#'til all are one

[shaneyunfiltered]

YES THIS EXACTLY THIS

Not to mention that Orion never once said Sentinel doesn't deserve to die, nor does he even try to refute D-16 every time he furiously declares that Sentinel does deserve to die. Orion understands firsthand how D is feeling, he's just as outraged and betrayed by Sentinel's atrocious treachery and deceit, but unlike D, he tempers his feelings by putting an actual plan into action, putting true justice over blind rage and bloodlust. While D can only think about how he personally has been lied to and exploited by Sentinel his entire life and only sees the same suffering from other bots as an afterthought to take advantage of once he declares "one bot's strength over another," Orion's first thought isn't inward, it's outward, how Sentinel has has brutally exploited not just him, but every cogless miner in Iacon. Orion feels the intense need for justice not just for himself, but for all. And he puts that desire into action, once the power to transform his world is given to him.

All that being said, regarding Orion's immediate empathy with all bots and not just himself, regarding his unstoppable thirst for justice, and regarding the fact that he never once denies that Sentinel deserves to die? Orion completely agrees with that sentiment. The difference between him and D-16 is, he's not prioritizing Sentinel's well-deserved death over everything else. What Orion meant when he said "Rebuilding Iacon cannot begin with an execution" wasn't "You can't kill him, we have to prove we're better than him by not taking his life and showing mercy, we're supposed to be the good guys here and good guys never kill anyone" (which would be especially hypocritical since he killed several of Sentinel's guards in self-defense and as casualties of their revolution), what he meant was "I know he deserves to die, I want him dead too, we all do, but that's not important right now, we need to fuel people's hope for a better future, not fuel their rage, that will just end in disaster and lead to so many people dying when we can easily avoid that path."

Knowing Orion's newfound sense of leadership, before he even became Optimus Prime, he would have kept Sentinel prisoner for a limited amount of time before establishing a new, more equitable and just rule of Cybertronian law, and then giving Sentinel a fair trial where the court of the people would properly decide on his well-deserved death sentence. Sentinel's execution would then likely not be a spectacle, or at least it would be far less of a spectacle than D-16 ended up making it.

The point is, when it comes to executing tyrants as they fully deserve, it is not one person's decision to execute said tyrant themselves. Granted, there are some real-world exceptions depending on the level of severity of the despot's tyranny, or of the brutality of the oppressive establishment in the midst of the revolution.

But Sentinel and his reign was not one of those examples. He was fully exposed, fully dethroned, fully defeated, left with absolutely nothing. Orion and friends had truly won, their revolution was won. Cybertron was well on its way to a better society right then and there. But, for reasons we all already covered here, D-16 made it worse, and ended up starting a forever war that would devastate the entire planet and displace countless Cybertronians off-world, Autobot and Decepticon alike.

That's the real tragic beauty of Transformers, that the primary conflict fueling the premise of the entire franchise, compelling and engaging for generations to come as it is, could have all been easily avoided. The real tragedy is that Cybertron could have had everlasting peace, justice and harmony to last for countless lifetimes into the eons... had it not been for "the strength of one bot over another."

I don't feel like Orion trying to stop D-16 from killing Sentinel was because Orion felt like Sentinel deserved to live. I mean, he crashed an entire train into the guy just minutes before.

Imagine you have a chill best friend who is the voice of reason between the two of you, but he goes through a trauma that turns him into a roiling pit of rage. You keep reaching out to him and he keeps shoving you away. He is suddenly getting fusion cannon boners from beating the shit out of potential allies, and you have to beg him not to blow said ally's head off. Your friend frames this restraint as "the last time I will show mercy."

When Orion says "Don't be like Sentinel", I don't think he means "Um, have you considered that ACTUALLY this is not The Proper Way to change the government?", I think he means "You are losing yourself and it's scaring me and it's hurting you."

He was not trying to save Sentinel, he was trying to save D-16.

[alexsummanus]

'Til All Are One - Notes

I finally have my shit together! Kinda. This fic is archived on AO3. I'm trying to decide if it's worth posting it anywhere else. It has the highest Rating/Warnings combo on AO3 mostly for select scenes; the vast majority of it is vanilla. AO3's tagging system is a mess, so my tags got an overhaul today, and they'll probably need a future overhaul as more characters and pairings appear. I am leaving the comments/replies up so would-be readers can also check out the comments to get a feel for the content. Tag wrangling on Tumblr is constantly changing, and thanks to the sketchy status of how certain things get reported and blocked, I'm not going to put the actual fic content in these posts. I'll post the headers/tags/trigger warnings in the body of the post and link to the chapter on AO3.

Real places will exist in the fic (The United States, China, France, the Pacific Ocean, Minnesota, etc.) but I'm going to be replacing company/product/celebrity/politician names with "parody" names and pastiche placeholders. "The President of the United States" is pretty recognizable in any of the cartoons he's in, regardless if he's an actual caricature, because "old white guy in a suit" has historically been pretty representative. The feel of this fic is heavily inspired by the 80s G1 cartoon series, and they were great for making very generic but also very recognizable placeholder characters. When it comes to brands, I get a kick out of the anime habit of replacing brands with recognizable variants (7-Eleven becoming 8/11 or Burger King becoming Burger Knight) which also helps turn aside complaints about content. That said, relying on the crutch of "it's just a parody" or "it's a fake place" also let them get away with some absolutely gross and hurtful stereotypes, particularly when it came to people and places we weren't politically friendly to. There will be no "Abdul Fakkadi" or "Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya" in my fic - that kind of crap is better left as relics of history to be observed and learned from but not repeated. That's the big reason I'm keeping place names real - it forces both me as a writer as well as readers of the fic to be better informed and more thoughtful toward the people, cultures, history, and natural environments of those places. At its core, this is a Transformers fic that draws inspiration from most of the Transformers media but isn't directly connected to any one canon. It's intended to be standalone enough that readers don't have to really know much backstory or many of the characters to jump in. It's arguably a crossover (and is now tagged as such on AO3 now that there are G.I. Joe characters involved), but it's less about putting a spotlight on the additional series and more about pulling those characters in to the Transformers story. You're a Transformers fan who never saw the 80s G.I. Joe cartoon and never read any of the comics or the TF crossover comics? No problem! Just like with the Transformers canon, this fic will fill in gaps (and create its own canon) so you don't need to have an in-depth knowledge of them. Direct link to jump in without individual chapter summaries/warnings: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290120 :: 'Til All Are One by Alex Summanus

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: Multi, Other

Fandoms: Transformers, G.I. Joe

Relationships: Megatron/Kup, Flint/Lady Jaye (More to come)

Characters: A lot (large chunks of the cast from both series will eventually make their way into the fic)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Crossover

Language: English

[clarionglass]

here we go :) part one of three, updates to be released weekly!

---

sam says 4 (game master cinematic universe, part 3)

Ruby was at her mum's for a family dinner she couldn't miss on pain of death, apparently, and the Doctor was many things, but a family dinner kind of guy wasn't one of them—particularly when Carla had already slapped him once in the short time he'd known her. He thought he'd broken his streak of bad luck with mums, but… well, seemingly not. So he was companionless for a few hours, and while he could wait for her to get back, maybe catch up on his reading—what was the point of waiting when you had a time machine? 

He ran his hands over the TARDIS console, marvelling at her clean lines and metallic flourishes, the way that even now she felt brand new but familiar, and paused. He’d just pop off for a quick adventure, nothing too dangerous, but—where to go?

He could scan for a distress call nearby, and pitch in to help. He could drop in on Donna and Shaun and Rose, beautiful Rose, and see how they were all doing. Or he could just hit the randomiser button, and jump in feet first wherever he ended up.

He remembered a conversation from a long time ago, when he wore a different face, and his gorgeous TARDIS wore a face too, for the first and only time.

“You didn't always take me where I wanted to go.”

“No, but I always took you where you needed to go.”

He grinned. Who could resist an offer like that? He pressed the button and whooped as the time rotor spun into action, ready to see where the universe would take him.

---

Apparently, he was needed pretty close to where he already was. Earth, 2024. Huh. Same planet, same time—within a few months of where he’d left Ruby, even. The main thing that had changed was the location: he was now in the good old US of A. California, to be more specific, and Los Angeles to be more specific still. And to really narrow it down, the Doctor discovered as he poked his head out of the TARDIS doors, he was in… a broom closet. Not bad, as a parking spot—a bit squeezy, but out of the way. And as he poked his head out of that door, he could finally see he was in the backstage corridors of a studio of some kind. Film or TV, if he was to hazard a guess, it was a different vibe from Abbey Road.

With a shrug, he decided to go exploring.

It couldn’t have been more than a minute before a young woman wearing the full-black outfit, headset, and permanently stressed expression of a production assistant came running up to him.

“Are you the fill-in Sam organised?” she asked breathlessly, and honestly, seeing the look on her face, the Doctor didn’t have the heart(s) to tell her no. And really, what was the Doctor, if not a professional fill-in? This, this was why he had a randomiser button on the control panel, because whatever he was about to get himself into was going to be fun.

“Sure!”

“Oh, thank god,” sighed the production assistant, relief dawning across her face. “When Ally tested positive this morning, I thought we were sunk for the record, because we called around and we couldn’t get a hold of anyone. But then Sam said he could get someone in, and, you know, here you are, and just in time, so—ah, yeah, if you could follow me this way?”

Smiling all the way, the Doctor followed his guide through to hair and makeup, looking around as they went. The studio seemed to belong to a company called Dropout, according to the branding scattered around, and things seemed, at least on the surface, to be… well. Fine. He couldn't tell why he'd been brought here yet, which meant that when he found the reason, it was going to be particularly tangled. He couldn't wait! 

And then he looked back at his guide, still engulfed in a miasma of anxiety, and realised he'd been too busy looking for clues to notice the person right in front of him. 

“Hey, it's cool, you've found me,” he started with a gentle smile. “You can relax. Hi, I'm the Doctor. What's your name?”

“Oh!” she said, startled. “The Doctor, yeah, of course. Um, hi, I'm Kaylin. Look, sorry, it's just that I've been so busy this morning, I'm so distracted… Shit, and I would've completely forgotten to get your details too. There's paperwork to fill in, but you can do that later. Um, just for now, though, can I get your pronouns?”

The Doctor thought for a moment. “He/him, for now.”

Kaylin nodded, making a note on her phone. “Okay, cool! And do you have any socials?”

“Not me, babes,” he replied. “I'm hardly sitting down long enough to be able to update, you know?”

“On a day like this, I know exactly what you mean,” she said. “That's okay, Lou didn't have socials either for the longest time. Right, so if you go through there, the team will get you sorted, and once you're done, someone will take you up to the greenroom. All good?”

“All great,” the Doctor replied. Kaylin flashed him a quick, relieved smile, then hurried off.

Hair and makeup was a fairly quick process, the sound mixer fitted him with a microphone, and before too long, Kaylin was back to take him upstairs. 

“This is the greenroom,” she said, pushing the door open. “The rest of the cast for the episode are already here—they’re great guys, and they’ve both been on the show a lot, so they’ll be able to help if you’ve got questions. And if you need anything else, just come find me or any of the other PAs, okay?”

The Doctor nodded, beamed at Kaylin, and walked in.

---

The greenroom was small but comfortable, and its occupants, two men around the same age as the Doctor appeared, looked up as he entered.

“Oh, you’re new,” the taller of the pair said, clearly giving him the once-over.

The other sighed with a mixture of fondness and exasperation, just as clearly used to his friend’s antics.

“Hey, I’m Brennan,” he said, levering himself up to standing from his perch on a chair arm, and holding out a hand. “That’s Grant.”

The Doctor took it warmly. “The Doctor. Just passing through, and happy to help.”

Grant’s eyebrows quirked. “Doctor… something?” he prompted.

“Or is it just ‘the Doctor’?” Brennan asked.

“Just ‘the Doctor’,” the Time Lord confirmed cheerfully. “You’ll get used to it, everyone does.”

Grant didn’t look convinced, but—

“Copy that,” Brennan shrugged, and settled back on the arm of the chair, returning his gaze to the door.

Grant, in turn, looked at the Doctor and rolled his eyes in a clear expression of ‘no, I don’t know why he’s like this, either’.

“Okay,” the Doctor said after a moment of watching the watching. “I wasn’t going to ask, but now I think I have to. What’s up with the door?”

Brennan huffed a laugh. “Well, the last time there was one of those up—” he pointed to the Out of Order sign stuck to the bathroom door, “—we got locked in here for the game.”

“He’s paranoid,” Grant interjected.

“Well, yeah, maybe,” Brennan retorted. “Or just cautious. Because Sam’s been acting weird lately, and we’re coming up to the last few records of the season, so he’s probably planning something way out of the box for the finale. And the original cast was you, me and Beardsley, so…”

He shrugged one shoulder meaningfully, and Grant nodded, conceding both the point and the potential for chaos.

“So if Sam comes in to give us the briefing, rather than waiting til we’re on set,” Brennan continued, “or there’s anything else weird going on, I’m gonna know about it right from the beginning.”

He turned to the Doctor. “The only reason I'm not quizzing you is because I know for a fact Beardsley was genuinely scheduled for this, so you can't be a plant by the production team. No offence.”

“None taken,” the Doctor smiled. “That sort of thing happen often, does it?”

Grant and Brennan exchanged a look. 

“More than you'd think,” Grant answered with a grimace. 

“Alright,” the Doctor said slowly, then brightened. “So what is it we're actually doing?”

Grant gave him a disbelieving glance. “You don't know—?”

“Very last minute fill-in,” the Doctor said breezily. “But don't worry, I'm a quick study.”

“Well, you're not that much worse off than the rest of us,” Brennan said encouragingly. “You know about Game Changer, obviously, if you know Sam, and we only find out the rules of the game once we get on set. Hopefully,” he added, with a dark look back at the Out of Order sign. 

The Doctor nodded. No, he didn't know Sam, and he didn't know Game Changer, but he could work out the situation from context clues. This was a game show. And with the Toymaker banished, and Satellite Five not coming into existence for another 198000 years, give or take, he found himself smiling. Maybe third time would be the charm. 

“Mmm, hopefully they aren't going to throw you in the deep end,” Grant said. “Because Brennan might seem lovely now, but as soon as we get out there, he's a whore for points. He'll stab you in the back and won't even blink.”

Brennan barked with laughter. “Yeah, and you wouldn't?”

“Excuse you, I'm always a goddamn delight,” Grant replied, the very picture of injured dignity. 

“Oh, absolutely!” agreed a new voice. The Doctor turned to the now-open door to see a bearded man in a pinstriped suit smiling broadly. “That's why we keep inviting you back!”

Grant bowed sarcastically. “Why, thank you, Sam. Good to know I'm appreciated by someone here.”

“Always,” Sam replied, gently but firmly ending that particular path of the conversation. He scanned the room, and his eyes lit up when they landed on the Doctor. 

“Ah, you must be the Doctor!” he said with obvious delight, walking over with his hand outstretched. “I'm Sam—thanks for filling in for us, you've made sure we're going to have a good show. Seriously, it's a pleasure to have you here.”

“Aw, cheers!” the Doctor smiled, shaking the offered hand. “Glad I could help out, I'm really looking forward to this!”

“Well, great!” Sam exclaimed, then took a step back, regarding all three players in turn. “Now, folks, I'm just letting you know that we're just about ready to start the record, so if you can start heading down, that'd be great.”

Grant and Brennan nodded—Brennan, the Doctor noticed, with relief. 

“See you down there,” Sam said, smiling. “Have a great show, and—”

His eyes caught on the Doctor's for a second, twinkling. 

“Good luck.”

---

Backstage, the Doctor, Brennan and Grant were marshalled into podium order and given a final briefing from the crew. And then, with a thumbs-up from Kaylin, that was it.

Showtime.

“Get ready for a Game Changer!” came Sam's voice from onstage. “Tonight’s guests: he can shoot off a monologue with laser accuracy; it’s Brennan Lee Mulligan!”

Brennan, his back to the camera as the curtains opened, spun on his heel and, with a stone-cold expression, pointed finger guns straight down the barrel, before letting the facade crack open. “Hi!” he exclaimed, and walked over to the leftmost podium.

“It’s his first appearance, but he’s already on fire; it’s the Doctor!”

The Doctor leant against the archway to the stage and flashed a broad smile towards the camera, then in a few skipping steps, had bounded over to the next free podium. What the hell, why not make an entrance?

“And even in the toughest of mazes, you’ll always be able to find him; it’s Grant O’Brien!”

Grant dipped his lanky frame into an approximation of a curtsey, spreading his arms wide, then sauntered over to the closest podium with a grin.

“And your host, me!” Sam announced, a ring of manic white showing around his irises as he beamed down the barrel of the camera. “I’ve been here the whole time!”

“This,” he continued, pushing his microphone shut and stowing it in his jacket pocket, “is Game Changer, the only game show where the game changes every show. I am your host, Sam Reich!” 

As he said his name, he looked at his hands, front and back, as if he was pleasantly surprised to be himself, then gestured towards the three podiums.

“I am joined today by these three lovely contestants! Now, you understand how the game works.”

“Of course not,” Grant started. “You know we don't.”

“We can't, Sam, that's the whole point of the theatre you've set up here,” Brennan said over him. 

“Not yet,” was all the Doctor said, anticipation starting to drum a tattoo of excitement against the inside of his ribcage. 

“That’s right!” Sam said brightly, shooting finger guns at the camera. “Our players have no idea what game it is they’re about to play. The only way to learn is by playing. The only way to win is by learning, and the only way to begin is by beginning! So without further ado, let’s begin by giving each of our players fifty points.”

The Doctor, biding his time, watched the reactions of his fellow contestants. Grant looked at the front of his podium, checking the point total, and nodding approvingly when he saw that yes, it was sitting at a round fifty. Brennan, on the other hand, was starting to frown.

“Players, Sam says: touch your nose,” Sam began, and Brennan sighed the sigh of someone who wasn’t happy to be proved right.

“Oh, no,” he groaned. “Oh, you son of a bitch. Wasn’t one this season enough?”

He touched his nose anyway, as did the others, and Sam smiled encouragingly. “Sam says: touch your ear.”

When they all did, Sam nodded. “Touch your other ear.”

Everybody held still, fingers on the ears they had originally touched.

Sam beamed. “Easy, players, right?”

“You say that now,” Brennan said darkly. “Which makes it worse, because all you're doing is setting us up for failure.”

Sam gasped, pretending offence. “Would I do that?”

“Yes,” Brennan and Grant replied in unison, which drew a grin from the Doctor and set Sam off chuckling.

“And I'm not having it,” Brennan continued, leaning his elbows against his podium and pointing at Sam with the hand not touching his ear. “You better watch yourself, because I know how this game works, and you're not going to get one over on me.”

“Strong words, Brennan!” Sam said, clearly delighted by this response. “Okay, then, let's start making things a bit more interesting!”

The game continued as per Sam Says usual, some rounds done as a group and some individual. Points were won, sure, but lost slightly more frequently, and even the Doctor found he was having to concentrate to avoid getting caught in the host's traps. 

It was fun. Genuinely, it was like playing a game with friends, and the Doctor felt himself leaning into it. There wasn't any sign of danger—maybe there wasn't a mystery to solve at all, and the TARDIS just decided he needed a total break. 

Well, probably not. But the way things were going, he was able to let himself hope. 

“Alright, players,” Sam said a good few rounds in, just as pleasantly as he would start any other question, and the screen behind him dinged as a new prompt popped up. “Survive the death beam.”

For a second, everything was frozen perfectly still. 

And then came the crash, the explosive noise of heavy machinery moving relentlessly through a drywall set.

The Doctor was already moving. “Everyone down!”

“Duck!” Brennan yelled at the same time.

The two of them hit the ground within milliseconds of each other, but Grant was still paralysed in the face of the giant, science-fiction type laser cannon that had just ploughed through the wall. 

It whined ominously, screaming its way to fever pitch. And then a sharp pain in Grant’s ankle made him stagger, pitching forwards onto the carpet behind the podiums as the Doctor rolled away to avoid getting pinned.

“Sorry, babes,” the Doctor whispered. “But it was either kick you to get you down, or—”

A hideous metallic screech ripped through the air, and all three of them could feel the crackle of ozone as a beam of energy swept across what had, moments ago, been neck height.

“…Or that,” the Doctor finished with a grimace.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Grant breathed, suddenly very conscious of every inch of his 6’9 frame. “Thanks.”

“Well done, players!” Sam exclaimed delightedly from above them. “But… sorry, I didn’t say ‘Sam says’, so that’s a point off for everyone.”

“What the fuck!” Brennan snapped.

“Are you actually insane?” Grant demanded at the same time, his voice overlapping with Brennan’s.

In response, Sam just wheezed with laughter. “You can come back to your podiums,” he said, cheerfully ignoring them.

Nobody moved.

“Very good!” he acknowledged, and even without seeing his face, the grin was obvious in his voice. “Okay, Sam says: come back to your podiums.”

Although the words were innocuous, and his tone was just as light and breezy as usual, there was nevertheless an edge hiding just underneath the surface. And while the death beam loomed large in the minds of all three players, it was impossible to consider disobedience as an option.

Slowly, they stood, returning to their places. Now they had the time to look at it properly, the death beam was even more sinister, and Brennan and Grant both kept flicking nervous glances its way, ready to move if it looked like it was charging up again.

The Doctor, however, was focused purely on the man standing in front of them. Unbothered, Sam met his gaze like a challenge, a mischievous smile playing about his lips.

“Oh, you’ll love this one,” he said, and the screen changed. “Sam says, starting with Grant: say my name.”

Grant frowned in confusion, but answered quickly nonetheless. “Sam Reich?”

The man himself shrugged tolerantly, moving on. “Brennan?”

Brennan just stared at him coolly. “Do you take me for a fool?”

“Well caught, Brennan!” Sam said happily. “Sam says: say my name.”

“Sam,” Brennan replied, suspicion clear in his voice. “Samuel Dalton Reich.”

He nodded, still with a hint of indifference. “And lastly, Doctor.” His smile broadened. “Sam says: say my name.”

It was easy. Too easy. And as the Doctor looked into the eyes of the man calling himself Sam Reich, he felt his hearts stutter in recognition, because something had changed. He wasn’t hiding himself anymore, and while the face was different yet again, the Doctor would know the shape of that soul anywhere. It was impossible. It was inevitable.

“You can’t be,” he breathed. 

Sam smirked, leaning in across his podium. “Oh, but Doctor… I’ve been here the whole time,” he stage-whispered with a wink.

“He said you lost,” the Doctor said, shaking his head, looking wrong-footed for the first time that Brennan and Grant could recall. “You lost, and he trapped you.”

The other two watched, uncomprehending, but Sam just smiled, drumming his fingers against the podium with an audible beat, fast but distinct. Four taps, four taps, four taps. “I’m waiting.”

The Doctor took a slow, deep breath. Set his jaw. 

“Master.”

---

missed an installment of the game master cinematic universe?

original idea by @ace-whovian-neuroscientist: x

art by @northernfireart concept: x scissor sisters sketch: x sam and his doppelganger: x

writing by me (!) part one (escape the greenroom): x part two (deja vu): x part three (sam says 4): you are here!

[mulderscully]

It's just a game, but really, I'm betting on all three

[formulanni]

“Ya Know It Could Be Like This, Just Like This, Always."

Taglist: @st-leclerc @rubywingsracing @saviour-of-lord @three-days-time @emmasallowart

Sorry to everyone that follows that doesn’t fuck with ship art LOL

[starbuck]

Flint and Billy’s dynamic is really so much because you get the impression that Flint thinks about Billy 0.05% of the time at most, whereas Billy thinks about Flint 80% of the time at least.

And Billy also KNOWS that Flint doesn’t think about him and that’s what at least 20% of his thoughts about Flint are about.

[darkdragon768]

Various doodles of the Dorito Twins.

I just like to play with them like dolls and put them into situations.

[s0fter-sin]

the 141 recovering brainwashed!soap but he’s just a shell of his former self; never speaking, never moving without orders. he never even blinks; just stares straight ahead with his unnatural green eyes.

empty.

but ghost can't accept that.

price and gaz can't stand watching ghost torture himself day after day; visiting soap in his cell for hours at a time, trying anything he can think of to bring back his sergeant.

he shows him pictures of the 141 but soap thinks he's being given targets and moves to eliminate them before ghost stops him. he brings him his journal, tries to trigger his innermost thoughts and feelings he never shared with any of them, but after he reads it, soap summarises it like he's giving a mission briefing. impersonal.

cold.

it's late when ghost finally calls it; low and defeated after another long day of being stared at with eyes that don't see him. he isn't thinking when he pulls his mask off and harshly scrubs over his face, grinding his palm into his eye.

"don't worry, johnny; we're still fixin' each other's problems," he promises, little more than a whisper as he tries to summon the energy to leave johnny behind. again.

he pushes himself to his feet, his hand on the door handle when-

"what's my problem?"

ghost freezes, something like grief - something achingly closer to hope - chilling him. he slowly turns and though soap is still starring ahead, there's a faint light in his altered green eyes.

"the mask," he forces out. "take it off."

he knows there's no way to remove the mask - the muzzle - from his sergeant's face. it's too high-tech, even for them; the biometric scanner too advanced for any bypass they know of.

it's just another way he's failed him; bringing him home still bound in their enemy's chains.

soap- jolts; a sharp, almost painful looking flinch jerking his body.

"show my face?" and his voice has changed; no longer the monotone delivery that's haunted ghost's every waking moment.

it's smaller. uncertain. recollection of a memory half-destroyed.

"yes, johnny," he breathes.

soap moves unprompted for the first time since they found him; running his finger along the edge of the muzzle where his skin bulges from the pressure, half-visible scars hidden beneath the harsh metal.

"ugly," he murmurs.

ghost immediately shakes his head, almost stumbling back to the table; haphazardly throwing his mask on it. "quite the opposite," he insists.

it doesn't matter if he has no lower jaw left at all; johnny could never be ugly in his eyes.

agonisingly slowly, soap's eyes shift to the mask. he takes in the balaclava and hard shell skull like for all the times he's looked at it since his rescue, he never truly saw it. his lids fall in less of a blink and more stage curtains closing; slow, heavy, requiring effort and no small amount of strength to open once more

"good... to see you again..." he trails off, his hand shifting up to the top of his shaved head; nails digging unforgivingly into his scalp

"simon," ghost finishes for him; that horrid grieving hope tearing at his heart

soap's fingers flex and a drop of blood trails down his forehead, over the ridge of his nose to catch on the muzzle. "s-simon..."

his nails dig deeper, the drop falling to the table just to be followed by more and ghost aches to stop him but he's terrified to interrupt him. terrified to lose him now when he's so close to something.

soap's bloodied nails scratch down the crown of his head, following the line of his stolen mohawk until they come to rest on the back of the muzzle and ghost's heart drops.

they can’t get it off.

they can't get it off and he doesn't know how to explain that to soap; doesn't know if he can stomach watching soap pull at the monstrosity holding him captive, the inevitable bloodbath as the edges cut into his skin.

"show my face," soap repeats.

"johnny..." ghost begins weakly, reaching out to him but he doesn't know how, doesn't know if he even should-

the muzzle clatters onto the table.

the biometrics they couldn't bypass, the fingerprint they needed that they were so sure belonged to makarov.

it belonged to soap.

how cruel to torture him with freedom he didn't understand he could take; didn't even understand he could want.

just the kind of sick game makarov loves.

ghost doesn't know what's louder; his heart pounding in his ears or the long, uninhibited breath soap takes.

his eyes fall shut as he leans his head back with it, the blood still dripping down his face as he straightens through his exhale. his lower jaw is a mess of scars where he fought against the previous iterations of the muzzle, the corners of his lips cut through and cracked.

but the green in his eyes is duller; that light sparking brighter as blue struggles to break through the glow.

ghost's never seen anything so beautiful.

"good to see you again, johnny."

[malo-mart]

The magic of Majoras Mask is trying to comfort characters who are grieving their future through little acts of kindness. Like, the simple but layered juxtaposition of the joy of marching the chicks around on the third day to a little ocarina tune while the game vibrates every few minutes to signify that the moon is closer and closer to falling....

[vampyrmar]

sweet baby angel

[sainz100]

[another-lost-mc]

MC smiling through the brothers' hastily prepared Thanksgiving celebrations as the House of Lamentation's dining room is decorated floor to ceiling with autumn colours and all your closest friends are invited.

There's a staggering amount of baked and steamed and mashed Devildom veggies on the table, and someone is slapping Beel's hand away while Lucifer carves a giant Devildom roast at the head of the table.

Luke chatters endlessly about the pies he and Barbatos baked together, and Diavolo passes around bottles of Demonus freely. The feast is eaten first, and then plates of dessert are eaten next, and in the satisfied silence that follows someone suggests a toast.

The toast ends up being something like a little thank-you speech, and because none of them will be outdone, you end up listening to fifteen variations of the same speech where each of them offers you genuine compliments for things you do for them and how happy they are to know you. Even though part of you wants to squirm with embarrassment from the attention, trying not to shrug off what feels like undeserved praise, you still can't help but feel immense gratitude because they did all this for you.

(MC, smiling through the brothers' hastily prepared Thanksgiving celebrations, not wanting to ruin the mood by telling them that where you come from, Thanksgiving was actually last month.)

[shakingparadigm]

modern college au where model ivan comes home late after photoshoots and listens to till's demos for hours on repeat to wallow in his agony (the songs are always for mizi)

[hballegro]

"It's more than something. It's everything."

s8e11 "Life Time"

painted screenshot. cannot give a time estimate, i lost track long ago. still gouache brush, my beloved, with blur tools to fade edges and so on

i have to go to the zoo now and will be making the version with the clock later [i cannot express how long ive been battling with hawkeye's face, gamers]. background went very fast like i said it would lol

version 2 [as in, w/ clock] will probably be done later today, and i will edit this and add it when that happens [and prolly make a separate post too, for celebration purposes, and will link them]. i will also compile progress pics for that post. they are terrifying early on lmao

"A lot of very touching songs came outta that war" previous painting

"It was pink, and perfect, and I tossed it in the scrap bucket" previous painting

everyone say thank you to bj to being a perfect painting subject today he was very polite and he looks about how i wanted unlike SOME PEOPLE

that was me to my sibling last night, and i stayed up til 1:10ish and still didnt finish the final pass over hawkeye's eye. everything else took like 5ish minutes

also everyone say thank you to margaret and nurse kellye for also being perfect and lovely and pleasant to work with

photo used blatantly stolen from this post thank you again @remyfire i owe you my life

update edit;

clock back

[mollysunder]

The fact that Jinx killed Silco, or that he was specifically killed at all, is so irrelevant to s2 (for everyone including Sevika) is so weird to me. If I never watched Arcane and randomly started from s2, or if some marathon came on and I made it to the start of s2, I wouldn't even remember that Jinx killed him.

To be fair, Jinx did straight up tell Smeech and they included Silco's death in that awkward black and white clip show recap of silco in s1, but it's just so completely inconsequential to the plot. Actually, it's also a bit confusing because despite knowing Silco's dead, Caitlyn still lists one of her objectives as neutralizing "agents still loyal to Silco". Do these supposed loyal "agents" even know he's dead? Do they know Jinx killed him? Why didn't Caitlyn mention any of this to the general public?

Tldr: In s2 it's easy to forget that Jinx killed Silco because it doesn't matter to anyone, not her allies or enemies. If I was a casual viewer, like I watched it s1 during the premiere and came back post-hiatus to watch s2 without a rewatch and you quizzed about how Silco died, I'd probably get that answer wrong.

[tsuchinokoroyale]

Happy new years… let’s stay hydrated together ✨