On May 20, 9:50=A0am, Jeffrey Kaplan  wrote:
> Previously on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, Stile4aly said:
>
> > As we learned in Legacies, Teeps have to keep up a series of mental
> > walls to avoid being overwhelmed by the 'crowd noise' of human
> > thought. =A0Even though Byron taught her to drop those walls in the
> > presence of other telepaths, I doubt she walks around all the time
> > with those walls down. =A0She likely wasn't expecting anyone and so
> > wouldn't scan for anyone.
>
> But she WAS looking for the presence of anyone seeing her off. =A0When I
> do that, I look with my eyes and ears. =A0Why wouldn't a teep also use
> her mind?

I still think it comes down to keeping those walls up to avoid being
overwhelmed by crowd noise.  Think of it this way: If I'm going to
listen to a symphony and I really want to get into it, I'll turn up my
stereo and try to hear every note, but there's no way I could go
through life with everything at that decibel level.  The sound of a
pin dropping would drive you mad after a while.  The same is true for
teeps.  They'll focus on something specific and turn up the intensity
on that one thing, but they avoid having the volume turned up all the
time.  Only intense emotions break can that wall without the teep's
intention (as with Bester in A Race Through Dark Places hearing his
would-be assassin's intent).  Lyta might have hoped someone would be
there, but she didn't drop the walls, and even if she had she probably
would have just heard lots of background noise rather than Zack
specifically, and without knowing Zack was there, she wouldn't know
what to look for exactly.
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