#ALL OF YOU IN THE CRASH HASHTAG. LOOK!!!
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this is the happiest day of my life and no i will not elaborate.

#IF WE GET THE 2ND SERIES OF THE ACTION FIGURES ISTG!!!#I WILL DIE I KNEW I HAD A REASON TO KEEP HYPERFIXATING ON THIS#THESE ARE IN CANADA CURRENTLY. i hope they get to here too PLEASE FFS I NEED THEM!!!!!!!#comet's blasted bandicoot buffoonery#crash bandicoot#ALL OF YOU IN THE CRASH HASHTAG. LOOK!!!
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the secret of us | luke hughes social media au (pt.6)
pt. 5
yournamelastname


Liked by quinnswife, jackhughes and others
yournamelastname both fit into "he's cute i'll take him" category
quinnswife theo is a no no but luke's potty trained so... feel free
_quinnhughes yeah so he can stop crashing at ours all summer eating belly's cereals
l_hughes06 they SHARED them with me
yourfriend ahh i see you pulled the good old "i can't play billiards 🥺🥺" act
yourfriend2 and then crushed him
l_hughes06 hey! i went easy on her!
trevorzegras yeaaah you did
_quinnhughes get out
elblue6 i'm open to more babies 👀
jackhughes jesus christ mom might as well have your ear glued to their door
elblue6 i'm just saying i can babysit
l_hughes06 we do not need baby fever right now thank you
quinnswife yeah dukes...i think it's too late for that
l_hughes06



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l_hughes06 lake house summer gets better and better
jackhughes king of captions
dylanduke25 where are the hashtags my liege
edwards71 her >>>>>
l_hughes06 alright pipe down
edwards71 chill i'm not trying anything
edwards71 .... yet
l_hughes06 blocked
markestapa oh those curlssssss getting a girlfriend did you goooood
l_hughes06 not all of us glow down 😌
markestapa i take back every compliment i've ever given you
quinnswife y/n is so beyond stunning i've been staring at these for 20 minutes
_quinnhughes i can attest to it. i'm waiting for her phone to die so we can resume our day
yournamelastname i'm gonna smooch you
l_hughes06 we're NOT that kind of family
yournamelastname


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yournamelastname luke: do you wanna come to this work thing
me: will there be hot dogs
luke: i think so
me: count me in
curtislazar95 why are you talking to yourself you little weirdo
brettpesce22 hanging out with rusty a little bit too much
yournamelastname you see if luke did it it would be weird, but when i do it it's quirky and fun!
curtislazar95 flawless reasoning on your part
l_hughes06 i can't get a break can i
jackhughes aw i thought you wanted to come and see your fav brother in law
yournamelastname you and luke live together i see you every day i wish i saw less of you
jackhughes ouch???????????
trevorzegras sunglasses? at night???
yournamelastname it's called fashion look it up
l_hughes06



Liked by elblue6, _quinnhughes and others
l_hughes06 happy birthday beautiful
yournamelastname 2/3 i'm eating... could've been worse
_quinnhughes he has more pictures of you eating on his phone than of his own brothers... that counts for something
yournamelastname is he trying to send a message
l_hughes06 i just like watching you eat!
jackhughes what an odd thing to say
yourfriend you're so obsessed with her and boy i understand
elblue6 happy birthday @yournamelastname ❤️
trevorzegras ohhh how quirky she can read
yournamelastname yeah we can't all rely on being pretty and kinda good at doing tricks with a puck
trevorzegras awwww you think i'm pretty 🫶🏻
yournamelastname pretty annoying
#nhl#nhl fic#nhl x reader#hughes brothers#quinn hughes#inktopuck#the secret of us inktopuck#l. hughes#luke hughes#lh43#lh43 x reader#q hughes#q. hughes#j. hughes#j hughes#jack hughes#jh86#qh43#luke hughes x y/n#luke hugues fanfic#your name x luke hughes#luke hughes insta edit#luke hughes x reader#luke hughes imagine#l hughes
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hi i saw this video on my timeline today x. com/yanwnr/status/1916071759398285711 and now im slowly falling down the williamest rabbit hole help i wasnt familiar with their game before 😭 you came up first when i searched their tag here so i hope its okay to ask you but do you maybe have any links where one can find out more about their lore like a crash course or something lol there is just so much information for someone thats only been a cp for a year 😭
Hello anon! I already know I'm gonna be missing a lot of their shenanigans, so please bear with me. <3 (some of them are gonna be in edit form but you'll get the gist)
the edit that started it all. (this was uploaded even before thamepo was announced)
fans speculating about them being a new CP (goes all the way back to december 2023) || another one.
william staring at a shirtless est and it got so bad, he had to stand up and turn around to get a better look.
"i have my own teerak but i didn't say anything".
the iconic backstage hug from december 2024 by @srnileforme
william is a gangster till est flirts back. (aka william gay panicking and malfunctioning)
this waist grab.
baby tee (my baby is possessive).
est's valentine's day gift.
est with his bouquet at lykn unleashed show last year.
another version with interview.
williamest chiangmai vlog.
perth - when he's with william he looks more happy.
williamest's message to each other during the lol press tour..
whatever this was.
whatever this was, part 02.
post ep 9 live.
songkran 2025 - aka a fever dream.
asking for shark est to return to the sea.
the white guy lore. (another tag)
after 5 days of ldr.
their message to each other.
thamepo has ended but williamest is not over yet
post thamepo finale recap by @bevioletskies (this is very important because prior to this est was not as vocal about his love and adoration for william)
possessive est.
william gifting est a comb -- fans telling him that it's bad omen to gift your lover a comb -- est giving 1 baht to william to nullify the bad luck.
williamest talking about their bond.
@srnileforme williamest tag
MY FAVE DATE video.
this is a thread of the hashtags of most of their events for you to scroll through if you want. also the qrts of this tweet and this tweet.
((tagging two fellow westies who are as obsessed with them as i am (if not more) to add on to this list - @nonglukest @srnileforme))
#anon it's late but it's here#i hope you see this#sorry for the delay again. i tried my best and i probably missed a lot#steph and ree please help me out#williamest#william jakrapatr#est supha#thamepo#thame po#rain answers
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Turn Eight & Sushi
Kimi Antonelli x Female OC
this is an excerpt from an f1 fic i am currently writing
Summary: “Didn’t mean to hit you. Thought I could make the pass.” “You thought wrong.”
Warnings: Crash, bruises, picture of bruises, mentions of death, joking about death
ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ
Only three laps left in qualifying, and the battle for the top ten was brutal. The skies were steel grey, threatening rain but holding steady, and the crowd buzzed in anticipation as the commentators narrated every move like a thriller.
"Harley currently P7, but she’s got Antonelli right behind her, he’s purpled Sector 1."
“Harley, Antonelli’s closing in. Watch turn eight,” Mia’s voice came through the radio, tight with urgency.
Harley gritted her teeth and shifted slightly in her seat, fingers firm on the steering wheel. “Yeah, no kidding.”
He’d been hounding her for three laps now. She knew his style. Bold, fast, impatient. But this was qualifying, not a race. There was no room for error.
She entered the high-speed Turn 8, where commitment was everything. Through her mirrors, Antonelli loomed, too close, closing fast.
"Don’t even think about it, Antonelli."
But he did. He darted to the inside line.
Harley felt it before she saw it. The split-second misjudgment, the late move on cold tires. Contact. A sickening crunch of carbon fiber.
“Shit!”
Her car jerked violently sideways. Tires screamed. The world spun: barriers, asphalt, sky.
“Harley?! Talk to me!” Mia’s voice cracked in her ears.
There was no controlling it now. Her front wing was gone, rear suspension snapped. The car skated helplessly off track, metal grinding as it carved into the gravel trap. And then-
CRUNCH!
Impact.
The front right side crumpled into the tech-pro barrier. A brutal slam.
Everything stilled. The engine died. All she could hear was her own heartbeat, pounding like a war drum in the hollow silence.
“Harley? Harley, respond!” Mia again, more desperate.
Only heavy breathing came through.
On the world feed, cameras cut to Antonelli, who’d slowed to a crawl, his white-knuckled grip still locked on the wheel. His helmet turned toward the wreckage. His engineer’s voice came over the comms.
“Kimi, return to the pits.”
He didn’t move.
“Is she-” his voice broke. “Is she okay?”
A long beat.
Then, “She just said the barrier hits like a wimp. Gave the cameras a double thumbs up.”
Antonelli closed his eyes and exhaled, his chest sagging with relief.
++
Back on track, the marshals worked fast. Harley blinked through her visor, now fogged up from adrenaline and sweat. Her chest ached from the harness, ribs tight, head ringing.
Too many voices yelled in her ears. She hated that. “I’m good… I’m okay,” she said finally, though her voice was hoarse.
The medical team arrived. The cockpit was torn open. A marshal extended a hand. Harley took it and pulled herself out slowly. Unsteady, but upright.
She turned to the cheering stands and lifted both thumbs high.
The crowd erupted.
++
Later, in the paddock, her phone exploded. Clips of the crash had already gone viral. Commentary reels, TikToks, frame-by-frame breakdowns, even a fan animation. Hashtags like #HarleyUnbreakable and #WimpBarrier were trending.

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harleycarterspeeds
Me: 1 - Barriers: 0. Better luck next time Antonelli 😮💨
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miatheengineer glad you're okay queen
⤷ harleycarterspeeds ikr? thanks for making sure i'm safe 👍
olliebearman Glad you're okay mate!
kimi.antonelli thank god you're alright
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++
Antonelli found her later outside the team garage. He still had his race suit on, helmet under one arm. No cameras, no crowd, just them.
“You alright?” he asked, voice low.
Harley looked at him, eyes sharp but tired. “I’m alive, aren’t I?”
He looked like he hadn’t breathed since the crash. “Didn’t mean to hit you. Thought I could make the pass.”
“You thought wrong.” She said it with a smirk, but there was a small huff behind it.
“…Glad you’re okay,” he said after a pause.
She tilted her head, teasing. “Me too. Would suck to kick the bucket at qualifying."
He blinked. “Fair.”
“And sushi.”
He frowned. “Sushi?”
“You hit me at Qualifying. In Japan. You’re buying. And in Japan, dinner means sushi.”
Antonelli laughed under his breath. “I’ll pick the place.”
“You better. I nearly died.”
++

liked by miatheengineer, maxverstappen1, & others
harleycarterspeeds
no hard feelings @/kimi.antonelli got us sushi! i had to teach him how to hold chopsticks lol 🥢
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kimi.antonelli I'm Italian
⤷ harleycarterspeeds I fail to see how this has to do with the fact you didn't know how to hold chopsticks
⤷ kimi.antonelli WE DONT USE CHOPSTICKS
user.one AHHH queen I love your nails!
miatheengineer don't get back to late, you need to heal.
⤷ harleycarterspeeds yes ma'am 🫡
user97 is this a date??
❤️ liked by author
#kimi antonelli#andrea kimi antonelli#kimi antonelli x female OC#female oc#female original character#formula one#formula 1#mercedes amg f1#ka12#ka12 x original character#ka12 x female OC#kimi antonelli x female original character#f1 fanfic#f1 smau#smau#angst with a happy ending#angst#fluff
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#TRENDING ! | nagi x reader

summary: your and nagi’s name seemed to be in the main headline of hashtags on twitter when you woke up one day…
proplayer!nagi x idol!fem!reader
warning! mentions of threats and hate comments,
a/n: this fic is based on episode 9 of season 2 of aggretsuko on netflix when they found out retsuko and tadano were dating TwT
it really wasn’t tensional.
you were feeling lonely, and so did he. nagi followed what you told him. he thought if he were to hide through his identity with a cap, mask, and some glasses, then he wouldn’t be easily recognized by the public, and then he would be able to meet up with you in secret with no one to disturb you two. go at his place, exchange kisses and words of affirmation, cuddle and have your time together.
the pro football player, going out with one of the most beautiful known idols in japan. basically you. it was a death sentence at just that.
ever since your manager, sara, allowed you to date someone after the success of your first solo album to be released, you had never been more happy to tell nagi the news, in which he too was delighted, kissing the temple of your head after. finally, you don’t have to hide your phone every time she checks.
your manager says that if this information were ever to be turned in public, there’s a chance that your career would have a turn for the worse, and that you have to keep it private.
fans are crazy, she says. and she wasn’t wrong.
you received a couple of threats from letters you thought were fan letters, and even some during your concerts, in which they were gladly taken away by security and were banned from ever attending to your concerts. being famous is scary, but nagi had became your comfort after all of that. that’s why you dated him. surprisingly, you two have already been dating for 3 years, in secret from your manager even. only his best friend reo knows about your relationship and so as your two closest friends. they were amazing at keeping secrets.
you promised your manager that you would try your best to keep a low profile when going out, using the same method every famous people do when walking outside in public—which is wearing a disguise.
since the two of you were famous, you told nagi that the best disguise is just a simple cap, mask, sunglasses and an attire that would look plain. nagi took these suggestions in mind, and used them one day during a rest day. you were used to wearing disguises, so you had a usual waiting for you in your hotel room. you had finished doing a song rehearsal, and nagi messaged to you if you wanted to go out on a date for your free day.
without thinking, you said ‘yes.’
maybe you should always take your manager’s words in your head all the time. and the thing is, she had no idea you were dating him.
wednesday, 11:02am
sara sat down on the computer chair as she slammed the finished documents over her desk, stretching her arms up in the air along with a tired sigh escaping her lips. she just finished her paperwork for your album, talking to various producers who’ll help you out and such, making schedules and plans afterwards.
thank goodness it was a rest day, you were probably busy anyways and she doesn’t want to do anymore work for she only messaged to you about the upcoming rehearsal you were having on friday and to prepare. and that was that. the stress she was having at the moment irked her.
“it’s like seeing my old self…ugh, my back hurts..”
without saying anything more, she opened her computer, google, then checked out the latest news. maybe a little drama could spice up her boring day..
“new trial; kiinomori, says not guilty,” boring.
“a car crash happening after a cos event, yesterday,” do car crashes always happen now?
“japan’s new technology shocks the tokyo community,” eh, not interested
“wanted: extra line artist,” why are you even looking for help here on the news website??!
‘even the news are starting to become uninteresting…well at least the crime rates aren’t going up any sooner..’ she thoughts to herself, clicking on the mouse to see if there were any particular headlines that might catch her interest. maybe about you would be nice.
however, something stopped her from scrolling.
“photo of japan’s football genius and japan’s most beloved idol’s lovey-dovey date.”
her eyes widen a little. no, that was impossible. you wouldn’t find a boyfriend that soon, right? and a football player? no, far too impossible..it just might be another idol, yeah. maybe even a colleague? yeah, that must be it.
steadily, her mouse clicked on the news page, and in an instant it opened.
“are the two going out as friends? or something more?” was what the article stated in the first sentence. sara took a good look on the photos, and all she could see was what she recognized to be the genius nagi seishiro’s back, his white hair flowing out of the cap on his head, holding a lemon tea drink in his hand, and the other in his pockets. nagi seishiro, the proclaimed genius football player who participated in the blue lock project? dating? sara barely knew anything about him, but woah.
beside nagi, was a girl smaller than him. sara couldn’t see her face, so she went forward to scroll down for more pictures.
that moment when she continues to scroll down on her computer, eyes intensely trying to take a good look on the photos took by the secret paparazzi, they kept only taking shots of nagi’s face, not even bothering to let the viewer look at who he’s with. her patience was almost running out…
that was until…she finally identified who the footballer was with.
time pauses, the tranquil silence was eerie, and sara felt her heart stop at the moment. jaw dropped, eyes wide, and the cup of coffee she bought at starbucks almost fell to the ground, a drip of the coffee falling on her desk.
“y…y/n..?”
then the whole public went on fire.
“WHATTTTTTTTTT???????!!”
“EEEEHHHH????”
“HUHHH????”
“HAHH?????”
“FOR REAL?????”
“HWHSHUHHHH???”
“OH MY GOOODDDDDDDD??????”
the article, with now over 2 million views, ended the statement with, “will the two get married soon??”
“a-aha..ahaha..they’re joking right?? y/n with t-that guy..? ahaha..ahaha..” one was on the verge of insanity from astonishment.
“PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, MA’AM!”
the number one trending hashtag on twitter, over 400 brand new tweets not long after the news broke out in public. your closest friends, saw the article. and not long after they tried their best to contact you to no avail.
“you’ve seen the article?”
“yes, i have. have you seen the way y/n’s instagram has been popping up after?” one of your friends showed the other on her phone screen, your verified instagram page. it seems your followers had multiplied after the article was posted online. from 30k to now 70k followers. your friends were able to read the newly added comments from your last post. the other comments are mostly from the good fans, showing their support for you and nagi’s relationship, and some were mostly from those nagi fangirls in which they despise the most..
‘found her lol.’
‘nagi could do better lmao.’
‘she’s not even that good looking.’
‘she’s just attention seeking lol.’
yeah, they definitely despise them. since not long, the two were preparing their bot accounts, about to fight them back.
even the team blue lock members’ were able to read the article, jaws dropped on the floor in surprise. how did the lazy genius managed to pull a famous idol like you?
“wha…what is…what’s this..?”
“holy crap, so this is why they’re trending?”
“i…i’m shocked.”
“woah! nagichi is actually dating y/n? how lucky, aha! they’re trending!”
“is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“so this is what that guy’s keeping away from us, huh?!”
“i didn’t even know he was dating someone. better yet, someone famous.”
“is this also why he’s late for practice?”
“it’s almost 3 million views now, they really are taking over the headlines.”
“wait, since they’re dating can i ask nagi if i can get an autograph from her??”
“shut up, igaguri.”
your friends were almost screaming at the end of the line when you answered their call, curled up over your bed and a little shaking, covering your naked body in the blankets with a sleepy nagi next to you. this wasn’t intentional, it really wasn’t. you didn’t know, you didn’t know that there was a secret paparazzi nearby. now you’re scared of what your manager might say to you after this. will she force you two to break up? or never see each other again? make you say you’re just friends with him? no, no, anything but that.
you thought the morning routine for this day would be blissful, with yesterday’s love making was comforting and full of passion, and now you’re awoken with news about you and nagi’s relationship now being in public.
“Y/N! YOU AND NAGI ARE TRENDING.”
“y-yeah, i know..” your voice was hush, like a whisper. you felt afraid of what might happen.
“y/n, are you alright over there? we can come over if you want. is nagi there with you right now?”
“n-no, you guys don’t have to..and yeah, he’s with me right now...’s just asleep..” you replied.
“it’s insane. it hasn’t even been hours and you two are—
your other friend’s voice has been cut off quick, “you don’t have to remind that to her..! listen, y/n, don’t be scared ok? i know it’s scary, but stay strong. trust me, that’ll get over soon.”
their voices are a little muffled on the end of the line, probably fighting over the phone.
the moment you felt movement beside you, you were quick to turn your head to see nagi already waking up from his sleep. great, now how are you going to tell him?
“guys, i’ll call you back later. i have to talk to sei about it. bye now.” then the call dropped. when you looked back over to nagi, his eyes were half lidded, white locks covering his right eye as he rubbed them awake.
“morning..”
“ah…morning, sei…uh..” you nervously avoided eye contact, fingers padding through your phone to look for the article about you and your now public boyfriend that went viral online. nagi tried to pull your figure close to him, arms wrapping over your stomach with a mumble, “it’s so early…hey y/n…go back to sleep with me..”
“it’s 11am now, sei..don’t you have practice today..?”
“ah, you’re right…what a bother..too tired from last night..” fuck, how are you supposed to tell him now? it’s now or never.
“hey, sei…i think you should see this..”
“huh?”
passing your phone over to your boyfriend, you anxiously played with your fingers as you can spot his pupils reading the article displayed over the screen, lazily. it took him some time to finish, his thumb scrolling down to continue reading before nagi lays the phone down between the both of you and groans. “ahh…what a pain. how did they even manage to recognize us? ‘thought my disguise was good..”
“paparazzis are terrifying..” was what you replied. in a few moments, you sighed, covering your face with both of your palms, letting go of the blanket that was covering your upper chest. “what should we do? this is bad…if sara sees this then we’re done for…how did this happen?? oh please, i don’t wanna leave you, sei..”
“didn’t she say you’re allowed to be in a relationship?”
“yeah, as long as i keep it private..!” you say, almost yelling at him. nagi stares at you, hugging the pillow he’s laying underneath. realization hits you, then you covered your mouth, embarrassed. “ah, sorry…i didn’t mean to yell at you..”
“ts fine…” he responds. you hid your face beneath your palms again, expression filled with nothing but worry and little fear. your insta’s been popping up, more followers were added and even more comments popping at your last post. and when you looked over to twitter to see your name trending over the hashtags, the whole world fell down over your shoulders.
“hey, y/n…look at me.”
you couldn’t.
“y/n. hey, let me see you..” nagi who was now sitting up, grabbed both of your hands off of your face to make you look at him.
pretty, you were so pretty. so pretty for him. “it’s gonna be alright..”
“no, no—easy for you to say but…my..my manager..she’ll..” then you looked down over the blanket again, breath hitching as you struggled to breathe a little. nagi had to hold you close to him in order to calm you down, hands brushing your hair, voice hushing your small whimpers. “shh, hey, hey..take deep breaths…c’mon…calm down..”
he always did that when you had panic attacks. most of the time after your concerts or handshakes with your fans. nagi holds you close, then stays quiet. maybe you’re overreacting a little bit…yet at the same time, it’s going to be scary facing the public afterwards.
nagi stayed with you for a while until you could face him calmly, with steady breaths and a peaceful heart. he could see the notifs popping up on his phone.
99+ new messages.
38 missed calls from reo
17 missed calls from isagi and the rest ongoing. his phone too was exploding this morning. but first he has to make sure you’re ok.
when you finally managed to calm down, nagi continues to brush your hair back, looking straight to your eyes. “feel a little better?”
you nodded. “just…just still a bit scared of sara..”
“yeah? well i’ll make sure to apologize. i was the one who dragged you out after all.”
“n-no, sei! you don’t have to i—that’ll make it more worse i’ll be the one to talk to her.” nagi shakes his head, not approving of your idea. “it would be a hassle if you had to go through that alone…at least let me talk to her too..” your boyfriend caressingly rubs your hand together with his, he could still spot the small bruises he left on your neck..a loving gaze pictured over his face.
“it wouldn’t be so much work unlike practice. i’ll come with you…wherever you are. sometimes i wish we were cats so we can spend 9 lives together, y’know?”
you couldn’t say anything much for this dork, except pull nagi for another hug. you prayed to whatever existed that you don’t ever get pulled away from him, your beloved. you sometimes wished things don’t turn out to be in a bad way, after all, you’re an idol of love and kindness. however sometimes, maybe the entertainment industry should be less strict on their idols, including you. nagi was the only one that made you feel alive from them. from all the negativity you’ve been feeling because of what you do.
you love nagi seishiro. and nagi seishiro loves you. that’s there to it.
in the end, you and nagi managed to talk to sara about the whole relationship situation going on, and the only thing she was mad about was that fact you didn’t tell her you were dating, better yet a pro player. she just gave you a warning and then head straight to ask permission to your company about your relationship.
then not long after too, the situation calmly fainted down, and everything went back to normal. maybe except about some of your fans who are quite upset that you’re in a relationship.
still, you were glad the company was kind enough to let you two stay together. maybe it’s because you’re with someone famous, too, but it didn’t really matter.
yeah, maybe you were overreacting.
#nagi x reader#blue lock#bllk x reader#blue lock x reader#nagi seishiro#nagi seishiro x reader#seishiro nagi#nagi x y/n#lily’s.blog🌸#lily’s.fic🩷
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hey could you write about Carlos Sainz. Y/N is a 24 year old Spanish journalist and she and Carlos flirt all the time in front of the camera and Lando and Charles make fun of Carlos because he is always looking forward to doing an interview with Y/N because they flirt hard every time. two that on twitter they created a hashtag on the flirting moments between y/n and carlos
Behind The Camera
Carlos Sainz x Spanish Journalist fem!reader
A/N: I hope this is wat you meant. I never worked with these fake apps before, so don't pay too much attention to dates and times.
One of the flirting scenes is highly based on that one Sebastian Vettel interview.

The paddock was buzzing with people from all around the world. Grand stands were filled with the colors of different teams and drivers. There were big crowds of orange for the hometown heroes, Max verstappen and Lando Norris.
Cheers were heard as Carlos crossed the finish line in p2, just behind his teammate and in front of his old one. The red bull had crashed out of the race after the touch when Sergio Perez tried to overtake the Dutch man. Unfortunately both of the cars tuned into each other, moving Carlos up to third. After the pitstops he had managed to do an undercut on the Mclaren driver and finished on the second podium place.
"That is P2, mate. Good job," his race engineer congratulated him through the radio, prompting Carlos to let out an excited scream.
"Vamos!" he exclaimed, parking his car in front of the P2 sign and stepping out with a wide grin on his face. Charles stood on top of his own car, proudly displaying one finger in the air to signify his win. Carlos congratulated his fellow driver on the victory before turning to his team and embracing them in a warm hug, celebrating their shared success. It is a good day for the Ferrari fans and that didn't happen often.
.
"Congratulations Carlos on your p2. How are you feeling?" You ask with a bright smile on your face. You always loved interviewing Carlos. He is always really nice and you have nice conversations behind the cameras. Also a plus point that he drives for your favorite team.
"Great now that you are here," he answers, his eyes twinkling as he gives you a wink that sends a shiver down your spine. You have to try hard not to blush at the man's charming comment. "It's a great day for the team with a 1-2 finish. I hope we have more of these moments to come."
"You were absolutely flying out there today. Your performance was outstanding. I am sure that you have more of these moments. "
Carlos smiles at your words, his gaze lingering on you for a moment longer than necessary. "Thank you. The car felt great and the team did a great job with the undercut." He had been looking forward to seeing you today after he heard you will do the podium post race interviews. Lets just say he had some extra motivation for this race.
"With the undercut you managed to get in front of Lando. Was it difficult to keep him behind?"
"Of course. He is a great driver and their car is very fast. He really had me concentrate those last laps. " Carlos looks back at where Lando was standing next to the race winner. Lando gave him a little smile for the comment.
"The safety car came at a good moment and you got a free pit from it. Do you think you could have had the same pace with the old ones?"
"The safety car did come at a great time. I was struggling with the tyres and really wanted to switch them. The team said I couldn't because then I had to drive out the race for the remaining laps and that was too many. So having an extra free stop really helped. "
"Any plans for after the race. How are you going to celebrate it?"
"I am sure there is a party planned already. Good thing is that it is summer holiday and we don't need to do training wasted." He jokes and you let out a laugh.
"Sounds great. Have any plans for the summer break? How are you going to spend your free time? "
"Well, What are your plans?" He smirks and you have to take a second to let your mind take in his comment. You want to play to game with him, but chose to be professional and do as if you don't get the hint.
"Nice of you to ask. I'm heading back to Spain to visit some family," you reply, trying to maintain your cool exterior even as your heart races at the thought of his attention turning towards you.
"I hope I see you around then, Hermosa" Carlos says, his smirk widening as he rakes a hand through his hair in a gesture that sends a jolt of desire through you. You say your goodbyes before Lando takes his place in front of your camera.
Out of your sight Charles laughs at his teammate and gives him a pat on the back, a playful smirk placed on his face.
"What?" Carlos looks at him with confused puppy eyes. He takes his water bottle and takes a sip.
"What are your plans." Charles imitates his teammates question before letting out a louder laugh that turns the head of other people. "Mate, just ask her out already. It is painful to watch you keep flirting with each other."
"I ask her what her plans are. That is just being polite."
"Alright. And when you found out she was doing the post race interviews, you didn't smile from ear to ear because you would be seeing her again?"
"She is a great journalist and my friend. "
When Lando came back from his interview with you he had made the same remark as Charles and Carlos just groaned in reply. He was not going to hear the end of it.
The fans on twitter were going wild after the interview. It wasn't the first time you and Carlos had shared some flirty comments and there were fan pages dedicated to the two of you. There was even a tag going around with all the fans favorite moments of you two together that you weren't aware of.


Lando laughs as he opens twitter. He was at the celebration party after the race and he had sit down next to the two ferarri drivers after a round of shots.
" Whats so funny?" Carlos asks with a confused expresion as he tries to look at the Brits phone. Lando shows the Twitter reactions.
" Looks like you are the only blind one."
#carlos sainz 55#carlos sainz x you#carlos sainz x reader#carlos sainz imagine#carlos sainz fanfic#carlos x reader#carlos sainz#carlos sainz jr#f1#formula 1#formule1#f1 imagine#Lando norris#charles leclerc
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helloooo i love your work and i can’t stop thinking about paige x uconnwbbp and reader gets in an argument with a ref and is taken off the court (and obvs there’s videos all over the internet about reader cussing out the ref) and paige pulling her away 💗

𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ; ��𝐀𝐈𝐆𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑𝐒
꣑୧ — summary | basically the prompt 🪩🌊
wc ; 752
— warnings | tiiiiny bit of angst , cussing , mainly fluff / normal
my master list ㇀♡
a/n : yayaya this prompt was so fun to write !! deff need to do more fiesty!reader x paige sometime 🥴 but for now , enjoy !
Our team was in the midst of a nail-biting game against their biggest rival. The arena was electric, fans on the edge of their seats as the clock ticked down. I was fully immersed in the intensity of the match, adrenaline pumping through my veins.
As the final minutes approached, a questionable call by the referee sent our opponents to the free-throw line. My frustration boiled over, and before I knew it, I was arguing with the ref, my voice rising above the noise of the crowd.
“That was a ridiculous call!” I shouted, my hands gesticulating wildly. “Are you blind?”
The ref’s face hardened. “Watch your mouth, or you’re out of here.”
“Make a fair call for once!” I retorted, my anger getting the better of me.
Suddenly, I felt a firm hand on my arm. I turned to see Paige, her expression a mix of concern and determination. “Hey, calm down,” she urged, trying to pull me away from the escalating situation.
But I wasn’t ready to back down. “No, this is unfair, Paige! We’re getting robbed!”
The ref blew the whistle, signaling a technical foul. “You’re out of the game. Leave the court now.”
The locker room was a sanctuary of silence compared to the chaos outside. I sat on the bench, head in my hands, the weight of my actions crashing down on me. The door creaked open, and I looked up to see Paige walking in, her face etched with concern.
“Hey,” she said softly, sitting down next to me. “You okay?”
I sighed, feeling a mix of shame and frustration. “I screwed up. I let my temper get the best of me.”
Paige wrapped her arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “Everyone gets frustrated. It’s a high-pressure game. But we have to keep our cool, especially with all those cameras around.”
I groaned, remembering the countless smartphones pointed in my direction during the argument. “There are probably videos all over the internet of me cussing out the ref.”
Paige chuckled softly. “Yeah, you’re trending. But it’s okay. We’ll handle it.”
By the next morning, the videos had indeed gone viral. Social media was buzzing with clips of my outburst, complete with hashtags and memes. I scrolled through the comments, feeling a mix of embarrassment and anger.
“Hey, stop torturing yourself,” Paige said, taking my phone away. “What’s done is done. Let’s focus on moving forward.”
I nodded, grateful for her steady presence. “You’re right. I just hate that I lost my cool like that.”
Paige smiled, her eyes filled with understanding. “You’re passionate. It’s one of the things I love about you. But maybe channel that passion into something more productive next time.”
I laughed, feeling a weight lift off my shoulders. “I’ll try. Thanks for pulling me away last night. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
Paige leaned in, pressing a gentle kiss to my forehead. “I’ve got your back, always. We’re a team, on and off the court.”
The next game was our chance for redemption. I was determined to keep my composure, no matter what happened. Paige and I had spent the days leading up to the match focusing on mental preparation, reminding each other of our goals and the importance of staying calm.
As we stepped onto the court, the support from our teammates and fans was overwhelming. The game was tough, but I kept my cool, channeling my energy into every play. Paige’s presence was a constant source of strength, her encouragement pushing me to give my best.
When the final buzzer sounded, we had won by a narrow margin. The crowd erupted in cheers, and I felt a surge of pride and relief. Paige ran over to me, her face glowing with joy.
“You did it!” she exclaimed, wrapping me in a tight hug.
“We did it,” I corrected, pulling her close. “Thank you for believing in me.”
Paige smiled, her eyes shining. “Always. Now, let’s go celebrate.”
The viral videos eventually faded from memory, replaced by clips of our triumphant victory. Paige and I continued to grow stronger, both as teammates and as partners. The incident with the ref had taught me a valuable lesson about keeping my emotions in check, but it had also shown me the depth of Paige’s love and support.
Together, we faced every challenge head-on, knowing that no matter what happened on the court, we had each other’s backs. And that was the greatest victory of all.
it feels good to write more for paige now! hope yall liked this one and tysm for reading !
#wlw#wcbb#wlw imagine#wcbb x reader#my hcs#headcannons#paige bueckers#paige bueckers x reader#uconn wbb#uconn huskies#uconn women’s basketball#paige x reader#paige buckets#lesbian#happy pride 🌈
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Dear Mouthwashing fandom, explain to me, why next to the incredible fan art, I find a fuck ton of shipping content, especially between characters where this is highly problematic? SPOILERS FOR MOUTHWASHING AHEAD CN for talk about sexual abuse, death, suicide & violence
DISCLAIMER: I do not shame the general practice of shipping at all. I am a shipper myself and I think it makes up for a lot of interesting dynamics and narratives outside the canon. Shipping is an important pillar of fandom communities and I am unable to forbid you to do it. HOWEVER, in the case of Mouthwashing I want to talk about what, in my opinion, feels tone-deaf to the themes and the canon of the game. But let me start with a short summary of the game before I get into it.
Mouthwashing is basically a visual novel that takes place on the Tulpar, the last manned cargo ship of the company Pony Express. The crew, consisting of Caption Curly, Co-Captain Jimmy, Nurse Anya, Mechanic Swansea and his intern Daisuke, is confronted with a crash against an asteroid and the consequences following it. The story is told out of order to reveal the truth bit by bit. What caused the crash, what happened and how the crew deals with the time afterward being stuck on the ship. Revealing sexual abuse, tragic backstories, the horrible side effects of late state capitalism and the neglect of people in command towards the people they are responsible for.
To boil it down we have two men who, out of societal misogyny, hurt the only woman on their crew by assaulting her or not acting as they should have in their position of responsibility. All of this would not have happened if Jimmy didn't rape Anya and impregnate her, and if Curly had disciplined Jimmy in a capacity possible on the ship and in Jimmy's position as co-pilot. To be honest, with the amount of automatization the ship has, I don't think they need Jimmy if it is not a case of emergency, but I digress. Jimmy is the perpetrator of the story, but Curly is an accomplice in putting his aim of finding a solution and compromise over punishing his subordinate as he should have.
And now to my actual point: I am a big fan of the game, the narration style and the utter tragedy of 5 people losing their lives in the isolation of space, with their company not giving a shit about them. Otherwise, they might have been rescued much earlier or at all. Or had enough cryo pots in the first place. Or a nurse with experience. Or any amount of better equipment and not the most cheap shit that somehow made it through a resemblance of regulations. There are probably no regulations.
Being a fan I, of course, looked into the hashtags on several social media sites, and between the incredible art and analysis of the game, I quickly found shipping content, and I have no idea why. I have literally no idea how that narrative speaks to you in a way of shipping characters romantically/sexually. Especially three shippings really rub me the wrong way.
ANYA/JIMMY
Are you fucking kidding me? Literally, what is wrong with you shipping a victim with their abuser? There was not one interaction between them, that suggest that there was consent or affection, that Jimmy has any sympathy for Anya. He knows what is going on, he knows that Anya is pregnant and takes no responsibility. Even worse, his idea of FIXING this was to kill everyone, at least himself, to avoid responsibility! Same goes for AUs where she kept the baby and is somehow okay and happy? I get the urge to fix it, but that is not a good fix. There is no good fix if you are pregnant due to rape.
ANYA/CURLY
A lot of argument I hear for that is that "at least Curly is her friend and was nice to her" and if that is your whole foundation of argument, I want to ask what your standards for a relationship are. Please know that you deserve more than the bare minimum. Another question in that context: Is Curly really Anya's friend? His friend was abused and instead of protecting her, he tried to reason and help her abuser! That is not the behavior of a friend! There is no "but Jimmy is his friend too!". If your friend is an abuser and that does not make you stop being their friend....why?
JIMMY/CURLY
It feels like it is a law on the internet, that two men who look at least averagely handsome will be shipped, especially if they have the tiniest of connection to each other. I am not even sure if I would call them friends in the first place. It appears that Jimmy, whatever his bad life before that job was (thanks to the developers for not giving us a backstory), he is still absolutely unsatisfied with that he has. He is jealous of Curly and his position, seeing how quickly he takes on the Captain title after the crash and only realizes far too late how hard the position actually is. Curly on the other hand feels a bit like a people pleaser to me. He probably had pity for Jimmy, took him under his wing to help him? Fix him? Whatever it is, it made him ignore Jimmy's bad side to a fatal degree. I respect the toxic yaoi but are you sure?
TLDR; I am worried about how the practice of shipping developed, from a way to extend the canon, explore queerness in cis/straight dominated media, into a compulsion of where some people can't look at any form of media or constellation of characters without immediately smashing them together like dolls. If you do this, maybe step back for a minute and ask yourself if it is appropriate. On that note, same goes in case you defend Jimmy. Why?
#mouthwashing#commentary#shipping#fandom culture#captain curly#anya mouthwashing#jimmy mouthwashing#swansea mouthwashing#daisuke mouthwashing#explaintome
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heyyy dropping in to ask for the rest of the members in ampersandone with high sex! my bias is seungmo and i was wondering if you could include him?
(i know your love letters are closed, i hope this doesn’t bother you, feel free to do it whenever, yk we will wait for you <3)
part one with kam, jiho, kiah
hi anon! yes ofc, i haven’t gotten a chance to do seungmo yet, hashtag would love to include him! and thank you, it doesn’t, it’s so encouraging to hear that from you ;)
tw/cw. nsfw content, cursing, drug use (marijuana obvi), underaged smoking lol; dom!ampies, sub!reader, fem!reader, race neutral reader, more specific tags will be listed with each member in their own sections so proceed with caution!!! ♡︎
brian ho.
cw. mirror sex, tit play, dumbification, use of “doll”
your back is completely fleshed on his chest, your tits are bouncing every time he fucks his cock so full in you, it looks amazing in the view of brian’s mirror in his room. if he didn’t already love your perfect tits when he’s sober, he definitely loves them now. the blunt is perched on his lips as if it was a simple cigarette, but he can’t help but cup your soft tits when he’s fucking you so silly and dumb. “feelin’ good for me, doll? that’s it. just go fucking stupid for me.” he murmurs against your ear when he sees you moaning mindlessly— probably babbling how his cock is so good, but you’re so incoherent he simply lets you go so stupid on his cock, you’re just so pretty in the mirror! brian thinks it’s even prettier when he hands you the blunt to take some puffs but you can’t! hands are trembling, jaw is slack, eyes so far back you cant even focus on the blunt! its okay, though. brian’s got you!
extra. brian is THEE session crush. he’s so laid back and relaxed, pops a few jokes. stare at him a little too long and you’d accidentally make out w him WHAT
yoon siyun.
cw. stripping, cock warming, groping, use of “love”
i’m a believer that siyun would get a little too “carried” away when he smokes grass... i mean you’re passing the joint all carelessly, not realizing your eyes are low and hot, lips parted cutely, body barely even covered in your thin pajamas. when he takes the joint from you, he simply mumbles, “strip for me.” you almost do a quick double take, but its siyun, you’ll strip for him. he watches as you slip off that stupidly thin tank top and those stupidly loose pajama shorts. you can see how hard he’s getting through his sweats; his tent is growing as he takes another puff, lowly humming, “thats it, love.” when you’re naked, you take the joint from his lips and giggle, “your turn.” he groans but quickly slips off everything, just so he can pull you into his lap and press his cock into you, fully bottoming out. you giggle feeling him squeeze your ass and lay his head on your chest, he needed this more than weed.
extra. siyun wouldn’t do it often but he needs to LMFAOOO bc of him and his “crash” outs but i actually don’t think it’ll calm him down either... oops
kyrell valentine choi.
cw. mutual masturbation, praise, use of “princess”
ugh ky would love sessions where its just the two of you, his hands find themselves in your panties, slowly teasing your clit to let your pussy juices pool when his other hand is busy with the joint in his fingers. he bites his lip seeing you peel them off, leaving you just in his large shirt. his boxers are struggling to keep his cock in them, so you obviously slip your hands in them. ky giggles as he kicks them off. leaving the both of you bare, playing with each other as the weed starts really kicking in. ky passes it off as you start slowly roll your hand on his cock. you take in a puff as ky hums, “keep going, princess. shit— making me feel so good.” you’re already finding it hard to focus on the joint when ky’s his fingers leave your clit to slip themselves stuffed into your cunt. struggling to even bring it to your lips, your head falls onto his shoulders, but ky giggles and grabs it to help you to take a puff.
extra. ky and them seattle genes make him a good smoker. does it pretty often to relax. he’s #mecore and people don’t expect him to smoke LOL but he does
kim seungmo.
cw. kissing, h*nd h*lding, body worship, use of “baby”
when seungmo finally takes off your panties, he’s impatiently waiting for you to finish your puff just to collide his lips with yours. you giggle into the kiss, “what the fuck?” he simply shushes you, giggling back, “shut up— just wanna fuck you already.” you roll your eyes but seungmo lays you back to grab his cock and slip it past your folds. his head throws back when he’s already halfway into your cunt. you pull his head back as your fingers guide the blunt to his lips. he takes a puff of the kush, exhaling, “thanks, baby. really needed that right now,” all sarcastically. you laugh at his tone, but seungmo doesn’t mind though. his hand snakes up to yours to intertwine his fingers with yours. when he starts rocking his hips, he grunts out a few “pretty ass body,” “i love this pussy, baby,” and feels up your body with his free hand as you keep helping him with his puffs as you moan under him.
extra. seungmo also wouldn’t smoke it up too often, he’d only do it here and there. he’s still a little prankster, but less energetic and more of a teaser
back 2 catalog
#♡︎ lien love letters#ampers&one smut#ampersandone smut#kpop smut#kpop hard hours#kpop hard thoughts#brian smut#brian ho smut#ampers&one brian smut#ampersandone brian smut#siyun smut#yoon siyun smut#ampersandone siyun smut#ampers&one siyun smut#kyrell smut#kyrell choi smut#kyrell valentine choi smut#ampers&one kyrell smut#ampersandone kyrell smut#kim seungmo smut#seungmo smut#ampersandone seungmo smut#ampers&one seungmo smut
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Transformers Earthspark: Another Place, Another Prison
Hashtag /definitely/ helped Bee do a bit of research for his lil presentation. I know I used the internet to figure out the framework lmao
It's funny when you look up "what defines a good person" the ai kinda gives you a little list with fraggin suggestions of praise to give a good person. Then if you look up "What defines a bad person", it gives you like, factors for it and a list for signs of a toxic relationship and a couple hotline links. Oddly wholesome from google ngl
Also can glimpse a bit of depresso expresso Star. Mah dude has dealt with so much scrap that having a bit of an "im so done with this" scrap attitude be lingering
Previous Chapter: Settling Into Circumstance
First Chapter: The Need For Read
Next Chapter: Family Feud
Chapter 10: Bee's Good Guy Crash Course
Starscream had found himself upon the floor in the odd room the Malto’s put together. He wasn’t about to trust that questionable berth. Splayed out with his wings against the cool stone, where no hidden restraints could pop out at him, was preferable. He’d made sure to check.
Starscream had just spent the last groon or so picking apart every centihic of the place, in fact. No cameras in the posters, or that ugly lamp. Nothing amiss with the storage underneath the berth. The pillows as they’d been called still looked suspicious, but he hadn’t been able to prove how yet. The doorframe definitely harbored a means to seal him inside at their leisure, he just needed to make certain not to aggravate them to such a point. Prove that he could stay put voluntarily.
Starscream stared up at the fake little stars in thought. Could those possibly conceal turrets like those implemented by G.H.O.S.T.? They were rather small, but so were the humans, and their weaponry. He had tested one, and it seemed innocent enough, but that did not speak for all of them. The bots, nor the Malto’s, would trust leaving him alone in their little bunker without some insurance. They had to have some form of security. Even if it did only look like a ridiculous clubhouse for sparklings.
His wing twitched as he felt the distinct vibrations of pedsteps through the floor. That was far more trustworthy than his audials which seemed to be constantly glitchy as of late. But whose were they? As they rhythmically made their way towards him, he calculated the pace of the stride with the weight. It was Bumblebee.
“Why are you on the floor?” The bug gestured a servo to him with an air of judgment.
Starscream remained silent for a moment as he glanced over at the mech, “What do you want?”
Bumblebee’s optical lids and doors dropped in annoyance, then he straightened with a slight roll of his helm. “Weeell, we had our time to get situated. So now, I thought–since the kids are either occupied with school or going out to find new cave springs–I could get you started on your good guy training! As I’m sure the Terrans could tell you, I’m a great teacher. And I put together a lecture on the dos and don’t of not being a garbage person!”
“Lucky me.” Starscream said sarcastically with a toss of his servo which promptly flopped back down with a thunk. Did he really have to listen to this scout?
Bumblebee groaned and stepped closer to stand over the seeker with his servos on his hips. “So get up! I’m not rolling my whiteboard in here for you.”
Starscream glared at him before pushing himself onto his peds with his own little noise of complaint. Allowing himself to be commanded by this bug was insulting. Yet there seemed no avoiding it given the circumstances, and at least it was something to do.
“Thank you.” The bug stated flatly as he turned to lead the way toward whatever annoying presentation he had planned.
A crate was pulled out in front of the aptly named “whiteboard”, which the bug told Starscream to take his seat in. One side of the board was labeled “pillars of being a good person”; Empathy, Consideration, Accountability, Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Fortitude. The rest was split into two sections detailing the aforementioned “dos and don’ts” in green versus red marker.
Do: be kind, be patient, be understanding, be selfless, be compassionate, be respectful, be honest, be loyal, be helpful.
Don’t: be rude, be selfish, be aggressive, be greedy, be spiteful, be insensitive, plot against your friends, want world domination, steal, be controlling, hit people, ignore people, manipulate people.
Those seemed rather personal, ridiculous, and quite debatable.
Bumblebee had retrieved a stick to point with, and tapped it on the red side. “First, we’ll go over what you shouldn’t do. For instance, you were rather rude a minute ago–”
“How?”
“Wha–what do you mean how?? You were giving me all this sass for no reason, didn’t answer my first question, and acted like a disgruntled teenager!” The bug counted on his digits.
Starscream crossed his arms. “That’s an exaggeration. And what makes you believe you are even worth my respect?” Bumblebee looked just about ready to explode, but Starscream smirked with the thought that if the scout did decide to start a fight, he could point to the stupid little board that admonished hitting people.
“DUDE! I’m the bot that was trusted to watch over you! Do you know how much I did in the war? I definitely kicked your tailpipe more than once!” The scout pointed the stick at starscream angrily before slumping backwards dramatically. “Ugh…just- regardless, being respectful to people isn’t something you should think they need to earn.”
Starscream laughed, “That’s cute. So you say that you really did just throw the Prime on your pedestal out of nothing but sheer reverence? He did nothing to prove his position worth your confidence?”
“No! Optimus is an awesome leader, and ticks literally every box on the Do list! He’s done thousands of things to express why he’s a Prime–”
“What about Megatron?”
“He–...Megatron proved his conviction to us when he changed sides, and continues to prove it.” The bug had begun to avert his gaze. “He’s changed for the sake of our people. Optimus believes in him, so I do too. You still have a way to go to get to that point.”
“Ah, so all I have to do is betray everything I’ve stood by for practically my entire functioning, and destroy the Allspark–for you to think me worthy of your respect? Hah! Does that not go against your standard of loyalty? Megatron didn’t do scrap for our people. And that Prime is hardly a saint.”
Bumblebee ex-vented as he rubbed his optics. “…Let's just move on. Trust is the thing that needs to be earned. Shown by actions. Like not being a power hungry crazy person, or plotting world domination, or betraying your friends for your own selfish goals–” The bug abruptly stopped with a cringed expression before continuing– “Uh, yeah, so you should work on y’know, thinking about others and stuff.”
Starscream suddenly noticed his optics glitch and he shook his helm. Right. That was why the bug hesitated. Was Bumblebee actually afraid of him, after all that talk? He should be. A dozen morbid thoughts flashed through Starscream’s processor. The bug had some nerve acting as if he were so perfect.
The lightning flickered through his wings in a subtle warning, “Oh yes. Think about others, hm? What do you think I’ve been trying to do? Ah, right. I am the power crazy lunatic who wants to rule the world, purely for my own pleasure.” Starscream growled dangerously as he put a servo to his chassis before tossing it aside. “Can you honestly blame me for finding myself the only trustworthy candidate for the role? Or aspiring for something better than these pitiful state of affairs? Any friends I may have had, are dead, or betrayed me first. You know nothing, bug.”
Bumblebee scrutinized him with his optics as he actually seemed to be thinking about his next words. “Maybe not…” He tested the stick in his servos. “You’re not exactly the most easy to read mech, Starscream. But even if you really want to think you’re the hero somehow in that twisted processor of yours, we’re gonna have to get this stuff down.” He tapped the board, then added mockingly, “You came here with pure intentions of being redeemed, didn’t you?”
Starscream’s wing twitched, then he crossed his stabilizing servos and poised his posture. “Of course.”
“So how about you actually listen to your teacher for a second, ‘kay? Cool. Great.” The scout brought his stick to point at the first word in his list of pillars. “Empathy. The ability to relate to others on both an emotional and intellectual level. It’s like when you see someone get hurt, and you feel it too, and therefore–should be inclined to help them! It's all about that connection and understanding, that then leads us into Consideration. Which is being mindful of others’ feelings. You need to be empathetic towards someone who's in danger or struggling, and considerate of how your actions affect those around you. So, imagine I’m your partner on a mission, and I don't know, a building collapsed on me or something. You could either leave me there and run away to save your own plating, or pull me out of the rubble to safety. What do you do?”
Starscream’s processor blanked with an echo of static. There were too many variables that would need to be considered in that hypothetical. There wasn’t enough information. Even so, obviously he wouldn’t save an Autobot, that’d be foolish. Rescue the enemy on some naive basis of…empathy? A mech should be able to take care of themself. It would probably be the bug's own fault if he found himself in such a situation. Then who was Starscream to take his opportunity to prove himself capable of fixing his mistake? Saving useless mechs who can’t keep themselves online, would only lead to getting himself killed needlessly. Then how would that be helpful?
He could probably discern what response the scout wanted, but instead a different question escaped his intake. “Would you save a Decepticon in such a scenario?” The rampant hypocrisy amongst the bots irked him.
“Well–” Bumblebee shifted as he hesitated to confess the obvious answer– “Look, I’m not talking about war, I’m talking about just in general. It doesn’t have to be me that you envision, it could be basically anyone. That's supposed to be the point.”
“If it is merely anyone, then why should I care?”
The scout ran a servo down his faceplate, “Fine. What if it was uh…Skywarp?”
Skywarp’s mangled frame, caught crushed between splintered shards of a once mighty structure, shattered by the Autobots. Skywarp leaking energon with only their helm and a servo free from their predicament. Barely conscious as they called out for Thundercracker in the carnage, who they’d never see again. Skywarp, being painfully quiet for a rare moment in their functioning, before screaming at Starscream for not looking for their brother harder.
A clapping of servos faded in from a chaotic symphony of explosions and voices, into what they were. Bumblebee was trying to get his attention.
“Hey! Hey, where’d you go man? You good?” The scout was next to him and centihics away from prodding him with that stupid stick.
Starscream smacked it away and snapped, “I’m fine. Of course I got Skywarp out–a lot of thanks that got me!” His optics flashed red as the memory of Megatron’s fusion cannon sending him crumpled down against the wall, while Skywarp watched, glitched in his processor.
“Helping people isn’t about getting praised for it!” The bug snipped back as he grumpily retrieved his lost stick. “It’s about doing the right thing, and showing that you care about the people around you… You don’t regret helping them, right?” When Starscream couldn’t respond, Bumblebee continued. “...How about we go to the next topic?”
Starscream stared blankly. He didn’t care. He didn’t have a choice. This was stupid.
“Right…” The scout began awkwardly as he slowly raised his stick to point at the board again. “The next one is… Accountability. Taking responsibility for your actions. Which plays on the Consideration one, because as you consider others’ feelings, you can take yourself accountable when you hurt someone. Like how what you did hit Hashtag pretty hard, and you can take responsibility by acknowledging that. As well as y’know, try to make it up to her. Meg–uh…Oh Primus what’s a better example…? Let’s just focus on the point that to be a good person, you need to recognize when you mess up, and then do something constructive about it.”
Starscream was hardly listening. This whole thing was just a huge guilt trip. Set for the scout to shame him for what a horrible person he was.
The bug just kept talking.
“Prudence is the act of being reflective, and objective when you’re making decisions. The reflective bit ties with the Accountability one in that it’s about you being aware of the effects of your actions, and that requires looking back on them and deciding what could be improved. The objective part is about not letting your biases, or anger, affect your decisions. Whiiiich goes into Temperance, that means controlling your passion in a way that doesn’t allow yourself to lash out at others. Like how you were getting a bit feisty earlier and snapping at everyone’s favorite teacher!” Bumblebee straightened a bit before pointing the stick at Starscream in some feeble attempt at scolding him. “Not cool. But, I know that might have been a bit fast, so how about another hypothetical! Let’s say, you accidentally broke the kid’s speaker because you hated the music or something. What do you do when they find out, or even before?”
“Plant the evidence where it could incriminate someone else.” Starscream responded immediately without much thought.
The bug’s faceplate scrunched. “No…You’re–you’re supposed to take accountability. Tell them you did it, say you’re sorry, and either repair it or get them a new one.”
“Why put such a stain on your record–or risk them not accepting your peace offering–when you could simply frame someone else and let it be their problem? Openly admitting fault seldom gets you in anyone’s good graces.” Starscream rolled his optics at the absurdity.
“First, back to the empathy thing, you shouldn’t pawn your problems onto other people. If you are worried about the consequences, then you shouldn’t want to inflict it on someone else. Second, it’s again, not about getting on people’s good sides or praise or anything like that.”
“What is it then? Is it so you can congratulate yourself on how oh so virtuous you are for DoInG tHe RiGhT tHiNg, after they break your servo? It is either them or me. I do not apologize for being a bit selfish on the matter. Your morals are moronic.”
Bumblebee put his servos together and brought them to his faceplate, then pointed his digits down. “...What about breaking a speaker is some life or death situation?” He let his servos fall. “Dude. No one’s going to do that over a little mistake.”
Starscream stared at him with a raised optical ridge skeptically. That statement was extremely doubtful. Mistakes could be deadly, no matter how insignificant. Even if such a thing may not seem like it would warrant such a response, it never stopped Megatron when he was in a mood. The bug could say that now, but he could not promise that for anyone in the future. Even himself.
The bug got a rather odd expression at his silence. “No one here is ever going to do that. We talk things out. That is how we deal with things in this team. We practice the Temperance and Prudence rules! Keeping our anger in check to manage our decisions in non-violent ways! With the exception of a bit of rough-housing–They might still be mad, but they would appreciate honesty. Your way would just make things worse, not better. Especially if they found out anyway. No one can be perfect, but you still gotta put forth that effort.”
Starscream rested his faceplate on his propped servo with bored optics, “Sure.”
“I’m serious.” The bug put a servo on his hip, “As long as you try, that still counts for something. And we help each other. I’m still a bit guilty of having those occasional moments where I’ve made more reckless decisions. It happens.” He shrugged, “You really just have to make sure to avoid those big ones.”
Avoid the big ones? What scale were these bots weighing their decisions upon? How was Starscream supposed to know what was large or small in their optics? Instances that he felt could be disregarded after proper punishment, seemed to linger for them. Destroying that device in the hypothetical, was apparently a low level offense, but that hardly grazed the range of circumstance. He didn’t have vorns to navigate this place.
Starscream was glaring hard at basically nothing. This redemption angle of this ordeal was going to prove precarious… He didn’t understand why his way was wrong. It had always been how things worked, as far as he could remember. Perhaps… not with Skyfire, but he was different. They had been partners, equals. The power scales here were hardly clear.
The bug had been talking again.
“–guess fairness can be subjective sometimes. I’m sure you're thinking about some backhanded rebuttal already.” Bumblebee actually looked a bit disappointed when Starscream said nothing, and continued with his doors tipping downward. “...But the Justice pillar also ties in with our last one to wrap up today’s lesson, Fortitude. Which is the courage to stand up for what you believe in. To step in when you see something you know is wrong. Basically the complete opposite of the bystander effect! For instance, if you saw someone you care about being held accountable for something that wasn’t their fault–you’d come to their defense.”
Starscream thought of his trinemates again. “It is not so simple.”
“Well…for you, maybe not. But! If you keep these pillars in mind, and really try and implement them, it could get easier right? Practice?” Bumblebee’s vocalizer squeaked with his grin that was full of doubt. “Maybe?”
Starscream studied him for a moment. The bug had seemed to put in a significant amount of effort. As well as being perhaps a bit more self-aware than he thought, for a moment. The scout was certainly odd, but…he meant well. Something could be appreciated about that. Occasionally.
Then, Starscream stood from the crate and turned to make his way back to his sparkly little quarters. He was still tired, and the assault on his audials he’d just endured did nothing for the ache in his processor. There were decidedly far too many things to think about.
Bumblebee was silent for a moment before calling out to him, “Okay yeah, good talk! I’ll get back to you on the practice exercises, so we can take a break for now!”
Starscream put a servo up in acknowledgement before slipping into solitary. The idea of getting the last word was appealing, but he didn’t have the energy. Despite the fact that the small room wasn’t entirely comforting, it would at least be a reprieve from regulating every other mech around him every Primus damned nano-klik.
Starscream stood there in the middle of the room a moment, as his optics drifted to one particular poster. The seekers soaring into the skies, away from a burning city. He approached it. Stared it down with vacant optics and tense servos.
Then ripped apart every scrap of those wretched structures. Until only the sky and his seekers remained.
A foolish dream, really.
#starscream#earthspark starscream#bumblebee#earthspark bumblebee#transformers#tfe#star be a bit homesick#and wishing his trine wasn't so fragged#I really hope im doing bee well#bee rlly do be tryin#he actually liked the banter smh#fanfic#tf fanfic#bit of fanart too#tryna keep my sanity with at least just a small edit with the sillies
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hello! do you have any tips for creating your own psds? right now I'm just sort of throwing things at the wall and hoping it sticks!
Hi hi nonnie! I am NOT the best person for you to ask this (not in a miiile) BUT I tried making this in the most concise way I could and prayed to god it didn't get too confusing since a lot of the times I too just throw things at a wall and call it a day. I'll teach my usual psd making style and a more general one just in case that's what you were looking for! They're under the cut since it probably will get a tiny bit long but I hope it's helpful to you! <3 as always reminder that there is no correct way to make a psd this is just how i do etc etc
This has a lot of text and images so beware of the big scary maica
First of all: While you certainly *can* make a psd based solely out of one image or a compilation of your own edits (as i have done on the past), I'd say in general it's more useful and easier to make something when you have more than a singular image to check and a color spread to use. I made this little template in 5 minutes (which is a lie because my photopea crashed at first and so I had to re-do it) and I'll link it here alongside the psd itself so you can poke around and check how I do things! If you want to do your own template or anything, though, here's the color spread I use! :]
It has a spectrum, a bar line and some skin tones so it should be helpful! You can also use Travi3sapsd swatches if you'd like, since I know some people would prefer having a view of the colors before and after the psd to check!
Talking about skin tones, Amemcth also has a nice collage with characters of varying skin tones so you can check how your psd look on different skin tones. I don't think it's obligatory for all psds to look fine with every skin tone, however, I think if you're not doing it for a singular character and are indeed posting that psd for public use, making it work with darker skin tones is something good and that I encourage. If it doesn't work, remember to always indicate it by adding a "Works fine on most skin tones" or "Doesn't work on poc characters". Those warnings can also be useful for other things, like not indicating the usage of the psd on irl pictures, cartoon pictures etc.
So, final thing before we get into psd making itself (if you are using a image mask template to check colors) is adding the images! I always recommend adding characters from different sources and irl images to be sure, and with either varying colors across the spectrum so you can be certain the psd is working nicely OR images that feel similar enough in vibes so you can be certain the vibes of the psd are going towards where you'd like them to. However, it's also important to consider which colors you will be working with to make the psd, since I think it's easier to make a psd for a character when you have something in mind. For my own psds, I usually limit myself to a maximum of three colors + black and white (which I'll mess with to change their tones), so for this tutorial I'll be using yellow, purple and pink! This is the where we start. (I won't be trying to keep skintones working for this since it's all pale characters, but please have the common sense to make psds that work if you're editing a black character. don't make them white and for the love of god don't make them grayish)
Also reminder before anything that if you're editing a card and that card works weirdly with the psd you can always add adjustment layers to the card itself and mess up with the hues on it hashtag editing some characters just are a pain in the ass to edit because of colors being too similar etc so don't be afraid to fight them
First: Make A Folder for your psd to be built on. It makes things a lot easier to drag around once you have it done and arranged. Name it after the psd name, name it psd folder, whatever, just put your layers under that folder. Onto the layers.
My autistic ass mostly does psds only following one single pattern, but in case you want to mess around and play, feel free to have fun and mess around. A lot of psd making really is just messing around. In my case, these are the main adjustment layers i use: Threshold, Selective Color, Hue/Saturation, Photo Filter, Color Balance, Vibrance and, on occasion, Gradient Map and Curves. You can use others but I am >not< the best person to tell you what they do and how to work with them.
So, you now have your pretty little image layout down and the colors you want to work with in mind (pink purple yellow + bw), so what now? Well, I usually like to think on which direction I want to take this psd towards. People will always have different methods and directions on psd making. Some of them like to make some of the most eyestraining things I've ever seen which somehow work, some of them like to make a pastel so bright I can feel my eyes burning, some of them prefer to make desaturated tones, some of them like to lower the vibrancy of the image so much I almost can't see shit. Everyone has their own preferences and I work w pretty much anything, but for this I'll try to keep a standard bright view, if a little pastel and desaturated, for this.
So now, we have our colors, our images, our color swatches and a direction in mind.
First thing I like to do whenever I'm making psds is to add a threshold layer. However, not in the way I usually see around editblr. When you add a threshold layer, it should look like this
Don't just do that. Go there on that little normal bar and click it. I know people who use others, but I usually settle with either Multiply or Soft Light for it, then lower the opacity down until it's somewhere I'm satisfied with.
So this is where we end up at. I don't let my threshold opacity go any higher than a 30%. threshold basically serves to bring out the shadows on your images and bring out the shapes on them. it helps make the focus on the image clearer yadda yadda yadda. Be careful when using it on darker images, but for brighter ones it sure helps w making everything easier to see.
After adding a threshold, I add my Selective Color layer. With this you'll basically be playing around with the sliders until your colors look the way you want them to. This messes *slightly* with the hue without fully changing them (we'll get there soon), so it gives you some chance to balance out the initial shades of the psd. For the current method i'm teaching (focused colors), i usually recommend you to make the colors you >dont< want on your psd brighter or in a shade that still feels coherent with the colors you dont want in it. we'll be dealing with them soon.
So we get there. HOWEVER! don't think we're done once you mess with the main colors. the 1st selective color white is, what i'd say, one of the most important parts of psd making. you know how most anime characters in gacha games these days look pale white? Yeah. this can change it. What i usually do is bring the black slider on the white layer to the right and then increase a bit of the magenta and yellow. Boom.
It's quite tricky to use on images with heavier shadows, but for the standard pale white anime gacha character? it helps give some life to them. its quite subtle, but can help a lot to make the image get more lively. A counter thing to this is that yeahhh this can mess a lot if you want to make, you know, a >white< psd since it will also mess with the white tones themselves, so there's no 100% settled need to mess with it, just keep it in mind in case you wanna make the character a bit more tan or, you know, have a normal skintone. It also helps a lot with defining shadows, so keep it in mind :]
I usually don't mess with the neutral since it can fuck around a lot w skintones and, if i do, i always make sure to keep them on less than 20% for all levels. be careful when playing w it.
Black is a tricky one. I know a lot of you pastel girlies across editblr and psd making communities like turning it all the way down so theres no black but honestly, contrast is important. I usually make sure to bring the black scale to the right and then mess around w the other three so the black is still visible and bringing contrast to the image, but w the help of the other three, make it so the black looks softer and matches the psd itself. So, here we are!
After the selective color in my psd process, that's where we erase any unwanted color and shift the hues to where we'd like them to be. Make a hue/saturation layer and go to the colors you dont want (in our case, green and cyan) and move that hue slider to a color you want babyyy. I encourage to mess around with the color scale on the specific color so you have more power over what colors change or don't, in case it's messing with colors close to it on the scale (cyan messing with greens, greens messing with yellows etc). Be aware that doing this will fuck uppp certain images with those colors, cry about it for a bit, and go back to making your psd
If you're a picky mf just like me, you WILL add 1 or 2 more hue/saturation layers to fully clean that bar of any color you do not want. If you're normal, you'll be chill with how this looks and call it a day, so onto the next step.
After arranging your colors and possibly finding out how green is an absolute shit color to try and erase traces of, we get to color balance which is, well, where you balance the colors. go around and mess w the scale until your colors lean more towards what you want them to look like. I personally don't mess much here and the difference will be suuubtle subtle, this is more if you're just picky with colors like me and want them to look perfect in the idealized version of the psd you hold in your head.
Photo filter will basically bring the whole thing together. It serves as a filter to bring eeevery tone you have going on into a cohesive line. Always remember to lower down the density of it so the other colors are still noticeable. a lot of the time i will add more than one photo filter and play with it until I'm satisfied with how it looks <3
Then this is the time where I'll usually add ANOTHER selective color layer just to mess more with the tones and finally get them down to where I usually stop playing around.
A few more touches and you should be done! I really don't know how to even explain curves and gradient maps so play around with them for a bit and you should at least understand how they work. One thing I do a lot with my psds is make toggles to make colors darker/bring more focuses etc etc, so if you're someone who struggles to make decisions, toggles might be a good thing to add to your psds!
Now... If you don't want to limit yourself to a set number of colors? Quite simple! Simply skip the hue/saturation layer steps or delete them altogether once you're done with your psd and there, a psd that plays with the tones of the image to make them more harmonious while keeping everything cohesive! You can mess around a bit more on the two selective color layers you have if you do this by deleting the huesat layers, but it should generally look pretty nice still!
This should be it! So, to summarize everything Ive been yapping about so far...
Before diving head in, decide if you want to limit your colors or not. Also decide on a set type of psd (bright, pastel, desaturated, dark...) you want to go towards
Use multiple images to make your psd, either with similar vibes so you can ensure it's becoming something you wanted or with varying colors so you can cover your ground
Use a threshold layer with lowered opacity before anything else so the shadows on your images have more contrast
You can use a selective color layer on the white part to darken pale characters skintone and bring some more life to them, but be careful when doing this because of cards with heavier shadows, if you want to keep white as a color on the psd etc
Don't lighten the black part on the selective layer as that messes with contrast and might make your psd harder to comprehend when looking from afar
Try to still make your colors distinct enough so you're able to tell apart shapes if from afar, it can be a difficult thing to do but it helps a lot with readability
Don't be afraid to go back and forth between layers! If you're on a photo filter layer, you can always go back to make a specific color more prominent if you miss it overall
Use hue/sat as a way to change colors you don't want instead of replace color. It's tricky, but it covers more ground
Use photo filter to bring all colors more cohesion and make it so they look more harmonious
Have a headache trying to work around cards with harsher shadows
DO NOT make poc characters gray or straight up orange/red for the love of god
Feel free to make different toggles for your psds if you can't decide on which path to go towards, you can always duplicate layers and make different paths depending on what you want!
If a specific image you're using has difficult shadows or different tones to work around with the overall set, you can always just mess with that image alone and make adjustments to make it work out with the rest of the set
Remember that psds work differently on photopea and photoshop, so make sure to check that out if making them/using them/posting them anywhere and make it clear for which app they were made for!
Good luck with psd making and have fun overall! <3
Here's my psd test yet again if you'd like to mess around with it! Just don't repost and it should be fine ^^
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(One I am sorry if I am flooding your ask box is just I really love how you write) maybe old Predacon buddy get transported into the Earth spark universe how would they interact with Megatron from that universe possible hostility and will possibly gush over the terrans(is that how I say it?) Just overall more grandpa vibes
Old Predacon Buddy is going to start their own passport or scrapbook filled with their travels to other dimensions with all of their alternative grandkids.
Hope you enjoy!
Bot Buddy the Old Predacon meeting the Terrans and Megatron
SFW, Platonic, Cybertronian reader
TFP/TFE
Buddy was going to start keeping a personal travel log on all the different places outside their universe if this keeps up.
One minute they were peacefully watching Bumblebee and Bulkhead spar in the training room.
The next thing they knew they were thrown into a small clearing in the middle of the woods.
It was a peaceful piece of land if they were being honest.
They knew they needed to start thinking about how to get back home, again, but the scenery caught their optics.
Full of nice trees and moss, a perfect spot to nap.
Snap!
Buddy turns their helm to spot two small Bot and human girl and boy.
“…Hello?”--Buddy
“Hi!”—All of them
Buddy, a little stunned by the response, waves their tail.
The little girl and the bot next to her come closer.
The other two come after wards.
“We heard a large thud noise and found you here.”—Small red bot
“Did you now?”--Buddy
“Bet that was you making a crash landing.”—Small human girl
“You could say that. These portals aren’t known for giving bots nice landings.”--Buddy
“Portals? Like a spacebridge?”—Small human boy
“…Yes, like a spacebridge. How do you know what a space bridge is?”--Buddy
“Dad and Dad 2 talked about them.”—Small red bot
“Dad…Dad 2?”--Buddy
“Yeah well, Dad talked about it in the comics.”—Small white bot
“Excuse me, comics?”--Buddy
“Yeah, these things!”—Small white bot
Buddy is shown a comic with Optimus and Megatron fighting on the front page.
“Do… do all humans know about our species?”--Buddy
“Duh. You’re not from around here, are you?”—Small white bot
“I’m not. I’m from another dimension.”--Buddy
“Wow! So Cool!”—Small human girl
“Mo, they need to get back home.”--Small human boy
Buddy tilting their helm a bit.
“Mo? Is that your name little one?”--Buddy
“Yep! This is my big brother Robbie and our other brother Thrash and sister Twitch.”--Mo
“Brother… and sister…”--Buddy
“We found them in a cave, well more like created.”--Robbie
Buddy sitting down putting a servo over their face.
Buddy vents hard.
“Hold on a second kiddo. This…this is a lot to process at the moment.”--Buddy
“Robbie! Mo! Where did you guys go?”
“Wait I found them!”
Three more bots come from the brush.
Buddy just stares at them.
The orange and green one transform into their beast modes and stand in front of group. The large purple one looks like they are ready to fight.
“Who are you!”—Green owl bot
“Nightshade wait that bot’s friendly!”--Mo
“How do you know? They look like they can eat you whole Mo!”—Large purple one
“We should judge a book by its cover Hashtag.”—Small dinobot
“If it helps, I can give you my name. But you must promise not to ask questions about it.”--Buddy
“Deal.”--Mo
“Buddy.”--Buddy
“…Your name is Buddy?”--Robbie
“Yep.”--Buddy
“…okay! These are our other siblings, Hashtag, Nightshade and Jawbreaker.”--Thrash
Buddy nodding before taking notice of how young these bots looked.
“You said you found your siblings in a cave, correct? How long were they there?”--Buddy
“I think less than a year ago.”--Mo
Buddy looks like they are about to have a stroke.
Mo mentioned that their mother and father would want to meet them. Maybe even help them find a way back home.
As the little group walked towards the farm, Buddy followed making sure to watch each one carefully.
There was no way that these literal sparkling’s were leaving their sight.
Alex and Dot were extremely surprised to see the kids bring in a giant mechanical dragon home.
They looked even bigger than Megatron!
“Kids… who’s your new friend here?”--Alex
Buddy bowing their helm a little in respect.
“Hello there. My name is Buddy. I am an Autobot from another dimension. I fell into your world through some sort of portal.”--Buddy
“Wow…”--Alex
“Your name is Buddy?”--Dot
Buddy venting a bit.
“Yes Ma’am. That is my name it suites my personality, I’ve been told.”--Buddy
Dot looks at her kids.
“Did any of you—”--Dot
“We didn’t bring the giant dragon here!”--Thrash
“I am a Predacon little one.”--Buddy
“What’s a Predacon?”--Jawbreaker
“…I’ll explain it later. Umm…”--Buddy
“I’m Dot, this is my husband, Alex.”--Dot
Alex looking starstruck at Buddy.
“Hello—”--buddy
“Can you fly?”--Alex
“Dad!”—the kids
“Alex!”--Dot
Buddy chuckling a bit before dipping their helm to the ground in front of him.
“Would you like to see for yourself?”--Buddy
“I like them!”--Alex
“Can I go too!”--Mo
“And me!”--Robbie
“And me!”--Hashtag
“One at a time little ones. Dot? Is there someone you can contact that could--”--Buddy
“Already calling the big guys. They should be here any minute.”--Dot
Buddy was pleased and agreed to wait.
In the meantime, Buddy had already taken an oath to protect the young ones with their life while they were still here.
Buddy also wondered whose alternatives they were going to run into this time around.
Buddy played around with the little ones when a yellow sports car came speeding in and transformed.
“Dot! I got the call—SWEET SOLUS PRIME!”--Bumblebee
Buddy turning to the yellow bot with a happy grin on their face plate.
Buddy easily walks up to him with four of the Malto bots hanging from their frame.
“Bumblebee! My, my I haven’t met an alternative of you yet. And your voice!”--Buddy
Buddy looking around his neck cables.
“Not a scratch!”--Buddy
“Can someone explain!”--Bumblebee
“Oh sorry! Where are my manners. My name is Buddy, I am an Autobot from another dimension and Dot dear here was nice enough to contact some bots that could potentially help me with my problem.”--Buddy
“…”--Bumblebee
“It’s a lot to take in. Take your time little one.”--Buddy
Did Bee feel a bit intimidated about the giant dragon talking to him in such high regards.
Yes.
But at the same time, he didn’t.
Despite the grand size of the bot, they were a softy.
They really lived up to their name.
Soon enough a familiar truck comes in.
“Is that Prime?”--Buddy
“Oh yeah Optimus is here.”--Dot
“That’s—”--Bumblebee
A grey helicopter starts hovering above the truck.
“…Bumblebee. Who’s that?”--Buddy
“Megatron.”--Bumblebee
Buddy nearly snaps their neck at how fast they look at him.
“Excuse me?!”--Buddy
“What?”--Dot
“Megatron? Here? The leader of the Decepticons?”--Buddy
“Oh, he isn’t a Con anymore. He’s one of us now.”--Bumblebee
Buddy’s wings drop as the kids go welcome the Prime and ex-warlord.
“Your war is…is it over?”--Buddy
Bee and Dot look at Buddy who seemed to have aged dramatically in the few seconds of hearing that news.
“Yeah, its over…I take it yours isn’t?”--Bumblebee
Buddy shaking their helm.
“What about the other Decepticon’s?”--Buddy
“Some are doing their own thing and others do cause trouble from time to time.”--Bumblebee
Buddy huffs a bit.
“Next thing you’re going to tell me is that Starscream is the leader.”--Buddy
“I mean—”--Bumblebee
“This is the part where you tell me that isn’t true…”--Buddy
“Well…”--Dot
“…please say sike right now…”--Buddy
Prime and Megatron start walking over.
Buddy straightens themselves and transforms to go shake the Leaders servos.
“Optimus. Megatron.”--Buddy
“That’s us. And who might you be stranger?”--Megtron
Buddy suppressing a tiny sob.
“Buddy, sir. My name is Buddy.”--Buddy
“Strange name, but it looks like it suites you well.”--Optimus
“Thank you Prime. I take it that you two can help me get back home?”--Buddy
“We will do our best Buddy.”--Optimus
Buddy smiles at the two.
“That’s all I could ask for. Thank you.”--buddy
Buddy eventually sat down and talked to the two mechs while more bots were coming their way.
Buddy met the alternatives of some fellow bots they knew or had known throughout the war.
They nearly got teary eyed when they met this alternative of Elita One.
Buddy found it a bit hard to connect the dots between this version of Arcee and Wheeljack.
According to Wheeljack, it was going to take a couple of days to make sure that Buddy would get sent to the right dimension.
Buddy didn’t mind too much as they spent most of their time with the kids.
These kids lived for Buddy’s play time and stories.
“Then what did you do?”--Jawbreaker
“Well kiddo, I took that hammer and threw it at our Commander. He was able to help our Wheeljack and Bulkhead while I managed to get us some cover from the Vechicons.”--Buddy
“Cool!”--Thrash
“Buddy, I have a question.”--Nightshade
“What might that be Nightshade?”--Buddy
“You mentioned once that you were a gladiator of sorts right?”--Nightshade
“Yes, that was during my younger years.”--Buddy
“How young though?”--Nightshade
“Hmm… probably around the first hundreds of years give or take.”--Buddy
“…”—The kids
“Kids?”--Buddy
“How old are you?”--Robbie
“…How about another story?”--Buddy
“How old!”--Twitch
“Storytime!”--Buddy
“How old Buddy!”--Hashtag
“Dot! Restrain you kids!”—Buddy
Soon enough it was time for Buddy to go back home.
Buddy made sure they hugged every single one of their new friends before going close to the portal.
Buddy made sure to give extras as they were leaving.
Buddy came out of the portal and into the halls of the base.
Only to get immediately hit in the helm by a lob ball.
“OW! Who threw that!”--Buddy
“Buddy!?”--Miko
Miko starts running to Buddy in the Apex armor.
“Wait Miko the armor—”--Buddy
Miko jumps into Buddy’s open arms.
Buddy falls backwards with a hard thud.
“Miko, I’m not as young as I was before.”--Buddy
Miko doesn’t listen, too busy hugging Buddy.
“You need to stop disappearing like that.”--Miko
“Trust me if I had a choice I would stay with the team. The universe seems to have different plans. At least I always end back home.”--buddy
“You got that right.”--Miko
#transformers x reader#maccadam#bot buddy#tfp#tfp x reader#tfp x platonic reader#tfe x platonic reader#tfe terrans#tfe terrans x platonic reader
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I hope it never updates!
What can I say? Inspiration suddenly struck. I hope it continues to, but I can't make any promises.
Warning(s): the formatting of this story will be a bit different compared to my other fics (exactly how will be immediately obvious), implied self aware character, yandere first person pov, gender neutral first person pov/reader, holding someone captive technically
Hi guys!!!!!!! Sooooooooo............ this is going to be a little bit of a... different post.
So Twisted Wonderland got an update recently. It's for Cay-Cay's birthday! I was so exciteddddd (frequent readers will know how much I LOVE Cay-Cay~✩) you know me, I was r e a d y to use the keys he gave me at log-in to pull on his latest birthday banner~
Aaaaaaaand that was when my game crashed ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ 💔 it's not like it was that big of a deal, but it's still annoying!!!!
But for some reason, my game is acting strangely now...
It's not something that messes with the gameplay or anything, and it's not corrupted or broken (that I know of??? I'm so bad with tech stuff sorry >.<) I still had all my cards, so I really couldn't care less about whatever caused the crash or if it messed with anything tbh, in my mind: all's good!~✩
I logged back on and it looked like everything had saved before the crash, the game skipped the log-in bonus screen and the birthday message from Cay-Cay, and when I went back to the gacha tab I still had the tenfold key set, so everything looked okay, for now. So I pulled on Cay-Cay's platinum jacket birthday card! you've all seen how much I suffered getting the bloom birthday card last February, so I was hoping to everything that he'd come home easily this year (╥﹏╥)........... AND GUESS WHAT??? HE DID!! Aaaaaa guys he loves me soooo much it's unreallll♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ :D
But........... that's when the weird stuff really started. You know I've always looked for spoilers the moment a new event that includes Cater comes out, scary monsters, firelit sky, tsumsted, playful land, beans day, his club card, his birthdays... hell, even his chef and new years cards!!! I'm a fiend for Cay-Cay, I love him so much!! Honestly I don't even care if I like how the outfit looks anymore, I just loooove Cater Diamond!!!!
That's getting a bit outside the point, oopsies- The point is, I already know ALL of platinum Cay-Cay's voice lines, summon line, vignettes, home screen lines, and obviously all his battle and levelup and guest room etc lines, since those stay the same. I have everything memorized atp! So, of course I noticed when there was a completely different line than expected once he successfully came home. You know, the part of the summon that has a teeny tiny story dialogue segment?
Platinum jacket Cater is supposed to say something about how the museum he's visiting is more than a century old, then goes on about tagging a selfie. But for some reason, the line was slightly....... off??????????? It was worded differently than it should have been, and Cay-Cay didn't even say "hashtag" before saying his post tags! Can you believe that?!
Obviously I assumed it was just a translation mixup. I know twst en has that sometimes; changing a line that implies Cay-Cay is bi, getting rid of the word "master" in relation to Jamil's hypnotism, forgetting that Floyd calls Vil "betta chan senpai" (tho that mistake might also be on jp server, tbh I can't remember lol sorry Floyd but I only have eyes for Cay-Cay~♡) shit man they even called Kalim "Kamil" at one point in the endless halloween night event! With all those issues, and how the game is translated in general, I really really didn't think anything of it that Cay-Cay's summon line was a bit different than I thought it would be.
But then the weird things just....... kept happening??????? Cay-Cay's home lines were different than they should be, and some of them actually looked like they changed every single time?? But I just thought I was misreading, who wouldn't assume that?! Especially since I've been awake for two days straight---
So I just went to sleep for the night (day?) and assumed the game would be back to normal when I was back to normal!
I woke up at liiiiiike 7pm?? It's a bit hard for me to tell, I'm always in such a haze when I wake up! I'm completely conscious and safe, I just don't really know what's going on for a good hour or so after I first wake up, just how I am and how I've always been ╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭ sadly this means this part won't be very coherent, but it's so vivid in my mind even despite the wakeup fog bc like..... I could NEVER have expected what I experienced.
I still needed to level up platinum Cay-Cay since I was too sleepy to earlier, so I immediately went to do that! I gave him all the honey he could ever want (I felt soooo bad since he doesn't like sweets 💔) and thanks to the birthday levelup rate bonus, I got excellent and was actually able to entirely level him to max immediately! I obviously did the same with his vignette lvl and spell lvls and buddy lvls (THANK YOU TWST EN 3RD ANNIVERSARY UPDATE 😭) and used my ssr perfumes to fully uncap him♡♡♡♡
I was sooooo happy to just have alone time with him, it feels like the game never allows that in the stories ughhhh why must Ace of all things be this game's favouriteee....... Cay-Cay deserves it so much more and I will argue that until I die ಠ︵ಠ
Sorry, sorry, back to it again! I went back to the card lvl tab, since I fully uncapped him and had to do more levelling since I forgot to uncap beforehand (silly me!) and that's when I noticed the strangest thing of all.......
The level line was....... different? And like, way too different for it to just be me not remembering the line properly. It looked like the way he speaks when he drops the act, but not trying to hide it? The text wasn't shown to be just his thoughts, it was written like he was actually speaking. The line wasn't voice acted or anything either. A voice line still plays, but it was clearly his second default levelup line, not whatever this was???
You know me. Even if it's unrealistic, I immediately assumed the worst lol, I thought someone hacked and modded my account or something!!!!! AGAIN, I know this is unrealistic so there's no need to make fun of me, I was outtttt of it :( Then, you know, panic started happening. I thought I'd get banned or something (emotions have already been really bad lately, and I did not need this stress!!)
The weird lines just kept happening after that. My panicking went away eventually, and I started realizing, none of these strange lines had proper voicing or model work, they always borrowed the voicing and model work from other normal lines. So, I could definitely tell these were completely outside the regular pool of voice lines. That made the panicking worse, sadly, since I thought more than ever that these were added by an outside force... of course I was also still worried about getting banned, but also that would mean someone was messing with my lovely precious Cay-Cay!! >:(
After the panic 2.0 -now featuring slight rage- settled, I started truly reading these weird lines. They never repeated, each one was unique. He started talking about someone "outside"???
Ahhhh, but that's when the best thing happened~♡! I said something out loud, and Cay-Cay actually directly responded with the next line!! It referenced what I said perfectly... like it couldn't have been randomly generated, or even ai (but then again, I said I don't know much about tech), it felt like someone I have conversations with regularly responding to me....
And after that, I was just so............
..happy.
That's it, I was happy.
I was happy that he was actually talking to me.
I didn't care what he was really talking about, I just knew he was.... there. And he could understand me.
Cay-Cay was speaking directly to me.
He said he was trapped in there, somehow... and he wasn't Cay-Cay, just some guy stuck using him to communicate... ehhh, he explained it all in so much detail, but if I'm being honest, I really didn't give less of a shit about what he was actually saying!
I didn't care, because he was trapped.
Cay-Cay was trapped.
He was trapped with me.
And you know what? I was happy. I was so, so happy that he was trapped.
All of you know how much I love Cay-Cay, and hey, I'll even be the first to admit that it's a liiiiiittle bit of an obsession with him. I just love him so, so much. Cay-Cay is just so important to me... he's such a perfect character..... everything about him. Everything.
I love him.
I love him so much that I'll even accept someone who just resembles him in looks alone. I can make them act like how they're supposed to.
That's why this was such a wonderful situation! I had a sentient Cay-Cay just......... literally in the palm of my hand, and I couldn't be happier.
I love him... I love him so purely, so wholely, anyone reading this will know...
It doesn't matter if Cay-Cay doesn't act like how he should yet, I can help him. That's why I don't care about his problems, he's just solved all of mine. My game is perfect now, I hope it never updates! I love him!!
Dearest readers, I'm living my fangirl dream!! I'll talk to you all later, Cay-Cay and I have a date set up tonight, and I gotta get ready~!✩
#i wanted to write something a bit different#i actually had so much fun with this#so i hope people like this!!#disney twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland#twst#yandere#yandere twisted wonderland#yandere twst#cater diamond#cater twst#cater twisted wonderland#twst cater#yandere reader#(kind of)
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*Cutely throws them to you* :33
ANYWAYS, can't stop thinking about Ch5 Cara and Ch6 Alga when they were both in the 'same' ass situation (ngl they both are freaky af), so I had to draw them 😇😈
(I just love how they both had their own ways of calming eachother down ❤️)
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. CARACALLA LOOKS SO GOOD IN YOUR STYLE AND ALGAAAAA MY MISERABLE LITTLE BIMBINI. i adore the way you draw hair dude, it looks so voluminous and fluffy… carrotcalla get over here so i can run my fingers through your hair xoxo. still in awe youre drawing stuff from my fic, that something i cooked inspired you to cook as well. not to be all serious for a sec, but that is genuinely the greatest thing any artist can do for another dude. im so happy we get to be in yhis ouroboros of sharing 🥹🥹
also im gonna take this as an opportunity to ramble about their breakdowns and how they’re connected, along with how both of their personalities are suited to calming the other down. because its almost 12 am and im insane >:] buuuuuut
both caracalla’s breakdown and alga’s breakdown were always going to happen one after the other. i did a lot of thinking while planning this fic out, mostly about the scene surrounding caracalla’s flashback and also how alga figures out their situation isn’t a dream. originally, caracalla’s flashback was meant to happen later, and have a bit more of geta and caracalla being haters in the beginning of the fic (which, evidently, wouldn’t have happened anyway because caracalla had a gay little crush before his breakdown, a la needle scene, which actually wasn’t planned) however, i did sort of figure out that caracalla was going to wind up accidentally hurting alga during his hashtag episode. and that pain was going to directly lead to alga realizing hes not dreaming. going along with that, putting myself in alga’s shoes, if i found out i time traveled with no hope of return my crash out would make headlines.
anyway, the connection was always going to be there. caracalla has a flashback -> caracalla hurts alga -> alga realizes theyre not dreaming -> breakdown. in my original planning, caracalla was supposed to mimic a lot of what alga did for him during his breakdown for them because he has absolutely zero frame of reference on how to snap someone out of that mental state aside from what (two, alga and geta) people do for him. but that didn’t happen because physical comfort felt too out of character for caracalla. so roughly pawing at their face and rudely talking sense into them was what happened
idk if anyone noticed, but caracalla was 100% trying to do the 5 things you see, 4 things you hear, etc grounding technique with alga earlier in the chapter!
(“Look around the room and tell me what you see!” He snapped and clapped his hands twice to signal it was your turn.
All you managed was to utter another ungraceful, “Huh?”
Caracalla huffed and clenched his fists at his sides. “You’re impossible! How did you do this? Smell me, medicus!”)
i pray someone caught that because i thought it was really funny. ANYWAY.
caracalla is calmed by physical touch and reminders of comfort. when hes having a flashback, he lashes out, he enters fight mode rather than flight, and then after it all, goes to freeze. treating him like something to be afraid of makes it worse, so alga’s natural empathy and lowkey disregard for their own safety for the sake of others (their complexes are fascinating) along with how they naturally comfort makes them a good person to help caracalla. whereas caracalla is blunt and self centered, using his own logic to talk sense into alga. who, most of the time, tends to be very logic based, especially when it comes to their own emotions. ultimately, if they think about it, and he is thinking hard about it, he did gain at least a little bit of something in the past. he has friends, he has a purpose, he’s having fun. for once in his life, hes having fun. theyre still very much in A Situation, but they feel more alive than ever. plus after the events of five and six, alga is deeply endeared to caracalla, which we might hear some of in chapter seven. i need to focus on geta some, i must not let my caracalla bias win
dude idk if that made any sense but theres a fun little behind the scenes look into my twisted mind

#asks#dnbts#i seriously love ur art sm sorry to blow air on ur ask i just saw an opportunity and pounced#i want u to know ive saved everything youve sent onto my phone and saved it in a little dnbts folder in my albums i hope thats not weird#i just want to Gaze Upon Them
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Here a treat for Halloween, my complete fanfic in one post. Hope you enjoy this Earthspark horror themed story and thanks to @billy-jay-kisses-robots for co-writing and spell checking.

Let use begin
Act 1
Despite how close to midnight it was, the sound of footsteps could still be heard throughout the dugout. A combination of caffeine and late night movie watching was keeping Twitch Malto wide awake, while the rest of her terran siblings dozed off peacefully. In her defense, if Robbie didn’t want her drinking his energy drinks, he should have kept them hidden better. And the password to her father’s Netflix account should have been more secure than ‘bumblebee123’.
Though the entirety of the terrans had all stayed up to binge as many horror movies as they could think of (with the exception of Jawbreaker, who had his eyes closed the entire time out of fear), only Twitch was still awake. As she paced nervously up and down the dugout, she looked over her sleeping siblings one by one. Thrash was in his alt mode, somehow completely upside down. His engine was repeatedly reving up and stalling in a cycle, as if he was snoring. Jawbreaker was laying facedown on the floor, a comically small teddy bear perched carefully on top of his head. Hashtag, who had tried staying up later herself by watching youtube, had eventually fallen asleep as well, her phone autoplaying what sounded like Russian dashcam crash footage. And Nightshade… Hm, actually, she didn’t see Nightshade anywhere. Not that she was really paying attention, however. Her mind was too busy replaying everything she had seen earlier in the night over and over.
The kids had essentially gone to the horror section on Netflix and watched as many movies as they could before they got tired. From goofier horror comedies like "Critters" to things genuinely terrifying thrillers like "Halloween", and some striking and odd balance of the two like "Scream". What really got to her, however, was John Carpenter's "The Thing", and not just because of what happened to those poor sled dogs. That awful, morphing monster, the way it ripped the research team apart, really stuck with her. Possibly because it reminded her of a few of Mandroid’s own creations she had to fight before, especially that bear mutant from mother’s day.
She was so caught up in her own head that she didn’t even notice Fluffy Ears right in front of her. Twitch ended up tripping right over the family’s pet cow, who decided it would be a good idea to sleep in the middle of the dugout’s hallway. She managed to catch herself mid fall by switching into her alt mode just before hitting the ground. The sleepy calf roused her head, looked at the little red drone hovering directly in front of her, gave her a quick lick, and fell back asleep. The whole ordeal was quiet enough not to wake anyone else, but it did catch the attention of Nightshade, who poked their head out from around a corner near their lab.
“Oh, Twitch, I didn’t know you were still up.” They smiled. “Is everything alright? You look nervous.”
“How can you tell that if I’m in my alt mode?”
“Well, you’re shaking. Pretty violently.”
She hadn’t even realized that, but they were right. She even accidentally bumped into Fluffy Ears pretty hard. Startled, Twitch switched back into her normal mode and tried profusely apologizing to the calf. Fluffy Ears didn’t seem to mind, and got up from her spot to start aimlessly wandering around the dugout.
“I’m, uh, I’m fine, Nightshade. What are you doing over there, anyway?” Twitch attempted to change the subject, making her way over to Nightshade’s lab. At the very least, this might be a fun distraction. Nightshade’s bright green optics lit up at this, clearly excited to show someone their work.
"I am so glad you asked." They tugged on their sibling's arm and pulled them into their lab. On a table in the center was a large, ominous looking metal contraption.
"Wait, isn't that-" Twitch began, before getting cut off.
"The reverse beartrap from Saw, yes!" Nightshade beamed, proudly holding it up. "The movies we watched tonight weren't particularly the type I enjoy, but I did appreciate some of the creative inventions a few of them displayed." They looked over to see Twitch with a completely horrified expression on her face. "Oh, are you wondering if it works? I am too. This is just a prototype I whipped up based on how it was explained in the film. I was actually just about to test it-" They reached under the table and pulled out a full pumpkin. Nightshade extended their arms and eagerly gestured for Twitch to take the gourd. "Since you're up, would you like to do the honors?"
"... Actually, I was wondering why you built a torture device in the first place." She finally responded, nervously looking it over. "I mean, you've built some crazy stuff in the past, but this is, uh, kind of disturbing, Nightshade."
Nightshade looked somewhat disappointed at this, shaking their head a bit. "You've got the wrong idea! A torture device implies that the victim is meant to survive."
Nightshade set the trap down and activated it themselves. Within seconds, it ripped the pumpkin open, its guts splattering messily onto the floor.
"A person wouldn't have survived that." They added, clearly happy the machine worked as intended.
Twitch flinched and stood back, her eyes growing to the size of dinner plates.
"Twitch?" Nightshade asked, concerned. "What is-oh. I get it. Don't worry, it was never my intention to use this on any living being. I just like challenging myself, and building this seemed like it would be an interesting experiment." They began scooping the guts off the concrete floor. "The thought of this device ever being used for its original purpose… that's something I wouldn't even have wished for on Mandroid." They muse. Noticing their sister was still silent, Nightshade approached her, a worried look forming on their features.
"Are you sure you're alright? You didn't think I was really going to-" Twitch interrupted them.
"No! Oh, no, I know you wouldn't, Shady. I'm just kind of on edge tonight, I guess. Probably shouldn't have stolen Robbie's energy drinks." She attempted to brush off their concern as convincingly as she could.
"You probably shouldn't have! Caffeine can worsen the hyperactive aspects of ADHD after all." They agreed, patting her on the shoulder.
"...You think I have ADHD?"
Before Nightshade could respond, a massive crunch boomed out from above them.
"What was that!?" Twitch flew out in search of the cacophony. Nightshade, trying their best to keep up with her, tiptoed as softly as they could to prevent waking the others. They found Twitch looking through the camera screens in the main room of the dugout. There was nothing unusual on live feed, just a few autumn leaves blowing past the cameras Nightshade has placed around the ranch.
"Should we-" Nightshade began, getting cut off again.
"Check it out? Yes, obviously!" She seemed a little too excited to see what was out there. Perhaps she was just looking for an excuse to feel useful, or burn off some of her energy.
Without a second of hesitation, she switched to her alt mode and flew outside, wildly darting around the sky above the dugout. Twitch changed back into bot mode as she landed on the barn's roof. With the moonlight nearly hidden behind a thick layer of clouds, it was almost pitch black outside. Nightshade caught up with their energetic sister, surprised to see her standing still as a statue.
"Twitch! There is nothing out here but the nocturnal wildlife. Perhaps it was a raccoon who made that sound." Nightshade reasoned.
Twitch responded in a shaky tone. "Nightshade, what kind of raccoon could make a noise that loud?"
"...One with rabies?"
"Wait! Listen for a moment." She hushed, falling silent again.
Nightshade listened for something out there to satisfy their sister's paranoia. "I hear nothing Twitch."
"Exactly, Nightshade! There's nothing! No crickets chirping, none of the cows are making any sound, there aren't even moths near the lights!" She exclaimed frantically.
"Oh goodness, you're right. Now that is odd. The only time it's ever perfectly quiet outside is when there is something…dangerous around."
Nightshade glared in front of them, attempting to make out the source of the eerie calmness.
"That tree… wasn't there before." They noted, their voice shaky as they pointed ahead.
Twitch turned to see what her sibling was referring to. In the middle of the forest, several hundred meters away from the barn, a massively tall, crooked tree stood high above the rest. It only had three twisted branches, growing out of its spindly stalk in such a way to vaguely resemble a humanoid figure with bending limbs. One branch in the middle rounded out at the end to form the "head" of this horrific plant.
"Ok, so that certainly wasn't a raccoon then." Nightshade commented. Their sister began switching into her alt mode, before the younger green bot grabbed hold of her. "Twitch, wait! Going out to investigate… whatever that is right away probably isn't a good idea. We should at least think this through first."
Twitch struggled in their grip for a second before shaking herself off, but didn't immediately fly out like she wanted to. "What's the hold up? You seriously want to just head in and call it a night?" She snapped at them.
"No, of course not. I just think we shouldn't do it alone." They added, remaining calm.
"And give that tree-thing a chance to move in first? I don't think so." Twitch shifted and took off into the sky. Reluctantly, Nightshade changed into their alt mode as well, flying directly in front of her to block her path.
"Twitch! What's gotten into you?" They asked frantically. Thankfully for them, Twitch did stop in her tracks. "You clearly aren't doing well tonight. Whatever's got you troubled, I'm here for you, and so is the rest of the family."
"We obviously have bigger issues than my anxiety to deal with right now!" She shouted. "Things like… that are just more proof I haven't been doing enough to keep us safe."
"Is that what this is about? Twitch, this isn't your fault-" she cut them off.
"Well it'll be both of our faults if that tree monster gets its dirty roots on the others because we were busy screwing around here!"
Nightshade wasn't sure how to respond. Twitch’s panicked tone and expression made it clear how stressed and out of it she was. But how were they supposed to comfort her? This entire situation was making it hard for even them to think, especially with that giant tree staring at them-
Wait, the tree was staring at them?
Nightshade slowly turned their head to get a better look, and to their horror, the tall head of the ominous tree had sprouted a pair of huge, glowing eyes.
“We need to go back inside, now!” They grabbed Twitch's arm with their talons, dragging their sister behind them. Almost involuntarily, the younger mech let out an owlish screech as they dived back into the dugout from the entrance in the barn's roof.
Switching back into their alt mode, Nightshade rushed over to the console displaying the security cameras’ feeds. They displayed nothing but static, oddly enough. Nightshade, frustrated and confused, frantically tried fixing the console, but nothing seemed to be working.
After a few moments, Twitch quietly approached her sibling, meekly tapping them on the shoulder. “Shady, I need to tell you something…”
“I'm not mad at you, Twitch. Just, I need to focus right now-”
“That's not what an owl sounds like.” She continued.
Nightshade stopped what they were working on and turned to face her. “...I'm sorry?”
“I've been meaning to say this ever since you got your alt mode, but that owl screech you do isn't actually what owls sound like. The noise you make is more like an eagle or a hawk.”
Nightshade just sort of stared at her, not sure what to say.
“Oh.” Was all they could think of as a response.
“Wait, why would you bring that up now?”
“I'm sorry! I'm scared! I can't even really think straight, it feels like my brain is shutting down…” She grabbed onto her head and shook it, as if trying to forcefully wake herself up.
Nightshade tried to go back to fixing the camera system, but found that their own mind felt somewhat fuzzy as well. They've repaired similar errors on this exact console plenty of times before. Yet for some reason, the solution just wasn't coming to them now.
“It had eyes, didn't it? That's what those were, in the tree, I mean. Huge eyes.” Twitch finally spoke, her usually energetic voice noticeably slowed. “Do you think… that was something Ghost made?”
“I can't imagine what use they would have with a giant, monstrous tree.” Nightshade answered, putting down the wires they were fiddling with. “We should alert the others.”
“...Right.” their sister responded. She glided over to the nearest Malto sibling, that being Hashtag. The large purple bot was still peacefully dozing off with her phone now playing, of all things, Wendigoon’s conspiracy theory iceberg. As if this whole situation wasn't ominous enough.
Twitch gently nudged the larger Terran’s shoulder. “Hashtag? Get up, something happened.”
No response. She was completely out of it.
“H-hashtag?” Twitch shook her sister a little more forcefully now.
She still didn't stir.
“HASHTAG! WAKE UP!” Twitch yelled as loudly as possible, but this didn't do much besides startle the already well-awake Nightshade.
The smaller red bot, frustrated at this point, switched into her alt mode and fired a laser several inches from her sleeping sister. This also accomplished nothing.
“Twitch! What on earth are you doing?” Nightshade called out frantically.
“I wasn't going to hit her! I… I couldn't think of anything else, I thought that would work.” She admitted, her voice shaky.
Twitch flew over to Thrash and Jawbreaker, shouting their names and firing controlled lasers inches from their bodies in a reckless attempt to wake them. The brothers were similarly out cold, however, and nothing she did had any effect on them.
“You need to stop that! If you miss and hit them…” Nightshade began, stopping themselves off as they watched the red drone revert to her bot mode, a defeated and exhausted expression washing over her face. Her large yellow optics seemed to almost wobble in place, a streaking, cold light emanating from them. Nightshade got the impression that if Cybertronians were physically capable of shedding tears, she'd be sobbing right now.
“What's going on, Shady?” She barely managed to speak, nearly choking on every word.
Seeing their usually cheerful, energic sister in such a miserable state was utterly heartbreaking for Nightshade. It wasn't her fault, but Twitch seemed to truly believe whatever misfortune her family had fallen upon somehow could have been prevented by her.
Nightshade, not being the best at emotional support, tried to go for a more practical way of comforting her. “They… they aren't dead.” The younger Terran informed her. Walking over to Jawbreaker, Nightshade gently pried his eyelids apart to reveal intact, glowing optics. They weren't responding to any stimuli, but the fact that they were on was proof that the bots were in some kind of comatose state.
“How did you…” Twitch started speaking, but seemingly lost the strength to continue partway through her question.
“How did I know?” Nightshade presumptively finished for her. “I've installed vital trackers in all of us. If any of us were to go offline, I would get an alert.” They informed her.
“Oh, that's good. Thank you.” She seemed a little relieved, before realizing the full consequences of what her sibling just admitted. “Wait, I don't remember… when did you install those?”
“That's not really something we need to worry about now…” Nightshade mumbled, not expecting her to question their actions.
“...Nightshade, how many… things have you added to us?” She lowered her gaze a bit, inquisitively. Before questioning them further, her optics lit up, having remembered something.
“I just realized, we never saw Fluffy Ears!” She blurted out frantically. Twitch began zooming around the dugout in her alt mode, looking for the baby cow.
Nightshade gave a sigh of relief that her line of questioning was over for now, and joined her in the search.
“Where was she last?” They called out, looking around their lab while Twitch scanned the dugout’s hall.
“I… I don't know, she just sort of wandered off-Oh!” Twitch flew over to a far corner of the room.
“I found her! What are you doing over here, silly cow…” Twitch nudged the calf, who seemed to be fast asleep, resting her head on her flank. Fluffy Ears didn't stir, however.
“...Fluffy Ears?” Twitch was significantly more worried as she spoke this time, her voice getting louder. The calf didn't respond.
Nightshade looked over their sister's shoulders, noting that, thankfully, the little cow was still breathing.
“That's odd, very odd… whatever happened to our siblings seems to be affecting her as well.” Nightshade leaned down and gently stroked Fluffy Ears head, mostly in an attempt to steady themselves down. This entire situation wasn't making any sense, and that scared them. They needed to remain calm, however, if only to reassure Twitch.
The smaller bot looked to her sibling for answers.
“...Do you think it's gotten to everyone in the house?”
“Are you referring to whatever has put everyone here to sleep?” Nightshade attempted to clarify.
“Yeah, I mean, if it got to Fluffy Ears… Mom, Dad, Robbie, and Mo are also organic.”
“That's a good point, actually.” Nightshade pondered. They didn't even think of that. “Are we dealing with some kind of virus that affects both organics and bots? Does such a thing even exist?”
“Forget virus, it's obviously coming from that messed up tree outside.”
“The tree? That can't be right. How could it even…” Nightshade was at a complete loss.
“Seriously, Nightshade? This thing shows up, and suddenly, all of our family is out cold. That can't be a coincidence.” She was exasperated.
“I agree it's strange, but there shouldn't be any way a plant could incapacitate both organics and Cybertronians by just… I don't even know…” Their head was starting to throb, like a migraine. Trying to think critically was physically hurting them.
The two siblings just stood there, feeling their own bodies growing weaker with every passing second. It was a sensation similar to being sedated. A feeling they probably would have given into, had Twitch not noticed a strange black tendril poking out of a nearby vent.
“Is that a rat?” Twitch asked groggily. Wouldn't be the first time a rat got into the dugout. But said rats usually weren't so long. And slithering…
“Nightshade! Get down!” Twitch jumped and pushed her sibling down to the ground, just before a huge tendril swung at their head. The tendril instead hit the monitors Nightshade had attempted to fix. A single whack caused not only all the monitors to shatter, but the concrete wall behind them to violently crack.
Nightshade's optics widened with horror. There was no question about it. If that tendril had hit them instead, their head would have been knocked clean off.
The tendril dove for the pair of them, seeming to know exactly where they were despite not having eyes. They both moved to opposite sides, barely avoiding getting stabbed. As it pulled out of the small hole it burrowed into the floor, the tendril opened up for a second, briefly revealing a crimson reptilian eye that scanned the room before closing again.
Nightshade, in an effort to get out of the way, bumped into the table they had placed the reverse bear trap onto earlier. It fell into their lap with a clattering thud. An idea came to them, and they armed the trap to go off again.
“Twitch, take this and have it dive for you again! When it gets close, have it aim for the trap! I think it only keeps its eyes open for a few seconds at a time!”
“Twitch, take this and have it dive for you again! When it gets close, have it aim for the trap! I think it only keeps its eyes open for a few seconds at a time!”
Twitch, being the faster of the two even in her groggy state, agreed with a nod and flew past the tendril, the trap in her grasp. It took the bait and launched itself directly towards her, where it got the last several feet of its body caught in the trap’s mechanisms.
The tendril squirmed and rattled as the reverse beartrap’s countdown ticked. After a few agonizingly long seconds, it finally went off. Just as it had with the pumpkin earlier in the night, it absolutely ripped its prey apart with ease. Shards of metal and some kind of fleshy material flew to all corners of the dugout.
The worst part wasn't the sight of the impact, however, it was the dreadful noise it made. Whatever the tendril was attached to screamed in pain as its appendage was destroyed. It had a cry like a nuclear siren, low, loud, and ear-piercing. It felt like something you were never meant to hear, and simply perceiving was a sign that you as the listener were at death’s door.
What remained of the tendril receded back through the vents, leaking a runny black liquid with an odd, iridescent shimmer. A few of the larger chunks that had been ripped open were still slightly animate, curling where they lay like a dying spider.
Nightshade cautiously approached what appeared to be the eye of the tendril, or atleast what was left of it.
It was a translucent, jelly-like red substance with an awful black slit for a pupil that had sort of melted into the iris due to its injury. Said pupil shuddered in place one last time as Nightshade got closer, almost as if it could still perceive the bot somehow.
“Nightshade! Are you alright right!?” Twitch said, sounding out of breath despite not actually having lungs.
“Yes, I'm just a bit scratched up. It's nothing but a bit of polish won't get out.”
Without saying anything else, Nightshade grabbed and chugged down one of the energy drinks that their sister left out. “I know I said earlier that us drinking these was probably a bad idea, but I think they might help.” Their sister nervously fiddled with the can’s lid before managing to get it open for herself.
Nightshade scooped up what's left of the otherworldly tendril and brought it back to their lab.
Pausing to consider their next move, Nightshade eventually settled on attaching the still pulsating fleshy bits to a battery hooked up to a light bulb. After a few seconds, the light dimmed before going out completely. The battery was instantly dead.
“It appears you were right after all. Whatever this thing is, it emits some kind of field that drains energy from anything it's near.” Nightshade concluded.
“So that's what makes us feel so exhausted?” Twitch looked very concerned, her optics darting between Nightshade and her unconscious siblings.
“More than likely, yes. And you might have already guessed this, but I assume it's also keeping all our organic family members asleep. My current theory is that this is a hunting tactic.”
Twitch knew immediately what they were getting at. “Sleeping prey can't fight back.”
“Exactly.” Nightshade confirmed. “The fact that we were previously awake is most likely the only reason why we aren't currently unconscious.”
An uneasy silence filled the dugout. The siblings stood in place, the air around them cold and heavy with tension. Without saying a word, both of them knew what the other was thinking: that monster would be back any moment, and they couldn't keep up the energy to fight it back for long. It was a terrible calm before the storm, a feeling reminiscent of succumbing to hypothermia. An overwhelming, intoxicating urge to close your eyes and drift into a sleep you were well aware you'd never wake up from.
And at this moment, every light in the dugout switched off.
Act 2
The Terran siblings' optics were the only source of light in the now otherwise pitch black dugout. After the dreadful clicking of the lights switching off, the room was now eerily quiet once again.
“We didn't kill it.” Nightshade finally broke the silence, stating the obvious.
“No, you didn't.”
A voice replied, taunting the young bot. Well, perhaps calling it a voice would be too generous. Whatever responded spoke in a manner similar to rusted nails scratching at granite. Its pitch and tone managed to fluctuate in a manner that just barely could be recognizable as words. It was a sound that shouldn't be possible, as if scrap metal could somehow speak. It went beyond uncanny. Hearing something that otherworldly felt downright violating.
“What clever children you are, deducing my traits so quickly.
Most don't last long enough to find that out.”
Whatever monitors still remained attached flickered on, although they broadcasted nothing but static. When their adversary spoke again, the static shifted in time with its voice.
“My, such a colorful collection. So bright and shiny, sturdy with youthful vigor. Small you might be, but your remains will a part of something far bigger than you could ever dream.”
Twitch, with all her remaining energy, was not having any of this cryptic nonsense. She stormed up to the monitors and put her face meter inches from the screen in a confrontational manner.
“Get away from my family, NOW!” She boomed, slamming her foot onto the concrete floor.
The dying power on the monitor only showed one thing, the white enormous eye of their torturer.
“Oh my child, it's far too late for that.”
Twitch stepped back, trying her absolute best now to show how terrified she truly was. Too late for what? What was this thing implying?
“You're bluffing! You haven't gotten to them yet!” Nightshade answered back for her. “Now how about you save us all time and tell us what you want!”
Twitch wasn't sure what her sibling was getting at. Did they want to give into this thing's demands? And how could they know that their family hadn't been harmed yet?
“If you're already awake, I thought we might as well have a little fun.”
It was pretty obvious the creature was trying to be creepy, but neither of them knew whether or not it fully understood the context of what it just implied.
The dugout was completely silent and nearly pitch black, the abyss around them only just illuminated from both of the bots’ glowing optics.
“Nightshade! What do we do?! Our family is out there with that… that thing! I don't even know which way the exit is anymore, it's too dark…”
“There’s no reason for alarm, the dugout has a backup generator in the barn.” Nightshade tried their absolute best to remain calm for her, despite the gravity of the situation weighing on their mind as well.
“I'll go check on everyone in the house. In the meanwhile, you can start up the generator.”
“Wait, shouldn't that be the other way around? I can actually fit in the house, and you would know how the generator works.”
“Because I can grab everyone in one trip. It would take too long for you to back and forth. Plus, turning it on is rather simple.”
“Nightshade, I've seen the things you make, and none of them are simple.”
“It's literally just a red button labeled ‘generator’.”
“Nevermind, I should be able to handle that.”
Both of the bots carefully exited the dugout. With neither spotting the monster, Nightshade and Twitch split up, their goals both in sight.
Twitch approached the generator, optics darting around herself in paranoia.
“It's okay, Twitch. Just a few more steps.” The red bot assured herself, voice still shaky.
She stood in front of the machine, just barely out of arms’ reach. A chill ran down her metallic spine. Thoughts of what occurred earlier in the night ran through her mind. She kept imagining that if she pushed the button, something would come to remove her head from her shoulders.
“Twitch! HURRY!”
The loud voice booming from the doorway startled the poor bot. It was Nightshade, already back with their human family in tow. They were peacefully sleeping, blissfully unaware of the danger around them. Nightshade dashed into the bunker, leaving Twitch to finish her task.
With a deep sigh, she pushed the red button, the lights around her flickering on. Twitch turned back to join their sibling before stopping dead in her tracks. Something was pushing itself through a gap in the barn wall. A black, pulsating mass with gray armor grew larger as more of its amorphous form forced its way into the room. Five huge tendrils sprouted from a central metal lump. It almost looked like…
“A hand.” She breathed, the terrifying realization overcoming her.
A monsterous hand, almost bigger than her entire body.
She drew out her swords as the hand flexed its grotesque fingers.
The monster, noticing her presence, immediately lunged at her. She barely had enough time to dodge or before the gnarled fingers could ensnare her. The hand instead grabbed hold of a solid wooden support beam directly behind her. Smaller tendrils unwind themselves from the fingers joints, constricting the beam completely until the pressure caused it to cave in. An entire, solid cylinder of wood, crushed by a single movement into dust. The hand, realizing it has missed it's intended target, reared around with gelatinous eyes protruding from its finger joints, searching for Twitch.
“Hold still.”
“How about no!” She yelled before jabbing her blade into its wrist. The palm of the hand writhed in pain, fingers bending backwards as it struggled to pull the foreign object out. The wrist was almost jammed like a metal rod between two gears.
Twitch grabbed the handle of the embedded sword and twisted it clockwise, separating the hand from its wrist. A spray of oily fluid landed on her optics, muddling her vision. The hand writhed in pain for a moment, finally curling up on itself.
A distant sound of pain could be heard, but Twitch felt like she had no time to celebrate as she went to join her family. The young bot slammed the vault door shut as soon as she made it to the bunker, not wanting to take any more chances. Nightshade has laid the siblings’ organic family into individual sleeping quarters.
“Twitch, are you alright?” Nightshade asked, concerned. Their sibling’s face was drenched in the black, oily blood of their adversary.
“Yeah, I just had my hands full.” she responded confidently. Though her words had the cadence of a joke, Nightshade didn't seem to pick up on it.
“Seriously, what happened?” They prodded further.
“That monster tried to crush me. Sort of like this.” Twitch crushed one of the emptied energy drink cans as a demonstration.
“But it doesn't know who they're messing with, and I manage to cut their hand off.” She smiled proudly, but residual unease from the near death encounter still hung to her tone. This bravado was an attempt to force her mood to improve, and it wasn't entirely working.
“Here, to wipe the oil off.” Nightshade handed her a large cloth.
“Oh, thanks.” She cleaned her face up, before looking down at the now dirtied rag. “Wait, isn't this Robbie's shirt?”
“Yes. I borrowed some spare clothing from all of the family and store it here, in case of emergencies.”
“Borrowed? He told me he couldn't find this shirt for months….” She held out the soaked t-shirt in front of her, rancid oily blood dripping onto the floor.
“Emergency preparedness is more important than a diverse wardrobe.” Nightshade took the soiled garment and threw it into a basket. “That'll come off in the laundry. Probably.”
In the corner of Nightshade’s sensitive optics, they picked up some movement on the now activated surviving monitor. The pair raced over to see what it was. Out of the darkness of the forest above, something jumped into fame. The figure startled Nightshade badly enough that they fell to the floor. After recovering from the near spark attack herself, Twitch realized what it was.
“Oh, it's just a deer.” She gave a sigh of relief.
Nightshade got a good giggle from the pair of them getting so startled by a cute little buck. Twitch had mentioned she cut off the monster's hand, right? Surely, it wasn't coming back…
Gazing at the screen, something reached out and snatched the poor animal. Their monitor’s audio played a sickening crack the moment after. It was the unmistakable noise of snapping bone.
The culprit emerged from the woods, towering above even the tallest of trees. In one gnarled hand, it carried the limp body of the deer, whose neck was now bent at an unnatural angle, clearly dead.
The other hand was missing, leaving a stub of black tentrals.
It was clear this wasn't some kind of wooden monster they had thought of earlier. This was far more alien.
This monster appeared to be wearing the outer armor of a Cybertronian, held together by mangled tendrils and rusted metal sheets. Its abdomen, neck, and joints were made of thick, wiry tentacles twisted together like ropes of licorice. Long, clawed fingers clutched onto the ragdolled deer. Its face, seemingly normal at first glance, appeared to have enormous spotlights for optics, surrounded by deep black rings. It was as if it had carved holes in whatever unfortunate mech’s face it was using to fit its massive eyes.
The abomination was mostly gray, with any remaining colors on its shell muted and drained. It reminded Nightshade when they learned from Bumblebee. When a Cybertronian dies as a result of having their spark extinguished, their body will lose its color. All that's left behind is a gray, empty shell.
The monster lifted the deer so that it was held directly in front of its ghastly face. Instead of simply opening its mouth, it split its own jaw completely in half. Row upon row of sharp yellowed greeted their prey, before sinking into the buck’s head. It antlers sloughed off and fell to the forest floor. The poor deer's head barely gave any resistance to the creature’s bite, getting chomped away easily as a stalk of celery.
Twitch immediately felt sick, the urge to vomit filling her despite not even having a stomach.
Nightshade starred, wide-eyed with morbid curiosity, unawall to tear away their gaze.
With one of its clawed fingers, it easily gutted and flayed the remainder of the deer with the precision of a surgeon. It swallowed each limb whole, not even stopping to back a breather between each bite. The deer's torso was impaled on the tallest tree around, seemingly leaving it for later.
Full enough for now, the metallic corpse leaned over, resting its damaged arm on the forest floor. Slowly but surely, the severed tendrils twisted and grew, sprouting forward from the site of the injury. Soon enough, it had a brand new hand, identical to the original.
All of the damage the siblings had inflicted on the creature was undone in a moment.
“This isn't happening…” Twitch’s voice was barely a whisper, her entire body fighting back the urge to retch.
“A Valiant attempt, little one, But not good enough.”
The creature's unnatural voice made the static on the monitor worse as it spoke. How it had heard her from so far away was a complete mystery.
The thing bent forward to show its back, smaller tendrils poking out of the monster's armor. They wriggled and writhed, pulling themselves from the beast's back. Falling out from the cracks in the metal, two smaller creatures collided on the ground before standing up. They superficially resembled Cybertronian protoforms, but were differentiated by the claws and soulless eyes of the original monster.
“Go get me the green one. The red one is yours… consider it a treat.”
It pointed towards the camera at the base of the tree. The pawn-like monsters listened, immediately making their way towards the barn.
“I'll be seeing you shortly, Maltos.”
It bowed at the camera, before walking backwards out of site, into the woods.
“We are sooooo screwed.” Twitch mumbled, once the whole ordeal had concluded. “How did it find that tiny little camera? And when did it learn our family's name?”
“Don't worry, we, um…” Nightshade’s usually calm demeanor was shaking, the panic getting to them as well. … ‘“We should be safe here.” They placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, metal clicking as they touched. Twitch immediately swatted their hand away, turning in place to face them.
“Safe?” Her optics went wide, sparking with a furocity Nightshade had only seen a few times before. “Safe?! You just saw that thing make more of itself, Nightshade! We are anything BUT safe right now!”
They knew she was right, and that their reassurance was an empty gesture she had easily seen through.
“I’m sick of this.”
She drew out both of her swords.
Nightshade looked visibly shaken from Twitch's outburst, justified as it might be. If they could cry, they would be tearing up.
“Twitch, I-”
Twitch cut them off again.
“I'm going out there to defend what I love!”
Even though Twitch was running off fumes, she would fight an army if it meant keeping their family safe.
Nightshade rubs their optics before putting a hand on her shoulder once again.
“Not by yourself. I'm coming with you.” Nightshade informed her with an uncharacteristically stirred tone.
“You need to stay here, with them.” She pleaded. “I've got more training than you. I can handle this.”
“With all due respect, there isn't a chance you'd survive going head to head alone with our advisory here. I doubt even Optimus could take that monster down by himself. I get why you want to me stay back, but we won't be of any use without each other.” They leaned in, giving Twitch a big bear hug.
“We're doing this together,” said Nightshade.
After a moment of hesitation, Twitch nodded firmly.
“Together.” she replied, hugging them back.
They made sure everything was secured before drinking what was left of the energy drinks in hopes of staving off the creature's parasitic exhaustion. Venturing out of the dugout, they double checked to guarantee the door was locked behind them.
The bots stuck close by to one another, Twitch leading slightly ahead. Just as Nightshade got an arm's length away from their sister, something jumped on their shoulders and wrapped its arms around their neck.
It was one of the odd gray things the creature had produced. The thing was about Twitch’s size, only barely taller than the average human. Nightshade was able to pull their assailant off them, slamming it against the dirt.
Cracks formed on the monster's armor, its left leg was bent in the opposite direction.
This seemingly didn't slow it down, however, as with a high pitch grunt it snapped its leg back in place before charging at the green mech.
“NIGHTSHADE! Go high, I'm going low!” Twitch changed her hand into a blaster before taking aim and firing. The laser shot hit the monster's bad leg, blasting it off from the knee down.
As the creature stumbled, Nightshade’s talons struck against its face. This almost completely destroyed one of its eyes, leaving a deep gash. They knock it back with a powerful upcut to its jaw, sending half of its pointy teeth into the air.
As it fell backwards, Twitch raised one of her blades. She sent an aggressive slash on its shoulder. The sword moves in a round arc, cutting its torso in two like a knife through warm butter.
Both halves of the body fell down. Horrifically, even though all the monstrosity had left was a single arm, it continued to drag itself towards them. The thing seems either unaware or unbothered by the fact that its insides were being scrapped across the ground as it moved.
Nightshade backed up a good distance from their pursuer before running back at it, full sprint. With one solid kick, they sent its head flying over the house.
“Goal!” Nightshade cheered, twisting around to check on Twitch. Their little joke seemed to have worked at lightening some of the tension, and she smiled back at him widely. “That was incredible, Nightshade!”
As the small monster's corpse finally fell still, the siblings celebrated by high-fiving each other.
Their victory was short-lived, however, as an enormous hand rapidly grabbed Twitch from around the house. Nightshade ran after it, coming to stand in front of the Goliath.
“Let me go!” Twitch demanded, taking a shot at the thing’s chest, leaving nothing but a small burn mark. It retaliated by squeezing her tighter. With its other hand, it picked up her swords before tossing them away into the woods.
“You! After all this… chaos! What more do you want?” Nightshade yelled as loud as their vocal processor would allow.
The creature flexed its long neck towards the ground, gargantuan eyes boring holes into Nightshade's very being.
“It appears your human masters didn't raise you with any manners, child. But for future reference, it's not considered polite to ask such questions before being given a proper introduction.”
It gave a devilish, cocky smirk. The sickeningly smug expression of a creature who knew it had already won. It was just toying with its prey now, watching them squirm and suffer for its own amusement.
“You may call me Exquisite Corpse. I've seen how smart you are, I assume you can guess how I earned such a title.”
Nightshade wasn't even sure how to respond. This thing's manner of speech was infuriatingly civilized, clearly in an attempt to further provoke them.
“As for your question, I am after you in particular, little owl.”
“Me?!” They blurted in response. “And what makes you think I'm going to go along with this?” Nightshade challenged, trying not to let their confusion and fear show.
The haughty grin on Exquisite Corpse’s face never faltered.
“Oh, I suspected resistance from you, child. There's a good reason I made my powers known to you from the start.”
It leaned in even closer, its massive face just inches from Nightshade. Bits of blood and refuge from the deer it had previously consumed clung to its metal fangs.
“You know what I'm capable of. You know what I could do to not only her,”
It shook Twitch around in its hand, causing the red bot to yelp in shock and discomfort.
“But to your entire clan if I wanted. So now that you're aware of what's at stake, I don't think you'll put up any more struggle when I tell you to come with me.”
“Don't even think about it, Nightshade!” Twitch barked.
“I didn't say you could talk, fly!”
It screeched, pressing its claws against her even further. Twitch's body creaked as she tried not to scream from the pain. It was clear that if Exquisite Corpse's grip got any tighter, those claws would rip right through her.
“Stop!” Nightshade begged. “Please, just put her down…”
“Oh, I'll do a lot more than that. Do as I say, and your entire family will get left out of this unfortunate little affair.”
It leaned its empty hand in front of the bot.
“How does that sound, owl?”
The lights in Nightshade's optics streaked, making their vision go blurry. Tensing up, they reluctantly grabbed a finger of the giant hand back, shaking it.
“I accept your terms.” they solemnly said, biting their lip in anguish.
“I knew you were smart. Very good.”
It tossed Twitch to the ground, the minion pawns standing behind her with baited breath, held back only by their obedience to their master like a dog on a leash.
Exquisite Corpse gently picked up the owl, exhaling a deep purplish smoke in their face. Nightshade immediately felt more tired than they ever had in their life. As their body went limp for exhaustion, they heard one final exchange from the monster to its servants.
“She's all yours.”
As they walked off towards the woods, the last thing Nightshade could process was Twitch's voice, violently screaming out for their sibling to help her.
Act 3
The cold, metallic clicking of leaking rainwater rose Nightshade from their unconsciousness. They managed to pry their optics open, the young bot's vision blurred from exhaustion and their injuries. Nightshade silently prayed to whatever might be listening that all this had just been some sort of horror movie induced nightmare. That when they got up, they’d find themselves awake in the cozy dugout, surrounded by their siblings. That they could go on and have another fun, peaceful day with those they loved.
But they were met with no such luck. They were lying on an unfamiliar rusted floor, faint light leaking in from a hole above them. Scattered drops of fresh rain pattered down, keeping the air around them cool. It was a sound they usually quite enjoyed, under happier circumstances. With no idea where they were, however, it only brought them a further sense of alienation.
As they tried to gather their thoughts, a voice they had gotten to know far too well over the past few hours made itself heard.
“Rise and shine~”
The voice called from a pitch black doorway, only the speaker's white eyes indicating someone was there. Nightshade tried to change forms, but residual weakness kept them barely able to move. Honestly, they were surprised still able to move at all, being so drained of-
“Energy” it said.
“You need it to survive like all things do. It will not be good if you're too weak to stand.”
Its eyes narrowed to pin pricks of light.
“Lucky for us, it seems like your kind is able to process organics. Looks like we have something in common.” A wheezy laugh escaped the beast’s mouth.
“Unlike your inferior kin.”
It tossed a plastic-wrapped packet into Nightshade's cell.
“Is this Jerky?” they mumbled, looking over the bag with bleary optics.
“Better than rats, I suppose. Or do your animalistic instincts crave raw vermin?” It tilts its head.
“How would you know my body can process organic material?” Nightshade questioned, weakly.
“You and your sister seem to process those caffeinated liquids just fine. Besides, I can't see it being possible for a techno-organic species to survive solely off of polluted water.” It leaned its metallic face closer, its nightmarish grin now barely visible in the pale light. “You mean to tell me that in the year or so you’ve existed, you never bothered trying any food?” Its smile somehow grew wider.
Nightshade cut the side of the packet, pulling out one strip of dry meat. They placed it in their mouth and chewed a bit. It was pretty good, surprisingly. Under different circumstances, they'd be excited to try out other human foods. After swallowing it, they still felt off, like there was a hollow feeling in them that the small piece of nourishment slightly filled.
The beast spoke once more.
“I will return when you recover your strength. Until then, stay here.” It taunted, knowing damn well they weren't going anywhere.
It shut the thick metal door behind it with a cold clank. Alone and in the dark again, the green bot pulled out another piece of jerky.
“I hope Twitch is ok.”
---
Sharp claws rendered the air next to Twitch, the red bot barely managing to dodge the swipe by a hair. She reared in for a punch to its face, but was instead met with a monstrous knee to the abdomen. She failed to stop her battered fame from involuntarily folding up like a lawn chair from the pain. Orange, shaky optics stared down the approaching behemoth as it made its way to the barnside.
Twitch managed to activate the fans on her circular wings, blowing the monster back as it lunged directly towards her. The thing yelped as it was knocked backwards, but didn't remain stunned for long.
With her processor still hazy and her movements sluggish, Twitch knew this wouldn't be an even fight. She'd need to end it quickly, because there was no way her stamina would keep up for long.
As the husk made its way towards her once again, Twitch used what little remaining energy she had to back herself up into the garage. She frantically slammed her fist down on the button used to close the garage's metal door, hoping it would buy her a little more time. As the husk lunged at her again, she raised her arm, with just enough space between them to take a clear shot.
In less than a second, her laser blew a hole directly into the monster's head, sending it flying backwards. The garage door slammed shut right as its body was about half way through the exit, moving quickly enough to bisect the creature horizontally. The thing’s lower half laid on the garage floor, legs violently jerking one last time before going still.
After a moment's hesitation, she carefully moved to get a better look at the split torso. Oily black ooze and wiry threads leaked from the opened wound. Inside were tightly wrapped threads, somewhat resembling muscles, clinging tightly to shiny silver bones. The red bot hesitantly nudged the tattered mass with her foot. Satisfied when it didn't move, she let out a sigh of relief.
She decided to inspect the garage doors, wondering how they had closed so fast. It appeared that Nightshade had added some sort of speed adjuster, currently set onto “Turbo”.
“Nightshade’s going to get one of us killed these days, if they keep messing with electronics like this.” She mumbled. “Oh no, Nightshade!” Twitch's mind was flooded with thoughts of the monstrosity dragging away her sibling. Panic surged through her circuits, making her trace the room in circles, cradling her head in her hands. If she could barely take one of its minions, she wouldn't stand a chance against the creature alone. That's when her optics landed on a car battery and jumper cables.
“What would Nightshade do…” Twitch pondered aloud, gazing over the batteries with inquisitive optics.
_ _ _
Nightshade had just barely regained the strength to stand when their host decided to return.
“Please, follow me, honored guest.” It gestured, holding a slender hand behind itself. Not seeing any other viable options, Nightshade did as they were told.
As the young bot trailed behind their captor, it became apparent to them that they didn't even reach past the monster's knee in height. Wherever they were, the quiet halls of this place were clearly designed to be occupied by beings of immense stature.
Nightshade decided now would be as good a time as any to ask the burning question on their processor. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Blissfully foolish little thing. If I planned to kill you, why would I have kept you alive this long?” Seemingly just to taunt Nightshade, it dragged its claws against the stone walls, leaving shallow marks and a grating noise as they continued.
“I don't know. You could have plenty of reasons. That's why I asked.”
The monster looked back at Nightshade incredulously, only to be met with a sincere expression from the green bot. It was genuinely a little surprised at how curious their captive was. If anything, they seemed just as interested in the logistics of this operation as they did their own fate.
“I want you to join me… Nightshade.” The thing’s smile grew to enormous proportions, only to fade as they realized Nightshade gave no visible reaction to having their name used.
“Aren't you curious how I knew your name?” It tried to sound intimidating, but the bot just continued to stare at them with a wide eyed, yet steady expression.
“I just assumed you overheard my sister referring to me as such.” They answered. “Is that not the case?”
“Uh, no, I… Nevermind.” It seemed embarrassed of all things, not getting to use its usual mindgames. “Scrap, I lost my train of thought. Where was I?”
“You mentioned you wanted me to join you in something?”
“Oh, right, thanks.” It coughed awkwardly. “Ahem. Anyway, my kind has a unique way to produce more of our species. It all starts with a small injection.”
Its tongue formed into a sharp, needle-like point. Nightshade's optics went wide, nervously taking a step back.
“Your body will undergo a beautiful transformation. You'll be stretched, strained, melted. Your insides will dissolve and reform into divine fibrous threads, while keeping your outer casing mostly in tack.” Having regained its sinister mojo, it leaned in menacingly.
“And most importantly, you will be able to spread your variation of life to all that you see. Your unique biology, I believe it's called your alt mode… it's the perfect blend of organic and inorganic material.”
It gestures to the room in front of them.
Inside, dozens of stasis pods filled with an odd silver liquid Thing against the walls, each with a glowing ball of light in their chests.
Nightshade peered in, before being struck with dreadful recognition. “No, those aren't-”
“Oh, but they are! Protoforms, just for us. You can think of them as our new family.” It laughed, a sound like metal scraping against itself.
“Your techoraganic DNA will make them perfect hybrids between you and I.”
“And why was I chosen for this?” Again, Nightshade’s tone, while clearly uncomfortable, also was bizarrely curious given the circumstances.
The monster scratched at its eye socket, as if it was getting bored.
“Your alt mode, little owl. Strong, swift, and capable of flight. None of your kin can compare in potential.”
“And why can't you just make your army on your own?”
Their bright-eyed, inquisitive questioning seemed genuinely rooted in fascination with this process, which was almost annoying to their captor. It sighed, and begrudgingly answered.
“My body is beyond repair, as you may have noticed. Its previous occupant was gravely injured when I took their place. I was going to just scavenge for more parts… but upon picking up signs of unique, *living* biomechanical parts nearby… Well, that gave me a better idea.”
The two of them continued their walk, finally ending up in an enormous room.
Trashed control panels for an unidentifiable drive and gnarled viscera littered the floor. The foul stench of copper and rot emanated from a tub in the dead center. The beast pushed a reluctant Nightshade towards it.
The scared bot hesitantly peered over the vessel, only to be greeted by a viscous red liquid.
Nightshade nearly gagged upon recognizing the horrific sight in front of them, stumbling backwards away from the blood. Their captor, apathetic towards their discomfort, grabbed the young bot with a single clawed hand.
“But before we comment, I will need approval from a higher power.”
It dipped its free hand into the blood, and began to paint a sigil on the wall.
It licks its filthy hand clean before hovering a clawed finger over Nightshade's face.
“I require one last ingredient to achieve communication.”
Nightshade tried to squirm away to break free as the point of the monster's claw made contact with their cheek. Searing hot pain engulfed their entire face.
The young bot desperately tried to hold in their screams, not wanting to give their tormentor the satisfaction. Having never experienced anything like this, anything this unbearably horrible, how very, they gave in, screeching at the awful sensation. The whole ordeal lasted only a moment, and the monster revealed to them a luminous green liquid on its finger tip.
For a second, Nightshade was confused in its origin. Realization dawned on them as they felt the liquid trickle onto their chest.
“I'm bleeding.” They stated, their tone cold and grim from shock.
“A nice pretty green.” It laughed, mixing Nightshade’s blood into the sigil.
Nightshade watched in helpless horror as the blood twisted and moved upon contact, changing colors until eight white, luminous eyes took form.
_ _ _
Twitch shakily touched the two ends of the jumper cables together, watching with wide optics as they sparked at the contact. The jolt nearly scared the sprockets out of her, but she managed to take a deep breath to steady herself again. She stood over her unconscious younger sister, attaching the cables with an uncertain hum. A zap of energy filled the air before the car battery made a “pop” and went stone dead.
Twitch clutched her fists tightly, heat welling up in her face as her desperate attempt to wake Hashtag failed. She felt her knees go weak, and a strong urge to curl up into a ball and cry. Before she could give in, a faint whirring noise caught her attention. It was Hashtag's optics, groggily prying themselves open.
“Twitch? What's going on-”
With her energy revived by hope, Twitch rushed in to give her sister one of her famous bear hugs.
“Uh, good morning to you too.” Hashtag said awkwardly, patting her on the back.
Twitch grabbed her sister's hand, desperately tugging it as she tried to pull the larger bot up.
“We need to go, now! Something horrible took Nightshade and-”
“Whoa, slow down, Twitch. I just woke up.” Hashtag stood up, feeling the odd cables attached to her neck.
“I didn't go to sleep with these on, right?” She questioned.
“There's a giant monster keeping everyone asleep! I had to jumpstart you awake with that.”
Hashtag narrowed her optics incredulously.
“Giant… monster?” She parroted back.
“Yeah, the thing is probably twice the size of Mr Prime!” Twitch was practically dragging Hashtag outside at this point. “It sent creatures to attack us. But me and Nightshade destroyed one and I took care of another myself.”
Now outside, Hashtag didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
“Really?” Hashtag rhetorically asked. She thought this had to be some kind of poorly planned joke.
“Yes, really!” The smaller answered, frustrated that she wasn't being taken seriously. “Look, its remains are over here-”
The bisected upper half of the monster was gone, only leaving a puddle of oily blood by the opening of the garage.
Before Hashtag could react, her sister let go of her arm, frantically looking around the building’s exterior for any signs of the missing body.
Hashtag did her best to keep up with her, eventually finding Twitch directly behind the barn, seemingly frozen in place.
“Hey, what's wrong? You're acting-”
The upper half of the creature that Twitch fought previously cut Hashtag off. The two sisters watched in stunned silence as what should have been a corpse pulled parts of the other slain monstrosity into itself. Threads from its wound skewered and pulled scattered limbs, bones, and plating together to reconstruct itself. The final result took the form of a metallic homunculus centaur.
“So that's what you were talking about.” Was all Hashtag could say before the beast spotted the pair, instantly lunging for them.
They both were barely able to dodge the strike, causing the centaur’s arm to slash at a nearby bench, slicing it in two. After realizing it had missed, it started galloping on clawed legs in another loop before heading towards Twitch. She didn't have time to get up before it was upon her. Its front legs, the former arms of its lower half, held Twitch down as it prepared for a devastating swipe.
Hashtag took a moment to recover, before her optics lit up. She was right next to the family grill’s propane tank.
She ripped it out and triumphantly held it above her head.
“Hey, freak!”
The thing turned around just in time to have the tank smash its face in. Twitch scrambled free as it loosened its grip. She zipped away as the monster's head weakly turned to face her, its jaw hanging on by a few sinews.
She aimed her blaster at the propane tank.
“Yippee kayak other buckets.” Hashtag didn't get the Brooklyn 99 reference.
The tank exploded into a huge fireball. Chunks of the creature’s flesh and limbs flew all over the place. The sisters didn't have much time to celebrate before panic set back in.
“That thing must be doing something horrible to Nightshade!” Twitch belated frantically.
“Twitch, I mean…” Hashtag loosely kicked one of the detached parts. “It looks pretty dead to me.”
“No, a much bigger one got them!”
“Oh…wait, I've got Nightshade's signal! We can track them!” Hashtag said cheerfully.
“Wait, what?”
“What do you mean, what? Did Nightshade not tell you about those tracking implants they put in us? I can follow them.”
Twitch decided this wasn't the time to question that. She picked up her swords and gave her sister a solid nod.
“Let's get ‘em, Hashtag.”
_____
The bloody figure in the mural was similar to the monster’s minions, except for the enormous horns and eight spider-like eyes. Nightshade looked towards the thing to see a snarl replaced its grin.
His captors began, furious. “Where is SHE! I must speak with her you-”
“How rude of you to yell at your superior. Besides, she is busy at the moment. You should know that better than anyone… leach.”
The painting could somehow move, as if each brush stroke independently changed on their own.
“If you're asking to start your own colony, then the answer is still no. Even if she was here to allow it.”
“Why not? This one has the potential to bring a new generation into being. Plus, I have the strength and knowledge to lead the way to greatness.”
It pushed Nightshade forward like it was showing their teacher its homework, with a tinge desperation is in its voice.
“For one, you think you're anything special because you fused to a cybertronian body? Any brain dead husk could do that. Second, you are considered on line for execution for abandoning your duty and attempting to start a hive. Third, my lady wouldn't like to see this poor child be subject to your will.
So I suggest you just save us all the trouble of hunting you down, and end your life before we can.”
It finished with a scrap-eating smile.
“Leach.”
The beast's eyes narrowed, it's expression morphing into pure anger.
“You ugly son of a-” A barrage of swears and curses that Nightshade only heard in the movie came out of its mouth. Some of them were for languages they couldn't even begin to understand.
This gave Nightshade the chance to sneak away while it was distracted. When they were sufficiently far enough, they ran down what they thought was the outside door. They were met with a control panel that required a code to progress. Completely over this scrap, Nightshade just ripped the panel off.
After a bit of fiddling with the wiring, the door swung open. Nightshade sprinted into the cool night. They looked behind them to see their captor had apparently kept them in a crashed alien ship.
“Look, they're over there!”
A wonderfully familiar voice rang out of the forest. Not a moment later, Nightshade recognized the bright headlights of Hashtag’s alt mode, with Twitch, curiously, riding on her back.
“Hashtag! You're awake! Twitch, did you-”
Of course, they were interrupted by Twitch ramming into them for a hug. Nightshade awkwardly patted their sister on the back.
“Woah! Were you in there, Nightshade?” The largest of the siblings eagerly drove up the entrance of the downed ship. She was knocked backwards as the monster reared its head out of the entrance.
“YOU!” It bellowed, fangs bared. It reached towards Nightshade with feverish rage, clearly infuriated that it had been cheated.
Hashtag, still in her alt mode, took the initiative to drive at the monster's leg at full speed. Having taken it by surprise, it was off balance enough that she managed to cleanly snap its calf from its thigh. The leg went flying, and the monster screeched in pain.
“Wow, that actually worked?” She seemed genuinely surprised.
Twitch grabbed Nightshade and the satellite of Hashtag's alt mode, attempting to yank the two forward. “It's not going to stay down for long! We need to get out of here!”
“Aw, really? I mean, we took out its leg, right? That's gotta be enough. Can't I atleast get to check out the spaceship?” Hashtag pleaded.
The monster screamed again, rearing up to charge at them on its three remaining legs. “INSOLENT CHILDREN! I'LL WEAR YOUR CADAVERS AS NECKLACES WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU!”
“...Nevermind, I want to go home now.”
With Hashtag having the most energy of the siblings (and being the largest), she stuck to her alt mode with the other two on the roof of her van, racing through the woods with the alien on their tail. Having removed its leg had slowed it down, but not enough that out running it would be easy.
Twitch was using what little strength she had to fire lasers back at their pursuer, to little avail.
“Hey, I probably should have asked this earlier, but where are we going?” Hashtag's radio called out.
Nightshade glared daggers through the window of their sister’s alt mode. “What?! Hashtag, you're the one driving! Are we just headed in a random direction?”
“I panicked! This is terrifying! Just be grateful I'm not leaking oil or anything!”
Before Nightshade could respond, they heard the familiar chugging of a train. Sure enough, just up ahead was one of the unmanned Ghost trains. Finally, a fighting chance.
“Is that a train?” Twitch took a moment's break to look behind her. A flash of recognition in her optics told Nightshade she had just gotten the same idea they did.
“Hashtag! Can you control the-” She began, but it seems her sister was also on the same wavelength. Using her remote hacking abilities, she had the cybernetic train slow down, allowing her to drive across the track. “Hold on, I'm going to make a hard left!”
The monster, clearly not giving it the human made locomotive a second thought, turned around to continue its chase. The nanosecond it stepped foot on the tracks, Hashtag had the train pull forward at max speed, obliterating its remaining hind leg. With a hellish roar, their pursuer fell to the ground, where Hashtag preemptively ran its torso over and over again with the train until she was satisfied.
“I saw that in a movie once, it's called double tapping. You don't stop until you know it's dead.” She chimed, seemingly happy with the results.
Shifting back to bot mode, all three siblings cautiously approached the slain beheatmoth, its nightmarish body splayed in half. Oily guts coated the tracks and train, leaving a thick smell of burned rubber and iron in the air.
“...I think I'm going to pass out.” Twitch fell to her knees, exhausted, clutching her forehead. Both Nightshade and Hashtag ran to her side, picking her up by the shoulders.
“Woah, hey, Twitch, you're good, you're good. That was the main monster, right, Nightshade?” Hashtag's big blue optics glittered with hope in their sibling's direction, waiting for a positive response.
“Well… yes and no. From what I saw, this creature is part of some alien society with others if it's kind. However, it seems its… higher ups, for lack of a better term, don't have much interest in coming to earth.”
“So… it's working alone, right? We're done?” Twitch pulled herself up, gaining a bit of balance.
“For now. This is something we'll have to discuss with Optimus Prime and Megatron.”
“Oh man, Optimus… are we going to get in trouble for destroying this train?” Hashtag worriedly looked over the damaged Ghost train. Unsurprisingly, repeatedly ramminging it into a giant alien had done a significant amount of damage.
“I think they'll understand.” Nightshade reassured her.
“Are we… we need to check up on the others at home.” Twitch began hovering back to the direction of the family house, still determined as ever to keep her loved ones safe.
A giant claw smacked her out of the sky without a moment's notice, breaking both her wing and the eerie silence of the forest.
It wasn't dead. Not completely, anyway.
The monster's head and shoulder were still loosely held onto its right arm by a few mangled tendrils, allowing the wounded creature to drag itself slowly across the grass.
“Nightshade, we aren't done. Please, listen to me. I can promise you-”
Nightshade noticed a glowing orb hanging on to the lower part of its neck, appearing to be some sort of power cell.
They walked over as the creature continued its monologue. It seemed to believe the green bot was considering its offer.
Nightshade stomped on the power cell repeatedly, until it exploded into a pile of azure sludge. As they had predicted, all life signs from the creature faded, and its tendrils loosened their grip on its body completely.
“I am so tired of that thing.” They sneered, unusually bitter. Their facial expression softened as they turned back to their injured sister. “Are you alright, Twitch?”
“Ugh, I'm… yeah, I'll just need to get this fixed.” She confirmed, shaking her loosened wing to test its durability.
Hashtag transformed, honking her van’s horn. “Ok, you guys need to tell me everything on the way back. I'm so confused right now. Hop on already!”
---FIN—
#transformers#earthspark#transformers earthspark#tf earthspark#maccadam#tfe#nightshade#transformers nightshade#earthspark nightshade#transformers hashtag#hashtag malto#hashtag#tfe twitch#twitch#earthspark twitch#earthspark terrans#twitch malto#transformers twitch#horror#body horrow cw#halloween
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People are still trying to attack Trump by pointing out his hypocrisy, the incompetence of his staff and the reality that the economy is tanking and his policies have no hope of actually working.
These would be solid hits against any other politician, but they don’t work on Trump. Democrats are like the soldiers still shooting at Godzilla. They do it because it’s all they know how to do but it’s not working and they keep getting stomped on.
They’re attacking him like he’s a politician and he’s not. He never has been.
He’s a celebrity. That’s it. Sometimes he’s a celebrity real estate mogul, sometimes a celebrity reality tv host and sometimes a celebrity president.
Do you remember when The Apprentice was cancelled? You do? Well, good news if you liked it, bad news if you didn’t, it never stopped. It just went global. You’re living in the show right now, Black Mirror style. Nothing he does makes sense as the leader of a country and everything makes perfect sense as a reality show producer.
Everyone he’s hired have no idea how to do their job but are great reality show material. The anti-vax nut in charge of health care? The guy with no experience and a drinking problem in charge of the military? The head of the FBI can’t believe he got the gig and hired an extreme right wing podcaster as his voice of reason? How can you not watch that train wreck? Actually it’s plane crashes but you get it.
It’s a TV show and so all that matters to him are the ratings. He’s said it over and over. After the terrible Zelenskyy meeting the last thing he said was, “This is going to make great TV”. Almost 60,000 Ukrainians dead and he and Vance set up their own Real Housewives scenario where they called Zelenskyy ungrateful, bragged about themselves and made fun of his clothes. Made no sense in reality but perfect sense if your goal is ratings.
Trump is producing a reality show because it one of the only things he knows how to do. And he’s learned that it doesn’t matter how bad things get, he’ll be safe and the show will be renewed as long as there are eyeballs on him interested in what he’s doing. In the world of real life he’s a felon in court answering charges and paying for sexual assault. As long as he’s on TV he’s safe. A million Americans died from a disease he called a hoax because reality wasn’t good for the plot of the show he was producing.
He won the popular vote because doing extreme things is interesting. Keeping things in chaos keeps you the centre of attention. There’s no winning in winning, only in saying you’re about to win. Ratings go down when plot lines are resolved. You can never have a healthcare plan, a great one has to always been a few weeks away. Once something exists it becomes reality and people can judge it. Keep things nuts and all hope in the future and you’re gold.
So how do you beat him? Run a qualified sensible candidate against him? Maybe, reality has the advantage if it actually being real. But you need to weaken him first.
Remember how mad he got at Alec Baldwin’s impression on Saturday Night Live? Really got under his skin. Because Trump is about image and Baldwin’s impression was a counter image that made him look ugly. Baldwin was enough of a celebrity to enter into the only world Trump cares about. It made Trump number two on the call sheet.
The same thing happened with Steve Bannon. The hashtag #PresidentBannon started to trend after a popular editorial cartoon and some Tweets saying Bannon was the one actually in charge and it caused a big split between them. Because Trump can’t be the co-star. He needs to be what he was on The Apprentice, the be all and end all voice of authority and power. Unquestionable. With the final say on all issues. If he’s not, he’s got nothing.
He was furious at Spy magazine for saying he had small hands. So much so he bragged about his penis size in a debate. He has doctors tell people he’s taller than he is and weighs less than he obviously does. He cannot have any shortcomings. He’s a reality show character, and like most of them with the name of a real person but more fiction than an actual person.
So to bring him down you need to attack one thing, his image. You need something fictional with a core of truth that takes the place of the fiction he’s presenting. Like JD Vance having sex with a couch. A stickier narrative than the one they’re putting forth.
The problem with just attacking with the truth is it’s not as interesting or appealing as a good made up story. You need to back up the truth with facts and by the time you do that people have lost interest. It’s what John Oliver has shown, wrap the medicine of the truth in the tasty cheese of jokes and made up scenarios and that pet might actually get better.
The only things that have worked against Trump are image based. Jokes. Memes. Sketches. Cartoons. They’re the first thing you need to do in the boss level of the video game before any of your truth based hits can land and bring them down.
You’re in Season 21 of The Apprentice. Like it or not. Time to be like past Celebrity Apprentice winner Joan Rivers and get mean and hilarious. All that matters is today. No one remembers last week. People write books with the most horrific stories but they might as well take place in the Roman Empire. You’re on the reality show now, make a scene, take focus, mess with his image, it’s all he has. Once that’s gone, he falls.
Time to cancel this terrible show.
[Ian Boothby]
#Television#reality#reality tv#reality show#performance art#Ian boothby#celebrities#this terrible show
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