Mistings with jobs!!!

[Pathfinder]

KidWayne:  Love the addition, you're almost certainly right that this would only work once, so let's make it count:

 

I left out some back-of-the-envelope calculations before-

 

Given:

• 1 nugget of bendalloy compresses 2 minutes into approximately 15 seconds according the the coppermind
• In BoM Wayne makes a bubble with a radius of 5ft
• We have WoBs that multiple overlapping bubbles multiply the temporal effects and cadmium bubbles exactly cancel out bendalloy bubbles
• Thus, cadmium slows time down for the user by roughly a factor of 8

Assumptions:

• Let's say 1 nugget of bendalloy is about 1 cubic centimeter (which seems pretty big to me) that should be about 8 grams
• I don't know how fast mistings use cadmium, let's just say it's the same rate as bendalloy for simplicity
• Thus bendalloy, and therefore cadmium, get burned at about 4 grams/minute (as felt by the user)
• If we have people squat on the ground closely packed they'll each take up something like 2 square feet
• For simplicity, let's say all Pulsers' bubbles are roughly the same size
• All Pulsers have $5,000 in liquid assets they're willing to put toward this cause
• Cadmium costs $2 per kilogram

 

Scenario:

A bunch of 18 year old pulsers sit tightly packed in a circle with a radius of 2.5ft, so if any one of them puts up a bubble all of the others will be in it.  They pool their money into a brokerage account, let's say that, long-term, they can expect something like 8% average annual return (which I think sounds reasonable?).  They realize they IRS will be coming after them once they're 70.5, so to avoid the worst legal problems they agree to stop time traveling after 52 years.

 

Calculations:

 

pi()*2.5² = 19.6 Let's call that 20 square feet of sitting space for our pulsers, giving us room for 10 of them

10^8 rounds down to 1,000,000,000

our pulsers can therefore slow time for themselves by a factor of a billion

525,600 minutes in a year * 52 years = rounds to 27,000,000 minutes they need to pass

27,000,000/1,000,000,000 = 0.027 minutes = 1.6 seconds

4 grams of cadmium /minute = 0.067 grams/second

Each pulser only needs about 0.1 grams of cadmium

 

So 10 pulsers pulsing together for 1.6 seconds jumps them 52 years into the future. Neat.  Now, how much money do they make?

 

Total = Starting capital * (1+ average yearly return) ^ years passed

Total = $50,000 * (1.08)^52 = $2,700,000 or $270,000 per person (before any taxes or fees of course)

Total expenses = $2/1000 grams * 1 gram = $0.002 (lol)

 

tldr:

*******************************************************************************************

10 pulsers crammed next to each other can jump 52 years forward by turning on their bubbles for about 1.6 seconds and make a lot of money.

*******************************************************************************************

Sorry to throw a wrench into this, but it is stated in book, I think by Marasi, that Cadmium does burn much slower than Bendalloy

[Ookla the Absent]

I suspect that there may be Coinshots or Lurchers in casinos checking if people doesn't have metalminds on them...

It's really hard to get a hold on metalminds with alomancy, though...

BOM Spoiler

Wax at first assumes the Bands are actually aluminum, because they're so invested that his alomancy doesn't work on them

[Pathfinder]

It's really hard to get a hold on metalminds with alomancy, though...

BOM Spoiler

Wax at first assumes the Bands are actually aluminum, because they're so invested that his alomancy doesn't work on them

I doubt standard ferrings/twin born have metalminds as invested as the bands. Yes, normal metal minds are harder to push or pull on with allomancy, but I believe he was referring to seeing steel or iron lines appear indicating the person is wearing them. That Wax can see even with an invested spike inside of TenSoon

[+hwiles]

Sorry to throw a wrench into this, but it is stated in book, I think by Marasi, that Cadmium does burn much slower than Bendalloy

 

I believe you're right, but all that means is they would need even less cadmium to make this work, and by my math, they would, in total, need less than a fifth of one penny's worth of cadmium to do this.

 

Edit:  I did some bad math earlier so I think they'd probably need about 2 cents worth of cadmium to pull this off. nbd.

Edited February 13, 2016 by hwiles

[Oversleep]

@hwiles, you've made a mistake. They would jump even faster. The formula is slow-down-factor to the power of the number of Sliders. It's 8^10, not 10^8. 8^10 > 10^8.

Another thing: If cadmium costs 2$ per kilo it isn't expensive at all. Marasi states that cadmium and bendalloy are the most expensive metals (that could change in the modern Era).

The thing is, you have to keep inflation in mind. Taxes. I remember doing calculations wiht math teacher few years ago about putting a lot of money today (when you're 15) in saving account and pulling them out when you're 70. The profit wasn't much.

What's worse, the bank could fall in the meantime and you wouldn't know it. There could be some crisis. (BTW, watch The Big Short)
You're better off investing in some obligations.

Or I could start an investment fund for Pulsers
To maximize the money I make (apart from being paid for managing it) I also put some money into it. Me and my 6 comanagers. We all manage the fund and we're all Sliders. Each of us manages it for one day. The rest of the time is spent jumping. Since there is 6 of us jumping, we speed up time 8^6 (=262 144) times. So the six days we compress into 1,97 seconds.
Dammit.
I figured out people would stop Sliding to let one person out and one person in, but we would have to stop Sliding every 0,33 seconds. That doesn't sound manageable.
Maybe two sets of three Sliders? We'd compress six days into 17 minutes. Not bad. We'd let one person out and one person in every ~6 minutes. He'd have time to tell us what happened.

So effectively I live about 1/7 of these 52 years, so I wait for my payout about ~7,5 years. The thing is, I'd live through only one day of the week. Imagine 7,5 years composed of only Mondays.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Oversleep

[hoidhunter]

This is a little bit of an aside...but I would love to see some type of sporting event where each team is composed of one of each type of misting.

[Darkness Ascendant]

A coppermind for me. I cannot ever seem to remember what I did yesterday....let alone last year

So whenever I need to remember something, just a quick look in my coppermind should do the trick

Edited February 17, 2016 by Stormblessed Peasant

[sheep]

This is a little bit of an aside...but I would love to see some type of sporting event where each team is composed of one of each type of misting.

 

How about a mixed doubles tennis or badminton with one Coinshot and one Lurcher against an identical team?

It would be fair enough to be a proper show of skill.  And pretty entertaining to boot, as long as you had rules about no killing and proper head and eye protection.

[Pathfinder]

How about a mixed doubles tennis or badminton with one Coinshot and one Lurcher against an identical team?

It would be fair enough to be a proper show of skill.  And pretty entertaining to boot, as long as you had rules about no killing and proper head and eye protection.

Ironically i do not care for sports, and only watch football during the superbowl to bet on it, but this got me thinking. Pewter thugs could be the linemen, coinshots the quarterbacks, and lurchers the wide receivers. 

[hoidhunter]

there are all kinds of possibilities...I picture some weird scadrail specific sport that only allomancers can play...like that harry potter sport...but better and more violent...

[Kadrok]

There are whole sections on Mistings in society using their powers for their jobs in the Alloy of Law supplement of the Mistborn Adventure Game, for those who are interested.

 

That would be a cool thing to see as the tech level becomes more advanced. It would definitely add to the worldbuilding. If you've never seen the cartoon "The Legend of Korra" they do a similar thing in a scene where one of the characters uses his powers at a powerplant in order to make a little extra cash. It's a neat little touch I think adds to the plausibility of how the world would function.  

 

Pewter for any manual labor, ever.

Cadmium as a night guard, or any other job that requires a lot of waiting. You could speed through it in an instant.

I wonder if it would be illegal to hire a rioter to riot hunger in passerby near your restaurant... It seems like there is a lot of potential for shady business practices with Zinc and Brass.

One thing I really hope happens as the tech level becomes more advanced in the books is power plants powered by steel and iron mistings. Rather than have a giant coal plant that burns tons of coal a day, you could hire a couple of coinshots to push on a turbine and supply them with a tiny vial of steel shavings. Clean, cost effective energy, especially if they can ever get mechanical Allomancy properly sorted out.

Great minds think alike it seems, because generating power by Steel or Iron Allomancy is one of the innovations outlined in the Alloy of Law supplement:

 

Electric production is a growth industry. Just outside Elendel, the first of three planned power plants has been constructed. The massive plant uses teams of Coinshots and Lurchers to spin the generators that provide power. The iron and steel burned by the Mistings is far cheaper than powering the plant by coal or other means, since coal is reserved for use in smaller turbines, such as those in steam engines (see page 207).

Page 206

 

For those who are interested you can get it here: http://www.crafty-games.com/buy-now/alloy-of-law/

(The core book is here: http://www.crafty-games.com/buy-now/mistborn-adventure-game/)

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into a plug for the game, but I do like to include links to it whenever I reference any of it.

[NewbSombrero]

Theater. It becomes expected that you will be Soothed and Rioted during the show. Metal anchors around the stage for Coinshots and Lurchers to use. Or even a metal harness with Metalborn stagehands. (Spoiled Tomatoes, anyone?) No need to worry about the Archivist forgetting their lines. Pretty much Metalborn ability can find a use in the theater.

[Kadrok]

Theater. It becomes expected that you will be Soothed and Rioted during the show. Metal anchors around the stage for Coinshots and Lurchers to use. Or even a metal harness with Metalborn stagehands. (Spoiled Tomatoes, anyone?) No need to worry about the Archivist forgetting their lines. Pretty much Metalborn ability can find a use in the theater.

Allomantic Gold appeals to me for its potential for actors. Call up alternate selves, learn their gait, learn how they hold themselves, what body language they use. Boom! Versatile actor.

[IndigoAjah]

When you fill a copper mind, it means you no longer have those memories in your mind, yes?

If so, i have a great idea about creating a master plan for espionage etc that would fit together perfectly and be produced by just one person but they would be impossible to torture for the details

[natc]

When you fill a copper mind, it means you no longer have those memories in your mind, yes?

If so, i have a great idea about creating a master plan for espionage etc that would fit together perfectly and be produced by just one person but they would be impossible to torture for the details

Even better. Create a second metalmind with a fake plan, and then store away the knowledge of there being a fake plan after getting rid of the real one.

[Shadeshadow227]

If it was an aluminum savant, they would probably not be effected. How one goes about becoming an aluminum savant is a better question, as burning aluminum destroys all the aluminum you have in you. It's definitely useful on Threnody, but the rest is extrapolation on my part. My guess is that someone who is burning aluminum cannot be DIRECTLY affected by outside investiture. Indirectly, is another story. Still, it would require a very good sense of timing... I would like to see an aluminum gnat as a main character in the space age Mistborn series.

As an aside, I wonder if a twinborn with alomantic duralumin could compound their feruchemy by using duralumin while tapping their metalmind.

 

...nice. Finally, someone found uses for these metals.

And...the feruchemy/duralumin compounding idea seems plausible.

[Shadeshadow227]

This is a little bit of an aside...but I would love to see some type of sporting event where each team is composed of one of each type of misting.

 

That would be awesome.

[Landis963]

That would be awesome.

And how would Rioters/Soothers be useful in such a context, pray tell? Connectors? Augurs?

EDIT: I quoted the wrong post, sorry. I meant to do the one just above yours, Shade.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Landis963

[hoidhunter]

Well, depending on the nature of the sporting event, the soothers and rioters would try to either manipulate the emotions of the other team in order to get them to make mistakes (make them afraid, eager, impatient, etc) but they could also bolster the emotions of their own team mates, probably to counteract whatever the opposing teams soother/rioter was doing.  Augers (what do augers EVER do?) I don't know...be the worst cheer leaders in history...or maybe the weirdest mascot ever.  Gnats would just have to be REALLY good at the sport as a normal person, because they are otherwise pretty useless...maybe it could be the gnat's job to intercept the leechers and nicrobursts since they're power doesn't do anything to them, but could still cause the leecher or nicroburst to use up their metal.

 

Connectors are not mistings...

[Landis963]

Well, depending on the nature of the sporting event, the soothers and rioters would try to either manipulate the emotions of the other team in order to get them to make mistakes (make them afraid, eager, impatient, etc) but they could also bolster the emotions of their own team mates, probably to counteract whatever the opposing teams soother/rioter was doing.  Augers (what do augers EVER do?) I don't know...be the worst cheer leaders in history...or maybe the weirdest mascot ever.  Gnats would just have to be REALLY good at the sport as a normal person, because they are otherwise pretty useless...maybe it could be the gnat's job to intercept the leechers and nicrobursts since they're power doesn't do anything to them, but could still cause the leecher or nicroburst to use up their metal.

 

Connectors are not mistings...

 

My mistake.  You understand my point, though, yes?  There's no application for every single type of Misting (let alone every type of Metalborn) in pro sports.  

[hoidhunter]

While I understand that Breeze would be ridiculously out of place in the NBA (although, you gotta admit, the guy would be great at trash talking and getting inside the other teams head)...ALL real life professional athletes lack superpowers. Besides, I can definitely use my imagination to conceive of a sport (created around the idea of mistings) where each one could serve a valuable role.

 

I would never look at a scrawny, spectacle wearing British kid and think, "rugby player", but in fictional world where people can apparently fly on broomsticks, he does OK in a sport that revolves around that idea.

 

I'm thinking...very large, expansive field of play with partial, maze-like obstructions separating the two sides in the middle, with a short field of open area at either end, directly in front of each teams end zone, and several tall metal, flag poles of varying heights placed at different intervals in the obstacle laden middle ground.   Atop each flag pole, is a flag, each flag has a different point value.  (total points 16?) In each end zone is a bolted down iron platform (6x6?). This is the area that someone has to return to with a flag in order to score. Imagine neutral flag in halo 4, only with 16 mistings on each team, and 6 flags, and the flags can't be easily reached from the ground...and the only 3 point flag is like 20 ft up.  Parts of the field have little jets in the ground the keep large areas obscured in a blanket of mist.

 

Players only get their ordinary fabric uniforms, with minimal padding, no additional metal allowed aside from a few vials each, although there are several cantaloupe sized rubber balls scatter throughout the field of play that have 1lb iron weights in the middle.  Full contact, although there would have to be some rules regarding conduct so that thugs are not just ripping limbs off of people.

 

Your thug, lurcher and coinshot are your primary movers for getting the flags.  Tineye and Seeker work together as on field tactical coordinators.  Coppercloud, leecher, nicroburst, slider, pulser, rioter and soother offer a wide range of offensive and defense support roles.  Dura-gnat and alum-gnat, as well as your auger better be in great shape, because they're not very useful otherwise.  I'm not really sure how to employ your oracle...because I'm not 100% on how that power works...but could possibly be useful if you put your mind to it.

 

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME MISTBALL?!?!?!?

 

EDIT: Please don't mistake my grandiose reply as being upset or argumentative...I just started typing...and got a little carried away with the idea...

Edited May 22, 2016 by hoidhunter

[Arrae]

Sports games would definitely have divisions for thugs or non thugs. Non thug games probably would have leechers and seekers making sure no one burns anything. Of course, teams could cheat by having smokers...

[Shadeshadow227]

...all this talk of Metalborn competitions has lead me to one thing: how easy it would be to cheat by burning/tapping metals. A Cadmium compounder would most likely win any swimming competition, a Steelrunner would be unbeatable in a footrace, A Subsumer would win any eating contest...need I go on?

[Landis963]

...all this talk of Metalborn competitions has lead me to one thing: how easy it would be to cheat by burning/tapping metals. A Cadmium compounder would most likely win any swimming competition, a Steelrunner would be unbeatable in a footrace, A Subsumer would win any eating contest...need I go on?

 

And this is why Referees are Lurchers/Seekers/etc.  

[FeatherWriter]

Alright, I'll throw my personal favorite into the ring: Connector Diplomat. Store some Feruchemical connection, travel to far off lands, tap and instantly become a fluent speaker who's great at meeting people. Honestly, the ability to speak a land's language as though you'd grown up there yourself is the most interesting ability to me. That's my dream, honestly. Gimme. 

Other cool misting jobs: I was once in a modern-day Scadrial RP where there was a Pulser who worked on a bomb squad. He went in, popped up a bubble and then set to work diffusing the bomb. Gave everyone on the outside time to evacuate or go get more help in case he couldn't do it himself. That's probably one of my favorite Pulser jobs I've seen.