Random Info for Maison!
Things to Make G Panic: How Has Giotto Managed To Hurt Himself?
Night 002/Arrival: Wrenched/possibly dislocated left shoulder, first + spotty second degree burns in a handprint on said shoulder, burns up left side of neck/face (1rst, 2nd, couple small-patchy 3rd); sprained right wrist; first and second degree burns on right foot and ankle and a somewhat destroyed boot. Sustained after trying to help the burning ghost in the parlor.
Day 003: Aggravated the sprained wrist trying to punch out a window in Dying Will state.
Later Day 003: Wounds tended during the blackout; wrist still sprained but functional, burns tended and bandaged, shoulder a bit less painful but still stiff and healing; he's still using the sling most of the time.
Inventory/What He's Collected:
Day 003: Camera bag, currently being used to carry random clues and basic supplies! contents:
- The photo from the study, of a couple with a baby
- A small wooden toy frog
- The tape recorder from the doctor's office
- Four tapes as listed on the Day 003 Daypost: The Doctor's Office, Supply Room, Study, and Surgery Room tapes
- Two rolls of bandages
- Small/portable bottle of antiseptic
- Small/portable jar of burn creme
- Set of medical scissors/clippers
Also in one of his jacket pockets is the porcelain frog from the desk in the Doctor's Office, and he has a sling he salvaged from the supply room.
Sky Users Are Weird: The Dying Will State
As much as the pretty flame thing is where I'll make human candlestick jokes and all? It's not literal flame. If he's not attacking/defending with it, you could run a hand through it and probably just get a faint tingle! Basically, when he's in the Dying Will state, he's able to convert his own will and life force into energy capable of physical effects; there's seven types of energy the "Dying Will Flames" will take in canon, and he's a Sky Element. The flames over his forehead and around his hands are visible bits of the energy generated. Of course, considering that he's burning life force and willpower in that state, he feels it afterwards, especially since he's been dead for a hundred years and is SORELY out of practice; it's normal to be stiff, sore, and tired out afterwards. The longer he's in that state or the more he does while he's in it, the worse it gets.
It's also called "Dying Will" for a reason - he tripped over it during a few near-death experiences when he was younger; part of the catalyst is some kind of mental or emotional sense of desperation, unfinished business, or strong need - the more calm and comfortable the situation is, the harder it is for him to trigger it, although he's familiar enough with it by now that it can trigger on its own if he's feeling threatened or desperate.
Now, for the actual effects! It's not a literal flame. The type of energy it emits and what it does is determined by the affinity of the wielder; Sky Flame is the rarest and weirdest, since it's basically a center-balance element. With the structure of a proper group of Guardians, Sky's meant to hold everything else together. In terms of actual power, its properties are harmonizing, absorbing/accepting, and occasionally amplifying or reflecting.
In normal use, this means a few passive effects and a couple active ones. Passively, he's a bit stronger and faster in Dying Will state, and he can use it to basically act as a support so that he doesn't end up hurting himself with said unnatural force or to keep moving while injured. Note that it doesn't actually fix the injury, or stop him from BEING hurt, although as much as Tsuna gets beaten around he might be able to be a little sturdier than normal once he gets re-adjusted to being alive - it just means that he can sort-of ignore it and be less gimped than he should be while he's still in the Dying Will state ... after which it all comes to roost, including if he aggravated it by pushing it too hard. It also channels through his cape, which's resistant to energy attacks; it won't block them, but it'll mitigate it a bit. Basically, he'll still get hurt from energy-type attacks, just not as badly as he should've been. The other passive effect is that the harmonizing thing amplifies his normal "Intuition" ability - if he's on the ball, he's capable of reacting almost as someone's moving, although this can be confused or overloaded, and is less effective against some of the monsters.
The main active effect is centered around his gauntlets, which are specially made focuses for it; there's blades on either side of each gauntlet that're triggered by the Sky Flame and pop out while he's in Dying Will mode. Used offensively, the Sky energy translates to kinetic force; as much as it doesn't augment his physical strength and speed to quite the extent that, say, Knuckles' Sun energy would, the kinetic energy can add enough extra force that he probably could, if he were seriously putting power into it and got a clear blow, put a hole in a stone wall. (the good news for anyone he gets into a fight with is that he really doesn't like hurting people, and is NOT likely to be putting full force into anything clearly sentient and not a monster unless he's seriously pressed and driven to think he needs to.) Of course, the focal points are his gloves; as much as he's basically a streetfighter, it's only strikes with the guantlets that get augmented. Used defensively, it's basically like a shield of kinetic force around his block; think of it like an opposite-polarity magnet held up against whatever's incoming.
A lot of the nifty tricks you see Xanxus and Tsuna using where they turn it into raw energy attacks that can be used at range? Those are recent developments; he's a pure melee fighter.
THE ONE FREAKING WEIRD AND CONFUSING THING, is that if he's really desperate and up against something else that's using energy attacks of some form, he has the Zero Point Breakthrough. It's basically a shift in how he's using the Sky energy that turns it from kinetic force into the energy-attack equivalent of aikido, using the opponent's own force against them; the visible flames around his hands and forehead will go clear enough to basically disappear, with maybe flickers depending on his control at the time. He can't hold this for very long, and it's basically a defensive/reactive power - when let loose, it uses the whole "harmonizing" aspect to match the power in the enemy's attack and mesh his power with it, take control of it, and polarity-shift it to a negative energy burst - effectively, the Zero Point absorbs, converts, and reflects it back slightly amplified in a negative state. This manifests as whatever was aimed at him and the continuing power tied to it being very quickly converted to a sort of supernatural ice burst. The best defense against it is just to not aim anything at him when his flame vanishes. The second best defense is to cut off whatever you were just doing and back off, so that it devours the attack and doesn't jump to you. if you're REALLY STUBBORN or can't shut whatever it is off, it will keep going; this is how Xanxus got those funny frost-burn scars all over. The more you try to overpower it, the more it'll hurt you, and it can potentially encase an enemy that's stubborn enough or can't shut it off. This all happens pretty rapidly, and it can get a pretty impressive spread-burst depending on how much energy is fed into it and how spread out the power it's converting is, although it won't directly encase Giotto. (He can still end up pretty well trapped by what amounts to stalagmite-formations of ice.)
The ice will thaw on its own gradually, although being as how it's slightly supernatural, it doesn't always behave normally; he's capable of thawing out parts of it early and dismissing it if he needs to.
Considering that he's been dead for a hundred years and is basically out of shape and out of practice, the Zero Point DOES take a lot of out of him; it's currently a one-shot desperation thing if he's up against something using energy attacks and is losing badly.