#psionic frequency generator

[vee-more-afraid]

Creatation's Types, Stats and Classes

This is a semi-long post going into some Creatation game mechanics – namely, the different kinds of Types that both Creatatures and moves can have, a Creatature’s different stats, and the different Classes of moves available.

TYPES

In Creatation, there are a whopping 27 different elements, or types, that a Creatature can be, having up to two of them at a time.

While some types are more common or rarer than others, they’re found across many different Creatatures across the world. For example, Forest biomes are likely to have more Plant, Fungus, or Bug types in them; Deserts and Canyons have plenty more Earth or Fire types, and Creatatures found deep in the Underground or Caverns are likely to be Stone, Dark, or Undead type, to name a few.

Creatatures’ moves have types as well, and some types are stronger against others. For example, Fire is weak to Water, Plant is weak to Fungus, Dark is weak to Light, and so on and so forth. (More details about Creatature’s moves, both attacks and utility uses, will be in a later post.)

STATS

            Each Creatature has 8 stats. While Creatatures of the same species will have generally similar points in each stat, between training, randomization and the strength gained by increasing your level, no two Creatatures will be exactly alike! However, don't be put out if your Creatature doesn't have the best stats it possibly could - you can always get the absolute best out of any one you catch with the right training! I'd never stick y'all with a subpar 'mon just through sheer bad luck, these are your partners in crime! The stats are as follows:

HP: The maximum amount of Health a Creatature has. When a Creatature’s health hits 0, it will be incapacitated and unable to battle until manually healed. Corporal Attack: Calculates the amount of damage a Creatature deals with Melee and Ranged moves. Corporal Defense: Calculates the amount of damage a Creatature takes from Melee and Psionic moves. Ethereal Attack: Calculates the amount of damage a Creatature deals with Magic and Psionic moves. Ethereal Defense: Calculates the amount of damage a Creatature takes from Ranged and Magic moves. Speed: How fast or slow the Creatature can move. Stamina: The total amount of Stamina a Creatature has. Each move a Creatature uses takes away a bit of stamina from it. When it runs out of stamina, it will need to stop battling until the meter fills back up. It will slowly refresh over time, but keeping your Creatatures from getting exhausted is a top priority. Intelligence: This stat controls how smart the AI of the Creatature is. Smarter Creatatures will prioritize more effective moves, using non-damaging moves to buff allies and hurt enemies, keeping its Stamina from dropping too low and using the surrounding environment to their advantage. While it does the least in the mathematical sense, Intelligence is arguably the most important stat for a Creatature to have.

CLASSES

In addition to types, damaging moves also come in 4 ‘classes’ that determine the type and effectiveness of the damage. Each class uses one of the Creatature’s Attack stats, compared against one of the opponent’s Defense stats. As a result, a Creatature with a high attack stat in one category is strong in at least 2 classes, while a Creatature with a high defense stat in one category is able to resist at least 2. However, further specialization into classes will largely come from the moves each Creatature has access to.

Melee moves: the most close-ranged of the four, this uses Corporal Attack against Corporal Defense. Ranged moves: dealing heavily with throwing or firing projectiles, this uses Corporal Attack against Ethereal Defense. Magic moves: a class that involves mystical energy of the elemental variety, this uses Ethereal Attack against Ethereal Defense. Psionic moves: focused around aura, physic abilities and resonant frequencies, this uses Ethereal Attack against Corporal Defense.

There will be plenty of moves of different types and classes, making sure that every Creatature can stand out and find its own ‘niche’ making it worthy of bringing with you. However, with Creatation’s wide open plains making it more likely you’ll run into situations where your current Creatatures are less effectual, it's encouraged to catch and train many different Creatatures of a variety of uses and niches, instead of only training one singular 'team' that you bring everywhere. Keep on collecting!

[sunsetsands]

This is the second part of the mega alien dump. First part here.

This is yet another aquatic sophont, a meresus. Seeing as how the "dolphin" body shape has convergently evolved several times throughout Earth's history, it made sense to me to make a vaguely dolphinlike alien. Their home planet is probably warmer than the yubotes', with shallower, open oceans, whereas I imagine the yubote world would have very deep oceans filled with rocky/corally pillars.

As is clearly visible above, I'm not fully decided on most aspects of their design besides just being an insectoid dolphin. There's a lot of room for things to be improved here.

This is a letharge, a nonsapient arboreal creature that fills a similar niche to sloths. Unlike Earth sloths, however, these things are native to a planet with oceans of ammonia in place of water, meaning its metabolism, and thus its movement, is much slower. They can sometimes go months at a time without moving an inch, sometimes making it difficult to tell the difference between a living letharge and a dead one.

These two creatures are from the same planet as the last one, though they're more closely related to each other than either are to the letharge. Both of their mouth arrangements include a claw-arm-thing that contains the mouth opening, as well as a long pincer that they use to jab at prey or scoop food closer to them. The one on the left is a solitary pursuit predator, while the one on the right is a social ambush predator. In a setting where there's a sort of interstellar multispecies civilization, I imagine the one on the right would become a popular pet.

I had been worried before that I was running out of original ideas for body plans and that I would just end up repeating the same few ones over and over again, but I've been able to produce a lot more diversity here than in any of the previous dumps I've done.

Slorphs are the obligitory "just a squid" of this shared universe. They reside in a gas giant with a very thick, dense atmosphere, thick enough for the resident organisms to float in as if it was an ocean. The clubbed tail at the bottom acts like a weight, which keeps them upright while they fly around. Due to the lack of solid ground, all of their major structures are either built off of larger floating creatures or midair buoys.

These creatures are phvolax, beach-dwelling squid-slug things with a size and ecological role similar to walruses. The stripes on their backs act like those of a zebra, deterring pests and making it harder to tell where one phvolax ends and another begins, while the marks on their faces help members of the herd tell each other apart. Anatomically and behaviorally, not including their nonsapience, they are very similar to akada, a fact many Almudian spec bio nerds claim is "unrealistic".

Out of all of the concepts procured for this sketch dump, this is probably the least realistic. Polodes have no limbs of any kind, instead manipulating objects with electromagnetism. This electric power is generated by organs similar to the ones possessed by electric eels. I have absolutely no idea of the actual mechanics of this, nor if this is even remotely possible. It's more or less just a "scientifically accurate" way of justifying psionics within an otherwise hard sci-fi setting. In addition to this, they communicate with each other at frequencies too high for most other creatures' ears to perceive, which is, again, just "scientific" telepathy. These things are almost certainly getting scrapped, but it was a fun concept to play with while it lasted.

This is the end of the dump. There were originally more entries, but I realized I couldn't come up with anything interesting to say for most of them, so they just got scrapped. I think I'm good on making design dumps like this for a while.

[ixmelodix]

On: Lusii, Signs, and Grubs

The Lusus confers the sign.

No one really knows who developed the lusii; even the jadebloods don't have any records back to when they were first developed, leading some to think they evolved in conjunction with trolls. Certainly they have been the caretakers of young trolls as far back as any records go, and the only troll who might be old enough to remember before their existence, if there ever was a time before their existence, would be the Condesce, who has no interest in discussing anything like that.

Jadebloods since have been researching the lusii, and have determined a number of things.

Lusii come in thousands of different species, which mate and reproduce much like the animals they resemble. All lusii have very minor communicative psionic abilities, which they use as a sort of 'hive mind' within a species, sharing thoughts, feelings, and memories, which causes the lusii to be very intelligent indeed. At any given time, however, one 'alpha' lusii will exist within the species. This 'alpha' possesses very strong psionics, both psychic and physical. When the alpha dies, these abilities move through the 'hive mind' to the next-strongest of the species, who in turn becomes the alpha.

On hatching, all trolls, regardless of color or later psionic abilities, possess the ability to call, psychically. This call starts out at a very precise mental 'frequency' corresponding specifically to their blood shade. Lusii are, in turn, sensitive to specific 'frequencies', on a species-wide basis, with the alpha being sensitive in the extreme. Jadebloods witnessing the lusii picking out their grubs have noted that the later lusii appear, the more likely they are to appear even in pain from the call that demands their presence.

Only alphas ever respond to a grub's call. In the event that an alpha matching the grub's color is not available (too far away, restrained, already bonded to a different grub, etc.), none may come immediately; the longer a grub goes without being bonded, however, the 'broader' their psychic call becomes, targeting lusii sensitive to colors very near in shade. Jades have observed some grubs, not picked up immediately, ending up with lusii fighting over them. In those cases, whichever lusus wins the fight takes the grub.

Jadebloods are vital for the assignation of signs; they have a database of lusii species and the corresponding signs. When a lusus is spotted approaching the caverns, the jade on duty will look up the sign for that lusus, and select a token with the corresponding symbol on it, which they will input into a (waterproof) "grub computer" to unlock appropriate schoolfeeding courses for the caste the sign is registered to (in the case of signs on the borders of caste divides, they are assigned to the lower caste applicable), as well as purchasing abilities for the drone-based manufacturing, fabricating, and delivery service.

On the odd occasion that the jadeblood on duty misidentifies the sign or specific type of lusus (as some of them do look quite similar to each other), the lusus is almost always able to correct it; the hive mind generally recognizes the symbol they match.

The grub, once bonded to the lusus (which occurs within moments of being handled by said lusus), loses its psychic calling ability and the lusus develops a block over their receptor, so that no two living trolls can have the same lusus (and thus, sign).

In the beginning, the lusus's psionic abilities, combined with their natural physical abilities, allows them to take care of the grub; psionics allow even the ones lacking manipulating digits to interact with the world and objects as necessary.

Lusii whose species have had grubs before often have a particular 'ancestral hive' that they will bring a grub to, if it is still there when they have their next grub - this is how Eridan ended up on his ancestor's ship. If it is not there, or if the species has not had a grub before, they will usually follow their animal instincts in picking out a home: landdwelling animals on land, oceandwellers on the shore; social animals in settled areas, nonsocial animals in quiet areas in the wilderness.

Regardless of where the lusus chooses to make a hive, they will set up the grub-computer (often called a "grubtop") and use it to order, with the credit balance allotted to grubs based on caste, the things that they need to take care of the grub. For this reason, lusii tend to try to find existing homes that don't need much repair or building, or even ones that are still furnished from a previous inhabitant, since repairing homes eats up a large chunk of a budget they may need for other things.

Lusii whose species has had more grubs tend to be better at money management, but all lusii understand the concept of purchasing through the grubtop and have an innate sense of what their grub will need that they cannot provide.

Lusii with grubs are also capable of communicating with each other, although they cannot communicate with lusii who do not have grubs (outside their own species, anyway) and have trouble communicating with others that are significantly higher than their own 'frequency,' leading to situations where a lusus of a highblood can be heard by that of a lowblood, but cannot hear the lowblood's lusus in turn.

Many social types of lusii will make bartering arrangements with each other to obtain things they can't easily get, or to get them cheaper from someone who doesn't need them. More territorial lusii, as most of the types that take highblooded trolls are, will use this ability of communication to threaten others away from their home.

As the grub grows, the lusus begins them on the education (schoolfeeding) course on their grubtop, manipulating the keys and cursor as necessary (grub claws are not very good for precise movements or manipulating objects).

Then, when the grub starts to create its cocoon for its pupation, the lusus orders the 'recuperacoon' the troll will need after pupation.

After the grub pupates into a subadult (wriggler), the lusus's psionics slowly start to fade. Over time, as the new troll is able to do things for themselves, the lusus stops trying to do them, leading many trolls to believe their lusii have always been incapable of doing things their physical bodies cannot, which in turn creates a culture that believes, as adults, that lusii are rather stupid and useless. This is subtly encouraged in the schoolfeeding courses, to 'wean' the trolls off their early-life caregivers, a necessary thing as many lusii do not live much longer than it takes their trolls to reach their first adult molt, if even that long. If they live that long, at the first adult molt of their troll, the lusus loses all remaining psionic/psychic abilities but those native to the species (eg, Seahorsedad's ability to fly) and leave their troll to return to the nesting grounds of their species.

Lusii are not invulerable, and are relatively frequently killed. Alpha lusii are generally the toughest of their species, so they are more resistant, but can still be killed. Upon the death of an alpha, the alpha's abilities, memories, and bond are transferred through the group-mind to the new alpha, who immediately leaves to take up the previous one's charge. Since the grub/wriggler can no longer 'call' them, however, they have to rely on the previous alpha's memories to find said grub/wriggler, which may take a significant amount of time, and if the troll leaves their home, the new alpha may be unable to find them. Grubs who lose their lusus may survive if the new lusus is able to reach them quickly, but in most cases die. Wrigglers are more likely to survive the loss of a lusus until the new one comes, but are more likely to move or go searching for a lusus (if they don't know the old one died), and so are less likely to be found by a new lusus.

Only death of a troll severs the lusus-grub bond, which unblocks the species' alpha-lusus's psychic receptors for grub-calls. This prevents more than one troll from having a sign at any given time.

Due to all of this, signs are rather imprecise, and some signs may even range across technical caste lines, so modern trolls generally don't use signs to classify trolls, but rather blood-color-readers that are more precise. This is generally only done upon the first adult molt of a troll, when they are assigned their in-person (not virtual) adult school (or in the case of jadebloods, the caverns). Few trolls outside the caverns - even highbloods - have access to any kind of database matching signs to castes, and even fewer see the need to use one, as color-readers are so precise; for the modern troll, their sign is more personal information than useful.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

DEFECTOR OF THE SHI'AR EMPIRE -- HIGHLY TRAINED, COMBAT EFFECTIVE, DEATHLY BEAUTIFUL.

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1044x1600 -- Spotlight on Cerise, an extraterrestrial female combatant of the Shi'ar race. She arrived upon Earth after deserting the empire's brutal military tactics, refusing to fire upon innocents and as a result causing the death of her crew. Artwork by Jim Lee, c. 1993. Marvel Comics.

POWERS & ABILITIES: "As a member of the alien Shi'ar race, Cerise possesses physical abilities much more powerful than an average Earth human female. She is capable of generating and psionically controlling energy fields comprised of coherent red spectrum light force in multiple forms ranging from concussive blasts, light or in the shape of solid weaponry and armour. Using this power also permits Cerise to levitate large objects such as an entire Sentinel by encasing it within a "bubble" of which she is capable of transporting great distances. Independent of this power, Cerise is able to fly on her own volition.

In her arsenal are Shi'ar developed gloves that contain broad-band sensors which can locate specific life-forms, temporal and/or dimensional frequencies and energy within her environment, as well as a suit which allows Cerise to travel through hypserpace.

Cerise is a superb warrior, having received intensive combat training in the Shi'ar military and is a trained starship navigator."

-- COMICVINE/GAMESPOT (Cerise bio)

Source: https://1ojodemelkart.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-marvel-x-men-collection-n1-children.html & ComicVine/GameSpot.

[ryqoshay]

A Perfect World - Reverie

Starring: Karin, Kanata Side Pairing: EmmaKarin Words: 603 Rating: G AU: a perfect world... Time Frame: ??? Prompt: Reverie

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Summary: Kanata has a new product for her favorite customer

Author's Note: Bonus second entry for the 2nd

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“Karin-chan! Welcome.” Kanata said with a sleepy smile. “You’re just the customer I was waiting for.”

“Oh?” Karin asked as she walked across the lobby.

It had been over a month since Karin had started patronizing Somnial, a shop owned and run by Kanata that specialized in sleep and dream aids. Emma had suggested it to Karin to help deal with insomnia. And while Karin’s sleep deprivation had not gotten worse, improvement had been agonizingly slow. Still, Emma continued to encourage Karin. And Karin would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy her daily slumbers and being overseen by the adorably lethargic Kanata.

“Kanata-chan got a new product in.” Kanata stooped behind her desk to retrieve something. “Here we are.” She sat back up and held out a small box. “Reverie.”

“Hmm…” Karin leaned in to inspect the product.

The device depicted on the box was a rather unassuming ovaloid. However, various displayed accessories revealed it could be worn on a necklace, kept on a belt, or stored on a desk, table or shelf.

“What does it do?” Karin asked.

“Reverie.”

Karin raised an eyebrow.

“Or rather, it assists one in achieving a state of reverie.” Kanata corrected. “It does not directly induce it.”

“By magic? Scent? Alchemy? Psionics?” Karin recalled the multitude of methods she had tried over the weeks of coming to the sleep shop.

“Vibrations.” Kanata wiggled her fingers as though to visually represent said vibrations.

“Huh.”

“It can take a few uses to adjust its frequencies to its unique users or can be set manually via app. Oh, and it can support up to three users, individually or simultaneously, so long as no two users’ frequencies cancel each out.” Kanata explained. “So, Emma-chan can use it with you. And even someone else if you want.”

“Emma has expressed interest in finding something we could share.” Karin admitted.

“And as apology for the issues with your at-home dream aid, Kanata-chan is willing to offer Karin-chan a free trial of Reverie. If after a week, you don’t like it, simply return it. And if you do like it, Kanata-chan will even give you discount to purchase it.”

“That is very generous, but…”

“Kanata-chan insists.” The shopkeep pushed the product closer to Karin.

Karin smiled and accepted the box. “Alright. Thank you.”

“Now, what in house dream aid would you like to try today?”

---------

“Karin-chan! Welcome.” Kanata said with a sleepy smile before perking up. “And Emma-chan, too! It’s Kanata-chan’s lucky day!”

“Long time, no see, Kanata-chan.” Emma replied. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for Karin-chan.”

“It has been my pleasure.” Kanata’s smile grew. “So, what can I do for the lovely couple?”

“First, I want to conclude my trial of Reverie.” Karin spoke up.

“I’m assuming it went well?”

Karin nodded. “Very much so.”

“Daydreaming with Karin-chan has been so much fun.” Emma added.

“I would imagine so.” Kanata said.

“As such, I’d like to keep it, so please add it to today’s charge.” Karin spoke.

“With pleasure.” Kanata beamed proudly.

“Also, if it’s not too much trouble, Emma would like to join me for today’s session.”

“No trouble at all.” Kanata replied before donning a wistful expression. “Almost a shame Kanata-chan can’t join you as well. But I have to keep minding the shop. Today’s a busy day. Lots of dreams to be made for my wonderful customers.”

Eh? Did I hear that right? Karin wondered.

Her thoughts were disrupted by Emma’s lovely laughter.

“Anyway, enjoy your dreams, you two.” Kanata continued. “See you when you wake.”

And with that, Karin guided Emma to her usual room.

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Author's Note Continued: In a world where magic, steam tech, high tech, alchemy and all other fantasy manner of stuff exists to be exploited in the pursuit of Perfection, I love the idea that Kanata decides to use it all to help others dream. And maybe a few other things that I've only hinted at with prior Promptober entries.

I'm still building the Paragon world, so I haven't really settled on how exactly I want my EmmaKanaKarin trio to play out, but mild spoilers, it will be dark. Just like everything else in this "perfect" world.

Prior Prompts Used: Dream Time Somnial

[longlistshort]

Marina Kappos uses her experience as an identical twin to explore the concept of quantum entanglement for her current exhibition Spooky Action at Shrine Gallery. Her use of color and the preciseness of the work makes the paintings both aesthetically pleasing and impressive.

From the press release-

Spooky action at a distance is an enigmatic term coined by Einstein meant to describe quantum entanglement, or the strange phenomenon when particles, or objects– potentially of any size and at any distance apart, become inexplicably linked together. These bonded entities become responsive to one another as if invisibly tethered in ways scientists do not really understand, and which can no longer be described as independent. The theory is so unusual that Einstein was essentially dismissive of the possibility even while reflecting on it, but the concept has since been documented and confirmed.

Marina Kappos identifies with this phenomena, in part because she has experienced life as an identical twin, separate yet connected. As she describes it, “I have grown up with a mirrored reflection of myself, but one that is also independent and leading a different life than me.” Both Kappos sisters can quickly affirm that being an identical twin leads to a highly unique existence that is difficult for the outside world to understand. Like quantum entanglement, or “spooky action at a distance”, identical twins are intrinsically linked from birth, almost as carbon copies, and many sets routinely claim to experience telepathy or other forms of psionic abilities with their sibling. This duality of nature and sharing an almost exact form with her sister is one of the primary sparks driving Marina Kappos in her new paintings.

Kappos has honed a precision-based process that is truly her own. The paintings generally manifest subconsciously and are obsessively tight. She applies repeating layers of acrylic paint in different hues to form ethereal images and figures that rest slightly offset from their neighboring silhouettes. Reverberating faces and skulls, a new “spooky” motif, repeat in opposing mirror-image or spin together in cycles, all while dancing together in the confined spaces of her canvases; like echoes. The buzzing frequency and optical motion in Kappos’s works reminds us that our notions of what we think of as being concrete, or as existing as separate and distinct objects (even our own bodies) might be more fluid than we realize.

This exhibition closes 6/29/24.

[crazyskirtlady]

Summon the portal

We open the gate

We step through the doorway...

The world is unfolding

Phantasmagorical circuitry, photonic energy pulsing, bioelectrical feedback growing

Exotic matter blooming from behind our eyes, Out from our fingertips and growing, spreading

Countless micro singularities swelling, the information radiating, data in every form feeding evolutionary cycles

Down the well we plunge and activating as we focus

We become the strange attractor

We become the font from which the wellspring fills and flows

The Scintillating Scotoma parcels reality into forms of choosing

We realize new heights upon the steps as the ziggurat grows beneath us

Each new plane of thought discord in reaction and then finding place amongst the synchronicities we were seeking

Patterns beyond us that did come from within us and now we find ourselves dancing a tune that happens one step ahead

Happening

Happened

[chnqin]

Guess who wrote 1,500 words of a Star Trek AU I don’t know if I’ll ever write any more of °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

info: AU, pre-wangxian, rated T, minor character death

Here is a link to the masterpost of sorts explaining the AU, the character backgrounds and everyone’s position on the ship.

Chief Engineer’s Log: Stardate 1704.2 A Bad Beginning

As away missions go, the Shuoyue had seen worse. Once. One time was worse. And it was only half Wei Wuxian’s fault.

This time wasn’t any percentage his fault, so honestly in the grand scheme of things he was counting this as a win. Only one person was dead and literally nobody was sad about it. Not even his son! Wait, both his sons? Either of his sons? Jin Zixun might have been upset, but he didn’t have a soul so he didn’t count. The point was that no one was sad and the surprise murder was only a problem because it was causing a minor diplomatic incident involving four separate interstellar organisations and factions, and the fact that their Second Officer was currently being accused of the murder in question.  

It had all started when the Shuoyue had been asked to ferry a group of diplomats to an important peace talk occurring between the Federation and a new planet. It was important because the first Starfleet team to make contact had completely ballsed the whole thing up, and the denizens of the planet - the Xua-Nwu, a semi-aquatic species with sophisticated technology and a warrior society - had not taken well to the Federation’s overtures of friendship. Why anyone would send Jin Guangshan as a representative of the merits of the Federation and the human species in general Wei Wuxian was uncertain. It seemed to him that he and his slimy team were only likely to exacerbate the situation, but Wei Wuxian was not in any circumstances to be placed on a diplomatic team for any mission (that was left solely up to the Captain, Meng Yao, and his own beautiful and talented sister Jiang Yanli), so he supposed there must be something they knew that he didn’t. Perhaps the Xua-Nwu valued backstabbing and being a generally terrible person.

What did, unfortunately, concern him was the ferrying to and fro of the diplomatic team on what was supposed to be his day off. Normally Wei Wuxian left operations such as the transporter to his second in command or one of his many competent underlings. However, as the diplomatic group was filled with fancy peacocks in their flouncy feathery diplomat garb and their delicate terror of all things involving space travel, Wei Wuxian was required to be the one to personally beam them down to the planet (because god forbid one of his baby juniors got their dirty little hands on the apparatus they worked with on a daily basis and accidentally caused the first case of splinching-via-transporter to ever have occurred). As a rule, Wei Wuxian wanted to spend as little time in a room with Jin Guangshan as physically possible. But then, his second in command was a woman and he wasn’t going to subject her to the awful man, so he had little choice but to show up to the transporter and try to block out the oily quality that oozed from the man’s mind like puss from an boil. Ah, the joys of being psionic.

As Wei Wuxian was also expected to beam the landing team back from the planet, he stayed in the transporter room, terrorising his minions by pulling out the wiring on the consoles and trying to “break it, sir, you are trying to break it” improve the functionality of the thing. Eventually Lan Wangji turned up and towed him away by the arm, no doubt alerted by one of Wei Wuxian’s traitorous underlings. They always told the First Officer on him, knowing that he, Jiang Yanli, and Wen Qing were the only ones who could get Wei Wuxian to stop when he was in the middle of something (the crew never bothered Jiang Yanli because they liked her too much, and they never bothered Wen Qing because you went to the Chief Medical Officer if you were injured or dying and for no other reason - she was a doctor, dammit, not a babysitter). Jiang Cheng could also get him to stop, but not voluntarily, and usually while resorting to violence. After the third time one of them had shoved the other in a Jeffries tube and blocked the entrance, the crew was banned from asking either of them to involve the other in anything. 

Anyway, the point was that Wei Wuxian was very busy and so had absolutely no idea what was occurring on the planet until the ship was put under a yellow alert and he was asked to beam the landing party up as quickly as was physically possible (which, Wei Wuxian would like to point out, could have been considerably faster had he been allowed to finish tinkering with the control panel).

The group which had arrived back bore little resemblance to the well-dressed and put together team which had left not three hours previous. The most notable difference was Jin Guangshan, who had been alive upon departure and who was now dead.

“Oh no.” said Wei Wuxian in a very convincing tone of concern. “Whatever could have happened?” “Not now, Wei Wuxian.” snapped Jiang Cheng, who for some reason had been included on this mission, as he helped Jiang Yanli support a clearly shaken Jin Zixuan out of the room. “Such a tragedy.” Wei Wuxian said sadly, shaking his head, and could have sworn he heard a quiet snort from his left, but when he turned to the First Officer beside him, Lan Wangji’s face was as expressionless as ever. “I have prepared the briefing room as you asked, Captain.” he said in that unmodulated tone of his.  “Thank you, Wangji.” said Lan Xichen with a strained smile. “Let us proceed there immediately.”

It had been decided, Lan Xichen explained, that the away crew would beam back up to the ship along with the surviving diplomats for the time being as a matter of safety and precaution. Meng Yao, Lan Xichen had insisted, was a valued member of their crew, and would be questioned, but not held without any evidence. Meng Yao himself seemed remarkably unbothered by the whole situation, but in that way which meant you were merely holding the threads of your being together until you could arrive at a solitary location and completely lose your shit in peace. Wei Wuxian could tell, because the waves Meng Yao’s mind were pushing out were not his normal calm ripples. Meng Yao was another one of those few people Wei Wuxian actively found hard to read (which was, honestly, a bit of a blessing - even if he found it difficult to connect with the man as a result, at least he got some peace). He thought Meng Yao might spend a lot of time actively shielding his mind from psionic interference - it seemed like the kind of thing the paranoid bastard would do, but it might also have something to do with his mixed Human and Orion heritage. Just now, however, Wei Wuxian could tell that he was genuinely perturbed by the situation, despite what his calm mask indicated to the rest of the world.

When they arrived at the briefing room the rest of the away team had already assembled, along with the other heads of departments excluding Wen Qing, who Wei Wuxian knew would have gone to see to any potential injuries amongst the diplomats. Lan Xichen first ushered Meng Yao into the small auxiliary room used by the Captain for discussions which were better not heard by multiple ears, and Lan Wangji followed. As neither seemed to notice (or have a problem with) Wei Wuxian following them, he decided to take that as a tacit invitation to be present for the conversation. And what an enjoyable conversation to witness it was, where Lan Xichen had to sit Meng Yao down and be like “Did you murder your father”, to which Meng Yao replied “No, I would never jeopardise my position at Starfleet by murdering my father, he’s not worth it”, which was not quite the “No, I’d never murder someone in cold blood or generally hold designs of patricide” Lan Xichen was looking for. But then he did have a surprisingly pacifist and optimistic outlook on life, particularly considering he was raised by the same man who helped form Lan Wangji - pacifist and optimistic were not words one would use to describe the First Officer.

However, it was enough to look into other avenues. There were, after all, plenty of people who had wanted Jin Guangshan dead, and as far as Wei Wuxian could tell Meng Yao wasn’t lying. Lying, or even bending the truth, often produced a very specific mind-taste which was rather unpleasant. Another reason to be glad Jin Guangshan was no longer among them, considering the frequency with which the man did it. 

The four officers joined those waiting in the briefing room to hear a full account of the events. Many of the assembled crew members seemed energised or on edge or both. Nie Huaisang seemed particularly concerned, although what Wei Wuxian was sensing from him was more low-level enjoyment of the chaos. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, had just wanted a prolonged 12 hour nap on what should have been his day off. The briefing went on for a full two hours before they broke up to attend to other tasks arising from the situation - luckily for Wei Wuxian, this did not involve anything to do with smoothing the ruffled feathers of the diplomatic party.

By the time the day ended, Wei Wuxian was firmly of the opinion that he really should have just hid in a Jeffries tube till the ostentation of Jins had left. Maybe he could go goad Jiang Cheng...

[dmsden]

Monster of the Month - the Githyanki

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This month’s Monster of the Month is one coming to you out of the depths of the Astral Plane. Everybody’s favorite astral pirates, the Githyanki, are here to say hi. As always, big thank you to my buddy Scott Fabianek for the art.

The Githyanki made their debut in the 1st edition Fiend Folio, and they weren’t shy about it. They took over the cover, swinging their silver swords around, and generally let everyone know that they were here to stay. Since then, they’ve gone from absolute villains to occasional anti-heroes, even being a playable race in 5E, thanks to Volo’s Guide to Monsters.

The core defining element of Githyanki history is their enslavement under mind flayer rule. They were likely similar to humans before this, but centuries of domination and experimentation are, ironically, likely what led to their psionic abilities. Led by a freedom fighter named Gith, this race rose up and slaughtered the mind flayers, and, to this day, they will hunt and kill mind flayers wherever they find them. There was a division in the race’s philosophies that led to the race dividing into the Githyanki and the Githzerai, and the Githyanki became, by far, the more warlike of the two.

Our baseline githyanki in 5e is the CR3 Githyanki Warrior. They are fairly straightforward melee combatants right up until the moment that you consider their psionic abilities. It’s not hard to imagine them casting nondetection every eight hours to make themselves impossible to scry or cast any other divinations spells on. This is likely something of a reflex, done before sleep, when getting up, and then halfway through the day. Likely, this evolved when they were fighting and hiding from the illithid. This will make it difficult for an adventuring party to know that they’re being stalked by githyanki raiders.

They’re lawful evil, so, even though they are pirates, they likely use certain formations and actions, aiding one another when necessary or possible. In a ship to ship battle, one can imagine Githyanki empowered by their psionic Jump leaping the gap from one ship to another. They can also misty step multiple times, which makes them a frighteningly mobile fighting group. The fact that they speak a pretty unique language means that orders could be barked out. A party thinking they have things well in hand could suddenly find the Githyanki they were fighting teleporting to gank their healers or mages in a unified attack.

I think the best use for these guys is in a party’s relatively early days. Githyanki sometimes spend time on the Material Plane for a variety of reasons. They may be striking to get supplies, tracking an illithid’s pet intellect devourer, or something similar. While it’s true that one reason they might be on the material plane is to guard a creche of young, letting them age off of the Astral Plane, I don’t necessarily recommend this as a reason to put them in conflict with a party of adventurers. If you do, the logical end-result is that the party will end up in an argument as to what to do with the now orphaned githyanki children.

The upgrade (and it’s a big one) is the CR8 Githyanki Knight. They have all the toys the Warrior does (although their attacks are, of course, more powerful), and they have several extras. They have plane shift and telekinesis each once per day. Plane shift is perfect for an extreme retreat or to try and take a dangerous opponent out of a fight (although that makes quite a headache for the DM, and the player isn’t likely to appreciate it). Telekinesis would be useful for throwing an opponent off of a ship, for pulling a target to them that they want closer in the fight, making the party’s melee-based rogue or ranger unhappy, etc.

The other two big upgrades a Githyanki Knight likely brings to the table are where things get really fun. The Knight’s Silver Sword is a magical +3 weapon in their hands that gives them a devastating attack to channel their psychic abilities into damage. In addition, these guys can be super scary to characters who are using the astral projection spell. If that silver sword crits, it’s an automatic kill on the player who gets hit.

The other element of a Githyanki Knight is that they’re likely to be partnered with a Young Red Dragon to ride. Even if these dragons aren’t yet legendary, they’re all kinds of awful for a party. The combination of a single githyanki knight and a young red dragon are a deadly encounter for a group of 5 10th level characters, and a hard one for 5 11th levels. Make it two of each, and they would be a hard challenge for 5 17th level characters...just about the time the party gets regular access to Astral Projection.

If you have access to Volo’s Guide to Monsters, there are more flavors of Githyanki for you to spice up your encounters. And you could even develop more if you wanted a Githyanki-based campaign. Maybe Vlaakith, the immortal lich queen who rules the githyanki, is having her warriors attack the material plane with greater and greater frequency. The campaign could concentrate on why this is, and it could constitute a mind flayer/githyanki war. Lower levels might involve Tiamat-worshipping kobolds stealing supplies (since there’s some kind of alliance between Tiamat and Vlaakith that allows the githyanki knights to ride red dragons.) As things progress, there could be various mind flayer related creatures like intellect devourers and umber hulks, perhaps neogi slavers who provide the mind flayers with their needed sustenance. Of course mind flayers themselves, githyanki, and red dragons. Githzerai allies might eventually step in, willing to aid against the mind flayers AND their ancestral kin. The campaign might ultimately confront Vlaakith, attempting to throw down the ruler of githyanki kind. That would be epic.

I hope this article made you think about including some githyanki oriented plot in your campaign. Next month, we’ll be looking at one of my favorite creepy Underdark critters - the Hook Horror. Until then, may all your 20s be natural.

[bigskywritings]

WAVERIDERS

Part of The Firmament Space Opera Universe

Roughly two thousand years before the current events of the Waverider book and associated stories, growing unrest among the outermost planets of the Iridescent Empire led to various groups fleeing its reach. Not wishing to seek refugee status with the other great galactic powers of the time and lacking the resources to commission a world of their own from the vast terraforming corporations of the Ezkai and Appellai, they eventually settled a gas giant out on the galactic rim. Seeding anti-gravity wells throughout the habitable zone of the gas giant, in the altitudes where the atmosphere was conducive to human survival, these settlers (all hailing from different planets within the Iridescent Empire, with their own distinct cultures) formed individual city states rather than a singular conjoined civilization - with each city state gradually expanding over time to encompass additional floating settlements within the range of these various anti-gravity ‘columns’ of habitable space. 

Early settlers mapped the electromagnetic currents of the planet’s dense and highly charged magnetosphere, and as the cheap and antiquated spaceships they’d used to make the journey to their new home gradually decayed and failed, a new system of transportation between well-states was popularized. Using solar sails fueled by their new home’s binary stars, ships capable of weathering the corrosive elements of even other layers of the planet’s atmosphere were coated with a newly developed material with customizable polarity. In effect, it allowed the crew to magnetize and demagnetize their ships’ hulls with the flip of a switch. 

Thus they could attach themselves to an electromagnetic current and ride it across the planet’s magnetosphere and through the gas giant’s atmospheric ‘seas,’ demagnetizing their hull as needed in order to detach themselves from one electromagnetic current...and then using their solar-powered engines to hop to a current running in a slightly different direction before magnetizing the hull again to link up to the new current and carry on. This gave them a unique but effective way of traversing the vast distances of their new planet, one not reliant on interstellar technology said planet lacked the necessary resources to repair and replenish. 

The original settlers hadn’t set out intending to create a totally insular planetary civilization cut off from reaching the rest of the galactic civilizations, but upon realizing that was where things were headed should they settle on this planet long-term, it was generally seen as the best foot forward. Their new planet's combination of location, unorthodox geography, and inventory of resources was such that it seemed unlikely to be of interest to other galactic societies, thus a kind of protection from invasion in and of itself, while still being capable of building a self-sustaining society. In time they expected to fade off the rest of the galaxy’s radar - which is largely what happened.

However, there was one aspect of life before their new home that the early settlers weren’t ready to just slip away into their past unchallenged....with this being the psychic gifts inherent to all citizens of the Iridescent Empire. The Empire’s particular offshoot of humanity all possessed a unique capacity for psychic abilities, with brain chemistries capable of picking up and manipulating the ‘frequencies’ different psionic powers resonated on. However, the problem the Empire’s inhabitants faced was lacking an inherent energy source that could fuel the feats of psychic ability their brains were mapped to be capable of.

Unlike other divergent offshoots of humanity like the Ezkai and Appellai, who possessed some unknown mechanism for powering their varied psychic feats, the Iridescent Empire relied on the gems they mined, the prismatic stones. These gems’ unique crystalline structures acted as conduits that channeled the so-called “Wellspring” - an extradimensional energy source cutting across and through different universes, and a virtually unlimited reservoir of power that could be drawn upon to fuel the Empire’s psychics. As long, of course, as the psychic in question possessed enough of the gemstones that corresponded with the particular psychic frequencies they were attuned with themselves.

The Empire’s stranglehold on these gemstones - who had access to them and in what quantities - was the entire source of its class system and the underlying reason for the newborn Waverider society having split off from the Empire in the first place. Needless to say, they weren’t exactly an abundant resource for the new society, and quickly dwindled with no chance of replenishment as the scientists among the settlers experimented with what few they had in search of some other way to capitalize on their psychic potential.

The exact nature of their breakthrough, when it came, was lost to later generations of Waveriders, or perhaps deliberately hidden away. It is at least known to be linked to settlers’ discovery that the gas giant they’d presumed to be uninhabited had hosted at least one previous civilization. 

The first generation of ‘sailors’ on their new planet had quickly popularized tales of giant monsters lurking in the gaseous seas their ships sailed through from one well-state to the next. However, Waverider ships were built to be somewhat like giant submarines with sprawling decks that could be manned while sailing through breathable atmosphere....while the crew retreated into the depths of their ships when soaring through the acidic or poisonous gases of the nonbreathable layers of atmosphere. And as these monsters they told tales of were only ever glimpsed in the toxic storm clouds of these other atmospheric levels, eye witness accounts of them were considered suspect at best. 

They just happened to be wholly accurate.

Eventually determined to be some kind of dragon - distinct from the dragons of the Appellai, though with enough similarities it was speculated they’d inspired the Mother of All Monsters’ design of her own draconic creations - these dragons seemed to be non-sentient, feral creatures who fed on smaller lifeforms native to other layers of the atmosphere. But exploration into their existence quickly gave way to the discovery of floating ruins scattered throughout the various other atmospheric levels, in spaces similar but not identical to the antigravity wells of the human settlers. Even if the gas giant’s dragons were not civilization-builders themselves, it was clear someone else on this planet had been at some point.

In time, it was surmised that the builders of these various ruins had in the distant past transcended from physical bodies into existing as beings of energy (note: totally different from how the ‘patrons’ of the Selveyon System in the Patron and Muse books transcended and exist now). Early generations of Waveriders seemed to have at best a basic understanding of these builders’ civilization or science, but seemingly that was enough to unlock a breakthrough in their understanding of their own psychic abilities and potential.

And thus by means of some mechanism that’s been lost or hidden from modern Waveriders, their ancestors gave up on finding another fuel source for the psychic abilities they’d been used to utilizing as members of the Iridescent Empire with access to the Empire’s gemstones. Instead, they found a way to engineer or reconfigure their abilities to psychically hack existing energy sources and manipulate that which could act as its own fuel source. Feasibly anything with a wavelength and an energy source could be hacked or manipulated by a Waverider attuned to the right psychic ‘frequency,’ though the process is more straightforward with some wavelengths than others. Regardless, these ancient discoveries eventually gave rise to nine specific types of Waveriders and one quasi-mythical type.

1) Bright-riders: One of the five most common types of Waveriders, bright-riders are individuals psychically attuned to hacking light wavelengths and manipulating light to various ends. Depending on their skill and aptitude, bright-riders can create basic illumination, complex illusions, harness it as a weapon or ‘paint’ with ultraviolet frequencies in order to create fields of invisibility, etc.

2) Echo-riders: Second of the five most common types of Waveriders, echo-riders can hack soundwaves to render their surroundings inaudible, boost sounds or even create sonic booms from a simple fingersnap, as well as interfere with radio waves or other wavelengths meant to amplify or manipulate sound, utilize frequencies of higher pitch and intensity to mess with physiological and/or higher brain functions, etc.

3) Torch-riders: Third most common among Waveriders, torch-riders are able to hack and manipulate the microwave side of the infrared spectrum, amplifying or dulling thermal energy for a variety of heat and cold related effects. 

4) Shock-riders: Fourth most common among Waveriders, shock-riders hack and manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum - specifically in terms of all things electrical.

5) Iron-riders: Fifth and final of the five core types of Waveriders, though the difference among demographics between shock and iron riders is negligible at most, iron-riders also manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, though more on the magnetic side of things. There’s slightly more overlap between the skillsets of iron and shock riders than there is between say, echo and bright-riders, with some shock and iron riders capable of the same feats though usually approaching the situation from different ends of the same spectrum...but for the most part their abilities are fairly distinct. 

6) Boom-riders: Slightly more esoteric than the five core types of Waveriders, with their approach to psychically hacking energy being less direct and obvious than manipulators of the prime wavelengths, boom-riders are attuned to direct trades and expenditures of kinetic energy. Their manipulation of this type of energetic interaction enables them to amplify and dull the kinetic energy built up or expended in physical conflicts, labor, transportation and the like, with a particular affinity for manipulating the kinetic energy tapped in all things involving momentum.

7) Sky-riders: Even less populous than boom-riders and with the specific nature of their energy manipulation being even more abstract, sky-riders are commonly referred to as hacking and manipulating gravity, though of course gravity is not an energy in the sense that the energies manipulated by other Waveriders are. Rather its more a symptom or byproduct of the various energetic interactions that are what sky-riders actually manipulate, and more a colloquial short-hand used to describe the abilities of sky-riders than an accurate representation of that skillset. 

8) Soul-riders: One of the two most rare types of Waveriders, as well as the most mistrusted and feared due to the actions of ancient soul-riders known as the Ghost Kings, soul-riders are akin to the telepaths of the Iridescent Empire and other psychic cultures, with an affinity for the specific wavelengths and electrical impulses that characterize brain activity. Thus they’re capable of many of the same feats as telepaths, albeit on a more finite scale as they’re reliant on the energy of that very same brain activity they ‘hack’ in order to power their manipulations of it. One of their most feared abilities, characterized by its usage by the aforementioned Ghost Kings, is a soul-rider’s ability to essentially body-hop by transplanting their own mind into another body, overwriting the existing consciousness with their own. 

The Ghost Kings, a finite group of no more than a dozen, hopped from body to body for more than a century as they attempted to dominate the still young Waverider civilizations and unify the entire planet as one singular empire under their rule. However, they were eventually defeated by their own greed as feeling limited and constrained in what kinds of telepathic manipulations they were capable of in comparison to the breadth of feats performed by telepaths of the Iridescent Empire, they sought to expand their range via experiments on the dragons native to the gas giant. They cybernetically enhanced the minds of these dragons in preparation for transferring their own brainwaves into these new more long-lived draconic bodies, which they theorized would also amplify the power available to them when performing telepathic feats, only to find the draconic minds less easily subdued than those of other human consciousnesses. 

The end result was the Ghost Kings’ minds were merged with the more bestial consciousnesses of the dragons, and with them all persisting as such into the modern age - feral telepathic creatures neither wholly man nor monster, with periods of lucidity as well as mindless rampages whenever one is encountered in the poisonous ‘wilderness’ of the gas giant’s atmospheric seas.

9) Heart-riders: The rarest and least understood of the nine Waverider types, heart-riders possess the ability to harness and manipulate the chemical energies involved in and released by biological functions ranging from the most complex to the minute and mundane. Commonly attributed as ‘life energy’ but in fact being far more infinitely complicated a subject matter, these energetic interactions allow a heart-rider to accomplish miraculous feats of healing, biological/physiological manipulation, the draining or transferring of ‘life force’ and much more. 

10) Quantum-riders: As much a subject of speculation and folklore as a known phenomenon, there’s no recorded instance of a quantum wavelength manipulator in existence. Rather, its more that its theorized that such a Waverider should exist, even if extremely rare...but with it also speculated that even should such a Waverider be born, they might not even realize it themselves, as many kinds of subconscious or even conscious manipulations of quantum forces might be dismissed as mere chance or luck.

Further speculative fuel for the existence of quantum-riders arose from the realization that the previous inhabitants of the planet had not wholly left it, but still seemed present in energy form, even if they mostly appear unable or uninterested in communicating with the current mortal inhabitants of the gas giant. These figures are characterized as elemental forces of nature with inexplicable seeming wants and interests on the rare occasions when they do interact with humanity: 

Lightning wisps are beings of pure electricity who occasionally appear near human technology to feed on it or almost mischievously toy with it

Fury sprites are thermal elementals who occasionally ‘pop into existence’ as balls of apparent spontaneous combustion who delight in random acts of destruction and vanish just as quickly as they appeared

Iron ghosts are elementals of magnetic force that create a semblance of form by funneling all nearby metal into armored skeletons or frameworks

Whisper phantoms are voices with no source that speak in peoples’ ears as echoes of themselves or those familiar to them and then vanish with a giggle 

Gravity geists are beings who appear as just a warped shimmer in the air but wreck poltergeist-like havoc on a locale

Atomic pixies are motes of light that always appear in a swarm and do appear to possess the ability to communicate via conjoining to create complex imagery and scenes, but with it never apparent why they arrange themselves into the images they do or what’s meant to be communicated by doing so

Bog-downs or bogs are phantom figures that only show up on energy scanners but are occasionally attracted by and cling to energy sources or even human beings and leech their kinetic energy or momentum, often only leaving and moving on once they’ve stalled them out completely - thus they can and sometimes are fatal to travelers or people caught out in isolated areas away from other more attractive energy sources

And while if there are elemental versions of human soul and heart-riders, they’ve yet to be observed and classified as such, legends persist of strange beings who might possibly be a kind of quantum life form. Popularly called chaos angels, they appear upon first encounter to be ordinary human strangers who just happen to be locus points for unnatural quirks of fate or fortune....until they vanish right in the midst of truly chaotic events that in hindsight seem to be direct results of their presence or actions they took while present. Its commonly accepted - even if not scientifically proven - that chaos angels do exist, and are one type of the beings who originally inhabited the gas giant before transcending to exist as wavelengths of various types and energies, as well as being the only type with any real interest in interacting with humanity in any kind of engaged fashion.  

Final thoughts:

Notably, a key distinction between Waveriders and the Iridescent Empire psychics they arose from is that while the latter may be attuned to multiple psychic frequencies they just need the right gemstones to tap into and channel, no Waverider possesses an affinity or attunement to more than one type of wavelength. Its unknown why exactly Waveriders seem inherently less versatile in type than their psychic forebears, but for whatever reason, the mechanism by which early settlers focused their psychic potential on manipulating already extant sources of energy resulted in said potential being condensed and concentrated onto just singular finite end-usages.

Or at least, that’s theorized to be the case, as no Waverider with an affinity for more than one type of energy exists....yet.

Additionally, the early settlers were remiss in thinking there was nothing about this gas giant that would interest the other galactic powers, as the connection between its dragons and the Appellai dragons created by the Mother of All Monsters established the Ezkai and Appellai were at least aware of it in ages past.....

And in fact, one of the tombs/temporal prisons of the twelve Fallen, specifically Sekas the Revenant Priest, was hidden on this planet by Ezkai Immortals after they won the Great War. Meaning they are extremely invested in making sure the Appellai never learn one of their twelve Fallen is imprisoned on this otherwise seemingly irrelevant planet far away from most galactic civilizations...

Related topics:

The Iridescent Empire, the prismatic stones, the Wellspring, the Ezkai and Appellai, terraforming corporations of the Ezkai and Appellai, Appellai dragons, the Mother of All Monsters, the Selveyon System, patrons, Ezkai/Appellai Immortals, the Fallen, the tombs of the Fallen, Sekas the Revenant Priest, the Great War

[lauraperfectinsanity]

SUPERPOWERS JIKOOK AU

Bangtan Boys [1/7] -> 김석진 Kim Seokjin

Acoustikinesis: He's able to create various sonic effects through the combined action of his vocal cords and limited, reflexive psionic powers.

Sonic Scream: He can cause his vocal cords to vibrate over a wide range of sonic frequencies and produce a volume of sound ranging up to at least 140 decibels. He has thus the ability to shatter solid objects with his sonic scream. Sonic Beam: By focusing his sonic vibrations while screaming into an intense beam, he can create a sort of "battering ram" with great concussive force that can disintegrate targets. Sonar: He can use his sonic powers as a form of sonar. By sending out a precise, pure note and listening to the returning, altered wavefront of the note, he can evaluate his surroundings even in total darkness. Sonic Shield: He can generate a psionic shield to protect himself from attacks. Vocal Disorientation: He has the ability to change someone's balance, by affecting their equilibrium using his sonic scream. Vocal Trance: He can subtly influence people's subconscious mind by changing the tones and vibrations of his voice using hypersonic suggestions and persuasive abilities. The effects tend towards blatant hypnosis. Siren's Song: He's capable of emitting an astonishingly beautiful and enchanting singing voice that can summon / lure anyone who hears it to come towards him. Vocal Unconsciousness: He can affect the fluid in someone's ear causing the person to go unconscious. Superhuman Vocal Stamina: His vocal cords are tremendously strong, so that he can produce sonic effects through screaming constantly for hours at a time without noticeable tiring or injuring his vocal apparatus. His vocal cords, throat and mouth are also superhumanly tough, so that the intense pressures and constrictions that he produces do not cause him any injury. Sono-kinetic Flight: He can fly, glide and levitate through manipulation of sounds. He can fly at varying speeds or propel himself without taking flight, including enhanced jumping by a short burst of flight.

Aerokinesis: He can sense, generate and control wind.

Wind Burst: He can release bursts of wind that are strong enough to destroy concrete. Air Constructs: He can "solidify" the air and have it take certain shapes, such as shields, weapons and platforms. Flight: He can fly using wind and can also make others fly. Air Beam: He can focus the winds into a condensed straight beam. Wind Blade: He can focus the winds into a blade made of air. Air Bubble: He can create a bubble around himself to allow him to operate underwater.

Superhuman Hearing: His sense of hearing is glaringly, obviously and unnaturally more acute than other human beings. He can hear anything over incredible distances, hear things that are seemingly too quiet to be discernible as well as being able to hear sounds over an insane range of frequencies.

[berjhawn]

Lady Light - Character Bio

I wanted to make this little get to know my character thing before I release the last few chapters of Day & Night. This will list all her abilities and Weaknesses. Yes she is a Reader insert character but when I write her I have to envision something to base her off of. I understand that my view will be different from what most of my readers look like but please have an open mind. With Lady Light I haven’t used any descriptive words so that I could keep the reader tag true. Hopefully this will help some readers understand exactly how powerful she truly is. 

Day & Night - Master-list

Lady Light

(Yes I see Lady Light as Halsey. She is the most amazing artist and person I have ever had the pleasure of hearing.)

Name: Reader insert so her name is up to you.

Age: Unknown (Thank you Themyscira)

Relationships: 

Cosette & Xavier - Birth parents (Deceased)

Hippolyta - Adoptive mother

Diana Prince - Adoptive sister

Clark Kent / Superman - Ex-boyfriend

Connor Kent / Superboy - Son (Technically her son because of DNA used in cloning)

Bruce Wayne / Batman - Boyfriend (Maybe more wink wink)

Dick Grayson Wayne / Nightwing - Adoptive son

Jason Todd Wayne / Red Hood - Adoptive son

Timothy Drake / Red Robin - Adoptive son

Damian Wayne / Robin - Adoptive son

Powers and Abilities: 

Superhuman Strength: Lady Light’s strength varies greatly and depends on her mental stability. She possesses vast superhuman strength, granting her the ability to lift (press) far in excess of 100 tons easily. She is one of the strongest beings in the Universe. She is strong enough to rip Darkseid in half with absolutely no problem.

Superhuman Speed: she possesses the ability to think, move, and react at superhuman speeds. She can catch bullets and can move far in excess of supersonic speeds; her speed on earth is enough to be gauged as fast enough to move at orbital velocity (5 miles a second). She can fly to the sun in less than ten minutes. 

Superhuman Stamina: Lady Light’s enhanced musculature is far more efficient than that of a human. As a result her muscles produce no fatigue toxins. However, her stamina greatly varies, depending on her mental state.

Superhuman Agility: Lady Light’s natural balance, agility, and body coordination are enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.

Superhuman Reflexes: She can react at superhuman speeds exceeding several times the speed of Sound.

Superhuman Senses: Possesses vastly enhanced senses. Is able to hear almost any sound at any volume or pitch. The range of her eyesight is also far greater than that of a human being. She is able to detect a single person from hundreds of miles in the air and above cloud level. 

Flight: possesses the ability to float by defying gravity, utilizing her superhuman speed to fly far above hypersonic speeds (above mach 10).  

Nigh Invulnerability: She is, for all intents and purposes, almost completely impervious to harm, unless she wills herself to be killed she has no direct weakness. Like all of her abilities, her durability depends on her mental state, she can go to completely no-selling Class 100-level characters but as soon as he wishes herself dead she could be killed in an instant. She has allowed herself to get hurt just to fake that she has a weakness to something. 

Photokinesis: She has the superhuman ability to generate, control, and emit light. 

Light Projection: By conscious control over the light she produces, she can control its direction, frequency (color), amplitude (intensity), and duration. She can produce numerous effects with the light she manipulates. She can simply cause a bright glow all about her body. She can create a pulse of light on the order of several tens of thousands lumens of power per second (the sun produces at most 10,000 lumens of brightness at noontime), which temporarily blinds people with its brilliance. 

Energy Blasts: Can generate light, heat, force, and other forms of energy as powerful blasts and explosions of a yellow color. These blasts are usually generated from the hands and eyes. The maximum power of these blasts is unknown. It has burned Superman’s skin. (He found out the hard way when they were arguing one night.)

Psionic Abilities: Possesses powerful psychic and mental powers, She could erase her existence from everyone’s memories in a single moment if she wanted too.

Healing Factor: Can heal herself from virtually all injuries. 

Resurrection: (This one is kind of a spoiler if I continue with my plot line) Is able to bring the dead back to life under extreme emotional distress. This also extends to simply healing others' injuries.

Genius Level Intellect: (Partially thanks to Themyscira)�� is very intelligent. is capable of using her powers to detect all substances in a single object and thence determine how much of what substances make up an object. Is adept with mechanics, architecture, machinery, tracing energy sources, cybernetics, robotics and computer science. 

Weaknesses- 

None, unless she wills herself to be hurt or killed.

Void

Locked inside Lady Light

Only comes out when LL’s mental state is in tatters

Has all lady light’s power and abilities

doesn’t care about the human race

will kill without a hesitation 

surprisingly a defense mechanism for when LL just can’t handle things anymore.

Doesn’t like anyone but Bruce, his kids, and Connor

Will commit murder to protect those she cares about

Well there you have it. I hope this clears things up for everyone who is curious. Again the gifs are how I see her. You can see her however you wish too since she is a Reader insert character. 

[metaphysicalpistolsoraclemine]

Loving Kindness Meditation

Practicing Loving Kindness Meditations activate and strengthen areas of the brain and nervous system that are responsible for empathy and increased emotional intelligence. The practice always begins with developing a loving acceptance of yourself. If resistance is experienced then it indicates that feelings of unworthiness are present. The practice of loving kindness is designed to overcome any feelings of self-doubt or negativity. Once you have developed this loving kindness for yourself, then you are ready to systematically develop loving-kindness towards others.

Visualization – Bring to mind a mental picture that exudes loving kindness and brings warmth to your heart. Visualize yourself or the person the feeling is directed towards, returning the loving feeling to you or just the shared feeling of being joyous.

Through Reflection - Reflect on the highest and most positive qualities of a person you know and the acts of kindness you are aware of. Make an affirmation towards generating more of these positive qualities in yourself, more goodness and strong virtues. Reflect upon making positive statements of kindness directed to yourself, using your own words.

Verbally- When we speak inspiring words or phrases which contain meaning of loving kindness, they are the most effective because the subconscious mind hears your voice. Focus on an internalized mantra or meaningful phrase such as loving-kindness and God-Sovereign-Free.

When the positive feelings arise, switch from the mental focus of the exercise onto the actual emotional feeling, as it is the emotional feeling that is the primary goal. If you lose the sensation of the loving kindness, the feeling and warmth opening in your heart, return to the exercise, to bring back or strengthen the emotional feeling. When you have the loving kindness feeling in your heart, you can project that quality of frequency in all directions, north, south, east and west and 360 degrees. Connecting that emotional feeling of loving kindness into loved ones, spiritual communities, towns and countries around the world.

When we are emotionally developed with heart based intelligence, we can access very high quality of higher sensory perception to guide us through these very difficult times. This guidance cannot happen through the psionic ability of the mind. Starseed males, please take note, you must connect emotionally and allow sensory feelings to be processed in your heart complex to shift out of the negative ego black depression and mind control thought forms. This higher consciousness access only happens through the developed heart and emotional complex, which is the key to accessing higher spiritual power and higher consciousness. The NAA and Controllers do not have this access, so remember that is our greatest leverage as Starseeds. We have access to the God Source and Creator functions through our heart, where they can only replicate them through their artificial intelligence software by cloning or capturing our image. Do not forget that our spiritual power is infinitely connected through our human heart consciousness, and connects Omniversally.

[demifulcrum]

Kryptonian Bodies: Solar Houses!

Kryptonian Physiology: Kryptonian cellular structure is much more dense, resilient, and biologically more effective than human tissue. Kryptonians do however possess superhuman strength levels even without their cellular structure charged with yellow solar energy but to a much lesser extent. Without such charging, their physical capabilities are limited to their enhanced senses and sight with a certain degree of super strength depending on their respective height and weight. As an alien, Kryptonians possesses several organs whose functions are not yet disclosed or understood but are believed to be part of or the source of their bio matrix force field and reclamation aura. Kryptonian bodies also store energy actively within their bio-cellular matrix as an energy pattern that is linked to their body's electromagnetic field. This energy powers most of their electromagnetic capabilities such as flight, heat vision and supplementing their physical abilities to superhuman levels.

Superhuman Senses: All Kryptonian's senses are heightened to superhuman levels.

Solar Radiation Absorption: Kryptonian cells function like a super battery, hyper metabolizing specific wavelengths of radiation as fuel to enable superhuman abilities. Different wavelengths of radiation have different effects on Kryptonian physiology and well being, but their cells cannot absorb or utilize all types of radiation. The wavelength of their home solar system's red sun enables their body to function as repressed versions of their charged states; while Earth's solar radiation in its filtered state through the Earth's atmosphere acts as fuel to enable all of their powers. Every time a Kryptonian uses any of their superhuman abilities, their body utilizes absorbed sunlight and is capable of utilizing any of them to various degrees through controlled circumstances. The constant exposure to proven "healthy" radiation sources is not required for them to live and utilize their powers, but prolonged periods without exposure to them and/or utilizing their powers will require Kryptonians to recharge in order to live and continue using their powers.

Enhanced Strength: The exact limits of a Kryptonian’s strength are unknown, but different periods and intensities of exposure to Earth's solar radiation can cause their strength to fluctuate over time.

Enhanced Speed: A Kryptonian is capable of moving, reacting, running and flying at superhuman speeds. While not as fast as the Flash or other experienced Speedsters, Kryptonians can still move at speeds on par with a novice Speedster.

Enhanced Stamina: Kryptonians have the ability to maintain continuous physical actions for an undefined period. They’ve been shown to have unlimited stamina if consistently exposed to yellow sunlight, though they still prefers to sleep like a normal human as their mind can suffer the effects of sleep deprivation.

Flight: Kryptonians are capable of defying gravity and flying at supersonic speeds in a planetary atmosphere and possibly faster while in space.

Ocular Heat Emission (Heat Vision): Kryptonians can fire beams of intense heat from their eyes. These beams can be made invisible, allowing them to work undetected, but when fired at full-strength the effect is displayed as an intense red burst from their ocular cavities.

Invulnerability: A Kryptonian’s body is nigh-invulnerable due to their super humanly dense cellular and anatomical structure as well as their radiating bio-electrical aura. Kryptonians under some circumstances, are resistant or immune to different forms and levels of lacerations, blunt force trauma, energy-based assaults, falls from great heights, explosions, the cold void of space, toxins and all known diseases on Earth. Their supercharged bio-electric "aura" acts as an invisible "force field" radiating within a few millimeters from their skin. Kryptonians can willfully utilize their aura strengthening its power to a greater degree to provide an additional defense against certain levels of physical and energy attacks for a considerably short period of time, but doing so can endanger them should the attempted feat prove inefficient for any reason. A Kryptonian can utilize their aura by expanding it around a person(s) or object(s) to enable their structural stability when lifting or traveling with them. Their invulnerability has been in a constant flux dependent on their levels of solar absorption.

Intense Lung Capacity: Kryptonians can create hurricane force winds by blowing, and also chill their breath to freeze a target. They can also breathe in large amounts of air to dispel clouds of gas by exhaling it.

Hearing: Kryptonians have the ability to expand their hearing range, giving them the ability to hear sounds before the sound waves actually reach them. This also gives them incredible hearing at extreme variances of sound and pitch frequency, allowing them to pick up noises from across the globe. They have also shown enough control to block out ambient sounds to focus on a specific source/frequency.

Smell: On various occasions, Kryptonians have demonstrated that their sense of smell is significantly enhanced to the point they can smell odors from up to a mile away.

Electromagnetic Spectrum Vision: Kryptonians can see into all of the EM Spectrum. They can see and identify radio/television and any and all broadcast/transmitted frequencies, allowing them to avoid detection through radar or satellite monitoring methods.

Telescopic Vision: The ability to focus their vision to see something at a great distance, without violating the laws of physics.

Microscopic Vision: The ability to see extremely small objects and images down to the sub atomic level.

Ocular X-Ray Emission (X-Ray Vision): The ability to see through anything except lead. Since it is passive, this ability would not generate harmful radiation in the same manner as a focused projection of hard X-rays.

Thermal Vision: The ability to see through the heat tracks left by a living being or object.

Solar Flare: A Kryptonians ability to immediately expel all of their stored solar energy in one gigantic burst of explosive force. This Solar Flare utilizes all the stored energy within their cells at once, allowing for an all out attack.They cannot use it more than once or twice however, as it drains them of all their powers, including their normally enhanced abilities with the exception of their enhanced senses and sight until they can recharge their cells with solar energy. Give or take 24 hours, in that expanse of time, they are rendered virtually human and vulnerable.

Weaknesses

Vulnerability to Magic: A Kryptonian's bio matrix is their most powerful asset, but the strength of this field is also its greatest weakness. Its permeability to certain wavelengths makes them vulnerable to certain radiations, particularly magical energies whose chaotic electromagnetic or extra dimensional signatures disrupt this force field. Kryptonian's vulnerability to magic varies depending upon the special effects of the magic. Magic can have powerful and unpredictable effects on a Kryptonian, certainly making it one of the deadliest weaknesses.

Vulnerability to Kryptonite: Since the destruction of Krypton, its remains (rendered radioactive by the explosion) have been spreading throughout the universe as Kryptonite, a crystalline substance whose specific radioactive wavelength is lethal to Kryptonians. The most common form of Kryptonite is Green Kryptonite, and its effect is directly poisonous to them.

Lead: Kryptonians cannot see through lead with their x-ray vision powers.

Solar Energy Dependency: A Kryptonian’s abilities will eventually weaken without replenishing their energy reserves with normal (yellow) sun radiation, especially if they don’t have any direct contact with yellow sunlight. When exposed to the same red solar radiation as Krypton's red sun Rao, it causes a Kryptonian to lose their enhanced powers with a large amount of exposure. Exposure to yellow sunlight will reverse this effect.

High-Pitched Noises: Because of their super hearing, A Kryptonian's ears are extra-sensitive to extreme noises.

Psionics: A Kryptonian's mind is vulnerable to psionic effects like any other.

Respiration: Even Kryptonians need to breathe.

The Meta Gene interaction with Kryptonians

The Meta-Gene is a genetic marker in certain individuals that allows them to endure catastrophic physical trauma by developing new abilities—i.e. superpowers. It has been speculated that the Meta-Gene is opportunistic in nature, taking advantage of pre-existing factors in an individual's system to cause a mutation.

Due to extremely complex genetic engineering done to Kryptonian’s over the years since live birth was abandoned for birthing pods, it’s extremely rare for Kryptonian’s to harbor any potential to develop a meta-gene’s activation unless engineered to be a Meta-Kryptonian, they are of natural birth, or are a hybrid. A notable Meta-Kryptonian being Doomsday, an unstoppable monster that warranted in the Kryptonians altering their DNA to prevent such an unstoppable monstrosity ever again.

[norts-trolls]

DEEPSEA BOI ELECTRIC BOOGALOO2

Ammenk Duritr

design by: @jaquerabbitart​

Your name is AMMENK DURITR and you are a VERY STRANGE INDIVIDUAL. You spent the majority of your life DEEP UNDER WATER along the floor of the deepest parts of the SEA. Whether this was a conscious choice or a side-effect of your MUTATIONS, not even you are entirely sure.

Aside from looking like a LITERAL DEEPSEA MONSTER, you’re a general HYPE MAN and you’re interested in literally EVERY BIT OF NEW TECHNOLOGY YOU CAN GET YOUR OVERSIZED HANDS ON.

Mutations & Psionic:

Good for Swimmin’ Ammys forearms and hands are overmuscled and broad, with the circumference of his forearm being wider than that of his waist. This makes him hunch as he walks on dry land but gives him an incredible ‘crushing’ power.

Literal Dunkass With teeth that are fused into beak-like ‘plates’ like a Dunkleosteus, his mouth is a nightmare. He’s also got a set of shell-grinding ‘molars’ in both his upper palate and on either side of his tongue.  

Psionic: Echolocation Less of a Psionic and more of an Adaptation from living in the Depths, Ammy is able to emit a high-frequency ‘ping’ from the gills on his throat and translate their ricocheting echo into distance, shape, and speed of moving objects. He only knows how to use this underwater and cannot use it on dry land.

Sweeps: 200

birthday: November 29

trollian: n/a

voiceclaim: n/a

Bloodcolor: Violet

Chaotic neutral

[animeman08]

Wolverine

Wolverine (birth name: James Howlett; alias: Logan and Weapon X) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, mostly in association with the X-Men. He is a mutant who possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, a powerful regenerative ability known as a healing factor, and three retractable claws in each hand. Wolverine has been depicted variously as a member of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, and the Avengers.

The character appeared in the last panel of The Incredible Hulk #180 before having a larger role in #181 (cover-dated Nov. 1974). He was created by Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, writer Len Wein, and Marvel art director John Romita Sr. Romita designed the character, although it was first drawn for publication by Herb Trimpe. Wolverine then joined a revamped version of the superhero team the X-Men, where eventually writer Chris Claremont and artist-writer John Byrne would play significant roles in the character's development. Artist Frank Miller collaborated with Claremont and helped revise the character with a four-part eponymous limited series from September to December 1982, which debuted Wolverine's catchphrase, "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice."

Wolverine is typical of the many tough antiheroes that emerged in American popular culture after the Vietnam War; his willingness to use deadly force and his brooding nature became standard characteristics for comic book antiheroes by the end of the 1980s. As a result, the character became a fan favorite of the increasingly popular X-Men franchise, and has been featured in his own solo comic book series since 1988.

He has appeared in most X-Men adaptations, including animated television series, video games, and the live-action 20th Century Fox X-Men film series, in which he is played by Hugh Jackman. Troye Sivan portrayed a younger version in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The character is highly rated in many comics best-of lists, ranked #1 in Wizard magazine's 2008 Top 200 Comic Book Characters; 4th in Empire's 2008 Greatest Comic Characters; and 4th on IGN's 2011 Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.

Powers and abilities

Wolverine is a mutant with a number of both natural and artificial improvements to his physiology.

> Healing and defensive powers

Wolverine's primary mutant power is an accelerated healing process, typically referred to as his mutant healing factor, that regenerates damaged or destroyed tissues of his body far beyond that of normal humans. In addition to accelerated healing of physical traumas, Wolverine's healing factor makes him extraordinarily resistant to diseases, drugs and toxins. However, he can still suffer the immediate effects of such substances in massive quantities; he has been seen to become intoxicated after ingesting significant amounts of alcohol,and has been incapacitated on several occasions with large amounts of powerful drugs and poisons; S.H.I.E.L.D. once managed to keep Wolverine anesthetized by constantly pumping eighty milliliters of anesthetic a minute into his system.

A study by the University of British Columbia states that Wolverine's healing factor resembles the axolotl's ability to regenerate lost limbs. It suggests that a novel protein—which the study's authors dubbed Howlett—found in tissue samples taken from him, and which resembles the Amblox protein found in axolotl but is much more efficient, is responsible for Wolverine's rapid regeneration. His healing factor is facilitated by artificial improvements he was subjected to under the Weapon X program (in later comics called the Weapon Plus program), in which his skeleton was reinforced with the virtually indestructible metal adamantium. While the adamantium in his body stops or reduces many injuries, his healing factor must also work constantly to prevent metal poisoning from killing him. When his healing powers were rendered inactive, Beast synthesized a drug to counteract the adamantium poisoning.

Wolverine's healing factor also dramatically affects his aging process, allowing him to live far beyond the normal lifespan of normal humans. Despite being born in the late 19th century, he has the appearance, conditioning, health and vitality of a man in his physical prime. While seemingly ageless, it is unknown exactly how greatly his healing factor extends his life expectancy.

Although Wolverine's body heals, the healing factor does not suppress the pain he endures while injured. Wolverine also admits to feeling phantom pains for weeks or months after healing from his injuries. He does not enjoy being hurt and sometimes has to work himself up for situations where extreme pain is certain. Wolverine, on occasion, has deliberately injured himself or allowed himself to be injured for varying reasons, including freeing himself from capture, intimidation, strategy, or simply indulging his feral nature. Though he now has all of his memories, his healing abilities can provide increased recovery from psychological trauma by suppressing memories in which he experiences profound distress.

Depictions of the speed and extent of injury to which Wolverine can heal vary due to a broad degree of artistic license employed by various comic book writers. Originally, this was portrayed as accelerated healing of minor wounds, though Chris Claremont, head writer of the X-Men comics from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s increased Wolverine's healing factor substantially, though not nearly as much as later writers would. During the 1980s, Wolverine's mutant healing factor is depicted as being able to heal massive levels of trauma, though his recovery time could extend to days, weeks or months before fully healing; often depending upon the severity of the injuries, their extent and the frequency with which they're inflicted. Wolverine has also stated that his body actually heals faster when the injury is grave or life-threatening. During the 1990s through the modern era, other writers have increased Wolverine's healing factor to the point that it could fully regenerate nearly any damaged or destroyed bodily tissues within seconds. Among the more extreme depictions of Wolverine's healing factor include fully healing after being caught near the center of an atomic explosion and the total regeneration of his soft body tissue, within a matter of minutes, after having it incinerated from his skeleton. An explanation is given in a recent mini-series starring Wolverine for the increase of his healing powers. In the series, Wolverine is referred to as an "adaptive self-healer" after undergoing numerous traumatic injuries to test the efficiency of his healing factor. Wolverine has endured so much trauma, and so frequently, that his healing factor has adapted, becoming faster and more efficient to cope with increasing levels of trauma. The Xavier Protocols, a series of profiles created by Xavier that lists the strengths and weaknesses of the X-Men, say that Wolverine's healing factor is increased to "incredible levels" and theorizes that the only way to stop him is to decapitate him and remove his head from the vicinity of his body.

It is possible to suppress the efficiency of Wolverine's healing powers; for example, if an object composed of adamantium is inserted and remains lodged within his body, his healing powers are slowed dramatically. The Muramasa blade, a katana of mystic origins that can inflict wounds that nullify superhuman healing factors, can also suppress Wolverine's powers. It has also been noted that Wolverine needs protein for his healing factor to generate tissue, meaning that if he was seriously injured and malnourished, his body might not be able to repair itself. His healing factor has also been turned off using nanites.

It has been suggested that Wolverine can be killed by drowning. He has said that he is not particularly fond of being in the water, due partially to the weight of his adamantium laced skeleton, and that he can die if held underwater long enough - his healing factor would only prolong the agony. The two-part story arc "Drowning Logan" finds Wolverine trapped underwater for an extensive period of time. The second part of the story arc hints that this experience weakens his healing factor and future health. Following "Drowning Logan", Beast reveals that an "intelligent virus" originating from the Microverse has shut off his healing factor, though not before it purged his body of the virus, leaving him as susceptible to injury, disease, and aging as any ordinary human.

Wolverine vol. 3, #57 reveals that when Wolverine is injured so seriously that his body actually dies before his healing factor can repair the damage, he returns to life by fighting with Azrael, the Angel of Death, while trapped in Purgatory because Wolverine defeated Azrael in real-world combat during World War I. However, after Wolverine's resurrection and brainwashing by the Hand, he made a new deal with Azrael that repaired the damage to his soul, negated their previous arrangement, and weakened his healing factor slightly - and the next time Wolverine sustains death-inducing injuries, he will remain dead.

Due to a combination of Wolverine's healing factor and high-level psionic shields implanted by Professor Xavier, Wolverine's mind is highly resistant to telepathic assault and probing. Wolverine's mind also possesses what he refers to as "mental scar tissue" created by the traumatic events of his life. It acts as a type of natural defense, even against a psychic as powerful as Emma Frost.

> Other abilities

Wolverine's mutation also consists of animal-like adaptations of his body, including pronounced, and sharp fang-like canines and three retractable claws housed within each forearm. While originally depicted as bionic implants created by the Weapon X program, the claws are later revealed to be a natural part of his body. The claws are not made of keratin, as claws tend to be in the animal kingdom, but extremely dense bone. Wolverine's hands do not have openings for the claws to move through: they cut through his flesh every time he extrudes them, with occasional references implying that he feels a brief moment of slight pain in his hands when he unsheathes them. During a talk to Jubilee, Wolverine reveals that there are channels inside his forearms through which the claws move when he extrudes them and that he unsheathes the claws a few times a day to keep the channels open, similar to pierced ears.

Wolverine's senses of sight, smell, and hearing are all superhumanly acute. He can see with perfect clarity at greater distances than an ordinary human, even in near-total darkness. His hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing him to hear sounds ordinary humans cannot and also hear to greater distances. Wolverine is able to use his sense of smell to track targets by scent, even if the scent has been eroded somewhat over time by natural factors. This sense also allows him to identify shapeshifting mutants despite other forms they may take. He is also able to use his senses of smell and hearing, through concentration, as a type of natural lie detector, such as detecting a faint change in a person's heartbeat and scent due to perspiration when a lie is told.

On more than one occasion, Wolverine's entire skeleton, including his claws, has been molecularly infused with adamantium. Due to their coating, his claws can cut almost any known solid material, including most metals, wood, and some varieties of stone. The only known exceptions are adamantium itself and Captain America's shield, which is made out of a proto-adamantium-vibranium alloy. Vibranium alone is not comparable in terms of durability with adamantium and has been broken by Colossus. Wolverine's ability to slice completely through a substance depends upon both the amount of force he can exert and the thickness of the substance. His claws can also be used to block attacks or projectiles, as well as dig into surfaces allowing Wolverine to climb structures. The adamantium also adds weight to his blows, increasing the effectiveness of his offensive capabilities. His adamantium skeleton makes him highly susceptible to magnetic-based attacks. According to Reed Richards, Wolverine would be unable to move without his enhanced strength due to the additional weight of the adamantium bonded to his skeleton.

Wolverine's healing factor also affects a number of his physical attributes by increasing them to superhuman levels. His stamina is sufficiently heightened to the point he can exert himself for numerous hours, even after exposure to powerful tranquilizers. Wolverine's agility and reflexes are also enhanced to levels that are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete. Due to his healing factor's constant regenerative qualities, he can push his muscles beyond the limits of the human body without injury. This, coupled with the constant demand placed on his muscles by over one hundred pounds of adamantium, grants him some degree of superhuman strength. Since the presence of the adamantium negates the natural structural limits of his bones, he can lift or move weight that would otherwise damage a human skeleton. He has been depicted breaking steel chains, lifting several men above his head with one arm and throwing them through a wall, lifting Ursa Major (in grizzly bear form) over his head before tossing him across a room, and hauling a concert grand piano, and the platform it rests on, via a harness, while climbing a sheer cliff. Colossus and other allies use Wolverine's endurance and strength when throwing him at high speed in the Fastball Special.

During and after the Return of Wolverine, Logan has showcased a mysterious new ability where the adamantium in his claws can heat up to incredibly high, yet undisclosed, level of temperatures. The mechanics of this power have yet to be revealed; whether it is a Secondary Mutation, latent Weapon X faculty making itself known or a new power gained upon his resurrection is unclear. What is extent is that it's related to the berserker side of his persona, his Hot Claws as popularly noted being tied to Wolverines rage. This new power comes with the drawback of weakening his healing factor, however, as after using them to ward of the X-Men who came looking for him, he lost consciousness for a few weeks time afterward.

> Skills and personality

During Wolverine's time in Japan and other countries, he became proficient in many forms of martial arts, with experience in many different fighting styles. He is proficient with most weaponry, including firearms, though he is partial to bladed weapons. He has demonstrated sufficient skills to defeat expert martial artist Shang-Chi and Captain America in single combat. He also has a wide knowledge of the body and pressure points. Like many of the X-Men, he is trained to pilot the group's SR-71 Blackbird supersonic plane. He is highly skilled in the field of espionage and covert operations.

Wolverine will sometimes lapse into a "berserker rage" while in close combat. In this state, he lashes out with the intensity and aggression of an enraged animal and is even more resistant to psionic attack. Though he loathes it, he acknowledges that it has saved his life many times, it being most notably useful when he faced the telepathic "Mister X", as X's ability to read his mind and predict his next move in a fight was useless as not even Wolverine knows what he will do next in his berserk state. Despite his apparent ease at taking lives, he mournfully regrets and does not enjoy killing or giving in to his berserker rages. Logan adheres to a firm code of personal honor and morality.

In contrast to his brutish nature, Wolverine is extremely knowledgeable. Due to his longer lifespan, he has traveled around the world and amassed extensive knowledge of foreign languages and cultures. He is fluent in English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne, Spanish, Arabic, and Lakota; he also has some knowledge of French, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Korean, Hindi, Telugu, Persian, German, and Portuguese. When Forge monitors Wolverine's vital signs during a Danger Room training session, he calls Logan's physical and mental state "equivalent of an Olympic-level gymnast performing a gold medal routine while simultaneously beating four chess computers in his head." Much to Professor Xavier's disapproval, Wolverine is also a heavy drinker and smoker; his healing powers negate the long-term effects of alcohol and tobacco and allow him to indulge in prolonged binges.

Wolverine is frequently depicted as a gruff loner, often taking leave from the X-Men to deal with personal issues or problems. He is often irreverent and rebellious towards authority figures, though he is a reliable ally and capable leader, and has occasionally displayed a wry, sarcastic sense of humor. He has been a mentor and father figure to several younger women, especially Jubilee, Kitty Pryde and X-23, and has had failed romantic relationships with numerous women (most notably Mariko Yashida). He also had a mutual, but unfulfilled attraction to Jean Grey, leading to arguments with her boyfriend (and later husband), Scott Summers. He also married Viper as part of a debt, then later divorced her. It has also been implied that he and Squirrel Girl had a relationship at some point in the past. Wolverine has had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with longtime teammate and friend, Storm.