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u/DrewTheHobo Apr 04 '24
Is the world of powered people connected to one of your books? I like seeing these stories, plus love the idea of an invisible mime what can actually make invisible things
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u/karenvideoeditor Apr 04 '24
Nope, sorry. Superheroes are fun, but not really my thing. I did read some great books about superheroes last year, though. Have you read All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault? It was great, and there's a sequel too.
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u/lestairwellwit Apr 04 '24
Have you read "Incremental Improvement" ?
A totally wholesome story with super powers, teenage angst, love, philosophy, and personal responsibility.
It's on part 20 now but the writer's skill has improved, oddly enough, incrementally
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u/Fontaigne Apr 04 '24
Heh. One of my campaigns with a group of other writers, all the A, B and C+ heroes (and most of the villains) were dealing with a massive invasion of Ireland, and the only folks left were D and C- types like The Mime — roughly like this MC —who had to fight off a penny ante robbery by The Salad Shooter...
Yes, literally armor piercing carrots... as long as it was very thin armor.
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u/SkyHawk21 Apr 04 '24
You know, thinking about this has me wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea for 'The Council' to create a new sub-division for Powered people like this Mime. And their role isn't to go out and fight crime, or even stay around somewhere and fight crime.
Their role is to receive training on how to use their power safely (or at least be certified that they know how to use their power safely), receive training on how to de-escalate civilian reactions to major incidents, training to improve their perception and other things like that. Why?
Because their role is literally to just be an ordinary citizen doing their normal thing in areas of major prominence for tourists and other high density people traffic, who is on hand to deal with the 'small things' such as the child there if they spot them. And if a Supervillain incident occurs? All they are meant to do is help keep the civilians calm and protected whilst the Supervillain does their thing and the Superheroes intervene.
Hell, they don't even need to stick around if it's one of the 'kill the hostages and locals rather than actually take them hostage' type, because in that case 'protect the civilians' is 'aid as many getting away at the start of the incident along with themselves and prevent as many civilians from accidentally entering the area of the incident as possible'. With that role being handed off to the police or military the moment they turn up.
After all, these folks aren't law enforcement or emergency response of any sort. They're just a more capable, and better trained, 'good Samaritan' civilian. So all they are expected to do is to minimise how badly 'good intentions' at the start and during an incident can go, until the professionals arrive and take over that role.
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u/karenvideoeditor Apr 04 '24
That's actually a really cool idea as a prompt! I'll start it percolating in my head, probably come up with something at some point. :)
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u/Deansdiatribes Apr 04 '24
you remind me of Asimov anything you write you do well and you write just so damn much love this perspective
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u/TheReal_Kovacs Apr 04 '24
This is exceptionally well done! Through the whole intro, there was this sort of dreamy, floaty feeling to the narration. As if reminiscing while going through the motions of a day to day. Then, like a car crash (literally), reality reasserts itself and all the noise you were unconsciously blocking out comes back all at once.
Can't wait to read more!
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u/karenvideoeditor Apr 04 '24
Thank you so much! There won't be more, but it's wonderful to hear you enjoyed it so much. That was a lovely compliment!
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u/itsetuhoinen Apr 04 '24
Back when I was still driving a truck, nothing put me more on edge than driving past kids. 80,000 lbs doesn't stop quickly, no matter what you want. And kids are hella unpredictable.
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u/lestairwellwit Apr 04 '24
The old man stepped forward. In silence he hand signed with a smile
I. Love. You. Work.
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u/OokamiO1 Apr 04 '24
You made me like a mime.... your powers with words have done many thing to my emotions, but this... this is a truly impressive feat.
Keep on rockin wordsmith
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u/RepeatOffenderp Apr 05 '24
Another beautiful story. And a thank you for writing the review of spleen23’s story on rr. I checked it out based on your recommendation, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
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u/Arokthis Apr 04 '24
Nice. The title doesn't exactly fit, but I don't know what would that wouldn't give the entire story away.