Quote:

Prometheus said:
Thought Phil's 'night-vision' might be useful tracking a flying target in the dead of night....



'Night-vision' is an interesting term for it. It's more like 'everything-vision', but of course that's nowhere near as catchy - and can cause problems if loosely defined.

As much for my own use as for yours, let me elaborate on what this place does to Phil:

  • No TK: Phil's telekinetic abilities and his psionic shield aren't working at the moment. I perceive this magical world as a place where nature itself takes on an animistic, almost sentient character, with a will of its own. If you're not powerful enough to bend that will to your own, then you have to learn to play by its rules. In this context, magic is extremely dominant in this world, because magic users here must either dominate nature or be allied with it and linked to it. Anyway, Phil can do neither at the moment, so he can't manipulate reality itself. (Remember the two categories of 'magic'.) At least not at the moment.
  • Extended Perception: On the other hand, the animistic properties of this world - combined with what might be malfunctions in Phil's cybernetics - have greatly increased Phil's perception beyond his ordinary five senses, and even beyond his natural telepathic abilities. The only way to explain this is to compare Phil to The Drummer and say that he can see electromagnetic signals (including 'magic'), and many portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including but not limited to the infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray bands. This in addition to his ability to pick up emanations from human (or close enough to human) minds, and now an apparent ability to interface on a limited level with a few animals of higher intelligence.
  • Communicative Abilities: This translates into a greatly increased ability to communicate telepathically or subliminally with people, and seems to allow Phil to communicate with higher-order animals. Also, the ability to perceive electromagnetic signals might allow Phil a limited capacity to interface with electronic devices (again, similar to The Drummer).
  • Environmental Interplay: How do we explain all this? The way I see it, Phil, like everyone else, is being forced to adapt to this new world, but as someone gifted/cursed with the ability to perceive this world's inner workings, he has to do even more adapting, which means becoming highly attenuated to the animistic aspects of nature here. This might allow him to do many things he might not otherwise be capable of, but at a cost. I suspect this adaptation might have some adverse effects later, especially when Phil leaves this world.


Class dismissed.