emorangerpink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
emorangerpink) wrote2012-04-21 01:36 am
emorangerpink) wrote2012-04-21 01:36 am
Post-canon upgrade
Player: Kamikasei
Character: Laura Ericks
Canon: Still Not Safe (OC)
Modification:
Changes to how Shifter powers work after the conclusion of SNS canon mean that Laura can no longer Shift or use her most powerful attack, but can now conjure weapons, barriers and other objects from Sophium and gains physical enhancements in armour to boost her combat ability.
She retains her base powers beyond Shifting itself: armour (which no longer tires her so quickly - she can maintain it more or less indefinitely with no noticeable strain), a mild healing factor while in armour (and to a lesser extent out of it), environmental protection, and flight. She can no longer pass through solid objects. When her armour's freshly summoned, she's surrounded by a cloud of Sophium nanomachines that fuel her other powers. Parts of this cloud may be formed in to solid objects to serve as weapons, usually molecule-sharp blades which may be held or fired off at range, or as shields and barriers. Parts may be used to weaken enemies or boost or heal allies, as before, though more reliably and without a per-use stamina cost. Weapons persist indefinitely and may be returned to the cloud to be reused for other powers, but defensive uses generally deplete the cloud. Once the cloud is entirely used up, Laura must fall back on her armour itself, her flight and improved strength and speed. The cloud regenerates itself during rest periods when she's out of armour, as the dispersed nanomachines return to her control. Thus, Laura has a visible "power gauge" that can be seen to run down during combat and leaves her still able to contribute when empty, instead of vaguely-defined and all-or-nothing abilities based around insubstantiality and fatigue.
That's the summary. The tl;dr full detail workup follows. Trust me, unless you're genuinely curious or want to check precise limits in unusual situations, you can spare yourself the read - the above covers 95% of the mechanically relevant stuff.
Details
Long story short, what people generally perceive as "Sophium" is actually a manifestation of extremely advanced nanotechnology which exists partly outside our normal reality and is powered by bordering-on-the-First-Law machinery housed at the Earth's core. "Pure Sophium crystals" are a swarm of nanomachines stably bonding to one another. Sophium "alloys" are the same thing contaminated by or based on a large amount of normal matter. Much of the impossible matter conjured up by Shifter powers, such as the armours themselves or Devon's glasslike shards, are essentially "crystals" with different "settings". The mist or fog that accompanies Laura's powers are "free" nanomachines.
Laura's powers operate mostly by directing a cloud of nanomachines to gather around her target and either reinforce or weaken it directly or use their dimension-phasing to manipulate probability around it. As a new feature, she can also simply form pure Sophium constructs out of them. It used to be that the nanomachines were virtually limitless but that directing them drained Laura's stamina. Now, the nanomachines themselves bear the brunt of any exertion and disperse when used, returning over time when Laura's resting out of armour. Laura can maintain her armour off and on for an entire day and even a fully-depleted cloud will be restored after a night's sleep; alternatively, she can deplete the entire cloud in a morning, dismiss her armour for the bulk of the day (say, six hours), have a restored cloud available in the evening, and again restore it from depleted with a night's sleep. Thus power use is still rationed per mission, but she'll no longer be actually out of commission for more than a day or night unless actually injured, and needs to worry a lot less about balancing her training schedule to maximize time in armour.
The basic suite of "standard Shifter abilities" - those she shares with Devon, and their old teammates - are all still present, aside from Shifting itself. Summoning The Great Pretender protects Laura from normal handheld weapons such as guns or blades, and allows her to endure environmental extremes ranging from the vacuum of space to toxic atmospheres to deep-sea pressure. Healing is boosted while in armour, and to a lesser extent even outside of it, believed to be one of the reasons she suffered fewer ill effects than normal from her extended coma.
Laura can still fly, in the same way she did before. Her armour now grants her enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, as well as a general upgrade to "fighting ability", such as situational awareness and kinaesthetic sense - in other words, she gains a boost to her skills and instincts to let her make use of her boosted physical power. These boosts are enough that she can handily overpower a normal human in hand-to-hand combat, and keep track of several at once in a melee. Her in-armour fighting ability improves as she learns skills out of armour, which means it's worth her while to study hand-to-hand techniques even if they're not likely to be much use to her when unarmoured.
The Sophium nanomachine cloud that appears when Laura summons her armour serves two main purposes. The new one is that it can be formed in to Sophium objects - held or thrown blades, or shields and barriers. A weapon will be molecule-sharp and persist until damaged, at which point it reverts to cloud form and can be reformed or used for something else - Laura will generally form a weapon at the beginning of combat that will double as her last-ditch reserve if she expends the rest of the cloud. Thrown (or launched - Laura need not actually throw them, they can be hurled as if via telekinesis) blades will also persist until reverted, though rather than trying to retrieve them Laura will generally either use them to enhance their own damage (making them less like bullets than explosive shells) or to debuff their target (making them forego damage for status effects). A small barrier formed to defend against weak attacks, acting more or less like a normal shield, can also persist indefinitely. Larger barriers or those which must defend against mecha-scale attacks are single-use, though - they may last for more than one attack, but once they're broken through the part of the cloud that went in to them is used up until Laura rests and resummons her armour. Beam attacks can be defended against using the cloud itself, which again depletes part of it.
The old uses of the powers are still available. Laura may send part of the cloud in to an ally or object to heal, repair or "reinforce" it. Reinforcement is abstract - it's not simply a matter of the nanomachines bolstering the target's structure, but of the field they generate manipulating probability according to subconscious commands, so that abilities can be enhanced beyond their innate physical limits, or in ways that make more psychological sense as to how Laura thinks of the target than physical sense as to how the target really works. Of course, straightforward changes are easier to pull off reliably. The nanomachines can still be used to afflict an enemy, though this is harder to do as they're centred on Laura and require an attack to use at range, so that simply attacking is generally the better option. Similarly, the cloud can be used to defend against attacks but only up close - Laura can't make projectiles disappear halfway to their targets anymore, just nudge them to narrowly miss her or people beside her - so that simply using a shield is generally more effective. All these applications of the cloud use up a portion of it. Once the cloud is depleted, Laura has only her flight and armour to fall back on.
Her former most powerful (and draining) attack, "unmaking" an enemy, is no longer available at all.
Terrain Stats:
Land: A
Air: A
Sea: B
Space: A
Character: Laura Ericks
Canon: Still Not Safe (OC)
Modification:
Changes to how Shifter powers work after the conclusion of SNS canon mean that Laura can no longer Shift or use her most powerful attack, but can now conjure weapons, barriers and other objects from Sophium and gains physical enhancements in armour to boost her combat ability.
She retains her base powers beyond Shifting itself: armour (which no longer tires her so quickly - she can maintain it more or less indefinitely with no noticeable strain), a mild healing factor while in armour (and to a lesser extent out of it), environmental protection, and flight. She can no longer pass through solid objects. When her armour's freshly summoned, she's surrounded by a cloud of Sophium nanomachines that fuel her other powers. Parts of this cloud may be formed in to solid objects to serve as weapons, usually molecule-sharp blades which may be held or fired off at range, or as shields and barriers. Parts may be used to weaken enemies or boost or heal allies, as before, though more reliably and without a per-use stamina cost. Weapons persist indefinitely and may be returned to the cloud to be reused for other powers, but defensive uses generally deplete the cloud. Once the cloud is entirely used up, Laura must fall back on her armour itself, her flight and improved strength and speed. The cloud regenerates itself during rest periods when she's out of armour, as the dispersed nanomachines return to her control. Thus, Laura has a visible "power gauge" that can be seen to run down during combat and leaves her still able to contribute when empty, instead of vaguely-defined and all-or-nothing abilities based around insubstantiality and fatigue.
That's the summary. The tl;dr full detail workup follows. Trust me, unless you're genuinely curious or want to check precise limits in unusual situations, you can spare yourself the read - the above covers 95% of the mechanically relevant stuff.
Details
Long story short, what people generally perceive as "Sophium" is actually a manifestation of extremely advanced nanotechnology which exists partly outside our normal reality and is powered by bordering-on-the-First-Law machinery housed at the Earth's core. "Pure Sophium crystals" are a swarm of nanomachines stably bonding to one another. Sophium "alloys" are the same thing contaminated by or based on a large amount of normal matter. Much of the impossible matter conjured up by Shifter powers, such as the armours themselves or Devon's glasslike shards, are essentially "crystals" with different "settings". The mist or fog that accompanies Laura's powers are "free" nanomachines.
Laura's powers operate mostly by directing a cloud of nanomachines to gather around her target and either reinforce or weaken it directly or use their dimension-phasing to manipulate probability around it. As a new feature, she can also simply form pure Sophium constructs out of them. It used to be that the nanomachines were virtually limitless but that directing them drained Laura's stamina. Now, the nanomachines themselves bear the brunt of any exertion and disperse when used, returning over time when Laura's resting out of armour. Laura can maintain her armour off and on for an entire day and even a fully-depleted cloud will be restored after a night's sleep; alternatively, she can deplete the entire cloud in a morning, dismiss her armour for the bulk of the day (say, six hours), have a restored cloud available in the evening, and again restore it from depleted with a night's sleep. Thus power use is still rationed per mission, but she'll no longer be actually out of commission for more than a day or night unless actually injured, and needs to worry a lot less about balancing her training schedule to maximize time in armour.
The basic suite of "standard Shifter abilities" - those she shares with Devon, and their old teammates - are all still present, aside from Shifting itself. Summoning The Great Pretender protects Laura from normal handheld weapons such as guns or blades, and allows her to endure environmental extremes ranging from the vacuum of space to toxic atmospheres to deep-sea pressure. Healing is boosted while in armour, and to a lesser extent even outside of it, believed to be one of the reasons she suffered fewer ill effects than normal from her extended coma.
Laura can still fly, in the same way she did before. Her armour now grants her enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, as well as a general upgrade to "fighting ability", such as situational awareness and kinaesthetic sense - in other words, she gains a boost to her skills and instincts to let her make use of her boosted physical power. These boosts are enough that she can handily overpower a normal human in hand-to-hand combat, and keep track of several at once in a melee. Her in-armour fighting ability improves as she learns skills out of armour, which means it's worth her while to study hand-to-hand techniques even if they're not likely to be much use to her when unarmoured.
The Sophium nanomachine cloud that appears when Laura summons her armour serves two main purposes. The new one is that it can be formed in to Sophium objects - held or thrown blades, or shields and barriers. A weapon will be molecule-sharp and persist until damaged, at which point it reverts to cloud form and can be reformed or used for something else - Laura will generally form a weapon at the beginning of combat that will double as her last-ditch reserve if she expends the rest of the cloud. Thrown (or launched - Laura need not actually throw them, they can be hurled as if via telekinesis) blades will also persist until reverted, though rather than trying to retrieve them Laura will generally either use them to enhance their own damage (making them less like bullets than explosive shells) or to debuff their target (making them forego damage for status effects). A small barrier formed to defend against weak attacks, acting more or less like a normal shield, can also persist indefinitely. Larger barriers or those which must defend against mecha-scale attacks are single-use, though - they may last for more than one attack, but once they're broken through the part of the cloud that went in to them is used up until Laura rests and resummons her armour. Beam attacks can be defended against using the cloud itself, which again depletes part of it.
The old uses of the powers are still available. Laura may send part of the cloud in to an ally or object to heal, repair or "reinforce" it. Reinforcement is abstract - it's not simply a matter of the nanomachines bolstering the target's structure, but of the field they generate manipulating probability according to subconscious commands, so that abilities can be enhanced beyond their innate physical limits, or in ways that make more psychological sense as to how Laura thinks of the target than physical sense as to how the target really works. Of course, straightforward changes are easier to pull off reliably. The nanomachines can still be used to afflict an enemy, though this is harder to do as they're centred on Laura and require an attack to use at range, so that simply attacking is generally the better option. Similarly, the cloud can be used to defend against attacks but only up close - Laura can't make projectiles disappear halfway to their targets anymore, just nudge them to narrowly miss her or people beside her - so that simply using a shield is generally more effective. All these applications of the cloud use up a portion of it. Once the cloud is depleted, Laura has only her flight and armour to fall back on.
Her former most powerful (and draining) attack, "unmaking" an enemy, is no longer available at all.
Terrain Stats:
Land: A
Air: A
Sea: B
Space: A