[Not a full story. Just some back of the napkin development. Feedback and critiques appreciated.]

Growing up, the movies made it seem like telepaths were involuntarily invading peoples privacy, going crazy with all of the different voices in their head. Meanwhile, things like controlling peoples minds took training. Practice.

That's horseshit, for the record. Everything that a person thinks is broadcast as a signal. You have to pick up on that signal to know what someone is thinking. Tuning in to the right frequency is difficult. Broadcasting on the other hand, now that's the easy part. Took me a little while to even realize what I was doing. The only reason I noticed in the first place was because things were going too smoothly. The biggest tip was when I was at work, swamped with responsibilities, practically begging the clock to speed up and let me go home. The head doctor walked past me at that moment and told me to take the rest of the day off, leaving the rest of my work to my team.

I know. That is the most out of pocket thing an American manager can do. I didn't go. Obviously. I became a traveling nurse to help people. Not so I could shirk responsibilities.

The jump from average Joe to superhero Joe was a no-brainer after that. The best part? People only remember me when I want them to. The whole world knows who I am and what I can do. At the end of the day, I don't want people to come harassing me at my doorstep. So they don't.

Or, they didn't. Turns out the only thing that can interfere with my telepathy is someone else's telepathy. I have full controll of people close by, but now that I don't have half the planet engulfed in my will, every journalist is hunting me. The worldwide effect of everyone forgetting me now only works in a radius of about a mile. Everything else is canceled out by whoever this other person is.