#Giant Stake Gun

[writingwithfolklore]

When Your Antagonist Isn't a Person

Last time I talked about how to character create an antagonist (check it out here if you missed it!) but what happens when your antagonist isn’t a person?

                Antagonists don’t necessarily have to be another character (or even one singular character). Rather, an antagonist is anything that raises the stakes and creates conflict for your protagonist. You will likely find this antagonist in your worldbuilding.

1. What your world may say about your antagonist

                In a survival story, your protagonist will likely be out in the wilderness alone—thus, their antagonist may be creatures, starvation, dehydration, exposure (freezing, sunburn). Or something like a giant storm, or other natural phenomenon/disaster.

                In an urban setting, the antagonist may be the ‘system’ itself; politics, institutions, a way they’ve been disadvantaged or otherwise put down by their world. (Often these systems can be represented by a person, if you so choose).

                And a futuristic world opens up to technology being an antagonist; things aren’t working as they’re meant to, AI has gone wrong, or it’s gone too right—the technology is taking away from what the protagonist wants.

2. Goals and Motivations

Your non-human antagonist may not have goals or motivations, or very basic ones. Does a nasty storm exist to destroy humans? Probably not, it just is as it is. A creature’s goal may be to eat, it’s motivation being that it’s hungry.

However, a system or institution may have deeper goals/motivations. For example, Amazon is a company built to make Jeff Bezos money. Your institution may have a goal it presents to the public, and a true goal (usually monetary, but could also be religiously or politically motivated).

3. Additional sources of conflict

Sometimes non-human antagonists need some extra support to make your character’s life suck. A dangerous storm brewing in the distance is great, but you may also need some additional sources of conflict to keep your character moving until it reaches them.

If your character is taking down Amazon, they may be targeted by police, or drones with guns, or people who live off an Amazon salary, or require the convenience of it.

Often stories without one human antagonist tend to have multiple little antagonists. Survival stories are great for the amount of different conflicts you can throw at a character. You may even introduce small conflicts between other characters, even if those characters aren’t fully antagonists.

Next time I’ll talk about character vs. self, what do you do when your antagonist is also your protagonist?

[trainsinanime]

How various Miraculous Ladybug characters murder you (mostly assuming you deserve it)

I had insomnia last night, probably due to allergies (forgot to take my meds), and somehow I ended up writing this.

The basic assumption for this: You’ve been mortal enemies for half the movie, and now it’s the big action scene where you are about to die. This assumes you're the main henchman, perhaps even the main antagonist, but it can be a 009 type good guy character who dies at the start of the movie as well.

Marinette: She spent the last five minutes of the fight transforming the space into a giant set of traps, full of broken light bulbs, wire and pulley systems and so on that have killed all of your subordinates. You come face to face with her, convinced that you will be the one to finally take her down. But just as you raise your gun, you notice that you have already tripped a tiny wire. For a fraction of a millisecond, you see her grim, determined smile, before you blow up.

Roland: Still has a sub-machine gun from the time he was in the French resistance in World War 2 and knows how to use it.

Kagami: In an honourable duel, you thought you’d won. She’s battered and bruised, lying on the floor, blood coming out of her mouth. So you say “it’s over” and start your final attack. But then she remembers all her friends. Remembers them real hard. And with the renewed strength, she gets up, and runs you through with her sabre. Afterwards she respectfully closes your eyes and tells your family that you loved them.

Chloé: She’s wearing an expensive gold evening gown, and she says, “fine, I’ll do it myself”. Then she grabs a shotgun and starts blasting. There is no warmth in her eyes, no remaining bit of empathy, no warrior’s understanding. She looks at you with the exact same disdain she has for delivery people who got her order wrong. She has no remorse, but killing you will still make her unhappy.

Nino: You get trapped in the cables of his DJ equipment that have been strewn all over the room by the preceding fight. With his last strength, Nino reconnects a plug, creating a sick dub-step sound and also electrocuting you. He’s sad it had to come to this, but it was definitely your own fault.

Tikki: [Removed for being too graphic]

Luka: He bores you to death by talking about your “heart music” and replacing every other sentence with three chords on his guitar.

Lila: You didn’t even know you were fighting. You just take a sip from your drink, and you feel a bit funny. And a bit weird. Maybe you need to sit down. Or lay down. As your vision gets blurry, Lila takes off her mask and wig, and you realise your fatal mistake of letting your guard down. She is the last thing you see as you die in agony.

Sabrina: She’s smiling. She’s got you in a corner, with the knife in her hand, and she’s smiling. She keeps stabbing you, and your screams only make her smile more. There’s blood on her face, and she’s still smiling. Chloé is going to be so pleased with her.

Zoé: You follow her into the dark alley, getting ready to suck her blood and kill her. But then she turns around, and she’s confident, and you realise your fatal mistake: She is this generation’s chosen one, who stands against the vampires and demons and forces of darkness. She is— and then she drives a wooden stake through your heart.

(If your favourite character isn't on here, it's because I eventually managed to fall asleep.)

[sardonic-the-writer]

—a stakeout

SUMMARY | a late night steakout with tangerine has you questioning how you really feel for him

PAIRING | tangerine x reader

REQUESTED | no

WARNING | mentions of guns, hit men, murder, some angst, etc

WORD COUNT | 2k+

AUTHORS NOTES | no spoilers for bullet train! and as much as i love the rivals/enemies to lovers troupe with tange, here's some softer stuff. happy holidays!

🍊 Masterlist 🍊 Navigation 🍊 Rules 🍊

Lemon had done this on purpose.

He had always had the ability to read people well when he wasn't busy talking about that train show of his. You swore he could tell what you were feeling before you did most times—instantly there with a handful of tissues or some reaffirming words before you even knew it. Most times it was real a help.

Most times.

That was all you could think as you stared out a tinted window into the cold night. The leather of the car seat underneath you was warm from hours of constant body heat, your legs surely numb from blood loss by this point.

From next to you sat a tall figure, dressed to the nines per usual. Soft ringlets of messy brown hair fell in his eyes, only ever moving as he let out a big sigh on occasion.

Tangerine rested his head in one hand, the other drumming his fingertips across the steering wheel as he clutched it. Flashes of moonlight would steadily dance over your vision as the luminescence caught sight of the metal rings decorating his fingers.

His rings. Seperate pages in one giant book it often seemed. Each one of them told an individual story throughout his life. The pitch black ring on his pinky? The first time he'd ever gotten into a fist fight on the job, that one had left a mark deep enough in the other guys face to shed buckets of blood. A lucky hit. Tangerine often told that story with pride, boasting that you would still be able to see the scar he left behind to this day.

The chunky gold one situated snugly on his pointer? Lemon had snatched that off a random bloke that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time a few years ago. It had been right when they had first gotten into the business, presenting it to his twin afterward with a clap on the back as a job well done. A sick gift of sorts, but it still managed to make each of them smile when they looked at it.

And that smooth, rose gold band hanging around his chest—dangling loosely on a silver chain? Well that was the reason you were currently sitting in a car in the dead of night.

Lemon was no fool. The moment he had seen you pull out that small gift box for his brother last week, he had recognized that love sick smile on your face. The way your eyes shone with excitement as you practically bounced on the balls of your feet when he went to open it. Lemon should be able to recognize it after all. It was the same look Tangerine got anytime you entered the room.

It was antagonizing for him really. Watching the both of you harbor crushes for each other in your own ways. (Tangerine; constantly checking for texts from you when he was away, using more than enough loving nicknames for you just to see your ears grow red. You; buying anything and everything that reminded you of him, doodling little drawings of the man on the corner of your loose leaf nktebooks at briefings before quickly erasing them.)

Finally he had had enough, pulling you off to the side last night. He had been a bit too rough about it for his liking, but it didn't matter now.

"Here's the plan." He didn't even stop to acknowledge your confused expression, questions surely bubbling on the tip of your tongue. "I'm sick. Very sick. You're not. Tha' stake out tomorrow night? You're goin' on it mate."

"The fuck Lemon?"

"Mate, just trust me. I know you fancy m' brother. Just take th' opportunity."

He had taken your stunned silence as a yes, giving you his best smile before moving on like nothing had happened.

So far, that was the only thing you had been able to focus on the entire time you'd been sitting idle on this hill. Not your target or his friends' late night activity you were supposed to be monitoring. Just re-running things over and over in your mind until you were dizzy with the effort.

All the times you had tried to be subtle with the longing looks and sporadic gifts. All the nights you had lay wide awake staring at the ceiling. Wondering if it would even be possible for someone like him to love you back. How did Lemon know? Were you really that obvious? Did anyone else know?

More importantly, did Tangerine know?

"Alright. S' going on in that lil head of yours (Y/n). Been quiet all night. Not like you."

Tangerine was now facing you. Arm draped around the back of your seat as if preparing to back out of a parking space. Heat from his hand radiated mere inches from your neck, but you pushed your shiver down with a forceful swallow.

"The mission." You shrugged, not moving your gaze from its spot on the window. Hoping that your response would be the end of this conversation.

"Yeah right." Tangerine just snorted. "You've never cared for these kinds of jobs love."

You forced the butterfly in your stomach to be killed off one by one. Refusing to be affected by the nickname.

"Guess I do now." Your shoulders moved with the effort of another shrug.

Tangerines mouths dipped down into a slight frown. He had been looking forward to a night alone with you. Maybe even going to get some food afterwards, even if just under the guise of two friends having a meal together. He would take it. He would take anything involving you at that point if he was being truthful.

Calloused fingers gently cradled your chin, softly gripping it as Tangerine turned your head to face him. You finally got a proper look at him, seeing the way his baby blue eyes rippled with concern as they traced unseeable patterns on your face. You were so focused on his intense stare that you forgot to remind yourself not to lean into his hand.

"You alright love?"

It would be so easy to kiss him. Just a little stretch of your neck and—

"I'm fine." His hand fell away from your face as you jerked yourself away. You almost immediately regretted it, wanting nothing more to feel him against you for a moment more.

"(Y/n)—"

"I'm just peachy Tan." You snapped, suddenly feeling angry. "Can we get back to our jobs now? You know. The thing we came here to do?"

Tangerine felt his own face flare up with anger. A rare feeling when it came directed at you.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He frowned with a bit more bite to his tone than he intented. The sound of it made a flicker of regret cross your face before it was replaced with a scowl. "Seriously, who fucken pissed in your oatmeal this mornin?"

"Oh like you don't fucking know." Your own teeth grit against each other as you glared at him. The both of you now locked in a heated staring match. It wouldn't be a suprise if the windows started to fog up. The car certainly seemed like it was a lot hotter than it had been a few minutes ago.

"What, so I can fucken read your mind now?" He ran a hand through his hair in a jerky movement. The way your heart fluttered at his disheviled state drove another molten spike of rage into your heart, frustrated with yourself for finding him attractive even in the middle of an argument.

"Sometimes I really hate you Tan." You hissed. How it had gotten to this point you had no idea. But each word was like a nail to the heart for you.

"Yeah? Well, you're not exactly a joy ta be around all the time either, sunshine."

"And that's another thing!" You were full on yelling now, probably looking like a crazy person to any passing cars as you threw your hands in the air. "Stop fucking calling me those names! I bet you think you can just charm your way into anyone's pants with that huh?"

"When the fuck did I ever say anything like that!? And I thought you liked the nicknames for fucks sake!"

"I do!" You hissed with clenched fists. "The problem is I like them too fucking much! I like you too fucking much Tan! And it's killing me knowing I can't do a single goddamn thing about it!"

It was only after it was already out there did you realize what you had really said.

"Fuck. Listen—"

You didn't get any farther than that before Tangerine slammed his lips into your own. A sound of muffled suprise made it past your lips before it was quickly swallowed by him, along with the rest of your breath. The faint feeling of something prickly ticking your upper lip sang in your head as you realized it was his mustache, resulting in a silent sort of laughter. Teeth clicked against each other harshly before you reached up to rest a hand on his jaw and the other in his hair, steadying his pace to a softer, more tender one.

He only broke away in time for you to notice how fuzzy your head was becoming at the lack of oxygen. Gasping for breath, you brushed a hand over your lips. As if checking to make sure that had really just happened. Or maybe to keep the moment bottled up forever, solidifying it with the graze of your fingers.

Both of you took a moment, panting for breath as a way to fill the silence.

"Did you just—?"

"Yeah."

"Did we just—?"

"Sure did."

"And that means you're—?"

"If you ask anymore questions I might have to kiss you again (Y/n)."

The smile in his voice shone through. You allowed yourself one as well, eyes watering.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that for." The englishman sighed, resting his elbows on his thighs as he watched you stare star struck at him. "Please tell me I didn't seriously misread the situation there." He added on as an afterthought with a chuckle, already knowing the answer as he looked deep into your eyes.

"I'm sorry Tangerine." The sudden apology left you with a breathy quality. Tears were threatening to fall at a rapid pace now, one or two escaping. You couldn't tell if they were from remorse or joy. "I didn't mean that. Any of it."

"What about th' part where you confessed your undying love for me?"

He laughed as you went to hit him in the chest playfully, noting how the tears in the corner of your eyes began to disappear.

"You know what I meant. And I did no such thing." Your efforts to conceal a smile were fruitless for once. "You just got lucky this time."

"This time?" He reached a hand out to brush the pad of his thumb across your cheek with a sudden fondness. "Nah. Been plenty lucky for a while now, love."

"Sap." You mummbled, closing your eyes with a sigh as he continued to leave soft strokes against your skin.

"Just for you darling."

You really would have to thank Lemon when you got back home.

[therobotmonster]

In honor of he who died and rose after three days in the grave and now grants life ever lasting to his followers I thought it only right I got into the spirit once. So Dracula, this one's for you:

Just look at it.

You have what appears to be (and is) an accountant being menaced by boobalicious vampire women twice his size, so he's got Ethan Winters beaten to the punch by 34 years. But don't be fooled. One glance into his 30-yard stare and its obvious why only Mr. Weems can stop these sinister She-Vampires:

Weems is dead on the inside yet still living, where the she-vampires are animated from within with life, while dead.

He is their antithesis.

So yeah, a pile of jank with a fun name crossed my path, and now you all have to hear about it. If you're not hitting 'J', you have no one to blame but yourself.

Released on a scad of systems, but mostly the ZX Spectrum and the C64, The Astonishing Adventures of Mr. Weems & the She-Vampires is a sort of 'Gauntroidvania'. It's also trying to push the limits of how titillating a pre-NES era game could be, though the C64 port's interface missed that memo.

The hacked c64 version was the one I played, but giantbomb had a lot of gifs from the ZX verison that I've upscaled for demonstration purposes.

The only bit of story is from the back package. Weems wants to feel something, so he's decided to take on the Great She-Vampire or die in her buxom grasp. Fair.

This game is not recommended for people with epilepsy, dignity, or in general.

Mr. Weems has a garlic gun to defend his ever-dropping blood supply (vampire hunter is an odd professon with anemia) and destroy the baddies...

All three of them, which are all introduced on the first screen!

You've got bats, they pop out of pots and attack you.

The manual says these guys are Frankenstein's' monsters, but they're clearly the giant from Twin Peaks trying to warn you that you've bought a dud.

On the C64, the lesser she-vampires are clearly based on Dracula's brides, whereas on the ZX, they're more like ghosts with big naturals.

Which means that to get both kinds of vampire babe from the secondary cover, you'd have to buy a cassette for your c64, and and for your ZX. And I don't mean a cartridge, I mean a, Cassette tape.

If you manage to stalk your way all the way to the end and find the gear you need to destroy her, the Great She-Vampire awaits:

There's no boss fight, but there is a 1 pixel nip, at least on the ZX spectrum.

From there you book it back the way you came, only every screen now has a she-vampire chasing you in a murderous rage. Make it out, and you win. Or maybe you didn't, because just like the Dungeon of Fear and Hunger, you can never really escape Mr. Weems & the She-Vampires.

Only Weems increases the immersion by truamatizing you, the player. Mr. Weems is fine. You don't have to worry about the Weems.

So...

Is it a good game?

Not remotely, but that isn't the point in the slightest.

It's temping to say this is the Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies of video games, but that's not quite right. Weems has promise and ISCWSLaBMUZ doesn't make promises. It issues threats.

Mr. Weems has the charm of a concept that's all potential and zero execution. A dead-eyed accountant gunning his way in a Gauntlet-esq blitz through a vampire-babe infested castle is a fun idea, more-so with all the secret passages and 'gather items and backtrack to the boss' aspect. It's just everything else that goes wrong.

I mean, who doesn't want to hunt the Great She-Vampire to her penthouse for a good staking, I ask you?

[pennysperfectpolls]

Symphogear adoption poll round 2

Hibiki Tachibana, Chris Yukine

Shirabe Tsukuyomi, Kirika Akatsuki

Miku kohinata, Elfnein

Some propaganda and spoilers under the cut

Hibiki: the protagonist. She doesn’t fight with a weapon because she needs to hold girls hands. Her only ambition in life is to save people and go on dates with her girlfriend Miku. She was god once, it was bad. Her dad left after she almost died once. At least He’s trying to be better now but come on dude.

Chris: the Tsundere/ Lancer of the group. Fights with oh so many guns and surfs on missiles. Her backstory is so fucked up. Her parents performed charity concerts in War torn countries. They died when she was like ten and she was captured by bad guys. Eventually she ended up with a very abusive woman who made her be evil for a while. Eventually she did joy the found family and regained her love for singing. That’s all just season one. She’s grumpy and easily embarrassed but tries to be a good “big sister” for Shirabe and Kirika. Definitely has a crush on Hibiki and Miku.

Shirabe: the Yo-yo Master. Cuts monsters with giant buzz saw chain saws and exclusively fights on rollerblades. Practically inseparable from Kirika to the point she has trouble working with anyone else. They were part of the same “turn orphans into magical girl weapons” experiment along with Maria. She briefly had a heart to heart with a man I’m pretty sure was her grandfather but she never realized. She’s pretty quiet.

Kirika: Shirabe’s golden retriever girlfriend. Self proclaimed “happy go lucky girl from the depths of hell.” Meaning she’s cheerful and goth. She fights with a scythe and loves shouting the word “Death” all the time. Part of the same “Turn Orphans into magical girl weapons” experiment as Shirabe and Maria. She took longer to join the good guys because she thought she was being possessed by an immortal ghost lady.

Miku: the token normal girl for most of the story, unless she was being brainwashed by the bad guys. Has “my girlfriend is a superhero” traumas. She was also god for a little bit, it was also bad. Maybe the real god was these lesbians we found along the way. She and Hibiki call each other “my sunshine” or “my sunflower” and every time my heart melts.

Elfnein: a doll created by and with the memories of a several hundred year old witch who wants to destroy the planet after her dad was burned at the stake. Elfnein helped stop her and got adopted by the hero’s support staff. She acts as the guy in the chair for the latter seasons. She’s very sweet and polite.

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Retrospective: Rememberance Day (Issues 12-16) (Patreon review for Brotoman.Exe)

Hello all you happy autobots! And welcome back to my long retrospective of Transformers More than Meets The Eye: The greatest comic about robuts in the known universe.

After a long road, a beetle themed detour and tons of tie ins, one shots and other needed stuff, we're FINALLY almost at the end of Season 1 and to help speed things along, Brotoman gave me some extra money to get through Dark Cybertron. That also means we have a pretty baked in schedule through april so here it is: After this review i'll be covering Remain in Light, the season 1 finale, next week. January is a recap of MTMTE's sister series Robot's in disguise. I volunteered for this one as I felt with Dark Cybertron relying heavily on RiD's history, I should reaquaint myself with it.

We'll then take another break for a Fizzarolli retrospective in Feburary, and then begin dark cybertron in may, with the plan to have it in two or three parts. After that barring any other side trips or what not, it's SEASON 2 BABY, the series best. It also means easing up a bit on the sidetrips: there's still two whole minis to go into and a christmas special but both are shorter and with our two issue schedule the pacing won't be as nettled.

As for the present these two arcs represent MTMTE hitting it's stride: The books always been good and these reviews have been almost two years of gushing. I have ocasional gripes but overal the series is just pure excellence. This is simply the best of the best: all the character and plot setup for the season paying off in the most awesome, heartbreaking and horrifying ways possible. These arcs are great, but I dreaded getting to them as they will rip your heart out of your chest guaranteed.

See while John Roberts built up an impressive cast of characters, almost all from characters' whose history before this could best be described "That one guy over there in the background" or "That transfomer you got at a yard sale that was a bitch to identify", he wasn't afraid to say goodbye to his creations, even the main characters, and got that this story.. needed life and death stakes.

It's how death SHOULD be handled in comic books: not a publicity stunt done half assed and undone in months, not a massacre to "raise stakes", simply when the story calls for someone to die.

So the question to those of you who haven't read it is simple: who dies tonight? Well i'll tell ya'll under the cut.

Before and After

Admitely these first two issues are less an arc and more two more standalones. As usual for MTMTE these are ripe for setup and Before and After feels like an out and out prelude to Reemergence Day, so the bundling fits.

Before and After has a unique structure, flashing both to the Autobots preparing for a strike on a Decepticon fortress on Sensenica. It's the first real Autbots Vs Decepticon battle we've seen: while there was one in Ratchet's arc, it was more a smokescreen for Pharma and Fort Max took them down quickly and messily.

Here it's an actual battle: a bunch of decepticons who shall remain nameless and largely unimportant to the overall scheme of things have been bleeding organic's dry for energy, so our heroes go down to stop it. For the sake of clarity i'm not going ot be covering the issue as structured as it's a lot.

The good news: our heroes are able to take the fortress, free the organics, save the day. The bad.. is there is a lot of injuries in the process, and that's the real intresting part of this issue: while the battle is neat, I often forget it and it really just kinda comes and goes: what's important.. is the after effect: Swerve, Rewind and Cyclonus were all horribly injured and we don't find out why till the tailend of the issue for the latter two.

For swerve.. he shot himself in the face while trying to figure out his gun while Chromedone and SKids fought a giant dinosaur. This guy is snapdragon and yes I looked him up on the grounds he fought two characters while transformed and apparently bathes in the blood of his enemies when he can't find sludge as he has a senstive butt.

So while this goes on it's down to Rewind and Tailgate. Tailgate is, allegedlys, a bomb disposal expert, and thus has to take out a bomb hooked to the organics with Rewind's help. Also of note is that Rewind and Chromedome are fighting.

Rewind is PISSSEEED Chromedome keeps hacking heads, while Chromedome is mad Rewind won't stay out of action. So naturally it's the perfect time for Rewind to go boom as the two little guys simply can't stop it. Rewind stays to mitigate the blast... and Cyclonus tosses Tailgate out taking the blast himself.

The prognosis for both.. isn't good. Rewind is a tiny bot.. and that means it's harder for him to bounce back from this, with Red Alert floating his Spark Jumping idea from his intro arc, a nice call back I honestly forgot about. Of course it'd crop up again and naturally, Chromedome is a spark type match for Rewind.

While Chromedome recovers from it as the process.. isn't exactly plesant. So while he recovers he talks to Tailgate. Chromedome admits when he's told Cyclonus still survivied that it's a shame... though what I like is when Tailgate asks him fi he really meant that.. he admits it.. but also admits he shouldn't of said it to Tailgate and apologizes, admitting thigns are just stressful. Tailgate calls rewind Chromedome's best friend

That flub aside, Chromedome admits that he's not #1 in his boyfriend's heart.. there's someone else, just above him.

So we get Rewind's backstory which as usual is important for later: Rewind was a member of what was called at the time "The disposable class". There aren't many left and it's easy to see why as the disposables were basically slaves, with Chromedome flat out admitting that's what they'd call them now. It makes him one of the oldest and is why he has a memory stick of all alt modes: he was made for just one purpose and that purpose was being a comically large usb drive.

This changed when Rewind met Dominus Ambus, Scientest, Doctor, Author Explorer and that one ex of your partners you can never live up to. Tailgate for his part says he hates the guy. That's a good friend tailgate.

Anyways Ambus used Rewind as a memory drive but treated him kindly, giving him premium energon instead of the cheap stuff and realizing in the process that the disposables were just autbots and just as sentient as any other, and started campaiging for their rights. He seemed to succeed but trying to find a cure for Cybercocis he and Rewind left to find Luna 1, Cybertron's missing moon because like any missing thing of legend, you just gotta assume it has the cure for anything.

They failed, and what's worse they came back to a planet at war. All hell had broken loose and the two underwent the right of the autobrand.

So cut to years later in the war and Chromedome, already not having the best mental health for his years in psi ops and other traumas, has decided to unalive himself. Which is harder than it sounds for a transformer: their bodies are built to be nigh on indestructable and Chromedome can't really try sucicide by comabat as it'd put others in whatever unit he was in at risk. So instead he went to a relinquishment clinic, with what clinics left offering assisted suicide.

This ends up saving Chromedomes life as he hears a scream.. and it turns out to be Rewind who was checking the bodies. And that, dear readers is the main reason Rewind's on the lost light, the reason for the snuff film footage he got earlier: he's been looking for Dominus anywhere there's bodies in hopes of getting closure with Chromedome along for the ride. Dome assumes that's why he goes into battle.. but Tailgate has a more optimstic take: Rewind loves him and simply wants to be there to support him.

Either way things aren't looking good as it turns out chromedome's spark has a low yield. As he stated earlier he was born dry and thus dosen't hae a lot of ennermost energon. Ennermost energon is a brilliant concept: it's the energon closest to a bot's casing, their essence. Being robots, Cybertronians naturally run into a ship of thesus paradox oftne with most of their original parts long gone. The innermost energon is the part of them that's always there, the one part that, along with the spark itself, will always be then

So as a gesture of love when someone is dying, possibly may survivie may likely not, a bot puts a portion by them. Tailgate hearing this.. decides to do the same for Cyclonus. This being Cyclonus he's not only not quite dead, but an asshole about it, saying he dosen't care about tailgate they don't have a bond, etc... but in a touching moment instead of keeping up his abuse of the poor guy after smashing the jar.. he goes to help him pick it up. Despite trying to distance himself, despite trying to push Tailgate away.. they have a bond. And he can't deny that.. I mean he will, it's Cyclonus, he has the emotoinal maturity of a very angry stump, but he's at least TRYING to not be as closed off.

As for Chromedome he's not doin so hot and in his lowest moment a mysterious voice says something VERY prowl like: the decpitcons are still a threat and this proves it and there's something Chromedome can do to help. He wants to show him something in the basement.

Thankfully Rewind's alive, and of all people it was whirl who donated.. and whose uncharcatristically nice. It's almost as if he's hiding something and.. yup as we find out in the final pages turns out he locked the door to attempted murder cyclonus and Rewind got caught in it.

Cybertronian Homesick Blues

CHB is a fun issue, what SEEMS to just be some fun shenanigans and an excuse to make human forms for the cast.

So Mags is wound tighter than usual, having thrown several people, Swereve included in the brig for general nonsense.. which as Rodimus notes is all kinds of fucked up. I mean it'd usually just be two or three kinds, but they have dangerous criminals down there now along with Fort Max, who is dangerous but isn't out to hurt anybody anymore, so he's not exactly going to prison shank anyone.

Rodimus can see a problem coming and decides to help: the Lost Light's approaching Hedonia, a vacation planet ala Risa from Star Trek, but saying the quiet part loud. He asks Swerve to take him to relax, threatning the bar if he dosen't, and Swerve to his credit genuinely tries to bond with Ultra Magnus, bringing most of his close friends to help with the task: Rewind, Rung, Skids, Tailgate and Whirl. Whirl isn't exactly a close friend but you try telling Whirl he can't come and see how many limbs you have left.

Due to anti robot prejudice , our heroes can't enter EVERY section so they set up Holomatter Avatars to go into those sections and drink it up, having disabled Mags DiD chip. Said chip keeps fuel from hitting transformers at full impact, i.e. keeping them from getting plastered unless they WANT to get plastered.

Naturally as you can imagine Mags is going through something and is thus a pretty depressed/angry drunk and has a full on breakdown

It's very obvious that Ultra Magnus.. is having a crisis of faith. His whole point is to be unflinching unchanging and as seen in the Annual the idea of NOT being that is propsterous to him.. and now we see that even with his acceptance in that story.. ti's not easy. Change.. often involves a lot of backsliding first. Personal growth is not easy, take it from me, so naturally the idea of being more than the tight ass he's SUPPOSED to be is tearing the poor bot apart. He also takes it out on swerve saying people like him because he's funny and that he's shirking his responsibliteis iwth the bar plan, not beliving Swerve's half hearted defense of it... causing the little guy to open up.

It's a deeply painful sentence.. and one that's all too damn relatable. I often feel this way wondering if people like me for anlysizing shit and being mildly amusing or for me.

MOst of the rest of the issue is holomatter hyjinks, as our heroes are forced to cary Magnus, who accidently drank something REALLY strong across a human section in their disguises. The disguises.. are really neat, with special note to Tailgate as a baby, Rung's neat hat, Whirl as a murder child and my faviorite, Magnus.. using Verity's likeness. A nice little nod, make sme hope the two do actually meet again.

At any rate our heroes succeed, but we have some important story stuff before we move on to the main event: first I forgot how the story really started.. with Drift busting in to stop Cyclonus from.. singing. Turns out no one was in danger, it was just ancient cybertronian and beautiful, with Rewind recording it.. only to be hastily shouted to get out.

While this seems lke Standard cyclonus.. he was covering. Turns out Tailgate's stories about being in the primal vanguard, being important, all his big puffed up stories are a lie. He wasn't even bomb disposal, he's WASTE disposal, he was just able to bluff himself through the bomb just enough. It's all a lie. Yet it wasn't to feel special or anything.. it's for much more tragic, entirely understandable reasons.

It's a painful moment.. and an understandable one. He should've been found easily.. but got lost for CENTURIES.. and no one cared. No one noticed. It's not hard to see why the little guy didn't want to admit that. While cyclonus is right Tailgate can't keep lying forever.. he sees why he started it and sees that Tailgate might be the ONLY person who understands his pain, the only person who knows what it's like to wake up in a world that just left you behind and dosen't seem to have a place for you. So he teaches Tailgate how to sing cybertronian.

And from that heartwearming moment.. more depression as this issue was Swerve trying to commuincate with Blur.. only it turns out like Tailgate that was a lie. The two never knew each other, swerve only met him once with a plan and the bar is sipmly.. trying to fill the space with something. He also offers Ultra Mags to be roomy.. but Mags coldly shoots him down, saying their not friends. It's a pretty solemn ending to what SEEMED to be a wacky one off... and it's only going to get worse from here.

Rememberance Day:

We begin wtih the story of Overlord's birth. Two hapless minors find his, call it in and their superior calls for someone to come down. That someone is Three of Twelve, one of the functionist council, a loose council that preached functionism, aka alt mode dictates class, the kind of prick Dominus Ambus was rallying against. These guys will be important next season but for now he's just here to point out how important that is, give the guy who called it in an award and tell the miners they have 6 hours to live from the radation.

Overlord is a point one percenter. A point one percenter is a green spark found in the tiniest fraction of the cybertronian population. Said sparks are treasured and their wielders are often the toughest, most nigh unstoppable bots out there. It's why Overlord is such a juggernaught and why it took so much to bring him down on Garrus 9, as well as a retroactive reason why the deceiptcons he had under his boot didn't just revolt. Other phase sixers for scale include Fortress Maximus, Ultra Magnus, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Scorponok, Shockwave, Tarn, Roller and of course, He, Grimlock, with Megatron weaponziing this fact, hence why so much of this list is purple.

We then cut to the finale of Last Stand of the Wreckers, just before overlord went boom.. and find an univitied guest; Chromedome. Turns out he's been going into Overlord's mind looking for something, and makes the fatal mistake of telling him about it, mostly becaues he needs to rummage. Overlord is a Phase Sixer, what Megatron would call in to finish off a planet along with most of those guys mentioned. As a result the only person whose really easlily pummled overlord.. is Megatron himself.

After a few more cups of punch to the face we find what Chromedome's after: the memory of Overlord's true birth. He was put in Megatron's fucked up super solider program, using a very unstable very rare Ununtrium, the same stuff used to make Sixshot. While Rossum, the tech and likely the person responsible for naming Rossum's trinity, pumps him full of goo. Megatron isn't AS suicidal as he sounds doing this sort of supervillian origin story, having had SHockwave throw in a killswitch. Overlord awakens.. and takes after his new dad, smashing Rossum's head as his first act of new life.

This seems to be the end: Rossum warned during the procedure the heat could kill him and the substance itself could kill Megatron: While he's currently assumed dead by the crew, Chromedome is sure he'll come back.. and is right as he returned towards the end of RiD season 1 and plays a key part in both Dark Cybertron and this series from Season 2 onward.

Then.. things take a turn. Overlord remembers where he met Chromedome before: the New Institute. Turns out Chromedome was a brainwasher, with Zeta Prime redubbing the insittute.. but not really changing it and using it for the same brainwashing. Overlord broke in in the early days of the decepticons and stole Trepan, who we met in Shadowplay.

And that theft is WHY Overlord now has taken control of the situation and is going into Chromedome's memories instead: turns out Overlord tried to dabble in mnemosurgery, thinking he could use it against shockwave and undue the killswitches. Megatron isn't stupid though and the second he got wind of what was going on killed Trepan. So while Overlord can't hack int oa mind, he learned enough to take it over, not helped by the fact that Chromedome is scared shitless of the guy , as anyone would be and despite his attempts to hide it, overlord easily picked it up.

So we instead go back to the day of loading.. and a conversation we hadn't seen. In a twist i'd honestly forgot but is entirley brilliant.. Prowl had already MET with Chromedome... and it was about Overlord. As for why he's in tact, Bumblebee has mercy and didn't want to abuse POW's, so he rebuilt the body.

Prowl's intrest is in making their OWN phase sixers: while most Autobots, Chromedome included, assumed they were just freak accidents of nature, Prowl is right about something for once: there's so many that are decipticon, WHY is that. So he wants to find out why, and wnats Chromedome to do it despite being a MASSIVE risk.

Chromedome, as you'd expect tells Prowl to go fuck himself in the poltest manner possible: the war's over, this really isn't necessary, and Rewind really woudlnt' want him doing this. Prowl then enters peak dickhead.. and for once actually suffers for it.

It's a horrible act that has legit consequences over in RID, leaving Prowl free to be brainwashed. Yet.. it's hard to feel too bad as Prowl was trying to blackmail his ex to do something highly shady and ENTIRELY not approved by the rest of Autobot High Command, something that would've likely destroyed Cromedome's relationship anyway. So it's a bad act.. but it's on a deserving victim and seeing Prowl crying no as he's abotu to be brainjacked is just.. so satisfying.

We then finally get the face behind this conspiracy: Drift. The last person you'd expect as he takes Chromedome to talk to Brainstorm. Brainstorm made the cell and is in on it.. but unlike Drift knows what a stupid idea this was, calling it project: total insanity and project :end in tears. Both accurate. The only people who know about this , as far as Drift says, are in this room as Shock and Ore did the loading but as we know both died horribly. Drift is the one who suggested the idea nd brings up the slow cell, Overlord's prison that slows down time for the user.. and that despite his best efforts to stop it, Chromedome's memory shows Overlord how to unlock.

Overlord locks Chromedome in and since, as Overlord figures out, Chromedome did this without anyone else knowing, Overlord now has a lead to go kill people. As he chillingly puts it "Run as fast as you can Chromedome, your already too late".

Under Cold Blue Stars:

Before we get to the tragedy above.. we have to get to the tragedy bellow: Chromedome escapes.. but thanks to the slow field it's been half an hour... and what he finds...

Yeah our heroes.. aren't doing so good. It's something that, despite reading this comic twice before this... had never registered; Overlord.. is strong enough to take on the ENTIRE lost light and WIN. It's taking EVERYONE they have just to hold him BACK. It does make perfect sense: not only is overlord a literal monster, able to tank hits he's spent his career wiping out planets and autobots and his last experince before this was months as the horrifiying dark god of his own planet, most of which was a game of "how many ways can I have my minons creatively murder and torture autobots?". Our heroes, despite their ragtag nature on paper, are GOOD, but their in tight quarters trying not to hit each other while overlord would gladly use one of them to smash through the others omniman style if he had a way to. He wants to kill EVERY , LAST, BOT simply as a warmup. He COULD leave to go find megatron, maybe by killing everyone on cybertron and using the bodies to spell out "HI DAD". But he just can't resisit the torture it'd put chromedome through. He's a sadist... while his main motive may be

He has hobbies.

So you may say to yourself: well, how did we get here, so we go back 30 minutes to the start of this rampage. We see Pipes again, who I honestly forgot existed and whose asking blaster if commuincations are back with Cybertron yet, and since Pipes intended recipient is a friend of Blasters, Blaster goes ahead and forwards it while Whirl, whose naturally there to blow shit up, mocks him.

I didn't think much of this... till Pipes runs into someone.. overlord, who gladly squishes him under his boots with Pipes getting a fairly effective and horrifying death: bleeding out, scrunched to hell.. he uses what little spark he has left for one last push to do the one thing he CAN do to warn everyone else

It makes me tear up.. and again, I FORGOT THIS GUY EXISTED. Roberts is just that good a writer, taking a character whose last major part in things was back in issues 3 and 4 and then NOTHING, and making you feel gutted the poor guy is dead... using what he had left to warn everybody.

So we then rewind again to where everyone was when the emergency alarm went off:

We start naturally with Rewind, whose worried about Chromedome and came to Brainstorm's lab to talk to him. Swerve's just here to accidently activate a meta bomb that gives him forth wall powers. Or make him thinks he has them, like with Deadpool it's left vauge. Rewind is wondering where his boyfriend is and is suspcious of Brainstorm since CHromey keeps saying Brainstorm's name.. though not in a sexy way but in a screaming it as he wakes up way. Brainstorm for his part, while very good at subterfuge to a point. .blabs about a secret project, wtih Swerve distracting them before the alarm goes off.

Rodimus is having Perciptor, the less fun genius aboard look at the map to the knights of cybertron and after having him dumb it down a few shades we get to the point: the thing can't be copied. This setup with the finale is interupted and we go to Rung, whose gone to Visit Fort Max. Max invited him down.. to apologize, planning to give a speech but realizing that was more for him and admitting the shock, waking up after garrus 9, he was in bad shape and genuinely asks if Rung can forgive him. And Rung.. instantly does. Not only has Rung been around for eons.. but he's a therapist. He spent the whole hostage situation trying to talk max down best he could. He can forgive.

Finally we have Skids wondering why Cyclonus is on the warpath.. thankfully JUST a metaphor, otherwise there'd be more than two corpses today, but he's mad Tailgate is hosting movie night at their place.

We end this catchup with Ratchet, whose pissed off Rodimus is being caviler about this, both because these don't go off for some reason.. and he made a joke about Ratchet's hands. Come on rodders.. that's way too easy. You can do better.

Drift is out and about to investigate.. and happens to benearbye as both bots see Overlord. We also get a really nice moment of bonding with the two, showing tha tbeneath their constant bickering.. they care about each other. More over time but we'll get to that. When Drift tries to get Ratchet to barricade himself in.. he refuses. He'll lock down the clinic.. but they fight and if needed die together. Ratchet calls Rodimus to get EVERYONE down there and tells him if he dosen't make it.. tell first aid he's ready and tell all his patients they'll have to make new apointments.

Thankfully one of the best characters in this comic dosen't go down swinging as everyone arrives to throw down. They do their best, but naturally their best bet is the only other .1%er they have... Magnus. And while he SEEMS to do well, pounding Overlord's face in as he heavily regrets not being there on G9 when everything went to shit.. only for that classic reveal that always means your fucked.

IT's a shocking, horrific moment as one of the main cast, one of their leaders and seemingly their best hope.. is down. Magnus hoped to make up for Garrus 9.

It's also why I feel last stand is necessary to read these books after this read througH: while you CAN without it, Overlord's appearnce just dosen't have the same impact till AFTER this.. and just how badly Magnus falls here dosen't. After feeling he was slipping more and more.. he once again fails.. this time in a way he simply can't cope with. And the consequences.. will not be great.

And not suprisingly "Sword through the chest" seems incuriable: his spark is detaached and while First Aid can slow it down.. he can't stop it, and while everyone else is trying their best.. they can't do much. So drift has Swerve give him the com to call for backup.. the one person whose NOT here.

So just as Overlord has Rodimus by the throat he makes the mistake of asking for last words.. as the natural "Till All Are One" you'd expect... sends him panicking .. and leaves him wide open for..

God that felt good. It's not remotely over though as we find out why Fort Max had this opening: turns out Domey , while recklessly charging into a known mass murderer's brain, was still JUST smart enough to leave a trigger in there in case Overlord got out, something that would make him feel he was loosing which , since Overlord is deathly afraid of defeat, would send him spiraling. And in one of the best uses of a gag as a chekov's gun i've seen, only topped by something in next season's finale, he made it till all are one because Rodimus won't stop saying it.

As Rewind lays in shock,w ondering what the helld omey's been up to, Chromedome inacts plan b, asking Fort Max to drag overlord over yonder back to his cell. While Prowl is many things, most of them varations of rat bastard motherfucker, he IS prepared and made Overlord's cell detachable for if, or if your smart like Brainstorm WHEN this stupid plan backfired. Problem is there's a sword jammed in the way of the hatch... someone has to go pull it out.. and rewind is small enoguh, brave enough, and sad enough to pull it off, saying a tearful goodbye to cromedome as the pod detaches. To make matters even worse... Cromedome then has to blow the fucker up as he'd rather not leave the love of his life who was just about to leave him anyway with a sadistic murderer. And all that's left.. is

IT's one of the saddest moment sin the whole comic, and trust me there will be more and one of the best character death's i've seen. A big as screwup as bringing overlord aboard, a bigger one of him getting out.. it needed weight. LIke I said, Roberts knows it's best to kill a character when it's NECESSARy.. and Rewind going out lik ea hero sacrifcing himself so his friends and lover can escape, sadly bidding farewell knowing he's about to go through hell? It's a lot. It's a perfect sendoff to a great character, and a truly painful moment. Also if your wondering about the blood, Rewind took Chromedome's arm along with his heart.

The Gloaming

The gloaming starts with foreshadowing for the next arc: we see a bunch of ops with Ultra Magnus from the war.. but two things are off. The first is that he looks slightly diffrent each time.. and the second is he looks very dead at the end of each one.

This will make sense later but for now we're in the aftermath of overlord's attack: Drift is being repaired, and Ratchet is TRYING to repair mags.. but it dosen't look good. Using a death clock, a device that predicts how long a bot has left, he only has ten days at best and poor Tailgate breaks down over how unfair it all is: one friend is dead, another close to it...

And there aren't easy answers for everyone else either: Chromedome responds a little to Skids but it's very clear he's not remotely okay, while Rodimus has torn up his office. Rung tries to help.. but he's held back by the fact he dosen't know why Rodimus is REALLY upset: Rodimus thinks it's magnus, Rung thinks it's because he lost.. which is a good guess.. but it's not the right one. We'll find out why next time but for now with Rodimus launching an investigation into the incident.. he and Drift need to have a talk.

After that we get the funeral: Rodimus gives a wonderful speech as he's returned to the stars spock style pointing out how EVERYONE he met was better for having known him. Except Prowl, nothing can make that guy better> it's a sweet earnest speech.. which makes it odd that Rewind's actual partner.. can barely say a sentence.

Brainstorm notices.. and goes to confront dome. Not about the speech, most bots would likely chuck that up to bottling up his grief. But it turns out these two go back a ways.. and as a result we find out just WHY Chromedome has so little innermost energon and I really wish I could share the full scene as it's powerful and shows a more emotional side of the usually flippant Brainstorm we haven't seen till now: He knows what Chromedome's abotu to do and to prove it rattles off a bunch of names. All ones Chromedome dosen't recognize.. because they were all former Conjux Endura's. And after they died he wiped his memory of them to not deal with the pain. It's a hard reveal, and a well done one and throughly proves Rewind right about mnemosurgery being an addiction for him: After all grief is hard, loosing someone even harder.. if you had the option to just make that pain temporary it'd be incredibly tempting, near impossible to turn down. You loose the person.. but you also loose the knife in your gut every time you think of them and realize their gone. Sure you could say "Well i'd want to rmemeber them i'd want the pain" and the strongest among us probably could turn that down.. but it's harder when you have that option. It's why i'ts such a comeplling hook here and why the next part hurts so damn much

It fleshes out their friendship and Brainstorm a lot: he's had to watch his friend erase those he loved again, and again and again, tried and failed to talk him out of it time and again. All because he KNOWS what it's like to loose someone.. and that while the pain never goes away, it's better to have them with you. We'll get into how he knows that pain next time. For now the slug is the only reason history may not repeat itself.

So we get two scenes intercut: One is Rodimus before the rest of the crew.. as Drift takes full responsiblity for what happened and is stripped of his autobrand, banished and boo. It's a loss that hit harder this time as i'd gotten more attached to the guy, seen him nearly sacrifice himself, his deep faith, his argument flirting with ratchet.. it's hard to see him go even if he damn well deserves it after all this cost. There's no.. joy in this.. no catharsis. he screwed up, sure.. but it dosen't bring Rewind or Pipes back. It dosen't undue the pain and grief everyone has or fix anything. It's simply assining blame. I'm not saying Drift or a certain someone else we'll get to next time shoudln't be held acountable, but it dosen't make it easy to see him go.. or see Ratchet be the only one to comfort him showing that despite arguging constantly.. they ultimately were close as anyone could be. With this... Rodimus is alone, his command staff gone and it's not going to be easier to wear the crown going into the finale.

The other is a touching moment I can't really share in full here, two page spread and all, btu Rewind pieced together a message for Chromedome, knowing what he'd do if he was gone. He begs his partner to go on without him, that injecting will kill him.. and that he deserves to be happy. The New Institute isn't him anymore. And as one last note because he dosen't say it enough

It's a scene that's now become one of my faviorite: while it's hard to follow because of the various footage, when you put it all together.. it's a message of courage. Despite the guilt, despite the pain, despite al lthey went through.. rewind loved chromedome, as he was, for who he was.. and wants him to stay that way. To keep him with him. And so .. Chromedome , for the first time, sheethes his claws.. and chooses to live with the pain.

We then end on a cliffhanger: Ultra Magnus.. is missing. Someone stole him, he's just gone.. and if that wasn't enough.. Tailgate goes under the death clock light.. and dosen't have much time left.

If it wasn't obvious by now I love these issues: their heartbreaking, well done and read even better this time around: It's a tragic loss that's expertly crafted, and used entirely to push the characters forward, to really push them with one forced to leave, one seemingly kidnapped and one facing his own crippling issues.. .and finding the courage to live

Next Time: We finish season 1! If you thoguht things coudln't get worse for the lost light.. your wrong as they face an attempted genocide , a character we've seen named a lot but not actually met till now, an old foe and a cool as hell new one. Until then thanks for reading

[queercodedvillains]

If you can I’d love to hear the outline/tldr of your Claire’s AU because the posts under that tag are always so funny to me

So the claires au tag started because I wanted to collect all my modern au inspo posts in one place. Since it all gravitates around my beloved little terrorist Deidara, and I think he'd do great at a dead end low effort retail job with a bonus perk of bullying giving piercings to tweens and a sick employee discount, the claire's au was born. In hindsight, I wish I had called it the mallrats au, but since the fics came after the tag, we're stuck with the consequences of my choices smh.

It's expanded significantly, to the point that its sooo hard to summarize, but I'm gonna try my best here!!

My general goal is to transcribe everything we know from canon as closely/creatively as I can to a modern/90s setting. Tbh this started because I just was not emotionally prepared to handle canon!akatsuki levels of fucked up war criminals and I just wanted to put them in low stakes shenanigans that keeps the core of their characters without all the murder and angst and action (I hate writing action. Horror is fun and dandy, but spin kicks and explosions and puppets are beyond me for now).

So in the claires au/mallrats cinematic universe, the Akatsuki are just a gang of queers doing your run of the mill criminal activity. Drug dealing, car stealing, chop shopping, gun running, book cooking, you name it. They all ended up kicked out of society for one reason or another, banded together, and became mundane villains of polite society.

For example, Sasori is always depicted as tinkering with his puppets. So I decided that tendency to methodically pull someone apart and back together, that special calculating mindset that it takes to look at a body and come up with twelve different secret weapons to hide in their limbs, would make the perfect fodder for a chop shop mechanic. Stolen cars instead of stolen corpses. He seems like he got the obsessing-over-cars brand of autism and I love him for it. He's weird and reclusive and pretentious and insufferable and genius.

Deidara likes explosives, duh, but guns are so boring imo so I wanted to dig deeper into his love of temporary beauty, and how that meshes perfectly with drugs. They're ephemeral, transient experiences that fade quickly but leave a lasting impact on a person, changing their life, etc. He's also. Super fucking pretentious about it. Don't let him corner you at a party. Sasori might be the chemist but Deidara is the real brains behind the operation, and also the very willing test subject. I see him as a club kid, always on one in the middle of the crowd, and entirely responsible for the Akatsuki's branding. He designed the clouds and the patented pressed pills (we got blue teslas, they got white owls, etc) and also is solely responsible for word of mouth advertising. He's always got a can of spray paint and/or a black business card with nothing but a phone number and a red cloud. He's always bright and loud and shiny and looking for attention in seedy places, always in the middle of the mosh pit or the dance floor or some sketchy back alley or the skate park (skating is kinda like riding a giant flying bird, right?) Either way, everyone wants whatever the fuck he's on.

Together they're a power couple. Absolutely nasty, insufferable to talk to, impossible to be around unless you're just as pretentious as them about their very specific interests AND willing to listen to them bicker endlessly about their arts. Naturally, they only have two friends. Kakuzu and Hidan.

I want to dig into their backstories and relationships later, narratively, but the barest bones of it is that Hidan is Deidara's childhood friend and professional pain in the ass. Class clowns in detention together, bullying the local nerds, weirdo queer kids with serious mental issues from broken homes, a scrappy sort of friendship born out of desperation for someone Like Them etc. I mean Hidan's got a nasty sadomasochistic streak, a propensity for self harm, and an obsession with the occult so don't get me started on him as your local satanic bad influence. Their whole thing could be its own post tbh.

Kakuzu and Sasori are like crotchety old men on the porch. They like to sit in some booth at the club talking shit and looking menacing while Deidara and Hidan are busy 'advertising'. I also see Kakuzu as a bit of a mentor to Sasori, being a bit older and wiser and seeing Sasori get dragged into the Akatsuki after dropping out of med school and being disowned by his grandmother (a whole other post as well) and spiraling into shitty coping mechanisms (alcohol, mostly). Kakuzu smacked some sense into him and got him sobered up because he loves that sad pathetic wet cat of a man they got money to make!!

If and when Sasori and Deidara split up to work, I see them pairing up with Kakuzu and Hidan, respectively. Every artsy twink needs their burly body guard, yknow?

I'm maintaining their age differences to some degree, although pinched closer. At the time Mallrats is set, Deidara is 25, Hidan is 26, Sasori is 32, Kakuzu is 40. Itachi and Kisame are also mid 20s, Konan and Pain and Zetsu and Tobi are in their 30s.

Deidara centric timeline wise (and trying to stick to canon as closely as realistically possible) he gets kicked out of his house for being fruity at 14, ends up couch surfing with Hidan (having 'sleep overs', or sneaking into his room when Hidan's mom said no but didn't care enough think to look under his bed/the closet/that pile of laundry) and when he can't pull that off, staying in the mall til after closing and posting up in there all night. After a while, someone in the Akatsuki notices him kicking rocks in a parking lot and realizes they need some scrappy kid to run a backpack from one end of town to the other without getting noticed. One thing leads to another and he ends up catching Konan's attention. She (30s, forgery and embezzling specialist, dyke and mother of the house) shuffles some papers, gets him his own apartment on the condition that he works for her and the money goes from their business associates to him to her to his landlord.

I have a soft spot for Konan doing this for anyone she can. Queer kids in the 80s and 90s didn't exactly have resources, and she did what she could with what she had, handing them a way to earn their own money and a safe place to live, even if its seedy and illegal. Beats the streets! Most of them were runners for a few years and aged out, she signed their SRO apartments off to them at 18 and they moved on with their lives. There's a whole host of people who only know her as Lady Angel (winknod to canon again) because she did what she could to save em. Deidara just happened to be too good at his job and got pulled higher and higher, until he landed in Sasori's shop.

That's about caught up to what I've gotten so far in Mallrats and The Waiting Room (with so much more to go. My muse is wildly overactive for the amount of time and attention span I got). I got head canons on like all the main characters from Konoha/Suna, all the Akatsuki, and the Sanin. Where they work, how they interact, how their relationships translate to mallrat/clubrat shenanigans, etc.

Every detail Sasori and Deidara falling in love? DUH. But also........... A complete dossier on everyone's kinks? Hidan and Deidara's gay awakening? Sasori's history with Orochimaru? The absolute fuckery that is any of their home life before the Akatsuki? Brazilian Kakuzu? Jashinism in a neopagan satanic context? Kakuzu and Hidan's perfectly vicious relationship? Konan as Lady Angel? Itachi darling son of the police chief working for the mob to spite his homophobic dad? Kisame... well, idk about Kisame, but if you care enough to develop it with me I could be convinced to!! The list goes ON.

I could go into heavier detail about so much more but this is already so long T^T. If you read this far thank u ilysm and I would be so delighted to get into more if you're interested!! The ask box is always open and I am foaming at the mouth over them at the drop of a hat <3

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1117 Review and Analysis

And so ends the Broadcast Era (any Three Body readers here?) after a long few months. The breaks were certainly not kind to this sequence, but I think it will be remembered fondly. One Piece’s biggest strength is how populated and alive its world feels, and emphasising that all these supporting characters are still relevant and it’s all their lives at stake is going to pay dividends when things get apocalyptic in the endgame.

Anyway, to review the manga instead of the fanbase, it’s sweet to see Neko on the cover page felt comfortable dropping the gun from his stump arm. Even as an apparent yakuza, things are at peace enough that he doesn’t need to be packing. Also the way Yamato’s backpack fits right between their belt loop thingies is a cute detail.

Nice to see Drake still kicking. I’d have been willing to believe he was dead after Wano. I wonder if the broadcast is going to start influencing SWORD to go finally rogue and move all the less-evil Marines into their own, easier to root for faction.

You have to wonder what Stussy’s exit plan is if she isn’t rushing to rejoin the group on the Sunny. Or if she is, no one’s snailed in to tell them hold tight.

The attention to detail with the giants’ ship’s figurehead being tied back on after being cut a couple of chapters ago is great. The giants as a whole give us some really fun, evocative pages this week as they lay into the Marine fleet. And while we’re obviously not getting a full set of one on ones for this arc, Oda gives some solid moments to Bluegrass and Doll, perhaps to set them up to be bigger opponents in the future. I certainly didn’t expect Kashii to take such a big beatdown right in the middle of his triumphant return to the story.

It feels likely that it was trying to reach Luffy at the cost of all else, but then why does it only sometimes react to Gear Five, and why only at the end was it activated enough to start moving?

And how about Mars seemingly recognising the robot? Definitely gives us a hint that the Elders are older than they appear, despite previous evidence suggesting they don’t go all the way back to the Void Century.

There is one reoccurring complaint I do agree with, as this marathon segment wraps up: it’s kinda weird there was no visual content in the broadcast, after the emphasis placed on it with the 10 minute lead time. Maybe we take it as part of Vegapunk’s perfectionism – it just wouldn’t feel right to him if he wasn’t being seen, which would track with an artificial devil fruit not feeling right because of its colour, something on one else would care about – but that’s still a little weak. I’m sure Oda wrote out the whole speech in advance and chunked it out chapter by chapter with the cameos and action beats he wanted to accompany it, and he found he decided the preamble was necessary to get everyone where they needed. The arrival of the Elders wouldn’t have had the focus that made it so great if Vegapunk was already dropping lore bombs. Buuuut I’m sure there could have been a better in-universe justification for it. Maybe just saying he wants people to set up recording devices to preserve and repeat the message could have made it easier to swallow.

I think we can all let out a breath with the broadcast over. While I’m sure there’s still some cooldown to go, especially if the Iron Giant means to retaliate, things seem poised to wrap up here. There are multiple calls to get the ships moving throughout the chapter, from Zoro, Luffy and the giants, with the stragglers close enough to jump aboard as they go. And with Vegapunk dead and the broadcast over there’s nothing left on Egghead I can see the crew getting invested in fighting for. It’s kind of a loss for the Strawhats, not being able to protect everything they promised they would and having to retreat from foes they have no idea how to fight, albeit not as devastating a one as Sabaody. Elbaf could end up being a chance to regroup, power up one last time, and make ready to stop these unstoppable monsters in the true final battle. And setting that up is a very exciting prospect.

[captain-mj]

there's a lot of really good new ideas happening right now but I'm still hoping that graves as a swanmay gets continued, please can I get a little more of hyper-specific shapeshifter angst?

Hey, so I will be honest, I don't like the swan maiden au. I tried, but I don't know if it was how I went about it or just the quality of the writing, but I'm not going to continue it. But! Consider this blanket permission for anyone who wants to use the ideas in it! The only thing I ask is you make Price a different species as I made Alpies up myself and use them original stuff not tied to COD.

Now, to the fun stuff. I do still like Alpie Price and I thought about it and... well. I can deliver this. Graves is just a different kind of shifter! The shifter angst is a lot more Price based as well.

Price sharpened his nails quietly. SpecGru and KorTac were currently in a training exercise with each other. A simple take the flag exercise. He was currently sniping quietly. It was really just a laser gun, but he had picked off quite a few people already.

He didn't like working with KorTac, even in something as low stakes as this, for several reasons. The main one being Graves and Valeria. Also Mace. He didn't like the way Ghost and him stared at each other like they were going to tear each other to shreds.

Mostly, it was Graves. Price bristled at the man no matter how casual the encounter. Something about him got under his skin.

With Farah talking with him, Graves had been around more and more. Ghost, Soap and the Vaqueros were still angry, understandably. But they had found a tense... agreement. Mostly they all ignored it and Graves made himself scarce when possible.

He heard the soft creak of the ground and yanked around, switching to his shotgun. The gun stayed aimed at the doorway carefully.

Some more movement before a small nose poked through the door. It sniffed gently before pulling back. A paw gently pressed in, scrambling at the floor. Price stood up and kept a gun right at them.

A small coyote poked their head in. Giant eyes blinked at him before closing as they sniffed the air.

Price was fairly certain there were shifters other than the bear one. He hesitated and continued to stare at it. The little coyote quickly darted back behind the door.

Price waited for a few minutes before glancing at the window for only a moment.

His sensor went off and he swung back around, seeing Graves confidently staring back at him.

Price immediately felt his ears press flat against his head and snarled. "Dirty trick."

"Got you didn't it?" Graves spun his gun around his finger. "You keep your tufts up so I assumed that's what we were doing."

"Can't exactly get rid of them." Price pointed out.

"Can't change that I'm a shifter then." He grinned, flashing white teeth.

Price growled and hit the sensor, hearing the countdown. "Right. Well, I'll go and find a new spot. Supposed to practice right?" His countdown hit 0 and he "revived".

Graves shot him again.

Price paused, staring at him. He hit the sensor. "Funny." He stood up, stretching. Ignoring Graves, he brushed past him and went down the stairs. As soon as his timer hit zero, Graves hit him again.

Graves then followed him. "So. Your main thing is a sniper?"

"Yep." Price stared at him and right as his own timer went to zero, he shot Graves. "Now, we're even."

Graves laughed. It was... nice. Most shifters had features of their creatures afterwards. Big bulk for Bears. Mocking laughing for Hyenas. But with Graves, there was nothing obvious. His eyes were completely different. Maybe the way his hair stuck up was similar to coyote ears, but it was tenuous at best. "Damn. You shot me."

Price's lip twitched but he mostly ignored him.

They went back and forth, every time the timer hit zero, they'd rush to shoot each other.

Price mistakenly smiled with his teeth, flashing a mouthful of sharp fangs.

Graves looked and paused, his smile dropping.

Price closed his mouth with a click.

"Can you not... put those away?" Graves was being careful. His choice of words and softened tone made Price bristle, even though it was clearly genuine.

"No. They're stuck." Price clicked his teeth and closed his mouth again. "Always there."

Graves nodded. "Must get annoying."

"Bite my tongue a lot." Price joked.

"I meant people like me looking." Graves looked in his eyes and the air heated up. Price could hear his heartbeat. See the warmth of his body. He blinked rapidly to get rid of it.

Price shrugged. "You're not too bad. i'm more than used to people staring."

"I think you have better things to stare at."

Before Price could ask what that possibly meant, there was a whistle indicating it was over and Graves shifted and ran off. His tail stuck straight up to draw attention to himself in case Mila or Oz saw him.

Price stared at him, feeling something funny in his chest.

[paperstarwriters]

asdfghjkl I was busy earlier today and I found out about Chayanne & Philza's little incident through tumblr and then watched the vod so I feel like I'm gonna throw my cooldown analysis about the whole thing onto the tag as well lol

fyi these are all headcannons tbh, I don't have enough time to go through everyone else's videos to try and make any accurate claims so yeah. Not Theories just headcannons lol

Ok so lets start this off strong; Chayanne met his (big brother? uncle?) Technoblade in the realm of death and that's were he got the glock. Forget about the other gods, or whoever, or whatever, gave the guns to the other eggs, Chayanne got his gun from Techno.

also, also, I know that "canonically" it was all just a bad dream, but I can't help but imagine the situation as a scenario where they genuinely did die, but they were all brought back to life by that federation of gods everyone keeps talking about, and while externally they're all going "hmmm yeah scary, scary awful nightmare" they, like everyone else on the island are growing highly suspicious about what's going on behind the scenes

From a literary standpoint, I find this fantastic because Phil has kinda been mostly out of the loop when it comes to major encounters with those in power. Like the others have gotten jobs from the gods and got their guns that way while Phil has just been minding his own beeswax and guarding Chayanne (and now Tallulah) with his life. Now he's been forcibly looped into this whole mess, and I'm eager to see him move forward into the environment and eventually kill god again with much more knowledge and intent. Like if it doesn't happen in game, I HOPE someone writes a fic about it lol

Anyways also, I like to imagine that the gods that be are maybe just a little weary of Phil. Like they let him use the maximum defenses for his home and were very, very quick to resurrect his eggs after their death lol I know it's mostly because of circumstance but I am all for Phil slowly and accidentally becoming a sleeping giant on the server lol.

Like, tying this into the the death did actually happen but they were resurrected headcannon from before, Phil's dying comment was that the powers that be want the eggs dead—I haven't checked this up on many others' streams or anything but I feel like if ever the other players have commented on about how the environment wants the eggs dead, the eggs don't seem to process it 100% like they make up some excuse or another that gives them reason to wander into trouble, and I know it's done in order to raise the stakes, but I feel like maybe the eggs aren't supposed to know either. Maybe the eggs are especially meant to be kept in the dark about all of this. Idk I am just trying to cope with the stress of the events lol.

[almostourgalaxy]

sliding in again bc i realized i thot rlly hard about asking but Didn't; 👀 elaborate on scent kink popping up a lot in GD ?

Since trolls communicate heavvwily vvwia pheromones, like the wwveird bugs they are, scent plays an evvwen more important role for them in night to night life than it does for us.

So it's a MUCH more common kink. That said, Highbloods havvwe much better senses of smell than wwvarmbloods, so they tend to be more... noticable wwvith it.

A lowwvblood wwvoudn't BALK at the idea of Bachus stealing Saturn's favvworite set of underwwvear to huff wwvhile he jacks off, but might find the fact that he bought him that set of silk panties for that specific REASON a lil much.

Saturn's habit of burying his face in Scylla's chest is less him wwvanting to focus on her boobas and more him being fuckin TRANSFIXED by the underboob smell.

On a nonsexual note, its vvwery common to just, scent mark your partners. Cue the giant maneating fish-horse rubbing his face against your armpit like a cat. Mutual marking. It's a vvwery loud wwvay of announcing you belong to each other. Some wwvill also givvwe their quadrants rags soaked in their smell, or for certain highblood wwveirdos, entire bottles of cologne made from their pheromones.

(This also has the side effect of "Territory marking" being not quite as much of an embarrassing topic, but not by much) (this did. Not. Make Saturn getting bullied into pissing himself by his ex any less embarrassing) that's because there's a difference in purposely pissin on someone to "stake a claim" to them and Wwwvetting yourself like a dumb wwviggler that can't control your bladder.

(I apologize if the court doesn't share my fascination wwvith the idea of something that's a natural bodily function being turned into a taboo thing. Also the humiliation aspect is equally fascinating to me, the association of embarrassment wwvith kinks)

Also, did you knowwv that human's in the menstrual cycle wwvill produce FAR more pheromones in their swwveat, and swwveat MORE?

Also that you havvwe scent glands in the crease betwwveen your vvwulvvvwa and your thigh? Wwvhich is wwvhy dogs tend to try and crotch sniff people on their periods.

So, by extension, Saturn ABSOLUTELY eats you out on your period.

But back to the scent kink thing, yeah, most trolls find strong scents attractivvwe. And Saturn, wwvho smells like iron and heat and salt, and swwveat? Yeah he's VVWERY appealing to his partners.

Admittedly though, if ya notice from his... tastes, like Scylla and Bachus, he's got a thing for swwveeter smells. Bachus reeks of Iron and Fear, but also sugar and sodas. Scylla ALSO smells like Blood and Murder, but also swwveeets and sugars.

So someone LIVVWING in the church, wwvho therefore probably smells like Soda and Blood and Sopor by proximity? Yeah that's up his alley. Add in the fact that Trolls don't havvwe much BO besides an identifier scent, but HUMANS smell all sorts of wwvays?

Dumb mutt is stealing your clothes, bras, underwwvear, shirts, pants, shorts, ANYTHING he can get his pawwvs on.

Humans havvwe SO MANY scent glands too, eyelid, back of the ear, crotch, armpit, a couple others too-

Doesn't matter wwvhere he puts his face, wwvhich set of clothes he takes

It all smells like Dog does.

Saturn's owwvn scent glands are located under his jawwv, by his throat and wwvhere his fin joins to his face, and on the underside of his wwvrist, and the base of his tail, and the frog of his hoof, and the spot betwwveen his shoulders wwvhere his mane ends and his back fin begins.

And he DOES havvwe a distinct scent. Under the gun smoke, the blood, the sugar of his addiction, and the stench of burning flesh is the smell of air before rain and the sticky swwveet smell of rot in summer.

[merylstryfestan]

Trigun Maximum Vol 6 Ch 1&2

Hey friends! I found this volume so interesting I actually decided to contribute to the bookclub conversation for once! Except that there's so much to talk about that I have to split this into multiple parts lol

I'm going to start with chapters 1 & 2, since I think they pair together well, but this is going to get super long so buckle in!

Poor Meryl :( she is very clearly still trying to process everything that happened at Dragon's Nest, and this is the first evidence we see of how that's affecting her.

She goes and has a chat with Wolfwood, evidently trying to gauge his thoughts on the matter.

Except that it seems he's also trying to figure out how much she knows, without revealing anything himself. Also, he's such a bad liar, like how has he made it this far?? And this is also when he tells her the she and Milly should leave, specifically stating that Vash himself is too dangerous for them to be traveling with, hinting at Wolfwood's own fear of Vash which is addressed in chapter 2.

I found these panels interesting for two reasons: first, the injury to Vash's hand. I assume this must be from when Elendira shot a giant nail through his angel arm, so it's interesting to see that injuries sustained in that state persist when his arm goes back to normal. Also, this is the first we see of Vash participating in self-destructive behavior in this volume, and don't worry, there's more later :')))

But moving on to the fight at the bank. There's a lot I find interesting about this fight. First, Vash's approach here is... something, and I can't say I fully understand his reasoning. Rather than his more typical "Haha I'm just a silly little guy, don't fight, let's just talk this out!" routine, it's more similar to that time in Trimax Vol 1 where he's intentionally acting deranged, presumably in an attempt to intimidate his opponents into giving up. I don't know, I feel like it was a weird choice in this situation.

But another thing to note, is even after it's made clear that the act isn't really working, we see a couple more panels of Vash looking, well, scary tbh. And it's not that we haven't seen him looking frightening before, but in the context of this relatively low-stakes fight, it's pretty odd. And also in volume 1, once the intimidation tactic ultimately failed, he gave it up. so what's going on?

But then we have to remember that we're pretty much watching this fight from Meryl's pov, which is important. In the moment, Meryl's conscious thoughts tell us that she's scared for Vash. Will he have the determination to fight, to pull the trigger, etc. However, based on how we (and presumably she) are seeing him in this fight, as well as some events later in chapter 5, subconsciously she's very much afraid of Vash too, and she just doesn't want to admit that to herself.

There's even a moment right before the fight ends, where as far as we can see, Vash isn't really in immediate danger anymore, and he even gets his own gun back, but we still get a whole page with a frightening looking Vash with Meryl screaming and collapsing in the background. It's been made clear by now that he's able to fight just fine, so that can't be the reason for Meryl's reaction here.

Still, by the end of the chapter, Meryl hasn't put this together herself, and instead admires how he's strong enough to keep fighting despite his regrets. Don't worry, there's more on this in chapter 5 :))

And on to chapter 2!

This chapter also starts with a nightmare (you seeing why I paired these chapters together? :3 ). This one is Wolfwood's, except instead of it directly being about Vash himself, it's about Knives, but we'll see how Wolfwood struggles to separate the two in his mind.

Wolfwood draws the connection between these two events, identifying the power the twins have to literally exude fear in a way that physically affects others nearby. This solidifies to him how the twins really are the same species, completely different from humans, despite Vash's very human tendencies. And that makes them terrifying! But then we get one of the most iconic panels in all of Trigun.

The juxtaposition here is top tier! Vash, our lovely protagonist, smiling and relaxed, happy to see his friend. Contrasted with the direct evidence of his power to destroy, Wolfwood having just called him a monster in his thoughts. Wolfwood is also caught off guard by this stark irony, and then we get another of the most iconic panels in all of Trigun.

The themes and motifs!! Now Wolfwood is the one looking down on Vash, now he's the one framed by destruction. His expression is hard to read but it could be anger? fear? By the next page, Wolfwood has put his gun away, Vash (supposedly) unaware of what's happened. But the fact is, Wolfwood's experiencing almost a kind of cognitive dissonance here. Knives is a monster, who Wolfwood wants dead -> Vash is Knives' brother -> Vash is also a monster, and Wolfwood should want him dead.

Except it's not that simple is it? Because the chapter goes on, and we see how Wolfwood doesn't just protect Vash during the fight, but they fight together in perfect tandem, back to back, a well oiled machine, hardly even exchanging words.

And when it's all over, Vash turns his back to Wolfwood without a second thought, completely trusting him now the same way he does when they fight together. And Wolfwood has the thought, "Man, everything's different when I'm back to back with him." Wolfwood also trusts Vash and is able to turn his back to him, despite everything. And even to himself that hardly makes sense, but it's true.

And so yeah, these two chapters very much complement each other, showing two of Vash's closest friends and their fear towards him and how they react to it. Meryl, at this point, is trying to ignore her fear of Vash, and instead focuses on her fear for Vash and his safety. Wolfwood very much acknowledges how scared he is of Vash and what he can do, but at the same time must admit that he trusts him anyway. Which is all some great setup for what happens in chapter 5!

Anyway, thanks for reading all this! Posts analyzing the rest of the chapters to follow :3

[greatwyrmgold]

There are two reasons traditional RPGs gravitate towards combat. The first is, of course, that D&D (originally a wargame with proto-RPG mechanics tacked on) has been the Mount Fuji of the TRPG space for its entire existence—the first TRPG most people play, the TRPG others are compared to (implicitly or otherwise), the TRPG whose name is synecdoche for the entire medium.

The second is, I think, more interesting. Combat is relatively easy to generalize.

From rocks to guns, from magic to laser swords, from predatory microbes to atomic bombs, combat is trying to hurt something badly enough that it can't hurt you back, before something does the same to you.

There are a lot of differences, of course. Dying from blood loss is different from dying of decapitation, or burns, or getting crushed by boulders, or having your soul sucked from your body. Heck, dying from getting cut by a sword is different than dying from being impaled by a sword. Plenty of games simulate the differences between different kinds of injury...but they don't have to. It's easy to make a moderately deep combat system that feels about right for rocks and guns and magic and lasers and bombs.

Contrast that with, for instance, social situations.

You could design a debate system similar to stereotypical RPG combat, where you win an argument through sheer attrition—exhausting the opponent's will to continue arguing. This fits some social conflicts quite well; political arguments at Thanksgiving, criminal negotiations at the edge of violence, certain debate club a-holes.

But there are obviously also social conflicts where it's completely inappropriate. Deceiving a guard, mediating conflict between rivals, flirting with a potential informant. Trying to win a debate club match with facts and logic instead of brute force, for that matter. Or trying to win the match with emotional appeals, or by focusing on weaknesses in your opponent's arguments.

Swords, lasers, and fireballs are all different, but they have the same methodology: To hurt something badly enough that it can't hurt you back. Representing them all within the same mechanical system is simple. Different debate club strategies, not so much. A rational argument, an emotional appeal, and an argument of attrition are only doing the same thing in the abstract sense that they both want to win the argument...but they're doing that with completely different methods.

Representing different attacks with the same mechanics is simple. Systems like FATE literally use the exact same rules for all attacks, and it works well enough. GURPS and D&D and Shadowrun and so forth add more detail, but fundamentally, magic and swords and guns and giant rocks and fire deplete the same hit points the same way. None of this is realistic, but it's all verisimilitudinous—a plausible simulation of reality.

Representing different debate strategies is harder. Maybe you have mechanics that represent building up various kinds of arguments, putting together logical connections between premise and conclusion or questioning your opponent's connections. Maybe building an emotional argument with the same mechanics could feel right. But what about the a-hole who's trying to tread rhetorical water and grind down his opponent's patience?

And the framing of "debate club" is pretty narrow. The goals of each participant are consistent; they want to win the debate, which involves convincing an external panel of judges that they made their argument better. Factors outside the debate club are mostly irrelevant, unless you're in the kind of high-stakes dystopian high school where threats, bribes, and references to the other party's emotional trauma are a normal part of club activities.

Some social situations are overcome by following the rules, others by breaking them. Sometimes success is determined by whether you sway the person you're arguing with, sometimes by whether you sway a third party. Sometimes the social situation is a direct conflict, sometimes you're trying to find a solution that benefits everyone. Factors outside the immediate situation can play a role in all sorts of ways. And so on, and so forth. And none of these factors are binary—there are mixed bags and shades of gray everywhere.

Practically speaking, you can either have social mechanics that are shallow and unverisimilitudinous, or you can have social mechanics that fit a relatively narrow range of possible social situations. And that can work very well! If you have a clear, specific idea of what kinds of characters your system is designed for and the kinds of conflicts they'll get involved in, that's great.

But a social system designed to work for cultists acting as a duke's servants, which centers around maintaining propriety and arguing that whatever weird stuff they're doing is actually what they're supposed to do, is not going to work if those cultists decide to go hire a thug to kill the duke and start haggling over prices. What does a criminal like that care about propriety?

TRPG designers traditionally value player freedom. If the players want to hire someone to assassinate the duke, the GM should let them try, and the rules should include some kind of guidance for it. At the very least, it should tell them what die to roll. That's easy if you can draw a clean line between the "real" mechanics and the roll-a-die mechanics.

But if your core mechanics are a certain set of social situations, it can be tricky to define the place where the core ends and roll-a-die begins. If your cultists try to convince some peasants that they need the chickens in their bag for normal reasons, but don't have any reason to maintain social propriety, half of the social mechanics seem like they should apply, but half don't matter. And there's an endless spectrum of possibilities where some of the mechanics may or may not matter.

Focusing on social mechanics requires either superhumanly flexible design, sticking to a very specific set of circumstances (even if it restricts player choice), or just using roll-a-die mechanics for everything.

In my opinion, the middle option is best. Look at txttletale's underside, for instance. If everyone is onboard with playing a cape game in a setting whose superheroes and villains act in a certain way. But if you want to play more idealistic heroes or chummier villains or something, the mechanics won't really support that.

The cost of having good social mechanics is very specific social mechanics. And that's something I think is fine, but it goes against TRPG design wisdom.

[fizzingwizard]

Played the Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley demo

teehee will the real Snufkin please stand up??

First of all the art and music are so gorgeous. The watercolor effect and paper texture are enchanting. I felt soothed just watching the intro. It's very moomin-y and made me remember how I felt when I first discovered the books. When you walk through puddles, there's the sound of splashing water, and when you cross a log bridge, it sounds like hollow wood. Ideal vibe.

I did try *cough* to jump off the cliffs and stuff... but no, you can't kill yourself in this game, bahahaha. Unsurprising but Idk I've played Sims too long and "how can I kill everyone" has become my modus operandi. Not even Moomins are safe.

You pretty much just use space bar, S, and A, so playing was easy. I encountered some trouble when jumping at times, but Idk if that was jumps being glitchy or just me still getting the hang of it.

Snufkin in this is freakishly strong. Able to carry rocks while jumping across a rushing river and push a giant boulder around. Superstrength!! But it is a lot of fun, really, running and jumping everywhere, climbing things... I got stuck at one point where you have to climb behind a waterfall, because I didn't think you could climb horizontally!

Now this game stars Snufkin, but don't be fooled, it's really a Snufkin roast. You watch Teety-woo (who is leading the tutorial basically) follow Snufkin around getting ignored for ages x'D and he's so complimentary the whole time that it morphs into an insult. The rest of the time, in the name of helping, he does a lot of nothing and you stop feeling bad about ignoring him bahahahaha.

Your "mighty" harmonica x'D has the ability to calm and charm other creatures and make them fall in love with you. I don't care what anyone says, I love this whole music therapy angle. I also like finding inspiration in random bushes. It WAS a bit weird to use the harmonica on this Creep only so he could give me a boost up the cliff lol what was wrong with stacking rocks?

But the harmonica's best use is DEFINITELY hypnotizing birds and then launching them at a target. Who need guns when you have birds?? Seriously this was way too much fun, who knew Looney Tunes humor would be this amusing to me as a full grown adult :P

You get quests, like "rescue all the baby birds." But whenever you feel like it you can fuck off and go fishing for a while. Sorry mama! I didn't notice any game-related effect from it, like catching actual fish. So idk if that's the way it's meant to be, for relaxing, or if I'm just stupid.

I was a little confused when I got like three quests and didn't see how I'd made any progress on any of them. Then all of a sudden the mama bird, who says "woo" when she's sad and "teety" when she's happy, led to the completion of the "Find a name" quest. And I love Teety-woo praising the existential beauty of his own name, and then fucking off to pay some bills. The great Snufkin who?? I've got responsibilities!

Oh no... signs! Oh no... a park! Being asked to look after it is pretty funny! But the ensuing complete and total property destruction is even funnier!

Not even kidding, Snufkin demolishes this park. It was really fun! This game isn't hard, but for someone who doesn't play games, it wasn't too mindlessly simple for me either. I enjoyed dodging the park keepers, launching birds at their heads, and yeeting signs into oblivion.

And we end with the discovery that Moominvalley has dried up and Moomintroll is nowhere to be found! An excellent prologue. I'm definitely looking forward to this game. I like the idea of a game that has both relaxing elements and more energetic ones without being too terribly kiddie (of course it's perfect for kids, I'm just saying, as an adult, I wasn't bored), as well as one that is whimsical and silly without losing emotional depth, with manageable, personal stakes. The demo definitely didn't take me very long to get through and I have no idea how long the full game will be. But long or short, the story seems promising.

[of-some-writings]

Heaven Wills It

With a gun to her head, It found her. Schematics for an unknown mech, an impossible machine. There was no sender, nothing she could even attempt to trace back. It appeared from the cosmic aether, a miracle, a gift. With this gift came a message; or, perhaps, a declaration.

“To the girl who will journey the Star-Crossed Sea,

Kill them all.

The Chorus cries out for what shall always be done.”

“Your money better hold, P.” crackled from her intercom. She smirked, feeling her heart racing already.

“It will, Rhonda, don’t worry.” It sure as hell better, anyway. She burned through the last of her credits getting this trip together, what she was able to sneak into her private account anyway. Everything else was probably frozen by this point. She staked everything on this working, on this final shot, her only chance.

The woman on the intercom spoke again. “I’ll worry about it until we’re out of here. Hell, I can’t even believe I let you talk me into this, even with what you’re paying. You know I’m not gonna help ya if things go south, right?” “Not expecting you too, you made it pretty clear which of us have the balls to do this.” Snarl to her voice, nerves getting to her, making her antsy.

“P, not now.” There wasn’t any real anger in that voice, just a vague strain. “We both know, the only reason I’m out here is cause-”

“I know…” she cut her off, feeling shame. She didn’t like what all this was doing to her. None of this is what Iphy would have wanted, but definitely not that. “I… I’m sorry, Rhonda. She was your friend. Thanks for even hearing me out.”

Silence.

Then,

“Give them hell, Penny. Make those bastards pay. If you make it out, drinks are on me.”

She laughed. Stars, when was the last time she laughed?

“I’ll hold you too that.”

Without much more fanfire, she heard hissing from the machinery around her. The floor of the hangar began to open, revealing the lush jungle on the planet below. If she remembers right, HA wants to cut it all down, build refineries. World was uninhabited by anything smarter than a golden retriever, so given what other habits the Purview has demonstrated, this one fell through the cracks of outrage. Only a handful of squadrons guarded operations here.

She spent the better part of a year getting ready for this day, making sure she’d catch the One she was looking for. “Waterloo”. All and all, Penelope thought she was being kind.  

Of all the worlds to die on, they could have chosen worse.

She pulled up on the handles of her pilot’s rig, Then pushed forward, one, then the other. Some would opt for the neural interface, Iphy did but she argued it didn’t count, and Penelpe appreciated the pure tactile feel of driving her mecha. She is not her frame; it is something under her command.

With one step over the edge of the hangar floor, she fell. She gasped with excited as she tumbled, freeform in the air, the countless tonnes of her mech making her plummet at terminal velocity. Her readings blared out warnings, heating up and projected impact damage but as she fell, staring at the jungle below, her movement from the ship sending her on a diagonal arc towards her target, she simply allowed herself to exist in wonder. As she was forcefully turned skyward she could not see Rhonda’s ship, it’s cloaking on from the moment they entered this system. She knows where she’s going, where they’ll find her if she survives this. 

The warnings blared again, and this time she listened. With the press of a pedal near her left foot the jet thrusters on her mecha’s back revealed themselves, kicking to life. The machine shook with the force of the change, but with careful steering she was able to maneuver it to land onto one of the many giant trees that block out the sun from low terrain. She grabbed at branches, climbed down the tree on all fours like this machine’s strange anatomy seemed to encourage. With a thud that shook the underbrush and sent alien beasts scattering, The Pegasus was on the ground. It stood on its two back legs, and with a practiced effort pulled the… “gun” from her back. It seemed to fight her, just a little, but she gripped it hard. It knew she was stronger than it, and thus conceded to her. It settled in her hands, then became her hands, the living weapon for now disappearing into the metal of her forearms. She looked at the mech’s hands… at hers. With a deep breath, she pushed “Find Me In The Torrent” along.

Halfway to her target, she received an incoming call. This was strange to her, considering she shouldn’t be getting any calls, shouldn’t be able to. Whoever was doing this knew her encryption, at least decently well. She took the call, waited.

“Penny? Penny holy shit, where are you?”

A man’s voice, more of a boy honestly as far as she’s concerned. She took a deep, deep breath.

“Nice hearing from you too, Nester.” She remembered her brother’s smile first. How long has it been since she’s seen it?

“Penny c’mon don’t do this shit this time, what are you doing?” He sounded so panicked. She couldn’t blame him. He was next in line after all, and he’d never wanted the responsibility. It didn’t occur to her that he’d be worried about something else. 

“Exactly what I said I would. Now get off this channel before you get me killed.”

“Penny, Penny please,” his voice broke. She could feel him shudder from across the universe, how he cried with his whole body yet never his voice. “I’m begging you just, come home. Look I’m mad at Mom and Dad too, its fucked up, what they want from you but this isn’t how you fucking deal with that. This won’t help. Please P, let me help you.”

…

Her jaw clenched, her voice a wisp. “Nes…” 

“If I didn’t think I had to do this, I wouldn’t. But she died, and no one cared. Another name on the casualty reports. Well not for me. That was my wife, and they took her from me. I’ll burn the Purview to the ground if I have to, if that’s what it takes-”

“Takes to what Penny? To fucking what? Fix the hole in your heart? Bring her back? This shit isn’t going to help anyone P, you’re putting us all at risk if you-”

“Tell Mom and Dad to disown me.”

…

No reply. She could see him in her mind’s eye, staring dumbstruck. She continued. “They were probably gonna do it anyway, but doing it now gets them ahead of the curve. This isn’t a karakan assassination attempt, its a crazy bitch on a spree. I don’t want anyone to think otherwise.”

… “P, I-”

“I love you Nes.”

She flicked off her communications. Alone again, at last, She locked her eyes on the distant camp.

It rested in a man-made clearing, trees cut away and spartan living arrangements set up in their place. A series of large tents, One clearly a mess hall, a barracks, a conference area. In the near distance she saw a set of drills, boring into the ground to try and draw out the planet’s life blood. Taking stock of herself, she pulled out a small headset, a visor over one eye. As it flickered to life her vision was consumed with a stream of data, internal and external. She turned her {Eye} to them all. The datastream faded, the world outside grew dark. But points of interest revealed themselves as moats of light in the darkness before her. A handful of mecha, of course there were. Two Shermans, a Swallowtail(scandalous)... and a Tokugawa. 

She watched as soldiers moved through the camp. Not just soldiers though; she could see civilians, geologists, botanists , everyone you’d need to strip the planet or all it’s worth.  Pawns of the Purview, but she didn’t give a shit about them. All she needed was to keep them quiet…

She was taught the art of war as a matter of tradition, diplomacy because it was her obligation. But Penelope’s second love would always be tech. Well, it was time to put all that to use. With a tap against the side of her cockpit, her keyboard flicked down. One hand on the controls, the other typing away, On her visor the flow of data, the contours of the dogshit HA firewalls, were laid out before her, fingers tap tap tapping away as one fell after another.

Five minutes later, the base’ comms line was down. She heard the immediate commotion, And just as quick, attempts to keep the civs calm. Her {Eye} fell upon a woman, towering, jumper half pulled down in the sweltering heat. Commander Ajax  She was flanked on either side by a man and a woman, veins of steel running down the sides of their arms as they drew their weapons. Another man, the last member of the squadron, moved towards his Swallowtail, clearly hoping to use his mech’s systems to figure this out. 

Before he could climb in, a voice rang out from the camp’s intercom system.

“Attention, All civilians should vacate the premises for your safety. The members of Squadron Waterloo will remain, as price for their wellbeing.”

The startled crowd looked to the towering woman. She nodded, and like bats out of hell they went, packing up small things before running in the direction of another camp. She wager she’d have, maybe, half an hour before backup arrived.

Still unseen, she spoke calmly into the microphone. “Waterloo. A year and five months ago, a woman named Iphigenia was killed in an encounter with you.”

Ajax remained unmoved, unshaken, while her men got visibly antsy, one inching away to one of the Shermans. The Swallowtail was already coming online.

“That woman was my wife. I have come here to kill you all.”

The frost of her voice blew over the camp, overcoming the sweltering heat of the jungle and forcing the retreating Sherman pilot to freeze in place. There was no hesitation, barely even a threat. It was as if she was simply telling them what had already happened.

“However, Commander Ajax” she breathed away from the mic, not daring to let them hear how she herself shuddered. “If you will surrender yourself to me, I swear not to harm your crew. Your death can save your men.”

…

They turned to their commander, of course they did. She could feel how they looked at her, their bastion; she was a real leader, a comrade. Penny’s heart stirred. But if Ajax had the sense of honor Penny thought she saw in her, it did not factor into her next decision. She turned to her two men, gave them a knowing gesture, and like that– they ran!  Ajax too ran to her Tokugawa, taking one quick look back to see-

To hear Penny’s voice over the loudspeaker, one last time.

“Bang.”

It was force from nowhere, kinetic energy that emerged from the universe at terminal velocity. The Ushabti Omnigun was a weapon to harm mechs.

Commander Ajax saw one of her men atomize in front of her. It was instant, surely painless, but as his bloody vapor filled the air Penny knew that she had left an indelible mark on that woman’s soul.

Good.

She stepped into the clearing, Torrent white as Death, alien in this world of vibrant greens and steel blues. She raised her hands, willing the Mimic into shape- but Penelope was consumed in red, warnings blaring. The flow of data from her visor revealed to her the digital attack that had begun, forcing her to content with the Swallowtail. She grimaced as the war of counterhacking began, Penny knowing that she has become a juicy glowing target on his friend’s readouts. But unlike him, she was willing to push herself; straining Torrent’s hacking systems to slip past the Swallowtail, hostile code rushing towards the Sherman just moments before it’s pilot could reach it. She could see her climb up the mech, try to open it’s hatch. Penny grinned as she saw her strain; it’d take more than that after what she did to it. She tried once again to turn her attention to the commander, but the Swallowtail’s pilot was almost as good as she was. The lapse in focus was enough for it to flood her systems with meaningless junk data that confused her targeting systems. In the moment she needed to recover she saw the commander mount her Tokugawa and bring it online. She couldn’t take a clean shot right now.

“Bang.”

The second Sherman pilot disappeared  as her mist consumed by the jungle. You can’t miss with a gun that did not exist. Once she had cleared her systems, her {Eye} revealed that the Swallowtail remained hidden behind the larger tents, but that was at the back of her mind. Penelope wasn’t stupid, and didn’t come unprepared, she knew who she was dealing with.  She watched in quiet reverie as the Tokugawa pulled a hilt from either side of it, Torch Spears sparking to life In two of its hands while the second set gripped a rifle.

Ajax

Mech: Achilles

Penny crushed the grips of her handles. What remained of Waterloo saw as liquid metal peeled itself from her arms, coalescing in her left hand as an oversized pistol, barrel wider than Torrent’s arm itself. With the flick of a switch, a series of metal plates flicked out of her right hand. As Torrent tightened it into a fist, twin streams of plasma poured forth from the plates.

The Tokugawa charged first, flourishing with the twin spears as the rifle began to spray in her direction. Low priority warnings went up as the molten shells buried themselves into her chassis, Penny winced at the imagined pain but did not yield. The Pegasus held its ground under the rain of lead, waiting, waiting for-

Achilles lunged with one of the spears raised, a wicked jabbing motion that aimed for the heart. Penny was almost relieved, the action telling her in no uncertain terms that her rage had been reciprocated. Ajax was trying to kill with the first strike.

With a yank on her rig Penny forced the charged blade up, twisting to catch the plasma weapon before it could hit its mark. The two mechs strained against each other, another series of warnings telling Penelope that this was a contest she’d lose–if she was trying to win. All she needed was to keep her occupied, just long enough for the frustrated Commander to move her second spear away to wind up an attack. In that moment Penny placed the Cannon directly against the abdomen of the mech. With a hiss, a hiss,  Penny saw an eruption of metal viscera from the back of the Tokugawa. The Mimic fed from her anger, it felt like a live wire in her hand but at least for now the Commander was its target. Achilles stumbled back, the shot leaving a gaping hole in the Tokugawa’s side. Penelope attempted to use the moment to step back, but it seemed the commander was not as stunned as she’d hoped, finishing the wind up fast enough for the spear to connect with Torrent’s right shoulder. The inertia of her movement instantly ripped the plasma spear out, But Penelope could feel through her haptics how the arm grew stiffer, slower. The heat must have fused some things together, goddammit. 

Again her visor was flooded with information as the Swallowtail launched another assault, just as the Tokugawa began to stab at her again. Penny could already feel the headache forming as she tried to keep up a war on two fronts. As the spear drew close Torrent was able to duck under it’s path, in a fluid continuation attempted to jab at Achille’s heel with the charged blade. But the data attack slipped through again, throwing her systems off again, combined with the slowed arm allowing the Tokugawa to aim a kick directly at Torrent’s head. The force of the blow knocked Penny flat on her back, looking up to see the Tokugawa aiming its rifle straight down. Penny quickly lifted the Mimic up, but it twisted and snarled in her grip, refusing to relent to her rage again. Penny felt a twinge of fear through her heart as she saw the Tokugawa pull the trigger,

Think 

Think!

“Bang!”

An omnigun shot aimed directly at the left rifle hand, knocking it ajar from Achille’s grip and tilting the gunfire to the side of her. She jumped up, slamming the pedal for her jets that caught light just a moment fast enough to curve Torrent away from another spear thrust. Just as she caught a second to breathe, another blare of warnings from her left. 

A thread of gunfire punched straight through her chassis, through Torrent, Penny seeing stray bullets whiz past her head. Her {Eye} followed the invisible thread back towards its source: The Swallowtail had joined the physical confrontation, a machine gun from it’s back aimed expertly towards her center. As it was reloading, Penelope heard more gunfire, barely jolting out of the way of Achilles rifle fire. With the Mimic still unresponsive she couldn’t return fire; but she had more than just that. She could feel her reactor strain under the invasions and plasma strikes yet she pushed it harder as she bifurcated a hacking stream towards both mechs at once. Her visor showed the data fire like bullets to the cores of these machines. The Tokugawa gave to her hostile code immediately, laughable HA computer security is how she found out about Waterloo’s newest deployment in the first place. Suddenly the plasma spears half receded into their sheathes, while Ajax’s gunfire went pointlessly wide. But the Swallowtail proved more difficult; moreso than the Pegasus it was designed to be a proficient hacking mech, and the pilot had proven her equal at each point of this fight. And that thought ate away at Penelope, feeding a deep seated rage that, if she had the time to think, would scare the girl she was just a few months ago. This worthless piece of shit was not her equal. She needed him, both of them, to know she was better than them. Dedicating her sole focus to the attempt, regardless of whether Ajax managed to clip a couple shots, puncture the fuel line of one of her jet thrusters, Penelope could feel through the war of hack and counterhack, the pilot’s panic, the growing sloppiness in his strings. Finally, finally, she punched through, and she watched in delight as it’s rifle went limp, its perfect aiming systems down. No thought from there, deep down Penelope knew she needed to capitalize.

Pedal to the metal, she turned her jets on to max, wincing as one of the auxiliary thrusters exploded and broke off. But gritting her teeth she remained on course until she could safely turn them off and let inertia carry her at max speed. The Swallowtail pilot tried to scutter away, but-

“Bang.”

One of its legs collapse under it, long enough for Torrent to fly past it at max speed, clotheslining it with the base of her charged blade.

The two collapsed into each other behind the tent, momentarily out of Achilles’ view. The Mimic slithered up her wrist, both of Torrent’s hands reaching down to pin the Swallowtail below it grabbing at the rifle and with a satisfying snap ripping it from its mount. Her {Eye} could see that it’s reactor was on the brink of giving out, even worse than hers was. Immediately she tried to strike for that digital heart, but the pilot tried to hold her back. Another war of datastreams erupted between the pilot, but something undeniable separate Penelope from this man: she was not fighting to survive. Smoke poured from the Pegasus, and she did not care. He did. Thus, in that war of wills, he lost. They were both quietly thankful when the machine merely sputtered to an agonizing death, and did not immediately meltdown. Penny climbed up, pulling a lever to open the vents to full and clear Torrent of its heat. She regarded the downed mech briefly, and then turned away.

The tent next to her exploded.

Achilles stood there, spears now bursting with life. As they ripped through canvas she saw how they grew, able to reach her from even there. The Commander was going all out.

Finally she thought.

Penny looked down to the Mimic; to Find Me In The Torrent, her cosmic miracle. To them, she whispered.

“I… don’t care what happens after. I don’t care what it costs. Just… help me kill her.” She couldn’t believe what she was saying, the way her voice twisted into a snarl. She couldn’t believe that she meant it. But she did, and if… the machine, or the Mimic, or something, was listening…

It answered.

The Mimic coalesced around Torrent’s hand; warping the metal now, twisting the steel flesh as the fingers bent, the palm opening to now form the barrel of a massive cannon. 

Penelope took a deep breath; she spoke, slow, quiet.

“Heaven Wills It”

Immediately her visor’s view was overwhelmed with new data, systems adjustments, a cascade of errors as something that should not be able to happen nevertheless occurred.

Penelope starred down Ajax. Close behind her were the untouched Shermans, the rest of the camp. Penny struggled to stare Ajax down fully. If she thought too hard, she’d remember what she heard of Iphigenia's last fight.

Her comrades called it an honorable clash between warriors. And she could tell why some found comfort in that kind of self-deception. But Penelope could not care about honor, or what lies she’s been telling herself to get by. She could not be objective about this: this is the woman that killed her wife.

“Bang.”

She took a step back, then sprinting, barely skirting around the exterior of the Tokugawa’s ridiculous range. A dent in the armor around its chest formed.

“Bang.”

The dent grew deeper. Hostile data flowed from her mech with every breath; she flooded pilot’s chamber with excess heat and shut off her life support. The first spear wavered, but the Commander adjusted, of course she did, and plunged the second deep through Torrent’s stomach. Penny felt the burning heat directly below her, could feel it begin to melt deeper and deeper into her heart.

She remained on the retreat. Her {Eye} revealed how the Tokugawa’s reactor was burning hot, but she knew it could stand to burn even hotter. Her thinking mind valued her own safety, but she could feel (how… could she feel?) the Mimic getting antsy.

“Fine, dammit.” she snarled, Taking a bold step forward past another thrusting spear. She cursed, she could throw off their targeting as much as she liked but this close?

The Tokugawa rushed to meet her, the two mecha colliding at the edge of the ruined camp. Using her charged blade she held back one of the spears as she tried to lift the cannon upward. 

She could feel the shudder as the Tokugawa’s second arm wrapped around them, as a jolt like lightning ran through them as Achilles buried the Torch Spear deep into Torrent. Penelope heard the shriek of tearing, heating metal before she saw it; the spear punched straight into her cockpit, a scant few inches from her body. The plasma spat and licked at the edges of the room, Penny almost instantly feeling the burns that, if given any time longer would never heal. She looked onward, but the damage broke her {Eye}, screen barely visible. She ripped off the visor, looking out, as she twisted the Mimic up, she could barely keep her eyes open, but, but, Heaven-

“Bang!”

This time it screamed, it roared As Find Me In The Torrent pressed the cannon arm against the side of the Tokugawa. An overwhelming upheaval of visceral metal punched straight through the mech, mere second later Penny could feel the plasma spear go inert. She panted, exhilarated by the fight, by the pain; by the site of the Tokugawa fall on the ground, almost all of it’s right side blown to pieces. Penny flexed the cannon arm, watched as the Mimic reformed, seemingly gorging itself on the scrap metal it just helped create.

A request for communications came from Ajax. Penelope accepted.

“... I… I surrender. Just please, leave him out of this. That’s what you promised in the first place, right?”

…

“Yeah. Get out of your mech. It’s over.”

Penelope crawled out of her cockpit, out onto an outstretched arm of Torrent that reached town to the Tokugawa. She saw Ajax, bleeding, coughing, do the same, clutching a wounded arm as she walked up Torrent’s. Penelope had her pistol, of course, but she had not drawn it. Between Ajax’s towering height and low position, and Penelope standing above her, the two were able to meet at eye level.

The commander was professional, she had to give her that. Stared her death down with a militant stoicism, that could almost ruin the moment. Almost.

Penny began to speak, but her voice caught in her throat. She tried to twist herself into that snarling version of herself she just was but… she couldn’t. Her chest tightened.

“She was the world to me, y’know. After a lifetime of nothing, just pure obligations, having her… made that future one I wouldn’t mind. And you took her from me.”

The commander did not emote, much anyway, breaking eye contact with Penny as she sighed. “Look I’m not going to apologize for… wait, who was she even? Who the hell am I dying for?”

Penny, too, looked away. “...An atlas pilot.”

Ajax’s brow furrowed, sorting through a year of memories, flashing before her eyes in greater detail. Then, suddenly it all snapped to focus. She laughed.

“Her? She fought like a demon, y’know. I saw her throw a Barbarossa, real scary bitch. That… you a solider, miss?”

“Not by trade.”

“I figured. A soldier wouldn’t think like this. Cause, imagine if everyone acted like you. People die in wars. It’s just the way of things. If you were hoping for some deathbed apology, sorry; it was a good fight, and I’m glad I won.”

Penny’s face twisted, just a little.

“I… I know, this isn’t reasonable. But I, I-” “Because it happened to you? Arianne, Tora, they both had people who loved them too. Siblings, partners, parents. Me? Got two partners and a kid back home. Are any of them entitled to revenge?” 

“I, I, look-” She said, starting, stumbling, feeling something twist in her head, in her heart. She needed it to stop, if she was going to go through with this.

 Without ceremony she kicked Ajax down into the palm of Torrent. She stopped on her chest, suddenly not thinking about the pain she’s causing, or what may happen to her after this.

“I… don’t care. I really can't say I give a shit. I don’t care if this is right, or if your friends hunt me down ‘cross the Star Cross sea. You hurt me. I want to hurt you.”

Something began to crack, ever so slightly, within Ajax’s confidence in death. Suddenly, she was once again staring down a demon.

“Kid, look. The Purview isn’t going to let this slide, y’know. They’re going to find you. You’re going to die.”

Penny… laughed. It was wicked, empty, poisonous on her breath. “Yeah, I’m sure they’ll have an easy time with that. Hell, let them try; if they even care. I mean, really, think your little squad is worth that much attention?” She flexed her hand, pointer finger pressed against Ajax’s head as she cocked her thumb

“You’re nothing. And me?

“I’m Nobody.”

…

Bang.

…

…

When Polyphemus cried out in pain, the cyclops replied,

“Polyphemus, what ails you? Why do you cry, breaking the silence? Surely, nobody is hurting you.”

And yet he cried again, “Yes, yes! Nobody is hurting me, is killing me!”

Silence.

Then, “If Nobody is hurting you, then Heaven wills it. There is nothing to be done but pray.”

[tumblingxelian]

I gotta give CRWBY/RWBY credit,

In one year they have introduced 3 concepts I normally hate and yet made me like all of them.

Cos normally, I don't like creator god figures in any story because they undermine the stakes by being able to end the story whenever. I normally hate time travel because its a giant can of worms to open as once its established it feels like only so long before everything unravels or revolves around it. And generally I am not a fan of crossovers cos universe jumping being easy and consequence free again goes back to the can of worms problem.

Yes those sons of guns pulled it off!

I love the Tree/Blacksmith and she works because she's not passive by choice, so much as by nature, the Tree is akin to the primordial deities of Greek Mythology, a big and broad concept combined with being more a location than a person. This seems very deliberate, cos while the Blacksmith has agency, she creates a certain dividing and connecting line between herself, the Tree and the Ever After, they are one being but also not quite. While also making it obvious that while she can create things she doesn't get a say in how they behave, she can be involved to speak, she can open doorways and make new things, but she can't just snap a swig and solve the story. Time travel meanwhile is great, cos rather than it just being "Time travel is possible" its a case of needing to travel to an entirely other realm a functionally primordial fae realm with more limber rules of reality for it to even stand a chance of working. This neatly solves a lot of the issues of, "And then X invented a time machine!" And that's without addressing the complexities of said time travel, IE no real way to experiment with it, needing to access the Ever After, find it, find a way out, get the timing right and so on, its present but its not game breaking.

Meanwhile, they made the crossover with DC operate under such rules that simply hopping between universe simply cannot be viable. People from one universe infect one another, they de-stabilize things, its almost eldrich in a sense, these things from another reality create instability simply by existing where they aren't meant to. It creates a plot, a chance for characters to meet and play off one another, but there are consequences and reasons to keep it from ever happening again.