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Memoirs of a Human Flashlight [Exalted/Worm]

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Selonianth said:
Her weakness being that she sucks at fighting?
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Given she doesn't have magic 'absorbs fighting like sponge' powers and instead fights with the superstrength package, I think she can be largely forgiven.

Superman's got kind of a brawler style, too (clean, though; Queensbury rules).
 
Guile said:
Given she doesn't have magic 'absorbs fighting like sponge' powers and instead fights with the superstrength package, I think she can be largely forgiven.

Superman's got kind of a brawler style, too (clean, though; Queensbury rules).
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Super man actually has self control.
 
Selonianth said:
Superman is also truly invulnerable, and I believe it's canon that he trains with Batman under the power of Kryptonite bulbs so he's restrained to human strength, just in case he lost his invulnerability and strength.
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Sure.

But I'm saying its a lot of work for little reward when you can already headbutt your way through a house, and Glory Girl is a teenage girl without a lot of self-discipline. Plus trying to find the right level of Brute in a sparring partner would be hell; kata only does so much.

Unlike Supes in your example, Glory Girl's power doesn't come with a (in-?)convenient off-switch.
 
Selonianth said:
Her problem IS her lack of discipline. I mean hell, her trigger shows how undisciplined she really is.
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You won't hear me arguing.

That said, she's a teenager, playing the coolest game of cops and robbers in the world. The self-disciplined ones like Grue and Skitter are the abnormal ones.
 
Endymion said:
Considering how the family fares in the Endbringer attack.....yeah that's agreed.
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I'm pretty sure the adults of New Wave actually have fought Endbringers before. It's sketchy if anyone of the kids other than Panacea helped at all, but I think it was stated she helps with the wounded.

The Brockton Bay fight basically turned bad and was in their own backyard, so the kids volunteered to help.
 
Don't forget that New Wave's problems (as opposed to the problems of the individuals in those two families, which go back to at least their trigger events) started when their public revelation of their identities was followed within a week by the murder of one of their members along with their significant other.

They were a clusterfuck right from the start.

On a related note, I just made the connection between Panacea's initiation attempt and Bonesaw's. It adds a whole new level of creepiness to the Panacea interlude.
 
WizardOne said:
Panacea, one of the most incredibly powerful capes around, is terrified that she's going to become evil and fuck people up horribly, if she fights or operates on the brain.
I give you that its a possibilty. But its also irrational. The 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' concept completely fails in front of a setting where there are dozens of super powerful heroes, who are genuinely good and caring people, despite their ability to murder everyone in North America.

The monsters DO exist. But there are no absolutes. Absolute power does not always corrupt absolutely. As with anything. It depends on circumstances, the person in question, and many other factors.

The problem with the doctor analogy, is that those doctors, through using their powers of medicine, are not capable of averting armageddon.

What we're looking at is roughly that.

An evil dictator has wired a signal device that will start nuclear Armageddon to a young childs brain. The doctor can avert the nuclear apocalypse by operating on the child and removing the device. The doctor, terrified that he might hurt the child, or lose control of himself and become a foaming lunatic if he operates and then has the signal device in his hands, decides to not operate on the child. Nuclear armageddon starts and everyone dies.

Was that the smart choice? I don't think so.

Now to be fair, there are many more complexities to the situation that aren't expressed fully in the analogy, but that's roughly how I see the character, and why I hold her in contempt.
Of course, you're free to disagree. Its a personal dislike.
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With what happened the moment she was pressured into brain modification, I'd say she was right to be worried about doing it. Granted, there were extra circumstances that made the outcome much worse, but it's proven not to be a baseless fear. As for dozens of super heroes who are good and caring people... those are the exception in Worm, not the rule. It's flat out stated at one point that about 2/3 of capes are supervillains, and even amongst the heroes a significant number aren't what you could really call 'good' and 'caring'.

Plus, don't forget how much pressure she felt under because of merely healing other injuries; she was pretty much completely burnt out by the time Worm starts. Imagine how much worse it could have been if she was healing brain injuries as well.

As for your analogy... well, one major problem with it is the scale of it. I don't recall any point at which Panacea would have been able to avert Armageddon by doing brain operations. Actually, I'm having a hard time thinking of any occasion when she could done more than save a few extra people who were injured with it. And really, all that would have led to would have been a couple of different people being saved (her time is finite, after all- she'd be saving the same number either way, it's only who that would have been changed).
 
Yes, they exist. My point was that even if they do, there are far more capes who are not heroes or nice people, so being scared of becoming like that is a fear with a very strong basis behind it. And IIRC correctly, for Panacea it was magnified by the knowledge or suspicion (I can't remember which it was initially) that her father was a supervillain. I'm not saying her fear was rational, or even particularly reasonable. It is, however, very understandable and human. I honestly can't fault her for having it, because humans are emotion-driven beings.

Ah, missed the point of what you mean. IIRC, her reasons for not getting involved in the current fight are that she thinks she'll do more good where she is than on the front lines- healing people and keeping Bonesaw in check. Not to mention that there's absolutely no guarantee her power will work directly on Scion, or that he won't simply reverse/negate it if it does, and if she's healing people on the front lines there a very good chance she'll die and not be able to heal anybody else.

As for not creating massive bio-monsters... her creations do seem to follow the rules of biology; that means she can't create creatures with superpowers (she could do relay bugs because the signal that Taylor uses is reproducible biologically/mechanically, like with the device Coil used against her, and she had a direct example to work of off; I'm pretty sure she can't forge connections to Shards, which would be required for useful powers). So even working with other Tinkers, there's a strict limit to what she could do on that front- creating biomonsters from mutated cloned humans would be pretty much the only way that could reliably work, and it's pretty easy to see why that's not something she'd do. So whilst she could do more on that front, what she could do would be of very limited actual use.

Basically, I can understand you not liking her, but I don't think your reasons for it are really that reasonable; they don't really account for her basic personality and the limitations her power does have.

Buuut... this is pretty offtopic. Agree to disagree?
 
I think it is less her accidentally causing brain damage that she is scared of but fear of what she would become if she allowed herself to use her powers as mind control. The line between healing the brain and mind control is paper thin so she simply decided not to touch the specific organ. It isn't an issue 99% of the time, anyway and she did break the rule when Bonesaw pushed her far enough. If her family had been supportive instead of pushing her down the the slippery slope to crazytown she would have gotten over it. Probably going back to not dealing with brains but the knowledge she can make exceptions without going Heartbreaker all over everyone.

It's a simple rule that helps her feel safer about her powers. There is no reason to condemn her for having it. If she was more stable she probably could have made the exception for her father, but considering her mental state at the time she may simply have made judgment on what she knows about her self control, and decided she can't risk it.
 
Fair enough. My personal opinion of her as a person is basically pity- partly because of how badly events beyond her control screwed her over, and partly because of pretty much the same reasons that you stated you dislike her; she's controlled by her fears to a large extent, and hasn't been able to escape that.
 
I think her power is unusual and strong enough she'd be pressured to become Panacea regardless.

But yeah, Carol and Victoria were not good for her.
 
esran said:
we pretty much know what would happen.
Panacea is way too valuable to be birdcaged unwillingly. they would have rather she used her powers to help people. they probably would have given her a deal similar to armsmaster's.
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likely. Hell, maybe with how valuable she is they would have straight up hushed it up or claimed bonesaw/jack/glorygirl messed up her mind enough that she isnt responsible. Which isnt completly wrong.
They could go one step further and claim bonesaw hit her with some poison that drove her crazy or something... kinda hard to disprove, that.
 
arthurh3535 said:
Um, you mean plain-jane mousey sister not envious of her pretty blonde sister?
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Given Panacea is presumably as talented at plastic surgery as she is everything else bio-related? Who knows, maybe she isn't. She kind of messed Glory Girl up that way.

She could look like anything she wants. She kept the plain-Jane.
 
Guile said:
Given Panacea is presumably as talented at plastic surgery as she is everything else bio-related? Who knows, maybe she isn't. She kind of messed Glory Girl up that way.

She could look like anything she wants. She kept the plain-Jane.
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Actually, she just can't use her power on herself. At all. Not even to heal a papercut.
 
Guile said:
Given Panacea is presumably as talented at plastic surgery as she is everything else bio-related? Who knows, maybe she isn't. She kind of messed Glory Girl up that way.

She could look like anything she wants. She kept the plain-Jane.
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Her powers don't work on herself. Sucks, I know.
 
koolerkid said:
Worth pointing out that the Effect is not absolute; there are a rare few individuals who simply laugh at it. Narwhal, for example, is stated to have overcome the Manton Effect, though we never see her do so. Behemoth can as well, but he's an Endbringer so the rules don't really apply. IIRC, there's also a teleporter at some point who ignores the Effect, but I can't remember who.
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That was the teleporter who was guarding Phir Se. I don't think that we ever get his name.
 
esran said:
i think she was less envious and more creepily in love.
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Pretty much - though per WoG, the whole business was largely caused by Panacea having spent most of her life getting hit with Glory Girl's aura pretty much continuously.

Now that I think about it, we should all be glad Wildbow didn't go with original plan for a story in the setting. Because he was gonna have Panacea and Glory Girl as viewpoint characters originally, and he's admitted it would have probably died around the Leviathan arc.
 
CULT NOTE:

Back in the first age, one Solar created the regional tongues for the four directions. He surreptitiously designed each one such that the common phrases in each language were actually prayers to him. He was swimming in motes for the rest of his days.

Prayers don't have to be intentional, they just have to be ritualized or repeated behaviors, somehow encoded or acknowledged by the subject as invoking them, whether the subject is consciously aware of the worshiper doing so or not.
 
Delcer said:
"If you love Lightshow, please be sure to show your support by following her on Twitter, and liking her Facebook page."

More likes = more motes?
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Also comments, emails and other fannish behavior.

If you really want to game it, I think googling her online would technically count as well.

...

OH GOD.
 
"Ritualised and/or repeated behavior"
No way I can't abuse this.
......

Praising her would count. The daily ritual to see whose hero is the best.

"Eidolon is cool"

"No Light show is cooler" 1 count

"But she can't take down leviathan"

"Not the point. Did you see her fight in High heels? Tell me that's not cool." 1 count

Repeat as needed by the number of all the Fanboys/girls debates.
 
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