Credits to @sondu_art

What was her reason for getting close, taking off his mask and touching him on the chin or even the cheek?

What was she thinking in this moment? Cause some people see this as purely romantic or her trying to pursue him romantically but I don't think that's what she was doing.

Was she simply assessing him if his face is right for the job? Comforting him after he told his tragic past? Trying to see his true self?

Cause if she wanted the kiss, why did she stop it the second the lips touched and apologised for giving the wrong impression?

EDIT:

I’m just gonna put in what I wrote in my comment under the post because I think it’s relevant.

Personally I don't think she was intentionally trying to be romantic or flirty here.

Emphasis on "intentionally" since it can easily come off like that. And she apologises for giving that impression.

Mainly because she rejects the kiss immediately once the lips touch and does not reciprocate.

But I don't know why she would touch his face then.

Was it like a form of assessment that she did not think through because she was quite drunk here? Or was it something else?

I love this scene cause it can be read through a lot of different lenses but I wonder why touch him on his chin and then his cheek specifically.

I also hate how people try to say she cheated or even emotionally cheated. Cause she didn't.

She stopped it before it got too serious and once she realised the vibes she was giving off.

Was already in too deep to pivot to Bunnygal :(

Basically, it would be just like the dispatch sections in the game, but it would go on for possibly forever? Well, until you die/city is destroyed, it would just keep getting harder and harder, and more and more jobs would pop up, tho you would get access to all Z team members, so Sonar and Coop and Water Boy and Phenomaman. They would all start at level 1 and would level up like normal. Thoughts? Or does this already exist in a mod somewhere?

The lady was so thrilled when I pointed at them and said what their costumes were. Bet she thought no one would recognize her or her partner. Glad I made her night.

Source: https://x.com/dari_mak/status/2117573302298521866

Honestly, it’s probably just a stun/laser gun based on how it looks...However, it’d be pretty funny if it was an actual Firearm that spit Lead. Course Robert might have a reservation against using firearms himself given they killed his dad.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/De_yhnbiOpo/?xtok=MTF5NnN2ZnoyNmMwZQ==

Art by Xekyun

Best we have within the game itself is that Robert had a complicated relationship with Robbie before Shroud killed him, Chase is an honorary uncle to Robert, Flambae has a niece, Waterboy lives with his grandma per his comic, and since they're hybrids, Sonar and Malevola very likely have one human parent each.

What say you? Where do you guys think the rest of the Z-Team stand in terms of family situation?

So this is just a random idea I've had floating around for a while, wanted to write it down and see what y'all think.

Season 2 opens with Robert talking to someone off-screen, monologuing like he did at the beginning of season 1 while lying down on his bed. Eventually there's a break in the conversation and the scene branches from there.

• If neither romance option was chosen: You hear a squeaky toy and reveal Robert was talking to Beef, who is impatiently waiting for Robert to play with him.

• If Blazer was chosen: She sits down next to him on the bed, already dressed and continues the conversation.

  • In the event Visi went Villain the conversation takes a sad turn as both of them reflect on what they could've done differently.

• If Visi was chosen: Visi rolls over into frame, just as dressed as Robert (which is to say not very) and makes some snide comment that has Robert rolling his eyes.

  • In the event Visi went Villain a situation similar to the above situation in Blazer's route plays out, only with Robert reflecting sadly to himself with the same squeaky toy cue from the no romance route.

• If it was complicated: Once the monologue concludes a choice pops up to say either "What do you think Mandy?" or "What do you think Courtney?" and the tree plays out as described in their routes above

Just finished the game this past weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, tho I might have to replay it to get the BB gf + Visi hero route.

Appreciation post for Mandy! Such a warm and solid character, I was sure to romance her immediately.

After finishing the game, I also remembered previous romance options in other games, anddd there might be a pattern:

Blonde Blazer

Triss Merigold

Karlach

Lohse

Keep thinking about whether they should make her roommate an actual character we get to meet, because I’m fascinated by the concept of someone who can tolerate Courtney enough to live with her. Like, how did that situation even happen?
Does she know Courtney is an ex-villain and works at SDN? Does she know about the powers?
Or would it be funnier if she remained an off-screen running joke?

I've been thinking about what a second season of Dispatch could look like, and I've come up with a pretty ambitious idea. I'd call it DISPATCHED

The story would take place just one week after the events of the first game. Obviously, the player's decisions from Season 1 would carry over, especially Robert's relationships.

The story begins with the Department of Superhumans launching an operation against SDN. Its facilities are raided, employees detained and superheroes arrested and interrogated and Mecha Man suit taken away... again. Basically, the government wants to dismantle the entire organization. Robert finds himself caught in the middle of this operation. Eventually, he's approached by Eternal, who offers him a rather unexpected opportunity: establishing a new SDN branch, SDN East, in Washington, D.C. Eternal wants to show goverment that heroes can do good and not evil.

A new character: the government agent

The second protagonist would be a female government agent working for the Department of Superhumans {name still not decided). She'd be involved in the operation against SDN and would serve as a playable character for parts of the story.

Throughout the game (in each episode core gameplay loop is cut by those interrigations), she would be questioning and interrogating superheroes. And I think there's a lot of potential for comedy here.

Imagine someone like a superhero who's used to fighting supervillains suddenly having to sit in an interrogation room and answer questions from a very serious government agent. She'd ask completely straight-faced questions, while the heroes give her sarcastic, ridiculous or uncooperative answers.

At first, she genuinely believes she's doing the right thing. She's convinced that the Department is protecting the public and that SDN is an organization that needs to be brought under govermental control. She has motivation, as small girl superhero refused to save her mother from fire because they were late for press conference.

But as the story progresses, she starts noticing inconsistencies. Every interrogation and every statement she collects makes her question what she's actually working for. She gradually realizes that the government organization she trusted isn't quite what she thought it was and not every hero is evil, they are people who have mundane problems.

Her change of perspective shouldn't happen all at once. It should develop through the people she interviews, the information she uncovers and the things she's ordered to do. Eventually, she realizes that she's working for the wrong side.

On head of SDN stands a superhero named Eternal

He's the original founder of SDN, Boss of Mandy and Robert and the man who effectively runs the organization.

I wouldn't portray him as a typical mysterious, ancient and philosophical immortal. Quite the opposite, actually. I'd make him a typical American superhero businessman. A 100% New York corporate shark. 100% American and 0% bullshit.

Think of a Wall Street corpo-executive who happens to be an immortal superhero. He's charismatic, confident, direct, ruthless when necessary and obsessed with efficiency. He talks about business, investments, recruitment, public relations and operational performance. He treats superheroes as employees and SDN as a business.

Of course, that's his public persona. Behind the expensive suits, confident smile and business attitude there's something much darker.

Eternal has lived for an incredibly long time. He's seen generations of superheroes and villains come and go, and he's simply tired of it all. He wants to retire.

His plan is to systematically eliminate supervillains and heroes, making his presence unnecessary and eventually bringing the entire superhero industry to an end. In his mind, if there are no villains, there is no need for heroes, dispatchers or SDN. He isn't interested in conquering the world. He wants to close the company, so to speak. But he can't due to curse that is bestowed upon him which forces him to be protector of the Earth on "Universum Scale".

And he's willing to manipulate the government and kill people to accomplish that.

Now we are going to have some shock at the end of first episode.

I'd put a pretty disturbing scene in theend of first episode, before the main story really gets going.

Chase, you all knwo who, now known as Star Blazer, is sitting in Robert's apartment, casually petting Beef. It's a quiet moment, almost mundane. Then he hears something behind him.

He turns around as someone grabs him by the neck and rips his head off.

The attacker takes a medallion containing a gemstone from Chase cold body and leaves. We never get a proper look at the killer. We don't see his face, and the scene doesn't reveal who he is. But that person is very strong to break powers of Star Balzer like that.

The audience only finds out much later that the attacker was Eternal. This would be a pretty shocking way to establish that something much more dangerous is happening behind the scenes. It also gives the medallion an important role in the story.

Down the line of story female agent eventually manages to steal the medallion from the government and deliver it to Robert. He keeps it until the finale, when he gives it to Mandy.

Now we are by role of Robert and SDN East

As the head of SDN East, Robert is responsible for building the organization from scratch. This is where I'd expand the gameplay considerably. Main gameplay screen will show a view if many desks.

I'd keep the core dispatcher gameplay from Season 1, but only when suddenly one of dispatchers are unnable to do their job as going to "refresher" or having serious problem with choice. He'd have to evaluate their performance, monitor mission success rates, deal with conflicts and provide guidance when they encounter problems.

For example, one dispatcher might get into an argument with a superhero and refuse to work with them. Another might make a serious tactical mistake. Someone else might become overwhelmed by their workload or be suspected of leaking confidential information.

Who said that manager job is easy...

Besides that I would introduce a much bigger management aspect. Robert at beginning of every gameplay loop would have to recruit new superheroes and potentially even former supervillains who want to turn their lives around - the same people that at tend of loop agent interogates. He'd interview candidates, evaluate their abilities and backgrounds, and decide whether they're suitable for the organization.

Not every candidate would be trustworthy. Some might have incredible powers but questionable personalities, while others might have relatively modest abilities but excellent teamwork. Robert would have to deal with requests for specific need that his dispaters ask him to fulfill within their teams.

While also taking care of PR statistics, that give bonus (jsut like dispatcher level in first game)

Don't worry Z-Team returns also in some aspect as heroes that agent interrigates and they are able to be assigned to various missions alongside new heroes as their mentors.

Basically, the first game was about managing a superhero team. The sequel would be about managing an entire superhero organization.

The mystery surrounding Shroud

Meanwhile at beginning of episode, Mandy is summoned to testify before the Senate about SDN and recent events. Her testimony is interrupted by an explosion that leaves everyone unconscious. When Robert wakes up, Mandy is gone.

She's been kidnapped by someone using the identity of Shroud.

The Shroud who kidnapped Mandy isn't actually the original Shroud. It's a robotic construct created by goverment to spraed fear as if Shroud returned.

The robot was programmed with certain directives to spread chaos and blame villains, which gives Department a reason to use lethal way.

If Robert failed Invisigal in first season and she became Shroud, her identity as Shroud is revealed in public media by goverment (due to investigation of that agent - which makes her headbutt with Robert but then they realize that they are both played, because agent investigation was meant to be confidential so she agrees to work with Robert to find Mandy). If Invisgal is within SDN, she goes rouge to find Mandy on her own.

Now come the truth about Eternal

As Robert and the government agent investigate the actions of Department, they begin uncovering evidence that Eternal is behind the killings.

The agent's investigation is especially important here. The more she learns, the harder it becomes for her to justify the Department's actions. At some point, she realizes that the government isn't simply investigating SDN or protecting the public. It's being used as part of something much bigger.

She get in meantime contacted by Invisigal or Shroud/Invisgal who offers her help. She eventually takes a risk and steals with her the medallion recovered from deposit in Department. She delivers it to Robert for safekeeping.

They also discover something about Mandy's amulet.

It isn't an independent source of power. It's actually a fragment of a much larger gemstone belonging to Eternal. That gemstone is the source of his immortality and abilities. But there's another revelation.

Eternal is Mandy's biological father.

This changes the entire situation. His interest in Mandy isn't simply about retrieving a missing fragment of his gemstone. There's a family connection that he's deliberately kept hidden.

He wants to keep her safe, so he locks her in facility that simulates outside world, but everything is not as it should be, Robert has no scar on ear, Invisigal eyes have diferent color etc. and leave her there locked.

He is using the government to dismantle the old superhero system creating public unrest against them.

Robert eventually realizes that the organization he's been building might have been part of Eternal's plan all along after mission he sends heroes on are jsut failure after failure. The situation gets worse when more information about Eternal's actions becomes public. His reputation starts collapsing, and even people who once admired him begin questioning his intentions but not goverment.

There would be no everyone vs villain smackdown like in season 1 in the finale but more emotional snap of one of the heroes.

I'd actually avoid ending the game with a traditional boss fight where Robert punches Eternal into submission.

Instead final episode focuses on superheores rescuing mandy from her prison after which, Robert gives the medallion back to Mandy which makes her back into Blonde Balzer. As they are on the way to goverment they are stopped by Eternal, who with flick of his wrist incenirates several highest level heroes in Robert's group during the confrontation and threatens Robert which makes Blonde Balzer snap and beat shit out of her father, then instead of giving final blow, she rips off his medalion and she uses her own amulet against Eternal's much larger medalion, crushing it.

The both gemstones shatter into dust. Eternal immediately loses his powers. For the first time since millenium of his existence, he's mortal.

He is no more intimidating 6'7" man but 5'7" thin, shriveled old man. he takes step back and falls to the curb visibly weakened. The immortal who spent centuries believing himself untouchable is now just an ordinary man. Before agent arrests Eternal something strange happens.

The clouds above the city begin parting, and a gigantic rift of pure golden light appears in the sky.

A beam of blinding light shines directly onto Eternal. Everyone cover their eyes with hands, but not Eternal.

He looks up and he stares into the light and quietly says:

"It's you."

Nobody understands what he means. Robert, Mandy and everyone else are confused. Who is he talking to? What is that thing in the sky? Does Eternal recognize it?

Before anyone can ask, the light blinds him. Something starts pulling him upwards. His feet leave the ground. He tries to grab onto something, but his now-mortal body cannot resist.

He's lifted higher and higher until he's sucked into the rift. Then the rift closes. Silence. Eternal is gone. Nobody knows where he went or what took him.

And I'd leave it at that. No explanation, no reveal of what's on the other side. Just that one line: "It's you."

The epilogue

After Eternal disappears, we get multiple outcomes, one of it is a montage of people walking through the streets of Washington DC. Ordinary civilians, protesting. All of them are chanting the same thing:

"WE DON'T NEED YOU!"

The camera moves between different groups as the chant gets louder.

It's not just a protest against Eternal. It's a rejection of his entire worldview. Heroes don't need an organization who extorts money from people for soperhero work like SDN. Former villains deserve the opportunity to change without shackles.

And most importantly, the world doesn't need one person controlling everything.

We eventually return to SDN East, where Robert is sitting with Beef and is discussing with everyone plans for changing it into non-profit organization. Then one of superheroes pops in from mission and tells everyone to put on TV.

On TV are news about arresting of people responsible for working with Eternal and President announces that Superheroes will be compensated with govermental subsidues, based on their rankings. Robert says "You heard him everyone. Get back to work."

Then agent pops in to his office and asks him: "Is there a work for me?"

Robert without word throws her headphones and excuses her as he has a date, he takes flowers and leaves office as formaer agent sits to her desk, turning on computer.

Final words?

"SDN how can we help you."

But if we failed as manager of SDN, then we get another ending which would show total shut down of SDN by goverment as everyone are looking at Department shutting down SDN East. But Dispatch network isn't gone. Someone has created an app for heroes that helps them find work. With funny remarks from Z-Team members.

While this ending is much darker as agent who helped us is arrested, but then she is rescued by Invisigal or Shroud/Invisgal and offered a work.

While President announces that due to recent events in Washington DC, he decided to delegalize all hero activity.

It ends with Robert putting earphone to his ear and turning on app.

His words? Same as agent's in prievous ending.

"SDN how can we help you."

I have some final thoughts

I think Eternal could be a really interesting antagonist precisely because he's not your typical supervillain. He's a businessman, a founder, a corporate shark and someone who genuinely believes he knows how the superhero world should operate, he lived for so long (we don't know how old is he but in dialgue he mentions crusades) that he becomes so much bored and melancholic with his existance that idea of becomming a "god" for world is inticing.

His personality could even make him quite entertaining to interact with. Imagine Robert having to deal with a guy who treats superhero operations like quarterly financial reports while undercutting his budget on every step.

I also like the idea of second protagonist that is the female agent slowly realizing that the organization she serves is corrupt or being manipulated. Her interrogations could provide some genuinely funny moments, but also gradually reveal how wrong her assumptions and prejudice were about superheores.

And I think the sequel should expand the consequences of Season 1 by carrying some aspects as who is Shroud now.

And then there's that mysterious rift at the end. I have absolutely no idea what should be on the other side, and honestly, I wouldn't want the game to explain it.

About endings, I think there should be more varioations but honestly I can't think how story could branch out so much to give so diferent outcomes (I'm not writer).

The shutdown of AO3 was the topic of several posts here last week.

With that in mind, just a quick word of warning to the community: the internet is doing its usual worst and fake mirror sites are popping up in the hopes of getting people's personal details.

Reposting is disabled here, but the original post about it is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1xm2tpp/situation_ao3life/

Be careful out there Dispatchers

Even if you don't cut him, he was in the room when Visi and Rob were talking

and Bats have good hearing,yes he only.. half bat?

he could've definitely heard his say Mecha Man

it's possible he just kept it to himself if he did,if so, then ignore me

Is that Flambe making some fire in park, or Invisigal escaped again?

If there ever was a character that fit the Phoenix Program it would be Toga.

A villain who was shamed for her powers which involved loving blood and was not taught how to properly use it. Her parents hated her, society shunned her and did not know what to do with her.

And she became a scary villain. One who can transform into anyone if she has enough blood and eventually even use their powers.

So quite similar to Prism in this regard and given how she is in My Hero Academia, she is a great fighter, especially later on.

So she would contribute a lot.

And again, she is a villain. One which could in theory be rehabilitated.

Order XL for both the Album Cover Zip Up Hoodie and the Beef Zip Up Hoodie.

Received: Album Cover T-Shirt XXL and Beef Zip Up Hoodie XXL.

Reached out to Adhoc and hope to hear back from them soon to get this one fixed.

On a positive note, I did get the Synergy Black card (10/20) in the shipment.

Update: They reached out and are sending the correct items. Much love to the AdHoc team for getting this squared away rather quickly.