Don't Let It Scare You ((RhiRhi!))

[Anonymous]

Vaughan's heartbeat thumped faster in his chest and his breath was just a little hotter, a little quicker. The silence was unnerving and he was extra careful not to make too much noise when he took a step, just in case Gabriel was being so quiet for a reason other than freaking him out. Then there was a class room. An empty classroom. An empty classroom he was getting pushed into. Outwardly he was silent, a little pale, a nervous sweat on his forehead and his lips were a thin line. His mind screamed for him to run, to not let anything repeat its self, then it went and said that Gabriel was a friend, he'd never do what Nika did. Never.

Nika was a friend too.

Then Vaughans internal struggle was cut short because Gabriel ushered him into the empty room anyway. Quickly he turned around and move away to keep his back to a wall, his amber eyes never leaving his cranky mentor. Go over his mouth. Vaughans tongue darted out and traced his lips as he listened, right, Pilot. This was Gabriel the Pilot, not Gabriel the concerned friend-type. The candidates eyes never left his mentors and Vaughan's jaw dropped when he said that he would be useful without a tongue. "N..." Don't talk back," Yes, Sir."

Second point made Vaughan cross his arms over his chest and look away. Let it go. He could try, maybe this would be easier to let go, it was a festering wound that could still be cut open and cleaned to let the infection wash away. As much as he hated to admit, Nika would be the infection and if Vaughan wanted to let it go, he'd need to let go of Nika too. Until he healed and could accept that friendship and not feel anything else for it. He could do that... No more crying, it made his face sting.

Amber eyes darted and took the image of Gabriel in, looking all bad-ass and leaning against the desk. Vaughan found admirable that his mentor was trying to look all cool in front of him while delivering his mini-speech, the stance didn't suit Gabriel and neither did the blank expression. Silently he watched Gabriels lips move, his hands clasped together in front of himself and his back meer inches from the wall. Vaughan was only a little paranoid. The candidate didn't catch too much about this section, just that if another candidate beat him up, Gabriel would beat him up worse... Or something. Sounded counter-productive but -- Hurt them first. Shunning works. Next!

Still silent, he listned, his eyes turning away and his shoulders slumping. Didn't have to worry about friends, before the ATC he had his band mates, and while Gabriel wasn't lying about being a 'friend', Vaughan wasn't too sure what Gabriel was to him anymore except a mentor. Vaughan shot Gabriel a dirty look when he called the teen a self-pitying doormat. One day of breakdown and he was a self-pitying doormat. Jerk.

Vaughan was too busy glaring off to the side to see Gabriel do his soft-expression thing, but he mentioned Nika and his head whipped around and he stared. "How do..." Oh, right, psychic stuff. A little more than insulted, Vaughan moved off the wall and crossed his arms over his chest and walked down the aisle to sit on a desk in front of his mentor. "Of course it wasn't. We're the same size but.. Physically I'd be stronger than Niiks."

Being uncomfortable with the subject, Vaughan simply sat and listened, his head off to the side so he could stare at the corner of the desk Gabriel was leaning on. Oh joy, he got to relay the feelings.

"Felt like I was going to die." Of course, many things felt like you were going to die so Vaughan heaved a sigh and closed his eyes. "It felt... Like my heart was stopping, to keep up with my blood. I was really cold, kinda... Felt like being stuck in a freezer and your body just... Kinda... Slowly gives up." He was about to turn towards Gabriel and do a 'y'know?' but he stopped himself, not wanting to go and make this serious moment into...

Something a little more comfortable.

Teach him some basic stuff. Vaughan found that psychic stuff wasn't too hard, give him something to compare to and he'd fly with it if he got it in the first place. Academic stuff was another horrible matter entirely, and if he could read minds, Gabriel would have totally gotten a nasty look for even thinking the red-headed ex-singer could become a fucktoy.

Ugh, Jerk.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Nika's hemokinetic, right?" Gabriel said when Vaughan had finished. It wasn't like he'd memorized the abilities of all the candidates, but while almost any candidate could be expected to have some degree of telepathy or telekinesis, occasionally a candidate came along that displayed an ability so obscure (and in Nika's case, creepy) that, well...who didn't know about it? It was just like how everyone knew who the precogs were, because not only were they important, but they usually came with serious issues--epileptic fits among them--that you had to watch out for.

Hemokinesis. Control of blood. Some Pilots could mess with your brain, but this sounded less like poking at the medulla oblongata and more like attacking the very blood on your veins. That was trickier, because that didn't require a precise attack on a small target--you could strike wherever there was a vein, so there was more to guard. Simple enough to guard against for a Pilot, but for a candidate?

And it was just as dangerous. An untrained candidate fucking with another candidate's circulatory system? Shit. One wrong move and you have a dead candidate. Aneurysms, blood clots, hemorrhages, cardiac arrest...and that he did it enough to make Vaughan go cold...

That was less a matter of "fend for yourself and deal with it" and more a matter of "yeah, I need to have a talk with Nika's mentor about this" because that could go very bad very fast. That definitely wasn't something a gracie should be practicing on their peers.

Gabriel tapped his fingers on the desk and took a deep breath. He kept his mind in tuned to Vaughan's surface thoughts, feeling him out. He seemed a little irked now, didn't seem quite so terrified anymore--and yes, he was a little cruel; he'd shoved him into the empty classroom on purpose, because it had happened in an empty classroom and there might be other times someone tried to pull him off somewhere. Better to get him over the phobia now so he didn't freeze up later. Anger was better than fear. "Alright. Well, I know you probably don't have any experience, and you won't get taught much until Stage 2, but I want you to start practicing shielding daily. Do you know anything about that? It's alright if you don't, but if you do it'll save me some explaining and we can get right down to business. Heck, if you can go ahead and tell me what you're already able to do, that'll help a lot, too."

Distance, distance, distance. That was the word of the day. Even as he spoke about shields he had an emotional shield of his own in place--metaphorically. Don't coddle. Don't project your own issues, no matter how close to home they struck. Just give him what he needs to take care of himself.