Power - empathy

[Sam Owen]

Hi! Looking to join, and wondering if I can fold some old characters I have into this story. Only problem is, the one I was originally thinking of using had his power banned from this site (sees/communicates with spirits), and my other characters don't have their powers listed. Just wanted to run something by you:

The character I'm thinking of now is an empath. He involuntarily experiences the emotions (and physical sensations, if strong enough) of those around him.

If well trained, he would be able to switch off the ability (to an extent), or partially take on another person's pain (example: you break your arm, and this guy can decrease your pain by experiencing the grunt of it for you. The same would be true for emotional experiences, although the morality of that is a tad iffy-- because this ability is not limited to negative sensations.)

Untrained, he just experiences the feelings of the people around him unfiltered. Proximity is a factor, but the stronger the emotion/sensation the further away he can feel it.

Side effects may include: OCD, depression, fatigue, self harm, antisocial behavior, frequent existential/identity crisis (due to not knowing which feelings are your own feelings), and sensory overload (may present in different ways, the most extreme being migraines that can only be cured by removing oneself from proximity with people.)

Is power is related to, but does not necessarily include Projective Empathy (which enables you to project your emotions at another person and make them experience it whether they're an empath or not). The character I have in mind will only have a mild form of this ability, and it will only happen when he is experiencing an extreme emotion (not counting when he experiences other people's extreme emotions. The emotion has to originate from him to be projected.)

So that's it. Thanks in advance for your consideration!
--Sam

[Sean *]

Hello! Thank you for looking at Hammel.

I can provide some basic information regarding the power your describe, and then, if you would like to discuss it more, you can find me on Chatango, or, if you register an account, you can PM me night or day.

To begin with, empathy is an established power in the Hammel universe, so that, in and of itself, is fine. However, the way you describe it does not quite fit into Hammel, since your description of well-trained empathy merges two separate powers in Hammel canon.

Empaths feel emotions, and they deal wholly in the realm of emotions, not physical sensations. For the character to have the ability to dull or feel physical sensations would not be empathy, regardless of his level of training. That would be neurokinesis or pain manipulation and wouldn't be considered closely related enough, since we typically don't allow people to combine empathy with other powers.

Most of the power description would pass muster, and I would be happy to discuss the nitty-gritty with you at any time.

I hope that answers your question!

[Sam Owen]

Oh, I can totally work with this. To be totally honest, the last time I played this character, he went a little crazy because of the tactile empathy thing XD. It's probably better this way. Thanks for the help! I'll Pm you if get confused about the details.
--Sam