Each of the campus’ buildings felt like their own architecture project. Some were grouped together, like the general and advanced mentalism buildings were designed with art and inspiration in mind, so they were multi-colored, multi-storied, and with a variety of intriguing shapes and features that didn’t add to the building’s structure or function, but made it look interesting.

The dorms were only briefly explored–since about 90% of them were meant to be private spaces!–but they carried a calm and cozy atmosphere, with soft and cool colors in the public areas, and the rentable conference-style rooms having paintings done by famed psychics, or award-winners from the school’s alumni.

The cafeteria was two stories: the first dedicated to food and social dining, the second dedicated to co-ed recreation, and it took Zi far more time than it should have to pry the young lady away from the pool table.

The more numerous buildings dedicated to the left-brain disciplines were basically enormous labs in addition to their psionic curriculum. The elemental labs in particular were locked down tight, but they had a number of devices to generate heat, electricity, or generate windforce, all stuff useful for telekinesis and its sub-disciplines: hydrokinesis, thermokinesis, and electrokinesis.

Burke was especially proud to show Taz the library, one of the largest and most comprehensive collection of literary psionic works–about psychics, for psychics, by psychics, whatever combination those came in, and it covered everything from history, to law, to practice, to fiction, to non-fiction.

The professor liked to ramble about the history of the buildings and everything that went into planning the campus out, but Taz was more interested in seeing than hearing. All in all, the whole place looked much like what she was used to back in Petersburg Highschool, with square, windowed classrooms full of desks and teaching materials, but… well, emptier than she was used to, much more vast, and with a lot more art pieces in every building.

He couldn’t show them terribly much just because most of the buildings were locked throughout, but a lot of the public spaces were beautiful, and all the posters and quotes and artwork were dedicated to psionic studies rather than ‘Hang in there, Kitty!’ type platitudes for education.

“The last place I’d like to show you is the Dewitt Advanced Psionics Hospital.” Burke told Taz as she all but skipped by his side.

“I can’t wait to come here aaaaaa—!” Taz squealed, barely listening to the man, Melodica corkscrewing through the air by her side, their voices harmonizing in a mouse-like squeak of joy.

“Pay attention, Taz!” Zi reminded her with a smack to her butt, drawing a yelp. “Sorry Freddy, continue.”

“Oh, that was about all I had to say, but if you’re lucky, you’ll get to meet Dr. Dewitt.” Burke smiled at the excited blonde.

“Doctor… Hugo Dewitt?” Taz ventured.

Burke nodded. “I met Hugo through Zhou. He was one of Zhou’s mentors after he moved on from studying psionic history underneath me; Hugo’s a world expert on the discipline of biokinesis, dividualism, and nullification.”

“Oh!” Taz brightened up. They’d just talked about dividualism, she knew what that was… sort of. Biokinesis was one of the newer disciplines, one of those advanced ones you needed a degree to even get started on so you didn’t kill somebody or something, but nullification was new new; so new it was named only a year ago. “Huh, I don’t remember seeing nullification on the available classes…”

“Hugo didn’t want to even try teaching a class that he himself was still just an amateur in. Null-psionics is a very tender practice, much like dividualism; he flew in fourteen null-psychics from around the world to try and understand their unique psichology.”

“Wait, fourteen?” Taz tilted her head at the professor. “Why not all fifteen? Or… are there more than fifteen nulls in the world now?”

“Nope. He only needed to fly in fourteen because the fifteenth is a personal friend, and currently dean of the school.” Burke smiled wryly, and Taz blinked.

She opened her mouth, then pursed her lips. “Oh my god I forgot Dean Davis was a null.” She whispered breathlessly.

“He’s the one who inspired Hugo to look into null-psionics and establish a whole new psionic discipline.” Zi explained from behind them both, drawing a nod from Burke. “Zhou Ping’s favorite student and his two favorite mentors, all come together to create not just a school for psychic powers, but a new discipline as well.”

Burke gave a modest laugh. “Well I can’t take any credit for the establishment of nullification, I just lent whatever resources I could. Hugo is a genius when it comes to the root of psionics and advanced mentalism; many of the books I wrote on those subjects have him as my primary co-author and interview subject. You should hear him talk about exploring psychic minds; it is enrapturing and beautiful, and sincerely makes me wish I had psychic powers of my own to delve like he can.”

The three came to the automatic, sliding glass doors of the hospital, which opened with a whisper of metal to let them into the main lobby.

“What he is best known for currently, however, is the treatment of psionic disorders.” Burke paused as they stood before a desk, where a woman in a nurse’s uniform glanced their way, but Burke gave her a dismissive wave to let her get back to her business. “He and Zhou both wanted a hospital where a psychic could be treated by experts. Mustafi Syndrome, Spontaneous Psionics Generation, mystic seizures, psionic burn out; this building studies everything related to psionic health issues, up to and including their proliclivities towards crippling allergies and biological disorders. This hospital is equipped to provide chemotherapy, ease allergic reactions, and provide an experienced staff to soothe mental disorders.”

“Oooh…” Taz nodded her head.

Melodica tilted hers, and shrugged Taz’s way. “Well we don’t really deal with those sorts of things, so I don’t think we’ll be in here much.”

Burke opened his mouth to say something, but an accented voice cut him short. “Ah yes, the rare-gifted psychic with the bodily health of your average human.” The voice was deep, husky even, and came from a wide, rotund man in a doctor’s uniform. Pale-skinned, with a high widow’s peak and short, greying-brown hair rimming his scalp.

He was pudgy in the face, with a big pair of lips and beady eyes behind square glasses, but a kind smile atop some five o’ clock shadow, and heavy bags under his eyes. He looked simultaneously young, yet old, a mixture of plump and pleasant.

Taz could immediately feel a gentle psionic presence tickle against her mind, and with an excited smile, brushed back against him, and in an instant, she knew everything she needed: Dr. Hugo Dewitt, head of the Dewitt Advanced Psionics Hospital. She instantly knew the hospital’s emergency phone line, his work email, the hospital’s public hours, and the name of three books in the campus library that would give her medical knowledge in the event of a psionic emergency.

She blinked, and in the time it took her to process the information, he was only two steps closer, grinning Burke’s way, the two men striding over to grasp one another’s arms and shake vigorously.

“Giving tours, Fred? You must be bored.” Dewitt teased him, and Burke laughed.

“Quite the opposite, Hugo. I want you to meet Natasha Cooper, and the tulpa that saved the sanity of a young boy with Mustafi Syndrome: Melodica.” Burke stepped aside to let Hugo get a better look at Taz, and with a hand in his pocket, he stared for a few long seconds, then his mouth made a little ‘o.’

“The one Adrian called us about?!” He asked, visibly straightening in excitement as Burke nodded, and Taz felt a shy flutter in her heart. “Well well well well, little Natasha Cooper!” He walked past Burke to present his hand to hers, his psionic presence notably more giddy than before. “I’d almost overlooked you! I’m glad I came down, I was hoping to get a chance to speak with you sometime. Chief Walsh was extremely excited to share the news about you.”

“H-he was?” Taz asked, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushed red, her heart hammering in excitement and confusion as she glanced her aunt’s way, Zi tossing her a wink in response.

“Leave it to an evolink to show up on our doorstep with a breakthrough in tulpamancy of all things.” Hugo laughed a little, lowering his hand to turn towards Melodica, the mermaid drifting away a bit in discomfort. He put his hand forward, his fingers passing through Melodica’s eyes. “Tulpamancy as a subject has been in a lurch for decades now. I knew it had potential but—”

He jumped when his hand was suddenly slapped away by her hand, his arm pulled back against his chest like he’d been attacked, and Melodica swished behind Taz with a pout.

“Mel!” Taz gasped, glancing between her suddenly sullen tulpa and Hugo, and blushed, swallowing softly. “Sorry, Dr. Dewitt. She doesn’t like strangers putting their hands through her.”

Burke suddenly sucked in a breath, drawing attention as he held his hands out calmingly. “I’m sorry, Hugo, I should have warned you: she is a very advanced tulpa. She might be classifiable as something entirely different at this point. P-please don’t blame Ms. Cooper for this, Melodica is capable of channeling Taz’s psychic powers without her permission.”

Hugo rubbed his wrist thoughtfully, staring at Melodica in continued bewilderment, his arm lowering. “No kidding?” He asked in a low voice. “She felt discomfort; embarrassment, perhaps? Without her creator’s input?” He asked, and Burke gave a low nod. “And used her psychic powers?”

Another short nod. “Like I said, advanced.”

“Good god, Fred, there’s advanced tulpamancy, and then there’s a tulpa using psychic powers.”

“They’re,” Taz spoke up gently, gulping before she continued, “they’re still my powers…”

“But still, tulpas as we know them are little more than puppets.” Hugo stated. “Even Mr. Rogers had to lend his focus in order to create a solid, telekinetic surface to simulate a tulpa’s hands.”

“She doesn’t even have to be awake to do it.” Zi spoke up, drawing Hugo’s further shocked glance. “Just a year ago, Christmas night, Taz was passed out on my couch, and boy did I know she was out, ‘cuz she was snoring, and drooling, and—”

“Auntie!” Taz whimpered in embarrassment.

“—and sitting in my husband’s recliner was Mel, playing the guitar her mom’s ex had given her. Not just making noise, doing...” Zi waved her hand through the air, searching for the right word, “bars or whatever you call ‘em. Practicing.”

Hugo and Burke both turned to face Melodica, staring in deeper surprise still, and Melodica’s face turned red again… or, she willed it? Neither were sure at this point. “It was a new guitar, we needed to tune it.” Melodica mumbled, arms crossed over her chest.

“When did she,” Hugo pointed to Melodica while addressing Taz, “start using your powers?”

Taz felt flush. Simultaneously hot and shivering all at once; she didn’t know why she was so anxious, but she felt like she was under a microscope, and she suddenly understood why Melodica seemed glued to her back.

“Well, um, I was about twelve, and…” Taz scratched her mane of hair shyly. “I was trying to learn both parts of a duet on a single piano, and mom didn’t know how to play, and neither did Aunt Zi, or anyone else, so, I learned both parts and taught Mel how to use her fingers.”

“So, three years.” Burke stated. “Three years of practicing duets.”

“And other stuff.” Taz shrugged. “I practiced, y’know, throwing a ball with her.”

“Or she’d send me into the house to unlock the door from the inside.” Melodica piped up. “I get bored when she’s doing schoolwork, so sometimes I doodle on a piece of paper.”

“She’s pretty good, too.”

“I am so good.”

“Just whenever I could, I’d use telekinesis with her, and eventually, well…” Taz trailed off. “I mean, I don’t even notice it anymore. We play guitar, and other instruments together. I’m practicing bass, so we do different parts—”

“Without strain?” Hugo interjected.

Taz glanced at Melodica, and both shook their heads. “Well, I focus on my part, she does her part, and we play. We do a lot of mimicry together, too, so, like…” Taz held up a hand like she was holding the neck of a guitar, and ran her finger over her belly, where her Fender normally hung, and produced five, clear-as-crystal guitar notes.

Behind her, Melodica lifted her hands, and Mallory’s Ernie Ball bass guitar suddenly materialized in her grip, and as Taz strummed the opening notes to Jump as Melodica backed her up with the low, repetitious bass notes, and Taz felt her skin itch a bit as Burke and Hugo both leaned down to examine her face as she played.

“If she’s struggling, she’s not showing it…” Burke noted.

“Taz, what is twenty times eight?”

“Uh…” Taz paused, but Hugo shook his head.

“Keep playing, answer.”

“Um… one-hundred and forty?”

“Sixty.” Melodica corrected.

“Ah crap, yeah.” Taz pouted.

“Melodica, what’s the capital of Spain?” Hugo turned to face the tulpa, whose face scrunched up.

“I dunno? Who cares.”

Hugo glanced back at Burke with a bemused look. “Sassy, this one.”

Burke just nodded. “And neither are missing a note.”

“Speak for yourself, this Q&A thing is making my fingers do weird things.” Melodica pouted, and Taz gave a little giggle.

“It’s a mimicked bass, Mel, it’s in your—my…?”

“Our?”

“Our head?” Taz glanced at the two older men for confirmation, but both just looked mystified.

“This requires so much more study.” Hugo said almost breathlessly. “Two personalities running at the same time, sharing power without strain.”

“Not just that, but simulating a body, with physics, and creating contextual telekinetic pads related to her anatomy.” Burke whispered back. “And that’s not all, remember Aiden’s report?”

“Creating a mental filter with her music, yes, I remember.” Hugo murmured, staring Taz in the eye. “You will be a student here next semester?”

“Y-yeah! That’s the plan anyways?” Taz’s hands slowed down, the noise stopped… though Melodica kept playing, leaning on her creator as best as her limited body could.

“I will arrange for some study to be performed.” Hugo said, straightening up, looking much more energetic. “At your discretion of course, your education comes first, but you have, albeit unknowingly, created a new depth to the fields of tulpamancy and dividualism alike. What this means…” He walked away a few steps, hands in the air, as if he was trying to visualize the data. “What this could mean… mijn God, I don’t even know, but it is incredible.”

He grinned to himself, and Burke nodded enthusiastically. Zi, meanwhile, took Taz by the shoulders and dragged her into a short, happy hug, her fingers squeezing into her in a mixture of delight and pride.

Taz could only swallow, both nervous and excited all at once.

She had never put so much thought into Melodica before, and she had to keep herself from trying to pry her tulpa open. Melodica was uncomfortable, enough so that she wasn’t in the backseat of the car heading back towards the airport, she was in Taz’s head, feisty and anxious and gently humming along with the R&B playing over the radio.

Taz had never thought about how special Melodica was. She had seen tulpas on television and read about them, but having spent years sharing headspace with her tulpa, it hadn’t occurred to her that some of the things Melodica did naturally weren’t mentioned elsewhere.

She supposed that made her a little special too…

In a way, it was almost as exciting as going to PA, and Taz had always dreamed of impressing people, but the way they’d looked at her, talked about Melodica…

‘Do we really want to be students and lab rats?’ Melodica mumbled sourly in their shared headspace.

Taz pursed her thin lips, and raised her hands, her thumb stroking through the air and producing a line of notes. In the driver’s seat, a proudly smiling Zi, unaware of Taz’s uncertainty, squeezed her knee.

‘I kinda think we have to. I mean, if we are a big breakthrough in tulpamancy, don’t we kinda owe the world the chance to study us?’

‘I disagree!’ Taz didn’t see Melodica’s pout so much as she felt it. ‘We waited forever to go to PA as students! This just complicates things.’

‘I still think it might be a good idea! Maybe we’ll get extra credits! Better lessons faster! Maybe they’ll write a book on us!’

‘Maybe we’ll just end up trapped at PA, forever a psychic weirdo, getting poked at instead of doing something with our lives.’

‘???’ Was the only response Taz could formulate at Melodica’s almost snarling response. ‘You pushed for this, didn’t you?’

‘Yeah, well… maybe mom’s not wrong.’ Melodica responded in an almost defiant voice.

Taz’s expression faltered, and she leaned against the car window, watching the approaching airport with a hum from the back of her throat.

‘Are you okay?’

Silence.

Taz sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

—(*&%(*#)(*$&}{>@$||][[()#@&(*!Q%^—

Time flows differently in isolation.

Hours were just numbers without regular sunlight. Medicine at this hour, testing at the next hour, an experiment at this hour, lunch, dinner, lab tech shift changes…

Sofia laid on a couch inside of a simple room she called her home. She had her own fridge, her own furniture, her own entertainment in droves, but it was impossible with all of this noise. In front of her was a television, the words from the telenovela muted by the voice speaking on repeat in her head.

‘Yo soy Taz!’

‘¡Muchas gracias chica!’

‘Are you okay?’

It had been four hours since she’d encountered that girl in the park. The campus was supposed to be empty today, aside from staff who knew to keep their psychic powers restrained when they encountered her, to keep the static in her head clear, but this girl, Taz, had spoken to her.

—>{}!&$%%^$].&*@%$!%^*&%()_|\>[email protected]%—

Not out loud, which would have been fine, but through telepathy, and everything she’d said ping-ponging loosely through her skull, disrupting her thoughts and leaving her so very exhausted hearing it over and over and over again at every waking moment...

She tried to meditate enough to shut down her mind for a moment, but it kept simulating that stupid conversation, filling her head with a painful white noise until the words broke through again. Why did she bother saying anything to this Taz girl? She should have run right away… she knew this would happen, but it was the first time she’d spoken to a girl her age in what felt like months.

Also, there was a mermaid there, and Sofia wished she had a single fucking moment to herself to try and figure that out, but against her will, keeping her from sleeping, keeping her from focusing on the television, she heard those statements, that question, loudly in her head.

“I’m fine…” She whispered to herself.

‘Are you okay?’

“I’m fine…”

‘¡Muchas gracias chica!’

“Piss off…” Sofia rolled onto her side and covered her face, trying to focus her thoughts again.

—(*&%@*&$)(+#+%!%(*_)@%&^$*{>||[email protected]^$!<>@!{|!^$—

Her head burned from the feedback her own brain put out from trying to take control.

She buried her face in the pillow and tried to breathe easily. She wanted to sleep.

Silently, she threw her legs over the edge of the couch and stumbled over to her bedside, and she hit a button attached to an intercom microphone.

“Don?” She asked in a beleaguered tone.

“Is everything okay Sofia?” Don asked.

“I-I need to sleep…” She answered, closing her eyelids for a moment and wavering on her feet.

—^#@%(@!)%$—

‘Yo soy Taz!’

—(*&#%^*(@(>>>|—

“You want the sedative?”

“Please…” Sofia asked, breathing deeply, wanting to just forget that girl’s name. Or… wanting to ask her about her mermaid…

“I’ll be in in a minute. Hang tight.”

Sofia collapsed on her bed and rolled onto her back.

“Ayudante, night light.” She spoke out loud, and the lights clicked off, except for one by the door, and one at the foot of her bed.

‘Are you okay?’

“No…” Sofia mumbled to herself.