Shannon's Journal Discussion Thread, Vol. 5

[Shannon]

Most people have relatively well developed empathy - the ability to feel other people's emotions at a distance.  That makes itself known by figuring out that around others, you tend to have your emotions shift, and it can be difficult to know whose emotions you are actually feeling.  I discovered this one day in 11th grade when I walked into math class feeling fine, and sat behind this outcast girl who was severely depressed.  Within 5 minutes I felt "grey", like graphite, depressed and hopeless.  It wasn't unfamiliar to me to be depressed, but I had never felt "grey" before.  And when she left, it went away.  I noted that I only felt like that around her and realized it must be her emotions.  Most of the time, people who are strongly empathic figure it out on their own, but it can be very confusing.

Mine developed pretty well at a very young age. It's part of why I often refer to the childhood version of me as a "sensitive" kid. On one hand, it feeds my intuition and helps me to read situations and people. On the other, being affected by the varying moods of different people is draining. I consider it a blessing and a curse (weighted mostly toward the latter). I imagine that further development of other psychic skills would come with similar tradeoffs.

A branch-off of DRS may be a practical "Psychic Self Defense" sub, where you develop the skills necessary to ward off the negative effects of other's energies/emotions/psychic attacks.  But perhaps DRS is already sufficient enough in that respect.

DRS was designed from the start with psychic assaults in mind.