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.

[truerevelation]

Sounds good to me! Having it be something practical rather than just plain old damaging sounds pretty cool, actually.

[otomechapilot]

Totally. Their relationship is more mentor and student than it is anything dramatic and passionate; it's only fitting that it's more a utility system than a weapon.

For the record, I'm treating this ROUGHLY as if shes the Champion of Mecha when I'm setting power levels.

[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.

[haremtrap]

With lots of static and shit until the trust gets higher, probably.

[otomechapilot]

And greater range and detail with Intimacy, which will probably cap out at 3.

[haremtrap]

Kohaku is not very punchy or kissy so barring very unusual circumstances, yeah probably.

[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.

[breakaleginhalf]

Gil would think that is the actual coolest shit, by the way. Giant space nerd.

[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...

[leftbehindagain]

hmm. In that case, what sounds appropriate to you, and I can see what I can brainstorm accordingly.

[otomechapilot]

It's emblematic of Sara and Naoki's relationship, specifically. And so far, Naoki has been one of Sara's mentors and friends when he's not busy visibly doing things to help and aid the Travellers.

Buffer equipment makes more sense than debuffing weapons with that in mind.

[leftbehindagain]

Buffing equipment would also be doable!

[otomechapilot]

A fuel injector for the 'lol booze' joke?

Diverting the energy it adds to her system can mimic the effects of different -kaja spells, starting with Sukukaja and getting the other types as options once the relationship gets less superficial.

[leftbehindagain]

I like it.

[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)

[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.

[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!

[otomechapilot]

ISN'T IT THOUGH.

If you listen closely to the sound of it discharging it's a modified Wilhelm Scream.

[otomechapilot]

Kaja Injector System is go!