God's Compensation/Confront him about his strange supernatural mind-reading powers
“Ok, that's it!” You say, “How the hell do you do that!?”
“Hmm?” Mr. Austin responds, tilting his chin up a little in response to your outburst.
“Don't 'huh' me,” you respond, “I'm talking about how you seem to know everything I've done today, and just there you said almost exactly what I was about to say as well as though you had pulled the words straight from my mind.”
“Did I really get it that accurate to what you would have said?” He responds, “Hmm... well, sorry about that,” he apologizes, “despite what you may think, I don't actually have the ability to read your thoughts.”
“Then what CAN you do?” You respond, “because something is definitely up, and I am not hearing you denying it.”
“Well,” Mr. Austin responds, leaning back and picking his feat up of the ground for a moment before springing off the table with a loud clack of his feet hitting the tile floor, “it is actually a fairly common ability where I come from,” he says. “You can do it too, by the way, although it might take some practice to get it down.” Huh? Did he really just say you could do... whatever it is that he is doing to know all this stuff? “Anyway, again, it is not mind reading. It is a little closer to empathy, I can tell what is on your heart, and then I can make logical inferences from that based on your personality, past actions, and the current situation what you are probably going to say.”
“Wait.. what?” You respond.
“And yes,” he interrupts you, “I do know the objection you were probably about to raise as well. The empathy is the easier to use of the two abilities that are common to all people where I come from. The other is a lot more complicated to use. I can basically see into your past as well as all probable futures, and focus in on any point I want. I do have to view each event in real time though, it is kind of like having a rewind button for other people. And yes, I can use my empathy on your past self as well.”
“How.. what? How much of my past have you looked into?” You respond defensively, getting a little scared now. Great, just how far back did he look? If he looked at enough, he might know about your attraction to kids. What would he think of that? WAIT! He doesn't even need to look into your past to see that! You were perving over that kid in the waiting room!
“It's all right,” he responds, “It's not part of my job to judge what kind of sexual fantasies you have.” Gah! He DOES know about that! “Sorry,” he responds, “I know you probably feel a little violated about that, but usually people feel a lot better once they know the other person who might or might not know about those sorts of things not only knows but also accepts them. I figured it would be best to get that one out of the way quick, and yes, I did look into that before you started getting excited by the girl in the lobby.”
“What? Why?” You sputter. Why was he diving into your personal secrets?
“It's nothing nefarious,” he responds, “it is actually part of my job. I was actually sent here to help solve your problem, you might think of me as something of a paranormal social worker. The first three things I always look into are a person's issue and what immediately pertains to it, any past crimes, and their sexual fetishes and exploits. Really, I only need to know the first one, but the latter two always come up in conversation once my abilities have been revealed, so I figure it is best to save some time. If I tell you I didn't look at your past, you would wonder if I am going to later, and that would be a stumbling block for the rest of the conversation as you are constantly on edge, so I just get it over with and look and tell them it's Ok so we can get it over with.”
Ok... ok... talk about having a gigaton bomb dropped on your poor psyche. Your mind is completely in flux trying to process all of this. He called himself a social worker. Well, that seems to fit. Despite every bit of information he just dropped being the sort of thing that would have you feeling very uncomfortable normally, you actually feel somewhat secure after that little information dump. He is right, the knowledge that he not only knows, but also that he is Ok with it has you feeling a lot more relaxed than you KNOW you would be otherwise. But... Damn! How does he expect you to process all that?
“Do you need a minute to take that all in?” He asks, “I get the impression though that you are the type who will cope better by talking it out.” You give a bit of an uncomfortable nod, “by the way,” he says, “you would probably be surprised at just how many people I run across who have the same sexual attractions as you. There is really nothing unusual about it. Up until about 100 years ago, the age of consent was around 9 to 12, if it even existed in a given culture at all. Even then, it was not written into law. It was just an informal cultural norm.”
You feel like you just got another dagger to the chest as he narrows in and confirms that, yes indeed, he does know exactly what your sexual fetishes are. That dagger though seems to have acted more like a scalpel, perfectly wielded in a surgeon's hands to release the pressure that had been weighing on you. You are still feeling a little bit unsettled, you are a complete open book to this guy, you are completely on display for him. But... he has already expressed that he accepts you completely for who you are. You may not have chosen to make yourself this vulnerable, but now that you are and he has demonstrated he is not a threat you actually are starting to feel.... safe... at ease, to some extent you even feel loved. Most of all though, you just feel wiped out. Your body feels as though it has lost all of its strength and you have to prevent yourself from just melting onto the floor as your sore arms legs and shoulders sink heavily into the chair.