Whispers in My Ear (Sean)

[Sora Inoue]

Sora wasn't too familiar with Doctor Sean Neville. He hadn't really taken the time before to even bother doing so. But he did know the man was a psychiatrist, someone who knew about mental health. There was some hope that maybe he could just boost Sora's confidence in the "I'm not actually crazy" department. While he clearly knew this, it was still hard to deal with other people assuming so without understanding of his power. Even he didn't understand it at times.

There was one other thing he knew about the good doctor that made him a bit hesitant to go to him. That he was a telepath. Sora was by no means doubting that the man was good at his job and provided results people were in need of. There was just that eerie idea that he could get into his head. And if he choose to communicate through this power, how was Sora to know that it was Dr. Neville speaking and not some new voice in his head?

Despite that conflicting thought, Sora felt obligated to go and see him. Just a few days before he had worked up the courage to send an email to him asking if they could make an appointment. Luckily this morning was good for the both of them. He stood in front of the door that separated him from the psychiatrist. He took a deep breath before tapping on the door with his knuckle, then entered. He didn't knock for permission, but more to let Dr. Neville that he was here. Maybe it was just him, but there was nothing more annoying than a person entering a room without your knowing and scaring the bejesus out of you.

He stood in the doorway for a moment as he looked around the office, half expecting Sarah to start describing the room for him. There wasn't a single trans-dimensional peep. "Good morning Doctor Neville." Sora wasn't completely sure how to address this man. While he was a co-worker, Sora was also his patient at the time being. The Japanese man sat down in a chair across the desk from Sean with his fingers laced together on his lap. He took a deep breath as the appointment began.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean was long used to the concerns that Sora had about his powers, although not from Sora specifically. Life as a telepath had exposed him to decades of concerns and biases – subtle and more glaring – about psychic powers generally and telepathy specifically. As human beings, and as a largely non-telepathic species, the sanctity of one’s thoughts was to be maintained, and anyone who could breach such barriers (which, for millennia of human development was a non-issue but still resulted in a hatred of so-called seers or others designated mystical) was viewed with suspicion.

He tried not to let the cultural baggage get to him. After all, he was comfortable with whom he was, and he liked his powers. More than that, he was good at his job, and his powers supplemented his natural observational skills and the decades of knowledge he had amassed through psychiatric training. He was also a people person. That was another reason he was good at his job.

Of course, meeting with people was only half of his duties; the other half involved paper work and more solitary duties. Such were his occupations when he heard the knock at his door.

Finishing with the file open on his desk, the psychiatrist called out, “Please come in!”

[Sora Inoue]

The voice on the other side of the door welcomed Sora in. He was a bit hesitant, but entered all the same. Of course inside was what one would expect of an office, a desk, papers, a man, Sean, on the other side of the said desk. "Good morning Doctor Neville. I'm Sora Inoue." He offered his hand to shake. His manners were habit as well as a bit of confusion. He wasn't sure how to address the man who was acting as his doctor for the time being, but also his co-worker.

He stood a moment longer before settling into a seat across from Sean. His fingers laced neatly on his lap. This moment felt a bit strange for Sora. He'd been to a psychiatrist before during school in Japan, but even then it was hard for them to help with Sora's little predicament. Nobody really could really get a good grasp on the fact that he could hear a voice from another dimension that was narrating theirs. It was hard for him too. He didn't know if Sean could get the idea too, but Sora sure hoped he did.

A deep sigh came from the Japanese man. "Thank you for seeing me today."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean rose to greet the younger man as he entered the office. The telepath reached out one large hand to take the other man’s in a firm handshake, and he offered Sora a warm smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Sora, but you’re welcome to call me ‘Sean.’ After all, we’re colleagues.”

Manners were always the easier way to greet people. They also tended to go over better than the more cryptic I know whenever anyone introduced themselves to him. Everyone who worked with him knew that he was a telepath, and they could extrapolate from that what they wished. There was no reason to set them off balance by forcing them to confront his powers so directly.

After ending the handshake, Sean gestured at the seating apparatuses around the office. Once Sora had taken one, he resumed his own seat, making himself comfortable. “That’s why I’m here,” the psychiatrist replied, since it was. He very explicitly wanted his coworkers to feel comfortable coming to him with troubles, and he considered it both part of his official duties, as well as his unofficial ones to help other adults cope with life at Hammel.

“What can I do for you today?” The question was open-ended, so that Sora could go at a pace that felt comfortable to him.

[Sora Inoue]

Sora nodded in response with a polite smile across his face. Sean seemed a nice enough man, he was polite and welcoming. Sora felt a bit foolish for having a bit of anxiety about telepaths. Just because they could read his mind, didn't mean they were going to. It seemed a bit childish as he thought about it. He'd just have to work towards getting more relaxed at these situations.

The Japanese man shifted in his seat. "It's my power. With a voice from…" It seemed weird to talk about other dimensions. He couldn't see it, just hear. "another dimension it's hard to concentrate on tasks at hand." As he explained the situation, Sora felt a bit embarrassed. After nineteen years of living with it, and six years of that time working to control it, he still didn't really have the best grasp on it. That was the joy of involuntary powers. The voice(s) just comes and goes as it pleases most of the time, but fortunately stop it when he was about to get pulled from his body.

"Ignoring isn't always easy, and I don't wish to concern any students." He sighed. It was a strange predicament. It wasn't like he could just ask the voice to go away, it never did react as if it was listening. The fact that he'd be talking to a voice he only heard wouldn't help the impression his students had of him.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nodded sympathetically as soon as Sora uttered the three familiar words “It’s my power.” Those three words had been spoken so many times in this office, by more people than he could count. Meta-humans were affected by their powers in so many tangible and intangible ways, and those effects and side-effects took a toll on mental health as well as physical. Particularly with certain abilities: psychic powers...and dimensional powers.

The telepath had only limited experience with dimensional abilities. They were rare, and often they differed greatly from more common, or even less common but more thoroughly-studied, abilities. More than that, he was the psychiatrist, and not the Side Effects Specialist, and thus this had never been his particular area of study or expertise.

From what the younger man explained, Sean could empathize. Voices were voices, and despite the different origins, this was an area that, as a telepath, he could understand. “Concentration can be very difficult,” he agreed with another nod.

“What was your training for it?” Since this was sensory, albeit extra-normative in origin, as opposed to psychic, Sean doubted that the typical avenue of mental shields had been available. It was important to know how Sora had been taught to cope, before they could discuss anything outside of that.