Soothing aura

There was someone in costume sitting on the stairs in the dark, hands over his ears, rocking a little. I landed next to him while I waited for others, checking him over, but he barely seemed to recognize I was there. The hallways- I checked both, and both were lit. There was one dead body in the hallway, either a 'red' by Defiant's system or a victim of a red, but no apparent threats.

I used my aura, reaching out for calm and relief and pushing it out there.

In a way, I was glad that I could. The process of connecting to the Fragile One and her origins, realizing she wasn't the enemy and letting her connect to me… it had opened doors both for the shaping of my forcefield and for my emotion control. It felt right that the emotion control was letting me help and soothe, now.

The cape stopped rocking and looked up at me.

"Is there-" I started. He removed the hands from his ears. "Is there a place you can go?"

"My team's fighting."

"The fighting seems to be worse near the front of the building. If you head that way…" I indicated past the stairs. "You can go find a spot to wait or help others. Or… the screaming shouldn't be as bad."

He got to his feet, and I gave him a hand. Then he jogged off, hand resting on the back of his neck, like he wanted to keep it close to his ears, to try and fail to shut off the screaming.

- Last 20.4