Powers Discussion

Jasmine catches her reflection in the mirror, and tilts her head, “Why am I still white?”

“Because it's an enchanted item, not a spell,” the ring gives a mental shrug from the back seat, “I have to be ‘driving’ to make them, but I can keep powering them ‘from the back seat’ as long as I have a host and strength to spare. I didn't think you'd like the idea of suddenly changing our skin back if my time runs out in public due to unexpected circumstances, nor me keeping control when my time runs out; this lets me hand control back over without compromising the dual identity. Also, items are more energy efficient than spells in the long run… at the cost of dedicating some strength, so good for things I need often.”

“So, like, you could build me some magic doodads that I could use?” The woman raises an eyebrow.

The mage answers quickly, “Yes, but I would need to stay connected to keep them working, and would need to make the triggers physical or automatic: A ring that you twist to turn invisible, a wand with a trigger like a gun, an amulet that absorbs injury for you, that sort of thing. It would also mean things like flight or shapeshifting would have a pretty steep learning curve… but almost anything can be squeaked in, really. That said: It is a long term commitment of my power to make that work, so I'd want a similar long-term payment schedule. What kind of gear are you thinking?”

“Oh, nevermind then… a couple hours every here and there is no big deal, but I have a life and a job: Committing to some time every day could be a problem,” the woman sighs, “I was kind of hoping to be a super hero.”

“Oh, you have more available ‘currency’ than you think,” the symbiotic soul smiles inside, “how do you feel about a sleepwalker's deal?”

“...I'm listening…” the woman squints a bit.

“Okay, so… your mind needs to sleep,” the ring begins his sales pitch, “baseline humans spend six to nine hours sleeping most nights. Well… my brain doesn't work that way anymore, and I can take care of the body's reasons for sleeping via magic. So you could go to bed, let me know when you need to get up, and I could ‘drive’ while you sleep, waking you when the time you specified rolls around or when something comes up requiring you… a phone call from your mother or something… and putting you back in the driver's seat at that time. You'd get the full allotment of time you normally spend awake and in control, and I'd get several mostly-regularly scheduled hours of activity on a nightly basis. I could spend an hour or two a night handling tasks you specify, a little time maintaining your body, and get three to seven hours every night just having fun and living: We both win.”

“And that ‘hour or two a night’ on stuff I want could make me a superhero?” The woman's clearly considering it.

“Oh yes,” the Ring mentally smiles, “I can hook you up as a mid or high tier hero with the right gear. What style do you want? A shadow skulker, a big bruiser, a flying blaster, or something else? There's limits to how much power I can spread around, so trying to do everything at once means you won't be able to do anything particularly well, and some things will require more training than others, but anything is doable.”

“I… don't think I have the courage to get in the thick of it.” Jasmine takes off the plastic bracelet, reverting to her normal hues, “Can we do invisibility and some kind of disposable summoned creature? Something where I can just tell it what to do, and it will, and if it gets killed, I can just summon it again?”

“Invisibility to avoid being targeted, summoning to do the work, then just keep replacing the summon when it falls…” the Ring considers, “Decent combination in theory, but…” he pauses, “Okay, so… disposable summoned creatures aren't very strong; single strong summons are possible, but they're out of the game for hours if they're defeated. That said, yes, I can set it up… but your fights will end up taking a very long time, and if you're facing something that heals and doesn't tire, you're stuck. If you face something that can detect you, you're toast. Your fights become very, very… binary: An opponent can either beat you, or will be beaten by you, and you're often not going to have much warning that you're losing. If you don't want to be in the thick of it… maybe a flying blaster?”

“I've gone skeet shooting,” Jasmine shakes her head, “I'd rather not be the skeet… maybe a speedster?”

“Fair enough,” the ring chuckles, “That's workable…” the mage pauses, “time bender subtype, of course.”

“Subtype?” Jasmine frowns.

The symbiotic soul considers, “Okay, so… keeping in mind that this observational classification, there's a lot of varieties within any class of power. Magic s will have artificers, mindbenders, summoners, and so on; the genius types will have roboticists, gadgeteers, power suit types, and so on; blasters have fire types, water types, acid types, and so on; and of course, each of those subtypes has variants, not everyone is limited to just one branch, and such. Well, with speedsters, there's also multiple types: Planners and Timebenders being the main two. Planners are super-fast… but they need to know exactly what they're doing. A Planner can zip over, disassemble the rifle a man is holding out of his hands, and zip back to his starting position in a heartbeat… but if the goon with a gun is an illusion, the planner is still going back to the starting point: Planners brains are mostly normal, it's just their bodies that are faster than they should be.”

“A Timebender's mind can keep up, then,” the hero-to-be nods.

“Right,” the Ring agrees, “sometimes their brains are just that fast too, sometimes they're literally bending time, it's hard to tell the two apart… and just to confuse things, most speedsters include some amount of both types. If you want to be a speedster, though, I'm going to make you a pure timebender. When you activate the thing, everyone and everything else will seem to slow to a crawl, but stuff will all seem normal to you otherwise: You'll still fall at about thirty two feet per second squared in your perspective, when you open a door you won't need to slow down to avoid ripping off the doorknob, your clothes won't burn off when you run, and so on: It's much easier for beginners. We can talk about tue advantages of the Planning type and leaning the dial a little that way after you've got some experience under your belt.”

Jasmine nods, “That sounds good… will throwing things work well?”

“I can make sure your fastball acts like a cannonball, sure,” the ring chuckles, “I'll need something to enchant; a bracelet, belt, necklace, ring or something else that you can wear full time without arousing suspicion - preferably something sturdy and difficult to lose - that you can easily reach and manipulate. I'll also have it trigger some cosmetic changes and paint you up in a uniform. Do you have a preferred color scheme or symbols?”

“I can pick up a titanium ring from work easily enough. Maybe a nice forest green and some black?” The woman considers, “It generally goes well with my skin. Symbols… can we change this later?”

“Yeah, no problem,” the back seat mind confirms, “Changing a color scheme or some symbols is just a couple of minutes of work, and I can revamp the power set entirely given a couple of hours.”

“Then let's skip symbols for now,” the biracial woman decides, “We can do that after I have a feel for my super persona.”

“Cool… what time do you set your alarm?” The ring ‘sounds’ happy, “I'm looking forward to a night on the town.”

“I get up at eight; the store doesn't open until ten, and that gives me two hours to get ready and get over there… I like leisurely mornings.” Jasmine pauses, “Don't spend much, my bank isn't exactly flush with cash.”

“Not an issue,” the back seat driver agrees easily, “I won't take anything from your s.”

“Cool,” the woman nods, “I suppose I should get ready for bed…” she sighs, “Ramen again…” she shakes her head as she heads to the kitchen.

“That's something I can fix,” the symbiotic soul sighs as the woman fills a pan with water, “I'll take care of it tonight.”

“You can fix my money problems?” Jasmine crinkles her brow as she puts the water on to boil.

“I have been around for a very long time, it's not that difficult for a magic to make money, and compound interest is a thing,” the mage chuckles while the complete person sets a timer, “I have a diversified portfolio of many different long term investments, memorized numbers, and codes. A few calls and I can direct a trust fund disbursement schedule your way. Assuming you're not drowning in debt…”

“I work for a pawn shop,” the real woman interrupts with a snort as she waits, “I know what debt does to people. I have an emergency credit card that currently has a balance of zero.”

“Great… ten grand for setup, and two grand a week maintenance, then.” The Ring pauses, “keep in mind, though: It's my money. I am fine with getting you set up with some things I'll enjoy too - comfortable clothes, good food, nice bedding, and such - and don't really mind if you spend some on things you like, but don't go nuts, and don't get complacent, alright?”

“Sure…” the woman smiles… then frowns as she looks at her water.