6th step [Action//Feelings?]

[myowndrumbeat]

[River has a headache. A psychic with a headache is kind of like an ex-murderer who just got given an axe as he was released from prison into a boarding school of young children.

She's sitting on the rim of the fountain, and having a staring contest with the moon as she starts to twitch every now and again.]

[Your characters are free to feel b-

Comments

[antisilent]

[ Info/Permission here for his abilities. But anyway, Atsuki happens to walk past her and the first thing he feels is... something poking at his head. Instantly his (notably beautiful according to the game wtf) eyes shoot open a little and he erects a series of mental barriers to try to prevent any other intrusion.

And then starts to look around. Another Σ user here? He shouldn't be surprised but all the same...]

[myowndrumbeat]

[Yeah, she's not attempting to do anything, she's pretty content just holding her head and looking down at the water next to her]

[antisilent]

[Odd. Oh well, keeping his barriers in place he keeps up his scan of the area. Surely there's someone he's missing here. There's the girl looking at the water, yes, but she doesn't even seem to be concentrating. All telepaths he's familiar with seem to have to concentrate.

Hmm...]

[myowndrumbeat]

[Oh shit, headache is comin' back hard, and with it a little cry as her brain starts overloading again

feelin' THAT?]

1/3

[antisilent]

[He is. A huge Shinen of mixed emotions - flows out of the girl. It's powerful and seemed to be made up of more than one person's thoughts. Or at least has parts of them. Clearly this proves she is a telepath - a telepath with SIG-MA abilities too, and she doesn't seem to have control either.

He hesitates for about a second before deciding to try Σ on the Shinen]

[antisilent]

[Entering her head for a SEARCH there... it's complicated; there are a lot of worms in her head, more than he's seen since Shanghai at very least. She collects them and ERASES though even after that he doubts he'll be able to make sense of many of them. Once he goes to the imprint stage, it's about eight seconds later.]

Done

[antisilent]

[In the end, it should help clear River's head a little, but he doubts it'll do much. Because though he is now reading these Shinen... there isn't much here. Only confusion and pain dot the girl's head. There's understanding there - but it's understanding without proper comprehension, maybe? He breaks into an inner monologue for a bit here:

The girl's Shinen confirms that the girl's ability is not voluntary.

A Σ user without any level of control could be dangerous to herself and everyone around her.

...She could be infected with Silent.

Following that, he - after re-confirming his mental barriers are firmly in place - walks on over to the girl to try to comfort her as best he can there]

Are you alright?

[myowndrumbeat]

[Oh hey there mental probing, she turns as he walks over, her eyes instantly boring into his face with coal-dark intensity.

In response, she mentally regurgitates all the thoughts and feelings of everyone in almost the entire radius of the town AT him] ...Feel alright to you?

[antisilent]

[His eyes - those black sparkly things which are artificial but very pretty apparently and such - get wide at that. He instantly tries to force his mental barriers up to combat the flood, but he knows he can't. They shatter almost instantly. The pain is intense, but after gritting his teeth, he resolves to try to bear it.

He read the mind of a dead man before. He looked the abyss straight in the face and lived. This is intense, but not totally unbearable. Though he knows following this encounter he'll need to rest.

The issue here of course, is that now he can't trust his mouth to speak. Really, his body language speaks volumes on this front though]

[myowndrumbeat]

[She stops after a moment, whether or not she chose to or not, is up to debate, but she's pretty calm now]

..............Feelin' perky?

[antisilent]

[By that point, his eyes look tired, but when the assault relents his teeth unclench and... he puts on a little smirk there. Or well, it's confident one, but he also intends to be be reassuring. He's also trying hard not to think about anything beyond how much pain he was in there until he can get his mental barriers back up. It's not clear if she did that intentionally or not, but if she did...

Well, her powers are horrifyingly strong to go with the cost she seems to be paying. He does, however, muster the ability to speak this time-]

Not so much anymore.

[myowndrumbeat]

Quantum by patterns force me to concur. I see only astronomical differences, nothing finite and nothing infinite.

........And she talks too much sometimes.

[antisilent]

Who's she?

[Just keep the conversation going. Then he might not nod off here. Damn that took more out of him than he thought...]

[myowndrumbeat]

[Laughing at him now]

Modes of speech, mixing your mediums makes for a more detailed train of thought.

[antisilent]

[...Oh he can roll with this-] True enough. [And... mental barriers back up. They're so broken now and he knows it, but he's struggling to keep himself from grabbing his temples, so he considers this lucky-]

So what's her name?

[myowndrumbeat]

I'm River.

[Grins, switching modes now? Yeah]