Release [Cali Upgrades]

» Name Of Character: Calypso Asthavon
» Link To Character: https://www.platinumhearts.net/t19256-calypso-asthavon-danava-of-dreams-and-nightmares-approved-3-2#123965

» Upgrading: Abilities (And anything the staff member checking deems appropriate; I wish to talk about it in DMs because im not sure myself if anything else should be added, but I feel like there should be. I just wanna make sure and not unintentionally go overboard)

Upgrading:

Calming Body - Despite being more horror-like in appearance and abilities, Calypso still retains her good heart and instincts to comfort others. With her opening the floodgates, although not her full power unleashed, her body has gained an increase in it’s comforting nature. Her energy and mass are one in the same, though only a portion of it is capable of being corporeal, with this corporeal mass, Calypso can give comfort and safety to those in need of it. Resting against her body is a comforting experience, within a few seconds one would feel themselves melting into relaxation, and, not much unlike a bed you don’t want to leave on a monday morning after your alarm blares at 6 AM, those lying on her almost wouldn’t want to get up. If one lies on her for a minimum of 2 posts, they begin feeling refreshed, regardless of any injuries or tiredness, and any prolonged contact with her will only help them feel better. Being tied with a few other abilities, she can use this to get someone back up to proper health in a few posts if their injuries aren’t life-costing.

Emotional Manipulation - Releasing some of the floodgates of her sealed potential has allowed Calypso to reach a more competent phase of her capabilities in other’s minds. In a sense, people are their emotions, and this gained competence is gained off of that understanding. Calypso can now directly hone in on and sense one’s present emotions, rather than passively feel how other’s feel and being held back by becoming overwhelmed. She can do this rather passively and easily detect surface-level and just a little under the surface-level emotions.

However, by focusing on a single person, she can dig deeper into the labyrinth that is the sentient consciousness, and sense more deeper, less obvious feelings and prods. She cannot read minds with this ability, under any circumstances. The closest she can get to thought-reading would be detecting the emotions affiliated with one’s thoughts.

Speaking of thoughts and memories, Calypso is also able to devour these for sustenance. Now, she cannot pick and choose what thoughts she eats, nor can she eat anything concretely set in someone’s mind, like an event or important memory(ies). That would require much deeper digging that she herself isn’t sure she’s capable of as of now. And, more obviously, she is capable of eating one’s dreams, which merely makes them forget that the dream ever occurred, since dreams aren’t truly concrete memories, and are more the mind’s reenactment of, and hodgepodging of, events, feelings, people, and other things.

Fear Manifestation

The eyes of Calypso’s body open up, staring intensely at the opponent. They pry in to pick up that opponent’s deepest, darkest fears, and change forms accordingly. With this action, the consciousnesses within Calypso can communicate the fear to her, and forms a weapon or creature from her demonic energies in accordance to that fear. Regardless, it always can be used offensively. However, she can only forge a weapon or creature from the opponent’s strongest fear, no matter how dim their fear may be. For example, if one’s fear was ‘Fire’, depending on the severity of the fear, it can range from becoming a sword with a blade of fire, to a malevolent entity made of flames. Calypso will always have control of the construct, because it is simply mirroring the fear and constructing it into a weapon, rather than the actual fear itself.

Horror Shroud
Taking strongly after her Nightmare concept, Calypso can spread her energy out into a scent. This scent becomes a tangible fog, laying over the field like a heavy weight. Those who inhale it begin to shiver and shake, feeling the pinpricks of fear and anxiety, like something is there, something is watching… Their vision darkens a bit around the edges, not to obscure it but rather to give the impression that it suddenly got much, much darker. The more of this fog one breathes (One breath within the fog per post) the more chilling things around them get. It starts off as simply anxiety, but it can get to the point of severe hallucinations and sensations of insanity if inhaling too much. The effects only get worse per post the character breathes it in, and if allowed two posts outside of the fog, the effects knock down a level, going completely away if uninterrupted.

Za Koa Mass Manipulation:

Originally in a rather underpowered, immature state, Calypso has now allowed herself to unravel and reweave this ability to be far more liquid and malleable. She has many uses for this ability now, concocting several new ways with her latent potential within her mindscape to form this. From bodily weapons, to more limbs, the following abilities have been forged by the demon in order to draw out more use of the sea of mass within her.

Notable examples include:

Nightmare Cannons
A far more personalized and powerful version of her previous ability to morph her arms into guns. Instead of needing to morph her body, she instead forms outlets for the energy via obsidian-colored tendrils that span out from her back who’s tips greatly resemble the heads of the mythical beast, the Dragon, though a much more nightmare-inspired darkness. The heads always have their mouths open, the insides reflectling light in a rather distinct, prism-like coloration. One would know these are beginning to charge the Nightmare Cannons when a darker-than-black, star speckled energy culminates within their mouths, jaws unhinging to allow it to form into a full, condensed ball roughly the size of a baseball. Calypso can loose this energy in two specific styles, being…

Either the energy can be let loose as it is in it’s condensed state, which effectively acts as a bomb, being able to be chucked in any direction Cali decides to swing the head in. The condensed black ball is very sensitive to touch, the slightest nudge, not including from Cali, releasing it’s fury. Once it comes into contact with an object that is not of it’s maker, it instantly releases the compressed energy, which expands quickly and mercilessly as a flurry of black and white explosions, it’s radius heavily dependent on Cali’s tier, but can be devastating nonetheless, causing severe burning or loss of body parts to any caught in the blast.

The second usage for the cannons, and a far more controlled but less powerful version of the explosion, is shooting the energy as a stream of black and white mixed beams of Za Koa. The energy is quite mesmerizing to look at, a cruel beauty as it can mow through many weak opponents, causing those two levels lower (at minimum) in Will/Determination than Cali to be more likely to submit to the allure of the beam and get caught up in it. Being hit by one would feel like one was being stabbed with many, many flaming swords, with the potential to cause deep wounds or straight take off a limb.

Bladed Agony

A wing-like appendage forms from Calypso’s back, looking like a collage of all sorts of deep, dark colors and vague shapes. Though, if you’re any smart person, you wouldn’t take the time to stare at this formation of energy. If anything, it’d be better if you got ready to block, dodge, however you fly. This appendage then draws back, and then fragments into hundreds of shards, flying down to fill their target or targets full of cuts and gashes. The glass-like shards dissipate within a few minutes, or after causing damage to a target. The amount of shards is dependent on how large the wing, or wings, are allowed to grow, taking a bit slower to grow if she concentrates it into more than one. She can also materialize this ability by forming the glass-like shards in her flesh, but they do hurt quite a bit to be present and embedded in her flesh, thus the normal utilization that doesn't involve them jutting from her body.

Her Body Manipulation capabilities expanded due to her release of potential, even if it isn't her entire well, it now allows her to have better conscious control of her extended body. For example, she can spawn tendrils or additional limbs, not unlike her kin, but she'd use it for more physical mobility than simply attacking. Obviously though, chopping away any mass from her is going to mean that's mass taken off her body and unaccountable, thus giving her body a bit of a shock and being unable to immediately replace the limb. And obviously, if she loses her actual arm or leg, that's her actual arm or leg. It would be a far bigger loss than just an expendable limb, and thus harder to simply recover from.

Updating:

Ambrosia: Not too different from the Greek’s own telling of the fluid, Calypso possesses a golden fluid that is capable of healing others. Anytime she cries, instead of liquid tears, golden, honey-like fluid leaves her eyes in profuse amounts, which would easily tip anyone that it is not, in fact, normal tears. Her tears possess the ability to speed the healing process, revitalize, and otherwise aid those who consume it. By simply allowing the liquid to touch one’s wounds, they will feel their pain ebb away, and the wound slowly begin to heal. Much more minor wounds will of course heal faster, but more costly wounds will likely take a few more posts to heal, and much more life-threatening ones.. The best she can do is take the pain away with this ability alone.

This ability is strictly in mind for other beings, to heal them, and comfort them, and thus, Calypso will never receive any benefits from consuming or otherwise using the liquid upon herself.

Lucid-Mind Toxins: Calypso’s body is naturally equipped with a defense mechanism, which makes their blood appear as an eye-popping blue. The blue-hue causing toxin, passive created by her Za Koa, is embedded in their blood for the express purpose to dissuade attackers from spilling her fluids, and as a method to bring them into a more vulnerable state. However, if these toxins have been in contact with the air for too long, their effects wane away and the blood becomes a dark grey-blue. Much more direct but unintentional ways to contract the toxins without them losing effectiveness would be by directly eating it fresh from the flesh, extracting the blood and having it in an air-tight space, or just a run-of-the-mill contamination via entering wounds mid battle. Calypso has also employed a new method of having the blood literally under the skin of any attacking limbs, and causing the skin to burst if a wound has been created.

The way these toxins function is by inverting a person’s mind, causing things from the subconsciousness to spill into the consciousness, and vice versa. For those in the waking world, this makes reality horribly confusing, being compared to extreme lucid dreaming. Their bodies feel numb, warm, and kind of weak, as the world around them distorts, memories, thoughts, fears, comforts, becoming revealed in the world before their eyes. Depending on the severity of one’s mental state, or the nature of the things bumbling around in their head, this can cause much from mild confusion, to a temporary state of madness.

This also affects those in sleep as well, pulling them into a sort of sleepwalking state; their body becomes just as active as their mind as they dream, though their dreams are formatted along with what’s in reality. For example, if someone was in a small room, was infected with these toxins, the second they’re put into the state of half-wake, their dream will include the walls that the room has, but as different objects that still play a part in hindrance.

*The toxin’s effects normally wear off in 3 posts, if the host of them psychologically fights through the state. Any other occasions requires player permission.

Dreamwalking - A Danava of Dreams and Nightmares would be an utter failure if they couldn’t travel in that state. Calypso is capable of accessing a realm between minds, all bound together by her desire to dreamwalk. This takes the form of an endless hallway, the infinite yet mesmerizingly beautiful void of space making up the excess.. Space. This hallway is littered with doors, starting with those closest to Calypso, and branching out to those farthest away. Calypso enters one’s dream by the simple action of popping a door open, and walking in, this door being something that the host of the dream cannot witness or touch themselves. Though she must remember that she is entering another’s domain, in all technicalities. She can always be forced out if the host does not want her there, or wakes up. Though in most cases, Calypso isn’t noticed if the host has no control over their dream, unless she makes herself known.

A good question would be, if someone wanted to exit their dream, could they? Well… Technically yes. Grasping the hand of the Danava allows them to leave their dream, however, they are unable to witness the marvel of the realm between dreams, simply appearing to be a black void to them, unless they enter another dream. If this person were to cease contact with Calypso, they wake up immediately, and are no longer outside of their dreams.

New:

Lucid Butterflies/Dragonflies
Calypso can spawn these creatures whether in the real world, or within dreams. She can amass a large swarm of either butterflies or dragonflies, both creatures being golden in color with a soft glow and intricate body patterns. These have absolutely no offensive purpose, instead being used to soothe whoever is engulfed within the swarm.

Any wrapped within their golden embrace begin to feel mentally at ease, the rhythmic flapping of their wings even giving the illusion of a lullaby being sung. Physically, this can make the target lose the will to engage in strong, elaborate emotions, and gets them to chill out to the point they could even forget what they were getting worked up over.

Largely, they are capable of bringing someone’s overwhelming or troubling thoughts down a few notches into a more manageable state, though any outstanding effects are more player decision dependent; Don't want your character fully subdued? That's fine.

Harrowing Shriek

After a post of warming up, the eyes on Calypso’s body open up, and open once more to reveal mouths with many pointed teeth, which all take in air during the warmup. If able to stand on a stable surface, all of the mouths formed on her body, using her own as a catalyst for the attack, releases a powerful, horrible shriek, that affects objects within a 20 meter radius. Not only is the force strong enough to badly damage buildings, vehicles, and smash about any glass unfortunate enough to be within it’s grasp in one pulse, those who were within 10 meters of her body would have received the true effects of the shriek, for it isn’t simply a release of sound, but uses Za Koa as a push off point for the blast, the energy in which ceases at 10 meters to exert force further out.

Those so close to her, provided they have a functioning sense of hearing, will all start feeling the real effects of the shriek; at first, they’d obviously hear ringing in their ears, but this ringing will instead sound like whispering. Depending on the afflicted’s Focus vs her own, this can either stay at whispering, peter out, or become far, far worse. The farther the distance in skill, the less or more damage it causes.

» Why: https://www.platinumhearts.net/t19743-deeper-in-the-dream-calypso-dev-thread#126562

» Extra: grumpy rude dream child