Thoughts on Speed

Yesterday I had the opportunity to grab some comics, among them a couple of the old Quicksilver monthly series. I've been collecting them off and on - not exactly /avidly/ - but... well, I just can't help myself when it comes to a Pietro or Kurt-centric book. Especially not when it's in the 25 cent bins.

Reading through them got me thinking about the pitfalls of superspeed. I've contemplated it in the past, of course, and I've tried to bring it into RP a bit, but it's inspired me to highlight it a bit more. Especially as Pietro comes into his own in fighting ability - something which I've occasionally worried about in regards to the possibility of quasi-twinkishness - I think it might be good to play out the obvious disadvantages that his powers put him in. Why? Because it helps to balance him, of course. And I can't deny the appeal of embarrassing Pietro from time to time.

So, I'm thinking that - perhaps as a result of training - his powers are somehow intensifying. I'm not really going to make him /faster/, though I figure that training has increased both his speed and his accuracy at this point. Rather, I'm intending on making his power more pervasive. It /does/ crop up in his speech (more often as of late, in fact), but in terms of other ordinary things - for example, eating or walking - I can see it causing him much more difficulty than it does currently. Also, I've touched a few times upon his impatience, as everything happens relatively slowly compared to the speed of his brain functions and movements. I'd like to explore this more - and by bringing him up to a new plateau on terms of powers, it might force him to contend with it more.

This was primarily inspired by a scene in which Pietro is having dinner with his wife Crystal and the other Inhumans. To summarize, he was very uncomfortable - as he was well aware that Crystal's family hates his guts - and as a result there's quite a bit of internal bitching that's fairly amusing. Heh. When it comes time for the meal, he's having a difficult time staying still - as he says "it takes the staff three lifetimes" to serve them - and when he finally gets to eat, he struggles to pace himself for the sake of politeness... and still finishes before anyone else has taken a bite. Heh. I might scan in the page and the page following as his embarrassment is really rather funny - and it makes a good point on his frustrations/source of his occasional bitchiness. Heh. After he finishes eating, he attempts to occupy himself by catapulting peas into his mouth and generally moping as he waits for the others to "lazily chew their cud".

... As a side note, this same issue has a line that made me literally LOL. Pie's talking to Wanda and the dialogue goes as follows:

Wanda: Pietro! Are you /still/ pouting?

Pietro: Well, /someone/ must. There's enough forced cheerfulness around here to appall a Spice Girl.