(This here empath sure does notice it! He gives Edie a gentle nudge of supportiveness, because, yeah, wow, fuck that, although he's also thinking to himself that he feels a little sorry for the horrible demon bitch. The horrible demon bitch kind of seems like she has never experienced joy in her life.)

The woman with the drapey sleeves steps gracefully out of the horrible demon bitch's way.

(Edie is kind of too busy being traumatized to feel sorry for the horrible demon bitch but plausibly she will appreciate this perspective later.)

Another new student enters the room!

Physically, she is petite and pretty, with dark purple-black hair and a delicate chin. Mentally, she is... in love? The feeling fills her completely, deep and calm, wrapping her up like a comforting blanket. She walks with serene grace, hardly paying attention to her surroundings, secure in the knowledge that her beloved will protect her from all harm. Her beloved is always with her, closer than her own skin. It's not clear who or what her beloved is, at least not at a glance; there's no obvious second mind parasitizing hers like there was with that other girl. If there's anything like that going on here, it's happening much more subtly.

She bounces the general sense to Sean along with the memory of his deducing the location of Crystal's friend and a querulous tinge.

He turns to glance back at the newcomer, and then tries to send Edie his impressions the way she showed him how to talk to her, clumsily because it's not a mental motion he's used to, but he doesn't actually think his power can fully communicate the weirdness here.

Body-language-wise, yeah, whoever she's thinking about is definitely in there somewhere, demonic possession or alternate personality or something along those lines; she's not carrying herself like they're nearby, she's not carrying herself like they're absent, she's carrying herself like they're in there with her.

Empathy-wise... there's something there? It's weird because it's not actually present, it's... the whole shape of how her emotions fit together is built around the expectation that there will be someone else to share them with, a little bit like how Emily and Edie are with each other, a little bit like that other girl who is much more blatantly possessed, a little bit more like the way his people are at home. (The way they used to be, anyway... he shoves that train of thought aside as a distraction; he didn't mean to include it in the first place but he is, as previously mentioned, not good at this.) He can't directly sense her demon or headmate or imaginary friend or whatever it is, but he can tell that she's used to never ever ever being alone in her own head.

His best guess is that she's possessed like that other girl and the demon is just way better at hiding, maybe like the tall girl's imaginary friend, maybe like the statue in the corner only way more so. If it's not that then his next best guess is that she's crazy, and her 'beloved' is a power she has or some kind of magic artifact or spell or other thing that isn't a person but that she thinks of as one. Or maybe she has multiple personalities naturally, he's vaguely aware that that's a thing that might sometimes happen, and the other one isn't turning up as a separate mind because they aren't, and they're not turning up as part of the same mind as the girl because they're not conscious right now so there's nothing there to see. But if he had to bet, his money would be on possessed or crazy, because the way the feeling of safety intertwines with the feeling of love is so present and immediate, it really comes across like she expects her imaginary friend to be watching her at all times and ready to move in her defense at a moment's notice.

Huh. Interesting. 

She bounces back her experience of people with multiple native personalities cross-referenced with what people feel like when they're unconscious and the ways this doesn't match. Her guess is possessed or something weirder; crazy isn't impossible but it seems a lot less likely here in particular than weird mind-control-related stuff. 

He's never met someone with multiple personalities but he's pretty sure he wouldn't be able to see a second personality that wasn't actively having thoughts or feelings at the time. Probably it's different if you—

Mid-thought, he is interrupted by a blast of intense anxious misery. His head turns involuntarily to look at the door.

The girl just stepping into the room is anxious and miserable! And a whole heaping tangle of other emotions, most of them negative!

Probably someone is going to do awful things to her but at least she's pretty sure she can make them regret it, and they'll be different awful things than the awful things she's used to. And it's nice to be wearing clothes again, although she could wish for more than Literally Just A Dress, and it's nice to be in brightly lit spaces again, although she could wish for her glasses back because without them she still can't fucking see. Still, though, overall this is undeniably better than where she was ten minutes ago.

She walks, barefoot and grumpy about it, directly toward the most accessible chair-shaped blur that doesn't have a person-shaped blur attached.

--She gives everyone she's had relatively friendly interactions with a ping, [this girl/new girl] [lost her glasses/can't see] [gonna offer bounced visuals of all consenting parties] [consent: y/n]

Sure why not.

Crystal would rather not.

Iirve is fine with it!

Elodea not only consents, she turns in her chair to offer a more useful field of view. 

Atali declines on his own and also Liamar's behalf.

Edie sends the new girl, Hi, I'm a telepath, do you want a clearer visual of the room from a variety of consenting subjects who don't need glasses and lack them?

Her reaction to uninvited mental contact is PANIC followed immediately by RAGE followed immediately by an impulse to shout out loud in the most bone-achingly painful idiom she can think of, but she stops herself before the words make it out of her head. Unfortunately for the telepath who is currently reading her mind, the words do make it into her head, and just hearing her think them feels immediately, viscerally, physically and mentally painful. (April herself is resistant but not immune to the effect; she staggers and clutches the back of an empty chair, overcome by a wave of nausea.)

Ow. Is that a no?

She has not actually managed to process what the question even was, and doesn't have much attention to spare for trying to figure it out right now because she's busy trying not to throw up.

Do the sensations seem atypical such that ameliorating them would plausibly go wrong in some new and exciting way. 

Sean taps Edie gently with his power, communicating concern. He tries to express to her mindreading how the girl's panic-flinch read to him as fitting a certain pattern, and the timing makes it look like she was reacting to Edie trying to talk to her, and his best guess is that this girl has had Very Bad Experiences with telepathy or something like it, and it would maybe be a good idea to stop trying to talk to her that way, especially since it seems like she succeeded in hurting Edie about it once already.

--Yeah okay. He's right. 

Shortly after this latest arrival has found a seat, a figure appears in a flash of light. 

Every physical feature of this person looks different to each of the assembled students (although the effect is likely somewhat lost on April). They look perfect. Gorgeous. The platonic ideal of Sexy Dom, for whatever that happens to be for any given person. 

"Your attention please!" they call out. 

That's a pretty good way to get people's attention!

"Thank you." They clasp their hands, still beaming. "While I have many names, the one that all of you shall know me by for the following year is Mesmerra—Dean Mesmerra, for I am the founder, administrator and absolute ruler of this school." Pause for effect. "I am a god of mind control. That's not bragging! I am not merely deific in skill, but a literal deity who draws power from every instance of mind control in every single world I touch. And the number of those is always growing." They toss their hair a little, not quite smug, merely supernally self-assured.

"Welcome to Mind Control University. Ours is an intensive program, and by the end of the year every single one of you will have the power to bring nations to heel with nothing but your own will and a box of scraps. Of course, this is a competitive program as well, in more ways than one—some of you will no doubt be Emperors and Empresses in your own right before the year is out, while others...may be pets, or toys, to the others. Remember," they wink, "do unto others before they do unto you! But there are, of course, limits," They say, turning serious. "Rule number one is that you are not permitted to sabotage your classmates' studies, be they your rivals or pets. Subtlety is key—you are here to learn cunning and finesse almost as much as raw power. An attempt to enslave one of your classmates, discovered before the attempt is complete will result in your would-be pet being freed and a penalty laid on you, and no, I won't tell you what it is. there are so many possibilities, and even I don't know beforehand which one is going to be most appropriate." Pause. Headtilt. "Also, the library, classrooms, and cafeteria food are absolutely off-limits. Attempting to enslave one of your teachers isn't against the rules, and in fact will result in instant graduation magna cum laude if successful, but you will not be successful, and will no longer be off-limits to them. Don't do it." 

They smirk. "Any questions?"