Which Shields Are Your Favorite?

[The Mad Hatter]

I use the easy to do, quick and dirty method of the energized skin shield. I don't even think it qualifies as a real shield, becuase I haven't seen a name for it. Yeah, energy manip isn't my forte. What are your favorite/most commonly used shields?

[yokusa]

As in which shapes/visualizations, or what types of things you program your shield to do. I really enjoy the idea of a bubble shield, although with the visualization I always like to be a little more creative. Sometimes when practicing or developing methods, I like to draw a diagram of what I want to visualize, to kinda get in the zone. Also, drawing cool pictures of you performing psi can help, color and all. I believe that an article from psionline or psipog even tells you that coloring can be a creative form of the technique of inconcentration. But as for programming tasks into my shields, I go usually with the simple blocking out idea. I don't like the idea of doing all that somewhat fancy filtering or backfiring or whatever. Usually, unless you want to track your potential "attacker", blocking out psi or forms of telepathy does the trick just as easily.

[The Devil's Advocate]

Thread shields are my current toy. Other ones I use regularly and enjoy the effect of: Shred-shield, absorption shield (particularly effective in combination with the shred shield which strips programing), My empathy shield is best described as a variable state liquid/solid shield. It's hard to explain without full exposition on the subject. I use several variants on the thread shield that I won't go into here. (See my post about shield article.)

~The Devil's Advocate

[lunin]

Mine is a bit odd to explain, I throw out energy and have it just keep flowing out, then when it hits a certain point, it turns out of the stream and gets recycled into it. Only real downside with it is that it has a hard time stopping strongly shelled stuff, but it works great for empathy and general use and is very quick to throw up as it expands outward essentially pushing things away when formed (usually, have had once or twice where I couldn't push something strongly shelled away that was somehow stuck behind where I originate the shield)

[The Devil's Advocate]

Lunin, question on that. What kind of quantities can you block? I've discovered, that kind of shield is inneffective against truely massive amounts if input on an empathic level, (a city, college campus, a really charged gathering of individuals, the Island of Oahu as an incomplete list of examples.)

Ie how efficient is this shield? Does it have to put out as much or comparably close to it to be effective, or does the loop around give it a little (or a lot) more efficiency.

~The Devil's Advocate

[lunin]

Its one I started using out of need, first in a school setting; though this summer I've been working on it a lot more. I work in admissions at an Aquarium, so I have to use it against very large groups of people. Occasionally large spikes of emotion will get through like someone who goes from normal or kinda-excited to really excited quickly, but it recycles fairly efficiently.

Days range from 3-5 thousand people going by so you can figure on the quantity on that. Also its fairly quick to set up and maintain as long as I don't get severely distracted without about 7-10 seconds to myself to settle again

Edit: Oh, and I should probebly mention that this is not a perfect loop, some of the energy just dispurses into the air around me, making me put a little energy into it constantly, but not a lot. I'm able to go full 8 hour days and hold it the entire time without really drawing any so its not a very large drain.

[wolfdancer]

Hmm. "Favorite shield?" is a tough question. I have several that I like to use and each is very specific to its purpose. I used to have a favorite shield style. Then I found that no one style worked well all around for me. Having half a dozen or so that I use regularly (and some at all times) has worked much much better.

[The Devil's Advocate]

Clarification question, Lunin. Do you have 'Trouble' empathically with just the people around you or are you picking up from a wider range that you have to block?

~The Devil's Advocate

[lunin]

I can't really tell you the exact range, stronger emotional blasts can hit me from farther away, but usually its fairly local (or I am at least able to 'ignore' the more background stuff as kind of white noise, and the shield usually mutes them fairly easily)

If I was to place a number on it, I'd say 10-20 ft is the max range for general strong emotions or group emotions start to effect me enough where I need the shield there (or to be focusing on keeping myself apart from it) to avoid it. Of course, thats just general strong/mass emotions, particularly high spikes of anger or excitement as I have experienced, tend to have a much more powerful effect on me from greater distances. Though that may also have something to do with the fact they can sometimes slip through my shield where the rest of the noise is ignored/blocked.

[yokusa]

Quick question on the thread shields, DA, because they sounded like an interesting idea. When you meant weaving psi into your construct, was that in a literal sense or just as visualization? It sounded to me that if the shield were to be "workable", it would be quite a complicated shield. For example, if you were literally attempting to weave your psi as you would a fabric, you'd have to make sure that you never missed anything and that it is tightly woven and a well-rounded shield, which might take quite a bit of practice.

Unless I misread, in which case none of that would apply.

[Cullen]

Yokusa, that is a good question. I havn't seen any of DA's thread shields, so I can't speak for her, but for the post part, yes, it is actually a physical weave. It is a little like composing a tapestry, you have a set number of 'colors' (Giving each programing of thread a color in your mind is a very usefull visualizaiton) and you create set paterns with the colors. Usually I just go for interlacing 'squars' of a sort. A mesh with all the different colors. But sometimes more...intricate paterns are more usefull. It depends on how you want to guide the psi-flow, and where the effect is. Again: remember not to program any two threads with contradicting programing. Otherwise the raw-psi will be imprinted with two opposite commands, which will cause either whichever was programed ~strongest~ to take command, or more likely it will just fall apart.

[The Devil's Advocate]

I don't typically use colors, but I'm more tactile oriented. I use textures, but yes it is rather literally woven in visualization and actuality. For me it's not a checkerboard pattern, but rather a very tight weave. Ithe one I use the most is roughly the consistency of tightly woven silk. I will do patterning in them. Think tight woven brocade. I also don't program thread by thread. I program the whole and build it with threads. For the most part it's the same general process, just different methods of getting there.

One of my first shields was a rather rigid thread shield though the texture was more like a wicker basket than cloth.

~The Devil's Advocate

[ryakoth]

hmm i like the shred shield under the absorbsion shield with a reflection shields overtop and a couple specifically programmed solid shields under that

i visualize my energy as certain colors, usually blue or green, other people who are practice partners i usually see as yellow, and people i dont know usually come up as purple or red to me, but color is never a part of function for me, usually shape isnt either, my abstract thought is more tied in

[The Devil's Advocate]

Why would the shred shield be under the absorption shield? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a shred shield? (Note Shred Shield usage = Shield that strips structure and programing from incomming constructs and Psi, but does not destroy the energy. If you are using it an another manner, by all means elaborate.)

~The Devil's Advocate

[ryakoth]

the surface sheild lets most of the energy through and generally only weakens it and uses the gained energy and energy residue from around me to charge the entire matrix