[Of course he'd see the con potential. His ex had too. But he'd also seen how the power had almost broken David at first, so he hadn't dipped into that power like he had the pychomimetry.]
I was making a living off of it, and since I know how to invest money and make a good profit, I could care for myself quiet easily. But sometimes you get hit by things you don't expect. Deep emotional pain can linger with items sometimes. It can be painful and traumatizing for me. And magical items are a lot worse.
[He's brushing up pretty hard against telling Balthier actual weaknesses, ways to hurt him, and yet he's doesn't mind doing it. He didn't think Balthier would use it against him. Beyond that, though, he was impressed with the questions Balthier was asking. They were the right ones in a lot of cases. Even the gloves thing.]
You're not wrong, the power is exhausting. I have a theory that the psychomimetry, the one I was born with, wasn't my only mutation, but I've never had a brain scan to confirm it. I believe my brain is slightly different, structurally, from most humans or even mutants. I process information a lot faster, and can organize what I take in into more or less searchable forms in milliseconds. I know how to remember it in useful ways back home, and I'm good at making new connections between it all. Even without my powers, I'm a genius. As for the rest, I can't limit anything. It comes to me, whether I want it or not, the only relief is being unconscious, or if I run into a proper telepath back home they can either block me out of their minds, or shield my power from functioning. Here though, with how it's warped, both it and the psychometry need physical touch. In fact, before I learned the level of control I have here, a gift from world walking I guess, I really did wear gloves. In fact, I kept every inch of my skin possible covered. My hands were always in gloves, always long pants and sleeves, always turtle necks. I couldn't even easily trust myself to hug people. It was the worst sort of thing.
[The sense of self, oh boy, what a question.]
I don't get bits of personality actually, and so I'm good at literally compartmentalizing knowledge and skills away. The psychometry, though? That can overwhelm me, even now, even with far better control. I've learned how to put up something like magical barriers in my mind to let me control my gifts at something more resembling will. But if I were to let those down, well, let's take this very second as an example. I'd be getting everything all at once from my socks, my pants, my underwear, my shirt, my coat, my glasses, my hand is on the arm of this chair so that, and of course, the tea cup I'm holding. It's miserable. When I first got it, I basically stripped down, curled up in a ball on a wooden chair, and begged a telepath friend to come get me. Sometimes I'd just go float in a pool because water doesn't trigger it. I nearly lost myself from the overload. So, you know, not the best vacation. I have more control now, but it's not flawless.
[There's so much he doesn't know about Balthier though. Hell, he's never even touched the man skin to skin, much less with his barriers down. David's cautious about it, even now, but less so than he was before. There were times, though, that it was a very intimate thing.]
Actually, there's not as much of an advantage in social situations as you'd think. By my power pulling itself back to be touch based, I can't tell when people are lying anymore, except by reading non-verbal cues. And you've got to understand that people know so many different ways of interacting and so many methods contradict each other. Doesn't matter that I have psychology degrees, in the end that one heavily comes down to just me. But in an emergency, when someone wishes 'damn I really wish I had two of me to do this task', guess what? There I am. A second them. Who is also a second this other person who is important. And third person. I'm the man with a plan. In fact, with my investigation team back home, I'm third in command despite my age, probably second now actually, and part of my job is to synthesize together what every one else figures out to come out with the big picture.
[Trevor saw everything. Akihiro smelled everything. Rachel played with viewing time and she was psychometric herself. Put what they had together with what he could do with technology and what he KNEW, and you had a powerful team, even before you mixed in Jean-Paul and his sister.]
I spent a lot of my youth actually scared of my own powers. I think... I think we different influence, I may well have ended up very much like your father actually. I had people to keep me from that path, and to help me find my way toward making my own choice. Not that I really did so until I was actually about nineteen or twenty. Before that I sort of just followed the paths others laid out for me a lot of the time. Except, well, my one rebellion.
[David smiles to himself as he thinks about it. Hopefully Loki follows through on getting that back for him.]
no subject
I was making a living off of it, and since I know how to invest money and make a good profit, I could care for myself quiet easily. But sometimes you get hit by things you don't expect. Deep emotional pain can linger with items sometimes. It can be painful and traumatizing for me. And magical items are a lot worse.
[He's brushing up pretty hard against telling Balthier actual weaknesses, ways to hurt him, and yet he's doesn't mind doing it. He didn't think Balthier would use it against him. Beyond that, though, he was impressed with the questions Balthier was asking. They were the right ones in a lot of cases. Even the gloves thing.]
You're not wrong, the power is exhausting. I have a theory that the psychomimetry, the one I was born with, wasn't my only mutation, but I've never had a brain scan to confirm it. I believe my brain is slightly different, structurally, from most humans or even mutants. I process information a lot faster, and can organize what I take in into more or less searchable forms in milliseconds. I know how to remember it in useful ways back home, and I'm good at making new connections between it all. Even without my powers, I'm a genius. As for the rest, I can't limit anything. It comes to me, whether I want it or not, the only relief is being unconscious, or if I run into a proper telepath back home they can either block me out of their minds, or shield my power from functioning. Here though, with how it's warped, both it and the psychometry need physical touch. In fact, before I learned the level of control I have here, a gift from world walking I guess, I really did wear gloves. In fact, I kept every inch of my skin possible covered. My hands were always in gloves, always long pants and sleeves, always turtle necks. I couldn't even easily trust myself to hug people. It was the worst sort of thing.
[The sense of self, oh boy, what a question.]
I don't get bits of personality actually, and so I'm good at literally compartmentalizing knowledge and skills away. The psychometry, though? That can overwhelm me, even now, even with far better control. I've learned how to put up something like magical barriers in my mind to let me control my gifts at something more resembling will. But if I were to let those down, well, let's take this very second as an example. I'd be getting everything all at once from my socks, my pants, my underwear, my shirt, my coat, my glasses, my hand is on the arm of this chair so that, and of course, the tea cup I'm holding. It's miserable. When I first got it, I basically stripped down, curled up in a ball on a wooden chair, and begged a telepath friend to come get me. Sometimes I'd just go float in a pool because water doesn't trigger it. I nearly lost myself from the overload. So, you know, not the best vacation. I have more control now, but it's not flawless.
[There's so much he doesn't know about Balthier though. Hell, he's never even touched the man skin to skin, much less with his barriers down. David's cautious about it, even now, but less so than he was before. There were times, though, that it was a very intimate thing.]
Actually, there's not as much of an advantage in social situations as you'd think. By my power pulling itself back to be touch based, I can't tell when people are lying anymore, except by reading non-verbal cues. And you've got to understand that people know so many different ways of interacting and so many methods contradict each other. Doesn't matter that I have psychology degrees, in the end that one heavily comes down to just me. But in an emergency, when someone wishes 'damn I really wish I had two of me to do this task', guess what? There I am. A second them. Who is also a second this other person who is important. And third person. I'm the man with a plan. In fact, with my investigation team back home, I'm third in command despite my age, probably second now actually, and part of my job is to synthesize together what every one else figures out to come out with the big picture.
[Trevor saw everything. Akihiro smelled everything. Rachel played with viewing time and she was psychometric herself. Put what they had together with what he could do with technology and what he KNEW, and you had a powerful team, even before you mixed in Jean-Paul and his sister.]
I spent a lot of my youth actually scared of my own powers. I think... I think we different influence, I may well have ended up very much like your father actually. I had people to keep me from that path, and to help me find my way toward making my own choice. Not that I really did so until I was actually about nineteen or twenty. Before that I sort of just followed the paths others laid out for me a lot of the time. Except, well, my one rebellion.
[David smiles to himself as he thinks about it. Hopefully Loki follows through on getting that back for him.]