You place a hand on the object, gloved or not, and glare into its figurative or literal soul. You may even sniff or lick it depending on how confident you are that it won't kill you right away. Observers to this act may feel a mild to intense discomfort depending on what item it is (pray that it's not someone's clothing, cough cough) but you can insist that this is all for the sake of science.
On testing:
Delphyrion has always wanted to know everything. However, no matter how strong one's background is in chemistry, you'd usually need equipment and time to study an object's composition. Not to mention the amount of harm it could do to the item.
On chemistry:
This gift could be groundbreaking, but only if you know what you're looking at. There's no point if you don't recognize what chemical or molecular structure you find in the item, or what you can do with it. Chemistry is all about using what you have, and what's the use of a weapon that you know nothing about?
On questionable acts:
Look, living creatures are born with five senses for a reason. Delphyrion will use all five senses if it means new knowledge can be found. Sure, they've gotten sick from licking stuff for no reason, but at least now there is a reason to do so. This will do wonders for their immune system.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
You may only use this Effect once per day.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
Danile has always liked computers. Now he can use them easily without having a problem. He creates a small USB device and hands it over to the user.
Expend a point of Battery and spend 2 Actions to activate. Select a Device within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6. The hacking roll and their defensive roll are both Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.
If your command does not require bypassing the security of the target (for example, typing on a computer that is unlocked), you do not need to Exert your Mind to activate this Effect, and activation only takes a single Action.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Trauma to manifest over the course of a day: Must be helpful to anyone with a Kevin bracelet. If you lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next month.
Magical glowing glyphs are traced onto the shield. They remain while animated. Occasionally the glyphs will shift on their own, hinting at a deeper awareness.
Spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Trace glowing glyphs across the surface of the shield. Select a shield within arm's reach which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters). You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Your target will become Animated for three hours. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. You can maintain a max of 4 targets animated at once.
Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
When augmenting herself, Kat alternates between restful meditative poses similar to yoga, and slowly going through a series of motions similar to martial arts katas. A light gray fog spreads down her limbs, trailing her hands and feet as she does these motions. This focuses her intention and clears her mind until the capability takes shape within her.
When using the pouch aspect, a similar looking fog appears where an object touches her as she places it into storage in a non-physical echo of herself. The same fog appears when she reaches in to pull something back out.
Heinlein wrote about other realities that may as well be fictional to us and called them Fictons. It's simpler to say than 'parallel universes' so now I call them that as well. My abilities come from a Ficton.
As explained by scientists in the Ficton I'm connected to, I have the same ability that some there do. Apparently I mentally manipulate Fermionic dark matter which connects me to their Ficton. This gives me visions from there when I focus on it. It also gives me 'super powers' like people there have.
I feel a kinship with someone there called KatAbra, both emotionally and in regards to powers. I discovered that I can learn to do anything she can do. Cat themed abilities, physical enhancement, and minor mystical abilities such as the ones I'll explain shortly. Potentially, I can learn to conceal myself from others, heal myself, erect mental defenses, that sort of thing. None of the flashy or manipulative stuff like elemental attacks, flying, or reading minds.
Improving my durability, speed, and hand to hand combat were simple enough. Environmental adaptation wasn't much tougher. Eventually I learned to manifest an echo of my physical body to use as limited storage (if you can sense magic it seems to be a shadow overlapping my body, vibrating in a pitch inaudible to normal ears). Most difficult to learn was making my mind manifest a functioning version of physical technology. While I'd like to find something more versatile to mimic than a cell phone, technology in our universe offers isn't as nice as what hero teams there use. If someone here has created a device similar to their communicators, I'd need to examine it and how it functions before mimicking it. Thankfully I don't need to know the inner workings, just the properties and how to use it.
My connection is only between here and that single Ficton, but each person who can do this connects to just one other Ficton, different for each of them. In the supers Ficton, people have connected to places that grant them things like fantasy magic, making Steampunk devices function, etc. Each of us gets something different, but we all get something somehow.
Exert your Mind and spend 30 minutes. You may only target yourself. The target can easily Resist.
You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Trauma and can have exactly one of the following Effects:
The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.
Sheriff Perkins is practiced at disarming enemies and can easily destroy weapons by swatting them with his Phantom Limb.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Select a weapon within arm's reach no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). Roll Dexterity + Melee Difficulty 6.
If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the target will be completely destroyed and can no longer function, though it may still be repaired. If your Outcome is less than 4, the target will be partially damaged, and any attempts to use it will suffer a dice penalty equal to your Outcome.
If you have access to the remains of an object you had previously damaged or destroyed, you may spend an Action to un-destroy it.
A wave of golden-hued liquid energy explodes from the tip of the spear.
Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Dexterity + Melee Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4. Armor is fully effective against this damage.
You may use this Effect to Defend or Clash in Combat, including against ranged attacks such as firearms.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
The detective can flash their badge and bark out orders to a person or a crowd, and the target will have trouble ignoring their command.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. All Sapient targets within 20 feet of you are affected. You must actively and obviously use a police badge to activate this Effect. Your target cannot be engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your targets. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Any affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your targets will be compelled to follow your command to the letter-- but not necessarily the spirit-- of the command until they have completed it or for your Contested Outcome in minutes. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.
The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.
Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. Commands may force a target to violate one of their Limits, and they will need to make a Trauma roll once the suggestion wears off.
All it takes is a flick of your hair and a bat of your eyelashes, and you’ve got their attention.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. A number of Sapient, Living targets within 50 feet who can perceive you through no greater than your Charisma rating are affected. Audiences or mobs with a singular focus count as one target. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. All affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If you succeed, the targets will keep their full attention focused on you for Contested Outcome in Rounds. They will automatically fail any rolls related to noticing anything other than you.
If you pass from their perception and they are unable to pursue you, the Effect ends. If they can follow you, they must do so for 2 Rounds or the Effect will end. The Effect ends early if the target is Injured or violence occurs nearby.
This does not affect the target’s opinion of you or their mood, and they may take any Actions while affected (including attacking), as long as that action centers on you. Fascinated targets cannot Concentrate.
As a free creature, The Fairy cannot withstand being caged or imprisioned in any way. Luckily, they possess a glamour that allows them to unlock any lock binding them with a wink of their eye. The lock falls open with a sparkle of light and a sound like a ringing bell.
Spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless the targeted lock or door is being used to restrain or imprison you.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.
The user places this slip of paper from the mystic against their head, speaks the inscribed phrase, and envisions a time they wished they were alone. the paper bursts into a shockwave that pushes a nearby being away. The repulsion field can be maintained for several seconds by meditating on the nature of solitude.
Spend an Action and use up this paper with mysterious calligraphy. Select a Animate target up to 100 feet away.
Targets are pushed back until they are 100 feet away.
This Effect cannot move anything heavier than 500 pounds.
Affected targets may use a Reaction and roll Dexterity or Brawn + Athletics to hold on to a nearby anchor, if available. A complete success increases their effective weight by whatever they hold onto.
Pushing a target straight upward requires you to be directly beneath them and halves the range. GM’s may ask for a Dexterity + Athletics roll when repositioning yourself around a target to get a desired angle. They may React to reposition or anchor themselves as normal.
You may maintain Concentration after the initial activation of this Effect to continue the push on the target. Lasts up to one minute.
Doc puts his hands on you and begins to mutter to himself in french. The effect is instant and horrible. You begin to remember all of the sins of your past, all the ways that you've wronged those who loved you. All of the terrible, evil things you've done on these contracts in order to survive. Doc seems to be in the grips of similar memories, tears running down his chin and dripping onto his hands that are pressed tightly against you. At the point where your mind feels like it's about to break, it's over. Just as quickly as it began. You feel your wounds begin to close.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Charisma + Medicine at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.
This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.