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edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy
I would expect normal or normal-ish routes where it also stops in some other city or cities in between. Amtrak's site said that its (normal-speed) trains take about 80 hours, and it has, i think two, routes from Philadelphia to San Francisco now.
EDIT: According to Wikipedia, high speed rails usually go 200-250 km/h apparently. But that might require building new rails so the old route might not be appliciable?
Edited by Nukeli on Jul 24th 2024 at 9:05:09 PM
~*bleh*~Yeah, but you specified high-speed, which would obviously go much faster. So just decide how fast your trains can go and do the math from there, I guess.
I mean, it's your story; you can just decide that in your story the current routes allow high-speed travel. You don't always need 100% realism.
Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 24th 2024 at 2:07:03 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallFirst of all, I knew why you posted that part, but without the ideal speed it's sort of irrelevant how fast they can currently go.
Second, this is not "no reason". If you want to go through the effort of designing a new cross-country high-speed railway then that's your prerogative, but I don't know enough about trains to help beyond this point, nor do I think your story would somehow suffer if you just allowed a tiny bit of Artistic License.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
How important is it to the story that this info about high-speed rails is known?
Is it vital enough that the plot can't progress without it?
If it is just some random trivial fact that can be left out with no impact on the plot whatsoever?
Edited by Trainbarrel on Jul 24th 2024 at 8:15:19 PM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
I'm thinking about how many days or hours the characters would have to spend on the train. And if it would be possible for it to be a weekend trip.
Maybe, depends on the time of day when they leave Philadelphia and if they leave friday or saturday. About 32,2 hours of train travel in total.
EDIT: It claimed the trains go between Philadelphia and San Francisco, but all these trains leave from Washington or New York[1]
....
Edited by Nukeli on Jul 24th 2024 at 10:28:28 PM
~*bleh*~This is maths you can estimate pretty easily on your own without asking someone to design an imaginary rail network for you. Find the straightest line between the cities and use typical high-speed rail velocities to calculate travel time for that distance. Add half an hour to account for logistical discrepancies, and maybe another 20-30min for each major city close enough to the line to demand their own stop.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NOFor what it's worth, I had to use a standard train for a return trip due to works in the tracks. So the standard train took 3h30, while the high speed one took 1h30, for the same distance. You can use that for a rough estimate of the difference, so a 80 hours trip would take around 30 hours with a high speed train, maybe less is you account for longer distances increasing the advantage of high speed trains.
Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.My naive estimate is somewhere around 36-48 hours, given that the US is about half as long as Russia and assuming roughly double the speed of the trans-siberian railway, which takes eight days.
It could be more or less, but probably more considering the US has more mountainous terrain especially in the west that could make the trains less able to take a direct route and force slowdowns to not derail. Basin-and-range is a hell of a terrain to try to work around with rail-lines.
On the other hand by car non-stop (which is not possible because refueling is a thing) you could get there in 48 (assuming no traffic and you don't sleep and never refuel or eat.) so it's possible it could be as low as 48 hours for the whole round trip, assuming the train is express.
Probably too far for a weekend trip. But also as far as I'm aware people don't tend to do weekend trips in the US.
Edited by Florien on Jul 24th 2024 at 6:25:23 AM
depends on which part is being bared TBH. The closer you get to Fetish Fuel the more questionable that becomes.
This BTW also applies to things like "she breaths through her skin."
if you're talking 'bout the skin-breath remark that was instead referring to Metal Gear Solid V
Hands and Face would work, the latter has precedent. Navel might work depending on reasoning.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jul 25th 2024 at 3:24:13 AM
FYI, the My Hero example you're thinking of is likely Momo, who creates things through her exposed skin.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallI could definitely see powers requiring bare skin, without that seeming silly—depending on specifics and execution, of course.
For example, I could see a wind-worker needing to have the air at their fingertips in order to feel the subtleties of its flow.
My Games and Asset PacksMy first idea for that was someone with poison powers. The problem is that she's a total Nice Girl but her powers are quite destructive and come from her mouth, which means that she's mostly wearing corona-style facemasks to not accidentally release poisonous gas. Another character doesn't have that problem, because their poison powers come from the hands and are therefore morr controllable.
I mean, that makes sense, and I feel like I've seen precedent for such somewhere before.
(Although I'll note that I doubt that a basic face-mask would do all that much to restrict a poison gas from escaping. I'd expect something a little more air-tight.)
My Games and Asset Packs![]()
How do they work?
Does the poison gas come out from inside of her mouth and she needs to open it to release it or does the gas start fuming when her lips are exposed to sunlight?
And if from within the mouth, how does it not escape out through her nostrils from the build-up when she have her mouth closed?
Edited by Trainbarrel on Jul 26th 2024 at 1:29:59 PM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."This might lead into a larger question about how to write children in general, but right now it's just a specific situation I'm concerned about.
When my main character "ascends" via merging with the parasitic entity that created werewolves, one of the first things he does is issue a command for every werewolf in the world to transform and begin their rampage of killing supernatural beings and growing the horde via converting countless humans. There is no resisting this order, no blocking it or even hiding and it happens instantly across the planet. Their minds and bodies are completely overtaken in seconds.
With that background, here is where my question comes in. The husband and son of one of my villains are caught up in this as the 12 year old boy begins to transform, and his mind is slowly pulled under the villain's command. Now, the kid knows all about the supernatural world (neither of his parents are human and it's just assumed that he will grow up to be a werewolf) but he is terrified and confused by what is happening to him.
The father uses his powers to stop the son's transformation as long as he can, but it's like trying to hold back a force of nature itself. While he is delaying it, the effort is visibly killing him by inches. And when he dies, the son will transform and join the horde anyway.
What I wonder is...how would the son interact with his dad during this moment? Would he tell him to stop trying to save him since it's clear the effort is fatal? Would he just break down and incoherently cry and beg for his quite powerful mother to save them both? Or something else entirely?
Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jul 26th 2024 at 5:23:33 AM
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar WalllaceIt sounded so easy in my head, but you raised good points. My basic theories: -She has a limited immunity to her own poison, however, the oxygen concentration can't fall under the level needed for humans to survive when using it in closed areas. -she can control when her powers are active and only then dangerously lethal amounts of gas are emitted
-however, unconscious activation is not impossible, imagine sneezing or coughing, and she doesn't want to endanger anyone because even small doses are atleast painful.
-I imagine the power to work like some colourful haze

Depends on how fast it can go. The math would have to be worked out from there, especially since cutting straight across is likely impossible unless it can go over water or through mountains.
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