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I'm writing a story about a character who can manipulate the cells of any living organism - himself, others, plants, soil, etc. His power is psionic-based and stems from his brain.

In my story, I've had him use his power to edit his own body multiple times. I've had him stop his body from aging, heal otherwise fatal wounds and regenerate limbs, and even grow wings at one point. I was planning to have my character kill someone and then take the form of the person he killed by manipulating his cells to match the guy he killed.

But then I realized, if he changes his cells to change his body into someone else's body, wouldn't he lose his power? His power is connected to his cells, so changing them would nullify/erase his power. Right?

I've been running solutions in my head for a while now, and the best one I could come up with was that my character keeps a certain part of him the same, such as his brain or his heart, and using that to ground himself to his powers and his original form.

But I'm still not sure if it makes sense. Does it make sense?

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A wolf stays a wolf even when wearing a sheep skin.

The same applies to your character. It's not the exterior appearance that determines the power, but the inner essence. That is not affected by the transformation. As you state

His power is psionic-based and stems from his brain

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  • $\begingroup$ I was thinking basing his power in the spleen would be novel. But then when he changed up his brain he would forget he had the power even though his magic spleen was trying to tell him. Now I wonder if that happened to me! And Dutch: you should give an upvote since you answered. Also comb your hair and tuck in your shirt. $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Nov 9, 2021 at 19:57

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