attenuate
[verb uh-ten-yoo-eyt; adjective uh-ten-yoo-it, -eyt]
1. to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value:
to attenuate desire.
2. to make thin; make slender or fine.
3. Bacteriology, Immunology. to render less virulent, as a strain of pathogenic virus or bacterium.
4. Electronics. to decrease the amplitude of (an electronic signal).
5. to become thin or fine; lessen.
6. weakened; diminishing.
7. Botany. tapering gradually to a narrow extremity.
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Fred fumbled with the controls as he kept his eyes on the screen. His thick fingers mashed the buttons he only partially knew. His character lunged forward, weapon drawn, and impacted with the enemy, only to glance off. It was the same result as the last three times he tried. He grumbled and had to resist throwing the piece of black plastic.
“I just don’t get these things.” He said. “I’m doing everything, and it’s getting me nowhere.”
“Oh, it’s not that hard, grandpa.” Kevin said. “This is an easy enemy. I mean, all it does is sit there.”
Fred let out a huff as he glanced at his teenage grandson out of the corner of his eye. “Says you. Look, I’m doing everything you said to do. I’m hitting the button, the guy attacks, but the dang thing just closes up.”
“That’s because it’s a plant monster. That kind of enemy likes to protect itself. You’ll never get through with a front charge like that.”
“But that’s what you said to do.” The older man was getting fed up. He much preferred games that involved boards or cards. Video games were just not his style.
“Yeah, and for most enemies, it works great. But not this kind. This kind you need a different strategy. Here, watch me.”
Kevin grabbed the controller from his grandpa’s hands. The teen hit a series of buttons on the controller and his character reacted. Instead of lunging forward, the character raised its sword overhead and the weapon began to glow. The botanical monster was surrounded by five floating ethereal blades. The glowing, translucent weapons plunged down on the monster. It tried to defend itself with its thick, metallic vines, but was unable to do so.
“See? It’s easy. One attack doesn’t work. It’ll just close all it’s vines up and block it, no matter how strong the attack is. But if you hit it from a bunch of different places, it tries to block them all, but it doesn’t have enough vines to do that. That means it’s defenses get a lot weaker, so you can get through. Each attack doesn’t do a lot of damage, but these guys don’t have a lot of health, so it’s fine. One more attack should do it.”
Kevin repeated his attack, and sure enough, the monster disappeared in a flurry of virtual vines and bright green sap.
Watching all this, Fred was baffled. He understood the basic idea of what Kevin was saying. It was a tactic present in many other games. Get your opponent to thin out or weaken their defenses and then hit the resulting weak spots. It was the application that baffled him. He could barely keep up with what buttons Kevin was pressing to get his character to use the special move. It had happened so fast that there was little hope for his old, chubby fingers to match the movement’s of his grandson’s young, slender fingers.
“You know what, I think I’ll stick to games I can actually play.” Fred said. “Come get me when you’re ready to play some rummy, got it?”
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Honestly, I don't have much to say about this one, so yeah. Just, you know, have a nice day and stuff.
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