call me maybe

[from_scratch]

Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.

He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -

with the Joker (kappa)

with Ripper (kappa)

with Darren (Aestrix)

with Minus (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Facility 3141592 (armokGoB)

with the admin (kappa)

with Jarvis (kappa, Aestrix)

with Miles (kappa)

with Hank (Nemo)

Comments

[marrinikari]

"They don't let you talk?" Emma says, horrified. She is picturing him with a gag of some kind; she has not connected Cam's summoning or discussion of 'parlor tricks' to the idea of magical bindings.

[marrinikari]

"No problem," Jenny agrees brightly. She had chocolate ice cream. Cam is currently her favorite person and will be hard pressed to dislodge himself from said role.

[from_scratch]

"Lawyers. Save me," sighs Cam. "Yeah, usually I show up and I can't say anything except to agree to or refuse a proposed deal."

[marrinikari]

"Well, Dean Fisher first, then," Professor Reed says with a smile, "and I promise he is not a lawyer!"

It's not terribly far from the Magical Engineering building and the administrative office building. The campus is pretty in an understated way, with nice lawns and some basic gardens but plain buildings, all built in a rough semi circle. Their destination is only a couple buildings down the ring.

One of the rooms they pass by has a sign reading 'Counseling' in big block letters. A woman wearing a nametag that marks her as an 'Empathic Counselor' sticks her head out and waves at Professor Reed. "Tamara! You're awfully excited, I could feel you from my office, where are you off to?"

"Dean's office, Annabel," Professor Reed says. "This is Cam, he... showed up unexpectedly in my class today. Everyone, this is Annabel Williams, one of the school's counselors."

[from_scratch]

Cam has a strongly negative emotional reaction to the apparent ability of this person!

[marrinikari]

Annabel's eyebrows furrow in concern. She can tell he is upset but nothing so helpful as why. "Lovely to meet you all. If... any of you are interested in stopping by... our office is open until 6."

She's a counselor, he's upset. She will at least offer.

"Tamara, I'll see you at dinner, I won't hold you up," she adds, and retreats back into her office. Negative emotional reactions are unpleasant to encounter!

[marrinikari]

"Awww," Jenny says, draping herself over Emma for a hug. "Don't stress! You met a friendly ice-cream-summoning demon who has offered you fancy medical toys!"

Emma has been known to worry overmuch. It is, to Jenny's mind, not unreasonable that an empath would suggest to Emma that she come visit.

[marrinikari]

"I'm fine, Jenny, really," Emma says reassuringly, gracefully detaching herself. "A little shell shocked, but I'm okay."

By process of elimination, she looks over at Cam. But she doesn't hardly know him well enough to ask, so- distraction it is. "Well," she says apologetically. "I think that ice cream is going to be your one of your defining personality traits as far as Jenny's concerned. For roughly forever."

[from_scratch]

"Is this world infested with telepaths of some kind?" asks Cam tightly. "Who wander around reading people without - consent forms, red tape, informative pamphlets, warning signs? I can't make you futuristic drugs without the FDA breathing down my neck but that is apparently unregulated?"

[marrinikari]

Professor Reed looks back at him. "...how much of an explanation of magipaths would you like? Speaking as an Introduction to Magical Engineering teacher who is probably overqualified to give one."

She does not bother pointing out the Counseling sign, or the woman's name tag. She suspects that is not what he meant by 'warning sign'.

[from_scratch]

"I want to know their range and what exactly they can do and how many of them there are."

[marrinikari]

Full on Teacher Mode it is!

"Everyone has a little bit of magic. What types they use best, how much they have, variable by person. Telekinesis exists, that's where all my talents are, and they're far and away the most common. At least an order of magnitude. Magipaths are far less common, and even then there's a few different kinds."

"We do have telepaths, though I think different than what you seem to be picturing. Telepathy is like... ears, but not for soundwaves. They can produce and receive the magical equivalent of soundwaves. It's an alternative form of talking, not mind reading. It's reasonably common, but not all that strong; most people have a range about a third the size of normal speaking/hearing range, and only use it in places where talking isn't efficient. Loud concerts, that sort of thing. People with speech problems, hearing issues, or similar handicaps often develop their telepathy to help compensate."

"Linguopaths are language based. They can access the language center of your brain. It takes an extremely talented one to do it without your permission, and an equally talented one to retain any of what they access, but they make good translators. Minor linguopathy usually just manifests as a talent with languages. Ms. Miller is a minor linguopath, if I remember right." (She does.)

"Empaths can get a general sense of emotions. They don't get any sort of detail, it's not mind reading, they don't know why you feel a particular way, but they can tell broad categories like 'happy' or 'sad' or 'excited'. The range is extremely small- many people operate only via touch- but there are varying levels of talent, training helps some, and personal familiarity increases range."

"Faunopaths exist- it's a catchall term for empaths specializing in animals. Human empathy is by far the most common, with some bleedover for monkeys; domestic animals second by a large margin. Not much else crops up. There is, for example, only one person on record with detectable empathy for sharks."

"Annabel in particular happens to have an amplifier. They're extremely uncommon- ours was donated to the school, but they're expensive, and you have to be a very strong empath and go through a lot of training. All that red tape you mentioned. She's only allowed to wear it at work, but..." she gestures at the Counseling room. "There's work. I'd guess she's expecting a patient soon."

[from_scratch]

Cam produces a sticklike computer that projects a screen and starts taking notes when she gets going.

"So I am not particularly likely to be empathed at if I avoid this building and she's not getting fine detail, and your telepaths only get what they're sent, and the - linguopaths? - won't be able to do anything other than maybe pick up what languages I speak? Okay, I can - work with that. Are there blocking devices in addition to amplifying devices? Are there theoretical blocking devices, even."

[marrinikari]

"You are not likely to be empathed if you avoid this building. Emma can show you where the empath wing of the hospital is if you care to avoid that too."

She looks thoughtful. "If you were an empath, there are exercises you can do; Annabel describes them as emitting 'empathic white noise'. Obviously not everyone is an empath, so there are a few blocking devices on the market that can do it for you. They tend to be expensive, though I'm sure you weren't planning to buy one. But almost all of them are powered by your native magic. Magic is energy, same as electricity; almost all our devices are not magical themselves, but allow you to channel your own magic. Amplifiers are a good example. I'm honestly curious now whether you generate anything similar enough to power one."

[marrinikari]

"My linguopathy wouldn't even kick in until I was able to form basic sentences in whatever language by myself first," Emma volunteers. "It's like... I absorb faster from simple conversations? I can't just- grab an entire language." She grins. "Otherwise I could've just done the whole circle in Latin."

More seriously, she adds, "And it's not a big deal to avoid the empaths at the hospital if you want. I don't work with them really anyway, my job's all with vaccines."

[from_scratch]

"Can I get a make and model on a blocker to try? Probably won't work, but maybe."

[marrinikari]

"Oh goodness, I know Okawa makes a couple but I couldn't name models. If you don't mind staying put for a minute, I'll go ask Annabel, she keeps on top of that kind of thing."

[from_scratch]

"Yes please."

[marrinikari]

Professor Reed wanders off. This will not take long.

"I'm sorry I didn't warn you," Emma apologizes quietly. "It didn't occur to me. It's mostly like- you sometimes meet people who are good at reading facial expressions? At least for me. Selevy just has a really good psychiatric empathy program, so... empaths."

[from_scratch]

"At home the kinds of magic that exist are limited absolutely to trivial parlor tricks, personal indestructibility, moving stuff, changing stuff, and making stuff, with the last three one to a customer and only for daeva. Not a thing with mental effects."

[marrinikari]

"What constitutes 'trivial parlor tricks' anyway? My dad calls our magic that regularly, which it's not, but... maybe in comparison to personal indestructibility."

[from_scratch]

"Oh, and summoning daeva, that's also magic, but not a parlor trick. Parlor tricks are tiny laborious telekinesis, slowly and unevenly changing the color of a thing, stuff like that. The only common use is for disabled people."

[marrinikari]

Emma laughs. A pen floats out of her backpack and settles lightly on Cam's head. "Telekinesis here is not very laborious," she tells him very seriously.

[from_scratch]

"Cool, good for you, you're like wingless fairies."

[marrinikari]

Jenny pulls a similar trick to retrieve the pen off Cam's head and hands it to Emma. "I love you to biiits but I have class now. Don't conjure more ice cream without me, 'kay?" She waves to Cam. "Bye! Thank you again for the chocolate!"