Have At That 2016-08-22

[FreeFlier]

Just noticed Castela is stuttering again . . . Though just in the last frame.

Personally, I'm attributing it to her temporarily losing confidence, upon seeing Bud's reaction...

Yeah, that's what I figure too.

--FreeFlier

[sheik]

It looks like our tumbleweed is definitely in Bud's category in at least one respect.
Hurling that rock, like hurling the calendar machine, did not produce the expected recoil.
In Bud's case, she should have buried herself in the same manner as would a rather substantial meteorite, crater included.
And unless Castela rooted herself to the canyon floor, she should have bounced in the opposite direction of her projectile.
As a well-experienced tank commander I should know the consequences of launching an object capable of penetrating solid rock (or steel for that matter).
P.S. I realize there had to be some artistic license here. The massive dust cloud produced by Castela's little stunt would have obscured everything, but I can forgive Paul for forgoing the cloud of dust at the kick, the exiting of the rock from the dust cloud, the creation of another dust cloud at the canyon wall, and the wait for the dust to drift away to reveal what actually happened.
Lord knows how much time was wasted waiting for _our_ dust to disperse on the tank gunnery ranges.

[FreeFlier]

OTOH, how much of the dust on the range was kicked up by the muzzle blast? The M1 Abrams has a very substantial muzzle blast, and the M60 wasn't much better.

--FreeFlier

[oldmanmickey]

Very curious to see just how impressed she is over that kick. I hope she sits the kid down and explains just how powerful she really is.

[Gyrrakavian]

I wonder if having paras on one's Olympic team would count as cheating

[Dave]

I wonder if having paras on one's Olympic team would count as cheating

I suspect that the Para community would consider it a serious no-no. It'd be an incredible risk to the Masquerade.

Olympic contenders are the subject of an incredible amount of scrutiny by the public, by the national Olympic committees, and by the IOC. Consider all of the "doping" scandals in recent years. What are the chances that any para could avoid being "outed" as being something other than a "normal human", even if he/she didn't win?

I'd expect that any para who was working towards that much visibility in any sport, would likely receive a very stern "Phix to Monica and Shelly" sort of talking-to, with a clear warning to Cut It The Hell Out Before People Get Wise.

[AnotherFairportfan]

I wonder if having paras on one's Olympic team would count as cheating

I suspect that the Para community would consider it a serious no-no. It'd be an incredible risk to the Masquerade.

Olympic contenders are the subject of an incredible amount of scrutiny by the public, by the national Olympic committees, and by the IOC. Consider all of the "doping" scandals in recent years. What are the chances that any para could avoid being "outed" as being something other than a "normal human", even if he/she didn't win?

I'd expect that any para who was working towards that much visibility in any sport, would likely receive a very stern "Phix to Monica and Shelly" sort of talking-to, with a clear warning to Cut It The Hell Out Before People Get Wise.

Or before Phix and Shelly have a family barbecue.

[FreeFlier]

Two thoughts:

It would depend on the sport: enormous strength is how much use in pingpong? Or in chess?

Second, I would expect that the paranormal have their own Olympics, probably divided between predats and bevies. The existence of the Griffon High flight team would tend to support this.

--FreeFlier

[Catawampus]

I wonder if having paras on one's Olympic team would count as cheating

If they were using artificially-enhanced powers, then it probably would be. So Bud participating in shot-put would be excluded, what with her being a constructed being. Assuming that there are no regulations in the Olympic rulebook stating that the competitors all have to be homo sapiens, then there may be no rules explicitly keeping a natural paranormal such as Shelly from competing.

However, they may be considered cheating due to the notion of good sportsmanship, which is somewhat enforced at the Olympics. There's absolutely no way that a human, no matter how hard they trained, could compete in something such as weight-lifting against a sphinx who hasn't even trained for a day. Any paranormals might be expected to own up to being paranormals and be put into their own separate division. And so you might have men's weight-lifting, women's weight-lifting, sphinx's weight-lifting, whatsit's weight-lifting, and so on. But then that would require acknowledgement that the paranormal is a paranormal, which would be a problem what with paranormals trying to stay under the radar in human society.

It begs the question of whether paranormals would be interested in participating in the games in the first place, though. What satisfaction would Bud get out of beating a bunch of humans in a test of strength? If the paranormal was interested in sports just for the sake of sports, then something like that would be pointless. It might make sense if the paranormal was wanting to win as part of some wider plan, to gain fame and marketing endorsements and such. They'd have to be careful not to win too spectacularly, though, or else they'd have the MiB or somebody paying a visit.

About the only way I'd see sporting-minded paranormals deciding to compete would be in fields where their natural abilities don't actually give them any advantage over humans. You might see Shelly competing in equestrian sports, or Monica in fencing, or Castela in bobsledding. In those cases, they'd essentially be on the same levels as their human competition, and that would avoid the whole question of bad sportsmanship and cheating.

[FreeFlier]

. . . About the only way I'd see sporting-minded paranormals deciding to compete would be in fields where their natural abilities don't actually give them any advantage over humans. You might see Shelly competing in equestrian sports, or Monica in fencing, or Castela in bobsledding. In those cases, they'd essentially be on the same levels as their human competition, and that would avoid the whole question of bad sportsmanship and cheating.

I agree . . . with one proviso: . . . deciding to compete against humans would be . . .

I'd see no problem with them competing against other paranormals . . . in fact, it's canon that they do, since Griffon High has a flight team that does a relay race.

--FreeFlier

[illiad]

Very curious to see just how impressed she is over that kick. I hope she sits the kid down and explains just how powerful she really is.

nope thats not bud AFAIK..

"hey kid.. how about the HUGE rock over there???

[AnotherFairportfan]

Very curious to see just how impressed she is over that kick. I hope she sits the kid down and explains just how powerful she really is.

nope thats not bud AFAIK..

"hey kid.. how about the HUGE rock over there???

More like "Hey - you've got the human looking bit down pretty good, right? Why don't we go play in traffic at rush hour and get run over ... and then I'll poit us out just as soon as Shelly's boyfriend recognises us lying there..."

[FreeFlier]

Very curious to see just how impressed she is over that kick. I hope she sits the kid down and explains just how powerful she really is.

nope thats not bud AFAIK..

"hey kid.. how about the HUGE rock over there???

More like "Hey - you've got the human looking bit down pretty good, right? Why don't we go play in traffic at rush hour and get run over ... and then I'll poit us out just as soon as Shelly's boyfriend recognises us lying there..."

Don't forget the running with scissors episode . . . aka "Worst mom ever".

--FreeFlier

[Sgt. Howard]

But now we are talking about potential harm to others...