thewizardguy

Epic City: Starburst

@AtomicNut
It's actually even more complicated than that.

Technically speaking light does have 'mass'. Sometimes. When it feels like it. Photons as a particle have mass, but photons as a wave don't. But even when they have mass they don't have electromagnetism due to a lack of electrons. They don't interact with other substances in the normal way. Instead light is absorbed and reflected by other molecules, depending on a bunch of factors.

In order to get light to act anything like a physical object you would need to somehow force them to continuously act as particles, and then force them into such close proximity that they would physically touch. This would create a material so astoundingly dense than an orb the size of a marble would have a mass of thousands of tons. Of course if you did somehow create and control this material it would be semi-invisible as it does not give off light, and also cause any 'normal' material it touched to disintegrate.

And the sheer energy contained in that many photons would be horrifying. I mean, you'd have to gather all the light that touched the Earth in order to get anything like that solid mass. And that's enough energy to blow cities off the map. You could cause entire buildings to just disintegrate.

And this is why physics and superpowers don't mix.

Epic City: Starburst

@Feisty-Pants
I am working very hard not to judge the physics behind that concept >.>

Epic City: Starburst

@Regitnui

Guilt hates the High, that is most certainly true. She's a soldier who fought for the lives of humans outside the City, against armies of monstrous Freaks. To her the High are monsters for refusing to protect the world, despite their abilities. Beings who spend their time in the lap of luxury, instead of fighting to protect the people. Those who would be happy to watch the world burn as long as it didn't bother them personally. If you gave her a button capable of killing the High she'd press it without a second thought. But the same can be said about anyone who hates the High, ranging from the Kryptonites to the superpowered criminals. She doesn't think she can beat the High, and does not intend to hunt them down and kill them. She has made no intent to attack them, nor their allies. She has even avoided killing those who represent the High, going out of her way to spare them.

From my perspective Guilt isn't pushing on any boundaries. She has done nothing I don't see other people do. And yet despite this the High are ganging up on her, forcing her to change by threatening or manipulating her. Despite the High having virtually no interaction with others, much less actively attacking or manipulating other players, two separate High have taken a personal interest in my character.

Clairvoyant was fun. I was surprised that the High Clairvoyant would be interested in my character personally, but it gave me a chance to have my character interact with someone really powerful in an interesting way. And Claire, the subconscious 'morality', was an interesting twist. But I hated the idea of the Clairvoyant actively reaching out to directly change Guilt's personality. That's not character growth, that's mind control. And it's not fun.

Then the Island intervened, enforcing a law I didn't know existed. Instead of informing Guilt of this law she was unaware of he immediately decided to attack her, threatening and bullying her into submission. And that's fine, I imagine the High are used to pushing people around like they're nothing. But the fact that the Island decided to pick on Guilt as opposed to any of the other people who commit murders or destructive acts kind of irked me.

Now you have the Island personally locking up Guilt, and refusing to let her go unless she becomes a 'better person'.

While I agree with you that Guilt can either become a hero or a monster, I want her to straddle the line for a bit. She was intended as an anti-hero, and even if she becomes more of a good guy (stops the murdering) she'll remain a soldier at heart. A warrior more than a hero. And yet it seems like the world is intent on shouting at her until she betters her ways. Not by gently encouraging her to reconsider her views but through threats and manipulation. Again, that isn't character growth.

I envision Guilt meeting up with Traveller a couple more times. Maybe getting to know some of the other heroes. Becoming slowly less harsh as she realises that perhaps she isn't actually solving anything by being a brutal vigilante. Beginning to use her powers more constructively, and instead of acting as a spirit of vengeance talking to people about the situation outside the city. Asking other heroes for help, to improve the world at large.

Instead the High have only managed to convince Guilt that they are immense assholes convinced of their own omnipotence. That they have no issue with shattering the privacy of others, attacking anyone they don't like, and breaking other people's possessions out of an idea that they're just 'better'. I'm fine with the High being morally questionable, in fact I like them being morally questionable. It makes them people instead of plot devices, it adds depth to the idea. Power corrupts. And even if they have the best of intentions access to that much power would give them a superinflated ego. But I dislike the fact that they keep picking on Guilt in particular. She's being reprimanded when others get a free pass.

In short, the High are royally pissing off Guilt as a character, and I feel unfairly persecuted as a player. While I can continue playing like this I suspect that the logical response from Guilt (spitting in the face of the meddling God) is going to just get her more punished, and she's going to spend her time getting beat up by unstoppable godlike characters until they force her to change. Which is not an idea I enjoy.

Epic City: Starburst

@Regitnui

Sure, let's turn this into Guilt vs the Island.

Let me ask you a question. Do you really dislike Guilt's personality? You have now made two separate attempts to make Guilt abandon her ways and turn into a normal, friendly civilian. In both cases you used the GM Banhammer, the High, in order to do this. In the first case you even went so far as to imply that the Clairvoyant was using her psychic powers to directly change Guilt's personality. Now the Island is basically threatening her into changing.

If you really hate the way I play Guilt, I can just leave, or create a new character or whatever. But at this point the sheer amount of attention the High are paying to Guilt has become silly.

Epic City: Starburst

@Regitnui
That would require Island being able to control other people's powers. But sure, if you really want to have a scene where you humiliate my character for no reason I suppose we could work that in. Maybe all the High could get in line and punch Guilt in the face one by one, just to prove they can. Two of them have already done it, so why not the rest?

Epic City: Starburst

@Regitnui
Ah, I did not realize that Guilt was encased from the moment she was grabbed. In that case she would have simply removed the material encasing her before teleporting upwards. If you prefer I can edit this in, but Guilt's powers do allow her to escape an attack like this with relative ease.

Guilt has done nothing to actually attack the High. She isn't destroying the city, she isn't performing mass slaughter, she isn't running around randomly exploding major landmarks. At current she's killed a couple of minor criminals, gotten into a fight with Comet, and pissed off a local church lady. The reaction of the High towards her relatively minor actions are not only vastly out of proportion but also completely unreasonable, considering that others have done the same and yet gotten no attention.

Comet made a tunnel that went under the entire city, the ocean around it, and into a different goddamn state. And he didn't even get a letter of reprimand. Traveller removed a 10-ton pillar and moved it to Alaska. Devilstrider has been killing random criminals just like Guilt has. And that's just in recent history. I'm certain I can find more examples if I read through the earlier material in this roleplay, from before I was around.

While I certainly appreciate the attention I'm getting, get off my back. I understand that Guilt needs moderation because she's powerful but if I'm going to be reprimanded by Gods every time I do anything then this stops being fun.

Epic City: Starburst

@AtomicNut
Clairvoyant has a range limit. I'm fairly certain about that. Claire porting away from the Clairvoyant interrupted their communication, so it appears that she does have limits.

But the Prescient's ability has nothing to do with distance. They would see the defeat of the High, and work backwards from there. They would know who did it, and could then observe everything that person did in their lifetime. They would know that this person did something with the Starbursts, and where and when that person was born. Then they would simply stop that person from being born. Wouldn't even have to kill them, just distract the father and make it so he married someone else. Or strongly advocate birth control to them.

Of course, this is assuming that the Prescient's powers of prescience are truly limitless. Perhaps it's true that there are things they can't predict. After all, they are the most mysterious and most powerful of the High. Who knows what they can and can't do? But that's one of the problems with fighting them.

Epic City: Starburst

@Old Amsterdam
Oh, true. My ability to piss off the High is supernatural in origin, so that might be able to bypass the Prescient's abilities ^-^

But, if there are limits to the Prescient.... that would certainly be interesting.

My dreams of overthrowing one of the basic premises of this RP are approaching (distantly) fruition.

Epic City: Starburst

@AtomicNut
That's an assumption. I'd be careful about those. There's no information on whether or not Prescient can predict the source of her powers, or whether the Starbursts are in fact the source of their powers. After all they were caused by a floating man, that man might be the one responsible for this. Maybe he just felt like blowing holes in the planet before he gave people superpowers.

Although it certainly is an interesting thought. I hadn't considered what the effects of the Starbursts might be. Hmm. I might have to have Guilt go over there and give it a look.

Epic City: Starburst

@AtomicNut
Whatever it is, the Prescient and Clairvoyant know about it. The Prescient can simply declare that it doesn't happen, and the Clairvoyant can make you forget you know it. Or headsplode ya.

Really, fighting the High as a collective is an exercise in futility. With enough powerful Epics you could probably take out Island or Electric, get enough psychics and you might even be able to take on Clairvoyant. Venom could be defeated by creatures immune to disease, those with great regenerative ability, incorporeal physical forms or non-biological bodies. Ironically Freaks are her biggest weakness. But the Prescient is unbeatable without their Kryptonite.

Of course, discovering her kryptonite might be possible. It's likely that the presence of her kryptonite prevents her future-telling abilities, so if you possess it they can't tell what you're going to do. But that's mostly just wishful thinking.