The hivemind is conquering for me?

A big sigh of relief and enjoyment escaped my lips as I watched over Janine as she was meditating. It was taking a while and I didn't want Talia just sitting there bored the entire time so I offered her to massage me while we waited.

The woman was acutely adept with her hands. She was massaging my back with techniques I would never have considered existed, getting straight into the nooks of my nook and crannies.

I was enjoying the technique so much that I almost fell asleep. Fortunately, I felt a change in Janine's rhythm at that moment and knew she was inside her Mindspace. With my back crying at me, I turned away from Talia, who's look was equally disappointed that her fondling of my back had come to an end.

To thank her, I gave her a quick peck on her forehead before turning around, closing my eyes and reaching out to Janine with a tendril of my telepathy. Using my technique, I began massaging her mental defences, granting me access without having to damage her defences.

I didn't enter her mindspace with my avatar, but I continued to seep in my tendril until I was deep within.

"Janine, open your eyes, you are inside." I whispered next to her avatar." Janine then opened her eyes and looked around. This small space still fascinated her, It was inside her mind, while also not being inside? It was paradoxical, but it fascinated her to no end.

"Looking at the clear bluish energy in the shape of a long tentacle inside of her Mindspace, she spoke up. "It is actually really freaky that I am talking to you through a tentacle of Psionic energy. It's like you are a monster.

Janine didn't know why, but she felt like the end of the tentacle was smiling at her and that freaked her out a little bit. "Stop it!" She said, causing the tentacle to shake back and forth, like it was shaking its head.

It then turned away from her and began slinking through the Mindspace towards the core of her Psionic existence, her Origin. It was the size of two buttons, double the size of when I first found it. "Remarkable growth! You might be a prodigy!" I praised earnestly, causing Janine to smile jubilantly. "Really? I mean, I knew I was great, but a prodigy? You might be coming to ol' Janine for tips at some point Apollo."

I had stopped paying attention to Janine by that point as I was fixated on her Origin, trying to read whatever I could about it. Now, I didn't want to diss my homegirl, but compared to my Origins incomprehensible nuances, Janine's was like reading a big picture book. Everything was so obvious as to what Power she had, how long she could use it for, how much energy her Origin and Mindspace could hold at any given time, how it was feeding into her body, making her stronger. Everything.

I honestly felt rather jealous, as what did I have? A big, all powerful, baby that has actively tried to kill us multiple times in hissy fits that I had no idea how to control because of what my Origin power actually was.

It was even more confusing now as well since I became Sol's kindled as she had embedded a piece of herself inside of it like a symbiote making the whole kerfuffle even more confusing. But Janine's? There was something beautiful in simple elegance.

Turning to the Sepiida, I stated. "Wait for all my energy to leave and then wake up. This is an easy fix." I declared and then proceeded to depart. Janine stared at my retreating tentacle with a baffled look on her avatar's face. "Just like that? You have been here for about a minute? Ugh I hate that man!" She said with a smile on her face before opening her eyes, not following Apollo's instructions as the tip of his tentacle was cut off inside her Mindspace.

…

Opening her eyes, Janine looked down at her hands. She was back to red when her Avatar was still blue. It was an odd phenomenon and one she wanted fixed. She then looked at Apollo who was retying his towel around his waist.

"So? What's happened? How can I stop being red?" Janine asked, causing Apollo to smile. "Well, from what I gathered. Your new power is like a chameleon, Y-"

"A- W-hat?" Janine chucked at me. Causing me to tilt my head to the side in confusion. "A chameleon? Reptile, about 'ye' long skin changes colour. You know, chameleon" At this point I even heard Talia giggle softly next to me, causing me to become confused.

"What? Am I being punked?" I asked confused, causing Janine to say. "Apollo, it's pronounced Cham-e-leon. The way you are saying it sounds dumb. 'ChAmeLeOn.' Hahahahaha!"

Talia even began laughing at my pronunciation, leaving me in deep contemplation. I know I was in a different universe, but there was a line of how much bull I could take. Sure ancient 'gods' named after a pantheon in my old life? Cool, a mystery, whatever. But this? Ugh... This 'Cham-e-leon.' This knocked me sick. This was an abomination. This was a universal error and I hated it.

I wasn't sure why I hated it so much, it was just a word after all, but it really did rub me the entire wrong way. So much so that my mood was soured. Standing up, I declared. "Ok. Its simple, you just need to focus on your original body state for tonight, focus on your body details of how they were and you should revert back to normal. I have to go."

I said and started walking away, causing the two Sepiida to stop their laughing. "Apollo? Are you ok?" Janine asked, concerned. Apollo was usually quippy with his comebacks, but she felt like he had taken the teasing differently by his body language.

"Yeah, I am fine, I just need to go. I feel off. We will talk tomorrow." I then walked for the elevator silently and made my way upstairs silently. After entering the apartment, I didn't talk to any of my lovelies, I went upstairs, got dressed and left again. Something weird was happening to me and I felt I needed some silent solitude.

I left the club and just began walking for a short while. 'Why am I so upset? It can't be because of the word? Right? I mean even just thinking about it now, it wasn't even that bad. Sure I really disliked the pronunciation and would be checking up on that another time to make sure the two weren't just yanking my chain, but something felt off. I felt... Melancholic?

I wasn't sure if that was the right word. I was feeling down, not sad. I decided to put it to the back of my mind for a short while and just continued walking. I kept walking and kept walking and by the time I looked up and gained bearings of my surroundings, I noticed I was in the middle of a large plain with not much around except a few trees here and there.

"Woah, how long have I been walking?" I muttered to myself, spotting the city line all the way on the horizon. It seemed I had walked north and was now in the arid grassland. "Hmm." I mused to myself. I decided I didn't want to go back tonight. I liked it here. It was peaceful and quiet.

I began walking a little further, my night vision giving me no trouble in this environment and made myself up a small knoll with a dead tree on it. I nodded my head and began setting up a quick campground. Brushing away any debris and creating a small rock circle in the darkness, I then went collecting sticks, twigs and tall dry grass from the surroundings.

After collecting a fair share of bundles and collecting some thicker logs that I just ripped off the dead tree, I began preparing to make a fire. As I was about to use my pyrokinesis, I felt something within me stop myself.

It was a fleeting sensation, but after it, I pulled out Zircon and began looking for a nice stick and a flat piece of wood. After cutting out notches in the fire board, I placed my spindle inside the notch and began hand drilling.

After seven broken spindles after applying too much force, I eventually found a rhythm with a new notch and improved technique, I created an ember. It wasn't long after placing the ember into the dry grass and blowing air through it that I was now sitting in front of a fire I made primitively with a satisfied look on my face.

I felt a great sense of accomplishment run throughout my body that began eating away at my soured mood. As I was feeding the fire in silence, a few hours went by before I spoke up.

"Why do you think I acted the way I did?"