rainsrespite | BNW Powers Update

ENLIGHTENED AWAKENING
Justification: Yuuna has been involved in nearly every event since she joined the game 1 year ago. She's never really flinched away from danger and actively learned the ropes of Pokemon training in a harsh environment, undergoing a real trial by fire. Her first real event was the conflict against Heatran, and she jumped in front of the thing to fight it and protect Citadel, but she's also been into the Dream World as it opened, worked to help the Enhanced, visited the past, and was present during the battle in Sanctuary. Basically she's been involved in current events and helped work towards a brighter future. She's explored several new locations, and been a presence in the lives of other people in the game as a trainer, mentor, Ranger, and upperclassman.

Which is significant mainly in that she entered the game much more immature and flighty. She was rather selfish, she did things because she wanted to or they were fun, and she'd never really thought about more than what was fun or enjoyable. She really came into her own as a Ranger, finding a calling and a field she could excel in that suited her temperament. She's matured into someone with a strong sense of duty, idealism, and responsibility. This can be attributed in large part to simply growing up, despite being 22 years old. She had a friend die (Martin) and return and she had a troubled lover enter her life (Merrill), and she took it upon herself to not only care for them but nurture them. These aren't things she'd have done a year ago. Takeshi Hongo and Ami Mizuno, both old friends from school, have commented on this and I feel she's definitely visibly grown up and become more aware as a person. She's had mentors, and been one herself, and the next step she'd take on the narrative journey would be to take some sort of blessing and awaken to a greater understanding of the self that would provide new challenges for her overactive mind to unlock.

Events that have helped expand her perspective of the world, her faith, and her inner understanding and make her reach out towards that power would include watching her Hariyama take a blow that would've killed her, fighting a nightmare vision of herself in the Dream World event, personally charging in against every enemy she could instead of letting her Pokemon handle it, mentoring Rei Ryugazaki as he started his own journey, and her own regular mundane training and meditations to become stronger and be better able to protect her friends, family, partner, and Pokemon.

The events in Sanctuary, very particularly in the Dream World event fighting her Dream-Self, have all also weighed heavily on Yuuna. She's felt a little helpless at times, and she hates that feeling. She (and I) would like for her to be more directly involved rather than adopting a background role, and it's that troubled feeling that's made her feel pushed to the background and weak, both things that would increase her drive to become something more.

Basically? The short version is that Yuuna's grown up and become not only more settled, but more attuned to herself and the world around her. She's still impulsive and a little reckless, and she's no saint, but she grew from someone with no dedication into someone who's extremely reliable, with a sense of selfworth and accomplishment. Her dedication to martial arts and self improvement has given her a body in the pinnacle of physical condition. She's worked hard, really, and I feel that as she comes to understand herself better she'd be a prime target for awakening as an Enlightened. Yuuna's done a lot of self reflection, struggled and fought to make herself a better person, and done so out of a desire to improve rather than her initial desire to escape and get out into the world for fun. Awareness of the world is key to awareness of the self, and she's definitely been turning that focus inward.

Enlightened Abilities:I'd like for Yuuna to gain the Fighting and Electric types. Fighting is sort of a given with her martial arts background, she's a fighting specialist and that's mandatory. Electric typing would fit well with her personality and her tendency to act quickly and rush in like a metaphorical lightning bolt. It would also mirror her non-AU story well, as she obtains the favor of a storm god after coming to a greater understanding of self. There's always been an element of electric typing present in her in game development as well, given that she entered the game with an electric sword, one tied into her martial arts school. Electric typing would blend well into that, and given that I'd like to awaken her during a thunderstorm, I feel it's a fitting typing.

Ability wise, the primary things that would come from awakening would be controlling her own inner energy, like Chi/Chakra/Ki to empower herself to boost her physical strength and speed. Secondly, and really an extension of this, is eventually learning to project some of that energy into attacks and minor buffs. Ostensibly her powers are all martial arts moves with a dose the supernatural added. As a general note, her metabolism will speed up and she'll require a much vaster amount of calories to keep going.

Initially her abilities would be extremely low-key and almost unnoticeable as anything different than simple martial arts with a couple of minor exceptions. She'd gain beyond-human strength, speed, and reflexes as her body's limits are set higher, and the ability to emulate low level Fighting type moves like Rock Smash, Karate Chop, Mach Punch, Low Kick and other simple “martial arts” type moves like Comet Punch, Focus Energy, Feint, Endure, and Foresight. The only actual abilities that aren't normal or equatable to basic martial arts fighting are very basic Electric moves. Thundershock and Nuzzle, basically projecting electricity or covering her fist in it for taser-like effects.

After evolving once, Yuuna's limits continue to increase, her speed and strength growing even further as she learns more and her energy reserves expand. Her move pool expands into more impressive feats of martial arts prowess as she learns to adapt her style into stronger moves. She can emulate mid level Fighting moves like Detect, Storm Throw, Circle Throw, Vital Throw, Force Palm, Sky Uppercut, and Jump Kick, essentially more advanced moves that'd require more control over her powers to properly empower. She'll also learn to use Strength and Slash (only with a Sword), and Double-Team as her control improves. Electric wise she'll learn to project more energy out, using powers like Spark, Shock Wave, Thunder Punch, and Charge to build up energy.

After Yuuna's second evolution, she'll hit the upper limit of speed and strength, and her inner focus will reach as deep as it can go. This sort of evolution would require a sort of spiritual epiphany or truly intense situation and training. When fully evolved, she'd have reached the pinnacle of what she's capable of. Her fully empowered martial arts style moves would include things like Close Combat and Counter. Through manipulation of energy, she'd also learn Aura Sphere, Drain Punch, and the sword-based Sacred Sword for a kind of sword-smite. And her final electrical abilities are more about applying it to her attacks and tossing out bigger jolts. Fully evolved she can hover a bit with Magnet Rise to perform real wire-fu and use Wild Charge, Thunderbolt, and Discharge to expel electrical strikes.

Finally as part of the final evolution, I'd like for Yuuna to learn to use an altered form of Ion Deluge, actually adding electric energy to the attacks of herself and her allies, a kind of buff that shares her inner power with friends. That especially is an extremely draining ability and while she's using it she's incapable of using any other Electric moves.