Synesthesia

Biodata

Power Progression

The milestones below describe Ke Meng’s developing use of the technique, rather than formally named ranks.

Mechanics

• Information is the foundation. Synesthesia acquires hidden information, but its upper limit depends on what the user can actually sense and comprehend 280 315.
• Information can arrive through multiple senses. Triggers may produce visions, mysterious sounds, tactile sensations, smells, or emotional impressions. Light also carries usable information—even when it reaches the skin rather than the eyes 68 76 546.
• A connection supplies the route to a target. Contracts, faith, conversation, direct contact, and personally experienced supernatural effects can establish or strengthen a channel 72 135 438 521.
• Concentration sharpens faint impressions. Ke Meng commonly empties his mind, recalls the target’s appearance or associated sensation, and accepts the information it conveys 69 79 221.
• Knowledge improves targeting. Learning more about an anomalous object can improve subsequent Synesthesia; the Bureau explicitly recognizes this advantage 177.
• Emotional traces favor reconstruction. Locations connected to an incident are especially useful when intense emotions have accumulated there 214.
• The user’s state matters. Ke Meng’s human and Cthulhu forms have different perceptual ceilings because their levels of existence differ 98 645.

Abilities & Skills

Sensory and Emotional Reading

• Perceives emotions alongside images, allowing Ke Meng to distinguish enthusiasm, frustration, and astonishment without relying on visible facial expressions 76 135 691.
• Detects anomalous qualities through photographs, objects, and recordings 69 79 280.
• Can reveal details beyond ordinary eyesight: Ke Meng senses blood-colored soil in an unlit room, where an ordinary practitioner would struggle to perceive color 83.
• Does not automatically provide exact meaning. Ke Meng finds the Shadow Stream leader’s dance-language more precise than his interpretation of its emotions 451.

Historical Reconstruction

• Retrieves lingering impressions of actions associated with an object, such as a werewolf writing in the Eerie Script Book with its own blood 79.
• Reconstructs practical details, including a locked box’s packing process and final combination, 15937 91.
• Traces purchases from impressions of objects: the suspect’s knife and cap reveal online stores and purchase times, which the Bureau uses to identify him 177.
• Can reconstruct an event after its circumstances are reproduced. Parking Ao Zhenhai in his original garage enables Ke Meng to perceive his transformation into a car 299.
• Eventually reaches deep historical scenes, including the Cat-Faced People village’s founding and Big-Faced Cat’s earliest traceable appearance 617 735.

Remote and Cross-World Observation

• Observes targets’ surroundings through established connections, including believers living on Orange Star 135 136.
• Switches among dreamers’ perspectives like television channels. Cthulhu can watch thousands of dream images simultaneously, but doing so scatters his attention 76.
• Supports auditory-only surveillance. Ke Meng disables the visual component while overhearing Orange Star researchers to reduce the risk of being noticed 317.
• Can locate concealed places through layered connections. Following a hidden presence’s gaze leads Ke Meng to the Horn of Shadow’s location 646 647.
• Distance can prevent real-time tracking: sufficiently distant players may yield only brief glimpses of their past 663.

Dream Synesthesia

Entering Dreams, also called Dream Synesthesia, is a method extensively researched by the Investigation Bureau 264.

• A practitioner becomes lucid within a dream, then retrieves and deciphers information that the waking brain normally filters out 264.
• The Centaur chief considers it a means of reconstructing his son’s death, but acknowledges that his own understanding is superficial and seeks an expert 555.
• Da Zhang participates with his soul to improve spiritual awareness and recognize danger early enough to retreat 557.
• Separately, Ke Meng regularly uses Synesthesia while dreaming as Cthulhu, benefiting from the Evil God’s much greater perceptual power 69 645.

Reverse Synesthesia and Self-Targeting

• Ke Meng uses reverse Synesthesia as Cthulhu to investigate the Chen household and its unusual envelope 343.
• Marks placed on Nara and Nina allow them to perform reverse Synesthesia toward Ke Meng. They can confirm his presence, but cannot see his surroundings or what he is reading 700.
• Targeting his own sleeping body lets Ke Meng trigger his spiritual alertness and wake himself 314 541 547.
• Self-targeting can fail when his body cannot be sensed, as demonstrated during the zero-presence experiment 315.

Mental Pollution-Enhanced Immersion

• Ke Meng deliberately recalls a Shadow Stream deacon’s death and prevents Resistance from clearing the resulting madness 421.
• Greater madness raises his Spirituality and improves synchronization with Shadow Stream Home, exposing fragments of its past messages and setup 421 422.
• Rational restraint keeps him from acting on voices urging him to attack his companions. Releasing Resistance ends the frenzy—and the heightened perceptual state 422.

Limitations & Risks

Connections and Targeting

• Weak links can end a vision. Ke Meng cannot follow the Eerie Script Book’s ghost after it leaves the book and the connection weakens 79.
• Descriptions are not always enough. Knowing Shadow Stream deacons’ appearances and abilities does not provide the direct connection needed to observe them through Blue Star’s defenses 491.
• Vague targets produce failures or crossed signals. A general search for artificial intelligences fails; recalling a generic black robe repeatedly reveals the wrong robes 154 394.
• Interruption can spoil ordinary attempts. Most practitioners require uninterrupted concentration to maintain Synesthesia 422.

Environmental and Informational Limits

• Scene disturbance obscures evidence. A blasted library door disrupts the conditions for Synesthesia; restoring the room improves access to its impressions 97.
• Time and surroundings matter. Ke Meng needs nighttime and an empty area beneath the library window to reproduce the original event more closely 98.
• Destroyed information cannot simply be recovered. Even Cthulhu cannot reconstruct content physically carved away at its source 541.
• More information is not necessarily useful. The Door of Knowledge floods Ke Meng with largely meaningless material that could cause severe headaches when remembered awake 547.
• Historical perception still has an endpoint. After nearly two months investigating Big-Faced Cat, Ke Meng cannot trace its history beyond its first discoverable appearance 735.

Barriers and Concealment

• Blue Star’s Great Filter Membrane interferes with Cthulhu’s close observation, blurring details and blocking deeper investigation 347 421 451.
• Artificial intelligences and certain NPCs possess a difficult-to-penetrate perceptual barrier. Ke Meng can overcome some cases by using Dream Invasion to establish a stronger connection 154 236.
• Concealment items can frustrate human-level Synesthesia. Cthulhu’s greater standing nevertheless lets Ke Meng investigate a Centaur whose rain cape conceals him 552.
• God avatars can evade it. Nara and Nina return blank results even while online, although Ke Meng can observe other players and an AI through existing connections 663.
• Apparent erasure defeats tracking. Monkeys consumed whole by Big-Faced Cat do not respawn and cannot be found through Synesthesia; Ke Meng suspects their information has vanished 733.

Mental and Physical Danger

• Hostile information can cause madness. Ke Meng fears that successfully contacting an Evil God with his human body would overwhelm him with chaotic knowledge 119.
• Precise targeting can lead into traps. Enemy organizations deliberately leave misleading information for investigators; Luo Yuan cites an injured teammate who became mentally unstable after such an ambush 98.
• Observation can be detected. People with exceptionally high spiritual perception may sense an inexplicable gaze. Listening without looking reduces, but does not eliminate, this risk 317.
• Immersion can injure the user. Ke Meng’s Shadow Stream Home investigation causes bloodshot eyes, bleeding, hallucinations, and violent impulses 421 422.
• Dangerous concepts can trap attention. Investigating the False Time Pocket Watch’s side effects leaves Ke Meng sweating and in pain after twenty-four hours; his Resistance warns that continuing could trap him 592.

Supporting Techniques & Items

• Dream Invasion — Uses a Synesthesia connection to enter a target’s dream across worlds. It cannot invade a target that is not dreaming 72 438.
• Meditation Method — Trains sensory and soul-level perception; its Game World skill permanently increases Spirituality and mental power and temporarily boosts Synesthesia 560 639.
• Resistance — Protects Ke Meng from harmful information, but can interrupt an investigation that depends on sustaining Mental Pollution 177 422.
• Rational Transcript — Recommended by the Bureau as a safeguard to read if Synesthesia becomes dangerous 177.
• Synesthesia Fruit — Enhances spiritual perception; Old Shi consumes one before confronting Shadow Stream’s attack 437.
• Cthulhu’s Suggestion — Lets Ke Meng suppress burdensome knowledge acquired through Synesthesia while arranging to recall it in his Cthulhu state 547.

Other Practitioners

• Luo Yuan — Uses Synesthesia in investigations and warns Ke Meng about environmental requirements, timing, and deliberately planted traps 98.
• Cheng Le — Perceives someone taking a library book, but cannot clearly see the person’s face 98.
• Liu Siting — Develops what she calls “Mind-to-Mind Communication,” intuitively understanding trained fish and insects; Ke Meng identifies it as Synesthesia 206.
• The Centaur chief — Uses contact with his son’s corpse to investigate the death, then seeks a Dream Synesthesia specialist 555.
• Da Zhang — Undertakes soul-involved Dream Synesthesia and encounters an indescribably enormous presence 557.
• Light Elemental Grand Elder — Performs Synesthesia during his meeting with Ke Meng and ends the attempt in a cold sweat after apparently perceiving something extraordinary 692.