Tales of the Parodyverse - Seals invented parachutes long ago. They just keep it secret

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Subj: Seals invented parachutes long ago. They just keep it secret.
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 at 06:48:40 am EDT (Viewed 2 times)

Reply Subj: It might keep the seals from falling in, though.
Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 at 08:41:21 am EDT (Viewed 388 times)

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In Liu Xi's case the problem is that if her soul leaves her body, even temporarily, it's been booked.

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That leaves me wondering if they've made a mistake, though - her powers might be attached to her spirit, not her body. Though the only way to find out for sure is to kill her and be disappointed that the body isn't terribly powerful by itself.

I'd suggest that Liu Xi's powers come from the "qi", the life-energies that the Chinese attribute all kinds of amazing phyiscal and "force" powers to in their mythology (and in modern martial arts). It's the internal energy which is addressed through acupuncture.

The doctrine is most often expressed as using mental and physical dicipline to harness the natural energies of the body to influence the natural energies of the world. In that case it requires a body to generate the qi and a mind or spirit to direct it. It's an excellent mechanism for explaining some superpowers.

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Actually, the island's Celestian defences were set there in prehistory to protect the Sleeping Celestian and his Cosmic Cube. Both are gone now but the defences still operate.

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I wonder if there's anyone the defenses might mistake for a Celestian? Lara Night has the ability to hop universes, but I don't know if that's enough since she's not genetically related to them. Faite, however, was plucked from primitive Earth and given her job, and her powers, but some unknown supreme being - she may have been an engineered partial Celestian for all we know.

It's an interesting question. The Celestians were Space Robots, though, so organics are at a disadvantage right away.

We've never learned who made the Celestians. I've always shied away from explaining who the absolute powers of the Parodyverse are. What's the point of another tier of "even more omnipotent than the last bunch of cosmics"? This way I don't offend many people's religious or theological sensibilities - the Parodyverse demons are just shadows of a true evil and the pantheons of gods don't neccessarily disprove a less visible omnipotent God and the cosmic beings don't demand buying into one particular spiritual view not demand a pluralist one. A Christian, a Taoist, a Wiccan, and an atheist should all be able to enjoy the Parodyverse without having their sensibilities too offended.

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This is, of course, useful for stories. We can have as many supervillain attacks as we like on the Mansion and there's no help at all, but then there's a reason why Galactivac can't just anihillate the entire island so our heroes have a slim chance of stopping him.

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And if you note the above, it might mean someone has the ability to trigger the defenses on purpose, but doesn't know it yet. Or maybe in Faite's case, knows but doesn't want to.

The Parody Master arranged for them to be triggered to seal the Legion in on one occasion so they couldn't stop him.

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But, if Beth's brain activity is reading like she's asleep instead, and her body is being manipulated like a puppet, that Anna might think is very unusual.

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It's something to explore one day.

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Like I said, Anna is very set on minding her own business to prevent problems with her presence in the mansion. The big exception to that might be if she makes some offhand comment about Citizen Z sleepwalking. Though nobody might pay attention to that.

The Citizen Z situation gets significantly advanced in UT#349.

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There are three classic enemy types, the opposite, the almost-alike, and the manipulator. The opposite would be someone very different in power-set but still able to threaten Yuki physically; a biological monster stronger but slower, perhaps. The almost-alike would be another cyborg - maybe a male - who can do what Yuki can but who uses his abilities for evil. Their confrontations then become battles of wits and strategy. The manipulator is more like the puppet master you cite and would need to be tied to Yuki's past, her origins.

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I thought about having another cybernetic person, but since Yuki's body is supposed to be so prohibitively expensive (and prone to rejection, which makes it even more scary for anyone to spend the money to produce one) it's going to be very rare.

One interesting contrast would be a person who chose to become a cyborg, in contrast to Yuki's having a cyborg form as essentially a prosthetic. CSFB!'s rogues gallery included a sect of people who wanted to "improve" themselves with machine parts.

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Of course it would have to be someone really insane, since it's unlikely two people would have similar accidents - so perhaps someone with lots of money looking for immortality, but didn't bond well with the body so it made him crazy.

There's two routes with this one. Either the villain was nuts and chose to become a cyborg because of it or else the becoming a cyborg drove a good man insane; it's the Joker vs Harvey Dent scenarios.

The latter might be more interesting if Yuki and this villain previously enjoyed a family or romantic relationship.