"So, yeah. Guild support in managing that as he finishes getting out of the hole - almost there, now - and verrrrry cautiously resumes dungeoneering activity - would be good. Jaeha unless you happen to remember for a fact that you've never poked Yoo-min in the brain this would be a great opportunity to apologize."

"I absolutely did poke you in the brain. I'm sorry."

"What—did you do—"

"Nothing specific to you. The first time we met in that one QQ meeting I was generically making myself come off funnier and more charming and interesting than I actually am."

"You... used mind control powers... to sound charming?"

"I wanted you all to like me."

"But you didn't directly make anyone like you?"

"Can't go that far. I can play with my illusions while pulling on your brain's own understanding of what would look good, and then make up the difference by subduing the immediate negative reactions and encouraging the positive ones, but I can't make you feel entire new things wholesale nor actually change what you're thinking directly."

"Oh." That's... less bad than he'd expected. "And you did that just to sound better?"

"It's what I used to do all the time, to everyone, almost as a reflex. I wasn't trying to do anything else."

...he probably shouldn't try getting into Kang Jaeha's fundamental motivational structure here even if it sounds fascinating. "I see. I—forgive you."

"That's very generous of you. I don't know that we can rely on everyone to react the same way, if you have a sense of who would be best to tell for safety coverage without making it a huge public witch hunt."

"Safety coverage?"

"To make it less tempting to backslide. I think he'll keep sensitivity to risk of getting caught in more stages of backlash than he will a felt sense of it being fucked up. Am I wrong?" he asks Jaeha.

"No."

"...oh. I see. I—can get a list of people for you to vet. —do you want access to counselling?"

"...like therapy?"

"Yeah. We have some people who are used to dealing with esper shit and who can be trusted to keep everything confidential."

Wow that sounds absolutely horrible.

"I tried it when I was like eighteen and it wasn't for me but a lot of people seem to get something out of it," says Haru.

"It'd be someone to check in with you regularly and whose entire job is to be nonjudgmental about any times you fuck up and who'll be there to help you come up with effective ways to do better in the future. It might be a lot tougher, emotionally, to admit errors to someone whose opinion you respect or feel like you need to live up to, especially if you don't already have a plan for how to do better."

If such a person actually existed that could potentially be useful, even if absolutely mortifying.

"Maybe."

"We do have very trustworthy people, and you don't even need to start off by telling them everything, maybe just see them a few times to get a feel for them, get their vibes, see if you can make it work."

That continues to sound horrible but...

"No pressure, though. It sounds really tough."