Into the Tides Book Bonus: Travel Powers

Today is a little book-bonus! In posts such as these, I'll give you extra information from my novel that you won't find in the book itself.

 In Into the Tides, people who have magic are called "Powers." Each type of magic has a different set of capabilities, which is based on genetics. And for each Power type, there are 6 different levels of ability, called classes, with 6th class being the weakest and 1st class having the most magic. How a person's class is determined is based on what they can do.

 I've been working on creating descriptions that explain what each Power type can do, by class. If you're reading the book and wondering what the characters are capable of, and what they would be capable of if they were higher in class, you can find out!

Here's more about travel Powers. While the abilities similar to a first-class travel Power are described in the book, no real travel Powers show up.

A non-exhaustive list of some Magic Types
Travel	6-	Passive: Sense presence of obstructions within 3 feet Active: "skip" with interference 1 foot once every 30 seconds 6th class travel Powers are encouraged to avoid skipping while moving, as they are notorious for running into things
	5	Passive: Sense presence of obstructions within 20 feet; sense presence of approaching obstructions (such as sensing that people, cars, or horses are moving nearby, and from approximately which angle; does not sense objects less than 3 cubic feet) within 40 feet; uncontrolled skip with interference of 2 feet on average once a week Active: skip with interference 10 feet once every 30 seconds; break skip period into smaller skips (such as skipping with interference 5 feet every 10 seconds)
	4	Passive: Sense presence of obstructions within 40 feet; sense presence of approaching obstructions within 60 feet; uncontrolled skip of 2 feet without interference once a week Active: skip without interference 1 foot a day (continuous distance only); skip with interference 30 feet once every 45 seconds (may be broken up)
	3	Passive: Sense presence of obstructions within 60 feet; sense presence of approaching obstructions within 100 feet; uncontrolled skip of 5 feet without interference once every 5 days Active: skip without interference 5 feet a day (continuous distance only); skip with interference 60 feet once every minute (may be broken up); skip with another person with interference 5 feet every minute
	2	Passive: Sense presence of obstructions within 120 feet; sense presence of approaching obstructions within 180 feet; uncontrolled skip of 5 feet without interference once every 3 days; sense buildup of uncontrolled skip within 6 hours (+ or - 6 hour accuracy) of its likely occurrence due to buildup; sense uncontrolled skip 2 seconds before it occurs if skip occurs due to buildup Active: skip without interference 10 feet a day (continuous distance only) OR 2 feet every 12 hours; skip with interference 100 feet once every minute (may be broken up); skip with another person with interference 20 feet every minute; sense when another person is skipping within 100 feet (radius)
	1+	Passive: Sense presence of obstructions within 200 feet; sense presence of approaching obstructions within 300 feet; uncontrolled skip of 5 feet without interference once every day; sense buildup of uncontrolled skip magic with +/- 4 hours accuracy; sense uncontrolled skip due to buildup 5 seconds before it happens Active: skip without interference 20 feet a day (continuous distance only) OR 2 feet once every 4 hours; skip with interference 150 feet once every minute (may be broken up); skip with another person with interference 40 feet every minute; skip with 2 people with interference 5 feet every minute; skip another person without self 5 feet every minute within as long as person can be seen; sense when another person is skipping within 300 feet

Skipping:

Effectively, skipping is a teleport: Power is at location 1 and a microsecond later at location 2. Clothes and nonliving objects (up to 15 percent of body weight) stay with travel Power during a skip; excess objects are left behind in whole (such that a person weight 100 pounds carrying a 7 pound weight and a 10 pound weight would result in the  entire 7-pound weight being left behind). "With interference" means objects between starting location and ending location interrupt movement, with Power's ending location automatically being directly in front of interfering object. Skipping occurs as if traveling normally without jumping, so a 3-foot wall would stop a skip, but a 3-foot post that the Power could walk around does not--however, the distance to walk around the post would be added into the distance of the skip, shortening the total length of the skip by an equivalent amount.

The Power emerges skip at same speed as he or she was traveling when entering the skip. "Every x seconds" refers to a minimum recovery period the Power must take before engaging in the next skip. Thus, a 10-foot skip at the end of 30 seconds cannot be followed by a 10-foot skip at the beginning of the next 30 seconds. Skips cannot be saved up for longer skips--if a person does not skip for six hours, the next skip is still a maximum of 10 feet with a 30 second recovery period.


Emergency/uncontrolled skipping

Uncontrolled skipping, sometimes called "emergency skipping," occurs randomly and only when Power is not paying attention. It does not occur when skip has high probability of resulting in harm if travel Power is consciously or subconsciously aware of the danger. This means a travel Power might fall off a very low bed in the middle of the night, resulting in at most a bruise, but not the top bunk, which could result in serious injuries.

Uncontrolled skipping is most likely to occur when danger is approaching that the travel Power subconsciously notices, such as a beach ball flying at them from the corner of the eye, or when a danger unexpectedly occurs, such as if the travel Power begins to fall into a hidden hole in the ground.

When no danger has occurred in the period of a week, the built-up travel magic will cause a random skip with interference approximately once a week. To help avoid skipping at inappropriate times, it is common for a designated family member or friend to take to throwing soft objects at the travel Power's head once a week (or more, depending on temperament of helper).