#bt.task

i.   VISUALISATION.

over millennia, valentine has honed his ability to be near imperceptible when in use. naturally, he has to be physically looking at someone in order to execute it, but his innate stillness, the uncanny ease of a being who has existed unchanging and undying for centuries, lends itself to observation and fleeting scrutiny.

in battle, stretched to its very extreme, the arteries around his eyes will engorge with blood and become starkly apparent, spidering out from his eyes to the apex of his temples. 

the sclera of his eyes have been known to flood red — quite literally from the blood vessels of his eyes becoming so inflamed they have spilled over into his corneas. 

ii.   SENSES.

as the ability is a visual one that heightens his sight to the point of seeing through skin and flesh, the rest of his senses fall into a dull, numbing roar of white noise. it is surgical and scientific, like a microscopic lens taking live biopsy samples of the human body and anatomy, splicing it into a hundred different frames, refracting it from every angle like a kaleidoscope. manipulating the layers of skin, flesh, sinew, tendon and bone allows him to detect infinitesimal movements. blood pumping through veins. a sudden surge of adrenaline to the amygdala. musculature tensing in anticipation. heart palpitations. breath flowing through lungs.

there is some resettling of the senses that occurs after extended or strenuous periods of use, where his body has to readjust, fine-tune itself back to its resting state.

iii.   STRENGTH.

throughout each era valentine has lived through and seen warfare, his ability has been an invaluable and near indomitable weapon. being able to sense the movements of his opponents before they can even anticipate themselves what they will do and how they will move has allowed him to cut through battlefields of a hundred mortals and hordes of vampires. his fighting style is threadbare and ruthlessly efficient, expending only the minimum amount of energy required to veer from an oncoming attack and launch an appropriate assault. even amongst vampires, his speed is considered something of a phenomenon and anomaly. in fact, he is merely reacting to an enemy’s next move before it is made. 

the true strength of his ability lies off the battlefield, in the courts of empire and caliphate. combined with rigorous, exhaustive study of human behavior, physicality and body language, he is able to decipher and predict instinct and manoeuvre. you see, the body betrays that which the mind seeks to conceal. the heart, nucleus of everything, and the pulse, cannot lie to someone who can read its signs like scripture. amongst humanity, valentine’s ability granted him notoriety and inimitable power — the untouchable awareness that he was always ten, twenty steps ahead of all those around him, capable of dissecting someone before him down to their barest instincts in seconds.

beyond being a walking polygraph machine, it is almost impossible to lie to valentine. (for humans, it is completely impossible.) save for those who have indiscernible control over their own bodies and reactions, he can see a lie being written in the body before it even wets the tongue. 

iv.   WEAKNESS.

at maximum levels of exertion, valentine must remain immobile while using it. it draws too much focus and concentration for him to divert energy to any other part of the body. in this brief window of time, it is possible to incapacitate him and even strike him down. when pushed to its limit, his powers cast the rest of his senses into the abyss and it requires a period of recovery time equivalent to how long the ability was used. in the aftermath of using it all full concentration, he will also be rendered temporarily blind — a consequence he loathes and avoids having to face other than in exceptional circumstances.

prolonged use of the power for light purposes or brief moments of time causes his eyes to be extremely sensitive to light. this is one of the major reasons valentine’s quarters and the house of beetle’s headquarters are perpetually dimly or barely lit.

medium uses will induce headaches — ones he has learned to ignore and subdue with compartmentalisation.

v.   FUNCTION.

due to his age, experience, influence, etc., valentine no longer requires the use of his ability on a daily basis. as a younger vampire in his early centuries, he frequently relied on it to carve his pathway forwards to greater prestige and power in human hierarchies. in hokuei, valentine sits at the very apex of the kingdom. his innate ability to read people — their intentions and motivations, their camouflaged emotions and swallowed thoughts — without using his power, is something he prides himself on. 

as a member of the high council, valentine oversees the court of justice with his fellow house leaders. when faced with a defendant that is particularly elusive or a criminal case that is especially complex, he will use his power as required to monitor the trial and its participants as it unfolds. when dealing with adversaries, he will occasionally make use of the ability to reinforce a line of thinking or confirm a suspicion. valentine’s power is well-known to the population of hokuei. often, due to the fear he can instil with a single glance and the creeping terror that he may be using his power upon someone, he doesn’t even have to use it to feed into its mythos. 

vi.   OTHER.

valentine rarely, if ever, uses his ability on the members of his own house. his understanding and awareness of each of them is so absolute that to turn his sight upon them would be either a mark of condemnation or punishment. 

𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

In the early days of using his power, he would close his eyes and ignore other sensory information to concentrate on the scent profile of whoever or whatever he was tracking. Over time, his sense of smell has been so attuned to this skill that he no longer needed to completely shut his eyes and cover his ears. 

Now, he usually remains stationary, and the only visible indication that he’s using his power is the flare of his nostrils and his eyes turning into slits. 

This is in no way visible to anyone else, but in his head, what happens is akin to seismic location (inspiration: Toph Beifong). It also visually looks similar to Tanjiro Kamado being able to pinpoint the location of demons through smell. 

𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚜.

At this point, I think Zhan Lei has been so dependent on his olfactory sense to feel the presence of people around him that without it, he would feel a great sense of loss. 

I believe Zhan Lei’s enhanced smell doesn’t necessarily have much of a detrimental effect on his other senses on a day-to-day basis. It does irk him when strong smells are present and lingering, because his heightened sense is able to pick up on them lightning-quick, and these strong smells — whether pleasant or pungent, can disorient him. 

 When used to near full extent, however, it could potentially dull his sight, hearing, or touch all at once, but not permanently. On the other hand, I imagine his sense of taste being amplified by the use of his power, since taste and smell sort of have a link. 

Zhan Lei does not feel much when using his power, except perhaps a sort of tingling sensation that starts from his nose towards his head, spreading throughout the body. 

𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚝𝚑.

I imagine Zhan has an excellent memory for scents, and in the few seconds that he encounters a scent he’s focusing on for the first time, he would already have it filed inside his brain, and is able to recognize it should he happen across it again. His ability has been honed through time and training that he is able to pinpoint a target’s exact location with frightening precision, even moving targets. 

It took time and training, but I imagine he is now able to track a target’s location even while he’s moving, so it’s quite literally “you can run but you can’t hide” when dealing with Zhan Lei. 

𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜.

At first, he had to be completely immobile when he used his powers. Now, there are still  times when he struggles to use his super-enhanced tracking while moving, and it hampers his speed especially during a high stakes chase. This is something he is continuously training on. He is at least able to get a general sense of his target’s location while he’s moving, but it’s not as astonishingly accurate as when he’s immobile while tracking. 

Stronger smells are also able to overpower his nose, disorienting him and making him lose track of whatever/whoever he’s chasing. An especially strong (either pleasant or pungent) smell can even serve to drown out his own sense of smell, like a block on his nostrils that gives him a constant head-splitting headache, making him lose sense of ordinary smells around him. And while the pain is something Zhan Lei could deal with, the loss of his sense of smell makes him feel helpless. 

𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

As part of the House of Cicada, his extraordinary ability to track the exact location of his targets through smell alone has proven useful, and at times essential. During manhunts, he is always present, used as a powerful tool to ensure capture of many miscreants. With Zhan Lei part of the vampiric society’s law enforcement, the chances of evading capture from their clutches has dropped dramatically (well, never zero, but still...). I imagine one has to pray Zhan is not on the manhunt task force so they have a chance at escape.

𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛.

His power alone is not enough to survive day to day as a member of his beloved house, which mercilessly knocks them down their tiers at any small sign of mediocrity. He saw it as his lifelong duty and obligation to continuously hone himself in different styles of combat, and weaponry. 

Since he has a leaner body than some, unable to develop bulky muscles, he chose to study martial arts that focus on using an opponent’s brute force and strength against them, most of which are defensive. As a law enforcer, he doesn’t resort to violence immediately, choosing to defend himself only when attacked. 

I think he mostly uses long-range weapons during chases, as he is able to hit them even without seeing them (through the help of his nose). But he is flexible enough to fight close combat when needed, never really stopping the training he started when he was still human and fighting tooth and nail against his own relatives. He knows it’s essential to be able to fight in close proximity with his enemies. 

Honestly, a lot of the close combat sparring he does these days is when he’s fighting his own wife (whose ability is to nullify his powers). 

VISUALIZATION: When Ran uses their ability solely to learn how to master using a weapon, there isn’t a great spectacle that surrounds it.  Someone would have to be close enough to see the look in their eyes change.  Which would effectively make their eyes look entirely vacant as their mind fills with the knowledge.  However, when Ran creates a weapon out of materials, there is a more visual component.  The weapon itself appears to be crafting itself and for others see something beautiful - out of nothing is something of impressive design, only for it to likely be wielded against them.  It looks a bit like a fast-forwarded creation in person.  Those who have seen the weapon’s creation first hand don’t likely live to tell the tale.

SENSES:  When learning the histories of an item and how to master it, Ran’s senses are unchanged.  So, when Ran is able to move once again, they do not need to wait for anything else to return.  With a set of fluid, graceful motions, they simply appear as though they were on ‘pause’ for the briefest of times.  However, when they are crafting a weapon, their senses are dulled.  All they have is the feeling of ‘touch’ and with it comes an enhanced feeling of giving and taking.  They give a metaphorical piece of themselves as they craft and in return, that weapon gives something of itself.  They feel connected to it, attached in a way that only mastery over a weapon could offer.  They made it, they understand it like no one else ever could.  Their other senses are not fully gone, though, just a bit dulled - kind of like the colors of the room suddenly appear a dreary set of colors where there was brightness before.

WEAKNESSES:  Depending on the level of mastery required for said weapon, they either need milliseconds to extra seconds for the knowledge to fill their mind.  During this, Ran is stuck frozen as their mind is preoccupied and unable to move.  When it comes to creating a weapon on its own, they are able to move albeit more sluggishly depending on how much of their stamina is siphoned in the process.  Lastly, if they must both craft an item and learn to master it, they are exhausted afterward.  This would be best if they were in a fight with others and the other participants were aware of Ran’s ability/how it worked.  Lastly, their stamina is effectively siphoned off much quicker whenever they create from rare or previously unknown materials.

STRENGTHS: Ran has learned not to use their ability out in the open.  So, when they are frozen in place or their other senses besides touch are dulled, it is never within someone’s line of vision (if they can help it) and they do not trust anyone with the knowledge of their ability sans those that must known of it.  With histories and masteries implanted into their brain, they are able to understand weapons on a level that others wouldn’t be able to.  Their weapons become something of an extension of their own limbs and so they can move very fluidly, never awkwardly or bulky.  They are each a creation of Ran’s and treated as such.  The histories also carry little tidbits of different things, cultures and whatnot that allow further knowledge for Ran to explore later on should they wish to.  That doesn’t help with fights but, it does help them because it gives a sort of firsthand view of something they have no prior knowledge of.

FUNCTION:  It is very helpful when it comes to assassinations.  Ran doesn’t have to ever carry weapons around (though they do have a really neat collection), instead they can create weapons from their surroundings and kill with them.  The weapons can occasionally be unconventional so there are times where people cannot figure out for the life of them what a target had been killed with, much less why they were killed.

VISUALIZATION.

Technically her power is in constant effect, albeit in a dulled capacity, and this on its own comes with no visual manifestations. Though the song of her blood attracts vampirekind in general, it does not alter her appearance to the individual. When she has someone under her spell, Yena’s skin adapts a near-pearlescent sheen, a luminosity - the glow of love, as it were - which is visible to all. Her pupils, akin to the biological reaction induced by love or lust, also moderately dilate. These last until the spell is broken by death. 

SENSES.

Her power overlaps very little with the senses, and there are little to no ramifications on her body with its use. Solely with the person bound to her, she experiences specifically-heightened and attuned senses. While neither is enough to lend her any skill or use in Firefly’s experiments like their leader Onyx, it is enough to allow her to detect increased/decreased heartrate or small bodily signs of pleasure, distaste, etc. In general, this allows her to interpret and discern her partner’s emotions even if they aren’t verbally expressed. This portion of her ability does not apply to anyone else. When a new declaration of love is sworn and a person inducted under her spell, she feels a rush of endorphins that mimic a high, which can last from several hours to a full day. It’s during this high that her eyes become most dilated and as such render her vision slightly impaired. Love isn’t blind, but it’s blinding I guess. If the declaration is made when a previous lover is alive and still under her thrall, she is faced simultaneously with a deep physical ache in the chest. This pain is felt simultaneously by her previous partner, both experiencing the severance of what binds them. 

STRENGTH.

The only palpable way her appeal manifests to vampirekind is in the potency of her blood’s scent, which dominates other smells that may be in the room. This is largely how one would explain or excuse the draw towards her, though the ‘song’ that emanates from her blood is another layer. This has no real explanation as not even Yena is aware exactly how it works - only that her heart is the drum of it. Those that confess love to her have their emotions and attraction immediately magnified to the point of near-obsession. This does not mean negative feelings or emotions are no longer present - they can still experience anger, jealousy, etc - but they are far more likely to forgive her or let it pass. Given the extent of their devotion, they are generally rendered malleable and willing to give or execute whatever Yena wishes. I’m still deciding whether or not she can control/escalate her partner’s love once they have sworn themselves to her, don’t @ me. The compulsion to protect her is absolute to the point of death, but so to is the desire to ruin her when the spell is broken.  Though she does not have the ability to compel or force anyone to love her, her strongest unnatural weapon in the case of seduction is to allow someone to drink from her blood. While the taste of it does not draw out or guarantee emotions or confessions, there is an addictive quality to it that seemingly further endears the drinker and lends them to becoming more malleable to her will. As such, she treats her blood as a holy thing, to be used/given only to a select few. She has found that for all those not under her thrall, increasing her heartrate and therefore the pumping of her blood can moderately intensify the draw they experience.

WEAKNESS.

There are next to no offensive benefits of Yena’s power. While she may have a love-sworn champion willing to fight to the death for her, this means nothing if they are physically separated or are unable to reach her. If she is entirely without a beguiled lover at any point in time, she is all the more vulnerable.  Duly, she does not have any control over who professes love to her - though she can seduce or discourage like any individual, ultimately she cannot chose who falls in love and subsequently confesses to her. While she has learned from experience that a lover’s admission will not bind them to her if their heart is untrue or not completely filled (meaning a jovial or platonic i love you will not catalyze the spell), she does not have to return their affections in any way, shape, or form for it to work. This can and has resulted in heartbreak, losing a lover she adored to gain a besotted individual who she wanted nothing to do with. She does not have the ability to nullify or stop her power, either with the general populace or the person bound to her. Even if she wished to be unnoticed or incognito, her blood is distinct and can alert others to her presence.

FUNCTION.

The compulsion and attraction provided by her blood aids her consistently in day-to-day life, having marked her uniquely within society as preternaturally desirable. Without the call that emanates from her blood, it’s unlikely (or even impossible) that she would have ascended to the pedestal she now calls home within such a short time. As a dancer, her blood’s appeal lends performances a transcendental appeal, keeping all eyes captivated on her for the duration of her time on stage. As a vampire moving through the island, she absolutely makes use of her power in little ways - queues are never waited in, bills are often waved off, etc. Her power also aids Firefly well in her capacity as an emissary and ambassador, given individuals often have an elevated interest in pleasing Yena in order to get close to her. It does nothing, however, to help them with their overall mission of medicine in any meaningful way. She makes a good companion to inpatients, but that’s about it.

OTHER.

( 1 ) Though Yena is physically weak in comparison to others of her kind, due to the near-constant threat of being hunted and torn apart as a side effect of her power, I imagine she is exceptionally quick and agile. This in conjunction with her dancer’s nimbleness and flexibility certainly does not render her a fighter, but makes her adept at passively evading physical attack. She has more than once had to fight for her life by simply getting away from a cursed ex-lover, escaping to public grounds where others can interfere.

( 2 ) She’s also found ways to use her blood as something akin to an aphrodisiac and/or distraction. By storing her blood in vials/vases/etc or soaking objects thoroughly within it, these items carry her scent and song. Due to their direct exposure to the air they become quite potent, but fade quickly as with any perfume or flower. Her favourite trick has been to soak a white rose in her blood until it’s dyed red, sending or presenting this to those she desires. 

( 3 )  Given her proximity and access to individuals who allow themselves complete vulnerability in her presence, I imagine Yena has become extremely adept at reading individuals. This is not a side effect of her power, but instead something learned over time. She’s also, subsequently, well-versed at moves of seduction -- both towards the bedroom or straight into a heart.

GENERAL INFORMATION.

The coveted prowess within him spills forth in the gush of his blood around the fangs of another, through the ancient act with which all vampires seek their sustenance — by drinking it.

The channeling of his gift takes place as typically as the joining of vampire and victim in the days of old, made distinct only by the unusual prominence and protrusion of his veins around the area of the vampire’s feeding, along with their gradual discoloration the longer his gift is at play. It’s how he marks the amount of blood that has been generally drawn from him and remains aware of the extent to which he can continue to provide it; as his veins slowly darken throughout the process, rusting and rotting until they deepen into black. That’s his limit; upon reaching it, he’s quick to pass out.

His senses remain unaffected while the feeding is within reasonable bounds, but as soon as his veins begin to darken, he grows addled with the symptoms typically associated with blood loss, such as dizziness, fatigue, disorientation, etc. It’s at that point that his senses weaken considerably, making him susceptible to attack, or worse — losing his control and containment of the feeding and being left pliant before a vampire who, in the throes of sustenance and ascendance, might not be so willing to honor his limits.

Due to his age and his superior physical capability as a vampire, he’s able to provide his blood in vast amounts, across several individuals. Even when his veins have grown muddled with warning, he’s able to maintain the feeding for a considerable amount of time before he finally reaches the point where he must bring it to an end. An unwavering rule that he’s upheld over the centuries is the necessity of knowing the purpose for the power that’s requested (and often demanded) of him. He demands to be told the reason for the required enhancement, and based on the nature of that reasoning, he controls the amount of blood that each individual is granted, and in turn the level of enhancement that’s provided along with its duration. Since he can’t dictate the speed at which his blood is drawn, his control is restricted to the bounds of ending the feeding by asking the vampire to stop, or forcibly detaching himself from them if necessary.

Alongside the symptoms of blood loss and his general state of vulnerability, another negative result of his gift is that it leaves him with unusually heightened aggression and an extreme craving for blood in the aftermath; his body vicious in its desperation to replenish what it has lost. The intensity of the violence and the craving is largely dependent on the amount of blood that’s been drawn, becoming all-consuming when his gift is pushed to its limits. A distinctly regretful memory of his is that of the age of war among the Great Houses, when he lost consciousness on the field of battle and went on a rampage the moment he awoke. Ever since then, he’s made diligent efforts to ensure that he’s not pushed over that tipping point ever again.

His gift has been employed at the Temple over the centuries; an act of servitude that he once fervently volunteered to perform, now merely an obligation that he’s forced to uphold, if only to maintain appearances and erase any indications of his disillusionment. The Temple offers private counsel with him, where vampires may invoke his blood and request the power it promises. He may accept or he may refuse, based on his judgement of the vampires’ reasoning.

ADDITIONAL HEADCANONS.

His sense of taste is often smeared with a sour taste while his blood is being drawn, yet time has washed away his discernment of whether the bitterness is indeed a result of his power, or a mere trace of his disdain towards his gift and its ever-selfless empowerment.

Although vampires are normally immune to scarring, he carries more scars than he can ever hope to grasp; countless conjoined dots marking the fangs that have conquered his flesh over the ages. Upon noting that bites given with the intention of attack or any reason other than feeding fade into nothingness like all wounds do, it led him to the conclusion that the scarring is an exclusive symptom of his gift — but by the time that discovery was made, it was already too late. The scars of his sainthood had long since pierced their place upon him. 

His scars are light and faded, but noticeable upon close inspection. They can be found speckled across his arms, from his wrists to his elbows, and along his shoulders and the sides of his neck. He doesn’t allow anyone to bite him in the latter areas anymore, finding the position to be demeaning and far too indicative of submission. If the scars on his neck are a mark of anything, it’s the long-lost naivete with which he had wholeheartedly devoted himself to his faith and the Oracle’s cause, giving and giving even long after there was nothing left to offer.

The scars on his neck and shoulders have been concealed with tattoos; an arching, looping pattern inspired by the carvings that adorn the Temple’s walls. It starts below his jawline in a sharp swipe on either side of his neck, like two blades of grass or the curving teeth of daggers. It spirals down and stretches into roots and loops that thicken in the middle, in the curves where neck meets shoulder and down to the tips of his collarbones, then thin out as they spill towards the edges of his shoulders where the pattern ends.

Nothing tied to the sense of smell has a material, tangible way of being perceived - a whisper, a breath, a breeze - those airy things have no solid form ; not like the other senses. Her power comes from nature ; can such subtle, seductive things truly be seen? Insects can’t see the deadly trap of the Venus, maggots can’t see the odor of rot which leads them to their prey ; no, the prey can never see, or perceive, the thing which draws them in, thing that closes around them, trapping them without notice until it’s too late to react. but the hunter, too, can be affected by it.

----- & the sweet smell of R O T. -----

Where one sense takes precedence, the others are dull, dimmed down. If she was a mortal, her other senses would’ve been lacking a lot more than they currently are - she can still see and hear things better than humans with her heightened vampiric abilities, she can still tell the difference between the smoothness or roughness of certain fabrics, surfaces and textures ... but, alas, her sense of taste is rather lacking. It’s a secret well kept, but she can’t really tell the difference between wine and blood - she only recognises them by the scent. Her taste buds are lacking at best ... completely ruined at worst. She can’t taste blood, can’t tell this type from that type ( she heavily relies on her sense of smell to determine if it’s animal blood, human blood, vampire blood or plain wine. ), can’t tell sweetness from bitterness by taste alone - everything tastes like air in her mouth ( there’s a difference between tasting ash and tasting air - ash has a certain taste while air has none. ).

However, sometimes, when she uses her power, she can... taste things. it’s not a real taste ; a mere illusion, of course, but it does make her feel a little bit better. After centuries of having on again - off again taste, it comes a pleasant surprise. But, such occurrences are rare and far in between. She is used to not tasting things, used to the fact that her power negates the buds on her tongue ; but what she is still not used to, is the fact that the more she uses her power, the weaker her other senses become - the more she uses the pheromones to immobilise or manipulate another person’s moods, actions or reactions ( weaving a shroud of illusions in her wake ), the less she can use her other senses.

It is a brief flash of blindness. Muted down sounds. Inability to speak for a second or two. She can never predict which sense her power will take ; but it always takes. & every time the lack of it lasts just a smidgen longer. How ironic it is - even vampires can feel an eternity in a minute ... especially when it becomes two minutes. or three. or, the longest so far, six. It’s one of the largest reasons why she doesn’t use her power as much as she could, or perhaps even should - it would certainly make her life easier in the House if she used it to manipulate and entrap all the rotten men who deem themselves higher and better than her.

----- taste of it stings like the iron left to R U S T. -----

Not many are aware of her power. The Head is, of course. As is the doctor. But, she doesn’t trust too many with such a secret - not even her own House. She might, eventually, be ... persuaded to confide in another, but such decision is still too far from thought, or sight.

Her knowledge of her power is more theoretical than practical - for obvious reasons - but, she does have an almost perfect control of it. The more she controls it, the lesser is ricochet effect of it. The more she hones and controls the pheromones, the more she can resist the negation of her other senses ( the only other sense she kept clinging to, the only other sense which truly matters that she managed to keep, is the sense of touch. her power does not yet affect her sense of touch & she would much prefer to keep it that way. she can deal with blindness, she can deal with being deaf or not tasting thing, but the true absence of touch is mortifying. after all, if we lose all of our senses, except for touch, we still perceive ourselves as living ... but, lose the touch, even with all other senses intact, who is to say we are more than mere illusions? ).

VISUALIZATION. although a simple physical touch is enough to employ her ability, rin prefers to use her bone whips. they are long, white slips of fabric that have been woven with her hair. she typically wields two — one in each hand. cartilage (from her own body) is used to give the fabric more structure, and all along the edge of the fabric, rib bone has been carved into tiny needle-like spikes that can attach onto the victim’s skin. the bone whips, when in use, give the appearance of a spider spinning its web. 

POWER NEGATION. requires physical contact with the opponent. continuous contact is optimal, although a single touch can also suffice. the amount of time this ability can be used within depends on the mental strength and age of the opponent — vampires with stronger control mentally (usually older in age) are able to shake off rin’s negation more quickly. power negation can be a gamble — there is no clear cut indication of how long it will last, and the ability takes a mental drain on her; overuse can lead to inability for her own gift.

PHYSICAL IMMOBILIZATION. physical immobilization can be employed either to the entire body of her opponent or locally (to a specific body part she is in contact with; commonly by use of her bone whips). similar to power negation, a single touch is enough, although continuous contact is preferred. physical immobilization wears on her physically, although it is less volatile than power negation. 

SPECIALIZATION. as rin’s abilities require physical contact, they are limited to short range combat. she uses her bone whip to make up for this — as it was constructed with her own hair and bone, contact with the whip acts the same as physical contact with her hands. each strand of fabric measures 1.9m in length and 20cm wide. the whips also allow her to concentrate her abilities. if the bone needles on the edge of the fabric penetrate her opponent’s skin, it becomes easier to use her abilities on them — especially when it comes to physical immobilization upon an isolated body part.

FUNCTION. rin serves (ironically) as an enforcer for the house of spider. under her mother, she punishes and, if necessary, takes out those that have wronged the house. however, due to the unpredictable nature of her abilities, she prefers to fight without her abilities. 

Visualization: There’s little to no visual component to Sunhwa’s gift. Someone deeply familiar with Sunhwa and her methods might know the signs: the careful movement of her hands, the slowing of her breathing, the slight knit of her brow. All anyone else would see is the Mother of Spiders with her hand on someone’s skin, and then the pain on her victim’s face, their collapse to the floor.

Senses: I imagine Sunhwa’s manipulation of her ability akin to playing an instrument — the violin or piano, something requiring dexterous hands — or, as she pushes her ability to its limits, to conducting a grand orchestra. It requires a delicate touch, intense focus, and practiced fingers. To use her ability does not necessarily drown out her other senses so much as they must be deliberately tuned out. Focus is paramount, and thus she must not allow herself to be open to distractions. Even when not using her ability, Sunhwa experiences a slightly heightened sense of touch, and thus is thus rather particular about textures, adorning herself and her home in only the highest quality fabrics.

Strengths: With a single touch, Sunhwa senses the pain of a target, and amplifies, soothes, or creates it of her own accord. She controls the intensity and quality of it, playing her victim’s nerves like a violin, creating sensations of stinging, throbbing, aching or burning as she desires. The pain she creates can be focussed on a specific area or broad, usually radiating from the point of contact or the site of existing pain, and with time and focus, is able to envelop the victim’s entire body. Sunhwa is at peak performance in a controlled, familiar setting, free of distractions, ideally with her victim already subdued. Under such circumstances, she is only truly limited by her own stamina and ability to focus. Conversely, Sunhwa is able to take pain away from a target, soothing those suffering even the most extreme wounds. In extreme cases, she may not be able to eliminate the pain entirely, but can dull debilitating pain down to a dull ache. 

Weaknesses: One slip of focus, one wrong note, and she loses control of the song. It becomes cacophony reflected back at her, utterly overwhelming. Centuries of practice, of steeling herself against it, and still one moment of faltered focus can bring her to her to the floor. Extended use leaves her feeling mentally and physically drained. Her power is easiest to use alone with her target, no distractions. Sunhwa has, over time, gotten very good at tuning out cries of pain and other typical ways of lashing out; they're expected, she’s prepared and planned for them. While alone in a controlled space with the target is the ideal setting in which to use her power, she can and does use it in more uncontrolled settings. After all, bringing an enemy to their knees in agony with a single touch is an effective, if somewhat crude display of power. However, as it requires intent focus she has to tune out her surroundings to an extent, making her vulnerable to surprise. Thus, she either keeps such attacks brief, or ensures that one of her spiders is watching her back. Even so, it is always a risk.

Function: The Spider Queen’s abilities are no secret, either within her house or to the broader world. The gift of her touch is one she relishes. Every handshake, every brush of her fingers, is a test of trust. Will you allow me this, when I could make every nerve sing with pain? There are moments it has been invaluable in extracting information, in striking fear into hearts, in exacting simple revenge, but Sunhwa prefers to use it sparingly, using it only at the moments in which it is most valuable. Still, she almost always chooses to forgo gloves, and engages in casual touches often, keeping the threat of pain ever-present if rarely acted upon.