#Might rewrite at some point

[goblin-the-clown]

The silly polycule + an extra maskless nagito ^_^

Uhhh this took me literally all day so pretty please consider reblogging 💞💞💞

[secretsofthewilde]

Well. I did say that only one person needed to ask and I'll share. So here you go @raisedbythetv89 @richtea-biscuit

The actual academic essay I wrote and submitted is available to read here (x) for now at least, but as it was written for an assignment with a set word count and parameters, I ended up having to take out the section I had originally written about Cordelia and also there are a lot of references to the set textbook readings I was given. So it might not be the lightest of reading.

Essentially the essay poses the argument that for all the supposedly progressive feminist intentions of the show, we regularly see gender and sexual stereotypes still being reinforced within the show especially through the way that the women are treated for their relationship with sex. That is to to say that while the ‘Scooby gang’ typically seems to contest gender norms, with the male characters often appearing as submissive to Buffy and the female characters themselves each threatening gender norms in their own way, the intimate relations between the characters often undermine these initial contestations. In my essay I explore this through comparing Faith and Buffy's relationship with sex during the early seasons of the show.

Below is my section on Cordelia which unfortunately didn't make it into the essay, followed by a summary of my essay points on Faith and Buffy. I'm mainly sticking to seasons 1-3 for this essay because while I do mention season 4 at one point briefly, the introduction of Riley and Tara mark a change in the nature of sex and what it means in the show.

Part 2 (which is a look at Willow) has also now been written and can be found here (x)

Cordelia Chase

Cordelia starts out as a mild social antagonistic force to our Scooby gang, she is a bully. As the show progresses though she slowly starts to build connections with them, however she isn't allowed into their group until she is depicted as having romantic feelings for Xander, rather than just sexual. When it comes to Cordelia and Xander's relationship she is the dominant one. She has more social power than him and the Scoobys, as well as being more financially and academically stable than him. She also is the only one with a car, meaning she is the one who drives them to their dates. And while this at first seems to be challenging gender stereotypes of powerful men providing for an attractive but weaker woman, the problem is that she isn't allowed or accepted into the Scooby gang until after she sacrifices her social privilege to commit to a public relationship to him. Prior to this sacrifice any relationship or attempt at casual sex we saw Cordelia make was framed as shallow behaviour from her to be scorned or done for comedic effect. We see both her and Buffy seek intimate relationships in these early season, but only Buffy's attempts are framed as sympathetic. It was only when she expressed an emotional connection to Xander that she was presented as a sympathetic character to the audience.

Buffy Summers

Buffy and Angel are the first intimate relationship we see explored in the show and so it's the one that sets the audiences' initial expectations for intimacy. While Buffy is dominant within her social groups and her general use of violence to defeat enemies is something that we would say challenges gender norms, she rarely maintains these traits (or at least they are made much weaker) in scenes that explore her relationship with Angel. Once she's romantically interested in him she routinely takes a submissive role in their relationship; she goes to him for help and advice, places his well being over her role as a slayer, and waits for him to be the one to define and initiate their relationship.

 Unlike Cordelia’s early relationship with Xander, the audience is meant to be invested and sympathetic towards Buffy and Angel. From the get go we have it established that the two love each other, but despite their doomed fate we are meant to want to see them together and therefore we are sympathetic to Buffy's attempts at intimacy with him. When they do have sex and Angel loses his soul, these painful consequences is sometimes seen to be done as a punishment for Buffy having sex, but I think it's more to do with the tragic nature of their gothic romance rather than that - because Buffy and Angel did have the emotional and psychological connection that the show requires in order for their intimacy to be viewed as 'good'. In contrast though, once they break up we see Buffy try to have sex casually with other non-supernatural students but this only results in her getting hurt. When she and Parker have sex he dumps her the following day after using her; which is her punishment for attempting to have sex with something who she didn't really love like Angel. Buffy's also interesting in that her attempt to have a not only loving but sexual relationship also sets her apart from the other slayers - Kendra doesn't have sex, Faith doesn't do emotional intimacy, but Buffy tries to have both.

Faith Lehane

Faith gets to be the sexually free and explorative girl that Buffy is unable to. While she does struggle to do so, within the first three season Buffy does successfully create and sustain a heteronormative relationship that is both sexually and emotionally intimate. While Buffy might flirt with other guys that aren't Angel, she's still easily the "good girl" who cares more about the emotional connection with a guy than sex; in comparison Faith is someone who presents very confident in her sexuality and actively seeks casual sex without any emotional connections. If Buffy is seen to be masculine because of her traits as a slayer than Faith can be seen as hyper-masculine. So she challengers gender stereotypes in that her seeking casual sex and her dominant flirtatious behavior are traits typically reserved for a stereotypical "bad boy" type of character.

When Faith is first introduced to the show as an ally to our Scooby gang, her sexual confidence and behaviours are initially something that Buffy herself wants to replicate. The only time that we actually see her engage in sex on screen however is when she initiates sex with Xander, which coincidently also marks the last episode where she is considered to be someone trust worthy. Faith is the one to initiate sex with Xander, and she remains in a dominant position of control of the scene that we observe. The moment seems to subvert the trope of the confident male "deflowering" the inexperienced and submissive women (who in this scene would be Xander). However the scene is immediately cut with Faith kicking Xander out of her apartment after he tries to initiate an emotional connection with her, and this is framed for comedic effect. By framing their whole sexual encounter as comedic, it's undermining how Faith's sexual confidence seemed to challenge gender roles and instead framing deviations from expected heteronormative behaviours as something to laugh at.

It's also important that the very next episode (Bad Girls) is the one where we clearly see the descent of her mental stability as her reckless behaviour (both sexual and violent) in one-night results in her accidentally killing someone. What was initially seen as traits of a sexually confident woman, and therefore challenging gender roles, then becomes depicted for the rest of the season as signs of her mental instability and her eventual role as an antagonist. This is her punishment for engaging in casual sex; for not having the emotional or psychological connection that is needed for sexual actions to be accepted or approved of by the narrative.

Conclusion

Within the first three seasons of Buffy we see that the female characters are able to challenge gender roles in many ways, however this isn't extended to sex. They can enjoy and seek sex out at times, however they will suffer as a consequence if they don't fulfil certain heteronormative conventions during those times.

Buffy and Faith are allowed to be powerful slayers who are in charge, but in order for their power (and how they challenge dominant ideologies) to remain acceptable it needs to be limited to their battles in the streets rather than in the sheets.

[prixoruno]

bamb

[northern-passage]

some of you may have seen over on my kithj blog but i'm currently in the process of editing/rewriting the current chapters of tnp (mainly the prologue & ch1) i'm only on the prologue right now but making steady progress. i'm getting to a lot of edits i've been putting off (like the wraith fight) and updating/revising some of the lore and worldbuilding. i'm hopeful this will improve what's already there and also motivate me to keep going and finally get back in the saddle completely.

i've made the decision to cut out certain choices, the biggest ones being that you can no longer turn Clementine away on the road (it was always a bit of an empty choice and just resulted in the player losing interactions with a main character who is ultimately unavoidable) as well as genderlocking the sibling. congrats, you now have a little sister!

otherwise the only other major changes i'm planning on at the moment is the aforementioned wraith fight, though i don't imagine the fight itself changing too much, mainly the structure and choices, and then i also plan to rewrite Noel's route in ch1. Noel's route has been something that has bothered me since the start, and i'm going to essentially swap xir path in ch1-- rather than going to the isolation district (which ultimately doesn't do much, since you go with him either way the following day in ch2) you'll be going along with him on his house calls. there are a lot of other minor things i'll be editing as well, but those are the only big content changes i'm looking at currently.

the wraith fight will probably take some time, and i want to update with both chapter overhauls completed, so don't expect that any time soon, but i figured i'd share what i'm up to at the moment :-) thank you as always for your patience and support!

[taraxippos]

I might actually have to fucking kill the 3 moons thing in my setting. I might have to do it. Like I'm willing to just completely ignore how having 3 large satellites would absolutely change conditions from 1:1 earthlike in major ways, but I can't(??? maybe) have the moons be visible in different phases in any given day.

Like:

Per this highly professional diagram, if the 3 moons are each in these circled (relative) positions to the sun on their respective orbits, an earth viewer would see each 'rise' and 'set' over the course of a given day in 3 separate phases right?? This is definitely elementary school basic but my brain is fucking fried right now so bear with me.

On one hand (still wholly ignoring planetary physics) this could be an opportunity for more complex worldbuilding in ways that would be fun for me (special significance when all 3 are visible in the same phase, loads of implications for astrology systems, etc) but on the other hand the lunisolar calendar system I painstakingly figured out and is important to the story would be in fucking shambles because I didn't think of this issue until now somehow.

[edwinisms]

wait yeah hold on how the hell did edwin open a door from hell to earth? like if powerful beings like the night nurse or certain demonic entities are necessary to open and close doors to other planes (especially hell where souls being trapped there is kind of the point) then what the fuck did edwin manage to pull off? did he somehow trick a demon or whatever into opening one? was one opened for one reason or another– maybe upon a demon’s return from retrieving a soul– and he timed it, booked it, and jumped in? there certainly isn’t just some constantly open ever-accessible door at the top of The Endless Staircase considering that would make hell kind of pointless. did edwin payne manage, somehow, over the span of 70 years, to figure out how to open a door from limbo/the staircase to earth by himself? am i just missing something here?

[deadtiredghost]

Yuichi: I wouldn't date you if you were the last person on earth

Leo: AWWWW, I wouldn't date you too :]

their dynamic fr fr

(aromantic Leo fic - any maybe Yui? Idk)

[overly-verbose]

A whole lot of the next Part is literally just;

Everyone else's brains: *the entirety of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney OST intensifies*

Meanwhile, SIkuna's brain: *the Wii theme song (occasionally interrupted by falling_metal_pipe_sound.mp3) starts playing*

.

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

Pick something for me to write

Ignore the blacked out thing, that’s someone else’s document

[beelsjuicytitties]

Somewhere Only We Know

solomon x gn!reader

warnings/tags: slight angst, emotional hurt/comfort, reverse comfort, established relationship, partial solomon backstory spoilers?

summary: You hadn't heard from Solomon in weeks, and you were worried. So you go out in search of him.

—

AN: haha... its been a hot while since i posted my own writing here..... wrote this in like june when i was extra emo about solomon lol. title taken from Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. read on Ao3

—

You were worried. You haven't been able to get into contact with Solomon for weeks. It wasn't exactly unusual for him to be somewhere he had no reception, but he'd always let you know beforehand. Everyone you had asked simply apologized, saying they had no clue where he was. And so, you decided to go and look for him yourself, remembering all the different places he's shown you, or told you about. You brought some provisions along, unsure of how long it would take to find the witty sorcerer you loved so dearly. 

  You spent most of a day checking around the devildom, teleporting from place to place without any signs that Solomon had been there recently. Settling down onto a large stump with a sigh, you pull out some of the food you had brought. All the teleporting was starting to wear at you, but you couldn't possibly stop now. It took only a few minutes to finish the food, the taste barely registering. You quickly packed up your things and stood. There was no time to rest, there was still the human world to search. You steeled yourself, before teleporting once again.

—

  Solomon wandered through a quiet field. The clear air helped to sooth his wrecked thoughts, but not enough. The sadness and grief he usually held at bay had overwhelmed him once more. In times like these, he tended to isolate. To run away and keep everything hidden from those around him. He hated this part of himself. The part of him that was a sad, lonely little boy. A boy that had lost anyone dear to him. A boy who curled up in the corner of the dark basement he lived in. His face was tense as he walked a game train through the tall grasses around him. The trail led him to a small ruin. A fallen tree that once stood proud and tall, next to a crumbling stone wall. He ran his hand along the once familiar stones, a deep melancholy gripping his heart. He sat gently on the fallen tree, and gazed up to the endless sky. Dusk had begun to settle in, the clouds painted in dark blues and saturated oranges. His tears were silent, slipping down his face and dropping onto his clothes.

—

The sky was growing dark as you finally felt traces of Solomon. Even without casting anything, his magic tended to seep out and stick to his surroundings. You followed the trail you were sure he had walked, steps quickening as you felt him more and more. Finally, after searching hell and back, literally, you see him. There's barely any light now, but you could never mistake his frame. You broke into a run, a sound of relief bursting from you. He looked towards you at the sound, surprised. He was less alert in this state, less aware of everything around him. The moment you reach him, your arms are around him, holding him tight to your body as you fall to your knees in front of him. It took Solomon a moment to fully realize what was going on. He looked down at you, seeing the way you clung to him as though he was your lifeline. The way you pressed your face against his chest, quiet sobs shaking your shoulders. 

  "How.. How did you find me?" Solomon inwardly cringed at the way his voice wavered. 

  "I looked everywhere. Everywhere you've ever taken me, or told me about. I was so worried Sol, I was so, so worried." You pulled back, just enough to see his face. His eyes were red and puffy, tear stains evident on his cheeks. He looked like he hadn't slept the entire time he was gone. Knowing Solomon, it was entirely possible. You raised a shaky hand to his cheek, cradling his face softly as though he might break. "I couldn't get in contact with you, no one knew where you were, I thought.." You swallowed back your tears. "I thought something happened to you." 

  Solomon's eyes widened, how long had he been gone? Everything was one big blur as he tried to recall how many nights had passed. "You know nothing can happen to me, I've always survived any mess I get myself into." A defensive smile tried to make its way onto his face, but it looked more like a grimace. "I'm okay, you don't need to be so worried MC." 

  "Please Sol… Please don't lie to me." You raised up your torso, so you could press your forehead to his. "You're always there for me when I need you, let me return the favour." Solomon took a few shaky breaths, tears threatening to begin falling once more. He raised his arms to wrap around you, leaning against you. The two of you stay like this for a while, just holding each other and breathing. Your legs were straining to keep you up but you didn't even notice. All of you was completely focused on Solomon in this moment. Without realizing, you began to hum. A gentle, soothing tune that Solomon had hummed for you countless times when you were broken down. A soft, sad smile made its way onto his face. 

  "My mother used to hum that for me. During the cold dark nights, when I would cry, she'd come down and hold me. When I was a very young boy."  You cracked your eyes open, and looked at him through your eyelashes. 

  "Is it alright?" He gave an affirmative hum, and you continued the tune. Solomon shifted his head down, nuzzling into your shoulder. You leaned your head against his. You weren't too sure how much time had passed, before he pulled back. 

  "Why don't you come sit next to me?" His voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sure your knees would appreciate a rest." You nodded, finally noticing how stiff you had grown as you moved beside him. You laced your fingers with his, and leaned against him. "... I'm sorry. I never wanted to worry you so." He squeezed your hand. "Thank you.. For coming to find me." 

  "Always, I will always come find you Sol." The promise warmed Solomon, helping him return to himself. "I love you Sol, I love you more than words could ever say." You turned to look at him, your eyes so full of love and care. Solomon had no clue what he had done to deserve you. His adorable little apprentice, who could calm his heart without even trying. Who warmed the forgotten parts of himself, that had been stuffed away by the years and years of pain and sadness. Who took the hand of that little boy, and brought him out into the warm sunlight. 

  "And I love you too, my Dear. more than I've ever loved anything. More than anything I've ever felt." He pressed a soft kiss to your forehead. "I'll try to rely on you more, I promise. There are things I still can't bring myself to talk about, but I hope I can one day." A tired loving smile found its place on your face. 

  "I will wait as long as you need." This time, he pressed a kiss to your lips. It was such a tender kiss, so full of yours and his love. It was then that Solomon's stomach let out a growl. Come to think of it, he can't remember the last time he ate. He gave a sheepish laugh, worried he had somehow ruined the moment. "I brought some food, we could eat together?"

  "That would be wonderful, my Dear." You started pulling things from your bag, the meal was rather simple, prepared in a rush. Then you pulled out the soft blanket you had brought in case you had to sleep outside. You spread the blanket out in front of the tree and sat down. Leaning slightly against the tree behind your back, you pat the space next to you. Solomon sat down, pressing into your side as you passed him some food. You ate together in a comfortable silence, staring up into the starry sky. Solomon's hand found your own once more, the warmth welcome in the chilly night air. You stayed there til morning, pointing out constellations and talking. Solomon told you a bit more about his childhood, and you shared a bit of your own, before you both fell asleep against each other. 

[echo-the-artist]

Maddie's eyes widened as her gaze found Tails, his namesake flicking without a care in the world and his arms overflowing with bags of mints, so many, it was a miracle the fox wasn't falling over from the weight, nevermind dropping any.

"Tails" called, Maddie, doing her best not to chuckle at the sight. Innocently, Tails's blue eyes peaked from his pile.

"Yes, Mrs. Wachowski?"

"Please, go put all those mints back, you can keep one bag" said Maddie, in the most calm tone a mother could have.

She hoped Tails would listen, to say "okay" and replace the bags where he found them. What she got instead was a frown and big, puppy eyes.

Oh no...

Not those eyes...

"Tails, no. Just keep one" Maddie's voice was raised with more command, pushing back the urge to give in. He wasn't going to use Ozzie's tricks.

The order seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Tails's eyes only became wider to send out various conflicting signals within the brain that fought against Maddie's maternal instincts while her son continued to resemble a certain orange cat with those big, adorable eyes and squishable face.

'Let him keep the mints'

'We can't afford to buy everything for him everytime'

'He's so cute and adorable and fluffy'

'The house still needs repairs'

'Who would say "no" to that cute face?'

'We literally can't afford this'

Wait... Was that a whimper?

"MILES TAILS WACHOWSKI!" Maddie finally shouted, able to pull herself out of the mental argument with herself, though it did nothing to shrink her son's unblinking, begging eyes. "I SAID PUT THE MINTS BACK!"

____

Maddie sighed as she closed the door, as everyone did their best to ignore the strong smell of mint from Tails while Sonic was pressed against the door as far as he could, plugging his nose with a grip that would make Knuckles jealous.

Tom's gaze fell onto Maddie, whose palm was pressing against her forehead.

"I know..." Was all the answers he needed. No other words were spoken on the drive home, except for the silent agreement between the parents.

Tails, seriously needs a intervention

[herearedragons]

guys turns out chapter 5 of the hanged man is good.

[bonestrouslingbones]

personally i like the fact that the most glaring hint i can give that ERR 408 is not ebony and could not possibly be ebony is the fact that ERR 408 says swears

[whatudottu]

Something about Altered Loyalties CYLAS just really makes me want to include him in the first place but also makes me really really REALLY think that with the more supernatural elements of AL based off of the original TFP pilot (or just first episode/s?) that CYLAS as a ‘dead man walking’ would actually let him stay around longer AND also be a very significant contributing factor to Megatron’s downfall in Decepticon favour!

Of course it’s not as if I have the pieces of the TFP rewrite au firmly put into place, CYLAS in canon shows up just over halfway into season 2, and many of my most established changes occur in the first like… including all the parts of ‘Darkness Rising’ 8 episodes of season one; I have no idea if the environment CYLAS presents himself in is the same one canon CYLAS does.

But with the dubiousity between s1 e8 all the way to s2 e19, I’ll establish the basic context… I think in story mode maybe…

Looking at the general timeline for the Aligned Continuity, it says that the first contact of cybertronians on Earth is dated to about 500 years before the show, give or take a decade. I’ve been listing Skyquake’s little EHP pitstop to have existed at least 50 years before the war reached our planet, but what if I pushed it all the way back to 500; if a vorn is 83 years, that’d be about 6 years on an entirely different planet not knowing truly if your twin is going to make it, a planet which by the way presently has no established radio systems that it’s horrifically quiet for a terrestrial environment.

That means that Skyquake’s EHP Comms Array has been transmitting a signal long before humans had developed radio, which also means that what might’ve been blatantly an anomaly in the system if discovered 50 odd years previous to 2012 (which would’ve been in the 60s give or take which would not have been good in the literal middle of the cold war era) has been going for centuries because it had always been there, there is no anomaly because it is a signal that has existed ever since humans were able to manipulate radiowaves into sending messages and translate them into detectable noise. It helps that cybertronian language and code (both code lang and like literal programming code) is a system unknown to humans developing their own language.

And you may be asking, why did I divert this post from talking about CYLAS and how he’d outlast his canon alternate to radio shit? Well, if you were a paramilitary organisation who is pretty good at erasing signals and you discovered a signal that has been actively running for the entirety of human radio has suddenly been silenced, what would you begin to suspect at that?

Aliens may potentially be a stretch but MECH didn’t just name themselves after the cybertronians fighting war on their planet, and once the cybertronian conflict touched down on Earth, the Decepticons hadn’t a need for an intergalactic communications array and in fact was specifically instructed to switch it off in an effort to prevent the Autobots from using it. That would’ve been about maybe 6 years ago for the show (wow just enough equivalent time to match what Skyquake felt he spent grounded to one radio tower look at that) and though MECH would not encounter their first cybertronian until ‘Convoy’ (haha wait that’s s1 e9 the next ep to cover - if necessary - for Altered Loyalties lmao), they would’ve had 6 years to find that missing signal and stumble across some very definitely alien technology.

That is one of the reasons why the rewrite of ‘Masters and Students’ which is less masters and students focused - rather the point is Skyquake, a team of Nemesis stationed vehcions and Starscream investigate the comms array and set it up manually - why the radio tower wasn’t switching on from a remote position.

The other reason was because the Guardian unit stationed at the comms array - the very ones that had accompanied Skyquake all those stellar cycles ago - had gone missing. Why?

Because of Megatron’s flagrant use of Dark Energon.

Points 1 and 2 listed above leads to the explosion of the comms array, the death of Skyquake, and MECH either being alerted to the point of alien contact or just in general going to the site for more study only to find a dead specimen. After the discovery of the Autobots with the body of Skyquake, MECH begins their initial study and dissection of cybertronian physiology, though without a live subject they couldn’t exactly see what parts function in what way, especially the t-cog.

The discovery of Skyquake led to the discovery of terrorcons which lead to the discovery of how to take down a cybertron and how to take it apart without it screaming. MECH would learn the programming of a cybertronian through vehicon terrorcons since, even with DE corruption, their processors are still somewhat being maintained. While probably not able to access memories (they are fickle things, memory centres, easy to damage storage or to corrupt files) there are still systems responsible for pain and other more processor based responsibilities that aren’t centred in a physical organ that reads in fine print it’s function.

Breakdown being MECH’s first fully functional living mecha for their study is so exciting for them (even if Breakdown is very much less enthused) because they can put what knowledge they’ve pieced together to be far more efficient with their time and focus on the elements they could not decipher from either corpse or zombie and potentially try and prod at Breakdown’s brain for some cohesive coding. Good think Bulkhead still shows up when he does even with Breakdown walking away with the dreadful thought of ‘how the hell do these fleshies already know so much’ boring into his head… mainly through the optic that was still drilled out-

Whether or not MECH needs to get another living cybertronian to get caught up in their understanding of the biomechanics of them (aka would 'Operation: Bumblebee' take place as it does) or they skip right onto making a remote control Prime having gotten a headstart on their knowledge and scaring the scrap out of any bot unlucky enough to be unconscious around them, eventually Silas gets smooshed and MECH scientists are reliant on their alien dissections to get the human puree back to the land of the living.

I'd assume that this was the case in the original since if Silas' biomatter was able to be collected from a pile of robot drone induced rubble the RC truck would've been able to be recovered as well, but MECH discovers that using Nemesis Prime as a lifesupport system does not work given all it's functionality is focused on visually replicating another cybertronian, rather than using it to create life. There's a lot of parts and systems to a cybertronian's biological ecology that wasn't put into consideration for a mimic toy that prove detrimental to creating a suitable ah... skin suit essentially for Silas' blood pudding, but MECH has an abundance of corpses ready and raring to be used just so long as they piece them back together again.

Amid MECH's collection would no doubt be a mass of vehicon bodies - some untouched by energon others taken down explicitly by MECH because they were terrorcons - some terrorcons made up from the bodies of the previous conflict pre-show (and not just a hypothetical ancient war, but explicitly the conflict that culled a lot of Autobot and Decepticon officers amid the show expected vehicon death), and the very first cybertronian sample they started studying, Skyquake himself! Being at the origin of the blast at the EHP Comms Array he wasn't kept in perfect condition for one, the arm he loses as a terrorcon in the Shadowzone is still lost - it's been buried under rubble after being severed with radio tower pieces - and the monochromatic glass over his optics has long since been shattered so you can see the 'pupil' aka sensor, but seeing as how CYLAS makes Breakdown's corpse somehow look worse than what Airachnid left it as MECH probably has to suture that fucker back up because there's not way his organs have been left untouched!

And once CYLAS has been successfully integrated into his new cybertronian shell (some sort of arm, either being a loaner from another corpse or straight up just one MECH invented, it could even be a copy of the missing arm but where's the fun in that) instead of getting all high and mighty about 'being of a superior species' Silas actually bloody thinks on MECH's plans going forward. With a literal army of paramilitary personnel, from the scientists that melded human flesh with cybertronian wires to the average grunt soldier fighting between the battles of iron giants, CYLAS has something that Megatron (at least the Altered Loyalties Megatron I have written previously) has wanted from the start of the series...

An undying force.

For as large as cybertronians physically are their numbers can never match the scale of humanity, I can't remember if the books mentioned only thousands of the dead or up to a million over the course of like... a long fucking time but, that's not even the number of the human population if you're caught up with the number (nearly 8 billion alive today). And with the dead of previous battles already roaming the Earth, in a world where Megatron still being only like one dude can't command a planet wide population of zombies, the only reason he doesn't turn his blade to the weakest denominators of his forces in his plagued state is because their conscious decision to serve him is worth more than mindless servitude.

CYLAS introducing himself and MECH as a solution to this issue, and providing a show of bountiful body horror, makes not even the Decepticon high command quite as safe as they had been; not that it's been proven to be safe standing by Megatron's side given his track record of wanting his SiCs beaten or killed but...

The fact that CYLAS just so happened to have given and then promptly brutalised Dreadwing's hope that Skyquake may have been actually alive, just severely damaged (and, bond weakened from distance and prior injury, clinging to the last shreds of 'my spark didn't kill me with him' reasoning) and broke him out of the spell of blind loyalty to his once great leader.

CYLAS in this version has a little bit more longevity to his existence within the Decepticon forces, not actually a Decepticon soldier as the canon CYLAS pledged himself as but 'The Human Factor' the episode so calls itself akin to the way the American government and the human children are to the Autobots, but being able to physically go toe-to-toe with cybertronians. Megatron might be a little tired of dealing with independents after Airachnid's escapade (I do intend to make her more into a poacher/torturer type character than another Starscream so she might act out a little differently), but Silas isn't one for licking boots anytime soon and as CYLAS, Megatron is no different; you'd think he wouldn't have even done that in the first place given he's already an ex-military 'take-no-nonsense' bitch, but the Breakdown in him probably made him a lapdog...

Anyway that's a whole big post about Altered Loyalties CYLAS... or at least the in depth reasoning behind why he could still integrate himself into the story and why he'd probably have more opportunity to lasting- i prommy it's not bc i like torturing skyquake likers *wink*

I guess this is now a canon event or at least I'll try to make it canon ;)

[mitsuba-bunny]

It feels a bit odd to me that Tsuchigomori doesn’t seem to remember the normal timeline. He’s a supernatural that can see into people’s futures so him just serving the role of Amane’s coworker and support to Nene is kind of underwhelming.

[queenofthearchipelago]

I've seen a lot of posts going around about how Crowley and Aziraphale needed to be separated so that they could figure out who they are. I mean, yes, I think it will be beneficial for Aziraphale because without Crowley he's going to have to figure out what the right thing is entirely on his own. He's going to have to stand up for whatever it is he believes in without leaning on Crowley first.

BUT... that doesn't have anything to do with who they ARE, exactly.

Especially not for Crowley. Is it true that Crowley hasn't truly allowed himself to want things or enjoy things for 6000 years? Yes. But that isn't negatively connected to Aziraphale. Crowley doesn't need to figure out who he is outside of Aziraphale, because Aziraphale was never in the way of him doing that.

I've said before that Crowley already knows who he is, that he knows himself way more than Aziraphale knows himself and I stand by that. But I can see the difference between Aziraphale having earthly hobbies - eating, casual music listening, tending to his shop - and Crowley doesn't have parallels for that. Crowley has the Bentley and his plants, and neither of those things are particularly time-consuming. I understand that this is where this opinion comes from, that Crowley's biggest hobby is Aziraphale.

But Aziraphale only ever encouraged Crowley to be more excited about Earth. Aziraphale in his magic-loving excitement, wanted Crowley to be excited about it too. Aziraphale WANTS Crowley to have his own loves in this world. His own version of "little restaurants where they know you." As much as he's been hiding his love for Aziraphale for 6000 years, he's been hiding his love for Earth and Humanity for just as long. Now is the time to him to finally start properly showing it.

TL:DR, Crowley doesn't need to figure out who he is outside of Aziraphale because Aziraphale was never in his way. What Crowley needs is to allow himself to enjoy things, and he needs to be able to find comfort in someone watching him do it.