LiveJournal Superhero

[unixronin]

OK, so there's some dumb reality show about who wants to be a superhero.  I've never seen it; we have no TV service.  I don't particularly wish to see it; I'm sentimentally attached to my remaining brain cells.

But . . . .

OK, so you wake up one morning and bam, you're a superhero.

(Slightly revised)

1. Who are you, in your public persona?  Geek Boy, Rubber Maid, Pedantic Man?  Do you keep your real identity secret?
2. What are your superpowers?
3. How did you become a superhero?
4. Do you wear a costume?  If so, what is it?
5. And now the toughest question of all:  Why the above choices?

Comments

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

1) I'm a fallen angel who is seeking redemption

2) Um, think "Kosh" and you're not far from it ... only, it actually is an angel instead of a vorlon. Instead of the glowy dragon shape (that we see when Kosh and Kosh fight), the true image would be a glowing ball of energy, I think. Not so much married to the true image needing to be a winged humanoid.

3) Awakening of inner potential/truth

4) No need. Mostly, think about how Kosh allows himself to be seen (though, I would have it be more native than projected, as projecting those images seemed to wear Kosh out). Then add that I can appear to be my mundane self, as well (instead of having to inhabit a station commander for a while, when I don't want to be out being a ball of energy or glowing luminous being).

5) That's a bit more complicated... but it was already on my mind as a "how would I do that in Hero/Champtions" question.

[johnkzin.livejournal.com]

For the revision:

Who am I in my public persona? I think I'll stick to my original answer for #1 ... public name for said hero is left to the media. Said hero would be more focused on getting things done than how he is or isn't publicized.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

1. I already live this one. I'm Super-Reenactor! My real identity is an open secret, though there are actually a few people who have mistaken me for actually being male, in my male roles.
2. Ability to understand the actual values and thought-patterns of the time period. Ability to create a totally period camp. Ability to cook a six-course meal for fifty, using only a fire and period utensils.
3. I started out reading waaay too many books of different time periods, and wanted to go there. But no one had invented time travel. So I joined the SCA, but decided it wasn't authentic enough for me. So I had to find a program and start remaking it to suit...
4. That depends on what event I'm at. I have a whole closet full...
5. Because I don't belong here!

BTW, "Who Wants to be a Superhero?" is amusing in its way. It isn't what you might expect. And I think the producers have had it rigged from the start, but hey, it's their show.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Since I suppose I probably should answer my own meme ....

1. If I established any "public identity" at all, it would be as the Magus.  The fact that I and the Magus were one and the same person would be a closely guarded secret, known only to my closest friends.


2. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistingushable from magic.  "We are dreamers, shapers, singers and makers.  We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner; holographic demons, and invocations of equations.  These are the tools we employ.  And we know ... many things."


3. A gift of knowledge and equipment from the future Technomages makes a sufficiently satisfactory explanation, facilitated using the Great Machine on Epsilon III.  Think of it as a retroactive bootstrapping.


4. In "working clothes", I would actually look rather like the technomage Galen.  It's as serviceable an appearance as any.  A light glamor will suggest the "right" facial features -- more importantly, features subtly different from my own, in ways that no two witnesses will ever fully agree on.


5. Radioactive spiders, gamma-ray-chamber accidents, and the like fail my bogometer test, as do superpowers miraculously conferred by random mutations.  Clarke's Law is always good, though.  I don't think I could ever pull off the steely-eyed, jut-jawed Man of Steel act.  But I can play the part of the archmage any day, appearing at the crucial moment to dispense some vital piece of knowledge, or to avert some catastrophe or halt some heinous crime by arcane and mysterious means.  And knowledge . . . there can never be too much knowledge.

[koyote.livejournal.com]

no tv service == good.


i have a hard time with any superhero idea right now except some super fast martial artsy dude who kills anyone who kills children.

but hey, I'm a bit focussed on that as a fundamental morality point of warriorship :)

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

We also have no TV, for a decade now. We did get to see part of an episode while at my Uncle's home (they have two TV's on constantly.) It is hilarious because everyone takes it so seriously. (Of course, there is serious money involved.)

My answers:

1 Why have a public persona?
2 Based loosely on the hero in "Coils", Saberhagen/Zelazny Telepathy with computers.
3 When was I not?
4 See the answer to number 1
5 Information, any information, available anytime, anywhere. "Knowledge is Good"