ADMIN POST: The "Secret Superpower!!" challenge

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to get this one off my desk; poor julad asked for this one some time ago:

Julad: can there be a secret superpower flashfic?
Julad: I think Weir needs one
Ces: er, yes
Ces: there can
Julad: invisibility would be v. kinky
Julad: john would be invisible
Julad: rodney would fly

Now, you don't have to go with Julad's choices, here--you can design your own secret superpower-- for good or ill, banal or extraordinary, literal or metaphorical--and give it to the character or characters of your choice (or hey--make them wish they had one!)

Today is August 2nd in Australia, anyway; stories are due August 16th at midnight.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Where can one leave suggestions for challenge topics? I don't have a Livejournal account and there's no point in getting one because I have way too much else to keep up on.

My idea is for a "strange lands" challenge. Observations thereof, a quest through, needing to comprehend, perceived metaphors, lessons learned, etc.

I just got done reading "The Unwound Way" by Bill Adams and Cecil Brooks, now sadly out of print. In it a group of amateur archaeologists journeys through a series of extraordinary self-contained ecosystems that once upon a time taught lessons of ingenuity and endurance to pilgrims. However, after ten millennia the systems have gone somewhat awry.... Actually the ecosystems were only important for about half the book, but they quite captivated my imagination.

I remember reading a few Stargate SG-1 fanfics along these lines, and there was one actual episode of the show ("One False Step"). It would be interesting to see what Atlantis fanfic can create.

Major spoilers of examples from "The Unwound Way" (skip the rest of this post if you don't want to know):

One system had electric eels that could process hydrogen out of the river they lived in and use it to balloon to their breeding grounds, after which they would drift back downriver and start the whole life cycle again. The characters used that to their advantage.

Another system was a closed maze built into a mountainside and inhabited by jellylike creatures. The creatures tended to end up in the lowest part of the maze, which of course was where the exit was. The characters had to find a way past them, and again it was a matter of figuring out how the creatures worked.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

This is the place! And it's a good idea--Strange Lands and Alien Geographies! Let's do it!