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The Cost of ESP


ginger_reckoning

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Here are some off the top of my head (warning, a few are kinda cliche and most of these could either be temporary or permanent):

- They lose a little bit of their personal identity

- They lose a little bit of their humanity

- They lose sight

- They overheat

- They get really cold

- They lose some ability of their brain to control their muscles (this results in weakness and incoordination)

- They can’t move at all when using the powers

- It is physically/mentally painful for them or those around them

- The object the powers are being used on suffers burn damage

- The person has to physically bear the weight of whatever object they are lifting mentally

Edited by Lunamor
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1 hour ago, ginger_reckoning said:

I'm looking for costs for using telekinesis/psychic powers other than "she gets a really bad nosebleed". All ideas are greatly appreciated!

You get steadily more delusional as this involves thinking of an object behaving in a way that it would not. 

You get steadily less sane.

You get steadily less emotional.

You get steadily more emotional.

For every action there is an equal and oppose reaction.

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13 hours ago, Lunamor said:

Here are some off the top of my head (warning, a few are kinda cliche and most of these could either be temporary or permanent):

- They lose a little bit of their personal identity

- They lose a little bit of their humanity

- They lose sight

- They overheat

- They get really cold

- They lose some ability of their brain to control their muscles (this results in weakness and incoordination)

- They can’t move at all when using the powers

- It is physically/mentally painful for them or those around them

- The object the powers are being used on suffers burn damage

- The person has to physically bear the weight of whatever object they are lifting mentally

These are really good! I especially like where they lose humanity, sight, or can't move.

12 hours ago, Karger said:

You get steadily more delusional as this involves thinking of an object behaving in a way that it would not. 

You get steadily less sane.

You get steadily less emotional.

You get steadily more emotional.

For every action there is an equal and oppose reaction.

These are all really interesting. The delusional and insanity ones would be especially fun to play with...

9 hours ago, Invocation said:

Before I answer this, @ginger_reckoning, how dark do you want this to go?

As dark as you want. 

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10 hours ago, ginger_reckoning said:

As dark as you want. 

You're gonna regret that. Here we go!

  • Slow lobotomization 
  • Merging of conscious and subconscious minds (meaning I hope they know how to manually beat their own heart)
  • Aneurysms
  • Strokes
  • Organ swap syndrome, where the recipient switches certain personality traits (among other things) with the donor.
  • Loss of language capabilities
  • Getting sucked into a feedback loop of memories and sensations
  • Muscular damage upon attempting to mess with something too large
  • Bone embrittlement
  • Flesh and bone temporarily (or permanently, if you really want it interesting) taking on the characteristics of whatever is being altered
  • Crystallization of bone, brain, and eyes
  • Equivalent exchange per physics
  • Equivalent exchange per difficulty
  • Instant retribution (i.e., what they do, also happens to them)
  • The body could go feral while the mind is elsewhere, reduced to base instincts
  • Immune system failure

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll edit the post or make another if I come up with other things.

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6 hours ago, Invocation said:
  • Slow lobotomization 

what

6 hours ago, Invocation said:
  • Merging of conscious and subconscious minds (meaning I hope they know how to manually beat their own heart)

what

6 hours ago, Invocation said:
  • Organ swap syndrome, where the recipient switches certain personality traits (among other things) with the donor.

what

6 hours ago, Invocation said:
  • Flesh and bone temporarily (or permanently, if you really want it interesting) taking on the characteristics of whatever is being altered

what

6 hours ago, Invocation said:
  • Crystallization of bone, brain, and eyes

what

6 hours ago, Invocation said:
  • The body could go feral while the mind is elsewhere, reduced to base instincts

what

...

...

...

what

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5 hours ago, Kidpen said:

what

Like using the powers eats away at the various centers of the brain, slowly lobotomizing the user.

5 hours ago, Kidpen said:

what

I don't know how to make that one any clearer.

5 hours ago, Kidpen said:

what

That's a thing that happens with organ donations! Makes sense it would happen if you were delving into someone's mind too.

5 hours ago, Kidpen said:

what

Become one with the moving object, Anakin.

6 hours ago, Kidpen said:

what

Handy Stormlight holders. :P 

6 hours ago, Kidpen said:

what

...

...

...

what

I mean it makes sense. If the conscious mind isn't there, like it's delving into someone else's mind, the subconscious would be left operating on the primal instincts it contains, with no override. Mind go places, body go feral.

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4 hours ago, Invocation said:

Like using the powers eats away at the various centers of the brain, slowly lobotomizing the user.

I don't know how to make that one any clearer.

That's a thing that happens with organ donations! Makes sense it would happen if you were delving into someone's mind too.

Become one with the moving object, Anakin.

Handy Stormlight holders. :P 

I mean it makes sense. If the conscious mind isn't there, like it's delving into someone else's mind, the subconscious would be left operating on the primal instincts it contains, with no override. Mind go places, body go feral.

I mean that was actually me expressing my mind going blank at the concept of some of them, especially the first one, but thanks for the clarification anyways. :P 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I would recommend looking up sympathy from Patrick Rothfuss's book The Name of the Wind. In sympathy, you bind an object to another object(mentally) and use energy to manipulate it. Of course, you only have so much energy, so if you bind your breath to the air, you wouldn't be able to breathe. If you use your heat to light a candle, you would loose heat. This is known as slippage. There are 2 types of slippage: thermal and kinetic. The thermal variety can freeze or cook you from the inside out. Your blood can freeze and you can get cooked. The kinetic variety can tear your limbs off. The strength of your binding depends on the strength of your mind. The weaker your binding, the more energy it takes to manipulate the bonded object, the more slippage. So if you're bad at ESP, it's more dangerous. 

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