"...She couldn't let herself believe me if she didn't have a look for herself. I don't actually mind having my mind read in principle, so I let her. She's currently trying to reconcile I've been being willfully blind for the past three years with and this led me to do terrible things with and collapsing into a heap of self-loathing and/or suicide is the opposite of helpful," Cerebella murmurs. "...I'm so, so, tempted to just--blame everything she did on the people who hurt her, but it doesn't work like that, does it." She shivers. "I just hate to think--that I could have ended up like that. I wouldn't," she whispers fiercely to herself. "I wouldn't do that. Not me. Not now."

Bella takes her hand and squeezes it.

"No need."

"Yeah. I'm really glad you already had a way of protecting yourself before you met here."

"Me too."

Hugs. Hugs are appropriate in this situation.

Hugs.

"...What do you think we should do with her? I imagine she's not going to leave Milliways until she's come up with something better than what she previously had, but...even if she was handling it badly, I'm still not comfortable just throwing her back into whatever broke her."

"I don't know. I don't think I dare leave through somebody else's door myself, considering, or I might help if it seemed like something I could manage..."

"If she stabilizes enough to get a good read on and the read is promising sending her through my door like we did with you might be a good idea. There isn't even an enraged supervillain on the other side this time."

"Yeah. And if that works and she needs a lot of oomph I could get her an evil furball, although it's anyone's guess if she'd get the spell to sustain herself in my cheaty fashion without witches..."

"Depending on how long you're interested in staying to help she could probably get it before it would be a problem that she didn't have it even if she didn't get it to start. ...Although...maybe it would be a good idea to chuck her through my door now, if she agrees to it. Take advantage of the personal achievement boosts from figuring out how to put herself back together." She nibbles her lip. "It's a gamble, if it turns out she puts herself back together badly and then she has this power, but it could have a high payoff if it worked out."

"Security can take her if it has to but that's a short term solution..."

"Yeah...I mean, it's unlikely that she's going to come out of this doing something worse than what she was already doing. I, uh," she winces. "I got a look at what she could do when she checked my sincerity. She...was actually showing nonzero restraint. Not that this excuses what she did, but..."

"Do I want to know what she was restraining herself from...?"

"Short version is that her mindreading can be pretty selective and she was mostly refraining from touching anything that she didn't feel she absolutely needed to."

"What's in that category?"

"I'm not really sure how to explain it. Basically, um...intentions? Motivations? What do you want to do in relation to me and mine and why. That's not quite comprehensively it, but that's most of it."

"Still intrusive but at least it wasn't comprehensively looking at everything..."

"Mhm. Like I said, not saying it was okay. But."

Nod.

"Like the fluff's? In what way is it like fluff telepathy?"

"In terms of...sensation? Like how if you stick your hand in a bucket of water and then you stick your hand in a bucket of, I dunno, milkshake, it's really different but also there's a unifying feature of wet?"