Memory Lane

Memory Lane (Chinese: 内存通道; pinyin: Nèicún Tōngdào) is Mirage's Qìnéng. It uses black and blue Qì.

Description

Memory Lane is first and foremost a telepathic Qìnéng, allowing its user to read and manipulate the minds of others, as well as mentally communicate with them. This is particularly useful for picking the opponent's mind for any memories and/or thoughts of powerful allies or adversaries for Mirage to conjure as a Memory as both a means of combat and demoralization. The telepathic nature of Memory Lane also allows for the usage of illusions to subdue an opponent without even touching them.

Memory Lane's unique property is the ability to create copies of individuals from Mirage's own memories or that of others within her sight, with the copies aptly named Memories. While these copies retain the skills, knowledge, personality, and Qìnéng of the original individuals, they are extensions of Mirage's will and thus do her bidding, allowing her to gain allies who would never fight alongside her otherwise.

Weaknesses and limitations

Memories created with Memory Lane cannot have power exceeding its user, so any Memories made of people much more powerful than Mirage would be reduced to "watered down" versions of the real people. The Qì cost for summoning Memories are scaled to the power of said Memories, meaning summoning a Memory of a particularly powerful person (for example, Tianshi) is much more exhausting than summoning a Memory of someone less powerful (such as Shard). Coupled with Mirage's relatively low Qì capacity, this limits her options on how many Memories to summon and of whom.

Memories have a distinct bluish white eye colour, which can easily give off their identity as something other than the person the Memory is based on.

Like any other Qìnéng, illusions from Memory Lane can be dispersed by realizing said illusions are not real or inflicting pain on oneself, disrupting one's own Qì flow, or having an ally do so.

Usage

As Memory Lane lacks the means of direct combat, it's mostly used to avoid such confrontations, with illusions to subdue the opponent, or, failing that, a Memory or few to distract the opponent from the user which, unlike the user, may be more suited to combat.

The extra manpower Memory Lane provides could be used for noncombat tasks, such as carrying luggage, doing chores, or delivering items.

Techniques

Summoning: Memories

The main Technique of Memory Lane, this summoning technique takes the memories of an individual from another individual (usually Mirage herself) and gives it form known as a Memory.

The Qì cost for summoning and maintaining Memories on the field depends on the individual Memories' power and the total number of Memories. She can either summon one powerful Memory or multiple weaker Memories. When she no longer has the Qì to maintain a Memory, it is dismissed. Memories are also dismissed after sustaining a certain amount of damage, which varies depending on the Memory itself. Mirage can also dismiss Memories whenever she pleases.

Aqua Bullets

Mirage is able to launch projectiles made of water.

Feather clones

Mirage can summon crows, usually in flocks, and integrate them into clones of herself to distract and confuse opponents.

Hands of Darkness

Mirage can form hands made of darkness to attack or restrain opponents.

Moonlit Trance

An illusion that forces every opponent in a 50 metre radius to move slower, more potent at night. When used at night, the user can reflect their illusion off of the moon's surface, increasing the range and potency, scaling by moon phase, with the maximum effect possible during full moons.

Crescent Moon Slash

The user swings their scythe, releasing a shockwave of darkness in a straight line, dealing damage to everything within 20 metres. Range and damage increases when Moonlit Trance is active, scaling by moon phase, being most powerful during crescent moons.

Sunset Dream

Mirage stares into the opponent's eye, casting an illusion on them where they are led believe to be transported to a lake surrounded by mountains and forests. Regardless of the current time of the day, the time in this illusion is always sunset. The opponent is then bound by tendrils made of the very water they are standing on, before being pulled in, causing the opponent to lose conciousness. While this is one of Mirage's more powerful illusions, being able to subdue an opponent so quickly, it also consumes a lot of Qì and is only able to be performed three times a day.