#skye's origin

Skye: Dad won’t come out of his room Flambae: Just tell him I said something Skye: Like what? Flambae: Anything factually incorrect Skye, shrugging: If you say so Robert, arriving moments later: Did you just say the sun is a fucking PLANET?

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Skye: Look, Padar! It's the good Kush! Flambae: It's the dollar store; how good can it be?

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Skye, holding out a cookie for Robert: Look! This one's a heart, that’s how I feel about you! Robert: *Tearing up* Skye, holding out another cookie for Flambae: This ones like Michigan, that’s how I feel about you! Flambae, throwing his hands in the air: What the fuck does that mean?!

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Robert: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my anxiety. I’ll wait. Skye: You and me! Robert: *choked up* Ok.

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Skye: Which movie are you and Dad going to see tonight? Flambae: Oh, I always go to whichever movie Robert wants Skye: Which one does he want to see? Flambae: I haven't decided yet

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Robert: Why are there little handprints all over the walls? Flambae, whispering: Why are there little handprints all over the walls? Skye, whispering: Because I have little hands. Flambae: Because she has little hands.

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Flambae: I ran into Skye in the kitchen at 1 AM last night and when I asked her what they were doing, she just shrugged, said “these are my roaming hours,” and wandered off, strumming vaguely on her guitar

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There's a noise beside him. Chad glances over at Skye. She stands in a chair beside him, intently fascinated by the act of cooking and eating despite biologically not needing to. Chad has never chased her away, of course, always eager to share hobbies with his newly adopted(?) daughter.

But it turns out that's not all he shares with Skye because the noise he heard was her mimicking him. She exhales sharply out her nostrils, and blue-white flames flare out. By the time, her face is scrunched up like it tickled her, but she smiles at Chad.

He stares at her so long that the smile slowly disappears, replaced by a deep upset. Quietly, she asks, "Did I do something wrong again?"

"No," Chad says, immediately. He sets the knife down. He reaches for her but swerves away to wash his hands first. She watches his actions carefully, waiting patiently for him to return to her side to wipe away that expression. "No, no, of course not. Will you-can you do that again?"

Instead of snorting out flames, she brings her hand up. Her fingertips are licked with those blue-white flames. They dance in the vivid light they produce, a thin trail of smoke rising upward. As a pyrokinetic himself, he knows those aren't normal flames, but he is not going to tell Skye that.

He cups his hands around the flame she holds. He sends out a spark or two, merging their flames together. The white is swiftly replaced with the orange of his fire. The blue-and-orange illuminates both of their faces, especially the amber ring Chad hadn't noticed in Skye's eyes before this moment. Her grin splits across her face. "It's Dad's colors!"

Chad realizes belatedly what she means. Robert's uniform is blue-and-orange. He definitely has a preference for the former color, and hopefully his fondness for orange has grown since getting together with Chad.

To that end, he grins back at Skye. "It is."

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They stopped there because of their personal goals and fraying relationship. At the time, they never looked into what the stellar core was

If they had, they would have realized they were interfacing with eldritch star being's heart. This nameless, formless creature sacrificed its existence to create the Astral Pulse for humanity. Before it's sacrifice, however, it severed a piece of themselves. It stored this piece in the vast cosmos with a singular message: 'if you sense me, return to me.'

This piece remained in a state of nihil (a kind of sleep) until it felt the disturbance it was told to follow. Through the cosmos, this star being eventually found the whole it once belonged to in the form of the Astral Pulse.

It was held by a human. Currently, this human was asleep. The piece reached out to the Astral Pulse. It was given a new condition: earn acceptance. Not so much in words but in shared sensations, the star being came to understand that the Astral Pulse was the piece's father's heart, and it, in turn, was the child. If its father's heart was held by this human, that meant he was its father now, and in order to gain acceptance, it must first, find a place in this layer of reality and second, choose a form that her new father will not reject

Though the piece knows little of gender, a 'daughter' is instantly chosen. Age is also something she's unfamiliar with due to having no concept of 'time,' but she adjusts her new form into something the human has accepted before. As for exact appearance, she mimics the features of the human: pale skin with freckles, brown hair, brown eyes, a skinnier frame. This body was like her Astral Pulse, a container to hold her stellar core

The Astral Pulse grew silent, then, leaving her all alone with just that one final command to gain acceptance

With everything complete, she sat on her haunches on the side of the bed, leaning down to look at her father. Once he awakens, she'll carry out her new task

It doesn't take long for Robert to wake up, sensing eyes on him. He immediately panics and demands answer. The child on his bed remains completely calm (even a tad emotionless) as she explains everything to him as best as she knows it: her father put her to sleep in the cosmos and told her to come find him when she felt his presence. The Astral Pulse is her father's heart, so she came to him as she was told

Robert doesn't believe her, but she proves it by revealing part of her true form and temporarily connecting with the Astral Pulse's energy. Robert, for his part, can piece together what she likely doesn't know: Robbie and Shroud must have killed this girl's father. Anyone who can manipulate the pulse's energy is dangerous, so he doesn't feel inclined to tell her that her father is actually dead

For the time being, until he can figure out what to do with her, he can be her caretaker (because he is not cut out to be a father). He doesn't say those exact words to her, but he says she can stay with him. She is very happy to be told that, and it's very weird to see her smile given how much she looks like him

Robert sends a voicemail to Chad vaguely explaining the situation and giving him an out to their relationship since they've never talked about having kids or a family before. Then, for the rest of the night, he just probes this kid about what she knows

Questioning ends around dawn when someone lets themselves into Robert's apartment. Chad doesn't say anything, just starts making breakfast. Robert realizes then that he got a voicemail from Chad earlier. Listening to it, he discovers that he and Chad are not breaking up

With breakfast done, Chad and Robert eat. The child does not, promising them that she doesn't need nutrients like they do. Whatever conversation Chad and Robert should have can't happen with her around, so they turn their words toward her. Chad asks a question Robert hadn't thought to ask all morning, "What's your name?"

The child thinks. "I have none. You may call me whatever."

Chad glances at Robert. "You haven't named your kid yet?"

There are also similarities the other way. Moska and Robert are both powerless, which is why they take up the mantle of Mecha Man (Spark and Blue, respectively). Robert was the one who taught Moska to fight, too, and she was already predisposed for a feral style like his. Skye, in contrast, shares a similar pyrokinetic ability to her father, and because he was her teacher, he's the one she takes after

But that's not the similarities I want to talk about today. No, I want to show everyone a realization Robert himself had: how similar Moska and Skye are to Robbie and Elliot

Moska's grandfather and uncle were both car people, so she already had a basic knowledge about mechanics by the time she came into Robert and Royd's tutelage. Though she sometimes struggles with staying still, a few breaks are all she needs to fix or create something with gears and wires

Skye, in contrast, is an energy being. Her affinity is towards those scientific fields like chemistry and, obviously, astronomy. And though it takes a few crash courses, she comes to greatly understand technology

Moska is incredibly stubborn and quick to anger. Hell hath no fury like Moska scorned. It's the fault of her pride. Though many would describe it as similar to her uncle's, Robert sees his father in it

And he sees Elliot in Skye's tendency to become detached with reality and social norms, when her inhumanity becomes apparent in the way she treats the world and people around her. It is not her fault since she simply doesn't understand every natural human custom and instinct

Moska wants to help people, yes, but Robert can see a desire for honor and glory in her golden eyes. She wants to be the best, and sometimes, Robert must remind himself that she isn't willing to do anything for it

Skye wants to be seen. She wants people to consider her human, or at least treat her that way. But Skye, like Robert, has a no-kill policy, so he can be assured she won't murder someone over it

Decided to talk about Skye's power(s). Basically, Skye's power allows her to temporarily copy distorted versions of other people's powers after spending long enough around them. This happens because her stellar core—her heart, or the mass of energy inside of her—resonates with the stardust inside of others (this is also why she develops the physical appearances of people she spends time around, too, but that's for another post). It takes time for her to develop the power, and she'll lose access to it after spending time apart from the person. Additionally, as I said, it distorts the power, not necessarily weakening or strengthening it but definitely changing it. Here's some of the distortions:

Flambae - Pyrokinesis - Because she spends a lot of time around her father, she nearly constantly has pyrokinesis. Unlike Flambae, her flames are white-blue. It doesn't use up oxygen in the combustion process. She's immune to other kinds of fire, but she cannot control them. She uses the pyrokinesis to fly, shoot fireballs, illuminate or warm areas around her, stuff like her father

Chase - Super speed - This is another person she spends a fair bit of time around, but she's not allowed to use this power. While she can run at the same speed as Chase, her consequence is that she loses her memories instead of aging really quickly (losing time instead of rapidly gaining it). For now, they've only seen her run somewhere and forget why she ran there/what was happening right before, but they know that running too much will take more and more of her memories until she has nothing left in her mind

Prism - Photokinesis, Light constructs - Instead of manipulating external light, Skye can turn herself into a light construct. Her stats are directly proportional to how much light is around her. In dim places, she is very weak and cannot physically interact with the world. With a lot of light, all her stats are greatly enhanced. And if there's no light, she disappears and is effectively dead. She has a blue and white haze around her instead of a pink and blue one, so anyone can tell when she's a light construct

Sonar - Beast Mode - While his hybrid status doesn't count as a power, his ability to turn into a beast and change his stats is. She copies this pretty much one-for-one in mechanics, but she turns into a star-beast instead of a bat. Basically, a creature that looks like it's made from the night sky, stars, and asterism lines

Invisigal - Invisibility - Instead of being transparent, Skye slips from people's awareness. They know they're with someone, but their brains don't realize that it's her nor can they process how odd it is that they don't know who they're with. Like Invisigal, however, she can't breathe when this is happening, but it's more like activating the power causes her lungs to stop functioning than it is holding her breath activates her powers

Malevola - Portals / Wound Transference - Instead of using Hell as a connective tissue between her portals, Skye uses deep space. This means that very few people can go through her portals as they are. Usually, she's the only one who goes through the portals. She can transfer wounds, but never to herself. She can only ever give it to someone else.

Coupé - Umbrakinesis - Skye cannot manipulate darkness, but she can spread it. Beginning from her, a complete blackout stretches outward in a spherical shape. Light powers cannot be used, and even those with night vision can't see anything since there isn't any light to see by. People with shadow powers can't manipulate the sphere, but they are able to navigate it through using their powers as a sensing organ (including Coupé)

Waterboy - Water secretion - Skye secretes a purple-black liquid. It definitely isn't water, but it shares many of the same properties. One property it does not share is hydrating others. It doesn't seem to be poisonous or even upsetting on the stomach, but it doesn't do anything good for a person, either

Golem and Punch Up are odd because their abilities are derived from other energy sources (whatever Golem is and then magic in Punch Up's case). Skye can still mimic their powers, it just takes longer for her stellar core to resonate

Golem - Geo construct - Her body begins to transmute into the metals created in the heart of stars: iron, gold, and other heavy metals

Punch Up - Super strength/durability, picnokinesis - Under the impression that Punch Up makes himself and others denser, Skye is able to make them less so to the point that even heavy objects will start floating in the air

Skye doesn't normally mimic their powers because the external energy destabilizes her already weakly formed body. Her features and proportions can shift wildly, and she could even lose parts of herself

Bonus:

The Amulet - Amplification/Enhancement - The amulet heightens people's base stats (speed, strength, durability) while also giving them extra height, the power of flight, and enhanced healing. It also could amplify their power and combat its drawbacks. Skye can only enhance one of these for someone—whichever one they subconsciously want most—but as a trade-off, she enhances it more than the amulet does

Shroud - Probability Prediction - Skye receives prophecies from starlight. They always come true even if it's not in the way Skye or anyone else who knows the prophecy thought it would

I can yap and yap and yap about Skye. I love her so much. I have so many fun ideas with her. Like, for instance, she and Moska's main villain is an android that runs on the artificial Astral Pulse. The android part contrasts with the mech suit Moska pilots, and the inhuman nature powered by a pulse is meant to set Skye off. There's more contrast stuff I want to do, but that's the main stuff

But I wouldn't mind if you wrote something! It can be anything at all. I know I'll enjoy it :D

The energy inside Skye's stellar core can resonate with the powers of the people surrounding her, allowing her to copy a distorted version of that ability after spending time around them. She'll lose it if she stops spending time around them, and she can only copy one ability at a time

Since she has to spend a significant time around that person, there are a number of Dispatch characters who she'll likely never copy the ability of, but I thought it'd be fun to create powers for them, anyway. That being said, I will be adding a bit more to the original abilities than the game explicitly tells us just because we have so little information about them

Brainbook - Enhanced intelligence - Brainbook's intelligence is a very simple power. Skye complicates it. Instead of mimicking Brainbook's high intelligence itself, Skye gains the ability to have the knowledge of the person closest to her in her head. For instance, being around a pilot gives her what knowledge they have about planes and flying. To prevent her brain from frying, Skye still needs to call on that information, so if she doesn't know someone knows something, it won't automatically appear in her thoughts. In this, if that pilot knew a lot about how to make clothes, Skye wouldn't know anything about making clothes unless she realized the pilot knew a lot that and pulled the knowledge from them

Sweetalker - Charming Voice - While Sweetalker uses his voice to charm others, Skye uses her eyes. By making eye contact with someone, she puts them in a state susceptible to suggestion. She cannot convince someone to do something they absolutely wouldn't do otherwise, but she can nudge them to give into what they want

Pom Pom - Emotion-Physical Conversion - Although her physical prowess is a result of hard work, Pom Pom's superhuman speed is directly proportional with how happy/cheerful she is. Skye also has superhuman speed when mimicking this power, but the emotion it is derived from is her anger. It manifests itself as a mixture of both of her fathers—as cold as Robert's and as destructive as Flambae's—so you can imagine the speed she experiences when she's angered

Equilibrium - Body Supremacy - Equilibrium is in complete control over its body, able to transform, heal, reshape, resize, or alter its molecular properties. When Skye mimics this power, she can turn her body into the same energy as what's in her stellar core. She is pure energy like this, meaning she doesn't remember being 'Skye.' Unless she's put back into her body, she could be lost forever

Brickhouse - Super Strength - Brickhouse is a very strong, unmovable tank. Skye takes that 'unmovable' part when she mimics this power. Once she plants her feet, she cannot be moved or hurt by anything so long as she isn't moving (not even blinking and breathing)

Psychic - Telekinesis - This Red Ring member has a form of telekinesis that also enables her to take flight. With her fingertip, Skye creates blue lines in the air that any object can be mentally slid across once attached