details, decisions, superpowers

[marycatelli]

So there's this super-hero world -- not the same world as Through A Mirror, Darkly -- and there are people there who have powers like resistance to radiation. Some with more interesting ones like flight, some with just that.

How would you know that?

Exposing people to random hazards and seeing if they are harmed has its downsides. That possibly powered people would run away is a consideration that would quickly affect even those insane enough to not realize it would happen. And of course, there are scads of powers that might be hidden like that.

And they do not have a device to test you. It would be a hard one to make, even if they had time -- I'm not sure about the time, though the powers have been around long enough for things to stabilize a bit.

And no one has a power to figure out other powers. And the powers are distinctly random. . . .

All this and all the main characters have overt powers they are aware of -- all background details here.

Comments

[vakkotaur]

I can see the flight being discovered by wishful thinking, and radiation resistance being hinted at by failing to tan or get sunburn - but there would also be no great desire to push that to see how far along the spectrum it goes and if particle radiation did or did not have an effect.

[marycatelli]

Very true!

[nodrog]

The TV series Highlander touched on this, that suffering violent death was the mechanism for the Quickening, and if that never happens, O well; Grandpa dies at the nursing home never knowing what could have been.  (Or the reverse; in one story, a very bitter boy would like to have grown up a bit more before the aging process stopped.  Like Eli in Let the Right One In, he’s “been twelve for a very long time.”)  So, yah, people all over might have superpowers they never have occasion to discover.  So It Goes…

[Recall also D Adams’ idea that humans have the direct perception of how foreign someone is, how far away their origin - but as no human is ever born farther away than 8000 straight-line miles, we’ve never used or known of this. ]

[marycatelli]

In this origin, you would know that you had been subjected to the metaorigin, but many people who do never manifest their powers.

Re: “You’re a wizard, Harry”

[nodrog]

Recall also the Psi Corps from Babylon 5 - if you were born with psionic powers that’s where you go no matter who or what you were or wanted.  Resistance to this took various forms; none worked very well.  Learning that you’re a “Super” might really ruin your day!

Re: “You’re a wizard, Harry”

[marycatelli]

This would, however, require the cooperation of the corps, assuming they had any real degree of power.