Issac will do his best to avoid stress, but now when he does face the pain no longer eats at his weak mortal flesh, the flesh has gone numb.
While having this power, some of his veins and arteries appear much darker than normal.
After his last job, he snagged some pages and got some glimpses of notes and documents to add to his research. With this knowledge, he crafted a serum of sorts, made from the ash, that he injected into himself with a needle he stole from work. Whatever it was made his body feel, nothing, or well almost nothing, it was a familiar feeling.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is divided in half.
While actively being collected in preparation for the usage of this gift, the blood in physical contact with the user darkens as it coalesces into black, ever-shifting glyphs which get drawn to and absorbed by the user's skin, be it their hands or mouth. All blood within the same pool gets drawn to the point of contact as the gift is being used, with the draw being stronger the closer it is to the user.
When the gift is used, a dark blur with ever-shifting glyphs visible within quickly spreads across the user's body before dissipating. It lingers around injured areas for a moment longer, exhibiting a crimson sheen.
The wound of the source from where the blood being used had originated from darkens, with the edges getting surrounded by equally-black, unknown, intertwined glyphs. While the imprint normally fades away completely within hours, it may instead remain for longer, up to a week, in proportion to how fiercely the source opposed the gift's usage on them. (lack of sapience or awareness at the time of gift usage results in the normal hour-or-so fadeaway time)
The parts of the gift user's flesh which interacted with the source's blood in order to activate the gift are graced with a black imprint which fades away over time, aforementioned glyphs at the edges included. The fadeaway is linked to the fadeaway of the imprint on the source.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up at least a handful of fresh, foreign blood absorbed either through the hands or mouth in order to activate this Effect.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0. Lasts three hours.
You may move at your normal speed and still maintain Concentration. Taking an Injury less than Severity 6 no longer interrupts Concentration.
he adjusts his tie and pushes through his struggles
You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using Tie to gain the benefits of this Effect.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
Alexei's spent his career wrestling, and he'd gotten good. His fighting only continued when he went into prison, and again when he started his career as a contractor. Now he's finally learned not to let the pain get to him.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action to activate.
Your Body Penalty is reduced to 0. Lasts for one hour. Does not reduce Mind Penalty.
Vein's fibres intertwine delicately with the wielder's nervous system. The metal interferes with the synapses, regulating the host's physical and mental state at all times. In extreme circumstances, Vein will use this connection to force the host to act, even when incapacitated.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
While Incapacitated, you may Exert your Mind to take a single action.
At one time, Amaryllis's arms were normal, unscarred, and white as a dove. She would wrestle with her brothers, surrounded by soft and fluffy couches, plug protected outlets, and edge protected tables. They were safe, mostly, until one gave another a shallow scratch with their fingernail. From even a single scrape, the children would ruin rugs and throw pillows as the Fleischer Family Curse took its toll, forcing them to make a sizable plasma donation to the house. They all knew the risks, of course, they had the band-aids and medical bandages on hand to stop the bleeding. They continued their roughhousing beyond earshot of their parents...
Amaryllis's mother, Dahlia, knew the truth of their family's curse. She understood that time was running short as Sorin had already passed away years before. She and her husband studied the occult, making a fortune by reading futures, holding seances, and investigating hauntings. The greatest ritual they ever developed was one to break their curse. She knew Amaryllis, the first-born, would need to be saved first, as soon as possible, before she followed Death to meet her husband.
Something was not right, Amaryllis had passed out early in the bloodletting phase of the ritual. She struggled against her bindings and exasperated the new cuts on her wrists. The long gashes and otherworldly lettering on her arms wept until they went blue. Dahlia completed the runes and smeared a circle in blood around her daughter before realizing that the ritual was faulty. She then realized that her baby girl was on Death's door. She rushed Amaryllis to the hospital in heavy bandages, but her body would refuse to close her wounds. Dahlia would die a year later, consumed by the knowledge that the ritual failed.
She was wrong.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
While Incapacitated, you may Exert your Mind to take a single action.
You may move at your normal speed and still maintain Concentration. Taking an Injury less than Severity 6 no longer interrupts Concentration.
The mobster's been through tougher scrapes than this. A few cuts and bruises won't stop them.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind Damage.