Microstory 2508: Lie Taster

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I can taste your lies, and numb your reality. Now. What does that mean? Well, the first one is obvious, but you might be surprised to learn that lies taste sweet. They actually taste really good. You might think it should be the opposite, but what you have to understand is that my ability was something that all humans possess, just to a lesser degree. We can all tell when someone’s lying, depending on how good they are at being deceptive, and how good we are at picking it up. Think about it, if someone tells a lie and it tastes bad, it’s going to be quite obvious to you, and you’re just going to reject it. Lies are meant to make you happy with something that isn’t correct, so they tasted good to me, so they would feel good. Of course, I wasn’t doing my job if I just accepted the taste, and didn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t hard either, to ignore that part, and just use it as a tool to get to the root of our subject’s issues. Only when they were honest with me could I be sure they were being honest with themselves, and only at that point could I help them not have to lie anymore. If you genuinely enjoy your job, for instance, you won’t have to lie when your boss asks if you’re happy doing it. My responsibility was to get the taste of these lies out of my head, which didn’t involve anything beyond just talking with them in a therapeutic setting. I’m the only one who almost never used my active Vulnerability gift. There just wasn’t much reason to. The best use cases were when someone was having a panic attack, and I happened to be in the room. By numbing them to their struggles, they could gain some much-needed perspective, and maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much when I brought them back to reality. It wasn’t always prudent to do this, though. I mean, they really had to be going through it at the time, and acting violent, or threatening to harm themselves or others. It was a last resort that thankfully did not come up most of the time. There is one time that I wish I had used it, and it was our last client. He could have done with a hell of a lot less emotion on that night, and we would not have ever been in danger from him. Or not. He might have used that against us as well, fueling his anger, and making him even more vindictive. There’s no way to know, but I think it all worked out, because the world has Landis now. I am enjoying being able to walk into a restaurant, and taste food, knowing that what I taste is real, and not coming from a lie coming out of someone else’s mouth.

Microstory 123: Hosanna Katz

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Little baby Hosanna Katz was a very fussy child, and there was nothing his parents or his doctors could do about it. He would show no symptoms of illness, he was well fed, and was kept clean, but would still continue to cry. As he grew older, he began to understand his ability, but still not control it. Hosanna’s empathy level sat at an extreme. He could sense what others were feeling to such a high degree that he could feel their physical pain, and not just emotions. The problem with this was that each individual has their own mood at any given time. Hosanna was being regularly bombarded with conflicting emotions coming from multiple people simultaneously, and this generally manifested as nausea. He would always feel more comfortable being around a single person at any one time, because being alone left him feeling empty. His parents were able to convince themselves that they tried everything they could to help him, but in the end, they were forced to place him in foster care. He remained in the system for a few years until he was discovered by two other anomalies. They took him in as their grandson and little brother. Both Don and Valary had been using meditation and other calming techniques to channel their abilities so that they could use them on command. They taught Hosanna to do the same, and soon his power increased. He could not only sense other people’s emotions, but control them; ease their pain. He possessed powerful mirror neurons that allowed him to mimic the complex movements of others in real-time, even without seeing them with his eyes. His new family’s love for him allowed him to let go of his anger regarding his old family so that he could use his gift for good. He had a wide range of interests, and could be found floating between the departments of Bellevue, helping wherever he could. He considered his time on the medical team, providing the most natural form of anesthesia in the world, to be the most rewarding. He even had to do that for himself once. Unfortunately, he died before managing to settle into a regular position.