PsychoJoe wrote:I was half expecting an ending like 'station complete...what do you mean we have to stay here? screw you, risk your own lives.'
I'm mean, not cruel!
Actually, that would have violated one of the basic principles that I had written into this from the very start: Nobody is a villain, everybody is a hero in their own mind. This includes ONI. Hell, especially ONI. They view themselves as making as many sacrifices, if not more, than the Orions. They do the dirty things and carry the weight so that others don't have to. For the most part, they're more like Chair than they are Muldoon; patriots who believe completely in what they're doing, and regretting their actions even as they do them. They simply see the greater purpose, even when they haven't been informed of what the greater purpose is. No, I wouldn't have them throw the Captain to the dogs like that.
Even in the end, Muldoon had a noble purpose. Why put everybody in cryo? Because then when they arrive for debriefing, everything would be fresh, and the best intel would be there. Why did Ives do what he did? In hopes of sparking an intervention, so that they could better understand the full capabilities of what they were dealing with. He would have hurt Raschad, yes, but not killed. (Yet, anyway; three endings had him killing Raschad.)
Reading through the posts now, all the encoded messages left by Chair takes on new meaning. Well done!
Everybody that I showed it to loved that. It was a small thing, but I put so much effort into it once I fully realized how it could be used. Chair was never sure what condition Foxtrot was in, so her entire storytelling was trying to see if she could get a response in a gentle way. "This is your life." Her, reaching out to her son, hoping...
It was actually what cemented Helen's attitude in my mind. She didn't think of you as worth much initially because nobody could compare to her children. When she realized who Hive was (another carefully weighed decision on the part of ONI) she realized that one of her children held the Captain in the highest of regards, which was a game changer for her. It was the reaction on the part of all of you to her attempts at atonement that finalized how she treated you. You could have gotten demanding whenever she redacted anything from that point on, but you didn't. It said a bit about the Captain's character.
I can see a sequel to this ARG, oddly.
Oh, this I gotta hear! Indulge me!
It's Christmas. The Captain approaches the Monument. Searching for one name in particular, he stops. Laying his package before the Cenotaph, he touches the name inscribed there and, without a word, turns and departs. Pull away to see the name F484 on the monument, a hardbound paper book, an olive branch, and a bag of unground coffee beans.
I see, as the Captain departs, him seeing an aged, heavily scarred A419 staring at him. A419 snaps a quick salute, gives the barest of nods, then turns and walks into the snow without saying a word.
thereIwasn't wrote:When you had Chair snap back at me for trying to use the safety regs for answers regarding the encrypted messages, I was holding my breath while I typed the response because I honestly thought that we were in danger of losing a huge tactical asset.
Oh, if only you knew how much I was grinning when I wrote that. I was absolutely cackling with glee when I read your reply. I'm sure my roomies thought I'd lost it. Yes, you calling her on it was a trigger for a branching that could have ended VERY badly depending on how you handled it. That one could have ended with the destruction of the Unchained Fate, honestly. There were a few endings I had planned that resulted in Chair's death.
And here that was just me running a desperate loophole search and trying to put an obscure paragraph from "Halo: First Strike" into play.
I WAS RIGHT! HA! Ahem, sorry.
I roll on my feet well. Usually, enough time to get a cup of coffee and I have a response in mind. Since things slowed down while I was at work, it gave me enough time to plot and plan, write up a few ideas, and expand on moments where I'd been caught off-guard and had to come up with something on the spot.
I literally started this a day after I got the OK from Wu. (Hey, Wu! If you read all this, there's a homage to you in there; another guy with a Ringwold name.) I spent that night pouring over ideas, solidifying the characters of Helen and Hive, and making a document of BS regs in case I needed them. Completely at random, anything that came to mind. Also names, since I suck at names. For example, Randall Teboe and Ingrid Ruddy are the names of my roomies. Nothing like the characters, but still. I needed a name, and there they were. Heck, my name is even in there.
All that prep work helped me out immensely. I had resources to call on if I needed them.
As an aside, you can thank Myung for interrupting Helen's getting up in your face with the description that you were wanting. When I see somebody go the extra mile for something, I like to reward them. ...That and the comment about more research into military regulations than ever wanted to do made me laugh a little harder than I should have.