You are in Anytown, USA.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU-"

I stop. I couldn't hear words come out of my mouth as I tried to shout at the strange old man.

Aw, dammit. I did it again, didn't I?

This isn't the first time that you've accidentally used your telepathy instead of your mouth, and something tells you that it certainly won't be the last either. I walk back down the alley, wondering what he meant by serving his time. As he runs off out of sight, I begin to scan the people walking down the street for collars like mine, hoping that I can sort this mess out in time... hoping that old geezer might have just been delusional.

Judging from the sinking feeling in my gut, he was probably as sane as I am. As I hear the thoughts of the children and teens staring at me from the other side of the street, I being to lose all hope. I'm about ready to go home and waste those thirty days trying to communicate with older people telepathically.

 

I like where my joke answer is going.

My first use will be to exert my power on someone for a single command: Defy me.

Experimentation~

 

Ingenious, really...

I feel like my story is turning into an RP between me and Jiku.
I'm quite liking it, actually. It gives me an excuse to come up with simple little snippets of a story that could go anywhere.

 

It says, "You're welcome."

You hear a voice in thought that drowns out the others. It doesn't feel like the voice of a young person, it sounds warped and out of phase with the world, but you're hearing it. It's hard to make out what it's saying through the distortion, but you can tell roughly where it's coming from.

The person laughs and asks you if you've lost your parents and if need help finding them.

 

That voice... that voice sounds so out of place, yet it makes me feel better just knowing that it's sticking out from the crowd of adolescents. I try desperately to communicate, knowing that I may not catch it in time. I act as quickly as possible, walking in the general direction I believe it to be coming from.

Hey... if you can hear me, give me a sign. I'm the girl who's walking out from the front of the alley; the girl with a collar. Please, there's no time to explain.

 

It doesn't seem to be a response to you but you make out a few words, you're gaining ground. "garbledincomprehensible stupid girl garbledincomprehensible always standing in front garbledincomprehensible understand what it means to garbledincomprehensible."

 

Dammit... I can't take much more of this. If this guy knows what's going on, if he can help me, then I'll have to find him on my own.

I manage to look into the minds of a few of the passing children, searching for a grumpy looking fellow. I can't seem to make out much, but I'm walking in the right direction. I keep asking for him to show me a sign, steadily losing both my hope and my patience.

 

You are stopped at an intersection with a small cluster of other adolescents for several moments before you hear the voice again. It's loud as hell. More than shouting, it's a deafening roar of telepathic 'sound'. All you can make out from it is, "Not here! **** now! Wh--garbledincomprehensible!"

 

I hear the voice begin to complain, almost yell at me telepathically. I try my hardest to shut it out, but it's just too damn loud. A migraine starts to form in the back of my head, and I know that I can't hold on much longer. That was another downside to my powers, if I focused on too many voices, which wasn't usually a problem with kids or teens, or had a single voice screaming in my brain, I would start to get a migraine and lose control. It had never fully happened before, but there was no way that I was going to let it get to that point.

I kept communicating, trying to calm him down. If I wasn't able to, then there was no way of telling what might happen to me.

Alright then, where could we meet? If you know something, then we need to talk somewhere! My powers suck, and I need serious help...

I have no idea if sympathy will work, but I try to play into it anyway. I need every advantage that I can get right now, especially considering the unusual circumstances.

 

So either something is wrong or that command pretty much nulls my influence.

Try more mundane command to establish proper functionality. Like... "Show me around" I guess. But very forceful so s/he will just be like "Wtf no" if not under my power. Don't want any more misreads.

 

You see a girl about your own age, with short wavy hair perk up and look around. The voice stops at this point and another starts in. "Who are you in my head? Can you hear my thoughts? Go mind your own business." She thinks all in quick succession as if she's trying to come up with something to say not realizing you can hear her already. "Where are you?" She finally settles on.

"No need to get snippy with me, little miss." The man says, " I'll help you around, but only if you're polite."

 

Ah, so the mysterious voice emerges. You know, it was a hell of a lot of trouble finding you.

I can feel the pain subside as I walk slowly towards the girl. If she's about my age, then it means my powers didn't suddenly develop or grow stronger. Shit, and I thought I would finally be able to read the minds of people over sixteen. Well, I guess there's no point in squabbling over such a tiny little disappointment. I speak to the girl, both telepathically and verbally so she knows who I am.

I told you, I'm the one with the collar...
"I told you, I'm the one with the collar..."

She turns and seems to be a bit shocked at my little stunt, probably not realizing that this happens in real time. I give her a smile and proceed to ask her a single question in her mind.

Now tell me, what the hell is going on?

 

Instead of answering your question she asks mentally, "What collar? What goings on? What do you want from me?" On her last words you notice her eyes flash red and the voice in your head begins to warp again. She clasps her hand to her forehead and says aloud, "Not here. There's nothing here for me to--"

 

I wonder why she can't seem to see the collar but quickly dismiss the thought as her eyes turn red and her voice warps in my brain again. The pain is returning, faster than before now, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I remember watching this British television series all about freaky alien things, Doctor Who I believe, and wonder if this is similar.

Gah! No time to ponder over that as the pain grows stronger. I figure it's reaching lethal levels, but I can't really tell seeing as how I've never died of such pain before. I try to reason with the girl telepathically, but my thoughts are disconnected and scrambled. I can't even seem to make sense of it, and I doubt that this girl would be able to either. I try to string my words into sentences, into something intelligible, but there's no way of knowing what she's hearing, as I begin to blackout.

Wha... what are you? Wh-paininducednonsense- doing this -paininducednonsense-e? WHY!??!??

As I fall to my knees, desperately clutching my head, an inane little thought makes its way into what's left of my nonsensical, conscious mind.

Heh... if we're in the middle of the street like this... then why aren't the masses screaming or running to help?

 

There are people screaming, but they're not running to help. Quite contrarily, they are running away from you for some reason. The girl's eyes are now set in a muddly red and her hair is beginning to turn as well. Suddenly, she's englufed in a sphere of light that soon shrinks to a point, her along with it presumably, and then explodes, bringing her back into view wearing a strange outfit and sporting an even stranger robotic looking armored right leg. Her thoughts are no longer warped. They seem almost calm at first, but it's hard to tell for sure because she keeps running a single word through her head without wavering in tempo or repetition.

 

My hands hold onto my head tightly; the pain has nearly forced me unconscious. Still, through all of this, I somehow keep from blacking out. My vision is blurring, but I can see her hair(?) turning the same shade of red as her eyes. Suddenly, a bright light seems to swallow her and I can faintly hear something like a tiny explosion. What the hell is going on? I scream telepathically, hoping that she's still there, though it would only mean more pain for me. I don't care; I couldn't stand to see her dead because of me. I can feel the air rushing out of my lungs, even though I'm not screaming with my voice.

Hey! Are you there!? PLEASE! TELL ME YOU'RE ALRIGHT!!!

My vision begins to focus again. I can see the girl in a new set of clothes with... is that a robotic leg? Seriously, what is this, a JRPG? I manage to let go of my head, feeling the pain fade into the black of my memories, and stand myself up. I can hear something faintly with telepathy, but it takes time for me to figure out what it is. It must be the girl. She seems to be repeating a single word in a perfect pattern, almost in a robotic sort of fashion. I still can't manage to make out exactly what the word is, but it never changes. I finally notice the crowds of people backed away as far as they can be from the two of us. They're confused and scared... scared of the two of us. It was only a little while ago that I kept my telepathy use to a minimum and that everyone treated me like any other kid on the street. Now I was the local freak. Now, there was no going back...

 

The girl stares at you on the ground for a moment, looking half as though she's about to speak. But she either decides against it or never intended on it. She turns quickly and takes a mighty leap into the air, leaving you alone. No people remain in sight or earshot or range of telepathy after this particular stunt. The pain in your head finally subsides.

 

OOC: I love how this thread has become our personal roleplay...

I look at the mysterious girl and ponder her possible responses to the situation. Before I can make a move to speak, she leaps into the air and I'm left alone. At this point, I can't see anyone and I can't communicate to anyone, telepathically or verbally. I'm completely alone. Well, at least that horrid migraine is finally gone.

Freaking out internally at recent events, I decide to head back home and figure out what to do from there. Time seems to pass like a blur and I'm suddenly in my room. My black, leather chair next to a plain bed with an open window right in front. The browser on the computer in front of me seems to have been set to Google and apparently I typed something in. My hand moves, as if on its own, and clicks on the minimize button. I can faintly hear someone clearing their throat at the door behind me, and I don't move. I stay facing the computer screen, letting them look at my back. I try to read their thoughts, but I get nothing. They're clearly past the age limit. Still, there's no harm in testing the boundaries every once in a while. I turn around to a shocking sight. It's the old man from before.

What's he doing in my house? How did he even get in my house?

 

The old man slips into your room and closes the door surreptitiously and accosts you. "You saw that girl today, didn't you?" He doesn't wait for a response. "You're met with such luck and you squander it, you might never get such an opportunity again. The youth of today..." He seems really harried and even more likely to be delusional than when he left you. "You need to find another one and find its handler. If you don't, you'll be dying come this time next month. Understand?"

 

I refuse.

It's not a void, it's a shadow. As for the wall, it can't be there because shadow travel is instantaneous. It's sometimes faulty, but that's rare.