#multiple input devices

[nonsscrapheap]

TFP: Universal Observations

this chapter is a monster.

i thought last chapter was big with it being around 12.9k in total but this one? this one is 15.1k. 15.1k!!! that... is a lot of fucking words.

and somehow the brainrot continues for this fic because i'm just raring to go at the next chapter.

anyway! happy pride month you guys, it was actually VERY unintentional but i managed to squeeze in some trans representation and talk in this chapter. its not the focus but i think it's very neat i managed to get it in- shout out to @kevinformers-ibw for being absolutely giddy about this lmao. realized i had the perfect opportunity to get it in when i was talking to kev about wheeljack hehehehe.

ANYWAY! i hope you enjoy :)

[ ----- TP : UO ----- ]

The Nemesis

[ Finally, Wheeljack arrived at a certain room. Throwing the door open without a care, "Wrecker!" He called out joyously and almost immediately he was grabbed from the doorway much to Ultra Magnus' immediate concern- just as he was aiming a blaster at Wheeljack's assailant, he heard a warbled; "Jaaackiiiieeee!"

He hesitated as he sees a giant Quintesson gore-stained mecha hugging Wheeljack. "You're alive! I knew it! I knew it, I knew, I knew it!"

Wheeljack laughed, patting the mecha's shoulder. "Damn straight I am! Gonna take more than that to… get me…" He trailed off, Ultra Magnus's optics blinked as he peered behind them both. Another human mecha sat awkwardly within the room on a medbay berth, another was laying, supposedly unconscious. He straightened at the sight of Optimus Prime and Megatron.

However just before he could say anything, Wheeljack's clearly horrified voice spoke once more. "… Miko, why do you sound so young?"

"… Shit…" ]

Now that was a peculiar question, wasn't it?

And for what reason?

From what Knock Out has pieced together from the limited information they had about this, admittedly fascinating universe, the pilots were functionally adults now. Wrecker and Tailbreaker at least, they seemed to be in the same age bracket that Knock Out would consider was 'young adults' by the multiple medias- uh information sources that he's seen.

Speaking of said information sources, this Observer thing was really reminding him of said sources. If only a bit more entertaining yet less unrealistic considering this was peering into alternate worlds instead of having someone act out what was being shown.

Although… That one world, the 'Actor AU' was exactly that but in reverse- in the sense that his life was a show. And wasn't that a thought? Knock Out had to wonder how his actor was in that world. He'll admit, if he'd been less interested in racing or medicine, he probably would've had a good shot at stardom… At least, if the war would have let him anyway.

He wanted to know more about that world, yet unfortunately, the Autobots were in the driver's seat of this vehicle, so to speak. They had control over the Observer; their humans more specifically. Just how in Primus' name did they let those kids gain control over something like this? Honestly, how irresponsible.

Then again, even if they did have control over the Observer- said viewing device was currently nearly scrapped. You wouldn't think it with how pristine the orb what but its inner mechanisms were all slagged to pit. The fact it was still functioning despite most of its systems being damaged was a miracle that Knock Out was curious about.

Honestly everyone was. Who created the damn thing? And why? And how?

Being able to provide itself power and repair just by observing another universe, by showing that universe to an audience- that was a ridiculous and convoluted way to gain power and repair its system and yet it was ingenious all the same.

He and Starscream had spent quite a while muttering to each other and to Soundwave (who barely put in any input at all, only there to record their findings and theories) about it when the Autobots were looking up its internal blueprints and systems earlier on. Although being honest, it was mostly Starscream who did most of the analyzing and discussion. Knock Out had almost forgotten the seeker had been a scientist before he'd been the Decepticon's Second in Command.

All the way from Iacon, too.

Starscream was also a surprisingly good teacher, when Knock Out was confused on something in the blueprint, Starscream had scoffed yet still taught Knock Out about it. Explaining in detail about it, its theoretical usage, the concept behind it… It opened Knock Out's optics to a new side of the seeker he hasn't seen before.

Knock Out can count the good teachers that he's had in his whole life on a single servo, and now he can add Starscream to the list.

It was because of that, because Knock Out wanted to repay Starscream for teaching him some admittedly confusing yet still interesting subjects during the break, that Knock Out said nothing about Starscream's interest in human biology when Knock Out went to search about it himself. Even going as far as to be able to let the seeker read it a bit more comfortably from over his shoulder.

What can he say, he was generous like that.

Anyway, after the break, they probably came to the same conclusion as the Autobots; keep watching whatever the Observer shows and the Observer will be fully repaired in time. Exactly how much time was still unknown, much to the frustration of the seeker who couldn't figure out everything from the blueprints for one reason or another. And of course, to the annoyance of their Lord and Leader.

Be it because it was somehow too complicated for Starscream, or the section of the blueprint was too corrupted, or the system was too damaged, or the Autobots were looking in the wrong direction.

It ticked the seeker off but he couldn't exactly do anything about it right now.

And now here they were, watching a new universe from the strange key words of Alien Mecha. Again, just whatever the frag is going on in the Autobots base to consider words like that?

At first, seeing the human children with MECH- the same humans that dared to lay their filthy organic limbs on his conjunx and took away one of his conjunx's optics- it ticked Knock Out off.

… Perhaps that was another reason why he was starting to be a little nicer to Starscream lately, he had helped his conjunx when Lord Megatron scoffed in the face of his conjunx's capture. (Something that Knock Out had some private words to say, not that he'd ever say them to his leader's face… unless something drastic happened to his conjunx.)

Anyway, seeing MECH soured Knock Out's interested mood. Though it didn't stay that way as, pretty quickly, things started to pick up.

First; Shockwave was human in this universe. Something that boggled everyone within the room, because what.

Second; the humans had actually created cybertronian-like suits that eerily resembled empurata'd bots. Granted they were different up close, but from afar, Knock Out would have easily mistaken them as a cybertronian who underwent that unfortunate punishment that the Senate had enforced before the war.

Third; the reveal of the existence of the Quintessons. Knock Out had no idea those things had even existed in their universe, but according to their leader, they had. Just a very, very long time ago. Their influence was brief and small enough that no historian decided to teach it, not that Knock Out would have been interested… before now at least.

Now, seeing the Quintessons in action- their bio-drone soldiers and beasts, the fact they were a threat enough to both Earth and Cybertron… He sent a small request to Soundwave throughout the viewing for whatever information the mech would find in the Iacon Archives.

And finally, the most shocking thing that has happened yet; Autobots and Decepticons working together. More specifically, Optimus Prime and Megatron working together at the same time with their leader protecting the Prime from most of the danger. Willing to put himself between Optimus and an incoming 'Levi', as the humans had called those creatures, and bear the brunt of dangerous blows.

It's not something Knock Out could have predicted to see in a million cycles. Yet there it played, right before everyone's optics. Including their own leader who was… strangely silent from the baffling display. The racer had admittedly thought their warlord of a master would have seethed at the sight of himself protecting his nemesis and yet- he just stared.

Faceplate indecipherable yet observing to the entire thing. It was equally baffling as to what they were viewing, yet Knock Out wasn't complaining nor would he point it out, this was preferable than to see Megatron war and rage within the room, right?

Then again… seeing him silent and contemplative was somewhat concerning.

Who knows what was going on in that processor of his.

Anyway, back to the present; why was the Autobot-turned-human so concerned at the fact Wrecker sounded so young?

Suddenly, the screen flashed with text.

[ - FIVE YEARS AGO -

Two men stood in front of a familiar red, green and white mecha's open cockpit, one with greying hair and wearing a grey pilot suit with the numbers '904' on his back and front, while the other had bright red hair and a duller red mechanic's jumpsuit. "So, what's the hot goss 'round the staff?" Wheeljack asked the other man as he and the other man checked out the cockpit. "Anything exciting?"

"Somewhat," The red haired man sighed, sounding all too familiar to the audience. The screen changed to show him up close, alongside his ID that was pinned to his chest called— ]

"Knock Out! That's you!" Starscream gawked, intake opening in disbelief as they saw the human Decepticon working with the human Autobot!

Knock Out's own optics had gone wide at the sight of himself as a human. "Oh frag, it is me." His gaze immediately went to his ID to look at his human self's name. "Vincent Lorenzo?" He read aloud, optics cycling repeatedly as he took in his other self's… humanness.

"You're working with an Autobot." Arachnid deadpanned with a smirk, seemed largely amused by the fact their medic was human now.

Breakdown tilted his helm, "Technically, guy's not an Autobot. They're humans, co-workers by the looks of it… And I was right, you look great as a human Knock Out." He said, giving his conjunx a genuine smile.

Knock Out blushed lightly but was quick to preen, "I do, don't I? Hm, yes, yes. Not bad, me." Although his optics were more towards his own species, he's seen enough humans and seen enough of their media to know that his human self? One hundred percent a hottie. As he should be.

Though it was a curious thing, for the Observer to go into the past in what seemed to be a flashback. Perhaps it was answering the questions they all had in mind, or maybe the Autobots did something to do that… Although it turned out that no, the Autobots did nothing of the sort, it was just the Observer being itself.

Somehow.

( "Woah is that Doc Knock? He looks… handsome." A teenage girl said, not-so-subtly looking at the new human with interest. "Nice."

Several voices called out her name indignantly with varying levels, "Miko!"

"What?! I have eyes! I'm not blind! More importantly- that's human Wheeljack! He looks great too! I wonder what's his human name?" )

[ "Sounds like some new upstart big shots are collaborating with us, they're not with the government like us GMDs but they're funded by US government investors and other global hotshots." Vincent said as they both unscrewed panels from within the pilot's cockpit. "Already got their own line of pilots and mecha on the standby for next attack."

Wheeljack hummed, "Really now? What's their deal?"

The mechanic grunts, tugging on some thick wiring, "Some sort of experimental weaponry and tech type stuff, get this; one of their mecha engineers? Is dear old Shockwave." He said conspiratorially, making the pilot jump and knock his head against the console from where he was crouched by.

"GAH!" Wheeljack groaned, rubbing his head but peered over the console to look at his friend with wide eyes. "You're kidding. Knock Out, you're pullin' my tail. I thought ol' Waltz quit the mecha scene after…" He trailed off and they both shared a grimace. ]

"Looks like you and Wheeljack are pretty close." Breakdown muttered, optic narrowed at the casual way the two humans were talking on screen.

Knock Out chuckled, leaning towards his hunk of a conjunx. "Aw, jealous?" He cooed, smiling at the way Breakdown grumbled and denied it. "There, there sweetspark. Doesn't look like we're that close, merely friends. Friendly acquaintances or co-workers at the very least." Despite the difference of species, Knock Out was fairly sure his other self was not romantically involved with the human Autobot.

"So Wheeljack is not part of MECH?" Starscream muttered aloud, gaining their attention. "Their mecha had some subtle differences in make. Sounds like you and Wheeljack are part of another organization, one associated with the human government unlike MECH, who merely has its backing in funds perhaps… Curious."

Arachnid hummed, leaning in with interest and sneering at the way Wheeljack trailed off. "And just what was so bad that Shockwave was said to have left the 'mecha scene' permanently?" The fact that Shockwave, no matter the species, had left for whatever reason and was thought to have left permanently was curious. Especially with the current knowledge that he was a mechanical engineer and scientist for MECH when previously, he worked with… the 'GMD'?

( "Heh, I can't wait to tell Wheeljack that his human other is friends with Knock Out. I wonder if Breakdown's human too." A Wrecker wondered, amused by the apparent friendship being shown.

Both bots and humans frowned at the trail off, "After what? Don't leave us hanging Jackie!" A teenage girl whined, pouting over the lack of information.

"It might have to do something about that thing we saw earlier- I don't really remember much of it since it happened so fast but maybe he got traumatized after a fight or something." The eldest of the humans offered, though it was met with doubt and disagreement.

His femme partner and guardian shook her helm, "No. Even as a human, he wouldn't leave something like giant robot suits and invading aliens alone. Must've been something big for him to leave temporarily… and that's already a wild thought to have considering the actual mech is an emotionless psycho scientist."

.: Anybody else feel like it's weird Wheeljack called Shockwave Waltz? :.

There was a unanimous noise of agreements from the scout's teammates, even his Prime murmured something indistinctive. )

[ Knock Out shook his head, "Not kidding at all Wheeljack… They call themselves MECH- all capital letters. Guess they're really branding themselves for mecha pilots and suits, huh?" He joked though he seemed perturbed as he considered something. Naturally, Wheeljack noticed.

"Something on your mind, Knock Out?"

The red head hesitated before nodding, "Yeah, MECH's secretive. Like, more so than our own government and shit. Nobody's met the new pilots so far, they're all stationed in MECH facilities. Their suits are being scanned and blueprints of tech are being sent, but we're not getting anything about their pilots. No in-depth medical files, just basic shit that doesn't tell me anything else other than they're healthy and ready to pilot, certainly no personal information. It's all 'need-to-know' basis and apparently, GMD mechanics and medics aren't on the lists." He said, disgruntled and scowling.

Wheeljack frowned, "That's… weird. Other countries' govs send in at least a basic but descriptive medical file in case their pilots end up hurt in our turf but MECH hasn't sent anything like that?"

"No." Knock Out confirmed, shaking his head. "Rumors have it they're doing human experiments." Wheeljack grimaced, and brushed against his single port on the nape of his neck. Knock Out noticed and sighed, "More human experiments, like, adding more ports to a pilot for better control and synchronization."

"They tried that." Wheeljack replied tensely, slowly growing louder, "They tried that and the last pilots who had more than one port ended up getting paralyzed slowly over the course of a few months! Their nerves deteriorated on a slow bases every time they clocked into a mecha suit— the one who managed to quit the earliest can't move her fucking legs!" ]

"Oho, now isn't that interesting?" Knock Out murmured, listening to his human other and the Autobot discuss MECH from an outside and past perspective. "So, before MECH, pilots only had one port to link themselves into the mecha. Presumably leading a clunkier control over it?" That was what he was getting from this at least.

"Linking biological matter to a mechanical output requires a… fine-tuned balance and technique. I suppose Shockwave, or pardon me, Waltz's involvement led to a breakthrough to multiple ports being used without any side-effects." Starscream said, smirking when he said Shockwave's human name. The seeker was having the time of his life with the fact that Shockwave was human in this world, Knock Out wondered if there was more to that story of Shockwave's demise as he and the others suspected.

"Tailbreaker and Wrecker have two ports," They were surprised when Lord Megatron decided to speak, peering at the screen with renewed interest. "Whilst Senscript has five, it certainly shines a new light to their current situation, and why Tailbreaker was so concerned about Senscript's new port earlier on…"

That it does.

( A medic rears back, his previous indignant emotions about the subject come slamming back at the new information being presented. "Rafael has five ports. FIVE!" He near-roared, standing to his pedes and nearly throwing his datapad but was thankfully held back by his leader and old friend. "Jack and Miko have two!"

"Woah docbot! Calm down!"

"Calm down?! Your other selves are in danger of a biological neural shut down! The human nervous system is delicate! Multiple studies indicate that damaged human nervous systems can lead to a lifetime of problems! And did you not hear about that poor pilot who couldn't move her legs?!"

"Have you been reading up on human biology all this time? No wait, nevermind that! By the sound of things, we've had those ports for a while now, long enough that it isn't exactly a problem!" The male teenager exclaimed, trying to soothe the agitated and worried medic. "Is it worrying that Raf, uh, Senscript has five ports? Yes! Absolutely! However getting angry at the screen and trying to throw things at it won't solve anything!"

His Prime continued after the young human, "It is unfortunate but it is the truth, Ratchet. We cannot do anything about it, we can only hope that whatever side-effects that Senscript, Wrecker and Tailbreaker will endure in this other world, it can be dealt with appropriately. And that it is either small or reversible. Calm yourself." Reluctantly, the medic sat back down, clutching his datapad with a terrible scowl.

A girl leaned in to whisper to a boy, "Aww, I think Ratchet cares about us."

A boy smiled and whispered back, "Yeah, I think he does." )

[ "Easy there Dolton." Knock Out soothed, "I know what you're feeling but that's just what I've been hearing around. Rumor has it their pilots are on a two-port system. Have been for a year now, and if they're as efficient and skillful as they claim to be…"

"Then the government, hell, GMD, is gonna be interested." Wheeljack finished with a scowl. He sighed, leaning over his console, gripping it tightly. "Think I can get out of being part of the program again this time?"

Knock Out looked thoughtful before shrugging, "You managed to get out of the last multi-port testing because of a technicality and a loophole you found. You were still in the middle of transitioning and hormone treatment, which would have messed with their test results, but you're finished with that now. They'll be mindful of that so there's a chance you won't be left out this time."

"Fuck."

Knock Out gave him an apologetic look, "If MECH guarantees that their two-port technology is successful- you are one of the top rising pilots of the GMD Wheeljack. They'll either consider you first, or next. I don't know if you can get out of this one."

Wheeljack gritted his teeth, "Watch me." ]

"Transitioning?" Starscream questioned, raising an optic ridge at the term. "And what changes did the human need to go under? What treatment? Is becoming a pilot that complicated other than surgically implanting a port or more into their body?"

Knock Out didn't reply, busy typing into the human internet 'hormone treatment' and 'transitioning'. His optics flickered as the results he was given were unexpected. "Ahhh." He said aloud, perhaps a bit too loudly as he skimmed through each website and little details from the media he's consumed about humans began to click together.

"Care to share what it is you've found, Knock Out?" The medic jumped at the dry, unimpressed tone Lord Megatron had in his voice print as the racer found himself being stared at by the entire room.

Clearing his voice cables, he moved the websites he found to a free screen on the Nemesis. "I believe what my other self is referring to when he says transitioning and hormone treatment is this Lord Megatron." He gestured to the striped light blue, pink and white symbol on the screen. "It seems that some humans are not content with their current frames- er, gender? And try to 'transition' from one to another. From what I can see and theorize, the Autobot human Wheeljack, Dolton? Is currently male-presenting, mech-presenting in our terms? Which wasn't always the case, in the past, he may have been a she. A female, femme."

It's not unheard of of femmes wanting to be mechs, or vice-versa. Just rare, you hear alt-mode transitionings more often considering how forbidden they used to be when the Senate ruled Cybertron and enforced punishments on those who were caught doing so or planning such things without their permission.

Actually, by the looks of things, the human government and society saw things the same with. Enforcing the importance of birth genders rather than functionality. It frankly, didn't make sense to Knock Out and he knows it doesn't make sense to the other cons either. Even the Autobots really.

"Hm, to think that humans would care of such trivial things like whether or not their people are one gender or another, or neither." Lord Megatron muttered with disdain, "Pitiful primitives… Let them choose which they want to be, it doesn't matter in the end."

That is… surprisingly supportive, then again it makes sense. The Decepticon cause had advocated the rights and freedom of their bodies, of their frames and lives from the iron-clad grip of the Senate. This was no different…

Knock Out swallowed the question of when did advocating the rights of their frames and freedom turn into bloodshed and planetary destruction. It was something he hadn't thought of in a long, long time and preferred not to.

The Observer seemed to have the effect of bringing up old details and memories that everyone seemed to prefer to leave behind…

( In Omega Outpost One, a similar search was made.

"Wheeljack was a girl?" A teenage girl gawked for a moment, "She totally looks like a guy now! Woah!"

"That's the point Miko, also- pronouns. Wheeljack's a guy, don't call him 'she'." Her older friend admonished lightly, relaxing and nodding when the girl gave a genuine apology and a grin.

"Whoops! Sorry… still, that's so cool."

"You do not seem surprised, Jack." The Autobot leader noted while his team gathered around the medic's datapad to look at the information about 'Transitioning' and 'Trans people'. It got to the point where the medic gave up and put the information on the base's console for easier viewing from the team, their youngest human companion helped set it up.

The boy shrugged, "I spent a lot of time in the hospital with my mom, she's a nurse, and we meet a lot of interesting people. I've met guys who were girls, girls who were guys, people who didn't want to be either."

Immediately the medic's optics honed in on the boy. "So you have personal experience in witnessing these 'transitioning' and 'hormone treatments'? I have a few questions in mind—"

"Woah there Ratchet! I may know a little bit more than the normal person, but if you want like, personal or graphic details about it, just look it up on verified medical websites and articles or y'know… ask my mom?"

A chuckle escapes the Prime as his old friend grumbles but actually makes a note to question the boy's mother whenever she comes by or is available during a call. He can't help but feel proud of the boy, and of the humans, for their actions and mindsets. Though he is saddened to see that the government and other humans had yet to approve of these transitions in some places, this is significantly better compared to the Senate's own doings at least. Even if it does not make sense to forbid one from changing their gender. )

[ - SIX MONTHS LATER -

"God fucking dammit." Wheeljack muttered, now clocked into his mecha with two visible ports on his neck.

.: While it's unfortunate that you weren't able to dodge this port installation, at the very least it's been confirmed that the two-port system that MECH had created is compatible and completely safe. Their pilots have been using it for about a year now and no nerve damage has been reported. Nor permanent side-effects to clocking out aside from the usual dysphoria and such, if a bit heightened thanks to a better synchronization. Although it's hard to believe it myself considering majority of the information about said pilots are still being withheld and hidden. :. Came Knock Out's voice to Wheeljack, tone dry and begrudging.

Wheeljack sighed in defeat, "Considering Shockwave's on the team of engineers and mechanics, I'm not exactly surprised." He groused, reluctantly impressed as he tested out the movement of his mecha. He was in a large empty room, with Knock Out perched on a high-rise platform, taking notes with a headset on his head and a tablet in his hands. "Definitely feeling the difference between the single and double, I can control my mecha's limbs better. Connection's stable. No immediate signs of mental fatigue."

Knock Out hummed in thought, .: Good. Good. Your vitals are stable, the synchronization is higher than before. I'll admit, I'm impressed. Still would have liked talking with one of the actual pilots who had the damn ports longer than you… :.

"Hmm," Wheeljack was thoughtful before he smirked. "Hey Knock Out, think you can shuffle me into active duty soon?"

.: Possibly… why? :.

"Got told that I'll be paired with a rookie pilot of MECH to show them the ropes in battle- one of their elite trained pilots whose finally being released to the wild. Even got a pre-earned designation I hear, 'Wrecker'."

.: Well isn't that a charming designation… :. Was Knock Out sarcastic reply before he smirked as well, .: I'll see to it you're perfectly healthy for duty. :. ]

"Awfully close with the human Wheeljack." Starscream said lowly towards Knock Out who rolled his optics, "Looks like you're his usual medic and mechanic, it's unexpected, to see you two work together. Especially as another species."

Well, at least he said it in a tone that wasn't snide but was genuinely curious. "I know right? The Observer continues to baffle us in ways we never thought of, to think, I'd be getting along with a Wrecker like him… Other species notwithstanding. Although I am very content with my own wrecker. Right here." He purred, leaning over to pat Breakdown's arm when he saw Breakdown trying to not look too interested in the conversation.

His conjunx flushed but flashed him a wide, satisfied grin at the reassurance. His plates fluffing and puffing in pride, "Damn right."

Knock Out chuckled quietly, finding his conjunx's reaction to be very adorable. He certainly hoped his human self was together with Breakdown, he was rather curious as to what his partner would look like as a human now that he's seen himself.

And if he's Cybertronian… well…

He keeps those thoughts to himself, unwilling to entertain them just yet.

( "Looks like Wheeljack couldn't dodge the new port this time." A femme scout warrior said while her team's medic grumbled and grouched at the screen. "But hey, by the looks of things, it's going better than what Wheeljack said about the last two-port experiments?" She tried, soothing the wrecker who'd gotten visibly worried for the alternate version of his friend.

He sighed, then commented, "Wheeljack and Knock Out… definitely not the two I'd expect to being friends anywhere, but guess it works there. Still weird though." )

[ - TWO MONTHS LATER -

Klaxons blared loud and clear as Wheeljack hastily got into his cockpit, strapping himself down. "Pilot 904, callsign: Wheeljack. Clocking in." He reported after strapping down his helmet. Grunting as he felt two wires plug themselves into his ports. He scowled at the feeling but ignored it, "Synchronization complete."

.: Copy that Wheeljack, standby for transport. Immediate deployment required, Class 8 XTRs have been spotted. I repeat, Class 8 XTRs have been spotted within mountain ranges, heading towards the city. You will be backed up with MECH pilot 00, callsign: Wrecker who will meet you there. :. A voice, not Knock Out, but another operator instead, told him through the comms.

"Roger that. Magnetic locks engaging for transport." Thick cables attached themselves to Wheeljack's mecha, connected two large helicopters above him, the cables groaning underneath the strain but holding as Wheeljack's mecha was lifted up from the hanger and taken towards the area where the XTRs.

Wheeljack was flipping switches and pressing buttons when he finally noticed another mecha being flown beside him, using four helicopters- it was definitely a big guy. Wheeljack whistled, "Damn, I knew Wrecker was tank-class, but that's one hell of a mecha." He pressed against his console, establishing a new communication line with his new pilot.

"This is pilot 904 of the Global Mecha Defense, US Branch, callsign; Wheeljack. So, you're the newbie I'm suppose to show the ropes?" He asked into his mic, smirking to himself.

His smirk widened when he got a reply soon, from a woman's voice, .: This is MECH pilot 00, callsign; Wrecker. Hey, I may be green on the field but that doesn't mean you should underestimate me old timer. :. ]

"… That is not Wrecker." Knock Out said, the difference in voices was jarring. This voice was much more mature and smoother than Wrecker, and yet, something about it nagged to him.

Starscream narrowed his optics, "… No, it is her." He replied, gaining attention, "Listen to her voice- it's being modulated, changed, artificially. Humans might not be able to tell the difference considering it's well made, but to our audials, the frequency isn't as smooth than a natural voice print, organic or cybertronian."

Knock Out frowned, adjusting his audials and- yeah, there it was. "MECH disguised the voices of the pilots… to hide the fact, their pilots were children." He says as the screen showed Wrecker. Smaller than before. Plugged into her mecha with a voice modulating system overlaid on her comm link system.

That… did not sit well with the Decepticon medic. He hadn't known the actual ages of the humans at the start of the viewing, just noted they were young adults. But seeing Wrecker in the current flashback, she was practically the same age as the annoying brats that hung out with the Autobots.

Annoying little things that poked their business where they shouldn't, and irresponsible Autobots that either let them or couldn't contain them as they should. But at least the Autobots didn't actively encourage children into fighting wars. Especially against other, giant aliens like the fragging Quintessons!

There's an unsettling symphony of low engine growls in the room, and he glanced around to see Lord Megatron looking at the screen with disgust, Breakdown scowling with his servos clenched, Starscream looking away with gritted dentae and Soundwave… indecipherable as always yet his engine seemed to growl the loudest.

( Three humans were surprised by the sound of multiple engines revving up in, anger? "They're children." Ratchet wasn't shouting this time, yet his tone was cold and hard and angry that it made all three kids shiver. "They're child soldiers. Wrecker has to be the same age as Miko right now during this flashback sequence and MECH… MECH hid that fact using VOICE MODULATORS!" Finally, the medic shouts, barely held back by the Prime whose grip was much tighter than normal.

"Next time I see 'em, they can be formally acquainted with my wrecking ball." The green mech snarled, transforming his servo into said wrecking ball hammer and slamming it into the palm of his other servo.

Hesitantly, a teen spoke up. "Uh, I'm not saying no to you kicking MECH's asses but like- what's with the reaction? Raf's like, the same age as us! Senscript I mean, and you weren't all growly and angry about that. Also, we're like- not children, kinda. Jack and I are teens! Raf's currently a tween, but like, yeah."

"Oh we were still angry, but we had it kept in." The slim scout said through gritted dentae, her fellow, bigger scout whirred his angry agreement. Despite his aggressive attitude, he was tenderly holding his charge in his servos, finally letting the boy return to the couch. "Doesn't matter if you're a teen, or tween Miko. You're still young, YOU shouldn't be fighting Quintessons. You should be in school! With other children your age! Safe and sound."

"I had hoped, as horrible as it was, that Rafael was the exception. That his status as a child, pardon, a teenage pilot, was not the norm." The Autobot Leader said gravely, his expression pinched and grim. "It seems that I was, unfortunately, wrong."

The three children, because that's what they were, no matter how much they may protest, shared a worried glance with one another as the viewing continued. )

[ .: Pilots Wheeljack and Wrecker, you are now in range. You will now be deployed, in three, two, one— ;. The cables loosened and let go, leaving the two mechas into a short free fall to the ground right in front an incoming Class 8 Levi that Wrecker immediately wrestled with.

.: Wrecker to base! Engaging XTRs now! :.

"Alright rookie, let's see what you got!" Wheeljack hollered, grinning in his cockpit as his mecha dove into the fray.

The screen fizzled, turning black for a moment before returning to the scene of Wrecker and Wheeljack surrounded by dead XTRs, both mechas were damaged yet Wrecker's was surprisingly intact compared to Wheeljack's missing arm. "Alright, I'll admit, not bad rookie." Wheeljack laughed, breathless and panting, sweat beading down his face as he maneuvered his mecha to look at Wrecker's. "MECH's got you trained up pretty good."

.: Tch, they wish. I'm just that good. :. Was Wrecker's reply, though she was just as breathless and sweaty. But she had a wide grin on her face. .: You're not so bad yourself Wheeljack, loved the makeshift bomb you made- honestly wish I had your kit, but well, there's a reason I got Wrecker as my callsign. I like wreckin' shit up with my bare hands. :.

"Hah!" Wheeljack laughed, sensing a camaraderie with the new pilot from the other organization. "Your bare, sonic-equipped hands! Man, I think we're gonna get along just fine Wrecker." He offered his surviving arm to Wrecker. "Dolton Jackson."

Wrecker hesitated, the screen showing her young face, biting her lip before she grunted and grinned. Accepting Wheeljack's hand with her own. "Miko Nakadai." ]

"Well, that answers the question as to why the Autobot was so concerned to hear her sound so young." Knock Out muttered, shaking his helm.

Breakdown nodded in agreement before pausing, snorting to himself. "Dolton Jackson?" He questioned aloud, sharing an amused look with his conjunx. Just what kind of name was that? "Knew his name was Dolton when your other self said it, but really? Wheeljack? Dolton Jackson?"

The medic shrugged, what else could he say about the name? Maybe the universe just liked playing games with little details like that. Still, looking at the damage of their mechas… if he hadn't known they were artificially made suits that had no pain receptors and weren't empurata'd mechs… he'd be concerned with the fact Wheeljack was missing his arm and not showing any signs of distress.

( "Dolton Jackson. I gotta call Jackie that next time I comm him."

"Dude, that's going to confuse him so much… Yeah, do it! Hehehehe!"

"Hehehehe!"

Ignoring the snickering wrecking guardian and charge duo, a teenage boy sighed, "From the looks of it, or at least I'm just guessing here; when our other selves were with pilots or people outside of MECH, we used voice modulators to hide our ages."

"And MECH didn't let any of the GMD, or anyone else outside the organization, personally meet with us, plus they didn't send any really detailed files- they probably fabricated our ages on the files anyway." His young friend theorized with him, the mood of the team darkened a bit at the reminder that they were young pilots in another world. Fighting a war that should be fought by adults, not children. )

[ The screen abruptly returned to the present, with Wheeljack looking devastated as he stood outside of his mecha on a giant table with Wrecker standing in front of him. Behind her, Tailbreaker was treating Senscript, with Ultra Magnus carefully handing over a small human-sized medical kit to the young man.

Optimus and Megatron were not within the room, it was just the humans and Ultra Magnus.

"Oh Miko." Wrecker tensed, giving him a defiant look at his tone of voice.

"Don't." She replied sharply, eyes narrowing at him as she tightly crossed her arms. "Don't use that tone of voice with me, don't use your 'it's gonna be okay kid' voice with me Jackie. I don't need it."

Wheeljack hesitated before taking in a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry 'bout that Wrecker." He gave a small smirk, but his eyes were still concerned. It was enough for Wrecker though, as she relaxed her shoulders. "Just… didn't expect seeing you here 's all."

Wrecker grinned at him, "I could say the same thing to you! I- fuck's sake Wheeljack, your mecha got speared through and then dragged into a weird, light thingy that I thought was like a hallucination from my concussion!"

Before Wheeljack could reply, Tailbreaker interrupted, "Sorry to interrupt your reunion- but I need some help with Senscript here!" Both pilots cursed and were quick to regroup to Senscript's side as Tailbreaker tucked an emergency blanket underneath the young boy's head after taking off his helmet.

"He's…" Wheeljack's expression twisted slightly at the sight of Senscript- his bloody face was being wiped by Tailbreaker with an antiseptic wipe. 'He's so young.' Wheeljack thought before shaking his head, "What happened?"

"Some kind of experimental tech from Shockwave and MECH." Wrecker answered, helping Tailbreaker clean up Senscript's face. "Cortis, something, something. Was supposed to look into information from the XTRs."

"Miko." Tailbreaker hissed, "You're-"

"Breaking protocol? Sharing classified information? Look around us Jack, we're not on Earth! MECH's nowhere near us! It's just Jackie and we can trust him… and whoever this guy is since Jackie let him stay." Wrecker said, gesturing to Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus. ]

"Heh, Wrecker's not taking MECH's shit now that they're not around." Breakdown chuckled approvingly, enjoying the way Wrecker had immediately thrown out information from MECH that would've wanted to keep on the down low. "Good on her."

"And honestly a good idea, how else are they suppose to treat Senscript without identifying the cause and its effects?" Knock Out huffed, although he wasn't as moral as other medics- and he did prefer breaking bots at times rather than fixing them, he did have the mindset of a logical medic… Sometimes.

Not telling your doctor over what happened and how you got hurt was a very stupid way to get help for treatment. Unless they wanted the wrong treatment or medicine or even procedure to happen, which would exacerbate or worsen their condition- it was best to tell your doctor what happened.

Then again, neither Wheeljack or Ultra Magnus were medics, or medically inclined. Maybe Wheeljack, but still. Why were there no medics within the room?

( The Autobot's CMO huffed, "They need to call a medic to help Senscript. Even if they're cybertronian, a scan is prudent into figuring out how to help him."

"Maybe Optimus and Megatron went to get one?" The youngest among them proposed but was shot down with a stern, disagreeing shake of a helm.

"They could have commed for a medic to come if they wanted to retrieve one… " He really hoped that his counterpart, if he was there as a cybertronian, knew that the humans were- well, humans. A small, organic species rather than assuming they were otherwise… )

[ "I am Ultra Magnus, Commander of an Elite Autobot group; the Wreckers." The large mech introduced with stilted English.

Wrecker's eyes brightened, "No shot! He's commander of the Wreckers? You're commander of the Wreckers? Dude! My callsign is Wrecker! I was meant to meet you! And your whole crew!" She exclaimed excitedly before wincing at the light groan Senscript made from the loud noise. "Shit, sorry Raf."

Wheeljack chuckled and Ultra Magnus even had a small smile on his faceplate. "Believe me, I was just as surprised when I found out 'bout his group Miko. Told him aall about you, said you'd be a perfect fit, name included." Wrecker beamed at him.

"Yes, Wheeljack has told me a lot about you, Wrecker. From what I've heard, you would do well in my squadron… however first and foremost, we should perhaps focus on your compatriot here." Ultra Magnus said, looking at the youngest human in concern. "What can we do to help him?"

Tailbreaker sighed, "Other than make sure his brain isn't scrambled? No idea, the tech he used was a prototype. Cortical Psychic Patch Link, it was supposed to let Senscript direct access the XTRs processors directly and gather information and it worked. Only… It wasn't a one-way link, not completely at least. The commander we pinned down used the link to hurt Senscript, and then activated something that took us from Earth to- well, here."

Wheeljack frowned, not liking the sound of it. "How direct we talking?"

"Direct as in he got a fifth port just to use the damn thing." Wrecker replied with frustration, gently lifting Senscript's head to show the five ports lined along the boy's neck.

Wheeljack immediately paled, horror in his eyes. "FIVE?!" He shouts and winces when Senscript flinches, groaning and both Wrecker and Tailbreaker sent him a look. ]

"With the knowledge that more than on port had once led to paralysis, it is rather impressive that the boy is still moving with five ports installed." Arachnid chuckled, having enjoyed the look of horror on the human Wheeljack's face.

Starscream hummed, a reluctant look of begrudging respect on his faceplate. "Indeed… Though it is not without its consequences and side effects." He notes, looking over to Knock Out. "Recall that during the start of the viewing, Senscript was unnaturally sensitive to light and sound. I had chalked that up as to his connection to his mecha's sensory units and crown, and perhaps that still remains as a reason but the ports are possibly another factor."

"Considering they're connecting to the human's nervous systems, it's probably a miracle that the kid's still functioning as he is… then again we're looking at this with incomplete information. We don't know the procedures and treatments they use to install such things in their organic little bodies." Knock Out nodded back, admittedly far more curious about human biology now than ever. He usually found them gross, and he still did, yet morbid fascination had him looking into websites and articles now to theorize about the stature and conditions of the pilots in that world.

He hasn't been this interested in a scientific and medical subject in quite a long while. It was a bit exciting actually, especially after conferring with Starscream. ( Strange, yet undeniable as the situation calls for it. )

( A medic grumbled angrily underneath his vent, glaring at the screen but not specifically at any of the humans shown. More at the ones responsible for the ports on the alternate boy's neck, he muttered lowly in cybertronian. His old friend squeezed the plate of his shoulder in reassurance and grounding.

A scout whirred lowly, but refrained from picking up the young boy again so soon. )

[ "Shit, sorry."

Ignoring Wheeljack's apology, Tailbreaker rifled through a small bag he managed to get from Senscript's mecha. From it, he took out a pair of thick headphones and a soft blindfold.

Ultra Magnus noticed and leaned in, asking as softly as he could. "What are you doing?"

"By the looks of it, Senscript's a support-type mecha." Wheeljack spoke up, gesturing to the suit still laying on the berth nearby. "Rescue-class by the looks of it, they're usually the ones who look through the debris for trapped and injured civilians. Or get to downed pilots in their mecha, sometimes they even provide on the fly repairs. Rescue-class mecha pilots typically have sensitive senses, disconnecting from their scanners, their sensors- their clock outs and down time are usually worse than us normal pilots."

He looked at both Wrecker and Tailbreaker, "Speakin' off, how's the clock out?"

"Manageable." Tailbreaker answered with a frown, slipping the headphones onto Senscript's head after the blindfold.

Wrecker scowled at him, "'Manageable' my ass— Tailbreaker's lucky, he's always fine after a clock out. He doesn't get our shit unless he's been clocked in a mecha for three days straight or something." It shifted to Wrecker's hands which were beginning to shake, "Meanwhile I'm feeling it right now. Fuck." She sat down, yanking off her helmet to tuck underneath her knees while she curled up with her hands over her nape.

Wheeljack winced, the screen switching to his own vision- which hazed over slightly until Wheeljack closed his eyes tightly enough to see stars, opening them to find himself sitting as well with Ultra Magnus' servo keeping him upright. "Ah, thanks Mags." ]

"Of course there would be side effects to linking an organic system to a metallic, technological shell." Starscream snorted, though he was watching said side effects with an interested and critical optic.

Knock Out hummed, "Yeah, it looks like Senscript's not the only one with side effects… Clock out, huh? Symptoms so far includes muscle spasm, hazing vision, hypersensitivity…" He listed off what he could see on the spot from the screen. It was hard to diagnose the symptoms and effects mostly because Knock Out was a medic for cybertronians, his knowledge of human biology and health was non-existent to rudimentary and though he was currently supplementing it with the websites and articles he was finding, he was not a human doctor. "Both Wrecker and Wheeljack are experiencing the clock out but…"

"Tailbreaker isn't." The medic jolted in his seat as Lord Megatron spoke, the ex-gladiator (and ex-miner?) looking very interested as Tailbreaker moved between all three pilots. Looking only fatigued as the last pilot standing. "Unlike the other humans, he is not experiencing the effects of 'clock out'. How very interesting." He grinned, a sharp digit tapping the side of his helm.

( "What?! Jack doesn't get whatever's getting Wheeljack and I? That's so unfair!"

A boy winced as his friend punched his shoulder, "Ow! Hey! Don't punch me just 'cause other me can't uh, doesn't? Have 'clock out' side effects! I don't even know what that is! And! It may not even apply to me, specifically Miko!"

"Still not fair."

Meanwhile, a Wrecker spoke with a medic.

"What's happening with Miko and Jackie? Got any ideas Ratchet?"

"I'm not a human doctor Bulkhead, I can only assume that linking neurologically with a gigantic metal suit is messing with their nerves and senses. I find it curious that Tailbreaker is not experiencing the effects like Wrecker and Wheeljack though… I would have said he built up an immunity or resistance however Wheeljack has been a pilot for longer and Wrecker, I would argue, has been at it for the same amount of length…" )

[ "Damn Jack, I thought Miko was kiddin' 'bout you not havin' clock outs." Wheeljack rasped towards the young man who provided a canteen of water alongside some pills from the first ait kit, he immediately swallowed the pills and drank some water, thanking Tailbreaker with a nod. The pilot was using Ultra Magnus' servo as back support as the mech worriedly kept close.

"'S not fair." Wrecker growled out, face buried against her knees as she massaged her lower neck, careful around the ports. She took a moment to uncurl so she could accept her own canteen of water and pills before curling back up with a frustrated groan.

Tailbreaker gave him a lopsided grin, "I still get them but like she said, not unless I'm clocked in for a very, very long time. Dunno why, it's… an advantage I guess? Not even MECH knows why I can last that long without feeling the same things as the rest of the pilots."

At the mention of MECH, Wheeljack's face darkened before he shook his head. "Any sign of Doc Sunshine?" He asked Ultra Magnus instead.

Ultra Magnus gave him a disapproving look, "You know he does not like calling you that, Wheeljack."

"Aw, but he's so bright and cheery. Like sunshine."

The mech sighed, before nodding, "He is on his way, he's just finished handing off important patients to appropriate medics. Optimus and Megatron are on their way back as well."

"Finally gettin' a medic here?" Wrecker questioned shakily, a cut to her view showed how hazy her vision was, she closed her eyes again and resumed tucking her head against her knees. "'Bout time."

"Would a… would your people, even know how to treat us?" Tailbreaker asked Ultra Magnus, suddenly nervous. Wheeljack seemed fine for a man who went missing for more than three years but…

Ultra Magnus nodded at him with a look of understanding, "I understand your apprehension, while Ratchet is not an expert on biological medicines and treatment, he has learned quite a lot thanks to Wheeljack. At the very least, he will be able to do a medical scan on Senscript's proce- no, I believe it was called a brain. Yes, he will be able to scan Senscript's brain and compare it to Wheeljack's for health." ]

"And here I thought the other bots didn't know about humans." Knock Out hummed, a bit surprised to hear that Ratchet was coming to treat the humans- with Optimus and Megatron out of the room. He had assumed that the two leaders did not know the truth of their seemingly cybernetic guests.

Also, it looked like the old grumpy medic was a cybertronian while Knock Out himself was human. Hmph, well, at least he looked just as good as a human. Even in that human uniform he'd been in, he made it work. Made it look stylish. If there was one thing he was a bit envious of humans was the fact they could freely wear fabrics and clothes with ease and enjoyment. The humans not only had a sense of style for vehicles, but for fashion as well.

Such things like fabric and clothes were usually for the high-end snobs of Iacon, the richest of the rich cybertronians got to enjoy fabric clothing- not all the time considering fabrics usually snagged on joints and seams and such, not to mention if you transformed, you would rip apart whatever you were wearing in no time. It was superfluous and excessive to wear fabric clothes over their metal platings.

( Another medic's apprehension and suspicion was eased greatly at the mention of himself, "Oh good. I do know that they're organic life forms and seem to have enough knowledge to help them. And here I thought I'd be forced to watch myself be clueless." He muttered the last part to himself with a huff.

"It is indeed, a good thing that you know of the human's true natures and forms." His old friend confirmed, just as reassured at the knowledge that the alternate version of his friend and teammate could help the other versions of the humans they knew and protected.

.: If anyone can help you guys, it'll be Ratchet. :. A scout whirred to a young boy, .: Also, that means he's cybertronian! I haven't seen myself yet, does that mean I'm human too? :.

The boy laughs, "I hope so! So far, we've seen two cons as humans, having you as human would even the odds Bee. Since Miko knows Wheeljack, do you think I know you?"

.: I can't imagine a world where we both exist and DON'T know each other Raf! But yeah, I hope so too! :. )

[ "That's… good. Really good." Tailbreaker sighed in relief, returning to Senscript's side. "Was a little worried that they'd mistake us as- well, another alien robot species? If it weren't for the fact there were way too many of you guys around, far too many for any of our governments to afford to have around as well as, y'know, the architecture and stuff- I would've mistaken you guys as other pilots… with expensive faces."

Ultra Magnus cleared his throat cables, a look of amusement and exasperation on his faceplate as he nodded in agreement. "Agreed, that… that misunderstanding would be rather… troublesome."

Wheeljack cackled against his servo, though it was cut short with a wince. Didn't stop him from smiling widely though, "I mean- it's, it's still kinda happening that way?"

"… What?"

Wrecker pried open an eye to look at Wheeljack, "I'm with him, what?"

"Technically, only Optimus, Megatron, Ratchet, a select choice of others and myself know that you humans are organics piloting mechanical suits. Which has been a fairly recent development. The rest of our troops are… under the impression that you are distantly related to us in some way." Ultra Magnus admitted, "And it was decided to let that misconception continue on the account of current opinions on organics and techno-organics among the troops."

"The Quintessons didn't leave a great impression on cybertronians 'bout us, doesn't help that some organic alien species are helping them on the sly." Wheeljack told both pilots who looked utterly shocked at the several revelations of; they were on a planet that didn't exactly see them in a good light, that there were other organic species out there but they were helping the Quintessons, and that, by the looks of things, they'd need to hide the fact they were organics from majority of the cybertronians they were about to meet. ]

Starscream snorted, "Of course." He seemed very amused at the fact the humans were being seen as 'distant relatives' to cybertronians. While he was disappointed that Megatron knew the truth, the fact the rest of the Decepticons and Autobots had no idea was rather entertaining.

Knock Out frowned, tilting his helm, "Which organic species could possibly be helping the Quintessons? They're horrid looking! I genuinely prefer the humans than to them." At least the humans had style in some places of their species' culture… Perhaps he was a bit more biased towards them thanks to seeing himself as a human.

"I don't know Knock Out, perhaps one of the many, many species that find our war an annoyance? Or perhaps the organics that became extinct as a side-effect from our war on their planets?" Arachnid smiled cruelly, chuckling to herself. She wasn't surprised that there were other organics backing the Quintessons up, "The other species find our war so much of a hassle, they tend to stay away from our sector of the universe."

Although with the end of Cybertron, with the Exodus spreading their kind across the stars… It was a wonder how no other species have yet to think of targeting them as a whole once more.

( "There are other aliens out there?"

"Miko, the Autobots are aliens."

"Yeah but like, other aliens! Not giant transforming cybernetic guys! No offense you guys, you are super duper cool and Bulkhead will always be my favorite alien but I'm not gonna lie. I'm curious about other aliens out there."

"Aw thanks Miko."

"Huh, I guess we were so caught up with the bots, we didn't really think to ask about other species out there in space. Think you can tell me about them, Bee?"

.: Of course! I haven't met as much as the others, but I do know a few cool ones you'd like to know. :.

"Sweet!" )

[ "So for the moment, it would behoove you three to stay within your mechas while you're here on Cybertron. Please avoid from getting out of your suits outside your personal areas or around unauthorized personnel."

Wrecker seemed a little better as she got to her feet, she wobbled slightly but stood her ground. "Wait, so like- you said this was recent, and I'm already imagining tons of shit about like, Jackie getting into shenanigans here with you guys but-"

Before she could ask further, the door to the room hissed open and in came a red, orange and white cybertronian with blue optics that immediately honed in on the humans. "Primus, there are more of you." He muttered but his pace was brisk in getting to the table.

"Well hello to you too, Sunshine." Wheeljack greeted with a grin, patting Ultra Magnus' servo as the mech helped him to his feet.

"Do not call me that." Ratchet snapped, with less animosity and more annoyed exasperation. As if it was simply an irritating routine that they were doing rather than something out of genuine malice.

Wheeljack smiled sunnily at him as he stumbled over to Wrecker, "Whatever ya say… Doc."

Ratchet groaned, but shook his helm, giving a terse nod to both Wrecker and Tailbreaker. "Greetings, I've been informed of your 'callsigns' but you humans do have other names? I am Ratchet, the Autobot Chief Medical Officer, I'll be your physician for the foreseeing future."

Wrecker and Tailbreaker shared a look though Wheeljack gently nudged Wrecker, "I trust Doc here with my life, he's not a human doctor but he's got enough know how and smarts to keep us in shape here. Just look at me, I'm fit as a fiddle, outside of clock out anyway."

"… Miko Nakadai."

A sigh came from her fellow pilot, "Jack Darby, it's nice to meet you Ratchet."

"And the one that's down is Rafael Esquivel." Miko introduced, gesturing to the young boy. "You should check him out first, he went through a mental attack with an XTR commander." ]

"And here comes the Autobot medic." Knock Out muttered, as nice as it was to see himself as human for a brief moment there. It just reminded him that he probably wasn't going to be involved all too much at the moment, pit, he doesn't even know where he is in the current timeline of events. He was around when Wheeljack was on Earth but where was he now?

Where was he when Wheeljack disappeared? Was his human counterpart wondering where he was right now like Wrecker had been? Did he think he was dead? Did he move on?

All uncomfortable questions he didn't want to consider but couldn't help but think of in the moment. He couldn't help but substitute the situation, switch things around- what if Breakdown had disappeared so abruptly? Knock Out still stood by the fact that the human Autobot was not his human self's paramour, but they were still close, still friends. He'd be… distraught to say the least.

He can only hope his human self had a human Breakdown to help deal with the fact his friend was missing. (So many bots gone over the years, Breakdown was there to help through most of that. He can't bear to think of his conjunx… disappearing either. He doesn't know what he'd do then.)

( A medic huffed, but was pleased to hear that the human version of the irresponsible Wrecker trusted him with his life despite being another species… it was a nice thing to hear, honestly. Even though the human-turned-Autobot still kept up with those ridiculous nicknames. He was no Sunshine, nor did he want to be referred to as Doc. )

[ "XTR… ah yes, what you humans call the Quintessons." Ratchet said as he shifted his focus on Senscript, bringing his arm up and shifting open his scanner. "I will be scanning him, don't be alarmed." He warned the two humans as a green light roamed over the young unconscious boy.

"Quintessons?"

Wheeljack grunted at Tailbreaker's question, "That's what they're actually called, the XTRs. They've been attacking Cybertron way longer then they've been attacking Earth. Ever wondered why they went after the giant statues on Earth? It's 'cuz of these guys."

A brief flash of Quintessons attacking multiple giant statues all over the world, Lady Liberty being the most recognizable one.

"That… explains it I guess? And here people thought the XT- er, the Quintessons? Were just… hardcore atheists or just, aliens that hated art or something." Wrecker snorted, before her attention was taken by Ratchet who made a highly disgruntled noise.

"You said that Rafael underwent a mental attack with a Quintesson Commander? Elaborate."

Tailbreaker shared a hesitant look with Wrecker who merely shrugged and gestured to the medic, trusting Wheeljack's words. The young man sighed before explaining the Cortical Psychic Patch Link and what happened.

Ratchet, Wheeljack and even Ultra Magnus seemed to steadily grow outraged or perturbed as the explanation continued. The medic seemed to physically hold himself back from saying something crass as his expression twisted through various shades of anger. ]

"The Quintessons mistook the giant statues on Earth as cybertronians?" Arachnid snorted derisively, even she could tell those giant things were nothing more than unmoving pieces of metal or stone.

Breakdown couldn't help but snort with her, "Guess so, either that, or they weren't taking any chances. Wouldn't be the first time something artistic or innocent-looking ended up being deadly." He said, remembering little moments during the war when something that didn't look dangerous ended up fragging slag over.

"Finally, the humans can refer to the Quintessons properly." Starscream groaned, annoyed and relieved all at once. "XTRs… No doubt short of Extraterrestrials, hmph. Creative." He said the last word sarcastically with a roll of his optics.

"But efficient." Knock Out shrugged, if it worked, it worked. Why lost processing power over naming the enemy when you should be focusing on defeating it? Granted, he also probably would have lobbied for something more creative and robust but whatever.

He was definitely enjoying the sight of the Autobot medic trying hard not to snap as at Tailbreaker's explanation, he hoped the Autobot snapped right at the humans. If only to see the smug old slag get reprimanded for snapping at someone who wasn't at fault for the situation- the humans were only following orders from an, admittedly unsavory source after all.

To his disappointment though, that world's medic seemed to take a moment to center and calm himself before focusing on the task at hand.

( "Pfft, the Quintessons attacked Lady Liberty? Don't let Agent Fowler know, he'll blow a gasket!"

…

..

.

"Uh, did you guys even let Agent Fowler know about the Observer yet or…"

Despite the fact the Autobot medic had said it in his native language of Neo Cybex, the humans all knew that he had swore as the Prime's expression turned pinched. )

[ "A mental link with the Quintessons." Ratchet hissed through gritted derma, pressing a servo against his faceplate before shaking his helm. "Well from my initial scan with Rafael, he does not have any fatal or immediate injuries- a popped blood vessel from within his nasal passage, possibly from the stress of that mental link but I'd need a deeper scan of him to truly check his brain. His vitals seem stable at least."

Both Tailbreaker and Wrecker sighed in relief, glad to know that their youngest friend was alright. For now.

Despite both pilot's protests, Ratchet was adamant in scanning all the humans. If only to get a basic profile for their health for future uses. He was curious about Tailbreaker's apparent immunity to clock out symptoms compared to Wheeljack and Wrecker but filed that curiosity for later.

The three MECH pilots were actually in a better state of health than Wheeljack considering they'd only piloted their mechas for a handful of hours, compared to the amount of time Wheeljack had been in his- about half a day.

"Any new symptoms?"

"Nah Doc, just the usual. My body feels too small and big for its own good, my vision's hazy but it's clearing up, didn't even lose a limb in my mecha so I've got feeling from all my arms and legs. No numbness in them, head's got a headache but Tailbreaker there got some pills from their first aid kit and gave 'em to me." Wheeljack reported, letting Ratchet scan and prod him easily.

"I made sure that Wheeljack could take breaks when he could, and have a routine upkeep on his nutrients and hydration." Ultra Magnus told Ratchet.

"Aw, thanks Maggie." Both mechs ignored him as the door to their room opened once more, and in came Optimus and Megatron. Optimus looked better, he no longer had a dent at his helm, and his scratches were welded together. The cracks on Megatron's plating seemed smaller, and he too, had his injuries welded and patched. ]

At the sight of Optimus and Megatron returning together, their Leader sat straighter in his chair, optics honed in sharply at his counterpart who stood so close to the other Prime. He'd been distantly interested in the viewing, only truly showing interested at the fact Tailbreaker was unaffected by clock out compared to his fellow pilots.

But now, he was fully paying attention again.

( There were sighs of relief at the fact the fact the alternate version of the young boy they all cared about was alright- his vitals stable at the very least. They hoped that were no complications that would endanger him.

Tensions rose slightly at the return of the alternate versions of their Prime and their enemy tyrant, who wasn't an enemy in this world. But a protector, something they were still dubious and disbelieving about. )

[ Both cybertronians stopped as soon as the door closed behind them, looking at the three new humans with surprised optics. "Primus, they look as young as they sound." Megatron said in English, optics narrowed at them.

"Hey, I thought you didn't know English?" Wrecker exclaimed, peering up at Megatron with wide eyes. Optimus smiled at her before looking over to Megatron who looked far too amused.

Megatron snorted, "Optimus was kind enough to compose a language packet the moment he realized you were humans. Speaking of language packets… Wheeljack, ensure these humans get the cybertronian language packet you've comprised since your stay here."

"Roger that." Wheeljack saluted, "I'll send it to them as soon as I'm back in my mecha. Your comm ID's still the same right, Miko?"

"Should be- same with Jack, I'll send you Raf's comm ID too."

"I take it that you're all in good health? Ratchet?" Optimus questioned, glancing between the humans and his medic, though he seemed very concerned at the fact Senscript was still unconscious and that he'd been blindfolded.

"Rudimentary scans reveal they're all stable- however Rafael, that is, Senscript, is suffering the side-effects of experimental tech alongside a mental attack with one of the Quintesson commanders. I'll need a deeper scan of his he- his cranium for better judgment over his health. He should be transferred to Wheeljack's personal habsuite as soon as possible." ]

Seeing the two leaders fight side by side was one thing, but seeing them stand in a room together- no violence, no hatred, no signs of aggression whatsoever… it really nailed down the fact that neither of them were enemies at the moment. That whatever was happening, the war against the Quintessons, it was enough that the two were putting aside however much years and eons of animosity against each other, bonding even, in favor of dealing with an enemy that required both their attention.

Knock Out never thought he would ever see something like this, the only time he ever thought to see Optimus Prime and Lord Megatron in a room together without any violence was when one of them was fatally wounded and was dying on a berth or something.

But this world was making him reconsider a few things… He always noticed the strange tension between Optimus and Megatron, who wouldn't? They were like a sun and a planet, orbiting around each other- however it was always with animosity and violence and Knock Out didn't dare to entertain thinking otherwise most of the time.

It was undeniable here though, with how close the two leaders were standing on screen.

And with how intense Lord Megatron was watching the screen…

Soundwave's helm tilted towards Knock Out as he realized he was staring at the ex-gladiator more than he should and hastily rectified that, moving his optics back towards the screen instead of the thoughtful warlord.

He'd missed a few things, nothing important though.

( "Wheeljack's taking orders from Megatron… Dunno how I feel about that."

"Megatron's standing with Optimus. That, I have no idea how to feel about."

"I'm standing in the same room as them both, with four humans and Ultra Magnus. I'm beyond feeling knowing how to feel at this point." Both the femme and mech stared at the disgruntled medic for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"You win Ratch." The wrecker offered making him scoff.

"Win what? A helmache?" )

[ "Pardon my interruption but before that, a question has been on my processor since your explanation." Ultra Magnus said, giving an apologetic nod towards Optimus and Megatron for speaking up so abruptly but he had a thoughtful look on his faceplate. "You said that the Quintessons were looking for something on your planet, and that they found it. You found it, do you know what they wanted?"

Wrecker perked, "Oh yeah, they wanted this thing called—"

Abruptly, the scene changed to Optimus, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Prowl, Starscream and Soundwave within a different room. They gathered around a table, with a silver disk-like contraption that they all knew.

"The Apex Armor." Optimus said in a grave, yet somewhat confused voice.

Starscream leaned in, lifting the disk to take a closer look. "And you say that it was on the human's planet? Hidden in its rock?" He questioned with a scowl, glancing over to the two leaders while Prowl typed into a datapad. ]

"So Starscream and Soundwave retain their cybertronian selves." Lord Megatron said, disappointed and satisfied respectively for each mech mentioned.

Starscream sniffed, holding back a sneer at Megatron's disappointment in him being cybertronian in that world. "Considering Thundercracker and Skywarp are present, he should be glad that I am there to keep them in line." He muttered, though there was something pained in his voiceprint as he shook his helm.

Knock Out doesn't know if Megatron heard it, Soundwave certainly did but did nothing. "At least one of us gets to retain their polish." Knock Out jested towards Starscream, glancing at the seeker on screen- "My, you're sporting color, Starscream. It's rather pleasant." He says in a surprisingly genuine way.

The other Starscream had more color than their grey-silver seeker, plates with red, light blue and light purple was stylishly painted on the other seeker's frame. Which also seemed a bit bulkier, Knock Out hadn't met Starscream personally before Cybertron's… end. But he thinks he had a different frame, was this it? He would perhaps check on his own later on.

"That was my old frame." Starscream murmured, optics almost hungrily looking over the old frame he sported. He hasn't seen it since Thundercracker and Skywarp… He shook his helm, "The colors were something I grew out of, unfortunately." Why wear paint of his trine when he was alone now? And sporting grey was an ominous choice, unfortunately inspired by Megatron himself.

Soundwave made a slight noise, a pinging sound that gained attention. "Ah, you've figured out the area where the Quintessons found the Apex Armor?" Megatron questioned, extremely pleased with Soundwave's work. "Plan out an excavation group to the area in the near future, it must be discrete. We shouldn't let the Autobots know that we can watch the very same thing they're watching right now."

"I volunteer to lead the excavation effort Lord Megatron, I can drill into the cliffs with ease and find it should it be there." Arachnid smoothly spoke up, eager to get her servos on the powerful defensive armor.

Starscream scowled, "Should it be there." He repeated, "There's not guarantee that the armor would be in the same area in this world. Perhaps it's not even on Earth."

"He uh, does have a point there." Breakdown surprisingly agreed because honestly, that was the truth.

Unfortunately… "If there's a chance that it is there, then it is a chance we must take." Megatron replied with a growl, "The Autobots will check themselves at some point, and I will not let them have the Apex Armor. When you search, see that you thoroughly search the area Arachnid- take a few other vehicons and drills with you."

"As you command, Lord Megatron." Arachnid replied with a pleased smile, it turned sly when she glanced over at Starscream who bristled at her look. Remarkably, the seeker kept silent, servos clenched together.

( .: I miss Prowl, I really do. But it's really weird to see him, Ultra Magnus and Optimus with Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave in a… peaceful setting? :. A scout beeped, awkwardly scratching the cheek of his faceplate.

"Definitely." His teammate and friend agreed, the large mech squinting at the screen. "Really hammers in the fact that the Autobots and Decepticons gotta stick together in that world I guess."

"As a tactician, Prowl's got something called a TacNet in his processor. Lets him run insane numbers on probabilities and calculations. He must've ran the numbers on the likelihood of survival rates if we were still divided." A femme scout explained to the humans when she noticed their slightly confused expressions. "And as an Autobot, and one of Optimus' inner circle back then, he's not the biggest fan of cons, so if he's playing ball with them… It cements the fact that Autobots and Decepticons are working together in- relative? Harmony?"

"Wait, that's Starscream?" A young boy asked, glancing over to the seeker on screen. "He looks- different."

"Yeah, he's got more color! And doesn't look like a toothpick or something."

A wrecker tried hard to smother his cackle while a medic snorted, "That is Starscream's previous frame. With Cybertron still intact and… a few other things in play, he must have kept his old frame rather than change into a new one." He says, thinking of the two other familiar seekers he had seen earlier on. )

[ "We haven't seen the Apex Armor since before the Quintessons attacked Cybertron." Prowl said with a frown, "It, along with several other relics and artifacts were stolen from the Iacon Vaults cycles before Iacon's fall."

A brief flash of a burning cybertronian city was shown before it returned to the grimacing Wrecker Commander.

"We had been so busy with the Quintessons afterwards that we couldn't focus on their theft or finding out who stole them in the first place." Ultra Magnus admitted with a shameful sigh and a shake of his helm. "It just wasn't a priority then."

"Well, luckily for you, Soundwave and I had looked into the theft a while ago shortly after the peace treaty." Starscream sniffed, gesturing to the mech who silently provided information and footage on both the screen of his visor as well as the screen on the table they were surrounding. "Considering that some of the items that was stored within the Vaults had been Decepticon weaponry, we thought it prudent to find out what happened, and either find the thief who stole them or at least locate where they would be stashed… Unfortunately the latter part wasn't achieved, but the former…"

Megatron rolled his optics, "Cease the dramatics Starscream, and just show us what you and Soundwave found." He ordered, digit tapping the table rim impatiently.

Starscream scowled but acquiesced all the same, "Show them the footage." ]

"Iacon fell? It fell before Praxus?" Breakdown repeated Ultra Magnus' words with disbelief, intake open when they were shown a brief glimpse of the city's downfall. Iacon had fallen as well, but it had been one of the last cities to fall before Cybertron went dark. To see it fall before Praxus… Primus.

Megatron was similarly stunned before his optics narrowed, "Before it fell, someone stole from its vaults. As if they'd foreseen the fall… or orchestrated it." Wasn't that a thought? Had someone worked with the Quintessons in ensuring Iacon's demise? Or did they predict it and decide to save the relics or something?

Knock Out hoped there wasn't any traitorous cybertronian who worked with the Quintessons but who knows, there were unscrupulous fraggers out there, even by Decepticon standards.

( There was a stunned silence at the revelation of Iacon's fall, a soft, pained 'No.' escaped the medic as soon as the image came up. Nobody present expected Iacon to fall so early during the war against the Quintessons, it had been one of the last to fall against the Decepticons after all.

A Prime closed his optics in grief, servos trembling slightly before sighing sadly. He hoped, at the very least, that the bots of Iacon, especially an old friend and mentor, had survived the demise… And he wondered just what happened to the stolen relics from Iacon's Vaults… )

[ The screen focused on an old security footage. It was slightly corrupted by either age or tampering, it was hard to tell.

The angle and video wasn't the best but it showed a slim bot strolling through the suspiciously empty halls of the vaults. One by one, they entered each vault, exiting with an artifact where they put into a storage cart. The footage skipped a few times, changing angles, showing that the slim bot had an orange color to them.

Finally, the footage ended with the bot grabbing a familiar silver-looking disk out of a vault. They were nearer to the camera this time, which gave a fuzzy but clearer look at their faceplate, which was poorly hidden by a pair of glasses. ]

Intakes dropped in surprise at the sight of the thief who was casually plundering the Iacon Vaults. "IT'S THAT MECH!" Starscream shrilled, pointing at the screen in disbelief. "From the other world! That- Frag, his name was- was… What was his name again?"

Knock Out pressed a digit against his helm, "It's on the tip of my glossa, his name was…"

Soundwave played a clip, "My name is Rung-"

"RUNG!"

Breakdown whistled lowly, "I'll admit, I was not expecting that. Mech's got steel bearings to just… steal from the Iacon Vaults? What is happening?"

"What is happening indeed." Megatron growled, trying to figure out how this thin cybertronian bot, who didn't seem to have any weapon systems integrated into his frame, managed to steal from the vaults with ease. "He entered the vault halls unimpeded by the looks of it, with no guards, no observers- just the cameras. He easily opened the vaults, he knew their codes, their security measures… He must have been an archivist who worked at the Hall of Records."

"Can an archivist access the vaults below Iacon?" Arachnid asked, a bit impressed and very curious.

Megatron hesitated before huffing, "Not exactly. Only archivists trusted by the Hall's head archivist can possibly access the vaults and there was only one mech that I knew of that was trusted with that… and that mech was not him." Did Optimus know Rung? Was Rung an archivist on Cybertron? He hadn't paid much attention to the other archivists within the Hall of Records, only the one, so in truth, he wouldn't know if there was another archivist trusted by Alpha Trion to access the vaults…

( "HIM!?" .: What? Why is he? What? :. "What the frag??"

"What the scrap! Why is Rung of all people, stealing from you guys?!" A girl questioned incredulously, eyes wide in disbelief at the sight of the orange mech on screen.

An older boy rubbed his eyes, "Woah, did not see that coming at all."

The Autobot's medic turned to his Prime and old friend, "Optimus?" An unspoken question was asked, something that no one on the team other than the Prime knew about.

The Prime shook his helm, "I have no recollection of Rung being part of the archivist staff. In this world at least, it may very well be possible he was one within that world instead and was trusted by Alpha Trion with access to the vaults… We must watch further to find out more." )

[ The scene cut back to Soundwave focusing on the faceplate of within the footage, matching it to an identity file pulled from a databank.

Multiple optics blinked in surprise and disbelief as Prowl read aloud. "Designation; Rung, occupation- psychiatrist? You mean to tell me that a psychiatrist stole ancient relics and dangerous artifacts and weapons from the vaults of Iacon before it fell? That's our thief?"

"How sure are you that this Rung is the thief in question?" Optimus questioned quietly, a frown on his faceplate as he looked at Rung's picture on the identification file.

"Mostly." Starscream replied firmly, "We've done more investigation- Nobody has seen Rung since before the fall of Iacon. It is said that his presence has always been… weak, to say the least. Barely anyone remembers him, even majority of his ex-patients needed to be reminded about him to truly remember his existence."

Soundwave pulled up more files, clues and information that he and Starscream had put together about Rung. "We found his old habsuite- most of his paraphernalia and items were packed away and missing, he even filed an abrupt retirement request from his job as a psychiatrist and left the rest of his items and some parting words to his amica."

Both Megatron and Optimus leaned in with surprised interest as another identification file appeared. "Pharma?" Megatron said aloud, sharing a wide-optic look with Optimus who returned it in full.

Starscream grimaced as he continued, "It was laborious to pull information from that mech, but we managed to find out that before Rung's disappearance… he apologized severely to Pharma before he was gone. Pharma has tried to find him however he could not, however sometime much later, many cycles after the Autobot-Decepticon ceasefire, Pharma's amica bond with Rung… was broken with Rung's death."

Nearly all the bots within the room made a grim expression, letting a silence hang for a little while at the revelation of a broken amica bond at the hands of death. ]

"He was a psychiatrist? Not an archivist?" Knock Out balks, having a hard time wrapping his processor around the fact that a psychiatrist stole something like The Apex Armor and several other artifacts and relics from somewhere like Iacon's Hall of Records Vaults! It didn't make sense! Not one bit!

Even Megatron was flabbergasted by the turn of events! He's been fairly confident that Rung was at least an archivist working within the Hall of Record for Alpha Trion but that wasn't the case!

Every con within the room, even Soundwave, was showing their disbelief and confusion over the case. It just… really didn't make any sense! Why steal the artifacts? Who the frag was Rung to be able to do so in the first place? What happened?

Knock Out made a shrilled, incomprehensible noise at the designation. "Pharma? Pharma. Head Surgeon Pharma? The same mech that did a four-way fuel-pump transplant with himself as the donor?! He was Rung's amica?!" Was that true in this world? Where the frag was Rung here?

Actually, there was a chance that Rung had died in this world. Considering he was dead there. Knock Out winced as he heard Rung's status as deceased there via amica bond breaking.

It was mind-boggling to say the least, they were amicas to the point of establishing a bond. It was wild to think that that snobbish medi-jet had an amica like Rung- didn't seem like they'd get along that well from first glance. Then again, all Knock Out knew about Rung was from his actor world counterpart who was a screenwriter of all things.

But in mecha universe, he was a psychiatrist.

Was he usually a psychiatrist?

He began to type down questions in his datapad, not before reminding himself that the orange bot with glasses was called Rung because for some reason Knock Out kept forgetting it.

( "He's a psychiatrist and he STOLE from Iacon's vaults?!" A femme scout gawked, trying to make sense of what was happening before her. Of what she was hearing.

"Steel bearings, what the frag mech." A wrecker breathed, almost wanting to laugh at how ridiculous this kind of was.

.: … How come people keep forgetting his name? Or who he is? :. A scout mumbled softly in confusion, only the humans caught it as the other bots were too busy with with the viewing to hear it properly.

A medic, in particular, reeled back at the unexpected designation. "He's amicas with Pharma?" He actually gaped, intake dropping at the reveal. Trying to imagine his old… complicated friend with the psychiatrist. Did he exist? Was he the medi-jet's amica here? If he was, why didn't he kn-

No, he know exactly why he wouldn't know. The medic grimaced, it only deepened as the mood turned somber at the revelation of the orange bot's death.

It was always something extremely sad, to hear about someone's death via the bond breaking. )

[ "So, we know stole the items from the Iacon Vaults but we still don't know why they were stolen, exactly how, nor where they were taken to." Ultra Magnus murmured, expression pinched at how the case ended up being.

Prowl though, shook his helm. "No, the Apex Armor was found on the human's home planet. There is more than a fifty-percent chance that we will find some of the artifacts there as well. We must talk with the humans about this."

Soundwave showed multiple galaxy maps on the screen, but pasted question marks as to where 'Earth' was located.

Starscream snorted, "We don't even know where their planet is- Wheeljack had no idea where his planet was, what makes you think these new humans have an inkling to where either?"

While their subordinates talked among themselves, two leaders were leaning closer together. Megatron leaned close when he saw Optimus still staring at Rung with a deeply thoughtful look, faceplate scrunched as if he was trying to remember something. "What is it, Optimus?" He asked quietly, as if to not interrupt the discussion happening at the other side of the table.

Optimus' optics didn't stray from Rung's picture. "… I believe I saw him once, before Iacon's fall… He was waiting outside of Alpha Trion's office."

A brief flashback of Optimus leaving Alpha Trion's office, nearly bumping into a slender orange mech who apologized. Optimus waved it off, apologizing himself before leaving. He looked back only once and saw that the mech entered Alpha Trion's office, he caught a glimpse of Alpha Trion standing up almost abruptly before the door closed.

"The guards are missing in the footage." He said aloud, gaining everyone's attention once more. "He knew all the passcodes and security measures of the vaults. He took everything with no problem, and left without being seen… I must speak with Alpha Trion, he let Rung steal everything from the Iacon Vaults. He was an accomplice to this crime." ]

"The old mech's still alive?" Megatron scoffed, scowling at the screen as Other Optimus dismissed the meeting, leaving just him and his counterpart alone. "I would have thought he would've perished alongside Iacon, he did in this world."

"Sounds like he's alive, big red and blue over there wants to talk to him after all." Knock Out couldn't help but point out, and was lucky to only get a disgruntled but considering hum from the warlord instead of a scathing look. That was the real win.

( A Prime perked, "Alpha Trion is alive there?" He had always suspected that Alpha Trion had died alongside Iacon, there'd been no contact from the old mech for a long, long time before before on Cybertron. He had hoped otherwise but he was happy to know that in another world, his friend and mentor was alive…

Although the mech seemed to have made himself an accomplice to a huge theft that was impossible to ignore. He had to wonder just what was going on in that universe to allow the theft of so many artifacts and relics, not to mention he didn't tell his counterpart of it at all… )

[ "So, your old mentor was either an accomplice or perhaps even facilitated the theft of various artifacts and relics ranging from the Apex Armor to even the Forge of Solus Prime…" Megatron started some time after the others left, Optimus was leaning against the table with his servos, a look of fatigue slowly appearing on his faceplate. "Perhaps there's more to that old mech than I originally thought."

"He is… inscrutable, at times." Optimus admitted tiredly, "I had always worried there were things he was not telling me, important details that he avoided revealing to me… But this?" He took in a deep vent, his expression going stoic before he was abruptly surprised by the feeling of Megatron's servo on his cheek.

"Stop." Megatron said softly, yet firmly, red optics staring into his. "You are upset, Optimus. Let yourself feel upset."

Optimus narrowed his optics, "There is little time for me to feel upset, Alpha Trion's current state is fragile as it is. We must go to him and ask while we still can." He argued but Megatron stepped closer, pulling Optimus close to press their helms together. One servo still on his cheek, the other wrapping around the Prime's waist intimately.

"Fine. We'll go, but don't think I haven't noticed your reliance on the Matrix's suppressors lately. Again. Even Ratchet has noticed. We'll talk about this later, Optimus." Optimus' expression twisted before giving a sigh of defeat in the face of Megatron's stern look.

"… Very well." Megatron searched through Optimus' optics before nodding in satisfaction, leaning in for a brief kiss. "You've turned into a worrier." Optimus muttered afterwards, a soft look on his faceplate.

Megatron smirked, "With a Prime like you? Who wouldn't?" ]

( "Pause." )

For the second time in a row, silence hung within the warship's room.

Broken only by the warlord himself. Not with anger. Not with rage. But by him standing abruptly and leaving the room.

That, somehow, was far more worrying.

[ ----- TFP: UO ----- ]

man, coloring this chapter was awful. i should really stop but the colors are so cool on tumblr. ANYWAY SURPRISE

RUNG IS HERE

AND HE'S PHARMA'S AMICA BECAUSE WHY NOT (smiling at you kev and tar)

AND ALSO HE'S DEAD BECAUSE REASONS

rung and alpha trion are such old mechs who are keeping secrets. meanwhile the entirety of uo cast is about to lost their fucking mind because of the megop kiss. yes this is the second time i ended it like this, but i feel like its justified and also this chapter was already beefy enough as it is...

and i also needed it to start the next chapter with the next character pov huehehehehehh

anyways i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter because the brainrot is still going strong.

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[derinthescarletpescatarian]

For anyone wondering about my computer, here's the current dealio:

graphics card issue resolved by installing Steam from the Steam site; apparently the one in the app store is an alternate version that's notoriously buggy. Thanks lapsuslapsiis and purple-hel for tipping me off about this.

the game that was experiencing said issue runs now, but it for some reason so laggy as to literally be unplayable (which, since the issue was a graphics memory space thing, makes me really really hope that the issue is actually resolved and this isn't same issue different symptom). I have some fresh new ram coming in the mail so if it's a general memory issue then that might solve it.

I thought that switching hard drives had solved the freezing issue; turns out it hasn't. Freezing seems to be less frequent, which might mean something (since the OS switch I've got a lot more free space on the hard drive, so if it's a memory issue then there might be more wiggle room there) or it might just be random. Again, I've got ram coming in the mail, so that'll either solve the issue or it won't.

Since switching to Linux, I've experienced a fair bit of general lag; programs are much slower to respond, and are especially a lot slower to open, than they were on Windows. Computer people might recognise this as "the exact opposite of what most people experience when trading Windows for Linux". Linux has always been as fast or faster on my other computers but it's slow here. I might be totally off-base here but this also leads me to suspect a memory hardware issue -- lagging and freezing are probably the same problem, and less demand on the computer systems might just mean trading lagging for some of the freezing.

I floated earlier that the freezing might actually be the computer suddenly failing to recognise all input devices, which are all USB devices (I've had issues with it recognising my internet dongle, also USB, before). Since it's either a hardware issue or a bios issue (sudden onset makes me think hardware), I was worried that this might mean something fucked on the motherboard. We can put this theory to rest -- it's now frozen multiple times during youtube videos and when it does, the videos freeze and loop about 1 second of sound. It's definitely freezing, not just failing all inputs.

So in conclusion, I've got 8GB of ram in this thing and I suspect some of it might be broken, and there's 64GB of shiny new ram coming in the mail to replace it, and the switch will either fix all of my problems or it won't. If I keep randomly guessing then something I try will have to work eventually. If it doesn't work then it might be a video card software issue re: Nvidia on Linux, and also a hardware motherboard issue causing the freezes that had me switch in the first place, but I'm hoping it's the ram thing which is so much cheaper and easier to fix.

Also this beast has had memory issues for literal years at this point so this might just be the tipping point re: ram.

[moonchildstyles]

Ooooh I would love to see Prosecco h taking care of his pretty girl when she is sick :( and maybe she doesn’t tell him she’s sick but he finds out and is like 🥺

sooooo! I changed this just a little but I hope you still like it! thank you sm for requesting!!!!

wordcount: 7.5k

—————

(Y/N) smiled, listening back to the voicemail Harry left for her this morning. 

Those small gifts had become her favorite thing to wake up to, eager to hear his voice and know that he was thinking of her even when he had been in a rush to get to the office. More often than not, she was greeted with a stream of consciousness message about all of the things he was doing or needed to get done before he could head out, along with tender declarations that he would talk to her soon, and that she was on his mind. It was never anything particularly grand or cloyingly romantic, but (Y/N) saved every single one of them. Hearing his voice was a part of her morning routine now, she couldn't go without. 

Though she was just as in love with this recording as the others, there was a slight sticky quality to his voice this morning. It was extra thick, seemingly heavy on his tongue as if he had a stuffy nose. But, he didn't mention anything about feeling under the weather. 

She would have to check up on him later, she decided. Send him a text or call him on his lunch to make sure it wasn't anything more than allergies or those cold symptoms that seemed to pop up in the morning before a cup of coffee could flush out his sinuses. 

Once the voicemail ended, Harry finishing with a small "I love you", (Y/N) pulled the phone from her ear, scanning through the rest of the notifications she ignored in favor of hearing his voice. There was nothing more to read than a couple of flags reminding her the schedule she had input on her phone and some social media messages from the girls she was growing closer to from her classes. 

Bypassing those minute messages, she pulled up Harry's contact thread. Typing out a message, she reveled in the soft cushioning of her bed with her boyfriend on her mind. 

     i just listened to ur voicemail🤍 i hope ur day gets less busy but I love u too soooo much 

     also it sounded like u were a little sick over the phone are u okay?:( 

Starting her day slowly, (Y/N) took her time getting ready, checking her phone here and there in hopes of receiving a response from Harry. It wasn't until she had a cardigan draped over her shoulders and bag on her shoulder, walking out the door, that her phone vibrated. 

Though she knew that Harry would scold her if he saw how distracted she was crossing the parking lot to her car, phone in hand, she didn't really care. Especially when it was his notification that she was enamored with. 

H🤍       My day's already getting better since hearing from you, love. Would it be alright if I call you on my lunch? I miss you. 

      No, I'm not sick, just allergies. Thank you for checking on me🩷

Her heart bubbled in her chest as she climbed into her car, a bashful grin splitting her cheeks. She could hear his messages in his voice, lingering over the soft sentiment that he missed her. Before pulling out of the parking lot she made sure to let him know that she was more than okay with him giving her a call later, attaching multiple hearts and kisses to the text. 

She hoped she made him smile like he did for her. 

—————

Blindly reaching for her phone to cancel her alarm, (Y/N) barely cracked her eyes open when she brought the device to her face. The time blinked up top, an early class alarm having pulled her from her dreams. Thursdays were always the worst day of the week in her eyes; she had to wake up extra early, wait around on campus after her morning classes ended because the hour-long gap between her afternoon courses was too short to head home, and most of her deadlines were set for 11:59pm that night. She dreaded starting her day when it came to Thursdays. 

Allowing herself a moment of reprieve, taking an extra long blink of her eyes, (Y/N) finally sat up with the motivating thought of seeing what Harry had left her in his voicemail. 

Blinking the sleep from her gaze, she swiped through her phone with sleep-shaky fingers. She absently pulled up her call log, expecting to see a missed call from Harry, attached with a voicemail to start her day with. 

When there was no red bubble denoting a notification or a text message informing her of a missed voicemail, (Y/N) blinked extra hard in hopes of clearing her vision. When she recovered, coming to her senses more and more, there was still nothing to be seen. 

Harry hadn't called her. 

A pout formed on her lips. He never missed calling her in the morning. Since this had become a regular thing, there was never a morning Harry missed greeting her, starting both of their days off with a sweet message. She hoped he was alright. 

Pulling up his text thread, she typed out a quick message.

       good morning honey ! are you doing okay? i didn't get a voicemail from u so I wanted to make sure !! miss and love u so much call me when you can:))))) 

When the receipts didn't quickly change to read, she took in a sigh. While it wasn't like him, there was a possibility that he woke up too late in the morning to give her a call like usual and didn't have time. There was always the chance that he had taken a late night hours before, working hard and allowing him to lie in this morning. 

(Y/N) was willing to convince herself of either scenario, pushing her imagination along with the terrible ideas sprouting. She just hoped he was okay.

—————

Sitting in the quad, breathing in the first airs of autumn with her headphones covering her ears, (Y/N) didn't rush away from her textbook when she felt her phone vibrate. Finishing off her notes, she waited a moment longer, rereading what she had transcribed before plucking up her phone. The name on her notification had her heart skipping a beat

H🤍

     Sorry, sweetheart. I woke up late this morning, and have been rushing around the offie all day. I didn't mean to ignore you, I'm so so sorry. Maybe I can call you tonight, on my way home? Love you so much.

Her lashes fluttered as she blinked, reading over his message. Honestly, a chunk of worry she hadn't realized she had been holding onto evaporated. The reassurance that he was okay, and none of the haywire scenarios that she had forced to the back of her mind had even been a little true, was freeing. He was just having a Thursday, just like she was. 

      don't be sorry im just happy youre okay!!! im sorry youre having a rough day:( is there anything i can do to help?????

      yes yes please call me later:( I miss you:(

      love you moooooooore :)  

The time between the moment she had sent off her last message to the receipts flipping from delivered to read was almost instantaneous. The three grey dots popped up on the side of her screen just after. 

H🤍

        You don't need to do anything for me, sweetheart, you're already helping. My afternoon is going to be busy, but I should be out of here around the normal time so I'll call you around then. I miss you too.

       It didn't feel right not to call you this morning, but I didn't have time. I think it threw me off. 

       Love you most:)

Laying back on the grass, music still fluttering through her speakers, (Y/N) smiled up at her phone as she held it over her face. It was always especially cute when he would add little emoticons or emojis to his messages. 

     i missed hearing u this morning too but its okay !!!! don't stress urself out too much this afternoon though just call me when you can  🩷🩷🩷🩷

     i have to get to class now but ill talk to you later :)))) 

Harry's response came in the form of a string of hearts being sent her way, the messages making her smile before she pocketed her phone. Now that the anxious urgency she had before was now melted away, she took her time gathering her things and heading towards her next class. 

Everything was turning up, she decided. Thursday was almost over, Harry was okay, and she now could look forward to a phone call from him this evening. 

All she had to do was get through this final class.

—————

"Hi, honey," (Y/N) smiled, pressing her phone to her ear as soon as she saw the call blinking across the screen.

On the other line, there was a slight rustle. "Hi, love," Harry finally murmured, his breath coming out heavy, "What are you doing?" 

"Nothing," she sang, closing her laptop lid in favor of focusing on Harry, "Just waiting for you. Did you just get home?" 

"Yeah," he sighed once more, "Been a long day. Sorry to keep you waiting." 

(Y/N) shook her head even though she was well aware of the fact he couldn't see her. "Don't be sorry, H, stop. I'm sorry you had a bad day, what happened?" 

Before he could answer, a rattling cough was heard over the receiver. Harry seemingly pulled the phone away from himself, the sound growing more distant before he returned a beat later. "Sorry, I jus—" 

"Are you getting sick?" She didn't quite believe his explanation of allergies anymore. 

"No, love," Harry muttered, his voice suddenly sounding thicker than (Y/N) remembered, a sniffle of his nose sounding a moment later. "I've jus' had a long day is all. 'M a little run down." 

That didn't ease her any. (Y/N)'s lips thinned, a pinch appearing in between her brows. "It's okay if you're getting sick, H. I'm worried you're not taking care of yourself." 

"'S not like that, sweetheart, I promise. After I get through tomorrow, everything will calm down and I'll be fine. Don't worry over me, okay?" 

Every word that fell from his lips sounded less and less convincing. He definitely sounded sick with the way he gummed around his words through a thick throat, his breathing coming a bit heavier as if he couldn't breathe through his nose, and his reassurances sounded exactly like someone who was getting sick but didn't want to admit it would say. 

Harry took her silence for exactly what it was: her disbelief. "(Y/N), love, I really am jus' tired. Thank you for worrying about me, but y'don't have to. 'M alright." 

She swallowed. She supposed he really could be experiencing those cold symptoms for no other reason than the fact that he's tired, and has been going through a couple of long nights. With the weekend coming up, she too could argue that she wasn't feeling well enough to finish out her week, for no other reason than she would prefer to sleep in and do nothing instead of attending class. 

"Okay," she relented, "Sorry to interrogate you, I've just never heard you sound like this before." 

"I know, 's okay. But I promise I'm alright. I still need to take you to the aquarium this weekend, remember?" 

(Y/N) immediately brightened up at the reminder of their weekend plans. "Yeah, so you better not be sick then. I have to see the sharks." 

"Trust me, I know. You've said that almost every day since we booked the tickets." His voice took on a faux-exasperated tone, as if he couldn't wait to be done with their plans for no other reason than she would stop bringing them up.

A peal of laughter left her lips as she curled up on her couch, getting more comfortable now that she was talking with him. "You're so mean," she bubbled, "This is what I get for worrying about you? Maybe you should be sick and I'll just go alone." 

"As if you'd drive yourself there." 

Yeah, he was definitely feeling fine.

—————

While she was disappointed, (Y/N) wasn't surprised to see the lack of voicemail left for her when she rolled over on Friday morning. On the phone the night before, Harry had told her that he had another early morning coming, and it wasn't a secret just how rundown he was feeling. She had hoped, in the back of her mind, that he could be feeling well enough to send her a message in the morning anyway, but she couldn't blame him for opting to sleep a little bit longer before heading out the door. 

Nonetheless, she still sent him his own good morning text, hoping it would brighten his day and remind him that it was finally Friday. He'd made it through the week and could now look forward to their plans. 

      morning honey!! i hope you have a better day but its friday!!!! we get to see each other tomorrow!!!!! text me when you can love uuuuuuu

Setting her phone on her nightstand, she proceeded to start her own day. Maybe, on the way to campus, she'd stop and get herself a matcha latte. It really had been a long week.

—————

     just went to study in the quad and it started raining AS SOON as I sat down:( I had to run and take all my stuff back to my car:( and I think I forgot my favorite pen on accident :( 

Pressing send, (Y/N) added her new lunchtime message to the string of blue messages she'd already sent that had gone unanswered. Even the read receipts hadn't flipped to anything other than delivered since her morning text hours ago. Of course there had been times where he hadn't gotten back to her by the time she had sent another text, as well as the other way around, this was just slightly out of the range of normal. 

Being with him for almost a year allowed her to learn some of his schedule. She knew what his day to day must look like, just from the fact that he usually texted her, called her, or made plans around certain times of the day. It wasn't hard to pick up on the fact that around eleven-thirty he took a small break from his morning paperwork because that was when he would send her a message if he could. His lunch was always placed around twelve to one, something she learned because that was when he would ask if she wanted to come visit him, or he'd place a call to her while he ate. He left the office at the same time everyday, sometimes a little earlier and sometimes a little later. 

With the time blinking past one-thirty with no phone call, text, or even the reading of her messages, (Y/N) didn't want to be worried but she was. 

There were so many things that could have gone wrong, she figured. Her list of scenarios started with his phone breaking beyond repair, and ended with her sitting in a hospital waiting room. More than half of her worries were irrational, but that was unfortunately how her brain operated at times.

Without second guessing, (Y/N) pulled up Harry's contact before pressing the call button. As it rang and rang, she knew what the outcome was going to bet but she still hung on to the final trilling noise until it finally ended. The generic voicemail greeting played in her ear before she tapped the red end button. 

Rationalizing herself, (Y/N) had to remember the way he had talked about how busy today was going to be for him. This week was all about prepping for a large conference meeting that would be taking place on Monday, including hours of paperwork, presentation reviews, and running in and out of meetings with other executives. While she thought she knew his day-to-day schedule rather well, that didn't mean that day like this wouldn't force him to deter. It was more than just a possibility that he really was that busy that he wouldn't be able to get back to her before he left the office. 

He would call her when he could. 

—————

      goodnight! i hope youre okay honey just text me when you can

      I love u 

(Y/N) wasn't even sure how long she looked at her phone screen, waiting for the receipts to change when she sent her final message for the day. The thread consisted of blue messages she had sent through the day, no response in between. Her call log had three unanswered calls on the list, all outgoing to Harry. 

It wasn't until six p.m. rolled around without a single response from him that she was unable to fight back the worst case scenarios she had rolling around her head. This just wasn't like him. He never stayed that late at the office. There was no way that through over twelve hours, that he didn't have a single second to even react to one of her texts, even just a short one telling her that he was okay but would be staying late. 

Dropping the phone to fall in her sheets, her hands limp at her side, (Y/N) stared up at the ceiling. Something was wrong. Even if all it came down to was that he was so overworked that he fell asleep as soon as he made it home, that thought didn't exactly soothe her. It was scary thinking that something could have been so intense—work, meetings, preparations for the following week—that he didn't even have the mind to text her during his lunch. She just hoped he was alright. 

She'd give it until the morning, she decided. Sunday was their aquarium date, and if she didn't hear from him by lunchtime tomorrow, then she was going to go to his apartment and see what was going on. 

(In a very small part of her mind, a place she had shoved to the very back after everything with Andrew and Iris had been flushed away, she had the insecure thought that he could possibly, maybe, perhaps be ghosting her. While she could never imagine Harry, the king of communication, to go the route of ignoring her as a breakup option, that logic didn't necessarily win out against irrational insecurity). 

Hopefully, giving him the night to rest and recuperate would be exactly what he needed, allowing him to get back on his feet tomorrow and reach out to her with everything she missed the day before. 

Now, she just needed to figure out how she was going to get to sleep. 

—————

There was no way she was going to get to sleep tonight. 

Her brain was too preoccupied to settle, that much was apparent. She pretended as if she wasn't waiting for a notification to vibrate her phone with the way she picked up the book she was borrowing from Harry, barely reading any of the pages. She scrolled through her socials, distracting herself with videos and posts or whatever was fed to her to keep her from pulling down the top bar and checking for any messages she could have blinked through. More than once during her attempts at staying away from her phone, rolling away from her night stand and nestling into the sheets, she reached for it anyway. 

This cyclical routine led her to stare up at the ceiling at one in the morning, phone at her side lest she get a message and not hear the buzz for whatever reason. 

The later the hours got, the more her brain went wild. What if something happened and no one knew to contact her? What if he was really trying to break up with her through ghosting? What if no one even knew he was hurt in the first place and Harry was alone, scared? What if, what if, what if.

Throwing her comforter off her body, (Y/N) sat up in haste. She fit her phone into the pocket of her sweatpants before she was trekking through her apartment, heading to her kitchen. Flicking on the light, she stalked towards her cabinets as if she wasn't itching to grab her phone. Pulling out a glass, she filled it with water and took a long sip. Hoping the cold temperature would soothe her brain and settle the unease in her stomach, she stayed in her kitchen, leaning up against her oven, as she drained the glass. 

When there was nothing left in the glass aside from a few drops and her anxiety was still flitting through her veins, (Y/N) felt restless. 

What else was there to do? There was no way to fix this problem, but she couldn't see herself getting over it enough to actually get any rest. Her body had convinced herself something was wrong even if she tried to reason with herself otherwise. There was no way she was going to be able to beat out the quivering her stomach and rattling of her brain with logic. 

Pulling her phone from her pocket, she checked once more for a notification that wasn't there. Swiping through to the text thread itself, she saw it was still the same string of unanswered blue texts sitting in the black void. 

Rolling her lips between her teeth, she shifted her weight where she stood. 

Would she be crazy to even consider going to his house right now? 

She, unfortunately, couldn't stray her mind very far from the awful possibility that something could have happened, that Harry could be needing someone, and that was why he hadn't been able to contact her. It was a completely irrational, worst-case-scenario mindset, but one that couldn't be tamped down for very long.

(Y/N) just wanted to make sure he was alright.

That was all she could think of when she pushed off of the counter, heading towards her bedroom with a purpose. She tugged on a heavy hoodie, the oversized shape blending with her sweatpants, before she slid on a pair of slippers. She pulled her hair out of her face into a messy twist, chunky clip on the back of her head. Grabbing her keys and bag, she didn't give herself enough time to second-guess anything before she was beelining towards the front door. 

By the time she made it to her car, key in the engine and dash lights illuminating the space, (Y/N) was convinced she'd lost it. 

Nonetheless, she backed out of her space and started towards Harry's home.

—————

Using the key Harry had given her months back, (Y/N) let herself into his house. The lights were off throughout the space. His shoes were in a neat line along the wall, his jacket carefully hung up, and his work bag set up by the door like usual. Everything was immaculately perfect, as if he took his time and didn't rush a single step. (Y/N) rolled her lips between her teeth. 

She set her bag down by his, kicked her slippers off the same, before peering around the living room. His kitchen was clean as far as she could tell, no crumbs or even takeout containers on the counters. 

Her stomach sunk as she scaled his stairs. She was officially acting insane, wasn't she? Harry was obviously fine, and she just couldn't let him have a day to himself, could she? This is what happens when she obsesses over things, she ends up looking like a fool, and it—

(Y/N) stopped in her tracks as she stepped into Harry's room, the door having been cracked before. 

In his bed, Harry was curled up in a bundle of wrinkled sheets. Large comforters were draped over his form with more sitting on the end of the bed. A sliver of his face could be seen, his brows furrowed in distress with his forehead shimmering with sweat. The lump of bedding shook as he shivered underneath the mountain of down. Did he know his teeth were chattering? Did he know he was making these slight whimper tones? 

With her concern skyrocketing, (Y/N) crossed the space to his bed in quick strides. Up close, she could see the flush on his cheeks, the dry skin of his lips, the way he had his arms bundled over his chest as if he was still freezing under all the blankets and the hoodie he had on. 

And he said he wasn't feeling sick. 

"Harry?" she murmured, crawling onto his bed as she reached to place a hand on his forehead. She cringed at the feel of the damp skin, too hot to be healthy. He didn't even stir at her disturbance. "Harry?" 

In a fluttering blink, Harry suddenly woke up, a hurried gasp filling his lungs. It took a moment for him to catch his bearings, his eyes darting around the space before they settled on her. His gaze was bleary, unfocussed as he attempted to take her in.

"(Y/N)?" he croaked, voice crackling and dry. 

No wonder he couldn't call her, he barely had a voice. (Y/N)'s heart cracked just a bit as she looked at him, settling on his bed with her legs folding up underneath her. 

"Hi," she smiled at him, hoping to soothe him just a little, "I thought you said you weren't getting sick remember?" 

"Yeah," he answered in a breath, his eyelids going heavy once more as he sunk into the bedding, "I don't want to be sick." 

"I know," she murmured, "But it's going to be okay, we'll get you better again." 

A slight curl landed on his lips as she spoke. "Are you staying?" 

"Of course, I am," she promised, running a hand through his hair, pushing the strands off of his forehead. Harry happily pressed into her hand, seeking out her warmth as another shiver wracked through his system. As sweet as she thought it was, she was less than impressed with just how intense his fever was. "When was the last time you took medicine?" 

"I don't know," he mumbled, voice thick as his eyes shuttered closed, "I don't know if I have any." 

"Harry, you're joking." He had to be, really. There was no way that her responsible Harry didn't have any kind of cold medicine at his disposal. 

A smile once more tugged at the corners of his lips. "Maybe," he shrugged, "I can't remember." 

(Y/N) sighed, knowing she was going to have to ransack his house and try to find any kind of medicine she could get him to take when he was a little more lucid. Until then, she was going to start small. 

"Have you been drinking water?" 

"Don't know." 

Harry shivered as she looked towards his bedside table, finding not even a half finished glass of water waiting. She had reason to assume that he hadn't been lucid enough to even remember to hydrate during this whole thing. 

"(Y/N)?" Harry crooned, voice too thick to be comfortable. 

"Hm?" she hummed, carding her fingers through his hair once more. 

Keening into her touch, he spoke with his eyes closed. "I'm tired." 

"I know," she murmured, brows pinching when another shiver wracks his body, "You can sleep, honey. I'll find some medicine for you, and everything when you wake up, okay?" 

"Okay," he sighed, completely compliant to whatever she had to say. Shifting under her palm, he turned his head until her palm was grazing the planes of his face. He puckered his lips and pressed a soft kiss to her palm. "I missed you." 

"I missed you, too, honey." 

She watched as a sleepy smile bloomed on his features before he sunk into his pillow, heavy blankets set on his form. He was out, just like that. 

Watching over him, (Y/N) felt a guilty sense of relief as she saw a shiver roll down his spine. She didn't like seeing him so down, obviously out of it with fever chills going through his body, but this was a decidedly nicer outcome than the panic scenarios she had swirling through her head. 

Giving him one more pass of her fingers through his hair, she backed off his bed. She doubted he would be sleeping very soundly, so she didn't have much time to go through and find all of the things he would need to get him through the night. 

His bedroom door was left cracked open as she padded through his home. There was no way he didn't have any medicine laying around, she was sure of it. She just needed to find it. 

"Shoot," (Y/N) murmured under her breath, fumbling through the cabinet in his first floor bathroom.

She was going to have to call the aquarium in the morning and reschedule their reserve tickets. 

—————

"Harry? You've got to wake up for me, honey."

Harry wanted to open his eyes, he really did, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't. He was too tired, too cold, too enveloped in his vivid dreams. 

"Just for a second then you can go back to sleep, okay?" 

Taking in a heavy breath through his sore throat, Harry attempted once more to crack his eyes open. This time around he was successful to a small degree, his eyes opening into slits. Everything was a bit blurry, too hazy to make out exact details of what was around him. He was so cold—freezing even. The blankets weren't enough. 

Above him, he saw who he was ninety-eight percent sure was (Y/N). There were vague memories of seeing her earlier in the night. He remembered the shape of her smile, the sound of her voice, her gentle touch through his hair. He thought he had been dreaming, 

"You're here?" he croaked, deep crackles in his voice. 

"I am, yeah," she crooned to him, shuffling closer to him, "And I have medicine for you to take." 

"You do?" A sudden chill swept over his form. He burrowed deeper under his covers. 

"Yeah, but you need to sit up for me so you can take it and drink some water." 

His brow creased her words. "No," he whined, unwilling to abandon his cocoon for something so trivial like water. 

"Yes," (Y/N) argued, "You're sick, H. You need to take some medicine so you can feel better." 

He shook his head. "I'll get better later." 

A soft peal of laughter filled his bedroom. "I think we should get better now, honey. I know you don't like being sick, so this will help it go away faster." 

Her logic checked out, really, though it didn't really make him happy to admit. "Fine," he answered begrudgingly. 

(Y/N) helped him sit up, his layers of blankets falling to his lap. His palms were sweaty as he clutched the hem of the comforters, his eyes going just a bit less bleary the more he blinked away his sleep. 

At his side, (Y/N) was huddled amongst the folds of his bedding. She looked at him with a softened smile, eyes glancing over his features and whatever state he must be in. 

"How are you feeling?" she asked, reaching behind herself to grab both the medicine and the water she had waiting for him.

Harry shrugged, his head feeling too heavy. "Tired," he grumbled, "I have a fever, don't I?" 

Her smile downturned some, frowning at the edges. "Yeah. I don't know how high, but I think it's a pretty good one," she told him, "So we need to make sure you keep drinking and start taking medicine again." 

 "That sounds like a lot of work." 

A huff of laughter fell from (Y/N)'s lips again. "I'm sure it will be, but I don't think it'll be much work for you." Before he could compute some kind of retort, (Y/N) was handing him a duo of pills and a glass of water. "Only sip the water, okay? Too much could make you sick." 

Her voice was like static in the background as he moved with lethargic limbs, tossing the pills to lay on his tongue before taking down a large gulp of water. He could vaguely hear her scolding him for taking down too much right after she warned him to slow down. 

"Sorry, sorry," he told her, throat not feeling quite as rough now that he drank something. "'M thirsty." 

"I'm sure you are, but you need to be careful," she told him, her voice a soft soothe as she took the glass from his hand and back to the side table, "Just take it slow. Are you hungry?" 

Trying to remember the last meal he had, Harry struggled to cast his mind that far back. While he didn't necessarily identify any hunger pains in his body at the moment, too much else going on, he figured they were buried somewhere amongst the crowded chaos. 

"Yeah," he answered, voice thick through his burning throat, "A little." 

"Let me go make you some soup, okay? After you eat, you can go back to sleep if you want." 

(Y/N) made a move to shuffle off of his bed, but she didn't get very far when he reached out with heavy limbs to pull her back. "'M not that hungry," he murmured, "Stay." 

"Harry," she started, her tone turning into a coaxing plea, "I'll be fast, and you need to eat, okay?" 

Disregarding her attempt at reasoning, he proceeded to tug her back to his chest. Though he didn't feel particularly strong at the moment, (Y/N) helped by moving pliantly wherever he wanted, even helping him when he shifted them to lay beneath the covers together. 

"'M too tired," he said, nosing at the curve of her neck, "I'll eat later." 

"Harry," she sighed once again, "I was going to make that soup you like, though." 

He only shook his head, pressing the tip of his cold nose into the column of her throat. He buried himself close against her, feeding into her warmth and the comfort the soft curves of her body provided. 

"Later," he insisted, her voice slurring and weakening. He puckered his dry lips and gave a small kiss to the shelf of her collarbone. "Stay."

It was when he felt her hands return to his hair, carding through the swirling curls and scratching her nails against his scalp, that he knew he won. 

"Alright," she relented, planting her own kiss on the crown of his head, "I'll wait until you wake up, honey." 

All it took was shuttering his eyes, lashes glancing over her skin with a slow breath in, that he fell asleep again.

—————

Harry's muscles ached by the time he finished the small serving of soup (Y/N) had made for him, only small remnants of carrots and celery remaining at the bottom. While he was much more lucid, his fever finally having gone down almost a full twelve hours since (Y/N) started feeding him medicine, his body was now exhausted from the fight against his cold. 

"This was really good, sweetheart. Thank you," he smiled at her when she came to claim his dishes and return them to the kitchen. In his now empty palms, she replaced the dishes with another duo of pills for him to take. 

"Those should get you through the night," (Y/N) explained, "But just wake me up if you need to. I'm hoping the soup will help your throat so you won't wake up coughing again." 

That had been the story of his day, at this point. In between the fever, the cold sweat, and the muscle aches, he had barely been able to sleep before he was forced awake by the burn in his throat that demanded he cough until he swore his esophagus was raw. 

"Okay," he responded, voice feeling gummy in his throat, "Are we going to bed now?" 

Dishes still in hand, (Y/N) pursed her lips as she looked at him. "Actually," she started, shifting her weight, "I was thinking—if you're feeling okay enough—that we could take a shower? I think it would help you feel better to get all the fever off of you and into some clean clothes."

To be fair, he fell asleep in these sweats Thursday night, and it was now Saturday night with the same hoodie pulled over his torso and heavy sweats that kept him warm through his perceived chill. But the idea of standing up for that long, in a space that hot and warm, already made him tired enough he figured he could fall asleep in an instant. 

She must have been able to tell what he was thinking by the soured expression on his face. "We'll be really fast, I promise," she assured him, "I was going to wash your hair and everything, so you wouldn't even have to do anything but stand there." 

While he was sure she was bribing him with the promise of washing his hair for him, taking the task off of his hands while simultaneously giving him the gift of feeling her nails scratch at his scalp and card through his hair under the warm spray of water, he knew he wasn't going to win when that offer was on the table. She knew exactly how to get him.

"We'll be fast?" 

"Promise." 

With a sigh, Harry caved in. "Okay, but if I fall asleep, y'jus' have to let me." 

"I'll make sure you don't fall then," she pledged with a proud smile on her face, "I'll be right back and then we'll go upstairs."

—————

"Too cold," Harry grumbled, his bare skin erupting into goosebumps under the spray of water.

Reaching around his back to adjust the temperature knob, (Y/N) turned it up just a bit more. By her preference, the water was plenty hot, especially apparent with the amount of steam filtering through the room already, but she figured he was still fighting off a few chills. 

"Is that better?" she asked, quickly pulling her hand out of the stream. 

"Almost," he murmured, eyes fluttering closed. 

His skin was quickly turning red under the temperature, but he seemed to revel in it. He threw his head back under the water, wetting his curls. His arms were barred over his chest, but she could still see the way he pulled in a deep breath, the sauna-like atmosphere cleaning his sinuses. She allowed him to luxuriate in the feel, hoping his muscles were relaxing as much as she knew he needed.

"Which shampoo do you want tonight?" she asked, looking towards the built in caddy he had in his shower, the cubby full of both his and her products. 

"Yours," he answered automatically, his voice sounding much less clogged after reveling in the water. 

With a soft smile, she retrieved the bottle, aware of the way Harry turned to offer her the back of his head to run the cleanser through. 

"Fast, right?" he murmured just above the sound of the pounding water. 

"Fast," she promised, sudsing up her hands before she was going through the soft curls with her shampoo. 

Though normally Harry would have leant down for her to get better leverage and not have to reach too far above to wash his hair, she couldn't blame him as he kept the full of his height. His back hurt enough some days without having a cold running through his system, it didn't help when his muscles were pinched with fever chills. Nonetheless, she stood to the tips of her toes and did as best she could to get him back to feeling more like himself. 

It didn't take long for the cherry-scented bubbles to start scenting the steam, wrapping around them in sweet ribbons. She smiled at the way he practically melted at the feel, rolling his neck and allowing her more and more coverage of the shampoo. It was a silly thought, but for a minute she felt as if she were playing as his hairdresser. Was she supposed to do small talk with him?

The thought had a huff of laughter puffing through her nose. 

"What's funny?" Harry asked, his voice sluggishly warm. 

"Nothing, just something silly," she told him, pulling her fingers from the silky suds of his hair, "Rinse your hair and we'll wash one more time before conditioning, okay?" 

"Okay," he answered absently, turning to place his hair under the rinsing spray, the bubbles running down his skin.

(Y/N) couldn't help herself, following the string of bubbles that ran down his chest, flushed skin slick from the steaming water. If this shower were under different circumstances, she would have taken it upon herself to trace that line of bubbles with her own hands, but that would have to wait, she decided. The lines of his muscles were attention grabbing, but there was something in it that made her feel sad for him. It wasn't fun to see him, knowing just how strong he was, to be reduced down to shivers and half-lucid conversations all from a small cold. 

With his hair rinsed free of all the bubbles, he looked to her, curls draping down around his face. "Again?" 

"Again," she affirmed, "Then we'll finish up and go to bed." 

A soft smile touched the corner of his lips. "Okay." 

Repeating the motion of washing through his hair once more, reviving the pattern after days of enduring his cold sweats. When she gave him the go ahead to rinse down once more, she could see just how slow he was moving again; lethargic limbs heavy. 

"Which body wash are you thinking?" Though she had an inkling that he would choose to utilize her products again, she still thought to ask. 

Instead of getting an answer, she was surprised with heavy, tattooed arms wrapping around her middle from behind. In her ear, he whispered, "Not yet?" 

"Not yet?" she asked, turning in his arms to look up at him, "I thought you wanted to go fast?"

Gazing down at her with hooded eyes, he looked at her with flushed cheeks and dilated pupils. "I don't want to leave right now." 

"No?" she asked with a beaming smile, a small huff of laughter falling from her lips. She looped her arms around his middle, setting her palms on the slick skin of his back. The water sprayed down on her hands, the temperature no longer bothering her. 

"No," he said, murmuring over the thrum of the water. A silence settled between the two of them as he gave her a slow blink, his gaze drifting down to the curve of her lips. "Kiss?"

(Y/N) looked up at him with a pout, her hand on his back running a soothing circuit over the planes. "I don't want to get sick, H." 

"You won't get sick," he tried to tell her, bringing his hand up to cradle her cheek, "I promise." 

"How can you promise that, hm?" she prodded, teasing him some with her pout turning into a tender smile. 

She seemed to have stumped him some, watching as he rolled her words around. "I don't know," he settled on, "But, I'll take care of you if you do." 

With that, he dipped his head down and brushed the tip of his nose against the side of her own. The lilypads of his tired eyes were close enough for her to pick out the varying shades of clear green, the wet clumps of his lashes a dark frame around them. It was hard to say no to him, especially like this. 

Tipping her chin up, she pressed her lips against his. It was a soft, innocent kiss that lingered for only a moment. It broke off when she could feel the curl of Harry's smile. 

"Is that enough?" she asked, nuzzling his nose in a puppy's kiss. 

"Almost," he murmured, "But I'll wait until bedtime." 

(Y/N) let out a soft laugh, pulling away to rest her cheek against his chest. His skin was blazingly warm, aided by the steaming water still scenting around them. He hugged her close, his arms a loose loop around her with his nose grazing the top of her head. His heartbeat drummed a soothing rhythm under her ear, a comforting reminder that he was right here, right with her. After the hours she went worrying and building anxiety over his state when she hadn't heard from him the day before, feeling the solid build of his body and the steady heartbeat under her ear, this was more relieving than she was sure he even knew.

"(Y/N)?" he asked after a moment. 

"Hm?" she hummed, snuggling that much closer. 

"Are we still going to the aquarium tomorrow?" 

Blinking her eyes open in an instant. She forgot to call. 

—————

thank u sm for reading and sorry for any mistakes! if theres any ideas anyone wants to see pls send them in:)))

[russellsppttemplates]

Bet you there's gonna be another kid (or at least a scare) after that win today! Lando Norris is a race winner, babyyyyy!

Note: I was all over this the minute you sent it in! 👀 I'm leaving the ball in your corner because I'm a sucker for dad!driver (and dad!Lando has been keeping my mind busy), so I want your input too! Lando is one of four...

Cw: pregnancy symptoms, implications of smut

"Behave well for Nana, okay?", you gave the kids your best attempt at a smile as you watched them go with Cisca for the afternoon.

You woke up feeling a lot worse than you were yesterday, which wasn't a great place to begin with. Lando insisted he wanted to fully take care of you, and when his parents offered to look after the kids, he couldn't refuse it.

"Lovie, I really think you should get checked by a doctor", Lando offered as he run his fingers through your hair, "this is not looking good".

"I have never felt like this, even when I was pregnant, it wasn't this bad, I-", you stopped yourself, making the math on your head and checking the date on your watch, "it has been more than six weeks since Miami, hasn't it?", you gulped.

"Yes, it has, nearing seven actually", Lando stated, "Oh!".

The frenzy of the celebrations and the fact that the kids were with Lando's parents for the night, allowing you to go out and enjoy yourselves, crawled its way up for both you and Lando, and on the way, it may have left you to your own devices without any protection.

"Do you think you're pregnant?", Lando bit his lip, "because I spotted a test when I was tidying the bathroom the other day", he nudged your arm.

"We did it a couple of times that night, plus that one in the car and the one in your room that morning", you mused, "there were a lot of times where it could've happened", you reasoned, "Let me go and take the test", you offered, getting up and heading to the bathroom to do your business.

"Just a couple of minutes left", you said, letting your husband hold your body against his, kissing your forehead multiple times, "are you okay?", he asked.

"Yes", you replied, "are you okay?".

"I am, yes", he said, sealing it with a kiss on your lips as his hands rubbed your sides.

The timer beeped and you grabbed the plastic test, "Lando, look!", as you showed him.

(Thank you for sending this in ✨️)

[antoniosvivaldi]

Neural Filters Tutorial for Gifmakers by @antoniosvivaldi

Hi everyone! In light of my blog’s 10th birthday, I’m delighted to reveal my highly anticipated gifmaking tutorial using Neural Filters - a very powerful collection of filters that really broadened my scope in gifmaking over the past 12 months.

Before I get into this tutorial, I want to thank @laurabenanti, @maines , @cobbbvanth, and @cal-kestis for their unconditional support over the course of my journey of investigating the Neural Filters & their valuable inputs on the rendering performance!

In this tutorial, I will outline what the Photoshop Neural Filters do and how I use them in my workflow - multiple examples will be provided for better clarity. Finally, I will talk about some known performance issues with the filters & some feasible workarounds.

Tutorial Structure:

Meet the Neural Filters: What they are and what they do

Why I use Neural Filters? How I use Neural Filters in my giffing workflow

Getting started: The giffing workflow in a nutshell and installing the Neural Filters

Applying Neural Filters onto your gif: Making use of the Neural Filters settings; with multiple examples

Testing your system: recommended if you’re using Neural Filters for the first time

Rendering performance: Common Neural Filters performance issues & workarounds

For quick reference, here are the examples that I will show in this tutorial:

Example 1: Image Enhancement | improving the image quality of gifs prepared from highly compressed video files

Example 2: Facial Enhancement | enhancing an individual's facial features

Example 3: Colour Manipulation | colourising B&W gifs for a colourful gifset

Example 4: Artistic effects | transforming landscapes & adding artistic effects onto your gifs

Example 5: Putting it all together | my usual giffing workflow using Neural Filters

What you need & need to know:

Software: Photoshop 2021 or later (recommended: 2023 or later)*

Hardware: 8GB of RAM; having a supported GPU is highly recommended*

Difficulty: Advanced (requires a lot of patience); knowledge in gifmaking and using video timeline assumed

Key concepts: Smart Layer / Smart Filters

Benchmarking your system: Neural Filters test files**

Supplementary materials: Tutorial Resources / Detailed findings on rendering gifs with Neural Filters + known issues***

*I primarily gif on an M2 Max MacBook Pro that's running Photoshop 2024, but I also have experiences gifmaking on few other Mac models from 2012 ~ 2023.

**Using Neural Filters can be resource intensive, so it’s helpful to run the test files yourself. I’ll outline some known performance issues with Neural Filters and workarounds later in the tutorial.

***This supplementary page contains additional Neural Filters benchmark tests and instructions, as well as more information on the rendering performance (for Apple Silicon-based devices) when subject to heavy Neural Filters gifmaking workflows

Tutorial under the cut. Like / Reblog this post if you find this tutorial helpful. Linking this post as an inspo link will also be greatly appreciated!

1. Meet the Neural Filters!

Neural Filters are powered by Adobe's machine learning engine known as Adobe Sensei. It is a non-destructive method to help streamline workflows that would've been difficult and/or tedious to do manually.

Here are the Neural Filters available in Photoshop 2024:

Skin Smoothing: Removes blemishes on the skin

Smart Portrait: This a cloud-based filter that allows you to change the mood, facial age, hair, etc using the sliders+

Makeup Transfer: Applies the makeup (from a reference image) to the eyes & mouth area of your image

Landscape Mixer: Transforms the landscape of your image (e.g. seasons & time of the day, etc), based on the landscape features of a reference image

Style Transfer: Applies artistic styles e.g. texturings (from a reference image) onto your image

Harmonisation: Applies the colour balance of your image based on the lighting of the background image+

Colour Transfer: Applies the colour scheme (of a reference image) onto your image

Colourise: Adds colours onto a B&W image

Super Zoom: Zoom / crop an image without losing resolution+

Depth Blur: Blurs the background of the image

JPEG Artefacts Removal: Removes artefacts caused by JPEG compression

Photo Restoration: Enhances image quality & facial details

+These three filters aren't used in my giffing workflow. The cloud-based nature of Smart Portrait leads to disjointed looking frames. For Harmonisation, applying this on a gif causes Neural Filter timeout error. Finally, Super Zoom does not currently support output as a Smart Filter

If you're running Photoshop 2021 or earlier version of Photoshop 2022, you will see a smaller selection of Neural Filters:

Things to be aware of:

You can apply up to six Neural Filters at the same time

Filters where you can use your own reference images: Makeup Transfer (portraits only), Landscape Mixer, Style Transfer (not available in Photoshop 2021), and Colour Transfer

Later iterations of Photoshop 2023 & newer: The first three default presets for Landscape Mixer and Colour Transfer are currently broken.

2. Why I use Neural Filters?

Here are my four main Neural Filters use cases in my gifmaking process. In each use case I'll list out the filters that I use:

Enhancing Image Quality:

Common wisdom is to find the highest quality video to gif from for a media release & avoid YouTube whenever possible. However for smaller / niche media (e.g. new & upcoming musical artists), prepping gifs from highly compressed YouTube videos is inevitable.

So how do I get around with this? I have found Neural Filters pretty handy when it comes to both correcting issues from video compression & enhancing details in gifs prepared from these highly compressed video files.

Filters used: JPEG Artefacts Removal / Photo Restoration

Facial Enhancement:

When I prepare gifs from highly compressed videos, something I like to do is to enhance the facial features. This is again useful when I make gifsets from compressed videos & want to fill up my final panel with a close-up shot.

Filters used: Skin Smoothing / Makeup Transfer / Photo Restoration (Facial Enhancement slider)

Colour Manipulation:

Neural Filters is a powerful way to do advanced colour manipulation - whether I want to quickly transform the colour scheme of a gif or transform a B&W clip into something colourful.

Filters used: Colourise / Colour Transfer

Artistic Effects:

This is one of my favourite things to do with Neural Filters! I enjoy using the filters to create artistic effects by feeding textures that I've downloaded as reference images. I also enjoy using these filters to transform the overall the atmosphere of my composite gifs. The gifsets where I've leveraged Neural Filters for artistic effects could be found under this tag on usergif.

Filters used: Landscape Mixer / Style Transfer / Depth Blur

How I use Neural Filters over different stages of my gifmaking workflow:

I want to outline how I use different Neural Filters throughout my gifmaking process. This can be roughly divided into two stages:

Stage I: Enhancement and/or Colourising | Takes place early in my gifmaking process. I process a large amount of component gifs by applying Neural Filters for enhancement purposes and adding some base colourings.++

Stage II: Artistic Effects & more Colour Manipulation | Takes place when I'm assembling my component gifs in the big PSD / PSB composition file that will be my final gif panel.

I will walk through this in more detail later in the tutorial.

++I personally like to keep the size of the component gifs in their original resolution (a mixture of 1080p & 4K), to get best possible results from the Neural Filters and have more flexibility later on in my workflow. I resize & sharpen these gifs after they're placed into my final PSD composition files in Tumblr dimensions.

3. Getting started

The essence is to output Neural Filters as a Smart Filter on the smart object when working with the Video Timeline interface. Your workflow will contain the following steps:

Prepare your gif

In the frame animation interface, set the frame delay to 0.03s and convert your gif to the Video Timeline

In the Video Timeline interface, go to Filter > Neural Filters and output to a Smart Filter

Flatten or render your gif (either approach is fine). To flatten your gif, play the "flatten" action from the gif prep action pack. To render your gif as a .mov file, go to File > Export > Render Video & use the following settings.

Setting up:

o.) To get started, prepare your gifs the usual way - whether you screencap or clip videos. You should see your prepared gif in the frame animation interface as follows:

Note: As mentioned earlier, I keep the gifs in their original resolution right now because working with a larger dimension document allows more flexibility later on in my workflow. I have also found that I get higher quality results working with more pixels. I eventually do my final sharpening & resizing when I fit all of my component gifs to a main PSD composition file (that's of Tumblr dimension).

i.) To use Smart Filters, convert your gif to a Smart Video Layer.

As an aside, I like to work with everything in 0.03s until I finish everything (then correct the frame delay to 0.05s when I upload my panels onto Tumblr).

For convenience, I use my own action pack to first set the frame delay to 0.03s (highlighted in yellow) and then convert to timeline (highlighted in red) to access the Video Timeline interface. To play an action, press the play button highlighted in green.

Once you've converted this gif to a Smart Video Layer, you'll see the Video Timeline interface as follows:

ii.) Select your gif (now as a Smart Layer) and go to Filter > Neural Filters

Installing Neural Filters:

Install the individual Neural Filters that you want to use. If the filter isn't installed, it will show a cloud symbol (highlighted in yellow). If the filter is already installed, it will show a toggle button (highlighted in green)

When you toggle this button, the Neural Filters preview window will look like this (where the toggle button next to the filter that you use turns blue)

4. Using Neural Filters

Once you have installed the Neural Filters that you want to use in your gif, you can toggle on a filter and play around with the sliders until you're satisfied. Here I'll walkthrough multiple concrete examples of how I use Neural Filters in my giffing process.

Example 1: Image enhancement | sample gifset

This is my typical Stage I Neural Filters gifmaking workflow. When giffing older or more niche media releases, my main concern is the video compression that leads to a lot of artefacts in the screencapped / video clipped gifs.

To fix the artefacts from compression, I go to Filter > Neural Filters, and toggle JPEG Artefacts Removal filter. Then I choose the strength of the filter (boxed in green), output this as a Smart Filter (boxed in yellow), and press OK (boxed in red).

Note: The filter has to be fully processed before you could press the OK button!

After applying the Neural Filters, you'll see "Neural Filters" under the Smart Filters property of the smart layer

Flatten / render your gif

Example 2: Facial enhancement | sample gifset

This is my routine use case during my Stage I Neural Filters gifmaking workflow. For musical artists (e.g. Maisie Peters), YouTube is often the only place where I'm able to find some videos to prepare gifs from. However even the highest resolution video available on YouTube is highly compressed.

Go to Filter > Neural Filters and toggle on Photo Restoration. If Photoshop recognises faces in the image, there will be a "Facial Enhancement" slider under the filter settings.

Play around with the Photo Enhancement & Facial Enhancement sliders. You can also expand the "Adjustment" menu make additional adjustments e.g. remove noises and reducing different types of artefacts.

Once you're happy with the results, press OK and then flatten / render your gif.

Example 3: Colour Manipulation | sample gifset

Want to make a colourful gifset but the source video is in B&W? This is where Colourise from Neural Filters comes in handy! This same colourising approach is also very helpful for colouring poor-lit scenes as detailed in this tutorial.

Here's a B&W gif that we want to colourise:

Highly recommended: add some adjustment layers onto the B&W gif to improve the contrast & depth. This will give you higher quality results when you colourise your gif.

Go to Filter > Neural Filters and toggle on Colourise.

Make sure "Auto colour image" is enabled.

Play around with further adjustments e.g. colour balance, until you're satisfied then press OK.

Important: When you colourise a gif, you need to double check that the resulting skin tone is accurate to real life. I personally go to Google Images and search up photoshoots of the individual / character that I'm giffing for quick reference.

Add additional adjustment layers until you're happy with the colouring of the skin tone.

Once you're happy with the additional adjustments, flatten / render your gif. And voila!

Note: For Colour Manipulation, I use Colourise in my Stage I workflow and Colour Transfer in my Stage II workflow to do other types of colour manipulations (e.g. transforming the colour scheme of the component gifs)

Example 4: Artistic Effects | sample gifset

This is where I use Neural Filters for the bulk of my Stage II workflow: the most enjoyable stage in my editing process!

Normally I would be working with my big composition files with multiple component gifs inside it. To begin the fun, drag a component gif (in PSD file) to the main PSD composition file.

Resize this gif in the composition file until you're happy with the placement

Duplicate this gif. Sharpen the bottom layer (highlighted in yellow), and then select the top layer (highlighted in green) & go to Filter > Neural Filters

I like to use Style Transfer and Landscape Mixer to create artistic effects from Neural Filters. In this particular example, I've chosen Landscape Mixer

Select a preset or feed a custom image to the filter (here I chose a texture that I've on my computer)

Play around with the different sliders e.g. time of the day / seasons

Important: uncheck "Harmonise Subject" & "Preserve Subject" - these two settings are known to cause performance issues when you render a multiframe smart object (e.g. for a gif)

Once you're happy with the artistic effect, press OK

To ensure you preserve the actual subject you want to gif (bc Preserve Subject is unchecked), add a layer mask onto the top layer (with Neural Filters) and mask out the facial region. You might need to play around with the Layer Mask Position keyframes or Rotoscope your subject in the process.

After you're happy with the masking, flatten / render this composition file and voila!

Example 5: Putting it all together | sample gifset

Let's recap on the Neural Filters gifmaking workflow and where Stage I and Stage II fit in my gifmaking process:

i. Preparing & enhancing the component gifs

Prepare all component gifs and convert them to smart layers

Stage I: Add base colourings & apply Photo Restoration / JPEG Artefacts Removal to enhance the gif's image quality

Flatten all of these component gifs and convert them back to Smart Video Layers (this process can take a lot of time)

Some of these enhanced gifs will be Rotoscoped so this is done before adding the gifs to the big PSD composition file

ii. Setting up the big PSD composition file

Make a separate PSD composition file (Ctrl / Cmmd + N) that's of Tumblr dimension (e.g. 540px in width)

Drag all of the component gifs used into this PSD composition file

Enable Video Timeline and trim the work area

In the composition file, resize / move the component gifs until you're happy with the placement & sharpen these gifs if you haven't already done so

Duplicate the layers that you want to use Neural Filters on

iii. Working with Neural Filters in the PSD composition file

Stage II: Neural Filters to create artistic effects / more colour manipulations!

Mask the smart layers with Neural Filters to both preserve the subject and avoid colouring issues from the filters

Flatten / render the PSD composition file: the more component gifs in your composition file, the longer the exporting will take. (I prefer to render the composition file into a .mov clip to prevent overriding a file that I've spent effort putting together.)

Note: In some of my layout gifsets (where I've heavily used Neural Filters in Stage II), the rendering time for the panel took more than 20 minutes. This is one of the rare instances where I was maxing out my computer's memory.

Useful things to take note of:

Important: If you're using Neural Filters for Colour Manipulation or Artistic Effects, you need to take a lot of care ensuring that the skin tone of nonwhite characters / individuals is accurately coloured

Use the Facial Enhancement slider from Photo Restoration in moderation, if you max out the slider value you risk oversharpening your gif later on in your gifmaking workflow

You will get higher quality results from Neural Filters by working with larger image dimensions: This gives Neural Filters more pixels to work with. You also get better quality results by feeding higher resolution reference images to the Neural Filters.

Makeup Transfer is more stable when the person / character has minimal motion in your gif

You might get unexpected results from Landscape Mixer if you feed a reference image that don't feature a distinctive landscape. This is not always a bad thing: for instance, I have used this texture as a reference image for Landscape Mixer, to create the shimmery effects as seen in this gifset

5. Testing your system

If this is the first time you're applying Neural Filters directly onto a gif, it will be helpful to test out your system yourself. This will help:

Gauge the expected rendering time that you'll need to wait for your gif to export, given specific Neural Filters that you've used

Identify potential performance issues when you render the gif: this is important and will determine whether you will need to fully playback your gif before flattening / rendering the file.

Understand how your system's resources are being utilised: Inputs from Windows PC users & Mac users alike are welcome!

About the Neural Filters test files:

Contains six distinct files, each using different Neural Filters

Two sizes of test files: one copy in full HD (1080p) and another copy downsized to 540px

One folder containing the flattened / rendered test files

How to use the Neural Filters test files:

What you need:

Photoshop 2022 or newer (recommended: 2023 or later)

Install the following Neural Filters: Landscape Mixer / Style Transfer / Colour Transfer / Colourise / Photo Restoration / Depth Blur

Recommended for some Apple Silicon-based MacBook Pro models: Enable High Power Mode

How to use the test files:

For optimal performance, close all background apps

Open a test file

Flatten the test file into frames (load this action pack & play the “flatten” action)

Take note of the time it takes until you’re directed to the frame animation interface 

Compare the rendered frames to the expected results in this folder: check that all of the frames look the same. If they don't, you will need to fully playback the test file in full before flattening the file.†

Re-run the test file without the Neural Filters and take note of how long it takes before you're directed to the frame animation interface

Recommended: Take note of how your system is utilised during the rendering process (more info here for MacOS users)

†This is a performance issue known as flickering that I will discuss in the next section. If you come across this, you'll have to playback a gif where you've used Neural Filters (on the video timeline) in full, prior to flattening / rendering it.

Factors that could affect the rendering performance / time (more info):

The number of frames, dimension, and colour bit depth of your gif

If you use Neural Filters with facial recognition features, the rendering time will be affected by the number of characters / individuals in your gif

Most resource intensive filters (powered by largest machine learning models): Landscape Mixer / Photo Restoration (with Facial Enhancement) / and JPEG Artefacts Removal

Least resource intensive filters (smallest machine learning models): Colour Transfer / Colourise

The number of Neural Filters that you apply at once / The number of component gifs with Neural Filters in your PSD file

Your system: system memory, the GPU, and the architecture of the system's CPU+++

+++ Rendering a gif with Neural Filters demands a lot of system memory & GPU horsepower. Rendering will be faster & more reliable on newer computers, as these systems have CPU & GPU with more modern instruction sets that are geared towards machine learning-based tasks.

Additionally, the unified memory architecture of Apple Silicon M-series chips are found to be quite efficient at processing Neural Filters.

6. Performance issues & workarounds

Common Performance issues:

I will discuss several common issues related to rendering or exporting a multi-frame smart object (e.g. your composite gif) that uses Neural Filters below. This is commonly caused by insufficient system memory and/or the GPU.

Flickering frames: in the flattened / rendered file, Neural Filters aren't applied to some of the frames+-+

Scrambled frames: the frames in the flattened / rendered file isn't in order

Neural Filters exceeded the timeout limit error: this is normally a software related issue

Long export / rendering time: long rendering time is expected in heavy workflows

Laggy Photoshop / system interface: having to wait quite a long time to preview the next frame on the timeline

Issues with Landscape Mixer: Using the filter gives ill-defined defined results (Common in older systems)--

Workarounds:

Workarounds that could reduce unreliable rendering performance & long rendering time:

Close other apps running in the background

Work with smaller colour bit depth (i.e. 8-bit rather than 16-bit)

Downsize your gif before converting to the video timeline-+-

Try to keep the number of frames as low as possible

Avoid stacking multiple Neural Filters at once. Try applying & rendering the filters that you want one by one

Specific workarounds for specific issues:

How to resolve flickering frames: If you come across flickering, you will need to playback your gif on the video timeline in full to find the frames where the filter isn't applied. You will need to select all of the frames to allow Photoshop to reprocess these, before you render your gif.+-+

What to do if you come across Neural Filters timeout error? This is caused by several incompatible Neural Filters e.g. Harmonisation (both the filter itself and as a setting in Landscape Mixer), Scratch Reduction in Photo Restoration, and trying to stack multiple Neural Filters with facial recognition features.

If the timeout error is caused by stacking multiple filters, a feasible workaround is to apply the Neural Filters that you want to use one by one over multiple rendering sessions, rather all of them in one go.

+-+This is a very common issue for Apple Silicon-based Macs. Flickering happens when a gif with Neural Filters is rendered without being previously played back in the timeline.

This issue is likely related to the memory bandwidth & the GPU cores of the chips, because not all Apple Silicon-based Macs exhibit this behaviour (i.e. devices equipped with Max / Ultra M-series chips are mostly unaffected).

-- As mentioned in the supplementary page, Landscape Mixer requires a lot of GPU horsepower to be fully rendered. For older systems (pre-2017 builds), there are no workarounds other than to avoid using this filter.

-+- For smaller dimensions, the size of the machine learning models powering the filters play an outsized role in the rendering time (i.e. marginal reduction in rendering time when downsizing 1080p file to Tumblr dimensions). If you use filters powered by larger models e.g. Landscape Mixer and Photo Restoration, you will need to be very patient when exporting your gif.

7. More useful resources on using Neural Filters

Creating animations with Neural Filters effects | Max Novak

Using Neural Filters to colour correct by @edteachs

I hope this is helpful! If you have any questions or need any help related to the tutorial, feel free to send me an ask 💖

[tainbocuailnge]

post where I argue for the use of some less popular free units (you don't need me to tell you gladiia and lumen are cracked)

vigil

this guy has a combination of qualities from both his subclass and his specific summon that make him really convenient to use because he's able to do a lot of jobs decently: he's a vanguard that often doesn't need a healer because his constantly refreshing wolves are doing the blocking and drawing ranged aggro while you use the dp on other units, he can hit air, the wolves deal multiple hits and have some def ignore which allows them to easily shred most trash to midweight enemies, all combined meaning he can handle a lot of map demands on his own. in terms of stats and utility you're essentially deploying a 4* sniper, guard, and vanguard at once, packaged as a single 14dp unit

he interacts well with a ton of event mechanics too, for example the wolves can block the spread of burning reeds even while inactive, and they block line of sight from the lucent arrowhead enemies and don't care about taking machinegun fire because they have 3 refreshing hp bars, and those bugs from originum dust that reduce aspd when blocked don't affect vigil himself because it's the wolves doing the blocking, and the wolves deal hits equal to their amount of heads so they deal well with hitcount-based mechanics too especially if vigil is on s3. those 3 hp bars and the speed at which they refresh with s1 also makes vigil good at stalling enemies, particularly ones that deal strong but slow hits like mudrock colossi, but also just stuff like heavy defender type enemies. compared to other tactician vanguards vigil is much easier in general use because he requires minimal management, his summon blocks multiple enemies and with s1 constantly refreshes its hp without external input so you just put him down and he either handles it or he doesn't.

his s3 has pretty high damage potential and you see it a lot in vanguard only clears but in my experience it's gimped in more general use by having no buffs to his comparatively low atk + a lot of the damage being contingent on the summon blocking an enemy while giving up on the increased survivability from the other skills + the fact that unless you're in a particular challenge niche there's no reason for him to be the one doing the damage. I find s1 is the way to go the vast majority of the time because it makes the best use of his summon's unique qualities. s2 is theoretically some of the fastest dp printing in the game but only if there's a steady stream of enemies to allow it to actually be used so in practise its a pretty bad skill, you'd only use it over s1 if you're using vigil to block a stream of enemies that can't meaningfully hurt the wolves but might not get killed fast enough with s1 (i saw one vanguard clear where they put him on s2 just so the sp from siege's talent wouldn't go to him lol)

puzzle

puzzle's main claim to fame is that with s1, if he's able to continuously attack a target, he prints dp faster than a flag vanguard. ines s1 has the same dp printing speed (2dp per 4 seconds compared to puzzle's 3dp per 6 seconds) but ines does so much other shit there's still reason to have puzzle on hand to stand there printing dp while ines does her other shit. puzzle also has the upper hand on ines on this particular front in that if there's an event gimmick where you can attack some kind of device, like the orbs in lonetrail or the vents in jessica's event, since those things are technically at max hp every time he hits them he procs his talent (2 extra sp when attacking a target with full hp) on every hit and speeds up to an insane 3 dp per 3 seconds.

the OTHER notable thing puzzle has is a giant poison debuff on his s2 (up to 150% of his atk arts damage per second for 16 seconds), which is good for all the hitcount-related things poison is good for as well as just being a good amount of damage that he can deliver in a comparatively very small window of time as a fast-redeploy unit that also prints dp. I'm not sure whether the 16 seconds counts from first or last application but with a max level puzzle you're looking at a minimum of around 14k arts damage. it makes him really good at wearing down enemies that stand there menacingly in spots that are annoying to reach for regular assassin-type units, as well as contributing damage from behind another unit. I think this video gives a pretty good image of what puzzle s2 can do, look at him melt the power armor and dor-bionics.

jieyun

her first deployment has reduced cost and gives her a hefty boost to her already high artilleryman attack (she reaches 1k atk once deployed before module) and her s2 is a huge splash area with 50% slow + a damage modifier that doesn't clash with her talent so she just shreds everything that isn't really high def, and anything that is still gets significantly slowed while your arts damage units kill it.

since s2 always goes to a specific tile in her range it can also be used to make her prioritise certain targets, and since it's a whole 15 seconds of high per-second splash damage she's a good counter to bosses that spawn a bunch of other weaker enemies like essence of evolution or ya, or just huge amounts of closely grouped enemies like RA raids. it's also only 8 offensive sp at m3 (down from 12 at lv7) which is basically nothing already and even less when combined with common IS collectibles or RA food and support items. she shreds all those annoying flying cunts in collapsals afternoon the moment they come out of their box. she's genuinely just a really good unit for very straightforward reasons and very beautiful also.

breeze

do not be mistaken there is zero gameplay reason to invest in breeze over any other aoe medic because the others have every utility ever while breeze only has raw healing numbers but when it comes to healing multiple units at once her numbers are legit huge so she's very useable. i also find her very cute and charming, you should check out her english dub it's really good.

her talent is so conditional it might as well not exist however if you combine her mod3 talent (medics and supporters gain 15% max hp when breeze's skill is active) with silence alter's mod3 talent (operators in range gain 10% max hp) and honeyberry's talent (ranged operators in range gain 10% max hp) you could probably make silence take the manfred cannon which is funny.

czerny

the whole arts protector subclass is in kind of a weird spot where they've got good stats (defender level bulk with guard level attack, some res) and good traits (3 block melee unit with arts damage) and their skills and talents do some cool and unique things, but you rarely actually need or look for what they specifically can do so most people only end up using them when they just like them a lot or they happen to fit their particular niche.

czerny's unique niche is reflecting arts damage on his talent which leads to some really funny clears whenever it's his time to shine because enemies will just kill themselves. some enemies that czerny's reflect is particularly good for are dublin flamethrowers (each tick of the flamethrower gets reflected), londinium mobile artillery (the barrage is arts damage that he can take more easily with the increased hp from s2), crossroads units from lonetrail, those really long range sandcastle casters from ideal city who just stand there blasting you from fucking narnia, but really any enemy that deals arts damage will slowly kill themselves while blocked by czerny.

i find that in practise if you want to use czerny just to use him, his arts reflect talent and s2 explosion are secondary to the fact that he has really high innate res (25 thanks to his talent) with an s1 that doubles it, making him arguably the best anti-arts blocker in the game right now, and during s2 he can punch people for up to 2k arts damage per hit over a very respectable 20 seconds for 30sp. and his english dub is really really good.

shalem

I like him :)

shalem s2 hits air with a big forward range and since it's random shots it's unaffected by enemy taunt level, but conversely since it's random with a pretty big range you can't guarantee he'll hit the targets you want and it becomes less effective the more enemies there are. it's also kinda sicko damage (like 45k arts damage total/2.2k dps before res + effective guarantee of proccing his res debuff talent thanks to high hitcount) but it's hard to capitalise on when it's defensive recovery and guaranteed to kill him without someone healing him. in victoriaknights they tend to pair him with hibiscus or reed alter to stack arts debuffs and in defenderknights they often combo with saria s3 not just for the debuffs and heals but also because she can feed him sp to actually use the skill.

s1 is way easier to use and incredibly solid so that's what you go with when simply taking shalem to locations. it improves a lot with m3 (-35% attack interval to -45%) so if you end up raising him and find s1 lacks a bit of oomph that's why. like czerny shalem's got the arts protector problem where it's hard to argue why you should use him specifically since "melee arts damage" or "defender that kills" isn't really hard to come by these days, but that doesn't mean a defender with multitarget arts damage who can hit air isn't still a really good unit.

lessing

this guy has the problem of his subclass having middling base traits that his colleagues compensate for by being an abyssal hunter and having true damage respectively, and he does some things that nobody else does, except for lee who does it better in nearly all cases, lol. if you DON'T have lee available though or are in a situation where lee is simply eating too much dp to be viable then lessing suddenly kicks ass through the power of being the only other guy who can't be stunned, which is a gimmick that enemies throw out often enough to make it worth investing in having a hard counter like this. lessing's s3 modifier also stacks multiplicatively with external buffs so he scales really hard with those and can bonk enemies for some really funny numbers with the right backup.

however EVEN if you don't think you'll ever deploy him I think he's still worth the e2 for his base skill alone, he has a fixed 3 morale cost for all elite material recipes and an 80% byproduct rate increase which means he can cook big piles of high tier materials with a much higher byproduct rate than operators with comparable morale cost reductions.

tuye

tuye s1 can actually solo heal things that other medics would need backup for but you need to really micromanage her for that so nobody wants to fucking bother normally. if you're ever doing a stall strat where enemies are beating your ass in between your healers attack interval then tuye is the one you need, either s1 or s2 and with or without backup, she's the queen of finicky high damage healing.

her RA2 exclusive token is also insanely fucking good, everyone in tuye's range restores hp worth 6% of tuye's atk every second which works on enmity units, you put some atk food in tuye and suddenly everyone in her range has that abyssal regen on top of her healing them regularly. if you play RA2 with any regularity tuye is super worth investing in for this alone

folinic

read my folinic post

astgenne

read my astgenne post

[warriorforumwso]

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[cripplecharacters]

Hello! I'm in the middle of a story where my character is about to become Deaf/HoH in one ear as a result of a gun being fired right next to her ear.

I've been doing a lot of research on the effects of being deaf in one ear and was hoping for some tips on how to accurately depict it without falling into any harmful tropes if I haven't already?

Some key things to note are that this is a fanfiction about Attack on Titan, so she's fighting a lot and hearing is very important.

She has had an ability that she was essentially born with that she can see memories of the past and future, and she also visits another world in her dreams and such. Would it be harmful if in this other world she could still hear? She's one of the only characters who can go into the other world and it's not as though she could rely on her hearing in the other world (shes rarely there with other ppl) or use it to hear properly again in reality (if that makes sense)

I just figured it'd make sense since she was essentially there in spirit

When she's seeing someone else's memories she's essentially seeing through their eyes/in their body so that's another instance where she'd still he able to hear assuming the person she was seeing through was hearing

It's really mostly going to affect her ability to fight, and because a big part of her motivation is gaining freedom and not letting anyone fight/die for her, it takes a toll of that makes sense.

This is the first time I'm writing someone with a disability such as this so I want to make sure I write it right, and if I can't or am causing any harm, I won't write it at all

I hope this all makes sense, and if not I apologize

Hi!

You did not write a lot about how you are treating your character’s hearing loss so I don’t know if you are falling into any tropes. Here are some tips:

Deafness in one side, especially when used to equal hearing in both ears, can make someone feel off-balance due to the uneven input. Your character will have trouble locating sounds and may find herself constantly turning her head to try and locate where noises are coming from with her hearing ear. She will also likely struggle with conversations among multiple people because of that difficulty with sound location.

In terms of accommodations: I don’t know about tech in your world, but a lot of audio these days is mixed/surround sound style, meaning there is a difference in audio to each ear. In many modern devices there is an option for mono audio so output through both ears is the same—your character will want to use that. A hearing aid may also help, but not necessarily, and hearing aids are not a cure.

You mentioned she’s a fighter. Hearing loss may affect her ability to hear commands or incoming attacks, but with assistive technology (like a hearing aid or an fm system) if those work for her, and an increased reliance on visual cues, I don’t think she would have to stop fighting because of her hearing loss. (Admittedly I don’t know the source material so if I am missing something about how fighting operates, please let me know. But deafness shouldn’t remove her fighting ability.)

As for the dreamworld, I think it best if she was not functionally hearing because that is acting as a cure. Maybe it can work sort of like a movie, where someone else’s input is received through her own senses? So even if they are hearing, she still hears with her hearing ear.

Mod Rock

[felikatze]

i think the reason i love silent protags a lot because the limitation of this staple necessitates indirect storytelling. yes it's primarily a device to allow player inserts and roleplaying, but a character's inability to state or directly show how they feel forces one to analyze much more.

when speech is filtered out, you need to reverse engineer what they could've said by how other characters reacted. Multiple choice dialogue options become concurrent thoughts in the character's mind, different facets leading to indecision, with the player only truly deciding which thought comes to the forefront.

definition comes through body language, idle animations, emotive portraits and noises of exertion. if a choice is railroaded, was the protagonist forced into it, or did they decide without player input? what do the available gameplay styles say about the character you've created? what does it mean to accept every single sidequest?

like, well and truly, making a nothing character is impossible, even in video games, because saying "yes" when asked to save the world, that's already a decision, isn't it? there is already an implication, a shadow of belief and value, in the act of playing.

[techav]

On Keeping Time

To run a simple program, a computer needs some kind of storage, and some kind of input/output device. To run a simple operating system, a computer will also need some random-access memory for holding onto information temporarily. To run a sophisticated operating system that supports many users and programs reliably, a computer will also need some way to make sure one user doesn't hog resources and prevent other users' programs from running.

My Wrap030 homebrew computer currently has a flash ROM which holds a bootloader program from starting other programs from disk. It has 16MB of RAM. It has 9 total serial ports for I/O. It just needs that last thing to be able to run a sophisticated operating system.

I've written before about how computers can share a single processor between multiple users or programs. The simplest option is to have each program periodically yield control back to the system so that the next program can run for a little while. The problem with this approach is if a program malfunctions and never yields control back to the system, then no other program can run.

The solution is to have an external interrupt that can tell the CPU it's time to switch programs. Each program can be guaranteed to have its chance to run because if a program tries to run too long, that interrupt will come to force a switch to the next program.

The way this is typically accomplished is with a periodic timer — ticking clock that interrupts the CPU regardless of what it's doing.

And that's what my Wrap030 project is missing. I need a timer interrupt.

The catch is, my system has always been a little fragile. I have it running well right now with three expansion boards, but there's always a risk of it being very unhappy if I try to add another expansion board. If I could somehow pull a timer interrupt out of what I already have, that would be ideal.

Nearly all of the glue logic pulling this system together is programmable logic in the form of CPLDs. This gives me the flexibility to add new features without having to rework physical circuitry. As it happens, the logic running my DRAM card currently consumes under half of the resources available in the card's CPLD. It also has several spare I/O pins, and is wired to more of the CPU bus than any other chip in the system.

So I added a timer interrupt to my DRAM controller.

It is very minimal — just a 16-bit register that starts counting down every clock cycle as soon as it's loaded. When the timer gets to 1, it asserts one of those spare I/O pins to interrupt the CPU.

And all it took was a couple bodge wires and a little extra logic.

I put together a quick test program to check if the timer was running. The program would spin in a loop waiting to see if a specific address in memory changed. When it changed, it would print out that it had, and then go right back into the loop. Meanwhile, the interrupt service routine would change the same address in memory every time the timer expired.

This is great! It was the last significant piece of hardware I was missing to be able to run a proper operating system like Unix or Linux — which has always been a goal of the project. While I still have much to learn before I can attempt to get a proper OS running, I can still put this new timer to use.

I had previously built my Multibasic kernel to run cooperatively. Each user instance of BASIC would yield control whenever it needed to read or write to its terminal (which it does at every line while running a BASIC program, checking for the Ctrl-C stop sequence). This worked well enough, but a particularly complex BASIC program could still slow down other users' programs.

Converting my Multibasic kernel from Cooperative multitasking to Preemptive multitasking was actually fairly easy. I just needed to initialize the timer at startup, and add an interrupt service routine to switch to the next user.

(It's not really something that can be seen in a screenshot, but it's doing the thing, I promise.)

Now that I have all of the requisite hardware, I guess I need to dive into learning how to customize and build an operating system for a new machine. It's something I have always wanted to do.

[liquidcrystalsky]

okay whenever i talk about linux i say shit like "development is easier" or throw around things like LXC or POSIX/UNIX, or whatever insane terms but:

here's my list of actual shit that the average person would care about

Most updates including core system components usually don't even need a reboot(please reboot your computer at least once a week). If it does, it waits for me to reboot. It wont ever stop me in the middle of something to ask me to or force it on me.

If i plug in a device it will just work. I do not need to install drivers or some stinky special crap software for it to be detected, it will most often just work (every new linux kernel version adds so much support for new and old hardware. If it doesn't work now, it might work later!)

Package management. I've sung it's praises so much already but. every other device i know you can click a button and it will update all the apps on your device. except windows. App has an update? Open the software centre or Discover or whatever, click a button boom it's updated. All controlled from one place, no worries about does the app update itself, or whether you're downloading the right installer for your system, just use the package manager that comes with the system and it's good.

It's as minimal as i want it to be. Both windows and mac suffer a lot from just having a bunch of crap that you cannot get rid of. I installed a distro which didnt even come with a graphical interface, it was that minimal. If the distro you use is a bit more reasonable, but it comes with some software you dont want, you can just get rid of it. Shit if you wanted to you can just uninstall the linux kernel and it will just let you, and your computer will be unbootable. You have full control over what you want on your system. Also uninstalling things is less stupid, there's much less cases of leftover files or shit laying around in the registry. (there is no registry)

Audio. "linux audio is bad" is a thing of the past and i'm so serious. Pipewire is an amazing thing. I have full control over which applications give output to which speakers, being able to route one app to multiple speakers at the same time, or even doing things like mapping an input device to speakers so i can monitor it back very easily. I still dont understand why windows does the stupid "default communication device" thing, and they often reset my settings like randomly changing it to 24 bit audio when i only use 16 and certain programs break with it set to 24 idfk. Maybe this is less of an "average user" thing and more of a poweruser thing but i feel like there's SOMETHING in here which may be handy to the average person at some point. i love qpwgraph.

i could think of more but i dont use a computer like a normal person so it will take me time to think of it

[thelazyhermits]

Because Idia was insanely cruel to me when I was pulling for his tsum and broomquet cards, I have no other choice but to retaliate by making him suffer through as many embarrassing otome game/shoujo manga-esque tropes/situations as possible, all of which will be underneath the cut 😈

Okay, first off, I wanna say the reason behind Idia's upcoming suffering is none other than Ortho as well as all the other Ignihyde dorm members cause they all wanna support their OTP and think Idia could use some help, considering how he is and the fact that he's got a lot of strong rivals lol

After much deliberation, which entailed the shippers thinking about everything they know from otome games/anime/manga, they all come to the decision that the "forced to be together due to circumstances out of their control" trope is the way to go since Idia never leaves his room, so obviously, they need to bring Yuu to him and keep her there long enough that romantic hijinks can ensue.

They decide to go with the old tried and true handcuffed together trope in particular cause it's a classic and always so effective in fictional settings, and they don't see why that won't be the case in real life as well 😂

Naturally, cause this is Ignihyde we're talking about, they wouldn't use normal, old-fashioned handcuffs. Plus, it would be harder to get Idia to wear something that actually looks like handcuffs for obvious reasons lol

Instead, they make what look like metal bracelets, and the story that Ortho provides to Idia/Yuu is that someone from Ignihyde asked for Ortho's help in making them for one reason or another, so Ortho decided to bring them to Idia/Yuu to get their input.

Because he trusts Ortho so much, Idia doesn't bat an eye when Ortho places the "bracelet" on him, and obviously, neither does Yuu.

That's why they're both very surprised when, within seconds, the bracelets suddenly smash together, and they find themselves unable to separate the bracelets, which are now attached like magnets.

Making full use of all the acting techniques he's learned from Vil, Ortho acts surprised cause these bracelets, according to his fake story, should only be capable of acting as communication devices, accessing the internet, etc.

Soon after, Ortho "comes to the realization" that these must be the bracelets that the roommate of the guy he had been helping was working on which "coincidentally" look near identical to the ones Ortho had been helping with.

As Idia starts complaining about how impractical it is for roommates to be working on projects that look that similar, Yuu asks about the bracelets they're wearing and how to take them off since she quickly realizes she's unable to, much to Idia's dismay.

Ortho explains these bracelets are from an anime the roommate likes that he just wanted to recreate for fun. They're essentially handcuffs that keep people stuck together, although there is a feature that allows whoever is wearing them to be set free for no more than ten minutes so they can use the bathroom, etc.

Unfortunately, said feature can't be used multiple times back-to-back, so Idia can't constantly use it to keep from being close to Yuu, which Ortho knew his brother would do if the option was available lol

Once that time limit is reached, the bracelets will immediately seek each other out, as designed, and once again stick together like magnets.

Unsurprisingly, Idia demands that the guy who created the handcuff bracelets free him and Yuu. Unfortunately for him, while Ortho and creator of the bracelets try to free Idia/Yuu, they are unsuccessful because "for reasons beyond them" the bracelets aren't responding to the release code that their creator set up so he could always remove/disengage them.

Naturally, Idia also tries to remove them himself, but much to his amazement, he's unable to, and that's thanks to Ortho who made sure to Idia-proof the handcuffs ahead of time haha

Once enough time passes with all of Idia's efforts to free himself ending in total failure, Ortho and the bracelets' creator promise that they'll immediately start working on fixing the bracelets, which they thankfully can do remotely so everyone doesn't have to crowd around in Idia's room.

In the meantime, Ortho tells his brother to just be patient and to focus on being a good host to Yuu, whom he apologizes again to for all the trouble.

Idia, of course, is not a fan of the idea of being left alone in his room with Yuu, but sadly, he's unable to stop Ortho who hurries out of the room along with the guy who made the bracelets and Grim, whom Ortho promised to keep an eye on for Yuu as a form of apology for inconveniencing her so much.

As expected, Idia starts panicking cause all he can think about are all the otome games/anime/manga that involve the tried and true handcuffed together trope lol

It doesn't help matters that this happens AFTER Wish Upon a Star so Idia is especially awkward when it comes to these kinds of scenarios that remind him of those otome game dreams that had previously plagued him 😂

Thankfully, Yuu keeps her cool since, while this situation is a little exasperating, she's not all that bothered about having to stay with Idia in his room since it's not like she had any plans for the rest of the day.

She's really only concerned about Idia, whose heart may not be able to survive these current circumstances lol

That's why Yuu does her best to be accommodating/supportive toward Idia since she feels bad for him, and she doesn't want him passing out on her 😂

Yuu tries to get Idia to ignore the handcuff bracelets and just pretend this is like a normal day when she comes over to play video games, which is what she originally came to his room to do on that particular day. She's sure he'll be fine if he gets lost in his games since that'll help him temporarily forget about the real world.

Since Idia is desperate to escape facing reality, he goes along with the idea, but unfortunately for him, it's impossible to forget about his current circumstances due to Yuu's wrist essentially being attached to his and the fact that she has to sit close to him in order for him to use both of his hands when he games.

Regardless of whether Idia plays solo or Yuu plays with him, the positioning is awkward/uncomfortable cause of their wrists, although Idia is more bothered by the fact that Yuu is close enough that he can feel her warmth.

His heart starts pounding so hard that that's all he can focus on, and he can't stop freaking out about the possibility of Yuu being able to hear it 'cause how can she not when it's being so loud?!

Even though Idia keeps all his suffering thoughts to himself, Yuu can tell just from looking at his red face/pink hair that he's unable to escape reality with his video games, and she assumes it's because of their wrists being attached, which really is impossible to ignore.

That's why Yuu next suggests reading manga because their handcuffed wrists won't really get in the way since they're both capable of reading using one hand/their laps.

And they can do it with their backs facing each other, which she assumes would be preferable to Idia who likely wants to avoid looking at her in his current flustered state.

Idia quickly goes along with that suggestion since anything is better than his current predicament.

To a degree, it is since now Idia can avoid having to look at Yuu. However, he's still stuck being close enough to her that he can feel her body heat, even though Yuu made sure to avoid pressing her back against his for his sake.

Rather than focus on the manga he picked out for himself to read, all Idia can think about is how close he is to Yuu and how, at any moment, something unexpected could happen that results in their backs becoming pressed together, making them resemble lovers from otome games/shoujo manga who end up in scenarios where they each have their own work/tasks they need to do but still want to somehow be in physical contact with each other so they can simultaneously enjoy each other's company.

Countless scenarios of this nature run through Idia's mind, and he just continues spiraling when his traitorous mind makes him wonder what will happen if he's still handcuffed to Yuu when nighttime rolls around.

Surely, he won't be able to survive.

Without thinking, as he starts internally screaming upon thinking of the agonizing embarrassment that's ahead of him if Ortho doesn't save him soon, Idia moves to clutch his head, completely forgetting about what's currently attached to his left wrist.

Caught off guard cause it happens so fast, Yuu gets jerked toward Idia, and they collide, causing them both to fall over.

And that's how Idia, to his great dismay, finds himself lying on the floor with Yuu on top of him.

Needless to say, everyone in the entire dorm heard the high pitched shriek that Idia released during that moment.

(Meanwhile, Ortho and all the Yuu/Idia shippers are cheering cause the bracelets just alerted them of the drastic increase of Idia's heartrate which they automatically assumes means romantic hijinks are currently ensuing 🤣

Fortunately for Idia, the members of his dorm refrained from tapping the bracelets, so they're not spying on Idia/Yuu like they're fully capable of doing cause they wanna respect Idia/Yuu's privacy, and Ortho didn't think they should go that far.

So instead they're just making assumptions of what's going on based on Idia and Yuu's pulses, which the bracelets are able to clearly monitor, and because Ortho knows his brother so well, he can accurately make guesses about whether or not something potentially romantic is happening haha

In regards to Grim, he's been stationed in a room filled with snacks, video games, and movies, so he's just chilling, living his best life, completely oblivious to what the Ignihyde dorm is up to lol)

Miraculously, Idia manages to avoid passing out, but since the possibility of that happening is still there, Yuu quickly climbs off of him and tries to get Idia to calm down so he won't hyperventilate.

Thankfully, Yuu eventually manages to get Idia to calm down, although he refuses to look directly at her, and she wisely refrains from asking him what happened earlier when he was freaking out which caused them to collide since she doesn't want to take any chances of saying anything that will make him freak out again.

Instead, Yuu tries to distract Idia from his internal suffering by suggesting they watch some anime since that's something they can do while handcuffed, and she's hoping this will help him focus on anything other than the current situation at hand.

Since he has some new episodes that he has yet to watch that he's been meaning to check out, Idia goes along with her idea because surely watching some of his beloved anime will save him from this hell.

Fortunately, for a while, Idia is actually given a respite. While he's still overly conscious of Yuu being so close to him, he's able to mostly keep his focus on the anime they're watching.

Regrettably, everything goes downhill when an unexpected kiss scene happens in one of the episodes they watch.

Normally, Idia can watch those without batting an eye since fictional displays of affection don't bother him, but that's not the case this time cause the kiss scene happens after the main character and his crush end up locked in a room together for an extended period of time, which results in previously hidden feelings coming to light.

Seeing this, all Idia can hink about is how he too is currently stuck alone in a room with a cute girl, not to mention the fact that she's handcuffed to him, which makes things all the worse.

Needless to say, Idia is soon back to internally screaming about how unfair life is to him lol 😂

Yuu naturally picks up on Idia's embarrassment thanks to his scarlet face and bright pink hair and quickly figures out what's got him so flustered this time.

She kindly refrains from saying anything and releases an internal sigh of relief when the anime characters stop kissing and finally get out of the locked room since Idia somewhat settles down after that, although he's still incredibly flustered.

Despite that little incident, the two continue watching anime since it helps to distract Idia and makes it so he doesn't have to talk to Yuu lol

The rest of the afternoon passes like this, with the two watching anime and also playing board games, the latter of which was Yuu's idea since that's something that can also be done while they're handcuffed together and she thought Idia would get distracted if he got the opportunity to beat her like he so often does.

Unfortunately, Idia couldn't enjoy the board games as much as he usually would cause his traitorous mind decided to point out just how considerate Yuu has been of him all this time since she keeps making all these suggestions to accommodate him and never questions his embarrassing reactions. She just rolls with whatever he throws at her.

Idia can't stop himself from getting the "doki doki"s cause of the current circumstances they're in that make him hyper aware of stuff like that, which he'd normally not think too much about for the sake of his sanity lol

He can't stop himself from thinking that Yuu would truly make for a great otome game heroine since, despite her being a scary delinquent tomboy, she's very kind/considerate toward the people she cares about. She's definitely someone who can trigger other people's romantic flags, especially with her ridiculously OP charisma stat.

In hopes of bringing himself back to reality, Idia quickly assures himself that there's no way anyone would ever wanna go for the route of a gloomy otaku shut-in like him. Yuu has sent him a friend request, but that's as far as this relationship is going.

Despite this, Idia still gets flustered whenever Yuu smiles after making a good play in whatever game they're playing, and his heart won't stop pounding like a drum whenever her kind/soft gaze focuses on him.

At this point, Idia really wants someone to just come and put him out of his misery 😂

Unfortunately for Idia, his suffering is far from over since, when evening comes, Ortho and the others are still unable to disengage the bracelets, and they don't think they'll be able to free Yuu & Idia before morning, meaning Yuu has no other choice but to spend the night in Idia's room, much to Idia's great dismay.

In regards to dinner, Ortho prepares it for Yuu & Idia since Yuu obviously can't cook while attached to Idia, especially since Idia refuses to leave his room.

As a form of apology for all the trouble that their dorm caused her, Ortho makes a dish he knows Yuu really likes, but he especially focuses on dessert by making several since he knows how much Yuu loves sweets.

While this is a good thing for Yuu, who's obviously touched by the sweet gesture, the same can't be said for Idia who spends the majority of dinner internally screaming cause he can't stop thinking that the faces Yuu makes when she's happily eating sweets are really cute.

Up until this point, Idia never gave much thought to the faces Yuu makes when she's happy, but under his current circumstances, his traitorous brain can't stop itself from pointing stuff like this out.

It doesn't help that they have to eat side-by-side, and their arms end up constantly brushing against each other. That's why Idia is unable to ignore Yuu and her cute expressions despite how much he desperately wants to.

Idia is suffering™ 🤣

(This was all a part of Ortho's grandmaster plan. While he did want to do something nice for Yuu, he mostly just wanted to give her food that would result in her making lots of cute faces. According to the data he has on her, some of the cutest expressions of Yuu's that he has on file are the ones when she's eating sweets, and he was counting on his brother taking notice of that and getting charmed by her cuteness as a result 😂)

Fortunately for Idia, although Yuu is very much aware of his scarlet face and flaming pink hair, she never brings attention to his embarrassment, which she assumes is because their arms keep brushing against each other.

When dinner finally ends, Idia is internally begging for a miracle - to be saved from this torture.

Regrettably, that salvation doesn't come. On the contrary, his suffering only increases thanks to Ortho who, after dinner, returns to Idia's room after having kindly made a trip to Ramshackle along with Grim to fetch a change of clothes for Yuu.

Ortho's "kindness" comes back to bite his brother cause, after Yuu takes the shortest shower of her life, she hurriedly returns to Idia's side, wearing a tank top and shorts, resulting in Idia getting a clear view of her muscular figure and her chest, the latter of which's size is bigger than people first assume cause of the kinds of clothes Yuu typically wears lol

Cue Idia shrieking like he's being chased by a horror movie serial killer 🤣

Having expected this sort of reaction, Yuu, who really has no control over this since Ortho had Grim collect the clothes she had previously been wearing while she was showering, apologizes and explains this is the only change of clothes that Ortho provided her, and she can only assume it's cause he had Grim go into their shared room to collect your clothes and Grim just grabbed whatever without giving his clothing choices much thought.

What makes it even worse for Idia is the fact that Yuu's hair is still wet since she couldn't afford to take the time to dry it.

Panicking, Idia hurriedly finds one of his baggy hoodies and some sweatpants and forces Yuu to wear them cause he won't survive otherwise.

He soon regrets that decision, however, when he sees how adorable Yuu looks when wearing his clothes that are obviously big on her cause of their height difference and the fact that I HC that Idia prefers baggy clothes.

(This is also all according to Ortho's grandmaster plan. He knew Idia would react like this, and he wanted this to happen cause what's more romantic than the heroine wearing her love interest's clothes?)

Unfortunately, there's really nothing Idia can do since he can't get ahold of Ortho to get him to find new clothes for Yuu, and he refuses to leave his room while handcuffed to her.

As a result, Yuu ends up wearing Idia's clothes for the remainder of the evening, and they'll also be her pajamas for the night.

Once she has put on Idia's clothes, Yuu uses the towel she brought into the room to towel-dry her hair which she didn't have enough time to dry in Idia's bathroom.

This is a slow-going process since Yuu is only using one hand for Idia's sake, and it's agonizing for Idia cause her dripping wet hair is making his heart pound like crazy, and he has no idea why. Why is he getting so flustered over something like this?! 😂

That's why Idia eventually snatches Yuu's towel and dries her hair himself with both of his hands since the sooner her hair gets dried the better, although doing so is murder on his pounding heart cause all he can think about are all the couple scenes from the anime/manga/otome games he's seen that have lovers drying each other's hair.

(This is also what Ortho was going for. It's why he sneakily made sure there were no hair dryers available for them to use 🤣)

Thanks to Idia being so desperate to end his suffering as quickly as possible, he's able to dry Yuu's hair pretty quickly, and she thanks him for his help, all the while giving him a pitying look cause of how flustered he looks lol

Because he really doesn't want to go through the embarrassment of Yuu offering to dry his hair, Idia decides not to take a shower that night.

Plus, Idia isn't confident about getting in and out of the bathroom in under ten minutes cause anything can go wrong when he's panicked/flustered, and Idia would rather die than risk Yuu seeing him fresh out of the shower 😂

Once Idia has made it clear that he'll save showering for after the bracelets are removed, the topic of sleeping comes up cause of how late it is.

Because the only way the two of them can sleep thanks to the bracelets is by sharing a bed, Idia is naturally against the idea of sleeping and instead insists on binging anime all night since sharing a bed with Yuu will surely kill him lol

Unfortunately for Idia, this is the one time when Yuu doesn't try to accommodate him since she doesn't approve of him pulling all-nighters cause it's not good for his health. Plus, she can tell he didn't get much sleep the previous night, no doubt because he stayed up late gaming, so she is determined to get Idia to sleep tonight, much to his dismay.

In hopes of making the situation easier for Idia to handle, Yuu suggests making a pillow barrier between them. That way, they won't ever get too close.

Thankfully, Idia's bed is a decent sized one, so they can both comfortably fit on it even with the pillow barrier.

Idia does his best to resist at first, but in the end, he gives in since he knows he's no match for Yuu when it comes to matters like this. Plus, she has been extremely accommodating the whole day, and he can't blame her for not wanting to stay up the whole night.

That's how they eventually find themselves on Idia's bed with countless pillows in between them since Idia wanted to make the biggest possible barrier lol

As expected, despite the pillow barrier, Idia can't bring himself to relax because of these current extremely embarrassing circumstances, so he's expecting to stay up the whole night, staring at the ceiling while bemoaning how cruel life is to him 😂

Much to Idia's surprise, he's eventually pulled away from his internal suffering when Yuu's hand, the one that's attached to his and is currently buried underneath the pillow barrier, takes hold of his hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

Half-asleep at this point cause of the late hour, Yuu, who's able to pick up on Idia's distress, sleepily tries to calm him down by assuring him that everything will be fine. Nothing will happen tonight, and Ortho will save the day tomorrow.

As she's talking, Yuu softly strokes Idia's clammy hand with her thumb in a calming motion in hopes of helping him relax. She also starts quietly humming the kind of soft, soothing tune you'd hear playing during lullabies.

Unsurprisingly, Idia gets flustered by the hand-holding, but at the same time, strangely enough, he somehow does begin to calm down for some reason, most likely cause of Yuu's humming since he ends up focusing on that more than the fact that she's holding his hand.

Because Yuu is self-conscious about her singing, Idia has never heard her sing before, and humming is also rather rare, although she has been doing that more as of late, so he can't help but be entranced, especially since it's such a lovely sound.

Of course, his heart still skips a beat when he realizes that Yuu is moving out of her comfort zone for his sake, making him think another of his flags just got triggered lol

Eventually, thanks to Yuu's efforts, they both end up falling asleep, hand-in-hand, and are able to remain in a deep sleep throughout the rest of the night.

This ends up being a bad thing for Idia, however, cause, once his little brother is sure the coast is clear, Ortho sneaks into the room so he can check on how Idia is doing.

After quietly cheering about how well things appear to be going, Ortho decides to remove the pillow barrier since that'll obviously only be in the way of possible future romantic scenarios 😂

Once that's done, Ortho quietly wishes them both a good night and retires to his room where Grim is fast asleep.

Because of Ortho's actions, Yuu is understandably caught off guard when her internal alarm clock wakes her up and she finds herself being hugged by a sleeping Idia who's now treating her like his favorite body pillow.

Not having expected Idia to be a secret cuddler, Yuu is surprised by how tightly he's hugging her and how he's even got his face buried against her neck. Their legs are even entangled - to the point she knows there's no way she'll be moving anytime soon, not without risking waking Idia.

Fortunately, Yuu isn't bothered by this turn of events since she likes cuddling with her friends, and she honestly thinks it's pretty cute that Idia, of all people, is a secret cuddler.

(This is my HC since Idia probably is touch-starved to a certain extent considering how he isolates himself and has been doing that for most of his life, although he does have a warm, affectionate family which is why he's not as bad off as Yuu.

Plus, I could see him being the type who seeks out the closest heat source when he sleeps since I feel like he has a naturally low body temperature despite having fire hair lol)

Thankfully, Yuu already contacted Jack in advance to let him know she'd be missing their usual morning run since she knew getting Idia involved in that was out of the question.

As a result, Yuu has nowhere she needs to be, so while Idia continues to sleep, she just passes the time by playing with his hair which is all over the place thanks to all the moving Idia did while he was sleeping.

Regrettably, this peaceful atmosphere doesn't last forever since Idia has to wake up sometime, and when he finally does, he makes it very loud and clear that he's awake lol

With a piercing shriek that makes Yuu wince cause of their close proximity, Idia pulls away from her and tries to put as much distance between them as possible.

That, of course, ends in his total failure thanks to the bracelets that force Yuu to move along with Idia, so as a result, she ends up falling onto Idia, eliciting even more screams from him 🤣

For the sake of her poor eardrums, Yuu quickly covers Idia's mouth and tells him to stop screaming. Otherwise, she won't remove her hand from his mouth, and she won't try to give him some space.

Since that's obviously the last thing Idia wants, he quickly settles down, and once she's sure she won't have to worry about any more screaming, Yuu finally uncovers his mouth and pulls away from him.

After that exchange, Idia asks what happened to the pillow barrier, and Yuu tells him that, since the pillows are scattered around them and she never left her side of the bed, she can only assume Idia demolished the barrier while he was moving in his sleep.

Naturally, Idia refuses to believe he would ever do such a thing, even while asleep, but regrettably, he's unable to think of another plausible explanation since it's true he was the one who was tightly clinging onto Yuu earlier rather than the other way around, and he was on her side of the bed when he woke up.

Idia is absolutely mortified. He just wants the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Please just put him out of his misery 😂

Feeling bad for him, Yuu assures Idia that she won't tell anyone about what happened and she won't tease him about it either. She also assures him that she wasn't bothered by his actions since she likes cuddling with her friends, and she knows Idia had no impure intentions cause he was asleep.

This really doesn't make Idia feel much better since he's too deep into his mortification by this point. He can't even really hear her cause he's breathing so hard/loudly, on the verge of passing out cause it's all too much for him at this point.

Upon realizing this, Yuu quickly but gently takes hold of Idia's face, forcing him to look her in the eye.

While maintaining that eye contact, Yuu gently instructs him to match her breathing - to think of nothing but breathing.

Idia weakly resists at first, but eventually, he follows her instructions cause the worry in her eyes is so obvious and he doesn't like that he's the reason that worry is there.

Plus, Yuu uses the word "please" when she asks him to match her breathing, which further shows how concerned she is about him since she's pleading with him to listen to her.

Despite everything she has unintentionally put him through these last 12+ hours, Idia can't bring himself to take things out on her, like he probably would if it was anyone else he was stuck with.

He can't intentionally do something that will make her sad.

As a result, Idia's breathing eventually calms down thanks to Yuu's efforts, and it's only once he completely settles down that Yuu finally releases his face.

Once Idia finally calms down, Yuu gently brushes away his hair from his face, making him blush, all the while holding his gaze. She tells him that he can trust her - that she won't ever purposely do anything to hurt him, so recent events won't change anything.

Once this is all over, Yuu won't bring up recent events again unless Idia wants to. She won't tease him or try to have fun at his expense, because she cares about him and always wants him to be comfortable in her presence. She would never purposely do anything to ruin that, especially not after what happened following the Ghost Bride incident.

So Idia doesn't need to worry so much. She can understand how his negative mind always makes him assume the worst, but this one time she wants him to trust her more than those negative thoughts. She wants him to believe she's not like the kind of person who would hurt him for her own amusement.

The whole time she's talking, Idia just stares at her with wide eyes as his heart once again starts rapidly pounding.

Strangely enough, despite how hard his heart's pounding, Idia doesn't feel panicked like he did all the other times this happened.

On the contrary, Idia feels the calmest he's felt since this whole bracelet handcuff nightmare began.

Catching Yuu off guard, Idia suddenly starts laughing, as if he heard the best joke ever.

For several seconds, all he can do is laugh before Idia says it's just like a shounen protag to say something so cheesy/sappy. He can't believe she can say something so embarrassing with a straight face like that.

Before Yuu can complain, although she is happy to see Idia acting more like his usual self, Idia tousles her hair and says, with a grin, that he's completely forgotten what he had been so bothered about cause of Yuu's typical cringe.

After he thanks her, using his typical mocking tone, making Yuu pout, Idia just continues to laugh and ruffle her hair.

One of the main reasons he laughs so much is cause Idia hopes the sound of voice will drown out the sound of his still heavily pounding heart, and he hopes that by mocking her like this his hair won't give away the fact that Yuu's words actually made him really happy and assuaged his worries just as she had intended.

Around that time, Ortho arrives on the scene, and because things are looking so good between Idia and Yuu, he finally releases them from the bracelets, with the claim that they finally fixed the bug that was making them malfunction.

With a cheer, Idia leaps out of his bed and heads for his gaming console, so he can resume the gaming he had to put on hold, all the while enjoying his newfound freedom.

Much to Yuu's surprise, Idia tells her to hurry and grab a controller so they can do some dungeon crawling together. This catches her off guard since she would've thought that he'd want her to scram so he can have some much needed alone time.

Once she overcomes her surprise, Yuu moves to join him, all the while feeling happy about the fact that it seems her previous words really did reach Idia since he seems genuinely comfortable around her despite recent events.

All the while, Ortho gives himself a pat on the back for his excellent matchmaking. Obviously, his recent scheme was a total success, so now, he's even more enthusiastic about matchmaking! He's gonna do his best for his big brother and make sure Idia's the one who gets that Best Love End!

Idia, of course, won't be nearly as enthusiastic 😂

[clovers-housetree]

Baby Steps: Drinking Water!

This is the first installment in a series of posts I'd like to do expanding on some of the things I've talked about here (which- blew up by the way??? thank you all so much??? <3) and here!

Long intro/backstory to this post series below!!

I often tend to immediately tense up at the thought of handling a big upcoming project or tackling something I've procrastinated on or neglected to do, even adding things to my daily routine like brushing my teeth or wearing my retainer- even drinking water, since I've spent a majority of my time in my room just sitting, over the past few years.

I know I have different little posts 'n' such that talk about these things already, but I want to expand on things and get a little more in-depth on advice and things that have worked for me and helped me out!

This series is separate from everything else, though I'll probably list more things in other "regression activity lists" or scenes- You might see some of the same content in multiple posts, is what I'm trying to say- but I do that because different things work for different people, and I know regression in particular isn't all sunshine and rainbows for everyone. I want to try to appeal to a wider audience and learn more from the community, be a bigger part of the community so I can help people out, because that's something I enjoy.

My regression in particular is voluntary and solely for stress-relief, so to me, I kinda feel like I only know surface-level things about it, although I've been doing my research.

There may not be that much to it anyhow, I just-

I just wanna help people as best I can, I think. ^^; Which is why I'm so intent on interaction and explaining that I don't know everything but that I want to learn, so that I can help y'all out.

Anyway!!

★ This will probably be a repeat bullet point in this series, but if you have a device that can set alarms, maybe a timer of some sort- any kind of time-keeping device that dings in certain intervals, I'd recommend using it.

Alarms on your phone, timers, any little reminders you can make to help you with the things you struggle with, if you're like me and stuck sitting a lot or don't do much during the day (or are the complete opposite and do so much during the day) that you tend to neglect taking care of yourself.

★ Fill up or grab a water bottle whenever you start your day or are about to do something, and keep it with you! This way if you do end up thirsty, you don't have to stop what you're doing and worry about getting water, you'll already have it on you!

When it gets empty, that's what you've got your reminders for! Maybe every half hour or so to check how much water you've got and if you need to refill, or maybe make something as a reminder once the bottle's empty to refill, just so you've still got water and don't have to go back and forth to fill up a cup so often.

★ You could also put ice or fruit in your water! Different shapes or sizes, and whatever fruit (or veggie? I've heard cucumbers taste good!) you want if that sounds yummy! I like my water with lemon sometimes. -w-

I'm not recommending any sort of flavoring or those Cirkul water bottles with the flavor pods because I'm not sure how healthy or reliable they are, or how much sugar they have, stuff like that. If anyone has any info on those sorts of things they use and would recommend, please feel free to share!

Edit: Check the notes, we've got insight! Thank you to everyone for their input!! :3

★ You can customize your water bottle, sippy, bottle, bowl (for the pets!) with whatever you want! Maybe stickers, maybe a straw, you could get one with your favorite characters on it- make it fit and customizable so it works for you, have fun decorating it and make it something appealing to the eye so it might get you to take a sip!

If you have any other tips, feel free to share! ^w^

Know that I'll always be here for you if you need me, and I'm very proud of you for trying!

"Fluttershy protects this blog! SFW interaction only, please and thank you! ^w^"

"Wouldn't show a kid? Doesn't belong here!"

[felagund-fiollaigean]

my parents got a new car and I had connected my phone to the bluetooth to play some music as we drove around and then i turned my bluetooth off on my phone to let my dad connect again. and this car. turned my bluetooth back on. on my phone. after i had manually turned it off. the car turned my phone's bluetooth back on. to connect to it. the car altered my phone's settings. without any input or consent for me. i don't think you get it the car reached inside my device to turn the bluetooth back on. and it wasn't just the once. i turned it off only to have it turn back on my itself multiple times in a row. do you know how fucking enraged i am???

[myrskyscum]

unrelated to other posts: Futuristic Waiting Room!!!

Device that lets me interact with anyone or 'tets' out the characters/ocs I scripted - able to transport/meet people there, and plan multiple DR's at once.

I can research anything (World Engine similar to Googles layout where I can type up and research anything to do with my DR or myself/others that I don't know - or am not able to know by myself, and chances of future outcomes on my current human body/future events, and earnings/successes/failures.)

"Perfect" or perfect randomness/perfect alignment / that does not occur in this reality to help me plan and script further, specifically for either of my DR's.

"HUMAN-CREATOR-2000" basically creating people based on my input such as some qualities I like from people and character will be transferred over to create people/identities.

Comfy mostly bare room, for sleeping, and for general socialization inside. Ballpit indoors such as kinda like FNAF, since they are fun, and a slide into the ballpit in a kinda liminal space feel?

Some other things in my WR I can find out:

-past lives/next life (reincarnation.)

-who I'd get along or become friends with/how to socialize better/training (updated from what we have currently.)

-Food/Drinks/Whatever without paying any money, everything is free there. -Eating/Trying new foods.

-Trying out face claims!!! (New Tech, Highly Advanced.!!! Won't get stuck either ---)!!!

-Can research someones mental health status, and then help them in real life once I get back !!! (Also instructions!!!!!).

-What really would be my ideal DRself, or learning stuff about my DR-characters and changing them or their "digital" scripted self. -or stuff I want there personality based off, and testing that on the HUMAN-GENERATOR-2000.

-'Tabs' of my DRS-and the ability to choose which one to go to. /Suggestions from "USERS" either non-existence current people/reviewing it or people under pseudonyms as to not reveal their names that subconsciously send their ideas to my scripting channel where they recommend what they would have done. (This is not done as to make them remember they hold no memories of this process, and it's not stealing from their ideas, only take some of their parts to cross-analysis and see what would or could be better or worse.)

-People based on Xenogenders, or concepts such as derealization, or dissociation, in vague terms, and won't really make sense unless to me or unless I observe their behaviour.