Cliff Mason, Humanity's Last Hope
Foreach was created by Lum, it can be read on Neocities
WARNING
This blog will discuss themes of trauma. Viewer discretion is advised
Welcome back to the blog! I don't do this often, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ THIS WEBCOMIC BEFORE LOOKING THROUGH THIS BLOG DUE TO MASSIVE SPOILERS. Foreach is a series that is hard to recommend without spoiling the premise, which is best experienced blind. In fact, mentioning this character at all already is a spoiler. So what are you waiting for? Check it out!!!!!! You won't regret it.
Still here? Alright, blog time.
Background
“... You know, I've been in this exact situation before. More than once. More times than I can count, really. And every single time, it's ended with everyone in the room dead except me. And -- I don't know, I just get tired of it. So maybe, this time -- and I'm just spitballing here -- maybe instead, what if you all just went back home to your families? Save us both the senseless violence?”
The year is 2056. Deep in space, humanity is at war with an alien race known as the aveans. They're an empirical species hellbent on conquering planets, bringing war wherever they go. Humans may be outnumbered, but they're not outgunned. One man stands in their way of defeating humanity. That man is none other than the American spaceman Sergeant Cliff Mason.
Working for the United Human Military, he follows the orders of his commanding officer Major Mercy to attack bases in the Avean Empire. Wherever he goes, violence follows. No avean is immune to his array of blasters and sheer fighting prowess. He has basically become the boogeyman to the entire race.
Cliff may be the picturesque American soldier and a burly manly man, but he's a total sweetheart and a family man. He's a big softie who was cautious approaching his infant son for the first time out of worry that he'd crush him. Cliff would rather talk things out with the aveans, but they're always eager to shoot him first.
The missions he receives from Mercy are vague. Invading enemy territory just to steal keycards, flip switches, and deactivating comms towers without knowing their purposes are confusing. He's been in space fighting so long that he's antsy for answers, but Mercy won't explain why because of "operational security". Regardless, he's the only one capable of such a task and humanity is counting on him. He has no other choice than to follow orders.
It's the same job rinsed and repeated for years, and Cliff is exhausted. He has a wife and son back on Earth he'd do anything to see again. He misses watching Bluey with his son, he misses his mom, game night, the gym, people.
He just wants to go home, but is stuck in this endless loop of carrying out Mercy's missions not knowing what good they do for the people he's fighting so hard for. Mercy is the only human contact he has had in years, as reaching out to earth risks revealing themselves to the enemy.
Cliff is lonely and at his limit. His only escape is his beloved video game Home Bound, a game set in a peaceful town of talking animals where conflicts are solved with words instead of guns.
His routine shifted when he came across a seemingly alien infant chained to a wall. Repulsed by whoever would do this to a baby, Cliff freed him. Naming the alien baby Allen, Cliff chose to protect him. It doesn't take long for him to reminisce about his son and is already thinking of taking Allen back to earth to give his boy a brother.
Meeting Allen led to Cliff to start rebelling against Mercy. He attempted to send a message to Earth while on a mission and lied to her about killing Allen when he brought the baby to his pod. Mercy caught on to his string of conduct violations and eventually threatens to check the pod.
Cliff frantically teleports there, only to find Mercy already holding the baby. She teleports away with Allen, not before warning him to stay in line. Of course, Cliff isn't gonna let anything happen to the alien, so he flies all the way to the United Human Military base in space to save him.
Cliff is prepared to force his way through the human military to reach Mercy, but the base is… shockingly desolate. Everyone there have been reduced to rotting skeletons. The only living beings there are him, Mercy, and Allen. It was only a matter of time before Cliff would arrive there to learn the truth, so Mercy explains to him the purpose of his cryptic missions.
Years ago humanity was actually winning. It was a tough war, but Earth eventually drove the aveans away for good. Humans won the war while Cliff was in hyperspace transit, never receiving the news. In response, the aveans blew up Earth.
His wife Mesa, his son Jasper, everything Cliff cherished and fought for was gone, and he never knew. Humanity lost. Major Mercy has been assigning him missions solely for the purpose of vengeance and crippling the Avean Empire as much as they can.
Cliff isn't about to continue serving someone as far gone as Mercy. He rescues Allen and flies off as far away as he can until…
He ventured out of bounds.
Cliff wakes up in his wrecked ship, which crashed on a foreign land. Wherever he is now, he and Allen are family now, so they brace whatever awaits them together. The sergeant couldn't have been more surprised by what he saw outside the pod.
He's in the town of Fairwell, the setting of his favorite video game HOME BOUND.
Cliff wonders if he'd died in space and this is some form of afterlife, but the truth is far more complicated…
…
…
…
There are two things I neglected to mention that will come as a shock to everyone who hasn't read Foreach.
The webcomic never started in Cliff's world, it began in Home Bound. Home Bound is its own universe where characters live out their lives. Not only that… Cliff's world is a video game to someone else.
The premise of Foreach is that it's a loop between four different games. Cliff plays Home Bound, a peaceful game set in the haunted town of Fairwell, Pawstralia. It follows an anthropomorphic dog named Jasper Mundy, an exorcist in training who helps ghosts move on through debates. When Jasper is feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of life, the canine likes to play a game called Love Bomb.
Love Bomb is a fantasy rpg following a band of elves maintaining a blissful tropical life on the island Hollidae. The elves are led by the only male on the island and isekai victim Jiro, whose modest dialog choices don't reflect how deeply self-loathing and emotionally drained he is with this suffocatingly cloying routine. The gals become stronger based on how much they love him, making every relationship feel fake. Jiro's only escape on Hollidae is a game called Hellfuck.
Hellfuck is an edgy rage game set in a mysterious deadly gauntlet populated by immortal angels in varying levels of suffering and torture. One tiny angel named Nix wants out. The game centers around her hopping through unfairly difficult obstacle courses, instantly reviving whenever she's turned into a blood splatter. Despite her efforts, she has never been able to see the world outside. To feel truly powerful, Nix plays a boomer shooter called Last Gun… Cliff's game.
Over the course of the series, these games would slowly bleed into each other. Cliff's grenade launcher appeared in Hellfuck, allowing Nix to destroy every level in her way. In return an angel appeared in Last Gun… Allen. These would escalate as characters discover portals linking to each game in the loop, leading to all sorts of conflicts.
By the time Cliff arrived in Home Bound, it isn't the same game as he's used to. Jasper's ghost dad was kidnapped by a character from Love Bomb. The dog’s time spent in the game trying to retrieve him led to Jasper questioning their gender identity, now preferring to go by Coral. Cliff is cool with it, though it's heavily implied the spaceman named the main character of Home Bound ‘Jasper’ at the start of the game after his son.
Cliff crashes with the Mundys for the time being, keeping the knowledge that they're all fictional a secret. Coral's mum Alma quickly becomes enamored by the American spaceman from the future, glad to have a big strong man around the house again.
The spaceman inevitably gets wrapped up in Coral's escapades in Love Bomb and Hellfuck not only to save her ghost dad Rex, but her missing bestie Sunny too whose adventures across the loop are extensive enough for its own section entirely.
Coral and Cliff start off on the wrong foot, as the exorcist doesn't agree with more action-based methods of solving problems. She's mortified when she realizes the man staying with her and her mum is armed to the tooth with guns. She lambasts him for his barbaric means of ending conflicts, but Cliff does prove that not every conflict can be easily talked out of. In turn, Cliff was impressed by how far Coral took her negotiating skills in more dangerous situations.
Thankfully Cliff helps Coral win her dad back and the two are on better terms now. There's still work to do, but Cliff could get used to living in the peaceful Fairwell… for a moment. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted an avean between the trees.
On the other side of the war, the aveans' leading General Ribrax and High Consul Squark view the severe response to losing the war a stain on their careers. As the Empire investigates the tears in reality, they discover Home Bound's Earth, err, Furth. Ribrax doesn't want to repeat their Empire's greatest failure, but Squark, who outranks her, has her eyes set on a second chance at invasion.
After the horrifying news Mercy dumped on him, Cliff isn't so keen to talk things out with aveans anymore. They destroyed an entire planet, a home to everyone he loved. What if they do the same to Fairwell?
That night he takes off from the Mundy house, puts on his armor, and tracks down where the aveans are hiding. They're an unarmed crew that wound up stranded on Furth before Squark set eyes on it. They didn't have any ill intentions, and unlike all other aveans Cliff encountered, had no desire to fight.
Cliff broke the rules of war that night. He gunned them down without remorse. They continued serving the Empire knowing full well what they did to Earth. If even one of them tells General Ribrax about this planet, it will be utter devastation all over again.
Only one terrified grunt named Glard Gorpnan survived, and Cliff would have shot him to bits too… if Coral hadn't followed him and stumbled upon his massacre. Cliff never told Coral about the aveans or the fate of the planet, so all Coral knows is that she witnessed a murder. To stop him from killing Glard, she initiates a debate and learns all about why Cliff is so determined to stoop to their level of violence.
This gives her all the information she needs to deliver an emotional gutpunch so foul that it reduces Cliff into a sobbing mess.
They're somehow on semi-decent terms afterwards, as Coral is sympathetic to what happened to his family and is still fine with living with him. Cliff is still protective of the exorcist, but ultimately Glard is allowed to return home.
Afterwards Cliff is spent, and his greatest comfort right now is Alma's company, which escalates into intimacy… until he's reminded of Mesa. It leads to a heart to heart where they relate to the loss of their loved ones and Alma helps him process his grief.
I've been yapping about Cliff's relationship with Coral a ton, haven't I. How do his interactions with the protagonists of Love Bound and Hellfuck fair?
When he received a call from Jiro using Mercy's comms device (long story), he believed he was speaking with another surviving human. Jiro was in a bind at an avean base, so Cliff offered advice. Turns out Jiro is the same as the elves from Love Bomb, which is fine. Human or not, he has someone to talk to.
Nix on the other hand has a very sculpted idea of Cliff as the one who played his game. Nix is a superfan of the spaceman exclusively for how much of an unstoppable killing machine he is and nothing else. When seeing the softer family man side of Cliff, she's confused that he doesn't know himself. Nix is completely unsubtle about how much she knows about him, so it's likely he's going to learn of Last Gun's existence through her.
Cliff tries to live as easily as he can in Fairwell. Sure, it's the number one haunting capital of New South Wales and he's still shaken by his experience with Glard and Coral, but compared to the world of Last Gun it feels like nothing could go wrong.
That doesn't last long when he finds himself haunted by the spirit of an unarmed avean engineer he mercilessly killed at the camp. It took Coral's friend Moon-Soo to step in and debate her for her to pass on, but it left Cliff positively shook. He already hit rock bottom, but now it's not a secret between Cliff and Coral that he's a murderer and war criminal. He can't help but wonder what Mesa would think of him now.
He wants the people he cherishes to be safe, but it's turning him into something that scares him. He doesn't want to be a killer, but someone has to, right? All this made Cliff realize he can't stay in Home Bound anymore.
There's a l o t going on in Foreach that Cliff has yet to catch up on. More characters are discovering the portals, Major Mercy has been aiding Jiro's ladies with their war in his absence, only a couple characters have figured out the loop, and letting Glard live did more good than Cliff ever could've imagined. One of Coral's friends Moon-Soo even found Cliff's copy of Home Bound in his ship and data mined it.
Whether he wants to or not, Cliff is going to have to keep soldiering forward as the intricacies of the loop unravel.
Experience and Skill
Prior to being sent into space, Cliff was a soldier who received military-grade training and was previously deployed in places like France.
Cliff has been fighting aveans by his lonesome for four years. Mercy gives him orders, but he's the one out there doing all the fighting.
He's more than used to the aveans' strategy of trying to wear him down, then ambush him when he least expects it with overwhelming numbers. Every single time, he's the only one to leave the fight alive.
His training not only provided combat experience, but helped flesh out his tech knowledge. He reverse-engineered an avean communications tower to attempt to send a message to Earth.
Prior to being sent into space, Cliff was a soldier who received military-grade training and was previously deployed in places like France.
Cliff has been fighting aveans by his lonesome for four years. Mercy gives him orders, but he's the one out there doing all the fighting.
He's more than used to the aveans' strategy of trying to wear him down, then ambush him when he least expects it with overwhelming numbers. Every single time, he's the only one to leave the fight alive.
His training not only provided combat experience, but helped flesh out his tech knowledge. He reverse-engineered an avean communications tower to attempt to send a message to Earth.
Equipment
Firearms and Explosives
Cliff has an extensive arsenal he can pull out at any time thanks to video game logic. He has so many guns listed in his character profile, that some still have yet to be referenced in the webcomic. The author Lum has listed the functions of many of these guns in the Discord server, which I'll go over. These guns include:- Pistols (x2): The pistol is a basic starting weapon that's best for picking off stragglers. Now that he can dual-wield two, they heavily outclass his SMG.
- SMG-3: A submachine gun with low accuracy but high fire rate. It uses pistol ammo so Cliff mainly uses the dualities in place of it. It has a niche at short range at least. It's also armed with a flashlight function.
- RVA-9 Assault Rifle: An all-rounder good in most situations.
- OICW Smart Rifle: The Objective Individual Combat Weapon Smart Rifle. High accuracy, high damage, and mild homing capabilities. It's limited in ammo, but it's good to bust out when things get dicey. It even comes with a flashlight function.
- Laser Magnum: A high-impact, high accuracy weapon with great damage, but the fire rate is poor. It can charge it up for big hits, so it's best for long range engagements and finishing enemies off.
- Rammertone Model 70 Pump Shotgun: I mean, it's a shotgun. If you're at all familiar with how they are in boomer shooters, you KNOW how this works. Just walk up to an enemy, shoot, their day is ruined and you're just getting started.
- Avean Plasma Rifle: Apparently a gimmick weapon with low projectile speed. It shoots plasma-based rounds. It's sometimes good against stationary targets, but broadly it's pretty weak. Ammo is very plentiful, as avean grunts drop these.
- Wave Cannon: It's great at breaking shields but less so in draining health, plus some slight wall-piercing abilities. It's best used against avean captains and certain bosses.
- Hellion-Class Rotary Chaingun: The accuracy is abysmal, but that doesn't matter when it obliterates everything in a room. Very powerful gun.
- BR7H4 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher: This weapon somehow found its way out of Cliff's inventory and into the world of Hellfuck. The firepower of this weapon is devastating, as Nix was able to completely obliterate all levels in her path with it.
- MYRIAS Heavy Particle Rail: It's the nuke weapon, the BFG of the Last Gun. Insane piercing with an explosion when it hits surfaces. The damage output is busted. Try to line up a bunch of enemies in a row with this one.
- Remote Mines: A fun option if you want to kill someone when you're not in the same room as them.
- Grenades: Same here but not as fun. Grenade launcher does the job well anyway.
Cliff has an extensive arsenal he can pull out at any time thanks to video game logic. He has so many guns listed in his character profile, that some still have yet to be referenced in the webcomic. The author Lum has listed the functions of many of these guns in the Discord server, which I'll go over. These guns include:
- Pistols (x2): The pistol is a basic starting weapon that's best for picking off stragglers. Now that he can dual-wield two, they heavily outclass his SMG.
- SMG-3: A submachine gun with low accuracy but high fire rate. It uses pistol ammo so Cliff mainly uses the dualities in place of it. It has a niche at short range at least. It's also armed with a flashlight function.
- RVA-9 Assault Rifle: An all-rounder good in most situations.
- OICW Smart Rifle: The Objective Individual Combat Weapon Smart Rifle. High accuracy, high damage, and mild homing capabilities. It's limited in ammo, but it's good to bust out when things get dicey. It even comes with a flashlight function.
- Laser Magnum: A high-impact, high accuracy weapon with great damage, but the fire rate is poor. It can charge it up for big hits, so it's best for long range engagements and finishing enemies off.
- Rammertone Model 70 Pump Shotgun: I mean, it's a shotgun. If you're at all familiar with how they are in boomer shooters, you KNOW how this works. Just walk up to an enemy, shoot, their day is ruined and you're just getting started.
- Avean Plasma Rifle: Apparently a gimmick weapon with low projectile speed. It shoots plasma-based rounds. It's sometimes good against stationary targets, but broadly it's pretty weak. Ammo is very plentiful, as avean grunts drop these.
- Wave Cannon: It's great at breaking shields but less so in draining health, plus some slight wall-piercing abilities. It's best used against avean captains and certain bosses.
- Hellion-Class Rotary Chaingun: The accuracy is abysmal, but that doesn't matter when it obliterates everything in a room. Very powerful gun.
- BR7H4 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher: This weapon somehow found its way out of Cliff's inventory and into the world of Hellfuck. The firepower of this weapon is devastating, as Nix was able to completely obliterate all levels in her path with it.
- MYRIAS Heavy Particle Rail: It's the nuke weapon, the BFG of the Last Gun. Insane piercing with an explosion when it hits surfaces. The damage output is busted. Try to line up a bunch of enemies in a row with this one.
- Remote Mines: A fun option if you want to kill someone when you're not in the same room as them.
- Grenades: Same here but not as fun. Grenade launcher does the job well anyway.
Helmet
Cliff's helmet not only protects him from the vacuum of space, it lets him receive and send calls to Mercy and displays a map.
Cliff's helmet not only protects him from the vacuum of space, it lets him receive and send calls to Mercy and displays a map.
Armor
High tech body armor that protects his body from gunfire and explosions. It's relevant to note here that Cliff's shield stat in the game is 100.
High tech body armor that protects his body from gunfire and explosions. It's relevant to note here that Cliff's shield stat in the game is 100.
Pod
Cliff's personal space ship and home for the past few years until winding up in Home Bound. He can receive holographic calls from Mercy on his table. It contains a kitchen, bedroom, and even a medical bay for Cliff to patch himself up after fights. It was pretty wrecked after landing in Home Bound.
Cliff's personal space ship and home for the past few years until winding up in Home Bound. He can receive holographic calls from Mercy on his table. It contains a kitchen, bedroom, and even a medical bay for Cliff to patch himself up after fights. It was pretty wrecked after landing in Home Bound.
Sledgehammer
Cliff used a sledgehammer from the Mundys to break open the orb containing Rex.
Cliff used a sledgehammer from the Mundys to break open the orb containing Rex.
Two-Way Communicator
When Cliff doesn't have his suit on, he has his two-way communication device to communicate with Mercy or anyone who has her communicator. It functions even when both communicators are games apart.
When Cliff doesn't have his suit on, he has his two-way communication device to communicate with Mercy or anyone who has her communicator. It functions even when both communicators are games apart.
Abilities
Warp Recall
There's a teleporting function in his suit that lets him travel back to his pod.
There's a teleporting function in his suit that lets him travel back to his pod.
Techniques
N/A
Feats
Overall
- Cliff has repeatedly invaded bases of the Avean Empire to carry out Major Mercy's missions and wiped out hoardes of aveans that dared to challenge him
- One of the last remaining humans in Last Gun
- Rescued Allen from Major Mercy
- Freed Yadiel, an angel from Hellfuck who was shackled in place since time itself began
- Helped Coral regain the orb Rex was trapped in and eventually freed him
- Committed a war crime
- Fucked Coral's mum
Strength
- Shoots up aveans often
- Exploded a building-sized comms tower
- Shot through metal chains
- His MYRIAS heavy particle rail gun causes large explosions, bigger than a person, and knocked Sunny away
- Blasted through one of Yadiel's arms with his laser magnum
- Shot through Yadiel's leg to free her from her bind
Speed
- Dodged rocket projectiles
- Jumped out of the way of said rocket exploding
- Cliff dodges shots from avean plasma rifles
Durability
Scaling
- Jiro broke through a window
- Jiro smashed a screen with his staff
- Polyta was hit with an arrow
- Polyta pushed the giant Bastard away with her wind powers
- Polyta, empowered by Sunny's light, sliced through Yadiel's arms
- Helen created a large fire pillar with Love Conflagration
- The Goddess of Love causes rainstorms and floods when she's sad. The floods are potent enough to cover a village.
- The Goddess of Love's floods devoured Proteus' ship
- Proteus made a large fire pillar explosion
- Proteus blocks lightning with a magic barrier
- Proteus blocked Major Mercy's energy cannon
- Nix repeatedly regenerates from being completely splattered
- Nix dodges arrows
- Nix blew up entire areas (deadly obstacle courses) with Cliff's grenade launcher
- Nix was blown up by the same grenade launcher and regenerated afterwards
- The Bastard took a rocket launcher from Last Gun to the face, sending him flying
- The Bastard regenerated his head being blown up
- Sunny's light beam bounced off of the Bastard's skin
- The Bastard sliced up a bridge
Weaknesses
- Cliff's an unstoppable force in his game, but in Home Bound his stats are pitiful. Charm is 2/5 stars, Force is 1/5 stars, and Logic is 1.5/5 stars. It's likely the trauma from learning what happened to Earth heavily impacted them.
- He's usually more of a run and gun kind of guy, not as helpful when he's in Major Mercy's position of giving instructions.
- Cliff developed an underlying fear that every bit of good he's done burns away. Every time he tried to help someone it ended up wrong.
- Fumbled doing it with Alma
- He made Allen an iPad baby
Matchup Potential
I. Love. Foreach.
It's such an innovative premise that seamlessly combines four wildly different ideas into a masterpiece as they converge. Y'all have no idea how much I held back just yapping about all the other plots transpiring in the webcomic.
The cast is outstanding, and the fact that Cliff is only my third favorite says a lot. I mainly chose him since he's the one protagonist that's easiest to translate into a Death Battle scenario (keep an eye on Jiro and Sunny vs Kris and Susie though, that has potential to pop off depending on how both series progress), on top of being a seriously gripping character. Also we need more gun fights.
I'd mainly want another character that ties into the whole loop narrative premise and how he's used in the story. If I can easily see the character fighting against a boomer shooter rep like Cliff, that's even better!
NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it
