Elise Rainer: psychic abilities
Oct. 2nd, 2014 03:59 am- Clairsentience: Elise experiences intense clairsentience, or psychic intuition. She can sense the presence of the dead and malicious entities, the holding places of the souls who have been taken by such entities, and where and how the world of the living and other planes bleed into each other and intersect. Once she senses these things she can further hone in to a more exact location (for example, she can walk into a house, detect the presence of a spirit, and then trace it to the exact room it inhabits, down to its orientation within that room). She experiences this intuition both in a vague "vibe" sort of way and through multiple senses, most often sight (clairvoyancy) and sound (clairaudience). She can tell if a person is possessed by sight alone, though not always immediately, especially if she doesn't think to look for it.
- 'Listening': I'm not sure exactly what to call this, because neither is the character! Upon being asked if she's a mind reader, she claims to prefer the term "listener." Elise is able to pick up on surface-level thoughts of the people around her, as well as the most basic kind of information: names, hobbies, careers, et cetera.
- Precognition: The occasional bout of precognition strikes Elise, but it's something she never intends to do and she doesn't seem to have any control over it. Furthermore, her predictions can be vague and concern things that won't happen for years, so they're not always helpful. Thus far she's only experienced precognition regarding her own fate, and even if she doesn't consciously process the clues therein, she tends to show a subconscious awareness of them (like taking up wearing scarves constantly, a subconscious impulse to cover her neck after seeing her own death by strangulation).
- Dream visions: It isn't uncommon for her to have dreams regarding people in need of her help, and the things which are after them; she wakes startled, records these in a notebook, and seeks out the people of which she dreamed at a more reasonable hour.
- Trance medium: Now we get into the heavy stuff. Elise is able to converse with demons and the dead directly, no conduit needed. While in the process of communication, she enters a trance state. She can communicate directly with her mind in this state, but when other people need to know what's taking place, she will speak aloud and allow the entity to reply using her mouth. When speaking aloud this way her voice is barely audible, and equipment for capturing the conversation is typically used.
While a trance is taking place, depending on the nature of the interaction, the surrounding environment can be affected: furniture toppling, light bulbs flaring and shattering, things opening and closing, etc.
- Hypnotism and related abilities: Elise is able to hypnotize people, which she does before attempting some more difficult maneuvers. She is able to erase the memories of other people while they're hypnotized, or to suppress their psychic gifts; she has done both before in order to prevent a victim from being possessed. She can likewise reawaken the gifts she has previously repressed, if necessary, and can guide anyone with the potential for voluntary astral projection through the process and onto the astral plane. She only uses these powers as a last resort, and only in order to protect the people she's using them on. Suppressing one's ability to travel astrally and erasing their memories of ever having done so, for example, can sever the link between them and malevolent entities who may have latched onto them during their travels.
- Astral projection: Elise herself can voluntarily and consciously project herself into the astral plane, though she avoids it if at all possible. While in this state her astral body is able to interact with ghosts and other entities who dwell there. On one hand, she is able to use this to forcibly retrieve a hostage human soul and return it to its body. On the other, this leaves her vulnerable to direct attack, and it's possible that what happens to her there could kill her physical body. Thankfully, her spiritual body is much, much stronger than her physical one; she's able to throw entities two or three times her own size across rooms, beat them down, and open holes in the ground through which to drop them.
Time is messy in the astral realm, and it's said time as people understand it doesn't exist there. While projecting, Elise is sometimes able to affect past events. This creates a time loop, specifically, this type. In other words: the changes she makes to the past had created the past she'd already lived before going back in time.
While projecting, the surrounding physical environment may be affected in the same way it is during trances.
- Exorcism: Elise is able to exorcise locations in nearly all cases. In situations where a haunting is person-focused, or it escalates into a possession, it causes her considerably more trouble. Sometimes she can exorcise the person directly, under her own power; when she can't, she can usually at least quiet the possessing entity. This entails temporarily sealing it, unresponsive, in the host body. This gives her more time to change her tactics and create a specifically-tailored plan of action.
In addition, the souls of good people now deceased can become trapped in the world of the living or the Further for a number of reasons. If nothing is actively holding the soul there, Elise is able to release them and send them on their way to the final afterlife without any exertion.
While performing an exorcism, the surrounding physical environment may be affected in the same way it is during trances and astral projections.
- Defense: This isn't told so much as shown, so I'm not sure how to describe it in detail. Elise is able to defend herself from being possessed. While it's possible for something to latch onto her like a parasite and assail her from that angle, it can't take over her body or alter her memories/mind (floods and other such events would be an exception to this rule, of course!).
- 'Listening': I'm not sure exactly what to call this, because neither is the character! Upon being asked if she's a mind reader, she claims to prefer the term "listener." Elise is able to pick up on surface-level thoughts of the people around her, as well as the most basic kind of information: names, hobbies, careers, et cetera.
- Precognition: The occasional bout of precognition strikes Elise, but it's something she never intends to do and she doesn't seem to have any control over it. Furthermore, her predictions can be vague and concern things that won't happen for years, so they're not always helpful. Thus far she's only experienced precognition regarding her own fate, and even if she doesn't consciously process the clues therein, she tends to show a subconscious awareness of them (like taking up wearing scarves constantly, a subconscious impulse to cover her neck after seeing her own death by strangulation).
- Dream visions: It isn't uncommon for her to have dreams regarding people in need of her help, and the things which are after them; she wakes startled, records these in a notebook, and seeks out the people of which she dreamed at a more reasonable hour.
- Trance medium: Now we get into the heavy stuff. Elise is able to converse with demons and the dead directly, no conduit needed. While in the process of communication, she enters a trance state. She can communicate directly with her mind in this state, but when other people need to know what's taking place, she will speak aloud and allow the entity to reply using her mouth. When speaking aloud this way her voice is barely audible, and equipment for capturing the conversation is typically used.
While a trance is taking place, depending on the nature of the interaction, the surrounding environment can be affected: furniture toppling, light bulbs flaring and shattering, things opening and closing, etc.
- Hypnotism and related abilities: Elise is able to hypnotize people, which she does before attempting some more difficult maneuvers. She is able to erase the memories of other people while they're hypnotized, or to suppress their psychic gifts; she has done both before in order to prevent a victim from being possessed. She can likewise reawaken the gifts she has previously repressed, if necessary, and can guide anyone with the potential for voluntary astral projection through the process and onto the astral plane. She only uses these powers as a last resort, and only in order to protect the people she's using them on. Suppressing one's ability to travel astrally and erasing their memories of ever having done so, for example, can sever the link between them and malevolent entities who may have latched onto them during their travels.
- Astral projection: Elise herself can voluntarily and consciously project herself into the astral plane, though she avoids it if at all possible. While in this state her astral body is able to interact with ghosts and other entities who dwell there. On one hand, she is able to use this to forcibly retrieve a hostage human soul and return it to its body. On the other, this leaves her vulnerable to direct attack, and it's possible that what happens to her there could kill her physical body. Thankfully, her spiritual body is much, much stronger than her physical one; she's able to throw entities two or three times her own size across rooms, beat them down, and open holes in the ground through which to drop them.
Time is messy in the astral realm, and it's said time as people understand it doesn't exist there. While projecting, Elise is sometimes able to affect past events. This creates a time loop, specifically, this type. In other words: the changes she makes to the past had created the past she'd already lived before going back in time.
While projecting, the surrounding physical environment may be affected in the same way it is during trances.
- Exorcism: Elise is able to exorcise locations in nearly all cases. In situations where a haunting is person-focused, or it escalates into a possession, it causes her considerably more trouble. Sometimes she can exorcise the person directly, under her own power; when she can't, she can usually at least quiet the possessing entity. This entails temporarily sealing it, unresponsive, in the host body. This gives her more time to change her tactics and create a specifically-tailored plan of action.
In addition, the souls of good people now deceased can become trapped in the world of the living or the Further for a number of reasons. If nothing is actively holding the soul there, Elise is able to release them and send them on their way to the final afterlife without any exertion.
While performing an exorcism, the surrounding physical environment may be affected in the same way it is during trances and astral projections.
- Defense: This isn't told so much as shown, so I'm not sure how to describe it in detail. Elise is able to defend herself from being possessed. While it's possible for something to latch onto her like a parasite and assail her from that angle, it can't take over her body or alter her memories/mind (floods and other such events would be an exception to this rule, of course!).