NP, Friday July 29, 2016

[hkmaly 490]

23 hours ago, ijuin said:

Since they can not tell whether or not she has obtained a given piece of information (short of interrogating her near-constantly with some reliable lie-detection method), they are forced to assume that she might know the contents of ANY document that she comes within range of. That puts them in the dilemma of either exercising prior restraint (i.e. keeping her FAR AWAY from anything that they want to keep her from reading), or else watching to be sure that she is not in communication with any enemies that she might pass sensitive information to. The only alternative to this is to gain her loyalty to their own side sufficiently that they will be able to trust her.

1) They don't know she HAS that ability (yet).

2) Note that while option B (make sure she doesn't communicate with enemies) can be done in way Sarah hardly notices, option A (keeping her far away) can complicate option C (gaining her loyalty).

3) The last person with that ability was "strong-armed" into government work. It was likely agent Cranium and I seriously hope the "strong-arming" didn't involved agent Wolf getting order to seduce her (although ... I don't see how he would be able to do that without spilling it was order.)

Meaning, when DGB learns about this, they likely choose the same option: get some control over her and hopefully loyalty by employing her.

21 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Grrl Power has a similar (not identical) problem in that Sydney can use her TrueSight orb to bypass illusions - so they are taking the approach of introducing her to what's behind the illusions under controlled circumstances.

Far from identical, but yes there is similar angle here: they wouldn't be able to prevent her from finding what is hidden by illusions, so they are showing her everything she might reveal and explaining that it's ok and she shouldn't panic over that. Or having nerdgasms.

Or course, there is also that bit that they basically employed her the moment they found about her because she was too powerful to let her walk around freely, despite her not really fitting into military.

(Another difference is that I suspect DGB is not getting paychecks with so many digits.)

[ijuin 572]

Yeah, given the size of the Verres house and the fact that Tedd does not have a car despite having a license--nor even had a cell phone until after "Sister"--implies that Edward's income is not spectacularly high--he probably gets paid the going rate for a FBI sub-department head. Edward is Lawful Good to a sufficient degree that saving the world from people like not-Tengu is in itself part of the motivation for his loyalty.

[Scotty 1,061]

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Yeah, given the size of the Verres house and the fact that Tedd does not have a car despite having a license--nor even had a cell phone until after "Sister"--implies that Edward's income is not spectacularly high--he probably gets paid the going rate for a FBI sub-department head. Edward is Lawful Good to a sufficient degree that saving the world from people like not-Tengu is in itself part of the motivation for his loyalty.

He has to get enough to be able to get materials and stuff for Tedd's experiments, how much do you think 10 TFG's worth of stuff  would have cost? Plus he was able to redecorate the basement during his 2 week suspension, sure Swedekea furniture wouldn't be all that expensive but still. Tedd's allowance also seems like it's decent if he's able to blow it on gaming peripherals and stuff. Grace moving in didn't seem to put a dent in things, though now she's got a job so she's able to buy things she needs herself and help out if need be.

If Grrl Power is any indication, government jobs that involve defending the country and having top secret knowledge pays very well.

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

If Grrl Power is any indication, government jobs that involve defending the country and having top secret knowledge pays very well.

*Snort*  No, Grrl Power is not any indication. Your security clearance has no effect on your pay.    Syd is an E-1 under 1 year in service.  Assuming reality, her base pay, based on that is $1,566.93 a month, which is sort of depressing, given that is what I make, more or less, for disability.  Edward, on the other hand, based on job title is a GS-15 Step 10.  Because the government pay is also based on where you live, we are going to assume Naperville is where he works.   His take home is $13,358.33 before taxes.  Plus possible bonuses of up to $20,000 per year.  If that "Director" title he got when he was kicked up stairs actually means Director or Deputy Director (which is more likely) in FBI terms, then he is SES and  his lowest rate of pay is $16,030.00 or what ever congress decides to pay him, being off the GS chart.

All these are monthly pay scales, BTW.

[Scotty 1,061]

8 hours ago, mlooney said:

*Snort*  No, Grrl Power is not any indication. Your security clearance has no effect on your pay.    Syd is an E-1 under 1 year in service.  Assuming reality, her base pay, based on that is $1,566.93 a month, which is sort of depressing, given that is what I make, more or less, for disability.  Edward, on the other hand, based on job title is a GS-15 Step 10.  Because the government pay is also based on where you live, we are going to assume Naperville is where he works.   His take home is $13,358.33 before taxes.  Plus possible bonuses of up to $20,000 per year.  If that "Director" title he got when he was kicked up stairs actually means Director or Deputy Director (which is more likely) in FBI terms, then he is SES and  his lowest rate of pay is $16,030.00 or what ever congress decides to pay him, being off the GS chart.

All these are monthly pay scales, BTW.

I meant in the EGS Universe where FBI agents are equipped with wands and magic spells and deal with aliens. To use Grrl Power again, Sydney and the other supers apparently get paid bi-weekly and Sydney's first paycheck which was her first 2 weeks in advanced was more than than she made the previous year running her comic shop. I could only guess that the comic shop probably brought in maybe $10k-25k a year (probably at least $20k now that she's famous). So, If Edward is making $16,030.00 a month, Sydney's likely making that bi-weekly.

[ijuin 572]

Don't forget that Sydney is also probably getting the various hazard and combat deployment additions to her paycheck, given that she is already expected to participate in potentially lethal combat.

[mlooney 3,417]

27 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Don't forget that Sydney is also probably getting the various hazard and combat deployment additions to her paycheck, given that she is already expected to participate in potentially lethal combat.

Hazard and combat pay is not that much.  "Hostile Fire and Imminent Danger Pay" is $225 a month

[hkmaly 490]

13 hours ago, mlooney said:

*Snort*  No, Grrl Power is not any indication. Your security clearance has no effect on your pay.    Syd is an E-1 under 1 year in service.

Sydney is also one of most powerful and versatile supers they have. You need to understand how rare and valuable her abilities are. Also read the comment. She is NOT overpaid.

13 hours ago, mlooney said:

Assuming reality, her base pay, based on that is $1,566.93 a month, which is sort of depressing, given that is what I make, more or less, for disability.  Edward, on the other hand, based on job title is a GS-15 Step 10.  Because the government pay is also based on where you live, we are going to assume Naperville is where he works.   His take home is $13,358.33 before taxes.  Plus possible bonuses of up to $20,000 per year.  If that "Director" title he got when he was kicked up stairs actually means Director or Deputy Director (which is more likely) in FBI terms, then he is SES and  his lowest rate of pay is $16,030.00 or what ever congress decides to pay him, being off the GS chart.

"Reality" is hard to assume even in EGS, not speaking about Grrl Power. On the other hand, the pay in EGS will be less than in Grrl Power, because:

1) Edward is not nearly as powerful or versatile as Sydney.

2) His civilian options of earning money are severely limited by need to keep magic hidden.

3) Dan is working hard on building excuses why magic and uryuoms didn't actually changed how the world look for most people. DaveB meanwhile likes to think very deeply about what would superpowers do to a world and mostly wants to write about THAT. Basically, EGS is different kind of story.