#marcusrobertobaq

[konami-code-ao3]

There's something bothering me...

If u choose not sacrificing anyone while having Markus revolution, no one gonna give much of a fuck to soldiers killing a kid, not even that checkpoint dude. But if u choose sacrificing someone, still in Markus revolution, he'll pity Alice and let her cross the border with whomever's alive...

🤔

I’m pretty sure that the reason the guard lets Alice (+survivors) over the boarder if you choose to sacrifice someone is because he doesn’t do a temperature check. Alice was clearly bothered by the shooting she’d just witnessed and the guard picks up on that, and (imo) doesn’t aim something that looks a bit like a gun at her head. Maybe it’s because he thinks that she’ll freak out, or maybe it’s just pure negligence on the guard’s part because he’s a bit shaken by what he saw. But either way, it gets them through.

It’s also just pure plot-convenience, but what else about this game isn’t?

[my-name-is-markus-with-a-k]

What's your opinion on "Markus Manfred"?

I have no idea how long this has been sitting in my ask box, sorry 😭😭😭

I actually used to love the idea of it, but these days I'm not a fan of it at all. Markus and Carl's relationship is a deeply complicated one and I truly do believe Markus loves Carl and vice versa, but it honestly feels like a step backwards for Markus. Why would he take the name of the human who was his owner for years? Why would an android even need a human last name for? 'Because be loves him like a father' is just not good enough for me. Markus is his own person, not some offshoot of Carl's.

[konami-code-ao3]

Sometimes I wonder how much Kamski knows about Connor and his background. He certainly knows enough to give him a gun, but at the same time he calls Connor a deviant not even for refusing his orders directly but for actually showing empathy towards Chloe rather than "completing the mission" (as if the mission is shooting Chloe xD).

Ignoring the fact this whole test is completely broken (actually the entire chapter is broken), do u think Kamski called Connor a deviant just cuz he knows it's a defensiveness trigger word and he's being provocative or cuz he legit believes Connor deviated by not shooting Chloe?

Oh, Kamski’s just fucking with Connor. The whole test doesn’t make sense because he just wants to see the guy squirm, which he certainly succeeds at regardless of whether or not Connor kills Chloe. And if any of Connor’s doubts get back to his superiors (which they definitely do, considering how Amanda reacts in each version of the Winter Zen Garden scene), all the better for it.

Kamski just wants to watch CyberLife burn from his fancy house while drinking a glass of whiskey that’s more expensive than a fucking car. Dude’s in it for the entertainment and nothing else at this point, and I find that fascinating.

[konami-code-ao3]

I been dealing with some variable names these days again and this variable just caught my attention (probably for the 2nd time ever since i've started the whole thing). Any guess on why Mary got a variable for being "alive" in Midnight Train? Btw, it ain't used nowhere in the chapter (from what i remember).

From my understanding, you actually used to be able to save her and she would have shown up alongside Andy during the River Crossing. Don’t know how or when that plotline would have taken place within the chapter, though.

[konami-code-ao3]

I even mentioned it in another post, but Do u think if Kara were alone and in android uniform, looking exactly like every AX400 (of her likeness) on the streets, would it be even more difficult for authorities to find the deviant one (Kara)?

And how well would her name being written on her uniform help patrol cops (like in On the Run), IF they decide to pay attention to it, ofc?

I'm asking this question cuz I'm 100% sure people didn't stop buying AX400s neither stop using 'em after Todd's case hit the news. Plz disconsider plot convenience too.

We don’t really see a ton of AX400s walking around in the game, with the most notable exception being the one that Markus can convert in Freedom. There aren’t any in the various stores that we see— or, at least, not any with Kara’s face, as some AX series androids can be spotted on the right hand side of the Capitol Park CyberLife Store. So it would be possible to say that because the Kara-faced AX400 is a bit of an older model, that it’s not as popular and Kara might stand out had she tried to merely blend in with the various androids in the crowds, as the black female model seems to be more present amongst the crowds.

However, I think that the lack of Kara-faced AX400s models in the world is something that QD changed somewhat recently in the developmental timeline. After all, this shot from the Art of Detroit special shows that Kara-faced AX400s were going to be seen throughout the game at one point.

And, given that the Kara-faced model currently holds the position of the black AX400 in the released version of the game…

…it’s entirely possible that whenever we see a black AX400 in the canon game, we were originally supposed to see a Kara-faced model instead. And that, in turn, means that the Kara-faced AX400s are still quite popular amongst humans, as Shades features an entire park full of them.

Therefore, I do think that it’s absolutely possible that Kara could blend in with the crowd, had she not tried to disguise herself as a human in Fugitives/On the Run. After all, the Blue-Haired Traci uses this tactic to hide herself in Eden to great affect, so we know that it does work. And if you combine this with my long-held belief that the safest thing for Kara and Alice to have done in Fugitives is to have kept walking and not bunked down for the night (as Android!Alice doesn’t actually need to rest and could have easily survive the night is not for ~plot convenience~ and the ridiculously bad handling of the secret android twist), you could have had Kara using that night to cover as much distance as possible and then blending in with the android crowds in a location that Connor could never track her to (as he can’t even currently??? track them to the parking lot, since there’s no evidence trail to follow despite their hiding spot literally being across the fucking street).

That being said, it might actually be the AX400-YK400 combo that might give them away. Androids traveling together is absolutely an oddity, as the Jericrew does feel the need to disguise themselves as humans in order to remain unnoticed when moving in groups of two or more. Now, considering that we don’t really see a lot of child androids roaming around, I’d say that disguising Alice to look a bit different by cutting her hair and taking on human disguise and then having Kara pretend to be her android companion would be a much more effective cover for them than for them both to pretend to be human.

Kara’s name on the back of her uniform might be a bit of an issue, but since the cops include people like Gavin who (in the released version) can’t tell what model androids are despite the serial number on their jackets being right there, I think we’re alright 😅. Jokes aside, though? Maybe Kara should consider hacking that. Zlatko’s able to do it, as the text changes to ‘working’ under his enslavement. So maybe if she does something like that, then she’d be set.

[konami-code-ao3]

How would u write a Markus vs Connor battle of words? Considering we'd basically have Markus trynna convince Connor he's more than what he think he is (all androids are) but rather than being in silence like in Crossroads Connor drag similar lines to the cold ones in LCC with Hank but also dragging Kamski on this whole shit.

(and ofc it'll eventually open another door for Markus explore, since CL is lying to him)

Manipulator-Negotiator vs Charismatic Rebellion Leader. Place your bets.

Okay, so first thing's first, we need to do the necessary set up to remove Perkins from the story and install Connor into his position so that he can his place in the Demonstration. I'm not gonna go into too much detail of how I'd go about it because that would take far too long to write out, but basically you'd have to take advantage of Gavin's presence within the narrative and elevate him into an actual threat.

Since we know that Gavin's really ambitious and wants to climb the ranks regardless of the cost it has on his personal relationships with his colleges, we give him a sort of rivalry subplot with Connor and build upon what's established in their conversation in the cafeteria about how Gavin worries about androids replacing him in the workforce. Then, when Connor starts to consistently fail his missions (because regardless of what you do after Shaolin, Connor does fail in his goals of taking deviants alive), the DPD starts to look at alternatives and settles on Gavin. Maybe instead of Perkins, we have Gavin showing up in his fancy button-down shirt in Public Enemy and then have the deviancy case transferred onto him after Hank's kicked off the taskforce and Connor is ordered to go back to CyberLife. We have to distract him instead of Perkins, get some laughs in at the comeuppance of it all when Hank breaks Gavin 'Fucking Cocksucker' Reed's nose on his way out the door, and then steals the key off of Reed's desk rather than Hank's to go down into the evidence locker to take a look around. There's no Connor versus Gavin fight yet, and Connor walks out otherwise undetected as Gavin nurses his broken nose in the staff room where we first met him while Connor runs off to Jericho in his place. Connor leads the Jericho Raid instead of Perkins, which is alluded to in how a lot of the military uses AI and androids to make their decisions for them, and runs into the Deviant Leader in front of the detonator downstairs where they attempt to convert him to their cause. Success in deviation allows for the bomb to go off, while Connor's failure to deviate keeps the bomb from being activated causes the Deviant Leader to flee. That keeps Connor alive on his way off the ship in all versions (just my personal choice here, as I think that he should be completely mortal following the events of Last Chance), and has him deliver the "It's not over" line to foreshadow what's yet to come.

[If Connor is decommissioned in Last Chance, Gavin comes downstairs to the locker and gets the Jericho Key instead. He becomes Connor in this verse, ensuring that the Jericho Raid always occurs unless you've been a complete fuck up and there's no evidence at all to consider. Gavin doesn't confront Markus in the hold in this version, which is why we'd get him fighting the soldiers instead. We also get a cut scene between him and Leader!North after she meets with her surviving companions after the raid begins and prevents her from going down to the detonator in the first place, hence why North immediately flees the ship in this version instead of going down to set the charges.]

Machine!Connor goes up onto the roof and fights Hank-- or, in the alternative that I want to explore within this narrative, Gavin with the SWAT team. If Connor wins, he goes down to take on Markus in the Battle of Words. If Gavin wins, Connor dies and takes his place. This also happens if Connor is a deviant, which is why I don't want the Connor-Gavin fight to take place in the locker, as I think that we both agree that their fight needs to be lethal if we're gonna give the man some narrative power-ups and that means that I need Gavin to survive until BfD. But either way, this removes Perkins from the story and uses characters already in the narrative with motivations similar enough to him to take his place.

And thus, the Battle of Words begins.

When it's between Connor and Markus, I would want the parallel to the Revolution to be made very obvious, in the sense that I'd want to have the player choose which protagonist they wanted to play as during this scene. So, when Markus leaves the barricade to approach Connor (which should always happen in this version, as we don't get to back out of the confrontation in the Rev), we get a CHOOSE MARKUS / CHOOSE CONNOR choice hovering about their heads like they do in this scene here:

The player makes their choice and takes over that particular character. Then, unlike Markus-Connor Crossroads Deviation scene where they are leveling dialogue options back and forth at each other, we use the exact same Success Probability scale that was used in both Hostage and Interrogation to either have Connor stress Markus out enough that he gives up and agrees to the Deal, or have Markus's willpower overcome Connor's and convince him to abandon his negotiation tactics and return with the army. You can succeed or fail as either protagonist, with their being multiple Success and Failure States to match up with how Markus and Connor can kill each other in multiple ways during their Rev fight. Maybe you can actually play through the round-up sequence as Connor in this version, with his final murder of Markus being paralleled to the CyberLife Store scene where he can pick between SHOOT & DON'T SHOOT, with a secret option for both of them to kill each other if Markus hesitates.

[In the Gavin version, it defaults to CHOOSE MARKUS and we get a bit more of a high stakes version of what we have in the game, just with Gavin existing instead of Connor. Again, the negotiation sequence needs to take place because Markus does need a final boss to face in the Demonstration, so working to establish Gavin as a credible threat is the best way to go about doing that if we need a replacement for Connor.]

But yeah, that's basically what I'd do.

[konami-code-ao3]

I don't remember if i've sent this ask before but do u think if the US gov started blaming Russia and China for the deviant "attacks" or even the rebellion itself, do u think the average Joe would eat the propaganda? And i'm including The Hostage problematic situation in the mix cuz let's pretend the war effort has been going for quite some time.

I think in a failed rebellion scenario, it’s certainly a possibility. After all, the text scrawl on the news channels go right back to talking about the Russian Conflict if you accept the Perkins Deal, so making sure that everyone ‘forgets’ what happened and then refocuses on the conflict that CyberLife wants to happen is a canonical priority. And considering that the whole ‘deviancy spreads like a virus’ thing is a known fact for CyberLife and that the Russians (and perhaps, other BRICS nations) are apparently experiencing a deviancy crisis of their own, you could make a case for Warren saying that Russia created the virus and sent it here, while also falling victim to their own machinations along the way in a sort of ‘COVID was created by China as a bioweapon against America’ conspiracy theory that you see going around.

I can really see it happening post-Kamski Ending, because Markus and Jericho would have had the least amount of time to actually talk publically about what their message is and North’s Revolution seems to get shut down without a fight shortly afterwards. It’s the best scenario for CyberLife to control the narrative afterwards, especially considering that they don’t have to worry about Markus and Jericho pushing back to any degree when they do it. I’m not saying that there wouldn’t be humans that would see the conspiracy theory for what it was, especially considering that Kamski’s gonna be doing his secret second revolution planning in the background while that’s all happening. But for the most part, I think that so long as humans are allowed to go back to normal, I don’t think that many people will give a fuck about where deviancy actually came from once the famine hits.

[konami-code-ao3]

Besides obviously playing with Kara, why Zlatko says Canada is a "very lovely at this time of year"? Ain't almost winter? The season I hear people up north complain the most?

Or the global warming got something to do with this?

It's something I wanna know cuz there's a clear "Canada propaganda" in this game (which I mentioned in one of my daily worldbuilding posts).

First of all, you have to understand that complaining about winter is a Canadian national pastime. If it was a sport, it would be our second favourite after hockey.

All jokes aside, though… I mean, Zlatko’s clearly trying to put her at ease so that she’ll become compliant enough to wander into his chop shop downstairs. And had Kara not been written to be every fucking dumbass white woman in a horror movie within that scene, and had Zlatko quite literally not been bathed from collar to crotch in fresh blue blood, there might have been something narratively interesting to the attempt at manipulation. But right now, it just makes him come off as creepy and while Kara looks stupid, and just shows off one of the thousands of examples of how badly written the whole chapter actually is.

That being said, Detroit is quite literally a stone throw from the Canadian border - aka, where Kara and Alice wash up if you take the River route. In fact, you actually have to go south to hit Canada from Detroit, so arguably speaking, there’s a chance for slightly warmer weather on the other side of the border. There’s not going to be that much of a drastic difference between the overall climate of Detroit and wherever Kara ends up settling if she makes it across, so whatever Detroit looks like in the game? That’s likely what the weather looks like right now in Windsor.

Also incredibly likely: Cage doesn’t know shit about Canada and just wanted a Shitty Underground Railroad Plotline to appear in his Equally Shitty Racism Game. So Canada gets ‘clean air’ and ‘lovely weather’ when in reality, we’re just as fucked as the rest of the planet— if not more, considering that we’d get caught in the crossfire of any conflict between Russia and the US. And god help us if Thirium gets discovered in our currently melting and utterly indefensible Arctic territories next.