Power Swap: Everything in my power to help

[Dr. James Campbell]

(Backdated to as early in the powerswap as possible, because James is a good friend and it isn't his fault that Tony was away.)

Of course, James noticed the problem right away. Poor Sean. Really, poor everyone.

His family had been lucky. He and Chase had been called in when the crisis had started, but they hadn't been affected. (Nikki and Ginny had also been safe from whatever had caused this problem.)

The past few days had been chaotic though. The recruiting office was a mess, both with them being short-staffed, and the general confusion. James had tried to arrange for previously non-powered adults to come in for training, but even that was proving difficult. Poor Chase, on the other hand, was just overwhelmed with students needing new training. (And he had ended up in the crisis response team, jumping in to use his own power to prevent meltdowns.)

With everything going on, it had taken a few days more than it should have for James to knock on Sean's door. He came bearing gifts, a small box of pastries from a bakery he knew the other man liked. He'd called ahead to be sure that Sean wasn't in a meeting or handling someone else's problem before heading over, and gently rapped on the open door before entering.

"Hello, Sean. Up for some early lunch?" James held up the pastry box. "You look like you could use a break."

And to James, he did. The idea of Sean not being telepathic just seemed absurd, but the older man just looked...depressed. Mentally, James kicked himself for not taking the time to reach out sooner. He had noticed it, but one thing or the other had kept him distracted.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean was coping with the loss of his telepathy as well as one could expect, which was poorly. While some meta-humans disliked their powers, considered them curses, and thus felt better for the recent losses, the former telepath viewed his abilities as integral to his sense of self and to his daily life. He had tried to explain this to Josh, how he felt that he had a disability with the loss of his most utilized and precious sense, but to explain this to a non-telepath proved difficult at best. After all, nearly everyone in the world managed to function fine without telepathy, despite the fact that none of them were telepaths and their brains were not wired for telepathy in the first place.

Instead, Sean felt as impaired as someone with cellular regeneration who had lost the ability to heal quickly. Although the immediate physical risk to his person and life did not increase, the mental health ramifications did and had already taken effect.

This had not prevented the psychiatrist from going to work at Hammel every weekday since the crisis began. After all, he was an adult with a job to do, and plenty of his coworkers, and the students, and even some of the local population, had been similarly affected. Work gave him something to occupy his thoughts, although he remained keenly aware of his limitations in the absence of his powers.

Listless and miserable accurately described his demeanor, although he attempted to hide it beyond empathy and sage affectations.

The knock shook him from his thoughts. That had been among one of the first, and yet most difficult (and lingering) adaptations: coping with the fact that he no longer simply knew who approached him. That he had to turn and look like everyone else did. That people could sneak up on him and surprise him.

Fortunately, his visitor proved to be James Campbell, and the telepath managed to feign a smile for his friend. The smile failed to reach his eyes, and surely could only fool the most oblivious of individuals. No match for James’s enhanced perception or the knowledge that came with years of familiarity.

“I would love some.” His voice lacked the enthusiasm typically associated with the offer of baked goods. Truthfully, his appetite had dropped off since the event, although he forced himself to eat.

[Dr. James Campbell]

Out of everyone who could have come to speak to Sean, James actually had a very good idea of what it was like to have his power so completely necessary. On occasion, during his training, James had experienced what it was like when a power negator completely blocked his ability. But having relied on his perception for so long--more than half his life at that point, and more than 2/3 of his life now--James didn't know what to do when he didn't have access to it. It was like looking through heavily tinted windows at the world. Sure, sometimes he could get the general shape of things, but there was nothing near the detail to which he was accustomed.

Granted, what Sean was going through was not the same thing. James knew that his power had changed to something else, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what the new ability was. Also, Sean didn't know when or if this shift would ever end or if he'd ever have his own ability back again. At least every time James had gone through training with a power negator, he knew that at the end of the session, everything would look the same as it did in the start.

Who knew how long it would take, if ever, for Sean's telepathy to come back?

James entered the office and took a seat across from Sean, putting the box of pastries on the desk between them. As if it were any other visit, he opened it up and offered first pick to Sean. (Despite his heightened sensitivity, James was far from a picky eater.)

After the older man had made his selection, James picked a pastry that he liked and took a bite. He took another moment, then finally asked, "How are you doing with this chaos? I know this hit you personally."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

The only saving grace of losing his telepathy, if one could consider it as such, was that Sean could not hear people muse about how long he it would take for his powers to return, if they ever did. The psychiatrist spent more than enough time each day mired in those thoughts as it was and required no external reminders of the situation.

He knew this his friends meant well. He knew that his coworkers meant well. He knew that his partner meant well. He knew that everyone was worried about him and about the other victims of the power loss. Nobody knew the cause, which meant that nobody knew how to find a solution, and waiting proved torturous, for him at least. For him and anyone else who relied on their powers. Some of the students had reacted more favorably, due to disliking their powers.

That had been him once upon a time, but so many decades back that he could no longer remember what that felt like.

However, the pastries and James Campbell’s presence both provided something for him to latch onto as far as a distraction, and he eagerly turned to those. He made his selection, picking up what appeared to be some sort of fruit turn over, and he brought it to his lips. Apple. Delicious.

He chewed and swallowed before answering the question, glancing down at his hands as he spoke. “I’m...coping.” That was the long and the short of it.

James was an old friend. He was married to a psychic, and he relied on his powers to the same extent that Sean did, albeit with greater and more persistent side effects. As such, the former telepath thought that he might understand what he next said. “In one sense, nothing feels quite real; everything is flat.”