-- Rowan --

Cut, cut, slice. My knife moved across the board, cutting the food trying to keep up with the lunch rush. AH! A spike of emotions shoots through my mind causing me to drop my knife on the board.

I shook myself trying to block out the see of emotions from all the people in the restaurant. I was horrified when I found the range I could feel people had increased to more than 20 meters. It was so much emotion, it was a constant noise in the back of my mind, and it would constantly spike when someone feels a strong emotion good or bad.

"Focus Rowan." I chided myself.

Stir, whip, fold. I tried to focus on my work as I did the currents were easier to ignore. Flip, bring down to simmer, I was sweating, and not from the heat. The restaurant was so busy, why did I think I could do this?

Slam, another spike of anger made me shove the knife down hard. I didn't want to look down. I knew what I would see. When I did, "Blight!" I cut through another cutting board.

I didn't need to look around to feel the entire kitchen staff's annoyance with me. I could feel it permeate through the air. It was not helping as I held myself up against the prep table.

I had decided to take a short job as a line chef to make some money and work towards my next chef rank, but ever since we got back I could feel people much more clearly. At first, I thought it wasn't that bad, then I went to a crowded area, and it was loud, as though a constant buzzing in your ears, with no volume control.

I wanted to just drop the knife and leave. This was all too much, I don't know if I can still do this. I don't know how long I stood there when I suddenly felt a strong feeling of concern break through all the noise, and a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up to see the head chef looking down at the cutting board, then to me, he began to yell, "You break another board, and I will have to break you!" I stared at him in complete confusion, the emotions he was radiating were not matching his emotions.

"Sorry I'll be more careful," I said still staring confused.

"That you will, or would you rather work the washing station? Always use more hands there." He phrased it as a punishment, but I could feel the genuine offer from him. Strange how I would have misunderstood and felt insulted a few months back.

I stared down at the knife and cutting board. I could feel the pull of the wash station, it would be much easier, and it was farther away from the people, but I felt I would lose something if I gave in, "Thanks, but I think I need to do this."

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The chef looks around the kitchen, seeing no one paying attention grabs my arm, and pulls me to the back.

"Look I don't know what's going on, but get your shit together." Chef whisper yelled at me. It was so strange I heard him yelling at me, but I could feel the need to help to come off of him. Why would he do this he barely knows me. I've never taken a job with this place before, and it's only my second day. Rot and decay I'll only be here for 2 weeks.

On a hunch, I spoke to the man's emotions instead of his words. "I'm a ranger, and I leveled up recently."

"How is that my problem?" Chef radiated curiosity, and what almost felt like a blooming of understanding.

I decided to just explain the problem, "I leveled up a lot, in a short amount of time. I'm having trouble filtering all the emotions."

"Not my problem. Get back in there, and just let the fucking emotion flow through you or something, and do your rotting job." It sounded like an off-handed remark, but I couldn't help but take his words as advice.

"Thanks, I'll take your advice."

The chef pushed me back into the kitchen, "Now get your ass back in there."

I stumbled back into the kitchen. My entrance didn't go unnoticed as the entire kitchen radiated annoyance at me. I nearly lost my footing as it all hit me at once, the employees, the restaurant, even some people on the streets. I reached my station and took in a couple of deep breaths. "It's now or never." I opened up myself to the stream of emotions, instead of blocking them out.

The noise rose louder and louder to the point I swear I could physically feel it filling me up like an overfilled balloon. The longer I let it flow through the tighter and more painful it all became, as everything went white. I nearly let out a scream. I was now realizing how much of a stupid idea it was to listen to such off-handed advice. Why would letting so many emotions flow through me help?

There was an intense spike of anger from outside, that brought me down to a knee. I was breathing fast, and heavy just fighting to stay conscious. I was drowning in emotions, all the while being picked apart by emotional spikes. I couldn't even think to block it out again, I was just a hollow husk slowly sinking.

Strangely though all of that I had once thought. I can do this. Somehow it kept me going as I numbly stood and returned to cooking. The other cooks had long stopped paying attention to me having their own orders to fill.

My hands moved on autopilot flowing and slicing doing my tasks. I found I had lost the ability to feel the people around me, yet it was all there, meshed together. The longer I worked the less affected I seemed to be.

"Is this better?" I wondered.

I was reeling at the thought, I would have to choose to feel everything, all the time, or constantly block out everyone. That's when I started to notice that it wasn't a river of emotions but more like a thousand strings strung together. I reached out plucking one of the threads. Suddenly, I was inundated with annoyance at the slow sou chef, and his constant wanderings, as well as the satisfaction of himself in his work.

"What?" I had gotten more than just emotion, I had received nuance to the emotion. I was sweating hard and gasping almost falling back to my knees from that one pull. Suddenly, I felt a wave of seething anger coming from one of the chefs.

One of the other cooks finally snapped, getting in my face, "Will you hurry up! I don't have time for you to break down and you're holding up the fucking line."

"Sorry," I said meekly.

I could still feel the emotions they were just a little more distant. The pain faded and I felt myself again. Although now I could feel, and almost see the threads of emotions I was walking through, and I was learning to swim the river.

"I don't know how I feel about this."