First Impressions [Rhi! <3]

[Zero Undead]

It had really kind of been totally random. Alec honestly hadn’t expected to get an email with the schedule and file of a candidate, or for that candidate to email him just a few minutes later asking to meet him. He’d figured they wouldn’t give him a candidate to mentor until he’d had a few more years of experience. Maybe it was because he was in the PR department and had scored so well on his academics, or because of his personality. Whatever the reason, he found himself in the ATC once again, a little nervous about meeting his very first candidate.

She’d sounded damn cute over her emails, kinda bubbly personality, he was imagining. Hopefully she wouldn’t give him a lot of trouble, and hopefully he wouldn’t make a total fool of himself. She said her brother was a Pilot, he wondered what Gabriel Tierney was like. He really hadn’t met him before, didn’t have a strong impression of the Pilot Echo. However, it hadn’t taken but a couple seconds to learn that he worked in the tech department. That was kind of cool. Oh well, hopefully her brother wouldn’t be a pain in his neck.

As usual, Alec was dressed in a pressed and finely cut black suit, with a creamy green silk dress shirt under his suit jacket. His tie was black with a matching shade of green in geometric designs. His dress shoes were polished to a shine, and he looked at the silver-plated watch on his wrist only slightly impatiently. He’d been a candidate recently enough that he remembered how much of a pain it could be and he was planning on doing his best to make things go as smoothly as possible for this Rachel Tierney. His mentor had been strict, but fair, and he hoped that he could build a good rapport with his candidate too.

He sent a text to Rachel’s phone.

To: Rachel Tierney
From: Alec Holding

 Back table NE corner

[Rhi-Rhi]

Hopefully this Pilot was a cool one! In any case, Rachel did not want to keep him waiting!

She dressed quickly, in her uniform of course, and threw her hair up into a quick ponytail. Then, checking herself out in the mirror to make sure she looked good, she left and headed for the cafeteria.

On the way there, she got another text. Alrighty, then! He was somewhere in the back. She supposed it would be hard to miss him; either he'd be in uniform, or he'd be out of it, and there were very few people here out of uniform who weren't Pilots.

It didn't take long for her to spot him, and when she did...well...

Damn, girl, you got lucky this time.

He was a cute young thing, to be sure!

Perking up, she sidled over to the table and snapped off a salute. "Pilot Holding?" she greeted, smiling. "Well, hello there. I'm Rachel, Candidate Rachel Tierney! It's a pleasure to meet you, and a pleasure to have you as my mentor, sir!"

[Zero Undead]

The text probably hadn’t been strictly necessary, but it would save a few moments of looking around on his candidate’s part. Of course with him being out of uniform among all the uniformed candidates was kind of a giveaway, he really hadn’t thought that he would stick out like a sore thumb. Oh well, he was nervous, he was bound to do a few silly things. Hopefully he would make a good impression overall and his first candidate wouldn’t label him as a total dork to the other candidates.

A few minutes after he got there Alec had a cute blonde saluting him. She was tall and slender, very nice physique. With a grin he returned the salute for a brief moment before offering her his hand with a wink. “At ease, Candidate Tierney, getting all formal on me already. Have a seat and let’s chat for a few minutes, I’m eager to get to know you.”

He really was, not just because she was an attractive young woman either. Alec was both excited and nervous about actually mentoring someone and he really didn’t want to screw things up. “I saw in your file that you’ve had two mentors already, so you already know all the standard things I’m supposed to say. I’m here to help you excel and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. If you ever need to talk, about anything, don’t hesitate to call, text, or email day or night. Did you have any questions for me? I’m an open book.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

At ease once more, Rachel shook his hand in a surprisingly firm grip before sliding into the chair opposite Alec. She could tell she liked him already; she was no empath or anything, but he seemed easy-going and chill, and that made her feel comfortable, like she was dealing with a peer instead of a superior.

She tucked some loose hair behind her ear and beamed a smile up at him as he spoke. And that smile turned sly when he asked if she had any questions for him.

Weeeell!

She tilted her head so she could peer up at him through her lashes. "Are you single?"

[Zero Undead]

A nice, firm handshake, he liked that. Alec was overall extremely relieved and pleased so far. They hadn’t set him up with some timid, mousy little candidate jumping at their own shadow. Rachel seemed outgoing and confident, two things that would serve her very well in the future. Pilots should have confidence; they were the top of the line, cream of the crop and so forth. He smiled as she sat across from him, looking comfortable.

After his little speech, he had expected at least a few questions; she didn’t strike him as the type to be too shy or afraid to ask. Although, he wasn’t quite sure he had expected that question. Outgoing to be sure. Well, he did say he was an open book. Grinning, he raised his left hand and displayed his bare ring finger. “I have no permanent attachments, Candidate Tierney. I tend to have many dates, few relationships.”

He folded his arms on the table in front of him, leaning forward slightly. Alec hadn’t expected his candidate to really flirt with him, certainly not so quickly, but he was not going to complain that a pretty young woman was making eyes at him. All Pilots knew that the mentor-candidate relations could turn sexual at the Pilot’s whim, but honestly, Alec hadn’t planned on flirting at all, but if she wanted to, well…

“Did you have any other questions?” His grin had not faded in the slightest.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Rachel perked up even more. "I like those prospects," she said with a laugh, leaning forward on the table as he did the same. "Though I can't imagine why no one's snatched you up."

She laced her fingers together on the table and tilted her head thoughtfully.

"Hmmm...questions, questions. Well, now I know your marital status and dating status, so hmm! Blood type? Orientation? Favorite feature on a person?" Then she laughed and shook her head. "Just kidding. Kind of. But okay, I'll get serious, I don't want you to think I don't think this is important! So serious question number one: what's your ability? And what's your teaching style? Like, what do you expect out of me?"

[Zero Undead]

Alec shrugged his shoulders with a sly smirk. There were reasons for his perpetual dating/flings and no long-term commitment. For starters, it could be hard to find yourself in a relationship with a Pilot. They were sent on dangerous missions, they could be shipped into the field for long periods on short notice, it was hell on the partner left behind to hope they came home safe.

Also, he just liked to date, dating was fun and exciting. Relationships were more complicated and more work. Not that he was opposed to them, just was more careful about who he actually formed attachments to and who he just had some fun with.

He chuckled at her first set of questions. Well, he wouldn’t mind telling her all that. Alec really had meant it when he said that he was an open book. Wasn’t like any of that stuff was something he would want to hide from someone. Still, he smiled when she got more serious.

“Ah, now those are good questions. Along with the required telepathy, I am gifted with pyromancy and cryromancy. For my teaching style, you know, I’ve never taught before, so I’m kind of learning this as we go too, okay? What I expect from you is to push yourself, to take the program seriously, and to give everything that you’ve got to become a Pilot, because the only other option at this point isn’t pretty.”

Alec shifted slightly, his smile slipping somewhat. “I want to have a good relationship with you, Candidate Tierney. When your candidacy is over I want to be able to count you my friend, but you need to recognize that until you graduate, I am your mentor and superior first, your friend second.”

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Oooh, I've got myself a virgin," Rachel said with a laugh, propping her chin in her hands. "Mentor-virgin, at any rate. So honored to be the one to pop your cherry."

Then her eyes suddenly widened and she pressed her lips together as though she'd bitten into something sour. "Uh. Sorry, sir. That was kind of vulgar." He was a Pilot here! And her mentor! But with him looking all young, and with her feeling comfortable around Pilots, she sometimes forgot herself. After all, her brother was a Pilot, so she'd met a bunch of them even before she'd been drafted so she'd learned early on that they weren't all intimidating like some people thought.

Instead, what she felt for them was pure hero worship.

Sometimes, being too comfortable could be a bad thing.

She cleared her throat, face a little red. "Ahem. Anyway! That's really cool! And you don't have to worry about me pushing myself or anything--I'm trying my hardest, sir! I really want to be a Pilot. Really badly. To be honest, there's few things I've wanted more, not since my bro got drafted." Another laugh. "I was kinda jealous. He got to be around so many hot, military men, I wanted in on that too, you know? But that's not the only reason. Just the thought process of a kid entering puberty."

She smiled. "But yeah, that's just a rambly way of saying I really want this and I won't let you down. I don't have any fancy skills, really, but they say Pilot Rosales is one of the best and he's pretty weak. At least, that's what Gabe says, but he's all doe-eyed over him and...and I don't know why I'm talking about this." Except that she rambled when she got excited, and she was certainly that!

"So you have both pyromancy and cryromancy? Fire and ice?" Her smile broadened. "Can you show me?"

[Zero Undead]

Alec arched a brow delicately at his candidate, lips twitching slightly as he tried not to smirk at her. He held that expression all while she widened her eyes and apologized, but he didn't say anything. Honestly, he was fairly new to being a Pilot, and he never had been very full of himself. Besides, Rachel was cute, and even cuter when she was embarrassed.

With more than a little amusement he let her ramble on, just entertained by how talkative and excited she seemed to be. At least he wouldn't have to provide a ton of motivation, too bad all candidates weren't so eager to become Pilots. He grinned at the mention of getting to hang around hot military men.

"Pilot Rosales is an excellent Pilot, yes, I'm not familiar with his psionic potency, but his reputation precedes him. I wouldn't worry about not being a terribly strong psychic, Candidate Tierney, fancy psionic abilities are not strictly required, and apparently they felt you had enough potential for the program. You certainly have the desire, which is half the battle. I have faith in your ability to graduate."

He always felt weird when people asked him to demonstrate his abilities. They were heavily geared towards combat, and he often wished he had been gifted with other psionic powers. "To have both is not uncommon, although they are not the most common of abilities. They often do appear together, which makes perfect sense scientifically speaking, for what is cold but the absence of heat?"

He held up his hands, revealing his tattooed palms. A flame flickered to life before crystalizing in an ice shell. He dropped his hands and the small ice flame fell to the table and spun a few times before stopping. "It takes years of training to reach such a level of...finesse, of course."

[Rhi-Rhi]

That was a good point; she wouldn't be here if she wasn't strong enough. Rather, she would have been passed off to some other military department. Clearly, someone saw some untapped potential in her that she didn't see, and hearing Alec say that was a relief.

And while she had always been quite self-confident, it was still nice seeing that someone had confidence in you, as well.

"Thank you, sir!" Rachel said, glowing from the praise before she leaned in to watch him demonstration. His explanation did make sense; she'd just never really thought about hot hot and cold could go together, since they were often treated as opposites.

But that wasn't nearly so interesting as the demonstration itself, and she watched in wonderment as he made fire turn to ice (kind of cute, too, since it was a little ice flame!), and then spin around. When it finished its rotation and came to a stop, she reached out and poked it with her finger.

"That's awesome," she said. "Good trick, too! You could go to birthday parties and entertain all the kids. Oh, and also..." She nodded to his hands. "Cool tats. I'm gonna guess the symbolism is obvious?"

[Zero Undead]

"Hardly a good use of my talents, wouldn't you agree Candidate Tierney?" Alec wasn't sure if he should be insulted or not. Party entertainment? Bah! "Although when you are in the field, it is quite amusing to put your enemy off-guard by setting them on fire."

He ran his fingers over the flame tattoo, looking at it pensively. When he'd gotten the tattoos he had still been a candidate, and sometimes he regretted them, because they were fairly obvious, but they were as much a part of him now as his abilities were. Ah well, to be young and silly again. "Yeah, very obvious. I have a tattoo of my dragon too, but that's covered up right now. Oh, and I have this."

Alec reached up and unfastened the necklace he wore. It was a fine silver chain with a pendant fashioned after his dragon, Nimbus. He offered it to Rachel so she could get a better look at it. "I had that custom made. That's what my dragon looks like, more or less. You'll get to meet him at some point, I'm sure."

[Rhi-Rhi]

Taking the necklace, Rachel looked it over curiously, then grinned. "Heeey, he looked pretty awesome. Well, in necklace form, at least. I bet he's far more impressive up close and personal!"

Leaning her elbows on the table, she passed the necklace back to him. "Can't wait to meet him, to be honest. I've never been around a dragon! Er, obviously. Heck, I've only seen pictures of my bro's dragon, Siren. It's kinda funny, growing up with a Pilot in the family, hearing all the stories secondhand, and to finally get a chance to be one and live all that..."

She laughed, running a hand through her bangs. "It still feels surreal. Even with the bruises and muscle aches as proof. Hey! Speaking of dragons, what's Nimbus like? Gabe said some dragons can be--quote unquote--'gigantic asswipes' but that some are pretty cool. I'm gonna take a wild guess and say since you wear him around your neck, Nimbus is the cool kind?"