What would be your superpower?

[silent thunder]

My son and I hanging out at home one afternoon.  He's seven at the time.  And without context or prompt, as is rather routine for me, I ask him some random seeming question.

 

Me:  Hey!  If you could pick any superpower right now what would it be?  Invisibility?  Super Strength?  Flight?

Son:  (pause) 

Me: ...

Son:  (more pause, then)  I'd be able to make angry people feel love.

Me: ...  Wow...  That's amazing.  (sinks in more, hang my head in mock shame)

Son:  what?

Me:  Well... your power kind of puts mine to shame...

Son:  Why?  What's yours?

Me: ...

Son: ... ?

Me: ... *sigh*  i'd be able to shit other people's pants...

 

[silent thunder]

He did let me off the hook later when he said my power is not without its uses...

 

Consider a mugger attacking an old lady... Suddenly instead of grabbing her purse... bathroom time!

Then later down the road... after cultivating and honing my ability...

being able to trigger multiple targets at a distance. 

 

Goodbye actionable usefulness of IS or Taliban!

Or Hong Kong Riot Police!

 

And that one neighbor?  The one who disrespects my wife, our gardeners and treats his dog poorly? 

He's going to spend most of his life doing laundry and buying more pants... while feeling love ()

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by silent thunder

[Nungali]

Ahhh so thats it !

 

 

I could  not figure out (before I read this thread)  why you chose the name you did .

 

 

 

 

Now, all you have to do is design the appropriate 'super hero'  costume

 

 

 

 

Problem ?   Call 1800pooman .

[manitou]

LOL.  Nungali, you're one of a kind.

[liminal_luke]

My superpower is recognizing other people´s strengths, other people´s superpowers.  It´s not that impressive of an ability really but does come in handy on occasion.  Since everybody loves a superpower demonstration and nobody takes anything on faith, I´ll demonstrate.  Here goes in the order in which people posted in this thread...

 

Silent Thunder: Your superpower is that you´re an exceptional father.  (Not as fun as shitting other people´s pants but hey...)

 

Nungali: You combine masculinity with a poetic sensibility (a very rare superpower indeed) and have an astounding ability to come up with a graphic for every occasion.

 

Manitou: Your superpower is radical humility, the kind of humility that opens spiritual doors.

 

 

[Earl Grey]

The superpower I want is the ability to solve all the problems in the multiverse from poverty to illness to conflict without anyone getting hurt or anything getting sacrificed or lost as the solutions create balance and joy for all sentient beings. 

[thelerner]

My first super power would be to stop Earl Grey before he lobotomized or took away free will from the universe.

at some point I'd probably have to battle Silent Thunder (w/ my side kick Toilet Paper lad) inorder to clean up the town

 

My second would be ghost powers.  You can fly, but being intangible, wouldn't be shot down.  Invisibility likewise keeps your secret identity safe.  Being able to possess others at key moments could be life and world saving.  Course thats also screwing with peoples free will, but ehh. 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by thelerner

[Earl Grey]

32 minutes ago, thelerner said:

My first super power would be to stop Earl Grey before he lobotomized or took away free will from the universe.

(at some point I'd probably have to battle Silent Thunder too inorder to clean up the town)

 

You're thinking of Justice Lords (Justice League animated series) for lobotomies or Miracle Man and his totalitarian utopia that killed democracy and led to Thatcher and the rest of the jerks going through group therapy to recover from their loss of power. 

 

I'm thinking of Promethea, old chap. Promethea: highly recommended reading for people who like magic as Armageddon was used to bring in utopia (the entire series by esteemed author Alan Moore actually was also a metafictional working that was meant to affect our layer of reality too, by the by). 

 

32 minutes ago, thelerner said:

My second would be ghost powers.  You can fly, but being intangible, wouldn't be shot down.  Invisibility likewise keeps your secret identity safe.  Being able to possess others at key moments could be life and world saving.  Course thats also screwing with peoples free will, but ehh. 

 

I take it you enjoy making clay pots as well?

 

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Earl Grey

[MegaMind]

A friend and I were just having this conversation.

 

We agreed the ultimate superpower would be the ability to project your consciousness back in time.

 

Sort of like a "groundhog day" you were in control of.

 

 

[silent thunder]

One that seems on the verge of a superpower and is slowly enveloping me these last few years:

 

'no longer taking the universe personally'

[Nungali]

22 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

 

Nungali: You combine masculinity with a poetic sensibility (a very rare superpower indeed) and have an astounding ability to come up with a graphic for every occasion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

          This is the day which down the void abysm
          At the Earth-born's spell yawns for Heaven's despotism,
            And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep;
          Love, from its awful throne of patient power
          In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour
            Of dead endurance, from the slippery steep,
          And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs
          And folds over the world its healing wings.

          Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance ---
          These are the seals of that most firm assurance
             Which bars the pit over Destructions's strength;
          And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,
          Mother of many acts and hours, should free
            The serpent that would clasp her with his length,
          These are the spells by which to reassume
          An empire o'er the disentangled doom.

          To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
          To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; 
            To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
          To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
          From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
            Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
          This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
          Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
          This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[liminal_luke]

2 minutes ago, Nungali said:

 

 

          This is the day which down the void abysm
          At the Earth-born's spell yawns for Heaven's despotism,
            And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep;
          Love, from its awful throne of patient power
          In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour
            Of dead endurance, from the slippery steep,
          And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs
          And folds over the world its healing wings.

          Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance ---
          These are the seals of that most firm assurance
             Which bars the pit over Destructions's strength;
          And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,
          Mother of many acts and hours, should free
            The serpent that would clasp her with his length,
          These are the spells by which to reassume
          An empire o'er the disentangled doom.

          To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
          To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; 
            To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
          To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
          From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
            Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
          This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
          Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
          This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luke takes a little superpower bow.  Adoring fans marvel at his psychic powers reading comprehension and memory.  He really nailed this one.

[sean]

I've always been fascinated by something like chronokinesis, which can include abilities to pause, rewind, speed up/slow down and various other manipulations of time.

 

But I worry this could lead to my personal experience becoming so weird and incomprehensible to anyone, that the alienation would eventually drive me crazy.

 

 

Maybe I should just stick with flying. 🤔

 

Nah, boring, never mind, make me a vampire. Yeah, I choose immortal, undead creature of the night as my superpower. Please super size that with a side of super strength, ability to run hundreds of miles per hour, and transform into bats, cats, ravens and wolves at will. Who even loves the sun? 😎

 

 

Sean

 

[Taomeow]

17 minutes ago, sean said:

I've always been fascinated by something like chronokinesis, which can include abilities to pause, rewind, speed up/slow down and various other manipulations of time.

 

You aren't thinking that British movie, "About time?"  The main protagonist has some of these abilities.  It's sappy but nice.  

 

I have always been fascinated by time manipulations as well.  One superpower I would like to have would be to go far back in time -- tens or even hundreds of thousands of years -- and live a regular human life there.  I have this feeling that the garden of eden, the lost golden age every mythology on earth retains a memory of, was just that.  Of course I would get there to the beginning of that life, as a baby.  Sometimes a sly baby who remembers this-here life for shits and giggles.  Sometimes, as a baby who remembers in order to undertake, upon growing up, certain superheroic deeds that will prevent civilization from ever happening.  And sometimes, a baby who remembers nothing.  Just starting from the slate wiped clean, before all the epigenetic drifts.

 

Another superpower I would like to have, also involving time travel, concerns creation of live things.  I believe in co-creation, which must be similar in nature to the kind of creative work we know in art.  To wit, no work of art is ever created "from scratch," without all that went before, other artists who went before developing a particular vision, tools, media, methods -- everybody who takes the next step is co-creating with them whether they're aware of it or not.  I would like to get somewhere to the early stages of that process in nature.  Not the earliest, but early enough.  I would want to design the cat.  I mean, felines, not just the domestic cat but the saber-toothed tiger and then the regular one, and the snow leopard, my favorite, and all the rest of them.  

 

 

 

[Nungali]

1 hour ago, sean said:

I've always been fascinated by something like chronokinesis, which can include abilities to pause, rewind, speed up/slow down and various other manipulations of time.

 

But I worry this could lead to my personal experience becoming so weird and incomprehensible to anyone, that the alienation would eventually drive me crazy.

 

 

Maybe I should just stick with flying. 🤔

 

Nah, boring, never mind, make me a vampire. Yeah, I choose immortal, undead creature of the night as my superpower. Please super size that with a side of super strength, ability to run hundreds of miles per hour, and transform into bats, cats, ravens and wolves at will. Who even loves the sun? 😎

 

 

Sean

 

 

 

Okay , working on your super costume now    < thinks >     the undead ,   his super  acts will probably be  'for the people' so actually,  the red undead  ..... Hmmm ,  good sub-title. So, a 'red' uniform .    Errrmmm   , should look REALLY scary,   , able to transform ,  no sun (pasty white )  .....  the running speed thingo is tough ,   if you could settle for walking backwards instead  .... I think I have it .

 

< better hide it , its pretty horrible  > 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Nungali]

9 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

 

Luke takes a little superpower bow.  Adoring fans marvel at his psychic powers reading comprehension and memory.  He really nailed this one.

 

I cant design my own costume .  Since you are in the nailing zone, you will have to do it .

 

 

.....  waiting  .

[Nungali]

39 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

You aren't thinking that British movie, "About time?"  The main protagonist has some of these abilities.  It's sappy but nice.  

 

I have always been fascinated by time manipulations as well.  One superpower I would like to have would be to go far back in time -- tens or even hundreds of thousands of years -- and live a regular human life there.  I have this feeling that the garden of eden, the lost golden age every mythology on earth retains a memory of, was just that.  Of course I would get there to the beginning of that life, as a baby.  Sometimes a sly baby who remembers this-here life for shits and giggles.  Sometimes, as a baby who remembers in order to undertake, upon growing up, certain superheroic deeds that will prevent civilization from ever happening.  And sometimes, a baby who remembers nothing.  Just starting from the slate wiped clean, before all the epigenetic drifts.

 

Another superpower I would like to have, also involving time travel, concerns creation of live things.  I believe in co-creation, which must be similar in nature to the kind of creative work we know in art.  To wit, no work of art is ever created "from scratch," without all that went before, other artists who went before developing a particular vision, tools, media, methods -- everybody who takes the next step is co-creating with them whether they're aware of it or not.  I would like to get somewhere to the early stages of that process in nature.  Not the earliest, but early enough.  I would want to design the cat.  I mean, felines, not just the domestic cat but the saber-toothed tiger and then the regular one, and the snow leopard, my favorite, and all the rest of them.  

 

 

 

 

That costume is easy to make .

 

 

" The coastline of Norway , that and , of course, the snow leopard   are my best work  "

[Taomeow]

7 hours ago, Nungali said:

 

That costume is easy to make .

 

" The coastline of Norway , that and , of course, the snow leopard   are my best work  "

 

What a wannabe. He may have worked on the coastline of Norway for all I know, but the snow leopard was definitely my project.  Recently, a friend of mine who's an artist even illustrated one chapter of that endeavor: 

[silent thunder]

I may have to reconsider my superpower....

 

Tai Qi Snow Leopard living in the Fjords of Norway...

 

[Taomeow]

1 hour ago, silent thunder said:

I may have to reconsider my superpower....

 

Tai Qi Snow Leopard living in the Fjords of Norway...

 

 

By the way, whoever feels that their appreciation of the snow leopard superpowers may have been rekindled by this thread, and can afford to donate a few dollars to a worthy cause, please consider donating to the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation https://www.fondationensemble.org/en/news/ or the Snow Leopard Trust https://www.snowleopard.org/our-work/where-we-work/mongolia/   

There's only between 2,800 and 6,300 snow leopards left in the world.  

 

 

 

 

 

[silent thunder]

8 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

By the way, whoever feels that their appreciation of the snow leopard superpowers may have been rekindled by this thread, and can afford to donate a few dollars to a worthy cause, please consider donating to the Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation https://www.fondationensemble.org/en/news/ or the Snow Leopard Trust https://www.snowleopard.org/our-work/where-we-work/mongolia/   

There's only between 2,800 and 6,300 snow leopards left in the world. 

  done and thank you... *deep bow of respect*

superpowers being expressed plain as day... right here, now.

[rainbowvein]

On 10/21/2019 at 3:10 PM, silent thunder said:

Me:  Hey!  If you could pick any superpower right now what would it be?  Invisibility?  Super Strength?  Flight?

 

Softness

[Taomeow]

20 minutes ago, silent thunder said:

  done and thank you... *deep bow of respect*

superpowers being expressed plain as day... right here, now.

 

Thank you! 

[silent thunder]

15 minutes ago, rainbowvein said:

 

Softness

you my friend, have embodied that to me, from the first words of yours I ever read.

 

 

 

[Nungali]

1 hour ago, rainbowvein said:

 

Softness

 

Okay then  .....

 

 

 

 

Softman, the Neo Planet Mascot (Original) Custom Action Figure