May The Force Not Be With You - Honor Open Tags

[Honor Sayers]

Honor didn't quite like being indoors. At least not for too long but all the outdoor training areas were being used so she had to occupy the indoor training rooms for her lessons.

Slowly, she made her way down to the room she was assigned to and hoped the students she was going to get would not be complete brats. And if any of them are physical metas, she would probably complain to the administration. She was not about to train someone who could run away from her even before she could touch them.

She was fast sure, and her stick could probably incapacitate people more than she could but it would not end well for anyone of them if she did that. Which in hindsight might not be a bad idea. She still didn't know why she even agreed to come back to the place where her memories were just horrible. Was it a sense of loyalty to the place that helped her hone her abilities? Who knew? She supposed she just needed a place to be where no one would look at her weirdly just because she was blind.

Her ears picked up movement from behind her and she looked up. "Here to train?" She asked curtly, her voice raspy and unnaturally low for a woman.

[jinkyung]

Finally, yes finally, JJ had found an adequate trainer that would suit his needs. Not to say he hadn't been training before this, of course, he had been, and that's why he was really good at controlling and handling his abilities, but this certain trainer was different from the rest. From what he'd heard about her, she wasn't the happiest of folks, but would students say much else about him? Probably not. He was considered to be the moody one of the bunch, rarely ever caught smiling or dancing about for no particular reason. In truth, JJ wasn't much of a extrovert at all, and preferred to actually think before he talked, instead of coming off as a fool and blabbing his mouth off. He grew wiser beyond his years, doing such, and wasn't going to stop now.

He was sauntering casually over to the training field where he heard this trainer would be. She had something like power suppression, but only if she could touch him. This gave him the perfect opportunity to use his defense tactics to protect himself. If there was another student though, he could attempt to cover them and defend them as well, a certain task he'd been attempting to learn how to do, as it was a bit more advanced than the rudimentary tasks and exercises they'd been having him practice. He knew all that, and he wanted to move on. Still, he couldn't lie, it was fun shooting translucent beams from his hands that thrust others backwards on their feet, or forming a bubble-like structure to encase himself from harm. Now if only he could learn to master the art of protecting others, what he came to this school to learn to do..

Now walking onto the field and noticing he was riding solo, JJ figured he'd wait around for someone else to come, other than the trainer, but if not, then he'd be more than willing to step it up and see what this trainer had to offer. "Hello. I'm here for a trainer. I'm supposing you'd be her, am I correct?"

[Honor Sayers]

The voice that came with the reply had a distinct accent, one Honor could easily place as Asian and the question that came with it had Honor sneering even before she turned to face her new recruit. "Does it look like there's anybody else here?" She asked, tapping her cane on the ground as she walked towards where the voice had come from.

"State your name, age and power." Honor curtly asked when her cane hit something solid.

[OOC: Sorry for the shortness ^^ From here on out, do understand that whatever Honor does or say is not reflective of my POV or what I would personally do or say ^^]

[Jonah King]

The last thing Jonah had expected when he had stepped through the door of the training room was that he would see someone hit on the legs with a cane by the woman who – he supposed – was supposed to be a power trainer. For a moment he paused, wondering if she had seen him yet. If she hadn’t, he could get away with leaving before he was even noticed. But she seemed to be looking in his exact direction, and he regarded her much in the same way one would look nervously at a dangerous dog. She had to be Honor Sayers, the trainer he had been told to report to (they kept trying him with new people, in the hope that one would stick), but as he had never seen her before, he had no real idea of what to expect.

She had evidently just said something – he could tell by the listening expression on her face – but he had caught no more than ‘and power’. Jonah looked over at Jin, trying to catch his eye and see what was going on, but the woman was looking more and more impatient for an answer. There was something about her expression he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was the same look he had seen on the faces of other deaf people when they were trying hard to work out what someone was saying – an intense concentration. But that wasn’t quite it. It was the same concentration, but she wasn’t trying to see anything.

‘I’m Jonah King,’ he told her, carefully watching to see if he was saying what she expected to hear. ‘I’m a telepath – I’m here for training.’

He continued to eye her, wary in case she tried to use that stick again.

[Honor Sayers]

Another voice, coming from the other side of the room had Honor straightening up. Her glazed over eyes turned ever so slightly to where she had heard it. Strange voice. Almost like the person using it didn't use it too often. Not familiar with the subtle tones of a deaf person, Honor frowned slightly. A foreign exchange student perhaps?

"A telepath." Her lips curled into a slight sneer. Mental metas were always a bother, even though she was partly one herself but telepaths had always been the biggest pain she had ever encountered. The times when she was sent to Dr. Neville when she was younger were nauseating memories. And now she had to train one? Could her life be any more difficult?

"Well don't just stand at the doorway, come in." She turned back to place her walking cane on the bench behind her and divested the coat she had come in with and threw that on the bench as well.

"Try blocking my thoughts from becoming yours once I touch you. So you have to come closer." She turned again to where she heard the voice from, extending her hand. She had left her glasses for some odd reason in the office so it was even harder for her to sense the distance between herself and him. Unless she closed her eyes.

[Jonah King]

So, she didn’t seem to like telepaths very much. But that was nothing new – few people did. Jonah had noticed that his ability seemed to set a lot of people on edge. Well, he could understand that: he wouldn’t like people to be able to read his thoughts any more than he liked hearing those around him. Maybe Honor had been through some bad experiences with a telepath.

He edged closer when she told him to come into the room, still wishing he had been given someone who didn’t look like she was about to beat him up. He relaxed his mental barriers slightly as she turned away – at least that way he would be able to get the gist of what she was saying if she spoke with her back to him. People tended to form words clearly in their minds when they spoke, and Jonah was very good at listening for them. When Honor put down the cane, he gave a small smile of relief. One less way for the strange woman to inflict pain on him.

As she spoke he could hear the echo of the sentence in her head – reluctantly, he came forward. One step at a time he moved towards her until they were close enough for her to hear his breathing. Nervous, still, Jonah pulled up all his barriers again and readied himself for the onslaught of her thoughts which would begin when she touched him. So far in his life he had not yet been able to block someone out when they made physical contact.

And so far, he had the feeling that he really didn’t need to hear what this woman was thinking…

[Honor Sayers]

How could anyone like telepaths? They were intrusive creatures. Nosy and inconsiderate. At least the lot Honor had come across. Especially Dr. Sean Neville. There had been way too many instances where Honor was mighty tempted to just touch the man and have him walk out of his office and ultimately Hammel. She had heard enough gossip from her fellow peers to know his absence would not be missed.

But who knows, this boy might beat the stereotype. It was a hope Honor wasn't about to cling on to.

Once she felt him close the gap between them, she extended her hand until she felt herself touch something warm and solid. Not bothering with the vocal instructions, she kept true to her thoughts. "You're going to feel a little itchy down in your left leg. You're going to bend down and try to scratch it." It was a fairly simple order. Nothing off her back. But sometimes even for a telepath, especially a young untrained one, trying to deflect the order was a hard task. If this boy could do at least that, she would know how far she could go with her power.

[Jonah King]

Usually, when Jonah was touched by someone else, it was enough of a shock to the system to paralyse him for a moment. Suddenly hearing everything they were thinking was never a pleasant experience, and he sometimes worried that he would never be able to block out people who were making physical contact. No power trainer had succeeded in getting him to the stage where he would be able to keep a grip on himself, and even they seemed to think that it was just an inevitable part of his particular brand of telepathy. Everyone was different, after all, and Jonah knew that he was alone in being unable to consume alcohol or touch another person.

That didn’t stop him being strong, though.

When Honor’s hand found his shoulder, Jonah had been expecting to hear a blast of ‘sound’ from her – and so he did. But there was something else, and he only realised that something foreign was trying to force itself into his mind after it was already halfway there. Jonah’s leg started to itch, but he didn’t touch it. He slammed down a wall between his mind and Honor’s intruding suggestion, and pulled himself away from her hand. Without the contact between them, his leg no longer itched – he gazed at her in stunned amazement. ‘Did you just try to put a thought into my head?’ he asked, mentally making sure that all of his barriers were up in case she tried it again.

[Honor Sayers]

Honor hadn't banked on the boy being this in control of his powers but she was glad one of her trainees had a semblance of control. This just meant she could expand on her own power. Selfish? Honor? Of course not.

A smirk crossed her lips when Jonah asked his question. Try? How insulting. She dropped her hand, thus her control over Jonah and stepped backwards, emptying her cache of thoughts. "Please, boy. Do not insult me." Her gaze fixed on Jonah's chest, Honor raised an eyebrow. "You really ought not to drop your barriers, just a word of caution."

Her hand reached out, closing in on Jonah's arm. "Why don't we try something else?" Her voice taking on a soothing, calm voice. All for show of course. "Won't you calm down for me, Jonah...sit down, relax?"

[Jonah King]

Jonah was well aware by this point that dropping his barriers was a bad idea. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ he replied, still puzzled for a moment by the fact that she was looking at his chest and not his face.

Bright, aren’t you, King?[/b] said the little voice in his head which reminded him of Mia. Of course. Honor was blind. She wasn’t looking at his face because she couldn’t see his face. Jonah almost smiled, relieved to have worked out the answer to the niggling question in his mind – and then he had to stifle a chuckle.

Give the deaf student to the blind teacher. Genius.

But he was distracted for just a second, and during that second Honor had laid a hand on his arm. For a moment her thoughts blared inside his head, and then he renewed his defences just as she started trying to force her own suggestions into his mind. It was as if he could see her trying to break in – normal people had no shields inside their heads to stop thoughts coming in, and so it would be the easiest thing for Honor to overcome them. But Jonah’s barriers were holding up so far, until – a crack.

Suddenly overcome by fatigue, Jonah fell to his knees. But while Honor’s usual victims would not have known what she was doing, Jonah could tell – and he regrouped himself before she had the chance to get any further inside his head. The exhaustion lifted. Jonah’s right hand twitched slightly as he projected a white flash into her mind, something designed to dazzle her – if her barriers were strong enough, she could block it. If not, she would be sent reeling. If she was going to play dirty, so was Jonah.

[Honor Sayers]

A tiny smirk crossed Honor's face at the boy's reply. He had some cajones on him. And he was very strong, something that surprised and rather intrigued Honor. It was easy to hide the fascination she had of him physically but mentally, it was just a tad hard. Damn telepaths, they had a way of revealing things that were supposed to be kept hidden. But that didn't stop Honor from fully utilising her own powers. It came naturally to her anyway.

Without any other indication whatsoever of Jonah's thoughts or actions, Honor piled on the command she had initiated on Jonah. She could feel the rush coming from having bent Jonah's mind to her will. It was only when her hand slid over to where Jonah's shoulder was that she realised it had worked on the boy. Slowly, she could feel him fighting back relentlessly. She was rather enjoying this.

The sudden brightness was new to her, something Honor had never experienced, not even with thought pushers but it didn't startle her, rather alerted her to put up even more defenses. The smirk on her face turned into one of pure glee. It looked manic on Honor's delicate face but she wasn't to know of it. She dropped her hand and the brightness receded. She almost fancied she could see something again but the hope died almost immediately.

"Not bad, Mr. King." Honor nodded slowly, not showing her full appreciation of the fact that he had been the most competent student she had trained thus far. "I'm going to put up barriers in my mind now and I want you to break through them all. You think you can manage that?" Honor asked, condescension seeping through her words. But just slightly. She was actually rather impressed by his level of control.

[Jonah King]

Jonah waited a moment after Honor had removed her hand from his shoulder before getting warily to his feet. She actually seemed impressed with him – however slightly – and he felt a small flare of pride creep up into his chest. Most of his training had been about blocking people, not about fighting back. In a strange way, it was quite nice for the more dangerous aspect of his gift to be acknowledged in a positive way. It also didn’t hurt to be congratulated for doing something he had worked out entirely by himself.

Generally speaking, that was the thing about Hammel. Morals were a high motivation when it came to training, and Jonah was beginning to realise that he had never been taught how to fight back. He had only every been told how to keep people out. Clearly, a telepath who knew how to use his ability offensively was not something the school authorities wished to turn out.

‘I can try.’ Jonah paused for a moment at the task Honor set him, considering the most effective method. If he touched her he would be able to break through far more easily, but the downside to that was that she would be able to use her ability on him – she didn’t seem to be able to exert that mental pressure on him remotely. Jonah, on the other hand, was confident that he could get into her head without physical contact.

It was easier to do with his eyes closed, but Jonah didn’t want to give Honor that advantage. So he kept his eyes on her as he reached out to her mind, letting down his barriers. For a moment he was too exposed – he could hear everyone in the building – but he pulled himself together and tried again, this time more slowly and selectively. Honor’s barriers were good, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was stronger – probably because he was a telepath, and her gift was something else. Jonah spoke into Honor’s mind, pressing with controlled force against her mental walls. I could blast through, he told her, the tone of his mind-voice as matter-of-fact as he could make it. Can you see that?[/i] She would be able to feel his strength. But I won’t.

[Honor Sayers]

"We can all only hope." She sneered when Jonah replied. Honor most certainly didn't need her students to try when it came to their abilities. She wasn't in the business of having her trainees hold back when it came to their powers. Offense or defense, both were important when it came to controlling their ability. If they knew one but not the other, they were pretty much screwed.

Sure, she was aware of what having both strategies could produce; Gabriel Underwood was the most notable offensive meta she had heard about. He was her senior and she only knew him through word of mouth and every now and then, she still hears things about him talked about in hushed voices. Suffice it to say, she was secretly impressed by him. Had she been just a little bit more confident, she would have expressed it to him earlier.

Moving on...

She slowly felt her barriers collapsing under Jonah's mental strains until she heard his voice in her head. The blond let slip a smirk but decided against putting up even more barriers. I'm not a juvenile meta, King. She chuckled derisively mentally. If this is your way of scaring me, it's not going to work.

Honor slowly brought down her barriers herself, raising her hand -- promptly calculating the distance between his chest and face -- and patted Jonah's cheek sharply twice. "That'll do," she announced. "Who was your trainer before?"

[Jonah King]

Jonah was too taken aback by Honor’s scornful tone to offer a quip in return – words had never been his strong point, after all. But he couldn’t help but notice that she did back down. She did know that he could have broken into her mind if he wanted to – and that was half the battle. He didn’t always need to demonstrate his ability fully, as long as he could show that it was there, and he basically knew how to use it.

He remained tense as he saw her take down her barriers, and withdrew from her mind as quickly as he could, rebuilding his own walls before she had a chance to take the offensive. But she surprised him by not trying – when she touched his cheek, it wasn’t part of an attempt to use her gift on him. Jonah didn’t flinch away, as he usually would have done: he was too surprised for that. But, with his barriers back in place, he was surprised to find that her touch didn’t overload him as much as it usually would have done. It was loud in his head, sure, but nothing like the usual volume levels.

Although that probably had more to do with Honor’s own mental barriers than it did with the strength of his own.

‘I haven’t really had a long-term trainer,’ he told her, shrugging his shoulders. ‘I just – get passed around.’ That was the trouble with telepathy. It was very difficult to train if the trainer wasn’t a telepath of some description – and Jonah hadn’t yet found a trainer who was fearless enough to let someone untrained inside their head.

[Honor Sayers]

Honor was actually mentally exhausted by the time she let her hand drop to her side. Jonah had been a quicker study than she had expected, making her use more of her powers than she usually had to. Mental metas were always a challenge for Honor to begin with because they knew what she was trying to do, they could feel their mental barriers breaking, causing her to exert even more pressure than normal. Jonah was no different and Honor was thoroughly impressed.

Not that she was going to show it.

She turned to grab her walking stick, managing not to bump into the bench the stick was on and tapped it on the ground. Assuming Jonah was still where she had left him, Honor turned to the spot and spoke to him in a clear voice, still unsure why his voice had a different tone to it. "Are you a problem trainee? I can understand why. Listen, come back here same time tomorrow. Don't make me regret my decision, King." She let her cane lead her out of the room.

Brushing against Jonah's arm, Honor smirked, knocking against his mental barriers. Seriously, King. She sent telepathically. You should really relax.