Comic for Wednesday, Jan 3, 2024

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

Heh, Hope learning how to fit in human society looks like it will be fun. It's interesting that she's even trying. Does she intend to reveal herself to those she remembers, or is she intending to just become their friends? Seems unsatisfying if the latter; I've been looking forward to the reunions.

Justin's being remarkably polite here; most clerks aren't so circumspect about checking for counterfeits. 

[AFNB 40]

Oh dear god, Hope = adorable!

[Darth Fluffy 338]

Whatever the source, bills that are too new will arouse suspicion, especially if they all are. A reasonable back story would be, "I'm traveling (also, that's why I'm a bit weird) and that's what the bank handed me." Which is one possible explanation, maybe she legitimately had access to items she buried many years ago.

So, source of the funds; Justin says, "Not counterfeit!" in his head; I take that as canon because it seems to be intended to be canon. Well, we have the possible, 'assets buried long ago', literally created on the spot - but she'd need to have copied real ones to have the anti-counterfeit features; transported real ones to herself - effectively stolen; sent real ones back in time to herself - which is not technically stealing, it would be more akin to counterfeiting, but they'd be real; duplicated herself a thousand times and flipped burgers for a couple of weeks (but she'd probably know about change, then - and does she need to eat?) . . . They all seem far fetched.

30 minutes ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Justin's being remarkably polite here; most clerks aren't so circumspect about checking for counterfeits. 

Justin is slick in how he checked, not making it obvious what he is doing. OTOH, it's probably not necessary. I've had bills checked at places that check routinely, did not find it offensive. I think black light checking is more effective. I can see a comic store not investing in one, even though they are not expensive. It has too many entertaining applications, in a store that caters to the nerdy crowd.

The 'change' panel - Hope is naive about muggles, big surprise; not knowing that she'd get money back seems a bit much. But why is she so hyper-focused on being recognized as having changed? It seems to be motivated by some fear; she currently has limited power, she's used to much more as Pandora, so this might be a strong reaction to the loss, since hers is more severe than most immortals experience. Or perhaps she knows she has enemies - none explicitly shown, yet, but she had previously made a name for herself. Magus is perhaps likely to be a hostile human. Voltaire is generally antagonistic.

31 minutes ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Heh, Hope learning how to fit in human society looks like it will be fun. It's interesting that she's even trying. Does she intend to reveal herself to those she remembers, or is she intending to just become their friends? Seems unsatisfying if the latter; I've been looking forward to the reunions.

Is this a long term thing, like Pandora's years adventuring with her mate? Motivated by wanting to bond with her family? Part of the new immortal rules?

14 minutes ago, AFNB said:

Oh dear god, Hope = adorable!

Absolutely! From what we've seen of other immortal reboots, it seems like she should be functioning as a young adult, yet she seems to be much more childlike. I wonder if some aggregation of the human case is going to be parents to her; maybe her own son will be involved.

It's been said in the comic that 'immortals have a difficult time understanding human morality'. I wonder if she is being set up to have deeper insights into human morality.

[ijuin 594]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Absolutely! From what we've seen of other immortal reboots, it seems like she should be functioning as a young adult, yet she seems to be much more childlike.

She introduced some nonstandard elements into her regeneration by trying to keep extra memories, so she may be a bit scatterbrained, as Helena and Demetrius were initially. Remember, we first saw them more than a year after their improper reset, while Hope has had only three months to recover.

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

19 minutes ago, ijuin said:

She introduced some nonstandard elements into her regeneration by trying to keep extra memories, so she may be a bit scatterbrained, as Helena and Demetrius were initially. Remember, we first saw them more than a year after their improper reset, while Hope has had only three months to recover.

Is "scatterbrained" really the right word? I'd say she has to relearn how to live among ordinary humans. "Unschooled", perhaps?

[Darth Fluffy 338]

2 minutes ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Is "scatterbrained" really the right word? I'd say she has to relearn how to live among ordinary humans. "Unschooled", perhaps?

She actually is unschooled in human ways. What's weird is that it matters.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

 

The currency she uses is good enough to pass inspection by a kid working retail.  But still I wonder . . . .

Perhaps world economics are run by inhuman forces that are unconcerned with human law, ethics or morality.

 

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

The currency she uses is good enough to pass inspection by a kid working retail.  But still I wonder . . . .

Pandora could have left her a bank account and a cash machine card. The bills those dispense are usually pretty new.

[ijuin 594]

Again, Pandora had numerous methods of acquiring wealth without engaging in fraud, including selling precious materials (as our invading Uruyom group has), or playing the stock market. I don’t doubt that she kept at least one alias for the purpose of having a legal identity that could own property and engage in legally-binding contracts.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

22 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Pandora could have left her a bank account and a cash machine card. The bills those dispense are usually pretty new.

True. Banks get new bills, banks stock the machines, new bills are likely more reliable in a dispensing machine; although, they also seem to have a tendency to stick together until they are a little used.

In a possibly related note, about the only place I've seen dollar coins is some municipal transit ticket machines use them for change. People look at you funny when you try to spend them, "What's this?" Also $2 bills.

[ChronosCat 158]

On 1/3/2024 at 9:44 AM, Darth Fluffy said:

So, source of the funds; Justin says, "Not counterfeit!" in his head; I take that as canon because it seems to be intended to be canon. Well, we have the possible, 'assets buried long ago', literally created on the spot - but she'd need to have copied real ones to have the anti-counterfeit features; transported real ones to herself - effectively stolen; sent real ones back in time to herself - which is not technically stealing, it would be more akin to counterfeiting, but they'd be real; duplicated herself a thousand times and flipped burgers for a couple of weeks (but she'd probably know about change, then - and does she need to eat?) . . . They all seem far fetched.

Remember, travel back in time is not possible in EGS (except traveling to another world whose "present" is an earlier year than your own).

On 1/3/2024 at 9:44 AM, Darth Fluffy said:

Justin is slick in how he checked, not making it obvious what he is doing. OTOH, it's probably not necessary. I've had bills checked at places that check routinely, did not find it offensive. I think black light checking is more effective. I can see a comic store not investing in one, even though they are not expensive. It has too many entertaining applications, in a store that caters to the nerdy crowd.

Whenever I use a $100 bill at a store, the cashier runs a marker over it. While still obvious enough if you're paying attention, I'd say it's a bit more discrete (and probably convenient) than holding the bill up to a light like Justin did.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

 

 

For all the high tech anti counterfeiting features US currency currently is known to possess, the red and blue fibers in the paper is still one of the more difficult to copy 

But if Hope made a magical copy of the stack of Twenty Dollar Bills in the bank teller's drawer across town, wouldn't they be likely to pass any ordinary inspection while still being counterfeit?

[Darth Fluffy 338]

I think the notion that Pandora foresaw the need and created a source of wealth for her future self is the most viable theory that's been voiced. Pandora claimed to be near omniscient, and had some interaction with treasure through treasure hunting.

[mlooney 3,594]

My bet is she did the same thing as the invaders did. Gold.  Now if she can make gold, that would be a good income stream.

[ijuin 594]

The good thing about gold is that it is untraceable. The drawback is that most aboveboard businesses will only accept so much without verifying your ID, so you have to spread it out across businesses in multiple cities.

[mlooney 3,594]

20 hours ago, ijuin said:

The good thing about gold is that it is untraceable. The drawback is that most aboveboard businesses will only accept so much without verifying your ID, so you have to spread it out across businesses in multiple cities.

Or find a gold buyer that has less than perfect morals.  There was one in Tulsa that didn't need ID.  Of course they bough gold at the lowest of all the buyers in town, by about 5%

[Don Edwards 561]

57 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Or find a gold buyer that has less than perfect morals.  There was one in Tulsa that didn't need ID.  Of course they bough gold at the lowest of all the buyers in town, by about 5%

The price of anonymity.