#The Protectors of Spiral City

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 28 Group 140

Propaganda and further images under the cut

Rusties: Rodney Copperbottom, Lugnut/Lug, Fender Pinwheeler, Piper Pinwheeler, Diesel Springer, Crank Casey (& Wonderbot, Aunt Fanny, Cappy)

Protectors of Spiral City: Abraham Slamkowski/Abraham Slam, Mark Markz/Barbalien, Gail Gibbons/Golden Gail, Madame Dragonfly, TLK-E WLK-E/Talky Walky, Colonel Randall Weird (& Joseph Weber/Black Hammer)

Submissions are still open!

Rusties:

Within the societal structure of Robot City, there exists a social class referred to as Outmodes. Outmodes are robots whose parts are no longer being manufactured and, due to their economic status, cannot afford to purchase the newer, upgraded ones on the market. The fate of all outmodes is to be sweeped up, smelted down, and repurposed, when their old, broken bodies eventually fall apart. The Rusties are a ragtag group of outmodes living out of a boarding house. With the assistance of Rodney’s inventive prowess, they begin repairing other outmodes themselves. The film culminates in them fighting/defeating the evil robots responsible for the despicable treatment of outmodes.

Protectors of Spiral City:

A group of superheroes that once defended the sprawling metropolis of Spiral City. By killing the Anti-God, a malevolent cosmic being that threatened to destroy all of existence, they unwittingly upset the cosmic balance between good and evil. In order to prevent the universe from correcting itself and resurrecting the Anti-God, Spiral City’s heroes were forced to permanently exile themselves to another dimension. They now reside on a farm within the town of Rockwood, a timeless pocket dimension of sorts, where they attempt to pass themselves off as a (rather dysfunctional) family.

[fullofbees]

😸💚 anon requested: Hello!! Could I possibly ask for Satan with prompt 55? Maybe with fem!MC who is shy and sweet? I cannot stop thinking about the dynamic of opposites interacting with each other!

CW: Fingering (F receiving)

»»----------► F!Reader

Though his room is nothing but a towering maze of books only lit by candlelight, you find it oddly comforting; as long as you manage to not trip on any of his "to read" piles.

You found the tome you were looking for, a hefty treatise on rare herbs and their magical uses. Carefully, you find your way back to Satan, descending the spiral staircase with the book in tow.

"I was worried you had gotten lost," says the demon as you plop down on his bed with a small "oof."

Dust is sent flying to the floor as you wipe your hand across the cracking leather cover, "We should make a map of your room."

Satan crinkles his nose at the idea, "I already have a system in place."

"I know," you say as you open the book in your lap, carefully flipping through the pages until you get to the table of contents, "I'd like to learn your system. I'm a visual learner, so I think a map would help."

The Avatar of Wrath mumbles grumpily, "Fine. I'll draw one later..." Yet he is already reddening, a delicate blush blooming across his cheeks. He buries his face in his book, though he peers at you over its edge, "Are you going back to your room now that you have what you sought?"

"Can I stay with you?" You ask without hesitation. The implication of your question makes you flush with your own embarrassment, so you hold up the tome as defense, "I mean - uh, this book is so old! And I don't want to risk damaging it. Better if I read it here, right?"

Satan, with a knowing smile and demon strength, wraps an arm around your waist and drags you to sit in his lap. He encourages you to lean into him, back pressed firmly to his chest as he makes himself comfortable, "Yes. Stay."

Fire rushes to your face and to your core. His room always smells of books, a blend of fresh ink on virgin paper and the irreplicable vintages of pages older than time itself. Now Satan's scent comes into the fore; notes of amber, rose, and cedar from his cologne, the simple yet clean smell of detergent that clings to his shirt - it's intoxicating.

You shove the insane notion that you're turned on merely by his scent away. Even if arousal is building between your thighs, you try to distract yourself with the reason you came here in the first place. Finding the chapter you need, you begin the harrowing ordeal of reading about shadow saffron.

But you can't settle down; the author's writing is dry, the pulsing need you feel is becoming uncomfortable, leaving you to fidget in Satan's lap.

The arm around your waist tightens, "Stay still."

"I'm sorry, I just need to adjust--," You sheepishly answer, going to stand up.

Satan's hand shifts lower, fingers splayed across your lower stomach as he stops you. Within a second, he pulls you back to his lap and onto his hardening cock that strains against the confines of his jeans.

"Stay. Still." He warns, his hand now caressing your thigh.

Your voice is caught in your throat, brain short-circuiting at how quickly the situation has changed. It is not unwelcome - Satan's hand is warm as he guides your legs apart. Teasing fingers run along your inner thigh, always stopping shy of your core.

The tome is clutched to your chest, your only anchor to the real world as Satan decides to take you on a fantastical adventure.

"The princess whines under the delicate touch of her knight. He's been her faithful servant, her ardent protector, always carefully watching. His love for her has transcended his role; the city could burn down around him; all he needed was her."

His breath tickles your ear as he reads from the book perched in his free hand. Has he been reading Amour Courtois smut this entire time?

Satan's hand undoes the button on your pants, "He always told himself that he would never let it get to this point. No knight could ever marry a lady of her status; it was pointless to want for something so clearly forbidden."

You softly whine when his hand slips past the hem of your panties, gathering your growing wetness on his fingers as he leisurely drags them across your slit.

"Yet here she was, bare on the bed of the inn, proclaiming her own devotion and need for him. As his fingers made quick work of her clit, he began to palm himself through his own pants. Love that borders on possession is as dangerous as it is arousing; it is damning for them both."

Two fingers easily slide into your cunt, and you have to bite your lip to keep your moan from ringing out. Satan presses a reassuring kiss to your temple.

"Still, he can't help the growing need to own her completely like she owns him. Commanding a princess would surely mean his head, but still, it slips off his tongue: "Only I get to touch you like this, okay?"

•••✦ ❤ ✦••• Submit A Request | Read on AO3 •••✦ ❤ ✦•••

A/N: I based Satan's scent off of this cologne that I keep meaning to buy 👀

[whoppert]

I have a WIP fic for this but just in case it rots in my computer (pls don't steal it)

Unasended Astarion, who frees the vampire spawn and follows them to the Underdark at the end of the game

at first he's paralyzed by depression that he's stuck here in the dark. it's not fair (it really isnt) but over time he realises that the spawn have made a little community and they consider him a... folk hero????

He's shocked and they're like obviously u r a hero, u freed 7000 slaves and killed their master like how much more hero do you get? They give him big fancy titles and he LOVES that - Astarion Breaker of Chains, Freedom Giver, Protector of the Helpless, Light in the Darkness.

He doesn't really believe them (he certainly doesn't tell them how close he got to killing them all) but he'll let them sing his praises.

This sends him into a further depression spiral because this was his fault, he brought these people to Cazador, he's the reason they were enslaved in the first place. He really has to learn to regulate his emotions and process things in a healthy way and for the first time he has more than just his friends but a whole town's worth of people to help him. They're particularly sympathetic to his brand of trauma and help him feel less alone.

Only eventually he starts believing them. Why can't he be a hero?

Overtime he starts to really care about this little community :) he's the defacto leader (even tho he hates that) and so any issues are his to deal with. I like to think they build a town in the Underdark and Astarion's familiarity to the Myconids means they help (they could not give two shits about spawn in the Underdark because they don't eat mushrooms). He and his siblings council the feral spawn until they learn to control themselves, teaching them that it's their decision if they want to feed on animals or people but there are strict rules about what people they can feed on (mostly bad people but there is no short supply of horny drow that are willing to be fed on). When threats come to the village, Astarion is leading the charge against their enemies (not everyone is pleased to have the spawn in the Underdark even if they are being pretty responsible about it). He's learning about Gur culture from the child spawns and learns the error of his racist ways.

Eventually, he becomes the Folk Hero.

He negotiates freedom for Underdark Gnomes ('Do you want 7000 Vampire Spawns let loose in Menzoberranzan? Cause I'll release them. Free your slaves or I'll have my children bring me the heads of all the Great Drow Houses.')

He works with Gale to enchant their little town to have a day/night cycle (it's not sunlight, just light because he misses it) and the City of Spawn is the only place in the entirety of the Underdark you can feel the warmth of the 'sun' on your skin

His friends come to visit and he is so changed for the better. He's happy, he's joyful. He no longer worries about spending eternity alone. He reclaimed his soul, something he thought lost to Cazador entirely

In 1000 years the Underdark is a fundamentally better place - all because he's there

[sunxxxie]

Looking for a Fic

You know that feeling when you find an absolute gem of a fic, so good that in your mind it's actual canon content...so good you have dreams about it and even after *years* it's ever-present at the back of your mind. But when you go looking for it, it's GONE?! Sending you spiraling for several weeks as you desperately scour the web for it. And after several weeks and cryptic dreams about the plot, you feel as if you might be slowly loosing it.

Well, that's my current situation. I'm getting desperate- so desperate that I'm on tumblr.com begging for help(not desperate enough to log into reddit tho). Please tell me I'm not crazy and I didn't dream up one of the best fics I've ever read.

The fic was a Lego Monkie Kid fic centered around Bai He (aka LBD's host) after the events of season three. Itwassowellwrittengodineeditnow.

From what I remember:

Shadowpeach was the main romantic(kinda) relationship mentioned although from the few chapters I read it focuses more on the platonic relationships at the beginning. Also PIF and DBK were briefly implied to be in a poly relationship with an original female character which was cool.

The description was something along the lines of: "Bai He is just trying to pick up the pieces of her life after the Lady Bone Demon is gone. Luckily, she has the help of MK and the others... something something- Wukong noticed the shadows of the male primate circling the island but never having the courage to come closer.." Or something like that.

Bai He my emotionally repressed princess/affectionate. You could tell the author wrote her character with a lot of love. She was an orphan who had been in the care of an orphanage in France(I believe) before she became a street kid in China. There was also this underlying subtext that her time spent in France was during the 90s(the lore bro, the *lore*). Bai He's disconnect between her ethnic background compared to the rest of the gang made her interactions with the main cast really unique.

Lady Bone Demon's relationship with Bai He was portrayed as almost like an abusive/manipulative parent that you can't seem to completely hate because they're your parent and they're doing what they think is the best for you. Chiefs kiss.

Any fic that mentions the nuances of LBD and MK's dynamic instead of watering down her character to that vile evil Witch who wanted to destroy the world>>>>>>

The subtle world building 🙇peak🙇. The story literally began outside the city where the residents were evacuated. This included the main gang who'd basically already taken Bai He in. There were passing mentions of other mythological pantheons. Plus references to the JTTW.(the author mentioned something about Wukong having descendants which was mind-boggling to me- ik it's inaccurate but whatever.)

Monkey King basically got custody of Bai He and he took her to Flower Fruit Mountain to watch over her condition.

The author detailed Bai He's struggles with her past and her present situation as she was no longer fully human.

Nahza(my goat) was there, living up to his role as protector of children.

The closest fic I've found is 'A Bone to Pick' by SmilesThroughFandoms but the vibe is off. It isn't the same.

It was incomplete with more than 20 000 words and posted somewhere between late 2022/23.(this was the general time frame I read the fic before loosing it. In my defense I (a) didn't have an ao3 account at the time and (b) I was reading it in incognito mode🤡)

If anyone has any information about it please please please please please tell me.

[hongthoven]

Okay, hi my love <3

I can´t stop thinking about Yuyu and Mingi and my brain is like, CRAVING for fluff. Just cuddling or going on a walk and all that stinking cute, tooth rottingly cute fluff. imagine the reader beind shorter and them just being her protectors and best friends or boyfriends and them just showing her how important she is for them!

I´m alreay tearing up at the thought of them (or any of ateez for that matter) proposing to them in the cutest ways and i´m just... yeah, i´m sobbing. it´s a neeed <3

LOVE YOUUUUUU <3

i hope you´ll have an amazing day, my cutie patootie <3

Hi Kittykat ♥

I didn't think this through and fluff isn't my typical comfort zone so I'm sorry if that's terrible, but here's my attempt at fulfiling your needs for some cute comforting moment with Mingi.

Slight angst at the beginning, if that calls for a tw.

Love you ♥ @bethelighthalazia

I doesn’t take more than this for Mingi to immediately call you, cutting the texting short so he can hear your voice, looking for any sign of a breakdown. He knows every crack, every change in your tone and years of friendship have given him the luxury of anticipating that kind of conversations.

« Is it about that jerk again ? » Mingi’s voice is a little hoarse but soft as ever and you can’t help but sigh as soon as it wraps you up into an invisible blanket. While he has been trying his best to keep your mind off of your ex boyfriend, Mingi knows just how much you can get into your own thoughts sometimes, digging your own grave.

You’ve been laying in bed for hours now, spiraling into your darkest thoughts, hating yourself for the most and reminiscing the last time you have felt truly loved and desired, failing to pinpoint the exact moment. It is definitely « one of those days » you typically brush off, unwilling to make a big deal out of it but sadly settling into a pathetic routine.

A pity party you never asked for but still seem to secretely crave.

« No, it’s not » only half a lie. You have been thinking about him, but not quite as much lately.

« I was just wondering why no one ever loves me enough to stay, that’s all » while you’re aware of just how sad you must sound right now, there’s a sense of comfort and safety in your friendship with Mingi that makes i tokay for you to just blurt out anything coming to your mind, including your deepest secrets.

« What about me ? What about Yunho ? »

« I love you both dearly but… you’re my best-friends »

« And ? You don’t feel loved around us ? »

« God, Mingi… You just don’t get it… Nevermind » you sigh, a little hurt not to hear precisely what you need from him at that exact moment. Of course, your childhood best-friend being the stubborn man he is now, isn’t keen on giving up that easily.

« Why don’t you explain it to me then ? »

There’s a knock on the door and you’re suddenly aware of your current state. Hair messily wrapped into a bun, rotting in your pjs and you’re pretty sure your face looks like it hasn’t seen a ray of sunshine in days but still, nothing compares to the absolute shock of seeing Mingi standing in front of your door as soon as you reluctantly fling it open.

« I was in the neighborhood » he shrugs with a smile, ending the call as you stare at him in disbelief with your phone still tapped to your ear. You had noticed the traffic sound in the background earlier and while you could perfectly picture your best-friend walking around the city, heading to god-knows-where as he tried his best to cheer you up, you were nowhere near prepared to have him showing up at your door within ten minutes.

« So what is this all about ? » he adds as you remain with your back against the door for a while, nervous to put some actual words on your insecurities. But as Mingi walks closer to you with his typical gummy smile, his dimple digging into the flesh of his cheek as a reminder of the safe place you have found in this man, nothing seems too unbearable anymore.

« I just… don’t feel desirable lately… »

« That’s bullshit »

« Excuse me ? »

« You are desirable »

« Oh yeah, says who ? »

« I just said so, didn’t I »

« That’s not… »

« The same ? Yeah I know » he adds, his arms pulling you into a hug as you almost face plant into his chest. Sometimes, you tend to forget just how much taller he actually is, and though it’s not that obvious when you two are heading out while you perch yourself on some nice heels, today is quite the opposite. Standing on your tippy toes, you fail to even reach his shoulder and settle for the warmth of his chest against your cheek.

« You know you’re beautiful, right ? »

You nod, not entirely convinced but still appreciative of Mingi’s efforts to boost your confidence through his typical praises. You’ve been here before, seeking shelter into his arms while he tries his absolute best to cheer you up and though you would never admit it, there’s something about the way he looks at you, the intensity of his gaze almost burning through your skin, like there’s nothing left around for him to see but you, that makes you feel a little too special. More than you intend to be.

The sun has been replaced by a pitch black sky outside and the late hours of the night only occurs to you when you wake up, dizzy still, into the heated comfort of Mingi’s embrace. With his arm around you, your leg snaked around his hip as he rests lazily on the couch, the arm that isn’t keeping you safe simply settled behind his head as an extra pillow, Mingi only seems half-absorbed with the movie playing on tv, his attention caught with the very first flinch of your body against his.

« Well hello there, sleeping beauty » he smirks, immediately pressing his lips to your hair and you hate the way your skin reacts to a simple touch, shivers running down your spine as the warmth of his breath hits the back of your neck.

« How do you feel ? Any better ? » Mingi’s eyes are filled with a mix of worry and adoration, his palm reaching for your cheek to stroke it softly.

« Much better » you pause, reminiscing your prior breakdown « sorry ‘bout that ».

« Don’t you dare apologizing » his thumb hooks under your chin, forcing you to tilt your head upwards to meet his gaze, the intimacy of a simple gesture sending mixed signals to your brain though you decide to ignore those.

« I love you, don’t you ever doubt it » his lips find yours through a quick peck, nothing you haven’t done before but today, you feel him linger for a bit longer than usual, his fingers almost pushing into the plush flesh of your cheeks as you close your eyes to bask in the moment.

[nicole-ashwood]

Back in the saddle

So, due to a host of outright horrible events that I went through, I wound up discarding the previous Life Is Strange Fanfiction I was working on in order to better focus on my mental health. While I am still recovering from a series of severe mental breakdowns, I have healed to the point that I feel ready to start writing again.

The process is going to be molasses slow thanks to my still healing psyche, but I wanted to post the titles along with a brief bit about said stories, as a way of self motivation.

Links will be added once I start putting chapters up on AO3.

The Last Temptation of Jacob Marsh: A trans (MTF) Kate Marsh story, TJM starts with Kate entering Blackwell and being slightly overwhelmed by her new dorm mates. After a trip with Steph, Max, & Chloe to Powell's in Portland, she is given a rather ancient looking book that contains a supposed demon inside: Victoria. (ChaseMarsh)

My Worst Enemy: When Max suddenly shoots up from her chair and storms out during one of Jefferson's lectures, Jefferson sends his class helper Kate and current annoyance Victoria to figure out what the hell just happened, only for the two to walk in on Nathan holding Max at gunpoint. When Max moves to keep Victoria from being shot, something interferes with her powers and her, Victoria, Kate, and Chloe are all thrust into a world where Max is part Fox, Chloe is her lover, Victoria is the protectorate of Kate, and Kate is essentially a mix between Jesus and the Pope. (ChaseMarsh)

Midnight Butterflies: In 2073 a Militech extraction squad kidnaps Max, kills William, and maims Chloe. 5 years later, Chloe has become known as the 'Militech Reaper', an edgerunner pariah in Night City who is known for only taking jobs against Militech and always leaving a high body count in her wake. But when a seemingly unstoppable merc killer starts threatening to end the edgerunner way of life, Chloe is brought in by Rouge to end the so called 'Edgecutter' once and for all.(PriceField)

This: The reworked version of my first story 'Stages', expanded and refined to better suite my growing ideas with the ramifications of True Colors, the end of the LiS Max Comics, and how the world has started to change after the Wolf Brother's surrendered at the border.(PriceField, ChenRich, Others)

Blue Moon: Chloe's life continues to spiral as her desperate search for her lost friend continues. But with a single shift of the wind, Chloe finds her life thrust into chaos.(ChasePriceMarshField)

[citrous241]

1.21 is looking fire, but 1.22 has got to be an End update.

Minecraft has always had really good lore and story-telling, but does anyone else feel like the End is just missing something?

It's to be expected, it hasn't been updated for the last 7 years and the last update added more questions than answers. I feel like it's just on the cusp of being as clear as the rest of the game.

It's a dimension that's supposed to feel off, and uncanny. Literally the only track that plays is 15 minutes of warped mash-ups of Overworld tracks. End stone is just inverted Cobblestone.. etc. But even then it's still wrong.

I just have to know, Minecraft lore is built off of head canons but I'm just unable to form one that makes sense regarding the End. Endermen make sense, I believe they're warped and "evolved" humans. Eating only chorus makes them teleport, their long arms and bodies to reach the high snaking chorus plants, their larger eyes to see in perpetual darkness, etc. Their aversion to water is a wrench in that but I'm not perfect and my head canon isn't right. Endermen could have nothing to do with humans.

Shulkers and End Cities are what confounds me. Are Shulkers natural living organisms? The Dragon and Ender-men both have black skin and dark purple eyes but this thing has yellow skin and an almost magenta shell. I think they're some sort of automatons, but built by who? The ancient builders, the ones who evolved into Endermen? But the spiral staircases in the End Cities don't seem designed for humans (or maybe I just suck at climbing them) and the ceilings aren't really high enough for Endermen. Maybe Shulkers are another protector mob of their area. But protecting what? Protecting the means of personal flight maybe, but that looks nothing like the rest of the end - its literally made from the wings of the Phantoms of the Overworld.

End Cities themselves do kind of make sense to me, their architecture mimics the branches of a chorus plant. But whilst chorus seems to be the only natural thing in the End, the cities very much aren't. There's no way that structure would work under normal gravity. But surely the End just has weak gravity? Nope, it's the same as the Overworld.

Everything in the End just feels so artificial. The central island; with Obsidian pillars punching through the whole thing, a material that can only be made using 2 fluids that don't exist in the End, topped with a crystal made partially from the tears of a creature in another dimension and some sort of Eye which we can only make by killing an Enderman and fusing it's remains with the ground up remains of another creature from said other dimension. Also, it is so far away from the rest of the End, as if someone destroyed or moved these other islands away. The Dragon itself to, she works like no other mob. People say that she's a machine which I don't agree with, her erratic behaviour is because she is the only mob of her type and hasn't been updated like ever. I don't think she's native to the End though; Endermen, the only other creature in existence that looks like her, can be hostile to her.

Trying to piece this together as I'm writing this is making me think of a new head canon: The End is just a melting pot of travellers who got lost and stuck. Think of something like the Void from the Loki show. I think the End was initially just a mass of floating islands with the chorus fruit, in the Void between dimensions. Then the ancient builders arrived, constructing the obsidian pillars and the bedrock portal frame. I think they found something, maybe it could be whatever made the End Cities. But regardless, something dangerous. Something that made them separate the only way out of the dimension by several kilometres of Void, that made them create a Dragon to guard said way out. Something that made them sacrifice themselves by sealing themselves into the End.

There are a few holes in this. Maybe the ancient builders did build the End Cities before/after becoming Endermen. Maybe the danger was the Dragon, but why would it guard the exit portal? And I've kind of ignored the fact that Endstone is inverted Cobblestone, maybe the whole dimension if artificial? Built by the ancient builders entirely? Or maybe the End was spawned from ancient humanities collective mind, like a sort of yin to their yang.

I would love an End update to add a few things. I don't like most popular ideas or mods for an End update, as they often stray too far from what the End is. I would like to be able to find whatever gravity-defying sentient race built the End Cities, maybe they could also be warped into Endermen like the ancient builders were - but could still have a sense of self and humanity, or maybe they're some sort of Phantom People. I would like to find this danger that caused the ancient builders to sacrifice themselves, a new huge boss at the edge of the End would be awesome. I would also like, if they made them less annoying that is, for Phantoms to spawn in the End just normally. They feed on Insomnia right? What's more insomniac then an entire dimension where it's always night and nothing can sleep?

I would also like purple chorus wood lol.

[authoratmidnight]

Ok, I need to ramble about Transformers One. Cause it was just so good and I have thoughts.

I just don't know where to begin lol.

Cause it was just, so good!

Like, this seems like, the only time we get a full, proper backstory for what happened between Optimus Prime and Megatron to turn them from friends to enemies.

I'm only familiar with a couple of TF continuities (Prime, Animated-tho it's been a hot minute on that one- a smattering of comic stuff and the live action movies), and while they do bring up that OP and megs had a history, were even friends at one point, they never go into what happened to sour that friendship. What made Megs change, how did they end up on opposite sides of the war?

But TF One DOES! And it's GOOD!

AND IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE!

(under the cut for length)

I've seen a few people say that D-16 'went mad with power' or 'turned bad' the moment he got a T Cog but. He didn't. It wasn't hat tabrupt. If anything it can be summed up with one phrase.

"The straw that broke the camel's back."

Like. Put yourself in his boots. All your life you've been essentially the dregs of society, looked down upon b/c you were born without a crucial element of yourself. You work a generally thankless, extremely dangerous job. But, it's all worth it you think. You job is the backbone of your city, it's providing for the city and it's people until your protector and saviour can find the missing relic. You have hope that things will get better. You can bear it after all.

And then in one fell swoop your entire life and world view is upended. It was all a lie.

Your "protector" is a traitor, a murder, a liar. He killed your protectors (and your biggest hero), betrayed you to your enemies and is bowing to them. All the stuff you've been mining turns out to be going to your enemy. You haven't been helping your fellow citizens, you've been aiding the enemy. And then, the cherry on the shit sundae is to find out that he ALSO is responsible for you being "defective", as he (basically) mutilated your infant form, taking away what makes you you. You've followed the rules all your life. You've accepted your lot in life no matter how much it sucked.

And it was all a LIE.

That is one hell of a betrayal to be slammed on you all at once. SO yeah, the straw that broke the camel's back. Sometimes, people just fucking snap.

And then the camel got the power to actually fucking do something about it.

He didn't go mad with power or instantly go evil when he got a T Cog. He just finally had a way to DO something now. He didn't have to settle for being pushed around any more. Following the rules had gotten him this so, fuck them Fuck the rules man.

And the thing is, D-16 and Orion DID have the same goal in a way. They wanted to bring Sentinel to justice. They just had different ways to go about doing it.

Orion wanted to do it the "right" way, to expose him and have him stripped of his title/power and be tried for his crimes. He wanted to follow the logical route.

And D-16 just wanted revenge. He followed the emotional route.

"I want him dead"

Can you blame him? I don't. His anger is totally justified.

I wouldn't call that him 'suddenly going evil'. It was just the tipping point. After that moment he just slid off the deep end and kept spiraling downwards. If anything the 'gone evil' moment was when he looked at Orion and said "I'm done saving you". At that point it was to late. That was where D-16 died. (and one could argue that was the moment where Orion Pax died as well. b/c the bots that emerged from that fight were not D-16 and Orion Pax. It was Megatron and Optimus Prime)

But like, he didn't go mad with power. He was just on a revenge mission and now had the ability to DO that. And like, a revenge mission doesn't necessarily make someone evil (Inigo Montoya says hello)

And the thing is, they were both right imo.

Orion Pax was right, starting off your new society with an execution is proooobably not a good look (plus the whole debate on do you have the right to decide who lives and dies?). But like, D-16 was right that Sentinel needed to pay for his crimes and rotting in jail really seems like a slap on the wrist for what he did, for the betrayal and murder and lying and mutilation.

Also like. If he hadn't killed him, someone else would have. Someone else would have had the same mindset as D-16, that sitting in jail wasn't punishment enough for a life of betrayal and lies and would have found him an exacted their justice. If not D-16, then someone else.

It's just. It's so good man.

And how they basically switch their viewpoints as the story progresses. It starts out with Orion as the 'fuck the rules' sort of guy, he wants to do what he want, and D-16 as the by the book, follow the rules one. And as it goes on you see that changing. Orin wants to end this the right way, the proper way. And D-16 just throws the rules out the window b/c clearly those have gotten him nothing. And by the time they become Optimus Prime and Megatron, they've essentially switched viewpoints. Megatron has no care for the rules or laws, where as Optimus by comparison does.

Is Sentinel a basic ass villain? Yeah sure but lbr we're not here watching the movie for him. We're here for the doomed friendship between Orion and D-16, to see how they become Optimus and Megatron. That's what *I* was here for lol. So I don't really care if he's a basic ass bitch. Besides, he's dead by the end anyways so. Not enough to hamper my enjoyment of it.

And him being predictable as a villain isn't even a bad thing. Yeah, I clocked early one that he was sus (let's be real, anyone who has Airachnid as their right hand can't possibly be a good person lol), tho not exactly why he was sus. I had been leaning more towards either a) he HAD found the Matrix of Leadership and just didn't want to say he had/couldn't use it and/or was just fucking around up on the surface. But predictability isn't a bad thing (plus it seems like he has been used as an antagonist in previous incarnations so anyone familiar w/ the character would see it coming). There's no original tropes, so ofc it's gonna reuse known ones. And that's fine. He's the power hungry one here.

On that note, the inherent tragedy of the story. If you know anything about Transformers, then you're going into this movie knowing that, no matter how it ends there IS a tragedy to it. And if you don't know anything (yes, people like that exist) then you're unprepared for the tragedy that unfolds between the two leads.

Cause if you're not familiar w/ Transformers you're not likely to be expecting the two lead friends to end up split apart and on opposing factions by the end. Usually the leads end up making up by the end. But they don't. They can't.

And if you are familiar then you're just sitting, watching this friendship break apart and knowing that nothing could change this outcome. It was always going to end this way. And that's the tragedy of it.

On the technical side of things, it looks really really good! I think my favourite animations are the seemingly ever moving rock formations on the surface of Cybertron, the shimmering black rock that seems to grow and move across the land. Like daaaaaamn.

And I can't really complain about the voices. I think they work. Yeah it's not the og voice actor but like, it makes sense. This ISN'T Optimus and Megatron, it's Orion Pax and D-16. They're younger, smaller, they're different. So naturally they are gonna sound different. Plus it makes that gradual voice change into their voices all the more impactful.

I was however expecting to see Megatron rip out Bee's voice box during the big fight at the end to finally shut him up. Since that is a staple of Bee at this point. But he did not so I suppose that is being saved for another movie/story. Just to make us get more attached to Bee and his voice.

Oh and the movie is fucking hilarious and they balance the humour out really well imo.

Like I said. I fucking love this movie.

Also can we just, take a moment to acknowledge the fucking carnage in this PG rated movie??? Like, geezus, the number of characters that get brutally sliced up, blown up, losing limbs, stabbed/speared and of course, Sentinel getting literally ripped in half. But since there's no blood (and they aren't humans) it's totally fine and ok in a PG rated movie. Absolutely wild man. Movie was a damn blood bath in that final fight.

[talonabraxas]

Quetzalcoatl: The Feathered Serpent

The name of the deity Quetzalcoatl comes from the Nahuatl language, and it means “Precious Serpent,” which is a reference to the serpent that is associated with the god. Quetzalcoatl was a prominent deity in the Aztec pantheon, as he was related to various phenomenon such as the planet Venus, the wind, and the sun and was also the patron of the Aztec priesthood. Aside from these, he was also associated with other gods such as Tlaloc, Huitzilopochtli, and Tezcatlipoca.

In ancient Mesoamerica, Quetzalcoatl was one of the most important gods. He was known for his role in the creation of the world and its inhabitants. His name combines the Nahuatl words coatl and quetzal. From 1200, Quetzalcoatl was regarded as the patron deity of merchants and priests in Central Mexico. He was also known for inventing the calendar and was associated with various animals, such as the opossum and also the Morning Star Venus. He also discovered a mountain full of seeds and grains.

Following the arrival of Nahua-speaking tribes in the north, Quetzalcoatl’s cult underwent significant changes. During the Toltec era, his temple was the centre of ceremonial life in the city of Tula and the culture emphasises war and human sacrifice.

Physical Traits Aside from being a plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl was also known as a man with a beard. He was depicted as Ehécatl, the wind god, and he wore a conical hat and a mask made out of tubes.

Quetzalcoatl was also known to have a flower, a black and yellow feathered fan, jade earnings and spiral shells inside a hat-band holding sacrificial implements. He was also known to wear a cross section of a pectoral that was made from a conch whorl which was in fact a wind jewel called Ehecailacozcatl. He is often black, wears a red mask like a duck’s beak and has long canine teeth. As a god of the cardinal directions, he was associated with various colours representing each of the directions.

Family There are various stories about the life and times of the serpent. In one story, a virgin named Chimalman is said to have given birth to Quetzalcoatl after the god Onteol appeared to her in a dream. In another story, Chimalman conceived Quetzalcoatl after she swallowed an emerald. In another story, a man named Mixcoatl accidently shot an arrow into her womb and nine months later, Chimalman gave birth to a child who would later be called Quetzalcoatl. One of the stories states that Quetzalcoatl was the child of the god Coatlicue, who had hundreds of children.

According to another version of the myth, Quetzalcoatl is one of the four sons of Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl. The four Tezcatlipocas, each of whom presides over one of the four cardinal directions are White Tezcatlipoca (Quetzalcoatl), Blue Tezcatlipoca (Huitzilopochtli), Red Tezcatlipoca (Xipe Totec) and Black Tezcatlipoca (Tezcatlipoca). It is also suggested that he was a son of Xochiquetzal and Mixcoatl.

Other Names He was known as Kukulkán to the Maya, Gucumatz to the Quiché of Guatemala, and Ehecatl to the Gulf Coast Huastecs.

Powers and Abilities Quetzalcoatl was regarded as the patron deity of merchants, priests, and scientists. In the Nahua tradition, he is also the creator of the universe and the creator of humanity. Quetzalcatl was regarded as the creator of the calendar and books as well as the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen. He was said to have gone to Mictlan with Xolotl to obtain the remains of the dead and was also the symbol of death and destruction. Those bones he anointed with his own blood, giving birth to the men who inhabit the present universe.

In an alternative form of creation, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca worked together to form the first man, the rain gods, and the sun. When they were created, they transformed into snakes and ripped apart a reptilian creature known as Cipactli.

Quetzalcoatl by Talon Abraxas

[firewalkzwit]

runt // jonathan crane x reader. (1)

Chapter 1. Prelude

cross-posted on AO3

masterlist

Meticulous analysis of her own motivations had driven Y/N to come to the conclusion that her hatred was justified. Nothing was done without something profoundly belonging to one's own unresolved conflicts being involved in the decisions and paths of choice. Such was the case of the Batman, she'd concluded. Whoever he was behind that mask, he was not pursuing his role as a masked 'protector of Gotham' without a great degree of personal motive beyond selfless devotion to the wellbeing of the city. Long had she studied this concept meticulously, as to do introspection on her own reasons behind her new objectives. The Batman and herself found congruence in the belief that violence was an indispensable tool to maintain order, humanity after all was nothing but an attempt to break a deeply embedded bond with primitive, animal instincts, such as sin. However it was this particular ethic that took from Y/N the only person who stood by her side since the day she was born.

Her brother, like a forbidden fenix, had found in the drug business what was ethically questionable, but an opportunity to a new life at last. Poverty had reigned in as many generations as their family registered for, which were not many, but enough to bring a loss of hope at ever escaping the circumstances. The drug business was dangerous, but her brother was sly and grown to be a street-smart individual, he knew where he could mess and where he couldn't. Finding also a strike of luck in the fact that where they lived -a little apartment above a Chinese-owned laundry shop, was a precarious condominium where a low-ranked pawn from Carmine Falcone also had his home. This kid had befriended Y/N's brother and recommended him with Falcone, being the crucial connection to begin working for the druglord.

While unable to approve of his line of work, Y/N couldn't find it in her morality to refuse his dirty money. Like Tony Montana he'd return home with the fruit of his criminality and she'd accept it like a gift, one with a catch, but her brother always managed to sound reassuring enough to make the odds of something happening to him seem lower than they were. Oh, was it such a crime to be gullible and young, and believe your older brother? Y/N had once tried to believe that she simply didn't have what it took to stop him, or that it wasn't her place in his story, fate had planted it's seed on him and his demise was only meant to happen the second he agreed to dance with the Devil.

Despite her brother's rapidly increasing earnings, she felt it a moral obligation to maintain her job as a janitor in Gotham University. She was no Will Hunting, but she did find a particular itch of interest in the fields of sociology and psychology; studies of human condition. The job allowed her to ocasionally lean besides the auditoriums to listen to the lectures of intellectual professors. Her mind was like a sponge, and her curiosity drove her to absorve every drop of information she'd hear, and study it later in her free time.

It was one of those days where she spent some hours off the clock on campus, long done with her cleaning duties yet attentively listening to the lesson behind the door. Had she left on time maybe the butterfly effect that spiraled into the end of her brother's life could have somehow been different. Had she left later, perhaps, something in the trail of events could have flipped a switch to prevent what happened to him. But she didn't, she stayed and listened to a seminar on social conducts and masses, while somewhere in Gotham her brother received punch after punch from the Batman as God's punishment for his temptation and greed.

If the Bat had intended to kill him or not was not of her concern, as intentions didn't free the vigilante from having her brother's blood on his hands. It was while checking the stock of a recently dropped off container in the portion of the port Falcone had used his filthy money to buy that Batman had striked. Her brother tried -in a naive act of loyalty, to defend the property of his employer. Poor boy, forgotten as another dog of the drug world, but to Y/N a victim of his circumstances trying to make the best out of the little life had to offer for them. Died in the hospital as he awaited for interrogation, his insides mashed into a gorey pureé of organs that spat their own blood and failed to survive the brutality of their wounds.

Sure, the Batman may have saved damsels in distress from having their purses snatched by low life thieves, or prevented a hypothetical drug addict from getting another taste of their self-indulgence, but was he really saving people? Doing something worthwhile? For all she knew, all his masked activism was of no use if they had no effect in the long-term and the masses, and in the process took the lives and resources of hard-working low income people. She was no fool, Y/N had obviously assessed the possibility that maybe what happened to her brother was, again, a matter of fate, a divine punishment for succumbing to the desire for easy money. But then again, his motivations were only honest, and he was looking out for his and his family's best interest. What more does a man have to do to be noble and worth of living without being punished for collateral misdoings that are only human?

Falcone had presented his distant condolences in the shape of a young man knocking at her door, offering the drug lord's words of comfort and a pitiful offer for a job in his headquarters at The Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. "A pretty face like yours could be pretty popular." spoke the raspy voice of The Penguin as his grotesquely large fingers held her chin. The Iceberg Lounge didn't belong to Falcone, but his connections allowed him to offer Y/N a job as a waitress in the place. Had she any choice? Not really, with her brother now dead, the income as a janitor was not nearly as much as the inviting sum of tips that sweetened her ear with the same voice of temptation that once spoke to her brother. Besides, she did need the money, and building links -even if they were mostly symbolic, with the Bat's enemies could grant her a closer look to the new channel of all her hatred.

It was once that Y/N begun to work for The Penguin that she fully committed in the sinful night-life. Her entire scheme and survival now relied on crime, sin and immorality. She had now signed her own contract, and indulged fully into the world of darkness and depravity, one that was once unknown to her and was now tied to her identity. She fed off of other's lust and crime, making her a criminal herself. But she no longer felt the fear or rejection for the underworld her brother's job had once made her feel, she now embraced it as her own for the sake of greater motivations. Like a legacy she had chosen to carry on, taking the job got her to quickly see first-hand the very embodiment of hedonism and sheer self-indulgence. The energy in the club was heavy, dark and evil, but Y/N resisted her days through it and engaged in her friendlies as a standard procedure for the night, meeting interesting people in the process.

[lethalitisms]

@bitemedotmp3 -> PERMA SC

It's a nice night to be out. They missed this. As fucked up and twisted as Spirale is ( and they can somewhat smell the taste of something rising up from the ground in the coming days ), sometimes it can be a really great place to hunt.

⸨ No, we gotta figure out a different term for it. We don't hunt anymore. We . . . we protect. ⸩ Yes, The Lethal Protector, a title they're still growing into and sort of need to tweak a bit. But the reputation works wonders; villains fear them, and civilians . . . yeah, they gotta workshop it a bit. For now, they're leaving it as is.

The creature prowls in the darkness of the fantasy forest. Two white eyes, glaring at what appears to be a lost teenager. Man, are parents really this negligent in this day and age? In a place like Spirale? Eddie urges his symbiote other to hide, make them appear smaller, which is difficult when Eddie is as tall and built as he is. But he knows what kids are like ( he used to be one, tried to raise one ) so he knows when Venom should be lurking and when Eddie should be talking.

"Uh. Kid, what are you doing out so late? Where are your parents?" Probably not a question that easy to answer. It's Spirale, so chances are the kid is here alone. As in, no parents in the city. "Want any help getting home?"

[m00nveil]

i really haven't talked much about my w101 story that i made up around my characters, but i feel like my characters are very well written and i tried going against their respective schools' stereotypes with some of them. i think i did that best with my life and storm wizards. this is gonna be long, so if ur reading this then beware!!

my storm wizard galena, who ends up being luna's best friend, despises her at first. she comes from a very influential and rich family of storm wizards who are by no means weak, and she has been a prodigy ever since she was born. naturally, her parents had put a lot of pressure on her from a young age to hone her skills at divination. they had already decided her future for her, and that is what she believed she has to go with. she grew up to be narcissistic and absolutely egotistical, not even entertaining the idea that there could be somebody out there who is better because there's just simply noooo way...

until this mf luna from earth comes along and gets put into HER class, and she outdoes her at everything. gardening classes, crafting classes, life classes (cause everyone needs to learn some life magic amirite?), history classes, all the classes they shared, somehow this 'outsider' always did better at them than her. it was luna that was sent to various missions by the headmaster, it was luna that was always praised by the headmaster, it was always luna, luna, luna, luna. of course, galena got praise as well. but she just couldn't fathom somebody else getting it as well. and she also couldn't fathom that perhaps, being praised so much by the headmaster and being sent on various missions was not exactly the best thing ever.

it pissed her the FUCK off to the point where she resorted to sabotage. ruined textbooks, rumour spreadings (frequently combatted by another popular student at ravenwood who loved luna), all of the stuff. but, luna had always remained cordial. initially, she was the brightest star, eyes twinkling, ready and excited for this new and defining chapter in her life in the spiral. she couldn't fathom being mean back, so she never was. she just dealt with it silently as her mental health continously deteriorated due to all the things she had gone through. dragonspyre did a big number on luna, after that, she never really returned to ravenwood the same. taking a man's life, even if he was a threat to the spiral, just did not feel good.

she stopped being even cordial. she actually had no reactions to anything at all. not one jab that galena took at her. it was as if she was a living corpse, and galena noticed. and then galena wondered. "what is up with her? why is she like this?" those were her thoughts up until a confrontation happened. galena went up to her to interrogate her in typical galena fashion, luna said something insulting back which surprised galena and then proceeded to try to slap her. however, luna caught galena's arm and told her, cold as ice, that maybe she should start considering how traumatic this all is and to get her head out of her ass.

long story short, that made galena think and she basically started reevaluating her entire life. her ego was crushed and she felt something unnatural inside of herself, something she's never felt before - empathy. she mellowed out, and shortly after that followed an argument with her parents where they disowned her. her and luna found a mutual understanding and she proceeded to move into luna's dorm. they became best friends, but luna only continued to become more and more damaged by the things she went through.

my life wizard, rya, was a dragonspyrean refugee who escaped the dragon titan's wrath alongside her twin brother, shen. they were taken in by a childless widow in wizard city who rya never warmed up to because she was too distrustful. the only thing rya knew her entire life, was how to be a protector. she was the elder sibling between the two, and shen had always been so timid and shy. he needed somebody to watch over him and take care of him, and rya had no choice but to become that somebody. their parents simply did not understand, and that irked her to hell and beyond.

shen was subjected to bullying and life generally seemed to have it out for him, so rya always tried her best to protect him from harm in every way, shape and form. she developed anger issues that were very alarming, though she made sure to let them out in other ways and to never let it affect her brother. escaping from a g3nocide at the dragon titan's hands and losing all of her friends and other family besides shen made those issues way worse.

when she and her brother enrolled at ravenwood, she was assigned life, which was weirdly fitting - destined to be a protector and a healer to everyone, and even though she could always heal herself physically, nothing could mend her heart. always healing others when she herself is irreperably damaged. she's what is known as a "mom friend", and that is precisely what she was to luna. like many others, either in a good or a bad way, she was drawn to luna and the two shortly became friends. galena had earned rya's ire multiple times, but they were always stopped by the teachers before it could become an actual physical fight.

rya noticed how the things luna was going through was affecting her, and she attempted to take it up with the headmaster multiple times but didn't want to jeopardize shen's and her own education, so she always let it be. however, she did NOT let luna be. luna was slowly becoming a self sacrificing hero with no boundaries of her own, no consideration for her own well being, and rya could not stand to see it. she knew it all too well, how all of that feels. but rya, being the ever-angry person that she is, just couldn't approach the topic normally. it always ended up in her shouting at her. and luna always forgave.

there's so much i could write but this post is already long enough so see yall next time, i promise my lore is really good frfr

[chuckduckling]

Okay okay, for realsies now, since I did a QiJiu post on Yue Qingyuan’s feelings for Shen Qingqiu, here are more of my thoughts on SQQ’s affection for YQY.

When I think about what initially drew Shen Jiu to Yue Qi, sparking his loyalty and devotion... I feel like it has something to do with SJ's deep craving for safety.

And by safety, I don't just mean protection. In my other post about YQY, I give some examples for why I don't think SJ saw YQ merely as a source of protection. If anything, he saw himself as YQ's protector, as much as the reverse.

In my opinion, one of SJ's fundamental drives is the desire to feel safe and, just as importantly, a desire to feel like he's around safe people. And by that, I mean the kinds of people who won't take advantage of him or hurt him.

More thoughts and quotes under the cut...

SJ is psychologically scarred into seeing everyone around him as a threat to his safety. Even as a peak lord, with more status and power than the majority of people have, he still feels so insecure that literal children count as potential threats.

Right before the scene where he almost qi deviates, we see how his heart demons have driven him into a deeply paranoid spiral where everyone is out to get him:

Furthermore, Shen Qingqiu had told Ning Yingying thousands of times to stay far away from Luo Binghe and that she wasn’t allowed to get involved with him. So why did he see them every day, whispering together before his eyes? Shen Qingqiu was filled with paranoia; he forever felt like everyone was secretly talking behind his back, discussing how he’d been unable to attain Core Formation even after this long. That it was unbecoming for one in his position. That they hoped to secretly finish him off and replace him.

His visits to the brothel are also explicitly due to the safety and comfort that the women there give him. He finds women nonthreatening compared to men, and he sees them as a refuge from abuse.

All those years, whenever one of his beatings from Qiu Jianluo was over, or whenever he had a premonition of another beating, he had crawled to Qiu Haitang’s room and remained there, quivering. As Qiu Jianluo was unwilling to let his sister see the side of him that was perverse and lunatic, that had been the only place where Shen Jiu could hide. And even longer ago, there had been some girl in their group, their big sis. But after she reached a certain age, that big sis had been sold to a withered old man to be his second wife. Afterward, they’d left that city, so they’d never seen her again. Liking women wasn’t the least bit shameful, but treating women like saviors, cowering within their embrace and seeking courage from them…even without anyone saying it, Shen Qingqiu knew that was horrendously shameful.

Even though YQY is a man, I think SJ's attachment to him is similar to his attachment to the women who make him feel safe. YQY is the kind of person who wouldn't hurt or control SJ the way other men in his life have, and I think SJ has always been attracted to that.

(Also, I talk about why I don't see YQY as a controlling person, even during the times when he and SJ argue, in this meta.)

YQY's temper is generally mild and steady, which balances out SJ's more volatile temper. When SJ criticizes YQ for being "too good of a person", I believe that's actually something he greatly values in him. So much so that, despite scolding him, he prioritizes YQY's safety multiple times across his life, even after YQY breaks his promise, even at the end of his life.

This sister from the PIDW comments section hits the nail on the head:

*whispering, silently floating by* Does anyone here like Sect Leader Yue? I like the gentle top type the most.

In short, I believe Shen Qingqiu is a big fan of 温油攻. And honestly, who can blame him.

[vasito-de-leche]

;NSR DJSS - General Headcanons

Compilation of headcanons and analysis about DJ Subatomic Supernova and other related things.

I got an ask asking for DJSS' love languages (don't worry! working on it!) but then it hit me that I don't think enough about DJSS to talk about love languages right away, so I'm getting this out of my system to try and fleshen out the way I write him!

this might be, a BIT TOO LONG BC I GOT CARRIED AWAY RIGHT FROM THE START BC EVE WAS INVOLVED AND I LOVE HER

The most healthy and solid friendship DJSS has is with Eve.

Eve's post is still fresh on my mind, so it got me thinking about how DJSS and Eve are very similar - like, two sides of the same coin, or two opposites in the same spectrum. But before I get carried away, let's talk about DJSS.

Out of all megastars within NSR, DJSS is very clearly the one with the least amount of connections to other characters, at least in the way he's presented in-game. Like, all of them are connected to NSR and Tatiana because they work for her, that's obvious - but the Sayu Gang have each other, Yinu has her parents, Neon J has 1010, Eve and DK West both have Zuke and Tatiana/NSR respectively. Tatiana has Kliff, the Goolings and Mayday.

DJSS is just. There?

Maybe it's because he's the tutorial boss, but very similarly to Eve, themes of loneliness and not being appreciated enough or understood are prominent in his background. The casettes literally show him spiraling from an underappreciated but very passionate teacher to a very influential but egocentric megastar.

There's just something about how DJSS and Eve share loneliness as a theme. And how both of them also fully embody their work, becoming a personification of their craft and passions so that their self-worth and identity is DIRECTLY tied to how said passions are received and perceived. To others, music and art are simply an extension of themselves, an important part of their lives, not the whole of it. But DJSS and Eve? You can't separate them from their work. Again, the Sayu Gang are a bunch of teens bonding over a shared interest. Yinu is a megastar BECAUSE of her family, not by CHOICE, she plays the piano FOR her deceased father. Neon J is, first and foremost, a war veteran and protector of Vinyl City before he is a musician, even if dancing and music are his passions.

There is also something to be said about how their respective journeys are opposites of each other yet end the same way. They've gotten what they've wanted, but they're stagnant and unfulfilled.

We see DJSS starting as a starry-eyed teacher, thanking the THREE students AND A JANITOR who came to his lessons because he's grateful for anyone who will listen to him. He's using his passion and work to teach others and expand their minds and whatever other cool one-liners he says in his videos and cutscenes. This directly mirrors Eve, who starts as a self-loathing, deeply insecure artist who uses art as a way to cope and vent. (If you read my Eve post, throwback to the duality theme - outside and inside. DJSS is channeling his work to the world, to the outside. He's looking for people who understand him. Nadia is channeling her work to herself, to the inside. She's looking to understand herself.)

The middle part of their whole journey shows a moment of introspection and healing for both of them.

DJSS reconnects with his love for music and the reason he even became a teacher in the first place - not out of love for teaching (which is another point I wanna talk about later in this post) but for a genuine love and intrigue for the universe. After years of trying to get anyone to listen, he finally remembers how it feels to look up at the sky. He finds a way to merge both music and space as a means to further his goal.

Eve heals because she believes she's found someone who can complete her, someone who isn't herself but who can understand and see her just as good. She doesn't hide her pink side, she doesn't hide her face with her hair, she is shown to be very, very lively, excited and intense. This is the moment she realizes she can be understood and loved, all the things she saw as impossible before meeting Zuke. Her art reflects this, she can now focus on something other than hating herself.

(It's very important to me that we remember her heart piece with Zuke is made out of recycled bottles. Both DJSS and Eve were shown to have this thing for helping others - DJSS through teaching and Eve through art.)

And then, their last collectible shows them at their worst.

DJSS has finally managed to be influential enough to have thousands of people actually pay attention to what he's saying. And he explicitly says that, even though he's gotten this far, he feels empty. And he feels empty because all of his work will disappear, because he will be forgotten in a few generations. And we see how music has replaced his love for the universe, it's a subtle shift in which DJSS goes from wanting to learn and teach others about something he's deeply passionate about from wanting his music and hard work to live on forever through space.

There's a metaphor somewhere in there about DJSS' legacy being not his work as a teacher, astrophycisist or even a pillar of the EDM movement - but a few of his songs. Attached to an NSR satellite. Going through the empty void of space.

And then there's Nadia, all alone again. Because she's gotten so comfortable with the idea of being understood, that she expected Zuke to see everything the same way she did, and therefore setting his hair on fire wouldn't be that big of an issue. And this is her worst fear, but it doesn't hurt as much as she thought it would - because she's expected this to happen at some point, even when she was at her happiest with Zuke.

I want to draw a line between this moment and the way their loneliness permeates in their words and actions - DJSS who has tried for years to reach out to like-minded people, finally has an audience that respects him, he still feels unfulfilled and empty. And he further distances himself from everything by setting his sights and his legacy on THE COLD VACUUM OF SPACE. Eve, who has always believed she would end up alone, IS NOW ALONE AND ABANDONED (from her perspective anyways, since it would be unfair to say Zuke was a horrible monster for leaving a relationship this complex) and yet she doubles down on finding someone like her.

DJSS states that no one is able to think like him, no one within NSR shares his ambition nor vision - he's resigned. Eve states that she will bring everyone to her level one way or another - she's desperate. Two sides of the same coin. Two extreme opposites in the same spectrum.

It all boils down to believing that somewhere out there, whether in Vinyl City or the universe, there's someone who can really appreciate them.

The two conceal a sense of inferiority, the difference being that Eve's comes from a place of pure, genuine hatred for herself (if her work can't be understood, she can't be understood. if her work can't be appreciated, she can't be appreciated) and DJSS' comes from a place of blind confidence in his own potential and ideas (if his work cannot be understood, it's because no one has the ability to understand it. if his work cannot be appreciated, it's because no one is sensible enough to appreciate it).

There is also something about how, at their worst and/or when they feel threatened, they seem to switch?

This is most notable in Eve's boss fight, in which she acts condescending and dismissive to both Mayday and Zuke - saying all the things she knows will hurt just for the sake of hurting Zuke. She establishes her superiority over those who can't understand her, similar to how DJSS treats B2J initially. And in DJSS' case, hints of this reversal can be heard in his casettes, already explained above. He somewhat resembles Eve during her final section, a resigned and numb acceptance to being alone.

I think these two would be friends because they would be able to recognize their similarities - not openly address them, mind you, that's too much for either of them to handle - but enough to just chill with each other. There is an underlying feeling of understanding between them, even if all they do is hang out to do superficial things, gossip or rant about work.

And I like to think they're both fine with this arrangement, because sometimes people need relationships that aren't mentally or emotionally exhausting or intense! Sometimes you just need a buddy who shares a similar trauma that neither of you will address and who wants to go bitch about Stacy from HR! It's an unlikely friendship that surprises everyone, but once they stop to think about it, it just makes sense for them to click - at least with the façades they present to the world.

No matter how hard he tries to rebrand, DJSS knows that he'll always be a teacher at heart. Not necessarily a good one, but a teacher anyway.

TOOK ME FUCKING YEARS TO GET TO THIS POINT BUT ANYWAY.

I really like that one post I saw through the NSR tag about how DJSS makes sense as the tutorial boss because he used to be a teacher, we can assume that there was a time in his life where he loved to teach and shape the minds of the future generations. It's a little meta connection that makes sense to me!

And I like to think that this is something that DJSS can't ever get rid of - the need to just teach. It can come across as DJSS not being able to shut his mouth when it comes to telling people why they're wrong and why he's right, but at the end of the day, he's still trying to clarify misconceptions and teach others new things. It just happens through layers and layers of his condescending attitude.

Of course, this also doesn't apply to just teaching, it applies to learning as well.

DJSS strikes me as someone curious and very driven, instead of asking others why, he sets out to find out answers himself - either because it's easier and faster, because he has something to prove, because of he's so full of autism and hyperfixates easily or whatever other reasoning you like the most.

I like the idea of a DJSS who knows his worth and knows he shouldn't bother trying to argue with people who clearly don't care about facts, logic and research, let alone putting the effort to learn or have an open mind - those simpletons who aren't worth his time - but still struggles with keeping his mouth shut.

During his boss fight, he immediately dismisses B2J because they're small fry, they're not even here for him, they're here for inconsequential reasons that he doesn't have time for. Why should he even entertain them? AND THEN HE DOES. HE GETS RILED UP AND JUST GOES ON TO TALK ABOUT HIS ENDEAVORS AND GOALS ANYWAY.

He REALLY reads as a guy who makes the funniest of jokes and can't help but explain them anyway - and he gets away with it most of the time.

Very organized, detail-oriented person, loves routine and to plan things beforehand. DJSS cannot stand spontaneous decisions and has a hard time adapting to sudden changes.

Sometimes it might be easy to forget that DJSS is most likely the smartest member of NSR as a whole, specifically because of the way he acts and presents himself typically - even if he makes a point of constantly reminding others of his intellect and academic achievements. But! Nothing escapes DJSS' keen vision.

Out of other members of NSR, Tatiana trusts DJSS the most to keep up with his responsibilities as charter and many other projects benefitial for the company, like the rocket launch! He's proven time and time again that he's more than competent to be left to his own devices. Even if he doesn't care much for the other megastars, he still shows up on time for meetings and speaks his mind on things that need addressing (that he considers worth addressing, at least), never pulling his punches when offering his opinion.

Literally that kind of annoying coworker that loves to nitpick and someone you don't get along with but who makes the best points and arguments ever.

I like to think this is reflected in his position in Vinyl City - he's the furthest away from the NSR Tower, because he requires little to no supersion at all. He's also closest to the heart of Vinyl City: Festival Plaza and the Grand Qwasa, maybe because he can absolutely take care of any problems that might arise with it.

Even if he's extremely dismissive, DJSS does remember the people he works with - mostly based on their skills and how useful they are, just so he can know who to send away and who to keep around. He doesn't remember your name, but he remembers that you're competent enough to do a quick check on his turntables or other equipment. That sort of thing.

DJSS likes when things go his way, the way he expects things to be, the way he planned them out to be. He thinks of every possible outcome and prepares for it, without going overboard as to hinder his progress. So he can live with someone on his team messing up the rocket launch procedure - because that was already something he expected that would happen, even if he throws a little fit about it. But he can't deal with suddenly being told that someone else will handle the rocket launch entirely - because that's just not a possibility in his mind.

I can see DJSS being a fan of to-do lists or spreadsheets to stay on top of his game. He doesn't need them, he remembers everything he needs to, but hey, it's a fun flex!

I also just remembered one of the interactable things in Cast Tech - a drone that Zuke comments on, saying:

 "It must have crashed from all the conflicting signals. DJ Subatomic Supernova really likes the idea of blasting his signal into space..."

Which makes me think that yes, DJSS is great at solving things, he's careful and meticulous, doing anything to ensure his success in whatever he sets out to do - but his tunnel vision makes him careless enough to overlook some of the most obvious things in the world. Like how blasting his own signal might disrupt every other drone in the city or mess with other machines.

And this whole point is totally not me subtly trying to write DJSS in a way that compliments the way I perceive Neon J because I think the ship is fun and their dynamic is even funnier, absoluTELY NOT LETS MOVE ON

Cast Tech is the most academic district in Vinyl City. Basically paradise for nerds.

The same way Eve supports the arts in Dream Fever by having a lot of galleries and art studios, it makes sense that DJSS would support academic endeavors by having schools and other academic institutions, funding people's research and etc. It's another little thing that ties in with his background as a teacher.

In-game, Cast Tech is basically a short main road with two or three paths that lead to small areas. It's very lackluster compared to the rest of districts and I blame that on the way the game is structured, showing the boss first and then the district - plus the fact that DJSS is the tutorial boss so by proxy, he gets less content. But it's serviceable enough for the main plot in the game, which is to show us that NSR can be superficial, shallow and careless company.

And I'd like to argue that, maybe, the area Mayday and Zuke go through within Cast Tech, is not meant to be representative of the entire district. It feels more like an area meant for tourists or general NSR propaganda that ended up flopping massively because people weren't that interested?

DJSS is a megastar, sure, but he's not shown being that much of a public figure outside of advertisement. Compare him to any other member - Sayu and 1010's popularity rely on their fanbase, because they're public figures. Eve is an artist, we also see her dabble in all types of art, not just music, even fashion! Yinu is a literal child, but she's still in advertisements for healthy food and drinks.

Did you notice how Cast Tech and Club Planetarium are the only places that lack NPCs? Unique NPCs to be more exact, like Celine in Dream Fever, Mia in Festival Plaza, Yiruk in Metro Division, etc. People who most likely live there?

Once again, DJSS is an outlier. It makes sense to me that, even though this area has a statue of him and a store selling products based on him, literally just revolving around him, playing his advertisements and etc it's not... That important overall within his district. Even the Planetarium where he hosts concerts has a bunch of small stores outside, nothing grand. Even though it's HIS district, he's NOT the focus, ironically.

I would love to get into details about how the actual district works and what goes around, but I dropped out of my bachelor's degree and I don't know enough about science to get super in-depth about it! So anyone who DOES know or wants to develop this more, feel free!

[mindotaur]

I find it interesting that syscovery is very rarely linear. Here’s a long post about discovering, rediscovering and accepting our system, filled with mushy feelings at the end because I am quite the sentimental one.

content warning for self-destructive behavior, though we don't go into too much detail about what that was

We’ve mentioned in our writing and in some previous posts how we’ve always been overtly plural, we just didn’t know that was a thing. I remember being seven and interacting with Lim, playing with her when we were alone. I would always talk to myself out loud, sometimes we had verbal disagreements that made our family look at us funny – and that’s how our brother gave us the nickname Sméagol.

There are many memories that we can only explain now that we know about our plurality, now that we have the language to describe what was happening to us. We had flashbacks we thought were hauntings, alters known by name to our friends and partner at the time (who we notably described as ‘the other me’), impulsive and self-destructive behaviors we didn’t always understand because we were missing part of the puzzle, terrible memory gaps that we tried to explain away as being a byproduct of alcoholism (never mind the fact that we started drinking to cope with the memory gaps, not the other way around), and more… less than stellar things. The true sauce on the disordered burger, if you will.

Giselle, one of our previous hosts, found a forum online that talked about DID in the 2000s and she was like “holy shit, that’s me/us!” and tried to get support for our system as a teenager.  The trouble is that we lived in a small town with truly shitty mental health professionals who only traumatized us further, and Lim (our primary protector at the time) knew we weren’t ready to deal with the DID. She essentially forced Giselle into dormancy and we completely forgot that DID even existed.

Did that stop the voices, the discussions, the flashbacks, the blackouts? Did it stop our mother from talking about how we “seemed like a completely different person from moment A to moment B”? Absolutely not. We just lost the means to explain it to ourselves and others, and so we were certain we were psychotic. We began to describe the sensation of dissociation as “I think I’m hallucinating”, because the voices would get more intense and our vision would get blurry. Suppressing the system made the cacophony louder, increased headaches and sensitivities, increased self-destructive behavior to the maximum.

We moved states, went to university, had a terribly traumatic relationship as adults and spiraled out of control. We were in another relationship when our partner told us we needed therapy because things were absolutely unmanageable, and they were right. We started seeing our therapist and regularly visiting the psychiatrist, taking medications as prescribed and searching for a name for what was wrong with us.

The first thing we were diagnosed with was schizoaffective bipolar disorder, explaining the apparent psychosis and the episodes of mania and depression that we had since adolescence. Except the antipsychotics didn’t do anything about the voices, they didn’t stop the dissociation, they just acted as mood regulators. Schizoaffective was crossed off after a while.

It took us two years of weekly therapy, at times bi-weekly, and several medication adjustments until we gained any form of stability. We moved out of our family’s home and found our first “real” job, and that’s when the memory gaps got worse. We had our own money, our own time, and access to the entire big city we were now living in. Unbeknownst to us, Giselle was back from her dormancy and ready to make up for the years she had lost, so we were partying every week, I had fresh tattoos I had no memory of getting or even planning for, clothes I didn’t remember buying, money absolutely could not stay in my account.

Giselle was also what you may call a sexual protector, so we would black out during very specific instances, such as visits to the gynecologist. One time I remember I was in the elevator of the obgyn’s clinic, I dissociated, and suddenly I was in a completely different part of town with a bag of goodies she had bought from a street vendor.

I can’t tell you what it was like from her point of view, but for me it was absolutely disorienting. We started seeing a different psychiatrist and we got diagnosed with DID, but a lot of the support we got came from the online community of systems willing to explain things in layman’s terms. Our psychologist is trauma-educated but she had never worked with a system before, so we learned together, and she’s an absolute gem.

It wasn’t easy at first. I used to fight every switch, to be terrified of losing control, particularly to Giselle because she was so wild and irresponsible. I didn’t understand then that she was wild because she was locked away and repressed for so long, I didn’t know I was making it worse. Sometimes when we switched it would last upwards of 40 minutes, and I would know we were switching because of the terrible headache and anxiety that would come with it.

Time isn’t something easy for us to track, so I can’t tell you how long it was until I accepted Giselle and she accepted that her actions had consequences. We established a truce, then a friendship. The headaches went away and we could switch intentionally. It was around that time that other system members started showing themselves, and we began to actively work on improving our communication and memory-sharing.

For the first year of this, our now-wife would attend therapy with us and help fill in the gaps where I couldn’t remember things. Eventually, we were able to return to solo therapy sessions and our psychologist started working with one of us at a time, depending on who would front that day. We missed a lot of sessions because we forgot about them, but our therapist is an angel and she never gave up on us.

I remember one of my earlier thoughts about recovery being “I don’t want to be alone”. I was scared of Giselle and whoever else I may not know about, yes, but I had Lim – and I didn’t want to lose Lim, she’d always been with me. When we learned about functional multiplicity, we all agreed it was the way to go.

I don’t know how many hours we put into journaling, planning, talking with our partners and friends, endless therapy sessions, exploring different hobbies, making and testing playlists that would help each of us front, finding out what our positive and negative triggers were, exploring the inner world… it’s been years of hard work to get to the fluid communication we have now.

Giselle eventually fused with Roland. I grew to love them both, and I love who they became together. August is an absolute sweetheart. I can look back now and see everywhere the others helped us survive, every hurdle we overcame together, and it fills me with the deepest love and appreciation for them. We’re a rather large system and I love almost every one of us. There’s one still stuck in abusive trauma cycles, but he’s been getting quieter and we hope to get him to come around.

Overall, we’ve achieved functional multiplicity. We can work, we have a healthy marriage, we have friends, we own a house… we still have some issues (example: our social anxiety got worse during the pandemic), but we’re working through them together and helping each other every step of the way. Lim learned to let go and not be overprotective now that we’re no longer in an actively traumatic situation, we’ve learned to be more flexible with our roles, even if some of us still find them very useful, and we’re almost always cofronting. Switches are easier, we have less episodes of one of us getting frontstuck, almost no flashbacks or dissociative seizures unless we’re in specific high-stress situations… I don’t know, it’s good.

I love my system. I love finding out who we can become together. I love our friends who accept us for who we are, I love being open about us with more and more people. I wish we’d suffered less; I wish the road had been easier, but I would not trade them for anything in the world.

I don’t know if I had a point with this. I was just remembering our journey so far and I needed to get the feelings on paper. I don’t know if this will be particularly helpful to anyone, and we are notably bad at giving advice, so just accept this as a testimony to our lived experience. I am so proud of my system and myself for our growth and recovery I need to shout it from the rooftops.

What I can say is this: if you’re a disordered system and you’re just starting to figure things out, be patient with yourselves. Put in the work to get to where you want to be. It’s so incredibly worth it.

[jknighttoku10]

Lexamus-prime: THE DANGEROUS ZAXIS-MAN!!!

LEXAMUS-PRIME/THE DANGEROUS ZAXIS-MAN

NAME: LEXAMUS-PRIME.

HUMAN NAME: Zack Torres.

Other names: Green boy (Hate’s that name), The dark avenger, King of the beasts, Animal, destroyer, protector, Child of the monster. Death, Monster king, The lethal protector. L.P. Hatchling.

Code name: Zaxis-man or GOJIRA CONVOY.

Real name: Lexa Zaxis.

Alignment: Maximal (good, anti hero)

Full robot mode hight: 40 m.

Human size height: 7 feet 6 inches (229 cm)

Human form height: 5'9” (1.75 m)

Alt modes: transmetal 2Gojisauras, human, turbo semi Truck, flight mode/jet.

Strength: 9.0

Intelligence: 10.0

Speed: 8.0

Endurance: 9.0

Rank: 10.0

Courage: 8.0

Firepower: 10.0

Skill: 9.0

Weapons (both cybertronian/full robot and hi-q/human size and beast mode ) : Combat Swords, shield gun, morph gun, combat claws/bone claws, teeth and tail, main sword the Primal Rage, shoulder cannons, arm sword and sawblade, chains(they work like spawn’s, venom’s and ghost riders) , cannons from trailer drone.

Powers and Abilities(both cybertronian/full robot and hi-q/human size and beast mode ): Atomic breath, spiral heat ray, radiation heat ray, durability,prehensile tail, tail spikes, anti-flash protective membrane for swimming, symbiosis, nuclear pulse, durability(not that strong against certain weapons), intelligence (he holds it back sometimes because of his anger and doubt), Amphibiousness, Physical abilities, Plasma Cutter(spiked tail attack), copy ability/power configuration.(on weapons and vehicles only)

Likes: His team/family, meeting new people, being called by his real name and/or human name by his friends, 80’s and 90’s music, Hanging with others, exploring places that are new to him, relaxing, and swimming in the ocean. Seeing others happy and safe (that includes the people of the planet he protects) Food, reading, tinkering with his stuff(weapons, computers and gadgets), Learning new things.Kirby. Dislikes: Seeing those he knows or who are innocent and can’t defend themselves get harmed or worse, psychos, greedy and corrupt people and soldiers, those who talk bad about him and his friends and family. power hungry villains, poachers, the Predacons, some members of his team pickering and arguing, being lied to and secrets being kept from him and people trying to kill him and his friends and family. Those who use those he knows as bait.

Personality: Lexamus is a bot who has problems but tries not to let them get to him. He cares for his team even if they occasionally drive him crazy. Knows how to have fun(sometimes). He stands up for others who can’t stand up for themselves. He is still an anti hero. But all of that he struggles as a person always scared to let others new to Him in and is bad at talking to people sometimes, but he loves to try new things even its unknown to Him and his anger doubt and past will sometimes get the best of him when it comes to himself and/or others around Him.(if they get hurt our worse he will get really mad and show how angry He just like the doom slayer) He is learning to improve His skills on science and combat even tracking from those He meet, but some people See Him as a dark hero, a monstrous brute full of rage when fighting but on the inside, He is A person who’s strong enough to be gentle in his own way. And he prefers not to join parties (sometimes) he just likes to run around and leap and explore the jungle, cities and look at the night skies. Reading, tinkering.

Back story: Back on cybertron Lexa and his twin brother were trained by the mighty Grimlock before and then Dai-atlas one of the great swordsmen of crystal city at a young age but then. The cruel Elitist Sentinel prime ordered His scientist to force Lexa and His brother and other children to be a part of the power master program to beat the Decepticons. The experiment worked but Lexa struggles to take the lives of those who weren't a part of the war even questions His commanders orders but he suffered hard abuse from him and forced to take lives of any age made Lexa sick to his stomach. but after Sentinel prime’s death and after they left to Earth Lexa Took the form of earth’s most powerful creature GODZILLA form before he saw humans where no better than the Decepticons and corrupt Autobots he served under after seeing the wars, pollution and abuse on the planet. he and his team let their anger out on the humans to respect their new home but then was chosen by Optimus primal’s energon matrix to become Lexamus-prime and put his selfish rage and anger aside to protect the humans he hates from the true enemy The Predacons lead by the current leader of the Predacons and Decepticons. Megatron Zero. but he still struggles with his anger and past and doubts.

Teammates/Family: Groundspike/Luke(best friend and advisor) , Aliza/nora, Zontrax/kenny (adopted son), Red-dog/Johnny, Straxes/Wu, Leonix/Mike, Zora/Mei, Amelia-q, T-AI, Quickswitch/Jeff , Blaze Saber/Joey ,Blue, Delta, charlie,Echo(the zilla sisters). Huaman (human sister).