peacewithouttyranny | Noctium Overflow

"Empty." Ah. "So mindreading wasn't the only thing that was removed."

Being emotionally constipated is too much of a price. It's a bit offputting, really. Anyone who's 'empty' is normally a dangerous person and can't be easily trusted. But, Koishi seems a bit young to have dealt with something like that.

"My apologies. I shouldn't have asked." ... "Having this power is miserable, yes. I wasn't able to function properly with it... and it took years before I find the focus I need to be emotionally strong."

That is not something he normally shares to anyone he just met. But a fellow mind reader is extremely rare enough to find, it's worth to tell bits of his backstory.

"No. It's fine you ask. You can't hurt me. Even if you were trying to. I've been empty for well over a century. Even if I had feelings to hurt it's nothing I haven't heard before." She smiled back up at him. It was no different than before. She really was very good at faking it.

"It truly is miserable. But I don't have the option of having the control needed to reign it in. I've always been 'power' and my sister has always been 'control' so I can't really function all that well without her. If I could still read minds, I mean." A pause. "I'm just glad she can function without me."

Informing people of her condition is something Koishi generally does, but rarely one she explains so intimately. Someone who understood the pain of being an empath and a mind reader is a rarity.

It's hard to fake anything to an empath. It's hard not to feel nothing from that smile either. When he tried to read deep into it, there's nothing at all he could read from her. Nothing is receiving into his receptors. And yet, despite the fact that she's empty, just a void, he can't help feeling saddened over what she had dealt with.

After all, though he doesn't know what it is like feeling empty, he knew the miserable difficulties of being an empath.

Soundwave pauses in his flight and turns to face Koishi. Then, tentatively, a hand reaches out towards her and places on top of her head, or hat more likely. He's not good with words of comfort, hence being a bot with few words, but physical comfort is at the very least he could offer to a suffering fellow empath.

Koishi paused when they stopped, tilting her head a little. She opened her mouth to ask but then she found a hand on top of her head. She blinked once and her smile became a little softer.

"You don't have to feel bad for me. I can't even feel bad for myself. It's just a cautionary tale, if nothing else. And I'm not hurting anymore so, if nothing else, there's something small that's good that came out of this. I do appreciate the sentiment though. You're a good person."

"I know you can't."

That's why he's doing this, even though it's likely she can't feel good from it just as well. Being called a 'good person' sounds odd for some reason, but at this particular moment, there's no denying he is one. His hand lingers on her head for a moment longer before quietly retracting his hand back to his side.

"... Let's keep going." With that, Soundwave gives a nod and continues forward.

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