“2000… you’re twelve?“, asked Melody after a few seconds of first being dumbfounded and then typing on her vocoder.
“Yes… and no.” Irene was looking younger and younger, fidgeting around, looking at her feet as she drew circles with her big toe.
“Please, just get to the point. How old are you? And what does it have to do with the scene from earlier?”
Rubbing the back of her head with one hand, still looking down, Irene opened her mouth to say something, but hesitated.
“Come on, you can tell me. I’m not going to hold it against you, you know?“
Irene’s head suddenly snapped up – her eyes turned red and her sclera pitch black – and she snarled: Don’t say that! You don’t even know the first thing about me!
Something slammed into Melody, throwing her into the wall behind her. She gasped as the air was knocked out of her and she slid down the wall. She nearly blacked out, but managed to stay conscious.
Opposite of her, Irene was making a sound like a growling animal as she wrapped her arms around herself. No. Not now. My medicine…
She reached for a pocket in her long skirt and pulled out a see-through canister of her pills, but her hand was shaking so hard that she dropped it.
Melody watched weakly as Irene dropped down on her knees, trying to pick up the canister. It took her four tries to grab it and another three to open it – only for her trembling to scatter the pills all across the floor.
I could swear they shouldn’t fly out this strongly.
No, no, no, no, no…, shouted Irene as she reached for the pills on the floor – only for them to be pushed away from her reaching hand.
She flopped down onto her belly, trying to pick up any pills and failing as the were pushed away again and again.
Melody managed to stand up, though her footing was less than stable and she took a step towards the girl on the floor. She looked around – her vocoder had been shattered by whatever had thrown her across the room, the pieces now scattered around her room.
What is that?, she thought as her ears picked up a strange sound. It was too low to really understand it, even with her hearing, but it was steadily getting louder – and it originated from Irene.
She took another step towards Irene.
Stay away!, the latter shouted and something struck out at her. She gasped from a sudden pain in her chest. Looking down, she saw that something had slashed diagonally across her chest, cutting her shirt open and giving her a long red gash across her chest.
Nevertheless, she took another step. She needs my help. How can I help her?
If only she could talk. Maybe she could calm her down if she could.
Stay back! I can’t stop it from attacking you!
Instead she ignored the second slash that cut open her left thigh. Shallow cuts. Her power’s only trying to hurt, not really wound.
A strange visual distortion, not unlike the effect created by Osore’s power, only far more concentrated, began to play over Irene’s body. The ground around her began to warp as if it was too hot and her clothes began to unravel thread for thread.
The sound had gotten louder and finally she recognized it – it was that tune Irene was humming nearly every second, only instead of a hum, it was a song. It didn’t have any words, at least none she could understand, but it was beautiful – and more complex than anything she had ever heard. In fact, she was quite sure that even with her hearing, she was only perceiving some parts of it and not all.
It’s so beautiful. Beautiful, but… creepy, as well. Like something is just off. Good God, I would love to be able to listen to it for longer…
She almost stopped just to listen, but then another slash hit her across the stomach, snapping her back to reality.
Crouching down, she grabbed a handful of the pills.
Please, go away. I don’t want to hurt you!
Not a chance, Irene. I’m not leaving you like this.
She held her hand to Irene’s mouth, but when she tried to eat the pills from her hand, the same effect pushed them away from her lips.
Another slash hit her forearm, cutting it open from wrist to elbow. Again, the wound was just deep enough to hurt, but not cause any serious damage.
Without a sound – not that she could make much of one – she gathered another handful of the pills. Reaching out with her left hand, she grabbed Irene’s fever-hot chin and forced her head up and closer to her. She almost dropped her grip, as her skin began to burn wherever she touched Irene’s head just as the same sensation of pure, unrestrained arousal she had experienced this morning hit her again.
Both pain and arousal raged through her body and it took more force of will than she knew she had to force her right hand to Irene’s mouth and clamp it around her mouth so the pills could not be pushed away.
She gasped as another gash opened on her left forearm, but she held fast and was rewarded with the sounds of Irene swallowing the handful of pills in one go.
Both the burning pain and the raging arousal vanished, immediately, and their sudden absence was more stunning then their presence had been. Melody fell back onto her butt as she took a deep breath and looked at her hands – they were not burned, only a bit red. Though that could simply be due to how her heart was pounding like crazy.
And the song she had been hearing became more indistinct, its volume dropping by half in a heartbeat. A shame…
Melody… More… Please…
But she would have time to deal with that later. Now, she gathered another handful of pills and fed them to Irene, who, by this point, was lying shivering in the middle of the mass of threads that had once been her clothes, the black distortion playing around her skin.
The girl swallowed them eagerly and the distortion faded away.
“More…” Her voice had returned to true sound, instead of the unnatural mental impression it had been moments before, but it was raspy, weak, subdued.
The last handful of pills finally turned her eyes back to normal and stopped both the song and the shivering.
Irene all but collapsed, as if all strength had left her body, and just lay there, breathing heavily.
Melody did not feel much better, her wounds bleeding, if only a bit, and the aftereffects from Irene’s glamour still wracking her concentration.
She finally gave in, collapsing next to Irene as her vision turned black.
She should be safe now…
* * *
Mmm…
She was lying on something soft and fluffy, her body bathed in warmth. Her head lay on something not quite as soft as the rest of her body, but it was comfortable none the less.
Something wet and warm fell onto her lower lip, immediately followed by another two, one on her upper lip and one on her nose.
Salty… I like salty foods…
She felt great. All the lingering pain, the cuts all over her body – she couldn’t feel even one of them. Instead she felt as if she was taking a bath in water just hot enough to still be comfortable, only without the water…
Again, the salty drops, and she realized that they had to be tears.
That reminded her of what had been going on before she passed out and she opened her eyes to see what was going on now.
The first thing she saw was Irene’s tear-stained face. Her eyes were closed and tears streamed down her cheeks and dropped onto Melody’s face as she was bent over her a bit.
She realized that they were lying on her bed, with her head on Irene’s thighs. She also noticed that, thankfully, Irene had repaired her clothes – either that, or she had run over to her room and put on an identical set of clothing.
Unable to speak, Melody reached up and patted one of the hands Irene held to each side of her face.
Irene flinched and opened her eyes. She tried to say something, but cut herself off and looked to the side.
“I’m so, SO sorry”, she finally said, wiping at her tears with one hand.
Melody looked around – the damage to her room had been fixed, her wounds were gone and even her clothes were whole again.
She sat up, slowly, then she turned around on the bed, kneeling on it to face Irene.
What happened?, she asked in her thoughts, hoping that Irene would have some kind of telepathy active.
Her hope turned out to be true. “I… I guess I should start at the beginning, shouldn’t I?”
Which beginning?
“My conception, really. You see, my parents really wanted to have a child with each other – one that wouldn’t turn into a mass-murdering psychopath.”
I can see that. I’d want my children not to go around wiping out entire cities at a time as well.
“Yeah, well, the only problem was that they didn’t have the first clue what had gone wrong with my sister in the first place – there is literally no other case that is even remotely similiar. Both of them had various theories, but no proof at all – after all, they never had a chance to study my sister closely.”
And so they just pumped you up with that power control medicine?
“No, not really. Having control over your power doesn’t mean much when you are to young to have any kind of sense of control. No, once I reached my seventh month – the point where my sister had manifested – they put my mother and me under surveillance 24/7 – father was basically rooted next to her bed, with a special syringe he had commissioned from Sovereign.”
You don’t happen to have it lying around, don’t you?
“Wha- the syringe? No! Please stay on track!”
Sorry, it’s just, well, Sovereign-tech…
“Wow, you’re literally drooling right now. I guess the cliches are true after all. But back on track, dammit!”
Alright, I’ll be good…
“Where was I? Ah, yes. So, the moment I manifested, father immediately shot me up with a power suppressant they had developed just for this occasion.”
You got a syringe jammed into you when you were still in the womb? Good God…
“Ah well, it’s not like I felt anything. So, once they were sure I was stable, they put a tube into me that gave me smaller, continuous doses of the same, until I was born about two months later.”
And if it wasn’t for that, you would have turned into another Desolation-in-Light?
“We don’t know. As you noticed earlier, I have slightly different symptoms when I loose control. But anyway, it was immediately clear that despite the power suppressants, my powers could not be controlled properly. I aged, physically and mentally, far faster than I should – by the time I was nine, I already looked nearly like I do now, though thankfully, the aging process has apparently slowed down to a normal one in the last year. I was also able to speak by the time I was barely eleven months old.”
So your power gave you the ability to speak and understand English when you weren’t even one year old? What if it had to refocus, did you loose the ability to speak again?
“At first, it happened sometimes, but then I started getting an enhanced learning speed instead and I learned to talk and write, not to speak of learning to walk.”
Was being toilet trained included in that?, she asked with a smirk.
Irene just rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to use the bathroom. Never have. I only need to eat once a week or so, because my power can convert pretty much anything, even waste, into nourishment for me.”
Cool. Does it clean your teeth and shave you, as well?, Melody asked, a bit surly.
“I don’t need to brush my teeth, I don’t need to cut my nails and I don’t have any hair on my body other than my eyebrows and my scalp hair. Not that you have any room to complain – I’ve seen you in the buff, remember? You’re just like every other adonis-type. Not a hair on your body that does not agree with your understanding of beauty.”
Yeah, well, but I had to do the shaving before. And I still need to brush my teeth and cut my nails.
“Wow, what a hardship. Now could we please get back on track?”
Sure. Not my fault that you are so easy to distract…
“Easy to distract? Me?! You’re the one- Augh! You’re making my head hurt!”, she complained.
Sweet, sweet vengeance.
Irene took a deep breath, let herself fall back onto her butt and then continued: “Anyway, I’ve always had a few problems. One, I couldn’t play with other children, because I had no control over my power – it was too dangerous. Same reason why I couldn’t go to school or even have normal teachers. Instead, my parents and some friends of theirs who were very durable schooled me at home.”
That must have been lonely…
“Yes, well, there wasn’t much choice. The biggest problem is also the reason for that… scene earlier and my freakout before.”
What is it? You’ve been dancing around it for a while now.
Irene rubbed the back of her head, then said: “Well, the problem is mainly that I like you.”
Melody felt her face flush. So, you’ve got a crush on me? That’s awkward, but I don’t see the problem…
Now Irene went beet-red and waved her hands in front of her. “No, no, I didn’t mean it that way! For God’s sake, I’ve known you for less than a day! I mean, I like you in the ‘I’d really like to be friends with you’-way.”
And why is that problematic?
“Because my power doesn’t just influence other people. It influences me as well. And it doesn’t get the difference between simply liking someone and being in love with them – or the difference between being annoyed and hating someone’s guts. That was the reason why I needed teachers who could take anti-tank-level shots, because just being slightly annoyed with them could lead me to attack them!”
So when you started to like me…
“It was yesterday, in the showers, when it all went wrong with my plans. I had planned to stay aloof among the team, distant. Indifference is the only safe way for me to interact with other people, so long as I am not sure that I really love or hate them – like with my parents. I already love them, so my power can’t influence me any further.”
Why the showers?
“Because I’d hit you with a glamour right after demonstrating that I was powerful enough to kill you with a twitch of my finger. Because you were really uncomfortable with it, but you didn’t let it keep you from offering me a handshake, even though you knew that that might make you vulnerable to my power. Because it has been so long since someone who wasn’t my parents was nice to me just for the sake of being nice…” She was getting teary-eyed again.
Melody, in contrast, felt relieved. She didn’t know how she could have dealt with her having a crush on her – but if it was just her power being uncontrollable, she could deal. And she could certainly offer her support.
So, with the restraint of possibly fueling a one-sided crush gone, she edged closer to Irene and pulled her into a full-body hug, resting her chin on her shoulder. Irene stiffened at first, but then she relaxed and hugged her back.
I guess you’re afraid I won’t want to be friends with you – or even close to you – because of that. Honestly, do you take me to be so shallow? I’m not going to let something stupid like an out-of-control power get between me and a friend. So, don’t worry. I’m there for you.
Irene’s grip tightened and she sobbed into her shoulder. “Thank you…”, she whispered, barely audible even to her hearing.
* * *
It took nearly ten minutes for Irene to stop sobbing.
When she was spent, they both leaned back and Irene wiped at her tear-stained face. “Thank you so much. I really needed that.”
You’re welcome, replied Melody as she turned around to sit on the edge of the bed. Is it okay if I ask you some more questions? You know, being now officially BFFs, there are just some things I think I should know.
Irene turned and sat next to her. “We are? I’ve never had a BFF. How do you know when you have one?”
It’s a safe bet to assume that anyone you’re willing to talk to about your issues and who is okay with crying on your shoulder for ten minutes is at least close to being one.
“Heh. And I guess someone willing to walk through being cut open, burned alive and all but raped through emotion projection to give you your medicine is also a safe bet. Alright, ask away.”
What’s up with your body temperature? You feel like you should burst into flames!
“No idea, I’ve always had a high temperature. We haven’t been able to determine the cause of it. Upside being, I never really get cold.”
Alright, next one – just how much does your power influence you?
“Well, there is the obvious exaggeration of my emotions. Plus, more subtle things – for example, when I decided to come over and wake you up, instead of knocking on your door, I just walked in to wake you from up close. Stuff like that. All so it could push me towards what it thinks is what I want – namely, sex, because I’m pretty sure my power cannot differentiate between the desire for physical closeness and lust.”
Wow, that’s awkward. And from what I understand, it does that to others as well?
“Yeah. For example, I take it that you don’t usually walk to a debriefing without any underwear on, right?”
Melody looked down – the points of her breasts were very visible under the thin shirt she had been wearing since this morning.
She went beet-red and covered her chest with her hands as her mind started screaming in horror. Oh God, oh God, what will everyone think of me now?!
“Don’t worry! I noticed before we even entered and threw up a glamour that hid it.”
She calmed down and jumped up immediately to walk to her closet.
Thanks for that…, she said/thought as she pulled out a bra. Then she pulled off her shirt and slipped into the bra.
Irene walked up behind her and helped clip the bra closed. “Don’t mention it. Wow, f-size? I’m impressed.”
Yeah, well, you try and have a proper work-out – or even a good dance – with jugs like those. At least I’ll never have to worry about sagging.
“Yeah, another upside to the whole adonis-deal. I won’t have that problem either. But back to your question. The whole thing is another example of my power influencing me – when I noticed that you weren’t wearing a bra, I didn’t tell you so you could run back to your room and change. Instead I hid it from the others, so only I could see it – and I was barely able to tear my eyes from them.”
That’s just amazingly embarassing. And you’ve had this kind of problem since you were old enough to be aroused, I guess?, she continued as she pulled her shirt back on.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
Since we’re on the subject of sexuality right now, I have to ask: are you even interested in women? Or is it just your power?
“Oh, I like both, really. My first time was with a girl, actually. She was fourteen, I was ten.”
Wait, you’ve had sex already?
“Huh? Yeah. With both guys and girls, actually. It has only been about a year since I’ve been safe to go out by myself, actually – before that, I used to jump pretty much anyone I found even remotely attractive. Thankfully, my power always allowed me to prevent them from remembering.”
Melody had to let that sink in for a moment. Then she noticed something strange. Wait, I thought erasing memories was impossible!
“It is. However, it IS possible to prevent a person from forming memories in the first place – or, at the very least, prevent them from passing from short-term memory to long-term memory. And it really only works on people who are vulnerable to that kind of thing – like if they’ve just had incredibly, inexplicably orgasmic sex.”
Talk about mind-blowing sex.
“Ha! You’ve got it. Though, honestly, with my power mucking around with my emotions all the time, I’m not even sure if I’m really bisexual or whatever. Any more questions?”
Yeah… What was it with that freak-out earlier? Somehow I doubt it was just because I said something wrong.
Irene’s face fell immediately. “Please, don’t think it was in any way your fault. Actually, it wasn’t even really my power’s fault, at least not directly.”
Huh?
“Well, you have to understand, I was pretty wound up. That whole scene earlier had me pretty wound up. Then, I was afraid you wouldn’t want to be near me anymore if I told you what was going on – but not telling you was a sure way of making sure that you would keep me at a distance. Normally, I can deal with that. But, you know, everyone has their weaknesses. Even I have my own kryptonite.”
Are you sure you want to tell me what it is?
Irene raised an eyebrow at her. “I thought we were BFFs?”
Right, of course. Sorry.
“No reason to be sorry. Anyway, my weakness is telepathy. Or rather, telepathic combat.”
You mean, your fight with the root?
“Yes.”
But, I thought your power kept you always safe!
“It does – unless I open myself up so I can attack someone telepathically. It’s just not possible to use telepathy offensively without lowering your own defenses. Even Mindfuck could never do that, and he was the most powerful telepath ever.”
But why are you especially vulnerable to telepathy?
“Because, at the end of the day, what you use to defend yourself against telepathic attacks is your own self-image. It is what any telepath actually attacks and the stronger it is, the more resistant you are to telepathy. But I’ve always had my power, mucking around in my own brain, apart from other people, never really able to push myself to the edge and growing up faster than I should…”
…so you’ve never been able to develop a self-image as solid as any normal person would have just by growing up…, she continued in dawning horror.
“… which leads to the fact that if I lower my mental defenses, even a telepath weaker than I am at that moment can cause a lot of damage. Of course, my power can also fix that damage, but it takes time and this morning I was just so wound up from everything else that, together with the damage I had sustained fighting the root…”
…it led to you losing control over a single comment on my side, she finished, finally understanding what had gone wrong.
“Pretty much, yes. I think in a few years I’ll be able to withstand a mental attack as good if not better than a normal person, but until then, scenes like the one this morning might repeat themselves whenever I run into another telepath. Again, I’m so…”
Melody put a finger on her mouth. Stop! Don’t you dare to apologize anymore! You only took that damage because you had to defend me and the others from the root, enabling us to take down an entire acre. It would have been nice if I had known beforehand, but then again, you are right – we’ve known each other for less than a day. No one, and I mean no one could expect you to spill your secrets to them after so little time. By the way, I’m honored that you decided to tell me.
Irene took her hand from her mouth and moved it to cup her cheek, leaning a bit into it. “Thank you. Really. I’m so glad you still want to be friends with me.”
Don’t mention it, Melody replied, just as a yawn forced itself out of her. I’m sorry to cut this short, but I think I need to lie down and sleep. I’m so tired…
“Oh, of course. I’ll go”, said Irene with a disappointed look on her face.
She turned to go, but Melody relented at the sight of the expression on her new best friend’s face.
Oh, you don’t need to go! I bet you could use some sleep as well. How about you just sleep here?
Irene turned around and raised her eyebrow again – she seemed to like doing that. “How does that fit into not wanting sex with me?”
Melody didn’t even turn red. Oh, for the love of Tesla, you’ve really never had a BFF, haven’t you? Girl friends can sleep in the same bed without any kind of sexual intent, you know! So just get your pyjama or your nightie and we’ll have an impromptu sleepover here!
Irene grinned at her. “I’d like that. Only one problem, I don’t have any pyjamas.”
What?
“Well, I only need to sleep about an hour a week, so I usually just sit down somewhere and take a nap. And since I have no problem with feeling cold, I rarely wear anything if I’m not in public. I don’t even have a bed in my room here. And I don’t own any underwear, either.”
You what!? That’s… that’s just…
“Don’t get worked up, it’s just one of my peculiarities.”
Well, we can’t have that. Here, I can give you one of my nighties.
“Thanks!”, she replied when Melody gave her a deep blue nightshirt that reached to her knees. She quickly slipped out of her clothes and into the nightshirt. When she was done, Melody had a matching one on, except hers was pink.
So, if you never wear underwear, what do you do when you have your period?
“Oh, I don’t have a period. Never will have, in fact.”
Now she felt more pity than outrage. You can’t have children? Ever? That’s…
“No, I mean that I don’t have a period. I can be fertile or infertile whenever I want, so I don’t have to deal with menstruati-“
With a mute scream containing the outrage of every woman who ever had to deal with PMS or other related problems, Melody threw herself at Irene and tackled her onto the bed.
It turned out that her power couldn’t make her immune to being tickled breathless.
Tieshaunn 
have ideas, have time, have laptop, write new chapter.
not a bad way to spend your time 😉
turned out quite a bit longer than I expected. Irene’s and Melody’s scenes were only supposed to be half of the chapter, followed by Mindstar entering Basil’s mind. But, to quote Master Tolkien: “The tale grew in its telling.”
Wow, that’s really sad. In a way, Irene doesn’t even know who she really is. I do like how that gets worked into being a weakness against Telepathy.
Yeah i agree and being forced to grow up like she did can t have been a help there either since a big part of that selfimage we have gets defined by our interaction with peers of which she didn t really had that much. Also since she doesn t really have a way of shutting her power off i don t think that she ll really be able to put up a better defense than normal people in a few years since the reasons why she s weak there doesn t really get remedied.
On a different note am i the only one who thinks the casual way the telepaths here use their powers highly unethical. I mean let aside if the people Irene jumped were really willing or only compelled by her power preventing them from forming memories of these incidents rates pretty high on my if i knew of that i d try to do something drastic about it list and with powers like that in this world there must be some kind of public opinion as to what is and is not accepable out there like the mindcontrolling minors constitutes a possible killorder thing we ve seen last chapter.
Since she herself is a minor that brings up that whole how acountable should she be held part of it too but i m pretty sure i d not talk about it that casually if i was in her stead.
Thanks for the new chapter
one thing:
immediately followed by nother two
since everywhere else in the chapter you used another maybe here too?
fixed thanks.
as for telepathic ethics:
remember, we’ve only had two examples of telepaths so far – Mindstar (who is a supervillain and being hunted, among other things, for serial rape) and Gloom Glimmer – who is a whole ‘nother case.
some info on telepathy laws:
mind controlling ANYONE outside of a life-or-death situation is illegal. period. and since most mind control can only be used outside of immediate combat- or other high-stress-situations, it is nearly always illegal. there are some variatons of mind control that can work quickly, but they are always limited in other ways.
mind controlling minors is a major offense, especially if you force them to commit crimes or rape them. it does not IMMEDIATELY lead to a kill order (usually it just leads to being sentenced to prison for life) – but mindstar simply already has so many other crimes under her belt that it would push her over into ‘we’ve got to kill that bitch’-territory. apart from that, most of the super-powered community really, REALLY looks down on that kind of thing, even many supervillains would hunt her if she did that.
now, Gloom Glimmer. First, those instances where she had sex with others were not cases of direct mind control, but more of simply lowering inhibitions on both sides – with her looks, it was all too easy to get people interested.
of course, lowering inhibitions is a case of indirect mind control and can lead to rape charges.
however, the fact that Gloom Glimmer was and is a minor makes things complicated. in the real world, her parents would be held accountable. however, the Dark really doesn’t care about the law and Lady Light is so important to the government – being one of the few people in the world capable of keeping the Dark in check – that they wouldn’t levy charges against her.
that is not to say that Lady Light is alright with her daughter doing what she does – but then you have the issue that SHE DOESN’T HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER HER OWN POWER. she is as much a victim as the people she has had sex with – if anything, you’d need to charge her power with the crimes. but charge a POWER with crimes?
of course, you could just say that the power is ultimately her responsibility – which, really, it is, regardless of whether or not she has any control; she could just shut herself in until she somehow got her power under control, which wouldn’t be a good way to live, but it is a possible solution – but now we touch upon the reason why metahumans, especially superheroes, get away with a lot.
it’s the same reason why after ww2 german war criminals were accepted into america and their crimes ignored – their skills were too valuable to throw them into jail or execute them. btw. a similiar situation exists with gadgeteers – even the worst gadgeteer-villains can get a pardon if they just agree to work for the government.
with threats like DiL, the Spiteborn, a possible war against the Sovjet Union, Sovereign in Africa, the Savage Six, the Dark Five and so on, the side of the angels needs every bit of metahuman power they can get. and gloom glimmer has the potential to become as powerful as her older sister. they would probably let her get away with outright rape, even if she herself wouldn’t.
and finally, the authorities (who know about at least some of her escapades) are just worried that persecuting her, especially for something she doesn’t really control, might drive her to become a villain (perhaps joining her father) or, in the worst case scenaria, snap and become a second DiL.
so, you know, POLITICS.
Thanks for that detailed answer but there seems to be a slight misunderstanding.
I do understand that the lets call them dates she had with these people were occurances in which both parties were influenced by her power and her control over it is not such that she could shut it off plus as we have seen just these chapter even if the power influences people they are able to resist at least for a time. That of course leads to the question if Irene actively pursued repeated close contacts with these people to give her power the proximity and chances to overwhelm resistance without looking into those dates and the surrounding circumstances however i m willing to accept that there was no ill intent or something since i actually think she tries to be good person.
However the thing i do find unethical is what she did after those dates. Her power allowed her to prevent these people from remembering those events but that only when they are vulnerable to these powers. As i understand it she cannot prevent getting powers but she does have a certain amount of control over how she uses them i.e. she gets the power to fly but can decide where she wants to fly. So afterwards she may have wanted the whole thing not to have happened maybe because she was emberassed or because she felt it was the wrong thing to have done or because she doesn t want to deal with the aftermath of these dates and she got the power to stop them from remembering what happened and uses it THAT is in my eyes wrong.
An aggressive alteration of a persons memories against their will or totally without their consent is what i find so unethical. Because she got the power to stop people from forming memories doesn t mean she must to use it Even if we make mistakes most people have to deal with the consequences be they the breaking of trust or someone wanting to be in a relationship with her now. Her use of her power in those situations is what i find questionable.
The basic assumption that in our minds we are free to be ourselves think whatever we want without oppression is being attacked here. And seeing the laws you stated i think the lawmakers in your world agree.
Of course i see the reality of politics preventing a prosecution plus it is true that such could be unjust. A teenager with a power like that can t simply can t at first be in control of it. But you can reasonably expect an honest attempt at control you can t expect such an attempt if she is allowed to simply negate these occurances for everyone else by deniing them their own memories. And her story does not indicate that there was an intervention or a decision to change that.
It may very well be that now she is a different person. More grown up more aware of what such actions mean and possible consequences they may have. Her reaction to what happened with Melody may be an indicator for something like that.
you’re making a good point and the answer to that is: nobody is perfect. irene HAS done some pretty messed up stuff (i.e. memory alteration, spying on people while they were naked or having sex, sometimes even pretty theft [like, she didn’t have any money on her but really wanted some ice cream, so she turned herself invisible or teleported it into her hand]), but who wouldn’t in her situation?
due in part because one half of her only role models being the king of supervillains, she grew up with a rather warped sense of right and wrong, no matter how much her mother tried to lead her onto the path of doing the right thing.
i don’t want to say any more lest I spoil future developments
i understood it a bit different:
she gets the power to emotionally influence people, she doesn’t get the choice whether to use it or not, thought it was the same with the influence on someones “data saving” into the long term memory.
if that isn’t the case it makes for some interesting moral dilemmas
(i have no experience with it what soever, but i assume that most rapevictims would prefere not to remember that / for havens sake she was a 10 year old kid that has more than enough reasons to be mentally unstable, sociopathic / we do not know how much the decision to use her power [memory blocking] was influenced by her power [emotional selfinfluenc / influence of others])
@Ellert:
public opinion on reading minds: bad if without permission
public opinion on blocking memorys: doesn’t exist, i never heared about such a power…
her parents practikly controled all her contacts she should have been uncapable to “actively pursued repeated close contacts”,
makes me wonder a bit, everyone she met should have been capable of taking anti-tank-level shots, were friends of her parents(her teachers etc.), and they didn’t manage to get some immune agains her emotional influence, someone to supervise contacts?
wait melody, THE popular pop icone (, sec icone), described as an incarnation of a boys whetdream is 14?!?,… … 14, that is going to make stuff for interesting moral discusion,…
forgot a “most” between, should be:
THE “most” popular
Hi anon,
as i tried to say without getting a look at what were the specific circumstances surrounding the dates i m willing to accept that there was no ill intent aka rape but that it was more of a situation in which both parties inhibitions were removed.
As to her power what it does is make sure she is save if that includes socially then it may very well be that she had no choice about using it. However her comment about it not understanding the difference between liking and love makes me question that because if you love someone you normally want to be together with that person which is impossible if the memory is negated.
Without deeper insight into how the power works this discussion may be pointless and we ll simply need to wait for future chapters to give us a better understanding of it.
About the question if rape victims would prefer not to know about it first i also have no experience with anything like that but i believe you are correct here however as i said earlier without actually seeing the circumstances there is no way to define it as rape same about the ‘repeatedly seeking contact’.
About her having been 10 years old and thus emotionally unstable that my be especially seeing as she grew up with only grown-ups and her family as possible role models. But lets take a look at them Lady Light and the people she would probably access to teach and interact her daughter. I think we can agree that a certain level of morals can be assumed to be taught by them. Now The Dark and the people he would let influence his daughter. Heres the thing as evil as he gets made out to be the only information i really have about him is what Mindstar and Brennus said about him and the surveillance and the impression i got was at least that of man with principles maybe morally scewed principles but still i somehow can t see him let real monsters near his daughter actually quite the opposite. About her being 10 she herself claimed to have grown faster and normally people do not only mean physical growth when saying like that but admittedly for small children those things are equal and this is another thing into which without additional insight speculation may be futile.
Regarding the anti-tanklvl contacts i think we both know that being physically strong does not equal being mentally strong and lets not forget we humans like to assume everything is alright until something actually happens and then we frantically take measures to ensure it doesn t happen again. The people she interacted with had to be so strong because her power possible lashed out against people who annoyed her so there wasn t really any reason to suspect an emotionally resistant oversight was needed. That actually is one of the points i tried to make there was no indication of anyone intervening with what was going on and it is possible that she actually is the only person to know about the dates which only is another reason why i wouldn t talk about it like her.
No public opinion about blocking memories? For me that always was one of the more obvious possible actions a telepath that can do more than only listen to other peoples thoughts would be capable of. It may be that in regards to this story you are correct especially if you take Melodys reaction to mind it seems people think that is impossible.
But let me ask you this:
If it was you would you want someone to be able and allowed to say i want to forget eveything that happens for the next 24 hours. And then you do.
My question about the ethics of telepathy of course has a connection to the story but i also enjoy the purely theoretical aspect of it. If you have never heard of such a power and thus can t fall back on common opinion taken from discussions you ve read or examples of that power you have seen then make your own.
So i ask you what is your opinion regarding that power?
some info:
she ‘usually’ has the ability to control whatever power she gets – she was kind of sugarcoating things when she explained her power to the team (would you admit that you do not have full control over this much power – especially with DiL as an older sister?)
even if she gets control over her power, she can not prevent it from influencing her – so her decision whether or not to use it is heavily biased towards using it
the power doesn’t get the difference between love and sexual lust, either. for it, it’s all one big thing. unfortunately, irene herself has issues with seeing the difference sometimes…
in regards to the Dark: he may have principles – but he is still a supervillain. you can bet he doesn’t have a problem with encouraging his daughter to steal, spy and generally be, not evil, because if he did it too openly his wife really would shove a spear up his ass, but at least immoral. he would have preferred her to join him instead of the UJH.
also, the problem were not the people they got to teach her. be sure that Lady Light did NOT leave her alone with them, especially not the ones the Dark called. and they were smart enough not to piss her off.
the problem was that they had few means to prevent her from sneaking out of her home – she can teleport, walk/fly through walls and use any other trick she might need to get away – and she also has the means to be nearly undetectable. how do you keep someone contained who can literally use any exit strategy there is?
as for melody as a sex symbol at the age of 13-14… that’s going to be a plotpoint soon, so I’m not going to explain it here
i have no problem with the gloom glimmer memory suppresion of sexual exploits on the guys she fancys because i think it will only boost the guys courage in all sexual endevors in the future because even a suppressed memory has effects in our daily lives. hypnotism is used to bring out suppressed memerys in the real world so those people could prolly get the memory back but i dont think they will have problem with a suppressed memory of a hot mind blowingly beautiful 17 year old looking babe having her way with them but that just me soo….hehe.
now onto your hate on of telepaths which is riduculose because with the temptation of messing with peoples mind so great it cant be helped that they just naturally use the gifts they were blessed with and im pretty sure if anyone had the gift in the real world it would be used for selfish perposes so tieshaunn nailed that nail right on the head when he thought up his telepaths. i think it is a perfect writing on telepaths but im more evilly inclined so…
and i would like to point out that people get manipulted and peer pressured which i think is a form of mind control so no need to be upset abouth something made up
Hi redposeidon,
first you make a good point i d certainly not have a problem with that particular memory either.
But that of course wouldn t be an option which is whole focus of the issue i try to discuss here.
Why i try to discuss this is simply curiosity about you guys opinions and maybe some backgroundinfo about tieshauns world . I think i m succeding so far on both counts.
Regarding my ‘hate on of telepaths’ some of my alltime favorite chars are telepaths if you are familiar with perry rhodan shoot me a list of the telepaths you remember and i can virtually guarantee that to 80% of them i d say yea that was a cool character i liked him or i hated him which is no less of an achievement for a writer. So if it comes across as that i m doing a bad job of expressing what want to say.
Maybe that is part of the reason why i find this discussion so interesting rest assured you d need a lot more than a discussion or a story on the internet to upset me.
You are probably right telepathy in the real world would probably be used selfishly by some on the other hand i can t believe that a talent like that would not automatically bestow upon those gifted with it a certain empathy towards others if only because they can probably constantly hear the people around them and their innermost thougths until they learn control. If that doesn t teach you empathy or at least a more than basic understanding of people i don t know what would. So in my eyes this would be like every other human ability some use it for themselves some for others and most do a mixture of both.
Lastly i m not saying that someone with an ability like that should be forced to not use it. The only possible way i could come up with to do something like that would be to drug her into coma for the rest of her life and that would be quite a bit to cruel for something she was born with. What i m however saying is that the use of that particular ability like it was used by her is unethical if it is worse or better than say what conquistador used his for is not even a question for me.
If you are more inclined for the evil viewpoint of a story i ll admit that we two will probably never agree however thank for your view on this.
@Ellert: i think you misunderstood 90% of my coment, but that doesn’t realy metter, the only point i will repeat is conserning the public opinion (in this story) on blocking memorys:
consider that everyone knows that memorys cant be erased, created or altered,
Random person: there is no abilety that could prevent you from forming memorys, if there were i would have heared about it. I would defenetly remember hearing about something like that!!! (SARCASM)
that power is keeping itself secret,
someone not using it selfishly would never find out about having such a abilety / not reveal it for fear of the reaction
noone using it selfishly would tell others about it in a way that would risk it becoming public (him/her losing the advantage), and such people would prevent the public form finding out about it (block those memorys)
someone upon whom that power has been used would not remember it
you realy liked the perry rhodan telepaths?
i thought the were compleatly cliche and boring,
(than again i lost interest in parry rhodan after about 7 books, so god knows what could sill have happened and i am non the wiser…)
either to powerfull and evil (you know you are evil because your power is evil …, the author is cheating himself a villan, who doesn’t need a background or a reason to do what he does)
or overpowerd and good (boooooring, now those 50 peoply that would totally kill us cant do so because: mindcontrol, seems like the author is cheating his way out of a problem [we win because: magic / love / god …])
or useless (a little experience and you can block them, no real difference to normal characters, but they cannot realy do anything else because the are already telepaths)
either far over the top or under the bottom line, none who could stay in the story and be a normal interesting character
Thanks for clarifiing that.
Your explanation about why there wouldn t be a public opinion makes sense i m not sure i agree complete but is a possible reason why it wouldn t be widely know. Things i disagree about is that noone not using that selfishly would even know about the ability everyone with telepathy would experiment with it if just for curiositys sake if nothing else. And sooner or later someone on the heroside with that ability would discover it. And here you can call me idealistic but some hero that knows about that and possibly is part of an organization like the UH i think would at least tell his teammates about it. If that would reach the public ear or not is anyones guess. Also to keep mind-control completely from being detected seems hard enough judging from mindstar and amazon but there everyone was suspicious so your reasoning may be right.
It s a pity you only choose to elaborate on that point i d have liked to see you correct my other misunderstandings.
Regarding Perry i think i know who you mean by good and overpowerd and if so he s one of the reasons i didn t say 100%. The other points i could try to contest but this is not the place for it only keep in mind the series started 1961 and is still going so the writingstyle changed and theres a lot of storys and yes from them i liked a lot of the telepaths maybe especially when they were somehow being made ‘useless’.
Also in case that is not clear because i somehow get the impression you think differently i like the character of Irene/Gloom Glimmer. I find her, her upbringing and background interesting and engaging otherwise i couldn t be bothered to ask questions and would simply let the story flow by.
ahhh, the sexual awkwardness of teenage youth. its all kinda weird and creepy but sweet and enduring
imagine trying to write that without falling into every trap there is in that genre…
i can tell you managed to sidestep some serious pitfalls into out right porn. Good job on that. Some web fiction sites like “Tales of MU” make sex out to be much more important than it truly is. When in reality, sex is only a small part of growing up, things like ethics, personal opinion, dealing with beliefs and finding your own self identity are just as difficult. Also, as a super-hero story, make sure you have a dash more action/adventure than drama. It holds more attention without making your characters seam to be 2 dimensional cutouts with super powers.
A friend has told to put more action and such into it than drama as well. thing is, I want to set up the world and the characters as well. there is going to be a LOT of action/adventure coming, but without enough background to understand the characters and why it comes to all that action, it will be, well, just a different kind of porn. so, bear with me, I promise more than enough action 😉
don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to porn in any way (so long as no real person is hurt) and unlike many people, I do not consider erotic and pornographic fiction to automatically be inferior to other works (for example, my favourite NWN module is “A Dance with Rogues”).
I can even imagine writing something like that sometime in the future. it’s just that this work is not supposed to be porn, no matter whether you mean sexual porn or action porn.
for those who want action porn defined – just look at the current crop of ego-shooters, like call of duty, battlefield and the like – mindless action, little to no story, no 3dimensional characters, no effort whatsoever to justify what happens.
and I’m rambling, aren’t I?
In short, there will be sex in this story – but it won’t be porn, because there will actually be a story behind it, it will just follow as the logical conclusion of the development of the character’s relationships.
the same goes for action and adventure, though I am less squeamish about putting in some mindless action than some mindless sex 😉
well, sex also might happen because Mindstar is close and in the mood, but that is an entirely different matter. and not one that is supposed to be an enjoyable read…
i dont know if you read tales of mu but it is very detailed in the sex scenes and i can see some people (outstanding christians and the like) not liking it but if your viewers dont like your story the can always skip that part you should give a notice on the chapter so their warned but on the good news you might get a different audience lol dont know if that would be good or bad lol. whatever you decide to do i will read it because this is a very good web novel and with a little sex scenes it could still be good but looking at Worm where there is none and that web novel destroys all others in it greatness is makeing it conflicting on giving my opinion. huh i thought it was easy to say bring on the sex but looking at Worm i just dont know. good thing your the author i will leave the decision in your capable hands. i think i made i harder o well…hehe
i think i made it harder lol reads a little perverted with the t on it
took me a few reads to really get what you were saying, I appreciate your faith in my abilities as a writer :-$
and yes, I agree, Worm really does eclipse pretty much anything else I have found online, at least of its type (in it’s own way, Hitherby Dragons is its equal, only in a totally different genre and style).
I don’t read tales of mu and I am currently not interested in doing so (I’m currently working on catching up on A Song of Ice and Fire).
As I wrote earlier, I don’t believe that the presence or absence of sex really says anything about a work, nor the detail put into it if it does appear.
I’m probably going to try out both off-screen and on-screen sex (with appropriate warnings beforehand) and look how it is received. either way, that is going to take a while, since none of the characters that are really important enough to have their love life as the focus of a chapter (Basil, Dalia, Vasiliki, Irene, Melody) are ready for such
Already pretty awkward that she had sex when she was 10. And then even more awkward because her powers seem to make it nonconsensual every time. And then she messed with their memories so they don’t even know it.
As for johnwedd, I would remind you of Firefly’s episode “Out of Gas”
“Catalyzer is a nothing part, Captain.”
“It’s nothing ’til you don’t got one. Then it appears to be everything.”
alright guys, I’ve got a problem and you might be able to help me with it.
situation: quite a while ago, I came up with a M&M character. said character was capable of creating a projection (a variaton of the summon-power, the summoning entity has not mental stats and can’t act by itself at all).
said projection is: female, nearly completely invulnerable and has the ability to weaken the structural integrity of anything she touches for as long as she touches it, allowing her to punch through almost anything. her body is coloured like a tiger – she basically looks like the beastbrood/rhakshasa-spawn tiefling heritage from the pathfinder supplement “Blood of Fiends”. said picture was part of my inspiration for her.
she was supposed to be called ‘The Siberian’ and she was supposed to turn up in Brennus and be quite important. then I did a wiki-walk at tvtropes and found worm…
see my problem?
now I’m looking for alternate names to use for her. any ideas?
Until you confirmed my suspicion by actually telling about The Siberian that was the first thing coming to mind when i read the list of abilities^^
Now i m not really all that creative but here s my nomination:
Sachmet or Sechmet
after the egyptian goddess of war and disease mostly because its the only felin goddess that came to my mind that doesn t automatically have a positive conotation. A character i think of as the siberian i first think of a villain not a hero thanks to worm i guess.
hmm, not a bad idea, but using the names of gods is always tricky, because there are a LOT of connotations.
unfortunately, Sechmet is a name that absolutely does not work for reasons I can’t tell without spoiling the story. sorry. I can’t even give any more pointers as to what is and isn’t fitting because that would almost certainly spoil future developments of the story X-I
hmm, I found Tigris, a bit bland, but good in a clinch. or maybe something that isn’t connected to tigers directly, but instead to strength/fortitude?
man, coming up with fitting names is more difficult than coming up with the characters themselves!
Thats true i guess there s always a lot connected the names of gods or goddesses. My second idea simply using a scientific term like felinae or tigris seems to be out to when i see this right.
Since i don t play M&M and don t have any idea about that supplement my only indicator is that i seem to remember rakshasas as somewhat catlike from my AD&D days.
What about maybe Bengal or Amur as a name after the Subspecies of tigers?
Otherwise i m out of ideas but you have enough readers hopefully someone else is more creative^^
Amur sounds great. plus, it sounds ambigious in regards to gender, which fits better than bengal, I think. thanks!
Those tiefling heritage pictures are pretty cool. Although the whole “sexy females, ugly males” thing they have going on made me roll my eyes I might have pulled a muscle. (And god, don’t start me on the tiefling girl on the cover. It’s just atrocious.)
*roll my eyes so much
As for tiger names, I’d say Bengal sounds better than Amur, and I don’t really see how it might sound gendered either way, but you’re the author.
I seem to have a problem making sure my posts are complete and error-free before posting. I also meant to say Bengal is, in my mind, more obviously tiger-themed (I’d never even heard of Amur being used, frankly), which might be good or bad.
i thing Bengal would sound a lot like the main character (old / latin? / starting with a “B”)
actually, I think that at least the devil-spawn is quite attractive
the sexy females, ugly males symptom is unfortunately something that haunts pretty much every game out there, especially role-playing games. just look at the male and female tiefling in the (attrocious) 4th edition player’s handbook. or the difference between male and female oreads in pathfinder…
still not sure on the name-front. you’re right, Bengal ain’t bad either. gotta think this one over
Personally I prefer Amur.
Sachmet, or Sekhmet, I’d also find okay.
Epiphyte might be problematic because it’s a pretty big hint that the character is a projector, which he might want to conceal.
i think the name Epiphyte sounds good for that power display because an epiphyte is a flower thats gets its support from another plant to bloom. her power weakens the structures she touches so it is funny sort of and she is a being connected to its user so….
i just want to tell you that sometimes a name makes a character or you could build a character up on the name you give them. for example look at how the name Taylor got used in Worm where in the beginning she was bullied and looked down upon and now she stricks fear in the hearts of many with a different name but she is essentially the same character with the plain name of Taylor.
Hmmm…
Great minds think alike?
Oh, also re: Gloom Glimmer as Mary Sue; I think this one is disproven sufficiently by now.
Entropy
hi
nice chapter, thanks
again: earlier than expected
typos
“that…, said/thought as she”
“she” missing
“that…, she said/thought as she”
“other my eyebrows”
“than” missing
“other than my eyebrows”
fixed, thanks
dammit, I was just finishing the next chapter when my laptop crashed! now I’m down to 2400 words from 6000… :’-(
Sorry to hear (read) that. I guess Murphy has a way of making his presence known. On the plus side technically you are ahead of the schedule you set yourself anyway and even if your text is gone you still know what you wanted to write.
yeah, but there are few things more boring than writing down a text you had ALREADY written…
I’ll try to finish it before going to sleep
you know, considering how many comments this chapter got, I must have really done something right with it^^
remember the endles moral discusions in the worm comments? …
true…
i can’t wait to see what some of the future chapters I have planned are going to start…
The Corps. is mother. The Corps. is father.
As I understand it, her powers wouldn’t influence her to have sex. It is a direct contradiction to the sentence that says “My powers can’t see a difference between need for physical closeness and sex. Not being sentient, ica can’t know what sex it, to confuse it with whatever Irene wants. Her power could influence her to seek others if she feels like being closer to someone. But only that. The one able to differentiate sex from other forms of comfort would be Gloom Glimmer herself. If her powers influence her to get what she wants most, the one whow knows what is, is the girl, not the power. Hence he can’t influence her to have sex, or heigthen her arousal. He can heighten the arousal of another if Gloom Glimmer herself wants to have sex with said person.
This explanation, for me, made no sense. Seemes like a way to insert some Les Yay between the too.
Well, very much appreciated Les Yay
while les yay, of course, is always fine, I ask you to consider that:
1. Gloomy doesn’t know everything about her powers
2. there are aspects to powers I haven’t revealed yet
3. She might just be in denial over her feelings (teenagers, you know?)
“The girl swalloed them eagerly and the distortion faded away.”
Missing a ‘w’ in swallowed
*******
“Her voice was back to normal, if weaker than she had ever heard her be.”
Feels clumsy. How is her voice normal and weaker? Especially considering that it’s a sound-based heroine commenting on the voice. I figured the sound-based descriptions coming from her would be more insightful.
“Her voice had changed from hesitating and tremulous, to raspy and subdued.”
*******
“You don’t happen have it lying around, don’t you?”
‘do’, not ‘don’t’ and need a ‘to’
“You don’t happen to have it lying around, do you?”
*******
fixed
You have an issue with ‘loose’ and ‘lose.’ Lose means to fail or have something go missing. Loose means to do the opposite of tightening something, to free something, or to fire an arrow. Losing control is to have your control fail or go missing. Loosing control isn’t really a phrase anyone uses, but if it was, it would mean to intentionally give up control, or perhaps unleashing an entity known as Control.
“I’m loosing Control, now.”
“Roger. Everyone fall back and let Control mop up.”
Irene’s story seems to imply that Lady Light and The Dark are an actual couple, rather then just collaborating on children for political or other reasons. That would be a little odd. But I’ve always found odd relationships like this between heroes and villains interesting.
…it led to you loosing control
^losing^
fixed, thank you
It’s a nice story, well constructed. Nevertheless, I find it a little too sexual, and there is a lot of overly attractive people walking around, 90% have power=get sexy. It’s like a Twilight version of Worm.
The other fact that I find weird is that the most powerful superhero and the most powerful supervillain (not including DiL)are kind of married, I hope i find the justification for that later.
There are people who are too powerful, undefeatable even, but then again worm had the triumvirate and the gold guy, so that’s ok.
It has many plot flaws, or things that I find kind of ridiculous, but is your world, and it has been fun until now, and you said that is going to get even better, so I will keep reading.
“Opposite of her, Irene was making a sound like a growling animals as she wrapped her arms around herself”
animal not animals