diasporawedding | From the prompt: Impressions

Rookies are like warmed wax, or so my mentor at the academy would say. And, young and impressionable, I drank it all in. I try and mould my charges with a light hand. One, I see is trying to fit herself into my image already – “don’t!” I want to tell her “Don’t make my mistakes!” but then I realise that she can’t see them, as I could not see those of the agents who formed me. Marcus too worries, hoping that the hands I pass her on to now do not shape her as he was shaped. I will not say he is wrong to fear it, but the longer one stays in one place the deeper the impression goes, and I would not have her marked with my hidden flaws as well as my outer triumphs.
Another that I have taken in hand, I think that I shall never make an impression upon. So stubborn, so sure of himself, too used to shaping his world to be shaped himself. Until I hear him speak of duty and of law to another. “We are the shield” we say in tandem - my own words echoed back to me, my fingerprints upon him as well.
Be true to yourself, Gaelle, be the best you can ever be, for a Rookie is like warmed wax in your hands, and when their first fire cools the impression you make will stay with them forever.