Yourself in Gotham, or wherever

[Cognisant]

The Dark Knight was on tv this evening, it's fun to see such personalities battling it out over what is essentially a philosophical debate, as if it would ever happen that way, but still, if the universe was suddenly more concerned with tvtropes than the laws of physics what would you be?

Reply first then read mine.

Spoiler

Using said movie as something to compare myself to, I wouldn't have let Lucius Fox destroy the city wide bat-vision supercomputer, I mean I don't disagree that it could be horribly abused by some hypothetical dictatorship, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, indeed I would consider it my responsibility to protect the technology and ensure that it is used albeit responsibly. Although being the existentialist sort the word "responsibly" may not mean the same to me as it does to everyone else, as far as I'm concerned people come and go but science marches on, that's my agenda, I could rationalize it as like the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him how to fish, heroics may save a few innocents today but a new vaccine would save lives forevermore.

But that's just bullshit, I could just as easily sell myself as a power mad weapons developer if I wanted to hang out in a darker crowd, and my actions would be equally inscrutable, I'd steal technology from everyone, and distribute technology to everyone (at least insofar as I'm not at a disadvantage), be saving the city one day then attacking it the next, my constantly changing immediate goals would make me seem insane, when in actual fact I'm very lucid and my only true goal is to act as a catalyst.

My motivation would be akin to that of a wizard who studies magic simply for the joy of better understanding it, except I've come to realize that through personal study I can only go so far so fast, so instead I stoke the engine of society's technological progression and maintain my position on the very edge of the horizon by reaping and combining the very best of the best before it leaves the laboratory, taking full advantage of my privileged observational position to leapfrog past mil-spec to press up against the utmost insurmountable theoretical boundaries.

Which is not to say I wouldn't do any developing myself, stealing and combining half finished prototypes takes a lot of technical skill and would mean I'd have to do a lot of my own testing in the field, which would be my key weakness, my overpowered equipment would fail constantly and more often than not failure would involve it being irreparably damaged. So I'd enter battles decisively, achieve roughly half of what I set out to do, but my staying power would only last as long as I've got gadgets and logistical support available to me.

Overall I'm far better off as a supporting character, the distance from the frontline would afford me time to fix/scavenge/cannibalise technology and by acting through someone else I'd have a much greater escape buffer, then again finding people willing to work with me may become a challenge. As much as an asset my support could be I have absolutely no loyalty, heck I'll often be playing both sides like someone playing a game of chess against themselves, more concerned about the quality of the game than who wins, so the only people who would wittingly work with me would be one's planning to use and dispose of me and those forced to tolerate me by unfavourable circumstances.

My costume would be irregular, a dark grey form fitting body suit with minimal armour plating, designed primarily for things to attach to and to protect me when they invariably fail, so I'm burn resistant, freeze resistant, electrically insulated, more durable than the average human being but not much so, and then over that could be anything from an exosuit, regular clothing, a long jacket or lab coat, an assortment of mechanical appendages, novelty costumes (like a mascot suit) big frilly dresses, culture specific attire (like body paint, bone necklaces, loincloths, and so forth on top of my high tech bodysuit if I'm in a tropical jungle setting) anything really that I feel is contextually appropriate.

It adds to my aura of disturbingly lucid insanity.

 

[Cognisant]

Oops sorry thought I should add, superpowers are allowed and you can choose to have minions, be wealthy, an alien, etc, nothing's off limits, however preferably (so this doesn't turn into a reinvent Superman competition) your out of the ordinary characteristics are somehow tied in to the nature of your character, if not an essential part of it, and be sure to detail your weakness, case in point Superman's heritage is both his gift and his curse which ties in with the fact that he's not of this world, were I the writer of his story I'd say his core motivation is finding a sense of belonging that doesn't involving him having to reject who/what he is, in essence he is Superman the hero because it justifies him pretending to be Clark Kent the man.

It's how he atones both to himself and everyone he knows for living a lie.

 

[Jennywocky]

Wow, Coggy.... you have a lot of time on your hands.

I really have trouble imagining all that detail regarding me as a superhero. I am much more simple in my tastes -- use my abilities to help people in the momentary problems. I don't want to pigeonhole myself. Maybe one day I'll save the planet, steal a nuclear bomb, sink a battleship, hunt down terrorists. Another day I might help people avoid a traffic accident just because I happened to be there. Or fly someone to the hospital who is having a heart attack. Etc.

What is funny is that, despite my more lore/intellectual bent, I tend to picture myself more like Power Girl, Supergirl, or Fairchild (from Gen13). IOW, despite all my cerebral tendencies, I tend to fixate on people who are strong, durable, fast, and (possibly) can fly. Who would have thought?

And part of having such powers would be to please myself as well; there is something to be said about overcoming natural obstacles that many could not, or just flying about to see everything in context and enjoy oneself. I would even fly to another solar system if I could fly fast enoug and didn't have to breathe; it would be amazing to see other places and be the first to go there.

I don't really have anything to prove by any of it. I'd feel a bit of a burden over not being there for everyone, it's too much for one girl to handle.... so there would be people I might have been able to save but just didn't even know about. But that is life, and it happens daily. Maybe on my worst days, I'd do it to affirm to myself I'm a good person and not selfish, but that's about all I can imagine at this stage of my life; I think I was more driven and neurotic earlier in my life and had more to justify.


RE: Superman's a strange figure. Instead of putting on a costume to go fight crime, he puts on a costume to be normal.

 

[Cognisant]

That was perfect

So you're an alien that for whatever reason ended up stranded here, you long to go home but even with powers that I can only assume are the result of post singularity alien technology you're like a castaway on an island, you can swim but not to the extent of crossing oceans, you don't have to breathe if you don't want to but you don't have the endurance for a several hundred thousand years crossing the interstellar void (and that's just to get to a neighboring system) nor the technical knowledge to build yourself an FTL capable craft.

I think you and I would get along, though I'd be a bad influence and you'd probably learn not to trust me, not least because I'd probably want to capture and dissect you

C'mon tell me more, and what would be your costume?
Or would you just be an alien in human clothes?

 

[nanook]

instead of thinking something up (asking what would be advantageous) i try to let my actual dreams be the inspiration ....

so there is flying and ... moving or influencing matter with my mind, wich combined allows for stunt driving a car i'm sitting in as if it were a machbox car. it's like crashing hard but never being hurt, like a cat always lands on it's legs. more like having a guardian angel, than exactly controlling the own superpowers. makes for lot of slapstick humor. perhaps like the invincibility of hulk or such, who get's kicked through walls. being a center of gravity around which physical laws have to bend. but i could be shot in the back, if i didn't see it coming.

i probably couldn't resist the temptation to make a random police car or two crash into a wall or so. just for fun.

also i have mental access to an internet of psychic information.

and i have a relationship with others who have access to this internet, most of them are aliens from another dimension. sometimes they help me out.

and i have a "cryptonite", which is of psychological nature. others could succeed in talking me out of my psychic confidence, my sense of getting lucky, of the force being on my side. then my powers will fail me temporarily and i become vulnerable. so i have to avoid dialogues. hit and run.

 

[Jennywocky]

Not sure all of that scenario was what I was thinking (my thoughts were vague), but playing along...

So you're an alien that for whatever reason ended up stranded here, you long to go home

More like an undefined longing to figure out what "home" actually is... it might be another planet, it might be someplace special here, or maybe I'd never feel at home anywhere, but I still try to preserve the hope that there is a place for me somewhere in the universe where I fit and feel wanted.... Maybe that contributes to my desire to do good, a little bit... that by helping people, I will find a place for myself that I do not currently feel.

but even with powers that I can only assume are the result of post singularity alien technology you're like a castaway on an island, you can swim but not to the extent of crossing oceans, you don't have to breathe if you don't want to but you don't have the endurance for a several hundred thousand years crossing the interstellar void (and that's just to get to a neighboring system) nor the technical knowledge to build yourself an FTL capable craft.

it depends how fast I can go. I've already gone out exploring, zipping to Jupiter and back to gauge my limits, but I'm not sure how far I can go yet before coming up for air, and I don't want to be stranded out there!

I think you and I would get along, though I'd be a bad influence and you'd probably learn not to trust me, not least because I'd probably want to capture and dissect you

Well, my fear of you would only be based on my perception of your competence. I.e., if I decide you'll never pull it off, then I can view you as an oddity and interact with you fairly normal ("ha ha, yeah, he's an interesting guy, he likes to pull the legs off spiders and the limbs from frogs just to see what makes them tick, what a goof!") And I might even allow you some degree of testing on my physiology, if only to lessen your desire and not have you build your desire of understanding to a fevered pitch.

C'mon tell me more, and what would be your costume?

Not sure. I always hated costumes. I always thought it would be cool just to wear street clothes.

But I might be inclined to have a costume ready, just in case. In some ways, they are practical, since they're designed to resist dirt and avoid tearing, as well as to protect my identity... and if well-designed, they can breathe like Egyptian cotton.

If I feel gutsy, I might even try a cape.

I still haven't decided whether I want a superhero boyfriend or not -- someone who can keep pace with me and we can challenge each other and be teammates -- or whether I just want to be able to go home and hang with my goofy hubby eating fattening foods in front of the TV and watching him paint landscapes a la Fargo. Do I want a normal life and an escape from superhero work, or do I want to make superheroing my life?

 

[Cognisant]

Oh yes, no, I mean... I'm just brainstorming, this is your character so don't let me push you in any direction you don't want to go.
I just liked the idea and you seem to have gone with the spirit of it anyway.

I still haven't decided whether I want a superhero boyfriend or not -- someone who can keep pace with me and we can challenge each other and be teammates -- or whether I just want to be able to go home and hang with my goofy hubby eating fattening foods in front of the TV and watching him paint landscapes a la Fargo. Do I want a normal life and an escape from superhero work, or do I want to make superheroing my life?

Why not both?

See? Bad influence.

Well, my fear of you would only be based on my perception of your competence. I.e., if I decide you'll never pull it off, then I can view you as an oddity and interact with you fairly normal ("ha ha, yeah, he's an interesting guy, he likes to pull the legs off spiders and the limbs from frogs just to see what makes them tick, what a goof!") And I might even allow you some degree of testing on my physiology, if only to lessen your desire and not have you build your desire of understanding to a fevered pitch.

That's fun, it's a classic problem, you never know if you're being trusting or naive until it's to late.

so there is flying and ... moving or influencing matter with my mind, wich combined allows for stunt driving a car i'm sitting in as if it were a machbox car. it's like crashing hard but never being hurt, like a cat always lands on it's legs. more like having a guardian angel, than exactly controlling the own superpowers. makes for lot of slapstick humor. perhaps like the invincibility of hulk or such, who get's kicked through walls. being a center of gravity around which physical laws have to bend. but i could be shot in the back, if i didn't see it coming.

So how would you use/do this, I don't understand, give me a specific example or two.

also i have mental access to an internet of psychic information.

and i have a relationship with others who have access to this internet, most of them are aliens from another dimension. sometimes they help me out.

Hehe, are you aware that other people don't have voices in their heads?
I think it would be fun if at was something you took for granted.

and i have a "cryptonite", which is of psychological nature. others could succeed in talking me out of my psychic confidence, my sense of getting lucky, of the force being on my side. then my powers will fail me temporarily and i become vulnerable. so i have to avoid dialogues. hit and run.

So it's all psychic/confidence based?
Maybe your "internet" is the collective unconscious so you read people's minds but not in a privacy threatening manner (except maybe with whichever other psychics you can telepathically speak to) and this explains how you can weave through inner city traffic so easily, you have casual access to everyone's locational awareness so for you knowing where the gaps are comes as naturally as breathing.

But it would be terrifying to ride with you

 

[Duxwing]

My pseudonym would be Form, and my trait would be that if asked a question, I would be compelled answer it; however, if the question is answerable then I would answer it instantly. Importantly, though, unanswerable questions would leave locked in place for eternity until asked another, and I would be eternally depressed by the Absurd. To cope with this depression, I would spend my life eternally searching for the Platonic universalist utopia "Avantis".

My costume would be a simple white shirt with two glowing azure loops starting at the tops of my shoulders and traveling along the front and rear edges of my rib cage and abdomen until the top edges of my hips. My pants (full length) would also be white with glowing azure hems and single one inch thick line proceeding from the outside edge of each knee to the hem.

In a team of superheroes, I would hang back at the base and answer any questions that my team had.

-Duxwing

 

[Jennywocky]

Oh yes, no, I mean... I'm just brainstorming, this is your character so don't let me push you in any direction you don't want to go.

I'm still thinking, but even though I did not particularly identify with the "alien" thing, it triggered the realization that I personally do not feel as if I am "at home" anywhere in this world as part of my personality, so then I tried to make that part of my superhero back story.

Spoiler

Which I think is what you wanted! I mean, Batman of the Nolan movies is essentially an orphan who is trying all on his own to make sense of the world and also "find his life"... and eventually realizes what he wants and then releases himself to move on. There's other things too. But basically we're just translating psychology into a superhero origin.

So all good.

brb

 

[Cognisant]

@nanook
So what's your motivation, what is it that you do?
Are you the ultimate get away driver or do you use your abilities to help people, are you a hoon, a hero, or something else?

@Duxwing
So I'm guessing you effectively know everything, but the knowledge can only be accessed by someone else asking you a question, and maybe you can't explain that (like in Howl's moving castle how Sophie couldn't explain her curse, it's a part of the curse) so you're always looking for people you can goad into asking the right questions?

 

[nanook]

i haven't thought about what the physical powers are good for, other than blowing up stuff in action scenes. reacting, defending. an example would be the scene in 'looper'. or tetsuo in AKIRA.

also there is no talk with the aliens. there are no soundwaves in the other dimensions. there is transfer of information, this includes work with building blocks or operators of how things work, kind of like dna engineering, but experienced from another perspective: the meaning is known directly, the form is seen as light, but the manipulation is done to the meaning, the form follows automatically. they can influence what will manifest in our dimension, because reality unfolds through such operators. it's a fuzzy unpredictable work though. like planting stuff. it will probably grow, but how.... the complexity can't be overseen. it's a manipulation of reality, which is alive in a sense, always has a life on it's own. it's basically a higher level of reflexion and communication. it's itself integrated into causality.

i'm just myself, not very ambitious, not having big plans. i think of myself as a mutant, like in 'heroes'. one of many to come. just a clueless teenager. my character is mostly 'chaotic neutral', i can be the "highway to heaven" guy in mundane issues, or i could try to get into (before, causally speaking) the head of a weapon dealer or some tyrant or the like, try to prevent a war by fixing his character/modulating his intention. the access to the internet of psychic information gives me a clue on what goes on and what could be done about it. but unlike the aliens, i hardly know how this works. my ability is almost limited to having superficial insight. i could react to it mostly by worldly human means.

by the way, everyone has voices in their heads and plenty of them post here.

 

[Jennywocky]

As a sidepoint, my first major hero in City of Heroes was a Inv/SS tank named Fabulene.

I will miss her, they're taking the game off-line forever in a week.

Why not both?

HA, now it is obvious -- you want to be my BF, don't you???

But it would be spectacular, you know, with me having superhuman strength and stamina and not needing to come up for air for hours.

bwa ha ha.

See? Bad influence.

That is SOOOOOO the truth! I mean, just look at the things you make me post!

That's fun, it's a classic problem, you never know if you're being trusting or naive until it's to late.

I know. Crap. That's what happened to Black Orchid (the first one). And how Sylar pulled off so many killings. And Syndrome.

Trust can be a dangerous thing.

I shall need a fail safe!

i haven't thought about what the physical powers are good for, other than blowing up stuff in action scenes. reacting, defending. an example would be the scene in 'looper'. or tetsuo in AKIRA.

Oh, Tetsuo rocked.

 

[Cognisant]

HA, now it is obvious -- you want to be my BF, don't you???

To be honest I only want you for your body.

Spoiler

But it would be spectacular, you know, with me having superhuman strength and stamina and not needing to come up for air for hours.

*spurts coffee*

 

[Jennywocky]

To be honest I only want you for your body.

I suppose it's good to be desired....
But you just want to get into my genes!

*spurts coffee*

Damn. What a waste of good coffee.

(Wait, that WAS good coffee, wasn't it?)

 

[Cognisant]

Sadly no, decaf, if it was good coffee I would have swallowed.

 

[Jennywocky]

I didn't even decaf was considered to be real coffee. *cough, eeeeeee....*

 

[Felan]

For me I would like to be able to manipulate time/space and a particular sort of immortality. I would still age and the body can be hurt and killed, but after the body dies or I abandon it I would be able to form a new body. The age of the new body would be whatever I wanted it to be, from infant to elder. The genetics while not changable on the fly could vary as I get a stable of templates. Over time I would tinker with my own dna to acheive a number of optimized (to my taste) bodies. Being able to manipulate time/space means I could go move around in time and tweak things (causing those changes to be a seperate branch of reality) to see what would happen. I would also be able to join two distant points together so i can "teleport" which having to actually travel there.

I would actually try to use my abilities to experiment on humanity. What I would be viewed as: villian, guide, hero, anti-hero, or what not; would depend on the particulars of the current experiment. One experiment I could the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs to never happen and explore the long term consequences of that. I wouldn't be bloodthirsty (at least I can't imagine being that way) but I can definitely see being all wildly varied kinds of draconian.

 

[Proletar]

Wow, Coggy.... you have a lot of time on your hands.

Hahaha. This is me laughing. Cog is an ENTP. He came up with this stuff in twelve seconds in an escalator.

 

[Jennywocky]

Hahaha. This is me laughing. Cog is an ENTP. He came up with this stuff in twelve seconds in an escalator.

ROFL! Damn. You are probably right. It took him more time to write it down than to think of it, and probably thought of it as he wrote.

I've found my attention span is shorter nowadays, and I just wouldn't even care to write it all out in that kind of format, although I remember creating characters for RPGs long ago and wanting to write out the entire backstories.

 

[Proletar]

On topic:

I would probably just want to be myself, but with an ability to teleport and turn into gas or something, essentially making myself impossible to injure.

I would stay in the presence of the joker, the scare-crow and batman, just to learn from them and see their perspectives. I would just study.

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

We're inventing superheroes for ourselves? Awesome.

I'll admit, I'd use my powers pretty selfishly. So my power is invisibility (can I throw in immortality/very long life too?) and I use it a lot more for personal reasons than I ever do for "greater good" type things. To be quite frank, I don't really even believe in a "greater good" and I'd only get involved in that sort of deal if it broke my one and only personal rule which is "Don't be a dick." I wouldn't have a hero costume, as it wouldn't have much to it anyway when I turn invisible, so I'd just choose to wear regular clothes (when I go invisible so do my clothes).

So yeah, I'd be more of a chaotic neutral type of 'hero' (read: opportunist) that goes around without any kind of "saving the city"/"greater good" crap.

 

[Jennywocky]

So.... various scenarios:

1. Traffic accident.
2. Average guy being severely beaten in an alley.
3. Financial CEO ripping off investors.
4. Girl is abducted.

Intervene? Not? Why or why not? What does it say about one's personality?

I always thought Heroes, despite its flaws, showed some of the mundane... there was a point where Peter (who had prior been one of the most powerful but had been somewhat reduced) used his gymnist abilities and then his superspeed to be one of the best EMTs in the city. It was kind of funny. But he was sick of the "greater good," he just wanted to save individual lives.

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

So.... various scenarios:

1. Traffic accident.
2. Average guy being severely beaten in an alley.
3. Financial CEO ripping off investors.
4. Girl is abducted.

Intervene? Not? Why or why not? What does it say about one's personality?

It would all depend on convenience, for me.

If I'm around to witness the traffic accident then, yeah, I'll run up and see if everyone's okay (invisibility wouldn't help much in this situation).

If I'm walking by the alley and I see him getting beat up then, yeah, I would run up and help him.

and so on.

 

[Jennywocky]

It would all depend on convenience, for me.

If I'm around to witness the traffic accident then, yeah, I'll run up and see if everyone's okay (invisibility wouldn't help much in this situation).

If I'm walking by the alley and I see him getting beat up then, yeah, I would run up and help him.

and so on.

Yeah. I class more as Neutral Good (in AD&D terms), but I'm not much on upholding the law just because it is the law. I'm more inclined to help an individual if the individual is in need currently and especially if no one is around who could step in.

Would any of us kill criminals? Sometimes I wonder about myself. While I typically think of myself as a 'good' person and empathize with individuals regardless of their background, sometimes I find a kind of apathetic streak in myself when I'm annoyed by someone or think they aren't considering others. For example, someone drives like an idiot past me on the highway, putting others in danger by erratic/aggressive driving, and I wonder if I'd just throw them off the road like in Chronicle. Part of me doesn't care if they'd get hurt or killed, I'd feel kind of indifferent if I didn't know them.

There's like an amoral "Hancock" streak there. (I really liked that character btw. Kind of a neat approach.)

 

[Duxwing]

@nanook
So what's your motivation, what is it that you do?
Are you the ultimate get away driver or do you use your abilities to help people, are you a hoon, a hero, or something else?

@Duxwing
So I'm guessing you effectively know everything, but the knowledge can only be accessed by someone else asking you a question, and maybe you can't explain that (like in Howl's moving castle how Sophie couldn't explain her curse, it's a part of the curse) so you're always looking for people you can goad into asking the right questions?

@Cognisant Precisely. I can't find the answers unless someone shows me the situation the right way.

-Duxwing

 

[jachian]

I've always hated superheros. They are arrogant and self righteous. Who gives them the right to make decisions for others? Do they really think that they are making the world a better place?.....

On the same token I think that the villans in these senarios are just as arrogant and self righteous. Its just that the villans care less about having the masses worship them for their deeds; they decide that it makes more sense to get theirs than to entertain the masses with fancy powers, costumes and gadgets.

In the dark knight context I dedicate my life to ridding the world of both kinds of nuisance for sport. I'll move around gotham in dark shades, a trench coat and a sniper rifle. I'll teach that rich punk a lesson and put the bloody clown out of his misery.

Gotham is an evil place and needs to be left to destroy itself it needs not batman to save it, nor the joker or ras-al-gul to accelerate its inevitable demise.

 

[nanook]

anyone who acts is without conscience. that is, because you can't know all the consequences of your act. also, frequently you can't judge the character of your act, because a part of the subject is never seing itself. i dislike rampant activism myself. i like to know what i am doing. today i acknowledge that this attitude is not intellectually or morally superior, it's simply a requirement of my cognitive type: i would experience instability/disorientation/dissonance if i tried to act as spontaneously as extraverts do. before i had that insight i would tell stories of justification about why i am that way. the self righteous story is that not acting much is a superior moral standpoint. the self-critical counter-story is accusing me of being merely egotistically afraid of consequences and trying to control my own future in a conservative way. both of these stories are potentially true: to the degree they are believed, they can be manifested - i can optimize my hesitation for the sake of morals or security - though doing both at the same time is difficult. but the stories are not the cause of hesitation. without them, the general pattern of being pretty hesitant about action remains, but is more balanced and causes less trouble over all. what is easily overlooked is that a concern with security, when overdone, is actually not selfish, but self hate, it's smothering the self. also any attempt to make a moral virtue out of being hesitant distracts from it's cognitive purpose. instead of growing your insight, you would simply be locked into a posture of ignorance.


there might be a connection between the self hate of categorically denying oneself the right to co-create the life of all of us, by intervening according to your own limited vision of what is good for the world and the generalized self-hate (hate of everyone) of feeling that a whole town is evil and has deserved to die.

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

Yeah. I class more as Neutral Good (in AD&D terms), but I'm not much on upholding the law just because it is the law. I'm more inclined to help an individual if the individual is in need currently and especially if no one is around who could step in.

Would any of us kill criminals? Sometimes I wonder about myself. While I typically think of myself as a 'good' person and empathize with individuals regardless of their background, sometimes I find a kind of apathetic streak in myself when I'm annoyed by someone or think they aren't considering others. For example, someone drives like an idiot past me on the highway, putting others in danger by erratic/aggressive driving, and I wonder if I'd just throw them off the road like in Chronicle. Part of me doesn't care if they'd get hurt or killed, I'd feel kind of indifferent if I didn't know them.

There's like an amoral "Hancock" streak there. (I really liked that character btw. Kind of a neat approach.)

I can understand that.

I honestly would not be able to kill anyone, I don't think. Violence of any kind does not come natural for me and it'd take an overwhelming amount of anger for me to lose my head and even want to fight. Even if I were mad beyond belief - insane with rage - I really don't think I could ever bring myself to kill. I can hardly bring myself to kill spiders and I fucking hate spiders.

Death is weird.

 

[Cognisant]

1. Traffic accident.

I'd call an ambulance, maybe assist with first aid if I'm equipped for it.
If I have some kind of newly acquired regeneration serum I'd test it on them.

2. Average guy being severely beaten in an alley.

I'd call the police and tell them I'd called the police, but I wouldn't directly interfere unless I had some manner of gadget that needs to be tested, and even then I'd only use a lethal (at least one I know is lethal, suffocating someone with sticky goo meant to immobalize them is the sort of accident I often have) on people who directly threaten me.

Then again if said guy is a scientist I'll immediately intervene and make an example of his attackers, whether that's killing them or just humiliating them will depend upon how severly they harmed the scientist.

3. Financial CEO ripping off investors.

If the investors invested in technology, manufacturing infrastructure, research facilities, etc, I would get their money back and make an example of the guy, whereas normally I wouldn't care.

4. Girl is abducted.

If my UAVs know where she is I'll tell the police, unless said girl is obviously studying to become a scientist or has already invented something, then I'll be dealing with the abductors personally.

 

[redbaron]

Would any of us kill criminals? Sometimes I wonder about myself. While I typically think of myself as a 'good' person and empathize with individuals regardless of their background, sometimes I find a kind of apathetic streak in myself when I'm annoyed by someone or think they aren't considering others. For example, someone drives like an idiot past me on the highway, putting others in danger by erratic/aggressive driving, and I wonder if I'd just throw them off the road like in Chronicle. Part of me doesn't care if they'd get hurt or killed, I'd feel kind of indifferent if I didn't know them.

There's like an amoral "Hancock" streak there. (I really liked that character btw. Kind of a neat approach.)

Yes, I'd kill criminals without a second thought. Waste of tax payer money putting them in jail. This is referring to: rapists, serial killers, paedophiles and the like. Basically people who intentionally commit crimes that cause suffering for others, who are not possible to be rehabilitated.

I wouldn't be hesitant to kill them if I was given the chance to do so. Not sure if I would feel remorse though. I have felt bad after being provoked into a fight, but only because I know that I still could have walked away and avoided the fight. I made the decision in the moment, it wasn't well thought out or calculated. The feeling is more embarrassment that I got into a petty fight and injured someone over nothing really.

I don't think I'd feel the same about a calculated murder.

 

[Cognisant]

Eventually I'd like to turn thisinto a story so please flesh your characters out, and @jachian cool

 

[Cavallier]

Form: Incorporeal. Without gender in essence. Only grey/brown/white mist in actual form. More a floating expanding or reducing consciousness.

Power/Tricks: I am a physical form to be reckoned with but only in the perceived mind. I am flesh and bone, warm and alive, in all ways except in a literal sense to one mind. As a single mind you would experience me as you would experience any other real world individual. Not unlike a psychotic delusion in which you would not be able to tell the difference between the real world and myself. In two minds I have a yielding texture but not noticeably so unless you try to touch me. I can "inhabit" or "visit" up to three people simultaneously before my physical form begins to disintegrate entirely to the mental eye.

I am able to sneak into most minds without the person noticing a presence or with weak minded individuals I can sweep in and wipe out their consciousness entirely and take over their existence. Though, in this state I control their body I don't feel their body's sensations. I don't feel pain or pleasure or physical resistance. This makes it difficult to not destroy a body quickly by accident.

Personal Physical Experience: I feel very little. Even when acting as a fully formed psychotic delusion in the mind of an individual I feel their touch on my skin as only half the sensation a real person might feel it as. I have a very weak physical effect on the world to the mind of the individual I have deluded. I can't pick up a coffee cup for example without a lot of work. I generally rely on tricking the perceiver into never noticing I don't eat, drink, or interact with things.

When I am projecting myself to the mind of someone I know very well, and if that person has a particularly strong psycho-emotional connection to me (or feels deep sympathy for me) I can experience touch more easily though it is as I am filtering it through their own thoughts of how I might feel a sensation. For example, if I pretend to trip and the mind I am inhabiting sees me trip and is very sympathetic and thus feels the pain I should feel in tripping I also feel it in a very fuzzy drugged sort of way. It's most easily described as feeling the sensation third hand. This means that in order to feel something physical in any strong sense I have to delude the mind I am inhabiting into believing that the thing I am feeling is very very intense to me. Thus through their own imagination I can intensify the sensations I actually feel. You can see how this would make picking up a coffee cup difficult.

Moral/Social Standing: I am absolutely A-Moral. I do not see things in black and white or even as good for me or bad for me. Nothing can affect me physically so I get bored. I can be convinced to help anyone should I be provided with something interesting to do. I have a small obsession with learning and understand the machinations of every living thing. This aids in my trickery. I enjoy the act of delusion and trickery along side teasing out a particularly complex puzzle. Give me a good puzzle to solve and I'll be willing to help you out.

I also have an obsession with sensation. I am always trying to heighten my own physical sensations of the world around me. This means that I have an obsession with food, sex, and pain. I like torture chambers for the deep notions of pain they can produce which I generally feel as a tickle or pinch. I particularly like to inhabit those who are deeply sensual creatures and who take unlimited pleasure in sexual activity as a way of feeling the sexual act myself. Orgies in particular are inviting to me as they usually involve mental/sensation enhancing drugs and minds that open like sheer curtains to my delusions. Oddly enough it's not hard to find an orgy in a city like Gotham. I have discovered and made a habitual act of inhabing the various Chef's with finely atuned senses of taste as a way of experiencing flavor and swallowing.

Otherwise I simply float through the city, exploring, elucidating myself, and fucking with people.

 

[Jennywocky]

Eventually I'd like to turn thisinto a story so please flesh your characters out,

Oh so now the truth comes out.

I expect we will all get royalties, after creating your characters for you.

 

[Cognisant]

As if I'd ever finish a book

 

[Jennywocky]

Since mine was all over the place, I'll summarize and flesh out things a little in one post....

Powers: Typical Laurel Gand (or Supergirl-esque powers) -- strong, invulnerable, fast, fly, super-senses. I think what I like about it is that my physical body and abilities would not be a hindrance to what my Will would want to accomplish; if I can think of something, I would be able to do it (probably). And it's less about fighting per se and more about being able to resist any natural element out there -- I can do and go and see things that few can see (outer space, the top of Everest, the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the heart of the Sun, etc), and I also would not have to fear people because no one could really hurt me physically.

The same thing goes for the supersenses. I don't really like to eavesdrop or snoop in order to get into someone's business, and likely I would never actively use the info -- I just gather info so that I can understand things better and accommodate people in ways that make sense. I just like to "understand." I am definitely self-restrained enough to work at not wanting to invade people's privacy or abuse it if I happened to find something out, but it wouldn't be for lack of power.

Background/Psyche: I think the alien thing fits my concept pretty well. I'm kind of a changeling child; I was abandoned here on earth at birth and had to fend for myself. I've worked hard to fit in and understand earthlings and what it means to be non-powered in the ways they are, and respect that humanity and even emulate it. So they're my adopted people.

I also try to assume I was abandoned only out of necessity. But it doesn't change the fact I've had to fend for myself, and there's some degree of detachment there from normal family attachment, and I don't really have any sort of "template" embedded in my psyche from my parents; so in the end I'm a free agent and only have myself to answer to and to find faith in. Not parents, not god, not other people. This gives me some flexibility from normal social mores, but at the same time if I'd be under stress, my sense of being "Other" and having nothing I owe to humanity could briefly erupt and I'd have nothing but my own self-restraint to keep me from violating the accepted rules of society.
At the same time, I'd always be searching on some level to find my roots and figure out who I was, and maybe find validation from someone in a position to offer it to me, that I was valued and loved and respected. But it would be very difficult for me to find. It would be even hard to find someone who I could be in a relationship with, due to my experience being so different from the average person; it would have to be someone who I could relate to, who could value me regardless of my powers or background, and who could be match my own will.

Alignment/Morals: Neutral Good. I support rules only when they make sense and to the degree they make sense, since I think natural order is efficient in some ways. But I have no qualms about breaking rules that serve no purpose. Also, at times, my "Good" bent could become amoral and apathetic for some people based on their choices; if a few bad ants get ground underfoot because they were mucking around with other people, I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over it... they enacted their own powers of choice and paid the price. So maybe "Good" only applies to the innocent and those generally trying to respect others; if you're knowingly preying on the weak, don't expect any kindness from me. I might be nice to you and just stop you, if I'm in the mood; if I'm in a rotten mood and you irritate me, there's a possibility I might throw you into/through a wall if you're victimizing someone else.

I think Superman in the past was too much of a goody two-shoes and sort of inaccessible; I'd be a very accessible "normal" person who is "good" in general without being fettered by so many unnecessary restrictions.

Personality traits: Friendly, smart, funny, competent, flexy, plunges in when motivated. Tries to see all sides of the picture. But can be unexpectedly reclusive, moody, closed off at times. Underlying sense of anxiety and uncertainty about self-worth. Respects self-reliance; personal freedom; self-responsibility; open-mindedness; sacrifice; honesty/candor.

Secret Identity: Not sure yet whether I'd just be out there or not. I'd like privacy and the ability to earn a normal living, but I hate the complications of constantly having to hide it and keep part of myself closed off. I suppose I could get endorsements from companies, in order to have a living; but then they might try to leverage me to do things for them that I wouldn't like doing. Another possibility is breaking off endorsements at some point and build a fortune from investments, but one is still vulnerable to espionage of sorts; and there's still the privacy issue. So I'm not sure yet. I honestly wouldn't like to deal with the headache of a total secret identity if possible, even if I might disguise myself just walk around like everyone else at times.

Costume: Will add later. I like the idea of street clothes; the problem is that they are often not durable, so I'd spend a lot of personal money just replenishing my wardrobe. It's always good to have a great outfit that doesn't easily get ruined.

As if I'd ever finish a book

Well, we won't finish our characters either.

 

[Felan]

1. Traffic accident.
Don't need to be a superhero for that one. Help out as best as I can.
With my powers I would move any trapped people out of the vehicle to safety without the need to cut the vehicle apart.

2. Average guy being severely beaten in an alley.
Don't need to be a superhero for this one either. Make some noise and let it be known that someone has taken an interest in their actions.
If they became aggressive (without powers I would run) I opened windows in time/space so that if they throw a punch at me they end up punching themselves. If they use more deadly attacks I would redirect: jab with a knife and they stab a brick wall, shoot with a gun and it goes somewhere safe (not concrete or brick or thin).

3. Financial CEO ripping off investors.
With something like this I could traverse time and record conversations and such that would incriminate him. Assuming I took much of an interest in this, which is unlikely.

4. Girl is abducted.
I could very well get involved in this and traverse space/time to the start of the incident and follow them to where they are. Depending on the motives and observed wishes of the girl I could inform on them or not.

 

[Proletar]

1. Traffic accident.

That sort of stuff usually sorts itself out. To intervene would be to ruin the routine of the ambulance-personnel. That could possibly kill someone. Given, intervention could help, but I'm just not smooth enough to pull it off. I could however get into the burning building and do other stuff that the fire-men refuse to do and so forth. Sort of a last resort, not an eager man doing anything to make himself look good, desperately wanting to be loved.

2. Average guy being severely beaten in an alley.

If this guy is about to be killed, I would of course help.

On the other hand, if this was a simple 'roughing him up'-procedure and turned out to be the repercussions of something happening in the mob, helping him in that situation could possibly earn him a death-sentence, and he would have to get a secret identity and move.

If he wasn't dying, I would probably wait for the beating to cease, and then confront him about the specifics. Perhaps I could help him then.

3. Financial CEO ripping off investors.

Bring the pain. If I knew it to be true, I would wait until night when the CEO is working alone at the office. I'd disconnect all of the electricity, circuit by circuit, until the only thing powered was his computer. When the computer shuts down, he would be surprised to find himself in utter silence and darkness.

The rest would be kind of casper-esque/home alone trap-setting, only darker and more sinister. When he's good and scared, I would make him confess his misdeeds to my cameras, and by that expose the truth about CEOs in general, and possibly turn the business-world more honest.

4. Girl is abducted.

I would just be one of those strange men involved in the story afterwards, and with the CEO-story in my background, the media would be dying to paint me black. If I were to search for information, searching for her and so on, even finding her and rescuing her, I would do so in secret. No one would even know I was involved.

 

[Cheeseumpuffs]

Eventually I'd like to turn thisinto a story so please flesh your characters out

Well okay then.

Powers: Chameleon camouflage abilities, slightly quicker/more advanced brain function than the average person (not dramatically intelligent, but noticeably quicker at picking things up than the average human), and has a heightened immune system and is expected to live much longer than the normal human lifespan.

Backstory/Reason for powers: My character was selected at a young age for his genetic predisposition for these qualities already (perhaps he had a favorable set of mutations or whatever) and was kidnapped as a child. During his time in captivity he was experimented on and changed until his qualities/powers were developed to the "superhero" level. Finally, he had an opportunity to escape and took it, using his powers to escape from the people who had given them to him (a little extra backstory on why they gave him the powers: Kind of a different take on the "creating a super-soldier" theme, but this organization (government, private interest group, I don't know) was attempting to create the perfect operative for undercover/stealth type missions).
After he escaped he had nowhere to turn. His parents, he discovered, had been killed in an "accident" around the time that they were poking into their son's mysterious disappearance. He would've done the whole "vowing revenge" thing but at the time he was more focused on surviving and besides, he wasn't too emotionally attached to his parents as he barely remembered them anyway and despite how awful it was living in the testing facility, he did really appreciate his abilities (Hell, maybe for interesting plot development, events conspire to where he is forced to work with the organization for a time).
His time spent living on his own and fending for himself molded him into a seemingly erratic, "Chaotic Neutral" character (for some reason I'm imagining a Captain Jack Sparrow type of person, except maybe a little quieter and more reserved).

Current Situation: Early 20s for age. Lives alone in an abandoned apartment building (oddly though, it still has utilities and the like (the will of some mysterious helping hand?? We'll never know... or will we?)). He doesn't have any 'heroic' motivations or vendetta and, to be honest, is kind of in an existential/nihilistic crisis with his life. He's generally a quiet, reserved, and respectful and is very discerning and knowledgeable about many different subjects. Despite his tendency to be a "nerdy shut-in" (I've been called this in real life) he has managed to make a few friends (none of which he trusts enough to share the secret of his abilities with) and lives a relatively normal life, choosing instead to keep his 'hero' self as the secret identity rather than be a hero with a normal person as the secret identity.

So yeah, not sure if there's more required for this "fleshing out" but I'll stop here. Also I have no clue what kind of plot event or device could get him tangled up in heroic/epic adventures and intrigue.

 

[Duxwing]

Eventually I'd like to turn thisinto a story so please flesh your characters out, and @jachian cool

At once! First, my original post:

My pseudonym would be Form, and my trait would be that if asked a question, I would be compelled answer it; however, if the question is answerable then I would answer it instantly. Importantly, though, unanswerable questions would leave locked in place for eternity until asked another, and I would be eternally depressed by the Absurd. To cope with this depression, I would spend my life eternally searching for the Platonic universalist utopia "Avantis".

My costume would be a simple white shirt with two glowing azure loops starting at the tops of my shoulders and traveling along the front and rear edges of my rib cage and abdomen until the top edges of my hips. My pants (full length) would also be white with glowing azure hems and single one inch thick line proceeding from the outside edge of each knee to the hem.

In a team of superheroes, I would hang back at the base and answer any questions that my team had.

And now, my backstory:

In the year 2386, I was born from a test-tube aboard the Terran star voyager Anima. I was genetically engineered to answer every question imaginable on topics ranging from philosophy to economics to war to politics to love, and intended to end the strife between two warring factions, the Aegeans and Lexae, by developing a treaty beneficial to both parties. Although I was otherwise a loner, the secret to my success was a bionic link with the ship that allowed me to question myself; without it, I was helpless. Deep in thought, however, I began to notice the Absurd creeping in from every side until I was finally in the depths of despair; no-one understood me, and no-one cared about my pain. They just wanted results.

When brought before the Terran Supreme Court on Earth, I was found guilty of so many counts negligence in the line of duty that my prison sentence ran into the millennia. We soon left for Proxima Centuri as further cases against me were prepared. Knowing my impeding existential death, I snuck into Anima's computer bay and took control using my unlimited knowledge. Reprogramming the repair droids to neutralize any resistance, consolidate all weapons into one planet-killing thermonuclear bomb, and erect cloaking shields, I warped us back to the Terran homeworld: Earth.

Cloaked, I landed her just above Regalia, the most populous city on the planet, and sent a message down to the Terran High Council. "Either you let me go free, or I send this ball of dirt back to the stone age." Terrified, the bureaucrats agreed to pardon me in exchange for not inflicting nuclear holocaust upon their world, and they allowed me to leave for the Outer Rim, where semi-primitive societies could use a thinker like me. Yet just as I arrived, the Council stabbed me in the back: they detonated the World-Killer in orbit around Dacanea, a fledgling colony. Luckily, I had already landed.

As the bionic link with Anima faded, I acted quickly. Salvaging what parts I could, I erected a screen that portrayed Dacanea as a nuke-blasted wasteland; luckily, the screen was sufficient and the Terrans bothered me no longer. Now I was alone, in despair, and surrounded by bumpkins who didn't know the difference between Schlegel and a bagel, but I was alive! And so I decided to live as my own man, on my own terms, but there was a snag: I had no access to my vast wealth of knowledge unless someone asked me a question. Barring that, I was just as ignorant as the bumpkins that I intended to save.

And so I roam Dacanea, still wearing the suit that I'd worn aboard my former home as a reminder that nothing good lasts forever. All I have is my mind, but there is much in it to give, and though I am forever existentially alone, it is only by working with others that I can ever hope to regain my knowledge. I am Form, I serve Dacanea and all those willing to listen, if only they would ask the right questions.

-Duxwing