Editing Sveta Karelia (section)

==Abilities and Powers==
<tabber>
|-|Deviant Form=
Her control of this body slowly increased over the years. She gained a lot of control quickly.<ref>I heard the slap of Sveta behind me.  I heard the bang at the door.  Ashley’s power.  I spun in the air, caught only a glimpse of a door with a silver line on it, Ashley with her good foot out, arms behind her.  As part of that scene, I saw  a massive collection of tendrils, with Sveta’s face at the center of them all, her expression focused, her face not as traced or marred by the tendrils reaching across it.  Nothing at eyelids or nostril, nothing at the corner of her mouth, pulling because it acted instinctively.<br/><br/>The cape geek in me wanted to rattle through all of the ways that could have happened.  The Sechen Ranges, or the fact she was ''pissed'', that anxiety fed into itself and she was so distracted by reality that the cycle had been interrupted.<br/><br/>But she was with me.  No suit, no middle ground.  I had the Wretch and I felt the tentacles touch it, leveraging it.<br/><br/>How confident was she, to transition from ‘I don’t want anyone near me’ to ‘I can be this close to a variable scenario’? - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/02/12 Excerpt] from [[Heavens 12.1]]</ref> thanks to the help of her teammate Precipice.<ref>[[Blinding 11.12]]</ref> There needed to be regular sessions to ensure that her control didn't waver. <ref>[[Black 13.8]]</ref>

====Instinct====
From the outset Sveta was incapable of fully controlling the strength of her tendrils which leads her to instinctively crush any stressor with them.<ref name="I19c1">The latter. It’s like her entire fight or flight system was overhauled so the response to any stressor is ‘strangle it’. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/interlude-19-y/#comment-13288 Comment by Wildbow in ][[Interlude 19.y]]</ref> This also means her power is reactive to any threat against her no matter the source.<ref name="29.7c2">She can’t kill herself, or she would have, it’s obvious enough. Her body would react and destroy external threats, even ones she’s trying to leverage against herself. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/venom-29-7/#comment-45067 Comment by WildBow] on [[Venom 29.7]]</ref><ref>My bugs reached Sveta. She was pulling herself free of rubble.<br/><br/>''“Sveta.”''<br/><br/>She looked around, confused.<br/><br/>''“The bugs.”''<br/><br/>Her tendrils killed maybe sixty bugs as she focused her attention on them.<br/><br/>''“It’s Taylor. Skitter, or Weaver. Whatever you know me as.”''<br/><br/>She killed more before she got herself firmly secured to a large piece of concrete. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/05 Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.8]]</ref>  Her powers' behavior may stem from Sveta having little initial connection with her [[Shard]].<ref name="SB3">Some people have very little connection to their shards. Look at Leet - his shard actively sabotages him. Look at Echidna, or Sveta. You end up with disconnects, and stuff starts to stand out as the shard's behavior becomes more distinct, either in 'episodes' or a pattern of the power not cooperating. - [http://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/12852536 Worm Web Serial Discussion III : After the End] ([[Wildbow]], SpaceBattles.com, 2014-01-15)</ref> Functioning largely independent of her'<!--need to position quotes to sell how powerful and dangerous she actually is --> making computer use hard but not impossible with the right equipment.<ref name="RPG1">Very rugged design, kind of like Weld has his super reinforced chair.<br/><br/>Of course, she's not the only patient who needs a rugged computer, ergo her 'sister' needing to use it.<br/><br/>Drawback being that if you have a computer built for someone with a degree of super strength they can't wholly control, and worked so that the keys can be both pushed & pulled (with screws in each key for the tentacle girl to grip), sensitivity becomes a secondary consideration. - [https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?660599-Worm-The-best-supervillain-web-serial-that-you-aren-t-not-reading-yet&p=16549838#post16549838 Post by Wildbow] on RPG.net</ref>

Her body has its own mind that she could not always override. This included an instinctual hunter behavior that made her body conceal itself before people entered her room in the asylum.<ref name="18.z e93">"Come on out, Sveta," she said. She clenched her teeth and braced herself for the ambush.<br/><br/>Sveta had been waiting above the door. Tendrils snaked around the neck of the protective suit, and cinched tight in a moment.<br/>[...]<br/>"So sorry," Sveta whispered. "Sorry."<br/><br/>Jessica felt her arm jolt as one set of tendrils lashed up the length of her right arm to catch her gloved fingers. Each finger was pulled in a different direction, but the metal reinforcement in the outer glove held, and her hand wasn’t crumpled like tissue paper.<br/><br/>“Relaxation exercises, Sveta. Don’t try to fight the instincts all at once, don’t worry about me…” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/interlude-18-donation-bonus-3/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 18.z]]</ref> This instinct is likely responsible for her high kill count. Similarly her body ensures she is healthy and not close to death and will make her eat food, regardless of quality if it senses her close to starving.<ref name=29.7e2/>

====Durability====
Her tentacles have notable durability,<ref>'''Wildbow:''' [Sveta is] strong enough to lift Weld. Somewhere between wood and steel cable in terms of durability. Her tendrils are all prehensile. That should say enough.<br/><br/>'''Wildbow:''' It's a question of her self control. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/45136810/ comment on the IRC] by [[Wildbow]] archived on Spacebattles.</ref> stated to be one of the reasons she was captured instead of killed when she was first found by the outside authorities.<ref name="29.6">Imp turned the sphere.<br/><br/>“Finally.  Fresh air,” the girl inside said.  She had a quiet voice.  More the type of voice I’d connect to a shy librarian at a party or a sheltered preacher’s daughter in the company of boys.<br/><br/>“Sveta?” I asked.  “We met on the oil rig.”<br/><br/>“She also goes by Garotte,” Satyr said.  “The only reason the PRT didn’t put her down was because she’s rather hard to kill.  She has quite the impressive body count.”<br/><br/>“Don’t say that.”<br/><br/>“She was part of the original invading party,” Satyr went on, ignoring her.  “They attacked the Doctor, setting this whole mess in motion.”<br/><br/>“I could hear everything you guys were saying,” the girl said.  It was only when she said the longer word ‘everything’ that I noticed the rasp to her voice.  It would be part of the reason for her being quiet. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/venom-29-6/ Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.6]]</ref> Being essentially bullet proof given her tentacles and her incredibly small vital area.<ref name ="12.1e2">The explosions cleared out half of a roomful of forty people, many of them armed.  Sveta and I picked through the remainder.  Women with guns.  Men with masks covering their lower faces.  Tossed aside.  Sveta couldn’t really be shot, and the Wretch protected me from being shot, even though it was mostly pandemonium and people reeling.<br/><br/>And Sveta’s movements only continued to make sense to me again, now that I could parse why she was so reluctant and reserved.  I’d known her at one point in time when this was all she had.  She’d been hesitant to get to know me, but she’d settled in. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/02/12 Excerpt] from [[Heavens 12.1]]</ref>  It was strong enough to withstand [[Scion|devastating blasts]] though not unscathed.<ref name="27.5e1"/> Luckily her body is still a living organism, as such it can recover and regrow large sections of it self.

Also as a living organism Sveta still regularly showers.<ref name=5.6e2>Sveta said.  “I’m going to go rinse off.  I’ve been cooped up in this body and I’m all waxy and gross inside here.  I’ll be back out in a minute.”<br/><br/>“Do you want me to take your body?” Weld asked.<br/><br/>“I’m okay.  I’ll bring a change of clothes in with me.”<br/>[...]<br/><br/><br/>“Weld?” Sveta called out.<br/><br/>“Be right back.”<br/><br/>I worked on the document while Weld joined Sveta in the washroom. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/03/17 Excerpt] from [[Shadow 5.6]]</ref>

===Strength and Speed===
A single large tendril can easily rip a limb off of someone,<ref name="18.z e95343">"I'm fine. I understand," Jessica soothed. She shifted position, and one tendril snapped out to catch her leg, gripping her around the knee, squeezing and twisting with a strength that could have torn every ligament in her knee and wrenched Jessica's calf from her upper leg. Sveta flinched, closed her eyes for a second, and the tendril moved back to the post. The suit had held. No damage done. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/07 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 18.z]]</ref> several at once possess enough strength to bend steel bars and demolish concrete barriers. Further these can move at speeds normal eyes can not track.<ref>Sveta snatched a notebook off of the small table with the art supplies, reaching out and bringing it to her faster than the eye could follow. She passed it to Jessica with just as much speed and force. Even with the air bags filling the void in the protective suit and offering a cushioning effect, Jessica had to take a step back to catch her balance. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/07 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 18.z]]</ref>

When she couldn't control herself the only way for a normal human to safely interact with her would be to wear what was essentially a deep sea scuba divers suit - walking tank,<ref name="18.z e6543">“-But I have to go over them anyways. There are regulations, Jessica, as you well know. You’ll be wearing a type-C reinforced protective suit. The suits include both an inner and outer layer, the inner layer-”<br/><br/>“Has a button in the palm. I can withdraw my fingers from the outer glove and press the button. At random intervals, you’ll buzz me surreptitiously…”<br/><br/>“And we expect you to press the button to verify that you’re okay. You can press it twice in the event of an emergency.”<br/>[...]<br/>“It’s what we have for the time being. If you don’t verify your own safety or if you signal an emergency, we’ll employ containment foam through the sprinkler system.”<br/><br/>Jessica pulled on the protective inner-suit. The suit fit close to her body, smelled faintly of someone else's sweat, and consisted of a stretching mesh covered in fine chain link. The entire thing was reinforced by a grid of metal bars, complete with oiled hinges at each joint, so she had a near-full range of motion. Zipping it up, it went straight up her neck, the bars running vertically down her throat. She couldn't look down without getting jabbed in the soft flesh beneath her jaw.<br/><br/>It made it harder to get the outer suit on. The entire thing was one piece, like footie-pyjamas, and the fabric was heavy, with alternating layers of insulated fabric and more chain mesh.<br/>[...]<br/>Now that she had a better grasp of what her patients were capable of, it was easier to hope the people designing the safeguards were doing everything they needed to. It was better than researching it and knowing they weren't.<br/><br/>The heavy fabric exterior suit fit her like hazardous materials gear, bulky, broad, leaving a great deal of empty space between her body and the fabric. Protective airbags of more reinforced cloth inflated to fill that space - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/07 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 18.z]]</ref> one that needs regular maintenance between visits. She is even able to affect Weld thanks to her strength.

She was able to fling a massive load with her tentacles with enough leverage,<ref>“''Sveta'',” I said. “''Now''.”
<br/><br/>She anchored herself on three different areas. Then she grabbed the burning corpse.<br/><br/>She flung it at Scion.<br/><br/>''Can’t hurt him physically.''<br/><br/>emotionally.<br/><br/>He reeled, perhaps a little stunned.<br/><br/>She hit him with more. One after the other.<br/><br/>His hands glowed.<br/><br/>''“Run,”'' I said, with my swarm, in the same moment I said, “Now.”<br/><br/>Sveta bolted. Scion attacked, a wide-area effect that scoured the room’s interior. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/05 Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.8]]</ref> even though she was injured at the time.
<!---->
|-|Prosthesis=
In her full body Prosthesis (see above) she retains her durability, but is restrained somewhat by the confines of the humanoid body. She moves somewhat clumsily. This is due counter-intuitive movement that is required to control bodysuit from the inside.<ref name="II3.3 e2">“I’m anxious,” Sveta said.<br/><br/>“Me too,” Tristan said.  “Your control gets bad when you’re nervous, right?  You have more reflexive movements?”<br/><br/>“It gets so fucking shitty,” Sveta said.  “I’m sorry.  I’m worried I’ll be terrible because I’m all over the place inside here.  I don’t know if you can hear it, but I keep fumbling because I’ll reflexively reach out to grab something off in the distance and hit the wall of the suit instead, and then I have to reach for the right control ring again.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/13/glare-3-3/ Excerpt] from [[Glare 3.3]]</ref> Nervousness has been known to exacerbate this problem.

She can unlatch her joints, allowing her to extend her limbs a considerable distance, as she can when she is completely out of the body, and use them as grappling hooks.<ref name="II3.2 e1">She didn’t touch or move anything external, but the joints of her elbow shifted, and the forearm and hand dropped.  Ten or so tendrils extended between elbow and forearm, like a muscle with gaps between strands.<br/><br/>She moved it, tendrils bending, flinging her hand and the attached segment of arm out fifty feet.  She tried to grab a branch, missed it, grabbed another, and seized it, before pulling her body to follow.  I saw her turn her head away as she pulled herself through the intervening twigs and leaves.<br/><br/>She twisted around, pointed a hand, and used tendrils to push her fist out.<br/><br/>She seized the wheel that Byron had left embedded in the earth, and pulled herself to it.<br/><br/>There was a bit of gracelessness to the landing, her pants leg and the side of her body rubbing against the grass, a few clumps of earth flying, but it served to put her in our midst again.  She wobbled as she stood and Tristan and I caught her between us.<br/><br/>She made a small ‘phew’ sound.<br/><br/>“You’re made of grappling hooks, basically,” Chris said.  Kenzie, sitting on her box, stuck out her toe to jab Chris in the shoulder. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/09 Excerpt] from [[Glare 3.2]]</ref> She is able to remove part of the prosthesis to allow out more appendages.<ref name="II3.3 e4">It was Sveta, perched on a branch, flag in hand.  Another blur, moving the clock back.<br/><br/>Sveta removed one of her prosthetic hands.  Fifty or more tendrils snapped out.<br/><br/>“You grabbed ''every'' flag,” Tristan said.<br/><br/>“I grabbed at every flag,” Sveta said.  “I had to reposition a few times, so I probably grabbed at some fake ones several times.  It didn’t help that I couldn’t see that well after being shot.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/13/glare-3-3/ Excerpt] from [[Glare 3.3]]</ref>. Her body is, however, not smart enough to get out of the suit without her conscious input,<ref>“Positive side is I just found out I’m all instinct when I’m forced into attack mode.  My body isn’t smart enough to figure out how to get out of the suit.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/03/03/shadow-5-3/ Excerpt] from [[Shadow 5.3]]</ref>, including above the "neck", where tendrils are loosely restrained with a series of metal rings.<ref>“She’d undone a clasp at the shoulder.  She brought her head out,  twisting it around in a way a neck couldn’t.  Her tendrils were bound with metal rings into a loose column that disappeared into her suit.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/03/27/shadow-5-10/ Excerpt] from [[Shadow 5.10]]</ref> She usually needs assistance to get out of the suit.<ref name=5.6e2/>

For example, she was confident in her ability to use her arms to snatch Kenzie out of Ashley's way. Even with her grip strength being less than adequate and Ashley being able to move faster then her.<ref name="II3.3 e6">When Kenzie was out of earshot, but before she had reached Ashley, Sveta raised one hand and said, voice quiet, “If there’s a problem, I’ll haul her back.”<br/><br/>“That takes a second or two,” I said.  “Sparring with Ashley, I gotta say she moves faster than that.”<br/><br/>“And your grip isn’t a hundred percent,” Tristan said.<br/><br/>Sveta set her jaw, hand pointed at Kenzie. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/01/13 Excerpt] from [[Glare 3.3]]</ref> She uses her ability to move around quickly but not always gracefully. 

===Skill===
Despite all these challenges Sveta has showcased a talent for art.<ref name="18.ze2">The room was empty. The wall had a mural painted on it, ocean waves and beautiful architecture that Jessica couldn’t place as belonging to any particular era or culture. There was a short, translucent table littered with painting and drawing supplies - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/07 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 18.z]]</ref><ref name="29.7e1">“I remember, you know,” Sveta said.  “I dream of home.  I was a fisherman’s daughter.  There were these beautiful little huts with flat roofs, orange clay brick against gray mountains, with green-blue grass and ocean.  It was cramped, and I had to share space with my family, my siblings… but I was okay with it.  There weren’t any boys my age to marry, and I didn’t want to move to another town to look for a husband, so I just stayed by myself.  I’d draw, and there was a peace in it.  I ''still'' like to draw, I find it helps me relax… but it’s hard because my tendrils break the brushes and pencils.  And then I don’t feel relaxed anymore.”<br/><br/>“We’ve caused you difficulties,” the Doctor said, not even looking at Sveta.  She walked quickly, her eyes roving over the rows and columns of vials.<br/><br/>“I can’t remember my mother tongue, Doctor. I can’t remember my daddy’s face, or my mommy, or either of my brothers. I’ve just got the faces I see in dreams. Every morning I was in the asylum, I would wake up and I scramble to draw something, to put words in a diary, and I’m so excited and panicked and desperate I’d break things.”<br/><br/>The Doctor wasn’t reacting.<br/><br/>“I know I used to draw, but I can’t find the style I used to draw in. I dream about the night you took me, you know.”<br/><br/>“Not me, surely. I sent others.”<br/><br/>“You sent people like me to take me. Case fifty-threes. Branded. Abominations. Demons. There’s names for us all over the world. It was storming, I was delirious, and they came, they grabbed me, and I all I could think was that the old stories were true, and I said something I can’t remember. You took me to a lab and you unraveled me with that drug of yours, and then you dropped me in the middle of nowhere, with just enough memories to know that I should be human.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/10/03 Excerpt] from [[Venom 29.7]]</ref> When she received her mechanical body she made a habit of decorating its outside with painting.

Notably, she is able to use the multitude of her appendages to draw simultaneously in different areas, drastically cutting down on time to make her creations.<ref name="ii8.5e1"> She was changing the colors in one of her arms, pausing here and there to look up and make sure our Advance Guard heroes and their quarry weren’t on their way.<br/><br/>The work she did was very precise and particular, twenty-plus tendrils looping down her body, around her arms and then anchoring at different points on three different paintbrushes.  The movements of each paintbrush were meticulous, six to ten tendrils all pulling at the same time, one relaxing to allow the others to pull it away from that direction.  At the same time, a tendril worked its way around her face, gripping her eyelid, working her way into the socket.<br/><br/>She shook her head fiercely, and it pulled away.  Others snapped out to grip the edges and bars of the platform she sat on.<br/><br/>Dangerous, maybe, to be doing it in the open, but she was above the cars, on a platform a distance away from the road, the people were safe within vehicles, and she was partially anchored to her body and the platform.  I knew she had control enough that she’d been able to hang out with me and she hadn’t lost control to the point that she’d broken my forcefield. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/07/17 Excerpt] from [[Beacon 8.5]]</ref>

[[Ashley Stillons II|Ashley]] showed Sveta how to use her tentacles to open yale locks.<ref name="10.8 e1">“This is the cheap and dirty way of opening a lock,” Swansong said.  “You want to jostle the pins.  Go back and forth, as soon as you feel them, pop them up.  Keep pressure so the lock is turning-”<br/><br/>“Already doing that,” Sveta said.  her hand was removed, and tendrils were groping at and around the lock.  “I have to use my smallest tendrils, which are also the shortest, which is awkward-”<br/><br/>The trunk popped open.  I saw the surprise on Sveta’s face.<br/>[...]<br/>“How did you know how to lockpick?” Byron asked, quiet.  “You couldn’t when you were a villain.”<br/><br/>“I study,” Swansong said.  “It’s the kind of thing I watch before bed.”<br/><br/>“It’s cool,” Sveta said, and her smile seemed genuine.  “It’s neat to know I can do that.  Thank you.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2018/11/17 Excerpt] from [[Polarize 10.8]]</ref> 
<!---->
|-|Orchard Form=
After having her body transformed by [[Mr. Bough]], Sveta's ability took more of a [[Changer]] form, in which she could unwrap her body into thicker, flatter tendrils with serrated edges.<ref>[[Interlude 13.z]]</ref> These serrated edges are capable of cutting people.<ref>Byron hit someone, transitioned that hit into a grab, and pulled them to one side, where one of his constellations blasted out water.  Sveta made it further down the hallway, where there were less of our people in reach.  Her tendrils cut where the saw teeth ran along flesh, and grabbed otherwise.  The two combined were… nasty.  To cut someone’s arm and pull on that skin? - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/07/13/dying-15-3/ Excerpt] from [[Dying 15.3]]</ref>

She demonstrated ability to hide objects inside her body, including her armored costume.<ref name="II14.2body"/>

Following [[The Firmament]] bombing her body has temporary lapses of control.
</tabber>