#a MONTH to draw stupid mechs

[nutsack90]

Teehee

gonna do op & bee next!!

[emacrow]

The first time The Justice league met the ghost king, they were not expecting this.

They were just trying to stop Luther from getting more kryptonite shards after getting an anonymous way to summoned more concentrated ones.

They were not expecting something to follow along after it. Constantine is in the corner cursing up a storm about the infinite king which batman files for later...

Only for a tiny elderitch being mauled the living out of lex, eating every silver of kryptonite (50 pounds worth of kryptonite since he was in the giant mech suit) in sight like a starved savage animal before ploping in mid air like it was a solid floor after a small(cute) burp, before reforming into a humaniod state.... which was a tiny 5 year old white haired toddler with a look of I over-ate a food coma worth of snacks and it was worth it.

Meanwhile Danny was this close 👌🏻 from snapping into a terror tantrum that would made pariah king rage seem like child play after he caught on real quick on what was taking his ghost candy rock medicine supply prescripted to him from frostbite. Fuck vlad and his stupid plan to try and baby him, fuck the ghost zone cause everyone is now babying him, and not even clockwork is taking him seriously but did gave some cryptic hints on the whereabouts of his medicine that would help him grow faster.

It been literally 3 months by now and he has had it with the babying even though he look 5 physically, he is 18 year old! Not even his parents taking him seriously and been using this chance to spend time with him.. which is fine but he draws the line after bathtime, the sailor costume and floaty!

He was practically ravenous to the point of going eldritch form when he went chasing through trail of summoning ghost magic leading to his precious snacks.

He not even caring about the sad bald man in the mech suit after he had his fill and probably overduing eating and is just inducing the process of his food coma.

He is totally unaware of the audience he has right now that being watched on lived TV.

[himefemme]

bunny and her butch - ' strawberry scented '

banner not mine!

the night after your date, sevika woke up feeling as if she'd been doused in a cold splash of water, heaving. her body had caught a mean, sudden waking up. she narrows her eyes at her sister, shivani, who stands at the foot of her bed with a large, maroon bucket, beads of water still clinging to the curve of the top where the water had left only moments prior. shivani whips her dark, glossy hair over her shoulder and narrows her eyes sharply at sevika, who sends a pillow flying at her head- missing the original target, it lands on her desk with a crash. "very smart, sevika" shivani jabs, tapping her foot on the grey carpet where she was standing, the carpet had become worn from the years it had been there, it was sevika's childhood bedroom, though (plus their mother had since adopted three cats to keep her company). sevika lifts herself from the bed, damp sheets clinging to her skin like a dog had licked her, gross, she still couldn't understand why some people allowed their pets to do that to them willingly. "you didn't have to dump a whole bucket of water onto me, you could've poked me- or kicked if that didn't work!" sevika hisses, rolling her shoulders back- she still had a subtle, phantom feeling of relief when she'd stretch her arm- even though the other would have to be replaced with a mechanical one. with heavy footsteps she walks over to her desk, shivani moves out of the way as she watches her sister attach her mech arm- a hiss of pain filling the silence. it had been about a year since the accident happened, the family still hadn't grown completely used to it, but no matter what they stayed supportive of sevika, even though she insisted she didn't need help. but she couldn't make that excuse forever could she? as soon as sevika and shivani made their way down the stairs, they were greeted with kisses and hugs from their mother, ati, her grey hairs wrapped like wires around her face, framing her round cheeks- wrinkled with age but showing nothing but a life full of smiling, atleast that's what she said. she wore a plain white tee, joggers , which shivani introduced her to, her eyes a deep brown as was her skin. ati tiptoes to peck sevika's cheek, squeezing her face. "ah, sevika, i thought you'd never wake up! i made breakfast, pancakes, your favourite." ati smiles, pulling away from her daughter and sauntering off to the kitchen, dishing up a plate without sev asking. shivani nudges sevika with her elbow, a grin on her face reveals her pearly whites, it reminded her of her father for a split second but she cut the thought off as quick as it came. ' she still treats you like a baby ' shivani mouths before walking off elsewhere- likely the living room but sevika couldn't remember, she hadn't been home to visit in a few months and her mother was constantly changing the layout of the house.

by the time sevika left, it was around midnight, driving on the freeway whilst tapping her fingers on the wheel, your scent still lingering. she silently curses herself for not being able to message you the whole day, her phone pinged with your worried texts. in a debate with herself, she sharply turns into the next lane, apologetically holding her hand out of the window at the driver behind her. she needed to visit you. she didn't care.

you were in your room, after a 'self care sunday', freshly showered, wearing the cutest babydoll to sleep, hair fanned out evenly against your silk pillows and sipping on sweet chamomile tea. a knock at your window disturbed your nightly fanfic-reading, must've been the neighbours kids, they'd always throw tiny pebbles and stones at people's houses for a reaction. angrily storming over, you draw back the pink curtain, narrowing your eyes to see sevika, arched nose almost pressed up against the glass pane, a stupid smile on her face. "m' so sorry, bun, I was visiting my mother, then i got caught up in my thoughts, i had to see you and i couldn't just leave you wondering all night, im not like that, promise" her voice was muffled, she could tell because your face scrunched up in the same adorable way it would whenever you were confused. opening the window, she climbs in, you hear a crack and splintering of wood but choose to ignore it. once sevika had climbed inside she shut the window behind her, engulfing you within her beefy arms, the chill of the metal one against your skin was comforting, it was barely enough to hide how flushed and warm you were though. sevika took it upon herself to cook, as a gift- the fragrant aroma of spices and herbs was tantalising, you could picture sevika at the countertop, chopping carrots and potatoes, scraping them up skillfully with a knife from the board and allowing them to drown into the thick, brown stewed sauce alongside chicken breasts and another pot filled with steaming rice, air whistling through the gap of the lid. she served you up a plate and watched as you ate, all of your cutlery had hearts or pink on them as well as your plates- lined with bow patterns or cute bunnies, those ones sevika had gifted you for your month anniversary. "this is so good, sev, you're a great cook.." you hummed, the burst of flavours was simply divine, you couldn't get enough, scraping at the last grains of rice left. sevika's cheeks bloomed with warmth and she smiled, you washed the dishes together and sevika fed your cat before you both walked back to your bedroom. sevika wore the shirt and shorts she'd left here last time she visited, which were neatly folded in your drawer- the dark green and black was stark against all of your light clothes. pulling the chain of your lamp, it turns on- both of you bask in the ambience, enjoying the silence for a moment before finally falling asleep.

in the morning, you find that sevika has already left, which was a given considering the importance of her job. she'd left a note tucked among your plushies, which she'd neatly placed in a crowd beside you, where she previously laid. her pillow carried her scent of cologne and the rosewood incense that her mother would always burn. you read the note and smiled, her first words were 'sorry', though it wasn't her fault, duty calls after all. she'd left a bowl of freshly washed fruit on the bedside table, you pluck a green grape, perfectly sour. she really did know you like the back of her own hand.

[thedawningofthehour]

My doth theory is that this whole exploding collar thing will backfire real soon and someone important on Draxum side will end up in it (or perhaps someone from turtles side will get stuck in it?? Idk someone important will get stuck in it). Reasons why I think that:

1. Putting a bomb ON A COLLAR feels like something important. Like collar is such a visual way of doing it. It draws attention to itself

2. Idk I rewatched Evangelion Rebuild movies maybe like 3 months ago so Explosive collars made me think of it and DSS chockers so now I'm overanalysing these stupid collars

3. Tiger Claw did describe Gale getting kidnapped as "Prople wanting to see him in a collar" or something like that so maybe????

4. That's it I'm used to the fact that if it's a collar then it's propably important and if not, then at least they will let the main character wear it for a while. Like it's both visually striking and propably looks not that complicated. Perfect and easy to remember. Ofcourse you would want to put one of your main characters in it, so now people buy chockers made to look like it on ali express for cosplay.

I doubt that will actually happen, like litearlly my only lead that it will is one line that most likley means nothing, and I'm more than anything just joking about how putting something on a collar feels like a memorable visual that propably will be at least a bit imporant. And main character will wear it for a hot second to make it cosplay worthy (like litearlly in evangelion in span of 2 movies, three different main characters wore it, one at the time with the last one not even leading to much as it got just removed off her. Like she could just put her mech on autodestruct or something for it to be turned off, but nope. Collar)

Explosive collars are a pretty common trope-it even has its own TVTropes page. (not linking for people like me who will lose whole nights to it) Battle Royale used them too, and if you're a fan of The Hunger Games (new movie just came out, anyone seen it yet?) Battle Royale is absolutely a fun read.

The ones I was thinking of, however, are the slave collars from the Fallout series.

(I mean, are you fucking surprised it's Fallout-inspired?)

In the lore of Fallout, these were used in prisons and detention camps, especially on Chinese prisoners, and potentially developed for use on laborers to keep them working and obedient. (hey, it's good satire if it hits close to home) After the Great War, they were quickly co-opted by slavers. They function as an in-game enslaving mechanic, so the game doesn't have to script a whole slave-driving sequence of you leading your slaves back to slaver HQ-you literally just slap the collar on and they'll deliver themselves. It's kind of a chilling aspect of life in the wasteland, the casual cheapness and disregard for human life. Oh, and the whole Dead Money DLC where you get a bomb collar and have to navigate a resort and casino while dodging corrosive gas and radios that will interfere with your collar and set it off prematurely.

The collars that Draxum wants aren't as shoddy, and he would mostly want them for people who are around his son/responsible for keeping him safe when he's out of the house. Because he's going to have to do that at some point. He can't trust anyone's loyalty or bravery-but he can trust that they'll do everything in their power to protect him if they know their heads will be blown off the moment Galois's heart stops.

And yeah, the visual is important. The symbolism is important. A collar is inherently demeaning, demoralizing, a literal grip around one of the most important parts of your body. There's actually a guy in New Vegas that will talk about how he intentionally puts slave collars on a little too tight so it bites into a slave's neck and constantly reminds them what they are.

But at the same time, it's a barbaric tool. It would not be good PR for everyone to see Draxum's minions with these around their necks, nor would it particularly endear said minions to him. Also worth noting-slave collars are common in art and fiction because they're effective symbols of slavery, but in real life slaves usually didn't wear collars. Because slaveowners didn't want their slaves seeing how many of them there actually were and rising up against their masters. For those of you who've read ASOIAF, remember that Astapor (and to an extent Meereen) did not fall to Dany's forces or even her dragons, but to the very slaves they trained and sold.

(Draxum's heard way more about Game of Thrones than he ever cares to know)

In short-Draxum knows what he's doing, and he intends to use this tool sparingly, but wisely.

The way you phrase this implies that someone is going to cosplay my shitty fic. Though I do feel like it will be fanart opportunity.

[guysullivan]

Finally hit Legend for the month! First time doing so with a deck of my own making, though it obviously contains many of the same components as other Tri-Blood Death Knights.

Granted, 3.7k isn't impressive by any means, but it took me a while to iterate into something that felt capable of dealing with the threats on ladder. Some notes about the inclusions I settled on:

Spinley is unbelievably good. Being able to cycle your hand in a pinch against Aggro and Midrange makes finding boardclears so much easier. In control matchups, it either acts as a way to find Fizzle's Snapshot or to cycle extra cards into the deck for Fatigue. Thank you, Mr. Mrrgglton; I hope you have time for tea.

Audio Amplifiers increases Blood Knight's effectiveness FAR more than other classes. That extra mana crystal means board clear into gnome muncher way more often than you'd think. The hand space is nice for managing larger snapshots as well.

Arcanite Ripper is a really good weapon, even if you only trigger a single tick of the effect. A free body can mean everything.

Blood Boils were a surprisingly late entry into the list. At first, I thought the spell density would be too much, but the redundancy made a tangible improvement immediately.

Speaking of spell density- Magatha is usually a 5 5/5 draw 5. In the rare cases you do hit a spell, it's a boardclear. This spooked me at first, but after a while I realized boardclears against blood just don't matter. Hate the character, good card.

Zilliax is a common include for most control decks, but I'll mention him more specifically simply because of how frequently he comes duct-taped to one of the four other mechs in the deck.

Theotar was also a late entry! Got scared that he'd sit in hand and do nothing in a lot of matchups. I mean, I was right, but in the games where he sat in hand, it was usually because I was already winning. Sniping a Value Rogue's Astalor, a Big Hunter's Stranglethorn Heart or a Thief Priest's Patchwerk turned out for the best otherwise.

Mograine is the only reason I won control matchups. I love this card SO MUCH.

Patchwerk is a silly little guy and the reason God will abandon me.

Prison of Yogg-Saron may seem like a silly inclusion, but in truth it usually did what I wanted it to do- clear the board and draw cards! Blood Knight doesn't mind whiffing once so long as the other two charges are decent.

Soulstealers are stupid <333

Play this deck if you want 20 minute games and good times.

This has been my infodump, thank you for reading.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

My Ace Flag & Decepticon Symbol Buttons (2023)

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Credit for Transformers goes to Hasbro & Takara

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[Note: Don’t Reblog Without Permission...] 

[Edit On March 26, 2023: had to edit this....and also replace the word “badges with buttons”.......well I guess they were more like Button-Badges to me....]

I want to say that my plan was to still keep to not posting anything until a few days later, and there is a reason why I decided that, it’s just someone had made me unhappy, it just seem they were doing something on purpose despite me pointing out some important facts.....plus I am going to think over what to do about it, anyway a part of me wants to post a drawing I did of Blitzwing from TFA, that has to do with a Fan Headcanon about him, but maybe I will wait a few more days before I post it.....I think this will be the only post for today, and I will try to keep from posting else until maybe a few days later in this month or until maybe somewhere around April.     

I had to take a picture of the buttons that I had made,

well the Ace Flag Button one, was made on August 25, 2021...

while the Decepticon Symbol Button was made on March 21, 2023...

if I find the right colors, I can try using the colors Lavender/Violet, Light Turquoise, White, Ice Blue and Blue-Gray for the Aroaceflux Flag in Button form.

still not sure if many will even use it though, and I guess it’s fine if it’s just me that ends up using it for now.

so yeah, I drew a Decepticon Symbol on Paper, colored it and put it in a Button.....so that is my Decepticon Button, it might not be 100% perfect.

but it’s like, wanting to support the True Decepticon Cause, and not the whole bad stuff that some Decepticons have done that really has nothing to do with the real cause....

I am starting to think that Rose Quartz and Megatron have more in common than I had originally thought, and Megatron may have been part of the Council but took the form of Megatron or at first a Mech with no name until given the name “Megatron”, and he learned the dark truth, that while the Toxic-Rich that would become Autobots lived with out a care, there were others who are suffering, and it might be weird, but what if it turn out that Megatron was originally a Femme who was named after Solus Prime, like his original name was Solus and even as both Megatron and Solus, he tried to get the Council to listen but they always ignored both Megatron and Solus (who they had no clue were one in the same...) and I guess that is a weird theory, but it be interesting if it turned out to be true.....that would be a big plot twist.          

to take the picture of the two, I had to wear those buttons and then once I got the pictures taken, I started to do some editing and resizing of them a little and removing some parts that had to do with the shirt...

I know that not all Autobots are Bad, but they still have some Bad ones in their ranks, and even clueless ones who offline a Vehicon without a second thought.....yeah we are suppose to see the Autobots as the good guys, but the Autobots aren’t really 100% the good guys, because of their stupid corrupt caste system....

"Decepticons Get It Done, But Crystal Gems Do It Better."

(referencing the song "Brunettes Do It Better" by Kidforce.)

yeah I’m weird enough to view Steven Universe and Transformers having some similarities, at least Steven was able to finally get through to White, Yellow and Blue....

I think I will make a button that has to do with Steven Universe, next.

maybe not right now, but sometime I will...

so the Decepticon Button in this, is like a Honorary Type Thing....

like siding with the Decepticons who are still on the right path and fighting for the true cause, and not the whole conquering or destroying thing...

anyway when I do make some other buttons, I can post them on here sometime.......but it will have to be a long wait, so it can’t be this month.

so yeah in a Fan way, this Defective Earth Angel is becoming a Honorary Decepticon (even if it isn’t canon and is like more fan like.), but still like some of the Good Guy Autobots, but still know that half of the time, it will be the Autobots who will be in the wrong some percent of the time, same as the Decepticons....

anyway this time for sure, this will be it until a few days or so...and this will be the only post for today as well.

and yeah, when I can and if I can find the right color pencils and crayons to use, I will make a Aroaceflux Button that matches the new design I had posted some days ago...  

I’m going to check out some stuff on here while listening to Dark Horse by Katy Perry.  and I will try to keep myself from posting anything else up until a few more days this month or until April...

[uglygirlstatus]

15, 17, 18, 27

15. Is there any new style/technique/medium you want to explore next year?

Art dolls. I need to make a Cheryl Blossom art doll. I have to.

17. What piece took the longest to create?

I believe it was this commission of a tlt x halo crossover moment. I have never played halo nor drawn mech before so it was an interactive learning experience. shout out to the commissioner for their unending patience

18. What work of yours do you go back and admire again the most?

ok to be honest I don’t go back and look at my own art that much (besides rereading daily comics in my notebooks), I tend to be more obsessed with going back and watching my own videos and/or edits. In 2022’s case that would be my Will Wood Teru edit and my Light Yagami I’m a Bitch edit

27. Biggest surprise while creating art this year?

sounds so stupid but I had one of my annual “woag using references really DOES help me draw!” moments a couple months ago

[the-night-writer1]

soft time

A Shanyao and xaio fic for those interested. @rip-a-dip-dip-you-potato-chip is also writing one in the future possibly)

It was a Thursday night and Xaio wasn't planning on doing much other than shower. He had been watching tv when there was a soft knock on his door. He rolled his eyes as he got up. He sniffed the air as he walked to the door. That was Shanyao's scent wasn't it? He opened the door to find it was indeed a crying Shanyao standing in his door way.

"Shine what happened?" Xaio asked before Shan just hugged him and started to cry in to his chest. Xaio hugged him back confused by the situation. Did something happen? Was that why Shan showed up. Why Xaio questioning this? Questions to be answered later. The demon careful moved them both backward and shut his front door. He then rubbed Shanyao's back as the shorter one sobbed into his chest.

"I just I-" Shan hiccuped through tears," it's was just awful"

"shhh let's sit down okay and then you can tell me all about what ever happened" Xaio said sweetly, in a rare tone he'd never used around anyone else. It was a thing he only did with Shan, Shan just seemed to draw out that softness in him. Shan nodded as he rubbed his eyes and follow Xaio to the sofa.

As soon as they sat down Xaio pulled Shan on to his lap so if Shan needed to snuggle he could. Wise move on his part.

"what happened?" Xaio asked softly as Shanyao indeed cuddled into him.

"it was all terrible. He just left. Didn't say a damn thing to me about changing plans or something just up and left." Shanyao said as he rubbed his eyes. It wasn't the first time MK had forgotten a thing they'd planned to do but this time it was too much. They planned this months ago, set reminders and Shan had been excited to spend the time together. However, Mk went off to train without even a word forgetting about the things they'd planned. That or he purposely chose Wukong over Shan.

"I'm sorry babe, but hey you still got me"Xaio said giving him a kiss. It seemed to help a bit along with holding him. It was clearly comfort time. Xaio usually wasn't this cuddly with anyone but Shanyao just brought the need to touch with him. The need to hold and cradle the younger one, Xaio couldn't really fight those needs at the moment. He kissed the smaller ones forehead and took in the sweet smell of Carmel and peaches that came off Shanyao. He secretly adored the smell but he'd never be caught dead smelling like that. It make him seem weak to others of his kind. So he'd enjoy it coming off Shine while he comforted them.

"thank you," Shanyao said softly as he rubbed his eyes and sniffled," it's just I feel like he doesn't care anymore."

"shh, if he misses time with you that's his own fault" Xaio said as he kissed Shanyao's forehead and rubbed away the others tears," just means I get more time with you"

That got a wet chuckle as Shanyao snuggled into his chest more. This made Xaio's heart flutter slightly. He held Shanyao close.

-----

"Where's Shan I completely forgot about the thing and he's not answering his phone" Mk said as he rushed into the noodle shop. How'd he forget about the model mech convention? Wukong had asked him if it been postponed and he'd fucking panicked. He didn't mean to lost track of what day it was.

"he must have left his phone." Tang said as he ate some noodles," Shanyao seemed upset when he left but he wouldn't talk to me or Pigsy when he left why?"

"The convention was today and I completely spaced it!" Mk said as he ran his fingers through his hair,"I thought it was next week! Oh gods I'm stupid. Do you think he went without me?"

"probably not kid, you know how Shanyao is with your guys convention things" Pigsy chimed in from the kitchen," Maybe he went with Mei? Try calling her."

"he may not have gone at all too. Um I don't know who else he could be with-" Tang said before MK ran up stairs. He ran into Shanyao's room and found Shan's phone. Shan had the same password he did so he put it in and looked through Shanyao's contacts.

He called the contact label wolf boy.

"hey who is this?" Xaio asked a bit aggressively," and how'd get Shine's phone?"

"hey is my brother with you?" Mk asked softly.

"Oh it's you." Xaio said his growl only getting more bitter,"Yeah he's here with me."

"can I talk to him?"

"No, I just calmed down" Xaio said before hanging up on him.

Oh geeze, not the first impression MK wanted to make on his brother's boyfriend.

[dragons-socks]

Baby Bumblebee chptr 4

////////Six Months Later\\\\\\\\\

Bee was walking home from school. Lennox and Ironhide were hunting down Decepticons in Europe, so he didn’t really have a ride today, which was fine. He didn’t mind not going back to the house when Lennox or Ironhide wasn’t there. It’s not that Bee didn’t like Sarah or Annabell, but they just didn’t really get each other. Annabell tried to poke at every nerve Bumblebee had, just testing his patience. And Sarah either babied him too much or acted as if he should already know how to do some complex human thing.

And then there was school. Apparently, Sarah was right about his name. Though Bee still didn’t understand how a girl in his class can be named ‘jasmine’ after a flower, but to be called after the insect that lets that flower grow and flourish… that’s taking it too weird? Not to mention no one in the institute knows morse code, and only a few, including his teacher know sign language. The school said they’d set him up with an interpreter. That has yet to be seen.

“Oh, hey, you’re Honey Bee, right?” Bumblebee jumped as a boy his physical age tapped him on the shoulder. Bee pulled out a small keyring of flash card that said common phrases to help him interact with people who couldn’t understand his other forms of communications. He tapped on the one with his actual name on it. “Oh, well I’m Raven.”

Bee made a saluting gesture; instead of his hand being horizontal and pushed in front of him, his palm was vertical and facing out while his hand moved away to the side of his temple. Then, Bee finger-spelt the boy’s name. Raven looked at his hands with wide eyes.

“Woah, you really can’t speak, can you?” Raven asked. Bee let out angry trills, glaring at the boy. He started to walk faster, getting away from the human. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that!”

Bee chittered, turning around and raising an eyebrow. You have one chance.

“I just didn’t want to believe Harvey. He’s always making up things about other people. My mom says he’s a bully.” Raven rambled. Bee nodded in agreement. Harvey was a larger kid in his class who kept trying to pick fights and make fun of Bumblebee. Bee would hand the kid’s ass to him, but he was still an Autobots and harming humans was still a big ‘no’ in his books. “We should be friends. I see you like Voltron. My favorite is the red lion, but the yellow one is alright too.”

Bumblebee shrugged, not knowing what this ‘Voltron’ was, but decided not to try to confuse the other with too complex interactions. This is the most pleasant conversation he’s had since being forced to partake in the human learning institution.

Soon Raven had to split off to go to his own home, but made Bee promise to meet up tomorrow to walk to school. Bee felt lighter for some reason, almost like he wasn’t so alone. Annabell picked up on his good mood as soon as he entered the house. A toy sailed through the air and whacked him in the forehead.

“Hey, Bee.” She smiled.

“Annabell, stop throwing toys. Go sit in the corner.” Sarah gawked. This turned into a ten minute scream-cry feast in which Annabell was forced to spend time in the corner for longer than her original sentence. Bumblebee was already set up at the table by this point, pulling out his homework. “How was school, Bee?” The woman said as she signed the words.

‘Good, I meet a new friend. His name is Raven.’ Bee signed, his feet kicking in the open air under the table.

“Oh, that’s nice, what did you guys talk about?” Sarah leaned over the counter, ruffling Bee’s hair. He huffed and waved her hand away.

‘He kept talking about some lion-show called Voltage or something? Said I liked it too, but I don’t know why he would think that.’

“You mean Voltron? Your bookbag is designed to look like one of the characters on the show. He probably thought you got the bag because you liked the show, not because it was yellow and black.” She explained, lifting up the bag in question. On the back in vinyl letters did read ‘Voltron’. “We could watch it. So you know what your friend is talking about.”

Bee shrugged at this. He’s tried to watch human entertainment, but nothing really caught his interest. Well, he’s only really seen whatever the Witwicky’s watched, and that was just through their living room window as he was parked in their driveway. Recently, Annabell has been making him watch her shows, which were all about learning numbers, colors, and being nice. At least she has her numbers and colors down.

“Yeah, it can be our thing, when you’re done with your homework we can watch a few episodes.” Sarah nodded to herself.

Annabell was returned from her sentencing. She shuffled up to Bumblebee, holding out the wooden block that she had thrown at him earlier.

“M’sorry, Bee.” She toed at the ground and gave him large puppy dog eyes. Bee huffed and took the block from her. He’s learned pretty fast to accept her peace offerings or have her throw another tantrum.

‘Yeah, I’m sure you are.’ Bee signed back. Annabell jumped around to her mom.

“Mom, what did he say?” Sarah shook her head at the young autobot. “He said, ‘apology accepted’.”

It didn’t take long to finish the easy equations or sentence structures his teachers assigned for his class. As soon as he put his work back into his bag, Sarah ushered him onto the couch and turned on their television.

“Get comfortable, sweetie, the first episode is the longest.” Bee wrapped himself in the yellow blanket that he’s since claimed as his own. As the episode went on, Bee found himself drawing parallels of his own life and the autobots to those of these characters. He was so immersed into this stupid cartoon that he didn’t even notice that Lennox had arrived and sat down next to his wife. Not until the episode was paused.

‘HEY!’ Bumblebee turned to Sarah, jumping a little when Lennox was also there.

“Hey to you too, kid.” Lennox said, his voice thick and his face contorted into worry. Bumblebee sat up.

‘Is Ironhide okay?’ Bee signed, trying to twist out of his cocoon to get a better look outside for the mech.

“He’s fine, Bee. But I do have some bad news. The Decepticons found the base. The Autobots had to be relocated and for your safety, we might not be getting their new location.”

‘But what about Ironhide? He still needs Energon to function. How will I find them once we’ve figured out how to change me back?’ Bee asked.

“They don’t think there’s a cure for you, Bee. Optimus thought it best to cut ties. Don’t worry about Ironhide. We’re still going to get shipments of Energon for him.” Lennox pulled Bee into his chest. Bee didn’t have room to sign his frustrations, but he also didn’t have energy to fight off his prison of warm arms. Instead he let Lennox’s voice swirl around his own thoughts that wanted to drown him.

_______________

Bee slipped out of the house. The moon, street lamps, and his blinking shoe steps were his only light to navigate out of the neighborhood and try to find his way back to Optimus. The mech might not want him, but that was where he belonged, and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

It wasn’t the first time that he realized that walking was much more time consuming than driving. This was just another time that the notion ingrained itself into his head. This was the first time Bumblebee found himself walking for a long time after sunset. It seemed to take longer in the dark. It took so much longer to reach the school than it usually does.

Maybe it wasn’t the darkness of night that had Bumblebee shuffling his feet. Maybe it was the thought of seeing Optimus and the others after a month of not seeing them. Maybe it was the knowledge that this was in direct opposition of Optimus’s orders. This is the most rebellious he’s been in a long time. Bumblebee finds his feet stopping. He looks around and realizes he’s walked himself all the way just a house past Sam’s. The chill has already settled into his skin, but he’s just noticed his minutely shivers. His teeth are chattering, and he feels tired seeping into the very marrow of his human bones. His feet and legs ache. It must have been half the night gone by now.

A rumbling sound brings the rest of the world back into focus. Cars race towards him, screeching to a halt and boxing him in. At first he thinks its normal bad humans, until he recognizes the cars and notices the Decepticons’ insignias.

“I don’t get it.” Starscream’s voice is audible from his vehicular mode. “There is but a human child where the signal emits. No energon, no Autobots. Nothing.”

Bumblebee’s heart spikes. He backs away from Megatron’s right-hand. The other ‘Cons have switched back to their natural state. They leer down at Bumblebee. One even tries to grab at him. He rolls to the side, and books it for a crack in their formation. Breakdown snagged Bee’s leg, scooping him upside-down, before he could make it. Bee kept hissing and sputtering at the Cons, but they weren’t intimidated.

“It appears, Starscream, that the boy is the origin of the signal. Maybe Knockout’s weapon wasn’t as defective as we had first thought. This human child does have a striking resemblance to their mute scout.” Breakdown muses.

Bee lets out sharp whistles, hoping the sleeping humans around them will awaken, but its almost no use. His vision starts to blur as the Cons start moving away. He doesn’t know what to do. He starts pushing against the metal fist around his leg, but with each shove the only result is his palms getting hotter.

Bumblebee can feel in his gut that Breakdown is about to shift. He can hear the t-cog clicking its gears in the split second preparation of turning into the alt mode. Bee panics, pulling his arm as far back as he could and smacking hard onto Breakdown’s grip. Instead of being halted by the warm living metal, his hand pushed in with no resistance. A shot of blue energy cut a path from his hand to the open sky. Breakdown drops Bee on the ground in surprise. Bee is able to twist himself to land on his back rather than just his head. He ignores the searing pain of smacking into the asphalt and scrambles away from his capture. The other Cons make a quick double-back, but not before Bee is on his feet. His palms and fingers tingle from the heat, but are unharmed from the powerful blast-ray. Cons surround him. He pulls his arm back and lets out another blast, sweeping his arm in an arc and taking out a line of the enemies, and also some of the residential appliances.

“Bee?” It’s Sam’s voice as he scampers out of his house in a shirt and boxers. “Where’s Lennox? Why are you here?” Bee doesn’t answer. He can’t answer. He sidesteps a blast from the Cons. Its not enough, Bee is grabbed again. His arms are pinned to his side in Starscream’s hand.

“I’ve got him, retreat.” Starscream proclaimed, ignoring Bee’s chitters and Sam’s shouts. A ground bridge was opened a few feet away. Starscream watched his men walk into the portal before turning to Sam with a viscous grin. “Till the next time, Witwick-”

Bee was once again hitting the ground. His back is singing and his ears are ringing from the gunshot. His vision is blurry, but he can still make out Mikaela cocking back a rifle as Sam ran to him. Sam carefully moved Bee away from the Decepticon, who was clutching his shot-up hand. There was a moment where it looked like Starscream was going to exact revenge. Luckily the portal behind him started to close and if he wanted a ride back home he couldn’t fight the humans. Everyone sighed with relief until they looked down at Bee.

The worried shouts of his friends were cut short as Bee’s small body finally gave it quits and fell asleep.

[dominodebt]

four-stroke cycle

"Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living." -Johnathan Safran Foer

(They meet at an impasse—the proverbial fork. Who were they before they buried themselves beneath all this metal? Who are they now?)

overwatch | 5,048 | ao3

At this point in his tenure at Blackwatch—which is more or less a month and a half—Genji has learned that appearances can be deceiving.

It's a lesson he learned first with Dr. Ziegler—the slender, pale slip of a woman with fair hair who Genji had immediately branded as unremarkable, save for the brilliant brain that kept her useful. She'd walked into his room upon their first meeting, head bowed over the clipboard in her hands, and he'd waited for her to look up—waited for this unarmed woman to shrink back from him like all the others.

Then she'd turned her eyes on him—and fuck those eyes—sharper than his own sword and drawn to his flaws faster than his face. Genji had swallowed very, very hard.

He'd misjudged Jesse McCree in the same way. Upon their introduction, he'd seen little more than a messy, unsophisticated arms dealer prone to a lucky shot now and again. He'd talked too loudly, dressed too ostentatiously—Genji once spent a summer with a shock of green hair, so he knows damn well what he's talking about—and tried too hard to be everything for everyone. He seemed to be trying to make a brother out of Genji, and considering how things had ended with Genji's last brother, he wasn't exactly in the market for a new one.

Then Genji found the jaw of a Blackwatch agent who had been antagonizing him for weeks mysteriously broken, and McCree nursing a bruised fist with a cocky grin the very same day. Genji had merely quirked an eyebrow.

Commander Reyes had perhaps gotten the worst of Genji's ill-founded verdicts—a tall, brick wall of a man whose steady tones and wise advice and genuine concern clashed with Genji's fresh hatred and anger, and he'd railed against him for no reason other than his unwillingness to accept the help and support so calmly offered to him. He'd disparaged the man in his mind, ducked his gaze when he could, skirted his path at every opportunity until even the young girl—the sniper's daughter, Fareeha—had loudly and unabashedly asked him why he was so afraid of Gabriel.

Then of course Genji had sat and listened as Reyes had vouched for him before a United Nations council—watched as this man who was loyalty and steadfastness personified—put his own honor and prestige at stake in defense of a boy who had done nothing but shun him. Afterwards, when the council had grudgingly agreed to Reyes' terms, Genji had forced himself to quietly thank the Commander, and nearly stumbled when the man replied by placing a heavy hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

And yet despite all this, he can't stop judgment from clouding his vision as he catches sight of a newcomer speaking with the quintessential trio of Overwatch brass—Reyes, Morrison, and Amari—in the Blackwatch hanger.

The girl is short and thin—willowy frame swallowed up by the enormous blue hooded jacket she wears. Her skinny legs sport black leggings with a hole or two, and her shoes look to be clunky and ineffective—high-top sneakers with the laces untied, a blinding shade of yellow with neon pink accents. On her head, she wears a backwards baseball cap. Genji squints. If he's not completely mistaken, the logo it bares is some kind of…glaring rabbit.

"You wanna put him in a mech?"

So caught up in his appraisal, Genji nearly misses the girl speaking. She's studying a tablet, appearing completely unaware of his presence while Reyes and Morrison glance up in horrifying unison to meet his eyes where he lurks across the hanger, trying to melt into the shadows cast by a stealth jet.

Amari doesn't look up, but then she doesn't need too—she sees everything.

"Not quite," the sniper murmurs, reaching out to change the image on the tablet. Genji cranes his neck, trying to see what she's looking at, but the angle the girl holds it at obscures his gaze.

"Oh." The girl seems to consider whatever new information she sees, rocking back on her heels, one hand deep in the pocket of her jacket. "You wanna make him the mech."

Genji bristles at the implication—he doesn't know how, but he knows he's the topic of conversation—but the girl chatters on, handing the tablet back to Amari and calling up a handful of holographic screens around her.

"Sure, I mean—Omnic tech is wicked—but it depends on how much of his fleshy bits he's got left, y'know?" She tugs idly on one of the strings of her jacket, while her other hand moves through the air—thin fingers sorting through various holographic screens that Genji can't make out from his distance. "He'd need a helmet, for sure. Probably something to stabilize his spine, because that shit looks wonky as hell—"

"We were hoping you could speak with Dr. Ziegler," Morrison cuts her off as politely as he can. "Perhaps combine your mechanical knowledge with her medical knowledge."

Something about this seems to amuse the girl, Genji notes—her lips tug up in a half-smile as she dismisses the floating screens with a quick, flippant gesture.

"Sure," she agrees easily, dropping her arms. She's restless—fingers of one hand tapping out a rhythm on her hip, while her other hand traces the zipper of her jacket, picking idly at the metal teeth. "But like, you do know she can do that on her own, right? Like, you don't need to spare my feelings or try to make me feel useful or whatever—Angela Ziegler doesn't need anyone's help." She shrugs. "For anything."

Genji can't see the small, sharp smirk that twists Ana Amari's face from his vantage point, but he knows it's there when she says, "If only that were true, Sergeant."

The girl—Sergeant? Genji chooses to ignore that—just shrugs again, and Reyes decides to speak up.

"She designed the suit Genji wears now," he remarks. "If nothing else, maybe you could give it a look and see what you think?"

"Be happy too," the girl agrees affably. "I assume that's him lurking over by the stealth jet, yes?"

Genji goes deathly still—Reyes and Morrison find him again, and this time Amari joins them, her buckshot eyes picking his form out of the darkness with ease.

"So it is," she murmurs, accented voice warm with amusement. "Speak of the devil."

Caught beyond a shadow of a doubt—he should have known better than to bet against Amari's sight—Genji slinks into the open, squinting slightly under the bright lights of the hanger.

The girl studies him curiously for a moment—he can feel her gaze rove over his form—before shrugging, apparently uninterested by the miracle of medical technology that stands before her.

"Neat," she offers, turning her back on him. "Come on, let's take a walk. It's nice out."

Genji hesitates—he had honestly only been trying to eavesdrop on tomorrow's plans regarding the mission to Ilios—but with a somewhat stern look from Morrison, a smirk from Amari, and a firm nod and a glance that all but screams behave from Reyes, he follows the girl out of the hanger and into the cool Milan evening.

They walk in silence for a moment—conversation not quite possible with her outdistancing him, given her head start and Genji's disinterest in catching up with her—until she stops atop the hill that overlooks Blackwatch's training fields, turning around to face him somewhat expectantly.

"So." Genji bristles on instinct as her eyes—large and brown and bright in the moonlight—meet his. "You're Genji Shimada."

He says nothing. Who else could he be?

"Sergeant Hana Song," she tells him breezily, sticking out a hand. He ignores it, and she doesn't seem surprised, smoothly withdrawing it after a moment to pull a soda can out of the pocket of her jacket. "I'm with MEKA."

Genji has no idea what that means. He also doesn't think he's ever cared less about something. The girl's casual mannerisms—the way she'd nonchalantly discussed something so monumentally important to him—rankles Genji in a way that draws out his worst temperament as they make their way away from hanger and the watchful eyes of their superiors.

Well, his superiors, anyway. The fact that this girl has rank of any kind already puts her leagues above him—the thought annoys him even more

"You are a child," Genji says coldly, and the girl—Hana, not a girl but a Sergeant—just rolls her eyes, popping off the tab of her soda with a practiced flick of her thumb.

"I get that you think you probably look, like, super cool and badass with all that Omnic tech," she says, taking a swig. "But you're obviously not much older than me. And my age doesn't define me, but thanks for playing." Her tone is off-handed and casual—like she's telling off some punk at an arcade and not dishing out sass to the half-dead heir of a clan of assassins.

Genji scoffs out of habit, but his curiosity is piqued. He knows there has to be more to her than what he sees—Reyes had left her out here alone with him while he's fully armed���and Genji can't remember the last time he'd been unaccompanied in the presence of someone who couldn't subdue him should the need arise.

Probably because it had never happened.

She must catch his wandering stare, because her lips quirk up in a harsh kind of smirk—tight, with a few too many teeth.

"I'm a gamer," she explains casually, leaning back against the half-wall that overlooks Blackwatch's training fields. This late at night they're completely empty, and the artificial turf is bathed in an eerie glow by the floodlights stationed around. The aluminum can flashes in the light as she lifts it to her lips. "Professionally," she adds, like that makes any difference.

Genji just stares, irritation darkening his expression. Endlessly clever, their little guest. A gamer. Honestly. What does she take him for?

"There's no need to tell such a stupid lie," he says, tone dark with dislike. He folds his arms, glaring out into the inky blackness of the training fields. "I'm the property of a secret organization. I'm familiar with the concept of confidentiality."

Something he says snags—her eyes snap to his sharply in the near-dark, expression suddenly cold.

"You aren't property," she tells him, and he's caught off-guard by the bite to her words.

"As good as," he retorts, unsure why he's angry in response to her anger, but there it is.

They glare at each other for a moment—Genji's struck by the raw ferocity of her gaze, before it seems to melt back to that coy coolness she'd sported earlier.

"Then let's go." She shrugs away from the wall, arching an eyebrow. "If things are that bad, you shouldn't be here." She takes a swig of her soda, and Genji honestly can't tell if she's joking or not when she lowers the can and tips him a wink. "I'll bust you out."

He gives her a hard look, trying to place her tone. Her smirk implies a joke, but her eyes are staggeringly serious. He resolves to ignore the whole display, folding his arms across his chest and looking away from her.

He counts three merciful seconds of silence before she's speaking again.

"I have a question."

"Of course you do."

"This, not wearing clothes thing—" she gestures helpfully to his half-bare chest "—what's that about?"

Genji bristles. "What?"

"Because I'm pretty sure being half-Ominc isn't an excuse to let it all hang out, y'know?" She quirks an eyebrow and Genji glares down at her, bewildered and annoyed. "You're like, legally indecent right now."

Genji honestly sputters—his typical angry indignation can't quite find a handhold on his tongue in his haste to assert the fact that he is not legally indecent, thank you very much, and who does this girl think she is?

She takes another sip of her soda, eyes crinkling with laughter over the top of the can as she smirks at him.

"I hardly think—" he begins.

He breaks off as she chucks the empty soda can at his face—his hand jerks up to catch it before he can even consider the action—and it gives a satisfying crunch as he sinks his metallic fingers into it.

For a brief moment, he debates just throwing the damn thing back at her, but he stays his hand when their eyes catch. Her eyebrow quirks.

"Throw it," she says, inclining her head out towards the training fields.

"What?" Her hand has disappeared up the back of her jacket, and he has a feeling it isn't more sodas she has stowed away there.

She rolls her eyes at his apparent incompetence, miming a throwing action with her free hand.

"Throw it," she repeats, more firmly this time, and with a scoff and few idle curses, Genji hurls the can out into the darkness as hard as he can.

It's quickly swallowed up by the dusk that's settled over them, and Genji squints, trying to track it, but his gaze is quickly diverted as Hana rustles with something at her back—a determined cut to her jaw—

In one smooth movement, she's drawn a weapon—a blaster of some sort, with a charm swinging from the butt of it—takes the briefest of aim, and fires.

A brilliant green burst of energy fires out the barrel, streaking through the sky and Genji has exactly one second to consider how fucking impossible this is—

A quiet ping! echoes back to where they stand as she picks the soda can out of the night sky, and he sees shards of aluminum wink as they catch the glow of the floodlights in its resulting burst. Hana tucks her blaster back in the waistband of her pants with a smug grin of satisfaction.

"Like I said." Genji snaps his gaze down to see her stowing the gun away, one hand on her hip, surveying her handiwork—she hardly moved to take the shot. Her eyes cut to his—sharp and bright. "I'm a gamer. Professionally."

He moves away from the wall to stand over her—an old intimidation tactic that feels like a reflex—and she just looks up at him without a glimmer of interest, utterly unbothered by the red-eyed creature looming above her.

"You did not learn that from playing games." His voice rattles out from beneath his half-mask with white-hot anger.

"Do you actually think being taller than me makes you scary?" she drawls, lifting an eyebrow. She sounds uninterested—bored. Her hands are back in her pockets, not even reaching for her weapon. "Because in case it somehow escaped your notice, I'm pretty fucking short."

Another stand-off—she refuses to duck his gaze, holding his eyes forcefully. Genji can't remember the last time he'd been challenged like this—even before he'd become a mess of human and Omnic parts, he'd been the damned heir of the Shimada Clan—but this girl doesn't seem to give a shit about any of that.

As she shifts her weight something flashes on the inside of her wrist, and it catches Genji's gaze, arresting his attention until she notices.

"What are you—oh." Spying his object of interest, she pulls up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal a sort of wrist brace with a keypad. She twists her arm to give him a better view, and it glints with a metallic sheen in the artificial lights of the training fields.

"It calls my mech," she explains—unprompted and off-handed—and Genji frowns hard behind his mask.

"It what?"

"My mech," she repeats, rolling her eyes. "Should we switch to a different language? My Japanese isn't great but like, you're clearly not hearing to me—"

"Why do you have a mech?"

Something about his question—posed sharply for no reason other than his utter fucking annoyance at her ability to keep surprising him—seems to amuse her, and he watches warily as she lets loose a rather tight smirk.

"Because I have a slightly higher percentage of taking down Omnics while inside it," Hana replies, quirking an eyebrow. "Only slightly though."

His anger deflates—flat lines into disbelief.

"Really." He stares her down, a little unnerved at how evenly she meets his eyes. "You. Fight Omnics."

She scoffs at his tone, rolling her eyes up to give him a look of annoyance. "Y'know, for a guy who's gone through all the shit you have, you sure seem to be taken by surprise a lot."

Genji huffs a sigh, working to marshal his temper. "I've fought Omnics before, and I hardly think—"

"Not like this you haven't," she says—and there's a sudden catch to her voice, like the scrape of a struck match.

He opens his mouth to rebut, but she's hit some switch on her wrist brace, and Genji watches as a hologram blooms to life between them.

It's enormous. Genji blinks, stepping back on instinct as both he and Hana are bathed in the watery blue glow of a massive, snake-like creature that unfurls from the light put out by Hana's device. It twists within the confines of its projection, flexing its claws, baring its teeth—

"It rose out of the East China Sea three years ago," she explains quietly, and Genji starts at the sound of her voice. "Obliterated the Korean Peninsula and assaulted its neighbors—China, Japan, parts of Russia—only to sink back into the water. We thought it was just…a fluke. A freak accident." She shifts inside her jacket—thin fingers of her free hand tugging on the strings of the hood. "Then it came back. For Korea, specifically."

The name of the country falls from her lips in a way that immediately tells Genji it's home—more than that, even. It's her heart, her judgment, her will. He never had that love for Japan, but he once held it for his own family—it's a staggering, overwhelming kind of devotion.

Genji gives a slow nod. He can't look away from the hologram. Neither can she.

"We made drones—hundreds of them—operated by artificial intelligent to try and destroy it." Here she swallows hard, and Genji realizes she hasn't even gotten to the worst part of the story. The light from the hologram highlights worry lines that mar her forehead.

"So what happened?"

"It learns."

Genji's eyes snap to hers, confused.

"The drone's AI couldn't keep pace with the Omnic's," she says. He wonders what she's seeing as she gazes up at the serpentine Omnic winding and writhing between them—wonders what memory she's reliving. Her expression is haunted, and he can tell by the way it sits on her face that it's familiar to her. "So they decided to give them pilots."

Genji frowns. "You're a pilot?" That still doesn't explain the skill and authority this girl touts. And aren't pilots supposed to be…tall?

She heaves a very put-upon sigh, rolling her eyes with exaggeration. "I'm a gamer," she reminds him. "As I apparently have to keep telling you."

"How does a gamer—?"

"The flight controls of the mechs are identical to the ones used in 16-Bit Hero." He snaps his eyes to hers—affronted by her interruption—and is struck by the way her gaze gleams—a stare like a switchblade. She punches a code into the keypad, and the hologram winks out of existence, dousing them with darkness once more.

"A game where I've held the top score for about five years."

Genji balks.

"They put video game players—"

"Why are you so hung up on that?" she cuts him off again, hand on her hip. Genji just glowers back. "Yeah, okay, so I'm a gamer. If I can pilot a mech as well as I can—and believe me, I'm pretty damn good at it—why does it matter how I learned?"

Genji just gazes evenly at her, trying to temper his mood, but Hana continues hotly, "People were dying—my people—my friends and neighbors and family!"

"Had you ever been trained in combat?" Genji asks, voice harsher than he intends. "Games might have sharpened your reflexes, but there is more to fighting than—"

She flings her arms wide, exasperated. "Look, dude, just because I'm not, like, a sword master or whatever doesn't make me any less of a fighter than you, okay?" She drops her arms, and they flop to her side with a soft whumpf. She suddenly looks very, very small, silhouetted against the training field floodlights as she is.

"I'd die for my country—for the people I care about. Isn't that enough?"

Genji looks away, staring out into the training fields. Hana chases him—sidesteps until she stands before him, and while he could easily dodge her gaze by merely staring over her head, he finds his eyes drawn to her own.

"What do you fight for, then?" she demands—she doesn't raise her voice, but her words still burn—eyes narrowed and too bright in the darkness. "What makes your cause so fucking noble that you have a right to judge mine?"

Genji's voice whips out low and fast. "I never judged your cause."

"But you judge me."

He scoffs. "That doesn't make you special."

She mutters something under her breath—so curt and harsh he knows it to be a curse—and looks away, the new angle allowing the floodlights to fall across her face, sharpening the look of annoyance she wears.

"I should kidnap you," she grumbles, half to herself, and Genji starts slightly. "Your head's way too far up your ass."

He bristles again—her unpredictable pace and tone is a stark switch from the typical steady seriousness of Blackwatch.

A moment of silence rolls over them as they both glare off in different directions. Genji keeps waiting for the moment when she'll just throw him a dirty look and march off—nothing's keeping her here, as far as he's aware, and he's been far from polite—but instead she just sighs, crossing her arms and looking up at him, expression distinctly exasperated.

"Look. Dude. Do you want this fancy Omnic suit or not?"

Genji frowns. "What?"

Hana sighs again, waving a hand around a bit wildly. "The whole reason I'm here. Do you want an upgraded suit? One that would let you fight? Well, fight better, anyway." She's watching him closely now—like she can draw the truth out of him without his permission.

Genji's not entirely sure she can't.

"It's your call. I get the feeling you've done a lot of fighting." Her eyes quickly skirt his profile—lingering on some of the raw scars bare in his half-armor. "I'd understand if you didn't want to fight anymore. Overwatch can beg for MEKA's expertise all they want—but if you don't want it, they can choke."

His eyebrow rises without his permission. "Choke?"

Hana shrugs. "Sure. I mean, I'm pretty sure you didn't really mean it when you said you were Blackwatch's property, but that feeling had to come from somewhere." Her hands grow restless again—Genji watches as she fiddles with the cuff of her sleeve, eyes lowered. "I like Commander Reyes, but Morrison…" she trails off, chewing her lip. "He gives me weird vibes. Win at all costs kind of vibes." Her gaze flickers to his, like she's gauging his reaction. He keeps his expression expertly schooled.

"I just—I don't want to act like I know what you've been through. You can't imagine the kinds of things I've seen and done, so I'm not going to do the same to you, but—" she cuts herself off, whisking her hat off for one moment to drag her hand through the long brown locks, staring out into the night closing in around them, huffing out a sigh.

"But?" Genji prompts lightly.

Her eyes cut to his—Genji wonders if he'll ever get used to the immediacy with which she commands his gaze.

"It feels like it's you against the world," she tells him softly. "But sometimes…it's just you against yourself."

Genji doesn't speak for a moment—just lets the many meanings of her words wash over him.

"As long as we're quoting philosophies at each other," he offers quietly. "Have you ever heard that life isn't a game?"

A small smile quirks her lips, and she glances up at him, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ear. She absolutely has heard this before, he surmises. Probably many times.

"I mean, if you treat everything like a game," she says. "What's the difference?"

Genji frowns hard. "When it's your own life at stake—" he begins.

Hana scoffs, shaking her head. "I have to," she interrupts. "I have to have a degree of separation—pretend like I'll just respawn if I go down, act like I've got a bunch of extra lives or whatever—the alternative is too horrifying." She looks up at him, expression disarmingly serious. "I'm too young to die."

So was I, Genji wants to say, but for the first time that night, bites his tongue. He's not dead—not really. A dead man couldn't be standing out here, in the cool Milan evening, trading barbs with a professional gamer who boasts a shot that rivals a soldier's.

He's not him. But he's not not him either.

"I meant what I said, by the way," she murmurs, drawing Genji's gaze once more. She lifts one eyebrow, assessing him calmly. "You feel indebted to Blackwatch, and I get that. But before you throw yourself out into a conflict like this, maybe know yourself a little better?" She shrugs, features pinched with a sudden flash of pain. "Seems like kind of a waste to risk your life when you haven't even decided what you're living for, you know?"

Genji tilts his head, digesting her words.

"And you?" he asks quietly. "You've weighed the risk yourself?"

Hana nods absently. "My equation was a lot easier," she replies. Busy fingers tap against the brick of the wall they lean against. The girl simply can't sit still, it seems. "I live for Korea or I die for it."

The unshakeable sureness of her words—and the disarming calm with which she speaks them—throws Genji. What would if feel like to care that deeply and honestly for something? He didn't want to die for Hanzo's pride—so what would he be willing to die for?

Then—so fast Genji's hand twitches toward his blade on instinct—Hana lurches forward to seize his good arm, pulling a sharpie out of her pocket and yanking the cap off inelegantly with her teeth.

He jerks away, but she tugs right back, and after a brief stare down, he surrenders and lays his arm flat in her hands.

"Soda, sharpies, a gun…" he watches her scribble down a set of numbers on the pale expanse of his skin. "What else do you have in your pockets?"

"Everything," is her prim response. "And I don't keep my gun in my pocket, that'd be stupid."

His lips curve in the makings of a smirk, but it falls as she pulls away, admiring her handiwork as she looks over what he can only assume is her phone number scrawled across his arm.

"There." She pockets the pockets the pen with a pleased expression. "Now you can call me or something?"

Genji bends his arm to inspect the number, lifting an eyebrow at her wording. "Or something?"

She rolls her eyes, flapping him quiet. "You know what I mean. Text me. Send me a picture of your dinner. Write me angsty poems about how much you hate the gorgeous rolling hills of Milan. I don't know." She shrugs. "You need a friend, dude. Like, desperately."

His expression sours—he does not need a friend—but she smiles softly and knocks her hip against his, their contrasting heights making the action a little awkward.

"We'll come up with a code for when you want to be busted out of here," she tells him, leaning close into his space, voice low and conspiring. "We'll call it, like, jailbreak or something."

"Not a very complicated code," he murmurs back, playing along at least partially.

She groans and pulls away—her eye roll so completely over-the-top and dramatic he almost cracks a grin.

"Fine," she bites out in a tone that holds absolutely no heat. "Since you're so clever, you can decide what the code is."

Genji is about to reply—can feel a sarcastic remark on the tip of his tongue, and it tastes so familiar, so like him—

A figure approaches—Genji suddenly hears the crunching of grass and his whole demeanor shifts and darkens as a man in a stiff uniform stops a few feet away.

"Sergeant Song."

Hana turns, and Genji watches—transfixed—as the girl's casual stance snaps into a formal salute.

"Sergeant Jo," she greets the man, the timbre of her voice lower and steadier than it has been all evening.

He nods, and Hana drops the salute.

"We're leaving soon—you done?"

She gives him a firm nod and the man's gaze skims over Genji for a moment before he turns to leave, and Hana follows suit.

Genji stands alone at the half wall a bit awkwardly for a moment—does he say goodbye?—when Hana's voice drifts back.

"You should check out my stream sometime," she calls to him. He can hear the shit-eating grin in her voice, so help him. She tosses a throwaway glance over her shoulder, eyebrow raised. "Maybe you could learn something."

He pulls a face, bewildered. "Stream?"

"I'm a gamer!" she shouts back at him, the anger in her voice belied by her grin. "Profess—!"

"I know!" Genji interrupts, smirking below his face-plate. "Professionally."

Her answering smile is dazzling. Then she holds up a fist—thumb stuck between her middle and index finger—and vanishes over the hill after her fellow solider.

knock knock guess who it is with a fic that nobody asked for and shouldn't have taken four fuckin' months to write???

so things have been rough. very very rough. but in a new game I call Stop Being A Bummer On Main, I'm just gonna say the worst isn't quite over, but a lot of good stuff has happened and things are starting to even out. my motivation to write took an obvious hit since it's been uh checks notes a cool four months since I've posted something but hey! I'm here and you're here and this fic is mediocre at best but dammit I'm trying lmao

anyway hi my name's Duch welcome to Headcanon Land:

1) Angela Ziegler is a fucking icon and people everywhere look up to her, but particularly young girls interested in science and medicine, such as Hana Song

2) I know skins don't have any bearing on canon or lore (nothing in Overwatch seems to have any bearing on canon or lore) but I like to think D.Va's Junker skin implies that, should the need arise, she could totally recreate her mech out of spare garbage lying around, thus implying she's handy as hell with mechanics. Going further with that, we know Hana's skill as a pilot is credited to her skill as a gamer, but I like to think gamers proposed themselves to the military and not the other way around. I think it makes much more sense that Hana herself built some sort of prototype that utilized the controls from 16-Bit Hero

3) Genji and Hana are much closer in age and are absolute nightmares to each other for no reason other than they can be

 4) I hate the Black Cat skin and I know that's not a headcanon but goddammit Blizz give me a Sgt. Song skin I'm fucking begging you please

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[duckapus]

So a longish time ago I posted a series of drawings on Deviantart depicting the main Fairly Oddparents kids as superheros post-series. These are those drawings, along with some explanations for each.

Guardian(note: needs a better name): Every three generations, a child of the Tang family line is chosen as a mystical guardian of light. Each guardian is approached by a spirit animal on the fourth day of the fourth month after their twelfth birthday, who will grant them their spirit vessel (a magical body designed specifically for fighting evil spirits) and act as a guide and partner through their many battles. Beatrix “Trixie” Tang was destined to be the latest iteration of the guardian. This is Veronica Star, who is very much regretting putting on her wig today. At least her new mentor Derek has the decency to look sheepish about the mix-up.

For those wondering, I only noticed how similar Veronica’s magical girl form is to Galacta Knight after drawing her.

Deep Toot: After Cleft became Dimmsdale’s first full-time superhero, Tootie was inspired to redesign and re-purpose her Deep Toot persona, taking inspiration from The Question in particular. As Deep Toot she is incredibly subdued and grounded in reality, acting as a foil to Cleft’s quick wit and comic book-style methods.

Ringo: Since Veronica ended up with the powers Trixie was supposed to have, I decided to have the April Fool take her under his wing. Her powers are a kid friendly version of the ones from The Mask, and she’s rarely seen without her smiley-face mallet.

Professor Fist: Basically, a bunch of robots were rampaging across the city and AJ strapped on part of a Mech Suit he was building so he could deal with them. No-one in Dimmsdale realized it was him because it’s Dimmsdale, the media gave him a stupid name that stuck, and he decided to keep going with the whole hero thing. He doesn’t really care about his secret identity, since he doesn’t have one outside of Dimmsdale.

Matter Muncher Lad: “KND Research File Project Codename: B.R.A.C.E.R. (Biological Restructuring Advances Combat Effectiveness Radically) Project Purpose: Replicate effect of "Supersoldier Syrum" compound on Captain Steven Rogers during World War 2 for use on Kids Next Door Operatives. Project Status: Success, exceeds expectations, currently unrepeatable due to time travel. Notes: Project Bracer originated in an alternate timeline where a person known only as Marianne took over the world during World War 1 via a combination of Fairy Magic and information provided by a magic-based clone of herself from the modern day. The Nazi splinter group Hydra still managed to form under these conditions, and began Project Bracer in an attempt to dethrone Marianne and take her place. This was noticed by both Marianne's followers and the Resistance Next Door, our counterparts in that timeline. Both sides tore Hydra apart and seized what resources they could. This is when Project Bracer as we know it truly began. Closer to modern day, two boys with knowledge of the original timeline appeared; Chester McBadbat and Albert "AJ" Johnson Jr.(Codename Professor Fist) The duo quickly encountered and joined the RND, regaining their memories of aiding their friend Timmy Turner on his adventures in the process. Now armed with the knowledge of how Marianne's rule came to be, Chester and AJ were sent along with a strike team to take Marianne's primary fortress and utilize the same Time Machine her clone used. The strike team consisted of Sector V itself, Phineas Flynn (Codename The Beak) and Bubbles Utonium (Codename Agent Bullet, and the last surviving Utonium in that timeline). Chester's lack of combat experience and unique equipment compared to the rest of the strike team was remedied by becoming the first successful subject of Project Bracer. In addition to the overall enhancement intended, Chester gained a near-bottomless stomach, teeth and jaws that could chew through any material at incredible speeds, and an unusual effect on his braces, permanently fusing them to his teeth and turning them into biomechanical excavation equipment, augmenting his already unprecedented chewing ability. He took the Codename Matter Muncher Lad after discovering these new abilities as a reference to one of his previous adventures. The plan was to free Cosmo and Wanda, Marianne's Fairy Godparents -Particularly Cosmo, as he was the Fortress's power source- and have them lead the way to the Time Machine. The plan worked, albeit with a few complications, and the team even got two new members in the form of invader Zim and GIR, who had been captured soon after landing on Earth two years earlier and researched by Marianne's scientists. The group managed to get to World War 1, where things get fuzzy. What is known is that Bullet died at some point (despite being a Powerpuff Girl in a time where most weapons shouldn't have been able to bruise her), Chester managed to become a war hero in the eyes of that time period's Kids Next Door, Marianne gained the same powers as Chester as a result of a wish, and both Chester and Marianne were lost at sea, only to be frozen until, in Chester's case, his team found him again in the modern day. Chester has agreed to let us study his abilities and DNA in hopes of restoring Project Bracer, though he insists on his work as Matter Muncher Lad be strictly as an independent vigilante. Still, he has been, and likely will continue to be, a great ally in the fight against adult tyranny. This is Number 17, signing off. Kids Next Door Rules.”

Cleft and Catgirl: This one’s pretty simple. Timmy decided to become a full-time superhero after realizing his battles with the enemies he’s made over the years, Chloe wanted to help, they redesigned the costumes they had on hand and started fighting the good fight.

The Masked Magician: So, Elmer is one of my favorite characters. Because of this, I've made him the most potentially powerful of the superheroes. His powers are a book-themed actalike of Doctor Strange, his hero identity is my second favorite of Timmy's transformations, and he has direct access to Maginary World/ the mindscape/ the dream realm/ whatever you happen to call the collective subconscious of every being in a particular universe. And his partner is NiGHTS, one of the best underused video game characters of all time. I'm not sure how this happened, but I'm going to assume it involves some greater destiny-type stuff. He doesn’t have his Boil because Bob gained a body of his own, which I’ll explain some other time.

Polterpunk: Due to an incident where he got caught in the middle of a big fight, Sanjay ended up becoming roughly twelve percent ghost. As a result, he can turn intangible, almost invisible, create energy weapons out of ectoplasm, and has glowing purple eyes. unfortunately, he can't fly, there's no strength boost, and he has no transformation. He also can't get his eyes back to normal and shows up on ghost tracking equipment. Currently he's being trained by Dani Phantom and Cleft, since his condition was partially their fault.

[feels--on--wheels]

A Million Miles Away

Wanted to write something for day 3 of Lost Light fest, but this came out late.  Drift-POV, this has been stuck in my head for months, but guys, this tore its way out.  Part of an AU where EoS doesn’t happen.  This is basically hurt no comfort, warnings for intrusive thoughts and thoughts of self-harm.

Song on repeat- Ghost by Badflower.

It was a Bad Day again. Drift could feel the thoughts swirling in his head, like they were putting pressure on the inside of his helm.  Like a tickle he couldn't reach, but he could hear it.  You're nothing.  He should have stopped Rodimus, stopped Prowl.  He could have.  Roddy listened to him, sometimes.  If he had found the right words, set it in the right terms, Overlord never would have been anywhere near the Lost Light.  Anywhere near Ratchet.  He'd said no, but Roddy didn't listen, and Drift let it go.  He always let it go.  Because you're weak.  And mechs had died because of that weakness, again.  And he'd nearly watched Ratchet become one of them.  He had to get away, stop putting the people he loved in danger because of him.  Miles away from anyone I truly care about.  His spark felt tight in his chest, like his chamber was too small.  They would be fine without him.  Rodimus had to lead the quest.  He'd seen it.  If Roddy didn't lead, Bad Things would happen.  Worse than Overlord.  Maybe if there had been a different Third in Command, if Roddy had brought on someone stronger, kept better friends than Drift, then Overlord wouldn't have been an issue.  Someone like Perceptor, with his clear head and logical solutions, would never have let Prowl push on Roddy's pride like that.  Pipes would be alive.  Rewind.  They survived a war, and died on a search. What if they never find the Knights, even with Rodimus?  What if it was a false vision?  What if Rodimus leads them all to their deaths? No.  He had to have faith.  Faith was all he had left.  Miles away from anyone I truly care about.  He wouldn't think of Ratchet, or Rodimus, or Perceptor.  Wouldn't wonder if Chromedome had survived the loss of his conjunx.  Or how if Rodimus had been a few seconds later...Overlord had had Ratchet by the throat.  That first shot had been their last lucky one.  It didn't matter that he was pinned down with his own swords.  It hurt, but it didn't matter.  The pain when his legs tore away as he tried to crawl back to the battle was nothing, because Ratchet was going to die, and it would be Drift's fault that he was gone, and he would have lost the chance to say all the things that he wished he could have said, all the things he would never be brave enough to tell him, because Drift was weak.  If Rodimus had been ten seconds slower... Miles away from anyone I truly care about.  Drift knew he would never be worth anything to Ratchet.  To him, Ratchet was the first person who ever gave a damn if he lived or died.  Ratchet had punched Death in the face and snatched Drift away, and when he woke up, he didn't regret it.  Even after he had snuck away from the clinic when the medic didn't come back, he couldn't forget that.  To Ratchet, he was just another junkie who had 'accidentally' overdosed directly into his processor, but he had never tried to kill himself after that, even when he was so low that Rodion looked like rough week, because Ratchet had put serious effort into saving his life, and somewhere out there Ratchet didn't want him to die.  Miles away from anyone I truly care about.  Bottom line, I've got nothing left to lose.  He'd always thought Ratchet wanted him alive, anyway.  Even when he was with the Decepticons, he felt like somehow Ratchet would notice.  When he called himself Deadlock, when he let his anger at the priveledged mechs of the Senate and the Towers drive him to tear through Mechs until all he could smell was spilt Energon and burnt metal, when he pushed himself halfway to insanity with stims and constant adrenaline so he could keep going and stop thinking, he had always remembered Ratchet on Bad Days.  When the Cause had changed beyond recognition, when Cybertron had been destroyed and abandoned, when there was nothing left to fight for.  And ultimately, it would undoubtedly have been better for Ratchet if he'd let Drift die.  What battles would have been won by the Autobots, what lives would have been saved, how much of the war could have been averted with strategic victories?  Drift had no illusions that he'd single-handedly kept the Decepticons running, but he had been a weapon, and in the wrong hands the right weapon can do a lot of damage.  Would Ratchet's hands have started going out if he hadn't had to use them so often?  Would the Circle of Light have avoided drawing the attention of the Decepticons altogether? Drift shuddered hard and pushed back at the doubts pounding behind his optics, squeezing his hands together behind his neck.  None of that mattered.  Primus had given him this path, and he would continue on it until Primus was through with him.  Wether Ratchet cared or not, Drift still would have distracted Overlord for as long as he could.  That was his choice.  Rodimus had to lead the quest.  He had to believe that Primus had given him that vision for a reason.  He would just have to do what he could from out here, alone.  At least if he was on his own, he couldn't cause more trouble for the mechs on the Lost Light.  When he was low like this, there was nobody to see him, nobody to judge him for this weakness where he couldn't even control his own thoughts, when he absolutely ached for something to distract him from himself, be it fighting or doing stupid stunts with Roddy or that throwback craving for the old drugs that would never fragging stop haunting him.  His hands itched to be doing something, anything, but when he caught himself clutching the armor of his thighs so hard it started to buckle, he snatched them away.  He wouldn't, not even this much.  He had made a decision, and he couldn't control how he felt, and he couldn't control what he thought, but he could control this, and he would NOT.  He paced the length of his ship instead, as small as it was.  He sped up on each rotation, until he was practically throwing himself against the walls, but noticing didn't mean he could stop.  What he needed to do was sit down in the cockpit and find another Decepticon signal to trace, fling himself as hard as he could at an enemy and burn off the nervous energy that was making his plating shiver and his fingers clench, but now that he was stuck in a pattern he couldn't seem to get himself out of it.  History had taught him that eventually he would run out his energy and collapse, shaking and miserable and ashamed, until he managed to drag himself to his berth for recharge and a defrag, but that could be hours from now.  He was wasting time like this, he could be helping people or stopping Decepticons or even just showing some aliens on a trade planet that not all Cybertronians were insane warmongering kill-machines, but instead he was stuck here arguing himself in circles on an empty ship, and before he could slip into another cycle of loathing and stubbornness and pain his Autobot frequency comm went off. '-bot Ratchet, under attack by-' Ratchet. Drift gasped in a huge invent, and suddenly he was back in control of his frame, scrambling to the cockpit and cranking the com-signal as loud as it would go while he started his tracking program and a silent prayer to Primus. '-significant hull damage, about to enter the atmosphere-' No no no, he couldn't lose the signal now!  Ratchet needed him, he had to get there, he had to be close enough to get the comm. '-Alphekka syst-' Alphekka.  Thank Primus.  He hurriedly pulled up his starmap, searching through until he found the right star and immediately locked in a course for the most direct route.  He wasn't close, not nearly close enough to get there before Ratchet made planetfall, but he had to try.  Pain, doubt, the exhaustion that came after  so much time spent whirling like a spark trapped in his own frame, none of it mattered.  He had to get to Ratchet.

[infuriatedleprechaun]

Clayshah seemed relieved the poor pregnant woman was having a break through. It's what they all needed, to know they were going to be protected, and they were free here.

She gave a simple nod to Donnie, but she was clearly deep in thought on something. She left the med bay without too much more of an exchange.

Heading to her house and putting the water on the stove. She suddenly grabbed a large piece of paper, slapped it on the countertop, and began to draw as the water heated.

.

.

"GUYS, guys. Where are the boys at?" Inferna asked while gently picking the bond. She was panting from running from ironhide.

"They're spending time with all their kiddos" Starblast informed.

"When are you going to leave that poor, old, mech alone?" Nemesis huffed.

"I'm so glad you asked Neme, when I'm dead" Inferna was ecstatic to finally be able to make those jokes now. A big evil grin on her face.

She was venturing on a new line of humor she hadn't really been able to before. Made it much easier that she knew she was going to die ahead of time too.

Nemesis and the twins were NOT happy about her new form of humor. But all knew she coped with extremely morbid jokes.

"Speaking of which guys, I have a song. From the heart" she took out a ukulele. She sat crisscross next to her mother, apart of the sloppy circle the elementals formed around the fire.

"Oh... this is going to be stupid" Striker muttered, mostly a warning to her mother and aunts.

"No u" inferna started a dumb, simple little rift on the mini, Hawaiian guitar.

"Fitting instrument though" Starblast snickered. Aquarius felt a headache coming along from her cousin's mere proximity.

"When I die" Inferna started. The tone of her song way too upbeat for the subject.

"Managed to be stupid 3 words in. Incredible" some snickers of laughter from Striker's aggression.

"Carve a giant dick, on the moon for me when I die"

"And getting dumber" Aquarius huffed turning over on the hammock, putting a pillow over her head.

She sent a mock prayer to spirit to take her faster so she didn't have to listen to the fire pusher.

Her chest tattoo flared, she didn't seemed very alarmed at the fact though.

"It was a joke" she said very seriously making everyone roar with laughter, who were already trying to recover from Inferna's stupid song.

"Oh when I die" inferna had a big grin at her cousin as she continued.

"Weld ironhide's ass hole to a street pole when I die"

"Dude" came the in unison disgusted protest from the light sisters. The twins started to laugh really hard at that one, they didn't want the mental image but it was funny regardless.

"Oh when I die" inferna made a funny face as her rift got more complex, her voice sounded like creed.

"Put a potato, in the bed of Lennox, when I die!" Inferna was getting mock into the song, moving her whole body as she played her ukulele. The image was completely ridiculous.

.

.

Clayshah finished the quick doodle and notes on the side. And stared at her work, it appeared she had a project to do, to keep herself busy for the next few months.

On top of that. They were going to train the boys, too. But they were very quick learners so she wasn't overly pressed on that one. This might be able to actually help them.

Maybe the young turtles would get treatment by that point too. But Donnie would more than likely administer it to them anyway. If he wanted her help of course she'd assist.

The pot on the stove started to whistle, she put a little honey in the tea cup, and dumped the hot water in, and went to her cupboard to hunt down some camomile tea, this one had a hint of lavender in it too.

It was settled. She knew what she was going to do, shouldn't take long either.

@darkness-to-redemption

Opposites Attract

“Careful, you idiot.” Leonardo snarled at his youngest brother. “They’ll hear you, scatter and I’ll have to chase them all around the city.”

[transformerimagines]

Assignments (Tfp Soundwave x Reader)

Shooting a gun was easy. Hitting an Autobot target from 100m was a piece of cake. This drawing however was utterly and unbelievably impossible.

“UGH!” You shouted in frustration, standing up from your usual place on Soundwave’s work console and throwing the note book that was previously on your knee half way across the room. You grabbed your gun next and placed three firm shots into the leather-bound book. Soundwave had heard the ordeal an only turned to you with the blank mask of his visor. “There is no way you can draw that bloody bird!” You huffed before slumping back down again.

“I find drawing calming.” Came the sound of your own voice from Soundwave who had sieved through many recordings of you to find the perfect one to match the situation. Damn that Con was seriously creepy. Maybe that’s why you got along with him so well.

“Yeah well that one isn’t,” Sighing, you turned to face him with your legs crossed. “For our essay we have to draw a figure of a Scarlet Macaw to explain its colour adaptation and, as you know, I can’t draw anything unless its sitting in front of me.” You paused then, allowing Soundwave to nod in order to show he was still listening. He was always listening though, you sometimes had to remind yourself that when you were sleeping in the hab suite next to him. “So how in the hell am I meant to draw the stupid bird!” Once again, your voice raised past your normal level as you continued to scream into your hands before lying back on the control unit, your hands still covering your face.

It was so frustrating at times. Every day you would wake up in a mechanical floating ship surrounded by robotic figures, go to university lectures then come back to the ship and kick some Autobot ass if needed. You honestly had no idea how you became part of the team, it happened so fast that it almost felt like whiplash when you thought about it. Soundwave was your partner, for the first few months he had been your protector against some of the drones and higher ranked officers however when you were given a gun and proceeded to shoot Starscream repeatedly he decided you could handle yourself. Nonetheless you still stayed with him at most times. When he was working, you would sit on his console and do some University work, when you were bed bound with stomach aches or the flu he checked up on you every hour. As you carried on thinking about the mysterious mech you felt metallic claws wrap around your wrists to pry them from your pouting face. He was hovering above you of course, his tentacles firmly around your hands as a pout emoji showed on his visor, obviously in mocking.

“That’s not funny.” You spoke sternly. He released your hands and you crossed them over your chest.

“That’s not funny.” He played back causing you to look at him with a glare. The image of his visor went blank for a moment before a picture of a Scarlet Macaw appeared there. It was as if he was mocking you more, even taunting you about your little outbreak. His servo raised towards his face, pointing at the picture on his visor in questioning.

“Yeah that’s the little blighter who is the bane of my existence.” You told him, moving your hand to gesture at the image. Before your hand was fully extended however, Soundwave had rose to his pedes and picked you up in his servo. Not a second later a swirling ground bridge appeared in front of the both of you which he walked thought without hesitation. Trying to ignore the momentary sickness, you looked around the new environment that you were in, seeing nothing but high trees and vines of green covering the floor and branches. “What the hell are we doing here?” You asked him angrily. You really had to get on with your assignment so being in the middle of nowhere was honestly no help to you right now.

Soundwave only mover a finger in front of his mask before silently moving into the forest, he stopped after taking two or three long steps. That was when he brought you up to the same height as his helm, all the while a finger placed in front of his mask. You turned to him ready to yell when a flash of red sped past your face. Quickly recovering, you whipped back around to follow the red blob only to see it wasn’t a blob but a bird. A Scarlet Macaw to be exact. You took a step back, awe taking over your face as you saw that there wasn’t only one of these miraculous birds but a whole flock, some flying while others were perched on nearby branches. A gasp escaped your throat as your hands came to cover your mouth, tears began to prick at your eyes as you realised what Soundwave had done for you. The Mech in question stayed silent as he watched you. He was recording the whole thing, zooming in on your face of joy to see the minute changes it made as your processed the thoughts in your head. He decided he liked the face you were making, this will be the picture he uses to remind him of your happiest times. Primus knows that when you are in a war happy times are few and far between.

“Soundwave,” You hiccupped with watery eyes before running over to the Cons visor and firmly planting yourself against it, yours arms coming up in a way to hug the visor. Soundwave wasn’t expecting this, it was quite a shock to have your frame fully envelope his optics but he wasn’t going to complain. You were warm and squishy, it was nice to feel such contact from you. “Thank you so much, it means a lot.” Against his better judgement, Soundwave decided to respond in kind.

“Thanks, unneeded. You are welcome.” It had been too long since he had used his own voice making it scratchy in parts but you didn’t care, you were to overwhelmed at the fact that he actually spoke to care about the quality. You wanted to hear him speak again, you marked it in your head as a mission as you stepped away from him, wiping the tears from your eyes.

“Right, let’s draw these suckers.”

___

“Bee, do you see anything?” Arcee asked the scout next to her as the traipsed through the rainforest undergrowth. The autobots had caught signal of a ground bridge being used in the area, the two stealth bots offered to go and check it out yet had found nothing. Bee sounded something in response before grabbing hold of Arcee and pulling her back. The yellow bot pointed to something in front of her.

The two silently moved a bit closer until the image before them came in to focus. Soundwave was in the middle of the rainforest, leaning against the tree while the Con pet was sat patiently in his servo surrounded by a bunch of red birds. The two watched as a bird came to land on the tip of Soundwave’s visor making the human chuckled with laughter.

“They seem to like you Soundwave, maybe we should take one home as a friend for Laserbeak.” The human spoke in an amused tone as Soundwave carefully shooed the bird away with one of his tentacles. Another tentacle playfully wrapped around the human’s waist, constricting slightly as it pulled the fleshy being towards Soundwave’s visor the nuzzled against the humans back. “Hey stop, you’re freezing.” The fleshy gasped, trying to escape from Soundwave who effortlessly dragged them back whenever they moved away.

Bee looked to Arcee with a few concerned beeps. Arcee pulled her optics away from the scene in front of her with a slight rise in colour of her cheeks. She felt that she had stumbled upon a moment that she should had seen.

“Urm, let’s not tell anyone okay?” Arcee asked before Bee sounded.

“Yeah that’s probably best, who knew Soundy could be so caring?”

[sonicforcesau]

Forced AU: Eggman’s Alliance Arc, Part 2

It was already a few months after Eggman had collected the six Chaos Emeralds, and his secret laboratory was filled with posted up designs, concepts, and calculations that could have made his grandfather’s project research on Shadow go to shame.

And here he was, sat in this same chair for who knows how many hours, as he obsessively planned new robot concepts that could possibly take out Sonic the Hedgehog and all of his friends and allies that could possibly side with them; such as Team Dark, and the Chaotix.

And of course, the general public of Mobius who didn’t want to be ruled by a scientist obsessed with building an empire to worship himself.

The more he drew, the more memories and flashbacks of every attack, every defeat, and every humiliation was brought back into his mind. It was a good thing he was drawing on a tablet - a real pencil might have already snapped with how tightly he held the thing.

He didn’t even have the time to celebrate Christmas last year! And all those sitting down only using his brain probably made him gain even more weight. The thought made his mood turn sour.

“Doctor Eggman!” a frantic cry of his name from Orbot. “It’s an emergency!”

“Orbot!” the fat man responded with a cry. “Didn’t I tell you not to disturb me while I’m designing mechs?”

“The Chaos Emeralds have disappeared!”

“What!?” The effect was immediate. Eggman stood up instantly, nearly knocking over all the paper and even the computers from his workstation. “What do you mean they disappeared?”

“Like I said, Doctor Eggman,” Orbot repeated. “They really just disappeared without a trace!”

“I don’t believe it.” grumbled Eggman as he turned to face his computer once more. Typing into the keyboard and navigating the control panel, he brought up a feed of the security cameras installed in the base.

And he recovered the recorded footage of the room where he stored the Chaos Emeralds in, and played the video back:

It was the usual thing he saw; the Chaos Emeralds glowing dimly in their own colour, with the occasional spark of additional colour being spiked off from the emerald. And suddenly, a static had interrupted the video footage slightly, but he could still see what had happened.

The six Chaos Emeralds suddenly glowed a brilliant white, and blinded the camera with their white light. And then when the light dimmed, the emeralds disappeared along with it.

“Hmm…” Eggman pondered, lightly tapping the desk with his fingers as he came up with possible answers as of to what could have possibly happened. “Could it be… some form of Chaos Control?”

“But, Doctor-” Orbot interrupted his thoughts. “-Chaos Control under natural circumstances require all seven of the Chaos Emeralds.”

“I know, and the Emeralds spread themselves across Mobius again.” Eggman responded. “But then, they have never been kept like this before…”

“Boss!” Cubot interrupted as he joined the two. “There’s something strange that the base sensors are detecting! We’re surrounded by them!”

“I’ll teach them that Doctor Eggman can’t be taken down easily!” said the rotund man, as he furiously swiped at the screens and pulled out another live video footage of cameras monitoring the base’s exterior, and he was greeted with the sight of… the vast emptiness of the desert.

“You sure those sensors aren’t malfunctioning?” Eggman narrowed his eyes at the yellow robot.

“I’m sure of it! There are six energy signatures surrounding the base!” Cubot defended himself as he took out a tablet to show his maker the radar.

“Well I don’t see any-” the fat man suddenly stopped speaking, as a sudden twinkle in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. It came from the camera feeds. “-wait… What are those?”

As Eggman mumbled to himself, he zoomed in a camera to aim for a closer look at the unknown object. “They’re energy signatures, you say?”

“Yes boss!” replied Cubot.

“They could be the Chaos Emeralds. Let’s go take a look.”

And so, the red robot, the yellow robot, and the red-dressed fat man took a walk outside of their base, for the first time in a long time. But it seemed like the walk was a short one as they were immediately greeted with the sight of a purple gemstone, half buried into the ground.

Squatting down with some effort, Eggman picked up the gemstone with his gloved hands and stared down at the object.

“Well, it doesn’t look like a Chaos Emerald.” he commented before looking back up.

It was everything he could have ever dreamt about! Eggmanland: The big, beautiful theme park; full of statues of himself where living beings all over the world come to visit and worship him - the great Doctor Eggman!

His jaw dropped open in bewilderment, as he unconsciously let loose of the object that was in his palm in the shock. It had only been a millisecond of whatever fantasy world that the universe decided to bestow upon him - and he was already absolutely loving it.

And suddenly, it disappeared.

The shock had dissipated, and he admit that he felt disappointed that Eggmanland was gone. Was it a hallucination? Did he work too much on designing those robots that he had finally lost his sanity?

Another glint caught his eye for the second time that day.

Perhaps… it was that jewel?

Maybe it was the jewel, that was now on the floor again, appearing to be almost inviting the scientist to hold it once more.

Normally, he would feel excited about discovering a new material for his plans. But with this one - the strange unknown jewel - made him feel uneasy. Why? Was it because they appeared just as the Chaos Emeralds disappeared into thin air? And coincidentally; six of them, too?

A link clicked in the scientist’s brain.

‘No. It wasn’t a coincidence.’ thought Eggman, as he picked up the jewel for the second time. This time, no fantasies of his appeared before him.

“Orbot, Cubot.” called the fat man. “Collect the jewels, and analyse them in the lab. Cross check their energy signals with Chaos Emerald data.”

“Right away!” replied the robot minions as they went to do exactly what their maker ordered.

A few hours after the gemstones were discovered and analysed, Eggman’s suspicions were confirmed to be true: The jewels did contain significant amounts of Chaos Energy and had traces of material similar to Chaos Emeralds.

“Right.” Doctor Eggman suddenly spoke up after reading and going through the results of the analysis in his head. “I have come to the conclusion that these six jewels are the Chaos Emeralds.”

“That’s excellent, Doctor Eggman.” responded Orbot. “Then perhaps you can now continue with your plans!”

“Not quite.” the scientist grumbled, slightly annoyed for some reasons. “Although they contain Chaos Energy, the energy signatures produced are vastly different from the original Emeralds.”

“Then maybe they are another form of the Emeralds?” Cubot chimed in his two cents.

“Excellent conclusion, Cubot!” Eggman exclaimed. “Perhaps you’re not such an idiot, after all.”

“I want to call them ‘Spooky Sapphire’!”

“I take back my words; they’re not even blue, you stupid robot!” Eggman snapped, before calming down once more. “Anyway, with my great mind, I’ve already come up with a brilliant name - that none of you dimwits could ever come up with.”

“It shall be named: the ‘Phantom Ruby’!”

And it is also time to find out exactly how this newly named Phantom Ruby caused that illusion.

[overcaffeinated-paranoia]

ALRIGHT SO Money is super tight the next few months, and i’ll need extra income in order to cover rent/living expenses! As my day job doesn’t pay very well, and my current apartment is stupid expensive. And of course, this means I’ll also need to find a new one! So I decided to do discounted commissions!

I’ll be open for $10 digital full-body sketches, (with one added character for no extra charge if you want) Where I will complete your sketch by the end of the day! I can draw anything from fandom stuff to humans, creatures, monsters, furries etc! Any more than 2 characters will be +$5 per character however! The only thing I won’t draw for the Sketchathon is Overly detailed mechs (think like a zoid or bahamut from Final Fantasy X level of detail)

My other commission options are also on sale for $10 off of their base price, but I won't include them as part of the Sketchathon, because they take longer.

NSFW is also allowed, but I have more rules to those and the art will be posted to https://rudelucid.tumblr.com , which the rules are as follows:

Things I’m best at/most comfortable with: Monsters Teratophilia Weird Xeno genitals M/M Stuff with Prince Lotor, Galra, Bill cipher, or other such monsters in general

Things I WON’T draw: Anything child/baby/childbirth/underage related Inflation/unnaturally fat/unnaturally muscular overly detailed robots scat/pee stuff Heterosexual Sex - kissing/hugging is fine, but detailed images are a no-go anything alt-right related

And of course, you must be 18+ to commission NSFW!!

I take paypal only, if you’re interested, email me at overcaffeinatedparanoia@yahoo.com !

Thankyou for looking! And please spread the word if you can! :D