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fconvicted · 7 months ago

Note

you NEED to tell me more about your au

(you don’t have to but i’m curious)

yeah! i'd love to share (im assuming this is about Airlock AU but you can always message me back if its in regard to a different au)- im hoping in january time i'll have more formal pieces to show case and a proper summary of what's going on.

i wanna start off by saying that the illustrations ive been posting are really just luring everyone into a false sense of security 'cause the actual plot of "Airlock" is kindda wild. before continuing, id HIGHLY suggest reading my "Eye of the Storm" PDF (at least the "Story So Far" pages), Airlock is in continuation of that specific arc.

ANYWAYS

what is Airlock?

it's approximately 5-6 years after the events of canon Overwatch 2. two major things have happened in Siebren's life at this point:

Siebren was put on trial for his association with Talon but got acquitted. The UN still didn't trust Siebren to walk as a free man with the powers he possessed. They offered him the options of being monitored by Overwatch when using his powers or don't use his powers at all. He agreed to no longer use his powers (to an extent)

Oscar de Kuiper was born; he was the genetically augmented child of Siebren and Kaori, hosting the same abilities as his father. For many reasons, including his birth, Siebren and Kaori decided to live in a small town close to Numbani that shared very similar ideology as the city.

With restricted abilities and a family to look after, Siebren did his best to continue living quietly. He purchased an observatory that was damaged back during the Omnic Crisis. He hired a brilliant young engineer by the name of Obiora to tend to the telescope and help up keep the observatory.

The political climate of the world at this time was very strained. Ramattra and his forces have been defeated, but it seemed like God AI's were stirring. There's no direct evidence of them completely waking up, but one thing was for certain: the Earth was running out of its natural resources at a fast rate. Pollution was rising high and the climate was fluctuating badly. People were speculating Omniums were being created in isolated areas, whether it was underground or under seas. Because of these lacking resources, Omnics and those with cybernetic augmentations were finding it both harder and more expensive to get their hands on new parts or resources to fix their bodies. Humans were often prioritized for repairs and Omnics were more or less ignored.

That was until Siebren discovered that Obiora had been working on a concept for a machine that would mine asteroids.

And so "Airlock" begins.

There was a little more to it: staff was hired and a decommissioned Omium restored to operate as their Earth base. Illari and Sloan were the first to be hired to fly out into the asteroid belt with Siebren, "corral" an asteroid, break it down into shipable pieces and begin the process of making the "Asteroid Farming Machine".

But what about Juno?

Overwatch had been kind enough to send supplies that would sustain the people on Mars. It was easier to ship things one way. Some plans were set up to get the Red Promise team back but it was a long process. It's through Efi that Juno found out a team was planning to set course for the asteroid belt. If they had a ship intended to go back and forth, then surely her family could hitch a ride back to Earth!

And so the Orbital Team was made! Siebren as the leader, Illari second in command, Sloan as lead mining expert and Juno as medic!

But little did the team know, someone else had a very similar plan set in the asteroid belt a little over 25 years ago.

Or more...

Something else.

#airlock au #long post #what a doozy hope you enjoy!#ive actually been slowly writing the prologue for this story and am considering making a ten chapter fanfic #if you guys are interested in a lore/plot based story #plr-pipeline #ask

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dirt-piper · 1 year ago

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The TF2 problem

Don't take anything I say here as gospel - much of it is my own speculation and musings.

TF2 is my favorite game of all time. I started playing it wayyy back in 2012, and while I don't have that many hours racked up total (a meager ~1K), I can at least consider myself to be a few rungs above 'total n00b' in terms of familiarity with the game. I've experienced the best and worst eras of the game - from the Love & War update to the current botting crisis, and I have loved TF2 every step of the way.

But just because I love it, doesn't mean I think it's flawless!

Around 2015-2016 I noticed (alongside damn near everyone else playing TF2) that TF2 was changing, and not in a particularly good way. Love & War was in many ways a perfect update for TF2 - it gave attention and goodies to both the highly casual and the highly competitive ends of the playerbase, with a fancy new taunt system bundled with some pretty fun new weapons. At about this time, Blizzard announced the imminent release of their new game Overwatch, which was directly inspired by TF2 - and now presented itself as being a direct competitor to TF2 in its own niche. This, of course, turned out to be bogus - Overwatch is its own game with its own niche that has a playerbase nearly wholly separate from TF2's.

A common trend amongst the TF2 playerbase at the time was this sense of dread regarding Overwatch - either that it would suck up the entire TF2 playerbase, leaving the game to die, or that Blizzard would try their damnedest to manifest such a reality. Either way, a ton of die-hard TF2 fans began to absolutely loathe Blizzard's new game (before it even came out, I might add) for so much as daring to 'unthrone' TF2.

This entire premise is stupid. It's stupid now, and it was stupid then. But the fear became so pervasive throughout the community that, eventually, it seemed like VALVe was getting scared too. The tone and focus of TF2's updates began to shift far more heavily towards the competitive end of TF2's playerbase - which has never been the majority - as VALVe appeared to try to pivot TF2 into a stance where it could better "compete" with the upcoming Overwatch. Bits and pieces of this started showing with Gun Mettle and Tough Break, before Meet your Match completely revamped the game into a more competitive-focused format.

Why they would do this didn't really make sense - if VALVe wanted to compete against Blizzard's new AAA FPS with a competitive scene, then why would they try to remodel TF2 to position it as a "more valid competitor" to Overwatch when CS:GO was already a proven champion in that space? TF2 doesn't need to compete with Overwatch. It never did. So why would they expend so much effort to change TF2's course when, frankly, it was doing fine as-is?

Looking back now, with nearly a decade of hindsight and a bit more insight into VALVe actually works, I think the picture is a bit clearer, or at least the one I've formed in my head is. I don't think TF2's sudden drastic shift in focus was the result of VALVe scrambling to shore TF2 up against the onslaught of Overwatch - I think it was, rather, the TF2 team scrambling to shore TF2 up against VALVe.

VALVe is not a normal game studio. VALVe is not only lucky enough to be their own publisher (therefore making them a completely independent studio - yes, VALVe games are 'indie'), but also extremely lucky enough to be the de-facto publisher for nearly the entire PC game industry, thanks to Steam. VALVe makes money off of every single game sold through Steam whether they made it or not, essentially guaranteeing them a constant stream of exorbitant income regardless of their own output. They have a complete vertical monopoly of their own industry - they own themselves (VALVe has no shareholders whatsoever), they own their products, they own their publisher, they own their distributor - and now, with the Steam Deck, they own their hardware platforms too. VALVe answers to nobody but themselves, because they own everything that could possibly impact their business.

VALVe is, in a lot of ways, in a somewhat similar situation to AT&T (aka 'Ma Bell') back before the breakup of the phone company back in 1982. AT&T owned the entire phone network - from the switching equipment to the phone lines to the handsets plugged into them - and they charged every person in the country who leased phone service from them (you couldn't own a phone back then!) a subscription fee. AT&T, then, had basically infinite money to do whatever the hell they wanted with (though the government strictly regulated their commercial activities so they could not compete in any industry but telephony). As a result of this, Bell labs, the core Research & Development branch of AT&T, was in a very unique scenario - projects undertaken by Bell labs researchers weren't given budgets - they were given quotas.

AT&T didn't care how much money or time was spent on a project by a Bell labs researcher, so long as it ultimately resulted in something that benefited the company. And this model worked very, very well - Bell labs' researchers gave the world the transistor, the laser, the CCD, the Unix operating system, the C programming language, and received 10 Nobel peace prizes.

VALVe, through Steam, has a free, infinite revenue stream. VALVe's staff, then, effectively have infinite money and time at their disposal to make whatever they desire - so long as it ultimately results in something that benefits VALVe. Or, at least, so long as the people who hold the most seniority at VALVe think it would benefit VALVe.

It's no particular secret that the old guard at VALVe are, largely, unenthusiastic about TF2. Remember - Team Fortress is VALVe's oldest franchise. The original Team Fortress mod was released in August of 1996 - a mere one month after the Nintendo 64's initial release - a full 2 years before Half-life. Sure, VALVe didn't initially create Team Fortress, but they bought Team Fortress Software for a reason - Team Fortress was insanely popular. And it's not just TF2 that has absurd longevity, it's the entire Team Fortress franchise; here's a match from a Quake Team Fortress competitive tournament that is currently ongoing as I write this post:

youtube

VALVe acquired Team Fortress software with the premise that the sequel to Team Fortress would become an expansion to Half-life, thereby increasing Half-life's desirability by attaching it to the sequel of one of the most popular FPS games available at the time. TF2, of course, took a bit longer than expected - so Team Fortress Classic, a more-or-less direct port of Team Fortress to goldsrc, was released in 1999 to satiate people until the real TF2 came out.

That took another 8 years.

When TF2 finally released, it pioneered the concept of games as a service - that you could buy a game once and it would receive new content, features, fixes, etc. indefinitely - for free. These were not paid expansions or DLC, these were actual updates made directly to the game that anyone could get access to so long as they happened to own the game. And, once TF2 went free to play, the deal became even better. This model was utterly groundbreaking in 2007 - it's the standard for how most games operate today, sure, but only because TF2 proved how well it could work.

The issue, of course, is that VALVe was eternally working on TF2. By 2015, Team Fortress 2 had been in development in some form or another for 17 years. With this perspective, it seems understandable why some of the more senior members of VALVe would have grown sick of Team Fortress - they'd been doing or dealing with the same game for nearly 2 decades.

But, of course, newer hires at VALVe would have nowhere near the same level of fatigue - many of them were likely still very passionate about the game, and eager to continue its lifespan - but when the people who sign their paychecks and review their employee performances are sick and tired of hearing about Team Fortress, it becomes less and less attractive to pour effort into the game, no matter how much they may personally wish to.

Under these circumstances, the tonal shift TF2 experienced around the release of Overwatch appears more as an internal struggle - the remaining TF2 team trying desperately to prove to their seniors that TF2 was not yet ready to be phased out, that the game could modernize and remain relevant in the modern competitive gaming scene, that just because they were sick of TF2 didn't mean that everyone was.

So, they gambled. They bet TF2's future on a new revamp to adapt it to the then-modern world of competitive e-sports... and fumbled it pretty hard with Meet your Match.

The problem with the TF2 team's attempt to make TF2 more suited to the modern world of competitive gaming was that they seemed to overlook that, to the average non-competitive TF2 player, the game as it was was perfectly fine. Through Quickplay, any player could be automatically placed into a server matching their desired criteria and just... play. A server would stay on a given map for roughly 45 minutes (though players could vote to extend the map timer) regardless of how many rounds there were, meaning that everyone got the same amount of time to play the map regardless of how good or bad either team, as a whole, performed. This game players plenty of time to just... have fun playing TF2. There was no rush or hurry or incentive to play the game in any way other than how you wanted to.

This made TF2 very unique in the FPS world - the truest example of a "casual shooter". There were no ranks or rewards or incentives to play every day beyond random item drops and the enjoyment derived from simply playing the game itself.

The TF2 team's attempt to 'modernize' TF2 in Meet your Match effectively ruined this.

In addition to the introduction of a new, dedicated 6v6 competitive mode, Quickplay was replaced with 'Casual' - a matchmaking lite that tried to find a middle ground between the chaotic ad-hoc freedom of Quickplay and the more rigid, competitive structure of Competitive. It didn't work. Most TF2 players just wanted to play TF2 - casual forced them to stop and wait for the matchmaking system to find a server for them matching its desired criteria, stop and wait every other round for the server to change maps, stop and wait for matchmaking cooldowns to run out if they left a game in progress - so much time was spent stopping and waiting to play the game that hardly any was left to play the game itself. Yes, some of these problems have since been smoothed over, but Casual still forces the play to spend less time playing the game than Quickplay did. In my opinion, Casual, as it was released, could have been perfectly fine if Quickplay was kept alongside it. Instead, in one fell swoop, the way the vast majority of people played TF2 was effectively removed from the game.

In fairness to the TF2 team regarding this gamble, they were under enormous pressure - not just from a TF2 community growing increasingly paranoid about TF2's future due to the imagined threat of Overwatch - but also from the higher-ups at VALVe they were trying to convince.

However, the TF2 team snuck a back-up plan into Meet your Match - the Heavy vs. Pyro war. By outright promising a future major update (or perhaps two, even!), the TF2 team could at least insure that, no matter what their 'bosses' thought, they could justify their continued work on the game as fulfillment of a promise made to the community. And, if the new update was enough of a hit, it could perhaps inspire their 'bosses' to let TF2 continue to live on, at least for a little while.

So, the TF2 team pulled out all the stops for the next update. Jungle Inferno had an animated short, new maps, new weapons, entirely new features (ie. the contracker), it had a massive hype-spiraling 4-day-long update announcement, major weapon rebalances and overhauls - they clearly tried their damnedest to make the best TF2 update possible.

Whether or not the team managed to convince their superiors is unknowable. Jungle Inferno was followed by the fanfare-less Blue Moon update in early 2018, followed by radio silence. The TF2 team may very well have still been hard at work on the elusive Heavy update, but the double-whammy of the all-hands-on-deck push to get Half-life: Alyx finished and released immediately followed by the COVID pandemic likely reset whatever momentum or motivation the TF2 team had left.

This scenario, as described, is painful enough. From the outside, it appears as though VALVe had rebounded from Meet your Match, and was doing its best to improve the game in the wake of their own missteps, only to suddenly drop TF2 with zero explanation given. TF2 was left in a state of indefinite limbo with no clear outlook whatsoever on the future.

What made this infinitely worse is that VALVe had left the game in a state that wasn't just unfinished, it was broken.

TF2 has literally always had a botting problem. For the first span of the game's life, this generally manifested as idling/trading bots, but later on more and more bots began to appear that sought only to disrupt gameplay. Micspam, false votekicks, aimbotting, speedhacks, etc. - purely for the sake of irritating real players. Until Meet your Match, these cheating bots were relatively uncommon - real players could very easily either kick them from the game or simply join another server via Quickplay. Their impact on gameplay was no more than a minor, brief annoyance, and thus they were considered a non-issue.

Meet your Match's new Casual system, however, dramatically restricted the player's ability to hop to other servers when bots arose. Not only this, but the ability to switch teams at will was disabled on Casual servers, meaning it was now impossible to deal with bots on any team but your own (previously, if the other team was too slow to kick their own bots, it was possible to just wait for an opening on the other team, hop over, and call a votekick against the offending bot that would usually end up succeeding). Now, the disruption caused by a single bot was far more impactful than it had been before - because it was a far greater chore to either kick the bot or find a different server. Moreover, Casual outright incentivizes players to stick to the same server until the end - awarding them extra points the more they play, and nullifying any progress they've made towards a given contract that match if they leave before it ends. Players are thus, in effect, forced to play even when bots have made the game unenjoyable.

This resulted in a feedback loop - bots were now more irritating, so people complained about them more, so bot hosters hosted more bots, making them even more irritating - and that feedback loop has continued nearly unabated until modern day.

The TF2 community has been begging for an end to the botting problem for ages - and there have been genuine efforts from the TF2 team to try and fix the problem, but they have been too small and too infrequent to make much impact. And, to be frank, there is no way to effectively, permanently remove the bots. Attempting to keep any and all bots from the game would require enormous, constant effort from the TF2 team - something which is a very tall ask given VALVe's attitude towards the game for the past decade.

What can be done, however, is to simply make the bots less impactful. To let players more easily avoid them, to let players enjoy the game for longer so the bots are no longer such a nuisance, to let players have enough freedom in how they play that they are no longer forced to suffer through games with bots. It won't outright remove bots forever, but it will make them so much less of a nuisance that bot hosters will likely lose the incentive to bother with them. As soon as that happens, the feedback loop will be broken, and the botting issue will decline in severity as their potential impact on players' enjoyment of the game is neutered.

The simplest way to do this is to make Casual just as free as Quickplay was.

45 minute map timers, extensible by vote.

An Indefinite number of rounds per map.

Ad-hoc joining, leaving, and team switching.

Progress on contracts not erased by leaving mid-round.

These are not overwhelming changes. If anything, it's something of a return to form - not outright bringing back Quickplay, but making Casual into a suitable replacement for it - at long last.

And - most importantly - it's a one-time fix. It does not require an eternal arms race against bot hosters, nor a full return to frequent, massive content updates (though those would be nice).

One update to make TF2 more fun, to make the bots less impactful, and to give the game a better standing for the future.

One update to fix TF2.

-DirtPiper

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hypodermicfroggy · 9 months ago

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From my experience, enjoyment of the worlds of Blizzard games comes in a spectrum:

Overwatch: Because the developers refused to elaborate further with the lore on account of corporate greed and mismanagement, everything is up to speculation and you can basically do whatever you want with these settings and characters.

World of Warcraft: Please, god, stop elaborating.

#Blizzard Entertainment #World of Warcraft #Overwatch #Overwatch 2 #Actiblizz #now when I say 'enjoyment' I mostly mean I go 'my city now'#and play the games without paying them a cent in whatever way I can (at least in the case of WoW thanks to emulation)#while reading auxilliary lore through wikis and such #(and Overwatch I just stopped playing at all back in 2023 and I don't regret it)#I admit I don't know from personal experience what the hell is going on with Starcraft or Diablo #but I assume they still follow the same axis/spectrum #considering Starcraft has not officially had a game in like 10 years?#and Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal are...Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal.#this post was brought to you by me going 'I really want to make some WoW OC fan content or AUs or something'#and then deciding to brush up on my lore #and then Immediately Regretting It #far as I'm concerned the story stops after Cataclysm #*maybe* Legion but Legion is on thin fucking ice because they did Vol'jin so dirty #not to mention that all the inconsistent shit with Garrosh and Sylvanas?#is because two of Blizz's most notorious sex perverts were having a dickwaving contest #and then basically massacring each other's blorbo in the process of said dickwaving #like is Metzen a perfect writer? no. he's very simplistic. was his shit still better than what we got? A VERY EMPHATIC YES.#croak.txt #reblog.wank

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aretheyqueer · 23 days ago

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Is he transmasc?

disclaimer: this is a hc, not speculating on what the writers intentions were.

poll is meant to say transmasc, not trans man !!!

reason: The Hamster is trans.

#hammond #overwatch #overwatch hammond #trans #trans headcanon #transmasc #poll #polls #lgbt headcanons #video games

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damage-incorp0rated · 1 month ago

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Hey, you! Psst! Over here!

i see that you've taken an interest in perusing the wonderful (subjective) nonsense of my blog - and to that i say, welcome! hello! bonjour! aloha! hola! and other words that mean "hello" in various languages.

and, since you've taken such an interest, i'll provide you with some basic information regarding myself and what you'll see here. i'll try to keep it brief (& fail at doing so)!

So (you may be asking), "who is this on the other line anyway? Who is this... complete and utter nerd I'm reading the posts of right now?" And, to that I answer:

hi! i'm bee. or b-model, sometimes people call me that. i don't really mind what you call me. my pronouns are... any, honestly, but if you want a default you can use they/them. i don't really care what you use for me.

i'm a musician, artist, aspiring paleontologist, video game nerd, among a lot of other things. i play guitar, bass, keyboard, and occasionally sing, and often like to use weird music software to see what i can get out of it.

"Alright, that's cool. What's this blog about?"

well, i'm VERY glad you asked! it's a blog pertaining to my interests, the most frequent ones you will probably be seeing will be listed below (my interests change focus frequently, but the ones in bold text are ones i'm always focused on to some degree.)

MUSIC, BANDS, & GENRES

Susumu Hirasawa (LITERALLY EVERYTHING HE DOES. P-MODEL, SOLO CAREER, ALL OF IT. My biggest interest by far.)

Visual kei (ESPECIALLY BUCK-TICK, MALICE MIZER, DIR EN GREY, LAREINE, EXIST†TRACE, ETC.!! I plan to get into many more bands, though. My understanding of the genre is still quite surface-level... this section also covers bands that were formerly vkei that I like/bands that are debated on whether they're vkei or not, but undoubtedly influenced the genre.)

Sakanaction

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Spitz

Metallica (Many of you might know me from when I was a Metallica fanblog, and it's where my current URL comes from. The band saved me in one of my darkest periods, but I'm not as majorly into them as I used to be. Saw them in concert twice, though!)

Daft Punk

Hideki Naganuma

Buckethead

VIDEO GAMES

Yakuza/Ryu Ga Gotoku (Majima is my favorite character, my #1 favorite fictional character of all time!!)

Sonic the Hedgehog (Shadow the Hedgehog is my other favorite character of all time...)

The Legend of Zelda

Pokemon (my favorite character is Rika from S/V, and my favorite Pokemon is Blaziken!)

Devil May Cry

Genshin Impact & Honkai Star Rail (mostly for Arlecchino. I don't really like how Hoyoverse has handled some aspects of their games in recent times, specifically Genshin, but I stay up-to-date specifically because of her.)

Overwatch, Valorant, Fortnite, general shooter games. (I was raised on them, I don't play them very much, though. I do really like Moira from Overwatch in a completely normal way though (i want her so bad))

MISC. MEDIA & INTERESTS

Paleontology (what I plan to major in!)

The Lion King (yes, the Disney movie... another interest that's been stuck with me for a decade.)

Kaiju & Mecha, sort of. (Godzilla Minus One is one of my top five favorite movies, guess there's that.)

Anime... kind of. (I don't watch much, but I like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Death Note, Dragon Ball, & Jujutsu Kaisen)

Jurassic Park (Ian Malcolm is my favorite character. ME IRL!!!)

Dungeons & Dragons... and general fantasy settings.

Sci-fi

Speculative evolution/biology

Learning software, modding games, computers, all of that. I want to get good at doing all that stuff at some point...

3D animation and similar interest - I actually occasionally use Source Filmmaker!

"Alright, that's cool. Any DNI criteria or things of that nature?"

i don't really have anything too strict beyond the general criteria of "don't be an asshole, don't be a creep, and be a decent human being" - but i will say that if i don't like your content/it bothers me in some way, i will probably block you. if i do so, don't take it personally. although i'll rarely come to that endpoint because my triggers are so hyper-specific that you'd have to be a really specific kind of person to cross that line.

Obligatory Question Section:

"Are there any other ways to contact you outside of Tumblr?"

YES! my twitter, most preferably - i'm not very active on it but i'll probably see something of yours eventually. i usually retweet but sometimes i make an original post... i also have discord, but you'd have to message me personally if you want it - or add me when you get the chance to if i post it at some point. never be afraid to talk to me in tumblr messages or in the ask box and ask for it. i'll probably give it to you if i've been mutuals with you long enough!

OTHER SOCIALS: last.fm (rarely used) - rateyourmusic (rarely used) - strawpage - vk.gy (i only use this to look up bands, there isn't much)

[MORE WILL BE ADDED LATER ON...]

Fast facts & info:

i'm learning japanese and i am very bad at it. i know the kana although i have yet to learn proper grammar and words. when i'm more fluent, i'll update this section with how fluent i am.

my favorite animal is the hyena!

my favorite dinosaur is deinonychus, lambeosaurus is a close second, though.

i know way too much about internet drama because it's unfortunately one of the interests i've latched onto being knowledgeable about...

i have food allergies. that's not anything cool or unique though, besides the amount of times i've been to the hospital! haha! (god help me)

LIST OF TAGS:

#bees ramblings // the tag i use when i'm making regular textposts, whether it be about an interest or just a general personal anecdote. i use this one very frequently.

#bees scribbles // my art!!

#bees jams // the covers and music i make!!

#bees recs // music recommendations right from my playlists!!

#bee.mp3 // vocal recordings, voice asks, etc.

#bee.mp4 // videos i take. they won't be including my face until i buy that mask that'll make me look like a knockoff member of ejin, though!

That's all from me!!

if you stuck around this far, you deserve a medal for surviving my rambling and over-explaining...

#pinned post #bees ramblings #bees scribbles #bees jams #bees recs #bee.mp3 #bee.mp4 #i probably wont make any new pinned posts and just edit this one from now on lol

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shadykazama · 1 year ago

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Genji Shimada

So I asked my friend which Overwatch character I should do my next alphabet headcanons about and they said Genji! So I'll be doing Genji next, probably later today.

However while I was thinking about him the thought of his cybernetics came to mind and I went off on a full blown tangent about it so I figured I'd post my thoughts on how much of Genji is a cyborg before I do his relationship stuff.

This is blackwatch, Genji, I don't know if this is canon or not but for the sake of this I'm saying it is. So as far as body parts go he's definitely missing his legs knee and under. I think he's wearing armor over his thighs though, he has intact femurs. He's missing his right arm and there's some kind of internal damage in his upper chest.

His eye piece comes off seperate to his mouth piece but that doesn't mean his mouth is robotic, I just think he takes the mask part off less often. His head and heart are all intact according to voice lines and evidence from skins.

Now might I direct your attention to his canon skins. We know from the short "Dragons" that those green circles on his upper body have a release mechanism meaning they manage pressure of some kind within his body.

(We can also see there's less of them in his OW2 design so it's a possibility they got upgraded to be more efficient.)

Now I'm about to lay down my biggest actual headcanon without much evidence besides speculation and "it'd be cool" to back it up.

I think Genji has robotic lungs.

WILD TAKE I KNOW BUT HEAR ME OUT.

He can eat, heard in the voice line about him being able to handle mercy's coffee, so we know his mouth is intact, along with the rest of his digestive system. I think the mouth part of his mask is to help him breathe. I think there was major damage to his respiratory system to the point where they had to make the choice to give him mechanical replacements, hence the need to release pressure when he exerts a LOT of energy (like after his fight with hanzo in the cinematic).

He breathes in game, so we know he needs lungs. Which makes sense if most of his main organs are intact. If the main damage was to his lungs, they could give him robotic ones. And my claim of them not giving him a lung transplant is supported by the fact that Mauga was given a second CYBERNETIC heart instead of a replacement when he was critically injured.

Also in the Doomfist origin cinematic when he threw Genji into a car he started sparking and held his chest, which I know may just be "oh he's a robot of course" written off, but it'd make sense if it was his lungs!! It would put him out of a fight if he can't supply oxygen to the rest of his body. Plus it would hurt him in his chest!

Going off of this, he can definitely breathe without the mask and obviously would need to take it off to eat (he has a lot of scarring on his throat I think, and maybe his jaw) but the mask hides the scar tissue and helps regulate his breathing more naturally. Now I'm not a doctor so this next part may make no sense, and let me know if it does but maybe the mask is connected to his lungs in like a nervous system kind of way? Since they wouldn't be connected to his nervous system entirely? So when he takes the mask off he has to manually breathe. Like the mask regulates it for him so he can do it subconsciously but without the mask it's a conscious manual breathing situation.

And my only real arguments for him not having a robotic heart instead of lungs is his voice line that says "The heart of a man still beats inside of me." Which of course could be metaphorical, "I'm still the same man, just with a different body." Kind of thing, but also he just never takes off that freaking mouth piece so I was thinking it had to serve a purpose!

Lol I'll get to work on my headcanons now but let me know what y'all think of this 🙏

#genji shimada #overwatch 2 #overwatch x reader #headcanons

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wildwinterlunas · 10 months ago

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The thing that gets me about Reapers new interactions is that it honestly opens up a lot of possible story wise, cause these new interactions confirm that he doesn't hate everyone in Overwatch. Just Overwatch itself a citain people, and even then we don't know for sure because we haven't gotten an internal view on how Reapers opinions have changed.

The reason this is big is because up until this point it was only speculated and headcanoned that Reaper still cared about Overwatch members. This out right confirms it. It leads to more interesting analysis for his dynamics with other characters, it also leads to a new light on old interactions.

It's honestly a side of Reyes we haven't seen since he was in Blackwatch, it's really refreshing to me.

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #overwatch lore #overwatch headcanons #analysis #reaper ow #overwatch reaper #reaper overwatch

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celestialship · 6 months ago

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Boosting Morale

Megan Lea and Cole Cassidy get their oddest Blackwatch mission yet: baking Christmas cookies.

word count: 1,291

content warning: christmas mentioned (although this focuses more on just baking cookies), light swearing, smoking

When they said Blackwatch needed a “morale boost,” Megan Lea’s first thought was that it was code for “this team needs extensive therapy.” It was hard to hear a sentiment that was equivalent to “you all need to be happier” without thinking of the fact that the Blackwatch team consisted of a cyborg whose human body had been torn apart, a geneticist with a serious lack of empathy for other living beings, and…whatever Gabriel Reyes had going on. But where Megan saw a solution as “hiring a psychologist to evaluate this team’s needs,” Blackwatch saw a solution as “let’s have a Christmas party.”

Megan Lea got stuck on baking duty. And Cole Cassidy was assigned with her.

It was hard to consider it a “morale boost” when it just meant extra work. Extra work pertaining to the actual job description Megan had as “Blackout” in Blackwatch as their sniper would have been no problem. But after years of living and breathing Overwatch’s covert ops division, it felt like the worst ever case of whiplash to now be getting orders to bake cookies. On the bright side though, they were not required to be in uniform for cookie baking. Megan wore her hair up in space buns to get it out of her face, and threw on a hoodie and some comfortable sweatpants, something she rarely got to wear. Cassidy meanwhile decided to wear a flannel and jeans. Even without him wearing the hat to indicate so, it was easy to tell that he was a cowboy.

“So it looks like we need two eggs…do we even have two eggs left?” Cassidy muttered, half to himself and half to Megan as the two stood in the kitchen, standing at the counter with bowls and mixers at the ready. Megan eyed Cassidy as she noticed he still had a cigar in his mouth.

“Cassidy, throw that thing out. Don’t smoke in the kitchen, that’s disgusting.” Megan wrinkled her nose as she turned to the refrigerator to rummage around for eggs. Considering this was the shared kitchen, she wouldn’t count out Cassidy’s speculation that there may not be enough eggs.

“What? It adds flavor,” Cassidy protested, but Megan could see him putting out the cigar as she glanced out of the corner of her eye.

“We do have eggs. Three, actually,” Megan announced as they found the eggs in a small carton stacked atop the various leftovers that had been in the fridge for an unknown amount of time.

“Nice work. Now, we just need a stick of butter…”

“We have like, half of one.”

“It’ll work.”

Megan and Cassidy went back and forth, naming off ingredients and taking turns grabbing them from various spots in the kitchen, preparing their space as they set the ingredients down. “So…you bake often?” Cassidy asked as the two reconvened at the counter.

Megan stared at him blankly. “Uh…not really.”

“…Me neither.” Cassidy chuckled awkwardly. Megan supposed that given the amount of time they spent talking one-on-one strictly related to work, it was an awkward position they found themselves in. Doing something more domestic like baking together felt very out of place for the both of them. It was not often Megan and Cassidy found themselves in a situation where lives were not on the line. It was almost inconceivable that Megan could be interacting with Cassidy in a scenario in which she did not have to focus on her heart rate and her breathing.

“No time like the present,” Megan offered, unsure of what else to say. “I mean, I’ve baked cookies before. Just not for a long time. You know how work swallows your life.”

Cassidy sighed. “Don’t I know it.”

“I’ve hardly even had time to do any reading ever since I joined up.” Megan cracked the eggs open over the measuring bowl and began to whisk the yolks.

“A reader, huh?”

“Well, not much anymore. But I was starting to get into horror books before life got too busy.” Megan looked down at the yolks she was whisking as she spoke.

“I like a good ol’ mystery novel. Can’t go wrong with those.” Megan looked over at Cassidy and saw him give one of his signature crooked smiles. “I ain’t never been much into horror.”

“It’s an interesting genre.” Again, that feeling of awkwardness still persisted within Megan, causing heat to rise in her body. It almost felt wrong to be having casual conversation with Cassidy like this. She was beginning to consider bringing up the last mission they went on together to make things feel more natural.

“I’d take some recommendations.”

Shit. He wanted to continue with this subject. “Uh…damn, I’m trying to remember any of the titles now,” Megan laughed, a bit nervously but she hoped it didn’t appear that way. “There was this one about the colony on Mars…and you’d think the horror would be about aliens, but it was more so about what the human mind can create to scare itself when facing the unknown.”

“Oh yeah?”

Megan put the butter in the microwave and set it for 30 seconds to melt. “I mean, it makes sense, right? Our imaginations can come up with far scarier things than whatever reality is. Hell, even just the aspect of not knowing what you’re facing can be scarier than whatever it actually is.”

“Tell me more.”

“Well, if I said that there was a monster around the corner…” Megan leaned on the counter as she spoke, waiting for the microwave to finish. “…And I described it to you, you might be like, ‘well that’s not so scary. I can handle that.’ But if I didn’t, your mind might run with the possibilities, and become more anxious of what could be around the corner.”

“I suppose so,” Cassidy chuckled. “Never thought of it that way.”

The microwave finished and Megan took the bowl of melted butter to add to the egg yolks. Next she scooped out some brown sugar to add to the mix. “So imagine that, but amplified, because you’re on another planet.”

“I bet.”

The tone of Cassidy’s last words made Megan whip around to face him, narrowing her eyes. Noticing that she was going to scoop out some white sugar, she stopped in her tracks. “You’re just trying to get me talking so I go on autopilot and do all the work.”

Cassidy laughed and put his hands up in defense. “What? ‘Course not, Blackout. I got way too much respect for ya than to pull something like that.”

“Oh yeah? Then go get the vanilla extract and baking soda and begin measuring that out.”

“But then I’ll miss out on hearing you talk. And I like hearing you talk about things that aren’t work-related.”

Megan scoffed and turned back around to the sugar they were scooping. “You can multitask.”

“Don’t get mad at me just ‘cause I wanna give you my undivided attention now,” Cassidy chuckled. “Maybe I’m just enjoying the fact that I’m actually gettin’ to know ya right now.”

“Just because I talked about a horror book doesn’t mean you’re getting to know me,” Megan retorted, sounding a bit more defensive than she intended. She felt like a house cat bristling its fur.

“My apologies. I suppose we should work on getting to a first-name basis first. But to your request, alright, I’ll work on those…vanilla and soda things you asked for.”

“Vanilla extract and baking soda.”

“That.” Cassidy began rifling through the cabinets as Megan turned on the mixer to blend the ingredients she had. She supposed this experience was not too much different from her day-to-day work, because she found herself focusing on her heart rate and her breathing once again here in this kitchen with Cole Cassidy.

#he likes hearing them yap 🥰#a christmas fic!! never done one before #also my first ever proper cassidy fic #i don't think blackwatch would do christmas parties but who cares #my writing #f/o x s/i #f/o fic #self ship fic #self ship #self insert #f/o #🖤#meg.txt

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docholligay · 6 months ago

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Shamash answers: Live action, Round 2

The brief was: Overwatch thought, funny

For making me #triggered, 3rd place:

Winston and Lena take a yoga class together on a doctor's recommendation. The doctor said it would help with stress and injury prevention.They both struggle mightly, Winston with adapting the moves to his body, Lena with trying to stay focused in all the quiet. She needs the sharping thrill of a fight or all out sprint to focus, not deep breathing and incense, dammit!

@beefsaladthethirtythird I know that Lena would absolutely hate yoga, and everyone would tell her that yoga would be so good for her, and i know this because IT HAPPENS TO ME AND THEY ARE PROBABLY RIGHT BUT DEATH FIRST. You know what I hate the most? the end part? shivasina? where you just...lay there? You can't make it more difficult or anything it's just five fucking minutes of laying there.

Okay, so, I'm pretty sure I just thought of this answer and didn't actually send it in for another question but I not 100% sure. So! If I have already given this answer, apologies. Anyway! Blizzard actually exists in the Overwatch universe. They make tv shows, specifically, and when they approach OW with the idea of writing a tv, it seems like a good idea. Seems. They're generally pretty solid but the person they put in charge of the show had very specific ideas and also has a lot of pull with the studio so somehow manages to keep getting away with things. It doesn't seem like he fact checks anything. He gets their ages wrong and says something different in different episodes. When called out on it he just says he's done his research and refuses to acknowledge any wrong doing. The only silver lining is that after a while the characters of the show only resemble the real people in the vaguest possible way so OW takes to just mostly ignoring the show. That is, until he pairs has Fareeha start dating Genji, and Angela has to literally hold Fareeha back from killing him. (The lack to research is already so horrendous and fucking Genji?!?! What's even the point of people who won't do research?) Lena, meanwhile, is laughing so hard she's crying. Genji disappears and no one sees him for a month which leads to speculation that Fareeha killed him. (Lena goes on message boards under a pseudonym and proceeds to list increasingly bizarre ways that Fareeha has probably killed him. When he does eventually pop up she starts a conspiracy theory that he's actually a robot Fareeha made to cover her tracks.) The next few weeks are spent with Fareeha verbally flaying anyone and everyone she can find that has power over the show. The show has one of the bad guys kill Genji in response which Genji fans blame on Fareeha. (Lena laughs so hard she cries and adds more absurd death ideas to her post on the message board.) Angela, meanwhile, is calmly sitting in a chair sipping tea because she has chosen to ignore the show entirely, knows little to nothing of it, and until the day she dies the only thing she can tell you is that she's pretty sure Fareeha killed Genji.

@madegeeky Fareeha thinks she would be so chill about any and all uses of media to promote Overwatch, but I doubt she can handle a documentary, not to mention a show made for ENTERTAINMENT, that takes LIBERTIES, meanwhile Lena is buying her action figure and gifting it to her family, who put them in increasingly lurid situations around their houses like some sort of bastard Elf on the Shelf.

First place, for knowing exactly about the vagaries of love and terrible cooking:

Angela can't cook. She knows this. (Everyone knows this.) But when she and Fareeha move in together, the domestic bug hits her hard and she decides to start packing Fareeha's lunches. It's lunch. How hard can it be? Really. She's managed to feed herself for over thirty years. Sure she eats a lot of take-out, or simply forgets to eat, but not ALWAYS. She can do this. "It is not necessary," Fareeha says. "I can eat lunch at the Overwatch headquarters cafeteria. It is no trouble, truly the food there is rather good." (And often she ends up bringing lunch from the cafeteria to Angela, though she doesn't mention this now.) And yet. "I would like to do this for you." Angela responds. "It will make me happy, to treat you like this." What can Fareeha say to that? She acquiesces. The lunches are… not good. At all. But Fareeha eats each one without complaint, and is always sure to show Angela her gratitude. Three weeks in, Tracer (being Tracer) swipes half of Fareeha's sandwich despite her protestations. Tracer takes a big bite. She chews once… twice… and promptly gags. "What the bloody 'ell is THAT?!" Fareeha sighs. Overwatch gossip spreads like wildfire, and this is DEFINITELY getting back to Angela.

@seolh girl, you killed these OW prompts. I have my polls set so I don't see the writers until after I click on the response number--it means I can't give anyone 'a break' or anything, because I don't know who wrote what--so when i clicked on this one to reveal the numebr one place I was so happy for you. This was so funny and I enjoyed it so much.

Bonus one point for bringing up a point I've thought aout writing myself:

Tracer being forced to air travel like a regular person. The documentation for her medical equipment alone is a nightmare.

@vassekocho not just the insane process for her security check, but I imagine if they hit turbulence and stop serving G&Ts or something, she's getting up and going to the back of the plane like, "Oh I'll get meself, it's a 'andful of bumpy clouds what a load of bloody schoolgirls.' The attendants trying to tell her it could be dangerous, Lena, mid-cutting a fresh lime she stole from first class: "THIS??? Could eat a sausage roll and steer with the other 'and, in this"

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mynonsenseistingling · 4 months ago

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Agents of MAYHEM is great! It's like if the 3rd Street Saints made a saturday morning cartoon. I avoided it originally because 1) it wasn't a proper Saints Row game and 2) from the tiny bit I saw it looked like "Overwatch single player".

Also to the person on the AOM wiki who mention that Persephone Brimstone is speculated to be the reincarnation of the protagonist from Saints Row in that universe, well done, I'm taking that as canon.

#Agents of MAYHEM #it's like Crackdown but good

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half-developed-frontal-lobe · 8 months ago

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Who trained Widowmaker?

This is me just picking apart voice lines and lore.

First we have these two lines.

These are two voice lines with Ana that she uses when she eliminates Ana, and for when Ana eliminates someone else.

Before, I was speculating that she never clearly stated that she was the best in these lines.

So I thought, 'perhaps she's talking about the person, the one who trained her, she's done it before with Ashe'.

Well, yeah, she has. She does.

But she also says this when she eliminates someone using their ultimate. So she does state that she is the best.

Was it a handful of different people, Overwatch and Talon combined? Not to mention Doomfist also says this up on eliminating her-

'We' either means a handful of people trained her, or it's that one person in Talon that could.

And why on earth haven't any of them* faced Amari in the past? Were they scared? Uninterested? Or did they think it was a waste of time? Did Talon see it as a risk of killing off a valuable resource?

So they send in someone like Widow to do the job for them. Saving face just in case they do end up failing and dying on the other end. It turns into a challenge of allegiance, where Widow comes out victorious after King's Row. And now there's another resource that's just as valuable.

Either way, this is purely a random question that's been bubbling in my head for some time. Could be complete bogus, but I do think it would actually be fun to have a sniper hero with a bit of humility.

I think it'd be hilarious to have this self-critical marksman be the 'best' that Widow talks about, and for them to be the reason we now have a purple cutthroat sleeper agent who shot out Amari's eye.

Someone who's got a better eye for aim but also not pretentious and prideful in their skills, and is always nitpicking their shots and position.

Someone who constantly questions if their aim is a millimeter off or if their hold on the rifle is too tight.

It's a topic up for discussion and could be something, or could be nothing. Could be canon lore, and someone from Blizzard might be spying on my posts or something, or could be an OC. It's probably the latter.

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #overwatch lore #overwatch widowmaker #talon overwatch #overwatch2 widowmaker #widowmaker #talon #overwatch theory #overwatch 2 talon #overwatch 2 lore #Widowmaker lore #widowmaker lore #amelie lacroix #overwatch doomfist #doomfist

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cartoonartistpng · 2 years ago

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(Old post)

Eldritch AU (Idea)

In this AU, humans and mobians aren’t the apex species, for there is another which hunts them—the Eldritch.

Creatures with no known origin and no known weakness. They cannot be killed and historians had discovered evidence of their longevity.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik, formerly a renowned Eldritch Scientist, one day disappears without a trace. Rumors quickly speculated that he was on the brink of a great discovery before an Eldritch got to him, however there was never any confirmation.

Years later, one Miles Prower (an aspiring robotics scientist) discovers that not only is Robotnik alive but also his location. Eager to meet his idol and get some answers, the young fox travels to the middle of a forest in nowhere. He’s shocked to find advanced robots milling about, building some sort of small facility and piloting transport trucks from elsewhere.

See, while Dr. Robotnik was famous for his accomplishments in Eldritch science, any actual fans of his would know his true passion always lied in robotics and technology. Miles had read every paper of Robotnik’s that had ever been published and had been both fascinated by the ideas he spoke of and frustrated that it all got swept under the radar by his other, less impressive (in Miles’ opinion) achievements. It was why the young fox so strongly believed that his idol wasn’t dead, but rather had faked his death.

Meeting the man was like a dream come true for the fox… but being scolded for traveling alone was definitely not what he had been expecting. Miles tried protesting as Robotnik began shoving him out the door, saying something about how his robots would drive him back to the nearest city— Only for the temperature in the lab to suddenly drop.

Miles Prower had never met an eldritch before, but the thing crouched on the desk was certainly not what he had been expecting. Blue quills, glowing slit eyes, taller than any human he’d ever seen, and grinning madly from every mouth that appeared and disappeared. It dropped to the floor and crawled closer, joints poking out in unnatural directions. Robotnik’s grip on Miles tightened but neither mortal moved or breathed. When those wide eyes were an inch from his own, Miles couldn’t help but flinch and close his eyes in sheer terror.

But no pain came and mere seconds later, Robotnik whispered that it was gone.

The man explains how he had came out here, away from annoying and idiotic people, because he wanted to work on his own projects. Those projects being to finally explore robotics to his desire. However, that was quickly halted when he realized he was being watched by three Eldritch creatures. Yet they never harm him, despite somehow making it past his security and watching him from across the room.

However, to Miles’ shock, Robotnik reveals that he believes them to be the first ever artificial Eldritch. Escaped experiments.

There’s Scitter, the blue one, who moves fast and eradiclly. It’s also the most “social” and curious, revealing itself to Robotnik far more than the other two.

The next is Golem, with glowing markings, unblinking eyes, and the most deadly-looking in appearance. It appears suddenly and without moving at all, before vanishing whenever Robotnik would blink.

The third is the most elusive and also the tallest. It never leaves the forest and Robotnik’s camera algorithm can’t tell the difference between it and the trees. With its appearance largely unknown, Robotnik simply calls it the Overwatcher for now. He theorized it doesn’t need line of sight to actually watch the Doctor.

Miles decides to stay and help Robotnik find out what they are and if there are more of them out there, becoming his assistant and, eventually, his protégé. To Robotnik’s pleasant surprise, the child’s mind easily keeps up with his own genius.

Elsewhere, Amy and Knuckles begin the search for their missing friend.

—

Characters:

Eggman - While not an evil villain hellbent on taking over the world, he’s still a recluse who prefers the company of his robots. He also still has his ego and is a massive jerk to anyone he considers stupid. However, he begins to grow a soft spot for the young fox who’s not only able to keep up with him but also provides good ideas of his own.

Tails - Goes by Miles Prower in this AU due to a lack of Sonic. He was bullied for many years, until the Rose siblings moved into town. Amy and her adopted brother, Knuckles, quickly came to his defense and soon enough, the three were friends. However, when Robotnik vanished, they didn’t have the same confidence as Miles in the man’s survival. Determined to discover the truth to his idol’s fate, Miles sets out to find him… and finds more than he bargained for.

Amy and Knuckles - Amy came across Knuckles when she was young and upon discovering he had no memories or family, immediately declared them siblings. Everyone thinks him to be some sort of mutated hedgehog or porcupine. Amy is also Eldritch-touched but keeps it a secret from everyone but Knux. Later, Knuckles discovers his connection to the gods aka the Master Emerald and Chaos. In this world, Angel Island is still a myth and floats around without its guardian.

Sonic - Known as ‘Scitter’, is the “friendliest” and least-cautious of the trio. Scitter grows a strange fascination with Miles and begins showing personality once he arrives, favoring the kit greatly and showing up at the lab even more frequently. He’s also the only one of the three to lack cuffs. Miles is the one to gift him clothes.

Shadow - Known as ‘Golem’, he teleports all over the place, showing little to no emotion, and doesn’t move at all. Out of the three, he’s the most feral and it takes both Robotnik and Miles a long time before they feel comfortable enough to even breath in his presence. He seems to enjoy sitting in the rafters, sometimes going unnoticed for hours then disappearing once he’s finally spotted.

Silver - Known as ‘the Overwatcher’ first then later ‘Birch’ once Robotnik and Tails manage to finally see what he looks like. For the longest time, he did not approach the lab, or at least, not that Robotnik knew. Strangely, he seems to know where the cameras are. The tallest and skinniest of the three, Birch can’t move much, encumbered by his chains. It’s Miles who first comments how it seems strangely weaker than the other two.

Ideas:

Eldritch in this world are like endangered animals, but are world-wide and extremely dangerous. Due to them hunting humans and mobians alike, advancements in technology, medicine, and the like are slowed down much. Also, the overall population is lower and less spread out internationally. Eldritch are not social creatures and tend to mostly be by themselves unless they’re a swarm-type. They don’t seem to posses emotions.

90% of Eldritch attacks result in death. Few manage to escape and even fewer are spared. On that very rare occasion, the ones spared are called “Eldritch-touched”, gain enhanced senses, and glowing eyes. No one knows what an Eldritch-touched means beyond that. They are always disappeared by the local government, likely to be studied or killed, hence why Amy keeps it a secret.

The crew later discover that Amy can actually sense and even communicate with Eldritch. Not as a direct language but rather through intentions and memories. It’s by Amy connecting to Scitter’s mind that they learn Scitter, Golem, and Birch are man-made eldritch—confirming Robotnik and Miles’ theory—meant to be weapons. Weapons against what or who, they don’t know, but whatever happened ended up as a failure. More powerful than predicted, the trio escaped and slaughtered everyone, including the other experiments. Amy later reveals that Scitter’s mind was a lot more emotional than she predicted, further emphasizing just how odd these man-made creatures are.

The idea is that this AU is partially explored through Logs (inspired by the Egg Memos from Frontiers).

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