Unknown super

[kengr]

There's a super *nobody* knows about. That's because when they use their power, no one *remembers it.

Y'see they've got what may be the ultimate power. By its very nature it's irresistible and unstoppabele. The fact that nobody else can remember being used, is a sort of unfornate side effect.

What is this power, you ask?

It's the power of *retcon*. They can make changes to the world, even to the past and it will be as if things had always been that way.

So, of course they are unknown, and they don't even have a "cape" name. Why bother, nobody would believe them.

Comments

[polydad]

what are the *limits* of this power? Without constraints, this is just omnipotence, which would be boring.

[siliconshaman]

The logical limit would his/her 'light cone' ... basically, only able to ret-con out as far the information ripple from their actions travels. In physics that's how far light travels since the event being discussed. [since light-speed is the upper limit on speed of information travel]

or to put it another way, the further back the ret-con needs to be 'set', the harder it is.

I suspect trying to alter anything more than a day ago would probably be impossible, given how many memories would need to be changed and how many other events that would alter.

[kengr]

Since the power by its very *existence* pretty much ties relativity (and much of the rest of physics) in a knot, I don't think light cones or much of anything else affect it.

I called it "retcon" for a reason, and those can go back decades and cross light years.

Think of it as being like femto-tech. Not working within the rules of the universe but hacking the server that reality runs on.

[kengr]

Not quite omnipotence. Omnipotence without omniscience is guaranteed to lead to major screw-ups. Remember the H G Well story about the guy who became omnipotent. He wished for the world to stop. and it did.

But none of the stuck sitting on the *surface* did. So the air water and anything not firmly attached went flying off at up to 1000 mph (rotational velocity at the equator). Including him.

Assuming this super has read that story, or has an excess of common sense, they're *not* going to try to find the limits.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It would work in a setting where nobody else had Time Powers. That's plausible, because those are rare. But it wouldn't affect most other people with Time Powers; the nature of the gift means that time just relates to them differently.

Re: Well ...

[kengr]

It all depends on how it works. I don't it messes with time. I think it messes with *reality* at a fundamental level.

So rather than using a loophole in physics to mess with time, it's directly hacking reality. In the same sense as retconning a virtual reality simulation by directly modifying code & data on the server *running* the VR.

[fayanora]

Sounds almost like the Marquis of Death. Whom I only know about because of a YouTube video.

[seawasp]

That would be "Clockstopper" from Super Stupor. "Watch as I nut-punch Father Time!"

[louisadkins]

Does the ret-conner recall the changes made?

[seawasp]

For Clockstopper, yes, he knows what he did and how. For the rest of the world it depends. If you were an INSTIGATOR of the change -- that is, you came to Clockstopper and asked to have a change done -- apparently you also remember it. Other people ... since Super Stupor is a superhero parody, the answer is "only if it's funny".

[kengr]

Well, if they don't remember it, things are apt to cycle unstably.