Smells Like Oak

Moses took a sip of coffee and then stared at the cup again. She was right. He was barely even listening to her at the moment. He couldn't remember how long she had said her flight was - even though she had just said it. He had this worry that when he drank from the cup, he was going to snap it in half. Either with his grip, or his lips ... or teeth.


"That obvious, huh?"


"Well, Moses," Morrison said while drinking from her cup - much more casually and swiftly than Moe had just done, "I'm going to tell you something I don't tell everyone."


"OK," Moe replied.


"I'm a wonder too."


Moses put his cup down carefully. Very carefully. He stared for a while, unsure as to how to respond.


Sarah cut through the silence, "I can't throw cars or heat object up or anything. I'm an empath. I can tell what your feeling. Actually, I can smell it."


"You can smell my concentration."


"Yeah. And see it. A little."


"OK"


"It was a bit of an unexpected twist. Most empaths just mirror the emotions of people nearby. Everyone does this, a little at least. Nervous people make us a little afraid. Angry people piss us off. Sad people make us blue. There is a physiological component to sympathy. For me, though - I don't feel it like that."


"You smell it."


"Doctors say something got mixed up. I smell it. And see it, sometimes. Mostly smells though."


"So what does my concentration smell like to you."


"Oak. A deep, woodsy oak."


"And how do you know that's concentration and not, say, my cologne."


"Because your cologne is Drakken Number Seven and you didn't put any on this morning. Probably not yesterday morning too. And, well, I'm just wired to know it. It's like knowing Spanish."

Got a bit of flurry tonight and managed to pull ahead of the curve, word count wise, for the time being at least. I've found it's important to give you as much cushion as you can muster for the early stretches of month to cover you when the days get long.

I also forgot that docs.google was notoriously off last year in counting words. Like a couple thousand off, adding to my last minute freakout and basically adding a new premise in to finish. I'll have to find a more accurate meter soon to make sure I'm actually where I think I am.