altraviolet - Tumblr blog

[altraviolet]

welcome to the Murdersex zine, a zine celebrating all things sex and murder. but um. we don't want to romanticize it or anything so don't make your submissions too murdersexy. we will do extensive background checks on all applicants and if we decide a past work of yours has too much sexy murder we'll have to remove you, sorry. we have limits, you know, we want a tasteful gory spread you could put on your coffee table, and having the Wrong people in it would kill the vibe (and we condemn all killing! wholeheartedly!)

[altraviolet]

You know, one time I read a fanfic and it triggered my psychosis, sent me into a month long episode THEN a whole year later I was on ao3 just mindlessly scrolling, I came across the fanfic title and it gave me a panic attack, but something compelled me to click it, i didn't read it but i did scroll through it, why? mental illness.

So like... ya

This is me responding to your old(?) post about someone else's fiction not being able to hurt you, this is probably just a me thing but mental illness makes you do things and react to things in insane ways that sometimes you cant control. I knew while reading that it was affecting me in some way, but I kept reading because well, I'm mentally ill, and then a month of my life dissapeared lol

I think I'm trying to make a point about something but I'm not sure

I did after the fact comment to the author and just kinda, told them about what happened, but I didn't harrassed them or something, -

-but when something does what this fanfiction did to me then you're basically obligated to let the creator know I think(they are a really good writer), I'm an adult and the fanfic was in the ballpark of something I would read and if like, 59% of it was taken out and it had a happy ending I would be fine but oh well

Oh boy, I'm starting to have a panic attack just typing this out holy hell anyways uh, I'm not disagreeing with you(?) but I am saying, don't be too quick to dismiss someone who says a piece of fiction fucked with them? idk sorry, have a good one

My friend, the fiction didn't harm you.

Your mental illness harmed you.

Random writers on the internet are not responsible for managing your mental illness for you.

You are responsible for managing your mental illness.

I knew while reading that it was affecting me in some way, but I kept reading because well, I'm mentally ill

This is self harm. You were engaging in self-harming behavior by continuing to read a fanfiction that you knew was triggering to you.

👉 You are responsible for managing your mental illness.

👉 Writers are not responsible for managing your mental illness for you.

And I hate to tell you this but messaging the author about it was absolutely harassing the author.

[altraviolet]

text comparisons because I think they're fun to do

I was watching lexi aka newlynova's latest video, this one here:

wherein she reads aloud text from two books, Powerless and Notes On An Execution, and says she's not really able to describe why the text reads badly in one and not the other, respectively. I thought it would be fun to write out the text examples and talk about what works and doesn't work. Full disclaimer: I haven't read either of these books and am going 100% on what Lexi has provided.

From what I can tell, both passages are a character describing another character- either directly to the reader, or imagining what she was like (because she's dead).

Lexi's own words on why she thinks the text of Powerless doesn't work:

...a lot of the writing is overly descriptive but not in a way that felt especially profound or well-written. It's kind of like, let's say the same thing, but again, and with words that start with the same letters and then that sentence will definitely be a banger but repeat it ad infinitem for the entire duration of the book and it's always very noticeable to me every single time. There's one passage towards the end that – it's not a spoiler – but I do think that it demonstrates pretty accurately how the writing style of the entire book was.

The text from Powerless, starting around 19:06 in the video:

She's scared. Scared of whatever it is between us. She always has been. That's why she chose to be my enemy, my rival, rather than let herself feel – which is something I'm not accustomed to myself. It's like a tangible tether between us, this consuming connection. I will her to meet my eyes, and when they do- Sparks. Electricity. Everything beautiful, everything bold, everything breathtaking – that is what I feel in her gaze. That, and terrified. Terrified of what she is doing to me. She is a vision, a nightmare, a dream. A grim reaper clad in black, come to steal my soul and my heart. I've never seen something so beautiful, so bold, so blatantly wrong for me. She is a devil. She is a deity. She is man's downfall in human form. She is my downfall.

Lexi describes this as “overt and over the top,” which is true. You can see what she means by the use of repetition. The character being described here is obviously very powerful, but the text feels tiring to read. I am not awed by this power.

Let's contrast to Notes On An Execution. Lexi describes the writing as fantastic and gives us context: the detective is thinking of one of the killer's victims. From 23:18 in the video:

As Saffy leaned against the backroom wall, Izzy's hair in her lap, she was transported into a hallucination that had stalked her for years now, a parallel universe that felt sickening, nearly fatal in its limitlessness. A highway, dusk. A flicker of long black ponytail. Izzy had died at sixteen, but she was older here: nineteen, maybe twenty. Windows open, air whipping hard, an old bluegrass song twanging from the radio. There would have been a boy, sitting in the passenger's seat – Izzy would not have loved him, not here, maybe not ever, but this wouldn't have mattered, in the hot flush of youth, his calloused fingers creeping up her thigh, the horizon bleeding behind the Adirondack peaks. In this almost-world – the substitute reality that lingered like a daydream – Izzy was never a pile of bones on the table. She was bright and golden, a blazing instant of mundane and perfect glory.

Even though Izzy isn't described as a devil, a deity, man's downfall in human form... doesn't she feel much more real? The Execution passage doesn't have short, quippy sentences, but it feels less exhausting to read.

I think there are two reasons for the variance in quality: sentence length and detail/description/specificity.

Sentence length

Sentence length variation is very, very important to the flow of a story. Consecutive sentences of similar length melt together. They drone on and on. They become monotonous. It's important to use a mix of short, medium, and long sentences together for good flow (unless you are going for some kind of effect, in which case, you need to be very deliberate about what you're doing).

Let's look at the number of words in each sentence in both excerpts. The first paragraph of Powerless has 4 sentences. The first sentence has 2 words, the next has 7, the next has 4, and the last has 23. So I'm going to represent that paragraph as 2, 7, 4, 23. Make sense? Here we go.

Powerless:

2, 7, 4, 23 10, 11 1, 1 14 3, 8, 8 14 13 4, 4 7 4

total words: 138

Execution:

36 3, 6, 13, 13 47 22, 13

total words: 153

So for a similar number of words, we have vastly different approaches to word count per sentence. Powerless's first paragraph actually has a really good distribution. Going from short -> long or long -> short sentences keeps things flowing. (Which should you use? You choose the approach based on what you're trying to highlight.) But following that, you can see how Powerless's consecutive sentences have the same number of words. 14, 13. 4, 4, 7, 4. This is what contributes to the "start-stop," "takes longer to read" feeling of that excerpt.

In contrast, Execution has very different word counts for consecutive sentences, with one exception. This helps its sentences flow much more easily through the mind. (There's a lot I could say about that first sentence using passive voice and a filter word and being 36 words long and still working nicely, but we'll stay focused!) We go from 36 words to 3. From 13 to 47. Down and up and down and up. Flow!

Detail/description/specificity

Details/descriptions and their specificity help ground the reader in your story. Making grand, sweeping statements without backing them up with details turns them into flat and meaningless statements. Details/description/specificity can be written in many ways. Word choice and sensory information are the first that come to my mind.

For word choice we can look at the verbs and adjectives that are used. For sensory information, we look for how the five senses are engaged within the text. Specificity is found in these details.

Verbs

[hopefully I didn't miss or misattribute any, I did my best]

Here are the verbs in the Powerless excerpt (I'm putting the contractions as "is"):

is, is, has been, is, feel, accustomed to, is, am, is, will, do, is, feel, is, is, come, seen, is, is, is, is

Here are the verbs in the Execution excerpt:

leaned, was transported, stalked, felt, had died, was, whipping, twanging, would have been, sitting, would not have loved, wouldn't have mattered, creeping, bleeding, lingered, was, was

I think it's pretty easy to see the difference in word choice here. Most of the Powerless verbs are from a single verb: to be. Almost all of the Execution verbs are unique. Many of the verb choices for Execution are very strong: whipping, twanging, creeping, bleeding. These all have visceral feels to them. So much more detailed and alive than is is is is is is.

Adjectives

Powerless:

[I'm 99% sure the things that look like adjectives in this excerpt, like the “black” in “clad in black,” are acting like nouns, which is why they're not in the list. Correct me if I'm wrong]

scared, scared, tangible, consuming, beautiful, bold, breathtaking, terrified, terrified, beautiful, bold, wrong

Execution:

parallel, sickening, fatal, long, black, older, old, bluegrass, passenger's, hot, calloused, substitute, bright, golden, blazing, mundane, perfect

Again we see repeated adjectives in the first excerpt and unique adjectives in the second. The adjective "beautiful" doesn't tell you as much about an object as "bright" or "calloused" does. This is what I mean by specificity: the more specific your word choices are, the more real the text feels, and the more the reader can ground themself in it.

It doesn't matter how many beautifuls you throw at a reader. They will never be as impactful as a single golden.

Sensory details

Powerless is severely lacking in sensory details. I guess we have these two:

"tangible tether" is the author telling you that something feels like it can be touched

"A grim reaper clad in black" is technically something you can see.

Execution is drenched in sensory details, mostly in its strong verbs. These are the ones that stood out to me most:

"Windows open, air whipping hard" somatic detail, you know the characters are in a car going fast, they can feel the wind

"old bluegrass song twanging from the radio" audial detail, "twanging" is a great verb here

"the hot flush of youth" somatic detail, abstract but very understandable

"his calloused fingers creeping up her thigh" somatic detail, the word choice makes this feel very creepy to me

"the horizon bleeding behind the Adirondack peaks" visual detail, the use of "bleeding" makes it quite striking

The text engages multiple senses with strong verbs, giving specific details to the reader, and allowing them to sink into the world.

So! There's my mini thesis on why the text of Execution is so much better than Powerless.

Let's be clear: there's a time and a place for sweeping, non-detailed, non-sensory-engaging, weak-verb-using prose, but... I'm not sure what that time and place are. Maybe... something really character-driven, and the character is meek as hell? In my opinion, you can make any non-descriptive batch of statements better with specificity and strong word choice.

What would I advise to improve the writing of Powerless?

-vary the sentence length. you can test your flow by either reading aloud or counting out the words, as above

-use strong verbs. avoid adverbs. you are allowed to use them, but a strong verb is always better

-insert grounded, sensory details. engage the senses! all of them!

-replace sweeping statements with details. for example, don't tell me the character is beautiful, give me examples of how she's beautiful (describe either her body or her convictions or her weapons, whatever it is that the POV character finds beautiful). don't tell me a character is a nightmare/devil/etc, give me examples of how she's powerful/evil/scary.

Homework assignment:

I've never seen something so beautiful, so bold, so blatantly wrong for me.

rewrite the above sentence. give me examples of the beautiful, the bold, and the wrong. make me feel each one. make them clash in a way that makes the reader feel as uncomfortable as the POV character feels.

--

Alright, I've been typing this up for quite a while. Let's call it here. Hope you enjoyed my write up! Feel free to send questions about this to my ask box. Hopefully I haven't made any mistakes identifying parts of speech or counting words.

Also, check out Lexi's video!

⚠️ quick side note: the portion of Lexi's video called "tragedy strikes" is Lexi explaining how a depressive state has affected her ability to read. she explains it with an incredible empathy for herself, saying that it too shall pass, and it was honestly pretty amazing to listen to because I've never heard anyone articulate depression in such a way. highly recommend! ❤️

[altraviolet]

[altraviolet]

(doodle 60 min) IDW Mirage.

[altraviolet]

Hiya!!

Absolutely adore TEG. I love how much world building you did for the Lost Light! You really made the ship feel alive and bring forward the idea of jobs to keep it running! I don't often see that in the fics I've read so I Absolutely adore what you've done!

I was curious about your stance on people taking inspiration on things like the chore cycle and ship jobs for their own work?

You created a community and gave everyone a purpose, hobbies, something to do on a ship outside of official titles and jobs and I really love that! I feel like it brings life to the ship and would love to possibly take a bit of inspiration from that but just wanted to make sure you're okay with it being used!!

Thank you!!

Hi! Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed TEG :)

I was just asked a similar question yesterday. Here was my answer. It'd be the answer to your question, too.

[altraviolet]

How do you feel about people writing one-shots/fluff or spin-offs about your universes? specifically for "The Echo Garden." since it has such a high traction for people and has built a small community. Dont get me wrong, I love Cyberverse Soundrod but i prefer the IDW Rodimus Design and Tfp! soundwave. Peak character design. Also like...I binge read "the echo garden" and i cant be normal again. Its all i think about.

Ohh I've sure been dreading this question.

I don't like the idea of it, to be honest. I feel like I worked really hard to build that playground, and it's mine, and I don't want anyone else in it. I suspect most fanfic writers do not feel this way and are incredibly honored by spinoffs of their work. I am not most fanfic writers.

I also acknowledge that it's a hypocritical stance, because obviously I'm playing in someone else's playground. But. I want to be honest about my feelings on this. This is how I feel about it.

So like... I can't stop you from writing about my take on Transformers. But if you do it, I don't want to see it.

Sorry :/

[altraviolet]

Results are in! And this concurrent twitter poll with the above:

So "TF1" won both of these polls, but all I see in posts here is "TF One."

So, uh, idk. I guess we'll see what happens!

curious what the fandom's feeling :)

[altraviolet]

Hijacking this post (with permission!) to do a little exercise regarding the excerpt. First, a transcription for screen-readin' friends:

[ID, photograph of a book page which reads the following: Velocitronian tradition demanded a planetwide celebration after the race, particularly, as Optimus had learned, if no political outcome was at stake. On the infield, apparently the party was already starting. Cans of various intoxicating beverages were visible in many hands, and Silverbolt was being treated as a curiosity. The mass of spectators still in the grandstand headed off to the hangar, where the main celebration would happen, and all seemed well. The only sour note was that Ransack had disappeared with his cadre of hangers-on. Once he had gone, Optimus and the other Autobots met Override, Silverbolt, and Blurr in the middle of the post-race chaos on the infield. From there Override led them to the hangar, where Blurr began going through his own set of postrace diagnostics. Once that was done, Blurr broke away from the repair bots and came right up to Silverbolt. End ID]

Holy show don't tell, Batman. As Piper said, a laundry list of actions. Actions that apparently didn't even matter! The excerpt feels sloggy and boring to get through. There are no highlights or interesting actions. There are no poetic turns of phrase. Neither the action of the story, nor the way the story is told (word choice, etc) are engaging.

How Could We Make This Better?

For the sake of "Violet doesn't have the book so we're going to work with what we've been given for simplicity," let's pretend that everything in that paragraph actually did matter. How could we deliver this information to the reader in a more interesting way?

First, identify the most important information in the paragraph (the info that the reader needs to learn in this scene). Then, deliver that information in an interesting and engaging way.

What does the reader need to know? These are what jump out to me as The Main Points of Interest in the excerpt:

-the cultural importance of this race and the method of celebration -the Autobots meet up -Blurr needs repair

How do we make this interesting? There are an infinite number of ways a writer could approach doling out this info to the reader, other than 'literal laundry list.'

I would've done this scene as a conversation in the hangar: the Autobots are gathered around Blurr watching him get repaired while also watching the Velocitronians outside the hangar celebrating. They are talking about whatever important things they need to talk about. I honestly have no idea what those things could be, but possible comments/conversational topics, given the excerpt, are:

-wow, the Velocitronians sure drink a lot after a race! I wonder what flavor all those drinks are? they didn't drink this much after [thing where a political outcome was at stake] -comments regarding the Velocitronian repair bots and how they are different or similar to Autobot repair bots -wow, Blurr, that was a nasty injury! that [named competitor] sure did you dirty on the track. how are you feeling now? -wow, Silverbolt! Everyone's so curious about the [reason everyone is so curious about him]. [further comment on this, perhaps on how it relates to the Autobots, or is in juxtaposition to the Autobots, or on how it serves as a commentary to Velocitronian culture] -[comments regarding Ransack and his cadre of hangers-on and why them disappearing is a sour note] -The very last sentence of the excerpt feels like it's leading into a confrontation between Blurr and Silverbolt. So you could tint the conversation in that way, with Blurr and Silverbolt subtly acting antagonistically towards each other, waiting for a private moment to deal with whatever the issue is.

All of the above points are opportunities to comment on not only what is happening, but demonstrate character dynamics, cultural differences, the sci fi elements that come along with Transformers, etc etc. Side note: conversations are fantastic short cuts for demonstrating those opportunities.

You could pick any of the mediocre sentences from the excerpt and expand on them in an interesting way. Ideally you'd write about things that actually matter to the plot, of course. But if you just had to put this scene in, and it didn't matter to the plot, then you could at least set it up so it says something about the political/cultural environment.

Not every sentence expands the plot, but every sentence should contribute to the story. Not every beat needs to be written in scene*, but beats written in summary should be done thoughtfully and interestingly.

The fact that someone got paid to write canon and did this, even with whatever nonsense Uncle Hasbro put them through (tight deadlines and many revisions, surely), is vastly disappointing.

*what does "in scene" and "in summary" mean? here's an article that explains it

I'm finally getting around to reading Transformers: Exiles and

omg. It is so bad. Like, bad on multiple levels.

I read Transformers: Exodus a few years ago. It was... OK. Definitely not a great work of literature, and there were some "huh" moments in it, but it was fine. But now I'm starting on the next book. I didn't look at the TFWiki entry for Exiles until last night, but just the Errors section is absolutely sending me. (The idea that the book was panic rewritten by Hasbro just before publication would explain a LOT of the issues I'm seeing.)

As someone who loves the franchise, it physically hurts that this guy was paid to write this. It is completely phoned in. Now, I'm sure he was writing on spec, and was probably handed an outline or specific plot points/characters that needed to be included, but even with that limitation it could have been a LOT better.

Anyway I'm going to jot down some of my impressions in this thread because I want to make sure I remember why I didn't like this book, years down the road when I see the book still sitting on my bookshelf. (If I even keep it, that is up for debate.) I'll even keep away from the things mentioned in the Error section of the wiki entry, since that's low-hanging fruit.

(If you enjoyed this book I'm glad for you, but I am down to just hate-reading it now. Sorry about that.)

Impressions will be behind cuts in case you don't want to spoil yourself for this masterpiece. XD

I've finished Part 1 and some of the things that stuck with me have been:

There's a thing in fiction writing that's often bandied about, how you should show and don't tell. It's hard to explain to new authors what this means, and why it's a bad thing. Well, this book has about a million examples. Instead of showing how a character is feeling, it just tells us. Optimus was stressed. Optimus was worried. Prowl was irritated.

Related to the showing/telling thing, this book loves just giving a laundry list of things that happen, regardless of how important it is. For example, we got a whole paragraph on what happened after a race on Velocitron. None of these details mattered to the story in any way, but we still got a whole half page of detail about it:

We got a multi-page scene of Prowl cultivating an informant. He gets named (Armco). A few chapters later Prowl brings him in saying "Here's someone who can keep his mouth shut" and then IMMEDIATELY someone tries to blow up the Ark, and Armco falls out of the plot, never to be seen again. RIP Armco, we never knew ya.

Weird character note: The Autobots show up on Velocitron and discover there's a schism in the leadership there, with factions forming on both sides. While the Autobots are preparing to leave the planet, the "bad" leader says something relatively innocuous to Optimus, who then punches the Velocitronian in the face. This sets off a giant battle between the two factions, whereupon the Autobots dip and go through the space bridge. Brilliant.

More when I finish part 2.

[altraviolet]

Here's one from literally today:

Biden administration restricts oil and gas leasing in 13 million acres of Alaska’s petroleum reserve

I remember in 2015 someone wrote "don't force me to say W was the second worst president in my lifetime" and that haunted me all the way through it becoming true.

If your view is "we're always being pushed right, except for the intervals when we stand still," then voting for the people actively pushing you right is always the wrong choice.

I really think people have forgotten just how bad things were under the Trump Administration. Literally every day there was news about some service being cut or someone terrible appointed somewhere they shouldn't be or what have you. He constantly flirted with WW3 and military dictatorship. It was such a blur of badness that there aren't big standouts for people to point to to make him "the XYZ president." it was everything. all the time. Why do we not remember this.

[altraviolet]

I believe you on TF1 meaning the 86 movie, but I've never heard anyone refer to it as TF1 (always as "the 86 movie"). Same with TFO, but that's cuz idk anything about the games. People are gonna have different exposures to different parts of the franchise. I'm not against 'reusing' those tags, especially as I didn't know they were in use before. MTMTE also applies to several things... it's a proud tradition to reuse shortcut names in TF, canonly and fanonly xD

TF ONE is definitely the least ambiguous, but it's also longer and has a space. I think TFO is the shortcut that flows off the fingertips best, if you're typing on a keyboard.

well, let's see what the votes are :D not that this poll is binding or anything.

the whole thing does remind me a bit of when we had to kick The Force Awakens people off our TFA tag 😄

curious what the fandom's feeling :)

[altraviolet]

curious what the fandom's feeling :)

[altraviolet]

Behold…

✨WORLDBUILDING✨

Excuse me as I go insane over the fact that Cybertron is an inorganic-organic hybrid planet

[altraviolet]

Roddy the Hotty…

[altraviolet]

I'm finally getting around to reading Transformers: Exiles and

omg. It is so bad. Like, bad on multiple levels.

I read Transformers: Exodus a few years ago. It was... OK. Definitely not a great work of literature, and there were some "huh" moments in it, but it was fine. But now I'm starting on the next book. I didn't look at the TFWiki entry for Exiles until last night, but just the Errors section is absolutely sending me. (The idea that the book was panic rewritten by Hasbro just before publication would explain a LOT of the issues I'm seeing.)

As someone who loves the franchise, it physically hurts that this guy was paid to write this. It is completely phoned in. Now, I'm sure he was writing on spec, and was probably handed an outline or specific plot points/characters that needed to be included, but even with that limitation it could have been a LOT better.

Anyway I'm going to jot down some of my impressions in this thread because I want to make sure I remember why I didn't like this book, years down the road when I see the book still sitting on my bookshelf. (If I even keep it, that is up for debate.) I'll even keep away from the things mentioned in the Error section of the wiki entry, since that's low-hanging fruit.

(If you enjoyed this book I'm glad for you, but I am down to just hate-reading it now. Sorry about that.)

Impressions will be behind cuts in case you don't want to spoil yourself for this masterpiece. XD

I've finished Part 1 and some of the things that stuck with me have been:

There's a thing in fiction writing that's often bandied about, how you should show and don't tell. It's hard to explain to new authors what this means, and why it's a bad thing. Well, this book has about a million examples. Instead of showing how a character is feeling, it just tells us. Optimus was stressed. Optimus was worried. Prowl was irritated.

Related to the showing/telling thing, this book loves just giving a laundry list of things that happen, regardless of how important it is. For example, we got a whole paragraph on what happened after a race on Velocitron. None of these details mattered to the story in any way, but we still got a whole half page of detail about it:

We got a multi-page scene of Prowl cultivating an informant. He gets named (Armco). A few chapters later Prowl brings him in saying "Here's someone who can keep his mouth shut" and then IMMEDIATELY someone tries to blow up the Ark, and Armco falls out of the plot, never to be seen again. RIP Armco, we never knew ya.

Weird character note: The Autobots show up on Velocitron and discover there's a schism in the leadership there, with factions forming on both sides. While the Autobots are preparing to leave the planet, the "bad" leader says something relatively innocuous to Optimus, who then punches the Velocitronian in the face. This sets off a giant battle between the two factions, whereupon the Autobots dip and go through the space bridge. Brilliant.

More when I finish part 2.

[altraviolet]

Things fanfic is reputed for inserting into the source material:

Sex

Things fanfic actually inserts into the source material:

Sex

Holding hands

Bizarre misunderstandings

Meticulous descriptions of food and clothing

The author’s unaddressed traumas

Found family

Plausible explanations for existing plot holes

Additional plot holes

Exciting new frontiers in speculative physics, economics, chemistry, biology, zoology, psychology, theology, and/or ontology

Tax evasion

Gender

Very bad puns

[altraviolet]

Having finished both MTMTE and Lost Light, I, TEG -> MTMTE anon, am back again with more impressions!

I got really good perspective on how truly stupid Soundwave choosing the Scavengers as his tools of ship takeover was. I thought it couldn't get worse than the Lost Light crew, but the Scavengers have proven me wrong.

Reading TEG, I couldn't tell if Ultra Magnus and Megatron were meant to be a couple, and I'm glad to learn that according to the Holiday Special, canon Rodimus couldn't tell either.

It's impressive how you've managed to replicate MTMTE's narration style with the Firestar story. It really felt like a MTMTE-style adventure especially with the constant switching back and forth between scenes at the most interesting moment that had me losing my mind reading both MTMTE and TEG.

I am definitely going to reread TEG some time after because I'm soooo interested in how my perception of the characters is going to change, especially Whirl. Whirl's development in the comics had a particularly strong impact on me, and learning more about him certainly paints his aggression towards Soundwave in TEG in a new light. The Lost Light is not only his home, but also the thread that holds him together. And man is it heartbreaking to now recognize his behavior in TEG as a relapse. Without the comic, I struggled to see Whirl as anything more than the average bully.

Thanks again for introducing me to this wonderful story and for doing it justice with your sequel!

Hello again TEG -> MTMTE anon! :D!

1- I thought it couldn't get worse than the Lost Light crew, but the Scavengers have proven me wrong.

bahaha yes xD their whole thing is being the worst Decepticons in the universe... an extra lol for the reader that knows that- they know SW could never get what he wanted out of the Scavengers :D

2- Ultra Magnus and Megatron

haha yesssss ok ok so to be honest, I don't like that pairing very much. however, that doesn't stop me from putting it in a story if I think it fits. and in this case, I thought keeping it ambiguous was appropriate. the people who like the pairing would see it there and be happy, and the people won't don't like it or don't care don't see anything explicit going on there. so it's all good!

3- It's impressive how you've managed to replicate MTMTE's narration style with the Firestar story.

thanks! those quick back and forth cuts, like a movie, hehe :D glad you enjoyed!

4- Whirl

yesssss and I hope you enjoy your reread! Whirl canonically has a "relapse," but, like in LL #25, his friends Tailgate and Cyclonus are there for him <3

thanks for stopping by again! as always, it's a pleasure to read your thoughts! =)