Diamond With Flaw's Clawed Arm

[BurgerBB]

BYOND Key: BurgerBB

Character name: Diamond with Flaw

Item name: Clawed Arm

Why is your character carrying said item to work?

As a chemist, accidents tend to happen. As a Dionaea, their biology makes it easy to recover from simple wounds or burns. However in Diamond with Flaw's case, the wound was not simple. While grabbing a freshly made bottle of anti-radiation medication, one of their tendril stems accidentally activated the acid dispenser, seriously burning their hand as well as knocking over the bottle they created from the reaction, and spilling the solution. Diamond was put in intensive care for anti-radiation poisoning and burn treatment, however their hand did not regenerate despite doses of radiation and consumption of biomatter. Unwilling to waste biomatter and dispose of the nymph responsible for their left hand motor movement, they decided to compromise and procur a specialized robotic arm. Their dionaea biology allowed them to completely integrate and intwine with the newly formed machine without flaw.

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Item function(s):

Clawed Arm Spawner: Spawning with the item automatically gives the user a left-handed clawed arm. There will be safeties in check that make it only work with dionaea.

Clawed Arm Organ: It works like a cyborg limb, but for dionaea. It has no mechanical advantages over a regular robotic limb except playing a honking noise every time they grab someone's behind

Item description: None

Item appearance:

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How will you use this to better interact with crew and/or stimulate RP?

I feel that this would be a great opportunity to explain Dionaea lore as well as dionaea biology; with respect to machine integration with their biology. I feel that it's a topic that most people don't know about and should be explored more.

Additional comments:

Only the front facing sprite is done, and there is no code written for it. It's completely possible to code this in without making a new system or messing with existing ones.

[ZetaGundumb]

In canon, I don't know that there would be a market that would justify a company producing prosthesis for Dionaea. I feel the waste in other raw resources to produce this arm probably outweighs the needed biomatter. In other words this doesn't seem like a viable or cost-effective product that would realistically exist. Non-canonically , it just seems silly and gimmicky.

[Ornias]

I'd disagree. The questions of the importance of the individual nymph to the aggregate - of what makes Diamond With Flaw so protective of that part of him. To them, it's not a hand - it's a vital fragment of what makes them what they are. This idea of unity is one of the most compelling parts of playing a diona - what it means to be a group, and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to maintain that.

The idea of permanent injury on a species that, as a rule of thumb, does not die, is an interesting field to explore. There are so many questions that can be raised about the nature of injury, of loss, of struggle, through the fact that Diamond With Flaw has experienced what it was never built to experience.

The idea of integration with machinery is something that all species can explore, but it's particularly notable in this case - the idea of it, ironically, being the only part of themselves that they do not have full control over. The idea of the external melding with the internal for the first time in this species.

To call an idea 'gimmicky' without something to back it up doesn't do you any favors. I'm going to +1 this, and hope that you do explore at least some of these themes within your character.

I think you should think long and hard about how they procured this limb, however. Throw more backstory into how it was developed, how it operates. Let me know what you come up with (or don't, and let me find out ICly).

[ZetaGundumb]

The gimmicky comment is just personal opinion. The issue I have is, again, that I just don't see a company putting the effort into making a product that is so specialized. Companies need to make money. Specialized products tend to be prohibitively expensive to make, due to small sales volume. The implication here is that a company is willing to invest in creating this product that one would expect has a low total profit margin. I might be nitpicking with this and I could be missing something, but I stand by my statement that I don't think anybody in this universe makes this product. If it were some manner of prototype product made in house by NT Science, I would say it sounds more feasible, but that also implies that it is not going to be a perfect product, therefore might have "hiccups." If it has twitches or a small chance of dropping items or something along that line I would like it more.

[Itanimulli]

The gimmicky comment is just personal opinion. The issue I have is, again, that I just don't see a company putting the effort into making a product that is so specialized. Companies need to make money. Specialized products tend to be prohibitively expensive to make, due to small sales volume. The implication here is that a company is willing to invest in creating this product that one would expect has a low total profit margin. I might be nitpicking with this and I could be missing something, but I stand by my statement that I don't think anybody in this universe makes this product. If it were some manner of prototype product made in house by NT Science, I would say it sounds more feasible, but that also implies that it is not going to be a perfect product, therefore might have "hiccups." If it has twitches or a small chance of dropping items or something along that line I would like it more.

 

That's not how that works. That's just. Not hownthat works at all. If someone has the money, they can get a prothstetic. Every prothstetic is sized and customized to match the individual they're connected to. Thisnis no different. It's just weird and it's on a walking tree. Zeng Hu and NT are both candidates of something along these lines, or even some unnamed provider on beisel.

Forcing someone to take drawbacks is also a bit over the top imo.

[BurgerBB]

The prosthetic itself is quite cheap and inexpensive. Given that Dionaea are quite adaptive in using electronics, the software of the arm itself is quite old. I'm thinking of making it look darker to reflect this to make it look like it's made out of iron instead of steel.

 

[ZetaGundumb]

The real question I have in this is how does your character interface with it. I assumed that prosthesis in this universe tapped into the nervous system to work. I also assume that Dionaea don't have a nervous system, as such.

[SampleTex]

I will +1 this, I like the idea of dionaeas using something as a prosthetic to allow it to still work, without sacrificing a nymph permanently. Sure, the nymph that was the arm was damaged, but it was reabsorbed and probably in charge of working with the prosthetic. In a way, it gives diamond more thinking power, and in others it doesn't.

[BurgerBB]

The real question I have in this is how does your character interface with it. I assumed that prosthesis in this universe tapped into the nervous system to work. I also assume that Dionaea don't have a nervous system, as such.

 

In lore, Dionaea have a way of integrating with electronics. I believe that previously, the intended was was that dionaea were mildly electrically charged by that was removed from lore/code I think.

[ZetaGundumb]

Fair enough, I suppose. Though I just thought of a hilarious variation on this. Imagine, if you will, he retains use of the vestigial appendage (basically his "hand" is at the "shoulder") and he uses it to operate one of those T-Rex-headed grabber toys in lieu of a hand. Stupid, I know, but it made me laugh and I felt I needed to share that idea

[TishinaStalker]

Dope sprite and definitely looked better with the darker color than shinier. Pretty neat and interesting idea too that I can totally dig. Although, tbh, I was under the impression that a Diona could just nab any nymph, and then just Piccolo their limb back. I should probably read treeman lore because now I have a feeling that maybe that's not totally accurate.

Application accepted.

[Alberyk]

Items added to the code, you should be able to spawn with it.