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Post by dans on Sept 1, 2022 17:07:22 GMT
Why did the Englishman, Pendleton, one of 4 Plantation owners on a Polynesian island shortly before WWII, send two of the islanders to the US to sabotage the construction of Mt. Rushmore? I have some thoughts, but I could use help filling in the details, from someone with historical knowledge.
Pendleton is getting rich from selling plants that only grow on his island to a drug cartel that operates in Southeast Asia. The plants can be refined into a drug which is more potent and addictive than opium, but it is hard to grow and won't grow anywhere else. The vision of being rich has tempted Pendleton to betray and even kill his partners in the plantation, and he has managed to enslave the population of the island to grow these plants for him.
I think he has been relatively poor and unimportant his whole life, and he sees a chance to become rich and powerful. And he has always been nursing a drug since he was younger and finally he sees a chance to get a little revenge, so he does so. But the revenge is mostly unrelated to his get-rich scheme, except that the riches he has so far accumulated, and the power he has seized, have finally given him the ability to seek his revenge.
So how does Mt Rushmore relate? Pendleton's direct ancestors lived in the Colonies, and some time in the Revolutionary War period, a great-to-the-x grandfather was humiliated by George Washington. Perhaps he was drummed out of the Colonial Army for desertion or cowardice or even treason? A few years later, the family of that grandfather is further humiliated by Thomas Jefferson. But somehow the family regains enough power to own a plantation in the South... and the Civil War destroys their livelihood again, and they blame Lincoln. They escape to Cuba, and make their home their, and somehow Teddy Roosevelt and the Roughriders wreck their livelihood, and they have to move back to England and move in with the branch of the family that remained there. And the family lets them live on the estate, but they are looked down on, scorned, and treated poorly.
Any more details I could add to that, or anything that doesn't make sense?
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Post by johnreiter902 on Sept 2, 2022 0:59:08 GMT
It holds together to me, at least for a golden age plot.
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Post by dans on Sept 2, 2022 1:55:07 GMT
Yeah, wondering what happened in Cuba, and maybe why the family was disgraced by Jefferson? Probably more detail than I will tell in the story, but I want to at least give hints....
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Post by dans on Sept 13, 2022 0:41:23 GMT
Any thoughts about this scenario? It's October, 1942. There is a passenger line that carries passengers from one end of the Great Lakes to the other - from Duluth Minnesota to the St. Lawrence Seaway. One of their passenger ships has just been sabotaged by an Axis agent. The ship was disabled rather than sunk, and the saboteur remained onboard after his act of sabotage rather than trying to escape. Saboteur has super freezing powers, so presumable could have created an ice bridge and escaped from the ship over the ice. In any case, the saboteur did not try to escape.
The ship also carries cargo along with passengers.
Why was the ship sabotaged? Why did the saboteur remain on the ship? If the ship is carrying something important and time sensitive, why is it being sent by a passenger ship instead of in a military airplane?
I think I have a plausible story... but I'd definitely interested in any thoughts or suggestions! Thanks!
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Post by reichsmark on Sept 13, 2022 1:20:16 GMT
Is the axis agent foreign or an American sleeper agent or collaborator? If he's American he maybe has no reason to flee as he believes he wouldn't be suspected. Additionally, he might be coerced and someone he loves is being held hostage or in peril if he doesn't act. Or he either fell in love with an American and is attempting to talk her into leaving with him. One other possibility, its a suicide mission and he is to make sure the second part of the plan proceeds.
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Post by dans on Sept 13, 2022 1:41:22 GMT
good thoughts - thanks!
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Post by dave on Sept 13, 2022 2:00:25 GMT
If you make it October1951 he could also an escaped German POW fleeing Canada to the neutral USA.
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Post by dans on Oct 2, 2022 13:14:41 GMT
For some history buffs!
In the US in 1940 - what kind of stuff was black market? If someone was smuggling stuff INTO the US, what would they smuggle? If one were smuggling OUT of the US, what kind of stuff? Would the same group smuggle both ways? (So, could I have the US drop off point (for incoming stuff) and the pickup point (for outgoing stuff) be the same location? Would smuggled goods of necessity be stolen at the source and shipped to the destination, or would there have been import bans on some items and export bans on other items in the US that the smugglers are defying?
Thanks!
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Post by dans on Oct 2, 2022 15:59:14 GMT
Here's another one - what is a good reason why all the big hotels in San Francisco are booked during a weekend in December 1940? I can't find any national organizations actually holding events at that time, but which ones might have?
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Post by johnreiter902 on Oct 3, 2022 23:49:09 GMT
It could be nearly any convention. Maybe the National Farmers Association, just for a start?
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Post by redsycorax on Oct 4, 2022 1:27:14 GMT
According to this handy guide to US black market staples during World War Two, the United States imposed rationing on food supplies, shoes (particularly shoe leather, which was probably needed for the armed forces), metal and rubber (likewise) and paper (for the logistics details and records, I suppose). The Office of Price Administration was in charge of setting ration prices and allocations, but it relied on volunteers for enforcing such regulations. By the end of the war, there were about 5600 local rationing boards and 100,000 volunteers in the field. Doctors, nurses, police and firefighters were exempt from tire rubber rationing, but the rest of the US public needed to patch up their existing tires until peacetime arrived. Petrol was rationed from May 1942 until the end of the war. At the same time, sugar was rationed. In March 1943, rationing was extended to meats, fats, cheese, canned fish and milks. Victory gardens, meatless days at restaurants and meatless recipes were commonplace. Macaroni and cheese became popular food staples during that period. Source: www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/rationingMeat was a particularly coveted black market item, although adulteration and contamination of bootleg supplies could provide payback for those who sought it out. As a consequence, cattle rustling enjoyed an upsurge in farm states, as did unregulated clandestine meatworks (which is probably where the contamination set in). Rubber was in short supply due to Japanese occupation of Indonesia and Malaysia, where most of it came from. In the case of petrol, there were problems with unscrupulous petrol station owners on the take and counterfeit ration books which enabled people to gain more than their fair share of fuel. Source: iu.pressbooks.pub/perspectives2/chapter/black-markets-during-world-war-ii/
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Post by dave on Oct 4, 2022 16:46:23 GMT
Those shortages are in 1941. In 1940 the shortages are mpre likely product from China like silk and especially products from Europe.
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Post by dans on Oct 4, 2022 17:37:14 GMT
I think the bad guy will be importing opium and exporting munitions
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Post by redsycorax on Oct 5, 2022 2:05:52 GMT
While dave is correct that the Japanese occupation of Indonesia and Malaysia began in 1941, the Netherlands, Indonesia's colonial power, was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1940 onward and Britain, Malaysia's colonial overlord, was under Nazi bombardment and encirclement within Europe. As a consequence, there may have been administrative and logistical turmoil in Indonesia and Malaysia, as a consequence. There may also have been some Japanese covert operations beforehand in territories adjacent to areas of China occupied by Imperial Japan as well as the question of Japanese-backed piracy and sabotage in Malaysia and Indonesia. There would certainly have been increasing supply chain disruption in 1940, even before the outbreak of war between the Allies and Imperial Japan.
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Post by dans on Jan 18, 2023 14:18:25 GMT
As Gravity Girl, teenage Lana Lang wore an ancient alien belt that her father had discovered during a dig, and that belt granted her some powers: Ability to fly, move at superior (not super) speed, super strength, ability to lessen the effects of gravity on objects she is touching (or very close to) and the ability to instantly generate an intense magnetic pulse capable of repelling metallic objects that strike her.
In my Gravity Girl Imaginary Story, she also has limited Chameleon capabilities (a biological holographic image inducer which is essentially grafted into one of her ears and which can change her face and head only - and only instantly into a single image, it takes perhaps a minute of concentration to change from one image to another and she has to have a good visualization of the final image) and her costume is a puncture-proof fabric from the 30th century that also protects her from extremes of heat and cold and will protect her body (but not her head) from the vacuum of space.
She can be struck by objects that are non-metallic and while they won't puncture her costume the blunt force could injure or kill her. Her human reaction speed has not been increased, so even if her belt allowed her super speed she couldn't react in time to make us of it.
The Legion has 2 gravity manipulating heroes, Star Boy and Light Lass, and one who can manipulate magnetism, Cosmic Boy. They never seemed to spend much time or effort figuring out how to extend their powers, but in this particular story, no doubt Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl have figured out some useful variations just in case their teammates ever ask, and they have probably included these ideas in the 'Study Guide' they have prepared for Lana.
So I wonder if you guys can suggest some variant uses for gravity control and/or magnetic control? In particular, is there a way Gravity Girl can use her powers to protect her from non-magnetic impacts and explosions? Also, more subtle uses, that might allow her to make up for not having super senses?
Some examples: by releasing controlled magnetic pulses she might be able to identify the metallic composition of objects nearby; she might be able to sense nearby living creatures by the presence of the weak but complex magnetic fields that surround living beings; she might be able to produce 'tractor beams' and 'repulsor rays'.
I would prefer gravity-related powers to magnetism-related powers and I don't want to make her uber powerful.
Thanks for your thoughts!
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