Empathy
Empathy powers allow a mutant to sense and/or manipulate the emotions of others. This varies from telepathy which allows a mutant to pick up on the thoughts of others. Empaths may pick up on the mood of individuals or have the ability so finely tuned that they can pick up if someone is lying (though this could be borderline telepathy as well).
Ways It Might Work
- Some empaths feel the emotions of others.
- Some 'read' them and know what emotions they're feeling without experiencing it themselves.
- Still others can exert their own emotions or conjured emotions onto a particular target or change these moods and feelings as necessary.
- There are even some empaths who read animals rather than humans/mutants, though it should be noted that interpretation of an animal's emotions may be significantly different and even difficult to figure out.
There are many variations on this ability, obviously, and this may not cover it all.
Dealing With Consent
As with any power, we ask that an 'out' in case of non-consent is offered. Possible 'outs' for this ability could be:
- Range - The further away from the empath, the harder it is to read a person. Or the empathy may only work if the empath touches another person or makes skin-to-skin contact.
- On/Off - Perhaps the empath doesn't always have their ability 'on' and have the ability to turn it on or off.
- Defense Against Empathy - Perhaps it's not strong enough to get through to other empaths or telepaths because they might have psychic barriers against such things; or perhaps it doesn't work against someone with an unusually strong will. Mental patients or people under great distress might be too 'jumbled' with their emotions so perhaps this will even give the empath an incorrect 'reading'.
(These are merely suggestions on how such an ability might have a consent 'out' written directly into it.)