Group of friends who are close because they all have the same superpower except no they don't.
As in, they all think the other ones have the same superpower as them, but, in fact, they do not.
For example:
Time traveler who always is running into these other people who seem to know what's going on or what will happen and is so happy he can finally share his travel stories.
Precognitive who is relieved he isn't the only one with the gift and who is glad to get help averting future disasters.
Mind reader with a horrible memory who tries to stay on top of things by skimming surface thoughts. You want to talk about next week's election results and how they changed the next decade? She's with you.
Totally normal guy who thinks the others have the absolute best bit ever and loves playing along.
They save the world at least twice without a single clue shared between the four of them.
It happens like this:
Mind Reader is standing in the middle of the park, sweating. They do not know why they're here, and obviously none of the people around them do, either. The truth is, they were on their way to the grocery store and got lost and then forgot. It happens.
But, then, they see Precog on a bench and Precog is thinking of them, because Precog had a vision of meeting Mind Reader here today. Of course, Mind Reader thinks, they were here to see their friend! They sit down next to Precog. Precog knows Mind Reader's name. Mind Reader can pick up Precog's name. They have a long and stimulating conversation, like they've known each other forever, courtesy of mind reading and future seeing. Precog assumes this is because Mind Reader also foresaw this. About halfway through, Precog starts finishing Mind Reader's sentences before they say them, and Mind Reader is picking up thoughts like 'it's wonderful to meet someone with the same abilities as me.'
They part ways with a promise to meet again for a coffee/rube-goldberg-esque prevention of a kidnapping.
.
Normal Guy is just walking home from a Revolutionary War reenactment. They see Time Traveler walking the same way, also dressed in old-timey clothes.
"Oh, hey," they say, "were you just at the battle of such and such?"
"Why, yes," says Time Traveler, "did you also come from [year]?"
"You could say that! Do you live around here?"
"I do, for the moment. We should get lunch sometime and talk about yesteryear!"
"Sounds like a plan!"
.
Precog encounters Time Traveler for the first time while breaking in to the corporate offices of a fabulously corrupt company. As in, they are both breaking in, and for the same reason. Thing is, Time Traveler has 'seen' Precog before! Precog thinks Time Traveler means 'seen' as in vision, but, nope!
Turns out that in the future, Precog foresees that Time Traveler needs some help with something similar, makes a lot of 'seeing the future' jokes that the Time Traveler misinterprets, and doesn't register that his old friend doesn't recognize him at all, because, hey, Mind Reader reacts to him in the same way whenever they meet up!
.
Of course, Time Traveler and Precog want to introduce their other powered friends... Normal Guy and Mind Reader will definitely get along! They have the same powers, after all!
Woke up in the middle of the night with another idea about this.
The antagonist knows they all have different powers. The antagonist does not know that they don't know that. This results in 90% of their plans failing.
For example:
Antagonist has set thing up so it appears that anyone attacking them directly will die horribly via special effects. Precog sees this, and tells the others. Time Traveler shrugs and charges anyway. The others can always go back and stop them, and this way they have more data! The attack goes through.
Antagonist gives a long "join me" speech to Regular Guy, expecting rejection, because they see them as a kindred evil genius. Regular Guy shrugs and says sure. Wanders off and "betrays" them halfway through a climactic battle because one of their pipes burst and they had to go home.
Antagonist sets things up so Precog and Mind Reader think they're going to do two different things by telling the henchpeople one thing and planning to do something else. They ask Time Traveler and Regular Guy to break the tie for them.
This is easily my most popular post, and people keep reblogging it, saying they'd like to read more of it but... they never reblog the part... that has an actual story snippet (ie this version of the post)...
Would people like to read more of this? Genuinely?
