Gabriel's knees are always (skinned) wrote in repose,
Re: Élan/Ronan: Registration
Ronan was still needlessly fidgeting while he cast out his mind like a trawling net over the dwindling sea of people adrift as they each looked to complete their assigned pairs, reeling it back in to sift through the contents and see if he could find something that felt significant. Like maybe someone with his own name in their thoughts? But either there were too many people still remaining even though most had started off on the hunt, or he was operating with too much worry sparking in his head to make heads or tails of it.
That happened sometimes, even though he’d learned so much more control in the last couple of years. He could still get the different flavours and cadences of individuals, but he couldn’t pull the noise itself apart when he was stressed. Like right now, there was someone with a mind like tinkling piano keys in an upper register off to his left in the woods behind him. Someone else like a clatter of silverware dropped on slate tile, and someone even louder who fluttered fast like a hummingbird’s wings, but from none of those could he make out individual pictures or concrete thoughts.
Ronan shifted his weight from one booted foot to the other and fiddled with a button on his grey peacoat, contemplating pulling out his phone and calling Ben to say this whole thing was stupid and couldn’t they just go home and watch Star Wars when someone spoke in front of him.
“Oh,” he said, momentarily taken aback by the interruption to his worrying. “Hey. You’re -” he glanced at the name tag. “Élan? Am I saying that right?” He noticed the cane and the sunglasses, obviously, but there was nothing patronizing or pitying in his voice, just mild curiosity. “How did you know I was over here?”