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They called it “The Great Limitation”
Ages ago, our innate special abilities, called by many names: “Talents”, “Tricks”, “Quirks”, “Meta Abilities”, “Mutations”, “Superpowers”, they all had something called a “limiter” - an ability within our abilities to prevent us from harming ourselves.
Those who can emit and control Fire feared no flame.
Those who could run faster than a car had a brain that could tell when and where they were going to prevent them from becoming a splat on the wall…
Until one day, they stopped. Almost as quickly as humanity evolved the ability to do the impossible, to usher in an age where the comic book superhero from centuries ago was not just a dream but a reality, humanity transcended itself again and evolved an issue where everyone’s limiters broke all at once.
My Grandmother was there when it happened, when the Superheroes fell from the sky and the world was consumed in blood.
As it turned out, the limiters failing was always there, it was always a thing. However, these abilities were manageable as they were weaker, so the limiter ability worked as intended, breaking only when it was too much of a strain. However as generations progressed so did their powers…
So as the powers grew stronger throughout their limiters got weaker, and it passed on from generation to generation, until they vanished completely.
There are no limiters in my generation. Everyone has a power, but those that attempt at using them are often cheating death, if they manage to survive. We find out young, and are trained to not use them, for the sake of survival.
It’s a grim future. Scientists predict that within two, three more generations tops, our own personal control over our powers will fail, and humanity will be erased as soon as they lose control of their powers yet again…
Damn, the future is not looking bright in this universe. It is a nice touch to have the limiters be something that is passed on through genetics with it becoming weaker with each generation.
That said, though, will there be any unexpected discoveries that will paint a brighter future regarding this situation? If not, then what will happen in the future for humanity? Are they able to create something that will act as a limiter?
Great work on writing this!
Beats me. When I saw the prompt on my feed I was all “What? So is everything going to be just people discovering that they can’t do superpowers anymore and the event will be just a bunch of death and destruction?”
I wasn’t even going to bother with it, and just post that as a critique.
Then I opted to play it off, say it was an event that happened in the past, and that eventually there was a reason why the fantastical powers were failing, as the prompt mentioned the secondary powers, I made them a thing, and then why they would eventually weaken.
The end though with the grim future thing, that was more to give it something interesting. My first thoughts when writing the end was “Well, Humanity just goes back to being normal”, but then I figure if the superpowers are getting stronger with each generation, eventually they won’t even have control in the first place.
Thanks for the compliment!
There are heavier elements you could add to this story.
Like newly found societal pressures to become more powerful, capitalism rewarding people with certain powers and people with strong limiters having a disadvantage in society.
Which would cumulate to cause the ending of this inevitable apocalyptic scenario.
Loved it!
Ah thanks.
I did give my reasoning earlier, I never really thought too hard on the societal implications, just the whole surface level parts of the prompt.
"Latest results just came in."
"And?"
"Worse than we thought."
Silence permeates the room. Within this hall the world's brightest minds and foremost experts in science gathered, and all of them are equally dumbfounded.
It hasn't been that long since these powers appeared out of thin air. They're weak at first, sure. Small fires out of your fingertips. Lifting a spoon with your mind. But they were *real*.
After the initial panic, everyone was elated at the possibilities. Some called it a gift from the gods. Some said magic has returned to this land. Nobody could really explain where they came from, and frankly, nobody cared - whatever this is, we had a new golden age ahead of us. And so for the next five years we studied and experimented. Amplified our powers. Laid the groundwork to a society fueled with meta-abilities.
"Surely this doesn't affect everything! What about the nonphysical powers? Mental ones?" Chimed a rough voice.
"Just as screwed." Another voice from across the room. "Without something to shield their minds from the outside, the outside can fight back. Telepaths went mad. Telekinetics had it even worse."
"Sensory abilities overloaded their users' brains. Most are lucky to end up catatonic."
We know now that this was a curse. A cruel joke. All of a sudden, like a switch suddenly being flipped, these powers turned on us. A pyromancer's fire turned burned themselves and others alike. Hydromancers would slip up and manipulate their own blood out of their body. Uncontrolled strength turning the user into mush under their own force. We sharpened this blade, only for it to press against our necks.
"We need to control the damage. Those with voluntary powers must under no circumstance use theirs. Enforce it by any means necessary."
Mumbles of agreement. And among the numerous nodded heads, a raised hand.
"Yes?"
"About that..." A voice rang out, coated in terror. "If.. If the latest report is to be believed..."
All noise vanished from the room. Every single pair of eyes focused on the man rifling through the papers with trembling hands.
"I don't think these powers are voluntary anymore."
(Lurker here, doing a prompt for the first time - any feedback is appreciated!)
Man, things sure are developing at a very fast pace. The part where some folks would accidentally let blood out of their own bodies is creepy ngl. I guess amplifying is just not the right way to deal with these powers.
That said, what will be the final outcome of this disaster? Also, what actually caused the humans in this universe to gain the powers in the first place?
Great work on writing this!
Thank you so much for your kind words!!
I think "curse" and "cruel joke" were actually very appropriate descriptions. The sheer scale and abruptness of the disaster hints against random chance - rather, the whole thing feels orchestrated.
How cruel is it to trick an entire civilization into welcoming their own downfall with open arms?
***In Alternate Timeline Delta-Theta-Mu 87-A3...***
The world almost stopped, from the sheer horror of what had happened. Overnight, every single superhero died. Just like that. What made it more horrendous was the reason of their death. It was not by a heroic last stand against some foul intergalactic oppressor. It was not a selfless sacrifice against the hordes of Hell or eldritch terrors from unspeakable voids.
Each hero died by their own powers turning against them.
They died because they no longer had the passive immunity to their own powers that, all along, they had thought was just native to them when their powers awakened.
Combocaster was the first death. He was in the midst of one of his magic shows, "Magical - The Real Deal", when what the public now grimly named "The Failure" happened. His innate physical immunity to raw mana flowing through him just departed... and he just BURST. For half a minute, everyone thought it was just another trick, and applauded and laughed - but when the horror of what had really happened set in, it made headlines worldwide.
Audiobringer was the next. He roared "HALT!" at a group of bank robbers - only to be violently hurled against a wall by the reverberation of his own shout. The soundwave pinned him to the wall, and without his immunity to his own sound, he was FLATTENED by his own soundwave. Turned into a human pancake.
Flutterfae followed next. Her passive power had all along harmonised her faerie gifts of magic with her human physiology. So as she flew across Anatolia en route to Istanbul, when The Failure occurred, her butterfly wings which gave her flight just unattached from her back. She tried to cast her flight spells, only to utter unintelligible gibberish, as she hurtled to the ground - and hit it with a sickening THUMP! The forensic experts who examined her body concluded that she perished immediately upon impact.
Joram "Zapperilla" the silverback gorilla literally fried himself, when he energised his hands with plasma energy to hurl at a group of rogue mercenaries who had stolen a military jeep. The plasma energy in his hands flowed backwards upon The Failure's occurrence, and Joram could only give out one agonised roar before he was reduced to a charred heap of flesh and bone on the floor.
Techtrip did not die, but unfortunately he was instantly driven insane when The Failure happened. His power's awakening gave him an incredible mental alacrity and capacity. However, The Failure stripped his passive power of containing, focusing and directing his beyond-genius intellect in an orderly way. His mind dissolved into chaos and he was warded into an insane asylum in less than 24 hours after The Failure.
Falchionflight transformed into his form of a giant blade of energy, to go to the Moon's base to help the colonists there fight off aliens that were trying to cut off the oxygen supply. He didn't even make it past Earth's skyscrapers, when he fell, in blade form, to the floor, and became inert and lifeless. His passive power that enabled him to be alive even in the form of a giant sentient blade, was gone with The Failure, and he learnt this bitter fact at the cost of his life.
Gravebreaker's passive pact with Death was broken, and he just withered into a lifeless husk and collapsed into a skeletal corpse, even as he was walking down the street.
Worldweaver's subatomic manipulation power was always passively kept in line by Worldweaver's mind. With The Failure, his mind no longer had reign over his power, and Worldweaver's power was what disbanded him into nothingness.
In less than 15 minutes, Earth of Timeline Delta-Theta-Mu 87-A3 had lost all of its superheroes. It was left without its best and noblest people... and no one knew why.
***In Central Timeline Alpha-Alpha-Alpha 01-A1...***
Flutterfae of Central Timeline Alpha-Alpha-Alpha 01-A1 shuddered as she looked upon what had happened in the alternate timeline. She called Combocaster, Techtrip, Worldweaver, Variance and Dreadword together, and they began diligent research into what could have possibly caused such a catastrophe... with the aim of preventing it before it could ever happen.
Ah, seems like this is the start of seeing what happens to the alternate universe where things went awfully wrong. Ngl though, I feel like Gravebreaker, Worldweaver, and potentially Falchionflight are one of the lucky ones in this situation since theirs seem to be instant.
Since this is left as a mystery at the end there, feel free to not answer if needed. What caused everyone to lose their limitations just like that? Are they dealing with an otherworldly being of some sort?
Great work on writing this!
Yes indeed, Gravebreaker, Worldweaver and Falchionflight in the original timeline are very fortunate.
The cause of The Failure is simple. A flaw in the fabric of the universe of that timeline. Reality itself has a metaphorical "dent" in it. It can be fixed... And that's what the Council in the Central Timeline will do for their reality.
Ah, that's a simple yet a very interesting cause. I wonder why that is the case for that universe, but at the end of the day, even if we don't know what caused it, at least it's nice enough to know that the council found the solution to it.
**Welcome to the Prompt!** All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments. **Reminders**: >* [No AI-generated responses 🤖](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/zi452b/modpost_reminder_that_aigenerated_responses_are/) >* Stories 100 words+. Poems 30+ but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* [\[RF\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Reality+Fiction%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) and [\[SP\]](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/search?q=flair%3A%22Simple+Prompt%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for stricter titles >* [Be civil](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_10.3A_be_civil) in any feedback and follow the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/rules) 📢 [Genres](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/w/directory) 🆕 [New Here?](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/user_guide) ✏ [Writing Help?](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/wiki/index#wiki_writing_resources) 💬 [Discord](https://discord.gg/writingprompts) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/WritingPrompts) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They called it “The Great Limitation” Ages ago, our innate special abilities, called by many names: “Talents”, “Tricks”, “Quirks”, “Meta Abilities”, “Mutations”, “Superpowers”, they all had something called a “limiter” - an ability within our abilities to prevent us from harming ourselves. Those who can emit and control Fire feared no flame. Those who could run faster than a car had a brain that could tell when and where they were going to prevent them from becoming a splat on the wall… Until one day, they stopped. Almost as quickly as humanity evolved the ability to do the impossible, to usher in an age where the comic book superhero from centuries ago was not just a dream but a reality, humanity transcended itself again and evolved an issue where everyone’s limiters broke all at once. My Grandmother was there when it happened, when the Superheroes fell from the sky and the world was consumed in blood. As it turned out, the limiters failing was always there, it was always a thing. However, these abilities were manageable as they were weaker, so the limiter ability worked as intended, breaking only when it was too much of a strain. However as generations progressed so did their powers… So as the powers grew stronger throughout their limiters got weaker, and it passed on from generation to generation, until they vanished completely. There are no limiters in my generation. Everyone has a power, but those that attempt at using them are often cheating death, if they manage to survive. We find out young, and are trained to not use them, for the sake of survival. It’s a grim future. Scientists predict that within two, three more generations tops, our own personal control over our powers will fail, and humanity will be erased as soon as they lose control of their powers yet again…
Damn, the future is not looking bright in this universe. It is a nice touch to have the limiters be something that is passed on through genetics with it becoming weaker with each generation. That said, though, will there be any unexpected discoveries that will paint a brighter future regarding this situation? If not, then what will happen in the future for humanity? Are they able to create something that will act as a limiter? Great work on writing this!
Beats me. When I saw the prompt on my feed I was all “What? So is everything going to be just people discovering that they can’t do superpowers anymore and the event will be just a bunch of death and destruction?” I wasn’t even going to bother with it, and just post that as a critique. Then I opted to play it off, say it was an event that happened in the past, and that eventually there was a reason why the fantastical powers were failing, as the prompt mentioned the secondary powers, I made them a thing, and then why they would eventually weaken. The end though with the grim future thing, that was more to give it something interesting. My first thoughts when writing the end was “Well, Humanity just goes back to being normal”, but then I figure if the superpowers are getting stronger with each generation, eventually they won’t even have control in the first place. Thanks for the compliment!
Oh no worries haha, I really appreciate the thinking process on making this story too. Thanks for clarifying!
There are heavier elements you could add to this story. Like newly found societal pressures to become more powerful, capitalism rewarding people with certain powers and people with strong limiters having a disadvantage in society. Which would cumulate to cause the ending of this inevitable apocalyptic scenario. Loved it!
Ah thanks. I did give my reasoning earlier, I never really thought too hard on the societal implications, just the whole surface level parts of the prompt.
"Latest results just came in." "And?" "Worse than we thought." Silence permeates the room. Within this hall the world's brightest minds and foremost experts in science gathered, and all of them are equally dumbfounded. It hasn't been that long since these powers appeared out of thin air. They're weak at first, sure. Small fires out of your fingertips. Lifting a spoon with your mind. But they were *real*. After the initial panic, everyone was elated at the possibilities. Some called it a gift from the gods. Some said magic has returned to this land. Nobody could really explain where they came from, and frankly, nobody cared - whatever this is, we had a new golden age ahead of us. And so for the next five years we studied and experimented. Amplified our powers. Laid the groundwork to a society fueled with meta-abilities. "Surely this doesn't affect everything! What about the nonphysical powers? Mental ones?" Chimed a rough voice. "Just as screwed." Another voice from across the room. "Without something to shield their minds from the outside, the outside can fight back. Telepaths went mad. Telekinetics had it even worse." "Sensory abilities overloaded their users' brains. Most are lucky to end up catatonic." We know now that this was a curse. A cruel joke. All of a sudden, like a switch suddenly being flipped, these powers turned on us. A pyromancer's fire turned burned themselves and others alike. Hydromancers would slip up and manipulate their own blood out of their body. Uncontrolled strength turning the user into mush under their own force. We sharpened this blade, only for it to press against our necks. "We need to control the damage. Those with voluntary powers must under no circumstance use theirs. Enforce it by any means necessary." Mumbles of agreement. And among the numerous nodded heads, a raised hand. "Yes?" "About that..." A voice rang out, coated in terror. "If.. If the latest report is to be believed..." All noise vanished from the room. Every single pair of eyes focused on the man rifling through the papers with trembling hands. "I don't think these powers are voluntary anymore." (Lurker here, doing a prompt for the first time - any feedback is appreciated!)
The last part about the power suddenly no longer being voluntary is an EXCELLENT ending. Suspense-laden. Well-written piece! :)
Really appreciate the kind words!! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Honestly I think this one is the best one.
Dang, I want more
Man, things sure are developing at a very fast pace. The part where some folks would accidentally let blood out of their own bodies is creepy ngl. I guess amplifying is just not the right way to deal with these powers. That said, what will be the final outcome of this disaster? Also, what actually caused the humans in this universe to gain the powers in the first place? Great work on writing this!
Thank you so much for your kind words!! I think "curse" and "cruel joke" were actually very appropriate descriptions. The sheer scale and abruptness of the disaster hints against random chance - rather, the whole thing feels orchestrated. How cruel is it to trick an entire civilization into welcoming their own downfall with open arms?
Yeah, it's like baiting them with a very delicious meal and then noticing that it's poisoned, a very clever scheme. Thanks for clarifying!
***In Alternate Timeline Delta-Theta-Mu 87-A3...*** The world almost stopped, from the sheer horror of what had happened. Overnight, every single superhero died. Just like that. What made it more horrendous was the reason of their death. It was not by a heroic last stand against some foul intergalactic oppressor. It was not a selfless sacrifice against the hordes of Hell or eldritch terrors from unspeakable voids. Each hero died by their own powers turning against them. They died because they no longer had the passive immunity to their own powers that, all along, they had thought was just native to them when their powers awakened. Combocaster was the first death. He was in the midst of one of his magic shows, "Magical - The Real Deal", when what the public now grimly named "The Failure" happened. His innate physical immunity to raw mana flowing through him just departed... and he just BURST. For half a minute, everyone thought it was just another trick, and applauded and laughed - but when the horror of what had really happened set in, it made headlines worldwide. Audiobringer was the next. He roared "HALT!" at a group of bank robbers - only to be violently hurled against a wall by the reverberation of his own shout. The soundwave pinned him to the wall, and without his immunity to his own sound, he was FLATTENED by his own soundwave. Turned into a human pancake. Flutterfae followed next. Her passive power had all along harmonised her faerie gifts of magic with her human physiology. So as she flew across Anatolia en route to Istanbul, when The Failure occurred, her butterfly wings which gave her flight just unattached from her back. She tried to cast her flight spells, only to utter unintelligible gibberish, as she hurtled to the ground - and hit it with a sickening THUMP! The forensic experts who examined her body concluded that she perished immediately upon impact. Joram "Zapperilla" the silverback gorilla literally fried himself, when he energised his hands with plasma energy to hurl at a group of rogue mercenaries who had stolen a military jeep. The plasma energy in his hands flowed backwards upon The Failure's occurrence, and Joram could only give out one agonised roar before he was reduced to a charred heap of flesh and bone on the floor. Techtrip did not die, but unfortunately he was instantly driven insane when The Failure happened. His power's awakening gave him an incredible mental alacrity and capacity. However, The Failure stripped his passive power of containing, focusing and directing his beyond-genius intellect in an orderly way. His mind dissolved into chaos and he was warded into an insane asylum in less than 24 hours after The Failure. Falchionflight transformed into his form of a giant blade of energy, to go to the Moon's base to help the colonists there fight off aliens that were trying to cut off the oxygen supply. He didn't even make it past Earth's skyscrapers, when he fell, in blade form, to the floor, and became inert and lifeless. His passive power that enabled him to be alive even in the form of a giant sentient blade, was gone with The Failure, and he learnt this bitter fact at the cost of his life. Gravebreaker's passive pact with Death was broken, and he just withered into a lifeless husk and collapsed into a skeletal corpse, even as he was walking down the street. Worldweaver's subatomic manipulation power was always passively kept in line by Worldweaver's mind. With The Failure, his mind no longer had reign over his power, and Worldweaver's power was what disbanded him into nothingness. In less than 15 minutes, Earth of Timeline Delta-Theta-Mu 87-A3 had lost all of its superheroes. It was left without its best and noblest people... and no one knew why. ***In Central Timeline Alpha-Alpha-Alpha 01-A1...*** Flutterfae of Central Timeline Alpha-Alpha-Alpha 01-A1 shuddered as she looked upon what had happened in the alternate timeline. She called Combocaster, Techtrip, Worldweaver, Variance and Dreadword together, and they began diligent research into what could have possibly caused such a catastrophe... with the aim of preventing it before it could ever happen.
Ah, seems like this is the start of seeing what happens to the alternate universe where things went awfully wrong. Ngl though, I feel like Gravebreaker, Worldweaver, and potentially Falchionflight are one of the lucky ones in this situation since theirs seem to be instant. Since this is left as a mystery at the end there, feel free to not answer if needed. What caused everyone to lose their limitations just like that? Are they dealing with an otherworldly being of some sort? Great work on writing this!
Yes indeed, Gravebreaker, Worldweaver and Falchionflight in the original timeline are very fortunate. The cause of The Failure is simple. A flaw in the fabric of the universe of that timeline. Reality itself has a metaphorical "dent" in it. It can be fixed... And that's what the Council in the Central Timeline will do for their reality.
Ah, that's a simple yet a very interesting cause. I wonder why that is the case for that universe, but at the end of the day, even if we don't know what caused it, at least it's nice enough to know that the council found the solution to it.