Claire Bennet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
infinite1ups) wrote2020-08-31 10:17 am
infinite1ups) wrote2020-08-31 10:17 am
Entry tags:
Some thoughts on Claire's regeneration.
Content warning: Given the fact that I'll be talking about Claire suffering possible injuries and death, if you're sensitive to discussions of violence and bodily injury, you may want to skip this. You're absolutely welcome to personally ask me any questions via PM and just let me know you'd prefer I spare the details.
Note: This is a mix of canon and headcanon. I want to be as realistic as possible but at the end of the day, this is still science-fiction. I’m not an expert on anatomy nor am I aiming for 100% accuracy, I’m just trying to make a little sense of a fictional character’s superpower to heal herself instantly. Now, onto the good stuff. It's going under a cut for length and content.
Claire’s ability is rapid cell regeneration, which means that her cells are constantly regenerating and renewing, meaning she heals from anything, including death. Or, at least, it’s extremely difficult to kill her permanently. She often refers to herself and her ability as simply ‘regen’ and also is quick to boast the benefits of her ability. Since her encounter with Sylar during which he cut open her skull to take her ability, Claire has been unable to feel pain, a condition which she considers to be a blessing and a curse.
Minor injuries, Claire doesn’t feel at all. Gunshots are annoying, they don’t hurt, but having a foreign object inside you isn’t exactly comfortable, and the force of the initial blow can knock the wind out of her and possibly stagger her enough to knock her over. Broken bones are also uncomfortable, because bones are made to be in one piece. This is especially true for compound breaks. Dislocations feel funny, like the limb is jello, and being impaled sucks balls. Pain or not, it simply doesn’t feel good to have something in your body that doesn’t belong. Crushing is uncomfortable, especially if it impedes breathing. Falling from high places doesn’t feel all that awesome either. Well, the actual falling, she doesn’t mind, but hitting the ground? Sucks.
If she is stabbed with something, the wound will not heal until the object is removed. Gunshots will heal themselves and the spent bullet will be
ejected from her skin, or in some circumstances, she may cough it up (and she has). In canon it is demonstrated that if she is impaled in a particular spot int he back of her head, she will remain dead until the object is removed. I tend to expand this to her whole head, because it makes sense to me, and also her heart. If, for example, she's stabbed through the heart, she would likely die so long as her heart remains blocked by the weapon/object.
As far as sleep goes? I'll be completely honest. I waffle on this. I like the narrative possibilities of Claire not really needing to sleep much due to her regen. But I also like the narrative possibilities of her sleeping regularly or even sleeping a little more than average. In my mind, it can really go any way, because her constantly regenerating cells could burn a lot of energy and she would still need to rest at some point just as she would still need to eat. She can regenerate, yes, but her body cannot create matter with which it can nourish itself. I absolutely contend that she has superhuman metabolism, though, and can pretty much eat whatever she wants with little to no affect to her physiology. I also headcanon that she feels no adverse affects from spicy foods, and could absolutely handle things like the One Chip Challenge without any difficulty at all. None of this is really explained in the canon, so I'm happy to adjust for whatever fits the plot at the time.
Claire is immune to the effects of alcohol, as her liver regenerates and processes it before she can get drunk, or even tipsy. As a result she can (and will, especially if there’s cash on the line) drink any normal human under the table. Claire could probably out-drink most people with enhanced metabolism and no regeneration. If she were to sit down with another regen and drink, well… they’d better have a lot of booze on hand. In addition, she is not effected by most drugs. There are ability-inhibiting drugs, but most average folks wouldn’t have access to such a thing. Prescription and recreational drugs alike are pretty useless to her. I strongly headcanon that she has experimented and tried almost everything she could get her hands on with little to no effect. (I base this claim on the fact that she’s tried to kill herself nearly other way so it’s pretty logical to assume she’d experiment with dangerous substances.)
She has, in canon, been knocked out with an anesthetic, but only when it was delivered in a constant supply so her body didn’t have a chance to fight it. For an adversary to take her down in this fashion, they would need to do the same. Slipping a mickey into her drink isn’t gonna cut it, nor will any other attempts at poisoning her. If it’s a particularly strong poison it may temporarily weaken her, but for the most part, she’s gonna down it like a champ and move on. The same concept goes for poisonous and venomous animals or insects. This she has experimented less with (headcanon) but it stands to reason that unless it’s something with extremely severe effects, or if it’s delivered in an extremely high dose, she won’t be affected by it much, if at all.
In conclusion: I don't want to be god-moddy and make her completely invulnerable. I’m willing to discuss ways to weaken her, I’m willing to discuss letting her be hurt, I’m willing to discuss what would happen to her if your character did x to her. I only ask that if your character is planning to do something drastic and it’s not immediately obvious in the context of the thread, that you please talk to me first. I really don't mind putting her through the ringer, but I like it to 1) make sense for her character and how I understand her power to work, and 2) be something we can agree on before it happens.
Note: This is a mix of canon and headcanon. I want to be as realistic as possible but at the end of the day, this is still science-fiction. I’m not an expert on anatomy nor am I aiming for 100% accuracy, I’m just trying to make a little sense of a fictional character’s superpower to heal herself instantly. Now, onto the good stuff. It's going under a cut for length and content.
Claire’s ability is rapid cell regeneration, which means that her cells are constantly regenerating and renewing, meaning she heals from anything, including death. Or, at least, it’s extremely difficult to kill her permanently. She often refers to herself and her ability as simply ‘regen’ and also is quick to boast the benefits of her ability. Since her encounter with Sylar during which he cut open her skull to take her ability, Claire has been unable to feel pain, a condition which she considers to be a blessing and a curse.
Minor injuries, Claire doesn’t feel at all. Gunshots are annoying, they don’t hurt, but having a foreign object inside you isn’t exactly comfortable, and the force of the initial blow can knock the wind out of her and possibly stagger her enough to knock her over. Broken bones are also uncomfortable, because bones are made to be in one piece. This is especially true for compound breaks. Dislocations feel funny, like the limb is jello, and being impaled sucks balls. Pain or not, it simply doesn’t feel good to have something in your body that doesn’t belong. Crushing is uncomfortable, especially if it impedes breathing. Falling from high places doesn’t feel all that awesome either. Well, the actual falling, she doesn’t mind, but hitting the ground? Sucks.
If she is stabbed with something, the wound will not heal until the object is removed. Gunshots will heal themselves and the spent bullet will be
ejected from her skin, or in some circumstances, she may cough it up (and she has). In canon it is demonstrated that if she is impaled in a particular spot int he back of her head, she will remain dead until the object is removed. I tend to expand this to her whole head, because it makes sense to me, and also her heart. If, for example, she's stabbed through the heart, she would likely die so long as her heart remains blocked by the weapon/object.
As far as sleep goes? I'll be completely honest. I waffle on this. I like the narrative possibilities of Claire not really needing to sleep much due to her regen. But I also like the narrative possibilities of her sleeping regularly or even sleeping a little more than average. In my mind, it can really go any way, because her constantly regenerating cells could burn a lot of energy and she would still need to rest at some point just as she would still need to eat. She can regenerate, yes, but her body cannot create matter with which it can nourish itself. I absolutely contend that she has superhuman metabolism, though, and can pretty much eat whatever she wants with little to no affect to her physiology. I also headcanon that she feels no adverse affects from spicy foods, and could absolutely handle things like the One Chip Challenge without any difficulty at all. None of this is really explained in the canon, so I'm happy to adjust for whatever fits the plot at the time.
Claire is immune to the effects of alcohol, as her liver regenerates and processes it before she can get drunk, or even tipsy. As a result she can (and will, especially if there’s cash on the line) drink any normal human under the table. Claire could probably out-drink most people with enhanced metabolism and no regeneration. If she were to sit down with another regen and drink, well… they’d better have a lot of booze on hand. In addition, she is not effected by most drugs. There are ability-inhibiting drugs, but most average folks wouldn’t have access to such a thing. Prescription and recreational drugs alike are pretty useless to her. I strongly headcanon that she has experimented and tried almost everything she could get her hands on with little to no effect. (I base this claim on the fact that she’s tried to kill herself nearly other way so it’s pretty logical to assume she’d experiment with dangerous substances.)
She has, in canon, been knocked out with an anesthetic, but only when it was delivered in a constant supply so her body didn’t have a chance to fight it. For an adversary to take her down in this fashion, they would need to do the same. Slipping a mickey into her drink isn’t gonna cut it, nor will any other attempts at poisoning her. If it’s a particularly strong poison it may temporarily weaken her, but for the most part, she’s gonna down it like a champ and move on. The same concept goes for poisonous and venomous animals or insects. This she has experimented less with (headcanon) but it stands to reason that unless it’s something with extremely severe effects, or if it’s delivered in an extremely high dose, she won’t be affected by it much, if at all.
In conclusion: I don't want to be god-moddy and make her completely invulnerable. I’m willing to discuss ways to weaken her, I’m willing to discuss letting her be hurt, I’m willing to discuss what would happen to her if your character did x to her. I only ask that if your character is planning to do something drastic and it’s not immediately obvious in the context of the thread, that you please talk to me first. I really don't mind putting her through the ringer, but I like it to 1) make sense for her character and how I understand her power to work, and 2) be something we can agree on before it happens.