Overlap

Chapter 35: Three-way Telepathy

<12/03/2010 - 07:59 | Saffrin Middle School (Entrance), Austell, GA, USA>

Starting my day in another good mood, I decided to change my routine slightly. It took me a little longer to wake up today, so I didn't contact Lumina first thing in the morning. It was too difficult for me to concentrate on doing so on the bus ride here. So, I settled for another tactic.

After leaving the bus area, instead of heading through the side entrance of the door, I went towards the front entrance instead. There's a strange small alcove of space around the corner here, one I use to duck out of sight while remaining outdoors. With myself hidden and concealed from the others, I performed my usual trick of projecting the signals out to Lumina, who would then pick them up, send back her own, and stabilize our connection with each other once more.

It was technically possible for me to call her from within buildings and other structures, but I preferred trying it outdoors for a number of reasons, all of which summarize to make it easier for me to contact her in the first place. Not even three seconds in, I was already hearing her voice again, nearly setting a record for how fast and clean that attempt was.

"Hey Reed! Good to start the morning off with you." Lumina was in a great mood too, and I knew perfectly well why.

"Good to see you too." It's been only a month since the two of us met, but in that short time, Lumina and I have become something I can happily call friends. In some ways, I feel even closer to her than with anyone else. Maybe that's because I feel like I can tell her most things I couldn't say to any normal person in my school. Plus, I never have to worry about either of us misreading each other anymore; telepathy takes care of that most of the time.

"Hurhrhr!" My body spasmed a little from the freezing chill in the air. It's been nice and cold for a while now, but today, the temperature dropped into the higher thirties, only now reaching exactly forty. I've gotten used to measuring the temperature in Nixus rather than Fahrenheit, even though they are both so close to each other in value. Lumina taught me how to do it, using the sensory nerves in my hands and fingers. It's how they measure the temperature in their own world. "It's really cold out today!" I was already shivering, my body freaking out over the loss of heat since I wasn't in the building yet.

It was a strange feeling I suddenly developed recently. Every part of me reacts this way to the chilling cold. All humans are this way, preferring slightly warmer environments. No matter what I actually say, being cold like this is still uncomfortable. However, I was learning to love this feeling inside, this sensation of shivering and being out in the freezing cold. As long as it is cold outside, it will be possible to stay in touch with Lumina. That is why I'm starting to like it this way; the association set in stone.

"That's great! Though I already knew it was cold in your world, just by how strong the connection is today."

I nearly forgot about that strange effect. Apparently, physical sensations that Lumina and I feel can be shared, but only certain sensations. The difference in air temperature is something that can be shared, but it's very uncommon for it to happen, and so it never does. So, Lumina doesn't actually know how cold it is outside when I contact her, unless I let her know myself. But I also forgot until now that she can sense how strong the connection is, which is a sense I do not have. "You mean you can just tell?"

"Of course. All I have to do is measure how much energy I'm using in the connection. It also becomes obvious when our senses begin to synchronize like this. You should soon be able to notice this without trying."

Our senses in synch? Telepathy already makes this possible, specifically when the connection is at least on an average-good level. But I got the subtle hint that she was talking about something else. I just decided to ignore it for now, and head to class. "That's good. Another strong connection means another happy day." I didn't have to explain to Lumina this time that she would have to phase the connection out for my first period class, simply because it was becoming routine. My Social Studies was a bit difficult for me, so it was nearly impossible to stay ahead of it. But in the very next class after, in Honors Math, I was getting ahead of it all perfectly fine. So, she and I waited until then to start talking to each other to ease our own boredom.