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Lʏᴅɪᴀ Xɪᴏɴɢ

Tʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ᴀɴᴅ sᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴍᴇ ꜰᴀɪᴛʜꜰᴜʟ
Tʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ ᴍʏ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴅᴀɴɢᴇʀ

Character name
Robert Moore

Age
15

Height/Weight
5ft. 8in. | 143 lbs.

Personality
Even before the asteroids and the awakening, or whatever people were calling that damned event, Robert was never the most social person. He had always been a cynical introvert who had never quite grasped human interaction. He had few friends, didn't speak much, and preferred to sit in the back of the classroom at school. He was never a troublemaker. He preferred to avoid the spotlight and the trouble. He always hated lies, even the little white lies. Before the event, he was already antsy and a little paranoid, afterward, well, his newfound powers sure didn't help.

History
Be careful what you wish for, and Robert damn well wished he'd kept that saying in mind.

If only I could read minds. My life would be so much easier then.

As it turned out, that was the stupidest idea he'd ever had.

Robert was born to a solidly middle class couple and grew up in Oklahoma. He was never bullied, his parents were satisfied so long as his grades were decent, he never got into fights, he never did drugs, never had a classmate die, etc. Well, at least, he always thought his life was average. In the summers he'd go camping or hiking or backpacking with a friend or two, or a group from his town. He hunted a little too, got to try his hands at a little survival stuff, and outdoor recreation.

When he was stressed out, he'd listen to music, took walks, or he grabbed his gear and went on short hikes. He was returning to his friend's car with a small group back from a multi-day backpacking trip, when he was picked up by the military and deposited into a local bunker. For that year, he worried relentlessly about his parents as he tried to manage on his own in the bunker.

It didn't help when, after a year, the bunker was reopened and people started dropping like flies. God, he'd thought life was tough when cooped up in a bunker with a bunch of stressed out strangers, but if he'd had to choose between another year in the bunker and what happened that week, he'd choose another year without hesitation.

People were terrified, it was chaos. The events that week, didn't manage to inure him to the sight and stench of corpses, but he did manage to reach a level of tolerance he'd never imagined was possible for him.

When he first began hearing murmurs in his head, he'd thought it was hallucinations from the fever. He thought it would pass, but well... it didn't.

Skills
Decent swimmer

Piecemeal Backpacking/Camping/Wilderness survival skills.

Not sure how much his experiences will apply, though what with mutated creatures and the difficulties in getting geared up. Maps would be useless too.

Power
Telepathy

Abilities
As far as Robert's current abilities go, he can only passively read/hear surface thoughts (what a person is thinking of/what's at the forefront of a person's mind).

Eventually when he learns to block out the minds of others, he will be able to learn how to use his ability to communicate telepathically with other people (starting from one at a time to larger groups later) and seek out the surface thoughts and presence of people (based on the feel of their minds).

It is possible that, if his abilities grow well, he will learn to manipulate people by inserting/nudging their thoughts in a certain direction (will definitely require lots of practice though) and learn to read deeper thoughts, eventually.

As his control over his powers grow, he will be able to use his telepathy more actively and for longer periods of time. It's like a muscle. The more you use it, so long as you don't overdo it, the stronger it will become.

Weakness
A very obvious early weakness would be his inability to shut out other's surface thoughts. Until he learns to block people out, he will constantly be hearing voices in his head which can and will disorient him and distract him.

Until he learns to block out the thoughts of others, strong thoughts will likely overwhelm him, and he can and will get lost in the thoughts of others. As such, as far as he's concerned, the less people around him, the better.

Strong thoughts of pain, fear death, or cruelty could mentally hurt him. As long as he's open, he's susceptible to manipulation (if someone knows what they're doing, or his thoughts are subtle or strong enough).

When he learns to use telepathy to communicate, there will be the risk of "leakage" of his thoughts where he might accidentally let people hear his thoughts.

As far as his ability to nudge people in the direction he wishes it, it will be hard to successfully nudge others. Too much and they'll know someone is messing with their mind and put their guards up. Too little, and it has very little effect. Too much can also result in people getting angry and threatening and well, if people know who's screwing with their heads, they're going to go for that person.

If he does it wrong as well, it won't sound like their own thoughts, and that's another way people can realize someone is trying to manipulate their minds. He'd basically have to match the nudge to the person. The wrong type of nudge will put someone's guard up, or make them behave differently than he wants.

By nudge of course, I'm referring to small thoughts added in to try to lead someone's thoughts in the direction he wants. Like a tiny doubtful thought etc.

Strong minds could overpower his and crush his own until he learns to protect his mind from them.

Using his powers actively is an exercise. He will use up far more energy when actively using his powers and will therefore need more food and rest.

Overuse of his power could result in: