What if you had a superpower?

xenylic

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It's funny, one of my books involves a kid who finds a time machine, and the other is about a person who physically cannot die/age beyond 25. In both cases, they are more trouble than they're worth, so I would have to choose my answer very, VERY carefully.

Superstrength/flight would be safe, I could see telekenisis, telepathy, and psychic powers of any sort backfiring over time.

I think I would prefer something more fitting in today's world though, like superhealing. Then I could change majors, become a doctor, and save practically anyone for some time. Maybe, I'd have to move from place to place if people started getting suspicious or something, but it would be pretty neat.
 

thelearnedfox

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Keen emotional insight is a rarely seen power, at least to my knowledge. The ability to empathize with anyone's given situation or have a specific insight to what someone's true intent or feeling is via body language or facial expression, regardless of spoken emotion. This would pair well with being extremely well-spoken and manipulative; coercion by empathy.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Keen emotional insight is a rarely seen power, at least to my knowledge. The ability to empathize with anyone's given situation or have a specific insight to what someone's true intent or feeling is via body language or facial expression, regardless of spoken emotion. This would pair well with being extremely well-spoken and manipulative; coercion by empathy.

I remember a short story that involved a man who was constantly doing good things for people in trouble. But he was also a cranky, foul-mouthed, unfriendly sort. Finally the MC asked him why he did all these good deeds and he explained that he was an empath, could feel their need, and the only way to scratch the itch was to remove the need. So he was essentially enslaved to anyone and everyone.

There's probably a way to gotcha just about any power, if you work at it.
 

Laer Carroll

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There's probably a way to gotcha just about any power, if you work at it.
Good point. Every engineer knows that there are no perfect solutions to any problem. There are always pluses and minuses.

So if you become able to fly (or almost any superpower) you have to hide the ability. People will be jealous. Some will want to pass a law or otherwise clip your wings, with both good arguments and bad ones.

Flying (or whatever) probably takes some energy, so you'd need to eat more. Flying means you have to watch out for telephone poles and wires. You also might run into bugs and birds low down, helicopters and airplanes higher. And on and on and on.

But for writers that's all to the good. It forces our flying (or whatever) beings to deal with problems, which is what stories are all about - reaching a goal or doing something despite obstacles.

So bring on the superpowers. Lots of stories await for us to create!
 

Sansophia

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I'd want the ability to heal. Lay hands on people and cure whatever ails them. Injury, amputated limbs, conginital heart defects, disease. Lay myhands on them and heal them completely.

I'd finally have a useful skill. Sure I can't save everyone, but in those cases where nothing else can save a person, I can come. And be well paid to boot. And travel. As long as I can heal myself too, there's no real downside, other than fame, which I consider a downside.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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I'd want the ability to heal. Lay hands on people and cure whatever ails them. Injury, amputated limbs, conginital heart defects, disease. Lay myhands on them and heal them completely.

I'd finally have a useful skill. Sure I can't save everyone, but in those cases where nothing else can save a person, I can come. And be well paid to boot. And travel. As long as I can heal myself too, there's no real downside, other than fame, which I consider a downside.

Fundamentalists proclaim that you are either healing in Jesus' name, or Satan's. You fail to admit the former, and now the fundamentalists are after you.

Someone files a lawsuit claiming you are practicing medicine without a license and gets a court order to stop you doing it.

Someone rich and morality-free decides that they'd like to keep you around as their personal healer. You refuse, and they send around large men to make the offer non-optional.

Wherever you go, there's a line-up literally miles long of people who want you to heal them NOW! Prepare to give up eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom.
 

Sansophia

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Fundamentalists proclaim that you are either healing in Jesus' name, or Satan's. You fail to admit the former, and now the fundamentalists are after you.

Someone files a lawsuit claiming you are practicing medicine without a license and gets a court order to stop you doing it.

Someone rich and morality-free decides that they'd like to keep you around as their personal healer. You refuse, and they send around large men to make the offer non-optional.

Wherever you go, there's a line-up literally miles long of people who want you to heal them NOW! Prepare to give up eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom.

I think you're overly cyncial about people. The lawsuit would be thrown out, and if some rich guy tried to kidnap me, I'd be rescued. I'm too valuable to give up. The most likely case is that I'd have a permanent contract with Walter Reed (that the 'request' of the DoD). Hell, they'd pay me well AND give me bodygaurds whenver they'd let me out of the country. But I'd be healing people all day, and there would be toughs to take care of the obnoxious and entitled people. With a talent like this, there needs to be a lot of triage. So I'm gonna be working LONG hours, but no one is gonna let me drop dead of exhaustion, much less forgo bathroom breaks. You don't kill the golden goose, you pamper it, and let it lay eggs all the days of it's life.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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I think you're overly cyncial about people. The lawsuit would be thrown out, and if some rich guy tried to kidnap me, I'd be rescued. I'm too valuable to give up. The most likely case is that I'd have a permanent contract with Walter Reed (that the 'request' of the DoD). Hell, they'd pay me well AND give me bodygaurds whenver they'd let me out of the country. But I'd be healing people all day, and there would be toughs to take care of the obnoxious and entitled people. With a talent like this, there needs to be a lot of triage. So I'm gonna be working LONG hours, but no one is gonna let me drop dead of exhaustion, much less forgo bathroom breaks. You don't kill the golden goose, you pamper it, and let it lay eggs all the days of it's life.

Your version would make for a much shorter, less interesting novel. :evil