On Powers...

I don't get why telepaths always have it lucky in fiction. Honestly, pyrokinetics with an errant thought can incinerate, influences can make everyone around them feel sad or angry, etc. etc.

Well, added to this list should be telepathy. I mean, the standard idea is, guy (never girl, it seems) can hear thoughts of everyone around him, presumably see pictures if they're thinking images.
OK. How would this not drive a guy crazy?
Seriously, it would be like a thousand whispering voices, or images at the back of your skull. Anyway, people generally think horrible thoughts, so it would mean having to see their suicides, their murdering their wife, their beating their boss to a bloody pulp, etc. etc.
And yet, in books, the telepath can apparently switch this on and off. I don't think that's fair; can a pyro switch off his power? No. Can an influence stop making people feel how he/she feels? No. Why do telepaths get the easy ride?
Honestly. I remember writing this opening where the character was invited to a funeral, that of a telepath who had committed suicide because he couldn't take the sudden influx of horrifying images. Would this not be the logical ending? That, or the telepath would be instituted into a mental hospital.
Make the telepaths suffer. Otherwise, it's all deus ex machina, really.

This should also apply to future-seers. They should not be able to switch it casually on and off. In fact, I remember having this idea for a seer who could see the 4th dimension, which constituted of white lines as to how something aged. Unfortunately, this meant that all she could see was white, since everything aged. In fact, the only way anyone could get relevant info off of her was hooking her brain up to a computer that basically scanned each image for what was going to happen, say, a month from then.

So, yeah. Don't make them switch it on and off. Make it permanent, or I will set my evil woodland creatures on you.

My personal suspicion is that a telepath would mainly pick up people's bizarre sexual fantasies. People spend a lot of time thinking about sex. I would not want to be a telepath.

Oh I have fun with this, but with empaths. My MC can sense just about every emotion around her. But, I've stuck a few things in:

~ Every magic user has the power to switch their magic on and off. It's not limited to her, or empaths.
~ She's gotten years of training not to go insane from the emotions around her. She can also control the depth of emotions she senses; she can feel a crowd's general emotions and she can feel one person's deepest feelings. The latter requires a lot of energy, so she doesn't do it often. Unless it's absolutely necessary.
~ Her body reacts to the emotions around her. If there's a lot of tension, she can feel so tense she wants to pass out. Again, years of training has gone in to make sure she doesn't do something out of place because of the emotions.

Magic like that is fun. You're constantly dealing with the results of the people around the character.

I'm TheNEWHero. Hehe. Well you could make it so long as their in physical contact. Also I really don't see reading minds as working. Seriously, we have enough memory space for two lifetimes, we only use 10% of our brains. You're saying you can pick out a certain memory and download it into your own brain without the person really willing themselves to let you?

I had a character once who was an empath who tried to kill himself once because he was so inundated with everything that people were feeling. He didn't get any better.

A thought though: couldn't it be toned down a little over time? I mean, we can smell things, but over time, we get used to a particular array of smells and its only when things get different that we really notice. So couldn't an empath theoretically be constantly filtering all the input and have it not affect them so strongly all the time?

(Also, that idea for your seer is simply win. My question is how anyone figured out she was seeing the future at all if all she could see was white. Wouldn't they just assume she was blind?)

My empath was so bogged down with emotions that eventually they became detached from them. You know how we see war and murders on the news so much that we kind of just phase it out. Being said the person could become an emotionless shell or even a sociopath. Either way I see that as a repercussion of the power.

*Sighs with relief of finding a 667 post*

I have a telepathic character. He can put up mental blocks, able to stop unintentionally hearing thoughts, but he's tired enough it'll drop. If he reads minds too often or goes too far into their heads, it can cause DID, dissociative identity disorder, so he often doesn't read people's minds. But because of the years it took him to master his telepathy, he's pretty unstable. He doesn't really care for humanity much anymore, knowing what people think and all that. He's also a sadist, so since he can sense different emotions he likes to hurt people physically rather than telepathically.

What's the point of someone who turns off their powers, I wonder? Maybe it could be the other way around? Instead of it taking energy to keep your powers on, it takes energy to turn and keep them off?

Telepaths is a power that people can enjoy reading. If all of a sudden the telepath did constantly think of what you've mentioned, the book would turn in a Psycho-Thriller or something and I have an underlying feeling that isn't what the author wants. Telepaths for me, is a comical, fun use of character and it should stay that way.

Well, added to this list should be telepathy. I mean, the standard idea is, guy (never girl, it seems)

I'm not sure where you got this idea, almost all the books that I've read that have mind readers are girls. Not only in books but in comics, movies etc. It is a common device because girls are supposedly more in touch with peoples feeling and thus they can connect to their mind. In fact I can only think of one example of a male mind reader and it was a TV show that lasted like three episodes before getting cancelled.

TheNewHero wrote:What's the point of someone who turns off their powers, I wonder? Maybe it could be the other way around? Instead of it taking energy to keep your powers on, it takes energy to turn and keep them off?

I think it depends on the power. With a power such as fire (I'm thinking Human Torch kind of fire here), which would require thermal energy from the person in control of the power in either the form body heat or emotional anger. That would require energy to keep up, so the power turning off would make sense. The whole idea behind the power would need to be altered, so fire-controlers are closer to their own species (a species that naturally produces fire and is harmed by not producing it for whatever reason, most likely too much body heat would be kept inside).

However, with a power such as empathy, there's no clear "fuel" for the power. Since the brain only works at 10% capacity anyway, it's logical that an empath or telepath would simply be using more of their brain capacity to read minds/emotions. In cases like that, it makes more sense for it to be a constant and the energy would be needed to turn the power off.

I'm not sure where you got this idea, almost all the books that I've read that have mind readers are girls. Not only in books but in comics, movies etc. It is a common device because girls are supposedly more in touch with peoples feeling and thus they can connect to their mind. In fact I can only think of one example of a male mind reader and it was a TV show that lasted like three episodes before getting cancelled.

* cough Edward in Twilight cough cough *

Ahem.... For the most part, I think you're right, but I just had to mention that. Sorry. XD

I've only written one story where there was a person who could read minds, and that was only if they tried really, really hard and focused. If anything broke their concentration, it didn't work. I've also read stories where the person had to be touching the person whose mind was being read in order to read their mind. So, I think it can be done convincingly, without the turning on/off thing.

I agree with you though--just my own voice in my head is quite enough, and if I had to listen to other people I would go crazy. I can definitly see how that would be annoying in reading fiction.

[edit] This is my 900th post! Whadda ya know? [/edit]

canislupis wrote:[cough Edward in Twilight cough cough

I completely forgot about him. Well I take that as a good sign, I'm finally starting to forget that book.