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[Milbunk]

I shall reply either tonight or tomorrow.

[Cherry Lover]

Hmm, what exactly did Tom see in Rider's mind? She wasn't in the process of thinking about sex or anything like that....

[Alice]

He delved deeper than the surface of her thoughts. Basically, he went deeper than normal in order to try to get a better basis of why Rider trusts Toshi like she does. What freaked him out was bits and pieces of the sex scene with Toshi. ...Tom isn't quiiiite ready for the hardcore BDSM yet you see, in spite of the twinge of Blue and Orange morality he shows here.

...Unless you're talking about earlier before the whole "delves into Rin and Rider's heads because he's wants everyone to get a move on" thing in which case I may have to edit that.

[Cherry Lover]

Fair enough. Anything else he saw of interest to him (particularly stuff relating to Sakura...)?

That's not the only reason she trusts him, though. He is Shirou's son, after all. I think I did maybe make her overlook the Archer thing a bit too much, I don't think Toshi ever really explained that to her even though he did to Kiyoshi.

[Alice]

Rider's thoughts scared him too much to really think of much else that interested him at the present time.

He'll probably be interested in her shadow magic and familiars later though. He's interested in how magic works in general, but the shadow stuff is beyond what he's familiar with in terms of magic, so he should be extra interested in that. ...Though perhaps also a bit nervous. Back home, the stuff Sakura does is usually covered by Dark and Ghost types, two types the Psychic type is weak to.

[Cherry Lover]

Ah, OK, fair enough. Well, maybe he'll get some ideas for use on Forest

As for Sakura, well, you said before that Sakura's shadow magic (at least her familiars) is one of the few things that could probably defeat Tom. So, yeah, it figures he'd be worried.

Also, if he's weak to ghost types, could he do anything to Rider (especially in spiritual form)? She is technically a ghost, after all....

[Alice]

He probably couldn't do a single thing to her in spiritual form, but in physical form, I think he could still probably do everything normally. Otherwise I don't think he'd be able to access her thoughts.

[Cherry Lover]

That probably makes sense, yes, although it would figure if he was less able to throw her around etc. than he would be a normal person.

Partially it depends on whether she can be harmed by physical attacks (e.g. being slammed into a wall by a non-magical entity) when in physical form. Since he can't really make a spiritual attack it makes no sense for him to be able to harm her if not, even if he could use his powers on her.

[Alice]

Hmm, that's possible. Though I don't know if we've ever used psychic abilities used against Servants before, so I'm not sure what would happen.

I guess I could get a round of opinions on it. What do you guys think would happen?

[Arch-Magos Winter]

It should work, it isn't magic.

[Cherry Lover]

Then it shouldn't work, surely. Magic is the only thing that is known to be able to harm spiritual entities like servants. Things that attack the soul directly. And, if he's not good against ghost types that implies he lacks anti-spirit powers.

[lantzblades]

Just throwing it out there. That mind reading stuff won't work on Rin or Satoshi without considerable time and force. Tom or Forest would also have to deal with defenses pushing back (mindscape stuff sounds cool though) as both characters are martial arts masters the latter of whom has hundreds of years of skill in mental control.

[Arch-Magos Winter]

I counter with the premise that any skilled psychic quickly learns to break through such defenses by undermining them through inducing emotional responses that are distracting or physically painful. For that matter, they probably also exploit uncontrollable reflexes, firing them off through psychic pressure. It's remarkably easy to make anyone feel like they're drowning or suffocating.

[lantzblades]

A true master doesn't respond to such cheap tricks arch. So no, it will not be easy

[Arch-Magos Winter]

A true master doesn't respond to such cheap tricks arch. So no, it will not be easy

There is no such thing as a true master of your mind. Your brain does things with your body that you cannot control at all. You wouldn't even NOTICE them coming under the psychic's control because you're simply not conscious of them most of the time.

Your heart beating for example, you can't really dictate that it stops. You can slow it down, but it will speed up to its natural pace no matter what you do. Same with  your breathing. Then there's a bunch of other fun reflexes that can be fucked with, along with a bunch of other mental things. Alien Hand Syndrome. Auditory and ocular hallucinations.

You can't really control your own brain. It's impossible, because it does so damn much. And in reality, it's controlling you already.

EDIT: For that matter, they aren't cheap tricks. They're clever ones.