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heart-forge · 1 month

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interested in yr starfield take. played a lot of skyrim as a teen as one does but am not per se a bethesda fan and am mostly bemused by how little i have seen anyone talking about starfield either way in my social circles

well listen this with the important distinction that I am a Bethesda fan. Todd wrapped his chess-master's hands around my throat as a child and has not let go, so perhaps it's me that is biased, but I've been asking for years for a Starfield-esque game and I will not complain now that they've given it to me.

The critical like friction point I think with Starfield and mainstream gaming is that it's an FPS that isn't an FPS. I rarely had to actually fight outside of space flight mechanics. Most plot-based fights could be avoided with a keen enough charisma-or-whatever-space-equivalent skill. I think overall Starfield's flaw was Cyberpunk's flaw in a much more professional setting: it didn't commit enough to what it wanted to do, and by doing so added some watered down stuff that didn't work. Starfield wanted to be an exploration game: No Man's Sky, Garden of the Sea, something that's focused on studying the flora and fauna.

But also they doubled down on settlement building, something that people only wanted to use to make themselves home bases in Fallout 4 and otherwise didn't enjoy as a method of resource management (unless there was some bethesda forum silent majority: generally I gauge whether something is broadly popular or unpopular by asking my brother if it annoyed him dsfkjhds). And then also there was combat, but not just the ship combat which was the real novelty, but also base level FPS combat? But only sometimes.

And then of course there were the procedurally generated worlds which everyone knew immediately was not going to work, because No Man's Sky had already fumbled that hurdle. Bethesda narrative structure is not suitable for random distribution: they excel with specific and focused quest lines in limited, fleshed out locations (ie Shivering Isles, particular abandoned Vault side quests in Fallout 3, Rivenspire in ESO) and become overly generic and repetitive once they remove that element (all the busywork in Skyrim, all the backtracking in Starfield).

This is a problem with a lot of AAA video games as time goes on because...they don't want to commit to genre. What if someone doesn't like that genre? Then they won't buy the game. And it's gotten to the point where games are starting to flop because the mechanics are so broadly generalized and bloated that even the interesting stuff isn't relevant enough to do more than annoy players. I love scanning things in Starfield, I loved scanning them enough that they were fully researched, I loved finding different planets with variations on gravity...but there was literally no reason to explore. There could have been: I was in a guild of explorers. They could have done so much to make it worth my while to explore planets, but instead it was a radiant quest that I didn't even get the first time I played.

I've asked for a long, long time for a video game where my core purpose was not "bloodthirsty fighter itching to kill something with a gun or several guns or a knife or a sword murder kill death death death I don't understand magic I just want to cull my enemies". I hate playing ESO and getting treated like a barbarian in every interaction. I hate being railroaded into being a combat marine in Mass Effect (and was thrilled when Andromeda gave me cool biotics like everyone else got except for Shepard even if Shepard was a biotics class). I want class variation, even if we need to take money away from fidelity and put it into narrative so I can have someone treat me like I'm not a complete drooling neanderthal even if I specifically pick a magic or stealth class.

Starfield gave me that. I was able to pick dialogue options that reflected my skills. If I had points in geology, I could reassure Barrett that the story that the mining company fed him about his husband's misconduct was implausible. I could scold people for improper storage and care of relics even without sinking any particular skills. I could choose to be in religious awe of the relic visions, I could choose to be scientifically fascinated by them, I could choose to be power hungry about them. It's the most flexibility that's ever been allowed in a Bethesda game that I've ever played, and combat was so unfocused that I frequently forgot that fighting was even an option.

I really liked building my ship. I liked that it was a bit of a puzzle when it came to connecting things. The UI was awful and there wasn't much of a tutorial, but I said already that I'm a Bethesda fan. I liked ship combat once I got the hang of it, I liked the act of flying the ship around space. A lot of people said "Starfield gets really good...twelve hours in har har har" which I don't think is strictly fair. Starfield gets good once you figure out how to do stuff and use stuff the way it's supposed to be done and used.

Overall I think Starfield was a really positive experiment in trying something new with the FPS genre. Not everything worked which is grounds for a mass murder-suicide when it comes to how level-headedly gamers react to things that are really popular that they're just not clicking with (seriously I think a lot of problems in the game industry could be at least alleviated if we unlocked the 'just because you want to like it does not mean a fundamental right of yours is being violated if you don't' skill tree), but I like that a company the size of Bethesda is still kind of trying new things. Some quests REALLY hit me in the face: there's one where you're hunting down a relic and find a permeable reality where you have to decide to canonize one particular timeline over another, which involves a lot of switching through timelines in order to advance through to the next room. That was incredible, and meant so much more to me than any generic fetch quest. Grinding mechanics are difficult: not all players like to grind, but if you leave off grinding altogether then it becomes more complicated to balance for difficulty, especially if your goal is to present specific challenges to your player.

Anyway I thought Starfield was fun, I thought the story was good, I think fidelity is overrated, I think that many problems with video games would be solved by carefully integrated accessibility features, and I watched multiple videos criticizing Starfield for things that have always been true across Bethesda games (ie "why do guards know I've stolen and what I've stolen between different planets" because that's how Bethesda has always handled theft mechanics, maybe you just don't like Bethesda games and don't have an immutable human right to frictionlessly play and enjoy every video game that your friends are also playing (not YOU anon just the general you)). There's plenty of things to criticize but at this point I think some people just start nitpicking for nitpicking's sake. It's okay that some people didn't like it. They don't have to, but much like not liking something doesn't make it evil, not liking something also doesn't make it bad.

Overall though I'm not surprised that no one has heard much about it: it ran terribly without many options outside of modding to fix that issue. Maybe things are different over on Reddit, but I'm willing to wager that a lot of PC gamers have outdated systems. I said it about Cyberpunk and I'll say it here too: it's nice that your NASA computer can run one billion fps with high detail shadows and 4K reflections. Mine needs to be able to turn that shit off or else I just can't play your game.

As far as what you haven't heard about the main plot, I'll say this: it's a very, very interesting twist on infinite replayability. Nothing is truly infinitely replayable, but Starfield makes a very bold and frankly fascinating leap into how to achieve such a thing, to the point where before I found the ending I was like "it would have been better to redirect resources from x to the ending in order to achieve this insane thing" and while it's not perfect, I was SHOCKED that they just...literally do. It's so fascinating that I'm kind of surprised that no one talked about it.

#talkForge #it's like precisely the type of thing that I think if tumblr had grabbed onto it it would have popped off

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ahogehope · 3 years

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BlazBlue Alternative Dark War Nightmare Fiction Event English Translation (Part 2: Starting Beneath the Dim Light)

Crossposted from reddit just for a little more exposure.

This is part 2, or the third story quest in the event.

Previous parts can be found here: [Part 1-1, Part 1-2]

Some notes:

- The default name of Rei is used for the player character and was selected as male at the beginning of the game.

- I’m still on the fence on if I should be using honorifics or not. Your opinion on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Click here to be taken to a pastebin with the translated dialogue or look under the read more to read it here.

Section 2 – “Starting Beneath the Dim Light”

Fuzzy Ah, that was fun! I enjoyed that more than I thought I would!

Ciel Fun... I guess you meant combat when you said you wanted to “play.”

Fuzzy But there’s nothing more fun, don’t you think? Don’t you?

Fuzzy There aren’t many people who play with me anymore. Everyone always breaks before we’re finished.

Fuzzy Well, I didn’t exactly give my best performance this time either. But you guys played with me until the end so I guess you pass.

Raabe I thought the goal was to get know each other better, not an all out battle. Such bloodthirst is unbecoming.

Raabe Although... we seem to have passed the test. We probably shouldn’t worry too much about what he says.

Fuzzy Ahahaha, don’t be such a stick in the mud. It’s not like I actually tried to kill you, you know.

Fuzzy Besides, what better way to get to know one another than to have some fun?

Fuzzy So now I know more about you and you guys know a little more about me. Right?

Fuzzy Especially you... Rei.

Raabe Admittedly I was able to collect some valuable data. In any case, please hurry and tell us where we can find the elements.

Fuzzy Okay～.

Fuzzy If you keep heading straight down this road, the scenery should start to change a bit. It’s over there.

Hazama Just keep going straight? You can’t give us a bit more of a detailed explanation?

Hazama Do you not trust us or are you simply handling the situation as you see fit?

Hazama Ah, I’m not trying to sound overly skeptical here or anything.

Fuzzy You can take your doubts and shove ‘em. You’ll be fine, the city isn’t that big anyway.

Fuzzy It’s not that far and you’ll know it when you see it. Probably.

Kazuma "You think?" I can’t speak for Hazama-san, but I can’t say I feel overly comfortable with this either... Fuzzy-san...

Kazuma Is this really okay?

Fuzzy Who knows? I’m just following the role I was given. You don’t know if I’m lying to you but you also don’t know what the truth is either, do you?

Fuzzy Well, whether you believe me or not is up to you guys. Isn’t it?

Raabe That’s a logical way of looking at it. We don’t know anything about this world so whether or not we believe you we don’t have much of a choice other than to do what you say.

Fuzzy Now you’re getting it. What’s the harm in just going along with it? I’ll tell you everything I know.

Fuzzy After that, you’re on your own～!

[Fuzzy leaves]

Ciel Doesn’t matter whether he’s coming or going, it’s impossible to tell where Fuzzy-san is.

Raabe What an undesirable trait. Saying whatever they want and then vanishing without a trace.

Raabe The information we were given might have been hard to digest, but our options do appear to be limited.

Raabe We still need to find a way out of here. If gathering these elements is our only lead, then that’s our best option going forward.

Ciel Roger.

Hazama Please allow me to accompany you. I don’t think I could stand being left alone again in this unfamiliar place.

Hazama I’m counting on you.

Kazuma ...If you ask me, this guy may be better than Fuzzy-san but he still seems like a piece of work...

Hazama I must admit I was surprised, though.

Ciel What do you mean?

Hazama I wasn’t expecting you guys to be so skilled in combat.

Ciel Thank you for the compliment.

Hazama On the contrary, I’m much more ashamed such skills are outside my range of expertise.

Hazama I’m much more suited to infiltration and reconnaissance. Or, that is to say, I get the feeling I would be anyway.

Hazama Nevertheless, I must be lucky to have met up with such strong individuals. Kazuma-san is even a magician! How cool is that?

Kazuma A-Ah... is that so...

Hazama As long as I’m with you guys, collecting these elements should be a breeze. It’s a real confidence booster.

Raabe .........

Hazama My, you’ve been staring at me rather intensely for a while now. Is there something on my face?

Raabe ...No. I was merely ruminating on our situation. Don’t worry about it. If I feel I must say something, rest assured I will speak my mind.

Hazama Oh, is that all? I won’t look into it too much then. Feel free to ruminate to your heart’s content.

Raabe ...Hey, Rei.

Raabe Do you think Kazuma is real?

>I think he’s real. Raabe Really... If you think that’s the case then you’re probably right.

>What do you mean? Raabe ...No, it’s probably nothing. Tell me if you start to notice anything off.

Raabe We have so little to go on right now and everyone we’ve met, including Kazuma, have been cryptic so far.

Raabe For now, I would be wary of our allies.

Ciel Just like Fuzzy-san said, the scenery has changed.

Ciel If he’s to be believed, one of the keys... the elements, should be here.

Kazuma At first glance, nothing seems particularly suspicious.

Kazuma Since this place is so big, should we split up to look for it?

Hazama We still don’t know what these elements are supposed to look like. Splitting up would probably be unwise.

Hazama It would be nice if it turned out to be something simple like an actual key but... I doubt things will end up being that easy.

Raabe I agree. For all we know, it might not even be visible.

Hazama I do so hope he didn’t forget to let slip that these “keys” are potentially dangerous.

Ciel Kagami-san once called this sort of thing a “flag.”

Raabe Hey, don’t just say that. You’ll end up making it come true.

Kazuma .........

Hazama Kazuma-san? You’ve had this distressed look on your face ever since earlier. Is something bothering you?

Kazuma Aah, no, that’s not it. I’ve just had a lot to think about.

Hazama That’s understandable. All of this happened out of nowhere, after all.

Hazama I can see how you’d be overwhelmed.

Hazama We’ve all gotten caught up in this awful situation.

Kazuma Haha, you’ve got a point...

Hazama Does this sort of bizarre thing happen to you guys often?

Hazama You’ve remained very composed this whole time, analyzing things, and you seemed accustomed to combat as well.

Raabe How observant of you. Where did you cultivate such a discerning eye?

Raabe You had said before that you were skilled at infiltration and reconnaissance. What sort of work do you do?

Hazama Aw, now that’s not very fair. I’ve forgotten everything about myself. What I can remember is vague at best.

Hazama I told you earlier. I just have a feeling that I would be good at investigation. There’s really no deeper meaning to it.

Hazama It’s nothing more than an educated guess.

Raabe Is that so. Well let me tell you something you may have forgotten then. It’s hardest to trust those who speak the loudest. You would do well to remember that one.

Hazama Ahaha... So harsh.

Ciel ...!

Ciel I’m picking up a biological reaction! It’s coming closer--!

[gunshot]

Hazama Gyaaeehh!

Ciel That was an interesting scream.

Hazama I don’t care about that right now! Did you not see me almost get shot to death!?

Raabe You’re still alive, aren’t you? Ciel, where is the enemy located?

Ciel In front of us, at 12 ‘o clock!

[enter Noel]

Ciel Noel-san?

Ciel What are you doing here, Noel-san... Were you brought here, just like us?

Noel Who are you? Why do you know who I am?

Raabe This doesn’t seem to be like Kazuma’s case.

Raabe No, wait... this reaction...

Raabe I figured it out. This is the element. Noel Vermillion possesses the element of fire.

Ciel Why would Noel have one of the keys Fuzzy-san was talking about?

Raabe It feels like she has more than just possessing it.

Raabe Rather than being Noel Vermillion herself, the element may have overwritten Noel’s very existence here.

Noel Excuse me, but if you have nothing to do with me would you please stand down? I have business with Hazama-san.

Hazama Eh? Me? With me? Uh, now hold on just a minute.

Hazama I’m very sorry but I have no idea who you are. ...Then again, perhaps I should know who you are.

Hazama Yes, could you please tell me? What is my relationship with you?

Noel How dare you say such a thing...!

Noel How could you have already forgotten what you did to me and my friend!

Raabe She’s not being very reasonable. What did you do?

Hazama How am I supposed to know!? I wanna know just as much as you do!

Hazama Uh, Miss... Noel, was it? I think you may have mistaken me for someone else...

Noel I’m NOT mistaken!

Hazama Even if you say that... I really don’t remember anything so I don’t know what you expect me to do...

Kazuma Since she’s already so angry, why don’t you just go ahead and apologize for now?

Ciel I’ve heard that it’s always important to apologize.

Hazama I don’t really understand the point of apologizing for something I don’t remember doing but... I guess it can’t be helped. Sometimes it’s an adult’s job to take the high road...

Hazama Um, Noel-san, correct?

Hazama I offer my sincerest apologies. I must have hurt you deeply.

Hazama It’s regrettable that I don’t know who you are, but from the bottom of my heart I apologize.

Noel There’s no emotion in your words... they have no meaning.

Noel Were you even going to apologize in the first place!? No, you can’t just apologize and expect me to forgive you.

Noel I must defeat you...! You’re my enemy!

Hazama Uh, wait, isn’t this going a little differently than expected? I apologized and now things have gotten worse!

Hazama At any rate, would you mind putting the guns down? They’re scaring me.

Ciel Noel-san’s battle level is increasing and she’s getting more hostile by the second.

Hazama You think I can’t see that!?

Noel Don’t bother trying to resist!

[gunshot]

Hazama Aaaiiii!

Noel I will never forgive you!

[gunshot]

Hazama W-Wait a second! Surely we can talk this out!

Noel Talk... there’s nothing here that needs to be talked about...!

[gunshot]

Hazama Owaah--!?

Kazuma Do you think he’ll be okay...?

Hazama Do I look okay to you!? I don’t get along well with people like this!

Hazama This girl is a fire type, right? I’m a dark type. Fundamentally we just aren’t compatible.

Hazama You understand, don’t you, Kazuma-san? Since you’re a wind type you’re also no good at this kind of thing, right?

Kazuma Eh? Me? I... that’s...

Hazama Ohhhhh this is bad!

Hazama I leave this up to you guys!

>What!? Hazama Don’t give me that look! Surely you knew something like this would happen eventually.

>Even if you leave it to us... Hazama You guys are my only hope! I’m counting on you!

Hazama That’s it, Ciel-san should know how to handle this, right?

Hazama She’s a light type, after all.

Noel What are you whispering about...!

Noel You there! Please hand over Hazama-san quietly!

Noel Otherwise, I will have to use force...!

[gunshot x3]

Raabe Oh dear. It would appear that there’s no use trying to talk things out.

Raabe I guess it’s unavoidable. Ciel, Rei, prepare for battle.

Ciel Roger! Initiating elimination of target.

[static]

Raabe ...she disappeared?

Ciel Noel’s reaction is no longer within range. However, in her place is...

[a sphere with the fire symbol appears]

Kazuma That’s... a mass of mana, isn’t it? That’s the feeling I’m getting from it.

Kazuma I can feel it radiating the power of fire.

Hazama Perhaps this is the fire elemental key.

Fuzzy Ding ding ding! You’re absolutely correct!

[enter Fuzzy]

Raabe You were watching us from somewhere. You’re timing is too perfect.

Fuzzy Hm? Whatever could you be talking about?

Fuzzy Rather than that, aren’t you more interested in where the next key is? Aren’t you?

Kazuma I don’t think...

Fuzzy Aren’t you curious? You are, right?

Fuzzy I’ll tell you about it. There’s a building down at the end of this road – the rooftop is your next stop.

Raabe Once again you are awful with giving directions... So we’ll find the next element if we head there?

Fuzzy Probably. I think so anyway.

Raabe You think so... Take a little responsibility for your words.

Fuzzy Ahaha, you’re funny. I’m plenty responsible.

Fuzzy I hope you manage to get the next one too. If I feel like it, I might even come watch again. Alright?

Fuzzy Well, good luck getting there!

[Fuzzy leaves]

Kazuma So... should we start heading that way?

Hazama We should do that. We can’t expect to make any progress if we just stand here.

Hazama I wonder which elemental key we’ll find next?

#blazblue #blazblue alternative dark war #bb:dw #hazama #translations

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disappearinginq · 4 years

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for the writers ask thing: (3) What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway) AND (6) What character do you have the most fun writing?

Hilariously, the first one is a Prodigal Son scene between the team (specifically JT) and I just wanted a...merger? scene between beginning season JT & Malcolm, where they just like to harass one another, to basically an embodiment of the Kink!Tomato explanation. I like that they’re not cozy with each other, but they go from purposefully hurtful banter to just off beat teasing, and I had a scene where that was spelled out. I wonder if I can find it...or possibly actually getting around to writing the fic that i wrote three lines of dialogue for when @rohanrider3 gave me a prompt for it. As for most fun -ooo. Hmm. Snarky ones. And family relations. I think one of my favorite things to write was between Bellamy and Kane for Left Behind, despite not watching the show for years now, and that fic sits languishing in writing purgatory.

And I really, really love to write unexpectedly smart/badass characters (or make canon characters into unexpectedly smart/badass characters, because no one can prove I’m wrong). Edit: FOUND THE PRODIGAL SON THING.

“No, JT, really, I want to know,” Malcolm snapped, holding his hand out – steadier than JT could remember ever seeing it – jabbing accusatorily at him. “What exactly was I supposed to do? Hmm? If you know, I’d love to hear it, because I haven’t got a fucking clue. I’m a bit of an outlier, you see – people aren’t good with things they can’t categorize. They want to stuff you in a box whether you fit or not, and I’m guessing as a Hispanic male combat veteran, there’s a couple boxes people like to tick off for you, right? Suicidal. PTSD. Temper problems. Into drugs and alcohol. Anyone ever tell you you’re a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off?”

JT didn’t answer – it was rhetorical and both of them knew it. Veterans today had a rate of suicide comparable to WWII, and instead of trying to curb the trend by digging deeper to find out why, Washington just swept it under the rug – denied treatment, refused disability claims, shoved people out on the street like Monday morning garbage. The only time people cared enough to even Google the statistics were November 11th and the last Monday in May.

“Oh look,” Malcolm barreled on. “Finally, something we have in common. We don’t like it when people try to shove us in boxes to make us something we’re not. But you know what? You’re at least not alone. You can feel it, and it can seem it, but you’re not – one point three million people in our military, odds are at least one of them feels like you. Can understand what you’ve been through, why you are the way you are. Wanna know how many serial killers had kids? Huh?”

Malcolm’s pointed finger became a splay of five.

“Five. In the last half century, with their kids still alive today – five. Six kids total. Ted Bundy’s daughter has vanished so completely not even the FBI knows who or where she is. Dennis Rader’s kids? His daughter fucking wrote him a letter forgiving him for what he did and that she ‘hoped to see him in Heaven one day’ and that she still loved him, and her brother told the newspapers that despite killing ten people in utterly horrific ways, he was a good dad. And nobody comes close to the Surgeon’s body count – maybe the ones he was convicted for, but not what he’s suspected of.”

“Look, Bright, I – ” JT tried to cut in. Bright’s glare stopped him midsentence.

“No, no, no, no, you don’t get to derail this train now,” Malcolm snapped. “Not when you’re the one who keeps looking at me like I’m only one conviction away from being Martin Whitly’s sequel because I’m good at my job. And you know what, literally anyone else who is a profiler, or a criminal psychologist, or even a forensic psychologist is supposed to try and interpret the criminal mind, but I don’t see you avoiding Dr. Tanaka. My father was the monster, not me. I was fucking ten years old when I turned him in. All the other Serial Killer Kids were adults when the police found out their fathers were killers, but I don’t see the FBI keeping tabs on them, waiting for them to pick up where Dear Old Dad left off. So why me? Because I annoy you? Because it bothers you that because I can’t solve my own problems, I try to solve others? I have twenty three lives that were cut short because of the Surgeon that I have to make up for, and yeah, there’s only so many ways I can atone for my father’s sins.”

JT wasn’t the only one who noticed the change in Malcolm’s voice as he almost choked on the word father in relation to Martin, his already pale features turning slightly green at the mention of being related to the Surgeon.

“Since you seem to have all the answers, why don’t you clue the rest of us in? Hmm?” Malcolm threw his hands wide to encompass the whole room. “What should I be doing that would make you believe that I am not my father’s son?”

Dani shifted in her chair, looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here, but gave him a side-eyed glare that clearly stated she was actually on Bright’s side for this one. Gil hadn’t said a word the entire argument, but then, if he’d known Malcolm since the day he’d turned in Martin, then he’d probably heard it more than once.

Malcolm must’ve said it more than once, because that was a lot of statistics to rattle off that fast.

JT sighed, picking up a pen and tapping it against the notepad just to have something to do with his hands as he met Malcolm’s eyes.

“It’s not what you think,” JT said. “It…” he considered his next words, weighing the sound of them in his head before he said them aloud. “I think you’re so good at this, it’s killing you.”

Whatever response Malcolm had braced himself for – because that’s exactly what he was doing, keeping his hands firmly over his chest, hunching slightly like he was expecting a physical blow – that wasn’t it. The kid’s eyebrows almost shot into his hairline before they narrowed back in suspicion, and JT couldn’t really blame him.

“I knew these guys – combat guys, all of them. Saw some serious shit over in Syria. Afghanistan. Iraq. You name the shit storm, they were in it, boots on the ground. They didn’t fare much better than you. Nightmares. Depression. The twitchy hands. The mania. The insomnia. Insisting they were fine.” He absently let the pen in his hand doodle across the notepad, and he watched as Malcolm’s gaze couldn’t help but flicker towards the movement more than keep JT’s gaze. “Hyper vigilant. Some of them saw counselors, but you know how that goes…seeing them doesn’t mean they followed their advice. Sometimes it’s just a band aid on a bullet hole. A couple of them got jobs where they thought they could do some good – use those skills, those…habits, at work. Thought it gave them an edge. Kept them vigilant.”

JT clicked the pen, putting it down as he leaned forwards, his elbows on the table, interlocking his fingers as he caught Malcolm’s piercing gaze. “It burned them out. One put a gun in his mouth Christmas Eve in his basement while his kids were asleep upstairs. The other one stepped in front of train during the morning commute. The other one gave himself a heart attack – he’s the one that lived. And you may not believe me, Bright, but I don’t want that to be you on the evening news. You may be good at this job, but I think it’s bad for you. Trying to make up for things you had no control over, keeping some tally in that head of yours of if the life you saved is equal to the one he took. That’s not healthy, and if your stupid habit of haring off after murderers without backup doesn’t kill you, then this life will. I don’t think you’re anything like the Surgeon, because if you were, this wouldn’t bother you at all, instead of eating you alive from the inside out.”

The room was quiet enough you could hear a pin drop.

Dani shot him her half smile reserved for special occasions and people she particularly approved of. Gil’s expression was still hidden by his hand over his mouth, but JT realized he wasn’t looking at him – probably hadn’t been for most of the conversation.

He was watching Malcolm.

Malcolm who was completely silent.

He didn’t think Bright did silent. He pretty much non-stop jabbered on, even when he wasn’t supposed to. Perhaps even especially when he wasn’t supposed to.

And now that piercing blue stare was levelled straight at him, and JT fought the urge to fidget under the intensity of it.

Malcolm’s eyes widened slightly, a funny little gasp that would’ve made more sense coming from someone who’d just had ice water dumped down their back passing between suddenly parted lips as he pulled his head back as if physically slapped. “You’re…not lying.”

JT frowned, glancing over at Gil who was still zeroed in on Malcolm. The older man hadn’t decided if this was good or bad, which put JT even more on edge.

“No, I’m not lying. Why would I lie about something like that?” He tried to catch Gil’s attention without getting even more of Malcolm’s, but the older detective ignored him.

#asks answered #games we play #prodigal son #prodigal son fic #sort of #one day maybe #malcolm bright #jt tarmel

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cienie-isengardu · 5 years

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MK11 INTROS - ERRON & KUAI LIANG

Comparing character banters of newest and previous game, I feel like somehow in the time gap between X and 11, the relationship between Erron and Grandmaster of Lin Kuei improved.

In MKX, Erron wasn’t that much familiar with Sub-Zero’s powers:

Sub-Zero: You...

Erron Black: All this snow your doing?

Sub-Zero: I use my abilities more aggressively.

Now, when facing cryomancer, he is like:

Erron: Should have brought my parka.

Sub-Zero: Can you aim while shivering?

Erron: These hands don't tremble.

As much as it’s hard to tell how seriously should be taken intro dialogues, I think Kuai Liang does not treat Black’s words as an insult or simply ignore the sarcasm and maybe he is just genuine(?) curious if Erron is capable of aiming (fighting) without any additional protection from cold…what sounds pretty nice, in contrast to some banters.

Frankly, Erron’s general view of Sub-Zero changed in a visible way. From arrogantly claiming bullets are better than “snowballs”

Erron Black: You're an easy target.

Sub-Zero: As are you.

Erron Black: Bullets beat snowballs any day

his current reaction to facing in fight Sub-Zero is:

Erron: Ugh. Not this fight again.

Sub-Zero: You would prefer someone's else?

Erron: Hell, I'd fight a goddamned space cowboy.

So, I assume, Erron does not have the best memories of their fight in forest, when Lin Kuei saved New Gen and defeated Kotal’s army. We don’t know if those two actually faced in duel that day but the cowboy’s whole response is pretty hilarious in itself. Even more, since Erron rarely admits that he would rather not fight someone and up until now he showed little fear (or respect) towards gods, emperor(s) and other hard-to-kill and overpowered beings. Yet with Sub-Zero? Not this fight again. Also, if he had a chance to choose, he would prefer to duel the space cowboy than facing Kuai Liang. What only adds to the hilarious aspect, because as far as I’m familiar with Black, he is quite “sensitive” to any mockery of cowboy/Old West traditions and space cowboy sounds more like some silly Cage’s role than something pleasing Black’s sense of aesthetics.

Generally, Erron is not person to back down from challenge, especially not when there is nice amount of money involved (and from the wanted posters we known Sub-Zero is worth 5.000.000 which is one of the highest prices) and yet even such money aren’t that motivating. Either Erron is aware he is most likely going to lost or he isn’t interested in attacking Kuai Liang thus is not happy to be approached/challenged by Lin Kuei Grandmaster when for once he minded his own business.

Kuai Liang’s view of Erron changed as well.

In MKX, Sub-Zero accused Erron for betrayal of their native realm

Sub-Zero: You betrayed your realm.

Erron Black: I followed the money.

Sub-Zero: You have followed it to your doom.

but now is asking for reason he is not fighting for Earth rather than judging him for that:

Sub-Zero: Why not fight for Earthrealm?

Erron: Drinks are stronger in Outworld.

Sub-Zero: A fool and his vice are soon departed.

First thing to note: Sub-Zero dropped the malicious tone seen in previous game - doom is tied more closely to being destroyed or killed than being departed. In second banter, Kuai Liang is gonna kick Erron back to Outworld, yes, but he does not threaten his life like before.

Interestingly, Erron’s answer is more witty this time than the previous one about doing it for money alone. Black admitted on few occasion he feels better in Outworld than in his native realm (and having fun is as much important as being paid well, it seems?). Back then he went for “nothing personal, just business” attitude and now he is telling Kuai Liang about thing(s) he enjoy and/or his preference. Does Kuai Liang believe him or not, is another matter but whatever if Erron’s comeback was serious or not (what is not easy to determine), still, in newest game Erron is much more open about himself than he was in MKX, to the point he told Cassie about his mother for no real reason beside that he thought mentioned mom would like her. Erron’s childhood most likely was not the happiest but I will address that in regard to Sub-Zero soon. For now, let’s note Erron right now is more at easy and dropped the “profesional act” in favor of witty comeback, the same as Kuai Liang is less likely to threaten his life.

Another thing to talk is this intro:

Sub-Zero: Guns are dishonorable weapons.

Erron Black: Rather be deadly than honorable.

Sub-Zero: Such folly will haunt you.

Kuai Liang, like some other characters, does not hold guns in high regards - this of course is a bit weird, considering fact that many of his closest allies (friends) use or were using guns at some point and there is no indication he despises them for that. It may be just Lin Kuei upbringing mixed with Mortal Kombat traditions in which people fight hand-to-hand, relying on their natural abilities and hard-earned skills.

Still, Kuai Liang is diplomatic here - he states his opinion on guns while not insulting Erron, like MKX!Reptile (“Only cowardss use firearmss!”) or MK11!Liu Kang (“Only cowards hide behind guns”) do. Frankly, even then Sub-Zero does not ridicule Erron’s guns as something trivial or non-threatening, like Tremor (“I laugh at your weapons.”) and Shinnok (“Weapons will prove ineffective.”) or MKX!Hanzo (“Mere firearms cannot stop me.”) did.

Black’s response is interesting on its own, because usually in such situations he was angered and his words carried a threat (“Gonna regret saying that.”, “Bad idea to insult me…”) yet this time he simply admits his preference to be deadly (alive) than honorable. What is more personal information than an actual taking offense.

Kuai Liang’s comeback may be seen as sort of insult; as in Erron is a fool but I rather see this as statement coming from Sub-Zero’s own life experiences. He (like Bi-Han and all Lin Kuei?) was once like Black; more concerned with being deadly than about honor. He was assassin, killing for money was what he did. But he died and went to Netherrealm and this place is a true hell. Sins do not go unpunished - even good people may be corrupted.. If one does not take care of his own honor (soul), his soul will go straight to the worst place in universe. Kuai Liang went there and he was changed into slave. That’s why I see it more as personal advice coming from experience - a warning that such attitude like Erron’s may come back to bite him some day and he will regret it. What is, again, more personal and polite than most character banters about Erron’s choice of weapons usually are.

Talking about guns, there is another important intro I will dissect into three matters.

Erron: Come for shooting lessons?

Sub-Zero: Are you offering, Erron Black?

Erron: Only to the quick and the brave.

One: the previous banter points out Kuai Liang sees guns as unhonorable weapon. Yet when asked if he came for shooting lessons (lessons?! Plural? Not one time offer then!), there is no bombastic talk how guns are below Lin Kuei or how much he despises them or that Erron is not worth his time. As Grandmaster. Kuai Liang is already top Earthrealm fighter and there is little people could teach him in regard to combat skills. But shooting? Not something Sub-Zero practiced much. New skill, even the less important one, gives a new perspective to improve (perfect) one's self. The strive for perfection is Lin Kuei trait, one Kuai Liang did not give up on. He may be surprised though, because Black is not someone giving his skills for free yet there is no mention of payment.

Even if Erron's offer was saractic (which I doubt, since he said „lessons”), his response is far away from joking or irony. Black is willing to teach (share his skills) which those he deem worthy. Since Erron already asked (thus offered), he sees Kuai Liang as one of the "fastest and brave". What I guess shouldn't surprise at all. Quite a lot of characters consider Sub-Zero to be great warrior to the point even Kotal an (ex)emperor wants him to train Outworld amies („Teach my army, Sub-Zero”).

The respect Erron holds for Kuai Liang is pretty nice, considering the fact he rarely keeps anyone in high regards. Also, Fun Fact: In Injustice 2, when Deadshot talks to Sub-Zero that he "has a bullet with your name on it", Kuai Liang responds "You are no Erron Black". So despite not liking guns, he has Erron’s markship skills in high regard, I guess.

Two: Kuai Liang and Erron Black are one of few characters that show a will to teach AND learns from others. Black already offered free(?) lessons to Sub-Zero and, sort of, asked Hanzo about spear throwing technique:

Erron: Don't s'pose you'd teach me that rope spear.

Scorpion: And divulge Shirai Ryu secrets?

Erron: I can make you share, Scorpion.

Black was quite sure Scorpion will not share clan secrets with him, yet he still showed interest in learning new thing.

Similar, Kuai Liang is known to train various people (New Gen., Special Forces, Frost) to the point Hanzo claims „Training outsiders is Sub-Zero’s passion” yet he is still willing to learn from others. It was seen above with Erron, when cowboy's offert was not turned down. Like Sub-Zero said, „A man's never too old to learn.”

Three: The improvement of Kuai Liang and Erron Black's relationship contrast with the change for worse(?) of Black and Scorpion's intros from MKX to MK11. Hanzo did not have good opinion on Erron in previous game – considered him Outworlder, did not want see any similarities between himself and mercenary. Now Hanzo outright says Shirai Ryu despite Black (not that he cares), that he understand little about his clan or that he has no respect for his own roots. Looking at those, Kuai Liang and Erron really somehow get from enemy to not-really-allies-but-not-despiting-each-other-people. They do not agree on everything, yet there is some respect between them. I guess, Erron works better with Sub-Zero, because the same as cryomancer, he is more cool-headed character than one relying on emotions like Hanzo.

Another intro:

Sub-Zero: Can you fight at close quarters?

Erron: Bet the farm on it, Sub-Zero.

Sub-Zero: You are betting your life

In which Kuai Liang show again interest in Erron's combat skills. It may be a genuine curiosity, or old habit of (ex)assassin to find weakness in opponent. Still, Kuai Liang's response to Black's self-confidence (or arrogance?) sounds more like another „life advice” than MKX!Sub-Zero typical „a serious error in judgment” answer he used to shot down other people's arrogant belief of their chance against him. I mean, Erron must be able to fight hand-to-hand, because Outworld is pretty dangerous place and like Kuai Liang said, he is betting his own life out there. Losing it will be much worse than losing farm (home) or material goods.

Looking how Kotal wish to hire Lin Kuei Grandmaster to train his (Kitana's?) army, one may wonder if Black was involved in negotiations – or more likely – carrying the message from Kahn to Lin Kuei Grandmaster and thus had a chance for some personal training / sparring with Sub-Zero.

Another interesting matter are things Kuai Liang and Erron have in common. I already mentioned their similar will to share knowledge (skills) and learning from others – quite rare trait in MK characters of Old Generation.

The other thing is lack of respect and faith in gods. What in itself is interesting, because Elder Gods are keep in high regard by Earthrealm (Raiden, Shaolin Monks) and apparently worshipped in Outworld too (not by everyone though, Tarkatans, Nankandas and Kytianns may disagree). Gods have real impact on fate of universe and people, this is fact hard to deny by mortals who took part in the latest events. Yet Kuai Liang and Erron aren’t fazed by gods walking among men. Quite opposite - they demand to learn a reason why they should pray to (or respect) gods:

Sub-Zero: The Lin Kuei do not worship the Elder Gods.

Cetrion: We seek gratitude, not worship.

Sub-Zero: I see no distinction.

Sub-Zero: Why should I pray to you?

Cetrion: Why does a bird flap its wings?

Sub-Zero: I asked a simple question.

and

Erron: And just why I should kneel in your church?

Cetrion: Have faith in your new god, Erron Black.

Erron: Like I take anything on faith.

Erron Black: Time for one of your heavenly lectures?

Raiden: You defy the will of the Elder Gods.

Erron Black: Damn straight.

Since they don’t worship or care much for gods’ will in general, they have some common ground to bond over. Even more when gods are either unhelpful or even harmful to their personal interest (like protecting Earthrealm or getting paid).

On side note, looking at hints about Erron’s past I wonder if his disrespect for faith and god(s) is not tied to the bad childhood he had. I guess, similar lack of respect that Kuai Liang shows from time to time may as well be a result of harsh growing up time Lin Kuei Temple.

Another common thing is that both are relicts of past. Erron is the old-schooled cowboy who wanders in Outworld full of wonderful and weird creatures, the lone Earthrealm looking for money and fun while Kuai Liang is the last of the old Lin Kuei clan, who lost family and friends and now alone faces sins of his clan and try to repair the damage done over the years. As such it is no wonder why they are more loner-type persons who keep their past mostly to themselves. Ironically, they are also the ones that do not avoid politeness.

I think we all may agree that Kuai Liang is one of the most polite (respectful) characters - albeit there is the impression that under politeness, Kuai Liang hides his emotional distance from others. Surprising for a merciless(?) mercenary, Erron shows from time to time his more polite nature - even if at times it sounds more ironic than anything else. It was especially seen in MKX intros, when he addressed Scorpion as Mr. Hasashi or Takeda as Mr. Takahashi or Kung Lao as Mr. Kung and even sometimes respectfully called Sonya or Cassie by their military rank rather than his standard “flirting”. MK11 has glimpses of this too (Erron Black: Hola, Mrs. Blade Cage. Sonya: Not that Sonya, asshole. Erron Black: Ain't you the sweet talker.) but it seems Erron is for most of time done with even pretending he cares about other people’s opinions about him. Still, he does not “skip” the introduction before fight. Which may be how he get somehow on better term with Kuai Liang despite all the bad stuff happening between Outworld and Earthrealm:

Sub-Zero: You approach me as a foe.

Erron Black: Depends on who's asking.

Sub-Zero': Allow me to introduce myself.

As much as Erron like to flirt with women (what is rarely, if even, welcomed by any female character), he has rocky relationship with pretty much all men. Shao Kahn is angry at Black cause he is not working for him and chose Kotal over Mileena. Jax sees him as scumbag with no code. Kano did not forget Erron left Black Dragons, while Raiden sees Erron as unworthy and in the service of evil. Johnny’s childish(?) attitude and jokes about westerns / cowboys do not amuse Black at all. Kollector has personal (death of brother) and “professional” (serving Shao Kahn) reasons to not like him. Hanzo despises Black and sees him just as thug. Liu Kang calls him coward and implies lack of skills. Noob Saibot is, well, Noob. Kabal and Kung Lao are closer to neutrality than disliking each other with Erron, but there is still vibe of challenging (boasting) or judging.

Even Kotal Kahn - a current boss of Black - faces the possibility that Erron may chose money over loyalty to him (albeit intros vs. Shao Kahn suggest Erron is not interested in killing Kotal on ex-emperor’s request). Hell, Erron is not really nice to his own self and would hurt the other without much guilt. From the amount of men, dialogue banters with Kuai Liang seems closer to politeness than I-see-you-as-a-lesser-man-than-me. Of course, there are matters that those two do not agree upon but at the same time, they don’t insult each other much, especially compared to their MKX intros.

Frankly, Erron complimented Kuai Liang twice.

Once in regard to skills (mentioned “Only to the quick and the brave”) another time about Sub-Zero’s look (uniform):

Erron: That's some outfit.

Sub-Zero: It honors Lin Kuei traditions.

Erron: Time to let past die.

Firstly, the amount of men that were complimented by Erron is really, really small. The other male character to hear anything nice is Kung Lao, both in MKX (“I like the hat.”) and MK11 (“One hat man to another, cool hat.”). Even if I’m reading wrongly Erron’s words, he rarely comments people’s choice (style) of clothing. Yet there is something in Kuai Liang’s uniform that catches his attention.

Secondly, since Erron is tied to Shang Tsung who himself had strong ties to Lin Kuei, I wonder if Black had a chance at some point if not meet Bi-Han, then at least saw or heard about him. He was after all mercenary working for sorcerer for like hundred years and later, he worked closely with Syzoth/Reptile, an another associate of Shang Tsung that also was present at Mortal Kombat Tournament that could provide some useful data about elder Sub-Zero. My feeling is that, Erron recognizes the true meaning of Kuai Liang’s uniform that not only honoring Lin Kuei traditions but his brother as well.

What may be a reason why Black’s final words are about letting past die. To move on. I mean, Kuai Liang reformed the clan and push Lin Kuei into more selfless direction as protectors of Earthrealm. Something that Kotal and his warriors (including Erron) had a chance to see for themselves during fight in forest (MKX). So what kind of traditions Sub-Zero could means? It’s not the assassin aspect to honor, because he changed that himself. Maybe it’s just the nature of clan, the strive for perfection and self-improvement - but then there is little reason for Erron to talk about putting the past in rest.

If the uniform is connected to Kuai Liang’s love/respect for fallen brother - who right now is an evil Wraith - Erron’s words sound like good life advice. I already talked how his own childhood was most likely awful, so I guess, Black himself came to term with his dark past (abuse) with passing time. To the point he is willing to tell Cassie about his mother - and other “tough women” he grew up around. Erron’s final words (“I hated Ma”) suggest it was something he used to do, but now may be not driven by such strong, negative emotion. In a way, Erron - by telling Sub-Zero to not “honor” past - may try tell him to stop hurting himself for something (someone) that brought so much pain to him. To let past die and focus on what is now, the same way Black did leave his own past (as in: the abusive family) behind him. Or may be not and it’s just me over-analyzing stuff again.

In short, I think Kuai Liang and Erron’s relationship improved over the years, from enemies who met on battlefield in fight Erron (and his boss) lost to something more on positive scale. Not friends, most likely not allies, but not men who despite each other either. I guess, put them together in one room and they will not try murder each other (like Kano with any member of Blade-Briggs-Cage family) or waste time insulting or annoying each other. They actually seems like people capable of holding polite and/or more personal(?) conversation or just use time to learn something from the other. Hell, maybe even have a nice drink and just spend time in more productive ways (learning, sparring) than looking for a mortal kombat-type of fight. Just two men chill enough to behave around each other like normal (or as much normal one can be in MK universe) adult people.

#mortal kombat #erron black #sub zero #kuai liang #mortal kombat 11 #mortal kombat x #bi han #my meta #my analysis #mortal kombat 11 intros #seriously i was going to write much shorter (lighter) meta #but nope #erron and kuai drag me into hell #of over analysing everything too much #on another hand i really can see them chilling together with good drink #and maybe bitching on elder gods and idiots that try ruin everything once again #or maybe working sort of together if sub zero will ever agree to train outworld warriors for some reasons

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owlaholic68 · 6 years

Text

OC as companion: Fallout 2 - Carla

Find the FNV template here (not mine). Find blank FO2 template here (mine).

Basic info:

Name: Carla

Race: Human, mixed Mexican/Japanese

Gender: Female

Affiliation: the Wright family in New Reno

Role: Assistant at the Jungle Gym, prizefighter

Location: New Reno, Jungle Gym

Base SPECIAL: 9S 6P 3E 7C 5I 8A 3L

Tagged/Notable skills: Unarmed, Lockpick, Small Guns

Perks: Slayer, Bonus Move

Talking Head Y/N: Yes

Default Inventory: Leather armor, powerfist (requires ammo)

Carla is Stuart Little’s assistant at the Jungle Gym, and a renowned prizefighter. She is the final fight before the Masticator, and poses a significant threat because of her Unarmed damage. Beating her is necessary to gain the Prizefighter title. She has a good reaction to PC with Karma +100 and Wright Made Men, and has a bad reaction to Childkillers, Slavers, and Karma -100 (and will not join these characters).

In order to recruit her, one must defeat her in the ring or pass a relatively medium-level Speech check. She will join low-intelligence PC. If recruited but not defeated, a generic fighter will replace her slot in the “Become a Prizefighter” quest. She will join a PC despite any negative New Reno Reputation.

Initial Description: You see a tall muscular woman with two long braids. She looks tough.

Description after becoming a companion: You see Carla, prizefighter representing the Wright family. She bounces from foot to foot, anxiously looking at her surroundings and flexing her hands.

Comments and Floats:

Floats:

Fear/Defeat: Let’s not try that again.

Victory: Nothing we couldn’t handle!

Use Lockpick skill (Success)(optional): And there! Got it!

Use Lockpick skill (Failure)(optional): This nut’s too tough to crack.

Injured: Could use some help here

Relating to another companion:

(Marcus) You look like you know how to throw a punch, big guy!

(Lenny) You doing okay, Len?

(Myron) Just stay out of my way and you won’t get hurt. Battle’s no place for someone like you.

(Goris) So a deathclaw, huh? Interesting.

(Cassidy) You watch where you’re pointing that thing!

Relating to scenery/location:

(Vault City) A bunch of stuck-up assholes, if you ask me.

(Gecko) We’d better not cause trouble here, these folks seem friendly.

(New Reno)

Ah, the sweet smell of vice and drugs. Now I remembered why I only tolerated this place.

Can we stop by the Wright’s place? Keith and I need to catch up.

Maybe I should check in on Stuart, see if he wants me back in the ring.

(Chinatown) Wow, the Golden Gate Bridge looks even cooler in person. Wait, what’s parked on it?

(Hubologist bunker) *shivers* These freako cultists give me the creeps.

I don’t like this place: We’d better watch our backs here. This place gives me the creeps. Maybe we should make this visit quick.

Level up: I feel like my skills have really grown. Travelling with you is doing wonders for me!

Waiting: (humming a tune) You done yet?

Misc floats:

Nice decor.

My feet hurt. Sorry, I don’t like complaining. But seriously, I think my callouses are becoming new toes.

(PC passes a Barter check) Good. Always save money when you can.

(PC murders an innocent or steals) Whoa, what are you doing? Let’s keep this cool!

Hey, a dog! Here, boy!

Comments/Dialogue:

Standard Greeting: What’s up? What’s our next plan?

Reaction to Low Intelligence PC: I’d better watch your back, make sure no one tries to take advantage of you. You seem nice.

Crippled: *pained gasp* This is going to take more than a stimpack. We’d better find help, and quick.

After healing: Thanks. I’m ready to get back in the ring!

Put your weapon away: Good idea. Don’t want people to get the wrong idea about us.

Open inventory: Good idea. We should always know what we’re working with.

Stay close to me (CLOSE): I’ll watch your corners and you watch mine, got it?

Don’t get too far away (MEDIUM): Whatever you want. Sounds good.

We should spread out a bit (LONG): Gives me more room to maneuver.

I need you to wait here until I come back: Okay, but don’t take too long. You never know what could happen when you’re alone.

Rejoin: Just let me grab my stuff and I’ll be ready to hit the road!

Rejoin, PC doesn’t have necessary requirements (optional): Listen, you’ve changed, and I don’t think I want to be seen with you, okay?

Rejoin (over party limit): Too many people, and enemies will see us coming from miles away. How about you free up some space in your team and then come see me?

I had some other questions: Ask away. You’re full of curiosity.

Leaving/Disbanding: I can’t stand by you anymore. I’m leaving. This isn’t what I intended when I decided to come with you.

Trivia and Additional Info:

Because of her extra move points, Carla can sometimes accidentally move into other NPC (or the PC)’s line of fire, therefore risking damage. She dislikes chems, and will not use any if in her inventory. She can be asked to use her Lockpick skill, often to great success. She can also offer +5 to the Unarmed and Small Guns skill while at the Jungle Gym. This will take two hours of in-game time.

New Reno NPCs have positive reactions to her, recognizing her as a local celebrity. Wright family-associated NPCs will also have positive reactions, as she is an honorary member of their family.

She also has a unique sprite with long black hair.

Best weapons/armor:

Carla performs best with Unarmed weapons and Small Guns (pistols, etc). To optimize her efficiency in combat, she should be given the .223 pistol or the Gauss pistol. One can also get a Mega Powerfist, which she will do devastating amounts of damage with. Be aware that because of her low Luck, she will rarely land critical hits with guns. But because of her Slayer perk, she will always land critical hits with Unarmed attacks.

She does not have animation for big guns (Minigun, pulse rifle, etc) and therefore cannot use them. However, because of her high strength, she is proficient with a great array of weapons. It is not recommended that she be given grenades, as she has an awful Throwing skill and will likely end up killing everyone in your party.

She can be equipped with Power Armor, though because of her high Strength stat, this would be wasted on her. However, because of her low Endurance, some armor is STRONGLY recommended.

Ending:

After the destruction of the Oil Rig, Carla returned to Arroyo with the Chosen One, helping rebuilding efforts. However, about five years later, she decided to leave Arroyo and travel east in search of adventure. The Chosen One would occasionally receive letters from her, telling of exploits and challenges, and would always consider her to be a close friend.

#fallout #fallout 2 #fo2 #oc as companions #oc development #chosen one carla

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kestrelsansjesses · 7 years

Text

Unexpected Reunions

[Summary: Tiran Kandros insists that Wren Ryder takes him to Kadara, to witness the final showdown between Sloane Kelly and the Charlatan. Expecting to confront Sloane directly, he's instead startled to find he changes the course of the battle entirely. All Kelly/Kandros background is taken from the Uprising novel and is canon. Did he have a thing going on with her? The world may never know, but what happens next for Ryder and Kandros?As always, comments welcome and encouraged! Can be read as a standalone or as chapter 8 of ‘New Galaxy, Same Old Thirst’ which can be found on my AO3, linked above, or the previous chapter here.

Kandros x Ryder]

Kadara stank of rotten eggs, appropriate given the situation that Wren Ryder and Kandros had found themselves in. “Sloane won’t like you coming with,” was all she told him, but she had let him board the Tempest, and let him share her room as they traveled to the planet, not saying much else; there wasn’t anything to say. They knew the risks, but as far as Kandros was concerned, Sloane was still a matter of Nexus security, and what happened on Kadara could change everything. Whether the change would be for the better or for the worse remained to be seen.

Now they rode in the Nomad together, Ryder’s fingers tight around the wheel as she maneuvered up and down hills, trying to not do a shitty job of driving. “Please try not to kill us, Ryder,” Kandros said, holding on to a sidebar put there for that express purpose. Well, the key word there had been ‘trying.’

Despite Ryder’s questionable driving skills, they arrived at their meeting spot on time, though neither got out of the vehicle just yet. “What was she like? Before this, I mean.” It was Ryder who broke the silence, Kandros staring straight ahead out the windscreen, trying to see any human figures near the cave entrance.

“A good leader. Capable. There was a lot about Sloane to admire.” And maybe more than admire, if Kandros’ tone was anything to go off of. Ryder didn’t push any further, though whether it was for her sake or his, she didn’t know. “It’s hard to believe she would fall to this. She is- was- a helluva woman.” With that, Kandros opened the door to the Nomad and stepped out, unfolding his body and stretching out his neck. Ryder followed silently, eventually overtaking him to walk in front, trying to put her body as a shield between Kandros and Sloane’s figure, becoming larger as they walked slightly uphill.

Focused completely on the mission, Sloane didn’t seem to notice Kandros at first, her eyes snapping to Ryder as she said, “Took your sweet time.” Then she seemed to realize that Kandros was not Vetra, and her frown only deepened, arms dropping from being across her chest so that one hand could rest on the holster of her pistol. “What the hell is he doing here, Ryder? I don’t recall telling you that you could invite… guests.”

Stuck between the two of them, Ryder felt largely ignored and strangely small, but she stood her ground. “Don’t you think you owe Kandros an explanation, Sloane? He-”

“Can speak for himself,” Kandros finished. “I had to see what kind of… paradise Sloane Kelly left us for. Glad to see you made so much of yourself after betraying the Initiative.” Every word dripped with disdain, but he didn’t even bother to reach for his own gun. One corner of his mandibles twitched, something in the movement like a pulsing vein in the forehead, or like a quivering mouth corner.

“I don’t have time for this macho bullshit. Come on, Ryder. Let’s get this over with.” Whatever confrontation Kandros had expected, it wasn’t this. Sloane turned her back on him entirely, the conversation apparently over. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then shook his head. Later. There would be time for it after, even if Kandros had to force it at the end of a gun.

The three of them entered the darkness of the cave, a single, broad ray of light illuminating a cluster of rocks like they were a stage. It was suitably overdramatic, sending Ryder’s mind into overdrive. There was something to be said for going with another woman to take revenge on something done to her turian lover and if Sloane had been more likable, perhaps Ryder would have actually offered some comfort, or at least tried to. Kaetus wasn’t there, though she had little doubt that he would have been if he hadn’t been hospital-bound.

“You look like you’re waiting for someone.” A voice from above and a body from the shadows, turning into a familiar form. Reyes Vidal. Not a complete idiot, Ryder had her suspicions from the start- people gravitated to Reyes. He was well-known, and seemed to have pull that no ostensibly ordinary man on Kadara should have. He was a friend, of a sorts, close enough that she thought he would have said something. Apparently not. She looked behind her, but Kandros only looked puzzled. Reyes would be nothing but a name on reports to him, the situation escalating out of his control, a rapid dialogue between Ryder, Sloane, and Reyes that named people and situations he would have never heard about. It was hardly the reunion with Sloane that Kandros wanted, but there was no space for him to step in.

Reyes dropped down, sending motes of dust swirling into the soft sunlight. “A duel. You and me. Right now. Winner takes Kadara Port.”

“I’ll take those terms.” Kelly spat into the dirt at her feet.

Kandros grabbed Ryder’s shoulder, pulling her back from the almost gravitational orbit the two now-circling combatants seemed to have. “I can’t stand by and watch this happen, Ryder. Sloane needs to be extradited back to the Nexus and the Charlatan is a possible threat to Nexus security.” His hand on her shoulder was too tight, though he seemed to realize it, lightening his grip fractionally, eyes never straying from the two.

“This is their battle. It’s not just you versus Sloane anymore.” It never had been. The day had spiraled out of even Ryder’s control, meaning they could only watch as Sloane’s hand curled around her gun, a faintly cocky smile gracing Reyes’ face.

Another few tense seconds of watching, and then Kandros leaned into her ear again, breath a tense whisper. “Sniper. He has his sights on Sloane. Ryder, I can’t let them.”

“Kandros, don’t let yourself get shot for this idiotic fight over Kadara,” but he was already moving towards Sloane. Whatever he thought of her, he needed the revenge to be on his terms, and he couldn’t just stand by and watch a woman die. Sloane Kelly, former head of Nexus security. Sloane Kelly, leader of the Outcasts, responsible for deaths back at home, a rebellion that had occurred when Kandros was still lost in the vastness of their new galaxy. He had taken up her title and her mantle, but never easily, and damned if he was going to let her die, not when he still had to ask her why.

Just as the shot rang out, Kandros pulled Sloane backward, the unexpected movement throwing off her center of gravity so that she stumbled. What should have been a gut shot went high instead as Sloane sank downward, hitting her upper chest and rocketing her backward. Blood flooded instant and liberally, coating Kandros’ fingers as he put pressure on it. “Ryder!”

“Kallo, we need immediate medical evac to my coordinates. Tell Lexi to prepare for trauma, gunshot wound.” If they didn’t act quickly, it would be fatal. As it was, there was no way Sloane could run Kadara like this; she would be out of commission for weeks, if not months. If she survived at all.

“Kadara Port is ours tonight.” Evidently, Reyes agreed, already directing his men into movement.

Covered in Sloane’s bed, Ryder shook her head. “Reyes. I can’t say I agreed to any of these tactics. We need to have a discussion, you and I, when this is over.” There was no time for it now; Kandros lifted Sloane’s top half and Ryder took her feet, both jogging, trying not to jostle her. Sloane was already pale, completely unconscious, but the Tempest was descending with the dock lowered, Lexi running out with an emergency trauma kit in hand, Drack and Vetra following closely behind with a stretcher between them.

As gently as she could, Ryder helped Sloane into the stretcher. She would have to radio Kaetus as well, to let him know what had happened. He’d want to be on the Tempest with Sloane, no matter what happened afterwards. One empire was crumbling and another had risen, and though she thought Reyes would do a better job… This was a fucking mess.

Kandros and Ryder were left at the bottom of the ramp, Kandros shaking his head. “This isn’t how I wanted it to go, Ryder. I didn’t want her to die.” He was broken, almost small, and so tired.

“She could still survive. Lexi is the best doctor I know. She’s brought me back at least once.” The attempt at levity missed entirely, Ryder’s false smile fading as soon as it appeared.

Blood-soaked fingers entwined with his, not caring about the mess they made. They were silent for some time, still just standing there. She leaned forward so her head could rest against his armored chest, and he put his head on top of hers, tilting his face downward to rest in her hair, each soft breath sending stray strands floating upward. “She’ll survive, Kandros. Then you can ask her every question you have.”

“Ryder, I’ve managed to decrypt the Meridian files.” Gil’s timing was impeccable.

“I need to be alone. I’ll take the Nomad and take care of Kaetus, bring him back to the ship. Let me talk to him.” Turian on turian, or man on man. Lover on lover? Ryder’s head was pounding and she wanted nothing more than a long shower; there was blood in her hair now, from where she had inadvertently reached upward to straighten something out.

“Kandros, I’m here.” It was all she could offer. It wasn’t enough.

“I know,” he said, and they stood for a moment longer before breaking apart. They both had work to do, miles to go before they could bathe and sleep and rest.

#Tiran Kandros #Ryder #Mass Effect Fanfiction #Kandros x Ryder #Kandros #Ryder x Kandros #Sloane Kelly #Mass Effect: Andromeda #Mass Effect:Andromeda #Andromeda #Andromeda spoilers #me:a #me: a

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impurelight · 6 years

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Watch Dogs 2 - I Used To Be A Hacker Like You Until I Watched Arrow Season 3

I just beat Watch Dogs 2. And it’s fine. It’s not revolutionary like Watch Dogs 1. But it’s not a crappy [open world driving sim ](open world driving sim) with no story like GTA 5. It’s just in between.

So what’s new in Watch Dogs 2, you ask? A few more enemies, one of those ‘alternate view’ things that I hate, a bunch of side missions. But nothing really great. In fact I’d argue Watch Dogs 1 was the better game.

So let’s start with the story. This is the most disappointing aspect of Watch Dogs 2. For most of the game you’re doing these stupid missions that, quite frankly, feel more like expensive illegal pranks on companies. There’s just no staying power.

One mission tasks you to steal a robot? Why? So we can hack it. Why? Because we get followers on our app that basically turns people’s phones into a botnet. Yeah, doesn’t really make sense.

It does get better in the end where you actually feel like you’re doing something good but it’s just too little too late. Even the side missions are better than the main missions until very late into the game.

Also the game is quite frustrating. Not from a technical side, although I encountered many crashes playing the game. Sometimes it’ll play fine but sometimes it’ll crash every 10 minutes. Oh, and the game has it’s own blue screen I think. At least it doesn’t look like the Windows blue screen.

The difficulty is also a bit off. You might have seen Marcus’ flashy jump and his takedown. They’re very nice but they’re too slow. The take down in particular just takes ages to do. You know the one where he uses what everyone calls a yo-yo?

In the time to do one takedown it’s possible for Marcus to go from full health to zero health. Seriously it’s so annoying. You want to do a takedown because it’s fun and flashy but you know if you do one and another enemy is nearby you can die before the takedown is complete. Come on Marcus, why can’t you just stab enemies to death like a normal person?

So this is definitely not a stealth game. I know that the developers said you can play the entire game using stealth but this is incredibly frustrating due to the ‘one person sees you everyone sees you’ effect. Maybe if you used the stun gun the whole way through, but I didn’t do that.

The problem is the enemy ‘tagging’ system. Basically once the enemy sees you you’ll hear something like ‘sending description of the target’ and then your cover is completely blown. And it happens a lot. If you shoot a guy facing away from you? You’re tagged. If a dog sees you? You’re tagged. Seriously. Freaking dogs.

Also enemies have a tendency to respawn. I know right? Weird. Well it only really happens in later missions but it is so annoying. Once the only way to beat a mission was to spam the Jam Coms equivalent in this game and while everyone is stunned by their headsets waltz past them to the mission objective. It’s actually quite funny. But at the same time so so sad.

Couple this with infrequent checkpoints. As in checkpoints at the beginning of a building and maybe one near the end. And you don’t have enough health. Especially as there’s now heavily armoured guys in this game. And those things are cheap. They take like an entire clip to take down and unless you have some distance between you and them you’re going to die. And they’re actually quite common unfortunately. I believe there’s actually 3 enemy types: normal, armoured, and heavily armoured.

So let’s talk about some of the good stuff. This game has some striking similarities to [Far Cry Primal](Far Cry Primal). For one you can pet dogs and, my personal favourite, you can make enemies fight each other.

It’s not like in Primal where you throw a berserk bomb and all the enemies go crazy. But you can call in cops or gang members to arrest or kill your enemies respectively. Just don’t get caught up in the cross fire.

Speaking of the enemies their AI is pretty terrible. Why is it that only Splinter Cell can have remotely realistic AI? Anyways, it’s not always clear why enemies start attacking you. For cops if you hit their car with your car or do anything aggressive at all you’ll be wanted.

I actually once hacked a cop car to veer off a cliff because I was not sure I would be able to overtake it without hitting it. Yeah, so hacking a car to go over a cliff no consequence. Lightly tapping a cop car with your car? Instant wanted ranking.

Apparently the wanted system, oh and BTW gangs also have their own wanted system but it’s even less well implemented than Saint’s Row 3 as in gangs are so incompetent they’ll never send people after you, can activate before anyone sees you. And then when someone sees you they’ll suddenly start attacking you. It’s like they have this mental checklist of people they’re supposed to be attacking and check it every time they see anyone. It’s weird.

And the police in general are much more difficult to lose now. In the original Watch Dogs there were 101 ways to lose the cops such as riding the subway and going out to see. In this game cops are a much bigger problem. For one they’re now out at see. And there’s no reputation in this game so there’s no reason not to mow down waves of officers. In the original you never wanted to actually fight police because it would tank your reputation so hard but I did try once and the police are more aggressive in this game. Especially once armoured police officers start showing up. Well this game is much harder than the original.

Also I like how there’s a lot more music in this game. In the original there were like a few tracks that would just cycle over and over. In this game I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song repeat which is nice.

Well, those are all the good things. Now I guess the new alternate view is worth discussing. It’s just so… unnecessary. Basically when you hit a key you can see any hackable object through walls… and everything turns blue.

I like how it’s focused only on combat. You actually can’t use it while driving. But seriously? You couldn’t think of a better way to identify things to hack? And it’s not like the system from Watch Dogs 1 was broken or anything.

Oh, I should probably mention the hacking is basically the same from 1 except some objects have different options. Like exploding things can now be set for proximity detonation, attract people to them, set them as mines or shut them down temporarily. You can also hack cars and make them move. My new favorite way to kill someone in a video game is hacking a car to drive into them. So fun. The forklifts and ‘rc vehicles’ are a little different though. Instead of having a few canned movements you can control them as if you’re actually driving them (so the WASD keys). And you can’t kill people with them, unfortunately.

Also the cool hacking things you can do in this game? They’re mostly locked behind skills. The one thing I didn’t like about the original Watch Dogs was unless you had the ‘burst pipe’ skill enemy pursuits are incredibly annoying. Unfortunately it looks like all the cool stuff here is once again locked behind upgrades. To add insult to injury now some of the cooler skills need you to find a collectable item to find. Most people are not going to get these items and sadly will not experience the joy that is dropping IEDs from your drone.

So how’s the dialog. It’s OK. I mean the immature stuff doesn’t bother me. Nerdy people are incredibly immature surprisingly so I’m sort of used to it. What bothers me is the tech dialog.

I took a computer security class last term so I know a little about computer security. So I think I’m qualified to say the technical dialogue here is atrocious. Once I heard a character say something like ‘I’ll just set up a man in the middle attack’. And I was like ‘that line tells me absolutely nothing’. I mean it sounds good. A man in the middle attack. Which sounds nice but once you know what that actually is the line makes no sense. There’s no way a hacker would be like ‘How do we hack into this?’ ‘oh, we just do a man in the middle attack’. Well, maybe if your hacker friend wasn’t good socially. Which would be likely… ok, fine. I take that back.

Another really big problem I had is the escape button. When you press it, it gets you out of the conversation. It is also used to get out of pretty much every menu. And unfortunately when you use it to get out of a menu while someone is talking to you over the radio it’ll exit that conversation.

And the mission tracking is terrible. It’ll make one of those pretty paths of arrows on the ground but it’ll only do it for the first part of each mission. If you need to go to more than one place during a mission location, for oh I don’t know, basically every quest in the game no arrow to the destination. Just have to follow a vague minimap that points you in the general direction. But wait, it gets worse. Let’s say you want a trail of arrows to follow. You open your minimap and place a waypoint on your destination. But for some inexplicable reason when you left click the location it takes you to the mission screen. You have to right click it to place a waypoint. Why? Did anyone even test this? It makes no sense and Ubisoft should be ashamed of the lack of quality here.

Finally I’d like to talk about the things the devs promised. Watch Dogs 1, and to a lesser extent every other Ubisoft game, has fallen victim to people disliking it solely because it was marketed at having better graphics/gameplay/whatever than it actually has. I sort of - no actually I don’t care about these kind of complaints. I think it’s just a way for people to justify why they don’t like a game. But this is worth discussing as I have been hyped for this game since it was announced.

I’ve already talked about the stealth. It’s not that great. Or maybe I just suck at it, I don’t know. The devs talked about how the world is unpredictable and how anything can happened. I just saw a lot of people get arrested for no reason. Oh, and people randomly getting mad at me. But I just shoot them and laugh at myself.

And the driving. It’s… OK. In the original Watch Dogs some cars just drove perfectly and some cars just drove terribly. In this game every car is like at 90%. They do what you want them to do but they have this weird thing that happens if you try to turn too sharply. So is this what passes for good driving mechanics these days? Guess so.

In Watch Dogs 2 it feels like the devs actually listened to the fans. And when the fans speak louder than the devs that’s the worst thing that can possibly happen. Fans always want some feature or scenario because it was in Overrated-Open-World-Unlikeable-Protagonist-Game #48 or maybe it was in a good game but porting over a single feature without looking at the game as a whole or considering if that feature even fit. The point is fans are stupid. I remember someone wanting the ending of Life is Strange to go all over the town saving every single person from he tornado. Seriously? Seriously?

I feel like Watch Dogs 2 went down this path as well. Every possible thing you could dislike from Watch Dogs 1 was addressed, well except for the skills grrr. And so Watch Dogs 2 just feels generic. It feels bland. It feels… or it doesn’t feel like Watch Dogs.

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