#empathycanon

Should he find himself slipping, Michael will physically move himself to 'pull' his empathy back into him. It's an old trick- one he’d learned on the playground when he didn’t want the other boys and girls to know his sadness. Back then, of course, he needed to reach both of his arms out and pull. They laughed at the funny boy grabbing onto air, but he’d rather that than the alternative.

His empathy doesn't involve just feeling emotions, but Michael's developed a way to see them and to, on occasion, taste them. Happiness is sweet and blue, confusion is orange and salty, devastation is acidic and black.