Aquila: Fallout is a great show!

Kasumi: It is – the characters are wonderful, and the worldbuilding has lots of depth.

A: I just love the Ghoul.  He’s a perfect example of an antagonist who isn’t a villain.

K: And Lucy has just the right amount of pluck for a plucky protagonist.  She’s properly plucky.  I like that a lot.

A: They made some mistakes with the worldbuilding, though.

K: Oh?

A: Well, there’s a profession that should be there, as it would absolutely have survived.

K: Which one?

A: Plastic surgeons.

K: Plastic surgeons.

A: You’ve seen the ghouls!  Can you think of anybody who needs plastic surgery more than they do?  Just think about how much the Ghoul probably wants his nose back.

K: Aren’t most of them feral?

A: And not having noses is an obvious contributing factor to that!  Missing parts of your face is not good for mental health.

K: And how are they going to operate on a feral ghoul?

A: Very carefully and with lots of anesthetic.

K: And how are they going to handle post-operative care?

A: From a safe distance.

K: And how are they going to get paid?

A: In bottle caps, of course.  When you’re dealing with a currency that can be found in the trash, acquiring money is annoying and smelly, not hard.

K: Right...

A: Not that it will help, though.  The world in this show is screwed no matter what happens.

K: I thought one of the themes of the show was the difficult road to rebuild the world.

A: It’s not the willpower that’s the problem.  It’s the choice of currency.

K: What, the bottle cap?  What’s wrong with that?

A: It’s basic economics.  The bottle cap standard can only doom society in the end.

K: Why, because it can be found in the garbage if you look hard enough?

A: That’s a feature, not a flaw.  No, the problem is that they are bottle caps.

K: I’m really not following you here.

A: It’s perfectly logical.  What is society going to need to do as it recovers?

K: Establish a system of laws and governance.

A: No – drink things.

K: I think laws and standard are more important–

A: And for that they’ll need bottles.  And what will those bottles need?

K: I think I actually see where you’re going with this.

A: Exactly!  Bottle caps!  And, with glass blowing needing far fewer resources than mining, there will be a run on bottle caps until they can get mining and production going.  That would cause massive inflation!

K: That’s...actually logical.

A: But then, as the inflation gets worse and worse, new production of bottle caps will begin.  Suddenly, they’ll be available everywhere – it will cause the biggest currency crash in history!

K: So, what if the new government changes currencies to something else?

A: You know how people are, Kasumi!  It was hard enough to get people off the gold standard, can you imagine how hard it will be get anybody to abandon the bottle cap standard?

K: Right.

A: I’m telling you, Kasumi, this attempt at civilization is just doomed.  The next one might have a chance, if only they turn away from the bottle cap standard.

K: And, wrapping up, who’s your candidate for best girl?

A: CX404.

K: Wait...you mean the dog with Dr. Wilzig, that guy whose head has that power source that everybody is looking for?

A: Absolutely.  She’s the best dog.

K: No argument there.  So, to sum up we liked Fallout, and society needs to avoid the bottle cap standard.