"No, we'd be here all day, and I don't want to insult your childhood religion even if you no longer follow it as such," Cat clarifies.

He frowns. "I think a few things are still slipping through? This is much better than it was, though. It still takes a lot of concentration to maintain, but I imagine that will get easier over time."

Rex pokes Joss in the knee before she can say anything. "Glad it's better," he says grinning. "I actually had a problem similar to Joss where when I moved up here for uni it was too quiet because the pack was so far away. And I was used to always hearing or feeling someone." He pauses, smile dimming slightly. "I hope it gets easier, it would suck to have to concentrate all the time just to be able to actually concentrate."

"I'm sure it will," Cat agrees. "Didn't you say Joss took hours to get as much as I managed in the first few minutes? It'll be habit within a week, especially if I can stay here and practise without needing to do anything else."

He considers. "It would be useful to have more people around, though, if I'm staying here. Otherwise I won't be sure it works on larger groups."

Rex straight up bounces. "That's good." He likes people being okay and happy.

He looks up at Joss.

"No," she says firmly. "Dale needs sleep, I am not bringing Nik or Mab here to try and seduce them, Des, Simon and Tam should be in class."

Rex droops slightly.

But by happy coincidence, this guy is walking into the main bar area, stretching and yawning like he just woke up. His hair seems to have defied a comb, if he bothered to run one through it in the first place.

Trailed by this guy.

And this woman.

"I did suggest you to go to bed earlier, sir. Bar, one coffee please."

Rex's happiness is strong enough, like all his other emotions, to leak through Cat's imperfect shields, eroding his concentration.

Then, the number of other people in the bar suddenly doubles, assaulting his barriers and sending them crashing down.

"...ow."

He drops his head onto his hands and squeezes his eyes shut. 

Rex looks immediately distressed, but tries to clamp down on his feelings.

Joss shifts to be between the newcomers and Michael.

"Is everything okay?" the woman asks, question strangely bland, almost mechanical.

The two men are watching, silently.

Oh hell they're all worried about him now and that's not helping - 

He calls up a memory of his father saying 'focus, Michael' and holds onto that, lets it block out everything else for a moment so he can think. 

Okay.

Two of the new people seem different, in the same way Bar is different, but not like Bar... One of them (the one who was speaking, he thinks?) is...less overwhelming than everything else. She's - not calmer, but - sort of the opposite of Rex: her emotions are muted where his are loud. That helps, makes it easier to imagine them going quieter still, muffled by thick cloth. He extends the same metaphor over her companions, the one who is like her and the one who seems more like Joss than anyone else in the bar. 

Joss and Rex are familiar enough now that he can pay less attention to them, and with Raven he hardly needs to try at all; she's part of the background noise of his life. Slowly, he regains the ability to think straight, and relaxes. 

Raven moved closer to Cat when the newcomers first arrived, knowing she can't do anything to help but driven to protect him anyway. She tries to remain calm, since panicking will only hurt her brother further. 

When he relaxes, she does as well. 

"The situation is under control," she tells the woman, with more confidence than she feels. 

The woman inclines her head, although there is a very slight narrowing of her eyes that seems to suggest that she's not sure she should believe that.

"Too many people?" Joss asks, almost too quietly for human ears.

But apparently not quite quietly enough. "Perhaps we should go back to our room, sir?" she suggests.

"After you dragged me out here, when there's- Not very many people here yet?" he seems to only just have noticed the other four. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. If this is a private meeting, I can totally drink my coffee in my room?"

He does indeed, appear to be the one of the three of them drinking the coffee that was ordered.

"Not a private meeting, no. My brother just manifested an empathic talent and is still learning how to control it," Raven explains. 

"Your arrival was unexpected enough that he dropped his shields and had to rebuild them."

"I think I'm alright now," Cat adds. "You should probably stay, actually; the sooner I can deal with large crowds the better." 

He is about to say something else, then stops and laughs.

"I don't know if it will mean anything to you if I say we live in London?"

"Well, last I checked, London was smaller than it used to be in our world, but I still imagine it isn't a nice place to be with an empathic ability," the man grimaces.

The other man looks curious now, leaning forward slightly. "How, precisely, does on go about manifesting an 'empathic talent'?"

"No, Prometheus," the woman says firmly.

"But it is likely fascinating!"

Air blurs, bone crunches, and Rex is back in hound form, facing the newcomers and growling at the man.