#speculative semblance

Mirror Requiem

Contrary to expectations, hereditary semblances are not an absolute guarantee that they would inherited by all of descendants. Whitley’s is one such example. However, his close proximity with his family, and the emphasis derived on inheriting its legacy has caused his Semblance to grow enough that it has approximate similarities to the Schnee Hereditary Semblance.

When activating his Semblance, Whitley manifests the likeness of his family’s emblem, enclosed in a white ring. However, this is merely the activation, as the snowflake fades away, leaving in place a mirror-like surface in the white ring. Whitley can manifest multiple copies of the mirrors, however, the more he manifests, the more it drains his Aura.

These mirrors are able to become block attacks, though their main function is to reflect attacks (normally a physical attack or a projectile) back toward his opponent, damaging them. He could, theoretically, ricochet his own projectiles, increasing their own power and speed, until he can angle it to hit his target. Alternatively, he could jump, manifest the mirror below him, and when he lands on it, the mirror will repel him, effectively giving him a “double jump”. With proper training, he would be able to reflect non-physical attacks such as the effects of semblances, including the Mind-based ones. If someone were to try to induce hallucinations on him, he can manifest his Semblance, concentrate, and the mirror will reflect the effect back on the user.

In addition, Whitley is able to capture the image of a person with his Mirror, and assume the form of the image. However, in doing so, he will look like the mirror image of his target, so their physical traits may not correctly match up. For example, a scar on the right side of the face will end up on the left side. Offensively, he could materialize an object from the image, creating replicas of the person he is fighting. Projecting his Semblance before a firing squad will manifest the reflection of the firing squad, with their own real weaponry.

There is the possibility that Marcus Black’s Semblance worked like the Quirk of the villain of the same name in My Hero Academia. That is, it did not merely deprive his victim of using their own Semblance, but actually removed that part of their soul like an organ and then grafted it into his own, to allow him to use that power for himself against them.

But Marcus Black did not become Remnant’s own version of that over-powered kingpin super-villain. Instead, he lived as a hermit hiding in a shack in the wilderness, making money as a contract killer. He didn’t even lead a roving gang of bandits like Raven Branwen, and it is explicitly stated that her gang could only afford to be so large because she had the power of the Spring Maiden rather than just her own Semblance and skills.

Furthermore, if Marcus could only hold just one stolen Semblance and use it for himself, why would he believe that a Semblance would only ever be a crutch that makes someone a weak fighter? After all, his own Semblance would allow him to deny his victims their own strengths while using those very strengths against them. That would be such a useful advantage that it would make no sense to not specialize in using it. Clearly his Semblance would make him a more powerful assassin than he ever could be without it.

Additionally, Marcus clearly felt threatened by his son developing a single Semblance of his own; so much so that Marcus stole it from him, and perhaps even protected himself with the lie that killing him would mean Mercury would never get it back.

Obviously, Marcus did not exaggerate the threat that Mercury posed to his life, since his son did succeed in murdering him in hand-to-hand combat despite having no Semblance and inferior experience (and also presumably dealing with the trauma of the recent amputation and cybernetic replacement of his legs).

If Marcus could hold even just one stolen Semblance at a time for his own use, he died despite all of those advantages as well as having his son’s own Semblance to use against him. Possible, but it seems unlikely.

Finally, Mercury’s own skills with fighting and killing huntsmen despite having no Semblance of his own make the most sense if they are skills beaten into him by a father who also had no Semblance of his own for murdering huntsmen. No Semblance, that is, except the power to cripple the Semblances of others, that he might drag them down to his level and beat them with experience.

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Arslan Atlan’s Semblance

The Weaving Blows

To activate this Semblance, Arslan takes a stance and readies her single fist. Her Aura flares to a maximum as her Semblance charges. Then, when she’s ready, she lets loose a single punch.

From this, Arslan lets forth a discharges the force of many punches, numbering in the thousands at maximum, in mid to short distances. That said, the motion itself is one punch, what it delivers is the force of many punches, launched from her fist. While the individual blows are rather glancing, the damage stacks up, allowing her to surpass the defenses of most other opponents. In addition, it is excellent for crowd control, as the multiple blows are able to hit many enemies at once.

However, after using her Semblance, her Aura is spent, and she must recover before performing it again.

Bolin Hori’s Semblance

Drizzle Dance

When activating this Semblance, Bolin releases his Aura as a vapor into the atmosphere, leaving him with half of his reserves.

Over time, his Aura “vapor” condenses overhead, until it becomes a semi-translucent cloud.

When it reaches maximum capacity, Bolin is able to control this “cloud”, and make it rain projectiles of Aura down onto his targets, able to punch through enemy defenses.

However, the process can be disrupted if Bolin’s Aura takes a hit from an opponent, forcing him to start over.

Reese Chloris’s Semblance

Railway Grind

Reese Chloris’s Semblance creates a long strip of energy, the same ship as a akin to a construct made of Hardlight Dust. Doing so allows her to travel along her created path, even defying basic physics, as she can travel upwards without any prior momentum. These paths are created mid-air, allowing Reese to be airborne without actually flying, and the paths she makes can be made up on the fly.

However, while doing so, she must concentrate solely on keeping her constructs active, and so she cannot attack while using her semblance.

Nadir Shiko’s Semblance

Adhesion

Nadir Shiko is able to apply an adhesive like quality to where ever he concentrates his Aura, usually his limbs. This ensures that he does not lose grip on his weapon or other such items of importance, such as rope.

Sky Dancer

(My speculations on what Mercury could have had, had his monster of his father not taken away his semblance.)

For the boy who wished for the pain to end, it was only natural that he would wish to fly away from it all, with his father bringing him down to cold hard earth.

Mercury’s semblance would have allowed him to achieve levitation, allowing him to float off the ground for as long as his Aura could take it, and eventually to flight, taking to the skies unaided save by his will alone. It would have been activated by pushing his Aura downward, similar to how engine or helicopter pushes air down to rise from the ground.

He would have been able to ignore aerodynamics and wind resistance, and allow him to keep paces with even the almost advanced of aircrafts. At its fullest potential, it would have allowed Mercury to “fly away” from reality, manifesting in such a way that nothing in reality could hurt or affect him, including the mental effects of other Semblances.

It is a Semblance borne out of a desire to escape from his father, from the pain and torment under his hand, to be taken away to a better place and to freedom.

Verse Refraction

Ozpin is a man of mystery with few knowing his identity and even fewer knowing the tricks up his sleeves.

When Ozpin activates his Semblance, a phenomenon is observed from the outside, concentrated around his body. Ozpin’s silhouette begins to flicker, and every movement of his seems to leave an afterimage. Opponents of his swear that he is simply that fast, and Ozpin allows them to think that.

In truth, Ozpin creates a phenomenon where temporal gaps and seams between parallel timelines, allowing for his own parallel timeline selves and their weaponry at hand to assist him in battle, though they appear like ghostly afterimages from an outside observer.

With this semblance, he is able to accomplish such feats as striking from multiple points in a single one of his strikes from different angles in a single moment. Furthermore, activating his semblance means that his opponent will have a hard time figuring what exactly blocked and struck them. Only overwhelming force is efficient enough to overcome this semblance.

However, that is not to say it does not have limitations. The summoning is limited to what he’s actually doing, as it pulls in his parallel selves in similar states and conditions. For instance, if he is wielding Long Memory, so too would the Parallel Selves. In addition, the summoning is confined to an area close to his body, and cannot move past it.

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The Good General always had a heart in the right place, but not the mindset to express it well. He is blunt, and often uses the direct approach, using the right amount of force to eliminate his obstacles. So too does his semblance reflect that. 

By focusing his Aura and activating his Semblance, James Ironwood enters into a such an enhanced state that he proves to be an unstoppable force once he sets out on his warpath. Any issues with stamina and energy is suspended as in this state he cannot tire, as if fueled by an infinitely regenerating reservoir. Ironwood gains enhanced speed and strength, but most importantly, he becomes completely invulnerable once he sets out in motion, as there is almost nothing on Remnant that could possibly deter him, and the most anybody can do is slow him down. In fact, he could just kill any number of Grimm by plowing through it like a football player in motion.

However, the effect only works if he can keep himself in motion, so he cannot stand still and benefit from it. Another thing is, once he’s in motion, he cannot change direction or else the effect is lost as well.

Hei Xiong’s Semblance

Just Right

Junior’s Semblance allows him to redistribute heat through kinetic energy.

Every time he is impacted by an outside kinetic force, he is able to drain the target of its heat, lowering their overall temperature. As a result, his body begins to heat up, and in some rare cases, the object that inflicted the kinetic force will frost over, even freeze in place.

However, his own body cannot handle extreme heat, and he will suffer heatstroke unless he disperses it outside of his body. To do so, he is able to shoot out consuming streams of fire or protective short waves of it. Unfortunately, using this aspect of his Semblance will also drastically lower his body temperature to the point of hypothermia and frostbite will occur.

Junior thus needs to find just the right amount of balance to his Semblance in combat.

Lil Miss Malachite’s Semblance

Itsy Bitsy

Lil Miss Malachite is a well-known information broker. Thus, her Semblance grants the tool necessary to achieve her goals in that regard.

Alter-Ego

Oscar always thought he was destined for more, even wishing to become a Huntsman. And what Huntsman is complete without their Semblance?

By concentrating and placing his focus on an idealized version of himself, of a great hero, Oscar Pines is able to undergo a great transformation! He becomes an older version of himself, shapeshifting his body to conform the ideal image of his future self, and as a result becomes stronger, faster, and more skilled, being able to make fight as if he himself experienced many battles, even though that is only the result of his future self’s muscle memory. However, this form does not last long, as Oscar painfully found out.

Further training in this Semblance allows Oscar to assume other forms of himself, such as a slightly older form, a form similar to a child’s, etc; in doing so, he lessens the strain on his Aura, as well as being able to change forms on the fly.

However, when coupled with being Ozma’s host, Oscar is able to go past his limits and achieve further with his Semblance. With Ozma’s soul within him, he can assume the forms of his previous incarnations, including the original with his full power, with their height, weight, biological data, and semblances recreated as if resurrected from the dead.

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