What Are You Staring At? (closed)

[Mitya Makarov]

One training session over, another scheduled to begin in an hour. It was oddly refreshing getting back into this kind of routine, and Mitya certainly hadn’t felt so calm in such a long time. He had rediscovered that, when his mind was occupied, he found it difficult to be nervous or paranoid, and so he was slowly becoming more and more comfortable. Though maybe that was just the adrenaline from the last session kicking in. It was a class that had involved a lot of movement and exercise, after all. Time would tell, he supposed. First, however, he would have to grab some cold water from the staff room, his water bottle being completely empty after the last couple of classes. Taking the opportunity to quickly run out before the next one, he walked briskly to his destination, spending little time to talk with other staff members other than a quick ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. He was very determined to keep himself occupied with work, and his mind simply decided that, in order to cut down distractions, chit chat could wait.

Stopping only in the corridor right outside the training room to go over the hastily scribbled timetable and notes he kept in his pocket, he became suddenly aware of the fact that it was very, very quiet, with all of the students now in their classes.

Well, everyone except that girl standing at the wall.

He didn’t know exactly who she was, either. All he knew was that she was standing looking entirely miserable and glowering in his direction. Whether she was staring at him or not, he didn’t know, but her very presence annoyed him for some reason. Also, students really shouldn’t loiter anyway. Surely they had better things to do, like study or doodle on bathroom walls or something.

“Don’t you need to be somewhere?” he asked her in an authoritative manner, lowering his hands to his sides.

[Mia Keystone]

Training now was the only time Mia could use her powers. It took a while for her to process things once the connection was severed, and so she had taken to just staying in one of the rooms as her mind tried to adjust to the sudden switch of all her senses. It felt a little like someone had cut off her hand, and it happened every. single. day.

Needless to say, it did not leave her in a good mood.

Most of the trainers left her alone now. She wasn't hurting anyone, she was hardly speaking, she just wanted some time to readjust. Not too much to ask, right?

Apparently, wrong, because some dude was getting up in her face (why did people keep doing that). The fact that he was a trainer meant very little to her at this precise moment; her mind was still detached and rewiring. "No," she said flatly. "What, you got a problem, comrade?"

Wasn't like the accent was hard to miss, and it was the most obvious target. She wasn't feeling u to something original just yet. Maybe in a few minutes.

"I'm rewiring. You are taking up my looking space."

And sure, being rude to a teacher was a stupid idea, but her brain was trying to reboot and she was coming down from her hour of being able to feel properly connected so this strange little man with the funny face should really just leave her be.

[Mitya Makarov]

From the way she stood and stared, he knew he was going to have some difficulty with this student, and he was mentally going through what he could actually do or say. It wasn't Odarennyĭ, after all. There were different rules in place. Some of which he was thankful for, since it gave him hope for his career at Hammel. Others... well, he was fairly sure other staff members also often wished that certain rules could be broken for particularly bratty students. Luckily he hadn't had too much trouble since he'd started but he should have known that couldn't last.

As she spoke, he raised an eyebrow. Comrade. Original. He wasn't... quite sure... what she meant by rewiring, or more specifically why she would choose to stand in the corridors staring at classrooms in order to carry out her 'rewiring process'. All he really got from what she said was that she was being insolent, and she wouldn't get away with it.

"Then I'm sure there are other places you can do that than out here. I think it would be better if you went to one of them." He spoke sternly, trying to make it clear that he did not appreciate her tone. Or general attitude, actually. Remembering the 'comrade' bit, he then stated: "And it's Mr. Makarov." To her it was, anyway. And she definitely didn't get to call him comrade. Stereotypical as it felt when he himself uttered it, he didn't actually find it all that insulting when used by others.

[Mia Keystone]

Mia glared balefully at 'Mr Makarov' from under straight black brows, looking very put upon. "I'm rewiring," she repeated slowly, as if speaking to a toddler. "I don't move and I'll be done much quicker if you would just leave me alone, ok?"

The frustrating thing was that she really hadn't done anything, this time, and yet someone was still here to make it that much harder for her to like fleshies. Why couldn't she get a friggen break? It was hard to sympathise, or, well, empathise with other people, as Dr Neville was constantly telling her to do, when people seemed determined to make her life that little bit more difficult-

For no reason.

Choosing to ignore the problem, Mia let her eyes glaze over again as she tried to reset her thought patterns to operate without constant information streaming in. A few of her teachers had commented that she seemed a lot calmer, or at least, she was not constantly twitching, but the technopath missed the constant hum and buzz as everything electronic within a half mile radius said hello.

And so, once again, she was not in a good mood.

[Mitya Makarov]

Had she explained her predicament to Mitya, he might have thought about letting her be. As she chose to be impudent instead, he decided he had to show her that he was the one in control, and not her. He couldn't let her intimidate him, but he was beginning to feel very, very exasperated with her, and it had only been a couple of minutes. If that.

Of course, he didn't know anything about the student. Even if she told him her name he probably wouldn't have matched it with the talk fiasco that he hadn't been at. And this was the consequence of not getting involved with the people around him. Maybe if he'd known he would have been better prepared.

As he didn't know anything about any of it, this was sure to become more difficult.

"That's not how it works," he told her, folding his arms and straightening up as well as he was able. "You don't tell me what to do, and you certainly don't take that kind of tone with staff."

Was she really going to be difficult? Sure, he could have just left her alone... but now it wasn't even about whether she stayed in the hallway or not.

[Mia Keystone]

"Or what?" Mia snapped, taking her hands away from her temples for a moment. "I'm not exactly quaking in my boots, dude. I'm not in the mood." It was like banging her head against a brick wall.

"This room is free for at least another fifteen minutes, I checked, so if you want to hang here, do that. But I need to sort out my connections and I can't do that while you're trying to pull the teacher card to prove that you've got the upper hand." But that was the problem, of course. He wouldn't back down because staff shouldn't have to back down to a student, and she wasn't budging until she'd sorted out the mess power suppression was making of her mind.

"Ok, let's skip the power play thing, and I can tell people you let me stay here, out of the goodness in your heart," Mia said finally, getting slightly desperate as her mind sparked, "whatever. I really need to concentrate."

[Mitya Makarov]

Mitya was already beginning to accept that he wasn't really going to get anywhere with this one, but he could not back down. Even if there was likely nothing he could actually do other than threaten to send her to the powers that be he had to persist. It wasn't as though he was cold and cruel. If she was having difficulty he was happy to help. But she was being defiant and unco-operative, and that only made things even more difficult. There just wasn't a better word.

"Well, first of all, the tone you continue to take is not helping your case," he said, sighing and leaning against the door frame. "Secondly, I don't need to prove anything to you. And thirdly, I am just as stubborn as you are so I cannot see this moving forward from here unless you do what you are told."

Was she pleading with him? It almost seemed that way. He wasn't unkind. That was important to note. But, again, he wasn't taking orders from a student. "Fifteen minutes, fifty, does it matter? If it's not me, it will be another staff member. So I suggest that you move." Before I move you. Yes, he was becoming that annoyed. But it was doing wonders for his confidence.

[Mia Keystone]

"I. Can't." Mia said slowly, her teeth grating furiously against each other as she dug her metaphorical heels in. "Go. Away!" Was it that hard, really? Was he new or something? She was being positivly polite... for her.

There was nothing for it. Mia closed her eyes again, trying to concentrate as the last few sparks in her brain sought a way out. Wincing, the technopath tried to breath and calm down and ease them away but her heart rate had begun to race as her temper rose and Mia was not good at control when she was angry. "You need to go," she managed to force out from between gritted teeth.

But the synapses and electrical connections in her brain were not willing to quiet down and Mia felt a twitch behind her eye as the hum of a phone, an old one, caught her minds attention.

That phone didn't stand a chance. There was a fizzing sound, then a loud snap and a crack and the technopath's eyes flew open at the smell of burning material. "I told you!" she snapped, running her hands through her hair. "I just needed fifteen minutes, for fucks sake."

She'd done him a favour; he needed to update anyway

[Mitya Makarov]

If it hadn't been for the fact that he had classes, he might have stayed there all day trying to understand what exactly her problem was. And he really did want to understand. He also wanted to be shown a little respect, and that certainly wasn't happening any time soon. And now they had a problem, because neither would back down, and both of them knew it was pointless.

"No, you see, I'm not taking orders from students today." Whatever her power was, could it really be so difficult just to go somewhere else to 'rewire'? "So until you start to show me a little more respect, perhaps even explain why you need this spot precisely, we have a problem."

It seemed pretty sudden, what she did. He kept his phone in his shirt pocket, close to his chest. Clearly it had been a mistake to keep to the ritual of phone in shirt pocket, notes in jacket pocket before leaving the house on this particular day. The jolt he received from the dying phone caused him to recoil, and his heart beat so fast that he thought it would go next.

"What did you do that for?!" he exclaimed, pulling the burning phone from his shirt before it did him any more damage. Frowning at her, he sighed. Maybe she didn't do it on purpose. "You couldn't have just explained yourself? Five seconds would not have killed you... or my phone." It was a good thing that he had the important numbers committed to memory. And it was probably very good for everyone that even a shock like that wasn't enough to completely wear away his patience.

[Mia Keystone]

"I didn't do it on purpose," Mia exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "I have fine control, when fucking power supressors arn't playing in my head." Reaching up and taking the still hot phone from him without so much as a by your leave, the technopath flipped it over in her hands and pried the back off. The smell of melting plastic made her nose wrinkle. With her chewed nails the tech expert pulled out the sim and held it close to her eye.

"You can still use this," she muttered, passing the chip back. "'s just the phone that got fried." That was as close to an apology as she was going to get.

But then he started up again and the slightly abashed expression faded back into indignation. "Because," she said slowly through gritted teeth, "I needed to get control again so I didn't blow up something more than your crappy old phone, sir."

The phone in question had stopped smoking, and Mia passed it back wordlessly.

[Mitya Makarov]

Suppressors... The cogs really began turning when she mentioned that her powers had been suppressed, and he knew that at least two students were currently undergoing such punishment. Whatever had happened at the talk, it must have been bad. At that moment, all he really knew was that the presentation had been hijacked. Obliviousness was not his friend. So this one was... Kingstone? Carlton? No - Keystone, that was it.

Not that it really meant very much to him. Not yet, anyway.

Taking the sim back and slipping it into a secure-enough pocket, he sighed. “Thank you,” he murmured. It was probably the closest he was getting to an apology, judging by the look of the situation.

“That still would have taken you all of five seconds to explain,” he continued, taking the useless brick back from her. “In as many words as you used to attempt to order me around.”

Shifting a little so that one foot was actually in his classroom, he leaned against the door frame once more.

“Now, I think this would be the best time for us to go our separate ways.”

He wasn’t really expecting her to walk away immediately. Still, he had technically taken the first step.

((I am sorry this is late and terrible))

[Mia Keystone]

"Sure, and in that five seconds, I might have blown out all the lights," Mia muttered, feeling a strong urge to grasp the back of Mitya's head and bang it against a wall until he stopped repeating himself. What was his deal? "It would have taken you five seconds to turn around and leave me alone for a few minutes, and yet, here we are."

And now, she was leaving. It wasn't like there was anything left for her to do, and she sure as hell wasn't going to do small talk. Her mood was not so good, bad enough that she knew if she stayed to tell him what she thought of teachers who felt the need to throw their weight around (so, well, all of them really). Plastering a smile on that made it look like she was at the dentist, she moved towards the door and turned to him. "Hope training goes well. You clearly know how to control your students, sir."

As she walked past, Mia couldn't resist a final goodbye. "010000010110111001100100001000000100100100100000011000010110110100100000011001110110111101101001011011100110011100100000011101000110111100100000011001000110111100100000011000010010000001101100011011110110111101101011001000000110100101101110001011000010000001001011010001110100001000100000011000010110011101100101011011100111010000101110001000000100100100100000011010000110111101110000011001010010000001111001011011110111010100100000011001110110010101110100001000000110000100100000010000100110110001100001011000110110101101100010011001010111001001110010011110010010000001100001011011100110010000100000011101000110100001100101001000000110101101100101011110010110001001101111011000010111001001100100001000000110011101100101011101000111001100100000011100110111010001110101011000110110101100100000011000010110110001101100001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110100011010010110110101100101001011000010000001101001011011100111010001100101011100100110010101100110011001010111001001101001011011100110011100100000010100100111010101110011011100110110100101100001011011100010000001101101011000010110111000101110." She muttered quickly, still smiling, and edged past Mitya to get to the corridor.

*And I am going to do a look into you, KGB agent. I hope you get a Blackberry and the keyboard gets stuck all the time, interfering Russian man.