Practice Makes Perfect

Lauren concentrated on the space around her and allowed her magic to seep in to the air. When the spinning top before her froze in movement, she counted. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. Four Missi- it began to spin again, and she smiled. She was getting better. She was aware that time manipulation was touchy, and that she would never be able to freeze it for however long she wanted. But the longer she could hold it, the more help the power would be.

She nodded to herself and wet her lip, raising her right hand in the direction of her desk. Focusing on the movement of only the energy surrounding the wooden table. Not wanting to lift it away from the ground, she moved it to the other side of the room, where it would stay until she became bored of its position. She lifted the chair with her hands and moved it to sit under the desk Looking around the room again, she went back to the spinning top and spun it, before concentrating again. Before she could get time to freeze around her, a knock on the open door snapped her you of her focus. She looked up with a smile and nodded, "Hello. Come on in."

Anthony had been searching for a training place, he also had a proposition for the Magikal Leader. While he did not believe he had a bloated up sense of his abilities, he believed where they would be most useful would be at their leaders side. Perhaps he could also ask her to test his abilities, and so had gone looking for their leader. It had taken a while, with Anthony having to check numerous rooms around the 'school' but he had heard the moving of a table. He supposed if it wasn't their leader, he could train with whoever was in the room. So he knocked.

He only waited a moment before he was told to come in, so he turned the door handle and walked in. He smiled when he noticed it was the Magikal's leader, everyone knew her on sight, even if she didn't know everyone herself. "Hello Miss... Forgive me for sounding presumptuous... But I believe I have a useful idea for you." He explained quietly. "E-Even if you don't like the idea... Would you be willing to help me train Miss? I'm afraid my abilities need something animated to actually attack me, and while I will soon be attempting to figure out that ability, I'm not quite proficient in it yet." he tried to explain, while hoping she would listen to his idea first.

Lauren eyed him steadily as he explained the reason for him being there. She liked it when the magickals came to her on their own, simply because it made less work for her. She waved her hand at a seat, both moving it to the front of her desk at the same time as indicating for him to take it. She sat in the chair that she had just placed by hand and smiled, "You do not sound that way at all. I am glad that you have confidence in your talents. Now, how about we start with names. I am Lauren Saharah, who are you?"

Lacing her fingers together and resting them on the table top, the woman opened a book and picked up a pen. She tended to take notes about the people in her group, quick access for information on almost anybody that she talked to. "Okay, so I am willing to help you with your training if you show me some potential. So to begin with, what exactly is this power? Also, when did you first notice it beginning to show?" Lauren positioned her hand, ready to write when he was ready to talk, keeping a kind smile on her face.

Anthony smiled slightly with relief when he was told he wasn't acting rudely, he was quite thankful for that, since he didn't always know how to get his point across to people without offending them most of the time. "I'm Anthony Wilson, Miss, and we've all heard of your name. You are our leader after all, and it would be a great discourtesy to not know it." he said, bowing slightly.

He tried to not look confused when Lauren took a notebook and pen, but supposed there had to be some reason for it, which became apparent after her questions. He listened to all of them, so he could put them in a better chronology, before beginning to talk. "My power would be that of creating shields around an area, the size of the area depends on the power I can put behind it however, so usually I can only sustain a strong shield around say... two or so people. It is starting to become stronger as I train with it, but it's not reached a significantly higher level yet. He started, taking a breath before continuing. "I first noticed at about... 8 years old perhaps? Of course it was even weaker then, where I would be lucky to hold it around a blade of grass for more than three seconds, it often left me exhausted as well... Probably why I hate sleep so much, I had to sleep so often when I was younger." he added in randomly, before his train of thought went back onto track, waiting for any more questions he might be asked.

The corners of Lauren's lips turned up when Anthony said about her being their leader, and him most certainly knowing her name. I light blush stained her cheeks and she scrawled his name in her right-handed cursive at the top of the page. Even after all of this time, she was still not used to being at the top of the group. She knew why she was in that position, and she did not try to deny it, but she still believed that there must have been someone more worthy than her.

She raised her eyebrow at him as he spoke of the shields and wondered what kind they were. Defensive magic was always more helpful to her than offensive, what with being so weak physically. But the other species most certainly under estimated her kind, and she fully intended to use her very best in order to prove that. ".. not about proving. It is about us," she muttered under her breath as she continued to write. When she was happy with what was noted down, she woman smiled, "Are these shields physical, or magical? Do the block physical attacks or would it need to be a fellow magickal attacking you for them to be useful?" Before he could answer, however she raised her hand, "Actually, I think I will find out for myself."

Lauren could tell her was waiting to for questions and she shook her head, motioning for him to rise as she did the same. "One last thing, that I do not wish to write down. Who knows about this? And do not tell anyone else. If your skill turn out useful, I would rather you remain inconspicuous about what you can do."

Anthony noticed the slight blush forming on Lauren's cheeks and smiled a little, he had to admit she looked good with her face tinged a little red in embarrassment, and subconsciously made a mental note of that. He felt his power running through his fingertips, itching to be tested, he almost said out loud for it to be patient. He heard her mention something about proving, but he supposed that she was talking to herself, so didn't ask any questions about it. He had to admit he was thankful for his ability, he just hoped it would be of use.

He was about to answer the question put forth to him before Lauren cut him off, saying she would prefer to discover it herself, so he grinned slightly. He hoped he would catch his leader pleasantly surprised with his abilities. "The only people who know are you, and my family. I've not told anyone else about my power before, and as you wish for me to not tell anyone, I promise no others will find out." He said.

Lauren turned to face the younger male with a smile, "Thank you." She nodded at him, "Well if it suits you, I am going to try a few things. Test you this shield, and find out what position you would be most useful in. Do not tell me your reaction to the things that I do until I am finished, please." She leaked her magic from her mind, reaching out in soft tendrils to caress his mind. Not fully enter, but just tease, "Can you feel that? Now, shield."

She nodded and withdrew the telepathy, "Now I want you to draw your shield in as close to you as you can and hold it. Make it like a second skin. Feel it like it is you." She waited a moment, before taking two steps forward and throwing a fist into the side of his young face. She felt a little bad, in case it was not a physical shield, how ever, he had approached her for training, so she would not be reserved with him. "Okay, now." She raised her hand and caused a bauble to fly at him, the hard ceramic making contact with him after just a moment.

Anthony nodded, his magic thrumming at his fingertips again, running through his veins and ready to be used. He listened to the instructions closely, bringing his magic around him with a mutter of "Aegis." He suddenly felt a slight jolt run through him as something entered his mind, he wasn't sure what he was meant to do, but nodded. "Yes... I can feel it." He said out loud, while trying to keep his focus on his shield. He felt it withdraw, and pulled the small area of his shield in closer, so it went around him like a suit of armour.

As a fist came towards him, he willed himself to not back away from it or dodge it, and felt another jolt of energy surround him, it was as if Lauren had just poured more energy into the shield, rather than trying to break it down. He let a slight smile adorn his face, before nodding when the bauble came at him. It broke on impact, a few of the shards stinging him, while the first impact hadn't done much to him.

"Anything you can determine from all that?" He asked, while keeping his shield, now starting to glow a green-ish blue colour, around him in case Lauren needed to run more tests.

Lauren nodded with a small smile. He was not a mental block. Not that is mattered, seeing as she had a sufficient block in that respect herself. Also there would be no Magickals actually attempting to harm her. She whispered quietly, "Good."

She felt Anthony seemingly take some magic from her, without her actually losing any. A smile spread across her face as she realised this boy's potential, her eyes lighting up as the object shattered against him. "Woah," she felt her hand out and touched his arm softly, tilting her head to the side and moving it down to his hand and back again. The colour was interesting, as it seemed to be increasing. "So it just appeared? When you were.. how old? What does it feel like? Nothing? Or like a layer. Can you throw it out further?"

Anthony smiled slightly from the encouragement, obviously he couldn't have done too badly, his smile turning into a bigger grin from when he had obviously caught her pleasantly surprised. He hoped that he had shown at least some potential, but at the same time felt that if their leader was so surprised and shocked, then he must have done something well with his powers.

He felt a light shiver run through him as Lauren moved her hand up and down his arm, and he nodded at the questions. "Just one day, I suddenly felt tired and people could see this hazy aura around me, we weren't quite sure what had happened at first, but after it had happened a few times, it became more obvious what it was, especially after it acctivated itself when I was almost hit with a ball one time." he grinned. It's like a... It's like pure energy, or maybe electricity, which I have a conscience with sort of... I'm not completely sure how to explain it to be honest, and that might be the best I can. It can be thrown out further, but the wider area it covers, the quicker it tires me out and the less damage it can withstand. Sometimes it crumbles if there's a high power, almost like overloading a plug socket." He explained, waiting for any more questions he might be asked.

Reaching back for her book, she added another note. Shield may not be the talent, but a control of something. -energy? -air particles -auras? She nodded in understanding. Some powers showed their first signs by something occurring. Not necessarily bad, or big. But something that affected the being deep enough to affect their essence. "Okay, so it occasionally self-activates? We can train that to our advantage.." She was getting carried away and her face flushed lightly again.

Lauren rolled her tongue over her teeth looking around the room, "I take it that you could protect, say... this vase? If you were to phase your shield over it, would I be able to try to shatter it and it would be safe?" She took a vase from one of the many book shelves in her office. She placed it on her desk and took him by the arm pulling him a little roughly to stand before it.

She waited a moment watching to see if the colour of the glow decreased much with time. "Is it still growing? And is there anything else you can do? Perhaps a minor power?" She smiled and raised her hand to the fine china, "Better hold it, cause this one is worth quite a bit."

Anthony watched as his leader scribbled another note in her book before speaking again. "It doesn't happen so much now, but it does still happen sometimes, thankfully those times have been either around family or when no one was around, so no one really found out much about it." He said, noticing the red tint travelling up her cheeks again. "Are you okay Lauren? Do you need some water or something?" he asked, hoping she wasn't ill.

Anthony pulled a slight face after being asked if he could protect the vase. "It's not the easiest thing if you want it to be purely around the vase, seeing as that's changing the center of the shield, which sometimes causes it to mess up slightly, but if I keep myself as the center and just extend it..." he started to explain, before demonstrating after he was pulled over to stand by the vase."Then I can protect things around me fairly easily." he finished, as the shield's colour started to fade slightly, Anthony put a little more focus into it though, and it went back to the colour after absorbing the energy from the bauble and the punch.

"It seems to still be growing, over the years I've been able to do steadily more and more with it, and I'm slowly getting the hang of changing the center of the shield, though like I said, that can mess up sometimes." he said, putting more energy into the shield. He'd rather not have something precious to their leader broken. "I've not really tested if I can do much else yet... But I might be able to." He answered, before putting his focus back into the shield.