I have spent entirely too much time working out the economy of a system where ray guns can be purchased from vending machines--vending machines stocked by the corporate overlords but located in the zones not under their control.
Current theory: BL stocks them out there so that miscreants out in the zones will buy them and kill each other with them.
No idea why they don't worry about said miscreants banding together and coming after them with said ray guns.
(I am not good with surreality. Or rather, I enjoy it just fine but in narrative fiction I will still always look for a coherent worldbuild and attempt to reconcile everything, even if there is no actual way it can be reconciled.)
The direction my mind takes with that is "The guns are rigged to be faulty, so the 'troublemakers' will get themselves killed using them". Apparently my mind goes in evil directions?
ETA: The follow-on to that being that the Killjoys are fixing them up so they can be used. Or Tommy Chow Mein, who seems to be the friendly local arms dealer.
Although, it is a pretty elaborate "trap", given the Killjoys are having to hack the machine to get anything out of them.
...dammit, now I'm going to be wondering about this all morning.
The Killjoys are hacking the machine to not pay money for them? I'm pretty sure if they ponied up the cash it would work just fine. But that would require buying into BL's economy rather than than the more probable barter system of the zones. I suspect drugs are the only thing that goes for money, not trade, out there (drugs, gimme drugs, gimme drugs, I don't need it but I'll sell what you got take the cash and I'll keep it).
For some reason, I didn't even think of money! I was thinking the machines were set up to work by some kind of ID - but of course, by that point in time all "Money" will probably be electronic.
But - re: Money - on the Listening Party, Dr Death Defying talks about "Raising carbons for Gravel Gertie's Orphanage". And on Twitter, Tommy Chow Mein talks about "blow your savings" - so I'm assuming there is some form of currency in use.
But I agree with you on bartering, suspect there's a lot of both bartering goods and services going on out there.
Hah, I am clearly coming to this way late. I am still going through all the assorted media streams--how I wish there were marginally less solar flare on the listening party. (Has anyone done a listing of what all the source footage was? I have this ridiculous idea about vidding... well, never mind.) So what are all the twitter feeds I should be checking out? I only stumbled on Dr. Death Defying's last night.
Yeah - I don't even watch the Listenng Party except when Dr D is on screen. I did pull it down as an MP3 though, makes an interesting bus listen.
I haven't seen anything about the source footage, I know some of it is stuff people uploaded to the site when they were asking people to make their own Zones videos.
List here collects up most of the in-'verse slang seen so far, and has all the known "official" Twitters.
See, I feel like I should be recognizing a lot of it--there's some protest march footage, and satellite/rocket footage, and I'm like 95% certain that they're using stock nuclear explosions.
Ohh! Sorry - I thought you meant the fan-made stuff. Yeah - it is all stuff that looks very familar, but it's so distorted. Now I'm curious if anyone has rounded up/identified sources...
Seriously, I think it's "so instead of us expending our resources to kill them, how about we profit off of them expending their resources to kill each other?" Probably a combination of sociological analysis and technological sabotage to make sure the various groups in the zones would team up big time against BL.
I figure the vending machines to be resupply for BL/ind patrols in the outer zones, figuring the zone to be uninhabitable (for who would live outside the comfort and ease of the city, where everything is made safe?) and patrols too far out to resupply easily any other way. I also figured the killjoys patched in to steal the contents of the vending machine because they didn't have an ID badge to scan in to get what they wanted. I doubt a controlled society would have access to actual money to spend as they wished; it seems more likely that your ID badge would give you access to certain things, and keep other things outside your reach. No laser guns for the salvage crews, but for the dracs, lasers for them all!
I haven't read any Killjoy fic, since I really don't want preconceived ideas beyond what is presented in the Danger Days vids. I want to see what G.Way is going to do with the graphic novel before I go fan-based. I know the killjoys in the comic are different than the Danger Days killjoys. Or so he's said. But the Danger Days vids are so fascinating in that 80's post-apocalyptic, early cyberpunk, way - I feel like a kid in a color-enhanced flashback candy store.
Is there actually going to be a graphic novel? I googled and only came up with stuff from last year before the album was announced and then people going "so... is the album it? not comics?"
I think so. I wondered the same thing, and have been picking up little pieces. I can't find the interview with one of the other people involved with the comic, who talked about working on it. But in one of the interviews given in Europe for the tour, Gerard Way talked about the comic as if it was an upcoming thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CiEd_No5CY.
Is there any decent fanfic out there in case the comic never sees the light of day?
I wouldn't recommend wading in blind, the fanfic was a lot more rapetastic than I was expecting (seriously wouldn't Prozac Inc just drug you into submission, not torture you and break you down with rape?) but I delicioused like, three stories that met my exacting standards *self-mock*
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Did you draw any conclusions? Because I'm still scratching my head.
(Unless the logic is that even Draculoids enjoy Show Pony posing. I could understand that one.)
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No idea why they don't worry about said miscreants banding together and coming after them with said ray guns.
(I am not good with surreality. Or rather, I enjoy it just fine but in narrative fiction I will still always look for a coherent worldbuild and attempt to reconcile everything, even if there is no actual way it can be reconciled.)
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ETA: The follow-on to that being that the Killjoys are fixing them up so they can be used. Or Tommy Chow Mein, who seems to be the friendly local arms dealer.
Although, it is a pretty elaborate "trap", given the Killjoys are having to hack the machine to get anything out of them.
...dammit, now I'm going to be wondering about this all morning.
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But - re: Money - on the Listening Party, Dr Death Defying talks about "Raising carbons for Gravel Gertie's Orphanage". And on Twitter, Tommy Chow Mein talks about "blow your savings" - so I'm assuming there is some form of currency in use.
But I agree with you on bartering, suspect there's a lot of both bartering goods and services going on out there.
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I haven't seen anything about the source footage, I know some of it is stuff people uploaded to the site when they were asking people to make their own Zones videos.
List here collects up most of the in-'verse slang seen so far, and has all the known "official" Twitters.
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*thinks* Even if it's just so that troublesome people get rid of themselves.
But then there is the problem of the Killjoys and others like him who use the weapons against BL.
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I haven't read any Killjoy fic, since I really don't want preconceived ideas beyond what is presented in the Danger Days vids. I want to see what G.Way is going to do with the graphic novel before I go fan-based. I know the killjoys in the comic are different than the Danger Days killjoys. Or so he's said. But the Danger Days vids are so fascinating in that 80's post-apocalyptic, early cyberpunk, way - I feel like a kid in a color-enhanced flashback candy store.
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Is there any decent fanfic out there in case the comic never sees the light of day?
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