Musers

> *"She felt a tingle at the back of her head. A muser. Of course."*
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Musers are the highly common amongst Synths, with the majority of Preternaturals able to use this talent, and is considered to be one of the most useful abilities created for Synths. The term Muser comes from the shortened form of Mental User, but also as a reference to Muse ie; to consider something thoughtfully or to be absorbed in thought.

## Purpose and Creation

> *"It was one of the more common talents or abilities that Atlas faction had developed for experiments, just for the sake of seeing if they worked or not. Although they were skilled at bestowing these talents and abilities onto the experiments, often they had no clue as to what extent they could work at, though the psychokinesis was their most developed and studied area, with extensive research into telepathy, perception augmentation and in rarer cases, mind control, giving them the musers."*
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Musers have had extensive research into, first through technological means by transmitting and translating brainwaves from one individual through a computer to another, then with greater research development and utilizing bio-electrical sensitivity, creating an organ within the brain that allows brainwaves to be read without the need for technology.

> "*Mental talents and musers were common enough and had such a broad spectrum that she had experienced almost everything that there was to it and knew how to counter it. The entire talent was telepathy based, the connection between minds and signals within the brain that allowed the tiny little electrochemical currents to be read as thoughts and feelings, or in the case of stronger musers, communicated to and have their perceptions altered. All had their limitations and no muser could project more than three meters or for more than five minutes constantly without suffering blinding migraines, heart attacks or even aneurisms."*
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## Uses

> *Whilst Wilny was himself a muser, able to augment people’s perceptions he was unable to control anyone directly, and with past experiences, had no intention of learning to either.*
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Musers are extremely common amongst synths with up to 70% of Preternaturals being musers.

#### What they Can do

* Read Minds (Active thoughts only)
* Detect emotions.
* Receive and distort sensory information.
* Distort perceptions
* Change thought processes (temporarily)
* Affect behaviour and movement
* Subliminal thought changes
* Relay information instantly; visual, sensory, auditory, emotional.
* Comatose or render people unconscious.

#### What they Can't do

* Kill with it
* Read subconscious thoughts
* Fully hijack a person's brain.
* Reach further than 3-5 meters away (Exceptions do apply)
* Muse through walls or glass.
* Use it upon multiple people at the same time. (Exceptions Apply)
* Use constantly for more than 5 minutes at a time (this may vary with practice).
* Affect telkens, Bioelectrics, or anything mechanical

When a muser is actively musing, a tingling/tickling sensation occurs at the back of the head, sometimes described as a buzzing feeling. Often emotional information is relayed subliminally, making people very quickly aware of how the muser is feeling. Sensory information can also be relayed however between different types of Synths this can have strange effects of phantom limbs and sudden changes in sensory perception such as a sudden burst of noise or colours changing or an overwhelming sudden burst of scents.

It is useful amongst Elite teams as it allows the quick and silent communication of information to teammates, giving them information that they may have missed or lack. It is also used to locate people near by in a similar way to radar or sonar.

## Ability Types

**Communication**

* Talking one-to-one through musing is a communication ability. Despite this being the most common form of musing, not everyone can master being able to handle the thoughts of others within their head or even project their thoughts to others.

**Perception Augmentation**

* Perception Augmentation sounds complex, and to a degree it is. Usually this is used to trick a person's mind into not seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting something. It often takes a lot of practice to do this, and is used by Sapphires as a trick to appear invisible or to make a person see what the Muser is imagining.

**Manipulate**

* Manipulation can be used in the same way as perception augmentation, however it is more focused on nudging a person's mind into a positive or agreeable manner to do what the muser intends.

**Emotional Influence**

* Similar to manipulation, this can be used to alter a state of mind into being a different emotion, either by reducing the amount of stress and anxiety expressed, or conversely to make a person more aggressive or energised.

**Locate**

* Used like a living radar, locating via musing is useful for telling when there is someone close by who is either unable to speak or who is trying to remain stealthy.

**Broadcast**

* An ability that takes a lot of training due to the level of control needed. Broadcasters can communicate and affect multiple people at the same time to relay to them the same thing.

#### ***Rare Case Abilities***

**High Radius Area of Effect**

* There is a limited range for all Musers, and it often only goes as far as five meters away, though in rare cases such as with the Type-7 Avios, Comet displays that she can reach up to 100ft/30m's away, and with Sabre being able to reach Storm who has a bioelectric field that can disrupt Musers.

**Puppetry**

* An advanced form of being able to affect behaviour and perception which allows someone to implant a thought into another persons head and have them only act in correspondence to that thought/order. This has a huge side effect of mental instability and high levels of aggression with it. This is often worsened and exacerbated if the person has taken Nitro.

**Crowd Control**

* A rare ability that allows multiple people to be affected in one go, only seen so far with Comet and is used in conjunction with her high radius and puppetry.

## Side Effects

Just like Telkens, Musers are not without their side effects, and although they aren't as extreme as in the cases with Telkens they are still common and affect the majority of Musers.

***Side Effects Include:***

* Loss of Identity
* Extreme behavioural changes
* Mood swings
* Insomnia
* Anxiety
* Depression
* Migraines
* Heart Attacks
* Aneurysms

In Stormbite, Sabre notes to Samodiva that "*My talents [muser abilities] are fine, but Fell's noticed behaviour changes in me. He said i get irrationally angry and almost feral at times, and since there's been teratomas and tumors in other Avios, he thinks it might be that*." meaning that there may be different biological effects and changes to different synths with muser abilities. Other muser Avios such as Teal and Crow, also both show signs of sudden aggression and fluid behaviour, meaning that it may be a side effect that only shows up in Avios, though more information may be needed.

#### ***Other Effects***

**Echo Effect**

The Echo Effect is a strange sensation where musers emotions and thoughts can bounce back and forth between one another. The feeling is similar to standing between two mirrors and seeing both the front and back of yourself for an eternal stretch of reflections. This can apply to sensory information, emotional information, or even two participants remembering the same event from different perspectives. Extended Echo effects can lead to loss of identity and mental tracing.

**Mental Tracing**

Mental Tracing can be the result of the Echo Effect where the muser or person who has been affected by a muser for a long time and it begins to alter how the person thinks and feels, often becoming more similar to the muser with how they behave, speak, and perceive things.

#### **Clash**

This occurs when two or more musers try and affect each other at the same time, resulting in whiteouts on all parties. Other effects of this clash can be vomiting, dissorientation, and even muddled memories.

#### Hyperactive Thought/Irritation

A simple but effective way of deterring and blocking musers. Simply think of the most annoying song you can, or tongue twisters or a repetitive pattern. As it is an active thought it comes to the forefront of the mind. The hardest part is training yourself not to think about the thing that the muser wants you to think about.

#### Bioelectrical fields

This is an innate ability in Bioelectric Synths such as Faraday and Storm.

## Users

* Wilny Mira
* Fell Merlo
* Sabre Merlo
* Comet Sang
* Asena Canis
* Xavier
* Nico
* Roanoke
* Preternaturals

Side Character Musers

* Frigatebird.
* Freeborn
* Fury
* Teal

## Trivia

* The term Muser comes from the shortened form of Mental User, but also as a reference to Muse ie; to consider something thoughtfully or to be absorbed in thought.
* Comet is one of the strongest known musers in Stormbite, with the largest range and strongest and longest lasting effects.
* Musers have to practice a lot, and will often spend hours a day talking with friends to improve their talent.
* Roanoke is the first main character to be a Muser.

## Refrences

1. ↑ Stormbite: Ch 6
2. ↑ ***Stormbite***: Chapter 8
3. ↑ Stormbite: Ch 6
4. ↑ Stormbite: Ch 8
5. ↑ ***Stormbite***: Chapter 33

 Storm Series
 Synths
 Other