Zombra

@Laucianna @Greycat Thank you both for taking the time to share your perspectives. This all appears consistent, sensible, and most importantly, COOL! My Kheldian characters have gained a lot of dimension because of your help and expertise.

Kind of a "Meet the Pyro" interpretation. I'm into it.

Hi! I have a couple lore type questions about merging/unmerging I'd like some feedback on. 1) Both this thread and @Greycat's excellent Lore and Backstory thread mention that both PBs and WSs can voluntarily separate. Is separation a thunderous, high-effort, stressful process that takes hours (or longer)? Is it as simple as stepping out of a room and stepping back in? Somewhere in between? Do we know of canon on what this looks like? If not, what's your personal take? I'm kind of thinking I like the idea of my character valuing their human perspective, and wanting to spend time apart, perhaps even on a daily or weekly basis. Would this be consistent with what we know? 2) Regarding "duplicates", it's interesting to read that Nova and Dwarf forms are no longer merged with a given Kheldian PC - they were merged at some point in the past but I guess the hosts either died or were separated before the pure energy form came to Earth. And now the Kheldian can turn into a "duplicate" of the former host's body, perhaps using the biomass of the human host. Do I have this right? I guess it makes sense that you can only have one physical host at a time and can't just turn into pure energy while merged. Although wait, Light Form contradicts this. What about the personality? Does a Kheldian still retain memories and personality when separated? I guess it would be kind of weird if they did - imagine separating willingly and then talking to an alien who was still 1/2 your personality. So I feel like they "remember" the bodies but not the minds, which all seems strange - how would a Kheldian even know how to shoot a Gleaming Bolt out of its tentacle if it didn't retain at least some of the mind? Either way it's weird. Also it seems like if the human voluntarily separates (or dies), the Kheldian should now be able to "remember" the human body too - though I guess they wouldn't have the biomass to actually manifest it. I don't really have a question so I guess I'll just ask, does my take on all this stuff make sense to you? Is there lore that says different? Do you have your own take you'd like to share? Thanks in advance for any perspectives. Particularly hoping to hear from @Laucianna and @Greycat but all feedback welcome 🙂

Still wishing that Water Control existed ... 🙂

Oh I've never disagreed that using any of COH's power on people could have all kinds of traumatic effects. Really that's a whole different question and I doubt anyone would argue with you on that. My concern was about the invisible, longer-term environmental impact that is a concern unique to Radiation type powers.

Yes. Because radiation is the unique power type that is popularly understood to leave behind invisible death, which is a good reason to use a different standard for suspension of disbelief. You nailed it buddy! I'm confused but grateful you actually gave a legit answer to the original question. Not a very satisfying one but good enough. Thanks 😄

There are many assumptions about the COH world that come from the real world. The sky is blue, except where something extraordinary is affecting it. People (usually) have two arms and two legs. Streets and buildings are laid out in a reasonably familiar way. While not a perfect replica, Paragon City is built upon the images of real world cities, and our familiarity with the real world gives us some familiarity with the setting. Likewise, if we don't see something on the screen, we assume that things happen "offstage" in a way similar to the real world. For example, although you never see an NPC eating food, it's reasonable to believe that they do. Yes, outlandish, completely fictional things happen in the setting, and we can see with our eyes what those fictional things are and come to an understanding of how they work. If we see someone lift a huge axe, we can intuitively understand that physics-defying super strength is a thing here like in comic books. If we see a Fire Blaster shoot a wall and it doesn't catch on fire, we can intuitively understand that the wall did not catch on fire. What we can't see is whether invisible fallout from weaponized radiation is contaminating the environment, as it can in the real world. It's fine if you want to assume all radiation must be benign, and I'm not trying to yuck your yum; but to me, it is not intuitively obvious and again, I don't agree that there is a universal assumption in comic book settings that all radiation is benign. Again - even in comic books, it's not insane to wonder if weaponized radiation has harmful side effects.

See, this is great. (I love Palladium in general ) They gave radiation characters explicit abilities to use their powers safely, knowing that some of their audience would have reasonable concerns about radiation powers having possible side effects that other powers don't have. Hmmm, but wait - I'm sure some of our friends here will deny that Palladium Heroes Unlimited exists - there's no way a comic book setting could portray radiation as possibly contaminating the environment!

I promise I am (though I admit a bad faith actor would probably say that either way 😄). Your position seems to be that in comic books, it is implicitly understood that there is no such thing as environmentally damaging radiation. I don't agree with that. As I said upthread, "It's a comic book setting therefore absolutely nothing makes any sense", which you seem to be advocating, is not the same thing as "Some things are easier to believe than others." Not everything in every fictional setting is only explained by "a wizard did it". The COH setting has many aspects that are consistent with the real world. To state that it is an "entirely fictional" setting is not true. ----------- Let me set y'all a hypothetical situation. I agree that hypothetical situations are never perfect for making an argument but please just think about it for a sec. Suppose you are moving to Paragon City. You don't have a lot of money and you only find two apartments you can afford. At apartment #1, the property manager says, "A group of gangsters lived here. They were all shot to death last week, right here, by a vigilante superhero with an assault rifle." At apartment #2, the property manager says, "A group of gangsters lived here. They were all killed last week, right here, by a vigilante superhero shooting blasts of harmful radiation." Without further information, would you really think to yourself, "It doesn't matter which I choose - they are definitely equally (un)safe"?

What you're ignoring is the popular understanding that radiation can have lasting effects that are not visible. When a Fire Blaster's Blazing Bolt animation is finished and nothing is burning 3 seconds later, anyone who has ever heard of fire knows that once you no longer see the fire, it is because there is no more fire. It's intuitively obvious. When a Radiation Blaster's Neutron Bomb is finished, anyone who has heard of atomic or radioactive weapons has a good reason to wonder about lingering, harmful radiation, even though you can't see it any more. Intuition alone is not enough to justify an assumption that the danger is over. This is a substantial difference. As much as everyone wants to say "Ahhh no powers make sense, everything is equally unbelievable," this is simply not the case.

This is an important point. In the absence of an explanation, to me radiation sounds potentially much worse than fire, bullets, or a punch in the face. Really this is why this thread exists at all. It felt like Radiation powers need enough of an explanation to say "It's OK, these powers don't actually irradiate the environment or leave behind residue." We can intuitively see that Fire powers don't burn anything down, but we can't see that Radiation doesn't leave behind invisible contamination. No story ever about radioactive weapons said "And everything was fine and safe the next day," yknow?

Sure, I can suspend disbelief for anything if I really want to. The point is that it's harder for some things than others. Again, none of the things you mention have a half-life. Yes, a demon is scary. But when you open a portal, a demon comes through, and the portal closes, you're done. The demon may do bad things, but when it's over, it's over. There's no particular reason to think that lingering death is left behind when the demon is gone, unless you decide to make it up. With radiation, it's not made up. Hard radiation in the real world can have very bad lingering effects. That's where the disbelief comes from. All I was looking for here was a better reason to suspend it than "don't worry about it". Sidebar, if we want to go there, I'm not crazy about "heroic" characters who summon demons in the first place. I get it, let anyone have any power set, fine, but ..... players who choose to do that and want me to believe they're good guys had better have the most amazing backstory I've ever read. For about the sixth time, innocuous, harmless radiation is not what I'm talking about. How many of those things you mentioned function primarily to knock humans out? Radiation Blast has a primary function of knocking people out (or killing them, if your character is a meanie). Which kind is more harmful hmmmmmmmm It's not insane to imagine a possible connection between weaponized radiation and the potential for lasting environmental damage.

Because we tend to think that blasts of radiation that can incapacitate a person in less than 1 second might be the dangerous kind.

Anybody else remember the time before ragdolling in COH? Weird to think about. OK, derail finished.

Yeah. I feel like this thread has kind of run its course, but I'm happy to answer again. Bullets and fire are bad, but don't leave invisible death behind that can render an innocent looking place a deathtrap for the next thousand years. It's a different kind of danger.