synopsychic | near the end of the week

Hokay. So. Me and Claudia have been talking and we've noticed we aren't being affected by the weird Song thing or even many of the side effects and one thing we both have in common is we're both pretty good at psychic protection--that is, shielding our thoughts and stuff--so we're pretty sure there's at least somewhat a psychic component to it.

I was thinking that maybe, even with the other precautions happening, it might be a good idea to teach anyone who doesn't know it yet how to do that psychic protection. At least the beginners version of it, if not the extra-strength version we both know.

Also...

[And here she hesitates, guilt warring with guilt. An entire year of not telling people something they really should have known, versus the desire to protect someone dear to her. But if she didn't name names, maybe that would be protection enough. And people should know. She was tired of covering for him, especially since as far as she could tell he'd never stopped doing it.

She wonders if he'll be mad at her after this. Fine. Let him be mad. She'll remind him that she could have used his name.]

Also, I kind of really think that everyone who can learn psychic protection should, for the simple fact that there are people among the Travelers who will listen in to your private conversations. Some of them will listen into every unprotected private conversation that passes through the network. Because they think they have a right or a need to listen to them.

I know. It's happened to me.

So. Yeah. I can't force any of you to learn this, but I think it's a really good idea. And I'm here to walk you through it over the network or I can go find you if you'd rather have an in-person lesson.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm willing to help too, if anyone needs help establishing or beefing up their mental firewalls and Thorne gets booked solid.

Yes! She is very good at that shit.

Of course people would try to listen in. This happens physically as well. I even suspect that protecting a conversation on the network is really only a formality, like building a fence. You cannot trust that your defenses will be stronger than the person looking to get around them.

Was it anything serious? ...You do not have to answer my question if you do not want to.

Yeah, I know I should probably expect this shit. But not everybody does, so I figured I should tell people.

[She quickly switches to protected.]

... I dunno, is who I slept with six Jaunts ago serious?

Edited 2017-01-13 08:46 (UTC)

It sows distrust, but it is a fact, and everyone should know it can happen. A parent does not keep the truth from their child that thieves exist just because they are afraid their child will distrust everyone.

[ As is his usual way, he continues an unprotected conversation next to a protected one, in the hopes it will mask any suspicious silences.

[ Private ]

That depends on how important it is to you, who you are comfortable knowing about it, and how you feel about how they obtained the information.

Yeah. Honestly, I kind of wish I'd said something about it months ago. It's not fair to everybody when they have people spying on them and they don't know.

Honestly, it kind of turned me off of learning psychic stuff for a while.

[Privately]

Not terribly important, I'm kind of embarrassed in retrospect because have you ever seen Hajime as a disco werewolf, and I feel pretty damn annoyed about how, even a year later.

...side effects?

And yeah, getting my defenses up wouldn't be a bad idea. Stops me from having to kick someone's ass for eavesdropping. I can block a little, but...

Um. I think some people are getting more violent?

Once you learn to block a little bit you can move onto blocking for both you and the person you're in the conversation with.

So it's not just m--something is making people violent?

[It's not murderbug gotta murder? He's more relieved than he'd care to admit.]

I just want to shield myself for now. Might help defend more against Teruo's Song.

Someone's always listening. Reasons I don't use the network much.

People do not know how to leave others alone.

[There's a sharp, slightly-angry tone to her voice.]

Nothing like having your worst assumptions proven true to make a girl feel even more paranoid.

Thank you, Thorne. I'm glad to know that I'm working towards the correct things. I also believe that Conditioning is helping fight the effects of the Corrupted Song. I don't believe I've mastered that enough to teach it, but it is another avenue for people to look into.

Is there a way to... test if I've got the psychic protection skill mastered, though?

It certainly seems like people keep getting that way? I dunno, maybe this is natural and not the weird Song after all.

But yeah, you'll want it to defend against Teruo anyway. Okay. So. As a refresher, remind me what metaphors you've been using for your mental shielding and I'll help you find ways to enlarge them for better shielding.

[... that's slightly worrying.]

Yeah.

[...

...

Going to privatize this.]

You okay? You want to go back to liminal together and talk about this shit?

Have a psychic conversation with someone else and have a third person try to listen in on both of you?

Because when you've got it, like, fully mastered, you can protect other people's thoughts as well as your own.

... I'm sorry. I thought it would be better if people knew, so they could learn to protect themselves.

You're right. It is.

It'd just occasionally be nice to be proven wrong, you know?

I'm...prone to it...but I've had it under control for so long...

[Talking about defense instead of brooding is probably for the best right now.]

And I've been thinking of it like putting on armor. Or using actual shields.

I'm fine. I just get tired of people not respecting each other.

I can't get to Liminal anyway.

Thank you for the warning. I will protect my private conversations more forcefully.

And I can teach the simpler protection to anyone that needs to learn. I know some are even stronger than I, but I will happily share anything I know now.

Oh god, right. You don't portal.

I mean, if you wanted a break from here, I'd give you the lift. Six hours of enforced downtime is probably something I need too.

No problem. I'm just sorry I sat on the knowledge for so long.

Okay. Well. If actual shields... you need to make your shields bigger, so you can fit someone else behind them. Picture your shield, then picture it getting bigger. And bigger. And bigger. Stronger. And stronger. And stronger.

Yeah, I know.

It's still good that you told us at all.

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near the end of the week

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AHAHAHA speaking of which guess how she got spied on

BEAUTIFUL

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