#eod behind the scenes

[roxanneprismsrobot]

A lot of ppl get mad at me when i say that nobody should feel bad for john juniper but ppl should feel bad for Roxanne Prism so im gonna explain why i am right abt this

John juniper was rich, a beloved actor, rich, everyone loved him, oh and did i mention he was rich? This man was so rich he owned a PRIVATE JET. Not to mention he had enough to buy a HUGE MANSION, and if i can remember correctly he has more than one mansion. And dont even get me STARTED on Gibson and practically everything else this rich man named john had. It was completely his fault that he lost everything. Now you may ask, “Why did he lose everything? How did what happen become his fault?” Well, the answer is simple. HE WAS POWER HUNGRY. This man had everything, yet he was willing to throw it away just so he could have a little more. He wasn’t manipulated, he was hungry for more, even though he had so much. Its all his fault.

Now Roxanne on the other hand,

She was once loved for making the telekinesis implant, but then was practically just ignored. She made an invention, her robots, that she thought was amazing, just to be shut down by the eod. And like she said in her speech in the credit scene, she just wanted to make something that would outlast her, that people would love, that she would get praised for, and the eod just ignored her. All she wanted was to be seen again, but the eod refused to do that, so she went to Zoraxis, not for revenge, but for somebody to actually care about her and her inventions. She gave up the kinesium research in hope of Zor noticing her, but Zor went behind her back and made project kboom. She was extremely hurt about this too, showing she didn’t expect it, and truly was at her ends wit, which we can see during her speech at the end of mission cold shoulder. That speech genuinely breaks me because you can hear the pain in her voice, you can hear how she just wanted to be loved again, and nobody would acknowledge her and her robots she cared deeply about, which were just exploded right before that speech, so know she genuinely had nothing left. Not to mention she obviously didn’t care if she lived or not in mission kboom, since she told agent Phoenix to just leave her to die when she almost fell in the lava, not to mention she gave up so quickly on stoping Zor from exploding the kinesium when she almost fell, since she immediately said it was useless and to just give up. She was so mentally destroyed that if you don’t feel bad for her there is obviously something wrong with you.

Thats it, if you still think im wrong you are obviously the one who is wrong! xoxo

[tvckerwash]

thoughts on ct's fighting style and her position in pfl because I can (utc bc it's long lol):

okay so I like to jokingly refer to myself as THE wash meta/analysis guy, but I also absolutely love ct if anyone wasn't aware (she's my 2nd fav character behind wash if you couldn't tell lol), but as much as I love her it's honestly pretty difficult to write any sort of 'objective' meta or analysis posts about her because we don't know shit about her. so while this is meant to be a companion piece of sorts to this wash post, I just wanted to make it clear that a lot of this post is going to be based around my personal interpretation of ct (though I will try and be as objective as possible where I can be).

so much like wash, I think ct is also fairly unique among the freelancers for a few different reasons. one of them is that she's one of the few freelancers to wear a unique set of armor instead of the usual mark iv, and I think that ct's armor can actually tell us quite a bit about her skill set and what kind of role she possibly held. ct wears the eod helmet and chest which is primarily designed for protection from explosives, but when it comes to ct the more important information is that the eod armor was designed with less available grabbing surface than other armor variants. she also wears the scout shoulders, which is a variant that is focused on stealth capabilities.

from this information, we can easily deduce that ct's skill set primarily revolves around be slippery and sneaky, and when paired with what we see in the show it's pretty clear that ct is an intelligence operative. I think that ct is specifically a cyber operations specialist, and that prior to being recruited for freelancer she worked in ONI's section one (the actual intelligence gathering sector of ONI that is used by other UNSC branches).

another unique aspect about ct is that she is the only freelancer to consistently arm herself very lightly, with her primary weapon(s) of choice being two M6G magnums, and her other weapon(s) being two combat knives. this goes inline with what I've said above, and due to how lightly she arms herself I believe that ct generally isn't involved in any heavy combat scenarios. this point is supported by team b's failure to retrieve the briefcase with the access code during the heist in s9 (seriously, who tf thought it was a good idea to put 2 snipers and an intelligence operative all together as one team for a smash and grab retrieval mission??).

now to actually break down the whole 1.5 fights ct has in s10, I think that she probably somewhat shares wash's more grounded and pragmatic approach to combat as a whole, with the exception of her preference for duel wielding (which I personally headcanon is a thing she chooses to do because it makes her feel like an action/spy movie protagonist).

in both of her fight scenes ct seems to rely very heavily on her ability to plan ahead and get the jump on her opponents to take them by surprise (dropping from the ceiling to take out the two marines when she met up with the innie leader in the scrap yard, and using her armor enhancement to conceal her real position which allowed her to pin tex's arm behind her back), and I think it's safe to say that she probably isn't the kind of cqc fighter than can mow people down left and right like carolina can.

as mentioned above, I think ct's main goal is to take her opponents out in the quickest, quietest, and most efficient ways possible, much like a spy or an assassin, and while her loadout is great when she is in ideal circumstances where she's able to sneak around and avoid unnecessary combat, I don't think it's very good when it comes to drawn out encounters. we see this in her fight against tex and carolina, as while she handled herself pretty well it seemed like the longer the fight lasted the sloppier ct ended up getting, and eventually she made enough minor mistakes that carolina was able to knock her off her feet and disarm her in a single move, and tex, who was now aware of ct's armor enhancement, was able to cut her down.

[strange-relics]

I’m rewatching the 2016 MacGyver reboot and I’m reminded just how special the show is to me. It’s got its faults for sure, but I feel a special connection to it because in real life my nickname is Mac and my grandfather (who is like a father to me) is named Jack and he also happens to be former EOD. Bit of a role reversal there but we each fit the characters so well.

He’s also been absolutely golden reference for scenes in my MacGyver fics where explosives are involved and I can’t quite crack the science and process behind it all.

Anyway, all that to say, I am feeling emotional about Angus MacGyver and Jack Dalton on this fine day.

[rosewoodroad]

Character Study: Zhou Yao

(AKA a massive infodump about a character that was onscreen for a grand total of 10 minutes.)

I've been away from my tablet for a long while now, but the Yao fever is returning and everyone's amazing Yao fanart is exacerbating my pain (masochistic). If I can't doodle my headcanons, I'll type out the headcanons!

This will also act as a little guide for myself for future comics, but feel free to use this as reference for your own ventures!

Yao as a character is in a very unique position. They've been advertised as a main story NPC for EoD, but barely actually appear in the expac. Yet, a bigger role for them has been hinted at for the coming Living World episodes, and out of all the characters we know, they have the most "behind the scenes" plot connections and characterisation.

In other words, despite them having as much of a presence as a gust of wind in EoD, we're actually given a ton of clues and insight into their character if you squint hard enough.

We'll start with what we know is 100% canon of their personality:

Pessimistic & Sarcastic

Their VA, Ry Chase, describes them as a quick witted person with a "cynical outlook on life" which is pretty self explanatory. Given that most of their dialogue in EoD involves sassing literally everyone (even the Commander, who has just beaten up 3 jade bots in front of them), they are quick to sniff out your bullshit and pulls no punches regardless of who you are, with maybe the exception of Joon. Even then, they’re not above making light fun of her paranoia in building the Jade Behemoth in Kaineng Blackout. In hindsight, it’s funny how we’ve never actually seen the two interact on screen.

But, this also means that they're very judgemental. They are quick to assume the worst about people and situations, which may form an unfair basis for the rest of Yao’s interactions with them as it does with Mai. Note that in The Future in Jade, Mai doesn’t even know why Yao is so ticked off at her. She may be responding to their jabs, but it certainly sounds like one-sided aggression on Yao’s part.

Yao also strikes me as being overly defensive with their sass as well. As compassionate and charismatic as they can be about others, they are quick to resort to biting and dismissive remarks when they come across someone they disapprove of.

As they best described themself, a mostly friendly engineer.

Intelligent & Self-assured

They’re smart, hypercompetent, and they know it. Literally every piece of dialogue we have with Yao involves them boasting about themself in some way, but it’s not an unfounded assumption. Joon’s snooping employee notes on Yao states they don’t have a formal education, but they’ve built their own functional Jade arm despite the Jade brotherhood, who are as bad at Jade Engineering as they are shady, being their only prior working experience. They’ve also been actively attending to reports of malfunctioning Jade equipment for some time prior to the start of EoD, so they aren’t exaggerating about being “essential” to New Kaineng City’s Jade industry either. Plus, they’re not too bad a fighter.

The fact that Joon has taken them in as her protégé and so readily promoted them to Head of R&D in The Cycle Reborn speaks a lot to their natural intelligence- especially when, by the time EoD ends, they’ve also only been employed with Xunlai for three years. 

Holodrama Junkie & Feline Enthusiast

My favourite “canon” fact about them. According to Joon, Yao literally can’t stop talking about these. I love this nerd. Somebody invite them to the Commander’s house.

Anyway, that’s all the official character facts we have about Yao thus far! But now we get into the underlying layer of things; little notes here and there detailing their past, their relationships with other NPCs that you can just barely taste outside of the main narrative, and a whole lot of assumptions by connecting the dots.

Here’s what we can infer from the crumbs we are given about Yao:

Self-conscious

Yao may be haughty when it comes to their competence, but they are not delusional about it. They are very aware of their limits and faults, and will back off when they’re confronted with something they can’t fight, or admit when they are wrong (given enough time and/or evidence to reflect upon it, of course)

Scenario A: They were confident enough to come running to the rescue through a sea of Void with extractor parts in The Only One, but from the sounds of it, didn’t bother trying to fight at all, admitting it’s “not what they do” despite them kicking Jade mech butts on a daily basis back in Kaineng City. 

Scenario B: Openly reflects on themself and their wrongdoings against Mai in The Cycle Reborn. Even during their catfights, Yao is pretty frank and on-the-nose about why Mai bothered them (basically, the fact that she also managed to become Joon’s protégé- their equal- despite having even less engineering qualifications than themself).

Petty, Grudge-holding

You could see this one coming a mile away, but from how they respond to the tiniest, even unintentional slight against them, Yao is indeed the pettiest little shit. They are very emotionally-driven for an engineer; their relationship with Mai is evidence in itself, but they also get pretty salty about Officer Mizuki’s patronising too. There’s also that moment in The Future in Jade where they scold Dragon’s Watch for “talking behind people’s backs”, only to slyly rub it in barely an hour later by saying the Commander would be free to “talk shade about anyone in no time.”

Also, according to Joon’s snooping employee notes again, they do not like the Jade Brotherhood and gets sincerely angry at any mention of them. We don’t know for sure when Yao left the Brotherhood or what they did to Yao, but the fact that they can remain so incensed about the Brotherhood all this time later points to a deep sense of personal justice that, once transgressed, would earn you longstanding ire.

They also tend to let these grudges or petty disagreements get in the way of their personal efficiency, being unable to work together with Mai on even a single project out of jealousy.

But, and a big but, Yao is capable of being forgiving with surprising ease- they did accept Mai’s extremely awkward apology despite her literally shit talking them half a dialogue session ago, though this might be a result of Mai stroking their ego. We’ll have to see if this extends to Chul-moo and the Brotherhood, though.

Sociable

I think of all the NPCs we’ve ever met across GW2′s narrative, Yao is one of the few who explicitly owns, and more importantly maintains, a social life outside of other main story characters. Both Elora and Nozomi openly consider Yao a close friend, and both of them come from wildly different backgrounds (Xunlai and the Brotherhood respectively). I want to bring attention to Nozomi here; not only is she another ex-Brotherhood member- meaning Yao got to know her years ago in an environment they have long since left- they are also still in touch today (and happily gossiping about the Commander). 

Once more in Kaineng Blackout, we also see Yao eagerly introducing themself to Mizuki and offer a helping hand with crimefighting despite their initial hissy fit. They’re Peter Parker levels of chatty while they’re fighting off Jade mechs during the event, trying to spark badly-timed conversations with the Commander(s) accompanying them. Making friends comes naturally to Yao, and I won’t be surprised if they’re actually an extrovert.

Ambitious, Approval Hunter, Attention-seeking

I grouped these 3 traits together because of how tightly intertwined they seem to be. Yao may not be obnoxious about it, but you can tell recognition and personal progress matters a lot to them. They’re jealous about Mai stealing their spotlight as Joon’s protégé. They have told Joon they want to become project head in the MedTech department. They consistently try to push the (admittedly accurate) narrative that they are a competent, important Jadetech engineer running Kaineng City’s powerplant. They eagerly offered to assist Officer Mizuki in crime-busting. They proclaimed they had the “world to save” when asked about their future plans. They were ecstatic to be offered a chance to run with Dragon’s Watch, and loved mouthing off about how they were a “big deal” to the Commander.

Yao is someone who runs on ambition, and is always seeking opportunities to elevate and put themself out there. They are not clawing desperately for attention, but they definitely love the spotlight and seek recognition and close compatriotship from those who they admire or respect (Joon, Officer Mizuki, and later the Commander after the whole back-talking incident). 

Yao’s ambitions aren’t necessarily selfish, however. Yao’s aspirations to become an expert in Medical Technology is born out of a want to help others like themself, as we see with Elora being taken under their wing as a fellow disabled engineer, and they worry about Cantha’s (and Joon’s) future without Jade technology.

Not unlike Joon herself, huh?

Inferiority-Superiority Complex

Unless you’re a fullblown narcissist, most superiority complexes originate from a place of inferiority. We can kind of get a sense that Yao is trying to compensate for something from how hard they try to feel appreciated, and there are times where Yao reveals some self-depreciating thoughts to the Commander, albeit in a more “casually humorous” way. In The Cycle Reborn, they begin their dialogue with the Commander by boasting about helping with the extractors, only to start contradicting themself and indirectly admitting how unimportant their role was.

We also know Yao is worried about their jade arm failing without a viable power source now that Soo-Won is out of the picture. They are likely afraid of feeling vulnerable and useless without it, and being a top engineer with aspirations of leading medical technology does tend to get a lot harder when you’ve only got one arm. Those of you who have the Order of Whispers as their Personal Story pick would find this sentiment reminiscent of Tybalt Leftpaw’s own social and technical challenges, which is a situation Yao appears desperate to avoid.

Part-time Alchemist

This is kind of a cop out given how support-engineer NPCs do the same thing, but if you look carefully, Yao tosses elixirs at you during the Kaineng meta (I swear someone had a GIF of this somewhere on Tumblr). I just think the idea of Yao experimenting with potions and alchemy outside of their job is adorable.

In a nutshell, Yao’s confidence is not unfounded, but as much as it comes from a place of genuine competency, they’re also somewhat desperate to cover up for their vulnerabilities or what they perceive to be lacking attributes in themself. They can and will bite, but will soak up approvals like a sponge and attach themself to anything that can make them feel valuable or of use- not unlike Mai, or even Joon, perhaps.

I have some more headcanons about them below based on the inferences and timeline shenanigans, but these aren’t really backed up by facts, just feels on Yao as a character compared to other NPCs.

Headcanons:

Yao reminds Joon a lot of herself when she was young. Ambitious, intelligent, disadvantaged, but eager for the world to recognise their talents. She won’t admit it, but this is partially the reason she took them in.

Yao is about Taimi’s age- 22 to 24 years. In Renho’s report to Chul-moo about Yao, he calls them a “kid,” which means they were not officially an adult when they left the Brotherhood (<21 years, assuming Cantha follows the same social concept of maturity as we do). We also know that Yao has only been employed for about 3 years from 1333 to 1335 AE (when EoD took place), which gives us a general ballpark of how old they were when they began their job with Xunlai Jade. Also, it’s pretty obvious they’re a young adult from how immature they tend to act, much like Taimi.

Adding on, Yao has probably been with the Jade Brotherhood since they were very young, possibly as an adolescent. Knowing how intelligent they are, it’s not an impossible feat for them to keep up with Brotherhood Jadetech despite their youth. Plus, Chul-moo is surprisingly protective, maybe even fond of Yao (see encrypted Brotherhood communique), and this is despite him being a mostly terrible person who doesn’t mind sacrificing his goons for the progress of his organisation. If there’s one way to endear yourself to a corporate snake, it’s being a cute and smart kid.

I mentioned this before, but once Taimi starts working with Joon as her advisor, I foresee Yao and Taimi either quarrelling over literally everything under the sun like siblings fighting over their mom’s attention, or praising each other’s geniuses depending on their mood. There is no middle ground here.

Yao has a tendency to hyperfixate and ramble on and on about things, often totally dominating a conversation without realising. They also talk to themself in the absence of company. They don’t like being alone for too long, and sleeps with holodramas playing on to have some semblance of activity in their house.

[hamable]

ALRIGHT GANG! BIG MENTOPOLIS POST EPISODE FOUR THEORY/TIMELINE

Conrad shuffles the paper to bring the Packet to Impelda’s attention. Imelda Pulse steals the packet that was supposed to be delivered to the boss’s desk EOD.

Elias has been revealed to be one that thinks ahead, so he’d know that with something this classified, any sign of him waivering, and he won’t be allowed out of the building.

He’s been taking copper supplements knowing the likelihood that if he makes a move to stop the psychometer research, he’ll be psychometered. As of right now, the psychometer functions as a mind reader, the research packet had information on how to make it a mind changer.

Either the higher ups get the info from the packet or from Elias’s mind directly. Elias must know this. It’s not confirmed he destroyed the packet but it’s my belief that he must’ve. If nothing else, hid it extremely well.

This is all happening in a matter of minutes. He steals the packet, destroys or hides it, and equips a grappling hook. Why? He’s not leaving this building alive, not before getting psychometered and maybe not after, the boss wouldn’t risk that loose string.

He meets the boss. The psychometer goes off. Two things happen at once.

Norrell Ogical is murdered by Logic, who is currently unaccounted for in Mentopolis, as the mayor is a fraud, but logics presence is clearly palpable throughout the city. Logic takes over the board to force Elias to jump out the window.

The psychometer goes off, destroys the keyhole and has entered Elias’s mind.

Regardless of how preplanned jumping out the window is, even if it was the only logical option left, it is a fundamentally illogical thing to do. Every instinct in the brain would be trying to stop you from doing it, and it only makes sense to logic, who plans to do it for Elias’s survival. Logic would have to get up to and take out some heavy hitters in order to take control of the panel in that moment. Hence, they’d have to kill Norrell Ogical.

Given that Freeze has been pretending to be Leon Logic for some extended period of time, that leaves the question of if Freeze usurped Logic (unlikely, freeze is not a man of action) or if Logic has gone more vigilante, taking care of what needs to be done under the guise of something else. The question is, what would that something else be? Is Elias only able to make Logical decisions under the guise of something else? Could Logic be working with Fawn, attempting to maintain a low profile at the company while bidding their time to put an end to the psychometer?

Conrad stated that Logic knew them, which is how they knew the Freeze was a fraud. But how long has Freeze been acting as logic? When did Conrad and logic meet, and what beef would they have? Because I don’t know if logic would blame Conrad for the ice skate accident. The Four Fs would, but logical would, I would hope, be more logical about it. And it doesn’t sound like Freeze has been in power since the ice skating incident, or else he’d know Conrad.

What really sells Logic working behind the scenes for me is the copper supplements. Obv Elias’s conscience is worried about the psychometer. That waivering faith is on his radar, no matter how small. Logically, if he were to change his mind, or even seem like he was unsure of the project, his bosses would have no reservations about using it on him. He knows this. He’s prepared for it. That, and bringing the grappling hook. It’s more of a snap decision, but proveabley NOT an impulsive one.

Oh one other thing. Logic is likely a key holder, likely even part of the Ogical family (heartbreaking). I bet a lot of the behind the scenes work has been at the board at olblongata station with Fawn. Fuck, is logical posing as someone we met? Fuckkkk if Wilton gets revealed as Logic I’m gonna bite someone.

This is my favorite type of story, I’m thriving rn.

TLDR: logic killed Norrell Ogical, it’s possible that Logic has been working undercover/vigilante for some time, we’ve yet to meet them. Freeze has been impersonating them as we know, possibly in cahoots (or too scared to say no hehe). Logic may also be working with Fawn, since it seems Elias will not allow Logic to rule his thoughts, but as Logic clearly still has a strong presence throughout the city, logic could be working with fawn to keep a low profile and bide Elias’s time as they work to end the psychometer project.

[guildtree]

🍥 What's your favorite fic you've written?

🍙 Is there a fic you wish had gotten more attention?

🍲 When did you start writing and why?

🍥: Still the first one I think, Left Behind. It got me posting, finding friends, and expressing myself, and I think it still holds up as a story today. It's an intentional emotional journey that I haven't quite managed to replicate yet. Also Taimi is super fun to write. However, I do have some new stories in the works that will finally surpass it, I think.

🍙: I wish the fight scene fics got more attention, like Fire in the Delves. I put a lot of work into that one - the choreography, making the dialogue match in game, and how Jormag's voice sounded and acted. Most readers prefer emotions to combat I guess.

🍲: I started writing when I was very young, because we didn't have a lot of electronics around in the house and I read a ton of books. I made up a whole universe of superheroes based around my and my brother's stuffed animals. I started writing fanfic when I found Warrior Cats in the middle grades, and created my own edgy little OCs to go in my edge little fanClans. The good fanfic writing only started in college, because I worked way too hard in the later years of high school and was too burned out for writing. I don't remember what exactly started me writing again, it's possible I got really starved for Kasjory content during the post-Icebrood-before-EoD lean years and decided, "Fine, I'll do it myself." But there are a solid chunk of low-quality GW2 fanfics still in my drafts from when I was shaking the rust off and learning the characters. It took me 6 months to a year to actually start posting stuff.

[redwoodrroad]

Have arkus and eridunis been impacted by the events of IBS/EoD? If yes, how so? If not, how have they been avoiding the worst of it?

omg thank you for asking!! it's awesome that you want to know about them! 🥰

they definitely were affected by those events! this might be a little long-winded but bear with me lol

Arkus being a Magister with the Priory is already a pretty big deal politically (i imagine) because he became a Magister very soon after waking from the Dream, so i think there would be some sourness towards him from some of the Archons who might think he's just functionally replacing Sieran, since she was a little more established, and that he might have only been given the title as compensation for losing his mentor (which is not true because he had submitted dozens of research papers even before he became a Magister, and I would think that's sort of the expectation in working your way up the ladder)

so when this massive political kerfuffle starts up within Charr politics, i expect that this would impact Arkus's image as well, especially given that he already had to grapple with extreme negative treatment during and after the events of HoT; people would sort of remember the feelings of animosity towards him and all Sylvari during the course of that event and dredge up some of those old feelings. Not to mention, there were probably droves of Charr researchers who either sympathized with Dominion/Bangar or even picked fights and possibly left the Priory or had their titles revoked due to promoting that propaganda, and of COURSE Arkus would be impacted by that. he has researchers under him as well now! it fucking sucks to be a mentor and find out that your mentees have these insane fascist opinions, and now that those beliefs are out in the open, it puts him at risk too SINCE those old anti-Sylvari opinions are still floating around. there's definitely a dangerous intersection between the Dominion sympathizers and those who believe that Sylvari are still dangerous or irredeemable, and that's sort of something i've been exploring (in my head)

as for Eridunis, obviously he's in a pretty outstanding political position, and while he was not afraid to push back against Dominion propaganda, it did make it hard for him to get or maintain a foothold even in areas that were Pact-friendly or "neutral/centrist." he's also very notably with Arkus so he is also affected by some of those anti-Sylvari sentiments, just in a different capacity. ALL VERY POLITICAL STUFF THAT'S..... hard to make comics about because these nuances are very realistic and very Dense, and it's a side of this game that i really enjoy, but i never really talked at length about it because i didnt want my blog to be a bummer for people who might have been interested in them as characters but not that ultra political stuff

i will say that unlike in the events of HoT where Arkus and Eridunis have this major fight that impacts their relationship, they don't have a disagreement about anything during the events of IBS. the only thing that potentially brings them close to an argument is when Eridunis gets shot ahdfkgjdh but that was Arkus saying "stop getting fucking shot and/or maimed and/or killed, youre gonna give me a stress hernia" and Eridunis saying "i know :( i'll try to dodge next time"

as for EoD, things are a lot different. there really isn't a political thing going on beyond the attempt to get Cantha on good terms with Kryta or central Tyria in general, but a lot of it is Eridunis doing things sort of on his own while Arkus is behind the scenes, helping Gorrik and Taimi and even Joon. While Eridunis is running around fighting sky pirates, Arkus is fawning over old Canthan architecture and burying himself in as many books and artifact examinations as possible ahdfkjghd

Arkus is a little sad about Soo-Won's death since from the beginning (or i guess the middle; since season 3), he has been a huge proponent of trying to find ways to put the dragons to sleep rather than destroy them. so seeing this void thing come up and have this huge impact on not just other dragons but also other living things and entire environments is sort of something he expected, especially after engaging with Kralkatorrik. BUT as i wrote out for him in THIS post, he doesn't think the end of the current dragon cycle is the end of his primary field of research (which is... dragon magic), which may have been more of a legitimate concern if something would have happened to Aurene during the final battle! but even then, the world is made up of dragon magic, so i'm sure he would have still found new pockets worth researching and capturing 💖

i think Eridunis has been more affected than Arkus by EoD because he does sort of see it as the end of an era, and that's very shocking to him. he's reaching this point where he's starting to think that all the fighting.... maybe isn't even worth it. especially now with what's happening underneath Cantha. old memories flaring up, old experiences, new dangers that he's not able to grasp because it's so new and so personal... and it's especially weird knowing that Aurene is the last dragon, so she might have a target on her back. he'll be okay; he's sort of in his shabby era right now but he'll come out of it!

thank you so much again for asking!! i hope this was interesting to read, and i'm always happy to talk more about them or offer more of my thoughts! 🥰

[agent-flyingfox]

I- Uh- Yeah! How did you know? I worked as a technician- I made some of Zoraxis' stuff and even helped Solaris on the Death Engine. (In my defense, nobody told me what it was for.)

I spotted the agency once while I was working on a gi- uh- secret project for Zoraxis. They spotted me back and started talking to me. Eventually, they convinced me to join them rather than stick with Zoraxis' team.

I've been a reformed villain since! Now I'm stuck as an agent-in-training (with nobody really teaching me anything because they're all scared).

I'm going to stress the question of how did you know I worked for Zoraxis heavily because I'm either bad at remembering faces or you were not one of the agency members who talked to me that one day.

',:/

-Agent Felix

P.S. I did not know anyone knew my full first name.. that's.. interesting, yet funky. I always use funky in a positive way. Thank you for using it!! I've actually been waiting for someone to call me Felixian :D

I probably shouldn't push my luck....I've been too reckless about this, blabbering all over the place. Let's see...

*Covers watch as a safe measure, knowing that it doesn't muffle as much as she would like*

"I knew you looked familliar! Lets just say I er. If you may pick up what I'm saying... I knew someone who worked with you in my universe. A thief, helping behind the scenes gathering research and stealing gravity crystals from highly guarded science facilities for the Death Engine.

I have to say. Leaving Zoraxis isn't easy. Especially as you're so young. I'm so sorry that no one is here to train you. It's been difficult enough for me as a fellow new agent - I don't even have a TK implant! I do hope the EOD in your universe is kind to you.

Here's the thing. I have my boyfriend, Agent Nightjar helping me with training. He's an incredible agent, arguably the best in the EOD when it comes to bomb diffusion (I'd say better at it than the Phoenix themselves - But I'm clearly biased)

I know I don't have much of a say in how another universe's agents are trained..but if you need any advice, Nightjar and I are happy to help you where we can.

Please...know that you aren't the only one. I'll be here if you need me"

Best regards,

Emara Aziz

Agent Flying Fox

Emara Aziz

P.S

I...must have gotten your name from that thief. I hope that's alright. I'm happy to keep calling you Felixian if it works well for you.

[brightwingedbat]

👀 (@commanderhorncleaver)

A thing I was meant to finish this year but kept putting it to the side, post EoD talks with Nastazya and Rox. Got the main chat down but not the beginning or after parts, put a read break because it's pretty long. Naz and Marcus visiting her at the isles, partly to get away from the wintery Tyria weather. Marc is off fishing however. -Rox and Nastazya having introductory talks I haven't sorted out yet- "Gotta say, wasn't expecting to hear you were having another cub. After, well, everything." Rox's thoughts fall back to the utter chaos the world has been through that past few years, she finds herself fortunate that she can share a relaxing time with her friends now, the sounds of the sea nearby bring a calm to her. "Look at you, though I don't think that belly's as big as the last time." A short laugh utters from Ragewelder's muzzle, now that was a time, carrying her twins while going after Joko. "It isn't, I can assure that. As much as I love my son and daughter, I'd be more than happy to just have one cub this time."

"Ha, yeah, I suppose taking care of one cub is a lot easier than two." Taking care of cubs... That brings back fahrar memories, nostalgic, yet painful for the brown-furred charr. She wants this to be a brighter day though, meeting the commander with a smile. "It's a wonder how primuses even manage. If matters ever line up here, I'm glad I'll have the Olmakhan ways."

"Oh, don't even remind me about primuses..." Ragewelder archs her head back, a sigh escaping her as that one day comes to mind. "I watched over five cubs once, with Marcus, and I could not handle it. Give me a grown warband to lead over being a primus any day..."

"And there's the Nastazya I'm used to, you never really change." Rox always finds it amusing when the Commander gets like this, usually she's so stoic, but around friends she lets loose. "Speaking of never changing, I know I'm hardly one to talk but I don't think I've ever seen you without your hair in braids like that." She starts to wonder how different the Commander would look with a new hairstyle, at this point it's very much a part of her appearance she can't picture her without it.

"My braids?" A tinge of bittersweetness hits Nastazya's chest as the scenes of her childhood arise, those braids of hers, there's a simple but important history behind them. Her paw raises up, gently brushing over a cherry-orange plait, as if looking for comfort. "It's... something I won't ever change, they're important." A soft sigh from her lips, accompanying a wistful expression.

"...Is everything alright? I didn't mean to bring up something that might hurt-" Rox worriedly looks to the orange charr, halting herself as she catches her friend gently shaking her head still with that same look on her face. "It's fine, it's doesn't-" Ragewelder realises, there's no point trying to push it off, Rox can clearly read her well. She takes a breath, a gentle tone in her voice she's rare to use. "It hurts some, but it's also... A fond time, I treasure it. I think it'd be good to talk about it, talk about those happy memories I have."

"As long as it's not too much, you're here to relax after all. Don't wanna ruin that for you." The Olmakhan assures, the last thing she wants is to make a friend who has already suffered so much deal with further pain. Always so caring, Nastazya thinks. Rox has never been one to push her to speaking, but always gave that option to let her. It's something she's long valued. "I appreciate your concern, but I wouldn't offer to talk if it was."

"Alright, if you say so. I'm all ears for you, then." The ranger at last relents, leaning a slight forward in interest. Another view into the Commander's history? Not something she wants to miss out on. As she prepares to speak, those fond memories rush into her mind, a treasured moment with the cubs she grew up in fahrar with. "When I was young, a scrappy little cub in fahrar, my primus' mate came to visit him once. She had her hair styled similarly to this, my warband could see it in my eyes, I wanted the same." She gently shakes her head, chuckling as she thinks about how childish this sounds. "It's so... silly, thinking back. All six of them, Tullia, Clio, Graw, Faust, Howl and Dinky... They all did whatever they could to help me braid my hair, even going to find clips and ties for it." "Your first warband... Now I get it. Those types of memories, those are the most precious ones for charr like us." If this was years back, Rox would have been hurting a lot more at the memories of her warband. Time with the Olmakhan has let her heal though, she can focus on the times she enjoyed. "They are, and that's exactly why..." Nastazya looks down to her long braids, each one is significant to her, each one. "That's why I won't ever change these braids, even when I undo them when I bathe, I always fix them back just like this. My friends- Family. Each one of them made one."

"I never realised, all this time you've been using your hair as a memorial to them…" Rox responds softly, it's honestly a very heartfelt act, it shows how much the Commander cared for her first 'band. "Which one did which?"

Nastazya smiles, then points a claw to each length of hair as she describes the cub that fashioned it. "Faust taught them all how to do it, his is this one beside my face. Tullia made this one that circles beneath my ear. Clio made this one, just behind it. This tiny one was Dinky's work, he may still be with us, but I keep it all the same. These last two huge ones were done by Graw and Howl, fitting for the two big guys back then."

It's heartening to hear how preciously the Commander speaks about her braids like this, about her old warband family. It's a side rarely ever shown, Rox feels special to be able to hear this side of her. "...You know, beneath that strong Commander exterior, you're a really sweet person. I'd bet all of them appreciate you carrying on, keeping them close in your own way." Ragewelder smiles lightly, a soft expression as she glances back to her friend. "I'm certain they do." She returns to her typical sitting position, her paws off her braids. A slight tilt of her head as she addresses that other part. "And Rox? Keep that sweetness thing between us, I have an image to uphold."

The brown charr tries to stifle her laugh but ends up snorting instead, the Commander really doesn't change. "I got it, you can always trust me. I'll be sure to keep you being a gentle, sweet and overall precious person under wraps." A larger smile spreads on Nastazya's muzzle, she's rubbing it in even more, and yet she finds the playfulness amusing herself. Still, best not let it go too long. "Okay, that's quite enough Rox-"

-Marcus would interrupt this part by rushing in excitedly shouting about a huge fish he just caught-

[pyreo]

this is now a Found Content post

Introductory Character Stories

Rox's Tale

Braham's Story

Welcome to Paradise (Kasmeer)

Canach's Story: An After-Hours Meeting

Marjory's Story: The Last Straw

The Trek of the Zephyrites

Delegation (Rox)

What Scarlet Saw

Unique Trailers

Bug in the System (heist movie parody)

War Eternal Season 4 Finale (single shot rendered scene)

EoD Expansion trailer with Joon, Mai Trin and Ankka

Animated EoD trailer with Rama and Yao

All or Nothing: Requiem

Three interactive short stories about Rytlock, Zarifah, and Caithe

Behind the Voice (Actor Interviews)

Kari Wahlgren // Lex Lang // Matt Mercer // Misty Lee // Steve Blum // Yuri Lowenthal // Debi Derryberry // Ike Amadi // Tommie Earl Jenkins // Jocelyn Blue // Nolan North // Courtenay Taylor // Sam Riegel // Mara Junot

Fear Not This Night Theme

Original (sylvari lullaby version)

2018 dark alt (or 'joko version' from Bug in the System trailer)

I can't point towards anything specific about Abaddon's role in the story except that I wrote a big post about it a little while ago

playing gw2 is like. did you know many of the main characters have introductory short stories you can read online from ten years ago. did you know they make cute episode trailers for youtube and one of them is a mission impossible parody and one of them is the most heartwrenching scene acting in a video game, but it's. it's on youtube.

did you know there's short stories on their website about caithe finding herself after heartbreak, and zafirah coming to terms with misguided faith, and rytlock finally understanding his inferiority complex and the crutch he's used to overcome it at the expense of people he should've been there for. no it's not in the game it's on their website

there are official interviews with most of their voice actors discussing how they approach the character and the emotion they put into it and how they've developed over a decade

there's an alt goth version of the main sylvari theme that literally everyone swears by and it's really goddamn great but someone has to tell you where it is

don't even get me started on abaddon, one of the most important characters in their world, who isn't in the game and is barely mentioned

[hardynwa]

Unknown gunmen attack Gov Okowa’s security aides in Anambra, kill three

Unknown gunmen operating in the South-East struck again on Friday, killing three policemen from the department of Explosive Ordinance Device, (EoD), Delta State Police Command, Asaba. The victims, who were attached to the State Government House, were murdered in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State. The policemen were on their way to Abia State. They were an advance team of the governor, who is the Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The names of the three deceased police officers were given as Inspectors Lucky Aleh, Celestine Nwadiokwu and Jude Obuh. A source revealed that the unknown gunmen intercepted them at about 1.30pm at Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State and set their vehicle ablaze. It was reliably gathered that two of the killed police officers were indigenes of Agbor, Delta state. “Four officers were in the vehicle but one was on mufti (not on uniform) so he was freed while the three in uniform were killed. The Escort commander from the Government House, Asaba, was sent to bring their corpses and deposit them in a mortuary in Asaba,” a Government House source said. The Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), of Anambra State command, Ikenga Tochukeu, confirmed the incident. He disclosed that, “We got distress calls and we rushed to the scene of the incident. The policemen who were killed are from the Delta state command and were on transit as at the time of the incident. But I can assure you that the State commissioner of police, Anambra, is very poised to bring to book the criminals behind the dastardly act.” Read the full article

[fakexface]

H

DIFFERENCES between OG design & the one that I used for the fic in the beginning scene.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Original design (based on my own hell of a night terror):

-Black- solid, completely, black as the fucking void.

-Blends into the shadows in the corners of the room (or, in this case, the ceiling)

-Eyes that border on almost t o o human- too glassy, too bright, too wide and unblinking.

-Mouth. Big. Wide. Teeth like needles. Think Pennywise's mouth tbh.

-Nails? Nah who needs those. Claws.

-Body is long. Just. Long. And Twisty. And jerky, off-kilter movements. Bones pop w each movement.

-When it moves, think "The Grudge". Broken movements, but f a s t.

Originally, Sal wasn't going to hear it speak. He was gonna turn around and BAM, it's head is literally right behind his, and this would cause the scream.

... But I did use it. In another scene. Wink wonk.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

The one I used:

-Pale skin that's almost too pale; you can see all the veins beneath the skin. Arms are blaxk up to elbows, then trails off into a grey around mid-bicep.

-Has hair; v stringy and wet-looking (this is an IMPORTANT DETAIL i hope y'all caught) & red like blood.

-Did I mention the eyes are solid black? They're solid black. Like sclera contacts.

-Too Many Teeth™. Not in r o w s, but the teeth are small and razor sharp and there's too MANY(double the amount you have in your mouth).

-What Is A Spine. Twisty- i kept that proponent, obviously.

-It's voice sounds like gravel, but has an almost... Lullaby-esque quality to it? Its hard to explain, really.

This version worked better than ^Spooky up there bc This One Talks, and the other one doesn't.

[tinotika-arts]

Some behind the scenes/modern au shenanigans: Aurene learns some not-so-nice words ft. more not-fixed dragon vessel designs, based off that swearing comic :3

Drawing Aurene as a little child is very fun

[vinetooth-prime]

Spoilers ahead.

SotO part 1 was awesome. Good combat balance for the most part, interesting story bits, a lot of noticeable tech polish behind the scenes (even if this fresh polish created new bugs; I'm not saying it wasn't buggy, just that there was new tech and it worked well considering the engine).

Coming out of Gyala Pt2 (if you want my thoughts on that, here: [Reddit]) or even EoD (listen. EoD was previously the most cheaply made expac), SotO Pt1 was honestly pretty awesome it seemed. Gyala Pt2 almost made me quit the game. I had some hope, again.

But... SotO Pt2.

There is clearly a new team lead working on encounters and they do not design according to the language of GW2 combat. The combat balance alone is god awful. Enemies are sponge-y and repetitive again. Bosses fight like FF14 bosses where the AoE indicators don't load so you always get hit the second the animations go off. Fights are long, repetitive, and ultimately uninteresting; or worse, impossibly overwhelming in small groups.

The story boss, Heitor, is a goddamn mess. She is uninteresting as a story character, heralded as a vague threat and presented as a nuisance of a fight that's immediately knocked aside and finished with in the span of minutes.

Speaking of minutes, though, it's far too many of them spent on her at the same time. There's little interplay in her fight, just relentless melee assaults that force you into stunlocks more often than you have Energy to dodge with and impossibly quick & responsive gap closes to make sure she is in melee with you. When your best chance of fighting her is hoping you're a class that can pump out free & effortless Stability, that's not fun nor is it balanced.

Then there's the issue of the story, or the lack thereof. What we wound up getting is a summary of what there should have been. None of it matters. It's all busywork. Even the little named Kryptis we see and then see die is pointless. I don't even remember her name, she's gone that quick.

I had some high hopes for SotO. Part 2 has, unquestionably, sucked.

It just sucks. It's badly made. The only thing I can hope for now is that they don't have only two content teams on rotation, because that means Pt2 team is gonna' work on the Finale Pt4.

I'm okay with buying LW seasons upfront. That's basically what this model is. Buying 4 episodes of a LW season. But really, the quality matters, too, and Pt2 has been a half of a LW ep drop.

Wanted to wait until the entirety of soto drops with the judgement but this has been boiling in me for a while. I don't really buy the "smaller, faster expansions" pitch anymore. The "nothing to do in this game" wailing really just lead to the place where we get an expansion for basically the price of the previous ones but with barely any maps, artifically stretched out timelime, massive performance issues, no new guildhall or specializations, and no upcoming living world. Releasing half a map worked, okay. But releasing just a third of one?? For months?? I don't hate the content of the expansion itself, but I really don't see how scaling it down so much helped the writing or quality of the content. Because it didn't. I'd argue it's been outright detrimental to some parts of the writing (not going into that though bc spoilers).

Recently it became a trend for big studios in general to just release their games unfinished and then patch it up during the next year or so, and quite honestly what GW2 is doing right now eerily feels the same. Except it's worse, because it's an mmo. If you want to continue playing with your friends, if you want access to new meta builds, new strikes, new anything, you have to buy the expansion, even if it's an unfinished mess. It's disheartening. I hope this only happened because fixing up the core game took away their resources, but that might just be naive thinking on my part.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

Every now and then I think about the background lore of invoked legends experiencing the world through their revenant partner’s eyes. And, like...

Does that mean Scarlet was just as drunk as Mai Trin when we fought them?

[leafofkudzu]

#GW2EoD Character Countdown

Day 8/9 - Mesmers (15.8% Play Time)

❖ Kirslyn: A storied veteran of many battles, now comfortably retired and settled in Caledon to nurture the next generation(s) as a mentor. ❖ Zhalsi: A notorious illusionist and sleight-of-hand artist, only 68.4% likely to use a clone to relieve you of your wallet while you aren’t looking. ❖ The Many Walker: A once-aspiring priestess of Dwayna, when the truth came out that she wasn’t human but norn, she fled in search of answers. ❖ Vaporwave Nightmare: A dazzling zephyrite choiress traveling independently from her fellows, spreading word of Glint and Aurene’s grace.