With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Chaoswind]

Ok, so now you've moved from claiming the smart play was to radio up to orbit and have the ship there drop something to claiming that the obvious solution is to send a transmission

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You are the one defending something you clearly have no understanding off and the "goal post" hasn't moved a single iota.

This is absolute nonsense, they could literally drop one of the MANY replacement trucks or other massive industrial grade equipment out of the cargo bay and erase everything a couple miles around that tree. Because those cargo ships don't come from Sol empty.

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Always PLURAL. You are the one that decided to strawman the argument into something you could more easily defend, because clearly it cannot be so fucking easy to destroy the smurfs society for the guys that have a bunch of near relativistic cargo ships fueled by anti-matter, ships that EXPLICITLY come with a cargo of mining and industrial equipment at minimum, the supply situation as explained in the movie could LITERALLY end life in the entire Pandora by accident, that is how ridiculous the idea that the smurfs had any chance in hell is.

The supply ships are already coming and they have the means to just drop a coms beacon telling the next incoming ship what happened on the planet, that Jake sully is a traitor that went native and sabotaged his diplomatic mission and betrayed humanity.

Those ships are already coming to Pandora to pick up the magic minerals, so might as well put all that cargo to use, slow down the ship (something that has to be done anyways), calculate the optimal delta-v to prevent atmospheric vaporization and to make sure they hit the right continent and let the equipment keep going, they will get to do it nine times, thats 8 times too many.

 

[Mr Zoat]

11th April 2013
18:32 GMT +5:30

Hundreds of miles of road laid down, and looking at it from just high enough in the air that I can see all of India, I can't see any of it.

I sigh.

Alright. India's quite big and there are some clouds, but that was a lot of road I laid down today. It would probably be visible if it was all in one place and I can have my rings highlight it for me…

But one thing I appreciate more than ever is exactly how big the world is. Numbers don't do it. Moving around and seeing a lot of places didn't do it. But spending hours building roads across a country and not filling in even a percent of it, that… That's as close to being humbling as things get for me.

Thousands of people helped, though that mostly means putting them in a position to help themselves. Unlike what I did in Greece, Dr. Balewa approves of this way of handling it.

"Heh."

A blue streak in the atmosphere beneath me, and then Kara is up here floating alongside me.

"What's funny?"

I frown inside my armour. "How did you hear that? There isn't enough air up here to carry the sound even with super hearing."

"Your armor vibrated."

Did it? Alright, my light armour doesn't have the amount of vibration cancelling that my heavy armour has. It relies on a kinetic barrier to stop kinetic attack. But… She'd have to see how my faceplate vibrated and then decode those vibrations in her head.

That's…

"So what's funny?"

"I just remembered something. 'Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a few hours. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm-"

"Why would you set a man on fire?" She looks shocked. "That's terrible!"

"-for the.. rest of his life." Kara's glaring at me. "No, no I wouldn't. It's a joke-"

She frowns at me. "Being set on fire isn't funny."

"-based on the phrase 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' The point is that it's generally better to provide people with the tools and knowledge of how to do things for themselves than it is to just do those things for them."

She still looks suspicious. "As long as you don't set them on fire."

"No one is setting anyone on fire. The joke-. Maybe it doesn't work for kryptonians, but the joke is that the phrasing I used first is similar to the original version, technically true but patently ridiculous."

"There are some very bad people who set other people on fire." Kara looks at me with an expression of concern. "Maybe you just haven't met them yet. I don't think you'd joke about it if you'd seen it."

"Maybe we can talk about black comedy at some point."

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!"

"That-that wasn't what I meant, but… Okay. I'm glad."

I check my chronometer. Usually, the Justice League doesn't have anything like a working time directive. Batman for example has worked forty eight hours continuously without sleep, and that was before the Anti-Life broadcast. But that was for a multi-villain team up with hundreds of lives on the line, and he made sure to rest well afterwards. Essentially, we're volunteers, and sometimes we need to volunteer more than others. Unless someone looks like they need to rest -like I did back during Klarion's mass child abduction- they're left to sort things out for themselves.

But now there's no 'down time'. We could keep working until we burned out every day. So we now actually have limits to the amount of time we're supposed to spend working, both in a day and in a week. Because we still have emergencies in addition to the rebuilding, though… Not as many as we might have.

A lot of supervillains died after the Broadcast. Of those that didn't, most have the sense to either help with rebuilding in exchange for a consideration, or have just gone to ground while the getting was good.

A few set themselves up as robber barons. A few of those were left in place so that they'd go on providing a degree of stability until such time as we have something to replace them with.

I've still got four-.

There's a flash of light from below-.

And then my heavy armour is around me and I'm down, just ahead of Kara, construct barrier blocking the shockwave from the nuclear bomb that just detonated and redirecting it upwards! Kara breathes in and exhales, heat levels dropping even as the burning winds bite at her costume. I deploy radiation absorption constructs around the site of the detonation and use cold rays to aid in Kara's effort to reduce the temperature.

Where are-?

"Orange Lantern to Justice League. Nuclear detonation at my current location. Make sure that no one is launching."

"That's under control." Batman this time. "Do you know where it came from?"

"No contrail." I scan the rapidly normalising area around the probable source of the blast. "Nothing left of the bomb. Isotope signature… Best match suggests that it was an Indian bomb."

"Understood. Make the area safe and then commence an investigation."

"Will do. Orange Lantern out."

Darn it. We went the entire Anti-Life month without anyone throwing a nuclear weapon at anyone else, and now it happens. So whereabouts-?

The pickup point. We're just outside Visakhapatnam-.

"Bleez, location?"

…

"Bleez-?"

"I'm okay. I was-. I was already moving away. Passengers on board."

"Okay. Are they okay?"

"Shaken up, but the shields held. Was that a fission bomb?"

"Yes. I'm afraid that our-."

"Are the others-? No, of course they're dead."

"If you're referring to the people who were awaiting transfer, yes. Everyone in the immediate vicinity of the blast is dead. I'm afraid that our pleasant day of charitable labour just got derailed. Investigating this has to take top priority."

"What's the point of using a fission bomb on farm labourers?"

"I'm going to try and find out. But sometimes there isn't a point. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

The world won't burn from this, but clearly we're going to have to increase security at sites like this. We haven't been bothering because India's few supervillains realised that their food needs to come from somewhere, and there's no point trying to force someone to do something they're going to do voluntarily anyway.

"Can I help? Or should I keep making-. Oh."

"I'm afraid that even if we could organise more émigrés, without the infrastructure that I'd be building they can't start their new lives. And there's the risk of further attacks. But I'd be happy to have your company while we investigate."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Sublight. The humans in Avatar use a chain of like a dozen sublight ships operating at staggered intervals. The trip to pandora takes half a decade.

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Alpha Centuri is 4.3 light years away from Earth. It is the closest star system to Sol.

That means that if the ship can travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to get there.

If the ship arrived at Pandora in 5 years, it has to be able to travel faster than light. Maybe not Star Wars fast, but faster than light.

 

[BlackCoat13]

Who the fuck sets off a nuke on a bunch of farmers indeed.

 

[Ardy]

Maybe we can talk about black comedy at some point."

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince Bel-Air!"

Click to shrink...

Thanks Zoat, I woke up my girlfriend laughing

 

[JamesEye]

Actually loving Bleez just wanting to help out

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

11th April 2013
18:32 GMT +5:30

Hundreds of miles of road laid down, and looking at it from just high enough in the air that I can see all of India, I can't see any of it.

I sigh.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, most roads smaller than a four-lane highway can't be seen more than a hundred miles up. At that range, you're only gonna see a general blob of civilisation, and some vague grey lines here and there...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Alright. India's quite big and there are some clouds, but that was a lot of road I laid down today. It would probably be visible if it was all in one place and I can have my rings highlight it for me…

But one thing I appreciate more than ever is exactly how big the world is. Numbers don't do it. Moving around and seeing a lot of places didn't do it. But spending hours building roads across a country and not filling in even a percent of it, that… That's as close to being humbling as things get for me.

Click to shrink...

Not surprising. Planets are mind-bogglingly big. Earth alone has a surface area of over half a billion square kilometres. Of which only 150 million is actual land. Human civilisation occupies only a tiny amount of that.

Thousands of people helped, though that mostly means putting them in a position to help themselves. Unlike what I did in Greece, Dr. Balewa approves of this way of handing it.

"Heh."

Click to shrink...

Well, he would. He's probably seen what happens when foreign fools come in, drop 'civilisation' on a people and leave without making sure it sticks.

A blue steak in the atmosphere beneath me, and then Kara is up here floating alongside me.

"What's funny?"

Click to shrink...

She's probably having a good day. Helping people like that is right up her idealistic alley.

I frown inside my armour. "How did you hear that? There isn't enough air up here to carry the sound even with super hearing."

"Your armor vibrated."

Click to shrink...

...Really? I mean, a pre-Crisis kryptonian could hear a gnat sneeze from the other side of the planet, but...

Did it? Alright, my light armour doesn't have the amount of vibration cancelling that my heavy armour has. It relies on a kinetic barrier to stop kinetic attack. But… She'd have to see how my faceplate vibrated and then decode those vibrations in her head.

That's…

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Okay, kryptonian senses are ludicrously broken, but that's just too much. It's got to be some sort of clairvoyance effect in her pre-Crisis powerset. Supergirl-1 OP plz nerf...

"So what's funny?"

"I just remembered something. 'Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a few hours. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm-"

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Ah, yes. Pratchett at his finest.

"Why would you set a man on fire?" She looks shocked. "That's terrible!"

"-for the.. rest of his life." Kara's glaring at me. "No, no I wouldn't. It's a joke-"

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...And of course the joke flies over her head.

She frowns at me. "Being set on fire isn't funny."

"-based on the phrase 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' The point is that it's generally better to provide people with the tools and knowledge of how to do things for themselves than it is to just do those things for them."

Click to shrink...

Give it up, OL. It's not funny anymore.

She still looks suspicious. "As long as you don't set them on fire."

"No one is setting anyone on fire. The joke-. Maybe it doesn't work for kryptonians, but the joke is that the phrasing I used first is similar to the original version, technically true but patiently ridiculous."

Click to shrink...

To be fair, setting a kryptonian on fire would probably not do too much, especially if they're solar-empowered.

"There are some very bad people who set other people on fire." Kara looks at me with an expression of concern. "Maybe you just haven't met them yet. I don't think you'd joke about it if you'd seen it."

"Maybe we can talk about black comedy at some point."

Click to shrink...

Oh, dear. I shudder to imagine how badly she'd take that concept...

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince Bel-Air!"

"That-that wasn't what I meant, but… Okay. I'm glad."

Click to shrink...

Why do I get the feeling people end up with a mild headache after dealing with her for any amount of time?

I check my chronometer. Usually, the Justice League doesn't have anything like a working time directive. Batman for example has worked forty eight hours continuously without sleep, and that was before the Anti-Life broadcast. But that was for a multi-villain team up with hundreds of lives on the line, and he made sure to rest well afterwards. Essentially, we're volunteers, and sometimes we need to volunteer more than others. Unless someone looks like they need to rest -like I did back during Klarion's mass child abduction- they're left to sort things out for themselves.

Click to shrink...

And I have no doubt Batman has been tempted to take advantage of a Power Ring's ability to minimize or suppress tiredness in its user. Say, be being afraid of missing something important because he's sleepy?

But now there's no 'down time'. We could keep working until we burned out every day. So we now actually have limits to the amount of time we're supposed to spend working, both in a day and in a week. Because we still have emergencies in addition to the rebuilding, though… Not as many as we might have.

Click to shrink...

So in this case, you might hand this work off to someone with compatible skills, and go take a night off? Then again, it probably takes five or more people to do the work of one Lantern.

A lot of supervillains died after the Broadcast. Of those that didn't, most have the sense to either help with rebuilding in exchange for a consideration, or have just gone to ground while the getting was good.

A few set themselves up as robber barons. A few of those were left in place so that they'd go on providing a degree of stability until such time as we have something to replace them with.

Click to shrink...

Why do I feel like that policy's going to end up biting someone in a painful place?

I've still got four-.

There's a flash of light from below-.

Click to shrink...

Oh look, there's some teeth now.

And then my heavy armour is around me and I'm down, just ahead of Kara, construct barrier blocking the shockwave from the nuclear bomb that just detonated and redirecting it upwards! Kara breathes in and exhales, heat levels dropping even as the burning winds bite at her costume. I deploy radiation absorption constructs around the site of the detonation and use cold rays to aid in Kara's effort to reduce the temperature.

Click to shrink...

Looks like someone got their hands on some of India's nuclear arsenal.

Where are-?

"Orange Lantern to Justice League. Nuclear detonation at my current location. Make sure that no one is launching."

Click to shrink...

I'd ask if any nation would be capable of nuclear launches, but all it really takes is one nut with a working silo...

"That's under control." Batman this time. "Do you know where is came from?"

"No contrail." I scan the rapidly normalising area around the probable source of the blast. "Nothing left of the bomb. Isotope signature… Best match suggests that it was an India bomb."

Click to shrink...

Maybe the warhead was hauled into place manually? Actual MIRV modules aren't much bigger than a large man, and only weight a few tons. One big lorry could haul one.

"Understood. Make the area safe and then commence an investigation."

"Will do. Orange Lantern out."

Click to shrink...

Yay. More work. Globally important stuff this time, since anyone setting off nukes is already off the deep end.

Darn it. We went the entire Anti-Life month without anyone throwing a nuclear weapon at anyone else, and now it happens. So whereabouts-?

The pickup point. We're just outside Visakhapatnam-.

Click to shrink...

Oh, hell. that's gonna be a lot of dead people...

"Bleez, location?"

…

"Bleez-?"

Click to shrink...

I doubt it was aimed specifically at her, but spaceships aren't quite tough enough to tank an in-atmosphere nuclear detonation.

"I'm okay. I was-. I was already moving away. Passengers on board."

"Okay. Are they okay?"

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Since it would have been quite the rough ride, what with the atmospheric effects.

"Shaken up, but the shields held. Was that a fission bomb?"

"Yes. I'm afraid that our-."

Click to shrink...

Guessing she knew Earth had 'primitive' atomic weaponry from intelligence reports. But knowing is one thing, having one go off off your port bow is another thing.

"Are the others-? No, of course they're dead."

"If you're referring to the people who were awaiting transfer, yes. Everyone in the immediate vicinity of the blast is dead. I'm afraid that our pleasant day of charitable labour just got derailed. Investigating this has to take top priority."

Click to shrink...

Sadly, there's a few cults that would try this shit. Starting with Kobra.

"What's the point of using a fission bomb on farm labourers?"

"I'm going to try and find out. But sometimes there isn't a point. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

Click to shrink...

...It's Kobra, isn't it? Right region, right motivation - being an omnicidal loon and all - and the big nutter himself might well have been at large the whole time... Or maybe it's his brother...

The world won't burn from this, but clearly we're going to have to increase security at sites like this. We haven't been bothering because India's few supervillains realised that their food needs to come from somewhere, and there's no point trying to force someone to do something they're going to do voluntarily anyway.

Click to shrink...

The former option just increases the difficulty of handling them, and makes rebellion more likely, after all.

"Can I help? Or should I keep making-. Oh."

"I'm afraid that even if we could organise more émigrés, without the infrastructure that I'd be building they can't start their new lives. And there's the risk of further attacks. But I'd be happy to have your company while we investigate."

Click to shrink...

Worth keeping an eye on groups you've moved already? Maybe have Kara handle that?

So... To borrow a phrase, 'That escalated quickly.' Fortunately, there aren't many known groups with the capability to acquire, position and detonate nukes, so unless its an unknown party, the list will be short. Unfortunately, it's entirely possible whoever did it isn't done yet. So the world might see a few more hotspots pop up if this isn't sorted quickly.

 

[Vaermina]

Alpha Centuri is 4.3 light years away from Earth. It is the closest star system to Sol.

That means that if the ship can travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to get there.

If the ship arrived at Pandora in 5 years, it has to be able to travel faster than light. Maybe not Star Wars fast, but faster than light.

Click to shrink...

Someone might want to tell MrZoat that the trip from Earth to Pandora was 6 years not 5.

 

[012345]

Fact 1:
The cargo ships that come to pick up the macbullshit mined from Pandora come with replacement mining, industrial equipment, weapons and personnel. Because as is established in the movie and the tie in expanded universe Pandora is very hostile to the operations of the humans, people go missing, vehicles get damaged, weapons are used, etc. Thus all the replacement shit.

Click to shrink...

Actually only first ships carried mining equipment.

But they also carried massive industrial 3d printers that were then used to make all other stuff later on.

At time of movie the only stuff ships were carring to Pandora were humans and their stuff.

And shuttles they left behind to carry more mined ore back packed in Pandoran wood crates to sell back on Earth for artists/collectors.

New updated stuff designu were also sens using low bandwitch QE comms between Earth-Pandora.

Ships were also refueled at Pandora with antimater harvested from gas gigants magnetosphere.

Alpha Centuri is 4.3 light years away from Earth. It is the closest star system to Sol.

That means that if the ship can travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to get there.

If the ship arrived at Pandora in 5 years, it has to be able to travel faster than light. Maybe not Star Wars fast, but faster than light.

Click to shrink...

Trip took about 7 years at .7c.

Frankly at those speeds temporal relativity would start hitting with ship experiencing less time then test of universe.

 

[Darko]

approves of this way of handing it.

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"handling it"

I frown inside my armour. "How did you hear that? There isn't enough air up here to carry the sound even with super hearing."

"Your armor vibrated

Click to shrink...

And if this is Silver Age Kara then trying to science her powers is a futile effort.

Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince Bel-Air!"

Click to shrink...

"of Bel"

Maybe we can talk about black comedy at some point."

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince Bel-Air!"

Click to shrink...

Maybe see if she can attend some sensitivity classes with Angelika.

A lot of supervillains died after the Broadcast. Of those that didn't, most have the sense to either help with rebuilding in exchange for a consideration, or have just gone to ground while the getting was good

Click to shrink...

And it's not like any of the things they steal could be sold since the economy is virtually non existent.

Money is now basically extra toilet paper.

Which, to be fair, has been proven to be quite sought after in apocalyptic scenarios.

where is came from?"

Click to shrink...

"where it"

 

[Darko]

It's Kobra, isn't it? Right region, right motivation - being an omnicidal loon and all - and the big nutter himself might well have been at large the whole time... Or maybe it's his brother...

Click to shrink...

I doubt it.

Last we saw Kobra he was basically reduced to a baseline human and his cult abandoned him.

 

[Bloodalchemy]

"Maybe we can talk about black comedy at some point."

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince Bel-Air!"

Click to shrink...

This is hilarious. Perfect straight man joke.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"handling it"
"of Bel"
"where it"

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

I doubt it.

Last we saw Kobra he was basically reduced to a baseline human and his cult abandoned him.

Click to shrink...

You know who normally has the power to fire nukes? Baseline humans.

 

[Coltsguy]

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!"

Click to shrink...

Based. Best Kara.

 

[PDV]

phrasing I used first is similar to the original version, technically true but patiently ridiculous."

Click to shrink...

patently

 

[The Froggy Ninja]

You know who normally has the power to fire nukes? Baseline humans.

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Usually not baseline humans without a cult though. One normal guy getting access to the nukes is less likely than some other options.

 

[Darko]

Usually not baseline humans without a cult though. One normal guy getting access to the nukes is less likely than some other options.

Click to shrink...

True, though with the Anti-Life it is fully possible that he could have become a City Boss and had someone who knew the codes give them to him.

 

[Mr Zoat]

patently

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Ina_Meishou]

Alpha Centuri is 4.3 light years away from Earth. It is the closest star system to Sol.

That means that if the ship can travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to get there.

If the ship arrived at Pandora in 5 years, it has to be able to travel faster than light. Maybe not Star Wars fast, but faster than light.

Click to shrink...

...
..........

If light takes 4.3 years to reach a destination, an ftl ship will take less than 4.3 years. Not more.

 

[Mquz]

Alpha Centuri is 4.3 light years away from Earth. It is the closest star system to Sol.

That means that if the ship can travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to get there.

If the ship arrived at Pandora in 5 years, it has to be able to travel faster than light. Maybe not Star Wars fast, but faster than light.

Click to shrink...

Do we know how far away Pandora is located? Ships could just be barely sub-light. Approaching but not over FTL.

 

[Mr Zoat]

...
..........

If light takes 4.3 years to reach a destination, an ftl ship will take less than 4.3 years. Not more.

Click to shrink...

Oh, is Pandora meant to be in Alpha Centuri? I was assuming that it was further away than that, and using Alpha Centuri as an example of how the speed of light isn't actually all that fast for travelling interstellar distances.

 

[Bud-E]

A blue steak in the atmosphere beneath me

Click to shrink...

I think you mean Streak

 

[Ina_Meishou]

Oh, is Pandora meant to be in Alpha Centuri? I was assuming that it was further away than that, and using Alpha Centuri as an example of how the speed of light isn't actually all that fast for travelling interstellar distances.

Click to shrink...

It is yeah.

 

[Senevri]

Blue steak is rare indeed. Is Kara that bad or is she getting flanderized?

The Dark Knight was released in 2008, same year as Iron man. That's 15 years ago. A few years before the SI's... Self insertion, basically.

I feel.... Not old, exactly. Like I am peering into the abyss of time.

I don't want to think of when LotR movies were released.

 

[PJCG]

And if this is Silver Age Kara then trying to science her powers is a futile effort

Click to shrink...

I was just about to say this. Mr Zoat's telling of Kara's character makes me realise how crazy broken Kryptonians are. While also revealing the fact that, if Superman can't do these things too, after so many years of activity, he's either stupid or lazy.

Or maybe he's writers are stupid or lazy...

 

[Mr Zoat]

I think you mean Streak

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

I think 'blue steak' means 'very lightly cooked', which wasn't what I meant.

 

[Darko]

I was just about to say this. Mr Zoat's telling of Kara's character makes me realise how crazy broken Kryptonians are. While also revealing the fact that, if Superman can't do these things too, after so many years of activity, he's either stupid or lazy.

Or maybe he's writers are stupid or lazy...

Click to shrink...

Kryptonians from Earth 16 are much weaker compared to other versions, so he's not really stupid or lazy in that regard.

 

[NightmareWarden]

If he's spent hours on these roads, I think Paul is going to be reminded of his ring charge limit soon enough.

Old correction:

"That won't be necessary, m'lord."

Right, well, I offered. Arms folded behind my back, I strike through… Huh. Not actually that big.

Click to shrink...

Strike -> stride

 

[Mr Zoat]

Strike -> stride

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Thank you, corrected. It was pointed out at the time but for some reason I only changed the Story Only version.

 

[RichardWhereat]

"Maybe we can talk about black comedy at some point."

She goes back to smiling. "Ooh, I love The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!"

Click to shrink...

yeah, that slaps