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The first thing Emily notices is that something felt weird when she pulled open the door to Hank's lab.
The second thing Emily notices is that what's on the other side of the door is not Hank's lab.
"That's weird," she muses, stepping inside and looking around. Surely someone would have mentioned if they were remodeling? Surely she would have noticed it happening?
...Surely they wouldn't have installed a bar?
For lack of a better idea of what to do, she wanders up to the bar, still looking around to see if an explanation for this oddness will be readily apparent.
"This is strange," she murmurs, drumming her fingers on the bar.
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iamnotpolaris
iamnotpolaris
It seems likely to Emily that if the great aunt didn't seem like the kind of person who would hide mind reading, she probably wasn't a mind reader, and while it would certainly be worth looking into if she was alive, it's pure conjecture now.
Brief wistfulness at the idea of dead relatives.
Brief wistfulness at the idea of dead relatives.
calescent
"She could tell when people were lying. ...From farther away than five feet. But she might have been faking, only telling about part of her powers. I don't know."
iamnotpolaris
"From farther away than five feet" seems to support the not-a-proper-telepath idea. Well, not that Kiribel is a proper telepath as Emily knows them, what with the not projecting or turning it off, but.
Kiribel does not appear to be actively sad anymore! Yay!
calescent
"Maybe she was stronger than me and she did everything I did just from farther away and never said anything except that she could detect lies. Maybe she read my mind. We knew I was going to be next."
iamnotpolaris
That would be very bad, since Kiribel does not want her mind read, and if said great-aunt were to appear in front of Emily with confirmation that she had done so Emily would probably punch her. But it seems unproductive to dwell on, since the woman is dead.
calescent
"Yeah. ...We didn't think she was going to die this soon. We thought I'd be older when I got the primacy."
iamnotpolaris
People dying is bad, and Kiribel should not have to go extra years without hugs. But there is a definite trend, in Emily's world, that telepaths who come into their powers earlier than later tend to do better. It is, perhaps, not a statistically significant trend--telepaths are a thing that happens, unlike, say, eye beams, but they're not actually common relative to the baseline population--but younger minds definitely seem better able to handle oh hey I can viscerally perceive that other minds exist.
calescent
"I think that's different from me. I shouldn't read most people's minds and I can just tell that people are there from how warm they are if they're out of range and I'm not - having trouble coping with you being in range, or anything."
iamnotpolaris
Her thing is pretty different from mutant telepathy, isn't it? Yeah, so it would unambiguously be better for this other woman to have survived longer.
calescent
"Unless she was reading people's minds without permission."
iamnotpolaris
True. But they don't know that she was. Ideally she would be not and also live another decade, and it's not like they can bring her back to life whether or not she read minds.
iamnotpolaris
Hugs
...And it's a little annoying that Kiri keeps coming back to worrying about something that can't be determined like a philosopher gnawing on the meaning of life, sorry Kiri, wouldn't be choosing to say this out loud.
...And it's a little annoying that Kiri keeps coming back to worrying about something that can't be determined like a philosopher gnawing on the meaning of life, sorry Kiri, wouldn't be choosing to say this out loud.
iamnotpolaris
Think about something else. Hugs. Hugs are good. Why do fire and mindreading go together, it's odd, but then not really any stranger than diamonds or telekinesis going with telepathy so whatever.
...She said Ardelay prime, does that mean there's an Ardelay secundus or a something else prime or something?
...She said Ardelay prime, does that mean there's an Ardelay secundus or a something else prime or something?
calescent
"There are five primes. Fire and mind are the halves of the sweela element. The others are blood and water is coru, air and soul is elay, earth and flesh is torz, and wood and bone is hunti. The prime has to be related to the relevant family and have the right elemental personality. I'm really sweela and the last prime was my great aunt and I have a power birth blessing so it was pretty obvious it was going to be me. My twin is torz and my little brother thinks he's probably elay so it couldn't have been them. The hunti prime thinks his granddaughter is going to be prime after him. Since I got it so early he's trying to teach her stuff earlier than he should have to."
iamnotpolaris
That is sensible! And each of these primes has a different part of a person, that's nifty, although she's not sure she understands the difference between mind and soul.
calescent
"Soul is more personality than thoughts. They're related, but so are blood and flesh. I can only tell what you're thinking right now, not what you're like over your whole life."
iamnotpolaris
...Oh, that is an interesting difference between Kiri's power and Edie's. Edie doesn't know you from just five minutes conversation, even mental conversation, but even when she's firmly Not Reading Your Mind she still perceives the shape of it.
There follows sense impressions of various people's minds as transmitted from Edie to Emily.
There follows sense impressions of various people's minds as transmitted from Edie to Emily.
calescent
"...It feels different from that to me. Not totally different and I only really have you to compare but still."
iamnotpolaris
That is very slightly a shame! Oh well. And this comparison is interesting, if Kiribel weren't so firmly disinterested in having her mind read Emily would try to get Edie so they could compare. But she is. Oh well. Hugs.
calescent
"I'm pretty sure I'm getting the mind reading through warmness. It doesn't happen through walls even if I'm close enough, and I noticed it starting to happen from a little farther away outside at night when Jayce was complaining it was cold."
iamnotpolaris
That is extremely strange, but also cool. ...No pun intended.
If it's blocked by insulators and cold makes her range longer maybe if her brothers bundled up and went into a sauna...? That would be uncomfortable, they couldn't do it for long, but a nonzero number of hugs is better than zero.
If it's blocked by insulators and cold makes her range longer maybe if her brothers bundled up and went into a sauna...? That would be uncomfortable, they couldn't do it for long, but a nonzero number of hugs is better than zero.
calescent
"Aleko tried it. It only works if he's so bundled up he can't breathe. And even right by the fire it's still not hug range. ...And my mom hugged me one time for as long as it took to think anything besides 'I need to be hugging my daughter right now' so it's not actually zero."
iamnotpolaris
Better than nothing, yeah.
Do they not have saunas where she's from? To get close enough to a fire to be as warm as a sauna don't you need to get close enough that you're at risk of getting set on fire? Hm. It would probably help if Emily had ever actually been in a sauna. She should maybe fix that at some point, not that it's ever likely to be relevant in this particular a second time.
...It's sort of odd having someone respond to her thoughts out loud instead of in her head. Not bad odd, just odd.
Do they not have saunas where she's from? To get close enough to a fire to be as warm as a sauna don't you need to get close enough that you're at risk of getting set on fire? Hm. It would probably help if Emily had ever actually been in a sauna. She should maybe fix that at some point, not that it's ever likely to be relevant in this particular a second time.
...It's sort of odd having someone respond to her thoughts out loud instead of in her head. Not bad odd, just odd.