#age of extinction OP is OP

[kamiana-ruzha]

if you thought that i am not an Optimus Prime simp...

think again

i dare you

[valentine--heart]

[drop-dead-dropout]

🤿 squiblybeakers77 aug 25, 2014

how many times do I have to tell you guys octarians don't exist anymore. the army literally killed all of them in the great turf war you're not going to get a hot octoling gf they're fucking extinct

🍤 woomy-mother-fuckers aug 30, 2014

op your bio says you listen to turquoise october

🤿 squiblybeakers77 aug 30, 2014

yeah cause it's a bop. not made by octarians tho, it's a coverup to keep us from questioning it.

⭐ tetradualies-trash mar 8, 2024

guys I found this gem from like a decade ago. aged very well I think

🐡 OutFishing mar 16, 2024

is this person real... @squiblybeakers77 were you created in a lab I don't understand you

🦐 NOBODYTOUCHMYFISHFRYS mar 19, 2024

and here we have the legendary squibly, who fought valiantly against Big Octo's lies and also didn't bother to take the fifteen minute bus ride to mt nantai where you could've literally seen octolings patrolling the outside of octo canyon. truly a warrior of the people,

🔫 z3nz0nes mar 20, 2024

"turquoise october isn't actually octolings".... THE LYRICS ARE IN OCTARI??? A WHOLE ASS DIFFERENT LANGUAGE?????

🦐 NOBODYTOUCHMYFISHFRYS mar 20, 2024

zen you don't understand. obviously Big Octo created a fake language to keep us complacent

🌷 burst-bombs-are-gay mar 25, 2024

omg why didn't u guys tell me my wife went extinct in 2014 😔😔😔 @yokoandthegoldbisexuals I miss u already babe 💔

#also loving the implication that Big Government was like #"hey we need to fake some stuff for this octo thing" #and the best idea they could come up with was... leaving an unlabeled cd in a dumpster???? #granted the later ones had labels but like. that's absolutely insane what do you MEAN

(3,610,857 notes)

[startheskelaton]

If Sparkplug existed in the Bayformers movies (Say she gets introduced in between 3 and 4), how’d you think she’d change things?

Ngl, it’d be funny as hell if the Decipticons and Autobots teamed up to defeat Fraser and the military industrial complex (like the secret plot of the fourth movie is US black ops teams eliminating any transformer so America has a monopoly on their tech), or at the very least her trying to do Couples Therapy between her Dad’s New Body (is that her dad? Her Uncle? Her half-brother? What the FUCK is galvatton to her)

Besides her canonical list of friends, I think she’d like (or hate) Hound. He’s designed off of a 45 year old retired Marine, smokes a cigar and loves the smell of Napalm in the Morning. It entirely depends how she views violence to non-Transformers

I image shed first be in the group of hatchlings that Megatron was feeding in “revenge of the fallen” I think it’s that movie.

I like to think she’d make friends with the female leads and be they’re equivalent to bumblebee. Her original purpose being shaped by Mikaela’s kindness to her and with her help, forming a better relationship with Optimus.

I think she’d actually shine the most in Age of Extinction. She and Optimus would be a narrative parallel to Cade and his own daughter. Seeing that Optimus is also a father trying his hardest to make a world that’s safe for his daughter would create a stronger bond between the two.

[insipid-drivel]

Toxins, Venom, and Poisons in Historical Western Medicine: How Are We Not Extinct From Doing Some Of This To Ourselves?

This piece is an involuntary piece inspired by @writing-with-sophia's awesome post "Poison list", which is an accurate and succinct list of commonly known (and ancient!) poisons, venoms, and toxins that have been and were used for causing poisoning in ancient and recent history. I wanted to write this because what struck me by their post crossing my dash was, the sheer number of poisons listed that were - and even still are - used as mainstays for healthcare around the world throughout the ages!

OBLIGATORY DON'T BE A DUMBASS PSA: If you're planning on incorporating these poisons into your HISTORICAL-era writing, it's also important to remember that many of them were used for medicinal purposes at one time, too, and it's great you're interested in learning about the subject! And also, you shouldn't try ANY of these! I will not tell you how to do it at home if you DM me, so don't! You are not appropriately trained to do it! You will harm or kill yourself and possibly your loved ones if you fuck around with any of these and it will be 100% your fault and you absolutely should feel bad bout it! I've seen some of you idiots believe 4chan posts about making home-grown crystals using recipes for actual mustard gas and seen you being wheeled into the ER on the news! I will not feel bad if you get yourself hurt if you screw around with any of these plants, elements, or animals!

Resource blog plugs and PSA over, now for the Hilariously Poisonous Medicines:

If you're writing something that's meant to take place prior to the advent of our more modern understanding of poisons, venoms, and toxins, factoring in "this is toxic to me NOW, but what about 500 years ago?" can add a lot of opportunities for interesting plot elements to your story.

These can include someone accidentally poisoning themselves with a toxic drug or substance that wouldn't have killed them if they'd handled it properly - like tansy? Grows all over the place in Europe and England? That'll kill you if you harvest it too late in the season, but it's good for intestinal parasites when it's harvested early in the year and processed right.

Did the lady's maid really kill her mistress with belladonna? Or was she trying to secretly help her mistress get rid of an unwanted pregnancy?

The protagonist's children can't survive to make it to weaning age! Is the wetnurse a poisoner, or does the milkman hide that he sells sour milk by pouring Borax into it so no one could taste it and has no idea he's killing his clients' babies?

Nuance and cultural mores regarding historical views about poisons and toxins can make writing even more fun, dynamic, and interesting! Explore 'em!

Just... please don't try any of this crap yourself. You will poison yourself, it will hurt, you will die, and you will hurt the entire time you're dying. Using OP's master list alone, here's the flip side of these lethal beasts through the eyes of our distant ancestors who believed illness was caused by "vapors", "bad air", and "imbalanced humors":

Hemlock:

Used across multiple different cultures in history. When properly administered to treat a disease, poison hemlock was used to treat asthma, whooping cough, bronchitis, joint/bone pain, muscle cramps, and insomnia. Hemlock was most often used as a sedative and antispasmodic.

Arsenic:

Arsenic is a heavy metal, and so has been used in everything from making specialty dyes for wallpapers (Scheele's green is the most infamous arsenic-based paint; Queen Victoria once had a guestroom in her palace redone with Scheele's green wallpaper. The first dignitary to stay there had to be carried out and taken to emergency care after breathing astronomical amounts of arsenic dust from the wallpaper's paint), to medicine. Arsenic was especially commonly used in history to treat skin ailments ranging from acne, to psoriasis, to syphilis sores. It was also sometimes prescribed for menstrual cramps, upset stomachs, colic, and arthritis, among many, many other things.

Cyanide:

Uh... I have literally never found any evidence of cyanide in medicine, outside of its use in modern medicine as part of certain chemical lab tests for measuring urine ketone bodies that involve no contact with a patient whatsoever. Cyanide literally works in less than a few seconds to render your entire body incapable of absorbing OR using oxygen in your lungs or already existing in your blood. Cyanide is really only good at making things that breathe not breathe anymore.

Nightshade:

There are a lot of different "nightshades", so being specific is essential here. Potatoes are nightshades. Tomatoes are nightshades. Calling anything a "nightshade" does not inherently mean it's lethally toxic. Belladonna is probably the most notorious of the "deadly" nightshades, but to this day, is still used medicinally, and would actually be seen as a health and cosmetic mainstay in historical fiction, especially if your setting is in Italy!

Belladonna is an Italian portmanteau for "beautiful woman", because tinctures (water-based drops) of belladonna were commonly used by Italian women as eyedrops to dilate their eyes and appear more attractive, aroused, and desirable. Today, belladonna's eye-dilating effects are still used by optometrists to dilate the pupils! Belladonna has been, and still sometimes is used as an NSAID, general painkiller, motion sickness treatment, asthma medication, and even as a treatment for IBS.

Ricin:

As OP said, Ricin is derived from the toxin found in Castor Beans, and is surprisingly new as an official "the only reason this is made is to make someone dead" poison. Not only is ricin a popular "nobody would think to test for this!" choice in mystery/thriller writing, but it has been used for political assassinations in real life before. Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian anti-Communist dissenter and writer, was killed in 1978 with a 1.7mm diameter ricin-coated pellet shot into his thigh muscle by an unidentified assailant using a modified umbrella as a gun. He died 4 days later.

Historically, castor OIL has been used for medicinal purposes, especially for treating constipation, inducing labor in pregnancy, and as a topical skin moisturizer. If you've ever watched the opening scene in Disney's "Peter Pan", when the childrens' mother is trying to give them a spoonful of medicine each, she's actually giving them castor oil! Castor oil tastes really bad (so much so that flavorings like cinnamon were often added to try to muffle the taste), so the childrens' reluctance and disgust at their mom making them take their medicine is very realistic for the era the movie came out in!

Strychnine:

Another lethal poison that started life as a medicine/food additive. Strychnine is no longer used medicinally at all today, but historically, it was used to stimulate the heart, treat bladder and bowel incontinence, and limb palsy. Strychnine is a deadly-powerful muscle stimulant that, as a poison, causes horrifyingly painful full-body strictures (spasms) and destroys the cardiovascular system. (Fun fact: Strychnine and hydrochloric acid were historically mixed into cheap vodka to make knock-off gin, especially during the Georgian Era in England if the brewer didn't have or couldn't afford juniper berries!)

Snake Venom:

Seriously, do your research before you write an actual, real snake species using venom they don't produce! The Big 3 Forms Of Snake Venom are: Hemotoxic, Neurotoxic, and Cytotoxic. Specific snake species exclusively generate the same kind of venom (so a hemotoxic snake will ALWAYS produce baby snakes that also make hemotoxic venom). Aristotle himself wrote in 380 BC that certain snake venoms could be applied for treating fevers, smallpox, and leprosy, and there is even some evidence in the historical record prior to the 1800s that different cultures have experimented throughout the eons with using venom for converting into antivenom, but I've never found a source citing anyone making a successful form of antivenom until around the 1850s.

Digitalis:

OP really nailed the important thing about Digitalis, and that is it's cardiac benefits for certain people - particularly for treating congestive heart failure. Vincent van Gogh was actually prescribed epilepsy medication that likely contained Digitalis, aka Foxglove, and there are some prevailing theories about van Gogh's love of bright yellow paint as being either caused or exacerbated by the symptoms associated with digitalis use, which can cause an attraction to and increased visual sensitivity to the color yellow. In several portraits, including one of his own psychiatrist, van Gogh shows subjects presented alongside foxglove flowers. Digitalis is absolutely lethal if consumed or taken without expert guidance, however, because it's the mother ingredient of Digoxin. Digoxin isn't used as frequently as it used to be a few decades ago, but it's still used and prescribed today for certain forms of heart failure and heart disease. Digoxin was also, at one time, was also sometimes used to induce chemical abortions.

Lead:

Dear god, lead. Not only is it so slow to kill you that you'll think that the only way to manage your symptoms is with more lead, but lead poisoning can be a life-long crisis for a person who is regularly exposed to it. Humans have used lead for everything from plumbing, to paint, to our cutlery, to cosmetics, to medicine. While yes, it is very possible to ingest enough lead in a single sitting to die within hours or days, most sufferers of lead poisoning experience it for years or decades before the symptoms become obvious. Some archaeologists believe that the Romans used lead cutlery because lead has a unique reaction when we lick it: when you have lead coating your tongue, it makes EVERYTHING you eat suddenly taste 10x better. I learned this myself from going target-shooting with my mom at a gun rage as a teenager, inhaled gunsmoke (which contains lead), and went for lunch immediately after. Even though I was just eating a $5 meal from In-N-Out, my burger tasted so good I thought I was gonna have to change my pants. When I asked the rangemaster at the target place about it later, he literally said, "Oh yeah, lead makes the worst cooking taste like heaven."

The ancient Romans ate a lot of rotten, spoiled, and sour food, and so lead would've made it easier to eat it back then. But the neurological effects of lead poisoning are nightmarish. It's suspected that, in America, the #1 reason we had so many active serial killers in the country from the 1940s-2000s was because of leaded gasoline. Ever since leaded gasoline was banned? Serial and random violent crime rates have dramatically gone down, especially in metropolitan cities. Ancient Rome, too, gradually became an increasingly violent city as its population went up and its reliance on lead did. We're only just now starting to figure out how toxic lead actually is, so go nuts with using it as a plot element regarding subjects like "Why Are You Like This?"

Mercury:

Mercury is also known as quicksilver, because in spite of being a heavy metal, the temperature at which it melts into a liquid is very, very low compared to most other metals. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, was rumored to be so obsessed with the notion of immortality that he would send his doctors on doomed voyages around the world searching for a legendary substance that would, indeed, make him immortal. Legend has it that some doctors who were tasked with the job found out about the last guys, and produced mercury before Emperor Qin Shi Huang and cried, "Here it is! I got it!" so they wouldn't end up doomed to drown at sea. Qin Shi Huang became so obsessed with ingesting and medicating himself with mercury that, when his legendary tomb was being constructed, he had a small-yet-accurate-to-scale map of China+the known world about the size of a football field with every body of water full of fountains of running mercury in his burial chamber. His tomb was rediscovered in the last couple of decades after archaeologists found suspiciously high levels of mercury in the soil on top of a "hill" that had been sitting in the countryside untouched for thousands of years. It turned out to be Qin Shi Huang's long-lost tomb.

Since those days, mercury has closely been associated in early medicine as a sort of cure-all, since it literally kills anything it touches (including people). Captain Blackbeard himself, the most notorious pirate in Western history (Western specifically; google who Zheng Yi Sao was), was known or widely believed to be a syphilis sufferer, and desperately sought infusions of mercury from ships he'd capture (and the doctors onboard) to treat it, believing like everyone did that mercury could cure syphilis. It can't. They just didn't understand back then that syphilis starts off surface-level, and then eats your brain years after the initial infection.

Aconite:

Again, ridiculously toxic outside of specific medicinal applications that still aren't safe today! Aconite, or wolfsbane, has historically been used as a heart sedative (for slowing the heart), diuretic, painkiller, and even used to induce sweating. Evidence of wolfsbane being used for medicinal purposes has been spotted here and there over thousands of years throughout the Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Empires, but its original use came about in Ancient Greece for hunting and culling wolves by poisoning bait-food with it. That form of hunting died out long before the European Middle Ages, but the name "wolfsbane" stuck. Mostly because in the Middle Ages, a lot of people believed werewolves were a huge problem, and kept wolfsbane handy to deter said werewolves.

Thallium:

Today, thallium is mostly used in the production of camera and eyeglass lenses. Before its toxicity was known about, it wasn't strange to hear of thallium being used topically to treat fungal infections like ringworm. Thallium was also sporadically used in treating typhus and tuberculosis, along with a wide array of sexually transmitted diseases.

This list doesn't even touch the tip of the toxic iceberg when it comes to the sheer quantity of hilariously dangerous toxins people have, or still continue, to use for medicinal purposes! In a Victorian-era English London middle-class townhouse setting alone, there were dozens and dozens of ways to poison or otherwise harm yourself just by going about your daily life. So, if you've got a period piece you're working on, or are just bored, you can pick an exact date and time in our history and learn just how terrifyingly comfortable our ancestors were with upsettingly dangerous substances and home remedies. You can also watch a massive docuseries, called "Hidden Killers" and hosted by historian Suzannah Lipscomb, among other historians and archaeologists, which deep-dives into the hidden and unknown dangers of living in eras from Tudor-Era England, to the Post-WWII Reconstruction Age.

As a final note: I am NOT bashing Chinese or Eastern medicinal practices here, and in fact deliberately have gone out of my way to not include any references toward culturally-sanctioned medicinal practices in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. This post is specifically related to the history of WESTERN medicines and their associated history. I am not, nor have I ever been, a doctor of any traditional Eastern medicinal practices, and do not pretend to know better. Sinophobes are unwelcome in my blog space.

[agblack]

My Desired Realities (Part 1/???)

Just because I'm bored and wanted to talk about my Desired Realities, and I have several, I decided to write a few informations about each of them. Nothing as extensive as I did before, and maybe I'll give more details later. And they're not in any particular order. As usual, I try to keep things as close to canon as possible. Enjoy ^^

Marvel Cinematic Universe

I think I'm a bit OP here, but can anyone blame me?

♠ Name: Axel (the name I use); Alma ben Rei (my birth name) ♠ Age: Around 100 years younger than Loki

♠ S/O: I didn't script an S/O to this reality. However, I did script that I find someone I love deeply and who loves me back just as much.

♠ Species: Auterian (Auter was a planet that got destroyed long ago, Superman style. Auterian people have lifespan and physical capabilities similar to Asgardians, are immune to mental control or manipulation of any kind. Also, Auterians can breathe in space and heal others, though healing consumes energy according to the intensity of the wound) ♠ The Gems: Some Auterians can attune themselves to special Gems, that give them powers, and once attuned the Gem belongs to said Auterian for life. Usually an Auterian only attune with one gem, with few people being able to attune with 2 or 3. Stories say that someone once got 5. But with the species near extinction, things changed. Those Gems are heavily inspired by the Djinn from the anime Magi: Labyrinth of Magic. Being attuned to a gem is enough to have access to some of its powers, and more than one gem works simultaneously, but to truly use a Gem's power it's needed to enter it's Equip mode. The Equip mode is like a full transformation, that happens instantly, and changes clothes and appearance of the Gem's wielder. Going into the Equip mode disables the other Gems. Using a Gem's power drains energy, like any exercise would, but the more someone knows a Gem, less energy is drained and more complex things can be done for longer periods. ♠ Powers: My powers are based on the Gems that Auterians can attune to. In my case, there are 10 in total:

Focalors: Wind based Gem, allow myself to fly or control the winds. This one was with me when I was sent to Asgard, and is the one I have more control of. Odin doesn't like my use of Focalors now after an event occurred on Midgard the last time we went there.

Barbatos: Strength based Gem, give me superior strength, speed and combat abilities in general. This one I found in Asgard years ago, and I have a great grasp on how to control it. The Equipe mode comes with a spear.

Dantalion: Portal based Gem. With only the Gem, I can control small things with my mind and levitate. In the Equip mode I can create portals between two points in space; the size and distance between the two points dictates the complexity of the task. I found this Gem on Earth, in possession of Jane Foster (the events of Thor, right after I shift to this reality for the first time). I had to use the powers of this Gem to come back to Earth after Loki sent me to Jotunheim during the events of Avengers.

Agares: Earth based Gem, relying on brute force. The Equip mode resembles a golem. Not my favorite. Found this one in Jotunheim after Loki sent me there to not overthrow his plans.

Vinea: Water based Gem. Comes with a Trident in Equip mode. Found in Vanaheim before the events of Thor: Dark World.

Zepar: Sound based Gem. Found in Svartalfheim during the events of Thor: Dark World.

Astaroth: Fire based Gem, with white flames and dragon motifs. Found in Muspelheim during the events of Thor: Ragnarök.

Valefor: Ice based Gem, the Equip mode resembles a kitsune. Found in Niflheim during the events of Thor: Ragnarök.

Baal: Lightning based Gem. Found in Nidavellir during the events of Avengers: Infinity War.

Zagan: Plant based Gem. Equip mode comes with a whip. Found in Alfheim before the events of Avengers: Endgame.

♠ Brief History (SPOILERS): I got sent away from Auter before the destruction, still a newborn, and ended up in Asgard, where I was raised by Odin and Frigga alongside Thor and Loki. I shift there for the first time a bit before the events of the Thor movie, and I'm on Earth in search for the Gem I can sense on the planet. Pietro don't die (avoided). Tony don't die (use of Auterian healing powers that send us both into a week long coma, but nothing serious happens). I don't vanish during the Blip. I become a part of the Avengers.

Once Upon a Time

♠ Name: Adrian Jones (aka Tempest)

♠ Age: 22

♠ S/O: Not sure if I want an S/O in this reality, so I'm leaving it to the universe to decide.

♠ Brief History: I'm Killian's younger brother, and his second in command at the Jolly Roger. I learned magic from Peter Pan, and I kept developing it after we took different paths, and now I'm just as strong as him, maybe more. For some reason the rule "All magic comes with a price" don't apply to me. I'm specialized in wind and water magic, as they help when sailing, but I’m almost as good in the other kinds as well. I also have a natural connection to sea creatures. My reputation precedes me for my mean side. People who heard about me heard about “the vicious and cruel quartermaster of the Jolly Roger”. I’m not a bad person though, acting like that just with people who really wronged me. I’m a natural acrobat, being able to jump through the ropes from the ship without difficulty and having perfect balance. The first time I shift there, I wake up at the Jolly Roger just after the First Curse is broken.

One Piece

♠ Name: Portgas D. Kenji (alias: The Devil)

♠ Age: 18

♠ S/O: Zoro

♠ Devil Fruit: Devil Devil Fruit: Model Hellfire. A mythical Zoan fruit that makes me able to become a devil, or a devil-human hybrid. I get more stamina, strength and speed on the hybrid form, and even more on the devil form. I also get wings, claws and a tail in both form, though in the devil form they look more monstrous. I also can control Hellfire, a white-blueish kind of fire that can burn anywhere, and can be cold as ice or hot as magma. Besides all that, I have extreme healing capabilities, being able to even regrow limbs if needed. I never feel cold or hot, since my body is able to regulate its temperature all the time. For now, going into full devil form for too long make me lose control (like Chopper and his Monster Form). This fruit was a myth, a thing from legends, since the last user was someone ages before Gold Roger.

♠ Brief History: I'm Ace's twin brother. I left with Ace to the sea, though we went separate ways. I found the fruit on an island, before finding the Revolutionary Army and joining their ranks. I make myself part of the Straw Hat crew as they're escaping Loguetown. The Marine doesn't go after the crew more than normal after knowing I’m related to Roger. All ships have plumbing and warm water, using the sea water and filters. The first time I shift there, I'm at Loguetown, and it's the morning the Straw Hats arrive there.

Twilight

♠ Name: Axel Logan Hale

♠ Age: 18 when turned

♠ S/O: Liam, a guy who is part of the wolf pack. Imprinting is a thing, but heavily modified from canon (as in the guy actually has control over his actions and never happens with children, for starters). However Imprinting still changes the wolf's body, in a way, so Liam's scent no longer is bad for vampires, and vampire scent is not bad to him.

♠ Species: Vampire.

♠ Powers: Ice creation and control. This also make my metabolism super slow, so I have to feed less frequently and never tasted human blood, ever.

♠ Brief History: I'm Rosalie's twin brother. While she was the perfect daughter to our parents, I was kind of neglected by them, like a black sheep or something. I got turned a while after she did, by Carlisle - I was confronting Royce about where she was since she just disappeared when she arrived to end him and she threw me to a wall with more force than she should. While Rose hates this new life, I like it. I hated Edward at first, because of his ability to read my thoughts, but now he's my best friend. I shift there the first time a day before Bella's arrival in Forks.

♠ Curiosity: I may write a fic about this (just have to go through writer's block and procrastination)

The Magicians

♠ Name: Axel Hawthorne

♠ Age: 25

♠ S/O: Eliot. Or Quentin. Or both. Who knows what expects me there.

♠ Powers: My Discipline is Aeromancy, so I'm at the Physical Kid's Cottage as well.

♠ Brief History: When I arrived at Brakebills, I tried to stay away from everyone, but neither Eliot nor Margo were having any of that, and since we're on the same year they dragged me into their group, and somehow I let them. I'm also kind of a genius related to magic, and the idea is to become a professor at Brakebills eventually. I first shift there a few days before Quentin's arrival.

[savage-rhi]

Higgs putting his own seasoning into it like

I vehemently believe that Higgs 2.0 is a Depeche Mode dork and if you've ever seen them perform you know exactly what I mean

[lets-try-some-writing]

What about TFP meeting IDW OP and Megs? I feel like everyone would get whiplash

They would.

Meeting IDW

TFP wasn't quite sure what to expect when it came to meeting IDW. Most were thinking the leaders of the alternate universe would be akin to their own, which they were correct to a degree. Others were prepared to meet either a mad psychopath or leaders far too young for their own good. None save for Optimus expected to see a set of leaders who were both just so... tired.

When Optimus met his IDW counterpart they didn't need to even speak to understand. They were both tired, only pushed on by duty and both weighed down by their sins and weakness. IDW Optimus was exhausted with everything after millions of years of conflict that seemed to only push them further to extinction. TFP Optimus in comparison was more hopeful, largely because he had the touch of Primus and relics of the age of old to aid him. However both were exhausted and wished for rest, both had tried and largely failed to pass the burden on only for it to return. There was no escape, not until their shared duty was done.

This was their reality, and they took solace in the fact that they suffered through it together.

Team Prime looked at their alternate Prime and found him to be akin but oh so very different from their own. He had the same stoicism, but he was damaged in a slightly different way. Where their Prime kept things hidden away behind the Matrix, this Prime showed visible frustration, anger, and confliction. He seemed to not know who he was, what his purpose really was, and what the point of it all happened to be. In short, to the team he was a masterful leader, commander, and soldier... but a damaged mech so worn down by war that seeing their Bumblebee and Smokescreen was akin to watching an actual angel of Primus descend. Such innocence was near unheard of and it was a blessing to IDW Optimus.

Ratchet got along with the alternate Prime just fine, but he only grew more worried for IDW Optimus with every passing moment. The Prime was grim but dutiful, uncaring of himself but oh so attentive to others, and wanting nothing more than to rest but forcing himself to continue on. There was little Ratchet could do for this Prime, but it did help somewhat to show IDW Optimus the hope their universe had in their relics and the Allspark. That seemed to bring the alternate Prime joy.

The Wreckers were largely conflicted when it cane to the alternate Prime. IDW Optimus thought similarly. Bulkhead was not a bot IDW Optimus knew personally and had only heard the designation a grand total of two to three times during his work. The Wheeljack he knew was far different than the one before him and it more often than not left the alternate Prime unsure how to act. Ultra Magnus was similar but not the same to his counterpart, there was something about him to IDW Optimus that set him apart, a spark of hope that seemed to be present in all of the TFP bots. It was something most of IDW Optimus's people lacked after so long of nothing but endless war.

Arcee was quite a different bot from her counterpart. She was still tortured, but she hadn't met the wrath of the council like IDW Optimus's version of her. She was angry, but she had youth and the ability to move past it. She was pained and weighed down by loss, but she had a family to keep her up. It was something IDW Optimus wished for his Arcee, if only to ease her pain.

Bumblebee and Smokescreen were unsure how to act around IDW Optimus. To them he was almost like the logical conclusion of their own Prime if the war dragged on. He was the end that awaited their Optimus should nothing change, and that frightened them. IDW Optimus was wise, strong, and well meaning, but he was not the same. He did not show the same joy, the same life that theirs did. On IDW Optimus's end, he saw the two young bots before him as a strange but wonderful gift. Two little lights amid the darkness of war, young bots who were eager, hopeful, and awaiting a future where their home was restored.

IDW Optimus was strange to the team in a rather unexplainable way. He was their Prime if there was no hope in Primus, and watching that possibility stand before them brought the team a degree of discomfort.

Their reality was built on the truth of mythology and science blending together in every work and action. But IDW Optimus lived in a reality where mythos was a thing of the past and science was a convoluted and painful thing. It was not a world the team wished to live in and pitied the alternate Prime for having to endure.

As for IDW Megatron? His interaction with his TFP counterpart was... poor to say the least. The alternate Megatron had seen the worst of reality, he had committed enough crimes and heresies to beat the many sins of whole worlds. He was tainted, haunted, and had long seen how far he had fallen and taken a step back to rethink his ways. His TFP counterpart was in comparison the embodiment of his darker days when he was still lost in his desire for vengeance. The alternate Megatron saw his counterpart as a lost spark consumed by rage like he was so long ago. As such he saw it as his duty to try and drag TFP Megatron back toward the truth, something that was far more difficult than he would have liked.

His counterpart was intelligent, increadible so and very well spoken. TFP Megatron was far from stupid, but he was lost, and for that reason IDW Megatron tread lightly around his counterpart. Much of his interaction with his counterpart was composed of debate and trying to remain free of conflict. He wanted his alternate self to see all the hurt he had caused, he wanted to help him before it was too late. TFP Megatron's Optimus was just as merciful as IDW's. If he would only repent and work to fix things...

It was a slow and very uphill battle.

TFP Starscream was more than terrified of Megatron's alternate self. The mech was a monster, huge and towering yet somehow soft in his steps and haunted in a way that TFP Megatron was not. He didn't even try to kill the other Megatron, instead hiding behind his own in terror. IDW Megatron for his part found his counterpart's second in command a pitiful thing that was just similar enough to his Starscream to be familiar but odd enough to be strange. He didn't bother trying to focus much on Starscream aside from keeping him out of harms way.

TFP Soundwave looked to the alternate Megatron in confliction. This Megatron was scarred and wore the Autobot badge, yet he fought for the values and freedoms the Decepticons wanted. He was a threat, one that Soundwave would have preferred to eliminate... but he was also a hope. IDW Megatron was living proof that Megatron could get back on the right track and lead them to victory, a true victory. IDW Megatron for his part found the spymaster to be... concerning. He was not like IDW Megatron's Soundwave, he didn't have the same spark of loyalty or the same disposition. All in all, he was someone IDW Megatron tended to avoid.

Knockout and Breakdown were not mecha IDW Megatron was directly familiar with and as such after the initial panic on their parts, he got along with them well enough. He could still be snappy, but he was a welcome relief from his counterpart and upon sharing his numerous frame changes, gained Knockout's interest. It certainly helped that Breakdown being respectful was a welcome change from the constant irritation that was Rodimus.

TFP Shockwave was concerning simply because IDW Megatron had exactly zero sway over him. The scientist saw the alternate Megatron as a fascinating specimen and IDW Megatron wanted nothing to do with him. He had dealt with enough scrap with his own Shockwave to know to leave the mech alone. His Shockwave was bad enough with just science, but this one had access to old magic as well. IDW Megatron had no desire to get involved in that.

When it came to Arachnid, IDW Megatron's first instinct was "Burn it with fire". He hated her on instinct and thus stayed as clear of her as possible. It wasn't his place to kill anyone in the alternate universe he found himself in, but Primus he wanted to punt her into a wall after hearing of some of her war crimes. He wasn't much better but she did it for fun, and that enraged him.

As for the Vehicons? IDW Megatron quickly found himself protective of them. They were clones that didn't ask to be forged and were treated as disposable despite serving such a vital function. With that said IDW Megatron devoted a good chunk of the time he wasn't spending trying to get his alternate self back on the right path with them. They were a good bunch who served because they knew no other path. They reminded him of his fellows in the mines, they deserved better.

[nightwatcherraph]

Age of extinction is really on my mind today seeing what they did to ratchet just ugh I want Optimus to shoot that guy but I understand he felt it wasn’t worth it. There was some delicious whump with lockdiwn capturing OP. He shoots him then taunts him before taking him on the ship and OP is so defiant “I am a slave to no one”

[lord-squiggletits]

I don't really care what the editorial excuses are honestly, I'm gonna forever resent IDW for the fact that they retconned entire spotlight issues and comic series (or sections of comic series) with zero justification needed in-universe, but somehow "women exist" was the lore that needed an extensive in-universe justification with multiple male TFs putting their hands to their cheeks and going "whaaaaaat what's a she/her that's so craaaazy what wow!!!!" sicksjxjs

They didn't need an in-universe justification when they retconned Spotlight: Optimus Prime (in which OP finds out the previous Primes were evil from Omega Supreme) to have shit like Orion working against Sentinel (MTMTE) and then working for Zeta knowing he wasn't a good guy (Autocracy, Optimus Prime).

They didn't need an in-universe justification when they retconned Megatron: Origins and removed the lore bit that flight was a recent invention and the seekers (Starscream et al) were the first Cybertronians ever built/born that could fly. Multiple Golden Age era characters could fly and they didn't need to make some elaborate justification for it. Multiple Senators and other politicians could fly and they didn't make a lore justification for it. Barber literally wrote in a whole thing about how flight frames were restricted to military or cargo job duties but he didn't need to construct his lore around M:O, he just fucking retconned it and ignored that "no one could fly until it was invented recently" used to be a plot point.

But WOMEN? EXISTING??? In MY alien robot science fiction? (Clutches hand to heart) I'm sorry...but once something is canon it simply can't be undone...we have to, we just HAVE TO keep Simon Furman's misogynist writing where he went out of his way to say female TFs don't exist/are extinct... you don't understand THAT'S THE LORE what, do you think we can just retcon stupid worldbuilding that makes no sense and doesn't matter? NOOOOO WE NEED AN EXPLANATION NOOOOO MY IMMERSION IS BROKEN we just absolutely NEED characters in universe to be so fucking confused at the idea of women existing! Sorry that's just the lore we have to write the rest of the story around what one known misogynist asshole wrote in a spotlight issue in like 2009!

They literally could have just ignored and retconned that stupid ass "female Cybertronians don't exist" rule the way they ignored and retconned actually important parts of lore. But they didn't and that's actual cowardice and hypocrisy akdjskxnak I have never felt more condescended to in fiction than in every single scene where they forced a male character to go "She/her? Woman? What is girl?? What is a she????" like godddddddd it was so fucking CRINGE

[gardens-light]

Hi which OP (Optimus Prime) look do you like and why??

Mine: halfway through TFS: 4

could tag me in the Transformers spark series 🩷🩷

Hi,

I like OP's Bayverse look- mainly in 'Age of Extinction' and 'Last Knight', cause I'm a sucker for the clenched waist and samurai style. I also feel like his personality is more badass, and seeing him a little villainous... ^-^

[slingshot78]

It's been FAR too long since I've posted about Crosshairs/on this account at all, and somehow I still have tons of people interacting with the content....so thank you very much!!!!

Today I wanted to kinda approach a subject I inch away from because everyone has their own perspective and views on crosshairs as a character. Simply because a lot of his personality you have to makeup with the lack of attention placed on him in Bayverse.

I think though that I have a pretty good feeling of his character so I figured I'd share some things with people after analyzing him in the movies (a million times)

Section 1 (Teamwork)

One of Crosshairs biggest "made up" traits is that he hates teamwork, which is kind of just this generalized idea bout him which just isn't true at all!! Infact, he's one of the only Cybertronians in the movie to actively partake in on screen teamwork! (with drift actually, three times!)

I won't get heavily into the teamwork between the two, because I could infact go on forever but the tag team with onslaught, when fighting Megatron in The last night, and once more in Age of Extinction! Which is hard to tell because you don't see it, but they switch dinobots/ride the same dinobot multiple times if you count the number of dinobots without a autobot on em!

Crosshairs overall ability to work with other people is EXTREMELY overlooked because of his opening scenes in AOE, which I totally understand!

Another pet peeve of mine is when people call him the starscream of the autobots, don't get me wrong! Love starscream, but Crosshairs is just....the complete opposite. Starscream places actual effort into harming Megatron and/or taking his place. Crosshairs talks big yes, but never raises a hand to prime and is one of the only bots who just shuts up and doesn't go against OP's orders OR makes a snarky comment. When it comes to Optimus prime, it seems he has a lot of respect that he doesn't know how to deal with. This point just gets proven more in the end of AOE when Optimus "tames" grimlock.

Mini section 2 (Accent)

This one is pretty well known information, but I have seen people confuse his accent for Australian or something similar to it. It is infact British and NOT Australian.

Section 3 (Redditors)

I might get....a little passionate in this section, just simply because this makes me very upset. The whole argument that Crosshairs was written by a child (which surprisingly was said a lot) and that his Design is slighty weird.

Firstly, Crosshairs entire character is NOT classic generic hero. Infact, most people see him as the farthest thing, some people don't see him as hero at all!!! Crosshairs has a undeniable ability to hate what he does, but is amazing at it regardless.

While he may not want to do it, (which might be tied into his past, that I won't get into becauase I've already gotten into it before in a previous post) he always always does and he's never actually left anyone behind or betrayed anyone. Crosshairs character is extremely in depth, not because he's "edgy" or because he's just this mean stereotypical character. It's because he simply is just that kind of guy.

When you think of Crosshairs personality, try to picture a fun guy, topped off with this irritable personality, a gruff exterior but sort of soft on the inside obviously. He never admits how much good he wants to do in the world, becauase why would he do that? Crosshairs is definitely a believer in the "actions mean more than words"

To Top it All Off?

"why doesn't he have a sniper rifle"

Firstly, if he had a sniper rifle: that'd be amazing. And a great element to include. Imagine him being all mysterious, hiding with a sniper rifle!

But unfortunately he has the point blank guns because, screentime, it looks better, and of course the Bayverse syndrome where your weapon has to match your personality!

[poppyclangen]

Info Hub!

About OP:

Name: Lane or Elliot! Pronouns: They/He, TransMasc Age of OP: 22 Years -I've been in the WC community for a decade now! -All mature content (blood, gore, and stuff like that!) should be properly TW'd, and I'm always open to peoples requests to add any I may have missed! This blog will never feature 'Adult content' (as in anything with sexual themes). -I try not to post my opinions/personal discussions on this particular blog, but if you would like to see more of me, I have a main blog: LaneElliot12! Important Tags! -All of the art for this blog will be under 'My Art!' -For past inbox questions, the tag 'inbox' ill show what has already been asked if you're curious!

Blog Details:

Inbox is: Open! I have Anon turned off for now, but will probably open it up a little later.

Posting Schedule: I try to post at least once a week! I will post more frequently if I have the time! No set date just yet! What Happened to PoppyClan 1.0?: Unfortunately, I have a very, very old laptop that I use to run this game, and it had a system update that deleted a majority of my files without my knowing! This means the OG PoppyClan is gone forever. HOWEVER, my more recent posts will now be about PoppyClan Gen 2, with the clans descendants! What are my Clan Gen Settings?:

-I have same sex breeding turned off, simply because I have noticed it allows for a lot more kittens to be born and I'm just too lazy to draw that many babies < 3 I'm so sorry homos -Mass extinction events are currently turned: OFF. This is subject to change. -There are no current mods added to my game. It is the classic version! I also have not edited the code at all (mostly because im not code smart at ALL). -This clan was started using the 'All apprentice/Kit founders' challenge, in which the clan was formed out of whatever young cats I randomly rolled! -'Medicine Cats' are now Healers/Medics (both terms are used). I'd like for them not to be referred to as Medicine Cats at all in questions/comments please!

[ghoste-catte]

lee and gaara for the character bingo pls 🙏

Y'all know these are my lil guys!! And my first actual bingo, (tbh creature voice) yippee!!

I almost could've filled out just 1 card for them but I couldn't in good conscience say Gaara had never done anything wrong in his life (even though he had a very understandable reason for becoming a serial killer, aged 6). Also I'm really not unhappy with Gaara's character development later in the series (even in Boruto, terrible haircut aside). I wish he had gotten a rematch with Lee, obviously, and that we'd gotten to see more of his actual transition from "i love only myself" to "i live for my love for others and making amends for my past", but thats what fic is for! Other than that I really like him as an adoptive dad and I'm tremendously relieved they didn't arbitrarily pair him off with some random female character.

Lee is the biggest wasted potential in the series imo ... he was the perfect underdog who encapsulated perfectly the series' original thesis of "hard work can overcome natural genius" and "we aren't fated for a certain outcome", and then he just became ... a joke. Absolutely 0 character development in Shippuden, no dope powerups (yeah he can open more Gates but we don't actually see him working towards or achieving that). The ever-expanding cast and OP jutsus and all the "reborn son of a God and also the 4th Hokage" shit that happened to Naruto basically just left Lee in the dust and undid the entire moral of his story. I never won't be bitter about that, so that's why I'm here, 140 fics in, trying to give him some depth and the endings (and bonings) he deserves.

I almost marked off "no one understands them but me" for both cards, but actually fandom in the past 5 years or so has moved in a really wonderful direction with their understanding of both of these characters and especially their relationship. I'm really glad to see people explore the darker/angrier side of Lee and give Gaara real compassion and healing instead of writing him off as "crazy". And I'm beyond thrilled that the seme/uke dynamic stuff for them has more or less gone extinct.

[sonicasura]

What would have been a tense atmosphere was cut through by the very clingy Predacon newspark. Sure enough, the (mentally) young dragon-like cybertronian still remembered them. Jury was out if it was Dart or the Omnitrix they remembered so fondly though.

The human teen hadn’t bothered hiding the watch given the nature of this meet up.

Jack: “You’re… Bygone?”

[User]: “Bygone’s a form of mine, so technically. Call me Dart and this is—“

A flicker of amusement was the only warning when the alien device itself displayed it’s hologram using Ben as a template.

[User], cont’d: “The Omnitrix. It’s the one who reached out to you initially, not me…”

————————————————

The cybertronian shapeshifter was actually a human(?) one? Well, they looked human enough and weren’t a hologram like Arcee sometimes used.

Raf was still freaking out over his gaming buddy being an advanced alien AI. Miko was excited over other aliens—look when you’re around alien robots all the time, you get used to it. The oldest of the Autobot-allied human kids was desperately trying to keep the meet up under control. Kinda moot point, but he certainly tried.

Jack: “Why pretend to be a Predacon? Or become one for so long?”

‘Dart’: “That was a bit of a hasty decision on my part, but I don’t regret it.”

Jack: “What?”

‘Dart’: “The Omnitrix works by collecting genetic samples from the transformation’s species. Predaking happened to be the first cybertronian I encountered. And contrary to what I expected from such an almost feral transformation—I could speak.”

Jack: “Yeah? We eventually got that Predaking was like other Cybertronians. Mech mode and talking.”

‘Dart’, sighing: “What I mean. Is that before Predaking showed any inclination of being sapient. The Decepticons thought he was a normal cybertronian animal. Me being able to speak as Bygone when he was still effectively feral meant he always had the physical capacity. It took ages between the Bots interrupting lessons to teach him to speak.”

Jack: “And you stuck around to teach him?”

‘Dart: “I assumed one of two things: either he was young enough he wasn’t taught to or injured enough he physically couldn’t. Experiencing how other species live is the whole point of the transformations.”

The newspark Predacon nudged the unaligned human teen, almost forcing them out of their chair.

‘Dart’: “And to also bring extinct ones back—“

The Omnitrix: “I cannot bring back the dead, so unfortunately Cybertron will stay mostly lifeless. What I can only do is make new individuals to keep the species itself going. I apologize.”

The alien watch’s explanation cut through the barest bits of hope that had been building up in the Autobot-aligned kids. Well, at least one cybertronian species had been brought back…

—ROB’d Anon.

The fact one species was brought back from extinction still provides hope that life could come back to Cybertron. Dart and the Omnitrix could probably do more if they have information. Optimus would be the best since he was an archive pre-war.

Plus considering the movie, I see Dart just snatching the All Spark from OP and tossing it into the well. They know the Prime has zero self preservation whatsoever. Plus they're the only person capable of scolding him because Dart nor the Omnitrix gives two shits about how sacred Primes are.

"You are a person with friends who would mourn your self sacrificing ass, Prime or not. Whoever says otherwise needs their teeth kicked in."

[rjzimmerman]

Saving Endangered Animals Will Help Save Us, Too. (New York Times)

Excerpt from this Margaret Renkl Op-Ed from the New York Times:

We were living in a cataclysmic age of mass extinction and climate instability even before the election. Now the climate denier in chief is poised to gut the environmental protections that do exist. Even so, conservation nonprofits are struggling to raise the funds they need to challenge his wrecking-ball agenda in court. The people who care are feeling defeated, and the fight has not yet begun.

I was already grieving, and the approach of Remembrance Day for Lost Species, which falls each year on Nov. 30, didn’t help. Was this really the best time to pick up “Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures” by the dazzling British author and scholar Katherine Rundell? Did I really want to read another book about how so much of life on earth is close to ending?

As it turns out, this is the perfect book to read in the aftermath of a planet-threatening election. In times like these, terror and rage will carry us only so far. We will also need unstinting, unceasing love. For the hard work that lies ahead, Ms. Rundell writes, “Our competent and furious love will have to be what fuels us.” This is a book to help you fall in love.

Among the 23 endangered creatures she celebrates in “Vanishing Treasures,” the last on the list is humans. This is not a sly overstatement to make a point. How will we grow crops if we lose the pollinators? What medical advancements — like the GLP-1 drugs, derived from a study of Gila monsters, that now treat diabetes and obesity — will we miss if reptiles go extinct? Which diseases will run rampant in our communities if scavengers are poisoned out of existence?

We have hardly begun to understand how inextricably our health and safety are intertwined with those of our wild neighbors. Data is hard to come by, in part because controlling for variables is so difficult outside a lab. But when a fatal fungal disease called white-nose syndrome began to wipe out bat colonies in 2006, researchers realized it might offer a way to study the direct effect on humans of a population collapse in wildlife. In September, the journal Science published a study that linked the sudden loss of bat colonies to a spike in infant mortality.

Bats feed on many insects that would otherwise feed on crops. Researchers discovered that in counties where bat colonies were destroyed, farmers compensated by using more insecticides — on average 31 percent more — than they had used when bats were helping to keep insects in check. In those counties with higher levels of insecticide use, infant mortality was also 8 percent higher, on average, than in counties with healthy bat populations. A spike in environmental toxins explained the spike in infant mortality, but the real reason more than 1,300 babies died was the disappearance of bats.

Ms. Rundell calls bats “the under-sung ravishments of the night.” They deserve to exist because they are a treasure of the natural world, not because they help us grow food and keep our babies safe from neurotoxins. Nevertheless, to protect the bats is inevitably to protect ourselves.

Wildlife populations are disappearing at an unthinkable rate, but we are getting nowhere in the effort to curb emissions or to protect the habitats of the creatures who yet survive. In 2022, the world’s nations made a historic pledge to keep 30 percent of the earth wild. So far most of those countries have failed to produce a plan for doing so.

We can’t keep waiting for our leaders to save us. We need to wake up every morning looking for what we can do, collectively and individually, to buy enough time for our leaders to get this right. In a time of darkness, what light is left to us?

A highly incomplete list would start with eating less meat and dairy, a change that would reduce deforestation and climate-altering emissions. We could buy less stuff to reduce transportation emissions and raw-material extraction.

Poison harms not just babies, but every creature in the food chain. Instead of poisoning our way out of inconvenience, we can practice a policy of peaceful coexistence by avoiding insecticides and rodenticides. We can give the night-flying insects back to the bats. We can give the rodents back to the owls and the foxes. We can leave the leaves where they fall to foster habitat for overwintering insects. We can turn off outdoor lights at night to protect migrating birds and nocturnal animals.

When we must drive, we can drive slower, particularly on roads through wild areas. Last month a Yellowstone-area grizzly bear, beloved by the many people who knew her from social media and a PBS documentary, was hit by a car and killed. It was a tragic accident, nobody’s fault, but every year millions of non-famous animals — and some 200 people — are also killed in collisions between wildlife and cars. Wildlife crossings can significantly reduce these encounters. So can simply slowing down.

Such measures are small at best, but if we adopted them all and adopted them together — and especially if we used them as first steps toward growing awareness and greater change — we could make a measurable difference even without the help of feckless government officials.