opnet [OpNet] Gifts of the Gods

[Avatar]

My last question (see Eruption Experiences) has been a help to me in my quest for understanding and I have another question I'd like to pose those here.

What Quantum expressions have you manifested (both "positive" and "negative") and how do they affect your daily life?

I realize that there are many here who value their privacy and if this is too personal, please don't feel obliged to answer, but it does make me curious. You've got the power of a modern day god at your fingertips. How does that affect your daily living?

[Vixen]

How does it affect my life?

Well, I jog in the mornings now. Just on the cusp of sunrise - in fact, I've seen more sunrises in the past three months that in my entire lifetime before that. I've gotten friendly with people in the neighbourhood. Everyone's really sweet around here.

I sing more. I sing, period. Half my life, I had no voice to sing with and no legs to jog with and I guess I'm making up for lost time. I don't sleep as often as I used to so I read a lot of books. Right now I'm into "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom," about a post-death, post-money society based on the reputation economy and the restoration of Disneyland...

I go camping a lot, too. All the stuff I wanted to do on my own that I never could.

Oh yeah, I can fly too. And smell everywhere you've been in the past month, and I have this weird hypnotism whammy with my voice. And I look like a Japanese nature spirit, all foxy fur and tails and white fritzy hair.

But those are just... nice bonuses. With their own tradeoffs, both within a body that couldn't handle all the quantum being shoved into it, and without, in a society that pays me more attention than I'd like.

Someone asked me the other day why I took so much pride in such mundane abilities when my peers can juggle battleships and shoot lasers and run the four-second mile. I just laughed. I said something along the lines of how I had more than one set of peers, and how everyone's got their own standards.

No... when you've been paralysed and mute half your life, trust me: walking and talking are superpowers all their own.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Vixen:
No... when you've been paralysed and mute half your life, trust me: walking and talking are superpowers all their own.

I hear you. My previous weak point was my lungs. Now I enjoy perfect health, and can walk, run, climb, etc, for days, without breathing hard. I've gone from total clutz with athletic inability to a sort of lumbering grace and athletic mastery. And things are much more... obvious than they ever were before.

That was the good news for day to day life. Peak experiences (i.e. combat) are another story with another set of bonuses (healing, strength, toughness).

The downside is I'm constantly juggling a single flask of nitro. It looks easy. It even is easy. I just can't make any mistakes.

I easily transform into a 10 foot tall, green, violence prone mitoid. Although I am techniqually the same person, my personality is different enough that a bad situation will be made much worse. That option or possibility is always there.

[Arek]

Most of my 'expression' involves the manipulation of wind and air currents, popularily dubbed 'Aerokinesis'.

I've gotten fairly good at it, up to the points of being able to whip up sudden gale-force winds that can knock people around, or whip up shields of wind that slow down or stop attacks. Recently, I've developed a highly destructive burst of Quantum energy that I call a 'Wind Shear'. However it functions, it shreds armor and fairly durable metals easily. I used to use supportive air currents to propel me through the air, although I now seem to project myself in some other way. At slightly more than supersonic speeds, I don't think I am using wind to fly anymore. I have probably defaulted to a more common 'Quantum powered levitation' that many Novas possess.

My strength, endurance, physical attractiveness, mental reaction time and intelligence are all of slightly superhuman levels. My physical speed and agility are far more than any of them. I can catch bullets, dodge machinegun fire and I have unmatched reflexes. I haven't FOUGHT with anyone faster than me yet, so I may be proven wrong. I'm also fairly durable, I was bruised when I was hit with a point-blank shotgun shell, but other than that, I was fine.

[Agnelli Celeste]

Well, I have somewhat subtle powers. Most of my powers go off with no one noticing. I am luck, but that is not where I think most of my power lies. You see,I see the flows of quantum mean I could tell you what forms of powers you could manifest even did to a baseline,once.

I do not know how I do this, but I can tell what ways people are most likely to grow in power. THis is not from studding or basing it on the powers they already have. I mean I can walk threw a crow of novas,and know in a strange way how they develop their powers. And what powers they have.

As for why I have not being posting,well I have been studding taint,and I think I have found a cure. Well, not a cure, but at least a stop gap. BUt, I am still working on it. I wish I could say more, but really the higher ups would get mad.

Anyways, back to myself, aside from seeing Quantum. I see sound, prior to my becoming a nova, I was deaf,and I still am. But I can see sound waves. I mean to me sound waves are as easy to rear as text. IT is strange,and I have been told that someday I will be able to see sound waves that most people will never hear, but that is not now.

Other powers I have, in a short list,let's see I am faster, stronger, tougher. THe quantum, rebuilt me, better faster stronger..ANd I do not have any cheesy sound effects going off when I run. If anyone gets that joke, I will treat them out to dinner at well, anywhere in California, Mexico, or even Texas.

Last Arek,I found a picture of you.Yoru cute, well at elast youw ere in the picture.I do nto know fi you are cute anymore. Taint,and all.Not trying to be rude mind you.

[Walker]

The ability to go pretty much anywhere I want is a real eye opener, the different things you can see and places you can go being the educational and wonderful thing about it.

The most profound abilty of mine is being able to converse with animals and plants. That has really changed my view of the world and my place in it. how exactly is more difficult to describe but you could sum it up as a profund respect for other living beings.

Being able to hear radio waves and see in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum also comes in handy, especially for watching and listening to Jupiter crackle and sparkle in the millimeteres wave bands.

On the negative side the bulgy head is unsightly, but it makes room for the node I guess. Also I have this shoot-me-in-the-dark orange glow which can be a pain but makes me look interesting if you're into the taint thing I guess. In my case the negatives aren't too bad.

[Avatar]

There are some very interesting replies here, all of you. I do have some questions however. While you have all given me interesting details about how you have been gifted, many of you haven’t really answered the last part of my question. How do your “powers” affect your daily living?

Vixen,

You seem to be hung up on the “baseline” side of your dual nature. I am curious as to why that is? While I can appreciate your exploration of a condition you were previously denied due to physical disability, I find it odd that you don’t seem to put the same level of exploration and excitement into your Quantum expressions. Why is that?

Dr. Troll,

You asked me on another thread for a description of my quantum gifts and so here it is. As you may have guessed from the description of my eruption, I can fly. At this point I have only been able to reach a maximum speed of about 200 to 250 kph, but that shows signs of increasing, not that the ultimate speed really worries me. It is what it is. I also have the ability to stop “attacks” before they strike me. While I don’t know the exact upper limits of this ability, I know it is fairly strong due to a recent incident with a van. My entire being has been so suffused with Quantum that I have developed super human qualities in basically every trait quantifiable by man. I am stronger than the strongest baseline, faster, more resilient, more attractive, and so on. By far the most evolved trait is my intellect. My capacity for learning and processing information, the speed at which I operate mentally and my physical and intellectual perception have all been vastly improved. Very little surprises me any more. My signature “power”, if you will, is the ability to create crystalline structures of a temporary nature. So far, simple objects made of a single piece of this crystal are the easiest, but I have also made pieces with moving parts as well as some with complex, multiple components.

In regards to my powers, I find myself doing the most unusual things. For instance, I find myself flying instead of walking on many occasions. Don’t take this to mean that I’ve lost the desire (or the ability) to walk but rather that my subconscious mind seems to have accepted my new found mode of locomotion as a natural option. Flying for me requires no more conscious thought than walking. I find a similar situation with my other abilities as well and I am curious to know just how common an occurrence this really is.

[Phantasm]

I have for the most part had to completly change the way I live. Before my erruption I was just a typical college student. I had a somewhat busy social life. You know had a lot of friends, went to a lot of parties etc..

But now it is difficult for me to remain solid or even visible for to long. People ren't very comfortable around me. I don't mean it as just the general unease that baselines feel around us, even novas are uncomfortable around me. I notice peoples hairs will stand up on their necks, and they tend to get goosebumps. I'm not sure if I am unconciously projecting this emotion or if it because of the emotional fuel my quantum desires. But it has caused me to take a more reclusive role in society.

I do find myself flying most places,or floating is a better descriptive. I don't bother with things like doors anymore. Walking through them just seems more natural. Because I don't eat food so much anymore, when I do have a meal in my solid form it just tastes better to me.

[Teknokat]

I chose to change how I live. My eruption provided me with the tools to allow me to provide myself with a better quality of life, and thus, I have provided that for myself.

The capabilities that I possess have permeated my entire life. In a way, I live at the behest of my capabilities. It's how I earn my money, and, in many ways, how I define my life.

Hell yes eruption has changed me. In my case, it was pretty much natural.

[ronin]

Avatar.

A though-provoking question, and one not at all easily answered.

Ask any one of these people this question again in seventy or eighty years, and that, then, will be my answer.

.ronin

[Avatar]

Ronin,

You do like to speak in riddles and innuendo don't you? Still, I understand your message. While I would very much like to meet you, I understand that it isn't an option right now. Hopefully one day you will feel differently about secluding yourself away from the world.

Phantasm,

you seem to be in an interesting position in life. Does this lack of interaction with the world bother you? Have you looked for help from such institutions as Project Utopia? You may be right about other people's reactions to you. If you like, we can get together and put that theory to the test. I have some sort of natural resistance to emotional and mental manipulations so there is a good possibility I wouldn't be affected. Besides, it would be nice to meet another Nova outside of the media spotlight.

Technokat,

Your answer doesn't really tell me much about how your has life changed, only that it has. Could you be a little more specific about the changes, if it's not too personal? I assume from your monniker that your quantum gifts deal rather heavily with technology. A friend of mine (that same friend from T.H.I.) is also a cyberkinetic. The most infuriating thing about him are his bloody computers. He hasn't used an I/O device in almost 2 years and every time I'm at his office or his house, I have to dig through a closet full of techno-junk just to find a working keyboard and monitor!

[Sakurako Hino]

I just try to live a normal life.

Or whatever a normal life is for a nova.

Which probably is a double negative.

Yeah, I know, I'm asking for it saying that, but it's the truth. I just try to have as much fun as possible without having to be a "digital goddess" for someone. What pisses me off is that it seems my node has a sublime sense of humor. It makes me super intelligent, yet I have a hodgepodge of otherwise useless abilities. Not that I don't welcome my gifts with open arms. I'm just... strange.

I don't believe I said that. O_O;

[Phantasm]

Avatar,

Oh no, by no means am I bothered by lack of contact. Any relationships I may have formed in my baseline life were superficial. Any relationships I have now are based on stronger bonds. I seem to be able to sense the truer nature of people, and more often than not, they are not people I would wish to be around.

I haven't gone anywhere for help because I don't feel there is anyhing wrong with me. I have however had some assistance learning my abilities if that is what you mean.

I would agree to meeting you. I definately am not in the media spotilight. I think this forum is the most public place I have let myself be known. Perhaps you will be immune to the unease that I project.

[Arek]

Hmmm. I suppose I didn't really give you the answer that you were looking for, Avatar. I'll try again.

My abilities (as listed above), most of them simply improved my natural abilities. I was intelligent, athletic and insightful before my eruption and I only became more so afterwards. I was never happy with my basic capabilities, since I thought they weren't enough. When these capabilities became preternatural in level, my lack of confidence vanished. Being elevated beyond any of my previous ideas of my potential was quite an ego boost (fortunately, that wasn't enhanced as well).

My ability to manipulate wind, was an unexpected bonus. What I might have seen as a strange development, I now see as a wonderous gift. If it were not for my aerokinesis, I would never have known the bliss of being the center of a hurricane, nor the exhileration of lifting from the ground on a air current or even the simple pleasure of knowing that I was the precipitating force that caused a buffet of air to knock away my opponents. I suppose my baseline personality always resembled the wind; always shifting from one extreme to another, tearing down my own life. Now that I have control of my life, it seems I have control over the wind as well.

When I first learned of my ability to fly, I was crying tears of joy as I drifted above the bright lights of cities at night. The perspective of a bird was so much MORE than the perspective of one rooted to the ground. It was, and still is, utter beauty. The mobility I don't even care for. The sheer joy I feel just being in the air is comparable to none. I think I would rather be a baseline again than to never levitate above the ground below.

I practiced the martial arts before my eruption, more for exercise and conditioning than anything else. Now, I don't even need to stretch at all. I'm capable of negative splits almost up to my shoulders. I'm effectively triple jointed. I can cast aside bullets, knives and fists all with minimal effort. I'm not as fast as some on the ground, but with my stamina, I can run for hours. Being able to jog around the province is a nice pasttime, not as good as flying, but still enjoyable.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Phantasm:
Perhaps you will be immune to the unease that I project.

Hmm. I wonder if a mind shield would help against that? Granted, only a minority of us have such a thing, but it is a fairly large minority.

[Teknokat]

Quote:

Originally posted by Avatar:
Technokat,
Your answer doesn't really tell me much about how your has life changed, only that it has. Could you be a little more specific about the changes, if it's not too personal? I assume from your monniker that your quantum gifts deal rather heavily with technology. A friend of mine (that same friend from T.H.I.) is also a cyberkinetic. The most infuriating thing about him are his bloody computers. He hasn't used an I/O device in almost 2 years and every time I'm at his office or his house, I have to dig through a closet full of techno-junk just to find a working keyboard and monitor!

I was vague for a reason, but I'll elaborate slightly. When I was a baseline, I was, let's face it, not in a particularly good life. I was working in a job that paid barely enough to keep a roof over my head, I had serious college debts, and while I was about to graduate in a professional degree, racial issues would have very likely hampered my attempts to rise above my station. My childhood was far worse, for more than personal reasons I'm not going to go into it.

When I erupted, it wasn't like I had new knowledge or anything, far from it I knew as much after than I did before about my field of expertise. Instead, it was more like my mind was... optimised for invention. I was always something of a technophile, but the obsession never changed my outlook. I saw a computer, or a new gadget, and I'd think how cool it would be to have one. But that's all it was.

After I erupted, though, a machine was not just a machine. Anyone can see the outside of a device, and anyone with a screwdriver can see inside of a device, but when you can see something, and be able to see exactly how each part of it operates, and just know exactly what you'd need to do to make it better, faster, stronger, and do this without consciously thinking about it, it changes your outlook.

While I always hoped that I'd be able to design for people, now I could do it without breaking a sweat, with insane speed, there was no way I could do anything else. So, TKI was born. My own private domain, where I could make and enhance anything I wanted to. And people were paying me for it.

From that, you can pretty much gain a reasonable perspective on how my life changed. I don't just design machinery anymore. I live machinery. If I were more egotistical, Goddess of the Machine may have been just as good a monnikor. But then, I prefer not to be so egotistic. Makes you underestimate others.

Yes, my capabilities includes what is generally known as Cyberkinesis. And while I can interface directly with computers and the like, I still keep keyboards around. Besides, considering my Keyboard is an Engineering feat of itself, it's not like I'm going to discard it (if you're curious, Carbon nano-tube/Vitrium composite. It's tensile strength is so massive, many Strongman novas hurt their hands trying to crush it. I'm quite pleased with it

Oh, and if you like, I have a I/O set that can interface with most standard computer systems without actual contact with the system, if you'd like to cut down on the junk-rummaging. I used to use it a lot, but seeing as for me it's now far easier and compact to rely on my own capabilities, it's been in cold storage for a while.

That reminds me, I should look into putting that in the Spring release. I can see plenty of people who wouldn't mind such a device... and plenty who'd like a system to block it!

[Vixen]

Quote:

Originally posted by Avatar:
Vixen,
You seem to be hung up on the ?baseline? side of your dual nature. I am curious as to why that is? While I can appreciate your exploration of a condition you were previously denied due to physical disability, I find it odd that you don?t seem to put the same level of exploration and excitement into your Quantum expressions. Why is that?

Because all my life, I've dreamed of the day when spinal injuries like mine would be repairable, and I've done a lot of thinking on what I'd do if I ever got that back. I haven't done quite as much thinking on what I'd do if I had superpowers, apart from mentally projecting myself as a comic book character in my daydreams - and even then, I didn't take it as seriously as I did my dreams of walking.

So now that I have both, "exploring" superpowers takes a lower priorety, since it's not something I've been eagerly looking forward to for ages.

[Widget]

When you use a phrase like "super powers", what exactly are you referring to?

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[ronin]

Avatar.

Quite the contary. As it happens, I'm actively seeking new company, not shying away from it.

What I am trying to avoid exactly is the kind of company I used to keep, and any sort of widespread attention. I'm not a hermit, I just don't want any attention being drawn to me.

If you want to talk or meet sometime, my trans-spatial wormhole is always open.

.ronin

[Vixen]

Quote:

Originally posted by Widget:
When you use a phrase like "super powers", what exactly are you referring to?

If you want to get technical, then it would be everything that I'm capable of doing thanks to the Mazarin-Rashoud node's flow of quantum through my mind and body - in other words, everything I can't do while dormed down, such as fly through the air, read people's minds, track a person by scent, and so forth.

[Sakurako Hino]

You know me, Teknokat. I want the toy, and the means to break it. Care to fill me in further on your latest, via some other more secure method? Since this is buisiness.

[Widget]

I was interested as to whether you counted being furry, having a probiscus several inchs long thereby increasing your olfactory acuity or being able to reduce heat by panting with your tongue lolling out as super powers.

The curiosity concerns where you draw the line between inherent abilities of a form produced and maintained by a constant low probability quantum flux and those which are not intrinsic to form but consciousness instead.

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[Jager]

Widget, Vixen is fox-like, not a fox (in the genis sense). She sweats and her dander isn't fox-like in scent or composition. She doesn't need to pant to regulate her body heat, nor have I ever seen her with her tongue "lolling out." If you had spent a little time with her, you would have figured this out already.

Wait a second ...

...

Are you coming on to her?

My apologise for my interference. Please, continue.

[Avatar]

I'd like to renew this topic for discussion, there are several new faces here and I am interested to hear their opinions. So, to restate the question; How have the Quantum forces of the universe manifested themselves through you and how does this affect your day to day life?

To those of you who were here when I last asked this quetion, I ask this; How have you evloved and developed. Have any of you experienced any major "growth" along quantum lines and if so, how? For those of you who have remained static, I ask why? Is it by choice, or a percieved inability of contiue development?

[Longboard]

I am a surfer. Now that my body is immune to natural cold weather injuries like hypthermia and frostbite, I no longer need to wear a wetsuit. Which is col, cuz I never liked em anyways.

Also, I dont need to worry about sunscreen because my skin color is a constant tan color with a slight red tinit. It looks like a sunburn, but aint. Doing my hair is problematic because it only stays in one style..Spikes, ending in flames. Also, an anime banner of plasma flame that singes stuff. Its not too bad, but Ive gotten along with it for so long that I've learned to cope with it.

[Understudy]

Avatar, I myself have grown in a number of ways. By abilities have allowed me to explore the world in new ways from both a baseline and nova view point. As much as that is possible.

I would not say that those who have used their coming of being simply to fill in the gaps of the human life have truly grown nor would I say that relationships before am eruption are necessarily less strong than those formed afterwards. However by simple fact that power changes all that is surrounds it such relationships may changed and even weaken while new ones become very different.

[Avatar]

Thank you both for your replies but you both have remained somewhat vague on just what it is you are capable of. WOuld either of you mind elaborating? I take from your post Londboard that you are capable of producing or manipulating thermal enegy of some sort. Am I correct?

[Longboard]

Yeah, I actually got more into it on some of the other boards... But I fire aggravated quantam bolts of plasma. I can also fly at ridiculous speed. Most of my awesomeness comes from my superduperhuman dexterity. Id make them Olympic acrobats look like they got two left feet. I can turn my whole body into one flaming mass of plasma. I canbt actually manipulate it, or create it, but shooting fireballs, and flying I got down pat. and Im a DAMn good shot from far out too.

[Understudy]

Avatar, I am capable of many things. I like help people grow and full fill what they might be. more of mission than a skill. Just what I capable of I am not truly sure but I perfere to think of my abilities as the ability to cope with whatever part I may be required to play.

I do not have enough time at the moment to explain the how now the world is very different place for me but let me say this; what we may consider positive and negative will mean very different things to us.

[Destiny]

My powers ROCK!!!!!