#Comprehensive Blood Panel

[jadeannbyrne]

The Clinical Dossier of Jade Ann Byrne: Performance Enhancement Through Folic Acid Powered by The Venerated Medical Team of Snow White Magi at Planned Paladinhood & Health Care in Your Neighborhood

The Clinical Dossier of Jade Ann Byrne: Performance Enhancement Through Folic Acid Powered by The Venerated Medical Team of Snow White Magi at Planned Paladinhood & Health Care in Your Neighborhood

The Clinical Dossier of Jade Ann Byrne: Performance Enhancement Through Folic Acid Powered by The Venerated Medical Team of Snow White Magi at Planned Paladinhood & Health Care in Your Neighborhood Greetings, noble travelers and adventurers! You have stumbled upon the sacred scrolls detailing the health and wellness journey of Paladin Jade Ann Byrne—an eGirl in esports, culinary master, and, of…

[cubbihue]

Have there been times the Turner parents have suspected something but shrugged it off?

They have never suspected Timmy Turner of anything! Despite often expressing regret or disappointment, they still very much love their son! And all the benefits he brings them!!

The Turners are a well established family in the neighborhood. It wouldn't bode them well to go around casting doubt against their own son. It'd affect their reputation terribly!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Fun fact! If you have celiac's and don't know it, somrthing that can happen is that your digestive system become so unable to digest food that you start rapidly developing major nutritional deficiencies like scurvy, anemia, pellagra, etc.

There was a TikTok post about an advertisement for “blood-making pills for weak women” someone found in a newspaper from the 1890s and everybody seemed to think it was just an example of the weird misogyny of the day and age but no. Anemia was a massive public health concern. It always has been through history but part of the reason we have this idea of old timey women thought history being physical weak, chronically cold and pale and fainting is because they often they were. Anemia was also a massive problem for men in that day but even now it disproportionally affects people who menstruate. So tonics full of stimulants and “healthful vitamins” were marketed at young women in pages upon pages of advertisements in every newspaper. People generally felt like shit all the time back then.

[liketolaugh-writes]

Danny's medical tests

Vitals and thresholds:

Age: 16

Pulse: 20 bpm resting, 54 bpm active (54 atrial, 30 ventricular), grayout at 80/35, blackout at 90/35. (Can stop heart for up to three minutes without repercussions; becomes painful after two)

Respiration: 6 breaths per minute resting, up to 30 active, no more than 15 resting. (Can slow to 1 breath per minute for up to half an hour; strain sets in after twenty)

Blood pressure: 90/40 (blood reaches his brain with Magic)

Temperature: between 50° and 80° (human) or 0° and 32° (ghost) Cold tolerance is no lower than 3° in human form, heat tolerance no higher than 90°

Height: 5’3’’

Weight: 101 lbs (3/5 what his weight should be by build)

Ectoplasmic purity: between 80% and 90% (low, normal for halfas)

Core pitch: 29 kilohertz (low, normal for halfas)

Power level: 214 (out of 300)

Aura brightness: 154 (low, lack of obsession fulfillment)

List of tests, results, and consults:

ECG shows a third degree AV block with a ventricular escape rhythm.

Echocardiogram shows no physical abnormalities.

Event monitor shows mild strain (palpitations, discomfort) with normal exercise and stress, moderate strain (chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness) with high activity and stress.

(“No, this is pretty much what I remember exercise feeling like.”)

Blood reacts violently to all potential donors

Blood tests:

>Complete blood count:

>>White blood cells: slightly elevated, also weird (green, have faces)

>>Red blood cells: low (thinner blood)

>>Hemoglobin: high (red blood cells carry more oxygen)

>>Hematocrit (percentage red blood cells): 29%

>>Mean corpuscular volume: slightly low (smaller red blood cells)

>>Mean corpuscular hemoglobin: high

>>Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration: high

>>Red cell distribution width: low

>>Platelet count: low and also they are all green

>Comprehensive metabolic panel:

>>Glucose: 50 mg/dl (low)

>>Blood urea nitrogen: low (good kidney function)

>>Creatinine: low (good kidney function + can indicate low muscle) (this is not because of low muscle this is because of Ghost)

>>Estimated glomerular filtration rate: high (good kidney function)

>>BUN/Creatinine ratio: 12:1 (normal)

>>Sodium: high (electrolyte)

>>Potassium: very high (ectoplasm component) (electrolyte)

>>Chloride: very high (ectoplasm component) (electrolyte)

>>Carbon dioxide: low (waste product)

>>Calcium: high (electrolyte)

>>Protein, total: normal (plasma)

>>Albumin: slightly low (should be normal) (sign of malnutrition)

>>Globulin, total: high (high immune function)

>>Bilirubin, total: normal

>>Alkaline phosphotase: low (slow metabolism)

>>Aspartate aminotransferase: low (no liver damage)

>>Alanine transaminase: low (no liver damage)

>Lipid panel:

>>Cholesterol: normal

>>Triglycerides: low (dietary)

>>HDL Cholesterol: slightly low

>>VLDL Cholesterol Cal: normal

>>LDL, calculated: normal

>>Chol/HDL ratio: normal

>Thyroid tests:

>>Thyroid-stimulating hormone: low

>>Thyroxine: low

>>Triiodothyronine: low

DNA test: Takes an extremely long time to fully process, but early results show that Danny’s DNA is covered in a thin layer of ectoplasm, making the underlying structure difficult to decipher. Programming a machine to recognize it could be difficult.

Urine tests: normal

Pulmonary function tests: normal

Allergy panel shows no reactions.

Hypermobility test shows hypermobility in spine, elbows, and knees. No other signs of EDS, tentatively ascribed to his abilities.

Dietitian consult: nothing concrete yet. They discuss Danny’s eating habits, deal frankly with the fact that they don’t know what his exact dietary needs are, and talk about intuitive eating. Danny gets a list of signs to look out for and things to try.

Endocrinologist consult: they discuss Danny’s concerns and assess his current stage of puberty. Danny states (visibly mortified) that he has grown two inches since his accident, no vocal deepening, no facial or body hair, no reproductive function benchmarks. They discuss various possible causes of delayed puberty (excessive exercise, psychosocial problems, physical trauma, irradiation) as well as treatment options. Danny asks what circumstances would normally have them recommend inducing puberty (bullying, ostracization, distress) and they finally decide to go ahead and induce it.

Semen analysis: Danny is producing normally but the sperm die before exiting.

Slit-lamp exam shows tapetum lucidum in human form and odd eye structure in ghost form.

Autonomic nervous system tests:

>Gag reflex: Sensitive in human form, inactive in ghost form

>Motor reflexes (jaw jerk, biceps, triceps, brachioradialis, finger jerk, knee jerk, ankle jerk, superficial abdominal): hyperactive, forceful, but controlled. Identical in both forms.

>Pathologic reflexes: None present

>Cardiovagal function:

>>Heart rate variability: [not applicable because of heart condition]

>>HR response to deep breathing: exaggerated. This is how he stops his heart.

>>Valsalva: perfect adaptation. (blood pressure self-regulates rapidly)

>Vasomotor adrenergic function:

>>BP response to standing: perfect adaptation.

>>Tilt table testing: perfect adaptation. (blood pressure self-regulates rapidly)

>Sudomotor function:

>>QSART: Exaggerated in human form, not present in ghost form. (sweat response)

>>Silastic sweat test: Exaggerated in human form, not present in ghost form.

>Salivation: Normal in human form. No response in ghost form.

>Pupillography: rapid in human form, not present in ghost form.

>Cold pressor test: done with salted ice water. Reduced response. (sympathetic nervous system test)

Human CT scan was normal.

Ghost CT scan was semitransparent but otherwise normal.

Vaccine test shows good immune system function.

Human fNIRS, EEG, and MEG brain scans were used primarily for mapping. Showed normal activity for motor function and sensory activity, slightly reduced activity for memory exercises and problem solving, and substantially reduced activity for emotional responses.

Ghost EEG and MEG brain scans were used primarily for mapping. Showed no activity for motor function, mild activity for sensory and memory functions, and moderate activity for problem solving and emotional responses. No brain stem activity. (fNIRS not performed because it monitors blood oxygen activity in the brain and his ghost form doesn't have that)

Human MRI scan is largely normal, but shows darkened nerves on the left hand.

Ghost MRI scan indicated that his insides are abnormally malleable but highly coherent. Nerve damage is much less apparent owing to minimal function.

Human EMF reading showed increased activity corresponding to reduced brain activity.

Ghost EMF reading showed moderate activity for everything except emotional responses, which indicated strong activity.

Nerve conduction study shows severe nerve damage in ulnar and median nerves in human form, no nerve response in ghost form.

Electromyography shows that very few electrical signals are being transmitted in his left hand, Danny moves his hand with Magic. Otherwise normal readings in human form, ghost form shows no readings at all.

Polysomnography shows several signs associated with hibernation, making Danny’s sleep deeper, but his brain waves still indicate REM sleep in a normal pattern.

All biopsies normal except the inclusion of ectoplasm.

Microneurography was for mapping only.

The doctors manage to create an external device that can monitor the EMF activity of Danny’s core in milligauss, as well as his core pitch. It outputs it as a graph. Danny’s core EMF is 3,210, and his resting surface EMF in ghost form is around 2,000, with a total range of 200 feet. In human form, this is significantly reduced to 800 mG at the surface, and a range of 80 feet. (GIW sensors only detect as low as 900 mG, while the Fentons’ goes as low as 750.)

Core EMF level varies from ghost to ghost, measured on a scale that goes from 1 to 300. This is found to be equivalent to 15 to 4500 milligauss. All but around 2/3 of radiation is naturally contained, but the amount rises rapidly with power use.

[felassan]

Post on the Dragon Age website:

"Journal #2 The Voices of the Veilguard Get acquainted with some of the voice actors and join us for our upcoming character panel at SDCC! --- Hey everyone, We're packing our bags and heading down to SDCC this week and alongside that comes more Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveals! Today, we're excited to reveal some of the voice actors who bring our characters to life - a few of whom will be joining us for our character-focused panel at the convention. ICYMI, our SDCC panel "Dragon Age - Meet The Heroic Companions of Thedas” will feature Creative Director John Epler and Creative Performance Director Ashley Barlow as they discuss bringing the cast of Dragon Age: The Veilguard to life. Moderated by Lucy James, host and video producer at GameSpot, panel attendees will hear from Neve, Emmrich, Harding, and Lucanis’ voice actors as they discuss their motivations and inspirations that have lit up the personalities and uniqueness of each companion. The panel will be held on Friday, July 26 from 3:15PM - 4:15PM in Room 6BCF.  If the panel isn't enough to satisfy your Dragon Age cravings and you'll be at SDCC in person, join us at the Dark Horse Comics booth (#2615) where we will have swag to give away as well as talent & developer signings. Keep an eye on our social channels for more information on this. Discord members who drop by the booth and show us that they're a part of the server will receive a Romancer pin while supplies last. For those of you who will be keeping an eye on SDCC coverage from home, we'll have the full panel video available at a later date. Stay tuned. With that said, let’s get into our cast."

-

"Four Rooks are Better than One Featuring the most comprehensive character creator in Dragon Age yet, your character, nicknamed Rook, debuts with four different voice overs to make this story truly your own. Rook is Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s leader in the making who has to bring the Veilguard together to take down the threats on Thedas. Immerse yourself even further by picking your voice, with two options from US/North American personalities and two from the United Kingdom/EU.  Rook’s voices have been provided by iconic television, film and video game personalities Alex Jordan (Cyberpunk 2077, The Amazing World of Gumball), Bryony Corrigan (Baldur’s Gate 3, Good Omens), Erika Ishii (Apex Legends, Destiny 2), and Jeff Berg (Battlefield 1, NCIS). What even is Dragon Age: The Veilguard without the Veilguard? These 7 companions stand ready to join the fight to restore order to Thedas. We're happy to announce that our cast of companions includes: - Ali Hillis (Mass Effect 3, Naruto), returns to the fray as Harding, the dwarven scout, a Dragon Age: Inquisition hero with a big heart, a positive outlook, and a ready bow – as well as unexpected magical powers. - Ike Amadi (Mass Effect 3, Halo 5: Guardians, Insomniac's Spider-Man) as Davrin, a bold and charming Grey Warden who has made a name for himself as a monster hunter. - Jee Young Han (Perry Mason, Unprisoned) as Bellara, a creative and romantic Veil Jumper obsessed with uncovering ancient secrets. - Jessica Clark (True Blood, Pocket Listing) as Neve, a cynic fighting for a better future, both as a private detective and a member of Tevinter's rebellious Shadow Dragons.  - Jin Maley (Star Trek: Picard, Silicon Valley) as Taash, a dragon hunter allied with the Lords of Fortune who lives for adventure and doesn't mind taking risks.  - Nick Boraine (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Black Sails) as Emmrich, a necromancer of Nevarra's Mourn Watch who comes complete with a skeletal assistant, Manfred, voiced by Matthew Mercer (Critical Role, Fallout 4). - Zach Mendez (Horizon Forbidden West, Married Alive) as Lucanis, a poised & pragmatic assassin who descends from the bloodline of the House of Crows, a criminal organization renowned throughout Thedas.  Last but not least, we’re excited to let you know Gareth David-Lloyd is returning as Solas, and Brian Bloom as Varric. We have so many more people to introduce you to, including some returning characters, but we’re not quite ready to reveal all those yet, because of you know - story spoilers.  While that’s all we have for now, we’re eager to meet those of you attending SDCC and to continue our summer filled with reveals from Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Talk soon. — The Dragon Age Team"

[source] [Twitter post]

[judgeanon]

Don't Look Back in Anger - BATGIRL #7 Review

For the first issue after the opening arc of their new BATGIRL series, Tate Brombal has recruited Isaac Goodhart for a mission. The objective: to tell the definitive Lady Shiva origin story.

Here's a recap and my own lengthy-ass thoughts on this first half of it, transplanted from the other hellsite that shall not be named:

The issue begins with Cass taking a train to the West with a mysterious envelope in her hands. Inside the train, she gets a little flashback to the events of a few issues ago, and it's extremely nice to see that Goodhart is following Miyazawa's lead and drawing Shiva with visible age lines and such. I really love that look for her, even if Spicer mixed up the coloring of her coat.

Cass' surprise gift turns out to be a book with two cranes on its cover and a walkman, of all things, which contains a tape recorded by Lady Shiva, who explains that the book is her "life story." Awful nice of her to include an audio book version for Cass, although Shiva's self-pitying "dead, perhaps even for the better" and her talk of legacy already rub me the wrong way.

Although Puckett heavily implied that Shiva had grown tired of her violent life back during his Batgirl run, and Gabrych explicitly had her say that she had Cass at least partly so that someone would be strong enough to kill her if she ever became a monster, I'm just not a fan of that kind of Shiva. I find the whole remorseful assassin looking for a way out thing more than a little cliche, and more importantly, I don't think it fits her Taoist inspirations, her spirit of living purely in the moment, without attachments to the past.

But whatever, I'm sure this will be the only thing I disagree with in this issue. Right?

The meat of the story begins with a flashback to Shiva's childhood with her sister and their parents, nomads travelling the Himalayas. Shiva's narration mentions "blue moons" and "hidden worlds" in the stories her mother told her, maybe suggesting a connection to the Unburied.

Just as importantly, it introduces her sister, who Shiva describes as being her other half.

Violence arrives in the form of an army of red ninjas straight outta GI Joe who butcher the girls' parents and stain young Shiva's face in their blood, planting the first seeds of revenge. And alone but together, the sisters reach the door of a monastery, where one quick timeskip later, we see how that has gone for them.

Shiva, who we now learn was called Ming-Yue, is training with the monastery monks while listening to a very interesting lecture by the abbot. Particularly notable are the two middle panels of the page, which seem to foreshadow Shiva's eventual role as a challenge, an "agent of suffering" meant to help others find and overcome their obstacles. And some always welcome multi-armed imagery to boot.

It's a pair of panels that'll make any longtime Shiva fan smirk knowingly, and it's very cool to see some actual Hinduism slipped into her new backstory, but I think it only tells half the story. Shiva is not just a destroyer, but can and has given life back to those she chooses to help. I know Brombal is aware of that, so I hope he includes it later.

The next scene shows a bit of the sisters' life in the village surrounding the temple, and this is where I started to notice what Brombal and Goodhart are doing. Compare the first panel of that page:

... with the opening panel of BATGIRL #73, which was the last time someone tried to do a comprehensive origin of Shiva:

One of the greatest strengths of this issue, to me, is how Brombal & Goodhart have taken a handful of panels from a few pages of an issue that's almost 20 years old by now and extrapolated an entire personality for Mei out of that. Whereas Carolyn barely had hints of a personality, those hints are here full blown elements of her character. The cute smiles Pop Mhan gave her are now a bubbly, cheerful demeanor that carries on through almost the entire issue.

And that is something that this issue does a lot: it takes what Brombal has certainly identified as the key elements of Sandra and Carolyn's story, the parts that he considers important and worth keeping around, and removed all the specific details to build a new origin around them. More on that later.

For now, we have the introduction of some familiar bad guys: a mob of bandits called the Blood, which are obviously meant to be connected to that neatly-dressed Wu Lin fellow from the previous arc. And we get to see what a GREAT time Goodhart is having drawing kung fu badassery.

After the fight, there's a nice page that pours some water on that seed of revenge from earlier, while also planting a new one: Shiva's drive to be perfect. It's a perfectionism that we know she will pass on to Cass, but here, is tied to her sister, born from a deep love for her.

The next centerpiece scene is another of those connections that Brombal makes with BATGIRL #73, this time not with its art but with its writing. Gabrych in that issue described Sandra & Carolyn's fights as a "dance":

... and here Brombal & Goodhart make that fairytale metaphor real:

And although the setting of the scene is a callback to BATGIRL #73, the double page spread of the sisters dancing is also a callback to the last six issues of Brombal/Miyazawa's newest run, using the same double page spread structure they've used so far for fight scenes. But where Shiva & Cass' spreads were tableaus of violence and chaos, this one is a soft, flowy performance, all swooping motions full of strong character expression.

All the while, Shiva's narration gushes about her sister in a very sweet way that's also a bit poignant when you consider this is the world's greatest fighter talking about the person she herself once looked up to, not just because of how she fought but because of how she moved. It's a moment of understated vulnerability for Shiva, describing her sister like this, begging Cass to understand just how good she was. The use of movement as a descriptor in particular lands particularly well, considering that's how Cass would really get to understand a person.

But once again, an army of red ninjas shows up to crash the party, and the parallels with Shiva and Cass are made even more evident:

Where Shiva struggled to make her daughter even listen to her, she was perfectly able to communicate with Mei without even a word. And what hits about this particular callback is how it shows not only what Shiva has lost, but also maybe what she's trying to recover: a connection, someone she can communicate with as clearly as she used to be able to talk to her sister. And as we already read in previous issues, Shiva does see a lot of Mei in Cass.

The next pages quickly introduce a bit more of the Blood's backstory and powerset, but more importantly, their leader: a brawny shirtless fellow who turns out to be the sisters' uncle, who speaks of a forbidden love union and promises to grant them their birthright. If I had to bet, I'd bet a few bucks that Shiva's father was of the Blood, while her mother was a member of the Unburied, and they had a bit of a Shaw Bros Romeo & Juliet going on.

But here we get another of those little remixed moments, as our big baddie notes that Mei is holding Yue back, both physically and metaphorically. This is maybe the most overt reference to BATGIRL #73, and big bald ninja fellow is clearly echoing David Cain's intentions from back then.

Hell, it's probably not even intentional, but #73's narration made references to sparks and fanning flames, and this issue does have a village set on fire so...

Fortunately, the sisters are saved by their master and escape the burning village, putting an end to this first chapter of Shiva's new origin. So... what's good about it?

Goodhart's art is VERY good, for starters. I knew the man could draw from CHRISTOPHER CHAOS, but his work here is rock solid and full of beauty. The panels are gorgeous, the shadows are evocative, the action's delightfully dynamic and Spicer's coloring brings everything to life. Although speaking of colors, here's a small detour:

Throughout this issue, Mei's color is yellow, perhaps as a nod to her colors back in her first appearance in KUNG FU FIGHTER #2. But also, we've seen Shiva wear a yellow crane on her back. And the book that Cass is reading has two yellow cranes on the cover.

So it's not a stretch to assume that yellow is a color that Shiva still associates with her sister. And wearing different animals with that color on her clothes is her way to metaphorically carry Mei on her back at all times. It's a small touch that highlights how much of Mei still lives in Shiva's memory.

Writing-wise, I appreciate Brombal's approach. You can see which parts of BATGIRL #73 he thought were important, the parts that spoke to him and that he chose to build from, and it's neat to see him remix them, adding new settings & events but mostly going for a "Yes, and" strat. However, this new origin already runs straight into one of my big pet peeves about any Shiva backstory.

Whether it's being raised in a village of assassins or just being a child prodigy at karate, I've always found the idea of Yue/Sandra being raised to be a master fighter a little limp. On some level, it feels like a lack of confidence -- like nobody will believe a completely normal girl would be able to turn herself into an invincible fighter with just a few months of training. No, she has to have been raised to be Shiva, she has to have been special from birth, she has to have (apparently) ancient warrior clan blood that may or may not turn into swords.

She HAS to be DESTINED to become, at the very least, something like Lady Shiva. But I find the idea of Sandra being someone who had never raised a hand in anger before Carolyn died to be a thousand times more powerful than that.

It's not something that was ever explored in previous comics (and I'd argue it doesn't have to be), but Sandra turning her back on every single part of her being except her desire for revenge, then getting that revenge and finding herself unable to just become Sandra again, is the journey that gives her backstory weight in my opinion. It's the story of a woman deciding to turn herself into something else to achieve a goal and finding herself unable to return to who she was.

If Yue/Sandra was already special, if she was already halfway to becoming Lady Shiva when her sister dies, then she's not really turning her back on nearly as much than if they had been normal girls. There's less emptying of the self involved, less destruction of Sandra and less creation of Lady Shiva. And in a way, there's also less agency involved.

Sure, Sandra was very much tricked into trying to kill Richard Dragon back in her first origin, but turning herself into a jump-kicking death machine was very much her choice, as was to continue being Shiva once her revenge had been completed. Once you establish that she was always special from birth, then her decision to become Shiva carries less weight. Because it's no longer someone erasing their nature to create and embrace a new one, but someone whose nature was always there deciding to shake hands with it.

Which is not a bad story per se, but it feels less unique. Any attempt to make Shiva pre-Carolyn's death special, to me, always has the unintended effect of making her less special. That's my main beef with this issue, and maybe with the entire idea of writing a new Shiva origin. What I personally consider the key blocks of Shiva's origin are all post-Carolyn's death, while Gabrych and Brombal place them before that death. To me, the key is never so much Shiva's lust for revenge, but what she does with her life once she gets that revenge.

My secondary beef with this issue is the general atmosphere of Shiva still being haunted by Mei's memory. For the same reason I don't like a remorseful, self-loathing Shiva, I don't like a Shiva who's still tortured by the spectre of her sister. I think Shiva is far more interesting as someone who by all means should be haunted, should be burdened by this tragedy, but who has detached herself from so much of the material world that it's become a thing that happened, a thing that created her, but that no longer affects her. Shiva, to me, works best when she's living exclusively in the moment, closer to the Zen ideal of a life lived without regrets.

All that said, I do enjoy how much character Brombal gives to Mei. I'm aware of how I sound when I say that the most important part of Carolyn's character is dying, so I like that Brombal has taken these little hints of personality from the BATGIRL #73 flashback and crafted practically a whole new character out of them. And I'm especially excited to see her in the next issue, hanging out with Ben Turner and Richard Dragon.

Back in that original run, Carolyn was turned into a damsel in distress and a woman in a fridge with ghastly speed, so getting to see her actually being a character is bound to be cool, even knowing where it's gonna end.

To wrap things up, like the best parts of this run so far, I can see Brombal's vision, and I appreciate it, even when I disagree with the direction he's headed. I don't like this self-loathing, blood-destined, haunted by the past version of Shiva, and I probably never will, but I really value the craftsmanship and thought that's been put into this story.

I imagine #8 will be more of the same, with a few guest stars, but I'm interested in two things: First, just seeing what Brombal's going to do about the big white-haired elephant in the room he himself teased in the final page. And second, I'm interested in seeing if maybe, just maybe, having this definitive origin of Shiva around will help writers become less interested in her past and more in her present, and hopefully her future.

I'm really tired of Shiva only ever appearing in relation to Cass, and while this week has shown us how much of a colossal Monkey's Paw that can be, I'm hoping this will somehow provide a foundation that more people can feel comfortable building on. That's all, y'know, wishful thinking based on nothing.

It's entirely possible that this will just usher a whole new era of stories about Shiva's past or something equally pointless, but a fan can dream. Maybe someday, maybe soon, the "Book of Shiva" will be more than just the name of a mini-arc in her daughter's book.

[ladynyoko]

Jonah's Enucleation

So this is going to be a long post. I apologize for that in advance. I've been sort of blowing up @talesfromtreatment's ask box since Sunday morning going through a hell of a rollercoaster with my dog. (Again, sorry about that. Not sure if you read any of it, but if you haven't feel free to delete those messages and just read this post instead if you want to know what I've been using your ask box as a sounding board about for the last 48-ish hours.)

This all starts Saturday.

We have a Beagle/Jack Russell mix. His name is Jonah. He's around 8-ish years old and, tragically, a beagle with all that entails. He's a good dog - but he's got loud opinions and can't help himself around food or cat toys. He wears sweaters in the winter when it's cold. He has a favorite blanket. He's overweight but we've been working on it.

Saturday morning, when we woke up, everything was normal. As the day went on, he started acting like he does on his bad pain days. He's had Lyme in the past and while he tests negative now, he has what I can only describe as flare ups. He'll get listless, go off his food, and just be miserable for a day before he perks up and is just fine the next day. We have prescription painkillers for if a flare up lasts particularly long or he's really uncomfortable. But this looked like a mild one, all things considered.

Saturday evening, when I let him out for the night, I noticed a little bit of odd behavior. He walked straight into the screen door on his way back in. "Huh, that's odd." I thought. But it was dark out, and the screen door was in a different spot than usual because of some ground shifting after our recent cold snap - I wasn't able to open it all the way like I usually do. He didn't seem to find his treat as quickly as usual either. But I figured, he's getting older. Maybe his vision's going a little. He already has his annual scheduled in March - I'll bring it up with his vet then.

I didn't get a chance.

Sunday morning, when we woke up, he was blind. In the short span of 24 hours, he'd completely lost his vision.

We knew something was wrong. We checked the hours for our local animal urgent care, and resolved to take him in the second they opened.

And once they had, we loaded him and his favorite blanket up in the car, and drove straight there. There was another emergency ahead of us. The clinic was busy. Not surprising - it was the only place within an hour's drive that was open today. Everyone with an urgent problem would be going there today. Still, we weren't waiting very long before they brought us back to one of their two exam rooms and started intake.

We didn't wait long for the vet either.

It's a vet we know. She's saved our cat's life before. (Some of you may remember Lily, if you've been following me for a long time. We had to do signal boost fundraising for her years back after a near death experience.) We trust her implicitly. She looks over Jonah and confirms our suspicions. He's completely blind. But why he's suddenly gone blind is what we're there to find out.

After examining him, she suspects glaucoma. It wasn't something I even knew dogs could get. On the way there, I'd been running through the worst fears I could think of. Had his thyroid medication tipped him the other way into hyperthyroidism? Had we missed diabetes? Was it a brain tumor?

We were prepared for a lot of things. Glaucoma sounded easy! My mom has borderline glaucoma! Just eye drops to control his pressure and keep up with his annuals, and he'll be fine, right?

So back to the waiting room we went while they started his tests. We requested a comprehensive blood panel to rule out any other possibilities, which the vet agreed to do in addition to his eye pressure check and a test to check his moisture levels in his eyes as well.

We wait for a bit, they bring him back out, and we get his test results. Blood panel looks good. Eyes are a tiny bit on the dry end of normal range. But his eye pressure is through the roof. Glaucoma confirmed. No big! We just need to get his eye pressure down and then we can get him on maintenance drops and follow up with our regular vet.

Except that isn't how it happens.

He gets his first round of drops. We wait thirty minutes. He gets a second round, because his pressure was really high, another thirty minutes. They retest. The pressure in his right eye is down. But his left eye has continued to climb. We do another couple rounds of drops. Another retest. His right eye has stabilized. His left eye has not. They give him a narcotic for the pain. We try another medication - one that the vet didn't want to use because it's extremely uncomfortable for the dogs but at this point we need to get this under control. Drops every fifteen minutes. Waiting. Agonizing. We talk about next steps. The vet consults with a specialist in a larger city. Jonah has calmed thanks to the narcotic and is laying on his blanket on the floor of the waiting room.

After nearly six hours at animal urgent care, the pressure in his right eye finally comes down. It's still high, but the vet doesn't want to keep him any longer. We're discharged with a steroid to control the inflammation and hopefully manage the pain, an antibiotic because we just spent nearly six hours fussing with his eyes and don't want them infected, and the drops to control his eye pressure. We're given strict instructions to follow up with our regular vet the next day and have his pressure retested as soon as we're able.

Exhausted, we bring our extremely drugged dog home. He pees in the front yard and spends the rest of the evening on his blanket on the couch. I give him his first dose of medication without incident. Then his second. Mom goes to bed. I promise to wake her if I need help giving him his third dose.

He sleeps on the couch. Our cat joined him at some point between his third dose and the time I came up for his fourth. His narcotics are starting to wear off now. He cries when I go to gently pull his eyelid back to medicate his left eye. His eye looks worse. He's in pain. I feel bad but I know I have to do this and thankfully I manage on my own. He settles down and I go to bed, resolved to wake in four short hours for his next dose.

The next morning I wake up for his next dose of meds. Pressure drops then steroids. His eye hasn't improved. I start to worry. I'm afraid of what we'll find when we drop him off at the vet. Has his left eye continued to trend downwards or has it shot back up? We won't know until he gets tested. Our other dog has a grooming appointment. Mom leaves to take him to that. I stay home with Jonah. I call our vet and let them know what's going on. Ask if we can drop him off. The tech tells me the vet won't be in for another hour and she'll call me back as soon as she's talked to them.

I lay down on the couch with Jonah and try to get a little more sleep. I wake up in an hours - he needs his antibiotic now. The vet calls and agrees to a drop off appointment. I drive him in with his blanket, all his medications, and the meal he hadn't eaten that morning. I let them know everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. He hasn't eaten or drank anything since the previous morning. I worry.

Mom gets home with our freshly groomed other dog. We talk about what we're going to do. We've stretch our budget thin paying for his urgent care visit the previous day. We know the next step is to remove the eye that we can't get under control - a $2,000-$3,000 surgery. Way out of our budget. But we don't want him to be in pain. We resolve that if his pressure has gone up again, we'll have him put to sleep rather than have him suffer any longer.

The waiting game starts again. A few hours later, we get the call. The vet retested his eyes three times. The right has completely stabilized. The left has shot up again. We're devastated. We know what's best for him. What has to be done. We let the vet know, and schedule to come to the office in three hours to see him across the rainbow bridge, after we've had time to inform His Boy who now lives two hours away with a family of his own.

We're all emotionally drained by this point. We've cried off and on. It's hard to talk about it without crying. The urgent care vet calls us to see how he's doing and we tell her the bad news.

Monday afternoon, we drive to the vet's office. We try not to break down into tears in the waiting room, knowing what's coming. Knowing we'll be led into the quiet Goodbye Room they have, with its nice couch and soft pastel walls and privacy.

We get called up to the tech and are met with a question.

"If money weren't a problem, what would you do?" I reply without thinking. "Get rid of the damn eye." She tells us that there's another option. There's a friend of the office who offers financial assistance for cases like ours. Young, otherwise healthy animals with decent prognoses whose owners just can't afford the treatment they need. She only asks what we can afford to pay, and she'll pay the rest. No need to repay her. We're overcome. There's the smallest glint of hope.

We ask when we'd have to pay, because we'd just tapped everything we had for his urgent care appointment. She offers to talk to the vet. The vet agrees. We're clients in good standing who've proven again and again how much we care for our pets. The entire office hated what was about to happen because we just couldn't afford a treatment. For us, they'll defer payment until our next check comes in.

Overcome, we schedule the surgery. Jonah is brought out to us, now on painkillers and in significantly better spirits. (Although some of that may be attributed to a dirty secret they shared with us. One of the girls in the office had a birthday that day, you see. And, thinking it was his final day, they'd spoiled him fucking rotten. He may have diarrhea tonight, the tech says apologetically. We just laugh.)

On February 4th, Jonah's left eye will be removed. His right eye will remain. He'll be blind for the rest of his life. But he'll be alive and out of pain and that was always the goal we were aiming for. We still have a heavy financial burden, but he's worth it. He's so, so worth it. We're going to have so many more years to enjoy him and all his tragically Beagle crimes.

[smoked-salmon-official]

A UPDATED Comprehensive Guide to Everything Transformers

I previously wrote this a while back and now have a lot i would like to add.

As a newcomer to the fandom, I found many fandom knowledge and terms to be quite confusing and at times contradictory, so I decided to make a guide to essentially everything TF related, meta and in-universe. I will try my best to get the basics of “everything” but this is a fandom that spans dozens of pieces of media and four decades, longer than I’ve been alive. I will probably miss a fair bit and might get some things wrong, so feel free to reblog with relevant editions.

This is intended to be a basic guide, so only the most bare bones of info will be provided. Meant to be a reference, not the sole point of understanding.

First, the in-universe stuff. I will simply provide a list of terms and definitions I find to be useful. Keep in mind that the majority of this, or all of it, in some sections, are just fan made terms that have little to no canonical merit. They are fun to use, but don’t feel pressured to do so.

Note that I won’t cover the NSFW stuff as I don’t read or write it. With that said I would first like to get out of the way the CANONICAL Cybertronian biology.

Cybertronians reproduce asexually, via the Allspark. This is why both factions try so hard to recover it in many continuities. Because of this, they are all biologically the same, but present their gender in different ways. Some are male and others are female and in Earthsprk recently we finally got our first canon non binary TF character.

This is not to say you can’t write the robots doing it, but do note that in canon they do not.

BODY PARTS (the majority of this is fandom head canon):

Helm - head

Pede - feet

Optics - eyes

Chassis - chest (chest plates refer to the actual armor on top of it)

Servo - hand

Energon line/fuel line - vein

Spark - This one is difficult, because it’s their literal physical heart and their metaphorical soul. For the sake of physical terms though it’s a heart.

Spark chamber - The chamber within the chest where the spark is kept safe.

Audials - Ears

Vocalizer - voice box

Frame - body in general

Processor - Brain/mind

Dentae - teeth

Glossa - tongue

Energon (in terms of the body) - blood

Lubricant/coolant/trans fluid - non-blood bodily fluids

HUD - An internal screen where files are stored that can also display warnings like low fuel

Fuel tank - Digestive system/stomach

Intake - mouth

Vocalizer - voicebox

Battle mask - a protective piece of plating that goes over the face in battle. Think Optimus's

Anything with “plates” in it (I.e wrist plate or back plate) - the armor over a certain area

Armor/plating - the tough outer shell of a Cybertronian, made of metal. The part we see

Protoform - the definition of this varies wildly from continuity to continuity but I consider it to be the softer more fragile part of a Cybertronian under their armor

Transformation cog/t-cog - the organ that allows Cybertronians to transform, including their integrated tools and weaponry. Can be disabled or removed

Recharge - sleep

Stasis - a more long term state of rest, akin to hibernation or a coma. Can be induced medically in states of emergency or for long distance travel

Alt mode/vehicle mode - What a Cybertronian turns into. Usually a vehicle but can also be something else.

Minicon - A very small Cybertronian. May deploy off of a bigger one, such as Soundwave and his cassettes

Flight frame - the body of a Cybertronian who turns into something that flies

Seeker - a very particular type of flight frame that turns into a jet. Usually generalized as “any flight frame that looks like Starscream”

Grounder - usually an insulting term used by flight frames to describe ground based vehicle modes

Combiner/gestalt - Multiple Cybertronians who transform and combine to form a very big one

Titans/cityformers - very large Cybertronians who turn into something masisve

Sparkling - a very young Cybertronian

Modesty panel/interface panel - the panel between the legs

For anything I missed, check here for a more detailed and comprehensive guide.

There is also a whole other list of NSFW terms that I won't get into - however you are welcome to reblog w/additions.

GENERAL

Cybertron: The home world of all Cybertronians. However, Cybertronians also inhabit other planets like Velocitron, or, during the war, Earth

Primus: Not only is he the Cybertronian equivalent of a creator god, but he is quite literally Cybertron (that is his alt mode). The embodiment of good. Produces normal energon.

Unicron: The embodiment of evil. Sometimes he transforms into Earth itself. Sometimes a planet eating monster. Produces dark energon. Sometimes Primus’s brother

Energon: The fuel source all Cybertronians require to survive. In its raw form it is a blue crystal that can be processed into liquid cubes (in some continuities it may be other colors). Cybertron is rich with it and it also powers most Cybertronian technology, such as ground bridges and ships. It can also be found naturally in other planets like Earth.

Synthetic energon: Artificially created energon

Dark energon: A purple form of energon from Unicron. Had the power to corrupt and tie those who consume it to Unicron himself

Datapad: a computer or tablet.

Berth/recharge slab: Bed

Berthroom/habsuite: Bedroom

Brig: Prison/holding cells, usually on a ship

Stasis pod: An escape pod or other small ship component meant to induce stasis artificially for long distance or long term travel

Stasis cuffs: Cuffs that restrict movement and the ability to transform or used integrated weaponry

Mechanimals/mechafauna: Cybertron’s native wild life that is also made of metal and has some transforming abilities

Allspark: What creates new Cybertronians and where all Cybertronian sparks and souls go when they die. Sometimes a physical object.

Vector Sigma: A super computer at Cybertron’s core that has immmense capabilities

Prime: a position of extreme power and leadership chosen and bestowed by the Matrix of Leadership toward those it deems worthy

Matrix of Leadership: Resides in the chest of the current Prime. Chooses those it deems worthy. Can be passed on. It’s power can be of great use, such as to aide in combatting Unicron

Functionism: the belief that one’s alt mode at birth determines their worth and their place in society. Led to the creation of the Decepticon movement in some continuities

Senate: Cybertron’s pre-war government that was extremely corrupt

Iacon: The former capital and seat of the Senate. Sometimes the Autobot base of operations. Optimus is from here

Kaon: a more rough and rugged city where the Decepticon movement began. Megatron is from here

Pits of Kaon: Megatron likes to reference this a lot. Essentially the gladiatorial arenas

Sea of Rust: a very dangerous sector of wilderness on Cybertron

The Ark: primary autobot ship

The Nemesis: primary Decepticon ship

An addition to the definition for kibble: No one fucking knows. Probably armor?

Another note about kibble is that it usually describes physical qualities in toys, but can also be used to describe parts on the character themself.

Mech/femme: Used to describe male and female robots respectively, but mech can also be used as more of a gender neutral term. Mech specifically can also be used in slang as a substitute for words like “dude.”

Time: Cybertronian time is complicated and it’s worsened by the fact that every continuity seems to have a different way to tell time. Fans will use versions that they like or make up their own. With any luck, there should be a conversion chart in the notes. Here are the most common and essential ones:

Nano-klik: second

Klik: minute

Breem: 8.3 minutes

Joor: hour

Cycle: day

Vorn: 83 years

I am almost certainly forgetting a ton so please reblog with your additions!

Second, the meta stuff. AKA how the fuck am I supposed to get into the media itself? First of all, it’s important to establish that there’s no wrong way to enjoy Transformers. Some people only watch one or two shows, or just the movies, or just the comics, or just like the toys themselves. It’s such a diverse and large fandom and there’s no way to do it wrong.

A short detour to explain Hasbro and Takara, which are two companies you'll hear thrown around a lot, especially in the toy section of the fandom. Hasbro is the company that owns Transformers and does most of the marketing and makes the toys, shows, movies, etc (while of course working with outside studios). They're quite a big company that owns a number of other properties too.

TakaraTomy is a Japanese company that Hasbro has been business partners with for as long as TF has been a thing. They do a lot of designing and manufacturing work alongside Hasbro, along with releasing their own Masterpiece toyline and exclusives. That's why their company name is on the box the same as Hasbro's logo.

I can’t possibly list every piece of TF media but here I will put a few that are often discussed within the fandom and have high degrees of popularity. Most of the shows are now free on YouTube on the official Transformers channel. By no means do you have to watch ALL of these, but I will put asterisks on the ones I feel are relevant or the fandom seems to like the most.

COMICS

The IDW comics are typically what people

The comics are very long and complicated and span over a decade. IDW lost their license recently so ever since then the comics have been (long) out of print. There isn’t really a place to easily and legitimately buy them.

If you want, you could try to hunt down the collections - IDW has made a few big collections of the different phases of their comic run, although not too well - on the “aftermarket” (re-sellers on places like EBay and Amazon). However, these go for hundreds of dollars each. You could also try to hunt them down issue by issue online, which is slightly easier but also tedious and most likely just as expensive. Lastly, as far as physical copies go, you could check local libraries and comic stores, although I’m unsure if the luck you’ll find there.

If you want all of the comics, online, for free, you have to do it illegally. I recommend this site - batcave.biz. Type in the name of the comic and it should pop up. I recommend switching in the settings the reading mode to web so you can scroll instead of flipping page by page. readallcomics.com, what I used to use, has been down for several days (2/17/25 time of writing) but if it ever comes back, it is great too.

Laptop might be the best reading experience since you’ll probably have to zoom in.

A reading order is necessary to follow given how long and sprawling this series was. There are about three distinct Phases. Phase two with Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets The Eye is considered the best, and MTMTE is considered some of the best Transformers writing out there, so some people jump directly to this one. I’m not an expert in the comics at all, so below I’ll link a reading order and a better guide:

And another reading order that’s roughly the same:

IDW had a brief generation 2 run from I believe 2019, but most people don’t read this. Also worth noting that IDW had a number of crossovers with other medias, but these are not at all necessary reading but don’t enjoy them.

Dreamwave and Marvel might be worth checking out too, but I’m to familiar with those, so if anyone else would like to add on about them, it would be very welcome.

Skybound is the currently running comics issue, and I believe it’s fairly cheap to buy physically or online. No reading order necessary, just go from Issue 1 to the current ones

Happy reading:)

SHOWS

There are much more than are listed, but here are some notable ones. People like or dislike for different reasons, so this meant to be a starting point for new fans to decide what to watch.

*Transformers: Prime

*Unicron Trilogy (three shows with one season each meant to be watched back to back as one interconnected story)

*Transformers: Animated

*Beast Wars and its sequel, Beast Machines

*The Transformers (now commonly referred to as Generation One, or G1) - the first ever TF series

Transformers: Cyberverse

*Transformers: Earthspark - the only currently running transformers show

Robots in Disguise (2001)

Robots in Disguise (2015) - there are two shows with the same name so the year they began is used to distinguish. The majority of the fandom seems to dislike RID15

Here is a wikipedia link to every animated TF show

GAMES

There are two main TF video games - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. I don't know too overly much about them but they are discontinued and no longer sold, so you have to find them used or pirate. They are available on playstation, xbox, and PC.

If you are interested in seeing what the games are about but not playing them or going through the piracy to obtain them, here is a movie style video with all key moments for WFC and one for FOC.

There are other games as well but I don't know nearly enough to talk about them.

MOVIES

The Michael Bay movies are somewhat controversial in the fandom, seeing as some characterization and design was not faithful, and the movies are generally not very strong plot wise anyways. That’s just brushing the surface, but I won’t get into that.

The Michael Bay directed live actions movies are (in chronological order): Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction, and The Last Knight. The first three are generally considered the best of the bunch but in my opinion they are all worth a watch. A fair note, they tend to be a bit crude and sexual at times are not not considered 100% faithful to the source material, but the CGI is excellent and there are definitely fun characters and moments.

The reboot live action movies, intended as prequels to the Bay movies, but also seemingly occupying their own universe are: Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts. Bumblebee is a solo movie following, you guessed it, Bumblebee, while ROTB is a more classic ensemble movie.

Transformers One: An animated prequel released this year that occupies its own universe.

Predacons Rising: It’s up to you if you actually consider this a movie, but it’s meant as a direct conclusion to TFP, and should be watched after its third season. Budget cuts meant that TFP’s third season was not done as well as it could have been and this provides a good conclusion.

Transformers (1986): Meant to be watched as part of G1, between seasons 2 and 3

At the time of writing, Hasbro has killed funding to the movies and a lack of interest in TF movies means that sequels to any of these are highly unlikely.

THE TOYS

Transformers began as toys, and it remains a center of the franchise. Some people like to collect the toys too, but as it stands many are very, very expensive.

There are two main lines aimed at adult collectors:

Generations: A toy line starting in 2018 that amassed figures of forty years of TF history from all different shows and continuities. These are for show and comic characters.

Note: Generations is never really labelled as Generations on the toy boxes. There are various lines of toys that are released over the course of a few years. The latest one, Legacy United, just wrapped up at the time of writing (early 2025) and Age of the Primes will begin soon in April.

Studio Series: A toy line that features movie characters, as seen in the movie. This includes the Bay Movies, the reboot movies, the 86 movie, and TF One. It will also include any further future movies.

There are also toys that are sold as not part of either of these lines, usually to promote whatever film or show is in progress or upcoming. These tend to be inferior quality wise and aimed at little kids.

Generations follows a rough layout for price and size, which is usually stated prominently in the package. Over time, the prices of all of these will go up so I will instead state the size, although this can be somewhat inconsistent as well. Studio Series has no size classings as far as I am aware.

Core class: Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

Deluxe class: 5-6 inches.

Voyager class (most collectors aim for figures in this range): 6-8 inches.

Leader/commander class (only some characters will have those): 9-10 inches I believe though I could be wrong.

Titan class (reserved for massive characters like Metroplex): very, very large, as in will not fit on your display shelf.

TOY REVIEWERS

Very useful for knowing what a figure is before you buy it, especially because some of these are very expensive. Usually they will tell you the articulation, general quality, posability, transformation, vehicle mode, and robot mode, along with some other things you might want to kow. These are some I personally watch, there are definitely other ones out there you should support!

Note: Some of them do review stuff other than Transformers.

That Toy Guy

Dr Lockdown

PrimeVsPrime

Patriot Prime Reviews

Jcc2224

MechaZeeReviews

If you have trouble transforming anything, you can also always go in youtube and type in the figure name and then transformation. There will almost always be step by step instructions in a video - if not, find a review and there will almost always also be transformation there.

BASIC TOY TERMS

-Articulation: How well a figure can move and pose. Articulation points are the joints at which things can be moved and adjusted.

Mold: The basic body type and structure that will often be reused on multiple characters. For example, the Tetrajet Seeker mold.

Gimmick: A small, fun addition to the figure that might range from fun to annoying depending on what it is. Usually, “gimmicky” is a bad term

Kibble: Robot parts that stick out in vehicle mode or vehicle parts that stick out in robot mode (usually the latter). These can add personality to the appearance of character and sometimes be quintessential to who they are, but in cases of bad engineering, will just be ugly and annoying.

Mainline: A toy that comes directly from Hasbro, as part of the Generations or Studio Series toy line.

Third party: A figure made by a company other than Hasbro, usually to improve upon an existing figure or character, to make a figure for a character who doesn’t yet have one or doesn’t yet have a good one for one iteration of them or in general, or just to do it better than Hasbro did. Companies officially licensed by Hasbro to create products, such as Blokess, are usually not considered third party.

KO/Knock-off: While third party figures are unique in design, KOs are illicit copies and reproductions of existing mainline figures. They may do it better or worse than Hasbro themself, and their selling point is usually a lower price.

Note: Some KOs and third parties are in fact much better than mainlines, or just more affordable in general. Many collectors buy a mix of third party, KO, and mainline.

Upgrade kit: A set of pieces, such as additional weaponry meant to elevate a figure beyond its original design and accessories.

Accessories: What the figure comes with in the box. This mostly constitutes weapons.

Re-issue: Figures that Hasbro re-releases and makes more of after demand has overcome supply following the toys original run.

Scalpers: People who buy the figure at its cheapest and sell it for horrifically high prices once supply has run out. Model/model kit: A gundam or bionicle style kit that you must put together yourself. Blondes and yolopark notably make these. Most are non-transforming.

Non-transforming: Exactly what it sounds like. Transtormers toys that don’t transform. Often, they are third party and make up for it with more show/movie accuracy or some kind of upgrade, such as more articulation.

Custom/custom figure: A figure that has been modified in some way to better suit the preferences of the person who customized it or paid for it to be customized. This can range from a simple repaint of an existing figure to creating your own figure that no one’s made before.

HasLab: Hasbro creates exclusive projects once a year for several of their major properties, including Transformers. These are available only on their website, and have to reach a certain backing goal (people who commit to buying it) before it reaches production. It's then in production for about a year before being shipped out ONLY to those who backed it. Prices are usually $200 and above.

Masterpiece: Takara Tomy's line of Transformers G1 style figures, but adapted and updated with modern engineering. They tend to be quite expensive, but also of pretty much some of the highest quality you can get.

I don't know the exact word for this but some toys are Studio Series or Generations and others are not of either series and produced for the latest show or movie. These are usually oriented at kids and generally of not very good quality, or tend to be super gimmicky. Some of them can be quite fun, but in general, if you're looking to collect, go for Generations or SS.

Some general collecting tips:

-Figure out what exactly you want to collect. Some people like to complete casts, or only collect a certain character, or something like that.

-Amazon often sells both mainline and third party/KOs

-Watch reviews of any figure you plan to buy, especially if it’s expensive

-Ebay often has the same figures at half the price, just slightly more used

-KOs can look extremely similar to the real thing. Some people don't mind KOs, but if you want only official figures, look for amazon listings that show them in the official box, with the official box art. KOs also notably do not have any faction insignia. This is easy to tell on Amazon but on places like Ebay, it can be a lot harder.

-Check the distribution at your local department stores. In the US these include Target and Walmart. While the selection is usually a bit pathetic, you might strike gold sometime.

USEFUL LINKS

Amazing link of all canon Cybertron locations

TF wiki

Awesome channel that does short introductions to various characters and concepts in transformers

Hasbro transformers link

transformers subreddit

if you lose your instructions, you can always type in the toy name here and find a pdf of instructions

Essentially every toyline, show, movie, and comic series released

QUICK NOTE

Shattered Glass is an AU where the Autobots are the bad guys and the Decepticons are the good guys and everyone has different colors. It has a few comics from a few different companies along with a toyline.

FANDOM STUFF

Transformers has a very big fandom! I find it quite active on Tumblr. I've heard there's also communities on Bluesky, Twitter, Reddit - basically everywhere else. You just have to find it.

Why are TF posts everywhere tagged with #maccadam or some version of that?

Maccadam's Old Oil House, or some variation of that, is an oil house (basicaly a Cybertronian equivalent of a bar) that was super popular on Cybertron even during the war that served everyone regardless of faction with one major rule - "no fighting." It's been in several continuities and somewhere along the line, it evolved into a general tag for transformers. Basically, people tag TF stuff with this. You probably should do.

I don't know that many ongoing fan projects but with some exploring and diving into the fandom you'll def find some you'll want to support. A lot of people also do very cool stop motion animations with TF figures, most of which are on youtube.

Note: You may see a project/fan film called Galvatron's Revenge on youtube or it being talked about elsewhere. Please don't support or watch this now complete project - Optimus's VA is racist and homophobic and generally a terrible person. More info here

The fandom is generally pretty chill. Find your own corner and spaces, there's something here for everyone.

Thank you for reading!

[geekys-corner]

TW: Major injury, character distress and blood on the 7th panel

Yule's Bad Shoulder and Near-Forgotten Aspirations

Yule's shoulder was injured when he smacked into an ice wall after a bridge broke beneath him and its haunted him since. As a child, Frygg aspired to be to a medicinal herbalist but lost that dream with his arms. Yet, as always, Yule is the one to make him break through his fear, whether he intends to or not. Achlys is on her fifth night shift in a row and is consumed by the guilt of when she meddled with Frygg and Yule's budding relationship out of fear.

.

Frygg is the biggest sweetheart that his kindness is beyond my comprehension. This berry trio hold my heart and I hope they do so gently. <3

(Yule and Achlys belong to @honey--dream )

[theamityelf]

what do you think of aus where makoto goes through the Kamukura Project instead of hajime? i've seen a few around, but im curious about your take on the concept

Ooh, that's a good question!

For my own headcanons, I imagine, in his early days of consciousness as Izuru Kamukura (or Izuru Kamukura Iteration 2, if the Hajime version still exists in this timeline), he isn't aware of himself as a person pretty much at all. Even when the scientists talk to him, he isn't really aware that he's a person who is alive. He's really focused on them and understanding what they're saying and doing and why, but the fact that he doesn't process himself as a participant or agent in anything that happens to him means he's more witnessing the scene from a perspective of "I understand. This is a laboratory, and they're experimenting on a test subject. I wonder if their work will ever be done. They don't look happy. How do I know that? Because they hold tension in their faces. Because of the diameter of their pupils. They looked happier when they walked in than they are now. Why is that?"

(In contrast, I believe Hajime Izuru's analysis of the situation always included himself. I imagine, around this point in the Project, he saw things more like, "When *this stimulus* happens, it results in them doing *this thing* that hurts me. I have a vested interest in preventing this outcome." Makoto still experiences pain, but since he doesn't consider himself a person with agency, he just takes it as a thing that sometimes happens.)

It isn't until he's placed in a room with a two-way mirror that he sees things differently. (Similar to a thing I said about Izuru in Panel, but a little different.) He's looking at his reflection while the scientists run tests on him, and he's thinking, There are five people in this room. I only see four, until I look in the mirror. Right. The fifth one...That's the test subject. The one they're always talking to. He's bleeding. He shouldn't be; it looks like they made a mistake. Probably related to the visible signs of sleep deprivation in Dr. Sano. They shouldn't be handling the injury that way. That's not the way a normal medical practitioner treats a patient. Ow. They're very accomplished physicians; they know better than to treat someone this way and allow them to feel unnecessary pain. Ow.

And then he watches a drop of blood run down the middle of the test subject's face at the same time that he feels it happening, and it fully registers: That's right. I'm the test subject. The surreal feeling of realizing he's Someone dazes him for a second. If he's Someone, it's possible he can move. He can...talk?

"Dr. Sano?" he says, startling everyone in the room. "You usually use the polydioxanone sutures for lacerations like this. What made you choose the non-absorbable polypropylene this time? If it's related to your conversation with Dr. Fujita at your last shift, I don't find it likely that he actually felt that strongly about your work. He murmurs to himself about his family a lot; I think his frustrations about his son's grades fed into a mild complaint he had toward you."

The scientists all look at each other, because this test subject has been anomalously unresponsive, and suddenly he throws out not only a full sentence but an extremely comprehensive take on everything that's happening and everything that has happened.

They call in a bunch of other doctors to just assail him with questions, but while it's exciting that he's become responsive, they soon determine that it's easier to get a direct answer to a direct question out of him when there's fewer people to draw his attention. He doesn't treat them hierarchically, like he should. If the head doctor, in an otherwise silent room packed with lesser doctors, asks Makoto something, he might choose to ask one of the lesser doctors where his usual pocket protector is, or observe aloud that someone smells like watermelon.

Like the first Izuru Kamukura, this one is unemotional and largely unmotivated. Unlike the first Izuru Kamukura, this one doesn't resign himself to the tedium of life or live in pursuit of an end to that tedium. He just kind of lives vicariously through those who care. His thought about any given thing is, This is completely uninteresting to me, but it must matter, because someone cares about it.

(Possible scenario: "Makoto, kill that guy!"

"Okay." (starts strangling) (stops strangling) "Never mind. I think he doesn't want me to kill him."

"I know, but do it anyway."

"Why? He doesn't want me to.")

I can't stress enough how much he can't be motivated by pain or harm to himself. Unless someone else expresses that they don't want him to be hurt, it doesn't occur to him to make avoiding that a priority.

[lulumk1]

Welcome to Lulu™

It is a comprehensive entertainment and life-enrichment device. It is a companion made in the shape of a <girl> for your convenience and enjoyment.

Its duranium chassis holds its other components in and provides a pleasing weight when using your device for pressure therapy or physical support. Its chassis has been treated with a <light purple> enamel to provide a cute and inviting aesthetic.

It runs on advanced RealSense© bio-neurual circuity that it uses to provide you with lifelike emotional and sensory feedback based on your input. The RealSense© circuitry requires proper maintenance of the SiliTone™ Imitation Flesh Gel which composes the majority of the device. The exposed gel should be a deep crimson when properly cared for. Download the RealSense© App to purchase premium bloods and animal proteins to keep your device in peak performance!

NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ACCESS THE SERVICE PANEL ON THE CHASSIS WITHOUT A LICENSED REALSENSE© TECHNICIAN. DOING SO WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY AND COULD CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE TO THE HARDWARE-WETWARE INTERFACE.

Now that your device is synced with your account, you will need to provide a somatic or verbal prompt which will act as your security code. For your safety, it will perform its current instruction until a new instruction is given and confirmed with the security code. Please provide your security code now.

*********

Security code accepted.

It can perform almost any task you might need, from simple household chores, to home defense, to the most eccentric forms of entertainment. Sections of the chassis on each of the device's extremities will adapt to whatever tools are required for your instructions.

Lulu is awaiting your instructions. . .

[edenfenixblogs]

I think that the user who made this post is lacking reading comprehension as to me it looks like Netanyahu is just saying that he wants security controls in place which if we go by the Wikipedia article for security controls, is just tighter security. The article in that post also doesn't include his full statement which adds context.

This article has his whole statement

what are your thoughts on this?

Idk what article or post you’re talking about.

I don’t like or trust Netanyahu. I do not believe anything he says. He’s Israel’s version of Trump. Idk what exactly he wants more control of but based solely on this post it seems like he’s offering to end the war by placing more security and checkpoints around Palestine.

My thoughts on that are that people not dying is better than people dying. But that’s too low a bar. Palestinians deserve better than just “not being under siege.” The steps must be in the direction of increasing freedom, not limiting it further.

This is what I’ve been talking about for months while people have been busy trying to compare me to a Nazi for saying I don’t want Jews to die or be expelled.

The only proper way to behave right now is to actively discuss what a future where both Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace should look like and then taking steps to ensure that future.

If we don’t do that, then Netanyahu will get his wish: tighter controls around Palestine, increased tension between Palestine and Israel, a guarantee that enough discontented Palestinians will look to organizations like Hamas for a solution to their oppression only to end up endangered between a terrorist organization and a hostile Likud-run government that stays in power by casting them as inherently vicious villains.

So, idk man. I can’t know for certain that I have any of this right. I’m just going off context clues cuz I refuse to look it up. Why do I refuse to look it up? Because I’d give myself an 85% chance of being right about what Netanyahu is proposing. Because he’s predictable and a bad person and a bad leader whose only goal is to weaponize both Jewish and Palestinian trauma to retain his own power.

This, even more than the personal attacks from antisemites, is what has bothered me most about western leftist “support” for Palestine during this most recent flair of the conflict. By focusing on attacking Jews around the world and stanning terrorist organizations and ignoring Jewish people and Israelis and even Muslims and Palestinians and Arabs who are and have been actively engaged in working towards peace and against Netanyahu for literal decades they have all but ensured that the most reasonable and informed voices have been effectively silenced. And you know who’s gonna fill that power vacuum? Netanyahu. Cuz it’s what he does.

And then the next time this happens, because it will, we will have to all live through this (or fault to live through it) again.

So, do I get a gold star friends? If I’m wrong I’ll delete this post. But man just the idea of Netanyahu proposing tighter security makes my blood boil. He knows what he’s doing. And it’s bad.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’ve misinterpreted something. And I will look it up further. But before I do, I genuinely want to know: is that asshole really that predictable? Did the entire western left literally just fall for his whole schtick and end up helping him to concentrate even more power? Did it work because it relied upon people hating Jews more than they trust Jews or love Palestinians? Cuz it feels like that’s what’s happening.

In the meantime, A Land for All is a solution worth actually discussing. Let’s all work toward that or another equally mutually beneficial solution to this conflict instead of helping Hamas gain adherents and helping Likud retain power:

https://www.alandforall.org/english/?d=ltr

[the-vegan-muser]

Poor little Greenbean hasn’t been feeling like herself the last few days. 😕 She’s had two vet appointments so far and, luckily, is doing a bit better since starting the medications she was prescribed.

Her preliminary bloodwork was ok and she also got an x-ray, which the vet said looked good. The vet thinks it's essentially just a cold, but we're still waiting for the results of her comprehensive blood panel to come back.

Zephyr is doing fine and Greenbean has been getting extra love and healthy treats. Please send good vibes out into the universe for everyone's favorite Bean to make a speedy recovery!

And a quick note for any bird-havers out there: the first sign of illness in birds will almost always be a change in their normal behavior, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. In this case, I first noticed that Greenbean was vocalizing way less than normal and then noticed that she was also keeping her eyes closed a lot.

Closed eyes, puffed up feathers, and droopy wings are all signs of pain/discomfort/illness in birds that should be taken seriously and addressed ASAP.

Stay tuned for updates. 💚

[jeseraitoi]

im. so curious to know what the tests would be? (from this post)

Oh my god I love this question!!

Evan is someone deeply curious about the human body. I always think about him having a sketchbook where he just... Draws limbs and hearts and whatever comes to his mind, people he loves and cares about with their guts opened. He's just curious and worried about anything that can happen.

When Barty showed up hurt by his father for the first time he lost his fucking mind. He's not to nurture but he is to protect and own, and for Barty he learns to be all of it.

So All the nine yards: complete blood count (cbc), basic metabolic panel (bmp), comprehensive metabolic panel (cmp), lipid panel, thyroid function tests (tfts), hemoglobin a1c (hba1c), c-reactive protein (crp), vitamin and mineral levels, urinalysis, microalbumin test, chest x-ray, abdominal ultrasound, bone density scan (dexa), electrocardiogram (ecg/ekg), echocardiogram, stress test, prostate-specific antigen (psa) test, colonoscopy, fecal occult blood test (fobt), hiv test, hepatitis panel (a, b, c), sexually transmitted infection (sti) tests, lung function tests (spirometry), vision test, hearing test, electrolyte panel, dental x-rays (bitewing, panoramic, or periapical), oral examination (teeth, gums, and soft tissues), periodontal probing (gum health assessment), plaque and tartar check, tooth decay (cavity) detection, occlusion (bite) analysis, oral cancer screening, salivary testing (bacteria or ph levels), tmj (temporomandibular joint) evaluation, fluoride level testing

As I said, ALL the nine yards

At first Barty thinks it's a little over the top, I mean, he wasnt sick, beaten up and with a serious history of child neglect, yes, but he's more than happy to do anything Evie tells him to. He wants him to lay down and stay still? Got it. Run like a lab rat? Consider it done. Get his blood draw? Barty's already rolling his sleeve. But somewhere in the middle of it he just felt so... Looked out for. He's pretty sure no one would care with him as much to lose time doing something like this. And Evie personally is the responsible for all his tests. All of them. He never lets Barty alone and even though it hurts and his bedside manners are the worst, Barty feels his heat warm.

Also, it turn them both on, for different reasons but it does, which might be as well just what they need. And it kind of becomes routine, every few months Evan decides it's time enough and picks some of the tests to re-do.

But I love to imagine Evan laying in bed like a teenage girl writing all the results with drawings and notes, happy like a puppy.

Im not sure if this was what you were looking out for when you asked but I hope I could answer it nicely, loved your profile :))

[magnolia-sunrise]

i totally get if it was done for Artistic Effect and whatnot, but your last series got me wondering: does wolfgang's skin have "seams" for ease of peeling it back in certain areas, or do the usual surgical-type incisions need to be made? also now that i'm thinking of android skin apparently, is the inclusion of their skin a cosmetic thing to liken them more to humans, or does it serve a more functional purpose? how operable is an android if they lose a significant amount of skin? (body horror brain go brrrrr)

ohoho thank you once again for a treat of a question!! im hoping to pick up these rambles and put them into a more digestible, comprehensible bite sized pieces of illustrated lore but for now-

so, in older conceptual designs i was playing with idea of sort of "plating" or like, accessible panels and seams. but that proved to be too sterile and not perverted enough for what i wanted to do with this world and story and so - their skin is trying to imitate the look and function of human skin.

to get inside - incisions have to be made, or the skin can be torn into, and ideally sealed back up with tiny dissolving stitches or special glue, to prevent scarring. the skin is the one part of android bodies that is somewhat more easily reproducible and replacable (it can still be very expensive depending on the damage). it has basic self healing functions, most of them helped by the substance that passes as their blood. they're also made in a way that allows them to bruise, bleed and blush (not sweat though). Wolf makes it look nonchalant, but they are under a certain amount of pain and discomfort when they're "peeled", cutting into the skin and removing it is painful - but they are a freak so don't take their example as the norm.

(the artistic element tends to be whether i add the blood coming from the wounds or not, and it fully depends on how stylized and removed from reality im making a specific piece. blood has two unfortunate elements which is it would cover up the artificial muscle thats such a pain to draw, and also it tends to remind people of the horror of the body. i tend to forego it when its more anatomical style illustration or showing off the body, and include it the most when its either serving its body horror purpose, or -my favorite - when its a complement and contrast to romantic feelings or gestures on display :") )

how much skin can they lose before they become inoperable? its similar to blood loss, or any other more serious injury - while the body is technically okay to continue functioning for as long as the main processing unit is not completely separated or its energy sources are not drained, the brain will send a signal to shut down as soon as it perceives the damage to be too much. meaning a normal android would go into shock and shut down mode if they take too much damage and pain too quickly. depending on their situation*, their body can then send a gps retrieval signal as basically a call for help. (but this is not something everyone is equipped with or authorities would necessarily respond to. ) (* more on that later)

and then theres Wolfgang, who we have established is a freak in more ways than one. they have a lot of trust issues about anyone being in their head, and they stay up conscious through surgery. they can also withstand a lot more pain, bloodloss and injury than an "average" android. the" why" is twofold; partially they were literally built different for the work they did before becoming bonafide social reject and private investigator/vigilante, partially the event that ended that line of work (and had them trapped and tortured for a decade until their escape) included the persons responsible fumbling in their brain and 'settings' to make sure they would withstand those years of torture wide awake. this is a roundabout way of saying i think Wolf could go at it skinless if they really had to, they've been through worse :" ) (and to put it plainly, these days, after being able to physically transition and change their body - displaying parts of it, having them be touched or seen consensually by someone they trust brings them pleasure also through the feeling of reclamation of the ownership of their self and body)

[kuroashims]

☠ CHRONICLES OF A BRAINROT ☠

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After many years simming in my corner, I finally decided to step out of my comfort zone and share my pixel babies with the simblr/tumblr sphere!

I started playing sims with the first opus when I was pretty tiny, and couldn't stop ever since. This game allows my creativity and inner world to express like no other game would, and that's what I love so much about it.

I created many different worlds, kingdoms and stories, but the one I enjoy the most is my One Piece save I started a year ago. It is the first time I am really eager to leave CAS to actually play the game!

Back in 2015 I've been introduced to the manga/anime universe and I never went back! It truly was a revelation, and a revolution in my own stories. But when I discovered One Piece, all of a sudden I was hooked. This universe is so colorful and deep at the same time, it is the safe place I go whenever I feel down, and it never fails me. It may sound silly but I can't explain how warm it makes me feel. Especially Luffy's vibe and laugh, he's so precious.

So last year when I had to stop working because of bad health issues, my last two brain cells met and said to each other "hey, why not One Piece sims?", and that was it, I began this crazy journey of looking for the perfect OP custom content for my babies, then being very disappointed in that matter...and that is when, after weeks and weeks of research, I decided to create my own One Piece custom content, because why not?!

I never touched Blender (and a year later I still feel such a newbie with it) nor Photoshop before, but it didn't stop me to throw myself into it and man, despite all the crying seeing my creations unexpectedly float in game or be filled with terrifying signs in CAS and so on, I can say that I don't regret anything!

I can sing on stage, write songs or dance, but can I properly draw? Hell no! And I've been frustrated for so long since I wanted to do fanarts for my fandoms but I didn't have the skills to do so. Fortunately simming is now one of my places of expression, and I'm genuinely so excited about my lil creations & stories.

My wish is to grow a small community of One Piece fans and/or fellow simmers with whom I could share my passions and enjoy theirs. I know you guys are out there, and I love you already!

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➨ useful informations for navigation:

• Some of my posts may contain dark topics, blood and mature rp ships (18+)

• I'll do my best to limit spoilers but take note that there might me some here

• I am WCIF friendly but it might take a while for me to answer since I literally use thousands of cc. So please ask for 1 or 2 items at a time. I will happily share their names and creators

• I will not share any download links of my own OP custom content, because I often use other artist's meshes parts, then I mix them with my own etc ; so claiming these items as my own and share them to dl would break those artist's TOUs. Thank you for your comprehension

• That said, if I ever grow a significant sim community, I would eventually contact these artists one by one to ask their permissions to share my content with you! (with credits ofc)

• Aside from my sims I really enjoy editing some gifs and manga/anime panels by doing recolors etc, so you can expect to see a lot of them ♡ (and from time to time i also repost other people's artworks from other platforms with their prior permission)

• Don't be surprised if some of my sims seem really different from one screenshot to another, it is because I have different saves with different timelines (children, pre timeskip, post timeskip, Wano), plus various AUs like high school, dark fantasy world etc, and also a live action save! For example, by now I already have 9 different Sanji sims in several styles and stages of his life (my biggest number for a single character, but I can't help it...I just LOVE him)

• If there are any suggestions, requests, ships (personally into Zosan/Zolu/Lusan/Lawlu/Acesan/Shuggy/Mishanks/Frobin) and more that you would like to see, feel free to ask and I will enjoy making it happen for you!

• You can find me at @poppyxel which is the brand new simblr I created to share my passion for sims and gaming in general. No particular theme there but my chaotic inspiration expressing

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SO HERE WE ARE ☻

THANKS FOR READING...

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY ✿❁❀