In the history of Shem, many talents have found ways to focus their powers beyond what they are born with. This will focus solely on wild talents, as that's the relevant subrace here.

Most wild talents' powers are triggered, meaning that something causes them to turn on momentarily. Others have talents that are always active, and still others have talents that can be triggered on and off. The ways to expand these powers are varied. Since Mao's is the first option, we will focus on that.

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# Trying to "hold on" to the power before it goes away: When the power is triggered, exerting one's will to stop it from going away. This requires notable mental strength. If one's power is physical or emotional, physical or emotional strength may be substituted. All powers have metaphysical anchors, and metaphysical manipulation can effect this hold, but it's always dangerous to mess with one's own soul. Mao's appears to be a mentally focused power, so his best bet is to improve his already strong mental discipline. Since he does not know what his trigger is, exploration of possible triggers might lead to breakthroughs. Some talents have found that associating something with their powers and focusing on that during its duration helps them to hold onto it. For instance, Mao's powers involve whispers and memories. If he associates the occurrences with specific memories, he could focus on said memory while the power is on and try to anchor the whispers to a memory. This could be distracting, though. Another thing to try is to do the same action every time the power occurs (say, closing one's eyes) and anchoring the power to that action.

# Trying to stop the power before it turns on: It is thought that "choking" the power before it starts is a way to make it "listen" to the wild talent in question. Again, the mental, physical, emotional, metaphysical divide is in play. Mao's would still be a mental thing, and again, anchoring has been seen to help. Use of void to null the power has been tried, but it often simply kills the power entirely. Another method that has shown success is triggering the power, then altering or removing the trigger before the power fully manifests. Mao would need to learn his precise trigger to try this.

# Trying to find alternate triggers: If Mao can figure out what his trigger is, trying similar things might show different effects.

# Trying to alter the power while it has turned on: Like holding on, this requires prodigious mental strength. The best way known is to use an anchor to hold fast to the power, then alter the anchor slightly to try to force the power to change. For instance, closing your eyes to anchor the power, then opening one eye to see if it changes anything.

Success in any of these methods is always precluded by years of mental training. OOC, difficulty is 22 to hold on, 22 to alter once holding on is done. 25 to choke the power.