#how they deploy-

[wainswright]

moral arguments about this subject (what just pings to me as logistics) always have a completely random focus in media

[thepoisonroom]

every time a customer tries to get me to take off my mask because they're allegedly hard of hearing and need to lip read i do dream of saying "is that true???" to them because that is MY disability that they're pretending to have to be a shithead and yet i don't want to say that because if i earnestly asked for accommodation and someone asked if i was lying i would want to sink into the floor!!! but if they are lying to me i think they should feel total devastating shame and go to hell probably.

[mismaxx]

NATO/Zionist bootlickers: YEMEN STILL GONNA FAFO!!!

Coalition of the Unwilling, lmao.

What a shitshow. 💀

[marisashinx]

Ace Tsum has finally made his debut! Please handle with care- ACE WAIT NO PUT HIM DOWN!!!

[ginerva-mollyweasley]

"he's from the other side... but we don't talk religion"

PADDY MAYNE AND EOIN MCGONIGAL -> they both survive the war and live through the troubles au

[jerrom]

rolf and mist B support was really something

[varpusvaras]

Cody was right where Fox had known he would be.

Fox watched his back for a moment, before he looked at Rex. He was a little paler and a bit more grey than the last time Fox had seen him, and only one of those things had something to do with age. Fox watched for another moment how Rex's chest would rise with his breaths, before he decided that he had stood there silent for long enough.

"Cody."

Cody's back straightened like he had been hit by a lightning. Fox watched as he stood there, for a second, two, five, ten, his whole body rigid, before he finally seemed to regain control of himself and turned around to face him.

Cody looked...

Old.

It was the first thought Fox could manage to think. Tired was perhaps the word that would suit his outlook better, now that he had had the time to think for a moment longer, but it was not incorrect either. The Cody that Fox would see inside his head was like he had been when everything had been good. Tall, proud, brighter than all the suns in the universe.

The Cody standing before him now had more grey in his hair than Fox had ever had, and had the outlook of a man who had spent a better part of the past twenty years in deep sorrow.

Fox looked at this Cody, who looked back at him, with a look in his eyes that Fox knew all too well. He had seen the very same look on his own reflection too many times, after all.

He waited for Cody to decide.

He didn't have to wait for long.

Cody moved. He took a step, then another, his feet picking speed, his eyes never leaving Fox as he walked across the room towards him.

Then he was right in front of Fox, and he wrapped his arms around Fox and held onto him like his whole life depended on it.

Fox held him back just as tight.

They stood there for a long while. Fox did not know what he should say, so he stayed quiet, and for the time being, it seemed that Cody was content on doing the same. It did not bother Fox. This was the Cody that Fox still remembered, the one with arms stronger than all the forces in the Galaxy.

Nothing could last forever, though, and eventually, Fox heard Cody draw in a long breath, as if he was bracing himself, and then he finally stood back enough to look at Fox in the eyes again.

Fox looked back, letting Cody search whatever he was looking for. Fox was the one who had to answer for things, so it was only fair that he let Cody ask all the questions first.

Cody reached up with his hand. His fingertips howered at Fox's temple, hesitating for a few seconds, before he carefully brushed them against Fox's face.

His hands were still warm.

"Your hair is black", Cody said.

"It's dyed", Fox told him. No defining traits to anyone to recognise him by. "I'm still the one who started to look old before anyone else, don't worry."

Cody let out a breathy laugh. It was more like a strangled wheeze, if Fox was being perfectly honest.

"You don't look old", he said. He swallowed hard between his words. "You look...alive."

Something constricted around Fox's lungs.

"Yes", he said.

Perhaps it was the wrong thing to say. Cody shook his head, and then he let it fall forwards, leaning against Fox, and hiding his face at his chest. His back trembled with his next breath.

"You're alive", he said.

Fox nodded.

"Yes", he said. "I'm sorry."

Cody laughed again, louder this time. More shaky, too.

"Don't", he said. "Just...don't. Okay?"

"Okay", Fox said.

This was too easy. Way too easy for Fox, to have Cody to just hug it out like this. Cody deserved everything from Fox, and Fox nothing from him.

Here Fox was, still, just letting it happen, just because he had missed his brother.

They stood there for another moment in silence.

"How?" Cody asked, finally. "Why?"

For this, Fox was prepared.

"I was as good as dead", he said. "In a very, very real way. I failed to comply with Vader's orders, even with the chip telling me to follow every word given to me without question. Maybe I just never was that good of a soldier, after all. He snapped my neck and left me there to die on my own."

He still remembered it, no matter how much he had wanted to forget. The way he could only lie there, his body already numb, and just waiting for his lungs to run out of air, not able to make himself draw any more in.

He could still hear it, the noise his bones had made as they had cracked under the invisible force. Fox knew by now that he could never be able to forget it, either.

Cody didn't say anything, and Fox took it as his sign to continue.

"Bail had found out about the chips by that point", he said. "He was trying to get me out of there, as well as any Jedi still on Coruscant, so when he heard about the operation, he had made his way at the Temple as well, waiting to see if there was any opportunity for him to act. He saw it all. He kept me alive with his own hands until they could move me out from there."

That part Fox did not remember, and he was glad that he didn't. It was selfish of him, to be happy about the fact that he had not needed to see Bail watch him die, on top of everything.

Cody's hand slipped down from his face, his fingers wrapping around the back of his neck. Fox held back a shudder. It was not the same. Cody's hand was warm.

"I spent a long time barely awake, going from one operation to another." All of that, Fox could remember, but only in hazy, unfocused flashes of sounds and blurry images. "Breha had had her lungs and heart replaced years ago, and they managed to get the same technology to work on me, eventually, reconnecting my spine and nerves. I then spent even longer time learning how to use my body again."

That, he remembered all. It had, thankfully, not been the worst part of his life.

Cody still didn't say anything. He ran his fingers down Fox's neck, pressing onto the skin, feeling for the bones beneath it. The break was still there. Fox knew exactly where it was, as during the worst of it, he was all too aware of the feeling of his body having been separated from itself.

"I still...it never really healed, completely." It never would, but Fox had learned to take whatever he could a long, long time ago. "Sometimes I lose the feeling of my own body and my legs won't move and my hands will shake, but I'm-"

"Still here", Cody said against his chest. His hand pressed hard into Fox's skin, strong and warm. "You're still here."

Fox breathed through all of the emotions swirling inside him.

"Yes", he said.

Cody didn't say anything.

Fox had to tell him.

"I didn't want to leave you", he hurried to say. "I swear I didn't. Please, Cody. I swear. I had to take care of Leia. She was so small and she needed me and the only thing I could do right was to take care of her. I needed to do it, Cody. She needed me."

I needed her, Fox did not say, but he wouldn't be surprised if Cody could still hear it. I needed her, because loving her was the only thing there was left for me to do for any of us.

If nothing else, Cody could probably hear the way Fox's heart was beating inside his chest right then.

Cody's hand was warm against the back of Fox's neck.

"I know", Cody said, then, like it was really that simple. "I'm just happy that you're here now."

He lifted his head then, and he looked Fox in the eyes and smiled.

"Fox", he said, like he was simply greeting him after a long time apart, and maybe, it could be that simple.

Maybe. Maybe not. But for now, it was, and Fox had missed his brother.

He would take what he was given.

[azure-clockwork]

I love three houses discourse because I'm pretty sure everyone just picks their route based on which house leader they're the most gay for and then tries to defend their pick by pointing out the other sides's war crimes via twitter memes. Reader, all four of them do substantial quantities of war crimes. So many. We're just here because the woman with Issues and a big fuck-off axe said so, and then we gotta justify everything she did in the name of dismantling the class system. I mean, I'm here for that, but you could also try justifying Charm Man uses poison and perfidy to try to stop racism, A Sad Little Meow Meow gives no quarter instead of doing therapy, or the Thicc Pope tries to bring back her mom via human experimentation, depending on your tastes

[solivagantingrebel]

The "Actually, I believe he prefers to be—" "That'll do." Exchange lives rent-free in my brain like. What was Soap going to say? Was it 'L.t'? But I think technically Alejandro is higher ranked than him (Ghost) right(?) So I'm not sure if that works entirely and 'L.t' seems to be something that other marines/or soldiers under their command picks up anyway (probably from Soap idk, but others do call Ghost that). Was it like, 'Simon' or 'Si'? I know he calls Ghost Simon occasionally and maybe the quick shutdown of Soap's sentence comes from Ghost wanting to keep the emotional distance from others. But considering the absolute vitriol of which Ghost says, nay spits, "That'll do." I wonder if Soap has gotten away with introducing Ghost with the stupidest names, like 'Ghostie' or 'Sisi', in the past 💀

[somewhatidealname]

Gabe without helmet and V1 here.

Change my mind

YOU'RE SO RIGHT

[hatsbuckets]

Here she is... my little oc. This all came to me in bits throughout the day, so some stuff might change later, but for now... my american pie...

Joanna Rae “Jo” Harper

Affiliation: U.S. Armed Forces (SOCOM) | JSOC support

Role: Recon | Espionage

Active Timeline: Modern Warfare (2019–2022+)

Age: Late 20s/Early 30s *shrugs*

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 5'8" (173cm)

Eyes: Ocean blue

Hair: Curly (2c-3b) dark brown, usually braided or bunned up

Languages: English, Spanish, Arabic. (She's trying to learn Russian, but claims her brain is just too full.)

Distinguishing Features: Scar on her right knee and missing right pinky toe from a childhood pool accident. (Yes, she’ll tell you the story.) A blue cornflower spine tattoo.

Pinterest Board (all pics used are pinned here)

Background:

Joanna Harper grew up in the same town as Phillip Graves. He was her best friend, a year older, the kind of kid who never backed down and never let her fall behind. Where he got the “men don’t cry” lessons, she got the “that’s not ladylike” and “stay humble and kind” combo. They were thick as thieves. She followed him into the military because she believed in what they could do together.

She ended up enlisting in the Army, with some deployments over seas. Eventually going on to Rangers (this is where her and Grave's paths really start to split). By 2018, she's full on working JSOC/CIA ops and training (met Kate briefly during this time).

She specializes in recon, espionage, and close quarters combat, but what sets her apart is her ability to read people. Whether it’s smoothing things over with local civilians or sniffing out tension in a room, Joanna carries her humanity with her like armor. She’s not perfect by any means, hates going up against bigger opponents (so, most encounters nowadays), gets her ass kicked if she's alone and outnumbered, will use the tools available to her but will lovingly complain that it's not right for her hands, and would rather flirt and smile her way out of tension.

She’s the loud one, the one cracking jokes, the one handing out Jolly Ranchers (to civies and operators) on tense missions and sitting with frightened kids while the boys secure the perimeter. She's a lover, and a fighter, and has the conviction of a lone deranged priest to be joyful and a light in the darkness where she can. She gets underestimated, she doesn't mind one bit.

Key Connections:

Alex Keller: Long-time field partner. She deployed with him in Urzikstan in 2019 and worked some solo missions to help secure key intel alongside Farah, Price, and Gaz.

Phillip Graves: Childhood best friend. She admired him once. Now she doesn't say much.

Laswell/Price: Officially brought Joanna in post-Las Almas, knowing she had the skillset—and the personal stake—to help.

141: She's worked with Price before, it’s how he, Alex, and her all know each other. Knows Gaz well. Met Soap once, years ago, and would fight him for the last donut. She teases the hell out of Ghost and matches his dry, dark humor with laughs and sunshine.

She has a brother, mom, dad, and an aunt but idk about them yet

Loadout:

Suppressed MCX/Honey Badger-style rifle

Customized Glock 19

Inner thigh push dagger (she will get to your ass)

Signal jammer, flashbangs, and a pouch full of candy, medical tape, and stubborn optimism

Fun Facts:

Favorite dessert: Tres leches with strawberries.

Favorite Flower: Cornflower

Favorite of her features: Her nose and her hair.

eepy baby.

SHE LOVES KITTENS

Loves plants, but she cannot keep the poor things alive (except for a singular snake plant she calls “bitch” (affectionate).)

Wore Ray Band aviators once and refuses to wear other sunglasses.

Did ballet until high school-ish. And played baseball with Phil growing up.

Refuses to give up on the world. No matter what it throws at her.

Songs I associate with her: Sunlight by Hozier and Joyful by X Ambassadors

Plot arcs ig: 

Having to deal with the whole Graves fallout.

Romantic tension with Alex… and Farah… for a while. Idk

After hearing about Las Almas she insists on helping the 141 deal with the situation. (a little guilty about knowing where Graves’ loyalties lie and not helping sooner.)

Eventual thing for Price but idk.

More pics I think are her:

Her hair:

Kittens (something that happened at basic):

What I think her eyes and tattoo look like:

Moody:

How I think the 141 sees her:

[kirbyddd]

between Dread continuing from a game on GBA (and really every game prior to that too) and Prime 4 continuing from 2 games on GameCube and Original DS, Metroid has the longest narrative endurance of any multi-creator series I've ever seen. Threads left in stasis decades ago when the series was shelved picked right back up once development resumes—an entire generation of developers later—like nothing ever happened

[daisyachain]

Rung is not god. Rung might be A god. Rung is Primus, the first, and his function is to create matrices, which then create sparks. He is a creator of the species, possibly the creator of the species, or simply the mechanism that the original creator built to prolong the species. One thing I’m sure about is that MTMTE was not going for such a pat explanation as ‘Rung is Primus is the chief of the gods and the God’. The rest of the Guiding Hand are petty and extremely corporeal/mortal, with the exception of Necrobot, who is simply mortal. I think it’s a good wrap on the ongoing theological debate of the series to have the First of the species be real, quantifiable, and uniquely powerful, but to have Primus also be a limited non-omniscient non-omnipresent entity. You could argue that he becomes immortal through the replica Luna mechs, but those don’t share his memories and they are also corporal. On the other hand, it’s a species where every member is animated by a literal divine spark, so Rung isn’t that special at all in the grand scheme of things. He’s not god. He is perhaps Madoka.

[premamelody]

out of time

[chicago-geniza]

Going on a blocking spree. Blocked someone for using the phrase "death with dignity" in earnest because I hate it and do not think it describes the actual stakes of assisted dying as a legal, biopolitical, and ethical question at all and think in fact it makes implicit recourse to Peter Singer-esque "quality of life" arguments that deem sufficiently disabled life (read: "undignified" life) not worth living

[betterbemeta]

I understand that everything about scale in The Transformers (any series, comic, movie, etc.) is bad.

I do. I really understand. I accept it. I have no choice to.

But it drives me insane.

A consistent sense of scale is what helps us understand objects in space. Including objects that are characters. We can understand how heavy they are, how tall they are, what spaces they can move through and which ones they can't, what their perspective is, and what a typical human perspective is of them.

This is actually the thing that makes the live action Transformers movies 'work'-- they aren't always consistent but because human characters and environments keep the same scale and establishing shots of most of the characters include that scale, all of the explosions and fights and "wow!" is relative to actual live-action human beings.

But when that isn't the case, the scale in transformers is often relative. Robots that are 'large' (Bulkhead, Lugnut & many other Decepticons, etc.) are scaled bigger than robots that are 'small' (cassettes/minicons, robots that are motorcycles, Bumblebee, etc.) and some robots that are 'important' are given a relative size that has to do with conflict that they face. The most obvious examples of that last one are Optimus Prime and Megatron, who are both often Large but may have different relative sizes as the key trait here is actually 'important'-- Optimus Prime is usually Large in relation to his team but never Large enough to win against Megatron without a Struggle to His Limits (or more heroic means like the power of teamwork etc.)

Relative scaling also applies to human characters who tend to be 'as small as giant robots make you feel.' Especially if they're a child. Which is... okay, but the whole point of Robots Being in Disguise is that they sampled a human environment with scale and are taking it with them. We SHOULD be able to assume their altmode, if it's an effective disguise, can also be a way to measure scale. But this isn't the case; TFA has a lot of weirdly sized buildings and almost all of TFP takes place in barren environments, or in Ships and Bases where the scale changes around surreptitiously.

Space robots don't have to be exactly the weight of whatever earth thing they transform into and sometimes that's totally impossible but who-is-more-massive is kind of important when your show has so many physical smackdowns. Relative mass can take us pretty far, but it can't take us all the way. Sir Isaac Newton IS the deadliest son of a bitch in space! Much more exciting confrontations can happen when we have a better understanding of what physics are possible even if we don't adhere to realism perfectly. Sort of like how drawing from life can make fantasy illustration more effective and imaginative.

And even outside of confrontation, if any characters want to interact with each other or their environment, we as an audience get SO much information based on their scale and sense of mass. Optimus Prime Has You In His Hand is more powerful if your mutual points of view are consistent. We can tell which robots can easily shake hands or hug, who can use a shipping container as a convenient thing to lean on vs a dumpster, how 'far away' stuff is for different characters, how much energy they have to use to cross a distance, and more.

Even Weird Stuff is better if we care a little bit more. In TFA, Blitzwing drops directly out of the sky if he transforms from a plane into a tank midair. We assume this is just because tanks can't fly, which IS funny. But what size of tank does he become? Is it a realistic size for a main battle tank in the modern day? Does he put on 52 tons when he changes from something the size of a F-15 Eagle to something more like an Abrams tank?? Instead of that being some kind of oversight or mass displacement thing what if we leaned into it and used this thinking to make even funnier jokes?

Many MANY mecha shows are very detailed about the specifications of their robots, which lines up with how people who are in to real life vehicles (and military technology...) obsess about the numbers. We don't need to go that far, but Vehicles and Technology are one of THE autistic things to care about and yes, I know, most of this material is 'for kids.' But who do you think is memorizing all of the Facts about Trains or Planes or Trucks out there? Why do kids care about vehicle robots, is it really just haha hot wheels vroom vroom or are some of them actually interested in what there is to like about real, non-imaginary giant metal constructs?

It drives me bonkers that the 'toy' aspect of Transformers where 'who cares, its toys' overtakes a lot of the things that help imagination play with toys in the media that's kind of the starter-imagination-play-scenario WITH the toys. Just a littttle bit more effort into consistency and leaning into showing it off would absolutely blow people's minds with what's now possible for action figures beyond vaguely bonking against each other.