Superscribes---assemble!!!

[Reaver]

I'm sure this has been brought up here before, but I'm too lazy to look it up. So here goes:

If you could have just one super-power, what would it be? Would you use that power to benefit mankind, for personal gain, or for evil?

Thanks in advance for your posts! Should be very interesting.

 

[Xanados]

Stealth.
You'll have to guess the reason.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Mind control. It's really the only power that has any practical application in the real world, unless your goal is to kill lots of people or destroy things.

Any superpower that allows you to damage or destroy things, or increases your fighting ability, is useless unless you get into a lot of fights -- which most people don't (and those who do, don't live very long). Razor claws, laser vision, throwing fireballs -- these all have extremely limited application outside the realm of killing people. Sure, you might be able to use your super-strength to help, I don't know, dig irrigation trenches in the desert, but would you really go around using your power to do something that could be done just as well by a backhoe?

Flying and teleportation would be neat -- again, if you wanted to be a master criminal. To get places you aren't allowed to be, for example. It might be neat to be able to visit anywhere in the world without having to pay for air travel, but that's still going to get old after a bit. And if anyone ever saw you do it, well, enjoy the rest of your life being hunted by every government on earth.

But mind control... Now you can make anyone do anything. Even with reasonable limitations -- let's say that you have to be within line of sight, and no further than 50 feet from your target -- you can accomplish much. Know that a politician is corrupt? Get close, and make him suddenly go and reveal the documents that prove he's a crook. Someone being unjust? Change their mind. Tired of working? Undetectably convince Bill Gates to hire you as a consultant for $10 million a year. He wouldn't even know it was your idea, he would think it was his!

 

[Giant]

Teleportation. Just like Nightcrawler in Xmen 2.

 

[Arcturus]

The power to take away everybody else's powers.

Everytime someone asks me this question, I answer with this because it makes people mad.

 

[Devor]

Reality Warping.

 

[Graham Irwin]

Plain and simple unrestricted flight, through the air and the heavens.

Is that too much to ask?

I guess it means I'd have to be in a bubble or something, so maybe that's technically more than one super-power, but the flight-anywhere thing could count. "Fly Anywhere Man" anyone?

Maybe I need a better name.

 

[Sparkie]

Super Strength. Tell me lifting rail-cars wouldn't be awesome, I dare you!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Super, Unstealable Strength that is so super it makes me INVINCIBLE.


And this power is useful to me (working in an urban high school), since I keep making myself into a human shield when breaking up fights in the hallways. Apparently, I keep thinking the punches will harmlessly bounce off my body, and that I'll be smart enough not to step in front of the guys who will deliberately aim for me and actually know how to throw a punch that inflicts damage.

 

[Kelise]

I asked my co-workers this, and one replied he wants to be able to shoot lemon juice from his fingertips.

Another wants to drink everyone under the table so he can beat the Russians.

They're a bit odd though.

As for mine, hrm. When I was younger I wanted to be able to control ice and fire, so I could wear it as jewellery.

These days? I'm in the middle of reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, and I've been chronically ill for a few years now. I'd love to be able to burn pewter: 'Pewter is an allomatic metal that, when burnt, gives the user extreme strength, resistance and durability. It's uses include combat, moving objects, surviving attacks, running for obscene distances, and healing oneself.'

Healing oneself? Yes, please.

If I had to go a traditional superpower, then I'd also go for teleportation. Then I could go to tokyo and London whenever I please. Let alone skip the traffic to work, and come home during my lunch break and so on.

 

[Chilari]

It may not be very practical, but the freedom and rush of flight (in the vein of Superman) would be my choice.

 

[sashamerideth]

I think the abilitity to (Selectively) pass through matter. When active it would have the added benefit of invisibility... but then I'd probably be blind too as light would just pass through my eyes... Maybe it's not so great.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal for why I would not want super strength.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Reality Warping!! =)

 

[San Cidolfus]

Well, Clayborne called the best cut of the roast. But if I had to pick something other than mind-control, I'd go for polymorphing. I'd keep it fair, though, just being able to change my shape into that of other humans. That could lead to any sort of mischief...

Would I use my powers for good? Perhaps. More accurately, I think I'd use my powers to amuse myself. No one else is doing the job.

 

[Argentum]

I would want to fly, Peter Pan style. Only without having to think happy thoughts as it would be very hard to do all the time.

 

[Fnord]

The entire concept of mind control scares me, definitely not something I'd want given my creed and all. That kind of power would make someone a walking Lord Acton quote almost instantaneously.

For me, I think it'd just be the ability to stop or slow down time to a near crawl (as well as the aging process, biological processes, etc). While not nearly as cool as flight or teleportation, I would find the ability to just have more time to be much more useful in my everyday life. I always quip that I wish modern science would just invent a way for people to not require sleep because we waste nearly a third of our lives resting. I push the boundaries of my sleep cycle as much as possible because there are so many things I want to learn and do without being constrained to our limited lifespan.

 

[Steerpike]

For one specific power, I'd go with time-displacement of some sort. Maybe just being able to move backward a single day or something like that.