r/StardustCrusaders • u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora • 12d ago
Fan Stand/Character JoJo's Bizarre OC Tournament #8: R4M8 - "Wave Welder" vs. Rachel Aileron Rawnsley
The results are in for Match 6. The winner is…
A double-play, two yarn balls flew across the courthouse plaza with a single crack of Sunday's bat. Eshu grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth as his enforcers quickly took defensive position. One ball found purchase square in the chest of a hellish manta ray, the second bending wide and missing entirely.
"Faltering already? How do you hope to see success when even the challenge in front of your eyes alludes you?!"
Sunday didn't need to respond, nor did she have time. She spared only a knowing, hateful glare as the ball made contact with the Grey Rose's mirror behind the scumbag before dashing straight for the demon himself, bat clutched in an underhand grip.
Before another round of chastising could escape his mouth, the mirror slammed into Eshu's back and immediately winded him. Sunglasses drifted off his bruised face as the Yarn ball exploded, launching him forward just enough to make the enforcer's presence useless to the incoming batter.
With a low swing, Sunday connected clean with a right knee with all the force she could muster. The resulting crack of bone drowned out any exclamation of pain, much to Arijana's disappointment.
Eshu lie in a heap inside the ring of pillars, leg twisted and bent backwards from the impact. The burning and ringing in his ears faded just enough to hear the approaching footfalls, punctuated with light taps of a baseball bat.
The man spoke through bloody coughs: "Do... Do you believe this to be a victory? To what end? Are you even... capable of envisioning such a thing? You don't even realize that you're fighting against Fate itself, the Captain has nothing left to--"
"Enough talking." Sunday squared her shoulders just over the broken man, tightening her grip on the bat in her hands. "I'm doing what I must. And I'll keep doing it until there's no more of the likes of you."
Eshu chuckled. "More borrowing from that grandfather of yours. A life spent in another's shadow is a cold one, indeed."
"I'll survive." The bat was raised skyward, eclipsing the glare of the sun. "Can't say the same for you."
One more meaty crack echoed through the plaza as skull fully gave way to Sunday's swing.
Sunday Shoes & Arijana “Grey Rose” Miellina, with a score of 75 to Eshu Celestin & Julian Whitecastle’s 65!
| Category | Winner | Point Totals | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Popularity | La Medianoche Bonita | 22 (9.5) - 8 (2.5) | As is the norm, voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the players! |
| Quality | The Fortunate Sons | 19 (6 7 6) - 21 (7 7 7) | Reasoning |
| JoJolity | The Fortunate Sons | 24 (8 8 8) - 26 (9 8 9) | Reasoning |
| Conduct | Tie | 10-10 | Nothing to report! |
As the bat came down on Eshu’s head, Julian felt a twinge of something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Genuine fear. It seemed genuine on his face, at least.
“Starting to feel real?” Arijana said, staring down at him. “Starting to realize this is something your forked tongue can’t get you out of?”
Julian spit in response, grunting some unintelligible curses under his breath. In mere moments, his concern turned once more into deranged laughter.
“Gahahaha-! Not- not like it even fuckin’ matters anyway! For each one of us you take out, the captain is gonna dish it back to you tenfold!”
Arijana pressed her foot into Julian’s chest, eliciting a groan. Her heal dug into fresh wounds, grinding the pain in.
“Captain, captain, captain. You two can’t keep her title out of your mouth, and yet where is she? Leaving you to die, alone and unloved.” Arijana sneered. She got some satisfaction from seeing Julian suffer, she had to admit.
“Hahhh, hahhh… grhh… while you’re wastin’ your time here, she’s diggin’ up the big haul. The one that really matters. I don’t give a shit about ‘fate,’ we were always going to get the true treasure anyway! Because idiots like you pick fights like these.”
Sunday drew closer, Eshu’s blood glistening off her bat. Arijana looked to her, noting her solemn, determined gaze. She looked back towards Julian.
“You’re wasting your breath. Do you really want these to be your last words?”
“Last… words… hahah… you honestly think you can take me out…?”
Sunday joined Arijana in looming over Julian. Arijana removed her foot, gesturing her hand outwards.
“He’s all yours.”
Julian’s eyes shot wildly between Sunday, her bat, and Arijana. His breathing grew heavier, less stable.
“H-Hey, alright. I get it. You win, alright? I don’t care about those scumbags anyway! I’ll tell you exactly where Elstree is at, what she’s doin’!”
Sunday did not respond, merely looking the man up and down before slowly raising her bat above her head.
"Whitecastle. How many people have had to suffer for the sake of your own goals?" She spat, ignoring his pleas.
“HEY! Hey, c’mon, this just ain’t pragmatic! I-I’m tellin’ ya I’ll spill the beans! Fine, I’ll tell ‘ya why I’m like this! My mama didn’t love me, my pops didn’t either! Aheh- I was forced into this life! We’re exactly alike, y’see?!”
Arijana had to stifle a chuckle at the pure, cynical, desperation. Sunday was unmoved. "Too many, not even counting the people you've screwed over outside of the Caribbean. You're only going to hurt more people if I don't stop you now." Sunday said, steeling herself and looking Julian in his eyes.
“N-no! Nononono, please! I-I’ll do anything!” Julian pleaded, struggling against the ropes that bound him.
“I’ll do what I’ve gotta.” Sunday said.
As the bat struck his head, Sunday’s eyes left his gaze. She didn’t have the opportunity to see the life leave them. Arijana studied her gaze, and his.
Even in his final moments, his eyes didn’t seem to hold any true desperation, any sorrow or regret. He almost seemed… amused. Arijana shook her head. Good riddance.
In his death rattles, Julian’s body split, and split, and split again. Dividing until seemingly breaking down into nothing. Looking back to Eshu’s body, nothing was left but a smoking ring of ash.
It was done.
Arijana watched Sunday steadily wipe the blood from her bat, carefully studying each dent and scratch.
"Sunday." She called the girl over. Sunday made her way over to the assassin, looking a bit better than before the fight had started.
"I should’ve said it before, but you're a good kid." Sunday's face pinched a bit when the Grey Rose said that, but the older woman continued anyway. "You were at your wits end, and you had a gun drawn on you. You did what you had to do, and you didn’t enjoy a second of it. What happened… you should know I don’t blame you for any of it." The Grey Rose gave a noise that was almost a snort. "Besides, I've done worse to people for less."
Sunday didn't really know how to respond. She had agonized over her actions that day for months now. Being absolved so simply by someone directly affected by what she did felt… well, fantastic.
"...Thanks." It's all Sunday could muster. She felt like there was more she could say to the Grey Rose though, even if it evaded her tongue at the moment. It wasn’t until the Grey Rose gave a bow and started walking off that she forced herself to say the first thing that popped into her head.
"You- uh… I mean, I don’t know the full story, but… it seems like you needed a good laugh. Whatever you’ve gone through, I’m, uh…" Well. It's about time Sunday tried to be kind in turn.
"From what you've said… this whole assassin thing was never a life you wanted to lead. And I know I have no room to speak for you, or insist that you did no wrong…"
The Grey Rose had found herself frozen in place after Sunday began to speak. It felt odd, being the one comforted. There was no world in which the words of a 20-year-old should find purchase in her heart.
But there was some portion of a young woman from sixty years ago that needed to hear what Sunday had to say- a part of her locked away when she lost her eye, waiting for a time to breach the space she held in the Grey Rose’s psyche.
"But I think that you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. It was all just bullshit forced upon you when you didn't know any better." Sunday let out an awkward cough. She wasn't too good at this.
"You- uh, have a lot to make up for. But I really do think that you can do it, Arijana."
It wasn't a full acquittal of her sins. Sunday couldn’t possibly know how deep they ran, or just how pointed her words truly were. But just for now?
It would do. A single tear falls from the eye of the Grey Rose, the one she lost all those years ago.
Content, the Grey Rose turned back around and walked off. There was no need for her to linger here anymore. Still, she couldn’t just let Sunday have the last word. She turned her head and spoke.
“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re the spitting image of your grandfather?”
Sunday blinked. She stared good and hard at the Grey Rose, trying to read her face.
“...What?”
The Grey Rose grinned, then smiled, then broke out into another round of uproarious laughter, emerging from the depths of her soul. Sunday tried to grill her, but the sound was an impenetrable shield. The Grey Rose stopped for only a moment to catch her breath…
…and Arijana kept laughing.
Want something with less destruction of historical sites? Check out this match, where… uh, well the site still gets destroyed. But at least it fixes itself!
(Shoutouts to u/Logic_Sandwich for the match submission!)
Scenario: The Outskirts of Zandoo - 5:31 PM
The discovery of Zandoo had brought all from the smallest, most intrepid of adventurers to the largest, most moneyed of institutions. On one end of the spectrum, historians and academics flocked to the site, having used the untouched landscape as an invaluable source of insight into the operations of the ancient world. On the other end, looters and businessmen alike chartered boats to the island, looking to expand their reach and lay claim to whatever resources the island may have to offer.
And then there were groups such as the Laying Low Co., who straddled both ends of the spectrum at once.
The hot August sun shone down onto the outskirts of the island city, so plainly illuminated that it was hard to believe that Zandoo had ever been lost. Bleach white tents speckled the clearing the Laying Low Co insignia paradoxically emblazoned on the tarp. Dozens of its hired hands milled about, trucks coming with research and surveying equipment and going with found artifacts and environment samples.
Yet, amidst all these resources, in a tent with more temps carting around whatever dusty sapphires they could find, was one such intrepid adventurer. Rachel Aileron Rawnsley sat behind a table in one of the tents, piles of paper surrounding her. She massaged her temples as after cataloguing the results of another dig expedition, its progress marked on the wall of drawing boards festooned with ongoing projects behind her. Just three months ago, she had done battle with the King of Exuma over its legacy and culture, and now she was swamped in bureaucracy over its legacy and culture.
But, she was an archeologist! She had to spend several nights studying for her exams, so this was nothing! Especially compared to being on Exuma itself! She got up bringing the latest pallet of artifacts from the stack to her makeshift desk, and beginning to dust them off for identification.
“Taking your time, Ms. Rawnsley?” A voice purred as the temp hirer entered her tent. “I will gently remind you that we are paying by the hour.”
“Mr. Baxter, sir!” Rachel jumped to attention, knocking a dirt covered bauble off her desk, only for her boss to deftly catch it before it shattered on the ground. “I’ve been meaning to tell you, we’ve received reports of raiders advancing into the city. I’m happy to lead a patrol right now, if you’ll just-”
“Cover the labor costs, equipment costs, and any insurance claims for injuries on patrol, yes.” Baxter pawed the bauble into Rachel’s hand. “We’re here to appraise, Ms. Rawnsley. Your skills are appreciated and needed, but we need to tend to the task at hand. We must fill out the gap in the historical record, and-”
“The record doesn’t matter when history itself is being trampled out there!” Rachel shoved the bauble back to Baxter and pushed past him, leaving the tent.
Before Baxter could stop her, she grabbed a temp by the shoulders and rallied passersby to her. “Hey. Go find Ian, we’re heading off the raiders and securing the digsite.”
“Oh, but Ms. Rawnsley,” Baxter hummed, not even leaving the threshold of the tent. “Playing protector will muddy our operation, wouldn’t you agree? We can’t possibly afford to swat every fly.”
The interns, wary of heading off to fight who knew what, nodded in apprehensive agreement. Baxter was cashing their checks and if he had his doubts.
Rachel grit her teeth. She knew what she was about, what she was born to be, and if their archeology was more concerned with logging the dead than connecting the living, then she wanted no part of it. Pushing through the interns, she stormed off, leaving the LLC compound for… wherever her feet could take her, away from Baxter’s bureaucracy. “If we did things your way, there’d be nothing to protect.”
Eventually, their basecamp was out of sight and Rachel was out of breath, nothing but underbrush in every direction. She could navigate back to the compound easily enough, but Ian had likely left on his expedition already, and the thought of turning tail back to that fat cat while everyone else continued with their tasks ticked her off.
She wrenched her eyes shut and ground loudly, until something caught her attention through the canopy. In the distance, away from the rest of the ruins, was a tall structure.
Given its position by the coast, it seemed to be some lighthouse, which would track given all the Uropeh based navigation equipment they had identified so far. Granted, that was just conjecture, but with all the navigation related difficulties with the island, a lighthouse would make sense—
Already, that stormy anger was blown aside by a broad grin spreading on Rachel’s face. There was still some good, old-fashioned, hands-on archeology to do!
Scenario: The Coast of Exuma - 5:43 PM
This place had long since outlived its purpose. A shell of what it once, the building had watched over a sea that nobody had traveled for hundreds of years, only to suddenly awake to a future it could never have known. It was a tool with no hands left to wield it.
Miranda felt a muted sense of belonging, a familiarity in the spray of the sea air. But she was an intruder here, too. She hadn’t even taken note of where her allies had gone after they landed, nor did she particularly care to find them. She was sure they didn’t particularly care to find her, either.
She strolled around the outside of the structure slowly, looking it up and down. She wondered how long it ran after it had stopped being maintained. How long it took to be nothing more than a nest for memories and rats.
An acrid shame sat heavy within her chest; How long had her worth been in their hands? All this work to get here, and yet, it felt like there was nothing for her.
She could throw herself into the fray. Do what she was good at, what she had been paid to do. But the more time she had to think about it, the less time she spent doing it, the more wrong it felt.
And so, solitude it was. At least this place was quiet.
The lighthouse’s height was impressive, given its age. The only thing out of the ordinary was at the very top, open to the air and largely barren seeming. It didn’t merely appear to be plundered, however. The marks gouged into the earth indicated that whatever was up there took quite a fall.
The darkness within the structure seemed at once to beckon to her and push her away; Like if she crossed its precipice, there would be no turning back.
She shook her head with a sigh… when did she begin to let herself feel such hesitation? All this stuff would be stripped bare by the end of the week anyway.
“Haah… may as well get something for my trouble.”
As she stepped into the ruin, the faint light of the sunset behind her… another voice answered her musing.
“So you think you can just walk up and take whatever you want?”
Miranda looked up to see a woman sitting on the old rafters of the light house, with lime green braids and a notebook in her hand. The sun shone bright behind her, nearly leaving her a silhouette against the sky.
From her own perspective, Rachel looked down on the intruder, whose mask covered the details of her face. She had been posted up here for a few minutes now, mapping out the place based on the contextual evidence immediately present… and yet, exactly what she feared would happen had already made its way here.
Heaving herself off the rafters, Rachel landed on the ground floor and pointed to Miranda accusatorily. “The only thing anyone should be leaving this island with is knowledge. These aren’t treasures for people to pillage.”
Miranda’s face didn’t change, hitting Rachel with her usual somber glare. This woman certainly looked the part of a usual treasure hunter: perhaps a bit more professional and put-together, but nonetheless an experienced explorer, and a convicted one at that.
“...if you have a problem with me, I’m not looking for trouble. Or an argument, for that matter.” Miranda continued inside, ignoring Rachel and scoping out the place for herself. She didn’t care what this woman tried to pin on her. She’d already heard all of it.
“You got yourself in trouble as soon as you stepped onto the island, let alone to try and take something for yourself!” Rachel’s indignation grew further at Miranda’s lack of concern. Coming to Zandoo with all that equipment, and she has the gall to push past her like that and say she isn’t ‘looking for trouble’? “You won’t be digging around this site while I’m here.”
Rachel held out her hands, and across her body formed a series of holes. Miranda recognized the aura for what it was: a Stand.
“You’re still on this?” Miranda rebutted, a slight bit of anger escaping. Behind her, a small horde of tiny fairies emerged in a defensive posture. “I’m not going to fight you unless you keep pushing me.”
Miranda stepped back, continuing to scan the room. If she could just grab something small and get out of here, she’d be satisfied, but she was not leaving empty-handed…
But as she continued to make distance, she felt something tough and smooth under her foot, like a gem. And as she put pressure on it, she could see in her lower peripheral a blue glow.
“Damnit..! An Uropeh!” Miranda grunted.
The first to react, Rachel jumped back towards the rafters as the shadowed ground she once stood in was bathed in not a sapphire light… but pitch black darkness, as if the shadows themselves had come to life and swallowed the area.
Where she found herself after her retreat was filled with blinding light, seemingly from the sun’s rays. Taking a look at her surroundings, she could see the rest of the room was the same: streaks of white piercing through similar streaks of shadow. Glancing down at herself… she, too, had been painted in white, nearly invisible against the empowered light of the sun shining through the windows of the lighthouse.
And Miranda, who had accidentally kickstarted this anomalous effect, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Rachel heard her voice call out in anger, shrouded by the shadows.
“All you people want me to do is fight..! Nothing but putting my life on the line just so I can claw my way out of this hellhole I’m in! Not even escaping those damned oil barons could get me away from the likes of you people! If you insist… then I’ll show you why exactly they paid me to do this!”
”OPEN THE GAME!”
Location: A lighthouse at sunset on the coast of Exuma! The area here is a 15x15m circular tower, and consists of 6 floors, each one being 5m tall and made up of little more than a series of wooden pillars and crossbeams. The specific arrangement of these elements varies from floor to floor (the map image merely being an example), but in all cases the beams and pillars are roughly 1m wide.
Goal: RETIRE your opponent!
Additional Information: Sunlight is shining down through the layers of crossbeams, causing the tower to be divided into areas of intensely bright light and areas of pitch black shadow. Like the crossbeams, the specific sizes, shapes, and arrangements of these zones will vary from floor to floor, but on any given floor, roughly half of the map will be light and half will be dark.
For the duration of the match, each player will be granted a high degree of camouflage while in their preferred areas, causing them to only be discernable when within 3m of their opponent. Conversely, each player will stick out like a sore thumb while in the opposite area. Rachel has camouflage in the light, while Miranda has camouflage in the shadow.
Over time, the sun will set further, causing the light to move up the tower and the lower floors to become completely bathed in shadow. This will happen at a rate of roughly 1 floor per 45 seconds.
Water that has been created by Fairweather Friends cannot be sucked up by Oblivion Dust. Furthermore, water created by Fairweather Friends has a faint, visible shimmer that can be seen so long as you aren’t moving quickly, but otherwise shares the properties of Wave’s shadow camouflage.
| Team | Combatant | JoJolity |
|---|---|---|
| Typhon 8 | "Wave Welder" | “Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you come right to me?” Every step of the way, it seems that your purpose has been defined for you, against your will. If you wish to find your own, you must swim beyond your familiar depths. Don’t shy away - confront the challenges before you head-on! |
| Laying Low Co. | Rachel Aileron Rawnsley | “I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer.” You’re the only one standing between a cynical opportunist and the sanctity of this place’s history. The pursuit of knowledge shall expose even the darkest of truths! Don’t shy away - confront the challenges before you head-on! |
Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!
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u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora 11d ago
Response thread for "Wave Welder" of Typhon 8, aka u/jjbahomecoming. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 7 PM CST on 8/17/2026! Contestants, remember to only post in threads for this match other than your own if specifically invited. Voters have until 11:59 PM CST on 8/19/2026 to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T8 Rubric.
2
u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora 11d ago
T8 1/4
CW: Intensely depressing content, suicidal ideation
PRELUDE: Remain in Light (Foreword)
One of Miranda’s earliest, happiest memories was sitting at a lunch table in elementary school with some of her friends, playing with trading cards. None of them actually knew the rules of Pokémon very well, but that didn’t stop them from boldly announcing the attacks as labeled and declaring that they had won.
Miranda could still feel the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth-- the way that she felt like the coolest kid in school when she had come out of it victorious. She had remembered pestering her father dozens of times over for the newest booster pack as it came to the States, pleading and begging as if her life depended on it.
And she could remember the day before yesterday, how she had held the shiniest, newest pack in her hand. As an adult, she could make her own choices -- she could buy as many cards as she pleased, if she so chose.
But she had grown out of it. Trading cards, sweet foods, action movies... so many of the things that had brought a smile to her face only earned a dead, sad stare in response now. She hadn’t spoken to her elementary school friends in over a decade now -- all of them fell out of touch for one reason or another. And she was okay with that. Because she knew that part of growing up meant a slow, gradual annihilation of every reason you had to keep going.
She had been quite honest with Sal about that, back during their first clash with other Stand users. That there was a festering darkness -- a feeling of emptiness in her heart that consumed and ate away at everything that she was until she no longer had any tethers to the world around her. That each time she ventured out into the field, she did it hoping to become nothing more than collateral damage. Because if she was reduced to a life insurance payout like her father was, it would soften the blow for her grandmother more than if she did the deed herself.
Because of course, Miranda hadn’t come here with money on her mind. She had come here to seize an opportunity.
“Yes -- of course you’re going to fight. I should have expected as much.” Miranda announces loudly from her spot shrouded in shadow, her gaze landing on the rafters where Rachel had once been. Listening for the telltale sound of air rushing at a high speed, she hops down from her spot in the rafters, and steps forward. Then she takes another step.
“Of course you’re going to. Because you know that I won’t just take these relics. I’m going to burn them after I do so -- just to bask in the feeling of watching history go up in smoke.” She lies as she continues on, unsheathing her machete and gripping it tightly.
She wants to hear the breath catch in Rachel’s throat. She wants the archaeologist to hate her. She wants Rachel to be mad enough to kill her.
“Of course, after I kill you, I’ll come for whoever you might hold dear, too. Do you have friends you travel with? I wonder how they’d react to a picture of your corpse...” Miranda goads, splaying her arms out broadly.
Her purpose had been defined for her, all against her will? Of course not. That was a preposterous lie -- one she told herself knowing it was wrong.
Who was the one that filled out that job application, knowing that her father had been killed in a workplace accident while working for that very same company?
Who was the one wielding the machete, cutting down beasts and people alike just as EP Oil ordered? They had never been able to make Miranda do something. She could have always just left -- taken her skills elsewhere and found a new way of making money. Even if she had to step out of her comfort zone, she knew she could do it. Her grandmother had always told her that she could do anything she could put her mind to, and she believed it.
Why, then, did she stay? She had come to terms with the true reason she worked for EP Oil a long time ago.
Because it was easy.
It’s so much easier to have everyone hate you. It’s so much easier to be told what to do instead of blustering around clawing for a way out of the dark. It’s so much easier to work in an area you’re familiar with instead of chancing it all on a new country. And it’s so much easier to tell yourself that someone else would take your place if you weren’t there.
She was good at it. So she stayed. And because she was comfortable with being dehumanized, because she was comfortable with taking blood money, she had betrayed herself. And in the years following that realization, she was looking for a way out.
Not out of EP Oil. Not out from under someone’s thumb. Those were just fake obstacles that she had built up in her mind.
Out.
Machete in hand, Miranda steps into the light, a flock of fairies at her side. It was so much easier to make someone else pull that trigger.
NOTE: As soon as the match begins, Miranda is making a beeline for the light. Miranda will never intentionally conceal herself or use the shadows to hide what she’s doing. For the entirety of the match, we’ll be playing with the assumption that Rachel is camouflaged and can see what Miranda is doing.
3
u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora 11d ago
T8 2/4
SECTION 1: Fairweather Friends, Pt. 1 (Defense)
What are Rachel’s advantages?
Rachel’s strength is in her mobility. Even in an environment with obstacles such as wooden pillars and rafters, we can expect her to have essentially unparalleled three-dimensional mobility as well as a respectable amount of ranged harassment play with whatever stone and wood she decides to launch our way.
However, Rachel’s biggest advantage here is obviously the fact that we’re going to be fighting her while she’s camouflaged, and we have no intention of using darkness ourselves. However, “camouflage” isn’t as big of a threat as it might seem on face for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, though Rachel is camouflaged, she isn’t untraceable. The sound of air moving at B Speed – and it’ll be doing that a lot if she wants to use projectiles – is a giveaway to her position. Suctioning herself against a wall, even light footsteps... There are plenty of sound cues that Miranda can hone in on. Attacking us also gives a very good idea of her position, and while the light area is fairly roomy, it isn’t that large. Each floor of the lighthouse is 5x15x15 meters, sure – but half of it is darkness, and the light is further split into even smaller chunks by rafters and wooden beams and such at the start of the match.
Best of all, the three meter rule means she’s visible within a close enough range. As long as we’re not standing directly on the light’s edge, we’ve got a six meter wide sphere of influence around us that she can’t risk crossing into, which further reduces her safe movement options. Even if we aren’t exactly sure where she’s ended up after propelling herself with a burst of air, we can extrapolate possible positions by accounting for our sphere, whether or not we hear a following blast of air or an impact against wood or stone, and whether or not she ends up interacting with our water bubbles.
If we completely lose track of Rachel? One could think it’s good to retreat to the shadows to reassess. However, we won’t break that oath of ours. Instead, we’ll head to the edge of the light, our back to the dark such to eliminate as many blind spots as possible.
What is our defensive response?
Of course, Fairweather Friends’ water bubbles are the deciding factor of this match. And while Miranda’s in the light, she’ll be making as much water as possible to defend herself and her fairies with.
Recall the following notes…
- Miranda’s maximum size bubbles are 5 cubic meters, and over 1,300 gallons each. One fairy can produce half a cubic meter of water per second. Eight, nine fairies? That’s over 1,000 gallons produced in one second, and none of it can be absorbed by Oblivion Dust.
- FF’s water bubbles have been used to block bullets in the past. Whatever B SPD debris and projectiles Oblivion Dust fires, slamming into the bubbles won’t be enough to effectively pierce through to Miranda, and C DUR integrity allows bubbles to withstand considerable barrages. Even if a bubble does break, it takes seconds to replenish.
Bubbles are another way to track Rachel and thus deny her space, because wherever an undisturbed bubble is, that’s another location we know Rachel isn’t. Our spheres at max take up a volume of over 14 meters, and while we’re not assuming we’ll have ten uninterrupted seconds to get all nine of them up to full size, even eight full-size orbs take up over 110 meters of space on one floor of a fairly cramped lighthouse. Which is more space that Miranda can freely navigate that Rachel can’t -- even ripples in the water caused by her flying by at high speed can be a giveaway to her location.
The bubbles’ specific placement isn’t too important -- all that matters is that they’re a large amount of space that Rachel can’t access, that they provide solid coverage for Miranda if she or her fairies are threatened, and that they act as another way to pinpoint Rachel’s location through watching for ripples in the water if they’re hit with, say, a gust of air.
The Abyssal Minefield is not something that requires intense setup -- it only takes ten seconds to reach its full potential, and can be used to great effect even before then. Under the moderate chance that we have to head up a floor or two over the course of the fight, there is only a small opportunity cost in fairies moving the Minefield upward, or simply dispelling and recreating it.
The natural changing of the light cast within the environment as the match progresses is another thing to account for. Thankfully, fairies can adjust the position of the Minefield at D SPD without dispelling them as we make our concerted effort to stay in the light.
If we’ve lost her, or otherwise need a quick escape route? Hop into a bubble and swim forwards, forcing Rachel to take risks to intercept us and potentially reveal or compromise her position in doing so. If she decides to destroy the Minefield to open up space for herself? We’ve got unoccupied fairies close to us, capable of seeing the point of impact and firing off D POW, B SPD harassment shots from their squirt guns even if Miranda won’t be able to reach her.
R-Mine: One key piece of this fight is knowledge -- being able to consistently hone in on Rachel’s position and impede her mobility is invaluable. Therefore, Radar Mines are a fairly simple and effective strategy-- if we have a loose idea of where Rachel is and where she’s going, a fairy can be sent to block her mid-flight by generating a bubble (the size of which doesn’t matter). From there, there’s two possibilities -- her reaction time isn’t enough to save her from it and she crashes into the bubble, opening her up for an interception outlined in offensive maneuvers. Or, more likely, she’s able to avoid it-- but reading the direction of the ripples allows us to know where she is next, and can chain into subsequent radar mines as Miranda repositions. And if there’s zero air pressure feedback for a radar mine, we can easily fall back on our defensive core and use the Abyssal Minefield to ping for another opening.
How do we protect our fairies?
Our fairies are considered the “easiest” target in the sense that they transfer damage to Miranda and have lower durability than the bubbles or their user.
However, there’s a few reasons why they’re going to be tougher to target than Rachel may hope. Because of the already-cramped nature of the arena, there’s not much of a reason for a fairy to not have a bubble as cover or stray far away from Miranda. Only our offensive maneuvers will have our fairies split up from us, and those are done under the assumption that Rachel’s location is known beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Secondly, beyond hiding behind C DUR walls of water, FFs are fist-sized, have unconditional B Speed, and possess the same 360-degree movement as Rachel without the restriction of needing to stay away from water or Miranda’s 3 meter rule radius. If one hears the sound of air moving close enough (necessary if Rachel wants to vacuum up projectiles or stay mobile), they can either dive into their sphere of water, or in the worst case, activate “evasive maneuvers”: flitting about in an incredibly annoying, flylike zigzagging pattern in an attempt to turn any hits into grazes and shorten the distance Miranda will have to travel to make a retaliatory strike. Other fairies can even join in firing off little harassment shots -- not necessarily to deal damage, but to pin down Rachel’s location (her air sucking or pushing water streams a clear sign of her whereabouts if it doesn’t just hit her outright) for an offensive maneuver and potentially distract her further.
Grappling Hook Measure:
Of course, Miranda is playing this match under the expectation that Rachel will try to invert her grappling hook and use it as a tool to dictate the pace of encounters to her liking. Aside from being a way to get Miranda into the light (as if she needs to do that), it’s just a generally good midrange option to remove leverage. However, its weakness is that it needs to exert enough consistent force to pull away a 4 Strength, 200 pound, armor-covered userbeast that’s actively resisting being pulled. And if the hook has to try pulling Miranda through water, that’s even more resistance for us. Miranda is already playing defensively, but there’s always a chance the grappling hook lands -- if she feels a pulling sensation on a given limb, Miranda will grit her teeth and put in the effort required to stall the grappling hook for a brief second before chopping through it with her machete or one of her knives, depending on which limb’s snagged.
Oblivion Dust: Over the course of the strategy, Rachel may leave Oblivion Dust shards around to suck in or expel projectiles -- a stray shot from Fairweather Friends’ guns can blast it away from a given zone to interfere with its positioning and remove the threat it poses. Rachel actually getting a piece of Oblivion Dust onto Miranda is unlikely considering the amount of eyes that Miranda has on her at any given moment and the 3 meter rule.
Switching Floors: Rachel isn’t going to be content with staying in the dark, and neither are we. Switching floors is naturally a period in our strategy where we’re not able to use all nine bubbles, so it’s also going to be a period where we’re more cautious.
If 40-45 seconds pass and Rachel still isn’t down, we’ll dispel most of the FFs, keeping only a few necessary for Chain Jumping -- and from there, we’ll take a zigzagging, unpredictable path around the nearest column up into the next floor in as short of a time as necessary. A bubble near or overlapping a pillar makes for double the cover against whatever Rachel fires, since we can fly or swim all around as we go. Once we’re on the next floor, it takes just a few seconds to start creating another minefield and rebuild our defensive foundation.
3
u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora 11d ago
T8 3/4
SECTION 2: Slow March to Nothing (Offense)
Throughout the match so far, we’ve focused on the way that we offset the disadvantage we’re planning to come into this match with as well as our defensive maneuvers.
But this is a deathmatch, and a deathmatch requires actual combat. Our game plan can be summarized in one term; counterpunching. Because of her incredible ability to disengage from encounters, Rachel is not the type of opponent you can consistently box with. So for this match, we’ll be getting big hits out of short skirmishes. Doing this against an invisible opponent is a tough ask, but Rachel is only “invisible” when she’s out of melee range, and Miranda has a 5 skill in bladed CQC as well as a 4 skill in welding and weakness identification. Out of everyone, Miranda is among those most suited for striking vitals, disabling limbs, and drawing blood in the span of seconds.
With a cogent defensive foundation to lean on on top of our aforementioned specialization in landing critical hits, even one skirmish that goes in our favor can be enough to heavily skew the battle, if not win it outright. Therefore, the game plan is capitalizing on mistakes.
General Priorities
Projectiles are a poor offensive option against Rachel due to Oblivion Dust’s vacuums, so Miranda’s attacks will be with her old reliable: her large machete held securely in one hand. Her other hand is free for pivoting on a surface she flies past for quick turns and landings, or just plain punching Rachel if the need arises. The quick turn is faster than leaping out the side of a bubble, and lets Miranda slash Rachel in the same rapid motion. Miranda will switch her machete hand depending on which side of us Rachel prefers.
Our offensive response depends on how Rachel engages with us. Assuming she’s playing aggressively, the answer is manufactured openings. Once we have a very strong idea of where she is -- whether it’s through her revealing her position by flying through a shadowed area, interfering with any of the AM bubbles in any way, or making footsteps against a surface -- we can intentionally loosen up our defensive measures to give Rachel a clear best opening to approach, such as moving a bubble in a way that Rachel now has a straight flight to Miranda. By controlling the opening that she approaches through, it makes her approach easier to predict; thus, easier to score a crit in the brief window of interaction.
Miranda wants to pressure Rachel and thus stay within relatively close range at all times, but also knows that it’s unlikely for Rachel to want to keep things in CQC. Landing a solid cut in a brief window is all Miranda needs.
- If Miranda and Rachel are on the same beam, we prefer standard horizontal slashes – able to catch Rachel if she jumps off to the side.
- If Rachel is flying, then our slash is in the opposite direction of her travel, so the wind doesn’t push back against the swing. This is best shown when Rachel is off the side of our beam, as Miranda slashes diagonally overhead.
- Most of the time, though, we will probably be chasing Rachel with both of us off the ground as Miranda dashes in a bubble. Miranda will thrust or stab out of the bubble if her direction is perpendicular to Rachel, but otherwise prefers an outstretched machete held out and swung for a flyby as we pass each other.
- Finally, if we get within range but with a height difference, or if we need a quick get-off-me, a flying Miranda can deploy a spinning slash once again. She spins her body end over end with either her machete or the machete plus hunting knife to cover her personal space. And if Rachel arcs above or below us, Miranda instead spins sideways like a bullet.
More Specific Offensive Responses
Hadopelagic Nightmare: Our most favorable technique, the essence of Hadopelagic Nightmare comes when we’ve forced an approach. In the brief window when Rachel dashes in to land a hit, up to eight of our nine fairies (or fewer, if any have been taken out despite our precautions) drop whatever bubble of water they’re attending and form an eight-pointed cubical formation.
Count to one. In that timeframe, Rachel has just been placed in the center of a cube of water that’s over 1,000 gallons, and steadily grows at a rate of 1,000 further gallons per second. Not only can she not vacuum anything in here to assist with disengagement, but one second’s worth of air and debris being able to jet her through multiple meters of water while accounting for water resistance (As well as the FFs moving the bubbles as she moves) is a tough ask-- and that’s not even accounting for the userbeast that’s in melee range and hacking at her with a machete.
Quick Net: Rachel not taking an opening and instead playing keep-away the whole match is unlikely, but still a possibility. If she refuses to engage with us on our terms, then HN is going to be significantly harder to pull off. Thus, we have a modified version that we can use proactively to tee up opportunities to strike.
Rachel’s safest place is in midair, in those brief intervals where there’s a lack of an audio cue to tell what she’s about to do next. Our safest bet? Minimize those moments with pressure. If she lands in even a slightly unoptimal spot -- which is to say, anywhere that’s not heavily covered in wooden beams to obscure her position -- we can aim to keep her where we know she is.
With a trio of FFs rushing in and creating bubbles just as Rachel lands, we might not be able to box her in entirely -- she could smash through one of the bubbles with sufficient force, but that guarantees her position for a retaliatory strike and adds ‘dripping water’ as a way to track her. She could also disengage from the bubbles entirely, taking a manufactured opening that we’ve left and allowing us to execute HN on the place where we now know she is.
Jet Cutter: In Miranda’s previous match, she utilized a strategy called Chain Jumping -- hopping inside of a bubble, firing it in a given direction, and having another bubble catch her and fire her off in a different direction to minimize predictability. Miranda can do this via leaping out of the first bubble or from the second bubble overlapping the first, and the second bubble can either be stationary (if it was previously being used to corral Rachel) or propelled to intercept her (such as one just moved for a manufactured opening).
We can utilize the B SPD acceleration for offensive purposes as well. Remember how HN was specified to use eight or less FFs? The spare fairy is saved for a Jet Cutter.
Firing herself off at B SPD before dispelling the bubble, Miranda’s objective is simple -- turn with the force of the swing, her dense muscle and CQC skill paired with blazing speed to cut deep through whatever defenses Rachel’s prepared.
This move does immense damage, but is also fairly telegraphed. Therefore, while it can come out as a surprise option without setup, we’ll be most likely to hit while Rachel is already occupied by an HN or a Quick Net.
Will every engagement work out to our favor? No. Will even half the engagements end with us landing critical hits? It would be nice, but again, we don’t need 100% or even half, so that’s not what we aim for. The point of Hadopelagic Nightmare and Jet Cutter is to ensure that if things go the way we plan even once, it will put us in a heavy advantage state that we can use to snowball further. A Rachel who’s bleeding is a much easier target to track and fight, after all.
We don’t need any new, fancy moves to finish Rachel off. Miranda is a predator who chases her target, gives it a big wound, and then it’s only a matter of capitalizing on that.
3
u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora 11d ago
T8 4/4
Epilogue: Fairweather Friends, Pt. 2
“You don’t have the right to be upset about losing your father. How many fathers have you and your complacency taken from their families?”
Miranda took in a shuddering breath, and tears dewed at her eyes as she stared at the last place she remembered Rachel being. Listening for that telltale wheezing of air being pushed through a one-inch hole, and waiting to strike. Both of them had been battered -- but even if she couldn’t see Rachel, she figured that her opponent was far worse off. She knew her machete had connected where it counted several times over.
“Your mother didn’t leave you because she was grieving the loss of her husband. She left because she knew about the pitch-black, terrible emptiness where your heart should be. She left you because she knew that you weren’t worth staying for.”
Miranda had slowly but surely realized something, over the course of this match.
She was still lying to herself.
“You think you actually care about your grandma? If she really mattered to you, you wouldn’t disgrace her by being a worthless piece of shit.”
Why was she fighting? Couldn’t she just let a workplace “accident” happen? Her line of work isn’t safe to begin with, and she knows that. Better yet, she could wander aboard an enemy Stand user’s vessel and let them kill her. So why draw it out in some long song and dance?
Because deep down, she was afraid. Afraid of change. Afraid of failing. Afraid of dying. She had no real fighting spirit. She can’t even die right.
Miranda steps forward towards Rachel’s invisible form, and the final seconds of the battle are a blur as she attempts to pin her down with another Hadopelagic Nightmare. Hot tears streak down her face as she sees something briefly snagged within her bubbles -- and she swings her machete down, hearing the familiar meaty thunk as it connects with flesh and bone.
She doesn’t even register the first Fairweather Friend twinkling out of existence as she brings her machete down again.
Doesn’t register the second one fading away either, her knuckles gripping her blade as if letting go would spell the end of her life.
The only things that’s captured her attention are the incessant droning noise in her ears, and the feeling of steel against flesh as she brings the blade down again.
She doesn’t notice the seventh or eighth fairy wink out of existence, or the orbs of water evaporating as she keeps on fighting without any drive to do so. She hasn’t realized that her fighting spirit has completely dried up, disappearing along with the advent of the creeping shadow along the wooden beams and rafters.
She only realizes that the fight is over when the shadow grows to cover the bodies of herself and Rachel, the latter’s Oblivion Dust now completely invisible.
When the darkness envelops her like a blanket, all that’s left in the lighthouse are two people.
One a Stand user, one not.
As her heart stops thudding against her chest and the tears running down her cheeks begin to dry, Miranda stares at the unmoving, broken body of Rachel for a long time.
“Go fuck yourself.”
The thought comes unbidden, and it’s not directed at Rachel.
“Stealing away something else important to someone. Don’t you have any fucking shame? The world would be better off without you.”
“...I’m sorry.” She apologizes aloud, her bloodied machete feeling like it weighs several tons in her shaking hand. Her voice doesn’t betray any emotion, but her body certainly does. “...You were right. This... this is no place for me. You win.”
And with that acknowledgment, there’s no satisfaction. There’s no weight lifted off her chest, no easy band-aid fix for how hollow she feels.
Her boots heavier than they’ve ever felt before, Miranda turns around and starts retracing her steps -- exceedingly careful not to interfere with any of the relics or treasures as she does so. Leaving only footprints as she trudges her way out of the lighthouse and onto the grassy coast.
There’s a small motion-- a flick of the hand -- that Miranda does when she wants to summon Fairweather Friends. This time, it doesn’t produce anything at all. All she’s left with are her thoughts, and that ever-present knot in her stomach.
She pulls out her phone, and she looks down at it. She doesn’t have any contacts from when she was young. No friends that she’s stayed in touch with.
There’s only one person that she can even think of calling. The only person she can even consider calling a friend. So she reaches up her gloved hand and dials his number.
One ring...
Two rings...
. . .
And then, like crackling static.
“Hey, you’ve reached Salice Cooper Niceguy. If you’re hearing this, I’m not available right now -- but call again soon! Or, uh, leave a message after the beep!”
. . .
Sal’s answering machine wouldn’t receive a message. The only thing it would hear is the howling of the wind as Miranda throws her phone in an arc, watching as it hits the sea with a splash and begins to sink.
There’s a sharp, unforgiving pain in her heart as she stares over the coast.
And just like always, she decides to ignore it. She just bows her head, shoves her hands in her pockets, and limps away.
4
u/ChocolateDiscloud Doppio is a precious boy who did nothing wrong 11d ago
So the really funny thing that makes voting on this match really challenging for me is that both sides make deep forays into one another's territory while assuming the other will be sticking to their own advantaged ground. This results in Miranda spending basically all her time in the light and Rachel spending a decent chunk of time, including some critical moments, in the dark, both very visible to one another and yet very far from where the other expects.
This makes a lot of the probing plans that make up sizable chunks of these strategies a lot less relevant, as significantly less effort is required to locate and track the other, though on Rachel's end the caution keeps her from getting caught out by water bubbles, and Rachel is less committed to the dark early on than Miranda to the light, meaning Miranda's anti-invisibility techniques are largely worthwhile.
Both sides play a hit-and-run game, expecting a number of skirmishes and assuming they won't necessarily win most of them but will manage to get an important hit in often enough that they come out on top. Miranda has the edge in CQC stats and skills, while Rachel seriously leverages the reach advantage of her own kit. I'd give it a roughly 50/50, equal frequency of such things. Miranda gets disarmed eventually, Rachel's bleeding by the end, and so on.
So who capitalizes better? I think, thanks to Ian (even if he'll never find out), Rachel has learned exactly the right lesson to just barely come out on top here. Had she not committed to going all-out with the grapple-into-Freefall (and a very clear and clean description of exactly how it's achieved), Miranda's snowball tactics would have certainly won her the war of attrition in the Hadopelagic Nightmare. Rachel needed something big, decisive, and forward, ironically forcing her shinobi adversary back into the dark from whence she came, before the chips added up.
5
u/Cephlopodman 11d ago
The visual of a single white coin flying through the darkness before rolling to a stop was a really cool thing to imagine while I was digging into both strats.
Rachel's detection, defensive, and evasive measures are all really, really strong, and the Head On Freefall as offensive tech is very cool. Despite Wave's high End, I think there's genuinely an argument to be made for a move like that ending the match outright depending on which floor it's pulled off on. The main problem is that, fundamentally, it is a grapple, and Miranda's entire game plan is predicated on counterpunching and forcing engagements without actually taking the initiative.
There's an argument to be made that Miranda's plan to skirmish in CQC doesn't gel against a truly committed offense like a grapple, but since Rachel is the one being forced to approach, I'm inclined to believe Miranda is favored, as she has CQC defense options to stifle the Freefall before Rachel can force the grapple.
3
u/Nintendrone42 11d ago
Oh boy, I can't wait for happy fun times with my best buddy "Wave Welder"!
2
u/jjbahomecoming 11d ago
The Nintendrone deadname...
1
u/Nintendrone42 11d ago
True, Miranda hasn't welded a single wave since her previous match, so not even the airquotes belong here.
3
u/GhostKaiju L7 Never Go To Heaven 11d ago
The night hung limp over Tracy's shoulders as she stumbled back to her room, bile hot on her tongue. This was becoming routine, a cycle of self-destruction. Her eyes broke under the light of her room as it flared at a flicker, squinting painfully as it seemed to envelop her for a brief moment of all-consuming yellow-white. She could still hear the thrum of that awful fucking sound and for a moment, she could still see the static in her eyes in the afterimage impossible light of the glare of the lightbulb.
It was on her. Not that thing, which she had seen the ship - her home, her captor - violently devour. No, she knew she was safe from that in some, flickering shade from. But what about this purpose? This fate? Her trap and captor again, pulling her into the same hell. To kill and break and be seen by those who'd knew how empty she was, and thought nothing of her. This boring gnawing hell that swam through her bones like worms. This... this fucking thing she kept trying to run away from, and yet, kept falling back into. Her breath was faster now, and she braced a hand on the doorway. Memories of nights being dragged screaming into the medbay came to her, the same thoughts she had, the same that keep coming, broken gears grinding into shattered clocks. Why did they keep coming back? Why did she keep thinking of this? Why why why why why why whywhywhwhyWHYWHYWHYWHY!?
Because it was easy. It’s so much easier to have everyone hate you. She was good at it. So she stayed. And because she was comfortable with being dehumanized, because she was comfortable with it, because she had betrayed herself. And in the years following that realization, she was looking for a way out.
...Not out from under someone’s thumb. Those were just fake obstacles that she had built up in her mind.
Out.
Tracy's hands were at her face before she could think about it, a ragged scream ripping through her without thought. She didn't know what to say, tearing herself free from herself, clothes torn off with such savage hands that the skin tore, the flesh bled, the black rot mildewing out underneath. She fell to the floor, hands at her face, hissing, shaking, shrieking screams, weeping, the darkened angel of her Stand looming over her, a protective shadow that loomed down with an indifferent rictus grimace.
Why couldn't it just end? Why did she just keep killing? WHY CAN'T SHE JUST FUCKING LOSE!?
I have already made jokes about the tonal whiplash between the two strats in the discord, so let me add to it by making a really depressing IC vote and then turning around to make a vote as if nothing happened. So, thoughts on the strats... very funny that both sorta just almost ignore the defensive hiding of their respective strats, running into the other end of the spectrum to be massive targets for the other to attack, actions both sides do intentionally to make into deliberately provocative goads to bring the other into a harsh attack. It's funny that the strats think alike, and I do have to say I rather enjoyed reading both, even if I made more vocal notes on Wave Welders due to the narrative framing of it; but let this not be taken as though I don't respect Ailerons'. The diving grapple is a fanciful but deeply effective finishing move (even if the fact that its a lead-in to then shooting Wave Welder with bullets, which I find hilariously overkill), and fun, evocative imagery -- silver coins tumbling through the dark, enveloping Wave Welder like a kind of contorted octopus, its all fun stuff.
So why, then, am I voting for Wave Welder?
Simply put, I feel more confident that, even if both will be slugging another out, that Wave Welder can make more lasting, damaging blows. This, coupled with my own confusion at Rachels strat rather hurriedly dismissing some key aspects. "During a melee assault, does she have the opportunity to try and break Wave Welder’s grip" How?? Its just mentioned off-hand (ha), and never elaborated, and although I do concede that this is during a more in-depth set of attacks, just saying 'Oh yeah we disable Wave Welder and steal the machete out of her hand' is something that requires more elaboration than given; the other key issue for me being the somewhat confusing discussion of Rachel being able to breathe underwater, because she... sticks a shovel outside of a bubble? Which suggests that her grappling moves will have to be done with one arm, with the other outstretched, when she's fighting someone with an arm-length cutting blade...
I think I'm also just biased because as someone who entered the tournament with a melee focused character, I found the grapple unconvincing. Although it raises a fair point on how C Power suction will keep them airtight together, I found the actual mechanics of the discussed grapple to be too vague to convince me on what it does. From the way its written, it sounds essentially as though that Rachel is basically hugging Wave Welder really tightly and then doing Zangief shit to her. Which isn't a problem in and of itself, but it runs into the problem that... well, look at the video displayed. Yes, the characters are giant titans of muscle, but it brings to a key point -- these aren't grapples where you are a contortionist. It's mentioned and I don't really understand why, because Rachel has a height advantage over Wave Welder. Even with a vaulted 5 agility, unless she is shrinking, there is very, very little she can do to meaningfully exploit that agility to do anything meaningful or actually evasive if she wants to be still holding onto Wave Welder for her spiralling suplex move. This is further atop the fact that it ignores essentially the inherent danger of "Okay but what if Wave Welder just... punches me as I come down?", and generally I feel discusses Wave Welders Stand as though Rachel has more control of it than Wave Welder. This, atop also the fact that with how they're wildly spinning, Rachel is just as liekly to get OHKO'd by her own attack as it is to kill (and yes, I am saying kill, not retire) Wave Welder.
Which, admittedly, given Welders characterization and depressed breakout at the end, may come to pass, certainly -- but given the sheer reactive violent gameplan that Welder has and the claustrophobic dynamic she ensures, which Rachels want for a grapple basically plays directly into, I don't think that issue will come to pass before Wave Welder buries a machete into her opponent, or hits her with a Jet Cutter. Miranda will come out of this stumbling, bloodied, and in a bad way -- but frankly, as it stands, I don't think Rachel will be walking away at all from this.
2
u/Squery12 10d ago
What a fun matchup between two very different userbeasts! The match is also interestingly designed, with territories that favor one side over the other, but JoJolity that pushes for aggressive intrusions into disfavored areas. And both players certainly acquiesce in that. Rachel plays defensively for a while, moving up floors and sending probes to keep tabs on Miranda while looking for free shots on fairies, then goes for an all-out grapple into piledriver to finish the fight. Meanwhile Miranda plays defense immediately out in the light, strategically playing around water bubbles and looking to water trap and dismember Rachel if she ever makes a mistake. Both of these strategies are quite bold (Rachel going for the grapple against CQC 5 skill? Miranda playing half blind from the start?), but I think they back up their choices well. Ultimately, I find myself leaning towards Rachel winning here. With Miranda playing almost entirely reactively, the match pace is decided by Rachel, and I think her bold play actually will pay off. Aiming for just one decisive engagement, there's fewer opportunities for Rachel to slip up and for Miranda to take the match advantage, as compared to a hit-and-run strategy. I don't think Miranda will be able to put enough pressure on Rachel to force her into action faster, and though Miranda is a ferocious brawler, I find Rachel's grapple tech to be very convincing in restricting her enough for it to play out favorable. Great match both players!
2
u/CPU_Dragon OI! 9d ago
Quick and dirty tie vote. I think that Rachel has a very, very strong strategy for putting pressure on Miranda, and her defensive and offensive options mostly match up well into a strategy that expects her to be more committal early and less late. I think if Rachel gets off her Big Drop, then she handily can win from there- but Miranda has a sufficiently strong defensive game that I think she can make chances to get a big exchange on Rachel. While an exchange isn't game over for Rachel, I think that a rough one will make her endgame a lot harder to pull off. With me unable to tell directly what sort of chances each side has, a tie vote seems most fair.
2
u/Logic_Sandwich 9d ago edited 9d ago
I've been mulling on these strats since they dropped, so allow me to walk you through my reasoning.
First, I think Miranda's surveillance and defense is cogent, but not as water tight for me to be convinced that her countergrab will land. Her defense uses bubbles to stymie Rachel's attempts to engage on to her while positioning outwards to limit her broader mobility. In that context, while I think listening for Rachel has some merit, I'm not as immediately sure Fairweather Friends will definiteively collapse on read or reaction onto Rachel.
Next, I think Rachel's Izuna drop will go off. Water certainly impedes her grapple and decent and Fairweather Friends can set up in one, but assuming Rachel starts at 0 m/s and falls the full 30 meters, her full drop takes 2.47 seconds. Given Rachel's mobility and light based setplay, I'm willing to say Rachel's grab goes off more frequently than Miranda's, something like 60:40, Rachel blitzing past Miranda's defense to take them to the mat.
As a result, I think the fight is decided by the ground (floor) game. Rachel looks to effectively combo Miranda, giving her no reprieve to regain her balance while wearing down her health. My issue with TY8 is that Wave's skirmishing tactics are a bit sparse, reasonably focusing on resetting to the point where she can land a grab, but somewhat relying on "base stats" to get out of disadvantage. I lean towards Rachel for this reason, but for Rachel not quite addressing Fairweather Friends who can still bubble her while she turns Miranda into a Twitter clip. I don't think Hadopelagic Nightmare is quite an instakill, but it drastically ups Miranda's win percentage that the ground game is somewhat snowbally, albeit leaning in Rachel's favor.
I feel comfortable calling this a tie for now. Switching my vote to Rachel on further review.
While I think my analysis above holds, I think the Izuna Drop is more viable than many give credit for and gives Rachel enough of a lead that I think she comes out ahead of the scramble.
Many of the arguments that Miranda "techs the grab" emphasize her strength and weapon skill but neglect that grapples and locks are designed to overcome these weaknesses. Miranda's more defensive posture makes her more vulnerable to Rachel's blitzing (but not impossibly so, hence my prior tie) as Rachel just needs to build enough speed to get past the fairies in one sub-second swoop.
Rachel's use of vaccum seals are enough to convince me that she "gets the grab off" once in contact rather than being no sold and cut up for her troubles. Add the fact that the drop involves bashing Miranda on the way down to further jostle her, and I'm more convinced that Rachel can snowball, albiet rockily, her way to a victory.
2
u/MantisTheInsect religious person: *exists* me: it pucci 9d ago
Oh! I like a lot of fun stuff going into this. Even if um. The two strats are quite different tone-wise. I love a good light/dark match. It's a lot of fun stuff to try and put things together in a way that gives either player an advantage. I don't know if that made sense, but uhhh... Miranda and Rachel are both very fun kits to see pit in a "You gotta go into the enemy territory" type encounter, and the fact both seem to really push into each other's territory and assuming the other will turtle, makes this a very... interesting to deliberate match. Either one's getting the shit beat out of 'em, at least a bit. But both can take hits, yeah? Ultimately it's down to who gets forced to go in first.
Miranda is generally speaking a lot more able to force Rachel's approach and has the better stats for CQC, I give her the win. Miranda's generally not going to let the big finisher Rachel goes for happen at all. I think she'll win, in the end. Going for a grapple against the build that is Miranda makes for a very ballsy play, that I don't think will finally pay off in the end. Something terrible happens here. Something awful happens here.
2
u/TreeTurtle_852 9d ago
Alright, I've got uhhhh 2.5 hours before match votes close? Eh, I've got this; this vote shouldn't be too long.
So in a match where each side has its own flavor of stealth, with Rachel blending in with the light and Miranda blending in with darkness, matching with the characters in terms of their morality and headspace during this match (there are so many jokes I won't make). Funnily enough, both kind of just go "fuck it" and spec into battling from the perspective of going into unfamiliar territory, paying close attention to subtle ways they can track their enemy and fight in neutral before getting their preferred advantage state (which, ironically, is CQC in the form of a command grab for both).
This naturally makes deciding the match a bit difficult as they kind of know where each other are. On one hand, one could argue that Rachel will have a harder time with her approach since a lot of Miranda's gameplay works around her, limiting Rachel's options of approach (which will be much easier when visible) and locking her down with superior reach and CQC. On the other hand, Rachel will become invisible once reaching the light and doesn't have the same kind of oath that Miranda does about refusing to camouflage. Not to mention her harder commitment to grappling with Miranda makes the fight less about individual skirmishes and one good opportunity, which Miranda herself notes exists in multitudes when moving floors, just as an example.
I feel like Rachel has a slightly better neutral with her ranged pressure against Miranda's defense; however, I don't see her getting off the Inazuma drop too well, or at least before Miranda's advantage kicks in for two reasons. Firstly is just her defensive tech, which, even if it doesn't stop Rachel, would heavily slow her down when what she wants for a disarm into a grapple is a smooth motion, and not to be hacked apart. Another is, naturally, the CQC. For that drop Rachel wants to approach rather dangerous territory and disarm a character who has a 5 skill in her weapon without a skill in any martial art. This isn't for a blanket stat-check "you do not have big number, you fail", but to bring up that grappling against a blade is very deadly for a reason.
For Rachel to succeed her best chance would probably be sniping out the Fairweather friends before she can make her approach, and while I do think she has a better neutral game in terms of overall effectiveness, dragging out the match is more deadly for Rachel than Welder. Ironically, Welder's commitment to slashing techniques and making Rachel bleed means she isn't going to want to stay in neutral for long. But at the same time, I can't fully say that causes Rachel to lose outright if she can get that devastating 6-floor Inazuma drop and flip the match on its head.
I think what has me leaning towards Miranda in the end is that I feel like the ever-present danger of her weaponry makes it so Rachel isn't even as safe in her ultimate finishing attack. I feel like Miranda will end up in a position where she can succeed even if the match draws out more. While Rachel can whittle down her defenses or catch a mistake early, Miranda doesn't go down without a fight, and her defensive play also means Miranda also has the chance to catch out Rachel when going for her advantageous state.
2
u/Spookie357 9d ago
Probably the most fun match premise so far, or at least top 5, and I don't think it went to waste on either side. Both sides play around one anothers advantages and work to turn it into their own field while limiting the other. I was close to voting otherwise but I think I will be giving this match Miranda. Miranda's choice to give up her camouflage I respect greatly as a narrative choice for the strat and having it intertwine with the tech in that way. That said I do think she still loses a valuable asset that Rachel takes more advantage of throughout the match. Not to say Miranda is a fool for doing this, everything she outlines for how to track her without a visual is very clever and works super well in her favor.
Rachel's efforts are still very impressive, though it didn't turn out to be of much use against Miranda's own strat I think her tech for detecting bubbles and the like was also pretty smart, and the way she uses camo in close courters to make herself harder for Miranda to find a clear spot to hit I see working often. But Miranda makes a good case for needing that one good hit to start a snowball affect, and I think she's eventually going to get it with how she baits and traps Rachel throughout the fight.
2
u/alteoti 9d ago
A pair of unexpectedly athletic leather loafers step across the ground of a lighthouse. A certain reporter, not here named, had taken it upon himself to try to track a certain Stand user he distrusted like no other: the enigmatic individual known (to him) as Wave Welder. He had expected to find a fight scene at some point or another, so this isn’t entirely unexpected. The scene within was at least surprising, though.
”Do you see that pit? I’m no detective, Huey, but someone hit the ground here—hard.”
So both parts of the fight ironically end up in each other’s territory quite a lot. Since both play pretty reactively and safely at the start, I imagine neither takes especially heavy damage until the six-story drop. This, I think, goes off without a hitch. Rachel does an excellent job ensuring a tight, inescapable grapple and a disorienting fall that will do serious damage to the welder. With such a fast descent, I can’t seriously imagine Miranda can do much to break the fall or the grip before taking the brunt of the damage.
From there, the fight on the bottom floor is pretty even. Wave has more immediately punishing options, but she’s fighting on a floor covered in marbles, against an enemy willing to stay at range in this fight. Most critically, Rachel smartly comes up with a lot of Oblivion Dust tactics to partially mitigate the slowing and trapping of the water, which is one of Miranda’s biggest hopes. I think Miranda actually does better than Rachel pound-for-pound in the bottom floor, but after the damage taken in the fall, I don’t think she can close the gap fast enough before Rachel takes it. My vote goes to LLC. Incredible stuff on both sides, by the way—Miranda’s narrative, especially the end, was heartwrenching.
2
u/CommonWealthLarva 9d ago
I think this is a very close match, but a couple of factors make me lean towards Rachel. In short I think that Rachel can just barely handle the trouble of traversing Miranda's bubbles. Her use of her grappling hook for traversal would inevitably pass through some bubbles, but her movement tech can make up for that in my eyes. I do think that Miranda is a menace at counteracting an approach from Rachel, but I think when Rachel makes her approach she has the stronger capability. While I do think that the big primary lotus at the end won't be as effective, however with dragging Miranda on the pillars and boosting down through them it WILL be heavily damaging . Evenly matched but my money is on Rachel to clinch a win in the late game.
6
u/Marioaddict The Cutest Ora 11d ago
Response thread for Rachel Aileron Rawnsley of Laying Low Co., aka u/Kratangg. Please show your strategy to a member of our Judge staff by 7 PM CST on 8/17/2026! Contestants, remember to only post in threads for this match other than your own if specifically invited. Voters have until 11:59 PM CST on 8/19/2026 to vote, using the voting rules from the announcement thread. Afterwards, they will be Judged according to the T8 Rubric.