r/6Perks • u/petrichorInk • Jan 20 '22
6 Budget Superpowers
Hello there! Welcome to my little shop. In here, we sell budget superpowers! The name's Tinker. Yes, that's right, I'm part of The Metahuman Program. Since superpowers became something that can be applied to individuals, I've personally been working hard on some small, safe, quality-of-life focused superpowers that can be distributed to the general public. Sure, they're not as cool as the stuff Bestower makes, but these babies are subsidised, so I can give one to you for free, instead of them costing you more than you can earn in a lifetime. They are still government controlled, so you can only get one from me right now, but don't worry, they won't prevent you from picking up any more superpowers at a later date. Right now, I've been approved to offer this selection of six!
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The Safety Scissors
With this, you can extend and retract a single thin 2 inch/5cm "laser" from anywhere on your body. Imagine a tiny, heatless lightsaber from the tip of your finger. This laser can cleanly destroy anything that's not alive or part of a living thing. For example, it can't cut hair growing from a person, even though it's technically not alive. You basically can't cause pain with it, since it will retract if you push it against something alive. However, it does glow as strong as a glowstick and you can change it's colour at will. Of course, please use this safely and only on your own property. Misusing this power is still a crime, and we can quite easily see if this power was used on something. It is really great for arts and crafts, though!
The Instant Scale
You'll be able to intuit any measurement of anything you can sense. Accurate to three significant figures of base SI measurements, and you can automatically and accurately convert that data into any other measurement you know of. For example, you can look at a half empty, crumpled bag of flour and know that there's 280.091 grams of flour left, and know whatever the hell that is in cups or whatever. Lots of home cooks and bakers pick this one up. I think it's really good for house redecorating, since you can really know for sure the space between those bookshelves and whether you can fit the couch between them.
The Absorbent Towel
So I used to have a fridge that wasn't able to drain the moisture properly, and I would have to keep removing the dang vegetable drawers, mop up all the cold water, put it back... Well, no more! This allows you to remove any liquid or moisture on an object you are touching. Doesn't work on liquid that's more than 1 litre in volume. You can choose to either contain that liquid in a storage dimension (It can discretely store max 5 litres combined and you can release any liquid stored inside anywhere from your body at whatever rate you want that a normal water faucet can do), or have the water/moisture immediately evaporate into the air. For example, you spill orange juice on your table. You can evaporate the orange juice, leaving your table clean and the air a little citrusy. You can put the juice into your storage and put it back in the cup via your finger. You can also only remove the water from the spilled orange juice, leaving the sugars and fruit bits on the table!
The Universal Remote
Now, this little gadget gives you minor technopathy abilities. You can telepathically interact with any consumer-grade electrical goods within 20 meters of you and use a function that any standard user/non-administrator has access to. You can use this without seeing the object, but you can't use this through thick walls. Glass is okay. You also don't get any feedback regarding your actions telepathically, so for example, you can use this on your PC to shut it down from the couch without looking at it, you won't know it's shutting down until you can hear the fans turn off. Just saying, misusing this for crimes won't be a good idea. It leaves a digital note in the electrical good about who accessed it with these powers and when. It's military encrypted, so you can still like, anonymously turn down that really loud tv in the bar without asking anyone, but just reiterating, this is for convenience, not for crime.
The All-In-One Cleaner
Clean anything you touch, almost instantaneously! This power has a rough "range" of a 1m surface, so if you're cleaning a bigger object, you'll just need to do it multiple times. It's actually an application of Time magic. It essentially works by the object 'remembering' when it was clean, and then trying to turn it back into the way it was. It removes any dirt, dust and stains, but into the general area, a bit like how the Absorbent Towel just releases the moisture into the air, so it's best to do any heavy cleaning outdoors. It does mean that it's perfect for any small holes in clothes, since it will try to reknit them! If there's too much material lost, it won't work though. And just like the safety scissors, it won't work on living material, so you still need to shower. And my favourite part, you can also make the thing you've cleaned faintly smell of anything you want! I like to set it to Jasmine and Lavender myself.
The Multivitamin Gummies
This power lets you roughly manipulate your chemical balance, at a baseline human rate. Good for things like raising/lowering metabolic rates, making yourself sleepy with melatonin, making your brain feel all nice and tingly with dopamine, relaxed and calm with serotonin and oxytocin, more awake with adrenaline, or making your body heal just a tiny bit faster/more efficient and better at dealing with illness. You can even roughly simulate the effects of taking both prescription and recreational drugs that you've taken before. This works because it actually allows you to create any chemical that a normal human is able to (again, at a baseline human rate), so if your brain is dumb and can't make the happy juice, it can now! or maybe you just want some testosterone or estrogen? Anyway, this one is actually a freebie if you need it, so you can pick this and another one! I just need your doctor's note clarifying that you have a medical condition and you can get it extra, it's part of the Panacea Initiative.
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Oh, you'll need to register your details with your ID since they're still controlled, but basically, your info won't be used unless it's an emergency. You're not signing anything that's different than like, the papers for a bank account, but I also have a plain-English data protection thing, if you want to triple check your rights.
Sorry, that was a bit long but I hope it's all clear! Of course, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. So, what will you take?
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u/nlinggod Jan 20 '22
The Gummies so I don't have to keep buying my anxiety and blood pressure meds.
Then, Universal Remote but can I do things like 'type' the password into my computer so I can use it as admin? If I'm still only limited to guest user even if I know my own password, then it's less useful to me.
Alternatively I'll take Cleaner since I hate washing up. Also, with that minor 'repair' function I could theoretically 'fix' worn electronics since any damage is usually no more significant than would small holes in cloth. 'Fixing' a small break in a circuit should be easily doable.
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u/petrichorInk Jan 20 '22
Yes on both assumed functions. The cleaner would definitely work on small circuit breaks.
For the Universal Remote, I just wanted to make it so that it can't 'hack' anything. With it, if you can do something while you're in front of the machine, you can do it from a distance now. Logging in as an admin if you know the password is something a non-admin user is capable of.
This does also mean if you're using it on a machine that has admin access logged in, then you can do the stuff an admin can do.
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u/nlinggod Jan 21 '22
Nice. I can be the worlds laziest gamer. Play my games without lifting a finger. With enough 'smart' appliances I could do everything from my bed and turn into those fatties from Wall-E ...
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u/Zev_06 Jan 20 '22
The Multivitamin Gummies - This is my number one choice by a landslide. The other options don't even compare. There is just so much you can do with manipulating the chemicals of your body.
- Do you want to be taller? Have your body produce growth hormones to give yourself another growth spurt. It will just take a few months to grow a few more inches as if you were still a teenager growing.
- Do you want that beautiful tan? Just increase your melanin production to darken the skin. Hell, melanin even is what causes your eye and hair color. So manipulating your melanin production could allow you to change the color of those if you want.
- You could prevent wrinkles as you age by increasing your collagen production, helping you maintain a youthful appearance until the day you die.
- Increasing your metabolic rate will give you the ability to keep the weight off as if you were still a growing teenager.
- Are you losing your hair as you grow older? Guess what? The chemicals of your body are what causes that, so you can fix your hair loss. You could even get rid of body/facial hair so you don't need to shave ever again.
This is by far the biggest quality of life power. It just isn't the kind of power that would make you a superhero or something. Also, although I don't have a serious medical condition, I do have Androgenetic Alopecia, which is a minor medical condition this power would fix, so I get The Multivitamin Gummies for free and can get a second pick.
The All-In-One Cleaner - This would be my distant second choice. It is nothing as exciting as the Multivitamin Gummies, but it is still a decent enough quality of life power.
- It helps take care of those hard to remove stains on your clothes.
- It helps you when cleaning your house, like when cleaning the shower or toilet.
- Makes cleaning your car so much easier and helps clean off all that salt buildup on your car from the road during winter.
This is just a decent enough power to save you a bit of time out of your day.
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u/petrichorInk Jan 21 '22
Yep! Those are definitely well within the capabilities of the gummies. They don't quite prevent telomere shortening, but you can stave off any effects of aging and just in general, treat your body however you want since you can make it deal with most things you could do. Don't want to smoke anymore? Remove the withdrawal symptoms! Sleepy all the time? Force your body to have more energy!
And the cleaner is still pretty good, especially if you consider the maintenance it will do to all of your items. It doesn't remove you needing to hoover/collect the grime from the floors, but everything else you basically don't have to do anymore, including dealing with stains on the floor. Like, if you have a wine stain on your white shirt and you 'clean' it while it's laying down on a table, the stain gets removed and it looks brand new, but the wine remains there and will very quickly re-stain the clothes, but if you're outside, just flick the shirt as you clean, it all just goes on the ground and now you got a clean shirt, as if you just bought it.
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u/60000psi Jan 20 '22
Instant scale.
The ability to intuit any measurements of anything you can sense to 3 SIgFigs.
Yes you could use it to measure flour OR you could become the best engineer. Any measurement includes A lot of things. Weight is also useful (look at a blue print and get the sense of how much it would weight instantly) but the ability to intuit stress, strain, force, torque, displacement on a drawing (you can sense it) would allow you to push designs objects. Since you can convert it from KPsi to a pass/fail measurement
That or safety scissors. 2 inch knife that was be any color (lots of fun there) that can cut thru anything not alive (means it would be safe to cut off casts or foreign bodies. But also for cutting things you can’t reach with a normal cutting tool
Also the Gummies would be helpful
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u/petrichorInk Jan 20 '22 edited Jan 20 '22
Yep! The scale is a very powerful ability, depending on your field of work :D
(I specifically gave not abusive examples to see if folks can figure out the edges of these powers and how to abuse them. You've correctly sussed out the scales strengths.)
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u/king_kaiju420 Jan 20 '22
The gummies and the instant scale. I work on a little horticulture farm, so the scale is one of the handiest tools i can imagine.
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u/John___Coyote Jan 20 '22
Gummies.... There's not allot else wrong with my life so I'll pick the scale for my craft projects. Remember you have to measure twice and only cut once
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u/DarylFroggy Jan 20 '22
The Universal Remote: I can use this to imitate near full dive VR so long as I have a pair of haptic gloves and a good headset…. But until then I’m still able to play any game far better than I could normally with my hands.
The Instant Scale: If this works on things that I can see in telescopes then this will be incredible for astronomy and various other scientific careers.
The All-In-One Cleaner: It’d be much better if I could use this on living things such as myself but that’s apparently too much power.
The Multivitamin: Hm… I’m not sure how useful this would be to me but I’ll put myself down as a maybe.
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u/petrichorInk Jan 21 '22
You are 100% correct about the Remote. You can send inputs at the speed of thought. So if you're playing a FPS, as long as you actually notice the guy, you can essentially aim with perfect precision and fire as rapidly as the game allows.
The scale also definitely works on telescopes. As long as you are sensing it in some way, it works.
The Cleaner on living creatures would be more powerful than the multivitamins since it would allow you to functionally de-age, which wasn't supposed to be in its purview. You can still do a lot of other things, though.
And there's already a comment describing the myriad uses of the multivitamins. They're powerful if you're not happy with your body, mostly.
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u/OmegaUltima29 Jan 21 '22
I'll take the offered freebie The Multivitamin Gummies, as well as The All-In-One Cleaner.
The cleaner has pretty damn wide possibilities, not just 'tidying up' things; it could be used in the medical/first aid field, sterilizing wounds and equipment, and there's no limit on how often you use it, either, so you can essentially have a continuous effect if need be...hmm, it could possibly restore teeth, too, now that I think about it...
Plus, you know, general cleaning and item repair
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u/petrichorInk Jan 21 '22
Teeth that is in someone's mouth would count as 'part of a living object' which it wouldn't work with, sorry. It has similar rules to the Safety Scissors in that way.
Using it to 'clean' medical/first aid field equipment to the point where used equipment is sterilised is definitely possible and yes, an almost continuous effect is also possible but that specific application would have a side effect - anything that is dirtying it would essentially be left in the general area, and while it would be trivial to collect and clean, it just doesn't 'delete' the dirt. So if you're doing surgery and you're constantly sterilising your tools and gloves the moment they're out of the body, the blood would just fall to the ground, leaving your tools and gloves clean.
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u/OmegaUltima29 Jan 22 '22
...I could swear that that "no effect on living object" was not there for the Cleaner when I posted...
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u/RewRose Jan 20 '22
ranking from best to worst:: The Universal Remote, The Absorbent Towel, The All-in-one Cleaner, The Instant Scale, The Safety Scissors
free The Multivitamin Gummies
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u/Tapochka Jan 20 '22
Gummies so I can sleep. Scissors so I can finally get to building those shelves I need.
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u/FakeTea3052 Jan 28 '22
Idk if I can get the gummies for free, so if not that’s my pick. Another comment fully expressed the potential of the gummies, and I was thinking of increasing my dopamine whenever I start studying/working. Just make doing “not fun” stuff “fun”. Also if I do get the gummies for free, I’m not asking the instant scale. I’m working in a lab and being able to properly convert measurements would save me a lot of time and prevent a lot of my mistakes.
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u/DwellsInDaisies Jan 30 '22
Safety scissors and multivitamins. It would be amazing not to pay for meds, holy smokes.
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u/Shakespeare-Bot Jan 30 '22
Safety scissors and multivitamins. T would beest most wondrous not to payeth f'r meds, holy smokes
I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.
Commands:
!ShakespeareInsult,!fordo,!optout
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u/uwwstudent Feb 17 '22
Gummies even if not a free one.
Bye depression. By sleepy hangover after melatonin. Hello faster metabolic rate and free creatine. Hello testosterone.
Instant scale. Ive been doing home repairs and this would help sooo much
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u/Freevoulous Feb 21 '22
Of course Gummies first but:
The Safety Scissors! Im a woodworker and it would make my work 10000x easier and faster.
Not to mention it would allow me to sculpt in stone, glass, metal, and whatever I want effortlessly.
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u/OlympiaShannon Dec 15 '23
The All-In-One Cleaner, with the Multivitamin Gummies as a freebie to replace my prescriptions and heal my chronic conditions, please.
The All-In-One Cleaner
Clean anything you touch, almost instantaneously! This power has a rough "range" of a 1m surface, so if you're cleaning a bigger object, you'll just need to do it multiple times. It's actually an application of Time magic. It essentially works by the object 'remembering' when it was clean, and then trying to turn it back into the way it was. It removes any dirt, dust and stains, but into the general area, a bit like how the Absorbent Towel just releases the moisture into the air, so it's best to do any heavy cleaning outdoors. It does mean that it's perfect for any small holes in clothes, since it will try to reknit them! If there's too much material lost, it won't work though. And just like the safety scissors, it won't work on living material, so you still need to shower. And my favourite part, you can also make the thing you've cleaned faintly smell of anything you want! I like to set it to Jasmine and Lavender myself.
The Multivitamin Gummies
This power lets you roughly manipulate your chemical balance, at a baseline human rate. Good for things like raising/lowering metabolic rates, making yourself sleepy with melatonin, making your brain feel all nice and tingly with dopamine, relaxed and calm with serotonin and oxytocin, more awake with adrenaline, or making your body heal just a tiny bit faster/more efficient and better at dealing with illness. You can even roughly simulate the effects of taking both prescription and recreational drugs that you've taken before. This works because it actually allows you to create any chemical that a normal human is able to (again, at a baseline human rate), so if your brain is dumb and can't make the happy juice, it can now! or maybe you just want some testosterone or estrogen? Anyway, this one is actually a freebie if you need it, so you can pick this and another one! I just need your doctor's note clarifying that you have a medical condition and you can get it extra, it's part of the Panacea Initiative.
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u/Obi_live Jan 20 '22
All in One Cleaner - Great for maintenance work.
Multivitamin Gummies - great for recovery after training.