You are all my subjects now!

Backstory: In seventh grade (for those outside of the American education system, I was 11/12), fed up with the state of the world and the fact that adults weren't taking the "blindingly obvious" steps needed to make everything paradise, I wrote a book in my spare time, in which I (and some of my friends), through quite a few Di Ex Machina, conquer the world and proceed to Make Things Better (until Things Go Wrong and the entire human race dies in a nuclear holocaust).

Not one week after finishing the book, cue the hard drive crash that taught me once and for all why you save important documents on multiple discs.

Nowadays, I want to essentially redo the book, slotting it into my original superhero comicbook series. But I like to think I've matured as a person, so this book won't be an action-adventure polimic about why I should rule the world and why, if people just let me be in charge, everything will be fine.

I want to make it more an examination of what would happen if someone took over the world who had my seventh-grade-self's complete belief that he SHOULD be ruler and that paradise would result, and especially how other people would react.

The World Emperor, yes, is essentially my younger self grown-up to roughly my current age, but with no willingness to even consider for a second that someone with an alternative viewpoint can possibly be right about how to Make Things Better. (Also, thanks to being in a superhero universe, he has vast power that lets him do basically anything and prevents him from simply being thrown out of office.)

Here's where you come in. Aside from the powers, I want this to be as realistic as possible. I want to use you as sample subjects. You will essentially be playing yourself living in this other universe, I will guide you through the story and tell you various things the World Emperor does, and you will give me your reactions. Hopefully this can help me spot things I missed and make this a better story.

Anyone up for it? Please? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Yeah, I'll give it a shot. Sounds like a nifty idea.

Thanks. I hope you're not my only subject.

Sounds like it could be interesting, I'm in.


...Do we get superpowers too? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This sounds pretty cool. I'd do it.

Generic Thirteen wrote:

Sounds like it could be interesting, I'm in.


...Do we get superpowers too? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I might pick one or two of you, though one of the "rules" of this universe is that if you get powers, you immediately take up a career as a hero or villain. No "empowered bystanders," if that's OK.

I might give this a shot.

I'm here because every take over the world scheme involves a Shiny New Australia. :D

Hm. I could give it a try.

OK, I think we have enough to start with. Anyone else "late to the party" that wants to join in is free to do so at anytime.

Remember: this is a world that has established superheroes and supervillains, several hundred at least. You might be surprised by what the new super on the block's powers ARE, but not that they EXIST.

To start:

Scenario #1:

Tuning into the news (or reading it on the Internet) one morning, you hear about a new super on the scene, an American male, young-to-mid-20s, with some psychic powers, mainly low-or-mid-scale telekinesis and telepathy (the original film version of CARRIE should be what you think of as his absolute peak, at this point). He uses these powers to find a factory in a Third World country (just for the sake of argument, let's say Cambodia) where the workers are kept in virtual servitude and are barely paid, if at all. He liberates the workers and imprisions/humiliates the managers. He then attacks an enclave in Phnom Penh where some of the ruling class lives, forcibly evicting them and setting the workers in there instead, getting them properly fed and rested.

At the time of the report, troops have surrounded the enclave, and at the moment it's a bit of a seige, as they can't make it past his psychic defenses but he can't really get out, either.

Presuming I am an ordinary citizen, then probably I will be furiously writing letters to my congress person / MP / whatev to try to get him some help, blithely ignorant that one rescue of these workers solves nothing, and likely helps them only a short period of time.

*nods* Good, good...you're ("you" being the you who's typing in this thread, not in the other universe) is already thinking further ahead than he/me is, which is just what I was hoping for. I definitely want him/me to come across in the early stages of this as a well-meaning idealist who doesn't always think everything through.

(The you in the other universe is just like the "you" here; you live in the same place, same job, etc, etc)

The funny thing about Australians is that we have a problem taking things seriously if they're in a country other than our own. I would presume my government knows about the situation, and that the most they'll do is say "we'll support the US in anything they decide to do".

However, I would try to do a little research into the news about it, before posting some form of opinion up on the internet. Most likely I would sit on fence between wondering if it was right or wrong to do such a thing.

Depending on how often this sort of thing happened, I´d doubt it even register with me. It´d probably only be a small footnote in the European news, considering that the impact of tragedies is proportional to how Western that country is and especially considering that it involves one crazy American and a few Cambodians.

(Also, time is a huge factor here. The whole thing might be resolved in less than 24 hours, which would mean it'd feature on the news maybe a day or two. Chances are, the reactions in Europe would be jaded.)

Wait, hang on. Superpowers? How long have there been metas around for, anyway? Is this the first documented instance of metahuman activity, or has Captain Patriot been saving kitties from trees since 1935, or what?

Similar to Jay. If I saw the article, I'd probably :3 then forget about it. I might look at the whole "forcibly evicted" thing and think 'ahh, dem crazy americans, always forcibly something'... but that would be about it, I wouldn't think much about it beyond that.

Snoof wrote:

Wait, hang on. Superpowers? How long have there been metas around for, anyway? Is this the first documented instance of metahuman activity, or has Captain Patriot been saving kitties from trees since 1935, or what?

Approximately five to ten years.

I would post about it in the bad news forum. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I'd probably take a look at the article and talk about it with a few friends (possibly debate how much it matters with the one friend I always debate news with - I'd be taking the side that it's a good step in raising awareness here but is a drop in an ocean) but otherwise wouldn't think about it too much. I'd probably remember it and possibly bring it up as an example in an argument or a conversation but I wouldn't actually do anything because of it.

... this is, of course, if I remembered to check the news that day or if this is the kind of news that manages to be everywhere at once.

Thanos6 wrote:

Tuning into the news (or reading it on the Internet) one morning, you hear about a new super on the scene, an American male, young-to-mid-20s, with some psychic powers, mainly low-or-mid-scale telekinesis and telepathy (the original film version of CARRIE should be what you think of as his absolute peak, at this point). He uses these powers to find a factory in a Third World country (just for the sake of argument, let's say Cambodia) where the workers are kept in virtual servitude and are barely paid, if at all. He liberates the workers and imprisions/humiliates the managers. He then attacks an enclave in Phnom Penh where some of the ruling class lives, forcibly evicting them and setting the workers in there instead, getting them properly fed and rested.

At the time of the report, troops have surrounded the enclave, and at the moment it's a bit of a seige, as they can't make it past his psychic defenses but he can't really get out, either.

Wow, only an American. What does he think this is going to accomplish? As soon as he leaves things'll just go back to normal, except the people he's trying to save who co-operated with him will probably have a lot of more powerful people mad at them... like their bosses, or the guys whose houses he took over. All that he's doing is making himself feel like a hero.

Assuming I heard about it, I would probably end up talking about this in the dining hall or possibly one of the forums I go on, because it provokes bitterness in me.

I would look it up more, so I have more of an idea of what's going on, then probably have a similar reaction to Saeku. Stupid Yank's not going to accomplish anything but getting himself killed and making everything in the region a whole lot worse, and honestly? I'd probably root for the soldiers that've got him under siege.

KGarrett wrote:

I would look it up more, so I have more of an idea of what's going on, then probably have a similar reaction to Saeku. Stupid Yank's not going to accomplish anything but getting himself killed and making everything in the region a whole lot worse, and honestly? I'd probably root for the soldiers that've got him under siege.

This. I'd probably give a thought to why the government isn't bringing any supers from that area or the surrounding areas to help out the soldiers, if there are any. I'd read the thread on WGW or where ever I first saw it. Then I'd drink some tea, and go about my day, forgetting about it till I checked the news thread again.

I think I might decry this as overall pretty damn dumb, and say something along the lines of, "I'm glad these people are getting some sort of help, but this isn't what they need. The only positive in this is that maybe now the gubbmint will take some action to help them, since it's clear they need some aid and we've been neglecting them."

Well... not that eloquently, but you get the picture.

Good, good...really liking all these reactions.

Scenario #2:

On the news later that day/the next day, update: the "Yank" has discovered that a lot of the workers he has with him are related to many of the soldiers surrounding them. Using his telepathy to speak in Khmer, he takes advantage of these family ties and delivers a speech to the sieging forces. Enough of the troops switch sides that the siege breaks, and he's able to burst out, battling and defeating the forces. He, the workers, and the defected troops arm themselves with the weaponry, then begin what could almost be defined as a blitzkrieg, or perhaps "island-hopping": they rush one sweatshop, free it, use the additional manpower and resources gained to take the next one in line even faster, rinse and repeat. Even as you read/hear the report, he's cutting a swathe through the country.

Okay, so what are the negatives of this? Why aren't other supers getting involved?