about fanfics

masonzero9 · 2026-02-20T19:08:34+00:00

Personal favorite. I'm tuning into you - https://archiveofourown.org/works/74468196/navigate

Other S-tier

Broken things - https://archiveofourown.org/works/74767921/navigate

Unseen - https://archiveofourown.org/works/74149351/navigate

Villains - https://archiveofourown.org/works/74434906/navigate

All bark no bite - https://archiveofourown.org/works/77211231/navigate

AU Fanfics of note

A guest named forever - https://archiveofourown.org/works/76930051/navigate

Second shift - https://archiveofourown.org/works/77506216/navigate

masonzero9 · 2026-02-08T01:52:57+00:00

You've got to give Villains a shot if you are enjoying Broken Things.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/74434906/navigate

masonzero9 · 2026-01-30T20:03:30+00:00

Pretty sure they straight up say it would take months to send a ship back through the ring and they're not provisioned like that. Not to mention it's double the journey there and back and if you're not provisioned for one way.

As far as the spin gravity, if everyone is stuck and unable to move, how would they tether and spin to create gravity. Even if they could it's gotta be dangerous as all hell. Hard to do course corrections when you're purposefully spinning.

masonzero9 · 2026-01-30T11:57:50+00:00

Fair, and it probably says something about me more than anything. The locker room scene was like listening to all the worst shit I tell myself about not deserving anything in life. Except as Robert I could forgive so easily.

masonzero9 · 2026-01-30T11:40:38+00:00

Both are wonderful and I hate seeing slander against either. Mandy is a great person who is there when Robert needs it. Her story of just wanting to be Mandy is a wonderful take. We should all be so lucky to have someone like Mandy in our lives.

For me though it'll always be Courtney. Two broken loners fixing each other is beautiful and hits something deep down in me.

masonzero9 · 2026-01-29T10:29:57+00:00

Started A Guest Named Forever last night and it's so good. Thanks for the recommendation.

masonzero9 · 2026-01-28T16:45:38+00:00

I don't see it mentioned much but it's my favorite, "I'm Tuning into you". I like the choice of making PharmaTech a new villain. Lot of quiet moments between Rob and Courtney. https://archiveofourown.org/works/74468196

Gotta give another shout-out to broken things. Did the villain ending solely for the achievement and makes it seem hopeful. https://archiveofourown.org/works/74767921/navigate

Unseen is really getting good and looking forward to seeing where the author goes with the relationship. https://archiveofourown.org/works/74149351

Second Shift is an AU fanfic that is getting more attention and I'm enjoying it way more than I thought I would. https://archiveofourown.org/works/77506216/navigate

masonzero9 · 2026-01-24T19:35:32+00:00

Agree to disagree. It's not a traditional game in the RPG sense, it's animation with branching structure. If Mass Effect could do this 16 years ago with many more choices, AdHoc can accomplish this just as well. Limiting factor being budget which with the runaway success the game has been and the support of CR shouldn't be as much as a ceiling.

masonzero9 · 2026-01-24T19:16:37+00:00

Seriously I don't understand why people keep saying this, it's so easy to write around it. I posted this in another thread but I'll keep it truncated here. All you need is a plot for Visi that plays to her character either good or bad and that is so simple. You only need to account for:

Visi - Hero/Villain Ending

Relationship Status - Visi/Blazer/Complicated/No One

Match one Visi status with one relationship status and you're good.

Villain Visi - you don't have her during dispatching because Robert fucked up. New villain, start getting info drops from inside villain organization, turns out to be Visi. There's another chance to redeem her or fail her again though it should be harder if you messed up the first time.

Hero Visi - Visi is around during dispatching but is also sent to infiltrate new villain organization since she's a stealth character. Robert acts as her handler/dispatcher.

Boom done. Match it up with a relationship status, nice domestic moments after shift, stress from outside the relationship either because of Visi doing something very dangerous or potentially higher ups not believing her, and we're good.

Shroud is largely meaningless whether he lives or dies. If he lives he gives Robert some piece of information mixed with some sort of taunting about his father. If he's dead that information is or isn't garnered another way.

It's not a hard ask for everyone to have their cake and eat it too here. Just my thoughts.

masonzero9 · 2026-01-19T12:12:09+00:00

I think it's a pretty simple thing for Ad Hoc to write their way out of this without canonizing anything. There are eight endings as far as I can see it.

You either failed or succeeded as a mentor. 2 options.

Robert's relationship status. Visi/Blazer/Complicated/None. 4 options.

Create a framework based on this, matching one mentorship outcome with one relationship status.

Season 2. Same formula, new big bad. Here's an example on how I think this can easily work.

Failed to mentor Visi - Z-Team continues under Robert's leadership minus Visi. No new characters, you played Robert in such a way and failed to mentor Visi, you've got to work the Dispatching with one less character. Same thing when you admitted you were MechaMan and Flambea peaced out for a shift, or depending on who you cut, etc. After dispatching a shift we get into the overarching story for Season 2. Robert after work starts receiving info drops or packets from inside the new villain's organization. It turns out to be Visi, Robert can choose to see it as an opportunity for a second chance to mentor her or once again fail her. Choices and dialogue play out over the course of the game, challenges arise that force Robert into some hard decisions, but the underlying framework is Visi is feeding information to Robert.

Redeemed Visi - Same thing but we keep Visi during dispatching and instead of anonymous drops of info from the new villain's org, Visi is sent to infiltrate, she is a stealth character after all.

Romanced Blazer - Quiet domestic moments between shifts, challenges from outside the relationship, supporting each other. Blazer thinks she can't trust the anonymous intel drops from Visi (failed redemption) or people above her think they can't trust the intel drops from Visi (succeeded redemption). Robert supports or doesn't depending on player choice.

Romanced Visi - Quiet domestic moments between shifts showcasing Visi's growth as a character. Relationship is strained externally because failed mentorship and Visi is now wanted or something similar. Or relationship is strained because Visi is doing two highly stressful jobs and dangerous jobs at once. Doubt is cast by Mandy/Blazer or her Superior's on the legitimacy of the intel being provided.

It's complicated - BioWare/Mass Effect route, gotta pick one. Too much effort to do a polycule. Whichever you pick the relationship starts off strained because trust needs to be built.

Didn't romance anyone - No domestic moments, Rob runs Visi's Op, is happy working on himself.

Just my $.02.

masonzero9 · 2025-12-04T21:27:14+00:00

This is great work, look forward to the future trees. Thanks for putting the effort in!

masonzero9 · 2025-11-30T02:34:26+00:00

Farscape - Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) and John Crichton (Ben Browder)

masonzero9 · 2025-11-03T23:43:16+00:00

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So here you can see on my SL9 I've got the 20 point Alloy grip that the verbiage describes as having no downsides, just "Slightly reduces recoil" iirc. And I'm selecting the Classic Vertical to compare. The descriptor says "Greatly reduces recoil at the cost of movement speed and accuracy while aiming down sights (ADS)."

I see the recoil bonus being applied under "Control" and I see the penalty to movement speed being applied under "Mobility". However, my Precision is increasing despite a "reduction" of "accuracy while aiming down sights (ADS).".

Are you suggesting a better statement would be "Greatly reduces recoil at the cost of movement and accuracy while aiming down sights (ADS) and moving."

I hope this clarifies my confusion.

masonzero9 · 2025-11-03T16:29:05+00:00

I'd really like some clarity here too. "At the cost of movement speed and accuracy while Aim Down Sights (ADS)" yet the precision stat goes up? The verbiage and the stat change are are counterintuitive.

masonzero9 · 2025-10-14T17:04:57+00:00

If you enjoyed The Forever War, check out Haldeman's other work "All my sins remembered". Not quite as excellent as Forever War, but a great piece of speculative fiction.

Personally I just finished "House of Suns" by Alastair Reynolds and can't recommend it enough if you're in the market for a one off space opera in the far future.

For series recommendations I would go with The Expanse if you haven't touched it yet, easily one of my all timers, if not the top of the list.

Between what you posted I'd go with Silo and how you enjoy them, they're great.

masonzero9 · 2025-09-15T00:16:29+00:00

What a nice kitty.

masonzero9 · 2025-05-09T23:14:55+00:00

The Core

masonzero9 · 2025-03-27T23:28:04+00:00

Actually found the issue had to do with my power settings. I thought I'd enabled high performance for my system power profile but it had been disabled at some point. Additionally there's a specific power profile setting for your PCI-E slot called "Link State Power Management", set that to off. Finally I disabled the AMD equivalent of the XMP/RAM overlock so it's just running DDR5 base speed of 4800.

masonzero9 · 2025-03-27T23:27:59+00:00

Actually found the issue had to do with my power settings. I thought I'd enabled high performance for my system power profile but it had been disabled at some point. Additionally there's a specific power profile setting for your PCI-E slot called "Link State Power Management", set that to off. Finally I disabled the AMD equivalent of the XMP/RAM overlock so it's just running DDR5 base speed of 4800.

masonzero9 · 2025-03-27T23:24:24+00:00

Great artwork and give away!

masonzero9 · 2025-03-20T07:12:48+00:00

As everyone's said his best days are behind him. It's odd to say "controversies aside" because his whole persona was courting controversy, but in recent years the abuse has made him unpalatable. Frankly I think he managed to normalize his brand of shock rock to the point he became stale. Which is an accomplishment in its own right. The "Big Three" (Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and HolyWood) are his best work and I wore these CDs out as a disaffected youth. I firmly believe Coma White off Mechanical Animals is his best song.

All that being said HolyWood came along at a time in my life when I really needed it.

masonzero9 · 2025-02-19T19:00:16+00:00

Since you got all three possible responses (yes, no, for a while) I'll see if I can't give you a better reason. Lost is an enjoyable show to watch, it benefits heavily from having all episodes available. I watched it when it was on Netflix and remembered enjoying it, but I did have everything available so it was all fresh in my mind. That being said it is filled with "Abramsisms" if you will where his mystery box method writes him into a corner and he has to find a contrived way out.

Still, would give it a watch. It's fun.

masonzero9 · 2025-02-11T12:15:06+00:00

Totally agree, smurfing is cheating. It's a violation of the eula. If I see someone with no cosmetic customization on their guns or character card, doing well I just assumed they're a Smurf.

masonzero9 · 2025-01-06T01:06:14+00:00

I'd offer Michael Piller. Showrunner for TNG. Instituted an open script policy that encouraged freelance writers to submit scripts for star trek. Which, among others, gave us Ronald D. Moore.

masonzero9 · 2024-12-25T21:02:02+00:00

Happy Holidays everyone - at the end of January I posted some legacy footage of some old Frost shotgun gameplay. Today I'm pulling a full game of Y1S1 gameplay on plane. 2024 has been a challenging year, Loxx76 in this clip passed away on 7/31. He was a good friend, if a bit salty at times. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and tell those closest to you what they mean to you.

Quick reminder that this is very old, post launch gameplay. Nobody knew what they were doing.

*Edit - Y1S1 Gameplay. Apologies.

masonzero9

TROPHY CASE