oo1 / video

[interspace]

WHO Misha Hunt
BROADCAST Fleet-wide video!
ACTION Marsiva hospitality deck
WHEN May 20th because I'm a loser

[ The comm is set down on a table, facing down to give a wide angle of a young redheaded woman who is basically standing inside of a couch. Phasing! She looks to the camera, brows raised very pointedly!! And then walks forward to one of the walls leading further into the Marsiva and pushes.

Nada.

She looks back to the camera. Walks back to the couch, does a slow turn around while standing inside of it, then goes back and pushes on the wall again. After a moment, she steps back, uses both hands to point at the stubborn wall. ]

Is anyone else seeing this shit?

Comments

[thezerothlaw]

It is a sense. I cannot turn it off any more than I can cease to hear or see. The texture of someone's mind is, now, as much a part of how I perceive someone as is their physical appearance.

[Which is all quite true, and he explains this as earnestly as he can.]

I cannot extract secrets, and I suspect that to do so would cause harm, which I do not desire. I only the emotions you experience now, and must extrapolate from that.

[interspace]

[ Her eyes close and her shoulders slump and hunch together. There's relief mixed in that storm of everything else. Of all her worries, at least her secrets are safe. ]

So you're an empath. Empathy more than telepathy. That's... the distinction we make where I'm from, between reading emotions and reading thoughts. [ She exhales, opens her eyes, forces a shrug. ] Hopefully I'm not being too loud or—abrasive? Everything's... a lot to take in.

[ Which is curious considering the amount of familiarity in the experience. There's fear of the unknown but a strange kind of resignation inside of it all that comes from her past experiences. An odd reaction to have, indeed. ]

[thezerothlaw]

[The line between 'empath' and 'telepath' seems a bit hazy to him, but he's not going to argue. In his experience, 'reading thoughts' just isn't how it works. Maybe it's different for someone far, far stronger, but his personal experience with telepathy comes down to himself. And Giskard before him.]

You have no need to apologise for anything. If I am in the habit of not revealing this, it is because I have no desire to be deactivated.

[interspace]

[ It's much easier for her to categorize if she's got control over it like that. If he can't dig into her mind, she's not nearly as worried. Still... it's rough knowing that someone else can tell how messed up she is by this whole thing. ]

Trust me, I hear you. A lot of people have the same reaction to admitting they're different. Humans don't like change in anything.

[thezerothlaw]

I admit that this is true, based on what I have seen. It is also true that people have rather different opinions towards robots in general, here. I am used to hiding much about myself. I am... not yet sure how open I can be, here.

[interspace]

Which, you know, is totally fair. If you want me to keep mum, that's not gonna be a hardship or anything.

[ She's good at secrets and talking around the issue at hand. Her shoulders slump. ]

Still, uh... if you need some distance from the storm that is Misha's Lack of Emotional Harbor right now, I wouldn't blame you.

[thezerothlaw]

I would appreciate your silence, though it isn't necessary in regards to my being a robot. For now, it is perhaps safest, that way.

[Is she... perhaps trying to be rid of him? That would be understandable.]

I do not need 'distance,' as you put it, but if you would rather I leave you, I understand completely.

[interspace]

Yeah, sure. I'll just razzle-dazzle 'em with my own powers and nobody will even think twice asking about yours.

[ It's not like her own powers have some kind of personal consequence for anyone else. Mind-reading, empathy, premonitions, all of those tend to make people so very cautious and she understands exactly why. ]

No, it... I could really use the distraction right now.