#power systems

[tokiro07]

Saw someone going through my Medaka Box tag and liking some of my old posts and it got my gears turning about how the Abnormality power system barely qualifies as a power system at all

Whereas something like Undead Unluck has a complex web of interactions between its various facets that are all governed by consistent and predictable rules (known as a Hard Power System), Medaka Box's Soft Power System makes very little attempt to codify any specific rules or distinctions between its constituent elements

For example, it's never clearly laid out what really differentiates a Plus or a Minus in the sense of what the powers are capable of. There was a point where it seemed like all Pluses gave the user some kind of internal ability while Minuses gave them the power to affect the world around them in some way, but that's quickly discarded by Pluses like Weighted Words (electrical signal projection) and Remodeling (effectively externalized shapeshifting with extra steps)

The capabilities of the powers are so vague that when Ajimu claims to have 13 quadrillion powers, half of which being Plus and half being Minus, there's almost never any attention paid to which ones are which when she's listing them off. Is Parasite Seeing, the skill to see through someone else's eyes, a Plus or a Minus? Who knows, it's never stated, nor is it ever dwelled upon

Because that's the real sticking point here: the narrative doesn't care about the powers themselves

When Minuses are first introduced, the powers aren't the part that any of the cast is worried about, it's the people using them

Mukae isn't an issue because Raff-Rafflesia forces her to decay anything she touches, she's an issue because she's obsessive and delusional. Her personality, her Mentality, is what allows her to be so flippant with such a passively hazardous ability

In other words, the powers themselves aren't really what's being classified when one is referred to as a Plus or Minus Abnormal, it's the origin of those powers and the people using them

The interaction between powers can't be called a system because there are no actual rules governing them; every time one character thinks they understand a rule, it turns out that it was just an assumption they made up. "Medaka's power is to perfect Abnormalities; if she perfects a Minus, it will bring it to its logical extreme and make her uncontrollable!" Except...no, it never does. She masters multiple Minuses with no ill effect because she doesn't have the matching Mentality

Plus and Minus are just labels, diagnoses of the user's state, and the powers themselves are otherwise just there so that the cast can have a way to fight beyond punching and kicking

This isn't an indictment of the writing quality, as I think the personality traits of the cast do follow consistent rules and patterns within their categories, but that really just illustrates my point: the power system is there as a way to blatantly highlight the personalities of the cast, not to create a unique and intricate form of combat that can only be found within its home series

[auriza-side-tomb]

Something I really love doing is taking the power system from a piece of media and coming up with a completely new setting to explore it in. Some examples I’ve thought of include:

Nen (Hunter x Hunter):

While everyone can learn the same basic techniques, the true power of nen is to construct your own power based on your specialisation, skill, creativity, life experiences and training. You can also put arbitrary restrictions on your own abilities to increase their power (the stricter the more powerful). It’s overall one of the best designed power systems I’ve ever seen, and is honestly far too complex to explain fully here.

Imagine a setting in which specific groups/families hoard knowledge of how to construct specific nen abilities. Opposing factions would constantly be locked in an arms race and information war with their rivals. Struggling to steal each other’s knowledge and techniques, while at the same time developing and protecting their own.

This could be the stage for any number of supernatural, power based political/class dramas and/or conflicts. And that’s not even accounting for the chaotic influences of more random individuals with extremely specific techniques, agendas and allegiances.

Alternatively, in a less chaotic setting, you could have a school/academy for Nen. People learn the basic techniques and are then given guidance on how to construct their own Nen ability. You could slot this into any number of world settings.

Stands (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure):

A physical/ghostly manifestation of one’s soul, often with a specific ability and specialisation. The series already uses this power system amazingly in regards to fighting scenes. With characters having to juggle the effects of multiple complex abilities at once and try to outwit each other.

One thing JJBA doesn’t really do is explore the social ramifications of Stands. In part 8 there’s a few lines that explain how Stand users are often very secretive about their abilities, even to their close friends and family, as one’s Stand is literally a representation of of their soul, their true self. But the series never really goes any further with this idea.

Imagine how this could be used in a more socially intimate story. Explaining your Stand in detail to someone would be just about the most personal thing you could share with them. This could be used in a romantic setting. It could be used as a metaphor in a coming out story, to show someone’s acceptance or rejection of another’s true self.

Alternatively, if the setting is one where the general public knows about Stands (and people who have them are generally in the public eye), you could create a metaphor about how invasive and privacy destroying fame can be. The media, fans and internet constantly trying to pry as much personal information from you as possible, taken to 11 as the subject of their focus is your literal soul. This would also highlight the dangers involved, as having a well known Stand would make you more vulnerable to having its weaknesses exploited in combat.

Those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but feel free to share if you have any more ideas :)

[the-grove]

Love when a show has like multiple power systems. Especially when like one of them is sort of seen as the cheater or reckless way out. Devil Fruits are cool, and zany and strong, but also come with extreme costs and can only get you so far, Haki is like the real power system and can reach even greater heights on its own. And then of course some of the most dangerous people are devil fruit users who also have mastered haki.

[thelandswemadeofpaper]

I am making a list of Energy Systems, add if you want

Chakra (Naruto)

Magic/Witchcraft/Sorcery

Flames (KHR)

Chi/Ki

Nen (HxH)

The Force (Star Wars)

Elemental Bending (Avatar)

Mana

Reiki (YYH)

Reiatsu (Bleach)

Alchemy (FMA)

Mana

[mamamittens]

I think one of the many weird things I'm a slut for (found family, overly competent retiree comes out for one last ride, secret op psychic powers, ECT) I really enjoy "willpower" based power systems.

Like, Bleach has a sort of "spiritual pressure" thing that's sorta willpower related that's low-key hilarious when you realize it literally means that at a certain point 'small fry' can't even exist in your vicinity with it unleashed let alone try you. Then there's Katekyo Hitman Reborn with "dying will flames" that's a weird mix of pseudo personality type power and inherited that the fandom--to this day istg--has so much fucking fun with. Never get tired of seeing that played with by the way it's wack as shit.

So naturally, when I see "Haki" in One Piece I go apeshit. Really bite into it with my teeth and shake my head like a dog when folks toy with the ideas it has. What does having conquerors haki really mean. How far can you control it? Can you communicate with haki? Can you manipulate it to essentially disappear from even nonsensitive people's pov? Can you selectively use armor haki for specific limbs? Turn nails into knives or shield an unborn child? Can observation haki vary between users? Do some see the 'future' while others get a pseudo synthesia experience where they see too much of their surroundings all at once? Can you still lie with this haki active?

When something as nebulous as "willpower" becomes a valid force in the narrative, is there any real limit?

Is it possible to have an average, weak character become a force to reckon because they want it bad enough within this system? Not because they were born to stand but because they need it. They still understand what it means to be so pathetic they have to rip into every opportunity to live with their teeth or die. So it gives them an edge others can't have anymore, because they're so far removed from that kind of desperation.

Does it really take a powerhouse to stand up to a conqueror and say "No."? Or just someone sick and tired of being defined by how little their body can take?

"Even if it kills me, I refuse to bow."

Make me.

Idk, I just think it would be really fucking neat to see. Someone that, sure, they can't take on most of the strongest forces out there (if that). But if it comes to a battle of wills it's just a prime example of "an immovable object meets an unstoppable force".

Or hell, even someone that just doesn't fucking care if you're a conqueror, they want nothing to do with your wack ass. That would also be really fucking funny. A comedic take to this whole rambling the I've been going on about forever to the point I'm not sure if it makes sense anymore.

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[rbrte2don]

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Can Power Systems, Ethernet controller, High-Speed CAN Transceiver

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[littlemizzlinguistics]

Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"

[profoundpoetrycowboy]

Imagine A Power System Where You Melted Into A Mercury Man Or Turned Into A Giant Bomb Man

[chipqry]

I published an article about "Six Failure Modes of Power System MOS Tubes and Guide to Practical Protective Measures"

I published an article about "Six Failure Modes of Power System MOS Tubes and Guide to Practical Protective Measures". You can read it to understand and increase your knowledge!

Article link: https://www.dhsic.com/news/94

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

so: masking: good, unequivocally. please mask and please educate others on why they should mask to make the world safer for immune compromised people to participate in.

however: masking is not my policy focus and it shouldn't be yours, either. masking is a very good mitigation against droplet-born illnesses and a slightly less effective (but still very good) mitigation against airborne illnesses, but its place in the pyramid of mitigation demands is pretty low, for several reasons:

it's an individual mitigation, not a systemic one. the best mitigations to make public life more accessible affect everyone without distributing the majority of the effort among individuals (who may not be able to comply, may not have access to education on how to comply, or may be actively malicious).

it's a post-hoc mitigation, or to put it another way, it's a band-aid over the underlying problem. even if it was possible to enforce, universal masking still wouldn't address the underlying problem that it is dangerous for sick people and immune compromised people to be in the same public locations to begin with. this is a solvable problem! we have created the societal conditions for this problem!

here are my policy focuses:

upgraded air filtration and ventilation systems for all public buildings. appropriate ventilation should be just as bog-standard as appropriately clean running water. an indoor venue without a ventilation system capable of performing 5 complete air changes per hour should be like encountering a public restroom without any sinks or hand sanitizer stations whatsoever.

enforced paid sick leave for all employees until 3-5 days without symptoms. the vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through industry sectors where employees come into work while experiencing symptoms. a taco bell worker should never be making food while experiencing strep throat symptoms, even without a strep diagnosis.

enforced virtual schooling options for sick students. the other vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through schools. the proximity of so many kids and teenagers together indoors (with little to no proper ventilation and high levels of physical activity) means that if even one person comes to school sick, hundreds will be infected in the following few days. those students will most likely infect their parents as well. allowing students to complete all readings and coursework through sites like blackboard or compass while sick will cut down massively on disease transmission.

accessible testing for everyone. not just for COVID; if there's a test for any contagious illness capable of being performed outside of lab conditions, there should be a regulated option for performing that test at home (similar to COVID rapid tests). if a test can only be performed under lab conditions, there should be a government-subsidized program to provide free of charge testing to anyone who needs it, through urgent cares and pharmacies.

the last thing to note is that these things stack; upgraded ventilation systems in all public buildings mean that students and employees get sick less often to begin with, making it less burdensome for students and employees to be absent due to sickness, and making it more likely that sick individuals will choose to stay home themselves (since it's not so costly for them).

masking is great! keep masking! please use masking as a rhetorical "this is what we can do as individuals to make public life safer while we're pushing for drastic policy changes," and don't get complacent in either direction--don't assume that masking is all you need to do or an acceptable forever-solution, and equally, don't fall prey to thinking that pushing for policy change "makes up" for not masking in public. it's not a game with scores and sides; masking is a material thing you can do to help the individual people you interact with one by one, and policy changes are what's going to make the entirety of public life safer for all immune compromised people.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck's power system is the conceptual opposite of Hunter x Hunter's

HxH's Nen abilities are created by the users from scratch and are developed or strengthened with the addition of rules or limitations. The more specific, situational and even detrimental an ability is, the greater the potency and scope of the ability itself

UU's Negator abilities are forced upon the users by external forces with specific yet obscured rules that the users must discover on their own. It is the user's capacity to experiment with and further their understanding of these abilities that allow them to further the development of these powers, with the ultimate goal being to expand the versatility and reduce the detriments of the abilities through loopholes and alternate interpretations

Let's compare two similar abilities in both series: Meleoron's Perfect Plan and Sean's Unseen

Perfect Plan makes the user completely undetectable so long as the user is holding his breath. Meleoron deliberately programmed this ability to only work for the length of time as his lung capacity because that brief limitation increases the potency of his invisibility. Even the ability to sense Nen does not work on him, but he effectively only has a few minutes at best, and repeated use is liable to be difficult. He is not allowed to try to work around the breathing limitation other than personally training his lung capacity, as any loopholes would demonstrate a lack of resolution, thus weakening the power

Unseen makes the user and their on-hand possessions invisible (still detectable by other senses and machines) so long as their eyes are closed. This is a cruel trick by God, as the user cannot see where they're going while using the ability, so the goal of power development is to figure out how to navigate despite the Rule. Later, Sean reinterprets the inclusion of his personal possessions to extend to people he holds dear, letting him make a partner invisible as long as they're in contact and effectively allowing them to act as his eyes

Meleoron can bring other people into his ability, but they don't make it easier for him to hold his breath, and arguably force him to move slower or use more of his breath. Sean's limitation of being blind is negated by the inclusion of a partner who he can trust to guide him

Meleoron's capacity for invisibility is expanded by making his ability more cumbersome, while Sean's ability is made less cumbersome by expanding the capacity for his invisibility. Ultimately, the abilities look exactly the same and have the same utility, but they reach that utility by approaching from the exact opposite direction

HxH is always praised as having one of, if not the best-developed power system in battle shonen, and UU is often praised for having one of the most unique power systems, so I think it's pretty funny that they earned those accolades by placing different values on the concept of rules

TL;DR, HxH's power system is "because I said so," UU's power system is "says who?"

[khr-guilded-cage]

I love my two of my favorite fandoms's power system are just...

And

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[bet-on-me-13]

Danny goes to a new School

So! When Danny got expelled from his High School, it wasn't really a big Suprise. He had missed for too many days or just walked out in the middle of Class, and his grades were lower than anyone else in the school. It was just a matter of time really.

When confronted by his Parents, he had just claimed that it was the constant ghost attacks getting to him (not a total lie) and that he was sorry.

Well, his parents tried to help.

After hearing about his supposed Fear of Ghosts, they decided that it was a good idea for him to go to school somewhere outside of Amity Park, so he could focus on his Schoolwork and not be distracted by the constant Attacks.

Of course no School wanted to accept a problem student like Danny, so they were forced to look into alternative schools to find one that would accept him. And they did! So they had Danny pack his bags, promise to call regularly, and shipped him off to his new School.

HIVE Academy.

[absolutedestinyapocalypsse]

its so fucking absurd how necro cav marriage is frowned upon as if getting married is somehow more inappropriate than whatever the fuck silas and colum have going on. ianthe tridentarius has the legitimate in-universe grounds to look at magnus and abigail and think "wow how unnatural. thank god I'm normal"