Differently Powered Individuals

Anyone willing to lend me some slang terms for superbeings? I want them to sound like something a real person would use informaly. And also I need terms for "first generation" supes who got their powers from a Super Serum and "second generation" ones who were born with their powers due at least one of their parents bing treated with the stuff. And does anyone has any thoughts on a fitting name for a super serum?

Depending on public opinion, either "supes" or "freaks" could do. "Mutants" (or maybe "muties") can go either way.

The Changed, or Powered? You could take a page from Mur Lafferty and have a "First Wave / Second Wave" deal regarding generations.

Something to keep in mind. Superheroes in my verse are all either privately funded by corporations or on the government's payroll (a combination of laws and practical reasons like not being able to afford those wonderful superhero gadgets makes it hard, if not impossible for someone to just set themselves up Spiderman style) so basically you've got yourself a universal Super Registration Act; all superhumans one way or another an whole infrastructure (you'd be surprised by the unique legal, financial, medical problems that the "average" superbeing has to deal with) surporting them and, even for the most stereotypical capes being a superhero is just as much a business and a way of putting bread on the table as anything else. I always thought this make for a unique sort of superhero story i.e "Not only must Battling Bill defeat the the sixth column infiltrators but he must also find a school willing to admit his telekinetic, fire manipulating twins before the summer term starts!" that sort of thing. I'd imagine the public perception of the superpeople would vary somewhere between public servants and celebrities. Also all the superhumans (well not second generation but they're in the minority) are psychologically conditioned to always on some level act in the interests of their country/company, this goes a long way to prevent supervillany but not so much extremist mindsets and the conditioning can be overcome anyway.

edited 11th Oct '10 8:02:06 AM by Zolnier

How about "The Augments"?

The infected? Druggies? I dunno.

Supabitches?

I like "the augments" could be a good title for a book as well, still open to suggestions though. Also I should mention that superhuman are created, they getchild prodigies,(usually orphans or kids in foster care since nobody will miss them) inject them with the serum, and give them intense training and conditioning until they hit puberty and then they'll either get extraordinary power or die. It should be noted that second generation superbeings manifest powers earlier (usually around seven or eight) and usually qualify as being more powerful. They are often viewed suspiciously since they are evidence that powers breed true and provoke extinction anxieties in normal people. Still need a name for the serum.

edited 12th Oct '10 6:24:46 AM by Zolnier

Chemicals are easy to name. Just use a -ate, -ite, or -ide to your favorite syllable, preferably something that starts with a Z, and add a made up element before it.

Unobtanium Kinate, Chlorophosphoric Zinenide, or just plain Superjuice. Who needs scientific terms if you have awesome terms?

Chemical X, or maybe "Compound (Fill-In-The-Blank)".

Ambroisia sound good?

I don't think people in real life would use terms like "The Chosen" or "The Augments"

I'd personally choose simpler terms like supers or capes.

Of course, you also have the possibility of already existent words taking on new meanings. Just look at "gay".

'Gifted' or 'prodigy', based on a) them having a skill most people lack, and b) such talents being generally given to child prodigies.

What could be an official sounding term that you could imagine being used in government paperwork?

The official term is probably longer and somewhat euphemistic.

Artificially Empowered Individuals?

How about a derivative of good old homo sapiens?

Bit of topic but how do you think a government or corporate entity would view their superhumans reproducing? They have to allow them some freedom for the sake of PR. but second generation superbeings lack the various tethers that keep their parents in line. Also they are more of a risk due to their power levels. And what could be a good way of rating powers?

edited 13th Oct '10 1:49:31 AM by Zolnier

"Bit of topic but how do you think a government or corporate entity would view their superhumans reproducing? They have to allow them some freedom for the sake of PR. but second generation superbeings lack the various tethers that keep their parents in line. Also they are more of a risk due to their power levels."

It depends on what they can get away with, both with the supers themselves and the general public. If the general public is scared of supers, they'd be able to do more rigid controls. Also, is it a totalitarian government or a democracy? Democracies must be a lot more careful about infringing on freedoms. Only if the vast majority of the public approve, or it's easy to keep them from noticing what you're doing (eg Hitler was democratically elected and used a mix of both tactics to carry out the Holocaust).

One thought is to offer specialized education programs to kids of supers. It can be spun as doing them a favour, meanwhile you get to indoctrinate the kids. And you could say that you're protecting regular kids, since untrained, immature supers could be pretty dangerous. (You don't want to see a kid who can control fire have a temper tantrum, right?)

^There's more than on country with a superpower program, so I guess what they can get away with varies.

If it helps countries that have superheroes include America, which has the most, the UK has the second most by a narrow margin, Australia has a small but effective force and is known for making use of second generation supers a lot; mostly because you don't have to throw as much money at them since you don't have to manufacture serum (funny fact a single course of treatment with the stuff costs a little under a billion dollars) to make them. Various tin pot dictatorships also have super humans but they are few in number and are, how should I put this "buggy" being the end result of a spy taking some blurry pictures of some of formulae scribbled on a piece of paper by a lab technician.

And the public perception of supers varies but it can be broken down by country to a certain extent. Americans view their superheroes as celebrities with the sort of stuff that implies, In Britain they're treated kinda like cival servants, and Australia kinda thinks they're a waste of money.

And the education for superkid's sounds interesting. Do you think superteam leaders get annoyed when their members can't be their bcause the babysitter fell through?

And what could be a good way of justifying lavish costumes and codenames, things like that?It sorta makes sense for supers who work for big corporations but what about national ones?

edited 13th Oct '10 7:07:46 PM by Zolnier

And would it make sense for govermant sponsered superheroes to have secret identities?

Seeing the context of being used my the government / corporations.

As for terms people would use -

Negative- Super pigs, flying pigs, super zombies (corporate zombie), Super Nazis.

Positive- Super cops, Aces, Corporate Aces.

Neutral- AD Men (Play on Mad Men/ Advertising men), Super feds.

I'd generally take modern cop/fed slang and twist it to super-human.

About the power rating thing. Maybe for the ability ratings minerals could be used, although I'm trying to think of a mineral for the highest rating that isn't gold; far to cliche.

Rhodium?

Hmm certainly unexpected but why?

Well Rhodium is several times more valuable then gold, and even platinum.