It’s a case of altruism against pragmatism. Accepting money from a sleazy gambling arena might be wrong from a moral standpoint, but when you’ve got nothing but scraps and a mobile building to your name, you need all the dough you can get. Take the cash, Sweetheart, and use it to fix what needs fixing. Not the fights, Mistycorn has that covered.
Labor is not dependent upon compensation. They are no longer employees (at least they are no longer being paid by the government, even if they’re still on the roster), but they’re still laborers.
Acquiring public property without authority and taking it across the country, sustaining yourselves with the proceeds of that property doesn’t make you a hobo or a “laborer” (even though I feel as though these terms are being used in a completely different way to any I’ve found in a dictionary). It makes you a thief. Sweetheart may not have thought this through yet.
Given that Annex One was all but abandoned, a good case can be made for it being akin to garbage and turning it into a mecha as recycling. A good shyster, er, lawyer, sorry, could make a case of it.
Annex One was ‘real property’ (i.e., real estate) that was abandoned, and technically there is precedent under common law for squatters to obtain ownership of real property. Of course, Tigerlilly converted the building into a mobile home, and I’m guessing the old circuit judges didn’t create a precedent for this situation. Then again, we don’t know how far back mad science goes in the Narbon-verse, so maybe there *is* precedent somewhere on the books.
Their labor is the support of sapient non-humans, just as it always has been. It’s just that by being on the run from their former employer, they’ve had to resort to accomplishing said labor through… shall we say, “questionable means”.
Living as they are, day to day, surviving on what they can find, does basically make them hobos. Most hobos are – in point of fact – thieves. They have to steal to survive.
Anasigma has staged a coup, they are in control. Skin Horse appears to be the last effective arm of the legitimate government – though their lines of communication have been severed by the reality blindness, they are still performing their duties. They are fully justified in commandeering anything they require to perform said duties – this is war!
I’m sure Sweetheart will think of this eventually – she needs to make records of whatever they take.
greenknight32: Justified or not, they can fully expect to be arrested once someone notices they’re there. Remember that the reality blindness results from something Anasigma is doing. It can stop.
And thanks, awgiedawgie, for the definition (or rather, the hint that, in Skin Horse, “laborer” is a synonym for “worker” rather than the more specific term sites like wikipedia give). It’s not one I’d come across before.
It’s not just in Skin Horse. Next time, try a dictionary instead wikipedia. According to the dictionary, “laborer” is defined as “any worker”.
It might have helped had you also looked up “itinerant”: “working in one place for a comparatively short time and then moving on to work in another place, usually as a physical or outdoor laborer; characterized by alternating periods of working and wandering”.
I dunno about the Feds, but the State-level gaming commission or whatever it’s called might have something to say about the gambling going on.
Baron Mistycorn didn’t say anything about gambling? Does he seem like someone who would miss the opportunity to handle betting on contests?
It wouldn’t surprise me if he were also involved in fixing some fraction of those contests.
On the Federal level: It wouldn’t surprise me if some of those machines were child-equivalents. Moving minors across state lines for immoral purposes?
Tch.
There’s a shaggy dog story who’s punch line is:
“They got arrested for transporting young gulls across staid lions for immortal porpoises”.
Heh. I’d be curious to hear the setup for that one.
The version I learned was, “Transporting an illegal mynah across sedated lions for immortal porpoises.”
Here ya go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1CNRF-5ckU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip_HdHHC_SY at 9:08 is a better recording.
Thanks, Myles Adams!
“I dunno about the Feds, but the State-level gaming commission or whatever it’s called might have something to say about the gambling going on.”
“We are shocked! SHOCKED!”
Of course, that assumes that the authorities can even see what’s going on.
Who’s their bitcoin manager?
Oh, dear. Sweetheart is experiencing a moral quandary, and there are no longer any rules to follow or paperwork to fill out. What will she do?
Sweetheart has already given up on the rule-bound bureaucracy by becoming a hobo.
Now SHE gets to decide what rules they need to follow and what paperwork must be filled out.
Fear her.
It’s a case of altruism against pragmatism. Accepting money from a sleazy gambling arena might be wrong from a moral standpoint, but when you’ve got nothing but scraps and a mobile building to your name, you need all the dough you can get. Take the cash, Sweetheart, and use it to fix what needs fixing. Not the fights, Mistycorn has that covered.
It’s the hobos vs. the robos…
And in a few cases, the robohobos.
Seems my choice of “Big Rock Candy Mountain” as this week’s parody was more appropriate than I knew.
As usual, Unity is the most practical person…
If by “practical” you mean she’s embracing the hobo lifestyle, sure.
Although Unity’s likely to use the beans for music and eat the harmonicas.
Beans, beans the musical fruit…
The more you eat, the more you toot.
But if Unity doesn’t have an active digestive system, would the beans still make her toot?
She’s a nanoswarm. Given time, she could probably turn the beans *into* harmonicas, if only beans had a blood supply.
Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart…
Sweetheart, he’s offering you money. Take it. You’re already on the run from the government anyway, so don’t overthink it.
I love it how Sweetheart uses the dictionary definition for “hobo”
Where’s our oh-so-versatile pal Tip? He fills the bill as both a “Ho” and a “Beau”.
That is a thing of beauty. Not Tip, your comment.
“Ho Beau’s Makeovers” – I can see the sign now! Can reality TV be far behind?
Are they laborers if they’re not being paid for their services?
Labor is not dependent upon compensation. They are no longer employees (at least they are no longer being paid by the government, even if they’re still on the roster), but they’re still laborers.
Welcome to the gig economy, in which everyone is a hobo.
Acquiring public property without authority and taking it across the country, sustaining yourselves with the proceeds of that property doesn’t make you a hobo or a “laborer” (even though I feel as though these terms are being used in a completely different way to any I’ve found in a dictionary). It makes you a thief. Sweetheart may not have thought this through yet.
Given that Annex One was all but abandoned, a good case can be made for it being akin to garbage and turning it into a mecha as recycling. A good shyster, er, lawyer, sorry, could make a case of it.
Annex One was ‘real property’ (i.e., real estate) that was abandoned, and technically there is precedent under common law for squatters to obtain ownership of real property. Of course, Tigerlilly converted the building into a mobile home, and I’m guessing the old circuit judges didn’t create a precedent for this situation. Then again, we don’t know how far back mad science goes in the Narbon-verse, so maybe there *is* precedent somewhere on the books.
Their labor is the support of sapient non-humans, just as it always has been. It’s just that by being on the run from their former employer, they’ve had to resort to accomplishing said labor through… shall we say, “questionable means”.
Living as they are, day to day, surviving on what they can find, does basically make them hobos. Most hobos are – in point of fact – thieves. They have to steal to survive.
Anasigma has staged a coup, they are in control. Skin Horse appears to be the last effective arm of the legitimate government – though their lines of communication have been severed by the reality blindness, they are still performing their duties. They are fully justified in commandeering anything they require to perform said duties – this is war!
I’m sure Sweetheart will think of this eventually – she needs to make records of whatever they take.
Paperwork!!
greenknight32: Justified or not, they can fully expect to be arrested once someone notices they’re there. Remember that the reality blindness results from something Anasigma is doing. It can stop.
And thanks, awgiedawgie, for the definition (or rather, the hint that, in Skin Horse, “laborer” is a synonym for “worker” rather than the more specific term sites like wikipedia give). It’s not one I’d come across before.
It’s not just in Skin Horse. Next time, try a dictionary instead wikipedia. According to the dictionary, “laborer” is defined as “any worker”.
It might have helped had you also looked up “itinerant”: “working in one place for a comparatively short time and then moving on to work in another place, usually as a physical or outdoor laborer; characterized by alternating periods of working and wandering”.
*of…. “instead of wikipedia”
Stupid phone.