Superhero Powers

[kerravonsen]

I've been re-reading a Marvel fanfic where Our Heroine gets superpowers based on her profession (and personality). And I've been pondering what kind of superpower I would get in that situation.

Being a computer programmer, one would think some sort of technomancy or technopathy would be the thing, but I don't think that fits me. It's not that I'm more interested in machines than people. It's that I want to create things that are useful to people; and also as part of that, I want to know, precisely, what the problem is that I'm solving.

With the latter, that gives me one idea for a superpower: compelling the people around me to say what they mean, accurately. Clarity of communication; clarity being the key word here. Possibly clarity of mind, also. Not a power which compels people to tell the truth, no, not exactly. But it prevents them from being vague and muddleheaded. Possibly an area effect that one can't turn off, which would be rather... interesting.
A possible secondary power might be the dispelling of illusions.
(And a silly one -- when I'm drunk/drugged, everyone around me starts speaking in haiku or other kind of poetry. Because poetry is concentrated meaning.)

On the "creating things which are useful" -- whether that be tech or craft -- I'm not sure what kind of superpower that would be affiliated with. Except maybe making things out of nothing? Or sculpting things with one's bare hands? Transmogrification?

What are your thoughts, people?
What kind of superpowers would you have?

Comments

[vera_j]

I like this. It is so interesting...but yes, I think I wish I had the healing superpower, healing everything by a touch and also by a thought... I would llike to have this gift VERY MUCH...

[kerravonsen]

It is a very useful gift, yes. Especially when one is hanging around superheroes.

[jaxomsride2]

Interesting superpower! I don't think I would like a job related superpower, my work would not translate too well to a super ability. However my hobbies.. Being able to weave fate, light or such like would appeal far more, or the talent for drawing figures out of books could be interesting too.

[kerravonsen]

Oh, those are interesting. By "drawing figures out of books" do you mean, like, drawing drawing (which doesn't seem like a superpower) or do you mean pulling characters out of books into real life? (Libramancy?)

[jaxomsride2]

I meant literally pulling them out of books.

[vilakins]

Hmm. I too am in computers, but I have a physics degree. I think I'd go for the ability to change the laws of physics - briefly and locally only, because we need them the way they are. After all, when watching TV I'm always nitpicking: how can people walk through walls but not sink through the floor, how do people teleport somewhere "empty" when there's always air or move really fast without air resistance (everyone forgets air), how can you catch a falling person without subjecting them to the same impact as them hitting the ground? So I'd play with those things: let enemies fall through floors, turn transparent things opaque and vice versa, turn off gravity (and perhaps the earth's rotational force too, depending on the effect wanted), make people or things really heavy or light (mass change)...

[kerravonsen]

Ooh, those would be really cool, if you could make them a very localised effect.

how can people walk through walls but not sink through the floor
It would work if they were phasing the material of the wall and not themselves, but it's always described as being the other way around, yeah.

teleport somewhere "empty" when there's always air
You swap places?

move really fast without air resistance
I remember one version of The Flash's origin story, the air resistance ripped his clothes to pieces...

how can you catch a falling person without subjecting them to the same impact as them hitting the ground
Match velocities? Except people never do, no.

[vilakins]

You swap places?
Yes! That's how I say the B7 teleport works, and used it in a story. So people could end up in a wall (or a pile of money as in said story), yes, but not intermingling molecules and causing a massive explosion.

Match velocities?
I am pleased that's what the dragons in the books I'm reading do when catching falling riders. Not quite so pleased about all the prophecies and Chosen Ones though...

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, prophecies and Chosen Ones are a pile of soggy cardboard. I'm not sure whether it is merely a cliche, or whether it descends into lazy writing. I mean, what does it actually add to the story? Forcing some untrained inexperienced sod to save the world for no good reason?

At least the Long Lost Heir trope gives a political reason why the untrained inexperienced sod has to fight the Bad Guy. And, IMHO, the best example of a Long Lost Heir was Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, and he was highly trained and very experienced as a leader.

[vilakins]

I was very disappointed when the Ps and COs turned up. Till then it had been a very involving story about a disabled girl and her dragon. Another objection to prophecies is that they remove free will and set people on a path that's paid out before them.

Aragorn is wonderful for all the reasons you give, and because he still has the free will. I don't usually go for lost heirs because they're all about blood and aristocracy, but Aragorn does buck that.

[kerravonsen]

I think it also helped with Aragorn that the Stewards of Gondor had all this "we are waiting for the return of the King" thing going.

[kerravonsen]

Thinking further, though, in Harry Potter, which is one of the most well-known versions of the Prophecy and Chosen One trope, it sort of works and sort of doesn't work, I think. Or, at least, I think the most interesting aspects of it are not the prophecy itself, but the actions that people make because they believe it to be true. That is, the existance of the prophecy pushes Voldemort down a path he might otherwise not have taken, and also, he was the one who chose who the prophecy applied to (because it could have been either Harry or Neville initially).

But most versions of Prophecy With Chosen One don't create such ripples due to their existance. They're just used as a shortcut and a cryptic riddle that needs to be solved.

[vilakins]

I didn't have problems with Harry Potter because the CO's actions weren't laid out before the COs to follow, or realise they'd followed in retrospect. It's a pity because the books are well written (with some apostrophe problems) and vivid with likeable characters, so I'm still reading. But it's getting very old fast.

[kerravonsen]

Good point about Harry; he was still free to do whatever, because the Prophecy didn't give instructions, it just said "this person will defeat the Dark Lord". And also, the people whose actions the Prophecy most influenced were Voldemort and Dumbledore, not Harry at all.

because the CO's actions weren't laid out before the COs to follow, or realise they'd followed in retrospect

Ouch. That is so utterly lazy writing, ugh. Is that what your current dragon books are doing?