Fourteen is late by most means to develop an ability. But mental-based powers are often unpredictable anyway. Bellefonte was a place I went to because I had to. How I felt about the place after years comes from an altered perspective, naturally, but I must have liked it. Because when I went through the dregs of college to become a therapist, I found myself all the way back again. After all that time.

There’s a resounding level of comfort to be among the people you are naturally connected to. Just about everyone in that place had a special ability, and a story that coincided with it. A lot of people needed help, and that was something I used to be able to give. That was all I really wanted for my life.

Thinking back on it is difficult. Years and an extensive dip into people’s memories makes everything occasionally…

Humanity. We're talking about humanity. Their complexities. Their interests. Their issues. Wants. Needs. Heartaches and heartbreaks. Mental anguish and painstakingly intricate elations. We've been talking about this - humanity - for so long. We don’t fit. We never fit, and now it’s basically a crime to be anything but ordinary.

Here’s the thing. I did work there. They already know that. They were already sceptical; sure, there was record of others who have come forward claiming to be non-powered people working in the school, but most of those attempts at cover failed. Why? Intellect. There’s a laundry list of therapists that moved through those halls and left in a matter of months. It was a difficult placement. Did it really seem so impossible that powerless people would get an opportunity when so many powered colleagues tried and failed to help all those kids? Of course not.

And yes, the power helps.

They probably wouldn’t have cared so much if I didn’t have the client history files. Names, abilities, important dates, important addresses. In case of emergency contacts. Next of kin. Session notes. These were roadmaps to find a handful of people.

They probably wouldn’t have cared about those if they weren’t looking for one... Or two in particular.

Of course, by the time they got to every person I had ever told about the ability, they miraculously knew nothing of the sort. They were all convinced I was non-powered. Not even lie detectors can force the truth when they literally don’t know what they’re talking about anymore.

Beyond covering the evidence, the trick is to… Just be. Existing like you aren’t part of the problem is the only way to survive long term. Compliance was always key, and I always gave it. Doing anything out of the ordinary was suspect, so I stayed, and I did the same thing I was always doing.

MEMORY MANIPULATION
Vesper can manipulate memories. This ability has several different mediums, viewing them being the first. Once she has an understanding of the memory in question, she has the ability to use certain tools to edit these standing memories. Modifying, suppressing, influencing, restoring, erasing and even fabricating new memories. Having a clear mental state is key for her ability; distractions allow her to lose focus and a memory can slip from her mentality before she has a chance to do anything with it.

LIMITATIONS
Vesper can see recent memories people think of through a short proximity (15 feet) of if she has eye contact. The individual must either be thinking of a specific memory or have something prominent happen to them for her to pick up on it. But for any memory altering, or memories dating back past the last week, she must have direct contact.

Certain aspects take more time than others. Modifying minor details like the colour of a shirt or specific words said is easier than injecting a completely new person into a memory. Suppressing memories is much easier if the individual wills them to be nullified or taken out. Traumatic experiences are burned into the psyche, but that willingness acts like a blade to the glue that keeps it in place. Most experiences are temporary; a parameter that falls into the same allocation - if a person is willing to lose the discourse of a memory, it takes longer to catch them again. Their overarching willingness to dissipate a memory completely means it will work.

Edits to a memory can last from a few hours to over a day, depending on the depth of the edit and the age of the memory. The older the memory, the harder it is to access, and as such the more difficult it becomes to manipulate in any way. These edits are very short term. Fresher instances can last for days - longer adjacent to the targets willingness.

SIDE-EFFECTS
Vesper suffers from the usual mentality related side effects; she has great headaches. She often loses track of time, and sometimes even her own literal placement in the right world. The after effects of a person's emotional state when viewing a memory can cling to her for a short period of time. She also suffers from significant episodes of vertigo.

Furthermore, Vesper has the unfortunate knowledge that the more she uses her ability, the less of herself she gets to keep. In time, the power takes its toll, and the line between other's memories and her own blurs. As she ages, too, she loses little moments in time. Primarily, the short term memory is effected in allotted bursts; she'll forget where she left something, or what she wore yesterday, or a conversation she had last week. She also carries no memories from the first eight years of her life; a progression which is slowly bound to add years to its loss.