#BUT THE FUCKING SCENE IN ORION?

[sernik-krakowski]

Just finished orion and uuuh

[hercarisntyours]

I'm better than you. I'm better than you in everyway except you have hope. You always have; you went back into the mine to rescue Jazz, you snuck up to the surface to find the matrix of leadership. My point is that your instincts tell you to break protocol.. for a reason. This blind optimism that you have is why you make such bold, and courageous choices. That are also extremely stupid. You're inspiring. You can envision a better future, that no one else can see, and if we ever want to see B and D 16 again, that. that is the Orion Pax, that we need right now. Listen to me, we can do this.

[sunsetzer]

Good morning everyone I'm currently thinking about how Orion was the first person Megatron killed and crying into my cereal :')

[ungodlysaltyinfrastructure]

Ok, thought ramble that's been brewing in my head cuz I'm seeing parallels.

I want to specifically focus on ep 16 17. The Mark death scene and Alux's panic attack. Because I feel like I can make connections between Orion (Righty) and Mark.

Right now, I can find at least 4 things that they both have in their character.

1. Lost their *Right* arm (obvious visual parallel)

2. Both first confront one of our co main character about a grievance they have for have observed

3. Then comfort our main co characters

4. Then are either already or have now become loyal to our co main characters

Both interacting essentially follow the same beat.

First, the confrontation, where both Mark and Orion seemingly point out a character flaw they have observed from Petro's and Alux's behavior respectively.

(Petro letting power get to him in Mark's eyes, and Alux running away from his responsibilities in Orion's eyes.)

Then Petro and Alux both lash out in a way.

(Petro becoming possessed and… accidentally killing Mark >_>, and Alux having a nervous mental breakdown.)

Then finally, after a moment, Mark and Orion comfort Petro and Alux. Both echoing the same sentiments of “Don't cry” “it's okay” “I'm here for you right now.”

The only few differences I can surmise from this is that

1. Mark was already loyal to Petro before this interaction while Orion *became loyal to Alux by promising to keep his secret

And

2. The reason Petro's case is so much more severe than Alux is because he's still in the cycle of abuse from the Wisp. Alux had already escaped from Cozen and had now found a support system for himself.

Now, it may be a far stretch, but there is a theory that Orion was actually a part of the “Cult” that is about the Wisp that Petro is currently in right now. That's how he would have lost his right arm. If he was a part of the Cult and tried to leave, he may have been punished to some degree for doing so before escaping.

I say this because…, Mark wasn't able to survive. He died on screen. If we go with the idea that Orion had survived and escaped the Cult of the Wisp, then with Mark's death. It implies that the Wisp has grown stronger. (Assuming the theory is correct to some degree and that the Wisp was the one who took Orion's arm away.)

Just some connections…

[mollyencrypted]

So, about those storyboards, huh?

[guiltypleasureswriting]

Day 30: Written Apr 17, 2024

Part 19

CW: Major character death (not permanent), depictions of drowning, and water zombies (inferi)

“Go.” Regulus commanded. Kreacher disappeared and Regulus was alone. Alone and dying from the Dark Lord’s cruel potion.

He ached in every limb. The burning spread throughout his body and his head was boiling. 

Where his eyes open? He couldn’t tell. Everything was so dark.

His throat. It hurt. It hurt. It was itching. No, it felt raw like a scraped knee. He needed something. What did he need?

Something cool and wet touched his fingers. Wet. Water.

He needed water.

Water.

Water.

There. He was already touching it. His hand was submerged in the lake.

He scrambled. Desperate.

Water.

He felt it. On his face. In his mouth. Down his throat.

Oh the water. So lovely.

His wrists were wet. His head. The back of his neck.

His shoulders.

His chest.

It wasn’t just water. There was something else on him. Grabbing him.

Pulling Him.

He was weightless. No crystals pressing into his knees.

His lungs burned. He needed to breathe. He expanded his chest.

And water rushed down his throat, into his lungs. No. No.

He struggled. But something-someone stopped him. He tried to shake the hands off, but they wouldn’t let go. Then more hands joined. He felt their slimy skin against his.

This wasn’t exactly what he expected to happen, but this wasn’t any worse than the potion.

He stopped struggling.

There was a sharp blast of light and heat and the hands left him. Alone. Then he was gone.

beginning | previous | next [edit:mostly abandoned]

Notes/thoughts under the cut:

The formatting doesn't work on tumblr so imagine some really dramatic indents.

This was actually really fun to write cuz it's just Regulus' thoughts and nothing else. So I was kind of writing nonsense but I think it works.

I also want to mention that I changed my blog rules (? I don't know what to call it). When I first started posting it felt very personal and I didn't want to deal with any criticism whether it was good or bad. Now I feel a lot more confident with all the amazing interactions I've had. So I'd love to hear any feedback you might have especially headcanons or theories on this series (cuz I need ideas).

Also, if you want to be added to a tag list like @zn0v1a (my biggest fan tbh <3) just comment, reblog, etc.

Thank you all so much for the support!

@zn0v1a

[neolxzr]

I need to get back into working on my hnk enstars au too now that friends are talking about it,,,might work on it with neptune if they're down or some others idk

THATD BE SO COOL i love seeing hnk enstars wahhhh............ive been meaning to draw something related to that but i have been SO artblocked for the longest time now ack maybe one day

[lord-squiggletits]

Ahhhhh I really didn't imagine it, I still dislike Barber's way of writing Orion/Optimus just as much as I did on the first reading and all it took was rereading a few screencaps from one specific scene.

Literally I don't know which part annoys me more: Jetfire existing in the background solely to go "ORION PAX FUCKING SUCKS AND IS A HYPOCRITE", Orion being written like an edgy asshole who hates everyone, or Soundwave talking like an unhinged terrorist and the narrative expecting me to see Orion as the hypocrite for using violence to arrest terrorists.

Soundwave is seriously like "You have no proof we assassinated the Senate, but if we did assassinate the Senate it would've been justified, but also totally trust us bro, just because we could've hypothetically murdered the entire reigning government doesn't mean that we're violent bro come on just bc we assassinated-- I mean could have hypothetically had the means and cause to kill like a hundred people doesn't mean we were gonna kill anyone else, come on bro why are you calling us violent just bc we think some murder is okay" while Jetfire is in the background like "WOW ORION I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE WILLING TO BE VIOLENT IN RESPONSE TO OTHER PEOPLE BEING VIOLENT. YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR OWN SIDE'S FLAWS EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE LITERALLY DOING AN INVESTIGATION TO DECIDE WHETHER ONE OF YOUR COPS COMMITTED AN UNJUSTIFIED KILLING OR NOT. YOU HAVE DONE LITERALLY NOTHING TO TRY AND FIGHT THE CORRUPTION IN SOCIETY." (Jetfire had no way of knowing about OP and crew fighting the Senate's schemes in Shadowplay and Elegant Chaos, but as a reader it's very frustrating seeing Orion getting lambasted as never having done anything to fight society's corruption when he literally did, and by the time he was even working for Zeta Megatron was already evil and had the whole Senate assassinated.)

Like ughhhh oh my god I could have maybe enjoyed this story under a better writer but as it's written it's some "yet you participate in society, curious" levels of political commentary where at least one character seemingly only exists in the scene to shit on OP (something that happens a lot in Barber's works, like with Pyra Magna and Slide) and where OP is framed as a hypocritical asshole for a reaction that's very understandable given the context.

And also it's weird because Barber wants so badly for you to read Orion as some sort of hypocrite for being against terrorist activities but being willing to employ violence himself to arrest terrorists, yet... it turns out the big twist of the story is that the Decepticons WERE smuggling weapons and Soundwave DID lie to Orion (even if it was unintentionally), thus vindicating Orion's entire distrustful attitude? Like, it seems as if it was supposed to be an ACAB story showing how evil the police are for killing people and how Orion (as a cop) is evil for being a cop that uses violence on behalf of the state. Except uh. Then Barber wrote a plot where the Decepticons literally were smuggling weapons all along (and this is alongside lore from Megatron: Origin where we as the readers know for a fact the Decepticons/Starscream killed the Senate) so.... Like, it just seems to me that if Barber wanted to write an ACAB story about how the state monopoly on violence is bad, he probably shouldn't have written the Decepticons as actually being terrorists who literally did lie about smuggling weapons?

I feel like a better way to write an ACAB/anti-state-monopoly-on-violence would've been to like, explore the way that states take advantage of catastrophe/using scapegoat political movements to gather more power to themselves and justify removing citizens' rights with "it's an emergency, we're taking away your freedoms to protect everyone." Like, maybe Zeta passes some law saying that officers can search citizens without a warrant, which he justifies with the fact that Decepticon terrorism is so rampant that officers need immediate permission to conduct raids/searches. Except this is obviously a problem because people have a right to privacy, and probably the cops are super overzealous and end up arresting innocent people without cause (like idk, maybe just being friends with someone who is sympathetic to the Decepticons gets someone landed in jail? Maybe Jetfire gets arrested bc he's critical of the state and has hung out with Decepticon sympathizers before). So then Orion has an actual "are we the baddies?" moment where he wants to stop the bad people, but he realizes that his side are infringing on people's citizens and justifying police brutality for the sake of a nebulous "greater good," and that even though he and his cops were given greater power to supposedly "protect citizens," in practice they're actually doing great harm to citizens by invading their privacy, creating a surveillance state, and imprisoning people without just cause? Basically "we were given this power to stop terrorists from hurting civilians, but now we're hurting civilians too so are we actually doing any good?" Because that way Orion and his cops would ACTUALLY be in the wrong and their state monopoly on violence would be an actually widespread institutional thing where they're clearly being allowed to do bad things just because they're cops. Not just Orion investigating one singular police killing.

But with the story written as "Orion suspected the Decepticons of murdering the Senate (he's correct about this) but still investigated one of his officers to see if he committed a wrongful murder (literally him paying attention to his own side's wrongdoings, Jetfire), and it turns out the Decepticons WERE smuggling weapons and doing terrorism (Orion was correct about this)" it's just.......... like, Orion may not be morally correct, but his hunches/investigations about the suspected criminal activity were literally correct. AND HE WAS WILLING TO DO THIS INVESTIGATION IN THE FIRST PLACE. But for some reason he's still framed as if he's an asshole for this? Even though this is a point in the pre-war lore where Megatron won't back down from violence and has lost his way from his original pure intentions, so it's not like Orion can just go "let's put down our weapons and be friends and mutually trust each other to not stab each other in the back."

It just feels as if Barber's intentions to write an ACAB story where Orion is framed as being too judgmental and quick to be violent don't line up with the actual events of the story. The story is desperately trying to call Orion a hypocrite, but he really just seems as if he's reacting understandably to the events that are happening around him, so there's a real dissonance here where I don't understand why the ACAB story had the cops be right about the Decepticons committing terrorism, and I'm also supposed to see Orion as an asshole for correctly not trusting the Decepticons???

[ccccatttta]

jegulus fic where james is a youtuber/streamer who does all sorts of pretty crazy pranks and people ADORE him because he's totally shameless.

one day he gets dared to crash a wedding and oppose it, pretending to be in love with either the groom or the bride.

and even though his editor (and bestest friend) remus told him that that's fucking insane, james still chose to do it bc he's a menace. but he does promise to cut it all off if things get messy.

james gets everything ready and, after stalking some of his old school classmates, he finds that one of them is attending a wedding (it's mulciber, who james remembers to despise back then, so it's a win-win situation), which means his plan is all set.

by fate, and fate only, this wedding is regulus' and some girl's his parents chose for him (and mulciber was invited bc his family is very close to the black's)

and obviously, this is a clear forced marriage, regulus would rather kill himself than marry a girl, he's as gay as they come.

[for sake of the plot, sirius and james don't know each other at all, didn't go to school together either, and sirius didn't run away and is also livid with his parents for marrying reg off, but there wasn't anything he could do]

so! prank day, james is live the moment he, very dramatically, stands up and proclaims his love for this.... regulus guy, and how he knows he promised to not come but he just couldn't handle the thought of the love of his life being married to someone else (his followers thought he was going to claim to love the bride, but james found the groom way too cute and he just couldn't hold himself back, he's just a guy)

the 30 seconds of pure silence and shock that follow are almost enough to make james break character and start laughing like crazy.

regulus, who's flabbergasted by the way, knows immediately that it's a prank. however, this might as well be a sign of the gods, because, what are the chances that this (very handsome) random man, chose HIS wedding out of all, and targeted HIM to be the one he "loves"? way to many coincidences.

also, did he mention the dude is unbelievably fit?

he makes a choice right there.

using all his acting abilities, he makes a whole scene tearing up and running to him. it's so well done, james for a second believes they are actual lovers.

hell breaks at that moment, walburga goes absolutely nuts along with orion and their side of the family. the bride's family start a fight, and between the commotion regulus sees his brother laughing maniacally after their mother yells at regulus to stop playing games or he will get disowned.

james, who thinks that this is now along the lines of things getting messy, is about to announce it's all a prank, when regulus sees right through him, panics, and just whispers "im going to kiss you now, sorry" before snogging the life out of him.

remus, who's the camera guy, cuts the live right there.

james, oh james, he doesn't quite hear the screech walburga lets out because this backfired so bad, but jesus chirst can this regulus kiss. this is love at first sight. love at first prank, if you may.

regulus knowing stuff is about to get bad, just grabs james' hand and runs for it. james just follows, he's dizzy. remus also follows because he's NOT getting involved in all that, he's actually quitting james.

sirius follows too, if his little brother is finally disowned, there's no reason to stay, thank you very much.

anyways, this whole idea was just because i want james followers to see his channel thumbnails going:

CRASHING A RANDOM WEDDING 💍 PRANK #56

to

how i met the love of my life ; Q&A

and

REG AND I ARE GETTING MARRIED (im sealing all entries so no-one can crash it) — VLOG

bye

[yuukirita]

EMPURATABEE!! I need D-16 and Orion's reaction to this scary but cute one-eyed crab!

Overall I need a lot more from this AU because it's fucking sad in every way no matter how you look at it, They literally took away from Bee everything that made him Bee!

C:

C:<

but also can you imagine all Bee's scenes in the movie and how illarious they are if he's just pretty much outwardly emotionless/silent. He just silently walking towards Elita in the train to calm her down and she punches him in the eye- (like she did Shockwave lmaoooo) moments later on the train he's the first to turn around and run to the door on the train-

I know it's a sad angsty au. But I'm great at making yall laugh trought the tears.

[ace-and-ranty]

In retrospect, the scene of El going down the library stacks trying to get to Orion is so funny, because. She's doing such grim, survivalist, cold mental gymnastics to try and make sense of the school behavior. Over the course of it, El thinks the Scholomance is:

Trying to keep her from helping Orion so it can finish killing him

Accidentally loosing an invaluable, literally priceless, world-changing treasure to her in the attempt

Bribing her with an opportunity to show off, if only she lets the Mawmouth go devour all the little children

When in reality, what it was doing was:

Trying to keep El away from the Mawmouth, because its fucking job is to protect her.

Giving her a book that's already been paid for by her parents. It is literally just handing over her inheritance.

Asking for her help killing the Mawmouth, so it doesn't go devour all the little children.

It's. It's so funny. El is basically a cat trying to eat a piece of plastic, fighting against its helpless owner that just wants to help. She accused the school of trying to kill Orion whilst it was busy trying to save her fucking life. Herding teenagers: the world's most thankless job.

[coefore]

Looking back on, D-16 always had a violent side he suppressed, but Starscream is the one that planted the idea that violence gets you somewhere, technically tfone's equivalent of Whirl's role in IDW

Sorry this is not going to touch on SS or Whirl at all lol

I will write maybe an unpopular opinion, but it seems to me that many people have latched onto the idea that D16 has "always had a violent side" and I really dislike it. The point of his character was that he was meek, remissive, careful and/or fearful of authority. That's not because of any deeper meaning other than 'I was born in this society and that's just how things are'.

I have seen times where the fact that he is 'violent' in his words with Orion is a smoking gun to point SEE! SEE! THAT'S MEGATRON, but it isn't. Megatron is born out of violence in a world that has completely destroyed the character's, D16, own framework of reference. The seeds of Megatron exist as soon as D16's worldview is completely destroyed: he has lived a lie his entire life, and he has been a good stupid boy the entire time. It is an insulting feeling; it is complacency. So, he stops caring because nothing makes sense anymore. Then, if nothing makes sense anymore, you might as well set it all up in flames, right?

D16's main characteristics are frustration and escapism. His quick turn to violence is freaky to Orion because he has never been violent before.

Coming from a culture that is very vocal and direct with friends/family, the way D16 speaks to Orion is very similar to how I myself talk to my friends and family: I do tell my friends that I might just beat them up for a stupid joke. So do they to me. That's normal, that's not seen as violent at all, it's just cathartic. It's just... whatever really. I didn't even think that could be picked up as a "this guy is violent!" because he doesn't do anything else that is intrinsically violent in how he acts with other people: sure he can be sassy, mistrusting, a bit rude but he is not violent.

The "punch" scene, if analysed, is 1) comedic, as the punch is the literal punchline 2) D16 is doing it to protect Orion from worse repercussions, because he knows how hard he is going to punch his friend lol 3) D16 punches Orion and the guy isn't angry, or upset, or even cares at all about that, implying that's just how they behave with one another. These dudes are two jocks. Jock on jock violence is just communication babyyyy 4) he literally gets punched for his friend lol????

The thing with implying that D16 has always been violent and/or 'evil' (fucking... fucking hate the word... kills character analysis tbh uugh) removes the focus of his character besides him being this guy from that franchise: anyone can become Megatron. Because anyone can be D16.

[krussyarts]

Prequel of sorts to this!!

Yapping under cut

I had this idea of wanting to mirror this ↓

with shattered glass Orion. I love my yuri toxic and fucked up though, so she went for Dee's arm on purpose! And then gaslights Dee about it. Ofc! She's just getting her girlfriend a nice gift, it's Dee's fault for getting in the way of it 🥺

They are androids in this btw! To explain the pink blood.

Anyway so uhm. I was listening to "The Fall" and a scene came to be in my head so now I'm gonna try to do an animatic. My first one! Wish me luck! I'll need it.. haha..mhm..

[keferon]

Swindle would…could…should visit.  It’s not like before, when Blurr had been injured or in hospital racing and they were separated by living their lives in very different circumstances.  Before, when the best Swindle could do was find out on the news like everyone else and maybe send a card, because he needed to be where he was told to be in mecha.  Or find out about minor incidents that never made news some indeterminate amount of time later when his and Blurr’s lives met at one of their rare intersections.  But something still holds him back.

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

Swindle doesn’t go back to the hospital in the immediate aftermath of the mecha collapse.  He tells himself that it’s because he’s busy.  And he is busy.

There’s Shockwave looking to take advantage.  Use the destruction to overwrite everything Swindle and Onslaught have been working towards with his own vision.  Keeping him at bay is taking nearly all of Swindle’s resources on the public front and Onslaught’s time behind the scenes.

And then there’s the more mundane aspects of business that still need to be handled.  Construction contracts for rebuilding.  Recognition of emergency responders.  Resources for impacted staff.  Assisting the incident investigation.  Redefining protocols for responding to attacks so that mecha can’t get caught by such a trap again.  All that paperwork makes it’s way through Swindle – sooner or later – and he has to deal with it.

And finally there’s Blurr himself.  Swindle is managing Blurr’s hospital bills.  His publicity agents.  The press conferences that were already scheduled.  Advertising deals.  The restoration of Blurr’s mech exterior.  And all the while trying to downplay to everyone involved the severity of the incident.

So yes, Swindle’s busy.  But even amidst his busy schedule, he’d found time when Blurr first called.  Had found something in that brief conversation, in just knowing his friend was still alive – even as it was too short, as Blurr’s voice faded too quickly into exhaustion.  He’s found time since – both to call Blurr about relevant decisions (even when it wasn’t strictly necessary) and to take Blurr’s calls.  And he’s noticed how Blurr’s voice has gotten stronger, their conversations longer.  The calls more frequent and now interspersed with hints at Blurr’s boredom.

Swindle would…could…should visit.  It’s not like before, when Blurr had been injured or in hospital racing and they were separated by living their lives in very different circumstances.  Before, when the best Swindle could do was find out on the news like everyone else and maybe send a card, because he needed to be where he was told to be in mecha.  Or find out about minor incidents that never made news some indeterminate amount of time later when his and Blurr’s lives met at one of their rare intersections. 

This is different.  He and Blurr are not just friends, but business partners now.  Have been working in the same place, at the same job.  There is nothing and no one physically stopping Swindle from seeing Blurr during his recovery. 

No one but himself.  A part of Swindle finds it easier to sell the lies he has to go out and tell – that Blurr’s condition is overexaggerated, that everything will be fine – when he hasn’t physically seen any of the evidence to the contrary.  Even as his mind also knows this is not true. 

Swindle was a pilot long enough to see the results of enough mech crashes, particularly under the old safety systems, where the pilot couldn’t or didn’t walk away.  It was never fucking pretty.  It was more than Swindle had ever wanted to see or know.

Swindle had thought they were changing all that.  The new safety systems should have changed that.  They were designed to prevent deaths and injuries.  Like Orion’s, Shockwave’s, Vortex’s.  Blurr’s. 

And yet.  Swindle glances again at the report on the top of the pile on his desk.  The report that does credit the newer safety systems with saving lives – with saving Tailgate’s life.

Only…it wasn’t enough.  The only reason there weren’t any confirmed casualties didn’t come down only to safety systems, but to no small amount luck.  Because what happened to Blurr – trapped, half crushed, in a burning mech – is a nightmare that’s haunted Swindle since the old days, the days before he and Blurr had ever first met.  And Swindle knows as bad as Blurr’s condition was when he was pulled from the building, it could have been worse – could have been much, much worse.  (Could have been dead.)

So, Swindle isn’t sure he wants to see Blurr.  Is afraid of what he might find if he actually looks too closely at his friend.  Is perhaps more afraid that despite the frequent phone calls, despite what Blurr says, he doesn’t really want to see Swindle. 

Because, having now worked closely with Blurr and observed his interactions, Swindle is more certain than ever that Blurr knows how to act – how to say the part that he’s expected to say, and keep close the full knowledge of whatever else it is he knows.  And if that is to act the part of a continued friend to his boss, would that really be so different from every other act Swindle’s witnessed since Blurr joined mecha? 

And Swindle isn’t even sure he could blame Blurr if it was.  Because Blurr is only here – was only ever here – because of him.  Which means what happened is because of him, doesn’t it?  But what would have happened if Blurr hadn’t been there?  How many lives would have been lost?  How much blood spilled?  Swindle’s own?  When now there had been hardly any.  Hardly any except for that of one of the only friends Swindle’s ever had.  Was it worth it, in the end?  What they’ve gained for mecha pilots compared to what might now be lost for Blurr?

That’s a thought Swindle tries very hard not to think about.  Because he knows there’s no good answers.  There never were.  There never will be.  So, he tries to push those thoughts to the back of his mind under the sea of other tasks that need handling.  But they always floats back to the surface no matter how hard he tries to keep them at bay.

A knock at the door mercifully pulls Swindle from his thoughts.

“It’s late.”

Swindle looks up to see Onslaught standing in the doorway, the hallway behind him darkened.  Reflexively, Swindle feels himself relax slightly and realizes his hand is loosening a grip on the edge of the report on the mecha collapse.  He runs a hand over the edges, attempting to smooth out the crumpled paper while Onslaught watches.

“You going to go?”  Onslaught asks the question in the same manner he’s always handled information regarding Swindle and Blurr’s friendship – without judgement or condemnation.

Only this time – this time the neutrality stings.  Stings because Swindle feels guilty regardless, guilty for staying, guilty at the thought of going.  And perhaps he wants someone else to recognize that guilt too.  Wishes it could be as easy as someone else telling him what the right thing to do is, when it feels like everything he’s done and everything he’s thinking of doing is wrong.

“I—” Swindle begins.

“Don’t tell me you can’t,” Onslaught interrupts.  “Or at least, don’t tell me it’s because you’re too busy.”

Because we both know it’s not true.

Swindle tags the words on to the end even though Onslaught doesn’t say them.  And he realizes, looking at Ons, that he knows – at least something of what’s going through Swindle’s mind.  Swindle wonders whether Ons, as the leader of their group, felt the same responsibility -- the same guilt – when one of them was injured, when Vortex was lost (when Vortex died), when Blast Off and Brawl were taken away.

“I don’t know,” Swindle says.

But that’s not entirely true either anymore.  Because Swindle suspects he does know the answer.  Has felt it in the hand on his shoulder, the weight settling on the end of his bed, that carefully neutral tone every time Swindle took a risk – even if he hadn’t ever realized at the time what it was.

Swindle grabs his coat from the hook in his office and makes for the door.  Onslaughts hand rests briefly on his shoulder as he passes.  And Swindle knows.  When he reaches his car, it’s the hospital that he sets for the destination.

------

The few steps it takes to go from the hospital desk, where they’ve assured Swindle that yes Blurr’s awake and receiving visitors, down the hallway to the door of Blurr’s room feel like some of the longest Swindle’s ever taken.  Swindle forces himself through the doorway before he can change his mind and – Blurr, the side of Blurr facing the hospital door…. If Swindle’s being honest with himself, much as he doesn’t want to recognize it – Blurr looks terrible, like he should be dead.  Swindle’s worst fear, in the flesh. 

But then Blurr turns.  And he looks…alive.  As alive as Swindle’s ever seen him.  A light gleaming in his eye as he recognizes who it is that’s standing in the doorway.

“Swindle!”  Blurr exclaims, pushing himself up so that he’s sitting more than lying against the pillows stacked behind him.

“Come in.  It’s good to see you!”  Blurr waves one hand enthusiastically towards the side of the bed.  Maybe not as fast as the gesture once would have been, but still fast, still Blurr.

It’s been too long, Swindle thinks.  As it always has been between their meetings.  But maybe not too late, this time. 

Swindle smiles as he pulls a chair up to the bedside. And as it always has been, Blurr's equally bright smile beams back at him.

AH FUCK THIS HURTS SO GOOD KFKFKFJNFHFHDGDGDOUFHF. I LOVE HOW MANY LAYERS THIS STORYLINE IS GETTING ITS LIKE A FUCKING ONION THAT WE ALL CAN COLLECTIVELY CUT AND THEN CRY

………..anon when I get you. When I geT YOU ANON

[muletia]

I absolutely adore your yandere Optimus ideas because oh man the absolute pining has this man on a chokehold pls akdhdjfjf I keep remembering that one scene of Jack asking if Optimus wants to see something funny and Arcee comforted him to not take Optimus’ rejection personal, he probs would do the same with us in front of others when he’s busy, but deep inside Optimus is screeching and regrets how he rejected you because it’s just his autopilot response ok his affection feels super foreign the big guy isn’t used to it! Dw he’ll make it up later once it’s just the two of you 😔 maybe it shall be the time his inner Orion resurfaces— only in front of you, tho.

Cue Ratchet doing the bombastic side-eye when he picks up Optimus’ old tendencies before his prime era whenever bossbot greets you afterwards

that scene is so fucking funny and for what lmao, the way he says 'no' gets me every time

and he absolutely would be very blunt with you, especially at the beginning of his obsession, when he hasn’t fully figured out his feelings yet, he doesn’t know what’s happening to him or why he reacts so strongly just to your presence. maybe you want to talk to him about a movie that recently caught your attention, and optimus, with complete seriousness and zero hint of interest, responds 'no', because he was reprogrammed that way after becoming a prime. but out of the corner of his optics, he sees that you’re disappointed by his answer, that you’re sad, and he starts to feel worried, and disappointed in himself, because he cares about you, but he literally doesn’t know how to communicate differently (yet).

he’ll definitely try to make it up to you later when you’re alone. that’s when he’ll show his other, hidden side, bringing you closer, because, as we all know, nothing bonds two people like a shared secret.

next time, he’ll make an effort not to be so blunt with you, and ratchet will definitely notice — he knows optimus too well to miss such a drastic behavior change. from that point on, he’ll start watching him closely, because optimus is acting very sus...

[infamous-if]

So sorry for the delay! ! My VS Code program wasn't calibrated with CSIDE and in the indentions basically messed up. The prologue coding is so wonky that honestly if I do anything I end up fucking up 2839393 lines of code. If you've been following a while, you're probably well aware of much hatred for the prologue's coding lmao but we live and we learn.

Storyline wise, not much has changed. Scenes are largely the same, since I'm pretty happy with what I wrote a year ago. For this rewrite, I focused mainly on the big things like choices that will impact the rest of the story and O's gender selection. Some new things include:

you can now play with Orion or Oriana Quinn

you can now express if the band went through a musical rebrand after seven and what the old genre was (which will come up later).

you can now choose whether mc "changed" after seven and what change that was (there's 4, technically 2, options and a "default" vague option, im open to more options since I wanted to do this but couldn't really think of any believable ones beyond the four).

new mc personality: attached vs detached. your mc can have an extra attachment to the band for obvious reasons, or can feel the opposite.

coordinating outfits can now be exclusive to the band members. your mc can be the unique unicorn of the group since they're the lead singer (this is definitely not gonna bite them in the ass later)

adding to that, your mc's reason for fame can be due to wanting to keep the band together.

a new flavor text feeling about seven is now added which is basically "idk how I feel" instead of hating or loving them, you can just make it that MC's feelings for them is just a big question mark. REALISM!

stat changes: stern/playful -- same thing as humorous/serious I just wanted words that encompassed a wider range of behavior Leader/follower - whether mc takes on the leader role or not camaraderie - a band stat that measures the trust/morale/closeness of the band

u can probably see where im going with the stats huh....

smaller changes include:

more choices and options

prose changes + dialogue additions and expanded/ added scenes

The beta testers have not touched this yet, as I wanted to bring it out to collect some last suggestions, ideas from Patrons. Of course, as always, if you do catch errors, please let me know.

My main concern for errors: O's pronouns. It was a long process but I may have missed a few pronouns here and there. Please let me know if you catch any <3

PROLOGUE: 93K WORDS (for context, the old prologue and chapter 1 were 92k together. The prologue is a tiny bit inflated but :))) 

I will make a post about beta testers soon. I've been quiet on that front because I've been just prioritizing getting this out first.

Now available for Band tier! (6$)