6.5 KiB
The Ballad of Barry Allen- what it actually be like to think and act at the speed of sound, all the time.
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Author: u/Ulmaxes *
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Score: 37
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Created: 2015-09-23T14:47:22
Post:
Comments:
u/psychothumbs [+15] (an hour later)
Classic song. The canonical flash is very lucky he can control how fast he moves / thinks.
u/Ulmaxes [+14] (2 hours later)
Yeah. The number of secondary powers that guys needs to function has always terrified me. Taking out any one of them (say, super-sense-of-time-plasticity) away, and things get dark fast.
u/psychothumbs [+13] (2 hours later)
Very true. Before you even get to this being a problem you need things like the ability to not have his skin be ripped off his body by the air resistance and not break every bone in his leg every time there's a step. And then there's the whole sonic boom situation. He should be leaving a trail of rubble every time he goes anywhere close to full speed.
I've always thought this was a good way to distinguish the Flash and Superman. Both can move super-quickly, but you can say that Superman just does it in a more normal way, by just applying tons of force, and being invincible enough to survive, while the Flash has this special 'speed force' deal that allows him to do a more intuitive but less actually realistic version of super-speed.
u/Ulmaxes [+12] (4 hours later)
That's an excellent comparison, and I hadn't thought about that before.
My best 'theory' for the environmental effects (or lack thereof) is that as he increases in speed, he becomes more and more incorporeal, less and less dense. He begins passing through the matter instead of interacting with it- he's not starting nuclear explosions by running into air at 90% the speed of light because he's literally not interacting with the air at all, just going 'around' it. This doesn't explain why the ground doesn't explode with each footstep, but I like to incorporate the theory that Flash doesn't need to run, he could fly if he wanted to, it's just a mental block. He's more gliding than running. This would also explain how he's able to build up such speed in a straight line so consistently, despite the terrain changing wildly- it doesn't matter if he runs over rubble or ice, he doesn't really need the footing anyways. This also works in his "phasing in and out of stuff" power, as that's a more applied tactic of the aforementioned power.
This at least keeps the Speed Force localized for Flash instead of constantly altering everything around him.
The Speed Force keeps his structure consistent because...Speed Force. That at least feels slightly less hand-wavy than the Speed Force constantly altering the nature/velocity of everything in his vicinity.
u/Teive [+11] (8 hours later)
I'm pretty sure Velocity in Wildbow's Worm is like this. Increased speed exchanged for less ability to interact with the world
u/DocFuture [+11] (13 hours later)
"There is a man who moves so fast that his life is an endless gallery of statues..."
--Alan Moore on the Flash
The song strongly evokes that quote, for me. The quote was also my inspiration for creating Flicker in The Fall of Doc Future and the sequels, mentioned elsewhere in this thread.
u/eaglejarl [+4] (a day later)
Speaking of -- just finished a re-read of both TFoDF and Skybreaker's Call; I enjoyed both just as much as the first time.
u/eaglejarl [+6] (an hour later)
I've seen this a few times, and it's just as cool each time. Thanks for the reminder.
u/eaglejarl [+8] (5 hours later)
Oh, also -- for a realistic appreciation of speedsters: The Fall of Doc Future Good story.
u/Kishoto [+3] (8 hours later)
Can agree. Probably my favorite thing about this series is how we get insight into some of the aspects of super speed you don't see talked about on most media. I love when we get the Speedster's POV, especially when she illustrates that
Corona Pollentia
u/notmy2ndopinion [+1] Concent of Saunt Edhar (10 hours later)
That's chilling. I'd draw a corollary to Shadows of Limelight
u/Ulmaxes [+2] (5 hours later)
Read the Prologue, looks pretty fun. Will get around to this one soon!
u/RMcD94 [-3] (a day later)
Deserves it's own post probably, but a) tumblr is such a shit place for publishing a story and b) it needs a proof read the amount of your/you're fuck ups are way too high, really kicks me out the story.
u/Ulmaxes [+4] (2 hours later)
Man I wish I could edit titles. Flash don't think it be like it is, but it do.
u/Kishoto [+1] (8 hours later)
I like how ratchet this statement sounded (Apologies in advance if the term offends you) :)
u/Ulmaxes [+1] (9 hours later)
Uh, I guess not? Lol. Just making a reference to the Internet Classic
u/chaosmosis [+2] and with strange aeons, even death may die (2 days later)
I really like the rushed pace of the drums, with the relaxed pace of the guitar. Perfect fit.
u/None [+2] (7 years later)
haha this song showed up on my playlist again after a while. great tune and love barry
u/RMcD94 [+0] (20 hours later)
Really enjoyed the song. Often better to think of speedster as if the world slowed down by 300x rather than they speed up. Do any stories deal with the age implications of that though? Presumably you metabolise that quick too.
A band-aid for the song guy loneliness is asynchronous communication like the Internet or writing.