#and how the matrix is basically an Eldritch horror

[boltsandscrews]

"Are you even listening, Optimus?"

Sometimes, during the quieter moments of the war, when time is spend strategizing or salvaging, one can find Prime looking aloof—staring deep into the distance, silent and barren as the bomb-kissed Iacon or shredded Luna 2. His cables creak, afraid of the stillness they're forced to perpetuate, but his processor is too far gone to feel the uncomfortable nag in his struts.

What does one do during the slow parts of war?

The silent echos after a devastation?

How does one go from only being able to focus on surviving, to noticing the rusty breeze and faint smell of spoiled energon beneath their pedes? The dent in their chassis that they didn't even know they had? How can they begin to take in the small details after looking at the bigger picture for centuries? How can—

they get a chance to think?

Optimus is a Prime, and Prime's are built to last and remember. They are made to lead the people. So when these small moments of calm appear, the matrix makes him relive his days in order to ensure that, in the future, he will do better.

[mega-trans]

What if — TF Prompts #1

Set in the Shattered Glass Universe (I don’t know much abt it so it’s kinda biased in the content I’ve seen of it)

To Autobot eyes, OP is just a silly little guy with good intentions and everything’s good and nice, but in reality (Decepticon eyes) he’s this eldritch abomination with long and skinny legs, giant clawed and sharp servos and sunken optics.

But Megan, why don’t the other Autobots notice this? It’s simple.

The Matrix Of Leadership is basically a parasite who infects the mind of its hosts and makes them hallucinate until their final breaths (Where The Matrix can no longer feed on the spark of the ‘supposed willing Autobot’, leaving them to die with the sight of a lanky creature staring down at them eerily)

Decepticons are mostly Divergents, which means their processors have resistance to the Matrix’s influence. It was a small glitch that came from the Well Of The All Spark and kept spreading until it was too late for the Autobots to regain control on the rebels.

Anyways, AO3 writers, artists… do ur thing 🫡

[tbonechessor]

whats ur favorite aspect of halo lore. Go

Off the top of my head, it's gotta be A.I. mostly because it's one of those things that's just really simple, but when it works, it works well.

You've got "dumb" A.i. simple, mostly a collection of subroutines. Limited self-awareness. Mostly used for basic menial administration tasks. Awesome, cool.

Then you've got "Smart" A.I. OH BOY. Personalities! Able to make complex, meaningful decisions with an idea of how those choices may affect things long-term!

And there's a pretty simple set of rules to smart A.I.

1. Their matrix are based on a dead human brain

2. After 8 years they start to break down and their processing begins to eat itself alive like some kind of internal Eldritch horror.

When Sci fi does A.I. it's either a matter of overthinking how they work or severely underthinking how it works. Most of the time it's just a segue to get to an A.I. turning EVVVIILLLL OOOOH because hubris, technology etc, etc.

Halo obviously didn't really want to go that route though. At least not at first. Thematically, the world building around A.I. is themed the same way that the rest of Halo is themed. The idea that life persists and that there are cycles (lol halo is a circle) and that A.I. are just sort of a part of that cycle. Life, death, rebirth, etc.

The fact that A.I. are based off of a dead person and that eventually they are going to die as well says alot about the value of connections. We tend to care about things that are like us and respond to us no matter how artificial they are.

And it's been said to death already I know but H5 was such a step backwards thematically in that regard. We already KNOW A.I. can turn evil. We've SEEN them be Evil for much more complex and rich reasons than what Cortana was really doing. Because Halo established right away with 343 Guilty spark in the FIRST GAME that A.i. are capable of having their own goals and desires. Sometimes that aligns with the protags goals sometimes it doesn't, but it exists somewhat outside of their inherent existence. Even if Spark was a little off his rocker, it didn't affect his goals, just his temperament and emotional management.

My second favorite Halo Lore favorite thing is ships and ship combat. Just because there is SO MUCH DETAIL in regards to how naval stuff works in Halo.

Haha Ship Go BRRRRRRR

But Fr it's really easy in sci fi to focus on ground combat to the point where the lore surrounding power scaling between units get ridiculous like in 40k (no shade, just not really my thing) and Halo has always kept that part relatively grounded and simple for the better I think. Ship combat is where things get very 3D chess (almost literally)

[arcanigenum]

Verse: Unrevealed (unrvld)

  Imagine that everything people believe exists in one way or another. It might not be exactly how people picture it, but it exists. Maybe the reason for people’s beliefs is someone saw something a couple of centuries or millennia ago. Or, maybe the reason for its existence is the people’s beliefs. Who knows? 

  Of course, if you claimed you have seen something strange, most people would declare you insane. Everyone knows gods, fairies, Santa, chupacabra, kelpies, vampires, etc. don’t actually exist.

  And yet, people disappear under suspicious circumstances. Strange, inhuman noises that can’t be explained come from tunnels. There are claims about stairs appearing in the middle of the forests that cause disease if you climb them. People never seem to come back from visiting a particular house in the woods, but their bodies are never found. Strange shapes are sometimes seen in the mist. The darkness appears to have eyes and blink. Something big swept across the clear night sky.

   Nearly anything goes within the UNRVLD verse. It’s horror and dark fantasy based. Folklore and myths all have truths to them. The paranormal and supernatural exist in everyday life, but the majority of all humans have no idea. That sweet shop owner is a witch, that bartender is a vampire, that random kinda creepy guy asking for a bed for the night is an old god, and that dog following you isn’t just a dog. Walls might breathe if you pay enough attention, there are rumors about rain that has caused blisters and death, and that large oak tree seems to move every other week.

  Wendigos exist, sinkhole Sam exists, jackalopes exist, dragons are probably hiding somewhere, weird tree creatures exist, strange eldritch giant entities exist, cursed objects, glitches in the matrix, magical portals, different realms, objects that multiply endlessly, nothingness out on the lake, an island that bleeds, organizations based around the supernatural beings (vampires gotta get blood from somewhere without murdering everyone)... you get the idea. 

   Few humans know of the horrible things that exist, which is probably for the best. Even most non-humans don’t know everything - most are caught up living their own lives instead of researching the unknown. A hunter doesn’t necessarily need to be human and might specialize in one or a handful of anomalies. Some work to protect the anomalies and keep them hidden, some work to contain them so they don’t harm others. 

  The largest international group working with investigating, containing, and protecting anomalies (or protect humans and civilization) as well as researching them is Tectus. People outside it have never heard of the name, and people inside it only know enough to do what their job requires. If you’re thinking of the SCP foundation and the FBC from Control, you’d be right because they do basically the same kind of job! The biggest difference is Tectus performs more experiments that are morally questionable. And no, they won’t capture unproblematic creatures that only kill once in a while, but they will annihilate any common creature that causes a lot of problems and attention. For the greater good. 

Want to write in this verse?! GO FOR IT!!! Reblog this post to save it under a good tag <3

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

I was talking about this theory with one of my other friends last night for a bit and hit on the idea of: What if instead of him just being killed off so we can see more of Fascist Emo Kylo Ren and his Tantrum Throwing in The Last Jedi it had been revealed that Snoke was literally a living personification of the Force? Either someone who was posessed by it or the Force taking some kind of direct form

It would have explained both how he’s so ridiculous Over Powered and also how he could do weird stuff that even other dark side users couldn’t (Like how according to the books he was basically Slender Man-ing Ben Solo his whole childhood, appearing to him and twisting his Mind Toward Evil which as far as I know is not something that even extremely powerful Sith could do...hence why Palpatine and Vader had to use manipulation to try and turn people to the Dark Side...but in Snoke’s case he can apparently just full on Show Up In Your Dreams and be a Little Devil Whispering Evil Intent in your ear)

Snoke is the force personifying itself to try and finally destroy the Jedi who, as people who both use the Force for good and who try and resist the “Dark Side” of the force are basically the number one obstacle to the Force’s goal

It would explain also why the First Order doesn’t really seem to have ANY long term goal besides “Get rid of the Jedi”...everything we see them do in the films is Snoke directing them either himself or through his apprentice Kylo Ren to cause the extinction of the Jedi...he devotes ridiculous amounts of time and effort just to killing them

Compare this to how Palpatine while he certainly wanted the Jedi gone it was as part of his overall “Conquer the universe” plan...he didn’t seem all that bothered in finding Obi Wan or Yoda after he had conquered the galaxy...yet Snoke devotes the ENTIRE RESOURCES of the First Order JUST to finding Luke Skywalker specifically because Luke is the last known Jedi...

Snoke being literally the Evil Will of the Force made manifest and basically using the First Order as his tool towards destroying ANY good/benevolent influence on the Force so it can be Wholly Evil would explain his character and his bizarre motivations well...he’s basically like the Evil Matrix Entity from Transformers, a force of Evil Incarnate that  wants to wipe out any trace of goodness from the Force becaus the Force views people using it for good and following the Jedi path as a “Corruption” of its true Eldritch Horror nature

You know, with all the language throughout Star Wars about “giving in” to the Dark Side, how the Dark Side makes you more powerful, how the Dark Side makes you age strangely and destroys you, it sure doesn’t sound like an “opposite side of the coin” so much as the “deeper end of the pool,” like it’s actually the true form of the force and being a Jedi is about keeping it tamed so it doesn’t eat you the way it actually wants.

[nozomijoestar]

who would win in a 1v1 fistfight between minna and edytha

Ok see Minna has the ridiculously overpowered ability of Spacial Awareness basically making her from the matrix but Edytha is a cryptid capable of hefting around a massive rocket launcher and who also taught virtually all of Minna’s closest Karlsland friends how to fight and can also walk on water like Jesus so tbh I think Edytha would break Minna like an uncooked spaghetti noddle using her crypid possibly eldritch horror strength