#+abilities

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Qwel released a video on the christmas update! Here's the rundown if you prefer reading over the video (it has no captions).

Bobette is getting buffed! Her festive aura ability, specifically, as well as a helpful timer over her box.

Coal got buffed, and Ginger got reworked! I'm sure I'll see more ginger players soon.

Cosmo is also getting buffed! His range is a lot further now!

We're getting a second Christmas map that has a 50/50 chance of spawning every fifth floor! The sprout in the footage kind of looked like he was sliding, so we may be getting a new floor mechanic with the ice!

Here's some new skins for the update! Big fan of Ginger's cotton candy/trans colors. (The trans part was likely unintentional).

Adrian/Kevin:

- Mahikan' itim (Dark magic) < Ma-hee-kang ih-tim > [ Revealed from the billboard with black patterns, cause the person explodes if the patterns was spread from their body ]

- Tilamsik (Splash) < Tih-lam-sick > [ Water manipulation ]

- Kasabae (Gender + female) < Kah-sah-ba-eh > [ Changing gender but limited and goes back to normal ]

(Read more below!)

the bonus chapter where uru-chan explains levels states "There is a measurement system in place to gauge a person's ability level." (bonus ch. 2) is this system natural, or was it designed by humans? there are people who can gauge the level of others, though the only person who we've seen do that (the guy from the mall) was rather inaccurate. level is potential x mastery / 10, where potential is hereditary and fixed and mastery is a combination of strength, skill, recharge rate, etc. does this mean that a person with high potential but low mastery could have a higher level than someone with high mastery but low potential? who would then, in practice, be stronger?

and that ability gauger guy raises some questions, too. remi and sera both already knew their level - but they both come from well-off families and attend an expensive private school. for others, would ability measuring be less accessible? would they be willing to pay for an unofficial gauging with only a small prize (that most knew they wouldn't win, anyways) if they could just get their ability measured for free at some government facility? it seems really cool to me to explore a setting where even the measuring of your ability is in effect restricted to the upper classes, or where you only get one free measurement every year until your ability stabilizes or something, and any further gaugings are paid (and expensive, at that). that would make john's situation even more complicated - he leveled up from a 1.00 to a 7.00 in a year and a half.

also, i wonder how much information about abilities is public knowledge. does the average low-tier know about passives? it seems to me that passives are not frequently talked about amongst high-tiers, unless it's relevant to whatever else is going on, and even then, especially in the earlier chapters, characters didn't refer to it as a 'passive', just 'i noticed x'/'yk my reflexes are faster'. would john have known about passives when he became a high-tier? or was there just a period of a few weeks/months when he thought he was going insane, with an ability he seemingly couldn't turn off?

and passives themselves are such intriguing concepts, too. can arlo still get piercings? he's lucky they have near-insta-fix potions, because i doubt he'd be able to get stitches. and everyone with sensory passives - do they ever get overwhelmed? john probably got off-campus accommodation because he wanted to pretend to be a cripple, but what if these off-campus dorms were already around to allow high-tiers with sensory passives some space without their passive being activated?

has john ever been woken up in the middle of the night because his upstairs neighbor decided to kill a fly with their ability? does remi keep all electronics away from her sleeping space? when she discovered the chip in sera's bear in ch. 25, we can see that (especially unexpected) electricity bothers her. does it bother others? how does that affect their learning and functioning?

and just in general, it fascinates me how rare high-tiers are. wellston is the strongest school of the strongest province, and even they barely have a handful of high-tiers. that kind of implies that most people continue to increase their level until a bit later into adulthood, but it also emphasizes just how othered the wellston high-tiers are. they are exceptional, the cream of the crop, but they are also very alone, in a sense. people - even students at wellston - don't seem to understand just how powerful high-tiers (let alone god-tiers) are.

are high-tiers idolized in pop culture as well? are there movies where actors are pretending to be god-tiers, capable of doing miraculous things like sense approaching opponents or be almost invulnerable to attacks without even activating their ability, or suddenly have incredible level jumps of a point or more? do sera and arlo ever watch those movies and laugh at the inaccuracy and uninformedness? did john, pre-readjustment classes, ever watch them and wonder if that was just another way he was fucked up, that he was different?

and john. very likely, the first time since early childhood that he actually met another god-tier face to face was when he got arrested and forced into those readjustment classes with keon. keon was the first god-tier he'd had extended contact with since he became a god-tier. did he ask him about being a god-tier? about the things the internet couldn't tell him? did he look at him and think, so is this what i'm meant to be like?