@chronal-anomaly asked:
When Jesse was relearning how to work with his prosthetic arm, did he have any sensory difficulties? Did he ever struggle with gripping things too delicately and having them slip from his grasp, or accidentally denting or cracking something from holding it too tightly? Did he ever lack the temperature sensory input and accidentally hand his flesh hand something scalding or freezing without realizing it was like that? 👀
thank you for feeding me spacy, as always.
i've talked about jesse's arm before, but i've been meaning to elaborate on that hc post so i might as well do that here — answering your questions along the way, probably focusing more on how he handles the thing as opposed to how it works.
i hc that jesse lost his arm during his blackwatch days. we see that he clearly still has his flesh arm in, not only his blackwatch skin, but also the UPRISING comic — which takes place in london, towards the end of his overwatch career. this would probably lead most to believe it was an incident that happened during his vigilante years — i, however, beg to differ.
losing an arm is HARD. and replacing it with a prosthetic isn't cheap. i personally don't believe jesse would have the resources or support needed for either of those things outside of overwatch. i believe the amputation took place during his tussle in london ( on his little " vacation ", during blackwatch's suspension ), further decommissioning blackwatch as a whole.
now, the reason i'm telling you this, is because i need you to understand that this was what's called a TRAUMATIC AMPUTATION, meaning the arm wasn't surgically removed in a controlled environment. because of this, there was pretty significant damage to certain things like his nervous system, the pending port rejection not helping his case. this would make certain things like controlling the prosthetic and reading the incoming sensory input difficult at times.
in case you don't feel like reading that other hc post: the prosthetic jesse receives from overwatch DOES allow for sensory input, meaning he can register things like, temperature and pressure. and it's pretty good at doing so. HOWEVER, because of the damage caused by the amputation and infections following surgery, the accuracy and reliability varies, typically triggered by things like stress and temperature. but overall, on a good day, he's retained somewhere around 90% of his normal movement abilities and input registration. the most noticeable for him being a slight numbness in his thumb, which gets incredibly worse in the cold, sometimes making it difficult for him to grip things.
he's right handed, so it's not too often he'll use the prosthetic for primary movements, but he's dropped a glass or two over the years because of it. he's also done things like pulled open doors and drawers with incredible force, unable to tell how much power is being used. having more power and force available to him is another thing he had to get used to. in a quick knee-jerk response, it may be difficult for him to judge how much force he's putting into his grip or throw if his focus is not on the arm itself.
but, for the most part, he is typically aware of his abilities.
he's used his unmatched grip strength to crush things like phones and other electronic devices. and, with the added bonus of a prosthetic elbow and bicep, he's definitely thrown overly hefty punches and won quite a few arm wrestling matches.
he also uses his prosthetic to hold his cigars and ash his cigarettes, purposefully to avoid burns and tar left behind by the smoke.
now, because he can still register temperature, it's not often he'll do things like, use the prosthetic to grab a hot plate out of the microwave. it was built like this to not only help AVOID situations like forgetting that his other hand is not metal, but also to help aid in PROTECTING it. the thing's not indestructible, and they didn't want him treating it as such. while it's not necessarily fragile, it still has it's limits, like any machine. but, in more pressing situations, he has used it's higher melting point and stress resistance to his advantage.
but, speaking of damage: because of the way the arm is docked, it's typically all or nothing when it comes to both input and output. if he's not getting any sensory response, his arm is also going to be either limp or locked up, unable to control it ( which one depends on how the arm was disabled — it will go limp when properly disconnected from the base, but it will seize up if it's damaged beyond use while connected ). so he hasn't had the exact scenario occur that you stated above, in passing something hot or cold between hands.
BUT, i will say because of this, there was one time a short in a wire caused jesse to be latched onto the handle of the communal fridge for an hour before someone realized he was missing.
