Fancy running into you

[Anonymous]

Fuck, but this place was huge.

Yamato had been here all of two days, and he was already well and properly overwhelmed by the hugeness of it all. The place was a goddamn maze. More classrooms and corridors than it itself probably knew what to do with; and just how did they expect newbies to find their way around all on their own? Actually, on second thought, he didn't want to know the answer to that question. It was probably another test they expected new candidates to pass.

He'd done a little exploring in his free time (what precious little of it there had been been), and achieved little more than a dim sense of foreboding and the certainty that he was going to do a lot of getting lost. As of now, whether by accident or design or a combination of both, he'd managed to find his way to the library, where he was scanning the titles on one shelf with his hands propped on his hips and a faint scowl on his face. Say this for the ATC, but they had a pretty good collection. Information was always at a premium in Aedolis. And bookstores, what bookstores? Magazines studded with celebrity snapshots, sure, flimsy pornographic pamphlets, sure, but actual books? Not so easy to find.

Not so for the ATC, of course. He was sure the tests made available to the candidates were from a carefully chosen curriculum, but still, history, mathematics, biology - it was a darn sight better than you'd find out in the city.

Well, if he was going to be stuck here, he might as well take what advantage he could of it. Yamato tugged at the collar of his coat - the new uniform still felt uncomfortable, too stiff and too starched - and reached up to pluck a book off the shelf. He added several others as he made his way down the aisle, till he had a precariously tottering pile balanced in his arms, and then, satisfied with his selection, turned to go in search of a table. Only to collide hard with someone.

"Ow! The f - " He bit the expletive off before it could come all the way out, belatedly aware that it might not be the best idea. Whatever he might have come up with in its place leaked out of his mind, however, as he stared over the books and up at the person he had bumped into. He was gorgeous. Nearly six feet tall, floppy raven hair and green eyes, skin that had never known a blemish. Oh my.

"I - you should watch where you're going," he finished lamely. He had one hand pressed over his nose, which had come off badly in the confrontation with the older boy's chest, and so it was slightly muffled.

[Anonymous]

Alec was in one of his favorite places in the ATC. The library was like a sanctuary, a sweet oasis in the middle of a desert. Or perhaps a flower on a patch of rocky, barren ground. Whatever you wanted to poetically call it, the library was his safe haven. The smell of books, real, paper books. It was almost intoxicating. Yes, he was strange, but he found some odd joy in the scent of books. Possibly because so very many happy memories were associated with the paperbacks.

It was supposed to be a free afternoon. The only one that Alec had this week. However, he couldn't just relax. The fear of TRIM pushed and pulled at him. He imagined most Candidates had a healthy dose of terror at the prospect of being TRIMed. So instead of hanging out in the rec room, he found himself in the library.

Upon meeting his new mentor, he was still irritated about having to switch mentors during his Candidacy, he'd suffered a humiliating failure in his psionics. Oh sure, he breezed through his classes, and even managed to pass the physicals, but his psionics? What a nightmare! For some reason, his mentor didn't see the failure that Alec did. Well, he would show that bastard Relens. Next time his mentor asked him to do something psionic, damnit to hell, he was going to succeed.

Just the thought of his psionic shortcomings was enough to make him see red, momentarily. He'd been stalking down the rows, agitatedly, when suddenly he blinked. Something had slammed into his chest. Hard. Three years ago, a collision like that would have put him on his ass, now he barely budged, and only grunted. What was happening to him?

At first he thought in his blind rage he'd run into a shelf, but no, he'd run into a person. His eyes unconsciously moved to the other Candidate's uniform stripes. A gracie. Only after determining the kid's rank in comparison to his own did he actually look at his face. Or, what he could see of the kid's face. Boy was holding his nose like it had been hurt. For a few moments Alec could only look at the boy in disbelief.

"I should watch were I'm going? Kid, I don't care whose fault this was, but let me give you a piece of advice. If you run into someone, and they're higher ranked than you. It is always your fault."

Alec had learned that lesson the hard way.

[Anonymous]

Oh dear. Yamato bit his lip, wishing he could take back the comment while he was at it. It was at times like this that he sometimes wished he could install a filter between his mouth and brain; wise-ass comments were second nature to him now, and popped out without conscious thought. Unfortunately, he was now in a place where mouthing off could potentially bring very painful retribution down on your head. And hard as it was to rewrite the habits of a lifetime in the space of two days, he was going to have to learn. Whether he liked it or not.

Or he might just end up finding out exactly how painful that retribution could be.

In the end he settled for balancing the stack of books awkwardly in the crook of one arm, and spreading the fingers of his other hand in a pacifying gesture. "Okay, I deserved that. I should probably have been paying more attention to my surroundings. This place is a lot to get used to." He grinned up at the older boy, dark eyes bright. "And I'm brand-new here, but that's probably obvious, right?"

[Anonymous]

Alec realized that he was probably giving off waves of negative vibes. His body was tense, his eyes were probably flashing in anger, jeez, he never used to get like this. Three years of Candidacy and he could still be put on edge. Forcing himself to relax, his posture slowly became more casual and his expression turned into something tired, but not unfriendly. No need to get snappy with a gracie.

He noted the pacifying gesture and waved a hand dismissively at his words. "You're obviously a gracie, your uniform stripes are green. My stripes are white, that means I'm Stage Three. Learn to pay attention to stripes and stages. It'll make your life here easier, trust me, I've been there and done that."

He frowned, god, he sounded patronizing. Breaking out a sheepish grin, he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, looking pretty embarrassed. "Sorry, don't worry about me, okay? I don't bite or nothing, and it was my fault. Just don't go doing something stupid like me and arguing fault when a Pilot runs into you."

Oh gods, he winced. Yeah, he remembered how well that had gone over. Come to think of it, he'd been a gracie too, and far less eager to pacify the situation. Hell, he'd been downright argumentative.

[Anonymous]

Yamato nodded vigorously as he took in Alec's words. Collar strips. Uhuh. Better say you're sorry than be sorry. When in doubt, assume you're at fault. Right, gotcha.

The older boy cracked a sheepish smile post-lecture, and his own grin widened in response. All said and done, he could probably have picked a far worse person to collide with. The older Candidate didn't seem like a bad sort, intimidating as he had seemed at first glance. He had a nice smile. A nice smile that made his eyes sort of crinkle up at the corners in a nice way. Very nice.

"Tell a Pilot they're to blame? Aww hell, no, I'm not suicidal." He shuddered at the very thought. Sure, his new mentor had turned out to be more mellow than he had expected; but there was such a thing as pushing your luck. "'Preciate the tip, though. Got anymore? I can tell I have a hell of a lot to learn, and I'd rather not learn it the hard way, y'know?"

Speaking of which, his arms were starting to protest at the weight they were bearing. Maybe grabbing that fat tome on military protocol had been a mistake. Or the one on the integumentary system. He should probably have started small and worked his way up. As it was, his shoulders were threatening to part company with their sockets, and so Yamato glanced around for a free table before adding "Umm...but I'm going to put these down first, if that's okay. Weightlifting was never exactly my forte. Oh, and I'm Yamato, by the way. Yamato Hishiki. It's nice to meet you!"

[Anonymous]

Alec grinned knowingly as the kid talked about not being suicidal. Oh sure, he said that now. Poor kid, he had a lot to learn about this place. That grin didn't fade as he shook his head, holding back a chuckle. The kid wanted more tips? Oh, he had a great piece of advice for him.

"You have no idea. I can bet you that at one point or another, you are going to argue with a Pilot. You will be proven wrong. And it will be painful. The Pilots will actively seek to push your buttons until you snap. It's what they do. They have to. It's to make sure only the best Candidates make it all the way through the program."

He realized that the kid had an awfully large stack of books. That was strange. Gracies didn't get bogged down with coursework, they had drills and the initial adjustment exercises, but not real classes. Without asking, he took a few of them, glancing at the titles skeptically, then walked over to a nearby table, listening to the boy introduce himself.

"I'm Alec Holding, nice to meet you too." He set the books down and took a chair, looking over them curiously. "Interesting reading for a gracie. You know they don't require you to start learning this stuff until Stage Two, right?"

[Anonymous]

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," Yamato muttered. But he surrendered half his stack gratefully to Alec, and followed the older boy to a table, where he dumped the rest with a soft thump.

Ominous as that had sounded, he had a nasty feeling the older boy was right. Everyone heard rumours about the Pilot programme, and he'd heard a little bit more by way of his online forays. None of it had been encouraging. How many candidates eventually made it out with their mental and physical health intact? Nowhere near enough, that was sure. He dropped his gaze to the floor for a moment, feeling again that dull, leaden ball of foreboding that had been sitting in his stomach ever since he'd set foot in the ATC.

Then Alec commented on his choice of reading material, and he did his best to temporarily tamp down on those worrying thoughts. Yamato plopped into a chair across from the older boy, picking up a book and turning it over in his hands.

"These? Oh...yeah, I know that. It's just...well, I like to read." He blushed a little as he said it. It wasn't something he usually admitted to. "And you know how it is out in the city, they don't exactly encourage you to broaden your horizons. That's the one thing I like about this place. You're actually expected to learn. I could get used to that, you know?"

He added, with a sigh "Then again, maybe I'm just too curious for my own good. It's what landed me here in the first place. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson, but apparently not."

[Anonymous]

Alec shook his head again as the boy muttered those words. He felt bad, he didn't want to smash the kid's hopes of this being even remotely easy, but the truth was it was fucking hard. Rather than give out false hope, Alec would much rather spell out the truth and get the poor kid a good idea of what to really expect. Not that it was his job.

He was still looking over Yamato's choices as the other boy sat down across from him and started explaining himself. Reading, the lower class probably didn't even know how to read. Knowledge was power, as the saying went, and Pilots didn't like anyone they didn't approve of to have that power. He had been fortunate enough to be in the upper class and received a fine education before evening coming to the ATC. Not everyone was as blessed.

"Nothing wrong with enjoying to read. I've always loved reading. Got teased a lot for enjoying classes last stage, but I don't care. Learning is great." He noted the boy's last statement with a cringe. Alec had never wanted to end up in the program. Most Candidates weren't there because they asked to be.

"All it takes is one moment of stupidity. One little mistake...then here you are. " He sighed.

[Anonymous]

Well, it was good to know he'd run into someone so cheerful.; Yamato scrunched his nose up at the older boy's last comment, but said nothing; he'd assumed as a matter of fact that a large portion of the ATC's Candidate group were either drafted, unwilling, or less than delighted to be here. Still, it probably wouldn't be wise to discuss that topic right in the heart of the ATC itself. He did have that much common sense, even if it had been a little late to kick in.

"Well," he told him in a determined attempt to lighten the mood a little. "Then I'm glad I ran into you - ah, no pun intended." His eyes sparkled wickedly. "Look at how much I've learned already!"

[Anonymous]

Alec didn't mean to be so dreary. Anytime he thought about being brought into the program, though, he couldn't help but feel that all-to-familiar swell of resentment. Oh sure, he'd been raised in Aedolis. Pilots were practically celebreties, all the kids would play pretend that they were Pilots. When they were four. Alec had grown out of that years and years ago. Before being brought to the ATC he had plans for his life. His future.

Sighing again, but smiling now, he rolled his eyes slightly at Yamato. "Oh yeah, I'm sure you're learning just loads of stuff from me."

He took one last look at the book he'd been examining and set it aside. What had he come here for again? Oh yes, he wanted to do some reading on psionics. Well, that could wait a few minutes, couldn't it? It was actually kind of nice talking with the kid.