Empathy: How aware is he of his emotions being affected by others? What determines whether his emotions carry to the other or the other person's carry to him? Is it on strength of personality, are telepaths more or less sensitive? An argument could be made for either.
His awareness of being affected by another's emotions varies... more impulsive emotions like fear or rage would leave him unlikely to consider the source of the feeling, whereas more passive emotions would allow him enough calm to recognize the emotions are not completely his own. Telepaths are less sensitive, in general, although some less experienced telepaths might not have much experience dealing with emotion seperated from thought. Finally, the strength of the emotion itself is the largest factor in whether or not it will 'back-flow' onto Caden. If he were to try to connect empathically with the hulk, for example, he would likely go into an insane rage himself. EVENTUALLY, however, I would like him to have enough control to project calming emotions strong enough to trigger the Hulk to transform to Banner without being totally overwhelmed by the rage.
Clear as mud? Great.
Dreamscaping: What makes someone unwilling to resist? Weak-willed types? When in dream world, are the characters' bodies basically in a coma? With the exception of "ruling" over this realm, how would you say that this dreamscape is different from astral projection?
I may have been unclear. I meant to say that individuals who are willing can be freely brought into the dream-verse. Those
unable to resist(ie those without sufficient willpower, mental discipline, and/or telepathic powers) can be forced to join Caden in the dreamworld.
While in the dream-verse, the individuals physical bodies are unconscious(coma, sleep, trance, etc are all sufficient).
The dream-scape is not a reality that overlays our own. I.E., unlike astral projection, you can't observe what's going on in the physical world. Think of it more as a Minecraft map that Caden has been working on alone, then he hops onto x-box live and invites his friends to join him. While in his world, his friends can manipulate things(with practice) just as he can, but they lack the same degree of control as Caden in most cases.
Dreamforging: Dangerous and difficult to master sums it up. Could I get an idea of what he could do with this power now and where you want to see it end up? Also, our Jean Grey never had the Phoenix Force. Sorry for the let down.
Also, I think he is a touch skill happy. How old would you say he is?
Right now he can do next to nothing with his dreamforging. He doesn't even realize he can do it yet. He does, sometimes, find himself under attack by monsters and abominations from his own mind but has yet to realize he is the source of his own torment. Perhaps this is something Ms. Grey and he can discover together. I've left a lot of room for juicy character growth with this guy. :)
Eventually he has the power to be a beast(not the Hank McCoy variety), being able to project dream energy at will(think Green Lantern) or fashion constructs such as armor, weapons, or even creatures.
I'd say he's somewhere between 16 and 20, depending on the average age of the students in his class. I agree about the skill-happy part, although a lot of it is reasonable considering he is 'Lex Luthor' level smart. I'll reword the post to indicate he has interest/potential in such skills rather than making him sound like he is already an expert. :)
