Unusuals – a Thought, Part 2
Like a lot of my work, I don’t often feel that I’ll bother writing a part 2, since my best work is normally a one-off thing that can’t be repeated. But on Tuesday, the 4th of February, I purchased my first non-Medic unusual, and the fourth unusual I’ve ever bought. That prompted me to write a new article.
Last time I wrote about unusuals, I mentioned how many me and my siblings had. My sister still has 2 unusuals, but with help from her TF2-Rich boyfriend, one of them is now a weather-effect all-class hat. My brother, who previously had 3, now has lots. He’s got one for every class apart from Spy and Demoman and loves to show off his “double Halloween hideously awesome mess” set. It’s a Spellbound (purple Halloween glitter) hat and a Cauldron Bubbles Luchador mask, all painted purple. He’s right, it looks hideous, but it also looks impressive. Other hats he owns are an Antifreeze Hermes (which he bought just as I got my unusual), a Miami Nights Gatsby, some sort of robot Engineer hat with a green bat on it, a Haunted Honcho’s Headgear and his Green-Black Hole Larkin Robin from last time.
Sounds cool, but I wonder if it was worth it. Before he got into unusuals, my brother had a huge collection of genuine and vintage weapons. He actually had almost all of them apart from the ultra-rare, multi-bud ones like the Vintage Fan-O-War. Most of that collection is gone now, apart from the stuff he likes. I managed to save his Vintage Towering Pillar of Hats from certain doom at the hands of an angry trader. His Bill’s Hat wasn’t so lucky.
What about me though? I have my Bubbling Otolaryngologists’s Mirror back. I slowly saved up in items and metal, then caved and bought a bunch of keys during the Steam sales when the prices ALWAYS drop. 13 keys and a genuine Wilson’s Weave (which I never liked) later, and my dream hat was back in my inventory after I sold it and 4 keys for a single, lonely earbud a while back. That earbud (sounds weird saying earbuds when there’s only one!) sat, unworn, for ages, until I traded it that Tuesday. Nonetheless, I worked hard to earn my unusuals, as did my brother. I didn’t work hard for that Collector’s Overdose, although I did contribute a could 3 scrap and 2 Overdoses. I still have 4 left over if anyone wants them.
Where was I? Oh yeah. So I’ve finally made it into the world of owning more than one unusual, but whenever I find myself following a sibling into a trading server, bloody hell, I look so poor. There are shiny particles everywhere, and a person with just one unusual looks silly. The lag spikes are quite high. The issue is, if you wish to climb the wealth ladder, getting one unusual is a very, very low rung on the ladder, specially since you can get unusuals quite cheaply, depending on the hat and effect. The price of high-tier items is even worse now what with keys being so hideously expensive.
What about that unusual then, Medic? Yes, I bought myself a Soldier unusual. A Defiant Spartan with purple confetti, painted purple. Looks nice. Shame I don’t have any nice cosmetics to go with it. Oh well.
