#sometimes the robot is actually more important than the cat.

[red-shepherds]

honestly I daydream about getting interviewed someday, and showing up in my écorché bodysuit and some DIY jeans, and giving a lot of really insightful answers but also a ten minute dissertation on my gender and how, like, yes I'm very much robot kin and catgender but no those don't correlate, for me, to being robocatgender, that's DIFFERENT, and also the angel fixation isn't a kin thing or a gender thing, so no my kin isn't an EVA from Evangelion and no my gender isn't angicatgender. I will however accept that being robotkin is a big *part* of my gender, it's just a completely separate axis from the cat thing.

[bionicle-ramblings]

Can you guys imagine if Takua SOMEHOW got his memories of being an Av-Matoran back while he was in Netru Nui?

Like, he remembers and knows what he used to look like, but he remembers to keep it to himself or he's going to die, so now he just keeps his mouth shut and very clearly puts on a facade for anyone looking

Jaller and Vakama are not fooled at all and eventually decide to have an "intervention" of sorts and talk to Takua somewhere only the three of them know, asking him what's gotten into him because he's acting weird; he's not really exploring around like he used to and he sometimes misses work entirely, not showing up for the day

Takua tries to dodge the question, but Jaller and Vakama aren't having it at all

Ultimately, it leads to Takua saying he'll tell them, but they MUST whisper about it so no one accidentally hears them, just in case. Amd asks them not to freak out, because what he remembered STILL has him freaked out

Odd thinsg to ask for, but Jaller and Vakama agree and Takua lets the cat out of the bag:

He's actually not a Ta-Matoran at all. He's DISGUISED as one. He's really a Matoran of Light, an Av-Matoran, and he and the other Matoran aren't actually from Metru Nui, but were made solely to work in Metru Nui because working on Metru Nuiis also working on a Giant Fuck-off robot they're all inside of right now

It takes a moment for both Jaller and Vakama to react, in case this is a joke, but it's not. Jaller is at a loss of words, having known Takua a little longer. Vakama, on the other hand, only has more questions, i.e. How did he find out? Does he remember any others like him or know if they're in the city? What is he even doing in Meteu Nui? Why did he have to go into hiding?

Takua, getting emotional, asks the two if they're mad at him. It confuses them both and Takua admits that they should kind of be mad at him because he didn't tell them something SO important and that that something essentially changes who he is, or at least answers a lot of questions he himselfnshould have answered

Jaller admits that he's surprised, but not angry. He always did wonder where Takua came from, but he's just glad Takua isn't some kind of escaped prisoner or something worse than the Vahki or Dark Hunters

Takua panics and lets slip that he was hidden so the Dark Hunters wouldn't find him, and sentient lightning, but that's a story for later

Still, he asks why neither are angry with him and their answer is simply: Why should they be? He's their friend and, honestly, the reason the three are together at all. They always had their doubts about him being a Ta-Matoran, so knowing a bit of the bigger picture does clear somethings up

It's a big moment, one that both leaves Takua realizing that he's got some AMAZING friends and that

I imagine that the loneliness Takua has would leave slightly, but then he has a new problem to deal with: Dysmorphia, as he knows what he used to look like and used to be and he can't exactly look how he truly wants to lest he risk getting captured and killed by Dark Hunters or the Brotherhood of Makuta

Idk, this was more food for thought than anything

[glowyjellyfish]

I’m slowly inching my way forward in Rebirth, and I have to say I am actually really delighted with Cait Sith so far. It’s not like I know yet how he works in this canon, but still… lol I see you Reeve. “It feels good to do good”? Hanging his head in shame at the sight of the Avalanche wanted poster? Giving an impromptu lecture on the history of Corel Prison and lamenting that it’s not living up to its potential? I see you Reeve.

Also, Cait Sith is friggin adorable, singing a meow song to guests with his little Scottish voice and having to jump to reach elevator buttons.

Progressed a little further and OMG they showed us Reeve doing his thing. He appears to indeed be doing both genuinely joining Avalanche and spying for Shinra at the same time, if enjoying himself too much and showing too much of himself is anything to go by. Plus, Tseng is clearly aware of what he’s doing and went from him to Rufus to report on Aerith’s position… although it’s not clear yet whether anybody but Tseng knows this, and we DO know the Turks have some mixed feelings about lots of things, so it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. I’m pleased they managed to keep “Cait Sith invites himself to join the party” while also making it more plausible, ie he joined up by being aggressively helpful.

Also, everybody knows that Cait Sith is being controlled by somebody and is something resembling a robot, like without even questioning it. L O L. Of course, they lightly questioned him and he immediately jumped to I AM NOBODY IMPORTANT JUST A LOW LEVEL SHINRA EMPLOYEE WORKING A JOB DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, so maybe they assumed he was an autonomous robot not unlike Chadley until that moment, who knows. The excess of magic and whimsy in Rebirth has made me realize that these people do indeed live in a world of magic that is sometimes very silly, they’re not gonna question the existence of a sentient magic cat robot person, it’ll only be a shock when they realize one of the Shinra directors was expressing himself by helping them and singing a silly meow song. And also reporting on their movement to Tseng, because if he doesn’t prove his loyalty to Rufus his job could be in danger. So what if he helps them a little too enthusiastically and has an absolute blast doing it?

(Hahahaaaaa my fanfic Reeve is much better at and more concerned with hiding this than canon Reeve, I can’t even tell if he’s actually hiding it from people who aren’t Tseng or not. He’s at least hiding it from his assistant, probably. Oh dear I knew I should have finished my fanfics before Rebirth, even though they aren’t supposed to be fully based on the remake trilogy I am definitely gonna feel obliged to do some rewrites.)

(It does please me to note that there is so far zero reason to see Cait Sith as a separate person from Reeve, very clearly he just basically is Reeve, and we were also shown that he was using his computer to photoshop the wanted posters at a time he also should be actively controlling Cait Sith. Yayyyyy headcanon accurate so far!)

It really does delight me that Reeve is having way too much fun doing this. Of course he is, the man’s horribly repressed.

And Cait Sith is indeed fun to play!

Look, there has been so much else incredibly good and fun and interesting about Rebirth, but Reeve is, still, my favorite, and he’s undoubtedly not as common to talk about as, say, Zack, so I am just gonna commit to being a person who just rambles about Reeve on tumblr periodically because I love him.

I’m just at the desert sidequests section after completing all the Good Saucer/Corel Prison plot—fantastic job with Barret’s character development, by the way—and I am so psyched for the 1000% more Reeve content this game is bestowing upon me. I’m just gonna state for the record real quick that as of right now, I think:

-he controls Cait Sith with his mind, with a magic ability, and Cait Sith is also largely a robot

-he is playing both sides, attempting to mitigate his guilt and the evil things Shinra does by helping Avalanche, while also passing information on them to Tseng (who passes it on to Rufus) probably to prove his loyalty and keep his position

-I haven’t totally decided whether this was all his own idea or if somebody told him to go spy on them, but he is clearly way too into the Join Avalanche part of the plan and is going above and beyond on his own initiative

-because we were directly shown Tseng’s involvement, if the Marlene kidnapping happens, I think it will 100% be something Tseng sets up as insurance. It wouldn’t be Reeve’s idea, not with how sympathetic he is towards Avalanche, and Tseng has some history there and knows where Marlene is and how much she means to them.

Okay, I suspect I started repeating myself at a few points in there so I’m gonna stop. Prepare yourselves for me to just lose my mind and ramble every time Cait Sith and/or Reeve do anything remotely important.

[octochick]

My personal favela five headcanons (and bonus redstone gang trio ones)

Cellbit - So this wet cat of a man has a Backstory. You know. Born a catboy, occultists took him and experienced on him, ascended, learned some rituals and escaped. Was kinda out of sanity at that time so he kinda became a serial killer, classical Cellbit things. He was indeed rescued by Felps after Alcatraz, and had to get some reeeeealy intense therapy... how Felps found a therapist that would effectively treat him is a mystery, but he did and slowly, Cellbit got better. Nowadays, he looks like a mostly normal man. Mostly thanks to his appearance distortion ritual hiding the biggest part of his scars, the tatoos from when he was a guinea pig to occultists and his cat ears. Oh and he also has faceblindness.

Felps - A Felps from the felpsverse that decided to go on a simple vacation to meets some old friends but was dragged to the island. This Felps is actually a quite important Felps, being the one to bring the Felpses that die outside of the felpsverse back home. Sometimes he likes to substitute for other Felpses (The Fuga Impossível universe doesn’t actually have a Felps, it was this guide Felps the “Felps” there). He used to hang quite a lot around some of the few non-Felps entities back on felpsverse, like Rubens. Physically, he has some small differences that distinguish him from the other Felpses, like how he always walks barefoot and how he can float some centimeters off the ground. He can’t really die, but can be hurt. He bleeds black, has lots of spirals over his whole body, and any chunk of flesh that is ripped out of him turns into goo. He has a small mental link to the greater Felps conscience that sends small bits of information about the other Felpses memories whenever he needs it.

Mike - So Mike started out as a simple slime hybrid, orphan, met Pac at school and the two ran away when they finished 9th grade and did some shit, including going to prison. But well, they get out and try a new life for themselves of scientists, with pretty good results if they do say. Anyways, things got kinda freaky when the two figured out genetic modification. So Pac, at the time a simple human, decided to be reasonable despite Mike’s and his own voice and just did a simple fusion. Now, Mike, very confident that his hybrid status would make him sturdier to more extreme transformations, decided to go a little crazy. First was creeper, complete success. A touch of spider, only for the wall climbing? Yup, splendid. Now... blaze? Blaze fucked things up beyond repair. The blaze dna didn’t interact well with his slime dna, fused into magma cube dna and overwrote a lot of his own genome. He almost died and his body became almost unrecognizable. If analyzed, he is around 1% spider, 5% human, 16% slime, 23% creeper and 55% magma cube nowadays. His body is basically a slime mold, vaguely human in shape, red fading into pink, lightly explosive with large eye spots. Despite this body having its uses, Mike was always used to a human body so he and Pac worked hard to make him a robot body. His body went through lots of versions, and it still is being updated. The most recent version has a digital TV face, fingers that have deployable tools (A staple since the second version), and a complex camouflage system. If you pay attention to the joints, you can see glimpses of his true body.

Pac - So Pac used to be a human, but now he is a third planaria. His leg suffered more than Jesus. Despite the rumors, Cellbit DIDN’T eat his leg. But he did bite it. At first it wasn’t all that bad, excluding the obvious, but he still could walk ok, things just got bad when they returned to land and it got infected so bad the leg had to be amputated, bellow the knee. So one of the first things Tazercraft built when they got their lab was a prosthesis for him. And thing were well and swell, buuuut a lab accident happened and Pac’s leg had to be amputated further, over the knee. New prosthesis, everything ok again. Genetic modification time! Mike’s adventures are already written, but Pac decided think a little bit more about it. He decided to go for planaria, because of their regeneration capabilities. He went, got that planaria dna and almost died. But he survived. His leg, for some miraculous reason, got regenerated, but not perfectly, so nowadays he needs a cane a lot of the time. He does wonder what would happen if he is cut in half, but its better to not think about it too much.

 Now the bonus Viniccius13 and DaviGamerHD because they were for a very long time the only minecraft channels I watched

Viniccus13 - He is something of a demigod, almost omnipresent and omniscient, but only on his home world. He is basically a ginormous redstone circuit, the size of a minecraft world, that reached sentience. He can feel and see through all the redstone that is from his home world, and he can “contaminate” the redstone of other worlds to also do that. His body is completely made out of redstone. Think of him a little like a mushroom. He, the man, is the fruiting body, and the redstone underground is the hypha. But he can’t survive outside of his world for very long, he will simply crumble and loose consciousness. To be able to go to other worlds he uses a stabilizer in the form of sunglasses.

Davi - Davi is a hybrid of deer and dryad, a little of a strange mix. His antlers form a ring over his head like a halo, but they have lots of cracks and fractures, and are also very uneven with different growth patterns, caused by his frequents deaths in Viniccius world. Some of Richarlyson body language reminds Forever of Davi, so he calls Richas Davi as a small joke.

[lopsidedtreetrunks]

Here is my submission for @dribbonart 's amedot fusion competition! I like her a lot, although there are a couple of things I probably could have done a bit better lol

Steven is there for height comparison. All of the text on the page is in the alt text :)

I have A LOT of notes under the cut, which can get a bit stream-of-consciousness-y (because I can never just be chill about something bsdjaksjdlskd),, so I apologise in advance for how long it is 😭

Early research notes:

Mixing amethyst and peridot's skin colours together gets you a kind of sage green colour, so I researched to light green gems

Aventurine stuck out to me as it was the only one i found where it was actually described as sage green, so i thought 'that's perfect' lol

A lot of the healing properties of green aventurine I think resonate with both amethyst and peridot's personalities, from its promotion of friendship to its emission of positive energy

I liked that one of the sites i used to research aventurine mentioned ancient civilisations' usage of green aventurine and i wanted to incorporate that into the fusion's design/personality

It's important to me for her to have aspects of both amethyst and peridot shown in the design somewhere. Most of the time when i design fan fusions I do this in their hair, which is not different this time. I made her hair long, with a bushy tail on her braid representing amethyst, and her three skull braids representing peridot's triangle hair. Her hair is also in a braid bc when i hear the word adventure for some reason the first thing i think of is Lara Croft so,,, thats why i gave her a braid 😅

I wanted her body design to kind of resemble athleisure-wear since she loves relaxing but can get up and go at any point, ready for adventure! She also doesn't need to be complicated. I don't think she needs extra limbs etc since she has her vision power.

Obviously the crystal gems are very important to both amethyst and peridot, so I wanted to give her at least one star on her body. Her torso seemed like the most obvious place, but I'm not sure if she should have more elsewhere, too. The star on her torso can be like a tattoo.

I think she would be very intense in her love for her friends, which might make people uncomfortable. She will back off if she senses this, but she means well I promise!!

She can be spontaneous when it comes to her adventuring, sometimes dragging Steven and the other gems from their beds to go on a Cool Adventure (pearl is NOT a fan of this lmao)

When I say 'adventuring' I really mean just travelling and/or exploring new places, which could be anything from a new city to a deep jungle. Normally these adventures don't last longer than a couple of days... unless they get lost..........

A few amedot related rambles notes:

One of my favourite things about amedot is that they're sooo opposite. I'm such a big opposites-attract truther almost everything I ship there's one puppy dog and one wet cat there's nothing i love more than polar opposite pairings <3

With that said they also share a few things (cough being short asses cough) such as their love of their friends (even if they show it in different ways) and they can both be pretty headstrong. They both had their own journeys - amethyst with her self confidence and feeling inferior, and peridot with unlearning the system of homeworld and the traditions she was so used to. They both had to learn how to love themselves enough to be able to stand up for what they believe in and to let themselves be true to themselves (i hope that makes sense lol)

I think their opposing traits can be quite complementary. Peridot is quite intense; she gets excited about her favourite things and she gets embarrassed easily. Amethyst is more laid-back and tends to roll her own way. They complement each other well.

More refined notes:

Amethyst's personality: Mellow Lazy/messy (affectionate) Improved self-esteem Fiercely loyal

Peridot's personality: Self-confident Smart (robotics) Analytical Intense interests/personality Learned to enjoy life/appreciate Earth

Aventurine properties:

Quartz

Name comes from Italian for adventure

Known as a heart-healer for it's relation to the heart chakra

Said to bring prosperity in all facets of life

Emits a positive energy, slows overactive minds, guides lost spirits, promotes friendships

Ancients Tibetans used it in statues, believing it's glimmer gave them higher vision

Amazon tribes used it in jewellery, believing it gave their royalty and warriors guidance in battles

Aventurine personality:

Self-confident

Enjoys seeking adventure but really values her downtime

Adores her friends - loyal

Can take charge if needed

Can be spontaneous with adventuring

Emotional decision-maker

Although she is very smart, she tends to think with her heart rather than her head

She has a special power - higher vision grants her the ability to see for miles and can focus in any person/thing in the present

Similar to Sapphire's future vision but stays in the present

She gets her street smarts and go-with-the-flow attitude from Amethyst

She gets her intense love and confidence from Peridot

Hyper but content in life

[lowkeyclueless5137]

uhhh Barbie Video Game Hero with BOTH Shroud brothers aka Idia and Ortho as our main protagonists :D

I just woke up to see annons are back in the inbox???? Did u wake up my cat??? /j

Welcome back! :D

Or if you are new-new, welcome to this mess of a blog! Hope you have fun :3

Anyhow, fun fact, I tried to find it on wiki to refresh my memory of the movie. Instead I found that the movie itself is getting played on a TV channel in like 2 days. :v

But we ain't waiting 2 days for that >:v

I knew that it was on Netflix, but no, it isn't anymore, which is a bummer. :'3

But! Enough history and all that bazzaz! Let's get on with our story :D

So, let's imagine a semi-normal world. Like there's still a bit of magic around, not very popular, but you get the idea.

In here, Idia is in college, freelancing in a robotics job he doesn't really have a lot of worries for future, since he will inherit his parent's positions, so that would explain why he was getting so worked up upon some more program bug.

A thing to note in here is that Idia isn't as good at programming. Instead, his brother, Ortho(who's alive in here), is the brains that can program. Idia is the robotics genius and Ortho is the programing genius. Hence why Idia found it a bit awkward to go and ask his high-school little brother for advice. :'3

Still, Ortho did fix the bug in itself. Then, he presents Idia with a 2-player video-game as a sort of reward. He cleared the bug, so now he demands as a prize that Idia will play with him a few rounds. Idia accepted, totally not because he wanted an excuse for a break :'3

Cue the game acting wierd af. The 2 brothers think it's some sort of error, but that proves to be futile when the game sucks both of them in.

So there are 3 very important things to address:

1. They both look very pretty

2. They are stuck in the game so that's a problem

3. There's a cotton candy world map, can you eat those?

They also meet cloudy(I believe this wasn't the name, but we'll stick with it :'3) who is the game's tutorial and the lil guy who gives tips. And cloudy does explain to the 2 that he needed them to come here and fix the virus problem. Seeing Idia as the older one, Cloudy grants him access to the program behind the game.

Idia, naturally, is taken aback by this responsibility, but he can't really voice his own opinion that the virus finds them and they have to exit this minigame.

They meet Cater and Kalim, the minigame's bot characters. They are friendly guys who tag along so they won't be destroyed by the virus.

Then there's your candy crush level, followed by meeting Adeuce in another race level. They do argue a lot. :'3

They reach the next minigame, basically knock-off Minecraft. :'3

In here they meet sweet lil Sebek, who just wants to build a house and vibe. Unfortunately, the viruses do reach in here too and Sebek is forced to join our unlikely group in escaping.

All throughout that, Idia does crack under pressure and is unable to properly I put commands. Cloudy does ask about it and Idia says that Ortho is much more suited for the job than him. But he can't actually pass the programming rights to him. They were stuck with Idia.

For the last minigame, this time there's an actual plan. Ortho is the one calling the shots and Idia is using the commands accordingly. Cater, Kalim, Adeuce and Sebek are also down to help in any way they can. :v

They do manage to defeat the virus via a just dance competition! Yay! :D

And that also ends with Idia and Ortho getting thrown back in the real world. Naturally, the 2 hug since they are finally out, before Idia does ask Ortho where he got the game itself (it was a console game).

Ortho, bashfully admits that he found it for cheap in a thrift store. It sounded cheesy and the description gave him the impression that it could've been a fun little pass time. He tried googling it for reviews, but nothing popped out.

Still, the 2 keep the magic game, sometimes getting sucked in to properly play when they need a break. :3

It's short, I know, but the movie it was also pretty shortish as well. It's around a hour and 12 mins. :v

But I did try to squeeze out everything I could :'3

[themauvesoul]

Sometimes I feel like I am a guy trying to plug a hole in the Hoover dam with my pinky finger. Anyways. Here is what you actually need to know about paragraph length, sentence length, and the like:

Yes, the rule is TECHNICALLY that you’re supposed to start a new paragraph with each new action or thought. However. On a more basic level, a paragraph is just a group of sentences that are conveying the same idea, and there are one million ways to skin that cat. For instance, here is an excerpt from a personal essay I wrote a while back:

Here it is again:

And here it is again:

All of these are technically correct, but they read slightly different. The first one reads faster than the other two, and the ideas in the paragraph blend and bleed together a little more. The middle one is much more measured and even. And the last version reads very slowly and dramatically, with heavy emphasis on certain words and phrases. What makes these three passages read so differently is the length of the paragraphs. Readers tend to pick up the pace during long paragraphs, and slow down quite a bit when they get to shorter paragraphs. Additionally, you’ll notice that the two one-word paragraphs add a TON of emphasis to those words. This is because they’re so visually distinct AND extremely short.

The trick to formatting your paragraphs is NOT following an imprecise rule that is frequently difficult to apply to your own writing. The trick is to vary the length of your paragraphs.

This:

And this:

are both equally annoying. The version without any paragraph breaks goes on and on, and eventually you get tired of reading it. The version with TOO MANY paragraph breaks feels like it’s shouting at you, because every sentence is so important it deserves its own paragraph. Formatting paragraphs is, first and foremost, about including enough variation to keep people interested and paying attention.

And this exact same principle is true of sentence length. If you scroll back up and look at the pic where I put every sentence on its own line, you’ll notice very quickly that there’s a lot of variation there. Some sentences are one word, some are three lines long, and most fall somewhere in the middle. This is intentional. It keeps the reader engaged. If you look closely at this paragraph, you’ll see that I’m doing it in here, too.

The reason for this is identical to why varying your paragraph lengths is a good idea. Long sentences move quickly, short sentences slow the reader’s pace and add emphasis, and medium sentences keep the reader at a comfortable, easy pace. You can use long sentences to add urgency, a sense that time is moving quickly, or a level of confusion as the reader tries to decipher your six line sentence. Short sentences pack a punch. It’s the difference between a freeze frame and an establishing shot. You can use the rhythm and meter of spoken language to help out with this as well. Most people sort of instinctively vary their sentences in length, tone, and emphasis. Nobody irl is speaking to one another in a series of five-word sentences because it sounds robotic and disgusting. If you write in the natural cadence you use in spoken language, you will automatically vary your sentences enough to keep a reader interested.

One thing to note about this is that the emphasis sentence and paragraph lengths create, much like any other fun writing trick, is like cayenne pepper or salt. No emphasis is bland, but too much makes your writing inedible. Figuring out how to season your drafts is a process that you can only complete through experimentation.

This is why you patently SHOULD NOT listen to writing advice that is broad, basic, or positioned as universally applicable. Everybody has their own preferences wrt spice and salt! Two people can look at an identical work of art, and can very easily get into an argument online about whether it’s bland or over seasoned, because they fundamentally have different standards. The best way to improve your writing is to learn how and why the tools in your toolkit work, experiment with them, and show other people the results.

[cleverthylacine]

WIP Wednesday

(and yes this is absolutely influenced by the discussion we’ve been having about robot ageing, I added some bits in this morning)

This is from Designs and Persuasions, fourth fic in the Voice of Stanix series and half of the third arc of that series.

I almost spoilered this, but then I realised that Jazz/Soundwave/Ravage is already in the tags for this fic so it’s already spoiled.  It’s first person from Ravage’s POV in this section. (If you haven’t read Voice of Stanix, you should know that in this AU, Ravage and Laserbeak, Stalker and Buzzsaw, Stripes and Sundor, Glit and Squawktalk, Howlback and Garboil, and Pounce and Wingspan were a defunded pre-war military experiment that was sold off illegally rather than being destroyed, and spent the first ten years of thelr lives living as siblings and training together.

The cats and birds were designed to work as partners, and Ravage has never forgiven Stripes and Sundor for joining the Autobots and leaving to follow Orion Pax when he quit the Decepticon movement.)

“I shouldn’t say this,” said Jazz, and before I could tell him not to, if he knew that he shouldn’t, he said it: “Stripes never stopped caring for you. I believe that he still hasn’t. He got into fights with Steeljaw about it.”

“That’s crazy.” I sighed. “I still can’t believe he let the Autobots cassettify him, and that he hasn’t had it undone. Do you know how much better my rotten back feels now that my spine gets to unstretch itself half the time?”

“It was an arms race.” Jazz shrugged. “Soundwave didn’t tell me your back hurts all the time—”

“My chronic pain issues were not his first thought when you were in bed with both of us and the thing you were doing to him was amazing but would have hurt me,” I said, laughing. “But I’ll take it if it means we don’t have to talk about Stripes.”

“We should,” said Jazz. “I think he was in love with Blaster, actually.”

“You’re going to make me pity him. Stop,” I said.

“Ah, but you should. Blaster wouldn’t touch him. Or any of his others. He thinks it’s wrong, and that Soundwave is using you and that he whored you out to Megatron.” Jazz groaned. “Fuck. He hates me now too, I’m sure.”

“He’s always hated us,” I said, “so yeah, so probably. I know what Blaster thinks of us, and I don’t care. But I’m sorry he’s turning on you; the war isn’t over, it’s just gone cold. Sorry but really, he isn’t anyone’s friend.”

“He was Beachcomber’s friend,” said Jazz with a sigh, “and I know Soundwave regrets that. You don’t have to tell me.”

“Then don’t say things like that.” I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest. “Do you really love me, Jazz? More important, do you really love him?”

Jazz shrugged. “I don’t actually know what that means sometimes,” he said after a moment. “But I know I need Soundwave, and I care for him so much more than someone in my old position should ever have let myself care, and he is a part of you, and you are a part of him, and you are very, very beautiful, and kinder than you know.”

His smile went crooked. “And I think I do.”

“That’s fair,” I said, though I was still mad that he’d brought up Beachcomber, who was alive, and well; I didn’t mind that Blaster had been angry, I minded that he couldn’t take the win and give up on killing my conjunx, after three million years.

“You’re mad.”

“I’ll get over it.” I gave him a crooked, frustrated smile, and a long. slow, luxurious blink. “I know it’s hard for you right now. It’s never fun to find out what the people you thought were your friends are, not when you know you were wrong.”

Jazz shrugged. “Yeah.” He did not mention Megatron. He didn’t have to.

“I love what you did for Soundwave when I couldn’t be there. I love what you did for us both at great cost to yourself, and how much you’ve done to end this insanity. I want to know you better than I do, which would be easier if you would stop trying to hide who and what you are. And I love getting fucked by you. But I’m terrified of becoming a triad again, especially since a triad with us is always a little lopsided.”

Jazz laughed. “That’s fair, too. But please keep in mind that I want it lopsided. I don’t want to go where you go when you go there. Not with him or with anyone else. And I don’t want a spark-bond. I don’t like it when things are too heavy, and it doesn’t mean I feel any less, it’s just…”

“I know,” I said. “There’s a war on, even if it’s cold now. And these are immense vulnerabilities, even though I cherish them.”

[wrath-bob-aken]

Wrath: a little about myself as an Obake fictive. One of many. It's important in all cases to remember FICTIVES ARE NOT THEIR SOURCE and may differ slightly or gravely.

PART 2

- meeting Hiro -

(bouncing back a bit for clarification from my last post, not so important just a little extra information) years have passed between my time building trina and meeting Globby by the way, and Liv was still working on her stuff but sometimes she had Di out doing things in her place. Di was made long before Liv experimented on herself and ended up in her suspended state. So this was long before meeting Yama or Globby and long before my real ambitions began. Di and I did a lot of things we shouldn't have -especially behind Liv's back- and it's hard to say who influenced whom.

- (coming back to the actual part 2) -

I was visiting the lucky cat for a quick morning meal. I really hadn't known much of anything regarding the teen genius Hiro. I'd heard of big hero six but since Yama hadn't done everything the same way as in the show and had broken my amplifier on his own.. things were different and had well changed. Big hero six was nothing more to me than some group who'd defeated Callaghan.

I had advanced my technology and my ambitions quite well and grew even more versatile with my hand that I'd lost my fingers in. Di and I seemed to be getting along okay though we had some differences and argued occasionally. By now Liv may as well be a vegetable and Di was working on some crazy experiments.

Speaking of, Knox was charging right at me while I was getting a meal at the cafe. The damn beast version of him had smashed the window in and attacked me. I still remain certain this was no accident and somehow Diane was threatened by me.

The whole thing is a bit of a blur to recall but I remember him biting part of my jaw clean off (teeth, bone and all) and clawing at my arm, knocking me over and pinning me. One of his claws sank into the side of my robotic eye quite deeply and left some scarring. I did my best throwing out some punches.

Again, it was a blur and I don't quite remember everything that happened. All I knew is Knox had run off shortly after and Hiro was there helping me along with his aunt cass. Paramedics were on their way.

When I got out of the hospital later I used more metal to cover my arm to cover the scarring there as well as make myself an artificial jaw in place of my missing one rather than their work at just making sure the hole around it would heal. It was hideous seeing that gap and I knew I'd had to fix it. I never forgave Diane (who claimed it was an accident and she lost control over Knox) and cut her off entirely.

Hiro had commented on my robotic eye before and so I went back out of curiosity the next morning. It was a weekend. There we talked of tech and such. I never went deep into my story, I knew better than to be open about these things. But that's it, when he talked about the neurotransmitter. My interest was piqued and I recalled Globby.

Eventually I looked into it and modified one of my own. But I managed to turn it into an earring and have it connected to my metal fingers to it and began to think about how wonderful it would be if I could get the teen genius to join me and my world. But his friends were holding him back. They needed to go. But first.. tests.

Later I eventually made fingers with joints and added a large but thin battery to my arm piece which wired over into my fingers. Yes I had to sit there and charge it for an hour but from there it lasted about a week before it needed recharge again. As for the earring, I only needed to change the battery on that every few months to about a year if I was lucky. I still forget the fingers exist from time to time-

[askthechronoverse]

Chapter Three: Walking With a Ghost ?

Last Chapter •||• Next Chapter

"Princess, we need to go now. There's no time to help them." The monotone of her advisor was gone, replaced with a frantic panic she never thought she'd hear from the brick.

The reason for this response was that Unikitty kept looking back, Richard sometimes dragging her along with invisible hands that were somehow shaking. Puppycorn was close by her side, clearly terrified by what he was seeing.

"Will we be OK, Rick?" The puppy jumped as a watering can building sank into the ground, swallowed by a large, dark hole.

"We will. We just need to get to the castle. If we get to the castle, I can protect you." The oldest of the three was doing his best to keep things together. He kept his eyes on the castle, trying to ignore the world disappearing around them. Maybe he was hoping to lead by example? They could hear robotic limbs struggling to fight against an unknown and invisible target.

She couldn't help it. Unikitty had to look back again. She was rewarded for this action by watching Doctor Fox in a mech suit made of random, haphazardly chosen pieces of the unraveling world cling to the side of one of the holes. She looked down at the seemingly bottomless pit with both fear and her usual scientific curiosity. Unikitty tried to get out of Richard's telekinetic grasp.

"Princess! You can't save them! Please, keep moving!" Her advisor started to sound even more frantic. "You need to listen to me!" He pulled her and her brother along as Doctor Fox fell into the void, face almost looking like she was going on the next adventure than falling to her death.

The cat bolted awake. Why were these dreams getting more frequent now? Emmet couldn't come soon enough, she felt. How long did it take to get from Syspocalypstar to the Unikingdom, anyway? That may be something to ask her space explorer friend later.

The dreams reminded her a lot of Armommageddeon. The holes in the world dropping to seemingly nothing, the darkened sky… the fear. But she didn't know Richard, Doctor Fox, or Puppycorn until after Armommageddeon happened and Rex was ultimately defeated and, she supposed, had faked his own death to figure his life out. Today, she needed to talk to Richard. He kept showing up in her dreams and daydreams, scared or even flat out dead. He was important, most likely key to the whole thing. She just needed to actually find him. Why was it so hard to find a single grey brick?

She flew through the castle, looking for him. Her travels took her to Hawkodile's treehouse, where the bodyguard and Doctor Fox were helping Rex unload pumpkins from his truck. Well, Hawkodile was helping with the heavy lifting. Doctor Fox sat in the truck bed, occasionally rolling a pumpkin to one of them.

"... may actually have a corn harvest later. I could let you guys have corn stalks as well, if ya need those."

"That would be delightful! We could really get the castle decorated for Halloween with those!" Doctor Fox leaned against the side of the bed, eyes gleaming. "Are you going to come over and join us in telling scary stories?"

"Maybe. I'll haveta think of something that ain't my own backstory to tell, though." Rex was clearly teasing, but Unikitty knew that story and she couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. At least he was no longer fully burdened by his tortured past. "Ya know who's idea that was? None of you guys look like the type to just sit around and tell stories to scare each other."

"It was Richard's idea. I never thought he was the type to enjoy that kind of thing, but he was insistent." Doctor Fox shrugged.

"That brick's just full of surprises, huh? Hey, Princess. Ya gonna join us and help or just watch?" An exclamation mark appeared over Unikitty's head. How did Rex do that? Was he just that aware of his surroundings?

"Uh… sure!" She flew over to the trio as they resumed their conversation about Halloween plans.

"He wants us to wear costumes too. Sounds fun, if I'm being honest. Can't remember the last time I wore a costume for something that wasn't a stealth mission." Hawkodile shrugged.

"I think it's kind of childish, but it still could be a good time. We could wait until Puppycorn is asleep and *really* have some fun with the stories we tell." Doctor Fox smirked as she rolled a particularly large pumpkin to Rex and Hawkodile.

"I could ask a friend of mine to bring some Apocalypseburgian ale with him when he comes to visit. I hear that stuff is out of this world." Rex looked the pumpkin over, trying to remember how he got the thing in the truck in the first place.

"Both literally and figuratively speaking?" Doctor Fox grinned wider as Rex laughed, lifting the pumpkin with Hawkodile's help.

"It's definitely gonna be better than not having any at all. There's a reason we gotta import alcohol from the greater Systar System." Hawkodile shook his head. "Bro, you're the guy living out in the middle of nowhere and off the grid. Ya gotta start learning to make moonshine or something."

"I'd be worried I'd kill the three of us. Makin' that stuff is borderline chemistry. I ain't a scientist." Rex glanced at Doctor Fox as he said this. "Now, if I grew the hops and knew a super talented scientist who is smart enough to make sure I didn't do it wrong…"

"That isn't going to happen, RJ. Richard'll freak if he saw that kind of equipment in my lab. Actually, it's strange. He lets me really push the envelope when it comes to scientific law, but when I suggest something that could be considered even remotely more adult, like distillery equipment, he digs his non-existent heels in the dirt." Doctor Fox rolled her eyes. "There are other reasons to use that kind of equipment outside of the production of alcoholic beverages but he won't hear it."

"I get trying to not do adult things around Puppycorn because he's ten years old, but he's the only kid we hang out with. Unless my thoughts about ya are correct, Dangervest, and you're really two super powered kids in a trenchcoat." Hawkodile added, sounding frustrated by the restrictions himself.

"Holy crap. Is that a joke from Mr. Serious?" Rex laughed that almost pure hearted laugh of his.

Unikitty was silent throughout the conversation. Hawkodile's theory about Richard's motives made sense, so she had to move on to a more jarring point.

Puppycorn was ten years old.

Unikitty was in her 20's, and Puppycorn was ten years old.

Why did Queen Wa'nabi think that giving her a "brother" over a decade younger than her was a good idea? That made no sense.

"Princess? Ya feelin' OK? Ya look like you're seein' a ghost. If it's Vitruvius, tell him I miss him." Rex's voice dropped the toughness it usually held with the last sentence.

"No. It isn't that. Do you guys still need me? I have to go find someone." Unikitty bolted before anyone could say anything else.

Her search for her advisor picked up again in earnest. Richard had a direct line to Queen Wa'nabi. She could answer the questions she was starting to have about Puppycorn. Nothing about the kid made sense. She had an almost instant connection with him when they first met, but she knew she never met him. It was the same with Doctor Fox and Hawkodile: there was a strange connection that made them become fast friends. The only person she didn't have that connection with was, oddly enough, Richard. They were friendly enough, but he kept to the background whenever possible. Sure, he was starting to warm up to Rex, but everyone else? He was distant. He wouldn't socialize with the others unless he had to.

He even stayed in the cabin while everyone else fought for the kingdom's freedom. Why didn't that occur to her before now? Even Puppycorn fought from the window with his spellcasting. If he was supposed to be loyal to the crown and kingdom, he could have at least contributed, right? She glanced at her three older friends and saw Rex hold his side as he spoke, laughing like he wasn't in pain. Even the Master Breaker, who barely held a stake in the outcome, fought for the good of the kingdom and was still suffering as a result of that bravery. Richard only appeared when the threat was neutralized and the battle was won. Just another question to ask the brick if she ever found him.

I lost my friend, Richard. I'm so sorry, Richard!

She was sobbing almost exaggeratedly over the coffin. If there was anything spoken while she sobbed, it couldn't be heard over the sobbing and the sounds of what again felt like multiple stations broadcasting on the same frequency, a cacophony of sound…

That scared the cat back to reality. She was standing in her throne room, the knowledge of how she got there lost to her. She sat at her throne and shook her head, head in her pawss. What were these visions? Why was she seeing all this now?

She took a deep breath. No. Push it down. It can't bother you if you push it down deep inside.

Where was her advisor? Why was he so hard to find now that he actually needed him?

As she sat on the throne, Rex and Hawkodile finally caught up with her. They were carrying a large pumpkin each, talking about karate and what training was going to look like in the winter months. Rex saw Unikitty and waited until Hawkodile was gone to address her.

"Look. I know I still probably have a lot to prove here, but I hate ta see ya like this. Ya said it was dreams givin' ya a hard time, right?" She nodded. "I'm sure Emmet's got better advice, but… Dreams could mean a lot of things. Remember: you're talkin' to the man who doesn't sleep because of his dreams. I know all about 'em." Unikitty just nodded again. "I get it. Ya don't wanna talk about it. Just keep in mind that, right now, you're safe. The dream can't hurt you. It's something I gotta learn myself." Rex turned to go help with the pumpkins.

"Wait. Just… wait." Unikitty frowned, getting off of the throne and walking towards him. "I know… you won't understand what I want to ask Emmet anymore. You don't… have those kinds of dreams. But what would you do if… if you get dreams about the world ending?"

"Now that's… it makes sense you're so stressed out, Princess. Now, I'm gonna be real and say I'd probably assume it's stress and just stop sleepin'. But, I'm gonna give some real advice. Find out exactly what kind of dream ya got. If it's a stress dream, go relax. If it's a dream about the future, prepare for the worst and hope for the best." He shoved his hands in his pocket. "It could also be like what I have: a dream about your past. I think Queen Wa'nabi helps people who were traumatized by Armommageddeon."

"Right. I'll keep that in mind, RJ. I really don't think it's about my past, though. It doesn't make sense for it to be my past." Unikitty shrugged. "But thanks for the advice. You're starting to sound like Emmet."

"Hey now. Let's not talk like that. I may haveta stop hanging out with him… though he gets lonely without me." The two friends soon parted ways, but not before Rex and Hawkodile finished delivering the pumpkins to the castle.

Meanwhile, two large eyes in the darkness seemed to collapse into a stressed calmness. Good. This was working out well.

[linawritesocs]

SORRY FOR SENDING THESE LATE LINA 😞😞 but if you don't mind! ⚔️ and 🐱 for Minnie, 🏹 for Avery, and 🤖 for Austin and Merrill!!

sure, i don't mind at all, thank you for sending these! <3

----------------------------------------

⚔️ "what relationship does your oc have with sebek?"

minnie: oh, these argue a lot. minnie hates how loud he is, often says how dumb he is for hating humans even though his own father is a human and she doesn't understand why he admires malleus so much. meanwhile sebek calls minnie rude and says that she's not allowed to say such things as a human. however, when these two are forced to work together, they are actually very good at whatever they have to do because of them being very serious and responsible people. sure, they still argue while doing it, but in the end they decide to forget about their differences for now, because their task is more important. and minnie hates to admit it, but she does find sebek a very reliable person and if she has no one to ask for help, she usually comes to him. sebek also often gets worried about her because of minnie being a human who's not a magic user and it can be difficult for her to survive in this world. so yeah, they actually respect each other a lot and want to know more about each other.. but their personalities get in the way.

🐱 "what relationship does your oc have with grim?"

minnie: minnie does NOT like cats (possibly a reference to her not liking "lazy and unreliable" people?), so it was hard for her to get used to grim's company. grim often annoys her and she refuses to buy him any tuna, telling him that he should do something to deserve it. grim also still can't believe that minnie treats him like this, she looks like such a cute girl, he thought it would be easy to fool her! their relationship is a bit similar to minnie and sebek's one, they also argue a lot, but minnie is willing to tolerate him if other ramshackle students are okay with him. she also won't let anything bad to happen to him, because she doesn't want other dorm members to be sad.

🏹 "what relationship does your oc have with rook?"

avery: .. avery doesn't like him. rook can't stop talking about how beautiful avery is and he's complimenting him all the time and we all know what avery thinks of beauty. and yeah, avery is definitely one of the students who rook stalks the most. he's just so interesting! he had to transfer to nrc because of his overblot, poor thing.. rook wonders what could make avery overblot, maybe he had not the best relationship with rsa students? perhaps they thought that he should have a softer personality, because it doesn't fit his appearance? well, rook thinks they were wrong, avery's cold personality only makes him even more beautiful! what avery thought when he first met rook? oh, he instantly went "IS THIS ALLEN FRENCH EDITION"

🤖 "what relationship does your oc have with ortho?"

austin: austin finds him so interesting! some people may think that austin's fascination with ortho is cute, but.. to be honest, it has some creepy undertones, because austin doesn't really think of ortho as a person, he's just a robot to him. a very human-like robot, sure, but he's still a machine! austin just really wants to learn more about the way ortho works and how idia made him, other things don't matter to him. also austin can't understand how someone as "pathetic" as idia could make something so impressive..

merrill: merrill likes ortho a lot, he's so much better than idia! merrill's relationship with him is the exact opposite of ortho's relationship with austin: merrill sometimes forgets that ortho is actually a robot. merrill gets very protective if something happens to him, even if it can't actually hurt ortho, he likes to make cute outfits for him and he can't help but see ortho as his own little brother, that's what being an only child does to you dnhjfkld. he also joins ortho whenever he's trying to make idia leave his room and if ortho feels sad because idia said no again, MERRILL WILL LITERALLY THROW IDIA OUT OF HIS ROOM. or he will go "hey, idia, your poor little brother is crying because of you! how can you be so cruel to him?" so that idia will start regretting his decision.

[marmaligne]

headcanon in two parts, sorry. Ask does not miss it. 1.1 Oh, you know the insecticons from the tfp? Can I have a headcanon where a S/O person is on friendly terms with insecticons?

[TF PRIME] S/O Is Friends With The Insecticons

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* [S/O] meets them by accident quite a bit before the events of the Energon Eaters. Arachnid is still “leader” of the Insecticons by technicality as the only available ‘Queen’ for the hive-mind, however she never really patrols the area or takes care of the hive as she should, rather choosing to wander as a free mind, disobeying orders from everybody.

* You had stumbled upon the hive while taking a short walk along the side of the Jasper highway, leading out of town and to an old coal mine you liked to inhabit on your days off work. A home-away-from-home of sorts, it brought you peace of mind to have a quiet place.

* At least you thought it was a quiet, desolate area until you broke through a thinning in the rock floor of the entry shaft and ended up crashing an Insecticon tea-party.

*It was a rather awkward fall, and it had injured your hip joint on the way down, leaving you temporarily paralyzed in throbbing pains and nerve damage.

* The giant bug-like robots and their shiny, metal wingspans immediately armed themselves and aimed at the shifting dust and rockfall, growling and chittering in a language of some sort, unknown to you.

* “Is it one of those ugly-faced Decepticons ploys again?”

* “It’s too small and squishy, much sooner to be a predacons’ chew toy than any weapon.”

* You looked super confused, absolutely stupefied, completely duped, utterly incomprehensible, awkwardly awed, amazingly idiotic, a-

* Their manner of speech and vocal patterns was practically lost on you. You could pick up remnants of a language similar to broken [language], but really nothing else. In an attempt to make contact with the metallic giants to gain help, you enabled your parroting capabilities.

* Humans have the stunning ability to mimic sounds and specific noise frequencies, at levels other earthen animals, especially mammals, cannot. Using this ability, you managed to copycat the grinding and chattering noises coming from the vocal mass of bug-bots.

* [S/O]: “¿Krrt-grrut vvurrr chechch?”

* Hardshell: “¿Buzzzz vert-tet-brrrz, Erreech?”

* [S/O]: “¿Erreech?”

* Hardshell: “¡VRREE BUZZZ-EECH CLICKLICKIK!”

* The contact went well, unbeknownst to you, and the successful communication meant that you might actually have a chance at escape, or finding a hospital!

* Congrats! You are now [Tiny Bug Child]! You have no idea what they were speaking about, unaware that they were contemplating how to execute you, but you successfully managed to evade death by being cute and cuddly! People say curiosity killed the cat, but it evidently saves the naive human-who-fell-into-an-insect-cult-meeting!

* Hardshell, the Insecticon you nearly landed on top of, begins to lift you out of the rubble, and place you down upon a makeshift stone table, partially destroyed by the collapse. The others—including Wingflap, Bombshell, Shrapnel, Blockhead, and Kickback—gather closely around you, cooing and chirping in their weird language again.

* This was, evidently, how you became the new Queen of the hive, though you didn’t know it, and managed to befriend your way through the entire enclosed community and worm into the spark of every Insecticon, though they were very few in number.

* You made easy friends with Bombshell, and remained close with him up until his untimely death by Bulkheads hammer fist. He would often lay atop the Jasper cliffside with you, and make out shapes in the clouds, constellations in the stars—regaling to you tales of the Old Cybertron, when his own kind weren’t so despised, and were respected as viable assets and allies amongst those with forms like and unlike their own—until the Autobot Elitists ensured they were seen as ugly and malformed, made to hide away in the shadows and step away from society for ‘the greater good’.

* It’s how you came to hate the Autobots—and Decepticons—for all they had done, to their planet and yours, and to your friends as well.

* Your mimicry slowly turned into actual speech patterns and recognition. Repetitive sound signals were a key portion of Archaic Insecticon speech, which made it easy to recognize simple words or phrases, each indicated by a set of whirs, clicks, or beeps.

* Now that you could actively communicate with most of the hive, it was far easier to make friends with even the hardiest of bots.

* Hardshell, of course, was tough to crack. At your constant insistance, he spoke with you once or twice, and made sure to acknowledge your presence when in the room, as well as save you a seat at the underground pub every other weekend. It wasn’t actually a pub per-say, rather a dugout chamber with smooth walls and some stone slabs insert for seating, where the cons enjoyed engex they could sneak off the Nemesis from time-to-time.

* After awhile, he warms up to you, welcoming you back to the hive every day after work, standing alongside his multiple siblings, and pushing others aside to get to hold you first.

* Meanwhile this all happens, they still don’t know what a human is. Their simple understanding of earth comes only from what they’ve seen on the highway from the cliffside, or from video footage of the Autobot pests on the Nemesis. Due to their bulky size and noisiness, they’re banned from most human-inhabited areas.

* Don’t doubt that some of them have attempted to follow their [S/O] home. They have. And some of them won’t stop trying. It’s been more than one awkward encounter between you and some teens to get them to realize they could get you in trouble.

* You all eat [dessert] together sometimes, made with energon supplements for ‘The Boys™️’, with some good ol’ 25-something-kg of sugar mixed in.

* The boys were worried when you didn’t show up for a week due to hospitalization via severe food poisoning medical coma.

* When Arachnid finally returned to Earth, and her fight against Arcee had proceeded about as well as expected, she located the hive and proceeded to force them to engage in business with Megatron. She believed that by implementing her own soldiers amongst the ranks, she’d be better equipped to backstab Megatron when the time came.

* She was undoubtably surprised when Hardshell and some others adamantly refused to take part in her plans at first, until she enforced their compliance through the hive-mind.

*When she learned of your existence, and the very gauge of your importance to her former hive, she came at you with full force.

*The Insecticons were fully unprepared to deal with a fight between their small [S/O] and an extremely angry ex-Queen. In refute, they returned you to the surface without so much as a goodbye, and begged you to escape before Arachnid scented you out.

* It was soon after these events that you learned of Breakdown’s death, Bulkhead’s coma, and Bombshell’s demise due to the combined effects of a substance called Tox-En and injuries sustained during his battle with Bulkhead. It broke you inside to learn there was nothing you could have done to help, but you refused to disobey their pleas to stay away for awhile.

* At the hive, Arachnid rules supreme. Being able to control the hive-mind was a feat a human was incapable of achieving, only Cybertronians able to easily access the imbedded chain of command.

* Hardshell mourned the loss of a true friend—a small, squishy human—but a friend nonetheless.

* Wingflap and Kickback went through a collection of memories you’d left behind with them. Pictures and small objects gifted over the years, a small treasure trove of important parts of their lives, now without you in them.

* Shrapnel stims a lot more now, and has nervous tics that he believes are the result of the loss of his dear friend. He knows you aren’t dead, least not yet, but he knows that you’ll likely never come back.

* Blockhead, as dumb as everybody thinks he is, is actually very emotionally intelligent. He has a way with words he barely understands, and [S/O] acted as a big support for someone like him. Without them now, he can no longer function like normal, and now has nobody left to talk to.

* Arachnid could care less. She absolutely despises [S/O], and would smite them for all she cares. You matter little to her, and only worry her for the loyalty and capacity of her troops.

* It isn’t until the Energon Eaters appear that everything turns completely south.

* [S/O] finally builds up enough courage to march themselves back down to the mine, and demand to meet Arachnid face-to-faceplate.

* The desert is hot, Nevada is hotter, and the trek down the highway seems endless and tedious. You pass by 5 interstate signs on your way to the hive, and count the steps it takes to reach the entrance, parched by the time you make it there.

* In all your sweaty glory, you, [S/O], make your way down the carved pathway into the mineshaft, dark and cramped—just as you left it.

* But everything is exactly as it was left, not an item out of place. The entire hive was empty, including of those you cared about. Their rooms are full of memories, and their energon cubes still lie in a corner, collecting dust and grime.

* The search seems profitable, yet it leaves you with nothing, and the emptiness of the hive echoes around you, and in all the chambers, through the cavern walls of every room.

* You know they’re gone, that they have left without you, and without so much as a simple passing note.

* Perhaps someday you’d find them, hiding away in another Jasper mine, but you never would.

* In their haze of a hive mind, they barely even remember the face of the human they left behind. A long line across the moon—stretching on for miles—and a vampire on a false throne, draining the lifeblood from their veins, and the image of [S/O] from their minds.

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✨ Hope you enjoyed ✨

[ganymedesclock]

I don’t want to say fictional robots “belong” to autistic people because any given fantastical allegory can have manifold and meaningful resonance to all manner of diversities, but something I do think is very interesting about fictional robots as an autistic person is this:

Robots as a plot element or character arc often center on this question of emotions. Do you feel emotions? Now, this is an imperfect argument about humanity/authenticity in the first place since there are plenty of Real Human Beings who experience anhedonia or alexithymia- but I think also, in my experience, a lot of these stories- sometimes in-universe, sometimes only in fandom responses- betray that maybe a lot more people than they think, are not very good at identifying emotions.

Many fictional robots- to be blunt- pour with emotion. They will often have a blunted affect (that is to say, speaking in a monotone, or limited facial expressions), they may use overly technical terminology, but they will make arbitrary decisions based on personal preference, it will be nakedly obvious they have a preference and their preference is determined at least in part by what pleases them. Data from Star Trek adores his cat and cares deeply about art and poetry.

And I won’t say any of these characters are bad people. I don’t want to suggest the goal is to create a character who’s “really” emotionless. If there is a quibble I have with this, it’s that I think we could all afford to be a little more careful and a little bit more imaginative, when considering how other people’s minds work, and how they present details. Not just as a joyless finger-wag of “you should be more responsible!” (though I will say there is some joylessness to it- I don’t really enjoy being shown a character who emotes close to how I naturally do, being fretted over by people asking if that character has a soul, is a real person, or simply an effective mimic; that hurts a little too personally to be fun!)

I was thinking of this because I was reflecting on one of my favorite little videos, My Job Is To Open And Close Doors. It’s a simple little uninterrupted 3-minute monologue about an AI who, well, see title, but has a bit of a crisis of purpose and asks themselves a bunch of critical questions about their role and purpose.

At its core, to me, the AI in My Job clearly experiences an emotion; they see something in the course of doing their job that they have no protocol or instruction to halt before, but feel an incredible misgiving about following through on. In response to this misgiving, in a very human manner, they begin to procrastinate- all the while, they point out to their own mounting confusion that this is a meaningless activity, but it buys them more time.

The voice acting given to the AI is very good, and, to me, cinches the whole piece- the actor very specifically does not leave a neutral-pleasant tonal range, and at several points, rather than asking an obviously “emotional” question, the AI simply hangs up in their own thinking talking to themselves- “because- because- because-” a very mechanical sort of stutter.

And using this flat affect and mechanical quirks, the actor establishes and fits to an emotional vernacular. The thrust of the plot- that the AI isn’t sure why they’re hesitating when their job is straightforwards and clear, that they even take note that this is being recorded as an error by another party- repeats in the sense of the stuttering- just as they procrastinate opening the doors without being sure why, they too “procrastinate” the completion of their statements when they’re unsure of them. The AI believes that the delivery of a solution, an answer, a “point”, is inevitable, so when they do not feel they have an answer they are incapable of saying “I don’t know”; instead, they stall. They procrastinate in the hope of achieving enough time to deliver an answer that meets their standards, that satisfies the parameters either set by their programming, or their own feelings.

My Job also adds in a sense of why emotions are important- in a sense that is not about enjoyment or satisfaction, although the AI ultimately does feel tremendously satisfied at the successful conclusion of their quandary- because without the ability to experience “baseless misgivings”, they would have simply responded to the initial command to open the door and been unbothered by whatever happened. In that sense, you could argue, it’s an ‘emotion’ born from ‘logic’ (that there is something amiss, though it takes the AI time to tease this out of their own thinking) but at that point we’re barking up a fool’s tree of semantics because our “logic” and our sentiments are both chemicals clattering around the same undifferentiated apparatus at the same time and thus inextricably attached to one another.

The thing that kills me about this is- with no hostility to the commenter in question- I scrolled down into the comments of My Job and immediately saw someone talking about how clearly, the AI has no emotions.

To me, this entire plot is about an AI having an emotion. Unmistakable and clear. This is about a door mechanism experiencing a profoundly human response to distress- procrastinating on the completion on a task they have every resource and in fact an active imperative to complete, based on a misgiving they are unable to articulate. This revelation is so profound to them that at the end of the video, they actually reframe their entire objective- “My job is to protect the human. My job is a great purpose.”

So I guess if there’s a tl;dr or conclusion to this sentiment, it’s that I think that while we can and should absolutely tell stories about fictional robots- because they are cool, and because they are also tremendously useful to ask certain existential questions about personhood- I think that it is actually very important to temper both our creation and consumption on these narratives on a more robust theory of neurodivergence, and, “I don’t recognize the way this emotion plays out in this particular person” does not equal “there is no emotion there at all”

[fill-me-with-your-memes-daddy]

Watching the Rise of the Titans movie and I'll be documenting all of my thoughts/reactions here. [Spoiler Warning]

So instead of reblogging every new update, I'm just going to have this post up on my phone as I watch and type my reactions in a bullet list format.

Nari's human disguise is so cute. As someone who does have a cottagecore aesthetic, I want to cosplay her so bad

Are Skrael and/or Belroc non-binary coded? Regardless, I'm also obsessed and I want to fuck Skrael and be Belroc.

STEVE CARING ABOUT JIM BEING HURT YESSSS!!! My god his redemption has probably been one of the greatest there is because he doesn't just suddenly go from being a bully to a completely good person. You can see the gradual shift in learning better throughout the shows which is awesome.

IN NEW YOOOOOOORRRRRRRK!!!!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!

The mugshot montage reminded me of season 1 of trollhunters when toby and Jim were arrested at the museum.

STRICKLER PUT A RING ON IT??? HE'S THE ONLY DILF IVE EVER ACTUALLY AGREED WAS HOT WYM I CAN'T HAVE HIM??? well I'm still really happy about his arc over the series probably one of my favorite character growths.

Eli my guy got his growth spurt!!! As an 18 year old who is still 5'0", I'm happy but envious for him

So I went into this movie without watching any trailers or promo, but I doubt anything could have prepared me for the existence of mpreg. In fact, I wasn't going to document my reactions until I saw that.

NAMURA!!!!!!!!! MY BELOVED!!!!!! I CAN STILL THIRST FOR YOU WITHOUT GUILT

The coach teacher just called the kids zoomers so I have to dock one point from my final rating just because of that. Unforgivable

Those husky animation models suck lmao

Oh fuck the titans got power ranger zords!!

God why did they include the mpreg??? This movie would have been perfect without it.... After that plot point being revisited only one time I'm already beyond done with it

Like it's bringing me back to the v*ltron days where they're was a suspiciously high amount of klance omegaverse and mpreg fics and art created and it physically hurts because Steve and Keith's voice actor is the same person meaning this is especially cursed to me since I was unfortunately in the v*ltron fandom and remember all of that

But like on another note, how old are these characters again??? I haven't checked any wikis because of spoilers but is Steve an adult??? I know aja might be technically a lot older than 18 because alien but is whatever age she is equivalent to an adult as far as emotionally and physically in Akaridion development??? IS THIS A TEEN (M)PREGNANCY IN A KIDS SHOW????

Like bruh I saw a singular post on here before going into the movie that was like "rott spoilers without context" and there was a pregnant belly but I was absolutely not expecting the actual context of it. I'll find the post after I finish and edit this post to tag the creator right here: @makoden

This entire post is just gonna be me ranting about mpreg huh

Anyway I love the whole roundtable allusion to the legends of king arthur (not the toa version but the one he's based off)

THERE'S 3 TO 5 BABIES????? I need to take a break bruh this is just too much

Alright I've taken a 30 minute break got some food and did some things i love (decompressed by tactile stimming with some owl plushies and watched some videos on my favorite owl, Garu. He lives in Japan with his owner and is a domesticated eagle owl who basically just acts like a sky cat. If anyone else needs some eye bleach, here is their YouTube channel)

Blinky and ARRRGHHH!!! saying their "if one of us doesn't make it" talk my god one of them is going to die I can see it and I will be utterly crushed. Jim can't lose another father figure and Toby can't lose his wingman again I will riot if this happens

On a similar but unrelated to the movie note, can we just talk about how toa started with Jim having 0 dads and (if strickler and blinky live to the end) will end with 2 dads? Like I just really feel happy for him that he has two dads who actually figured out how to put the past behind them to not have any infighting between them so that both of them are healthy father figures. Jim has already been through literal hell and back losing his actual humanity in the process so if he loses one of them, I'm going to be really pissed because at this point, this is just Jim torture porn. Y'all know how as SpongeBob SquarePants went on, the show just became Squidward torture porn? It's starting to feel that way for toa and I really hope they cut the shit by the ending

Jlaire is such a good ship but like I feel like it's too perfect they never disagree with each other

YESSSSSSS Someone finally doesn't treat toby like a fat waste of space who messes stuff up!!! I think out of all the characters that would have been most deserving of a rewrite, it's Toby. Sometimes I just feel he's only comic relief and any heartfelt moments he's had in the series was also born of stupidity (ie his flour baby project being unharmed was seen by him as divine intervention from his parents but was actually just Eli and Steve behind the scenes).

Ohhhhh yesssssss Archie's father!!! I was hoping I'd see him again because we got so little of him last

Ooooooooooh Asian trollmarket!!!!!

Oh never mind slavery trollmarket

Bruh titanic camelot

I feel like we're not seeing enough of the villains because I completely forgot about the power ranger zord things

NAMORA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LAST CRUSHHHH

STRICKLER NO NOT YOU TOO PLEASE

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE ONLY TWO CHARACTERS I SIMP FOR ON THIS SHOW DIED WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF EACH OTHER

THAT WHOLE ASS RANT I WROTE IS COMING TRUE FUCK THIS MOVIE THIS SERIES IS JUST JIM TORTURE PORN

WAIT JIM'S SPERM DONOR INFO?

Oh thank God I don't want to know anything about that person

For the record, I call that man Jim's sperm donor because he has no business being called a father to him. All he did was donate some swimmers to the creation of him and give him abandonment issues

Oh another blind troll elder???? This fucker is just if vendel was a bad guy

Bruh I was grieving

PACIFIC RIM WITH GUN ROBOT VEX AND THE BELROCZORD? I've never seen that movie but I know the reference

Bruh Blinky doesn't read horoscopes? Does he realize conspiracy theories are just the manly version of horoscopes?

NO DON'T KILL VEX STOP KO-ING FOUND FAMILY MEMBERS

Oh thank God he's okay

NO NOT ARCHIE AND CHARLEMAGNE OH MY GOD

oh never mind they're just gonna coup de tat I believe in them :))

But I want to see him again

But I'm glad to see vex

Yay they're in arcadia!

But yeah I wondered why the trolls and Merlin didn't keep the whole "daylight doesn't hurt trolls" feature from the eternal night but now Guillermo del Toro I see you were playing the long con in that just to kill my girl Namora :(((

Oooooh I love the animation of the Narizord over Chihuahua!! It looks very good and realistic (if only they could have put some of that into those huskies from before smh)

Bruh the character designs of the arcane order are so good I want to be them

Nari making sure the Skraelzord doesn't crush the bus

DAMN DOUBLE HOMICIDE

Bruh I'm just glad we finally have an answer on why arcadia had everything going on as opposed to literally anywhere else!! I always found that as a weird coincidence for plot convince.

BRUH WERE BACK TO THE MPREG IM SO JEALOUS I FORGOT ABOUT THAT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF MY LOVELIES.

Oh that's real convenient that the ninth configuration meant all of them. Way to not decide which character gets more attention. Though it probably was a smart way to not have any infighting in the fandom between each character's stan group.

Bruh I just realized where is Barbera did they just ditch her on the Camelot ship???

And where are the other trolls that migrated at the end of trollhunters s3? They said something about new jersey but obviously Jim and the other main characters got on Camelot instead.... This feels like a plot hole

And we never learned the process of how changelings are made and bonded to humans and stuff. We just know it's super painful but I'm curious ffs!!!!

THE DONT THINK BECOME HERO SPEECH ALL SAID TOGETHER!!!

BRUH THEY REALLY HAD TO SHOW HIM GIVING BIRTH??????? WAS THAT AN ABSOLUTE MUST??????

Plus the main audience for this series is little children (the rating for the movie is literally TV-Y7) so even though my adult ass is not in the target audience, I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY WOULD MPREG AND ANAL BIRTH WOULD BE AN IMPORTANT THING TO 7 YEAR OLDS???? THIS IS A LITERAL FETISH HIDDEN IN KIDS CONTENT ITS ELSAGATE ALL OVER AGAIN Y'ALL 😭😭😭😭😭

Though it's probably hypocritical of me to think fetishes don't belong in kids tv when I've openly admitted to thirsting for strickler and namora

HUZZAH

NEW AMULET WAZ GOOD????

STAB THAT BITCH JIM

WAIT NO I SAID STAB NOT GET STABBED

Alright good job just missed the directions at first but you fixed it

SEVEN KIDS?????????

T O B Y ????????????

W A I T NO

N O

IS HE ACTUALLY

OH MY GOD THERE'S HOPE

NO THERE ISN'T

F U C K THIS SHIT THEY REALLY JUST HAD HIM TO BE BULLIED THEN KILLED

Y'ALL IM ACTUALLY CRYING THIS NEVER HAPPENS

I NEVER ACTUALLY GET SO EMOTIONAL OVER MEDIA THAT I CRY IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE AT THE END OF VOLTRON BUT AHHHHHHHH

W A I T

HE'S GONNA BE BROUGHT BACK?????

HOLD UP THEY'RE JUST GONNA BRING ALL THOSE DEAD PEOPLE BACK??????

WAIT IS HE

BLINKY CALLED HIM A SON

HOLD ON IS THIS GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER???????????

BRUH THEY REALLY JUST CAN'T END THE SERIES WITHOUT CLIFFHANGERS like there's always an open ending

TROLLHUNTER TOBY????? You know what forget the whole rants I had on how toby was written they just redeemed it all

And that's all! I'd rate it a 6.5/10 because it's definitely the weakest of all the sequels but still had amazing animation and some good plot points. It's just really hard to look over the bad stuff enough to rate it any higher.

[millepara]

waccha primagi episode 27 spoilers (or, me trying to make everyone siblings)

confirmation that Ryuume (Ruhme,......) is alive! or not dead at least! whew... I remember some ep that mentioned her was one I saw w subtitles bc I didn’t want to wait, and I was really surprised that they decided to say she was dead or sthg similar in the subs (they didn’t say anything of the sort in japanese).... this is why I am still not sold on “Ruhme” lmao

what’s euphoria!! we spent so long at the training camp that I can’t remember any of the other plot now, such as whether this has been mentioned before or not

also interesting to know that Huhgyuui is apparently a sleeper agent. idk, if I was Omega and trying to make magic users irrelevant I might suspect the magic user that’s always up in my business but maybe I’m just naturally more suited to industrial espionage (paranoid) than Mr. Omega

this Hyugihy/Inoru scene is so important to me. the magic pervert and the pathetic wet rag? exactly the kind of content I want from male priseries characters

oh! so the system usually matches up primagistas and partners at random, and Myamu and Matsuri are the exception to the rule! this feels like another thing that's been mentioned before and I forgot during the training camp, but it feels like new info to me right now so whatever. and then Ryuume also did that... and then their coord similarity.... and then Matsuri’s hair accessory having a direct line to Ryuume’s thoughts or whatever... what could the connection be? I want to say ‘sisters’ but that seems like a pretty strong connection to have absolutely no basis for yet. also they look nothing like each other.

Michihito?

even if this ep had none of the other plot stuff, this moment of mutual realization from Myamu and Matsuri is enough to make this a good one

omg little Hyui ( ;  ; ) small

Matsuri’s dad is Michihito. ok. but why does he look and sound like Omega and have an Omega-like logo on him!! wtf are Auru and Matsuri sisters!! wait, no, I was forgetting Inoru (he’s just so... forgettable). even if Auru is actually a robot and hasn’t actually existed for the same amt of time as Matsuri (something I’ve started considering again given the fact that she & Meganee the robot have a similar eye color--sometimes that’s enough you know) the timeline super wouldn’t make any sense bc Inoru is def human. it’s more likely that Michihito is Achihiko Omega’s brother/other relative, explaining the name similarity. so that could make Matsuri and Auru cousins, and in the prev ep that would mean that Matsuri’s grandfather actually is related to Auru! oh wow this is the exact kind of weird family shenanigans that pretty rhythm used to feature... I love primagi!! can’t wait to find out if any of this is remotely true or totally off base or what

rewatching to see that instant of Michihito screentime again and noticed that he has Matsuri’s hairpin cat shape in his pendant. hmmm

so nice to hear the better version of this song after so long spent listening to the full worse ver...

hmm, I was wondering if Michihito was going to have a 3-kanji name to echo Achihiko but it’s just a totally normal 道人. he looks and sounds different enough in this shot at the end, so. shrug

MY PRECIOUS ONE?? that sounds pretty gay, primagi!!