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indignantlemur · 14 days ago

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I debated on sharing this since it's not really much to do with my usual writing shenanigans, but I think perhaps I should.

Recently I was given the written work of someone who is a total stranger (TS for short) to me but acquainted with a friend of mine. My friend has been struggling to give constructive criticism and feedback due to being a little overwhelmed with life a the moment, so he asked me if I would be willing to take a look.

The work was for a fandom that I am aware of and have explored a bit, but not one that I write for or dabble in beyond just enjoying the material. The folks who run the show for the fandom, creators and content-makers, occasionally select from submitted fan works and publish their choices in monthly magazines to be shared around. I figured I was familiar enough with the premise and the universe that I can catch most mistakes and offer decent enough advice, so I said yes.

Then I got the file, and my very first thought was: I am going to break this man.

It was, objectively, one of the worst things I've ever read. There were the bare bones of a good story in there, but it was mired in bad grammar and structuring, bizarre dialogue, utterly absent character development of any kind, and further crippled by a 5k word limit for something that needed a bare minimum of 20-30k words to tell the story it wanted to tell. Entire chapters, dialogue included, were crushed into two-to-three block paragraphs. Dialogue where a degree of decorum and formality would be expected in the setting would have been better suited to a locker room or a pub. No descriptions of any kind were present, leaving the entire story to take place in a shapeless grey void. And this was something TS genuinely hoped to publish in an official magazine.

(For the record, I don't even think my work is good enough to be published without significant rewrites and adjustments.)

In the end, I eviscerated it.

I went through, section by section, chapter by chapter, and laid out what was a problem in terms of character actions, the dialogue, the descriptions, and the overall impressions given versus what appeared to be the intended result. I made it very clear that if TS genuinely wanted to be published at some point, he needed to significantly expand his horizons in terms of technical proficiency and prose.

I was not kind. I was not gentle. I was, objectively, cruel at times and I fully admit to this - witty, yes, but cruel. However, I was cruel with purpose. Every bit of feedback I gave was backed with examples on how to improve and suggestions for resources to review and learn from. Every criticism was explained in detail, with my reasonings as well as my thoughts on possible solutions. I gave examples of accomplished, properly published authors who wrote in similar genres/styles, and who have been very successful and praised for their writing. I suggested movies and TV series that featured the dynamics TS was aiming to portray. I emphasized in particular that the story he was trying to tell could not be crammed into 5k words without sacrificing quality, and if he was determined to keep to that limit to get the story published in a magazine, he needed to pick a single scene - two, at most - and focus solely on that part of the tale.

When I was finished, I sent the veritable tome I had written off via our mutual friend, and waited. I didn't hear anything for a few days.

I worried that perhaps I had been too harsh, that I had crushed this person's desire to write instead of challenged them to improve. I second guessed my choice of words - though not my choice of criticisms, which even in the throes of self-doubt I was firmly convinced were valid. Valid criticisms or no, I soon started to feel that I had been little better than a bully. I wondered if I was perhaps not a safe person for a new writer like TS to send their work to, if I should make a point of declining in the future to prevent further harm. I felt very conflicted on multiple levels.

Then, after several days had passed, my friend sent TS's first rewrite over to me.

TS listened to everything I said, and he genuinely took it to heart. While I was worrying over carelessly crushing a creative soul, he was apparently absolutely thrilled to get honest, detailed feedback instead of the bland, polite 'it's good' commentary that he'd been getting from his peers. No one had ever done that for him before. He was motivated to improve, and by god did he ever.

Even at first blush the rewrite is a massive improvement on the first draft. It's not perfect, it likely won't be for some time yet, but the sheer amount of improvement alone was remarkable.

I am so, so proud of him. The man got a dissertation on everything he was doing incorrectly, poorly, or just generally wrong - and instead of giving up or getting upset, he sat down, read it all the way through, and thought to himself: Finally!

There's not really a specific lesson here. I will probably be more mindful of my phrasing in the future, certainly, but I am also very aware that if I had held back those criticisms and complaints TS would not have improved as much as he did. I would have been just like all the folks he'd shown his work to previously, who could hardly have glanced at it at all before giving an impersonal thumbs up and sending him on his way.

There is merit, I think, to being cruel in order to be kind - but balance must be maintained to avoid devolving into something closer to outright bullying. Some lessons are hard, and the ones that involve our creative endeavours are some of the harshest. I learned the hard way, by running the gauntlet of cruel reviews and downright spiteful direct messages in my early days, and I wished very much that I had had someone who could have just told me what I was doing wrong before I ever hit 'publish' and opened myself up to attack.

Equally, there is a kind of power and resilience in receiving harsh criticism and meeting it with renewed motivation and determination, as TS did. That takes a particular kind of internal fortitude that is not often cultivated by young writers when they initially start out, and I respect the hell out of TS for it.

With time and practice, I genuinely feel that TS will be a solid writer. If he can keep on learning from his mistakes, including taking advice and putting in the hard work, I think he has real potential to become a published author of original works in his own right.

So: keep up the good work, TS.

(You're not on tumblr and you will never read this. If you found this anyways, no you fucking didn't. Go read some Tom Clancy and James Clavell like I told you to.)

#personal update #ish #writing advice #fic writing #original writing #writing with the aim to publish #beta-reading and feedback

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amethystviolist · 6 months ago

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Fanfiction Author Interview Game

Thanks to @shipper47 for tagging me! I'm a bit late to respond but very excited to participate :)

How many works do you have on AO3?

Looks like 32! Wow, a lot more than I expected.

What's your total AO3 word count?

174,720!

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

I don't think this should be the only measure of fic worth, but sure, here we go!

A Hairy Misunderstanding [Bagginshield]

Merlin Has a Dragon (And Other Revelations) [Merthur/Gen]

Impacts of Literal and Metaphorical Natures [Merthur/Gen]

Pine For a Bead (Or, Girlfailure Greenleaf) [Gimleaf/Gigolas]

Anything [...Destiel]

Do you respond to comments?

Yes, I reply to almost every comment! I love getting them, and it's often a great excuse to gush about the characters or my behind-the-scenes writing thoughts.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Phone Call. On-screen major character death hits hard!

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Oh, almost all the rest are very happy endings! Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of my most recent fic Home Looks Like You - 4k of ReShirement and Parentshield fluff, ending in a family cuddle pile.

Do you write crossovers?

I've never written crossovers with characters meeting each other, as that's not usually my jam - but I've dabbled in putting characters into another fandom, like my abandoned WIP The Order of the Silver Ship [TAZ: Balance characters in the world of ATLA].

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Thankfully no, never. I've gotten the occasional "off" comment and once a spammer of some sort, but nothing truly vile. Let's hope it stays that way!

Do you write smut?

Yes! It's fun! I think my only AO3-published smut is Iron Must Suffice [Bagginshield].

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Also thankfully no! Not to my knowledge, anyway. I'll hope that streak continues as well!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! The two previously-mentioned Merlin fics were translated into Chinese, though the website that hosted them apparently scrubbed all queer content a while back and sadly lost those translations with it.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes and it was so much fun!! I participated in an event called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Collaboration (THAUC) this past October, and my assigned partner @mrmrbaggins and I wrote Of Kin and Courtships [Bagginshield] together. I loved plotting together and trading off scenes, it was fun to have immediate feedback and support. And they're a great writer, too!

What's your all-time favorite ship?

All-time? Man, that's hard to say. I think I definitely cycle through them and I love many. Currently it's Bagginshield, but there may be a different answer this time next year!

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Hmm. Most WIPs that I want to finish I do eventually finish, even if it takes me literal years to do so. I think the one that's bugging me the most currently is All I Want For Candlenights [Taakitz], which only needs its final chapter finished. I never got a gift in that exchange event which kind of unmotivated me, plus I've just not been deep into the Balance fandom lately.

What are your writing strengths?

Hard to say, really... And that's not fishing for compliments, I just mean it's hard for me to analyze what I like about my writing when I spend most of my editing time looking for my weaknesses instead. If I have to choose, maybe characterization? I get a lot of compliments on it (thank you readers!) and I do put a lot of thought and effort into getting into the characters' heads and their resulting dialogue/inner narration/etc. And for Tolkien works specifically, I'm very good at piecing together TDS Neo-Khuzdul translations, and find a lot of joy in making them, too!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh so many things... though I think I'm always improving! Pacing is a huge issue for me. Also scenery and action descriptions. Also TITLES are the bane of my existence most of the time. In a more meta sense, I always struggle to get out of my editing mode and just put something (anything) down on the page so I can actually finish my WIPs.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I'm a huge fan of using other languages in fic and fiction as a whole, as that's actually what my undergrad thesis was about! Though in a fic I do really need a translation attached somehow for it to be enjoyable. I tend to get a little irritated if there's no translation provided anywhere, even if it's "unimportant" tidbits, because I want to know things, dammit!! /hj

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Oooo interesting question. I'd love to write a Leverage fic someday, but I really love those characters so much because canon already treats them so well! They're such well-developed characters that I find myself a little hesitant to dive in and potentially get it "wrong" (a silly worry I'd tell any other writer to ignore, ofc, but it's my worry unfortunately).

What's your favorite fic you've written?

That's like choosing a favorite child, oh no! ... I've just spent a few minutes scrolling up and down my AO3 stats list, but I really can't choose a favorite. They're almost all special to me for one reason or another, even ones I'm not very happy with in quality! I can say with confidence my current baby is the untitled Bagginshield mega fic, but idk that it will be my favorite even when it's done/published.

Thanks again for the tag, this was so fun! I'd love to see answers from @mrmrbaggins/@xkingevelynx, @thylocalbard, or @thatfancygirlinblack/@thatfancygirlinwhite, but absolutely no pressure to any of you :)

And if anyone else seeing this wants to do it, feel free to claim I tagged you! I won't snitch about it.

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cakeisnotpie · 3 months ago

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20 Questions for Fanfic Writers

I got this from @cassiesinsanity Since I've had a big influx of new followers thanks to that one MCU Top Ten post going a little bit viral, I thought I'd answer and let the newbies to get know the fanfic side of me.

Tagging @miladydragon, @uofmdragon, @kestrelhill, @emerys, and anyone else who wants to do it! I'm terrible about tagging!

1). How many works do you have on AO3?

239.

2). What’s your total AO3 word count?

2,950,599 -- yeah I write big long AUs

3). What are your top five fics by kudos?

A Wolf in the Fold -- Clint/Coulson AU where Clint's the new sheriff and Coulson's a shapeshifter in Montana

Coffee Spoons -- Bucky/Clint. Clint and Bucky as told through word games and bad pick up lines. Part of my ship Clint with everyone series.

Third Wheel or 20 First Dates -- Clint/Steve. Part of my ship Clint with everyone series. Clint and Steve are the odd men out in the Tower with everyone else paired off. Could they be dating and not know it? Includes experience Steve who likes dirty talk. I call this my little fic that could; I just keep getting comments and kudos on it.

Dumpster Diving -- Clint/Matt Murdock. Part of my ship Clint with everyone series and yes, it involves not one, but two dumpsters. Didn't realize this one had broken the top five!

Let it Go -- Clint/Coulson. Coulson's a sub and Clint's a dom and neither one knows about the other until they cross paths on an undercover operation.

4). What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Marvel. I used to write Supernatural (Dean/Clint) and have dabbled in others like Leverage.

5). Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I used to respond to all the comments but life got really insanely overwhelming and I'm so far behind I doubt I'll ever catch up. But I read each one and hold them in my heart. I keep promising myself I'll start again.

6). What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh, I went through a pretty dark phase a little while back (see insanely overwhelming RL note on #5). So I have a number of dark fics, especially in my "Variations on Death" series.

Dig Two Graves -- Clint/Coulson. When you start out on a path of revenge, better dig two graves. (major character deaths)

Three Days in the Tomb -- Clint/Coulson. Clint finds himself in Purgatory ...

It Takes Two -- Clint/Bruce. When Bruce and the Hulk are split in two, Clint finds out just how bad things can get.

7). What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Oh man, I'm a sucker for happy endings. I've rewritten so much of the Marvel insanity to let our faves ride off in the sunset, it's hard to pick just one. Maybe the Callahan Crosstown Diner series? I've pretty much redone the whole MCU, fixing and recasting and saving everyone (no five year blip, no Tony and Nat dead, no Steve going back).

Callahan's Crosstown Diner Series -- a series of stories set in Callahan's Diner in NYU told through the eyes of OCs with little powers as they watch the MCU events unfold.

8). Do you get hate on fics?

Rarely, but yeah, once or twice. Mostly, people are so wonderful and supportive

9). Do you write smut?

*cue maniacal laughter*

10). Do you write crossovers?

Yep. I did a three part crossover of Supernatural and Marvel with Clint/Dean as the main pair

And I just recently wrote a Leverage/Marvel crossover. The Crossover Time Zone Job or 13 Reasons to Listen to Nate Ford.

And I did a six part White Collar/Marvel series where Clint is a con man and Phil an FBI agent.

11). Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. I don't really keep a watch on that, so maybe?

12). Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep. I've have a couple people have translated.

13). Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope. I do like brainstorming with other authors and getting ideas, but I tend to be a solitary writer once the words go down on paper.

14). What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Clint/Coulson, but I also adore Clint/Bucky, Clint/Tony, Clint/Steve, Clint ... pretty much if Clint's part of it, I'll read it and probably enjoy it. Recently I've gotten into Steve/Bucky, specifically Shrunkyclinks where it's Cap Steve/Modern Bucky. I'm working on a fic for that right now.

15). What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I started a fourth story in my Clint/Dean Winchester series but it's been so long I think that one's pretty much done

16). What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty good at characterization. I write a lot of AUs where it's important to keep the basics of the character the same even though they're shifted into a different world. People tell me I'm good at slotting characters into roles that make sense for them. Helps with dialogue and plotting too when the characters fit.

I also think I'm pretty good at active voice and descriptive writing. I like to try different styles a lot.

17). What are your writing weaknesses?

I usually say fight scenes, but people say they like mine. So maybe editing? No matter how much I edit, how many times I read through, there are always typos and other little errors. I've given up trying to get them all; if I waited until it was perfect, I'd never post anything.

18). Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I've done it. I usually put the translation in the end notes to not break up the flow of the story and I try to keep it to a minimum (with the exception of pet names or well-known words like Yasha or Yastreb)

19). First fandom you wrote for?

When I was in middle school I wrote for Battlestar Galactica (the 80s show since I'm a fandom grandma).

20). Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh, it's like picking a favorite child. Okay, I'll limit myself to three (and one's a series, so I cheat).

The Course of Boundaries -- Clint/Steve/Natasha/Bucky. Part of my sexuality series exploring polyamory. An experiment piece with changes in tone and voices. I wrote it in a frenzy over a few hours after the idea came to me.

The Great Black Distance -- Clint/Phil, Tony/Steve, Bucky/Sam. A sprawling space epic that's also part of my sexuality series. Set in the far future, Clint comes from a planet of paradoxes with a people who are sexually adventurous, deeply religious, and highly militant. Probably the most erotic sex scenes I've ever written.

Bonds of Old: The Medieval Cake Verse -- a series of five stories that center on different pairings set in a Medieval world with magic and swords. My biggest endeavor, it's a crossover with Marvel and Supernatural, and is still ongoing (I'm just about done with the next installment) and it covers Clint/Phil, Steve/Bucky/Natasha/Tony, Pepper Potts/Maria Hill, Bruce/Darcy, Jane/Thor, Dean Winchester/Castiel, and Sam Winchester/Carol Danvers. The new one finally gives Sam Wilson his due.

#Hello everyone!#I also write fanfic #lots of it #big sprawling epics #and little short things #come check me out on AO3 #and feed the author

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theoverseerau · 8 months ago

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Username: PAPAWINGDING Password: GastaMasta3!4159 Folder: YGGDRASIL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Entry 1: This is the first entry in a personal project of mine. I couldn't help but overhear the two royal children conversing with each other, and Chara was speaking about some very, very, interesting things. to put it into those fun science terms my wife constantly teases me about, Chara was speaking as if they were capable of temporal manipulation. I've dabbled in timeline theory in my free time, and if Chara is speaking the truth and not making anything up, which is very much a possibility, my young son Sans comes up with a new tall tale every day after all, but if Chara is truly capable of this, I am intending to work with the child and see what might be possible. the name "Yggdrasil" was chosen because of a creation I have always dreamed of making, a machine that can connect multiple timelines and allow people from different timelines to interact with one another. much like the great tree from human myth, which was a central point that allowed many worlds to be connected. Entry 2: Much to my joy and amazement, Chara was not lying! it took a bit of time, along with a promise not to talk about it with anyone else other than themselves and Asriel, but Chara went through some tests to prove that they could go back in time to set points. I'm currently working with the child to see if doing this causes any unusual readings on any of my instruments, if a particular reading ends up occurring consistently, it could be a clue as to how we can research this strange ability further. Entry 3: Research is going incredibly well, I found a set of readings that are consistent with Chara's temporal manipulation, something they refer to as a 'button' for some bizarre reason. The readings are incredibly difficult to extract meaningful data from, but the fact that I have managed to get any readings whatsoever is incredible progress. Entry 4: Chara has fallen ill, I will be postponing research for Yggdrasil until they recover, this is a good time for a break for other reasons as well, as I have recently learned that I am having yet another child! So as Chara rests, I will be taking time to be with my family. Entry 5: Chara and Asriel are dead. Me and my family are just as devastated as the rest of the underground, it is my understanding that this happened partly due to Chara wanting to make the world a better place. With this being the case, I will continue project Yggdrasil unhindered, I cannot let Chara's previous efforts be in vain, they wouldn't want this to be abandoned, it will be difficult to juggle both manning my home while my wife is pregnant and doing research, but I know I'll manage.

#the overseer #undertale au #undertale #chara #gaster #not a comic

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essayofthoughts · 2 years ago

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For the DVD commentary ask game; hey Essay what the *fuck*

[Aka: Tiefling AU recounting of the de Rolos' deaths]

(He sees: his father, bruised and bloodied, clothes torn to rags, fingers broken and twisted in unnatural ways, sees him wheezing and wheezing and going still.)

(He sees: his mother, a crossbow quarrel in her shoulder, no armour to protect her, her glasses smashed, all her ferocious protectiveness turned useless by restraints as they forced her to watch-)

(He sees: Julius, choked, held by the throat by the man he’d just run through, Sylas Briarwood, smiling, sneering, tossing his brother down into the cells-

(He sees: Vesper, beloved older sister, spellbook torn from her hands as she tried to get enough space to cast something, anything, fleeing to the highest tower and only finding freedom by being thrown from it.)

(He sees: Oliver, Whitney, Ludwig, Oliver’s ribs cracking and cracked, Whitney’s fingernails torn ragged, torn out, Ludwig’s teeth ripped free to leave bleeding gums.) (He sees Cassandra, the last one left, at his cell, picking the lock, pulling him free.)

So, I'll admit that some of this is stuff I tend to hold to across fics - traits of Percy's siblings and ways that Ripley hurt them, but it's also that...

Trauma is messy and it messes with your memory. I highly doubt Percy remembers the whole of what was done to him and his family - too painful, too awful, too viscerally horrible - but he, like anyone, can remember fragments of it. Bits and pieces and not the whole and it's both better (less painful) and worse (surely he owes it to them to remember the whole of it?). It also means I can narrate it like this - like a fragmented flashback, because most flashbacks aren't solely visual and can be incoherent. They are often emotional or aural or based on a smell or a fleeting sound or wrong touch, and I wanted to invoke that broken incoherency in how Percy recalls things.

It also makes it more impactful for a reader. I can't write Ripley's detached torture of the de Rolos, not like @officialtrashbin can (and has for their Vampire Percy fic The Suffering of Night; it's great, go read it if you haven't), and if I just described every piece of harm she wrought on them then that'd just become gorn and no one wants gorn. Further, by describing all of it, it becomes both overwhelming (gorn) but also disallows any space for the reader's own imagination, which can be even more effective at building horror, and by limiting it to small things with some basis in things people might have familiarity with, it brings it viscerally home to the reader. I talk about Whitney's fingernails torn ragged and then torn out - we've all had a hangnail! Some people have had nails torn off in accidents. I say "Ludwig's teeth ripped free to leave bleeding gums" and anyone who's had to have a tooth removed knows what that yawning gap can look like, and everyone knows what it's like at the dentists, having to hold your mouth open - there's little parts of it that most people will have some familiarity with and which give them a basis to imagine it from: it becomes verisimilitudinous that way. I hope.

A few of these things are also headcanons I've built out more recently or ones I chose specifically to hurt you, Blorb. Johanna having glasses I decided because I think if Percy has more tangible habits and traits from his father, I'd like him to have his bad eyesight from his mother, just to balance it. I'd decided Julius was protective of his siblings long ago as the eldest; the idea of him trying to fight back but being unable because Sylas Briarwood came naturally from that. Vesper however... Vesper was specifically because this AU is for you.

I know you remember and hold to the idea of Vesper being thrown from a tower, and I've had a headcanon of her dabbling in spells for a while; it felt fitting to combine those for a smidge of extra pain here, Vesper trying to get enough space to safely cast something, anything, and being given only a twisted version of freedom, thrown from a tower, unable to cast Featherfall or Fly.

That one was specifically put there for you.

Send me ~500 words from a fanfic I've written and I'll give DVD Commentary-esque explanation of why I wrote it like that

#fic things #tiefling percy au #tiefling au #blorbologist #ask #ask game

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rattled-shadow · 2 years ago

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Do you remember the notorious 11/21 exposition scene?

Would you like to hear it without background music?

My friend @ocean-stuck was kind enough to give me the isolated vocals, so I combined them into one track

And yes, I wrote a transcript for it under the cut:

Shido: I finally made it this far... It's already been two and a half years since we met.

Akechi: Back then, you were in the media's attention as a young politician who could rise up against bureaucracy. Because of that, those who wanted to preemptively deal with problems tried to tie you up in scandal.

Shido: To think I would fall for the ruse schemed by those decrepit fools in power. I recall that's when you came to me. You promoted yourself, saying that you had "special powers". If it wasn't for the research in cognition that I dabbled in, I would have thought you insane.

Akechi: I made those troublesome opponents psychotic, and erased any trace of that scandal.

Shido: Who'd think that tampering with a person's heart could trigger a psychotic lapse or mental shutdown? And when someone like that said he'd support me, I had suspected that there'd be an ulterior motive.

Akechi: It's because I sympathized with your aspiring ideology. I believed that your ideals needed to be achieved for the sake of the country's future.

Shido: Well, my faith in you is precisely why I pulled the plug on that research. I only need you using that power. It'd be troublesome if someone else uncovered how it works.

Akechi: ...Wakaba Isshiki, was it? That researcher, she wouldn't have had to have died if she just complied.

Shido: Any suspicions should be snubbed out. Even the smallest doubt must be severed at the root. After all, we had an active Public Prosecutors Office director on our side until recently.

Akechi: Astounding, isn't it? To think the director himself would often forge evidence to secure his promotion. He was quite surprised when you confronted him about it. He didn't know who leaked that information. Well, I got that out of his Shadow, so technically speaking, he did it himself.

Shido: This country's affairs have become stagnant. The political world is filled with old men who only act to preserve their own vested interests. The general public has forsaken such political affairs and don't even bother. Only ruin awaits us.

Akechi: I must agree.

Shido: There's no need to be ruined with such incompetent fools. I will lead this country to its revival. Those who get in the way must be eliminated at times - that's the correct way to use the Metaverse.

Akechi: Still, it would stand out if there were continuous deaths and scandals with your political rivals. Which is why I made them "suspects." Prosecute the targets that I turned psychotic... and solve them as cases unrelated to you. And thus, the charismatic ace detective was born.

Shido: Thanks to your efforts, my clean image remains untarnished, and I monopolized public opinion. Once I gained public sentiment, collaborators from all sectors began approaching me on their own. The police were no exception. With their management in my pocket, keeping them in check was easy.

Akechi: When the Phantom Thieves emerged, I thought things might become somewhat troublesome.

Shido: They were just brats once we looked into it. All we needed to do was to lay the blame on them...

Akechi: When you told me that, I knew then that you were the better man.

Shido: Their popularity was a bit beyond my expectations but flipping it made the negative press stronger. After that, all I had to do was openly berate them. I've been gaining more supporters since. The current administration is dead with ongoing scandals... never mind the fact that they're my doing. Even the government parties have begun splitting up... and they're dissolving just as planned.

[Shido laughs]

Shido: The time has finally come... Just a little more and I'll take the seat of prime minister. However, inauguration isn't my goal. That's when everything truly begins. I'll make this country rich for the sake of its selfish and ignorant masses who can only rely on others.

Akechi: In other words, you're creating a powerful country that can compete with the world.

Shido: The public resonates with my ideals and follows me. And for that, some "sacrifices" can't be avoided. That is my duty as the chosen one. Your assistance has been very influential in making my plan run smoothly. When I become prime minister, I'll grant whatever wish you want.

Akechi: With this most recent case, my name has become known across the country, perhaps even the world. Surely my story will be passed down as a hero who won against monsters that could control people's hearts. I believe I'll lay low and devote myself to my studies.

Shido: ...I suppose with your age, you wouldn't come up with debauched desires.

Akechi: ...I am thinking about the future though.

#persona 5 #persona 5 spoilers #masayoshi shido #goro akechi #I put too much effort into this post lmao #when I looked up the scene on youtube someone described this as the 'expositioning' which I think is accurate #the voice acting really is the only redeeming part about this scene imo #you can hear keith smile as he delivers some of those lines which feels unsettling with what shido is saying #what shido said is so horrifying but it's in a gentle tone. god the dissonance #and then there's akechi playing along with the expositioning #I love robbie's delivery on the part about the siu director. so sassy lol

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jaybejaybenot · 5 months ago

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tagged by @patheticjayce - thanks for the tag :)

whats the origin of your blog title?

i heard viktors va saying it and its been on loop in my mind ever since. i say it to myself when im trying to decide on things. when i made this sideblog i needed a name and was like "well that works" and then it wasn't taken so it was perfect

otp(s)/shipnames:

in arcane, jayvik of course but also zaundads and caitvi. outside of arcane, gotta be spirk and garashir man i love those aliens

favorite color:

red

favorite game:

rdr2, hands down. im a horse girl at heart

song stuck in my head:

a horrible mix between abracadabra and sharks with legs

weirdest habit/trait:

uhh man idk, i drink hot coco in the summer to cool off and i have a truly absurd amount of freckles on my body (i got bored once during SAT testing and counted 583 on my just forearms)

hobbies:

so so many; i'm an equestrian, photography, drawing, writing, book binding, chainmail making, and atm im reading two copies of the odyssey to see where the differences are. those are my main ones at the moment but i've dabbled in so many things lol

if you work, what's your profession?

i work in an entomology museum imaging bees and moths for an international database - i am not an entomologist tho, this just pays the bills and is really cool so i've gotten interested in it as a bonus

if you could have any job, what would you do?

im studying for my bachelors in archaeology so ideally somewhere in a museum doing experimental archaeology work but honestly, dream job would be cattle herding or helping on a horse ranch. i managed a horse farm for a year and god it was the best, my mind is made for manual labor. unfortunately my body would break into shards if i tried it professionally but dream job if i could

something you're good at:

i'm weirdly good at cooking, i can just wing it and come up with something that tastes really good. i made a really good cornbread once but didn't use corn and was actually trying to make a brownie brick so 💅🏼 call me chef boy arby

something you're bad at:

i'm atrocious at focusing. the senioritis is hitting so hard, i can't focus on anything at the moment, even stuff i like. outside of that, im so bad at knowing when to quit. i'm a perfectionist and completionist at heart

something you love:

kindness, the smell of rain and snow before it does, music, horses, people honking in tunnels, my roommates - really hit the jackpot with them they're amazing. i also love committing to the bit, i will do anything for that payoff

something you could talk about for hours off the cuff:

star trek, and spirk. i could literally write a thesis length paper about spirk and how misinterpreted they are in the modern trek era (mostly kelvin timeline, disco/snw is still too new to say for sure) its infuriating. i also have a spreadsheet on them cuz i got really in the weeds a few years back. and honestly i could tie them in with arcane/jayvik now that i think about it, there are definitely some parallels i could draw. oh and also greek mythology i love it so much

something you hate:

people who can't admit they're wrong/don't know/don't like not being the expert on things and who can't apologize. grew up with a dad that was like this so now i try to keep people like that at arms length cuz it fucked me up so bad as a kid

something you collect:

books, coins, bugs, postcards, keychains

something you forget:

so much, i have pretty bad memory problems so i forget a lot of things. i have to ask people about things multiple times so often, its such a pain (and also lowkey scary cuz its a fairly recent development)

whats your love language?

gift giving/acts of service, i love doing things for people or getting them things they want/need especially when they aren't expecting it, or mentioned it offhand or in passing

favorite movies/shows:

star trek - except for that fucking section 31 movie fuck that thing, arcane, rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead, stardust, starcrash, the little prince, silverado and clearcut

favorite food:

mangoes, mini bagels, and this kimchi dip i get at my local farmers market

favorite animal:

horses, cats and whales; got multiple tattoos of all of them

what were you like as a child:

outgoing, friendly, kind of an outsider, definitely the weird kid tho - closet queer meets so much undiagnosed stuff + warrior cats obsession + small christian town lmaooo i was cringe but i was free

favorite subject at school:

history and art are tied, which isn't too surprising given where i am now lmao

least favorite subject:

in my heart i want to love math but math does not love me </3

best character trait:

ive been told i'm really friendly and warm, and would give my shirt to a friend who needed it, and i'm a good listener

worst character trait:

awkward as fuck, i don't know how to talk with people i don't know so i come off as standoffish/shy, i have a hard time being honest with people and trusting people due to childhood trauma (also daddy issues out the wazoo)

if you could change any detail about your life right now, what would it be?

probably just making a bit more money, i can afford rent and such but it doesn't leave much extra for things like tuition and books and things i want to do for myself and it means money is very tight so when things go wrong i'm set back for months. i can't plan for a lot of future things like top surgery or moving abroad to get my masters because of it

if you could travel in time, who would you meet?

funny answer: ea-nasir

serious answer: i'd want to meet a neanderthal or denisovan. i just... i think about them so much, and i love them and i want to know what they were like, did they speak like us? how did their world work? could we communicate?

ok i would tag mutuals but i made this blog like 3 months ago so i don't have any others atm, and all my other mutuals are on my main blog and have been my mutuals/friends for years so if you want to join just hop on!

#get to know your moots

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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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More Than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Shadowplay (Issues 9 through 11) (Patreon review for Brotoman.exe)

Hello all you happy autobots and welcome back to my look at more than meets the eye, long delayed due to a lot of scheduling delays, a draining move, and general shenanigans. But it's finally time for us to take a look at Shadowplay.

Shadowplay is easily one of the most important arcs of MTMTE, not only seting up a lot of character backstory, but also fully establishing Roberts vision of Cybertron past that he dabbled with back in Chaos Theory, a place where the senate is corrupt, the Decepticons are slowly planning a coup that will sadly turn from righteous rebellion into nightmarish dictatorship not unlike what they replaced, and functionism lingers in the background. And at the first time I read this arc..

While I liked it well enough, being a tense story that characterized Optimus well and gave him spotlight at a time when he wasn't in any of the comics on a regular basis, it still felt a bit like a neat side tangent.

I've come around since then for a number of reasons: The first is, especially on re-read this arc is REALLY good and in a continuity where Optimus didn't get to shine that often, it's another character piece that makes me sad he never joined the lost light. He got to lead but this really gets to who he is as a character and shows him at his best. It also has plenty of nice depths for the autobots featured, and seeing who they were pre-war really adds some layers and shows just what the war did to each and every one. The other is simple: I was reading the story for the first time. And sometimes something extraneous at the time ends up being important. In this case both how cybertron used to be is vital to the future of those who left it behind. So with that's lets do a little shadowplay and see how the past will ultimately nearly destroy the future...

Content Warning: Self Harm and Suicide Is Discussed

We open in pre war cybertron, some time after the last time we saw it in chaos theory. The Decpticon movement in in full swing, and two bots are discussing the recent clampdown, basically a bunch of curfews and othe rnonsense to try and fight back against them. But one of these bots, Nightbeat isn't remotely convinced this will work while his buddy Quark

Sadly not that one, is paranoid about it and assumes they'll force Alt Mode Changes when they get in power. While they'll do much worse, remember this idea. It'll be important next season. As will Nightbeat.

For now though Quark's casually day drinking is interupted by some blood.. from a corpse hung above

Cut to present day at Swerves where Ratchet joins a group consisting of Rewind, Chromedome, Tailgate, Whirl, Skids, Drift and of course the man himself. Swerve. As for why.... well as put in the page image THEIR GONNA FIX RUNGS BRAIN. After everyone gets a chance to react in shock and disgust and this stupid stupid joke , (Minus swerve who isn't shown reacting and likely helped Rewind set him up), we find out it's not AS obnoxious as it sounds: Swerve is still comotose and Rewind brought them all here to try and fix that on Chromedome's advice. See Domey's figured out why our Psychatrist pal's still in his coma: His body is starting to function but he can't fully heal till his mind does. Hence this exercise: The group gathered here isn't random as it seems: most were involved in a story in cybertron's past, the same one from the cold open, each crossing paths with a certain future robot space jesus. Rewind himself wasn't, but has both archival footage and has talked to some involved, so he can fill in the gaps. As for Tailgate and Swerve.. well Tailgate is just a nice guy and was likely let along so he can learn more autobot history, and Swerve owns the only place they could do this session nice and quiet, only needing a closed sign. (The bar has been reopened it turns out. ). And frankly it's swerve: you think he'd miss anything where he'd have a chance to talk and crack jokes?

So here's where we are: Nominus Prime, one of the senators, was nearly assainated and has vanished since while the corrupt senate we saw last time is only getting more and more strained as the citizens, paticuarlly the aformentioned decipticons, are pushing back more and more.

It's here the first of our familiar faces enters: Chromedome. Dome was working in Mechaforensics, even had a diffrent name but for clarity's sake Rewind is having him use his current one. He's working with Prowl

Who while not as awful as present, still has a rod wedged up someplace uncomfortable, possibly a cybertronian voltzwagon. The plan has all the hallmarks of a decipticon: i'ts pointed straight at the functionist council building, their graffiti is on the back. It's bad. we then get a nice diversion as Skids wants to know Prowl more, as he's going to be a recurring character and all and we get Swerve naturally hurling a ton of insults at the asshole and as for Rewind..

I love how Roberts not only embraced Prowl's tantrum becoming a meme, but decided to just make it a character trait. I also like how both of them can recognize the exact sound he makes It's then time for Drift's story.. which is good because Rodimus is getting antsy. At the time Drift was a drug addict, plugging boosters into his head. Ratchet makes sure to emphasis WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS.. mostly because Tailgate's present. At any rate he gets hassled by two random dipshits... and stopped by Optimus, aka orion pax at the time, who then procedes to badassily take them both out in seconds. With Drift, known as roller then, comotose Optimus takes him to Ratchet... .. and then procedes to play with him by having the known atheist say adaptus be praised. The two wrestle a bit and Chromedome sidesteps this foreplay by pointing out this dosen't make sense: Apparently Ratchet was already cheif physician> Turns out though Ratchet was also unfufilled, so when Optimus, being optimus, suggested a secret center for addicts since the council , like most goverments, cares not one iota off a shit if people with a serious addiction die horribly, he gladly took it up. It also fits well with his character: Ratchet is older so of course he's already even further into his career, he likes helping and he likes a challenge.

Once he saves the future Drift, he encourages him to make something of his life.. while Drift plans to simply go to a refurbishment clinic and donate his body instead. The present day drift then has to go before Hot Rod tries to rebuke his amnesty.. and that's only half a joke as Drift geninely isn't sure if he can do that and isn't keane to find out. As for what the clinics were, Rewind helpfully explains for Tailgate, who nicely serves as an audience surrogate here. He even has a helpful ad

I also love the repacaging of something most older transformers fans like Roberts would be familiar with and fond of, the g1 manuals, into something fucked up, i.e. an add for cheap and nasty body tourisim. We don't know where it lead but we'll find out later. For now though once Drift leaves... Ratchet finds out there's bigger worries to deal with. Pax gestures to the news, something Ratchet dosen't like already for being state propoganda.. but likes even less finding out Nominus has offically been declared dead. More disturbingly Ratchet realizes their cause of death.. has to be wrong. It's said to be a rusted fuel pump, and the rust spreading to his spark casing.. but his fuel pump was pristine when Ratchet examined him post attack.. and with Optimus already theorizing to ratchet in a past conversation that the attack was a false flag attack from the senate itself Ratchet concludes not only is the senate behind this.. but they now have the matrix of leadership, all thanks to sentinel prime who no matter the reality is apparently just the biggest dick in existance.

Optimus reassures Ratchet he's not crazy or paranoid: they did clearly do this.. and he has a friend he wants him to meet

On that note we're back to Chromedome and Prowl. And we get another lovely toy based sight gag

Before the results tell prowl their going to Transluctna Heights next, the cybertronian beverley hills. Silciate Palm Trees and energon pools.

We then cut to Ratchet and Optimus who are meeting with the Senator, the same one from the end of Chaos Theory. This still works even if you had'nt read that story, as to me reading this comic the first time I assumed he and optimus had met previously and simply had a history.. and they do as seen with Chaos Theory he's the one who was convinced our hero could one day be a prime. Ratchet is mostly here to throw off suspiscion, since the senator already used most of his captial saving optimus from certain death at the end of chaos theory. That added context will be important in a bit but for now the Senator confirms that yup they killed Nominus for having a fake matrix. The only reason the senator isn't doing anything is because he's smarter than that and knows having a seat is way more useful than wringing Sentinels scrawny tickish neck. Speaking of which, The Senator is genuinely scared of what's going on. Also if you were curious where Megatron was during all of this he is alive, they simply have him on an asteroid mining as killing him would make him a martyr. His mining assignment is, once again, naturally important for later.. just not this storyline.

For this one we close the main story with Chromedome and Prowl investigating the swanky, richest of the rich only district of cybertron.. only to get a body thrown at them.

While we close the issue starting our b-plot for this three pater as we find out WHY Rodimus was so antsy for drift to get there NOW.

Yup... and honestly... this is the rare case where I genuinely DON'T know what happened here. We'll get an explination shortly and I THINK that's what indeed happened.. but I can't be sure for a number of reasons I don't want to spoil. The point is Red Alert's dead and Hot Rod thinks Cyclonus did it.

We see a lot of blurbs and what not on the news. The most important two are Senator Sherma, whose trying to pass a decipticon regestration act.. and if you've ever read x-men you'll know that's a pretty terrible idea and prejudice to boot, while we also get a hint against ratioisim, which I THINK is supposed to be some form of functionisim. For those wondering , Functionisim is basically determining your worth based on your alt mode and what purpose it serves. And if that idea sounds shady, racist and classist, you can see why the decipticons exist.

I also really like Roberts adding these shades to the decpticons existnace: Their still bad people mostly, but I love the idea they sprouted from a genuinely good place. From an opressed working class lorded over by a corrupt senate. It's an exploration of the idea a movement can easily be corrputed. YOu only have to look at say communisim: It's not a horrible idea on it's surface and modled right it can be done well.. and when molded wrong under someone like stalin it becomes an opressive facist state, just as democracy can be molded into one just the same when , as seen with the cybertronian senate, a few powerful folks wield said power regardless of the people's actions. As we've seen with Optimus , Nightbeat and Ratchet there are PLENTY of autobots who fully agree with their message.. they just won't agree with what that message becomes. It's one thing when the message is "take down the corrupt police state we all hate", it's another when the message becomes "Peace through tyranny"... a message really not that diffrent from the senate. The only diffrence.. is Megatron just comes out and admits he's going to rule over you as a dictator while the senate lies and says things are fair while constantly stacking the deck however they like. It makes me really wish Roberts had gotten to full on write the reboot when it happened, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Back with the cop plot, Chromedome is chasing around one of the perps on a flying bike. I wonder if you can play card games on it? For now the chase dosen't take much effort as the idiot he's chasing goes into a narrow garage.. that turns out ot be a no fly zone, complete with the cybertronian equilveant of saftey glass.. and being cybertronian that means anything speeding blows up real good. Prowl is already doing what he does best: casing the room and being mildly dimissive. Being an authortarian cockballon comes a little later but joining the police is a good start. That said we see how diffrent he was.. as he ACTUALLY APOLOGIZES

Yes when he finds out about the glass he genuinely apologizes and hopes Chromedome is okay. In the apartment they find both red alert and a decepticon manfesto and shrine. The senator was a secret deciptcion.. and given what else we know it's obvious the senate is trying to clean house of anyone that would oppose them.

Back in the present, Rodimus has turned Perciptor's lab into a makeshift inergation room. And it turns out.. he's taken in Cyclonus for no other reason than he's Decipticon adjacent. That's it. This is pure profling.. and it also provides a really intresting role reversal. Usually when these two talk Magnus is a stick in the mud doomsayer who follows regulations as his one true religion, while Rodimus, hot mess he may be, tends to give people chances and think outside the box. It's essentially a wackier version of Kirk and Spock.

Here though that same adherence to order and regulation that often makes Magnus the butt of the joke.. makes him the reasonable one for a change.

He does.. but only because Drift is unlawfly interogating him. Rodimus is just rashly assuming because decipticon, while Magnus rightly sees he's bungled this whole investigation by unlawfully arresting someone who did nothing wrong, they have no reason to bring in. Drift isn't much better as we see a nastier side to him. While he's a former decpitcon himself he treats Cyclonus hostile and subtly threatens him.. and gets driven into the table in response. While Magnus DOES hold Cyclonus back... if you look at the panel bellow he's not hurting him or anything. He's only holding him to prevent a fight that would only make this more of a farce. And Cyclonus speech makes it VERY clear how much of a farce this is and is honestly CHILLING with the recknoning in police we've been going through as what Rodders did.. is really what MOST police did and many still do

It's a damming speech and shows what Roberts has masterfully done so far and will continue to do: Show that the Autobots, while the good guys.. aren't flawless. We've seen it in how human they are and how goofy they can be... but we wee here the less endearing sides of their humanity, the judgmental side and tencndy to fly off the handle. Cyclonus also makes a valid point: they think winning the war makes them absolute victors.. but Cyclonus, while not impartial, is a mostly outside observer: he AGREES with the decipticon cause, but really isn't one. He can see the self righteousness and tendency to see themselves as absolute right the autobots are devleoping, something festering even worse back home, and he sees the same system that required the decipticons in the first place slowly reforming. And we've seen this cycle: the senate replaces a corrupt mad man, they become corrupt authorarians. MEgatron replaces them, he becomes a power mad dictator. While the autobots have a leg up on booth..there's no guarantee they can't fall just as hard or fast , and this book will more than prove that.

At anyr ate Cyclonus is absolved as First Aid thinks he has it.

Back at the crime scene, Chromedome and Prowl are backed against the wall. Prowl hasn't fought yet so he's scared shitless, Chromedome is enjoying that but it's not really helping the situation.. but someone arrives who does

If you ever find yourself wondering why optimus is in charge.. well it's mostly on the heart and sense of conviction, but if your wondering how he stayed in charge and stayed alive.. this is why.

Prowl then.. yells at Optimus, not only assuming he's a citzen but just being a dick. Optimus then flashes his badge and is disapointed what he heard about Prowl was exagerated. Yes even OPTIMUS FRIKKIN PRIME, PRE PRIME CANNOT STAND PROWL SOMETIMES. Optimus casualy says that Prowls report on all this will just get lost, and Prowl hopes "i'll never be as cynical as you orion pax"... bud.. your already.. so much worse.

Prime plans to follow up but he's wanted ON THE MOON... and I love a job where I get to say that. He's wanted at prison, as it's time for whirl to enter the story. Whirl also gets defnsive when ratchet rightly points out why he's arrested when he tries to blame optimus: He tried to murder a prisoner in his cell. The fact Megatron is evil later.. dosen't really justify it at all, as we saw. The senate were using him as a pawn to get away with worse stuff.

But the fact is by this point Whirl has realized the senate used him, and took away his hands, with a really crushing panel of him admitting why he's brought optimus here beyond REVENGE

They took everything he was from him and he can't do anything to them, as i'm sure many like him can't either. But he can tell optimus there's a plan for a large bombing, a false flag attack.. and to catch the Senator in the crossfire. We also see IMpactor getting introduced as Whirl's cellmate. Naturally for the wreckers there first meeting.. is impactor beating his head in.

One of my faviorite lines in the comic.

Anyways we get back to Prowl and Chromedome , and we get a really intresting bit: Chromedome can tell SOMETHING'S going to give and wonders if they'll survivie it, and while prowl denies it at first.. it turns out as much as he likes to bury his head in the sand at this point in his life, he hasn't buried it straight up his ass like his present day self.

Yeah I kick myself in hindsight for not only not noticing Chromedome and Rewind were a thing, but that PROWL and chromedome were in the past. I"m still shocked how oblivious I was, especially since I picked this one specifically because LIndsay Ellis had mentioned the idw transformers comics had gotten queer. I've gotten better at picking up on gay subtext, intentional or otherwise, but it's still hilariously tone deaf. It's also weird to see Prowl.. actually be romantic. Roberts does the legwork the other book simply dosen't seem to care to do in making Prowl a tragic figure: Sure he's absolutely the worst and Roberts makes no real attempts to prove that. If anything he shows the potetial was there.. but this arc really hammers in that Prowl before the war.. was a far better person. He still was entirley by the book, but he opened up to Chromedome, his partner in both senses, didn't want a war, and generally had good in him. I made a cop joke before.. but Dome IS trying to be good police. He belivies way too much in a corrupt system.. but contrast that to the Prowl we saw in issue 1 and will see again when the crossover comes: an authoratian nightmare who sees his boyfriend trying to get a measure of peace.. and sees it as a waste. Who sees the end of a years long war as just a lull in combat. Who in his own book is carrying out black ops bullshit and stoking tensions between autobots and decipticons. Prowl had the potetial to be what he is now always sure, but he wasn't etched in that. Becoming an autobot made somes lives better.. but for Prowl it just caused him to double down on his worse traits and become an outright monster.

The fight is also just.. sad. Instead of talking through their issue.s. rewind just snaps. He just can't face Rewind's history with Prowl or see that there WAS good in the man whose caused his partner such pain.. but also can't healthily cope with it. Then again as we'll learn heathily coping is not something Rewind's really EVER done.

Back with the plot , Prowl finds out to his fury that Flatfoot, his superior officer despite the name, has leaked his report, proving what Optimus said. Things only get more suspcious when they meet Trepan, the head of the clinic.. and after Chromedome sense ssomething shady, the sinister needle hands are a giveaway, Domey incapcitates the guy and our unambgiously gay duo find the insittute: tons of robtos removing brain moduls, rewiring... even before he became a mnemosurgeon, Domey was already intrested in the science and thus can recognize it. Trepan escapes but our heroes take their valuable intel to Optimus, who had Ratchet and some others round up the good senator from his school for gifted autobots.

Optimus puts all the pieces together while Prowl bitches in the background: Domey and PRowl found a list at the clinic, that turns out to be a list of decipticons regestered as a polictical party. Turns out while Senator Sherma wanted it to LOOK like decipticon attack.. but not blame them right away, getting more cons to register.. then inittating ANOTHER false flag to make it look like the deciptcons betrayed them. As for how.. the how is utterly horrifying: they plan to BLOW UP nominus' corpse with a fake rigged matrix. Optimus' only recourse? They ahve to steal it We're onto the final issue and naturally Prowl thinks this is madness, wants nothing to do with it and is a right asshole as he flees, telling him not to let DOme go on the mission

Dome went to gather some of the senators pupils. I.. .wasn't remotely joking about the x-men comparison: Since the functionists obviously are baffled and apalled by beings who have extra talents beyond their alt modes, the Senator has been shielding them in his building for gifted autobots and brought a few to help: Skids himself is a super learner, able to learn anything in record time, which seems useless until you realize this means he can pick up any skill as fast as the flash and retain it unlike said flash. The others are windcharger, who has telekensis Kyle and Gltich, whose design I like a lot and who can mess up machinery. So in otherwords, Progidy, Hellion and Shadowcat. Got it.

We then break for a second as Ratchet examines rung and Swerve brings some old fashioned nightmare fuel to the party, which this being the comic that it is, is entirely real and requires gloves. When Chromedome worries about this eating up their insides, Swerve reveals this isn't rewind's FIRST session. It's not even his second. It makes sense though: this is a complex prospect and it's not unlikely every autobot here met Optimus at some point.. nor that unlikely that it'd fall apart, hence attempt 3 here. We also get an intresting fact about Rung that will be VITALLY important way down the line

We return to the story to find out this is what likely broke the two up for good, as Prowl, being prowl, just left with no explanation. They still need a full plan but skids having a mini matrix on his face, a religious thing back then the comic dosen't go into gives Optimus an idea: He spends Domey to talk to our good buddy ironfist, pre horrible tragic death. Being a massive fanboy even back then, he's more than willing ot help in exchange for getting his life sized model of Delta Magnus

So now our hero have a fake to swap for the fake. Before they leave on the heist though Ratchet and Optimus' Friend Roller Roller Da

An old friend of Optimus' on the force we just meet here but , say it with me "WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER". This arc could've easily been called "TRUST ME ALL OF THIS HAS A PAYOFF. ALL. OF. THISSSSSSSS. " And it does. One benefit of having to go over these issues with a finer tooth comb than my usual lagomorph lenth attention span allows is I catch just HOW well crafted this story is.

Anyways Roller hacked the system and finds out there's some weird stuff about the guy, a few charges, as you'd expect.. but also the fact Optimus isn't the ONLY person he's been grooming for this roll. Optimus.. dosen't care. He's not naive, he gets the senator likely has backups, and is with the guy not because he's truly buying what the man's selling on "being the next prime" and all that.. but becauase he's a good man in a broken system whose trying his damndest to fix it. A bit creepy sure, but someone he trusts enough to do this. if he didn't they woudln't of gone this far.

We get back to the present.. and it's one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the comic so far. And you KNOW that's already saying something. We find out what happened to Red Alert.. and it was suicide. Granted i'm still not sure it was entirely suicide or if the very least he wasn't pushed further by the knowledge of what was going on and the pressure of his already bad paranoia being kicked into overdrive. I won't know till he comes back. It's handled incredibly well.. including the fact that even now Rodimus makes it about him.. but in a way that just.. punches you in the heart. Rodimus takes it personally, feeling that if one of his crew is suicidal.. he shoudl've noticed. But the sad truth with mental illness is sometimes.. someone is just suffering so bad till they break. As someone who has had suicidal throughts... sometimes you just keep those to yourself till your already on the edge of it. What's worse is while they DID save him... Magnus suggests not putting him back on line just yet. He's understandibly worried given all the trauma it'll just happen again and plans to revivie him whent he misions over or at the very least when they have the time to help him. The results.. are just.. pure pain

Normally when rodimus asks this, it's clear he just wants a second opinon that will likely agree with him.. but here it's very clear from what happens next.. he just DESPERATLEY wants any othe roption, anything but this... and ultimately it's best for red to take a nap till they can help him... rodimus left utterly destroyed. Just the pannleing here is perfect.. it's clear Rodimus feels he failed... and the failures will only add up as the journey goes on. For now though we're back to the finale of our main story: So naturally for a heist the place their breaking into, the Primal Basicla, is super well guarded: any plane that tries to fly by deactivates, pressure plates along the floor to alert the guards, and said guards are trigger happy monsters with the orders to "take alive """IF POSSIBLE""""" which is code for

Thankfully thanks to said no flyzone the top is unguarded so they simply get to work: Windcharger lowers them down, Glitch shuts off the force beams, at great personal pain, and Swerve uh... uses his grappling hook to lower optimus mission impossible style. Hey at least it's a vital job. Problem is the things rigged. WOrse problems are back at base. For reasons unknown, Optimus decided to honor Prowl's wishes and Chromedome was left on sercurity with Roller Roller Da. The Senator assumes Optimus was being paranoid.. when who would it be at the door but hired goons

Who just burned down The Senator's institute for gifted autobots. Back at the heist, Optimus calls on Ratchet, whose roll now becomes clear beyond "Map guy": He was Optimus' backup plan: since he can't disarm the locks he uses reverse psychology on ratchet telling him he coudln't POSSIBLY unlock it in time. Ratchet knows he' splaying him.. but he's wrong and Ratchet does. He almost drops the matrix.. but thankfully Windcharger got bored and uses his telekensisis kyle to lift ratchet back up.

With the heist a success Windcharger starts slowly taking them back.. but Optimus, being twitchy that Roller hasn't contacted him JUMPS OFF THE FREAKING SKY THING AND INTO THE STREETS FAR BELLOW to go after him. Good thing too as he gets there before they can murder the senator. Sadly.. there's no happy ending here. Prequel and all that. The hired goons hold Roller Hostage.. and the Senator being who he is, agrees to go peacefully. The goons TRY to leave a guy for optimus to fight.. but optimus still has the bomb of leadership, hurls it and the senate covers it up the same way they covered up the academy. Gas leak. the silent killer. What's worse is while Optimus and Domey head for the instutitute.. it's already cleaned out.. and Domey also has a horrifying realization about the name: it's called that.. so people THINK there's only one. As he explains in narration, there turned out ot be one under EVERY refurbishment clinic.

So with that... it's all over. For now. There's no real happy ending... in the past. in the present though as the defcon klaxons ring... RUNG SPEAKS. This whole plan worked. Back in the past though we get one final coda as some creepy assholes plan to do the oepration on the senator, a complete personality swap.. a turn to logic.. and iwth that we find out just who this guy is.. and it's one of the most chilling, brilliant and tearjerking moments in the entire comic

Yup one of the nicest bots in transformers.. becomes a cold murder machine who will soon, or likely sometime next year for our purposes, nearly destroy all of cybertron. Someone who might of created a better future as Cybertron's greatest hero.. has become it's greatest monster. My jaw dropped when I read this and now having read dark cybertorn and knowing how the other side of this story plays out for him overal.. it's just an utter gutpunch. Even when I wasn't a fan of this story, I LOVED this ending.

As for shadowplay itself.. it's excellent. It's still not relaly one of my faviorite arcs, as it's one of the heavier ones, but the heist in the third act is great, there's some nice backstory shading and like I said that final twist is fucking phenominal. I'ts a story that only gets better as you see every piece it sets up for the rest of the comic fall into place, and on reread the red alert subplot fucking broke me. It's a great story Next Time: .. is in september, as I was SUPPOSED to take the summer off to do Beetlemania, which is now too far ahead to not do, but mtmte returns in september for an annual as Magnus takes the spotlight and a lot of stuff sure does happen. Thanks for reading.

#transformers #transformers more than meets the eye #optimus prime #ratchet #orion pax #prowl #chromedome #rewind #swerve #whirl #red alert #drift

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tickldpnk8 · 1 year ago

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Shipper Tag Game

Thanks for the tags @windsweptinred and @writing-for-life! Sorry it's taken me a bit: this week has been really hectic, but this is a fun one! I suspect that my answers may be a bit of a blend of both of yours.

What ship were you completely obsessed with as a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore?

I still actively ship the same pairings I did as a teenager. Mostly because I tend to like canon pairings, so when I engage with a fandom, it tends to be through that lens.

What ship would you consider your first one?

The earliest ship I remember liking is Clark Kent/Lois Lane from Lois and Clark. But this was pre-computer in my house growing up. The first ship I really got into online fan culture with and fan fiction was Harry/Ginny from HP.

Your first fanfic was about which couple?

So I've never written fanfic: I'm more of a fan art person, although I'm pretty shy about posting it. My earliest fan art was probably something Disney...most likely The Little Mermaid as a kid. My most recent foray back into fan art was for The Unknown and Static Strange, Dreamling fic. Otherwise, I've just had fun painting Morpheus' hair.

Do you remember the first couple you saw fan art of?

Most likely Harry/Ginny: there was this excellent artist, whose name (I think) was Marta, who used to post watercolor sketches on her own site called The Art Dungeon: they were gorgeous and really helped shape how I pictured the characters as I read the books. I'd love to find her artwork again to see what her portfolio is like now if she's still working as an artist.

Have you ever gotten into ship discourse?

Oh man...do you know how non-confrontational I am?? I won't touch it with a 10 ft pole: first whiff of a debate going heated and I nope out of there. I took a peek at the Loki tags when season 2 came out and couldn't close my browser fast enough. Ship and let ship, but don't ask me to comment on it.

Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently?

I generally avoid anything that a huge power imbalance: (think: underage student with an adult teacher). But other than that, I've come to embrace any ship if the writing is good enough. Almost any trope too.

Who were the last couple in the last fanfic you read?

I'm super excited to see Hounds is updating again, even if I've largely moved on from actively pursuing Dreamling. And I LOVED @writing-for-life's The Light of Stars (Morpheus x OC). I dabbled in a few Loki one-shots recently, too.

Currently, do you have any OTPs?

Man, that's hard...because I'm honestly not reading fanfic for the ships: I'm mostly reading it to satisfy the brain rot. So while I tend to prefer canon-adjacent or gen fics (missing moments, alt POV, etc), it seems that the best way to find those is through searching ship tags. Sandman seems to be the exception: I want all of these characters to pair up with all of the other characters and all bets are off the table. If the writing is solid and the plot is intriguing, I'm in!

Is there any couple that, to this day, that you are extremely mad about not getting into?

Not really: I don't invest so much in the ships I like and hate that I can't Ship and Let Ship. Likewise, if I want to read something, I will. And if it's not for me, I'll just ignore it. I also don't get so invested that if it doesn't become canon I'm upset: I kind of figure all things are possible in Lucienne's library

Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they're kind of interesting?

I honestly didn't really like the idea of Dreamling to start: it's not a canon pairing, I wouldn't have put the spin on Hob's character that fandom seems to have latched onto, and I really like that he's the one platonic friendship that Morpheus has able to form. But I find the idea of someone living for that long infinitely intriguing so I dipped into the tags, and some of the most well-known and well-beloved early fics for this pairing really caught my attention and hooked me in. But since then...my interest has waned. As others have pointed out, it's just everywhere and hard to filter. It's also starting to feel a bit OOC as fandom does what they do in shaping a character's portrayal.

I tend to go in spurts where I really like a certain dynamic and then I get bored with the fic selection for a pairing. But generally, I'll always come back to it after enough time. I really want to see more Desire-centric pairings like Desunity as I think they're a really interesting character and it could be interesting to explore them in different relationships given their function.

Do you have any ship that, in the past, would have been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

I've been in fandom spaces a long time, but I don't think any of them would be considered problematic today. It's more likely that there are things I used to feel were problematic, but I'm actually okay with now. I've grown a lot as a reader (and a human) over time.

What is your favorite crack ship?

Prob Morpheus and his Helmet (have we named this yet @writing-for-life?? it needs a worthy ship name). I'm also fairly certain that I coined the name Timeslayer for the Loki fandom (or might have simultaneously come up with the name when others did). But I've never seen a ship sink so quickly.

What is the couple you read the most fanfics about?

Lately, it's been Dream x Joanna (ConstantDream) coming off of a big DreamMuse kick that was followed by Dream x Lucienne.

What do most of your ships have in common?

That's hard! I was going to say Hard Candy Shell of a Guy reveals he has a Gooey Nougat Center...but really it just comes down to 1) is the writing good? 2) is the plot intriguing? 3) do the characters feel in-character? If you satisfy those 3 things, I'll likely read it.

What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Absolutely nothing outright. I'll sometimes go off a ship a little once it reaches that point where fanon locks in too tight around it. But I think that's a very me problem, as I crave variation/new experiences/ideas. I'll still love the ship, I'll just know that's just my time to move onto something new and come back and visit every so often.

^ @windsweptinred couldn't have nailed this better. I crave new: new perspectives, new takes on a character or dynamic, new AU scenarios. So once things get a bit too repetitive across authors, I'll pull back and visit something else.

This was fun! Thanks again for the tags. I've been minimally online this week so am not sure who else has done this: if you follow me and want to participated consider this your chance!

#ship tag game #tag game

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kbrick · 2 years ago

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Tag Game

Woo, it has been a minute since I've done one of these! Thanks @the-sinking-ship for the tag!

three ships: Uhhhh Drarry. And that's it!

No, for real, this is hard because I am a single-minded crazy person and have trouble leaving my beloveds. I used to be into Jurdan (Jude + Cardan from The Cruel Prince) a few years back. Het romance, so boring, I know. But enemies to lovers, so. In the HP verse, I think Scorbus is really cute. And I'm peripherally into Lunasy.

first ship: Jurdan (see above)

last song: I've recently fallen into a time warp, grunge edition. Been listening to Black and Release by Pearl Jam a LOT.

last movie: Barbie movie, and I cried. What, I'm not made of STONE you bastards

currently reading: Re-reading Perdido Street Station and tbh I'm liking it a lot less this time? not sure why.

last thing i wrote:

“Can't it wait until Monday?” Harry had little hope of this, but he had to ask.

“Afraid not,” Lisa replied. “Bit of an emergency. Little man blasted a three-foot hole in the wall of the foster family’s house today. They’ll all need to be wiped.”

“Obliviated. We obliviate them,” Harry corrected her (because ‘wiped’ sounded scary, like some sort of Cold War tactic). He thumbed through the file. “Eleven years old. How is this the first time I'm hearing about him?”

Kids this age always got to Harry, for reasons that he both understood and didn’t. Of course, eleven was when his own life had changed forever, but that didn’t really explain why these cases made him feel so frantic, like it was almost too late, like the child might be lost forever if he didn't intercede post haste.

“Honestly, I've no clue,” Lisa said. “I don't know how he escaped our notice until now. He’s clearly got magic juice; it’s been popping up for years by the look of it.”

Indeed, there was a whole stack of incident reports in the file, from various primary schools and foster homes, things that had been labelled as violent behavior or pyro tendencies, but had probably been errant magic.

Yeah, this one had slipped through the cracks.

currently writing: a top secret fic for a top secret fest, and dabbling in the above 'Harry as a Wizarding Child Protective Services caseworker' fic (Lisa is the Muggle liaison between the magic and Muggle parts of the department). Yes, this one will be Drarry, too, and also involves Scorpius.

Tagging @aibidil @moonflower-rose @gracerene @getawayfox @sorrybutblog @t4tdrarry, but please ignore if you've done it already or don't feel like doing it!

#drarry #kbrick #tag game

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notasimpleslater · 1 year ago

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Yeah IDK about the coke theory... Do I think Ariana is doing coke rn? Probably, just like most of Hollywood is. IK we're not here to talk about her but that woman is unwell and there are rumors that she's been back on coke for a long time. However, automatically looping Ethan into that because he looks 'tired' is a bit of a stretch for me. Like, that man is EURPOEAN WHITE. I can personally confirm that we all look tired most of the time for the sole reason that we're pale as fuck, that's just -

- how we look; I can't imagine the personal and professional stresses Ethan is facing is helping that, and tbh I kinda commend him for not giving into societal shittalking about his appearance (though how much of it he's actually seeing is up for debate, he seems pleased as punch recently so I doubt he's ingesting too much of it).

(Also, I know this isn't really the place for this, but since you put in in the tags of your Wicked trailer post I'll say it to you because I can't say it anywhere else online without everyone and their mother going "YEAH BUT ARIANA GRANDE THOUGH"- Marissa looks really gorgeous as Nessarose! I actually have some friends who went to school with ther in NY and they say she's as sweet as can be, so I'm thrilled to see her as my fav character and yeah I just can't believe how pretty she looks.)

1-2. True! He's sooo pale sometimes, that's just how he's always looked (especially this time of year). If ANYTHING I think he may have dabbled in 🍃 in the past just based on some things I've heard him say in interviews, but that's beside the point. People really spend too much time talking about his looks. As for if I think he sees any of it, that's hard to say. Most of it happens on twitter, and he hasn't posted anything on twitter/liked any posts since last spring (tbh I'm surprised he hasn't deleted his twitter yet).

3. YES omg! I can't wait to see Marissa's Nessarose! And her and Ethan look like they're a good pair for those roles. I don't see enough people talking about how big of a deal Marissa playing Nessa is as she's the first disabled actress to play the role.

#answered asks #anonymous #ozgate

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dukeoftheblackstar · 2 years ago

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I may take a bit to reply today or maybe not reply at all. I have the little silly dancers in their silly little dancing all up in my head today throwing molotov cocktails left and right and committing their pretty war crimes (arson mostly) all over while I just sit there waving a tiny white flag of surrender reading smut or poetry — or both at the same time, idgaf maybe idk. >:

So yeah, I'm not mad or ignoring anyone on purpose, I just am unable to do so today. Filling my head with comfort thots of bath-time with old man Plo and having his 18239128390128319083 babies — will also dabble so heavily on the creation of said babies , which is always a delight.

So if you're ever wondering if Plo's gonna be alright. No, he will not be alright. He will be on Duchii duty 24/7 beginning this hour. Will do things 100/10 to him frfr. He will be tired nd spent. But will be very much loved ♥♥♥ Send prayers LOL

Triggers be wild today again — getting a little bit more too handle with each day this week. Extra spicy. And I wonder if it was triggered by the text incident which happened again recently or it's because it just decided to.

It's the shittiest reason tbh. "it just decided to" — it's as if my brain suddenly just got bored and is all "Can't be happy all the time, babydoll. Why don't we make you extra neurotic today." And it does that silly dance that in spite of "it" — my brain, being a harbinger of bad news, I find the silly dance silly cute.

It's silly. It's the silly dancer. Just that little cute thing dancing while throwing molotov cocktails left and right in their little silly dance. I can't really hate them because they be so silly cute. But they're setting everything on fire and idk if I like that. I probably don't because then I have to do something about it. Actually do something about it.

I've cleaned though. I probably would again to extinguish the fire. Take out the meats from the fridge and clean the clean fridge. Put it back, stack them, and wait for god-knows how long before I do it again because oh my god, I seriously need a bigger fridge and it has to be done properly; always three — never more, never less.

And then the shower and bath conundrum on which takes precedence because I will do both. All inhibitions are out the door now, but I like it. I love water, you see? So bath and shower is like double the fun, double the fantasy maybe? Team Rocket from Pokemon but like, bath/shower maybe?

I wanna read though. Write too. Maybe watch. But it's there. The silly dancing silliness which makes me incapable of doing that. I'm just grateful they're kind enough to make me work when it's work time?

It's not a sad or pitiful thing in my opinion because it's me. They're little silly dancing silliness of me. I'm at peace with my shit, a condition I don't even know maybe? But I'm okay with it.

I'm okay with not seeing who's in the mirror. Like who's face is that because I love myself. I love wearing comfy clothing, love not wearing pants when I'm at home, love the marks on my body because I'm not exactly slender? Love my goddamn thighs that I'm afraid of scratching them? I'm okay with feeling like I'm on autopilot sometimes. I love watching my fingers shake sometimes because idk man, they're pretty gorgeous if you ask me.

I love them all. Love it more than I can and try to manage them no matter how many times they come back. Love it even when I cry because biiitch lemme tell you, I look cute AF when I cry. Real 'fuckmeupdaddy' face when I cry — I'm also equally unhinged all the time so. This is no surprise >:

I'm not vain or anything, but I've just come to terms with who I am and what can I offer. I don't shy away from compliments all the time because if you believe I'm that, I should always remember to have the moral compass to do the same. If you think I'm cute, then bitch yass. Because I owe it to myself for making it this far to put myself down.

So yes. Maybe I am gonna shower-bath at the same time. Remorsefully cut my nails for my own safety.

***

And here it is. I wrote all of that with the silly dancing molotov throwing arson committing silliness bebbis and they're just sat there all cute like 'awww did you burn me out off that wip I was actually enjoying, you cute little monster?" and they be so cute about like 'maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe'.

And now the wip and me is on fire and this cute little dancing silliness is just there silly dancing all cute and silly.

So now we're at an impasse and there's only one thing left to do.

Eat the little silly dancing silliness so they're back in their intricate little boxes. Cute little silly dancing shits they are, but I love them?

#♝#personal #tbd maybe idk i might keep t and check my progress?#see how many hours it took to be ok? yep yep #lezzgoo

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theoverseerau · 13 days ago

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Gaster subplot master post.

For the past while, I've occasionally posted sections of one "Project Yggdrasil"

These little blurbs are all fully canon to The Overseer, and now that I've finished writing it, I'm going to put all of them in a row here so you don't have to wander aimlessly through the blog to find them all.

-Uber

Username: PAPAWINGDING Password: GastaMasta3!4159 Folder: YGGDRASIL ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Entry 1: This is the first entry in a personal project of mine. I couldn’t help but overhear the two royal children conversing with each other, and Chara was speaking about some very, very, interesting things. to put it into those fun science terms my wife constantly teases me about, Chara was speaking as if they were capable of temporal manipulation. I’ve dabbled in timeline theory in my free time, and if Chara is speaking the truth and not making anything up, which is very much a possibility, my young son Sans comes up with a new tall tale every day after all, but if Chara is truly capable of this, I am intending to work with the child and see what might be possible. the name “Yggdrasil” was chosen because of a creation I have always dreamed of making, a machine that can connect multiple timelines and allow people from different timelines to interact with one another. much like the great tree from human myth, which was a central point that allowed many worlds to be connected. Entry 2: Much to my joy and amazement, Chara was not lying! it took a bit of time, along with a promise not to talk about it with anyone else other than themselves and Asriel, but Chara went through some tests to prove that they could go back in time to set points. I’m currently working with the child to see if doing this causes any unusual readings on any of my instruments, if a particular reading ends up occurring consistently, it could be a clue as to how we can research this strange ability further. Entry 3: Research is going incredibly well, I found a set of readings that are consistent with Chara’s temporal manipulation, something they refer to as a ‘button’ for some bizarre reason. The readings are incredibly difficult to extract meaningful data from, but the fact that I have managed to get any readings whatsoever is incredible progress. Entry 4: Chara has fallen ill, I will be postponing research for Yggdrasil until they recover, this is a good time for a break for other reasons as well, as I have recently learned that I am having yet another child! So as Chara rests, I will be taking time to be with my family. Entry 5: Chara and Asriel are dead. Me and my family are just as devastated as the rest of the underground, it is my understanding that this happened partly due to Chara wanting to make the world a better place. With this being the case, I will continue project Yggdrasil unhindered, I cannot let Chara’s previous efforts be in vain, they wouldn’t want this to be abandoned, it will be difficult to juggle both manning my home while my wife is pregnant and doing research, but I know I’ll manage. ~~~~~~~~~

ENTRY 6: I have finished construction on a new device, a machine that is able to give detailed readings on souls in mere moments. The original goal of this machine was to assist on my work with Chara, and while that is now impossible, I finished it anyway. I am sure to find a use for it eventually. The king’s new order to hunt down fallen humans doesn’t rest well with me, but at the very least, it may give me as the royal scientist a chance to study human souls further for the purposes of Project Yggdrasil. ENTRY 7: My wife has died shortly after delivering my second son, I have chosen to name him Papyrus. To call this a devastating blow to myself and poor little Sans would be an understatement, but she was always a woman who would look forward. While my mind aches to continue research, I know that for the sake of my family, I must put Project Yggdrasil on indefinite hold. This will likely be my last entry. ENTRY 8: It has been several years since my last entry. life has been hard but manageable. I return to this old project because of a thoroughly unexpected development; A human has fallen into the underground, and while she has evaded detection from monsterkind, she was last sighted nearby my lab. I set up my soul reader along the pathway through my lab, and in a stroke of luck, the human passed through. while her soul contains much smaller traces of the aspects that allowed for Chara’s temporal manipulation, they are still present and can be researched. ENTRY 9: The girl’s soul is in front of me in a jar as I type this. I consider this a loss, but what little good can be taken from it, I will take. Research is progressing well, and even if my dream device never comes to be, the breakthroughs in timeline theory being made here will not be forgotten. The substance that allowed for Chara to travel through time has also been shown to be the same substance that allows human souls to persist in this bizarre stasis even after death, the name most of my colleagues have taken to referring to it as is ‘Determination’. ENTRY 10: Wonderful sucsess! small amounts of determination have been syphoned from the captured soul, and have been used to successfully interact with a nearby timeline, this interaction manifests in unstable concentrations of energy that I have deemed 'nexus points’ appearing in seemingly random points around the experiment. unfortunately. They only manifest for less then a second before vanishing, and to make things more complicated, the only way to open a way to actually travel from one timeline to another would be to connect the nexus points in some way. It is here that I am stumped, while I know it is theoretically possible, how in the world am I supposed to both generate enough power and command a large enough space to pull this off? it would require a complex of such astounding size and energy consumption that it feels nearly impossible to carry out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ENTRY 11: Magnificent news! I have managed to acquire a massive chunk of Hotland by order of the King in order to create a power plant with the geothermal energy there. Not wanting such an opportunity to be wasted, I also acquired permission to use the structure for my personal endeavors, so long as these projects wouldn’t interfere with energy generation, and I know for a fact it will not. Construction on the CORE has begun, and I have much work to do, my dream device may be possible at last. ENTRY 12: Issue 1 with timeline travel: energy consumption on a scale hitherto unseen. Solution: self explanatory, the CORE is a geothermal power plant. Issue 2 with timeline travel: nexus points, when generated at this scale, will appear within a massive area. Solution: take advantage of all the land lent by the King and construct the CORE as a rectangular building that encapsulates the entire allotted section of Hotland. Issue 3 with timeline travel: nexus points appear at seemingly random points, and must be connected perfectly to open a gateway. Solution: construct the CORE in such a way that the interior of the building is made of a series of modular rooms with Yggdrasil tech integrated in all of them, and allow these rooms free movement across the building to be rearranged at will depending on nexus point locations. ENTRY 13: I have kept this project mostly to myself, even the scientists who assisted me with soul analysis were only there for general soul research and were unaware of my personal plans with project Yggdrasil. But the CORE is something at a far greater scale then anything this project has previously demanded. Therefore, for the sake of my own sanity and more so for the sake of my sons to allow them to have a present father, I have decided to gather a team of close companions and tell them everything about project Yggdrasil, from Chara’s initial discovery, all the way up until the plans for the CORE. With this team, I hope to bring this miraculous device to fruition. ENTRY 14: Hello. I have invited you two members of my team to view this file. You should be made aware that there are some personal elements to it, and that disclosure of these personal adages is strictly forbidden, I am only giving you access for the sake of letting you know some of the history of this project. Onto a more relevant subject; A second human soul has been found and brought into the lab, you two are to investigate the soul and see if it will prove useful for the project, though it is already more or less fully planned, more data cannot hurt. ENTRY 15: The new soul has proved interesting, but ultimately has given no new information pertaining to Yggdrasil. Regardless, the CORE is nearing completion, and the energy already being generated by the geothermal power plant should be more then enough to carry out the experiment. For the two of you who have access to this file: Further research on the new soul is unnecessary, you are to join the rest of the team with your full capabilities instead of splitting your time between soul research and the CORE construction scientists.

~~~~(*^~*&%*~&%*&~(*&%(*~&(*~&*(~(*~&%~*&%&~*&~%*&~%&~%~*&%~*~%*&~%*~%~*(%~*%~*%~*&~%*&%~&^~%#$~^%%~&%~^^%&~$%^$~*&~^$^&%^~&%^%~*^^&%~*&&%*~^&%~&*^*%&~^(*^&~^*(^~*&%~*^~*%~~~~~ ENTRY 16: The core test was a catastrophic- success! we have opened a pathway into multiple- system collapses, the entire team struck by a nexus point, I must talk as much as I can while I still- am planning further testing, perhaps even collaboration with alternate versions of myself and others across the timelines. this is a new field, and as such, it opens countless doors into- Already, I can feel myself slipping. my form neither here nor there. my entire team is much the same, one moment, we exist, and the next… I can hardly fathom- The possibilities of historical research are unmatched, we can cast away our historical theorizing of ‘what if’ and actually find a timeline where things played out differently to see for a fact how events can change the course of history.- Sans… Papyrus… I’m sorry, and I hope this message will survive, even in part, but even that sounds like wishful thinking. They deserve a father, and I have denied them this once and for all, to say nothing of the families of everyone else affected by the- I’ll have to present my results to the king, and then go home, this has been incredible, but my family comes first, and I’ve been gone for some time. I think I ought to cook something tonight, smash burgers, I know Sans has a love for burgers, but I want him to know what real burgers are like, not those greasy things- devoured by the void, by time itself. this is not just vanishing, we are all split through timelines, the nexus point and us becoming one, I doubt anyone will remember… any of us. Gooodbye. -the two of you who have access to this document, take a break, you deserve it. ENTRY 17: Dark darker yet darker. The darkness keeps growing, the shadows cutting deeper- Photon readings negative, this next experiment seems very, very, interesting! what do you two think?

#the overseer #undertale au #undertale #not a comic #gaster #chara #sans and papyrus #frisk #papyrus

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