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 Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:46 pm
For obvious reasons, Tara's experience as a senshi had drastically affected her views about aliens. It was impossible to not believe that there was life out there in the universe upon discovering that you were actually a reincarnated alien warrior. Becoming a senshi had provided all the proof she needed that aliens existed, but there were two major problems that had stopped her in her tracks:
One, this wasn't proof that she could ever divulge to the media, and was therefore worthless.
Two, it implied that all aliens were senshi, which wasn't a thought she had wanted to deal with.
One was unchangeable, but two was not, and Tara had struggled with it for a while before realizing a major flaw in that assumption: if all aliens were senshi, and all senshi had died a thousand years ago, what about all the evidence of aliens in the past thousand, or even hundred years? That realization had filled her with some of the zeal for the subject that she had once had, and she threw herself back into studying the sky and looking for traces of aliens on Earth. It helped to banish some of the apathy she had been dealing with for a while, which was always welcome.
Nothing would banish her firmly-rooted paranoia, though. There was no guarantee that the aliens she would would be as benevolent as the senshi, and after the meeting she wasn't even sure that all senshi were benevolent. So she kept her notes hidden, she only transformed in secure locations (like her room), and she still wore tinfoil hats whenever she worked on important things. Until she ran out of tinfoil, at which point all projects were placed on hold until she could procure more.
Southern Poultry had an impressive selection of aluminum foil. A bit too impressive in Tara's opinion. She weighed two different brands in her hands, as if that would help her determine which was better. "All of these different kinds, and no mention of which one serves as the best electrical insulator? Now that's shoddy marketing."
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 11:23 am
It was really an unfortunate thing for the supply of tinfoil in the Blake household that Gabriel had been corrupted into the Negaverse. It had both lessened and worsened his paranoia - while powered up, he was more comfortable, less anxious, but as a civilian...
As a civilian, he now knew that anyone could be a Senshi, or a Knight, some poor person body-snatched by an alien parasite and turned into an enemy of the planet.
Much to his parents' dismay, he was now using up swathes of tinfoil to repaper his walls and cover his windows and otherwise create a "sanctuary." Finally, frustrated with this "wasteful" use, his father declared that if Gabe wanted to redo his room in tinfoil, he was welcome to, but he was paying for the stuff.
So he was at Southern Poultry, doing his own examination of the brands, when he heard the comment the girl near him made to herself. Well, if that wasn't a conversation starter...
"Shoddy marketing and terribly frustrating, all things considered," he admitted. "You'd think they'd put something like that on the box."
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:30 pm
Tara hadn't really been addressing anybody in particular, and was surprised when somebody actually responded. Surprised and pleased. She did like talking to people, especially about her areas of interest. Briefly the thought that he was making fun of her crossed her mind. It had happened before. In the end, though, it didn't make much difference. Whether this guy was genuinely interested or not, he'd given her license to talk, and talk she would.
"They're really sabotaging their own business here. I mean, aluminum is a pretty interesting element, considering it's the third-most common in the Earth's crust, and the most-used metal after iron. It's in a whole bunch of things we use on a day-to-day basis. But most people just think of it as a household supply, and even then, just for wrapping leftovers or putting on cookie sheets. Valuable uses, yes, but no mention of its heat conduction or thermal insulation outside of the kitchen? They're really just minimizing their own market by doing dumb things like that."
She paused in her rant long enough to catch her breath, wondering if she'd fascinated her audience or scared him away.
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Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:27 pm
It was not often that Gabe met someone who seemed to be interested in the sort of things he was. He nodded along, fascinating, as she waxed on the benefits and specialness of aluminum. Of course, all of those things were what made it perfect for his purposes, he supposed.
"It feels like in catering to the masses, companies forget that there are people out there who care about aluminum foil for more than its ability to keep their cookie sheets from getting food on them. I mean, really." He said. "Life would be so much easier if they made such things clearer. How are you supposed to know which to pick?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 3:54 pm
Rolling her eyes, Tara waved one of the boxed rolls of foil she was holding around like a conductor's baton. "Catering to the masses, is that it? You might be right. Which makes me wonder why the masses are only seeing this stuff as a kitchen supply. They clearly aren't being educated on its other uses, and who's to blame for that? I say it's partly the fault of the companies who make this stuff. If tobacco companies have to include warnings about cancer- which they should, of course- why don't aluminum foil companies include potential life-saving information? It's only right." Not that that analogy made any sense, but once Tara got going she kept at it regardless of how logical her statements were.
"I guess it's up to people like us to do a study of the benefits of this stuff the makers don't want us to know about. Though it makes you wonder..." Narrowing her eyes, Tara put the box she was holding back on the shelf and leaned in towards her audience. "It makes you wonder if they don't want us to know for a reason, doesn't it?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:48 pm
Gabe almost unconsciously took a small step back to get out of range of the waving tinfoil box, but he was nodding along with everything she was saying. "It's frustrating that the use of tinfoil for insulation and protection has been deemed reserved for crackpots and fringe groups - it's really an amazing substance." He could definitely wax poetic about tinfoil with the best of them.
He frowned slightly. Maybe there was more to it, as she was suggesting... "You know, I'd honestly never considered that, but yeah, now that you mention it, it is a little suspicious..." He said. "You don't think it's purposeful, do you?" His voice dropped to an appropriately conspiratorial whisper.
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Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:14 am
"I know, right? If you're doing anything other than what they say on the box, you're labelled a total fruitcake." It was so refreshing to meet someone who actually got this stuff! Laney believed her, Yvette humored her, but nobody else really understood what she was saying. It made her even more determined to get to the bottom of things.
Because now she had inadvertently discovered something big. Tara's mouth often ran faster than her mind did, but that sort of behavior often led conclusions she never would have thought of if she'd been thinking at the time. Eerily plausible conclusions. "I hadn't thought of it either," she admitted, her voice dropping appropriately. "But when you think about it, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? I mean, it's only themselves they're hurting by not advertising these other uses. Especially in this day and age where everything has to do a zillion-and-one things. So if they're not doing that, either they have idiots in marketing, or they have some other agenda that we don't know about. But what?"
Were the aluminum foil companies in on the suppression of alien knowledge? Or was it something even more damaging than that?
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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 7:50 pm
"Which is silly and shortsighted, never mind ridiculously derisive." Gabe frowned deeply. He considered himself lucky that he had Vythica, who seemed to at least be fairly sold on his theories.
With the thought planted in his head, it seemed almost terrifyingly obvious that there was, indeed, something nefarious involved in the way that aluminum foil companies locked out a large market share. "There are few companies that will allow their sales to be hurt by a lack of advertising...Do you think...maybe they've been told to keep these things quiet?" It seemed obvious who would do the telling, in that case.
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Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:43 pm
Ooh, this guy was good. Tara filed the "ridiculously derisive" argument away for another day and nodded sagely. She was preaching to the choir here, which was something she'd had very little experience with, so it took her a few moments to figure out where to go next.
His theory had merit, but she wasn't sold just yet. "Companies are ruled by their bottom lines. If they're willing to do something that hurts their sales, then they must be getting some other sort of... compensation. If somebody's issued a gag order, they must be paying for it. The question is, who would want something like the practical uses of tinfoil silenced, to the point that they'd be willing to spend large quantities of money to make sure that it happened?"
She took a deep breath and waited. This was as far as she could go on her own- she had no idea who would have that kind of money to spend on anti-advertising. Maybe this guy would, though.
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:05 pm
Gabe frowned. He had a theory, of course, but he wasn't quite sure that she was the committed government-conspiracy type. But she had been receptive so far, so, well...
"I've admittedly always suspected the government knew more than they let on." Gabe confided quietly. "They might be...asking companies to stop?" He looked left and right. "I can't say why...maybe they're concerned that it will cause panic, that people will take it as tantamount to admitting..." He glanced upwards, and then stopped.
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:37 pm
Upon hearing his theory, Tara bit her lip. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that." She looked around again, then tugged his sleeve and tilted her head down the aisle. "We should move around a little, in case someone's listening. At least, if we're going to discuss something on that scale."
Glancing at the shelf again, she tipped five different rolls of tinfoil into the basket at her feet and picked it up. "Act natural," she muttered, then raised her voice to an unnaturally loud level. "Yes, but tinfoil is the best way to steam broccoli, you know."
Acting naturally was not really Tara's strong suit.
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 8:11 pm
Gabe frowned. "I hate to, but..." It seemed the only reasonable explanation. He nodded in response to her suggestion, and then copied the motion of tipping a few rolls of tinfoil into his hand basket. Best to at least pick up what he came here for. There was still open space on his walls.
He raised his eyebrows at her attempt to 'act natural.' "It's pretty great for grilling, too. Grilling vegetables at least." He said, perhaps a bit louder than necessary as well.
Totally innocent, right?
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 8:32 pm
"Really? How do you use it for grilling?" Tara's voice was piercing, then she leaned in and whispered again. "If the government's behind it, that's big. Are we talking Area 51, or something... deeper? Is their knowledge isolated, or do they all know more than they let on?"
Clearly she had been out of the loop for far too long. Her status as a senshi had made her cocky. Sure, she had been an alien once upon a time, but that was no reason to think she was the only one. The evidence of other aliens was overwhelming. This was an important issue, and she'd been too wrapped up in herself to give it the attention it deserved.
As they walked, she took a roll of paper towels and added it to her basket. If she was going to be moving around, she might as well pick up a few things she knew they needed at home. It would make Kent less likely to shake his head and sigh when she showed up with half a dozen rolls of aluminum foil.
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:14 am
"Oh, you wrap a couple things up; corn or potatoes and onions and put in some butter, drop it on the grill...cooks up real nice," He said, perhaps too cheerily. Then, he dropped his voice. "I don't know. I wish I did, but I'm pretty sure it goes above the top. Probably around the President, 'cause, you know, they're oly there for eight years..."
It seemed rational to him, that you wouldn't let a politician into the loop of truly important things. After all, they were likely to expose it for career benefit. Look at how transparent I am, sharing the truth about the aliens...
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:40 pm
At the end of the aisle, Tara turned right and walked towards the produce section, swinging her basket back and forth. "Really? Why don't you show me which vegetables are the best ones to use?" Not that she cooked that often anyway, since the way she treated cooking like chemistry often led to things blowing up, but it was a cover story. If they thought she could cook, so much the better, since it meant that they knew less about who she really was.
"Usually eight, but not always." The president angle was an interesting one, and not a common choice for her. Tara doubted that someone so in the spotlight would be trusted with real secrets like that, but she was willing to give the theory a shot. "I'd say that they were disposed of once they learned too much, but we have too many living presidents for that. After eight years, they just go on to have lecture circuits and book deals. Too high-profile for this sort of thing. But," and this was where things got interesting, "what about the ones only around for four years? Sure, they're less common, but what if that's because they stumbled on things they weren't supposed to know?"
How far down did the rabbit hole truly go?
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