abilities / permissions
Abilities
Once upon a time, there was a mutant boy gifted with the ability to easily translate languages. Sadly, this didn't do much for him when it came to combat situations. One day, he took a few bullets for a teammate and died.
Several years later, he would be revived as a minion of another villain through the use of a technovirus. With the help of his former teammates, he was saved and was able to rejoin the team as a fully living member of society. Not only that, but in the process of being revived, his mutant abilities were given a significant boost.
He still translates languages. But now? Everything is language to him.
What does this mean? Well, here's the full scope of his powers, or what we've seen of them, with examples provided.
- He is able to decipher any language or code created, no matter how complicated and no matter how little he's given to go on.
- He can read the subtextual meaning behind what a person is saying - what they really mean, in other words. (I will probably handwave a lot of this as it's done in the comics so that other players don't have to let me know all the time.)
- He can read body language and know what move, while fighting, that a person plans to execute next. However, he can't read it when there's no thought behind it - and that's literal, as in the person is in a zombie-like state. Real zombies would, of course, also be immune.
- He can interpret a building's structure to determine where suitable entrances would be, where its weaknesses would be, etc.
- He can speak with machines, interface with them (to an extent) and rewrite them. His hacking abilities are basically unparalleled.
And this is only what we've seen demonstrated in the comics.
Now obviously this could lead to quite a bit of godmodding if handled poorly, and that's the last thing I want. I don't like stepping on the toes of others. Cypher doesn't have much reason to hack into people's entries randomly, but he might if he finds it necessary. Usually I'll ask beforehand, so leaving a note here might not even be necessary.
However, if you have any specific guidelines you'd like to try and set up, don't want him hacking your characters' things ever (though try and be reasonable here) or for some reason want Doug to hack your entries, just let me know. I'm very much willing to work any and all issues out beforehand.
EXAMPLE REQUEST: "Hey, so I know Doug is totally on my character's case right now and would probably be watching all his posts like a hawk, but I can't pull off this super awesome master plot if he is, so could we figure out a way where he wouldn't?"
I'm cool with this sort of thing.
Now, I really feel that a lot of Doug's potential may never be used in the actual series, and I hope this isn't the case. There are so many characters that it's common for one to display a certain amount of badassery then be shoved into the background never to display it again. In Doug's case, I'll be very disappointed if he does nothing but speak different languages and hack computers for the rest of the series. I'm sure he'll have his moments, but there are so many things he could be doing.
He could, for example, pick up other skills from different inhabitants of Siren's Port. If it's something his body is capable of performing and is used in any way that resembles a language, chances are he would be able to pull it off. Will he ever do this in the series? Probably not. But like I said, it would have to be something he was physically capable of, since I wouldn't want to go overboard.
To give you a better idea of what I mean, I would say that, not being from that specific world, Doug doesn't have the chakra capacity to perform any of the techniques your typical Naruto character would. He could, however, fake people out by perfectly imitating the hand signs necessary for the various jutsus. Whether or not he could learn magic would depend on the type of magic involved. For example, he wouldn't be able to do anything that involved being born with an affinity for magic. Case by case basis. I probably won't do too much of this because his abilities are awesome enough on their own, but I feel it's a potential he has that will never be used in the comics.
General permissions
I'm not going to do a big fancy list here. Basically, if you're concerned about playing out something with me, just ask. Drop me a PM or IM me at jesterwinged.
As long as you don't godmod my character into doing anything, then I'm pretty cool with a lot of things combat-wise.
As far as backthreading goes, I try not to drop threads until they've reached a good conclusion. If life gets in the way of your tagging and you want to continue a thread we started months ago? Tag it. I'll see it, and we can continue it if the outcome doesn't throw more current events into confusion.