I hope this doesn't sound wierd. I have this character. Developed her powers. I feel like it is right where it should be but that demon we call doubt is creeping up on me. The nature of the power, teleporting, goes a bit over my head. So I thought I would ask a general opinion. To see if any of my ideas seem like they contradict with other ideas. Though I am also not against a little devil's advocate/ general opinions. So my girl Lisa. Her teleporting ability is actually limited. Some of her limitations do not carry over to others. For this I am just going to give a bullet point list of what she can do and the ideas behind it. - The warping explanation of my universe is traveling between the walls of different planes. Beind the spiritual plane(After life) and the material plane. Living matter cannot reach the spirital plane. So the idea is the character is inbetween the two which explain the fast travel. -Her momentum/orrientation cannot altered. Meaning if she is falling she cannot warp the reverse direction. If she is traveling 20 miles an hour and heading down and facing south. Regardless of where she goes. She is still going to be moving 20 miles per hour down and facing south. -She can warp items without going herself but requires physical contact to do so. Example. Pulling a grenade pin, then warping the grenade without going herself. -She can warp out of her own clothing. Concept being she wears a ninja uniform underneath plain clothing. She can warp out of the plain clothing. Notable point being how she can form her warp around one layer of clothing but not the other. - She cannot hurt herself or others with the warp itself. As mentioned she retains momentum. So a fall can hurt. What I mean by this is that she can't warp into a wall. Nor can she warp into a person or warp a person into a wall. If she cannot emmerge into the place in question, then she will simply fail and never leave. - Warping technically takes time. By which I mean while she is in-between the walls of the two pllanes she is not in either plane. Though not notable to her personally for next point. - She can only warp 5-10 feet. (One of the biggest examples of limitations she has that some do not.) - She can sense the area in which she able to warp. Which would be how she is aware if she can warp. Meaning if she touched a wall that was 20 feet thick she would be aware that she can't warp past it. I figure this means assuming she is paying attension that she would be aware of material entering her zone of awareness. Such as a bullet being fired at her. Not sure if that makes sense. Thanks for listening. Tagging @Aaron DC because I get the feeling you would like this one.
First thing I saw was "she can warp out of her own clothing". Yep, I like this one (Heading out for dinner, will respond more intelligently later )
Interesting. That second to last point seems to me to be just about the most important of them all. It take the whole thing and really gives it a limitation that I haven't personally seen much of. I've seen to many characters (some written by myself) that have powers that are basically limitless. Being able to teleport, but only able to do so at a max range of 10 feet is a MAJOR limitation! I like that. To me it helps to bring a character that has a power nobody can really relate to, and gives them an issue that brings them back to a bit more reality. It sounds like it will be harder to write, having to remember said limitations, and finding ways around them, but I really like seeing that.
The direction one is a big one too. It is officially listed as one of Nightcrawlers skills that if he is falling. He will reverse his direction to dispell the volicity. This makes Nightcrawler effectly immune to the effects of gravity. She can't do that so jumping out of a helicopter would hurt. In theory even with the five feet limit. If she could reverse direction she would also be gravity immune. The best she could do is rapid fire teleport down as a means of making the fall feel like from a lower height. But yeah the range restriction was because I wanted her to be more like a "walk through walls" character. Yet my magic model has no way to explain this. So I figured. This works. . Thanks for the comment.
It sounds consistent. It is very limited, and you've chosen one possible limitation mechanism from probably an infinite number to keep it "fair", I am guessing? I think I would like to see the character employing at least one "work around" that negates the limitation. eg: she only has to touch something, and weight is no factor, so she could potentially shift a truck out of the way, or even -- if timed right -- avoid an assassination attempt by shifting an oncoming vehicle 10 feet to the left the instant it touches her. I am curious now. In the story I doubt the reader is going to entertain these sorts of thoughts, they should be too distracted by the story, so I admit I am playing devil's advocate here: if she tries to shift something 20 ft wide in the direction of its width, with a 10 ft limit, she could potentially shift it into herself. Her perception would have to extend further than the limit of her teleport range yes?
- She can warp items without going herself but requires physical contact to do so. Example. Pulling a grenade pin, then warping the grenade without going herself. Can she touch the planet and warp it 10ft that way --> ? If so, I like this power
Oh that is a good question. I did actually speficially ask for some devils advocate didn't I? Well how quickly she can warp is something I am unsure on. In the sense of other objects. She can warp herself instantly. I am thinking of adding a "warm up contact time" because otherwise couldn't she negate all kinetic energy by warping the concept in question away from her? Though size is an issue. Weight isn't. She wouldn't be able to warp something the size of a truck I don't think. Though the limit here is not yet defined. I see her as outstretching her body. Arms and legs as far away as possible. Now draw a sphere around her that she can fit into. I imagine that would be her size limit. Which means too actually. That lets say she had a chain. (One of her weapons is a chain) If she tried to warp with the chain but the chain was outside of her limit. I see the force of the warp snapping it out of her hand. As she can't take it with her but she can go. Because as I said. She can't hurt things with the mechanic of the warp. So she can't for instance teleport a item into herself. Though what do you think about the sensing mechanic I mentioned? Do you think her sensing a bullet seems fair?
There's precedent and again I'd go back to chi and being able to sense a sword nearing you, despite it being out of eye shot. The problem with the bullet is how fast it's moving, and the human reaction time required to dodge it, even with a valid warp route available. Have you ever tried catching a ruler between your fingers when someone else drops it? We are pretty slow in general.
lol. Yeah I suppose it is useful to say people in my world are generally faster. Concept being aura powering all aspects of a person. Including reaction time but your points stands. In her case it is more increased reaction. Not bullets stand still like my god. So she can indeed be caught, well initiionally. Holding her down is a bit tricky. lol. Yet the principle I was meaning. Is that her sensing the world through her teleport sense seems to be about the fact she can tell "if" she can go. A bullet being so small wouldn't really interupt her ability to warp. So if it doesn't interupt her ability. Would that sense be blind to it? Or would her ability be sensitive enough to detect things. If they interrupt her ability or not? Logical conlusions are tricky sometimes. lol
I think that's a question you as the author and creator will have to answer. I think it's believable that she could sense something entering her sphere, yes. If she has the processing speed to make it worthwhile, then bullets should be fine to detect.
You also have to imagine he time it takes said bullet to travel through space the size of her bubble. By the time she warps there chances are it could already have passed.
But I prefer making logic answer things I am uncertain on! lol Well I suppose more if people are not going "BULLSHIT!" to the concept I am probably okay. It seems I gave her enough counter balances. Funny enough she can still spam her warping in battle aggressively with the limiation of direction. Being a moment where she punches you in the head and turns around throwing another punch. The warp brings her direction to be right. I figured it is fair too because a skilled fighter can connect the dots if she is punching randomly to the left she might be planning to emerge in a place where that will hurt. As a fighter too her weakness isn't meant to be someone sneaking up on her or knocking her out with a lucky punch. The idea is her defensive skills are too good. So the perfect match for her is someone with an equal defense. If it becomes a battle of attrition she will lose. Because while she can do well for the first while. Her teleporting and her style are very costly to her stamina. If she can't win quickly she will get tired. And if she is tired she can't warp. lol
If her bubble extends roughly three feet from her center, and that is also her perception area, she would have to have very, very, high powered reflexes to sense it, plan her route, and execute that action.
I think it would make more sense if she could tell that the finger was pulling the trigger, than her sensing the bullet itself.
She has two bubbles in a sense. One that is the area she can take. That would be yeah about three feet from her center. But also a second bubble that is about five feet further than her bubble. That would be her real sense area. But the current idea is that she can sense through that bubble as a way of indentifing if she can warp. As she can sense that nothing is on the other side of a wall without just blind faith. The concept is if that is her reasoning for being able to sense what is in the bubble. Would something small like a bullet be on her radar. Since it is too small to stop her warp. If that makes sense?
But a bullet is not too small to stop her warp. If she warped over it (ie it into her as she occupies the same space), it would kill her. Detecting the bullet fits, IMO.
True. If she cannot put herself or others into harm through the warp, a bullet should certainly qualify.
Yeah. That is true. She isn't supposed to be able to warp to raw material. This would make me think she can sense all raw material in her zone. Or at least all solid material. Water and Air don't stop her because she pushes them out of the way when she re-emerges. But you can't push a solid away me thinks. All suddenly I just picture someone not knowing what she can do and while she is standing next to a wall. They shoot at her back. She warps behind the wall and then runs around til she gets to his back. Yet she is a jokester. So I can see her tapping his shoulder and being like. "Hiya!" lol Well depends how harm is achieved. Like example. Lets say there was a fat man! Like 500 pounds. And she can't lift him. She could warp him outside the building(assuming the distance qualifies) in this case lets say the building is 5 stories up. That is a warp hurting him and it is valid. Because of the disconnect. The warp didn't hurt him. Gravity did! lol. So if she wasn't paying attension she can warp in front of the path of a bullet and as such get shot. But unlikely. What she can't do is open a warp on someone effectly cutting them. Or close a warp on half a person again to cut them.
And given both the bullet's movement through her body's space (< 1 foot thick) and her teleportation are practically instantaneous, if I were her, I'd teleport away from the path of the bullet, and then immediately back to where I had just left (so it looks like the bullet passed through me), turn and then wink at the shooter. Then probably deck them, but that's just me.
