![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Let's break the celestial automaton!
Mar. 28th, 2015 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omnomnom_feelsI've been toying with the idea of making some changes to Rashad for a while, and now that I've been talking about him taking some serious damage during the attack on ROMAC, the faction takedown plot seems like a good time to make it happen. The issue with Rashad as he is is that without his own emotions or motivation beyond keeping himself fed, all he really does is lurk and make a handful of people miserable.
Solution? Give the boy his own naturally occurring emotions! He'll be switching back and forth between his present, emotionless self and a state in which he's capable of feeling emotions the normal way, either at random or in response to stimuli on which I haven't decided yet. He's going to be very unhappy about this during those times when he's capable of feeling unhappy, as he is 100% not the slightest bit equipped to deal with having emotions that just happen and change while he was in the middle of feeling something else and are appropriate to the situation and all that other weird, inconvenient stuff mortals' emotions do. Also, remorse? Remorse is for other people, he would like to return that faulty emotion for a refund, thank you. I think this might also result in a change to the way in which he feeds. Maybe during those times when he has his own emotions he's just getting a slow influx of the ambient emotions of the city without being tied down to experiencing exactly what's coming in.
Anyway, here's the part where I need help: Rashad is going to be very badly injured during the attack on ROMAC, and in order to repair himself afterward he's going to have to steal a whole lot of energy from someone. When he's in that bad of shape it's not a conscious decision on his part, and the last time that happened (during his arrival in Manhattan) he accidentally killed a human bystander. I'd be open to him killing one of the characters who's currently expected to die, killing another NPC, or feeding off someone more powerful who can survive the hit. While I could handwave something in him being damaged that causes the change in how he processes emotions, it would be a lot cooler if it was the result of someone deliberately trying to do something to him to stop him going around being the soul sucker we all know and hate.
It's important to note re: the attack on ROMAC that Rashad could get scary powerful if he has time to feed on the anger and panic that will be in the air. Depending on who's going to take him down and how, we need to either arrange for him to be taken out of the fight early on or for someone who can deal with an intangible living fireball to be present.
Solution? Give the boy his own naturally occurring emotions! He'll be switching back and forth between his present, emotionless self and a state in which he's capable of feeling emotions the normal way, either at random or in response to stimuli on which I haven't decided yet. He's going to be very unhappy about this during those times when he's capable of feeling unhappy, as he is 100% not the slightest bit equipped to deal with having emotions that just happen and change while he was in the middle of feeling something else and are appropriate to the situation and all that other weird, inconvenient stuff mortals' emotions do. Also, remorse? Remorse is for other people, he would like to return that faulty emotion for a refund, thank you. I think this might also result in a change to the way in which he feeds. Maybe during those times when he has his own emotions he's just getting a slow influx of the ambient emotions of the city without being tied down to experiencing exactly what's coming in.
Anyway, here's the part where I need help: Rashad is going to be very badly injured during the attack on ROMAC, and in order to repair himself afterward he's going to have to steal a whole lot of energy from someone. When he's in that bad of shape it's not a conscious decision on his part, and the last time that happened (during his arrival in Manhattan) he accidentally killed a human bystander. I'd be open to him killing one of the characters who's currently expected to die, killing another NPC, or feeding off someone more powerful who can survive the hit. While I could handwave something in him being damaged that causes the change in how he processes emotions, it would be a lot cooler if it was the result of someone deliberately trying to do something to him to stop him going around being the soul sucker we all know and hate.
It's important to note re: the attack on ROMAC that Rashad could get scary powerful if he has time to feed on the anger and panic that will be in the air. Depending on who's going to take him down and how, we need to either arrange for him to be taken out of the fight early on or for someone who can deal with an intangible living fireball to be present.
