#and how does it feel to be a gestalt?

[malewife-overlord]

I went insane in the tag and hit limit. I’m so fucking sorry

Apparently my faves hit such a specific niche that I’m absolutely astounded that this is a thing that’s happened twice.

[lynxfrost13]

Important HOPR lore: HOPR cadres all have a tendency to steal each other’s Nation Mandated Stabilization Journals ™️ and write stupid shit in them. HOPR diaries all look like school yearbooks but worse, sometimes they draw silly pictures, sometimes they’ll write lies, they have fun with it it’s good for them 😌

[dammit-tazmuir]

For all the things this fandom refuses to believe and chalks up to John's lies, the thing that baffles me to see so many believe without question is the idea of Perfect Lyctorhood.

Guys. Guys, there is no Perfect Lyctorhood.

Or at best, if there hypothetically could be, it's nothing we've ever seen. Paul is the closest thing and I know a lot of you would not consider Paul perfect. John did not achieve Perfect Lyctorhood, and it wasn't even his idea to claim he did. A quarter of NtN extensively details that he didn't.

The old Lyctors didn't know what Alecto was. John definitely told them more than he would have liked to, because of course she doesn't lie and is too obviously inhuman to hide it fully. But if they knew everything, Mercy wouldn't doubt that Alecto ever had a genetic code; she would know she didn't, or that any genes she might've had were made from John's own blood and bone.

Because they didn't know what she actually was or what actually happened (foreshadowed too by Mercy's "if you had lied about anything else" lines, when actually he did), they drew the wrong conclusion. They assumed something different in his process allowed Alecto to persist. But we now know the truth is that Alecto was simply too big to consume. She didn't die because she was already limitless. This will never apply to another human. But he lets them believe their conclusion because he thinks it's better and easier to talk his way out of than them figuring out the real truth.

It does remain possible that Anastasia and Samael were genuinely on the cusp of that breakthrough, but I honestly doubt it. That was another conclusion drawn by the Lyctors as a follow-up to the previous wrong one, and when John answers, he visibly hesitates. It feels like he's once again going, "....Sssure, yes, let's go with that." I don't know what Samael and Anastasia WERE on the verge of. Maybe they would have become gestalt like Paul, and the possibility of just one dying was why Pal begged Cam "don't look back", and John was afraid of the power they'd achieve (could Paul have greater thalergy than a normal Lyctor?) and/or of just the others seeing a different process and getting mad at him.

AND/OR, ACTUALLY? Especially if their attempt was one of the earlier ones (around the middle rather than the end), but even if it wasn't: I think a Paul situation has a STRONG possibility of being exactly what happened. John's most outright lies are usually the ones other people tell that he just nods along with. When it's from himself, if it's not feigned incompetence, he usually goes for half-truths and misleading truths. He says Anastasia panicked halfway through and if he hadn't stepped in they would have both died. I think it's very possible that John panicked halfway through as he realized what they were doing, and that it's genuinely true they would have both died— in the same way Camilla and Palamedes both died, to create someone new.

And we know how much John hates change. How desperately John needs to keep his specific people close. What are the odds he was so afraid of losing both of them and being left with a new person he didn't know, couldn't predict, and couldn't easily control with them having a whole Lyctor's power and maybe more? Especially if Cyth and Loveday, Cassy and Nigella, Cyrus and Valancy, Ulysses and Titania, maybe even G1deon and Pyrrha— if any others hadn't undergone the process yet, and there was a chance they'd see Samastastia and decide that was the path they wanted too. If he thought this meant he might lose all his friends instead of only the less favored half.

Either way, though, based on everything we know, there is no simple soul swap that results in dual immortality. Even John and Alecto involve a fusion of megasoul. "You and she are one." (This is also likely how a seemingly real facet of John could talk to Harrow in Alecto's dream.) And we've seen through NtN, the soul longs for the body. The body longs for the soul. A body housing a different soul doesn't last long, even when those souls ARE semi connected. A body even temporarily renting space to a foreign soul is a massive strain, like Cam carrying Pal.

Lyctorhood inherently involves death and consumption and acting against nature. It is the indelible sin. It's possible that Grand Lysis avoids that sin by making it about mutual death, about giving instead of taking, but it's still bittersweet at best. I highly doubt we're going to see a perfect solution that fixes everything, at least via more necromancy, because that's not the kind of series this is. It's messy, beautiful in its flaws, embracing the understanding that life is change and things can never be exactly as they were, and can rarely be exactly what you want, and letting go and moving on are necessary parts of life eventually.

Don't misunderstand! I do think Gideon will either be resurrected (perhaps the last true one ever) or there will be another way for her and Harrow to happily be together. In Gideon's case, there was nothing natural about her death, and the decision to say "no" is a rejection of the system that led to it.

I just also think the odds of rewriting the laws of life and death entirely are more likely than Lyctorhood But With No Consequences. It always has consequences. There is no Perfect Lyctorhood, but there's something good on the horizon, whatever form it takes. After all...

"There are more worlds than this. Come with us. We are the love that is perfected by death, but even death will be no more. Death can also die. There's still time, Ianthe. Time for you and for Naberius Tern."

[basil-does-arttt]

uh uh hi signalis fandom??? i bring you... a storch and kolibri pairing...

my sweethearts <3 some infodumping about them below:

they are both stationed in a correctional facility on Rotfront. Maus is the commanding officer of the base (aside from the Falke and Adler units of course) and Rin acts as her right-hand woman pretty much. Maus denies it but Rin definitely gets some special treatment and/or exceptions which does piss off the other Storchs but uh we don't have to worry about that right now :3 as the blurbs next to them state, they each have their own manufacturing issues but one is certainly a lot more severe than the other... ill start with Rin: Her heating system is defective, as in it doesn't work at all. Especially unhelpful considering they're on Rotfront, yknow, the ice moon?? She still manages to keep her productivity at an all-time high though, despite her defect. On more than one occaision, she's gotten a warning from Adler about her water usage, since she takes so many boiling hot showers to warm up... Being a Storch she's unsurprisingly quite short-tempered and has noticable violent tendancies that probably could be better reigned in but Maus is into it so Rin gets a pass to be mean. "Interrogations" with Gestalts involving Rin as the punisher more often than not end in a bloodbath. And Rin snagging a couple of new shiny trinkets to keep for herself or share between her and Rin (maybe the other Protektor units if she's feeling generous.) She tends to get quite protective over Maus, and when the two can find a quiet moment alone together, Rin has a bit of a soft spot for her little rodent <3 now, Maus: Her Bioresenance module is defective, as in Maus can't really "regulate" the intensity of it properly. Its way too strong for any normal Kolibri unit, let alone an entire group of them at once, so Maus has intentionally cut herself off from the hive-mind in an effort to protect her fellow hummingbirds. She still works with them and communicates with them of course, she just refuses to do it through bioresenance. Does this mean more paperwork? Yes... but she thinks the tradeoff is worth it. It does have its downsides though. Without the safety net the hivemind provides to her persona, Maus has already begun to degrade in irreversable ways (no matter how many pots of tea she downs or books she finishes a day) Despite this she remains dedicated and loyal to her work, if not for herself then so she doesn't everyone else around her down. (also, after some vauge threats of decomission from Adler, she's only thrown herself further into her work to try and convince him she doesn't need replacing. Maus isn't scared of many things, but if theres one thing she's terrified of, its death.) She suffers a lot from migranes and nosebleeds a lot as a side effect of her faulty bioresenance module, and has landed herself in the facility's medical ward too many times to count because of it. the Eule nurses have even dedicated an entire room solely to Maus due to how often she's in there for Something, be it a headache, or fainting entirely while on the job. If it weren't for Falke, Adler would have had her decomissioned many cycles ago. Falke however trusts her charm of hummingbirds implicitly and keeps a close eye on Maus especially, making sure she doesn't stray too far off the deep end. Maus also has violent tendancies of her own, and works well with Rin because of it. Rin interrogating Gestalts is bad enough, but Rin AND Maus together? yeah that Gestalt isn't coming out of that room alive. or in one piece for that matter.. Maus and Rin sorta bounce off eachother in ways that i don't think are entirely healthy but hey, they're happy, so who am i to get in the way of two lesbian robot's toxic bloodbath yuri :3

[ross-hollander]

Everybody has heard...

...the old question about where the 'mech ends and the pilot begins, or the other way around, depending on just how angsty one of the outfit is feeling in the barracks. Sometimes, though- and if you ask me, that sometimes is getting more often -there are cases where you really can't tell.

Radars and thermals talk to rangefinders and profile scanners. Those talk to firing assist and combat systems. Those talk to automatic loaders, compensation drivers, physics calibrators. Everything does its job, everything works in concert.

And yet, there is a pilot. It's not automated, it's not disorderly. Somewhere in there- in the gestalt of systems commanding systems, automatic loaders readying automatic guns sighted by automatic aiming routines -an intelligence is present. Something that drives the thing, even while the tactical map systems and the satellite scan systems tell it where to march or jet and how.

What goes on inside that cockpit- uncertain. The pilots, when separated from their, perhaps, "greater selves", can't actually describe it to you. Some people jacked their neuro rigs in to try and understand it; spent a year in therapy to get over the experience. It's not quite a unified thing, like a soldier on the march; it's not quite separate, like a tank and a crew; and yet, it's still not exactly two entities bound together like 'mech and pilot. It's a unison, maybe, a network. Some kind of elegant entanglement.

Something and nothing. A vanishing point. When that machine comes online, every distinction turns bleary and faint. If you had to find exactly where their "mind" is...you couldn't.

--

(More "weird deep-sea creature, but 'mech", this time siphonophore.)

[spacemothsota]

Cassette player from Cassette?

You know, I love cassettes in Transformers. (I love them so much that if you woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me what cassettes Soundwave and Blaster had, I could probably list them all by name.)

Many people underestimate them because of their size and the fact that they transform into cassettes and they are often reduced to the "children's" equivalent, but listen.. Just listen. In my mind, cassettes are not children at all, no, not at all, to go through such a war and stay alive, you know guys, they are definitely adults. Maybe teenagers close to becoming adults or this stupid period when you are kind of an adult, but you still need a "More adult adult". Moreover, in the comics, Rumble and Frenzy were actually miners, so let's keep that in mind, okay? In short, cassettes are quite adult and independent, this will be useful to us in my subsequent words.

In general, it seems like the show and comics have never said how strong this connection is between the cassette host and the cassette. What kind of connection is this? How do cassette host and cassettes work? Like… I don't remember it being said directly, but obviously there is a connection. (Remember how Soundwave feels pain from Ravage's death, or from Rumble's injury? Obviously the connection is strong, but what kind of connection is it?) How do cassette players and tapes work? HOW?

How the fuck does this work???

Well I have a couple of ideas about it actually, it may seem unusual, but here are a couple of my ideas.

It's pretty obvious that it's similar to symbiosis, where one species helps another in some way. While symbiosis can be parasitic in nature, I'm guessing that for Cybertronians it's more like a mutually beneficial phenomenon. Usually, creatures of different species enter into symbiosis, be it clownfish and sea anemones, or butterflies that feed on animal tears (they need it to get sodium). I think that cassette player and cassettes are more closely related. Aside from the obvious symbiotic relationship, where the one offers the cassette safety, care, and a secure life in exchange for some services from other side (like recording information, spying/intelligence activities, etc.), it seems to me that this could have a deeper evolutionary mechanism, for example for survival purposes?

Ever wonder why there are literally only two Cassette Host in the show and comics? It's literally just Soundwave and Blaster (Soundblaster doesn't count, he's a clone. Sorry, fans of that guy). It's also not really clear what niche they occupied in the caste system the Functionalists founded, but it's probably not a very high one since Soundwave was found on the street by Ravage. I think the fear here might be precisely because bots like them are capable of this type of symbiotic relationship. They don't need mods for it, they are designed to share their space and path with trusted Cassettes. This connection itself must imply that you understand each other on some deeper level. Maybe like Gestalts, a common type of internal connection that other bots can't recognize? I think that makes sense. You're basically slightly in each other's heads. The Cassette Host not only takes on the responsibility of providing the cassette, but also of regulating this internal connection, both emotional and physical. In return, the cassettes provide an unlimited ability to store and accumulate data (I think this is connected to their altform, that is, Rumble and Frenzy can be quite smart, they just don’t need it. A striking detail in this regard would be Rewind and how he helped Tailgate reduce the bomb’s radius, but there’s a lot that can be said about him). Understand? This increases the likelihood that the Cassette player and the cassettes act as a single, well-coordinated organism, it’s no wonder that the functionalists were afraid of this. This symbiosis can resemble from the outside both a family unit and a business gang, where there is a boss and cronies. In any case, here’s another thought of mine, what if…

What if, under certain conditions, a cassette tape could become a cassette player?

I know this might sound weird, but just hear me out. You know, I often come across the idea that cassette hosts can create cassettes, and that's a possibility, because my idea is based on that. Could a spark of such a bot be predisposed to create smaller sparks to provide security and support for those cassettes that don't have the ability to become cassette players? Look, we have a cassette host, it can have its own cassettes that it created, or those that were reformatted into this altform and taken under its wing. If the host is hurt or killed, cassettes can remain destitute and forgotten until they die, but what if, due to the symbiotic relationship of these Cybertronians, they have some kind of evolutionary mechanism? What if one host has enough cassettes that it realizes that it strains the internal communication and does not allow time for each? Then one or two cassettes created by the bot and having a predominantly humanoid form and also access to comfort and resources, begin to gain mass of the protoform, form a cassette deck and so on. They become new cassette players, provided that they have always been in this altform and have not been reformatted, I think the second type of cassettes is not capable of this mechanism. Why is this an evolutionary mechanism? Well, because perhaps earlier these two types of Cybertronians really belonged to different groups, but in the process of millennia and millions of years they were simply close for so long that they turned into one group. You know what, in essence, cassettes would be like an axolotl from our world (like… Have you seen an axolotl? They are actually not an adult version of an ambystoma)

This mechanism would essentially explain why we know only two cassette hosts and so many cassettes. Probably, before the war there were a sufficient and diverse number of them, but during the war many could have died and Soundwave and Blaster essentially picked up the destitute, deprived of communication and scared cassettes. None of the cassettes had the necessary level of comfort, fuel and other factors that would contribute to the evolution into a new host, you understand? In essence, this means that Soundwave and Blaster were loaded with an additional level during the war (that's why they look tired, taking care of so many charges is tiring…)

I can just see how after the war, with the improvement in the quality of life, one of the cassettes finally decided that the conditions are good enough, but there are too few hosts… It's time to evolve into an adult version and become a cassette player.

I hope Soundwave can rest and this won't be another world.

[cryptids]

..

I just need to ramble for a minute, but I think it's all little bit of a shame that so many constructiprowl fics (which is already not many 😭💔) really only seem to use the dynamic from the early stages of their relationship where Prowl was still pushing the constructicons away and resented them. And on the one hand, I understand the appeal bc an antagonistic relationship is fun to explore, and I LOVE fics where they start off that way and then develop a closer relationship out of it.... but, I also come across a lot of fics where he hates them way more and for much longer than he ever did in canon, or where that's the only dynamic they'll ever have. There's a sentiment, I think, that it would be impossible for him to ever warm up to them and continuing to hate them is the only realistic option?

And that's alright if it's your preference, like far be it from me to get in the way of people's toxic yaoi hdbsbds, but they DID move past that in canon and it feels like a shame that's not really acknowledged as much? Mostly bc I wish there was more stuff that explored the dynamic they had later on once he decided he wanted to be in control of Devastator and was keeping them around willingly..... idk just that specific period of time in their relationship was so funny and endearing to me djsbhs, I need more of him being their boss and bringing them everywhere with him to everyone else's dismay lmao

They still had some issues at that point, Prowl was power tripping like crazy and injuring himself by pushing an unstable gestalt bond too much/too fast, with the nosebleeds and the Scrapper moments, so they still had a long way to go. But what I'm getting at is mostly just that by then he was long past hating them or trying to make them go away, he seemed to consider them an extremely valuable asset and was actually trying to keep them around and make things work. In the end he was only forcibly separated from them against his will too, and he never actually wanted to leave them.

((There is a lot about Prowl's combiner wars storyline that I don't love, but I'm putting that all aside for now 😪))

I think he was essentially neutral on the constructicons as individuals/on a personal level... he was mostly just treating them like all the subordinates he'd had before. THEIR devotion and adoration of him was definitely very different to anything he'd experienced before though (and extremely gay lmao), I always feel sad that canon didn't give him the time to notice or react to that.

Just going off on a little side tangent but actually (as a shipper lmao 🤧) I like to think he could have become fond of them over time. Actually I think Prowl and the constructicons have a lot more in common than was ever really explored?? Especially if they had been allowed to have distinct personalities and demonstrate their intelligence a bit more lmao. I don't mind them being himbos (affectionate) or the way they spoke or anything, but I feel like they were just really underutilised in IDW1... like we never saw any fun chemistry stuff from Mixmaster or any of Hook's medical skills for example. Speaking of Hook in particular, I think it's interesting he usually has a bad temper and a very perfectionist, prickly and stubborn personality that makes him very Prowl-like in a way that would have been fun to play around with...

*** Coming back to add a point here about whether he blames them for the mind control and non-consentual modifications that were done to him, and honestly I don't think he does? I think he blames Megatron for that (which makes some sense since they were only doing it on his orders), I think it is a very large part of why he doesn't want to be near them at first bc they remind him of it and bc they took part in it, but it's definitely not something he continues to hold against them. It's similar I think to how he feels about Soundwave's involvement which he also seems willing to forgive after a while. Meanwhile his anger at Megatron never goes away, and at the trial he listed forced combination as one of the crimes Megatron was directly responsible for (which I think is interesting bc Starscream forces the constructicons to combine with Scoop later on against their will too, but never really faces any consequences for that? Anyway sjdbdhs)

I think it probably means something to him to be able to take control of the constructicons after they were involved in a trauma he went through where he had no control over himself, and to be secure in the certainty that they won't turn against him again... plus I think it says a lot about their relationship that Prowl (who already has trust issues anyway) is eventually able to trust them so fully? He even trusts them to stay loyal to him on a mission where they're working against other decepticons, which is a huge gesture really.

Anywayyy..... I guess this whole ramble was just to say I wish there was more happy/endgame constructiprowl content bc it could be so good and I'm yearning for it jsjsjds 😭😭

I have also seen a few people say this ship is inherently one-sided and depicting it any other way is ooc, and I disagree!! I think it CAN be one-sided, but it doesn't NEED to be in order to be true to canon.

Just adding a couple of relevant panels here too bc I am thinking about them 🤧

[0wldn0]

For the family dinner, wouldn’t it be cute if breakdown and bumblebee rounded them up to announce they were gonna be conjux’s?( Ik in your Breakbee post it was like “conjux-to-be”, I just associate the word with being married, idk if that’s accurate tho 😓).

Awww this is so cute!! 🥺💕I love to imagine them announcing it when everyone is together like that! I do think it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone though FDHDFH Those two are not subtle at all, the situationship could be smelled from a mile away 😭

((Also, yeah! I think "conjunx" is very similar to humans' concept of marriage! There are four acts of affection that two bots need to commit before becoming official conjuxes, I've been thinking about what those may be for Breakbee a lot!))

((I don't know if this is fanon or canon but; I really love the idea of Cybertronians bonding their sparks together after becoming conjuxes! Literally sharing a part of their souls with one another... How sweet is that? Such a deep commitment for someone you hold dear, feeling them in your soul all the time after that. I really love that concept so so much. So of course, I made it canon in my AU, hehe.))

If this is the first family dinner though, I think they would only say they're in a relationship, not conjunxes yet! After all, I can see both Bumblebee and Breakdown not wanting to go that far so soon. They both do love each other, but they've only known each other throughout the war, they could only meet once in a while, and they barely managed to spend long days together. They both aren't sure how the war changed the other either. So, while their adoration is still mutual, they would take their time and see how their relationship will develop in this time of peace! Because who knows, despite all the adoration you may feel for someone, in the end you may realise that you are just not fit to be with them in a romantic sense. And considering Cybertronians literally share their souls with one another in this AU, a huge decision that they can't un-do, they wouldn't want to jump into being conjuxes immediately.

Of course though, they do end up realising that they want each other as one another's sparkmate!! Even then however, it is kind of scary to take a big step like that, especially for Bee. I imagine that Bee would still not be used to how things are currently, kind of like Wildrider. The difference is that, Wildrider craved danger and adrenaline because that's what he was used to, peace scared him and made him uneasy; while Bee is afraid that these peaceful times will slip through his fingers if he settles too much into it, he feels as though nothing can hurt him if he just doesn't let himself sink too deep into the idea of peace.

Breakdown doesn't take it to heart and is understanding of Bee's decision. He is worried that this way of thinking may be... unhealthy. But he would rather die than force Bee to do something he doesn't want to do.

It is after the whole "Motormaster gets captured by the Quintessons and the Quintessons manage to get control of Menasor" arc that Bee realises that he doesn't want anything to happen to either of them before he can experience being Breakdown's conjunx. He was so close to losing Breakdown there, so now, he is realising that his fears were keeping him from getting the life he wants.

It is true that things may not be peaceful all the time, but if the peace does cease and there's a terrible danger again, he would rather be able to say that he experienced sharing his whole being with the person he loves anyway, than to lose them before ever getting to do that.

((How interesting would it be to bond with someone that already has a gestalt bond? Do you think the rest of the Stunticons would be able to feel Bee's presence too, even if it is faint? That's so interesting to think about!!))

[teleit]

Plot bunny - Daemyra meets the consequences of passion on the beach

Okay, this isn't my usual yapping about how I desperately want to ask HBO to provide the public with a report on the show's expenses and find out how much they pay those nine monkeys with typewriters and one college student with three other jobs who are posing as the House of the Dragon writing team.

But one thing leads to another, so I'm thinking about how convenient it is for Daemon and Rhaenyra to indulge their fetish for public intercourse, and somehow no one found them at all, even though they were not just simple servants, and they couldn't just disappear for a whole night without someone noticing.

And if someone had found them? Maybe someone like Laenor Velaryon?

Laenor, mad with grief, having almost drowned himself a few hours ago, and unable to sleep, escapes from surveillance and goes wandering around Driftmark and the surrounding area. He can't help but think about how his sister died, the one he hadn't seen in years but loved so much; how scared and desperate she was when she couldn't give birth herself, and how much pain she must have suffered; how she spent her last moments in agony and terror. He lost his sister and the nephew who killed her, and whom he almost hates, but knows Laena would never forgive him for those feelings.

And now he stumbles upon his wife and brother-in-law fucking like wild animals on the sand, hidden from the world by a rotten boat hulk. From the world, but not from Laenor.

A part of Laenor understands what these two feel, and is happy for them. His marriage to Rhaenyra was an arrangement that grew into friendship, but never into love; his true love died on the floor of the feast hall, beaten to death by the hands of Criston Cole. He is happy for her, finding solace in their cold, empty marriage, first in Harvin and now in the man she has desired for decades.

He is happy for Daemon. They are friends as much as they are family, which is rare in their houses. They fought together in the Stepstones, and Laenor was happy for them and Laena, the kind of man he would have wished for his sister - almost, Daemon had an unfinished gestalt with his niece, so it was not perfect. But Laena was happy, or sounded so in her letters, so Laenor accepted it as it was. True, now Laenor is more inclined to hate Daemon for laughing at the funeral, but Daemon is Daemon, and someday the pain of loss will pass and Laenor will be able to look at him again without disgust.

But this part is small, quiet, and immediately drowned out by the anger, fury and betrayal rising inside like a storm wave. How dare they! At the funeral of Laena! His sister! Who died giving birth to Daemon's son! Died far from home, far from her family! Daemon didn't even bring her body, just charred bones!! The coffin didn't even touch the seabed, and these two had already stuck together with their crotches!!! HOW DARE THEY HOW DARE THEY HOW DARE THEY!!!

And Laenor, in whom a sea of ​​hatred rages, takes up the blade. He doesn't think about anything, doesn't understand what he's doing, but he knows that these two people, half-naked and shuddering with vile pleasure, are his and Laena's traitors. They are monsters, and Laenor doesn't understand how he could have considered these two his friends.

Daemon Targaryen is still a rogue prince even with his pants down, and Laenor was never considered the best swordsman, at best a good one. Rhaenyra screams at them to come to their senses, but it's no use to Laenor. Daemon dodges the sword, disarms Laenor, but it's doesn't help at all - Velaryon does not listen, his eyes are empty and dark with hatred, he rushes at Daemon empty-handed, wanting to hurt him, just as he and Rhaenyra did to him and Laena.

And Daemon makes a mistake - he, a skilled warrior, underestimates Laenor's rage, and when he swings his blade, intended to drive Velaryon away, he pierces him. Laenor does not die quickly enough - he screams in pain and anger, screams so loudly that he attracts the attention of the guards, who were alerted when it became clear that Corlys' son had disappeared and every servant and guard rushed to search for him.

And what a picture the guards find - the heir of Lord Velaryon, husband of the crown princess and the father of her children, future king consort, Laenor Velaryon, agonizing on the dirty sand. Daemon, shirtless and with unbuttoned pants, with a bloody sword in his hands. And Princess Rhaenyra herself, Laenor's wife, looking at what is happening in horror, wrapped in a dress with loose lacing and pulled off her shoulders, disheveled and covered in sand.

The events that followed have not yet come together in my head in any confident way, there are so many possible consequences.

Rhaenyra and Daemon are caught at the crime scene with bloody hands, one of them not even metaphorically. Denying the fact of murder and sexual intimacy is simply stupid.

Rhaenyra has two options:

1) Lie about how she and Daemon were enthusiastically doing a vertical tango on the beach as soon as they had the chance. She will wring her hands, roll her eyes, and start crying about how her evil uncle tried to take advantage of her, and how the noble and fearless Laenor rushed to her rescue. No one will believe her, of course, but the consequences will be mostly laid on Daemon. He won't be executed as a kinslayer, because Viserys is a spineless whiner, but he will be sent to the Wall.

2) Stand with her uncle and go for broke, and if they die together, they will die together. Again, Viserys' spine is a monkey noodle, he will never kill his sweet daughter in his life, and will try to leave her as his heir, because she is the daughter of the woman he once cut up like a pig in a slaughterhouse.

In any case, what will happen for sure in any case is a complete loss of the Velaryon support for Rhaenyra, Luke losing his rights to inherit Driftmark and the Velaryon name in favor, most likely, of Baela, the loss of Daemon's rights to his daughters - this will be one of Corlys' first demands to the crown, he will not allow the only thing left of his daughter and children in general to remain in the hands of the man who killed his son. All of Westeros will discuss and condemn the actions of the Princess of Whores, Uncle's Delight, for many years. It would take a miracle for Viserys to leave her as his heir, but will he succeed, and what kind of reign awaits a woman with such a background?

Anyone want to add anything that I might have missed?

P.S. If someone wants to use my idea and turn it into a fanfic, be my guest, just tag me, and left a link in the comments down below, I REALLY want to read a story with such a plot =)

PPS. English can kiss my ass me in that scary and dark place where I learned it through sheer force

[icypolargirl78]

Now which decepticons would like cold soup and which ones would like hot soup

round two baby! (also i realised that i put megatron into the last ask when you were asking for autobots but shhhhh just ignore that)

hot soup enjoyers

shockwave. if we're talking g1, hot soup is probably one of his few reminders of comfort amongst friends. i think about shockwave being left alone for four million years a lot. and if we're talking idw1, then hot soup gets to be one of the few reminders of his past as a senator. shockwave doesn't know why the soup makes him feel comforted, but he likes it well enough to never question it.

motormaster. niche pick but i like to imagine that the stunticons get put on rations duty a lot as punishment for being assholes (read, motormaster is an asshole and his gestalt have to suffer for it.) and as such motormaster has learned how to make soup. it started off as just dicking around in the kitchen but he gets genuine enjoyment from seeing people eat his food. plus he always saves the best bowl for himself.

thundercracker. c'mon... look at him. he likes warm soup.

cold soup enjoyers

soundwave. he likes the efficiency of it. never has to worry about it going bad because the communications room on the nemesis is fucking cold as hell. the computers there need constant cooling so soundwave just goes with the flow.

starscream. i don't know why, he just seems the type to like his soup cold.

skywarp. he doesn't actually prefer his soup cold, he just forgets that the soup is there to begin with and getting up to actual reheat the bowl is too much effort on his part, so he eats it cold. (thundercracker does actually make him soup that's meant to be served cold and skywarp enjoys those.)

[anony-man]

Giving a little bit of love back to texbrawl, one of my favorite ships. ~2k words under the cut and two bots forced to share a too-small motel bed… totally not on purpose, either.

Read it here or on ao3!

Between the strange looks he and Vortex received from the poor bot behind the front counter and squeezing himself through tinier-than-his-size hallways to find their dingy room on the dingy floor of a dingy motel, Brawl wasn’t sure which one was worse. Hell, he wasn’t sure anything could even be worse. It was what got him chuckling out loud and nervously pawing at the back of his helm when he finally fit through the doorway of their room going sideways, only to discover a room fit for bots smaller than Vortex and a single-size, single bed sat in the middle of the bleak layout.

He hadn’t been expecting much, but this? This was pretty bad, and he knew without looking any farther that it was going to a long, uncomfortable night. He couldn’t fit in here. He couldn’t make it work. There just wasn’t any way. It just wasn’t possible.

“Er,” Brawl said, still scratching at the back of his helm in the nervous way he does when he isn’t quite sure what to make of a situation. “Tex? You, uh… you sure this is…?”

“This is it!” Vortex said, gesturing proudly to the inside of the room like he was showing off a brand new set of artillery equipment. Instead, it was just a cheap, stinky motel room with old furniture dotted around its perimeter. Nothing worth celebrating, and nothing worth staying in. “Come on in, make yourself at home. We ain’t gonna be staying for very long this time around, so we gotta rest up while we can.”

Vortex spared no time in heading straight for the mattress and diving right in. The copter weighed hardly anything, and yet the springs in the old frame still creaked and squealed under the pressure of a mech crawling over top of it. Brawl shifted where he stood, his own weight balancing from one pede to the other as he remained hovering in the doorway.

If the bed was that weak under Vortex’s frame, he could hardly imagine how bad it might be under his. He wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to find out, either.

The motel wasn’t his choice, nor was the room. Vortex had assured him plenty of times all the way down there from HQ that everything was fine, everything was in order, and everything was taken care of. It was just another routine mission they had to take care of, and any other time, Brawl would have been more than happy for a chance at another little getaway with his favorite gestalt member. Any other time would have also had a nice, cozy room for them to retire to, however, and any other time would have also had two large, sturdy berths for them to mussy up to their sparks’ content before retiring to their own separate blanket cocoons. Tonight, he had neither.

Vortex was already tangled up in the sheets and spread across the entire bed by the time Brawl managed to muster up enough courage to step foot inside the room. Once he was certain the floor wouldn’t fall out from underneath him (and that was a very real fear, mind you—they were roomed on the second floor!), he waddled his way over to the bedside with slow, tentative movements and pudgy servos fiddling in front of him the whole time.

“Are you sure?” Brawl asked. “I mean, don’t you think it’s kinda—“

He dared to lean against the similarly sized nightstand sitting right next to the bedside, only for it to crack and crumble beneath his weight. Brawl was quick to stand upright, and beneath his mask, his face burned bright with embarrassment.

“…oops.”

Vortex lifted his helm for only a moment before letting it fall back against the bed. A long, cruel cackle followed, and if Brawl weren’t already feeling so self-conscious, he would’ve jumped right onto the opportunity to throw the copter around for rubbing salt into the wound.

“Sure, it’s a shithole, but it’s a safe shithole,” he said once the snickers die down, his servo flicking back and forth dismissively. “We’re not here for luxury, and since this one’s coming outta my pocket, I sure as hell ain’t gonna shell out any more pretty shanix on unnecessary niceties.”

Brawl shrugged, still unconvinced. “I mean, sure,” he said, his servo going back to scratching at his helm, “better to keep ‘em on ya for when we hit up that bar back down the road, but…”

But a nice set of reliable beds wouldn’t hurt, especially not when Brawl was in tow. The big tank wasn’t exactly known for playing nice with furniture that wasn’t sturdy enough to hold his weight, and Vortex knew that. Everyone knew it.

He hadn’t been there for the motel booking, and he certainly hadn’t butted into the conversation during check-in when the bot at the front desk double and triple checking their reservation while Vortex struggled to assure them all was as it should be. He had simply taken it all in stride—it was Vortex he was dealing with, after all, and up until this point, Vortex had been a trustworthy individual for booking proper utilities between the back-and-forth of their missions.

Shy wasn’t a good look on a mech with Brawl’s reputation, but right then, he just couldn’t help it. He ignored the tattered nightstand as best he could and watched Vortex nervously, his gaze drifting between the thin talons for claws picking at the copter’s fangs and the leg bent at the knee joint swaying back and forth. He was silent and nervous for a little while longer, and he couldn’t help it. He was waiting for answers, for prompting, or for anything, really, but Vortex was being stubborn.

Vortex was visibly smug when he dropped his servo back down to his side, only to curl his claws in a slow, suggestive gesture as he looked Brawl up and down.

“Well?” he said, all casual and languid as he watched Brawl fidget. “Whatcha waiting’ for, an invitation?”

Brawl was silent for a moment. He went right back to twiddling his thumbs and tangling his digits together, but his expression remained soft and confused. He still didn’t understand, not one bit.

“Uh…” he began, unsure of what else to say, let alone do. When Vortex’s expression grew irritated, he quickly added, “I could, uh… I could start making something up on the floor?”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, let alone assume. If anything, it certainly wasn’t what Vortex was alluding to.

“Oh, you stupid mech,” Vortex sighed. “Why the hell d’ya think I booked us a room with one bed in it? For fun?”

Brawl shrugged. “I dunno… something to do, I guess?”

Vortex sat upright in a flurry, his arms thrown in the air for exasperated emphasis. “Obviously I wanted to share with you! Geez, Brawl, are you really that blind?”

“Wh—share?” Brawl’s optics went wide behind the visor. “You mean, you wanna share a bed? This bed? In this room?”

“Yeah?” Vortex said. “We’ve done it before. Why not do it again?”

Cuddling, Brawl wanted to say. They had done cuddling before, and fragging, and pushing the limits for how well a dynamic between a scrawny stick of a mech and a tank fatter than any living mech walking Cybertron’s surface could work out. They had not, however, done squashing before, kinky or not, and they hadn’t done anything close to having Vortex lie flat on a small bed with Brawl’s big, fat aft lying over top of him. Quite frankly, Brawl was a little worried to try.

He wouldn’t deny how appealing it sounded to curl up in a bed smaller than him with a mech smaller than him snuggled up under his weight and cozying up to his soft, rumbly belly, but that was an inner-Brawl-fantasy. The outer-Brawl-fantasies were holding Vortex down, pounding him senseless, straining the cushions of furniture—but not breaking it—and smothering the copter ever so slightly beneath his frame.

Vortex was as adventurous as he was freaky, and Brawl? Brawl was just there for a good time. This sounded like a good time, and he wanted it just as badly as Vortex apparently did. He’d booked the room and ensured the single bed situation, for Primus’ sake, so of course he wanted it!

He was used to being the big scary beast of a mech who fucked rough and cuddled hard. He was not, however, used to being the soft, cushy ball of a bot who squished Vortex and snuggled together in small beds built for one.

“C’mon, big guy,” Vortex pressed, patting the small spots of empty space on the bed while scooting back to the very center of the mattress. “Get in here! I got plenty of room left.”

Well… he supposed it was better than sleeping on the floor—much better. Brawl was gentle at first, and he moved slowly. He shuffled to the end of the bed before crawling his way over the footboard and landing atop the mattress. The dip was great, and the groove he left had plenty of springs and wooden panels crying out for mercy, but he didn’t dare stop. Vortex looked far too appealing all sprawled out and waiting for him, and the more he thought about it, the more he really, really wanted to join him.

There were noisy groans and snapping springs with every movement he took, but eventually Brawl made it to where he was straddling Vortex’s lap and bracing himself up with both servos on either side of Vortex’s helm. The copter’s expression was gluttonous and greedy as he stared up at every pudgy roll on Brawl’s fat frame, and he didn’t dare stop cooing and sighing his contentment while Brawl lowered himself down on top of him.

“There we go,” he said, his arms slung out on either side in preparation for the massive weight coming down to squash him. “That’s it… little more now, little more, keep going, and—mmmph!”

Brawl’s arms had begun shaking from the effort of keeping himself upright. He didn’t want to hurt Vortex, but slag, he was tired, too. The last few inches of space between them were closed in a rush, and with a final noisy and defeated sound that echoed throughout the room, the bed frame gave out beneath his weight.

Vortex, still gleefully kicking his pedes as much as he could and rubbing his servos all over Brawl’s back and sides, couldn’t care less for the extra fees that were sure to be added to their tab, and in that moment, Brawl found the satisfaction of finally cuddling up with his favorite copter smushed beneath him far too satisfying to bother caring about it, either.

“Oof,” Vortex mumbled from somewhere beneath him, “you’re heavy.”

Brawl blushed at the comment. He couldn’t help the sheepish smile that crept up his face, even if Vortex was too busy being smothered under his belly and bust to notice.

“Yeah,” he managed to say. Then, out of sheer habit (and terrible worry), he asked, “You, uh… you good under there?”

Vortex’s servos fell back against the bed before coming up hard and fast to cling to Brawl’s frame. It was like charging up for a big, warm bear hug, but from beneath the bear crushing him.

“Hell yeah, I’m good under here,” Vortex mumbled back. He gave the pudgy fat on Brawl’s frame a gentle squeeze before lowering his servos back down to his sides where they sat comfortably cupping Brawl’s belly. “How ‘bout you? You comfy?”

Brawl had to think about it for a moment before he answered. He was still reeling from the realization, and his thoughts had yet to catch up with him. It did feel nice though, all cozied up in the bed with Vortex. It felt good, just as he knew it would.

He was glad for the copter’s vote of confidence. If it had been up to him, he would’ve never attempted to try this.

“Yeah,” he said, “yeah, I’m good. I’m comfy.”

It was a hell of a lot more cozy than he’d realized it would be, that was for sure. Vortex seemed to be of the same mind, as he was out and asleep not even a few minutes after squirming around beneath Brawl’s weight. It was for that reason that the two decided to explain their tardiness the next morning, as when the planet’s surface grew light once more and their deadline rolled around, neither bot had yet come back out of the deep, cozy recharge they’d fallen into.

It was the effects of a big, hefty frame squishing you into the mattress, that was all. Likewise, it was the effects of having a small, warm frame buried beneath that big, hefty frame that kept them both there in the too-small bed. There were no regrets, even after they woke up to realize the mission was a failure.

Worth it, Vortex would say. So totally worth it, Brawl would silently agree.

[imagineastrology]

Gestalt therapy and your Saturn Placement..

Gestalt Therapy is an experiential, humanistic approach to psychotherapy that invites people to immerse themselves in the present moment, take ownership of their emotions and actions, and recognise the holistic nature of who they are. Saturn is the 'grandfather' of the zodiac, the planet of limitations, restrictions and lessons...but Saturn wants us to learn from its teachings, be patient, and wait the long game.

I feel like I have to earn/work hard for: 

Saturn 1H: Optimism.

Gestalt Question: If you could express, without words, what is currently happening inside of you right now - how would you express this? E.g. a sound, colour, movement. 

Saturn 2H: Money.

Gestalt Question: If you were sitting in front of the human embodiment of money - what would you say to them? 

Saturn 3H: Written and spoken expression.

Gestalt Question: At this moment, if you could only express yourself in the medium of song - what song(s) would you choose?

Saturn 4H: Creating a home that feels safe.

Gestalt Question: When you hear the word ‘home’ what are the first thoughts or sensations that arise for you? 

Saturn 5H: joy or fun. 

Gestalt question: Close your eyes and breath slowly. Imagine your younger self dancing to a song you love. Sit with this. What happens in your body? 

Saturn 6H: My physical health. 

Gestalt Question: If you could envision the ideal routine for physical health - what would this routine be?

Saturn 7H: My relationships.

Gestalt Question: How do your ‘rules’ or boundaries in relationship impact how you view relationships? 

Saturn 8H: Changes in my life. 

Gestalt Question: What do you define as your ‘personal power’?

Saturn 9H: Finding a purpose. 

Gestalt Question: Imagine a world inside of you where there are no fears or anxieties - where would you let yourself go next? It could be mentally or physically.

Saturn in 10H: My career. 

Gestalt Question: If you strip away societal and parental expectations - what do you truly desire in a career?

Saturn 11H: Making and keeping friends. 

Gestalt Question: What does rejection feel like in your body?

Saturn in 12H: My privacy or alone time. 

Gestalt Question: What would your ideal alone time look like for you? 

What's your Saturn placement and how do you work with this?

Define your life. Visit: imagineastrology.co.uk for tailored insights and to book a personal reading!

**Please do not steal my work, please credit me if you repost or use my work** Thank you for reading!

[xamiipholia]

okay y'all seemed to like the last one so here's a few more Horizon 3 thoughts:

Aloy won’t die. It would completely upend the series’ themes and just be really nihilistic.

Since Nemesis is a gestalt entity I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see Sam Witwer, Carrie-Anne Moss, etc again. I’m curious how they’re going to do it because at least structurally, it’s basically a reaper. Maybe it’ll use different Avatars when communicating like the Leviathan in ME3. 

It's gonna take some work to make a flashback/dream/vision not contrived but I would love to see Varl and Rost again. I think we deserve that.

Minerva is gonna have its work cut out for it blocking access to both the dormant Faro Swarm and the ZD terraforming system. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if Nemesis has some sort of corruption function that becomes the equivalent of the corruption in HZD. It would be a really fun tech showcase if GG uses Zenith nanotech for machine corruption and leans into mechanical body horror.

If we’re going to Ban-Ur I really really hope they do the work to make the Banuk less problematic and more fleshed out as a culture. A quasi-Spartan society absolutely would not survive in an extreme environment, *especially* without megafauna to hunt. The Banuk characters are lovely and well-written; they deserve a society as well thought out as the Utaru or Carja. I’m honestly fine if there’s retcons or revamps to the cultural lore because the whole “outsider barges in and becomes chief” is rooted in racist, colonial tropes and we just don’t really need that imo.

The most recent footage of Death Stranding 2 (also running on Decima) has me SO excited for the visuals. GG’s gonna knock it out. The facial rendering and animation that Kojima Productions are doing looks industry-peak and I’m sure GG’s gonna match that. Aloy’s Gay Panic™️ scene on the beach in HBS is already top-tier nonverbal storytelling through animation. Digital Foundry actually just posted a really cool tech breakdown of the current Decima engine. I’m especially excited about the environmental stuff. The ocean simulations in HFW are already incredible and I hope they increase verticality in the world. I can’t wait to see the Sacred Lands in current gen graphics. 

I really love Kotallo’s DIY arm and it’s so so important to his development but Beta and Gaia now have access to Zenith nanotech, maybe give your buddy a sick upgrade hmm?

Speaking of, I can’t wait to see Beta come into her own. She’s one of the best parts of HFW and Aloy’s character absolutely shines in a sibling dynamic. 

I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a romance mechanic. Everyone’s feelings on that aside, it would be really odd from a game development perspective to just overhaul part of how the narrative develops Aloy’s character in the last act of the story. Yeah, there are flashpoints but I would argue that the presence of choice in Horizon is smoke and mirrors- cosmetic at best. Kentucky Route Zero (which you should play) does something similar where the player is given a certain amount of control over the substance of individual conversations and scenarios and it does absolutely nothing to alter the plot, by design. I think it’s the same here - this isn’t really a choice-based RPG, the flashpoints don’t really affect anything plot-wise or for Aloy’s character development. Olin is still out of the story, Nil lives, Regalla still dies one way or another. Aloy’s character development is pretty firmly on rails (think Jin Sakai, not Shepard - you get to guide some momentary character reactions but that’s it). I don’t think HBS is a testing ground either - If they were gonna introduce a romance mechanic I think they’d just do it, and not spend two years making a direct continuation of HFW’s main quest and establishing a specific romance hard-baked into the plot, complete with multiple leitmotifs for the character relationship (which is something they haven’t done before afaik) just to introduce a side quest mechanic coming in 5 years. I genuinely can’t think of any game or dev that has beta tested a major alteration to upcoming game mechanics that way - it doesn’t really make any sense in terms of developer resources, and these games are extremely time-consuming to make. I know this is a thing a bunch of people want and I can totally empathize with that! I just think it’s probably not on the table. 

I would bet money the series will bookend itself and the epilogue will involve a) the naming of Zo and Varl’s kid and b) Lis’ pendant. 

Mostly I'm just looking forward to being surprised. One of my favorite things that Horizon does is use carefully established elements in the world to pull the plot in unexpected directions and keeping the world grounded while they lean into speculative science fiction. I can't wait to see what Guerrilla is cooking up

[endlesslyover]

Now I know its a thing to joke about how Gregory J. Read denies the homosexual tensions between Nigel and Alex in Like Minds because yes he absolutely does that on several occasions, however I feel this is something that should not be taken like straight away at face value. Of course we have his choice of the gestalt relationship dynamic between the Nigel and Alex which as many people have pointed out many a time is most often between a husband and a wife, however this isn't like inherently pointing towards any queerness there. What I have noticed however just by accident on researching queer depictions in media, there's a very common theme from throughout the mid 1900s into the early 2000s in deliberately presenting psychopathic behaviour alongside through gay stereotypes to create like a deeper deliberate "wrongness" for the viewers. Considering this was a project for Read throughout the late 1990s into the early 2000s, it's not a stretch to say that he did deliberately write especially Nigel as queer and possibly Alex too not because he wanted them to be perceived as in love, but in an attempt to utilise this sense of 'wrongness' created at the time from queer characters. I don't know if this is something already already explored by the Like Minds fandom on here I only tend to dabble in using tumblr but it was a thought I needed to be put out there in case anyone was willing to understand my ramblings.

[devilart2199-aibi]

I know I already said this prior to you, but I adore your Stunticon designs so much and feel an absolute rush of joy when I see you post art of any of them. I yearn for more information on your AU versions of them, and what happens to them all when they get to earth.

Where does Dead End go when he helps Breakdown, where do Motormaster, Drag Strip and Wildrider go after the split up in the team and how do they all handle it? They're all connected through the gestalt bond, which makes a gestalt closer than any other cybertronians, and how do they handle Motormaster hurting Breakdown, and then losing two of their own?

Does Motormaster ever regret what he did to Breakdown?

Thank you again! Hearing your interest in my AU really does make me so happy!! 🥺💕 So feel free to ask away! I've been pretty busy recently so I haven't had any time to work on the au sadly. But let's answer some questions now! With some drawings!! >:3

Also long post warning! !

"Where does Dead End go when he helps Breakdown?"

In short, undecided atm! But this is what happened if he was planning to leave with Breakdown:

Dead End and Breakdown agreed on a meeting spot a bit outside the Stunticons base. But when Breakdown doesn't show up for a long while, Dead End figured he got cold feet and began heading back to base only to get a coms transmission from MotorMaster telling him to meet up with Dragstrip and Wild Rider who are currently in pursuit of Breakdown!

Dead End would be wayyyy behind the others and only end up catching a glimpse of Breakdown and Knockout being apprehended by the Autobots, the other Stunticons long gone.

Dead End wasn't really sure what he would do now. It seemed like the others didn't know he wanted out like Breakdown. But what if they did? Does he risk it and go back? What was he going to do if the plan had gone smoothly even?

Well... he hadn't really got that far. He just knew he was tired, and Breakdown suggested an out. But joining another group of hot-headed 'Cons? Really?? He needed something different... maybe just... roaming around earth would be fun? It definitely has to be calmer than anything he's experienced the past few Megacycles.

For Dead End, since I wasn't sure if I would have him leave with Breakdown or not, I hadn't chose a story for him yet, though i did have a few ideas in mind.

"Where do MotorMaster, Dragstrip and Wild Rider go after the split up in the team and how do they handle it?"

They probably wouldn't go far, maybe just relocate their base. The remaining team would stick together for the most part. They're still the Stunticons, just... less.

MotorMaster would become hell-bent on getting the two back one way or another... or maybe even making them pay for such treachery to their team.

"How do they handle MotorMaster hurting Breakdown, and then losing two of their own?"

They were used to MM's intimidation techniques to get them back in line, but nothing like this. Sure he'd give 'em a good toss, smack or yelling at, but this, this was something else.

For Dragstrip he'd think to himself "What did Breakdown think would happen if he told MM him off and ditched the team? What a fool" as a kind of way to make sense of the situation. He'd definitely stand a bit further from MM than before.

As for Wild Rider, he loved a good fight. Heck he didn't mind killing a few bots! But never each other. He got an uneasy feeling from the whole thing.

For Dead End, they always remember him voicing his annoyance and tiredness with everything, but they never actually thought he'd do anything about it.

"Does MotorMaster ever regret what he did to Breakdown?"

Sadly not. He probably only regrets not being able to see Breakdown's desire to leave sooner. Not that he'd know what he'd do then.

And I think that was it? Thanks again for the questions and curiosity towards my au!! :3

[doekimakura]

hi hi, fellow fan of your Adler and Elster comic :-) always happy to see people explore these two together.....

Aside the fact that the Adler jokes have grown old, it feels like a lot of people forget that his fondness towards Falke is not something he even got to choose. It was a preprogrammed feature to make him more obedient and easier to mold to his Falkes liking. I often wonder what hed think of that if he read his own Replika files ...

haha oh BOY do I overthink about that one a lot about ADLR.

Deranged ramble below:

I feel like however we see this fact, the results can be very ambiguous, since we have a lot of ADLRs in a lot of parts in Eusian controlled areas. Since Replikas still have a semblance of individuality, different ADLRs may react differently to their situation... although I'm also sure the fact they have this 'issue' will be extremely rare depending on the situation.

(Also looking at the notes again, it seems more that the ADLR units imprinted on their Gestalt source than being preprogrammed? But, eh, semantics.)

But if we're talking about MY ideal headcanon, this is my personal take:

Our ADLR knows. There's no fucking way he doesn't. If he's aware enough to realize he's in a loop, I'm sure he began to notice details he never did before and become more brazen in search of information to find a way out of this mess. I mean, LSTR can find that document lying around, so I bet ADLR has already/can find it, too.

Unfortunately at this point in the story, it probably doesn't matter anymore. Other Replikas have issues, so there's no way he's naive enough to believe only his line is free of issues. Plus, if he's already deep into this shithole, the fact he's preprogrammed to like FLKR doesn't matter, either. She's not waking up and actively refuse to, and everything went to hell and the world is ending. He doesn't have time nor brainspace to think if his feelings for FLKR is real.

And in my take, it's not that ADLR demands any emotional reciprocation from FLKR. I feel like he'd be content watching her prosper from her shadow. So even if he doubted how he felt about her, it probably just made him question some questionable things she's ever done in his lifetime that he shrugged off before? It kind of depends on how their FLKR treat them, I suppose. We don't really know how friendly/abusive FLKR is to our ADLR, so that secret is for him to mull about.

I think if he DOES have time to mull about it, it would probably end up as something he swallow down. He's smart enough to know any negative reaction can risk a decommission, and surely Replikas still have a will to live. He'd probably weigh the pros and cons and decided that: 'Oh well. It doesn't matter anyway,' but lived the rest of his life with an added point to his misery because, maybe everytime he looks at her, he questioned himself whether or not what he feels is real. Whether or not HE is real.

It does make him wonder, though.

TL;DR ADLR is smart. I think through his high INT and the loop he should already been able to figure it out. But I think he accepts it as part of being a Replika. That free will is technically just a dream.

But, oh well. What matters now is to save his beloved Commander. Existential dread can always wait.