Non Cliche Reactions To Super Powered People.

So any thoughts on the whole "kid with water powers tries to be superhero" thing? So possible theories people might have about the kids? And how would the education system cope with the sudden influx of powered children?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Well, I already mentioned aliens. There would no doubt be religious theories. If you think new religions will sprout up around that you could have them bastardize Revelations somehow. Alternatively, you could have some Buddhist interpretation. Since it's in Australia, why not have people look to the aborigine's beliefs for explanations? Then there will be the hard scientists who want to study the children and do all sorts of examinations, which really is reasonable provided the children aren't hurt.

I think young children trying to be superheroes would probably get hurt. Since you mentioned ten as the age the powers develop, they would have a very skewed view of how it would go. Plus, it would be rather difficult to keep a secret identity; their names would be on file. And even if they did keep that secret, an enemy could simply start hunting down every single child that was affected on the not unreasonable theory that they would get the right one eventually.

Also, schools as they currently are would be massively unprepared. One, their buildings aren't made to resist the kind of damage a super powered kid might be capable of. There's the inevitable bullying of kids too stupid to think it's a bad idea, and the possibly horrific things the victim could in response. I figure the more powerful the individual is, the worse an idea it is for them to be in a standard school. Plus, if this kid can control water, does that mean he can turn a target into a puppet, or draw all the water out of them and dehydrating them really fast? I figure the school system would kick out all of them as soon as one bad thing happened, as a reflex. Of course, if you're going to have thousands of them, it's entirely possible a whole district could end up having these kids in one grade in one school. Which makes for a problem when dealing with kids in other grades.

So issues the families that keep their bundle of godlike joy would face? And how might the kids view each over?

edited 20th Mar '11 1:05:16 AM by Zolnier

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

So possible distinguishing marks the children might have?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

For how the kids view each other, they might look up to those with greater superpowers and look down to those with weaker superpowers.

How about a birthmark?

Any thoughts on a nice weird birthmark?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

The sky's the limit. It could be a beauty mark that happens to be on the same places, or some patch of skin that is a different color. However, it shouldn't be too obvious.

What do you mean by obvious?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

As in every one of them having a big mark on their face or palms, it should be something that they could hide easily so they could pretend to be normal, like on a shoulder blade, lower back, chest, etc.

So likely reactions from the mothers?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Reactions would probably vary. I'd imagine that there'd initally be some freaking out all round, for obvious reasons, one of which is the fact that a lot of them would feel violated, but once they've had chance to get their heads around it, reactions would probably range from women who'd previously been trying for a baby without sucess viewing it as a blessing in disguise, to women who keep on feeling violated which probably wouldn't boad well for the kid, to younger women who are flat out terrified by the prospect. One question though, what's stopping most of the women affected from getting abortions? After all, under the circumstances it is the most logical course of action.

Here's a thought, since this happened in Australia, aka the land of scary weirdness, you just know that there's going to be some jokes on the subject, even if they're just something along the lines of 'we didn't think it was possible but Australia has managed to get even weirder. What's next, fire breathing dingos?'

Okay anyone have any thoughts about the "why didnt anyone abort the kid?" thing?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Any way their mental link could affect things? As well as the fact that flight is universally possessed among the kid's? Also how might the Government keep the children isolated, and still be humane?

edited 20th Mar '11 11:08:04 PM by Zolnier

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

So any possible negative public opinions on the kid's that don't boil down to the X-men standard "they're different"? And does this sound to outlandish, the whites of the kid's eyes all have a silver tint.

edited 21st Mar '11 12:52:09 AM by Zolnier

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Hmmm... Gonna answer some of the questions you asked per PM as well if that's alright with you.

I won't directly quote directly, but instead paraphrase the questions to make matters more interesting

A key would be to prepare the kids a couple of weeks beforehand. Make it into a long-term vacation in a nice place somewhere in nature.

Sliver tint? That sounds stuble enough.

I think you're thinking of 'subtle'. ;)

So any way the scientists/Govermant people/observers could try to keep to "make up" for the separation of the kid's from their families and their isolation? And any symptoms the children could have had right before their powers manifested? And ways the Govermant could try to respect parental rights?

edited 21st Mar '11 8:52:48 AM by Zolnier

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

"One question though, what's stopping most of the women affected from getting abortions? After all, under the circumstances it is the most logical course of action."

Why would it be the logical course of action? Some women may do so, but certainly not most. Firstly, usual estimates put a 50/50 split on pro-life vs pro-choice, and a pro-life woman is unlikely to get an abortion under any circumstances. Secondly, many of the women may not realize until later that the child isn't their significant other's child, and plenty of couples adapt quite well to an unexpected pregnancy (ie, 'well, we wanted kids eventually, so why not?'). Others may not care, as long as the significant other knows she didn't cheat on him. And, of course, if they were having any trouble conceiving, they'd be delighted.

Incidentally, it might be interesting to think of what it'd be like to be a normal kid close in age to these superheros. You might be the only one in your class without superpowers. (Oh, that reminds me - how do schools handle suddenly having twice as many kids in one grade? They might need to split that grade into two or three classes, and have some teachers moving up the grades with the kids.)

"So any way the scientists/Govermant people/observers could try to keep to "make up" for the separation of the kid's from their families and their isolation? And any symptoms the children could have had right before their powers manifested? And ways the Govermant could try to respect parental rights?"

Why would they separate the kids, anyway? Maybe instead they could simply monitor the families, and remove the kids if the families don't follow the proper regulations. (Which would have to be not too extreme, probably just something like 'keep in contact with us and don't let your kid be a supervillain'.) They probably wouldn't be able to get away with forcibly making the kids into an army or anything, either, but they could strongly encourage it. For example, have them be very highly paid (especially tempting to the lower-income kids). And the ones in foster care would be pretty much available for anything they wanted to do, as long as it didn't cause a public scandal.

Symptoms before manifesting? Depends on how their powers work. Flu-like symptoms might be a good idea, since those can happen with almost anything. Maybe development of various Required Secondary Powers, such as losing weight so they could fly easier, or having headaches as their bodies prepare for channelling psychic energy.

edited 21st Mar '11 9:55:52 AM by Ettina

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

Any small ways the kid's could have been different before they got actual powers?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

So if a woman decided to keep her blackout baby, what would she likely have to deal with?

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Any way the kid's parents, teacher's and others could maintain control and discipline the kid's? And any unpleasant but nessacary things whatever organization responsible for the children might have to do? And how could they try to teach the kid's the use of their powers? So would it be plausible for some couples to think of what's happend to them as sperm donation?

edited 22nd Mar '11 4:11:02 AM by Zolnier

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Now, now, why avoid a perfectly justified oppurtunity for major Squick, hhmmm?

Zolny: BBL.

Okay. Also about the whole "What if one of them was already pregnant thing" could be a good source of drama. Imagine a happily married couple expecting a baby, been trying for years. Now all their years of trying and longing have been in vain, the child they tried for is never to be, replaced by this super-powered might be alien or something kid.

Life's Gonna Suck When You Grow Up... But Is It That Great Now?... Also I'm Skylark2 now.

Zolnier, do you really have to go with that? Why not have already pregnant women disqualified from whatever does this choosing of women? It seems overly wangsty with the other drama that will be going on, since you have this happening to several people. I think it's enough that some kids are going to have drama from being born different and born to really young mothers.

To whoever said "make the lower age limit sixteen, please" well, some girls are fertile before then. Doesn't necessarily mean that they can carry a baby to term (this is in fact a problem with younger girls) but it does happen, and the only criteria Zolnier is using is "fertile female". There's one big giant rape metaphor here. I imagine that there could be some drama had from the scenario of the child who suddenly has to realize that who he thought was his much older sister is actually his birth mother. Or the stigma a fourteen year old might have to go through with being pregnant. Hell, a bunch of these girls could ban together at some point, realize they have something in common, and raise their kids communally. Which might help them realize sooner there's something else strange about them.

Zolnier; you're asking us a lot of questions that you could easily see play out by reading comics. Look up Blue Beetle for supporting parents. Also, you may not like the "typical" reaction to others that are different, but it's typical because it actually happens. Don't not use it because it's been used before.