Sister forum[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Sat Dec 13, 2014 10:22 pm
Though it'd be nice to see an RPG where becoming leader of a faction meant actually leading that faction. Not just getting radial quests and maybe calling in backup from them--you actually manage the logistics and personnel of the faction and are more or less "locked in" from joining lots of other factions.
Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.
Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Whiskey Rebellion Sat Dec 13, 2014 10:27 pm
That reminds me of why I never liked the Dragonborn joining the Legion. With the Stormcloaks, I can understand letting their members wander. But the Legion is a professional military force. DB would get his/her ass handed to him/her if he/she were ever to try that shit in the US Army (the closest modern equivalent to the Roman Legions). It's actually really dumb.Mister Frost wrote:Though it'd be nice to see an RPG where becoming leader of a faction meant actually leading that faction. Not just getting radial quests and maybe calling in backup from them--you actually manage the logistics and personnel of the faction and are more or less "locked in" from joining lots of other factions.
Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Scienza Sun Dec 14, 2014 1:13 am
Inquisition, brah.Mister Frost wrote:Though it'd be nice to see an RPG where becoming leader of a faction meant actually leading that faction. Not just getting radial quests and maybe calling in backup from them--you actually manage the logistics and personnel of the faction and are more or less "locked in" from joining lots of other factions.
Of course, that's just because I loathe the trend in RPGs for the player to end up leading every single faction. A little reminder on why RPG's center around roving nomads and perhaps a few of their friends would be in order, methinks.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Sun Dec 14, 2014 1:53 am
It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats
Again, though. Difficult to code
Again, though. Difficult to code
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by SilentCarto Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:45 am
That actually opens up a really interesting moral space for female characters that are acknoweledged by the Legion as a powerful asset, but also as viable "breeding stock" that really should be careful with her health.Mister Frost wrote:This, I agree with wholeheartedly--while the creators have made explanations (the men are also, by law, slaves, and the women are used to keep numbers up and do "dishonorable" non-warrior trades) those explanations are still full of holes--the least of which being that, in a toxic wasteland, with distinctly Luddite views of medicine and technology, a lot of women are going to be infertile or otherwise not available for being professional mothers--and there's no reason not to have them, at least, on the frontlines.
"I realize that it would cost far too many good legionnaires to force you to stay, but I must beg you not to enter Camp Searchlight..."
Dual-wielding is bullshit unless you're a power-armored cyborg super-soldier. You can ony aim down one set of sights at a time, which means you're only going to hit one target with one gun at a time. The other is just throwing lead downrange.Mister Frost wrote:I just home that some of the gameplay refinements that have been made (particularly in Skyrim) make it into the game, such as the smoother combat, dual-wielding, a more in-depth improvement/modding (and even limited crafting) system.
It's somewhat more excusable in melee combat, insofar as doubling the number of pointy things the other guy has to worry about is useful, but it may be instructive to note that serious, professional warriors the world over have always used exactly one weapon. Dual wielding is almost entirely restricted to styles built around fighters who were legally or socially restricted from carrying a full-sized weapon.
Before anyone says anything about the old west: the popular image of a cowboy with a revolver on each hip came about because early percussion cap revolvers used the same lengthy powder-wadding-bullet-ram-cap reloading technique as muzzle-loading rifles, for each chamber. And even when cartridges appeared, there was no such thing as a moon clip. Carrying a pair of revolvers was equivalent to carrying a spare mag.
Before anyone says anything about samurai: the wakizashi is purely a backup weapon for use in tight quarters where a full-sized katana is inappropriate. Miyamoto Musashi did develop a school that used katana and wakizashi together, but seeing as it didn't blow away all the traditional one-sword schools, I'm prepared to dismiss it as showy but ineffective. (I can go on a whole other rant about samurai in general, but this probably isn't the place.)
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:10 am
We're trained to be able to fire our rifles with one hand if necessary, and reflexive fire (pretty much pointing your weapon in the target's general direction and using experience and instinct to guide it in) is Basic level stuff, and, as a rule of thum, effective out to about fifteen meters. At close range, just about any combination of semiauto weapons fired in rapid, controlled bursts would reasonably fuck people up as well as single weapons. Practical? No. Efficient? No. Accurate? Not particularly, but it's not the "spray and pray" ammo dump most seem to think it is.
But this is the franchise where one can show up to a gunfight with a golf club and reasonably expect to win. The crazy train uses psychosis as fuel and rides on tracks of surrealism and pseudoscience.
Frankly, it's rather amusing to hear "it's ridiculous to fire two guns at once, unless you strap on a fusion-powered exoskeleton." We accept scavenging ancient fruit from the newly-dead hands of a rotting, irradiated corpse to fuel our rampage against the Romans to aid an order of Knights, but firing two pistols at once? Ridiculous.
But this is the franchise where one can show up to a gunfight with a golf club and reasonably expect to win. The crazy train uses psychosis as fuel and rides on tracks of surrealism and pseudoscience.
Frankly, it's rather amusing to hear "it's ridiculous to fire two guns at once, unless you strap on a fusion-powered exoskeleton." We accept scavenging ancient fruit from the newly-dead hands of a rotting, irradiated corpse to fuel our rampage against the Romans to aid an order of Knights, but firing two pistols at once? Ridiculous.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by SilentCarto Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:35 am
It's not really the exoskeleton that's helpful, it's the AI aiming assist that you'd need to be able to hit anything at range while essentially firing from the hip. I'll grant that if you're yelling "shit shit shit" and blazing away for all you're worth at a guy twenty feet away, double the lead is still double the lead. But games never treat it that way. Alongside shotguns with a yards-wide pattern, this is one of my pet peeves with weapons in games.Mister Frost wrote:Frankly, it's rather amusing to hear "it's ridiculous to fire two guns at once, unless you strap on a fusion-powered exoskeleton." We accept scavenging ancient fruit from the newly-dead hands of a rotting, irradiated corpse to fuel our rampage against the Romans to aid an order of Knights, but firing two pistols at once? Ridiculous.
But katanas actually can cut a tank in half, right?
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Harmony Ltd. Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:44 am
This reminds me of something I read in a fanfic...Mister Frost wrote:The pallid green influence spreading all over the city, an utter lack of plant life, 90% of all people are raving psychopathic Raiders, some places are outright toxic to be in....combine that with the other weird shit like the people that think they're vampires, the aliens' particular interest in D.C....yeah, a forgotten deity awakening from an eon-long slumber explains a lot of shit. Hell, if I recall, it did wake up before the bombs fell--and a corrupting, madness-inducing presence in the middle of the Capitol would explain a lot about America's actions during the Resource WarWhiskey Rebellion wrote:1. I... uh... well... Oh, I know! It is literally magic! You know those Virulent Underchambers? Well, that pillar thing is an old god, and if you look at it, you'll see it is, in fact, green. What do you see if you sneak while approaching it? Ghouls emerging from nowhere. What are ghouls made by? Radiation.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:48 am
Reflexive fire is not done from the hip. The only reason you'd ever fire a weapon from the hip is if, for some weird reason, you needed to fire an M240 (or, if you're old-school, an M60) on the move, because they are nearly physically impossible to shoulder-fire while not emplaced. Reflexive fire with any weapon is done while the weapon is shouldered (or the arms extended, in the case of a pistol) and is done in short, controlled bursts. The weapon being shouldered is also why it's possible to fire a rifle or shotgun, if necessary, with one hand. If you need to engage past fifteen meters, it's virtually guaranteed you are not taking a volume of fire that would necessitate using multiple weapons to gain fire superiority--or, at the least, you are obviously in terrain open enough to employ heavier weaponry. Again, it's not the most practical solution, but it's cool, and therefore good enough for Fallout.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by O. Hinds Sun Dec 14, 2014 12:00 pm
I imagined my current New Vegas character at least thinking that sort of thing at Caesar (actually saying it would be tricky due to her desire to pretend to be on his side right up until she finished her business at the Fort as was able to lodge some bullets in his face).Mister Frost wrote:It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats
Again, though. Difficult to code
"So, for longevity and strength, you built your new society with a lot of Roman inspirations. Rome. The civilization famous for falling either under its own weight or to invasions of barbarians. For longevity and strength. Riiiight…"
Huh. That would be interesting. We seem to be coming up with a much more nuanced and interesting version of the Legion here.SilentCarto wrote:That actually opens up a really interesting moral space for female characters that are acknoweledged by the Legion as a powerful asset, but also as viable "breeding stock" that really should be careful with her health.
"I realize that it would cost far too many good legionnaires to force you to stay, but I must beg you not to enter Camp Searchlight..."
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by SilentCarto Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:48 pm
Fine, I didn't know the official terminology for shooting at someone without looking down the sights. But that's what I'm talking about.Mister Frost wrote:Reflexive fire is not done from the hip.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:05 pm
It is rather amusing that not dialogue exists to break down the world of delusions that Caesar's cult of personality have built about themselves, but, with certain perks, you can threaten to wear a man's face like a hat.O. Hinds wrote:I imagined my current New Vegas character at least thinking that sort of thing at Caesar (actually saying it would be tricky due to her desire to pretend to be on his side right up until she finished her business at the Fort as was able to lodge some bullets in his face).Mister Frost wrote:It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats
Again, though. Difficult to code
"So, for longevity and strength, you built your new society with a lot of Roman inspirations. Rome. The civilization famous for falling either under its own weight or to invasions of barbarians. For longevity and strength. Riiiight…"
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Mon Dec 15, 2014 11:32 am
This topic is a bit old by this point, but I re-encountered this video earlier, and it more eloquently (and/or crudely) sums up the point(s) I tried to make in my rant:Icy Shake wrote:If this is how you're going to disrupt, do it as much as you want.Mister Frost wrote:I don't comment much on this thread, but I hope I'm not disrupting too much.
The army is something of a paradox in that way. It runs into the conflict that (for your liberals, at least) its purpose is in part to defend the system that allows that diversity, but in order to do so, there are arguably benefits to (locally) minimizing it so that each part is as reliable and predictable as possible in the field. But it's just one of those cases where what is right depends on the situation; and on which note, even (most of) those who want "all notions of individuality left at the door" (I hope) see at least some room for flexibility when the uniform is off and you're not on duty or on call.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Vinylshadow Mon Dec 15, 2014 11:40 am
Mister Frost wrote:It is rather amusing that not dialogue exists to break down the world of delusions that Caesar's cult of personality have built about themselves, but, with certain perks, you can threaten to wear a man's face like a hat.O. Hinds wrote:I imagined my current New Vegas character at least thinking that sort of thing at Caesar (actually saying it would be tricky due to her desire to pretend to be on his side right up until she finished her business at the Fort as was able to lodge some bullets in his face).Mister Frost wrote:It'd also be nice to have speech options built around savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats
Again, though. Difficult to code
"So, for longevity and strength, you built your new society with a lot of Roman inspirations. Rome. The civilization famous for falling either under its own weight or to invasions of barbarians. For longevity and strength. Riiiight…"
Bethesda probably thought that was close enough to the whole 'savagely deconstructing the arguments and self-delusions of your foes, delivering breaking speeches that strip away the confidence, the esteem, the carefully-constructed worlds they've built around themselves......preferably while also delivering bone-breaking blows and humiliating defeats' mindset
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Icy Shake Tue Dec 16, 2014 9:26 pm
Well, Hinds, as it turns out I wouldn't have been able to post anything until tonight anyway. Also, I don't have the energy for a decent transition. Unless . . . yep, too big.
Which brings us to my Chapter Sixty Two Part One liveblog post, part one.
Which brings us to my Chapter Sixty Two Part One liveblog post, part one.
- Chapter Sixty Two Part One Running Thoughts:
- Worse, between the efforts of Dawn and himself, any pony in Thunderhead who could have put the brakes on this was dead. Now Thunderhead roared with anger and fear. I knew that most of the ponies here didn’t want a fight, but they were being dragged along by those who did.
Just like two centuries ago.
But were they really dragged along, at least at the ouset? Didn't really seem that way to me. Better case could be made for most of the zebra tribes, but I got the impression that most ponies didn't even think all that much about it until Littlehorn, and after that, they were all for the war, at least until war fatigue set in.
She’d shed the bright orange jail clothing, and I tried to avoid staring for too long at her beauty. If only all this havoc wasn’t going on... The only thing that marred her delightful appearance was the gray stump of her absent wing.
Does this mean she has her cutie mark back? I guess it could be taken in ways other than it being back, like Blackjack doesn't mind the brand, which is possible on the level of physical appearance, even if she didn't like it insofar as it's something Glory hated.
Too bad about the wing, though, but given the technology unearthed since she lost it, it was never likely to be a permanent issue provided she lived long enough to access one of the options.
“She needs medical attention. She might have a concussion,” Glory said sharply. Once again, I wished I had healing spells in my bag of tricks. Her purple eyes turned towards Boomer. “You need to get to a hospital, too. If you don’t have broken ribs, I’ll eat my mane.”
Glory's medical-specific leadership attitude is one of those nice traits that rounds her out, but it's kind of funny how she so often doesn't see it as something she could do regularly, instead needing a Blackjack to take charge.
Rampage poked her head up from the pile of groaning pegasi and spat out a bright wad of fecal-green hair. “Split up? You never split the party. What are you, crazy? When has that ever worked well for us?”
I kind of like how even the otherwise awkward RPG-related phrasing could be justified in context by her mom playing them, and she picked it up from her. Maybe not the most likely, since by the time Rampage was around, it might not have really come up as much, but it's a possibility. Or, potentially, some soul bleed-through or communication, which I believe happened to some extent or another, even if she wasn't as consciously aware of it so far.
Then I need to talk to Doctor Morningstar. This plague is too great a threat to the skies and the surface. If we can make a cure, then Lighthooves’s bioweapon is useless.”
That's a little strong. It'd still be massively disruptive, and triggering the war was still a big part of what he was going for.
Damn it. ”Ugh... Nevermind…” I groaned as I rose and turned to Glory and moved away from really important questions to issues of survival and whatnot.
That was pretty funny.
“Ahem…” Rampage said loudly. I glanced over at everypony staring at us. “If you two need a little time out, I’m sure we can get everyone to put this civil war on hold for fifteen minutes so you two can have a quickie.”
I rubbed my chin. “You really think so?” I stared speculatively at Glory, “I might be able to make it work with ten.” I saw the resigned smile on her face, looked over at P-21 shaking his head, and noticed Rampage’s nonplussed expression. “Oh. You were being sarcastic. Right. No quickie.” Damn it.
Rampage stared at me for a long moment, then smirked. “Well, it’s official! Normal Glory makes Blackjack dumber.”
They're coming fast and furious now. And, at least for me, hitting. I also like the inversion of Blackjack taking the sarcastic comment seriously, like Glory used to early on.
“You know this is a bad idea,” Twister shouted over her shoulder as she bore me through the air to the west. . . .
“Blackjack excels at bad ideas. The only way this could get any better would be if we got her drunk,” Rampage replied as we flew towards the Raptors.
Twister probably knows that, too, given how Blackjack was at least a little drunk when she was jumped by Twister and the rest leaving Spike's cave.
I sat down, threw my head back, and screamed as loud as I possibly could. Into that scream, I put in weeks of frustration, annoyance, and sheer disgust with everything I had been trying to do. “I am trying to save your fucking life! And their lives! Everypony I can. It’s the only thing that’s kept me sane since I left my stable! And you know what? I’m starting to think Rampage was right!” The striped pony blinked in amazement as I began to pace ignoring the guns trained on me. “What the fuck am I doing? You’d think that after a while I would have finally figured it out! I keep trying to save ponies, and fucking it up. My home! The Fluttershy Medical Center. Zebras. Chapel. Twice! I should do like Rampage says, try to kill everypony, and then end up saving everyone! My incompetence will save the Wasteland!” I pointed a hoof at the general. “All I want to do is save your lives, and save the lives of every pegasus caught in the crossfire! Got it? That’s my motivation. You’re accusing me of working with Lighthooves when the plague he’s using infected my stable. I had to gas them! Everypony I knew! I don’t want anypony, ever, to have to do that again! So put your damned suspicions away and work with me because otherwise I got nothing to fall back on but the Rampage plan and then we’re all fucked!”
Another pretty good speech after the one in the park. Possibly just a little bit undermined by the fact that part of the actual content—not even subtext, but part of what she actually said—included work with me or I'll start killing everyone. Surfacer terrorist indeed.
“Yes, and while I am skeptical, I haven’t discounted your warning. However, we need to move closer if we want a chance of intercepting any missiles fired from the Tower. There’s a critical window of fifteen seconds where the missile is accelerating where we can shoot it down before it reaches top speed. Otherwise, our interception chance narrows dramatically.
Ah, pretty close to the second Death Star situation: you have to go in even if you know it's a trap because you're fucked either way, and this at least gives you a chance of getting somewhere.
You know, Good Cop/Bad Cop gets pretty weird when the line from both involves them killing you if you don't cooperate.
“Oh please,” I said with a smile and a roll of my eyes. “If I were here to kill you I would have teleported directly behind you and cut your head off or blasted four magic bullets down your throat. Heck, I could probably just jump and crush you under my hooves right now!” I chuckled, and Rampage guffawed. Then I became aware that we were the only two laughing and it tapered off to a slack grin. “Um. But, um. I’m not… So. Yeah…”
Not helping. Well, mixed helping. Emphasizing the point that the fact they're still alive is evidence you don't want to kill them is valid, but the delivery was over strong and probably didn't help you on the front of convincing them that you aren't a psycho killer. Rampage, too, but then, I don't think she minds people thinking she's one, except where kids are concerned.
“Oh stop. It’ll be fun. Nothing like murder and mayhem to living things up.”
“Dirt pony barbarian,” one of the stallions muttered.
“Yup. And don’t you forget it,” Rampage replied. Then she reached over and, before he could dart away, grabbed him and kissed him hard. His eyes shot wide and his wings popped out to either side. “Want me to show you how we get down and dirty on the surface?
Yep, definitely doesn't care.
There were no windows; instead, there were seven large screens showing an angled arc before the ship. Above us were three smaller monitors showing views out the rear of the ship.
You'd think they'd have above and below, too. Sure, a lot would be covered by the fore and rear, but I figure there'd at least be some hundreds of square degrees at best inconveniently shoved at the top or bottom of the screens.
The big seat in the center of the semicircle of stations was occupied by a muscular, serious-looking stallion with a white mane and the most eye-bleedingly neon pink coat I’d ever seen. He rose to his hooves immediately. “General,” he said with a crisp salute of his wing. I noticed that he got a gun.
“Situation, Captain Racewind?”
Man I loved this guy. It's pretty shitty when competence, professionalism, and not being a racist warmonger are traits that make someone stand out among your officers.
“Captain! I’ve got something strange. Two signals. One’s a narrow band broadcast out of our ship, but it’s not on any Enclave frequency we use. The other’s an access signal from the Tower targeting our ship,” one of the mares said. “It doesn’t seem to be trying to access any of the ship systems, though.”
Perceptitron, probably.
“Castellanus, Cyclone, and Lightning will advance and target the Tower’s anti-air defenses, breach the Tower at five thousand, four thousand, and three thousand feet, and secure the weapon.
I wonder what they're measuring against. The tower is apparently three miles tall, and I was under the general impression that most of this was happening near the top.
“A plan is like a house of cards. It tends to scatter when the winds of war catch up with it,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the icons. “What orders should I give? Will they be carried out fast enough? Can we react in time? Is Lighthooves’s plan better than my own? I’d be a fool not to think of that.”
Well, he's been several steps ahead of Blackjack and Rainbow Dash all along. So there's a decent chance he is ahead of you.
“There’s something else. There’s a pony… a mare named Dawn. She’s… Celestia, it’s a twisted story. To sum it up, she’s bad news. Completely crazy and a total zealot. She’s involved… but I don’t know how.” I sighed and rubbed my mane. “She thinks she’s going to save the Wasteland by getting everypony killed for her ‘goddess’.”
Okay, not that helpful in letting them know what to look out for or her capabilities.
“Cognitum doesn’t have access to all the Core’s systems. She has to fight for it. That’s why she needs EC-1101,” I muttered to myself, rubbing my forehooves together and scraping metal on metal. “But what if another pony already had partial access? Like Shadowbolt Tower being connected to the Core’s defenses.
“But if they turn on the Core’s defenses, it’s going to draw power, just like last time. If it does, all the Enervation rings will energize. It’ll be Silverstar Sporting Goods all over again.”
Isn't it great when there's a third party involved, and neither of the other two knew it?
“Yeah. Lighthooves all but tap danced on me. He beat me almost as good as Dawn had…” my voice trailed away. I’d fought Enclave armor before I was augmented and won. Power armor just wasn’t fast enough. It had inertia. That was the only saving grace of anypony fighting it. But Lighthooves had almost taken me apart in his brother’s office. “Oh you son of a mule! That’s what you were talking about.” I swore as I glared at the display. “That wasn’t power armor!”
And there it is. But at least now she knows what the weapon he was talking about is.
“If you’re the future, I’m not impressed,” she said with superb disdain. The stallion’s reply was to gurgle and collapse in a heap, leaking blood and brains from the gash ripped through his head.
I'm not a lawyer, and I've never really done debate, but I don't think his response was very convincing.
“If she’s not dead or in the brig, kill her,” the mare beside him yelled as she pointed her own integrated disintegration rifles at the general. “She’s a liability now!”
“Over my dead body,” I yelled and drew my sword, starting to teleport when the pony I’d blinded grabbed me from behind.
Yes, I think that was the point.
When my teleportation spell went off, I had the sensation of trying to squeeze myself down a Blackjack-sized tube that was now half the size of Blackjack.
Nice metaphor.
I watched as Captain Racewind slowly advanced across the bridge. His uniform was slick with blood and one ear was gone as he walked slowly across the shaking deck. One of his targets collapsed in a shower of glowing green goop. Then a second. A third.
Wow, either he's getting a ton of lucky crits or that's a special gun. Or, I guess, maybe they all had much lower natural END than Blackjack, given she's shrugged off Enclave energy weapons pretty easily before, I think, for instance at Yellow River.
Yeah, in the brawl on the bridge, there's still kind of the issue that Blackjack really doesn't do much while pinned. I can get being stunned at the start, when she felt like she was stuck in S.A.T.S. when the general was taking a bunch of hits on the way to one cyberpony, but you'd think that she'd try for a couple of magic bullets at some point.
With an annoyed look, she whirled as well, wrapped her barbed tail around the cyberbony’s face, and, with a jerk of her haunches, pulled him down under her backside. She sat down hard on his shoulders. She paused, then shrugged. “Tempting, but bloody pleasure before squishy pleasure,” she said, then raised both her forehooves and slammed them down on the cyberpony’s skull like a jackhammer until his brains dribbled like bloody tar out his mouth and nose.
Do not think Blackjack would have been at all happy with that.
I didn’t think she was breathing. Screw healing magic. At this point I’d be happy with something more substantial than first aid training I’d gotten years ago, and slept through, because any stable medical emergency would be handled by medics, not me.
Fucking idiot, Blackjack.
See also: "I knew just enough to put something between her teeth so the seizing epiliptic wouldn't bite her tongue."
The most I could remember was ‘ABC’. Her Airway was clear, and when I put my ear to her muzzle, my enhanced hearing could pick up shallow Breaths… and I forgot what C meant. Contact medical? Control? Concede defeat?
Can't help you there; I don't know many ABC acronyms, and the ones I do know don't have much relevance: "American Broadcasting Corporation" and "Anything But Clothes" just don't seem to apply.
“Nice job. Well done. I give it a nine out of ten. You want to make sure you can take a trophy from your kills, Boo. Or eat them. Or both.” The shivering blank wasn’t uncurling from her ball.
It was the wrong time for a quip. “Where have you been?” I asked darkly as I stared at the limp, prone form of the general. “Why weren’t you here? What were you off doing, Rampage? Fucking? Fighting?”
I mean, I see the point, but she was taken off somewhere else. You can't just expect her to make it back in perfect time when there are probably people in the way. And what else should she have been doing if not fighting?
“You’re the one who cares about Thunderhead, not me. You’re the one who gives a shit if the Wasteland lives or dies. Not. Me. I only give a marginal shit about a half dozen ponies in this world. The rest can go fuck themselves. This is war. Ponies die. A lot. Good and bad, innocent and guilty. Do not ever talk to me like that and tell me what I should be doing. Ever.”
Man, she's scary. Sounds like we're learning a lesson here: do not fuck with Rampage. And do not act like you're her boss.
I struggled to my hooves. “I thought you wanted to die,” I spat, not able to bring myself to face her.
And . . . what does that have to do with anything?
She rolled the general on her back. “Press one nostril closed and blow in the other when I tell you to.” And then, with surprising care, she began to compress the general’s chest with short bursts.
The last we'd heard of her was this:
Her armor smoked from the beam blasts it’d absorbed. She wasn’t moving. I didn’t think she was breathing.
Can you do chest compressions through power armor?
“Blackjack, after the breath after this one, cut open the chest of her armor with your sword. Breathe. Try not to cut her deeply, but be quick. She has enough problems. Breathe.”
Guess so. The Enclave stuff must be a lot lighter than I figure the Steel Rangers' is. Guess it also helps, in retrospect, that one of the strongest mares in the Wasteland is the one doing the compressions.
“Stars and suns, it worked! Old Doc Hatchet would be amazed,” Rampage blurted, pressed her hoof to the side of the general’s throat beneath her jaw.
I like that exclamation. Very appropriate to the setting.
“Stay down for three minutes. Make sure everything is stabilized,” Rampage said. “Otherwise, I’ll make them haul you to the medical bay and put Blackjack in charge.”
I blinked. “No. No way. That’s a bad idea. Of monumental proportions. I can’t think of what to do with a ship besides ‘shoot’ and ‘ramming speed’.”
“Which is why the general is going to indulge me and rest a little bit before climbing back into the seat,” Rampage replied, smiling down at the weakened but angry mare.
Shouldn't there be someone in the chain of command between Racewind and Blackjack? Someone in the Enclave? Or are we just in Blackjack is always in charge mode?
“I too am wondering at it. Before, it was like being in another world with walls of dense smoke. Little by little, the smoke is clearing. Things are more lucid. For example, I know that I’m a soul in a talisman rather than a pony flying home to Manehattan after a conference. Quite astonishing really, even if I still expect to wake up and find myself crashing to the ground.”
Okay, right, Octopus was the one from the skywagoncrash.
“Do the memories help?” I asked.
She nodded. “In a way. I’m also aware of others with me… some are aware of me while others aren’t.” Her smile faded as the doctor said, “I’ve been trying to treat the Angel. She’s… a difficult patient. Still, it gives us something to do while I’m inside. Every time we experience another’s memories it… connects us.”
Ah yes, that's what was going on. Would be nice if that works out.
“So what is his driver then?” I asked with a frown.
Rampage arched a brow as she smiled, “What was yours? When you were running around like a madmare? What’s driven you to harm and undermine yourself?”
“I…” I opened and closed my mouth. I glanced at the general. “I… hate myself. The things I’ve done. That I’ve experienced. What I’ve become. Ways I’ve disappointed Glory and failed my friends. Even before leaving 99… I mean, even if I only count P-21, I did unforgivable things to him and didn't even know I was doing it.” My ears dropped. “I’m trying to do better and make up for it.”
:(
I know it's been obvious forever, and one of the things I find charming is the way she underestimates the good part of herself, that extreme, sincere over-humility, but putting this kind of feeling right on the surface hits me hard.
But other than that, somepony is going to have to stop him, and it’s going to be ugly. A self-destructive person doesn’t just want to be stopped. They want to be destroyed, and they tend to cause a lot of collateral damage in the process. It’s the ultimate expression of pettiness and ego, frequently painted over with a façade of selflessness or some higher--”
And setting up the next chapter.
But also, yeah, pettiness and ego, more ego than petty, do kind of touch on sides of Blackjack as well. When people need to remind you multiple times, "it's not always about you" . . .
Storm Chaser said evenly. “What are their capabilities?”
I thought a moment. “Similar to power armor but with none of the drawbacks. If they’re using the original design I was, then you’re talking tougher and lots faster. You wear your armor. A cyberpony is their armor. Internal regenerative and repair talismans to prevent rejection. Major damage like a lost limb will need to be replaced, but they won’t bleed out and die. They need some kind of power talisman in the chest, but that’s beyond what I know. If I had time, I’d contact Rover and…” Hmmm…
“Weaknesses?”
“Similar to power armor. Spark weapons work great.
Blackjack . . . now, this is a crazy idea, but what if you tried thinking before saying things? Maybe tried to remember relevant things before being prompted, sometimes by the need for them specifically coming up? Would have come in handy a few times already this chapter-part.
“Scootaloo saw to it that Stable-Tec built Shadowbolt Tower for Rainbow Dash. It had the most advanced structural and magical defenses of any building in Equestria. You could level Canterlot with a Thunderhead and some effort. It’s old. But nothing short of a direct hit by a balefire bomb could take out the Tower... and even that is a maybe, given that everything in this crosswind-damned valley was made to hold up to anything the enemy could throw at it.”
And Pinkie Pie said sometimes you need to take away whatever babies are fighting over . . .
Then Boo started looking around in alarm, followed by the bridge mares and guards, then Rampage. “Wait… what’s that noise?”
But I knew exactly what that screaming sound was.
Fuck. And given what Blackjack deduced about what would cause an Enervation surge . . . fuck.
Stripped of its clouds, the damned city now seemed alight and inhabited by forsaken souls. Black monoliths stretched towards the sky, the glassy black surfaces lit by gleaming green lines far below, as though the streets were rivers of balefire. Some of the towers had broken and leaned at haphazard angles against each other. Others were connected and draped, as if by spider webs. This was not a pony city. It may have been built by ponies, may have been inhabited by them, but there was nothing of my kind in this place. It was a city inspired by hubris. In the very center, right at the base of Shadowbolt Tower, was a horrible emerald glow within the earth.
Haven't had much scenery porn in a while.
“Looks like their targeting talismans haven’t been calibrated for two hundred years,” the general hissed. I watched in horror as a beam punched right through the bottom of one Raptor, the green energy slicing right through as it progressed to the heavens. The shot had been off center, possibly the only reason the ship wasn’t snapping in half. “They’re off by a few degrees.”
sin(~3 deg) ~ 275' at one mile. We're looking at pretty big ships, probably about the length of a destroyer, likely much larger in volume if the aspect ratio is smaller.
“It seems Lighthooves wants us particularly badly,” the general observed coolly as the Castellanus’s engines roared behind us.
“He must know I’m on this ship,” I replied. But why? Why would he be after me? Granted, I had every interest in and capability for killing him if we met face to face, but why single me out over any other Raptor?
1. No shit he knows. Remember that transmission? I guess it could have been jammed, though. But he still has this as your last known location in any case.
2. He of all people knows you aren't to be trifled with. If he wants to win, he probably knows he wants you dead.
The purple mare in my head whipped out a chalkboard and began doing fancy things with numbers. The Core was teardrop shaped, and five miles across from east to west. The Tower was three miles high. We are all fighting within five miles of the center of the city, inside the strongest Enervation in the middle.
Does Enervation go up in a cone? Because isn't, say, Chapel right across the river from the Core, so maybe three miles from the center?
“Cognitum,” I said as clearly as I could over the clamor and banging and shouting and alarms, “This is Blackjack. I’m about to die again. EC-1101 is about to be destroyed if you don’t stop the weapons.” Nothing happened as a mare called out casualty reports. “If you can’t stop them, Goddess, then tell me how.”
Well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, even if that means working with psychopathic computer mind-clones of old princesses.
For the longest time, nothing. I wondered if she even heard me. Then several lines of code began to fly across my vision. I caught a glimpse of a few words that stood out. ‘OIA backchannel’. ‘Random walk encryption active’. Then a series of instructions appeared.
>EC-1101 Priority Command
>Backdoor Access: Password: Pokeysmoke.
> Heir Protocol Enable
> Ministry Mare descendant access.
> Hoofington power grid access.
> Luna and Celestia power generators at 97%. Authorization of Tokomare power generators pending EC-1101 access.
> Do you wish to activate Tokomare power systems?
>Y/N?
Mmmmm . . . I'm gonna guess "No." Activating the super-Enervation source seems like the opposite of what's good.
I hissed into my broadcaster, “You have ten seconds and then EC-1101 is dust. Horizons goes off. You lose!” Nothing. At this point I didn’t even know if we were still connected. Then, new instructions appeared in my vision.
Oooh, got pretty lucky there, I think with the need for a specific timing of Horizons activating, at least for Cogs.
>EC-1101 Priority Command
>Backdoor Access: Password: Pokeysmoke.
>Heir Protocol Enable.
>Ministry Mare descendant access.
>Hoofington power grid access.
> Substation access
> Emergency shutdown SUB 8, SUB 10, SUB 12, SUB 13, SUB 19, SUB 20.
>Password: Thisisgonnahurt
>Confirm Emergency Shutdown Y/N? Emergency shutdown of power grid during power draw not recommended.
>Y
>Are you absolutely, positively sure?
>Y
> Execute: Y/N?
I closed my eyes, swallowed, and mentally hit Y.
Now we're talking.
“Only the Azimuth was lost, ma’am. Perihelion, Lightning, and Helicity are all reporting severe damage and are falling back. Only the Blizzard, Galeforce, and Sirocco report no significant damage.”
“Of course not. We couldn’t be so lucky today,” [Storm Chaser] said with a grimace.
I'm with you. Granted, given who they are just how sure that it was bad luck?
“Now’s our chance. Contact any ship besides those three to help. Get us into a position to board--”
I guess the answer is "not sure at all."
“Storm Chaser, would you please acknowledge Neighvarro’s last order, or do you need me to relay it to you?” Captain Hoarfrost asked in amused tones that really made me regret not slamming her head in the door till it cracked like an egg… but then I had no one to blame but myself for that one.
In fairness, you didn't know she was this bad. Not really.
“That is a civilian target! Who gave the order? It can’t be with the sanction of the GPE!” Storm Chaser countered through clenched teeth. “Put us through to Neighvarro.”
“This came from Councilor Ironfeather’s office, and given the incompetence of the commander in the field, you have no authority to countermand it. I have been given battlefield commission to Colonel and placed in command of this exercise,” Hoarfrost’s icy voice dripped menace. “You can’t pick and choose your orders anymore, Storm Chaser. Do you acknowledge the order, or not?”
Well, looks like it's decision time. Also, god damn, what an asshole. And does an individual councilor have that authority? Sounds like the kind of thing you'd need the whole Council to approve.
The gray mare rose, her lips pressed together. There were tears on her cheeks, but her eyes were hard and furious. “This is General Storm Chaser. I acknowledge the order. I also wish to acknowledge to the fleet and the GPE that I am resigning in response to an order to kill our own. Never would I imagine that the Enclave that protected our kind for two centuries would stoop to wanton murder of Enclave citizens. It seems Rainbow Dash was right. ‘Pegasi first’ has become ‘Military first’.”
Gauntlet thrown. I'd like to mention, though, not to detract too much from one of the better and more likable characters in that kind of position of power and faction, that "pegasi first," especially given the way it's been used to mean "pegasi only, plus I guess those few unicorns helping us out" isn't exactly an especially honorable position to begin with. And I don't think that that was even really Rainbow's position; wasn't it more "ponies together"?
“What a waste that would be. Neighvarro recognizes that they have a biological weapon and a delivery system that will make the quarantine a reality. With a few dozen missiles, we will be able to pacify the surface indefinitely. Ironfeather was appalled that the general wanted to destroy such an opportunity.” Now I really regretted not killing her. “Do you acknowledge my orders?”
Way to up the bill of charges from grossly immoral indifference to the surface and the bombardment of civilian targets to out and out conspiracy to commit genocide. Can we get a war crimes tribunal in here?
“Ah. The terrorist. You’re still alive.” Storm Chaser groaned as Hoarfrost continued, “Yes, you did. Let me show you my gratitude by giving you the chance to surrender.”
I glanced around the bridge. Maybe I could buy seconds. “Will you spare Thunderhead if I do?” I asked.
“Blackjack! No! That’s stupid, even for you!” Rampage snapped.
Well . . . it's on the stupider end of things she does, but I don't really think it's particularly more stupid than other things she's done. And I don't think she intends to follow through. I mean, she's learned over time.
“You can communicate with someone in Thunderhead?” Storm Chaser asked.
“Sure. My very special pony is there with a radio. She’s the one who stopped her Rainbow Dash impression,” I said.
“And you’re doing so on non-Enclave channels.” She sighed, “Blackjack, you really need to learn to convey pertinent information.”
I know, right?
“Guess I better get out of here before they come and haul me off,” I said as I cut off the connection.
“So you’re not going to nobly trot to your death?” Rampage asked, and then relaxed as I shook my head, “I was worried for a second. You’re occasionally really stupid about things like that.”
I know, right?
“Part of being an officer is accepting the reality that bad things happen and there is nothing you can do to change that.”
Spoken like someone who passed the Kobayashi Maru.
“Ideas! That’s all it is with you ponies. It really isn’t just Glory!” Rampage said as she turned and sneered at Storm Chaser. “Sometimes you just have to fight! So you don’t know what exactly to do next? So what! Look at Blackjack! She makes everything up as she goes. Sure, it doesn’t always work out, but at least she’s doing something.”
“What do you expect to me to do?” Storm Chaser glowered at her. “I’ve been stripped of command!”
“Have you been stripped of respect too?” Rampage scoffed. “I served under one of the finest officers in the Equestrian Army. Colonel Cupcake. Pudgy little bastard couldn’t lick a zebra unless you dipped it in chocolate first, but we followed his orders into hell more than once. Not because Luna told us to, but because we knew he’d always do what was right. This fight isn’t over yet, and you know that plague is super bad news, so are you going to pony up and prove that you actually deserve that rank, or go sulk in your cabin and think about how absolutely and utterly you failed today?”
This and the followup remind me of one of the best motivational scenes in American cinematic history:
Of course, it doesn't quite match, with only Storm Chaser being deeply demoralized, and the rest only contingent on her (and they might even step up on their own if she didn't). But Twist's speech is a lot like Bluto's first, and the "what happened to the Delta I used to know?" part. Then you have Storm Chaser being motivated by a reference to the "windbrained nag" (and her intended atrocity) that was her Niedermeyer (on which note, if there's anyone who deserves to be killed by their own troops . . . ), and portions of her coming around sounding like trying to turn what would bea futile and stupid gesture into something that matters.
“Okay, so I’ll ram all the Raptors into the Tower!” She twitched a moment in silence. “Ugh… you’re thinking too much again. Just let me do it! It’ll be awesome!” She looked around hopefully, but saw nopony eager to entertain that idea. “Oh come on. It’s not like we have another balefire bomb to blow them all up in one big boom!”
A sensation like lightning began at my tail and zinged right up to my scalp. I slowed, staring off into space. She couldn’t… I didn’t… I muttered quietly, “When they act like babies, you have to take it away…”
She could, you did, and yes, you do.
I opened my mouth, then stopped. “No. But… I do have something that might work. And since Lighthooves might be watching me…” I looked around and spotted a chunk of charred cyberpony… well, they had attacked us... I closed my eyes and began to write on the deck four words, fifteen letters. I fought hard to resist the urge to peek. “Don’t say it!” I blurted, hoping that my lines were straight and not wandering all over the floor. The bridge suddenly grew very quiet.
Then Rampage broke it with a chuckle and a sincere, “Blackjack, I fucking love you.”
"And if you can swing it with Glory, I'd love to fuck you."
No?
Fine.
But man that was a great payoff, and I'm really disappointed in retrospect, given all the hints that were there, I'm pretty sure I didn't even get the content of the message, much less the four beautiful words themselves. How close were people in general?
“I won’t argue that at this moment, but it’s the only way to neutralize both the Tower and the Raptors attacking Thunderhead, and I can’t do it without your help.”
With what Storm Chaser had said about the tower earlier . . .
“And if I get one of their Raptors, can I ram that ship into something?” Rampage asked.
Storm Chaser looked a little pained. “Raptors are just a touch precious and irreplaceable, Rampage.”
The striped mare snorted and rolled her eyes. “That’s what makes it awesome, duh.”
Let's be honest: Rampage had already basically won this chapter (half), and now she's just running up the score.
Storm Chaser sighed softly. “Ironic. Even if he didn’t outright destroy the fleet, Lighthooves might very well achieve his goals. If operations in the north and west fail, there may not be much of an Enclave left. And with your plan…”
“Shh.” I tapped my head. “He might be listening.” I was going to smash that Perceptitron thing to bits if it meant a little less paranoia for me.
Well, it's only a problem if other people have it.
“One second, Blackjack. Let me savor the moment,” Rampage said with a chuckle. “Pull!” And then two metal hooves clanged against my backside and launched me into the air. A second later I heard her shout, “Boo! No!”
Boooooooooooo!
The wind roared in my ears as I dared to look down at the rapidly approaching cloud layer. Those were fluffy clouds. Soft, fluffy clouds. I’d hit them with a great big ‘pwooof’ and laugh about it later.
Unless, a purple pony in my head speculated, my armored body proved too dense and punched right through the clouds to land somewhere in the vicinity of Riverside, or the river. After all, the clouds were recently disturbed and might not support-- I took that purple pony, mentally tied her up, gagged her, and threw her in a closet in my brain. Those were soft, fluffy clouds. Soft and… soft…
That is no way to treat you great . . . great grandmother, Blackjack! Or, well, her friend dressed up as her.
Fortunately, she provided just enough pull for me to quickly scramble up into the cloud. Together, we sat in the middle of a fog bank, the hole I’d punched in my descent rapidly filling up. “Okay. Boo. No more falling. How is that for a plan?”
Blackjack, you know the success rate of your plans, right?
I could feel the Enervation tugging at me, countered by that strange tuneless song within. At this point, I’d given up guessing what could be causing it.
Wait, is this chapter being bookended by Blackjack being helped out by her habit of throwing tons of junk in her saddlebags and just leaving them there? Okay, maybe not just that, but it probably at least played a part.
Just one of many things to ask Professor Zodiac when next we met. I looked down into the very center of the city, where six enormous towers rose from the foundations below.
Though it being followed by this makes me think the figurines may play a role, as well. Ugh! So many influences to disentangle!
She was down there... Cognitum, and possibly Dawn too. I could just go down there and end it. Get my answers, stop her, and wake from this bad dream I’d been living for two months. All it would take was for me to throw the lives of thousands into the wind. “You’re lucky I have bigger things to worry about,” I growled, pointing a hoof at the glowing pit below me. “But don’t get too comfortable. The second I’m done here, you’re next.” There was every possibility that this would get me killed, but, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel the slightest selfish hope that I’d die.
Notwithstanding all Rampage has had in this chapter-part . . . to me (and see above, when Blackjack was talking to Doctor Octopus) this was the moment when I really felt that Blackjack won her arc. There's plenty more for her to do even limited to herself and her friends and family, to say nothing of the plot, but this is really the tipping point she's been building to. And I'd like to think it means that she's moved beyond Spike's old advice of “You do everything you can to make up for it, knowing that you’ll never succeed in getting rid of the guilt. You devote yourself to spending every second trying to do better despite the fact that it will never be enough. And you pray with every single good act you do that somehow when your life is over that your lifetime will come close to making up for the wrong you committed,” (and yes, the guilt is still there, etc.) in that she doesn't need that as her way of moving on, and now it's all because it's the right thing to do and she's working to better the lives of those she cares about (which, of course, is damn near everyone, up to and including, of course, rocks, if they are alive), not because it's the only way her guilt-wracked mind can will itself to not just let itself die.
Icy Shake- Alicorn
- Posts : 1209
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Icy Shake Tue Dec 16, 2014 9:31 pm
And now, IS's FoEPHCh62P1LBPP2:
- Chapter Sixty Two Part Two Overall Thoughts:
- Kind of a lot going on with this one. To start with, the riot needs to get wrapped up, or at any rate our group's involvement in it. And that just leads to people going off in at least three different directions (surprisingly, at Glory's suggestion): BJ, Rampage, Twister, and Boo are off to see Storm Chaser; P-21, Glory (now down a wing, again), and Scotch, plus some of the Twister crew, off to the university with a sample of raider plague-contaminated food to start work on a cure with Dr. Morningstar and to try to stay safe; and one of Glory's sisters going off elsewhere, probably to the surface to get in contact with Sky Striker.
As BJ's group is on their way to the Castellanus, Lighthooves sends out a missile that's only just intercepted by the Enclave fleet. She arrives at the Raptor, and there's a welcoming crew there, ready for a fight. Blackjack explains she's still working with them, but needs to do some convincing, as everything around her looks like it would if she were working with Lighthooves. She's helped by a breakdown and going over how she had to gas everyone she ever knew, which at least gets the general to give her a chance; she follows up by adding that if she were there to kill her, she could do it easily, because sometimes she's just not very smart. Rampage isn't trying to make a good impression either, which is played for some pretty good laughs.
Rampage is taken off somewhere else, and BJ and the general go to the bridge and go over the situation. They need to get closer to the tower to pacify the city, be able to hit the missiles in a ten-second window as they accelerate, and work on taking out the tower's defenses and the missile ports. This, of course, has the downside of putting them closer to the Core, the hugely powerful AA of which Lighthooves claims to control.
But first, the tower's are enough of an issue, and do some damage to the Castellanus, leaving breaches for a boarding party from Lighthooves to enter. This leads to the major fight scene of the section, and kills off Captain Racewind (one of very few decent officers we've met from the Enclave, and pretty much just this chapter, too), and leaving Storm Chaser in bad shape.
Rampage only arrives at the end, but makes some important and characteristically over the top contributions. Blackjack, who wasn't able to save Racewind and spent some valuable time pinned by a dead mare and some debris after botching a teleportation (she now knows what Lacunae was talking about when she said it's harder when you take someone along), goes off on Rampage about where she was and what she was doing. Rampage is having none of that. She says that she doesn't care about any of the ponies there except Blackjack, and that they're in a war, where people, good and bad, die. And, of course, saving everyone is Blackjack's gig, not hers. Basically, it comes down to that BJ shouldn't ever tell her what she should be doing.
This all was great, some real intensity coming from someone who often seems kind of softer than that, or fills a comedically-violent role. But, as Blackjack says, this is the Rampage everyone else sees. Unfortunately, this brings us to a weird line from Blackjack, responding to Rampage's demand not to be told what to do: "I thought you wanted to die." The problem here is that as far as I can tell, it's almost a complete non sequitur. I guess the tag, "I spat, not able to bring myself to face her," helps explain this as a dodge, but it just doesn't really sit right with me. There's some recovery with how Rampage replies, “And I do. You won’t do that. So I do what I always do. Whatever else I want” (I have a feeling that Blackjack's line was put there just to transition to this, and it had to be in a situation like that one, since it needed to be somewhere that Rampage is past the point of frustration or impatience with her), which brings the conversation back on point while making the dig at Blackjack also not being willing to do the one thing Rampage needs her to. There were some great things about this little exchange, but I wish that the transition were cleaner.
It's right then that Storm Chaser's heart stops, and after a little disruption, with one of Lighthooves's soldiers making a transmission saying she's dead but Blackjack is alive, Doctor Octopus is on the case. While working on her and a few minutes' rest imposed on the resuscitated general, he talks with Blackjack about life as one of a bunch of souls in a healing talisman. Turns out some of them are aware of each other, some not, and he's been playing therapist to the Angel. It also turns out he was the one who died in the skywagon crash. But the really big thing here is psychologist talk about self-destruction, Lighthooves, and Blackjack. He warns her that what Lighthooves wants is at this point to not just be killed, but destroyed, and he might take down a whole lot of others along the way. He speculates that Lighthooves may have originally planned on surrendering himself, but after his perfect vision was spoiled by the death of Councilor Stargazer, he's just going to go down burning the world around himself. Naturally, this transitions to Blackjack's own issues, which she says are that she hates herself: what she'd done, experienced, become; how she'd disappointed and failed people; her life in 99 before she left—she wants to make up for it and do better.
It's about that time that Storm Chaser insists on taking command again. Blackjack figures out and communicates that Lighthooves's soldiers were cyborgs from the Steelpony files, and soon after the Enclave resumes its attack on the tower, the Hoofinton proper defenses activate, destroying one Raptor and damaging others. In addition to that, there's a massive Enervation spike as the power grid is activated and thousands of Enervation rings get powered up. Blackjack calls on Cognitum to shut them down or lose EC-1101. Cogs starts with an offer that involves activating the Tokomare, which Blackjack summarily refuses. The next offer is shutting off some power distripution nodes, which is taken and results not only in shutting down the giant lasers, but in blowing up parts of the grid.
And so the Enclave needs to regroup. Most ships have taken significant damage, except for those of the Three Asshole Captains. Then a transmission comes in informing them that the general has been relieved of command, and the orders are to shell Thunderhead until Lighthooves surrenders himself and the bioweapons. Hoarfrost calls the Castellanus, and opens by saying she'd heard Storm Chaser was dead, and asks acknowledgment of the order, which was apparently given by Neigvarro alone, rather than the whole Council. Storm Chaser resigns her commission and is ordered to the brig, and Hoarfrost says that the Castellanus will shell Thunderhead; Cyclone and Sleet can capture the Tower and the missiles intact. Why waste them when you could permanently "pacify" the surface and have a weapon of extermination ready for the other settlements?
Blackjack offers to surrender herself to Hoarfrost if she stops the bombardment of Thunderhead, which is accepted. But it's just a means of buying time. She calls up Glory to let her know what's happening, and Storm Chaser is stunned that she never bothered to mention she can communicate, on a channel secure against the Enclave, with someone in Thunderhead. She tells them places the people of Thunderhead can go on the surface for a few days, if it comes to that. But thereafter, the general doesn't know what else she can do after having resigned. And, she says, “Part of being an officer is accepting the reality that bad things happen and there is nothing you can do to change that.” She's not risking the lives of her crew for nothing. Now Twist shows up, and calls her on this cowardly bullshit in a scene that reminded me of the rally-the-troops sequence in Animal House. On again protesting again she won't risk the lives of her crew, the crew speaks up in support of her, and stress how they didn't join up to commit atrocities against their own people. They want to fight, and they want to fight under her.
Most of the rest of the chapter is planning, figuring out who would be on their side, and setting up the second half of the chapter. Blackjack has a plan for Shadowbolt Tower, but she's not telling us, or letting us see it, since Lighthooves might be watching in on the Perceptitron: instead, she writes, eyes closed, four words, with a total of fifteen letters. There are three responses to them: the bridge goes quiet; Rampage laughs and says, “Blackjack, I fucking love you”; and Storm Chaser says "You're insane." But beyond what Blackjack has planned, they need another ship. The plan there is to fire Rampage at one of the enemy ships, and let her do what she wants with it. Which probably means crashing it in the end. Then Blackjack is "helped" off the Raptor by Rampage, Boo jumps after and saves her by pulling her up after she almost punches through a cloud, and they head over to the tower and break in.
But right at the end, we get some of the most important and most welcome narration in a long time: "There was every possibility that this would get me killed, but, for the first time in a long time, I didn’t feel the slightest selfish hope that I’d die." This, to me, is where Blackjack won, or at least hit an important turning point. Since the death of Scoodle, at least, her desire for death and punishment has been a defining characteristic of her life. And now, finally, she's moved on. She's not perfect, and she still doesn't think she's a great pony or anything, but it's an important improvement, and also means that now when she's making decisions that put herself at risk, or that put her through pain and torture, when she makes sacrifices, it's not because she wants or deserves to die, or needs to punish herself, but because it's something she thinks needs to be done to pursue other goals.
Now, this was on the whole a chapter (half) I enjoyed a lot, offering good comedy; three strong character moments with Rampage/Blackjack, Octopus/Blackjack, and Twist/Storm Chaser; further vindication of my antipathy against the three captains who broke in an tried to have Blackjack killed a couple chapters back; and great buildup towards Blackjack's plan for the tower, which included yet more foreshadowing, yet I don't believe I ever got it until it happened.
That said, there were some issues I had. Blackjack unilaterally deciding she needed to meet Storm Chaser face to face was a minor one, as I don't really see why she'd think that would make a huge difference without at least trying first. Sometimes I felt that the aerial maneuvers dragged a bit. The brawl on the bridge was sometimes hard to follow, especially in one instance where it seems like focus was taken from one pony to another without any transition to indicate that that happened. It didn't help that the genders of the pronouns used to refer to the presumed-second pony were inconsistent. Additionally in that fight, there was a fairly long and crucial period in which Blackjack was pinned under a dead soldier and some debris, but could still see everything going on around her. I don't understand why she never did anything to affect the fight in that time, or at least explain why she couldn't try to get off a couple magic bullets when she was already in S.A.T.S. and had cleared up enough to take in what was happening in graphic detail. This stands out even more because of the way she then calls out Rampage for not being there. Lastly, even though it fits pretty well with her character (though less so at this point than much, much earlier—unless normal-Glory not only really does make her dumber but the effect lingers a long time), having several important plot points hinge on Blackjack forgetting to tell important information got kind of old and frustrating well before it stopped being used. To me, anyway.
- Chapter Sixty Two Part One Editing:
- “Dilated and aniscoric. Blood from the ears.
"anisocoric"
She pointed at me with a hoof, “Do you remember what happened
comma should be period, or speaking verb needed
Damn it. ”Ugh... Nevermind
inverted quotation mark
I stared speculatively at Glory, “I might be able to make it work with
comma should be period, or speaking verb needed
“Thanks Rampage. Thanks a lot,” I muttered,
comma after "Thanks"
The general sighed, “After some of the reports I’m getting from out west…” she began before glowering at me.
comma should be period: otherwise it's double tagged
Then I glanced over at Boo who’d been walking along beside me, looking back at the squirming stallion
extra space between "Then" and "I"; comma after "Boo"?
“That’s why I like you, Boo,” I said nudging her shoulder and getting a beaming smile in return.
comma after "said"
A mare at her station began to work the controls. “Captain! I’ve got something strange. Two signals. One’s a narrow band broadcast out of our ship, but it’s not on any Enclave frequency we use. The other’s an access signal from the Tower targeting our ship,” one of the mares said. “It doesn’t seem to be trying to access any of the ship systems, though.”
Should that be just "she said", since it's presumably the one in the first sentence, or if not, "another of the mares"?
That’s what you were talking about.” I swore as I glared at the display.
should have second space after quotation
but her wings snapped and she performed a roll in mid air.
"midair" (4 vs. 14 "midair" and 1 "mid-air")
“If she’s not dead or in the brig, kill her,” the mare beside him yelled as she pointed her own integrated disintegration rifles at the general. “She’s a liability now!”
“Over my dead body,” I yelled and drew my sword, starting to teleport when the pony I’d blinded grabbed me from behind.
maybe change one of these "yelled" to something else (snarled and roared are used fairly close by, but shout is available)
The mare moved with the swiftness and cold murderous action of the machine.
"a machine"?
With the precision of S.A.T.S., I watched the rapid fire barrage strike the general. For an instant it seemed as if she’d close the gap. For an instant, I felt like I was the one stuck in S.A.T.S.
Is someone else stuck in S.A.T.S.? How would Blackjack know? Should that just be "I felt like I was stuck in S.A.T.S."?
In unison, they pulled the pins of a around a dozen magic grenades and threw them through the breach.
delete first "a" in "of a around a"
A cold and hateful part of my mind pushed simple weaknesses as pain aside and summoned up all my focus.
should there be a "such" before "simple"? Or maybe the "as" be "like"?
He didn’t even get half a second before I plunged the sword through his hoof, his eye, skull, and brain.
if you're going in order, maybe switch skull and brain
---Okay, I think at this point there aren't many cyberponies on the bridge: one's crippled, and the captain had disintigrated three, along with at least one more killed by the general, and the dead one pinning Blackjack, plus the stallion dealing with Boo. "The rest" are outside, having thrown grenades from the hall.
“One tyrant down,” wheezed a gurgling voice as the cybermare [1] Storm Chaser’d crippled proved not quite dead yet, and managed one last well-aimed volley that raked the general with brilliant red beams. “Die, you murdering whores!” she shouted [1], blood and black fluids spraying from her mouth. I’d forgotten how infuriatingly resilient cyberponies could be. The general took a step back, staggered, and finally collapsed as the beams raked her from behind.
No. I needed her. The Enclave needed her.
“Captain! General!” screamed half the mares as they rushed to the fallen general and swarmed over the cyberpony [1], their hooves twisting her integrated guns up towards the ceiling. The cybermare [1] wheezed a horrible, gurgling laughter as she fired wildly. I watched my last, best hope to ending this lying in a smoking heap on the deck.
A cold and hateful part of my mind pushed simple weaknesses as pain aside and summoned up all my focus. Another of Twilight’s spells, one that I’d thought exceptionally bizarre, came immediately to my mind as I imagined the cybermare [1? it's the only one I'm sure is in there, and the most recent in focus] with the biggest, bushiest beard and eyebrows I could. Her [1?] face disappeared into a yellow puff of dandelion-like hair. She [1?] staggered back as I shrugged the dead pegasus off me.
My magic seized the excess mane and I yanked his [1? same as in the last paragraph, because of the excess hair] head toward me. My magic brought the sword up through his [1?] neck, slicing clean through it. Another pair of Lighthooves’s cyberponies [2 and 3] rushed me. “Get Blackjack!” one [2] yelled. Instead, he [2] should have been paying more attention, as my telekinesis threw the severed head into his [2] face. He [2] caught it, blinked down stupidly, and was rewarded with a sword swing that decapitated him [2] just as neatly as the first. The third [3] skidded short, deciding to shoot me rather than get in close. My hooves shoved the spurting stump of the second in his [3] direction, and his [3] S.A.T.S.-enhanced shooting was ruined by a blinding spray of blood and mechanical fluids. He’d [3] need a few seconds to clear his [3] eyes.
He [3] didn’t even get half a second before I plunged the sword through his [3] hoof, his [3] eye, skull, and brain. A twist and yank and he [3] collapsed into a twisting, twitching heap. The sword came down in a finishing swipe and took his [3] head as well. Even healing talismans couldn’t reverse decapitation. I took three steps towards where the crippled cybermare [1] continued to fire wildly with her [1] arcane energy weapons and sliced them off as well.
But by the end, the crippled cybermare, if she was [1?] as well as [1], was already decapitated. I think that if [1?] isn't [1], they must be someone (male or female, since both were used) who had just entered (or I guess who was already there), but nothing in the transition from the crippled mare to her/him indicated it was someone else. I don't think the crippled mare ever does anything after this. Later on the crippled mare ([1]) makes a transmission to Lighthooves. So there should probablybe a more definite transition between [1] and [1?], specifying it's someone else (and deciding on a gender for [1?]), or [1] is [1?] and the last sentence should be deleted (also the references to [1?] with "his" should in that case be "her").If [1?] isn't [1] and the last sentence stays, the "as well" in that sentence or at the end of the sentence two prior to it should be deleted, so that two out of three consecutive sentences don't end with it.
One of which read ‘Warning: high voltage.’
period to outside of quotation marks
At this point I’d be happy with something more substantial than first aid training I’d gotten years ago, and slept through, because any stable medical emergency would be handled by medics, not me.
no comma after "through", possibly also after "ago"?
to get on my nerves.” Her voice low, and for an instant I realized that this was the Rampage everypony else knew.
"Her voice was low" (or make it into a speech tag)
The pinned cybermare took a deep, crackling breath and shouted “Confirmed
comma after "shouted"
Blackjack is alive! Report! Blackjack is--“
inverted quotation mark
Somepony get somepony! Please!” I begged.
should have only one space after quotation
Breathe.” She said as she continued
period should be comma, should have only one space after quotation, first "She" shouldn't be capitalized
The backs of the pads was ripped open, and one had a bright yellow crystal
"backs . . . were"
I couldn’t pick and choose. “Well… I
only one space after period
“I guess, ‘I don’t know’ is better than ‘No’.” I sighed, “Well, I’m glad you’re able to help others in there. Personally, I’m kicking myself over how badly I misjudged Lighthooves. I could have sworn he was going to surrender himself… but he seems like he’s going all out.”
suggest tying "I sighed" to first quotation rather than second, or making it an independent sentence between the two: the second one seems like kind of a long thing to sigh
“What happened? I… you…” she saw the general
should have two spaces after quotation, "she" should be capitalized
Most of them had some injury or another; ripped feathers, lacerations, contusions, but none of them left the bridge.
suggest replacing semicolon with comma, or semicolon and last comma with dashes
Ever since we’ve come to this place...” she shook her head, then addressed the brown coms mare, “Can the Lightning
second space after first quotation, "she" should be capitalized
One of the mares said that the ship was aligned to target. “Open fire. Take some heat off the Lightning,” Storm Chaser ordered.
maybe put the general's line in a separate paragraph?
“Get away! Get some distance!” I yelled.
should have only one space after quotation
“What is the status of the Fleet?”
I'm not sure "Fleet" should be capitalized
The brown pegasus mare stomped her controls with her hooves in frustration, “Wait. I think I got it…” and then there was a crackle before the speakers came live.
comma should be period, or need speaking verb; should have second space after quotation and "and" should be capitalized (or deleted and "then" capitalized)
to the next issue. “Blackjack, you can’t be
only one space after period
“In the Wasteland?” I gaped a moment at that thought.
should have second space after quotation
be instantly killed. “The Rainbow Dash
only one space after period
nobly trot to your death?” Rampage asked, and then relaxed as I shook my head, “I was worried for
second comma should be period
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by O. Hinds Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:48 pm
@Icy Shake:
Ah, thank you very much as always. Sorry that you seem to have been busy.
No other chapter editing today? It's not a problem (it's a benefit, actually; even though I may not be on the road and thus unable to process it, the move isn't finished yet and I'm doing this from a folding chair and table), but I wanted to make sure I wasn't just missing it.
Okay, I think that I've fixed the cyberpony number issue. Thanks!
Ah, thank you very much as always. Sorry that you seem to have been busy.
No other chapter editing today? It's not a problem (it's a benefit, actually; even though I may not be on the road and thus unable to process it, the move isn't finished yet and I'm doing this from a folding chair and table), but I wanted to make sure I wasn't just missing it.
Hm… Ah, yes, that is confusing! Though the problem is elsewhere. As I read the insufficiently-clear wording, it's actually the cyberpony in S.A.T.S.Icy Shake wrote:Is someone else stuck in S.A.T.S.? How would Blackjack know? Should that just be "I felt like I was stuck in S.A.T.S."?
Why?Icy Shake wrote:if you're going in order, maybe switch skull and brain
Okay, I think that I've fixed the cyberpony number issue. Thanks!
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Meleagridis Wed Dec 17, 2014 10:14 pm
Maybe I'm just slow, but that helped me catch up with the sentence faster than I could on my own. Helped with the flow for me.Icy Shake wrote:
I lapsed into S.A.T.S. as Dawn dove to the side, the magic only turning her streak into a slow creep instead of a freeze, a sign of just how fast she moved.
I think that the part after the last comma is kind of superfluous.
I love the unconventional hybrid FO:E makes, and these scenes are always favourites for me. A part of me dearly hopes that this door comes back some day.Icy Shake wrote:I looked at Hoarfrost, and her eyes widened. She reached down to the beam pistol in her front holster with her mouth. I could have killed her four different ways. I could have levitated up the sword and sliced her head off. Duty and Sacrifice were nearby, too, though I wasn’t sure if they were loaded. I could have managed at least one magic bullet to her face. Or simply smashed her with my hooves.
Instead, my horn glowed, and a door instantly poofed into existence right in front of her. Then it slammed shut in her face with a resounding bang. I opened it again, saw her swaying with a mildly concussed expression, her gun held limply in her mouth, telekinetically pulled her head forward, and slammed the door closed a second time. Hoarfrost thumped to the ground behind it.
I was wrong. That was a useful spell of Twilight’s.
See, it's things like this that make it clear (and I'm not even just talking about how it's Twilight's spell) the world of the show is still there under everything, that there are still traces even in tone of the show made to sell toys to little girls.
A little off topic, but there are barrels outside the entrance right? Perhaps the Super Mutants cultivate it since it doesn't affect them, bringing radioactive barrels and actively maintaining a barrier of lethal radiation.Epsilon wrote:
3. Actually, that wouldn't really make much sense to me considering Vault 86. Why is the radiation level from a single detonation still so high there while the radiation from multiple concentrated detonations has all but cleared?
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Epsilon Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:30 am
Meleagridis wrote:A little off topic, but there are barrels outside the entrance right? Perhaps the Super Mutants cultivate it since it doesn't affect them, bringing radioactive barrels and actively maintaining a barrier of lethal radiation.
Doesn't look like it. Oh well. It's probably not worth nitpicking over every inconsistency in Fallout 3, or we'd be here all night!
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Silver136 Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:29 am
I find it funny that the ground zero at the Whitehouse is significantly less radioactive than Vault 86. In fact, the Whitehouse is at near survivable radiation levels. Some Rad-x and a rad suit and you'd be good for a long time at the Whitehouse.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Meleagridis Thu Dec 18, 2014 1:30 pm
Epsilon wrote:
Doesn't look like it. Oh well. It's probably not worth nitpicking over every inconsistency in Fallout 3, or we'd be here all night!
Well dang. And I'll have you know that nitpicking is a perfectly sensible way to pass the time.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Icy Shake Fri Dec 19, 2014 12:28 am
Just business travel. Thank you for the sympathy, but I'm happy enough I only need to deal with it a few times a year.O. Hinds wrote:@Icy Shake:
Ah, thank you very much as always. Sorry that you seem to have been busy.
Nowithstanding what I just said . . . too busy. I got a start on it, but just couldn't follow through.O. Hinds wrote:No other chapter editing today? It's not a problem (it's a benefit, actually; even though I may not be on the road and thus unable to process it, the move isn't finished yet and I'm doing this from a folding chair and table), but I wanted to make sure I wasn't just missing it.
He didn’t even get half a second before I plunged the sword through his hoof, his eye, his skull, and his brain.O. Hinds wrote:Why?Icy Shake wrote:if you're going in order, maybe switch skull and brain
Well, the hoof was brought up to protect the face, so it would be struck before the rest. Next comes the eye, possibly simultaneous with the skull depending on where the blade fell. However, bearing in mind that we're dealing with eyes the size of saucers (
), there's even a better chance than your normal extra-violent story that it's clean through the eye. In any case, the brain comes after the eye, and the sword has to go through the skull (again, if it hit on entry) to exit the head.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by O. Hinds Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:19 am
Isn't the back of the eye socket part of the skull?
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Icy Shake Fri Dec 19, 2014 1:26 am
. . .
Seems like yes.
Never mind.
This has been another installment of me not knowing anatomy.
Seems like yes.
Never mind.
This has been another installment of me not knowing anatomy.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by O. Hinds Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:07 pm
:)
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Somber Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:52 am
Sigh... why do I write this instead of 72?
Setting, I suppose.
The world’s like… ugh. I hate this analogy, but it’s like an onion. Damn it, couldn’t there be some other easily understood layered sphere we could use? Pearls? I don’t know… anyway. It’s an onion. Your universe, your world, is at the center of it. Don’t get clever. Every world is the center of it. It’s funny, that way. Helps if you try not to think too hard about that aspect. Embrace your inner dark age peon: Earth is the center of the universe and everything orbits around it. This world is one of those fundamental pins holding the universe together. It matters. You can go a lot of different places and not come across anything remotely like earth. This universe, that’s a lot of places.
So this world’s reality is a little bit squishy. Has to do with humanity fixing things. That’s what humans do. We name things. Define them. Limit them. Discover what they are and what they’re not. Measure, weigh, and evaluate. We give substance to reality. Without it, there’s no difference between the earth and anywhere else in the universe. Oh sure, the amounts of elements would be a little different than star system Waythefuckoutthere B, but pretty much the same. And yeah, when your astronomers see that star system, they make it more real. A billion light years away, and yet you reinforce its existence.
But at the same time, humans are constantly abstracting and making shit up that can’t be defined. We come up with things that aren’t real, but we treat them as real. Like Truth. You can’t weigh it. Can’t hold it. In fact, there’s some that say it doesn’t exist at all. You can say two plus two equals four, but that’s only because you’re using another abstract. Numbers. But the numbers help us reinforce reality. So, yeah. Any wonder why supernaturals are twisted as fuck with how to deal with us?
If you go a step outward from our world, you enter the Wyrd… the Dreamtime… the Twilight Zone. Whatever. It’s a place where reality isn’t as nailed down as it should be. Things are blurred. Sometimes, it’s so far away that you can’t even imagine it, even if you want to. Sometimes, the fucking place mugs you in the middle of the night just because it can. It’s the border between finite and infinite. The place where not all the rules work. But at the same time it’s earth. It bumps up and touches all kinds of places. It’s why monsters are real. Monsters are the result of human fears and abstractions made possible.
Weird shit. That’s the Wyrd. You know it when you’re in it, even if you don’t have a clue. The monkey instinct starts chittering away, warning you to find a tree to climb or shit some ammunition because something’s bad. And the Wyrd doesn’t like you. Oh, it’s not intelligent… unless it is… but that kind of shit gives me nightmares… so it’s not intelligent. It still doesn’t like you. Humans reinforce reality by trying to understand it. The Wyrd doesn’t like being understood. It might change the rules to fuck with you. It might send something nasty to munch you. So no. It’s not intelligent… unless it wants to be.
Past the Wyrd is the Maelstrom. This is the world of ideas. It’s where your mind brushes when it dreams. It’s where you find inspiration in your gods and religions. It’s where metaphor works and rules. Physics don’t work in the maelstrom. The things that live there could exist one minute, or linger for eons. Literal gods from mythology exist as personifications, some mighty, a few merciful, and a few bugfuck crazy. Beasts from stories roam. The landscape doesn’t just shift, it oozes. And as you change it, the Maelstrom changes you. Infinite possibility sounds great till you realize that its possible for your penis to transform into a potato, that sings, and flirts with your toes. Yeah.
But the Maelstrom isn’t the end. Past that lies the Nihil. As in Annihilation. As in, nothingness. If the Maelstrom is infinite possibility, then the Nihil is non-possibility. Oh, there’s some existence out there. Rotten, festering, spiteful things floating around in that vasty badness. But if you reach the Nihil, you’ve either got a death wish or the worst luck ever. Or both. The scary thing is that the Nihil isn’t just out there. You can find it in the Maelstrom, Wyrd, and even creeping into the world, from time to time. Snaking cracks creeping through existence, breaking it down and eroding it bit by bit. It wants to turn infinite possibility into non-possiblity. And if that tweaks your definition of infinite, then you’re starting to understand why supernatural people are so damned cranky.
Supernaturals are what happens when normal people live in areas where the wyrd has bled through. Maybe someone does something, or goes somewhere, or is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something happens. And from that point on, nothing is quite the same. The weakest ones are sensitives. They can perceive hints of the Wyrd. Of course mundane doctors just chalk it up to schizophrenia or something. Mental illness is so much easier to tackle than a reality that breaks its own rules. And to be fair, lots of people are just crazy. Not everything is supernatural.
Next are the mad scientists. Freaks. Crackpots. Dot Com ‘geniuses’ who become billionaires and no one is exactly sure how. They either get marginalized, or hit it huge. Some of them can redefine the rules. Others get thrown in asylums or end up homeless. Lots get medicated. Take Orville and William Wright. They were mad scientists. Making a wing that could carry a person through the air? Rediculous. Preposterous. Impossible! Till it was possible. Those two took a little bit of the Maelstrom, brought it into our world, and changed everything. Most don’t make it into the history books. Some do. Fucking Tesla and Edison… biggest mad scientist pissing match of the twentieth century…
After that are the mystics. Witches. Wizards. These people are trouble because their existence just doesn’t fit with the real world. So to make their shit work, they take a little bit of possibility from the Maelstrom and smuggle it through. The world rejects it, so a lot of the effects don’t last, but they can piss lightning and shoot fireballs out their asses. Most people see it and just rationalize it away afterwards. Fallen powerline and he had a missile launcher or something. Sensitives remember… then get locked up.
Once you pass the mystics, you end up with the supernaturals. The things. People changed by the wyrd into things that people persist in believing exist. Things like vampires, werewolves, and faeries. It doesn’t matter how much science says they’re impossible, people continue to believe. Angels and Demons of all kinds also fall into this group, and oddly enough all of them have human origins. They can’t change back, and some of them can’t cross the Wyrd because they’re too unworldly. Others can’t stay in our world because they don’t understand humanity. A few, like vampires and werewolves, have bred true enough to be called a race.
Vampires… fuck. These guys have got a million different stories about where they come from. Some say they’ve been around forever. Others that they’re only as old as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Regardless, there have always been stories of people as monsters. Vampires have one thing in common: blood. They need it to stay real. Without it, they get drawn further and further into the Maelstrom till they become something else. Past that, lots of vampires have… well… I guess you can call them “allergies.” Sunlight is a common one. Garlic too. Crosses and holy symbols occasionally. You become a vampire when one of them sucks you dry, then spits a little bit of their wyrd blood into your body. Then one of three things happen: nothing, and you’re a corpse, rejection and you become a mindless animal quickly put down one way or another, or you’re in. A very few vampires have the ability to reproduce biologically, but as I understand it, most regard that like we think of bestiality.
Speaking of bestiality! Werewolves! Like Vampires, there’s always been stories of shapeshifters. Werewolves are similar to vampires in there was some poor schmuck who was minding their own business when, wham, an animal spirit from the maelstrom got stuck inside him. From then on it’s a wrestling match between two worlds and two psyches. A second way is a were beastie bites you and transfers some of the spirit to you. Usually, nothing happens. A scratch isn’t enough to overcome the world saying werewolves don’t exist. But if you’re in a wilderness area where the rules are a little softer than usual… yeah. It can happen. You usually go crazy, of course. The craziest fuckers though go into the maelstrom to bump uglies and breed a werewolf. It’s one of the most reliable way for psychopaths to proprogate… though the mortal parent usually doesn’t survive the ‘birth’. Oh, and yeah, there are actually lots of different kinds of shifters. Werewolves just get the most press. Technically, it’s therinthrope.
Fae are… sad. They’re mortals caught in dreams and nightmares. They dream and get sucked into the Wyrd. Or maybe the wyrd gets syphoned into them. I dunno. Some of the greatest artists have been fae. Plenty of them are also basket cases. I’m looking at you, Van Gogh and Poe! Fae usually group together as a club, and they reinforce each other. A fae on their own is either easy pickings, or so strong they don’t need to worry. But you get twenty or thirty fae playing court and they can start projecting the wyrd on reality. Nice ones just want to be left alone. Bad ones want to turn mortals into more fae… and usually just end up driving them crazy.
Servants are supernaturals touched by ‘gods’. Angels and Demons, for you Abrahamic Tradition folks, but really there’s dozens. Hundreds even. How it happens is… strange. Some mortals get lost in the Wyrd and are drawn to a god… or stumble on them by accident… poor fuckers. Some are born from a mortal who did the deed with something that can’t enter our world. Those are rarely pretty. Servants can have powerful effects though. Religion defined reality until fairly recently. Jesus was one. Jehova only knows what happened to Mary. Regardless, these guys are like vampires, only stronger. Some can’t even make it past the Wyrd. Others are no different from mortals.
Anything past Supernaturals are Mythics. These things are so out there they can’t survive in the modern world… or they’re so vast and powerful that if they did come, it’d break reality. Many of these are singular beings, like Medusa. Nice lady. Great in the sack. Loves SnM, but whatever you do don’t take the hood off till you’re done. She can’t leave the Wyrd, though. Our world just doesn’t let her. Bigfoot is almost a Mythic… or maybe they are now. Now sure… Lots of ‘native’ myths have ended up mythics. Gods are generally mythics too. They might claim to be able to enter reality, but more often they’ll scoop up a mortal and bring them to the Maelstrom.
Now, last bit. There’s supernaturals that scoff at this, but I’ll tell you because reality is right fucked up. Nulls. They say that sometimes mortals end up in the Nihil, and come out. They don’t seem any different, but they carry with them the stench of oblivion on them. Magic doesn’t work on them. Bullets don’t work on them. Hell, gravity doesn’t work on them if they don’t want it to. And they obliterate anything and everything they come in contact with. And worse of all, somehow, they’re supposed to be intelligent. Nothing I know can explain why or how, but they happen. If you see a person and things get quiet and dim… run. Run for your life. Weak ones will only kill you. Strong ones kill gods. The strongest? Well… some hypothesize that they unmake reality, so that not only do you not exist, but you never existed.
Hope that keeps you alive past next week. Good luck!
Setting, I suppose.
The world’s like… ugh. I hate this analogy, but it’s like an onion. Damn it, couldn’t there be some other easily understood layered sphere we could use? Pearls? I don’t know… anyway. It’s an onion. Your universe, your world, is at the center of it. Don’t get clever. Every world is the center of it. It’s funny, that way. Helps if you try not to think too hard about that aspect. Embrace your inner dark age peon: Earth is the center of the universe and everything orbits around it. This world is one of those fundamental pins holding the universe together. It matters. You can go a lot of different places and not come across anything remotely like earth. This universe, that’s a lot of places.
So this world’s reality is a little bit squishy. Has to do with humanity fixing things. That’s what humans do. We name things. Define them. Limit them. Discover what they are and what they’re not. Measure, weigh, and evaluate. We give substance to reality. Without it, there’s no difference between the earth and anywhere else in the universe. Oh sure, the amounts of elements would be a little different than star system Waythefuckoutthere B, but pretty much the same. And yeah, when your astronomers see that star system, they make it more real. A billion light years away, and yet you reinforce its existence.
But at the same time, humans are constantly abstracting and making shit up that can’t be defined. We come up with things that aren’t real, but we treat them as real. Like Truth. You can’t weigh it. Can’t hold it. In fact, there’s some that say it doesn’t exist at all. You can say two plus two equals four, but that’s only because you’re using another abstract. Numbers. But the numbers help us reinforce reality. So, yeah. Any wonder why supernaturals are twisted as fuck with how to deal with us?
If you go a step outward from our world, you enter the Wyrd… the Dreamtime… the Twilight Zone. Whatever. It’s a place where reality isn’t as nailed down as it should be. Things are blurred. Sometimes, it’s so far away that you can’t even imagine it, even if you want to. Sometimes, the fucking place mugs you in the middle of the night just because it can. It’s the border between finite and infinite. The place where not all the rules work. But at the same time it’s earth. It bumps up and touches all kinds of places. It’s why monsters are real. Monsters are the result of human fears and abstractions made possible.
Weird shit. That’s the Wyrd. You know it when you’re in it, even if you don’t have a clue. The monkey instinct starts chittering away, warning you to find a tree to climb or shit some ammunition because something’s bad. And the Wyrd doesn’t like you. Oh, it’s not intelligent… unless it is… but that kind of shit gives me nightmares… so it’s not intelligent. It still doesn’t like you. Humans reinforce reality by trying to understand it. The Wyrd doesn’t like being understood. It might change the rules to fuck with you. It might send something nasty to munch you. So no. It’s not intelligent… unless it wants to be.
Past the Wyrd is the Maelstrom. This is the world of ideas. It’s where your mind brushes when it dreams. It’s where you find inspiration in your gods and religions. It’s where metaphor works and rules. Physics don’t work in the maelstrom. The things that live there could exist one minute, or linger for eons. Literal gods from mythology exist as personifications, some mighty, a few merciful, and a few bugfuck crazy. Beasts from stories roam. The landscape doesn’t just shift, it oozes. And as you change it, the Maelstrom changes you. Infinite possibility sounds great till you realize that its possible for your penis to transform into a potato, that sings, and flirts with your toes. Yeah.
But the Maelstrom isn’t the end. Past that lies the Nihil. As in Annihilation. As in, nothingness. If the Maelstrom is infinite possibility, then the Nihil is non-possibility. Oh, there’s some existence out there. Rotten, festering, spiteful things floating around in that vasty badness. But if you reach the Nihil, you’ve either got a death wish or the worst luck ever. Or both. The scary thing is that the Nihil isn’t just out there. You can find it in the Maelstrom, Wyrd, and even creeping into the world, from time to time. Snaking cracks creeping through existence, breaking it down and eroding it bit by bit. It wants to turn infinite possibility into non-possiblity. And if that tweaks your definition of infinite, then you’re starting to understand why supernatural people are so damned cranky.
Supernaturals are what happens when normal people live in areas where the wyrd has bled through. Maybe someone does something, or goes somewhere, or is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something happens. And from that point on, nothing is quite the same. The weakest ones are sensitives. They can perceive hints of the Wyrd. Of course mundane doctors just chalk it up to schizophrenia or something. Mental illness is so much easier to tackle than a reality that breaks its own rules. And to be fair, lots of people are just crazy. Not everything is supernatural.
Next are the mad scientists. Freaks. Crackpots. Dot Com ‘geniuses’ who become billionaires and no one is exactly sure how. They either get marginalized, or hit it huge. Some of them can redefine the rules. Others get thrown in asylums or end up homeless. Lots get medicated. Take Orville and William Wright. They were mad scientists. Making a wing that could carry a person through the air? Rediculous. Preposterous. Impossible! Till it was possible. Those two took a little bit of the Maelstrom, brought it into our world, and changed everything. Most don’t make it into the history books. Some do. Fucking Tesla and Edison… biggest mad scientist pissing match of the twentieth century…
After that are the mystics. Witches. Wizards. These people are trouble because their existence just doesn’t fit with the real world. So to make their shit work, they take a little bit of possibility from the Maelstrom and smuggle it through. The world rejects it, so a lot of the effects don’t last, but they can piss lightning and shoot fireballs out their asses. Most people see it and just rationalize it away afterwards. Fallen powerline and he had a missile launcher or something. Sensitives remember… then get locked up.
Once you pass the mystics, you end up with the supernaturals. The things. People changed by the wyrd into things that people persist in believing exist. Things like vampires, werewolves, and faeries. It doesn’t matter how much science says they’re impossible, people continue to believe. Angels and Demons of all kinds also fall into this group, and oddly enough all of them have human origins. They can’t change back, and some of them can’t cross the Wyrd because they’re too unworldly. Others can’t stay in our world because they don’t understand humanity. A few, like vampires and werewolves, have bred true enough to be called a race.
Vampires… fuck. These guys have got a million different stories about where they come from. Some say they’ve been around forever. Others that they’re only as old as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Regardless, there have always been stories of people as monsters. Vampires have one thing in common: blood. They need it to stay real. Without it, they get drawn further and further into the Maelstrom till they become something else. Past that, lots of vampires have… well… I guess you can call them “allergies.” Sunlight is a common one. Garlic too. Crosses and holy symbols occasionally. You become a vampire when one of them sucks you dry, then spits a little bit of their wyrd blood into your body. Then one of three things happen: nothing, and you’re a corpse, rejection and you become a mindless animal quickly put down one way or another, or you’re in. A very few vampires have the ability to reproduce biologically, but as I understand it, most regard that like we think of bestiality.
Speaking of bestiality! Werewolves! Like Vampires, there’s always been stories of shapeshifters. Werewolves are similar to vampires in there was some poor schmuck who was minding their own business when, wham, an animal spirit from the maelstrom got stuck inside him. From then on it’s a wrestling match between two worlds and two psyches. A second way is a were beastie bites you and transfers some of the spirit to you. Usually, nothing happens. A scratch isn’t enough to overcome the world saying werewolves don’t exist. But if you’re in a wilderness area where the rules are a little softer than usual… yeah. It can happen. You usually go crazy, of course. The craziest fuckers though go into the maelstrom to bump uglies and breed a werewolf. It’s one of the most reliable way for psychopaths to proprogate… though the mortal parent usually doesn’t survive the ‘birth’. Oh, and yeah, there are actually lots of different kinds of shifters. Werewolves just get the most press. Technically, it’s therinthrope.
Fae are… sad. They’re mortals caught in dreams and nightmares. They dream and get sucked into the Wyrd. Or maybe the wyrd gets syphoned into them. I dunno. Some of the greatest artists have been fae. Plenty of them are also basket cases. I’m looking at you, Van Gogh and Poe! Fae usually group together as a club, and they reinforce each other. A fae on their own is either easy pickings, or so strong they don’t need to worry. But you get twenty or thirty fae playing court and they can start projecting the wyrd on reality. Nice ones just want to be left alone. Bad ones want to turn mortals into more fae… and usually just end up driving them crazy.
Servants are supernaturals touched by ‘gods’. Angels and Demons, for you Abrahamic Tradition folks, but really there’s dozens. Hundreds even. How it happens is… strange. Some mortals get lost in the Wyrd and are drawn to a god… or stumble on them by accident… poor fuckers. Some are born from a mortal who did the deed with something that can’t enter our world. Those are rarely pretty. Servants can have powerful effects though. Religion defined reality until fairly recently. Jesus was one. Jehova only knows what happened to Mary. Regardless, these guys are like vampires, only stronger. Some can’t even make it past the Wyrd. Others are no different from mortals.
Anything past Supernaturals are Mythics. These things are so out there they can’t survive in the modern world… or they’re so vast and powerful that if they did come, it’d break reality. Many of these are singular beings, like Medusa. Nice lady. Great in the sack. Loves SnM, but whatever you do don’t take the hood off till you’re done. She can’t leave the Wyrd, though. Our world just doesn’t let her. Bigfoot is almost a Mythic… or maybe they are now. Now sure… Lots of ‘native’ myths have ended up mythics. Gods are generally mythics too. They might claim to be able to enter reality, but more often they’ll scoop up a mortal and bring them to the Maelstrom.
Now, last bit. There’s supernaturals that scoff at this, but I’ll tell you because reality is right fucked up. Nulls. They say that sometimes mortals end up in the Nihil, and come out. They don’t seem any different, but they carry with them the stench of oblivion on them. Magic doesn’t work on them. Bullets don’t work on them. Hell, gravity doesn’t work on them if they don’t want it to. And they obliterate anything and everything they come in contact with. And worse of all, somehow, they’re supposed to be intelligent. Nothing I know can explain why or how, but they happen. If you see a person and things get quiet and dim… run. Run for your life. Weak ones will only kill you. Strong ones kill gods. The strongest? Well… some hypothesize that they unmake reality, so that not only do you not exist, but you never existed.
Hope that keeps you alive past next week. Good luck!
Somber- Hydra
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Frost Sat Dec 20, 2014 2:30 am
My only question to all that:
How the fuck are you not published yet, exactly?
How the fuck are you not published yet, exactly?
Frost- Crazed Gun-Toting 'Murican
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by tylertoon2 Sat Dec 20, 2014 3:28 am
I think somber is going to have to write some satire. Something he tries so bad to be awful, full of plot holes, cliche's and terrible writing. Completely so unimaginative that it would be utterly boring and wrong for us. Full of blatent fan service characters a truck load of mary and marty-stus.Mister Frost wrote:My only question to all that:
How the fuck are you not published yet, exactly?
Then watch as it sells like hot cakes and people take it completely seriously. Somber's name is in more households and teenage bedrooms than Stephane Myer.
Then we can enjoy all the fantastic fantasy and syfy works he puts out for free on the internet as they are put out faster than ever since Somber will have mungo dollars and won't have to worry about real life issues.
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by Valikdu Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:03 am
I've found another great track that would fit into PH.
Valikdu- Alicorn
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Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion
by SilentCarto Sat Dec 20, 2014 2:31 pm
Erm, sorry, aviation geek here... gliders had been around long before the Wright brothers. People have designed them since at least Da Vinci, though they wern't good enough to carry a human until Otto Lilienthal in 1891 -- over 10 years before the Wrights made the first powered flight. The Wright Flyer was an evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) development whose main obstacle was finding a power source that was light and powerful enough to carry aloft.Somber wrote:Take Orville and William Wright. They were mad scientists. Making a wing that could carry a person through the air? Ridiculous. Preposterous. Impossible! Till it was possible.
SilentCarto- Alicorn
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