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Some lore of every tool: Silkshot

this might be half the reason I started this series in the first place

Of course, we gotta start with the ruined tool

We can observe that at least one of the two claws used to hold the tool to Hornet's arm is disjointed, both the top plate and the spool are broken, and is overall pretty worn down, likely oxidized from the salt water nearby

We can see it has a chamber for canisters and two prongs, forming a channel

This tool can be repaired in three different places

"We can reforge the weapon" "With our own moldings"

Despite being able to reforge the spool into a functional state, she doesn't reforge the broken plating

Is the material too strong for her forge? or does the plate have something to it that can't be easily replicated?

Of course, she instead replaces the two plate segments with what she knows best: bells, perhaps with some inner carved runes, hymns to get the tool working as intended, or perhaps she doesn't

The result is a silkshot (silk + slingshot) with quite the meaty projectile

Huh, how curious, it looks like the shell canister is used as both an anchor around which a bundle of silk is spun and as a way to transfer kinetic energy to that bundle

The ring added to the end of the spool allows for a strong grip, needed for a heavier pull back

I also just now realized the two bottom prongs may serve not just to guide the "bullet" but also as anchors for the tension of the "slingshot" action

The silk bundle reminds me greatly of this Clawmaiden attack

Now, let's check with the architect

Even the skilled architect calls it an intricate artifact

Being more familiar with the craft of the First Children, they give it a plating closer to that of the original, but not the original plating; the spool is also completely replaced by cog and the smaller plate is reallocated as trigger

An understandable decision, as they do not possess a forge on their workshop

I do wonder thought, do they have red lacker hanging around? or is Hornet secretly carrying her own?

The resulting silkshot is one with revolver action born from the cog, allowing rapid fire of three projectiles

Once again, the now leaner canisters act as guide-seed for a more focused bundle of silk, no doubt because of the leaner plating

I'm noticing a pattern here

But this is still a far cry of the original silkshot, even beyond the fact that the spool was completely changed, so the questions asked with Forge Daughter remain

And like with Forge Daughter, they may or may have not etched runes into the plating to keep it from not blowing up

Finally, the original

Honestly, this one merits its own video (recorded by a friend, as I still don't have a save with it)

Well, that's a fucking laser, nothing like the bullets discussed before

...Or is it? the shot leaves a trail of dregs, the "smoke" is also a trail of even finer dregs, and it works with poison, which is also visible in the trail

Now, before I show screenshots of what's actually happening in there to reveal its secrets, and I've already said enough to gesture at the truth, let's look at an enemy from the area which has this exact same attack

Gotta love clever names like these, "service/servant + rotor"="servitor", "boran" from "bore" as in boring through the rock, drilling tunnels

"Able to fire a focused beam of silklight"

"Silklight? what the hell is that? the light from silk? that's just soul! silklight...fancy ass"

At face value, it just looks like this oversized lamp is focusing its light, likely made out of soul, into a beam

And you can actually see it focusing soul from its surroundings before firing, with the beam leaving a trail of soul particles afterwards

My first thought was that TC wanted to avoid using "soul" as a term as much as possible to make the final act 2 wish more impactful

But then I looked closer

Well, that's straight up a rune (or at the very least a spider's web) being shot

And yes, the silkshot uses this exact asset too

here are the raw sprites

Well that sure is silklight alright, silk shot in a stream at lightning speed, most definetively with the aid of a weaver rune etched into the now repaired plating, making it into essentially a high speed version of some silk skills, like an arrow in a rail gun

Fun fact the arrow looking sprite is called "web_shot_rail_beam_end0000"

The spiderweb-like impact is called "web_shot_rune_flash"

The shell canisters are called "Web_Shot_Bullets__0000_shot_casing_forge", "Web_Shot_Bullets__0001_shot_casing_architect" and "Web_shot_railgun_0000_casing"

So yes, this isn't a ray gun, but a rail gun, one powered with runes

Here's some of Hornet's spells as examples, with both sharp dart and silk spear using the needle as guide like how silkshot uses shell canisters (the pale nails here are enhanced by shaman crest, as indicated by the presence of blue tinted runes)

So the etchings of the plating segments would be something like...

Honestly, not one rune we see felt like a perfect fit (closest ones are still pale nails and silkspear though), so I made a custom design for fun

Doing this realized the two prongs probably are also etched with runes

It is also cute how the Boran lower body shares design elements with the silkshot, with the lil legs looking like the two claws that hold the tool to the arm

...and only after drawing and adding this do I notice the fine lines within the plating in the blueprint

This is probably missing detail because of how small it is on the screen ingame, runes are a lot more complex up close

I still gotta discuss the material of the weapon and the stuff regarding its original creation, but once again Tumblr's 30 images limit forces me to split the rest of it into a reblog

The rest of this post is in a reblog already

Check the notes