darkshadsfm
DARKSHAD
COM OPEN! She/they 22+✨🌈
||more on sfm and suggestive sfm|| twitter: @sfwdark/@bottomspiiiee||
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Full image ⤴️
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Hello y'all, support me on Patreon if you're 18+ ‼️
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"I should have known not to trust Valentino"
Just my top ten clips from this little thingy. I'm in love with these three <3
This and much more on my charity Patreon
The charity of April 2024 is going to be Committee Against Bird Slaughter
Unfortunately poaching of migratory songbirds is still going on in numerous countries despite it being unlawful. CABS forms bird protecting camps where volunteers go out there to locate poachers and their traps. From the very beginning they have specialized in the work against bird poaching - a small but important field of activity in the field of environmental protection. They are the only European organisation with this specialization and they are active in most hot spots of migratory bird hunting in the Mediterranean basin.
You can read more about their work here and here you can find their annual report for 2023 (some of the images may be disturbing, dead birds ahead so beware)
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That old rich woman whose husband died under mysterious circumstances
One of my followers requested this and it's inspired by this post
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My part of the art trade with @suffertimeless ! I had alot of fun
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In art collaboration with @neo-my-geo once again, comin' at ya with a sequence of what happens in chapter 3 of neo's fic 'From the Outback with Love'!
For everyone who hasn't read it yet, do it. If you've read it, read it again. There might be a new chapter for you :)
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In my head they were already married!
Sorry I'm late!
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Oh but if you could have it all, why do you want me?
So let me slip inside your ultraviolet disguise
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guys is it gay to accidentally light your rivals cig while you're screaming at him
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I made a 3D recreation of TheMinttu's Team Fortress 2 fanart, Stalemate by TheMinttu. Please check it out, @theminttu makes beautiful artwork.
Created in Blender. My first time rendering in Cycles. The cigarette smoke is a transparent Eevee render overlayed on top.
Cigarette smoke port by Hisanimations. The tie Sniper is pulling at (and buttoned shirt) is a mesh I made that uses Spy's suit texture and follows a keyed Bezier curve.
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Why Spy and Sniper are opposites (and why they understand each other)
(A Team Fortress 2 meta.)
I had this in my drafts half-written for a while and then felt motivated enough to finish it up after seeing @gobbogoo's excellent meta about the professionalism aspect of Sniper and Spy's relationship.
I love foil characters. In my mind, what can make a foil compelling is when the two characters are opposites in many ways, they are also, at their cores, the same in the ways that really matter. When you get right down to it.
Mechanics (Or Far vs Close)
Sniper and Spy were literally made for each other.
In-game, Sniper and Spy are designed to counter each other. The Sniper vs Spy Update introduced multiple weapons for both Sniper and Spy that were designed to undo specifically the Spy and Sniper classes. They were introduced day-by-day in a comical, "Your new toy may counter mine, but now my new toy counters that!" fashion. Sniper's Razorback shield prevents Spy backstabbing him. Spy's Ambassador allows Spy to kill Snipers wearing a Razorback, and so on.
When you play as Sniper or Spy, different gameplay styles emerge from their different strengths and weaknesses. Sniper works well at a distance, behind the rest of his team, because his primary weapons are long range. Spy works well close up because of his ability to instantly kill with backstabs. And Spy's disguises can be more convincing if he's where the enemy team is, so he works well when he's ahead of the rest of his team.
Dirty vs Clean
Sniper roughs it with his (Cosy Camper) backpack and his camper van. Spy wears Louis Vuitton suits (or rather, "Louis Crabbemarché"--TF2 universe's counterpart), as mentioned in The Naked and the Dead comic:
Sniper urinates in mason jars and throws them as a weapon (Jarate). Spy has a special knife (Your Eternal Reward) that kills so cleanly, it instantly removes the body. Spy calls Sniper "filthy" as an insult in-game. It's something to cast scorn over, to Spy.
Spy: "You disgust me, filthy jar man!"
Alone vs Together
Sniper loves his job as a sniper for RED (and BLU). His job makes him stronger when he's at a distance from his team. Therefore, while he's not totally isolated from people, he doesn't mind being alone. He works well like that when he's working.
Sniper: "I love this job. Sunshine's free, bullets are cheap, and everybody's got a head."
Spy's Rally, an alternate Meet the Spy audio recording (as I wrote before), illustrates how Spy values teamwork and believes that it goes against the natural order of life.
Spy: "Disorder, the natural state of nature, is cheap to create, costly to overcome. [...] Nature abhors a team, gentlemen. And together, we bold few, we unnatural brothers, are going to seize Mother Nature by the throat."
Sniper finds strength in being alone. Spy finds strength in being together.
Out of vs In the Spotlight
When there was a irl figurine of Sniper being sold, Valve's blog released a post written by Sniper ("Well, Now I'm a Statue", 11 December 2012). He explains that he hates that his happened, as it goes against his wantiness to stay out of the spotlight.
Sniper: "It probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that a professional assassin like myself tends to be… discrete about things. We keep to the shadows. We avoid the spotlight. We don't host bloody dinner parties, is my point, and we don't make big bloody statues in effigy to our bloody selves."
Despite being an operative who has the ability to literally turn invisible, Spy has a flair for theatrics. He likes spectacle. In Expiration Date, when Scout apologises to Spy, Spy wants him to repeat "You're better than me," line over the PA system so that all the other mercs hear it.
Inexperienced vs Experienced in Romance
Sniper is never shown to have experienced romance and it's possible he never did. Sniper, despite his character being inspired by Crocodile Dundee, an adventure romance comedy, doesn't have a love interest. Sniper's "kangaroo wife" line is a made-up insult by Soldier.
Soldier: "I will send my condolences to your kangaroo wife."
In Meet the Sniper, we see him call his parents when he gets access to a payphone. His parents whom he sends postcards to (we see this postcard in the Sniper vs. Spy update). And it's his parents that the Administrator threatens the safety of to keep Sniper in line. It's his parents that are Sniper's priority of keeping protected. Not a girlfriend.
As essayist Kayla explains in a video meta about the mercs' past relationships, Sniper grew up in Australia, where (in the TF2 universe) the country's culture and people value large muscles due to Australium metal exposure giving Australians super-strength, as explained in the Catch-Up comic:
Security locks are punch-based (as Saxton Hale demonstrates to Miss Pauling in The Contract comic). Kids are expected to get into fist fights with each other. Meaning that Sniper is "not attractive by conventional Australian standards" in the TF2 universe (again, observation by Kayla in the video meta).
Spy on the other hand, is characterised by his past relationship with Scout's mother and it's one of the few things we know about Spy's past. Spy has an in-game line about liking his romances "in groups of six." When Scout needs advice on asking Miss Pauling out on a date, he goes to Spy for help (keep in mind, Scout doesn't know Spy is his father at this point). He has a reputation among his team that he is experienced in romantic relationships.
Spy: "I like my teams like I like my romances: in groups of six."
Where Sniper and Spy are Similar
Being Discreet and Valuing Secrets
In the TF2 comic The Naked and the Dead, we find out that Sniper knows that Scout is Spy's son. By this point, Scout doesn't know (or is heavily in denial about it). We know Sniper knows because when Sniper and Spy come across Scout dying in a hallway, Sniper leaves Spy to have a private moment with Scout, when Spy tells Scout that he's his father (or rather, Tom Jones is his father, because Spy can't bring himself to tell the whole truth).
Sniper is discreet in leaving them alone, because he never explicitly says that he knows (or what he knows) in that scene. It's mainly left unspoken. He only says one word, and Spy knows what's he's going to say. And Sniper chooses to leave because he knows that this secret is important to Spy and Scout.
Spy ability to be discreet and valuing secrets inherently comes with his job. His disguises only work as much as his ability to act like the person he's pretending to be. Spy also values the secret of his identity so much that we don't ever see him without his mask. The SFM model of Spy mask less (where we see he has hair) is a fan-made model that the fandom has collectively accepted. It has not been shown in any official Valve works. In Meet the Spy, he's always wearing his mask in the various Top Secret photos. There's also a Miss Pauling contract line for Spy in-game where she tells him that he should wash his mask. He canonically doesn't take it off.
Miss Pauling: "Spy, just between you and me, you should really wash that ski mask. Like once. There's visible stink lines coming off that thing. Anyway, I need a favor."
Kinda ironic, since Spy values cleanliness.
Are Both Willing to Put Themselves in Danger to Save One Another
Despite their differences, when they're on the same team (or even when they're still on opposite teams but have come together against a greater enemy, like in Mann vs Machine), Sniper and Spy can work together to save each other.
In the comics (The Naked and the Dead), Spy gets shot in the leg and is about to be killed by Classic Sniper (from the first Team Fortress game) while trying to infiltrate a building to save his team, but is saved by Sniper.
To do this, Sniper had to run up several flights of stairs, break down a door, crash through a window, scale the side of a building, and then climb silently into the room Spy was in. While naked and bleeding. Sniper was willing to put himself at great personal risk to save Spy.
They Both Experienced Loneliness Just Before Joining RED/BLU
I imagine that, one day, Sniper and Spy will figure out that they are not so different. If they knew about each other's pasts, they would notice a certain similarity.
Sniper's backstory (his description on TF2's website) is that he was a "tracker of dangerous game" in Australia. He would have spent a long time on his own, in the wilderness, isolated from people. He lived on a farm with his parents, not in the cities. In the comics (Blood in the Water), Sniper explains that he grew up with kids who wanted to fist fight, while he would climb up trees out of their reach and throw stones at them. He didn't fit in.
He calls his parents in Meet the Sniper, but they don't like the line of work he's in. Which upsets him, because he wants their approval.
Spy's backstory is that he had a love, Scout's mother, and ran away from her. We don't know the details of why. But we do know that he and her are still on good terms. Spy and her are seen together in Valve's promo animation for the Second Annual Saxxy Awards:
Spy appears to still love her, as at the end of Meet the Spy, he takes one of the photos of them together. Notably, the most chaste photo of the pile--it's of the two of them holding hands, walking away together.
I think that's insight on what he would have wanted in another timeline. But he ran away on his own, leaving a woman he loved (and still loves) as well as his baby son. He left his family.
This is what their lives were like before the Gravel War.
It's also worth noting that they both joined RED/BLU. They all chose a line of work that many would not, and this gives us insight into their character. Whether it was for the money, or for the chance to fight, or to combat loneliness, both Sniper and Spy found themselves working for RED/BLU.
In Conclusion
Sniper and Spy are opposites in many ways, but when you get right down to it, their cores are the same.
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The last time I said something to somebody about them, it wasn't well received. Trust that I have thoughts though.
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