#and the way he's compared to a machine when I was called a robot back in middle school

[throughpatchesofviolet]

I've been engaging with a lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations, recently, and I fear that--regardless of whether it's a film, a game, or a book--I am not beating the Sherlock Holmes kin allegations.

[jules-ln]

Viktor is literally art nouveau

I was looking at Viktor's design in league of legends and it hit me, Viktor in Arcane IS Art Nouveau

Not literally but yes literally in a way lmao

Let me walk you through my thought process

I was looking at the league of legends design, and I thought that the fact that Viktor still had hair was weird if the whole point of Viktor is human bad machine good, then why does he has something as human as hair?

Then I thought about the Arcane Herald design, and it actually made more sense that this Viktor still had hair, why? Just look at his robots

The first thing that called my attention was their shoes, because those aren't normal heels, no, those are heelless heels! and let me tell you

1) Viktor isn't straight (no straight man would know and like those shoes, you can't fool me)

2) That's like the worst shoes you could ask for to fight/run in, do you know how easy is to fall with those shoes? No, they aren't practical, those shoes are merely for visual pleasure

And it doesn't seems like Viktor would be the kind of man that would put looks above functionality but then you think about how his designs in general have a very heavy preference for art nouveau; which, is also very much beauty over function

His robots have the asymmetry, A flowing organic shape, a preference for a feminine figure, the reference to flora on the patterns. They're are art nouveau bots and theres no way to deny that, and Viktor's Herald design is too, to some extent

Again, preference for a feminine figure, flowing organic shapes, his staff looks like a tree (kinda), asymmetry to some extent (not as much a his robots), hair (very important). You can reasonably say that it was at least inspired by art nouveau

Then we have the design of his room/house in the commune, it's pretty much art nouveau inspired too. I've seen some people say that Viktor made this to reference the Hexgates because he missed Jayce, but now I'm thinking, what if it wasn't that he missed Jayce, but more that the Hexgates were originally his design

And listen, I know I know, both worked on the hexgates, both should be credited equally, but realistically, I think it's fair to say that both of them probably had different levels of involvement on different things? So what if Viktor was the one with the original idea for the outside design and Jayce then added the art deco elements? Then Viktor repeated it on the commune with a more art nouveau style simply because he likes it?

And you might ask. Why does it matters? Why does the fact that Viktor likes art nouveau means that he's the personification of art nouveau?

Well; now to the point, I studied a little of art history on college, and I was a bit obsessed with art nouveau back then, and you know what was the goal of it?

Art nouveau was made to bring art to the common person, to have every day objects being a piece of art. It was supposed to get art away from the rich and to give it to everyone. But it failed

And you know why Art Nouveau failed and was quickly abandoned?

Two things, 1) it was too expensive, and 2) World War 1

So ironically Art Nouveau ended up being too expensive to reach the people they wanted to help so it stayed a rich people thing, and then it had to be abandoned almost completely because of WW1; there weren't enough materials to make it and a lot of people that became poor because of the war didn't have the money to spend on it

It was very short lived even when it made a big impact on history (That reminds me of someone)

Now compare art nouveau's history to what happened to Viktor (And Jayce)

They wanted to make magic accessible to the common people, to help; but it ended up being so that Hextech only helped people in Piltover to get richer while people in Zaun got worse and worse

Then something happened, a war, and both Viktor and Jayce had to abandon their dreams

Add to that the name art nouveau means new art, and in Spain it was called "Modernismo" Why? Because it wanted to be the future of art, young, refreshing, a bright future different from the past. Who else wanted to be the future of something? Men of progress who?

Viktor (and Jayce to some extent but I think he's more art deco lmao) IS Art Nouveau. It's his story

(And funnily enough, you can find art nouveau in Zaun, but I don't remember ever seeing art deco in Zaun, while it's the main thing on Piltover)

(Also also, I have some thoughts about Jayce being Art Deco, but that's for maaaybe later lmao)

Listen I'm a death of the author guy, I'm going to find meaning on my own. But either someone in the art department had to know the history of art nouveau and made a point of making it Viktor's main style (because it is Viktor's style, like I showed before), or it's just an extremely funny and fitting coincidence

[impactedfates]

can I get screwllum with A,F,G,Q,X? I love him very much and there is not much screwllum X reader content. And argenti X and D

I know who you are.

Here's your request <33 I hope it's alright hehe. Screwllum may be OOC, sorry in advance!

(Not proof read, wrote this a bit eepily so I apologise for any grammer/spelling mistakes)

A - Affection (How they show they love you)

Screwllum is a simple man (robot?) but he remembers a lot. A part of it may be because he's a robot so memory is stored more easier in his head but too much memory is still a thing. He'll always remember everything you've ever told him. From you're favourite flowers to your interests.

Even things you've said in passing you swear didn't matter is ingraved in his memory forever. What's that? You said that you loved how the ocean sounds? He'll install something in the house so you'll hear it everytime.

That one plate you saw randomly in the Xianzhou a few years ago you really liked? Just saw it in the shops, now you have 2 piles of it. Even if he ever does a memory wipe (if he even needs too) he'll keep any memory he has of you, even the bad ones. Because memories of you are still precious to him, even if it's you being cross. He'll always remember everything you say.

F - Favourite (What's their favourite thing about you?)

Your humanity. He thinks everything about you is amazing, but seeing you care so deeply for other people, humans. Animals and techs alike. It makes him so happy. Sure one could argue that since you two were dating, of course you have no problem with robots.

But there's always a difference between people saying it, you saying it compared to actually seeing it first hand. How you care for other human beings, even if some are less worthy of it than others. (Granted you still may take badly about them if they're particularly l bad)

How you gush over animals, even the smaller ones. Even the much smaller ones other would cower too. Even if you as well are scared of them, seeing you still defend them? It makes his mechanic heart swell.

Don't get me started on how he feels when he sees you treating other robots, mechs alike, like they're their own person. They're not JUST a machine. Most have their own thoughts and feelings, and seeing you treat them like they're their own person? Makes him so happy he's asked you out.

G - Gesture (What are small things they do to subtly tell you the love you?)

Info dumping. It happens here and there, and sure not everyone will consider it as a subtle I love you. But he does and so does most of the Genuis Society. In his eyes, he's sharing knowledge with you, someone he cares truly about. It's different to telling other people about it because most of them ask.

It's like just teaching a student which he doesn't mind of course, but with you? He enjoys sharing knowledge with you as if it's an everyday occurrence, as if he's flirting. And he'll be thrilled if you did the same. Sharing knowledge is small, you're more than likely telling each other facts but it's the listening.

How the both of you will be quiet and listen to eachother ramble and talk about a new topic you learnt, it doesn't even matter to him if you've already told him something he knows or you've just forgotten and said it again. He'll happily pretend he didn't know/remember because seeing you smile is enough.

And he hopes you do the same when he talks about the various topics he's interested in.

Q - Quality Time (How do they like to spend time with you?)

Silence. And not in a bad way, he loves hearing you talk and talking back. He loves conversations. But if you asked him his favourite part? It would be when perhaps the both of you are busy and decide to call.

You've talked, caught up, ranted. Any of that and as night slowly rolls around, there's just silence...not much of a sound. Just the fact that you're here...with him...it makes him more than happy. He doesn't mind the silence, sure he can live without a moment of it but I see him just enjoying being left with his thoughts after the two of you talked endlessly.

Thinking about how lucky he is, no words needs to be exchanged as the two of you get on with what ever was needed. It's even better in person, because he can look over and see you concentrating on your own thing.

Who cares if the thing you're doing is something like playing games on your phone. It's you. And it's him. Both of you alone in silence. But still in each others company.

X - Xtra (Random HCs)

1 - As many of us knows, he's likely a bug fanatic (cannot related) I see him gently helping bugs and insects get around. A bug is trying to get pass but there's a rock in the way? Lifted and gone, go on then Ms Bell. The spider needs more room for webs? Don't worry. Come with him and he'll move Mr Nick to a better place to develop it's web

2 - Rights in joint/cursive. He even knows calligraphy!! Here, he'll even teach you how to do it. Just let his hand guide you. It'll take awhile yes but it's worth it seeing you happy face when you finally write your name in calligraphy. He's more than happy to help with with writing more words, or would you prefer just reading his writing? He knows some partners enjoy admiring their S/Os writing.

3 - An amazing cook, especially for someone who can't exactly taste if they need to add more seasoning. He's able to be precise with everything, with and without a menu. While he himself doesn't need to eat, he's friends with enough people to know they need too. So if he realises his friends haven't eaten in awhile, he'll down his "kiss the bot" apron and begin cooking.

D - Drunk (How are they when drunk?)

Clingy, oh so clingy. I see him having an average drink tolerance. But when he does, he's off to find you! His beloved, you didn't leave him right? Don't worry he'll find you. And as soon as he sees you, he's wrapping his arms around you as if you'll get blown away by the wind.

"I missed you..."

He would murmur into your neck, despite the fact that the last time you saw each other was a merely 5 minutes ago. He's following you like a lost dog, wanting your attention but he's patient. He knows deep down you're his.

He might not recognize you at first though depending on how many drinks he's had. Gently pushing you away as he claims his one true love is coming soon. Describes you yet cannot come to senses that you are who he's chattering away about. Or he might try flirting with you forgetting he's already dating you. His face lights up when you tell him, yes. We've been together for years.

He just loves you so much, he isn't gonna leave your side <33

X - Xtra (Random HCs)

1 - Has a long skin and hair routine but it works out perfectly. His skin is soft and his hair is as silky smooth as hair can be. He'll insist he can do the same with you but respects what ever decision you made. He doesn't take too long in the bathrooms though surprisingly enough. Perhaps he got so used to his routine it became second nature and finished sooner.

2 - He is so good at poetry, you almost wonder if he were one before he became a Knight of Beauty. Some are based on himself, maybe even other knights. Some are based on Idrila, but the ones he keeps safely tucked away is poems he's written about you. He loves you dearly sand is more than happy to let you read some, while your name won't be listed. The metaphors and imagery does tie in together so you know it is you anyways.

3 - Will happily let you braid his hair, it makes him feel like a kid again, it makes him happy to have someone close to him. He loves how your finger feels like through his hair and he's more than happy to buy you supplies even if all you're doing is putting it in a pony tail.

Last ABC challenge done!! I hope this is okay my friend and I did your man justice ^^

[sunnylighter]

It was fun, and Sonic was quickly making fast friends with Maria. She was bright and endlessly curious in a way that reminded him of Tails and Amy. Shadow, however, remained fairly cold towards him, and it was clear he was only tolerating his presence for Maria’s sake, but Sonic didn’t mind since his grumpy attitude just made him fun to tease. He was mentally keeping record of all the times his cornier jokes made the dark hedgehog’s eye twitch.

However, their fun would quickly come to an end when a large machine suddenly seemed to fall out of the sky right behind them.

Shadow darted so he was between the robot and Maria, only to tense as another robot suddenly appeared at their front.

Sonic was quick to cover them and wondered why Eggman would be attacking now.

Only… these weren’t Badniks. They lacked any of Eggman’s usual design flares and instead had a symbol set onto their shoulders.

“Huh, I wonder what has GUN in a tizzy,” Sonic said, still on the defense. It didn’t matter if it was Eggman or GUN. If there were robots threatening innocent people, he wasn’t about to just stand by and let it happen.

“They found us,” Shadow hissed angrily.

Sonic cast a glance back at him and Maria. “They’re after you? Why?”

“For existing,” Shadow said bitterly. 

“PRISONERS, SURRENDER OR BE INCINERATED!” the GUN robot said in a cold, automated tone.

So, I happen to be co-writing another Sonic fic with The_Freaky_One2325. It's called Live and Learn, and it explores what might have happened if Maria survived and was frozen alongside Shadow to awaken in the modern day. We call it the Spider-Maria AU due to a joke in the planning phase where we compared her to the Sonic version of Spider-Gwen. No, Maria does not actually have spider powers. It's been really fun to work together on it so far, and I hope you enjoy reading it if interested. Link below.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64626922?view_full_work=true

[ultra-force-au]

Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go and Pitch Pilot Comparisons

I've been meaning to do this since the pitch pilot for the show was found, but I figured it was best that I do it on this blog because it's pitch pilot related. I want to make a compilation of differences between the pitch pilot and the show, along with what got reused later on.

This is kinda a long one, so buckle up.

Biggest changes

Names

Getting the most obvious one out of the way first.

The monkeys have different names, instead of actual names they're referred to by color. Monkey Black, monkey Blue, monkey Green, monkey Red, and monkey Yellow for Antauri, Gibson, Otto, Sprx, and Nova respectively. It's possible that they were simply placeholder names until the series got picked up, which is my guess. Chiro, Skeleton King, and Thing stayed the same name wise, though Thingy was referred to as "Thing" and "little thingy" but it's relatively the same.

Shuggazoom City is referred to as Pachinko Town. While it's obvious that the name got changed later on, and how it might've transferred to the Sheenkos in a similar sounding manner, it's interesting to note that pachinkos are a thing. More specifically, it's a Japanese word (パチンコ, pachinko) for vertical pinball like machines that are typically used for gambling, but are shown in arcades as well.

Interesting to see the Japanese word usage this far back in the show's roots, considering some Kanji is used in the show at some points, as well as Super Quasar calling Chiro Chiro-san, a Japanese suffix/honorific to show respect to the person they speak to (think of it similarly to using Mr. or Ms./Mrs. for individuals), at least from my understanding anyways as someone who doesn't speak Japanese. Makes me wonder if there being an arcade was always planned because of that little detail…

Ranger 7 is referred to as Ranger 6. Small in comparison, but interesting to note regardless.

The Super Robot is also referred to as Super Robot Battle Base Headquarters as well.

The Power Primate seems to have a different name too. Power of… Ape? Power of something, I genuinely cannot figure out what that particular word is.

Voices

This is obvious enough. A good few of the voices were changed between the pitch pilot and the show itself. Yellow and Chiro are the most notable ones. Black and Blue sound the same as they do in the show, though Blue doesn't seem to have a hint of a British accent here. Skeleton King seems the same voice wise as well, same with Red, but I'm not the best when it comes to voice acting so they might have different VAs that sound very similar to each other. It doesn't help there isn't anything saying who the voice actors were here.

Designs

Skeleton King is the most different from what I noticed.

Chiro's, of course, different as well but it's nothing too different from when we see his little self in the show so there's not much to note there.

The monkeys designs are a little different, but the art style doesn't help in any capacity. Their tails might be purely organic rather than cybernetic but because they're drawn as just lines, it's hard to determine that for sure.

The planet looks pretty different, though it could be because not a lot of it was given much detail. The same could be said about Shuggazoom City compared to Pachinko Town.

Miscellaneous/smaller differences

Chiro doesn't have a communicator on his regular outfit, not a visible one anyways. He also transforms into his Hyperforce mode by flipping his hat, at least it appears that way.

One attack name hasn't been used in the show itself outside of the pilot, Chiro's Stingray Boom(?).

The monkeys share a singular room rather than their own individual ones as we see in the final product. Chiro's room also looks different here.

The inside of the Super Robot is, in general, different looking.

Red was possibly gonna be the British and/or Australian monkey of the team instead of Gibson being British, having used "blimey" and "crikey" at different points in the pitch pilot.

3D/CGI appears to have been used for the Super Robot and its individual parts. Nowhere in the show itself has there been any of that used, and if there is, it's not noticeable.

What's been reused in the show

The general Thingy plot has been brought over and refined into, of course, the season 1 episode "Thingy."

The line where Yellow says "This place makes my fur itch" has been brought over to "Magnetic Menace" word for word.

Some plot points in the pitch pilot has been brought over to "Chiro's Girl," mainly Thingy being used by Skeleton King directly to Jinmay being used by him and Sakko, and Chiro using pictures of their time together to help bring them back to normal.

Furthermore, the fact that Chiro has an ID has been taken over from the pitch pilot as well. Show version is a blink and you'll miss it thing though since it doesn't linger on it and it doesn't show it in detail. Even I missed it a good few times.

Chiro's younger design was brought over, albeit for a brief moment with his old clothes being in Skeleton King's lair and for most of "Night of Fear" with Chiro being turned younger.

His Hyperforce outfit is the same in both with it being brought over, just the face mask/makeup is slightly different.

While there's at least one attack that's different in the pitch pilot, there's some that's been brought over, at least name wise. Those being Boom Boom Wakeup, Magna-Tingler Blast, and Psycho Chopping Doom Spin.

Chiro's space/underwater suit remains the same and has been brought over.

The names of the Super Robot parts have been transferred over as well, however with the added addition of everything being numbered 1-6 rather than Fist Rocket 1, Fist Rocket 2, Foot Crusher Cruiser 1, etc. Placements of who goes to what is also the same.

—————

And that's probably everything, unless I missed or forgot something, which is likely. Same with if I messed something up. If I did miss anything, I'll compile more for a second part or reblog typing out each addition + mentioning whoever points out what I missed.

I would've shown off more images to show the differences and whatnot, but Tumblr's stupid with its 30 images per post limit.

I thought everything was just so interesting and I couldn't help but compare and contrast it all. I'll admit that everything took me a while, mainly because of doing other things and not going through the show in a while. Still haven't outside of getting screenshots.

[ask-fun-facility]

NEW SHIPMENT

Happy

New Security units lined in. 20 lined up in rows for inspection their movents aligned. Not one shifted out of line, looking forward. There was a cold stillness in the air. The director stood in front of them, on his side his most trusted security unit. Carrion. Despite that the director still had an energy that seemed nervous. He had a pad in his hand, checking off things. Once done he would go to walk between a row. Observing one by one, they had new kinds of weapons. New armor. They seemed specifically built. Their weapons showing outwardly without any care of discretion. When the director checked another. It moved instantly towards the director. Who stepped back in return, a defect.

VinnyBox

Carrion disliked the other security units. He never really saw them as his equals. Less advanced, manufactured to be destroyed and disposed once its out of use. Never to be brought back as they once were. He has been compared to them off handedly by some of the human units, but a little reminder of their insignificance was all it takes to shut them up. Unlike the lesser units, Carrion was worth saving. Worth bringing back over and over again. He held greater value than any of these facility-made bots could- or couldn't ever imagine. Carrion watches over the Director silently. When a unit made its advances towards the man, he left no time wasted, stepping between the bot's path to the Director and swiftly jabbing his metallic claws through the machine's head and tearing it off its body. The defected machine lets out a brief distorted screech as it shuts down and falls stiffly to the ground with a loud bang as it hits the floor, the head following after as Carrion drops it. He scans around swiftly in case of any more defects, but all seems clear for now. Carrion turns to the Director and spoke with a steady tone like always. "A close call. Are you alright?"

HappyAnother weakness of the directors. His speed, there was always a delay to his reactions. The unfortunate effect. A horn was lifted in precaution. One eye staring at the destroyed bot. 19. His gaze went to carrion. Looking up at the towering gaurd. He moved a hand. Giving carrion at touch on his side. He took a breath. “Thank you, I’m fine…you truly are magnificent.” He praised in a quiet voice. He moved his hand off and went down the line there werent any defects at least for now. His other horn lifted, the crumpled mess of a robot was lifted off the ground. Folding up into a cube. Unlike his body his mind worked fast. It was now in a carryable shape. A few presses of the pad in his hand and a few if the units went to discard it. He sighed. “These look slightly scuffed. I wonder if they are left overs.” He mumbled outloud for carrion to hear. 

VinnyBox

The praise from Director sends a pleasant buzz through Carrion's system. He nods to the Director, "It's my pleasure to serve and protect." Once sure that the Director is steady, he watches as the robot crumpled into nothing but an ordinary cube of scraps. It's truly fascinating that he could simply carry this out without having to make direct contact with it. Carrion believes he could easily end up with the same fate if he stepped too out of line, but he has no reason to. He liked where he stands. As the few units discard the cube, his attention turns at the Director's words. "I believe that to be the case. They will end up broken or destroyed one way or another no matter the quality. Makes sense that the replacements are flawed compared to everything else in the facility." He doubts they'd wanna spend so much on something that will likely only last at most a few weeks if lucky. The budget could go to more important things long term.

Happy

As he busied himself with the pad, hed nod in agreement. “It feels like a waste…but i suppose this is the best human technology can do.” He hit a few more buttons then turned to carrion. The forever worried look on the directors face seemed to have a question to it. “Have you been refueled? We also got a shipment of blood. I know we can produce it here but I thought maybe we should get you something not so…” he shook his head to that. The problem with the blood in this facility. It had his spores all over it. So something cleaner maybe would be a nice treat? Just for carrion. “I wanted to get you something fresh.” He ended his sentence.

VinnyBox

"Humans. They're wasteful." There's a slight bite in Carrion's tone at the mention of humans. Not quite fond of them. Sure, call him a hypocrite for his lack of self-preservation and getting himself damaged, but these units will never get the same luxury of being made with that same care his creator did with him. Maybe that's it. The level of care put into him and the units were not the same. At the Director's question, Carrion checks his status, becoming still for a moment.

FUEL LEVEL: 75% (Functional) CONTAMINATION: Mild SYSTEM TEMPERATURE: Stable OVERALL STATUS: STABLE

There's a slight pause before Carrion answers, calm. "My fuel is still at a pretty good state, but a fresh refill is always welcomed. Your consideration is appreciated, Director." Carrion's visor glows dimly as it quickly scans director's features or what he's able to see, catching the look of worry etched almost perpetually onto the Director's face. "Do the faulty units still concern you?" The symbol on his face flashes into a question mark.

Happy

A fresh refill. Oh, wonderful it made him giddy. It was always interesting to him to refuel carrion. It was all a strange setup, morphines tech was never boring. When the other asked the giddiness slowly tempered to a small patter. The machines were now leaving their rows to start patrolling. “A little, but I feel better with you around. I’d be a nervous mess otherwise.” He started to turn and walk to carrions station. “Before you came I’d had many incidents of faulty units. Morgane was able to help me occasionally during those times.” “Thered be times id be without any security. Recovery time would be long, so would the reports. But with you, damage has been reduced. And paperwork has been lighter. You’ve been a great help.” 

VinnyBox

As they both approached the refueling station, Carrion settles himself at the station to prepare for refuel as they chatted, busying his hands with the equipments in a routine-like manner. "I'm pleased to know you feel more at ease with me despite all these incidents. Your safety is one of my top priorities." The mention of Morgane sends a stutter through his system. A feeling. Something he can't quite identify clearly. Not fear nor discomfort, maybe just a dislike towards them. They never really got along unless the Director was present to which they can somewhat be civilized enough to tolerate each other. Behind closed doors, there's definitely hostility between the two that often resulted in. Though, Carrion was glad that before his arrival Morgane was around to help with past incidents. They may not get along, but he knows when to appreciate someone for their contribution. "I cannot imagine having to spend so much time going through the reports... I'm. Happy to know that my presence has lifted some of those weights." As Carrion sets himself up with the refueling equipment, prompts floods his system and reports of his status. The same contamination prompt is shown amongst other pop ups. He thinks before facing the Director. "My system alerted me of some contamination, although there has been no signs of damage in my system. I do not believe it is harmful, but would you mind running some tests with the machine to identify the source before we refuel?" He gestures to the machine, the screen displaying Carrion's current status and a prompt. START SYSTEM SCAN?

[Start]◂ [Cancel]

(edited)

Happy

The director would comply. His hands running over the panel of the screen. With a push of the key, the scan would start. There was something always so strangely endearing about carrion. There were moments in times depending on subjects or how he spoke caused such odd reactions. Reactions that would never have been seen in a faculty robot. It was moments of pauses. It was shifts in weight. A hesitation of arm or leg. It wasn’t like the lag you’d experience or the loading of systems. It wasnt some trick of the eye, some illussion. No, it truly felt that carrion had personality to even their words. It felt like he was looking at himself sometimes. [i do hope its something small.] He did worry thought the contamination. Was it just bad blood? Or. He looked to his hand that pressed onto the computers desktop.

VinnyBox

Carrion awaits patiently as the scanning process begins. His form stock still as different status reports came and went on the display. He finds moments like these calm. Refreshing. Where he can take a moment to recalibrate and simply be after a days worth of information. He regularly updates his memory data to prevent long gaps in his memories in a case where he gets damaged or destroyed. Then at least his memories, or his whole being really, is kept intact. A part of him is… worried. Or at least displeased by the idea of losing himself. What he is currently. The data that makes Carrion who he is. It’s not a pleasant thought, so he shelves that to the very back of his mind. His attention snaps back to Director. A hum of agreement. “It would be most desirable if it’s nothing to cause urgency.” The computer displays lines of information, but the most prominent one highlights that the fuel he’s currently using is contaminated. Further investigation brings up some type of spore as the cause. Carrion tilts his head, confused. “How… peculiar. The blood fueling me is contaminated with spores. Could we run further tests to identify it?”

Happy

The director would seem to fluster at the end of the question. There was a myriad of information that was exciting. “We do not need to identify, it’s me.” He said as he shook his head to carrion. His own blood ran hot, it did not feel his own. This was good news. Why? “You’re able to detect my spores.” He looked over the system. “They haven’t been able to but you can.” Ah he wanted to run more tests. “Do you know how monumental that is?” There was a different kind of awe to his voice.

13 May 2025

VinnyBox

Ah. Interesting. The fact that the spore originated from the director is not what he expected. Maybe there is more to learn of him after all. His information has always been more scarce compared to other subjects within this facility, probably for a good reason. Still, the fact that he is able to detech Director's spore when others have failed... a sense of pride blooms in him, even more so when Director seems just as in awe. "I'd say it's Dr.Morphine's brilliance that I am advanced enough to detect them," Carrion files through the report, noting this moment as of importance as he stores it away into his memory data. "Are you able to control the spores? What do you use them for?" There's a lilt of curiosity in his tone.

Happy

“ I am. I use them to spread myself around.” He would move away from the panel. “I can control them, the fact you have so much means the blood youve been fed has been from employees infected. “ He moved to carrion. “Those with spores can grow a worm, that i can move my consciousness too.” “The other thing that spores can do is take over the nervous system. Allowing me more direct control…” He moved a hand to carrions fueling system. His hand slowly raised about to touch before he paused. “May…I try something?” (edited)

VinnyBox

It makes sense the blood he'd been fed came from the infected employees of the facility. That was the only logical explanation for how the spores ended up in his system. He probably should be paying more attention to the contamination or at least have it dealt with sooner. This procrastination is quite out of character for himself, but then again, he'd put this matter in low priority due to it not affecting his system as far as he's aware. Maybe he's gotten a bit careless, so used to being destroyed and brought back as if nothing ever happened. He was prepared to accept the risks. Carrion watches the Director move towards him, he kept still except for the occasional nod of his head in understanding. Spores that can take over the nervous system... sounds quite familiar to Cordyceps, he notes. His vision focuses on the Director's hand, silent as he wrestles with his own thoughts. He's unsure what Director wants to try right now, but he has no reason to believe the Director would harm him, at least not intentionally. Carrion stares ahead of himself, assured. "Whatever you wish to try, go ahead."

Happy

“Then..excuse me.” He spoke his voice softened as he placed his hand. The directors horns raised somewhat as he concentrated. Brows furrowed. His hand found the entrance of the fuel feeder. A thumb traced it before he presed his hand around it. The spores began to bloom. From the deepest of carrions engine to the entrance of the fuel. The spores began to web inching into the machjne connecting to circuits and wires. A blue like substance fed from the directors hand feeding into carrions body. He had done this once before… That robot went wild from it. But he was more prepared in this case. He could pull the plug anytime or remove it before it became too much.

VinnyBox

Initially there wasn't much happening, or at least not anything he could detect that's out of place. It took only a couple more seconds before Carrion actually felt something. His system made a ping that there's been a connection established to his system before his body turns rigid. A spark lancing through his system like nothing he's felt before. New. Foreign. Carrion sits stiffly, turning to the director. His usual steady red symbol seems to be trembling subtly every few seconds, but nothing seems out of the ordinary in how Carrion is acting. At least not yet. "I feel... a connection, Director."

Happy

“Oh! It…it worked!” He said in an excited quiet voice. A horn wiggled slightly. Pleased. “How is it like?” He asked his free hand went to touch the others arm.

VinnyBox

Carrion goes through his information as regular, there's new ones filtering in that he's not familiar with. At least not in a way he usually experiences it. "Hmm.. It's hard to describe. I can feel the rhythm of your heart beat. I shouldn't be able to without some form of direct contact or a visual scan." He pauses momentarily before continuing, staring at his own hands inquisitively. "Normally I receive information in numbers and statistics but... this time I... feel. I think. Its more than strings of numbers."

Happy

“Thats very interesting. Wonderful even.” He paused a little bit as his eyes focused on what seemed like nothing. “I can feel you too,” he mumbled. “Every little tik, the pulses from your engine…” he pulled his thoughts back. For some reason it made him feel uneasy to dig more deeply. Something he felt when it came to morgane at times.

[blueikeproductions]

I’ve been rewatching some Japanese TF anime, and Superlink has been one I’ve been going back to in particular.

Back in the day the series, on both sides of the pond, wasn’t as successful as Armada for a number of reasons, but the primary reason cited toy wise was that the series didn’t have a cohesive play pattern like Armada did. Superlink, and the Energon dub, did emphasize Energon as the primary focus and gimmick with Stars and Weaponry, but that was secondary to the true gimmick focused on more exclusively in the anime: combining.

The Energon Dreamwave comic put far more of an emphasis on Energon itself, with the combining gimmick secondary, but the anime was not about to let its mech designs to go to waste like that, with the Autobots having a combining gimmick to emphasize team work, with the Decepticons, aside from Constructicon Maximus and Bruticus Maximus, not having any such fusion abilities because they’re dysfunctional supervillains, you see.

Superlink is generally viewed as one of the worst series due to its primitive CGI (compared to wait Mainframe was doing with Beast Wars and Beast Machines at the time) for the robots, so much so when the robots needed to emote more expressively or move more dynamically, they’d suddenly be in much better 2D animation.

Indeed perhaps the anime’s best known fight scene between a giant Optimus and Galvatron is the primary example of this.

But the other primary reason is the Energon dub, where like Armada, the scripts weren’t translated well leading to a lot of odd stilted dialog, misinterpreted character motivations and bizarrely an entire key episode missing (this happened with RiD01, but all the missing episodes were dubbed and included in official and unofficial releases and it had the excuse of 9/11 having just happened, where the Predacons pretty casually blow up buildings as a plot point in the missing episodes).

One particular instance of misaligned motivation is Ironhide yelling “GET TO THE SHIP!” when Demolisher is dying in an Energon attack, when in the original context, the young Autobot is mortified at Demolisher having made a sacrifice like that and is calling out his name in anguish as he’s dragged back to the Miranda II. In that same breath, Demolishor in the dub was merely cursing out Optimus for this attack, where as he was telling green horn Ironhide (someone he had protected from Galvatron in his own way a few times) to remember this crusty old Decepticon for the man he was, rather than what befell him.

My guess with this is less bad translations and the staff trying to hide Ironhide being remorseful at someone he previously expressed distrust and anger towards, with this sorta thing happening before in past kids anime dubs in general. That doesn’t make it right, but still.

Still, I’d argue Energon isn’t even that bad of a show, both versions aren’t perfect, but the Japanese version of Superlink does make far more sense and tries to have the same subtle sophistication Armada had in its original Micron Legend version.

Armada and Energon are the rare examples of when I’d recommend just watching the Japanese version, because the ideas are communicated far more clearly.

In some cases, I’d argue it handles certain things better than modern TF cartoons claim to do like EarthSpark and Cyberverse.

This particular moment comes to mind for example, where Ironhide and Demolisher struggle with cooperating. Hot Shot is more trusting, wanting to let old grudges die for the sake of the future but Demolisher clearly is struggling.

Superlink has this reoccurring theme of a sense of identity, one’s self worth and how they wish to live. It’s surprisingly complex and has no true straight answers, something I don’t really like modern era cartoons doing, but it surprisingly works here.

In particular it almost does LGBT themes better. Tidal Wave, especially after his upgrade, is very clearly in love with Galvatron, which some fans wonder if it has something to do with him having formally been battle armor for Megatron during Armada. Nobody really calls negative attention to it either, with at most is Snowcat thinking Tidal Wave is throwing his life away recklessly to die in an Energon Sun along with Galvatron. Galvatron also seems to have a homoerotic fixation on Optimus, only really doing half of what he does simply to get Optimus’ attention so they can fight, and is infuriated when others get in his way with Prime. In this case it’s played more like a one sided toxic gay relationship, since Galvatron is somewhat clingy and possessive, even calling the Prime “my Convoy” when addressing him. This homoeroticism was there in Armada too, but they weren’t even trying to hide it here. If you want to ship an Optimus and Megatron, do the Superlink ones, plus Optimus has the dad bod look for those that like that in a man. It’s the whole package right there.

Anyway Demolisher, a Decepticon who was mostly a generic goon during Armada, has several moments early on where he’s grappling with his role at the end of the Great War.

While still a bit bitter having to work with the Autobots, Demolisher ultimately seemed happy on his new life. It was when rumors that Galvatron was still alive did the former goon start to second guess himself, but still remained loyal to the Autobots, even turning down Cyclonus and Tidal Wave who immediately switched sides to the Terrorcons… until Galvatron appeared in the flesh.

Galvatron tries to make Demolisher shoot him, after all, he is an Autobot now, as much earlier, Demolishor seemed to want to remove his Decepticon badge, remarking somewhat philosophically how it doesn’t just come off, but the goon finds he can’t shoot his leader, and instead hesitantly shoots down the gate to Ocean City so the Terrorcons can steal the Energon.

This back and forth conflicting on Demolisher’s part persists even after he joins the Terrorcons, until he makes his ultimate sacrifice, taking the full brunt of an Energon wave attack meant for Galvatron, his exo structure crumbling but his Spark endured.

Because there was a new toy to sell, an upgraded dump truck version of Demolishor, Demolisher’s Spark was placed in this new body, that Galvatron created using Unicron’s power… However, to avoid that pesky conscious, Galvatron had reprogrammed his (mostly) loyal goon into a more ape like musclehead, devoid of his memories with the humans and Autobots, an act that even Snowcat, formally Cyclonus, found a bit unnerving.

Either way Demolishor became the Rocksteady to Snowcat’s Bebop, with the two along with Mirage, formally Tidal Wave, serving as the show’s comic relief. Demolishor wasn’t 100% loyal tho as he and Snowcat refused to die via plunging themselves into the Energon Sun, where as Galvatron, Mirage and Starscream did (more on this later).

One might think this is bad writing and a partial side effect of being a toyetic anime, but I think this is intentional to the anime’s overall theme.

The Decepticons and Terrorcons are kind of fascinating as they represent a lot of the themes about sense of self and belonging.

Galvatron is especially fascinating. Japanese media tends to cast Megatron as a somewhat childish individual, giddy like a kindergartner getting a new toy, prone to toddler like tantrums when he doesn’t get his way or hears something he doesn’t want to hear. Micron and Superlink use this characterization in particular, but it’s far more magnified in the later. While Micron does show an air of sophistication and self awareness, with moments showing he does care for his men he’s just a tough love sort, this largely gets tossed out the window in Superlink.

While starting out similar to his Armada counterpart, it’s pretty clear the reborn Galvatron is more prone to fits of sheer rage and uncontrolled violence to those who annoy him. This Galvatron and his later Master Megatron form in Galaxy Force are depicted as a corrosive influence, implying becoming a Decepticon isn’t merely a political choice, but a full on cult where using dark power, your sanity and sense of self is removed entirely so you may kiss the ring. This proves true with Nightscream, Scorponok and Inferno, who all become loyal servants or snarling animals only meant to kill. Galvatron’s corrosive nature is in full display from the get go when he takes over Alpha Q’s noble goal to use Unicron to revive fallen planets to instead use Unicron as a bio weapon. Galvatron also shows what happens to those who step out of line, brutally killing the sociopathic Shockblast and rebellious kid brother Sixshot for their constant insubordination. This mighty power and show of force is also what recruits the ancient Decepticon Combiners to his cause (it’s implied in Micron and Superlink that Optimus and Megatron are merely the current leaders with Bruticus and Constructicon Maximus not recognizing Galvatron as Megatron, so clearly Megatron wasn’t the founder of the Decepticons, but he’s clearly the one who led the longest out of spite and grit if nothing else).

This Galvatron is written to be a more direct homage to G1 Galvatron, who became insane after being stuck in a plasma pool in a far off asteroid after Unicron’s destruction. This Galvatron’s insanity seems to be partially influenced by Unicron, as he seeks to pilot the planet eater as a massive super weapon. Constantly wired into Unicron, it’s clear the seemingly dead primordial god wasn’t completely dead and was trying to possess the tyrannical Decepticon, having largely succeeded in taking him over in series end so that he may use him as his new body once fused with Cybertron and his disembodied Spark. Galvatron is all about complete control, and being unable to control Unicron like he thinks he can rankles him severely. The only thing he craves more than control is his near homoerotic obsession with Optimus as his worthy rival, this being enough to shake off Unicron when Optimus eggs him on. Taking matters into his own hands, not wanting to let Unicron control him, Galvatron lets himself die by flying into the Energon Sun, hoping the gambit will destroy Unicron also, which it does. Kinda. Galaxy Force doesn’t use Unicron but Hasbro media states the Black Hole was created by Unicron’s influence, collapsing the Energon Sun into it… So oops.

When given the opportunity, Cyclonus and Tidal Wave drop everything and go join the Terrorcons. Both are completely loyal to Megatron and the Decepticon cause, and seem far more content to be full on villains then bother with any human-Cybertron relations. For their own loyalty, Galvatron rebuilds them using Unicron’s power into Snowcat and Mirage. Once upgraded into Snowcat, Cyclonus does seem to express an awareness most of the Decepticons are clingy bootlickers, and he gives off a “Thank Primus I’m the smart one in this operation” vibe. Cyclonus always was more the type that enlisted so he could shoot stuff and this hasn’t changed but there is a certain self awareness to his character now that’s fun. Cyclonus and Tidal Wave pretty much know where they belong and are content with that for the most part.

Starscream and Scorponok have a similar arc but it goes different directions.

Starscream is a kerfluffle on both sides, but not due to dubbing errors but due to creative differences. Hasbro intended the character to be a revived Starscream with ghost powers to reference G1, but Takara and the anime staff seemed wishy washy on it. Apparently the being known as Nightscream was largely viewed as a separate character unrelated to Armada or G1 flavored Starscream. This robot was more of a nameless samurai assassin created by Alpha Q to assassinate Galvatron and distract Optimus, so Alpha Q can gather the Energon he needs for his plans. Galvatron does seem to recognize Nightscream as being Starscream, calling him his old follower, but never outright saying it IS Starscream. After using his new Unicronian powers to give the assassin the what for, Galvatron ultimately spares the robot, dubs him Nightscream with the nameless man pledging his undying loyalty to his new master (with Galvatron doing some reprogramming prior). Nightscream’s loyalty is never questioned, as he stays with Galvatron no matter what, even wishing to die alongside his master.

Scorponok also is something of a nameless man, created by Alpha Q, but in the image of his old father figure, the Planet Q Chamberlain. Because the Chamberlain’s own Spark was no more, I guess the power of Energon can’t remake Sparks, Alpha Q had to settle for the Spark of a wandering Decepticon (theorized by fans to be Thrust’s, doubly so due to Thrust and Scorponok sharing the same dub voice actors), Scorponok was created. Scorponok from the start seems to view himself as merely a soldier that does what he’s told, a mantra that persists working for Alpha Q and Galvatron. Scorponok is somewhat tragic as a father figure that Alpha Q lovingly recreated only to be yanked away by Galvatron’s selfishness. Initially more of a spy for Alpha, Galvatron sees through it and beats him into servitude, branding him a Decepticon. Scorpy still ultimately works for Alpha Q, and gains a sort of friendly rivalry with Ironhide, but it’s all for naught as Galvatron, needing the hulking robot’s Energon detection abilities, reprograms him further, wiping out his loyalty to Alpha, and turning him into a full on Decepticon with no true morals and only wanting to steal Energon and fight.

This line also feels right at home in EarthSpark, both as a critique of it and the Decepticons’ own unwillingness to change.

Scorponok constantly clashes with Ironhide, who is both trying to figure himself out but also trying to get Scorponok to see the bigger picture of Galvatron’s insanity and how that’s ruining what Scorponok and Alpha tried to build together. Scorponok refuses to budge, not seeing the value of anything other than complete servitude to Galvatron, despite being somewhat humbled when his Terrorcons express concern and share their Energon with him. Only at death and Galvatron’s seeming demise does it finally seem to sink in for Scorponok. Sadly in Hasbro markets, Scorponok doesn’t get a happier ending, as he is revived as an Energon starved zombie, though this never makes it into Galaxy Force. Perhaps this was one of the inspirations of the Prime zombie Terrorcons.

Demolishor has his arc, but funny enough, he was rereleased during Cybertron in his old Armada design but with new colors, and his bio states he largely is happy with his life post Energon, given a new opportunity at peace, but this time wants nothing to do with Megatron at all, preferring to fight Scrapmetals on the black hole entombed Cybertron than be mistreated by Megatron again. As Demolisher never appears in Galaxy Force, (although Mudflap uses his name in the Japanese version) this is a story crafted entirely by Hasbro to give Demolishor some kind of closure.

Despite being critical to the plot, Unicron himself isn’t terrible significant as a character, being quite literally the vehicle for the story to progress. While in Armada he was intelligent and wise, playing 4D chess with the humans and Transformers, creating the Mini-Cons to make himself more powerful by sprinkling them in during the Great War, in this era, he’s reduced to a primitive, snarling beast. It’s never really explained why this happened, though my personal assumption is Unicron did die, and Alpha Q and Galvatron’s meddling turned him into a planet sized zombie, whose only instinct is to consume. The more likely real world reason is they wanted to go back to Unicron’s more traditional schtick as a planet eater and force of destruction and chaos, something he technically wasn’t during Armada. Indeed the Autobots express fill awareness of Unicron being a force of nature that haunted the universe, which is funny considering they never heard of him in Armada (a similar problem in G1 also).

The Autobots have a bit of this dynamic as well. Optimus and Rodimus are at loggerheads over the complications of what to do with Unicron. Rodimus, guilt ridden over failing to help Planet Q, joins Alpha Q’s quest to use the planet eater in a mad gamble to restore life to the galaxy. Rodimus is confident this will work, despite the danger, but Optimus thinks it’s madness, knowing full well what Unicron can do first hand. They ultimately work together in the end, but there’s this agree to disagree vibe between them. Both ultimately are proven correct though: Rodimus gets to see the birth of the new planets as intended but Optimus’ fears in Unicron regaining control and destroying several of the planets also happens. It was a tough decision that ultimately failed (according to Hasbro storytelling), so Optimus was ultimately correct in his original feelings.

Ironhide is pry the most developed character in the anime, though because of the dub’s slipshod handling, a lot of his character development is missing and he comes off as a huge goober. He’s still a goober in Superlink, but he gradually grows out of it.

Ironhide is very much this meme/SpongeBob gag: he thinks he’s awesome, constantly pumping himself up as a manly man of action, but has a lot to learn, often being humbled and striving to do better. Being partnered with Kicker, something neither is really pleased with initially, does allow both to feed off each other, and grow into better people. Mostly. Kicker is still a rebellious moody 16 year old boy with father issues so that only goes so far, but he mellows out a bit, while Ironhide’s trials mature him. His ongoing rivalry with Scorponok and seeing the loss of several teammates are significant moments of his growth. Sadly Ironhide didn’t catch on despite good intentions, as the dub mangled him, his clunky fat kid design and his annoying tics in Japanese were hard to overlook. He does get some call backs in Japanese media, having a prominent moment in the Trigger PV and getting an occasional new toy, so he clearly has fans, he’s just an acquired taste it seems.

Kicker is another character that works better in Japanese, but still kind of a tough sell. The dub increased his teenage angst, so he came off as unlikable. He’s still bullheaded in Japanese but is more pragmatic and blunt. His schtick seems to be the type who is forced against his will into things, but makes the best of it under his terms, which goes back to that underlying theme of identity and choices.

Kicker is dragged to Cybertron against his will, has a poor first impression of the Transformers, here endowed with the power of Primus, and is used by his father pretty casually as an Energon detector. Following an accident in space that saw Kicker drift aimlessly and traumatize him further, it’s no surprise he has no real attachment to his dad often going out of his way to avoid being near him and his constant love bombing. This persists to the end, they never really make up and I suspect Dr. Jones will never get to know his first grand kids… I don’t think Jones is a bad person, he’s just not a good father, and he seems to at least be trying to make up for it (Sally comes off as a do-over more than anything with how well he treats her) but Kicker isn’t having it. Kicker makes the most of his rather bleak situation, mining Energon on his terms and gradually becoming good friends with the Autobots. The Autobots, and Optimus, respect his autonomy and treat him as a person rather than a fool. Optimus is more his dad than Jones his, something Kicker openly admits as he’s clearly far more agonized at the idea of Optimus dying when fighting Unicron than he is when Jones is inconvenienced by the Terrorcons, almost only coming to his aid out of a sense of paternal obligation than genuine affection for his dad. Kicker also seems subject to differing ideas; Takara seemingly casts him as more moody, athletic teen who helps combat the Terrorcons in an almost Masaru Daimon fashion ala Digimon Savers, but Hasbro stuff seemed to want him to be more like a teen superhero. The Dreamwave comics imply his connection to Energon is a mutation that gradually evolves to where he can manipulate Energon as a weapon similar to the Omnicons. He uses this power to discombobulate Mirage and utterly vaporize Demolisher. Alpha Q, here a more traditional Quintesson villain, sought to use Kicker as a conduit for his goal, to use Unicron to open a portal to another dimension where other Quintessons lie in wait to attack at his command. This notion is absent in Superlink, with the Decepticons not remotely interested in a Primus blessed human when they can just use the Terrorcons for Energon mining anyway. Kicker is cool for what he is and his arc is neat, but he too is an acquired taste, and while I like him his concept is pry more interesting than he actually is. In a way his concept seems to have been pseudo revived through the Maltos, but the difference with Kicker is he’s strong enough to knock around some Terrorcons but not so much he eclipsed the Autobots; they still take center stage not him.

The other two characters of note are Wing Saber and Inferno. Both are oddly not that significant in the scheme of things despite being main characters but they still fit the underlying themes. Inferno is a stalwart Autobot, doesn’t have much of a personality but he does his job well as a peace keeper. His most significant moment is when Galvatron intended to turn him into a Decepticon, which shows off the cult like vibe of the faction as well as Galvatron’s masochistic tendancies.

After struggling and help from the other Autobots and Kicker, Inferno is able to fight off the infection, but it’s clear the infection isn’t dealt with as his Autobot mark flickers briefly into a Decepticon logo, and when the infection inevitably takes root once again, Inferno becomes a snarling savage, shooting at anything that moves. In desperation he flings himself at the Energon Sun, trying to burn away the Decepticon mark and the virus, as Decepticons don’t do so hot in red Energon energy. This does work, but Inferno’s body is too damaged and succumbs to the heat of the sun, but Inferno is content to die as a true Autobot at least. Because of a new toy, Inferno’s Spark survived and was transplanted into a new body, becoming Roadblock in the dub, but was still Inferno in Japanese. (The later being odd as he’s not a fire engine anymore, he’s a construction crane now so the name doesn’t make sense here). You might think Inferno and Demolishor being transplanted into new bodies is lazy, and it kinda is, but there is precedent in Beast Wars, Beast Machines and Armada for such a thing, in particular Armada where Smokescreen’s body was destroyed but his Spark survived and was able to be installed in a new body now called Hoist.

Wing Saber is of a similar fate, his body being destroyed by his Spark being placed into a new body, though there are some catches. Originally a generic named Wing Dagger, he sought justice after his prisoner Shockblast escaped and killed his friend Padlock. Dying in his initial efforts, Primus and Rad saw fit to revive him, rebuilding him into Wing Saber, where he would go on to be Optimus’ primary Combiner partner to form Sonic Wing Mode, Optimus’ most powerful form second to Omega Supreme. Wing Saber was content to be Optimus’ property, existing to only Combine, something Optimus was clearly unnerved by, and encouraged Wing Saber to forge his own path. This started with Saber getting his comeuppance and closure against Shockblast, jailing him on Iron Planet for awhile. Shockblast would escape, and while it’s a point of contention for some that Wing Saber didn’t seem especially miffed about this, I’m not too fussed myself. The writers probably felt that arc ran its course, and they killed off Shockblast soon after so they likely didn’t feel the need to dwell on it. There’s an argument you could’ve had the two become full on rivals, but as modern TF media clings more aggressively to G1 lore, Shockwave having a flashy Star Saber like foil would be frowned upon by purists unfortunately.

Star Saber would go on to forge his own path outside of being just battle armor in the next series, but due to a quirk of the situation, a technically separate character, Sonic Bomber, who even in the dub was supposed to be a separate guy called Knockdown in planning, was remolded into a new version of Wing Saber, and he became a cocky son of a glitch. He was a flashy fly boy who was not afraid to tell Optimus off and even shoot at him if he felt like it, but when the chips were down, he could still be counted on to save the day and Combine once more into Sonic Wing Mode.

Finally there’s Alpha Q, another character like Kicker who had conflicting ideas on what his role was. Hasbro and Dreamwave saw him as a modern spin on the Quintessons, with his ultimate goal being to open a doorway so his battle hungry Quintesson fleet can conquer the Energon Universe (not the Skybound one). He dies horribly for his troubles in the unpublished finale of the comics. In the anime, while he’s still a Quintesson stand in, it’s never made clear if he’s actually supposed to be one or if Quintessons exist here at all. What is clear, in story, is that he used to be the child ruler of Planet Q, who couldn’t make the difficult decision to sacrifice his planet to spite Unicron who was currently eating it. Scorponok could meanwhile, self destructing the planet, and killing Unicron, explaining why he was dead in the first place when he was shown to survive and be intact at Armada’s closing. Alpha Q survived inside Unicron and built himself a new body, the Quintesson body, and sought to use Unicron’s powers to revive his planet and others Unicron ate. Rather than ask the Autobots for help, he instead sought to just take any Energon he could find using his revived subjects, now the Terrorcons. Eventually once the matter was settled and he became friends with Kicker and Mischa, the Autobots and Alpha Q succeeded in using the chaos bringer to revive planets, but due to the Decepticons, Unicron was commandeered and Alpha Q tragically died. While dead, his spirit continued to narrate events until series end, occasionally breaking the forth wall doing so.

Alpha Q is interesting since the Japanese material paint him as a traumatized child that lost everything, and was trying to salvage it. It also explains his fractured, eccentric personalities as his three main personalities are rather childish, with his forth personality being the only outright wise and smart one, but not below childish antics himself. His true fifth form is never seen, but it’s his original child self going by his voice. The original plans suggest Alpha Q would eventually shed his shell, and be revealed as a royal alien child of some kind, with it being toyed with he would either be a prince or princess in this state. What this might have looked like we don’t know, no concept art seemingly exists but it implies Alpha Q probably wasn’t a Quintesson. If anything, the Terrorcons imply in flashbacks that Planet Q was likely a colony world of other Transformers, and Alpha may have been a child like robot, but we will never know for certain. One curious change in the dub is rather than Alpha being seen as a child, they decided to rationalize his split personality as being four dominant members of his extinct race, with his true fifth face being everyone else. Alpha Q is instead a collective of millions of personalities shoved into a single body, which is definitely cooler in concept but I kinda prefer the alien child twist personally.

With all these characters trying to find themselves, there’s the Omnicons. Conceptually they were supposed to be a breed of Mini-Con, something that is implied in Dreamwave, but the Omnicons in the anime are a nomadic Transformer clan descended from Autobots and Decepticons who rejected the war and began working together to find Energon. Evolving into diligent miners and craftsmen, they assist the Autobots and humans in mining Energon for peace and prosperity. Jetfire and Kicker remark how the Omnicons are the only ones who seem to have figured out their roles in life and are at peace with it, tying the themes together pretty nicely.

I think in the glut of poor modern Transformers cartoons, it’s been a fun ride going back to what’s considered a poor older anime and find it’s actually handled better than previously thought, and is worth going back to (sub wise, as they still exist on YouTube as of typing).

[cometsandstardust]

I’m rewatching Agents of Shield and here is a (final) list of things I genuinely forgot happened:

(and also little things i enjoy)

season seven:

- deke printed out sheriff stars

- “i just can’t seem to hold down a husband as they all just turn up with broken ribs when they give me lip” - daisy

- coulson learned about the speakeasy in a first year history course at the academy

- the first thing may says after finding out she’s in 1931, was “i’m hungry”

- “i’m a doctor, not a dame” “i’m a biochemist not a bird” fucking icon jemma simmons

- deke tells freddy that he invented the walkie-talkie

- “agent may, if i may?” enoch is so funny

- …may says she doesn’t feel anything when she wakes up, even though her empathy-ability is already present (though no one knows it yet). she wakes up and feels nothing because the only other person there is enoch, who isn’t human, and therefore doesn’t feel anything, at least not the way we do

- she also talks in a very-enoch like connotation during these scenes (same sort of lilt in her voice)

- they brought koenig onboard the zephyr and he said “excuse me if i’m not impressed” and then immediately lost his shit. he also called enoch a robot, and enoch made a very “bitch, please” face

- freddy shot koenig in the shoulder

- enoch is shown to be working as a bartender at the end of s7ep2 for koenig

- the zephyr scared two teenagers half to death when they got to the fifties

- younger daisy (aka skye ig) believed that area 51 was controlled by shield and was proven right

- the first time may showed signs of her empathy besides the monotone killer mood was when trying to single out the chronicom starting up helius and she basically had a panic attack

- also the chronicom they’re chasing has a very dottie underwood like aesthetic (ofc i’m referencing agent carter when my boy sousa is back)

- overriding the system knocked out the two chronicoms and coulson.

- the camera zoomed in on coulson’s eye and showed a circuit flickering

- the reason s7ep4 is in black and white is because of a malfunction in the wires

- sousa was considered the first fallen soldier of shield

- sousa called howard a pompous ass (he’s right and he should say it)

- mack compared the effect of sousa’s death on shield to the effect of coulson’s to the avengers

- sousa stole a motorcycle from the zephyr

- deke said he wrote the song “don’t you (forget about me)”

- he also name drops daisy in his own lyrics

- coulson’s in a tv

- sybil’s “dumb bot” acts just like a dalek for a sec

- may and yoyo sparred to try and trigger yoyo’s powers into working again

- yo-yo got stuck on the quinjet at the beginning of each loop

- in several loops, mack gets blinded by a radiation flare

- deke gives the distance from the center of the time storm in kilometers, which i initially thought was strange cause y’know american, but then i realized that deke literally grew up in space and that fitz-simmons basically created all the tech/software on board so yeah metric system

- daisy proved to simmons that she was in a loop with the fake word: “phlebotinum”

- when trying to remove the implant, on the first two tries, a lethal gas filled the room killing simmons (and the second time, daisy)

- in one loop, sousa grabbed the machine to remove the implant from the drawer instead of daisy or simmons and started coughing up blood

- also he literally grabbed it so that if something went wrong daisy wouldn’t die and lose her memories of the time loop

- may initially didn’t want to tell kora about jiaying but then brought her to see her body

- kora tried to help her mother heal by giving her energy

- simmons started forgetting fitz after malick put her in the memory machine

[sethmacfarlanedeathpose]

Engineer x Pyro preg fic!!!

The RED team's base was never that warm in winter. Especially the base located in Snowplow which was already cold enough, it didn't help that it was the dead of December and all the mercs had to find some alternative way to keep warm. For the team's resident Engineer that meant sitting in his little workshop, being kept heated by some overworked machine that he was using as a heater. He did take the time to tinker with a few little gadgets and gizmos, and figure out why his teleporters weren't working right. The Texan wasn't alone. There sat beside him in a rather comfy recliner chair was Pyro.

The masked mercenary also seemingly working on something, not as advanced as Del's own machines, but hard enough for them that they seemed to be struggling and starting over again a couple of times.

Engineer had let his concentration break a few times, allowing his eyes to wander in Pyro's direction to see what they were working on. Their hands still protected with those near two inch thick gloves, attempting to knit some sort of blanket. The Pyro wasn't particularly skilled it seemed, as they were constantly stopping half-way through every blanket to start a new one, all because of one mistake. Although after some time Engineer had once again decided to peer over to Pyro, viewing a far more completed, now scarf length piece of wool. It was a lot better compared to all the serviette sized blankets that Pyro had so carelessly tossed aside.

Red and yellow in colour and now long enough that it was draping over Pyro's belly, which had grown a large amount in size.

"For the baby, Pyro?"

"Mmr phe mmby!"

If Engineer was correct, Pyro's mumbles indicated that the blanket was indeed for the baby, the baby that had been growing in Pyro's belly for the past six months and even through the asbestos suit, was now becoming more prominent.

Pyro found some comfort in lazing back in Engineer's well heated workshop, and not being disturbed by the other mercs. Beside them was a small table hosting a basket full of yarn balls that Pyro was subjecting to below mediocre knitting, a plate of little sandwich looking cookies that Spy had baked out of boredom (Which he called Macarons) and a cup of hot cocoa in a giant Mann. Co mug, adorned with whipped cream and marshmallows.

Pyro couldn't be enjoying themselves more, although sitting by the fireplace in the Rec Room, needlessly burning whatever random things they could find would be better.

Pyro had stopped for a moment, the sudden change in activity once again garnering Engineer's attention. Gloved hands now gently running in circles around their swollen middle and a gentle mumble could be heard from behind the mask. One couldn't see the fire wielding merc's face from behind the gasmask, but Engie would tell when something was up with them.

Quickly, Engineer turned his chair in Pyro's direction, seeing them now place their hand underneath their rather bloated middle.

Suddenly Engineer felt Pyro's hands grab his own non-robotic arm and was being pulled in their direction and having his palm forced against Pyro's belly.

Another moment of silence as Pyro moved Engie's hand across the expanse of their stomach in hopes he could feel what they felt.

Engineer's eyes, hidden behind goggles, pierced upwards from Pyro's belly to their own shadowed eyes.

"Is it the baby? Is it kicking?"

"Mhmm!"

Pyro shook their head, still attempting to move Engineer's hand around, but not much could be felt on Engineer's part, seeing as Pyro was still wearing that thick, protective suit. And well something had to be said.

"Darlin', I can't feel a thing, you're gonna have to take the suit off."

Pyro didn't hesitate in the slightest, and although it was a major struggle for them to lift their overburdened body up from the chair, they still managed. Unzipping the suit from the back and removing all the belts and straps to reveal their heavily pregnant figure.

Pyro had always been chubby, but their now six month pregnant belly only stood to make them look rounder. They were wearing a lightly burnt up, pink coloured vest, which stood to hide Pyro's very scarred and burned body.

Once again they grabbed Engie's still intact arm and pressed it against their vast belly. A thick layer of fat covered their womb, but Engineer could just feel the tightness of their pregnant womb. The minor disturbance had again awoken the baby inside and kicks and movement could be felt again. The feeling of a little kick against Engie's hand had him almost in tears, a sudden rush of happiness and joy shooting through Engineer's brain, having him suddenly press his noggin against Pyro's belly and placing a gentle kiss near the naval.

"Sweetheart? Is this the first time you've felt the baby properly kick?"

Pyro just shook their head, and Engie could tell their were smiling behind the mask. There had been some worry about the pregnancy early on. With all the stress Pyro's body had gone through in their life and what it would continue to go through as a mercenary, Medic had classified it as a "high risk pregnancy", which worried Engie. Worrying that the baby wouldn't even live till birth, but here he could feel a rather lively baby kicking about.

Engie continued to rub and place kisses all over Pyro's belly, until he could hear some low groans and heavy breathing from Pyro, to which he shot up out of his own chair to help Pyro sit back down in theirs.

Despite always carrying around a tank of gas and a giant, homemade flamethrower, Pyro had found being knocked up to be extremely exhausting. Although they seemed fine once they were back down in the chair.

Engie's hand lay on Pyro's hip, massaging the bone and up by their lovehandles.

"Hold on, sugar. I'm gonna go get you something."

Engineer left Pyro to go search for the merc's sweater, which would be a far better option for them to wear instead of that heavy suit.

Pyro sat, half nude, only their tank top and underwear to cover their shame. Since they were already missing their suit they might as well take off their gloves to feel around their belly a little better. The baby had since found a comfy spot and went right back to snuggling up in Pyro's womb, so not much kicking or moving could be felt.

The hard hatted merc returned with Pyro's pajama bottoms and Company issued Mann. Co sweater. One being provided to all the mercs when being forced into such cold bases.

"Really gotta keep warm in this place, right Py?"

Pyro was happy to receive the clothes, letting Engie help put them on all while still sitting down.

"Mhhmm!"

Pyro muttered in agreement. Neither they nor Engineer were used to such cold conditions, but the sweater and pants seemed to be comforting to the little firebug.

Once Engineer was done dressing Pyro, he sat his body close to his partner, placing his hand once again atop their belly.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were ready to pop!"

A sigh escaped Pyro's mask. Didn't they know it? Six months in and having only one baby? And yet they were rather large. Scout had made some backhanded comment the other day about how Medic definitely had a baboon uterus put in Pyro, and that wasn't Del's baby but some dumb Baboon, which earned the youngest merc a slap in the face. Maybe it could be chocked up to Pyro's weight or all those vitamins and crazy experimental drugs given to the mercs. Needless to say Pyro was huge.

"I think you look cute all round like this!"

"Mhmrr mrst mrming mrt mpho mme mmece!"

If Engineer could translate correctly that was a "You're just saying that to be nice." but truthfully he meant it. Something about Pyro's rotund figure and how they had since developed a little waddle was extremely cute to him. Of course Pyro had not been on the battlefield since they discovered that they were pregnant, but Engie could only imagine them not being able to keep up with anyone, so it be best they stay here.

"No, I'm serious. Although I think everything about you is just adorable."

Maybe there was a little blushing behind the mask, but Pyro wouldn't tell.

Engineer now placing an ear against Pyro's belly and hearing a low rumble, indicating hunger, which didn't seem go be satisfied by the little sandwich cookies.

"How's about I go see if someone made dinner? You sound famished!"

No words escaped Pyro's mouth, but a nod of agreement was all Engie needed to go by.

[brooklynisher]

The Spine Hc Fluff Relating to Peter Walter VI

Only Human has me thinking about how much the robots care about VI and that brought me back to my ORIGINAL Spine headcanon :)

Here we go again

Also, this is so much longer than my angst hc post (granted I still leave a fair amount of angst in this one too. It's more like a continuation if anything)

SO. Since Peter Walter I passed, The Spine has always held on tight to this, "Got to be the perfect robot" mentality, and it would take him a hot minute before he finally let himself loose. He held himself accountable for his own flaws and punished himself "rightfully" so. By the time Peter passed, The Spine was very sympathetic to him. He felt that even though Peter couldn't force him to be perfect, the least he could do was live up to his expectations. And so he did.

For that reason, the other Peter Walters never really had much of a problem with him. It almost seemed like he was a flawless machine. However, part of his "flawlessness" was simply not being around. He spent most of his time shut down. Only turned on when somebody needed him for something. After all, you can't mess anything up if you were never there in the first place. Right?

In comes 2009. Where the bots start having successful street performances. By now, The Spine didn't know VI all that well. He was always busy, quiet, and The Spine was still in his bad habit of "sleeping" all of the time. Though he was there when VI was officially granted ownership over the robots, that was about all of VI he got to see.

But because of the more frequent performances the band had to do, The Spine was forced to stay on for longer. Before, the robots' caretaker would've been responsible for most of what the band did, but oddly enough, Peter VI decided to let the band make most of their choices. Yay for autonomy. Nay for work. But overall, the robots were pretty happy with this opportunity. Though, it was a bit strange to The Spine. It was nice that he was given the opportunity to express himself, but he was hesitant to take it. He wasn't sure where he'd be crossing the line, so he kept a lot of his songs about exactly what you'd expect: Being a robot.

Captain Albert Alexander in particular was a tough one to write. It was easy for him to summarize the legend and give it a melody, but he felt like it was wrong. After all, a song about a legendary pirate sounds like a children's song, doesn't it? The Spine isn't supposed to indulge in something like that. But after seeing Rabbit's new fascination with this song and the man it was about, he couldn't just scrap it. He tries to justify himself by telling himself that he wrote this song on Rabbit's behalf, but he still feels guilty. And this guilt would create a lot of heat and pressure building up inside of him.

Eventually, VI notices that The Spine has been acting slightly strange. When VI checks on his systems, he notices he's been overheating and that the pressure levels in his systems are abnormally high. He'd call in The Spine and decide to "Downgrade" him by reinstalling steam vents into his spine and head.

The Spine is caught off guard by this change. Partially because of how short the process was compared to the upgrades Peter Walter I did, but also because the design wasn't as human-like as before. It was less "perfect". He was surprised that VI chose to downgrade him. He was surprised that VI was willing to make him less perfect if it meant making him feel better. The Spine had thought it was the other way around. That his feelings didn't matter if they got in the way of perfection. He still held on to these thoughts in memory of Peter Walter I, but he was starting to feel a bit more comfortable with Peter Walter VI at the time.

The Spine doesn't have too many personal moments with VI after that, but he has begun to pay a bit more attention to Peter's behavior. He noticed that he was not nearly as serious as he expected. Compared to I, VI was significantly more fun to be around. Even if he didn't talk all that much. He noticed how patient he was in repairing the other robots. He noticed how much free reign he gave everyone over their own lives. It was less of an inventor-robot relationship, and more of a father-child relationship he had with the robots, despite being significantly younger than them. The Spine wondered if he could get this same treatment. but he never wanted to test it.

Still, he had a bit of a fantasy about it. Imagining all of the experiences he missed out on as a younger robot with VI there instead of I. He'd be gifted toys, watch cartoons, read whatever he wanted, play with his siblings, all of those "childish" things. Because he'd like to believe that VI would let him. The treatment Rabbit got (pre-Red Core) could've been his treatment too. Though these are all just in his head, he found himself growing more attached to VI because of it. So when VI accidentally blew off his face, it was a big deal to The Spine.

When he heard about Rabbit's upgrade, he found himself more elated than he expected. He was of course really happy for Rabbit and was very proud of her, but more than that, this was the act of Peter Walter VI. This wasn't like The Spine's upgrade which was essential for his physical state only, this was for Rabbit entirely. An upgrade as major as Rabbit's isn't easy, and it's not something he needed to do either. He could have just fixed her core, said she could live with being a "man", and move on from it, but he didn't. He cared about the way she felt, and her point of view on life, and he wanted to make her happy. So he went out of his way to completely redesign her body just so she can feel more comfortable with herself. He had to be an angel. But The Spine couldn't know for sure. After all, it's more than possible that he was the exception. It's happened before. It could all be just one giant test to see if The Spine can hold himself accountable for his own immaturity.

It was easier now than ever for him to slip, but he still stood his ground. He didn't want to be caught being what he wasn't designed to be. He didn't want VI to reveal that he was secretly trying to get The Spine to break this whole time. But little did he know, for every time The Spine refuses to behave the "wrong" way, Rabbit slips a few of his secrets into Peter's ear.

Peter himself has been trying to find the best way to approach The Spine about his trauma. He knows from experience that perfectionism can be stupid difficult to drive out of people. He wants to be slow about this. In The Spine's case, there's no such thing as a single solution that could make everything better. This would take a lot of development.

He starts with books. He tries to publicly read encyclopedias about all of The Spine's secret obsessions, hoping that he might ask him about it or at least try to correct him. It takes a lot of patience, but eventually, The Spine asks him a question about what he's reading, and he offers to read it to The Spine. He was reading to The Spine about something he knew he loved. It was quite the healing experience for him, though he wouldn't realize how therapeutic it was until afterward.

From there, Peter has put in the effort of making The Spine feel involved. He would personally invite him to family game nights, bring him along to outings, buy souvenirs for him, and even invite him to do the boring work with him.

He wanted to make sure The Spine felt loved. He wanted to make sure The Spine felt like he belonged. But most importantly, he wanted The Spine to embrace the inner child that he's been hiding away for so long.

Peter always had to prepare himself whenever he needed to have an actual conversation with The Spine about his issues. He can give really good advice, but he has this tendency of introducing good advice with unintentionally rude sentences, so he doesn't want to hurt The Spine by saying something that was meant to be nice, only to come off as very mean. Words are not his strong suit, but he'll learn a couple of things if it's good for his loved ones.

The Spine becomes very very fond of VI, so much so to the point where he might even accidentally call him dad. It's all very comforting to him.

Things will never be perfect, he still has a lot to improve on, but they've gotten significantly better since the beginning. The Spine often finds himself happier than he was before and a lot more inspired now that he will not be ridiculed or punished for his ideas and desires.

These days, The Spine and VI remain close, but they've gotten comfortable enough with each other to the point where things start to simmer down. The Spine has found himself indulging in more passionate hobbies, and Peter has returned to his main line of work. It keeps them both busy, but it doesn't take away any of the good memories Peter made for The Spine, as well as all the other robots in the manor.

[hazbinhazbinhazbinreblog]

Actually, on the subject of pilot Vox and how he is more confident and collected.

That weirdly reminded me, I was, at one point, humoring my own 2P stuff with Alastor and Vox. I remember in the AU, I called Alastor Apricot (because his color scheme is orange) and he was a lot more tech savvy than canon Alastor as he has and had the habit of breaking things down because he was curious on how everything worked. His radio tower in the hotel is filled with broken machines and weird organic stuff too, like jars with embalming fluid with weird stuff (eyes, plants, organs, etc) in them and bones and skulls littering his selves. The reason he ended up in hell was because he legit tried to create disturbing human and radio hybrids/cyborgs in the name of science and his radio show, when alive, was like a Sci-Fi horror thing (think the Twilight Zone). He was a lot more bubbly and chaotic, semi forgetful. He is realistic yes, but he does believe in Charlie's dream. Also know he wasn't a cannibal, not for good moral reasons, but because it be a waste of materials.

As for Vox, I remember painting him as more cold and distant. The literal embodiment of lifeless TV. Basically like, the greed behind major studios and tech companies. You know, like the embodiment of how robotic a lot of things have become. He rarely emotes or even expresses emotions, besides maybe a grimace. I think I remember Val and Velvet being very put off by him? I think. I do remember his color scheme was very grey and silver, modern but like in the cold robotic way. I think also maybe he had a human head and the TV head was something he could put on? Idk remember that well as Apricot stood out to me more, but I know for the fact this 2P Vox had like hair (i think). You can tell I barely remember him as I didnt bother giving him an alt name.

I think their dynamic was a smidge different. I think. I vaguely remember Vox being annoyed at Apricot more because he saw him as destructive and childish, while Apricot saw him as more stuck up and assholeish. I think something about their dynamic was about living here the present while remembering the past vs being blindsided by the future and forgetting what you have currently.

Other Details I remember -Apricot is missing limbs, he has a steampunk prosthetic arm and leg. -I actually can't remember if Apricot was an overlord or not, I know he was feared as the Radio Demon still so I think he was? -Apricot is the only one who manages to piss off 2P!Vox -Apricot would build this radio bot things for his shadows to posses and move around with. He could also just turn into a deer and would do so to escape if in danger -2P!Vox's lair was a lot more grey and silver and very clinical lookin compared to canon

And that's really all. Thought I share this weird chaotic idea of a 2P AU and now I shall //goes back to focusing on Radio Guard

-⚔️ anon

Apricot is amazing and I love everything about him, how does your brain come up with so much amazing and creative stuff I'm legitimately in awe

[windsfavored]

i  have  headcanons  from  my  old  blog  queued  to  post  up  until  mid-december,  but  i'm  pretty  sure  i  never  got  around  to  writing  one  about  ren's  bodysuit?  (  because  i  spend  way  too  much  time  brainrotting  over  miniscule  details.  )

it's  made  of  a  sheer  /  semi-transparent  material,  hence  why  the  markings  tracing  his  body  are  visible  through  it.  they're  best  compared  to  ley  lines  —  in  the  sense  that  they're  a  network  of  elemental  energy  flowing  through  his  body,  hence  why  they  glow  when  ren  calls  upon  his  anemo.  (  think  of  them  almost  like  the  wires  inside  of  a  machine.  )  they  only  became  visible  after  dottore  unsealed  his  power;  scaramouche's  attire  was  entirely  opaque  and  kept  them  concealed.  even  so,  they  still  glowed  purple  beneath  his  clothing  whenever  he  used  electro.

it's  not  immediately  apparent,  but  most  of  ren's  bodysuit  is  actually  backless.  there's  an  opening  that  spans  roughly  below  his  shoulders  to  the  middle  of  his  back  —  that's  how  he  REMOVES  it.  there  are  no  buttons  or  zippers;  it's  a  stretchy  fabric,  kind  of  like  a  very  durable  spandex.  the  opening  also  allows  easier  access  to  what  i  like  to  call  his  usb  ports  —  or  the  places  where  he  was  plugged  into  his  robot,  which  effectively  serve  the  same  purpose.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: The Terminus Factor - Second Half

1990

WAR of the GARGANTUAS

Is that the proper plural? Huh.

Halfway into the Terminus Factor I still don't know what factor that is. I guess the real circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result or outcome was the friends we made along the way.

Shrug.

In the first half of this annual event, we covered the annuals for Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. The Captain America annual had Terminus spore launch out of a volcano and infect some fish. When a town and an Iron Man ate the fish, they became rabid. Captain America lured them up a mountain where the cold cured the infection.

BUT: in the Iron Man annual, Iron Man and Machine Man fought a bear that was also infected by the Terminus-tainted fish. No longer weak to cold, the two heroes have to defeat the Termini Bear with some molten metal. After much struggle to defeat just that one bear, they discover that dozens of other animals have been affected.

In the Thor annual, Iron Man asks Thor to protect San Francisco from a big group of Termini. Thor brings Hercules and then ditches him in San Fran to go out into space and beat up on the original Terminus for a while. Thor gets exposition dumped on and Mjolnir stolen, which OG Terminus uses to return to Earth. Meanwhile, Hercules tries to stop a bunch of Termini that have invaded a nuclear power station to eat tasty radiation. He's not able to stop them before they all combine into one new Terminus. Just in time for OG to arrive.

And that's where we are. The Terminus spores infected animals which ate titanium and radiation and merged into a new Terminus but also the original is back.

Let's get these gargantuas warring.

So where have the West Coast Avengers been while all of this has been happening? Back at home.

Specifically, Hank Pym has been using lasers to bring the robot Human Torch back to life after Evil 'n Crazy Wanda turned him off.

After flaring up like that, Jim Hammond Human Torch turns down the temp and asks if somebody could tell him the date. Only, he has a tendency to wake up decades later.

Jim is told that he hasn't been offline that long and brought up to speed on the Wanda situation. Wanda is fine, Magneto and Immortus were dealt with, and she's taking some time to rest with Quicksilver watching her.

Speak of the devil, Quicksilver shows up and tells everyone there's an emergency summon from Hercules in San Francisco.

Quicksilver: "He claims to have been battling hordes of metallic beasts he calls Termini -- and to need our help. He said Iron Man was familiar with the creatures."

Quicksilver offers to go along and help, despite not being active with the Avengers. And Machine Man offers to help too - he's still upset that they killed his good friend, Imposter Peter Spaulding.

Everyone runs off to a Quinjet, leaving robot Human Torch to muse "Out of cold storage for two minutes -- and we're off and running! My new life as an Avenger promises to be anything but dull!"

In the Quinjet, Quicksilver remembers more of Hercules' message. That the Termini have merged into a single 150 foot tall one. And that it has started fighting another giant guy called Terminus.

That kind of feels important, Quicksilver!

Hercules: "By the Medusa's serpentine locks!"

You can say that again, Hercules!

Although... impressive and terrible sight as it may be to have two giant men fighting through the city... I can't help but notice that compared to the more bestial new Terminus, OG Terminus kind of has a pouting baby face.

Also, the Terminuseses have words.

OG Terminus: "So, wormling -- you are the SPAWN of Terminus -- the MANY who are become the ONE. I have returned from far space, having slain a THUNDER GOD and incorporated his HAMMER into my own body! -- To learn WHICH of us shall inherit the vengeful mantle of our long-dead creator race!" New Terminus: "Then you should have stayed hidden behind some darking star, Terminus -- 'FATHER'! For you have journeyed all this vast distance -- only to face OBLITERATION at the hand of your 'SON'." OG Terminus: "HAVE I? We shall see!"

And New Terminus rips off his tail to use as a lance. Alas and for shame. I kinda liked that New Terminus had a tail. Set him apart from the OG while giving him an equivalent of the lance to use.

Also, is this just the Terminus lifecycle? Based on stuff that happens in this issue and based on how Terminus spreading his spore inside Earth was described last time, I'm pretty sure we can conclude he's never gotten around to trying to reproduce.

And if reproduction means that you have to fight whatever new Terminus wins the race to eat lots and grow big, then I can see why Terminus hasn't spored all over other planets.

Honestly, it'd be more interesting if Terminus wasn't the original Terminus. That this process has happened many times over long eons but since every Terminus seems to have implanted memories, each one just continues on the Terminus mission.

Also, if Terminus is an anti-Celestial weapon that goes to planets that the Celestials have tinkered with and ransacks the place, you'd think that making more Terminuses by sporing the planet before he leaves would be standard procedure. It'd make him like a virus. More and more Terminuses, spreading throughout space and trying to undermine the grand Celestial plan.

But I don't get the indication that's what's up. I think there's only ever been one Terminus, minus the faker the Avengers fought in the Savage Land, and that this is the first time Terminus has bothered to spore.

Anyway, the West Coast Avengers Quinjet lands nearby, to Hercules' elation.

Hercules: "Mayhap they can take me to some vantage point whence I can enter the fray."

I love Hercules and his priorities.

Iron Man asks where Thor is, since he was supposed to be here. And Hercules has to relay that Thor fucked off into space and that OG Terminus has boasted that he killed Thor and ate Mjolnir.

Hank Pym points out that the enchantments on Mjolnir should have prevented that. Like some kind of pedantic nerd, speaking for the readers.

Hercules hand-waves the complaint by saying Terminus is "no ordinary foeman."

Everyone got that? No writing letters complaining about it!

Iron Man laments that he couldn't stop the Termini when they were spores or robot animals. US Agent tells him to stop crying, they're Avengers and they'll bring down those giant space men! He doesn't know how! He just knows that the problem will get solved and the Avengers will be involved!

As it happens, Hank Pym has an idea. He takes out a pair of tiny lenses from his pockets of mystery and then enlarges them to be each bigger than a man.

Then instead of explaining what his plan is, he tells the Avengers they'll see when both are in position.

Hank has Iron Man and Machine Man take one lens southwest of the new Terminus. And Wonder Man and robot Human Torch fly the other to the south southeast of original Terminus.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Avengers get in the Quinjet.

Hercules is hype to be fighting alongside the Avengers again. Not sure how he came back from blowing up along with the High Evolutionary but I'm glad he's here.

Wasp is more negative about the situation but US Agent tells her "The G-Man who appointed me to watchdog this combo want those two Kong-types wasted, so that's what we're gonna do -- period. Somehow."

I wonder when Walker had the chance to get orders from Washington in the middle of all this mess. Maybe he's just speculating.

Also in the Quinjet, Quicksilver comments how fortunate it was that the Avengers were able to find such a capable leader as Hank Pym.

Which just makes Hawkeye bitterly think that he's the one that founded the team and nobody has asked him to become the leader again.

My guy, you ragequit the team. And went to go manage another team. Who I assume you're currently neglecting.

The two lens teams arrive in position. Then there's a bright flash of light and the two Terminuses start moving past each other.

Hank Explains It All. Those lenses create reflection images of the opposing Terminus so both are pursuing mirages.

Which isn't going to fool them for long but it should buy time.

And by won't last long I mean. Like. A page. The more bestial new Terminus switches to more cosmic senses and realizes the ruse.

He immediately turns on Wonder Man and robot Human Torch in a rage and blasts the lenses to smithereens.

Wonder Man zooms up and punches new Terminus in the teeth. He manages to knock out a tooth. Robot Human Torch throws some fireballs. To no effect.

Human Torch figures new Terminus must still have a weakness but it's not fire and ice anymore. He creates a bunch of Human Torch fire duplicates to buy time while he tries to figure it out.

Meanwhile, standing on the wing of the Quinjet, Hercules remembers taking down the fake Terminus in the Savage Land and figures he can handle new Terminus the same way.

He jumps from the Quinjet to strike new Terminus in the chest and hopefully rip open his armor but womp womp he just bounces off.

And since he bounced right in new Terminus' path, US Agent says someone will need to do a distraction so Hercules has time to get his senses and get out of the way.

Wonder Man decides to do the distraction because US Agent is kinda out of his depth here.

If you wanted to get US Agent to try something stupid, apparently the best way is by telling him not to.

The Agent jumps from the Quinjet and lands on new Terminus' back. Where he can't do anything at all except try to hang on. Idiot.

Wonder Man: "I learned some time ago, Torch -- the US Agent may be something of a blowhard -- but he's a brave blowhard."

Sure. But it doesn't matter if he's brave if he's putting himself into bad situations just to prove he can and then is an active hindrance to the group effort.

And he is.

He falls off Terminus and has to be saved by Wonder Man.

Meanwhile, Wasp has been left behind to fly the Quinjet. But she decides, eh auto-pilot, and abandons ship. She uses her shrinking to fly underneath New Terminus' armor but just finds him hollow and full of seething energy.

Wasp quickly nopes out of there.

Meanwhile, more Terminus yelling.

New Terminus: "I have wasted time enough -- being led astray by these insignificant human mites. He led me inland -- while my parent was lured seaward -- but I shall swiftly reach him -- and then -- AND THEN -- !"

Now the two Terminuses are heading back at each other.

OG Terminus takes a shot at the Quinjet that Hank Pym and Hawkeye are in. The jet goes into a crash and Hawkeye and Hank Pym have to bail on Hawkeye's sky-cycle.

Hank Pym: "We lose more Quinjets this way!"

I feel like it has become more common recently.

Hawkeye quips that having to replace all these Quinjets is probably responsible for a couple of Tony Stark's bankruptcies.

Terminus is about to walk on a mountainside road heading to Big Sur so Hawkeye shoots a rocket arrow at the big lug. It doesn't do any damage but it does get his attention.

Another lance blast grounds the sky-cycle and then Quicksilver has to NYOOM by to save Hank and Hawk from being Terminally stomped.

Quicksilver is very proud of what a useful boy he is but Hawkeye is just wondering if he can get Tony Stark to pay for him to get a new sky-cycle. And Hank is like good job us, we stopped him from stepping on traffic by making him try to step on us!

Iron Man and Machine Man swoop in for a last ditch effort to keep the OG Terminus from advancing. But Iron Man's "repulsor rays are doing him as much harm as a water pistol" and Machine Man doesn't have anything more potent in his arsenal so he's not even trying. And New Terminus is similarly unfazed by the robot Human Torch's fireballs.

Nothing the Avengers can do can keep the Terminuses from a big, explosive clash.

US Agent says who cares, Let Them Fight. But Hank Pym argues that if Terminus came back to Earth just to fight his grown up son, there's a reason behind it.

AND ALSO, two giant space men punching each other is causing the ground to shake. And California already has enough problems with that!

OG Terminus: "The energy expendirue of us both is now at its PEAK, Terminus-spawn. You have inherited my programming -- and thus you know what that MEANS!" New Terminus: "YES -- !"

OG Terminus knocks New Terminus' lance from his hands and then throws his own lance away. OG knocks new to the ground and then blasts him with some kind of energy.

... Then New Terminus shrinks and OG Terminus eats him.

Yes. Yes, I just said that and yes, it did happen.

Then Terminus glows, explodes, and evolves.

Yeah, remember how all those mini-Terminuses fought each other and then globbed into bigger Terminuses? Well. That. Is. Apparently. How. Terminus. Evolves. Into. Bigger. Terminus? Ultimate Terminus?

Although, if you got two stage-5 Terminuses to fight, you could probably get a Super Ultimate Terminus, or something.

Again, I wonder why Earth is the first time Terminus spread his spores. It seems a natural part of his development is to make more Terminuses and have them merge to get bigger Terminuseses.

Lot of questions being raised. For example: how will the Avengers fight Ultimate Terminus when they couldn't even handle a pair of stage-4s?

Hopefully, by calling in more Avengers. Because Iron Man called the East Coast team and let them know what happened and that Ultimate Terminus is heading East for some reason.

So the two teams are going to meet in the middle and try to kick his ass.

To be concluded... RIGHT NOW.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!

You're behind the times, cover. There's only one of them now. One ate the other and then they merged. Like Buu.

Also, way to spoil that Thor isn't dead! Geez!

So, after Terminus ate Terminus and became what several people insistently term Ulterminus or Ultra Terminus, he ditches California and heads East towards St. Louis.

The East and West Coast Avengers teams rush to try to intercept him but know that the big guy just flies faster than a Quinjet. Cap even grouses that they need to update the staple jet for the 90s.

Hank Pym, based on very little evidence, correctly guesses that Ultra Terminus is headed to St. Louis because he wants to eat America from its rough midpoint.

Since Terminus is We Have Galactus at Home.

The West Coast team has Hank Pym, Wasp, Hawkeye, Hercules, US Agent, Machine Man, Iron Man, robot Human Torch, and Wonder Man.

The East Coast team has Captain America, Sersi, Starfox, Vision, Quasar, She-Hulk, and Captain Monica Marvel with her powers restored.

Sersi thanks her for 'tagging along' which Monica objects to, since she's an Avenger too.

Quasar: "The Captain's got a point, Sersi. After all, she was not only an Avenger, but team leader, long before you and I were signed on." Sersi: "And I was an Eternal, Quasar, while both of your ancestors were apes. So what else is new?" Captain Marvel: "I'm not here to play dueling credentials with either of you."

Inside the East Coast's team jet, Captain America is also perturbed that the closest team to St. Louis is... the Great Lakes Avengers.

Captain America: "Lord help us --"

Hey, now, that's not fair. They've been in action a grand total of one times and they really did a good job with it. Sure, they're a goofy bunch but they're not really worth an eye roll at this point!

Honestly, I'm just happy to see them being used. Byrne introduced them with great fanfare and then never really used them for much. And then he left the book but before he did, he had Hawkeye ditch them to come hang out with the West Coast Avengers again.

The poor Great Lakes Avengers are just so excited that they got called into action by Hawkeye and assume that means the real Avengers finally accept them.

The team finds Ultra Terminus floating above St. Louis. Unfortunately, while the GLA is using Big Bertha's private jet and not a Quinjet, legally it counts as a Quinjet and so gets destroyed.

Terminus just. Grabs it while it's jetting past. Leaving the fuselage skrunched in his hand and the jet engines continuing on their journey unburdened.

The Great Lakes Avengers bail out a Doorman portal in the side of the plane and poor Dinah Soar has to lower herself, Big Bertha, and Mockingbird down to the Gateway Arch.

Somehow, after bailing out of the plane, Mr Immortal, Flatman, and Doorman wound up hanging from Ultra Terminus.

Mr Immortal even managed to be hanging from Terminus' helmet and blows him a raspberry.

Which gets him clapped between two giant hands.

Mr Immortal's whole thing is that he's immortal so he laughs it off. Sure, he was basically salsa for about ten seconds but eh, he's got lives to spare.

Ultra Terminus decides he's done with "this superfluity of idiocy!" and decides to focus on the task at hand. He puts a force field around himself and prepares to EAT AMERICA.

(Mr Immortal got dropped but his girlfriend Dinah Soar catches him and flies him down to the arch.)

Mockingbird is just starting to despair that the Great Lakes Avengers failed to save the world when Hawkeye (and the West Coast Avengers) show up. And ever the guy who knows just what to say, Hawkeye tells her she did a good job as a delaying action, which was all he was expecting, honestly.

Mockingbird: "What do you mean -- 'delaying action'? Is that what our new group is to you -- so much cannon fodder?" Hawkeye: "Now look, Bobbi, I --" Mockingbird: "You probably took all the credit for training them, too -- after you dumped us for the West Coast crowd!"

She's right to be pissed.

The only reason why she was leading these goobers is because Hawkeye was depressed after he rage quit the West Coast team. And then he decided, without consulting her, that they were take over the Great Lakes Avengers. And then the instant it looked like he could slide back into his leadership role on the West Coast Avengers, he ditched the Great Lakes Avengers.

But time and place. As Wasp is quick to remind Mockingbird.

Hank Pym repeats his theory that Ultra Terminus is going to use his lance to drain the entire continent of North America of energy and elements. And when the East Coast team suddenly shows up, Vision seconds his theory.

A dude as big as a double-sized Ultra Terminus would require a good plan to deal with, even with threeish Avengers teams. Unfortunately, Vision estimates Terminus will finish preliminary yum yum eat 'em up probing in a few seconds. There's no time for planning, only for rushing in and punching.

Aw, Dinah got into the big group shot! Proud of her!

Also, I only just noticed that the two coastal Avengers teams initialed their Quinjets.

Meanwhile, out in space, Thor isn't dead. It takes a little more than being stranded in space to kill this tough Asgardian son of an Odin. However, he is stranded in space, which isn't an ideal circumstance.

Luckily, Thor somehow managed to angle his body to slightly influence his trajectory when Terminus yeeted (yote?) him into space. So instead of drifting forever, like some dumb Terminus, Thor collides full force with a small planetoid and gets knocked the fuck out.

Look, this is actually an improvement on his situation.

Back on Earth, the strong, flying fighty guys try to get to Terminus but are held at bay by his force field. The slim comfort is that by forcing him to send more energy out of his lance, they've delayed him starting his meal.

But the energy is shaking St Louis so the non-flying or less-punchy guys are saving people from the effects. Captain America and US Agent blocking falling rubble and directing people where to flee. Wasp blasting falling rubble into smaller rubble. Robot Human Torch doing the same thing. She-Hulk holding up an entire building so people can evacuate.

You know, hero stuff.

Meanwhile, the other heroes have been making not a lot of impact. The punchy guys can't get close enough to punch. And Sersi's powers don't work on Terminus because if they worked we wouldn't have a plot.

Quasar finally suggests that they just try doing what he did last time. Which was that he used the Quantum Bands to create a platform under Terminus and then Quasar and Captain Universe Spider-Man yeeted (yote?) Terminus into space.

I have no idea why that wasn't the first thing he suggested trying. Sure, they don't have Captain Universe Spider-Man but they've got a lot of muscle available between Starfox, Quasar, Sersi, Iron Man, Wonder Man, uh maybe Machine Man can help too. Point being, it's worth a try.

So they try.

And, no. Nothing. Dang it. This Terminus is twice as big as the one Quasar fought and thanks to the square-cube law many times more massive. And growing more massive as Ultra Terminus has basically ignored the heroes trying to push him off the planet. Instead, Ultra Terminus has started eating North America and has grown one hundred feet taller already.

Meanwhile, space.

Thor recovers from landing headfirst on a planetoid, finds that there is a slight atmosphere, and so climbs up on a cliff and starts saying... something.

Back on Earth, the Avengers are back to trying to find a way past Terminus' force field so they can punch him. Honestly, they'd be happy even drawing attention since that might mean he stopped eating America so fast.

Quasar: "Ants! He's treating us like ants -- not even worthy of his notice -- !"

Captain Marvel tries... uh... well, apparently she has new powers. She can surround herself with a "dimensional interface" which lets her fly really fast, hit really hard, and not splatter from the impact. So she flies really fast at Ultra Terminus and hits him really hard... and bounces off.

Wonder Man wrestles Terminus' thumb, trying to get him to drop his lance... but gets flicked away.

Quasar suggests that all of the Avengers hit Terminus at the same time in the hopes that they'll overwhelm his force field.

Sersi: "You sure that will work?" Quasar: "No -- but the situation's getting desperate!" Sersi: "Sounds good to me!"

Oh, wow, they really are just trying anything. What's there to lose?

Everyone hits him as hard as they can and, hey, something happens!

Terminus gets yanked up into the sky and everyone that was part of that last desperate attack gets yanked up too.

Weird.

Hercules mentions that he heard Thor's voice as Terminus et al were getting carried away, although nobody else did. The greek god says that it sounded similar to a prayer Thor made (off-panel) as the two gods were heading to California.

Hank Pym theorizes that Thor was reciting a rune-spell to influence Mjolnir, which Terminus had absorbed. Which seems plausible and everyone just accepts this as the answer.

Terminus and co (Quasar, Wonder Man, Machine Man, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Sersi, Starfox) get pulled through space towards where Terminus had been stranded at the beginning of all of this.

Thor worries about his friends that got pulled along by his rune-spell and worries that they'll die when they collide with the planetoid. Because Thor's entire plan was to summon Mjolnir back to him and Terminus with it and just slam Terminus into a space rock as hard as possible.

It may have even worked before Terminus merged with Terminus.

Unfortunately, it just knocks Ultra Terminus for a loop. But at least the Avengers that got pulled along on this adventure didn't slam into a space rock as fast as possible.

And with them around, there's extra hands to help Thor with his new plan.

While Ultra Terminus tries to absorb the shattered remnants of that planetoid that he just broke with his face, Thor and the Avengers work together to pry the lance out of Ultra Terminus' hand. Then, Quasar quantum-jump boosted throws the lance further than Terminus can summon back.

Then something weird happens.

Ultra Terminus apparently is very energy inefficient. Since he didn't get to finish his meal on Earth, his body starts cannibalizing itself for energy.

Which, for some reason, causes Ultra Terminus to collapse into a black hole. Which Thor summons Mjolnir out of.

Mjolnir apparently can just survive and escape black holes. Thanks to the enchantments on it. Neat.

With his hammer back in hand, Thor is able to gather the dispersed atmosphere from the destroyed planetoid and create an air pocket for the Avengers.

Iron Man compliments Thor's plan coming together. Getting Mjolnir eaten so he could use it to pull Terminus into space? Probably definitely the plan all along. Don't look at the previous issues and think wow he doesn't look like things are going according to schedule.

Then, the Avengers head back to Earth.

That's one Terminus factored.

So in terms of a big Avengers crossover annual event... Hm... I'd say it was stronger in the first half. When the characters were having to figure out the rules to Terminus' weird life cycle. Termini spores possessing animals and making them aggressive was an interesting turn for a giant metal space dude to take.

But I don't think it gelled well with the Terminus lore exposition dump in the Thor issue. If the guy could always spore, why is this the first time he tried? His evil progenitor race is both central to his motivations and also incredibly thinly sketched.

The first two issues played up the idea that every Terminus life cycle stage would have its own weakness but apparently being thrown into space is a shared weakness between a fully grown Terminus and an Ultra Terminus. And even though it was set up in advance, Thor yanking Terminus into space through the Mjolnir he ate really is just repeating how Quasar and Spider-Man beat him.

Also, if Ultra Terminus doesn't eat for five seconds, he turns into a black hole. Weird survival tactic there.

Also also, this is a minor complaint but I wish that the teams had more of a chance to interact and hang-out. This is the first time we have the West, East, and also Great Lakes Avengers together. And the Great Lakes Avengers basically fade out of the plot as soon as the real Avengers arrive. Not a good use of your Great Lakes Avengers!

I do think it was better than Evolutionary War and Atlantis Attacks. It cleared the low bar. But it didn't reach the level of great. Ah, well, there's always next year to try again.

Next time, more West Coast Avengers.

Follow @essential-avengers because if you don't, Terminus may shoot his spores inside another volcano. We can't prove he won't. Like, reblog, and comment. All that stuff prevents Terminuseseses.

[smittenroses]

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ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : To Service ❤ Featuring Haym (1.8k words) ◃◃ you are at the beginning of the album! || ⅠⅠ || Next track!▹▹ ↻ Masterlist

Fandom No Straight Roads Pairing Haym (yellow)/reader Chapter Summary Haym comes with you shopping

One of the things that Haym was glad that Neon J had designed into him was his robust and durable skeleton. Various metals that even he sometimes had to pull out his blueprints to remember the names of, Haym was able to withstand incredible force and deal heavy damage if the situation called for it — a machine of war that would protect the people at all cost.

But he was mostly happy about it because he could carry all the bags for Bebe on a particularly busy Tuesday afternoon. Foot traffic usually wasn’t this high when he compared the data of the previous few Tuesdays, but there would always be outliers that even he couldn’t predict. Shuffling the bags in his arms, he looked over the crowd of bodies until he saw the hat he had made Bebe wear, quickly closing the gap between them as she entered into a shop.

Even despite his assurance that he could carry her list inside of his programming, he could still see the list poking out from her skirt pocket as she shifted through various tomatoes. “The one you’re holding is the freshest,” Haym said, scanning over the various fruits and vegetables that were on display; being a robot meant that he didn’t have to eat, though he did yearn for the idea of being able to take a bite out of a leek one day — they just looked so delicious and he couldn’t help but stare at it for a moment, blinking a few times before he looked back to Bebe.

A basket was on one arm, and several filled bags were already on the other. Haym reached for one of them, Bebe’s arm tightening against her body in denial of his effort. “Haym, I already said I’m carrying these bags, you don’t have to carry them all.” She didn’t even need to look at him for her message to be loud and clear, Haym bringing his arm back towards his body as he sighed. “I’m not weak.”

“I know, I know,” he smiled, “I just wanted to help.”

“And you’re already helping now.” Placing a bag of tomatoes into the basket, Bebe held up a packet of carrots. “Can you check the freshness of these?” Haym didn’t hesitate as he took the carrots, turning them over in his palm to check the entirety of the packet, placing them back on the shelf before taking another and placing it into the basket with the tomatoes. “See, that’s helping.”

It wasn’t as much as what she did, always seeming to pick up after their messes and clean up their issues. She worked far too hard and he wanted to make it easier on her if possible. Neon J would surely burst a blood vessel if he knew that Haym was using his recognition software for trivial matters such as food, but he frankly didn’t care, feeling his fans kick up a bit at the praise. Following behind her as she paid and began to walk to her next destination, he readjusted the bags on the crooks of his arms again.

In the sun, she looked like a dream, even amongst the crowds of people that pushed past her, not admiring the soul that blessed their senses. He prayed that nobody would look closely at him in his disguise, readjusting the mask over the lower half of his face as he ducked and weaved through the crowd. Sometimes he felt a bag get caught on a passerby, others muttering excuse me and sorry under their breaths as they got a bit too close, but they eventually thinned as they left where the crowd flowed, Haym was soon eventually able to walk side by side with Bebe.

“So I have tomatoes, carrots… that new book that Purlhew wanted…” Bebe muttered under her breath as she dug into her pocket, pulling out the list. Watching as she used her hands to follow down the line. He could never get enough of watching her work with her hands this way, attentive and always focused, even as she made idle chatter with him.

Though her glances into other stores didn’t go unnoticed, Haym was able to see the tilt of her head every few stores, pretending like she was still thinking of the things on her checklist.

It was a few stores down from the bakery that she liked that she stopped, Haym stopping with her, watching as she pulled out another piece of paper from her pocket, rushed handwriting that he couldn’t analyse scribbled across it. With the folds so heavily creased and even beginning to tear, Haym could at least tell that it was old, at least folded hundreds of times over, the ink beginning to fade and smudge.

He paid attention to her like a friend did, but he hadn’t seen it before, his body leaning in to try and decipher the writing before it was folded again quickly. “Do you think you can wait for me outside?” Bebe’s eyes were on him now, his shadow stopping the sun from being in her eyes, “I want to peek inside this shop,” she said, gesturing to a little shop tucked away, the sign faded with paint that needed to be retouched. If she had wanted Haym to do anything, he would happily do so in a human’s heartbeat, smiling with a nod as he perched himself beside the door.

“Would you like for me to get you anything?”

Bebe paused for a moment in the opening of the shop, looking up at Haym for a bit before nodding. “I won’t be long but,” she fished into one of the bags, producing her wallet as she passed Haym some money, “can you get me a muffin from down the street? Just say my name and she’ll know which one.”

He wasn’t going to use her money to spoil her so he nodded, pocketing the change in his pocket before he set off down the street.

It didn’t take him long with his legs to reach the bakery, but, as he walked in, he scanned every crevice. It was cosy, it was comforting, it felt like something that came from one of his fanfictions as he walked to the counter. If he could smell like a human, he was sure that he would have found himself embracing the smells that came from the baked goods.

Saying Bebe’s name to the woman at the front, she smiled as she pulled a small bag from underneath, “I was wondering when she’d show up today,” the woman laughed, “are you her boyfriend?” Though he wished he could say he was, Haym shook his head, watching the woman tut as he paid, “What a shame. You should hurry up and ask to be her boyfriend then.”

He was grateful that his programming didn’t decide to glitch as he overheated at the thought, exchanging a few last words before he headed back down to the little faded shop. He could see her through the window conversing with someone, watching as she was led to the back, but he didn’t follow, standing by the door as he waited for his circuits to cool down, laying his head back against the brick as he watched the people pass by.

The breeze ruffled the fibres of his hair as it blew through, Haym reaching up to push some of the yellow out of his eyes, listening as the hair brushed over the fake skin of his fingers. As much as he had enjoyed his normal, pointed hairstyle, there was something about being able to style non-teased hair that he enjoyed, putting the bags down by his feet and tucking the muffin into one of them before he pulled out his hair. The yellow strands fell around his shoulders as he looped the hair tie around his fingers, tucking the yellow underneath his chin as he began to braid.

It kept his fingers busy, it kept him from wanting to run into the store and scoop up all the bags so that Bebe didn’t have to carry any. As much as he knew that she wanted to do her part, to do the job that she was being paid to do, he just couldn’t help that one bit of unique coding inside of him that made him want to do it. He finished tying up the braid as Bebe reemerged from the shop, cradling a new bag close to her chest.

“Made you wait long?” She asked, making sure that the door was shut behind her before she turned to Haym, “I spent a bit longer than I thought.”

He would wait a million lifetimes for her if it meant that he would have something to do for her, but he shook his head instead. “I got your muffin,” he began, scooping it out of the bag, “Lets swap, I’ll take your bags—“

“No, you don’t have to!” Maybe it was the suddenness of picking up such a loud noise that made the microphones in his ears squeal, but he felt one of his feet catch one of the bags, his joints locking up as he began to calculate a million thoughts a minute as to stop his fall onto Bebe, who looked at him with wide eyes.

He felt the muffin squish under his hand through the bag as he slammed his hand against the wall, Bebe’s hands coming out to press against his chest, helping him stand up right once more.

“Haym, I think you have too many bags.” He could feel his insides begin to warm and his fans kicked into gear as he looked down around his feet, staring at the bags that surrounded him. Even in his shame, he began to pick them up again, “Haym, stop.”

“But I want to—.”

“We can share the load.” Haym’s eyes flickered up to the woman in front of him as she scooped some of the bags, yet she left more, adjusting them on her arms so that they were balanced. Balanced as Haym felt as he slowly lifted the remaining bags into his arms. “I don’t want you to fall over again.”

Even Bebe wasn’t able to handle her laughter as Haym’s fans began to speed up once more, unable to help the need to pull his mask off his face to hopefully cool himself down. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s fine to be embarrassed, happens to the best of us anyway.” Tilting her head to down the street, she smiled, “Let’s go get another muffin.”

Stealing one last glance at the muffin that lay crushed on the ground, Haym made sure to put it in a nearby bin as they headed back up the street. Walking side by side, talking, Haym couldn’t help but smile as he saw a bounce in her step.

“And I can spend some time with you a bit later; the work load hasn’t been that heavy as of recent.”

He wouldn’t admit it to her, but, She had been sharing her workload more than she had realised, and Haym would happily take it to the day he was decommissioned.

[cansortofdraw]

TMNT story idea based in @tmnt-obsessed-ace's AU, Same Story Different Font.

Note: I am a HUGE fan of this AU, it is one of my favorite rise x 2012 crossovers. It is amazing, please check it out! While reading through the asks/blog posts, I kept seeing a few of these... little comments...

Same Siblings Different Family

SSDF Mutant Apocalypse Au

Loosely based on the tmnt 2012 mutant apocalypse arc (Or at least its Wiki. I have watched the series, but I haven't seen season 5 nor plan to).

🔹--- Bad Things Happen to Leo ---🔹

SSDF Leo gets portaled to Mutant Apocalypse.

Maybe he successfully built a portal device to go home or random, mysterious shenanigans (coughitwasprobablyLEONcough). Either way, it does not matter... Leo is once again trapped in another dimension, alone.

However, this time is different as he finds familiarity wandering through the wastes. To his mounting horror, Leo knows this decimated world...

New York is long gone. Everyone he knew and loved almost certainly went with it.

Despite this indescribable, soul shattering realization, Leo does what he always does. Forcing himself to keep going, he must get back to his sons. He CANNOT lose his family again.

🔹--- Just a Little More Angst (bare with me) ---🔹

Immediately Leo sets to work on a new portal, gathering parts and just surviving.

Compared to his past experience, he now has a far better understanding of machines and dimensional travel (after many, many years of study). Unfortunately, he is still no Donnie or Dani, especially with such limited and poor quality resources.

Initially, Leo's paranoia leaves him to avoid other mutants at all cost, sticking to shadows. Old traumas have left their mark but, after everything, desperation quickly takes hold.

Armored vehicles can be found throughout the wastelands. Uncommon and irreplaceable, their mechanical parts maintained religiously.

Within a week, Leo has gained a new profession... carjacking*.

The waste-ravaged, mutant survivors are hardly a challenge compared to the Yokai of his sons' dimension. Defeating them easily, Leo tries to only target the raiders and Ravagers that terrorize the lands, but it can be hard to differentiate and harder to care.

The ninja gains a small reputation as a silent thief, unseen by those who live to tell the tale. A ghost story.

Until one day...

🔹--- Bad Things Happen to Leo, but GOOD !!! ---🔹

Raph and Donbot (a robot with the mind and consciousness of Donnie) unknowingly pass through Leo's territory in the Shellraiser.

When they stop for the night, Leo jumps Raph.

The two fight.**

Raph soon recognizes Leo before getting pinned to the ground. Upon calling out his brother's name, Leo freezes.

Before either can act, Don–who had snuck up behind them–electrocutes Leo, knocking him out.

While Leo is unconscious, Don is caught up and they drag him back to camp.

Turtles are examined for injuries, cuts/bruises are patched, and electrical burns are treated. In addition, Don also runs some checks to properly confirm that Leo is really Leo (the scans are positive).

They have their big brother back!

🔹--- Bonding !!! ---🔹

Leo wakes up the next morning and there was much rejoicing, at least after some cautious skepticism, interrogations on both sides and a blood demonstration from Raph (changelings stuck).

There is much hugging, explanations are given, and a few tears may or may not be shed (no one will ever admit it).

The Turtles find that there are a few gaps in Leo's memory as he does not remember the bombing, but Don and Raph have similar memory problems so it doesn't really concern them too much.***

Leo is way too excited, finally able to tell his brothers about their nephews!

As he leads the two back to his base, Leo talks about his new home. He asks if they would be willing to come with him to the new dimension. At this point, Raph and Don have nothing left in this world and happily agree.

Plans decided, the brothers get to work on the portal. Leo does his best to explain everything he knows about dimensional travel to Don who picks it up quickly (because of course he does).

Soon the device is almost complete. All they need are a few pieces and Don knows exactly where to find them. The three pack everything into the Shellraiser, ready to go home.

🔹--- TV Show Events Happen ---🔹

(From here on out, the AU roughly follows the show but with the addition of Leo. See Fandom Wiki for more detail. Spoilers Ahead for the end of season 5.)

Along the way, the turtles meet a young meerkat mutant named Mira who tags along with them.

“Her goal, as she explained to them, is the oasis, a piece of grassland, of which only myths and legends have mentioned… Mira tells them that the Turtle in The Impossible Desert is a hermit who knows the way to the Oasis and is known as the ‘Holy Chalupa’. When this name is mentioned, Raphael and Donatello [and in this AU, Leonardo] are surprised, for among the Turtles only one has ever made use of these words: their youngest brother, Michelangelo!” - Wiki

Learning this, they pause their mission to find out if it really is Mikey. It is!

Mikey still has Ice Cream Kitty and Raph’s Giant-Fire-Breathing-Space-Turtle son, Chompy!

And there was much rejoicing! However, as the reunion is celebrated, explanations given and plans shared… things get complicated…

Specifically with Leo’s shocking discovery of Raph’s Giant-Fire-Breathing-Space-Turtle son, Chompy.

Raph can’t leave his son behind, not after they’ve just found him again (Chompy is way too big to bring back) and the others are, obviously, not going to leave Raph behind.

Suddenly, Leo’s brothers can’t come with him, and Leo can’t stay. They still wish to meet their newfound family members and promise to at least visit. As a father himself, Leo understands but, having finally gotten his old family back, Leo’s eventual return home becomes bitter-sweet.

In addition, Leo does not recognize Chompy.

Mikey’s memory is a lot better than his siblings’. Reminiscing, Mikey tries to jog the others’ memories. It helps Raph and Don, but not Leo. Everything just becomes more confusing as doubt and paranoia begins to creep in. But, no time to process this as soon they are attacked by ravagers who were following Mira.

Several action scenes, expositions and maybe some light arson later, the turtles find… apocalypse!Leonardo (will be referred to as Leonardo)…

…

……

This was never our Leo’s dimension. These were never his brothers. He’s still. Not. Home.

🔹--- Resolution ---🔹

Soon the day is saved, the final parts for the portal have been obtained, and the apocalypse turtles have been reunited with their… actual… big brother.

Maybe Leo would have been accepted regardless. Maybe they would have still come to visit his kids. Maybe they would have adored each other. Maybe they could have been a family.

But it doesn’t matter… There are no goodbyes for as soon as the dust settles, Leo slips away. Through the portal, leaving no way back. To a world that still isn’t his, having lost his family… again.

🔹--- End ---🔹

* Perhaps Leo can take this back with him. Add it to his list of "morally questionable" hobbies. ** In my first draft of this section, I ended up writing a full-on, detailed fight scene, but it didn't fit in. If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to post the long version. *** Don't know if Don also had memory problems, but Raph did and it helps the story

[farolero-posting]

Different

Words: 2,313

Summary: Prototype and Rue talk during the night, and watch the city from a window.

As time between rest cycles increases, the chances of running into issues in data organization go up as well. It was fortunate that robots do not need to do it as often as organic beings do, and that this body was still fresh and working as intended, but it wasn’t advisable to extend it beyond a certain time frame.

And Prototype was not looking for that moment to come, despite his programming’s insistence. 

Going through the data was mostly an unremarkable chore. It involved going through the episodic data in chronological order, searching for important information to convert into permanent data, and freeing space for the next cycle. There were books comparing this process to sleep, stating that living beings behave similarly, but were unaware of it, meaning this was most likely a theory rather than empirical information.

They also dreamed, and he didn’t.

“I thought you would have noticed me sooner.” Rue stepped into the room, leaping to take one of the seats, while Proto’s gaze was still glued to the bookshelf. “Are you busy?”

“No. Just taking a look at this room.” He turned to face the fox, who waved her tail in a slow motion, eyes staring back at the robot. “What about you?”

Rue’s ear twitched once, and she frowned. “I’m not doing much. I woke up a few moments ago and then heard you in here.” She tilted her head, a smile forming on her. “Did I ever tell you you’re louder when you think?”

He quickly found matching information. “You did, at one point around a month after I was tamed. What prompted it this time?”

“I know you’re not sleeping.” Rue narrowed her eyes.

“I don’t sleep—”

“You still rest. You can call it sleep, you know?” Rue changed her position, tensing herself up. “I don’t think you’ve done it once since we moved here.”

His hands tensed.

“Correct,” Prototype admitted.

Rue sighed, and kept pressing: “You don’t even turn the lights on while you’re here. I’ve been watching you.”

“I think my own light is enough for that, so I don’t do it, I can change that if you wish” he replied, moving to flip the switch on one of the lamps, casting a dim light.  

They were in a study room inside of the apartment the siblings shared in the Refuge. The place had a bookshelf full of books on different topics, and a simple desk with paper, a cup with watercolor brushes, and a box of supplies. A blueprint of a flying machine was pasted on the wall, with sticky notes all over it. A dusty backup powercell sat by the corner; it wasn’t on, however, as the Refuge generators already provided the necessary energy to function.

“That is much better, thank you” Rue smiled, waving her tail happily for a moment.

She didn’t say anything for the moment, and Proto was unsure what to expect of her. Despite how well he knew her and her habits, her thoughts were a mystery most of the time. Rue sighed then, her ears moving down. Perhaps this was sadness, or something else.   

“I want to talk, but… I think I want to go outside. This room feels a little small.”

“Lead the way.”

Rue leaped to the floor, trailing between the furniture, towards the living room. Prototype closed the door behind her, and then walked towards the apartment’s exit. They caught a glimpse of Cedric sleeping in his room, with a tight grip on his covers. They were careful not to wake him as they closed the door. Rue didn’t take the route towards the catwalks, and instead found a place to sit on by the stairs, where the windows were the biggest, giving them the best view of the buildings around them. It was still dark, but the red phosphor river and the street lamps illuminated the landscape. The tower couldn’t be seen from this angle, and for a moment, the picture in front of them almost matched the one Proto remembered from the real world.

Well… at least, according to the data he was provided with. Perhaps he considered the image important enough to preserve it as clear as possible, back in the day. 

He looked at Rue, who seemed to be looking at it as if it was her first time doing so. Or not, it was equally as likely she had a different reason. This train of thought prompted a question.

“Do you recognize this view?” He reopened the conversation. “You are very focused on it.”

“I… think I do. I know some of the signs from the old world are still there. I can even see some of the obsolete signs from old businesses.”

Proto looked to the right, making a mental map of where the tower would be, out of their view. A yellow ring stared back at him from the crystal.

“The buildings are also arranged in the same way, probably even in the same locations. I think he wanted to make this as similar as we know it,” he commented. “I have… a clear image of it. It’s a perfect match.”

Rue nodded, but remained silent for over forty seconds. Her tail was stiff by her side. Proto assumed she was likely to be pensive.

“I… don’t think I can recall most of that,” was her final response. “It’s… hard sometimes. To think about that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…” Rue turned to face the robot, which he didn’t notice, still looking out the window.. “Do you know why I answered the robot question?”

“I assume it is because under the current circumstances, we exist as code running within the World Machine.”

“That is true. But… sometimes I don’t like thinking about this and realizing that I don’t see myself as… I was intended to be? I’m sorry, this might sound offensive, now that I think about it.”

“I don’t see the offensive component,” Proto reassured her. “That is a common conflict,” he added, sitting down to be closer to Rue’s height. “The notion of personhood and the deterministic nature of programming are not immediately compatible. I assume this is what you’re thinking about?”

“I… don’t think that is the case.” Rue lowered her head.

“What is the case, then?”

“You know that the real world our memories are based on, and the world we see here are not the same. I don’t know how much you were able to explore in it, but for me it’s always felt off because I know that it is just memories, and not the real thing.”

“Well… it’s as accurate as it could be.”

“I wish I could tell the difference.” Rue huffed, letting her frustration show. “All I have is anything my real world counterpart could give me, and what you and others said about what I was like. It’s all words, and not a single image.” Rue looked away. “What is it like to be able to record everything and trust that it is true?”

"Hmm..." The robot considered his next words, trying to measure what sort of response his sister was looking for. "It depends. If it's something that brings you happiness, you will want to revisit it and it will feel nice. Otherwise... There is a lot of junk data, and other things that can be unpleasant but important to remember."

"Ah, that makes sense." Rue moved closer to him, eyes still on the window. "I... should apologize. This is a depressing conversation, isn't it? I know it doesn't change anything. The old world is gone. The real Rue..."

"It changes something in you." Proto insisted, moving a hand to point in her direction. "You can feel sad about this conflict, or differently. But that is something that is happening to you, and makes you real. I believe this is something you would agree with."

Rue nodded, closing her eyes in thought, before making another question.

"Do you mourn the old Rue? Or the old Cedric? We're different. We even have to change how we act around others, because we know things about their world that change our situation, and because our iterations are living different lives that the real ones didn’t get to live. We’re here but… the real Rue is not."

"I think you are the Rue and Cedric I am meant to be with," Prototype answered, Rue's ears perked up. "By this I mean... if we try to be more meticulous with what we consider constitutes the same "being", then every single one of us is different to whoever we were in the real world. Some information is always lost, and... our consciousness starts with the simulation being executed, even if we know we have other things in our code, so to speak."

"That is a sad way of looking at it. I'll admit..." Rue shivered for a moment, barely perceptible to her brother. "I guess you do understand my plight. You have thought about this before, haven't you?"

Prototype did not reply, and chose to close his eye instead, in a gesture resembling agreement.

"I am avoiding resting cycles," he confessed, after catching the glimpse of some of the apartment lights switching on, likely to be the first people to wake up for that day. “I have not done it since before leaving the mines.”

"Ha, I knew it." Rue's tail wiggled, as if she had solved a riddle without putting in the effort to make him admit it. "Want to talk about it?"

Would it be helpful to do it? Would it serve a purpose at all? There was no way to know for certain. 

But it seemed highly probable that she was the best candidate for that conversation.

"...Sure." Proto looked down, his antennas moving to point slightly to the back. "When I run those cycles, one of the things I have to do is go through every new information I have stored, and sort through it, compressing it, deleting junk data, summarizing it, and free space. This is not a concern most of the time."

"Oh." Rue's tail stopped moving in mid air, as a realization hit her. "You're scared of going through them."

"I can't say. Maybe." He shrugged. "I know it is unavoidable, but I am not looking forward to it."

"You almost died."

"I'm not alive."

"You know what I mean, Proto." Rue shook her head. "Give yourself the right to give it that name."

"Rue, it's fine," he insisted. "I always knew it was a possibility."

"How do you feel about it?," she pressed on. 

Prototype didn't know what to answer. How did he feel about the experience of losing his body? Not good. The squares themselves on his code were not something he wanted to remember, either. What about the circumstances it took place in? Disappointed, for not predicting it more accurately, and preventing the damage caused. Regretful, then. The knowledge that it was a possibility was simply factual, like many other things are. If something is possible to occur, he cannot ignore it.

“Not well. I did not mean for it to happen. Or the problems it brought on everyone else…”  

“I know you didn’t mean it.”

“I suppose.” He looked away from her again. “I believe it is just worse when there are things that are under your control. When it is your responsibility to achieve something.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just as it was a possibility to cause the conditions to worsen, there was a possibility for it not to happen, and the determinant factors were in big part my own actions.” Proto was still, but the soft rumble in the room indicated he was still in thought. “The one thing I waited for so long was a chance to… fulfill a purpose, but in doing so, put others in danger. That should not happen.”

“It is not something to blame yourself for. There was still a lot out of your control, and you did your best under those conditions.”

“Well, what should I feel, then? It was at least easier to accept that I couldn’t do anything when the outcome was certain to happen. My passiveness or any action would not change the results, and I could detach myself from it… This, instead—”

“Do you mourn yourself?” Rue blurted out, stopping him.

“No.” He shook his head, and after a moment added:  “Yes? I have mixed signals”

“I grieve for myself too. I can… honor her memory, and I want to do that, but it saddens me that this isn’t the way she thought her life would be like. I’m only a second chance she got.”

“That makes sense,” Prototype nodded. “I see myself as a copy. Functional, but fully aware of the gaps between the original, and this.” He pointed to himself, noticing the way his new joints moved without any issue. “This is not something you can change, and ignorance is not helpful.”

“Maybe being different is not so bad. You’re still you to me. I don’t need to suspend my disbelief to think that. You are the sibling I am meant to be with.” 

“Ah, I see what you did there.” 

Rue moved closer, resting her body next to her brother, and looking down at the city. The light on her forehead reflected itself on the glass, faintly. She felt a hand on the back of her head, and she leaned into it. When the first rays of the Sun shone their light on their side of the world, Rue looked up to him. 

“You still need to sleep.”

“I’m still not calling it that,” he huffed, amused. “But I think I am more prepared to handle it.”

“I feel better too.” Rue stood up, and Proto followed after her. “This world is beautiful, different as it may be, and I’m glad to be here.”

“So am I.”