#charged particle gun

[cellarspider]

6/30 The road to hell

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We return to the movie equivalent of an incompletely-assembled Ikea PAX / BERGSBO wardrobe surrounded by chips of particle board and eight thousand extra screws, Prometheus.

If that analogy made sense to anybody, congratulations! You too are succumbing to The Madness.

Content warnings for terrible archaeology, terrible chemistry, and blunt force trauma to the audience with a piece of exposition.

Increasingly extensive alt-text ramblings include the logistics of securing items in moving craft, linguistics, atmospheric science, colorblind-friendly diagram design, swearing about orology, and cursing the crew for their fictional crimes against archaeology.

Many on Tumblr are familiar with Chekhov’s Gun, a piece of writing advice that calls for economy of storytelling: if you mention a loaded gun in your story, it should go off at some point. Sergius Shchukin phrased it this way: “Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." 

So Prometheus takes the rifle down off the wall and smashes you over the head with it, just to make sure you saw it.

CH: “Wow, nice place.” D: “It's actually a separate module with its own self-contained life support. Air, food. Anything Miss Vickers would need to survive a hostile environment.” CH: “Okay, so she lives on a lifeboat.” MV: “Yes. I do. I like to minimize risk.”

Gee. I wonder if Vickers’ lifeboat living quarters will become relevant later.

Then, Chekhov’s rifle hits us with its next flurry of blows.

“Charlie, look. It's a Pauling Med-Pod. They only made a dozen of these.”

Gee. I wonder if the Pauling Med-Pod–-yes of course it’s going to be relevant later

You want a movie where a literal Chekhov’s gun gets fired off, along with Chekov’s crossword puzzle, Chekov’s ketchup packet, Chekhov’s swan, and Chekhov’s farmer’s mum, Chekhov’s everything all weaving back together again in a beautiful symphony of hilarious violence? Watch Hot Fuzz! Do it! Just watch Hot Fuzz! Not Prometheus!

I have said it before and I say it now, this movie is TERRIBLE at providing the audience with plot-relevant information. It hits you like head trauma. It bellows at you like Hans Zimmer has his entire orchestra hiding behind your chair, ready to let loose with an Inception Noise.

Vickers is here to make David mix drinks and to be a Corpo Ice Queen who demands that the team not make any direct contact with any alien life they find while they’re here. She doesn’t think they will, though. She thinks Weyland was delusional. But she’s the one in charge of the company money, so she’s the boss here.

Which begs the question of why she’s here at all, rather than back on Earth. This is actually a plot point, but because it’s not explicitly called out like the LIFEBOAT with the PAULING MED-POD, and everyone else has acted like loons anyway, it does not stand out. It just seems like another dollop of irrational behavior in the unpalatable stew of these characters.

However, Vicker’s demand that no direct contact be made? Very sensible! In fact, this was the point in the movie where I distinctly remember thinking in the theater “wait, they don’t have a first contact protocol already?” 

Like, Vickers doesn’t think that anything’s going to happen, but there’s enough of a chance that she’s giving orders not to engage. The sum total of their formal first contact attempt was yeeting a cultural message packet at the planet while in-transit to see if they got any response. The only one who appears to have been preparing was David–he basically spent the last two years learning comparative linguistics, with the aim of acting as a translator, should they get that far. That’s a sound choice, though its actual implementation is going to leave me incensed later.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of what they’re planning to do. Weyland certainly believed that they were going to meet aliens here. He’s arrogant enough to have demanded this whole project happen, and he didn’t have anything to say about what should be said if they made contact without him? 

This is, possibly, a plot point. But everything else that happens around this in the next five minutes is pure, howling madness.

Because they’re immediately descending into the atmosphere of this alien world.

This is too fast. In Alien, they landed on-planet to check out a possible distress signal, and it was a goddamn pain in their collective ass that they were only doing out of legal responsibility. In Aliens, they were a bunch of hopped-up marines ready to go shoot bugs. 

These are, again, scientists. The team leads are archaeologists! Aerial archaeology is a thriving field today that’s only going to get more useful as technology improves! There is no sense that they’ve done any scans, they don’t even know what the atmosphere is made out of, something we, right now, can already determine about exoplanets. Really! We can! 

We are explicitly told, in fact, that all this is happening within the same day as everyone waking up. The events of this movie appear to happen over two days, maybe three at the max.

And now, Spider yells at cloud. Or rather, the atmosphere.

The movie claims that if you spend two minutes on the surface without an oxygen supply, you’re dead. Why? Atmospheric CO₂ is over 3%.

Now, 3% CO₂ is not a fun time, and you will definitely experience weird physical and cognitive effects. But if you hang out in 3-5% CO₂, you’re going to be pretty okay for anywhere from four hours to over a month. 

What I've heard consistently is speculation that the movie meant carbon monoxide levels at 3%, which, yeah, that'll kill ya. In fact 2-3 breaths of 1.28% CO makes people pass out and die within under three minutes. 0.01% CO is enough to result in headaches and memory problems, as one redditor demonstrated to the internet back in 2015. 

But no. For whatever reason, the movie script says “CO₂”. Consistently.

And now, we get to the bit that had me screeching under my breath in the theater. Most people who saw Prometheus lost their sympathy for the human characters about 5-20 minutes after this point. I was ahead of the curve. I hated these characters before it was cool. Because they see a structure. They see what looks like roads.

Holloway, who I remind you all, claims to be an archaeologist, demands they set the ship down on one of those roads.

Let me tell you all a story. A few years before this movie first blighted me, I signed up for an archaeological field course. The university offering it didn’t have a dig permit lined up for the year I went, but their campus was in an area that had seen continuous human habitation for at least 15,000 years. They scouted out a bit of lawn, we cut the turf, and started digging. 

A week or two into the dig, we realized that the top layers were probably modern infill, dirt that had been trucked in from somewhere and completely jumbled. We started hacking away at it with mattocks to get down to the actual archaeology, which was delayed by a day or two when I struck 1940s asphalt. 

Like, literally struck it with my mattock. It felt like biting down on aluminum foil, but spread out over my hands to my shoulders. The professors rented a small mechanical digger to tear up the old car park, and also some of the plywood on the sides of our trench by accident. I have never seen a bunch of professors so gleeful about being turned loose on heavy machinery.

But finally, we got to what we were there for. A bunch of 13th century houses, and a Roman road.

I remember we made sure there was photo documentation that captured every fucking pebble on the medieval surface of that road, before we dug in. We were encouraged to sketch it, too. We took precise GPS coordinates of where the edge of the road started. We sifted through the road surface as we dug it up, finding dozens of tiny artifacts, because centuries of people had tossed little bits of trash onto the road, lost things out of their pockets and pouches, all the random little events that might happen on a stretch of road two minutes' walk from the parish church. 

I remember one student found the metal tag off of a horse’s bridle, that would’ve been used to identify it with its owner’s mark. Another found an 800 year old silver coin, tarnished on one side and perfectly, shiningly pristine on the other. It was beautiful.

And over and over, we were told: “A road is a find.” A road itself is history. A road is a place shaped by human hands, where humans have lived their lives. We can learn a lot from roads.

And that was what I was whispering at the screen in the theater, increasingly incensed. “A road is a find. A road is a find. A road is a find!!”

I was ready to reach through the screen and strangle that motherfucker Holloway from this moment on. The movie had lost me fully. Not because of this moment in isolation–if the rest of it had been consistently competent, I would have sighed and done my best to hold onto suspension of disbelief. But the drip feed of problem after problem had taken me from open and interested in the movie to actively spiteful in about 30 minutes or less.

So, fine. The movie seemed determined to make me watch a bunch of unprepared morons stumble to their deaths. Usually, this sort of movie doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t find much use for the kind of movie where you’re supposed to feel antipathy toward the main cast, as a free pass to watch them suffer. It’s why I still haven’t seen Alien Covenant. But I had been unexpectedly ambushed by just such a movie, and I was rooting for whatever horrors awaited them.

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Citations for alt text rambling:

1. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bane-vs-pink-guy--2

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions 

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_incus 

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Mons

[lunariamv]

i love edgelords <3 adachi tohru x fem reader (part 3) | [Part 1] [Part 2] im late but i finally did it >:D adachi gets clocked by girlboss; featuring: female rage

The formidable shadow burst into a million particles. A satisfied exhale escaped you as you lowered your smoking gun. The leftover rush from the fight was settling in your veins. That has to be the last one, right? Everything was leading up to the end, and you were determined to clear this dungeon. You were getting closer. The finale was drawing ever so near, and you could feel it in your bones.

Turning your head over your shoulder, your hair swayed in the faint breeze. Standing behind and beside you were the seven high schoolers (and bear) you were in charge of. “Are you guys alright?” 

Call it your maternal instincts kicking in, but you wanted to make sure the kids were prepared to keep going. Everyone needed to be at their best if you wanted to stand a chance at defeating Adachi. Losing wasn’t an option.

“Yeah, we’re good!” Chie replied. Honestly, she was pretty fired up. She could fight these shadows, and still be full of energy.

“Yes ma’am.” Kanji added politely. The others uttered similar notions.

Upon everyone’s confirmation, a smile formed on your lips. Glad to see you were all on the same page. “Okay, good. We’re almost to the end, aren’t we?”

Rise, the eyes and ears of the team, nodded. Since the way had been cleared up, her persona had an easier time detecting enemies. Adachi in particular. “Yeah. He should be down that way…!” She replied firmly. Teddy could sense it as well. All of you were almost to the final stage.

“Let’s go then.” You declared, and the leader of the investigation squad agreed. Stepping forward, Yu took charge and led the group.

Inside the winding nexus of concrete paths and caution tape, there was a singular path to the end. Just before your feet, there was a long stretch of path ahead. Taking a deep breath, you took off with the students.

This was it. You’d finally get the closure you had been waiting for.

As you kept up your brisk pace, Yukiko jogged alongside you. She turned her head to face you.

“Are you gonna be okay, Miss (Y/N)?” She held a look of concern. All of them knew that Adachi used to be an important person to you. To face him head on like this would be rough.

Upon hearing her worries, Rise, Chie, and Naoto slowed down to join in the conversation. It was horrible what Adachi did to you, betraying your trust like that. They couldn’t imagine what it was like for a person they liked to turn out to be a completely different person.

“...I’ll be fine.” You replied with a faint smile. To you, this was nothing.

Admittedly, it warmed your heart to see that the girls empathized with you. In fact, the days leading up to the dungeon were filled with talks from the girls. They were there for you in Adachi’s absence, and the reassurance was comforting. It was a reminder you weren’t alone in this endeavor. Your Ex’s reckless and twisted actions affected so many people. Soon to be many more. Whether you were prepared or not, you had to stop him at all costs. Everyone deserved justice.

A confident smirk formed on your lips. “I’m just ready to take him down already.” You joked.

The boys were in full agreement with that sentiment. Not only did they want to beat him up, but also for your honor and Nanako’s. “Hell yeah, we’ll kick his ass!” Kanji cheered, and Yosuke agreed.

The group was successfully hyped up now. The eight of you ran down the long narrow path littered with signs and caution tape. The red mist was vaguely hazy through your glasses. Off in the distance, you could see the end of the line. At the finish line was a figure standing there.

Upon spotting the edge, you picked up your speed. Closely behind, the others followed suit. Once you caught up to the figure, your movements skidded to a halt. All done in stilettos. It was impressive how well you moved in heels.

Adachi’s back was turned to your group. There was a brief pause, then he gradually turned around. As he did so, he offered your group a slow pity clap.

“Wow, I’m surprised you made it this far.” He observed. Though he said it to the group, it was mostly meant for you in particular. The drive you had to beat him was fascinating.

At the forefront of the investigation team, you crossed your arms. If he tried anything, you’d do your best to protect the kids. They took priority, as their personas were much stronger than yours. So you served as the support, and the first line of defense. 

“I’m surprised you can even see.” You retorted as you placed him under heavy scrutiny.

He raised a brow. “Huh? Of course I can see.” For a moment, his dark nature dropped due to his confusion. What kind of observation was that?

You tilted your head curiously. Raising your hand, you pinched the temple of your glasses and lowered them about an inch. Just to be sure. As you expected, the scenery before you was barely visible. A foggy, hazy mess. Without the lenses, it was hard to make him out. You skeptically narrowed your eyes and moved your specs back up. “Really…? Isn’t it foggy?”

The teenagers with you realized you had a point. Does Adachi not need glasses because he’s a shadow or something?

“Oh no, I can see you perfectly fine, (Y/N)...” Adachi shook his head with a chuckle. The fog was nothing to him. In fact, it was comforting more than anything. Smirking, a low rumble left his throat. “And man, you look as lovely as ever~”

Gross. Needless to say, his compliments had you grimacing in disgust. Any of his flirting attempts were like a mouthful of sand. Glaring, you held your hip. Everything he said got on your nerves now.

“Enough.” Naoto noticed your mild discomfort. “Allow me to confirm the crimes you’ve committed thus far.”

“You had suspicions that this world was dangerous, yet you threw Mayumi Yamano into the TV. Knowing full well that Ms. Yamano died here, you did the same to Saki Konishi. Not only that, but you duped Namatame into taking over your murder attempts, while you watched like a spectator at a game. When the disappeared stopped dying, you sent a warning letter to ensure more victims.”

Adachi sighed with disinterest.

“Even when a copycat killer arose, you had the gall as a detective to eliminate a suspect under investigation.” Naoto’s glare burned. “Two people died in the last six months, and a young girl is now in critical condition… but that’s not all.”

“If at any turn something had gone wrong, many more would have succumbed… all for some foolish ‘excitement,’ like a criminal reveling in the chaos he creates!”

Naoto put it better than you ever could.

“You’re disgusting, Adachi. To think you’d go as low as to convince me to turn my back on everyone. These kids have a better grasp on reality than you do.” You spoke up.

Yosuke and the others were surprised by what you revealed. Adachi tried to trick you into joining him?!  This guy was more than messed up.

Admittedly, Adachi was a little hurt by your words. “Oh come on, (Y/N). All I did was put people in here.” He retorted. His tone was normal and flat, as if he was a disinterested child being lectured. “It’s the world that really kills them, isn’t it?”

His gaze wandered over to the red sky. “This world reflects people’s thoughts… which… oh dear… does that mean the real culprits are everyone on the outside, including you?”

What backwards logic. “That may be fundamentally true, but who are you to lead them to the slaughter?” You glared at him. 

It’s true, not everyone was strong enough to face themselves. That doesn’t mean they deserve to be taken advantage of and killed.

“Face it for what it is. If you didn’t do what you did, Mayumi and Saki would still be alive.” Your targeted gaze was narrow and filled with contempt. It was his actions that damned them to the afterlife. “Why don’t you be a man and own up to your crimes, instead of making up excuses?”

“Yeah, to hell with that!” Yosuke barked. Like you said, it was a shitty excuse. “You did that stuff knowing full well those people were gonna die! If that’s not a crime, then what is!?”

Adachi snickered in response. “Haha… you’re so self-righteous.” He retorted smugly.

Chie was appalled by his words. For an officer of the law, his attitude was so out of place. “How can you say that…!? Aren’t you a police officer!?” She questioned. 

He was a detective, the same as (Y/N). While you became an officer to help people, here was this messed up guy in the same field hurting people. He was a walking contradiction. “Out of everything you could have been, didn’t you specifically choose to join the police!?”

“Don’t make me laugh. Just because someone joins the police doesn’t make them some kinda ‘agent of justice.’” Adachi scoffed in a disparaging tone. The credulous precedent made his skin crawl.

Upon hearing that, your fists involuntarily clenched. That crossed the line for you. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. “What are you saying? That’s the whole point… that’s your job…!” You exclaimed. 

It both horrified and frustrated you to think he didn’t take his job seriously. Bad actors like him were an insult to your integrity as a detective. All of your talks with him of busting culprits, and helping people… it was all a lie. To think you thought he was being sincere when you opened up to him. Helping people and being a detective was part of your identity… so it was personal.

Why would he even bother?!

His eyes met your hardened ones. “Do you really wanna know why I applied, (Y/N)? So I could legally carry a gun… that’s all.” He replied, shrugging nonchalantly. “You’d be surprised how many are like that.”

Brows furrowing, your expression twisted to one of shock. “...You’re joking.” The corners of your lips turned downward. Just to own a gun…? Seriously? He’d compromise the principles of the police, just for a simple weapon?

“You wanted a gun?” Face stuck in disbelief, you stared at him in horror. It quickly changed to one of frustration. The notion was so absurd you had to reaffirm it. With one hand over your chest, your other swung your arm to the side. Though you originally wanted to remain calm when confronting Adachi, it was impossible. Rage was boiling inside you thanks to his absurdity. Growing more heated in the argument, your voice raised in volume. “Then move to the States! Their firearm laws are much more relaxed there…!”

While you agreed it was nice to carry a firearm, you didn’t understand his odd desperation for one. Going so far as to force an occupation just to get one. It didn’t make any sense. “There was no need to incriminate yourself and ruin the integrity of the police! Where’s your sense of honor?!” You argued.

While everyone bore some resentment for Adachi, they could tell your back and forth was much more heated. None of them had ever seen you this angry before. It was very personal between you two.

“Honor?” He tilted his head at you. A short, pitiful laugh escaped his lips. As much as he liked you, preachy garbage like that got on his nerves. “When you’re like me, you don’t get that sort of privilege.”

“Everything and everyone around me was boring. I was surrounded by idiots. Then one little mistake bought me scrutiny, and a ticket to Nowheresville. Why bother with honor or integrity when life is just a sham?”

You bit your tongue. Before all of this, you did think that compared to yourself, he was a lost man. What you didn’t know was the true extent.

“I was bored shitless and wondering what to do next… when I discovered this power.”

Kanji for one, agreed with you regarding honor. A piece of shit like Adachi didn’t deserve powers like the rest of you if he couldn’t even have a single shred of dignity. “For crying out loud… why a bastard like you!?”

“A gift for having to put up with this lame job out in Nowheresville, I guess.” Adachi said simply. His expression was plain again, the one you used to like. “I did that stuff ‘cause I could. And it got interesting, so I watched.”

“That’s your reason!? You can’t be serious…!” Yukiko scoffed. She couldn’t believe how apathetic the man was. It was horrifying to know this was the type of person they were supposed to trust with their safety. “You really don’t care what happens to our world!?”

“Let’s be honest. There’s nothing great about the real world, is there? It’s just dull and annoying as hell.” Adachi held a scowl. “No one accepts that’s the way things are… they’re just stuck with it because they can’t deny it, either.”

“Those who actually succeed in life… they just happen to be born with the magic ticket called ‘talent.’ If you don’t have it, you can either accept or deny that fact until you die. That’s your only choice.”

He averted his gaze. “Once you realize that, all you have left in life is despair. The ultimate game over. Wouldn’t it be better if that kind of reality was wiped away?”

“You don’t actually believe that crap, do you?” You couldn’t help but ask that rhetorical question. Hearing his defeatist rantings made you feel an ounce of pity for him.

As you spoke, you held your hand over your chest. Your eyes flickered with conviction. “Life can be unfair, but what makes it boring or exciting is up to you. Instead of giving up, you work and adapt for the things you want.”

Adachi went silent for a moment. Perhaps processing your words. Then he scoffed quietly.

“You’re so naive, (Y/N)... it kind of pisses me off.” He grinned at you. It appeared the advice went through one ear and out the other. “You don’t get what it’s like to be me. You’re pretty and you have talent. You have it easy, and you can have it much easier if you wanted to.”

It was impressive to him that you were a good detective. However, he wouldn’t have been surprised if you got advantages due to other factors. And even then, you could always be a trophy wife if you ever got tired of working. It wasn’t the same thing for him. He didn’t get those advantages.

“Shut the hell up.” You uttered with wide eyes. 

Instead of screaming or yelling, you were eerily calm. Though you didn’t shout, your voice was laced with burning anger. It was enough to give anyone chills.

He doesn’t get to say that. You spent years of painstaking labor to get to where you were at. Even more for people to start taking you seriously. In truth, you had to spend years in a similar situation to Naoto. In a job you loved, but one where you were held back, shunned, or mocked just for being a woman in a male dominated profession.

Being pretty or ‘talented’ wasn’t strictly a blessing. It can be a curse. Drawing the ire of people just because of how you look. Talent can mean nothing when your mere existence decided your worth. Getting advantages or disadvantages because of how you are perceived. All you wanted was to work hard and be acknowledged for your skill rather than your looks. Even now, you were close but not entirely there.

He knew that, and he had the gall to say you had it easy.

Naoto herself understood how you felt, and she was just as disgusted by his speculation.

“Just where the hell do you get off saying any of this, Adachi?” You spoke up.

“You think you know true adversity because… you were given a slap on the wrist, and kicked out of the city? Your life got a little too boring, and you’re too lazy to spice things up?”

“Instead of turning anything around… you sit there and cry about it?” You scoffed. The rage was boiling over. “Poor Adachi. Wow, I feel so sorry for you. You pathetic piece of garbage.”

“I mean it when I said life is dictated by how you live it. Your life is boring because of your own choices. Holding a pity party whilst doing nothing to improve it isn’t going to change anything.”

“You’re coping when you say ‘that’s how reality is.’ It isn’t. I’m sorry your life is terrible, but not everyone aspires to live the same way you do.”

“So please, don’t patronize to me about your shitty life experience when you’re not even trying.”

“Hell yeah, (Y/N)! Tell it like it is!” Kanji cheered you on. Him and the others had been silent, but they were enjoying hearing you dress down Adachi like this. He needed someone at his level to knock him down a peg.

It was inspiring to hear you talk. It made them fired up for the incoming battle.

“That’s why… this entire farce is pathetic. It’s cowardly to destroy the world and ruin things for everyone else because you want to be cynical. It’s selfish, and childish.” It was hard to believe this was the same man you fell for. Should you even be calling him a man at this point?

His plan to turn everyone into shadows was ludicrous. You stared at him, your gaze shimmering with conviction. “You’re far too close-minded to decide how the world will run.”

Perhaps in another life, your words would have reached him. If your paths had crossed sooner, he could’ve turned it all around. But it was too late. The damage had already been done. He was too far gone now to be reached. The harsh truth was threatening to shatter his ego.

“Shut up…. shut up, (Y/N)...!!!”

Adachi glanced down. A faint blue glow began to overtake his body.

“Be careful! I dunno what’s happening!” Teddy warned the group. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

The blue light continued emanating off his body like smoke. His eyes were glowing yellow. It was the same phenomena that occurred when the others encountered their shadow forms. A haunting realization came to you. Here, there wasn’t a second Adachi to contrast the first. 

Meaning they were one and the same.

“You all saw Shadows as mere monsters, didn’t you!? These things move on pure instinct! They go wild because you defy them!” Adachi’s voice was now distorted. “If you don’t want to be with me, but those annoying little brats… then so be it! You won’t be welcomed in the new world!”

“What new world? La la land?” You asked. A faint grin of amusement tugged on your lips. He was delusional if he thought you’d let him destroy the world and rebuild it in his image.

Adachi was at a loss. He couldn’t believe you were betraying him. The only person who brought him comfort was now against him. He was trapped in a corner.

It was all one big migraine. “Stop… stop trying to act tough, (Y/N)!” He lashed out at you. His composure was gradually getting worse. He was hunched over, as if in pain.

He held his temples, his entire body shaking. “You have no idea what kinda shit I’ve been through!!” He shouted.

“Get over yourself.” You sighed, adjusting your suit blazer. At this point, you’ve had it with him. “I dealt with a lot of injustice and nonsense. You don’t see me crying and scorching the Earth over it.”

Honestly, you didn’t mind being ruthless. It appeared Adachi had made up his mind about how he wanted to live. Therefore, all of the generous empathy you had for him was spent. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to change.

Adachi yelled out in rage. His body dispersed into particles of shadow. Everyone else got into their fighting positions.

“Here he comes!” Rise warned. “This will probably be our last battle… let’s hit him with everything we’ve got!”

“The world is about to change…” Adachi’s body materialized from the shadows. He whipped out his gun. “Your existence won’t belong there!”

“I thought I could just leave you be, but you’re like a plague… I’ll have to get rid of all of you!”

“So be it.” You exhaled sharply. As you spoke, your vindictive gaze never left him. It was hard to believe this was your reality now. A nightmare made real. The man standing before you, the person you had to fight was your former lover. However, instead of shying away from the truth, you’d embrace it head on. “Let’s go guys…! I’m not letting us lose to the likes of him!”

“Right! Let’s work together! There’s no way we can lose to this bastard!” Yosuke and the others agreed. It was finally time to kick his ass for all the things he’s done.

Looking at the others, you nodded. Whether or not you still held feelings, you’d take him down all the same.

It was an exciting set of circumstances too. Beating your ex, to save the world? A faint chuckle escaped you at how poetic it was. “I’m going to enjoy this.” You smirked. With a snap of your fingers, your card shattered into a million pieces. A shimmering blue flame sparked behind you, and your persona materialized in its place. “Let’s dance, Adachi!”

Adachi hated how cocky you were getting. You didn’t stand a chance against him. He had to crush that semblance of hope. “Shut up…! Get lost! Get the hell outta my sight!!”

“Nope.” You mused. “Let’s go, Isolde…!” Upon channeling your persona, you summoned a protective barrier around the group.

The first strike to him was your Maragidyne. Adachi was hit with a large blast of fire. Not only did you make the first move, it showed your blazing resolve. It cemented the fact that you were serious about fighting him. There was no holding back in this battle.

The adrenaline rush you got from battle flowed through your veins. It was the perfect outlet for all the frustration you had at Adachi’s betrayal. The anger you had over opening up and giving him your heart, of which he took for granted. Also hitting him was just pretty satisfying.

The fight was long and arduous. As much as you hated him, Adachi was a formidable opponent. In order to defeat him, you had to give it your all. Each attack you made was powerful, with  smooth and fluid movements. It truly was a dance for the fate of the world.

The others jumped in with their own attacks. Each move weakened Adachi slowly but surely. His strikes were painful to endure, but you and Yukiko had spells to keep everyone at peak performance. You could keep this up forever, but could he?

It wasn’t before long, Adachi’s figure was starting to wane. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, his strength was dwindling. He was losing. His change in demeanor didn’t go unnoticed by you. In fact, it gave you a burst of energy. It was confirmation for you to keep going so you could finally end this once and for all.

A series of attacks followed your observation. Rise had pointed out Adachi’s state, and everyone in your group sent a fury of attacks. It was time to wrap this up.

It was only a few minutes longer into the fight that Adachi had grown weaker. Upon letting his guard down, there was a moment of weakness, and you took it. You sent the final blow. “Once more…!” A fire blast escaped your persona’s hands and hit the man.

That was it. He stumbled back before dropping to his knees. He was defeated. Adachi visibly grimaced, wincing as he held his shoulder.

“D-Damn… this is lame…” He grumbled as he grit his teeth. “Ngh… oh well…”

“Our world’s gonna disappear soon, no matter what… I didn’t have anywhere to go back to anyways… Everyone’s gonna become Shadows…” He chuckled before being met with a surge of pain.

To your dismay, beating Adachi didn’t completely solve everything. If only it had been that simple. It turned out he was a conduit for the true culprit behind the phenomena, Ameno-sagiri. It had been called upon due to the desire for mankind to live in ignorant bliss. Since they desired for the absence of truth, they would become shadows and live in the darkness of the fog.

You didn’t think you’d fight against a giant disco eyeball, but you did.

Upon its defeat, you opened Ameno-sagiri’s eye to the truth. You and the others showed the supernatural being the power of human potential. The fog was lifted over Inaba.

Once the being faded away, you approached Adachi, who was laying on the ground. You gently nudged the side of his arm with the tip of your stiletto. He’s still alive…

Adachi sighed as he stared at the sky. He was defeated. “So that’s it, huh…?” The world he wanted wasn’t going to happen.

“Fine… Live however you want…” He breathed out. It was clear he still had some lingering influence of Ameno-sagiri. His voice was rough and strained. “If you think… you have the power to change the future… then go right ahead…”

“I’m surprised you don’t know it’s very possible.” You raised a brow. Changing the future has been a believable concept since the dawn of time. Nothing is set in stone.

“Everyone has the power to do that.” Yosuke said in agreement.

Adachi let out a pained laugh. He wasn't sure why any of you were still around. Surely, you'd leave him to rot, right? “Get outta here… The Shadows will finish me off…”

“Just leave me be… you came to kill me in the first place… didn’t you…?” He stared at you and the group. He wouldn’t expect any less. He was a murderer who betrayed your trust.

“No, dumbass.” Kanji said to Adachi.

“You’re joking, right?” You held your hip as you glanced down at the man. Bending your knees, you crouched down next to him.

“You’re not getting off that easy.” From your pocket, you got out your handcuffs. With swift yet gentle movements, you took his arm and attached the restraint to his wrist. It was only fair Dojima got closure just as you did. Adachi needed to own up to his crimes as well. “I said I’d put you behind bars. Unlike you, I keep my promises.”

“Yeah, your stupid game’s over. We’re taking you back.” Yosuke said in agreement. “Live and face your punishment… that’s how it works in our world.”

“...Right…” Adachi didn’t move as you locked his hands up. There was a hint of humiliation he felt being put in restraints by you. It was the cherry on the bitter sundae of defeat. However, he couldn’t bring himself to resist anymore.

Naoto agreed with your wishes. “I’m sure that’s the outcome Dojima-san wishes for as well.”

As you kneeled close to the man, you glanced down at him. Amidst the momentary silence, he met your eyes. “We have the same power, but things turned out so differently for us…” Adachi muttered.

He wasn’t wrong. The two of you were in the same field, and granted the same ability, but that’s where your similarities ended. Like fire and water, you were complete opposites. While he succumbed to his loneliness and cynicism, you were optimistic and driven to your goals. Despite dealing with hardships, you managed to overcome and adapt. You had friends, family, and things to live for.

You were Adachi’s only gateway to a world of color. The exciting life he thought was long dead. He had a taste of it for a moment, and it felt nice… but then he ruined it. Foolishly, Adachi let his selfishness get in the way of his own happiness. He pushed the only person he cared about away. The woman of his dreams slipped out of his grasp, and he was the only one to blame.

Regret was seeping in through the cracks. “If only I had met you sooner… things wouldn’t have gone this way…” He whispered, his eyes softening.

Falling silent for a moment, you averted your gaze. “Maybe so…” You replied softly with a frown. Gently, you lowered his wrists about an inch. As much as you resented him for what he did, you did feel a small ounce of pity. It wasn’t an excuse, but you understood how he got here. “But I shouldn’t have to be the sole reason for you to change.”

You can’t magically fix someone’s problems overnight. Changing isn’t someone else’s responsibility, but your own. Change has to come from within. It wasn’t your job to save someone who can’t even help themselves.

“...Yeah, right…” Despite his begrudging acceptance, Adachi smiled weakly at you. His clarity arrived far too late. The damage was done, but his feelings persisted even now. In the fight he said he hated your resilience. In truth, it was one of the things he loved most about you.

After leaving the TV Realm, you were tasked with bringing him back to the station. You got into contact with Dojima and told him everything. Adachi was carefully taken into custody. As he was taken away by a stretcher at Dojima’s personal request, you didn’t speak any more words to each other.

The teenagers decided to go off and celebrate, but you hung back to go to the station.

Officers and civilians were coming and going through the Junes. As you walked out the glass doors, you were hit with a shining bright glare. What followed was a comfortable sentiment of warmth. Your eyes were shielded with your arm, and you slowly lowered it to glance up. 

The sun was out. The fog was no more. It was a peaceful, sunny day. One that filled your senses with a feeling of tranquility. The light breeze gingerly swayed your locks as you stood there, admiring the sight. How long has it been since you’ve seen a clear day like this? Too long… A small smile crept up your cheeks.

Thanks to Adachi, you were back at square one. A single detective, able to return to the city and resume her life of chasing thrills and avoiding lows. However… that wasn’t entirely true. You grew a lot from this experience. Not to mention all the bonds you formed here during your time in Inaba. It made you appreciate living, whether it be materialistic or minimalistic. Thrills were fun, but sometimes tranquility was better.

Brushing the stray locks away from your face, you continued your walk to the station. Perhaps… you’ll stay here a bit longer.

haha totally not gonna use this as a blueprint for a persona game for girls hahahahahahaha whaaa???

anyways stan p4 detective y/n best mentor character

lowkey i wanted to do another part thats like aftermath interrogation stuff or ultimax or something but omg ultimax is longggg and id rather make my own persona type story instead hhhhh oh well maybe

divider: cafekitsune

consider following if you like my works :D

♡ quotev ♡ wattpad ♡ archive ♡ caard ♡

[combine-kegan]

Kustam dev continues, his heat gauge got refined to better show charge attack stacks, and two new subweapons: The rail beam is a strong railgun that leaves a trail of damaging particles, and the flash bolt is an explosive stun rocket!

Still gotta fiddle with his other subweapons because I'm not 100% sold on his current hitscan shotgun and hitscan machine gun attacks.

[autisticsupervillain]

FTF Shorts: Not Even Close!

A vs show where the longer analysis and set up is skipped in order to briefly explain why a certain fight is nowhere near close.

This Week's Fighters...

Albert Wesker vs Alex Mercer!

The outcome of this matchup lies entirely within the stats. While Alex may seem to directly perform feats more impressive than anything Albert has done, Wesker has a lot of in universe power scaling that puts him above Mercer.

Let's start with Alex's most widely known feat, "tanking" a nuke. While the distance Alex was from the explosion means that Mercer didn't actual survive the blast's full yield, lets say he could just no sell the nuke for the sake of argument. Using in game projections of the blast, the explosion would've been big enough to completely glass Manhattan, requiring a yield of roughly 8.2 Megatons.

Keep in mind, this is much, much more powerful than how strong the nuke was actually stated to be in game and I'm operating under the assumption Alex tanked the nuke without a scratch, which is blatantly not true. I'm giving Alex every possible benefit you could give him here.

Albert still outclasses this feat with his scaling. Albert has tanked hit from the L.T.D., a handgun version of an orbital laser that hits with the "full force of the sun". In RE Revelations 2, one of these weapons is used to wipe out a city. Wesker can take multiple shots from one, coming out at about 42.8 Megatons.

Thanks to the way physics works, this would also apply to Albert's attack potency. He can evenly trade hits with those who can hurt him.

That's a strength gap of 5.2x in Albert's favor at best, but it gets worse. Remember how I said I was being generous with Mercer surving the nuke? Well, if you take away those assumptions and starting going off of how powerful those weapons actually are stated to be, and the gap gets much worse.

The news broadcast that plays over the Prototype 1 credits directly states that the bomb was 5x more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That's.... a measly 75 kilotons. Now Albert's 750x stronger than the bomb that liquefied Alex completely while he wasn't even in the epicenter.

If that crow hadn't been there for Mercer to absorb, he may not have been able to regenerate from that blast at all.... and Albert is punching 750x harder than it.

But that's just punching power. Mercer could still just assimilate Wesker, right?

Well, yes, he could. Hypothetically. If he could hit him.

Alex's best feat of speed is him processing the entire life story of the people he absorbs, putting his thought processes at 66% lightspeed.

Buuuuut, Wesker is even faster still. Enter Resident Evil: Dead Aim 2.

Morpheus, the game's final boss, is able to dodge shots from the Charged Particle Rifle, a gun that shoots... well.... charges molecular particles at you.

See that "based on particle accelerators" line? Accelerators can move particles at 99% light speed.

Since Wesker is empowered by a superior virus than Morpheus, he'd be even faster and stronger, putting him in the light speed ranges. As such, Wesker moves considerably faster than Mercer can think.

What this means is Alex likely will never get his hands on Wesker to absorb him in the first place. Wesker is such a show off that he takes the time to dramatically dodge bullets from handguns that pose no threat to him. He's not letting Mercer touch him. Once Wesker punches Mercer and sees him regenerate from the splattered salsa on the walls, he's gonna realize he's dealing with an unknown BOW. Given his experience against such foes, even as a normal human, he's unlikely to let it infect him without knowing how it'd react to his own virus and act accordingly. Smug as he is, Wesker is smart enough not to fuck around with unknown bioweapons.

All that is, of course, assuming Mercer could infect him anyways. Given Blacklight's ability to infect even inorganic buildings, it's likely its properties go deeper than just cells, possibly extending down to molecules. But, Wesker can likely deal with that too, as the Charged Particle Rifle can break down molecules (see scan above) and inferior BOWs to Wesker can survive shots from it. So he might not even be able to absorb Wesker in the first place for the same reason he couldn't absorb Cole MacGrath back when I did that matchup. So, even if Alex was faster, it likely wouldn't matter.

Wouldn't Alex have superior skill and experience?

Yes, he would. I'm not gonna take that from him. While the question of who is scientifically smarter is debatable, Mercer has absorbed the experiences of countless soldiers and marines, giving him an exponential advantage on Wesker. However....

1. The gap isn't insurmountable. The entire reason why STARS was able to survive the first few games was because they're simply the best of the best in commando ops, with their achievements immediately getting them promoted to high ranking international positions in all the sequels. Wesker was skilled enough to survive those events as an ordinary human as well as be a member of STARS. So the skill gap is there, but it's not insurmountable.

2. Wesker can move faster than Alex can think, making it a moot point regardless.

Are you suggesting normal human Chris Redfield can beat someone who survives nukes?

Yes. Leon Kennedy can suplex people so hard their heads explode. STARS is just built different.

This isn't even an unprecedented thing in PROTOTYPE either. Robert Cross was a regular human and he could fight Mercer head on too. Both of these verses have set a precedent of normal humans beating superhumans on equal footing. Fiction does that sometimes and it's best to just role with it.

Wasn't Wesker killed by two rocket launchers?

He was weakened by the anti serum at the time. In previous fights, similar rockets did little more than stun him. Also, those rockets can blow apart Tyrants, so it's not like dying to one is too unimpressive in any case.

You've used mainly PROTOTYPE 1 feats. Does PROTOTYPE 2 change anything?

No. The most noticeable feat from that game is when Heller spreads tendrils across the city, absorbing all the infected. That gets us 106 kilotons and Mach 7.87.

Still not touching Wesker.

I do enjoy the irony of the side games absolutely carrying the power scaling for Wesker here. Maybe if PROTOTYPE had 12 mid spin offs this would be a closer match. Ultimately, Wesker's familiarity with Mercer's precise type of threat and his stats advantage across the board means that he has every advantage he needs to keep Mercer down. Simply keep pummeling him into mulch until he stops getting back up, then takes his bits back for further study.

This Throwdown's Winner is....

Albert Wesker!

[angremlin]

After many hours of work i have finished everything but the weapons* on my Geno Breaker model, i can't believe how well it works, i can barely get HG Gunpla to stand and hold a gun but this model is both easy to get where i want it without exploding AND it only took me like a minute to shift between upright and firing modes.

(*except the charged particle cannon i guess because that's literally the whole body - the barrel's in the mouth, the ports and fins on the tail are particle accumulators and heat vents, the feet shift to anchor it and there's additional vents above the heel, and... well in typical T-Rex fashion the arms dont do anything)

[agbpaints]

So today I don't so much want to talk about some unknown mech I dug out of the bowels of Sarna, I just want to gush about a classic.

Whenever I build a list for playing Classic Battletech, I usually tend to focus a lot on my mediums and heavies. I like mechs that get into the thick of it fast and brawl and joust. Jumping jack Thunderbolts, Grasshoppers, Wolverines, Wraiths, etc. Light mechs are important too- scouts and light support and knives to push into the backs of people too busy dealing with my fast battle line. But when I get to the 80+ ton bracket I always think to myself 'why am I looking for slow fire support? I already play An Assault Mech,' and then I strap myself back into my Awesome.

Originally designed by Technicron Manufacturing in Merrick space furing the height of the Star League, the Awesome AWS-8Q was supposedly intended as a replacement for the aging Striker. The Striker itself is fairly forgettable product of early human mech design- it isn't much too write home about beyond being a janky bracket firing pile of direct fire weapons stapled onto a chassis with a questionably large engine and far too few heat sinks. I've got a feeling someone at Technicron thought the same when they looked at Stormvanger's offering.

Gone is the 320 power plant, replaced by a 240 rate fusion reactor that allows the Awesome to stride around at a stately top speed of 54 kph. All of that extra weight savings has been plowed into heat sinks to manage the Awesome's primary battery, 3 PPCs firing at unified ranges, something it does fairly well for its age with the ability to maintain a run while volleying in a 3-2-3 pattern with no decrease in performance. The Awesome is also incredibly thick skinned, carrying 97% of the potential armor its chassis weight allows, a fact that combines with its total lack of ammunition-bearing weapons to make an absolute zombie of a fire support unit- the only way to kill an 8Q is to core out the center torso or kill its pilot. That isn't to say it's without weakness- the low speed of the mech combined with the safety interlocks on the particle guns and the lack of any secondary weapons beyond a single head-mounted small laser means the Awesome is vulnerable to flanking attacks, especially whilst operating unsupported. Something for commanders to consider when fielding or facing. The 8Q is an absolute classic of a mech that continues to deliver well despite its age.

The Awesome has many variants (a few very good, a lot weird and LRM based because the purple parakeet spent most of the succession wars stapling every PPC they could get onto their Awesomes and still coming up short) but I'll just go over my own ride of choice. After an early and fairly mediocre modernization package in the 9M which mostly just made the Awesome more like the Striker (over-engined, under-sinked, and with a return to pointless ammo-bearing sidearms to threaten the precious 320 XL engine), Technicron delivered their own take on a 31st century Awesome in the form of the AWS-9Q in 3057. If the 8Q is a classic car, the 9Q is what happens when someone looks at that car and asks 'what if we super charged the hell out of it?' Unlike many other IS designs of the era, the 9Q is very deliberate with its use of lostech, simply cutting 9 heat sinks and replacing the rest with far more efficient double freezers. Those 9 extra tons play host to the mech's 4th PPC, an ECM suite, and the last available half ton of armor. As far as I'm concerned, the AWS-9Q is the zenith of Inner Sphere assault mech design prior to the adoption of clan tech and God's perfect direct fire support platform. Once it finds its hill, it will pump out PPC shots in a steady 4-4-3 pattern until the enemy removes it, and for a mear 1,875 bv or 7,456,050 c-bills, that's a damn good deal.

So, the next time you're building your inner sphere lists, consider the Awesome. It might not match the flashiness of the Clan assaults or the versatility of something like a Battlemaster, but it does beat them in terms of efficiently cranking out armor-stripping salvos until the enemy is scrap. And that's pretty awesome

[rainwaterapothecary]

"Unsettled" Pt. 5

Serennedy Golden Compass au [Lore][Pt. 1][Pt. 2][Pt.3][Pt.4] ("Speaking aloud" v "Speaking telepathically with daemon")

Leon's Mind, The Past.

Over leftover soup and handkerchiefs sodden with tears, Leon told his side of the story.

The jeering. The Drafts. His Nonna sitting her little Leone down at the table the boys had eaten at and played under countless times with a pencil and a piece of paper and coached him through creating Leon S. Kennedy. A good American boy with only American neighbors who knows nothing of Italia or Sicilia and has never been on a boat bigger than a neighbor’s rowboat.

She taught him to keep his head down and to scuff dirt onto his cheeks to draw attention away from the bridge of his nose that he got from his babbo and to hide the freckles that he got from his mamma.

He became the name they stamped on his paperwork, nothing more than another boy with pale skin and a dog-like daemon.

After bootcamp, they were given shots. These shots were stored in metal briefcases, already in their syringes, and they were put straight into each recruit’s bicep.

Sickness swept the newbies in waves, daemons going transparent or flickering with so much light and energy that the human attached would be left writhing and scrabbling at his chest.

But the ones that survived the shots were able to go further and further away from their daemons, some even able to leave their other half far enough behind that those with sensitive ears didn’t have to find anything to muffle the sounds of battle.

The screams of dying and the silence of loss.

Leon had been one of the lucky ones. He could be separated from his soul and out of sight without crumpling to the ground.

It was what made the Dust Trials snap him up after the war, before he’d even gotten a chance to touch boots back on American soil.

No, they pulled him and ‘Fire’ out of a German ditch, make him write a letter home to tell his ‘Grandma’ that he’s been chosen to serve his country in Intelligence – nothing else, just Intelligence (here, Luis snorted) and was shipped off to a different bootcamp.

More shots, more tests.

At times he felt like he was leaving more and more of himself behind the further they took him from Fiorire and from Nonna.

He never asked what was in those shots, or where they had come from. It was all Intelligence. For the good of Their Country.

Leon S. Kennedy never even drew his gun in Italy. He’d seen Spain from a boat once, during the war.

Then he was put in charge of a special operation. A grizzly Major with an even more grizzled German Shepherd daemon sent him off to parts unknown.

He had fought in the snow, had marched through mountains in February with a full kit and Fiorire on his back.

The island the Research Compound was on was still bleak. Far from humanity, far too quiet.

But he had a job to do, he was to guard the perimeter and make sure all the animals they were testing for Dust-affinity didn’t get loose.

Why he had gone from specops to glorified statue he didn’t know, he didn’t ask. He was just another white boy with a dog daemon, after all.

Then one of the boxes cried during the night.

Fiorire tilted her head at the crate – Leon wouldn’t fit into it even if he crouched, but that noise wasn’t like any animal he’d ever heard.

That night, under the eternal darkness of Arctic winter, Leon S. Kennedy met a little blond girl with a terrified daemon.

Her name was Sherry, and he hadn’t let her tell him the name of her kitten. It was good though, that she had the makings of a feline-type. That independence might keep her alive if she survived whatever it was they were keeping her for.

The sky had thrummed with light, Dust particles pulled down from the aurora itself only to snap back into place when all the lights at the facility went out.

Sherry let out a little moan of fear, tiny tears forming on her young face.

She wasn’t dressed for this weather, was the thing that Leon had noticed then. Of all things.

Fiorire had pressed her side into Sherry, too. To keep her warm as they hid her. Leon could go far away and out of sight without his daemon, after all.

So they hid her until the crates were stacked up to go back to the mainland, and told her to stay very, very quiet and to not let her daemon leave her arms.

And they put her in a crate and they watched that crate go on the boat.

And they watched that boat sail away.

He swore he’d look her up if he ever got back to the States, she looked like she could use a grandma.

Apparently the animals he had been guarding were daemons.

Young ones, with their children kept in cages in big tents.

Sherry was the first they helped escape.

There were many more, but not enough.

People in high places started to notice that the numbers of test subjects didn’t match transfer rosters and they got suspicious.

So they laid a trap and another soldier with a dog far from home fell into it.

“Subject S.”

“Stands for Sicily.”

“Does it?”

Leon shrugged.

But the soldier could be kept further and further away from his soul without the sky snapping back into place.

Each time they tried further, and further, until the soldier swore if he tore off his clothes he would be covered in tiny cuts and his chest would be a mess of scar tissue. He fell asleep sore and woke up terrified.

He could live without seeing his daemon, after all.

“Jesus.”

“And the sun doesn’t set up there. I have no idea how long it’s been since I held her in my arms.”

”I’m here now.”

“I know.”

At least with Subject S. they didn’t have to keep using kids with unruly daemons, so the shipments must have slowed down. There were fewer and fewer daemons in the pens they kept Fiorire in, like an animal.

Like a dog.

Luis held out a clean kerchief and dabbed his friend’s eyes gently, the warmth of the fabric and his hands was enough to open the gates for Leon’s tears.

Every night, they penned her and caged him. Every day they dragged her away until the Tether created a vacuum for the Dust to collect on, getting caught in the chemicals the researchers had smothered both Leon and Fiorire in.

People he had eaten lunch with, before.

People he had laughed with, before.

People who had been killing children, before.

So he didn’t regret it.

Until one day, a scientist came who looked at the roster and the setup and knew.

He knew what had been happening and what was supposed to be happening and knew that something had gone very, very wrong.

Or that he hadn’t been given the truth.

“So what led Mr. Hot-Shot Special Guest Dustologist to inciting a prison break?” Leon leaned back, eyes red-rimmed but his story complete.

The scientist took in a breath and took over. --- A/N Part 5 already??? Hell yeah! Babbo - Dad/Papa Fun fact! Fiorire (Leon's White Iberian Wolf daemon) means "Bloom/Blossom", so for him to pretend her name is the opposite of that is.........yeah. Love that for him. (I don't!) I still have one more part after this written, and then we're in the wilds of "Who knows! Not me!", so that'll be fun. :D I think I have a general idea of what's going to happen (and I know a fun twist that's coming!) but how we get there.... iunno.

[Pt. 6]

Memes and brainrot about this au are on my blog under the tag #serennedy daemon au and I love it very much. Thanks for reading!!

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities in Warframe #13

I don't really know how long my longest Warframe binge went as I never really thought to time it. In my Nightwave history, I have a record of making it to rank 26 some time ago which certainly required a modicum of daily investment (at 22 on the current volume 7 with a rank or two in the bag, but it ends in 9 days for the new one), but generally I've been going pretty strong and I generally have a fair few things left to do.

My frame priorities have shifted a bit. I no longer feel that Koumei is reliable on more difficult survival content but she's still a fun frame to use in some baseline longform content. I was running a solo non-Steel Path in Hollvania for the calendar kill purposes (as they are not shared) and was dying multiple times. I made it through in a 20 minute game by myself but went down 3 times or so seemingly randomly, perhaps her defensive charms ran out and I didn't notice. There's technically the visual indication of the charms that circle around you but they're pretty subtle as to not be distracting, but as a result I barely notice when they're nearly gone. Also when you're going for a melee challenge and you're just wading into a sea of particle effects, there's even less indication.

So Nyx has sort of replaced Koumei as my "hardest of hard mode" type frames as her 4 only ever cancels out with a specific type of Eximus (I'm assuming it's the one with the yellow dome because I know you can't cast abilities while you're in it) but sometimes Nyx just decides to cancel it herself and I see her do the pulse bomb thing without my input and still with plenty of energy left, so I have no idea what gameplay element or mechanic dictates that. Otherwise, since I've played her after buying her gemini skin, I don't recall ever actually going down while playing her but the once so far.

On my last post I said "I don't expect either (Nyx/Koumei) to overtake Mesa anytime soon" but I underestimated how much I was really playing Koumei, who overtook Mesa the other day. Nyx is still slowly working her way up my roster as she's generally become fairly specific, the girl I bring for only the highest level of play. (Archon hunts, laboratories, etc). She'll get there.

I've tried exploring other frames, for naught. I Forma'd Xaku Prime a couple of times but not the third or fourth as I discovered that I just couldn't get a handle on their kit. I understand what the skills do but their 4 is apparently some high survivability skill that negates ranged damage to some degree but I was getting downed by level 35's in standard Sanctuary Onslaught while trying to boost them. One player said that they function more like a "kill the enemies before they can hit you at all" kind of frame but I'm just not seeing how that's possible to do. They have no room-clear nuke and all their other skills are basically just buffs, like having a bunch of enemy guns floating around you and shooting back at them or the skill that just buffs your damage with void. As I said I was getting downed by basic level 35's which hasn't happened to me in forever and I'm thinking Xaku just might not be for me. It's a shame, I quite love their prime design.

Khora is kind of on my "to do" list to figure out. I see her very often on long form survivals and defenses and my feelings on her are a bit mixed. I can absolutely see the value in the harsh CC to keep high level mobs off your target but as an outsider I find it annoying to get shots off the dangling bodies and it's impossible to charge my incarnons on them which can be annoying when the dangly dozen are the last enemies left to deal with. Still, I recognize her value and I'd like to at least try to build her up as an option.

I've pushed relic cracking quite a bit more than I have before, and had an admirable stockpile of ~4000 ducats for Baro only to be met with three Primeds I either already have or one I didn't care about, but bought a couple of the weapons for mastery fodder. I still have 3000 or so but I'd like to build that stockpile back up a little for future Baro use.

I'm continually rep-grinding both Hex and Cavia as they both still have a few things I want. I'm more or less done with the Hex as I'm really just buying the arcanes at this point, as I generally have all the scenes I want. Cavia still has a few scattered items I'd like to have, and I'm working on buying some of those high quality lenses for focus farming.

I'm also dipping my toes back in Deimos. I still don't like it. There's a few weapons and even pets from them I need to craft for some mastery fodder. After all these years I have finally made the Sepulcrum. There's also the Trumna and some other shit.

I despise fishing in games and I still don't know why devs keep adding it in. It's not relaxing, it's infuriating, and a waste of my time. Warframe made the boring activity of fishing more bearable only to make sure they annoy and anger me in new and different ways. I don't mind the spear-fishing activity itself as it's typically just a "click and you're done" but there's the matter of having speared a flying fish point-blank and still missing, only a slight reposition fixes it but it's very taxing to fire off six times from six feet away and still miss the fucking things. Then there's all the enemies that like to snipe you from across the map, slowly draining your shields and resources. And while you deal with that, the timer on your bait and "make fish glow" items keep counting down regardless of interruptions, further wasting my time.

And somehow mining is actually worse. It takes longer and is heavier on RNG. With fishing you can generally aim for certain kinds of fish whether you're on the coastline or a cave. Mining is almost completely RNG and takes longer just to tap one node. I can spear four fish in the time it takes to tap one node (assuming the point-blank glitch doesn't happen and my aim is true). It's not fun.

So there's a fair amount of gear hiding behind those activities I've yet to fully tap into. I'm a bit stalled at rank 27 without farming out some relics and grabbing some primes I've missed in my year away. Otherwise my time in Warframe right now isn't so much a matter of "catching up" anymore as I've had to do in the past but I'm more emptying the veins of the current content so I won't be -as- behind when builds call for specific arcanes.

I'm also recording it for Youtube but it's a fine line to walk. The gameplay loop can be fairly homogeneous despite being fun to actively do. My Warframe videos are doing decent numbers but I'm also trying to avoid full blown farming sessions where I'm literally doing the same thing minute by minute and I prefer to keep the activities varied, and in doing so I'm noticing how rather thin the game can really be. I don't want to record a long form, 25 minutes survival while on the same frame shooting the same gun and killing the same 3 enemies. I want it to be varied, to change frames, to give viewers a general change in scenery.

As a result I have absolutely no backlog of Warframe videos. They're all being published faster than I can find sessions to record in, and I feel like I'd benefit more if I streamed it rather than recorded it... But I've never been able to get that to work properly.

I do feel as though my Warframe batteries will need recharging soon but there's still a few things left to do.

[terra-drone]

My gripes with Rift Apart

Consider this a review of Rift Apart (PC ver). After playing this game twice on Renegade Legend, I have... opinions. Being a fan of the franchise since Going Command/Locked & Loaded, I admittedly have some strong biases for both the PS2 saga and the Future Trilogy for various reasons. But before I go lambasting this entry into the franchise, a TLDR summary;

Pros:

The game is pretty and well executed on a technical level (for the most part).

The platforming and movement is refined and a step up from previous titles.

Cons:

Quite literally almost everything else.

Also has a propensity for crashing (both freezing and blue screen of death).

Movement & Platforming

One of the core aspects of RaC that I am happy RA got right. The movement is buttery smooth and chain daisying from one platform to the next using wall runs, dashes and rift pulls is excellently designed. The addition of the dash function adds an extra dodge ability that was absent in previous entries although granted we can still use the age-old side jumping while aiming/shooting.

I do wish however that the hoverboots were more integrated into the platforming since most of the time you only ever need it for super long leaps or the timed step puzzles. Something like the jump pads from ACIT would be nice to see paired with the new wall run and dash mechanic. You hardly need to use it outside of Savali and Torren IV and the last part of the Nef Mech fight.

What I wished they truncated however was the glide mechanic the hoverboots had. Given that the hoverboots could both glide and make you go fast, it makes this better than whatever Clank could possibly offer. @erablisme has done a wonderful breakdown on this matter (see here), but essentially having the hoverboots be an upgrade of both the charge boots and fulfilling Clank’s contribution to Ratchet’s mobility (gliding) renders Clank, from a gameplay standpoint, moot. It renders Clank into nothing more than a glorified backpack/exposition device, which beats the entire purpose of the franchise’s own title.

Gameplay

Weapons

The arsenal, while fun to use, is too bloated. A lot of the guns overlap in functionality:

Shotguns: Enforcer, Pixelizer, Void Repulser

Seeker/Turret weapons: Agents of Doom, Bombardier, Mr Fungi

Crowd Control: Topiary Sprinkler, Cold Snap

Grenades: Shatterbomb, Bouncer

Rapid fire: Burst Pistol, Blackhole Storm

Lock-on weapons: Drillhound, Richochet, Buzzsaw, Lightning Rod

Heavy hitter: RYNO, Negatron Collider, Warmonger

Do we really need multiple weapons that do the same thing just with different particle effects?

The level up mechanic, while a staple of RaC games, is frankly outdated by this point and actively hinders the game. If anything, it punishes players for sticking to guns they enjoy once they hit max level. It makes the motivator for using weapons not be its function but rather to chase that arbitrary level cap. Plus, there’s no telling what the level up actually did for a weapon aside from damage buffs.

It’s not like they couldn’t do away with this feature, Deadlocked made the guns increase so many levels it frankly deemphasises them in favour of choosing the best weapon for any given scenario, ItN decreased the max level to 3 (6 on challenge) in favour of more meaningful weapon upgrades, and ACiT had the Constructo weapons and mods (which Deadlocked also had called Omega Mods) that incentivises experimentation on what combos worked best while allowing you to spice things up post max level. Why not tie weapon upgrades to collectibles? They already had the Raritanium collection, sprinkling effect mods for weapons throughout the locations shouldn’t be too difficult. They already did this for the armour system, so why not do it for the weapons too? Heck, why not make all the weapons customisable like the Constructo weapons? It would solve the bloated arsenal problem.

Enemy Design

The enemy design in this game just isn’t great. While it makes sense considering you’re fighting an army so it’s obvious they’re gonna have standardised units, you would think they would spice up their combat stratagem when they know they couldn’t beat our protagonists by throwing the same old shtick over and over. Instead, we keep having to fight the same miniboss Juggernaut over and over and over again. Sometimes there’s two of them! Make it three during the Juice fight!

It’s not a problem with just the Nefarious troopers, it’s an issue across multiple factions too. Across all three factions (Space Pirates, Goons & Nef’s army), they all follow the same formula; 

the one with the gun: Pirate Corsair, Goon, Nef Lasertrooper

the one that does melee: Space Pirate & Shield Pirate, Goon Rusher & Undead Goon, Nef Slugger

the tiny short range/melee swarmer: Cutlassies, Robomutt, Nef Trooper

the vehicle one: Goon Dropship, Nef Dropship

the flying one: Zoom Goon, Nef Sniperbot & Blitztrooper & Sniperbot

the heavy flying one: Vroom Goon, Nef Peacekeeper

the rinse repeat miniboss: Pirate Marauder, Nef Juggernaut

While stylistically different, they don’t differ much from how they shoot/do damage at you. It would have been great if they did some things different from one another. Some really simple fixes;

While I think giving shields to pirates makes little sense, it is some variety at least. Expand on that. Maybe make the Goon Rusher actually rush towards you faster than the others, or make the Nefarious Slugger can do 360 attacks or have more range since it’s a) a robot, and b) basically has the Scorpion Flail for arms. 

Make the Vroom Goons try to ram you instead of just having to avoid the taser things it shoots cuz that’s the exact same thing that the Nefarious Sniperbot does since all you need to do to avoid both attacks is sidestepping it.

Make the Pirate Corsair shoot high damage while the standard Goon does horizontal strafing rapid fire compared to the Nef Trooper’s vertical one

Make the Zoom Goons dodge your attacks, maybe give it a ground pound that opens it up to attack so it's at least somewhat different from the Nef Peacekeeper other than being a slightly squishier variant.

For a game so pretty it is bizarre they couldn’t put more effort into gameplay itself. The repeating minibosses get stale very quickly since once you’ve figured out a tactic that worked, it is rinse and repeat across the whole game.

Two Protagonists, Same Shtick

The gameplay doesn’t differentiate itself between Ratchet and Rivet. They play the exact same way, with the exact same arsenal, and the exact same progression. What is the point of having separate playable protagonists if they’re just gonna end up the same? You could replace Rivet with Ratchet and vice versa for 90% of the game and nothing would change. It would be something if they had separate weapons or separate movement gimmicks that make them distinct, but we didn’t get that for some reason.

Character Issues

The character writing is just abysmal, even when compared to the Future trilogy. While the Future trilogy (and by extension A4O, FFA and ItN) had plenty, and I mean plenty, of plotholes from a worldbuilding standpoint, the character writing was solid and fairly consistent. I cannot say the same for RA. Some examples;

Ratchet(?) & Clank(?)

I can hardly recognise Ratchet as the same character we had over the PS2 and PS3 instalments. He feels more like the 2016 reboot version just haphazardly retconned as the ItN version that RA was supposedly a continuation of. Being afraid of being a washed-up hero was Qwark’s thing, not Ratchet’s. Why would he even care? The man was downright tired of being a hero come ItN. And why is he even worried about meeting the Lombaxes? He saved Polaris multiple times and beat Tachyon, y’know, the reason why they left in the first place? The reason he gave up searching for the Lombaxes was because he had more going on with Talwyn and was assured the Lombaxes would do just fine without him. Why the sudden change of reason? What, is acknowledging Talwyn one too many female characters for Insomniac?

And why would Clank, despite knowing Ratchet not wanting to pursue the Lombaxes, go out of his way to make a whole ass parade about the Dimensionator? If he was just trying to cheer Ratchet up from his fear of being a washed-up hero (which, again, made no sense for his character) he would have just done the parade and given him the Dimensionator in private. The entire premise of Rift Apart hinges on the fact that Clank decides to give Ratchet what can be considered as a WMD since the Lombaxes used the Dimensionator to get rid of the Cragmites in an open public setting. Had he not done this, had he not told Qwark he wanted to surprise Ratchet, Nefarious probably wouldn’t have found out about the new Dimensionator, and the entire game wouldn’t have happened.

Another gripe I have with how Clank was handled was that his Zoni heritage was conveniently forgotten about. They could have tied the Zoni more deeply into the mysticism of the RaC universe and be the reason why he was able to fix the dimensional anomalies, but instead it was tied to Gary and... the Lombaxes. Huh.

Rivet, or as I like to call her, “Furbait”

There is so much missed potential with Rivet. Where to start? Instead of a grizzled, closed-off survivor of a robot dystopia, we just get miss middle-of-the-road, clearly made for pandering, furbait. Design wise, she would have been perfectly serviceable had this NOT been a robot dystopia. The only physical giveaway to show that she was a survivor/rebel fighter was her arm. It is the only thing that shows she’s a rebel fighter survivor. Her suit is well made, her eyelashes are on fleek, her hair is silky smooth, her tail is all fluffy and clean. Nothing about her says she was a survivor. No scars, no dirt, nothing other than the obvious robot arm. It is lazy. Lazy and stupid.

Her personality doesn’t make sense for the universe she supposedly inhabits either. Heck, no one in this franchise fits well in this robot dystopia, tbh. She distrusts robots due to past experience, yet  is chummy with both Clank and Kit (and by some extension, the Zurkons & Pierre) relatively quickly. For someone who should have gone through a lot of adversity, she hardly acts like it. She’s confident, has a lot of friends, and whatever negative aspect she does have (which is just distrust instead of the obvious robot racist she should have been) that would have given her an opportunity to grow as a character is watered down and conveniently forgotten, so she hardly grows as a character, if any.

Ultimately, Rivet boils down to being “What if Ratchet, but a girl?”. There’s work put into trying to make her her own thing, but there’s also the narrative yanking her by the collar to be Ratchet’s other self. She’s the last Lombax in her dimension, she also wonders where the Lombaxes went, and she’s trying to be a hero. At that point, how is she any different than Ratchet? They don’t even differ much personality wise for a version of Ratchet who never met her Clank, so to speak. One would think she would be the spunky RaC1 Ratchet since it was meeting Clank that got Ratchet to grow as a person. Instead she’s just your lovely neighbourhood Rivet, friend to all except robots except the ones she meets I guess. What is the point of having two main characters if they are just gonna end up the same?

Kit

While arguably the better other of the new duo, she has issues as well in the writing department. She had the most growth out of our titular cast, however how she got there is ramshackled at best. 

In comparison to Clank, he was a defective warbot, which made sense why he was small. Kit on the other hand was tailor made by the supposedly competent Emperor Nefarious, so why does she have a cutesy mode? Why does she even have a character crisis from hurting Rivet, for that matter? Stopping rebels was what she was designed to do, and she suddenly gained a conscience from doing her job? If Kit is so effective at what she did, why did Emp Nef stop at making just one of her? Shouldn’t there be multiple Kit models roaming about? She could mow down hordes of newer Nefarious Troopers and Juggernauts, so why didn’t Emp Nef expand on that?

These inconsistencies make Kit as a character start falling apart as soon as you give it more scrutiny than a surface level glance. The writers could have easily solved these issues by just alluding that she might have been an outdated model, or was damaged and abandoned on Savali where Gary and the monks fixed her up and gave her a new purpose — protecting the Archives. Instead of an exterminator, she became a guardian. They could have taught her how to be more “human” as it were, too,  which would tie up nicely to why she regrets her actions in her previous line of work. Instead, they went with the “Oh no, what have I done, I did my job and injured a trespasser, now I’m gonna be a recluse on Savali” route.

She doesn’t gel well with Rivet either because the only one actively having something to overcome was Kit. Had Rivet been written better (having to overcome her prejudices, letting go of her past trauma, solving her trust issues) it could work with Kit growing out of her self doubt and regrets, but it just isn’t there. Plus, there weren't enough scenes of them together to build towards that conflict resolution that would make their friendship more believable. She has more of a relationship with Ratchet than Rivet.

“EmPeRoR” Nefarious

He is boring. Simple as. There is no driving motivation to him other than “conquer everything”. We could have gotten an Ultron (which would make a perfectly sensible callback to the Biobliterator shtick our Nef pulled from UYA) but we just end up with a sassy English bastard with the personality of wet bread. There was no fun interplay between him and our Neffy, anything to make both their personalities shine as they work together or grind against each other, it just sucks.

The Plot(holes)

Imma just list it down.

How does a helmet clearly designed to fit a Lombax head is supposedly “one size fits all”?

How did the fish kid Rivet saved in the intro made it around Nef City in the first place if this was supposedly a robot dystopia that eradicated all squishies? What, was he just having a stroll, taking some fresh dystopian air? Could have made it that this was a fellow rebel she was tasked to save cuz he had some intel that he swiped and Rivet decided to use herself as bait to draw attention away from him so he could get the intel out of there, but no.

On that matter, why do planets like Savali and Torren IV still have organic inhabitants?

What was Skidd trying to achieve by hacking the propaganda blimp? This served no purpose at all narratively since it didn't even turn any robots against the Neffies.

Why was Skidd even in Nef City, for that matter? What was his original mission that he was going undercover for? Busting Rivet out of prison? Couldn’t be, since he made no mention of it.

Why did none of Emp Nef's cronies question our Nef just popping in despite looking clearly different? He’s a whole head shorter and the wrong colour. What, do they not have colour vision?

How did Emp Nef know about the existence of the dimensional map? He barely knew about the Dimensionator so how does that make sense?

If Ratchet already has hoverboots, why couldn’t he dash/sprint with it until he gets to Savali?

Where and when did Rivet get a rift tether?

Where and when did Rivet get a pair of hoverboots?

Wasn’t the Space Pirates/Decadroids designed by Tachyon? Why do they exist in this dimension? Why aren’t they allied with Emp Nef since they too are robots? None of this is explained.

Where did the Lombaxes of Rivet’s dimension disappear to? Did they have a Tachyon-like threat in this dimension too? Did Emp Nef wipe them out? Don’t know, and the game doesn’t bother explaining it cuz Rivet is supposed to be girl Ratchet and nothing beyond that.

Why would Emperor Nefarious announce for the whole galaxy to see where he was going during the finale? Did he lose that much intelligence in the short timeframe we’ve known him? This is the guy who conquered the galaxy?

Why would he leave a portal for our protagonists to conveniently follow him through? 

Where did that telekinetic abilities of him suddenly disappear to?

Where was this dimension’s Lawrence counterpart? That stupid little secretary is so dumb as to not recognise her own boss she couldn’t possibly be the Lawrence replacement.

Environmental Storytelling & Worldbuilding

Environmental storytelling & worldbuilding has never really been Insomniac’s strong suit. RA is pretty and all, but aside from Blizar Prime, none of the other locales did anything different from Ratchet’s dimension. If this was supposed to be a galaxy where Emp Nef has conquered it all, you would think that there’d be more neon, more cyberpunk, more Emp Nef aesthetic, more robots flying about. Instead, we just got the same thing we had from Ratchet’s dimension, just in prettier graphics. It is set dressing with no story to tell. It's a puddle pretending it was an ocean. While I appreciate seeing the graphical glow up the locations got, it’s a missed opportunity to actually show the impact Emp Nef had. 

Take Nefarious City for example;

How was Ratchet able to move around Nef City without raising alarms? This negates the entire point of Rivet needing a robot disguise in the first place.

Why does a static statue in the middle of a city have a terminal that activates a platform that leads to Emp Nef's office in the first place?

On that note, why is an EMPEROR working from an office? Where’s the throne? The grand palace and palisades? The royal guards? If he’s an authoritarian that likes to take control, where’s the giant screen with a hundred monitors that watch every inch of Nef City?

Why does Emp Nef have a tiny four seater shuttle? If he needed to commute planet-side, wouldn’t he have something more posh? More grand? A Rolls Royce of shuttles instead of what can be considered a slightly pricier but still shitty Tesla model? They could have made Ratchet or Rivet have to steal a fighter jet and that would make infinitely more sense than what we got.

The same can be said with the inhabitants of this universe. They only exist to serve as plot devices or to point the protagonists to the next goal rather than actual people. There is no culture, no differing beliefs, nothing to tell you about what they are about or what they do. If all they exist to do is to be exposition devices/mission pointers, what was the point of even making distinct characters? Then again, the Future trilogy suffered the same problem with environmental characters being practically stand-in cardboards so points for consistency, I guess.

Verdict

Essentially, Rift Apart is a creatively bankrupt, designed-by-committee tech demo for Sony Playstation. What used to be a franchise that does satirical commentary on capitalism that later tried to delve into narrative/character driven sci-fi story, has ended up being the most capitalistic-designed entry imaginable. Which is unfortunate because I want to like this game. God, do I want to like it.

Did I enjoy playing it? When it works and doesn't crash on me, sure.

Do I like it enough as an entry to the franchise though? No, no I don't. The gameplay hardly expanded on the RaC formula, and the narrative just killed it for me.

But of course, that's just me. If you enjoyed RA, more power to ya. If you told me to play it again, I'll probably do it. It's just not for me for the long run.

[gremoria411]

Next up from SD Gundam G Generation:

The AMX-001 Prototype Qubeley. Originally designed as the MSN-008 during the waning days of the one year war, it was one of several units that were eventually completed at Axis. It was designed to be a direct successor to the MAN-08 Elmeth (MAN: Mobile Armour Newtype to MSN: Mobile Suit Newtype), best known for its use by Lahlah Sune, the Ghost of Solomon. Though the psycommu system was largely miniaturised, the Prototype Qubeley was still a large mobile suit, being roughly 25 metres tall. For reference, the RX-78 Gundam stood at roughly 18 meters tall, and the Qubeley itself, which succeeded the Prototype, was only 18.9 meters tall.

Armaments wise, the Prototype Qubeley was armed with two beam sabers built into the hands, analogous to those on the regular Qubeley. However, though powerful, they are not removable like the later model, nor can they double as beam guns. Perhaps in recognition of this, it was also armed with Vulcan guns, mounted on the chest, presumably to dissuade enemies from getting close. Instead of the aforementioned beam guns, the Prototype Qubeley had a set of Mega Particle Cannons mounted in the forearms, which were wired directly to the suits reactor, giving them high output. Interestingly, in order to fire these weapons, the hand would fold away and the arm would split in half to form a firing channel. Lastly, it was armed with psycommu system with which it controlled its funnels, which are miniaturised from the Elmeth’s Bits in both form and function. (It appears in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Define (below) with a funnel design similar to that of the Qubeley, but in the original game, Sd Gundam G Generation F, they appear as smaller versions of the Elmeth’s). Interestingly, the rear of the Prototype Qubeley where the Funnels are stored does resemble a smaller Elmeth.

(Piloted by Haman, obviously)

Design-wise, really good. The powder blue and yellow and red really make it pop, and it certainly feels Zeonic, with its slim, mono-eyed head and little crown. I like its bulk, since it’s a transition between the round Elmenth to the elegant Qubeley, so it being a little ungainly fits very well, and yet all the spikes and pointy bits give it a good silhouette. My only criticism is that I can’t for the life of me figure out where its waist goes. The above-left picture of it from Z-Define just looks too hunched to me, but its official art makes its body look rather squat, atop its long and graceful legs. (Also, despite what you may think, that large yellow part just in front of the arm isn’t the mega particle cannon, it’s just the side of the chest). In a nutshell, it’s a nice design, I just wish we had more art of it, so it was a little clearer how it all fits together.

Also, wasn’t really sure where to put this, but that red and yellow panelled area on the side of the head? That apparently flashes in a rainbow when it’s charging it’s mega particle cannons, which is just a neat detail.

(Feel free to throw any more art of this thing at me, I know there’s a Gundam War Card design for it I haven’t seen)

[katy-133]

TF2 Blender Guide: Setting Up Medic's Medigun

This is an incomplete guide that's been sitting in my drafts for a while now because I got stuck on a step, but hopefully this can be built upon with the missing bits. Feel free to add to this or make another guide taking what you want from this guide. -Katy133 [Updated]

This guide shows you how to set up Medic's Medigun secondary weapon, from spawning the weapon to posing it.

Guide

Spawn Medic (example: a SFM Rigify rig). Hide the visibility of the parts of the model you don't wish to include in the render (example: Medic's gloveless model). In TF2 Trifecta, select the Wardrobe tab, checkmark Search For Weapons and spawn the following for whichever Secondary Medic weapon you want:

Default Medi Gun: Medigun (weapon bit), c_medigun_hose (hose), w_medigun_hose (an alternate to the c_ version but it looks like I can't spawn both into the same scene)

Kritzkrieg: Kritzkrieg.001 (weapon bit), Kritzkrieg (cylinder nozzle bit), Kritzkrieg.002 (charge activated version of the cylinder nozzle bit, but note that it has odd texturing where the UV islands are not placed in the correct position with its texture, c_medigun.png and instead is aligned with the texture w_medigun01.png which is when the cylinder is not charge activated. Rescaling and repositioning the UV islands takes some eyeballing; if anyone had the exact reposition and scaling valves for this please let me know to add them here)

Vaccinator: c_medigun_defense_hose (hose with Vaccinator additions), The Vaccinator Pack (backpack), The Vaccinator (weapon bit)

Quickfix: Quickfix Charger Pack (backpack), Quickfix (weapon bit and hose)

BLU team versions: In the Materials Properties tab, switch the materials to the 'blue' variant of the material. Do this for each model. Alternatively, checkmark BLU Team in TF2 Trifecta when you spawn Medic and the weapons.

Australium versions: In the Materials Properties tab, switch the materials to the gold variant of the material. Do this for each model.

If you are using the Vaccinator or Quickfix: Hide the visibility of Medic's default backpack.

For Festive additions:

Default Medigun: Festive Medigun 2011 (Smissmas lights), Festive Upgradeable TF_WEAPON_MEDIGUN (Smissmas lights alternative)

Kritzkrieg: Festive Kritzkrieg (Smissmas lights)

Quickfix: Festive Quickfix (Smissmas lights)

Bonemerge the different wardrobe armatures to Medic's armature using the Bonemerge tool in the TF2 Trifecta addon.

Reposition the bones joint_lever (which will also need rotation changes) and joint_hose01 so that they align with the weapon bit.

Attaching the hose to the backpack: This was where I got stuck with this guide. I've been stuck on finding the best strategy for posing the hose to the backpack in the most convenient way for people. What I've been doing thus far is eyeballing the position, using an FK taunt pose of Medic as a reference. For posing the hose, I recommend working your way from the bones closest to the weapon bit and then working your way out, as the hose bones use a parent hierarchy from 01 to 05, with 05 being the last child. Try to evenly space out the hose bones to allow yourself better control over the hose as you animate.

If you are using an FK rig and import Medic's layer_taunt_02.dmx animation (of the Medic folder of the taunt decompile), the first frame of the imported animation gives you posing for the hose.

Other Community Workshop/tutorial recommendations:

Medibeam

Kritz effect

Ubercharge Shader

Quickfix Ubercharge circle (located beneath the mercs' feet) effect: There is currently no particle recreation for Blender at the time of posting this, but I recommend using this tutorial and then adjusting it to be a circle, making the ring thicker, and changing the colour: Yep. We're Thinking With PORTALS (Blender Tutorial)

[Update: There is also a Medigun + hose rig now, which resolves the missing step talked about, above.]

[usafphantom2]

👆 aircraft, dubbed “Oxcart”, A-12 all manner of new technology was created at Area 51 to make the aircraft invisible to radar, or at least as small a radar image as could be achieved. Materials that would absorb radar, space age design and electronic counter measures were all employed.

During Project OXCART, the operation of the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft, the CIA funded an attempt to reduce the RCS of the A-12's inlet cones. Known as Project KEMPSTER, this used an electron beam generator to create a cloud of ionization in front of each inlet. The system was flight tested but was never deployed on operational A-12s or SR-71s. The A-12 also had the capability to use a cesium-based fuel additive called "A-50" to ionize the exhaust gases, thus blocking radar waves from reflecting off the aft quadrant and engine exhaust pipes. Cesium was used because it was easily ionized by the hot exhaust gases. Radar physicist Ed Lovick Jr. claimed this additive saved the A-12 program.

Yet when President Kennedy gave A-12 Oxcart it’s mission to fly surveillance over Cuba to look for nuclear missiles being secretly installed there by the Soviet Union, the aircraft was still not quite ready. Instead they sent U-2 to Cuba. One of our SR-71 pilots flew missions over Cuba before he flew the SR 71 that would be Buddy Brown..

Researchers and scientists redoubled their efforts, but it was decided that Oxcart was still not stealthy enough. Some other way had to be found to make it all but invisible to enemy radar.Project Kemper-Lacroix was one possible solution. At Area 51, scientists came up with the idea of attaching two giant electron guns, one on either side of the aircraft. The guns would shoot out a 25-foot wide ion cloud of highly charged particles in front of the aircraft (an aircraft which was already moving at speeds above Mach 3). The ion gas cloud would further absorb enemy radar waves coming up from the ground, providing the plane with more stealth. Testing on scale models of the Oxcart aircraft showed the theory would work.

Testing the electron beam guns on the full scale Oxcart aircraft, the researchers soon discovered the radiation given off by the guns would kill the pilot.

So more engineers worked on developing an x-ray shield the pilots could wear to protect them from the radiation. But the first test pilot to wear the shield said it was too cumbersome to allow the pilots to fly the aircraft. Project Kemper-Lacroix was abandoned.

listverse.com/lvauthor/Patri…

Posted by Linda Sheffield

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

#OnThisDay: Dec 31st, 2013

Title: Star Build Strike Spot (Plavsky Wing)

Here's my promised for Spot's 🐶🏎️ 'Build Strike Full Package' successor, the 'Star Build Strike'! 🤖⭐😁 Based on the Gunpla counterpart, Spot's armor 'Star Build Strike' possesses numerous armaments, and all source of particle powers, including energy wings generated from his transformable flight backpack called the 'Universe Booster'. 🤖🪽 💫

Star Build Strike Spot Based on the: GAT-X105B/ST Star Build Strike Gundam [CLICK ME!]

Armament(s):

Beam Saber • The Star Build Strike possesses two beam sabers as its primary close combat weapon. Its beam sabers are powerful enough to destroy an enemy unit with a single hit. When not in use, the beam sabers are stored on the side skirts.

Beam Gun • The same beam gun as used by the original Build Strike. Additional components are added to transform it into the Star Beam Rifle.

Star Beam Rifle • An upgraded version of the Build Strike's "Enhanced Beam Rifle". Its power output can be enhanced further through Discharge Rifle Mode by connecting to the Absorb Shield's charging barrel. The rifle's top barrel can flip over and is only used in Discharge Rifle Mode.

Star Beam Cannon • Mounted on the Universe Booster, the Star Beam Cannons' barrel can extend when in use. The beam cannons are positioned under the shoulders when deployed, and can also swing backward to fire at enemy units.

Absorb Shield • An upgraded version of the original Build Strike's "Chobham Shield". The shield has two new features: the ability to absorb and nullify beam weaponry, and a charging barrel that can attach to the Star Build Strike's beam rifle and amplify its power. However, it has difficulties handling a heavy projectile based assault and when the shield opens up to absorb enemy's beam attack, is unable to defend against beam blade attacks. The shield also cannot absorb beams that are too large.

Special Equipment(s) / Feature(s):

Absorb System • One of the Star Build Strike's unique systems. By manipulating Plavsky Particles, it can alter and absorb enemy beam attacks through the Absorb Shield. The absorbed Plavsky Particles can be used later by the armor's Discharge System.

○ Discharge System • Another of the Star Build Strike's unique systems, it can improve the Star Beam Rifle's power or the armor's speed and mobility. However for the Star Build Strike to execute this system, it must first absorb Plavsky Particles through the Absorb System. The number of times the Discharge System can be used seems to be linked to the number of beam attacks absorbed. The Star Build Strike can also use the absorbed particles to generate numerous small "Star Funnels" from the clear red parts on its legs and use them as projectile weapons. These red parts can also generate several small "Plavsky Power Gates", which are used to increase the speed and/or power of a melee attack.

○ Discharge Rifle Mode • The Absorb Shield's charging barrel is connected to the Star Beam Rifle and the Star Build Strike generates a large "Plavsky Power Gate". The particles absorbed are then transferred to the beam rifle and fired at the gate. When the mode is first used, the particles are fired from the rifle's top barrel and transformed by the gate into numerous beams to hit the target. The charging time required then was long and leaves the Star Build Strike vulnerable to attacks. When the Discharge Rifle Mode is later used at maximum output, the particles are fired from both of the rifle's barrels as well as the Star Beam Cannons at the "Plavsky Power Gate" that converges all of the beams into a single large, devastating beam. The charging time was also greatly reduced, but it is unknown if this is a result of an improvement or an inherent feature of the mode at max output. The reduced charging time may also be directly related to the amount of beams absorbed by the Absorb Shield.

○ Discharge Speed Mode • The Star Build Strike generates a large "Plavsky Power Gate" and passes through it, resulting in the materialization of temporary "Plavsky Wings" on the armor's back. These wings are later replaced by the gate, which now releases a particle cloud that is powerful enough to destroy any missiles or funnels caught in its wake. In this mode, the Star Build Strike gains increased speed and manoeuvrability. There seems to be a time limit on how long this mode can be used.

Radial General Purpose (RG) System • Unlike other armor that uses only Plavsky Particles on the exterior to move them, the Star Build Strike also saturates its internal components with Plavsky Particles through the RG System to strengthen its performance. The particles can be concentrated in specific internal components to increase their physical strength or used throughout all the internal components, improving the control of the unit and bringing out its full potential. The latter is also sometimes referred to as 'Full Mode', however there may be adverse effects if it is used when the unit's physical condition is poor. The RG System is usually reserved as a last resort to overpower other units up close should all else fails. Most of the gray parts on the Star Build Strike, excluding the Universe Booster, will glow blue when the RG system is activated and a brief glimpse of the armor's inner frame can also be seen.

UB-01 Universe Booster • A new booster pack for the Star Build Strike, it can increase the unit's power and mobility when docked. Developed from the Build Booster, it is equipped with a pair of beam cannons and can act as an independent fighter when detached from the Star Build Strike. The Universe Booster plays an important role in the Discharge Mode as it is involved in generating the large "Plavsky Power Gate" and is where the "Plavsky Wings" are generated.

Build Booster Mk-II The support unit from the armor Build G Mk-II, it is armed with the Beam Rifle Mk-IIs and the Movable Shields. It is attached to the Star Build Strike after it lost its Universe Booster, and allows the armor to fly against the flow of a particle storm when the RG System undergoes a full release. The Star Build Strike also executed the Hyper Build Knuckle while in this form.

Special Attack(s):

Build Knuckle • Also known as the "RG Build Knuckle", the Build Knuckle is usable only when the RG system is in "Full Mode". It is a powerful punch that is strong enough to counter the armor X Maoh's "Maoh Sword". When the RG System and Discharge System are utilized simultaneously, the small "Plavsky Power Gates" can be localized to the arms and enhance the power of the RG Build Knuckle.

Double Build Knuckle • A double fisted version of the Build Knuckle. When the small "Plavsky Power Gates" localized to the arms, the double build knuckle is capable of overpowering the beam sabers generated by the armor Exia Dark Matter in Trans-Am, and still have enough power to land a direct on its torso.

Hyper Build Knuckle • A stronger version of the Build Knuckle, it is used when the RG system initiates a full release. Whether this is due to excessive strain on the arms or simply the crystal's durability is unknown.

Spot Speedster (Chowder OC) - created by ME! Armors (Gundam Build Fighters) - Gundam series © Bandai Namco Filmworks, Inc. (SUNRISE), Sotsu

[autisticsupervillain]

FTF: Boss Battle

The show where we put a team of characters up against one much stronger or haxier character.

This Week's Fighters....

Gordon Freeman vs The RED Team!

Conditions:

RED Team restricted to stock. Gordon has Full Arsenal.

Scenario:

G-Man wants Gordon to steal some Australium from The Administrator. RED Team tries to stop him.

BOSS: Gordon Freeman

Many shooter heroes have gone up against impossible odds. Conquered incomprehensible threats from beyond the stars and bested physical gods. And yet, the greatest of all these heroes isn't an uber space marine or a super masculine macho man. No, Gordon Freeman is simply an ordinary scientist with a crowbar.

Gordon Freeman was once a diligent theoretical physicist working at the top secret lab known as Black Mesa. However, one of Gordon's experiments accidentally punched a hole into another universe, causing an alien invasion. Gordon is forced to fight for his life and fend off the invaders, making him the savior off Earth. Unfortunately, this puts him on the G-Man's radar, forcing him to serve the mysterious being and his employers for the rest of his days... until Half-Life 3 comes out... assuming it will.

Luckily, G-Man mostly seems to want Gordon to kick alien ass and Freeman's got plenty of tools for the job. For starters, he never goes into battle with his trusty HEV suit. The Hazardous EnVironment Suit comes with a whole bunch of nifty features, boosting his otherwise normal human stats to superhuman levels. With it, he's durable enough to tank military air strikes with 134 megajoules of force behind them and survive hits from lasers that do this to solid steel walls.

Source:

Moreover, most of Gordon's stronger weapons can kill Alien Grunts, who are strong enough to completely obliterate steel gates. By using Gordon as a measuring stick to estimate the size and thickness of the wall, it can be determined that it would over half a ton of tnt to generate this kind of explosion, roughly 0.723 tons of tnt to be precise.

Source:

The suit also has a built in radiation detector and an ai voice that informs him of any grievous injuries. Upon sustaining an injury, he's pumped full of painkillers potent enough to let him shrug off bullet wounds. Similarly, the suit's antitoxins are strong enough to reverse the effects of headcrab poison, which leaves him on the brink of death with just a touch, in seconds. Hell, he can even tank hits from antimatter weapons, endure extreme heat and cold, endure dangerous acids, and shrug off high voltage electricity. Even morso, the suit can be upgraded, allowing him to leap several Kilometers when using the long jump module.

He also carries a large array of guns. While Gordon has the typical shotgun, AK, and RPG ensemble you would expect from a shooter protagonist, he also has some unique guns. He carries two crossbows, one shoots tranquilizer darts while the other shoots bars of molten metal. He carries the Gluon Gun, which shoots unstable Gluon particles so powerful that they make people explode, the Tau canon, which shoots Tau particles, or molecular particles that make up matter on the Quantum Level, and the hive hand, which shoots alien bugs at people like a wasp machine gun. His Pulse Rifle shoots energy projectiles and, when charged up, shoots a ball of antimatter that bounces around everywhere and erases everyone it touches on contact. His most iconic gun, however, is the gravity gun, which manipulates gravity to allow him to throw anyone and anything that gets in his grasp around like a ragdoll, even erasing people with its antimatter energy should he grab them with it thanks to a handy upgrade the Combine gave it. And that's not even the only gun in Gordon's arsenal that can flat delete you, as the Gluon Gun can destabilize the Gluon Particles of its target and rip them apart on the subatomic level.

With these powerful weapons, Gordon has fought off impossible odds with ease. He stopped an alien invasion within the span of a week at most and turned the tide of a hopelessly one sided war against a galactic empire in the span of two days. He curb stomped his way through the US Military, is fast enough to react to and dodge rockets, and has even impressed the reality warping G-Man with his remarkable abilities.

Source:

Having said that, he has a few weaknesses. For one thing, his suit's durability relies on its battery, so he'll frequently have to recharge it if he gets hit too often. He also doesn't wear a helmet, which leaves his squishy human head exposed for his superhuman enemies to crush.

Despite that though, Gordon Freeman is universally beloved as the savior of mankind and is dreaded even by godlike, reality warping aliens. That says a lot about a man who used to just be a pimply scientist. The right man in the wrong place can achieve just about anything.

Team: RED Team

It began in 1850. Wealthy English industrialist Zepheniah Mann, owner of Mann Co, was convinced by his greedy, idiotic sons to purchase land in the US to expand the company. Zepheniah agreed, only to discover that the lands he purchased were useless dust bowls and lifeless gravel pits. Not only that, but he'd contracted many horrific diseases during his trip to the states that quickly ate up his health. Dying bitter at his incompetent sons, Zepheniah would write his last will on his rotting skin, splitting the worthless lands between Redmond and Blutarch to ensure that they would fight over it for the rest of their lives.

Desperate to get the other's half of the fortune, the Brothers Mann would turn their halves of the company into Reliable Excavation Demolition (RED) and Builders League United (BLU) respectively, using them as fronts to wage eternal war on each other. In their pointless bid to get this worthless land full of fuck all to themselves, the brothers would hire nine of the greatest mercenaries in the world to fight for them. The exact same mercenaries. For both of them. Don't think about it.

They would cycle through numerous teams over the years, until the 1960s where we'd meet the most iconic ensemble of the RED Team. The Team that would come to be known as Team Fortress!

The Scout is fast talking brawler from Boston he thinks he's hot shit and thinks he's God's gift to women. Because he is. Canonically. God told him so. He's easily the fastest person on his team, more than quick enough to outrun trains and flat out dodge rockets. And while he's certainly not book smart by any definition, he's a good enough scrapper to kill a Heavy in one on one melee combat. If he can't bust you up with his bat, then the wide spread of his shotgun would likely shred you to pieces, while his pistol finishes you off. He's swift enough to somehow double jump, durable enough to drink radioactive soda, and strong enough to blow you out of the park with his taunt kill. Hell, he's durable enough to survive three of Soldier's rockets blowing up in his face simultaneously, despite being heavily injured, tanking a combined energy equivalent to 0.007 tons of TNT!

Source:

The Soldier, otherwise known as Jane Doe, is batshit crazy patriotism personified. He wanted so badly to fight in World War 2 that he went on a one man crusade against Germany for years before learning that the war ended in 1949. He's mad enough to wrestle bears while covered in honey and crazy enough to try to fly by shooting rockets directly at his feet. Which makes it sll the more absurd when it actually works. A madman with a rocket launcher is one thing, give him pseudo flight and you've invited death himself onto the battlefield, raining rockets down from the skies and bludgeoning your teeth out with a shovel when he lands. Or blow you both up with the grenades on his chest. Or just shoot you with a shotgun. Whatever works.

The Pyro is a mysterious pyromaniac of indefinitive origin, indeterminate gender, and very definite lack of sanity, viewing all the chaos and death he brings through the fantastical lens of Pyroland. In reality though, she's burning down everything in sight with reckless abandon, either with their flamethrower or with their bare hands. Ryu would be filling a lawsuit if he wasn't currently ashes. And lest you think that's all the Pyro has, many a foolish Soldier has forgotten about the power of airblast and paid dearly for it. With a burst of compressed air from her flamethrower, Pyro can juggle enemies in the air and send projectiles and rockets back at the enemy.

Tavish Finnegan DeGroot, aka The Demoman is one of best and most dangerous Demomen to ever roam the Earth. If he weren't, he wouldn't be able to discuss it with you, now would he? Despite his constant drunkeness and lack of depth perception, the Demoman can easily blow the enemy to pieces with both the careful placement of clever sticky bomb traps or the ruthless spamming of bouncing explosive pipes. He can even take a note from the book of his dear friend Soldier and blast himself into the air with his bombs.

The Heavy Weapons Guy is easy to mistake for a lumbering brute, but beneath the muscle and thick Russian accent is a brutal and intelligent mercenary. Mikhail is a gulag survivor who works to provide for his family and possesses a degree in Russian literature. With enough beef to out muscle the rest of his team and a massive minigun loving naned Sasha, the Heavy rarely needs to think too hard to mow down everything in sight. And if he does, he knows exactly how to best rip a man in half or blow the head off with a shotgun.

Deil Conagher aka The Engineer is a humble Texas gadgeteer with eleven PHDs. While his trusty shotgun gives him an option in a fight, Engie is much better off building supports for his team, such as massive minigun sentries with built in rocket launchers to protect the base, ammunition and health dispensers to restock his team, and teleporters to keep his team on the frontlines and tele-frag any poor sap who stands on the other end of it.

What Mr. Ludwig lacks in his regards for the Hippocratic Oath, the Medic makes up for in his mad scientific expertise. Don't let his lost medical license fool you, the Medic is a veritable genius. His most iconic invention, the Medigun, can heal the brutalized bodies of teammates, put people's bodies back together, and can, when fully charged, render whoever he's healing temporarily invincible. He was once able to resurrect the dead by just... putting their blood back inside them and even managed to steal his teammates souls and surgically attach them to himself in order to scam Satan himself. His bonesaw can hack to pieces and his syringe gun gives him a method of self defense from afar.

Nick Mundy is a rugged, relaxed outdoorsman from the outback with a tense relationship with his parents and also the greatest marksman on Earth. While his machete and SMG give him options for dealing with close quarters combatants, the Sniper is most at home sitting back and blowing the heads off whoever he's been paid to kill this week. He's a professional. Nothing personal.

The Spy is the mysterious master of disguise of the team, with a penchant for acquainting his knives to the spines of his unsuspecting foes. His watch allows him to turn invisible for a limited time to best ambush his foes, while his disguise kit allows him to impersonate anyone on Earth, from your teammates to even famous celebrities.

Despite the team's frequent zany antics and at times debatable intelligence, they are the greatest mercenaries on Earth for a reason. Together, they've beaten everything from killer bread monsters to evil wizards and even a robot army. They are, for better or for worse, the greatest team of gunmen on the planet. Often, for far worse.

Throwdown Theme:

Throwdown Breakdown:

So... Gordon doesn't wear a helmet. If knly the RED Team could take advantage of that somehow. Like say they had a, I dunno... Sniper of some description. Don't know anyone like that, guess Gordon stomps.

But in all seriousness, it's a question of if the RED Team can keep Gordon distracted for long enough for Mundy to get his shot. And, in short, no. Not at all. Naturally, Gordon is much stronger. Much. Much Stronger.

What I mean is that Gordon is a wooping 103x stronger! (0.723 tons of TNT vs 0.007). Meaning it's entire possible that Gordon simply mows throw the whole team before Sniper can even get a single shot off. That is a massive problem, as even Gordon's regular guns should be strong enough to reduce the mercs to giblets with a graze with that gap.

Hell, Sentry Buster explosions completely obliterate the mercs and those themselves are much weaker than Freeman at 0.09 tons of TNT.

Source:

Medic is a necessity for this fight to even be debatable. The Medigun's ability to pull mercs back together after they've been annihilated is safety net they desperately need. After Heavy and Pyro get shredded and put back together (they are the ones meant to be engaging head on after all), the team will likely split up to keep Freeman from decimating them all. I tragically don't see Heavy really surviving the early fight due to his low maneuverability and Medic possibly might not either. Once Gordon sees him resurrect someone, he'd likely make Medic a priority, leaving the team without their method of taking hits. Thankfully, Gordon isn't likely to wipe immediately. A bunch of people comparable to, if not superior to Gordon in speed all running in different directions means Gordon is guaranteed to miss a few of them at first.

However, this forced split up would turn the game into an intense game of cat and mouse, giving a certain stealth expert the time to shine. While any Merc could theoretically ambush Gordon and shoot him in his obviously unarmoured head if they play their cards right, Spy is in the best position to do so. Gordon has no way of seeing through invisibility and given Spy's specialty, he's liable to go invisible as soon as the fight starts. This gives him the perfect opportunity to just... shoot Gordon in the head while invisible. Problem solved.

Even is Spy does die in the early bloodbath, there are some scenarios where the team can still win this. Pyro is fast enough to airblast back some projectiles early on and kill Gordon that way, but he's unlikely to survive thr bloodbath due to a lack of mobility options. Similar to Sniper or Engineer. But, Scout, Demoman, and Soldier likely would due to their own movement options. One well placed sticky trap is that would be needed to get Freeman's head.

There's this misconception that the TF2 Mercs are all incompetent idiots who do their jobs by accident moreso than on purpose. And while some of them are fairly stupid and they're all very unhinged, it's pretty consistent that they can organize very well when the chips are down. They know how to fight. How to strategize mid-fight, and even how to plan. And against a threat as overwhelming as Freeman, that would definitely shine.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

The Red Team!

The Boss has been defeated!

[kamenriderquanta]

Charm Kitty! The charm quark is 1.27 GeV, with a charge of 2/3 e. Occasionally, a charm quark can be found inside of protons, despite being a much heavier particle! This is a technician form and comes with a quark/gluon gun. Typically, you are not able to isolate a color charge, but the weapon allows for the creation of light construct particles!

[lonephantom777]

Page 2 of "Sins of the Fathers"

As Carmelita breaks from cover and opens fire, Penelope's attack drones open fire. However, Carmelita's athleticism, organic reaction time, and sharpshooting skills end up giving her the edge, and Penelope loses contact with her gun-bots.

Quickly realizing that it's time to write off her current hideout and make her escape to another safe house, Penelope charges her newly-hired enforcer with buying her time to get the chopper ready. However, said enforcer hints that a hefty paycheck isn't his only reason for taking such a risky job. Could it be that he has his own agenda...?

CREATOR'S NOTES:

This was actually the first page I made for the comic, back when it was supposed to be just a few pages. As such, I was still getting a handle on things like speech bubble color and how to add spikes to said speech bubble when someone's shouting. I decided to keep it as is as a measuring stick of how far I've come...and also because by the time I was ready to start publishing, I was too burned out to go back and tweak something as minute as that.

CREDITS:

1) Carmelita Fox and Penelope are copyright of Sucker Punch, creators of the Sly Cooper series.

2) The models used for Carmelita and Penelope came from the Patreon page of Warfaremachine. ( https://www.furaffinity.net/user/mrwarfaremachine/ )

3 Cerberus/The Enforcer is an Original Character concept of mine, created for fan-adventures in the Sly Cooper series and related toons.

4) The model for Cerberus is pieced together from several model packs by Petruz, purchased via their Gumroad page. The exact models will be revealed alongside Cerberus' new look when it's fully revealed. ( https://www.furaffinity.net/user/petruz/ )

5) Penelope's attack drones are based on the ones from Wolfenstein: The New Order (though Penelope herself is NOT a Nazi), found on the Steam Workshop page of martianinferno98. ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfi.....archtext=drone )

6) The gunfire from the drones is based on Payday 2's muzzle flash effect, a particle that was found on the Steam Workshop page of Nonhuman. ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfi.....t=muzzle+flash )

7) The laptop that Penelope is using came from the Steam Workshop, courtesy of Andr00d. ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfi...../?id=644429203 )

8) The crates and barrels...are either from Steam Workshop, or native to Source Film Maker. All I know for sure is I'm not the one who made them.

9) The muzzle flash and projectiles from Carmelita's Shock Pistol were created by using different elements of the Power Beam particle effect from Samus' blaster. This was found on the Steam Workshop page of Chaofanatic. ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfi.....ext=power+beam )

10) The high-rise building that the action is unfolding in was found on the Steam Workshop, courtesy of Anomi. ( https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfi.....htext=highrise )