scrape_r_rational/data/cache/6pp7a2.md

Interesting X-post - You have 20 credits worth of obscure superpowers to become a superhero/villain. Spend wisely my friends

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• u/DCarrier:

  Telekinesis is insanely OP. Although it's not clear how far or fast I can move objects.
  

  • u/LifeIsBizarre:

    Supervillian  
    Day 1 - "Ahem, attention world, I am a supervillian. I am going to move the moon and when you give me 100 billion dollars, I shall put it back" *Mental Shove*  
    Day 2 - "Thank you for my money, I'm going to put it back now, If you try and harm me in any way the Earth is going into the Sun. Ta-Ta for now." *Mental Shove Back*
    

    • u/Kishoto:

      Huh. I'm surprised no one delved into the obvious consequences of moving a celestial body out of orbit. I'm no astro physicist but the ramifications would be worldwide.
      

    • u/zarraha:

      Telekinesis + Teleportation:
      
      Immediately throw Earth at the sun.  Teleport just as temperatures rise to unsafe levels.  Teleport must take you somewhere safe, nowhere safe exists on the Earth, therefore it searches elsewhere in the galaxy and deposits you on a random inhabitable planet.
      
      More of an evil/insane supervillain choice than a rational one, as your new life is likely going to be more of a struggle than one where you have 100 billion dollars, but it optimizes your kill-count.
      
      On the other hand, a rational supervillain might be forced to take teleportation and explain this back-up plan in order to make the extinction threat actually credible.
      

• u/Flashbunny:

  Invincible: Illness
  
  Eternal Youth
  
  I'll live until the day I'm fatally injured in some way.
  
  I guess I'll take Hold Your Breath to round out the last two points - I should probably take Hunger, to avoid poisoning or starvation (I choose to eat "nothing") but I like personal hygiene.
  

  • u/DCarrier:

    I was thinking invincible: lack of oxygen to the brain. Or invincible: brain damage.
    

    • u/sephlington:

      Invincible: death. Invincible: suffering.
      

      • u/Flashbunny:

        Wording of the power doesn't work like that - no-one is killed by death. I suppose you couldn't literally die of pain, though?
        

        • u/Menolith:

          Extreme pain can contribute to death, but ultimately only by inducing brain damage by proxy.
          
          Regarding dying of death, well, "`THERE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A REASON`, said Death, `I CAN JUST KILL YOU. `"
          

• u/narfanator:

  Ehhh I feel like this is waiting for a Color Pill story from it. To much vagueness in power descriptions; example: must things be tangible? Could you do invincibility to kinetic energy? (Would it be worth it, since you can still be harmed?) If you're hit by a car, is it the impact or the blood loss that kills you?
  
  Knowledge Thief seems reasonable; find dying people. But, do you also get their life's memories?
  

  • u/GaBeRockKing:

    Yogurt alone lets you create arbitrary amounts of negentropy (mass-energy creation), so everything past that is just gravy
    

    • u/tokol:

      Maybe that's the curse? Entropy is maintained because the froyo was actually transmuted and transported from reserves of rare earth elements!
      

• u/vakusdrake:

  _Invulnerability_: to physical damage, this protects me from damn near everything except incapacitation by toxins, electricity or a few other means. Basically since the body is a physical thing nothing could actually kill me, though quite a few things could put me out of commision if maintained.
  
  _Telekinetic_: There's no size limits which means no force limit, so I can use this to move myself at relativistic speed and have the destructive power of a nuke. In fact I really have no other choice but to use this to fly around as a nude bald man since my invulnerability will protect me but not anything else. 
  
  _Hold Breath x2_: I would use this to be able to use this to remain safe from poisons or nearly anything else for an hour at a time by moving my body back and forth to protect myself with a sheath of plasma that will destroy any poisons. Effectively by always staying moving I can ensure invulnerability, and rarely have to make myself vulnerable by going somewhere and slowing down so I can actually take a breath. Also because of my long breath time I can get places by just flying directly through the planet quickly, but not so fast as to cause massive seismic activity.
  
  With these powers I could achieve world domination flying around the world and threatening to destroy governments cities by accelerating to near lightspeed. I would use this power to force demilitarization and make global laws actually conform to basic western idealized liberal values, as well as forcing massive government transparency and cooperation. Basically with a lot of these sorts of superpower scenarios you can make yourself effectively invulnerable then force world powers to do what you want creating a world government by force.
  

  • u/None:

    Why specify physical damage? Why not just "damage"? Nothing in the rules says you've got to get specific.
    

    • u/vakusdrake:

      Sure I could just say damage but it wouldn't actually change anything. Once you get sufficiently broad (same thing if you say "everything"), you can't be killed. However the fact you can't die from anything still doesn't change the fact that you can still be incapacitated via poisons, oxygen deprivation, electric stunning, etc.
      

      • u/None:

        Well it says "1 thing" by definition I don't think you can say "anything/everything"
        

        • u/vakusdrake:

          Right you can't literally just say "_everything_" you should instead say "this universe", which is nice singular thing which includes everything likely to matter in this scenario.
          

• u/Xtraordinaire:

  What's the curse on the yogurt? And what's 'unlimited'? 
  
  Telekinesis is the most broken one. Earth is an object, after all. Solve for global warming, check. Crush (literally) North Korean dictatorship, check. Beating Elon in race to Mars - WIP.
  
  Teleportation is an obvious out-of-jail card, but I don't think it can be used for anything more than that. Unless 'anywhere' includes other planets (there are bound to be some safe ones) in which case you are screwed hard. So no.
  
  Eternal youth seems useful, if morally dubious, provided you can handle being a loner. 
  
  Invisibility, flight, telekinesis. Be able to kill almost anyone on the planet. Be in general proximity of your target, wait for invisibility start, fly over them, kill them with something massive, or just shove them from a balcony or something. 2 extra points go in holding breath or hunger + froyo for the lulz.
  

• u/ProudTurtle:

  What a fun exercise. I would steal the knowledge of Donald Trump instantly turning him into a vegetable. I would take eternal youth. Then I guess I would like strength as the most useful long term investment. I will use my knowledge to Donald Trump's empire to take some money. I would invest it in low risk funds and then wait. I think I'll take a job as a prison guard on death row or a banker on Wall Street so that I can get some use out of my life suction. I have one point left so I guess I take the fro-yo. I can always sell fro-yo if my Trump plan doesn't work out.
  

  • u/CeruleanTresses:

    [obvious joke to the effect that Trump is already a vegetable]
    

• u/ArgentStonecutter:

  Shapeshifter (flying squirrel), eternal youth, and ~~flying~~ falling with style (hey, 100 feet up, you're over the 9mph threshold well before you hit the ground so you're flying again, and if that doesn't work I can shapeshift into a flying squirrel).
  

  • u/DCarrier:

    TIL flying squirrels are people. Then again I wouldn't be a vegetarian if I didn't already believe that.
    

    • u/ArgentStonecutter:

      The specific flying squirrel that I'm shapeshifted into is obviously a person because I'm a person and I'm shapeshifted into it. QED.
      

• u/kozinc:

  (7) Shape Shifter: Kal El
  
  (10) Invincible: Kryptonite
  
  (3) Strength
  
  Thus, winning.
  

  • u/vallar57:

    Kal El is not a person, but a fictional character though. I imagine it requires a separate power to be able to tangibly interact with fiction.
    

    • u/kozinc:

      It might not be wise to presume there are limits where there might be none. If there aren't, you've just closed yourself off from optimal munchkinry. 
      
      And the title is about becoming a superhero/supervillain (implying there might already be some existing). Why then not become the best?
      

• u/Frommerman:

  * Shape Shifter: Valdimir Putin
  
  * Knowledge Steal: Vladimir Putin
  
  * Intangibility: Bullets
  
  * Frozen Yogurt: Delicious
  
  I now replace Putin. Assassinating me is far harder, as you need a bomb or poison. Over several years, I slowly shift his Empire from its current state to one more in-line with international rules and regulations. I withdraw from Crimea, citing it as a waste of money that could be better spent improving the economy. The Mafia is taken fully under my control, and I work on turning it into something more like the Yakuza: dangerous, but controlled and mostly keeping violence in-house.
  
  Once things are properly under control, I convince my oligarchs that the best way for them to maintain power in perpetuity and avoid the kind of revolution Russia has already had once is to set up efficient social services that will keep them happy. I root out corruption in the police, punishing abusive cops severely and pushing the more stubborn precincts into alliances with our new, far less violent Mafia. The long term plan there is to transform their front businesses into actual profitable endeavors and make them realize that going legit is very lucrative and doesn't carry the risk of assassination by rivals.
  
  Economy revitalized, Russia becomes a true world power. Sanctions are dropped because a lot of the human rights violations are gone, and we begin exporting our former Mafia made goods around the world. With them, we export a new philosophy of stability: criminal underworlds tamed into something less dangerous, police still corrupt but usually not to the public's detriment, oligarchs living the high life while everyone else gets to live a reasonable, decent life free of reasons to violently revolt.
  
  Oh, also the infinite frozen yogurt solves the negentropy problem.
  

  • u/vallar57:

    If only things were as simple as that... But a simple genre savviness predicts your plan to fail catastrophically.
    

  • u/Kiousu:

    This is infeasible as hell but I laughed so hard at this I just have to cast my vote for best response.
    

• u/Jiro_T:

  I'm not sure that eternal youth is the problem some people make it out to be.  Many actions one can perform will do a small amount of harm to a lot of people (every time you go out driving, you statistically increase other people's chance of death by a tiny amount).
  
  Knowledge thief fails to say whether it's one time only.
  

• u/Predictablicious:

  Stacking 3x telekinesis for a cheap, thrice a day, space elevator. Hunger and Frozen Yogurt as the remaining points, we could possibly munchkin some good use out of the yogurt.
  
  Having a way out of Earth for Humanity trumps any other choices for me.
  

• u/Jakkubus:

  Invincible (hypoxia), Shape Shifter (into myself at pristine health condition) and Strength (because I have 3 points left).
  

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