#and it'd be fun to make a proper character for it

[4th-make-quail]

Because there was news about Fallen London rpg today, it's reminded me of the existence of my Fallen London character and I've been poking actions this evening, back to once again toying with the idea of Seeking Mr Eaten... Like bitch, you accidentally got locked into this quest before (hand full of undiscardable SMEN cards), panicked and stopped playing, then years later finally managed to get out of the quest!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?

And yet......... Here I am trying to get my watchful up closer to 200 cos I'm now seriously considering it.......

[freezinglemur]

"Is this what you want to be?! A destructive toy to be used by others…—?"

(A semi-sequel to This Post in a sense I guess; @lieutenant-fred sorry more of your fella wasn't drawn I was strugglin to find much recent stuff to work off of so I hope this is alright </3)

[Writing below the cut]

“Why are you doing this? I haven’t even done anything to you—” Seedenal’s voice was almost pleading, yet had a sternness about it as xe gazed down at xir attacker.

“I have.. Orders..” the carrot hissed, bracing themself against the rock somewhat with a glare towards the pomegranate.

If they could even…call what was in front of it a pomegranate anymore. Seedenal had been a strange one to the augmented vegetable upon first glance: very tall, odd wing appendages, strange limbs, far more eyes than any normal fruit had on other limbs, among many other things—but now xe was even more of an anomaly.

In addition to the large pair of proper flight-worthy wings the angel dressed in green had unfurled, several more black, spindly arms had joined the original two, and their body now sported runes the carrot angel knew were not there previously.

On top of that, when Karl had attacked, several more eyes had opened upon the wings, and many of Seedenal’s scleras had turned black with glowing white pupils. One of the more frightening details was the luminous arm that formed, along with the sword seemingly held by it, from the place where the pomegranate’s previously missing arm had been. It was so bright it was hard to look at, and the energy it emitted was almost unbearable to be close to.

Several of the pomegranate angel’s eyes were dripping a black, ichor-like substance, but it didn’t appear to be from crying—rather, it dripped like sap. In fact, it seemed whatever holy power they wielded was barely being contained in the fruit’s body. Neither angel paid it too much mind in the moment, however.

“You aren’t even a lemon either, and yet you’re trying to murder me!” Seedenal knew very few details of the war that was going on in truth, but the carrot had mentioned lemons previously before they’d gotten into this tussle, so xe ran with it. 

The carrot glared as it tried to pull together some sort of retaliation, attempting to stand with metallic clanks and whirrs while the other babbled.

“Is this what you want to be?!” the pomegranate’s voice lowered slightly after its initial shout, “A destructive toy to be used by others…—?”

Karl paused its attempt to rise from the ground, staring at Seedenal. The fruit couldn’t tell entirely if the vegetable was offended by their statement or simply caught off guard, but upon hearing no comment, xe continued.

“I.. I don’t know what I am, nor.. Where I came from or what is wrong with me, but I…know I was designed to be a weapon of sorts,” the angel fidgeted with some of xir hands. “I was designed for war—to hurt and kill and all that visceral junk, but…I don’t want to be that. I w-want to see the stars and play in snow and catch butterflies and pick flowers—! I want to think and do for myself..”

Seedenal didn’t like the thought of war. It was like a petty squabble, but more violent and deadly. Leaders throwing lives at each other just to see who was better, or who got what. So many of those lives didn’t deserve such fates—xe was sure of it, just from the small few they’d met or helped in passing. They almost wanted to end the war themself, but shoved the concept away—their mind is wandering again. Shaking their head and remaining thoughts away, the pomegranate looks back to the mechanized angel, lowering xir weapon.

“Wouldn’t you…also prefer to make your own choices and live a little, too..?”

"...."

A gentle breeze blows past the two brightly colored angels in the glistening snow. One must wonder if the mechanical superweapon dreams of chasing snowflakes instead, too.

[simcardiac-arrested]

cream ... clawing at your legs ... coughs all over you ... i need. to know more about sep + wayback in severance .i need to know. Please. please. clawing you. pleaes

there is more thought to be had about them but so far what i have is: wayback's sense of justice and desire for fairness is an inherent trait of his, so when he ends up severed and in the walls of lumon -- he, of course, becomes rebellious. helly style. he's still kind, but he's not nice, because being nice and finding the good in everything and being passionate and etc etc -- all those behaviors are something wayback nurtured in himself. without that nurture, without the repression and the hiding negativity behind smiles, he really is just allowed to be angry. he is pissed at everyone and everything: he does not like the work, he does not like anyone he's working with, he wants to get out and hopefully get everyone else out without too much hassle, and he hates all the pretenses and airs everyone puts up. especially sep. he just wants them to drop the bullshit.

so what's about sep? i feel like they're not that different from their actual non-severance self. at first they would've put up a fight, been just as rebellious because sep is nothing if not someone who cares deeply, and oh, they'd see what everyone (including themself) has to go through and they'd care. but it wouldn't take long to get that beaten right out of them. because another core aspect to sep is that they long for a reason. a meaning. a justification of why exactly the bad things happen, why it needs to hurt, why it needs to be like this. and lumon would give them that reason, that explanation, that purpose. life is about doing things you don't like. you're not really a person. you're suffering for a greater good. and so this is how we'd actually get innie sep -- someone who spreads lumon propaganda and believes fully in them, irving style, and wants everyone else to believe because sep still cares. and sep still thinks he knows better. but there's always going to be that one crack, that one fault in his reasoning he barely managed to convince himself of, that might still make his ideals come apart at the seams if given the proper motivation

[azurem]

What is your thoughts on a headcanon that Ink’s extremely deep blush is brown? Whilst i am at it, what would Nightmare think upon seeing it? 👀

(because that is the colour you commonly get from mixing the colour of the rainbow that is his usual blush.)

It's a nice headcanon! Though I'm half sure it'd be against canon (au where everything's the same but ink blushes brown if super flustered??) since Ink's super deep blush instead implies his rainbow freckles appearing!! Silly thing i love him. Brown blush would look very cute on him though, he'd look so monochrome/aff

— also I believe Ink's rainbow theme is very. Prism based, from what I've seen? A ray of white light passing through a prism disperses into 7 rays of color and all that. If the experiment is done in like, the. Inverse? Way? The rainbow turns into white. So in theory I believe it'd make more sense if Ink's super blush was white instead. Though I assume Ink's magic doesn't overlap, there's a reason why his tongue and blush is sectioned. Maybe different creators' emotions cannot be mixed??? Evil stuff—

Nightmare would like it way too much I think; both because Ink just never gets flustered enough to really see him that affected (he really likes to see proof that his efforts are doing something) and because he'd feel smug at the knowledge that he finally has the upper hand for once. This being said, the first time he' see it he'd probably tease Ink about it so much Ink just gets away from him by AU jumping because they'd get salty. A proper response, of course (he needs to learn limits!)

Second time is better. But his smile is still very much smug so Ink still gets salty. By the third time Ink would stop running away and let his destiny finally happen (unskippable romance scene)

Tbh I just think Ink is very skittish once he gets embarrassed enough, specially since shame isn't a very common thing for him to feel. He'd have no resistance to the emotion at all, so he'd be so obviously embarrassed you couldn't miss it. I imagine you could force embarrassment from him by having him drink too much from the purple (my hc color for his fear/shame) but it'd be just so mixed with fear it wouldn't be enjoyable for anyone involved ngl.

I also imagine Ink with like, a light level of embarrassment? Would play along if they're making fun of him. He fakes getting more embarrassed if they're poking fun at him, but he gets more snappy if he actually does (if he has available red, of course)

Anyways. I think the first time™ went kinda like this?? Maybe??? I can't get Ink's voice right but assume it's the purple talking

"...Oh? I've never seen this color here before."

"Well— Well! Maybe you missed it? Don't be silly. You— stop laughing! Why are you laughing?"

"It's cute."

"You're so— Get back in character already! C'mon, we were just— that's it! I'm going to... to. To—"

"Is it a whine I'm hearing?"

"It's not! No!"

"Is it not? I'm sure I couldn't have mistaken such a charming sound."

"Kay! Kay. So this is how it is! You think this whole thing is funny! That's what it is!"

"Oh, no. Though I won't say I'm not enjoying myself."

"...! ...!!!!!!! ...!!!!!!!"

"Ah. It's darker now."

(Ink proceeds to go fetch Broomie while Nightmare follows him closely like a hyena following sick prey No I don't have More comparisons)

"...And what are you doing now?— oh."

[pavizi]

Whats your opinions on hiveswap? Who are your favourite trolls from it?

i have a lot of genuine criticisms to put forth towards hiveswap (i think that the idea it puts forth of what made all of the trolls in homestuck unique are actually very common caste-wide traits is not only lame as fuck and devalues the message the original story was trying to send - but just feels kind of really lazy) but i do genuinely enjoy hiveswap. i think the way it expands on troll culture and establishes an alternative alternian 'aesthetic' to the brutalist black concrete we see in homestuck proper is very fun. i think the main cast (joey/xefros) are very well written and likable protagonists.

if i had to pick a favorite troll - in terms of actual personality it'd probably be tegiri? i just think it's fun to have an earnest 'weeaboo' type character that isn't done as a bad faith one note cringe culture joke. in terms of design though it'd go to chixie - she just feels the most like a proper 'homestuck troll' to me if that makes any sense

[twinroomies]

you gotta implement the 6 other human souls or else I'm gonna explode (you will know, there will be exploded me in your walls)

Don't threaten me with a good explode, I'm John Explosion over here, love me a good explosive. Also, wouldn't half of them be DEAD AGAIN ALREADY? You want like, old people? I can make old people! /lh /j But, joking aside, to get serious: My main concern with doing so is that if I do make them appear over HERE, how people are going to handle it over at Twin Runes? The last thing I want to do is open the flood gates for people to ask Akane what CLOVER or RILEY (I think that's the name of the Wildfire child?) are up to. I can answer that for all of you! They're still dead. 😅 Akane has made it ABUNDANTLY clear they're not showing up in the main comic proper beyond, say, the cameo of Clover during Chara's explanation of soul colors, y'know? I think it'd be fun to do so, but also... I'd probably design all of them from scratch, too, so if you were hoping to see your favorite scrimblo from "Undertale Green" or "Undertale Kindered Spirits" (both of which look lovely, this is not a slight against them, they're just what I saw first when consulting Underevent 2024 for relevant examples), that's not gonna happen because: 1. I don't know which games are even going to get done. 2. I don't know enough about UTDR AU's in-general to write them faithfully. 3. To be honest I'm not interested in adapting these characters JUST for the sake of them being there. It's style without substance. Furthermore, I don't want this to become the "Deltarune Fallen Human AU Power Hour" comic, if I implement them, they're not gonna be main characters, or probably even side characters.

To be clear, anon, this isn't a direct response to you, I know you're just being silly and this isn't me going in on you for a good joke! This is me explaining overall the situation with that area of questioning (which I've been getting here and there since this started) in a long-form post to anyone who might ask in general. You've done nothing wrong, I did this with a post the other day and I got a lot of people going "Oh, I don't think they meant anything too seriously by that!", which was a fair criticism in the way it showed me I haven't done enough on my end to reassure everyone that this isn't about the person that's asking as much as it is me using the post as a platform to give general information. We all clear now? Okay, if you excuse me, I have to go, I hear something in my walls...

(In addition when I answer questions like this in the future, there is now an FAQ tag I shall start using. This will allow you to check for additional info that's not in the masterpost you might want to know! 😊)

[muppenthings]

Hello, I got a couple more fun scenarios to offer you! 🙂

We've seen several characters vary in size but most of them are obviously bigger than the average human. But imagine a flip-around, probably from magic, (maybe some of the cast are closer to human size or even smaller...) Who would enjoy being smaller? Who is not having a good time about the situation?

How would some of your merfolk react to films like the Little Mermaid? Who'd like it and who wouldn't?

I could add more but I'm pretty tired when I wrote this. 😅 Hopefully you will find what I've sent so far fun to imagine! I might send more of you like... Once I get some sleep!

Heyo! Thanks for ze scenarios~

1) Most of them would be stoked about being human-sized! They'd get to interact with interesting things, see phones, read books etc. Or get some proper tactile affection, like a hug. Trying out food would also be a big bonus, cause they'd get a proper bite and the texture lol!

It's easier to call out the two that'd freak out about suddenly being small: Tide and Elmer.

Elmer is quite nervous and fearful of humans. So being big in comparison gives him a feeling of control. It makes him feel less vulnerable, which being small would make him feel. So he'd try and hide away.

Tide would feel extremely vulnerable too. He's always felt that his strenght and size were the only useful things about him (thanks to the foster pod for hammering that into him). If that was suddenly taken from him he would have a small existential crisis I think. Also being the same size as everyone would mean that they could be physically closer. He already gets easily flustered and don't know how to handle physical affection. He'd just panic.

2) If we're talking the Disney version, where she doesn't turn into seafoam in the end, they'd have fun watching it. Most of them. Cetus can't see very well so he wouldn't pay any attention to the movie itself. Tide would cheer for Ursula, to everyone's dismay. After the movie they would probably end up having a discussion about what they'd do if they got legs magically while also thinking it'd be strange to have them. xD

Also during this scene:

Something something a huge octomer with an unhinged grin xD

[pancake404]

So, in the Servant Turned God AU, it'd be Angel vs. the Prototype's Fallen Angel. Since Theo knows nothing about Angel, who can revive from death every time, that'd make them a threat to Theo, especially since Angel is unpredictable.

The Angel:

Yes, in this AU, it’s pretty much Poppy’s Angel vs Prototype’s Fallen Angel. But, it’s not that Theo knows nothing about the Angel, as a matter of fact, he recognizes him, and looked through Playtime files and found some…interesting information about the supposed identity of the Angel shortly after they arrived.

“Although I don’t agree with your path, your attempt and survival this far makes me admire you a little. You tried your best, Angel, that’s all that matters. So please, die happy for me, would you?”

Theo has an unnatural niceness and calmness about anything he does. No matter what he does, you'd be surprised how rarely he gets angry. That's because he doesn't find much reason to get angry unless something threatens the safety and life of the Prototype. To him, he views it as the professional and proper way to lead, to lead both with power but also with courtesy. He...doesn't realize how it makes him seem scarier to others because he's the least human despite appearing as the most human of them all.

He's the type of guy who'll rip your legs off and kidnap you and then comfort and reward you with a 5-star feast for "enduring the pain and surviving".

They have wings like the angels they are(PW doesn’t really have them literally, but Theo can shape his hands as wings if he wants to).

“Your wings are beautiful, Angel of Death.”

While FGL Catnap has his own HAND, which is more slashing and piercing(based on his death), STG Catnap's hands are more for grabbing, pulling, ripping, and tearing. They have a death grip and can easily rip limbs off like twigs.

Theo often kills the Player/Angel with these methods(like the sketch before with the lower half missing). Of course, he'll admire the torn wing and compliment it before the Angel passes away and has to restart another game.

Pretending to be Ollie:

You might be asking, who is Ollie when he calls, since the Prototype isn't there and in control? Well, it's Theo. Theo pulls a similar trick to the Prototype ever since he took the Prototype's voice box, he pretty continued on the same "Ollie" persona to keep an inside look into the Safe Haven which meant that Poppy doesn't know that the Prototype was pretending to be Ollie and still doesn't know that the Prototype was then replaced by Theo to continue pretending to be Ollie.

When the Player gets the phone in Chapter three, there are mainly two significant characters who speak through it, Ollie/Prototype and Catnap. In this case, it's ironic because Catnap is both of them. He uses Ollie differently for the Player, though as unlike the canon game, "Ollie" will try to convince the Player to question Poppy's plan and just leave the place. Theo, like Catnap in Chapter 3, at first wanted the Angel to leave as he had no interest in trying to kill him(there was no need), but then, as Angel pushed it, Theo's plans changed.

Theo also possesses a bit of a twisted sense of humor as he messes with the other toys by switching up who he's talking as. He contacts and warns Poppy with the "Catnap" voice through the phone, then he rings her as "Ollie" to comfort her, and then goes to the "Theo" voice to confuse them.

He sometimes sticks with repeating the Catnap broken voice, so toys are more convinced it's just a red smoke effect when they see Theo's child form, and that there's not a little more to it.

Fun Fact: He has his own personal Catnap phone that contacts the Prototype in his prison, where Theo can always talk and check up on him even when he's not in the labs.

Although the Player, the Angel, is persistent and regardless of how many times they die, they'll keep going, Theo, the Fallen Angel, is still very dangerous as he's now more tactical, powerful, and a lot more willing to commit to attacking than in standard Chapter 3.

Then Angel probably died way too many times to count once Theo starts getting serious about getting rid of the Angel.

[oh-no-its-bird]

Playing a game of "how niche 'yeah no one's gonna wanna hear ab this one' can I get" I want to have a svsss x Naruto crossover but like. Zapping my absolute all time favorite snake boy, Zhuzhi-lang into the ninjaverse.

Right off the bat: half heavenly demon!! How tf does that translate into naruto world? It'd be cool if he actually registers as a bijuu to the bijuu + any sort of detectors or seals that are bijuu specific

He has so many snakes on and around him at all times like, canonically, and that's so fucking funny to me. He is one of them fr. He goes to the snake summoning realm and they're all over him, long lost brother style. He registers to them as one of them (could he technically form a summoning contract w someone?? That'd be so funny. Sasuke tries to summon a snake for help and gets what looks like a whole ass MAN instead)

Also just regular fun culture clash of Chinese wuxia vs Japanese ninja genres.

Zhuzhi-lang talks SO formally it's very cute (in my opinion) but also noticeably odd for a lot of people, especially since a lot of people we see in Naruto are middle/lower class, and I believe that in Japanese society, talking in a proper sort of third person like he does tends to be smthn done by nobles at court? <- could be very wrong, I'm going off just stuff I've noticed in reading different light novels over the years, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

But just my favorite snake son fucking around in ninja world. Ooo, maybe he can also resonate with the bijuu like they do with him, and he goes on like some little quest to free them, that could be cool. He sees them trapped and it reminds him of Tianlang-Jun's situation which makes him feel things.

Meanwhile, he's pinging people as some secret 10th jinchuriki, which has crazy political implications. Where did he come from?? What does he want?? Who gets to claim him?? If they kill him, whoever gets the bijuu they believe to be trapped in him gets a whole new jinchuriki, which is HUGE.

Zhuzhi-Lang and this gaggle of children he's picked up and convinced to cooperate to get separated from their bijuu, running from multiple villages. He's stealing all the jinchuriki, someone stop him !!!

Also I want to see Orochimaru and him interact just because snake.

Zhuzhi-Lang is also an interesting character to have, bc where in a lot of crossovers the characters have little reasons to stick around and like, interfere with things, Zhuzhi-Lang is a character who's proven to return any kindness he's shown a hundredfold (often without any real regard for what that person fr wants, oops) So it'd be so stupidly easy to have him get invested into literally any character or plotline— all you have to do is have someone show him some kindness and boom, he's doing his best to help whatever they may be doing

Like, POV little baby Naruto gives him some food bc he looks hungry or smthn and suddenly Zhuzhi-Lang is kidnapping him from Konoha "for his own good" (oh boy, where have we seen that before) bc clearly he deserves better. Don't worry Naruto, Zhuzhi-Lang will remove the demon from inside you so you can be a normal boy, and Kurama can be free :))

Everyone wins! (Except for the villages.)

[kaedesjournal]

so i made this post several months ago and almost immediately i got stuck on the idea of twins who share my maladapted ideas about sisterhood and within a couple days id fleshed them out into fully realised characters and they distracted me from actually writing Sarah for a good while. and while i do want to write a proper story about them some day, it'd be after i finish sarah. so in the meantime i can at least talk about them!

[made with this] (information under the cut bc i dont wanna take up all your screen real estate)

so these are the twins! the one on the left is the older sister Mary, and on the right is the younger sister Clair. in-universe they go to the same college as sarah's brother alec, though how much that will come up (if at all) is up in the air. theyre a couple of friendly, sporty stem majors (specifically, clair studies astrophysics and mary studies engineering). theyre identical twins, but mary has a scar under her eye from an accident when they were children, and she also straightens her hair and does more with makeup, so its easy to tell them apart unless theyve just showered, though still possible.

as is to be expected from me, their relationship turned sexual pretty early and remains so to this day, despite some Problems it caused in their middle school days. theyre codependent and have a tendency to ignore each others faults. you could probably count on one hand the number of nights theyve slept in different beds.

but their relationship is *not* romantic. its just sisterly. neither of them is opposed to the other having a romantic relationship with someone else, but the problem that arises is when theyve tried dating, it always gets to a point of 'you spend too much time with your sister' and then they break it off, because fuck you thats my sister. theyve both kind of given up on romance, especially clair. mary enjoys having casual flings with people she meets on campus, but she makes sure to go back to her own dorm to sleep. neither of them really see a problem with fucking other people bc sex has never really been correlated with romance or anything for them. thats just something you do together and its fun.

personality-wise, mary's very outgoing and forms emotional bonds quickly. she values her friendships and doesnt have a lot that bothers her, but things that *do* bother her can send her off the handle pretty easily. clair meanwhile is basically only interested in her sister, but she maintains friendships with most of mary's friends just because she's always around. she plays it off pretty well, but their actual bonds are barely skin-deep. clair annoys easily, but she doesn't care enough about most of her friends to actually do anything about it. they both see these as charm points in the other. its admirable that mary 'wears her heart on her sleeve' and that clair 'is so calm and composed.'

the girls mother is out of the picture, but their dad is nice and they like him so they chose a college nearby so they could visit on weekends and breaks. the family's originally from the south but they moved west in middle school, so their dad still has the accent. the two of them picked up the local accent to fit in at school better, but they slip back into the southern one when theyre tired or alone together.

i might import some bsky lore or other picrews later but im so fuckin tired girls its time to get ready for Bed

[groenendaelfic]

you know I wasn't going to comment on anything s3 in detail or write a super long divisive post because that's draining and tiring and I just want everyone to have fun and find joy in fandom in whatever way is best for them. And yet here we are. Who'd have thought?

All I wanted from season 3 was for Wilmon to talk to and with each other, to get to know each other (better) and to try to understand and support each other and grow together. To be a couple in love and working on their relationship, learning from each other. Them against the world, facing problems together as a team. I wanted romance and hugs and honesty, and all I got was them being horny. I mean don't get me wrong I love them being horny, but I don't want that to be their entire (positive) relationship and the only thing they have going for them as a couple. Please just have an actual, proper conversation with each other?

This post however is not about that. This post is about Kristina.

I hate what they did with her. I hate her entire character arc (if you can call it that) in s3. I hate what triggered her breakdown. I hate that instead of breaking the circle of abuse and emotional and physical neglect she no doubt suffered, she perpetuated it.

She left her son alone when he needed her most. When all he needed was a hug and a good long cry and the assurance that he's not alone, that she's there for him. That she understands. For someone (his family) to be there and listen and assure him that for them, Wille comes first. (I mean not all, he also needed proper therapy for one, but that'd have been a great and important start)

Wille is a child. Her child. Wille needed her and she failed him. She pushed him away and she sent him away and she left him alone.

(the same is true for Ludvig of course, it'd be extremely sexist etc to not put the exact same expectations and blame on him as well, but alas this post is only indirectly about him as everything always is at best)

However.

Her son is dead.

She's been groomed to believe her entire purpose in life is to be a mascot (which comes with very specific expectations and restrictions she herself said she struggled to adapt to) and to give birth to the next mascot.

I don't pity her for that, but that's still her entire identity and purpose in life. It's always been, and now the next mascot is dead and she has to burden the son she thought would be spared with it all, pun very much intended.

But let's return to my first point first. Her son is dead. Not just the next mascot. Her son.

Yes, Wille's brother died as well and I'll never make light of that. It's horrible and a grief and pain impossible to put into words. Especially as a kid or young teen. Wille needs all the support. Still.

It's not the same.

I know it's not the same because I know exactly what it's like. Both of it.

Granted I'm not a queen, but I did have a cousin who died aged sixteen. We lived in the same house their entire life and shared a bedroom for years. We were like siblings. It was my first time experiencing the death of a close loved one and it was horrible. We all struggled for a long time. Their siblings and I and the entire family, and they will never be forgotten, but it broke my aunt and uncle. Fifteen years later and they're still broken.

I also have two sons and a spouse who are dead (no I didn't lose them, I know exactly where they are) and I promise you it's not the same. A dead sibling is nothing like a dead child. (not that it's a competition)

I'm not going to talk about what it does to you internally, but I will tell you what you'll experience from the outside world when your family dies excitingly enough to make it to the local newspaper. Then feel free to multiply it by a large number of your own choosing when you're royalty and the entire country is looking at you and you've been groomed to never lose composure.

Everyone will call and show up and want to show their support and their condolences (that lasts until about a week or so after the funeral). And they will get two words in and break down and cry, each and every one of them, and then it's your job to console them and be strong and deal with all the arrangements and lawyers and bureaucracy. And it'll have to be you for most things no matter how supportive your family might be, because it's you who needs to sign shit and show the school a death certificate. Everyone will mean well, but it'll be everyone else who'll require reassurance and you who'll have no choice but to function because at first there's so much to do. So much. You won't have time to breathe until after the funeral, and after that there're still so much more to do and take care of you'd never have considered before. For weeks. You can ask someone else to drive you but it'll still be you who's required to show up and do the thing. Some things will drag out for months and more. You don't have time to break down and be weak. You can't afford to, because you also have a job and other responsibilities and a duty to your dead loved ones.

But then the day comes when it's 'over' and there's nothing more to do. Sure people still look at you with pity and whisper behind your back wherever you go and fall quiet, unsure how to react or what to say, because you're now the lady who lost her family in a freak accident, but everything and everyone else moves on. That's normal. It can't not. But it's that quiet after which is the most dangerous.

I hate that they made Kristina's breaking point her son publicly coming out as queer, renouncing following traditions without thought and admitting to having been in the video. I hate it so much, because that was a choice made with an entirely different motive behind the one I'll expound on now and I hate that. Don't instrumentalize grief and the loss of a child and sibling to further prove and underline your political agenda (which I agree with). It cheapens it and was very much unnecessary. We all would've gotten the point without it as well.

But you know what? I can't fault Kristina for that.

You don't know your breaking point until you reach it. It can be anything. There's a reason the saying goes 'the straw that broke the camel's back'. Everyone has a different one and they often feel very ridiculous to oneself (which is a very helpful feeling in that situation, believe me /s). I've talked to numerous people who've gone through something similar. In my support group and in grief counseling and group therapy. No one I've met had a 'logical' breaking point.

Mine came late last fall when I saw a robin outside my window. Yes a bird. We'd have one come every winter to eat the oats and raisins etc we put out for it, and my youngest would spend endless hours every day before dusk looking out that window waiting for the robin to come and eat for a few moments at a time, less if he started clapping out of excitement.

That was it. Boom. I was useless for the next seven weeks.

You don't let your grief overcome you. That isn't a choice. You don't choose not to function when a loved one dies. You don't choose to be depressed or to have the most ridiculous thing be your breaking point. You don't choose to be too strong to not let the grooming break you or to be too weak to be unable to break out of it. And you don't choose to be unable to sit at a birthday party and enjoy cake with a son you know you'll have to force into a role he never wanted, the one your dead son was supposed to fill.

Does that make Kristina any less of a shitty mom? No, of course not. Nor does it change anything for Wille. Kristina's grief shouldn't be Wille's concern. But you don't choose any of that, and the stronger you have to appear the farther you'll fall once you just can't hold it together anymore.

I grew up with a very large, multicultural extended family. There wasn't an hour I was awake at home as a kid when I wasn't hugged or kissed by a younger cousin or aunt or my mom (it was super annoying). We talked and still talk about everything. I married into a family which was a bit less physical and more Swedish in showing their affection, but they are still very open and loving and genuine. I had all the support I could ask for. They're the best and I couldn't have asked for more.

It's not enough. Your child is dead. And Kristina had none of that.

Is Kristina (and Ludvig) super annoying for going on and on and on about Erik and how perfect he was? About always bringing him up when they have a son right there who needs them desperately?

Yes. It annoyed me too. I kept catching myself being furious on Wille's behalf and Simon's with how Wille reacted to the not-comparison between Erik and Sara. But I understand Wille's reaction to Simon and I understand Kristina and Ludvig.

Because once your child / sibling / spouse / dog dies?

They become perfect. My oldest once poured syrup where he shouldn't (it was a Nordic winter night and the car was thirsty) resulting in us being out of our only car, our insurance laughing at us, and us unable to afford a new one. It cost a lot of money, my spouse almost their job and made our life a lot harder for well over a year. He was old enough to know better (and leave the house by himself to go outside and play). He never did anything wrong in his life. He was perfect. They were all perfect.

Erik? What we learn about him is horrifying, and it being normalized and dare I say institutionalized, with him probably not having second guessed his actions, makes it worse instead of better. I do believe Erik was the kind of guy who just didn't (care to) think and merely did what was expected without further thought. That doesn't make it better either, because those kinds of people are the ones who keep corrupt systems running. I might be wrong about his character entirely, but it doesn't matter, because as soon as he died he became perfect.

It's weird what death does to our perception of a loved one. Or maybe not. It's also weird what death does to our perception of everything, because suddenly everything will remind us of that person.

A cloud? A scent? A sound? Toilet paper? Kristina is at the stage where everything she sees and feels and smells and hears will remind her of Erik and his death. Of how he's dead and now Wille has to become him and that is the worst.

Also her son is dead.

No she can't just pull herself together and eat the damn cake. Everything she talks about is Erik because everything she currently is is Erik. Her son who is dead.

There is a reason this is such an often used trope in fiction.

Kristina spent all her life being told that her duty to the throne is her only purpose in life. Be queen. Represent Sweden. Produce an heir. Part of why she's as old as she is is no doubt because Pernilla August is awesome and you can't not hire her when that's an option, but nothing else in this show is a coincidence and done without thought, so I refuse to believe that Kristina hasn't always been meant to be an older mom.

Maybe she had fertility issues. Maybe she for whatever reason didn't want kids and put it off for as long as she could. She's certainly not maternal. Unlike every other woman her generation, no one ever expected her to be maternal. That's not her job.

Quite the opposite. Kristina is old enough to have been raised at a time when royal mothers weren't expected to have any hand in raising their children except for approving (or rather disapproving chosen) nannies and playmates and tutors and the like. She was very likely the first female heir apparent, or maybe she was simply the heir because she had no (male) siblings. Either way her job was always to be a monarch, not a woman or a mother. That's what staff is for. That's not an excuse, but it does explain her as a character.

She was groomed and forced herself to adjust (I do believe forced is the right word, because unlike Erik she seems to (have) be(en) a lot more like Wille than she'd like to admit). She had to be strong and queen and represent Sweden. And then her son and heir died and she failed at both.

I do believe Erik was always the 'easier' child, doing what he was told and taking only the freedoms he knew he'd be granted, while Wille is willful, argues, has a temper and his own head. (that doesn't mean Erik was happier or better adjusted)

And now Erik is dead and Wille has to fit the mold. Wille who got to go to a normal school and clubbing and was let to run wild with little preparation for the role he'd someday have to support his brother with. Arguments can be made that Kristina and everyone else never cared about Wille until they needed him, but I'd like to think she meant well and gave him the freedom she could, and because she is a bad parent she thought she was being kind, and because she is queen no one told her otherwise until it became a problem.

Kristina has never been a good parent, and I honestly believe saying someone meant well is an insult and not an excuse, but I do believe she tried the best with what she knew, the best she could.

It wasn't enough, it was the opposite of enough, but she tried and her breakdown is not a weakness but something which was a long time in coming.

She's not maternal. Her job wasn't to be maternal. Her job is to be a mascot and have other people make sure the next mascot is fed and watered and able to perform. Her being too brainwashed to see how horrifying that is does not make her innocent or any less of a bad mother, but why would she think of acting any other way?

She's ashamed of her breakdown. She can't be weak. Not in front of the nation and not in front of her son and heir. Wille can learn and grow and change. Everyone can and it's never too late, but Kristina here is meant to be what Wille risks becoming if he doesn't, if he gives up and becomes a thoughtless mascot.

Kristina is not a victim and I can't forgive her for being a shit mom, but she's also not the devil. She's a mother who lost her child, and she's spent her whole life being told that the worst thing she can do is to appear weak.

Well guess what? At one point that simply doesn't work anymore.

This post by the lovely @voldiebeth is what motivated me to write a similar one. I originally planned on reblogging and merely adding my own thoughts, and I did talk to her before posting, but then it became something even more personal than originally planned, and considering the difficulty of the subject I found myself more comfortable making this a standalone post. I know that's not proper tumblr etiquette, but please bear with me. Many thanks to @voldiebeth for motivating me to put my convoluted thoughts and feelings in writing and order them a bit. It was very cathartic.

[thebibliosphere]

What are your thoughts on authors writing and posting fanfiction of their own work? Do you think being self published vs traditionally published makes a difference? I tried searching around about the topic before but found nothing conclusive, other than the statement, "if you're the owner of the work, you might as well make more money off of it," which doesn't sit right with me.

I mean, I'm quite (in)famously writing an AU fic of my own work (Sugar Vladdy) purely for fun and because Tumblr has a unique ability to pilot my lack of impulse control like the ADHD version of Ratatouille.

Numerous people have told me they'd buy Sugar Vladdy if I ever decided to make it into a proper book. Frankly, I'm not interested in that because my motives for writing Hunger Pangs vs. Sugar Vladdy were different.

Writing for profit vs writing for fandom occupy different spaces in my brain. They scratch different itches. Yes, I'm playing around with the same characters. But I'm sort of just treating it like enrichment in my enclosure. It lets my brain throw around all the ideas that wouldn't work for those characters within the canon universe but still likes to go, "Oh, but what if..."

Honestly. No idea how much of that is my ADHD or what, but that's the only way I can explain it. They're the same, but they're not. They're fun in different ways. And I can get away with it because I'm self-pub. I haven't sold the rights to anyone. The world and characters are mine. I can put my blorbos into situations if I want to.

Now, if I were trad-pub, there would probably be a lot of restrictions about what I can and cannot do surrounding my own characters because I've sold the rights for X amount of time. I couldn't just give things away. It might be considered a breach of contract if I did. It'd definitely be something I'd need to run by an agent first just to make sure.

As for not liking the "might as well make money off it" mindset, as a literal struggling writer who lives paycheck to paycheck, I'm not going to judge anyone who keeps their official work as for profit only. People deserve to be paid for their labor. If they/we want to create stuff away for free, that's up to us.

Would I personally find it stifling and joy-killing to only ever write for profit? Yes. But that's a me thing. Not a universal thing.

[oliv4mp]

Cats CC update

Hii guys, I know I have some people following me who want to download my stuff when I'm done with it, so I thought I'd give a little update !!

The tails are coming along, I've modelled two types of tails for both male and female frames and am now working on making swatches for the different characters. They're finally not bugging out while the characters move around. The scaling and weighting is still not perfect, but it's functional, at least, so I'll take it. I'm also working on leg warmers for the different characters!

You might notice my CAS background -- I'm working on making one based on the Cats stage. The current one isn't perfect yet but it's close to how I want it. I thought it'd be fun to be able to see the cats in their proper environment while working on them ^^ Aside from that, I'm working on facepaints and unis for several more characters -- this post might have a bit of a spoiler for some of them 👀 My current plan is to just keep working on things as I see fit, with the intent to release my first items for download somewhere later this month. I'll likely be releasing the tails, leg warmers, and items for Bombalurina first. ^^ That's all for now! <3

[popculturebuffet]

Transformers More Than Meets the Eye Season 2 Retrospective: World Shut Your Mouth Parts 1-3 (Pateon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy autobots and after nearly a fully year and a crossover.. welcome back. It's been a long road but it's finally time to get back on the lost light for TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE SEASON 2 BABY

For those just embarking, More Than Meets The Eye was a long running Transformers comic by James Roberts, a fun trek to the stars where a bunch of Autobots allegedly quest for the mythical cybertron while in actuality figuring themselves out, cracking jokes, getting traumatized and saving the unvierse. It's one of my faviorite comics ever and thanks to my good patreon brotoman.exe I finally got to cover it. I complied season 1 into two posts (thanks tumblr) you can find here to get up to speed

Over the break I started a look at Boom! Studio's power rangers that continues in feburary i'll be doing on and off, then a bunch of fun side quests including Transformers One which you can find my gushing review of here

But I missed these guys and i'm excited to get back to this series. In fact with my Giant Days retrospective starting up in january, that means i'll be covering two of my faviorite comics of all time simultaneously. Also that time the Government decided if they ignored gotham maybe it'd go away. Lots of fun plans for next year.

A big reason besides just the joy of this series is simple: Out of the three seasons Season 2 is my faviorite. I loved it the most reading the comic the first time. Season 1 is great.. but also makes a lot of assumptions in some places, assuming the reader didn't start with this comic and will just know what the dead universe is or who overlord is. It make sense for the time as Chaos was the last thing to happen chronologically and last stand of the wreckers was a hit: it's not a bold assumption that most transformers readers still on board know all this. But it is a bold assumption to not ease readers who might NOT have been there for the previous volume or noped out after it was bad and felt bad, or who are coming in fresh because "hey look hot rod! cool space adventures! queer robots! sign me up'. I'm in the latter category in case you were wondering.

Season 1 is good.. but Season 2 feels more accesible while continuing the great plotting, paying off a lot of season 1's setups, adding a few of it's own and generally being pretty damn awesome. It also adds some fresh faces to shake things up with Chromia being a faviorite of mine, Nightbeat being fun, and Getaway being one of the most intresting characters they've added for reasons I won't spoil but if you know your already booing him.

The biggest and best though and the one I feel helps pull the series together... is Megatron. The former leader of the decipticons, the big bad of most transformers media... joins the autobots and the lost light. It brings the series themes of war and it's cost into focus: Cyclonus is CONSIDERED a decepticon, but while he shares the philosphy he wasn't there killing our heroes friends. One of the things I feel the season 1 cast really lacks for it's post war themes is any deceipticons.. and putting the most infaomous one of all, a man with so much blood on his hands he could fill a swimming pool more than makes up for it. Megatron is TRYING to do better as we'll get into, geninely wants to do something.. but struggles both with being better and EVERYONE hating him. At least to start EVERYONE is understandably hostile to megatron, who dosen't help by being his usual standoffish self. It's a fun situation... and also great for comedy as he both makes a good straight man and pisses Rodimus off as he's not happy about his new "co-captain" and the duo's banter is pitch perfect.

IT also allows for megs to be thorughly explored: why did he do this, what does he regret. Dark Cybertron hinted at this, but now he's a full time cast memmber we relaly get into why Megatron is the way he is. He feels so critical to the series it's a shocker that he's there because Editorial wanted him in one of the books.. yet it works so perfectly. The lost lights established issues with seeing the cons as automatically evil, their war trauma nad moving on are tested by putting the biggest symbol of all thier issues and the reason many exist at the helm. It's an engaging , hearbtreaking thought provoking season and we can finally kick it off under the cut as we find out HOW Megatron got this sweet gig, how everyone's dealing with it and just how drunk trailbreaker can get.

We begin

And we're back, with Nautica, now mostly settled in hurrying up to talk to her new bestie Brainstorm. And right away the series already has a new charming character dynamic: Chromia finally provides someone genuinely intrested in Brainstorm's work when it isn't on fire and a foil as she finds his newest idea a tad questionable: COLOR CODED LASERS, so you can tell who the baddies are. Ahhh how I missed James Roberts addiction to taking goofy parts of the franchies and making them an actual thing. This one dosen't quite take off as Chromia points out just how bad it is while Brainstorm just says.. maybe change the color. It's also a nice little peak into his character through some wacky nonsense: depsite the war having passed.. he still sees it as the good guys and the baddies. Granted a good number of decepticons were pieces of shit, but as prowl has proven time and time again and will somehow be allowed to keep proving, just because your on the right side of history dosen't make you a good person. It's something Chromia fully grasps and adds some fresh perspective; she's TECHNICALLY an autobot, but her home planet wasn't in the war and it gives her a diffrent perspective.

The two notice a pile of people outside Rung's office as he has a very special patient.. and it's here it's revealed whose the captain now. I spoiled it a tad early out of necisity but it's still such a great panel

I just notice the little cubes of energon and the energon equilvent of a water jug for the first time. I love that Rung has refreshments. Such a good therapist.

So we flash back six months and get used to it as we'll be going back and forth to explain well, how did we get here? Rodimus is prepared to leave, understandably as he was just through some shit before the whole crossover.

Optimus however dosen't want ANYONE leaving till after the trial. And naturally Prowl dosen't want a trial but a public execution. He even says it twice, proving that Magnus should've just let Chromedome finish him. Optimus points out WHY they need one: the public needs to trust the autobots again so the trial needs to be transparent. Granted Optimus still makes some fumbles in setting it up: while he makes the wise decision to apoint magnus as the defense, as he knows even with every reservation Mags will do the right thing, he appoints PROWL to proscution. Prowl who the NAILS could easily point to as biased. Prowl who Optimus knows from the crossover as Rodimus damn well told him set up the whole overlord fiasco out of paranoia. Prowl who SHOULD STILL BE AT THE BOTTOM OF A CLIFF INSTEAD OF IN THIS PRIVATE COUNCIL. I get it's not asshole free, Starscream is also there, and Rodimus has some thoughts about that that sadly feel all too relevant

Just that feeling that you can't grasp WHY something very stupid and horrible happened... or why they elected it to office.

So the trial is set, and Rodimus reveals why he's so twitchy: the matrix. Granted Optimus once again comes off as a bit of a prick, and unlike the prowl thing where Roberts hands are tied by the sister book having Prime weirdly trust the guy, Optimus just.. seems grumpy at Rodimus breaking the matrix. Despite ya know DOING SO TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF SENTIENTS. I love this book, with all my heart.. but sometimes it forgets our heroes can and have actually done shit.

So Rodimus is going to thunderclash for help, which frankly is a hell I wish on no one. But he has a reason for being so twitchy besides "everyone is being a dick to him today and the planet is ruled by a smooth talking facisit now": Thunderclash hasn't responded which given who we're dealing with is not exactly good. Still Rodimus being present gives Optimus an idea to speed things up.

Back at therapy Megatron is annoyed Rung has made his fusion cannon a penis thing, a gag I love but Rung points out why: Megatron is being evasive

So Rung tries something diffrent... great encounters. Who he met that had the most impact on him. Megatron deflects by pointing out how they met, the incident at the Macaddams from Chaos Theory. it's a major reason why I wanted to cover it, the other we'll get to as we go. Megatron dosne't begrudge him from forgetting and tries to use his usual rhetoric and deflect.. but Rung's found an opening: See he brings up Megs biography.. and specifically that he found a rare first edition, the others all wiped.

It's a quote I deeply love and shockingly haven't had a use for till now. But it's not only once again precisent.. but also gets to the heart of things. Rung tried finding the change, found nothing.. and then spotted the deidcation and asks whose terminus. Before he can dig in on that, the lights go out. Megatron takes that as a sign to leave to go refuel and then get back on deck so Magnus doesn't get too comfy. He does point out why he edited it out though: Terminus was a friend. and taught hims omething important. Okay it's vauge as hell. Rung is curious though as we find out MEGATRON asked for the session. Also btb, Ravage, one of soundwaves cassets is lurking on board. It dosen't come up in this half of the story and I almost forgot to mention it but it will naturally be important later.

Back in the flashback we get a brief bit of levity as Swerve holds fake "Crewditions" to fuck with people. It gives us a look at the adorable nerd Nautica is and nightbeat eventually shuts it down. It's a fun bit and leads us into what Optimus was getting at: letting Chromedome extract testiomny. Probablem is.. Megatron has a deathly fear of mnemosurgery, reacts harshly and assumes their coming to take his brain instead of you know, trusting optimus. I mean I can't blame him for not wanting to take the needle. Rodimus.. takes the chance to mock him and say megatron will end up where he started: under rock deep under ground with nothing to show for it. And this.. will be a mistake. Not for the whole of cybertron as it leads to some good things, bu tfor Rodimus as it's going to be a pain in the ass in the short term as Megatron has Rodimus give Magnus a box.

Back on the ship Skids and Nightbeat are hanging out. Their buddies now. And Chromedome is.. not doing well just sitting in his cell replaying rewind's message having ALMOST recovered a little.. but then you know, he didn't get to kill prowl so back to depression he goes. Nightbeat is curious though.. the last number on Domey's hab suite is missing.. something... is up.

Speaking of.. I don't have a transition. Whirl is doing what he does best: pick a fight to mask his deep issues. In this case he sucker punches Megatron

It does not. Once again Whirl not only picked a fight with someone stronger, but someone who did not want one. And unlike Cyclonus who simply threatens to murder him some day, Megatron cuts to Whirl's core. Whirl brings up the fact he tried to murder Megatron in a prison celll... and Megatron reveals in gratittuude for setting him on his path, he ordered his men to never actually kill Whirl. I like the ambigiuity: Megatron is usaully straight forward.. but he's also smart and knows this kind of lie, or even worse truth, would damage whirl way more than a fight he did not want or ask for and lets the fight go while Whirl looses an arm in Megatron's insides as shockwaves use of him as a space bridge means his stomach's all kinds of freaky.

After this we flashback as Megatron explains the why of his therapy: he explains the editing that life is all edits, slowly piecing things out of your life, changing yourself for better and worse and sometimes the wordk you've done.. is unsalvagable. You need to start over. And that's what Megatron is doing here, why he threw his past away on Luna 2 where the trial took place. We'll find out what that means later for now the issue ends as the crew finds a mysteroius coffin with an autobrand in space.

We open our second issue with the return of Tailgate! I missed him.. I missed all of these guys granted but still I forget sometimes he was in a coma between seasons. But he's back and Cyclonus smiles upon seeing him coming. He's then massively confused as Tailgate tries to jam his finger in his head as his new signature move, but still it's clear he's happy for a change. Tailgate gets caught up to speed on just about everything.. only to see Megatron hauling a coffin and wearing the autobrand. They both have one as Tailgate got his as a present while in stasis , with Cyclonus feeling it dosen't fit either of them. We do get a cute moment though that after a drunk autobot you da man now dawg's tailgate, Cyclonus assures Tailgate he was missed.. by him. He says it about as directlya s he can without just saying "I missed you dawg now let's go have robo sex".

Back in the past, Rodimus is watching the trial with tons of victim testimony.. too many. In a nice bit to show his depth he does feel it's necessary, the bordedom comes from just how the same it is: so much trauma in a pile. So he's greatful for a break as Atomizer asks him. You remember him right? The red one? has a visor? Hasn't been plot relevant till now o clock?

Well now he is and he's suspiciously giving Rodimus a keypad with the names of every person that voted against him when he called for a vote on his captinancy. Rodimus does the right thing shrugs it off.. twice even.. but Atomizer knows his audience... he knows even at his lowest and most regretful.. rodimus still thrives on attention... and simply says he'll stop pushing.. if Rodimus says it one more time.

Back in the present everyone's at swerves and Swerves now has a bouncer, 10, one of the legislators left over and reporgrammed. He only says 10. While he deals with that and Swerve is grumpy over the new captain, though frankly should be greatful megatron let him keep his bar given what a stickler he is, Natuica, Skids and Riptide, a new crewmember whose less important than Nautica are watching Trailcutter slowly drink himself into a coma. His crippling self esteem issues and alcholishm have lead him down the darkest hole imaginable and it's sad to see, sadder this time around as having read his spotlight and seen just how shabbily he's treated by everyone but Whirl, whose busy patching up his pride, you can see why he's drunkely spiraled. And it only gets worse as Riptide mentoining Megatron drinks some kinda super fuel gives the poor shambles an idea.

Back to the past, and Starscream is being starscream, going on a long rant first describing how much he's acomplished and how much he loves his poeple and exactly what you'd expect till Magnus tells him to knock it off, then a long stew of lies painting Megatron as a mistaken blundering fool whose revolution got out of hand and whose been lead by others. This.. is what gets Megatron to activate his escape hatch to the suprise of no one. While part of it is genuinely good impulses as we've seen. he still has an ego. It's not as big as Starscream's as tha'ts just not physically possible, but it's enough to get him to say "fuck this time for plan b" after pleading guilty and intended to just.. give up.

Chromdome goes to visit Nightbeat. Turns out as he's been rewatching Rewinds's last words again.. and again and again, and again, and again and again and again and you get it, he's noticed a change...Rewind screaming. A change that's now gone and understandably Nightbeat think's it's just grief and Chromedome refuses to see the naunce in that and plans to storm off... till Nightbeat sees something... REWIND.

So it's back to trailwhatevers drunken escapades. Nautica leves as she's tired of water man and skids egging this stupidity on as Trailbreaker breaks into megatron's room.. well rather the door goes missing. This issue does a nice job of amping things up.. that something IS seriously wrong with the ship and the sign on chromedome's suite was just the start.

So he breaks into suplies, checks the energon and finds megatron.. and finds megs, magnus, ratchet, some white guy, guy with a visor and cool red guy with a visor starring him down. Trailbreaker responds by busting out his new move a "panic bubble" that lasts 90 minutes. While he huddles and his enablers have no idea we go back to the past.

Starscream is doing what he does best: celeberating prematurely that he's won, he's the true leader of the decipticons. er cybertron...

The Autobots also got an autobump. But the real meat is back in the present. Nightbeat has figured out what Rewind might be. A g-g-ghost! Specifically a data ghost. Information has a life of it's own, and Rewind was constnatly recording... and him stopping when his spark stopped. Sidenote I just realized transformers sparks are where their hearts are and i'ts a consitant thing in this comic. Like no matter the side the spark tends to be at the center... I know this because of all the impalings. So many impalings. I'm not haunted at night you are.

Point is Nightbeat is fun, on a tear if not exactly senstive as Chromdome is both depressed he didn't bring his partner back with the power of love and thinks it has ot be revenge since he hasn't been contining the quest for dominus ambus like he promised. They have bigger issues.. which i'm saying a lot this review but is true as the wall of nightbeat's habsuite is GONE. Somehow their not in the vacum of space. or something.l the art really isn't clear.

So back with Trailboy, he's coming down and is ready to go to prison or be sent home or whatever just as long as it isn't a beating. The bad news is he's still getting a beating as Megatron thunks him on the head. The good news is Megatron.. is a good leader now. He recognizes the problem and activated Trailbreakers fim chip. Basically he can drink he just can't get drunk. Disabling it is how robots get drunk in the first place. It's a violation of space.. but something necessary as this coudl've gone so much worse. It's also a job opportunity: Megatron admits this shoudln't of been even possible: even with the door going missing someone breaking in this easily and this drunkenly is impressively sloppy. He needs a new cheif of security since with all these extras and all this chaos.. no one.. no one thought to hire a new head of security since Red Alert's breakdown. Especailly given it was proven he was entirely sane and hearing a serial killer in their walls, but we'll get to his fate later. Point is Megatron sees this drunken breakdown for what it is: a very depressed man with a disase who badly needs a purpose and gives him the job. It shows already that while Megatron is still coarse and arrogant.. he's also a better man. In the past he probably woudl've just killed trails and does threaten to murder him.. but here he empathizes seeing that he's just a bot at the very end of his rope with no one actually supporting him but given the panic bubble with actual talent. Sending him home or locking him up helps no one. Giving him a job, a purpose and what he wanted most of all: recognition.. that ... that's a good thing Megatron did.

So Trailbreakers rock bottom did help though: it opened the casket and since no's eyes are leaking out of their skull, Megatron opens it to find RODIMUS BODY. Yup apparently he's been dead this whole time.

TO find out how we... should go back to the flashback. And we do but get no answers: Megatrons pleading not guilty now, while Rodimus did the thing we all expected and reads the data pad.

We being our final issue for now where we left off: on trial. Yeah this bit isn't BAD.. but feels like it woudl've been better as it's own issue in the middle or at the end of these three. A whole flashback to explain. It's how most comics do it and while that can get tedious I now see why: you can thread flashbacks with a story well, see the first arc of the most recent captaina merica run. JM Stranzki nicely synchs up Steve's past trying to stop american nazi's with the present. Here it synchs up a little but it feels like two diffrent stories that are important but keep interupting each other.

I do like the trail as it helps set megatron up: why he's here where his heads out etc and I like his prewrittne response he has magnus read out

Now the mentally violate part is fucking bullshit. That's.. entirely made up and not at all what happened and footage from the cell could easily prove that. That's just megs being a dick. But the rest.. isn't wrong. They didn't pull any witnesses from the decipticons, any of his loyalists left alive who might speak for his character, and while Magnus did his best he really didn't make an actual defense, his judge is his archenemy and his prosecuter is a known war criminal. It's very clear Megatron only let this go as far as it did because he planned to just sit and rot and was fully taking the kangaroo court.. but hot rod and starscream woke up his ego: his desire to not have the story end in shame.. but in doing SOMETHING right.

More on this soon. For now everyone has some drinks and kicks back, riptide studies a bit and we get back to the past where exactly who you'd expect are reacting exactly how you'd expect.

Look starscream isn't suprising.. but at least he's entertaining. Of course he's going to pout his evil plan isn't going the way he wanted. Prowl is also unsuprising.. but a giant fucking dick i'm still baffled john Barber couldn't see as a monster. Maybe it's roberts writing but you can't just..conviently ignore that one of your main cast commited war crimes in the other book or is saying shit like this. Or blame it on constructicons as he'll end up partially doing. Prowl is arguing they should basically have a show trial and trying to imply it's us or them and not "everyone even monsters deserve a fair trial. " Ratrap cuts through this very RID argument with a simple point: Ask megatron what he wants.

Back with the corpse First Aid is examining and has NOT been doing well. Ratchet primarily asked for his help because Ambulons' death hit the poor guy hard and he's been in his room barely engaging with anyone sense. Seems to be going around. Still calls need to be made.. and thus after a three issue absence, kinda... it's the return of the king

Yeah a rare full page here as everything about this is great, Rodimus clear grief... and it being interputed by a petty argument. I like that like Ultra Magnus Megatron just.. cuts through Hot Rod's bs.. that he's now tag teamed by two people who won't take his shit. And both have a point: They are co captains. Made up rank or not optimus judgment stands, but Rodimus was sulking for what was implied to be several months, kinda proving WHY maybe they needed a new captain.. co captain. Whatever. While Optimus taking the reigns from Rodimus is cruel as this is Roddy's quest, he acomplished little and let a serial killer on board on a dare. Megatron has done FAR WORSE.. but has far better motives than his own deep seated insecurity.

So back in prison Megatron is wondering about the people who tried to spring him. By the way some decpitcons tried to free him. It.. it sure did happen. I nearly forgot to mention it but in doing os realized just HOW superflous it ends up being. It shows Megatron isn't going to flee but like.. we got that.

And this proves it as Megatron explains why he' squesting and wants to change things to being judged by the knights of cybertron. He dosen't want his epitaph to be written by starscream. He wants to do something right

He's trying to atone for what he did. this isn't just an escape hatch: he had one ready, unsuprisingly, but his reasoning... is good. he just wants to make a better world after ruining this one.

Optimus agrees. While he could just throw megatron in the brig till Rodimus finishes the quest, He sees the genuine nature of this request and asks for two non negotiables first

Second we'll naturally get to later, as for now Rodimus is freaked out and thus calls for TEAM RODIMUS WHAT WHAT. Specifically nightbeat, nautica, chromedome, brainstorm and skids, all people who are smart and can deal with weird shit. He ignores Night beat about to tell him shit is weird and instead has chromedome once hack into a dead body

Yeah Rodimus is a bit of an ass this arc even by his standards. Nautica finds specteralist symbols, chromedome only finds curosy memories left and first aid confirms via enermost energon that it's him. Sometime in the near future he apparently dies after they reunite with drift again.

So Rodimus has a resonable adult reaction to his impending death: CUT OFF HIS ARM. After all if his corpse has two arms, he has one it can't happen. Perfect plan! Megatron points out the flaw and I just.. love how these two bounce off each other. We've never really had someone on the same level of rodimus point out his stuidlty. Others have but with those bellow the command trinity he can tell them to shut up and respect the captancy and magnus and drift were both weird in their own ways: drift was new agey by cybertronain standards and magnus would marry the rules if that wreen't against the rules. Megatron is megatron.. but he lacks the quirks whiel still being megatron enough to be funny. He's straight with roddy like magnus but unlike magnus has no clear issues he can push. Roddy can pull out the "your a monster card" and does frequently and will call megatron out on a lower moment next time, but it's not something that works when pointing out basic logical falicies and when the person isn't trying to be space hitler these days.

Thankfully rodimus mental breakdown is interuppted as a large portion of the ship disappears behind him. So Nightbeat's right while Brainstorm's latest invention has the right idea

Meanwhile our other new castmate finally reappears: Getaway. As Tailgate is hot doggin and grandstanding at the bar, Getaway comes up and starts flattering him, calling the little guy a hero and blatantly hitting on him in a way that's obvious to a grumpy cyclonus and anyone with eyes, but also comes off creepy... the way he just... butters Tailgate up it seems wrong. And it is but we're a long ways away from that. The alarm goes off and we go back to the flashback. Megatron denounces deciptconism and everything he stood for, a bit mopey.. but understnading

Speaking of MOpey rodimus shows Ratchet the pad.. and finds out Megatrons going to be assigned to his ship. And his pissy ness.. is entirley justified. Now his months long mope sesh isn't, he didn't act like an adult and unlike first aid and chromedome he's not dealing with severe trauma and depression: he's just sore his ship got taken away and if he wanted to prove he's still captain, fucking act like it. Be a leader.

That said it wasn't within Optimus' rights to fucking do this. It's not his ship, not his mission, not something he's been involved with apart from a brief team up. He has no authority over the lost light and should've had no authority to keep it here for the trial. He's not in charge of anything but the autobots. not cybertron, and frankly shoudln't of been judge. His intentoins are noble: keep megatron honest and in the public eye and watched and under fools energon so his strengths down, it's why the special diet. But his actions are simply selfish and not how a leader acts: While sometimes you HAVE to ignore the will of your team to do something right in fiction, to give someone a second chance even if they sucked before, this.. isn't his team. He was autobot commander but he RESIGNED. Bumblebee is dead. This decision is not his to make. He didn't set out on this mission. He changed an entire ships mood, put the crew with a leader they truly hate simply because he knew they'd listen to him and wouldn't contest it and that... that's not good leadership. That's not being superman tha'ts being a dick. It works out long term, but it's an example of the rest of the autobots dismissing the lost light crew's autonomy. They stopped being one united all together faction the second they split and while they'll be there when cybertron needs them, the autbots left on cybertron have to accept they aren't one big army anymore. He's not THE SUPREME COMMANDER. He deserves respect I get asking for favors but this is a unilateral decision tha thas horrific consequences.

Anyways Rodimus feels bad as he was considering generally using the pad as Atomizer suggested, to cull the herd.. but can't. Ratchet points out what a stupid thing this would be but lets its lide given bout the cirucmstances and the fact Rodimus agrees to destroy it. That said.. he also points out it's fake. his name isn't on the list.. and that clearly wounds Rodimus.

So we end act 1 of the story as everyone scrambles to exit the lost light. We get some great banter as Megatron gives a classic villanous unhand me.. and Rodimus points out good guys don't really do that and I love their bickering on the escape pod

Now kiss... but maybe later as the lost light is gone. And that ends part 1

While splitting it in half this was was just circumstance, and it's late release was just me having a massive cold the split fits as while I consider this is a 6 part arc and all of it's collected in the same volume, it really is two acts the first slowly building up to the big event and explaning "why megatron here" while part 2 leans more on the sci fi high concept now we're all caught up. It's why I wish we'd gotten a flashback issue. Maybe DO rodimus as a corpse then the flashback.. then reveal he's alive. I dunno. This stretch of issues is decent but the trial stuff makes it drag slightly. I'm not reading this book for a self righteous asshat to hold a trial for his arch enemy whil ea war criminal screeches to just kill him already.

Having to spend time with Prowl did not help, as .. it's Prowl. he sucks. And I admit a large part is how the series ends, with Prowl somehow surviving all this, yes, really, and getting to dismantle the lost light. I'll get to the context in a few years, but that knowledge just makes me hate him more. Every panel is him just being the smugest most uncomfortable dickweed and it really pisses me off he's allowed to be involved in this trial AT ALL. That he's not HAVING A TRIAL or in a cell. I mean I get doing megatron first but i'm shocked starscream didn't throw him in one as he has every reason just to piss optimus off. I get so tired of the heroes throwing their hands up at prowl being a dick, arguging with him but doing nothing, something that will lead to a whole ass crossover event. And yeah you could blame his current combiner status but it's clear from the flashbacks before his brainwashing or his time as bruticuis, he was a DICK. An authortarian asshat who thought the ends justified the means. He's the Transformers verison of amanda waller but without the comptence or style... so absolute power era amanda waller, but I digress. He's a bad person and while Rodimus actions involving overlord haunt him I notice somebody never gets tried fo rit, exiled or just... plain.. kicked out. Optimus should NOT have brought him to earth or even talked to him. He gives Rodimus so much shit, and the shit over his not resinging was deserved.. but he lets PROWL get a fucking free pass till it's too late only punching him after he's comitted more war crimes. The more I think about it the more prowl's presecnce just drags down this whole affair and I didn't think i'd be ranting about him AGAIN but here we are.

This first half is fine, as while season 2 is my faviorite it does have a bumpy intro with the flashbacks, everyone being a tad grumpy and the first arc really being everyone adjusting to a war criminal being made captain. The levity the series needs to ballance it's deep sads isn't there often and it's only when Rodimus returns the series equilbrium comes back, his man child nature perfectly setting up comedy again with Swerve in a grumpy mood and Trailcutter's breakdown being more sad than the shennigan the series tries to play it as partly. He's a constantly negelected and unseen person lashing out and doing a drunken stupid that only dosen't end in his death because Megatron is a shockingly cool guy. But once you get Rodimus and Megatron arguing and our cool star trek style high concept of the week going, things feel like the comic I feel in love with and thankfully the second half is way stronger for it.

Next Time: We find out where the lost light went, Megatron gets a cat, and a former member of the crew returns! Kinda! Multiverse theroy is a bitch! I'm pulling for ya we're all in this together

[raayllum]

Um… Sorry, I know you’re really into Claudiez, but would you think it’s possible that Terry and Claudia could get back together (sometime??? In the future)…?

Like, Terry waits for her to ‘come around’? How potentially viable do you think the option is?

Oh I also love Clauderry!! (and half the fun of shipping is multishipping, anyway). No apologies or hesitation required <33 Claudiez is also supremely a crackship even if it's slightly more plausible in arc 3, but there's no way in hell it's ever happening and that's part of what makes it fun, too

And I think your question is a good one! It's one I asked myself after S7 because while a few things for them happened that I'd been waiting for, it also hadn't gone the way I'd thought.

For example: Since I went into the season thinking there'd be at least a 5 year timeskip in between arc 2 and arc 2 (three years minimum, but five or more felt right) I was already expecting a big chunk of time to pass in between.

This meant I was thinking that either Terry would leave (first) and Claudia would near the end of the season after him, OR neither would leave Aaravos but it'd be made clear Terry was staying with her partially to mitigate damage, and he'd leave early on in arc 3. Don't get me wrong: I wanted/hoped (esp from an aged up Claudiez shipping lens) that they'd break up, and would stay broken up for longer than half a season, and that seeing them apart for Years would be interesting but... surely I wasn't going to get my dream scenario?

And yet here we are, with Terry and Claudia presumably broken up for 7 years. That is a Long time to be broken up for, especially since they're ideologically opposed to the degree that they are. Rayllum lasted 2 years after dating for a shorter time than Clauderry (they had like 2 months; Clauderry probably had 6 months to a year, maybe 1.5) but while certain cultural values and choices weren't matching up, they've never been super ideologically opposed (at least not on the same level to wind up on opposite sides of a war Again). I'd be very interested in an arc where Terry and Claudia grow independently and end up single and/or with other people.

That said: I think it's pretty close to 100% sure that they're gonna get back together before the end of the show.

This is for a few reasons:

1) We are primarily invested in the relationships / the parts of the characters' lives we get to see. We're going to see very little, ultimately, of Terry and Claudia's time apart compared to all their time together (i.e. 4 seasons) and that's going to stick More (and therefore be more relevant) in the audience's minds/memories.

2) Claudia's end of season 7 character design. I want to do a proper breakdown of all of it, and a bigger meta about her character design changes over the show is sitting 1/4th finished in my drafts rn, but I think her prosthetic from Terry is really important from a symbolic standpoint. Whether she wants to or not, Terry is a literal part of her and she is literally carrying a symbol of his love for her with him.

We see her abandon dark magic as a literal crutch in favour of trusting his prosthetic can bear her weight in 6x03, and the symbolism of her throwing away her staff to run and hug him instead. While I think perhaps Callum could end the series (like Viren) without formally/permanently giving up dark magic, I don't think Claudia can, and she'll have to as part of her redemption arc.

On that note, we also have how the prosthetic Terry made/gave to her (as a sign of faith that she'd return to him, and she did, I might add) originally bore more of his colours — brown and green — and how it changes, mostly, to black and blue once she gets her dragon armour.

I do wonder about the blue because unless it's an indigo slant, it's not a colour Claudia has been associated much with so far, but maybe that'll change. We also see that the bulk of the leg has changed, but not all—some original part of it, and Terry, despite Claudia possibly wanting to pretend all of it has been changed/removed, is still there with her.

So Claudia's symbolic coding and her despondency at "so you've given up on me?" with Soren shows that she does still want Soren (and Terry) to Care about her, even if she's not yet willing to accept what that care demands and looks like.

That's her side of things — what about Terry?

3) Terry shows clear continued love and concern throughout the season, including spelling out the biggest piece of evidence for him keeping his love for her in their breakup scene.

But first, just a nice little collection of parallels and indicators:

Now that that's out of the way — onto the actual breakup scene dialogue.

CLAUDIA: I know I should've told you, I know. But Terry, I've done so many bad things before and you know they were for good reasons. What's different about this? TERRY: Because you didn't trust me to make my own choice. You used me. You've never done that before. It's not how you treat someone you love. It's not how you treat any person. And if I let you treat me that way, I'm not sure I can really be me anymore. CLAUDIA: You're always you. You're being so you right now. TERRY: No. Aaravos said that this would change me, but I love myself the way I am. And if I let myself change to someone I don't even like, I'm not... I'm not really the person you fell in love with anymore, am I?

Terry refuses to stay and be fundamentally changed by Claudia and Aaravos' deception. He doesn't want to become someone he likes, and scaffolds that if he did stay and become that person, he would no longer be the person that Claudia loves. Therefore, by leaving, Terry remains the person that Claudia loves. And, as demonstrated in the screencaps above, he starts and ends the season still loving her, which means that Claudia is the one who has to find her way back to him, and she will still find the Terry she fell in love with close to 8 years ago by arc 3's time, waiting for her.

I could see them only getting back together near the end of arc 3, mind you. I'm expecting it'll probably take 1.5 seasons minimum for Claudia to pivot and start her atonement arc in earnest, and I think they'd probably have a season long arc (for those sweet S4 Rayllum parallels, and to give them both an interpersonal plotline) of getting back together, especially because a Lot has changed and will continue to change.

But yeah, I have little doubt they'll be endgame, at the very least ending the show (discounting any kind of epilogue) with a tentative but tender and steadfast, "What do you say we try again?" handhold and look if not like, kissing and couple-y things.

What it would take for me to buy that they'd Stay together their whole lives, I think I would need Claudia to demonstrate to Terry's face how much she views on elves have changed and make it clear that — unlike throughout their entire relationship — she's no longer exceptionalizing him. I could see that being a big part of her arc, but Viren's atonement arc addressed only interpersonal issues, not necessarily the devastation he brought to Xadia/Lux Aurea, so it could go either way. I think Claudia and Terry will end up together regardless of what's focused on in her atonement arc, and I think I'd still prefer to explore fic/fanon wise how divorce could affect them / endgame with other people (Corvus for Terry, Ezran for Claudia) BUT as far as canon? They're endgame, and I'm sure they'll live long happy lives together

[achillean-knight]

Thought it'd be fun to kinda repost the original sorta mini-comic that launched my FNAF Mask Bot AU :D your honour, does this count as a belated FNAF anniversary thing lol

I figured I'd share them because admittedly, these were laying in my wips folder collecting dust. I need the storage space on me laptop, y'know :'D

I also wanted to take this chance to make a Masterlist of my Mask Bot AU's posts, to keep up to date with the story for myself incase I want to revisit it and actually finished the story bc I DO, I'm just not motivated rn 😭

MASK BOT AU - MASTERLIST

Story related posts in Chronological Order :>

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738841793691533312/summer-of-87?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737765171475398656?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738460951928520704/said-i-wanted-to-do-this-sooooo?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738585518805270528/desperately-need-michael-angst-pretty?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/743066171261239296?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738999175133413376/ill-protect-them-ill-keep-them-with-me-its?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/741099221494677504?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737466599824556032/part-2?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737677329894162432/can-you-please-please-please-continue-your-bonnie?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737919190069100544/part-1-part-2-here-you-go-the-final-part-this?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/739828472350949376/im-sorry-this-took-me-longer-than-anticipated?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738760289983610880/safe-haven?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738485575236124672?source=share

Bunch of extra lore scattered in posts

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/740743021601095680/horror-blood-warning-these-were-initially?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/741482538087907328/oh-yeah-i-gave-up-on-this-but-i-wanna-post-it?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/743268044516786176/sorry-the-brainrot-is-severe-for-rn-lmao-i-have?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/745887772682911744/good-lord-i-finally-finished-this-not-happy-with?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/745979873317863424/wr0wn?source=share

Random doodles and art of the AU :>

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/758333678614183936/your-puppet-gives-me-life?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/741835136588546048/before-i-crash-for-the-evening-have-these?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/745876636423110656?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/741820428447809536/oh-yeah-have-this-small-little-random-ass-doodle?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/741191656259338240/wooo-rough-henry-design-lmao-bonus-mini-comic?source=share

Character Designs

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737389538368012288/just-for-the-fun-of-it-playing-around-with-a-brush?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737396273936793600/you-know-what-woe-post-scooped-michael-be-upon?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737930424197824512/guess-whos-in-a-drawing-mood-again-anyways-i?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737559186927419392/uhhhh-well-after-the-small-comic-i-did-i-was?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738187073870348288/as-stated-cant-draw-kids-lmfao-but-i?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/742731278199177216/wooooo-finished-a-proper-ref-cant-be-bothered?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/738293268410974208/while-my-tumblrs-still-working-on-my-laptop-it?source=share

OH and shout out to this doodle I just uncovered

https://www.tumblr.com/achillean-knight/737762958423326721/i-have-an-idea-for-my-au-i-guess-the-same-au?source=share

Once I also find the lore ask post, I'll add it here!