Making Master powers

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Minions, I wish to see unique mental influence powers! Any novel ones that stand out to in TV shows or books? Great creepypasta or SCP mind-fuckery? Good ones in that noggin of yours?
This puppet desires them all!

P.S. changing a power's aesthetic, lore, and thought-provoking limitations makes for a world of difference. To give an example, basic 'I look in your eyes' and make you my unwilling slave power is boring, while Code Geass eye shenanigans with glowy divine symbols and as heavy a limitation as only one command for each person are cool. It's like the difference between completely invisible telekinesis and telekinesis that has a showy aura made of bats that you can recognize and avoid.

P.P.S. I find memetic hazards to be just the coolest.

 

[Rhaps]

Tarn

This guy, his voice can shut down machinery and later evolves into a power that can control other bots in the Transformers comics.

He also like to play classical music while torturing his victims and his voice is gentle and soothing.

Imagine someone telling you to tear your skin apart, dig out your organs, screaming your lungs out, while calm and soothing music play in the background.

His voice can also be recorded and still work.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I'm working on a guy you can heal scars. Now, that doesn't sound like much, but an addiction to certain drugs or even a psychological addiction to power can result in basically scars forming on your dopamine receptors.

In order words, over time you lose the ability to have empathy, so is often the reason people in power become callous. So my character has the ability to heal ALL SCARS.

Basically, people who are monsters because they are addicted to power get healed and suddenly can feel empathy again. Only the truly sociopathic ones are immune because they have no scars to heal.

So my villain is a sociopath who heals his competition into becoming harmless because they are wracked with guilt and can no longer effectively run the government/organization they control.

 

[2wordsperminute]

I think the best manipulation power is "gatekeep gaslight girlboss" or more specifically, Makima (spoiler tagged just in case) from chainsaw man. Traditional manipulation of just identifying weaknesses in a person's mental state and abusing them is extremely underrated as a power.

 

[Peter3135566]

You know that thinker power from one of the illuminati style guys from worm that memy fanfic have to deal with avoid or such? The power to make a "path" to the goal you want, as defined by certen parameters and following the "most efficent" way to "path"...

Ive read a fanfic about someone with that power in nightcity cyberpunk, and while it did have its thinker-ness, the ability to know just what to say or do to get what you want, plus near devine hacking lvl in a cyberpunk brainjack world... seems like a master power to me if used in that way? Not originly my idea, just bouncing it around my head while typing it out and that

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

You know that thinker power from one of the illuminati style guys from worm that memy fanfic have to deal with avoid or such? The power to make a "path" to the goal you want, as defined by certen parameters and following the "most efficent" way to "path"...

Ive read a fanfic about someone with that power in nightcity cyberpunk, and while it did have its thinker-ness, the ability to know just what to say or do to get what you want, plus near devine hacking lvl in a cyberpunk brainjack world... seems like a master power to me if used in that way? Not originly my idea, just bouncing it around my head while typing it out and that

Yeah, it's a Master power in that it fits under the category of Master. Doesn't use any direct intervention on the mind, unless one views all speaking as a form of direct mental influence. Though on the other side of the coin, it's still a memetic hazard. So... *shrugs* it can be argued either way.

 

[Alfir]

Personality alteration sounds fun as a superpower if handled by a good guy. Imagine a vigilante running a rehabilitation program from the shadows. Think of Worm and some OC in Brockton Bay walking to Hookwolf and be like, "Man, you are no longer a Nazi... and you are less battle-hungry and more hamster-loving... also, you love charity work."

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Personality alteration sounds fun as a superpower if handled by a good guy. Imagine a vigilante running a rehabilitation program from the shadows. Think of Worm and some OC in Brockton Bay walking to Hookwolf and be like, "Man, you are no longer a Nazi... and you are less battle-hungry and more hamster-loving... also, you love charity work."

That'd be neat, though it wouldn't a worm story without half the verse wondering if this is the second coming of the Simurgh or Teacher and trying to lynch the OC. Every good deed must be repaid by suffering and hardship in Brockton Bay.

 

[Rhaps]

Tarn
View attachment 32838
This guy, his voice can shut down machinery and later evolves into a power that can control other bots in the Transformers comics.

He also like to play classical music while torturing his victims and his voice is gentle and soothing.

Imagine someone telling you to tear your skin apart, dig out your organs, screaming your lungs out, while calm and soothing music play in the background.

His voice can also be recorded and still work.

He almost saved the multiverse by trying to control Shockwave to kill himself, here is a list of Shockwave's minor crimes

Spoiler: Shockwave's lesser war crimes

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

RPC Authority

You have seen beyond the scope of the serried masses, and into the depths of the strange and uncanny truth that lies beyond. Welcome to the Authority.

rpcauthority.wikidot.com

The main people that made SCP great made this.

Have fun.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

In one of the first attempts that I ever made to write a novel (back around '81 or so), the villain had a sword called "Heartseeker" - this sword had the ability to strike at the body and soul of the target. Each time it connected with a target, it began sapping their will, even if it failed to draw blood (as this was based on AD&D, each time the sword hit for any amount of damage, the target had to make a Saving Throw vs. Spells, with a cumulative penalty of one for every successful hit, or see the sword wielder as your sovereign, worthy of undying loyalty). Eventually, either it would enslave the opponent or kill them, depending on how good they were as a fighter and how tough.

 

[Kenjona]

Personally the best "mind fuckery" ones I like are where the "victim" voluntarily/willingly undergoes it and refuses to leave of their own free will. We see something similar all the time in the real world with Nations, Cults and Septs and such like organizations. But in those they were "convinced" to join, the did not asked to join fully knowing that the cult/sept/sect was fake.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Personally the best "mind fuckery" ones I like are where the "victim" voluntarily/willingly undergoes it and refuses to leave of their own free will. We see something similar all the time in the real world with Nations, Cults and Septs and such like organizations. But in those they were "convinced" to join, the did not asked to join fully knowing that the cult/sept/sect was fake.

I'd say Big Brother in 1984 is probably the epitome of this.

 

[Puji-Maki]

I recommend Deep Sea Embers.

 

[Cortavar]

What if the power to control others isn't mental at all?

An endocrinothurge (made-up word: a mage/psychic who controls hormones) would be a cool opponent, especially if they have a reputation to be a mind bender and their opponents come prepared with mental shields and defences, only to be bypassed by hormones, emotions and a bit of clever manipulation.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

What if the power to control others isn't mental at all?

An endocrinothurge (made-up word: a mage/psychic who controls hormones) would be a cool opponent, especially if they have a reputation to be a mind bender and their opponents come prepared with mental shields and defences, only to be bypassed by hormones, emotions and a bit of clever manipulation.

Could also do the same thing through manipulation of sound - sound can enhance, even "force" some emotions in people (at least per a study allegedly funded by Alfred Hitchcock back around 1960)