"Actually, I do have a question."
"Yes?"
"How were you so confident that I was a Enchanter? Is there some kind of personality test?"
"There is nothing of the sort. Although, what one's life leading up to the events to them getting Psynesis does have an impact on what type of ability you get, a moody or stoic personality would have nothing to do with it, it's more based off of your traumas and experiences."
"Sooo...?"
"You have an enchanter ability, so you're an Enchanter."
"Didn't you say there were exceptions?"
"Ah, that's right. That's related to the Psynesis specialites thing I was talking about earlier. Sometimes someone can manifest an ability that may require a very specific combination of Psynesis specialties required to use it."
"How specific?"
"For example, a Spectralist and Lighter ability. For an ability to use both, the user couldn't be a Lighter or Spectralist. They'd have to be either an Evolver or Mistic."
"Ah, so those are the exceptions... That also means that there are some impossible abilities?"
"Impossible?"
"Well, if you had an ability that required two different mental and physical specialties, you wouldn't be able to use it."
"Oh, those! Well, to tell you the truth, abilities like those are possible!"
"Really?"
"Well, first you're wrong that there's no Psynesis specialty that allows you to use two different mental and physical specialties that don't line directly up with each other, you just wouldn't be able to use either at 100% proficiency. For example, if you had an ability that would be both an enchanter and Spectralist components, you would have to be either a Posseser or an Evolver. Then you would be able use one of the required components with 80% proficiency, and the other with 30% proficiency."
"Oh, my bad then."
"But,what's far more interesting is that someone can change so heavily as a person that they can induce a Second Awakening, or Re-awakening, or Reset Awakening, again, you'll get different names everywhere. When this happens, the person has changed so drastically that their Psynesis specialties change. Usually, it's like the same as a basic awakening, but, in very rare cases, they can have completely different arrays of Psynesis proficiencies! We call those Specialists."
Once he finishes his little rant, we have gotten a fair bit away from Setup: Dirpending.
"These abilities can be dangerous to activate in the middle of a place like that, so I brought you out here."
"How dangerous are these?"
"Well, not really dangerous, just... you'll see.
I'll see?
"First, let me explain the Mental Realm. There is a realm, parallel to ours, that holds only each of our consciousnesses."
"It holds only each of our consciousnesses?"
"Any one person has a little bit of energy that exists on this plane. Earlier I had you visualize it at the locks and chains stuff. Nothing else exists in this plane other than our synced consciousnesses. When you learn to use Psynesis, your power in this plane grows tremendously. With that power, also comes a higher consciousness."
Ah, so I wasn't just dreaming about being able to remember things better earlier.
"Now that you've ascended and become a Psynesis user, you can now start doing stuff with that energy."
"I feel like you should've started with this."
"Shut up. The point is that while this energy is the source of your power, it also holds your consciousness. So if you focus, you'll be able to manifest your consciousness in the mental plane."
"Manafest my consciousness there? Isn't my consciousness already there?"
"Perhaps it's more accurate to say that your perception is being directed to the mental plane."
"Ah, so you can see someone else's mental energy?"
"Exactly. This is useful for seeing how much energy someone has left, or to see who even is a Psynesis user! Let me show you how to do it."
He starts to gather mental energy in his right hand, like a gentle purple aroma, looks like it would smell like lavender, although maybe that's just because it's purple.
"Can you feel it?"
Can I feel it? It's a little hard to tell.
"Could you make it a little stronger?"
"Since nobody's tracking us, it should be fine."
The amount of energy drastically increases! I can definitely manage to feel the pressure now! It feels thicker, almost like smoke.
"This is enough, yeah!"
"I thought so. Hold onto that feeling, and try to track the mental energy I've stored. I'm going to slowly hide my aura."
I feel the aura slowly getting more faint... Focusing on it takes a lot of effort. So much effort that eventually, I can't focus on anything but this little bit of energy that I'm tracking. In a moment after I reach that state, the amount of energy spikes up! The difference in energy is so intense, that I manage to snap out of what just happened.
"Not bad, you were able to track it even in the mental realm."
What he fails to mention was why he had his hand on my neck.
"Uhh..."
He removes his hand after that, and I instinctually take a deep breath.
"Believe it or not, I was choking you, just a little bit."
"How? I didn't even notice!"
"That's because you were using Mind's Body! Once you reached a certain point, you weren't able to see anything else around you, right?"
"Oh! I thought I was just so focused that I didn't notice anything else."
"Well, that's true as well. Once you direct enough of your attention into the Mental Realm, you won't be able to notice what's happening on the Physical Realm. Since I suddenly increased the amount of energy going into my hand, you were too focused on trying to sense the finer details, you were stunned. Almost like a flashbang."
"But what if I use Mind's Body to the point where I can still see the enemy's movements?"
"In situations like that, you can still defend yourself from basic attacks... at a close distance. As I said earlier, you can't feel objects that exist solely in the physical world.... such as a gun."
"Ah."
"Plus, there are ways that you can hide your energy so much that one would have to use Mind's Body so intensely, that you wouldn't be able to notice normal people anymore."
"Really? I imagine one of those is Body's Mind?"
"Correct. Using it should be pretty instinctual now that you can use Mind's Body."
"You think so? Because I don't."
"Perhaps I should explain Body's Mind first. When you use Body's Mind, you are taking some of the energy from the Mental Realm, and moving it to the Physical Realm. You can use it to mask yourself as a normal person in a crowd, or go even beyond that, and force someone to use Mind's Body intensely enough so that they couldn't see normal people anymore."
" "Right. But I'm still not quite sure how to do it."
"Perhaps you need to use Mind's Body again. Try to sense my entire presence with me using Body's Mind. I'll have the mental level of a normal person. When you are able to sense me, try to think about something else, anything else. It may seem easy to get caught up and focused in the activity at hand, but in reality, it's kind of like moving only your eyes to see something slightly to your right rather than slightly tilting your head."
Only moving my eyes, huh? Well, I'll try. I focus hard on trying to sense his presence. Eventually, I get a hold of it, now I need to think about something else? What do I think about?
. . .
I wonder if people are still quoting the memes from 5 years ago, or if I'll look like a madman if I say "Bruh" in front of another human being.
"Ah, now I get it!" I was able to keep track of him easily as my mind was wandering.
"Your "eyes" analogy works, but it feels more like I was turning a single knob that was my "focus" my entire life. But up until now, I've found a new "knob" one that was previously synchronized with my "focus" knob, it feels like I've learned to desync them!"
"A "knob" huh? That's pretty good, I might use that analogy in the future. Now try turning that "knob" in the other direction."
As I'm turning this metaphorical knob in my head, I feel a sort of... hurdle. As if when I turned the knob past that point, it made a little "click" with a slight bit of resistance. Regardless, I'm able to keep turning..
As if my body moved faster than my mind, I swing my neck backwards, and only a moment later, I see a little bit of someone, hiding in a bush. A moment after that, Messa noticed.
"Who are you?"
"Ah, so you noticed me?" She says.
A girl's voice? She's pretty quiet, too. Suprised I was able to spot her.
"When you use Body's Mind, you are literally moving your mental energy and storing it into your body, giving your body a subconscious mind of its own. Your body effectively reacted to the smallest of sounds, and turned towards it before it even had the time to send that information to your brain. Although it's worth noting that after a certain point, you won't be able to use your Psynesis abilities, so it's a trade off."
She emerges from the bushes, wearing a hoodie and some jeans. Combined with the short, brown hair, and the classes, she looks like the stereotypical "Shy Girl" as opposed to Elizabeth, who was the stereotypical "Posh White Young Woman." Although, this one isn't wearing makeup, so that does take away from the aesthetic a bit. Not that I can blame her, it must be hard as hell to get that stuff, unless you're in a position of power like Elizabeth is.
"I came here to look for Justin's killer."
A killer...?!