#Okay without context it sound a bot out of place

[kraro-school-life]

10.4.24 Day 7+8/60

No pretty format this time. I considered not posting but I ultimately decided to still do it. Wait, this sounds way too serious... It's not lmao. I just don't feel great right now, very disoriented and just not able to do anything properly. (Remember to drink enough water after crying, you need to stay hydrated!!)

I felt terrible for not doing anything "productive", but then I realised that it basically just means achieving a good result. And if my objective is getting through the day and be fine at the end, then I'm doing better than I thought.

Navigating emotions is hard enough, but validating them even more. Taking in, that there are ups and downs, is also hard. But I'm doing great! Even if it takes up all my energy and leaves none for additional things, "surviving" is a valid goal, right?

Stop shaming yourself for not doing the most if all what you phisically/ mentally can do is the minimum! It`s enough for now.

This is a reminder for myself that tomorrow is a new, fresh day and you'll always have a chance to start over, whatever it may be.

[kairiscorner]

I don’t know if your reqs are open because your desc says one thing and your pinned says another so please feel free to ignore this 😭 but if you are taking reqs I’d love to see headcanons for spider noir x autistic!gn!reader if you could? Thank you so much I love your work have a great day <33

HELLO !! sorry for the confusion, i cleared it up now though, as of rn, bot requests are open, fic requests are closed, however TT I'M SO SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION AAAA AND I HOPE I DO THIS JUSTICE <:DD please feel free to correct me if i get anything wrong, i'll change it if need be, i have no intention of insulting or harming anyone, even by accident ^^

when you opened up to noir that you had autism, he was a little surprised at first. he never meant it in a mocking or disgusted way, he was just unsure of what to do to keep you comfortable now that he was aware you had autism, and was worried if the stuff he used to do with or to you before ever put you off about him or made you uncomfortable. he only ever wants to make you comfortable around him, never unsettle or hurt you in ways he didn't realize.

but when you opened up more to him, explained to him what you were uncomfortable with and told him he was fine, that he didn't do anything to ever make you uncomfortable–in fact, he was one of the most kindhearted and and loving people you've ever met that hardly overwhelmed you–he felt so relieved, but still eager to help make things easier and more comfortable for you as much as he can, because he truly does care about you.

if you had an issue with certain foods, he wouldn't force you to eat it nor find it strange. he'd adjust to your preferences and needs as much as possible, and he'd be so patient about it, truly <:) he's down to eating the food you wouldn't like or pick apart from the rest of what you like :D

when you're experiencing a sensory overload when you two are out and about, he'd immediately take you away from that place and hand you everything you need--your headphones if you needed them to get away from all the noise, sunglasses to lessen the intensity of the bright lights around you, and whatever else you needed to comfort you.

he wouldn't touch you out of the blue, unless you state otherwise--that you're okay with it--and instead, he'd hang around you, just a little closely, and admire you from a distance. if you'd let him touch you, he'd always be careful and mind the areas you're okay and not okay with him touching you at, he'd never overstep any boundaries between you two and would ensure your comfort over everything, every time.

if you had an issue with "coming off as blunt or rude", peter wouldn't be too offended by what you say. he knows some people may misunderstand you often, just as how you may misunderstand them and what they mean. peter is very open to helping you word out your feelings, your thoughts, in ways that won't sound offensive but still get what you mean to say in the closest context possible. he also helps explain to you some things that you may take literally, and he doesn't mind if you don't get it at first, he honestly would struggle sometimes to understand some sayings without their context, too.

he lets you do things on your own as well, of course. he doesn't worry too much about you when you say you're capable of doing this and that on your own. he'll only worry when you don't speak to him for a long while, longer than usually, because he understands you need or want to be alone at times--but if you suddenly stop talking for a long while, he does get worried until you clear it up to him at some point.

when you explain to him that on some days or moments you go non-verbal, wherein you use gestures or your body language to communicate with him what you need, he had mixed feelings at first--mainly anxiety because he worries mixing up your gestures and disappointing or discomforting you and blaming himself. but when you assure him you wouldn't be mad if he didn't understand at first, he got a lot calmer about it, and when you went non-verbal on him sometimes, he actually found it quite fun communicating with you in ways that words could never get across. though he misses your voice sometimes, he likes to see you express yourself more freely with your body language compared to words, which in a way, do limit thoughts as compared to actions.

HE'S ALSO SUPER INTERESTED IN EVERYTHING YOU HAVE A SPECIAL INTEREST IN IF YOU HAVE ANY !! peter's a very curious guy, and seeing as how he already finds you super interesting, everything else you love and find interest in is, by proxy, very intriguing for him. if you'd go on and on about something you loved, HE'D PULL UP A CHAIR AND WITH A SMILE PATIENTLY LISTEN TO YOU TALK ABOUT IT <3 he'd develop an interest and gain knowledge about it, too, so it's a win-win for you both :DD

at the end of the day, he's always here for you, no matter what you need or what you want--he'd do it and give it to you, not just because you sometimes need his help, but because he truly does love you and care about you and wants to make you feel safe, comfortable, and happy around him <:))

a/n: I HOPE I DID THIS WELL, I'M SORRY IF IT'S INACCURATE OR WRONG 😭😭😭again, don't hesitate to correct me on it if you see anything wrong with it! i don't intend on hurting anyone, so any and all corrections are welcome ^v^

tags !! @thecoolerdor @miguelswifey04 @sabcandoit @binibinileonara @k4tsu3 @fictarian @maxoloqy @luvstarrstruck @ii01vq @connors-cumslurper

[thessalian]

Thess vs ChatGTP NPCs

Happened to trip over a Kotaku article about this mod for Skyrim that lets ChatGTP create additional dialogue for NPCs. There are a lot of people in the comments defending something that makes your NPC sound like that auto-generated voice you find on TikTok, which ... I do not get. I’m seeing, “Just wait five years and see how great this tech will be!”

First of all ... no.

Second of all ... hell no.

Look, I’ve already seen the development of the tech that turns voice to text. It still can’t figure out some accents, almost no one speaks slowly and clearly enough to get a decent reading, and it’s shitty for people with speech impediments. I mean, it may well be better now, I don’t know. The thing is ... there’s one problem with text-to-speech that speech-to-text doesn’t have: emotional context.

First of all, no voice actor in their right mind is going to sign away rights to their own voice for use however some AI chat bot dictates, mostly because the loopholes would state something about “we can use your voice whenever we want, however we want, forever, and only pay you this one fee”, and nobody is that stupid. And honestly, even if they were, the recording sessions for it would be insane. Here’s an example in text format: “I never said she stole my money”, and how a change in emphasis changes the entire sentence:

“I never said she stole my money.” (someone else made that accusation)

“I never said she stole my money.” (abject denial)

“I never said she stole my money.” (I just heavily implied it)

“I never said she stole my money.” (but someone else did)

“I never said she stole my money.” (she just borrowed it without clarifying that it was okay to do so)

“I never said she stole my money.” (my roommate’s money, yes. Mine, no)

“I never said she stole my money.” (but my favourite necklace is missing)

Stresses change a spoken sentence. That is why we use italics. And stress can go on any word and more or less entirely change a sentence’s meaning. Even how you stress a word changes depending on the sentence. Consider: “I do not drink ... wine”. That elliptical pause is integral to the way that line flows in speech, and suggests a whole host of emotional context that needs to be given to that line when spoken. And verbal stress is different depending on the situation. It might be a voice rising in volume and pitch due to frustration. It might be slow and a bit louder to really rub it in someone’s face. It might be triumph. It might be pain. Wail of sorrow or shout of joy or anything in between.

Now, assuming that an AI could accurately identify the need for whatever stresses are appropriate in their self-generated text, the shift from that to actually making a computerised voice say the right thing in the right way would depend on a voice actor reading pretty much the entire dictionary several times over in various ways to make sure the AI had enough building blocks to put it together correctly. And then the AI would have to actually do it. I can’t imagine what voice actors would say to that kind of demand from a game publisher. I also can’t imagine the size of the sound file folder. And one bug and it’s all a huge mess. Tell me that it’d all be working perfectly when you got the game. Given the tendency of most big publishers to release games in a barely-playable format with intentions to patch it later, tell me that and I will call you a liar.

This kind of machine-learning situation may have its place, but art and entertainment ain’t it. I’m trying to imagine some of my favourite games and favourite voice acting moments being machine-generated instead of acted out. Try to imagine “I AM URDNOT WREX! AND THIS IS MY PLANET!” spoken basically like the TikTok caption-reader voice, but more gravelly. I dare you.

...Honestly, the only place I could see that working is the elcor.

Anyway, point is, if we’re going to take AI anywhere, could we do it someplace that doesn’t rely on emotional depth and nuance? Some people in the comments of the Kotaku article were talking about “video games don’t have the luxury of story or lore”, and my immediate thought was, “Okay, no, no; your fixation with “Go To Place, Shoot The Dudes” is not infecting my single-player story-rich RPG experience so go fuck yourself.” I don’t want a machine just randomly generating movie scripts and then speaking them in barely-emotional snippets of other people’s words. The whole point of flagging up how Marvel / Disney gave no context to anybody’s scripts in scenes like Tony Stark’s fucking funeral was that you can’t just put something together out of unrelated snippets without human talent and emotion at the helm and expect anything good. I signed up for art and pathos and beauty (joyful or terrifying or sad; beauty takes so many forms), not a BtVS Script Generator. Because, seriously, AI learns what you give it, and doesn’t have the option to go out and seek sources other than its parent / guardian / creator / whatever that, say, humans do. AAA games companies will feed the AIs a diet of “what market trends say is popular” and we’ll get faux-witty quips spoken in barely-emotional tones that may or may not match the emotional context the game is going for.

...So almost exactly like a late-stage MCU movie.

[absentia-if]

The Night Calls

I just wanted to make this in honor of the little scenario my dear wife and I made up concerning her wonderful story-- @sinnersandsaints-linwrites. Wherein M & N are immortals that have come into contact with Sage and Ariel; only they haven’t seen each other for quite some time. The reunion should be interesting.

A bit more context with this post.

“I don’t see why, out of all the places in America, this conference had to be held in this city.” Blue eyes flash with annoyance as yet another gust of wind whips at her overcoat. “Seriously, what in the ever-living hell is up with this wind?”

The soft chuckle from her companion causes Margot to meet sparkling gray eyes. “It’s not too bad. Is the cold getting to you, sunrise?” 

Margot shakes her head-- warmed at the genuine concern her best friend held for her. “I’m doing all right, Natalie, there’s isn’t a need to worry.”

“I don’t know about that, Margot.” Natalie clucks her tongue. “There’s always a need to worry whenever you’re involved.”

Deciding not to respond-- as it would only end badly for her-- Margot shifts her attention to the street ahead. The familiar feeling of being watched prickles across her neck, but she decides to ignore it for the time being. She was in a new city-- it was bound to make anyone on edge. 

I’m not going to worry Nat for nothing either, Margot muses, chancing a glance at her oblivious best friend. She’s out of her comfort zone walking around at night in an unfamiliar city. I’m not about to ruin this for her because of my own paranoia. 

Still, Margot couldn’t shake the feeling that they hadn’t been alone since they had left the hospital. 

“Are you okay?” The sudden question pulls Margot from her thoughts. Natalie’s concerned gaze meeting her azure one. “You’ve gotten quite silent. Normally you’d be talking about the smell right about now.”

The teasing words elicit a gentle smile from her, but the growing sense of unease didn’t allow for more profound expressions of joy at the current moment. Shifting her gaze, to the various store fronts and their reflective surfaces, Margot notes the two figures weaving in and out of the throngs of people they had just passed. A familiar sense of exasperation works its way through her heart at the sight of the shorter one-- a feeling that only came about because of one person. 

Without much thought into the action, she grabs a hold of Natalie’s arm-- ignoring the sound of indignation-- and pulls her into the nearest alleyway. She only let’s go of her best friend once they’re a decent way into it. 

Natalie glares, or tries at least, once she’s free. “What the hell? You can warn a girl first before you pull her into an alleyway.” Margot doesn’t respond, her focus on the entrance as the two figures from earlier appear within it. “Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Quiet, Nat,” Margot shushes, a gentle look in her eyes to soften any harshness within the statement. “We have some visitors that I think should make their presence known. Now.”

A familiar chuckle echoes down the alleyway. “I told you that Birdy would be able to figure it out.” Dark brown eyes seemingly glow within the shoddy lighting of the alley; perfect white teeth flashing as she offers a primal grin. “It doesn’t excuse that I want to beat her over the head with my boot though.”

Margot arches an unimpressed brow. “Do you ever not want to beat someone over the head with your boot?”

“Yes,” the woman sniffs. “When I feel like beating them with my cane instead.”

Before Margot can even respond to that statement, Natalie interrupts in a quiet, albeit happy, voice. 

“It’s been a long time, Sage. It’s good to see you.” She smiles softly towards the second, taller figure. “It’s good to see you too, Ariel.”

Honey colored eyes glint from the shadows but Margot could just make the softening of the severe line on her face as Ariel addressed Natalie. “It’s good to you both too.” She shifts her gaze towards Margot. “We were of the assumption that you both were dead.”

“Yeah,” Sage pipes up, anger flitting across her face as she makes her way towards Margot. An action that causes Ariel to move forward too-- always ready to intervene when the need arises. A long finger pokes Margot’s shoulder, accusing brown eyes filled with everything Sage could never put into words. “You missed the reunion when death is the only option to do so.”

“I’m quite aware of that, Sage,” Margot murmurs, her eyes meeting the shorter woman’s stare unwaveringly. “We tried to write to you both, but I see that our correspondence never reached you.”

Natalie sidles closer to Margot. “You know that we’d never want to cause either of you unneeded stress.” She offers a barely there smile towards Sage. “That’s your job after all.”

Sage only huffs in response but doesn’t bother to reply. Something that Ariel takes as a sign to step forward-- shirking her self-imposed role of being the mediator for the time being. 

“It’s nice to see you both,” she repeats, her eyes doing a quick once over her friends. Just to make sure they’re truly okay. “If I had known you’d be coming to Deadwood, I would have made sure to be at the airport when you arrived.”

“We know that Ariel,” Natalie assures, gray eyes shimmering like the moonlight overhead. “You thought we were dead so it’s only fair that you didn’t come greet us whenever we arrived.”

“You’d have to be Psychic then,” Sage mutters, sarcasm dripping from her tone. Clearly not letting go that she had been made to think both Margot and Natalie were dead-- that they were gone. 

Ignoring the infuriated woman standing beside her, Ariel allows her eyes to soften somewhat-- to showcase just how happy she was to see her friends. Especially after she had went so long thinking she’d never see either of them again. 

“Since you seem to know more about Deadwood,” Margot begins, briefly meeting Sage’s gaze before locking with Ariel’s. “Why don’t you show us the sights? It’s something Nat has been dying to do since we’ve arrived.”

Sage scoffs at the use of the word but Ariel hums in silent amusement. 

“I’d like that a great deal, Margot.” She tilts her head back towards the entrance of the alleyway. “I know quite a few things you both would enjoy seeing.”

Natalie grins. “Let’s go!”

Her enthusiasm elicits a grin from Margot and an even softer look from Ariel-- all the while Sage rolls her eyes towards the sky but doesn’t hesitate in following the group out of the alleyway. Not when the opportunity to be a part of it again presented itself. 

The night air called to each one of them-- all in different ways-- but all of the songs connected with the other; showing, without words, the connection that existed between each of the four. 

It was only a matter of time to see what this night would bring. What the Night’s Call would bestow onto all of them-- more than it already had. 

[draftingteacups]

Twisted Wonderland and DnD Ideas

Okay, so I know that this sort of thing isn't technically in my ballpark, but dammit, it's been bothering me for a few days and I need to just get my brain going because I'm distracted with this idea and I'm tempted to make a funny side-series on it alksdfjlkajl

As you can tell by the title, it's TWST with DnD because of the shiny math rocks and all that fun stuff are there and chaotic adventures.

How the NRC boys learn about DnD is from Yuu/Yuusona. They get invested in the crazy world that Yuu has played in. They think DnD is a video game or something, but no, it's a TTRPG and it's all based on dice and decisions.

Some of them like Ace and Epel initially think that it's a little nerdy and weird, but in actuality, they learn about the freedom that DnD provides due to the whole dice mechanic.

Deuce would be into it as well, but the mention of math would make him hesitant until Yuu mentions that it was simple math and using calculators was okay, so that's fine!

As a part of the board game club, Idia and Azul think that it's an interesting game, the former being so excited about it that he basically makes Yuu/Yuusona describe it all in detail as much as possible.

Idia would definitely want to play the game, although the social aspect of it would make him want to strictly play online than in person. Idia would make a bot to play on TWST's version of Discord and implement everything that's needed to make it run.

Azul would wonder about marketing strategies based on the concept and Yuu would off-handedly mention how there were places that did just that in their world, so if Azul wanted to, he could do it.

I imagine Yuu being a Dungeon Master/Game Master and that's why they know a lot of the game mechanics off the top of their head. Forever DM and all that rip.

Either that or Yuu was going back home after a long session of DMing for their group and brought all their DnD stuff with them to TWST. I can see them having a digital copy of all their books on an iPad or something because that's always good to have on hand. Or something along those lines because I've got ✨ideas✨

Anyways, Yuu would have to explain that there are ways to play DnD. If the others want to play DnD, they hold a Session Zero because you should always have a Session Zero to discuss what should go on in the campaign. Brainstorming away, they get everyone's stuff ready for the most part, and yeah, that's how things begin.

As for classes... I've got some in mind for the others :D

Deuce would want to play as a Paladin, mostly because the idea of a knight character with an Oath sounds a lot like himself. Either that or a Fighter because it's pretty simple and straightforward without being too confusing.

Ace would lean somewhere between a Bard, Rogue, or a Warlock, mostly because he's smart enough to use Charisma to his advantage in real life. Rogue because it suits him and his sneaky nature, plus sleight-of-hand tricks are an essential part of being a Rogue.

Epel would be a Barbarian. Rage, full-out attack, and just being the strongest person on the team- that's a dream for him. It's either that or one of the melee classes. An interesting pick would be a Cleric, although he'd go for a War Cleric.

Jack is a tricky one because he can fit into a number of roles. An interesting one would be Monk, mostly because the idea of Jack playing a Monk makes sense to me. He's another person who can be a Fighter, but Druid could also be interesting for him, depending on the context of his character. Also, Unleash the Beast is basically Wild Shape if only limited to him turning into a wolf.

Sebek would want to be a Magic Caster and is warned about the Spellcasting mechanics of the game beforehand. He's a diligent guy, so he listens carefully to the rules and remembers them. That being said, Sebek would definitely want to play something like a Sorcerer (Dragon lineage) or possibly a Warlock with a Pact with the Fae. He'd definitely be choosing a Half-Elf as his first character though.

Ortho would be interested in the idea of an Artificer or a Wizard. The reason is for their intelligence and Ortho's always excited to learn new things. Also, an interesting one to consider for Ortho is a Rogue that's diving into the Mastermind subclass. Sorcerer's Clockwork Soul is an interesting one to consider too 🤔

[votederpycausemufins]

we got so much snow, why do i still have class today? I mean it was short, but why have it at all?

oh and you’ll like this one today @petrichormeraki

:)))))))))

“Holy fuck you’re my dad. The captain is my dad.” Tubbo was stunned, still trying to comprehend it. Crumb on the other hand already accepted it. 

“I’ve got a big brudder! Tubbox is my brudder!” She was running around happily and eventually decided to just sit on Tubbo’s shoulder.

“You’re the kid of a celebrity Tubbo!” Tommy slapped a hand on Tubbo’s back in celebration. “Does this mean I can be your plus one to fancy events and shit?”

“I’m not really that kind of celebrity.” Sparklez rubbed the back of his head. “I mean I’m well known, but that’s mainly because I travel a lot.”

“Sprinklez is definitely a celebrity!” Crumb said happily, her tail flicking about. “Millions of people know him! He’s been so myany places!”

“Wonder how Kara’s going to react to all this. ‘Oh hey Kara, remember how I wouldn’t be available for a few days and now it’s been longer than that? Well found my long lost kid!’ I mean it works, but that doesn’t feel right.”

“Is Kara my mom?”

Crumb, feeling a bit chaotic at the moment, answered the question for Tubbo. “Ye!”

“No! No she is not!” Jordan immediately shouted. “That proposal was for being her thousandth kill or something, not for getting married!”

“Honorary mom!”

Sparklez inhaled sharply before sighing to calm himself. “Yes, fine. If you want to think of her like that, sure. Don’t know how she’d react if you call her that though, so maybe don’t actually say it aloud.”

“How’d you even lose him?” Tommy spoke up. He knew Tubbo’s side of the story, but he was a child at the time and it was around ten years ago, so the details might not be accurate anymore.

“Tubbo was really curious as a kid. Always following me around everywhere no matter how much I tried to get him to sit still. He got interested in almost everything I did. We were visiting one world, Univcraft, and I was just driving around.” Grian’s feathers puffed up at the name of the world. “Tubbo was in the back in his seat, but was getting restless. Next thing I know, he had managed to unlock and open the door.”

“Did you keep driving?”

“No! Of course not! I slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. Forgot to put park on at first and it started to roll away on its own before I could jump back in to fix it. Tubbo wasn’t in his seat so I assumed he fell out when the door opened but he was nowhere in sight. There seemed to be no evidence and the weirdest part was that he would have had to unbuckle himself from his booster seat and they were all still done up.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened. “I remember that! I… I think when I first realized I wasn’t in the car anymore, the first thing I was upset about was not being in my cool racing harness.” Tommy started laughing. “Hey! I was five!”

Sparklez couldn’t help but chuckle along with Tommy before pulling Crumb and Tubbo into a hug. “Both my ducklings are finally with me.”

“Duckling?” Tommy asked with a mischievous grin.

“I said Tubbo followed me everywhere. He also liked bees a lot so wore yellow half the time. He reminded me of a little duckling.”

“I remember wen Sprinklez cried wen we went to space an I followed him around in my yellow space suit!”

“Okay Crumb, don’t need to bring that up.”

“Hey, if you can say embarrassing shit about me, let her say embarrassing shit about you.”

Jordan winced slightly. “I guess that’s fair. So, what’s your life been like? I can tell you’ve been… active.” He vaguely gestured to a visible burn scar on Tubbo, which made the teen slump their shoulders a little. Tommy pulled Tubbo away into a protective hug and Grian put a hand on Sparklez’s shoulder.

“To put it lightly, they’ve been through hell. I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s doing as good as he is right now is because of Tommy. Don’t expect him to open up about everything right away. Give him space before you start asking questions.” Grian glanced over to the duo and Tommy gave him a quick thumbs up. “Trauma sucks, but having someone there to be supportive, even if you don’t know them as well as you should, is really helpful.”

“Thanks.” Sparklez gave Grian a short nod. 

“Well, I’m sure you guys will have a wonderful time together, but I still need to go see Xisuma and give him updates on… well, everything.”

“See ya Big G.” Tommy said to Grian before the avian was flying off.

Mumbo was trying his best not to completely panic, but he was slowly failing. “No no no no no. It has to be there! Why isn’t it there? Is it because of the ice? Is there something with ice?” Mumbo looked down at himself and still saw no symbol. “Maybe it was whatever Dream did. That’s surely something that wouldn’t be accounted for.”

“It wasn’t him, idiot.” Mumbo’s blood ran cold and he turned around to see Drista sitting on a chest. “Obviously it was you. I thought you knew VG and Watcher magic doesn’t mix.”

“This is. No. I, I’m not a Vault God. I refuse.”

“Again with the refusing. It worked before but it won’t now. I told you it was only a matter of time.”

Mumbo was in a state of complete disbelief, trying to find some excuse. Then his disbelief turned to anger as he thought of something. “No, this is your fault. You were keeping in contact with Dream. He said you were. You didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t do anything. But you did instead. And how did you do that? Became a Vault God.”

“Well tell me how to unbecome one.” Mumbo demanded. 

“You pretty much don’t. That’s why Dream was able to do what he did. Even exiled, he was still a Vault God.”

“Please, there has to be something.” Now he was starting to plead with Drista, hoping for some glimmer of hope for him.

She tilted her head from side to side as she thought about the question. “Well, technically you’re not completely official. In fact I’m here to bring you to that. Maaaaybe if you say something to them, you can get some exception.” She paused to shrug. “Who knows. They may just force you to be one.”

“And if I don’t go?”

“You’ll still be a Vault God, just unstable. Though I will say, you’re doing pretty well on your own.”

Mumbo didn’t care to ask what she meant. He had to go. If he went there was at least some percentage of a chance that he could go back to normal. If he didn’t, he would absolutely end up hurting Grian. “Alright fine. Where do you need to take me?”

Drista smiled and pulled on a mask that was almost identical to the one Dream had worn. “Just follow me.”

Grian spun the chicken feather that was his quill on the table as Xisuma talked. Sure, this was all very important, but the avian was already bored. He kept asking more questions that should have been answered already, but the admin was too focused on the answers themselves to think about the entire context. “I said that it’s going to be like another dimension already. You can’t get to other dimensions without a portal. Think of it like a third being tacked on. And fourth since they have their own nether.”

“What about their end?”

“Again, they haven’t seen it because Dream destroyed all connections to it.”

“And the Watchers?”

“Are combining groups and are adding in two new Watchers to keep things running smoothly.”

“Any previous relation with Zoy and Riffed?”

“Zloy and Pixlriffs, and no. Petrichor and Meraki are just helpful with world crosses. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Can I go yet?”

Xisuma paused, tapping his helmet where his chin would be. “Alright, but I’ll be sending messages to you, so look out for those and try to respond quickly.”

Grian nodded and passed the book and quill over to Xisuma with the notes he had taken. He then got up from his chair and stretched before flying into the air. Now that Xisuma was dealt with and Tommy was occupied, next was getting the kids from Stress.

The avian flew over the desert between Xisuma’s jungle and the one that he, Stress and others lived in. He smiled as he passed Mumbo’s base, though he had to steady himself when his flying became a little wobbly. He brushed it off as him just getting distracted and then landed near where Stress said she would be.

“Dad!” Jrumbot was running up to Grian and the avian picked up his robot son in a hug. “You’re okay again! Daddy was really worried about you.”

Grian quickly gave Stress a thankful nod for her looking after the bots. “Well it wasn’t the best situation, but he figured it out like the smart man he is. Now speaking of him, we should go see him. He needs some more cheering up and love. Think you can help with that?”

Jrumbot nodded and then Grian helped him onto his own back, right between his wings. As the younger of the robots held tightly to Grian, the avian picked up Grumbot and then thanked Stress before flying towards Mumbo’s base. As they approached, Grian suddenly felt much more tired than he had moments before, so much so that Jrumbot slapped his face slightly to wake him up so he didn’t crash.

“What?! Huh? Oh right, I’m flying! Sorry boys, guess the meeting with Xisuma took more out of me that I realized. At least we’re almost there.” And he landed at Mumbo’s base, only stumbling slightly.

“Are you alright dad?” Grumbot asked Grian, who gave a nod.

“Yeah, ‘m fine. Oh, that reminds me. Thanks for your help. We found Tubbo’s dad.”

“While I’m glad I helped, you shouldn’t be trying to change the subject.”

Grian sighed, having forgotten how well Grumbot could read him. “I’m fine. I just want to find Mumbo and then we can all go to the big bedroom and hang out there.” He helped Jrumbot down off his back and ruffled his wings before folding them “Mumbo! I’m here with the kids!”

There was no answer making Grian frown. “Maybe he’s tired like you and went to sleep?” Jrumbot suggested.

“Yeah, might be.” Grian then pulled out his communicator to send random messages to Mumbo to either follow the hum of the vibration of a message or to wake Mumbo up with the sound. He sent off one message and was just starting to type another when he got the error message. “Wh- Mumbo’s not here.”

“What do you mean not here?” Grumbot asked, worried by how worried Grian looked.

“I… maybe he went back to the other world? But everything’s connected now, that shouldn’t be an issue.” Grian continued to worriedly ramble. The bots looked at each other and then took Grian’s hands, pulling him to where Mumbo’s bedroom was and got him to lay down on the bed.

“Do we need to get anyone?” Grumbot asked. “Iskall or Stress? Possibly Xisuma?”

Grian shook his head. “We just left Stress’ place. She’s helped plenty. And Xisuma is busy with the world merge. Iskall… they might be available, but message them first.”

Jrumbot’s screen face changed briefly. “Okay! I did it!”

Grian nodded then curled up in the blankets. He really felt tired now and a bit woozy. He gave a groan. “Ugh… Dream was a Vault God and I was around him for who knows how long. Plus I went to visit again… maybe there’s magic sticking to me or around here.”

“Are you sick again?”

Grian gave a half hearted nod. “Yeah, now both of you come here so I can cuddle you. That’s the best kind of medicine right now.”

Jrumbot immediately jumped into the bed and curled up in Grian’s arms. Grumbot on the other hand, wasn’t as fast. “Contact with people is usually not a type of medicine and I’m sure us not being humans makes it even less effective.” But despite his comments, he also joined his brother in Grian’s arms.

[qwanderer]

Loki in the Hall of Mirrors

This story is complicated. Not, like, as a plot, not particularly, but philosophically and thematically. It's got that great play of hero against villain that I love about the Loki story in general and that makes it all so divisive and messy. And I love it even more than I did on first watch.

The first time I watched the desert landing scene, I was like, "Wait? What happened to Allspeak?" because the people who live there don't seem to understand him. But on the second watch, I realized it could be a lack of context, rather than a break in translation. These people probably have an even chance of knowing nothing about Norse myth. Like, what if an alien came up to you and said "I am Boogle of Bofgar, I carry a burden"? You would still have questions like "What the hell is a boogle and why are you carrying your shit here?" So the basic dynamic of Allspeak is probably still functioning, and Loki probably understood their questions, but he was still trying to figure out how to answer when he got distracted by the TVA people.

It could even be an innate psychic ability rather than a magical one, as he seems to understand everyone in the TVA, including the man who can't be fluent in all languages like the field agents because he has never heard of a fish and the seemingly nonverbal robot. (Which of course makes me want Loki talking with Dum-E and the other shop bots! But I digress.)

Okay. I want to start talking about the next-level manipulation shit the TVA are pulling on Loki here. Time, as they say, moves differently in the TVA, and one might even assume that they can avoid having to deal with more variants at once than they can handle. And yet we see them dealing with exactly two other troublemakers during Loki's onboarding.

The first, I'm going to call little echo man.

Little echo man is incredibly annoying to Loki, because he does and says everything Loki might find himself inclined to do and say if he wanted to be difficult. Little echo man does these things in little annoying undignified ways, making them look silly and petulant. Little echo man protests and questions and pushes back, in his business suit and his long dark hair and pale skin, and clearly thinks everyone should treat him as important even though every indication is that he is an annoyance and an afterthought.

Perhaps he's a plant, and perhaps he's just a variant of an annoying but predictable regular they see who they lined up at the same time on purpose. But he is on purpose. Everything he does screams directly at Loki, "Don't do this."

We'll get to the second convenient intersection later.

The most obvious layer of manipulation is simply the beraucracy. They put him up against a series of obstacles which he needs to deal with to get anywhere else, and nothing he does can get him past those obstacles except compliance. All of these obstacles have personality, but they are not personable. They treat Loki like a bag of trash they have been tasked with taking to the curb. Annoying, distasteful, but ultimately routine. His silver tongue isn't going to get him anywhere because these people simply don't care.

I think a lot of these he just goes along with to see where it gets him, since at this point he still believes he has his magic in reserve. But the fact that he steps through the robot fryer even though he thinks he might be a robot without knowing (as others have pointed out, he spent thousands of years as a frost giant without knowing it, and he's recently spent time in the control of the being who shaped Nebula) is a testament to how deep they've already got their hooks in him.

They treat the robot fryer like it's routine, but come the next obstacle, they kill little echo man like it's routine, too. Because he didn't comply.

Loki is slowly being ironed flat to thread into their compliance mill.

And then - I love this, because it reminds me of one of my favorites among the multiplicity of Lokis, GoS!Loki - they put this line in as punctuation between the impersonal, compliance, don't phase of their manipulation and everything that comes after it.

When he's set before the judge, someone actually paying some attention to him, this is his chance to use his silver tongue on someone who will listen. But, although the judge listens, she treats him the same as all the other obstacles have - like listening is a distasteful chore she would like to be done with.

So it seems like the perfect moment for a dramatic escape. Except his magic is gone.

"It's not your story," the judge says. "It never was."

That hammers in all the worst things Loki has ever believed about himself - that he stands in the shadows of others, that he will never have the central place he was raised to desire, that he is, and always will be, a villain to be vanquished rather than a person with choices and agency.

Enter Mobius.

Mobius is a big echo.

He draws all the attention in a room. He is everything that Loki wishes to be - he is powerful, informed, prepared, in control. Capable of charming the judge. And most importantly, he is actively interested in Loki.

At this point in Loki's journey - both in the show and in his life - that has to be irresistible.

So Mobius is in a perfect position to wrap Loki right around his pinky finger.

He listens to Loki without shutting him down, the way all the obstacles have. When Loki tells Mobius he's going to burn down the TVA, Mobius suggests a couple of places he might want to start. One concrete, small, mischievous. One an indication that he's open to Loki doing larger, more significant things here in the future.

He shows Loki his own past and future - but carefully edited, to paint a particular picture.

So many echoes, so many reflections - Loki is in a house of mirrors. Lost, disoriented. Distorted one way, then the other. Magnified and examined.

Loki snarks, and Mobius comments, "Makes you sound smart." Affirms Loki for that little mischievous bit of personality.

Mobius shows Loki some of the most terrible things he's done, and questions them. Pushes Loki away from them. Then changes direction before he can get too heavy-handed, to basically fangirl over the DB Cooper adventure. That's mischief. That's good. I like that.

Punishes him for a small infraction, just to remind him who is in control and that even looking threatening could be seen as a problem.

I think it was at about this point that I got hard reminded of the dynamics of the show White Collar. It's a buddy cop show on a basic level and sometimes the relationship can be very sweet, but sometimes Peter spends one too many times reminding Neal that he can send him back to prison any time he wants and the power dynamic shows its messed up edges.

Mobius is part of the machine, and the machine is doing terrible things to Loki, but I have at least a sliver of hope that the relationship could gain more balance - more genuine balance, not based on the faux freedom that Loki has gained by the end of the episode. There's something to be said for making changes to a system from within that system, but for that to be meaningful change, Mobius would have to change as a person.

Anyway, this current nastily powerful Mobius pushes Loki as hard as he can, and then is conveniently interrupted by the actions of another variant, leaving Loki alone with his remote.

It could easily have been on purpose. The only thing Loki learns by escaping that room is that the TVA is more powerful than any force in the universe, in his experience.

Let's talk about the other Loki variant for a minute. It took me until the second viewing to realize the symbolism of leaving a small child the only survivor in a place of worship, then giving her something to turn her blue.

Odin said he found Loki in a temple, in the aftermath of a battle.

It's actually frighteningly easy to imagine how a distraught Loki could get to a place where he feels the need to genuinely burn down the TVA, and kill every agent in it. Because the TVA put certain clips in his little future show, focusing on the death of his mother, the way his own actions affected it, and the futility and brutality of his own death at the hands of Thanos.

They don't show him the destruction of Asgard, his own role in helping save the evacuees, and the way Thanos decimated the population of that transport before it could even reach Earth. They don't show him the devastation of his home or his capacity to do good.

A Loki who knows that the power of the TVA exists and that he has the capacity to be Asgard's heroic savior would do anything to get that power and save his people.

But we haven't met that Loki yet. I'm sure we will, and it's going to be exhilarating.

This Loki is being taught the importance of control over little things, and so when he gets his collar off and onto that guard, he toys with her, just to see that he can. They have been toying with him and it's oh so satisfying to turn the tables. But it's still compliance in its own way, the petty little mischief that Mobius has been steering him towards.

Loki has been given just enough freedom, just enough choices, that it seems like his own choice to watch the rest of the slide show and come to the obvious conclusion - there's no "out" to go to. His life has gone on without him, and ended. And there's really no point in his trying to fix it. No putting things back the way they were.

So he admits to Mobius - the person who has listened hardest, probably, besides his mother - he admits that he is small and scared and lashing out. That he doesn't know what to do.

Of course, this is when Mobius introduces the task the TVA has for Loki - to take down his other self.

Oh, I can't wait for the next episode! I want to know where this is going.

(I've popped in some panels from Loki: Agent of Asgard because it's my favorite and the show is giving me feelings about it.)

[hyper-cryptic]

Oh yes, an ask ! What's the opinion/relation of Kate on the others companions ? Do they have a bestie ? Does she hate/dislike one of them ?

Hell yeah!! I am glad you ask about her, I absolutely adore talking about Kate! By the way, really funny fact, I have actually romanced most of the companions (Danse, I am coming for that ass), but canonicaly, their partners are Hancock and Nick! :D

Cait:

She admires her! Like, a lot! They think she is a super strong person, in both meanings! She loves how brave, how sassy she is! She’s just really fun to be with overall in Kate’s opinion!

About her drug addiction, Kate never really minded, but they were really concerned about her health. When Cait told her that she wanted to be cured, they didn’t hesitate to help her. 

Kate knows Cait can be a better person, especially under her influence! She constantly makes subtle comments that might make Cait change her opinion on things. Every once in a while they sit down to talk about her insecurities if she’s ok with it!

Funny extra: Since their names sound literally the same, Kate asks to be called Kat! Or to call Cait, “Irish Kate” tho expect a very angry irish person coming down your way.

Curie:

Absolutely LOVES her!! They love her curiosity and optimistic personality! Thinks she’s adorable.

They were very supportive of her wanting to be a synth, she thought it was very interesting! Though, was also very worried about how they would get to it...She was relieved that she didn’t have to take anybody's life!

Kate loves to make Curie flustered. It’s honestly adorable to her how she gets mad about getting compliments because she gets distracted, or confused. She lets her know why, tho! Hahah.

Codsworth:

He is family. He had been since before the war. It was the only person she could actually be herself.

When the bombs dropped she couldn’t stop thinking about him, if he was fine, if he had survived. When they got out of the vault, she was so happy to see Codsworth alive and well.

Kate wasn’t able to leave Codsworth’s side during 1 whole months, if it wasn’t for him and Preston, she would’ve given up on everything, on the ‘whealth, on shaun, on herself.

She adores his dumb sense of humor and his ridiculous british accent.

Danse:

She...likes him? She certainly enjoys his company and thinks he is kind and great but his bigotry and loyalty to the BOS makes her really uncomfortable.

Kate could connect to him on an emotional level, but never actually be interested in him, no matter how much they tried. BOS was just a major shit that made her uneasy. She only joined because they could be helpful to get rid of the Institute, and she was going to until…

They straight up refused and told off Maxson, but he didn’t give her the choice. When Haylen begged them to hear out Danse, they told her that she didn’t need to worry at all and would do everything in her power to keep Danse safe. They tried to change Maxson’s mind about Danse, about synths, but as she expected, he didn’t. After this whole incident, she quit the BOS and decided to destroy the Institute with the Minutemen.

She offered him to stay with her, on the lighthouse, but after a BOS attack to a settlement she left him in, Danse insisted to let him live alone, that it wasn’t safe to have him living there so close to Shaun. Kate sadly had to agree, she couldn’t risk to lose Shaun or any of her companions. She still goes and visits him every once in a while! Even got him to meet Shaun! They got along and share a love for cowboys.

Deacon:

LITERALLY BESTIES. Imagine those girls in highschool that are always together, wear matching clothes and call each other “slut”, “whore” and “bitch” affectionately? That’s them.

They literally wear matching clothes when they travel together. (I make ‘em wear matching clothes…)

Kate always introduces them as “ The Death Bunnies”.

She catched up immediately with his compulsive lying. She doesn’t mind it, in fact she might even go along with it, depending on the context and what type of lie it is. She tries to help him with it, along with his impostor syndrome (...which comes...literally sometimes?) and he tries to help her too. Hoes got each other’s back.

If they aren’t with their partners, they are with Deacon. Hell, even when they are with Nick and Hancock she brings him, of course if it’s not private. Deacon gets along with Nick so it isn’t much of a trouble...but they literally have no idea why Hancock dislikes him, tried to ask him but he said “some things are best left unknown”, which left Kate even more curious but respected his...privacy...I suppose? She asked Deacon, he said that it was no biggie, but to get Hancock to hold a long grudge like that is really weird so she can’t believe him. What did he do? She might never know...

They adore him overall, and loves his dumb comments, which she tries to always reply without bursting in laughter.

Dogmeat:

Light. Of. Her. Days. Well! Of course after her partners!! *gulps* 

They can’t go on with her days if she doesn’t pet Dogmeat at least...twice. She gives him kisses, pats and plays with him at the end of the day. 

When they first met Dogmeat, they almost couldn’t believe it. It was like a light in the dark, he definitely made her days easier as she was trying to stay stable during those 2 dark months.

She almost never goes out with Dogmeat because she is really worried the radiation might affect him, or even die out there. She usually has this fear with most of her companions, but specially him, as he is a literal animal and will probably not know if something is really dangerous or not just looking at it.

She usually falls asleep with him on the couch.

Hancock: 

Do I really even have to say anything? He is her everything along with Nick.

Kate’s first impression of him was: “Oh. FUCK. HOT?!”

Okay but really, she found him attractive and interesting after that first interaction. They had their doubts about him..you know him being a politician and all, but they quickly disappeared the more they interacted with him. Damn, the more she knew about him, the more she was interested in him. 

About Bobbi, she was totally into robbing McDonough, she did question Bobbi a lot though, as she instantly noticed how shady she was. She actually realized they were going for Hancock instead mid-way but waited to get there to confront her, make sure she was right. She didn’t do it for Hancock, instead because she wasn’t going to rob somebody who didn’t deserve being robbed. Tried to tell her to get out, nobody needed to be hurt but Bobbi refused to, so she had to pull the trigger. She knows it was the right thing to do, but can’t help but think if it could’ve ended differently.

She loves Hancock so much, they can’t stop thinking about him. “What would Hancock think about this?”, “Hancock would love this”, “I wish Hancock could see this”, “I miss Hancock”, literally being so clingy.

Overall, she thinks he’s such an amazing person: he’s kind, he’s brave, he’s funny, he’s understanding, he’s adorable, he’s caring, he’s determined, he’s (very) handsome...I really could go on.

She tries so hard to get him to understand that he is an amazing person. He appreciates the efforts.

“watch you sleep” by girl in red is totally their song.

MacCready:

LITERALLY A LITTLE BROTHER. They adore him! They love how funny and sassy he is.

Kate had to constantly tell him that she doesn’t care about caps and that he can keep ‘em if he wanted, that it looked like he needed it more than her, and she’d be right!

When Mac told her about Duncan she was upset at first, how could he just leave his child like that? Never acted on it, since she knew it would make it worse, but she could quickly understand where he came from and why he did what he did. Didn’t hesitate to help him find the cure for Duncan. 

They share a love for snipers and long ranged weapons so...that’s a topic they talk about a lot!

They both geek out about Silver Shroud every once in a while! Listen to the plays together and stuff like that!

Nick:

HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They didn’t like him when they first met. They liked Nick’s humor, but couldn’t stop thinking about how much he acted like a cop, and let’s say Kate had their share of bad situations with cops because of race, and shit like that. Kate didn’t know a lot about synths at the time, so she just guessed somebody programmed a fucking cop persona into him. And she wasn’t going to deal with a cop bot that probably had a stick up his ass.

Eventually, when she got so oversaturated with work, and stressed out with the whole Institute shit, she decided to go and do some of the cases with Nick, she couldn’t wait to show this “cop” that even a “civilian” could do his work. As she worked through the cases, she began to notice that Nick was...actually ok? She had more knowledge about synths at this point, but still didn’t understand how Nick worked exactly. He did tell her that he was a prototype, between Gen 1 and Gen 3, so she quickly realized that he was no ordinary bot. She eventually warmed up to him, and could see the appeal.

It was like a bomb dropped inside her head when Nick asked if she was doing fine. Kate had never actually opened up with anybody, not even with Hancock. She mostly worked over her depression and anxiety by keeping herself busy and unhealthy thoughts like “they need me to be strong, I am a role model right now.” with the whole being a General thing, and the fact that so many people relied on her. Kate tried to be dismissive of it, but Nick could see right through her, and insisted that it was ok to open up. She had to get really drunk to do any of that shit! So they told him that they should both go to a “more private place”, as an excuse to get her hands on some alcohol. Didn’t end up drinking any alcohol, and just spilled most of it. Found comfort on his “origin story” with Diamond City. 

He was a huge part in her full recovery, along with Hancock and Deacon. But honestly? If it wasn’t for him, it would’ve taken her snapping at anybody and being confronted about it to actually open up to anybody. 

She didn’t realize she had any feelings for him until a month after that event. That they were storming into Eddie’s shelter that she realized that they loved him. All of this they were doing for him, the cute comments, the praising and trust they had in him...it became so clear why while he was talking to her after killing Winter, she couldn’t help herself but to dump on him why he was not just “a shell” how he was so much more than that. She didn’t actually confess her feelings to him there, but they were pretty close to doing it. If it wasn’t for her thoughts stopping her from doing it, what would happen with Hancock now? She still loved him deeply...

Eventually, two weeks after, they took a break at the end of the day from missions with Nick, at the empty bar that she had built inside the Castle. It was midnight and mostly everyone had gone to sleep, so they could talk about whatever they wanted and get as drunk as she wanted. They were having so much fun until Nick brought up something she had said that day they ended Winter’s life. Fuck. God, they wished they hadn’t been so busy to actually sit down with Hancock and ask him what he thinks of polyamorous relationships because she was way too drunk this time to stop herself from doing anything stupid. And she didn’t, Nick did, he corresponded but said that he couldn’t let her do this to John. Hah! Little did they know Hancock was super into the both of them. (I actually want to make a lil’ fic about this!!)

They just love him so much and connect with him on a whole new level. He and John make them so happy, she literally couldn’t ask for anyone or anything better than what they have going on.

I know it isn’t exactly a love song, but “Agnes” by Glass Animals reminds me of them.

Piper:

WHAT A LADY, AM I RIGHT? They adore her!! 

She is literally her kind of lousy! Always speaking her mind, always speaking the truth. She admires what she does.

I really don’t have much to say about her, just that they really like her and that she thinks she’s a good friend and overall good person!

Was totally in to beat up McDonough’s ass.

Preston:

They think he is amazing!! He is so kind and caring, they like him a lot!

Let’s say that he liked him so much at some point they got together during those two months. It wasn’t a stable relationship and they both acknowledged that they just didn’t work. Besides, he was there when she met Hancock, and had this look in her eyes that he had never seen. Not to worry tho! He has been testing the waters with Sturges lately! ;)

They function better as friends! Besides, it was quite awkward for Kate their General/Soldier dynamic they had going on, so that was another thing!

She thinks he is so cool and amazing, and they let him know this!

Kate teases him about when they were a couple and they laugh it off.

Honestly, he was a big help for Kate during those months and she is really grateful for all his help. They were both really important for each other.

X6-88:

They didn’t get to know him as much as they wanted.

It all was happening so fast, they couldn’t do anything to convince him to get out of the Institute before it was too late. 

And it was. They had to kill him along with the other coursers. 

In their time as companions, they thought he was enjoyable to be with. He looked like he could be saved, but...yeah.

They made him a grave in the Institute’s remains.

Aaaaaaaaand, that’s all!! Gosh, that was loooong!! Can you see I was really eager to talk about Nick and Kate’s relationship? Yeah, that shit is long.

(I literally finished this yesterday...at 2 am or something)

[evesbeve]

Hey there, you said your ask box was open for Justin Min's whole thing? I guess I just slept through the whole thing, honestly - could you just go over a gist of everything that happened? I get that it seems like a PR team didn't know how to use twitter (which, mood) and f-ed things up for him, but what were they "cleaning up" in the first place, who's Anna what did they do that warranted such a bizarre thread from the PR team, etc...? 😳

Hey! Okay so this is going to be a lot, so buckle up.

Right off the bat, I just want to say that Justin isn’t cancelled. The situation has been mostly resolved right now (more on that later).

So around a week ago, Justin Min started deleting his replies to fans. Depending on whether you’re on Twitter or not, you might know that Justin is one of the most interactive people of the cast. He knows a lot of fans by name, he has inside jokes with us, and he just interacts a lot with his fanbase. So you can imagine why him suddenly starting to delete his replies was a bit upsetting. There was nothing we could do about it though.

And suddenly, two days ago, Justin deactivated his account out of nowhere, which caused all kinds of drama to go down.

People started pointing the finger at specific accounts saying it was their fault that Justin deactivated (don’t even get me started on that logic; why a grown-ass adult deactivate because of a few teenagers is above me, it literally made no sense), even sending death threats. Others suspected that he got suspended because Twitter’s algorithm saw all these tweets get deleted and was like “welp, bot time.” Long story short, lots of misinformation was going around.

And then out of the blue, Justin’s account was reactivated, and he made a thread directed at Anna.

Now, who is Anna? Anna is a stan on twitter, whose @ I won’t be sharing for privacy, but here’s how they’re relevant in this:

Remember when I mentioned the inside jokes? Well, one of them was between a fan called Matt and Justin. Matt kept commenting on Justin’s tweets asking him to say trans rights. On the one year anniversary of Matt asking Justin to say trans rights, Justin finally said it. Then, Matt made a poll asking other stans what he should have Justin say next, and lesbian rights won.

Around a month ago, Matt replied to one of Justin’s tweets, and Justin responded with something along the lines of “haha, i know this is just an attempt to get me to say lesbian rights,” referencing the inside joke. People started commenting that the way he phrased it was a bit :/ so then he replied to his own tweet with something like “well, i’ll delete this before i get cancelled,” and that’s when things spiraled.

[id: Justin Min’s tweet #1: i see that you are trying to butter me up to say lesbian rights, nice try, matt. nice try.

Justin Min’s tweet #2: oh, here we go. this is an inside joke between myself and matt, if you’ve been a part o fthis fandom for more than a few weeks. but alas, i will have to delete this now before i’m cancelled by the end of the day. keep loving, everyone.]

Lesbians get spoken over and looked down upon not only by straight people, but also the LGBT community. So when Justin tweeted that, lesbians were like “this sounds as if you care more about your own self image rather than our community.” Then, non-lesbians got involved and started either a) calling Justin lesbophobic (which lesbians never did) or b) blindly defending Justin and saying he did nothing wrong.

(Side note: I am not a lesbian, and I’m not trying to speak over lesbians in this situation. But I did talk about this to some of my friends who are lesbians, and they told me that what Justin did wasn’t as big of a deal as Twitter made it out to be. These are their words, not mine. All I know is that it was definitely not bad-intentioned, just a huge misunderstanding.)

Anyway, Anna made a thread explaining to Justin why him defending himself came out as harmful towards the lesbian community, and then Justin apologised and that was it.

Which brings us back to yesterday (26/9/2020).

Everyone is freaking out, posting misinformation, panicking. I don’t exactly,,, know how, but the #justinminisoverparty hashtag started being used for actual hate towards Justin for deactivating, and some people (including Anna, though I think their tweet was in the context of a joke? please take this with a grain of salt though. update: it was in the context of a joke) mentioned that Justin is a lesbophobe.

A few hours later, Justin reactivated his account, tagged Anna, and said this (though it was actually his PR team, more on that later):

[id: Justin’s Tweet: @ [redacted] quickly jumping back on here from my twt break because i’m receiving messages that you’re continuing to spread misinformation, so i want to clarify.]

[id: Justin’s Tweets: 1. all of my interactions with you were deleted because of the need to set clear boundaries due to the fact that your incessant messages and replies from multiple accounts over the last several months were veering into stalking/harassment.

2. for someone who appears to pride themselves on reminding their friends/followers on a daily basis to be careful of the language they use on this app, you seem to be fine with flippantly labeling someone as homophobic/lesbophobic as if they’re cute little adjectives to give to someone, not realizing that such labels have real-life consequences.]

[id: Justin’s Tweets: 3. also noting here than in your original thread, you stated that you neither considered me nor my words to actually be lesbophobic, so a bit confused as to why your story has suddenly changed.

4. i realize you’re young, so i’m genuinely hoping you use this opportunity to learn and grow andbe a little more mindful the next time you decide to tweet.]

The next twenty minutes were pure chaos. Justin deactivated again, everyone started freaking out because that was very out of character for him. People were cancelling him because this could have easily been resolved in DMs, or tweeted without the mention of Anna (a minor) from a mainstream Twitter account.

And then, Justin Min DMed another fan on Instagram (her name is Em) about the situation.

Who is Em? For starters, I’d like to say that I personally know Em and that she’s one of my best friends. I’ve known her for more than a year now, and I can personally vouch for her. Everything that she posted is 100% true (if you want the thread where she posts proof of the DMs, please send me a different ask because I’m scared tumblr will not post this in the tag if I include it here).

The reason Justin DMed her out of all people is because he also kinda knows her? As I mentioned, Justin interacts with us on Twitter a lot, and Em is the one person he’s responded to the most, so he knows who she is. (He’s tagged her more times than other cast members, at least before all his tweets were deleted by his PR team.)

Anyway, this is what Em tweeted:

[id: Em’s tweets: please read this !!!

justin dmed me on instagram and basically the gist of it is that he hired a pr team and they tweeted the thread at anna without knowing everyone could see it. all of the tweets being deleted/ him deactivating was also them.]

Below is the image Em attached to the tweet:

[id: Justin’s DM to Em: hey. this is justin. i’m just hearing about what’s happening on twitter right now. for context, i was asked to work with a team of people to “clean up” my twitter in the past few weeks. they’ve taken the liberty of deleting a bunch of my responses and posts in order to safeguard me (whatever that means) as well as deactivating my account to comb through other things.i believe they accidentally sent anna a message and mistakenly believed the function for her to comment only would mean that she would be the only one to see it as well. needless to say, i’m no longer working with this team and want to personally apologize to her. do you know any way i can get into contact with her?]

And then, in a follow-up tweet:

[id: Em’s text at Justin: sorry for dming you again. is there any other way i can help? i just feel really bad about this whole thing and i know how quickly this stuff can spread if it’s not taken care of

Justin’s text: i mean, i guess you can share the information i’ve given you? it’ll take a bit of time for me to take back ownership on everything as i sever ties with that team, so maybe the sooner the better people know.

Em’s text: okay ! is it okay if i tweet a screenshot

Justin’s text: sure.]

Then Justin’s account got reactivated an hour ago (almost 24hs after Em’s tweets), and he tweeted this:

[id: Justin’s tweet: hi. it’s me. thank you for all your messages. this has been an incredibly tough week for me on multiple fronts. some things you might already be aware of; many other things you don’t know about.asking for a bit of privacy as i take sometime to unplug. hoping to be back soon.]

And that’s all, I think? There’s lots we don’t know about what happened yet, so please please please try not to spread misinformation. This is a stressful situation for us on Twitter, and especially for Justin, and misinformation going around is the last thing we need right now.

tl;dr: Justin Min hired a PR Team that started deleting all of his tweets and deactivated his account. Misinformation started spreading, people started cancelling Justin for no reason. The PR Team decided to respond to Anna, made the response public, deactivated again. Justin DMed Em and explained the situation, and an hour ago, he reactivated and said he’s taking a small break to sort things out.

If anyone has any other questions/clarifications, my askbox is open! Hope this shed some light on the situation <3

UPDATE 28/9/2020: Justin has DMed and apologised to Anna for the situation, and Anna has accepted the apology. Anna posted all of it on their account, but again, if you want a link, send me an ask!

[hopeswriting]

Modern AU (Adult!)Arcobaleno on socials media though. While Flames and mafia are definitely still a thing.

Now I’m by no means well acquainted to all the different popular socials media, but here’s my humble take:

Reborn on Instagram.

He only has pictures of Leon first and foremost, with him in the background in one of his ridiculous but very well-made cosplay. Leon of course also wears the same cosplay as him.

He never shows his full face in any of the pictures, but just enough his followers know he’s handsome as fuck.

The artists/photoshoppers among them regularly put the pieces together to see how he could look like, but in a funny-and-obviously-purposefully-wrong way only.

Reborn loves them and saves them all.

------

Once in a blue moon he does post a picture of himself where you can see him clearly all dressed up and fancy, and then immediately deletes it.

But only after he’s sure it has been seen, so he can watch his followers lose their shit while drinking a nice espresso.

They try hard, but so far none of them managed to save any of the pictures before he deletes them.

------

Often there’s what suspiciously looks like blood stains on their clothes and straight up dead bodies lying in the background, but Reborn went so passive-aggressive with the few who dared to ask, everyone is too afraid to ask now.

Anyone who badmouths Leon in any way is instantly blocked. But only after Reborn ripped them a new one AND let his followers do it too.

*

Skull on Twitter and Snapchat.

He tweets the most random, out of nowhere, highly worrying things, that always sent his followers in a frenzy trying to figure out why the fuck he would think of any of this in the first place??

“aren’t you ever tried of your solid, rigid, restrictive bones? don’t you want to just be Luffy from One Piece, a rubber being that can shape themself in whatever way they wish?”

or:

“nobody ever tells you this, but the stress of picking apart melted leather from your burnt skin before it heals is VERY worth the adrenaline of making fire your BITCH”

or:

“is it REALLY illegal if you break in and eat the food but leave money behind??”

------

That’s just his Twitter only followers though.

The ones on Snapchat have the privilege to watch him stumble head first step by step to his tweets, and are actually very involved and active spectators that keep him out of jail, or killing himself, or killing someone else.

Skull, recording a video, halfway stuck in between two buildings: What’s up guys, there're these guys following me and trying to kill me, quick tell me what bones to break so I can fit in there.

see also:

Skull, riding his bike, both of them suspiciously wet, holding a lighter in his hand: You guys ready for this sick fire stunt I came up with?? If everything goes well I should only get second to third degree burns, let’s do this!!!

see also:

A picture of Skull lying on a roof, his arms full of snacks and his mouth stuffed with food, with police cars in the background, that says: send tips to make sure there’s always food in your fridge for when you need it the most. #midnightsnack #snitchesgetstitches #justsaying

see also:

A picture of Skull crouched in front of a body, posing, that says: don’t worry guys we’re just faking, but hypothetically, if you were to hide a body as quick as possible from here without being seen, what would you do? #hypotheticallyseriousanswersonly #hypotheticallythecopsaremaybeontheirway #quickanswersappreciated

*

Verde on Facebook.

He creates a public group with only him as member that’s basically his scientific diary.

It’s not really to invite intellectual challenging debates (though he’d be all for it if someone smart enough showed up), but he figures it’s in his best interest to make the world a less dumb place if he can.

It finds his public, though there’s only a few comments because god forbid you say something dumb or inaccurate and Verde fucking annihilates you in the comment section.

But like, in a teacher way. Like he’s genuinely trying to make you know better but he’s just ruthless at it lmao.

Verde uses a fake name and a fake everything so there’s quickly a running joke along the lines of “Imagine if it’s really the genius scientist Verde running the group and you just outed yourself as a flat earther lol”.

------

But what gets the group really popular is the in depth flames theory involving weather of all things they have to assume he came up with it all on his own because they can’t figure out to save their lives what the hell he’s talking about?

And it makes them question their sanity sometimes because Verde talks about it like it’s the most obvious thing and in the context of just about every basic aspects of life.

Cue the conspirators and their hot new take of “the aliens were among us all along and hid themselves as the WEATHER!!!” that instantly turns into the new popular meme.

That, and the transcripts posts of Verde trying his theories that nine out of ten apparently involves very unwilling participants whose life are threatened and sometimes they straight up DIE???

------

They think both of these is just him fucking with them and it’s all fictional. They want to think it is anyway.

They’re not so sure, but everyone is too afraid to ask.

*

Colonnello on Snapchat.

70% of his content is about Lal because this man is so in love and it’s like he’s a guest on his own account lol.

There’s the “Pining Hard” content where it’s just him trying to seduce Lal, to romance her and asking her out, and Lal brushing all of it off more often than not.

His followers are very invested in this “old bickering married couple type of best friends in oblivious mutual pining” real live action slow burn fic, and cheers him hard whenever Lal reciprocates the tiniest bit.

------

They don’t know the two are already together.

They think Lal brushing him off or flirting back but in an unmistakably joking/”platonic” way is just her being oblivious and not taking Colonnello seriously.

When she would just rather flirt back off camera because it’s her private life thank you very much.

Colonnello never tells them because he assumes they all know and just choose to be in on the joke.

Lal finds it hilarious whenever she goes through his Snapchat (with his permission of course) to find numerous messages of encouragement, so she never says either.

------

But one day she kind of just steals a kiss from him while he’s recording because she wanted to, and his followers lose their shit.

Lal laughs herself to tears and laughs for days.

------

The other Lal’s related content is the “Lal’s loving hours”, where he just takes pictures of her/records her doing random shit---whether it's her making a disaster out of the kitchen, or wearing three pairs of socks because her feet are cold, or beating the shit out of someone---and him doing heart eyes at the camera.

------

Otherwise it’s just him living his life and letting them in on what happens.

There’s a lot of pictures because he’s handsome and he knows it and he likes the compliments aqsdfghj.

Or videos of him going on and on about how energy drinks are really the best drink ever while doing grocery.

Or ranting videos about how bullets wounds are such a pain to deal with and showing himself patching himself up to show how it’s done (thanks??!!??).

Or him watching series and roasting the characters for their dumb decisions.

Or him commenting in real time an assassination attempt on him in the middle of the night in his own fucking home because the fucker sure is ballsy (????!!!!!!???).

It’s very popular too because of how relatable it is.

Well, most of the time anyway.

*

Viper on Youtube.

They have a DIY type of channel, mostly about fashion---what they think about the new products/clothes they bought from their favorite brand, their thoughts on the new fashion trend, their makeup/skin care routine and favorite outfits for various circumstances, or they’re often on live while going shopping.

(I just really like Fashionista!Viper okay.)

They play videos games too, thinking they’re being very good while being very average to not say they straight up suck asdfghj.

Occasionally do reaction videos too.

------

Like Reborn they hardly ever show their face. Actually they don’t show it at all lol. They wear masks to do their videos because a hood is not very reliable.

How do they do their makeup videos then you ask?

They use "volunteer" as models of course.

And by volunteers I mean the Varia qsdftgyhjkl.

------

They also have another very peculiar brand of videos that is the most popular one on their channel. The titles of these videos include but are not limited to:

“A Due Payment Of Yours Is Late? How To Hunt Them For Sport”

“A Little Bitch Doesn’t Respect Your Pronouns/Chosen Name? Step By Step On How To Make Them Shut The Fuck Up Forever”

“How To Efficiently Remove Blood And Various Others Human Residue From Your Clothes”

“Faking Your Death And Taking On A New Identity: Step By Step Tutorial”

“How To Take Over Your Friends Brains And Watch Them Prank Themselves ft. The Varia”

*

Fon on Tumblr.

His blog becomes known as a shitpost blog or a blog run by a bot when really, everything he posts is about actual, very real events that happened in his life.

Except he vague posts every time because he really wants to keep his anonymity.

He posts about the hardships of learning more and more martial arts and staying at the top of the art, and sounds like some dangerous psychopath.

“The body is such a fragile thing, isn’t it? It tends to break quite easily unfortunately. You’d think I’d know that by then, but I really need to remember it more often so I can keep enjoying myself.”

He’s talking about how he always pushes himself too much in training and ends up injuring himself.

“Everyday I dispose of them and reasserts my superiority, and everyday they come back and it’s really hard to not hurt them beyond repair.”

He’s talking about how he’s often challenged by other martial artists who don’t like him being the best and how he always has to beat them up bloody for them to give up.

He also posts about his family's live except it’s the Hibari’s family live, and he doesn’t sound more sane of mind at all.

“I made the mistake of taking Kyo with me on my grocery trip and picked on his tell-tale signs of going through a bad day too late.

But fortunately the shop is still standing and no one was heavily injured.”

or:

“It’s so heartwarming to see Kyo make friends. The brown haired kid didn’t put much of a fight but the one with the pineapple haircut has potential.

He almost managed to stab him that one time, and I can’t wait to tease Kyo about it. He’s very cute when annoyed and embarrassed.”

or:

“Often I look back to the day Kyo got his tonfa and I am always infinitely grateful for this not-so-easy-to-kill-with weapon.

I would like for him to at least finish high school first.”

Yeah it’s very often about Kyoya lmao. And no one knows for sure what in the world a “Kyo” is supposed to be???

An actual human being is NOT the most popular theory qsdfghn.

*

Lal on TikTok.

I guess?? I’m kind of running out of ideas lol, and I know very little about TikTok.

But I’m thinking she makes a series of videos where she looks straight into the camera like she’s on The Office while some bullshit or the other happens in the background.

And it’s not even always her friends or coworkers or Colonnello (yeah he has a category of his own lmao).

As far as she is concerned everyone who chooses to be a fucking dumbass in her vicinity is asking for it aqsdfghj.

------

Also has a “Doing paperwork” series, and the later at night she’s doing it, the more she’s absolutely fucking done with people not being able to do their job properly without collateral damage.

She dryly reads out loud the highlights of the reports and goes straight for their lives lol.

But as funny as it is, everyone is more interested in the very questionable out of context content of these reports???

------

Also does workout videos, as in she demonstrates how to do this one or other exercise, and if these do particularly well it has nothing to do with how people want to look respectfully at her body, of course not.

ALSO has a “Colonnello’s Loving Hours” series because you better believe this woman is also so much in love.

She records him when he’s simply existing---whether he’s snuggling besides her while they’re watching TV, or dancing in the kitchen while cooking, or cleaning his guns---while looking at the camera with this tender, content expression on her face.

*

They become known as the Weather Lovers because boy, do these people like to go on about their favorite weather. Some shipping might even be involved??

It’s how their community introduces them to each other.

Cue even more chaos on their respective socials medias.

Viper’s video of their first meeting is the most popular one on their channel.

*

Yeah I know, I didn’t add the Sky Arco ladies, but I have no idea what they could do. Pinterest maybe? Or Vine? Dunno, they’re all yours guys lol.

[musicollage]

Lali Puna. Faking The Books, 2004. Morr Music.  ~ [  Album Review |      1) Pitchfork  +  2) Tiny Mix Tapes  +    3) Stylus Magazine  ]

1) Even now, amidst this international shitstorm of laptop-meets-okay-musician circle jerks, the Weilheim, Germany supergroups-- The Notwist, Ms. John Soda, Lali Puna-- have maintained fairly unique personalities. Let's oversimplify: The Notwist remains the camp's darkest shade, preoccupied with melancholy and perhaps the most electronically involved. Ms. John Soda straddles rock and pop equally, coaching chocolately sweet vocals and the camp's most peppermint hooks. By analogy, Lali Puna is to riffs what Ms. John Soda is to melodies-- this is Weilheim's face of rock, its most outwardly energetic outfit and the closest this town gets to sweaty basement shows and fucking shit up wholesale.

Which doesn't say much, as Lali Puna's idea of fucking shit up on their 2001 release Scary World Theory seemed to be, at worst, breaking into a building and rearranging the furniture. Still, at the time, the album's gruffest tracks offered the most aggressive sounds Weilheim's palatable pop spectrum had yet delivered. And then last year, Ms. John Soda released their heavily rock-oriented While Talking EP, which, though only marginally enjoyable, branched out into harder terrain. Now, with Faking the Books, Lali Puna snatch the Weilheim riffing crown back from Ms. John Soda-- and thankfully, even top their labelmates melodically.

After a pleasant but ultimately faceless title track opener, Lali Puna provide a double-shot of well-wrought rippers: "Call 1-800-FEAR" is the first, boasting a no-nonsense drive, tight instrumental harmonies and undistracting electronic loops that bolster the song's pulse. Atop it all floats bandleader Valerie Trebeljahr's underwater vocals, processed enough so as not to sound incongruous or (gasp!) bedroomy. "Micronomic", the album's second single, follows in similar temperament, and while not my favorite track on the album, speaks to Lali Puna's ability to cradle their listener gently in melody for one second, and to punch him in the face with a dirty riff in the next.

"B-Movie" and "Left Handed", however, are without a doubt the album's standouts, and maybe the best rock songs in Lali Puna's catalog. "B-Movie" pulls off the Kim Gordon sing/speak that Ms. John Soda attempted to lesser success last year: Trebeljahr just nails that been-there-done-that apathy which works so well with the song's contrasting manic rock groove and pointed bass pulse. The loud, guitar-heavy chorus of "Left Handed" steps further away from Weilheim's distinguished trademarks than the band's other material. Its roaring rock factor was a point of contention when it was released as the album's first single, but in the context of the album it doesn't seem out of place at all: The song sports similarly atonal-to-tonal lyric deliveries as "B-Movie", and remains anchored firmly by the nervous, high-pitched synth line that opens the song and rides it out to the end.

As for the rest of Faking the Books, it's pleasant, and hardly unrealized, but it falls just a bit too close to the IDM pop lark that takes up so much space on CD racks and FireWire drives. And on an album on which this band so beautifully exceeds itself with songs like "B-Movie" and "Grin and Bear", tracks like "Geography-5" and "People I Know", which are content to simply be pretty, are just further proof that the gimmick of pairing electronic and traditional rock instrumentation has lost its edge, and that the genre must now rely on stronger songwriting to succeed. That said, Faking the Books is a confident stride in the right direction, and proves that, even within the confines of a tired concept, a great hook still goes a long way.

2) The history of brilliant electronic efforts fronted by mind-altered, bot-driven avatars is not a short one. From Kraftwerk to Devo to Miss Kittin, electronic music has always had a soft spot for people who can sing just like computers can. And, admittedly, it is all pretty cool. There is a certain awesomeness in imitating computers, a turn of the tables from trying to get computers to act like humans (which has never worked out very well).

Problem is, Lali Puna's latest effort, Faking the Books, isn't really going for fun, and there is hardly a wink in Valerie Trebeljahr's vacant, utterly sterile delivery; not even a raised eyebrow. We're talking about corporate takeover in "Micronomic," political corruption in "1-800-Fear," and cheating (!) in title track "Faking the Books"; and that's just the first three cuts. In an album heavy on concept, it all comes off as a trick, utterly unconvincing and disturbingly jaded.

To be sure, Faking the Books is still a worthy effort, and contains some undeniably beautiful moments. A lean string section on "Crawling by Numbers" serves as perfect counterpoint to spare, haunting keyboards. The driving percussion of "B-Movie" is as close to a rock-out track as bastardized IDM has ever previously achieved. And throughout the album's twelve tracks, an unlikely confluence of sound often gives way to the kind of sonic landscaping that few electronic acts can approach.

It's just hard what to make of all of it. Listening to Faking the Books makes you feel utterly alone; and maybe that's the whole point. It's difficult to play the album through and not recall Markus Acher's striking vocals on The Notwist's Neon Golden (who also provides guitars here); he's sullen, fairly quiet and not particularly dramatic, but entirely convincing. I want to believe Lali Puna. I just need for them to believe, too.

3) Lali Puna is one of the myriad groups putting out consistently intriguing material without taking the final step toward a defining masterwork. Their first album, Tridecoder, was often sterilized by their Stereolab-worship, and though they progressed towards a Teutonic amalgam of their own with Scary World Theory, they were still hampered by peculiar translation barriers. Often the lyrics came out deadened and awkward, as though misled by a translator fond of cruel pranks (the title track and its allusion to the ‘cookie monster’ was particularly strange). On their newest album, Faking the Books, Lali Puna move one step closer to triumph. They touch greatness at several points, if never truly digging their nails in and grabbing hold.

Opening with the gorgeous stuttering vocal samples of the title track, Lali Puna establish the same vague working area as previous works, but there is a distance in the similarity. It’s as though you’ve just met a good friend’s identical twin, and he’s posing as your friend. His voice sounds different, and he parts his hair wider of center. He doesn’t use the same expressions, and there’s a gleam in his eye that tells you something’s up. The driving organic rhythms of “Call 1-800-Fear” remind of much of the first album, but just as you become accustomed to its propulsive thrust, the drums fade into quick-stepping electronic beats and a solemn piano muffles the song into a deep restless stirring. “Micronomic” uses a similar mechanical breakdown to cool down its squelched sax blurts and lively drums.

Perhaps the greatest difference is Valerie Trebeljahr’s improved emotional range. At times in the past, she was content to play the heroin-dead heroine, reclining with sang froid and cold Germanic grace into an emotional deadpan. On many of Faking the Books’ best songs, Trebeljahr reaches beyond this detachment to an impassioned query, giving the album a greater sense of depth and development. Suddenly, even in the face of vague uncertainty, Trebeljahr seems more confident, more willing to put her ego on the line and risk a sullen retreat. “Geography-5” finds her alluring and come-hither, and since the song is built upon one of the album’s simplest arrangements, her voice is the necessary focal point. Atop a simple bass-drum part and twilight chimes, she sweats out a sexuality that doesn’t bring to mind black leather, dog collars and torturous candle wax. On the gorgeous closer “Crawling by Numbers,” she similarly warms up the chorus with a beautiful reach—the juxtaposition of her voice with the song’s dirgeful strings making for a mesmerizing finale.

For the first time, Lali Puna’s control doesn’t seem so absolute. It’s possible that they aren’t cooler than you are (though it’s still likely). A few cracks have spread in their frozen facade, and that sudden vulnerability, glimpsed in the desperate “Do you?” on “Alienation” and the minimal aquatic squiggles and tribal drums of “Small Things,” makes the group that much more compelling. They work under the protective hush of simplicity at times, and this sparseness allows the broken-nosed shatter of their more propulsive material the intended effect. They aren’t there yet, but the maturity on Faking the Books serves as notice they may only be one album away.

[inscrutable-shadow]

Hack

For @flashfictionfridayofficial​, my fourth piece. This one is from my WIP Biomech, featuring Lana Highvale (she/her), Aster Gemini (she/they) and Nova Alterion (they/them) attempting to discover why they are being pursued across the galaxy. It... doesn’t make a lot of sense out of context.

Aster's drop from the vent was as graceful as usual, all lubricated joints and carefully calculated positioning, in contrast to Lana's own landing, which would have sounded like a sack of goods being thrown from height if Aster hadn't caught her inches from the ground and set her on her feet. The biomech's arms were strong and her body was unexpectedly warm, and Lana took several seconds before starting and remembering to stand on her own. "Comfortable?" Aster drawled, turning fluidly to take in the room without waiting for a response.

The mass of computer banks lining the walls was mostly for show, to give the appearance of superior computing power without needing to actually purchase enough silicon to render an atom-perfect simulation of a large galaxy. A holoscreen sixty feet long lit up one wall in a soft blue glow, pulsing gently with a standby message and the AceraTech logo. "Well. This is it. Should get us everything we need to know." Aster slid herself to the floor next to a particularly large computer which was probably real.

"And you're going to hack it with your mind?" Lana had always wanted to see this in action, but now she was a little apprehensive. Was it dangerous? If it went badly, could Aster be hurt?

"Not with my mind, per se. The bots will do most of the hacking, but I will be processing and storing the information myself, they don't have anywhere near enough memory. Shouldn't be too difficult, quick in and out, figure out how they heard about me and what they're planning to do..." She pulled a sort of cable out of one of the bodysuit's many pockets and connected it to the base of her skull, hesitating a few moments to give the nanobots time to travel down it before connecting it to the side of the panel. She smiled reassuringly at Lana, then closed her eyes, concentrating.

"Just eating through the casing here, nothing to be worried about. Ahh, there we go. Mm. Data. I've missed this, haven't had my mind hooked up to a station level computer in maybe a decade... Let's see what we can find here... Dossier, mostly incorrect... Travel logs, wonder how they got those, gonna have to be more careful if I'm being tracked... Whoops, that looks private, shouldn't have that on your work computer... Oh! Oh no. How did they get this?"

"What?!" Aster's alarmed tone put Lana right on edge.

"Those are real, accurate schematics of what one of my nanobots looks like, correct serial number algorithm, unique metal alloy, everything. They've got DynaCorp research on how the slurry works, they know every detail of how the replication and construction are done, tissue repair, even how I fly the ship. Everything. And the files seem to have been pulled off of a DynaCorp server during a hack six months ago. All of this is Steele's stuff. He must have stolen bots without my knowledge and done these experiments..."

"You are blackout drunk on the station a lot..." Lana reminded gently.

"I don't- nevermind. Probably my fault, yeah. But this is not good. I'm going to see if I can do a wipe of this data, nobody should have this... Almost there-aah!"

"Aster?" The biomech's face was screwed up in pain, hand hovering near the plug but not pulling it out yet, strangled sounds scraping from her throat.

"Been caught... firewall... burning me out..."

"Then disconnect it!" Lana nearly screamed, lunging for the cord herself. The force with which she slammed herself into Aster's free arm, now extended, holding her at a distance, winded her entirely.

"No! I need to delete that data... Have to... argh!" Not only was the alien's nose starting to bleed, but green streaks of bloodstained tears were also beginning to stain her face.

"It's not worth it! You'll kill yourself!"

"Have... oh... okay, let's go then..." She ripped the cable from its dock and stood up entirely too quickly. "Come on, don't have all day!" She stalked off toward the way they came in, still bleeding from the nose and eyes. No way was she alright, but Lana couldn't push her up into the vent anyway, so might as well let her do it herself.

Aster almost made it all of the way through the vent system to the Infinitas, but upon dropping out of the aperture on the other side wasn't able to keep her feet and crashed to the floor. With the destination in sight, Lana heaved the other girl up and dragged her toward the ship, banging on the outer door. Nova had it open in moments.

"What's she done to herself now?" they asked breathlessly. "It doesn't matter, let's get her in, we need to go! This whole place is going to be in lockdown in a moment." Nova could carry Aster all on their own, and placed her into the strange pod-like contraption Lana had seen upon first entering the ship all those months ago. "Keep an eye on her, I'm going to have to fly this thing, and I'm not sure how good I'm going to be at it..."

They installed themselves into Aster's chair, the locking mechanism biting into their skin, bereft of the usual ports, but their bots began wiring them to the ship's systems almost immediately. The Infinitas lurched into the air and out of the docking bay out into the stars.

"Was it worth it?" Lana asked a nearly-unconscious Aster. She didn't get a response.

[anthropologicalhands]

ceg fic: keeping it light

summary: During one of their late-night conversations, Rebecca tells Nathaniel about her first makeover attempt. During the 8 months. notes: I am easily amused by the idea of people catching Nathaniel up on what he missed in the months before he came to West Covina. Ao3 link

Nathaniel’s question catches Rebecca mid-stretch, arching back in her chair until it bends, her arms over her head with her palms interlaced and reaching towards the ceiling. She finishes it out, feeling her spine realign before lowering her hands to her lap as she regards him, one eyebrow raised in question.

“Hm? Sorry, what was that?”

He repeats himself.

“Did you do something to your hair?” he asks, gesturing towards his own head with a flick of the wrist.

Her initial assumption is that Nathaniel is setting up a segue towards the supply closet. That’s usually how it starts, a casual request,  even when, like now, it is late and no one else is with them in the office. Rebecca studies him and discerns that, no, there’s nothing particularly flirtatious about his expression, his tone merely curious, and his laptop screen is still up.

Her late-night calm dips very, very briefly under some unidentified weight, and she mentally files the moment away as something to be annoyed about later.

“No, not really. I mean, I recolored,” she says, instead, her hand coming up to fiddle at the ends. “Wait, is it noticeable? Is it all patchy? Have I been walking around all day looking like an ocelot?”

Nathaniel is already shaking his head, holding up his hands as if he can catch the sudden concerns as quickly as she conjures them. A slight smile plays around the corners of his mouth, easy to miss if she wasn’t looking. “No, nothing like that. You look good.”

Her mood hitches back up to calm again at the compliment, bouncing the weight right off, and that’s also annoying. She makes a second mental note for later.

“Well, you know how it is,” she says, settling back in her chair and crossing her legs. “The senior partner can’t exactly walk around with exposed roots for too long before it looks sloppy. I did consider a nice ombré, but that isn’t exactly something I’m confident to DIY with a box in the sink.”

“Of course,” he agrees, a touch sardonically. “So the dark-haired vixen look is here to stay?”

“For now. I’ll go back eventually, but yeah, I’m liking the espresso. Gives a little extra oomph to my eyes and keeps everyone else on their toes for some reason. It’s great.”

“Mhm-hm.” Nathaniel hums, still smiling.

They settle back into companionable silence. The minutes tick by. Rebecca stares at her notes, drumming her fingers against the desk, less interested in proofreading now.

“This is a new record for me, actually,” she says casually, eyes still on her screen, definitely not tracking his movements around the neatly rounded corners of her laptop. “The last time I dyed my hair I only kept it for a couple days.”

His tapping against the keyboard stutters slightly.

“Last time?”

Rebecca looks up properly, smiling as she meets his bemused stare. “Yep. Tried going blonde.”

“…what?”

“Yup.”

She meets his disbelieving expression steadily, letting her smile sharpen to a smirk as his own expression morphs from vaguely suspicious to incredulous, his eyebrows shooting high up his forehead.

“Wait, seriously?”

She nods, feeling a small nip of satisfaction when Nathaniel puts down his laptop and pushes it away.

“What for? Did you just get a sudden surge to bleach it or something?”

“Please, it was so much more than a simple bleach job,” Rebecca scoffs, leaning back in her own chair, elbows draped casually over the armrests. “What do you take me for? I believe the actual shade was ‘sun-kissed’. I also had highlights. And extensions.”

Nathaniel blinks. “…huh. What was all of that for?”

“A contest for the face of Miss Douche. And that’s not even all of it. It was part of this whole super relaxed SoCal sun-soaker persona I was trying out, which also included a spray tan and way too much fringe. And a unicorn sparkle tattoo,” she added as an afterthought.

The expression on Nathaniel’s face is somewhere between being threatened with a pen and that time he walked in on Karen recounting for the arcane benefits of her new batch of sex toys.

“…wow,” he manages at last. “That is…I can’t actually picture that.”

“Well, it’s all on Instagram, hashtag ‘who will be the next Miss Douche’—you can look up the pictures, if you want. I don’t mind.”

When he doesn’t immediately make a move for his phone, still staring at her, she shrugs.

“Okay then. Look it up or don’t, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m gonna get back to work. Gotta do a lot of very important work.”

She rolls her chair back towards her desk and starts tapping on her keyboard, writing without really seeing the words. In her peripheral vision, she sees Nathaniel hesitate before reaching for his phone.

She finds three lines to cut before she sees him start visibly in his seat.

“Oh my god.”

Rebecca looks up from her screen, frowning.

“Oh, come on, don’t sound so disgusted, it wasn’t that bad.”

“I’m not disgusted,” protests Nathaniel, holding the phone at arm’s length, as if the image will make more sense further away from his face. “But this isn’t you. This is a completely different human being.”

“Yeah, I got a makeover, that was kind of the point. And it worked: I was a finalist.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Well, I mean, there were bots involved,” she admits. “And Heather ended up winning, despite not having actually entered, so it was kind of a wash.”

“Huh.” Nathaniel is still looking at his phone. “This is just…”

“Tacky?” she prompts, eyebrows raised.

“Well, a little, but that wasn’t what I was going to say.”

“What did you want to say, then?”

He clears his throat.

“Nothing interesting. Why were you trying to be a representative for Miss Douche? You hate their products; you have a whole speech against douching. Which you have given in the office. Multiple times.”

“Yeah, it’s not great for your lady parts. And when I entered the contest...” Rebecca hesitates, briefly unsettled by phantom impressions of hurt and loss that originally led to that particular impulse but pushes forward anyways. “I…wasn’t in a great place. I had had two consecutive breakups and nearly burned down my house—"

“Wait, what?”

“Didn’t I tell you this before?” she asks. “Nope, wait, I told you I pooped in a shoe on Youtube when we first met, but I never gave any context. Right, that was related and we’ll circle back to that some other time if you ever want to hear it. Don’t look up the video on Youtube—I mean, I think Paula got it taken down, but you know how the internet is.”

“Noted.”

“All you need to know is that I was vulnerable and…impressionable to the appeal of being someone new.” She shakes her head. “I think I just needed to be the first choice for anything, at that point.”

“Yeah?” His voice is soft. “For someone to choose you?”

“For someone to choose me,” she confirms, not looking away. The look on his face is not unfamiliar to her—it tends to surface when they talk like this, like they are the only two people in the world, and Nathaniel’s eyes go weird and sparks something prickly and warm under her ribcage that shoots right through to her toes and up through her vertebrae, making her light-headed.

It’s not arousal; arousal is easy to act upon and then it’s over and she can fix her skirt and swear it won’t happen again. This kind of warmth is something dangerous.

Boiling frog, she thinks to herself. Turn the heat up slowly enough and it doesn’t feel it in time.

Nathaniel’s phone gives a small beep and he glances back down at the screen, breaking the moment and letting her breathe again. His expression hardens, eyebrows creasing sharply and his mouth tightening to a thin line.

“Something wrong?” she asks, because she just can’t help herself.

“Huh?” His head jerks back up and he blinks at her, discombobulated, before composing himself. “Oh, no. It’s just my dad—additional information for the client we’re meeting tomorrow.”

“Oh?” Rebecca grimaces – she has gotten a better idea of Plimpton Senior’s penchant for micromanaging over the last few months and it would not be hyperbole to say that during stressful periods she occasionally imagines dropping an anvil on his head should he show his face in the office. “You mean the meeting he insisted we overprepare for?”

“He likes to be thorough. I’ll send you the details.”

Minus a few choice comments, she’s willing to bet.

“Very thoughtful of him,” she mutters. “What’s he even doing up right now? Isn’t it past his bedtime?”

She’s pushing it a little–she’s never sure which way Nathaniel will react about jabs at Plimpton Senior. But it’s late, and Nathaniel at night is a different creature than Nathaniel in the daytime. His collar doesn’t seem to cut into his throat as sharply when he turns his head, and his hair is more inclined to flop over his forehead, usually from having run his hands through his hair enough that the product gives out.

Late-night Nathaniel wins out; the lines in Nathaniel’s forehead smooth out when he laughs, releasing Rebecca’s tension like a sigh. Even better, he sets his phone facedown on the stack of manila folders to his left.

“Not gonna respond?”

“I’ll confirm with him once we’re done here.”

Rebecca bites back a smile.

“Oh?” She leans forward, cupping her face on her palm, just restraining herself from batting her eyelashes at him. “Done doing…what, exactly? Making fun of my slightly questionable past life choices?”

“I wouldn’t call it making fun,” he says lightly, mirroring her gesture. “But, please, do tell me if there are others. What other colors have you dyed your hair? Did you have a goth phase?”

Rebecca clucks her tongue. “Hey, if we do that, it can’t just be me—you need to give something, too. I’ll bet even Perfect Plimpton wasn’t immune to fashion disasters.”

“Nice try. I went to private school: it’s pretty hard to mess up a polo shirt and slacks.”

“But what about college?” presses Rebecca. “Did you ever get involved with No-Shave November? Like, stubble works really well with your jawline, and you should seriously think about bringing it back, but I can’t imagine you with a full beard.”

Nathaniel pulls a face. “Never.”

“Good, because seriously, now that I think about it, you would be terrifying with a full beard. Did you ever shave your head, then? Have a rat’s tail? Any school spirit ensembles that went horribly, horribly wrong?”

“Now you’re just reaching.”

“You think so? I don’t, and if you’ve got something you might as well tell me now, because I will go digging, and you know I don’t care about getting my hands dirty.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

He’s laughing again and she grins reflexively, already feeling a little lighter, feeling the tension she had been trying to work out of her neck and shoulders earlier that evening seep away. Late nights at the office does this to her. It’s easier to be loose and silly. To be a little more open, a little more honest, when the horizon has been enveloped by the same darkness that presses right up against the windows and nothing else quite exists.

[verdigrisprowl]

Mar 17 Bevel’s Movie Stream - end of season 1 of Star Trek Discovery

Prowl now has exactly zero tolerance for the presence of Tyler on screen, at all, in any context.

Even though their plan at the end worked, he objects to it because it carried too great a risk of making everything worse.

Today Bevel 7:20 pm *enjoy refreshments and all the lounging space you like, fun straws included* Tarantulas 7:20 pm (( is the audio skippy for anyone else? Bevel 7:21 pm ((Ah, good, I was wondering if it was my audio issues ((If it's still skippy on this song, I'll refresh some ((Ok, lemme refresh and see if that helps Tarantulas 7:22 pm (( kk! Bevel 7:23 pm ((my laptop has an audio glitch so I never know if audio issues are on my end or not Bevel 7:37 pm ((gonna start at 45 after if that's good for everyone? ItsyBitsySpyers 7:37 pm ((i assume this is fuzzytime cause fancy dance also?)) Prowl 7:38 pm ((works for me)) Tarantulas 7:38 pm (( dangit it's still skippy for me ItsyBitsySpyers 7:38 pm ((it's slightly twitchy audio here but still okay i think)) Ratchet 7:39 pm [[ what the heck the entire time i've been here it hasn't shown any messages ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 7:39 pm *Soundwave slides in like you do. Nobody seems to be here aside from Bevel, so he'll dance a few steps into the room.* *She already knows he does.* Ratchet 7:39 pm [[ did mine at least go through ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 7:39 pm ((i see them now)) Ratchet 7:39 pm [[ about ratchet bringing snacks? ]] Bevel 7:39 pm ((is it being skippy for anyone else but Hex? I'm honestly getting my normal audio glitch far as I can tell ItsyBitsySpyers 7:40 pm ((i didn't see the snax)) Ratchet 7:40 pm [[ fuq u rabbit k i'll rewrite as soon as i've scooped dinner into a bowl ]] Bevel 7:40 pm ((Oh, Fabu your messages went to private chat with me instead of the group chat Ratchet 7:41 pm [[ raBBIT whY ]] Bevel 7:41 pm ((because it hates happiness Ratchet 7:42 pm *pops in and heads for the snack table, if indeed there is one* Bevel 7:42 pm ((ok, last song and then I'll start Ratchet 7:42 pm *for the first time in quite a while Ratchet has BROUGHT snacks. not a lot, but one for each bot he has come to expect will be here. yes, soundwave and co. included. prowl's is naturally in liquid form.* Bevel 7:44 pm *claps for Soundwave's short dancing before anyone else arrives* ItsyBitsySpyers 7:44 pm *Soundwave freezes where he is and assumes a more composed figure. He prods the snacks meant for him and his curiously.* Prowl 7:44 pm *appears; surveys room; takes seat next to ratchet* Bevel 7:45 pm ((ok i forgot the opening to the song was like three minutes lol gonna start if everyone's ready Ratchet 7:45 pm *they're all the same, except for Prowl's. and Ratchet is taking the one for him and MOVING AWAY from the snack table* Bevel 7:45 pm Thanks, Ratchet! *she's gonna vault over her chair to get to the table quickly because why the frag not* ItsyBitsySpyers 7:46 pm *Well, he'll take their portion and MOVE AWAY to his own spot as well. With a polite* [[...Thank you.]] Ratchet 7:46 pm *he's trying a thing, but that's TOO close to Soundwave.* Don't mention it. Hey, Prowl. Prowl 7:47 pm Hello. Tarantulas 7:47 pm *time for tarantulas to show up just in time for the actual eps* Bevel 7:47 pm *best timing Tara* ItsyBitsySpyers 7:48 pm [[Ah, yes... the mirror timeline. We are in for a night, aren't we.]] Prowl 7:48 pm *hi tarantulas prowl is going to sort of stare at you and will you to come over.* Bevel 7:48 pm I hope so. I want to find out what happens with Lorca. ItsyBitsySpyers 7:48 pm *Settles into his seat and rests a few coils of his feelers over himself. Part warmth preservation, part protective blanket.* Ratchet 7:49 pm [[ i just got the best ask ]] [[ i'm laughing ]] Tarantulas 7:49 pm *oh, no need to will him to come over, he's already on his way, prowl* Ratchet 7:50 pm *Ratchet is going to will Tarantulas to sit on the other side of Prowl, please* ItsyBitsySpyers 7:50 pm ((what's the ask)) Prowl 7:51 pm *is lap an acceptable compromise* Ratchet 7:51 pm *no that's specifically what Ratchet is willing Tarantulas to not do. other side, other side, other side.* ItsyBitsySpyers 7:51 pm [[...The one who died handling the tardigrade.]] [[He wonders how much worse she will be here.]] Prowl 7:52 pm She's still alive. Perhaps she has some healthy self-preservation abilities. Ratchet 7:52 pm [[ "You know, Jazz answers as Iacon Central Headquarters often enough I'm half waiting for mechs to start calling his private comm thinking they have the number for the actual central headquarters." ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 7:52 pm ((LMAO)) Bevel 7:52 pm ((lol Prowl 7:52 pm ((omg)) Tarantulas 7:54 pm *sadly for prowl, tarantulas is gonna settle in at prowl's side unless suggested otherwise* Prowl 7:55 pm *well, good enough. he'll quietly weave an arm around Tarantulas's elbow.* ItsyBitsySpyers 7:57 pm [[Easily.]] *Mutter.* Prowl 7:58 pm ... Keep this footage out of Decepticon hands. Bevel 7:58 pm ...which Decepticons? ItsyBitsySpyers 7:59 pm [[He has shared none of it.]] Prowl 7:59 pm All Decepticons, obviously. ItsyBitsySpyers 7:59 pm *Looks at Bevel. What did you do.* Bevel 7:59 pm Even the negative polarity ones? *nothing, she's just wondering specifics* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:00 pm [[Even them. If they were captured and interrogated by Ra-- by the enemy, the information would become available to someone we already know would use it.]] Prowl 8:00 pm The terminology "negative polarity" is poor because it sets up a false dichotomy along a single axis while ignoring all the other axes upon which two universes might be "opposite" to each other. Bevel 8:02 pm The only other word I have heard used was shattered. Prowl 8:02 pm As have I. Also flawed for the same reasons. It's "broken" in comparison to an artificially-established list of criteria via which a universe is defined as "unbroken." From the perspective of a Decepticon in a "shattered" universe, OUR universes are the "shattered" ones in which Decepticons have morally drifted astray. Bevel 8:03 pm Oh oh! How about emberverse? Since they have embers instead of sparks. Prowl 8:03 pm Better, we'll go with that. Bevel 8:03 pm *yay* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:03 pm *Quietly adjusts his language banks.* Prowl 8:04 pm Anyway—them too, because possessing an ember isn't necessarily going to ensure they possess the correct moral code. Bevel 8:04 pm I will keep these records safe. Soundwave can help. Prowl 8:04 pm A single network, that one person is capable of destroying completely by ACCIDENT, links a large number of universes, and much organic life is dependent upon it. Ratchet 8:05 pm Sounds like exactly the kind of thing Megatron'd love. Prowl 8:05 pm He said that "life as they know it"—in other words, organic life—will die if the system dies. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:05 pm [[It is.]] Bevel 8:05 pm That would be awful. Prowl 8:06 pm It does. Organic life's weak spot. Destroy it and mecha rule the universe—every universe. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:07 pm [[...He hopes the Stamets we know understands his alternate's work well enough to save them without him.]] Prowl 8:08 pm It wouldn't be on the top of every Decepticons' priority lists, but enough. Bevel 8:08 pm ...This guy sounds like Megatron but less angry. Tarantulas 8:08 pm I think it depends more on how clever Stamets is in the first place. He should be able to figure it out on his own. Tarantulas 8:10 pm * !!! organic life signs made undetectable* Tarantulas 8:11 pm *he wonders if stamets gave her that tech. tara might have a small crush on the man now* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:11 pm *Only now?* Tarantulas 8:11 pm *hush you* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:12 pm *....Has trouble imagining himself doing the same thing in the Michael human's shoes.* *She is a brave fleshling.* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:17 pm *Leans forward.* Prowl 8:17 pm *same* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:18 pm [[The coordinates should still be in the captain's chair. That is where he modified them.]] Prowl 8:18 pm ... A good act. She made it more believable by not acting like she was totally on board with him. She used her real reluctance and distrust to make it MORE believable that she was joining him. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:19 pm *Nodding.* Prowl 8:19 pm *in prowl's opinion that's some damn high level acting there. level 10 spy work.* *it's probably more like level 6 spy work, which is why it's a good thing prowl isn't an agent himself.* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:20 pm *Uncomfortable shift. This is a trap. Lorca is going to take them all out despite his promise to Michael.* Bevel 8:20 pm *Bevel was impressed either way* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:21 pm *OH* Ratchet 8:21 pm It's not her Georgiou, but it's nice to see 'em together again. Prowl 8:22 pm In a twisted way, yes. Bevel 8:22 pm *watching the hand-to-hand avidly* Tarantulas 8:22 pm *hums in agreement* Ratchet 8:22 pm [[ that's a high kick prowl would be proud of ]] Prowl 8:22 pm Of course, she is a tyrant. And we've no evidence she's any less brutal a tyrant than Lorca would have been. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:25 pm *Plating shudder.* [[That did not look pleasant.]] [[But there is an obvious problem with this 'victory'.]] *Motions to Philippa's comment.* Prowl 8:25 pm What? The fact that she's going to die anyway? ItsyBitsySpyers 8:26 pm [[Yes. That is, a problem for her. Personally, he would be glad to see it. One moment of mercy cannot guarantee more.]] [[...And that was damned stupid.]] Prowl 8:26 pm It was. Bevel 8:26 pm Oh. Oh no. Tarantulas 8:27 pm *bouncing in his seat a little* Bevel 8:27 pm She should not have done that. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:27 pm [[-Throw her back.-]] Prowl 8:27 pm Because it went so well the last time someone with the goals, skills, and aspirations of an emperor entered their universe with the rank of a captain. Ratchet 8:27 pm *sighs and leans forward to put face in hands* She really did that. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:28 pm *PERK. Look... look at how beautiful...* Tarantulas 8:29 pm *isn't it tho* Prowl 8:29 pm What's she going to do with her?! Release her in the wild? Keep her in a cage and comb her fur sometimes? ItsyBitsySpyers 8:30 pm *Shakes himself a little. What he wouldn't do to travel that, just once...* [[They can do nothing except keep her a permanent prisoner. It would be better she were dead.]] [[NINE MONTHS?]] [[...Nine months facing the Klingons without their warping ability...]] Bevel 8:32 pm Oh no. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:32 pm *Primus below.* Bevel 8:32 pm Oh no they lost. Prowl 8:32 pm But have they any legal right to lock her up? She's committed no crime against Starfleet. By their own laws they have no just reason to keep her locked up. Therefore, they're either legally obligated to set a dangerous warlord free, or morally obligated to violate their own laws and wrongfully imprison what is, technically, an innocent person. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:33 pm [[Surely the various threats against the Michael human's person...?]] Prowl 8:34 pm She thought that she was speaking t-- ItsyBitsySpyers 8:34 pm *Oh, this is going to be a rough one, isn't it.* Prowl 8:34 pm *DAMN those needle fingers.* *give him a moment.* ... She thought she was speaking to a traitor who had attempted a coup against her. She was within her legal rights to punish said traitor accordingly. She ceased her attempts when Michael's true identity was revealed. Tarantulas 8:35 pm *processes for a moment, then wraps an extra arm or two around prowl. can't help himself* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:35 pm [[...That will not help his perception of her, will it.]] Prowl 8:36 pm *... why arms?* Tarantulas 8:36 pm *nnno reason* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:37 pm [[And he supposes that is true. Perhaps they will get lucky and she will pick a fight with someone capable of ending it.]] Ratchet 8:37 pm *shifts aside a little* Prowl 8:37 pm *looks at ratchet. ... looks at tarantulas. hm.* Ratchet 8:37 pm *... scoots a little to put legs back in contact with Prowl's* Prowl 8:37 pm *... looks at feet.* *oh, prowl's not going to like this scene. please no more tyler scenes.* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:38 pm [[...She is willing to use Saru for insight, and yet she will not return the favor.]] Prowl 8:39 pm She's under no obligation to face that. The "favor" he asks for is high. *dammit they're having a tyler scene even though she left. he'd got his hopes up when michael left.* Bevel 8:39 pm Especially after he tried to kill her. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:41 pm [[She -ate one of his brethren-. It might help restore his opinion of her.]] Prowl 8:41 pm Not knowingly or willingly. She can make it up to him another way. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:42 pm *Soft vent. He can see he's outnumbered on this.*

((though i myself agree with her not going in)) [[...Did the Fire Wolf's rebels find a way into the timel--]] *Helm tilt. What is this? Are these survivors?* Prowl 8:43 pm ... Oh. They're checking f— ... for— for more Voqs. Bevel 8:45 pm I am glad the admiral is ok. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:45 pm *They MUST be desperate. A Vulcan just used his mental abilities without asking permission first. That is nigh unthinkable.* Prowl 8:46 pm *YES. IT IS, INDEED, RATHER SHAKING.* Prowl 8:47 pm *oh, good, mass slaughter of civilians, Prowl can handle this.* Bevel 8:47 pm *she'd rather go back to the mind melding ;v;* Ratchet 8:48 pm *okay nevermind the spider arms, Ratchet is shifting back over to lean on Prowl* Tarantulas 8:48 pm *tara won't bother him, rest assured* ItsyBitsySpyers 8:49 pm *...Suddenly can't hear, doesn't know what they're talking about, doing bizarre things to resurrect loved ones, who does that.* *Certainly not rational mechs like him, no.* [[It was not you. You live only because you were rescued in a moment of mistaken compassion.]] Prowl 8:51 pm She said, more or less, "One is alive, one is dead, BUT I will let you determine who is stronger." The "but" implies that she believes the answer will be the reverse of what the first half of the sentence would imply. I think she called herself the weak one. Bevel 8:52 pm Punch him. Prowl 8:53 pm Despite the fact that it wasn't really him, I think a punch wouldn't be unjustified. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:53 pm [[It would be understandable, at least.]] Bevel 8:53 pm ...that might have been just as good but I still would have punched him. Prowl 8:53 pm Understandable. Yes. That's a better word. Ratchet 8:53 pm Tilly's so good. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:54 pm ((tilly is my whole world)) Bevel 8:54 pm ((Tilly is everything <3 Prowl 8:54 pm Big change from Miss "We Have Assigned Seating." Tarantulas 8:54 pm (( truth. but hhh. i'm not feeling well irl, i might have to go nap ItsyBitsySpyers 8:54 pm ((aaaaaaa noooo ;; but feeling good is important, if you have to nap you have to nap *pet pet* )) Prowl 8:54 pm ((:c *hugs*)) Bevel 8:54 pm ((*pets* Hope you feel better soon. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:55 pm ((we can catch you up some time)) Tarantulas 8:55 pm (( assume tarantulas had to leave for an emergency i guess ;;; ItsyBitsySpyers 8:55 pm ((FIRE IN THE LAB)) Bevel 8:55 pm ((something exploded *sucks in air through her teeth* Nooooo. ItsyBitsySpyers 8:57 pm [[He wonders if the Earthlings know yet.]] [[...Or if they have been taken over.]] Prowl 8:58 pm *... he already misses the arms.* Prowl 9:01 pm Because the last time she asked a parent figure how to beat the Klingons, it went so well. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:01 pm *Huff* ItsyBitsySpyers 9:03 pm ((*giggles for ooc reasons*)) ItsyBitsySpyers 9:04 pm ((half expected prowl to be over there like "oh hey hitting every single military installation on a planet at once, i've done that")) Ratchet 9:05 pm [[ i was thinking that []] [[ it's just like the happy fic ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 9:05 pm ((ye)) Prowl 9:05 pm ((i was doing duolingo lmao)) ItsyBitsySpyers 9:06 pm [[...They're going to plant more?]] *Fascinated. Which quickly drops away.* [[Why is he there. He should not be there.]] Prowl 9:06 pm (("i'm a better parent than you")) ItsyBitsySpyers 9:07 pm *This cannot end well.* Bevel 9:07 pm ... Prowl 9:07 pm Hm. She suggested hitting the military installations. She meant destroying the entire planet. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:08 pm [[Of course she did.]] Prowl 9:08 pm I HAD wondered why she didn't say that in the first place. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:10 pm *...No.* Ratchet 9:10 pm [[ i'm still 100% over the "love" thing ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 9:10 pm [[She waited for one who would agree.]] Prowl 9:12 pm ... She is under NO obligation to be his salvation. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:14 pm *Oooh?* *What fabulous little devices.* ((rabbit why are you eating my messages)) Prowl 9:15 pm *honestly, deep down, just wants to keep Tyler off the screen as much as possible.* ((look! it spat them back out)) Bevel 9:15 pm ((gj rabbit ItsyBitsySpyers 9:16 pm [[...That is amazing. He did not know organic - plants? Could grow so rapidly.]] Bevel 9:16 pm Whoa that is fast. Prowl 9:17 pm He isn't gone! He's still in your head! You've said so yourself! ItsyBitsySpyers 9:18 pm [[She cannot do this because you TRIED TO KILL HER.]] Prowl 9:19 pm Who is HE to accuse her of being unfair! He DID try to kill her! And—AS SHE SAID—he lied to her—in a way that endangered her life and killed a doctor! His love for her doesn't change what he did and what he is, and it doesn't obligate her to help him. She does not owe him that. Not a bit. Bevel 9:20 pm *frowns at Tyler* Ratchet 9:20 pm Why does it have to be her, anyway. He's got friends. Prowl 9:20 pm The fact that he has decided he needs her in his life doesn't mean she should give up a part of her own life for him. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:21 pm *Recording her words so hard.* Ratchet 9:21 pm [[ anyway i hate that they were ever involved i hated their whole subplot ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 9:21 pm ((i'm glad they had her leave tho)) Prowl 9:22 pm He said it himself. The other crewmates have been kinder to him than her. So he can turn to THEM for emotional support. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:23 pm [[.........No.]] [[They aren't this naive...]] Prowl 9:24 pm They were JUST IN the other universe! Bevel 9:25 pm ((okay, it's early enough we can end the season if y'all want Prowl 9:25 pm ((i wanna)) ItsyBitsySpyers 9:25 pm ((YES PLZ)) Ratchet 9:25 pm [[ yeh ]] Bevel 9:25 pm ((aight let's do this ItsyBitsySpyers 9:25 pm *Curls his fingers into his knees. Is this an alternate timeline from the one he knows? He's heard of a splinter where Vulcan is destroyed. It's got to be possible.* Ratchet 9:26 pm [[ i gotta run to the bathroom real quick first tho pls ]] Bevel 9:26 pm ((go for it Prowl 9:26 pm ((*runs too*)) Ratchet 9:28 pm [[ ty ]] [[ also i think i've mentioned but i appreciate that you leave the captions on ]] Bevel 9:29 pm This is the last file I could find from this part of their timeline. I will keep looking but I can show other stuff I have found. ((I need them myself but I'm always happy to accommodate, they're so useful ((Cro and Puff ran off as well so we've got a moment to enjoy CBS' beautiful logo ItsyBitsySpyers 9:31 pm ((i use the captions too tbh. leave them on for our tv at home all the time)) Prowl 9:31 pm ((okay back)) Bevel 9:31 pm ((also also, Disco got nominated for 5 Saturn Awards \o/ Ratchet 9:31 pm [[ i have captions on for youtube and netflix, always ]] ItsyBitsySpyers 9:32 pm ((just a sec, waiting on soup to microwave)) Bevel 9:32 pm ((same, ok we ready? ((ok still waiting ItsyBitsySpyers 9:32 pm ((the only time i don't use captions on movie nights is if i have to find it like on youtube or something and it doesn't have them... but tbh that's why we started renting things off amazon)) Prowl 9:33 pm ((i usually don't leave captions on because when i do i automatically focus on reading them, even if i can understand the dialogue perfectly, instead of actually looking at what's happening on screen)) Ratchet 9:33 pm [[ i usually can't understand he dialogue perfectly, i just don't process it ]] Prowl 9:34 pm ((and then get distracted/irked by captioner or timing errors)) Bevel 9:34 pm ((Same, I've got auditory processing issues bad Ratchet 9:34 pm [[ i'm usually done reading captions well before they're done speaking and can focus on the visual ]] Prowl 9:34 pm ((i focus on them THROUGH the speaking EVEN THOUGH i've already read them because my brain doesn't know how to stop looking when there are words to look at)) Bevel 9:35 pm ((Hopefully Disco's timing hasn't been too off for you, Puff ItsyBitsySpyers 9:35 pm ((aaaaah i'm sorry ;; i hope it doesn't make mondays too rough but ye auditory processing problems here too ;; ))

((soup got)) Prowl 9:36 pm ((it's been awful. the words linger on the screen long after the dialogue is over until someone says something new, and whenever klingons say something it's covered up by captions that say "[speaking in klingon]" like THANKS, NOW MOVE)) Bevel 9:36 pm ((ok gonna start now Prowl 9:36 pm ((LIKE THAT!!)) ItsyBitsySpyers 9:36 pm ((CASE IN POINT)) ((i hate that too don't worry)) ((ACTUALLY when the text appears on the bottom the captions should temporarily move to the top of the screen... that's how it's supposed to be)) ((idk why they don't do it like that)) Prowl 9:37 pm ((USUALLY captions i see do that. that would fix it.)) Bevel 9:37 pm ((i really wish they would do that yeah Prowl 9:37 pm ((i have like, mild auditory processing problems. when i watch something on my own i usually turn off the captions, watch until i don't process something they said, mutter in annoyance, rewind ten seconds, turn on captions, watch until i realize that idk what's happening on screen because i'm reading the captions instead, mutter in annoyance, turn them off, rinse, repeat)) ItsyBitsySpyers 9:37 pm ((and if there are items on top and bottom then they just stay on the bottom)) ((oof)) Bevel 9:38 pm ((i just... keep watching and don't understand what's happening ItsyBitsySpyers 9:39 pm *Soundwave folds his hands and settles into them. This is already going poorly.* ItsyBitsySpyers 9:41 pm [[She will get herself terminated in her sleep.]] Prowl 9:42 pm I don't think the emperor will wait until she's asleep. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:42 pm [[You're probably right.]] *HUFF* Ratchet 9:43 pm [[ i love georgiou's accent ]] Bevel 9:44 pm ((Michelle Yeoh is such a gift Prowl 9:46 pm *every scene with him is unpleasant.* ItsyBitsySpyers 9:47 pm *Soundwave pings Prowl.*

[[You recall Odo and Quark being trapped on the mountain and discussions of the Orion Syndicate?]] [[They speak of them.]] Prowl 9:49 pm I recall. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:49 pm [[And the Lorca human had an entire room of weapons. He is sure they have plenty to trade.]] Ratchet 9:49 pm [[ :c tilly's curls are beautiful ]] Bevel 9:50 pm ((i love her hair so much ItsyBitsySpyers 9:51 pm ((who even eats ceti eels)) ((what person said "i'll take this mind-controlling worm bug thing and EAT IT")) Bevel 9:54 pm ((Trill~ Prowl 9:54 pm *heavy frown. Prowl does not like this place. not at all.* *it has bead curtains.* ItsyBitsySpyers 9:54 pm [[...Really. On a mission and this is where she decides to be?]] ((oh my god prowl)) Prowl 9:55 pm Do you know many better places to find influential people with poor impulse control than a sex club? ((SUBTITLES)) Bevel 9:56 pm ((I'm gonna skip back and remove them for a second ItsyBitsySpyers 9:56 pm ((can you rewind and uncover)) [[...Comment withdrawn. You are, of course, right.]] Bevel 9:58 pm ((maybe they'll be less annoying if they're smaller Prowl 9:58 pm ... See. He still has the same person underneath. Bevel 9:58 pm Oooo. *leans forward* ItsyBitsySpyers 9:59 pm *...What kind of art was that? He wants one.*

[[Their memories, at least.]] Prowl 9:59 pm A person IS their memories. ItsyBitsySpyers 9:59 pm [[You won't find an argument here. He meant a separate set from Tyler's.]] Bevel 9:59 pm So he is both Ash and Voq now? ItsyBitsySpyers 10:01 pm [[Mm.]] Bevel 10:02 pm *excited about these tattoos* Prowl 10:04 pm ((i like that she waited until after she'd got laid to interrogate them.)) Bevel 10:04 pm ((Tilly you're so perfect ItsyBitsySpyers 10:04 pm [[He knew it.]] [[How did they NOT see this coming?]] Prowl 10:05 pm They knew something was happening. They didn't know what or how soon. They probably thought they could see it coming before it happened and head it off. ... I suppose they DID see it coming before it happened. Narrowly. ItsyBitsySpyers 10:10 pm [[...Ahhh.]] Bevel 10:10 pm They are giving it to L'rell? Prowl 10:10 pm Tyler, I expect. Mm. Could be wrong. Prowl 10:13 pm ... I'm not sure giving her the power to reunify Klingon is the best strategic decision. Bevel 10:14 pm But it was a peaceful one. Prowl 10:14 pm There are many peaceful strategies that don't involve giving her the power to reunify the army that's steadily slaughtering their people. Ratchet 10:15 pm They're competing to see who can kill the most now, though. United, they'll be more predictable. Prowl 10:15 pm And more efficient. ItsyBitsySpyers 10:16 pm [[It does prove that the Federation does not wish them to crumble and perish.]] Prowl 10:17 pm They could have proven that by finding some Klingon pacifist to hand the weapon to. Prowl 10:18 pm ... Hm. ItsyBitsySpyers 10:18 pm [[He doubts they would command the respect necessary to convince the others they would follow through with it.]] Prowl 10:18 pm They're fortunate she called for peace. In prison, she was very much against it. They wouldn't need to "convince the others they would follow through with it"—the POINT is, the Federation could prove to the Klingons that they don't want them to crumble and perish by giving the bomb to someone THEY KNOW will never detonate it. Bevel 10:20 pm ((Sarek gets 1 parent point. He's now at -99 Prowl 10:20 pm ((eyyyy, down to double digits! way to go sarek.)) Bevel 10:20 pm *memorizes this* Bevel 10:24 pm ((look at my pizza cutter ships i love them Prowl 10:24 pm ((of course the USS enterprise is hailing for help)) ((they're in trouble every 12 minutes)) Bevel 10:24 pm ((lol ItsyBitsySpyers 10:25 pm *Can see what Prowl is getting at, but is certain they could not have found such a person in so short a time, and does not know that it would work when so much revolves around a willingness to do battle. He would like to see what happened in a timeline where that WAS the case. Make some decisions with more data.* Ratchet 10:25 pm [[ wow that season went all over the map and then some ]] Bevel 10:25 pm ((I really hope this means next season we get to see Number One ahhhhh ItsyBitsySpyers 10:25 pm ((i think part of it was that they changed people in charge like partway through the season? but also they didn't know if they were gonna have a second so GO ALL OUT)) [[A pleasing enough tale, though he is concerned about the free-roaming Terran.]] [[For now, he should return home. There is much to do.]] ItsyBitsySpyers 10:28 pm ((like DANCIN time to write that up)) Bevel 10:28 pm If I find more files I will let you know. ItsyBitsySpyers 10:28 pm ((well, greeting the lady sparklight anyway)) Prowl 10:28 pm *turns to Ratchet* I will see you... the next time we have one of these, I suppose. Ratchet 10:28 pm [[ prowl pls "in between blue and magenta" ]] Prowl 10:28 pm ((there are six colors, okay)) ItsyBitsySpyers 10:28 pm [[Thank you. He appreciates the additions to his records. It is surprisingly difficult to acquire this data at times.]] Prowl 10:29 pm ((red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta)) ItsyBitsySpyers 10:29 pm [[Something about so much of it being classified.]] *Quiet huffing.* Prowl 10:29 pm Pff. I can't imagine what kind of encryption these files were initially kept under. Ratchet 10:29 pm Mhmm. I'll see ya. Prowl 10:30 pm ... I can go outside, now. We should—visit. Sometime. Bevel 10:30 pm *yes ignore how encrypted these files were >_>* I want to see the mushroom planet. Ratchet 10:31 pm You mentioned something about that. I wasn't sure--but yes. The Ark's always open to you. ItsyBitsySpyers 10:31 pm [[It tends to be quite powerful, for organic security. He finds appealing to the right people works wonders, though.]]

*And on THAT note... a small bow to Bevel, a nod to Ratchet and Prowl with a ping for the latter, and he'll get on his way.* Bevel 10:32 pm *waves to Soundwave* ((nope weak she changed the pronouns Prowl 10:34 pm *a farewell ping to Soundwave and to Ratchet, and he disappears as well.* Bevel 10:37 pm ((Lemme know when you've got the log, Puff Prowl 10:38 pm ((got it!)) Bevel 10:39 pm ((ok!

[atfauomo]

Starcrossed pt.1

**PLEASE READ** Okay so this story takes place in my own Transformers AU I call aTFAUomo, or, A Transformers Alternate Universe of my own. This is important to understand the context of what occurs in this fic.

One vital thing to note is how I will portray Cybertronian behavior. I have said before that in my view, Transformers communicate through a system of waves that are undetectable to non Cybertronians. Here it is talked about in a crude but more detailed fashion. Communications that humans would sense, such as physical movement, will be defined in writing through the use of italics.

What is not mentioned in previous aTFAUomo posts are Emegtix shapes. Emegtix shapes are extensions of sparkwaves. Sparkwaves, see, are waves that tell another Cybertronians only show how they feel. Emegtix show how they feel, in various displays of color and shapes.

This fanfic is more or less based off of these posts, which is basically a summary of what will be told here but revamped and in a narrative. Skyfire in context is a very important character in Cybertron, having been a center of controversy that leads to changes in the course of Cybertronian law, and the life of Starscream…

The harsh wind of the Extreme North brushed ice against all within its grasp, roaring, bringing anything in air down to its ocean’s frozen depths.  Several figures moved across the barren ice lands below, but none as tense as the two different metallic winged figures on the center. One stood donned with white, with vast size and weight that dwarfed the other, the other bot tricolored, of slim design and weapons pointed. In another world, the two would have met with affection. Yet now, they met with confrontation.  

To the native creatures of the land, nothing seemed to occur between the two large metallic beings. The beings appeared to stand like solemn sentinels, wings and faceplates unmoving, with lights flashing across streams upon their bodies.  But its upon the alien plane of Cybertronian understanding, of energy waves beyond human comprehension, that the true happenings occurred.

The two were the only beings in existence. The sky was pitch black, the world outlined in an invisible yet sensible grid. A large purple field surrounded the two, with glimmering gold shots of energy blasting towards the outside. The air did not roar with the sounds of wind, but with the roar of electricity. Sparkwaves collided in between the figures in a violent clash.

A loud, screechy voice rang.

“After all those years under the ice, nothing has changed, Skyfire!”

The tricolored bot quietly raised vis null rays to the giant’s face.

The colossal bot took to the skies as a shuttle, the smaller following suit as a jet.

The jet flashed with streams of purple, giving aggressive waves laced with shards of aggression, the shuttle flashed with stream of light blue, sparkwaves with the rounded movements of confusion.

A louder and deeper, yet softer voice responded urgently.

“What do you mean, Starscream?”

Purple shards appeared to head toward the vast white ship, only to be engulfed by large blue globes.

“Skyfire….after everything I have endured for you–everything I have endured because of you–!”

Globes avoided the shards in simple up and down movements. The shuttle moved in this same way with some ease, the jet did as well, but that was because the wind pushed it so.

“What have you endured, Starscream? Have no sensibilities? Perceptor has told me of the things people have endured because of you–”

Starscream’s wings violently jerked, vis engines roars matching that of the storm.

“Oh, you talk of Perceptor as a friend now! Has being under ice froze your logical processes? Do you not remember anything? Do you really think ve changed–”

The globes formed into one singular, continuous line toward the jet, which was blocked by brilliant purple.

“Ve has! Looking upon you, you have changed as well, Starscream, but in the worst way possible! You really are what people have said, just an entitled, uncaring, cold–”

Starscream’s waves emitted a scowl. “That disgusting puny scientist had really picked out what ve told about me! How so easily you have forgotten me! How so easily has everyone shoved me into a corner, stabbed me with accusation, stripped me of all that I have earned–”

“You took your ranks by force! You don’t respect others! The bots who stick around you are your trinemates–”

“Just shut up-”

“I can’t believe I used to call you friend, that I used to believe that we could–”

“JUST SHUT UP! ENOUGH!” A great jaw of purple engulfed the line.

A violent wind pushed the white shuttle, knocking Skyfire down right in front of Starscream, the force making it near impossible for Skyfire to gain stability.

The line dispersed into nothingness. The wall suddenly expanded, and without warning joined the purple field, which concaved into the large figure, in a violent torrent of gold.

Skyfire faltered, vis wings flickering with a lack of control, being brought lower and lower to the water. closer and closer to the ice lands.

The shock of the torrent made Skyfire unable react. Ve could not fathom being able to defend verself from the unceasing purple shards that pounded ver, or from the rising, freezing water creeping into vis systems. All ve knew was that ve was heading ever so closer to land. If ve was to crash into the ice, at vis speed and weight…ve would not be the only one in danger…

“YOU ARE NOT WORTH MY TIME! YOU JUST BETRAYED ME AGAIN! ALL MY SACRIFICES FOR YOU WENT IN VAIN! YOU HAD ALWAYS CARED MORE FOR OTHERS THAN FOR THOSE WHO CARED FOR YOU THE MOST–”

Was ve…trembling?

Vis sparkwaves emitted the feeling of a strained smirk, but then descended into a chaotic mass of haphazard lines.

“…You should suffer as I have! You should feel powerless, you should feel like you have no control or anyone to help you!”

Starscream aimed vis null rays to the giant shuttle. 

“Where did it all go wrong, Starscream?”

[bosstoaster]

Fun prompt: Shiro having a pavol's bell reaction to an object paladins come across 😀

There’s the NSFW fun not-sad version of this that’ll come later (hah), but for now have the sad one instead.

“What even is this thing, do you think?” Lance asked, twirling what looked like an old-fashioned collapsible presentation pointer in his fingers.  In spun in a flickering circle, catching the light of the castle with each cycle.

Pidge glanced up and pushed her glasses farther up on her nose.  “Who knows?  It might be part of something else.  This all seems like junk.”

The Galra station had been an interesting place to hit, Keith thought.  Maybe not the mission itself, which had been pretty annoying, but for the results.  They had managed to get out with Green near full of anything Pidge and Hunk had been able to grab and run with, as many times as they could make the back and forth while Shiro, Keith and Lance kept the guards and available ships from responding.

So now they had a bunch of stuff.  Tons of stuff.  And no context for what any of it was supposed to do.

Turning over one of the boxes, Hunk made a face as a legion of combs clattered onto the floor.  “Makes sense, but I’m still disappointed.  This was supposed to be one of the main storage areas.  I feel like we just raided someone’s junk drawer.”

“Hey, if you went through any of our storage areas, you’d find a bunch of crap too,” Keith replied, shrugging.  “It was always luck of the draw.  And Pidge got all that data.  Still a win.”

Lance eyed him, pointing his toy at Keith.  Shiro jolted and stepped out of the way, then looked surprised at himself.  Before Keith could ask, Lance spoke.  “What’s with you?  You’re being all optimistic.”

“What?  I’m only allowed to hate everything?”

“Yes!” Lance shot back, jerking the metal stick again.  It twanged like the antenna of a car with an ancient radio. Pausing, he stared at it, brow furrowed.  “Didn’t know it did that.”  Forgetting about the argument, he snapped it again, this time harder.

The entire thing seemed to snap into place.  Then it crackled with energy, sparking with electricity.

Immediately after, there was a dull thump.

Following the second noise, Keith saw Shiro kneeling, head bowed as if to protect it, and arms crossed behind his back.  It was a defensive but vulnerable pose, his back on open display but curled around his stomach and chest, keeping them safe.

There was a second of heavy silence, as everyone recognized what the instant reaction and submissive posture had to mean.

Shiro’s head came up, expression confused, then horrified.  He stood, sudden and jerky, and took a step back from them.  “I-”  He straightened, shoulders squaring, like he was going to try and explain it, but then he faltered.

Making a soft, pained noise, Lance threw the pointer in the other direction.  It hit one of the boxes and clattered to the floor.  “Shiro, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t know-”

“No one knew.  I didn’t know,” Shiro replied instantly, but he didn’t meet Lance’s eyes.  “I’m sorry, it’s not your fault.  But I can’t-”  He reached out, hand shaking, and gave Lance a quick squeeze on his shoulder.

Then he turned and ran.

Staring after him, Lance turned and faced them all, eyes still wide and devastated.  “I really didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, Lance,” Hunk replied soothingly.  “We know.  Shiro knows too.  He’s probably embarrassed.”

Humiliated was probably the better word, if they were being honest.

After that, digging through the Galra junk closet didn’t seem nearly as fun.  Hunk escorted a still shaky Lance out to go relax, and Pidge eyed them, then walked over to where the electric pointer had landed.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked.  “If you’re going to destroy it, I want to help.”  His hands clenched at his side, aching with the desire to hurt something that had hurt Shiro that way.

Pidge shook her head.  “No.  Not yet, anyway.  Maybe we’ll throw it out an airlock, just for you.  But I was going to try something else first.”

Brows raising, Keith tilted his head at Pidge.  In response, she gestured for him to follow.

***

Later, they tracked Shiro down in the training room.  Because of course that’s where he was.

“How are you feeling?” Keith asked, once Shiro had safely disabled the training bot.

Barely sparing them a glance, Shiro shrugged.  “Fine.  I talked to Lance, so hopefully he’s feeling better.”

“Good, but not why we’re here.”  Pidge held up a tiny remote in her hands.  “This is.  Because, I’m gunna take a stab in the dark here and say you’re training because you’re afraid of what could happen on a mission.”

Shiro eyed them both, the hunch of his shoulders distinctly defensive.  “That is usually the point of training, yes.”

“You know what we mean,” Keith replied.  “We want to help.  Hopefully in a way that won’t hurt you.”

That didn’t change Shiro’s damn near surly expression at all.  “I’m fine, like I told you.  It’s not going to be a problem.”

Pidge tilted her head.  “We think that, but you don’t.”  Shiro froze.  “The sound was the problem, right?  You didn’t react that way to the sight of the thing.  So, I recorded it.  Now it’s on this.”  She held up the remote again.  “That way you can listen to it without being in danger, and get used to the noise, so you won’t be surprised by it anymore.  Extinction of a conditioned trigger.”

Inch by slow inch, Shiro glanced up and seemed to consider them more seriously.  “Just the noise?”

“Just that.  The real one is… safe.”  Keith figured they’d let Shiro decide what to do with it later.  For now, he’d rather no one mess with it anyway.  The electricity had sounded painful.  “You can even put Pidge’s headphones into that thing, if you don’t want us to hear it too.  But-” he frowned at Shiro, darkly serious.  “We thought it’d be better if you did it with the group.  That way if something sets you off you won’t be alone for it.”

Shiro froze.  “I’ll be fine. I am fine.  I can listen to it on my own.”

Considering him, Pidge tilted her head.  “Well, if you really don’t want to, that’s fine.  But it’ll be easier to break the association if there’s other stimuli.  And I think it’d make us feel better to know we can help.  Especially Lance.”  Well, that was fighting dirty.  But Keith couldn’t bring himself to argue, not when it made Shiro pause.  “If it’s really against what you want, fine, but it’ll help us out.”

Considering, Shiro held out his hand for the remote, which Pidge handed over without so much as a blink.  “I’ll think about it,” he replied carefully.  “For now, I need to wash up.”

Which meant he at least felt like he had a better strategy than training and freaking himself out.  Keith counted that as a success.

That evening, Shiro joined their evening movie watching session, curled in slightly like a dog with its tail between its legs.  But he did climb onto the couch with them, even if he tucked himself into the corner like he’d infect them if he came to close.

As much as Keith wanted to reach out to him, it was better to let Shiro make moves at his own pace.  He did usually have a plan, after all.

Before the end of the night, Shiro had crept slowly closer, part of the group even if he occasionally suddenly flinched and nearly curled up on himself.

So when Shiro quietly offered Lance the remote, Keith was glad he’d left it in his hands.  Shiro knew what he doing, after all, and the misty-eyed look Lance shot him back spoke volumes.

They had it under control.  As much as they could.  And for today, that was enough.