13thStarling

Uni work is kicking my arse rn so I'm going to take a step back and return when things are less... turbulent on my end

Sending best wishes, hope the step back ends up working well for you

Yeah all of the DoW stuff across the games (except the imperial knight with the twin gatling cannons in 3) is on the tabletop.

Big mood.
For what it's worth I hope you get the space to tackle this earnestly and you're able to get to a point you're happier with.

The old defiler model is kind of nostalgic for me because of DoW but this is fucking peak
Good time to be Chaos marine fan

This was a great read!
A strong opening chapter that's a really engaging introduction to both the world and its characters. The dialogue flows both effortlessly and economically. It's cyberpunk to a T, but also showing its mechploitation influences proudly.
Looking forward to the next chapter :)

The idea of the leukon rebels getting their hands on a gustav gun and this being considered underdog asymmetrical warfare is kind of funny
I love the scale of WARHOUND

Wishing you all the best

Looking forward to Marathon a lot
Questionable corporate AI weaved into the disembodied consciousness of the player character has the possibility of going incredibly hard if Bungie's writing team sticks the landing.

"So Handler, what's been going on with Sergeant Kotys?"

Handler:

Yeah I think I maybe misworded my post
I think my point is that Handler APPEARS to be an unstoppable force of nature because this is how others see her and she tries very hard to keep it this way. This is as opposed to Kione, where we get to see who she pretty comprehensively is through her own eyes

This is a good point!
I think it requires digging into the text a bit to find the truth (which isn't the case with Kione as we get to see her perspective firsthand) but yeah Handler is definitely human, even if she takes great pains to appear otherwise.

I hope this is a reading you agree with, but I would be interested to hear your take regardless!

I think that's where the perception that Kione a bit of a feckless loser comes from. The fact that she's human and messy and imperfect and this is compared to Handler, who is a functionally untouchable inhuman demon that devours the freedom of anyone she sets her sights on.
[7/7]

This is compared to Handler, a terrifying force of nature viewed only through the eyes of others, humanised in scant moments solely to demonstrate how much she revels in her work.
[6.Idefinitelydidnotmessupthespacing/7]

Despite her bluster she is incredibly emotionally vulnerable, even if she is now trying to sandblast this facet of herself away.
[6/7]

Yes she enjoys a relative position of authority and appears to retain a lot more personal agency, but she's still very much Handler's pawn right now. Her connections with others (specifically Sartha and Amynta) form a huge part of who she is, and we get to read her whole internal monologue.
[5/7]

It's clear that even if Kione has got a pin on her coat saying she's a handler, she's still very much a tool of the Handler. She's a legendary, charismatic mercenary and was a scary threat even before she got her hands on Handler's playbook, but she (and us) are very aware that she's not free
[4/ 7]

Kione bends the knee because she's in love with Sartha and THAT'S the point of weakness Handler exploits. Kione believes that everything that she has to endure is worth it because of the promise of seeing Sartha, and Handler has promised her the power to never again be rendered so helpless
[3 / 7 ]

Kione is the victim of a very targeted, tailor-made psychological attack in the same tier as what hit Leinth, even if the exact steps of it differed significantly.
Her mind starts to come apart at the seams and she ends up falling directly into Handler's lap.
[2 / 7 ]

Kione is an interesting character because RESCUE HOUND is all about how Handler is specifically targeting HER. Kione believes that the whole thing with Handler is a game about who can keep Sartha, but that's just a smokescreen. Sartha becomes a pawn in Handler's conquest of Kione's sanity.
[1 / 7]

Do I have your permission to do a little ramble on why I think people make this assumption?

It is the solemn duty of every sci-fi writer to trawl Greco-Roman myth in search of really cool names for war machines

thank you :)

Ty <3

Imperial engineers are built different it seems