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

[Andrew Perron]

On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 06:54:51 +0000 (UTC), Scott Eiler wrote:

> 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.

Wow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamashita%27s_gold The eventual story of
what happened to it (with the lawsuit) is even more amazing.

>>> 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

I see. @-@ Your web of sub-references is deep indeed.

>>> -   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.

Ahhhhhhh, gotcha. Makes sense.

>>>         - 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.

Yeah, but there's a difference when it's the defense of your own country at
stake. I think a fair amount of extra attention would accrue, to say the
least.

>>> -   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 seeeeeee. Well, no, I still don't.

> 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>

Mmmmmmm. <3 Yes delicious, deep good times. <3 <3 <3

>>> -   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.

Fair enough!

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, careful as you can.