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sundayswiththeilluminati · 2 years

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Duality

"The question becomes whether or not to fire, not where to aim." —Osiris

Type: Shotgun

Slot: Kinetic | Energy | Heavy

Element: Arc | Solar | Void

Perk: Compression Chamber - Fires a pellet spread in hip-fire or a single high-damage slug while aiming.

Trait: On Black Wings - Pellet final blows grant a stacking precision damage and reload speed buff. Precision hits with slugs extend the duration.

Ornaments: Antiquity, Binary Function

Origin & Description: Duality as a weapon doesn't quite know its own aesthetic. With a pull quote from Osiris that seems unrelated, a lore tab about hunting eliksni corrupted by Hive war god Xivu Arath, and a shotgun design that looks polished but doesn't really add up, it feels like an exotic that either got released too early or changed at the last minute. Also when you load Duality you load it with 8 shells at once, which begs a few questions. You break it open - it's a break-action, which I think is unique in Destiny - then slam in a single prepacked cluster of eight shells like a big pack of AA batteries. In fact maybe they are AA batteries and that's why the firing chamber has this orange-red glow like LEDs pretending to be a fireplace behind an odd lattice pattern.

Overall Duality's as confused as the person it belongs to: Crow, The Lightbearer Formerly Known As Uldren Sov. Given where Crow's been for the last several months I'd expect a Tangled Shore kitbash, not the Wild-West-by-way-of-elves look Duality seems to be gesturing at. Maybe Crow just has that innate Awoken sense of style; the petal-layered underbarrel does resemble the Dreaming City shotgun Retold Tale. I have no idea why the firing chamber looks like it's pretending to be a brick oven (is it supposed to be feathers?) nor why there's a wire pulled taut along the length of the barrel. I'm sure it serves some important purpose understood by people who are good with shotguns (i.e. not me.)

The glowing firing chamber looks cool but does little other than give it Solar damage; in terms of playstyle Duality's doubled nature is another entry in the archetype of "does one thing in hip-fire mode and another in aim-down-sights mode," subtype "and the two things synergize." Its two modes aren't as tightly-coupled as Symmetry, but like the names, they're related. In Duality's case the hip-fire mode shoots a wide cone of pellets that grant stacks of the On Black Wings buff on kills, which then charge up the precision single-slug shots you fire in aim-down-sights mode. That combo encourages you to knock down red-bars with hip-fire shots, then aim down sights to target a larger enemy with the increased damage. Landing precision hits - not kills - in ADS mode extends the buff's duration, so you really want to be hitting that crit spot. That means that, like the handful of single-slug Legendary shotguns, Duality wants you to either be stupidly good with shotguns or get within spitting distance of a nontrivial foe, neither of which are my forte. Some people can go sliding right up in there with a shottie, but those people are not me*.

*They're usually the people killing me. In Crucible. With shotguns.

So anyway enough about this boring shotgun. What's up with Crow? Ever since his resurrection he's been hiding out, mostly because any Guardian who catches sight of him tends to try to kill him and he doesn't know why. Uldren already had a lot of sympathy for the eliksni and Crow's outcast status only amplified it, so when he heard about eliksni being driven mad and transformed into Wrathborn on the Tangled Shore, he headed out there to see if he could help. One of Spider's people picked him up; Spider of course recognized him immediately, thought this was hilarious, and decided Crow was going to be his pet Lightbearer. He enforced the "offer" to work for him by catching and loading Crow's Ghost, Glint (née Pulled Pork), with a little insurance in the form of explosives inside his shell.

That's where we run into him when he spears a Hive Knight to keep Osiris from getting his fool head bashed in. We dance the awkward dance of knowing who he is and not mentioning it because he asks us not to ("he must have been a bad person," Crow's concluded), and long story short we fight the Wrathborn with his help, win Crow's freedom with a little clever wording and, well, then it gets kinda messy but more about that in Hawkmoon. The good news is this hapless idiot is no longer getting murdered and/or exploited by jerks on a daily basis and Saint-14 and Osiris the bird husbands have adopted him as their bird son, which is as it should be.

Crow lent us Duality as the seasonal weapon for Season of the Hunt in order to help chase the Wrathborn in said hunts, but while it's got some use in Crucible there are just more exciting shotguns out there, and once I completed its catalyst I visited Crow to give it back. But I still have questions, like, is Ghost back there preloading sets of eight shells? Where do the armatures they're packed into come from? Why the heck does it have that wire? I guess Destiny still has to keep a few mysteries from us.

Destiny 2 Compendium Armarum Exoticarum

#Destiny 2 #Duality #Season of the Hunt #Crow #another exotic shotgun I'll never use #I own a lot of shotguns for someone who doesn't use shotguns #okay it's not that cool but that's the tag so #Destiny Compendium Exoticarum #Destiny #this is the wager of existence

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jbbuckybarnes · 4 years

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Zerfall - 12/14

Pairing: Bucky x named!Reader (Agent Andromeda) Summary: After Hydra drops virus bombs in 7 major American cities in the height of summer, the team is locked in their emergency bunker for weeks. The virus commonly called the Summer Poison successfully brought the infrastructure to a halt in all big cities. When the virus slowly starts burning itself out SHIELD Agents and Avengers are sent out to bring back order into the cities and the international relationships. Not without hurdles. Warnings for this chapter: Pandemic, crime, canon typical violence, flirting, kidnapping, weird grammar. Not beta read.

Zerfall Masterlist || M a s t e r l i s t

“Does that mean we finally have an off day?” He asked the next day at noon with his morning hair in his grey sweatpants. “Yep, but also that we need to help in Brooklyn a bit so we have both in check. The Bronx is also at 90% back. Queens might be the only problem but with all the people we already have? Might even solve itself,” you said in your thoughts. “You really had to make it about work, huh?” He grinned and got up from the couch. “Hell yes! It’s my job to save the city, Barnes!” You called out. “Gosh, please, for heaven's sake, stop calling me by my last name. We’re partners, not working at a bank.” He chuckled coming to a hold in front of you with his hands in his pockets. “Thanks for saving my ass, Bucky.” You smiled up at him. “It’s what I’m here for.” He grinned back down. “Always watching my 6, I know.” An eye roll was inevitable from your side. “Celebratory pizza?” He asked grabbing your waist. “Oh hell yes. I’m so glad this damn tower has electricity.” You got excited. “And hot showers,” he added. “And soft beds,” you sighed. “Privacy and dental care.” “Music,” you whispered. “Why? Wanna dance?” He grinned. “I’ve never been asked for it before, so I’d say yes.” You flirted back. “What a shame,” he said pulling you closer. “Friday? Can you put on slow music?” You asked the AI. Calm music started playing and he started swaying you around in a slow dance. The softness his eyes carried was incredible, nowhere near what it was in the beginning of you two working together. You started smiling and got a smile back. His left hand squeezed your waist and he eyed you for a little longer, now having the permission to. You let your hands wander to his neck, letting him lead you a little more. The small movements of his lips and the sparkles in his eyes were so apparent all of a sudden.

Before there can be anything more than a dance you get interrupted by a loud boom sound in the distance. You both turned towards the windows and saw a dust cloud coming up from lower Manhattan. You got your comm earpiece, “Please tell me that explosion near Brooklyn Bridge was one of you.” “Nope.” “Nope.” “No.” “Fuck.” you muttered, “Can you get there with us Agent Bee?” “Already on my way,” he answered. “Grab food from the pantry, we’ll eat on the way.” you said while grabbing your equipment. As soon as you both were on the ground Bee contacts you again, “The civilians say they might’ve blown up New York City Hall.” “Shit! The only freaking area we didn’t check down there.” you hissed. “You get onto my back, eat, I run faster than you.” Bucky nudged you. “Oh, we’re pulling a Twilight in the middle of the apocalypse? Nice.” There was no other way to lighten the mood and he really WAS fast. 15 km/h was no joke and he probably was even faster without someone on his shoulders. “If this wasn’t for a mission I’d have a few comments.” you called out, grabbing onto him tighter. “Get your gun ready.” he said already in full mission mode. “Alright, Sergeant.” You did as you were told. He must’ve known there were people already around the entire explosion zone and you had the perfect line to kill all of them with perfect shots in the torso and head. “I’ll never get tired of how good you shoot.” he chuckled while aiming at the people charging at you. “I’m coming from the bridge.” Bee alerted you. “It’s a lot. I don’t have a line of sight on your side, but I assume it’s at least 20 on each side. Stay safe.” you answered after finally getting the last guard from your side. “Will do.” came back. “Buck, I could really use one of your knives,” you called over and got it thrown into your hand. While he continued shooting whatever came near you from anywhere but your 12, you were charging at guards on the south side of the building in a beautiful dance of momentum moves and knives in throats. “Behind you,” you yelled over and saw him kick a guard 15 feet far against the remaining wall of the City Hall. “I could use some help over here on the east side,” Bee yelled into his comm. “Coming,” you yelled back and made a run for it, trusting Bucky to have your back. You got through the guards in almost perfect symmetry. Your training was specific for the smallest of attack strategies. Agent Bee had a few advantages to you but your talent with a pistol and a knife was balancing that out. “Davis? If you can hear me, we need some help at the City Hall. I don’t know if we can handle this without your help.” you screamed into your wrist while seeing more people coming at you. “Fucking hell, where do all of these bastards come from all of a sudden?” Bee grumbled. What you didn’t see were the people coming from behind until it was too late. “Fuck you!” You groaned, defending yourself and kicking shins where you could. “Not so good anymore, Agent. Are you?” A big, crazy looking guy grinned. He wore a trench coat, had a deep voice, had a look of absolute insanity on his face. Next to him two buff guys that looked like they were high ranking military men before this apocalypse. “What do you want from me?” You hissed at them. “We want our beautiful city back. You did a great job getting rid of all the Eagles, Outcasts and Vultures. But why take Randalls Island from us, dear?” He asked. You heard gunshots outside, death, the place inside smelled like gunpowder, was full of dust and had a big open roof from the explosion. “Well, you never tried to communicate.” You squinted at them. “You never gave us the chance.” A door was kicked in and you saw Agent Bee and Bucky standing there. “Cause you don’t deserve one!” He yelled. All weapons in the room showed either at you or them. “Make one wrong move and your pretty partner here is dead.” The insane dude spoke to them. “What do you want?” He groaned annoyed, taking down the weapon enough to not seem dangerous. “You. We thought you’d come.” The man grinned all of a sudden. It dawned on both of you and you shook your head when his eyes flashed to you before going back to the leader. “For what?” He asked. “You’re still a wanted person in the underground. You know that as well as I do.” “That wasn’t the question.” “Well, but that was my answer. You’re smart enough to put the pieces together, aren’t you?” He chuckled eerily. You saw Bee click the side of his watch in the subtlest of movements, a distress signal. To whom? You didn’t quite know. “You come with us and she is free. Or you’re all dead.” The nameless man repeated.

You whispered almost soundless, “Buy time.” “Who wants me?” He asked with his eyes flickering between you and the leader with more distress reflecting in them than you were okay with. “Take a wild guess. Hydra!” The man got impatient. “You know he needs to come voluntarily.” Bee realized in the face of the nameless man that was looking away from you. “No shit, bringing them a dead soldier won’t bring them anything.” “Too bad.” You grinned hearing what was coming and the man turned to you. The perfect moment for Wanda to come in through the hole in the roof and fuck them up good. “Hold those three down for interrogation. We kill the rest.” you yelled over after kicking the guards left and right to you away and got a pistol thrown towards you by Bucky.

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gem-quest · 4 years

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[ O P H E L I A ... ]

“There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free, if you truly wish to be.”  - Pure Imagination

Real Name: Catriona “Cat” Walsh Age: 20 FC: Saoirse Ronan Species & Class: Specter Bard Guild: Moonstone   Description of In-Game Powers: Specters are Gem Quest’s non-corporeal undead player race. They’re notable for only having 9 stats instead of 10, with Strength being omitted from their stat lineup because they literally have no physical bodies. Instead, their Willpower stat serves as their Strength equivalent. This means they have a rechargeable meter of how much they can possibly interact with physical objects before taking a rest or recharging with a spell or potion. Beyond that, Specters are distinguished by their inability to be damaged by non-magical weapons, increased susceptibility to light magic, and inability to be healed via healing potions or traditional physical healing spells (only a period of rest or spells/potions aimed at restoring mental wellness can heal them). The non-magical weapon immunity is amazing lower levels, but it’s not long before everything thrown at you seems to be enchanted or blessed or cursed or whatever. Weirdly enough, as far as the whole “incorporeal being” conceit is taken in other aspects, Specters can indeed take potions, as well as eat and drink. They get decreased buffs from some potions and foods, though. To balance this out, spells that provide small buffs and aren’t explicitly light-aligned are extra effective on them.

There’s a lot of frustration with the class because of its “fake” weapon resistance, since any old dagger with any mild enchantment or magical effect at all on it can hit them. They can’t viably hit physical things in combat without specifically taking Knight, Rogue, Rider, or Mage-Knight as their class. And even then, they’re arguably the weakest race choice in the game for non-magical melee combat. Meanwhile, a lot of physical things and all magic can still hit them very hard very easily.

All of this said, there ARE skills to really like here, too - namely, superb mobility. Specters can pass through physical materials five feet thick or thinner as long as those materials aren’t specifically enchanted to prevent phasing. They float slightly by default and have a rechargeable flight ability that allows them to lift much further off the ground in short bursts. They also have a rechargeable ability (with more uses per charge than flight) that allows them to teleport from where they stand to any spot they can see within 20 feet without a spell as long as they haven’t been hit with an attack in the past 5 seconds. This gives them excellent mobility even in the heat of battle and allows them to have a lot of control over their position and angle. It also means that it’s often smarter for them to worry less about defense than about being hard to hit in the first place.

Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Appearance: Ophelia has a Specter’s signature slightly translucent skin, under-saturated color palette, and skirt hem/legs that trail off into mist. Her eyes are a stormy gray, and her wardrobe is almost exclusively black and white. When it comes to fashion, she prefers some of the more dark Victorian-inspired looks in the game as opposed to the high fantasy, renaissance, or medieval looks that a lot of other characters favor. That said, she’s got a pretty extensive and well-curated wardrobe behind her. She considers it highly important that she have at least one appropriate black and white ensemble to wear in each and every level in order to fit in with the theme. That said, she also has her own signature look that she uses as her “default” (the outfit she’s wearing in her pic at the top of her audition - full-body edit to be shared later!). Oh, and she loves gloves and capes. LOVES THEM. And kind of hoards them, tbh.

Places Most Likely to be Found In-Game: Ophelia’s favorite haunt at the moment is the City of Magic in Level 11. It’s the logical home base for a character who’s both a crafting/magical class AND a ghost. There’s a high enough concentration of both useful items and ingredients AND sufficiently gothic-flavored areas and NPCs to suit all her needs, both practical and aesthetic. She’s set up her own little shop in one of the many background spooky haunted house locations within the shadier-looking part of the city, and her Aesthetic demands she sometimes hangs out at the city’s main graveyard.

Beyond that, she can sometimes be found in various libraries and shops across the levels she can access, looking for interesting bits of crafting knowledge, hints of new items she could try cobbling together, and items that she could modify or combine with something to make can even more useful item. She’s also been known to turn up in random wilderness or roadway portions of levels in the first half of the game, foraging for crafting components that grow or randomly generate within those environments.

Current Inventory:

Screaming Lute (x1): Ophelia is very, exceedingly proud of her combat lute. She crafted it herself out of her bardic starter instrument. Specter Bards begin the game with an instrument they are capable of interacting with consistently. Cat has decided that, within Ophelia’s story, this was Ophelia’s lute in life, and it was destroyed shortly before her death as a way of intimidating her. Anyhow, Ophelia has heavily modified her starting weapon to the point that she thinks of it as an entirely new item. It’s covered in strange etched carvings and shifts between glowing with an eerie red light from the inside and constantly trailing wisps of white smoke. She uses it as her primary weapon in the game, as strumming specific notes and chords on the lute lights up some of the etchings and fires off various spells and magical effects and spells Ophelia has been able to learn. The lute downright shrieks whenever she uses it to cast a spell. How does it work, you might ask? That is a very long story, and one I’m saving for another post XD Most of the spells Ophelia has at her disposal are cast through her rune-covered lute and will be catalogued in her lute info.

Whispering Flute (x1): Ophelia likes rhymes and the aesthetics of symmetry. A secondary combat and utility weapon of hers, this is a flute enchanted to fire off up to three charges of Ventium per day, and one charge of Murmurationium per day. A good insurance weapon to sneak into a dangerous social situation, as it’s a perfectly normal and usable flute until she uses it to unleash the fury of the cold cruel winds of death upon you XD

Empty Unbreakable Bottle (x5): Ophelia favors magical items strongly because Specters can interact with non-martial ones automatically, without having to expend any extra effort or have at least X amount of Willpower to do so. Unbreakable Bottles are the cheapest magical container commonly for sale in game that’s capable of reliably holding liquids, so Ophelia likes to store all liquids important to her in them. And she likes to have at least a couple of empty ones on her at all times in case she wants to take a sample of something or otherwise just needs one.

Unbreakable Bottle of Rune Ink (x5): Rune Ink is an item that can be used as permanent and unfading ink that’s nigh impossible to remove or cover up. More importantly, though, it allows a PC with knowledge of the game’s runes, basically a language of magic that appears in a level or two and on some items, to write runic symbols that absorb nearby magical energy and store it within the object with runes written on it.

Enchanted Carving Tools (x1): Basic carving tools, enchanted to be able to create magical items and inscriptions. Ophelia uses them for crafting both magical and non-magical items, since any given item needs to be enchanted for her to be able to actively use it for long stretches of time anyway.

Enchanted Mending Kit (x1): Enchanted mending/tinker’s tools able to repair magical items without damaging their magical properties. Ophelia uses these to repair any repairable item sent her way, for the same reason she also uses enchanted carving tools for everything.

Paxanimi Potion (x3): A potion that mitigates psychic damage or corruption and provides a temporary boost to a player’s Psyche stat. For Ophelia, as a Specter, this is the closest thing she gets to a reliably available health potion.

Psychometry Scroll (x1): Allows caster to make one inquiry about the past of an object or place, then projects a scene or quote from the object’s or place’s history that provides a relevant answer to that question into the caster’s mind. Without crafting very specific questions, the results can often be vague and unhelpful, as the game will take the path of least resistance in providing a vision that meets the requirements of the inquiry.

Ictuium Scroll (x1)

Second Sight Scroll (x1) (Learning)

Assorted Random Crafting Bits and Scraps

She actually has more inventory kept hidden away within her home base rather than coming with her everywhere. Most of it is just more tools and materials and many, many changes of clothes.

“How much does it weigh? Can I touch, smell, and taste it? Can I put it in my inventory? Is it magical? Is it combustible? How many knowledge checks can I roll on it? Does it match my outfit? Can I keep it?” - Catriona, literally every time she sees any new item in D&D

Strongest character trait: Imagination

Strengths: Ophelia is an immensely imaginative and resourceful person who comes to Gem Quest from a background of extensive fiction reading and making famously effective TTRPG characters. It helps that she researched Gem Quest *extensively* before starting and continued to be active in forums and the GQ Wiki right up through getting stuck, along with getting early advice and support from a beta tester acquaintance. Her ideas are typically wildly innovative and a bit risky, but to her credit, they pay off more often than not. She’s slow to trust others with much critical personal information, but pretty open to giving others a chance and to judging people based on her own experience rather than on gossip. Thinking on her feet is second nature to her, and she’s rarely at a loss for ideas. Her devotion to her character and planned story arc have helped her to maintain a degree of focus and stability that’s thus far proven to be her most valuable coping mechanism.

She’s generally friendly and pleasant despite her spooky aesthetic, story, and demeanor, and she will genuinely try to help anyone who asks her for it. In business and in social encounters, Ophelia is considerate, well-mannered, and often downright chatty, though she usually knows to take a hint when people make it clear that they don’t want to talk. She makes and offers a selection of odd but useful items at very fair prices because she’s not here to make a profit - she just needs enough resources to keep going. She’s earned a bit of good will based on that. Her skill in puzzle and strategy-based quests and willingness to dispense hints on the above, along with her crafting, has garnered her a good reputation as a support player and PC shopkeeper within her guild.

Weaknesses: Even knowing that the game is now a matter of life and death, Ophelia still seems to care more about her in-game narrative and goals than practicality, survivability, or winning. A vibrant creative type who wishes no irl harm to anybody, she has a hard time conceiving that even the most blatantly destructive PCs would truly do harm to anyone outside the narrative. She catches most of the references you make and then obnoxiously, steadfastly denies that she has caught them if you inquire, because Star Wars doesn’t exist in the world of Gem Quest and of Ophelia, dammit! While her coping methods might be working for her internally for now, her devotion to staying in-character makes her a bit of an acquired taste. She is very, very particular about sticking to character, even when it’d be more practical and less annoying for her to drop it. She’s been known to make important decisions that risk her safety (and sometimes, indirectly, that of others) in the name of “authenticity” to her character and story plans.

Far, far too curious and adventurous for someone with a Defense stat of 2. She has lots and lots of interesting ideas, all of which she gives equal chance to, plenty of which aren’t good. Just because her creative ideas pay off more often than not doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when they don’t pay off. And when they don’t pay off, they tend to not pay off SPECTACULARLY. Reasonably likely to get herself killed enacting some inventive and exceedingly high-risk scheme to take out a dangerous boss before it can do damage.

For some folks, the mix of creepy aesthetics and backstory and acting choices with effusive goodwill and pleasantness is more off-putting than inviting. Arguably talks too much, especially when she’s nervous or upset. Has a weakness for getting emotionally involved with NPCs, particularly minor NPCs with chains of side quests or that can serve as temporary companions, despite theoretically knowing that they’re just chunks of code. Seems physically incapable of just sitting back and relaxing for a few without having to start some new project or come up with some new big subplot or plan.

Plenty of folks are happy to buy her crafted items, but she has a bad reputation as an active combatant due to a few infamous Incidents. At this point, only the truly uninformed, the truly desperate, the truly experimental, or the truly crazy in Moonstone would willingly party up with her XD

“Death has made me less than kind. And very, very creative with a broken lute, who knew?” - Ophelia

Player Stats: Ophelia’s defensive strategy in combat is just to not be hit at all. Her Defense stat is dangerously low, with any points that could buff it up as she’s gained levels and experience instead going to Agility and Luck. She prefers to draw her “defense” from stats that she can get more versatile use out of. She’s unusually low in Charisma for a Bard and has only enough Willpower to allow her to craft with physical items. She can’t wield non-magical weapons at all. However, she opted to invest a bit more in Psyche than a lot of other players did since a lot of a Specter’s durability lies in their emotional stability. She also has uncommonly high Intelligence, which combines with her Psyche and Luck to equip her well for puzzle-based and strategy-based challenges.

STRENGTH: X

DEFENSE: 2

CHARISMA: 6

PSYCHE: 7

WILLPOWER: 7

CAUTIOUSNESS: 4

AGILITY: 8

ENDURANCE: 5

INTELLIGENCE: 9

LUCK: 8 

Personality: (A lot of this is already in her strengths and weaknesses, so I’m putting a bit of a summary and some extra detail in here.)

She eats fictional media for breakfast, means well, talks a lot and talks often, has an overall spooky quirky nice one vibe (you know the type), fancies herself an actress regardless of the feedback she might receive, will (un)live and die in-character out of a fruity cocktail of artistic integrity and spite, is the Bard equivalent of a TV mad scientist who tends to cause the problem at the start of the episode with an experiment and then solve it in the last 2 minutes with a crazy genius plan that’s then shown to have not *totally* worked in a post-episode stinger, and is too smart for anyone’s good.

Building a clear narrative here helps her bring some degree of organization and order to the wild creative whirlpool that is her brain. She’d never considered herself much of an escapist until she discovered GQ, where she hasn’t escaped from responsibilities and work and struggle so much as she’s found an intoxicating degree of control over what her responsibilities and work and struggle are. She can write a meaningful story here, be its central driving force, have the impact she increasingly feels like she’ll just never be able to have in real life, and stick her epic quest out to a glorious conclusion. Ironically, she’s a weird mix of always needing an outline and a sense of narrative while ALSO constantly bursting with new ideas and clever but risky plans that she takes quite seriously. Cat harbors perpetual mild guilt for feeling so restless and unhappy - after all, she’s lived comfortable life and has a family who loves, and it’s not like people have to like anything she makes or does or says in order for her to have a high quality of life.

“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” - James Joyce

Biography: Catriona Walsh was born in Dublin, Ireland to an Irish mother and an American father of Irish descent. The family moved to New York City for her father’s job when she was just 5, but she and her mom remain close with her mom’s side of the family back in Ireland. After 3 years in New York, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Cat spent the rest of her young life, except for summers. Most summers since she was 13, she’s stayed a couple months with an aunt and uncle who own a small tour company in Dublin. From 16 on, she’s been helping with business while there. Now she’s at college in Dublin and working at the company on the weekends, in exchange for staying with her relatives. She’s studying business for her parents and literature for herself.

Cat has always had a great fondness for the tour company, though mostly for the actual tour guide end of it. She’s a natural storyteller and explorer who delights in going off the beaten trail and sharing all she knows about xyz subject with anyone who seems interested. Unfortunately, her improvisational bent has landed her in trouble with her aunt and uncle more than once. There are schedules to keep and itineraries people pay to be taken through, after all. This landed her behind the front desk of the office answering phone calls and administering group ticket sales, which she very nearly hates.

School is hard, especially with her true interest pushed to the side by necessity. Feeling like none of her ideas ever get taken seriously is hard. Making friends that last beyond one semester sharing a class is hard, and as she gets further into her college career, her future looks increasingly stifled and bleak to her. Attempts to get some poetry and original music off the ground haven’t gone anywhere, ending in some spikes of faceless nastiness that prompted her to delete her one YouTube account and take a step back from social media about a year and a half ago. Sure, she knows she’s supposed to have a thicker skin than that if she wants to go anywhere, and she *does* want to go somewhere. But she can’t seem to make her skin much thicker. She wants to argue with her uncle and aunt a bit more, as she increasingly disagrees with them on quite a few things, but they’re both extremely conflict averse, and she can be extremely lacking in tact about things she’s suitably worked up over.

Through it all, she knows full well that so so many people have it worse, and that she has no reason to feel restless and dissatisfied and unhappy. It’s just that she has a hard time connecting with people and feeling heard. She’s not alone, so why is she lonely? Cat takes refuge in being the zany, intensely individualistic artist who’s sometimes worth inviting to a party for the interest value and who surely has friends somewhere - you just haven’t ever met them.

For the past year or so, all the time Cat has for herself and an increasing amount of time that used to go into schoolwork has been split between her long-time refuge in tabletop roleplaying and her new favorite place: Gem Quest. She’s part of two Dungeons & Dragons games currently being run on Roll20 (well, was a part of them, anyway), both of which she plays as a multiclassed build with some degree of casting put together for a mix of strong utility and intricate storytelling. Gem Quest continues a years-long trend of being in love with exactly one fantasy video game at a time and playing it as much as possible, though it’s her first MMORPG.

Catriona researched Gem Quest *extensively* before ever getting it or creating her character. She heard about it from a fellow member of one of her online D&D groups, an avid gamer happened to be a beta tester. Cat was drawn in by the idea of being able to entirely occupy the space of a created hero within a sprawling fantasy setting and be a version of herself designed as a protagonist in a world designed to be impacted by her. She had a cousin who had a VR headset but decided it just wasn’t really his thing, so it wasn’t hard to convince him to let her use it for this. After waiting to see more setting and story info during the early general release and researching everything there was to know about GQ thus far, including via discussion with her beta tester acquaintance, she entered into the game a short while after launch. She’s had time to level up, mostly in being an item crafter and utility character with a surprising capacity to serve as a highly mobile glass canon blaster (and inexhaustible source of very creative and very insane plans) in combat.

She also has a whole, novella-length backstory for her character - a summary of which I will post later! - that she treats as her character bible and guide for all in-game interactions. It’s based on a single image of a skeleton in a black and white dress in some official art of one of the higher levels where there are a lot of scenic skeletons lying around. This is the sort of brain Cat has XD  

Ophelia, as a character, is the ghost of a minor noblewoman and court musician who was betrayed when she starting poking around into the disappearance of her older brother at court. Her desires to find her brother and for vengeance brought her back as a Specter, but she came back a world away from the place she died and has to go on a quest to make it back and finish her story. Cat built the character to be tied to a mid-to-late game puzzle-heavy level so she could have a big climatic Moment there. Then, she’d continue to the end in search of her fictional brother. Ophelia wields a spectral lute as a spellcasting focus and spends a lot of time pursuing leads about both her brother and her murderer (aka quests Cat finds thematically/aesthetically good for Ophelia).

Cat is VERY set on seeing this plot through and being the hero of her story, from start to finish, despite what’s happening with the game now. She does her part to provide puzzle guides and crafting support for those working to beat the game, but she’s not going to rush through her story and suddenly snap back to being poor little ungrateful and inexplicably depressed Cat who has no place in anything and can’t do anyone much good with what she’s got. While she’s in the game, she’s going to be Ophelia. At least Ophelia has a *reason* to be unhappy and restless, a wildly creative and wildly striving brain tied to the world with a few wisps of smoke. And at least Ophelia is good at what she does.

Never mind how much she adored aggressive exploration and creative combat at first. She’s learned well enough that she’s just a liability there, she’s bad at being in a group, and, not so different from real life, she’s at her best when she’s just at the shop counter being support. She’s already been booted from a couple of parties over her crazy plans, play style, and general personality. And there have been more than enough incidents with her pulling something crazy because it was in-character and genuinely seemed like a good solution with the resources given, usually with at least decent results but always with high risk, that no one in the know is willing to party up with her anymore.

She’s kind of stuck either in her shop or going solo. At least she makes good things, though, right? And she’s just taking her plot slow because of she’s savoring and developing her story, not because people don’t really like conquering life beside her out here either, right?

Right?

Relationships: I’m very much open to some plotting and planning with anyone who’d like to try working something out!

In regards to side characters or such of my own, I have some ideas already for this. I’ll fill these in as I finalize my ideas a bit more!

Char 1 -

Char 2 -

Char 3 -

Playlist: TBF Pinterest: TBF Extra: TBF

#ophelia #catriona #cat #moonstone #character info

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scifigeneration · 5 years

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We've designed a 'flux capacitor', but it won't take us Back to the Future

by Thomas Stace and Clemens Müller

In the Back to the Future movies, the DeLorean car was able to travel through time thanks to a flux capacitor. Wikimedia/Oto Godfrey and Justin Morton

The technology that allowed Marty McFly to travel back in time in the 1985 movie Back to the Future was the mythical flux capacitor, designed by inventor Doc Brown.

We’ve now developed our own kind of flux capacitor, as detailed recently in Physical Review Letters.

While we can’t send a DeLorean car back in time, we hope it will have important applications in communication technology and quantum computing.

How did we do it? Well it’s all to do with symmetry. There are many kinds of symmetry in science, including one that deals with time reversal.

Time reversal

Time reversal symmetry is a complex sort of symmetry that physicists like to think about, and relies on the imaginary as much as the real.

Suppose you make a movie of an event occurring. You could then ask: “If I edited the movie to run backwards, and showed it to my friends, could they tell?”

This might seem obvious: people don’t usually walk or talk backwards; spilt milk doesn’t spontaneously jump back into its carton; a golf ball doesn’t miraculously launch backwards from the fairway, landing perfectly balanced on the tee at the same moment as the club catches it.

Golf doesn’t look so convincing in reverse. Source: Tom Stace

But at a microscopic level, the story is not that clear. The collision of two billiard balls looks pretty similar in reverse; even more so for the collision of two atoms. A beam of light travelling in one direction obeys exactly the same laws of physics as a beam of light travelling in the opposite direction.

Indeed, the basic equations of physics look essentially the same if we replace time with its negative. This mathematical transformation reverses the flow of time in our equations.

Since the microscopic laws of physics appear to be unchanged under this mathematical transformation, we say the universe possesses time reversal symmetry, even though we cannot actually reverse time in reality. Unlike Doc Brown, we can’t make the clock tick backwards.

There is a conceptual conflict here. At the macroscopic scale, the entropy of the universe — a measure of disorder or randomness — always increases, so that there is an arrow of time.

This is obvious in our everyday experience: a scrambled egg is not reversible. How does this irreversiblity emerge from microscopic laws that are reversible? This remains a mystery.

The circulator circuit

Microscopic reversibility presents an important technological challenge. It complicates the diversion of electronic and radio signals around a circuit.

There are various applications where engineers want electromagnetic signals (such as light or radio waves) in a circuit to behave a bit like cars around a roundabout.

This is pictured below: a signal entering port A of the device should be directed to port B; a signal entering at B should go to port C; and a signal entering port C should be directed to port A, clockwise around the device.

A simple representation of a circulator. Tom Stace

One way to do this is to use a network of amplifiers to switch signals as desired. But there is a profound result in quantum mechanics (the “no cloning theorem”) that means that amplification must always add noise, or randomness, to the signal. Sorry audiophiles: a perfect amplifier is impossible.

If the signal is extremely weak, so that additional noise is intolerable, then noiseless circulation is accomplished with a device called a circulator. Such devices are used to separate very weak signals going to and from sensitive electronics, including in radar receivers, or in existing and future quantum computers.

It turns out a device like this must locally break time reversal symmetry. If we made a movie of the signals coming and going from the circulator, and ran the movie backwards, it would look different. For example, we would see a signal entering port B and leaving via port A, rather than via C.

But most devices in a quantum research laboratory, such as mirrors, beam splitters, lasers, atoms do not break time reversal symmetry, so cannot be used as circulators. Something else is needed.

The practical way to break time reversal symmetry for real devices is to introduce a magnetic field. Like a rotating vortex in water, magnetic fields have a circulation, since they arise from electrical currents circulating in an electrical loop.

The magnetic field defines a direction of rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise) for electrically charged particles and thus for electrical signals. So when physicists say that a device breaks time reversal symmetry, they usually mean that there is a magnetic field about somewhere.

Commercial circulators are an anomaly in the world of electronics. Unlike transistors, diodes, capacitors and other circuit elements, basic materials science means that commercial circulators have not been miniaturised, and are still the size of a coin.

A large component: an X-band microwave circulator where the circular arrow on the label indicates the direction that power travels. Wikimedia/Antonio Pedreira

Building them into large-scale integrated microelectronic circuits is therefore a challenge. This will become an increasing problem as we try to fit thousands of qubits on a quantum computer chip, each requiring its own circulator to enable control and read-out.

Our quantum flux capacitor

We have developed a new way of building micrometer-sized circulators that can be fabricated on a microchip.

We figured out how to integrate magnetic flux quanta — the smallest units of magnetic field — with microfabricated capacitors and other superconducting circuit elements, so that time-reversal symmetry can be broken.

This led to our new circulator proposal. As with conventional circulators, there is a magnetic field present. But because we can use just one magnetic flux quantum, our design can be microscopic.

See the design similarity: (left) the fictional flux capacitor from the movie and (right) a schematic representation of the proposed circulator. Tom Stace/Screenshot from Back to the Future, Author provided

We’ve nicknamed the device the quantum flux capacitor as its circuit diagram has a passing resemblance to Doc Brown’s mythical invention (which are for sale, sort of).

Sadly for history buffs, our design won’t help much in your DeLorean time machine: it doesn’t reverse time. But its magnetic field does break time-reversal symmetry as advertised and we expect these devices will find applications in future quantum technologies.

Even sooner, they may help in high-bandwidth communications environments like mobile phone base stations in very dense populations, or for ultra-high sensitivity radar where every photon of the electromagnetic field counts.

See the flux capacitor flashing behind Marty in the DeLorean. GIPHY

About The Authors:

Thomas Stace is a Professor in Physics at The University of Queensland and Clemens Müller is a Researcher on Quantum Technologies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

#science #technology #theoretical physics #time travel #time #quantum mechanics

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gossamer-scraps · 6 years

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Patch note summary for PvE

General/Misc

Critical-Hit Chance: Fixed a bug that displayed this value as 1% less than it was on the Hero panel.

Added swim-speed infusions for upgrading aquatic headgear. Skimmer: Increased the water-hovering movement speed of this mount by about 21%.

PvE Balance

Many underwater skill changes, which I won't list in the class summaries.

Many stat buffs have been slightly reduced. They will be bolded below, along with major changes.

Confusion: This condition has been reworked.

Elementalist

Meteor Shower: The internal cooldown of this skill has been removed when used against PvE targets, and its initial damage has been increased by 23%. Damage will now decline by 10% for each subsequent hit, capping at a minimum value equal to 10% of the initial impact's damage.

This is a large nerf for staff on large hitboxes (removing lightning hammer from the meta and necessitating a new rotation). On small hitboxes it has less of an effect.

Tempest Defense: Reduced the damage increase against disabled foes from 20% to 10%.

Some dagger and scepter buffs.

Glyph of Storms: The recharge time of storms will now be based on the player's attunement.

This mostly just fixes the (intended, but) strange behavior from last patch that allowed for an extra fire glyph use and made the cooldown hidden.

Deadeye

Many mechanics changed. See the "An Eye on the Deadeye" forum post, which I won't summarize.

Ranger

Spotter: Reduced the precision granted by this trait from 150 to 100.

Frost Spirit: Nerfed from 7.5% to 5%.

Celestial Avatar: Healing of all skills is reduced by 30-40%.

Lingering Light: This trait now grants 50% increased outgoing healing to allies while in celestial avatar form.

Taking this trait means loosing Grace of the Land, thus druid can pick between having might output but reduced healing, and having good healing but not providing might from CA.

Call of the Wild: Reduced the durations of fury, swiftness, and might granted by this skill from 15 seconds to 10 seconds. Might granted by this skill has been increased from 3 stacks to 6 stacks.

Windborne Notes: Reduced the duration of Call of the Wild's regeneration from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.

Grace of the Land: Increased the duration of might granted by this trait from 8 seconds to 12 seconds, and decreased the stacks of might granted from 3 to 2.

Power buffs.

Healing Spring: Removes 2 conditions per pulse.

Mesmer

Signet of the Ether: The cooldown of this skill is decreased to 30 seconds.

Continuum Shift: The cooldown of this skill is increased to 105 seconds.

Dear god why. This ruins all of the chronomancer rotation timing, though it won’t have much effect overall.

Axes of Symmetry: This skill has regained its confusion-inflicting function.

This makes it a DPS loss now.

Imaginary Axes buffed.

Compounding Power: Reduced the damage bonus per stack of this effect from 3% to 2%.

A nerf to dueling-based power builds. Domination may be a viable alternative now.

Necromancer

E P I D E M I C D I D N T G E T N E R F E D

Blood Is Power: This skill now has 2 charges with a 1-second cooldown between uses.

Well of Power: This skill now grants 8 seconds of might per pulse.

Signet of Vampirism buffed.

Engineer

Pinpoint Distribution: Reduced the condition damage granted by this trait from 150 to 100.

Minor buffs. See full notes for details.

Guardian

Strength in Numbers: Reduced the toughness granted by this trait from 150 to 100 at level 80.

Revenant

Assassin's Presence: Reduced the ferocity granted by this trait from 225 to 150.

Shortbow buffs.

Kalla buffs.

Jalis buffs.

Warrior

Empower Allies: Reduced the power granted by this trait from 150 to 100.

#gw2 #research #long post

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2paclegacynet · 4 years

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Why Tupac Was Named Tupac Amaru Shakur?

The rapper was born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971. While he was still an infant, his mother, Afeni Shakur, changed his name to Tupac Amaru Shakur, which made him the third well-known person to carry the name Tupac Amaru. While most of the time there’s not really a relation between a person's name and their deeds, with some famous people it seems as if their awesome name had guided them through their lives to achieve great things. That, of course, is the case of Tupac Shakur, the rapper whose controversial life and music became a legend.

Tupac Shakur’s controversial birth

Tupac Shakur was born in the midst of trying times. His mother, Afeni Shakur, and her then-husband, Lumbumba Shakur, were arrested at their Harlem apartment on charges of conspiracy in April 1968. Admitted members of the Black Panther Party, they were charged with planning bombings throughout New York. Their bail was set at $100,000 and other members of the Black Panther Party decided to raise bail money first for them, as there were 19 others who were arrested for being a part of the alleged ring. The goal of getting the Shakur’s bail was so that they could work to raise bail for others as they’d successfully done so in the past. Afeni Shakur remained in prison while she awaited bail. Without a law degree, she chose to represent herself in court and faced a 300-year sentence. Afeni became pregnant with her son while she was in prison. She successfully fought her case and was acquitted in May 1971. Her son was born a month after her release on June 16, 1971. Why Was Tupac Named Lesane Parish Crooks?

Tupac Shakur’s birth name and significance of name change

Tupac Shakur originally named her son Lesane Parish Crooks. When he was a year old, she legally had Crooks’ name changed to Tupac Amaru Shakur. Tupac’s name means “shining serpent” in Inca. An avid reader, Afeni Shakur was inspired to change her son’s name after something with a powerful meaning. According to a profile piece on the rapper and activist’s name on The Track Record, the first known Tupac Amaru was the last indigenous monarch of Inca. The second known person to carry the name was José Gabriel Condorcanqui, better known as Tupac Amaru II. He was an 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary of indigenous blood who led the largest indigenous uprising in Spanish American colonial history.

“I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world,” Afeni Shakur once said about her son. “I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood.”

What does “Tupac Amaru” mean?

“Tupac Amaru” is derived from the name Tupaq Amaru, which, loosely translated, means sierpe resplandeciente or “Shining Serpent” in Quechua (the indigenous language of the Andes and second-most spoken language in Peru). The first known Tupac Amaru was an indigenous monarch—the last Sapa Inca, for any 16th-century Latin American history buffs out there. The second known person to carry the name was José Gabriel Condorcanqui—better known as Tupac Amaru II—an 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary of indigenous blood (he claimed to be a direct descent of the first Tupac Amaru). The second Tupac led the largest indigenous uprising in Spanish American colonial history. As many indigenous people of the Americas were, both were executed by the Spanish. “ was named for ‘the last Inca chief to be tortured, brutalized, and murdered by Spanish conquistadores...a warrior,’ Afeni says.” What we do know is this: Tupac Shakur was aware of his ties to history. “That’s my real name. There’s nothing artificial about that,” he said in a 1996 interview on the set of the movie Gang Related. “There’s a gentlemen by the name of Tupac Amaru who was a freedom fighter, warrior—similar to myself—a chief, a leader for his people.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdRcWZR6pKI&feature=youtu.be&t=9m50s That may have been the only time he spoke about his name on tape, and may be the only time he connected his name with Peruvian indigenous history on the record.

What does “Shakur” mean?

Shakur was named by his mother, Afeni Shakur--a Black Panther party member who was carrying him while imprisoned--for Tupac Amaru, a 16th century Incan chief, according to published biographical material on the late rapper. Means "thankful" in Arabic, from the root شَكَرَ (shakara) meaning "to thank". In Islamic tradition الشكور (al-Shakur) is one of the 99 names of Allah.

Who is Túpac Amaru II?

Tupac Amaru, Micaela Bastidas, and much of their inner circle were captured in April 1781 and, as described below, executed in a grisly public spectacle on May 18, 1781 (aged 43). The first Tupac Amaru was the last indigenous Inca chief ruling at the time of the Spanish conquest. Though his reign lasted less than two years, he is known for fighting tirelessly against the invaders to protect not only his people, but also their culture and legacy. When the Spaniards conquered the main settlements of the Inca empire, some members of the royal family decided to flee and establish a new Inca state to plan their fight against the invaders. This state grew for about a decade, when it passed to Tupac Amaru, but just when he was getting used to the throne, the Spanish army declared war on their settlement. Tupac and his people fought bravely, but eventually, they were defeated by the enemy’s superior weaponry.

Túpac Amaru II Execution

Túpac Amaru II was sentenced to be executed. He was forced to bear witness to the execution of his wife Micaela Bastidas, his eldest son Hipólito, his uncle Francisco Tupa Amaro, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, and some of his captains before his own death. The following is an extract from the official judicial death issued by the Spanish authorities which condemns Túpac Amaru II to torture and death. It was ordered in sentence that Túpac Amaru II be condemned to have his tongue cut out, after watching the executions of his family, and to have his hands and feet tied... ...to four horses who will then be driven at once toward the four corners of the plaza, pulling the arms and legs from his body. The torso will then be taken to the hill overlooking the city... where it will be burned in a bonfire... Tupac Amaru's head will be sent to Tinta to be displayed for three days in the place of public execution and then placed upon a pike at the principal entrance to the city. One of his arms will be sent to Tungasuca, where he was the cacique, and the other arm to the capital province of Carabaya, to be similarly displayed in those locations. His legs will be sent to Livitica and Santa Rosas in the provinces of Chumbivilcas and Lampa, respectively. — Sarah C. Chambers, Latin American Independence: An Anthology of Sources After the failed dismemberment by the four horses, his body was quartered, and he was then beheaded on the main plaza in Cuzco, in the same place his apparent great-great-great-grandfather Túpac Amaru I had been beheaded.

The execution of Tupac Amaru

Aftermath

The unique “Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces” of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975) launched Tupac Amaru as Peru’s national symbol by associating the rebel with all the regime’s activities, particularly the agrarian reform. Streets, plazas, halls, and five-year plans were named after Tupac Amaru, who also adorned Peru’s currency, coins, and stamps. Large statues in Lima and Cuzco honored him while dozens of plaques and smaller monuments celebrated other rebel leaders. Artists such as Jesús Ruiz Durand and Milner Cajahuaringa created portraits and posters that stressed the ties between the 1780-1783 rebellion and the Velasco government. Many of these adopted the colorful symmetry of pop art, with some of the posters now fetching heady prices as art pieces. A supposed Tupac Amaru quote, “Peasant, the master will no longer feed from your hunger” became the government’s leading slogan. Tupac Amaru never said this; Velasco’s speechwriters invented it. In the 1960s and 1970s, and above all during the Velasco period, Tupac Amaru became a leading figure in Peruvian history. The question of his role in the war of independence continues to animate historians and others. Some follow Velasco’s interpretation, placing Tupac Amaru as the precursor, his uprising the bloody and frustrated first step in emancipation from Spain. Critics of this position from the left point out that Tupac Amaru sought a very different venture than did the liberators of the 1810s and 1820s and cannot simply be placed at the beginning of the list. Conservative critics, uncomfortable with indigenous revolutionaries, prefer to highlight the coastal-based revolts beginning in 1815. Although these debates continue, particularly now that Peru is heading towards its bicentennial in 2021, what is clear is that Tupac Amaru has become a national and international icon. In some regards, the ambiguity about what the rebellion sought and Tupac Amaru’s role in Peruvian history has added to his mystique and allowed different groups to support him. Since the 1970s, Tupac Amaru has become a hero, while meaning very different things to different groups. Why Was Tupac Named Lesane Parish Crooks? Read the full article

#Pac'sStuff #TupacAmaru #TupacAmaruII #TupacStuff

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sundayswiththeilluminati · 5 years

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Riskrunner

Charge your soul and let the electrons sing.

Type: Submachine Gun

Slot: Kinetic | Energy | Heavy

Element: Arc | Solar | Void

Perk: Arc Conductor - When taking Arc damage, this weapon becomes more powerful and resists incoming Arc damage. Kills extend the time in this overcharged state.

Trait: Superconductor - When Arc Conductor is active, shots fired have a chance to become chain lightning and return ammo to the magazine.

Ornaments: Electric Violet, Summer Storm, The Third Rail, Cheerspreader, Leporine Jubilation

Origin & Description:

NOTE: The user must receive incoming damage to increase outgoing damage. However, the value we predict the user will receive in return for their discomfort far exceeds any momentary pain – assuming, of course, the user survives the attack.

In short: This may hurt. A lot.

Remember that scene in The Dark Knight where Batman drives a semi-truck towards the Joker and the Joker stands right in the middle of the road muttering, “Hit me, hit me, hit me,” under his breath? That’s what it feels like to wield Riskrunner. Its name also describes its playstyle: run the risk of making yourself a target in return for dishing out some truly spectacular Arc retribution. You stand out in the open, daring the enemy to hit you, and as soon as you take that first ping of Arc damage you open up on them like the hammer of Thor. Once you’ve triggered the Arc Conductor buff, every kill extends it, so you don’t have to take any more Arc damage to keep it going. And don’t be fooled by the “have a chance” wording of Superconductor - when Arc Conductor is active, you will never run out of ammo. In fact you’ll never get more than three or four rounds into the mag before it’s topped back up, even at the high fire rate of a submachine gun. You will run out of targets long before you run out of bullets. A player firing Riskrunner in full flow is less a person shooting a gun and more the source of a kind of lightning whip that lashes from enemy to enemy, frying them each in turn. These days Riskrunner is a staple exotic obtainable (with catalyst!) from the "Pain & Gain" quest given by Banshee to all new Guardians, which takes you to the Cosmodrome to raid an old stash of Cayde's. But no matter how common it is, when someone cuts loose it's always a sight to see.

All of Riskrunner's ornaments play on the theme of electricity and the spectacular lightning shows it can unleash.

Destiny 2 Compendium Armarum Exoticarum

#Destiny 2 #Riskrunner #god I love Riskrunner #dipping a toe in radiolaria and cutting loose on the Vex #ripping through the psions in the Dul Incaru fight #frying an entire EP wave knights and all #just the entire Exodus Crash strike #only decent thing about that strike #standing there yelling FIGHT ME IRL #COME AT ME*#*assuming you deal Arc damage!#otherwise please remain a respectable distance away!#fun fact: both cursed thralls and regular thrall melee trigger Arc Conductor!#Destiny Compendium Exoticarum #this is the wager of existence #Destiny

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sundayswiththeilluminati · 4 years

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Symmetry

"Duality is not a curse, but a gift." --Author unknown

Type: Scout Rifle

Slot: Kinetic | Energy | Heavy

Element: Arc | Solar | Void

Perk: Revolution - This weapon fires full auto. Hold reload to swap to Arc Seeker mode. Arc Seekers track toward enemies you target.

Trait: Dynamic Charge - Precision hits build up Dynamic Charge. Swapping to Arc Seeker mode increases damage and partially reloads the magazine based on the number of charges.

Masterworked Trait: Electric Styx - Increases the maximum number of Dynamic Charge stacks.

Ornaments: Skyline Constellation, Binary System

Origin & Description: Seasonal exotic of the Season of Dawn, Symmetry takes its name from a Guardian faction known as the Symmetrists and their most well-known philosopher, the warlock Ulan-Tan. Ulan-Tan theorized that both Darkness and Light formed a cosmic balance and neither could exist without the other, making the idea of "defeating" the Darkness ridiculous. He also theorized that there was symmetry in the Guardians' relationship with the Traveler - that as the Traveler had raised Guardians from the dead and healed their wounds, it was a Guardian's duty to raise and heal the Traveler. Whether he intended to or not, Ulan-Tan wound up the focus of a lot of controversy, which he didn't much help by asking, "Are you afraid of me, or are you afraid I might be right? If in order to defeat Darkness we had to give up the Light, would you do it?" He also totally called Guardians out on our tendency to look upon marvels and turn them into guns: "Give a power to a Guardian and they shall know that power as a weapon, for when a Guardian chooses to alter the world, they do so with the bullet and the blade. Grant a Guardian godly power, and that Guardian shall fashion it into a perfect rifle." Yeouch. I think people may have just disliked how badly Ulan-Tan had our number.

Symmetry itself is an exceptional scout rifle and a lot of fun. I'm biased here because it's basically an exotic version of a legendary weapon I already have and love: a full-auto Vouchsafe I call "the nailgun" for its pinpoint sights and the pneumatic pew-pew-pew of its firing. The Scout Rifle archetype, intended as a middle ground between Sniper and Pulse Rifles*, has generally longer range than Pulses but smaller magazines and no burst fire; however, some scouts can roll the Full-Auto Trigger System perk which lets you hold down the trigger to fire continuously, and it turns out that lets you use some scouts as essentially very good pulse rifles. Symmetry fires at 260 RPM, the highest speed currently possible for a scout, and fires full-auto. Hold reload to engage that cool blue marbled-ink effect and swap to its alt-mode Revolution, in which it fires slow homing Arc Seeker rounds like a backwards Skyburner’s Oath. The two modes synergize via Dynamic Charge. Dynamic Charge builds up in regular mode as you land precision hits (similar to Polaris Lance). When you swap to Revolution it'll consume your Dynamic Charge stacks and give a massive damage buff to your Arc Seekers based on how much charge you had. Symmetry will also auto-reload when you swap modes based on the number of Dynamic Charge stacks so you don't waste part of your overcharge time reloading. Unmasterworked, Dynamic Charge will stack up to x15; the masterwork trait Electric Styx raises the cap to x20.

* Unfortunately Bows are kinda eating Scout Rifles' lunch at the moment. Bows also live in this mechanical space, and while they fire slower they hit hard and are overall more fun.

In a game deservedly famous for its weapon design Symmetry still stands out as extraordinarily beautiful. Season of the Dawn has an elegant, clean aesthetic that stands in sharp contrast to the overgrown rust of Season of the Undying and I am 100% here for it. The moment one of the art directors mentioned using 18th-century navigational instruments as inspiration I was all in and after a few weeks of playing I am even all-er in. The sleek coiled barrel at the center of its default look spirals outward in Revolution mode as the entire weapon lights up a deep royal blue with sparks and those strange marbled-ink patterns. The ornament Skyline Constellation, which drops from rank 100 of the Season Pass, changes it to white adorned with golden map-like tracery and changes the coiling barrel shroud to a series of winglike ornaments; switch to Revolution mode and those wings fan out as all the linework ignites. It's truly a gorgeous weapon.

Destiny 2 Compendium Armarum Exoticarum

#Destiny 2 #Symmetry #Ulan-Tan #The Symmetrists #Season of Dawn #I love this exotic!#I loved the nailgun and I love this ascended nailgun #and it is just. so. beautiful!#AUGH BURY ME WITH THIS SEASON'S AESTHETIC #IT IS SO INTENSELY MY JAM #Destiny Compendium Exoticarum #Destiny #this is the wager of existence

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