'Bout a million miles an hour... [OPEN]

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Who: The Doctor (Eleventh) and YOU.
What: Compulsion week, ohgod.
When: Anytime this week, from Monday to Sunday.
Where: Anywhere. Really, anywhere. Come up with a place and he'll have come up with a reason to be there and start bugging you. Or you can come looking for him, if you know him already.
Warnings: If you are a Jack Harkness of any kind,

Comments

Thursday, downtown

[psychic_belle]

She couldn't stop the voices.

To be entirely fair, she probably could if she really wanted to, put her shields back up and keep the voices from buzzing around inside her brain like so many bees. But, for once, Sookie didn't want to stop them. She wanted to hear everything that the city of Bete Noire had to think, like an addiction, almost. She had to know.

Today was no exception: whispers of murder, sex, love, hope, betrayal floated up and down in her mind as she passed through the crowds, and then -

- it was sort of like being hit by a train. Someone was thinking so fast, so much, it made Sookie gasp aloud. Words, concepts flashing by her so fast, so fast: she looked around, trying to find this person, half-tempted to tell them to slow the hell down, if only for her sake.

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His mind was in motion, but he was sitting still. Sat down on the curb with eyes closed, palms held up in front of himself as people moved around him, past him.

Back on Earth, if he'd concentrated just a little bit, he'd been able to feel the planet turning. Hurtling through the mostly-empty space between the stars. Bete Noire was still, but he could sense the borders. A centralized location was best for it.

His mind brushed against the edges of the city. Theories and equations flowed like a continuous stream through his head. Collapsing stars, string theory, continuum mechanics.

Some jokester on the sidewalk thought it would be funny to give one of his hands a high-five as they rushed by. Startled out of his thoughts, the Doctor stood up, spinning around to see who'd done it --

-- and stopped short. Somebody was in his head.

The whirlwind of his thoughts (crows, there's someone behind him, a black metal butterfly, no that's not it) spun itself into a single, focused question. It wasn't a shout or a scream, but it was sharp,

[psychic_belle]

The words in her head startled her, and she took a step back instinctively, immediately scanning the crowd. Someone else like her - but not like her at the same time. Barry's thoughts had been like hers. Whoever this person was, their thoughts were going so so fast, faster than any human's she'd ever come across. Maybe this was what vampire thoughts were like, so fast, so sharp. The thought tempered her excitement over meeting another telepath, and she took a breath, sent him an image of her open, empty hands.

I don't mean you any harm.

[fallsoutofbox]

Didn't your mum teach you not to rummage through people's things? He spun around again, trying to see if he could get a fix on whoever it was. They had to be close: the farther away a person got, the more difficult it was to make and maintain a connection, and this was as easy as chatting.

It's very rude. There was a note of humour to that. Whoever it was might have been powerful, but the Doctor wasn't sensing any inherent threat. If they'd wanted to hurt him, they probably would have done it the second they'd entered his brain.

[psychic_belle]

There - maybe it was that guy. The one spinning around. He looked too clean and well put-together to be a crazy spinning homeless guy, and she looked directly at him, hoping to draw his attention with her focus. Of course, maybe she was completely off and he really was just crazy.

My gran taught me to rummage carefully, she replied lightly. Just be sure you don't get caught.

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He found her just a second later. Everyone else was rushing by on their way to somewhere else or loitering, too lazy or strung out to bother. She was the only one who appeared to be looking for something.

He caught her eye. Gave a little wave, and the mental equivalent of a tap on the shoulder, before walking over.

"Can't say I'm shocked to meet another one," he said, smiling down at her. "Still can't help wondering what you're doing reaching out all random like that. You know there's dangerous minds out there in this city." She was either ignorant, reckless, or dangerous herself.

[psychic_belle]

"Normally people don't know I'm there," she pointed out, smiling back. He seemed kind - seemed being the key word there. It was equal parts bad and exciting to be caught out, to find someone else like her, but that didn't mean she was going to let her guard down yet. She looked around at the people walking past, that faint smile still on her lips. "I don't usually, but - I dunno. It's so much more interesting right now."

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"Is it," he said, curious, wondering what 'right now' translated to. Also 'interesting.'

"Interesting's one way to describe the way people think in this city," he said - then checked himself. "Not that I go poking around at random either. I actually can't. Not without--" he tapped her on the shoulder, "--contact, not with someone who isn't... y'know." He pointed to her forehead. "Although I can. If they are." Obviously. That thought was broadcast.

"What d'you mean, interesting?" he finally asked.

[psychic_belle]

Sookie laughed at his attempts to indicate what he meant, though not unkindly. She wondered what that must be like; to be telepathic like they were in the movies, not like she was, where she had to fight it all the time. It seemed nice. More like a pleasant surprise to come across someone else than a shock.

"I dunno, there's just - it's hopping," she replied, shaking her head. "People are buzzing. Like you. You think so fast. I've never met anyone who thought that fast."

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"Not many of me around," he smiled. "...Although there is one more than usual, here."

He took a thoughtful pause. "How long have you been in town?"

[psychic_belle]

Sookie glanced up in confusion at that, though her question was put aside for the moment at his. "Oh, God, it's been ... let me think, near on eighteen months now." She shook her head. "Give or take that day - or week - I was back in Louisiana."

[fallsoutofbox]

A nod.

"In all that time, you haven't noticed too many other people like us?" he guessed. His tone became conspiratorial. "...There's a man, somewhere in this city, with a telepathic ability, who's been using it for... less innocent purposes." His hopes that she'd be able to identify the Bird Man weren't high, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"He would've had dark hair. Would've been - like you. Able to reach out without contact."

[psychic_belle]

Sookie shook her head. "You're the first one I've come across. I guess I shoulda figured there'd be other telepaths in the city, but they've stayed away from me. What's this guy been doin'?"

[fallsoutofbox]

"He's been using people's minds against them. Manipulating them so they'll go mad - or at the very least, very very irrational. I've been trying to find out what I can, but he's clever. Keeps himself hidden."

He frowned down at her. If she didn't know anything, the least he could do was warn her. "He's got a thing for crows. Dark hair, thing for crows, one of those... perversely gentle voices. That's all I've been able to work out so far. Just - be careful, that's all I'm saying."

[psychic_belle]

"Thank you for the warning," Sookie said sincerely, smiling up at him. She glanced around then, as though speaking of the man would have summoned him to their general area. "Like I said, I haven't seen him, but I'll keep an eye out - crows, you said? Anything special about them?"

[fallsoutofbox]

"Normal crows from what I can tell, but he can control them. A while back there was one day when they were everywhere, all around the city. Were you around for that?"