outer_divide | [locks, then telepathic broadcast]

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[locks, then telepathic broadcast]

[ Locked to Erik Lensherr ]

I don't suppose I have a right to ask for this, given how I've treated you since we've both awakened.

But. Do you think we could wipe the slate clean?

[ Locked to Shepard ]

Should we speak?

[ Telepathic broadcast / significantly later ]

ooc ; If you'd like your character to feel this, assume they get slammed by it; if you would rather them not, assume that Charles' mind skipped over theirs somehow and only hit a portion of the population.

[ Early afternoon on Thursday, particularly psychically susceptible people might suddenly feel an agonizing, splitting pain down the center of their skull. Psychic overload, if any of them have experienced it before, drowning in a stream of information too much for one person to handle.

Brief impressions: the ship, no, the other ship, go back for them, four more, woke them up, the first, the first.

The contact cuts off as abruptly as it was made. ]

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[ And, at some point, he falls into step beside her. Easily. Naturally. ]

Where shall I begin?

[She doesn't stop, though at this point she's just walking, no real destination.]

'Other benefits,' I think those were your words. You were going to explain.

Very well.

[ His fingers twitch; he wishes he had a cigarette. Unfortunately, they seem in somewhat short supply. ]

A brief mind-touch, if it can be called that, is a general impression of a person. It can be extremely useful if I want to find them later -- though, of course, certain emotions and feelings can distort it. But generally, I can determine location, and communicate with them from great distances. Not to mention it tends to be a very accurate first impression.

[So he can track people. That's... definitely handy, and she fully intends to keep that in mind. But that brings her to a related and even more important topic.]

You shook most of the hands at that meeting. Anything I should know? [He hasn't offered any sort of allegiance by far, but it's in both of their interests to make sure nobody's going to stab them in the back.]

I didn't feel any traitors. But...

[ A caveat, as always. He feels himself reluctant to out a fellow psychic. ]

[She's silent for a second at his reluctance. Then:] What are the odds that it's dangerous? [She shakes her head a little.] If they're high enough, I'm gonna need to know. [Which is giving him more leeway than she gives most people. Shepard tends to be the sort who needs to know everything about a situation before she handles it.]

I'm not a good judge. I'm naturally suspicious of anything I can't read.

[ Truth, though a little bit of coloring added: he didn't mind it so much until six months ago. ]

But I'm not keen to out someone who may be a fellow psychic without his or her consent. I... mm. Perhaps you could give me a chance to check it on my own, before I tell you?

Just answer me this: Were they blocking you on purpose? [If it were an accident or a natural reflex, that's a little less suspicious (not much, but a little) than if they were blocking Charles deliberately.]

It was a deliberate psychic shield, but not knowing the culture or the context, I suppose I can't say.

So essentially, we don't know a damn thing.

I wish I could elaborate.

That makes two of us, trust me.

[But she's not going to push it. There's a pause while she casually surveys the street ahead, and then:]

So with the meeting said and done, where do you stand in all of this? [Since he attended the meeting under some mislead notion that they could wave the white flag and reason with the enemy, and the discussion that followed helped solidify that that's just not how it works.]

I still plan to make the attempt.

I can compel them, you know. If they don't want to cooperate.

[ He can literally force them to sit at the negotiating table.

He can force them to want to. ]

What if you can't?

[A pause, and she's thinking it through further, then shaking her head. Yeah, her question stands.]

They're dishing out collars that can shut down anything. Any power or ability that anyone in the whole damn place might have, so far anyway. And if they weren't made for us to take them off, we wouldn't be able to, that's just a fact. That shows exactly how little they actually care about the collars they're throwing away, and that means the technology isn't so crucial.

So their baseline technology can still shut down each and every one of us, if they need it to.

So who's to say they don't have equally common technology to keep people like you out of their minds?

I crashed one of their ships through the force of mind alone.

[ A stark confession. He doesn't mention that the force of mind was clouded and scattered, that in normal circumstances he would have done it easily but in this one it took all the strength he had. ]

They can't block me entirely.

One out of how many?

[He may be able to make it through their shields, but the fact stands:] Unless you can find some way to stop them all, it's not going to do us any good either way.

I didn't try to stop them all. The last time I did that, it ended very, very badly.

That's my point, though. You might convince one to sit down for tea, but what about the other twenty or thirty trying to gun us down?

I mean it's ended badly for them.

[Dead serious.]

[Ah. She gets it now.

There's a brief silence. Then, quietly:]

What if that's what it takes?

I don't want to be that sort of man anymore. I truly, truly don't.

Now you're contradicting yourself.

Am I? I want to save lives. I don't want to hurt anyone. Everywhere around me, there are boundaries I cannot and should not cross.

I volunteered, you know. When I was a boy. The War Office found out that I was psychic, and I volunteered for service. I wanted to save my country. Instead, I ushered in an era in which my kind were universally reviled, simply for having power.

[She listens, but by the end of it, she's shaking her head a little.]

I didn't mean all that. I meant here, now.

You said you could force some of them to listen. You acknowledged the truth in the fact that stopping one won't stop them all. And then you refuse to stop them all.

[A pause, thoughtful almost, and then:]

I have no doubt in my mind that you could do it. But you can't sit there and tell us we're wrong for fighting if the only other option drags you through choices you refuse to make again.

[ Charles flinches. His footsteps falter, and he leans back against one of the rubble walls. Rubs his palms over his eyes, with a long sigh. ]

To be perfectly honest, I don't know how to walk this balance. I've never truly tried before. I've been the man who forces or kills to make a point. But there must be a middle ground. There must be a way to be the psychic I am without hurting someone else. It's that hope that's keeping me going.

Otherwise I might as well start my quest for world domination the brutal, old-fashioned way.

[locks, then telepathic broadcast]

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