Today, I give you my silly Empath Kryoz au.
John is an empath, prone to feeling emotions from those he touches, even strong ones from people just around him. When he was younger, he didn't understand just why he was feeling like he did. Why hugging his mother made him want to burst into tears? When his father saw them together, he would be filled with dread and fear.
In school, he learned about telepaths and empaths, immediately recognising himself as the second. Before he could put his hand up, excited, the teacher had gone on to lecture them all about how dangerous and rare people with those powers were. How they would lie and manipulate those closest to them, and if they ever found one, they needed to report it immediately. John felt something shrivel up in his gut, feeling the intense anger inside of her.
So he went home, doing some research, so he could ‘know his enemy’ in a way.
He learned that not only would he be forced to pick up on other people's strong emotions, skin to skin touch would make it almost impossible for the other person to hide how they're feeling. As he gets older, his powers are only going to grow, and if he's unlucky, he's going to start being able to influence other people's emotions with his own. He really didn't like the idea of that.
John went home for the summer holidays, a bright happy kid who loved to chat to everyone about everything. Rocking up to middle school, he was a completely different person; withdrawn, monotone and distant.
Every night, he would work on strengthening his mental shields. His dad drank so often now, that it was easy to get away with practising on him, the alcoholic barely reacting when he felt John's sadness wash over him like a blanket.
The first incident, had also been one of the worst for John. He'd been in high school, still withdrawn, but also starting to realise other things. He'd become quite enamoured with one of the other boys in some of his classes, not really understanding his feelings. Still, he needed to keep them down.
After a few months, he realised what he was feeling was romantic attraction, which scared the shit out of him. He couldn't be two types of weird, that was just unfair! Still…
It felt nice to pass him in the halls, look at him every now and then. Then it happened. John had tripped in the locker room, accidentally brushing against the other boys skin, his emotions bursting into John's brain, John accidentally transmitting his own feelings at the same time.
The problem is, when the boy you're crushing on is 100% straight, feeling a bubble of romantic something for another man is usually crushed to dust instantly.
John is surprised at the waves of pure disgust, fear, hatred, gross hitting him square in the chest. He pretends to not react, keeping his mental blocks in place, but he can barely hide the flinch from how intense the emotions are.
He slips up again, faltering when they're running laps on the oval. He sees the boy looking at him again, mentally already imagining the disgust, making him slip, projecting misery, self loathing and sadness across all the people in the near vicinity. It's enough to make half the people stop, and a couple of girls burst into tears. John quickly clamps everything back down, but he feels so much guilt and even more self loathing that he vows to never repeat the incident.
….
So here he is now. Thirty something years old, only online friends (because you don't need to worry about emotionally manipulating people through a screen accidentally), and is commonly on the receiving end of jokes about how little he seems to care. He's heard almost every comment under the sun about how deadpan and monotone he seems to be, and shouldn't he lighten up a bit?
John's confused by that, because isn't he doing what society wanted of him? He's keeping out, keeping to himself.
He's trying to be good and play by their rules, in an increasingly unfair game.
And then he meets Smitty.... and then Matt and everyone else. John… just falls so fucking hard.
He's struggling to hide who he truly is. The real him. It's hard when Smitty's making him laugh so hard he's crying, when Matt's making him wheeze with laughter, when Pezzy and the others have him gasping for air weakly. His mask shifts, but it's okay. They won't ever meet up, so he's fine.
Maybe he even lets his sheilds down a little around Smitty? After all... something about him...
It would be too dangerous to meet him, though
...
They're talking about meeting up. John's eye twitches.
He'd love to know them in real life, of course! But..
There's no way he could ever be himself around them.
The thought hits him like a cloud as he lets it wash over him, pulling it back in when he hears his neighbour start crying.
After all, how do you tell a group of people; hey, the reason I don't want to meet you isn't because I hate you, it's actually the opposite, it's because I care about you all too much! Because I might love-
Yeah. Nah.
