Abigail Rowan-Sato, known publicly as Crane the Harmonious, was the leader of a martial arts cult before she was imprisoned in the Birdcage.[2] She acts as a leader of one of the cell blocks there.[2]
Appearance
Crane the Harmonious is a thin woman with pointed features and short, swooping, platinum blonde hair feathered at the edges.
Abilities and Powers
Crane's power involves the use of a sphere that redirects motion/orientation, as well as a keen thinker ability that allows understanding of motion and ranges of motion. Using her second power, she developed a specialized martial art style for herself, given her body type, powers and combat style, and then did the same for her 'students', training them rigorously until it was ingrained in them.
Crane the Harmonious has a keen understanding of movement and fighting styles and could learn as well as teach the "perfect style" to a given individual. She also possessed the power to create a floating orb that allowed her to redirect movement in its vicinity.
Was able to reach numerous individuals[3].
Has a funky sphere and thinker power allowing understanding of movement [4].
Keen understanding of movement & fighting styles, could learn & teach the 'perfect style' for a given individual. Floating orb redirected movement in vicinity[5].
History
Background
Was possibly seen in Lausanne.
Crane would kidnap parahuman children and induct them into a cultlike group, using her power and abusive training methods to give them a unique, devastating fighting style. Several of her students eventually became heroes.[3]
Crane was eventually caught and sentenced to the Birdcage.
Gold Morning
Armageddon was deemed sufficient reason to let her out again.
References
- ↑ Crane the Harmonius: Abigail Rowan-Sato - Private conversation with Wildbow, archived on Spacebattles
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 All in all, there were twelve cell blocks with leaders. That meant that there were eleven leaders with eleven lieutenants arriving. Acidbath, Galvanate, Teacher, Lab Rat and Gavel were leaders of the cell blocks on the men’s side of the prison. Lustrum, Black Kaze, Glaistig Uaine, String Theory, Crane and Ingenue were the female leaders. There were other cell blocks, but twelve was generally agreed on as a good number. It left room for discussion without too much chaos, and it left enough cell blocks leaderless that they had elbow room to do business elsewhere. - Excerpt from Interlude 16 (Donation Bonus #3)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 PRT Quest p54
- ↑ Keen understanding of movement & fighting styles, could learn & teach the 'perfect style' for a given individual. Floating orb redirected movement in vicinity. - Wildbow's Parahuman List
- ↑ Crane's power is a focus over movement. Her orb is controlled much like Sundancer's sun, but allows for controlled Jacklight-like effects for individuals inside it's area of effect, with a slow buildup for organic tissue vs. inorganic. This turns any movement into movement in the direction of her choosing. She also has a sense of movement and enhanced flexibility/agility that she's used to create her own martial art (primarily a striking style) and develop custom fighting styles for her disciples, based on their particular frame, mentality and abilities.
In combat, she uses the orb in conjunction with the striking style to counter her opponent's movements and keep them within the orb, at which point the effect reaches its capacity and they're about as fucked as anyone in Sundancer's orb is. Crane's orb changes only direction, but speed is, within the orb's area and general vicinity (~20') not necessarily subject to diminishing returns. Something that moves can keep moving.
Q: Can she fly? Let others fly?
Orb based flight for others isn't so possible, given she'd need to keep the orb close to them, but she can use it to manage Wuxia style movements for herself.
Q: Why the kids?
She's got a habit of kidnapping children with powers and effectively wrapping them around her finger (or vice versa) through a combination of harsh discipline, physical intimacy and the martial art style she teaches them, which sort of becomes an anchor for them at a juncture where they often feel very lost. She cares about them primarily as vehicles for her teaching. It's not a compulsion. She's interested in martial arts as an art in the same way Bonesaw is interested in her 'art'.
Q: How does the orb work?
She leverages existing movement. If they're moving fast enough, she can drive them into the ground and break their legs/feet. If she has enough control, she can do this readily. But that takes time to accumulate and it's more efficient to just pull them off balance as they try to retreat, drawing them to her and then stab her big toe through their windpipe. She can focus on striking because her orb is a means of handling grappling.
Q: How so?
Keeping her orb close to her, she can effectively negate grappling as a tactic. A tackler is shoved a foot to the left, she moves an extra two feet to the right and forward, drives an elbow into their kidney.
Q: Tell us more about her methodology with her students? Why physical intimacy? Why abuse?
A deeper understanding of the subject's body gives her a deeper understanding of the student's capacity for movement. Teaching-wise, she wants to be a true teacher, but she has very little empathy for her subjects (or for people in general). She's exceedingly self aware. But she doesn't give a damn. She's not going to strangle a student. She will make them kneel on a block of ice to build their pain tolerance or hold a pot filled with sand over their head for an hour. Some people have kids and those kids are their legacy. Some people write an epic length series about superheroes while they're dying of a degenerative disease. Crane has her martial arts.
Q: She's a master at every martial art?
She intuitively understands existing styles with her secondary power. She wouldn't necessarily be competent. But she can grasp what they're about.
Q: She knows all the techniques, then?
The memorization, strength and flexibility, the lessons and so on don't instantly come to her when she asks for it - but she can see someone performing the actions and know what's up. Understanding doesn't equate to knowing.
Q: I still don't get it?
It's a moot point - she's better teaching herself a customized style matched to her body shape, the length of her limbs, and to complement the harmonious sphere, followed by building the explosive strength and natural flexibility needed to employ it optimally. - Wildbow IRC archived on spacebattles
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