Does leopard still have 3 lives in her final battle? Or was that changed?
Yep. I think she drowned her once, then Leopardstar lunges up refreshed, and she gets the upper paw on Mistyfoot with 2 lives to go.
(MAYBE tw gore, but I really did try to be tasteful about a head being smashed on a rock.)
On her back, splashing and thrashing furiously against Leopardstar's claws dunking her head under, Mistyfoot glimpses a wave breaking just over the tip of a stone-blue rock. Her only chance.
With a surge of power, her claws sink into her leader's golden shoulder and they tumble and roll to the right. Before the tyrant even realizes what's happening, she's yanked up, and then whipped backwards with a wet CRUNCH
And then again
And again
And again, until Mistyfoot can't even make out what's left of her leader anymore. All she can see is that it's a red, brown, and yellow blur, because her eyes burning with salty tears and her whole body is trembling.
She drops the corpse onto the stone and it slides into the water, lifelessly. After a moment it spasms aimlessly one last time, like an insect does after its head is bitten off, unlike the deliberate, agonized throes of Tigerstar suffering through his doomed lives. And then it's still.
There's only the tranquil sound of bubbling water, and Mistyfoot's frenzied panting. Her pounding heart makes it hard to hear either.
The blood is carried off by the shallow water in scarlet swirls, but the lake runs pale red as if it's washing it away. Some were aware of this prophecy, but Mistyfoot was not.
It isn't closure to her, or a fulfillment of divine decree. It's just blood that should be on her paws, slicked away by the complicit river. She wished it could feel like it's over, but she's smart enough to know the truth. Has been through enough terrible events like this to understand what comes next.
Her body will move foward. Her mind will need to consider her deputy. Her paw will come down on code-defying cats like Blackclaw and Greenflower. But her heart will stay here, next to the remains of Leopardstar, the same way another piece of it remains at Stonefur's side across space and time.
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I wanted to make a post like this for a while, but since i was asked the question i can make it here!
i'm also speaking as an actual black person....so if you don't like these conversations where black people speak on black issues and how we feel, then just ignore this.
So in the past, yeah I agreed with this but my opinion has kinda changed with TF One.
However, I am still extremely uncomfortable seeing depictions of Black human formers Megatron because most of it, especially in ship art is extremely racist and relies on racist stereotypes of black men being abusive, violent, and problematic when his partners are drawn white or lightskinned (i see this all the time in megastar and megaop art. megatron is portrayed as the huge brutal black man and starscream/optimus are the small white twinks who are being beaten by him - it's gross and racist but for some reason it's common).
In general, I think it can be harmful to make a slave character, who inevtibly turns into a genocidal war lord and a generally awful person, a black person (even with his redemption arcs). it also racializes slavery, when we know that slavery doesn't have a race, and Megatron himself is a gladiator. Gladiators are slaves, and one of the most famous gladiators was from Thracia. This again is mostly a fan issue, because I at least have always seen Megatron coded as white in the comics and in the shows. In many depictions, he has a European accent, voiced by white European people (posh english lmao, or in ES Scottish).
That said, in TF One, I'm willing to let it slide. That's because Megatron isn't the only slave. Optimus, who is voiced by a white man, is also a slave, as is Elita, and Bumblebee. I think you know, not racializing slavery and having this notion that slave = black by default, is what makes it okay.
I still wouldn't feel super comfortable seeing Black megatron fanart because again, none of the depictions have been good in my opinion, as a Black person. And i mean none of them, and I do wonder where the thought in this fandom came from that making a person who canonically is violent and aggressive, was okay, just because he happened to be a slave. It is a far too common trope that I see in fanfic and fanfart, especially again...in a shipping sphere.
But I think TF One is able to balance it out, and since this is D-16, he is. a lot calmer, kinder, etc. I think things can get in muddy area when he eventually does turn into Megatron and he becomes the genocidal tyrant we all know and love....especially when you make the black one of the group the one who chooses violence whereas the white voices ones don't.
but who knows? My opinions are ever changing depending on how things are handled.
if you disagree with this, that's fine just do so respectfully and i mean at least be black
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Richarlyson is still here. It is only that knowledge that drives Pac from bed in the morning, shoving a knife he remembers Mike sharpening where his wrench should go, and his axe over his back. He has already lost Mike; he will not also loose their son.
It should be Cellbit's turn to take care of Richars; Pac should tell him what happened last night.
Pac is not sure that he can.
Cellbit - Cell - without Mike present... Pac will not use their child as a shield. He will be brave, he will be strong, he will deal with the ache in his missing leg and the tension in his spine if it will save his companion.
But that is for later. First, he must feed Richarlyson. He does not think he himself can stomach food, but that is no reason for his son to go without.
At every noise his fingers trace the knife, more than ready to fling it into the first sign of danger, the first thing that might take what little is left away from him.
The noise is only his son, sprinting downstairs after he saw the empty bed, and clinging to Pac's legs.
"I'm sorry, Richars," he manages to say. "I didn't mean to scare you."
The shake of Richarlyson makes could mean many things; Pac pats the top of his hat, and goes back to measuring out a glass of juice.
There is no need to be exact when measuring a glass of juice.
Pac finds comfort in it anyway.
Food is placed down for Richarlyson, who continues to look expectantly at Pac.
"Yes?" he asks, knowing too well how much is wrong - there's no need to ask that.
Mike isn't here, Mike is gone, he should be out there looking, searching, fighting for him just as Mike surely did for him, but-
But the only lead Pac has is to the void. And Mike would never forgive him if he threw himself recklessly in.
So what he needs instead is someone he trusts, and a very long rope.
(Who would he trust enough for that? Not Cellbit, perhaps Forever but then Mike was worried..., Felps? Wouldn't be there. Fit? Would Fit even care?)
Richarlyson hits Pac's leg, jarring him back to the present. He is pointed to look at a sign, in his dear son's blue.
'Where is your breakfast?' it asks.
Pac cannot say he is not eating, he cannot do it to the egg, he cannot scare him even more than he must be scared. Pac must be strong for Mike, for Richarlyson - once Cellbit has their son he can worry about these things, for now... For now he must make sure that Richars will stay okay.
"I'll just go get it," Pac says. "We got up a little late, so I wanted to make sure you'd have yours in time for Cellbit to pick you up."
It's a weak lie, and they both know it.
Pac escapes to fetch himself something before he can be called out on it.
He hears the sound of someone entering the labs and tenses. He abandons the fruit knife in favour of his weapons waiting one moment, and a second, before hearing Cellbit call out a greeting from a few rooms away.
"Just having breakfast!" Pac calls.
He abandons the rest of the fruit - he does not think he could eat it anyway - and darts back to join Richarlyson on the sofa.
As soon as he sits down his son shuffles into his side, clinging tight, pressing close. Pac puts his fruit bowl on his lap, and uses his freed up hand to hold his boy.
They have a minute, maybe two, in which Pac manages half of a slice of apple and three raisins, while Richarlyson finishes his juice but not his food, before Cellbit finds them.
"Pac, Richars!" he calls. "Good morning!"
Neither of them answer; Pac's fingers just tighten around Richarlyson.
He sees Cellbit pause, reassess, look at Pac's fingers, his weapons, his eyes, and watches his expression fall.
And then he watches Cellbit glance around the room, looking for someone they all already know he won't find.
"Pac? Where's Mike?"
Richarlyson's bowl of fruit falls to the floor, splintering into a hundred parts; Pac dives to catch it, and only succeeds in dislodging his too.
The angles are all wrong; his prosthetic gives beneath him and Pac, too, is left sat in a pile of broken crockery and ruined fruit. He knows Cellbit is saying something, and that Richarlyson is panicking, but all he can do is look at the floor and see the blood slowly leaking from his hands, his leg, his-
Hands touch him.
Pac slaps them away, taking a shaking breath, and then another. He refuses the hands as he pulls himself up, not quite finding strength to stand, but managing to get himself back onto the sofa none the less.
"Pac...?" Cellbit is now holding Richarlyson.
It does not help the panic, but Pac swallows it none the less.
"Richars?" Cellbit says instead. "Go find Roier, please. Let him know what's happening, and stay with him today, okay? He should be at the castle."
Richarlyson hesitates, even after Pac nods his agreement to the plan. Roier is not stupid. He will understand.
Cellbit waits for Richarlyson to have left before he turns on Pac. There is a clear struggle in his eyes.
"They took him, didn't they?"
It did not look like a Federation building, but Cellbit will see that for himself soon enough; Pac nods.
"... I'll go get a broom and some bandages."
And then Cellbit, too, is gone.
Pac knows he only has a few moments to collect himself, and knows this is the best plan: Cellbit has proven time and again that he can be trusted with them, and so too has he proven himself the best to deal with the strange problems of the island.
All Pac has to do is trust him.
And for Mike? There is nothing that Pac would not do.
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