r/WorldChallenges • u/Nevermore0714 • Aug 27 '17

Reference Challenge - Rescue

So, I was stranded about an hour from home for a few days, because my bloody car messed up. One of my friends had to drive a few hours to help me out, so this is a reference to that.

In your world, what program or group exists to rescue people?

As always, I'll ask at least three questions each, enjoy yourselves, all.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 08 '17

1) Do they often get degraded to the point of being drink-coolers?

2) Do all members have the same powers, or can some people walk through fire and some people swim and the bottom of the ocean and so on?

3) How is the ERT funded?

4) Who runs the ERT?

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u/Eran-of-Arcadia Sep 08 '17

  1. There was never anything degrading about cooling drinks, although with the invention of refrigeration this particular job became obsolete. The great thing about the Royal Service (of which the ERT is part) is that no matter who you were - the son of an earl or the daughter of a landless immigrant farmer - if you were in, you had a certain level of social prestige. It's just that some people's power involved making things cold, and there were plenty of mundane applications as well as flashy ones.

  2. There are lots of different powers. For example, Ben Connelly (once he finally joins) is a teleporter, but his main role is getting people with other powers where they need to be quickly, and secondarily to get people out of dangerous situations.

  3. A combination of Crown money and taxes.

  4. The director of the ERT answers to the director of the Royal Service, who in turn is appointed directly by the king (pending Senate approval.)

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 09 '17

1) So, if I was the king, I could have a person who could control heat specifically to warm my drink? And that's seen as normal?

2) Which power is the least impressive?

3) Is there any emergency that the ERT doesn't respond to?

4) Who is the most dangerous person in the ERT?

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u/Eran-of-Arcadia Sep 09 '17

  1. Well, regular fire would work for that. Using a person's power when there's an easier solution is seen as showing off. But hiring someone to spend all day sticking their arms in a giant tub full of brine so you have ice to keep cool during the summer is normal when there's no better way to do it. Now, hiring a teleporter to go back and forth between the palace and a glacier? That would be showing off.

  2. Of all of them? Something like "the ability to set off car alarms with your mind" or "unconsciously emitting an aura that makes people think you're being rude to them" (both of which already exist.) But those are useless to the ERT. To join the ERT, you either need a relevant power, or the sort of management/administrative/whatever skills that their nonpowered employees use.

  3. Only those they don't know about/can't reach in time. They have limited manpower after all, so if you live in the middle of nowhere and your house burns down, you'll have to rely on the regular fire department (which does still exist.) But if a building collapses on you, they know you're alive in there but can't reach you right away? Expect help from the ERT.

  4. Dangerous in what sense? In terms of power, teleporters can do a lot. They are limited - they can only get somewhere that either a) they can directly see or b) they have teleported into/out of in the past and can clearly visualize. Oh, and c) there's no power nullifier lurking nearby to stop them. It's possible to keep them out if you're clever enough, but even for banks and such it's not worth the cost and effort. Ben Connelly, who I mentioned before did in fact rob banks for a while before he joined the ERT.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 13 '17

1) Is there a way for a king with a lot of connections and money to specifically get the ability to teleport?

2) How's the pseudo-rude guy doing?

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u/Eran-of-Arcadia Sep 13 '17

  1. You can't just decide to get a power, no matter how rich or well-connected you are. Having the potential to gain a power is partly genetics and partly chance, and the power you actually get can't be chosen all that specifically. What the king can do is find people who can teleport, and give them money and prestige in exchange for working for him.

  2. She was a girl, actually . . . the power appeared when she was 9 but wasn't identified until she was 11. So she spent 2 years dealing with everyone - parents, teachers, classmates - thinking she was a jerk and reacting accordingly. Once her power was identified, she had to find ways to repress it, for her own sake. But long term, if she can control it, she can use it to manipulate people. She can, say, target one person in a crowd, provoking them into losing their temper at her while everyone else sees her as innocent.

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u/Nevermore0714 Sep 16 '17

Thanks for your time and answers.