Real-Life Weirdness

[Daigoro]

Illuminati cell revealed amongst Qantas ground crew.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/qa...d-748c3972ac7d
Qantas weighs in after symbols on engine covers stir up conspiracy theorists

(Or they're fans of the SJ card game.)

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Anders

Zombie cicadas return to West Virginia.

West Virginia, almost Heaven
Take me home, zombie fungus...

Well, now we have the new monsters for the next Fallout 76 expansion - maybe giant radioactive zombie cicadas would explain why the Brotherhood of Steel, due to arrive in the Savage Divide next month, was obliterated so thoroughly that the next expedition, over 150 years later, would go to the DC Wasteland and never even mention Appalachia... :)

[Anaraxes]

"We do not discuss it with outsiders."

[L.J.Steele]

Plot Hook: Boston-area man has mysterious locked safe, free to anyone who can remove it, including unknown contents.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/...s-anyone-else/

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

Plot Hook: Boston-area man has mysterious locked safe, free to anyone who can remove it, including unknown contents.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/...s-anyone-else/

I suspect he'd object to any of the man-portable ways of cutting it up. A thermic lance would do the job, but would ruin his interiors (and possibly set fire to the building).

[ravenfish]

My first thought was just to wheel the safe to the top of the stairs, give it a push, and let it tumble to the bottom. I am sure this is a bad idea (my second thought was of a safe-sized hole in the wall of the stairwell at the end of the first flight, or in the floor of the landing), but it feels remiss of the author not to explain why the simplest solution had been rejected.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I am sure this is a bad idea (my second thought was of a safe-sized hole in the wall of the stairwell at the end of the first flight, or in the floor of the landing) . . .

If the staircase is built of wood, it's liable to be badly damaged by the safe tumbling down it.

[William]

Mutineers and pirates and feudal Japan, oh my!

A cargo of Australian convicts hijacks a ship and forces crewmembers to sail them to Asia, with stops in Hong Kong, Macau, and -- despite it being closed to all outsiders -- Japan!

The article has a detailed narrative of the encounter between the Japanese -- ready to do their duty and kill the barbarians -- and the motley crew, whose circumstances and manner excited alternating sympathy and disgust.

And hey, if the colorful foreigners had managed to garner just a little bit more sympathy, you might have a bunch of British ex-cons given permission to stay in Japan, perhaps first as objects of curiosity and later with some marks of respect, and if it's a really romantic adventure, getting a title or marrying in to wealth and having descendants. Like Pitcairn Islanders but with katanas...

[L.J.Steele]

I could have sworn Lex Luthor's lair was bigger than this...suppose one has to start somewhere.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/us/gr...rnd/index.html

At least one story mentioned that supervisors have a poor idea about the layout of Grand Central's lower levels and were going to try to map it all. That sounds like a PC's job.

[thorr-kan]

Russian scientist claims team battled creature under Antarctic ice
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-s...150502226.html

"A defecting Russian scientist has surfaced with a mind-bending account of what REALLY occurred when he and his colleagues went missing for five days in a mysterious lake 12,366 feet beneath the Antarctic ice.

Dr. Anton Padalka told authorities in Switzerland that the researchers discovered a bizarre and deadly life form dubbed Organism 46-B – a highly intelligent octopus-like creature that claimed the lives of three of the team members."

It's a 7 minute video. The computer narration is exceedingly disturbing.

And no, I don't really think this happened. But it's gameable.