Question What is this canon power classified as?

Valentine wrote: I believe these are Esper, I think Telepathy is reserved for mind reading and mental communications.

Negative.

Well, partly. Telepathy is 'mostly' reserved for sending and receiving mental communication. But it is also the foundation trait for any technique that works inside the mental 'construct' of the mind. Just as Empathy would be the foundation trait for anything that works with the emotional state.

ESP are typically 'senses'. Receptive only. Note that there are a LOT of Psychic (or PSI) abilities, far more than are listed in our traits data. A lot of them are completely passive. A few have an 'active' component that gets lumped into the ESP listing of it.. mainly because it doesn't make sense to have two separate listings for them.

Most of the 'common' active abilities are classified as their own traits - Telepathy, Empathy, TK... the ones we don't list are generally only known to be used by one or two Psychics world wide... if that.

You'd think that'd make it obvious but... *shrugs*

Ya... there's a lot to the original powers classifications that we don't treat the same anymore.

In a sense, you have the over-arching classification of "Psychic Arts" of PSI abilities. There are three 'areas' of PSI:
ESP - internal effect, ESPer abilities are senses and generally passive in nature.
PK/Psychokinesis - is a psychic effect that takes place actively outside the mind, but not outside the individual's aura / energy being. It imposes a highly interlocked structure on the energy patterns of the aura, turning it into a physical force.
Psionics - Are actions taken using PSI energy externally... outside the mind and body. Sometimes invasively so. This would include Telekinesis or the other energy manipulation traits (hydrokinesis, pyrokinesis and so forth).

Something like Telepathy or Empathy is actually rarely a 'single' ability even if we list it as just one trait. Telepathy, for instance, takes a perceptive ability - you have to be able to sense mental energy and be able to interpret into thoughts just to 'listen' or be receptive. And then you need to be able to manipulate psionic energy into patterns that match thoughts and project that energy to another person in order for them to receive... and doing so with another telepath is different from doing so with someone with no psychic ability at all. After all, telepaths can learn to share thoughts outside their actual mind in a simplified pattern of energy much like a 'telepathic language'... while understanding the thoughts of an individual requires finding the key to how they think and organize their thoughts within their mind.

So, is Empathy an ESPer trait? Yes, in the sense that you must be able to perceive and interpret emotional energy? That part of it would fall into the ESP category... but broadcasting emotions and manipulating them in other people? That's outside the scope of ESP.

Something like Telepathy, Empathy, or the more general Package Deal Psychic... are then not so much individual traits as they are common groupings of traits that 'together' give the mutant a certain common set of techniques and means of interacting with people.


So what does that mean, specifically for Nikki and her MID... well, it could mean that the MCO believes she is a level 5 psychic... meaning, she has access to a wide variety of psychic abilities and they don't make the distinction between receptive and projection. It would be a reasonable justification for a DFA... as someone with a wide range of means of manipulating the mind and mental states at their disposal would not be someone you would want to get close to for purposes of negotiating.

Or it could mean that they believe Nikki only has receptive capabilities and her Empathy does not include the ability to broadcast. In that case, they're basing the DFA entirely on her capacity for magick. Not necessarily unrealistic, all things considered. Especially if they believe she is following a Sidhe oriented agenda.