#but now that I can put mods in my weapons

[keldae]

I know Xaja has all of the outfits, so let’s see…

👕

KORIN

All right! Smuggler-bro, who has ALMOST as many outfits as his favourite big sister does! ;) He has ENTIRELY too many outfits to put in here, so I'ma just pick my favourites of the bunch...

First off, his go-to jacket for hanging out on Carrick Station and making frenemies in Republic Space! Exiled Revolutionary jacket and pants, Advanced Slicer boots.

And, for when he's doing some work around his ship or HQ... Impulsive Adventurer shirt, Frontline Slicer pants, Canderous Ordo gloves, GAME Security Wristguard bracer, and the Advanced Slicer boots again.

Feeling more like his Corellian Jedi roots? The Kanan cosplay/Frontline Slicer set has him covered!

Got a run taking him out to Hoth? He's gonna bitch and complain the entire time, but he'll at least be stylish (and somewhat warm) in the Winter Outlaw outfit!

More relaxed at home or around the base? The GAME Security Jacket is his go-to outfit!

And, when he's gotta look business-like and professional, the Cad Bane suit aka Outer Rim Drifter is his look!

And in all of these, he's using the Mischief and Anarchy blasters. When he's in his Operative loadout, he uses the Amban JP blaster rifle and enough knives to make his dad proud.

[catiuskaa]

𝐆𝐓𝐊: 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐊𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐲.

sum. seungmin streams from time to time with the boys, and today, you wanted to join in… kind of. not like he’s going to complain!

wc. 1.0k

cw. fluff! swearing, they’re playing gta (guns and other weapons mentioned) sanrio characters, short references to seungin, minsung and hyunibini, and that’s all!

req! by annonie right here. girl i am so sorry it took me so long, i completely erased this from my mind ㅠㅠ hope you’re still around!

[♦️ ☆ 🎆 ☆ ♦️]

The lights flicker above him, and Seungmin blinks, waiting for something. It’s a pact you two made up for when he was busy gaming and you needed his attention.

“Yeobo?” He’s calling for you, and he moves the headset on his head, freeing one ear so as to hear you better. Weirdly enough, there’s no sound that answers to his voice.

“Seungmin-a, Jeongin-a isn’t going to help you,” Changbin teases through the headset, “you can put the explosives on the vault yourself.” He can hear Felix’s laugh, but there’s something else on his mind.

Well. And on his lap, as of now.

“Bubs, I’m on stream.” He whispers to the top of your head, hiding his smile from the camera behind your silhouette. But you only nod softly, smiling cheekily.

“It’s a pity I don’t care.” You snicker, getting comfortable on your new-found seat. “Tell Changbin I can hear him.” You joke softly.

“Huh? Is noona there?” Felix ponders, and he can notice the smile on the tone of his voice.

“Is she joining in?” Hyunjin asks. “I can add her on the call.”

“Nah, she’s just hanging out,” Seungmin mutters softly after feeling you shake your head against his chest. The sentence comes off almost absentmindedly, as if the action wasn’t mildly weird. You used to be camera shy, especially when he started, never wanting to show up on stream if you weren’t playing too, reason why he came up with the light thing. If you wanted or needed something, you could just turn it on and off, and he’d pause or hide his character in a corner to grant you his attention.

A shy part of him was worried because of all this, and how unusual it was, but as your warmth seeps into his body, he relaxes again, reeling the scent of your shampoo.

“Who are you playing with?” Your voice is soft when you speak, and he forces himself to remember that there’s a camera recording him so as to not coo at you teasingly, calling you adorable to make you blush and giggle like he so often does.

“Just the boys and the chat.” He replies, almost as soft as you, and he can notice the chat going wild in the corner of his eye. “Wanna say hi?” He smiles lightly, ignoring it for now.

Your smile turns cheeky again and you nod, taking his headset and putting it on, turning on his lap to face the camera.

“Heyaa,” you greet sheepishly, your hand fixing the mic to a comfortable distance.

He can hear the boys teasing him, something about you being better than him and how you should join in and team against your boyfriend, but his eyes are still on the chat, watching carefully as he keeps playing.

“What game is this?” You ask, giggling. “Why does Kuromi have a gun?”

“Oh. That’s Minho. Hannie found this mod that lets you use Sanrio skins on GTA.” Chan chimed back before Seungmin could.

“We’re trying to rob a bank,” Felix added with a sneaky laugh.

You snorted, turning back to Seungmin. “What skin are you using, Minnie?”

“Purin, of course.” He chuckles. “Felix and Sung are Kiki and Lala, Changbin is Hello Kitty, Jeongin is Pochacco, Hyunjin is MyMelody, and Chan is Badtemaru.”

“Damn bro, you said all the names right.” Jisung cackled, half surprised.

“Yo, someone in the chat said ‘That’s a weird way to ask for my hand in marriage’.” Jeongin laughed loudly.

“Oh my god,” Seungmin snickers, leaning his chin on your shoulder.

“Girl, they’re tryna steal your man,” Hyunjin bickers, knowing you’re still listening.

“Hyunjin, either kiss Changbin or get a girlfriend yourself dude, leave my girl alone.” Seungmin teases back, tenderly taking the headset back as so to not pull on your hair.

You turn back and cuddle into him, giggling as you watch the screen, seeing Hello Kitty chasing MyMelody with a machete, hearing Changbin faintly from the headset, something like ‘kiss me, Hyunjin-a~’ as the rest of the boys laugh.

The gameplay gets a bit boring as you watch them rob the bank, and slowly, your eyes trail toward the chat. It surprises you how most people weren’t talking about the play, but rather you two.

they’re so cute ㅠㅠ

couple goals fr!

así sí que creo en el amor <3

what’s their ship name lmaoo

omg pero si son mis padres!!!

On the other side of the screen, you could notice the number of views increasing by hundreds. You blush, hiding your face in the crook of your boyfriend’s neck.

He passes the controller in front of you, hugging you with his arms in a way that he can still keep playing. Seungmin curses when Minho stabs him and kills him again, watching Kuromi move side to side as the older man teases him meanly.

“Sure, sure, go kiss Ji about it,” He mutes his mic from the Discord group and from the stream, checking it twice before taking the headset off, hanging it on his neck, and turning to you. “You okay there?”

He smiles when he notices your blush, a bit confused. But you nod, fidgeting with the strings of his hoodie.

“I can turn off stream if you want to,” he offers.

“It’s okay.” You grin bashfully. “I like watching you play.”

He kisses the top of your forehead, and you cuddle back against him. Seungmin couldn’t care less if the boys are teasing him as soon as he pops his headset back on, turning the mic on again and killing Kiki and Lala in two swift headshots.

“Can we instead talk about how old Chan is?”

[♦️ ☆ 🎆 ☆ ♦️]

kats, who gave y’all a sanrio x straykids x gta collab before gta 6 lololol

catiuskaa, august 2024 ©

PERMANENT TAGLIST! @stayconnecteed @lyramundana

[bellshazes]

dreaming up a syllabus for an imaginary course on metanarratives about gameplay, which i think would go something like:

unit 1: who do you think you are i am - auto-documentary & games

Vlogs and the Hyperreal, Folding Ideas

The Slow Death of Let's Play Videos, Meraki (to ~10:00)

World Record Progression: Mike Tyson, Summoning Salt

ROBLOX_OOF.mp3, hbomberguy

Life as a Bokoblin: A Zelda Nature Documentary, Monster Maze

optional: Braindump on the History of Let's Plays, slowbeef

unit 2: what like it's hard? - intro to challenge narratives

Chapter 26: Games as Narrative Play: Two Structures for Narrative Play, Rules of Play

A different kind of challenge run: Minimalist 100% (BOTW), Wolf Link

Surviving 100 Days on Just Dirt, Mogswamp

Can You Beat DARK SOULS III with Only Firebombs, the Backlogs

Is it Possible to Beat Super Mario 3D World while permanently crouching?, Ceave Gaming

The Pacifist Challenge - Beating Hollow Knight Without Collecting Soul [CHALLENGE] - Sample

optional: How to 100% Snowpeak Ruins in under 15 minutes, bewildebeest

unit 3: nelly you don't understand, i AM the narrative - form and function

The Future of Writing about Games, Jacob Geller

Can You Beat GRIME Without Weapons?, the Backlogs

Mushroom Kingdom Championships, Ceave Gaming

My Life as a Barber in Hitman 2, MinMax (Leo Vader)

MyHouse.WAD - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod, PowerPak

optional: Mega Microvideos, Matthewmatosis

the theme and structure is mostly intended to introduce at least one critical or historically contextual work followed by examples of the type of narrative in question.

in unit 1, this is the idea of "How do people talk about their own experiences in the context of YouTube and playing video games?" across three rather different kinds of documentaries. unit 2 is intended to take that lens of who is telling what tale and dial in on challenge running, where i first noticed the way some videos turn the story of overcoming a challenge into its own narrative that is distinct from but related to the narrative events of the game itself. unit 3 circles back to the bigger picture with a variety of examples that, to me, are maximally metanarrative, the emergent story of the player-narrator now functionally replacing the game's embedded narrative.

bonus unit: broken narratives

Glitch & the Grotesque at the MLA, Sylvia Korman

Watching time loop movies to escape my time loop, Leo Vader

The Stanley Parable, Dark Souls, and Intended Play, Folding Ideas

Breaking Madden, Jon Bois

The TRUTH about the Pizzaplex in FNAF: Security Breach, AstralSpiff

this one is highly underdeveloped, but i'd love to work out something more robust building on randomizer challenges that produce intentionally bizarre, semi-ironic "lore," and bois-esque endeavors to break games so hard the story itself crumbles. but that's really out of scope so i'm just including the links to things i couldn't bear to get rid of. more rambling abt the challenge runs I chose under the cut.

Challenge runs represent one of the most obvious places to start, due to being extremely plentiful and having a hook that makes a "here's how I did X thing in Y video game" format almost unavoidable. Minimalist 100% is an underrated and sweet straightforward example that I mostly include as a baseline for reporting-out style narrative; here are the facts, here's what happened, this is the thing that it is. Mogswamp's 100 Days on Just Dirt is similar in style, but the physical measuring of days is a delightful and, more importantly, external narrative device.

Now oriented, we get a taste of Ceave Gaming's narrative approach to Mario challenges with the no-crouching run, and while we still aren't at the degree of player-characters being constructed for the narrative's sake, the spirited belief in crouching sets the stage for other rhetoric in more extreme cases we'll see later.

The Backlogs' entire body of work qualifies here, but GRIME is the strongest inspiration for putting this list together. I include the DS3 firebombs run because what was initially a factual description of how his wife's use of firebombs inspired him to play differently in the original DS1 firebombs run has developed into full-blown multi-game narrative arc with the Firebomb Goddess (his wife, who also voices the character) compelling his in-game character to achieve his destined quest. Grime takes that even further,

In-Game Documentaries

I include Life as a Bokoblin mostly as a contrast to My Life as a Barber - there is a level of fictionalization and roleplay involved in the Zelda in-game documentary that highlights exactly what I want to single out when I am talking about metanarrative, the story about a story.

[lilbittymonster]

how would a complete complete beginner get into gpose? like how to make npcs appear and pose my oc with them?

love your blorbos and the triad and your gposes and writing btw. thank you and pls keep creating <333

Hi, anon! Thank you so much, that's so sweet 💜

So, I may have gotten a little carried away, but I wanted to be thorough responding and I thank you for your patience. This is going under a readmore out of courtesy to the dashboard.

To start out you'll need to download some stuff.

Programs

Anamnesis:

Install: download

This is an entirely self-contained program, and you could technically stop here and do all your posing from Anamnesis, I know several people who prefer it. It’s perfect for posing with humanoid models, minions, and mob creatures.

The biggest downside is that if you don’t have a second monitor (or have a really small screen like I do), it’s going to get in the way of a lot of your posing. It gets pretty fiddly having to readjust the camera around the doll and move the screen aside so you can see what you’re doing. So if that’s going to be an issue for you, I would also recommend using….

Ktisis:

Install: download

You will also need to install the FFXIVQuicklauncher, which is linked in the Ktisis instructions. It’s a bit more work to set up, but if you think you’ll want to try out using mods, Penumbra works on the same framework and this will save you a bit of hassle later on.

Ktisis operates within gpose from a little dropdown bar on the side of your screen, and the biggest difference is that it puts the skeleton directly over the models in 3D instead of a flat view. It does still have a flat view option, but I am much more 3D oriented so having the skeleton visible right under my cursor works better for me. It’s also helpful for showing all the special bones on monsters and bosses that Anam doesn’t!

I am also currently using the testing build version of Ktisis as it offers the ability to select multiple bones at a time, which I don’t believe the current public release has. This can be turned on by right clicking on the plugin and selecting “receive plugin testing versions”.

There is a third posing program called Brio, and it requires the same level of install as Ktisis, but I personally don’t like using it. I find the posing interface unwieldy and at a beginner level, it really cannot offer you anything that Anamnesis and Ktisis already don’t. The only thing it would be absolutely necessary for is to spawn in actors through Anamnesis.

So now that we’ve got the programs installed, time to get some actors in here.

Importing Characters

You can get characters into gpose one of two ways. You can rock it old school and load a character file onto a pre-existing model, or you can spawn a new one digitally within gpose.

Old School Method:

Use an overworld model! I’m just going to borrow this Temple Knight real quick-

-and now I have successfully freed Aymeric from his office. Time for a lunch date!

If you don’t have any overworld models to use, like in instanced areas such as dungeons, you can use a carbuncle instead.

Using the powers of arcanima-

-I have now brought Estinien into the realm of the Fuath. And he thought the moogles were bad...

New School Method:

In the Ktisis testing workspace, there’s a little plus icon at the bottom left hand corner.

“Create new actor” will make a clone of your model with all the same gear and physical appearances. You can then load a character file onto that of your choice, or you can customise it from there. “Import actor from file” will skip right ahead to loading in a premade character file you’ve saved as it spawns a new model.

Importing/Exporting Character Files

Character files are how your appearance, gear, and weapons are all stored to be loaded in onto an actor. These will appear in your program save files as a .chara file. Anamnesis and Ktisis should create their own save files and will automatically save character and pose information to those locations. You can also check to see that they saved correctly by opening up your files directory and tracing the file paths.

In the “Character” tab in Anamnesis, select the actor of your choice, hit “Import”, and select your file. The dropdown menu gives you some options for what specific parts of a character file you want to import. There’s also the option to import game NPCs.

In Ktisis, right click the actor and select “Import…” then “Character”.

This will bring up the import screen, where you have the same choice between files saved to your computer or NPCs from the game.

Changing Gear

Changing gear can be done through Anamnesis simply by clicking on the item slot in the appearance tab, and you’ll get a list of everything that can be equipped into that slot. Ktisis will require you to right click on an actor and select “Edit appearance” before giving you a similar menu.

This is one of Anamnesis’ biggest selling points because it has the most robust gear filtering and search system of the three posing programs. You can filter by class, job, race/genderlocked gear, items that are Mogstation purchases, and save favourites to the top of each list.

Ktisis and Brio do not have this feature, so I really recommend doing all of your gear searching through Anamnesis unless you know exactly what the gear piece is called.

If you change your mind mid-pose that you want a different piece of gear, changing the equipment in Ktisis will not break the pose, but trying through Anamnesis will.

Posing

Now that you’ve got your dolls in place, it’s time to actually start posing! Like I said above, Anamnesis is mostly a flat view of the skeleton, and Ktisis has the skeleton visible in 3D on the model, so choose which format works with your brain easiest. (And they both can swap formats as well.)

The red/blue/green gizmo is the same across all three posing programs, and comes in three modes; rotate, position, and scale. Body bones will all be manipulated through rotation. Scaling can be done if you want to change how a body part looks and is especially helpful for fixing elbows. Facial bones, however, will need to be moved in position mode due to the new graphical update. And this is really why I recommend you use Ktisis testing build as this gives you the ability to select multiple bones at once to move in tandem.

The easiest way to start learning to pose is by modifying the existing emotes and actions. Cycle through the various emotes and job actions to find something that gets you close to what you want, and then make minor tweaks from there. It’s not impossible to pose from a base standing idle, but it is a pain and takes a lot longer.

Before you can start repositioning bones, you’ll need to toggle “Posing Mode” on. In Anamnesis, this is in the “Pose” tab, and in Ktisis it’s the red/green toggle at the top. You’ll also need to pause character movement in gpose (freeze character).

If you plan on moving models around in the XYZ coordinates instead of leaving them where they are in gpose (especially since the digital actors will spawn directly on top of you), you will need to freeze positions as well. This is found in the top right corner of the “Action” tab in Anamnesis.

In Ktisis, the "Freeze Positions" button is under the character editor. Right click on your character, choose "Edit appearance", then under the animation tab (third from the left), check "Freeze Positions".

Importing/Exporting Poses

Another place where Ananmesis shines is having all of the vanilla pose variations for all of the races and genders available as pose files to be uploaded. This is in the second file button, underneath the list of your original files.

Note: All default expressions currently in Anamnesis are out of date. Take the time to go through the expressions in gpose and save each face individually to be loaded on separately as expressions.

This is the same process as importing/exporting characters. Poses will be saved as a .pose file to the program of your choice. If you’ve downloaded pre-made poses from someone else, make sure they’re in the program files and not your downloads folder just to keep everything in one place.

Note: Pose files from before Dawntrail will break expressions. These should only be imported on body bones.

Loading Select Bones

You can piece together new poses using bits of old ones, too! In Ananmesis, click and drag to highlight the parts you want to transfer (it can be a little finnicky around the hands/hips.)

And in Ktisis, right click select down the list of bones you want to use.

Expressions will always need to be loaded onto a model as selected bones. Anamnesis has the “Expression” option, which will automatically select all the bones on the head parent.

Ktisis will need to have the “Face” option ticked on the “Import Pose” if you’re importing from the actor’s name. If you’ve clicked the parent you want to apply it to, it will automatically tick “Apply selected bones”.

The ideal order of operations is Load Actors > Load Gear > Posing Mode.

Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

-Ktisis lets you import reference images now! In the same place as importing a new character, you can import a reference image to be on the screen with you instead of tabbing between the game and browser.

-If you like the pose you get while riding a particular mount and think “wow I wish I could have that as a normal sit pose” you can just fire up your program of choice, freeze motion, and save the bones! My personal fave is the sit from the hippo cart mount.

-Don’t rotate your model from the root bone (the one that’s named after the actor), rotate from the abdomen. This will still move your whole actor without compromising the XYZ alignment. Think of the root bone as the little plastic support stand for an action figure you’d put on a shelf. You can pose the action figure however you want, but the plastic stand still has to stay touching the table.

~

That’s it for what I would consider getting started with. A lot of this is stuff I’ve had to learn myself or piecemeal together from various people, so I hope it’s not too overwhelming, but if I can save someone else the hassle I went through then I will!

My final piece of advice is to remember that this is supposed to be fun. If it’s starting to become not fun, take a break and do something else that isn’t gposing for a bit and come back to it.

Wishing you the best of luck in your gposing journey!

[rallamajoop]

More random details from the depths of RE8

With the excuse of trying some shiny new mods, I've been replaying RE8 lately for the umpteenth time. Given the number of hours I've already poured into this game, you'd really think there'd be nothing left to find by this stage ‒ yet here I am, finding still more details I'd somehow missed the first half-dozen times through.

For one, there's the fact you can actually find Eva's grave in the graveyard outside the church. As the only photo we ever see of her shows her as a baby, I'd assumed she was still a baby when she died, but turns out, she was ten years old.

"Eva, June 1909 ‒ August 1919

May you slumber for only a short while"

As expected, her death of the Spanish flu took place in 1919. There's some semi-legible text on the stone, but it doesn't match the caption ‒ it's just the same generic filler text you'll find on half the gravestone assets in this game.

For another, there's Rose's baby monitor. I'd noticed Ethan turning the thing on when he puts her to bed, and even found the assets for its screen ‒ but since I'd never found the monitor itself, I assumed they must be unused.

Until this playthrough, when suddenly I'm just like, oh, there it is, sitting right on the table. You can even interact with it!

How did I miss this so many times? It is pretty easy to overlook, given you'll trigger the cutscene with Mia if you go much closer to the kitchen, but I'm still surprised I never spotted it before. (And you do have to wonder if there was ever any plan for it to show a glimpse of something more sinister than just a still-image of Rose sleeping.)

In other minor details, there's the bit where Ethan arrives on the outskirts of the village at 8AM. You can hear a clock striking 8 times as you get your first view of area.

Granted, this is not going to excite anyone who hasn't spent as long as I have putting together an hour-by-hour timeline of everything that happens in this game, but I still do love that they give you enough detail that that's even possible ‒ and this new timestamp fits right into that timeline. (And why yes I have just gone back and updated that post, what do you take me for?)

Speaking of assets I thought were unused, you know that hidden room under the castle you can't get into until later, where you have to solve a puzzle that involves setting a moroaica on fire? Have you ever looked closely at the tapestries decorating this place? Because I found them in the game files ages ago, and have been trying to figure out if they're actually in the game ever since.

Because seriously, look at these things!

Yes, that is a indeed a man with a sword and spear, wearing a hoplite helmet and sandals and nothing else. And the women seeing him from the front seem to be having a whole range of reactions to all that, er, weaponry being brandished their way. Isn't fine art wonderful?

Another asset I'd innocently assumed was unused is this wonderful bit of bullshit which was labeled simply 'antibow'. It wasn't until I took a long look at it that I realised what they meant was more like 'anti-B.O.W.', as in Bio-Organic-Weapon.

Yes, that is indeed a knife taped to some kind of grenade. Sure is one high-tech outfit we're working with here!

Only now do I spot that this is actually the bomb Chris chucks at the Megamycete in the cavern. It doesn't even come with the knife already attached, he just kind of sticks the knife onto the bomb and presumably straps some tape around them while the camera cuts away.

I still have so much more to share from my ongoing free-camera adventures, but I think we'll leave this one there for today.

[ask-elliot-doorman-fam]

Pain (Tera Doorman Character Study)

(Hey! Mod here! I've decided to dump these character studies here instead of my main, it just makes more sense. I promise it's the last bit of angst for her... moving onto other members of the cast next.)

The solver is a perfectly fine condition to live with 85% of the time, Tera thinks. It's made her tall, given her access to weapons and abilities she otherwise wouldn't have, and keeps her connected to the rest of her family.

Sure it has downsides. She overheats faster, is kinda scary looking compared to other drones. And there's… the rage. But she feels fine most of the time.

Most of the time…

Because there's one more- much more physical downside.

It starts in the morning, the creaking and groaning of her frame as she gets up to start the day, most of it is simply the overwork of her joints, it's a busy day of school, then patrol, and sometimes she'll pull an all nighter or two…

The majority of the time, the stiffness works out as she gets moving, something not even noticed as she goes about her daily activities.

But sometimes…. sometimes it doesn't.

Those are the days where she wakes up with her back- her wing scars, stinging and sensitive like they're fresh, her back and shoulders sore and aching- and those are the bad days.

Where any minor touch to her back sends jolts of pain to her core, even the rubbing of her clothing sets it off, leading to less layers- or no layers of she can get away with it. If it's a lazy day, it's not so bad; it's just her hanging out shirtless in her room until the sensitivity dies down.

If it's not a lazy day, it sucks a little more. School has the desk digging into her back, her clothes are irritating at best, and patrols are an inch shy of driving her crazy; especially if there's actually something to fight. But it's still manageable.

And then there are the really bad days…

Where she'll wake up overheating, clammy and still exhausted. The scars that marked her wings becoming seeping wounds, inflamed and angry, bleeding out onto her bedsheets and soaking through her clothes.

Which leads us into now, her ripping off her pajama shirt with extreme prejudice as her back leaked oil, closing her eyes as her hands tremble and she bites her lip to keep from voicing the scream that wants to claw it's way out of her throat.

On the really bad days, it becomes something she can't hide, despite her efforts. School's a no go, if someone even politely touches her shoulder it would end in her upping her body count against her will. Patrols and Hunts were similarly impossible- combat is rough with two open wounds on your back.

So she calls in sick, strips, and lays belly down in utter misery until her own body decides it's done mauling her back and they heal back over, letting her continue her life normally.

Which is what she's doing now, listening to music with her head hanging off the side of the bed, writhing in pain. Four different fans blowing on her from different directions to keep her temperature down, and a stockpile of oil N had put put for her the second he'd caught wind of one of her “Bad Days.”

There's a knock on the door.

“Hey Jellybean. How's it going?” It's Uzi, she walks in without waiting for Tera to answer, making her roll her eyes and grumble.

“That's a dumbass question.” Tera snapped, feeling her scars throb with a wave of pain. “Sorry. That was rude.” She apologizes a second later.

“Yeah, but it was a valid answer.” Uzi just hums, not insulted in the slightest. “Guess it hasn't let up any?” She asks, using the solver to pick up any carelessly thrown articles of clothing.

“No.” Tera grumbles back, muffled under the pillows she's stuffed her head in.

“Do you need anything?” Her mother asks, and Tera can't help but smile a little.

“I'm okay. It'll be over soon.” Is her response, it's deadpan, thankfully Uzi speaks angsty teen.

“Mm. “I'm okay" is a complete lie. I'm sitting here watching you writhe like you got kicked in the core.” Uzi said back, very much feeling like she was having a conversation with herself; but younger and somehow even more angsty.

“Be better if I had no nagging.” Tera grunted, giving her mom an impressive side eye. Uzi just chuckled, “That's fair…”

“Just shout if you need anything okay?” Uzi said softly, walking up to her much taller daughters figure laying on the bed and pressing a light kiss on her forehead.

“Ew gross.” Tera mumbled, but her tail still wagged regardless. “I'm literally almost eighteen.”

“Yeah? Tough, if I'm able to take care of you you bet your ass I am.” Uzi snapped back, “I'm your mom, it's my job.”

She then sighed again, “Try and get some sleep, I know you didn't get any, okay?”

Uzi ruffled her daughters hair, she hadn't bothered putting it up that morning, so it just hung around her limply.

“Yeah. I'll Try, thanks mom.” Tera replied, as Uzi walked out; fresh pile of laundry suspended in the air above her with the solver.

It took a couple of minutes before she decided to wrangle herself out of bed, she was starting to be able to feel the oil stick to her back, so it was time to wash off… great.

She got to the bathroom, already wearing nothing but a pair of shorts she'd probably stolen from Rad at some point, and sat on the stool there.

A drone bathroom was different then a human one, no toilet for starters, but there was a washbasin, really just a big wooden tub filled with collected rainwater and heated with salvaged heating coils.

She grabbed a rag and braced herself, dousing it in warm water before reaching back and beginning to wipe away the oil.

She winced, making a pained hum as the rag made contact, pushing more oil up to the surface and running down her silicone. She took a deep breath- and kept going.

It was a slow process, filled with whimpers and grunts of pain and small breaks to catch her breath. It would have probably been leagues better if she had someone to help, but she didn't trust anyone else to not be too rough, or even see her like this to be frank.

When she was done, the rag was stained with black and red and the washbasin had a thin veneer of oil shimmering on the top and she sighed and held her visor.

Most days were better.

Today was not.

[randomwriteronline]

"Ah! You're one of those," a voice came to his ears.

Nuparu turned to find a tall Gaquri standing at the entrance, looking at him curiously.

"I am a Toa," he corrected.

The other nodded: "Yes, I do know that. Forgot the name is all. You're a, uh... Ko?"

"Onu."

"Hm! My mistake. Which element is that, again?"

"Earth. Do you need something?" the inventor cut their small talk short, lightly tapping a tool similar to a wrench against the skeletal frame of what appeared to be a heavily modded chariot: "I'm working on a project."

"You know where Berix is?" the Gaquri asked. He raised an arm: an interesting weapon, with a jagged light blue blade at one end and some kind of projectile mechanism attached to the handle, dangled from it casually. "Wanted to drop this off to him. The thornax launcher's been jamming up more often and I know that boy can make it work like a charm again."

"He's getting parts," Nuparu answered. His eyes rested once more on the blade and he added, tilting his head intrigued: "You can leave it here if you want."

"So you can study some original Bara Magna manufacturing?" the other joked.

"It's not really my field, but it looks remarkable."

He watched the organic being laugh heartily as he approached - with a fairly heavy limp, he noticed: "Remarkable! Now that's a bit of an exaggeration, kid. I made these from some bones, whatever viable scraps I could find from wrecks of the Core War, and a few patches across the years when I could afford it. It's held together by spit and whatever Ackar's friend did to make it spurt water."

"From what I understand, spit doesn't seem like a good adhesive."

"That's what we say here to mean something's parts are real shoddily connected together."

"Hm! Like dried mud. Or aluminum sheet."

"That's the idea. Ah, where should I put this, anyhow?"

"There is fine. What's with your leg?"

The Gaquri gave a grimace: "Nothing much - just my knee acting up," he replied, patting the guilty joint. "Something must have gotten rusted. It happens."

Even through the lack of expression of his mask Nuparu treated him to a baffled look.

"What?"

"Organic parts don't rust," the Toa sputtered. "At least, ours don't."

The other eyed the tendons and muscles peeking through black armor, and his lips perked up in a little smile.

Without a word he placed his weapon on the least cluttered corner of Berix's work desk before redirecting his now free hands to the side of the faulty knee, messing with what appeared to be the graceless stitching of a large wound: his fingers sank deftly into it and pried through the gaps enough to loosen the whole thing, and before the less organic being's flabbergasted eyes pulled down the fake skin and meat to reveal a fully mechanical joint, complete with pistons and springs and even what seemed like wires.

"Don't worry," he chuckled with a wave, "Ours don't either. But most crusty old Glatorian like me haven't been completely flesh and bone in a long time."

If the inventor's attention had been piqued before, he was completely captivated now. He was leaning on his seat towards him, vehicle project all but forgotten, intently studying as many details of the prosthesis as he could see from that distance.

His eager interest made the other laugh again: "Why all that surprise! Don't you see something like this on you every day?"

"Yes, but I'm not you!"

"And what's that mean?"

"You're all flesh! And meat! And skin! How does that work?"

The Gaquri considered something for a moment. "If you can get me a seat and figure out what's wrong with it, I'll be glad to let you have a closer look," he offered at last.

Nuparu pulled the stool from right under himself so fast that he fell on his ass.

He then placed it down with extreme care and patted it insistently.

The other barely held back a snort.

His implant hadn't caused this much of a scene since the first day it had been up and functional.

"The name's Tarix, anyhow," he introduced himself as he sat down a little heavily. "Since you'll be rummaging knuckle-deep through the insides of my leg for the next thirty minutes."

"Hm," Nuparu replied as he kneeled until his mask was all but grazing the joint.

Tarix waited a dozen seconds, and added: "You got one too, Toa?"

"One what?"

"Name."

"Nuparu."

"I see. Ah - nope, nope, don't-" his fingers quickly pinched the mechanical being's and lifted them away from the scarified tissue binding the meat to the metal: "That's real flesh, don't peel that - the nerves still work, you'd put me through the pains of Plude."

"What's that?"

"You folks have a place in your lore built just to torture you forever?"

"Yes, Karzhani. I've been there."

"Huh. Well, I've been to Plude too back when it still existed, and I'll just say that the only good thing the Lord of Sand might've done was collapsing it on itself. So, you get what I mean about the pain."

"Hm. Yes, I can imagine. But how do I - see, to check the individual parts, I'd need to pull them off..."

"Oh - hold it, let me just..."

Angling his leg in an uncomfortable position and hunching down with a hiss, the Glatorian set to work carefully pulling screws loose with the help of an empty pipe he'd fetched from his pocket. The small parts dangled from their sockets without falling, just distant enough from the point the metal touched to allow the top and bottom pieces to be pulled apart without needing to pull the much more easy to lose components out of the whole.

"Hold the calf a moment, will you?" he muttered with the pipe now stuck between his teeth. Nuparu complied, holding the lower half of the leg still as Tarix worked his magic on the inner wires. At last, satisfied, he unfurled his back up once more and puffed satisfied: "There, pull."

When the Toa did so, the prosthesis came apart as easily as a house of cards. Suddenly, in the mechanical palm was a whole calf, still warm with life and undoubtedly organic.

Tarix watched genuinely amused as Nuparu tested the ankle in his hands and on the ground, miming an attempt at a walk as though playing with a very concerning doll with nothing short of pure unadultered fascination.

He posed it as if stuck in a sprint: "Can you feel this?"

"Not a single thing," the Glatorian replied. He patted the metallic femur's exposed head: "And neither can I here. The connections are all in the wires, they go right into the nerves, see? So long as they're apart I can't feel crap anywhere from over here," and he pointed to the flesh that stopped around the middle of his thigh "To the rest of the leg underneath. Not that I should be able to, frankly, if we wanted to abide by nature's whims, but luckily for me us Spherus Magna natives never cared much for that."

Nuparu hummed: "How'd you get it like this, anyways?"

"Oh," the Glatorian shrugged as though it were the most normal thing in the world, "Blew up."

"It just exploded?"

"Not by itself, of course, someone shot the whole thing out of me."

The Toa treated him to an appalled look.

Tarix waved a hand harshly, chewing on his unlit pipe: "The Core War was absolutely barbaric, kid! I've witnessed stuff I wouldn't wish on a Skrall. When I saw that half you've got there in your hand fly over my head as gracefully as the ugliest bird known to any being with eyes, I thought I was going to die of shock like a Mountain Striker with a broken wing. I still have no clue how I managed to keep awake through the bloodloss and pain long enough for the fixers to figure out I was still alive enough to be taken down to the medic."

Nuparu regarded the half of a limb in his grasp with newfound horror and fascination. A whole portion of leg, shot right out... He wasn't sure if even the Vortixx could have had something capable of doing that. Oh, sure, they had plenty of possibly worse things, but even the most blunt tended to have slightly more complex effects than just 'blows a chunk off of you'.

And the fact that they had managed to rebuild the broken joint and connected it to the rest of the nervous system was nothing short of miraculous, compared to the same thing done on a mechanical being - whose organic components regenerate, too.

"And all Glatorian have something like this?"

"Us older ones, yes," the other nodded. He watched with a sort of lazy interest as the Toa turned his attention to the mechanism of his prosthesis, checking for damage as he had promised. "The rookies tend to have the usual stuff, thank goodness - scars, plaques, maybe a limb, some fingers..."

"Fingers?"

"Yes, some of them. They tend to nip 'em a lot during training, you know, when they start to get the hang of it and stop holding their weapons like they're gonna grow a mouth and bite them - they cut tendons often those first few times. Or just the whole thing."

"Really?"

He chuckled, playfully waving his fingers: "Gresh keeps losing them. If you look closely you can tell which phalanxes are still his."

"I thought he was good at fighting."

"He is. He's just young. And a little too brash at times."

Nuparu hummed, moving onto the piece of implant attached to his thigh: "You mentioned limbs, too," he noted absentmindedly: "Is that also common, during training?"

"Losing them? Oh no, that happens out in the desert. Or, used to happen... Well, the desert's still out there, just smaller, so I guess - point is, you'll sooner get one cut off by a Bone Hunter or chewed up by a Vorox than find a fellow Glatorian who'll do that to you, on purpose or not. We made sure to try and avoid that sort of thing when we made the rules for the job."

"And plaques?"

"Oh, these," and he tapped some strange metallic protrusions on the top of his legs, on the side of his arms, and on his shoulders. "Nothing special, they keep armor in place. Easier than having to strap it on. We install them when we come of age."

Their shape was somewhat familiar: "Berix has them too, I think."

"I think everybody gets them - Agori, Glatorian, Skrall..."

"They are pretty useful," the Toa nodded.

He couldn't really imagine how they could have managed to stick armor to themselves otherwise. Maybe through some cloth? But then it might chafe their joints, and they'd have to find a way to insert it in the metal anyways...

He hummed thoughtfully, wracking his brain as he tried at once to figure out both the logistics of putting armor on fully organic beings and whatever was wrong with the implant.

So concentrated he was that he actually jumped a little when the pipe gently smacked his shoulder.

Tarix had a strange look on his face as he pointed down at a spot on his prosthesis: "Don't - it's nothing to be worried about yet, just, watch it," he warned, "That coil there you've got near your index, she's real frisky. Won't be a problem now that it's taken apart, but when you stick it back together you'd better avoid even just so much as grazing it - it'll pull my calf back at top speeds to kick my ass. Been like that since the start."

"Oh! Sounds painful."

"It is!"

With a hand already rummaging through a box of springs, Nuparu offered: "Since I'm here already, I could replace that..."

"Ah, there's no need really," the Glatorian quickly stopped him.

"But it's a liability."

"If it's out in the open like this, yeah, but - well, when it's covered it's a lot more manageable, and the wires-"

"It's still a malfunction. I can fix that without any trouble."

"I get it, but it's - I - hm! Let me explain. See, when - if I cover it up, see, with my-"

"The fake flesh?"

"Yes, that - it still jerks back if touched, but not as hard, you get me?"

"But it still does."

"Yes, and here's the - the thing is, I also have my nerves connected, right? Right, and when the coil gets touched and makes my leg jerk, it... Er... See - have you ever - hm! Hmm-hm. Hold on. Do you... Is there something that you know is not good for your body, but when you do it it just feels nice?"

"No."

"Alright, this complicates things."

"Oh! Oh, no, wait - when I cut metal with a saw, I like to keep myself as close to the sparks as possible so they can hit me because they tingle. It's fun. Do you mean like that?"

"Eeeh, close enough! That's what's going on with that coil."

"It tingles?"

"It... Uh... Sure, let's. Call it that."

The change in tone was weird, and he seemed to be somewhat embarrassed about having brought the subject up.

Now, in regards to asking personal questions, Nuparu tended to be as uninterested in other beings' private matter as much as a Kofo-Jaga is in lightstones.

However, this was directly related to the machinations of an impressive, if a little primitive, handmade mechanical joint.

So yes, he would have loved to pry.

The mental manifestation of Turaga Whenua repeatedly smacking him over the head with his drilling staff was currently the only thing keeping him from inquiring on any activities Tarix might have enjoyed dabbling in outside of his work hours, but luckily for the Glatorian that singular imaginary scenario was also an extremely effective deterrent for any Matoran or Toa that had ever at some point of their lives resided in Onu-Koro.

As such, the Toa just shrugged and diverted his attention onto the object the Gaquri was now nervously twisting in his hand: "What's that, by the way?"

The total swerve in subject matter destabilized the Glatorian briefly. He looked down at his fingers, then back at the Toa.

"A pipe?" he replied.

Nuparu squinted at it a little better: "That does not look like a pipe." he decreted.

Tarix lifted an eyebrow, curiously: "It's just an Agori pipe."

"That's not a pipe," the inventor insisted.

"And how should a proper Toa pipe look like, then?"

"Matoran pipe, maybe-" the Toa scoffed, rolling his eyes and making the other chuckle a bit while the mechanical hands went right back to checking on his implant in the midst of his correction: "First of all, it's far too small to be of any proper use; second, that seems to be made of wood, which is the worst material for this kind of thing - even if you could fit that tiny piece in a proper hydraulic system, long time usage will lend it to rot and come apart much faster, which is why we used to trade iron with Le-Koro to avoid the whole village from caving in on--"

"Oh!" Tarix interrupted him all of a sudden, smacking the object on his palm with a hollow sound: "Oh, you meant - no no no, it's not that type of pipe! It's a, uh -- pipa! Nagele! Sghitt!"

"Don't curse at me, please."

"I'm not cursing at you, it's just different names for this! You really don't have a word for-?" then he cut himself off as he seemed to remind himself of something evidently obvious: "Ah - well, I mean, you don't have a mouth, of course you can't smoke..."

"Yes we do."

"You do?"

"Yes? How else would we hold our masks?"

Tarix blinked, briefly wondered if he should have asked, and decided it didn't matter: "But you don't smoke? At all?"

"No? Unless we get catastrophically overheated or are set on fire," Nuparu replied as he attached the disjointed calf into the thigh again. "Both of which in all fairness have happened before. Not very often, but they have happened."

"No, I meant... Ah, hold it, hold it..."

He stuck the unlit pipe back in his mouth, puffing out nothing a few times with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"See - it's a bit like the coil and the sparks again, the matter with smoking," he decided to start explaining: "There's certain plants, if you dry them and burn them well, that make really pleasant smoke."

"How is smoke pleasant?" the Toa muttered.

"The smell can be," the Gaquri shrugged, "And the taste too. Wait-" and he gently knocked the foot of the pipe on the top of the Volitak before the inventor could interrupt him again "-Wait a second, I can't very well clear this up if you keep cutting in. Alright, so the bigger part here, the bowl we call it - you need to press the dried plants in here and light them up, only a little before the whole thing burns up; once they're charred nicely, you inhale through the shank, and then you puff it back out. That's how the smoke gets in your mouth and you can taste it."

"And how does it taste, then?"

"Ah, depends on what you smoke," was the whistful answer. "Same goes for the smell. The Lebori have a certain bark that gets real flexible when wet - they make whole pipes with it, they burn up real well, but it's a bit too sour for me. Before the Shattering there used to be a type of kelp I liked, and Kiina said they had River Eyes up near the Dormus that made some terribly sweet smoke."

"River Eyes?"

"It's a flower! Small, round, blue, and it grows on river banks. Never got to try them, though, and it's better I don't go around asking for some with the lungs I've got. Like I said, smoking's the same as the coil and the sparks: feels good to do, but it's bad for the body."

Nuparu hummed deeply, rummaging inside the knee as he handled the hanging wires carefully.

"I think I figured out the problem," he announced.

At that Tarix perked up: "Rust?"

"One piston has developed a limestone growth that makes it much harder to move properly, and as a result one of the springs is bent out of shape and chafes right against the nerve."

"Ah! Well, damn. You can get limestone in there?"

"If it's humid enough, it can build up over time."

"Hm... Alright, I guess all those years sweating in arenas and whatnot were bound to do the trick eventually."

"Also there was rust."

"Hm. Where?"

"Three screws. I changed them already."

"Wait, really? When?"

"While you were talking about the Core War."

"Huh! You're quick. And quiet."

The Toa shrugged: "I like working."

He pulled the prosthesis apart for a second time, laying the calf down on the floor. He then leaned back to search through a tool box brimming with bits and pieces - bolts, nuts, coils, springs, and all sorts of other things - with what his mask's stillness still managed to convey as a focused furrowed brow, evidently still thinking about what course of action to take now that he had pinpointed the anomaly to fix.

Changing his mind, he stood up and made his way to one of the various piles of junk and assorted more or less useful knicknacks to start looking for something in there instead.

"Speaking of the Core War," he said, implying he wanted to start a conversation but without really adding to that sentence.

Tarix waited a few minutes, puffing out in silence while watching him shift towels or bottles until he found what he was looking for (a clean enough rag and flask containing a murky liquid), before figuring that he was waiting for some kind of permission to continue on the admittedly not particularly pleasant topic: "Yes?"

"You said other older Glatorians also got implants like this from it."

"I implied it, but yes, that's the case."

The Toa hummed as he settled back before him: "And they're all knees, like yours?"

"You want to ask what their own prosthesis are?"

At that, he got no response.

"You can, by the way," Tarix reassured him, "It's been a damn long time by now, it doesn't hurt as much as say, eighty hundred years ago. We've been living like this long enough to joke about the whole thing and whatnot."

Nuparu mumbled something indistict as he soaked up the rag and began scraping the limestone off of the metal with it.

"Don't act all shy now, kid! As I said, it's no trouble." the Glatorian repeated. A sly smile curled the corners of his lip: "You can't get embarrassed like this every time you have to ask about new possible clients, you know," he jokingly reprimanded him, "Otherwise you'll have a hard time getting any."

"I don't want to be paid!" the Toa replied. "I'm just curious, is all! This is... Well, I didn't expect it to be something you'd have."

"Oh, don't worry, not everybody's missing a whole chunk of leg like me," Tarix chuckled. "We Glatorian like to keep ourselves distinct from one another."

"In implant too?"

"Of course! Let me think, now..."

He inhaled a long breath through his pipe, leaning back a little as the kid continued on with his work, and exhaled with a whistle.

"So, let's see - Vastus, he's got a good chunk of his lower spine replaced and, oh, 'bout three quarters of his intestines," he began: "Kiina had her hip crushed and put back together, and that should be... Ah, nope, nope, half of her left hand and the whole ulna too. Telluris I haven't see in a long while now, but unless he's figured out how to place his brain in a tin can I'd bet his head's all that's left. Certavus, bless his memory, I don't think he had a single original organ left by the end, and Gelu's got bionic feet - one foot, one leg, right, a whole leg, so then Strakk was the one who got his eye shot out and his nose crushed. And the jaw, of course. I don't remember if it was him or Malum who cracked his head but I do think it was him, because Malum had the femur that got split in half and it worsened with that problem with his ribcage where the metal was corroding and messing with his blood... Which is why he had to get his marrow replaced in his leg later on. Oh, and Ackar also had to... Ah, wait, which one was it? Right, right. Ackar, poor guy, his back itself is worse than a Plude street but his real problem's his right shoulder blade, which got essentially pulverized - I was there, ghastly sight - so they had to replace the whole thing, and that was bad enough; but then, and this is the fucked thing, the implant actively degraded the rest of the arm, so he had to keep replacing bits and pieces of it until it was just completely gone."

Nuparu lifted his head, eyes wide and flabbergasted: "The fixing made it worse?"

"It did! He kept having trouble moving it."

"How?"

Tarix raised his shoulders: "Beats me," he replied just as baffled. "It's a common thing for Tapyri, honestly. It's hard to tell if the material's bad quality or has trouble with the heat. Perditus too - after he got half his leg replaced, the damn thing somehow managed to melt halfways and left him limping almost worse than he would if he just didn't have it."

"And he can't replace it?"

"It's grafted onto the bone and the muscle has grown over it. They'd have to carve the whole thing out with it, it's just not worth it."

The Toa stared at him positively appalled.

"That is horrid," he spat, punctuating the adjective with a harsh yank of his hand over the faulty piston, thus launching a loosened piece of limestone to skid across the floor.

"You're tellin' me, kid."

"That's - it's inadmissible. It's insane."

"And I haven't told you about the Agori."

"What about the Agori? Were they fighting too? Do they-?"

"No, not fighting, usually - it's something we got in common with your lot: we're basically the same species, but we are much bigger and they're much nimbler. So you had us larger folk tearing one another to bits properly, while they tended to work as scouts if they weren't busy trying to put us back in one piece."

The Gaquri interrupted himself to stretch his arms up, pulling one towards his head.

The movement produced a loud 'crock!' roughly around the height of his shoulder, followed by much softer pops crackling all the way up towards his wrist as it twisted.

Satisfied with the sound (which instead made the inventor a little uneasy considering their conversation), he moved to massage the sides of his spine with his knuckles, rolling his neck: it seemed to make a curious ticking noise in place of a meatier sound, filling in the quick pauses of Nuparu's rag scrubbing the limestone away.

At last he puffed into his unlit pipe: "If you look at the older ones - the Agori, I mean - you'll see they've got less lower half than upper."

"That makes no sense."

"It does if you don't count implants. We've got them a bit everywhere, I told you, but an Agori with an arm prosthesis is a real rarity. They've got them mostly between their soles and the top of their hipbones."

"And why's that?"

"It's 'cause the lucky ones stepped on mines."

The Toa hummed thoughtfully.

He did not raise his eyes from the almost clean piston: "And the unlucky ones?"

"Well, we were trained to aim for either the neck or the head."

Ah.

Those certainly had been unlucky.

For every thing Toa and Glatorians seemed to have in common, a complete opposite came around. To imagine a Toa willingly kill was already hard, though not impossible - the Mahri themselves had been met with the chance to do so once or twice, and it had been tantalizing to say the least; but to envision a group of his brothers and sisters being not only instructed but even trained to kill, and especially to kill Matoran...

Well, he was glad he did not live in that kind of world.

"That's just how life is," Tarix sighed in the end. "Nobody wins. They've got their metal hips, and I've got my leg held together by wires and pistons. And an artificial diaphragm."

That snapped Nuparu out of his unpleasant musings: "A what?"

"That one wasn't the war's fault, though - well, it was, but it came in later. See, I had some sharpnel that got stuck in there but nobody noticed, and then one day I got a shove in the wrong spot during a match and just stopped breathing. So I had to get a mechanical one, and when I have to put myself under any sort of strain I need to hook myself up to an oxygen supplier to make sure it doesn't collapse under the effort - you know, that tube thing you might have seen on me, sort of like yours."

"Your gills?"

"I..." the Gaquri briefly did a double take. "You call those gills?"

"Yes?"

They blinked at each other briefly.

"Yeah," Tarix conceded, "Yeah, I guess those would be gills for you folks, huh. Makes sense."

"What was it that you had to replace?"

"My diaphragm."

"What is that?"

"... The muscle?"

"Which muscle?"

"The... The one that makes the... Lungs? Work? I understood you did have lungs?"

"Lungs work on their own."

"No they do not?"

"Yes they do. They are muscles."

"No they are not??"

Before Nuparu could further argue his point by lifting his chest plate and forcing Tarix to behold the disquieting spectacle offered by his very much clearly autonomously moving lungs, the unmistakeable noise of a small variety of hollow brass objects gracelessly crashing on the floor and being hurriedly chased after by stomping feet attracted their attention elsewhere.

Berix did not notice them as immediately as they noticed him, since he was busy making his entrance on all fours as he scrambled to pick up a bunch of scrap metal that had spilled from his arms.

The other two beings made no sound as they watched him curse to himself after stepping on a rogue bolt. They decided to simply observe him in silence much like an equipe of entomologists observes a particularly frenetic spider panicking for some kind of fault in its web, making no motion to lend the young Agori any help as he crawled along the ground to collect the scattered pieces of his scavenged treasure of junk.

It was particularly fascinating when he accidentally shoved several bolts in his mouth to the point of almost stuffing his cheeks with them, realized his mistake, and spat them in what looked like an exhaust pipe.

He almost cried when they fell out of it and rolled away again.

Then he lifted his eyes briefly to the other two silent beings in the room and failed to recognize them.

Meaning he then proceded to jump almost three whole bio straight in the air once he figured there were people looking at him - landing on a screw.

"FUCK!" he whimpered.

Tarix waved: "Hello to you."

"Do you need help?" Nuparu asked with a notable delay.

The Agori kneeled to the ground and skidded across it: "No no no, I'm good! I'm good, I'm - hey, hi, Tarix, hi, when did-? What are you-? Uh," he said nervously as he tried to catch as many nuts and springs as possible, "What is going on there? Is it, did I interrupt or, should- should I leave? Again? Should I leave again?"

"Nuparu's fixing my leg."

At that Berix snapped his head with a deafening gasp to look directly at him, the most betrayed expression to ever grace his face plaster across it.

"But I wanted to do that!" he cried out in anguish like a desert fox cub experiencing the horrors of its mother's tongue bath for the first time: "I told you I could do it, I- I replaced Gresh's ribs and, and I fixed his lungs when the Skrall got him and he hasn't had problems with them since, I told you I could do it, I'm good at fixing-!"

"I know that, and Gresh told me you did real well," the older Gaquri stopped him, "But - don't take it personally, kid, you're good and all, but when it comes to my leg I only trust you as far as I can throw you and believe me, it ain't far."

"But then why does he get to do it!" Berix wailed, pointing at Nuparu still scrubbing off the limestone.

"He's got a whole body like this, I'd imagine he knows what to do."

"But I know what to do too!"

"I told you, I'd rather have a specialist on it."

The Toa briefly wondered if being a descendant of the Water Tribe had something to do with how outstandingly wet Berix could will his eyes to look, or if it was just a specifically Berix thing.

Mabe it was an Agori defense mechanism. After all, it would have been pretty hard to want to hurt something that appeared to be the personification of the verbs 'to whimper', 'to whine', 'to sob', and last but not least 'to wail'.

Whatever the origin of such an expression of anguish, Tarix was not immune to its effects: "Oh, don't be like that," he finally pleaded with a tired but guilty tone, and pointed off to the cluttered desk not too far away: "There, I've got something for you too, alright? I came in 'cause my Thornax launcher's busted and you're the best with 'em. Could you fix that for me? Pretty please?"

That was enough to light the younger being's face up again.

With the sort of excited thin howling laugh that a mischievous ghost might have, he scuttled away to the mess of a table that was the headquarters for most of his projects: onto it he dumped the rest of his scraps, not caring even in the slightest that it only helped to worsen the general situation he already had going on as he was already completely absorbed by the thought of the inner mechanics of the weapon at hand.

The perfectly good chair right beside him thoroughly ignored in favor of sitting on the ground in a curled position that would have made a shrimp suggest booking an osteopathic appointment, he immediately started tinkering around to figure what the problem was with the drive and precision of a blood hound.

That had been perhaps one of the best things their unplanned collaboration had brought Nuparu - aside from all the knick-knacks and thingamajigs and vehicles and tools he'd been able to make or just plan out with the Agori, of course. Watching Berix work on something was such a fun and fascinating experience: his intensity gave his body language a sort of visceral desperation that contrasted his careful fumbling motions, pulling pieces apart with his scarred skeletal fingers and letting them fall all around him as though discarded carelessly - yet he somehow always knew where to search when he needed them again, and if in the middle of his fixer's frenzy you asked him for a specific nut or a gear he could pick it up without even looking, always on the first try. The thunderous act of creation and its rhythmic symphony played on rough instruments whisked the both of them away from the world at large, but when the Toa managed to pull himself back to reality (whether done or stumped or just in need of a break) it was enjoyable if not just all-together mesmerizing to observe the other hard at work on his own project.

A loud bang was not enough to deter him from the launcher either.

The equally loud voice that followed with an exasperated bark did, however: "BERIX! THE DOOR!"

"RIGHT! RIGHT- RIGHT, HOLD ON!" he squeaked hurriedly, abandoning (with a little more care) the weapon to scuttle away as fast as he could to the entrance of their laboratory.

The figure that emerged from the held open door replied to his rambling apologies by grunting every few steps - not without reason, seeing as they were carrying the carcass of an older model of chariot intertwined with some other mean of transport that had clearly gotten lodged sideways in its back, trying to balance the hellish thing on their shoulders in a way not too dissimilar to how a shepherd might carry a too small Mahi tired from a day of running wildly.

The mess of a car accident was dropped rather gracelessly onto the first largest spot of floor available; freed from their herculean weight, the being sighed and pulled back their arms, making the rather dull metal vertebrae poking from their skin creak in a somewhat unsettling fashion.

Nuparu briefly wondered if they were encrusted in limestone too.

They sort of looked like it.

Hm.

Now he had to wonder if it was a common yet not very well-known problem for organic beings with mechanical implants. Maybe it had to do with an excessive production of sweat?

While he was busy pondering that, Tarix grinned at the sight: "Hello, my beautiful wife who sucks at killing me," he crooned lovingly.

Vastus turned to him with a smirk, thin feathers raised and brows slightly furrowed in a manner that was much more fond than annoyed: "Hello, my beautiful husband who can't aim for shit," he replied; upon noticing the Toa kneeled before him, he cheekily added: "Committing adultery, I see?"

His partner wheezed a loud gurgling laugh: "Twelve thousand years we've been married! Twelve thousand years and now you mistake me for Gelu!"

"For who?"

"What, you haven't heard about--?"

"NOT IN FRONT OF MY PROJECTS!" Berix shrieked.

The Lebori chuckled - it was a strange sound, some kind of hiccuping hiss - and reached out to rub his hand all over the younger Gaquri's head; the kid swiveled away from him with a soft rattling noise as his annoyed trembling arms shook his scales against one another, face contorting into a piqued grimace, and returned to the launcher to tinker the other two away from his conscious perception.

"And where'd you get that?" the Glatorian inquired, pointing at it with his chin as it was common to do in his tribe and getting no answer.

"It's mine," his husband reassured him, "He's fixing it."

"Jammed again?"

"Seems like it."

"Bet you just didn't clean it properly."

"You don't know that."

"But I'm right," Vastus teased him as he approached to steal the pipe from his mouth. "And over here, what's going on?"

"He's fixin' up my leg. Nuparu, by the way, that's his name - he's a, ah, Ko- nope, Onu-Toa, he said - thought it was rust but I had limestone in it."

"We can get limestone?"

"Might be the sweating," Nuparu interrupted them suddenly. He fixed his unmoving mask onto the Lebori: "Can you turn around, please?"

Tarix snorted at the other's brief baffled blink: "Hey now, kid, I get you've put your hands in me and all, but you shouldn't go around just checking my wife out like that!"

"NOT! IN FRONT! OF THE PROJECTS!"

The Toa looked between the three of them with no clue what any of them was going on about: "I thought there might have been crusts on the vertebrae," he explained. "Since I have the solvent at hand already, I could handle that already if it's the case..."

"That's what they all say," the Gaquri snickered.

His confusion was palpable.

Vastus flicked a playful finger at his husband's head, warning him: "Berix is gonna kick you out at this rate... But I'm sure it's just some dust, kid, nothing to worry about."

"It still would not hurt to do a simple visual check."

"He's right," Tarix interjected while trying to snatch his pipe back and failing: "Maybe you've been building up a limestone deposit this whole time without knowing it."

"I don't have limestone."

"You don't know that."

Vastus smirked at him as he turned around for Nuparu to check: "But I'm right."

"You can't keep answering that and get away with it."

"I can if I'm always right."

The inventor gave a high pitched hum: "False alarm. That's just dust," he confirmed.

A triumphant grin briefly met the Gaquri's eyes as he rolled them.

Nuparu reached into a box to pull out a short variety of springs in order to compare their size with that of the one that had been bent by the affected piston, now cleaned and hopefully ready to work smoothly; careful not to dislodge anything else, he carefully pried the ill piece out and hooked up its replacement.

Satisfied with how the procedure had done, he pulled himself back a little and announced: "I have another question."

"Shoot," Tarix answered instantly.

"What do 'wife' and 'husband' mean, exactly?"

A hot second of silence passed in which the Glatorian regretted opening his mouth.

He glanced at Vastus.

His wife glanced back.

The quiet persisted.

"We're married," he answered lamely at last.

The question he dreaded slapped him in the face with outstanding punctuality: "And what does that mean?"

Having had his fun of seeing his husband's best full-body impression of a yam turning exponentially smaller when fried to a crisp piece of coal, the Lebori finally intervened: "You folks have contracts?"

"We do."

"Marriage is a contract between people where you become part of one other's family. And tribe, if you're from different ones like us."

A vacuous gaze met his explanation.

"Alright, what's confusing you?"

"The 'becoming part of' thing."

Vastus shrugged, his feathers puffing out for a moment before returning flat in a way similar to how certain avian Rahi did before starting a very long song: "It means we become relatives," he tried again. "Here, look - Tarix is a Gaquri and I'm a Lebori, so my family and hers come from different tribes. By marrying me she became a sort of honorary member of the Jungle tribe, and everybody treats her almost as though she was my brother, or my cousin; in the same manner, I became an honorary member of the Water tribe and I'm treated like her sister or cousin."

"So... It's sort of like assembling a team?" Nuparu tilted his head, puzzled: "There's no need for a contract for that. All Toa consider each other siblings already."

The other clicked his tongue as though he'd bitten it by accident: "I shouldn't have used that metaphor," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"First of all marrying your actual blood-siblings is frowned upon."

"Why? What's a blood-sibling?"

"I'll tell you when you're older. Secondly, I can assure you marriage is nothing like siblinghood."

At that, the Toa frowned: "It sounds the same to me."

"Your knee and Tarix's look the same to me, too," Vastus argued: "They're both made of metal, so they're the same thing."

"They really aren't." then he blinked, bright eyes flashing briefly, looked to the ceiling to recollect his thought, gave a loud hum, and met his gaze again: "I see your point."

The Glatorian smiled: "Good kid."

"Back to the point - how do 'wife' and 'husband' fit with all that?"

"That's just how you call someone who's married."

"So they're synonyms?"

"Yes, pretty much."

The answer seemed to satisfy the inventor greatly.

"I'm learning so much about your species today," he commented in a giddy tone. He returned to the discarded robot calf on the floor, dusting off its mechanical parts to make sure not even small amounts of debris would interefere with its functions; just as he plucked it back into the bulk of the implant, he looked again at the two Glatorian and told them with complete and total earnestness: "You know, if you were significantly smaller, quadrupedal, perhaps vaguely insectoid and incapable of speech, Turaga Whenua would have the best day of his life writing down and trying to decypher your absolutely incomprehensible habits."

That was the highest compliment an Onu-Matoran from the island of Mata Nui could bestow upon someone.

It was not categorizable as such by perhaps any other being in the entire universe, considering the source of such an idiom had been cut off from all other known civilizations and it was generally not considered particularly flattering to be told that you would make for a great petri dish for one's paternal figure to microscope if you were any less sentient, but luckily his tone did manage to properly convey the positive nature of his otherwise insane sentence.

So instead of knocking his head off with roundhouse kick, Tarix and Vastus smiled awkwardly in an attempt at not laughing in his face and just replied: "Thanks."

His Volitak did not have a mouth, but Nuparu's grin was blinding.

Berix chose that moment to shriek triumphantly.

"Fixed!" he declared, Thornax launcher hoisted into the air like it was the second making of the Element Lords.

The older Gaquri turned to him with eyes wide: "What, already?"

"It was encrusted with Thornax juice!"

Not even the time to feel bashful about such a silly and easy to fix thing hindering his battling performance so much that his wife was already leaning down into his line of sight with a smirk so wide that he could have just bitten his whole head off with it.

"What did I say?" he teased.

Tarix sighed, a weary smile on his face: "You cannot keep getting away with this."

"Yes I can," Vastus gloated, "If I'm always right."

[milkywayes]

As someone who greatly enjoys your turian HCs and given your recent art, I must ask: How do you think Garrus feels about dressing up? Does Shep enjoy seeing him all gussied up? Was he that teen with the turian equivalent of logo tees and beanies? Did his parents dress up for Hierarchy events given Castis’ tier?

ooooh hell yeah thanks for the questions, i love this. gonna be a long one

my thoughts/HCs are as thus:

generally speaking, at least for heterosexual relationships turian women are the ones to approach a potential partner and the males will attempt attracting them by looking good / having a good reputation and accomplishments. long fringes are supposed to impress, hence why only the men evolved them, but it would make sense to me that they’d try to dress up even more to better their chances. picture men in a turian bar posing and wearing their finest outfits to stand out. hell, even turian armor is kind of fancy compared to what other species don. their civvies are very elaborate. it tracks.

but then there’s garrus, who… is just not very interested in all that. i like imagining that the ‘bad turian’ thing goes beyond not being an obedient soldier. so he does not enjoy dressing up. he’s never actively tried attracting a partner like that, and he got shepard without trying, even if he’s still not sure how he pulled that off. to say he’s out of his depth and feeling awkward is an understatement. he got the high rank in the hierarchy in the least straight-forward way imaginable, probably without precedent. he stumbled his way sideways into this gig by uhhh being himself, which is an uncompromising maverick idealist, and by trying to do right by shepard and their mission. not by acting how other turians expected him to.

shepard enjoys it, which is probably the only redeeming factor to garrus. a good chunk of that enjoyment is mirth because she loves when garrus is feeling awkward. it’s a big contrast to his usual confidence and swagger, which she also loves, but rarity’s a factor and she’s gonna take any entertainment she can get from attending these shit functions. (she’s going in utilitarian dress blues, suit and pants combo herself. no jewelry. you can’t make her. lmfao.) that said, he also looks hot in that getup. no complaints from her. or anyone else in attendance. she could point this out to garrus but he wouldn’t believe her. he can be an arrogant bastard, even after getting the scars, but he’s already feeling insecure about his place in the hierarchy and at the event, so there’s none of that right now. at least not for the first half hour. he catches her ogling him a couple times and that does end up boosting his confidence.

as a teen i think he just wore uniforms. i can’t imagine that turian schools don’t have uniforms. i don’t think he’d have had the interest to modify them, he’d have put that energy elsewhere (weapons mods. lol), so you wouldn’t have been able to tell just from looking at him that he’s a bit of a weirdo. but you’d notice fast enough upon meeting him. maladjusted child/teen garrus is important to me. he was lucky he was cute and got good grades.

as for his parents… castis wouldn’t be on palaven often enough to attend lots of hierarchy functions, and while i think mama vakarian had a very respectable tier for her age, only the real high ups who had to impress and be seen by the public really attend galas and such. the couple they did go to, they’d have dressed up, but maybe not as much as i dressed garrus up in that drawing - castis was no advisor to the primarch, and my headcanon for him says he prefers things to be utilitarian. a ‘let my work speak for itself’ kind of guy. he’ll do all that is required, and he’ll be meticulous about it, but he has no love for extravagance.

the funny thing is, castis and garrus are very alike in some ways but then their respective belief systems diverge so heavily that the things they have in common end up working against each other / their relationship lol. they both live for their ideals, they’re stubborn as all get out, they don’t do things just to appease other people.

garrus has more of a swagger though. and he’ll be extravagant - but mostly when showing off his sniping skills. put dangly, sparkly chains on him and he’ll act like a hapless cat that just had something put on their body against their will.

[teecupangel]

Ok so I have had an idea. This is a bit of reference to the ratatouille au continuation of Desmond being able to hear us in the animus servers. So picture this, after a while of us talking to Desmond checking up on him and the others. Someone the group chat somehow makes a mod that gives the players (us) avatars to pilot in the servers for a short amount of time, but instead of the bodies being human they're just random animals from mise to crows to hawks and eagles. So here kinda how I think this would go. So all the ancestors are asleep or resting in the servers, meanwhile the person who made the mod adds it into the server and there's a bit of commotion as the person tells everyone else, and so the players get to work making the avatars. Then morning comes around, Desmond and the others wake up and see this excessive about of rodents just gathered around everyone. After a moment of panic and shock for our dear assassins and templars they come to find out that now the voices "inside" Desmond's head are now here ready to try And cause some havack.

Oh don't forget to drink water and eat something l. I hope you have a great day/night

Thank you, nonny! I hope you're having a great day/night too! (And yeah, I'll be eating my dinner after this hahahaha) The Ratatouille AU where the ancestors can hear Desmond while ‘playing’, its more unhinged cousin, the Ratatouille AU where Desmond can hear us and the outside POV of Al Mualim thinking the Apple broke Altaïr and the sidestory of Altaïr accidentally connecting with Ezio while looking for Desmond

Here’s the horror-esque version of this AU for this interested in that kind of setup.

.

Alright, confession time. When I was writing for the voices, my brain immediately to the ‘chat windows’ that popped up in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint and in The Perks Of Being An S Class Heroine.

Then I thought, you know what would be funny? If it was like an actual chatbox with our preferred avatar kinda like this:

To make this stranger, all the avatar are like stock photos of animals and plants. This way, when their avatar finally comes to form, Desmond will be surrounded by various animals.

What happens to the ones who chose plant avatars?

My initial idea was that they would be floating plants like a leaf or a flower just floating in the air.

But then I realized…

We’re crazy enough to band together and create a ‘strange’ unique flower crown to put on Desmond’s head.

The ones that transformed into animals would go “That’s not fair! Why do you guys get to be that close to Desmond?!”

“Plant ftw, bitches!!!” A dandelion of all things would shout out, accidentally blowing itself up and floating away from Desmond, “Fuck!”

A second passed and the dandelion glitches out of existence.

Only to glitch back into the (technically floating) flower crown on Desmond’s head.

“Hey, guys, did you know it cost 1000 Helix to respawn? Fucking Ubi████.”

For those who don’t care about Ubisoft’s monetization scams (as you should), 1000 Helix is more or less $10 and they don’t sell 1000 Helix, they sell the small pack for $9.99 and it gives 1050 Helix. For reference, AC Valhalla’s complete sets (full armor + 2 weapons + mount and raven skin) usually cost around 1500 Helix.

So yeah… even though the ‘players’ have spawned in Desmond’s world, they are still haunted by monetization. (This does mean Desmond has gotten himself an immortal army of plants and animals)

[bloingy-land]

dawg I just had to move all my shit to a brand new world because calamity loves me and decided to do its worldgen weird.

i am going to share this tale with you for the haha funnies. i am not complaining. in fact this made me so incredibly joyous and i thought it was HILARIOUS

ryder is currently pre-skeletron. so i decide that now is the time so i can go into the dungeon and get some nice and tasty weapon upgrades. with that as well comes the time for me to get some sea prisms. i think "huh, i've been neglecting going to the sunken sea. perhaps now is the time!" i say, having no idea of what would unfold for the the next hour

i find my prisms. i start exploring. i find some honey and realize "oh hey, i'm right next to the jungle." a jungle shrine is to the left under the sunken sea and i think "oh hey! nice!" so cool! my sunken sea's next to the underground jungle!

HOWEVER. and i mean HOWEVER. this. this is where it begins. the tomfuckery begins here

as i'm exploring the place, luiafk does me its nice little favor of bringing nearby items towards me. it is great for collecting blocks from dynamite holes while i'm busy actually mining. BUT.

i suddenly collect the Mother Fucking Lihzard Altar

as in The Thing you use to fight golem later in hardmode.

my brain COMBUSTS. it lights on fire immediately and alarm bells start ringing as a single, one (1) thought is imprinted in my mind:

what the fuck

so i go to the side, thinking, did my world come out weird?? did something merge??

and to no one's surprise

BITCH.

basically my sunken sea collided with my jungle temple which yeah is bad on its own but i feel like where it went the most incredulously wrong is that the sunken sea ate THE ENTIRE BOSS ROOM FOR BREAKFAST.

i leave and reenter the world with victor to check out the temple because it's post scal and can handle it compared to ryder's small little prehardmode body

i think "huh. do i have some weird mod that puts the boss room at the top?" NOPE. no you do not. You wanna know what you do have?!?!

a Significant lack of GOLEM'S ROOM

i immediately realize this means i cannot naturally fight golem. you see that fucking clam down there? that's my prime suspect for this CRIME. this THEFT. why would Amidias be enough for the clam. why eat that seahorse looking ass guy when it could just turn at my jungle temple and HHHERMRMPGHHHHGGHBNMN NNNABMANN ÑAM ÑAM ÑAM ÑAM yknow. Just *roblox mm cheeseburger sound effect*. for what reason? perhaps the funnies? perhaps it wasn't satisfied with its already plentiful meal? god knows? it despawned before i could ask it!

moral of the story worldgen does very funny things and i was laughing my ass off and thought perhaps this would be a little funny enough to talk about. i love modded terraria

[fordtato]

Gffan has done the following:

-Letting people comment transphobic stuff on his Server

-associating with a reddit mod whos known to be transphobic

-openly showing weird distaste for the Dipper being Trans headcanon (didn't he also say: "I hate the Dipper Trans Theory" to us once?)

He also believes there’s only 2 genders

Hello. So. I do not normally respond to anonymous discourse like this in my inbox as a rule (especially given this site's proclivity for seeing anon callouts weaponized against trans people and women and people of color), but I felt it was important to do this in this case, since I am publicly working on a project with ThatGFFan.

I have known GFFan for over a year now now (in an exclusively online capacity), and in that time, he has not only never misgendered me (a nonbinary trans person, someone outside the "2 genders" framework) but has also actively corrected people who have misgendered me. I have witnessed him speak against transphobia in the fandom and against transphobic content creators. The idea that he "believes there are only 2 genders" is inaccurate by every account I have of him.

As for other accusations in this ask, such as him "associating with a reddit mod who is known to be transphobic" I don't have any evidence for this presented to me, and even if I did, association in a public online space is not the same thing as sharing transphobic sentiment. There is room in any online space for a conversation about the optics of this kind of engagement, but if I had to apologize for every person I've ever engaged with civilly who I later learned was problematic in some way, I'd be here all day, and that would be an unproductive use of my time, and would not undo any harm done by that person.

Lastly, I hope ThatGFFan will not mind me saying this, but he is a young person (younger than you think, I assure you). If he has engaged with unsavory people in the past, or has indicated any kind of transphobic sentiment (neither of which I have any evidence of) it is my belief that we need to allow people to grow, especially when I have actively witnessed that growth firsthand. And in that case, I do think (and maybe I'm putting my faith in the wrong person here, so I hope this doesn't bite me one day), that he has made an active effort to learn how to do better, even if he makes mistakes in that process.

What you have done, anon, is entered my inbox with accusations against a person of color, half of which have no evidence behind them, and the other half that I personally know to be demonstrably false. Nobody who is a victim of this transphobia has come forward, at least that I saw, and if they did, that would be up to ThatGFFan to respond to - not me, a trans person unrelated and far-removed from whatever incident you are talking about (an incident that likely occurred when ThatGFFan was a minor, in any case).

I don't have a big platform. I am a small creator (much smaller than ThatGFFan), and a trans Palestinian person. Why am I being called upon to answer for a cis person's (alleged) missteps as they grow into an adult? Why am I being called upon to publicly shame and renounce a person who has shown me kindness and allyship? Is it so I can prove my dedication to the fight against transphobia? My entire blog, my entire body of work, my entire existence, has been an active fight against transphobia.

I mean, by God, all I can do is hope I'm doing the right thing here, but I vouch for him. Or I at least vouch that he is trying.

(p.s. I hope this goes without saying, but someone disliking a specific queer headcannon does not indicate one's political beliefs, and this is not going to be an accusation that I really engage with, because it sets a bad precedent. This is not a moral wrongdoing. This is an opinion you are suspicious of.)

[swaps55]

Mass Effect Vanguard Guide

Other Guides: Guide to Basic Infiltrating | Shield Gate and YOU | Adept Guide | Sentinel Guide | Soldier Guide |

First and foremost, this is exactly what it says: a guide. It is not the right way to play this class; it is a way that I have found very effective after well over a thousand hours spent running different builds and different classes in campaign and ME3 Multiplayer. If you build it differently and like your style better, great! If you are having fun, you’re doing it right.

But if you are struggling at all with the Vanguard class or don’t click with it, this guide might help you. The build, loadout, and strategy are designed with higher difficulties in mind. This kit can easily make quick work of insanity and is a lot of fun if you enjoy using your face as a weapon.

THE BUILD

Shepard has 8 skill trees + a Bonus Power. At Rank 60, you can max out 8 skills and have enough points leftover to take the 9th to level 4. For this build, I recommend only taking Cryo Ammo to rank 4 (or skipping it entirely), and maxing everything else. 

Prioritize Charge, Nova, Incendiary Ammo, Assault Mastery, and probably a few points in Fitness here and there.  

Breakdown under the cut! 

Incendiary Ammo: Incendiary ammo might be one of the most brokenly overpowered skills in the game. The explosive evolution adds a flat damage value vs. a percentage on every other shot, which is insane. On rapid fire weapons that do less damage per shot, like the Tempest or the Typhoon, you're basically doubling the amount of damage you're doing. Add the area of effect you get with the explosion? You're now inflicting this chaos on anyone else who’s nearby. Are you using a piercing mod (the answer should be yes)? You now have a shot at another roll for another explosion, because the damage call can pass through the armored target and torment the cannon fodder behind it. A piercing mod reduces the damage on your bullet, but not the explosion. This is super insane on shotguns, because you get a shot at the extra damage roll per pellet, not per shot. Shotgun blasts have multiple pellets per shot.

Have I mentioned that this is affected by increases in power damage? So any power damage increases you take in Assault Mastery make incendiary ammo better.

Rank 4 – Damage. To hell with your squad. I mean, your squad is amazing. But trust me, you want to be selfish with incendiary ammo. You can do so much more with it than your squad can.

Rank 5 – Are you handy with headshots? Take Headshot damage. Would you rather have more ammo capacity? Take Ammo Capacity. Whatever makes you happy.

Rank 6 – Explosive Burst. Always take explosive burst. There is no universe in which you want anything other than explosive burst.

Cryo Ammo: This is your dump stat. I don’t even put my leftover points in cryo ammo, because the circumstances in which you would choose cryo ammo over incendiary ammo do not exist, if you are going for maximizing damage. Cryo ammo is really nothing more than a debuff, and you know what’s better than a debuff? Killing it. Now, if you just want to snicker at enemies with a health bar freezing solid and toppling over, that’s different. 😊 But when it comes to higher difficulties, cryo ammo just doesn’t stand up to the effectiveness of other ammo powers.  

Pull: Pull doesn’t provide nearly as much benefit as your other skills, so I suggest speccing into it last. It can, however, be a fun way to toy with mooks if you’re bored of scattering them like ninepins, and offer an alternative for dealing with Guardians if emptying a shotgun full of fire into their mail slot doesn’t quite do it for you. Pull will also prime biotic explosions. It’s not elegant, but you can do it.

Rank 4: Duration vs. Radius: I go for Radius, because as a Vanguard nothing stays alive long enough for duration to matter. But if you are having trouble with timing to get biotic explosions, you can choose Duration here.

Rank 5: Lift Damage vs. Expose: Go for Expose, which increases all damage to the target, including biotic detonations. Again, things don’t stay alive long enough for lift damage to do much for you.  

Rank 6: Recharge Speed vs. Double Pull. DOUBLE PULL. Why would you choose one pull when you can have two? This skill already has one of the fastest recharge speeds in the game, so choosing recharge speed doesn’t gain you anything.

Biotic Charge: Biotic charge, of course, is the signature skill of the vanguard, and while there are plenty of playstyles you can use that don’t hinge on charge…why would you? Charge is stupidly fun. You can be reckless, silly, and stupid, and no one can stop you. You’ll make so many things explode you can hear colors. There isn’t a problem your face can’t solve, unless the problem is on a platform out of bounds.

Charge is also a detonator power, which means you can set up biotic explosions by painting a target with warp, reave, dark channel, and even pull, and then slamming your face into it. Charge will also create a fire explosion when you ram your face into something that’s on fire from incinerate or….incendiary ammo. Hey, who has incendiary ammo and can make their own fire explosions? VANGUARDS. 

Rank 4: Force & Damage vs. Radius. Dealer’s choice. Do you want to smash for face against one thing with all the force? Or smash your face against all the things with less force? ME3 tends to emphasize cannon fodder over high tier enemies, so if you’re a little shy about running straight into the arms of a banshee and prefer to use yourself as a bowling ball into a pile of husks, go for radius. Otherwise, go for damage.

Rank 5: Weapon Synergy vs. Power Synergy. For most playstyles, power synergy is what you want here, especially if you like to spam Nova, as power synergy makes your nova hit harder. However, if you prefer to charge into something and then stick your shotgun down its throat to set it on fire with fire bullets, take weapon synergy.

Rank 6: Bonus Power vs. Barrier: I recommend barrier here, because the number one problem vanguards have is not giving a fuck, and having charge give you your shields back when not giving a fuck lands you in a sticky situation will generally save your life. Also, the cooldowns on this kit are so fast you really don’t benefit that much from randomly getting a free one to justify giving up those shields you really need because nova.

Shockwave: Shockwave is another detonator for biotic explosions, and it’s a handy mid-range attack when you’re stuck in cover or don’t want ravager goo all over your face.

Rank 4: Force & Damage vs. Radius: Shockwave’s biggest weakness is its short reach, so I choose radius here. NOTE: In the Original Trilogy, this skill is bugged on PC. Choosing radius actually causes this skill to do ZERO damage. So if you are playing OT on PC, choose Force. This bug appeared to be fixed in LE when I tested it.

Rank 5: Detonate vs. Reach: While reach would be great, because again, range is this skill’s biggest shortcoming, detonating combos is what makes shockwave so good. I recommend detonate, unless you find yourself not using it for explosions.

Rank 6: Recharge vs. Lifting Shockwave: Either one will work here, really. Lifted shockwave is cute, and can help you set up explosions, so I tend to choose it.

Nova: The companion skill to Charge! A lot of people are afraid of Nova because it depletes your shields. But I encourage you to practice with it, because if you get comfortable with the pattern of charge + nova + shoot it on fire until it’s dead, there isn’t much of anything a vanguard can’t handle.

Yes, even banshees.

Rank 4:  Force and Damage vs. Radius: You can choose either here, though I will give the lean towards force and damage. If something manages to evade the radius, stick a fire shotgun down their throat to make them think about what they’ve done.

Rank 5: Power Recharge vs. Half Blast: I recommend power recharge here, because decreasing the effectiveness of nova means it dies slower, and Power Recharge speed increases your recharge speed by 25% across the board for 15 seconds. That means CHARGE recharges faster. Which means you can lock yourself in a continuous loop of faster recharge by charging and nova-ing until everything is dead. Remember, this kit does not have a grenade power because SHEPARD is the grenade. Realize your full potential and blow everything up.  

Rank 6: Pierce vs. Sustain: Don’t be tempted by Sustain, and the allure of sometimes not using up your barrier. Choose Pierce. Not only does this make you more effective vs. Armor and Barriers, but also shields, which is something biotics aren’t great at. If you feel naked without your shields, remember you have a FIRE GUN that can protect you until Charge is primed and ready to give you your shields back, and Rank 5 means that recharge is faster.

Assault Mastery: Here’s where things get stupid. Assault Mastery makes all your badass shit even more badass.

Rank 4: Damage vs. Influence & Force: I understand that the Influence bonus is really attractive here, but we’re focusing a build that services combat, not story, and Damage brings you to a 20% power bonus vs. the 10% if you choose I&F. Remember, power damage not only affects your biotic powers, but also your ammo power. Remember how stupid Incendiary Ammo is? This makes it stupider.

Rank 5: Squad Bonus vs. Weight Capacity: Be selfish. Your squad is great, but Shepard is a god, and do you know how your make gods even more badass? Let them bring heavier guns.

Rank 6: Shotgun Damage vs. Power Intensity: Even if you primarily use a shotgun and don’t rely heavily on powers, the 20% power damage bonus from Power Intensity is better, because it also applies to Incendiary Ammo. And it gives you the freedom to use other guns if you want to.

Fitness: Let’s make this short and sweet: As a vanguard, you are not punching things with your fists, you are punching things with your face, so for ranks 4, 5, & 6, go Durability, Barrier Recharge, and Durability.

Bonus Power: I recommend any biotic power that sets up combos, since setting up combos is what Vanguards are not great at. Between Reave and Dark Channel, I prefer reave, because you can paint multiple targets, it staggers the target, it stacks, and it gives you damage reduction. I do NOT recommend Flare. While it is a really cool power, it has a painfully slow recharge speed, and vanguards need to move fast.

Reave:

Rank 4: Duration vs. Radius: I choose radius, to paint more targets. It’s not gonna live long enough for duration to matter.

Rank 5: Damage Reduction vs. Recharge Speed: The recharge speed is a little painful, so if you aren’t having trouble staying alive, you can choose it. If you’re dying, damage reduction will help.

Barriers & Armor vs. Damage & Duration: You can go either way here, but I prefer Barriers & Armor, because you can fire a reave at a banshee and then ignore her while you go bowling with the cannon fodder. When all your toys are dead, you can then ram your face into the banshee so she explodes.     

The Weapons

The weight capacity bonus you can get from Assault Mastery means Shepard can be this powerful and carry some REALLY good guns. I recommend weapons with a high rate of fire to take advantage of Incendiary Ammo. Shotguns are the obvious choice, but any weapon with a high rate of fire that keeps you close to or at a 200% cooldown is good.

My favorites are the Piranha and the Hurricane, the latter of which can take advantage of a power mag bonus. But since you are already giving up a valuable mod slot for the power mag, if you need a stabilizer to use it comfortably, I’d recommend going with something else. The Talon is a good choice because it is lightweight, fires quickly enough, and it has a damage bonus to shields and barriers. Basically, it’s a pocket shotgun. The Reegar is a weapon that can be REALLY dumb, since it melts shields, and it benefits from a piercing mod, but its drawback is that it is very short range on a class that already struggles at range. If you want to use it, I suggest the piercing and thermal clip mods.

Speaking of the range issue. I have two words for you: The Indra.

The Indra is an automatic sniper rifle, one of the absolute best weapons in the game, and Shepard can carry it and STILL HAVE A 200% COOLDOWN. Also? It costs 10k credits on the Citadel at the beginning of the game. Is it counterintuitive to carry a sniper rifle on a Vanguard? Yup. Is it immersion breaking? Possibly. But remember, this is a combat guide, not a story guide. Put the Indra on Shepard with Incendiary Ammo, and congrats! You are now invincible.

How to Play

Vanguard is a high risk/high reward class. It’s designed to play fast and at close range, so if you are trying to play it like an adept, you might not get good results. Get comfortable playing with your shields down (you’ll get them back with the next charge), don’t be stingy with medigel, and don’t fret too much about top tier enemies like phantoms and banshees. You might occasionally get sync killed, but truthfully, your damage output is so high you can often stagger them out of their murderous intent. Even turrets can’t stand up to this kit:

Turn on incendiary ammo the moment you load into a mission and leave it on. I suggest mapping charge, nova, and reave (if it’s your bonus power) to the hotkeys so you don’t have to use the power wheel for each, and make it a muscle memory. Charge everything. Nova with impunity. Shoot everything that isn’t dead until they’re on so much fire they wish they were. Use the power wheel to pause the game and get your bearings or figure out what’s shooting you. Use your squadmates to either strip shields or set up biotic explosions. Use and abuse combat roll to get out of trouble if charge is on cooldown. If you’re about to die, charge first, then medigel. Reload canceling is your friend. (If you are not familiar with reload canceling, I plan to make a post about it.)

A vanguard should rarely stop moving, except for the occasional stint behind cover to regroup, reload your gun, or set up an explosion. If you stop charging, you’ll probably die.

This class is a hell of a lot of fun if you let it off the chain and go hog wild. Don’t be afraid to die. Taking the risk – even if it doesn’t pay off all the time – helps you get comfortable with the batshit playstyle if it’s not something you’re used to.

I love all the Mass Effect classes, but this one is my favorite because this is how I really love to play the game. I hope this guide helps!  

[sangoqueenkoko]

VARIOUS

how and what they build in minecraft

headcanons

MAIN MASTERLIST

(other masterlists listed on main^^)

.

Summary: minecraft. you can make just about anything in that game. well what do some genshin characters make?

Warnings? Nope! But Wanderer’s and Xiao’s aren’t as long as the others because i don’t have them and i am not interested in getting them so i do not know what they are really like. sorry!

Contains: (in order) Kaveh, Alhaitham, Albedo (featuring Klee), Itto, Wanderer, Xiao and Diluc.

Mentions characters above, as well as Dori, Cyno, Tighnari, Jean, Kuki Shinobu, Nahida, Kaeya.

Modern AU!

Kaveh

- this man is a literal architect, so it is easy to say that he will do great. he can make a lot of things, and they look amazing.

- i can imagine he would try to recreate his ‘magnum opus,’ aka The Palace of Alcazarzaray, in the game. he even put chairs down for people to wait. because there aren’t any in genshin.

- if he could, he would so get some furniture mods to make the place really pop.

- he would and has, no doubt.

- give him a few ideas and a prompt and he will be away building within minutes.

- i can see him making a security system so that Alhaitham doesn’t come in and.. do anything.

- he is so independent in minecraft it is unreal, because he can’t get into dept, he is loaded with gold, diamonds, emeralds, etc.

- he would definitely build with those materials.

- if he was in a server or realm, he would definitely work with Dori, and they would hoard all sorts of loot, of course make The Palace of Alcazarzary again with emerald and gold, it may take time, but they’re so committed to it.

- has quarrels over discord with Alhaitham about him even coming near the premises.

- “Alhaitham?! Why are you here?! You better not take any of our stuff!”

- “hm” he was merely looking around, he was interested, but never made it known.

Alhaitham

- definitely a casual gamer, and his favourite game mode is survival, or if he’s feeling adventurous, hardcore.

- if on creative, he’ll probably make a library with actual readable content, it’s a lot of work to do, but it’s something he’s definitely willing to commit to.

- ahem

- if on a new survival world, with Kaveh of course, they would have to share a house until they get enough resources to split and make an area their own.

- however, Alhaitham would make a normal, somewhat aesthetically pleasing house, and Kaveh… would either make a hole in the ground so that mobs won’t find him, or make a room in the house which is bigger than Alhaithams.

- “ugh, what now Alhaitham, can i not make my area of the house mine?”

- “i never said you couldn’t”

- but his face and tone did.

- if on a server or realm, he would go solo.

- definitely get shoo’ed away if he was near Kaveh and Dori’s place.

- he was only curious.

- definitely hangs out with Cyno and Tighnari in the jungle biome Tighnari insisted he and Cyno make their base.

- definitely has a dog that follows him around, and it goes by the name of Wafi, and so help anything that hits that poor creature, because Alhaitham will go full Feeble Scholar.

-also give him a chance and he would install an emerald weapon mod so that he can have his sword in game. sadly, you can’t attack with dendro.

Albedo (and Klee)

- Albedo is the redstone and potions master, no doubt about it and you can’t ever change my mind.

- if his world was expanded beyond, with complex things made, he would have to have certain permissions disabled for Klee who frequently visits his world, because he spends so much time on some things, the pride he holds for them all are obvious, and if something were to happen… uh…

- he has a world especially for Klee, where she blows things up until it reaches bedrock, and of course she tried to break the bedrock, but Albedo has to break it to her that it can’t be broken.

- “but you’re a scientist, surely you can break it!”

- “th-that isn’t how it works” he smiled as he spoke.

- he would test potions on Klee, the good kind, like night vision, leaping and others.

- on the topic of leaping, she would definitely have a place in Albedos main world full of rabbits, and would try to name them all Jumpy Dumpty.

- on a server or realm, Klee would have a piece of land all to herself so she can blow things up without it damaging everyone else’s areas.

- Albedo’s base is home to the Nether portal, so whenever others would come to the portal, they were always welcome to get some fire resistance potions or enchanted weapons, etc.

- oh, and as well as the End portal.

- he is the keeper of the Ender Dragon egg so that no one else loses it, he builds an entire hidden room for it that literally no one else can find.

- shares his base with Jean, he has the scientific side of it.

- she observes Klee too to make sure she doesn’t clash with others.

- Jean and Albedo are the owners of the server/realm.

Itto

- two words, cow farm

- this man has as many cows as one could imagine, in his house, a cave, he lives with a cow named Ushi.

- of course still the Gang are there.

- they have their own houses, in a small town like area near a village, and they actually are at peace with them, they don’t take things from their chests.

- the worst they do is take their crops, but they do eventually plant more in its place.

- their best type of weapon is stone, mainly because they don’t have the best luck when it comes to mining, they either find iron or better but lose it after falling down a ravine or die from a mob

- especially in the Nether, they were a magnet for mobs.

- Itto has died the most in game out of them all.

- however, Kuki is the exact opposite, she is extremely lucky when it comes to mining and general in game experience, but is hesitant to share her things with the gang because of their luck and probably of forgetting where they put things. she doesn’t want to risk it.

- she learnt her lesson after she let Itto borrow her diamond pick axe to go and get some materials from their nearby mine, but he accidentally fell into some lava and lost everything he had on him.

- thus him begging Kuki for forgiveness, just like every other time.

- in a server or realm, Itto forgets to put some sources of light in places, so some mobs will spawn, he freaks out when creepers spawn, thus him not killing them, and thus a part of his home blowing up.

- i can see Itto fending off a creeper and it blows up in his storage room, and the chests are full of torches, thus making his game lag when they all drop, making Itto’s microphone audio cut out when the lag spikes.

- hey, his computer isn’t the best, but he’s saving up for a better one, trust me.

- he’s doing his best.

Wanderer

- he doesn’t have a set base, he has weapons, torches, food and a bed for his travels.

- sometimes camps in a cave when he doesn’t know where to go next.

- if he gets blown up or killed by something else in a cave or anywhere else, he will rage quit, and i mean rage quit.

- definitely the one to go to the end and find the boat that has the elytra, and uses it all the time.

- definitely doesn’t get lost, while trying to find the portal back.

- this goes for the server and realm too, if you see him glide past your base every now and then, then no you didn’t, he chooses not to hang out with anyone.

- but word spread around about the game and caught Nahida’s ears, so she joined and played with Wanderer a lot, her base is made of quartz and emerald, she even made a small base by hers for Wanderer for whenever he visits her.

- he doesn’t show it but he is grateful for it.

Xiao

- the sole reason why Albedo makes the leaping potion, Xiao has satisfaction of sneaking behind mobs and attack them.

- the mob he has tension with most is the enderman, as they can both sort of teleport, even if Xiao uses ender pearls for the skill.

- he solely comes out at night, and his base on the top of the highest mountain in his world, even if it’s small, it’s a place he can hide until night time, however, this doesn’t work well in a server or realm when others want to sleep and pass the night, Xiao is out hunting for loot, especially endermen.

- has come across Wanderer on his travels, they sometimes travel together, but they don’t communicate to each other, only on some occasions.

- “Huh! You!”

- “Hmph” Wanderer muses.

Diluc

- on his own, he is fully capable of taking down pillagers and over taking the woodland mansion to make his own, and always makes secret rooms despite it only him playing on the world, these rooms contain valuable look, this look containing many fire aspect weapons, especially swords.

- when he first started this world, with it being survival, he struggled to find food and make it edible.

- but when more steady on his own, most definitely never runs out of food as he has plenty of farms to work on.

- and most of them are automated.

- like Xiao, prefers and goes out a lot during the night.

- he tested himself and put his game mode on hard, the mansion is by a decent size village, so he protects it all he can, even with iron golems.

- he definitely trades with the villagers too, and of course gets the ‘master’ trade level on each one too, and STILL has stacks of materials left.

- this guy isn’t scared to go to bedrock level and risk himself to get materials. Like Alhaitham, he has dogs, not mentioning them because of how many.

- oh, i forgot to say, Kaeya visits. Diluc isn’t happy (when is he ever) about this, but instead of banishing him from the premises, he has general rules, which Kaeya does respect and follow, thus them both getting along… sort of.

- in a server or realm, Kaeya does visit, but still respects rules and boundaries of everyone else, he stays with Jean, Albedo and Klee.

- apart from that, Diluc has enough food for everyone in the in game world if in need of emergencies.

- believe me when i say this, i can see him trading with Dori and Kaveh frequently, food for high valuables.

- even if they don’t really ever meet, all three of them are on good terms.

[thefirstknife]

Getting real sick of a certain subset of Destiny players complaining that it’s a baby game and crying to Bungie to nerf exotics and abilities when their ENTIRE POINT IS TO BE STRONG in specific ways as if they are being locked into using them.

IF YOU WANT AN EXTRA CHALLENGE STOP BEING SUCH A DPS GOBLIN AND JUST EQUIP SOMETHING THATS NOT TOP TIER META AND STOP COMPLAINING JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

MOOD. Go off.

It's incredibly annoying to me. They always use the argument of "the game should FORCE me to do things, I should not SELF-IMPOSE challenges." And like. ? I'm sorry but what? It's a video game for a big audience, it's here to be playable and accessible to the widest possible playerbase. There are plenty of ways to make the game difficult for yourself, so knock yourself out if that's your thing, but don't force others into it.

Like, I enjoy hard content, I regularly at least attempt day 1 raids, I do master raids, GMs, solo and solo flawless content and all that. But only when I want to. Sometimes I don't and I don't want to suffer in a patrol zone or struggle in a seasonal activity I'm doing for the story. The majority of the players don't want that. Designing games for the professional gamers only has NEVER been a good idea and never will be. Fifty streamers can't sustain a video game. It needs casual players who will want to come back to the game instead of feeling defeated.

One of the reasons I really enjoy helping others is because I know that casual players tend to struggle in stuff that's basic activity for me. I've seen people unable to get through a strike. I've sat for 10 minutes rezing someone who couldn't do the jump in a seasonal activity. I want those people to be able to play basic content without feeling frustrated and I want them to know that there are people out there who will help them out.

And this doesn't apply just to basic content, although it should start with that. I think all dungeons and raids and everything should be things that all players can complete. Fine, doing a master raid with all challenges should be tough, but it should be achievable with time and practice, not impossible. What a lot of these "pros" want is just completely divorced from reality.

It takes days and days of practice every time a new master raid is out for me and my team (all with thousands of hours of playtime) to get comfortable to finally finish it. We're far from casual players and it still takes a lot of time to be able to finish hard content. Making it even harder is insane to me. Like, if something is so hard that my team full of people, each with 5000+ hours of playtime and a coordinated team that's been raiding together for years now can't finish it, that means it's absolutely impossible for probably 90% of the playerbase. That's wild to me. Raids and GMs should have more people playing them. If master raids are too easy for you, Mr. I-Play-Destiny-For-A-Living, that's on you buddy. Unequip the super god tier god roll meta guns and loadouts or play something else.

And ofc, another excuse they make is "if I don't use meta, I am not going to win a raid race!" Then don't. Idk. Let me play you the tiniest violin. This affects literally nobody except a grand total of 50 people. Run your meta in day 1, and play with random shit otherwise. Play raids with all white weapons. Play without mods. Play without a HUD. Do things solo only. I don't know, make up a way to spice things up for yourself. I'm not interested in that and neither are 99% of the players out there. The game is genuinely hard enough for the majority of the players. On top of that, I am here to feel like a powerful space fantasy superhero. I am NOT here to die to dregs in patrol zones. If there's ONE thing that I know for a fact that put people off from Lightfall (as in this year of Destiny), it's the difficulty changes. They're annoying, frustrating and for some a barrier to entry more than anything else.

[sailorsplatoon]

Here it is, the prologue for the dedfour fanfiction, which I only just now realized I never announced the title of.

Everyone, this is Watch the Sky With You. I am very excited to be posting this and I hope you all like it! If you missed my post on the schedule for this fic, you can check it out here.

Without further ado, let's get into the fic!!!

Next

Read it on ao3!

(Fanfic under cut)

Agent 4 loaded into the Memverse for another test run. Marina wanted to make sure everything was working properly before it went fully online, and she knew she could trust them with the task. Once it was completed, they would be a protector there, making sure everyone in it stayed safe… or something like that. They weren’t entirely sure, but they were happy to help with whatever they could. Especially if it meant restoring the minds of the santitized octolings that were still in the Deepsea Metro. When Agent 8 told them about what that weird phone thing did, Four wanted to help in any way possible. 

They weren’t doing any protecting right now, though. At the moment, all they had to do was run a few tests in the Spire of Order, the giant building that looked kinda like Deca Tower, to make sure the floors were working properly. 

But something was wrong. The code felt different than it normally did. As their digital avatar— which looked almost exactly like them in real life— slowly loaded into the Order Sector, they heard a voice they didn’t recognize.

“You are Agent 4, yes?” As the rest of the world materialized around them, they found a face to match with the voice. It looked like some kind of blob of black code… with a face? Marina hadn’t said anything about something like this.

“Yeah, who’re you?”

“I am Order itself. A conscious generated from the processes or many who yearn for stability.”

“Umm okay. What’d Marina put you here for?” If this thing was supposed to be a part of the Memverse, why hadn’t Marina told them about it? They were given full access to all information regarding this weird digital world, so why didn’t they see anything about this guy?

“I am here to bring order to the world.”

“Riiight well I gotta go get some beta testing done now soooo…” they tried to get around Order, but it blocked their path to the Spire.

“You will be assigned an alternate task.”

“Marina didn’t say anything about something else I had to do.”

“These orders do not come from Marina.”

“Then I ain’t following them. Now let me through,” they tried yet again to push past the mass of glitching code. And again, it moved to stop them.

“Do you not want to become the greatest being you can be? To become perfect? To lose all negative emotion and memory in favor of total order?”

“Say what now?” That sounded all too familiar. That was exactly how Eight said sanitization was marketed to unsuspecting octolings. They had to stay on their guard. This might not be good.

“You will be greyscaled in the name of order.” The blob glitched then shot into the air. Upon landing it transformed into a massive octopus creature. This definitely wasn’t good.

Four was just here for some minor beta testing, not a legit boss fight. They took cover behind some coral and pulled up the mod menu Marina had given them in case of emergencies. They equipped themself with a splattershot— or order shot as it was called here— a splat bomb for the sub and a trizooka special. They’d be at a significant disadvantage since they didn’t have a drone with them, or the chance to fill their palette with color chips, or any hacks. But with a weapon build made just for them, they had a shot at winning.

“Look dude, I don’t know why you’re here, but if you’re trying to take away people’s free will then there is no chance I’m letting that happen. That is the exact opposite reason why Marina made this place!” Four shouted, running out from the cover the coral provided to begin their attack.

“Commencing greyscaling.” Order began to shoot massive blobs of black ink right at Agent 4. The thing wasn’t even acknowledging them anymore, how rude! Whatever. They’d take it out and then warn Marina about whatever was going on that caused this mess. “Agent 4, aren’t you tired of being seen as inferior to the other agents? Tired of being forgotten? You can help me bring order to this world, and no one would forget who you are again.”

They hesitated for half a second, but that was all the time Order needed. There was a sudden, intense pain in Four’s right leg. One of the ink blobs had hit them, and it stuck on. They felt their leg going numb the longer it stayed. This was so so not good. Another blob hit their shoulder and they cried out in pain as they stumbled to the ground. The ink didn’t do any damage but they felt it spreading more and more. It seeped through their skin and travelled along their veins. It was cold and stung like dry ice. But how could they feel it if this was all digital? Unless it was somehow happening in the physical world too. They tried to reach to rip it off, but their arm wouldn’t move. Their whole body wouldn’t move. The ink was spreading faster now, up their neck, over their chin, into their eyes. It hurt more than anything they could imagine. 

And then suddenly it didn’t anymore. Suddenly all the pain melted away.

“Greyscaling complete.”

[elfhunk]

i'm trying to build kullervo with a focus on the gazal machete + djinn interaction. so far im having a lot of fun with it but i feel like i'm missing something. it's my first time really doing a full build that requires modding multiple moving parts. any advice? fun helminths i could slap on? i actually use all 4 of his base abilities (i definitely am underusing his 1 though) can you think of any other fun synergies i might have missed? i'm using rauta as my primary

hmm... if i may ask, what's missing right now? what's not feeling satisfying when you actually take it out into your usual content?

damage? survivability? mobility? flavor?

that's always where the last 10% of noodling has been for me. it's where the rubber is hitting the road and there's just some practical considerations you have to settle to make things feel truly great.

i think you obviously wanna put in whatever emerald shards you can afford to increase the corrosive status cap, and then...

let's see. if you're using & enjoying his whole kit, there's no need to bother with helminth.

if i had to guess right now, it's that the gazal machete is in the dinky bad weapon bin and y'know what always saves those? rivens.

we all have too much kuva. just reroll it forever until your bloodlust is satiated. it's fine.

honestly, it's also a solid candidate for melee duplicate, which is actually pretty usable on weapons with dinky critical hit rates like gazal machete.

melee duplicate is only duplicating the yellow critical hits. you can let kullervo's buffs get it over that yellow line but mod it for status & critical damage instead? maybe?