LOG: Manuel, Nathan, Galin, Askani

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Who: Manuel de la Rocha, Nathan Dayspring, Galin, Mother Askani
Where: Training Room
When: Thursday morning
What Happens: Empathic training, creativity, and a smackdown from Mother Askani. Also, a nosebleed.



Manuel erected his empathic wall, more quickly than usual, and then closed his eyes and erected a second wall behind the first - a different feeling, the bricks lined up so that the seams of the first wall were the strong points of the second. The effort caused him to break out into a sweat, but after a solid five minutes of concentration he opened his eyes. "Done." he said.

Galin hmmed. "Why those choices?" he asked with interest. He had decided to try manifesting physically tonight, something that had been managed with Askani's help, so he sat in the third chair in the 'triangle', an elderly, stooped man with a deeply lined face and bright dark eyes that were fixed on Manuel.

"Because I couldn't get anything more complicated than the primals to stay up? This is really, really hard." he said wearily. "Fear and love are primal, everyone feels them, so theyr'e easier on me."

"Love is an odd choice," Galin pointed out. "It may repel, but it may also attract. It depends on the motivations of the person seeking to batter down your wall, doesn't it?" He looked at Nathan. "Steady pressure, if you please."

Nathan raised an eyebrow and then turned to Manuel, concentrating. He hit the fear-wall first, managing not to recoil this time. "I think it's stronger this time," he said through gritted teeth as he kept pushing.

Manuel didn't push back, trusting his walls to take the force of the scan. "I had another idea, by the way. But I can't figure out how to make it work. Not for a wall, but for something else. A way to go unnoticed, to be not-seen."

"Interesting," Galin said with a patient, mildly amused look. "Care to elaborate?"

Nathan wondered if this was how the lessons were going to be, him doing as he was told as the two of them chatted pleasantly about techniques and variations. If so, it might not be so bad after all.

"Well, as far as I can tell noticing that someone is there is a function of interest and desire. Theoretically, I should be able to stop that cold with my power, and thus remain un-noticed. I'm still there, physically, but no one cares or notices. Will this work?" he asked, sweat breaking out again on his forehead as his walls were stressed.

"So long as you've shielded yourself properly and can separate your emotional state from the one you're attempting to produce, it should work perfectly," Galin said, something very close to a pleased smile on his lips. "It's simple, but effective. A very easy way to move about and see to your own matters without interruption. We commonly used it for infiltration." He laughed. "Much more efficient than the telepaths and their 'look-past' projections."

"Look-past projections?" he asked, swallowing as the pressure in his mind increased yet again. "What's that? And a telepath will be able to see past the deception - after all, the memory of me being there would still be there, even weakly."

"Oh, you may not fool telepaths, at least not for long, but they are a minority, even in this place. The technique works... what is the phrase, like a charm? on the headblind." Galin made that throat-clearing noise that meant he was taking a moment to organize his thoughts. "And a look-past is precisely what it sounds. A telepath, depending on her strength, can blanket the people around her with a command not to notice her passing. Very power-intensive, especially on the larger scale."

Manuel blinked. "And we don't have anything like that, save for this you-don't-care-that-I'm-here weave. That sucks." he said, grimacing and holding a hand to his forerhead as his walls shook under the strain. But they still held - for now.

"Subtlety is our blessing," Galin said pedantically. "And what would you prefer? To use a weave like that, in a crowd, and be free to accomplish your objective at the end, or to have to construct a look-past and be ready to drop when the time comes to do what you came to do?"

Nathan was getting a bit of a headache himself from the pushing. Manuel had definitely been practicing - the wall seemed much stronger than the last time he'd done this. He would be a quick study, Nathan thought sardonically, and increased the force of his 'push' just a little.

Manuel was quickly growing tired of the strain against his mind, so he took a risk and split his focus. Using the suggestions from Galin, he visualized a knife in his mind, a knife made of pure feeling, honed to a infinitely sharp edge by his annoyance, his desire to be doing something else, and his irritation about playing catch-up when Amanda was finally starting to thaw a little over her Askani-induced snit. With a supreme effort of will, and without dropping his shields, he slashed the knife at where he supposed Nathan's mindprobe was, judging by where the pressure was on his shields.

Nathan's head jerked backwards sharply as what felt like a sledgehammer of mostly-angry emotions struck a glancing blow. Instinctively, he lashed back hard, a blow rather than a simple push.

The blow hit the shield and cracked right through the first wall entirely. The second one held, however weakly, and Manuel lashed back out with the knife - flailing blindly, hoping he'd hit Nathan's probe and sever it before it could do any more damage.

Again and again, and as much as Askani had been trying to teach him some basic defenses against empathy, he felt his self-control starting to slip into panic as the anger battered at him. The furniture started to shiver, and even as he tried to stop, to kick down to zen level, he was losing it...

#Enough,# Askani said, and clamped down hard on his telekinesis. Not hard enough to knock him out, thankfully, but he jerked in the chair again, his head spinning and his equilibrium trying to desert him entirely.

Manuel sensed the panic and kicked it up a few notches, abandoning the knife in order to do it. He couldn't sink to Zen Level, he thought, if his mind was busy chasing its own tail.

Fight or flight. Even in the grip of what was increasingly becoming pure terror, the choice mapped itself out calmly. Fight or flight, and Manuel was between him and the door...

Nathan lunged up out of his chair, his bad leg threatening to give, and was inches, just inches away from his attacker when something smashed him into the floor, the blow as efficient as it was abrupt.

Galin flickered, then solidified as Askani reinforced his manifestation. "Enough!" he snapped at Manuel. "Cease, now!"

Manuel loitered for a few seconds, to establish that he wasn't under the command of the Askani, then did as he was told - he calmed Nathan down, wiped away all the fear and the terror that was building in his mind. Squatting down next to the prone Nathan, he smiked at him with the guaranteed-to-piss-off-the-Pope de la Rocha smirk. "I win again." he said.

Askani blazed into existence, her hair whipping around her face like living flame and the firebird taking shape around her in as close to its full glory as was possible in a room this size. She raised a hand, sending Manuel flying back into his chair and the chair skidding back across the carpet until it came to a step, bumping against the door.

"I am waiting," she said in a low, deadly voice, hovering a good foot above the ground.

"You'll be there a long time." he retorted, sore from the manhandling he'd just received. "I did what you wanted - he's not panicking anymore. So go back to figuring out how best to sucked the three remaining people in this Mansion who don't speak Askani into learning it and leave us to our business." he growled.

"What precisely made you choose to attack him?" Galin asked, his mild tone a contrast to Askani's obvious anger. Nathan, on the floor, was beginning to stir again.

"Because the best way to get him to stop pressing my shields was to stop the attack at the source." he replied conversationally, pulling around himself the tattered shards of his dignity. "And I wanted to see if it was even possible - I couldn't see his probe, but I could feel it, and if I could feel it, I could attack it."

"If you are so certain that you know precisely what you are doing," Askani said, the wings of the firebird ruffling in agitation, "perhaps I should leave you to reap the consequences of your actions the next time?"

"I could have stopped him at any time by doing what I just did a minute or so ago." he shot back. "Get over yourself, please."

"Tell me something," she asked, her voice icy. "What were you attempting to do to him the first time the two of you met? What emotion were you trying to provoke when his telekinesis went wild and started to tear the room apart around you?"

"In that case, he panicked then like he did now, and instead of removing the panic from him myself I tried to get him to do it by forcing him to obey me. Now I know better than to rely on him to control himself." he smirked. "Problem solved."

"Lady," Galin said almost appealingly, his hands outstretched, palms up. "~He is young and foolish. We know this. Neither will be solved by anything but time and experience.~"

Manuel just leaned back in his chair and waited for whatever would come. He couldn't even come _close_ to influencing the decision his way, and nothing he said mattered in the slightest. He spent the time reinforcing his wall, wiping away the love-wall and replacing it with his daily mirror-wall. This one had grown so easy that it took very little effort at all to construct.

As Galin and Askani exchanged rapid-fire words in the battle language, Nathan pushed himself up to a sitting position, wincing with pain. His head was spinning, and there was a sense of weird detachment he couldn't shake, that made him feel... "What... what are you doing?" he said hazily, seeing Askani there.

Manuel, when he thought the Askani weren't looking, made wah-wah-wah babble-gestures with his hand.

"Very well, then," Askani snapped at Galin, then turned her burning gaze on Manuel. "You wish to learn to run before you can walk, boy? We can accomodate that. With great pleasure, for my part."

Manuel sat in his char, no longer making wah-wah gestures now that the Askani weren't speaking their own tongue. "Ah, so you've deigned to speak English to me. Good. Bring it on - I can handle it." he said with a good deal of bravado.

Nathan opened his mouth to protest, but Askani shook her head. "~No, brother,~" she said in the battle language. "~My turn.~" With that, she turned back to Manuel, and as Nathan watched, once again struggling vainly to regain control, she reached out, smashed through the mirror-wall almost contemptuously, and dove into his mind like a falling star.

Manuel was powerless to stop her - he had enough raw power to do it, certainly, but he lacked the knowledge and the will. So his mirror-shield shattered in on itself like it had never been there, and Manuel's mind was bare before her. All his thoughts, all his feelings, even his bond to Amanda were open. He was naked before her as the day he was born.

And Askani refrained from taking advantage. Instead, she created a simple mindscape, a featureless floor and blank walls, and brought them both to it, folding her arms across her chest. "Now," she said. "Demonstrate to me your great skill and proficiency with your power, boy. Show me that you know what you're doing. That you do not need the child's lessons Galin has been giving you so patiently."

"I do need Galin's lessons. Do try to pay attention when I talk to you - I know damned well you understand more English than I do. What I do NOT need is this second-guessing that you love to indulge in. I'm learning this from fucking _scratch_ here from a _ghost_. What I don't need help with is shutting _him_ down."

"And what do you think would have happened just then, had I not taken over his telekinesis?" Askani growled. "If I had merely stepped back and allowed you to try to 'shut him down'?"

Manuel's mind-construct, the fourteen-year-old boy of his true self, smirked. "I would have taken away the stimulus. No stimulus, no response. Basic psychology."

"Except the response was already in action," Askani pointed out acidly. "Do you truly believe that the people who conditioned him programmed him to turn himself off, simply because an enemy choose to back away?"

"Doesn't matter what they programmed him to do. Only matters is what _I_ want to happen. I know that now - empathy is directly tied to self-confidence. Your little screaming displays of ego should have tipped me off to that a long time ago." he said.

Askani raised an eyebrow. "I could implant a suggestion, right here and now," she said, her voice glacial. "Even with only Nathan's telepathy to work with. You would be fully aware of it - it wouldn't 'feel' right - but that wouldn't help you remove it."

"You could also turn me into a free-floating puddle of oxides with a thought. Is this supposed to impress me or scare me? Let me know, so I can feel appropriately." he snarled.

"A first step in making things clear," Askani said. "Our deal is binding, as far as I am concerned, but you need to realize that I will break it, or warp it in ways you will not like, if you jeopardize what is more critical to us." She gazed at him stonily. "You may indeed grow up to destroy the world without the proper training, Manuel, but if you damage Nathan our ability to affect you, or any of the other many elements that may bring about our future, is likewise impaired. And that is a line we will not cross."

Manuel smirked, seeing an opportunity here. "Well then, in that case how about showing a little respect to me, then? Treat me with a ltitle dignity, hrm? After all, who knows what damage I might do in my uneducated flailings if you continue to manhandle me." And to get his point across, he focused all of his unblocked might into a "GO AWAY" weave, aimed straight at Mother Askani herself. He poured everything into it, holding nothing back for defense or even self-preservation.

The wings of the firebird folded around her, turning into spirals of fire that acted almost like a shield, neither deflecting nor absorbing the attack, merely channeling it away. "Placing effect before cause again," she said, almost in a lecturing tone. "You started this, Manuel - you lashed out because you were impatient, because you decided that following Galin's instructions and simply maintaining your shield was below you."

Manuel gasped as Askani channeled his last-ditch strike away from herself. "The asshole was giving me a headache. I like to win, and I hate losing."

"You are not here to win or lose," Askani said implacably. "Not yet. You are here to learn. Learning takes practice, as tiresome or difficult as you may find it." A cold little smile flickered on her lips. "Tell me, do you enjoy taking one step forward, then two steps back? Because you were making exemplary progress, Manuel. I may not have become attached to you, as Galin has, but even I can recognize that."

Manuel shrugged. "Sure I am. It's in your best interests to keep me biddable - I expect that you'll slam that babble of yours into my head before you leave, so I too can lose my grip on English for your amusement." he said sarcastically. "I can't even stop a cursory scan from a beta like Nathan. My walls crumble with each attempt to bypass them. I had to turn to a dead figment of someone's imagination from a time that hasn't even _happened yet_ to even get _that_ far. Oh yeah, I'm making great progress."

"Do you wish to whine further?" Askani asked with a perfectly straight face. "Because childish frustrations will only inhibit the learning process. If you have more to get out, by all means, continue."

Manuel, displaying the quick learning trait that Askani had noted in him, made a claw of pure frustration. He then raked it at her psionic form. "Just shut the fuck up and go back to wherever you came from."

Askani vanished, reappearing off to his left. "You will do as Galin instructs," she said. "You will not improvise, experiment, or otherwise take it upon yourself to be creative while you are working with Nathan."

Manuel flipped Askani the bird. "Wow, and I thought you folks stood for freedom and self-expression. Sure you're not being fitted for jackboots and armbands?"

"We do not encourage children to have freedom of expression while experimenting with weapons," she said coolly. "At least not until they learn how not to shoot themselves." With that, she pulled out of the mindscape, not at all gently.

Manuel buckled as Askani pulled out of his mind, and when he straightened up, he could taste the blood coming out of his nose.

"My Lady, I protest," Galin was saying, formally. "You are damaging my relationship with my pupil." Nathan was still sitting on the floor, staring rather blankly into space.

"She's damaging more than that, Galin." Manuel said as he looked about for something to staunch the bleeding. "It's going to be a happy day when I learn enough to give her a little present like the one she just gave me."

Askani ignored him completely. "Then speak to your student, empath," she said harshly, fading into light. "Impress upon him the need for discipline, to avoid further conversations like this."

Then she was gone, and Galin turned back to Manuel. "There are... tissues? there," he said, indicating the table at the side of the room. "Are you in pain?"

Manuel took a few tissues, wadded them up into balls, and plugged his nostrils with them to stop the bleeding. "No, Galin, that was clearly one of my top five experiences ever. Of COURSE it hurt!" he snarled in a comedically stuffy voice.

"What do you wish to do now?" Galin asked, his tone oddly formal suddenly but his dark eyes worried as they lingered on Manuel's face. "She has left me here. We may continue if you choose to."

"I don't know. I'm not allowed to improvise or deviate from the course you set. So you tell me - do we continue?" he said nastily, voice full of anger.

"The course is mine to set," Galin said quietly, his eyes flickering to Nathan, who still sat on the floor, his expression almost contemplative now, as if he was trying to sort something very complicated out. "The choice to continue is yours."

"I want to learn. I don't have a choice. Continue." stated Manuel baldly.

Galin's gaze turned back to Nathan. "Change his emotional state, then," he said, sounding oddly dispirited. "Let us see how you shield yourself, while doing so. Perhaps I have been taking things too slowly after all."

Manuel closed his eyes, erected a single-layer wall, then tried to project through it. "Shit, I can't get through my own damned wall. The searchlight thing's not working - the feelings hit the wall and bounce back at me."

"You are unsettled," Galin said. "Understandable. Try again... concentrate on making the walls transparent, where your searchlight hits. Focus on him. It is a trick of the mind."

"Easy for you to say, you didn't just get mentally fucked." he growled under his breath as he concentrated. The wall remained stubbornly opaque to his empathic senses, no matter how hard he tried to make it transparent. "Goddammit!" he snarled, dropped the wall entirely, and whipcracked his desired emotional change into Nathan's brain, heedless of the consequences. "Wake up, you fucker. Time to get happy." he snarled, then let the whip die and started to rebuild his wall.

Nathan sat there, the blankness back in his expression. Galin watched him for a moment, then looked back at Manuel. "It doesn't seem to be having any effect," he pointed out, needlessly. "I can assure you that the Lady is not shielding him."

"You have a choice. I can sit here behind my wall and jack my own emotions around, or I can drop the wall and fix Nathan. Your choice, since I'm not allowed to make any." he said nastily.

"The option is yours," Galin said, then smiled faintly at the look Manuel gave him. "She told you to do as I instruct. I instruct you to choose."

"I'm not really big on masturbation, mental or otherwise. I can probably bring him out of the funk, but I can't shield at the same time." Manuel looked at Nathan, to get a baseline as to his emotional state so he could decide where to go from there.

Galin seemed to ponder the problem for a moment. "Did you see how the Lady defended against your attack, on your mindscape?" he asked. "The spirals?"

"Yeah, I noticed that. Bitch ate my best shot and didn't even blink." he grumbled. "Nice trick."

"Do you think you could do that, if he lashed back at you telepathically?"

"I don't know." he admitted. "I didn't get a very good look at it - I was busy trying to tear her apart with my mind at the time."

"We should look at that as an option," Galin murmured. "Sometimes a shield is not always possible. Manuel, do you have any empathic impression of me?"

Manuel shifted his attention to Galin, and then _looked_ at him. "No, but that's not surprising. I don't get one from most of you ghost-types."

"Not quite the verisimilitude I was hoping for, then," Galin said. "I'll have to work on that. Look at Nathan, then. Just look."

Manuel looked at Nathan, and then _blinked_. "Did someone remove his brain with an ice-cream scoop when I was busy with the giant bird?" he asked. "There's just nothing there."

"An anti-interrogation technique," Galin said. "Triggered by your repeated intrusions. Rather less harmful than the trigger you discovered months ago." He smiled faintly at Manuel. "What do you propose we do with him?"

"Strip him naked, paint him blue, and pose him in the hallway?" he smirked, then looked at Nathan again. "Hrm. There's not much there to work with, so let's see if we can crank up the juice. Discovered this little effect back in Spain. I was high on E, and there was this girl ... never mind. You're dead, you don't have urges. Needless to say it was a very interesting evening." His eyes glowed their usual red as he projected outwards - not any one particular emotion, but an amplifier. A siganl booster, albeit a very rough and crude one.

Nathan shook his head suddenly, sense returning to his eyes. For a moment he looked around, confused by his surroundings and the strange crackling feeling inside his skull, before he fixed on Manuel. "What..." His voice broke and he coughed, clearing his throat. "Would someone please tell me what's going on?"

Manuel, eyes glowing, looked at Nathan and grinned. "Your "mother" came out and bitchslapped me. Hence the tissues up my nose." he said sarcastically.

"Why..?" Nathan blinked, shaking his head again as the crackling sensation died. "I was testing your shields... I don't remember what happened..."

Galin sighed. "I think perhaps the lesson is over for the day," he said, then looked back at Manuel. "It is a sensible technique," he said, his voice still low. "Crude, but it can be honed. Tomorrow we will examine it, and the spiral-defense."

Manuel let the booster die, and then nodded to Galin. "I'll see you tomorrow, Galin." he said, ignoring Nathan completely, and walked out the door.

Nathan looked at the empath, still confused. "That... didn't go well, I gather," he said.