Grrl Power #1366 – Ding dang dong
Lapha was indeed a guttersnipe at one point, in case you forgot.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned the following before, but it’s been years since whatever page that was, and it’s relevant to this page, so I claim author’s privilege.
Anyway, I have a distinct memory of a scene from an episode of Thundercats where Panthro finds a chunk of gold, not a vein or some scattered dust, but like a beachball sized boulder of the stuff just sitting on the ground, and he says something to the effect of “Stupid gold! So worthless! Bah!” and he kicks it off a cliff.
Okay, first off, I know the Thundercats weren’t human, and were generally stronger than Joe Sixpack, but if that boulder was half a cubic meter, it would have weighed about 10 tons. Second, gold is chemically very useful. It’s an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, and is almost totally chemically inert, and would make a great radiation barrier if cost or weight wasn’t a factor. It’d probably also be great to stick in the center of a projectile if you wanted to pack more mass into your shot. A straight-up gold bullet would probably be a bad idea and get jammed up in your barrel immediately, but if it was steel-jacketed, it’d probably be pretty effective.
Even when I was 13 or however old when Thundercats came out, I was like “Geeze, did gold insult Panthro’s mother or something?” It was just bad writing. Some sort of ham-fisted out of place anti-consumerist/capitalist message in a cartoon that was, like most other cartoons of its time, 30 minute long commercials for toys. (Huh, I just checked, Thundercats came out in 1985, so I was indeed 13 at the time.)
So it’s not that gold doesn’t have value in the wider Grrl-verse, it just doesn’t have “it’s valuable because we say it is” value. The fact that it’s rarer than 90% of other elements on the periodic table is a factor, but once mining comets and fracking all the moons around your local gas giants becomes an option, you’re still going to wind up with piles of the stuff.
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on in the background there with the table and the food. I guess I envisioned some sort of forest trail obstacle course there behind the Archon building, and there’s catering? That doesn’t seem very military-ish. I don’t think the Army usually has a Kraft Services table set up outside the training area, but considering Harem can teleport while holding a plate of ding-dongs or a pan of enchiladas, and there’s 5 of her, setting up a picnic buffet table would take her all of 14 seconds if she had the food ready. Actually the table itself would probably exceed her carry limit, as would a cooler full of ice and drinks. She’s have to bring bags of ice separately, and maybe one 12-pack at a time. Yeah, she’d have to set up the table before hand, then she could pop the food on as soon as everyone had their backs turned.
The vote incentive is finally done!
The update to the TWC image is pretty minor, but the Patreon version has the bonus comic as well as nude versions. I will strive to make the next one more timely.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Could 4 of her teleport the table by each holding 1 corner?
Depending on the weight, Daphne could do it with just one body (it’s organic or heavy objects she has trouble with: if it’s non-living {dead trees count as ‘non-living’} or she can physically lift it, she can VORP it)
I believe she previously indicated a Barrett sniper rifle (presumably an M82, but I’m not knowledgeable to definitively identify it) was around her weight limit (at least after temporarily putting one of her bodies in limbo), and I think those are typically somewhere in the vicinity of 30 lbs. You can easily have a folding table under that weight limit, and then covering it with a tablecloth would look just like the one we see above. Even if they were using a particularly lightweight rifle, you can also get particularly lightweight folding tables, I think maybe down to 10 lbs. I think that’s typically the case for 4-footers, but the table in the comic looks like it might be around that length. It will need to be made of light plastic, perhaps with hollow aluminum legs, so it won’t be very robust, but you don’t need it to be just to hold some snacks.
Back when the first fight in the restaurant broke out, Max asked if Daphne could vorp with the Barrett .50 Caliber sniper rifle, & Harem said ‘just barely’.
I just looked it up, the naked Barrett weighs between 30-35 lbs (13.6-15.9 kg), & when you start adding ammo & accessories like bipods & sniper scopes, it can potentially go as high as 128 lbs (58 kg). Probably wasn’t at its maximum potential when that fight broke out, but it did have accessories to increase its overall weight from the bare-minimum.
Assuming that table in this comic page is a standard plastic folding table, & guessing that it’s about 4-ft long, your average table within those criteria would weigh approximately 17 to 22 lbs (8 to 10 kg).
Soooooo, yeah….don’t think Harem would have any trouble vorping with a folding table. I think Dave is right, the cooler with drinks would weigh more.
Bah, I shouldn’t have spent as much time looking things up as I did, maybe I would have avoided getting ninja’d by you. Oh well.
…did you get Jabberwocky mixed up with white-haired Harem? None of Daphne are in this page, so your comment seems like a non-sequitor?
It’s in response to the author’s comments below the page, where he’s discussing how quickly Harem could get that table and food set up.
Regarding gold, it’s great at many things but not the best at most of them. The best conductor is silver, copper is a very close second and with some distance is gold is third. All of them are dense, and expensive, for many applications aluminium is used instead, just more of it.
Regarding gold as bullet core, tungsten is actually denser. The densest in iridium.
In electronics, gold has the advantage that it corrodes very slow. So it is used as a contact covering material.
And that’s just real world applications. In some fantasy universes gold is valuable because it’s an excellent conductor of magical energy.
Gold is a brilliant heat reflector.
It’s why you see gold on things we put into space, like the Apollo Moon Lander.
Even the Gold visors on EVA spacesuits is actually made from Gold-coated glass.
Plus Gold isn’t as reactive as many other chemical elements.
It doesn’t oxidize like Copper, Silver or Aluminium, and is resistant to many acids.
P.S. Iridium is the second densest naturally occurring element, just beaten by Osmium the densest naturally occurring element.
Uhg, last boss tried that one. It did not go well, but the engineering team figure it out…just not practical their method and not cheap. Honestly, it was a cool nerd project but even an evil mastermind can go broke trying to get that to work. BUT, with much candor…it did work. Just, uhg a regular tungsten round is more practical. Mass is nice, but velocity matters more. p.s. Money is why I quit working for that guy. That gun broke that boss’s ability to pay.
Unfortunately real world supervillains are kind of boring and don’t appreciate classics like golden bullets.
The industrial uses of gold will mean that its value will never drop to zero. Even if all the decorative uses, including jewelry, go away, as long as we make computers, we will need gold. It is a very good conductor of electricity and can be stretched into very tiny wires inside computer chip casings without a significant risk of breaking. Ductility for the win!
Yeah, the combination of ductility, malleability, conductivity and “doesn’t corrode-ity” make it really good for electronics.
I think that last idea is called chemical stability, in that its chemical relationships don’t change easily.
Non-corrosivity is close, but that means that your material does not corrode other things; gold is good for that, too. Oxygen, chlorine and fluorine gases are all very corrosive to most metals, but the gases themselves are not considered to be corroded.
The best conductors are certain yttrium alloys when held below -200 °C. Superconductivity for the win!
It also doesn’t do weird things at the interface with the silicon, unlike many other metals. That means the contacts do not crack away over time and with the application of heat, which is nice.
You’ve all missed the most useful property of gold – it makes great anti-Cybermen ammunition.
What Earth has is chocolate. It is exclusive to our planet. No other planet in the universe has chocolate or anything close to it. It’s the real reason aliens invade. They want our chocolate.
Think we can trick them into invading us to take our mosquitos instead?
That might work on the Galactic council of the Lilo & Stitch universe. Since we tricked them into believing they are a universally endangered species.
I shudder to think of mosquitoes becoming an invasive species out in the rest of the galaxy. I also do not want the little blood suckers to be considered a representative species for Earth. Mind you, mosquitoes’ main food source is not mammalian blood, but the nectar from small flowers, like blueberries; if the little insects can’t find the right flowers, they will starve to death way before they get to reproduce.
“Argh! What are these things anyway?! Where did they come from?”
“Some of the locals of that planet call it Earth, Your Majesty. The Galactic Council has a travel advisory against going there.” *Smack* “I think I am beginning to understand why.”
“Prepare the Royal Battle Fleet! I don’t care about a travel advisory! We are going to destroy this ” *SMACK* “Earth!”
“I remember reading that Earth operatives managed to destroy a Fel battleship when they tried to invade. I advise against attacking in haste. Perhaps you should send a reconnaissance mission first?”
“Your Majesty, I seem to recall that if you go there, you should read some bad poetry before destroying the planet. Perhaps that is to get you in the correct emotional state.”
“Oh, I am already in the emotional state to” *SMACK* “destroy that Earth.”
I don’t know if you intended it but, thanks to Dark Kuno’s comment, I read that in the voices of Pleakley and the Grand Councilwoman.
Also maple syrup (classical reference…)
Live Free or Die
Chocolate, like other biologically processed foods, might make aliens think we’re very weird. In one of Becky Chambers’s Galactic Commons novels, a group of aliens are discussing if humans really eat cheese, what it is and how it’s made. They conclude that humans are totally nuts.
They are not wrong
How would they react finding out about Ghost Peppers, and how some hyu-mons eat them for sport :P
The idea that biologically processed foods would be strange to aliens is itself rather weird. Just because a species is from another planet doesn’t mean they materialized with advanced technology or something. An alien caveman is not going to be turning their nose up at food because it was processed by microbes they don’t know exist yet.
Also, enzymes are far too useful for avoiding their use to be common.
That Thundercats EP always irked me! Even then, I knew they were ALWAYS hurting for needful tech supplies, and that was the best needful thing Earth has to offer tech. At the least, Electrical wiring doesnt grow on trees and all they had for wiring and circutry is whatever came with them on the nearly-destroyed colony ship. (I dont imagine the Bur-bils trading away any wiring or circutry they had, too valuable for robot medical needs.)
The writer on that one was an idiot. I know the robot bur-bils would have smacked Panthro on the head. I cant imagine them making more robot bears without gold.
Gold is a bit too ductile to make wiring or circuitry out of.
Copper is far better and far more prevalent.
Yet a civilisation advanced enough to build an interstellar colony ship might not need mundane electrical wiring, using instead things like superconductors, fiberoptics, biotech, etc.
Thanks for the badly needed correction.
Also, as some of the other commenters up-stream noted, even if I was incorrect about pure gold wiring, A lot of electronics are not entirely gold-free either, needing them for electrical contacts & such.
A Star-Trek level people stranded on a post-apocalyptic lower tech world* with tribes of robots had better learn how to do without superconductors, do archeology in the legendary homelands of said robots, or teach the robots about the space-tech you are running out of and see what they can figure out.
*(Third Earth is supposed to be Earth of the far effed-up future)
Gold is physically useful for aĺ the reasons you mentioned but it is a relatively inert element.that’s why it lasts so long without tarnishing or corroding.
Gold is physically useful for aĺ the reasons you mentioned but it is a relatively inert element.that’s why it lasts so long without tarnishing or corroding.
A standard beach ball has a volume of around 38772 cm³, which means if it’s made from gold, it’ll weigh around 750kg. 10 tons would be a magnitude too high.
Question is: did Jabbers know Lappie was reaching for that ding dong?
Does it matter? Bumbling C-list space mercenary/criminal that can’t get a kidnapping right has no chance with top-class martial-artist super dexterity-wise. If #931 is any guide, it is doubful Lapha could even afford to make her current body superhuman.
Point being, Jabbers may not have done that on porpoise
Lapha and Garamm are disgustingly adorable together. And I love every panel of them.
Yes, that’s why they shouldn’t be split up :)
While density is your friend when building radiation shielding, gold is actually a bad one to use since it can become extremely radioactive, hence why it was discussed as a possible salting for nukes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salted_bomb
I second the comment about chocolate.
Giving Core a couple million dollars should easily allow her to get trade goods worth more than a low level criminal.
And there should be lots and lot of those to pick among thats unique to earth.
Coffee.
Chocolate.
Exotic pets.
Reaper Peppers.
Wood furniture. (might take 100 years to grow the oak for a desk)
Silk clothes.
Pearls (depends on a native earth specie)
Books. (a collectible)
I think most of those Earth Uniques are one time items.
ALienTech replicators (Core’s ship has molecular scanners and printers) only needs a sample once. Chocolates, coffee, and peppers are mostly just some specific alkaloids and have no unique value when you can print them, given that in a post scarcity society, energy cost is not the limiting factor.
Ok…in order. Coffee, tea, and chocolate. We have at least 4 larger species on our planet for whom thoes products are TOXIC. As in you need to get them emergency levels of medical attention to keep them alive, and no I’m not just talking about cats and dogs but horses cows as well.
Exotic pets….you are aware we have a little known thing known as invasive species happening all over this planet. And you think they want to see us lugging our critters ?
Reper peppers. Ok what do birds, snakes, most reptiles, and some rodents have in common? They lack receptors capable of being affected by Capssasin.
Wood? Realy you think wood or any analog of wood does not exist…to put it mildly that’s wishful thinking. Same goes for silk, spider silk and so on.
Any raw mineral materials needed can probably be sourced locally.
There is a ton of exotic earth goods that should be valuable somewhere.
Chocolate (already mentioned)
Coffee
Exotic pets
High quality wood furniture
Pearls
Silk clothes
Carved ivory
All stuff you cant get anywhere else as it depends on native earth species.
Earth currency in itself might be meaningless. But it can still be exchanged for a valuable favor at a later point – if both deal partners agree that the chance of the currency keeping that value is high enough. Or they just trade an immediate serve for a contract for a later, like-valuable service in return. Earth also has a generally nice climate. There are probably not that many planets like this around. So, the permit to use a certain area of the Earth surface for habitation should hold some value.
I read one book where Earth currency was considered advanced/unique because we use art portraits of our leaders as a form of currency.
Is the civilized galaxy a post-scarcity economy?
Food and housing common and cheap but luxuries rare and expensive?
Payment for products from Earth would mostly go for shipping.
On the other hand… Earth TV shows are virtually weightless except for the recording medium.
I would say yes and no. In Perry Rhodan the people on Terra (Earth) and many planets in the League of Free Terrans live in a post-scarcity economy, but are encouraged to do something more with their lives. There are two main factors why many join the fleet or do other stuff with their lives. One is the titular character and the other relative immortals, which keep pushing humanities boundaries. While the other are the threats from other star nations in our galaxy and beyond.
One game based on the series sums it up nicely in the introduction:
Do you know what immortality means?
Not being able to die for 3,000 years?
Having to see the seeds one sows grow, bloom and wilt
over and over again?
Two billion solar masses in the milky way. Enough space
for everybody one would think.
Everyone wants what others have.
Planets, resources, weapons, life and immortality.
A whole universe full of enemies.
Some planets, even entire empires may have a post-scarcity economy when it comes to basic needs, but anything beyond might still be scarce.
Nope. Not a true post-scarcity economy yet or fuel (starship reaction mass) and tech maintainance would be free too. It’s odd, however. Given their general magitech level, I would have expected so. esp. since they can mine gas giants and the like for reaction mass and use nanotech or magic for maintainance.
In my eyes I looks like a contrived excuse so that Cora and Max can bargain a reward in some medium the former can deem valuable.
I have no sympathy or see any other gain (apart from protecting Earth’s secrets) for keeping Lapha and Garamm around and would love to see them leave the story by being thrown in galactic prison. However I acknowledge the practical reasons why Max would not want to give Lapha away with a head full of Archon’s secrets and Garamm is useful to make her behave. I keep thinking they should have settled the issue by letting her fizzle out on that cell pavement. Damn no-kill heroes that can’t let an enemy die.
Damn you’re bloodthirsty. You okay?
Surprisingly, some people tend to get bloodthirsty when discussing punishment to be used on kidnappers and slavers.
Weird, right?
Surprisingly, many of those same people also tend to enthusiastically support kidnapping and enslaving people.
They’re not upset about kidnapping and enslaving. They’re upset about who is being kidnapped and enslaved.
To get a true post-scarcity starfaring society you’ll need to set up anti-matter factory Dyson swarms close to the surface of hot, stable stars. That should give you enough high-density energy storage for any applications.
Gold-on-gold sliding surfaces are very low-friction, and do not require a separate lubricant, even in a vacuum. NASA found that out when they were looking for lubricants to use in space. They also found that graphite, which would seem to be a perfect lubricant to use in space (solid, so it wouldn’t evaporate; highly heat-resistant; inexpensive; easy to machine) turns into an industrial-grade abrasive in vacuum.
Have I mentioned yet how much I love the Garamm/Lapha interaction? Because I think I’ve been mentioning it since they first were introduced together and Garamm was being so protective of her in New York.
I love the Garamm/Lapha interaction and Garamm is easily one of my top 5 favorite characters. Mainly because he’s a ‘bad guy’ who seems like he’s only a ‘bad guy’ because Lapha is a bad guy and he wants to keep her protected because he liiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes her. mwah mwah mwah.
I can’t stand her and would gladly have her gone but I acknowledge they are cute together and he is more sympathetic. I tolerate her survival for his sake.
Like I said, it’s the interaction that I love. But I also think Garamm is a great character in general.
I am so glad to see Math and Jabberwocky getting along in a professional capacity. He is actually looking at her eyes instead of a foot and a half lower. Mind you, she appears to be talking with him, so that might be distracting him from
You can also see all the times Math blocked swords or whips with his arms.
They are perfect Battle Couple partners for each other. They match in everything, including job, calling, interests, similar personality, high libido, mutual attraction. This is a team R&R moment. They seem to be focused on other pleasurable activities (relaxing, chatting, eating) rather than sex atm, but for what we know they may well have scratched that itch recently and be sated. We know their sex life is frequent and passionate enough they did not notice the difference when the libido aura incident happened.
One would think Archon health care is advanced enough to keep members from getting scars, but quite possibly he got them before he joined the team.
“We know their sex life is frequent and passionate enough they did not notice the difference when the libido aura incident happened.” We don’t know that actually, since that’d mean they are actively intentionally breaking the rules(and considering the security in the building, doubtless would’ve been caught if they were so open) and there’s no indication that they’d do that.(even Dabbler follows that rule)
It’s possible they have been doing that on the side, but more likely they just interpreted it as them having stopped caring and weren’t doing it prior to the aura. A “will they-won’t they” couple who just so happens to have done it, in one specific scenario.
Which rules? As far as I know, Math and Jabber are not superior and subordinate in the same chain of command. They are equal in rank, same as Heatwave and Mr. Amorphous, who are openly dating. Max knows about them and jokes about the relationship. Therefore, there cannot be an anti-fraternization policy for Archon that targets the same in rank. If you ask my opinion, it would be very stupid and hardly enforceable between fit, youthful, and very attractive people with strong libido who hang together all the time.
Dabbler is in all evidence a justifiable special exception, since sex with her would leave a teammate incapacitated until they recover from exhaustion.
I’m not going to pretend to know the ins and outs of the system, but as I understand, Math doesn’t have a rank(he is a “civilian specialist”), while Jabber does, as an actual part of the team.
As far as I have been lead to understand by other conversations on the topic/idle research(Not due to the comic. Rather. brought about by many shows/books.), that is considered a grey area “at best” and, where accepted, does have some restrictions, including for displays while “on-duty” and some other things(again, not going to pretend to know everything, but it was impressed upon my that such a relationship is more likely to have issues than dating someone in your unit of the same rank).
It’s possible I’ve been mislead when it comes to this topic, but it was certainly presented to me that that kind of relationship befell rules(not necessarily even fraternization ones, but other preventions). Though all that said, granted, these “rules”, if they exist, might also be waived for ARC.
Regarding Heatwave and Mr. Amorphous, however, that isn’t a good point. They were partners *before* joining the team, which as I understand, typically creates an exception, even if there would be an issue in their case.(though they are in fact, not equal in rank, nor on the same track Heatwave it Enlisted, Amorphous is Officer, but as I understand, they qualify as “close enough” before accounting for history).
I will however allow that a second tidbit that I incorrectly recalled exists that led to me thinking that the rules went beyond standard. Notably, Dabbler is forbidden from sleeping with anyone on the team(371), and I’d misremembered a broader restriction.
Regarding “We were told time and again that the only obstacle to a relationship between Max and Hiro is they are superior and subordinate in the same chain of command.” I don’t recall that ever being explicitly said in comic. I *do* recall commenters asserting that, but never Dave. (There have been pages them joking about/commenting on how some things that occurred between them are inappropriate and/or one page where they floated the idea that if they reached the same rank they’d… balance the scales, but none of that is saying that they would, or could start a relationship while in the unit together. At least explicitly.)
Lastly “If you ask my opinion, it would be very stupid” fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who you ask, that has no bearing on actual rules or standards. “and hardly enforceable” It’s definitely very enforceable. Especially in Jabber’s case, seeing as she joined the team over going to jail, since she was previously a criminal, and breaking the rules could get her kicked of work release, but also for the rest of the team, considering all of the incentives they benefit from.
Hmm, I am not convinced but I’ll state that I am extremely biased on the issue in general so I acknowledge the very real risk of bending, cherry-picking, and pushing the envelope of facts to fulfil my desires.
Everything in me screams this kind of rule is inhuman and tyrannical and I am unable and unwilling to get along with a rule I dislike unless I have no chance to get away with its breaking and there are life-changing stakes. Since the latter does not seem the case, if I were in that situation and I had the opportunity (since this is not a thing you can do alone by definition) this is a rule I’d break w/o a second thought all the time, same as copyright. When I spoke about my hatred of DEI-style stuff, this kind of rule ranks close to the top in my loathing scale.
All the same, breaking facts to fulfil my desires is another thing I loathe to do, so I am hesitant to push the issue w/o having a complete picture of the situation. I just express my extreme scepticism about a few issues such as the differences in rank for Math and Jabber and for Heatwave and Mr. Amorphous, as well as the latter’s relationship existing before they joined Archon. I would also make the point that since Jabber joined the team, she might well have completed her work release program and become a normal member of the team.
Most importantly, when I said this rule seems insane and unenforceable to me, I was speaking about the team in general. Supers are an extremely valuable commodity and their job market is quite competitive and very much a seller’s one. There are surely all kinds of actors that are able and willing to give them the same benefits as Archon w/o trying to restrict their romantic and sexual freedom (E.g. do you think that Deus would be willing to endorse this kind of prude nonsense for a moment?). I know the likes of me would laugh in the face of Archon staff and tear any contract in their face with that kind of rule if they dared to propose it.
Make no mistake, these are people that are youthful, fit, very attractive, spend a lot of time together. We may expect them to have as healthy libidos as professional athletes if not more. This kind of rule would heavily impinge on their freedom and lifestyle.
For all its prude, DEI, and #MeToo foibles, the US government (or corporations for that matter) cannot afford to try impose rules on these elites that are in the same neighborhood of being as restrictive as the ones for grunts and office drones. They can and almost surely would be changed. The ones that would choose to submit to this kind of treatment in the name of idealism like Max or be constrained by circumstances similar to Jabber’s would be few and far between in the potential recruitment pool.
“very real risk of bending, cherry-picking, and pushing the envelope of facts to fulfil my desires.”
Mm. Not in the way you seem to think you did/would though.
“When I spoke about my hatred of DEI-style stuff, this kind of rule ranks close to the top in my loathing scale.”
“For all its prude, DEI, and #MeToo foibles, the US government ”
I don’t understand your sudden sideways lunge attack against DEI and MeToo. I get, from reading some of your other posts that these are pressing on your mind, but frankly it’s a non-sequitur. It has little to do with the conversation at hand and bringing it in just muddies the water and makes you seem obsessive.
Prevention of different forms of fraternization has been around in various bodies of military for ages. It is not a recent thing. It has served various purposes, or at least has been claimed to(there have been cases of debate on if the rules server), including culling the spread of illness, addressing corruption, manipulation and favoritism issues, morale issues, punishing “perversions”(preventing same-sex soldiers sleeping together).
Conversely, the things you are expressing hatred against are “newer” and also do not apply to most of the above.
“Everything in me screams this kind of rule is inhuman and tyrannical”
I’m not really going to debate whether or not “do not begin intimate relationships with(/be publicly affectionate with) people who may compromise you/your ability to be objective/to keep secrets/your position/operations during such times that they might do so” is tyrannical. This topic has already gone *far* off the rails from me simply pointing out that your assertion the we “know” Jabber and Math are frequently having sex. I will say inhumane is hyperbolic at best, unless you can prove some qualification as torture.
“and I am unable and unwilling to get along with a rule I dislike unless I have no chance to get away with its breaking and there are life-changing stakes”
Then prepare to miss out on/lose many jobs, I guess? The world is built on bad rules made by bad people, for bad reasons, on every side of every isle. Thing is though, if you work for them, and they have rules(that aren’t a crime to enforce), then if you break those rules, they get to decide if you are punished, whether you think it’s right or not.
“Since the latter does not seem the case, if I were in that situation and I had the opportunity (since this is not a thing you can do alone by definition) this is a rule I’d break w/o a second thought all the time, same as copyright.”
And you’d probably be out of Arc faster than you could blink, be out a massive paycheck, and maybe even be seeing financial and legal troubles(also probably be under surveillance, considering all the secret stuff like demons/magic/tech/classified info about supers going around) for the foreseeable future depending on how much of an effort you put into pissing them off.
“I just express my extreme skepticism about a few issues such as the differences in rank for Math and Jabber”
We saw Jabber’s graduation. You can find Math’s rank in the cast page “Heatwave and Mr. Amorphous, as well as the latter’s relationship existing before they joined Archon” I cannot find where it was said right now(slow internet, 1366 pages plus comments), but the cast page notes Heatwave Amorphous and Achillies were a team before joining Arc.
“I would also make the point that since Jabber joined the team, she might well have completed her work release program and become a normal member of the team.” It’s been like, months. If all it takes to work of her potetial prison sentence(for beating up cops among other things, page 824) is a couple months work, that’s got to be a heck of a light sentence, or that work– during which she did not actual work, just learning, must have a heck of an impact on sentences… in which case Lapha should be free to go fairly quick, I suppose.
“There are surely all kinds of actors that are able and willing to give them the same benefits as Archon w/o trying to restrict their romantic and sexual freedom” And how many of said actors have the budget of the US military, the backing of the US government, can legally put you in exciting combat, won’t get you arrested for vigilante acts, can make you internationally famous in mere days(which many other employers wouldn’t want to do), can provide you with new high tech, reliable backup, etc, etc, etc?
“(E.g. do you think that Deus would be willing to endorse this kind of prude nonsense for a moment?).”
Deus is possibly the one notable exception to the issues above, outside another government(discounting that he is essentially several governments now)… but here’s the thing: Deus’ rules are Deus’ rules, and(assuming he’d even want you for some reason, considering he can create the supers he wants, and/or locate basically every option, apparently) if you defy them, just like ARC, he can cut you loose. Or worse, since he seems much more open to death, killing and/or reeducating people.
“I know the likes of me would laugh in the face of Archon staff and tear any contract in their face with that kind of rule if they dared to propose it.”
And as such they’d find someone else, and likely keep an eye on you in case you went the illegal route when you found out no one legal pays as well as them.
“Make no mistake, these are people that are youthful, fit, very attractive, spend a lot of time together. We may expect them to have as healthy libidos as professional athletes if not more. This kind of rule would heavily impinge on their freedom and lifestyle.”
Hate to say it, but when you join something like the military, you expect to surrender some “freedom and lifestyle”, be it your hairstyle, where you live, when you sleep, how much exercise you do, what tomfoolery you engage in, what you are allowed to talk about, what activities you can engage in, or otherwise. That’s the nature of the job. Heck, at various points in history, they “tested” you to verify you weren’t homosexual! How’s that for “freedom and lifestyle”?
“For all its prude, DEI, and #MeToo foibles”
While I agree that the US, and much of the rest of the world is too prudish(though I don’t imagine our reasonings align)… none of this frankly has to do with the topic.
“the US government (or corporations for that matter) cannot afford to try impose rules on these elites”
Actually, yes they can and have. Major financial powers write the rules and impose them, and if you don’t like it, there’s not much you can do but look elsewhere. Everyone on Maxima’s team, including Maxima, is theoretically replaceable. Would it suck? Probably. But they can either find someone with similar powers, find someone completely different, or find some way to force you to cooperate, be it holding crimes you did over your head, using security as an excuse(lets face it, they could, even if they chose not to), using finances, orchestrating issues for you(such as making sure other bodies know you cannot be trusted).
“The ones that would choose to submit to this kind of treatment in the name of idealism like Max or be constrained by circumstances similar to Jabber’s would be few and far between in the potential recruitment pool.”
Gonna need stats on that, cause even among famous actors and such, many a tale exists of them putting up with massively inappropriate treatment, and of them being tossed aside like used tissue the moment they are mildly inconvenient, and unlike the cast here, said actors already had money, fame, power, etc. It’s not every case, but it depends on who is willing to bend over backward on both sides.
We were told time and again that the only obstacle to a relationship between Max and Hiro is they are superior and subordinate in the same chain of command. Hence, any anti-fraternization policy Archon has just targets that kind of situation.
I know I left an edit button around here somewhere.
Oops. That first paragraph should have ended with, “from staring further down.”
Calling it now: their fuel source is some ultra-dense version of a semi-common material. They give Max a sample; she crushes it by hand; they now have the new highest grade of said material and can run for three times the distance per unit.
Hi,
despite not watching much Thundercats I vividly remember at lest 2 more episodes gold came up.
They once found more gold but near a vulcano and it was molten and everyone was annoyed by it.
Not threatened or so, just inconvinient, because they would get wet! They all could just touch the liquid – aka. hot – gold!
But Cheetara (I had to lok the name up) looked at the molten gold and formed a string out of it – like a human could do a chees pull or so – and liked how it loos, so she collected the gold in her personal storage/area on the ship.
Two or so episodes later they needed gold for some reason (I think for trading or so) and everyone groand that they had to look for that useless trash. Cheetara then – a bit embarassed – told them that she keeped all that gold they all called trash.
Greetings
Juy Juka
This is the episode I remember too. I remember Panthro dumping it all in a chasm with a tank (although Cheetah was talking about how she liked it herself) and then changing the channel in disgust myself. Then I was channel flipping and caught the end. I didn’t get the details, but they were congratulating Cheetah for saving some of the gold.
I looked it up just now. The episode is called “All That Glitters” and the gold is the b-plot that comes in handy for getting someone to help fix Lion-O’s sword. There don’t seem to be any other episodes with it.
DaveB, you can relax. The point of the gold is that it DOES have value, a valuable lesson about subjective value is learned.
For the record, it’s “craft services”, as in service for the crafts, not Kraft Services like Kraft Foods brand catering I guess?
In the original Twilight Zone Season 2 Episode 24 The Rip Van Winkle Caper, thieves steal a shipment of gold. They hide in a cave in suspended animation capsules for a century. At the end the lone survivor tries to offer a gold brick for water before he dies. (They were in Death Valley and didn’t have any.) The person who the gold was offered to comments on how gold had become valueless since they learned how to produce it in large quantities.
Not a Kraft Services table more like a Hostess services table.
I assumed that Panthro was too used to working with whatever artificial material they’d used to replace gold, and didn’t know it was useful for some reason. In retrospect, it’s a ridiculous justification, because he should have known this if he was a halfway competent engineer.
Regarding gold for use in bullets. Gold has similar mass and ductile properties to lead, which has been used for bullets since nearly the beginning of firearms. Lead is still used for bullets to this day. Often alloyed with tin and antimony for harness and reducing surface tension during casting.
Gold loses intrinsic value from larger supply.
It loses extrinsic value by trust erosion in its position in the market place and as such by unpredictable supply.
A.K.A only gold fabricators would affect its extrinsic value.
Things that I think are on earth and probably of galactic value:
pre-AI content(AI collapse)
Low background water(earth water is surprisingly exceptional in its non-radioactivity on a galactic scale)
Super labor(duh)
The Veil(apperantly uncommon infrastructure)
Heavy metals(require a lot of energy to produce and the top of the (earth) line are considered trash here anyways)
Notice how Lapha tried hard to snatch food back from Jabber if Garaam had not lovingly restrained her and given her a replacement. Her overreaching pattern stands unbroken in matters great and small. Archon better keep a tight leash on her since her ability to learn from her mistakes seems minimal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements#Universe
Pure elements and how rare they would be on a galactic scale.
Remember the law of conversation energy still mostly applies, so fabbing heavier atoms is more expensive.
In the same category I expect several organic molecules to qualify for galactic value.
Based on this I expect Barium, Nuclear waste and Iron to offer the best value for money.
Especially, because Iron is the most nucleair stable material.
Just for the record, military cooking tends to buffet style dining, but that doesn’t mean that can’t do more formal catering. Especially for officers and diplomats.
So, if you have the whole galaxy of mass available, how is “reaction mass” not free? Who charges for it, and what do they take in return? We have a few “Earth-grazing” asteroids we’re kind of concerned about, how about we sell you some reaction mass we don’t need?
I would guess that it’s making that reaction mass compact and portable that makes it valuable. And considering that they’ve already discussed technology that requires intense gravity and their capture of a villain with gravity-manipulation powers… I’m guessing Archon could supply Cora with some appropriate reaction mass.
I would think one example of something useful that Earth could provide in trade is the use of superpowered humans for tasks. While Earth might not have materials that are valuable to alien species, they do have services and information that are valuable (Deus did trade something for the mass fabs, for example, and demons and succubi probably often trade services for items).
Someone in this world probably has some kind of superpower that resembles alchemy and skips some of the expensive ingredients.
They’re about to be super-rich. If a certain someone isn’t already employing them. Just how *did* he pay for that shopping spree, anyway?
Hmm, Sciona is raising suspicions about her death being greatly exaggerated, Cora needs bounties…
Is this Checkov’s Bounty? ;3
You’d think Cora would be ecstatic to have ARC generally or Maxima personally owe her a favor to be named later.
Fun gold trivia: most gold on Earth was created in neutron star-neutron star or neutron star-black hole collisions, aka kilonovae
Depends on how much she’s got saved up. A future favor becomes less valuable when you need to pay your bills today.
Just give her access to the necessary resources to make her own fuel.
I too would like to see Cora and Maxima explore something together, just to see.
Slightly off-topic: “For Whom the Death Tolls” question. Wondering what supranyms he might have come up with but discarded in favor of his final name choice? Also, wondering if he is equally, comically terrible at picking names for other supers. For instance, would he have named Maxima “Yellow Peril”? What other really bad names can we come up with for the supers in this series that are at a “For Whom the Death Tolls” level of cringiness?
One of my favorite examples of the “worthless gold” trope is in Star Trek, where it really is worthless since replicators can literally create it. So to get around that fact, they had to invent a new rare material that was incapable of being replicated: Latinum. Existing in a liquid form only, resembling mercury, it was inconvenient to use because you literally had to use droppers and other tools meant for liquids to pay with or accept it. So the Ferengi came up with Gold-Pressed Latinum. Solid currency consisting of gold used as a container to hold Latinum.
In magic settings I like using Gold as one of the most magically conductive materials. It works better for some magics than others, and some materials might be better at those ones than gold is, but over all, the best conductor. Silver, Platinum, and Copper each have a couple they are better at than Gold. Iron is actively disruptive to magic interfering with its passage nearby and blocking passage through it, and lead is entirely neutral causing no reaction magically, so those are both different types of insulators depending on the goal. Coal and some types of ash and salt are all different types of purifying. Gems are generally able to hold and then release types of magic consistent with their type, and some are suitable capacitors (either flow or discharge style).
I had as a plot device some nuggets of gold that had interesting properties.
First, they leaked small amounts of reddish oil. Not much, maybe a drop a week.
Second, they were radioactive. In *pulses*. About once a second, they’d make a counter go clickyclick. It was this second feature that absolutely *wrecked* the player who was a physics major.
“But.. but.. gold.. isotopes.. not.. Ionizing radiation doesn’t *DO* that!”
Third, and the players didn’t know this because it was a *1920s gangsters game*, they were a small source of magical mana.
(The greater meta-plot was that these were interdimensional markers pushed into reality by a group of Big Bads trying to find their home dimension.)
Platinum is usually valued higher than gold in most systems. The only way this is possible is that it is more useful magically than gold, but much harder to process correctly.
i.e. in D&D Platinum is typically 5x the value of gold, which is 10x the value of silver, but silver gets all the magical recognition for some reason. How many things are vulnerable to silver vs gold, after all?
Fun Fact:
James Lipton (the late host of Inside the Actor’s Studio… occasionally parodied on SNL by Wil Ferrell) was the guy who wrote/composed the theme song to the original Thundercats cartoon.
Second Fun Fact:
Lion-O used the Eye of Thunderra to shine a red light in the sky to call the other Thundercats to join him. (Yes… He attracted a bunch of cats to his location using an oversized red laser pointer.)
For a very long time, the value of gold wasn’t ‘because we say it is’, but rather ‘because we can prove it’s gold’. The touchstone and balance was an assurance that you were dealing with actual gold. Not that there wasn’t still counterfeiting, but having something you can’t just make a whole bunch of meant you had a currency for trade.
Interesting bit of history:
The reason many coins have (or had, for some time) ridged edges was because when they were made of actual silver or gold, people would file off some of the edge of their coins to keep some of the metal but a skilled shaver could make it still look and feel close enough to the original coins that someone would be unlikely to notice without weighing them (or had a knack for the feel of the weight from handling coins so often… something I can still do with a handful of quarters from having spent so much of my youth in arcades, though these days there’s about a one coin sway rather than an exact count just from the feel).
Anyhow, after a while… officially minted coins began being made with ridged edges so that people could see if the coin had been shaved down because doing so would smooth out the edge. (Sometimes it wasn’t specifically ridges like you still see on a quarter, but something else about the shape that would make it obvious… such as how some coins have a smooth edge but a lip around the outside or a set of markings inside the edge that would make it clear if the coin had been tampered with.)_