Falling 2016-11-15

[Dave]

Which one is putting out more sheer power?

I don't know, but it looks like somewhere in the megatons/second range.

I think you underestimate the damage caused by even one megaton.

A one-megaton explosion delivers around 4.1 petajoules - that's 4.1 billion megajoules. For comparison, the kinetic energy of a car travelling at 60 MPH is somewhere around half a megajoule.

If Bud's plasma-shout-of-anger had been at a rate of about a megaton/second, it would have generated a very large mushroom cloud. It would have been a lot bigger than the Mapimi explosion itself (which was a fairly low-order nuclear event, as such things go) and the military staff near the Mapimi event (and the Nu Gui) would certainly have noticed it.

Similarly, Castela's rage seems to be enough to melt a lot of materials in her area (although the Library seems to be containing the effect quite well) but can't possibly be near to a megaton. Even a one-kiloton-equivalent energy discharge would have created a fireball large enough to blow her backwards arse-over-teakettle quite a ways, anchor-roots or no anchor-roots.

I'd estimate Castela's beams-and-flames as being somewhere in the megawatt (or gigawatt) range, not megatons/second. Maybe on the order of a ton/second (based on her ability to zot a boulder into nothingness) but not, I think, higher than that.

Yet.

[GlytchMeister]

Yeah... Megaton/second is what happens when you put an indestructible self-powered limitless hair dryer into an indestructible box and turn it to 18.7 Terawatts.

A trail of firestorms—massive conflagrations which sustain themselves by creating their own wind systems—winds its way across the landscape.

[Catawampus]

Bud's feet are bigger.

Are they?

[GlytchMeister]

Bud's feet are bigger.

Are they?

Probably. Bud is, morphologically, a late-teen/young-adult. Castela is, morphologically, a pre-teen or so. So there is a high likelihood for Bud's feet to be larger. it is possible they are equal or Castela's feet are larger, but not probable.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Actually, i'm pretty sure Castela's feet are bigger {or at least have more area} - a la the boots thing. They're shaped less like human feet and more like elephant feet.

[GlytchMeister]

Actually, i'm pretty sure Castela's feet are bigger {or at least have more area} - a la the boots thing. They're shaped less like human feet and more like elephant feet.

I always figured that was just her ankles being thick. We can knock this back and forth, but without precise data, we won't be able to do any real math to sort it out.

[Catawampus]

Actually, i'm pretty sure Castela's feet are bigger {or at least have more area} - a la the boots thing. They're shaped less like human feet and more like elephant feet.

I always figured that was just her ankles being thick. We can knock this back and forth, but without precise data, we won't be able to do any real math to sort it out.

Quickly, call up Cricket and get more info from her!

[TazManiac]

There is something else to consider; Castela may be putting out a very intense, but narrow plasma type event.

Its just by the time it's interacting w/ the surrounding atmosphere it gets as big around as what is observed on-screen.

So, maybe a very small amount of very very energetic stuff vs a large, bomb sized amount of stuff going 'boom'.

[jwhouk]

In other words, she is her own Tesla coil at the moment.

[oldmanmickey]

Let us not forget that Castela is as has been said so often still a preteen in size and probably maturity. I shudder to think what she will be able to do as a mature adult.

[Gyrrakavian]

That reminds me, there's a point-and-click adventure -dating sim combo called 'alonetogether' that uses something similar to Leucoisa.

BTW, is the 'o' in "Leucoisa" silent like the first one in "coelocanth"?

[AmriloJim]

PronounceNames.com gives "lef-kaw-see-ah" as the pronunciation for Leucosia; no separate listing for the Leucoisa variant. Google search returns both spellings as proper names of sirens.

I'd hazard a guess... "lef-ka-ee-sah".

[scantrontb]

PronounceNames.com gives "lef-kaw-see-ah" as the pronunciation for Leucosia; no separate listing for the Leucoisa variant. Google search returns both spellings as proper names of sirens.

I'd hazard a guess... "lef-ka-ee-sah".

toe may toe, tah mah toe...

for what it's worth, the way i'm hearing it in my mind is "Loo KOE sah"

[GlytchMeister]

I'm pronouncing it as "Lew-ko-wee-sah"

But then again, I am one of those people who frequently mispronounce words because I've always just read them and never actually heard anyone pronounce them.

"Colonel" vexed me somethin' awful for years.

[lake_wrangler]

I'm pronouncing it as "Lew-ko-wee-sah"

But then again, I am one of those people who frequently mispronounce words because I've always just read them and never actually heard anyone pronounce them.

"Colonel" vexed me somethin' awful for years.

I second that for all but the "Colonel" part... In French, it is indeed pronounced the way it is spelled, and I had no problem with that. However, I had already heard that the English translation was pronounced "kernel", even though it was spelled the same. So I was already forewarned.

I don't know how often I mispronounce words I never heard, or not. But I do know that when in doubt, whenever I see a town or street name that is originally French, in an English speaking locality, and I happen to NOT know how the locals pronounce it, I will tend to give it the French pronunciation...
(Gee, I wonder why... )

[Sgt. Howard]

I read it as "le CO shia"

[AnotherFairportfan]

I'm pronouncing it as "Lew-ko-wee-sah"

But then again, I am one of those people who frequently mispronounce words because I've always just read them and never actually heard anyone pronounce them.

"Colonel" vexed me somethin' awful for years.

"Fatigue" was fun in the fourth grade...

[AnotherFairportfan]

I read it as "le CO shia"

Pretty much what i did, though i suspect we differ somewhat on the final syllable.

[FreeFlier]

I'm pronouncing it as "Lew-ko-wee-sah"

But then again, I am one of those people who frequently mispronounce words because I've always just read them and never actually heard anyone pronounce them.

"Colonel" vexed me somethin' awful for years.

Well-meaning purists . . . aka the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

As I understand it, the word's pronunciation had drifted from colonel to coronel to cornel to kernel . . . and the spelling had drifted along as far as cornel. (Spelling wasn't all that fixed then.)

Then the purists got involved, and decreed that the spelling and pronunciation would henceforth be colonel . . .

. . .

The spelling change took, the pronunciation change didn't.

Actually, many of the changes they decreed didn't take.

--FreeFlier

[AnotherFairportfan]

Before oranges became available in the British Isles (and for a while after), English just referred to what we call "orange" as a shade of "red".

Then oranges - known by the Spanish name "naranja" - appeared. The name in English became "norange", but saying "a norange" is not comfortable for an Anglophone, so, over time, the "n" migrated from the front of the word to the end of the article, and we had "an orange."

At some point, it became the name of the colour.

Which makes the old "BC" strip where Peter encounters BC, who is eating a fruit, and asks "What's that?" and BC says "It's an orange." (Peter - for those not familiar with the comic - thinks he's smarter than he is and is arrogant about it.) Peter looks sort of "Yeah - right. Pull the other one," and then BC says "What's that you've got?"

And Peter says "A bunch of purples."