Here we go with...
By
The Dark Witch of the Outlands.
Well, here it is folks. The low-down on us psi-powered weirdos. The Ranger commander Col Bullock here at Fort Concho (San Angelo, TX) has asked me to put down a few words for posterity before I get the itch to be movin' on again. So I figured “why not?”. Besides, the clinic's in good hands. The base doc Cindy's got real medical training from her dad and can do with with a scalpel and suture what I do with energy and my hands. Supposedly, this report's gonna be copied and sent to the Texas central library as well as being stored here on the base, so that foolish young rangers won't pee their pants the first time they come across one of us out there in the big bad Outlands. It might actually wind up getting re-printed in a couple of the larger towns' “daily gazettes”, potentially reaching some young, confused people out there who don't know why they can do the things that others can't. So here goes….
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT?
Back in the days before the Ruin, they had a profession that we don't have any more. It was called being a “Philosopher”. Anhoo, the philosophy gig was divided into different “disciplines” sorta kinda like comedy routines or whatever. Two of these were known as “Ontology” and the other “Epistemology”. Ontology dealt with “the way it is” and Epistemology dealt with “how we know the way things are”. So the gag goes; These two Philosophers are sitting around arguing about “What is it Like to be a Bat?”. They dig out all their reasons, how echo-location might “look”, how a Bat's senses are different, etc. The punch line of the gag is that nobody really knows what It's like to be a Bat except the Bat itself. Or maybe Batman. But I digress…
After I had been travelling the western Wastelands for a while, I was in this town and a kid comes up and gives me an actual handwritten letter. Yeah, no shit, a few people out in the wasteland still know how to write! It was from a gunslinger in a neighboring town, a real polite and formal request for me to travel there to heal him. He was slowly dying of a disease but needed to be “up for a fight” in about 2 weeks. This was gonna literally be his last one. The dude he was gonna kill was a raider who murdered his wife and daughter, so I took the job for just “room and board” even though he would have paid more.
We were talkin' about my fee (or lack thereof), and he asked me what it was like to be able to do the weird stuff I do. I thought a minute, and my answer to him is gonna be a good one for your purposes too. My answer was: “Well, what's it like to be really good with guns?” The two things are really pretty similar.
Wearing a gun or five makes people cautious, even though almost everybody carries nowadays. Guns can kill. They can also save people's lives by keeping predators at bay or by providing food. My powers are like my gun. They've caused their share of misunderstandings, but few people hassle me once they find out. Everybody knows how the womenfolk suffer when raiders hit a settlement. We also know that a lot of girls are highly motivated to learn how to shoot and scrap with the best of 'em because of it. Some even better. I've never been raped or taken as a slave, which is more than I can say for some unarmed women out there in the wastelands. That's because any son of a bitch who tries it ends up bleedin' out of every hole in his body. That's a word of caution to all you self-professed “normals” out there.
But it's also a gun you can never take off, so if you have psi-powers of some sort, you can't run away from 'em or set 'em aside. You better get comfortable with 'em and learn how to use 'em. There are more than a few hapless souls out there who try to run and hide, only to end up hurting themselves and others more with their ignorance. That's the main reason I travel around so much: I gotta learn more about how to use what I have. That's my word of caution to all you Psi-Muties out there. Get comfy with what you are, 'cause you're gonna be that for the rest of your life. I've learned to live with people's cautious attitude toward me. Hell, I'd be cautious about meeting Me too!
Some of you soldier boys out there had a grandpappy who taught you the trade and who told you a little prayer that goes
“This is my Rifle. There are many like it but this one is Mine. …”
The point of which is to drill it into your head that you gotta master that thing so completely that it's an extension of yourself, a unique part of you. That's how it is with Psi-Powers too. Us psionicists are as unique and often as eccentric as any wastelander you'll meet out there, often more so! So don't go making a lot of assumptions without properly analyzing the phenomena you're experiencing.
ONE DAY, YOU WAKE UP…..
Psi-Powers typically start to manifest themselves in the late teens. With some of these kids, the manifestations might become gradually more powerful over a long period of time, say maybe a couple of years. For better or worse, these folks tend to be fairly comfortable with their abilities because they've “grown into” them.
My own “initiation into the mysteries” was different. It came all at once, and full-bore to boot. I've told people about my background, and most don't believe me. Oh well, I know the truth. Raiders attacked my adopted family and I blasted the bastards into oblivion. I felt some guilt - for maybe five minutes. Then I “skinned my smoke-wagon and got to work” healing my adopted sister who they had beaten badly just for fun. Maybe my powers came all at once in that life-or-death struggle because they had to. Maybe it was just time. I don't know. But on that day, though, I thought every fiber of my being was ALIVE, AWAKE, and INVINCIBLE!
A great rule of life is that “Invincibility don't last”. The ancient Romans cautioned each other to “Remember, Thou Art Mortal”! Some of us learn that lesson early. There are others, however, whose own background and “awakening” experience left them with no qualms about killing, maiming, and terrorizing others, and who believe themselves to be so invincible and superior to others to necessitate worship and/or complete obedience, so be warned!
But there's more to life than just a beginning.
THE FACTS OF LIFE:
Lets look at some of the facts: It's said that before the Ruin the actual percentage of people with real, working psionic abilities was maybe one in a million or even a billion. There were effectively no Psionicists in the “before-time”. There were plenty of people out who claimed to have Psychic powers to take advantage of and defraud others, but nothing real. Psionics like we know them today were essentially a fantasy. Then something happened. That “something” was the Ruin. Humankind's mutation percentage shot up, and with that, there was an uptick in the percentage of folks who could use their minds to interact with the environment in an extrasensory way. Whether this was caused by the sudden change in our environment, an accelerated version of “survival of the fittest”, or if it was something we did to ourselves is a matter that can only be guessed at now.
Some learned people have put the average percentage of muties at 25%. Most muties live amongst their own kind, being social outcasts from the untainted. This is the norm. There are some more tolerant communities out there that have a more mixed population, but typically people like to live with their own kind. Of that 25%, roughly 5% are Psi-Active. So you got 1.25 % of the people you meet out there in the big bad wasteland might have some psionic ability. This statistic is both more and less scary than you think. Of that roughly 1 %, most have low-level or mid level psionics. Only a very small percentage have truly awesome dangerous powers like being a “firestarter” (pyrokinesis) or the “Jovian Mutation” (electrokinesis). So don't worry overly about that 1 person out of a hundred, but don't get lulled into a false sense of security and then drop a load in your shorts when “the shit” goes all “warped” on you.
Some days I think I'm more the exception than the rule, wandering around like I do. I've met a lot of psionicists who are well integrated into their own communities. There are lots of tribal-modelled villages out there, with the local shaman, healer, or water witch filling a more or less traditional role but now with actual ability, aiding their communities as full members. Typically, they perfect their craft on their own, or learn from whatever wandering psionicist crosses their community's path. Mind you, these path-crossings are not necessarily always peaceful.
There are other communities out there who by tradition, temperament, or natural inclination actively seek out and work against people who have “the witch's taint”, even in their own communities. This is a mind-set I really don't understand, for the obvious reason of me being a psionicist myself. I've had the misfortune of coming across a few of these places, as well as crossing paths with a few downright evil mind-warped psionic bastards who were firmly ushered down the road of anger and revenge by having grown up in 'villes like these.
Here's a touch of good news for all you soldier boys out there: Typically psionicists don't have any military training. Psionicists generally grow up with a sense that they're “different” and don't really join organized security forces, whose job they perceive to be to persecute people like them. From their own perspective, I think they just can't handle the discipline. Theirs is a discipline of a different sort, that of the lone athlete as opposed to the team sports player. Another reason is that a lot of times they negatively affect unit discipline. We all know why. It's the normal “normal” reaction to something that is a potential threat to them. It's hard to team up with something you can't trust.
Another quirk we tend to have is to not really wear a lot of armor. I've gotten used to light “scout” armor in recent years, but we tend to grow up trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. And that means that heavier, bulky armor is not something we're used to wearing. We tend not to wear it because it restricts movement and is hot and distracting. This interferes with our focus and we might fail in some psionic task. Powered armors and hardy-man environment suits are just right out. They require special training and too much extra concentration to use. If we want armor, we usually get behind cover or do a ride-along in a vehicle.
Given the above, please don't think that if you're gonna attack a settlement that has psionicists living there that they won't be a threat to you. They will. They'll fight you with every ounce of mental endurance they have, they'll just do it a little ways away from the riflemen! Some may actually be right beside their fellows, healing wounds, and more than a few have a kind of hard-core-old-school “Sorcerer champion” mentality when it comes to defending the “villagers”. This matches the same kinda “Knight Champion” mentality that some of the more proud warriors that we know and love have as well. See, told'ya it was oddly similar! For some, this is a way of garnering at least some sense of respect and acceptance for themselves from people that are typically suspicious or frightened of them.
There are a few groups out there who accept psions into their military ranks. There are a few individuals here in the Republic of Tex in there I.S.I.S. Unit that have some ability that they use to keep people like me from taking advantage and harming the rest of the “normal” population. There are also a couple of people in Ranger Center in Arizona that have some interesting abilities. What worries me is that I recently heard tell of a few people who have hooked up with that pseudo-religious nut Lazarus Thorne that are fairly high-powered in the Psionics department! Those of you out there that have hear d of this guy know why this puts fear in my heart. I heard that he made them a couple of his “chosen”, and heaven help the community he sends any of these two against! I know that The Cartel has at least one psionicist, an electrokinetic. Calls herself “DynaGirl” and affects a kind of pre-ruin “superhero” mold, but her real name is Mandy and she's a decent person. Mandy, if you're out there reading this, quit The Cartel! They're just out to use you!
POWERS AND ABILITIES FAR BEYOND THOSE OF MORTAL MEN:
Here's a run-down of some of the psychic phenomena I've seen or heard of out there, starting out with the two I'm most familiar with. I've broken them down into categories, but keep in mind that psionic ablilities often “blend” together. Nobody knows where Telepathy ends and ESPer powers begin, fr'instance. I know you scientific types would like to have every single thing in neat little boxes, but psionics just ain't like that. Here we go with:
HEALING: Aka “Mutie Healing” “Psychic Surgery” (actually a misnomer) “Spirit Medicine” “Bio-Manipulation” , the actual name is Cellular Psychokinesis. This allows me to heal most moderate to serious wounds on people, blunt their pain responses etc. Since I learned a good deal of medical theory when I was young, I'm fortunate enough to be able to examine somebody with my power, render a diagnosis, and basically “trick” their systems into doing what I want them to do, which is typically to mobilize to fight off disease, knit tissues etc. The thing that limits this power is people's knowledge of the human body, which increases with experience. You can heal a type that you're familiar with more easily than one you're not. Fr'instance, if you grew up around normals like I did, you can heal them fairly well but you might have some trouble with the more variable mutant physiologies. Mutie healers typically do well with their own more variable type, but have to put a little more “focus” into healing a normal. Healing yourself is the easiest. Some people can heal others outright without any ill effects, a few do it but somehow feel the pain of their subjects while doing it. It's some sort of weird telepathic carry-over. I mentioned that “psychic surgery” was a misnomer. Here's why: You can't just make the human body go “ptooey” and spit out a bullet. Even I have to do some cutting to get foreign objects out. In combat, I'll usually just close the wound to stop the bleeding and/or stabilize any affected organs, then do the full cut 'n paste after the battle.
ILLUSIONS: Aka “summoning demons”, the “mutie trip” and a host of others. It's a very specialized form of telepathy (see below). This allows the psionicist to telepathically make someone see and hear something that isn't actually there. This gem of an ability has helped me make my way from village to village if there wasn't anyone to heal. If I'm low on goods and need to barter for a place to spend the night in relative safety, I go down to the local bar (most towns have at least one). I can usually tell if the place is mutie-friendly, and if it is, I'll offer to put on a show! I'll ask the audience members their permission to have 'em enjoy an illusion, and most say yes. With consent, the result is automatic. They see what you want 'em to. You do too actually. Then I pull out something from the Pre-Ruin past. Star Wars works real good, it's got a compelling story and characters most people can identify with. They really dig that “wastelander” rogue Han Solo, and his hirsute “mutant” buddy Chewie! Or if the mutie percentage is really high, I'll whip out something from Marvel like the X-Men, Spider-Man, or the Hulk. They really love those. Highbrow crowds get Shakespeare or I, Claudius. People with power really identify with him. What's funny is when someone new walks in, and they see all these people oohing and aahing at nothing. It really trips 'em out.
Without permission, well, that's a different story. I kinda gotta force the issue there. But scary illusions used against hostiles have saved my life on more than one occasion. When creating an illusion for defense, just like for entertainment, you have to consider your audience's expectations and background. In most wasteland settings, a herd of radscorpions or gang of desert dweller mutants works fairly well. Sometimes, though, I like to dig into my childhood and pull out something completely unexpected when I need to get rid of someone really formidable. I use the classics: Jason, Freddy Kreuger, Leatherface, the Giger Alien… and they're coming for YOU. Don't ask me to bring these illusions up for your just because you're curious. If you insist, I will, but I won't be held responsible if you pee your pants.
It is rumored that there are people out there who have a really heavyweight version of this power that can actually grant a measure of physical reality and semi-independence to their creations. Maybe this is a Telekinetic expression of the power of Illusion, I dunno. I've never seen it. I hope that it's only a rumor for obvious reasons.
Here are some other Psionic feats you may encounter:
TELEPATHY: Of psionic powers, telepathy is by far the most common type and most feared. Most psionicists have at least a low-powered version of it. Y'see, we all know when we're dealing with another psionicist, even if that other person doesn't yet know that they have powers yet themselves. We just sense it, just a “vibe” that we get when we're in each others' presence. We even know if kids are gonna become psionicists when they get older. We rarely say anything unless we have to though.
Another funny thing happens when you get that oh-so-rare community that has a majority of psionicsts living in it (also see “Conclaves”, below). Some scientists have called it a “HIVE-MIND EFFECT” but that's really over-stating the case a lot. With few “mundanes” around, we really start “tuning into each others' vibe” so to speak. It's, like, “tuning out the noise and getting the signal”. If we see each other, we can do auditory-only telepathic communication (both receive and send), and even when we don't see each other, we know if any particular member of the community is in trouble. If they are, we can usually get a sense of where that person is located. That's pretty much the limit of the so-called “Effect”.
Some telepaths can only read thoughts, some can only send. Most can do both. Emotions can also be read and/or implanted by some telepaths, qualifying some as jobs as natural lie detectors and leading some astray into the realm trickster. I've seen well-intentioned women with this power end up as the wives of local warlords. Deanna Troi to the nth power. Or Lady MacBeth if evil. Take yer pick.
Telepaths usually hide their power around “normals” and with good reason. Telepathy is the most-feared power out there. The fear that normals have of telepathy stems from their own (and frankly everybody's) insecurity about what they've done wrong in their lives. A malicious telepath can lift embarrassing information out of someone's brain without their consent and blackmail them later, after all. And for this we must all suffer! Telepaths who don't have enough control of their powers to “shut out the world” have it rough like you wouldn't believe! Imagine what it would be like if you suddenly had to deal with people's low opinion of you, or you would sense them trying to cynically use you or something… day after day after day! Still…..
I'm a psionicist, but I quite frankly take the side of the normals in this matter. We all have the need for and the right to privacy to maintain our own respective sanities, and the malicious psionicist who violates this basic right is a predator who should be shunned at the very least.
Telepathy is also the basis of direct mind-to-mind attacks among our kind. The sort of “Mental Duels” or “Scanners” attacks that you may have heard about. It is also the basis of such exotic phenomena such as telepathy with animals (I suspect I may have a minor version of this as most animals, even predators, ignore me when I'm walking through the wilderness), or temporary “Knowledge Borrowing” where a telepath can “lift” or “gift” knowledge or skill based information out of someone's head.
PSYCHOKINESIS: This is the 2nd most common set of powers, and a whole lot more obvious to the “normals” than any kind of telepathically based power. There are a variety of Psychokinetically based variations out there. Here are some:
TELEKINESIS: Good 'ol Telekinesis, y'know? It's almost the stereotypical psionic ability. You can't mistake it when you see it. Shit starts moving around on it's own, big and small. Usually with some sort of useful or painful effect. Bolts unscrew. Guns fire themselves “by accident”. Steering wheels turn on their own. Waitresses asses get pinched mysteriously by ghosts and weird winds lift up dresses and pull down pants. Cripes! The mischief that can be made with this power! Many psionicists, including myself, have a mild to moderate “touch” of this.
LEVITATION: The ability of the psionicist to make either himself or other objects fly, hover, etc. The heavier the object, the more power you've got to use and consequently the more of a psychic heavyweight you have to be keep this up. I've tried it, not my cup of tea. Guess I'll have to keep my feet on the ground.
THE “PUSH-BACK”: Mandy taught me this one years and years ago. Most psionicists know it and will teach it to newbies without hesitation or need for compensation. It's too valuable, and we all need to know it to keep from being jumped and beaten to a pulp just for “being”. Basically, if we're bum-rushed and surrounded by people or things who want to do us harm, we can create a telekinetic “shock wave” emanating out from our center to throw them back on their asses appx 10-15 feet! The aggressors are usually stunned for several minutes! Sometimes there are flashes of light or other weird effects (depending on the individual psionicist's creative expression of his power), and this can scare other “normals” shitless! I wondered if this was some sort of gravity defying levitation trick or some sort of bio-manipulation, so I hired these boisterous teenagers to rush me. I had some tables with light knickknacks around me. I did the trick, and there was a really minor shockwave through the inanimate stuff but the boys flew back quite a bit! So I think it's a little bit of both, effecting inanimate matter telekinetically, but living cells to a very large degree. Bill Nye the Science Guy, eat yer heart out!
REALLY EXOTIC PSYCHOKINETICS. I've only heard of some of these and seen 2 people with them.
Electrokinesis - The “Jovian Mutation” allows the person to control currents of electricity, including natural sources such as lightning or static, as well as man-generated currents. They also have the ability to gather and store (where???) power to use later and are not adversely affected by electricity. I'm sure it comes in handy in a lightning storm. It's really spectacular to see someone throwing lightning bolts. Really scary for “normals” too. Mandy could do EMP damage to circuits too, so don't send any more robots, okay?
Pyrokinesis - Being a “Firestarter”. The spectacular control of fires and other heat energies. It's a very dangerous mutation to have, and it makes you immune to fire. No “BURN THE WITCH!” here, folks. Won't work, and will piss off the person you're trying to “redeem by fire”. I met a 7 year old kid who had it. A really sad, lonely, angry soul. He was under the tutelage of an experienced Psionicist, and hopefully will grow into it. His older brother teased him one day. He got irritated and, unable to control this “first manifestation”, burned his own house down. He watched his family burn before his eyes while he remained untouched by the flames, and not a day goes by that he dwell on the horrible consequence of what would be a minor tantrum to any normal kid. He told me once of how he begged his little sister to try to get out as she started to burn while he felt no pain at all. He feels terrible and cursed. God help him deal with that shit. Hell of an “awakening”, huh? Once you master it, your own clothes and possessions don't burn. Starting out can be embarrassing though.
Cryokinesis - Mister Freeze of comic book fame lives! The ability to lower temperatures and freeze ambient water. Never seen anyone with it, this might just be a legend or someone reading pre-ruin comic books.
Hydrokinesis - The ability to control water and currents. Normally I would've written this off as more comic-book bartering, but I heard a rumor of a native shaman that could do these sorts of things . If you can do this, look me up. I'd like to see it and I'd be willing to trade healing and instruction on illusions.
ESPers - KNOWING WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO
Less common is Extra Sensory Perception, or ESP. This set of powers is generally scarier to the owners than to others, as they tend not to be very “obvious” in their manifestation. These are folks who get strange “feelings” or “vibes” about things that they themselves can't really adequately articulate - things that come true. The practitioners of these arts go through life doing things that seem “spooky” even to themselves, and often have a haunted look or adopt some sort of supernatural affectation to go along with their abilities. There are a variety of things these folks can do, but let's start with the most common.
Scanning - aka “seeking” or “remote viewing”. A Psionicist can essentially extend their intuitive senses outward into the world, seeking out the object of their focus. Typically these are living beings or hostiles. Once they have a positive “lock” they can try to make telepathic contact and/or attack. Like the telekinetic “push-back”, this is something that we all learn early, for the obvious reasons of survival. I can do this trick with the best of 'em. It's one of the few ESPer abilities I have. I guess I'm just not very talented in this particular psionic area.
Other ESPer abilities I know of are:
Combat Intuition - There are some really good hand to hand fighters out there. Too good. They seem to have an intuitive sense of what's going to happen next. I've spoken with a few people who have this, and they describe it like seeing the entire encounter in slow motion (but in an instant) and in deep detail before it happens. They tend to have a rather fatalistic outlook on life, and have this vague feeling that there is some specific enemy who will do them in one day in mortal combat (for real - not the old video game - oh well you probably don't know what that is anyway, so never mind).
Visions- These impressions usually manifests themselves via seeing something true but not previously known “in your mind's eye”, known as Clairvoyance; and/or hearing something “in our mind's ear” (?) known as Clairaudience. I never could figure out who Claire was, but she must've been pretty good to have an audience. I'm glad I don't have this. I think it would be really annoying.
Danger Sense - like Spidey's tingling, the ESPer senses that danger is imminent either to himself or to something he's currently focusing on. This can be extended to a fairly large area with a bit of talent and focus, the practitioner becoming the tribe's “Early Warning System” for raiders and other dangers moving towards them. It's like a less-specific version of scanning. Pretty handy, I wish I had it.
Object Read - A person is given an object and can tell you things about it or about the owner. Sometimes useful things, sometimes irrelevant things. The more powerful the psionicist, the more useful the information is. I've never gotten any impressions off of “stuff” other than wondering how useful it might be. Told ya, I suck at ESPer stuff.
“Bad Things Happened Here” aka “Bad Vibes”, “the Oogies” or the” Heebie-Jeebies”- this ability kicks in when the psionicist enters an area where some sort of horrible thing has happened. The more powerful get to see the act I they focus. The less adept sometimes get the “full show” with emotions and all even if they don't wanna see it. Yeah, I know, sounds like a real hoot. I think I may have a touch of this, as I sometimes get “creeped out” being somewhere only to find out later that something awful happened there. Could just be good old-fashioned coincidence too.
Navigators - Some folks can go anywhere they want and always know exactly where they are intuitively. It's like they have a constant “mental map” with them, even of areas they've never been in. Or they may know their local area in such deep detail as to almost be a part of the land. There doesn't seem to be any man-made distance measurement involved. If they are asked “How far to this place”, they answer in individual, subjective, descriptive terms like “Oh, a fair ways…around the bend and down the river at the bottom of the next valley” or “Two, mebbe three days walk”. They're the Shepherds and Finders of Lost Children for their communities, and are well-tolerated for it. They may also be resource finders, detailed below.
Resource Finders - there are folks out there who are keyed-in to specific things like game animals, food caches, etc. The ones who find springs and other water sources are known as “water witches”. Folks who have these kinds of powers make great scavengers and hunters and are often very popular in their communities for obvious reasons. A few also have the Nav ability listed above as well.
There are, of course, rumors of extreme versions of this set of powers too, like people who can predict the future in great detail, seek out and contact people over vast distances, mentally leave their own body and possess others, etc. I haven't seen anyone out there who could actually do these things, though there are plenty of pretenders still out there who set gullible people up and rip them off with trickery. Guess some pre-Ruin traditions just never die.
SOMETIMES THE TRUTH IS REALLY “OUT THERE”
Here are a few more things you might encounter out there that you might need to know about:
Frauds and Con Artists - Riddle me this folks : We know that before the ruin the psychic phenomena field was rife with frauds and con artists. This is still true today but why isn't it more common? Answer: because now the powers actually work, and people are afraid of them for real reasons. They're a hell of a “turn-off” for most normals. You can't get over with your mark by being all “Hi, My name is Damien and I can kill with a thought!” Plus, the rip-off-artists now have us to contend with, and our gig is tough enough without having our collective reps dragged through the mud by them. Us folk will usually go after these bastards on sight, and you know what the deal is there - some of us fully live up to our scary reputation. They'll get to see the bad side of us, and some of our bad sides are really REALLY nasty.
“Covens”, “Circles”, “Magical Traditions”,” Temples” and “Schools” - if you run across an area that houses several psionicists, don't be surprised to see them banded together or living together sharing some sort of common “tradition” around which their powers are based. The expression an individual psionicist gives to his or her power is an extension of their upbringing. Fr'instance, there's this healer chick that floats around the southwest by the name of Moonbeam. You may know her. She's good at what she does, but if you're familiar with pre-ruin cultures you can't help but notice what a huge “hippie” she is. You'll see her gaily painted “peace van” a mile away, and she'll be whipping out the crystals, playing the flute or bongos, and you might have to smoke a doobie or two with her. Some psionicists do this sorta stuff to get their “mind right” for some feat they're about to do. Or you might have a native shaman doing a chant, drumming, or doing a dance right before he zaps you into oblivion. Get a few people together, have them teach each other, and you might get an Marilyn-Manson-looking group calling themselves the local “Coven” and woe betide the infidel that challenges “their” village!
Conclaves, Sabbats, etc.- Conclave is the term used for biggest gatherings. Basically this is a meet-up of local or regional psionicists. The great Conclave of the west is known as “Burning Man”. It is located deep in lands held by aggressive mutant tribes (the former state of Nevada). It is also a fairly sizeable though temporary community, so if you want to go there with the intention of “taking over”, you'll be facing a well armed, tough bunch of muties. If you can chew through that mean-ass bunch of sons of bitches, a fairly large population of really pissed off psionicists will be working together to ruin your day. Just stay away if you shouldn't be there, 'kay?
The festival dates to pre-Ruin times. At that early point it was a festival for partyers, the spiritually different, those with unusual tastes in artistic expression, weirdos, etc. The former attendees used it as a rally point and temporary refugee camp when they fled the cities in the early years after the Ruin. Years passed and it is now an almost exclusively psionic meet-up, but there are still a few non-psionic muties and even a few normals who attend (and are welcomed in the spirit of tradition).
The primary point of these meet-ups is for the psionically gifted to come together and learn from each other. There are no books out there on how to do any of this stuff; you learn on your own or from others. To that end, the cardinal rule of the Conclave is that nobody aggresses against anyone else for any reason. Personal vendettas are suspended for the length of the the festival. The point is to learn and teach. If you transgress, you're kicked out and “open season” is declared on your ass.
The secondary point of going to a Conclave is a little less noble. It allows psionicists to see the competition. To really gather intelligence as to the scope and limits of other psionicists in the region, some of whom may be hostile or attached to competing communities. We psionicists, y'know….. we're just like you normals, very mistrustful of others who have “weird powers”!
If some of you out there are reading this and want to hone and rein in those abilities that up to now have been a “curse” to you, keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. Remember, one knows another and eventually you may learn of a local or regional meet-up. Attend it if at all possible, even if the pilgrimage is moderately dangerous. You'll learn that you're not as alone as you think you are and you might learn things that will turn a previous hinderance into a help. And it's usually a shit-rippin' party!
“Immunes” , the rarest of the rare. Before actually meeting one, I thought these people were nothing but a rumor. Then I met one at a Conclave. Nice guy, but I won't mention his name here. He wouldn't appreciate some unwanted attention that he might get. Anyway, these people are really rare. They have the ability to simply not be affected by psionics. Not even if you pour it on so hard that you can disable a tank. He made a living by going to conclaves and hiring out to Psi-adepts like me who wanna practice their powers. They pay him to take their attacks. They only affect him so slightly that he can comment on what you did and what effect it would have had against whatever target you'd care to name. He was a great “trainer”. We threw everything but the kitchen sink at him and he gave us all really good comments! His story was that he grew up in a survivalist family up north that was really psionic-heavy for some reason. He didn't have any manifestations but they could never “best” him because he just blew off their “tricks”. I suspect that he's nature's way of adapting to
us.
HATEFUL, ANGRY GODS AND MONSTERS
Lastly, I'll touch on a topic that generally scares normals shitless about scouting around in the Wastelands. Legend has it that there are entities out there that are so Psionically powerful and have such rare and exotic mutations that they are only barely human anymore, that they've become something akin to demigods.
I've always considered these tales to be nothing but rumor. The only thing is that rumors will actually go away eventually after everyone realizes they're bullshit. But these won't go away. High-level psionicists sometimes whisper quietly amongst themselves about inadvertently meeting these kinds of “things” in their travels and some of them feel like they're not joking.
What worries me are recent and confirmed tales like the one about “The Master”. You might have heard about “him”. He was a long-lived mutie whose physiology and “body” was so changeable and hardy that he could spawn other living “things” from his own body to do his bidding. He lived in an underground bolt-hole and took up several levels. When he spoke, it was if several voices spoke at once. He was also extremely powerful psionically and apparently felt as if several consciousnesses melded into one. He also commanded a dangerous group of human and mutant worshippers/soldiers that he may have completely dominated with psychic control. He was killed by a guy who had originally grown up in a multi-story underground shelter facility known as a “vault”. God's living grace wouldnt've been worth the price of a cup of coffee if this guy hadn't blown up “the Master”.
Makes you wonder. Not about “what is it like to be a Bat?”, but “what is it like to be an Ant?”, which is the perspective that these kinds of muties might take. They might no longer be able to relate to individual human beings at all, becoming some kind of thing like Doctor Manhattan out of “The Watchmen”. They might go off to live lives without the distraction of lesser beings. Or they might demand to be worshipped as the gods they believe themselves to be. Remember, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
For my own part, I don't think this kind of situation is anything to celebrate. They're not the “ultimate expression of mutated evolution” that some might say they are because there is no such thing. They're a being that's lost their humanity and to me that's just a “mind not worth having”, no matter how powerful.
Keep exploring, soldier boys. Try to knit the torn fabric back together. I hope this helps you understand some of the people you'll be facing, as potential enemies or allies. Don't be scared though, we're all only human. Some of us more or less.