Once Jamie entered the Earthen Rock Pen, he noticed the temperature around the pen started rapidly heating up. Jamie took a step back out of the pen, and held up his arms placating. The fawn looked in Jamie's direction and stomped his feet. Jamie sighed, making his way back to his seat, deciding to give the fawn some time to cool down and relax then try feeding it again.
Jamie sat down in the blue foldable chair, closing his eyes to think about his experience earlier, as Eve licked Jamie's hand. The thing that was in the foremost of his mind from that experience was that as he sent the Astral Energy Pulse out, his mind was overwhelmed by the feedback of the single stream of images.
Jamie opened his eyes, and sent a mental thought to Eve. "What did it feel like, having the Astral Energy Pulse pass through you?"
"Discomforting. My Energy Pool reacted behaved erratically for the millisecond the Astral Energy Pulse passed through it. Also, there was this sense of discomfort, like everything of me could be seen by you. Both Physical and Mental."
"...That's an interesting way to put it. You don't wear any clothes, and we have practically grown up together."
Eve growled. "It's not the same. It's like everything is being seen forcibly, all at once. That I have no choice in the matter."
Jamie patted Eve as he leaned back in his chair and thought about it. He didn't do much research on the Astral Energy Pulse on the Battlenet, but he did know that it was supposed to be nigh undetectable when used correctly, and that it was only meant to be able to show blurry images in the users mind. His own experience corroborated that, so he dismissed Eve's concerns about the Astral Energy Pulse being able to pick up anything of Eve's mental thoughts. However, there was also another issue that he needed to consider. As Amelia rebounded his energy, he reacted almost instinctively, trying to shield his body from the wave of Astral Energy by reinforcing his Astral Body with Astral Energy. The Astral Energy Pulse is supposed to be harmless. Jamie closed his eyes and pondered, trying to recall that moment. Was his instinctive reaction fueled by a desire to preserve privacy, or was it fueled by a desire to shield himself from actual harm?
In the end, Jamie couldn't come to a conclusion. His mind at the time was primarily focused on trying to process the blurry, continued image as it was shoved into his head. In the end, it cane down to the idea that he would have to experiment, and try sending smaller pulses using less energy. He sighed, then opened his eyes, and got up, and looked around.
The first thing his eyes fell on was the fawn, which looked at him with a wary glance. Jamie sighed, then looked away, looking at the suns, noticing that it was hovering lower in the sky, and that the yellowish tint covering everything had darkened slightly.
He stretched, and looked around, only seeing Amelia and Larry sitting in the foldable chairs. Eventually, he turned towards the empty truck, taking a step forward, sending a mental message to Eve.
"Eve, come with me. I want to practice using the Astral Energy Pulse."
Eve remained lying next to the chair. "....I don't want to."
Jamie froze. "Why not?It can't be that bad, can it?"
Eve sniffed. "You try being on the receiving end. Or get Blackwing to help you."
"....Please."
"No."
"Fine."
Jamie continued walking to the front of the truck, sending a mental message to Blackwing, who swooped down from the sky towards Jamie's location.
>>>>>
"I just need you to stay here and tell me if you feel anything different."
Blackwing nodded.
Jamie stood next to the front of the truck, facing the bush with his back to the truck, with Blackwing in front of him, facing towards Jamie with his back towards the truck. Hopefully, here, he was far enough away not to disturb anyone as he practiced using his Astral Energy Pulse. He took a deep breath, then closed his eyes, focusing inwards.
Jamie concentrated on his glowing, transparent blue, Astral Body, concentrating on the glowing, transparent light blue energy pool. He focused on pooling one tenth of the remaining Astral Energy down to the left hand hanging down the side of the Astral Body, pooling it together, focusing his mind on the image of the Astral Energy flashing around him, spreading outwards, sending him details of the decent size objects it passed through, at Blackwing's size or bigger, with a couple of tendrils of Astral Energy connecting him towards the extending Astral Energy Pulse, feeding him the information.
When Jamie was absolutely sure he had gotten the image right, he gave the Astral Energy that had formed in his Astral Bodies left hand in a dome shape a mental nudge, sending it flashing outwards. Jamie focused outwards, swiftly, wanting to see if the Astral Energy was visible as it moved.
His eyes opened, just in time to catch a faint, transparent ripple flash outwards, towards the brown bushy area, before the images started to flood into his mind. The image of a faint, blurry outline of the side of the truck hit his mind, along with the components in it, in a blurry, barely distinguishable image that continued to grow as Astral Energy Pulse continued to pass through it, sending more images in Jamie's mind as he barely processed what he had received earlier.
Along with that, the blurry image of Blackwing hit his mind, the front of his head, the skin, the bones, the eyes, and everything else. Jamie grimaced, touching his head with his left hand, trying to get through it. Thirty seconds later, the Astral Energy Pulse faded, and Jamie opened his eyes, ten seconds later, grimacing.
The process was...painful. He was getting the information as the light was passing through, and his mind needed to try process each little bit as another small piece was being sent to his mind. He needed to get the whole image at once. Jamie looked towards Blackwing, who was looking at Jamie blankly. Jamie sent a transmission to Blackwing.
"Did you notice anything discomforting just now?"
Blackwing sent to Jamie his brief confusion, anger and surprise as he felt something invasive happen to him briefly.
"You experienced it just now?"
Blackwing nodded.
Jamie sighed, and closed his eyes, rubbing his head with his left hand. While it was an improvement on last time, it wasn't usable. He needed a complete image sent to him at once so he could process and respond quickly, as it would only show it's use during a crises, where a second could make a huge difference. He also didn't want people to notice as he sent the Astral Energy Pulse, and he wanted to send it swiftly. He started pacing along the side of the truck, racking his brain.
Eventually, he decided on a different approach. He stopped at the side of the truck, focusing towards the bush, and closed his eyes. He closed his eyes, and focused on the Astral Body, sending the same amount of Astral Energy he had gathered last time, towards the Astral Bodies left hand.
He gathered and focused on the same thoughts as images as last time, but with a slight difference. This time he focused on the idea of getting the whole image of a decent sized object, after the Astral Energy Pulse had passed through.
He focused his mind once again on the image of the Astral Energy flashing around him, spreading outwards, sending him details of the decent size objects it passed through, at Blackwing's size or bigger, with a couple of tendrils of Astral Energy connecting him towards the extending Astral Energy Pulse, feeding him the information. However, this time, he focused his mind on receiving the image of the large object after it passed through something. Once he was sure he had what he wanted, he gave a mental nudge to the energy gathered in his Astral Bodies left hand, sending it outwards, and opening his eyes.
Once again, he caught a faint, near transparent ripple in the air. This time though he was able to follow it without his mind being overloaded with images. A complete, blurry, transparent light blue image briefly entered his mind of the truck, shortly followed by Blackwing. Jamie smiled. This time was a lot better. He was able to process it. However, all the images gave him was a brief sense of direction, size, and rough outline. He wanted it to give him the rough distance between him and the images, increase the speed at which he could use the Astral Energy Pulse, and he didn't want people to notice it. On that last thought, Jamie sent a mental command to Blackwing.
"Blackwing, did you feel anything this time?"
A low crackling, juvenile voice rang in Jamie's mind. "No"
Jamie paused in thought, thinking about the difference, pacing by the truck as he thought about it. Eventually, he came to the thought that it should be due to the thought that the image wasn't sent to him until it had passed through something. Blackwing and Eve were able to feel the energy sending images about them on a instinctive level.
The next step was to increase the casting speed and try to work out how to get the pulse to send him the distance