#ALL THE stuff coming out from PAX is so cool

[chloesimaginationthings]

New FNAF clown Jackie from secret of the Mimic!!

[hollowtones]

my month-late PAX West post (& a catalogue of some things I saw and did and bought in September / late August)

PAX West was very fun this year. It was my first ever PAX and it was my first convention at all in maybe a decade. Any excuse to see friends is a good one & I love hanging out with the RTVS crew whenever I have the time and money to travel. ^_^ I even got to see some friends I've never seen in person before!!! (Thank you to Jill and Evan for the "Petal Crash" pin & thank you to Taxi for stealing my name tag by accident.)

I am very shy, and I have very severe social anxiety that causes me a lot of problems in my day-to-day life, so I almost didn't go to the RTVS meetup. People there were very sweet, though, so I'm glad I did. It feels very heartening to have people come up to you and tell you what the things you've made have meant to them. It was very hard to not cry. LOL

If you stopped by to say hi, thank you very much. I've been thinking about it through all of September and smiling a lot about it. ^_^

The rest of this post is largely pics of things Puzz and I picked up for ourselves. (And a little bit of talking about some other things we did.) I thought it would be fun to catalogue them. I tend to be a little thrifty, so I got to splurge on my wife. LOL

These were mostly things we got for Puzz because I didn't want to worry about lugging things home in a suitcase. But she keeps telling me they're our things, which makes me smile every time I think about it. Some of the pins are for me. I'd like to put them on my backpack... Hopefully they don't fall off. Jackie and Dodogama are friends.

The "Chicory" bag is a bit of a funny story. Puzz and I saw the "Beastieball" booth in the corner of the indie section. Very fun demo. Very cute booth. They have cool merch! I thought I saw Lena Raine working the booth, and I got really shy & nervous about making a poor impression, so I just kind of hid behind my partner. (I wish I had said hi, in retrospect... but we live and we learn...) So we just kind of shuffle off to the merch desk and talk to a very nice man there while we pick up some things. I work up the guts to say that I really like these games and that they mean a lot to me!! The guy says, well thank you, that means a lot to me and the team. Wow! Real swell guy, I'm thinking to myself. A day or two later Puzz and I are out to lunch with some friends and I just suddenly go eyes wide & mouth agape because I put two and two together in my head and realize Oh holy shit that was Greg Lobanov wasn't it. LOL

Puzz found a cheap copy of "999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors" for the DS at a retro game store's pop-up. They also had "A Bug's Life" for Game Boy Colour and a strategy guide for "Gex 3", both of which I wish I had picked up.

Mr. Basculin was a gift from Jake. Good news! Mr. Basculin is still alive.

This is all stuff that was given to me as gifts. (Aside from the con badges. They make you pay for those.) You've probably already seen the Bibi that Jake made me. "Chicken Run" was also from him. "Zapper" was from Puzz and the Gumby game (& the Bad Boe sticker) was from Scorpy. These games fuckin suck asshole!!!!!!!!! I'm obsessed with them & I'll cherish them forever. I also got a little rock and a human dog keychain.

I think Scorpy said a fan gave this to him at PAX East to pass to me eventually. I'm having a hard time reading the @ on it, but on the off-chance you see this: thank you so much. Every time I think about it I get a little teary-eyed. I want to get myself a little picture frame for it. (This is the first time someone's given me fanart like this before, and it made me very emotional. LOL)

Puzz and I only got 2-day passes for PAX, so we spent the rest of our time in Seattle hanging out with friends and seeing the sights. I don't feel like digging all the photos out right now, but we went to a really fucking nice jazz club (Dimitriou's Jazz Alley - great ambience, really good food, we saw Keiko Matsui live which was life-changing), we visited MoPOP (I hadn't been in years! It was alright! Puzz had some capital-t Thoughts about the whole place which was fun to listen to!), we rode the trains, I got a big bag of Dicks, we walked around downtown. There was this really nice coffee shop that I keep having dreams about, so I hope I can go back to Seattle soon. (Or at least eventually, next year.) Then we went to Portland for a day to say hi to a friend because the state was nearby.

Then we went back to Puzz's place in California. Then there was a major heatwave & a bunch of wildfires nearby... So we didn't have the chance to get out much in September. But that's okay. We've both been tired lately & I think we both badly needed some dedicated Not Doing Things time. It's just a shame that it was enforced by Dangerous Weather Conditions.

We got to visit some local friends and I got to try out more Bog-Standard Mediocre American Food. (Dunkin Donuts is just Tim Hortons. Olive Garden is kind of scary but the salad was really good and the breadsticks were fine. I had a middling hamburger from Jack In The Box tonight. Their milkshake was very good. I'm sure I'm forgetting others.) I went to a Macy's for the first time and the layout of the store made me have a panic attack. We went for nice walks and saw lots of nice critters and plants. I got to swim! I watched a mediocre PlayStation presentation! I turned 30 years old! Puzz took me to a very fancy and really nice Italian place for my birthday, in case you were worried that I was only eating garbage here. LOL

We got a lot of books.

Maybe too many. Also a Miles Davis vinyl for myself & some Gunpla as an early birthday gift for Puzz. And also the cookbook was a gift from family. But I'm very excited to tuck into more of these, hopefully soon. Some were for me and some were for Puzz but knowing us we're going to go "hey, I liked this one, you check it out" or "hey, I didn't like this one, but maybe you will" for a lot of them. I'm gonna start with "Annihilation" and the game essays book. ("House of Leaves" is a second copy for us, because my copy was originally Puzz's and I wanted them to be able to read it too.) I don't have room in my bags for much more than what I came here with, so we're gonna ship some of the books to each other when we're done reading.

It's been a very nice month... I feel very thankful to have a life full of love like this. I don't think I have anything else to add to this post! Thanks for reading.

[in1-nutshell]

Hello! Sorry I’ve been putting a lot of asks. You can feel free to push this one later. I just wanted to submit this ask while I still remembered this idea. A while ago I read your post about Optimus Prime with a daughter who was his exact opposite, and I loved that one! So may I request a similar idea with TFP Ratchet? Like TFP Ratchet with a daughter bot Buddy who is his exact opposite. Like who had a gentle and sweet and that “Does it hurt here? Aww, you poor thing” “Hey you are doing so much better! Aww! Great job” type of classic cartoon nurse personality, as well as the classic “I love these little creatures! Can we keep them? Father pleaaase?” type of little girl personality (probably to the humans, to Ratchet’s dismey). And she also looked up to Arcee a lot. Like, A LOT! Her absolute idol! she would want to copy every way Arcee talk and behave (even the bad examples)(much to Ratchet’s dismay) and copying the way Arcee battle too. And thanks to Arcee she now wished she could join the battlefield and do all these wonderful cool and dangerous things too! (Once again, much to Ratchet’s dismey)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! Give Ratchet a child!

Hope you enjoy!

Ratchet with a daughter who has the exact opposite personality to his own

SFW, Platonic, Familial, Cybertronain reader

TFP

Buddy was originally a sparkling from a dear friend of Ratchet and Orion Pax’s.

Their caregiver was an extremely pacifistic bot who wanted nothing more than peace on Cybertron. But once in a while the caregiver would join a rally with Pax and Ratchet. They believed in change and agreed something needed to be done.

They sadly passed away from natural causes one day when they dropped Buddy off at his clinic to pick up some rust sticks for Buddy. The two friends were devastated hearing the news while the sparkling was happily playing around with her toys.

Their caregiver had placed Ratchet as the primary care giver if anything should happen, Orion was to be the sparkling godparent.

Ratchet took on the new duties immediately.

It was the least he could do for his friend and the sparkling.

Ratchet made sure to let the sparkling know what happened to their caregiver when they were older.

“And that’s the story.”--Ratchet

“So, they’re really gone then?”--Buddy

“Yes…”--Ratchet

“…Does that mean I can’t tell bots you’re my caregiver?”--Buddy

“What?”--Ratchet

“I mean, you take care of me, you feed me, you help me with stuff I don’t know, you helped me choosing my alt mode, you let me rant when things get too much, and you love me… right?”--Buddy

“Of course, I do!”--Ratchet

“Then?”--Buddy

“…I am…I…”--Ratchet

“You don’t have to say it if you aren’t ready. I love you, you take your time.”--Buddy

“… I love you, Buddy. I love you, my sparkling.”--Ratchet

“To Luna 1 and back?”--Buddy

“To Luna 1 and back.”--Ratchet

The sparkling grew up with a peculiar personality contrasting his.

She wasn’t as sarcastic as he was. If fact it was rare to hear her say sarcastic things. Buddy rather expressed herself open when she could.

“Hi Arcee! Hi Cliffjumper! How was patrol this evening?”--Buddy

“It was fine. Not a Con in sight.”--Arcee

“And too bad too. We would have knocked out their processors out right away!”--Cliffjumper

“Any wounds today? Dents? Dinges? Scratches?”--Buddy

“Yeah I think some of the gravel clipped my servos.”--Cliffjumper

“Oh! Let me!—”--Buddy

“He was joking Buddy.”—Arcee

“Oh…”--Buddy

“…But I do have some cool looking rocks to add to your collection.”—Cliffjumper

“Really! Awesome! Let me go get my collection right now!”—Buddy

“Nice save.”--Arcee

“No thanks to you ‘Cee.”--Cliffjumper

She was a very sensitive individual and extremely empathetic in nature. Just like her former Caregiver, a near perfect image of them.

That being said, Buddy did pick up some of Ratchet’s habits.

Sleep schedule? Never heard of them.

Perfectionist? Absolutely.

Think highly of a certain bot? Yes, but not the same one.

Buddy cleaning some of the medical equipment.

Bumblebee coming out from his habsuite.

“Beep beop! (Morning Buddy!)”--Bumblebee

“Morning? But it was just—oh! God morning Bumblebee!”--Buddy

“Beep… bep bep bop? (Buddy… how many hours did you sleep?)”--Bumblebee

“… So, are you going to pick up Raf today?”--Buddy

“Bep beep (Like Daughter like Father)”--Bumblebee

“Hey!”--Buddy

“Bep bop? (Am I wrong?)”--Bumblebee

“…No…”--Buddy

Buddy stayed by Ratchet’s side through the thick and thin as his nurse. It seemed like the best role for Buddy to play. They did get taught by the very best anyways.

The kids for the longest time thought that Buddy was simply a student to Ratchet.

“Hey Buddy, do you have parents?”--Miko

“Miko!”--Jack

“What it’s a valid question.”--Miko

“Umm… I’m confused. You know him already.”--Buddy

“Wait your parent is one of the bots on the Team?”--Raf

“Yes? I thought you knew already.”--Buddy

“Who is it! I bet its Optimus!”--Miko

“Actually, he is my godparent as you’d say it on Earth.”--Buddy

“Then who?”--Raf

“Ratchet.”--Buddy

“RATCHET!?”--Miko

“What’s wrong?!”--Ratchet

“You’re Buddy’s dad!?”--Miko

“Yes? I thought you knew already.”--Ratchet

“That’s what I said!”--Buddy

“But how—I want a Cybertronain DNA test, cause there is no way sweety Buddy is related to salty you.”--Miko

“I’m actually adopted Miko.”--Buddy

“Oh?”--Miko

“But that doesn’t mean you aren’t my daughter, Buddy.”--ratchet

“And that doesn’t mean you aren’t my father Ratchet.”--Buddy

“Wow…”--Jack

“This is too cute I’m going to go puke.”--Miko

“And you ruined it.”--Jack

This clears a lot of things for the humans.

Buddy was the eldest of the youngest group on Team Prime. She took her job as big sister seriously with Bumblebee and later with Smokescreen. She made sure to always be there for them in any way she could figure out was necessary.

The two bots enjoyed having someone have their backs and fixing them when they came back from patrol.

“Hey Smokes’, you’re doing amazing there.”--Buddy

“Really?”--Smokescreen

“Yeah, just a bit longer and you’ll be on your pedes in no time!”--Buddy

“Yeah!”--Smokescreen

“Then you can start the physical therapy.”--Buddy

“Can I skip that?”--Smokescreen

“Did I studder?”—Buddy

CRUNCH!

Bumblebee accidentally crushed a tool with his pede.

“Bee… Honeybee… I needed that.”--Buddy

Ratchet on the other side of the base.

“…I suddenly feel proud for some reason?”--Ratchet

Like Ratchet Buddy looked up to certain teammates.

While Ratchet looked up to Optimus, Buddy looked up to Arcee.

Buddy saw a hero and great friend in Arcee.

A part of Buddy, like Ratchet, wished she could do more to help the team. When she saw Arcee sparring and hearing the retellings of her stories, she could only imagine doing the stuff Arcee could do.

“Then what happened?”--Buddy

“That’s when me and Cliff went into the groundbridge while Shockwave shot at us with his canon.”--Arcee

“I remember hearing that cliff was knocked unconscious when he went into the portal. What did you do to Shockwave?”—Buddy

“Are you sure you want to know?”--Arcee

“Absolutely!”--Buddy

“Heh…I shot the Cyclops right in that giant optic of his! He fell straight back to Cybertron with a BANG!”--Arcee

“COOL!”—Buddy

“Please don’t influence my child.”--Ratchet

“No promises.”--Arcee

“Yeah, no promises!”--Buddy

“…Maybe you were right…”--Arcee

Ratchet just hopes that Buddy doesn’t follow Arcee exactly.

He is too old for these jump scares.

And its not like Buddy would go into battle with nothing more than their med kit for Arcee alone, right?

Right?

[tcfactory]

Shameless Self Promotion Saturday Sunday Monday!

We make a post and show off what cool stuff we created over the past week. Art, Screenshots, writing (anything from a questionnaire about your OC to the 100K epos...) anything we do is worth to be seen and to be promoted. And by tagging people, commenting, and reblogging, we share the love and boost ourselves and other's confidence.

tagged by @flushwithdarlings

tagging: @mysteryteacup and anyone who might want to do this

I'm cheating a little bit, because I have finished Sky Ballet last week, but it's a pretty heavy two-shot that's technically a companion fic to a (currently) much lighter fic I have been working on, so I'll pretend that it counts.

minor shoutout to @decepticonsensual, because I found the beginnings of this story in a dream last year when I was in writing burnout and, not having any Transformers friends, I sent a kinda random ask to the coolest TF person I know of with the cliffnotes of the basic premise and they were really nice about it, so. Here's to you, for having been an Inspiration with your stories and meta posts and analyses ever since I found this fandom. Keep being awesome!

It's my personal continuity soup where Orion Pax (who is a Good Person and a Decent Cop) gets a gruesome look at the systemic Horrors that plague his world, but due to his position in said system he can't see how deep it all goes and doesn't have the tools to make things better even when he tries.

Or: Cybertron's society is built on pain and suffering from the lowest bloodsport to the pinnacle of performing arts. It takes Optimus too long to realize that this is by design.

(Warning for canon typical violence, background character death, slavery, implied nonconsensual body modification... if you've read anything from the IDW run this is the standard issue Horrors)

----------

Sky Ballet

Pax considers himself a good mech and a decent cop. An honest worker (he never shuns responsibility, even when it means drudging through boring patrols on an overcast day), someone looking out for the vulnerable (even when that means looking the other way while a hungry mech swipes a cube) and doing his best for the less fortunate (he can’t reject the shanix the crooked senators slip into his hands, not if he wants to still be a cop tomorrow or the day after, but money likes moving and it’s easy enough to let it slip into a donation box here and a grasping hand there). He can’t show support to Megatron’s revolutionaries, not openly, but when another demand comes by to investigate them he can do things by the book, which might as well be the same thing. He’s not sure that they are utilizing only peaceful means to protest as Megatron claims, but if there is violence happening then they are doing a very good job of making it happen somewhere Orion can’t see, hear, or connect it back to them through wild conjuncture, which is good enough.

After the three-ring circus that was Zeta Prime’s sentencing (long, drawn out and completely pointless, considering the mech was already dead), he thinks that the oppressed underclass deserves to be a little angry and break a building or three.

Still, being friendly with the Iacon elite allows Orion to occasionally overhear a few rumors that don’t make it out of the highest circles of society and one of those rumors is very relevant to Megatron and his mechs. Relevant enough that for the first time ever, Orion braves visiting the gladiator in the heart of his realm, the infamous Pits of Kaon.

The arena is situated in the best part of Kaon, the high rise where the air is cleanest, the noxious fumes drifting from the lower city dispersed by the heavy turbines that keep the skybound city of Vos hovering just a little to the east. What could illustrate better the benefits of the place than the fact that Vos’ sacred national performing venue, the venerated Vosian Sky Ballet was situated right above the bloodied sands of the arena? Indeed it’s not uncommon for the wealthiest patrons of the Pits to take to the sky in gilded private transports and rise right up to the lavishly decorated venue of the ballet after the gladiatorial matches are concluded for the day, to feed their intellect after slaking their thirst for blood.

Orion Pax has, naturally, known this already. He's good at his job when he wants to be, so he even had the privilege of watching the Sky Ballet once or twice, although he only ever arrived strictly from the direction of Vos. It’s considered improper to make upstanding Iaconi folk approach from the direction of Kaon, even if the upper city isn't that much worse than the part of Iacon Orion lives in.

He still isn’t prepared to see the glittering dots of gem-colored jets dance high up in the sky as he walks down the aisles towards the arena floor. Afternoon is the time for practice, both above and below, and he finds Megatron going through a series of stretches near the front of the fighting floor. This time slot is clearly reserved for the champions, as the only other mechs occupying the chalky sands are Soundwave and his minicons, but unlike Megatron, the lanky gladiator doesn’t seem to take training too seriously. He moves his data cables as if they were slithering snakes, wiggling and snapping at Rumble and Frenzy, tickling them until they dissolve into staticky laughter when he catches them.

Orion watches them play for a while until Megatron finishes his warmups, notices him loitering in the stands and waves him down to their own level.

“Officer Pax. What do we owe the pleasure of your presence?” Megatron is cordial as ever when they are out in public, never cold enough to be inhospitable and never warm enough that an ambitious snoop could misconstrue their interaction as friendly. It takes Orion by surprise to be treated so distantly, but before he can start feeling upset over it he realizes that Megatron has no way to know that he comes as a friend today and not as a cop haranguing them.

“I come as just Orion today.” Megatron inclines his head slightly, accepting this claim for now. “I didn't mean to intrude on your time, but I have heard something that might be important.”

The jets on high do a maneuver so close to the ground that Orion can see their glittering cockpits, their engines drowning out all sound. When they pass Megatron gestures for him to continue.

“Go on. I don't have all day.”

“Is it true that you made it impossible for Senator Ratbat to buy a ticket to the arena?” It’s becoming something of a circus, if it is indeed true. Apparently Senator Ratbat has been fruitlessly trying to get a ticket to the showmatches for vorns now, but no matter how much shanix he offers, what channels he goes through or which swindler he threatens, the ticket refuses to materialize. If someone tries to gift him one, it gets deleted during transfer. If he shows up in person, every ticket is already sold out for that event, even for the standing spots where you can’t really see anything anyway, and no mech is willing to give up their spot no matter how he threatens or bribes them. Just last orn he tried to sneak into a match in disguise, only to be mistaken for a criminal and taken away in handcuffs right from the entrance. It has become so ridiculous that the crowds are starting to think it’s just part of the kayfabe, some staged event to drive up interest.

Orion, in the privacy of his processor, thinks that it must be one of Soundwave’s more obscure hobbies to bully the Senator. Some of the incidents - like the one where Ratbat paid an exorbitant amount of money to buy out every seat in the arena for a whole week, only for the purchase to turn into one ticket to the cheapest seat in a grindcore concert - are too much like his sense of humor to be coincidental.

Megatron answers something, but his voice is drowned out by the shriek of jet engines. What tips Orion off that this isn’t just the usual aerial stunt is when the minicons run to seek shelter under Soundwave’s broad wing-arms, just a moment before a seeker comes crashing into the sands in a jumbled heap of limbs, their vents belching smoke.

Orion jumps and twitches towards the mech, his crisis protocols urging him to help, but he runs straight into Megatron’s upheld arm. “Don’t bother, it’s already dead.”

“How can you know that?! We need to check! There might still be a way to-” He falls silent when a claw is held up in front of his face in the common gesture asking him to wait a moment.

“Is it Starscream?” Megatron doesn’t even look back, his voice bored as he calls out to the minicons.

“Nah, this one’s green.” Rumble transforms one arm into a piledriver and with an ingenious move knocks a whole bunch of sand over the seeker to stop its engines from burning. “Do you want it?”

“Frag no. Get rid of it like usual. I don’t want any trash in my arena tonight.” Megatron waits for their cheerful confirmation before he turns his attention back to Orion. “As I was saying…”

Orion can hear Megatron’s words, but they don’t compute. His eyes are still glued to the dead seeker, now held up in Soundwave’s cables as he examines it - her - for parts that are not too burnt to be repurposed. As he watches in horror, the gladiator very deliberately rips off the head and hands it to Frenzy. After a moment, he does the same with the left arm and hands it off to Ravage, who comes slinking out of the shadows. After longer consideration, he cuts open the partially melted abdominal glass and pulls out the slightly scorched t-cog and a mostly intact fuel pump and carefully places them in Rumble’s arms. Following a silent command, the minicons go running off to take their bounty to Hook and whatever other hacksaw is on medic duty this cycle and Soundwave starts dragging the greying cadaver towards the incinerator they use to dispose of dead gladiators that are too damaged to be worth salvaging. It’s an old thing, possibly as old as the Pits themselves, and it whines and gurgles like a dying turbofox when it’s in operation.

Orion realizes with a start that Megatron is clicking his claws at him again when the ringing of the incinerator clears from his audials. “Get yourself together, Pax. One would think this is the first time you see a dead mech.”

“Does this happen often?” Orion asks weakly. Megatron, coming to the conclusion that he won’t be useful to him until he rallies himself a bit, starts dragging him off to the edge of the stands.

“All the damn time. It’s a quiet orn where we only get a dozen of the stupid things dropping on our heads.” Megatron presses Orion to sit on a low bench, produces a badly dented cup from somewhere and pours him a generous helping of industrial grade from his internal refinery, which is possibly the only source of energon in the entire complex that’s guaranteed not to be contaminated.

Orion, still feeling numb, drinks up when the cup is shoved into his hand. It tastes vaguely like chalk. “Your internal filters need to be changed,” he notes absently.

“A lot of my components need to be changed. Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Ratbat plans to sneak into the audience tonight as Chief Justice Subparhelion’s plus one,” Orion says, because there’s no way Megatron knew that. He came here specifically to tell him about it. He figured that whatever the reason why Soundwave goes to such lengths to keep Ratbat out, it must be at least a little important.

“Wonderful. Heard that, Soundwave?” Megatron calls over his shoulder. Soundwave keeps standing at the incinerator where he disposed of the dead seeker, showing no outward sign that he heard, but that’s just how the mech is. Megatron turns back to Orion, so whatever Soundwave told him was satisfying as an answer. “So much for not having any trash in my arena tonight. We will need to redo the entire schedu-”

His words are drowned out by the loud whine of the incinerator and Orion looks up just in time to see Soundwave pull one of his arms - melted and flattened, its servos and circuitry completely fused together - from the machine. “Megatron, Soundwave has- !”

Megatron, clearly done with his wandering attention, grabs Orion’s face and turns it back towards himself, just as calm as he was a klik before.

“Well, what else was he supposed to do? He can’t be seen up here or Ratbat will repossess him and the only way he can sit out the circus tonight is if he’s too damaged to fight or perform.”

Orion Pax watches in horror as Soundwave stiffly walks towards the barracks, flashing his visor at them in acknowledgment as he passes by. “Ratbat is the representative Senator of Iacon; the citystate doesn’t allow for slaves. He can’t take Soundwave.”

Megatron huffs, coincidentally displacing a fine cloud of chalk dust from his vents.“Soundwave isn’t a slave. You need to be considered a sentient mech by Iaconi standards to be considered a slave, which he is not. He’s ‘specialized equipment’.”

Orion stares at him, uncomprehending. The only three things required to be considered a sentient mech in Iacon are a spark (which he knows Soundwave has), a t-cog (he has seen Soundwave transform before) and- “Megatron. Are you telling me that Soundwave doesn’t have a brain module?!”

Megatron winces at the sudden audial-splitting volume and catches the cup as it falls from Orion’s numb fingers. “Not so loud… the law stipulates that sentience requires at least 68% of one intact brain module capable of emotional processing. Soundwave has seventeen partial brain modules split along his nervous core, all of them butchered the exact amount to maximize processing power without fulfilling the criteria for sentience and none of which are independently capable of processing emotions. When he’s not being lazy and piggybacking off somebody else’s hardware, he simulates a virtual copy of the standard emotional processing framework and filters his emotional experiences through that.” Megatron shrugs, like this entire thing isn’t complete madness. Like it’s a normal thing that his Amica’s self is made up of seventeen mangled brain modules stapled together. “He falls so far outside of the measurement criteria that even Swindle couldn’t get him an exemption. If he was a slave, at least he could be the official property of the Pits and I wouldn’t have to worry about Ratbat snatching him away.”

Orion thinks he makes a sound of distress as his processors struggle to comprehend that Soundwave is in such a precarious position that he would be safer as a slave. Megatron misunderstands his distress and pats him over the shoulder.

“We are grateful for this information, Pax. We owe you one.”

Orion doesn’t want their gratitude. He doesn’t want them to owe him. He wants the world to go back to the way it was the day before, when it still made sense.

He’s still so hung up on Soundwave by the time he leaves that he forgets to ask about the dead seekers falling from the sky.

----------

Senator Ratbat makes headlines the next day because the overworked transport he shares with the Chief Justice falls asleep on the highway and crashes into the river at full speed just outside Velocitron. Orion listens to his colleagues gossip about the Senator being cursed as he files away the new revolutionary pamphlets demanding the right to unionize to prevent more accidents like this, and thinks about how many contingencies one must need to protect someone who’s not recognized as a person. It’s a shame, he can’t help but think, that only the Senator survived. He liked Chief Justice Subparhelion.

---------

The next time Orion visits the arena Megatron is absent, but he finds Soundwave basking in the sun, his solar panels spread out all around him. His arm is brand new, the paint a shade off from the rest of his plating. Perhaps a little grateful for that tip about Senator Ratbat, Soundwave tolerantly throws him around for a bit under the guise of sparring (as opposed to intolerantly ripping his limbs off or hacking his brain) before he opens up a quadruple-encrypted comm channel and sends over one lonely ‘?’.

This, at least, is something Orion is already familiar with and doesn’t hesitate to ask. “Can you tell me what that was about last time? The thing with the seeker.” He knows better than to ask about Soundwave himself. He feels much too attached to his limbs to risk it.

Soundwave tilts his head to the side, as if considering the question, then proceeds to throw Orion around for another 20 kliks just for fun before he sends over an encrypted file.

This is how he really learns about the Vosian Sky Ballet.

----------

Imagine a highly specialized frame, streamlined to the smallest component. Balanced down to the most insignificant bolt, manufactured only from the purest alloys. Now mass produce seventeen thousand of them each vorn to maintain undisputed aerial supremacy over Praxus, forcing the latter to halt its production of flight frames altogether, because they could simply not keep up with the competition.

These are the seekers, the elite guard patrolling Cybertron’s skies. Vos’ pride and joy.

And they are not allowed to be anything but perfect.

Those that fail to live up to perfection are disposable.

And disposable seekers have only one place to go: the Sky Ballet.

----------

[If you enjoyed this far, you can read the rest of it HERE on AO3.]

[thisaintascenereviews]

Fall Out Boy Ranked: 2025 Edition

Fall Out Boy is my favorite band, and you know something I haven’t done in maybe a decade or so? A ranked episode with them! I ranked their discography many years ago, and I had a different perspective on their music back then. Over the past decade, I’ve been at odds with the pop-punk scene. Whether it’s the misogyny that ran rampant in the early 00s, or the predators that ran rampant in the mid-2010s, the pop-punk scene has only now started to get better. Fans are holding these artists responsible for their actions, and the bands themselves are becoming more diverse, unique, and interesting. It isn’t just the same runaround of four pasty and skinny white guys whining about how their girlfriends broke up with them. I’ve reexamined a lot of albums from my adolescence and from the past decade, and I’ve been able to look at them in a new light. A lot of albums are a product of their time, but context matters, especially if something was “acceptable then” but not anymore. When it comes to Fall Out Boy, I’ve grown to love and appreciate all of their albums in some way, shape, and form. I went through a period where I wasn’t a fan of their first couple of albums, but I also went through a period where I wasn’t crazy about their last few albums, either, but all of these albums are interesting in their own way. I wanted to rank them again, because it’s been so long since I’ve done that. I think it would be fun to look at their albums again, both because I haven’t done this in awhile, but I also don’t really have anything new to talk about. Not much has come out in the last couple of weeks, so I’m able to rest easy and listen to whatever I want.

Before we start off with the list properly, I wanted to mention a couple of things. I won’t be talking about any EPs, so their acoustic EP, the PAX AM Days EP, and the Lake Effect Kid EPs aren’t going to be talked about. They’re great little doses of their music, but I don’t need to talk about them. I also won’t be talking about their “debut” album from 2002, entitled An Evening Out With Your Girlfriend, because that’s an unauthorized album that was put out without their consent. It was mainly put out to capitalize on the success of Take This To Your Grave, but that’s neither here nor there. We’ll just be strictly talking about everything from Take This To Your Grave to So Much (For) Stardust, so strap in, folks (I also wanted to omit their greatest hits albums, because why would I talk about those). It’s going to be a wild right down memory lane. I’m excited to talk about these records for the first time in a long while, because Fall Out Boy is the first band I fell in love with growing up. I had listened to stuff before, but nothing hit me as hard as Fall Out Boy did. I’ll save my nostalgia for later on, because I can talk about the records themselves, but Fall Out Boy is a band that means the world to me. I grew up with this band, and as I got older, so did they. Their music changed and grew just as I did, so I love it when that can happen. The bands you love grow with you, and you can watch their growth along with yours at the same time. I also wouldn’t say that I dislike any of their music, so there’s nothing here that I’m going to say is bad, mid, or anything like that. All of these albums are solid in their own way, especially having plenty of time to sit with these. 9. Make America Psycho Again (2015)

Like I just said, there’s nothing outright bad in their discography, but I would easily say my least favorite record from them is their 2015 remix album, Make America Psycho Again. That title hasn’t aged well for obvious reasons, but this album was a cool idea. Fall Out Boy was fresh off the heels of American Beauty / American Psycho, and they remixed the whole album to feature rappers on each song, as well as tweak the production ever so slightly so it has a hip-hop / R&B sound to it. Honestly, it’s a cool idea, but too bad the rappers they picked make this album dated as all get out. None of them are outright awful, but who remembers OG Maco? How about Azealia Banks? I thought not, but you did have Migos, Juicy J, Big K.R.I.T., and Black Thought on songs, too, so the album isn’t half bad. Mostly everybody is fine here, but I think the production is the best part. Fans hated this thing when it came out, but I thought it was a very neat idea that no other rock band has really done since. The production is the best part of it, but it’s not an album I would necessarily go to bat for, especially these days, but it’s not half bad. 8. M A N I A (2018)

I hate to put 2018’s M A N I A so low, because this is a really good record, but the more that I think about it, the more it should be towards the bottom of the list. I was a staunch defender of this album when it came out, and I still think it’s a good (almost great) album today, but I do admit that it has some problems. For starters, this album is their most self-indulgent, mainly for Patrick Stump and his love for pop music. This album went very hard into pop, but it also had some cool experiments within Afrobeat, doo-wop, soul, R&B, and more traditional pop-rock. A lot of fans argued that the band “sold out” with this one, even more than their last two albums, but you could make the argument that they did in 2008 with Folie A Deux. This record has some of my favorite hooks from the band, including “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes),” “Bishops Knife Trick,” “Hold Me Tight Or Don’t,” “Champion,” and “The Last Of The Real Ones.” It’s clear, however, that their creative juices were starting to run dry. Pete Wentz’s lyrics weren’t on their A-game here, but there’s nothing outright awful. Maybe “Young & Menace” is a pretty weird song that I still enjoy, despite going into this strange EDM / dubstep kind of thing, but it’s an album that showed the band experimenting more. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, because people wanted the band to do something different, but when they do, they complain that they want the older stuff again. They were never going to do that, but they made a compromise for So Much (For) Stardust, their comeback album, and fans still hated it, so what can you do? 7. Save Rock & Roll (2013)

Fall Out Boy’s 2013 comeback album was an event. You just had to be there. It was such an exciting time to be a fan, because they first denied any rumors of them coming back, only to randomly say “psych” and drop a new song with the announcement of a new album. “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up)” is one of my favorite Fall Out Boy songs, and the rest of the album is quite good, too, but it’s definitely a product of its time. You could argue that most of their albums are, but this one is very much a product of 2013, because some of the sounds are very much something you would have heard in that time. A few of the guests are artists that were popular in that time, such as Big Sean and Foxes, but Courtney Love and Elton John being on the album is really cool. This record has some of my favorite songs from the band, but in terms of a comeback album, you can tell that they were having a bit of an identity crisis still and testing the waters for what worked. The album shows the band very refreshed and energized, but each song has its own feel. It’s not a bad thing at all, as the album is very memorable, but it does feel like a collection of ideas that came from different places as opposed to a unified vision that they had. 6. American Beauty / American Psycho (2015)

The band’s second album post-hiatus is a bit better, because it has more of unifying sound, but they really leaned into what worked. This record is known for the songs “Centuries” and “Immortals,” but like Save Rock & Roll, it’s a product of its time by having a sound that a band like Imagine Dragons popularized just a couple of years beforehand. They brought back a modern-day “arena-rock” sound by having huge hooks, big riffs, and lyrics about being determined and being champions (which they would have a song literally with that name a few years later). This record has lyrics about being “remembered for centuries” and “being immortal,” so there’s a loose theme of being remembered. I would also argue that the band helped to kickstart a trend, for better or worse, in pop music, where artists would interpolate popular songs, lyrics, or melodies to complement their own songs. “Centuries” is a good example of this, because it features an interpolation of “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega, versus an outright sample. “Uma Thurman” features an interpolation of The Munsters TV show theme, and that little surf-rock riff is so awesome. I always love hearing that song mainly for that part specifically. It seems like that’s been a trend for artists to do now, but it usually doesn’t end very well. American Beauty / American Psycho shows the band firing on all cylinders again, as well as having a loose theme, versus just sticking ideas to the wall to see what sticks. Sure, this album is also of its time, but I would argue it’s held up well. The songs are catchy, the vocals are great, and while Wentz’s lyrics lean into overly inspirational, cliché, and bland, there are some worthwhile moments in there that keep me coming back. 5. From Under The Cork Tree (2005)

Their sophomore album, From Under The Cork Tree, turns 20 this year. That’s another big milestone, and this is also the album that broke them out into the mainstream. They signed with Island after their debut came out, and they put this out in conjunction with Fueled By Ramen. This is the record that started it all for them, minus their debut, but this album has their two biggest hits – “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” and “Dance, Dance.” This album isn’t quite my favorite, though, but it’s because this album has a transitional energy behind it. It reminds me a lot of Save Rock & Roll, where they had their feet in two different doors. They had foot in the door of pop-punk and another in pop-rock. They wanted to stay within both worlds, but they couldn’t find a happy medium between the two. It works well, and there are a ton of songs on that album that I really love, but it feels a bit rough around in the edges in spots. They want to be more of a catchier and pop-focused band, but they don’t want to fully commit. The balance worked, because those two songs did very well and brought them a lot of attention, so I can’t fault them for that. I still enjoy this album quite a bit, so it’s worth hearing, nonetheless, but this is my least favorite in terms of their early material. That might be a hot take, just because of how popular this album was, but I still enjoy it.

Take This To Your Grave (2003)

Take This To Your Grave, their debut album, is a record that I’ve had a complicated relationship with. I went from loving it a decade ago to not being crazy about it about five years ago to loving it again. I didn’t really love the subtle misogyny that some of the lyrics have on it, but context matters, and you have to understand that the scene was rampant with that at the time. That doesn’t excuse it, but these guys were in their late teens when this record came out, so it makes sense that the immaturity is there. It actually makes the album a bit more charming and endearing, and the language used isn’t that bad, so it doesn’t make me cringe as much anymore. Some of it still hasn’t aged very well, but at the same time, the songs are iconic and catchy. This is a pretty scrappy and rough around the edges record, especially Patrick’s vocals coming into their own. I’ve said it before, but this album sounds like a hardcore record trapped in a pop-punk record’s body. It has the makings of a hardcore record, but it has a catchy pop-punk sound. It makes sense, too, because the band started in the hardcore scene. I’ve grown to really love this album now, especially after going back to it many times over the last handful of years, so it’s easily one of my top favorites from the band now. 3. So Much (For) Stardust (2023)

I’ve made it no secret that I love Fall Out Boy’s second comeback album, 2023’s So Much (For) Stardust. It’s crazy to think that this album turned two this year. I can’t believe it’s been out for a couple of years already, but I was extremely excited for it. It absolutely delivered, as this record was a nice compromise between their pre-hiatus stuff and their post-hiatus stuff, along with adding some new ideas to the fold. There’s a definite pop-punk and emo sound here of the first two albums, but you can hear the echoes of Infinity On High and Folie A Deux, as well as the more contemporary sounds of their post-hiatus material. There are some traces of funk and disco here, too, which is a lot of fun. I’ve talked about this album many times over, but it was my album of the year for 2023. I wouldn’t have put it there for no reason, but this record absolutely exceeded my expectations. For being my favorite band, I was hoping this would be good. It’s not just good, but it’s great. The band truly feels like they’re firing on all cylinders, whether it’s Pete’s lyrics being some of his best in years, the instrumentation being really solid, and Patrick’s vocals sounding out of this world. It’s not an album that I totally expected, but I love that. 2. Folie A Deux (2008) I just wrote a lengthy piece on this record, so I won’t talk about 2008’s Folie A Deux too much, but I love this record. This album is easily my second favorite of their discography, because of how this record defined my taste. I feel as though this album influenced a lot of other bands from the era, especially the neon pop-punk bands of the mid-00s and early 2010s. It influenced myself, too, because I really enjoy catchy, fun, energetic, and pop-focused stuff, especially in the pop-punk and alternative vein. Those are the types of pop-punk bands I enjoyed the most, and even now, those are types of bands I like in the genre. State Champs, in particular, is a band that I feel as though has picked up the mantle of having a strong pop-focused pop-punk sound. Fall Out Boy went fully pop-rock with this one, and despite the fan backlash, it works wonderfully. This album is extremely catchy, fun, energetic, and infectious. It has some of the band’s best hooks, best vocal performances, and best riffs. The lyrics are great, too, and the band took a risk with the lyrics being less personal and more about the world at large. I really do not get why fans disliked this album originally, maybe the pop-focused sound, but even then, it doesn’t sound too far different from a lot of other bands at the time. A lot of the neon pop-punk bands that were popular at the same time as this record coming out were even more pop-focused than this record, so what gives? I’m glad it’s getting the flowers it deserves, but even so, it shouldn’t have gotten that backlash to begin with.

Infinity On High (2007)

Infinity On High is my favorite Fall Out Boy album. I’ve talked about it a million times, so I won’t say much of anything here. Although, if you are new, I’ll say a little something. This is the album that got me into music, so I don’t know where I’d be if it weren’t for this record. This album has my all time favorite Fall Out Boy songs on it, although every album has some of my favorites on them, but this has the best of the best. This is one of those albums that I can listen to and immediately be taken back to that time in my life. I remember when I got it, when I first listened to it, and I remember spending a lot of mornings in 8th grade listening to it on my old CD player before school. I have memories playing this album over and over again, but I’ve grown to love and appreciate this album in different ways over the last 18 years that it’s been out. This is easily my favorite album from them, but it’s the album that made me fall in love with music.

[emergency-vehicle]

About Me

Madison | 24 | Vey/Vem, They/Them | AuDHD | Transformers Side Blog | Main Blog: @commandant-queer | Follows come from @stalin-bot

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Welcome to my personal brand of hell!

This blog is dedicated to Transfomers, whether it be the bayverse, Transformers Prime, Transformers One, or any other piece of Transformers media I am about to devour with a fervor that would make even Megatron tremble.

!! THIS BLOG IS NOT SPOILER FREE !!

If you wish to avoid spoilers, I will be tagging them with #spoilers and #TFO spoilers . After a few months of the movie being out, they will no longer be tagged. Just an fyi.

What you can expect from me:

My art journey. While I'm solid in other areas, learning how to draw cybertronians is a beast of its own. be prepared to see the long journey it takes to be decent at it.

Fanfictions. Fanfictions I'm writing and yapping about fanfictions I've read. I am feral and devour media at a pace faster than the speed of light.

Art reblogs. Whether it be funny, cool, or otherwise deemed interesting, its important to take inspiration from other creators. And, just plain fun to share.

Long winded rants about my personal headcanons. You might want to read them, you might not. It'll be mostly queer posting, and projection- as almost all headcanons are. Will be tagged with #headcanon and #[character's name]headcanon

Ships. I will have a ship list further down. It is inevitably going to grow with time. Its important to remember: im an adult and i can ship whatever the hell i want. cringe sets you free. with that in mind, for some of the more toxic ships, their nuance is not lost on me.

sometimes i post 18+ stuff. it's always tagged as NSFW.

Lots and lots of yapping. My personal posts are tagged as #yapping, so block that if you dont want to see it. I just like to talk into the void. If you also enjoy yapping, please for the love of god, join me in the brain rot.

PLEASE INTERACT:

Artists

Requests

Send me headcanons and factoids. I am a sponge, bone dry and ready to soak in everything the fanbase has to offer

Fellow Ratchet/Optimus stans

Fellow Starscream lovers (my rat boy 💕)

Feel free to suggest new media to me!

DO NOT INTERACT:

Zionists (just so you know, Optimus would crush yo ass. From the River to the Sea, motherfuckers 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸)

Conservatives

Any brand of -phobe

Dont come crying to me about hating my ships. I don't care. I've been in fandom spaces for longer than you've probably been alive.

Minors. Nothing against yall, just a lil uncomfy because this blog can be kinda spicy sometimes.

SHIPS! :D

It's a short list, for now. Ships will be tagged as shown on their bulletin point. For quick reference of how I view them:

- [S] Sexual

- [R] Romantic

- [QPP] Queer Platonic Partners

- [T] Toxic

With that out of the way...

Optimus Prime/Ratchet [R] [S] / [QPP] (depends on my mood lol) (my OTP) #optiratch

Megatron/Starscream [T] [S] [R] #megastar

D-16(Megatronus)/Orion Pax [R] #megapax

Bulkhead/Wheeljack [QPP] #bulkjack

Soundwave/Shockwave [R] #wavewave

Breakdown/Knockout [S] [R] #KOBD

Knockout/Starscream [T] [S] #knockscream

Arcee/Cliffjumper [QPP] #cliffcee

Megatron/Soundwave [R] #megasound

Ultra Magnus/Wheeljack [R] [S] #ultrajack

Aaaaaand that's it for now!! I hope you enjoy your stay, and as always...

[scalproie]

Literally watched all of S2 last night and I dont feel like doing individual reactions sooo

All of S1:E26 was me pointing at gay people on my screen and going "hey thats from the little dark age amv"

The orion pax arc is still literally so funny. Later episodes show that there was NO REASON to keep optimus/orion alive bc soundwave and THE FUCKING SHIP can also decode the locations of the mcguffins, megatron literally couldve won the war here and there what the hell. it took meg all of 0.5 seconds after he heard his former boytoy utter his name to try and find excuses to keep him around. Also making him call you "my lord"? I Know What You Are.

And apparently optimus/orion stayed on the nemesis for two months which is crazy to me bc megatron cannot improvise to save his fucking life what do you MEAN warlord ratchet??? YOU HAVE ULTRA MAGNUS IN YOUR FILES

It was funny tho bc meg heard ratchet say "I am your doctor of doom" and thought Hey thats pretty good and then make a callback to that when telling optimus/orion ratchet is evil incarnate

Extra hilarious to me that it partially ended bc starscream went to the nemesis to raid the fridge. [Megatron voice] this plane does nothing but ruin my life

The episodes where they send arcee and jin kazama to cybertron was pretty cool i did like the vibe it really felt alien ruins-like

You can tell the experience fucked optimus a little bc first episode after the season opening and peepaw is ready to consider warcrimes

Next was the "bumblebee gets his kidney stolen" arc and I have nothing to say other than it was funny when of course it ends in starscream getting his kidney stolen

Ok I do have some stuff to say actually, we trash on the cons a lot bc theyre disloyal assholes, but when a bot is told to stay at the base for valid reasons, they bitch and moan and end up disobeying anyway and never get punished severely by peepaw optimus bc them not following orders ALWAYS works in their favor

Megatron goes "Nu-uh-uh!" in S2:E5

Im always just so happy when meg is on screen ngl he is such a massive asshole bastard🩶

Dreadwing's cool I like how he just has a fucking flip phone to dramatically blow shit up

Everytime I see wheeljack im like oh god if the show has been made just a few years later he wouldve been drift

I FORGOT HOW QUICKLY BREAKDOWN DIED fanon will really build a castle out of 4 twigs huh. and the castle sucks ass anyway

Airachnid slayed and she was gone too soon

They lowballed megatron so hard in the episode where he was struggling against one (1) insecticon BUT. he was sexy in this ep. To me. Not to optimus anymore😔

Nemesis prime was well-introduced in the show but this is hysterical to me that THIS is the show that has the "evil double of optimus" concept

Every episode with starscream after he loses his cog is excellent and you have no idea how much it pains me to admit that

S2:E10-E11 is just megatron and the gang having the weirdest fucking day and it might be my fav eps. I think I just love watching the cons do shit. Megatron killed starscream four times, fought an army of bugs and then gave drugs to his ship

Knockout and megatron's banter is surprisingly always very entertaining. I think meg just like bouncing off of a little jester

The four relics episode are kinda whatever BUT they did gave us the one (1) soundwave focused episode and whaddayaknow he was extremely sexy and competent and it was funny to see him being treated like megatron's special boy&bird

Also bulkhead continue to have plot armor thicker than the apex armor like come on in every single one of his episodes he comes just this close to death

SHOOOOOOOOOCKWAAAAAAAAAVE

I was waiting to see smokescreen's episodes before judging but now that I did I can safely say *drops to my knees sobbing* IT SHOULD BEEN HOT RODDDDDDDDD

At least his friendship with jin kazama was cute, like that "green for go" was cute

Silas ditching his highly competent human crew to sucker up to megatron really felt like they had no idea what to do with his character anymore bc what??? Like okay you remove a third faction to focus more on the main ones but still

I fucking love S2:E20 bc 1) just throw some more mystical stuff at optimus like go full arthurian stories now, 2) lots of megatron action and 3) "drop the mountain on him"

I know its likely an animation lighting thing and optimus simply could not be based like that in the first place but conceptually it is absolutely hysterical to me that after slicing effortlessly a mountain in half, making megatron look like THIS

Optimus then look straight up at the camera and fucking winks at him

And then immediately after that, megatron going "decepticons, we are so fucked."

And THEN next episode is literally "MEGATRON YOU CRAZY BITCH" like come dreadwing lets desecrate a demigod's tomb

He fucking sucks at naming stuff tho bc dark star saber??? Come on man

The rest of the omega keys episodes are also whatever but fucking hell if the whole Peter Cullen speaking in slow motion and Steve Blum mimicking that didnt get to me hard

The last starscream episode tho? Screamer cringe compilation while hes having the worst job interview of his life, of course i loved it

MEGATRON NOOO YOU KILLED THE WRONG PLANE

But again, hilarious that for the season finale megatron went "alright guys no more fucking around" and they basically won. That one moment where meg, screamer, KO all laughing maniacally together with soundwave just shaking in silent laughter with them was really funny. Only shocky is missing for the decepticon high command reunion

I really liked the moment where raf, miko and jin kazama were like "the autobots are ready to sacrifice their life for our planet, im ready to do the same for theirs" idk thats really brave and it struck me

Optimus chopping megatron's arm was really fucking cold

SILVER ERADICONSSSSSS

They blew up the autobot base like the white house in shadow the hedgehog

Overall, a lot of my favorite episodes are in this season so👍 #megatronsweep

[frankenwolf1564]

Transformers ONE Optimus Prime and Megatron: ONE shall stand, ONE shall fall

Trying another little something this week, kind of a blend between a photo gallery and a full review. Not as in depth or with as much background as a full review but more complex than my notes on a gallery. Hasbro Deluxes are like… the default transformer toy? So there’s usually nothing exceptional to say about what the actual figure can do. “It has a waist swivel, it has a bicep swivel, it has an ankle tilt.” Standards have risen substantially over the past, like, decade, especially post Siege, so while there are standouts, the context of a toy will usually be a meatier discussion. I’ll still mention accessories and stuff but I’m not going over every point of articulation.

Starting with Optimus, he’s a fine little lad! He’s on the smaller end of the deluxe scale, not quite mini-bot, but close. That might be a bit small for some people’s taste, but it does leave him as the perfect size to work as cogged Orion Pax, especially when stood next to the Studio Series Optimus. It helps that most of the elements that distinctly denote him as “Optimus” are his accessories. The smokestacks can unpeg, the axe is completely optional, and the matrix isn’t even visible tucked away behind his thinner, opaque chest window. Nearly everything else that feels like Prime is just from the two forms looking fairly similar. The biggest thing that’s baked in is his face, which is molded with the classic mouth plate. Given the scale and some of the styling at play, he works wonderfully as the Autobot Leaders younger self. I’d even be willing to look past the SS’ weird color choices and get him too if it weren’t for something we’ll get into later.

Rounding out Orion, he’s a little lacking in articulation thanks to his slightly lower price point, with no ankle tilt and slight clearance issues in his arms, but you can still get him into a wide range of poses, no problem. It might just take a little more balancing. I love how the fingers are sculpted into the axe. It’s close to how it works in the film and is just fucking cool, innit? Optimus feels incomplete without an Ion Blaster but it’s not a deal breaker. You can use the smokestacks as guns if you really want anyhow, though they are a bit dinky. The axe tucks away neatly on his back, and the matrix is as nicely sculpted as ever. I like the more Prime styled handles, though they are mostly just to let him hold it.

His truck mode is cute. It rolls fine and does the job. I said Deluxes don’t have much to talk about when it comes to what they can do.

Moving on to Megatron, he’s similarly splendid! Like SS ONE Prime his colors are a bit off, having used an off grey compared to the movies shiny silver, but it’s much more at home on Megatron, and it doesn’t look like it’s just yellowing, either. The rest of him looks great anyhow! He’s well sculpted and the muted red pairs nicely. It’s a great rendition of the character but… that fusion cannon is seriously hurting selling him as Megatron. The tri-barreld cannon didn’t have quite as much screen time, but it is a huge visual distinction that clearly sets him apart from just being D-16. The sculpting and such are absolutely that of his final form with the harsher angles, but like Orion and Optimus there isn’t a massive visual shift between the two forms and the cannon isn’t doing him any favors.

He shares many points of articulation with Optimus, with a few improvements and one or two downgrades. He gains a second hinge in his elbows, his wrists swivel, his ankles tilt and his feet can rock, but he can. Not look up. Like at all. His head swivels just fine, and he can look down, thanks to the transformation, but that one thing really hinders what you can do with him. You’re forced to stick with more static poses unless you want him looking at the ground all the time. Or at least. I was.

The tank mode is fun! There’s also more to talk about here so- Nothing’s coming undone once it’s all pegged together and it’s a dead ringer for what we see in the film. It’s definitely one of my favorite tank Megatrons in recent years and in general. The turret is just “alright” though. The swivel is located above the hinge so it’s hard to point it up in any one direction other than straight forward and have it look natural. It also unpegs a tad easily…

Megatron has a couple things that could have used a little more work, but they’d probably require bumping him up a size class to get more parts. Things like the head, maybe his shoulders and hips, a few minor bits that we’ve seen done better elsewhere. He could have easily gotten the triple barrel cannon as well. I really like him at this size though? I wouldn’t want him any bigger, and none of those things are a deal breaker. All of this comes with zero kibble, too. Honestly my biggest complaint is that there isn’t a mainline Deluxe version of him. I’d have gladly gotten both Orion Pax and D-16 and Optimus Prime and Megatron, but they didn’t release a Prime Changers D-16. I have no reason to also get the SS Optimus, as I’m happy with the Prime Changers and that doesn’t have a direct Decepticon counterpart, so the whole set would forever be incomplete. Hasbro I want to give you my money please-

[lets-try-some-writing]

You asked for responses to your TFOne review so here it is. I’m autistic so forgive if things come off rude, I’m doing my best. Anywho.

Your bias shows incredibly clearly. To the point things you hate I love and it just makes it clear to me they’re down sides in your review simply because of your own opinions. It’s especially notable to me because while you sympathized and enjoyed D-16 and felt Orion was passive, I felt the opposite. I found myself having the least empathy for Megatron I’ve ever felt and feeling a new understanding for Optimus I didn’t have before. So aside from your takes on those two, I do agree with a lot of your points. The side characters aka B and Elita don’t make sense or need to be there like they were. The pacing was off and the story made a lot of concessions simply so things would go the way they wanted. They brute forced plot points into happening that don’t make sense. But in a vacuum I think it all works well. They draw on a lot of different influences and working together with those it’s their end goal becomes incredibly clear. Which for me works a lot! I enjoyed the film having such an obvious vision. There are many things I didn’t like about the film and even left the theater the first time unsatisfied with it. But after having seen it 4 times now, I’ve grown a lot happier with it. I think it’s something that needs getting used to. Which of course having to see a film several times to really “get it” is not great but well I like it now so my bad. I agree the elite guards existence is a bit dumb and contrived but I think I get their reason for being a bit more. In the end I’m not sure why I’m saying all this but to point out that your own personal bias has greatly affected what is otherwise a wonderfully put together review. Now you said as much so normally I wouldn’t point that out but I actually study film and journalism while trying to professionally review movies. I do that and while I’m not sure that’s what you were going for you certainly achieved it. Aside from the minor grievances I mentioned. So just if you were, I’d keep that in mind for the future. I hope you don’t come out of this ask thinking I disliked your review at all, really it’s stellar work and I respect it a lot. But it seems we really disagree on this film huh? Tis the beauty of art I guess. If you actually read this all, thanks!

I appreciate how honest you are with your assessment of my work! Thank you for giving your thoughts!

Personally, I wasn't aiming to write a bias free review because A) that sounds boring as crap. And B) I feel like half the fun of reading or watching a review is getting to see a bit of soul to the commentator. I take a lot of Inspiration from Schaffrillas Productions, The Critical Drinker, Cinemasins, Nerdrotic, and Pastra. And this is largely because I like having actual analysis mixed in with some personality when it comes to a film, especially fictional media. There is an arguable truth when it comes to historical media and film, but fictional stuff is designed to have opinions and differing views that vary from fan to fan. Hence, my review being chalk full of my personal takes.

I have my opinions and I am not shy about them lol. I prefer D-16, you prefer Orion Pax. Some people will die on the hill of Elita superiority, meanwhile I would prefer to throw her off the nearest cliff. Some folks think Sentinel is mid, and I think he's stunning. It's all cool. Honestly, I think one of the good things about TF One is that it gives enough leeway when it comes to our main duo for fans to love one or both of them. There's room to think and develop an opinion. It's so much fun seeing others and their ideas, even if I don't agree.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts! It was fascinating to read your opinion on my opinions. I adore this kind of discourse. Good luck with journalism! I know I personally lost my marbles trying to learn to do it in a professional manner.

[merlinfromberlin]

Angstober 2024 Masterpost

This was my first time participating in any kind of prompt-based seasonal event and honestly, I had such a blast with it. I'd be happy to come back to this next year. ^^

The full prompt list (& header used in this post) was created by @angstober and you can find it here. If you want more angsty stories, you should definitely check out their blog for many many reblogs, the Angstober 2024 Collection or the Angstober 2024 tag on AO3. There's so much cool, amazing stuff that was created based on these prompts. I'm absolutely in awe! :D

So, first of all, some basic information about what I wrote for Angstober:

- length: c. 300 – 2300 words - 10 oneshots (one of which will get a second chapter in the future) - the first and the second chapter of a long fic - everything is set, to some capacity, in the Transformers: Prime universe - lots of Bumblebee-centric stuff - lots of Dadchet and/or Dadimus Prime - mostly Gen: pairings/romance may be mentioned, implied or present in the background, but never the main focus - three or four things are more experimental in style/formatting

Link to my Angstober 2024 TFP Oneshots Series on AO3 that includes everything but ‘A Little Left Of Right’ – the long fic that was spawned from this.

Individual stories below the cut:

Day 01: Again

An insight into Dadchet's thoughts during the fight at the Omega Lock.

Chronology: S03E13 – Deadlock Words: 303 Ships: Bumblebee & Ratchet Prompt: Again

Day 02: Countdown

Optimus contemplates the current state of the War and his personal life as he waits for the Allspark to be ejected.

Chronology: Pre-Canon – Tyger Pax Words: 1,599 Ships: Ironhide/Optimus Prime/Ratchet, Past – Megatron/Optimus Prime, Optimus Prime & Ultra Magnus, OP & Jazz, OP & Elita-1, Bumblebee & Optimus Prime Prompt: Countdown

Day 04: Of Beasts Swimming In Green

Bumblebee did his best to remain calm while he waited for the rest of Team Prime to rescue Ratchet. His attempts were feeble at best.

Chronology: S01E22 – Stronger, Faster Words: 990 Ships: Bumblebee & Ratchet, Bumblebee & Optimus Prime, Arcee & Bumblebee Prompt: Blood

Day 05: Next Time

Smokescreen had been having a terrible cycle.

Chronology: S03E10 – Minus One Words: 1,016 Ships: Smokescreen & Team Prime Prompt: Do Better

Day 08: Smiling On The Outside

After Optimus' frame is restored with the help of the Forge of Solus Prime, he contemplates the physical cost of Primehood.

Chronology: S03E04 – Rebellion Words: 881 Ships: Optimus Prime & Ratchet, past Megatronus & Orion Pax (mentioned) Prompt: Growing Pains

Day 09: So You Know I Care

As Ratchet waits for Bumblebee to wake up after being tortured at Tyger Pax, he makes a promise.

Chronology: Pre-Canon – Tyger Pax, set between Make You Feel Alright chapter 2 and 3 Words: 1,003 Ships: Bumblebee & Ratchet Prompt: Promise

Day 11: Dreaming Of Home

Megatron has constructed the perfect fantasy to trap Bumblebee in his own processor. After all, if the scout doesn't want to wake up, he won't interfere with the warlord's plans to resurrect himself, either.

Chronology: S01E14 – Out of His Head Words: 1,797 Ships: Bumblebee & Ratchet, Bumblebee & Optimus Prime, Bumblebee & Raf, Optimus/Ratchet Prompt: Wake Up

Day 15: A Little Left Of Right – Chapter 1

"Apparently our cross-dimensional counterparts belong to the more faint of heart," said Optimus. His words sent a cold shiver down Bumblebee's backstrut. "Weren't they keeping pets, too?" asked Arcee, the cold sneer that accompanied those words basically audible. "Pathetic. I don't know what anyone could ever find in these squishies. It's a shame we're stuck here with them." ::What?:: bleeped Bee.

Or: When Bumblebee wakes up after a crash, something is not quite right with Team Prime.

Chronology: Season 02 – after Operation: Bumblebee, before Nemesis Prime   Words: 1,804 Ships: Bumblebee & Ratchet, Bumblebee & Optimus Prime, Bumblebee & Team Prime Prompt: False Hope

Day 16: A Little Left Of Right – Chapter 2

A decacycle has passed and Bee is still on the run from the Autobots.

Or: angsty introspection because that's what I'm most comfortable with writing

Chronology: Season 2 - after Operation: Bumblebee, before Nemesis Prime Words: 2,271 Ships: Bumblebee & Autobots (mentioned) Prompt: No One Else To Turn To

Day 17: Solace From Solitude

It might have been by a combination of mere luck and dumb chance that Jazz had stumbled into the sparkling’s hideout on his hasty retreat from the Decepticon base he had been spying on, but he would still do everything in his power to protect the little one now.

Or: Jazz found a Bumblebee and he is not going to give him up again.

Chronology: Pre-Canon, after Fall of Praxus Words: 671 Ships: Bumblebee & Jazz, mentioned Jazz & Mirage, mentioned Jazz & Prowl Prompt: "Shhh!"

Day 23: Lost to a Sea of Guilt and Sorrow

The longer Ratchet is missing after the "Synth-En incident", the harder it gets for Bee to reign in his anxieties.

Chronology: S01E22 – Stronger, Faster Words: 1,103 Ships: Bumblebee & Ratchet, Bumblebee & Optimus Prime, Optimus Prime/Ratchet Prompt: Safe/Unsafe

Day 27: All My Tears Have Been Used Up

What baby Bee was doing before Optimus and Ratchet found him.

Chronology: Pre-Canon, Prequel to Make You Feel Alright Words: 1,629 Ships: Bumblebee & OC Prompt: Curled Up

Please, please, please read and heed the Warnings for this one! It’s probably the most gruesome thing on this list.

So, that’s everything! Hope you have a nice day wherever you are right now and Happy Halloween if you're seeing this today. ^^

[ehlnofay]

1, 10, 17 for pax and efri :)

1. What was the original thought that led to the creation of this character? with efri there were a couple of things... I remember years ago seeing some cool art of a kid chilling with a big cat companion and I thought huh that would be a funny character to write. stowed that away. then later I watched some mod playthrough on youtube that let you play as a kid living in rorikstead and I said Hm. stowed that away. not sure when it all came together though... I think I had the idea of kazari's character, efri being onmund's sister, and following him to winterhold after the rorikstead dragon is woken all occur to me pretty simultaneously and that's when I started writing her with pax it was way simpler. I'd been casually planning on playing oblivion for a while but wanted to wait until I had some kind of base character concept. then one day I thought "huh it's funny how so many of my characters are in some fashion extremely difficult to talk to (arabella is trying to fuck with you, the dragonborn is. the dragonborn, and so forth) but I don't have any characters who are just straight up abrasive and difficult and not nice" and then I was so overpowered by the need to conjure this person into being that i bought oblivion immediately

10. What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one? well. efri's story is still under construction at an absolutely glacial pace so I DON'T REALLY KNOW... I don't know. it remains to be seen. I'd feel really bad if I gave efri a sad ending though and I think she'd crawl out of my computer to whack me with a stick about it so I have high hopes pax is is a hero of kvatch... enough said, I think. she's a lonely angry kid who finds purpose and worth in the middle of an apocalypse and then has all of it taken away. and she never comes back from that. though for what it's worth they don't see their ending as a sad one... I personally do not endorse complete destruction of the self-concept and being subsumed into a larger stranger being as a positive method of dealing with grief but sheogorath née pax has no regrets

17. Are there any motifs or symbols associated with the character? How are they represented, in their design, personality or in some other way? interesting... something that I've noticed with efri that popped up without my conscious intention at first is light, usually magical, as representative of knowledge/curiosity/freedom. idk if anything I've posted mentions it but one of her earliest memories is onmund conjuring a magelight for her to try to get her to stop fussing. after she gets to the college he gives her enchanted gloves so she can make her own. there's something to that I think... I'd like to do more stuff with that idea the only thing that really concretely comes to mind with pax is the colour red. he Does Not Like It and it's generally used pretty deliberately in his story... it's emblematic of the mythic dawn, of blood and the violence that he's still not truly comfortable with, and, naturally, the empire. in general pax has big reactions to things that aren't as much symbols in his narrative as symbols to him, if that makes sense. they can't look their grief in the face so they ascribe it to red and gold and statues and the sun. I can't think of many other oft-used symbols or motifs... bit of a blunder on my part since there's definitely the potential there. like the good old dog motif for example... unyielding devotion and propensity to bite... it's all there. can't believe I missed it

[bekolxeram]

What do you think Chim& Eddie are gonna involve with the hangar ( bts of Kenny & ryan)

Have I missed some obscure bts with Kenny and Ryan in it? If not, then I assume it would play out like an actual aircraft emergency.

If it comes to the scenario where an amateur on the plane has to be instructed through landing the crippled airplane, it'll probably be the responsibilities of air traffic control and whatever professional flight instructors invited to the tower. It's not just about guiding the plane towards the airport, it's also about diverting other traffic away, clearing the airspace for the emergency landing.

The first responders called in to help out would obviously wait on the side until the plane actually lands/crashes. I guess Chim, Eddie and Hen would be briefed by the commander of the emergency about the course of actions once the plane arrive. Maybe they'll be studying the layout of that particular aircraft just to further improve the efficiency of the evacuation. Modern airliners are required to be able to completely evacuated in 90 seconds, so that might be a challenge for regular firefighters working outside of the airport.

So, in real life, an emergency landing requires 3 different kinds of responses: fire suppression, medical assistance, and rescue.

If the plane is not physically on fire, the fire suppression team, usually the airport firefighters in the crash trucks, would drive around the aircraft and inspect for any possible fire. If the plane is on fire, they would be laying foam on the ground to aide evacuation, then spray whatever foam or water they have to stop the plane from burning. A burning plane releases a lot of toxic fume. Like the Haneda runway collision that happened at the start of this year, fire engines were called in from al across Tokyo in an attempt to contain the fire. They didn't succeed, so they left the A350 to burn itself out.

Any kind of emergency landing, no matter how severe, would still require the full attention of the medical team. Injured passengers/crew onboard would have to be tended to, obviously, but an emergency evacuation via slides is likely to injure passengers as well. It's a steep slide, and everyone is pushed to get off the plane ASAP, so a lot of sprain ankles and broken bones are to be expected. So I can imagine the 118 helping the pax escape and provide essential medical help.

If the emergency landing goes badly and it breaks into several parts, trapping passengers inside, a rescue team would be needed in order to free them, before the aircraft completely destroy itself. That would be some high stake drama, because a broken plane filled with jet fuel can explode anytime.

Even if the plane landed in one piece, it's still not totally safe for the first responders. Emirates, the flag carrier of Dubai prides itself over having no passenger or crew fatalities in its entire operation, right? Well, a 777 crash landed back in 2016. Sure, all of the pax escaped unharmed, but 7 firefighters were injured and another one was killed when an engine suddenly exploded.

So to answer your question, I don't know for sure what they'll be doing at the airport. But I hope it's some cool firefighter saving people stuff with high stakes.

[jflashandclash]

Tales From Mount Othrys

Axel II: Into the Lion’s Maw

The masks’ thrum was alluring. Something brushed his knuckles—the edges of another pew? Axel startled, gripping the wood. When had he started walking forward? There was nothing between him and the altar now—no other pew to warn him that his legs had elected to go for the shiny, dangerous object before his brain agreed. 

Pax was as cautious as he was capable. “The Triple A Chimera helmets!” he squeaked and scrambled ahead of Axel.

“Ajax!” Axel growled, but knew he couldn’t stop him. Pax was right beside the altar, and Axel didn’t trust his legs to cooperate.

Alabaster sighed. “Ajax, we’re not calling it that.”

“Witch Boy, you might not be, but the rest of the world is in agreement.” Pax cracked his knuckles and reached for the bronze serpent helm. If he was willing to drink mysterious, glowing vials for Alabaster, he would definitely pick up a haunted artifact that screamed, “hex me, please.” 

Alabaster grinned darkly. “Mercedes has been fueling more of the Romans’ own rumors, the ones about a beast that can morph in and out of the Mist. Why not—”

“Hello, little Spy Master,” the voice was soft, harsh, and slithered from the helm in Pax’s fingers.

The helmet clanged onto the altar. Pax jumped backwards. “Cool creepy stuff!” he yelped.

Axel ground his nails deeper into the pew. “They talk?” He already had to worry about Jack and Matthias’ influence on Pax. Pax didn’t need more bad influences.

Alabaster nodded. “They each have their own unique sense of humor.”

Sense of humor? What could that mean from Alabaster of all people?

Pax paled, still staring at the bronze one in confusion. “Why’d it call me the Spy Master? I’m just an irresistibly adorable spy assistant.”

Hecate settled a calming hand on Pax’s shoulder. This time, her smile was sad. “These helms reveal potential futures if you chose to align with them.”

“Maybe you take over spying on the Greeks when Silena Beauregard finally betray us.” Alabaster rolled his eyes at his age-old complaint.

Pax brightened, “You mean, I could be Mercedes’ irresistibly—”

“Irritatingly—”

“—adorable partner? Not just her assistant?” The prospect thrilled Pax. Axel knew how desperate Pax was to impress Mercedes. Despite that, Pax glanced over at Axel. The Free Possessions Here vibe had spooked him, and he wanted to make sure it was safe.

Axel swallowed, willing his legs into a casual approach. The closer he came, the more he could make out the detail of the beautiful plumage, the worse the urge to touch that gorgeous gold. His fingers twitched back to the cigarette in his pocket. Otherwise, he’d grab the helm. “Kinda flashy for you, no subtle amulets?” his voice came out rougher than he wanted.

Alabaster rubbed the edge of the antler between his forefinger and thumb. “I believe you gave me lectures on the value of utilizing fear in battle, and then proved it during our fight for my lab. These forms will enhance that…” His hand shook. He was awaiting an answer for a question Pax hadn’t realized he’d asked. But Axel knew the gravity of this conversation. And with this topic of conversation, Axel worried how demigods, supposedly, could spy on others in their sleep.

If Axel hadn’t come to know Alabaster so well, he might not have noticed how unconfident the Witch Boy felt. He was paler than usual—worried. His voice was soft as he continued, “Daedalus won’t make Kronos a body. I’ve researched his myth and history. He worked under threat for too long. Kronos only needs one more soul before he reforms.” Alabaster glanced up at Axel. “Castellan’s getting desperate. Even more short tempered than usual. And paranoid. He turned away Kelly. He sent out souls into the labyrinth that aren’t coming back—”

The three of them winced. None had heard from Chris Rodriguez. Pax liked to pretend he was okay.

Alabaster’s expression hardened. His knuckles turned white on the edge of his helm. “He hit Mercedes.”

Pax froze. “He what?”

Axel clenched his jaw. Mercedes hadn’t given Luke a name for their leak yet. She couldn’t find that Di Angelo child that Luke so fanatically wanted. He went from saying they didn’t need a Spy Master to using her supposed incompetency as a scapegoat to Kronos.

“Yesterday. When I told you Mercedes wanted you in the laboratory…” Alabaster trailed off. Something uncharacteristic of him. He was usually so calculated with his words. “Both of you are…” He hesitated and glanced at his mother.

Hecate nodded at him in encouragement.

Pax clutched his stomach, like he was ready to use the new helmet as a barf bag.[1] Axel understood the nausea. Mercedes was the first person to show them kindness on the Princess Andromeda.

Alabaster closed his eyes to collect himself. He squeezed the horn of the boned helm once more before his gaze shifted back to Axel. “You’re not pledged to Kronos. You can’t. Both of you have befriended those in power: Castellan’s Scourge of New Rome, his Quiet Death. The Bearer of Flames owes Axel his freedom—” Axel felt dizzy as Alabaster listed their monikers: Jack, Flynn, Prometheus.

“You can just call them their names,” Pax said weakly. “Or give them more accurate names. He Who Wears Pink Pajamas.”

Alabaster glanced to Pax, betraying the slightest of smiles over the joke at Jack’s sleepwear. “Ajax, you’ve become Mercedes’ prized spy for New Rome. Even your silly band has marked the two of you as a minor celebrity with the monsters. And—and both of you have wormed yourselves into the good graces of the children of Hecate.”

Pax feigned some bravado, leaned towards Axel, and whispered loudly, “I think Alabaster just admitted to liking us.” He straightened and looked at Alabaster. “Alabaster, you could have just said you thought we were cool. Remember how we talked about needing to sound less like a super villain about to assassinate someone?”

Alabaster’s lip twitched.

Pax balked. “Are you a super villain about to assassinate someone?”

Alabaster and Axel exchanged a glance.

That was exactly what they were talking about.

If possible, Pax’s eyes widened further. “Axeeeellll,” he whined in a tattle. “Alabaster is talking about assassinating someone!”

Alabaster sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s Kronos, Ajax. Must I spell it out for you and any hostile gods that might be eavesdropping?”

“Nah, I’m illiterate.” Pax waved a hand. “It would only help the gods.” Axel could tell how desperately his brother wanted to look aloof about the situation.

Alabaster straightened to his full height. One hand lifted a vial out of his pocket. “I can’t do this alone. I need people I trust.”

“And if we refuse?” Axel asked, eyes trained on the vial. Something about this felt wrong. But, when was the last time things felt right? Despite everything, he could picture Luke’s easy smile, the way he coaxed Jack back after Calypso captured him.

And the look of hunger on his face when he wanted to interrogate Annabeth one-on-one.

Alabaster’s expression crumbled. “I have the River Lethe water on hand. You’ll never know you were asked. And, I will be down two friends.”

Tension curled the Mist into menacing figures in their peripheral. Hecate, Axel suddenly realized, had faded into the fog around them. 

Alabaster and Axel stared at each other. It felt like they were on opposite sides of disk that was balanced on a ball. One wrong move, both would topple. Was Alabaster trying to trick Axel into admitting treachery? Or was he reaching out to commit it with him? This felt like a trap, but Alabaster had never gotten along with Luke. But, what if Luke could still be brought back?

Pax glanced from his brother to his friend. He raised his hands in an unarmed gesture. “Guys, I know you’re both paranoid, but, like, we can all agree that Luke is a dick. He—” Pax quieted. He took a shuffled step closer to Alabaster. Tactically, Alabaster shouldn’t let Pax get that close until he had an answer. “He has been. H—he hit you… when we first got here.” The end of the sentence disappeared into a mumble. Pax slipped his fingers along Alabaster’s.

          Alabaster startled. His face rouged, but he didn’t withdraw. “You hadn’t even officially joined and you were already spying for Mercedes.”

          “Only unwittingly.” Pax’s smile was shy, impish. He pressed Alabaster’s hand, and vial, back into Alabaster’s pocket.

          Something about the interaction rang Axel’s Older Brother Alarm Bells. (And, besides, did Pax have a crush on Mercedes…?) But there was too much to process to consider it now. “And if Luke can be separated from Kronos?” Axel asked.

          Alabaster shrugged. “This will give us the tools to free him, whether through aid or death. We need him to win the war, but afterwards…”

          “I don’t want to kill Luke,” Pax said, “That would make Jack very sad. And he might resurrect him. And that could start the zombie virus—Ala, do you think we could make the zombie virus in Camp Half-Blood and New Rome and win that way?”

          “Well, we—” Alabaster raised an eyebrow at him. “Super powered zombies?”

          Pax puffed up his cheeks and popped them. “Oh. I see your point. Bad idea.”

          Pax and Alabaster’s hands hadn’t come out of Alabaster’s pocket. Later, Axel decided.

          Right now, the helm thrummed in his ears. There were no coherent words, just dissonance—a presence felt by way of an increasing pressure around his skull. Did the others hear it? Did they feel it? Did theirs call to them so intensely?

          The eye sockets seemed to have eyes of their own, pits of blackness. Axel thought, for a stuttered heartbeat, that an iris shifted. Reflections off metal, he assured himself. Though he knew better. Maybe others could be tricked by the Mist. He could see through it. Something was inside the helmet. Something wanted out.

          “These grant us power,” Axel summarized. Placing a hand beside the helm made the cacophony inside his head near unbearable. 

          No wonder Alabaster asked them to meet in his mother’s realm. Having these in the laboratory felt dangerous. Too much for demigods. Axel had to wonder if Alabaster was just a mouthpiece? Maybe Hecate was doing what she was rumored to do: give another option. A tertiary option to Kronos or the Olympians.

          Axel searched the surreal jungle. She had to still be here. This was, presumably, her temple, and these were her godly gifts. Even with his true sight, all he could spot was wisps of her presence in the fog: the wave of some hair, the echo of a finger, the curve of fabric along her side, none in the same spot. An unsettling notion made Axel draw his shoulders back. She was the Mist itself. Millennia of entangling with its essence had left her nearly indistinguishable.

          “Hecate?” he called, “What is the catch? What are we trading?”

          She resolidified across the altar from Axel. “While you wear these, the past will become nothing more than just a dream, so that you may regain the ability to dream.” She lifted the feline helm to examine it. As she did, the air electrified. He felt something swishing behind him in tempestuous flicks—a tail? He didn’t look. She was trying to distract him.

          “These will harness your anger, your pain, your doubts, and your fear. They manifest it and they become it, so that you may hold it separately from your own identities. So you may don it and meld with it when it is most fitting.” Her emerald gaze lifted to Axel’s. “You are trading a piece of yourself, pieces that will become my little monsters, my children. You are trading control. You will no longer have unwanted intrusions, but they will become the intrusion when you don them. I’m powerless to change your fates…” She looked to each of them in turn. Her son. Pax. Axel. “But in the end, I’ll shelter you. After all, you are my child’s cherished friends.”

          Alabaster went red.

          Breaking her somber speech, Pax nudged Alabaster. “Your mom knows she doesn’t need to pay us to hang out with you, right?”

          Alabaster shot Pax a glare.

          Axel tried to picture what that would mean, to be able to dream again without screaming, to know internal peace. He clenched his jaw. This felt like a cheat. It felt like—

          “They will fail one day,” she said, as though reading his thoughts. “You’ll need to face your fears. But, not during this war. The delay will make it traumatic, especially for you, Jaguar Child. Melding with this will cause you pain.”[2]

          Axel swallowed. Hesitantly, he reached out. The cacophony intensified, screaming until—

          “Hello, Lieutenant of Kronos.”

          Everything siphoned into that voice. Tension eased out of Axel’s shoulders. Distractions faded. He meant to just brush the cool metal with the back of one knuckle, but it was cradled in his hands. Its weight felt right, comforting. The plumes were soft as they curled around his forearm, around the blades he kept strapped there.

          Lieutenant? Axel mused, Like Atlas? A smile curled along his lips. The Leader of Assault and Battery? Or the Sabotage Unit?

          Touching the feline etching made Axel feel lighter. The calm was intoxicating. Some people went to his father to fuel their opioid addictions. He wondered if this kind of relief was similar. 

          “Do you two need a room? Or, well, a tree to hide behind?” Pax asked. He tried to sound light.

Axel startled, glancing up at his brother. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It must have been more than a few moments, as it had felt for Axel. Pax fidgeted with a satchel of something Alabaster must have given him to occupy his free hand. The one not in the Witch Boy’s pocket. Alabaster was examining Axel, expressionless. Axel ignored Pax, instead, giving Alabaster a crooked smile. “You’re not tricking me into taking a magical sleep med by throwing a rebellion, are you?”

Alabaster shrugged. “Is it working?”

          It was, but Axel didn’t want to admit that. The thought of falling asleep with this calm, all in the name of stopping a tyrant? Instead, he pointed out, “If these are going to alter how we fight and think through combat, we’ll have to test them in a controlled environment first.”

          Pax bounced on the heels of his feet. Alabaster merely nodded; he already would have planned for that.

          Axel’s fingers shook around the helm at the thought of putting it down. “Kronos will be suspicious if Luke tells him we have got specialized magic armor, if Kronos doesn’t just pull the memory out of his head.”

          “A memorandum for surviving the Roman’s raid on my laboratory,” Alabaster explained away.

          Pax rolled his eyes. Axel had to agree: Alabaster wasn’t known for being sentimental. That was an unlikely story.

          Axel considered other protests or objections. But, as he did, he realized there was no way he could put this helm down without trying it on. His gaze dropped down to the flicker of movement behind those blackened eye sockets.

          We have work to do, Lieutenant, the mask reminded him, as though they were already one.

          This wasn’t like signing up to fight Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. That hadn’t been a choice. Luke’s men were going to kill both of them if he hadn’t signed up. But this? Alabaster was treating Axel as an equal. He was giving him the tools to fight an encroaching evil, something that was devouring his other friend.

          “I’m in,” he said.

          A dark laugh echoed from the helm, something that felt strangely comforting.

          Axel looked up to find Alabaster smiling. The Witch Boy turned to Pax. “Ajax?” he asked.

          Pax puffed up his cheeks and popped them. Everyone always assumed he would follow Axel’s lead in every decision. Axel appreciated that Alabaster wanted the three of them equally committed.

          Pax hesitated. He set the satchel in Alabaster’s pocket. Timidly, he reached for the serpentine helmet. This time, he didn’t drop it, cradling it like Axel held his. He gave Alabaster and Axel a goofy grin. “Triple A Chimera assemble! Do we get a secret handshake?!”

“No,” Alabaster said. After Pax pouted at him, his stern expression cracked, “But, the helmets do come with weasel kittens, now that you’ve accepted them.”

Alabaster was excellent at delivering deadpan humor; that hadn’t sounded like a joke. Before Axel could ask him to repeat himself, he heard the soft trilling sound from the plumes.

“No…” Axel mumbled in disbelief.

There, emerging from the thick feathers, was a tiny set of squinting, beady eyes. The whole critter was miniscule, certainly smaller than Axel’s palm. Lifting its head appeared to be too much for it, the snout bobbing around uncertainly as it sniffed. A pang hit Axel’s chest. He held the helm more delicately. This was even more fragile than his pet jaguar cub, Juana, had been.

Pax squealed with delight. “It’s a weasel! It’s a baby weasel! You got us baby weasels!?” He hopped around the altar with the helmet. It made Axel want to frantically rush over to assure no tiny weasels fell out.

Alabaster plucked a pure white one out of the ivory on his skull helm. He slipped the weasel into a breast pocket on his shirt. Alabaster often had various compartments on him for spell ingredients, but—

“And you got yourself an incubator shirt?!” Pax yelped with glee. He had separated his weasel from his helmet, set the helmet on the altar, and was cradling his weasel in both hands.

Leave it to Pax to ignore the All Powerful Magical Armor.

“Kits or pups,” Alabaster corrected. “They don’t need incubators, but they will need to be fed, socialized with each other, taught to hunt, and—”

Alabaster cut off when Pax went on his tiptoes to kiss his cheek. His complexion had just settled back into that of a vampire. He went bright red again, cleared his throat, took a step back, and pointedly avoided looking at Axel.

That “later” talk that Axel and Alabaster needed to have? It was going to happen as soon as the three of them were awake.

“And named,” Alabaster tried to make it sound like there hadn’t been a pause. “Th—they’re more than pets.” He swallowed, regaining composure. “Each is an extension of your helm’s power, playing to the strength of the owner. Nietzsche can store spell runes, acting as both a roving set of prepared spells and a conduit to set magic off at a greater distance.” The tiny white head poked out of Alabster’s pocket, slitted red eyes trained on the Pax brothers.

Axel extended a finger towards his tiny charge. When the weasel sensed him, it curled about his index finger, nipping vainly. Axel had to admit, he liked her. She had spunk.

“Who gets Honey and who gets Baller?” Pax bobbed to Axel’s side.

Axel’s tiny charge clung to his finger while nodding off to sleep. “Honey and--?” he asked.

“Hunahpu and Xbalanque! Duh!” Pax cheered.

Alabaster looked relieved at the shift in conversation. “Maya names?” he asked.

Axel nodded. “The hero twins.” The names of sorcerer warriors felt fitting for gifts from Hecate. Though, Axel doubted these two weasels could feign dismemberment, the way the ancient warriors and Hecate’s children could. Well, maybe Pax’s could. That would fit Pax’s style of combat.

Pax pointed to a clustered spot of fur on the back of Axel’s. “Yours has little rosettes.”

Axel nodded. “Mine shall be Hunnapuh then.”

Pax held his up, Lion King-style. “And this shall be Baller!”[3] he proclaimed with bravado.

The three boys got to enjoy something they rarely did these days: a peaceful moment in a safe place with no one watching but a caring mother. Pax demanded they put their weasels into a kit pile in his hands. Axel surveyed this carefully, but was relieved Pax seemed to have a natural knack for tending to the little ones.

Despite discovering the existence of Greek gods, being “adopted” by someone a few years older than he was, and being cast as the heartthrob in a monster-centric metal band, these gifts were some of the biggest surprises Axel had in the past two years. Alabaster had always been uncomfortable with shows of affection. Some people got each other burgers and French fries as signs of friendship. Others gave each other weapons of war.

All of them were smiling when the jungle shook. The quake’s ripple was so strong, Pax pitched onto one side. He cradled the weasel kits protectively to his chest with one hand while smacking the forest ground with the other floor to break his fall. Axel stumbled. Alabaster snagged the edges of the altar. “Mother--?” he called.

“Mount Tams,” she said from the fog of mist, “is under attack.”

***

Thank all of you for reading! Also, thank you to those of you that left comments in my last post. I promise, I’ll be responding as soon as I can. You rock and have made it worth while to get myself to post again! In the meantime, know you have Jack in an appreciative pile of moosh and gratitude! Stay tuned for, hopefully (>>’’) every other week updates!

***

[2] Pax, “Way to hit his kink, Hecate.”

[3] I recently read up that the hero twins were pronounced, “WAH-nuh-pwuh and shi-BAY-lan-kay.” But I think younger Axel would have been too insecure to call his lil one “Pooh,” so we’re sticking with the mispronunciated, butchering of Honey and Baller.

[thousandyearphantombunker]

TFP au where Miko's host family are the Darby-Esquivels- I have a lot of issues with the logic in TFP surrounding miko- inorder to be an exchange student she'd need consistently high grades and while the show tries to make it sound like mikos host family is neglectful and they basically don't exist- that's nonsensical why would anyone volunteer to be a host family and then not hang out with the kid? You don't get paid anything so it can't be about money! it really is about developing a relationship with the exchange student during the duration of the program. In this au, jack and raf are half-brothers, jack's dad divorced his mom and Raf's dad is dead, we get some actual backstory on miko, also here miko cares about her grades- cause if she started failing she'd be forced to drop the exchange program- this also subverts some expectations cause in this au I want miko to actually be punk! And I want to give Jack a bit more oomph, Raf would be heavily rewritten (he stays a shy hacker boy who becomes friends with Bee and Ratchet but can we give him something to work with outside of that?)

Also Silas and MECH and dark energeon aren't dropped from the story- MECH and Silas as villains where genuinely more interesting than the omega keys and artifact crap we got, I'd go as far to say Silas is more interesting than Megatron and after all the stuff we see with starscream being an actually competent scary villain that was also comedic it angered me to see him become so flanderized- so here we take a cyberverse route but do it a bit differently and Unicron stays a major threat (I'm taking some inspiration from armada so in this au sideways replaces arachnid but instead of starscream getting redeemed- well let's say he still doesn't get a happy ending) I changed arachnid out for sideways cause she made little sense in universe.

Raf doesn't understand bumblebee in this and there's at least one story where they have to find alternative means of communication- let be actually be disabled by his lack of a voice box

I'm probably never going to write this but I'd like to see other people add to this au with there own ideas, let's get freaking insane and do the stuff tfp didn't have the balls to do! kill Bulkhead and let him get actual character development so it hurts, give Dreadwing a redemption arc, lets give arcee her time to shine, let's get some gay shit with Knockout and Breakdown let's fucking go!

edit: I was thinking about what problems I have with most human characters in transformers is that they 1 aren't as interesting as the bots are, I understand they want the characters to be relatable but sometimes they make them into flat characters borderline harem protagonist, another problem is a problem more commonly found in YA books- when a 16 year old middle class scrawny white girl with no combat training or superpowers or anything can successfully fight off a room full of vampire fbi agents with no injuries or losses, so my goal is to make the kids badass but in a more believable way, so they aren't just damsels in distress either

like I know jack was chosen because he's suppose to be like a young Orion pax and whatever but like it never felt right to me, they could have drawn the parallels clearer, we can also make Miko's badassery and cool moments more emotionally satisfying and make them feel more...deserved idk how to explain my problems with the humans in transformers too well.

Also can we make this the ultimate found family au? And bringing back some inspiration from transformers animated for Bulkhead- not exactly mind you but I love the idea of miko showing bulkhead something cool/creative for a hobby like how sari showed him art, and in RID15 apparently raf and bee liked watching cowboy movies together so now I'm just imagining pure fluff with these ideas I'm trying to come up with some fun ideas for jack and arcee- I usually don't like fluff but I like seeing friends being friends- it's adorable

More on miko, in this au she'd be the master of malicious compliance and finding loopholes, she's scared of failing and cares about her grades as stated above, but she also has early onset senioritis so she finds her ways, she rarely actually breaks rules or skips out, so she works smarter not harder, she's still got some major flaws, she's got a secret case of overconfidence, she's cynical (I think her parents would be loving but super controlling and never gave her privacy so she became sneaky to get away from them, she might have become a lone wolf in school maybe people thought she was scary or something maybe she tried having friends but her parents scared them away I like the idea that mikos super outgoing but in a way that scares people or she struggles with deeper connections outside of surface level, more on Jack, I'm taking some spiderman inspiration- like the rest of the fanbase I shall torture him for fun, give him some hidden rage, a guilt complex, constantly stress over June Raf and Miko, and here he's going to be a senior, he still lives with June and pays her rent but it's always a little bit extra even though she says he doesn't have to, he remembers the time when his parents first divorced and when Raf's dad got sick in this so he worries about cash a lot and maybe has some depression, he's working out what he wants to do with his life and all around is trying to act stupidly responsible and mature to cope, raf is still a dorky lil baby but he's got a surprisingly dark and unsurprisingly gross sense of humor and is more interested in biology than computers at the start, but starts picking up on stuff real fast, he and bumblebee work on alternative means of communication together(one day the bots can't translate what he's saying so after that they start practicing sign or Morse code or something!) Idk just tell me random stuff that bothered you tfp and RID15 or ideas you guys have that could make this au interesting

[bunky-writes]

Chapter 4:

“The Rise”

After that incident, Pax and I started hanging out a lot. He was friendly, humorous, and naturally a good guy. He was cute as well but that’s not something I wanted to act on. I already had a difficult time gaining friends, I didn’t need to get a crush on a developing friendship.

“I’m telling you, there’s gotta be some zombies out there, like in Fallout!”

Pax has been debating the existence of zombies and other mutated creatures after ‘The Incident’ and to be honest, I’ve only been half listening. It kind of gets repetitive after the fifth time.

“Pax, my buddy, my pal, my comrade, please quit it already.”

“What, too scared?”

“No! There’s no way there are zombies. If we go outside, it would simply be a wasteland. Dead stuff everywhere.

“You don’t know that! The closest thing we have to a biologist is my mom and she hasn’t disagreed with my statement.”

“Well, she hasn’t agreed either.”

“Hush!”

We were currently in the main room, eating breakfast. It was a miserable one but filling. Glue-like oatmeal has become a ‘delicacy’ in the bunker. In the middle of Pax‘s debate, Harvey had joined with his bowl of oatmeal and a cup of black coffee. He merely raised an eyebrow at Pax’s passionate one-sided discussion though.

“Come on Harv! You have to agree with me, wouldn’t it be cool with zombies?”

Harvey only scoffed and continued eating, he was most likely a coffee-before-talking person. Soon Joseph and Mrs. McCarthy joined as well, Jo didn’t seem that thrilled about the glue-like meal.

“So what are we doing today?” Pax asked.

“Well… the water pump is giving us trouble, but Harvey said he’d look into it. Right?-“ Mrs. McCarthy glanced towards Harvey, who only grunted and nodded “-But we’ve still got some cleaning and sorting to do. We need to figure out how much food we’ve got left, we might have to start finding other means for food, maybe a farm?”

I perked up at the mention of a farm, my mother used to grow vegetables and potatoes in our garden. I remember helping her, so I might be of use.

“Uh, Mrs. McCarthy, I used to plant stuff with my mom. Maybe I can help?”

Mrs. McCarthy smiled and nodded.

“Sounds great, hun! And how many times have I told you, you can just call me Kate.”

“Ah, sorry. I’m used to being polite.”

Harvey scoffed, almost chuckled, at that.

“A real gentleman, polite to the ladies, but not the old man, huh?”

I felt my cheeks grow hot, I was probably the color of a tomato.

“Now now, Harvey, don’t tease the sweet kid.”

“Nah, seeing Six all red and nervous is cute.” Pax chimed in.

I thought it was impossible, but somehow it got even hotter in the room.

‘I’m going to die of embarrassment.’

Jo just laughed.

The day went by rather quickly, Mrs. Mc-, I mean Kate and I found a few seeds and big, long pots for planting. We had found a small room in the kitchen perfect as a ‘farm-room’ The UV lamp in the room was flickering, but somehow working. Kate and I both agreed we’d had a productive day.

“DAMN PUMP!”

Harvey wasn’t as fortunate, the work on the water pump was going slowly. He was very stubborn about accomplishing it himself. The boiler room was on the opposing side of the main room, at the end of the hallway uniting the bunkrooms.

I decided to peek into the boiler room, just to check up on Harvey. I had brought a snack, a sandwich. Pax and Joseph had calculated that we had enough food for at most six months so a small snack was all we could do for lunch.

“Erm, Harvey?”

I apparently spooked him, because as soon as I spoke up, Harvey jumped and hit his head from under the pump’s water container.

“Ow, fuck!” He exclaimed.

I put down the tray with the sandwich on a reasonably clean and mess-free surface and rushed forward to check up on Harvey.

“I’m fine, just fine!” Harvey put out a hand towards me, stopping me in my tracks.

“Sorry” I practically whispered.

He sighed and nodded. “It’s fine kid.”

An uncomfortable and awkward silence surrounded us. But Harvey soon spoke up.

“What’ya want, kid?”

‘This will be an interesting mission; trying to help Harvey without hurting his ego.’

“Erm, I’m done with my chores so I just… I thought maybe y’know, you could teach me how to fix the pump?”

‘Smooth dude.’

Harvey eyed me, looking up and down, with narrowed eyes. He could probably see right through my lie. He grumbled and hummed.

“Okay, kid. Only this once.”

I let out a sigh, not realizing I had held my breath. I kneeled next to Harvey and started listening to his teaching. He might’ve seemed annoyed and frustrated by the fact he ‘HAD’ to teach me but he explained vividly and answered any questions I had, he even seemed to enjoy teaching me. Although I’d never tell him that, I would like to live for my 20th birthday.

Before we knew it, it was dinnertime, and Harvey and I had fixed the pump. I was happy to help, and Harvey was happy to relieve his back and knees.

“You did good, kid.”

Harvey’s comment circulated in my mind. When was the last time my dad praised my work? It gave me an uneasy feeling, but I tried to ignore it and think of Harvey’s statement. It had been full of fondness, he seemed… proud. It warmed my chest, I never thought such a half-assed and simple compliment could make me this happy.

After dinner, it was time for bed, and for the first time in weeks, I didn’t wake up due to a nightmare.

[gb-patch]

I'm sorry if this is rude to ask, but gb-patch is an inspiration. I was wondering how you managed to reach so many people with your VN's when others don't get as much attention? Is most of it from steam &itch.io downloads or patreon & kickstarts? :) Did a lot marketing go into it?

I'm afraid I don't really know. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes someone find a game and what makes them play it. For solid answers, Steam is where most of our downloads/views come from and we didn't do anything notable with the marketing ourselves. We didn't buy ads or have a strategy, we just posted updates on social media/game pages and gave out a few review copies to people who asked for them. However, we were very kindly asked to be a part of the Visual Novel Reading Room at the Indie MEGABOOTH for Pax East 2019. Bringing our demo to a real convention was super cool and something most games don't get to do. But it was outside of our control, it was other people's generosity that let that happen.

Now, to at least make some guesses on why good things did happen for us, Our Life might've been a right time right place kind of situation. It came out in 2020 when people were in isolation. A nice slice-of-life story with freedom of choice and no real consequences seemed to be welcome by a lot of players. It also might've helped give us a boost at the start that OL wasn't our first game. We were a company that had already been around for years and slowly each day new people happened to see our stuff over that long period, so there was a base of people to check out Our Life from the get go.

Our Life is also a little odd in terms of how it presents itself. It can be very hard to convince people that your story is worth reading/your characters are worth getting to know. If your info is too long, people may not read it, if it's too short it might be too vague or seem shallow. Plus, you're compared to all the other VN stories/casts people could also be playing. Our Life's store pages only barely mention two of the characters and the "story" is basically just setting up how there isn't really one. All the focus went fully into what the player would get to do for themselves if they gave it a shot. They'd get to make their own character, they'd get to grow up over multiple time periods, they'd get to control the relationship, they'd get to live a nice life and enjoy some cathartic emotions, etc. It was those features that Our Life was being considered by, and there's a lot less competition in that arena. Then, when we got players who knew that those elements were something they wanted the try in the door, the game I guess pulled off what was promised well enough to make them happy and the characters they ended up meeting were ones they enjoyed getting to know.

But I could be entirely wrong. Marketing is a mysterious thing, haha.

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