So I've erupted. I look like, well, like a foxy lady, hence the title under my name.

I got a lot of different and weird powers. I can turn invisible as well as turn intangible, or as my husband prefers to refer to it as, "ethereal." However, the fact that what I'm wearing and holding doesn't come with me makes the former power useless and the latter power embarrassing.

Also, the fact that I look how I look is going to make life very difficult for me. Everyone's been very supportive, at the clinic, in my family, and on these boards, but nonetheless I'm told that some novas can pull all the quantum in their bodies 'back' and look normal. I'm very interested in this.

How do these things work, exactly? Can any nova learn these tricks? Does dormancy restore you to exactly how you were prior to eruption? (Because before my eruption I had some physical problems.) And finally, would anyone be willing to show me or teach me how to do these things?

Pretty sure anyone can learn dormancy, and it makes me look exactly as I did before.

I'd be willing to help.

I'm a newbie, but I could try to help you learn.

Yo Vix, talk to the Upies. They're pretty much guilt tippin' assholes with sticks up their asses but they can teach you what you wanna know.

I would think such a thing would be taught, but I think some also have a natural aptitude for it.

If this'll get you on the right path, here's what I do.

Think of it like shutting off. Like there's an impenetrable wall to your node. Takes me about moment to completely revert after the concentration. I've seen it takes practice, but I think I lucked out with a shallow learning curve.

Also, since your body was repaired (I would hope) after your eruption, I would think your dormed body would be like it was without the problem.

Haven't heard of this attunement thing though...

It's an ability to charge an object with a signature of your power. To you can teleport without leaving your clothes behind, or even take another person along for the ride. Most likely you've heard of it, just don't recognize the term.

I've got a basic grasp on it, I've been practicing with coins and tossing them through walls. Can't do much better than that at the moment.

Useful skill, Attuning. I like taking my guns with me when I go desolid or change my shape. It avoids a lot of hassles.

Hmm, the only use I could see of this is if I wanted someone to fly with me, without having to carry them... At least if I had the ability.

I'm sure (as exampled) that there are more uses.

Hmmm, you can do that? Bring someone along without carrying them if they're attuned?

Normally I don't understand why a motherfucker would WANT to de-nova. But this I can understand.

Good luck, Fuzzy.

Attunement is just a way of spreading the love into another person or object so that you don't teleport naked (in my case) or burn your own clothes off overy time you become a pillar of living flame or whatever. How does it work? No clue. How do I do it? I just decide what I want to come with me when I teleport. I have to be touching it, and my weight limit seems to be about 200 pounds or so. I wish I understood just what it is I do, so that I could teach others, but it's kind of zen-like, I guess.

Dorming, to me, is like relaxing. You ever let out your breath and just let your shoulders droop and your thoughts go blank and you kind of get a little rubbery all over, all the way down to your toes? Dorming is like that to me, only when I hit "totally relaxed," my abilities go away and the Utopia people tell me that the MRI scan shows that my node is dormant when I do it. I can go from nova to dormed in just a few seconds now, and back again too.

So, try relaxing, really, really relaxing. A lot. Both body and mind. Maybe a local yoga instructor could help you learn to relax. And keep at it. Apparently none of this is really intuitive until after we learn it, and then it's like that moment when you slap yourself in the forehead and say "that's it? So easy! I could have been doing this all along!"

Spartan, thanks for the tip, but a lot of their employees are busy bees and since it's more a matter of convenience for me, it'll take them time to get around to formally pairing me up with a tutor. (God, a tutor. Haven't had one of those in forever.)

Flicker, thanks for the offer. I'll take you up on it. Let me know when a good time for you is.

Thanks for the offer, Maverick. I'll keep you in mind if it doesn't work out.

Thanks to everyone else for what they said. I'll keep you all posted.

No problem darlin'. I don't know about dorming but attuning ain't all that hard. you could probably learn to do it all on your own.

Right, a not-very-hypothetical question on this topic:
Say you're missing, among other things, a chunk of brain-matter about the size of a tennis ball. Thanks to the joys of Nova-hood, this condition hasn't caused any ill effect.

Is there any reasonable way of determining what happens to you if you dorm? And no, learning to dorm to find out if it kills you or not isn't reasonable.

Sorry but I'm no Doc. Doesn't sound too pleasant though.

They inform me that if I should ever dorm, the shock of losing my wings might be comparable to the shock of losing a limb. So that option's out for me, I'm afraid.

That sounds really painful. I'm sorry.

Hey, in most cases I'd say it was a stupid fucking thing to do, this whole dormancy shit.

While I myself cannot claim to have had wings, I cannot imagine that a willful dormancy would be any worse than simply shapeshifting from a winged nova to a wingless nova. Still, I would not claim to be more knowledgeable about a nova's powers than the nova herself so I will cede the point.

Vixen, the others are accurate in stating that it is mostly a thing that is accomplished for one's self. However, so are things such as learning instruments and education. If you would like guidance in this endeavor, I would be glad to offer my assistance.

~Smith