2011-07-18: Futility

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The Comment Golem
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2011-07-18: Futility

Post by The Comment Golem »

Discussion thread for Futility
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Slamlander
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by Slamlander »

Okaaay! back to blur-fighting again ;)

That was a rather smooth move on Jon's part. It bought Sara time to recover.
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ChunLing
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by ChunLing »

Not really. In the time it took Jon to fire those shots, Paul could easily have diced both Amraphels into tiny bits, but Paul is obviously not trying to kill them at this point. But he only has so much more time left before they figure that out and start using it to their advantage. Without Anita there to play "bad cop", this interrogation is looking like a bust. But then, if Paul knew our intrepid band of plucky adventurers, he would have figured out that he should be maiming and then slowly killing these two to get Sarine's tongue loose for Anita.

Anita may have figured out that Sarine was likely to know more useful information than either of the Amraphels, and anyone could spot that she was a lot more talkative. Keeping her talking requires a more...advanced routine than the ol' "good cop/bad cop" business, but if Paul were smart he'd realize that torturing these two to death while pretending to interrogate them would help Anita a lot.
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by eee »

OK, I take back what I've been saying about Paul being smart. Because by focusing his attention on Jon and ignoring a still functional (if disarmed) Sara he left himself open to this. He should have accelerated, simply stepped out of the way of the bullets instead of knocking them aside (when did Jon reload?), and then dealt with both of them. Now, it's hard to tell what's going to happen. Sara didn't pick up either part of her staff and jam the jagged end into him, so an immediate kill is out; maybe she's going to try close range combat, stay within the effective range of his staff, and give him the Knee until he quits. We'll see, I guess. Maybe. If they ever slow down.
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by Madayar »

Wait, you opted to laser sword parrying instead of speeded avoidance? Oh, Paul, you're more Anita than I thought. If you want to spare them, you can. But that was stupid even if you try not to kill them.

Honestly, for that you deserve to be killed. Well...a little. I still hope a stray bullet of that parry hits Anita, though...would be awesomely acciential, thus very realistic.
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by Forrest »

ChunLing wrote:get Sarine's tongue loose for Anita.
That's a pleasant image :D
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by Lukkai »

Yeah, personally I'm still not absolutely convinced that Paul really wanted to spare the siblings. He could simply have just another case of the good old power-induced-hybris syndrom. He is number two of an order whose members are known to not have any rivals even halfway matching their combat proficiency after all. And we already learned that he has a slight tendency of turning his actions into lessons.

But then of course he could just as well be trying to spare them. Be it to interrogate them, because he's still got plans for them or whatever.

I'm pretty sure that he's now regretting not having immediately followed up on his kick against Sara though.
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

I'd like to think that there is some practical reason why he didn't just instantly gut them both. Time magic seems to have some funny effects: in some cases it is the blink of an eye, in some cases people have time to respond a little bit. Maybe the interaction between Paul and Sara's time distortions built up some sort of static charge that prevented him from going full fwoosh, but since Sara is smaller, it dissipated quicker for her. Maybe he was building up enough strength to fwoosh over and kill Sarine, but since it was a longer distance he had to concentrate more? I dunno, its magic...
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by davester65 »

Maybe after you finish using time magic there is a brief "cooling off" period where you can't use it again for a few seconds. Sara can out of blur a moment before Paul did, so she was able to go all Alfred Bester a moment before Paul did. The down time was just enough for Jon to get a few shots off.
eee wrote:(when did Jon reload?),
He did it when John Wayne reloaded, when he was off camera. :D
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Re: 2011-07-18: Futility

Post by eee »

davester65 wrote:Maybe after you finish using time magic there is a brief "cooling off" period where you can't use it again for a few seconds. Sara can out of blur a moment before Paul did, so she was able to go all Alfred Bester a moment before Paul did. The down time was just enough for Jon to get a few shots off.
Alfred Bester? The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination guy? Or the Babylon 5 anti-hero? I don't think I've ever seen either used as a trope before...

Oh, wait, Gully Foyle. I get it now. :D
davester65 wrote:
eee wrote:(when did Jon reload?),
He did it when John Wayne reloaded, when he was off camera. :D
Ah, of course. Or he's got an eight shooter. :lol:
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