(They’ll escape while their captors sqabble over who gets to interrogate/kill/abduct/publicly shame/torture/impersonate/court-martial/turn nonhuman/experiment on/fuse into a two-headed taur/jar-brain-ify/sell to an intergalactic zoo/otherwise-make-a-main-protagonist/… them first.)
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” Joseph Heller, Catch 22. (Approximately quoted by Kurt Cobain in “Territorial Pissings”, in case anyone was wondering where they heard it before.)
Ovens that use natural gas might have a problem (pilot light failure, or something like that) such that unburned gas leaks out. Natural gas, itself odorless, has an odorant additive so that leaks can be detected by smell. Marcie seems to be smelling something like that odorant.
Natural gas is not toxic, and should not cause loss of consciousness unless it is in such huge quantities and purity under pressure that it completely replaces the air in an enclosed space.
(Natural gas delivered to homes for lighting and cooking used to have carbon monoxide, which is toxic, and caused all sorts of problems. But carbon monoxide has been removed from natural gas for a very long time now.)
If this were natural gas straight out of the pipe, that would suggest an accident and, now that they’re already down, they’d be dead.
For sake of completeness, as long as we’re talking about accidents at home, there’s the possibility of a noxious gas created on site, again giving carbon monoxide a lot of spotlight; odorless itself, it is usually created by incomplete combustion, so it can be accompanied by an unusual burnt smell. (Note that CO can pass through walls and floors better/faster than that smell, though.) Enough CO will cause loss of consciousness, but as long as the victim is awake, there’ll usually be warning signs – notably, severe headaches and a racing heart.
However, if this is an intentional gassing … I’m afraid that I’ve misplaced my Secret Agent’s List of Poisons and cannot look up which of them smells of oven. 😉
I think it would have to be. There isn’t really anything that’d knock somebody out cold like that—otherwise it’d be used in all sorts of situations.
A few years ago in Russia there was a hostage situation where the authorities pumped in a gas…but it killed a lot of the hostages. (Details subject to correction: I’m working from fallible memory here.)
@Robert: That’d be the Nord-Ost siege at Moscows Dubrovka Theater, in 2002. There were suspicions, voiced rather loudly, that the special forces seriously ODed the agent in hopes to make the onset / KO more sudden, though; I don’t know what became of that theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
A deliberate overcharge would be problematic, but no matter what you do, the dosage for a 250lb man and a 50lb child are going to be very different. To say nothing of the uneven distribution you’d get through a building. There really isn’t a real world equivalent of hollywood “knockout gas” where everyone drops safely.
Well, Owlmirror, what you say about natural gas is technically true. However, if you have a natural gas leak in an enclosed space, such as your home (or if your stove burner or pilot light went out, and natural gas is coming into your home without being burned off by said pilot light or burner), then you can, in fact, asphyxiate due to insufficient oxygen content in the air around you if enough natural gas gets in before you notice a problem. The gas itself may not be toxic, but we humans don’t tend to respirate well when the oxygen mix of the air isn’t quite right.
I’m still confused as to why Chris and Marcie are in a motel rather than Annex One. Pavane might not have invited them to Lovetron, but Sweetheart (and Nick, and Virginia, etc) seems to be not going to Lovetron anyway. No-one has kicked them out of Annex One, or suggested that they weren’t wanted there.
Do I smell mind control, or the heavy hand of the writer?
In a cheap motel somewhere in Kansas, Chris and Marcie debate what their stance is. But an unforeseen gassing, and out they are passing. Now we wonder just what are their chances?
I was wondering, who else has interacted with Chris and Marcie before, and is fond of melodramatic attacks? And the inescapable and inexorable answer came to me:
I know chances are slim, but I’m still hoping for an appearance by FoxyCop at some point before Skin Horse wraps up. Maybe investigating the reports that some people passed out at a motel under more-mysterious-than-usual circumstances?
I’m actually wondering if this is WhimsyCorp somehow. According to Dr. Collodi’s final message, he built the corporation so that it could take care of all the other non-humans.
But, as we’ve seen later, the Corporation’s ethical compass points straight Money and almost nowhere else (ok, Drama too). So, I could easily see Whimsy cooking this whole thing up in order to fulfill the dying request of the creator….but also to have a bunch of inhabitants for the new Whimsy Theme Park.
The question is…. is this the action of Ira, Pavane, or a surprise third party?
Or Ira _and_ Pavane?
d) All of the above. 😉
(They’ll escape while their captors sqabble over who gets to interrogate/kill/abduct/publicly shame/torture/impersonate/court-martial/turn nonhuman/experiment on/fuse into a two-headed taur/jar-brain-ify/sell to an intergalactic zoo/otherwise-make-a-main-protagonist/… them first.)
Or extirpirate.
When they wake up:
“Where am I?”
IN THE VILLAGE.
“You are…”
“Number Six, I know.”
“No. You are Number Three Hundred and Fifty-Seven.”
number 357: I will not make any deals with you. I’ve resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.
My life is my own.
“I am a free man!”
Why can’t I get a prime number?
Don’t fret, number 2399.
https://prime-numbers.info/number/357th-prime
Whew. Made my Saving Throw vs. Posting This Exact Joke Without Reading the Comments First
If you had made the joke again, you could always offer the excuse that the previous number 2 didn’t brief you.
Who is #1. He travels in his TARDIS, letting the dogs out…!
Who is on first?
Naturally!
So I pick up the ball and I throw it to Naturally..?
I hope that’s not arsenic.
I was going to say
As Elan would say, “Dun dun DUUNNNNN!!!”
OOTS updated.
The plot thickens.
…as does the air…
Is it wrong of me to be somehow slightly relieved? I mean, I never trusted this situation to begin with, and least now I know I wasn’t being paranoid.
It does mean we no longer need to wait for the other shoe to drop 🙂
I miss Foot from Narbonics.
SIGH!
I was going to comment that the “THUD” was the sound of the other shoe dropping but you beat me to it.
Paranoia is simply being in possession of the facts. Never apologize for it.
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” Joseph Heller, Catch 22. (Approximately quoted by Kurt Cobain in “Territorial Pissings”, in case anyone was wondering where they heard it before.)
I prefer Frank Burns’ line in M*A*S*H… “I’m only paranoid because everyone’s against me.”
@David B Huber, if it were arsine gas it would have been “Do you smell garlic?”
My biases for what to put in an oven are showing. 😉
Oh yeah, they forgot about Mr. Green, that’s most likely who gassed them. I don’t get the oven thing though.
Ovens that use natural gas might have a problem (pilot light failure, or something like that) such that unburned gas leaks out. Natural gas, itself odorless, has an odorant additive so that leaks can be detected by smell. Marcie seems to be smelling something like that odorant.
Natural gas is not toxic, and should not cause loss of consciousness unless it is in such huge quantities and purity under pressure that it completely replaces the air in an enclosed space.
(Natural gas delivered to homes for lighting and cooking used to have carbon monoxide, which is toxic, and caused all sorts of problems. But carbon monoxide has been removed from natural gas for a very long time now.)
If this were natural gas straight out of the pipe, that would suggest an accident and, now that they’re already down, they’d be dead.
For sake of completeness, as long as we’re talking about accidents at home, there’s the possibility of a noxious gas created on site, again giving carbon monoxide a lot of spotlight; odorless itself, it is usually created by incomplete combustion, so it can be accompanied by an unusual burnt smell. (Note that CO can pass through walls and floors better/faster than that smell, though.) Enough CO will cause loss of consciousness, but as long as the victim is awake, there’ll usually be warning signs – notably, severe headaches and a racing heart.
However, if this is an intentional gassing … I’m afraid that I’ve misplaced my Secret Agent’s List of Poisons and cannot look up which of them smells of oven. 😉
For all we know, the gas used may be the product of a Mad Chemist’s Laboratory, and thus completely unlike any inhaled sedative known to us.
I think it would have to be. There isn’t really anything that’d knock somebody out cold like that—otherwise it’d be used in all sorts of situations.
A few years ago in Russia there was a hostage situation where the authorities pumped in a gas…but it killed a lot of the hostages. (Details subject to correction: I’m working from fallible memory here.)
@Robert: That’d be the Nord-Ost siege at Moscows Dubrovka Theater, in 2002. There were suspicions, voiced rather loudly, that the special forces seriously ODed the agent in hopes to make the onset / KO more sudden, though; I don’t know what became of that theory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis
A deliberate overcharge would be problematic, but no matter what you do, the dosage for a 250lb man and a 50lb child are going to be very different. To say nothing of the uneven distribution you’d get through a building. There really isn’t a real world equivalent of hollywood “knockout gas” where everyone drops safely.
Well, Owlmirror, what you say about natural gas is technically true. However, if you have a natural gas leak in an enclosed space, such as your home (or if your stove burner or pilot light went out, and natural gas is coming into your home without being burned off by said pilot light or burner), then you can, in fact, asphyxiate due to insufficient oxygen content in the air around you if enough natural gas gets in before you notice a problem. The gas itself may not be toxic, but we humans don’t tend to respirate well when the oxygen mix of the air isn’t quite right.
If they’d rented a room with a kitchenette, would the oven be a gas range?
“Do you smell gas or is it me?”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have had that burrito.”
Hydrogen sulfide? Initially smells like rotten eggs, similar to the odorant in natural gas. Fast acting and potentially fatal
I’m still confused as to why Chris and Marcie are in a motel rather than Annex One. Pavane might not have invited them to Lovetron, but Sweetheart (and Nick, and Virginia, etc) seems to be not going to Lovetron anyway. No-one has kicked them out of Annex One, or suggested that they weren’t wanted there.
Do I smell mind control, or the heavy hand of the writer?
Is Annex One staying, or are Hitty and Moustachio taking it with them?
But I think they checked into the hotel before Annex One arrived.
Please refrain from smelling the writer’s hand.
In a cheap motel somewhere in Kansas, Chris and Marcie debate what their stance is. But an unforeseen gassing, and out they are passing. Now we wonder just what are their chances?
One more thought:
I was wondering, who else has interacted with Chris and Marcie before, and is fond of melodramatic attacks? And the inescapable and inexorable answer came to me:
The Dane! (yes!, with the exclamation point!)
OOhh! EXCELLENT observation, Owlmirror!
Ira’s last gasp?
I am hopeful that it is not the last gasp for Marcie & Chris.
I know chances are slim, but I’m still hoping for an appearance by FoxyCop at some point before Skin Horse wraps up. Maybe investigating the reports that some people passed out at a motel under more-mysterious-than-usual circumstances?
I smell hamsters.
I’m actually wondering if this is WhimsyCorp somehow. According to Dr. Collodi’s final message, he built the corporation so that it could take care of all the other non-humans.
But, as we’ve seen later, the Corporation’s ethical compass points straight Money and almost nowhere else (ok, Drama too). So, I could easily see Whimsy cooking this whole thing up in order to fulfill the dying request of the creator….but also to have a bunch of inhabitants for the new Whimsy Theme Park.