Riley is also pretty bored. She knows it's important to break up her purchases of supplies between stores. She does actually sometimes make amphetamines or other well known drugs but she's not making industrial amounts.

She doesn't think she's been to this store before, the name at least is unfamiliar. She'll go in and then look around for cleaning products, matches and also check to see if they have nicotine patches behind the counter.

Oh, a customer.

She looks up briefly as she enters, then back down again. Customers don't like you paying too much attention to them, this time of night.

Hmm… maybe she should go on break after this—get a snack or something.

She goes back to listening to her book, but gets ready to pause it when the customer comes to check out.

The selection is lower than she'd find at a proper pharmacy but those are more likely to have people who know what to look for. She ends up with a few cleaning products from relatively pure brands and a couple small bags of chips to look less remarkable. She didn't see any nicotine patches at a glance so she'll have to ask about that as she's checking out.

She walks up to the front counter with a couple hands full and a small smile on her face in the hopes of reducing how much of an impression she makes.

She smiles slightly, briefly looking the other young woman in the eye before looking down and mentally taking inventory of the purchases.

"Find everything you were looking for?" she asks automatically.

Something happens briefly when their eyes meet. It's almost like a small hiccup or maybe a bit like recognizing someone you haven't seen in a while. With both of them mostly feeling bored the foreign emotions don't make much of an impression even if their flavors of boredom differ a little. But if either of them think about it they know each other's names now. Not their legal names but how they think of themselves.

When they look away the link breaks.

Riley is briefly confused, she's not really sure why she recognizes this girl but some of her classes are big so maybe it's from one of those. "Mostly, do you happen to sell nicotine patches? I don't see them on the wall back there."

Wow, that was a weird feeling. She could swear this girl seems familiar somehow. Maybe someone from highschool?

…Oh right, she was asking a question!

"Oh, they're just in the cabinet down below. Can I see some ID?"

She starts ringing up the other items as she talks: no point wasting either of their time.

Right, she pulls it out of her bag. "Yeah, here you go, it's Emi right? Did I hear your name in class over at the university or something?" She'll make eye contact again. She's still feeling confused and a little curious. I don't usually make a point of remembering people's names so why am I remembering her?

Oh, do they know eachother? She sets her scanner down for a moment and gives the girl a proper look, searching her eyes for a spark of recognition.

"Huh. Riley? I—" Huh, she apparently knows her name, too.
"I'm pretty bad at remembering names too, so that is a bit weird."

Could be an exception because the girl's cute? No, but then she'd remember that being why.

"No, can't be university—did we go to high-school together?"

"That would be a weird coincidence. Are you from Clintonville too?" She said it couldn't be university is she taking a gap year or something. Also did Emi just say she was cute? Wait... did she say the bit about not remembering people's names out loud? Her feelings of confusion are building.

And with the rise of emotion there's a vague subtle sense of something getting stronger a little like the way the air changes when there's going to be a thunderstorm soon but not from the same source. As it builds more of their thoughts bleed through to each other and the sense of each other's emotions gets more nuanced.

Huh? She definitely didn't say that thing about her being cute. What? And…

Uhh… "Tsi-imbi?" Wait, nobody actually uses that one in real life.

"—I mean… wait, here."

She thinks for a moment. Then, as clearly as she can, she thinks if you can hear this, please say "monsoon rabies arthropod wax".

There. Either she's imagining things or she isn't.

Great either she's dreaming or telepathy is real now... well or she's tried one too many drugs and she's broken her mind in some sort of persistent way. There's a brief quashed bit of fear at that third possibility. Might as well follow through regardless, she clearly and loudly enunciates "Monsoon Rabies Arthropod Wax."

…Huh. Even after the rest of that, she really wasn't expecting that to work.

She sits down.

"…Okay, so either telepathy is real, or we're both insane… or one is, and one of us is a hallucination."

She's pretty sure she isn't dreaming—if the question ever comes up in a dream, she can usually just tell—and she'd definitely be able to just wake up: that is a mental lever she has access to.

…She sighs.
"I don't think we can easily disprove any of those possibilities, but yeah, this is definitely an experience we're both having."

She feels torn between worry and excitement. She appreciated physics and chemistry and biology being nice and predictable, but at the same time this is something new to understand, something that hasn't had thousands of people already picking away all the low hanging fruit for centuries. And Emi probably heard all of that. "This is going to take some getting used to if it's a persistent thing."

"Oh, yeah that's a good question. Is it persistent?"

It started when they met eachothers' eyes, so… she turns around?

Nope. Definitely still there. Huh.

"Yeah, I'm definitely more than a bit excited about exploring this new thing."

"I think you're right about that. I remember recognizing you suddenly when we made eye contact and that happened to you too. And we knew each other's names even though I'm now pretty sure we never met before, or at least never exchanged names."

She thinks back trying to remember the exact sequence of events as best as she can.

"Do you remember me thinking about how some of my classes are big?"

"No? But this is kind of a lot, so I might not remember that anyway."

But… she can feel the impression of what Riley's talking about, now, and… no, she doesn't think she heard that thought before.

"So wasn't instant. It took more than just looking each other in the eye for a couple seconds." What made the difference though? "Maybe it's time or there's some sort of mental state based trigger?"

"Maybe, but it could also be unrelated? I don't wanna assume it's something we did when we know nothing about it."

She pauses.

"…Do you still want those nicotine patches?"

"Well, either it's something specific to us as a pair or else something changed recently." Does she want the patches? her most recent dose was low enough she's not really expecting withdrawal symptoms and trying to balance a more drug experiments with whatever this is doesn't seem wise. "I think I'll actually put back most of it. I'll still get the chips just so it isn't too weird for your computer systems."

Oh, no, there's totally just a "cancel transaction" button—it isn't a big deal at all. Though, at this point, she should probably go on break, and also get herself a snack.

"I feel like neither of us did anything strange enough that I'd expect it to… trigger telepathy on its own? That seems like it would have happened to other people before, if so."

"Fair enough, I'm a little paranoid about these things." She'll go put the stuff back. She thinks a little to remember where things go. "I agree with you there. I guess it could be just us that are telepathic and only with each other but that feels unlikely. Though, telepathy is already so unlikely that it isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility."

Oh right, the question is, why are they telepathic right now, and not everyone else?

"I guess we'd really need another person here to figure any of this out. N equals 1 is like, super unhelpful."

While Riley's putting her stuff back, she rings up a snack and a drink for herself, and clocks out for her break.

"Probably, though I'm not sure I want to invite a second person into my head on a potentially permanent basis."

"Oh, boy, that's a thought: it hadn't even occurred to me that this is probably like, permanent permanent."

…If that's the case, is there anything they should be doing to make sure this goes smoothly?

…How good is Riley at keeping secrets? If this is forever, her ability to keep secrets is officially capped at Riley's.

"It's a little too soon to know either way but if we don't know of a way to make it stop we have to at least be aware of the possibility."

As for how good she is at keeping secrets... her mind is drawn to picturing her kitchen drug lab, she would have said she's quite good but there's a different skillset required to stop yourself from thinking of something versus merely not saying things.

…Well, that's the first time she's learned that about a customer.

"Oh, I mostly meant so you don't leak secrets verbally to other people—if we end up telepathically communicating with more people, I don't think secrets will continue to exist for us."

She hesitates.

"…So, drug lab?"

"I'm not selling, I thought about it, but the risk was too high." She also thought about offering black or grey market medical care to people but that seemed even more risky. Even if she'd really like to have more samples for her research. And the... she clamps down on that thought before completing it and shakes her head. "What sort of secrets are you worried about?"

Research? Ok, she is going to ask about that later, but fair enough if she doesn't want to talk about it right now.
She's so glad the security cameras here only record video.

Secrets she's worried about? Hmm…

A lot of vague impressions flit across her mind: Little social secrets people would rather didn't get out, personal information her friends don't want leaked, a lot of trans people who aren't out to most people yet… and then a few people's actually-very-serious secrets that she is doing her absolute best to only think of in those vaguest of possible terms.

"I don't really have a lot of my own secrets? I mean, there's stuff I don't talk about, but none of that is actually secret…" Some memories of her father briefly surface, but she shakes her head and clears her mind—not something she'd rather dwell on.

Riley gives her a thoughtful look at that. Is Emi trans... probably just having that thought will give her the answer but as a sort of personal pride she'd like to be able to tell assuming there are tells. Ah well, it's ultimately academic.

"I can respect that."

Emi is, in fact, trans—and she's taking no small amount of enjoyment in the fact that Riley couldn't tell.

She starts munching on the chocolate bar she bought.

"Do you need help with getting hormones or anything? Those aren't as risky as some other stuff legally speaking. Back on the topic at hand though... my first guess for what might break the link is distance. Or time I guess." 

Oh wow, actually help getting hormones would be nice—she's on some now, but the tablets aren't nearly as good as injections, and the injections are pretty expensive and aren't covered by her government insurance.

"Oh yeah, I guess we could just go walk in different directions for a bit? Though now I kinda want to get your contact info first, in case it works."

Riley rattles off her phone number and her email. She expects Emily has enough care to not talk about sensitive things like this in text messages or emails. "Do you not need to stay here? I didn't look at the hours."

If she hadn't known not to already, she would now!

"Oh right, yeah I do still need to mind the store for another hour or so, even if I'm on break."

She writes the phone number and email down in her phone.

"Okay… have a good walk, I suppose?
…I guess we can just keep talking while you do that."

"If it works I'll come back to do some more testing and if we're still connected by the time I get home... I'm not sure I guess we'll be able to think-talk and figure it out then."

She waves a slightly awkward goodbye and then walks out of the store. Rather than brainstorming she tries to focus inward to see if she can notice anything.

There's a faint sound of sirens in the distance but not enough that it's unusual or marked these things happen in the city.

As Riley reaches the distance of a couple blocks there's a faint feeling of tension like stretching a muscle a bit. And also a sort of sense of direction that crystalizes from that tension upon a bit more inspection.

And in the meantime if either of them happen to look at their phones, there's a pretty good indication that it isn't just them. #TelepathyIsReal is trending. Along with #MakeItStop and #Don'tLook.

She is, in fact, looking at her phone—which means they now both know that it's not just them.

Oh, well that answers that question.

"That it does," she mutters quietly. On the bright side this means that it's at least relatively consistent and replicable. That's important for being able to do science but a small part of her is disappointed. For a brief while, she had thought she was uniquely placed to do important research; even if it would actually be less important if it was somehow limited to just a few people. She shakes her head to clear her thoughts.

"Are there any... credible reports or just the usual sort of social media speculation? It doesn't feel like that weird tension is increasing as I keep walking."

"More like lots of first-person social media reports by a bunch of people—no news reports or anything, but that makes sense, if this is as recent as it seems like."

Hmm… according to the reports, the thing that activates it is eye contact, and… it can happen to multiple people at once? Well, that sounds overwhelming.

Nobody's mentioned a way to end it, so far as she can see.

"Well then, if this is happening to everyone..." The distance test seems less important since inevitably it's one many people will try. It doesn't really hurt anything though so she'll keep walking.

Avoiding getting attached to more people is going to be important. If she's going to risk that she wants it to be for a reason. But how best to avoid it is unclear, for now she'll try to avoid eye contact by keeping her gaze a bit towards the ground, it's late enough at night that there probably won't be kids out and about.

And if it is everyone she also wonders how society is going to adjust, a part of her expects the government to declare a curfew or something to try to get a handle on things maybe even go full lockdown like they did for COVID except that wasn't really a full lockdown and this is going to be even worse for retail workers than that was.

Doctors too. How can you check something like pupil dilation without looking into someone's eyes? Does this work through cameras? Can people get linked through video conferencing?

She wonders if sunglasses would block it? That seems like the most obvious strategy to test, but she doesn't want to test it herself, unless it's with someone she'd already be okay with having permanent access to her thoughts—which is not a type of person she currently has.

…Can she find anything online about other people trying this? Worth checking that it hasn't already been done.

Alternatively, is there anyone Riley wouldn't mind being bonded to?

She isn't the first person to have this thought, and what is the internet for if not to record people doing stupidly risky things?

Unfortunately, the internet is still mostly in chaos over this new phenomena, so while some people report that sunglasses work to block the telepathy other people report the opposite, and it's not clear who is correct or even if they're all telling the truth as opposed to confidently guessing.

Riley does not have anyone close enough she's willing to share their thoughts with. She likes her parents but she'd rather not be party to them having sex and imagines that they share this preference. She also expects they'd disapprove of her drug experimentation and doesn't want to deal with that.

Huh. Ok, that might be worth testing, if she can find who she wouldn't mind bonding with.

Not her parents either. Maybe her sister? But that might be complicated if that means her sister also has to share her thoughts with Riley.

Actually, that's a good question: How does this work with more than two people at a time? She can't imagine there's any way for thoughts not to propagate from one person to another with that, but is it entirely the same for two people to be bonded to one person as it would be if all three of them were bonded?

…This seems like a slightly difficult question to look up.

There are relatively few posts about this case, whether because it's rare or because the people in this situation don't feel up to posting is unclear. What few posts she can find suggest it is different but not in a way people find easy to describe.

That's basically what she expected, then. Probably different, but it's probably not particularly more private than if they were just all mutually bonded.

…She wonders if she should go home early. She could probably have a much better time researching this if she was at her computer, and she doubts she'd get in much trouble for it on a night like tonight.

…And if she goes home, she can ask her sister if she wants to test some of these things out.

Riley is a little uncertain at the thought of adding more minds to their group especially when they don't know what the experience is like. A part of her wants to veto it outright but then... can she veto something like that? What are the terms they're going to stick to going forwards for decisions that could impact them both. And what is the standard for something that impacts them both?

Oh! No, if she doesn't want to add more minds to the group, that is also definitely something she can veto! She really doesn't want this to be the sort of thing they can do without everyone being okay with it!

"Sorry about that—wasn't really thinking about it. Of course you can veto that! I just got carried away thinking through ideas."

She winces internally a bit.

Oh good. it's a relief that they're in agreement on that. She's not quite sure how this will apply to other things hopefully Emi isn't easily embarrassed since they'll probably have some awareness of the other person peeing. Huh, if Emi has sex maybe she'll get to understand what the big deal is there.

She shakes away that thought. "Thanks." She says out loud to be especially clear. Back to the topic they were on... "I'm not fully opposed to adding a third person, but I'd like to understand a little better what's happened to us, and what that will mean before we do, especially since we don't know if this is permanent." She speaks a little softly since it feels a little weird not exactly talking to herself...

Actually, she pulls out some ear buds and puts them in. Now she won't seem weird even if someone doesn't know about this new phenomena.

Oh, huh. It's been a bit, but she supposes sex might come up. That… sounds complicated to work out—especially if she'd need to avoid "bonding" to whoever she's having sex with. She supposes they can deal with that when they come to it.

"Makes sense that you'd want to figure more out about this first, yeah. I suppose we should probably try to test things out that don't risk bonding more people to us."

She clocks out at the till, and starts closing up the store early.

Riley is a little unsure at this point. Clearly this works at some relatively substantial distance so maybe she should just go home too but maybe there's useful information they could get by being together. For now she'll keep heading home. Having a full computer would be convenient for research.

If distance doesn't seem like a major factor, she finds herself wondering how their minds are connected. Would a Faraday cage block it? Would a lead box?

…Actually, that's a good thought: is this thing running on physics? They could be in a simulation, in which case it would need to obey some sort of rules, but not necessarily the ones they're used to—and "telepathy suddenly exists" has definitely upped her odds that they're in a simulation of some kind.

On autopilot, she locks the store up and heads down the sidewalk in the direction of home.

She's never been terribly fond of that sort of argument. But she can acknowledge the point that this doesn't seem compatible with physics as she understood it earlier today. The thought about it being some sort of biological radio is interesting.

If they're entertaining weird ideas though, there are those theories of biological quantum entanglement and quantum computing she's previously always dismissed.

She doesn't have a Faraday Cage or a lead box big enough for a person to test either of those ideas. And Faraday Cages always depend on the wavelength of the signal.

Oh, it's still not high on her list of possibilities, just a lot higher than it was yesterday. Extraordinary evidence, and all that.

She's pretty sure quantum entanglement doesn't work like that? It's been a while since she talked to anyone who knew a lot about it, but she's pretty sure she'd heard that entanglement-based communication doesn't actually make sense, conceptually.

"Oh, I didn't know that about Faraday cages! I guess that's why those testing-setups for blocking cellular signals are so complicated."

A lead box would still be worth testing, but it's not like she has one, either.

"That's true." It's stupid of her to reach for ideas from fiction and kooks just because they bear some vague resemblance to what's happening.

She is still feeling that vague tension pointing towards Emi. Maybe that's a starting point for learning more somehow. The questions of how this is happening can wait for better equipment the question of what's happening is more urgent.

Hmm… yeah, she can feel the tension too. That is interesting.

"I wonder if that tension is intentional feedback, or a natural effect of the process. Like, is the communication slightly strained by distance, and we feel that strain subconsciously, or is the connection—'trying' feels like the wrong word, but 'trying' to nudge us towards being closer together?"

…That's not exactly easy to test, either. What could they test, with the tools available to them?

As far as rigorously controlled experiments not that much but Riley has spent a lot of time trying to understand what different drugs do to effect her mind so she feels like she might be better positioned than average to notice small details about what's happening, that will need her to get home and not have to worry about walking though.

She's interested in how emotions get conveyed over the link especially with whether bio regulation like calm breathing on one end can calm the other person down. Also whether careful focused thought can reveal more bits of feedback from the bond that aren't as obvious as this tension. Maybe they can try to do a shared meditation thing.

Oh, interesting! That does sound worth investigating.

She hurries a bit faster on her way home, looking forward to—actually, looking forward to going to sleep, then trying new things. It is pretty late.

…Or maybe just trying a few things before bed…

"Huh, I wasn't thinking of that. Will we need to sleep at the same time?" Getting to sleep in the near future will be hard with all the science she wants to try, but she knows the importance of a good sleep schedule, so she'll do her best to accommodate if that's what Emi wants to do.

Oh! That is a good question.

"Probably you'll need to at least be in a restful mood, to not disturb me going to sleep? Good question though."

She continues on her way home, mulling it over in her head.

Riley will make her way home too. She doesn't come to any important realizations or come up with new important questions on the way. She'll remind Emi to be careful about greeting her sister and anyone else she's sharing the house with when she's almost home.

Right. Emi will, in fact, be very careful greeting anyone.

She walks in the back door of her apartment building, quickly walks down the hallway, and sneaks quietly in the apartment door—Mae should be asleep at this hour.

Riley lives alone and so it's easy for her to get into her little place unscathed. She boots up her computer and reads a little but her initial impression is that people just don't know very much right now.

The internet will probably know more in the morning.

So... "That feeling of tension hasn't gotten much stronger." She did pay enough attention to learn where Emi lives and she checks the distance. "And well, we're a good eight klicks apart. I suspect at this point that if distance does it, it's at least intercity distances if not fly to the moon distances."

"Yeah, it seems like if distance is going to do it, it's not the sort of distance we have much easy access to."

She's gotten down the hall of the apartment and into her room without any interruptions, so she goes about getting changed and ready for bed—it's been a long night.

Huh, she's feeling that tiredness. It's almost but not quite like being tired herself and it's kinda tugging her in that direction a bit like how someone yawning near you prompts a yawn.

She gets into a comfortable position sitting position, closes her eyes and turns her attention further inward.

With focused attention and with both of them being fairly calm about all this she can perceive what's happening with a bit more clarity. There's definitely something new there in her mind, that much was already obvious, but with her new focus she can see a little of the outline of it. It's pretty firm, so it doesn't feel like she can easily change it but it doesn't feel unshakable either.

For now, the part that's most in reach is something not quite like distance or maybe a little like the concept of curtains or blinds. A sort of filter between her and Emi. At the moment it's neither at the most filtered or the most unfiltered.

"What do you think? Should I try to shift that? Any preferences on which direction or how much?"

Oh wow, now that's interesting.

…She kind of wants to see what happens if they pull it more open for a moment?

Riley pulls it open just a little and there's just more of each other in their heads. More fidelity of emotion, more awareness of each other's body, a clearer understanding of each other's thoughts, but also a somewhat blurrier line it's a little harder to tell the difference between who is who.

Riley quickly pushes it back before it gets too overwhelming.

Oh my, well that's interesting. Let's try closing it a bit?

Or… can Emi feel and move the curtain? Now might be a good time for her to try that.

With Riley still focusing on it, and especially with the recent blending, Emi finds it easy to find her side of that same filter, and she can shift it the same as Riley. As it slides closed, her perception of Riley's emotions and especially her thoughts gets fuzzier and more obviously Riley's.