#semblance headcanon

I chose to use smoke and mirrors cause Ozpin be shady af. He’s total liar, he misleads people, and tends to give off the illusion that he has a plan and he knows what’s up, when, really, he has no idea what he’s doin. His confidence and words are all just.... smoke and mirrors ;P

Basically, my Semblance idea is that he can create these beings of smoke whose faces are little mirrors. And whenever the mirror reflects someone’s face (have to look directly into the mirror) the smoke shifts to look like that person and gains their physical strengths and weaknesses. You only need to look into it once for it to copy you. It can stay like that the rest of the time it’s in battle or it can mirror somebody else mid-battle if someone else happens to look into it.

There’s no limit to the number of times the smoke beings can switch its reflection, but for each switch to happen, they to have someone look directly into their mirrors--even if only for a split-second. So it can’t just switch between the forms of everyone it’s reflected previously all willy-nilly

The idea behind this comes from the fact that Ozpin is constantly internally warring with himself. He has a habit of blaming and beating himself up. In much the same way, battling his shadow beings forces you to have to you fight yourself, or sometimes even multiple versions of yourself.

The smoke beings don't copy semblances or anything, they just take on the  physical strength and abilities of the person they’ve reflected. At most, I think Oz can make about ten, but they start to get weaker and less capable the more of them there are. Possibly the strength gets halved each time a new one is made, and they start bumbling around aimlessly

The ace up Ozpin's sleeve is that everyone always expects to have themselves copied. They never expect Ozpin to look in the mirrors and have himself copied. The downside to this is, when he makes more than about 7, due to becoming less and less capable the more there are, the smoke beings will get confused and start to attack him instead of their opponent(s).

Additionally, if nobody happens to look the smoke beings' mirrors, then they stand still and don't do anything. So basically, if you don’t look directly into the mirrors and you can stop Ozpin from looking into them, they’re pretty much useless. After about a minute of standing around, they dissipate.

It takes Ozpin about another minute to create a new smoke being after one is destroyed. he can keep doing this until his aura runs out.

                    Aycan and Cymbeline were celebrated as a great success, as it was unintentional that both would manifest their Semblances to the degree that they did. 

         So to explain on Conceptual Light, it is easier to say that it is the opposite of what we see with Aycan. However, there are key differences in how their Conceptuals Manifested. 

                     Cymbeline can manipulate manipulate the abstracts (or concept) of light. This can have many feats, such as light that can prevent darkness from existing, generate light that sheds cold instead of warmth, light that makes things dimmer instead of brighter, produce light that can exist without darkness/shadow, generate light that drains/reduces energy rather the charging it, make light negate other forms of illumination.                         Cymbeline’s key points go as followed.

                She can manipulate the temperture that the light gives off, such as cold or warm. Cymbeline also, like her twin, as Light Empowerment, meaning that, she will become stronger, faster, more durable, etc. when she come into contact with light. Unlike Aycan however, she is able to create a light source from her own Aura, though it is taxing.                          An extension of this, would be known as PhotoKinetic Construct, which allows her to control Light Particles and Solidify them. She uses this quite often, as a means of lighting a path, or, as we see with her weapon, make duplicates of said weapon via light as a means of a flash bomb. 

                          ( Ex. She detaches the lantern from her weapon Dying Star, and charges it with intense light. But, with Construct, she can create a duplicate of the lantern out of light, and make that as dim or bright as she wants. Hell, it can be hot or cold too. )                                      Unlike Aycan, Cymbeline can not teleport through any location that is touched by light. Nor is she able to transform her body into light itself. What she is capable of doing however, is PhotoKinetic Creature Creation, argubly one of her best abilities. 

                                      ( This came to mind much like how we see the wolves in Wolf walkers. A good example of how I imagine these ‘creatures’ to appear, is like so. )

                                     Cymbeline is able to create beings of light or shape existing light into different forms for a variety of purposes. She can grant these beings varying levels of detail (simple to intricate), independence (controlled, programmed, semi-independent or autonomous) and existence (momentary to permanent) and delete the entities once she is done with them.                       For the sake of not wanting this ability to be too much, as Conceptual Darkness & Light ( despite the research and hunting I did do to make these more interesting and truthfully, more akin to what their abilities actually are scientifically accurate. ) Cymbeline is not able to give this ‘beings’ existence for longer than momentary, nor can she create more than two, they also are mostly autonomous when in combat, and semi-independant only when she’s made one. 

                                   However, these ‘light creatures’ were often used to help keep travelers and herself warm, or well lit when traversing dark locations at night.                  Again, both her and her brother’s Semblances were cultivated. She and Aycan are prime examples of why it is that the Fenris Tribe is both feared and looked down upon. Their Semblances are great ( when they have time to mature. As when younger, Aycan could only travel through shadow, and Cymbeline could only dim or brighten light. They are only as capable as they are, because they’re grown, and have had time for their Semblances to fully evolve. ) but only at the cost of genetic inbreeding, which is looked down on for obvious reasons. ( not to mention the Faunus prejudice. )

                                   Aycan once thought he simply could only manipulate shadows. But in truth, his Semblance works more akin to Conceptual Darkness, though not including all of its base abilities. 

                                                       Conceptual Darkness allows the user to manipulate the abstracts (or concept) of darkness. This can have many feats, such as darkness that can prevent light from existing, darkness that makes things more visible rather then less, produce darkness/shadows that can exist without light, harm things that can absorb or are immune to darkness, produce shadows/darkness that can consume or negate other forms darkness/night/shadows, and much more.                       For simplicity’s sake, we’re going to narrow down Aycan’s manipulation of Conceptual Darkness to a few key points. ( It is important to recall, the Fenris Tribe, whilst close together, did partake in inbreeding, and environmental change to produce certain Semblances. This means Aycan and Cymbeline do have very precise Semblances, not having come about by chance. )                     One such extension of Aycan’s Semblance, is Darkness Mimicry, allowing Aycan to essentially transform his very self into a shadow. He can also, blend into the darkness/shadows completely, or even teleport through them. 

                  One such other connection to his Semblance however, is the ability to become Empowered when within Darkness/Shadow. Simply Darkness Empowerment, where he can become stronger, faster, more durable, etc. As for a final extension of his Semblance, is to make a Concept from Darkness like a tangible thing. Like an extended slash from Night’s End, allowing the reach of this weapon to go much further if the shadow has extended beyond the strike, as then the Shadow itself acts like an extension of the blade.

                       It is important to note, that Aycan can not create Shadows/Darkness, but has high control over it when it is there. If there is none there, the most he can do is try to expand on preexisting shades/shadows.  

                This makes him very capable on his own, but he can not simply rely on his Semblance, as for example in a situation where shadows are very weak, they take more from Aycan to be able to either move through them, or make tangible. So much so, that depending on the variation on how deep the darkness goes, this may lead to nothing.

                                         Because this was a cultivated Semblance, Aycan does have a good deal of aura to keep up with the demands of his Semblance. But, this does make him a sort of glass cannon esque DPS. This also means there were others before him who had this very same Semblance, albeit it, with different degrees of control and abilities from Conceptual Darkness.