#i think all of you are mass effect people?

[iliiuan]

When people claim that Seanchan has peace and stability, I want to scream. Did you read the fucking books? Did you actually read them? They latch onto a single scene, written by Sanderson, from Darth Rand's pov, in one of the least stable places before the Seanchan arrive, and think that says anything real about their society. A society that has constant rebellion is not peaceful and stable. A society with secret police is not peaceful and stable. A society where the aristocracy is constantly playing a deadly game of thrones is not peaceful and stable.

The point of the Seanchan is not that they are peaceful and stable! Because they are NOT! The point of the Seanchan is that working with horrible people is sometimes necessary to prevent a greater evil from winning. The point of the Seanchan is to provide an alternative to dealing with channelers that is as disturbing as it is effective. The point of the Seanchan is that changing disturbing cultural practices is difficult and messy and requires more than some conversations.

Seanchan is also not worse than the Shadow. People say this unironically all the time and what crack are they smoking? Every. Single. Thing. that they hate Seanchan for, the Shadow does bigger, longer, and harder. Slavery? Check. Mind control? Yep. Colonization? Indeed. Mass murder? Oh yeah. Indoctrination? Very much so. I mean. What are people talking about? And why is it such a widespread opinion?

[vidra-comprehends]

Taking this as a chance to flesh out a dynamic between two characters more. It will eventually be part of a longer work, but it is not a huge spoiler to say these two get together.

The game is Mass Effect, the characters are members of Archangel's team. Tiken has IR training, while Erash was raised to be a dalatrass, which means they get to use that 'fancy professional' language around each other and, according to the others, 'they get really weird about it'. The following scene is as close to a traditional love confession as they will get.

Every fight has its end; someone always runs out of thermal clips first. Someone always miscalculates their steps, allowing for the enemy to swoop in and take their fill. What he cannot get used to is the quiet after the battle. This is an office building; people should hold meetings here and argue about economics, not shoot each other down. He takes some comfort in another live person; one he followed back into this room. ‘It’s empty.’

‘They will not be happy about the carpet. It would have been salvageable… before the blood dried.’ Erash walks up to the window of the conference room. ‘And the dry matter?’

‘Sidonis is taking care of it. Those with living family will be shipped soon.’ It’s easy to notice that, even compared to herself, Erash is very still. ‘Is something bothering you?’

She has drawn the curtains aside. Arms crossed, she is looking at the bulletin board in the corridor. ‘Nothing. I am picturing my body in a bag like that. Where it would be taken.’

‘That’s a good question. Where do you want to go? Back to Dagnes?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe.’ Erash closes the curtains. ‘It would make sense, right? The prodigal daughter finally returns home; more loyal in death than she ever was in life.’ She turns to face the drell, who has since closed the distance. ‘They would not refuse to bury me, I know that much. And you, with the mark on your forehead? Where would you go?’

‘Do I get to choose?’ he laughs. ‘One option is better than the other. Kahje? I don’t even remember what it looks like. Feros? You know what happened on that colony recently… It’s a struggle out there even without having to dispose of another corpse. Noveria? Yes, that sounds good. I wouldn’t be the first to "walk until my limbs are frozen". They rarely find the body, because they are not actually looking for it.’ He smiles warmly. ‘Best to go with cremation.’

‘Convenient,’ she admits. ‘If you die first, I can turn you into a diamond.’ A silly offer, but she means it.

‘And you can keep me in your pocket!’

‘...Yes. Exactly.’ Erash wants to say something more, but thinks better of it.

Unfortunately, Tiken notices. She should know by now that he always notices. ‘Erash, you are awfully gloomy today. Are you grappling with your mortality or… is there something else too?’

‘We know how this ends, darling.’ She avoids looking directly at him. ‘Salarians rarely mate for life. And even then, it’s for a salarian life.’

‘I am,’ he stares at her with those big dark eyes, ‘more than happy to carry you around in my pocket.’

She snickers. ‘What are you getting at?’

‘What am I getting at? What I am getting at is that you should acknowledge all aspects of this problem… like I am trying to.’

Her lower eyelids twitch. They stand there in silence. Erash slowly walks around him, taking the chair at the head of the conference table. ‘Have a seat. What is the proposal, exactly?’

He sits down at a respectable distance. ‘What it entails is largely up to the Chair, but the base concept is a relationship that would benefit all participants.’ He clears his throat. ’Of course, this must involve more data than we currently have; possibly even a referendum.’ He blinks at her.

Deep breath. ‘Reliable sources indicate a strong interest in such initiatives, therefore it is advised we move forward with this motion.’

‘Second.’

Erash smirks. Her voice fills the empty room. ‘Any objections?’ The bodies have been bagged and removed already and Tiken is slowly shaking his head. ‘Very well. Moving forward. Opening speech?’ She accepts his raised hand.

He doesn’t stand up, but his back is straight as a ruler. ‘As we all know, tensions have been high in the past few months. The ever-growing power vacuum presents a unique challenge for our initiative. As our working conditions change, so should we adapt to the new situation. It is imperative that we nurture our emotional side in order to reduce psychological harm and any suggestions regarding our… direct alliances… are to take priority.’

The salarian is visibly amused. ‘Is this, then, a suggestion about a subsection of the organisation?’

‘Precisely.’ In a very unprofessional manner, he puts his hand over his heart. ‘It is this delegate’s firm conviction that this subsection could gain a lot from it, translating well into their professional life and greater group dynamic as well.’

It is her turn to complain of a sore throat. ‘General working hazards aside… Due to a collection of negative past experiences, establishing security and resilience may prove a challenge here.’

It is a fair point. She has never taken root anywhere she went, while Tiken has had too many roots cut short. ‘Would making this entirely dependent on feedback be considered a viable option? Permission to elaborate.’

Erash leans forward. ‘Granted.’

‘Instead of relying on preconceptions, both parties might want to opt for a test period. During this time, we may confirm that the dynamic is truly bilateral and mutually satisfactory.’

‘Has the delegate taken note of��� the time constraint? Simply due to the amount of time available, one party is at a notable disadvantage here,’ she smiles, amphibian eyes wetter than usual. No matter how much they joke about it, the elephant will not leave the room; they both know Erash doesn’t have nearly as long to live, and sooner or later, Tiken will be left behind.

Milo is ready to leave the place that served as the stage for an hour-long firefight and the death of several important Blood Pack clients. It has been a long day. She almost turns the corner when something catches her eye. The conference room they ‘cleared out’ earlier; all targets eliminated, bodies disposed of. Why are the lights on? Nobody’s home, after all... The turian chuckles at her own joke. Yeah, she needs to go home. Erash said she left something in there, but she must have turned the lights off again. Milovea sneaks her way to the window, peeking inside where two curtains meet. A moment later, she sighs in relief, now heading straight for the door. It’s her people. ‘Weaver? What are you guys up to?’

Tiken turns towards her with the solemn expression of weary diplomats and spoiled lapdogs. ‘We are negotiating for a long-term partnership between our clients.’

‘...Okay.’

‘I am quite hopeful about our progress so far.’ The way he eyes Erash is borderline disgusting.

‘And you don’t mind that she treats you like a house pet?’

‘Milo, look at me,’ the drell lowers his voice, waving for her to come closer. His irises are barely visible; as if his pupils were trying to join with the dark of his sclerae. ’I am… I am so tired. Of everything and all the time. No, I don’t mind being cherished and cared for, thank you very much.’

‘Will the delegation of Noveria please practice decorum?’

‘Certainly.’

‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Mumbling something below translation volume, Milo hurries back out. ‘Just turn off the lights when you’re done, alright? Don’t want to drive up their electricity bill.’ She looks back from the doorway. ‘I am rooting for you both.’

The salarian smiles at her. ‘Thanks.’ For the very first time, Erash and her might be seeing eye to eye. It is a brief moment that Milo doesn’t think of until much later. The door closes.

Writing Challenge

Alright now that I was both sincere and pedantic(warned y’all I’m almost always both) here’s your writing challenge for the day. Don’t forget there’s no time limit to these, if you find it in a month I’ll still reblog it. I’ll take pretty much any BW fic not just DA. Reblog, tag, or link me!! My ask box is always open as are my DM’s! Without further ado:

I want flirty dialogue without physical touch OR flirty touch without dialogue.

OR OR

If romance like that isn’t your thing I want angst. Give me the longing. Give me the hurt/comfort. I yearn for yearning. Emotional distress???? I love that shit. I’m leaving this one wide open. Bonus points if you manage both categories. Look for mine later.

[skyborneveggie]

oh my goodness your hanahaki posting is getting to me. do you have more specific thoughts on a (lawlight?) hanahaki au? flower symbolism, logistics of the illness progression/timeline, etc.? do they both get it, do they ever get over it, is this the ultimate doomed flower sickness yaoi??? The People (me) wanna know!!!

Omg thank you so much for asking because I have SO many thoughts!!! I'm currently writing a fic on this & it was supposed to be just a little plot bunny thing, but then the implications hanahaki would have for Light's psyche kept running on & on & on in my mind 😩.

To start with, I have a bit of an unconventional take when it comes to hanahaki and similar tropes... I have a very strong preference for returning agency to the person experiencing the symptoms, and in that way making hanahaki not about unrequited/unconfessed love, but about emotionally repressing one's own feelings and an inability to be honest with oneself. The body is eating itself, and out of the dead pieces grows a desperate, last chance, unignorable cry for help. For the mind to listen. A beautiful, growing thing that should have been nurtured, becomes murderous. It's a physical manifestation of extreme psychological distress; one that can only be healed by approaching emotional self-acceptance.

In this light, I feel that post-yotsuba Light is PRIME to fall prey to this. He's already the king of repression, and now on top of that he's repressing his grief over L's death to the furthest ends of the earth and back. Light is someone who, as presented in the narrative, is incapable of self-realization. What would he do if he was confronted with irrefutable physical evidence of his own emotions? Is he capable of putting in the work to heal? Is he so compartmentalized that he can pick out this one element of himself and ignore all the other hidden fragments it's tied to? Or are the many fibers of his subconscious too jumbled, too interwoven to be able to separate the strands of his feelings for L out from the mess? If he opens the box to look inward, will the truth of everything else come spilling out? Is it better to live, destroyed by the guilt of the truth of your actions; that you were only ever a mass-murderer and that. is. all? Or is it better to die, in denial, and convince yourself it was martyrdom?

And also like. The absolute shame Light would experience in the mid-to-late stages, when the effects become unconcealable. There's no way he would be able to hide it from the task force for all that time. How does someone who can't abide even the slightest hint of his own imperfection, deal with not only the internal knowledge of his emotional instability, but also the knowledge that everyone else can now see it on him too. The hatred he would feel any time he saw pity in someone's eyes. The feeling of his body betraying his mind, and everything he stands for.

Light is someone that I see as being very disconnected from his body to begin with, existing largely within his own mind, his body nothing more than a vehicle with which to navigate the unimpressive, foggy, distant physical world through. I can imagine that for a very, very long time, he would be in absolute denial about what is happening to him. His mind is the only true thing, and it knows itself better than anything. His body—clunky, stupid, vacuous—is a traitorous and meaningless vessel. It is wrong, it doesn't understand him. It is pulling things from nowhere.

At some point, he has to face the facts, acknowledge the truth about his grief and true feelings for L, and make a intentional decision about his future. There is no more naive & unconscious path forward. It is either a conscious choice to accept the known truth, or a conscious choice to suppress the known truth.

(Also I think Misa's interaction with all of this could be FASCINATING. I'm of the opinion Misa is not truly in love with Light either, and that she uses him as a prop in her own internal agenda to simulate love & normalcy. L is dead, so I don't imagine she'd see him as much of a threat to her built-up fantasy. I do wonder if she would fear for Light as an extension of fearing for herself and her own future without him, or if by nature of it being a slow decline, she would be able to come to terms with it in a toxic kind of way and romanticize the hell out of taking care of her "poor terminally ill boyfriend :(".)

The idea of Light getting hanahaki in the first half while L is still alive is interesting, & one I've thought about far less tbh. I kind of feel like since it is a present, living feeling at that point and hasn't yet become internalized as a past-tense emotional memory, it could be possible for Light to come to terms with his feelings without jeopardizing his internal construct. If it was between life and death, I'm certain he would choose life in that case. But I'm not sure that it would deter him from killing L in the end.

And perhaps this goes without saying, but if the operation was available in this theoretical universe, pre-yotsuba Kira!Light would recognize & get it all ripped out right away out of necessity, to prevent himself from being compromised under pressure of the game. Post-yotsuba Light, with the threat of immediacy removed and dull fog of mundanity descended over him, would have more time to linger in denial. (I am trying to decide, for my fic, whether it is believable that Light could be so deep in denial that he could let himself get to the point where the flowers and vines have inextricably embedded themselves in his system, and the surgery is no longer possible by the time he seeks help; or if his sense of self-preservation outweighs his emotional denial. I would love to hear your opinion on this 🤔) Yotsuba Light is so, so interesting to think about!! He has the highest capacity to heal his hanahaki the natural way, but he is still the same perfectionist, internally unforgiving person. I'm kind of torn as to whether I think he would be able to reach self-realization, or if he would still see his feelings as a weakness and get the flowers taken out. I could see either happening under the right circumstances.

As for L: I feel that L is able to be a lot more emotionally honest with himself than Light is. If he got hanahaki, I think it would fuck him up inside and that it would be despairing, but I also think that he doesn't have an internalized compulsion to lie to himself. He might hate it, but he would be able to accept the truth of his feelings, and banish the flowers by letting the knowledge of it live in his body like a silent, melancholic memento. In this way, L's hanahaki has the potential to be canon compliant. Alternatively, if he did get the surgery, it would be more of a calculated, impersonal decision, one that he might not really want to do but has to for his own best chance at surviving the game. He might be a bit mournful & carry a bit of preemptive regret over it. Unlike Light, who would tear everything out with furious self-loathing.

I could go on even more, but this has already become extremely long 🙈. Thank you for listening to me ramble endlessly haha.

[sewermageboy]

As funny as the "You'll miss me" - "Not at this range I won't" exchange with Maya Brooks is, I think I still prefer the paragon interrupt there.

Brooks: "Afraid I'll come back for revenge? Is the great Commander Shepard pleading for his/her life?"

Shepard: "I am pleading for yours."

[fenharel]

for the past month I've been musing about how much datv feels like as if someone at bioware was like "guys we are in the shit and we need a hit STAT. what's our most beloved game? mass effect 2!! let's make that again but in dragon age" and yet it's the most criticized da game I've seen

[puppypalice]

Yeah and it has real life consequences when a bunch of transmisogynists attack and harass trans women to the point of suicide ignore the blatant reality that the benefits from patriarchy and refuse to check there own oppression. 90% of all trans murders are transfem individuals 90% FUCKING PERCENT!!!!!!

Transandrophobia doesn’t exist because being a man is not a valid access of oppression. Trans masculine people are by far the loudest voice on tumblr right now. I can’t think of a single transfem who isn’t pro choice, a single transfem who doesn’t believe in full access to hrt. A single transfem who doesn’t care about trans issues in the broader community. But transmascs acting like transfems are being anti man for talking abt how transmisogyny effects their lives and transmen continue to hold privilege over them is the same bullshit MRA anti feminist bullshit.

Maybe the reason no one is listening to you about unique issues that transmascs face is because you tie it too a movement that has been brutally misogynistic at every turn. That has harassed transfems on mass for talking about their experiences. That refuses to listen to and acknowledge the unique issues of transfems.

If you feel like a marginalized person is attacking you for talking about their experiences it’s they’re challenging your privilege.

Also please do not fall into the "transandrophobia and anti masculinity in queer spaces is a terminally online issue" bs.

It isn't. It has real life consequences.

It's the reason why a lot of people who are masc leaning don't dare to go to their IRL queer spaces and/or are blatantly kicked out from them, or have their queerness scrutinized.

It's the reason why, and I know I say that in almost every post but please, listen ! It's the reason why so many people stay in the closet and are afraid of exploring their identity and/or afraid to come out. It's the reason why transmascs are deeply isolated and feel alienated when it comes to queer issues. No one is listening to us. Whatever the subject, nobody fights with us for our reproductive rights, our access to medical care, our access to HRT, safety and security for sex workers, suicide prevention, sexual violence, rapes. These subjects become issues worth talking about almost only when we're talking about "women and fems", as a lot of activists say.

Our deaths are ignored and unknown.

It's not only an issue you read about on Tumblr and Twitter, it's something to deeply rooted in real queer spaces that even within these spaces I've seen people look at me with suprise when I bring up the subject of transphobia targetting transmascs, like they didn't even think it existed, and yet, I see other transmascs falling like dominoes over the years, from suicide, from domestic abuse, from homelessness, for being murdered while working, and having their transness ripped aways from them after their died to fall into women's statistics and forgotten.

This isn't an online issue.

This is real.

[thrucrax]

the veilguard curse.....i just want to play older bioware games; ALSO small rant where i really started losing hope in the story

I HATE GAMES....that make you go through a dialogue tree only to leave you with only ONE option to choose. i am thinking of one conversation with solas where rook's final and only option of dialogue is "I will do whatever it takes" or whatever and UGHHHH

I HATE THAT especially when i'm trying to run a character that would NEVER say that???

ugh i love roleplay games that make you play a character you didn't at all make /sarcasm

this is just an excuse to make a post about how rambert would never "do whatever it takes", he won't lie even to save face or earn trust.

[perilegs]

one of the things i'm most disappointed about is that da:tv will sell well. it's been designed to bring as much new players in as possible, and apparently a lot of people disappointed in it will still buy it on launch day. and ea will keep producing absolute steaming garbage with some ip slapped onto it just because it sells. theyre treating the series with as much respect as netflix originals with their medias.

[confusedlucifer]

there's no Shepard without Vakarian

this is from 2021 but i never posted it here so, happy n7 day! in many small ways i will always care about these characters and their journey

[lilyblackdrawside]

Good post! Really well-put together analysis of the branch.

But i find it difficult to even look at Wiš'adel as a Flinger. She just ignores the identity of the branch so much by dealing incredibly high damage to high defense enemies all by herself, hitting flying enemies (I didn't know Rosmontis could bypass that limitation with a future Branch, but even then she needs another operator helping her to do it) and I agree that flyers aren't an issue, especially not when you're not in IS and have access to your entire roster, but it is still part of the branch's identity. Even her attack animations don't sell her as a Flinger to me. Going by the module short, the original name of the branch is probably something like "Bombardment Sniper", but both Greyylter and TRC throw something in the traditional way and Rosmontis throws something non-traditionally with her big invisible hands.

If I didn't know what Wiš'adel was and you showed me a clip of her without revealing her attack range, I'd think she was still an Artilleryman Sniper.

Because of this, I don't consider her a win for Flingers. They made her a Flinger to let her abuse the upsides they have while letting her ignore the drawbacks that come with the branch. Which yes, could be described as her being a look at what the branch could be, as you said, but blowing past the limitations just isn't it for me.

I've used Rosmontis a bunch here and there, mostly with her S2 cause it's easier to use and found her to work well for me. I am one of those players who use Marksman Snipers a lot, or just low-rarity operators who simply don't have such high stats so I always have some form of support around, be that just Skalter for general stages or adding Warfarin and Pramanix to really shred through sturdier enemies. In that sense, I've never seen her as lacking. The branch on a surface level is designed to clear crowds of weak enemies, not to nuke down elites or bosses. Similar to Splash Casters (who are also quite disliked in an overblown manner). With that expectation in mind, she never disappointed me and backed by the previously mentioned support units, she put in a lot of work beyond her limits. She is similar to Marksman Snipers in that her raw dps is quite high and as a multi-hit unit, she really magnifies buffs given to her - just like someone like Exusiai or Marksman Snipers similar to her (Archetto, GreyThroat).

Your IS and RA examples also enhance this point. It's a branch that has potential that needs to be brought out by outside factors and I consider that to be part of their identity. Which is another reason why Wiš'adel doesn't feel like a Flinger to me. She just functions all by herself. (But that's also just part of recent 6 star design. They're all meant to not need assistance.)

Greyylter kinda does his own thing, focusing more on control effects with his basic attacks and then doing arts damage with S2 to sidestep the def issue and he works pretty well, from what I've heard.

Also about Dusk: She was considered pretty bad until her ModY came out. She wasn't that bad, her S2 in particular was/is quite powerful, but ModY really elevated her and helped her fulfill the phantasy of using her S3 to put up a mass of summons to hold back groups of enemies.

Also also I agree with prev that Ho'ol has always been just fine.

On release, people were disappointed by how "bad she is at levitating enemies" when that isn't even really the point. The levitation is just a means to an end, that being activating her silence and damage boost, as well as disrupting attack windups. Her S2 deals really good damage (450% atk per attack), S1 is way more consistent in actually levitating enemies than you'd think, because enemies tend to enter her range one by one and S3 is alright. It has good use-cases and excels against large bosses, cause she can hit them with three tornados at once.

How the Arknights Community was Wrong on One of Arknight's Most Powerful Classes

Or, alternatively, you all need to apologize to Rosmontis right now.

Flingers are experiencing a modern Renaissance right now. Thanks to the release of Wis'adel and the introduction of Rosmontis's absolutely busted IS module, it seems like things are on the up and up for Flingers. Even Greyy the Lightningbearer is a common sight in high level IS runs, and he doesn't even have a broken module.

How on Earth did this happen, when it wasn't very long ago that Flingers were the butt and punchline of their own joke?

The Original Let's start with how the archetype was introduced into the game: Rosmontis. Rosmontis was released alongside Mudrock for the Chapter 8 release event, and the reception was pretty mixed. Rosmontis was a limited operator, and to this point, limited operators in Arknights had been pretty middling. Nian wasn't really conclusively better than Hoshiguma, and W was good but nothing special. We were not at the point yet where Dusk or Skadi the Corrupting Heart had been released, so the running joke was typically to roll on the other operator on a limited banner. Mudrock was a really strong laneholder that still sees a lot of use today, and Weedy is by far the strongest shifter operator ever released.

It's also worth noting that Rosmontis was released during a general downturn of opinions on AoE ranged operators. Leonhardt and Meteorite were considered actually quite strong in the early days of Arknights, and I know this must sound crazy, but Mostima and W were actually super hyped for their release. People thought Mostima, base-ass Mostima with no modules, was good. But after CC Blade, and a general stint of CCs where AoE operators made relatively poor performances, the tide had shifted. Operators like Eyjafjalla and Angelina (god remember when Angelina was considered really good. Well I guess she is now. Regardless) had AoE capabilities but were much cheaper in DP and had solid secondary skills for dealing with single enemies. So people were generally pretty down on AoE operators, which wasn't helped later on by the release of Passenger, an operator considered so bad it resulted in several attempts by Hypergryph to make him better (the retrospective view is that while Passenger was bad, he was made out to be a lot worse than he was, a view I agree with).

These two factors did not help the views of Rosmontis as an operator, but it was also further not helped by what content was available to use Rosmontis in: Contingency Contract. Rosmontis, tragically, released after the first theme of Integrated Strategies came and went, and so the only high level content available to use her in was CC. CC is particularly harsh to Flingers as we'll discuss, but this is also something that Wis'adel has managed to avoid as there hasn't been a CC since her release. The only difficult content since Wis'adel's release has been IS and RA, two game modes that honestly favor Flingers as we'll discuss later on. There was just nowhere to use Rosmontis in more difficult content where she didn't feel bad.

Flingers are a pretty interesting subclass, and Arknights has really not designed any subclasses to be like them, ultimately. They have a very impressive attack range, higher bulk than other ranged operators, and a unique gimmick to their attacks: they will deal an additional hit of damage, but one that only has 50% of their ATK. In addition to this, Flingers are the only Sniper subclass that cannot hit aerial enemies without certain conditions being met (Wis'adel's S3, Rosmontis S3 with an aerial blocker).

In general, this results in a class that is very good at dealing with large groups of enemies with only modest DEF stats. This is because DEF ends up having an increased effect on Rosmontis' damage, because it will apply to both of her hits. An enemy with 375 DEF will, after the 175 Def ignore from her talent, reduce her attack damage by a total of 400.

This for a lot of people was sort of the final straw that broke the Rosmontis back. Her vulnerability to enemies having DEF was a problem, and it was generally stated to be in a way that other DPS checks would avoid. In addition, if we take a look at ideal DPS scenarios with the introductory 6-star for each Sniper class:

Ray: 1,346.22 Narantuya: 1,062 Schwarz: 880.28 Exusiai: 815.99 Chen the Holungday: 647.17 Rosmontis: 601.71 Fartooth: 583.88 Rosa: 539 W: 373.93

Rosmontis is very middle of the pack, losing in particular to Exusiai. Now, Exusiai also had the problem of being very soft to enemy DEF stats. Honestly, it should be noted that Rosmontis was always hitting higher DPH than Exusiai would for her normal attack damage.

(I've been getting really into Desmos lately)

Now this is all just auto-attack stuff and I don't want this to be exclusively a Rosmontis analysis by any means (although it's coming). The point here is that there was a pretty common conception that Rosmontis didn't really have a place in the meta, because Exusiai was so dominant in that spot. It's not hard to understand why. If we look at their S3 DPS really quickly...

At low DEF values, Exusiai is overdominant. This isn't super surprising, as she has a lot of factors working in her favor: a busted 5 hit S3, an attack interval reduction as well as a sizable ASPD buff from her talent. But it doesn't take a huge amount of defense for Rosmontis to come out on top. The specific DEF number is 580, roughly. Then, the perks of Rosmontis's S3 come to light: it's larger DEF ignore, it's halved attack interval, and it's much larger ATK buff.

This being said, there are still things working against Rosmontis, like her skill cycle being very long, and her own ATK buff resulting in Warfarin's buff being diluted compared to Exusiai. If you take a look at CC results, it is true that Rosmontis only has one top to her name: CC Spectrum, where she is part of a Risk 31 clear alongside Exusiai, which is pretty cool. But CCs, which often increase enemy DEF while reducing friendly ATK, are just very harsh to Flingers. Given that it is a class so sensitive to DEF and ATK changes to hit breakpoints, most CCs just hit Rosmontis in a double bind.

Funnily enough, Exusiai also doesn't have any top clears in CC past this point too, which is interesting to point out.

(For those counting: Rosmontis: CC5 Exusiai: CC1, CC5)

Rosmontis' position probably wasn't helped past this point by the release of Chen the Holungday either, and the rest is history. Rosmontis goes down as one of the weaker 6-stars in the game. People feel bad when they roll her. People on this website nurse weird ass grudges against her.

The Blip

It would be remiss of me to not remind people about Greyy the Lightningbearer. Greyy was a 5-star, which means that 99% of players ignored his existence, Gamepress made a dogshit summary about him that was made by people who don't play the game, and life moved on. We're going to talk about Greyy in more detail later on because he is important to talk about...

Oh well right now

Lone Trail: The Update That Should Have Changed Everything

Lone Trail was a super massive event, releasing three 6-stars that can be kindly regarded as "good but nothing amazing, bad, and my wife". It also introduced to the game the Flinger Modules, and I'm going to tell you all a secret. You and me, real close now.

It's fucked up these modules didn't receive more hype.

These modules gave Flingers a second shockwave hit. Now that doesn't seem all that impressive. After all, you might think to yourself, that shockwave still deals 50% damage. But the addition of an extra shockwave really changed the numbers of the game, because it meant a huge chunk more damage.

At minimum (673 DEF roughly) this module improves her damage by about 45%. That's pretty crazy for a module as it stands, but if you want to see the full chart, here you go. Arknights Youtubers hire me.

The extremely high peak there, where Rosmontis is doing more than triple the damage she was originally is actually getting to the exact point where Rosmontis without a module moves towards dealing scratch damage. This is pretty common with modules involving physical DPS operators, such as Blaze, to have very unique high points.

But this is 45% just off of, what is essentially

An extra shockwave

60 more points of DEF Ignore

+75 ATK attribute

This is a remarkably tame talent upgrade. The base effect, the second shockwave, is pulling so much work here. These numbers will be a bit more tame when you compare with S2 (already comes with +2 shockwaves) or S3 (already has some DEF shred) but this is still a very impactful module.

It also impacts the stun chance on her S2. Without her module, and having 4 total hits per attack, this puts her stun chance at roughly 59.04% per attack. The additional hit raises those chances to 67.232%. Not a massive increase, but it does help to patch up her odds.

This is also why Greyy's module was so important. Greyy's slow is tied to his talent, and hence the jump from 2 hits to 3 hits is very notable. Without his module, Greyy has a 64% chance to slow the enemy with every attack. With his module, those chances go up to 78.4%! That's pretty significant! He also deals 15% more damage to Slowed enemies too, which is a pretty strong mod on top of the extra shockwave. I haven't actually done Greyy's numbers, but it really does make him a lot more consistent at slowing enemies.

So now we're here, with Flinger's getting a surprisingly good module. They now deal 3 hits per attack, with Rosmontis dealing 5 hits per attack with her S2, which is actually relevant for Lone Trail (Rosmontis can remove a clean 250 DEF with every one of her attacks during her S2 against Arc Screenguards). So what happened?

Well...Flingers weren't popular, were widely regarded as a flawed class, and mostly passed over. It just wasn't worth it to people to raise Rosmontis or Greyy the Lightningbringer even if you had some inkling their module was good.

The Return of Integrated Strategies and Reclamation Algorithm

A miracle the likes of which Hypergryph may never do again...well okay maybe they will, they do be kind of nailing it on the alternate gamemodes, we have the return of Integrated Strategies and Reclamation Algorithm. These modes are actually uniquely situated in comparison to CC to benefit Flingers over other classes. This is largely because of how these modes chose to scale difficulty and the tools they give you to combat this.

In IS, enemy difficulty typically results in scaling HP and ATK buffs, and that's it. It's rare to see enemy DEF buffs in IS. In addition, many relics in IS focus on increasing ATK or ASPD or improving damage dealt. Flingers get much and much better when they deal damage with their shockwaves, and it is pretty easy to do that in IS. Rosmontis's S2 is of special note here: with her module, it deals 5 hits of damage, which means it benefits from ATK buffs to the same degree as Exusiai does, but with a lot of added perks. DEF ignore, a moderate AoE radius, and a chance to stun. This skill is way more dangerous with additional ASPD.

Greyy also benefits a ton here. Extra ASPD allows him to basically permanently lock down entire groups of enemies with slow. This is something that can also sort of be done with Chain Casters, but notably, Chain Casters can only slow down a certain number of enemies at a time with each of their attacks. Since slowed enemies tend to create clusters, Greyy can slow down entire waves of enemies with his attacks, while still dealing pretty impressive damage.

The only issue is the aerial enemies. I haven't mentioned this up until now, because in my opinion, it is the single most overhyped drawback in the entire game. There are tons of events and chapter releases where this basically doesn't matter. Aerial enemies are, for all intents and purposes, rather rare in Arknights. But in IS this is important. Flingers need some degree of map knowledge to use well. But your Sniper ticket is not necessarily the only solution to aerial enemies in any IS, and chances are you'll find more than one. For IS3, you can pick up Kroos Alter and Rosmontis and in the grand majority of situations be completely fine.

Of course, if you play IS5, this basically isn't an issue and Rosmontis is the second stronger Flinger in the game, and I think arguably the second strongest Sniper pick?

I almost forgot RA by the time I went to post this, so it's a good thing I went back because, yes, Flingers and Rosmontis are also good there too. It's literally designed for Flingers to be good, it's huge mobs of enemies all clustered closely around each other. You can use Provisions to give Rosmontis a ton of ATK or ASPD and watch her go ham on like 115 exploding spiders. They also have amazing range for vision on resource maps and have multi-hit mechanics for those stupid locks.

It's like, impressive how nicely Flingers slot in here. I'm really curious how Greyy feels when you give him one of the ASPD provisions so he has +60 ASPD.

Rosmontis CRAVES your Coagulate Supplements!!!!

The End-Times: Wis'adel and Rosmontis's Busted Module

If you've ever wanted to know how we got to this renaissance, it was Wis'adel being released, having absolutely busted numbers on her kit that basically ensured that her shockwaves would always do damage, and then going and soloing IS3 A15 like it was fucking nothing.

Wis'adel proved Flingers could be fucking fantastic.

Rosmontis has actual problems in her kit, she's ultimately a pretty early Limited operator with all the design choices that carries. Wis'adel is what you get when you ask "how far can a Flinger go?" The shockwave mechanic works well with her huge numbers and her shadow status effect. Her summons work to keep as many enemies as possible attached with a shadow. Her blast radius is massive. Honestly the fact she can blow up the UFOs in IS3 barely matters.

Soon after that, Rosmontis got her specialized Module. I've seen people complain about this. You're wrong. There's no fucking way this module should be allowed to be used in general content. It is, in fact, maybe the most busted specialized module they've released. It completely changes Rosmontis as an operator. Benefitting from Caster relics is insane for themes like IS3 which has a ton of genuinely broken ones, her new and improved equipment are insanely powerful, and the fact that she allows every Sniper and Caster to create a free rather tanky blocker with a crazy debuff effect is like

You understand this module is nuts? Surely?

The trait wouldn't really make Rosmontis meta anyhow. It would improve her damage by a lot but puts her, rather frustratingly, into the camp of mixed offensive operators who now have to worry about enemy RES values coming into play. Plenty of the enemies with decent DEF stats that Rosmontis struggles with now also come with sizable RES stats. As I've mentioned in my brief thoughts on Dagda, there are a ton of enemies Dagda hits harder by brute force than Indra does by trying to side-step the bigger stat.

It's also okay that the module is IS only, because IS is where Flingers are just at their best. Nothing is stopping you from using Rosmontis in general content, especially with her still really good BOM-X module!

Flingers, ultimately, are just a well-designed class. They have great range, AoE, and having extra instances of damage is always incredibly powerful. I do think Rosmontis has some kit issues, but I also think that a lot of people immediately dismissed her as bad based on community consensus. You want to know a cool thing about Rosmontis I haven't brought up yet? She can attack invisible enemies with her S3. Invisible enemies feel a lot more common than aerial enemies do, hell Lappland the Decadenza's event is literally a bunch of invisible enemies.

But like, that's never seen as a positive to Rosmontis unless you're a Sniperknights player and then you might just say Totter is better (and I get that, he is a bit more consistent). Rosmontis can hit an entire enemy type with her S3 that Wis'adel can't, but it's seemingly never mentioned. It's just...this community is very strange, you know?

Try Rosmontis out, hell try her out with Shamare or Warfarin. If you use Exusiai a bunch (godspeed soldier it's been rough since the Chen days), you probably already have those operators. Try Greyy out too. Then, if you really want the challenge, E0 Level 1 Wis'adel. Come on. You know that's better than like half the cas-

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

Sophie Shepard & Kaidan Alenko (ME1) 1/?

MIRA'S MORE CANON ME1 "After everything that happened with Zaeed, Caleston, and the Villa? I think need to tell you a few things about BAaT." "Well, after everything that happened with Zaeed, Caleston, and the Villa? I think I might owe you an explanation about how I really know Anderson." AKA: Zaeed Massani and the case of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad message ping. :) Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

[clandestinegardenias]

Look, I understand the desire for a revolution. I do. And it’s possible I might be convinced that we need one, at some point. I am open to the idea that I might be wrong!

But…literal Marxist theory posits that the way you get to a communist society is by working your way through a democracy. That’s the first STEP. Then you move to democratic socialism, then socialism, then communism. Anything that moves us away from a democracy (as I’m concerned another Trump presidency would, that man wants to be a dictator so bad) is a step AWAY from a leftist agenda. Because sure, maybe you get your ‘glorious revolution’ if Trump is president because he literally makes living conditions so unbearable that it triggers widespread revolt but from a critical Marxist standpoint you’d be revolting to get back to a democracy so you can start at that step all over again! This is a big reason theorists posit socialism/communism in the Soviet Union fell apart; too big a change too quickly and skipping steps in between.

We also have to consider that getting to the point of full blown revolution would mean catastrophic levels of suffering for people with lower socioeconomic power—POC, the queer community, folks in poverty, people with disabilities, etc.

AND any US dictatorship or similar government has an entire industrial military complex to back it up. A successful revolution would necessitate either getting that military complex on board, in which case you often end up with a military dictatorship (you can imagine how well THAT goes) or beating it which…I’m sorry, even the entire civilian population of the US cannot do. The military is light years more advanced than it was in Marx’s time, rebellion is so so so so much more complicated. It also sets a precedent for violent exchanges of power that tend to set countries up for a decades/centuries long tailspin of military coups in which the people with the most gun power (again…usually not vulnerable groups) win control.

I’m not trying to be a fatalist, here. I actually think fatalism is a tool of the oppressor and we have to fight against it tooth and nail. I’m just trying to logic out what will happen if Kamala/Walz lose and Trump/Vance win. What does that really look like? What is the next step, the next outcome that will lead us to a better place? And I just cannot, for those reasons above, see a Trump presidency leading us anywhere good. That IS what we will get if people hold out on voting for Harris as a form of protest. I’m all for protest!!!!! But it needs to be in a different avenue, because you have to consider the real life repercussions not voting will have.

I mean, what are the options? What happens if people protest by not voting? (...this assumes you don't start from the position that Harris and Trump will be literally NO different in office, which, well, that's another post)

1. Harris wins regardless, but a signal is sent that people to the left aren’t appeased and democrats need to do more. How effective this would be in moving actual policy is debateable, and it also puts the moral onus/responsibility conveniently on others just so you can feel like your hands are clean while simultaneously risking a worse outcome. Not cool.

2. Trump wins. Far more likely because, as we saw in 2020, the country was nearly evenly split on Trump vs. Biden. Current polling shows more or less the same with Trump vs. Harris. If the left stays home, the likelihood Trump wins skyrockets. So, what happens next?

2.A. Trump wins, but the world doesn’t end. He doesn’t do anything too terribly awful. The left has ideally signaled they will only vote for a Dem if they are liberal enough. I seriously doubt Trump won’t do anything too terribly awful though—look at what his first presidency did!!! Look at Project 2025!!!!! So. Other option.

2.B. Trump wins and the world is on fire. He strips away womens’ rights, queer rights, he tanks the working class and worker protections, starts a war, starts a dictatorship, whatever. He already started a lot of this during his first presidency. In this case, either…

2.B.1. This is still not enough to trigger a revolution. Vulnerable people are hurt and die at a far greater pace than under a Democratic presidency. We go on as before, fighting to regain key protections. Perhaps the Dems put forward a more liberal candidate to try and beat him next time, if democracy still exists, but likely? We end up with a conservative centrist anyway.

2.B.2. Trump does trigger a revolution. All I can see is how many vulnerable people would suffer and die. The military HAS to be involved and either takes control of government (terrible start to socialism!!!!!) or kills revolutionaries en masse and the rebellion fails. If civilians somehow defeated the US military, which is an astronomically low possibility, then we set up a more liberal democracy...how, exactly? With all the conservatives and moderates still in our country? Honestly, HOW. Kill them? Try and make them ‘see the light’? That happens via education, not a civil war. We could try and go straight to communism but theory and history show us that doesn’t work—you have to work your way towards it through democracy.

It is SO much more efficient and would put so many fewer vulnerable people in grave danger to start by keeping the democracy we already have by voting in Harris and THEN working on our protests to shift the needle towards democratic socialism. We’ve seen that these protests CAN WORK!!!!! They got us Biden dropping out!!!!! Harris picked a VP far more appealing to a liberal mindset than many of her other top options! WE ARE ALREADY SHIFTING THE NEEDLE. Keep it shifting, don’t give in to fatalism, and remember that you have to go through the steps to have an actual, stable, reliable socialist or communist republic. Vote.

[vaguely-concerned]

so sad that we didn't get a follow up game for andromeda if for no other reason then because I never got to play out the full arc of my ryder looking hauntedly at himself in the mirror realizing he very much is his father's son in more ways than he's strictly comfortable with

(by default sara always seems to me to be the twin who's the most obviously like alec -- with small variances based on how you play her if she's the PC twin, she's always presented as more driven, competetive and academically minded than scott, who's framed in the family dynamic more as the underachiever/slacker fuckup twin. as an example, see: the conversation you have with alec about the sibling who's in coma at the beginning of the game. when you're scott they bond over joking that sara would be so pissed to be out of commission because she's been planning to be the first to scale every mountain, and when you're sara it's that scott never liked to get up in the morning anyway, how typical of him. (even in jest I feel like this indicates a slightly unpleasant dynamic where one of the few reliable tactics that work for sara to get connection with her dad is for both of them to turn on scott to mock him. which like. very real type of interpersonal dynamic that exists, and one of the character aspects I like the most in andromeda for all that it's uncomfortable, it feels quite subtle and well observed.) you can make sara a bit more neurotic/nervous and awkward and/or charmingly dorky when playing as her and you can make scott a bit more serious, but these aspects of the characters hold true no matter what. which for the record I absolutely love! it's the thing the hawke family also provides in da2, being able to see the dynamics that lead to your character being the way they are alllll the way back and building on it.

hOWEVER with my scott. this apparent disconnect between himself and his dad in terms of character traits (and the lack of communication in that relationship that stood in the way of letting him see that his father was a lot of other things behind the fragile hard outer shell of him than he wanted to show) means that as time goes on scott is fucking blindsided by all the common traits that start popping up under pressure. which you can actually start to introduce in the game itself, too -- if you choose mostly the logical and casual options, it's almost freaky how much ryder starts to sound like a younger and more irreverent version of their dad. (the most interesting version of liam's loyalty quest for me is actually the one where you go full professional and chew him out afterwards, and as liam storms off you can practically SEE ryder arrive at the thought 'oh my god I have become my father' in real time fhdsakj. in general some of the most interesting moments in me:a to me happen when you manage to break away from video game people pleaser mode.)

especially the things alec was willing to do to not lose his wife, to not be alone, he'd rather she be alive and pissed with him than gone forever because that's how desperately he needed her to exist... I think one day scott will look up and go '...oh fuck' at realizing the lengths he would go for someone he loves, and that he has the means to do it too and would make his father's (very bad to be clear) choice all over again if push came to shove. keeping horrible secrets is just the family tradition what does it matter if the weight of them grows heavier and heavier to bear over the years these are family heirlooms you know. I mean, my guy romanced reyes, so you already know he's got something deeply deeply wrong with him lol but this horrors of love side of him only adds to it. scott ryder got his fundamental lack of inner peace from his father and his social skills and abysmal taste in men from his mother

[crystalslucky]

Crystal listened intently as he gave his thoughts on the situation, nodding along to look as though she was taking it all in. "Death or mass abduction is our only options here? The only way I see mass kidnapping making sense is…aliens. Though, I don't know if I'd give up on the afterlife theory just yet." She had been out in the lake in the middle of the night after all, either death or alien abduction made sense to her as an outcome for arriving here.

"That is kind of weird huh? You get this big group of people and then randomly one offs come around to join the party? You'd think would whoever brought us here just have us all show up all at once and then nobody else, otherwise what's the point of bringing the whole group if you've got a few stragglers every few weeks that you forgot about."

But what did she know, right? That seemed like something that would take way too much time and energy to figure out. Especially when she would much rather focus on Tej than some mystery. At least she might get actually somewhere with Tej, at least she hoped so based off the way he looked at her and licked his lips. "I'm glad you agree. You do strike me as a guy who likes to have a good time though so it looks like I waved down the right person. Maybe you can give me a tour and show me all the best spots on this beach."

Crystal did love the paint splatter effect that his gem seemed to have, from the parasocial knowledge she had of him, it seemed like it suited him. But she wasn't going to say it out loud so instead she posed it as a question. "You into art? Big on paint? Or do these little accents have a deeper meaning than that?" Her own gem, she wasn't entirely sure of. The only blue gems she knew about were sapphires, and it didn't have any special touches like his did. "I don't know. I think it's lovely though. And I do like the idea that I could make someone jealous. Not like I have any control over what I got."

She hummed softly, shrugging at his remark about sneaking into pools. "Maybe. It's also very good when you want some alone time." which in a way was true. Wanting that time to be alone and self reflect, until she ended up here. Then a question meant to be more heart wrenching. Did she really miss anyone? Maybe her parents, despite everything they always did their best to be there for her. But…it was incredibly difficult for her to think about anyone truly special enough to miss. Crystal looked down at her feet dangling in the water, clasping her hands together in her lap and letting out an almost wistful sigh. "I don't really have anyone back home to miss. People in my life are either already gone or don't deserve to be missed. What about you? Feeling homesick?"

Any other concerns? In this moment Crystal didn't think she had any right to have any concerns. Even if her dramatic lore drop caused a shift in the mood, she was still on a beautiful beach with perfect weather, chatting up a hot guy. She was having a great time. "That's about it for now. I don't see this getting dull for me any time soon, I'm a simple girl, easy to please." she answered, giving him a coy smile. "I've met a few other people but not too many yet. Though, you know what I did see that there's that list of everyone's phone numbers hung up. I thought that was so cute and thought it would be fun to text a few numbers to say hi. So there's some I've met just not in person."

"There's actually one," she started, chuckling in amusement to herself as her brain already started to twist the events that took place. "It was kind of funny, kind of weird, I think his name is Zaid? That's what the name was on the sheet next to the number. I think he really misunderstood me and thought I was hitting on him over text. Like, ok, ego much? I was just being nice and all of a sudden he invited me over for 'dinner'." she put emphasis and air quotes around the word, as if he hadn't offered up the information to her that he was a chef. "I don't know what that's all about. But I don't think I'm going, especially if he's some kind of weirdo."

Why were they there. A frost filled his chest, an ice cold spring of dread. Those rows of bungalows did not house as random of a sampling as it seemed. Not when Tej knew a few of them, or discovered being separated by a degree from another. A self-centered view but then again how could he not think that way?

"Yeah," he started. "See, I dunno. Thought maybe I bit it, you know. Died. We're all dead." Tej thought about it enough after Inika, so maybe his wish was granted. "Too obvious, the dead thing? It'd be an elaborate mass kidnapping otherwise, yeah? But, ah. Not sure how long it's been. Months now. Woke up with a big group of people. The first group. Or, first ones in awhile."

Why waste time asking unanswerable questions. Tej wasn't sure he was the type to accept the unknowable or wander blindly through it. However, that did not matter in the moment. Hell, didn't even care if she was real or a figment of his imagination. The anesthetic of grief deadened the nerves for so long, but now they began to feel again. "Enjoying ourselves, yeah." He wet his lips, gaze in a quick sweep over her again. "When you put it that way, it's almost impossible to resist."

She kept his arm in place to admire the stone. "I'm just special, hm. It's nice. An opal, I think. Reminds me of paint. Little splattered specks of the stuff." He did the same to her bracelet, reached out for Crystal's wrist and brushed the pads of his fingers over the blue stone. "Gotta wonder what these mean. Everyone's is different. What about yours. It's bright, clear. I'm sure someone will envy it."

Tej eyed the calm in front of them. Imagined Crystal alone in a pool with only the glow of the water reflected on the walls (the same color as her stone). "Sneaking into a pool? Thought that's reserved for skinny dipping with friends." In a public pool? Nah. He wondered if Crystal was in the community one at Barretto park but decided not to pursue it.

"Fine, not a black out. I might've seen a light. Barely remember now." His chin lifted. "Missing anyone back home?"

Tej thought nothing of the smooth slide from tacos to pizza. Tej nodded with a sliver of a smile. "Everyone's got their favorite place for a slice, but there's not really a bad one in New York, yeah?"

At the word cuisine, Tej sat a little straighter. Shoulders stiff, smile faded. Everything came back to Zaid, and it was infuriating. A star chef probably could whip up a delicious rival pizza using the processed dregs in the warehouse, no problem. Fuck Zaid. "Yeah, shit out of luck food wise. Well, you've seen the warehouse? There's packaged and tinned foods in there. Nothing fresh. Some people are doing the hunting and foraging thing. There is a fishing hole too. Fish jump right into the baskets. If you find a stand or food truck, lemme know."

"Got any other concerns aside from an empty stomach, Crystal from NYC?" Perhaps the easy air she seemed to move through this horror show with should be unnerving. It kind of wasn't. A temporary relief, more than anything. A chance to shut his mind off to the seriousness around him. "It's not gonna get dull dipping your toes in the water every day? Staring at the same crowd. Have you met anyone else?"

[mabaris]

that stupid comicbook.com article and also fan response in general to the companion romance situation annoys me so bad for the sole reason that everyone acts like the only people in the game are the pc and playable companions

[corpocyborg]

me, in a video game: *chooses the bad option* NPCs: good god! how can you say that? you don't mean that! me, who's been consistently choosing these options since the start of the game: -_-