bitten_notshy: (Default)
Jack Priest ([personal profile] bitten_notshy) wrote in [community profile] fandomtownies2012-08-07 04:03 pm

Psionics for the Headblind Herd, The Community Center, Tuesday Evening

"Don't worry, it's not another genderswap day and nobody told you," Jack deadpanned, as he walked into the classroom at the community center. The sensitives in the room might pick up that he was nervous about his first time teaching, but he kept his exterior unruffled. "Emma's been called out of town and she asked Bobby and me to cover. My name's Jack Priest and today, we're going to discuss living with psychics as one of the poor deprived headblind. If you area telepath, please, chime in during the discussion."

He leaned back against a table, crossed his arms. "The first thing is privacy. It doesn't exist. You get used to it, or you don't. Shielding's a basic courtesy, if you can learn it -- but not everyone can, and sometimes you won't have the energy. That said, most telepaths can find better ways to spend their time than listening to you mentally nattering on about whether you look fat in your pants. Imagine a room with a thousand radios playing, and think about how closely you could follow any one broadcast, and that's about how hard most psychics I've known listen to most people most of the time."

"The second thing" -- and here he sounded more sympathetic -- "is headaches. They're fairly universal with mental powers, from what I can tell. Treat them like any illness. Bring cool drinks, bring aspirin, don't sit outside the telepath's room and think loud things at her unless you're trying to be mean."

"And the third is mind-to-mind communication. The first time there's a voice in your head can be … deeply unpleasant. Try not to jump or shout. But if you pick up the trick of speaking mentally -- and I found it surprisingly easy -- it's extremely useful when you can't have your conversation aloud."

He glanced to his co-teacher. "Anything to add, Bobby?"

“For all that talk of telepaths not being interested in your everyday thoughts- sometimes, that’s not gonna be true,” Bobby said matter-of-factly. “Just like the rest of us are prone to eavesdropping on occasion, if you’re around telepaths and you happen to know something they want to know- that’s when the shielding is less of a courtesy and more for your own benefit.” Yeah, he’d had more than a few people rummaging around in his head for information at points, could you tell?

“If you don’t know how to shield thoughts specifically, singing a song in your head can sometimes work. Although that one can backfire because it’s sort of like a signal to anyone who might be listening in that there’s something you don’t want them to know.”

"Kind of like talking in Pig Latin," Jack had to agree, before turning to the group. "And now it's your turn. What's one thing you've learned about living with telepaths? If you are a telepath, what's one thing you with people knew about you?"

[OOC: Cowritten with the splenderificous [livejournal.com profile] longislandiceme]
not_a_whiner: (kaidan: smiley)

Re: Sign In [8/07]

[personal profile] not_a_whiner 2012-08-07 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Kaidan Alenko
furnaceface: (Side-eye)

Re: Sign In [8/07]

[personal profile] furnaceface 2012-08-07 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Jonothon Starsmore
furnaceface: (Nice Hair Though)

Re: Discussion [8/07]

[personal profile] furnaceface 2012-08-08 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
It was... weird, sitting on this side of the fence, being someone with experience but no talent. Jonothon frowned a little, chewing on possible things to say. And ultimately, he came up short. It was weird, being a telepath who had used his voice almost exclusively to speak for so long, only really opening up to use his powers for other purposes after he'd had them for a while.

And the things he'd used his powers for under Weapon X were a different matter entirely.

"It is possible to yell in your head," he offered, remembering one time when George had all but rattled the teeth he hadn't had clean out of what was left of his skull. "And if you want to be heard, it's also entirely unnecessary. Just... focus your thoughts toward them and think normally, and if they need you to up the volume, so to speak, they'll let you know."

He looked vaguely awkward for a moment, before adding, "You have no idea how tempting it always was for me to yell back, when people started off too loudly just to see if I could hear them. And you don't want a telepath yelling into your head, unless you like bleeding from various parts of your face."
longislandiceme: (thinking)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-07 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Bobby was from a place where telepathy was frequently employed as a weapon, could you tell?
longislandiceme: (headtilt)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-08 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Packing up her house, at the moment," Bobby replied, going with that because it was... also the easier answer.
longislandiceme: (grin)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-08 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"To New York," Bobby explained. "With me." And, yeah, that was a big, stupid grin on his face as he said that.
longislandiceme: (hesitant)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-08 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"It was, sort of, we knew we didn't wanna do the long distance thing forever, but yeah, that whole- mess- just sorta sped stuff up a bit," he added, a bit awkwardly. He'd still been clinging to the idea of keeping his mutant status a secret, and if Jack hadn't known before (which, if Bobby were being entirely honest, it was likely he'd had some vague sort of idea just by association unless the player is remembering things wrong)... well. He certainly did now.
longislandiceme: (thinking)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-08 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"How are you- I mean, I remember talking to Jono after everyone got out, and he said that you- had died." There was a question in there! Somewhere.
longislandiceme: (wtf?)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-09 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
Bobby couldn't help it, he laughed a little at that. The startled sort of laugh that happens before you can stop it because the alternative is just giving the other person a sort of horrified look. He clapped a hand over his mouth and then gave Jack an apologetic look. "What happened that managed to be worse than dying?" he couldn't help but ask.
longislandiceme: (headtilt)

Re: Talk to the Teachers [8/07]

[personal profile] longislandiceme 2012-08-09 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Werew- oh," Bobby narrowed his eyes, really looking at Jack, as if seeing something for the first time. And he was, kind of. The nature of his mutation meant an acute sense of things like shifts in temperature and moisture content. When he paid attention to it enough to notice, say, that the person he was talking to ran a little hotter than was typical of most people. For example.

"Oh." That was one of the details he supposed his other-self might have vaguely known, but most of his clear memories of that time were of the grief following Sookie's death, so it was hard to say what he had and hadn't known. "I guess that would, yeah."