Freakout Time [Maybe 2 hours into the new liminal]

[mytearsaremine]

[Not long after liminal changes over, but with time enough for the psychic network to start quietly bubbling again, a voice is broadcast into the fray: and that voice is loud.

For once, it isn't Jules. Instead, it's a teenage girl's voice, and while emotions and tone don't translate over the network without a little more experience than she's had, it's still pretty obviously as much of a scream as one can make when one is brand new:]

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

Comments

[mytearsaremine]

[It's actually the baby crying that starts calming her down a little. Hiskott would never do that. Nobody in their right mind would use a baby to control someone. Not like that.]

What-- what's the network?

[They had one of those in Ryslig, but it was nothing like this.]

[dino_zarf]

It's how we communicate with other Travellers at a distance. Right now you're broadcasting completely publicly and really loudly.

[Hence the fussing continuing to project]

[mytearsaremine]

But you're doing it in each other's heads? All the time? That's just-- that's super invasive!

[dino_zarf]

You can only hear what people put out there.

[Filter intrusion... well that apparently exists but that's another thing altogether]

[mytearsaremine]

Then how come so many people are putting things out there? That's just-- keep your brains to yourselves, people!

[Nevermind that she's not, either. She wouldn't be, if they hadn't done it, first!]

[dino_zarf]

It's how we share information we want everyone to hear.

[He's not livestreaming the baby though. He prefers to share the smiles.]

Announcements, that sort of thing.

[mytearsaremine]

This doesn't sound like announcements. It just sounds like, I don't know, chatter. Kind of background-y, I guess, like I'm in a really crowded room. Except the crowded room is my head and there's not a soul anywhere nearby where I'm actually standing.

[dino_zarf]

There's a bit of that too.

If you learn to use it there are ways to turn it off, but that's way beyond me.

[mytearsaremine]

I'm going to learn that. I'm going to learn that as fast as I can.

[As if willpower were enough to make it happen.]

... Who are you, anyway?

[dino_zarf]

I'm Wash. The one crying is Rose. She's well on her way to being better at the psychic stuff than I am.

[mytearsaremine]

I'm Jolie. And the baby is better at the psychic stuff than you are. Seriously?

[Well, really, there's a baby on this network thing to begin with. That's already petty impressive. Thankfully, the baby is screaming less now, at least.]

[dino_zarf]

She seems to be picking it up like any other language. Us adults have to do it the hard way.

[mytearsaremine]

Wow, that's a little scary. Psychic baby. Does she scream in your heads a lot? I mean, does it make changing diapers easier?

[dino_zarf]

Sometimes, that's how we found out that she could do this. We got separated from her coming back from a Jaunt and she wouldn't stop screaming in the heads of people she knew until we found her.

She can project what she's feeling physically, too. So that makes figuring out what's bothering her easier, at least.

[mytearsaremine]

Wow, yeah. Every parent's dream: knowing exactly what baby wants even when they can't talk. I guess you lucked out, there. I guess hearing it in your head or something isn't great, but it's better than nothing.

[dino_zarf]

There are ups and downs. Mostly we're hoping she doesn't learn portals and then crawling.

[That could end badly]

[mytearsaremine]

That sounds bad, yeah, but um, I don't actually know what you mean by portals. So. I'm just guessing, here.

[dino_zarf]

When the Trumps send us other places, we can open portals back to Liminal where we are now. Some people can even use them to teleport. Which I'd rather not have as one of Rosie's tricks.

[The ways that would be terrible are pretty obvious]

[mytearsaremine]

Oh, yeah, that would be pretty awkward. Disappearing baby. Though I guess since you can talk in each other's heads, she shouldn't be that hard to track down, either.