You Too?

This meeting was beginning to become quite tiresome.

Ezra had personally come to the school in order to handle the accommodations for their power training class. Due to their empathy aura's range, it was difficult to focus on one person if others were nearby. They would need a proper instructor that could handle the aura and be able to pacify the empathy spirit in case they began to go haywire. The teacher the school had assigned initially was a professional who seemed like a good fit for Ezra's unstable power. The two had worked together for about a week before the man had suddenly had to depart due to 'personal issues' and had said nothing more. It had been two weeks since their teacher's sudden vacation and the school had been having difficulty finding a suitable replacement due to a lack of teachers able to handle their case. This was the third meeting that Ezra had had with the accommodation office in two weeks and it was becoming frustrating having to travel between here and home with Salem. Salem was not fast and it was somewhat taxing on the body to keep doing this.

The empathy spirit had come in personally this time, arms wrapped in bandages to hide the many arcane markings that allowed Ezra to control Salem in the first place. Their white hoodie sweatshirt which they normally wore when outside the house was tied around their waist and their hair, which was normally kept under a beanie, hung straight down and looked slightly unkempt. They had long since tuned out the accommodations counselor, and once the man had finished his speech with an unsure promise to keep searching for a teacher and offered a handshake, they quickly made their way out of the office. With Salem held tightly under an arm, they took two steps out of the office...

And stumbled.

The spirit looked down and would set the tuxedo wearing stuffed animal on one of the nearby chairs (not even looking to see if anyone was seated in it) and began to attempt to retie their shoe. Although the spirit found it difficult to have negative thoughts or actively dislike anything, they definitely found shoes to be horrible little foot prisons that ruin the joy of wandering barefoot.

Ezra could feel their body tense up when their name was spoken.

There were very few people who had seen the spirit in person instead of using the arcane puppet known as Salem. The fact that someone was able to immediately call out to them and recognize them lead to a few possibilities. Either the person was a school employee who recognized them from some sort of file or the person was stalking them and they would have to contact the police to have them detained. Looking up from their kneeling position left them slightly surprised. It was the nice gentleman they had met the other day at the community center. Ezra could only tilt their head as they stared for an uncomfortable amount of time at the young man before finally rising to their feet and giving a small wave. The magic nullification bracelet jingled slightly as their hand moved, the white bandages wrapped around the fingers and arm giving a stark contrast to the dark band around their wrist.

"Hello, Mister Jude. It is a pleasure to see you again. I did not realize you were also attending classes here." Ezra continued to look on, green eyes glowing against the black sclera. They moved in quickly towards Jude and would envelop him into a somewhat tight hug. The spirit had never actually initiated a hug with another person as themselves, only recently learning from their other friends that hugging your friends when you said hello and farewell was acceptable social etiquette.

The first thing Ezra realized upon hugging Jude was that he was warm. Were all hugs like this? Because it was very warm and almost soothing. If they could, they would just find more people to hug to keep that warm feeling. But people did have to live their lives eventually, and the spirit would let go and return to a proper standing position as they looked at their new friend.

"You are very warm, Mister Jude. It is... a pleasant feeling."

"You are welcome, Mister Jude. And I was unaware that people were so warm when embraced. Although I should not be so surprised as humans are warm-blooded creatures." Ezra continued to stare at Jude, gaze unwavering and possibly unblinking as well. "And you are in Grade 12? I had guessed that you were already a college student. You appear to be quite intelligent, or at least socially aware. Although..."

The spirit tilted their head much like Salem would when it observed something curious or interesting. "You are implying that you are far more intelligent and do not necessarily need a normal school setting due to your abilities. Are your powers based in information absorption or memory retention? That would be quite a useful skill in magical research or even recalling proper social protocol. I suppose the proper emotion to exhibit would be akin to 'jealousy', but I do not know how to make the proper facial expression to emote that feeling."

Ezra's gaze narrowed at the young man's face as they spoke, noticing for the first time the flecks of silver that seemed to slightly protrude from the skin along his jaw and neck. Their eyes slowly drifted down to Jude's left hand and the heavy metallic appearance the appendage had. Was he wearing some form of gauntlet? Maybe an alternate way to restrict his abilities? But then why were slivers of metal near his jaw? Such an oddity.

With very slow movements, Ezra reached out their right hand and went to rest it on the metallic hand. If Jude flinched, they would stop moving as not to worry him more. Their left hand was raised up with two fingers pointed gently towards the flecks of silver metal on the young man's jaw line.

"Mister Jude..." Ezra asked softly, shifting gazes between Jude's eyes and the bits of metal, "Can I touch your face for a moment?"

"How very interesting. So your abilities give you a photographic memory and you are able to gather information from the world around you. Is it an increased perception or do you have an aura like mine?" Ezra asked, hand still near Jude's jawline. The metal that was apparently a part of Jude's physiology was still the most intriguing thing to the spirit at the moment, as they had yet to meet someone whose body had a sort of living metal. They had seen Jude move the hand and arm so it wasn't a simple prosthetic yet the fact that the same metal ascended all the way to his face on the same side of his body indicated that it was a definite part of him, but... how?

Gently reaching forward once more, Ezra traced two fingers along the young man's jaw before pausing. They could feel the change in texture between flesh and metal, but they couldn't properly feel the metal against their skin. The bandages surrounding the arcane runes that their guardian had placed on them to allow them control of Salem were blocking their bare fingertips. With a small, almost nervous sigh, the spirit slowly unwrapped the wrappings surrounding their index finger. The skin color on their hand matched their normal skin color, but a small peek of black ink poked out from the end of the wrapping.

With a more forward touch, Ezra once again drew their finger along the metal bits embedded in the jaw, noting the cool touch as they did so. If it was a living metal, it did not have the same feel as flesh. It was a very strange material, not one that they had ever seen prior. They pulled their hand away, giving a small nod at Jude. The unwrapped hand shifted back to their side, the exposure seemingly forgotten about for the moment.

"Thank you for allowing me to examine your face. It is a very curious thing and I wish to know more, but I would rather not pry into something you would keep private. I have been told that it is disrespectful to probe into a person's private life without their consent, according to Miss Asteria. But if you would not mind sharing, I would be very interested to hear about it."

Ezra nodded, feeling somewhat content with the clarification of Jude's powers. So it was not an aura of information gathering, but rather an ocular based perception gathering skill. Similar to Asteria's magic eyepiece. Perhaps he was only able to gather things he could comprehend, which would be somewhat limiting in the field of research. But as Jude mentioned the gauntlet being a host for a being from another dimension, the spirit's eyes seemed to glow bright for a long moment before going back to their default green. Although Jude mentioned the markings on their arm, the extra-dimensional being caught the spirit's interest more.

"So the being that is contained in your arm is the source of your power, then? Is it difficult to carry such a being on you at all times? Does it speak to you? Does it have a name? If I'm asking too many questions, please let me know. I know I can be a bit forthright but the world is so interesting and finding out the answers to questions is a wonderful thing."

Ezra paused, reaching up and undoing a bit more of the wrapping to reveal complex arcane runes, magic symbols, and eldritch markings decorating the back of their hand up to the second knuckle of their hand. "These markings allow me to control and puppet Salem. Miss Asteria had to put them on me. I do not remember much of the process, but she said it could have been painful so I blocked the memory. I will admit I am... somewhat uncomfortable showing off the markings. Miss Asteria had expressed discomfort with the markings showing so I imagine that the feeling is somewhat akin to being embarrassed." Ezra quietly began rewrapping the bandages before continuing to speak.

"As for my actual powers, I radiate an aura that allows me to feel the emotions of others around me. I am also able to somewhat manipulate the emotions that people are experiencing. However, without training or safeguards, I could cause... complications for people. That is why Miss Asteria recommended using Salem."