Borrowers
General
Borrowers are paras who have the
power to "borrow" paranormal powers from other paras for different
periods of time. They have no actual powers themselves beyond that.
Time limited power that requires a rebound time.
Language
Some other paras refer to Borrowers
as "leeches", giving one an idea of how well they're thought of in
the human paranormal community.
Powers
The average Borrower can borrow
most all para powers and "use" them for a period of about two weeks
or so. Weak Borrowers may find they are not able to borrow from strong paras of
other types and usually can borrow for less than a week.
Strong Borrowers may be able to
borrow for up to a full lunar cycle in some cases and in some rare cases, can
actually "borrow" more than one para's power at a time.
When a Borrower "borrows"
another Paras' powers, the affected para goes into a coma-like state that
Borrowers refer to as a "nap".
They remain out of it for the duration of the borrow.
A Para may die during the borrow,
depending on the circumstances surrounding where and how they go into their
"nap". The Para's death
would not effect the borrow in any way, therefore, the Borrower doesn't
necessarily have a motivation to be a "responsible" Borrower.
After waking up from a borrow, many Para's feel "hung over".
The severity of this feeling is usually tied with the length of time
they were out of it.
Many Paras are sensitive to the
presence of other Paras.
Borrowers, out of necessity, are very hard to detect. The stronger they are, the harder that
is.
If using a power requires practice
and knowledge, these are things a Borrower typically won't have unless they borrow that power a lot. For this
reason, some Borrowers tend to prefer some powers over other when borrowing.
Most Borrowers are limited to one
power at a time. If they try to
borrow a second, their "borrow time" on the first will end suddenly
as a new "borrow time" begins.
The affected Para of the first borrow will come out of their
"nap" while the newly affected Para will go into a coma-like state.
Some Paras who've borrowed from by
the same Borrower several times will begin to see dreams of what the Borrower
looks like.
For rare Borrowers who can hold two
powers at once, the powers fade at different rates, according to the type of
power, how strong the power is, how much the Borrower is using it, when it was
borrowed, etc.. Therefore, as one
"borrow time" ends, the time on the other may still be ongoing.
Weaknesses
and Limitations
Borrowers are affected by lead
lined rooms and structures with tin roofs. Only the strongest Borrowers can pull
off a borrow in those sorts of structures.
Some Borrowers (an unknown
percentage) are affected by the presence of silver. For those Borrowers,
wearing a silver ring, charm or necklace can protect against them.
Some powers use up more energy to
borrow. If the total para power,
or, psi, of the Borrower is lower than the power they're borrowing, it uses up
a lot of energy just having it, much less using it, resulting in lower borrow
times.
Weakness and limitations governing
the borrowed power always apply to the Borrower while using said power.
Lifestyle
An urban legend claims that
Borrowers are natural thieves and liars.
There does seem to be some supporting evidence to this as the small
numbers of Borrowers arrested for crimes seems to show a preference for
burglary and theft.
Borrowers who come out to other
paras are, for the most part, not well received.
Very few Paras seem willing to
strike up consensual power borrowing arrangements with Borrowers. For the most part, Borrowers are shunned
and sometimes even hunted and attacked by other paras for their abilities. As a
result, the number of Borrowers who actually "come out of the
wardrobe" is thought to be a lot smaller than the actual number of Borrowers
out there.
Some Borrowers go out of their way
to take care of the para they borrow from. These seem to be in the minority however.
Legal
While using borrowed powers,
Borrowers are subject to all the same laws their regular users would be.
Many use anger and violence against
their kind by other paras as a reason for not registering.
Some paras have brought lawsuits
against Borrowers for injuries suffered and wages lost during a borrow. So far, most courts have had a hard
time handling such cases. Only in
blue states have they ever gotten very far.
In theory, a Para who has been
borrowed from who then dies during the borrow would seem to be, legally
speaking, a murder victim. Or, at
the very least, a case of negligent homicide.
Side
Effects
Many Borrowers seem to suffer from
low self esteem and general feelings of inadequacy. This seems especially true of Borrowers during their rebound
period where they are "without".
Some get hung up on borrowing and
seem to be addicted to it, needing to pull off a borrow and have what they
consider "real" paranormal powers.
The use of some para powers can
cause real emotional trauma for Borrowers who use them.
This is especially true if it's a power
a Borrower hasn't used before or isn't very used to using.
For instance, telepathy can be very
hard to deal with, reading minds, seeing others memories, feeling their
feelings. Being a Cryo and using
fire can be tough. The feeling of
splitting in two, as a Splitter, can be very unnerving.
Other
Paras
Borrowers can't borrow from
Neutralizers.
Borrowers
can't affect the undead, a Borrower can only borrow from a living Para.
Magic
users are immune to Borrowers.
Can’t
borrow off of 500’s.
Animating things is tough so
borrowing power from an Animator requires a lot of practice.
Most Borrowers don’t like the
feeling of becoming a spider, so, becoming an Arachne isn’t high on their list
of borrowed powers.
Don’t usually borrow off of
Automatic Writers. Don’t seem to want the power and/or the responsibility.
Can’t
borrow from Cannibals.
Can’t
borrow from Gifters. Being a Gifter is truly a ‘gift’.
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