So I know there are sites like powerlisting wiki and the superpower list, but yesterday I thought about you guys and gals working on the Crystal Falls project. I myself have been wrapped up in my own large scale project, but i wanted to contribute something.

Anyways.

I feel like the definitions that exist on some of the wiki's make it hard to create characters with powers that are in some way captivating. Maybe its just me. I often have question about certain abilities that I have trouble finding answers for.

I am not sure if you guys have something like this already for Crystal Falls, but maybe we can get a thread going specifically for the discussion of abilities in this case Dynamic Abilities. It could help further add to the individuality of the characters making them more dynamic . Maybe we can even have certain topics like for instance we can have a weekly topics about about certain abilities. Discussion can even lead to creating people without abilities, but are equally as dangerous in this case the Lex Luthor, Amanda Waller types.

If this sounds cool then great if not then that is ok as well!!

I can start things off with Absorption

Bio-Luminescence- The ability to cause spontaneous emission of photons from the subject's cells, primarily from the epithelial tissue, and on rare occasions, the eyes.

That sounds really cool..actually.

Do they absorb anything? and can they learn new abilities?

How does bio-luminescence work biologically?

I'm part stickler, part worldbuilder about this aspect of dynamic abilities. Personally, I cannot simply give my character(s) dynamic ability without working out in some pseudo-scientific way how it would/could work on the biological level.
Most importantly for the story, it really helps me understand the limits, positive aspects, and downsides of the character's ability. This is extremely helpful just as a way to round out the character and make the story internally coherent, even if none of the nitty-gritty details make it into the manuscript at all.

So just pushing that back at you, Doodlewriter. On a biological level, is bio-luminescence similar to lightning-bugs (chemicals reacting to create light), or is it more like a light-bulb (energy current running through resistor, causing visible combustion), or is it a different model entirely?

Because this is supposed to be a give-and-take discussion, I'll drop some of my thoughts on bio-luminescence here, too.

Chemical reaction. We're going to need glands in/under the skin (also eyes if applicable) that contain the chemicals in separate sacs, and then mixing them together in a third sac. Or, it could be a three-chemical reaction: two chemicals in a sac, and when the third is added, the reaction occurs. But that's all semantics. Whatever the case, there's gonna be an abnormal gland in/under the skin that does this - like an extra set of sweat glands all over. Because dynamics are generally born latent (apart from severe pre-parturition shock?? check this for canonicity.....) these glands existed before being utilized. As this is the case, did they perform some function beforehand? Does a person with this latent ability sweat a TON before being activated? Or are these glands just dormant? I think either way would be cool, whether they performed some function before hand or not.
Also, where do these chemicals go post-reaction? Maybe there is a fourth chemical that can be added to the mixture which ends the reaction, returning it to it's original chemical composition...?
Or does it end up being secreted as sweat? What if it actually IS the dynamic's sweat (always subcutaneous when luminescent), and after the reaction is finished, it is secreted just like normal sweat (ie. due to exertion, heat)?

Orrr there's the energy-current-and-resistor model of photon-production.
First off, we have to decide on energy current. Low-voltage electricity? High voltage? Electromagnetic? Magnetic? Friction? For each of these options, and I'm sure there are others we could come up with, there must be a source. The resistors (the element (filament in light-bulbs) through which the energy flows with great resistance, creating light) - the resistors, when active, could be attuned to earth's electromagnetic field..... Or tiny particles in the resistors could be attuned to earth's magnetic north, causing them to seek north [if these (hyper-magnetized) particles were arranged together like the spokes on a swastika (literally can't thing of anything else at the moment) then when actively seeking north they would theoretically spin, producing energy which could be used as current to run through the resistors. This would require virtually no energy from the dynamic (except mental concentration; more on that later), and would thus take virtually nothing out of him/her!].

If it is some kind of electric current that runs through the resistors, however, bio-luminescence could fit as a sub-ability within the larger category of being able to manipulate/control/produce electric current. *shrugs*
That brings its own set of biological questions.... XD

Now I'm thinking of the resistors. What are they? Could they be made up of epidermal keratin? Er, well, the equivalent of what would be keratin on a non-dyno. That seems plausible to me. Or it could be a whole different substance that most people do not have at all. Again, perhaps a subcutaneous gland that stores a certain metal/chemical that most people do not store in their bodies? Which element, when energized, acts as a powerful resistor...?

Now whenever you produce light, there's a lot of energy being talked about usually, so we have to talk about the heat aspect. Where does it go? If it's not an issue, why not? If it is produced, what happens to it so it doesn't get out of control and harm the dynamic? Frankly and unfortunately my brainstorming whirlwind is starting to fade, so I'll just leave those as questions.

Final thing to consider is the element of control. Are the nerves connecting to whatever glands or body parts that are needed for lumination part of the autonomic, sympathetic, or parasympathetic nervous systems?? Is emitting light a fright/flight/fight reaction, or can it be controlled like a flashlight? Is the lumination topical or systemic (one specific body part.....say a finger-tip, or just general areas of the body)?
Can the dynamic with this ability luminate themselves with patterns? Moving patterns? (Talk about black and white paintings/movies being taken to a whole new level.)

Oh, and what about colors? Is this light white? Reddish (because of blood in body)? Or can it be any color? (In which case, full-color movie-screen right there.... And super-camo ability...)

Whew. I think I'm done now. Man, that felt good. I haven't been "creative" like that for a long time. I need to do that more.
Anyway, that's my take on the biology of bio-luminescence.

I am interested, though, in your take on applications of this ability, Doodlewriter. Can it be weaponized (ie. hyperluminescence....laser beams)? Or were you thinking more of a low-key "side" ability (ie. "Hey let me turn myself on for you all!" *lights up hand and waves*)?

Areth,

Ka

Wow a lot was said in this post Karthmin. Overall really good stuff.

I like the idea of the the light not being one color, kind of like you said super camo ability..also maybe the bio-luminescence can be used in such a way that is exerted from there cells or skin almost like a force ability but with light that you can see.

Okay. Wow. Cool post, Karthmin. I'm gonna need a bit to process all that.

Anyway, let's start with the weaponizing of light produced by bioluminescence. This is a science fiction, so, I'm going to say yes, bioluminescence produced by a dynamic could be wielded as a weapon. However, the offensive use that I can think of that would not be harmful to the wielder would be the blinding of an attacker. Without some form of a healing factor, (which I believe we decided against on the other forum, although I could be wrong) conversion of bio-generated light could and almost certainly would be quite detrimental to the person emitting it. An example would be a dynamic going blind due to firing laser bolts through their eyes. There is a problem with the laser part, though.

Just about all living organisms produce some (usually weak) form of bioluminescence. That's one of the reasons I picked it as a power to work with. As it is quite weak, to the point of scientists needing some pretty sensitive equipment to detect it in the human body, a dynamic is most likely out of anyone to be the wielder of an enhanced form of bioluminescence, although I would not rule out the idea of genetic tampering. Concerning the observation of light emitted by human beings: there were quite a few things discovered, which you can read about in detail here. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006256
To summarize the cool stuff, the human body emits bioluminescent light brightest late in the afternoon and weakest at night. This is something I would keep in mind while writing a character with this power. Also, the brightest areas of emittance were the forehead, cheeks, and neck. This is useful for scientifically accurate art.

A way for a dynamic to have an enhanced version of bioluminescence is also hinted at through this study. It is indeed possible, if not probable, that the emission of light from the human body is linked to one's energy metabolically.
So enhance that, modify to your heart's content and ta-da! Ladies and gentlemen we have a GLOWING DYNAMIC!

Lastly, and pertinent to the laser eyes, those brightest areas of emittance of bioluminescent light did not correspond to the brightest areas of thermal emittance. This is consistent with other studies of bioluminescence - the light produced is cold. So cutting through things or burning them with laser eyes is not something that is likely to happen.

Disappointing, I know. But a lot healthier for the dynamic.

Except...

The oxidative stress involved in human bioluminescence is weak. However, that would logically increase proportionately to the dynamic's ability to produce light. Oxidative stress, however, can or may cause some nasty stuff like Parkinson's disease, or Alzheimer's, macular degeneration, or lots of other bad stuff such as messing up your endurance levels.

So, maybe this bioluminescence power isn't so healthy anyway. (But that could mean lots of story potential...)

Okay. There we are. Bioluminescence. Cool, right?

And, yes. I realize I just completely contradicted what I said before. But this time I did some reading on the idea. Not to say that I don't like the previous idea, but the above post is what I could find for the real-life science part.

As to the use of bioluminescence, I'm thinking early on the dynamic could created a strobe effect to blind enemies temporarily. Later on, being able to mimic the light around oneself like a chameleon would be really cool and useful.

Maybe they could power a solar panel, but that would of course like all other uses of light generation be rather strenuous and unlikely to happen.

And (maybe) laser eyes. Or hands. I would only have a character do that as a last resort, crazy stress adrenaline surge reaction thing, because of the horrible and painful effects it would have.

Or I could ignore all the painful stuff and just let the character have fun and eat a lot.
Nevertheless, I think I should stop with those so that the character doesn't become overpowered.

Another source for bio-luminescence is bio-electricity. It's well known that humans have a natural bio-electrical field, it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that someone has the ability to harness their bio-electrical field to super-charge the air molecules around them, thus producing light.

Or...they could have a natural phosphorescent skin pigment that works much like glow-in-the-dark paint, absorbing light and then glowing in the dark.

Or you could do some sort of photosynthesis, where their skin cells absorb solar radiation and store it...somewhere... and they can later release it.

BTW, thanks Rinothean for starting this thread. I meant to start one forever ago, but was bogged down by other things.

And for those who might find this thread intimidating, keep in mind that it's superhero fiction so you don't have to get a PhD in theoretical physics, molecular biology, etc. to figure out your characters' powers. Just a little thought and some science-sounding talk that sounds believable should pacify most readers. Or you can just say that the canon explains where superpowers in general come from, and that no scientist has ever actually studied how your characters' powers work. But if you like this kind of stuff, then by all means knock yourselves silly.

Also...this seems to be the perfect place to share my musings on flying.
Flying is like one of the staples of superhero abilities, every other character seems to be able to do it. But in most cases, very little effort is put into explaining how flight works. I'm specifically thinking of apterian (without wings) flight.

A lot of people have their fliers doing everything from hovering above ground to soaring around the world without any thought as to how that would physiologically work. And I haven't actually thought of a viable explanation either....

So here are my thoughts:

Flying essentially comes to two components:

• lift - a means of getting off the ground

and

• momentum - a means of moving in a given direction while off the ground

Now, in nature and technology, the momentum is often used in tandem with aerodynamics to achieve the lift. Wings, rockets, jets, etc. There's a reason most large birds and all aircraft get a running start to take off.

Some superheroes borrow this, by having fiery characters use fire to jet-propel themselves through the air. And this is a satisfactory means for most audience members. But Superman, Captain Marvel/Shazam, Wonder Woman, and scores other have no such mechanic in play.

And since the abilities in our canon are supposedly recessive genetic traits, that means that theoretically our characters would have to have some physiological trait(s) that grant them flight.

So here are the candidates I have so far:

Telekinetic flight - this is what Jean Grey and several other psychic heroes use. Essentially the person lifts themselves off the ground with their mind. In most cases they're also simultaneously lifting other things and/or engaging in psychic battle with enemies while flying. The problem with this is that I imagine it would take a fair amount of mental energy and concentration to merely lift a 100-300 lb human being in the air, let alone move them from place to place. And on top of that, they're supposed to be lifting other things and/or concentrating on a mental duel? That seems like a lot of multi-tasking... just saying. I suppose that if a telekine trained long enough and developed their skills they might be able to lift themselves off the ground for a while, but I feel like maintaining that hold long enough to carry themselves a great distance would require a lot of energy.

Anti-gravity - you could say that someone is able to manipulate their bio-electrical field or some such technique in such a way as to suspend gravity. This would provide lift, but no momentum. I actually have a character with just this problem. He can negate gravity to levitate himself several miles into the air, but once there, he has no way moving himself forward or backward. On the ground we move by using our legs and feet to create friction with the ground that allows us to move, but in the air, there's no such friction. What's more, my character winds up overdoing it, and getting stuck so that he permanently hovers 6' in the air. I won't go into how he goes about coping with this, but I think you get the problem in using anti-gravity as a means of flight.

Reality-warping - This seems like the most viable means of Superman type flight, suspending the laws of nature to allow you to hover/fly as you please. There are only two drawbacks that I can think of. One would be that reality-warping is an extremely rare ability. The other is that the laws of nature are continuously pushing to reassert themselves, so a flier wouldn't be able to stay up indefinitely. This would actually make a good scale for ability, having some who can only fly a mile or two at certain heights, and some who can fly farther. But the biggest issue is the rareness of reality warping abilities.

Warp-relics - This is equally viable as reality warping itself, and has the same drawbacks. Warp-smiths are rare among reality warpers, and reality over time eats away at warp relics, trying to reassert itself and weaken their abilities. This means that not many flying warp relics from the past would still work, and that those that still work would probably have a limited range and height that they could sustain at one time.

Those are my thoughts on flying. What do y'all think? Do you see something I missed? Other than wings and fire-powers, how would you physiologically explain a character's ability to fly?

The anti-gravity is probably the one I go with, other than, "Hey! I can fly! This is awesome!" without getting into the science. The fact there is no momentum may not actually be the case. All objects affect gravity and have their own slight gravitational attraction. This isn't just a vertical thing. It can also be applied horizontally as well, by strengthening the relationship between one's personal gravitational field and that of an object, or adjusting its axis so that flight becomes falling in one direction or another.

Repair.

I have two characters who have a permutation of this ability. For one of them, it manifests as a form of technopathy (the ability to manipulate machines/electronics using the mind) in which he's able to instantly repair any damaged piece of machinery or technology, no matter how complex. He can also create new pieces of technology, assuming he has all the parts and a diagram, without having to assemble it by hand.

My second character has the ability to take, in surrogate, ~80% of the bodily harm suffered by others near him. This would, of course, be fatal if were his only ability, but as a secondary ability, he can absorb the fibers from any cloth (so long as it's touching his skin within an inch of the wound) and convert them to the organic material necessary to heal any wound he suffers on his body. Not a flashy power, but definitely useful.

Anyone else have "Repair" heroes?

I've never actually heard of repair as a super-power before, but that is definitely pretty interesting.

they both sound really cool...coincidently i havent been on this forum in a while

Could anti-gravity cause objects to explode or disintegrate?

Reasoning: Gravity is the attraction of two or more masses toward each other. Anti-gravity would then be the repulsion of objects with mass. If one influenced an object with anti-gravity, its mass components would repel each other, and shazam, you have sprinkly objects.

Yes. However, the problem with that line of thought is that the victim could just as easily become his own bomb. Do you want to go to a world of exploding heads?

I'd prefer to not see your point. You are right.