SW10/HCC: Superhuman World 2004: Big Business #2 of 2: Yamashita's Gold

[Scott Eiler]

On 2/8/2013 10:14 PM, Andrew Perron wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 20:10:47 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:
>
>> The Japanese moved a lot of plunder through their Greater East Asia
>> Co-Prosperity Sphere during World War II. And due to naval hostilities
>> at the time, some of it got stuck in the Philippines. The Japanese
>> General Yamashita is supposed to have buried it there, in between
>> dodging the American counter-invaders.
>
> Oooooh. Is this a Real Thing?

Why yes it was!  If the hunt were still active, I'd have put the link in.


>> I'm hunting the gold now. Julie Wolcott knows I can hunt things, because
>> I hunted her once.
>
> Well that's fair enou-- whaaaaaaa?

Really!  It's a 1999 thing.  http://www.eilertech.com/stories/asabove.htm

>> -   Rival militias from America, Japan, and Germany. Each country's
>> nationals in dangerous foreign countries are banding together for mutual
>> aid nowadays.
>
> Right... why's this now?

One of those confrontational foreign policy things which come from 
Ellipsis encouraging secessionism on an international scale.


>>         - There's some technical support for this force; it comes with a
>> command infrastructure which some nations find useful. It also comes
>> with brainwashing techniques, including an implanted receiver which
>> whispers motivational slogans in the soldiers' ears. I've said it
>> before, and I'll say it again: How do they find these people?
>
> Wait wait what. How is this consistent among different countries?

In about the same way that oil barons and their political underlings are 
often suspected of conspiring across international boundaries.


>> -   An earthquake. The Philippines lie on a fault line. Too bad for
>> cultists in caves. And for most of Yamashita's gold by now, too, though
>> the earthquake briefly reveals some gold before it all came tumbling down.
>>
>> I did snag the damsel - and one old document, because I needed some
>> proof I was there. But then I had to escape.
>
> You know, this old format really doesn't work for climactic action scenes.

oh well.  At least it's on the record.



>> -   But then one of our operatives, who looks kind of like the TV-show
>> Diana Prince but older, got captured by two pilots who look like the
>> some preacher friends of mine.
>
> Well I-- huh? Is this a reference? @-@

More a random plot element.  On which note...

I've been reading "The Eternals", the original Marvel series by Jack 
Kirby.  I'd acquired it decades ago without ever reading it.  Now that 
I've written and drawn stories, I can appreciate what hard work it was 
for Jack Kirby to both write and draw the story.  I can see his desire 
to build the story instead of resolving it, and I can see where he just 
threw in plot elements for fun.  The series reads like a letters page... 
  "Until the Deviant Warlord Kro goes on a lecture tour with the 
Eternals, Make Mine Marvel! ... oh, you say he has?"

... Oh, the follies of 1970s comics and all of us who were raised upon 
them.  8{C>


>> -   The American woman is an heiress - of ice cream! It seems she's one
>> Cindy Baskin, from the Baskin-Robbins families.
>>
>>         - As part of my reward, I got to go visit the flagship
>> Baskin-Robbins store and make my own ice cream cakes! And I make it
>> death's-head-shaped. Cool!
>
> That's... adorable. XD Is this a real person who exists?

Not as far as I could tell at the time.  I'd have been a bit more 
reluctant to use her if she did.  But oh well.


-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

When you *are* the leader... whatever goes wrong... whether you did it
or not... *you* are held responsible. - Barack Obama

I know. - Archie Andrews

- from Archie #617, March 2011, scripted by Alex Simmons.