OOC: Notes on Apollo's Tracking Abilities
Apr. 4th, 2005 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gotthescentNote that all of the following is subject to the requirements of plots and requires mun agreement and assistance to work. These are guidelines and generalities, not hard-and-fast rules.
Apollo's ability to track is a combination of his sense of smell and his psychic powers, which combine in unexpected ways. He naturally has an extremely good sense of smell, but his powers expand that to superhuman levels. Just like how some psychics can "see" people's auras, Apollo can "smell" auras, so he'll describe them in terms of their smell, not their appearance. This is why he will sometimes say that someone smells "powerful" or "happy".
The main effect that this has on his tracking ability is that even though he tracks by sniffing the ground or the air like a dog, he's actually following both the target's scent and the imprint of their aura on the environment, meaning that he can follow an invisible trail under conditions where a trained bloodhound would fail. In addition to being able to follow a trail, Apollo also has a chance to learn any strong emotional states that the target was feeling at the time.
To be able to track someone, Apollo needs to know their scent. Sniffing a person directly, spending time around a them, or smelling something of theirs will all give Apollo enough of a scent to work from. If all else fails, he can go to a place where his target was known to have been recently and follow a trail from there, but there would be no way for him to know for sure which scent was his target, so it would be a matter of him guessing and hoping for the best.
The following conditions and situations can affect Apollo's ability to track someone:
Bad Weather and Time
Both of these obscure the scent trail, but he can still follow the target's aura trail, which fades slower than their scent does. He can track without much trouble for about a week after the trail was put down. After that, he'll take longer to follow the trail and the chances of him losing it increase.
Other Strong Scents In the Area
Strong perfumes, industrial cleaners, and other strong synthetic scents are uncomfortable and distracting for Apollo to be around, but they won't directly prevent him from tracking, although they might slow him down. Most other unpleasant scents like rotting garbage and manure don't bother him (in fact, he can tell you what's in them if you feel the need to know).
Water
Apollo has no trouble tracking someone who crosses or follows a river, despite the common misconception that doing so will throw a tracker off the scent. Crossing an ocean or a large lake will cause a problem though, as he'll need to be at about the same height above the water that the target was if he wants to stay on the trail. In theory he could follow the scent of someone who was underwater, but in practice he would need to be able to breathe water to actually do so - any sort of breathing equipment would interfere too much.
Vehicles
Apollo can track someone riding a vehicle and won't lose the trail because of it, but the amount of time it takes for him to track increases the faster the vehicle went.
Flight
Apollo can tell if someone has left the ground and can track the target if he has a way to fly, but the amount of time it will take him to follow the trail is increased dramatically, and he has a very good chance of losing the trail. This risk increases rapidly if much time has passed or the weather has turned bad since the trail was laid.
Teleportation
Teleportation is a major impediment to Apollo tracking someone, and will likely break the trail completely. If the teleportation is direct transport between two points on earth, Apollo has a chance to get vague impressions of where the target went to (for example, a cold place, a city, somewhere with lots of trees), but not the specific location. Nightcrawler-style teleportation, where someone travels through another dimension, is even worse for him, as he'll only smell the alternate dimension, with the slightest chance of being able to get something of the target's intentions for where they want to go. Basically, he's probably screwed if whoever he's tracking teleports.
Scent and Aura Manipulation
There is no way to remove a person's scent completely without resorting to paranormal means. In Apollo's case, his ability to "smell" auras makes that useless anyways. If a person can somehow hide or suppress their aura, their scent, and prevent themselves from picking up more scents from other things, Apollo won't be able to track them. Additionally, if a person can make an exact copy of their scent and aura and transfer it to someone else, Apollo will likely be fooled, although if it's not perfect or Apollo is familiar with one of the people involved, he might be able to figure out the trick.
Apollo's ability to track is a combination of his sense of smell and his psychic powers, which combine in unexpected ways. He naturally has an extremely good sense of smell, but his powers expand that to superhuman levels. Just like how some psychics can "see" people's auras, Apollo can "smell" auras, so he'll describe them in terms of their smell, not their appearance. This is why he will sometimes say that someone smells "powerful" or "happy".
The main effect that this has on his tracking ability is that even though he tracks by sniffing the ground or the air like a dog, he's actually following both the target's scent and the imprint of their aura on the environment, meaning that he can follow an invisible trail under conditions where a trained bloodhound would fail. In addition to being able to follow a trail, Apollo also has a chance to learn any strong emotional states that the target was feeling at the time.
To be able to track someone, Apollo needs to know their scent. Sniffing a person directly, spending time around a them, or smelling something of theirs will all give Apollo enough of a scent to work from. If all else fails, he can go to a place where his target was known to have been recently and follow a trail from there, but there would be no way for him to know for sure which scent was his target, so it would be a matter of him guessing and hoping for the best.
The following conditions and situations can affect Apollo's ability to track someone:
Bad Weather and Time
Both of these obscure the scent trail, but he can still follow the target's aura trail, which fades slower than their scent does. He can track without much trouble for about a week after the trail was put down. After that, he'll take longer to follow the trail and the chances of him losing it increase.
Other Strong Scents In the Area
Strong perfumes, industrial cleaners, and other strong synthetic scents are uncomfortable and distracting for Apollo to be around, but they won't directly prevent him from tracking, although they might slow him down. Most other unpleasant scents like rotting garbage and manure don't bother him (in fact, he can tell you what's in them if you feel the need to know).
Water
Apollo has no trouble tracking someone who crosses or follows a river, despite the common misconception that doing so will throw a tracker off the scent. Crossing an ocean or a large lake will cause a problem though, as he'll need to be at about the same height above the water that the target was if he wants to stay on the trail. In theory he could follow the scent of someone who was underwater, but in practice he would need to be able to breathe water to actually do so - any sort of breathing equipment would interfere too much.
Vehicles
Apollo can track someone riding a vehicle and won't lose the trail because of it, but the amount of time it takes for him to track increases the faster the vehicle went.
Flight
Apollo can tell if someone has left the ground and can track the target if he has a way to fly, but the amount of time it will take him to follow the trail is increased dramatically, and he has a very good chance of losing the trail. This risk increases rapidly if much time has passed or the weather has turned bad since the trail was laid.
Teleportation
Teleportation is a major impediment to Apollo tracking someone, and will likely break the trail completely. If the teleportation is direct transport between two points on earth, Apollo has a chance to get vague impressions of where the target went to (for example, a cold place, a city, somewhere with lots of trees), but not the specific location. Nightcrawler-style teleportation, where someone travels through another dimension, is even worse for him, as he'll only smell the alternate dimension, with the slightest chance of being able to get something of the target's intentions for where they want to go. Basically, he's probably screwed if whoever he's tracking teleports.
Scent and Aura Manipulation
There is no way to remove a person's scent completely without resorting to paranormal means. In Apollo's case, his ability to "smell" auras makes that useless anyways. If a person can somehow hide or suppress their aura, their scent, and prevent themselves from picking up more scents from other things, Apollo won't be able to track them. Additionally, if a person can make an exact copy of their scent and aura and transfer it to someone else, Apollo will likely be fooled, although if it's not perfect or Apollo is familiar with one of the people involved, he might be able to figure out the trick.
