Enhanced synesthesia

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Enhanced synesthesia
Emma sees sound waves as light.
Originally held by:	Emma Coolidge
Absorbed by:	Peter Petrelli (lost)
Ability to:	See and manipulate sound waves.
Examples of enhanced synesthesia

Enhanced synesthesia is the ability to visualize sound waves as colorful light waves and manipulate these lights by combining them with a particular emotion.

Characters

• Emma Coolidge is the only character known to have this ability naturally. (Ink)
• Peter Petrelli has replicated it from Emma (Hysterical Blindness), but later discarded it in favor of space-time manipulation. (Tabula Rasa)

Limits

Emma Coolidge

Emma is able to see sound as a variety of colors. Some colors appear dim while others are bright and vivid. At first, Emma could only see seemingly random lights being emitted.

As time went on, Emma began to see more and more lights everywhere she went. When noises were typically loud and pressured, red lights usually appeared but when sounds were calm and soothing, more peaceful colors would appear. While in a bad mood, Emma played a cello at her home and, much to her surprise, was able to make a large crack on a wall in her apartment. However, when she plays the cello at other times, many more colors were generated. While time is frozen, Emma also seems to be able to move the lights simply by touching them (Tabula Rasa).

Emma did not believe that it was actually her that caused the concussive blast from her cello but, after a meeting with Samuel Sullivan, Emma learned that she is able to "combine" her emotions with her music and that her fear created the powerful blast. Samuel tells her music can lure people to her and, when Emma tests this out by focusing on Ian Michaels, Ian and a large crowd are drawn to her (Upon This Rock).

Peter Petrelli

After replicating this ability from Emma, Peter was able to see bright colors flow from a trash can after he kicked it to the ground. Peter is still able to hear the sounds that he sees and, like Emma, he is able to create colors by playing soothing sounds such as music from a piano. (Hysterical Blindness)

Selected Examples

• 
  Emma sees flashes of light when water drips...
• 
  ...and continuous waves of light when a cellist plays a song.
  (Ink)
• 
  Emma sees a police siren emitting red waves of light...
• 
  ...and also beams of light when a jackhammer is turned on.
  (Hysterical Blindness)
• 
  Peter kicks a can and sees color when it creates sound...
• 
  ...he also sees the sound created by a young choir singing the theme from The Greatest American Hero.
  (Hysterical Blindness)
• 
  Emma channels her agitation to crack the wall with her music.
  (Hysterical Blindness)
• 
  Emma is able to move sound lights while time is frozen.
  (Tabula Rasa)

Notes

• Heroes Interactive for Ink says that Emma's power is "a form of synesthesia".

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Enhanced synesthesia for fan-created theories and other speculation.