Submitted: 30 March 1999

Empaths No Longer Empathetic?

by Solarria

I was saddened when I met not one, but seven of this kind of person the other day. And even more saddening was their profession-Empaths. I was in the Crossing guild waiting to be treated for a bleeder and some poison. The empaths were there, talking with friends and getting in on gossip, like we all do. There were maybe four other patients there, none with really major wounds-except for one.

A young man whose hand was burning through with acid from a chest that backfired on him, had been sitting there even before I arrived. Occasionally he asked, "can someone take care of my hand? I've got some bad acid." Politely, not like a snert would, speaking in all caps every 5 seconds. He was ignored. And ignored. And ignored. Until the acid burned through and spread to his arm, which started bleeding heavily. He urgently said, "please...my arm's bleeding and I've got severe acid! Please help!" Only one empath responded. "Wait your turn."

Well, he waited, and bled to death. In front of everyone, including me. No one even said anything, much less tried to help the poor boy. They just continued talking and laughing like they did before. My hand was beginning to swell from the poison, and was in pretty bad shape. I dragged the kid's body outside, heading for the cleric's guild, but my poison was too severe. I collapsed.

We waited outside the guild in this busy part of town, asking and waiting for someone to notice and help us. We waited about ten minutes until one kind soul noticed us and took us the rest of the way to the clerics'. If he hadn't noticed, we'd probably be walking the starry road now.

I hope this sends a message to the Empaths out there. If you just want to chat with friends, then you shouldn't be in the main area. That's what the lounge is for. And if healing others is really such a chore, maybe you should be a barbarian and quit being someone that other people must look up to in their most desperate hour.

Baresh will listen to your well-presented viewpoint on this, too.