Into the Lion's Den (Amori-pants!)

[Anonymous]

Sometimes he wished his office was in the ATC. Would make these meetings so much easier and the kids could find him when they needed to talk. But only Roman was set up here, smug little bastard. Ah well, didn't matter much anyway. The Citadel was much less of a commute.

He checked his watch. He was running a little late, his last report had taken longer than he had planned. But it wasn't too bad, only a few minutes behind. He had a new candidate, a girl this time. Sylvi Nix. Pyokentic. He would have to see if she could develop cyrokentics as well, the two often came as a pair.

Pushing open the door, Bart entered the empty classroom he had asked the girl to meet him in. Good. Despite his late start, he had managed to still get here early. The girl was probably lost somewhere. He remembered it had taken him ages to learn where anything was in the ATC. Half the damn place was still a mystery to him.

[Anonymous]

Sylvi quickly turned the corner, her feet sliding along the floor a little. She flailed her arms a little to keep her balance so she didn't end up falling face first into the floor. She had gotten lost but she had also left later than she probably should've. That was bad. Very bad. It wasn't good to be late and make a bad first impression. Well that and she wasn't sure if she'd get in trouble or not.

She turned yet another corner and went sliding into the room she was told to go to. Again she almost fell face first after trying to get herself to stop but managed to keep her balance. Luckily she hadn't run into Atara on the way there. That was actually one relief. She quickly righted herself when she saw someone in the room already. "A-Ah...sorry I'm late.."

[Anonymous]

Bart looked up as the girl entered, straightening from where he had been leaning against the desk, "Whoa there. Calm down. Yer only a little late, no need ta kill yerself." Bart smiled at the girl, "It's good ta be on time though. Ya get lost?"

Smiling, Bart held out his hand, "It's nice ta meet ya Sulvi. I'm Pilot Royal Bartolomeu Hamilton. I'm gonna be your mentor."

[Anonymous]

Sylvi smiled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck a little. "Yea...I got a little lost.." The place was just too big. She still hadn't figured out where everything was. It would most likely take a while to figure it all out too.

She looked at his hand when it was held out to her before taking a hold of it and shook it a little. "It's nice to meet you too." Well he seemed nice enough. Nothing like Atara...that was a relief. It would be a nice break to be around someone who wasn't crazy. "So...ah...I'm still not entirely sure what we're going to be doing...could you explain that to me?"

[Anonymous]

"Well, I'll get a map sent to yer terminal, okay?" Bart smiled. He would let it slide for now, but she needed to learn her way soon. He settled back down against the desk, pulling out a cigarette. He watched her as he lit up, inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs.

She was a little soft. Cute though. That could be dangerous here. Well, hopefully he could teach her to defend herself, "Well, right now, not much sweetness. Yer just a gracie. Right now all ya gotta do is get yerself used to this place. As yer mentor, I'll be monitoring yer progress and helpin' ya through the program. Ya ever have questions, need advice or someone ta talk to, I'm yer man."

[Anonymous]

Sylvi nodded quickly. A map would be nice. It would help her out a whole lot. She wouldn't have to figure out where everything was at on her own and trying to remember where things were from when she wandered around. "Okay. Thank you."

When he rested against the desk, she just tilted her head a little and listened to him talk. A small smile worked it's way to her lips. "Okay. That sounds great." She definately needed someone to talk to at times so this was a nice relief.

[Anonymous]

'Welp, ya got anything ya wanted to ask? I got some free time now, or if ya are good for now, ya can get back to your friends." Bart took another drag, inhaling the smoke deeply. It was a bad habit, he knew. And Nuriel hated how much he smoked, but Bart really didn't care. It was a good stress relief and damn but it tasted good.

"There ain't much mentoring that goes on in the early stages, so I probably wont be around much unless ya ask me for help. But, like I said, I'm always there if ya need help or advice or anythin' like that. Doors always open."

[Anonymous]

Sylvi scratched the side of her cheek a little. She was a little nervous to say anything about her problem with Atara. Sometimes she swore the crazy candidate had super sonic hearing or could hear through many many walls. It was scary. "Ah well..." she mumbled, still not entirely sure. She wanted to because advice would be a great thing but then again anything she did might upset Atara more and cause her to end up in a bad situation.

Not that she didn't cause that to happen on her own anyway....

But that wasn't the point! "Ah well...I sort of need advice...with dealing with a candidate sort of..bullying me I guess you could call it.."

[Anonymous]

It was easy to read the girls thoughts, but if she didn't want to tell Bart there was a bully, he wasn't going to pry. She needed to learn to ask for help first. Blowing out a line of smoke, Bart waited for her to decide.

It was such a shame, what the kids did here. These were teammates, people you would go into hell and back with. The people who would be there to fight along side with you, watch your back. Yet they all just seemed to want to play king of the hill.

"Well, that's what I'm here for." Bart smiled and gestured to a desk, "Take a seat darlin' and tell me what's goin' on and I'll see what I can tell ya."

[Anonymous]

Sylvi glanced at the desk before doing as Bart suggested. She was really nervous about saying anything. She didn't really know how to word what she was going to say either. All of her thoughts were just a jumbled up mess at that point.  She fiddled with her fingers a little after she had sat down. Now how to word it all? It was bullying yes but she never really came out with many bruises or anything.

"Ah..well...see...sh e doesn't really hurt me much like I guess you'd expect from bullying. Ah...that would just be normal bullying though, huh..? Uhm..." Sylvi trailed off and smiled nervously. She was rambling. Oops. "So..I think it's more like...she's just..trying to get in my pants..? In a way...with force...ah jeez..."

[Anonymous]

Bart listened, letting the girl talk as she tripped over her words. This kind of thing was never really easy to talk about. Bart slowly let out the smoke from his cigarette, enjoying the taste. "Welp. You don't like it right? You told her that?"

For all he knew, the girl was just bad with people and Sylvi didn't seem to have a lot of backbone.

[Anonymous]

Sylvi nodded quickly at the question. "Of course I do. Every time. I tell her no and it just makes things worse." she said, frowning a bit more. Sure sometimes she said things that sometimes provoked the girl but at times she didn't think her words would do that and they still did.

[Anonymous]

"Ah. Well. One of those types." Bart reached up, scratching his chin, "Well, if tellin' her ta knock it off, suppose I'll have ta start teachin' ya to fight."

Wasn't going to be easy, she didn't seem the type to take to it well. But if he could teach Temple, he could teach anyone, "I can teach ya a few little tricks, but yer best bet is ta start workin' out a bit more, I can start teachin' ya some basics."

[Anonymous]

Sylvi nodded a little and frowned slightly. She just watched Bart quietly but perked up a little when he suggested teaching her to fight. "Really?"  She smiled a bit then. "That'd be great." She obviously needed it.

"Okay. I can do that." She'd just have to figure out where to do that at though. Surely the map Bart mention before would have somewhere she could go. She'd check later.

[Anonymous]

"Alright then." Bart smiled, taking another drag, "Anything else I can help ya with? Otherwise, I can  let ya go. We can set up some lessons later, how that sound darlin?"

[Anonymous]

Sylvi thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No, I think that's it." A smile worked it's way to her lips again and she nodded slightly. "That sounds great. Any time is okay with me, really. So whatever fits your schedule best will work."

[Anonymous]

Bart lifted an eyebrow, "What? You ain't takin' classes darlin? That would be a problem." He stood up, then made a shooing motion at the door, "Go on. I'll look at yer class schedule and work somethin' out and let ya know. Now, go enjoy yer free time, avoid the crazy girl and if she does catch ya, go fer the kneecaps."

[Anonymous]

"Ah oh wait. Yea there's that." Sylvi said, a nervous smile working it's way to her lips again. "Forgot about that....oops..." She stood up then and headed towards the door when Bart made shooing motions in that direction.

"Uhm..okay.." Right...like she'd be able to even get to her kneecaps. It was a thought though. "Thank you again."

[Anonymous]

"No problem. Now git. I bet ya much better things ta' do than hang around with an old man." Bart smiled at the girl as she left. She seemed sweet, though she was going to have to get tougher and fast. But she seemed willing to learn. That was a point in her favor.