"—is it? I'd never thought something like that would be—well, pretty, or ugly, or anything like that." He seems to find this idea oddly pleasant, though.

"It's a whole sense, I have aesthetics in it. Minds can be pretty, or do pretty things, the way music can."

"Can minds be unpretty, or dissonant, or different kinds of pretty?"

"I suppose they could be unpretty, but I don't have much of a sample size. They're all different kinds, no two are the same."

"Can your powers be used projectively? To... show other people this other sense?"

"I... could in principle but it'd carry the same risks as any other active use of the power."

"Which are... that you don't know whether you could be messing anything up accidentally?"

"Yeah. I'm almost certain my passive use doesn't do anything besides what I've described, I don't have nearly that confidence with anything I can actively do. I haven't detectably screwed anyone up yet but I've only worked on desperate addicts and crazy people and stuff."

"Have other people with your powers screwed up before?"

"Primes don't always have the exact same powers as other primes of the same element. My great-aunt said she could detect lies at range greater than mine but didn't claim to be able to read minds outright even close up, for instance. Her grandfather I know even less about. Records aren't what they should be on the subject. I'd like to fix that for future generations but I seem to have been stranded in this alternate universe."

"Wouldn't you have heard if someone had, like, completely messed someone up?"

"No, because it would have been at least a hundred years ago and embarrassing to boot."

"Ah. Must be frustrating."

"Yup. The other primes are in similar boats, I've actually been a prime longer than anyone else alive because I was eight when my great-aunt died and then there was a lot of turnover very quickly."

"Are primes usually picked that young?"

"No, I was unusual, teens or twenties is more typical."

He nods. "Must have been hard on you."

"It was a rough transition but I came out okay on the other end of it."

He nods thoughtfully, and thinks about how when he was that small all he wanted was to be a superhero.

Kinda worked.

Aww. "I woke up with my bed on fire. I was fine, but it was pretty scary. And then nobody could hug me till they were comfortable with mindreading."

"Is everyone? In your family."

"My twin brother is better about it than my little brother or my parents but yes."

"Huh. What do they mostly object to?"

"Varies. Mostly they feel like they have to police their thoughts, but different aspects of that bother them."

"Huh," he repeats. He wonders what kinds of thought policing have to happen. He doesn't think he thinks very interesting thoughts, or anything he'd want to hide.