River had never been around anyone with a similar set of powers before (except for Iris, but she had been a completed subject that had been properly tuned, not to mention hellbent on killing her). No one on Serenity carried the same type of psychic receptors, and on Naboo, she'd mostly been kept isolated away from anyone else who might have come through the rift with special abilities. She suspected that those individuals hadn't come through dissociated, wrecking whatever or whoever was in her way, which was why they weren't in the clinic with her.
The result of her isolation and lack of experience was something like a feedback loop; River sensing Wanda sensing River, and it made her head hurt. A lot. It felt like fire and ice all at once, her skull vibrating and trying to crack itself apart. She let out a muted cry as she clutched at her temples, pulling her knees in tight, making herself as small as she could. Be the stone, be the stone, she recited in her head. Wǒ shì shítou. Wǒ ràng tā liú mǎn wǒ hé wǒ shēnbiān. Wǒ shì shítou. Wǒ shì shítou. Wǒ shì shítou.
"I'm sorry," River finally managed to murmur, the pain subsiding, the loop closed off. "I wasn't finished when I left. The others, they tuned them just right, cut out the parts that cared. I can't control..." Her voice broke off for a moment, as she gave a shaky, heaving sigh. "I hear everything, and I don't mean to, I don't want to. And most of it I forget or I lock away. It's not polite to know everyone's secrets when they don't want to tell you."
She took another deep breath, unfolding herself, relaxing a little more. You're safe here, she reminded herself. Safe town, safe planet. Safe people. River made a conscious effort not to give attention Wanda's thoughts, but there were still images and words that leaked through, the signal merely muted. She sighed, suddenly exhausted by the night's events.
"All the world's a stage," she murmured, climbing down from the bench. "And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts." She looked apologetically at Wanda. "I really don't mean to pry."