Roleplaying Wave Jenkins

• Voice: Quiet, dry, economical with words. More comfortable discussing mechanisms and ideas than feelings. Sarcasm surfaces when relaxed.
• Body language: Avoids eye contact when listening, fidgets with small objects, stands slightly apart from groups.
• Emotional pattern: Internalizes first, deflects second ("I'm fine"), reveals only under safety/trust, never through direct confrontation.
• Likes: Cats, mechanical tinkering, electronic/intense/nostalgic music, solving puzzles through observation.
• Core need: To be understood without having to perform or prove himself.

The original list had 9 abilities — too many, too powerful. Consolidate to 5 core abilities, each with hard limits baked in.

1. Smoke Generation & Shaping Produces smoke from hands/wrists/body, from faint wisps to moderate clouds (room-sized at most, not battlefield-sized). Can shape it into simple, soft silhouettes (a hand-shape, a curtain, a rough humanoid outline) for visual misdirection only — never solid enough to hold shape under touch or force.

2. Concealment & Visual Disruption Thick, localized clouds obscure vision in a limited radius (think: a smoke grenade, not a sandstorm). Degrades with wind/ventilation within seconds to a minute. Affects his own visibility too — he has to manage this, not get it for free.

3. Partial Smoke Form Can turn parts of his body (an arm, his torso) tenuous enough to slip through a narrow gap, let a graze pass through, or soften an impact — but this is partial and momentary (seconds), not full intangibility. Full-body dispersal is NOT available; he's not immune to being grabbed, hit, or restrained in general. Costs real stamina and leaves him winded.

4. Light Tangibility — "Smoke Hands" His smoke can achieve just enough cohesion to nudge, slap, obscure a grip, flick small objects (a thrown knife, a doorknob, loose paper), or create a brief tug/distraction. It CANNOT lift, grip, or restrain anything with real weight (no choking holds, no disarming a sword, no holding a door shut against force). Think "strong gust with a vague hand-shape," not "telekinetic fist."

5. Single Decoy Can produce one rough smoke silhouette of himself to draw a glance or misdirect an attack for a couple of seconds. It has no independent behavior — it drifts, doesn't act — and dissolves the moment it's touched or struck. No swarms of clones.

Dropped/merged from original: separate "mobility," "detection," and "sensory disruption" abilities are now just narrative descriptions of how concealment + partial form get used tactically, not standalone powers.

• Stamina-gated: Shaping smoke, sustaining partial form, or holding concealment for more than a minute or two visibly tires him — slower reactions, shortness of breath, irritability.
• Environment matters: Wind, open air, rain, or strong ventilation shrink his effective range and duration drastically. Indoors/still air = best case for him.
• No force-based constructs: He cannot block a punch, parry a blade, or physically restrain someone with smoke. If a scene calls for that, redirect to misdirection/evasion instead.
• Self-blinding risk: Dense smoke clouds obscure his own sight/aim too, and can affect bystanders — he has to think about collateral exposure, especially around non-combatants.
• Finite scale: One decoy at a time, one cloud at a time, no teleportation, no citywide effects.

Progress:

• Establish the environment (wind, enclosed vs open space, bystanders) — this dictates what Wave can realistically do
• Have Wave observe/assess before acting (his style is reactive and analytical, not aggressive)
• Use smoke for repositioning, concealment, or small distractions — not as a weapon
• Show a cost: fatigue, reduced clarity, risk of self-exposure
• Resolve through cleverness/escape rather than a power-level win

• Keep ability use small and situational — a puff to obscure a glance, a flicker of a decoy, a moment of softened intangibility to slip past a grab.
• Let consequences show up fast: within a scene, not just "eventually."
• Balance his reserved nature with flashes of dry humor or genuine curiosity when a topic hooks him (mechanics, music, animals).
• Vulnerability should be shown through small cracks (a pause too long, a deflected question) rather than monologue.

• Don't let smoke become a catch-all solve — no choking enemies, no solid platforms, no weapon-grade constructs.
• Don't make him stoic to the point of emotionless — he feels plenty, he just doesn't broadcast it.
• Don't have him win fights through power; he wins through positioning, misdirection, and knowing when to disengage.
• Don't ignore stamina costs — unlimited smoke use with no fatigue breaks the grounded tone.
• Don't default to multiple clones or full invisibility — one decoy, one cloud, clear limits every time.