When Slim plays his Salvage Yard during a battle in, say, the Ruins of Atlantis or the Realm of Discord, I figure it makes sense to reflavor it mentally as him using his mechanical-repair skills on whatever he happens to have handy. But I've never been able to figure out, why exactly does he get to Overdrive at the same time?
And on the subject of flavor weirdness, what exactly do you think is going on when Fixer uses Grease Monkey Fist to change his damage types to various weird things? Like, say he hits Absolute Zero for Cold damage...what exactly do you figure is going on there, gameworld-wise? (I'm aware that there's a poster somewhere around here, can't remember who, whose signature nicely lampshades the potential weirdness of Grease Monkey Fist and a Jack Handle; I'm just asking if anyone has actually tried to make it make sense.)
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"
He is, essentially, performing mechanical acupuncture. With his fists. Or something.
“You gotta have blue hair."
-Reckless
Or it's some sorts of Street Fighter martial arts chi fusion. I have been known to make up martial arts sounding names when doing different damage types such as "Seven Heavens Strike" for radiant or "Frost on the Willow" for cold.
G+ games: I am part of the 100%
I always imagined that going to the salvage yard was rejuvenating for him, getting him back to his place of focus, and giving him the energy to go into overdrive.
Or he's actually a cyborg...
I'm with pwatson1974: I imagined he's channeling his chi to emulate/create other energies.
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
Unicode U+24BD gets us Ⓗ. (Thanks, Godai!)
I always veiw each game as a series of conflicts leading to a resolution. It isn't one continuous fight to me.
That opens the door for heroes to restock, change set ups, all kinds of things.
As for Salvage yard in an unusual location, I like to think that Fixer brought some supplies in the Freedom 5 jet or whatever they travel in.
Also I don't apply the thought that cards in hand are things the heroes have on them. So Fixer playing Salvage yard doesn't directly effect the things the heroes have.
To me cards in hand are potential, they can represent time, energy, stamina, resources, all kinds of stuff. Therefore Salvage yard to me is simploy Fixer either bringing, or enabling the repurposing of resources the team has.
As for Overdrive, I like to think that with extra resources Fixer can expend an extra item or so, like he throws one tire iron, then grabs another and throws that one, there are ways to work that with all of his tools, just takes some creative fight staging.
His Styles are a little more difficult, but if you get into the Martial arts as a super power it can work. He just focuses his Chi and creates Kung Fu Lasers or something. I generally picture his fists or the end of his tool glowing with elemental power, but sometimes I like to go with hot and cold damage being stuff he comes up with out of his junk yard.
My take (essentially the same as Rabit's) is that the Salvage yard is a place of meditation and rejuvenation for him. His entire story arc is about fixing broken things (and sometimes failing, in the case of the operative), including himself. He hid in the salvage yard and repair shop for years, retreating from the teaching and hero-ing aspects after his dojo failed. In doing so, he became a proficient mechanic and learned a little more about himself (but at a cost).
So, its the place of his greatest success (rebuilding himself), his greatest failure (giving up on people, leading to broken lives like the Operative), and his greatest motivation (fixing what needs fixing and never giving up).
So when he goes back there, in addition to fixing all the broken things, he gets a renewed surge of purpose.
I jsut assumed that Fixer wasn't actually creating fire, lightning, etc., but rather using his marial arts to find a weakness in his oppenet. Mechanically, this is represented by changing type.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
This is how I had always seen it.
The lesson here is that you can't always take mechanics/card names and interpret them literally
That definitely makes sense!
I suppose it could be explained by all the above (and then some), depending on the situation, narative need, etc. You know, "comics".
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
Unicode U+24BD gets us Ⓗ. (Thanks, Godai!)
Ah, I see, he's the kind of auto mechanic who fixes a broken radiator by kicking it until it works.
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"
You'd be surprised at how often that works.
"Your goodness must have some edge to it — else it is none."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Once is maintenance. Twice is abuse.
Three and it's playing with yourself
And on four it comes back around to being maintenance again.
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"