[WaifuApple]

Applicable BYOND Key - Maritime Strategist Apple
Character Name - Ciara Aylward
Request Type - Shadow Puppets
Request Details -  So, here's the idea:

If you've ever watched horror movies with dolls in them, this invokes certain traits and tropes of that. I want the ability to bring dolls 'to life'. Now, the reason this is in quotation marks, is that there will be no actual life to these dolls. In essence, I am asking to be able to use an advanced form of grimweaving that allows Ciara to puppet inanimate objects, only - like dolls of various signs, or plushies.

This would happen in a few ways:

She's able to move them around. Make them look as if they're alive by puppeting their limbs to move them around, so long as she's within a decent proximity of them (the same room, within view of them in SL2, for example, so these things won't be moving if there's no Ciara to be found nearby).

She's able to project her voice through them. It will still sound like her, which she may be able to work around with crude imitations of another voice, but those imitations will always be flawed. She's not a dialect expert, her voice, even trying to fake as another, will be uniquely identifiable. This serves as a way to make her conduct scenes in her head of two puppets perhaps talking to one another, when in reality it's all her and her imagination creating a fictional reality that to anyone else is complete insanity. It's all in her head.

The size of these objects scales the amount of focus it takes to do this, which is why Ciara would stick to plushies and small dolls, rather than anything tall like, for example, Kipbots. This will be solely used on her own possessions, too, as her control will likely have some basing in her emotional ties to the objects she is trying to puppet. The more attached she is to it, the easier it is to control. The less attached, the less hold she can find over these things.

These have no combat bearing, in this state. They have the durability they would normally have, meaning their best purpose in combat would merely be as distractions. They are not going to be fighters she controls, or anything silly like that. They would be much, much too weak for that, and the most they could wield is a kitchen knife, if you're lucky. This is hardly a threat to most adventurers, and is simply made to be an ominous bit of flavour.

Note, they do not give her hearing through them, or allow her to see through them. They're not sense extenders. Ciara would still see and hear only things she could normally see or hear. Figured I'd clarify that, as well.

Reason why you are making this request (if applicable) - I have wanted to do something with puppeteering inanimate characters for a while on this character, ever since touching upon her arc of insanity with dolls and playing god with her own imagination and a bunch of wooden objects. I want to have this arc have led to a tangible bond with the objects that were created in it, and to allow these creations to see more use as creepy, flavour things that will ultimately have little bearing beyond creeping people out and selling the kind of character Ciara can be, highlighting her ugliest flaws through how she acts with control over these inanimate things. They may very well find themselves used for decoy tactics and other forms of trickery that would come from vaguely humanoid shapes moving in the darkness (where Ciara is most in her element) with it left up to players to see through and put to work quick thinking to recognise them as puppets to ignore.

Roleplay & Lore supporting your request -


The plot beat of Ciara and dolls has been one that has come up several times, and there is currently, in the Rune Magician cave, a collection of dolls that were created by her and sprited by me placed there. People have seen and reacted to the dolls, associated them with her, and they are her creations, based off existing characters that she knows and has ties with.

The woman's whole combat style carries with it certain focuses on darkness, that, while not using hexer explicitly, could be considered a form of grimweaving, and affinity to the darkness itself. This is further supported by her race as an Umbral having a specific affinity to darkness in not just resisting it, but getting more dark atk from levels. This is to say that she has a lot of ties to this kind of energy, and her RP has always seen her being a very emotional woman going through a lot of struggles, so it's safe to say that sentiment and attachment would play a lot into the way this affinity takes place, sometimes. These are sources of emotion for her.

Another tidbit to mention is the lore document mentioning necromancy as in essence puppeting corpses. If this is possible on a high end scale, controlling small, inanimate dolls like puppets is something I feel should not be much of an ask, in comparison. It is way less of a threat on the scale of danger.

[WaifuApple]

Bumping this, since it seems to have slipped below the line of applications that are actually being looked at and I'm still interested in it and not seeing it forgotten.

[K Peculier]

Seeing as how they aren't going to be used for combat and you have to actually be there to use said requested ability I see no real issues to it.

I will approve this for you as long as you also continue to use it to bully that Knight guy in the screenshot.

[WaifuApple]

Thank you! He's as good as bullied!!