insertcleverusername101

[insertcleverusername101]

I’ve been vaguely following TF2 comics (I’ve read 6 and 7 and know a few plot beats and the general storyline) and from the outside it seems like Engineer and Pyro have gotten way less “screen time” than anyone else

Pyro makes sense, there’s only so much you can do with them but Engineer feels way to engaging to be left out like that

so am i wrong or is Engie just not shown to much, and if so why?

Engineer is noticeably out of focus in the comics, and there are two important throughlines in his characterization contributing to this.

The first is that out of the nine mercenaries he's always been the most plugged in to the backstory- the comic where we learned his real name is the one that introduced the backstory, he's the only one of the mercenaries to have actually canonically met one the Mann brothers, the only one who for sure knows what the gravel wars are ostensibly being fought over- and that level of involvement with the background plot, coupled with his genius, level-headedness and comparatively high empathy, makes him difficult to position front-and-center as a protagonist without breaking a bunch of things.

The second thing setting him apart from the rest of the mercenaries is that while he's enough of an eccentric to rise to the challenge of the setting's gonzo insanity, he's almost never the instigator of any of it. His Meet the Team video consists of him sitting and relaxing while his sentry guns mow down waves of assailants, monologuing about the measured practicality of his escalating response. His response to the teleporter tumor problem in Expiration Date is a grounded and practical approach to a ridiculous situation (that's exacerbated by Soldier.) He's minding his own business when a rocket full of space guns lands on his back acre on Christmas Eve, he spends the entirety of Loose Canon flummoxed by Blutarch's amoral insanity (though importantly, he's nonetheless willing to take the man's money for services rendered.) He's a fantastic straight man when the narrative needs such a figure, but his isn't a flashy insanity. He's not Soldier, he's not Medic, he's not even Heavy as far as out-of-pocket gag behavior goes. Almost all humor involving the Engineer has to do with his reaction (or lack thereof) to the bizarre carnage around him.

These factors are reflected in the role he ends up playing in TF comics 6 and 7. He's kept in the background of the plot in a reactive role, doing his professional best as an Engineer to maintain the Administrator's life extender- a frustated care-provider to a deeply unwell patient who doesn't always take his advice, a grounded, practical facilitator of what ultimately turns out to be the most deranged behavior of the entire story, seeing his contract out to the bitter end. And this is the way in which his apparent groundedness wraps back around into a distinct brand of crazy, no better than anyone else. The Administrator's real plan is something he's a reasonable enough person to disapprove of in the abstract. He's clearly aware something is rotten at the core of all this- he describes Miss Pauling actually managing to recover more Australium as her having created a problem rather than having solved one, he was on some level relieved to realize this was all drawing to a close. But none of this was something he was willing to break his professional obligations over and thus something he (and two generations of his family before him) deliberately kept themselves in the dark about so that they wouldn't have to reckon with it or make that call.

This passivity and level-headedness allow him to play an extremely important narrative role once everything is out in the open- he's the only member of the main cast who can present Miss Pauling with her Road-to-Damascus moment over what to do with the remaining Australium with any credible gravity. He's the only character left in the main cast besides Pauling herself who's plugged in enough that his analysis of her situation carries any weight. He's the only one of the Mercenaries from whom "If you keep it, I won't help you" means anything at all or is even a believable ultimatum- the rest of the mercs might have been freaked out by The Administrator specifically, but do you really think they wouldn't have just kept following their friend Miss Pauling if she kept signing their checks? He does what he's always done- he examines the situation, lays out the available options, and leaves the final call up to others. The only thing that changes- and, to some extent, a sign of his off-screen character development- is this time is that he finally draws a line in the sand as to what course of action he'll lend his expertise to. He threatens to finally, finally remove himself from the situation unless Pauling decides that she wants him to help her finally, finally solve the problem once and for all.

[insertcleverusername101]

Mrs. Claus opens "The Year Without a Santa Claus" by claiming the eponymous year took place "before you were born". Seeing as the movie was released in 1974, this means the year must have been before then.

Bounding this on the lower end is the presence of ice hockey - mentioned by Heat Miser - and the use of telephones. Ice hockey was invented in 1875, while Alexander Graham Bell built the telephone in 1876, meaning the year must post-date these. These figures give a range of approximately 100 years during which Santa may have taken his holiday.

Yet, narrowing this further is the presence of a December calendar counting the 1st to a Wednesday. Between 1876 and 1974, only the Decembers of 1880, 1886, 1897, 1909, 1915, 1920, 1926, 1937, 1943, 1948, 1954, 1965, and 1971 started on a Wednesday.

But still this can be narrowed further.

When Santa set out that Christmas Eve, we see what appears to be an almost full Moon in the sky. Within the years listed, only 1920 had a full Moon on Christmas.

Ergo, 1920 was the year without a Santa Claus.

[insertcleverusername101]

I know this is like, a joke and all, but Windows, games, and modern software in general are extremely bloated beyond what they need in terms of space.

Like. I'm gonna be totally blunt here. I often use a 12 year old laptop (going on 13). It runs Discord, a browser, and I can watch shows + movies and stuff on it. It's snappy, fast, and stable.

All I had to do was move beyond Windows - the thing runs a lightly modified installation of Ubuntu 24.04.

Now, don't take this as a "move to Linux no disadvantages, fuck Windows" post - it's not that. I do feel that Windows is a piece of shit and Windows's time in the sun will come to an end eventually, but I also get most users would struggle with doing some stuff on Linux systems.

But we don't do a whole lot more than we did a decade ago. 2014 - 2024 we ran the same OS - Windows 10. Same common business applications - the office suite, Edge, and Chrome.

More memory - more processing power - more disk space. We just keep burning and burning through more and more to compensate for a lack of developer skill in memory management, and it just isn't sustainable.

this is a controversial opinion and I’m not a gamer but I don’t need my graphics to be that good. I don’t need to see every individual feather on a bird. my poor computer doesn’t deserve to carry that weight either.

[insertcleverusername101]

this is a controversial opinion and I’m not a gamer but I don’t need my graphics to be that good. I don’t need to see every individual feather on a bird. my poor computer doesn’t deserve to carry that weight either.

[insertcleverusername101]

Something about palestinians not being treated as a reliable source except when haaretz confirms it. How many times have gazans taken videos that we shared of people carrying white flags and shot at by the iof. Of that man who was run over by a tank and they all said it was fake and the babies dying in the incubators is not real and the kids with sniper shots to their head is fake except when israelis soldiers say they did what they did and they shot to kill and they shot arbitrarily...well now it's an issue now it's truthful. We can't trust palestinians in Gaza and not even their family members in the diaspora who are in contact with them. But when the haaretz confirms it then it's the truth. We're not allowed to narrate at all. Fuck this all

[insertcleverusername101]

Remember earlier this year when Boeing very clearly had a whistleblower executed? And law enforcement didn't even look for anyone or release any info about it or anything?

People keep comparing Luigi Mangione's case to the subway murderer who got off because of systemic eugenics, but I think there's something more apt about the fact that a CEO had someone executed in recent memory, with zero attempts to find a culprit, while they spared no expense at all to find (and probably frame, it's beginning to look like) someone who shot a CEO. It's always fine to slaughter if you're rich, but if you kill the rich, they will hunt you down.

[insertcleverusername101]

2003

From https://archive.org/details/webshots-freeze-frame

[insertcleverusername101]

I need some advice, I suppose, after the end of a relationship with someone I cared deeply about.

We weren't stable. I will simply state this. We were friends, we were partners, and we were nothing at various times. Their attraction to me changed.

I need stability. I need it. It's not optional for me. I work in an industry that thrives off of it, and I spent a lot of time in my youth in volatile and unstable environments - I need things to be stable. I can't deal with raging passion one moment and cold hatred the next.

I don't really feel normal attraction - I mean, yeah. I liked how they looked. They were cute. But also, like, I liked them for their personality above all before I ever saw their face. And I would have liked them no matter how they looked.

They liked me for... me. Same deal. They liked how I looked, but that also changed, sometimes on a daily basis? Sometimes they said romantically. Sometimes platonically. It varied.

It also became a requirement early on that they have two partners - myself, and someone else who they'd been with for longer. And even though they said they'd been with the other guy for longer and they had "something special", that it didn't diminish their feelings for me...

...Except, obviously it did.

Today they said "let's just be friends". And after many instances of us doing many different things, of feelings changing, of me being okay with them having two partners, I said "okay! No problem. But you can't have me back romantically." Because frankly, their feelings were not and are not stable, and are prone to change frequently, and it's very stressful to change tracks constantly from "just friends" to "blocked" to "nothing". Even with that... I did like them, and I wanted them in my life.

Their response? "This feels weird, I can't be your friend" almost immediately. Blocked. Removed from all servers. Gone. Messaging mutuals to get them to tell me never to reach out again.

I'd have done anything for them. Anything. And I guess I was just kind of a toy for them? Something to be used up and discarded.

I guess. I dunno. How do I live with myself? That's the advice I want. I clearly placed my trust in the wrong person, and it's left me feeling disgusted with myself for being so weak and letting someone who obviously didn't deserve my trust into my heart.

[insertcleverusername101]

Whispers of the sea

[insertcleverusername101]

saw someone else draw this ages ago and really wanted to look at it again but couldnt find it... so i redrew it instead 🐈

[insertcleverusername101]

Smiling Friend... Umm... Uhh... Team For... Uhh... 2... yeah.

[insertcleverusername101]

(I did post this on TikTok but i wanted to also post it here)

Am the only one who noticed that the first time scout talks to us (which is in his meet the team video) he threatening us and say that we won’t survive in his situation

But then the last time (I believe the last time) he talks to us (which is the 7th comic) he thanks us and tells us he happy we stuck with them

I love his character development they took this arrogant and annoying young Boston boy and turned him into a happy goofy single dad with 4 kids, i love it!!!!

[insertcleverusername101]

[insertcleverusername101]

Spy being great with Scout's kids because he was never in his son's life but he wants to try and be in his grandkids life and love them will actually kill me.

[insertcleverusername101]

TF2 ISSUE 7 SPOILERS //

Alright alright I know everyones going crazy over the ending of the comic (I am too) but I don't see this moment talked about enough and how beautifully done it is.

We start with the Administrator: The man who took everything from her is finally dead. She reigns victory. She is now living alone in peace, leaving flowers for each and every gravestone that was left before Zepheniah Mann's passing. The gravestones left before him are carved out beautifully, time and effort put into each and every one of them. The Administrator even lays out the roses so they look like they're grown out around the gravestones.

And here we have Zepheniah Mann's grave. A slab of rock with only his initials carved into it. The other gravestones are large, extravagant, and have their full names carved into them. Zepheniah's remains small; little thought put into it.

The gravestone wasn't even for him in the first place. It was for whichever of his son's died first, whichever one failed him. He himself didn't put much care into the gravestone, so why should he deserve anything better? In the end, he was treated the way he treated others. He was the failed son.

The Administrator leaves the stems of the roses out for him. She just places them there, no thought put into it seemingly. But there is SO much thought in this very moment. She had everything planned out from the very beginning.

Every day, she watched as the man grew older and older. She was there for his passing, and as far as we can tell, she caused his death. She leaves out roses for each and every grave, except for his. She leaves the stems. To her, he doesn't deserve the flower, he deserves the thorns. They aren't placed with care like the other flowers had been, they are simply put down. She gives him exactly what he deserves.

The atmosphere has suddenly lost that beautiful lighting and vibrant colours, the sky has become more gray and dreary. The Administrator is waking up more devastated, putting less time and effort into her daily life. The stems are turning brown, wilting under her eyes. She cares less. She seems relatively unaffected by the things around her. She gets stung by a bee, but doesn't seem to care. However that last panel says everything. She's growing tired of doing the same thing day in and day out. The cycle of depression is a tiring one. Soon enough you realize: is it even worth it? After all of this, after I finally got the one thing I wanted. But what now?

The scene is now almost completely devoid of colour. The weather is gloomy, and the Administrator looks like she has been bedridden for a while. She has taken the gravestone into her bedroom, now having to wake up to the reminder that he's dead and gone, she got what she wanted. But at what cost? There's nothing left to do anymore. She set herself out for one goal and one goal only her entire life. What was the point anymore?

There's so much to unpack in these panels, I doubt I've even scraped the surface of this. She's lost all emotion, the next few panels showing that she doesn't believe there's a point in living anymore. It's a terrifying thought, setting your entire life up to do one specific thing, getting that thing done, and then having nothing else left to live for. It's such a well-done portrayal of how depression can destroy you from the inside out.

Revenge is sweet, but it has a bitter aftertaste.

[insertcleverusername101]

[insertcleverusername101]

Remember when Bones figured out that Dr. Miranda Jones was blind way before anyone else, but kept it to himself until the knowledge was vital for the safety of the entire ship, because otherwise what a person chooses to share about her medical condition is her own business?

Because that’s the courtesy and respect we like to see.