Mental Block [Adaryn]

[Eloise Eaton]

Eloise didn't always pay as much attention as she should in her powers class. The information they taught in the general mental abilities class was the type of tricks and tips her father had been drilling into her from the day a precognate told him that his daughter would be a telepath. Occasionally she would learn something new or interesting, but rarely was the class of any true value to her.

Today, while the instructor explained techniques for mental blocks, Eloise managed to drift off into her own world, and sketch 4 different dresses she planned on possibly making for herself in the near future. Her insistence on ignoring the lesson meant she also missed the instructions given - to find a partner and practice creating mental blocks to block out your partners thoughts, feelings, or whatever else you may detect.

Almost everybody was partnered up before Eloise realized exactly what was going on. It wasn't as if Eloise had any friends in the class, though. She didn't really have many friends at Hammel yet at all. But either way, the only girl who seemed to not have a partner was not the first person Eloise would find herself approaching. "Hey," Eloise said after collecting her books and moving across the room to where the small, quiet brunette sat. "Looks like we're partners..."

[Adaryn Breslin]

Adaryn listened intently as the instructor went on about different mental blocks that could be applied to keep the mind an unreachable place. She had a pretty decent method of keeping other empaths from reading her, but telepaths and other mental manipulations were a bit more tricky for her. The same mental blocks didn't apply for the other two, apparently. And then the teacher instructed the students to pair up, and Adaryn shoved down her rising anxiety. She hated working with people, not because she didn't like them, she was just afraid they wouldn't like her.

When a blonde approached her, her anxiety spiked once more, but she nodded slowly. "Yeah," she said quietly, hoping she didn't come across rude. "I guess we are. So, uh, you're...?" She said, referring to both the girl's name and her power. If this were to be a mental block exercise, she should know what type of power her partner had. "I'm Adaryn and, uh, I'm an Empath. But I don't just feel, I can see the emotions around me so it might be a bit trickier to block me, or so I've heard."

[Eloise Eaton]

"I'm Eloise. Telepath," the blonde said as she pulled up a chair next to Adaryn. The girl seemed very insecure, almost worried about the lesson - like she was about to be some sort of burden to Eloise. "I've been blocking thoughts since I was 13," Eloise said with a little smile. "Yes, Empath's are a little more difficult, but I can manage," she promised, trying not to sound too confident of cocky... she wanted to seem just cocky enough.

"How about you? How good are you at blocking emotions?" Eloise asked, though she probably could have guessed by Adaryn's attitude about the lesson. Though, Eloise wasn't a super emotional person. It took a lot for her to truly feel something strongly. Though when her emotions did show thorough, you wouldn't have to be an empath to know how she felt. The only thing Eloise could describe herself feeling at the moment was a mix of boredom and confidence. And even those emotions were fairly dormant. She wondered how much of it the empath could pick up.

[Adaryn Breslin]

How good are you at blocking emotions?

Well, with what had happened with Travis and her ability to block out the depression relatively well, she would have to say better than about a year ago. But that in itself brought itself it's own amount of problems. "I can block them out if I really am determined. Reading them is easy, though. Emotions take on a color to me... like an aura around the person." The girl, though she had a bit of a cocky air to her, which was something that Adaryn typically didn't get along with, seemed...easy to talk to. Her confidence seemed to make Addie want to open up.

Introvert wanting to be an extrovert. Story of her life.

"So what grade are you in? Just curious, since you seem to be really confident with your abilities."

[Eloise Eaton]

"Sounds like you have a start, at least," Eloise noted, when Adaryn explained her situation. Her thoughts about the matter revealed a little bit more. It also revealed that she thought El was easy to talk to. The thought was almost laughable, but Eloise knew better than to laugh at something somebody thinks. You get into weird social situations for things like that. And suddenly she'd seem less easy to talk to. And suddenly Eloise would have one more person on the ever growing list of 'people who feel uncomfortable around Eloise Eaton'.

"I'm a senior," Eloise told Adaryn. "But I just transferred here this year, so I have to take some weird classes to graduate... even if I could probably test out of them," Eloise explained with a shrug. This was one of those classes. The techniques they covered in this class were things Eloise knew well, but if she wanted to graduate she had to get through it... again. "How about you?" Eloise asked, even though she could have found out for herself if she really wanted to.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Junior," Adaryn said quietly. The sudden amusement flashed within the girl's aura, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. She was speaking to a telepath, so it was probably something she thought? Adaryn, feeling a bit uncomfortable but otherwise fine, placed up her own mental block, not to block Eloise out, but to distance herself from the emotions in the room. Frustration was bound to happen, and Adaryn needed to avoid it as much as possible.

“I’ve been here for about four years. I came when I was about 12, I believe?” Addie fidgeted with her hands. With her own mental block up, she figured the test had already started. There were people scattered across the room, and Addie could hear some muttered curses or elated cries of joy.

“So, Eloise… How do you want to do this?”

[Eloise Eaton]

Eloise turned her head a couple times while Adaryn spoke, amused by the reactions of some classmates to create successful mental blocks. She turned back when Adaryn asked how they should handle the assignment - which in Eloise's mind was just to do what she always did.

"Well, I mean, I've pretty much mastered mental blocks, except in large groups..." Eloise started, "Groups over 50 or so... so practicing here won't do me much good. So we should do this however you think would help you most," Eloise offered, not knowing how well Adaryn was at blocking emotion. Of course, for this to work Ella would probably have to dig to access some real emotions, but that would be something she'd be willing to do to help. If that's even how it worked for Adaryn - Eloise wasn't sure.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"I get very stressed out with intense emotions, and plenty of it. I try to stay away from large groups, too. Like dances... parties... most social gatherings..." Adaryn was far from social, preferring to be around one to two people that she trusted at a time. The less people, the easier to block without having to manipulate them.

"As for helping me, It's really hard for people to bring up their own emotions in a large quantity for me to get stressed out enough. Which is where the other part of my power comes into play. I can manipulate them as well, like... increase or decrease the intensity of one or two emotions."

Addie could feel her boredom, amusement, and slight disappointment brewing within her. Her power could only work on preexisting emotions, so she focused on the amusement over the other two. "If you want, I can amplify your amusement so I can work on blocking it. I mean, you don't have to but it's better than the other emotions I'm sensing..."

She really, really hoped she didn't go too far in saying that.

[Eloise Eaton]

"You don't have to feel weird about it," Eloise promised, even if she was a little embarrassed that Adaryn could sense her boredom. It wasn't that she was bored with Adaryn... juts the class in general. The girl had nothing to do with it. "So go for it. Amplify or negate or whatever you have to do. I'm not easy to get a rise out of on my own," Eloise admitted.

She wondered exactly which other emotions Adaryn was sensing. In fact, sometimes Eloise couldn't even tell which emotions she was feeling. Often, it was as if she were feeling something different when reading thoughts as well. Other people's thoughts greatly influenced the low levels of emotion she had. While she didn't FEEL the emotion, her brain still contained the thoughts causing it. "But seriously, just tell me what to do and I'll do what I can."

[Adaryn Breslin]

"I'm sorry, I'm not a people person, I guess." Adaryn laughed nervously. She really didn't know, since one half of the time she was praised and the other half she was scolded, whether or not commenting on the emotions she sensed was a good thing. It was a hit or miss sort of situation, and the fact that it was a hit for Eloise, she realized that maybe she really would like this girl. It would be nice to not be so alone in powers class anymore.

"I can amplify your amusement, but only if you're okay with that. It won't hurt. You'll probably just get a case of the giggles or something, which is typical for high amusement and delight. But you probably already knew that so..." Why did she keep talking? Ugh, she is probably annoying her by now. Well, actually, she couldn't feel it yet... so probably not.

"Uh, whenever you're ready?"

[Eloise Eaton]

"I think I can handle it," Eloise promised when Adaryn warned her about the case of the giggles. Of course, Ella hadn't often experienced extreme levels of any emotion. She didn't often giggle more than a little. She had to be REALLY amused to laugh out loud. She wondered how stupid she'd feel laughing at absolutely nothing.

She didn't think about it for too long, in case Adaryn was to pick up on any of her other emotions. "I'm ready when you are. You do your thing," Eloise offered, not thinking there was really any way for her to help the process along other than thinking of things that amused her. Like jugglers and clowns and Monroe's combat boots.

[Adaryn Breslin]

Sifting through the emotions and locating her amusement was the easy part. The difficult part was actually relatively easy, just tricky. Most times she had amplified an emotion, it was during intense emotion, and usually those emotions were very eager to be amplified. Amusement was a bit trickier because it never really had the tendency to overpower a person unless it was stimulated. That being said, she slowly started to push the levels of her amusement higher and higher until Adaryn began to feel it in herself. She tried not to laugh.

"Okay, so I have to--" She stifled her laugh, covering her mouth with her palm. Okay, so this was definitely plenty of amusement to affect her. "I have to try and block it out, right?" She really didn't know how to do that and have Eloise know, but she would do as she was told and attempt to block out the emotion.

Her mental shields went up, and she could still feel the affects of the amusement, however, so she continued to push it away until she could mostly feel her own emotions, but just at the last minute, Adaryn burst into a fit of giggles and the shield fell. "Crap," She laughed. "I failed."

[Eloise Eaton]

It only took a moment for Eloise to be laughing hysterically. It had been a while since legitimately heard the sound of her own laughter, and it was weird. Her brain felt fuzzy, and her eyes began to water. "This is so dumb!" Eloise said between fits of giggles. "NOTHING FUNNY IS HAPPENING!" But both girls were erupting into fits of laughter. Eloise was sure they were drawing attention from most of the other class. She didn't care, really. Eloise wasn't one to be embarrassed. However, the idea of everyone's eyes drifitng over to them only amused Eloise more, causing the cycle of laughter to continue.

After a couple moments of uncontrolled hysterics, Eloise managed to catch her breath. "That. Was. Rediculous," she said with a smile, kind of impressed by the girls ability. "I haven't laughed like that since..." she stopped for a moment. "I don't know. It doesn't matter." She took a deep breath. "You may have failed but it was quite entertaining," Eloise admitted with a smile. "I don't think my lungs could take another go, though. So how about we try another emotion?" she offered, since she was pretty sure if she started laughing again she'd pass out due to lack of oxygen.

[Adaryn Breslin]

She hadn't laughed like that, well, in forever. Possibly years. No, not possibly. She hadn't laughed like that in years. She wasn't really focusing on why, because the amusement was fresh in her mind, and Eloise's laughter only fueled her own. Adaryn was smiling a bright, toothy smile. It was quite the change from the girl she was just a few minutes before. Eloise offered to do another emotion and she agreed. "Yeah, that'd be good. Your boredom has seemed to disappeared, masked underneath the amusement entirely." She figured that was a good thing, which it was. But Addie really didn't have many other emotions to pick from.

The brunette tried to locate an emotion that wasn't harmful to either of them, and she almost came up empty handed. The amusement really overthrew everything. She bit her lip then, but her mood didn't fall because she seemed to have another idea. Eloise may have been able to block her power out, but could Adaryn block telepaths from reading her thoughts? She could mask her emotions, according to Travis, but she didn't know how far that extended.

"Hey, I think I have an idea. Maybe to sort of give your other emotions time to... return, maybe I could see if I could block out your power? And then vice versa. Maybe you can see if you can place a block up for mine?"

[Eloise Eaton]

"Uh... sure," Eloise said, still taking a few moments to catch her breath. "Yeah that could work." Now that she thought about it, she knew how to block out telepaths, but had never really tried to block out empaths or any other mental ability.

"So you just want me to read your mind then?" Eloise asked, letting down the block she had up which kept her from reading others. For the moment all Adaryn seemed to be thinking of was the hysterics they had just launched into and how she hadn't laughed like that in years - similar to Eloise's on thoughts on the matter. Eloise knew it would be pretty easy to block out such surrface reading, though, so allowed herself into Adaryn's mind just a little deeper than normal. Into some subconscious thoughts. Though she tried to ignore most of what she was hearing for the sake of the girl's privacy. "And I'll let you know when I can't hear you anymore."