Psychic Powers: Difference between revisions

Stories can have both [[Psychic Powers]] and [[Functional Magic]], but they'll usually be treated as fundamentally different. This does not preclude them from being related or even the same thing; supernatural powers are still supernatural powers, no matter what they're referred to as.

 

 

{{examples}}

** {{spoiler|There's also the [[Big Bad]], who's so powerful that no antipsychic countermeasures are effective against him. He's also not limited to one type of ability}}.

* '[[Psychometrer Eiji]]'', where the hero is a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Psychometrer]].

* The eponymous Geass abilities in ''[[Code Geass]]'' are basically an assortment of all kinds of [[Psychic Powers]]: suggestion, mind reading, pseudo-"[[Time Stands Still|time stopping]]", memory manipulation, precognition ({{spoiler|Nunnaly in an alternate manga}})... take your pick. It apparently depends on each individual who is granted a Geass how exactly it'd work in their case.

* ''[[Cyborg 009]]'', in which Cyborg 001 is a baby with psychic powers and Cyborg 005 is an empath. Also, a [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] is composed of only espers.

== Fanfiction ==

* In ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', the key to [[Haruhi Suzumiya|Koizumi]]'s use of his powers are stated to be linking to Haruhi's mind and acknowledging the differences between his own emotions and hers. Eventually he manages to form mind links with anybody else, possibly getting to read their surface thoughts. Through his limited experimentation, he learns that most of the SOS Brigade have some kind of [[Psychic Block Defense]] with varying strengths, ranging from feeling like a strong wind, to being completely undetectable.

* Ringo in ''[[With Strings Attached]]'' is ''exceptionally'' psychic, with [[My Significance Sense Is Tingling|mindsight]] that lets him see everything from atoms to the surface of the sun, [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]] with which he can feel stuff at least 100 miles away and move it around, a latent [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleport escape clause]], and the ability to sense (and, unfortunately, be affected by) other things operating on the psychic plane. Luckily, as an [[Actual Pacifist]], he's a very peaceable soul; all he wants to do is lie around all day looking at things.

** John can link “water-strings” with people and communicate [[Psychic Link|telepathically]] with them, usually by touch. He can also tap into and share Ringo's [[My Significance Sense Is Tingling|mindsight]], though he does not experience it as fully as Ringo does. It is not known whether he can delve deeper into anyone's thoughts.

** ''Forerunner Foray'': The protagonist, Ziantha, was taken into [[Thieves' Guild|the Guild]] as a child because her sponsor saw her playing guessing games while begging for money, and realized that she must have psychic ability to do so well. Ziantha has psychometry, which she uses in the first foray in the book to steal information from a target without physically touching his physically isolated storage devices. She later (with the help of an alien friend) uses teleportation to steal the story's [[MacGuffin]]. She can also use mindspeech, at least with other psychics.

** ''Moon of Three Rings'': The Moon Singers have mindspeech, which they can also use with animals. As part of their training, at some point they swap minds with an animal, which can go badly wrong.

** ''The Zero Stone'' and ''Uncharted Stars'': Eet communicates through mindspeech and is a master of illusion, and teaches some of these skills to the human protagonist, who is effectively Eet's [[The Sidekick|Human Sidekick]] once Eet enters the first book.

* [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''[[Berserker (Literature)|Berserker]]'' universe has the Carmpans, with the [[Framing Device|Framing Story]] being narrated by the Third Historian who has the power to sense events throughout time and space. Then there are the Carmpan Prophets of Probability who can predict more immediate events.

* The ''[[Traveller]]'' universe has an entire [[Human Aliens|human-variant subspecies]], the Zhodani, whose ruling class has psychic abilities. The Zhodani consider other humans dishonest and criminal, since a society of mind-readers cannot lie or steal.

* ''[[GURPS]]'' has nine flavors of psi (astral projection, ergokinesis, ESP, probability alteration, psychic healing, psychic vampirism, psychokinesis, telepathy, and teleportation), along with anti-psi for players who'd rather mess up the psychics' day. Psi is treated completely different from magic spells -- in general, psis are less versatile than mages but their abilities are safer and more reliable.

* In ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'', many mutations grant various psychic powers. This being [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Paranoia]], they tend to be dangerous to all involved.

* Every supernatural in the ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' has some variety of stereotypical psychic power, ranging from mind control to telepathy to psychometry to pre-/postcognition. However, the most "purely" psychic examples are psychic rules for mortals (ranging from medium powers to telepathy to pyrokinesis to biokinesis to mental assault). There's also the Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit from ''[[Hunter: The Vigil]]'', a branch of the FBI that gains access to Teleinformatics, psychic powers dedicated towards interrogation, evidence gathering, and skill augmentation. Think [[Millennium (TV series)|Frank Black]] on steroids.