Traumatic involuntary PPE absorbtion by Half-Living deja-vu

[Tor]

When I read page 70 where it talks about how if a human's killed by zombies and the HL's within range they absorb the PPE of those victims, the emphasis "whether he wants the life energy or not" got me thinking about how it could be really traumatic for the HLs if their allies die and they were forced to absorb the energy, if they would feel really wrong about it and stuff.

I also got a sense of deja-vu about this concept which I am trying to place. I'm not totally sure but a couple candidates came to mind which share some kind of common trope with this OCC...

*In the "Highlander" series when an Immortal is forced to kill a friend (or they die by accident) and their Quickening flows into them against their will.

*A scene in Rozen Maiden where (I won't name names since they are spoilers to those who haven't seen it) a certain doll dies and loses her Rosa Mystica and it flows to the friend in a tragic victory.

*There's also a novel series I haven't finished yet called "A Man of His Word" where magic words (which if you know them, empower you) have their power divided amongst those who know them, so knowing a couple characters in the series who share the knowledge of a word, I can see hypothetically/inevitably something tragic happening to one of them where the other, though empowered by their friend's demise, would feel very badly about it.

I am wondering if a situation like this comes to mind for people in any other media, where the energy from someone's death empowers their ally without either party's consent, just as a law of nature or inevitable reaction. I feel like it's happened in something else but can't put my finger on it.

Oh and getting back to game mechanics: when it says the HL absorb PPE from zombie kills, does that include people the HL kill themself? It says "still considered human" so I'm getting the impression their own kills would not actually result in the PPE absorption, but I'm not sure. I think I'm just focused on the name. The 'half something else' apparently may not mean zombie since it emphasizes "not dead, nor the walking dead"

[Omega6]

I am personally going with Half-Living absorbing P.P.E. from their kills in the campaign I am running. I am leaning towards the victims of Half-Living coming back as zombies as well. It makes them like a disease carrier that hasn't succumbed but is still contagious.

[Tor]

That is cool, although rereading the description it seems to explicitly say that they are still human... so while they absorb PPE from zombie kills and automatically become zombies when killed by any means, apparently their own kills don't heal them and their victims don't come back...

What you're describing sounds halfway between a Half-Living and a Mock Zombie... Quarter-Living maybe? Third-Living would roll off the tongue better.

[CarCrasher]

Ppe always has bursting effect when someone dies. I don't see why the HL wouldn't benefit from the death of people that die around them even if killed by them. After all is said and done ppe does have an area effect and anything that absorbs ppe will gain the benefit of that burst of energy. People that have died and their ppe was consumed by a creeper would come back as one. Even if it was HL cuz it was still consumed! That's what I go by at least.

[Tor]

PPE bursting effect aside, even normal zombies can't take your PPE if you're killed by something other than a zombie (like if your or your buddies blow your head off as they are about to crush you) so a half-living couldn't either. The question is whether HLs are zombie-ish enough that THEIR kills count. I'd probably say not as much as a normal zombie, maybe not enough to turn people into zombies, but possibly enough that they get a little bit of the PPE, not sure if any should be shared with other zombies though.

Death causality is a tricky issue in Palladium. With some zombies (Thinkers, Mockers) being able to shoot guns, do THOSE deaths turn people into zombies? All the examples in the book seem to be classic close-quarters deaths like hand-to-hand or simple weapons.

Aside from range there's also the temporal issue. Nearly dying from infection damage from a zombie bite is similar to being put into a coma from a zombie in potential half-living, which begs the question of whether being poisoned to death (or car bombed) by a Mock or Thinker (perhaps under directions from a Cultist) would also qualify as them doing the killing enough to give them your doubled PPE and zombify you.

Apoks/Inquisitors/Psi-(Slayer/Stalker)s from Wormood/Underseas/Psyscape/Rifts sourcebooks have similar dilemmas. So far as I'm aware, all 3 get counted attacks/kills even from long-range stuff like laser-rifle sniping their enemies (the first 2 doubling the damage of the weapon against a particular class of opponent, the 2nd pair absorbing PPE from kills) but where to draw the line for more indirect forms of killing (missiles, poisons, throwing TNT or molotovs, using C4, land mines, spike pit traps, etc) isn't really made explicit.

These are details we need to consider for the more advanced kinds of zombie able to emulate humanity's advanced military tactics of indirect damage.