Comic 879 - Suggest a few things

Posted on 2nd Apr 2018, 9:47 PM in Shipping Off to Southden
Suggest a few things

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Author Notes:

Morgenstern 2nd Apr 2018, 9:47 PM edit delete
You suggest that, if possible, taking a whole power cell (or whatever power-storing equivalent) from Bunker E and plugging it in at Ilworth may be safer than running a cable into the bunker. ...And would probably not make you feel as bad.

"That should be quite doable," Dr. Finch says with a nod. "We'll have to take a look at Ilworth's power station, and how the unused power is being stored in Bunker E, but... with some configuring, it shouldn't be too difficult."

Dr. Finch thinks for a moment, and then speaks again. "Now that I consider it, the properties in Ilworth may not be owned by individuals at all. Jury has a point--it is a very different country. We may want to check with the banks the next time we're there, or Fuse can look them up online--I somewhat doubt they simply fell into the hands of independent real estate moguls."

You also, after thinking about it, suggest a secret knock. ...So next time, nobody will almost shoot Jury. You tap out a particular rhythm, which Jury repeats perfectly.

"Heck, we might all oughta learn it," Michelle comments. "Y'know, in case we lose our cards or somethin'."

Everyone spends some time practicing the secret knock.

You also have a question regarding the biopaste contamination--if Dr. Finch could identify Queen, or Thale's blood specifically in local, normal biopaste... would that help push the investigation at all?

"Queen definitely would," Jury says. "That's a known, documented drug we're trying to shut down before it spreads past the city limits. If Save the Queen is showing up in consumer biopaste, it would raise major red flags. Thale's blood, on the other hand... not so much. Any single, identifiable blood in biopaste would just be proof it was mixed poorly. A lot of blood goes into biopaste."

"That aside," Dr. Finch adds, "I doubt they're injecting Queen into the biopaste. My best guess at the moment is that contamination would involve whatever additional crude elements are required to bioprint Thale's alien knockoff. That way, every bioprinter would have what it needs to print that control blood pure strain--no Crawl, no psilocybin, just the base blood. It would fold after injection... any blood transfusion would look perfectly normal, until it's too late. Figuring out what those extra elements could be is a mystery on its own--and even if we knew, they could be innocuous additives on their own. A number of... unsavory things are accidentally spilled into biopaste all the time. A bit like cigarettes, really--half the dangerous chemicals aren't intentional, they're simply picked up in the poor factory conditions and then roundly ignored."

Caius chuckles. "I always heard tha cheap cigarettes were made outta whatever fell on tha floor makin' tha expensive ones. I guess it's kinda like that."

Michelle shakes her head. "I don't want the job o' whoever cleans up bad, spilled biopaste. ...Or has to mix it. Ugh."

The mention of Crawl does remind you of something, though--Jury was going to look into the Dicers, right? And their Crawl distribution in the lower tiers?

Jury nods. "That was the plan before that night at the school. I was told today that the Dicers have mostly scattered since then... maybe since the nearby magic mushroom scene mysteriously burned up, Thale's plans have moved away from Save the Queen. I'm still going to make a day of it tomorrow, though--I'm going to set up a small task force, see if I can shake anything loose about ongoing Dicer operations, maybe scare the remaining dealers out of business."


Twyll 2nd Apr 2018, 10:25 PM edit delete reply
Jury's probably more well-traveled than a lot of folks here. Does she know of any towns that might be worth moving to on this side of the pond? Moving somewhere in this country would mean we wouldn't have to sort visas for Zene and family and Pierce. Also, we could maybe store some of our Zone 50 stuff there.

...After we meet with Jury we should probably figure out what all we actually *have* from Zone 50, actually. Maybe Elizabeth would enjoy helping us inventory it? Or maybe she wouldn't-- we can ask.

Also, let's thank Jury for the info and tell her we'll keep in touch and let her know anything more we learn.
Baron11704 2nd Apr 2018, 10:29 PM edit delete reply
The secret knock is great and all, but we should still exercise caution when opening the door for someone who uses it. This will help us mitigate someone blasting someone's brains out, but we shouldn't rely on it so much that we aren't armed when we open the door.
psychoshen 2nd Apr 2018, 11:05 PM edit delete reply
If it's anyone besides Jury, Jane can double check via the blood. Lydia and Grizwald don't know about the knock and haven't been to the bunkers yet.
Madd 2nd Apr 2018, 10:31 PM edit delete reply
Take inventory.

Fuse can look Ilworth's owners, and why it's still abandoned.

Thank Jury and hug her.
psychoshen 2nd Apr 2018, 11:45 PM edit delete reply
See if Jury can requisition that blood testing device from the feds. The one they used on Finch. If that's a no go, see about making one. They described it as basically a dialysis machine. Tack on a blood type testing device and it sounds like you'd pretty much be there. They can provide evidence of Thale's blood in the biopaste and they can test Mav's family, Elizabeth and Pierce to make sure they've been cleared of Thale's influence to the point where they might not need Jane's blood.

This second bit is more of a long term idea, since Door A is just standing there with nothing around it, it might look a bit odd. We know of one door that can be moved, do we want to move Door A as well? It's in the ruined part of town, so we could disguise as construction workers clearing away rubble.
Cruentum 2nd Apr 2018, 11:46 PM edit delete reply
We could rig up a ghost busters vacuum for the ghosts!
Cruentum 2nd Apr 2018, 11:47 PM edit delete reply
*for Fariday
Cruentum 2nd Apr 2018, 11:51 PM edit delete reply
We could could contaminate a major biopaste factory with our blood, but I think that goes against our... mind rules thingy. Morals.
Archon 3rd Apr 2018, 1:15 AM edit delete reply
Maybe not.
Being human(ish), juggling control over the different minds would be a difficult, and not terribly beneficial endeavor.
But we don't actually have to control them, do we?
Just blooding them should be sufficient for dealing with Thale's blood.
(Although, should do a trial run before we go blooding everyone. Blooding a whole bunch of people might have unforeseen consequences, after all.)
Wote 3rd Apr 2018, 12:11 PM edit delete reply
Also, it runs against our code about involuntary blooding. So, let's just take that off the table for now.
Cruentum 3rd Apr 2018, 12:22 AM edit delete reply
So: could Faraday collected by dispersing an iron dust through the facility and then using an electromagnet to collect the bits?
We could also use the fact that Faraday seems to be in a plasma-like state to force a plasma condensate, either by cooling the ghost room significantly or using a condenser. We could also try causing a strong electromagnetic pulse to draw the dispersed Faraday to a point, drawing her consciousness close enough together to amalgamate
Cruentum 3rd Apr 2018, 12:50 AM edit delete reply
To do this we could find a way to amplify the range and power of the ghost capture gun, or we could make a separate EM coil.
Wote 3rd Apr 2018, 12:14 PM edit delete reply
Seeing as we don't know what the gun does or how ghosts work, I'd favor being a little more careful about how se go about engaging with Faraday until we have more info. Poor thing's suffered ebough as it stands.

Also, for future reference, it's probably better to condense your thoughts into one post, even if it means taking a few minutes to think before posting. :P
Cruentum 3rd Apr 2018, 12:47 AM edit delete reply
Finally, we could try misting our blood throughout bunker E, but I dont think we have enough for that.
Mochi 3rd Apr 2018, 12:15 PM edit delete reply
i cannot for the life of me think of why this would do anything other than coat the inside of ghost base in a fine spry of blood we can do nothing with because it is not technically in a container. unless you're trying to count the entire bunker as the container, in which case it still would be useless because it's not even close to enough blood to manipulate a giant concrete structure that is probably buried underground. and that still doesn't explain why it would even be necessary.
Cruentum 3rd Apr 2018, 12:58 AM edit delete reply
I vote we leave the door where it is, because it hasn't been found during the multitude of years after Zone 50, but maybe position the mobile door somewhere strategic.
The Dialysis machine can't test for the raw Thale blood components, only actual morphing blood, so it cant be used to test the biopaste.
Finally, we should start working on a new or prosthetic body for Liz.
37212513 3rd Apr 2018, 2:14 AM edit delete reply
No, but it can be used to test on an anonymous tip! They know this weird shit transforms, right? Print some blood from a suspect printer, run the test using two different blood types, Bio-printer tested! It's not ideal, but may be as close as we get without compromising moral codes we've already discussed. (Actually, might not even need more than a petri-dish for that.)
pkrankow 3rd Apr 2018, 6:24 AM edit delete reply
Good idea. If two somethings printed immediately after each other exhibit non generic behaviour then it will be contaminated. The problem might be the paste or th he machine though.
Blue_Elite 3rd Apr 2018, 5:19 AM edit delete reply
So we've got a few tasks to do (in no specific order):
1. Get a biopaste refill from Southden (if possible, checking sooner rather than later will help to determine what to do with our current supply).
2. See about obtaining the property rights to Ilworth.
3. Manage what/where we're going to store the Zone 50 items. Keeping them out of the bunker might actually be a good idea for both space reasons and testing reasons (we wouldn't want to release another Edison-esc monster in Bunker A). Though that still leaves keeping them on the continent vs. using Ilworth as a storage/testing site.
3.5 Take Tesla to Bunker E/Farady, try to have a chat.
4. Make arrangements to at least visit the library of Geoangular Control. Bring gloves just in case events result in us having to take the book with us during the visit (really, really do not want to touch a forbidden tome bare-handed).
5. See about transferring some of Bunker E's power supply to Ilworth.
6. Blood a local bird at Ilworth or Southden.
7. Maybe show Jury Bunker C. I don't think it's a good idea but then, when is it ever going to be? We need to figure out something eventually. Also don't forget to send in the meat golem to check that room first. After that encounter, we don't want to risk whatever-that-thing-was having removed the barricade and standing right outside the door waiting for us.
Memo 3rd Apr 2018, 9:41 AM edit delete reply
No reason to get the biopaste in southden, we can just get it send to where ever we store the Z50 stuff, and bring it back through the door.
anailater 3rd Apr 2018, 11:21 AM edit delete reply
Hey i'm finally caught up!

Don't have a suggestion I just wanted to say this comic is great!
Cruentum 3rd Apr 2018, 11:23 AM edit delete reply
Could we theoretically expand our red by absorbing Lasker's red? We might be able to expand our power by "stretching thin and drinking deep" of Lasker.
Mochi 3rd Apr 2018, 12:04 PM edit delete reply
the red is already infinite. it's an infinite meat dimension jane can draw materials from. also, this would involve thawing lasker, and the moment we do that he would continue to grow, and attempt to destroy not just the world, but the known universe, too. not to mention that as soon as it, being one of the shards of the first womb, realizes there's another of it's kind (jane) it will stop at nothing to kill her, and she would be driven by that same immutable hatred.

also, you do realize that, as a comicfury user, you can edit your comments and add things too them right? so you don't have to leave ten random comments?
Cruentum 3rd Apr 2018, 12:57 PM edit delete reply
oops. sorry.