Campaign
"Ooooowwwwwwwiiiiiie fuck stop that whoever it is"
Resort to drastic measures - fire couches everywhere in an attempt to get that screaming to stop.
You fire couches everywhere around you, trapping yourself inside the basement. You also damage the ceiling and some support columns while doing so, causing the ceiling to bulge downwards dangerously.
For the sake of not invalidating everyone else's RP, we'll say it took you some time to charge that attack up so that Irine and Ike could reach the stairs.
"Sorry, that worked way too well! It was supposed to only target River."
Stop angry russian accented screaming in everyone's heads. That's a very useful trick to add to the repertoire. Get up and try to stop this thing from strangling me. Leave it tsared though, in case I need to psychic screech again. Once again, let the more talky people do their talking.
Trying to get up is very hard considering the weight of the thing and the fact that trying to do so only makes the strangling thing worst.
Trying to stop it from strangling you is probably not going to work either, seeing as the two ends of wire have fused together into a large, thick and heavy collar-like thing.
The floor you are lying on suddenly bulges upwards before sagging downwards in an alarmingly unsafe manner, just as Irine and Ike are making their way out.
Carry Irine to a more secluded location.
You walk outside and make your way to the far edge of the cluster of buildings, a two storey house that has suffered expensive burn damage, leaving only charred stones and remnants of burnt wood crushed under the semi-collapsed ceiling. With the wind blowing more strongly now, small particles of ash have started flying around, swirling in small eddies, some of them escaping out of the house, before they fall down or rearrange themselves in different patterns as the direction the wind is coming from changes slightly.
You take cover in a corner of the house where the still intact supports combined with the otherwise combined ceiling has created a cave-like structure made of stone blocks.
You don't hear, see or smell anything new or interesting along the way.
"Hey River! Sorry for trying to slash at you and everything, I just thought you were going off the deep end or something. Me and Irine had a talk like you said, and it was pretty enlightening. Mind coming out? I don't wanna talk to a wall. Though if you don't, that's cool too."
There is no response.
Maybe he's not really listening. Or maybe he's only listening using telepathy. Or maybe he doesn't feel like talking. Or maybe he's sulking. Or maybe he's afraid this is a trick. Or maybe he's busy healing himself. Or some other horrible thing happened to him in this accursed city. Or any of the other possible reasons for the lack of response.
The point is, there is no response.
I stay snuggled in Ike's arms and keep my eyes closed, not looking in case River decides to surprise us and staying where someone's holding me close and I can't get easily grabbed and carried off again by River.
Just out of curiosity, is there a spelling error there or do you mean that you do not feel like you have to look around and see what's going on?
OOC((I have a copy of the tree in my pictures folder, and the exact opposite is shown in there. it being a viable dodge mechanic when upgraded is specifically because things pass through her when she's flame. It hasn't come up as a discussion topic though because I normally remove everything before changing and then put it back on again afterwards.))
((the fire she changes into is not special. remember that she integrates other normal fire into and out of her body as part of the change. the fire that is Irine changes all the time.))
((as for what happens? I stay in place, in midair if that's where I changed, for the duration of the change. which is why if I change with clothes on they'll fall to the ground below me and then I end up on top of them. I stay at the same location, but my posture can be massively changed, which is why my legs don't snap when I go between human and fox even though the joints aren't at the same position nor have the same range of motion. Things being shoved into me is a hazard, but if I can viably reform whilst avoiding the overlap then I will do so, even if I end up in some contortionist pose. I actually kinda thought that I could handle a long fall by timing a change properly to reset my momentum.))
((The constancy of her body's forms and the way changing doesn't heal is because of the interactions between her core abilities, especially the revive mechanic, which also governs data storage.))
((EDIT: correction, it has come up in discussion once actually. pre-first mission when she was explaining her abilty to change to the others. As mentioned there, she turns into fire. not some firey goop or whatever. actual, burny, fire.))
I dunno, I mean I searched and I did find this:
The dodge I mention is so that you can move while shapeshifting or use your change in shape and position to confuse your enemies.
But on the other hand, I searched and I have never specifically mentioned this anywhere, PM or here. And it is your character. But on the other other hand, you did agree that her abilities have been damaged and thus could had changed.
So how about this: We say things do phase through you. And that your body can adjust its shape to its environment (which is what was happening with the current system as well, the semi-stable pyrokinetic field reshaping itself and "expanding" to fit a preprogrammed state by absorbing fire/heat, like those memory metals that self-assemble at the right temperature). But something dense enough or moving quickly enough, something that could mess with a weakened version of your ability to control fire can still harm you, along with things that would normally be capable of hurting you during the transformation. Does that sound OK? If I'm somehow mistaken or you have a better idea or if you want to give a more in depth explanation about how you feel your ability should work, I'd be willing to listen, this isn't a take it or leave it deal, just trying to figure out something you'd like but also something not too powerful.
Irrelevant, but resetting momentum sounds dangerous. What if you're in a moving vehicle? Or worse, a vehicle that rapidly changes position and acceleration, like a boat? With the current system you'd have a small decrease in terminal velocity while changing due the air resistance to weight ratio changing, but not more than that.
Not to mention the difficulty of assigning a relative point from which your momentum should be zero. Should it be the centre of gravity of the nearest object that exceeds a certain mass? What happens then when you're in orbit or in deep space? Or if someone is a gravity manipulator? What happens if someone tries to teleport you during a transformation? Questions like these might have not needed an answer in Irine's previous game, but on this one I may have to consider them depending on circumstances. But anyway, if that's what you want, I'll just have to try to figure out the answer to these if we ever come up to something like that.