Swap!
General idea:
Tok can temporarily swap Attributes of People either between themselves and another person, or between two people! The attributes need to be consciously observed.
Some examples include: Their consciousnesses (they’re gonna freaky Friday your ass), mutations*, physical looks.
Mechanics of it:
Tok links two people (either themself and one other person, or two other people) by creating a Quantum Channel between people, linking/entangling the particles between them, which allows for Quantum State Transfer but on a HUGE scale.
It takes particles of a certain state and transfers their exact condition onto other particles through the line of linked particles. It’s like weird particle teleportation through domino particles!
Pretty much all this does is swap the two things!
The link requires a large amount of energy to maintain, so Tok has to occasionally pulse energy through the link to maintain it. That energy will eventually run out after a certain amount of time, and if they don’t swap back before that, the link/Quantum Tunnel that allows for the transfer will collapse and have repercussions.
This also opens things up to Noise that can interfere with the Link:
- Big electromagnetic fields
- Super high temperatures!
- I think vibrational things can mess up Quantum Channels too.
- Maybe whatever else we want! Let’s go crazy!! (I do picture that Tok’s Quantum Channels are MUCH more stable than real life quantum channels BUT the opportunity is there if we want them to be!)
This can give opportunity to partial/fucked up transfers. Maybe some information gets lost on the way back, or they both end up with a mixture/fusion of the thing being swapped (this can apply to any type of swap!)
Swapping Mutations:
Tok cannot sense mutations, or figure out someone is a mutant in any way. They can only swap the features of mutations they’ve observed.
For example, if someone was telepathic, they wouldn’t be aware or able to swap the mutation until the telepath were to actively talk in their brain.
Example 2: If someone were able to fly and control metal, and they observe someone fly, they would only be able to swap the ability to fly and not the ability to control the metal.
TLDR: they don’t gain every aspect of the power that they don’t know, and are only able to swap the function they observed. Also, they don’t magically gain the knowledge of the mutations when swapped.
Swapping mutations ALSO include physical mutations, but might manifest a bit differently in each person!
Swapping mutations can include the outward physical aspects of a mutation as well, so someone with spikes can be swapped with someone without spikes, and VOILA! Spiked person is now spike-less and spike-less person now has spikes. (These mutations can potentially manifest a bit differently in each person, so maybe spiked person usually has green spikes, but when swapped onto usually spike-less person, they’re blue! This is up to player discretion and just allows people to have fun with it cosmetically, not meant to change the function of the mutation)
Some extreme changes caused by swapping physical mutations could potentially cause scarring, or even leave some small residual evidence of the mutation (for example, maybe they’re left with a small patch of scales, etc). (Again, this is ENTIRELY up to player discretion.)
While swapping mutations between two other people, they would be specifically swapping the function(s) they observed from one person with the function(s) they observed from another person, while both still retain the OTHER functions of their power not swapped. This allows for some really interesting meshing of power that will likely break everyone’s brain OOC.
They’re gonna Freaky Friday your ass:
Uh oh! Time to learn the power of understanding what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes!—or whatever that movie was about. Either way, Tok can swap consciousnesses with other people, or cause two people to swap consciousnesses. A person whose swapped consciousnesses with Tok could potentially figure out how to cut it short.
There could be an aspect of people potentially being able to mentally resist these swaps if we think that would be cool OOC.
Time Limits/Durations:
Swaps have time limits ranging from a few days to a week, varying depending on the swap.
- Low energy swaps can last on average a week with some variability.(Ex: small physical swaps, less intensive things)
- Medium energy swaps can last a few days with some variability. (Ex: maybe some mutation swaps, maybe some physical swaps)
- High energy swaps usually can last a day or two (with some variability). (Ex: Some Mutation swaps, consciousness swaps)
Limits can be extended if a specific swap is done often enough with the same person, to the point where it could be theoretically permanent.
Tok does have a sort of sense for about how much time is left/when the deadline is approaching but it can be missed if thoroughly distracted.
Time Limit Repercussions:
Tok has to intentionally swap back BEFORE the time limit. If they miss the deadline:
- Swapped things will leave a Swap Souvenir or potential other complications (things get mixed up, left behind, etc. Injuries, changes, modifications to the swapped aspect has a higher likelihood of swapping back with the borrowed aspect. This can apply to all types of swaps!).
- A huge amount of energy gets used up, and depletes Tok completely. This prevents them from doing any swaps again for a few days to a week.
- This can cause Tok to be essentially blinded until they sleep for a few hours, and from there their eyesight might remain a little blurry and gradually get better
The closer to the time deadline something is swapped back, the higher probability of things leaving a Swap Souvenir when swapped back. IC Mechanically: This is because the Link begins to decay near the end of the time deadline since it begins to run out of energy.
There’s always a chance that injuries, changes, modifications to the swapped aspect will swap back with the borrowed aspect, and that chance goes from 0% and approaches 100% post deadline.
(little fun changes, like cosmetic changes on a swapped physical aspect are up to player discretion if those get swapped back).
Tok can go unconscious and a swap will remain active.
Negative effects:
Each swap is extremely mentally draining, and each swap causes their vision to begin to blur, making it harder to see. Until they’ve rested, their vision will remain blurry. Every 2 swaps, their vision blurs a bit more, and after around 12 swaps they’re essentially blinded until they sleep for a few hours. They can only maintain a total of around 12 swaps at a time. Their eyesight might remain a little blurry while maintaining these swaps depending on how many swaps they’ve done.
Their veins feel like they're burning after using their abilities in quick succession, and they probably also get a bit of a headache.
If Tok wants to end a swap early without risk of repercussions, they have to see the person.
Tok could still end a swap early without seeing them, but it has a higher risk of repercussions like leaving swap souvenirs or mixing/fusing of the thing being swapped or being painful, or uncomfortable, etc, and it is more exhausting. This is something they’ll eventually improve on! Like, they eventually get better at making more stable Quantum Tunnels that reduce this risk.
Physical aspects:
When swapping is happening, the veins on their body pulse and glow bright white along with their eyes.
They have sharp teeth, long pointy ears, and some small horns. They’ve gained a few scars and stretch marks from swapping physical mutations with people in the past. They have a long fluffy tail, about 3.5 feet in length that moves and behaves like a Binturong’s tail. They can probably climb and balance really well because of their tail! They can also hiss and make funny lil cat noises. They’re not a cat but I think they deserve it. As a treat.
Their fingers come to a sharp black point like claws.
Some edge case rules:
There’s probably some implications to this power I haven’t considered, so here are a few general rules.
- The Aspect has to be consciously observed to be swapped. For example, they wouldn’t be able to swap personalities, but could POTENTIALLY swap the behaviors associated with that? This is something that would need to be discussed with the other players OOC.
- Injuries that can be healed with time would not be considered an attribute that can be swapped. However, more permanent things, like scars, could potentially be considered an attribute. Things like pain cannot be swapped since it’s not observable (you only really can see the reaction to the pain. If Tok were to be exposed to a power in which it made them physically feel someone else’s pain, that might THEN count as being able to be swapped!)
- If they observe someone demonstrate a skill, they could potentially swap that skill with a skill of their own? Maybe? However they don’t gain the Memory or Experience associated with that skill, they just gain the physical ability.
- For example, if someone is riding a bike on flat pavement, they could also ride a bike, but they would probably crash and burn if they came across difficult terrain that required experience to know how to traverse. If someone makes a painting of a flower, they could also make a painting of the same flower, but not make a painting of anything else. If they observe someone pick a lock, they’d only be able to pick THAT specific type of lock.
