It's an infestation, ya'll!

[a_peaceful_aura]

There's a tiny six (and a half) year old out and about today, displaying the vigor of youth! Armed with a net, he's zipping around in the still-warm evening, determinedly trying to collect as many chirping giant cicadas as he possibly can.

Comments

reposting for tense inconsistency! (sorry! it bugged me)

[fear4muninn]

Eric is stretched out in the grass, face turned up toward the bright sky. His eyes blink open and shut lazily, unthinkingly. He's awake but hardly--he lets his mind go, sliding through strange memories, the way someone else might take in a landscape.

For him, the landscape is its memories. The quiet whisper the wind makes as it rustles the grass and the long, shivery song of a cicada somewhere nearby brings with them a feeling of home. He thinks of being a little girl sitting on her front porch, drinking a glass of milk and watching the day turn to dusk. Then there is a couple on a picnic -- a rush of butterflies in his stomach, and hers, grass-stains on his knees, bits of grass in her hair. There is a soldier, too, a boy just about Eric's age, taking a dump and shivering and smoking a stale cigarette.

All these things and so much more, all together in his mind. All just parts of life. Sometimes Eric is tempted to spend a very long time just thinking of these things. Sometimes when he comes back from it, he is surprised to be just himself. Just some angsty 16-year-old kid, as far as anyone else was concerned.

Eric hears footsteps nearby -- uneven, excited footsteps, probably a little kid's, he thinks -- and rather than explore what memories this sound might evoke, he pushes himself up on his elbows to see who was there.

He looks at the little boy and smiles, shyly. "Hi, there." He nods at the boy's net. "Catch anything?"

[a_peaceful_aura]

Taiki slows a little at the sight of the teen, big black eyes staring the stranger down. He is tiny and pale and more than a little creepy when that blank look settles on a target.

Mister, you have a strange aura.

...And then, in answer, there is a net under the older boy's nose. Three giant cicada are quietly climbing around, one on the rim. Recent pleasantly normal memories of doing this with his mother are not far off the surface -- it's why he's out here now, at any rate. She's gone off to make dinner but he's still at it. Dedication!

[fear4muninn]

Eric holds the boy's gaze for a moment, taken aback by the weight of that blank and knowing stare. He thinks that maybe he can figure out what it means, what this strange little person is thinking, but the moment passes too quickly and he finds himself staring at three large bugs that are very close to his face.

"Oh, nice," he says, with genuine admiration -- catching those couldn't have been easy.

One cicada, more determined to escape than the others, apparently, tips over the edge of the net. Eric's hand flies out to catch it. It feels strange, ticklish, and Eric smiles crookedly, glancing up at the boy again. His smile grows as he feels the edges of a happy memory.

"I used to chase fireflies with my mom," he remarks, cupping the cicada with both hands and bringing it toward the net. "Sometimes we'd do pretty well. Catch a whole a bunch."

[a_peaceful_aura]

Ooooo, those colors are certainly attractive. Comfortable with this scene and Strange Aura-san's response, Taiki squats down, still holding the net. He watches the young man replace the cicada and is quiet through the one-sided conversation.

Firefly season has come and gone for Taiki! It was spent in much of the same fashion, terrorizing the local population with collection adventures and getting glowing goo on his clothes when they were tragically and accidentally mishandled. His mother would get him a jar with an appropriately ventilated lid and his father would escort him down to a nearby river that fed the ocean. It was a little too cold this year for much of a swarm but they managed to entertain themselves nonetheless. All of this tumbles around in his head with the usual slew of colors overlaid by other colors -- it is an aura dominated world and he tends to remember things in shades rather than emotions.

"What did you do with them?"

[fear4muninn]

Eric knows he shouldn't really go prying into other people's memory too much if he can help it, but it's harder with memories close to the surface, and it's especially harder when there's something interesting about them. The events the little boy recalls right now are hardly unusual, but there's a certain quality to the memories that is unlike anything Eric has seen. It's distracting, and his smile falters.

"Uh," he says, realizing that the boy has asked him a question. "Nothing special. Looked at 'em and then let 'em go."

He backs off mentally, but he's too intrigued to let this go completely. He decides to risk revealing himself. "Hey, can I tell you a secret?" Sorry, Mom. But it's just a little kid, right? Who just maybe is as much of a freak as he is. And that possibility is worth the risk of having to move again.

[a_peaceful_aura]

Still squatting there next to the older male, Taiki carefully dips a hand in the net and retrieves one of the giant bugs. It crawls over his fingers to eventually settle entirely around his thumb. The long net handle is discarded over his knees and held in place by his elbows while he brings the cicada out to observe it.

Secret? That certainly gets his attention -- full weight of those giant all-seeing black eyes settles right on the stranger and Taiki patiently waits for him to reveal, nodding. He really likes secrets... What could it beee~?

[fear4muninn]

Now that he's said it, there's no going back. The kid is looking at him with an expectant intensity that both unnerves and encourages him; there is something unusual about the boy, he's sure.

Eric glances around them to make sure no one else is within earshot; then he leans forward a little. "Well. Sometimes when I look at a person -- not just when I look at them, but." He begins to feel a little frustrated and wishes he were more articulate. He starts again. "When I look at a person, I don't just see them, I - I feel all this other stuff that's, I don't know, in their head. Memories." He looks down at the cicada on the boy's thumb. "Weird, right? And just now, I caught a few glimpses from your memory, and. I don't know, it made me wonder."

Finally he glances up at the kid again. "Do you... ever get anything kind of like that?" He hopes he hasn't imagined the whole thing with the colors. Whatever it was.

[a_peaceful_aura]

Taiki looks around when the other does, unsure of what they're searching for. But then there's talking and the tiny psychic returns to his creepy, if not a bit more thoughtful now, stares.

Eventually, after sorting all of this out: a nod.

There are all the times his mother has tried to explain auras and empathy to him but at this age those are rather large concepts. Ever the patient one, she keeps trying though, teaching him what all those colors mean and encouraging him to make the connections on his own. Stay away from the red or dark colors, you'll enjoy the yellow ones, pink is for when you're older, if there's a black spot then tell okaa-san -- yes, black spots just like mine but on different people. Sometimes others don't _like_ to hear about their colors because they can't see them so it's not polite to go around just announcing things like that and that's why the little girl is crying. ...Also you probably shouldn't tell them that they have ghosts floating around, either. Why? Well, because they can't see them and sometimes people are afraid of what they can't see. Why? Oh, well because then they're not sure if something is actually there or not and so it makes them upset. ...No more 'why' questions for five minutes.

[fear4muninn]

For a moment, Eric's expression becomes unfocused, his attention clearly on something else, far away. His eyes track back and forth excitedly and a faint, amazed smile gradually spreads across his features. When he looks at the boy again, he can hardly contain himself.

"That's incredible! You, you can see into people, and around them, all this stuff that no one else can see, you..." He shakes his head, hands flailing a little in a vague gesture of excitement. "Look, those things your mother told you, that you were just remembering -- I remembered that with you. I'd know her voice now if I heard it. That's what I do, that kind of stuff. So it's different from what you do, but... You're the first person I've met with anything like that."

Having run out of words for the moment, Eric calms down a little, aware that he's rambling and that, empath or no, the kid is pretty little and might get confused or spooked by an overly-excited stranger. His smile turns a little embarrassed and he offers, "I'm Eric, by the way."

[a_peaceful_aura]

W-whoa! Color explosion with the sudden excitement! He blinks a little but the emotion is naturally contagious and the tiny psychic returns the wall of words with a some subdued but happy bouncing.

"Taiki!" By way of introduction. "I see the outside," he corrects. "The inside is stomachs and blood." There's a shift so he is now sitting on his knees beside the teen. "What am I thinking now?" ...It's about trees. .......The ones right over there that he's currently looking at. He obviously doesn't quite have the entire concept yet.

[fear4muninn]

"Oh, ok, yeah. That's true, I guess," Eric murmurs in response to the terminology disagreement. He's not sure about the distinction, but it doesn't matter much to him.

He watches the boy, Taiki, apparently settle on some thought for Eric to read. "Nah, I can't really--I don't know why, but I can only really get at thoughts you've already had. Things you remember. Or could remember, but forget most of the time."

He draws one leg up and rests an arm on his knee, looking around before settling his gaze on a nearby tree. It's a thick, gnarled old thing, with one particularly nice, long branch stretching out over the ground. "I can share memories, too. Mine, or other people's." He glances at Taiki. "Since I've already been in your head a little, maybe it's more fair if I share something of mine with you. Don't worry, it's a happy memory."

He looks back at the tree branch and thinks of a similar one from a long time ago, in a neighbor's backyard. A bright yellow, coarse rope tied around it, leading to a tire, spinning and swaying over a patch in the lawn where no grass grew, due to little kids' feet scuffing away at it endlessly. The sound of young laughter and the feel of an irrepressible smile as he comes whooshing down, over the ground and back up again, suspended, weightless for a moment, before rushing back down again, spinning. His old neighbor Kaylee is there, laughing, and her dad is there too, taking a break from yard work just for a few minutes, to use his super-dad-strength to help them both get "all the way to Fern Gully." He is seven, maybe eight years old.

[a_peaceful_aura]

Taiki is... not sure what to think about what just happened. It's nothing he's ever thought about, the girl and ropes and whatever 'fern gully' is. It doesn't look right -- the colors are missing and it's unnatural. Like half the picture is missing. He feels happy but doesn't understand why because there was no yellow or orange anywhere and it doesn't make sense...

A little stunned and very unsure, Taiki looks up at Eric.

"...??!?"

[fear4muninn]

Eric laughs softly at Taiki's reaction, not unkindly. It's not hard to blow a little kid's mind and what just happened to him would boggle anyone.

"Sorry, I know that must have felt kind of crazy. That was something I remember from when I was, I don't know, about your age, I guess. I was playing in my neighbor's yard, with her dad. That was back when I lived in North Carolina for a little while."

He tilts his head thoughtfully, trying to assess how Taiki is doing, taking it in. "I know it's weird," he says again, "remembering something that didn't actually happen to you, but." He shrugs. "That's just what I do. All the time. I always have. The way you always... see those colors. What's... What's that like, anyway?"

[a_peaceful_aura]

"You put it in my head?" He asks, still trying to sort it out. One hand comes up to pat the crown of his skull for extra emphasis.

How do you describe something that is normal for you? It just... is. He doesn't know any different and at this age, if he were to actually think about it, would just assume everyone else saw things the way he did. A furrowed brow while Taiki works this over -- eventually he gives in and peers up at Eric. "...What?"

[fear4muninn]

"What's it--" he stops himself, bites his lip. Stupid question, especially for a kid. Like asking somebody to describe music to someone who's been deaf their whole lives.

"Yeah, I put it in your head," he says with a sigh. "That thing with the tire swing-- it's something I did when I was little. I was thinking about it and I made you think about it too. As if you were me." As he speaks, he watches the cicadas, still crawling around in the net. He pinches a little bit of the net between his thumb and forefinger, rubbing the soft mesh idly.

"I could get some of your ideas in my head, too. Then I'd see what it's like. You can choose what I see. Pick something you'd be ok with putting in my head, you know? All you'd have to do is focus on some memory. Maybe something with colors you like a lot."

[a_peaceful_aura]

A nod when Eric explains putting the memory in Taiki's head. What he says makes sense and Taiki will readily accept it -- despite the fact that he's a human lie detector, he really has no reason to be suspicious.

The second part is more difficult for him to follow, though. What is he supposed to think about? While he's not sure what to do with 'colors you like a lot', it does start bringing up some thoughts... He doesn't intentionally settle on a memory -as it's still a confusing order- but there are some snippets while he tries to figure out how to give Eric what he wants.

His mother is a soft woman with dark hair and features that match Taiki's -- she's blue-dominated, with colors sparking off as she moves, thinks, and feels. They went to the library this morning where they met Lisbeth, a redhead with a more surly set to her aura. Everything Taiki sees is covered in ever changing color and, at times, it can be difficult to see the individual through all of it. The whole thing is highly distracting in itself but add to that the spirits of all manner roaming about -sans auras, of course- and it's really no wonder the little boy is constantly absorbed in just staring. It's a lot to take in.

Eventually, after running through a few stray thoughts on libraries, both parents, Lisbeth, and of course Abominable Snowmen (because they are the coolest thing ever), Taiki gives up. A little disappointed and frustrated, he looks up at Eric and gives his tiny bony shoulders a shrug. "I don't know."