AU: Cloudy (Devon)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean frowned at the other man’s confession, as memories of that incident flooded back to him. Devon’s first week had Hammel had involved more incidents than some staff members experienced in their first month, or, for the more fortunate ones, their first year. While the telepath felt great empathy for any student struggling to control their powers, he had no tolerance for deliberate abuse, either to manipulate another person to achieve a particular end-goal, or simply for the sadistic delight of creating chaos and misery.

He still pitied Devon for his first week at Hammel.

However, he felt greater concern than simply over potential residual trauma. If the younger man held any lingering fear over psychic interaction, then the path ahead could manifest frightening barriers. Far worse than enclosed spaces or darkness. Far worse than manifestations of typical fears.

“Keep an eye out,” he warned, and, unfortunately, he could offer nothing more concrete than that. Perhaps they would get lucky and encounter nothing along this path. If their luck ran out, then Sean wanted Devon to duck behind him, so that he could take care of the problem for both of them.

He had achieved more complicated feats in less coherent mindscapes before.