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[Remalle]

Do I not even get a +1 for that? What exactly do I get Ruthless Strategist for, if not backstabbing my allies with plenty of time to plan it out?

Hm, that is a good point. I was thinking it would be more of a straight-up combat situation but you're right, this would be a good situation to apply it. Give me a bit and I'll do some Ellimist bullshit retconning when I get home.

[syvarris]

((Well syv, would you like to tell us which gun Bobby has? What firearm would make sense for a guy like that to own?))

((At first I wanted to suggest the Yeet Cannon, just because it's a meme and has a funny name, but sadly California is weird and has a whitelist for normal handgun sales.  Can't easily buy Yeet Cannons over there.  So an old Hipoint C9 would be prolly the most affordable option, and is also a meme, albeit without funny name.  That's easy to get under 200$.  For 50-100% more, he could get a proper full size pistol from a company which isn't a meme, and is actually reliably reliable.  And has... 10 shots, instead of 8, because Cali restricts magazine capacity.  Alternatively, for a bit over that price he could get a compact revolver with 6 (weaker) shots and more concealability, though that's harder to justify for someone who doesn't intend to break the law.  Cali issues concealed carry permits (huh?) but broadly not to people in urban areas.

Now if we were to ignore the fact Bobby is poor, or just call him "cali poor" because cost of living is high there, we could give him a budget of like 2k for his gun, and then there's a shocking amount that can be done.  With some simple tools, tinkering, and weirdly-available internet knowledge, you could turn certain legal civilian "rifles" into military-grade automatic SMGs with distressing ease.  But that's probably not really appropriate.))

[Devastator]

Try to get control over the ant and guide it back home.  Failing that, demorph before I end up underground somewhere.

[Radio Controlled]

((Well syv, would you like to tell us which gun Bobby has? What firearm would make sense for a guy like that to own?))

((At first I wanted to suggest the Yeet Cannon, just because it's a meme and has a funny name, but sadly California is weird and has a whitelist for normal handgun sales.  Can't easily buy Yeet Cannons over there.  So an old Hipoint C9 would be prolly the most affordable option, and is also a meme, albeit without funny name.  That's easy to get under 200$.  For 50-100% more, he could get a proper full size pistol from a company which isn't a meme, and is actually reliably reliable.  And has... 10 shots, instead of 8, because Cali restricts magazine capacity.  Alternatively, for a bit over that price he could get a compact revolver with 6 (weaker) shots and more concealability, though that's harder to justify for someone who doesn't intend to break the law.  Cali issues concealed carry permits (huh?) but broadly not to people in urban areas.

Now if we were to ignore the fact Bobby is poor, or just call him "cali poor" because cost of living is high there, we could give him a budget of like 2k for his gun, and then there's a shocking amount that can be done.  With some simple tools, tinkering, and weirdly-available internet knowledge, you could turn certain legal civilian "rifles" into military-grade automatic SMGs with distressing ease.  But that's probably not really appropriate.))

((When you say 'meme', how should I interpret that? Like 'infamously bad', or unfairly bad reputation, or what? I think the "proper full size pistol" might make most sense, buuuut I am but a simple man who can hardly say no to meme, so please regale us with your stories.))

[Egan_BW]

"FUCK YOU!!! YOU STUPID SNAIL, I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

Morph human and duck, letting the commander shoot his underling.

[syvarris]

((When you say 'meme', how should I interpret that? Like 'infamously bad', or unfairly bad reputation, or what? I think the "proper full size pistol" might make most sense, buuuut I am but a simple man who can hardly say no to meme, so please regale us with your stories.))

Spoiler: I should have just said "People make jokes about Hipoint" and left it at that (click to show/hide)

((Hipoint is well known for making just about the cheapest handguns out there, and quality is generally perceived to track with that.  That being said, "low quality" in firearms generally means things.  Low effectiveness, in terms of accuracy/recoil/handling, which largely don't matter that much for a home-defense handgun.  People don't get into firefights in their homes, while accuracy does not really matter within ten meters*.  And low quality control, meaning a cheap gun might be about as accurate and reliable as the mid-to-high end ones, or might be trash that jams every couple magazines even with ammo it likes.  Some people get reliable C9s that work great, some get crappy C9s that jam relatively often.  Pay twice as much, a lot of the practical benefit comes from making it more likely you land on the good end of that roulette.  Pay five times as much, you're basically ensuring it (and also probably getting some other features, that may or may not really matter!).

There's also the element of some guns dealing with bad conditions/lack of maintenance better or worse, as well as some being so shoddily designed that there's serious errors like firing when the trigger isn't pulled, but these are more issues of specific designs, and you can find both in designs that are expensive as well as designs that are cheap.

Were I to mechanically represent it in an RTD like this game, I'd probably say having a "low end" pistol means your gun jams on a 1, and you don't know how to fix it rapidly.  Higher end would mean a 1 fucks you over in some other way, but the pistol itself isn't responsible.  No matter what handgun you get, it... otherwise behaves the same, because honestly at the end of the day all pistols violently insert a chunk of metal into something, and the slight differences in how well they do that aren't really different enough to represent.))

((Edit: I was asked who I was writing an essay about guns to, and I told them it was for a friend in Belgium.  Which she seems to have confused for the Netherlands.  In any case, it was suggested I ask if Belgium plans to deploy grapple-equipped special forces to go forth and stab the ocean.  Does it?))

[Radio Controlled]

snip

(("bipod-equipped sniper revolver" is something that I didn't know I needed in my life until I saw it just now. Also 'sniper revolver' sounds like the illegitimate lovechild between sniper wolf and revolver ocelot. You'd faintly hear "This reload time is exhilarating!" before your thinkmuscle gains a +2 to aeration.

Anyways, nice stuff! Based on this I think a Hipoint makes sense yeah, not the absolute cheapest one, but one that's borderline 'ok' should suffice. Do you have a specific model in mind I could look up so I have a good idea of what it looks like?))

[syvarris]

o.o

This question is apparently immensely difficult for me, so I'm just going to link this image which is a higher caliber hipoint.  Their guns all look a little weird to me, in a subtly uncanny way that makes me think of an alien creature wearing a human suit which doesn't quite fit.

[Radio Controlled]

o.o

This question is apparently immensely difficult for me, so I'm just going to link this image which is a higher caliber hipoint.  Their guns all look a little weird to me, in a subtly uncanny way that makes me think of an alien creature wearing a human suit which doesn't quite fit.

(( XD  Perfect! ))

[BlackPaladin99]

Turn back into human and head home

Can you guys follow me to keep my head low I won’t be very active for the next month

[Remalle]

(This post brought to you by System of a Down)

More sleeping, more body horror, more gun talk, all yours today for the low low price of playing this game!

Look for some more animals, and after that go home and beat up any suspicious individuals on the way there.

Chris keeps an eye out for animals and suspicious individuals on his way home, [6] and finds both at once, a police officer walking a Labrador Retriever, which perks up when it catches his scent. [3+1 Born Warrior] Chris closes in fast before the cop can draw and manages to subdue both, though he takes some nasty bites along the way and he wasn't able to subdue the man fast enough to stop him seeing his face. Even though he's already got one dog morph he stops to acquire the lab that he knocked out with the cop's own baton.
Chris has acquired a Labrador Retriever morph.

Go to bed.

[4+1 Morph Dancer) Isabella regains full control over the cat's instincts and clamps them down, and she even gets the sense that they won't be an issue next time she tries the same morph. She does note, however, the pile of clothes left over from when she became a cat, and how her underwear is still on her when she return to human form. She goes to bed and falls asleep, quickened by the stress of the day. Her dreams, too, reflect the stress of the day, and she sleeps fitfully.

Well, go to bed and have a night's rest. Set the alarm earlier than usual though.

[1] (Just kidding) Bobby Does the same; the rest of his action will play out once everybody else is done for the night.

Try to get control over the ant and guide it back home.  Failing that, demorph before I end up underground somewhere.

[1] You'd never know it to look at it, but the instincts of an ant are incredibly powerful. Zack's consciousness slips further into the background as the ant continues along the pheromone trail that leads back home. Soon it is just another cog in the machine, one cell in the distributed organism that is the Hive, powerless in the face of a hundred million years of evolution that have ensured the individual ant's role is nothing to the continuation of the Hive.

"FUCK YOU!!! YOU STUPID SNAIL, I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
Morph human and duck, letting the commander shoot his underling.

Sophia begins demorphing and gets low to the ground in the same moment that her stature reduces back to her regular, human size. [Controller: 1] The combination of shrinking target and utter shock at watching the transformation causes the human-controller to fire wildly, and he catches the Hork-Bajir standing near her with a thin orange-yellow beam that disintegrates most of its torso into a dark-coloured mist of blood. By the time the human has recovered his wits, Sophia is back in human form, tired by the exertion of morphing, and wearing only the undergarments that she had initially morphed in.

Turn back into human and head home

Fred returns to his human form, his home, and his bed, in that order. He grabs some pajamas and dreams of the Taxxon's eternal starvation.

Spoiler: Folks (click to show/hide)

Chris
Status: Alive
Form: Human
Acquired: German Shepherd Dog, Labrador Retriever

Name: Chris Jackson
Background: A popular jock kid, Chris has serious anger issues he channels into football and boxing. Often makes bad decisions due to being bullheaded and stubborn. Has a strong hatred for the name Crayak.
Description: Generic popular jock, blond hair albeit with uncommon red eyes and very muscular.
Trait: Born Warrior

Isabella
Status: Alive
Form: Human
Acquired: Russian Blue Cat, Pekingese, Manchester Terrier

Name: Isabella Lori
Background: Isabella is sixteen, and the only child of a wealthy diplomat, who is currently abroad with his wife until the end of the year.  She was left home at her request, ostensibly so her school schedule wouldn't be interrupted--but really because she dislikes traveling, especially after a particularly bad experience from the last time her father took her abroad.  This has left her largely unsupervised (although her worrywart mother still calls her several times a week just to ask how she's doing), which she hopes will let her actually make and maintain lasting friendships.  She lives with two dogs named Ko and Alyona, and a three-legged cat named Tripod, all rescues.
Description:  Isabella is tall and tends to wear very formal clothes, mimicking her professionally-minded parents.  She keeps her sandy blonde hair in a ponytail, and tends to look serious... though internally she's rather anxious, especially around people her own age.  She tends to act more mature than one would expect of a sixteen year old, but again it's a behavior born from mimicking her parents rather than anything natural; Isabella doesn't really know what acting natural even is.  Despite her family's wealth, she wears little adornment, aside from a fancy medallion with a sparkling blue sapphire set into it--a gift from her father, bought for her while abroad a couple years ago.
Trait: Morph Dancer

Sophia
Status: Alive
Form: Human
Acquired: Hork-Bajir

Name: Sophia Astos
Background: Sophia was born as slave, never knew her parents, and has seen the deaths of other kids she considered family. When she saw a chance to escape on her own, she took it. Having had a hard life, she sees no problem with focusing on killing as many evil brainslugs as possible.
Description: A fairly destitute-looking homeless 15 year old, though she doesn't seem unhappy about her situation, just happy to be free. Distrustful of others and swift to violence, though not un-altruistic. Rust-red hair and eyes. Also, illiterate and uneducated as you might expect.
Trait: Ruthless Strategist

Henrik
Status: Alive
Form: Human
Acquired: None

Name: Henrik Gregorio
Background: Henrik has always loved to take things apart and see how they work. His family liked to call him a genius - he'd take apart anything. Math equations, the themes of a book, how a computer program works. The occasional animal. He's not a bad person, exactly. He doesn't seem to understand that there's a difference between a living thing and a complicated machine. In his view, there isn't one.
Description: Light blue eyes, messy blonde hair with a dyed blue streak, just under 5'10" (178 cm). He tends to dress in fairly plain or functional clothes, almost always in some shade of gray or blue. He never seems to take off these little reading spectacles, no matter where he goes.
Trait: Tech Savvy

Fred
Status: Alive
Form: Human
Acquired: Taxxon, grey squirrel

Name: Fred Freddie
Background: stunningly normal life.
Description: overwhelmingly average
Trait: Morph Dancer

Zack
Status: Alive
Form: California harvester ant (approx. 1 hour and 50 minutes remaining)
Acquired: California harvester ant

Name: Zack Olos
Background:  Intelligent, but somewhat lazy, Zack is always more interested in having fun than doing his best work.  Overall, he's a fairly ordinary kid mostly interested in having fun and sliding through life.. this is a point of view encouraged by his hardworking parents and older brother, who work long hours and take home honor student accolades, respectively.
Zach has mostly interested in a string of brief, but dropped hobbies.. science, writing, art, a dozen more.. but mostly of late he's been exploring his hometown, poking around for secrets.
Description: Medium height and a bit on the wimpy side.  Wears T-shirts, polo shirts, and jeans, just easy-to-wear and simple clothes.  Except for a pair of skateboarding shoes.
Trait: Aerial Ace

Bobby
Status: Alive
Form: Human
Acquired: None

Name: Bobby Serafin
Background: Descendant of Jewish immigrants from Poland, he'd been raised sheltered, and was often spoiled by his doting grandmother. She used to tell him stories about the old country and why they had to flee, which made a lasting impression on him.
Description: Dark haired, light complexion, mix of Caucasian and Slavic in looks. 30 years old, thin and a bit of a shut-in. Too online, lost in life lacking a real purpose. Has a broad interest base and spends his time as a research associate for the failing history department at the local college.
Trait: Ruthless Strategist

[Devastator]

Lets work with it, then.  Encourage the ant to go out looking for food.  Then demorph once outside.

[Knightwing64]

Go to bed

[Egan_BW]

try to not die and ideally do so in a smart way so that I get +1

[BlackPaladin99]

when i wake up, i go to school as normal.