OOC X-COM Think Tank (part 4)

ZombieSplitter53

Game Master
Staff member

I'm probably going to go with the fire starter, and I like the look of the Catman with the wrestling championship belt, but I think the grass starter's final evolution looks the coolest. And grass/ghost? A starter that becomes a ghost pokemon? Awesome!

And did you see Alola Persian? He's got a Garfield face! How cute is that!?
 

Frostlich1228

Well-Known Member

I'm probably going to go with the fire starter, and I like the look of the Catman with the wrestling championship belt, but I think the grass starter's final evolution looks the coolest. And grass/ghost? A starter that becomes a ghost pokemon? Awesome!

And did you see Alola Persian? He's got a Garfield face! How cute is that!?

Wow, so that's what the water starter looks like? She looks really good!

I liek her the best <3

Also... Third times the charm on my power supply... pray for me...
 

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
Looks like it's time for me to do another point by point reaction. This solo was just begging for it, like a worg in heat. Get it? Anyone?
The holographic representation of Yakone was as close to spot on as it could be.
As always, these allusions to Yakone sustain me. They fill me with a joy knowing that my character has had enough of an impact to be affecting the story despite being locked up in a dark cell for ten days now.
Right height, right weight (at least what was on file)
Hohoho... are you questioning the number I gave? I mean, maybe that was measured a year ago, and maybe her chest has inflated slightly since then... *Yakone suddenly wakes up in her cell, knowing she's being talked about, and mutters "mother fuckers"*
a5643e188e72e3ad9cf01ac90493c9698bb6953716d25b2d2e722590b7d2405a_1.jpg
and that smug smile on her face was close. But it didn't quite give off the same aura of confidence that was, in a way, both her best and her worse feature.
Great, succinct, and poetic way to reference her pride. Well done.
Knowing it was coming (it was the whole reason Alex was here, after all), Alex through up another telekinetic shield.
*Threw up. Nice parenthetical, though. Mmm.
It glowed with a brilliant golden color, much more deep then the dull yellow from when she first got it.
Color evolution. Very good. Interestingly, Alexis's yellow minor color is shared with the yellow major color of someone very important to the plot.
Hard Light fist connected with psionic force, and it sent ripples through the shield. A huge crack split it in half, and Alexis' knees buckled, the young woman panting heavily as sweat dripped off her face and onto the floor.
Good imagery, though I'm not sure why Hard Light is capitalized and psionic force isn't. Messes with the good parallelism you have going on in that first sentence.

And that was all just for the first paragraph, folks. What a great intro!

"Good timing. I... I think there is... something off with... the hologram." She crawled over to the side of the room and chugged down a bottle of water. "I really don't think... it's hitting as hard as Yakone really can."
You know, you were talking about making your characters do more badass things, Zmby, but this comes off as a really badass LINE. Cool dialogue is like the icing on the kickass cake.
Jennifer gave her a sad look. "Alexis, please. You can't keep doing this to yourself. Getting depressed and saying you're not as good as Yakone, or Luke, or..."

Alex quickly shook her head, her smile remaining.
Character development! Always a praiseworthy thing, since people sometimes forget one of the fundamental parts of a good story.
I will never be able to beat Yakone in a fight. But... you don't always have to win to keep from losing
-Alexis Chambers, compendium of motivational quotes.
So if I can't beat her, or more accurately, Nouja, in offense, I'm going to do my damnedest to beat them in defense."
It's good to see you're not suddenly trying to make Alexis into a purely offensive fighter, but rather improving upon her support psionics to make them actually be cool and relevant in battle. I was initially uncomfortable with the idea that we have three telekinetic field users, but it's a pretty versatile power and it seems Adam, Alex, and Gwen are all using their own styles for the most part. It's not too incestuous.
"Please, sis... a little faith. It is all part of the plan." Alexis stood up, and swirled her fingers around. "It is all a swirl of things leading into other things. One form of training leading into another form. I have this hologram push me to my limits. It punches the crap out of my shields. With that, it pushed me to make stronger shields. I've also been work on reflexively shifting the power of my shields from the whole thing to points of impact. This tires me out. I'm forced to make more oxygen to help me breath, and biokinetically heal my soreness, strengthening those powers. I've also been practicing combining my powers."
I like this integration of training. Very efficient. Yakone could learn a thing or two from Alex on that.
"You got it." Alex turned to the holographic Yakone. "Just give me a little time, Yakone. I'm gonna be a wall of psionic energy when it comes time to save you. If I have to keep Nouja busy all by myself to get you back, so be it. Now come on. Hit me. And this time, put some energy into it."
Nice way to end part 1.

Morrigan placed her gun down and sat next to her holographic companion. "The problem isn't you... and the problem isn't me. It is us... as a team." She took a deep breath. "Yesterday, Merlux commented on how he doesn't trust you to be a team player. I heard it. And if I heard it, you heard it."
More references to my characters! I'm doing something right, yay!
"I don't believe that," Morrigan said bluntly. "You are so easily offended, so quick to anger, and yet you said nothing. And then you met your Father, and you were awestruck. I think you want to be as important as all the positive A.I. emotions, but your own pride stops you."
Vysinni character devlopment.
"I admit I'm still having trouble accepting the whole... living computers thing." Morrigan rubbed the back of her neck. "But... I'd be a fool not to see you and the other A.I.s are sentient.
And just like that, Morrigan put the fantastic racism hatchet back into her backpack. Reserving it for the aliens and advent hybrids of course.
Ayame tapped her practice sword against her shoulder. "You know... yesterday, when we were fighting in the forest, I was thinking of all the things I could do to those robots. Shows of physical strength. Speed. Hell, that was my first chance in a while to use some of my Earth magic. But I didn't. I held back. I was worried the others would notice."
Good way to excuse her lack of utilization.
The simulation was silent for five minutes while Ayame studied her prey, looking for exploitable patterns. Finally, one of the troopers suddenly disappeared into a bush, silently. It took a minute for the other simulations to realize that one of their own was missing. By then, Ayame as already on the other side of the field. She silently ran into the field and shoved her blade into the spine of another trooper. She was already running again by the time the others had turned around in response to the cry of pain, and her sword was in the chest of a third trooper as their weapons were raised. She kicked the dead trooper towards the remaining two enemies, most of their gun fire hitting him. Ayame jumped up, using the flying body to leap even higher. With a yell, Ayame slashed her sword as she fell past the final trooper, his head rolling to the ground.
This is a really cool scene. Plays pretty believably, and shows Ayame using her stealth skills to be a monster on the battlefield instead of just blindly leeroy jenkins-ing in. Though, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't she only kill 4/5 of the soldiers? Ayame stealth-kills the first two, then murdercates the third. She uses his body as cover, and then kills the fifth "final" trooper, but I think the fourth wasn't shown to die. Did stray fire get him?
The muton swung a fist at Ayame, and she ducked to avoid it. She swiftly kicked its weapon away, but the muton hit her arm, causing her to drop her sword. The holographic hologram went for a bear hug, but Ayame hit it with a drop kick, causing it to stumble back. "You're dead!" she yelled angrily, and jumped onto the Balmadaar's chest, holding on with one hand and thrusting her fist forward with the other. The creature's helmet and hardened skull buckled, and with its face collapsed in, it dropped, ending the simulation.
This is the only non-nitpicky complaint I have. Ayame... can kill an ARMORED MUTON with a punch? Who is she, Eva Aegerter with genemods?
 

ZombieSplitter53

Game Master
Staff member
Thanks for the comments. I'm glad that my little solo illicited such positive points, and I made those corrections. As for Ayame's strength... would it help if I said the helmet was just a basic one, not one on an Elite, I scaled it back so she wasn't punching her head through the helmet and into the head, and she broke her hand in several places doing that?
 

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the comments. I'm glad that my little solo illicited such positive points, and I made those corrections. As for Ayame's strength... would it help if I said the helmet was just a basic one, not one on an Elite, I scaled it back so she wasn't punching her head through the helmet and into the head, and she broke her hand in several places doing that?
You didn't say it was an elite in the first place, you said it was a regular Muton. I'd be more okay with her punching it in the head, denting its helmet, and then stabbing it in the throat for a critical kill. I consider most forms of combat valid, but superhuman fists against durable alien shocktroopers is only really a legitimate strategy if you're some sort of oversized MEC or a Dagon. ... Dagons? HM, I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THEM. I wonder...
 

ZombieSplitter53

Game Master
Staff member
Great introduction to Exalt, btw. Love the spy element. She should avoid Jack as well, since he has experience with investigation too thanks to his father.

And it is really nice to see Olivia doing better and hanging out with the others again. Had me super worried.

I wonder how much information Emmy is going to steal before she is caught. If she is ever caught. Though knowing our resourceful Commander, it is only a matter of time...
 

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
The curse of writing solos on paper is that they're invariably shorter than you think they are. Nevertheless, this is one I'm quite proud of. Enjoy "Calico Cruelty".
Maybe I should have put quotations around "enjoy".
 

ZombieSplitter53

Game Master
Staff member
The curse of writing solos on paper is that they're invariably shorter than you think they are. Nevertheless, this is one I'm quite proud of. Enjoy "Calico Cruelty".
Maybe I should have put quotations around "enjoy".
This post makes me wish I had the time during Forseti to work with my car people, as my love for cats makes me want to see them as good guys, and the Ayame of that story was originally going to be one of them named Mayane.

Still, I would be a fool not to see that they make for a great villan. And an incredibly intimidating one. I was scared for Yakone, and angered at little miss Calico.

Though I did get a chuckle out of 'you hit like a little bitch'.

Oh... I do hope we find Yakone in due time... it pains me to see her tortured so...
 

Taxor_the_First

Well-Known Member
The curse of writing solos on paper is that they're invariably shorter than you think they are. Nevertheless, this is one I'm quite proud of. Enjoy "Calico Cruelty".
Maybe I should have put quotations around "enjoy".
So the moguls are evolved from Earth cats? Curious.

*Red Dwarf flashbacks* "Face it buddy. I got a body that makes men wet!"
 

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
So the moguls are evolved from Earth cats? Curious.

*Red Dwarf flashbacks* "Face it buddy. I got a body that makes men wet!"
Yeah, I've been waiting to reveal that from awhile. The same goes for the Retainers, they're produced from African Lion stock. All of the "cat-alien" modifiers were just intentionally misleading on my part, used bc XCOM didn't realize the Moguls weren't ayys. Now you understand why Moguls and Retainers are part of ADVENT and not the Protectorate. They're terrestrial beings.
 

DarkGemini24601

Well-Known Member
This post makes me wish I had the time during Forseti to work with my car people, as my love for cats makes me want to see them as good guys, and the Ayame of that story was originally going to be one of them named Mayane.

Still, I would be a fool not to see that they make for a great villan. And an incredibly intimidating one. I was scared for Yakone, and angered at little miss Calico.

Though I did get a chuckle out of 'you hit like a little bitch'.

Oh... I do hope we find Yakone in due time... it pains me to see her tortured so...
Jezebel has claws, but she's not very strong.

If anyone caught the 'Archer' joke slipped in there I would give them a brownie.

And I'm a sadomasochist of sorts since I rather enjoyed writing that.
 

ZombieSplitter53

Game Master
Staff member
Yeah, I've been waiting to reveal that from awhile. The same goes for the Retainers, they're produced from African Lion stock. All of the "cat-alien" modifiers were just intentionally misleading on my part, used bc XCOM didn't realize the Moguls weren't ayys. Now you understand why Moguls and Retainers are part of ADVENT and not the Protectorate. They're terrestrial beings.
Very interesting... and clever...
 
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