Big Step Forward [open]

[Annabelle Coronova]

The lump in Anna's throat was almost too large to swallow down, but with great difficulty, she was able to manage. You know that feeling where you feel all alone with this big barrier over your head, weighing you down, but you still feel determined to fix it, even though you've spent all your waking moments avoiding it? Well that was basically it. Although Bells was pretty well rounded in her exterior, underneath, she'd been hiding this fear of facing her problems for far too long. And now here she was, her conscience had guided her here where her mind would not ever dare to go. How long she'd stay, she wasn't yet sure of, but what mattered was that her two feet and the rest of her had made it to the training ground.

She was a weakling, she knew that. In fact, she even slept with her gloves on, just to make sure that if she ended up sleepwalking, she wouldn't end up touching someone. She couldn't and didn't trust herself to even brush fingers with anyone. Yes, she'd been here for a while and yet to have a real training lesson. It was the student's responsibility to make one, and being the feeble girl she was, this was officially her first one for the entire time she'd been here.

Eventually she wanted to get out, and this was the first step. Clearing her throat, she pulled off her lace gloves, one finger by one, until she gently pulled them off and stuck them in her back pocket. She rubbed her hands together, as if it had been a while since she'd even touched her own skin. Hopefully with time she'd be better to a point where she could hold someone else's.

Staring down at her feet, which were pigeon-toed as she stood there, idle and waiting for someone else, her saving grace, to walk in and help her out. Perhaps, hopefully, they'd be gentle on her, but then again, they could be the militant type that would do all they could to whip her into shape. They did that with Snape and Harry Potter with Occlumency, didn't they? Oh golly, that would be a bit extreme (& yes she did compare her life to Hogwarts from time to time, the geek as she was).

Who was coming? Was anyone actually coming? She hoped so, she knew she needed this, no matter what the other side of her mind said, with all the protesting it was doing. She was manning up and taking the bull by the horns. Well soon, as soon as someone came.

[Aaron Walker]

Of course. AJ thought to himself as he ran through the hallways towards the training rooms. Of course I’m running late. AJ had put off any major training for quite a while. It wasn’t that he was afraid of hard work. He was afraid he would learn that he couldn't control his power. At all. Although he wouldn’t necessarily mind being a hermit for the rest of his life for the safety of other, being able to be at least semi-close to other people had its interesting moment. AJ had no problem entertaining himself for a day or two. But a whole lifetime was a completely different story.

He burst into the training room, already forming an apology in his head, only to see that the other person in the room was also a student. AJ wasn’t sure what her name was, but he had seen her in a classroom once or twice. She looked different than usual. Her gloves. AJ thought. She usually wears gloves.

Since this was his first real training, he wasn’t bothered by the fact that someone was already in the room. He just figured that was the way things worked. Maybe the older kids help out the teachers. Like the social klutz he was, instead of introducing himself or even saying hello, AJ just stood by the door with his hands in his pockets.

[Bill Collins]

Maybe getting the puppy in the middle of the semester was a bad idea, but Bill loved the little thing like a child and didn't let it's un-trained actions get to him. Sure it pees all over the floor, and squats on the rug. She just doesn't know to ask to be let out side like her older siblings. Disco and Lucy took to the puppy just as they had when Bernard had been introduced to the family. Bernard himself absolutely adored the little fluff ball. He wanted to play rough with her though, and she was just too young for that. Chibi, the Samoyed, could not be trusted at the house while he wasn't there so that meant she came to with him to work.

Getting her situated in her crate in his little car took him a bit longer than he'd expected, and thus caused him to be running late. Once he did get her to school, she didn't want to leave the damn thing. Then she decided to sniff every solid object between the car and the school, and refused to be carried through the hallways. Finally he got to his training classroom, the little puppy wandering around on her leash around his heels. He spotted two students already there, he'd been so concerned and troubled by the puppy he'd nearly forgotten about the two new trainees he'd be picking up (their files were both on his desk at home, half picked through). He nodded first to the boy, because he was closest, and then to the girl.

"Hope yah like dogs," he began as he closed the door behind him, and walked the puppy over to his desk, the collapsible kennel was folded under his arm. He let her off the leash as he bent down to set up the little crate for her. Once it was secured, he picked her up and set her inside the crate, she yipped a few times but resigned to silence when she found a toy amongst the blankets. He smiled down at the puppy for a moment before he turned his attention to the two students.

"My names is Bill Collins. I have the power of precognition. Who might you be?" He tried not to talk with his full-on Scottish voice, because he had been told by his students before that it was very hard for them to understand. He smiled between both students. If he thought very hard, he could probably remember their names from the files, but nothing came to mind at the moment.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ was surprised, and excited, to see the man walk in with a puppy. He had always understood animals easier than other people and therefore generally liked them more. He wished more than anything that he had a dog treat in one of his pockets for the adorable ball of fluff. Or at least a cool chew toy. I’d give her one of my bouncy balls, but they’re kinda small. She might choke, he thought to himself as he began taking a mental inventory of the contents of his pockets that day.

The moment Bill let her off her leash, AJ dropped to his knees and held out his hand for her to sniff. While Bill was setting up her cage, AJ was petting her and enjoying her sniff about the room. He watched Bill putting her in the cage and figured that he couldn’t be that bad of a guy if he had such a cute dog. He smiled as Bill smiled down at her in her crate.

And then the Bill spoke, reminding AJ the reason he was here. To train. To train his powers. His powers that he had no control over whatsoever. His eyes locked onto the cute little puppy, playing around in her crate.

“Umm…sir?” AJ said, once again forgetting to introduce himself. “What if…? What about…? Are you sure it’s safe for your dog to be here?” Maybe we can skip the training and go outside and play fetch. I’m totally up for that.

[Annabelle Coronova]

Oooh a puppy! But first a boy, a boy who hadn't said hello, but Annabelle didn't blame him, it wasn't like she was stepping up to say hi either. Rather, she had decided to stare down at her feet. But now that she had heard the scuffling of a four-legged friend and a few yipes from the small thing, Anna's center of attention had been drawn entirely off of herself or the other humans in the room for that matter. The white puffball was wagging its wee tail about excitedly, sniffing whatever it could. She glanced up curiously at the puppy, and then followed the line of eye direction towards its owner, a grown man who she could have only presumed to be a professor, or as it would make sense in this case, a trainer. She sorta felt bad for him, that he had someone with such a boring ability to try to train, plus whatever the other guy did. She only really knew about someone's ability if they 'd shown it in a fit of fury or for the sake of showing off. Like take Zac for example. Or when that other rich kid...Luke was his name? got frustrated at Zac and threatened him with fireballs in his hands. And imagine that kid would be graduating..

So much thinking caused her to almost miss what the guy was saying. He had introduced himself in a deep accent, but Belle picked it up as Bill. Should she call him that? Or Mr. Collins, or was he a Dr.? Should she call him that? The name calling was so naive, depending on how personal they were going to get. Bringing a dog into a training session eased a bit of tension that she had, although now that its kennel was being built up, and soon the little white fluffball would be contained, that same tension might soon return. The boy next to her started to stutter out fragments of a sentence, looking as worried as Annabelle might soon be feeling. Although she was more focused on being touched or touching someone, she failed to even think about what she would do if she touched an animal. Well actually, she'd have no problem. Her skills only seemed to work on humans as it was now. Take for example her ferret. She could hold him all she wanted and not phase into a tame warp of images from someone's past. She'd never thought of it, really, but now that it came into view, she was sure glad to have realized this, knowing now she could hug and kiss and cuddle and play with animals all she wanted. Alas! Some freedom!

Unfortunately for the boy next to her though, it seemed like he wasn't so lucky. He must have another sort of physical ability, whether it was like hers or something more epic and useful, she wasn't sure, although she'd like to hope that people were stuck with the crappy 'ability' she had. She actually wished it on nobody. But that attitude was supposed to change throughout these nifty sessions. She was going to be able to touch people sooner or later, something she was definitely set on. She was going to be able to hug her mother again, and only feel the warm sensation of her body against Anna's. That was all. She was going to be able to kiss a boy and not look through all of his secrets and past. It would be just a kiss, no complications to that. That was her goal at least. And looking towards Mr. Bill Collins, she became a wee bit more determined, just a bit, because as much as she feared looking into his mind, something told her it wouldn't be as easy as she thought it would be to accidentally trip and grace his hand or something. He had it all under control.

It was her turn for introductions, she felt. Looking now to the grown man, she announced in her idea of a loud voice, "I'm Belle, or Annabelle. Annabelle Coronova. And I have the unfortunate ability of retrocognition by a single touch." She held up a finger gracefully, as if to accentuate her point, and then dropped her hands behind her back, waiting to finally hear a) the other boy's ability and name, and b) what they exactly were going to be doing today, considering that they had an interesting array of skills on the table already. She glanced over at the mysterious stuttering boy inquisitively, waiting for him to speak.

[Bill Collins]

It didn't really cross his mind anymore that any of his students would dislike dogs. He regularly brought them to help the students remain calm and focused--because that was what was needed to get the dogs to behave--and it really went over well with the trainees so far; no one was allergic to them and on more than one occasion a few had expressed their wish to kidnap one of them (usually it was Bernard because he had the most energy and loved playing roll-around-on-the-ground the most.) At first, Bill had been hesitant to bring his dogs to class with him, but it had gone over so well he had assumed bringing in this puppy would be received just like his other dogs, if not with even more enthusiasm. Chibi was just the absolutely cutest thing Bill had seen in a long time, as fluffy puppies tended to be.

He felt a bit of inner satisfaction as both the boy and girl took to the puppy--he spotted them petting her while he set up her cage--and after he had put her away, she probably wanted back out just to get that same attention from the students again. That'll have to wait until after the lesson though. When the boy stammered around asking him a question, he about barked at the boy to have a little bit of confidence and speak clearly, but the boy finally got it out without him having to nudge. "What power is that?" He asked, he propped chin on his hand, and that elbow on his other hand as he waited, his brows furrowed in thought. If the boy's power was actually dangerous, he would need to move Chibi to a different room, probably to that recruiter Flo's office. He was aware that she was a dog lover and probably wouldn't mind about taking the dog for the day.

However, it would be great for the boy--the boy probably wouldn't think so--if the puppy did remain in the room because that meant it was live or die, should the boy's powers be that dangerous, for the puppy and he had that pressure to have control. He'd need to be absolutely focused and whatnot. Though to be honest, Bill didn't think the boy was ready for that. He'd take the puppy to another room, the staff lounge at the least. "And do you have any objections to the puppy remaining in the room?" He smiled as she introduced herself as Belle and he nodded in acknowledgement for her having retro cognition. She was in the same ball field as he was in the powers category, however his power was not activated by touch and he saw into the future.

He rubbed his hands together as he thought about the game plan for class. Focusing exercises were a must, the both of them looked like they were more afraid (or sick) of their powers. That would not do. "After I return, we'll go over some deep breathing. Meditation like then we'll go from there. Don't break anything; I'll be back shortly." He picked up Chibi's cage, and with that was out of the room before he could listen to any protests and navigated the hallways to the staff lounge. He poked his head inside first then brought in Chibi. He left a quick not that she'd only be in there for an hour or so, but if any teachers wanted to take her out to pet/play with her, they could.

He returned just as fast as his journey was and once inside he clapped and rubbed his hands together. "So. Has either one of you ever meditated before?"

[Aaron Walker]

AJ listened to Belle introduce her and her power. So that must be what the gloves are all about. He started to get lost in his thoughts, wondering if there was some accessory he could make to help him with his power. He realized suddenly that the other two were waiting for him to tell who he was and what he did. “Oh,” he said, trying not to stammer so much this time. “I’m Aaron James, but you can just call me AJ. It’s a little…easier…I guess. I can um..what’s the word?...manipulate sound waves. Or at least they say I will be able to. Right now I just kinda store it up…and then…kinda…um…explode. It gets a little violent.” While he talked, AJ avoided looking at either Belle or Bill. Once he finished he threw a hopeful glance up at Bill, hoping the trainer understood what he was trying to say.

He was glad that he wasn’t in too much pain today. His experience so far with his power had been that as the days went by, and he continued to absorb sound waves, he started to have aches and pains all over. Eventually it got to be too much for him to handle and his body would release its built up energy in one powerful wave. But today he just had a headache. Still, if he was going to be messing around with his power, he didn’t want the puppy to get hurt.

It seemed that Bill understood, because he removed the puppy from the room. AJ was a little sad to see the small dog go. Hopefully, he could play with the dog later. He sure hoped so.

“Meditated?” AJ asked. “I’m not sure. I like to sit and think…but I don’t know if that really counts. Does it?”

[Annabelle Coronova]

Meditation.Her mind was always somewhere else, digging into some ancient crevice in her mind, 24/7 too. She didn't have the extra time or effort to sit and try to think of nothing. It was going to be nearly impossible, if not completely impossible. Was this really the only thing she could do to get control of her powers? Suddenly, it seemed like it was going to be much of a longer road to control than previously thought. "Uhm, no. I've never meditated, my mind races too much for that. Its quite annoying and I usually give up before the five minute mark." No use in telling a lie, it was the facts, after all. Perhaps he could give her advice on how to manage that as well. How to think of nothing.. wouldn't that be focusing on something even though its supposed to be the lack of focusing and thinking that gets you to that meditative state? Her mind wanted to dig more into that realm, but her body stopped her, and instead decided to focus on what the trainer might have to say.

Meanwhile, she listened to what this AJ boy had to say. He had a tactile power, or something like that. She'd say safely it was more extreme than hers, but that all depended on who's history she was digging through. Hitler's or Hilton's. Which made her wonder... could she do the same thing with dead people? Or did it have to be a living, chugging brain? Ew, this was getting to grotesque as she thought of pictures of neuropsychologists who cut slices of brain to analyze them. See where her mind took her? No where good. Unfortunately with a gift like hers, it was all about the mind. She really would need to work on all of this if she ever planned on holding her little sister's hand as they jumped along the rocks on the bay in Maine ever again.

Time to get to work.

[Bill Collins]

For beginners, meditation was something that was laughed at, not taken seriously, or refuted; in most cases all three. Bill knew different, however. Meditation was an important key into gaining control of one's self, and one's powers. It had helped him differentiate between his actual memories and the memories of the future, explaining that to these two students would probably just fall on deaf ears. But the fact remained; meditation was a must. He inclined his head when the boy finally introduced himself. Aaron James. Bill committed it to memory. During the time he inclined his head, he began to recall past training sessions with both him, and Belle. Which was he knew to be the future, because he had just met the two of them. They would get along, once he got them to believe meditation was important.

"In a sense sitting and thinking is meditation. Though it's divided by a few technicalities," Bill said with a small gesture of his hand. He was one of those sorts of speakers; always moving. He walked over to his desk and sifted through the papers cluttered on top of it, but not for any particular thing. "Meditating is more focused on looking inside yourself; clearing your mind. Like going to sleep, I've heard it equated to. So if you both would take a comfortable position. Either sitting standing--laying down if you'd like. I'll talk you through the process as we go along. Seems to be easier for those who haven't done it before." He smiled as he gestured for them to go ahead and get comfortable.

Once they were settled, he drew in a deep breath and closed his own eyes for a moment. "Focus on your breathing, but let it do it's own thing. Just let it flow in and out.....In.....and out." It might seem boring at first, but trust Bill on this. He knows what he is doing.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ listened to Belle explain her trouble with meditation. “You don’t like it when you’re mind races?” he asked her, confused. “But that’s the best part of thinking. It just takes off and always leads somewhere cool and interesting. Like…Disney World.” He figured his example might not be the best one, but it was the first cool, interesting, far off place he could think of. Man, I wish Hammel was more like Disney World, he thought to himself.

He was busy trying to plan the perfect spot for a roller-coaster, when he realized Bill was continuing with his lesson on meditation. “You want us to try to go to sleep?” he asked, really confused this time. He didn’t understand how sleeping on the floor in the training room would help his control. But then again, he was the student and not the teacher. So he got down on the floor and closed his eyes. If I knew we were just gonna take naps, I woulda let him keep his puppy in here.

Listening to Bill’s voice, AJ tried to focus hard on his breathing. Instead he found himself holding his breath. After gasping for air when he ran out of breath, he started laughing to himself. “Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to ruin the moment.” Hoping he wasn’t about to get in trouble, he decided to just count his breaths instead. Opening his eyes a little, he looked toward Belle to see what she thought of this whole meditation thing.