Issue 1 Downtime

It was night, and by now, most people were sleeping. Well, most responsible people would be sleeping, but it was a high school. So people were just now winding down, mostly in their rooms save for a few stragglers, getting ready to sleep, getting settled for the night.

Mike sat on the edge of the roof around the dorms, eyes closed. A subtle psychic presence could be felt that could, if a person was suspicious enough or strong enough, be detected and tracked, though it wasn't like he was trying to hide himself. More like he just wasn't using enough power to draw that much attention to himself.

Samantha herself was only really starting to get used to other telepathic presences around her. As such, she still felt an odd tugging every now and again when someone was using them. Nothing overly disturbing, but like a faint cricket in the room or a faucet dripping softly it occasionally nagged at her.

Tonight her curiosity got the better of her, and in pajama pants and a nightshirt she stepped out onto the roof.

"Hey there," she said softly.

"Hey, Sam," he said, opening his eyes as he glanced back, but not climbing back over to the safe side of the roof wall yet. "Looks like I've been found out... don't need to find a new place to hide at night, do I?" he asked, smiling faintly.

"Sorry. Just wondered who was up here, aye? I guess you wanted to get away from your roomies for once."

"Nah... They're leaving me alone, just..." He shrugged, waving at the campus. "It helps to be out of the middle of it this time of night," he said, giving his head an explanatory tap.

"Like emotions, or dreams?"

"Emotions, really. Through most of the day, it's... kind of a buzzing? I mean, if I look, I can pick out what everyone's feeling, but it's all so chaotic that there's no one thing to really push on me. At night, though..." He shrugged. "Do you want to see?" he asked, glancing back at her. "It's not bad, I wouldn't do that."

"Sure, if you like. What are you looking for?"

"More what I'm looking at," he said. "Here, come closer." She'd feel a vague mental pressure on her mind, not as subtle or expert as Ms. Grey, but not a clumsy push, either.

Though her defenses weren't that practiced yet either, she carefully opened them so he could make contact.

"Still not used to this..."

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll be careful. I've had to practice this stuff a lot," he added a little regretfully.

The first thing is that Sam would 'see' the minds across the campus. Her mind could process it however was best for her, but Mike, whenever he closed his eyes, could see spectral lights for each of the minds, brighter or dimmer, and colored differently for how they were feeling, but everything seemed to have a similar, somewhat peaceful hue this time of night, oddly enough.

"Oh wow, I didn't know it looked this different for you."

"I can turn it on and off, but... yeah," he said.

She could feel that there was more, but she could push into it and pull back from it as she wanted. The next thing she'd feel get was the tone of the emotions... What the various shades were, how the people were feeling. "Everyone's got stuff to get them going during the day, keep their minds on things. Night time... everyone drifts off. That's when people start feeling lonely, start feeling scared, stop feeling distracted..." he shrugged. "Not everyone, of course, but the people who are fine tend to be calm, so there's nothing to drown it out."

"...and it's hard to ignore the lonely and scared ones, when everyone else is fine."

"Exactly," he said. "So I come up here and try to... well, make it a little better." And the next thing she could feel was a very subtle, calm influence pushing through the building.

"That's awfully sweet of you, you know."

He shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. I'm surprised none of the teachers have come up and stopped me, they have to know I'm doing it."

"I wonder if I'm really doing anyone any favors, sometimes. It's the same every night, it never changes..." He sighed.

"I guess the reasons they're lonely or scared don't go away, just the feeling."

"Yeah," he sighed. "And I can't do anything about that. Just... put a band-aid on it." He shook his head. "But when it's all you can do, it's all you can do, I guess..."

"At least you still try. Not everyone would."

Mike shrugged noncommitally. And Sam could feel the undertone of self-recrimination from him like she could feel the muffled feelings from the rest of the campus through him.

"Why are you feeling guilty about this?"

Mike was quiet for a few moments. "Not about this."

"...oh. Does it... bring back bad memories?"

"What was it like for you when you got your power?" Mike asked, looking back at her. "You know, that lousy 'shit, I have this power, and it should be awesome, but there's something that makes it really suck' phase."

"Well... to tell the truth..."

"...it was really bad when it first came out. My... my little sister still won't look me in the eye. Even when I look normal."

Mike nodded. "When mine came out... picture all the things people are feeling, hammering into your head, and you don't know what's yours, what's theirs... anything. And then picture that getting spread to everyone around you because you don't know how to block it in or block it out."

"That sounds horrible, like it could turn really ugly fast."

"You have no idea," he sighed. "I was such a mess I didn't even know if I liked or hated anything by the time it was bad enough that my dad decided it wasn't worth keeping me away from here."

"But... that wasn't your fault..."

"...any more than it was mine."

He sighed and nodded. "I know that. And you know that. But... doesn't make it feel any better, does it?" he asked, looking back at her again.

She sighed.

"No, it really doesn't. It's not like I can just explain it to Kat..."

"She'll probably get over it faster than you will," he offered. "I... ah, hell. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be a downer. It's just..." He shrugged, somewhat at a loss for words.

"...aye."

"So... that's what you think of when there aren't any distractions left?"

He hesitated a moment before nodding. "Mostly I just try to not run out of distractions. It usually just catches up with me when I'm trying to get to sleep. Harder to latch onto something to keep my shields up then."

"And your shields failing brings back the old feelings. Aye, that I've had."

"But you turn that around into deciding that other people shouldn't have to be frightened or lonely at night, and that is admirable."

He smiled faintly. "Is it going to make sense if I say it doesn't feel admirable?" He shrugged. "I guess some people would say that I'm just doing it to make myself feel better. Might be a point to it, I guess."

"Think of it this way, you could just wallow into self-pity, but you're turning it into action."

He nodded. Then he smiled faintly. "Not cold up here like that, are you?" he asked, quietly teasing.

"I don't think I'm supposed to admit I'm chilly up here, but rather gaze out over the grounds stoically," she smirked as she teased back.