[Novocrane]

When they forcefully implanted that datajack, they literally stole a small piece of her soul away that she can never get back.
even though the jack is long gone, she can still "feel" the hole it left behind in her aura.

Not really true that it's permanently gone and all she can do is pine for what's lost, is it? Gene therapy can restore essence, rebinding the astral and the physical in the process. So if the character is that desperate to regain that fraction of Essence lost, the means exist.

Revitalization is a breakthrough that repairs Essence loss derived from invasive implantation.

110,000¥, seven days in a clinic and  three weeks of waiting later ...

[RowanTheFox]

When they forcefully implanted that datajack, they literally stole a small piece of her soul away that she can never get back.
even though the jack is long gone, she can still "feel" the hole it left behind in her aura.

Not really true that it's permanently gone and all she can do is pine for what's lost, is it? Gene therapy can restore essence, rebinding the astral and the physical in the process. So if the character is that desperate to regain that fraction of Essence lost, the means exist.

Revitalization is a breakthrough that repairs Essence loss derived from invasive implantation.

110,000¥, seven days in a clinic and  three weeks of waiting later ...

I wonder how I've never head of that before? Money isn't a problem, but her moderate phobia of clinics might be (dice roll time!). I feel like it would be a lot like having someone forcefully slice off a finger. You can get a new finger, but you're still going to be fragged off at the person who stole the original away.

[RowanTheFox]

Ok, if I'm reading the Augmentation entry right, she'd have to spend time in a vat with simsense to interact with the outside world. Remind me because I'm an idiot and can't remember which book to look in.

Will simsense mess with someone who is a dry BTL addict? If so, the risk might be too great.

[Dwagonzhan]

Ok, if I'm reading the Augmentation entry right, she'd have to spend time in a vat with simsense to interact with the outside world. Remind me because I'm an idiot and can't remember which book to look in.

Will simsense mess with someone who is a dry BTL addict? If so, the risk might be too great.

BTLs are just simsense recordings with the standard limiters removed so...yeah. About that. 

[RowanTheFox]

Ok, if I'm reading the Augmentation entry right, she'd have to spend time in a vat with simsense to interact with the outside world. Remind me because I'm an idiot and can't remember which book to look in.

Will simsense mess with someone who is a dry BTL addict? If so, the risk might be too great.

BTLs are just simsense recordings with the standard limiters removed so...yeah. About that. 

Yea, that's what I thought, but I couldn't remember for sure. She'd also have to be conscious through the whole thing. Maybe she can communicate via sign language, or some kind of microphone?

Aztech really screwed her hard. She might be willing to leave her son in Quecksilber's care while she undergoes the procedure, and then endures the drying out process again. *shudders*

Or who knows, maybe her willpower (elf racial max) is strong enough to resist falling of the wagon. I think that'll have to be another dice roll.

[Novocrane]

Do they actually say that somewhere? The only example I've read was from 4e, where the patient was unconscious the whole time. Being altered on a genetic level isn't something you necessarily want to be conscious for.

[RowanTheFox]

Do they actually say that somewhere? The only example I've read was from 4e, where the patient was unconscious the whole time. Being altered on a genetic level isn't something you necessarily want to be conscious for.

My character can't be sedated by normal means. Which is why Aztech implanted the datajack and fed her a constant stream of BTLs.

[DeathofVirtue]

  It sounds a lot like the simsense is an optional feature thats just there to allow you to interact, if thats the case you could probably veto it, provided her willpower is high enough to resist what would basically be a week in a sensory deprevation tank.  Maybe use the time to contact wolf and have that week as a sort of astral quest where you rebond with that piece of lost essence so it can be recovered.

[Novocrane]

My character can't be sedated by normal means.

Less lethal / stun damage has no effect?

A few days later, she was recovered enough to watch the condensed video record of her transformation process. It held a horrific fascination for her; she must have watched it twenty times already that day. As the genes that determined her physical traits had been realigned, she had passed through some monstrous intermediate stages. She watched as her skull grew and shrank on the screen, shuddering involuntarily at the sight. She was glad that she hadn’t been conscious.

[RowanTheFox]

My character can't be sedated by normal means.

Less lethal / stun damage has no effect?

A few days later, she was recovered enough to watch the condensed video record of her transformation process. It held a horrific fascination for her; she must have watched it twenty times already that day. As the genes that determined her physical traits had been realigned, she had passed through some monstrous intermediate stages. She watched as her skull grew and shrank on the screen, shuddering involuntarily at the sight. She was glad that she hadn’t been conscious.

A hearty thwack upside the head will still knock her out, she's just very drug resistant. Which is how she managed to escape two months of constant BTLs with a severe addiction instead of burnout. While that definitely has some advantages, it also has some pretty gnarly disadvantages. The most obvious being that it makes receiving any sort of painful medical treatment like repairing an essence hole, extremely difficult. A resist pain spell would help, but the caster would have to actually touch her. That's problematic if she's in a vat.

[MijRai]

Keep in mind the revitalization therapy may return your Essence to maximum, but it doesn't actually restore your lost Magic maximum or lost Magic attribute.  You'll still have a gap in there, just a bit smaller from a character perspective (larger from the mechanical side). 

[RowanTheFox]

Keep in mind the revitalization therapy may return your Essence to maximum, but it doesn't actually restore your lost Magic maximum or lost Magic attribute.  You'll still have a gap in there, just a bit smaller from a character perspective (larger from the mechanical side).

She can initiate and gain it back. Getting through the procedure in the first place without going into shock from the pain is the tricky part. Either she suffers the agony unassisted, or she uses the simsense and risks having to dry out from a severe BTL addiction all over again. That, or she just lives with the hole.

Talk about a rock and a fragging hard place.

[Novocrane]

Drugs are one method, Simsense another (induced non-REM sleep is yet unexplored, but likely effective and not or less addictive), with blunt force or electricity a third ... but the angle of each is that she needs to be kept under. With genetic realignment, why wouldn't it be that she needs to be kept awake?

[DeathofVirtue]

Why would you need somone to touch you for a resist pain spell?  If memory serves magic in the shadows stated that any spell could be made ranged by changing it's drain, that may be superceded by later editions (I'm a 3e guy).

  Medication is obviously not ideal...

  What about hypnotherapy?  I imagine it's moved on a lot since the awakening.  Obviously visual methods might struggle but if your suspended in liquid in a vat audio hypnosis might be just the ticket (Sound is a pressure wave that travels better through mediums like water than it does through air after all) .

  The hibernate spell (Sr3 Core) could also work.  You have options.

[RowanTheFox]

Why would you need somone to touch you for a resist pain spell?  If memory serves magic in the shadows stated that any spell could be made ranged by changing it's drain, that may be superceded by later editions (I'm a 3e guy).

  Medication is obviously not ideal...

  What about hypnotherapy?  I imagine it's moved on a lot since the awakening.  Obviously visual methods might struggle but if your suspended in liquid in a vat audio hypnosis might be just the ticket (Sound is a pressure wave that travels better through mediums like water than it does through air after all) .

  The hibernate spell (Sr3 Core) could also work.  You have options.

I'm not finding anything about changing the range of a spell in 5th ed, but the Hibernate spell would work (found it in Stolen Souls). It's also touch range, but it lasts 4 hours per net hit. Since she'd be a willing target and wouldn't resist the spell, a skilled magician could put her out for quite some time, then just cast it again right when the spell ends.