#but i think about that post a ridiculous amount

[hard-core-super-star]

Random thought popped into my head but it's about vampire Kate x reader. What if reader was a witch of some sort who got her heart broken because Kate is an fboy and became terrified and left when she realized how much she loved the reader but came crawling back a year later because she needed reader's witchy help and they ended up casually flirting because they clearly still have feelings for each other and stuff

ain't that the kicker [K.Bishop]

pairing: vampire!kate x reader

summary: the morning after your late-night encounter with kate doesn't go quite as planned...and neither does the day after that or the day after that. [aka you and kate have way more issues than you thought]

warnings: none, i think?; did somebody order angst?; so much tension, you need more than one knife; i rob you of a longer wanda scene; cliffhanger ending because this got too long; weird vampire powers that are badly explained; very long dream sequences; a surprising lack of actual vampire stuff [i badly need to rewatch first kill]; idiots in love but emphasis on the idiots!

wodcount: 3.2k

a/n: hey everyone, my motivation was pretty dead for a while but, unsurprisingly, vampire kate brought it back! and before you all freak out, YES! THERE WILL BE ANOTHER PART! and maybe it'll be less sad and more spicy, who knows? anyway, thank you so much for sticking with me and my constant disappearing act. my second year at university is wrapping up so hopefully you’ll see more of me this summer ;) that's all i have to say, hope you enjoy <3

* * * * * * *

Saying going home with Kate Bishop had been a bad idea would be a massive understatement.

You knew being alone with the heir of Bishop Security would come with problems but the problems all seemed relatively small compared to the continuous waves of pleasure you had been under all night.

To be fair, though, you never expected a grainy picture of you on Kate's lap to be part of that list of problems. You had expected some awkwardness from the charming brunette, the usual "we can't do this again" speech while actively making out in some random storage closet, maybe even some weird looks from your co-workers to further complicate things.

Your original plan had featured everything except you going viral overnight and waking up to the biggest PR disaster to ever hit Bishop Security. (Which is saying a lot considering the many one-night stand scandals Kate always finds herself wrapped up in)

You had so many ideas of what the morning after would be like but none of them included you waking up to an empty bed and a large pit in your stomach that tells you you fucked up big time.

Maybe it had been your fault, maybe you had been too naive for thinking you could really have it all.

Or maybe Kate was right. Maybe she had a longer list of enemies than you had been willing to entertain.

There were far too many “maybe’s” in your mind, an overwhelming amount of notifications on your phone, and you had no idea where Kate had gone.

You’re not sure how long you spend scrolling through Twitter and avoiding all the texts filled with unanswerable questions from your co-workers but eventually, you manage to regain control of yourself and get up from the archer’s ridiculously comfortable bed. You do your best to ignore how shaky your legs are as you get dressed, your mind unfortunately drifting to the night before.

You manage to find your way to the kitchen where there's a full spread of, slightly burnt, breakfast waiting for you. Your heart swells as you read the messy handwriting on the post-it note next to the biggest stack of pancakes you’ve ever seen.

Morning, sunshine. I didn’t know what you were in the mood for so I made a bit of everything. Eat as much as you can, you’ll need a lot of food and water to recover from last night ;) - Kate

It’s impossible to stop the wave of relief that crashes into you after reading that.

As impossible as it feels, you allow yourself to believe things will be fine. That Kate will stick by your side after opening up to you about her supernatural abilities.

But the fantasy doesn’t last long.

You’re halfway through your breakfast when you hear the front door slam shut with so much force you briefly wonder if the hinges came off. It takes no more than fifteen seconds for the archer to appear in front of you, her shoulders tense and an unreadable storm in her eyes.

Her posture already tells you the answer to the question forming on your lips but you ask anyway. “Everything okay?”

She seems almost startled by the sound of your voice as if hearing you makes you real.

It makes the mess you’re both in real.

“No,” she sighs. “I have some shitty news.”

“Shittier than being called a slut by all of New York?” You reply, unable to stop the urge to make her smile.

Kate doesn’t fully smile but she does let out a small chuckle, her shoulders dropping into a less tense position as the sound escapes her. “Yeah…shittier than that.”

You should’ve known where the conversation was headed. Should’ve realized there was no way you’d be able to have it all. No way for you to continue with your life as if nothing had happened.

Maybe you are too naive because you truly didn’t see her next sentence coming.

“y/n…I have to fire you and we...we can’t do this again. This has to be goodbye.”

Everything crashes into you at once.

The realization of what you’ve actually done, the stupid ease with which Kate is cutting you out of her life, the betrayal of her practically kicking you out onto the streets. You’re not an idiot, you know there’s no way you’ll be able to keep your apartment, your humble yet expensive life in New York, without your job.

Without her.

“You…you’re serious? You’re throwing me out just like that?”

“It’s not easy for me either-”

“It looks pretty damn easy, Kate.” You scoff.

“You’re not the one who spent her whole morning getting chewed out by her mom.” Her words come out like an afterthought, like she knows just how badly she’ll fuck up if you hear the annoyance behind them.

Unfortunately for her, you hear her loud and clear.

“Oh, come on. That’s your excuse? You had one bad conversation with your mom and suddenly I don’t mean anything?”

She doesn’t reply and her silence only serves to stoke the flames of fury and resentment rising within your chest.

“Do you know how many death threats I’ve gotten in the last hour? How many coworkers have tried to blackmail me already? Do you understand just how much of my life this has ruined? And you have the audacity to act like you have it hard?”

“Don’t pretend like you know anything about my life,” she spits back. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it, Katherine. If I didn’t know you, if you didn’t care, why the hell did you tell me your dirty little secret?”

She blinks, taken aback by the hard-hitting truth you throw her way.

If you didn’t know her, you wouldn’t notice the way she nervously fidgets with her fingers or the way she bites down on her lower lip while she tries to come up with something to say. If you didn’t know her, you wouldn’t know she��s hurting underneath.

You do know her, though, but knowing her isn’t enough if she’s not willing to let you stay.

So, because you do know her…you walk away.

It feels like giving up in the most infuriating of ways but it’s the only thing you can do. If Kate’s mind is made up, there’s no amount of reason that will get her to change. That’s another thing about her you’ve learned the hard way.

So you swallow your pride and walk away with no plan, no job, no way of supporting yourself. If you were a more spiteful person, you would have applied for a job at Stark Industries but instead, you do the second hardest thing you’ve ever done.

You restart.

It’s a bitter defeat and still, you pack up your things and pay an old friend a visit.

You had left Wanda behind after the Westview fiasco but she’s the only person you can think of running to after your entire life went up in flames. All it takes is one quick spell and the realization that a life without dark magic isn’t one you can live before you’re standing on the porch of her small cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Saying she’s disappointed would be an understatement, especially since she explicitly warned you not to fall in love with Kate Bishop. It’s hard to believe the witch knew about Kate’s vampire secret but you also wouldn’t be surprised if she knew what awaited you the second you left for New York.

Unfortunately, you had to learn things the hard way.

You could write multiple books on everything you’ve learned the hard way.

At the top of that list, though, is the true extent of a certain archer’s vampire powers.

It takes less than a month for Kate to reach you again…through your dreams. Dreams that feel far too real and leave you a tad bit more breathless than you’ll ever be willing to admit.

The first time it happens, you assume it’s one of Wanda’s new tricks, maybe it’s her way of helping you cope with what (or rather who) you’ve left behind. You think it’s weird but maybe a tad bit sweet and you make a mental note to ask her about it in the morning.

It’s not until you realize that you’re actively thinking that you start to worry.

To make matters worse, you’re inside Kate’s apartment…and she quite literally stumbles out of her bedroom to see you standing in the middle of her living room.

“Oh, shit.” She groans.

Your heart skips a beat at the sound of her voice. You know you’re just dreaming and yet it all feels so real. It’s like you can feel her eyes on you, hear the way your heart won’t stop pounding in your ears.

Your confusion must be written all over your face because she answers your question before you can even ask it.

“Yes, you are dreaming but this isn’t like a normal dream.”

“What the fuck happened to you not being a mind reader?” You blurt out.

You wait for that stupid smirk of hers to appear, maybe with a half-assed shrug and a semi-charming joke, but it never comes. “My dream, my rules, I guess.”

“That still doesn’t explain what’s going on.”

A beat of silence goes by before she sort of gives you an answer. “I can explain but you might hate me afterwards.”

The look in her eyes says more than you can possibly handle right now. You’ve never known Kate to be particularly insecure but all you can see in those blue depths is fear and insecurity. Fear that your feelings for her have changed, that you already hate her and never want to hear from her again.

Too bad you’ve never been good at lying.

“Try me.”

The corners of her mouth quirk up into a small smile. “Long story short, we’re bonded. That’s why we’re in each other’s dreams.”

There’s a bigger question to be asked but you’re still a little freaked out by how real this all feels. By how intense your feelings for her still are.

“But this isn’t like a normal dream, is it?”

“Nope, perks of having vampire powers.”

“So, you can do everything except read minds?” You can’t help but tease her like all the times before. “That sucks.”

“Shut up,” she says with an over-dramatic roll of her eyes.

A calm silence falls over both of you and you hate how normal it feels. How just like that, you forget your anger and the betrayal you’ve felt every minute since the day you left New York in favor of falling for her stupidly enchanting self all over again.

It doesn’t help that with every second, the distance between you gets smaller and smaller.

You don’t know who takes the first step, all you know is you blink and suddenly she’s standing right in front of you, those soft blue eyes of hers searching for the truth you can’t hide.

“y/n,” she murmurs, her hand tentatively reaching out to tuck a stray piece of hair behind your ear. “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t what you wanted.”

She’s technically not wrong, leaving because of her incapability to deal with her feelings was the last thing you wanted, but it’s not like you had any other choice.

She didn’t give you any other choice.

And now she’s here, staring at you with that wounded puppy look she so effortlessly embodies.

“I wanted you,” you whisper in response. “When are you going to get that through your thick skull?”

She chuckles, the sound warm but nervous. Her hand moves to cup your face and her touch is so soft, it leaves you breathless for a moment. “Never, I’m too stubborn for that, remember?”

You can’t help but tease her as the atmosphere shifts into something more affectionate than you’d like. “How could I forget? It’s your worst trait.”

“Ouch. Is that how you treat your favorite vampire?”

“Aw, poor little vampire baby.”

You wait for her to make one of her usual jokes but she doesn’t.

Instead, her eyes drift down to your lips and your mind instantly goes blank.

There’s an endless list of reasons why you shouldn’t do it. Just because it’s a dream doesn’t mean it isn’t a bad idea. Then again…when has that ever stopped you from being with Kate Bishop?

It’s subtle but you lean forward just enough to give her the invitation she’s too much of a gentleman to ask for. Her eyes widen the slightest bit before she meets you in the middle, the space between your lips becoming nonexistent in the span of a few seconds.

You try your hardest to hold on to your self control, to not seem as desperate as you’ve felt since that first night, but it’s useless. Your hands grip the front of her shirt in an attempt to pull her closer despite how insane everything is.

You’re simply dreaming and yet you can feel every touch, every breath, every desperate effort to make your desires a reality. You would feel embarrassed if Kate wasn’t acting the same way.

Her lips leave yours only to trail down to your neck, her fangs instantly teasing the sensitive skin she finds. The anticipation builds inside your chest as she toys with you and it’s all you can do not to beg for more.

“Kate.” Her name leaves your lips in the form of a whisper that disappears just as fast as it formed.

All you hear is her sharp intake of breath before it all fades to black.

Your eyes snap open and you’re greeted with the absolute silence you’re starting to associate with Wanda’s cabin. All you can do is lay there in the darkness, your heart pounding in your ears while your fingers trace the spot Kate’s lips had just been on.

It had all felt so real and now you’re all alone again. It shouldn’t be surprising at this point and yet you still hold on to the hope Kate will come looking for you.

But she doesn’t.

All she does is haunt your dreams in the most literal way possible. She doesn’t come to find you and fix your many, many issues, instead, she simply appears in your dreams long enough to send your mind reeling without offering any solutions.

You wish you could hate her for doing this to you but you can’t.

You love her.

Worse than that, you love her more and more each night. Even though it’s not nearly enough to heal any of your wounds, and maybe it only serves to hurt you more, it’s definitely addicting.

Wanda offers to help you sever the connection between you and Kate, something about a spell she read in the Darkhold being her only assurance that she knows what she’s doing. You don’t fully trust her on that but you do consider the option for longer than you want to admit.

You reason with yourself that there are much worse things to deal with on a daily basis than highly realistic dreams, though. That being bonded to a vampire isn't the worst thing in the world.

And maybe that would be true…if the vampire in question wasn't Kate Bishop.

You don't know what possesses you to ask but the question slips out in the middle of another midnight rendezvous. It’s been a little over two month since you moved away from New York, a little over two months since you've shared these weird dreams with Kate, when you finally ask.

“What exactly did you do for us to be bonded to each other?”

The question must catch her off guard given the way her eyes widen in panic. “What?”

“You said these weird dreams happen because we’re bonded or something but you never explained how that happened.” You watch the brunette from your spot on the couch and impatiently wait for a response, for something that will help you make sense of everything.

She swallows back her nervousness but gives herself away due to the way she fidgets with the rings on her hand. “Oh, yeah, that…it’s because I bit you that night in my apartment…remember?”

Her awkwardness would be endearing if her response wasn't so damn suspicious.

“Yeah but you're a vampire, biting people is kind of your thing. You're not automatically bonded to every person you bite, right?”

A beat of silence passes before she answers, her voice shaking the slightest bit. “No that…that only happens when there are…certain feelings involved.”

It takes a second for her answer to click in your brain. For her sudden nervousness to hold real meaning.

The answer hits you like a train and it makes your blood boil like nothing else.

“Kate, tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means. Tell me you didn't fire me because you were too afraid of having feelings for me.”

“y/n-”

“For fuck’s sake, Kate!”

The sudden frustration in your voice makes her jump, hundreds of meaningless explanations forming on the tip of her tongue.

You don't hear a word she says.

You can't hear anything besides the pounding in your heart and the devastation that threatens to swallow you whole.

You always knew being with Kate would be impossible but this was something else entirely. This wasn't a lack of feelings between you two, this was too many feelings and too many miles of distance and not one ounce of regret from her.

You're not sure when you stood up from your spot or when she approached you, you simply feel her hand on your waist and the unmistakable sound of her breathing.

“y/n,” she tries again. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m so tired of hearing you say that.”

“I know.”

The last thing you feel is her lips on the back of your neck before you wake up. Alone. Again.

Wanda must catch on to your desperation because she brings up the idea of cutting your connection with Kate that same morning.

“It’ll only be temporary,” she assures you. “No offense but you need sleep more than you need Kate Bishop.”

“I’m a little offended,” you grumble in response.

Despite your reservations, and the voice in the back of your head that tells you running away again is a bad idea, you go along with her plan. She's right, after all. You definitely need some time away from Kate Bishop and her never-ending messes.

The spell is simpler than you expect and it, thankfully, requires pretty much no effort on your part and no weird liquids.

It does also bring the best sleep you’ve had in months so you can’t complain…even when you wake up missing the sound of the archer’s voice.

You still miss her every day and you're sure that won't change any time soon but you welcome the peace with open arms.

Wanda spends her time teaching you random spells while you help her build a nice flower garden in the backyard. It's weird but…comforting.

You could even get used to life out here someday.

At least, that's what you keep telling yourself as the weeks go by.

Until Kate shows up unannounced and flips your world upside down again with those same soft eyes you fell on love with all those months ago.

[flovverworks]

everytime i think of the twins i end up thinking about that one post about figaro & the twins and their views on love and figaro being around them shaping his own view of it and oouuugghhhhhhhh.....

[la-pheacienne]

George Martin, 2013: "In a very basic level winter is coming for all of us. I think that’s one of the things that art is concerned with: the awareness of our own mortality. “Valar morghulis” – “All men must die”. That shadow lies over our world and will until medical science gives us all immortality… but I don’t think it makes it necessarily a pessimistic world. Not any more pessimistic than the real world we live in. We’re here for a short time and we should be conscious of our own mortality, but the important thing is that love, compassion and empathy with other human beings is still possible. Laughter is still possible! Even laughter in the face of death… The struggle to make the world a better place… We have things like war, murder and rape… horrible things that still exist, but we don’t have to accept them, we can fight the good fight. The fight to eliminate those things.There is darkness in the world, but I don’t think we necessarily need to give way to despair. One of the great things that Tolkien says in Lord of The Rings is “despair is the ultimate crime”. That’s the ultimate failing of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, that he despairs of ever being able to defeat Sauron. We should not despair. We should not go gentle into that good night".

JRR Tolkien, 1962 : "One reviewer once said, this is a jolly jolly book, all the right boys come home [...]- this isn't true of course, he can't have read the story. [...] Human stories are practically always about one thing, really, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death. . . . . . (He quotes Simone de Beauvoir) 'There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that ever happens to man is natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must die, but for every man his death is an accident, and even if he knows it he would sense to it an unjustifiable violation.' Well, you may agree with the words or not, but those are the key spring of The Lord Of The Rings".

"Lotr is all rainbows and unicorns and Asoiaf is nihilistic and grimdark". Wrong, and wrong. In all its hope and radiance, lotr often gets very dark, and despite all the death and suffering, the hopeful moments in asoiaf shine bright. The meeting point of these two is this: having hope while in despair, and even better, refusing to give up because you have to go on despite not having any hope left.

[jessaerys]

"But I finished [Near and Mello] together as a set, and although they aren’t particularly laid out as such, I still feel a bit like they’re twins." —Obata Takeshi

whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same:

i. low sky, mahmoud darwish. ii. the world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire, ritika jyala. iii. kadan, 2008. iv. the dreamers, gilbert adair. v. @nathanielorion vi. nagiko, 2016. vii. elektra, sophokles (tr. anne carson). viii. wishbone, richard siken. ix. inbred, ethel cain. x. the boy who, tirol. xi. monster portraits, del samatar and sofia samatar. xii. in the field, @nathanielorion xiii. death note, "use" ch77. xiv. gut symmetries, jeanette winterson. xv. mystic union; fire and wine: poems, john gould fletcher. xvi. @inukai_0055, twitter. xvii. the carnivorous lamb, agustín gómez-arcos. xviii. my sister, the serial killer, oyinkan braithwaite. xix. the beatrice letters, lemony snicket (text); a quiet visitor, holly warburton (art); @unpardonablesins (edit). xx. ada, vladimir nabokov. xxi. this is how you lose the time war, amal el-mohtar. xxii. the borgias, s3e10, showtime. xxiii. @antaarf xxiv. @vilicity xxv. @boymiffy

[parvuls]

"Bitty spends Y1 hating Jack!"

does he? because:

"So Bitty spends Y1 wanting to be friends with Jack!"

does he? because:

"So Bitty spends Y1 being intimidated by Jack!"

does he? because:

"So Bitty spends Y1 being (begrudgingly) intrigued by Jack and wanting to know more about him!"

does he? because:

"So Bitty spends Y1 in a hero-worship awe of Jack!"

does he? because:

"So Bitty DOES spend Y1 hating Jack!"

does he??? because:

"So Bitty spends Y1 kind of... developing a small crush on Jack???"

Bitty is clearly very confused about Jack during his freshman year of Samwell, and an honest depiction of this time period should take all of these conflicting emotions into account.

[princelancey]

Lance is such a let bygones be bygones kind of a guy, we should embrace that energy more often in sports tbh, it's never that serious

[cementcornfield]

Ja'Marr Chase Lightning Round

[melit0n]

Heard we were doing some Orb Posting! I think I'm a bit late, but we ball

[candytuft-whimsing]

Clip Studio officially hates me but at least I got it out for Mermay<3

U think they're friends? I think they're friends.

Without background under the cut

Btw, they aren't inspired by any specific fishes this time, I kinda just did it on whim. And bc I didn't have internet during the sketch lmao

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

✨ THE GANG IS FINALLY BACK TOGETHER ✨

[meownotgood]

chapter 1 + chapter 2... halfway to 60k

[wrestlezon]

saving photos off the aew website

aew posts photos from dynamite/rampage in their photo gallery here: https://www.allelitewrestling.com/aew-photos

you can't right-click on anything in the wix gallery, which means you can't right-click save the images. however you can click and drag the image to a new browser tab, freeing it from the clutches of the wix gallery.

now you can right-click save the image, but its actually a "webp" file. bad! i hate webp!

you can access the jpg version of the image by simply deleting everything after the "~mv2.jpg" part of the url. so you want to keep only this highlighted part, basically:

now you are looking at the jpg version of the photo! it's not a webp and as a bonus its at its largest original size. congrats.

its kind of a pain in the ass to manually delete part of the url for every photo if youre saving a bunch of them. i use a bookmarklet to truncate the url automatically. here:

javascript:location.href = location.href.substring(0,location.href.indexOf("/v1"));

you use this by adding a new website bookmark in your browser, but instead of putting a website url you put that whole javascript line in there.

when you click this new bookmark, it'll look for the phrase "/v1" in your current tab's URL and delete it along with everything after it for you, and then load that url. handy!

it will do this for any website or url. so dont click it when you dont want to

[batfamfucker]

TikTok is now at the 'fake movie' stage Tumblr was at a few months back. Whilst we had Goncharov, they have a movie called 'Zepotha'.

For the trend, people will comment on videos to say the creator 'Looks like [Random Name] from Zepotha' and make up lore, edits and aesthetic videos based on the film, ect. It's a horror movie from the 80s. Everyone is upset the couple they were rooting for died.

[thethingything]

our current dilema is that the pain from our wisdom tooth keeps getting so bad we have to take pain meds (like it keeps hitting an 8/10 for several hours at a time. we can't not take pain meds) but the only pain meds that touch it have a warning on them saying not to take them for more than 3 days in a row, and we have at least another month of dealing with this, so I don't really know what to do.

the warning is because they're opioids and can cause addiction but I don't actually know how bad the risk is because everything seems to treat it like opioids are the worst thing ever and should be avoided at all costs and you'll get addicted if you so much as glance at them.

either way, my options are to either keep taking them and just accept that risk, or deal with being in so much pain I can't function. even with taking the pain meds I can tell we're a lot more irritable and short tempered and probably just insufferable to be around honestly and I hate the fact that pain causes this, but once again we've got to deal with this for over a month and we've also got to deal with the anxiety over what the treatment for it is going to actually involve.

I've had to deal with medical trauma stuff I didn't even know about until like yesterday when Lucy suggested it might be part of why I feel so shit, and I've had multiple panic attacks per day and constantly feel way more anxious than usual and I get the feeling we're just gonnaa have to put up with this for the next month and I don't know how the fuck I'm meant to cope with any of this

[meatriarchived]

i really do drop an unholy amount of things into inboxes sometimes huh-

[gayrobos]

i would fucking love to read your author's-commentary on the stunticon friends comics! maybe not like in the individual update posts but i know spoilers don't really stop me from enjoying anything and it'd be cool to hear about the stuff that can't quite be shown yet :D

WELL OKAY IF YOU INSIST hehe. it's mostly thoughts about people's relationships. and a lot of it is thoughts about people's relationships with motormaster. a nice relaxing 1.5k of authors notes which doesn't contain spoilers for future plot per se.

I kind of think of this comic as being about... what is decepticon culture, and how does it impact people who've been in it and also their adopted human teen. I've joked that the reason the stunticons are here on earth is because they joined the "kick around people who are weaker than you" faction and they were shocked, SHOCKED when someone stronger than them started kicking them around. so they went to a place where nobody's stronger than them ::)

mikki, meanwhile, is in a super weird place about this because they're. not actually strong at all. EXCEPT when they're with the stunticons. so they have this mindset that they're top dog and they can do anything they want but that's not going to be true if they actually leave and they do know this. they know that if they want to maintain the power they have they need to stay with these people who seemed so normal to them and who they are realizing are seriously not normal. who are frightening. who have never been what they seemed to mikki. it makes a teen ask some questions! or stubbornly refuse to ask themself any questions!

the stunticons of course also refuse to do any amount of self-examination. they came out here to do nothing more and nothing less than have a good time at other people's expense. but they're each deeply neurotic in their own special ways, largely but not exclusively because of their time under motormaster's command.

wildrider has always been Like that. as in, needs a lot of stimulation or she will rip up the furniture and chew through someone's face. putting her under the command of a huge control freak like motormaster was kind of a dumb idea, because they were constantly butting heads. except motormaster is four times wildrider's size and can squish her like a toyota corolla. thankfully wildrider has never ever learned a lesson in her life and just kept on antagonizing motormaster forever until she got sick of being beat up for ignoring orders and wandering off to shred things and. you know. impaled her. basically wildrider's injuries were purely physical because she wasn't that afraid of the consequences of defying motormaster or more broadly decepticon command. nobody else got off that easy. (EDIT: I completely forgot to mention how ashamed wildrider is of every time she made a compromise for the sake of her safety. which wasn't all the time, but she sees it as cowardice, not self-preservation. she HAS been altered by motormaster; it showed her a side of herself she hates and now she's got to be even more recklessly aggressive to prove she's not a coward.)

dead end has spent a long time making herself into a tool to be wielded. if you never expect anything good to happen you can't be disappointed! and this doesn't extend just to motormaster, you know? the entire decepticon army runs on "shut up, do what you're told, perform viciousness." wildrider is in some ways the perfect decepticon. dead end sucks at it, but she CAN shut up and do what she's told. she's very good at killing people but she doesn't much like it. I think motormaster has probably told her a lot of times that she's only good for one thing and she's not that good at it. she really really longs to connect with people but she's also terrified of it (for good reason, since she's gotten burned a lot) and in the present she's still pretty withdrawn even from the other stunticons. mikki felt like a safer option because they're just a little alien and if we feed them and tame them they won't be able to leave! and then: uh-oh. dead end caught feelings. she should know better by now.

breakdown, we haven't seen that much of her being neurotic because she's been in a really safe place for four years. the humans can't touch her. she doesn't have to leave her ship. she doesn't even have to talk to the other stunticons if she doesn't want to, mostly. historically she has been a LOT weirder. and we'll see some of that soon ::) to motormaster she was suuuuch an easy target for isolation. you can tell her to always stay in the comms room and she'll just do it! you can tell the rest of your crew to play pranks on her and gaslight her and they will because it's funny and you're decepticons! you can tell her in private that it was their idea! to breakdown, motormaster is THE number one trustworthy person. which isn't to say that breakdown doesn't fear her, it's just that motormaster can't "betray" you. what would that mean. it's meaningless. this is part of why I'm so insane about wildbreak. breakdown is like, yeah, wildrider is violent and kind of unpredictable and she thinks it's funny to torment me, AND she keeps trying to get me to break the rules. the only way to deal with this is to play along enough to get her to keep it a secret. and also she's hot and I desperately want to hurt someone because I feel so angry and helpless all the time. like! the only person breakdown trusts is also the implicit threat whenever she's with wildrider??? the only connection she'll allow herself to have is with someone she truly dislikes and who has never treated her well! neither of them can ever admit they care about each other as more than fight club buddies because their affection is all twisted up in hatred and their clashing personalities and the way they've been intentionally set against each other!!! AUGH

post-motormaster they just hit each other and have sex like regular people. but watch out!

okay and finally we come to drag strip. who as I'm sure you've noticed needs desperately to be liked by everyone and for nobody to be mad at her specifically and also each other. this is a terrible coping mechanism for dealing with motormaster, but it's the one she developed! and it kind of fucked her over because at the crucial moment she didn't join in on killing motormaster. her loyalties were very much divided between the one person who was most important to make happy and the people she intellectually knew were on her side. and now she's always going to be the one who didn't want motormaster dead. and she's always going to be thinking about how everyone else is thinking that. but everything's fine as long as they still laugh at her jokes.

it's been SO fun to plot out the stunticons falling the fuck apart because the foundation of their trust in each other has always been rotten. house of robot usher over here. there's a lot of decepticons out here who feel genuine camaraderie despite (because of!) the way that their military culture encourages them to turn on anyone who isn't performing decepticonness well enough, but, um, that's not the stunticons. living and fighting together for thousands of years just gave them a LOT of beef to pretend they don't have with each other. despite themselves they do all genuinely care for mikki, but their model for caring about someone is "war buddy" which kinda comes down to "do fun shit with them and save their life." and none of them have the capacity to admit (even to themselves) that they have real feelings for someone!! that would be seriously uncool and not macho et c. so you get situations like mikki passive-aggressively going WOW NOBODY HERE CARES ABOUT ME OR EVEN THINKS I'M A PERSON! and getting crickets in response.

whew.

okay, what about motormaster? what's her deal?

funnily enough I've not done that much development on her since she's barely gotten any screentime. so some of what I'm saying here is solidifying for the first time. (I don't really write a lot of notes, just scripts.) like I said, she's a control freak. and an egotist. she needs to claim credit for the victories of everyone under her command, and she's a pretty fucking bad leader which is why she only has four subordinates. but she's unbelievably effective on the battlefield, and that ability transfers well to menasor. a win for the decepticons. truly, what is there to say about her? in this story she's defined by what she does to other people. I won't get into the metaphors that we'll see in stunticomix endgame (teehee), but from a narrative point of view she's literally nothing without them. she's more the spectre of decepticon culture than she is a person, yk?

so the stakes of this story are: can the stunticons overcome millennia of indoctrination, abuse, and generally sucking in order to have a genuine relationship with like 1 person who doesn't have that baggage? can they allow themselves to care about ANYTHING? originally the script I wrote (with arcee's help <3 hi arcee) calls for the answer to be yes, they can pledge themselves to a cause they decided for themselves and yes they can build a community. but you know what? reading all this shit it's really hard to believe that they can do any of that. VOTE IN THE REPLIES will y'all be mad at me if this turns out to be a tragedy. lmao.