

She glanced out the window of the car again, then back to him. “But—you said it. I’m not the best, isn't this a job for some fucking protege or something? Someone who’s been a Candidate since they were a kid?”

It wasn’t that she was trying to talk it out of him, the opposite in fact—though she was sure it didn’t sound like it. She was just wary: wary of him, of what he offered, why he offered it. But gods it also might be her best chance.

[Marjorie]

"Actually," Emrys smirked, I'm a Foreign Affairs Diplomat working out of the  Aerospace Exploration Diplomatic Agency... but yes, I am a spy."

He shook his head. "No. What I need is someone who can leave an impression on the people around them just as easily as they can fade into the background never having been noticed at all.

"To do what I do, you need to be able to understand people, to blend into a crowd, to store a lot of information in you head, to play mind games, and to bend people to your will... and you have to be able to do those things alone with no backup."

[DragonSong]

Nova smiled, the expression somehow simultaneously sharp, wary, and a little defeated, almost weary.

“I’ve lived my whole life without backup, sir. I’m not exactly a stranger to it.” She tilted her head at him slightly, lips pursed. “So. How exactly does being a Pilot play into this job of yours? Doesn’t having a dragon bonded to your brain make you a bit...conspicuous?”

[Marjorie]

"Exactly," Emrys said, "we can build on that." That was exactly the point she already knew how to operate without a net. She preferred not being a team player, and she liked bending and pushing the rules.

"Well, we work in plain sight for one. I am a diplomat in the public eye - they know I'm a Pilot. I'm in the fucking newspapers swooning presidents and prime ministers, and world leaders. I'm not saying that's what you'll be doing, necessarily, but it doesn't hurt anything to be bonded. Besides, i you don't advertise your status as a pilot, unless your dragon," that was wrong - it was the other way around, you were the dragon's pilot. The belonging was the part of the pilot, but there wasn't a grammatically correct way of saying it. "is with you... no one will know you're bonded to one, unless you advertise or a powerful psychic is rooting around in your head, and we kill or conscript into service all the psychs... everywhere. That's how you became a Candidate yourself, right?"

Of course, there were the Gospels, but... they were not going to talk about those fucking traitors.

"You can't just sense Rojgher while I'm sitting here next to you right? Of course not... because I don't leave my mind open, even with the line open between up, it's shielded. Still, he's got a passive connection to me at all times. We can feel each other's presence, emotions come across more than anything specific when we're not actively sending anything to one another. Though, for us... that might be because my gift is empathy. Every pair's connection is a bit different."

[DragonSong]

Somehow, out of all of that, the first thing Nova jumped on was...

"Empathy. You?" She raised her other eyebrow to join its twin, expression close to disdain. "Look, I know you're my superior officer and all, so in the least offensive way possible--bullshit. You can sense and manipulate emotion. That doesn't make you empathetic."

Semantics? Yes, obviously. She knew exactly what he meant.

But the asshole had been screwing with her head all day, and she wasn't too thrilled about it.

He was also probably the least empathetic person she'd ever met, telepathic-empathy aside. And that was saying something, really.

"And I became a Candidate because someone recommended me." She sat back and folded her arms more tightly across her chest, frowning slightly. "Still don't know how or why. That wasn't you, was it?"

It was a long shot--if it had been him why would he wait so long to "test" her for mentoring?--but she figured she might as well ask. If he'd really been watching her, maybe he'd have some idea

[Marjorie]

Emrys tilted his head and looked at her. "Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another - and I happen to actually literally feel everything everyone around me is feeling." It could be overwhelming sometimes. But he'd learned not to let it get to him. A strong emotion like the pain of loosing a loved one, even coming from someone else, it could be like a punch in the face sometimes. "Can I change and manipulate those feelings? Yes. Do I loose sleep over it? No.

"We've all got a job to do, and if you don't like how I do it, tough shit."

Emrys laughed. "It wasn't me. Is that what they told you? Someone recommended you. I know you grew up poor and basically on the streets, if you had been getting regular medical care, they would have found you sooner and pressed you into service younger.

"Every psychic on the planet, and any that occur in clusters off world, in the whole galaxy, are tracked. Those on the planet that are deemed to have useful abilities are pressed into candidate training, those with less useful abilities are pressed into military service, and those too unstable for either are sent off to TRIMM or executed.

"Off world clusters of psychics are hunted down and killed, unless they're kids... we just steal them and force them into the Pilot program. Axis point makes it easy for us to control and monopolize the psychic presence in the galaxy."

[DragonSong]

"Share." Nova looked away from him. "Share being the operative word there, Pilot Noble. You can understand what someone is feeling, you can feel it yourself--but that's because you quite literally have to. You don't get a choice in the matter." She shrugged. "And I'm sure that sucks sometimes, but probably not as much as it sucks for the people you manipulate. There has to be a give and take to share, a two-way street. And I don't believe for one second that you've ever shared with a person in your life."

She glanced back to him, then shrugged again and laid her hand on her knees. "But you're right; long as you don't pull that weird-ass sexual assault crap with me again, I don't really give a shit what you do or how you do it." Raising an eyebrow, she added, "And I'm well aware of how the system works, sir. Just figured I'd ask, covering all my bases."

Settling back a little more comfortably in her seat, she crossed her ankle over her knee, evidently uncaring how "unladylike" a gesture it was in a cocktail dress. "So what exactly is this test of yours going to entail? Because I'm assuming it's not over yet."

[Marjorie]

"Oh, I'm sorry," Emrys said sarcastically, "I didn't think you were so sensitive or naive. You think I made it threw Pilot training without anyone ever manipulating my emotions or feelings, or the fact that I have no choice but to feel everything everyone around me does. You think they were kind to me because I was born high class and and my father was a Pilot, or that they didn't try to break me?"

There was real anger there, though he was very careful not to let it bleed threw into his expression, his voice, or anything in his head that he was letting her have access too. Threw their still present mental link it would just come off as annoyance. Part of it was because it was true. Now he didn't share... not really, not often, well maybe with Sparrow, sort of, sometimes... but that was their fault. They had thoroughly broken him in Pilot training. Part of it was because it wasn't true. He used to share. He used to genuinely connect to people as easily as breath. He used to form the kind of deep connections people struggled lifetimes to create. They had taken that away from him. He could remember what it was like, but he couldn't... he just couldn't connect like that anymore. He could see it in his mother's crestfallen expression every time she'd looked at him sense he graduated.

Fuck her. He had shared.

"I won't," he said, "I was just making a point. As I said, I'm not interested in you that way." He liked exotic women and striking men... but he never mixed business with pleasure. That was too messy.

"For tonight," he said, "we're pretty much done. I'm going to start taking you places though... giving you roles to play, testing you on what you remember about the people and places we visit. You need to remember the details. I'll be testing you to see how well you can fit in to different situations high class, low class, public, and intimate settings - and no I'm not implying you'll need to get sexually involved with anyone."

[DragonSong]

For a moment, just a moment, Nova smiled. It was a small, fleeting, private expression, but it was there.

She'd gotten a rise out of him. Though he played it off with annoyed sarcasm, she didn't need telepathy to know what that was hiding. She'd seen it in kids like her, kids who grew up hard because they either went cold, or they didn't grow up at all.

She'd hit a nerve.

You want me to play mind games, Emrys? I can play mind games.

"Don't flatter yourself," she sniffed flippantly. "Even if you were interested, I know enough about psychic manipulation to get myself the fuck out of that kinda situation before you tried to pull anything."

Probably a bluff, but she figured it was really the spirit of the thing that was important.

"So...you're just gonna pull me out of training for these random field trips? Look, I know they don't exactly want me to rank up, but are they really just gonna...let you?"

[Marjorie]

Yes, she had touched a nerve, but Emrys would be damned if he was going to give her any evidence of it. She could think whatever she liked.

"I'm not saying you're not attractive," Emrys smirked, "I'm not blind. I'm just saying that my interest in you is not sexual and I don't mix business and pleasure that way. It's too messy."

Emrys nodded. "Once you reach a certain point," Emrys said, "field experience is more valuable than sitting in a classroom and being yelled at by instructors. That's why we have a Pilot-Candidate mentoring program in the first place.

[DragonSong]

"Mm." She cocked her head and swept her eyes over him from head to foot.

He still only had minimal tech on his person. She didn't know why she'd been worried he'd somehow managed to sneak something more dangerous into a pocket or something when she wasn't paying attention.

"Alright. So...that's it? Test one done and out of the way, I should be expecting your call?" Her tone was flippant, but her eyes were still wary, still calculating. Like she was still trying to figure something out, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[Marjorie]

Emrys shook his head. “I told you gun toting isn’t my style.” No he didn’t have any hidden tech on him.

He nodded. “Something like that.” Then the car came to a stop and they were outside the ATC. “Now you’d best get back to your dorm... they’ll be expecting you.” The driver had gotten out and opened the door for her.

“Have a good day Candidate.”

[DragonSong]

"Right." Nova gave him one last searching, almost incredulous look before climbing out of the car. "...You too, I suppose."

She closed the door before the driver could manage it, earning a quick, befuddled scowl, but she didn't pay it much mind. She had about a thousand things to think about as she reentered the ATC, and none of them were simple.

...Although they might all be very interesting.


[Cont'd in One Week]