He didn't know that he'd ever felt as paid attention to as right then. Most of the time, people were on their phones, or just waiting for their turn to talk, but she was actually concentrating on him. It made him a little pink in the cheeks, really, and he ducked his head, scratching at his neck.
He actually might open up and tell her more. He kind of wanted to, even if he usually didn't. Chase was generally good at deflecting. A hell of a lot of people he'd known in his life knew next to nothing about him, and they didn't even realize it. But in this case he might go against his own instincts there.
When she explained her ability, his eyes went wide, and he blinked at her, also leaning forward toward her a touch. "For real?" he asked. "I--wow. That's...that's...wow. That's hella powerful," he said, clearly in awe of that. "I--is it scary?" he asked. "For you, or for them? Do people come up with their own reasons why they're doing something, like, they justify it to themselves somehow, or are they totally aware that they're being controlled and are upset that they're doing something against their will?" he asked, then winced. "I"m sorry that probably sounded really mean and I didn't mean it to, sorry... Just curious. But it's also really cool that you respect people's free will and stuff, that kind of power, yeesh. In the wrong hands that could get real bad real fast."
"But yeah, if you, say, told me to go pee in the corner or something, would I think to myself 'I really have to go! Can't make it to the bathroom!' and that's how my brain would make sense of it? Or would I be over there panicking because wow this is terrible and people are gonna kick my ass and someone's gonna have to shampoo the rugs now and...shutting up."