*** Not as funny as the first one but I needed to reveal some serious stuff. And you'll see why it can't really be funny - it's just not fitting. The song applies more to the last part of this instalment than the first. Anyway, as always, vote, comment, enjoy :)***
I looked at O'Brian blankly. Everyone in the room - yes, even Dante - wore solemn expressions, as if something very grave or important had just been revealed.
"Is this the part where I'm supposed to look like I know what you're talking about? Because I have no idea," I said bluntly.
"Well," O'Brian said, smiling, "I'm not sure if the Doctor here would like to give you the scientific version of sensus or not?" He turned it into a question and looked at the Doctor for an answer.
"Of course," the Doctor replied, shifting in his seat so that he could look at me. "Sensus itself is a Latin word meaning to perceive, feel or experience. Now, I m sure you can figure out what I'm talking about - we think that you might have the rare and unique ability to feel what other people are feeling. We are as yet unsure of how this works and how you came to have this ability - so far, all we understand is that people with gifts like ours have very interesting brain activity. For instance, the prefrontal cortex is usually overdeveloped." He began gesturing with his hands as he spoke. "That is the part of the brain that deals with focus, impulse control, emotional control, judgement and, most importantly, empathy," he finished, leaning forward in his seat, his eyes glowing with the passion he felt for his area of expertise. I could feel his excitement, little butterfly wings racing over my arms and flitting through my hair. It was hard not to smile.
"Wait," I said, realising what he had just said and feeling myself grow cold at the thought. "Did you just say people like us?" Here, the Doctor smiled.
"Well, not exactly. See, we share similar abilities, like two sides of the same coin; you can feel what other people are feeling, we can influence what other people are feeling." I felt a mixture of relief and disappointment - the fact that we were openly acknowledging what I had worked my whole life to hide was unnerving. But the thought of someone else knowing exactly what I went through everyday... It sounded too good to be true. And it seemed it was.
"When you say influence..." I trailed off, waiting for him to give me more information.
"I mean that we can make people feel certain things that they weren't feeling before. For instance, we can calm people that are agitated and encourage people that feel hopeless." I frowned in disbelief and confusion.
"What? How?"
The Doctor smiled. "You'll understand in time. Now let me finish explaining. The scientific theory is that early on in the reign of humans on Earth, a non-lethal genetic mutation occurred, causing the prefrontal cortex to have a higher level of activity. This lead to an unexpected and strange ability to project our emotions onto other people. The strength of this gift, as you may, varies from person to person. This mutation was evident as a recessive gene, therefore it wasn't passed onto every generation and occurred infrequently, thus explaining why most of the world doesn't have this ability. Although there are quite a few people that do - the people studying in this centre are only a fraction of the number that are gifted in this unique way." I raised my eyebrows, impressed - from what I had seen, the building could easily contain a few thousand people.
"These are only the people that we know about - there are undoubtedly thousands of others that possess this gift to some degree that we don't know about. Often, they have jobs that are very people-orientated and require a charismatic personality. Some politicians, for instance, are suspected of having this gift." My lips twitched in an amused smirk - it made sense that politicians would be able to influence people around them to do what they want.
