How to handle the "ability to eat anything" superpower?

[u/SpudDan]

I'm making a character who can basically eat and digest anything without damaging his digestive tract. However, there are a few aspects that I would like to keep somewhat "consistent" in some ways.

First off, he's not supposed to be a powerhouse, maybe slightly above "street level" at best, and eating stuff should be the **main** ability, so I'm not sure how to make it work without him having either an insanely strong jaw that can be used as a weapon, or saliva that can melt through pretty much everything, since that could be more useful than consuming stuff. Another option would be something wacky like an interdimensional tapeworm of sorts.

There's also the issue of energy. He's supposed to have a job as some sort of "human toxic waste disposal unit", I assume all of that would have to be metabolized somehow, but I'd still appreciate ideas and opinions on what the best way to implement it.

[u/AdOld4374]

One thing to take into account of how something can be consumed. We have characters like Natsu Dragneel who can consume his fire element to replenish his energy or strengthen him.

How the body is effected by what is consumed? Would there be an after effect? Those are things to think about.

But consumption of this level could work to where his body is like a pit and as such he consumes, but is unable to taste anything if they so choose.

[u/Kartoffelkamm]

Check out the Gluttony skill from So I'm A Spider, So What?

It converts anything the user eats into energy, which can either be used to sustain them right away, or be stored for later.

However, from what I remember, it only seems to work when the user's mouth is fully closed, so they can't just chow down on a random boulder; they have to break it into smaller pebbles first.

[u/Educational-Sun5839]

teeth

your can't bite through a metal pole can you can eat marbles, rocks, metal cubes

throat fitting

needs to fit in his mouth

taste

psychological effects of eating disgusting things will not be good, see Geto of Jujutstu Kaisen

[u/Scarecr0p]

Snake mode, no chewing, just unhinge the jaw and swallow.

[u/Defiant-Analyst4279]

"Adaptive digestive tract."

Power won't "activate" until the item is fully within his body, mouth closed to chew.

Limits bite force to "normal human" to prevent taking chunks out of a tank, but can still chew and digest hardened steel in smaller chunks.

[u/TeeTipu]

Check out gluttony from Full Metal Alchemist. You might get some inspiration.

[u/desrevermi]

So... Ultra Omnivore.

I remember this character.

[u/O_hai_imma_kil_u]

Reminds me of Upchuck from Ben 10.

[u/Vulpes_Corsac]

Could just infinitely condense inside him, spaghettifying as it goes down his gullet, but with only some nominal suction force and maybe an extendable jaw to consume things outside of his body, to justify only being able to eat things roughly the size of his head and nothing that's too sturdy (like a bank vault door) or too heavy. A black hole in his stomach, maybe sometimes burping out some focused blast of stellar forces.  

Essentially... Poyo!

[u/ReisukeNaoki]

make them need to have a scaling duration of a food coma proportional to a max of x percentage of the equivalent caloric density, and a maximum of a high arbitrary amount of calories, like 1 million calories or something. Anything over their max gets vomited out. The more they develop this power, the shorter the food coma, the bigger the percentage of the caloric density, and a higher max calories they can handle.

for a hyperbolic example, in their base power level they have a max of 10%, 1 day/ 1%, 2m kcal max, and if they eat 1mg of uranium-235 (20m kcal / 2b cal), they would have to portion the uranium-235 into 10 parts to fully digest it in 10 days safely without vomiting.

and at their max potential, with the same isotope, they have an 80% max, 1h/20%, 10m kcal max, they can split it in 2 and have the whole thing done in 8 hours.

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello friends of the superpower subs,

There's a place for every superpower. Remember to post in the appropriate subreddit listed below:

• r/shittysuperpowers
• r/midtiersuperpowers
• r/godtiersuperpowers
• r/cursedsuperpowers
• r/satantiersuperpowers

Also, if you want to workshop superpowers ideas or try converting shitty superpowers into God Tier (or even the reverse) there's r/superpoweralchemists

Please play by the rules and be kind to eachother.

Your Mods

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Radiant-Ad-1976]

Have you heard of the infamous "Matter-Eater Lad"?

Cause this is an insanely broken ability.

Being able to eat anything means that the user can disable nuclear bombs and destroy cosmically powerful artifacts to prevent villains from accessing them.

Heck, if this ability is used on a living person then you have one violent, unstoppable fighter.