Kaspar R. Hatzenbiehler

Kaspar erupted right when he was taking inventory at the supermarket in Freiburg where he worked. Suddenly he was blind – and his workmates were fleeing in awe and fear of the strange shifts in gravity around him.
When brought to a doctor and nova experts he complained about his blindness: he could not see anything but darkness, interrupted by weak greyish light here and there. He could hear, feel and smell everything around him more than perfectly (in fact, he was subconsciously avoiding hinders and thrown objects like a classic blindsight case).

Ideally one of the PCs should ask him to describe the greyish light and eventually realise that they are galaxy clusters: he is perceiving from somewhere in intergalactic space. With some help from an astronomy database and a few recognisable galaxies they will eventually find that he is in the Columba Void. By now people will have guessed that he has ESP out of control and will try to guide him home. He can move his point of view freely, but his path must be described by words. During this process he will either accidentally (or preferably because someone suggests it) come close to the Horologium Phenomenon.

He will report seeing a wall of bright clouds and brilliant stars – actually supernovae. As he moves closer he will start to realise that they are actually billions of stars erupting. Then he will notice that something is spreading among them: “I see something that looks like squids… or starfish… moving. Starfish made of black steel. They are flying across space. Oh, some of them are flying into stars… they seem to draw star stuff onto themselves. Now they are shining, becoming brighter… there are more and more of them in the star – they seem to be reproducing somehow. In some stars they are so many that they make nearly the entire star to flow onto them… oh my god, the star is imploding! … What a sight… They made the star explode! All of the star falling down around them, turning hotter and brighter, and then BOOOM… and billions of them ride the explosion outwards. More and more stareaters… I don’t want to see this any more…”

Later, during training to detect novas with his node, he will remark that the squid-things felt like novas

If he returns, he can bring more information, including that there is a kind of war going on – enormous energy releases, “fire breaks” made by detonating entire spiral arms, black holes hurled through space surrounded with bizarre structures that hurt just by being seen, illusions of illusions and clouds of weapons made out of entire nebular.

If Kaspar is becoming too useful for the PCs, giving away information too quickly, he can be attacked from there – suddenly Kaspar seems to become distant. He is still sitting at the table but seems to be drawing back. His voice is coming as if from a great distance and the wall behind him is distorted. He shouts “It’s seen me!” and something seem to be emerging from the farness where he is – something of black steel…

Kaspar is a friendly, helpful person. He is of average intelligence and interests, and has never really cared for higher education or anything out of the ordinary (with the exception for the occasional paintball game with his friends). He has absolutely no idea why he erupted or why he would want ESP and gravity control.

Powers

Hyper-perception

ESP (essentially unlimited range)

Gravity control

His ESP makes him perceive things consciously within a sphere he can move around and change size. Even when he is “home” he will not be consciously aware of anything going on outside the sphere (usually a few meters) but he will see everything inside – including the inside of people, locked boxes and the plumbing. When walking he has to consciously move his sphere along or he will go “blind”.

For a fictional treatment of a somewhat similar sensory abberation, see Greg Egan’s short story “Seeing” in the collection Axiomatic.