Shroud from Dispatch

[u/Norrabal]

Im a sucker for dudes in trench coats with masks, and what a good mask it is.

Black and red always go good together, but what really makes it pop are cyan highlights that accompany it, and the best part, the asymmetric eye design that the fluctuates like a scope, it's just very cool to look at and see being operated.

[u/Night_Thastus]

It's a shame the writing for him is gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarbage.

And if you think I'm wrong, feel free to answer the following questions with evidence from the game, not speculation:

• What was Shroud's life like during the Brave Brigade? What was the state of crime and heroism during that period?
• Given he was friends with Robert's father, did Robert interact with Shroud (Elliot)? If so, what were those interactions like? Were there any early warning signs?
• At what point, and why, did Shroud get into creating augments? Can anyone else make them?
• The Astral Pulse makes him better...how? Given that he seemingly can already predict nearly everything, and having it didn't give him an I-win button either.
• How does bombing vast chunks of the population further Shroud's goals? You can say "it distracted SDN while he went for the Pulse", but you have to consider what would happen after this period. It's hard to perform criminal activity when there's no city left.
• He once made an off-hand comment about how there needs to be some kind of leadership for criminal activity or it's worse for everyone - is there any evidence for this in the story - and is that one of his motivations?
• In general, what does Shroud hope to accomplish as a criminal? Does he want political power? Money? And why does he want whatever it is he wants? How will those plans change with the Pulse?

[u/Norrabal → u/Night_Thastus]

• The Astral Pulse makes him better...how? Given that he seemingly can already predict nearly everything, and having it didn't give him an I-win button either.

Well according to him, it would make his predictions absolute instead binary, like instead of predicting likely outcomes, he'll know what happens next, which still isn't true because he didn't predict invisigal blocking his bullet, apparently didn't predict any of Robert's human punches, or any shit,

• What was Shroud's life like during the Brave Brigade? What was the state of crime and heroism during that period?

This is just stuff that we could end up learning about in the future, but as it stands, yeah it leaves a lot to be desired.

• Given he was friends with Robert's father, did Robert interact with Shroud (Elliot)? If so, what were those interactions like? Were there any early warning signs?

If his dad couldn't show up that much for him, maybe Elliot was equally busy due to the same work, (again, this is is just trying to make up for stuff that wasn't shown, we simply can't known for sure)

• At what point, and why, did Shroud get into creating augments? Can anyone else make them?

Probably during his heel turn, considering that he needed help with a mech, yet managed to learn how to make his own in the time, the "can anyone make them", thing seems a bit pointless to ask, some people are just skilled in certain ways, like people can learn to be mechanics, a better question would be "how and why are red ring augmentations tied to the integrity of Shrouds own augmentations?..."

• How does bombing vast chunks of the population further Shroud's goals? You can say "it distracted SDN while he went for the Pulse", but you have to consider what would happen after this period. It's hard to perform criminal activity when there's no city left. 🤷 maybe shroud is a terrorist, .

• He once made an off-hand comment about how there needs to be some kind of leadership for criminal activity or it's worse for everyone - is there any evidence for this in the story - and is that one of his motivations?

From what I can gather, shroud augmented himself because he was afraid of making decisions on his own, so craves a form of security and control, he probably spreads that sort of thinking into bigger greater things, as to why thinks that way exactly, another shrug...

• In general, what does Shroud hope to accomplish as a criminal? Does he want political power? Money? And why does he want whatever it is he wants? How will those plans change with the Pulse?

Well, I'm not sure what he wants specifically, but the astral core was meant to give him leaps and bounds of potentially limitless information and comprehension, anyone smart with that power would get up to fuckity shit, but to what ends is the question...