Real-Life Weirdness

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

What a time to be alive.

A man crossed the English Channel today. On a hover board.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49225001

During the flight, the man (with the very player-character-like name Franky Zapata) carried a backpack with 40l+ kerosene. Which burns pretty well.

So - early TL 9 or a superhero - parallel?

Hmph. He didn't make it without stopping - he had to stop halfway to refuel.

Once someone makes it on a hoverboard without refueling so the French Foreign Legion can swarm over the White Cliffs of Dover, then we can consider it a terrifying accomplishment and a prelude to war.

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

What a time to be alive.

A man crossed the English Channel today. On a hover board.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49225001

During the flight, the man (with the very player-character-like name Franky Zapata) carried a backpack with 40l+ kerosene. Which burns pretty well.

So - early TL 9 or a superhero - parallel?

Superhero or supervillain - stick some wings on the side and give him a green Halloween mask, and the whole thing starts to look very familiar... ;)

[Dr. Beckenstein]

He should team up with the Swiss "Jetman" Yves Rossi.
Or start a bitter rivalry. "This air space is to small for two of our kind!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Rossy

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

Or start a bitter rivalry. "This air space is to small for two of our kind!"

"I reckon this atmosphere ain't big enough for both of us!"

"Ah well, guess we'll have ta go into space."

[Dr. Beckenstein]

So, there are tankers out there that carry orange juice. Go figure.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...ANGE_BLOSSOM_2

There is even a specialized shipping line that runs such fruit juice tankers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanship_SA

So, what can we make out of this?

Say, what if one of this tankers encounters a pirate crew who thought that they were hitting a worthy target?
Since the shipping line is based in Switzerland, of course the Gnomes of Zurich are involved. Maybe the orange juice is spiked with mind-blocking (or mind-enhancing?) drugs, and another conspiracy fed the pirates with wrong intel?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

So, there are tankers out there that carry orange juice. Go figure.

It's going to be much easier to load and unload than a similar weight of fresh oranges*. There are also wine tankers, and molasses tankers.

*"Mind the oranges, Marlon!"

[Flyndaran]

I never would have thought of such extreme specialization. But it makes sense to minimize issues of cross contamination.
Oh my. Slang for a refrigerated tanker is a reefer ship. I feel that could lead to some really confused pirates.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Slang for a refrigerated tanker is a reefer ship. I feel that could lead to some really confused pirates.

No, captain dude. It's not, like, a shipload of reefers. (Cool as that would be. Huh, huh.) It's, like, just one reefer, one big floating one. We can't just let those Atlanship suits bogart the thing.

(Thus begins the inspiration for the entire ganjapunk genre.)

[Flyndaran]

I think a pay channel could easily turn that into a comedy series as a kind of modern take on McHale's Navy... McHale's pirates?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

"I reckon this atmosphere ain't big enough for both of us!"

"Ah well, guess we'll have ta go into space."

A new contender appears!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAJM5L9hhBs&t=22s

(Yeah, I know. Probably a re-post, but it fits so well!)