A N O N Y M O U S || text

[scentless]

[ No way would Felix ask this with his name attached, but once he notices the anonymous function for the network, he figures it is worth the risk. ]

Question for those of you who are already Tethered, or I guess anyone who knows...

I've been told that people who are Tethered to one another have access to each other's emotions. How specific is that access? Is it just the feeling or the cause of the feeling, too?

For instance, is it just "Harold is happy right now" or is it fully "Harold is happy right now because he noticed that I mended that rip in his jacket, and because I smiled at him when we said goodnight last night, and also because he's secretly in love with me."?

All Harolds in this example are purely hypothetical of course.

Comments

text — un: doctor mysterio 🕶️

[twelfthsong]

Even if you ask the locals they say it depends on the people in the tether.

How well does Harold get along with his tether? Hypothetically speaking of course.

text | anonymous

[scentless]

That was the answer they gave when I asked around. I get that it's not the same for everyone, but I was hoping to get a sense of the scope of what's probable, I guess.

[ Damn, this guy saw through him pretty easily. Felix is annoyed at himself for being obvious, and also fairly desperate for advice. ]

Hypothetically speaking, Harold gets along very well with the person he might possibly tether with, but they haven't known each other very long.

[twelfthsong]

In my case I can sometimes get snippets of extreme emotions along with a rough pin point of where my tether partner is along with brief flashes of what they're experiencing. So to answer your question, it's not specific but you can probably decern a lot from it.

[ The Doctor will always take compliments to stroke that ego of his but in this case he only has a very small hunch that the person is actually talking about their own situation. ]

Ah. So it boils down to a comfort thing, then?

[scentless]

Thank you. The specificity really helps. Most of that actually sounds really useful and great: being able to get a sense of their location and what is happening. I imagine in a place as dangerous as this, it comes in handy.

[ Felix is terrible at talking about himself, but it helps a little that this is anonymous and by text. It makes it easier to open up, even if it's only within a nonspecific hypothetical. ]

Maybe it a comfort thing. But also partly not. Let's say hypothetically Harold knows what he would bringing to the table would mostly be not-so-great emotions. Doesn't it seem kind of unfair to the other guy, if he suddenly gets saddled with Harold's internal bullshit that he could previously just keep to himself?

[ And even worse, if Jesse that person knew the thinking and reasoning behind the self-loathing and dark moods? ]

[twelfthsong]

It could be handy. Or inconvenient depends on the situation and your point of view.

Sounds like Harold or the other person should just get better at their mental walls then. It's possible even for normal pudding brains if they just apply themselves a little bit.

[ The Doctor is definitely up there with being awful at talking about himself so he can sympathize in some respects. But his first instinct to the texter's predicament is simply to meet it with some tough love that may or may not be an actual solution for their problem. ]