How do I grant superheroes gravitational manipulation, justified scientifically?

Superheroes! Everybody loves them! (Though maybe not as much as magic.) The point is, I have a world with super heroes in it. I have a pretty good system of power granting, and have basically divided the available power sets into three main types: biologic powers (like super strength, super speed, elasticity; basically anything that can be explained by biology alone), thermodynamic powers (pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, aerokinesis; powers explained by locally violating the second law of thermodynamics) and gravitational manipulation, which includes light-bending and telekinesis.

This last one is the annoying one: Biologic powers have only the one body to worry about and thermodynamic powers can be explained with some mumbo-jumbo about quantum mechanics (though I might ask about it later), but gravitational manipulation requires ridiculous amounts of mass-energy to be feasible (after all, a measly refrigerator magnet can hold up a paper-clip against the pull of the ENTIRE EARTH), and that ridiculous amount of mass-energy will cause nasty side effects, like tidal forces or skooming. How do I grant powers of gravitational manipulation without killing my superheroes in new and interesting ways?

There are several things to consider:

-I can make do with gravitational manipulation not actually manipulating gravity, so long as it can produce light-bending and telekinesis by the same process

-Telekinesis must not rely on air displacement; it must also avoid visible distortions of the object telekinete's appearance and (especially in the case of personal levitation) must avoid tidal forces

-Light-bending should only bend light; passing through an invisibility bubble should only change the field of view, although I can make do with slight nausea, and the same goes for gravity lenses; lasers are supposed to be deadly, so it doesn't matter as much there

-The method of power granting is gene-editing by viral infection followed by consumption of the necessary materials, hence why biologic powers are the easiest to explain; the energies required for gravitational manipulation must be harnessed by metabolism (and how the virus knows which bits to modify will be another question)

-The more plausible the science, the better (hence the science-based tag), but I will accept some crazy pseudo-science if nothing better comes along

-Bonus points if anyone can figure out force fields; unlike the Invisible Woman or Violet Parr, they should not be coupled with light-bending, but be a third power type granted by gravitic manipulation

posted about 7 years ago

No Name‭

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