PaRARGdox 45
Going down: Those pouches come in handy from time to time – especially for super compact climbing cord! I figured Kaycee would indeed be prepared for Charisma to ditch her at Largo Castle… but she probably isn’t prepared for what’s coming next!!
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Next update: Wednesday, July 1, 2020: Lights out on Magellan Island.
Synchronous timing of the two storylines
Yep, things are going south all over the place!
Well the bright side, after all of this, hopefully friendships will start?
The tsun will grow increasingly dere.
I think that would be unrealistic. I think it would be more natural for Charisma to strongly resent having to be saved by Kaycee.
I hate to say it, but if even just half of the island’s residents have had their super-abilities turned off, there might not be any med-evac available to send to Charisma. Kaycee will have to stabilize Charisma’s condition on her own, somehow, maybe reprogramming Largo’s bots into a medic team. If she even has time for doing anything like that. Events are moving fast.
I don’t think we need to worry about if there is med-evac available. Most likely, communication is jammed as well.
Ok, telepaths the Rarrg might be, but to suddenly be able to develop, build, and implement a power-null device on that scale within hours? How much did the people on that space probe KNOW about supers?!? Do humans even have that tech? Or are the Rarrg just that smart, yet stupid enough to not realize that it wasn’t an attack on them after having actual minds to go through?
And would the power-null device affect alien abilities? ‘Cause there are other species on the island, and beings from other dimensions. Presumably the Rarrg ship protects them from their own device if it affects anything that is soft on the laws of physics…
I think you’ll find Dane asking some similar questions very soon!
My guess about ‘power-null device’.
Natural and technological abilities (Gifford, Fatima,norms, anyone with cybernetic implants): unaffected
Magic-like abilities (Anyone with dna+, Lyta, the forns, etc.): Fully disabled
True magic (Shakti,witches, wizards, mystics): Not sure, probably depends on their power.
Thinking of witches and wizards reminds me of the crew on stable duty from the end of Lock(e)down. How are the griffins, unicorns and dragons doing?
Indeed!
Well, if the device nullifies magic, dragons are already dead. Not that anything like nullifying magic should be possible …
I have some ideas on how the Rarg engineered their attack, but what I’m puzzling over is how the whole mess is gonna be resolved! Based on what we have seen, I’m not seeing the path to victory for Team Magellan. Maybe there’s some sideways thinking involved?
My guess is that the Rarrg juiced their captives for intel and stole the corporation’s anti-Magellan countermeasures.
That’s a thought. If Prometheus already had the tech developed, then the Rarg wouldn’t have to create it from just an idea, which would go a long way to explaining how they had it so quickly after the Jovian orbiter incident.
Well, one might say Kaycee’s being rather pessimistic in being prepared for if she was ditched there, but this *is* Charisma we’re talking about. Always best to take precautions. And Kaycee shows even more how she can be compared in a way to Batman: she’s prepared for various eventualities.
Quite right. I don’t think she would expect (or plan for) Billy to ditch her, for example.
So, it seems that the effect of that “VOM”, at least on Charisma, was (is?) to nullify powers. Then once again Kaycee is one of the most important people in the battle. Preparedness and quick thinking does go a long way and cannot easily be countered, this is hard truth and certainly makes for good stories.
But if these patterns keep up through adventures of years 4, 5 and 6 then the Magellan story as a whole may seem a bit repetitive… given your storytelling prowess, I’m inclined to guess Kaycee will have a hard time and the real supers will be the real heroes sooner rather than later (on this grand timescale, i.e. probably in year 4). It will be interesting to see how Kaycee copes with that, given that whatever doubts she has had so far have been squashed by taking front stage in crisis after crisis. If we do get to see that, this is just my predictions – and it is hard to make accurate predictions, especially about the future!
I think I’ve said this comparison before, but here goes. I saw an interview with Jamie Hynamen, of Mythbusters fame, at Maker’s Fair. During the interview, Jamie estimated that the Alemeda County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad must be one of the best trained in the country because of all the types of explosives that they handled and all the different types of things that were exposed to those explosives during the production of the show.
Kaycee’s (surviving) graduating class are going to be one of the best trained and most capable of all recent classes, just because of the number of world-breaking things they managed to solve during their years at the academy.
Yes, I’ve heard Jamie Hynamen say that too… and he is no doubt right. Especially after that exploding cement truck!!
“Jamie want big boom.” – Jamie Hyneman 🙂
lol
That happened before they started working with the Bomb Squad. That was how they got introduced to Frank Doyle, explosives expert formerly with the FBI.
Considering how everyone is occupied by the Rarg attack I don’t see how Kaycee is going to get off Largo Island. Maybe there’s a jetski in one of those pouches?
She can swim. It might not be very fast, but it works.
Anyway, the jet ski probably wouldn’t work, but she might have the inflatable lifeboat with her!
That’s in another pouch…!
So the ‘turning off’ of powers also causes pain? Cos Charisma yelled in pain while still in mid-air.
Or are the Rarg using something different?
I suspect it wouldn’t feel very comfortable!
When you’ve lived your entire life with extra powers permeating your body, augmenting your muscular system, your autonomic functions will probably grow dependent on them, or at the very least used to their presence. Having that extra power suddenly taken away would throw all of those systems into chaos, at least temporarily. Charisma probably had the equivalent of a heart attack as her heart suddenly lost some of the power it used to beat.
As a side note it would be great if Locke Island could nab this technology. Would make keeping superpowered felons way easier.
Assuming it’s possible to control it. It’s possible it has only one setting – meaning, that you can’t control range.
No problem, as long as Locke Island stays out at sea.
Given the pain that seems to accompany the power disruption, I don’t think Locke Island would be keen on using it. They seem to do their best to uphold humane incarceration as much as is possible.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again; Power is nothing compared to skill and know-how.
Suddenly I wonder if super compact climbing rope is a real thing. To my materials engineering mind it seems possible, but not easy, then again fibrous and woven materials are probably my biggest blind spot in the field so I really don’t know. Has anyone seen such a thing? It might just be in the military only cost bracket though.
With how small they got that lifeboat, the super compact climbing cord is almost mundane!
It’s the stretchable, pullable, rowable, squeezable, collapsible, inflatable boat! It can fit in a locket or in your belt pocket. You can blow it up using a 12 volt car socket. You can stretch it up to a sailboat or taller! You can squeeze it into a thimble or smaller! Yes you can, ‘course you can! It’s the stretchable, pullable, rowable, full o’ bull, collapsible, inflatable boat!
*with apologies to Shel Silverstein* 😁
I’m sure I’ve seen an animated cartoon where the character was able to inflate a smaller than hand sized rubber lifeboat into a full sized one. With just a few puffs of the lungs. Just can’t remember – probably Looney Tunes or similar.
The main problem with compact “climbing” rope would be that if it’s thin, you can easily cut with it. I mean, cut off your fingers when climbing.
Looks like the shock of having her powers suppressed caused her to pass out a bit. The floppy stance of her muscles might’ve prevented worse injuries from that fall.