The ANIMa Permissions Post: A CR-Powered Mecha and You!

[otomechapilot]

If Nanoha is magical girls with mecha show tropes, then the ANIMa is a mecha as gloriously magical girl show. She summons a pilotable robot ranging in size from D.Va's battlesuit to "uses a skyscraper as a club" as dictated by the logic of whatever Nightmare she's fighting past; it is always, intrinsically, a match for the alien she's facing, as it's made from the same technology that made them hellishly huge.

Each of its major subsystems is a symbol of her relationship with someone she, to use a loaded word, loves. The more emotionally intense and intimate the relationship is, the more useful and powerful the system is; the more trusting and safe the relationship is, the more sturdy and reliable the system. The game rated this on a scale of 0-5 for both stats; Int 4 requires a punch, or a kiss, on the mouth, and she will get nothing higher in this game.

Her increasingly distant but completely incorruptible and trustworthy brother (2 Intimacy, 5 Trust) can be drawn on for a tower shield; the dangerously flirtatious Keenan Caine, her crush and wingman, gets her a plasma shotgun that tends to overheat when fired constantly (3 Intimacy, 1 Trust), for example.

Half of the fun of playing her canon at other games has been figuring out what CR-powered weapons she'll get from growing relationships with her castmates.

SPEAKING OF WHICH.

Please tag to this permissions post and let me know if you're okay with Sara drawing ANIMa weapons from her CR with you! This comes with some inherent risk, as damaged parts will put psychic strain on the relationship. If you are interested, please let me know if you have any suggestions for the weapon system! Just keep in mind the one rule of ANIMa weapons -



EDITED 04/FEB/2018 TO ADD: I’m putting several self-imposed limitations on this based on the spirit of the tabletop game she’s based on.

First off, while it’s as big as it needs to be to fight a Nightmare (or similar malevolent extradimensional egregore), in the waking world and absent that kind of threat it is a otherwise a normal, somewhat bulky suit of power armor similar in size and strength to the suits from Starcraft, Halo, or Half-Life. Fighting a dragon or a Diabolin wouldn’t trigger the MAKE MY MECHA GROOOOOW ability; fighting Cthulhu might (but she’ll have bigger problems then a scale mismatch there...).

Second, she cannot call on anyone on Walkabout, using Psychic Protection to shut off the link, or, if they’ve Infiltrated, prior to a meaningful interlude with their Overlay where she realizes who it is.

Third, the number of parts drawn on have diminishing returns. Calling on three to four is her usual combat load; calling on six, incredibly taxing on her mental resources. Say as a rule of thumb that she can’t maintain it for longer than 24 hours, halved for each part beyond the first and chassis, before it becomes inoperable without a good, restful night of normal sleep.

Comments

[truerevelation]

It'd almost be hypocritical to say she can't do the thing. XD

For inspiration stuff... Kanji's original weapons in his Inaba days were varieties of shield (no chair slinging for this AU.) Travelling, he favours tonfa and knuckle dusters, has a honking great rocket launcher in Hammerspace that he's not had to use yet, and his Champion form uses razor wire or laser web shenanigans to attack/defend.

[otomechapilot]

I honestly like shields and monofilament most for iiiits syyyymboooolic reasons; very tempted to make her weapon via Kanji a needle-and-thread gun on a winch, mostly useful as a hookshot.

If you count the strands of the cable, or she shakes them apart to use as a whip, you'll count 22 strands.

[haremtrap]

Yeah she can draw on Kohaku. I imagine it might be something like a built in sensor system that can detect everything around her rather than an actual weapon. Situationally useful, but not much help when Godzilla is already in your face trying to disembowel you. Much like Kohaku herself!

[otomechapilot]

That fits the relationship, and it even fits with Kohaku's own fine-tuned sensory powers. A visor that includes radar and IFF, then. Dream entities are blue pattern, of course. Nonhostile living things are a vivid Tang orange.

...I may have to ask the Changelings et al about this on their permission posts.

[breakaleginhalf]

So primarily Gil is absurdly strong and not afraid to get violent, so there's a lot of potential for him to be an extremely potent weapon. He can eat literally anything, his teeth are classed as a lethal weapon (like, legitimately) and by burning his magic he can lift up multiple tons of mass or break through just about anything.

HOWEVER, he also has a few skills in the realm of fear - he can learn what terrifies a person the most, and tell stories that are supernaturally scary and cause people to feel real terror. This could be an interesting effect to play with too!

[otomechapilot]

When I do Bliss Stage I like for directly emotional attacks and emotional volatility to basically make fuckoff huge beam weapons.

Cryogenic fear cannon, baby.

[leftbehindagain]

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE SOME DEBUFFS COURTESY OF BOOZE GUY

[otomechapilot]

I would love them but they don't seem to thematically work for their relationship specifically.

Now of this was his relationship to YOSUKE that would make sense...

[unconventionalelf]

We really need to work on their CR, though I'm okay with it. Tal's weapon of choice are throwing blades, though if you want something more unique you could always steal her flute to use as a paralyzing weapon (she uses it to cast a sleep spell)

[otomechapilot]

As much as I love utility gear, I tend to make straightforward and honest relationships into melee weapons anyway, so All The Knives it is!

[reallymean]

Totally okay with her doing the thing wrt Allura.

As I mentioned on plurk, I keep stalling out on suggestions, mostly because they have more CR as Sarai and Nike than as Sara and Allura so far, but something like a shockstaff might fit? A weapon that can be used defensively, but still packs a punch. Or a magical returning spear, since they both favoured that weapon in Greece.

[otomechapilot]

She even has a Tesla Spear in most versions I run with her because of innuendo, so that works gloriously well.

[helborn]

I'm totally okay with her using Casper's CR as a weapon. Casper tends to favor blunt melee weapons and ice and death are his primary realms, though he also has his raven stuff that he uses often, too. Not sure if that gives you any launching points, but yeah. :3

[otomechapilot]

I'm tempted to work a raven banner into this - either a warhammer or a shield made of ice, with raven motifs.

Whatever form it takes, after Casper went through her dungeon to give it and her memories to her, it's going to have "Munin-" as a prefix.

[ninjayeehaw]

I feel like these two are gonna be interacting a lot more in future SO

Kinji's primarily a physical fighter, and supplements it with ninja-style powers. However he is also a flashy-ass golden comet of RAMPAGE so I feel like his weapon should be something ludicrously over the top.

Like a giant sword that can shoot star-shaped energy bullets.

[otomechapilot]

Congrats. You gave her a Goddamn Princess Wand. That shoots stars. That are as hot as real stars.

Because YOLO.

[whatspringislike]

Totally free to draw a weapon from Shinji! I'd suggest either a pallet rifle, progressive knife, or Lance of Longinus for maximum symbolic wtfery, but I don't insist on any of the above!

[otomechapilot]

Gonna wait to see how the CR shakes out, but whatever form it takes will absolutely be an iconic Evangelion weapon.

(Heck, maybe even an AT-Field Projector, if we want to go turbo iconic as Shinji remains the prickliest hedgehog.)

[wholeheaded]

I need to read permissions things more often AMBROSE IS AVAILABLE. with his...protective uncle/scatterhsot Fool-fueled optimism idk. I don't know enough about the genre to make a proper suggestion so I'll Trust Your Judgement.

same player different journal

[bigbookofd]

The immediate first thought is frankly an advanced AI guidance system, both to improve her accuracy, keep track of objectives, and dodge more effectively.

Y'know, stuff she'd be able to do if she only had a brain.

[youandyoualone]

So this is a very new CR, but if you want something to help the ANIMa espionage, medieval spyman is here for you.

[otomechapilot]

Depending on where this goes, either surveilance or stealth seems likely.

[vrepit_no]

This is awesome and you may 1000% draw on Shiro for this!

He's a sturdy, strong presence, usually very level-headed, and heavy on tactics and offense in his own fighting. I have a couple of thoughts:

1) Armor/a system that improves the mech's balance and resistance to being pushed back/over.

2) Helpful heads up display that predicts enemy movements, provides a map of the local area, and highlights enemies and items of strategic use in different colors to help guide her in battle.

3) Enormous wings with bladed feathers which work as a heatsink, drawing heat from other systems and letting it off the feathers to cool the whole mech down. That heat can get up to white-hot temperatures, allowing the wings to be used as weapons. Fragile in long-term use - can block two or three bullets or one explosion before the feathers start to crack and shatter, ergo can be used as an emergency shield, but it is not suggested.

4) A sheath of plasma emanates from the right hand of the mech and can expand to cover whatever is held in that hand.

[otomechapilot]

The CR creates the weapon, but given his themes of “straightforward, tactical, he protec he attac but most important his lion blac,” iiiit’s probably going to be the Plasmafaust Bayard.

Among other things, Kohaku and Ambrose grant systems that are very similar to the other blatantly correct choice of the Black Lion-Class Tactical HUD.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Since they're both in Allura's gang for this, even though they haven't actually talked, just giving a thumbs up placeholder for whatever as needed.

[otomechapilot]

Dreamer Kick Thanks! We'll see what shakes out.

[fruitknife]

Well at this point I think we can safely say a thing is possible. XD

Shinji cooks and hits things really hard. And is much, much more of an innate defender than he's been able to give himself credit for in years (there's a reason I beelined him to Liminal Barrier).

[grimjeaper]

Mostly just for record keeping's sake, since we discussed it on Discord, but Barry would give her an extremely powerful but extremely volatile health/life force siphon that can recharge her systems and health. In the shape of a skeletal hand or bones or some shit.