"I'm With" Shirt
The "I’m With" Shirt (also formatted as I'm With Shirt) is a type of position-dependent lawmaking item notable for its customizability and widespread applications. It takes the form of a T-Shirt, and is available in a variety of colors including Black, Red, Blue, and Green (only in select regions).
| "I'm With" Shirt | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type | Armor |
| Material | Cotton |
| Size | S, M, L, XL, XXL |
| Symbols | →, I (x2), ', M, , W, T, H, |
Functionality
The “I’m With” Shirt is a piece of apparel that provides effects such as minor armor protection and cold resistance. It is meant to be worn on the upper body; however, its effects still activate no matter where it is worn.
Printed on the front of the shirt are (from top to bottom) an arrow that perpetually points to the wearer’s left, the words “I’m With,” and a blank white rectangle. Using a dry-erase marker or other writing utensil, one can write words on this rectangle. Washable writing utensils are recommended, as they allow for different words to be written at different times. There is no design on the back.
The “I’m With” Shirt has become renowned for its versatility and wide range of applications. Thanks to its appealing and simplistic monochrome color scheme, it can go well with most any outfit. Functionality, more like fashionality!
Combat Utility
The “I’m With” Shirt has been recently found to have some combat utility. It has the potential to inflict any type of status on all entities that enter its line of effect. Of its currently discovered techniques, the most powerful and reliable is to simply write "dead," "defeated," etc. on the blank rectangle. This will instantly KO anyone and anything to the left of the wearer, within the range of onlookers' visibility.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, "I'm With" Shirts can be used to grant buffs to allies, allowing its wearers to play a support role. A popular strategy is to have the shirt's wearer stand back and give various buffs to their allies during the beginning of a fight, then change their command to an offensive one and switch to the frontlines once needed. Because standing back from the action makes it easier to erase and rewrite the shirt's command, while not being as vulnerable, a support/healer role is a perfect fit for it. In any case, the wearer should always be protected by other allies, to prevent opponents from taking advantage of the buffs. Alternatively, the wearer can just spend downtime leaning up against a wall (if one is available).
Conjuration
Discovered by accident due to a typo, the "I'm With" Shirt possesses the capability to conjure objects and entities to the left of it. Due to the recency of this discovery, applications are still being researched. Regardless, the possibilities are as endless as the line you can create by writing "I'm With Me!"
Downsides
While the “I’m With” Shirt does provide some armor protection and cold resistance, these effects are very minimal (especially when compared to an “I’m With” Hoodie or an "I’m With" Chestplate). This can be mitigated by wearing the “I’m With” Shirt overtop of other clothing items. However, it cannot be worn underneath, for its effects only activate within the range it is observed. Therefore, “layering” is a must in any intense environment. This is fine enough in most cases, but can occasionally have the drawback of making the wearer look stupid (which would be the ultimate irony). As onlookers are needed to activate the shirt’s commands, loss of dignity cannot be avoided without sacrificing range.
A common pitfall that inexperienced users fall into is that writing a word on your chest without looking at it is kind of hard. To prevent the command from becoming unrecognized. Users of the “I’m With” Shirt are implored to rehearse the motions necessary to write their desired commands. Writing the command before a fight is viable enough, but prevents the user from taking full advantage of the shirt’s versatility.
A huge mark of the “I’m With” Shirt’s playstyle is its ability to change the command that it issues on the fly. Unfortunately, this requires the user to erase and rewrite the blank rectangle’s contents; a difficult process that leaves even the most experienced users vulnerable for a significant time. Masters of the “I’m With” Shirt will be able to do this all while staying mobile; but even then, the need to hold cleaning and writing instruments will limit their use of other weapons/tools.
Counterplay
If possible, users of the “I’m With” Shirt should be fought in cold or harsh weather conditions, especially rain. Rain is one of its easiest weaknesses to exploit. Not only does it force layering techniques in the same way as cold weather, but it can erase commands that were written in washable marker. This weakness can also be harnessed using water guns, and you can even mix soap in for extra effectiveness. Once the writable surface gets wet, it becomes difficult to write on; and the “I’m With” Shirt will effectively become a regular shirt once more. At least it will still be fashionable!
Permanent markers are a common weakness of the “I’m With” Shirt, able to literally overwrite its current effect and prevent other commands from being used. This is a great way to completely shut down an “I’m With” Shirt. Its user will have to buy a new one now.
“I’m With” Shirt users will always be accompanied by allies. If you can manage to fight one by themselves, they won’t be able to activate their shirt’s effects without looking down at their own shirt, a vulnerable position that has little to no range.
Other Uses
Security
“I’m With” Shirts were initially popularized in everyday settings by club bouncers. They flocked to it for its casual and fun, yet tough, appearance. As well as, of course, its ability to effortlessly guard a doorway with a single step. (“I’m with 'OUTSIDE THE BUILDING'” does the trick)
Ever since, the “I’m With” Shirt has become a favorite of security guards and other such professions. With the help of a well-placed security camera to set the shirt’s range, prison guards can cover entire hallways with a speed debuff or sleep status.
Academics
Students have adopted “I’m With” Shirts as an outfit of choice for exam days. Particularly, when grades are curved. School spirit events these days, am I right?
Trivia
- The "I'm With" Shirt can be worn backwards. This is the only way to change the direction of the arrow, at the cost of making it much more difficult to rewrite commands.
- In this case, there will be a design on the back.
- If Go Sign wears an "I'm With" Shirt, two directions can be simultaneously controlled by the threat of status effects!