"That...sounds...extremely strange. Um. How...sure are you that you're not creating a new person every time you use this and killing them every time you stop?"

"Quite sure. The fake mind is part of my shield, it doesn't do anything except pretend to be my mind. It's a brand of glamour, and glamour is always fake. And it's really only open on one or two dozen, mm, surfaces. I've used it with other full telepaths before and they always say it's definitely not proper telepathy. Nevermind, then."

"I mean, even it it's not proper telepathy, if it's a less lossy information compression method than language I'm all for it. And now you've got me curious."

"Alright, then." The current set of devices get swapped out. He pulls out and dons a silver circlet. "It looks a little tacky, but it's by far the most efficient method."

He taps the center, and then there is... Something, there. It's sort of like a mind in the way a van gogh painting is sort of like a real image. [Impression of success[eager, interested, gloating]].

"I...think I begin to see the appeal of television."

The mental response is: Confusion, then comprehension, then a defensive 'this is the best I've got'.

Then he turns it off, shaking his head. "There's better models available, I'm just too paranoid to tolerate the holes in my wards they'd require."

"...I was joking. It's fine. Sorry."

"It's alright. Call it nerd pride, I'm just a bit sad you weren't super impressed with my shiny toy." His tone is almost artfully casually self-deprecating.

"I may have higher standards for shiny toys than most people you meet."

"That's the beauty of an interdimensional bar, never know what you'll find. Not that there's not plenty of strange stuff in the corner of the multiverse I can visit without Milliways."

"Like what?"

"Planet-sized AIs. Sentient plant-like things that exchange memories by sharing seeds. Literally thousands of varieties of many standard-to-me fantasy tropes like dragons, magical girls, witches, unicorns. Off the top of my head."

"Sounds amazing."

"A bit less when your job is mostly to make sure all these different physics and magics don't interfere with Multiversal Thaumics Unlimited's premium interdimensional phone service, but yes."

"Familiarity breeds contempt."

"You can get around that with the right mode of thought and showing off to someone once in a while."

"True."

He hmms loudly. "Yeah, I've had a long day untangling DTLs and calibrating rune arrays. I'm going to go grab a drink. That's what a bar's for you know."

"True. I don't drink alcohol because it interacts badly with my telepathy but she does these amazing chocolate coffee things."

"I am sensible enough to have a wire in my tools that hooks to my wards - if I'm not 'fully myself' I can't use the more finicky and dangerous ones, and it steps up the backup policy three times too." He sets down a triangular coin. "Bar, a Sunset Rose, extra sweet?"

"Sensible of you. I wouldn't enjoy being intoxicated at all, though, if it shut down one of my primary senses altogether, so I still wouldn't drink." She orders a chocolate coffee thing.

"No way to make it, say, 'look, don't touch' for a while? Or that still wouldn't be safe enough, because privacy? Stop me if I intrude, but, nerd."

"Privacy and the fact that I'm reluctant to mess around with the delicate working parts of a major feature of my brain."

"I've worked on filters for telepaths before - none very similar to you. It would sort of be like flipping a switch and everyone's like what I felt like when I wore the circlet. I expect you to decline me offering to try something similar, which will be easily and definitely reversible if you don't like it because it doesn't actually touch your brain."

"...I suppose I could try it."