Daily Entertainment: Deus Ex Something Something

[lifethatisscratched]

One day until Batman: Arkham Knight comes out this is not a drill you guys.

Ahem. DEs. Right. Let's do this like Buddhists.

If your character has superpowers or superhuman abilities, how would they cope with suddenly losing them? Conversely, if your character doesn't have any, what superpowers or abilities would they choose to receive, and what would they use them for?

Comments

[lifethatisscratched]

Voodoo and Connor would go with invisibility. Because duh.

Mako's firebending is a pretty big part of his identity. Among other things, it's how he provides for himself and his brother. As such, if he lost it, he'd be in an awfully deep funk until such a time as he could dig himself out of it long enough to find a job that didn't require bending.

[dejah_thoris]

Strangely enough, I think Dejah would go with super strength. On Barsoom, bending metal with your bare hands would command a great deal of, if not respect, then fear.

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka, Asajj, and Quinlan would all feel as if they suddenly lost one of their senses. The world would be as if it lost its colors and sounds were muffled. Of the three, I think Quinlan would adapt quickest, but they would always miss their connection with the Force.

Rollo would chose invulnerability or maybe super strength, and would become an unholy terror on the battle field.

Luidaeg would be very freaked out and would become even more grumpy at the world. In interacting with people in canon, she'd still act as if she were the scariest thing in the city, but she woudl really be freaking out.

Ethan would count himself blessed.

Sam Wilson would, of course, take the power of flight and would keep doing what he does. He might go with empathy instead, though.

Selina would take phasing and become the cat who walks through walls. (Buh dump ching)

Hank is a tricky case. Is his intellect part of his powers? Since it is one of his mutations, I'd have to go with yes and say he would spend the rest of his life trying to get it back.

Izana would accept the ability to generate kabi, the material that is the only know substance that can kill a gauna. They would use it to protect Sidonia and end the gauna threat. Telepathy or some means to actually communicate with the gauna is tempting, but if they would want to be certain of protecting Sidonia since there would be no guarantee the gauna still wouldn't attack them even if they could communicate.

[daringyoungman]

no talking to birds, Sam?

[bjornwilde]

That is very tempting! BUt I feel like he'd get a kick out of flying on his own or being able to help people even more by knowing what they feel. Maybe the bird thing can get folded into the empathy? Hmmm

[innerbrat]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Yes. This will be relevant to two of my pups PRETTY SOON. Three, actually, if you ount the second half of the question.

Dick - ah, Dick would always go with flight.

[genarti]

Thor has been there and done that, and it's the plot of his first movie! (Although I think he did retain at least a little durability, given the amount of blunt-force trauma he more or less shakes off.) The answer is "with a lot of temper initially, but surprisingly well once he runs into the brick wall of new limits a few times and doesn't smash through it."

Enjolras doesn't have any, unless you count a certain narrative focus on artistic photogenic lighting. (Canonical, but I admit I run with the light-reflecting-off-his-hair jokes because it makes me laugh a lot. Anyway, if all that changed, he wouldn't really notice, except that he'd have to work slightly harder to draw people's attention when he wanted to, and he'd be bemused by how suddenly his book kept being in shadow. His friends would notice more.) Anyway, if he were offered superpowers, he'd actually resist strenuously unless everyone were getting them. In that case... man, I'd love to give him something fighting-relevant, but honestly I think he would choose the ability to go without sleep. And then he would read all night like a giant nerd even more than he already does.

...Or some kind of healing powers. He would take that, actually.

Cosette would love some kind of communication powers -- the ability to speak all languages, telepathy, empathy, something like that. (I'm not sure she'd actually love the latter options, because holy downsides, Batman, but she'd think she would.) Alternately, the ability to see things going on in places where she isn't physically present. She'd love the ability to stay in her home or garden and still see more of the world. And, um, more of what her father does when she's not there with him.

[harryhotspur]

Don't lie, Enjolras would be shattered if he lost his magical symbolic lighting powers.

[genarti]

Prouvaire would be shattered if Enjolras lost his magical symbolic lighting powers. Enjolras would just be vaguely existentially bewildered every time he had to use a candle or nightlight and it functioned with ordinary levels of inconvenience instead of ~*~symbolically illuminating the darkness (and also his cheekbones)~*~.

[harryhotspur]

"why has reading at night gotten so expensive jesus"

[genarti]

"I think I got a defective batch of candles. I didn't know that even happened but these just keep guttering and flickering and having inconvenient shadows. Weird!"

(Meanwhile most of his friends are convinced that he's horribly depressed because okay he acts fine but he's not glowing even a little, EVEN WHEN YOU MENTION FRANCE.)

[harryhotspur]

(this comment with that icon i am cracking up)

[genarti]

(It is my favorite Weird Singing Expression icon! In motion: intense focus, rousing chorus rising from the massed crowd in the streets like a Hugolian sea creature metaphor. In still photo: OMG HDU~~~ pissyface.

I. I might be easily amused at times.)

[harryhotspur]

(NOW I'M LAUGHING AT THE LIZARD so i really can't judge)

[genarti]

(I think the takeaway here is that we are both very serious people always.)

[harryhotspur]

(*thumbs up*)

(omg bunny tongue)

[genarti]

("Why do you have a paid account with lots of icons, Gen?"

"So I can express my thoughts with appropriate gravity and nuance.")

[harryhotspur]

(a+ interneting)

[vive_lavenir]

Prouvaire would totally be shattered. A living Romantic symbol ALL GONE! How could the universe do that?

...and then he'd comfort himself with the romance of Enjolras losing his lighting powers while still being a light-source in a deeper and more metaphorical sense. Probably Prouvaire would compare it to the part of many stories/sagas where the hero loses some outward mark of his hero status but remains super-virtuous and triumphs (*cough*) in the end.

[vive_lavenir]

Enjolras wanting healing powers is both appropriate and kind of heartbreaking when you think about it.

[inlovewithwords]

Late, but: I'd almost expect that Thor retained some durability. Odin wanted his son to learn a lesson, not die.

[ceitfianna]

Will has no super abilities but if he could, I think he'd go superspeed or invisibility though he was really honest, he'd want to turn into a fox sometimes.

Charles wouldn't do well without his telepathy, how much of his intelligence is from mutation is up for debate as well. It does sort of happen in Days of Future Past but its complicated and an interesting question for him, my reading is he would end up depressed and isolated. His telepathy and being a mutant define so much of how he interacts with the world around him.

Quentin's magical powers would mean he couldn't easily hide and would feel ill at ease and vulnerable.

William doesn't have any abilities but I think he'd choose something like strength or maybe being in multiple places at once.

Sameth would feel incredibly lost if he didn't have his connection to the Charter. He would lose a huge part of his identity and feel lost, I can imagine him isolating himself in the same way he did when he was feeling scared and worried in Lirael.

Moist would take the ability to change how he looks or superspeed, they'd be so useful, but he's sure there would be some catch. That's how magic and all work on the Disc.

Jane, hm, I think Jane would find telepathy interesting for a short time to know what people are thinking but she wouldn't want it for too long.

Demeter wouldn't be herself without her divine abilities. She uses them quietly but they are who she is.

Ivan wouldn't mind I think being able to be invisible, that would be very useful or invulnerable. Then he could just stand in front of Miles and keep him alive and everyone else would be happy.

Tumnus is another who would probably go with being invisible.

[2goodarms]

I...honestly have no idea what I'd pick for Curtis. My instinct is always to turn my favorites into pyrokinetics -- see also: the AU where Gaeta's a pyrokinetic and I made lots of terrible Hephaestus references -- but I'm not sure that fits. (Even if it'd be thematically appropriate with the whole frozen-world thing.)

Bolin would freak the hell out if he lost his bending. Olivia might be secretly relieved to lose her abilities, since they're such a huge marker of the trauma she's endured -- but if the choice was hers to make, she'd keep them. She's very pragmatic about what happened to her most days: "this sucked, but I have to make the best of it now."

[dejah_thoris]

Have you ever seen the show "Alphas?" Syfy's answer to the mutant craze, with some really amazing powers. Cameron (youtube link) had the power of hyperkinesis, the ability to perceive motion and trajectories at an incredibly advanced level. It didn't make him stronger or faster, but it did give him incredible athletic ability. As one of the commenters pointed out "krav maga + parkour + hyperkinesis = unstoppable".

I can totally see Curtis digging something like that.

[2goodarms]

...ooh. No, I haven't seen, but that sort of superpower does sound like it'd be a good fit. :D

[vive_lavenir]

Combeferre has no superpowers unless you count the ability to know a freakish amount about way too many subjects. He'd pick magical healing, definitely. He wouldn't even need to think. He would use it to fix the nineteenth century as much as possible--save people from dying in wars or from cholera or tuberculosis, save children who die of starvation after trying to eat mud, save children who have been shot by the police right in front of him...


Jehan Prouvaire also has no superpowers, and he'd go with time travel. The Middle Ages and the French Revolution would be his first stops. He would have specific agendas, of course: meeting certain artists and troubadors, saving certain people from the guillotine, sending certain other people there, getting in Napoleon's way before he could really get started...

[inlovewithwords]

A day late, but I wanted to do this anyway:

Eriond: Would go with the flow and live out a normal life. Because Eriond.

Henry: Whether he has powers or not is mildly unclear (let's not talk season four or having belief apparently having power or love or whatever). Right now, pre-everything,

Lois: Flight. (Millicanon: or getting to turn into these Cubefall forms she's had whenever she wants, because YESSSSSS.)

Tavi: Interesting question.

Barring other considerations, Tavi puts it pretty succinctly in book six's epilogue: "I've had everything and I've had nothing, and I've made my peace with both." He would definitely feel the loss--there are extra senses and connection with the land and he'd honestly miss it--but, well, he knows how to live like that--and how to be a frickin' hero despite what is, in his world, a critical handicap.

The one hesitation is dealing with Alera and its sack of superpowered crazy cats and cleaning up the mess left behind by the Vord War. Not having powers would make his job a lot harder, potentially impossible. ...But he's not so good at understanding 'impossible' so, uh, Very Hard.

(As for his not-normal bond with Kitai: if he lost it, it'd be like ripping out a part of his soul. No kthnxbai.)

[rudderless]

Clementine: She'd probably be some sort of spirit dispensing infinite love and peace to everyone. And she can turn water into wine.

Dixie:A loreli with a powerful singing voice.

Juliet: She'd be an Arrow-like figure, with 100 percent accurate deadly aim.

Pinkie Pie: Kind of falls into that space of being not quite superpowered but definitely, definitely abnormally-shaped. She doesn't notice when she bends the fourth wall, so she'd likely not notice her powers are gone, either.

Eponine: Invisibility. Perhaps she'd control the weather, too.