#and they're all mostly already outdated :(

[kiss-dumbbunnies]

finally got my main guys' refs done for this year. not in order of completion

and nessa, for some reason.

edit: forgot to add delila :(

[comicaurora]

A bit of a strange question, but if there were any of your videos you were to "remake" today for any reason (ex: you feel like you misrepresented the original text or spread misinformation), which would it be and why? None of them is a perfectly valid answer

Again: bit of a strange question, but I've been thinking about my own creations and how I could have done so much better with some of them, but I also know that is a sign of my growth and constantly chasing "what if I did this instead" isn't always healthy for nurturing a creative mindset, and I was wondering what your opinion might be as a Creator of Things with a bit more experience than I

There's been a few trope talks where I've thought later of other angles I could've explored that might warrant sequels or part 2s, but I don't dislike any of the summaries enough to justify a rework.

I always find "I could've done this better if I made it now" to be a bit of a fallacy. I'm only better at making things now because I made all those earlier things. If I knew everything I'd learn from making a project before I started the project, it wouldn't come out the same.

I think when it comes to the "rework remake perfect" instinct, it helps to zero in on what the impulse is really grounded in. In my experience, more often than not, it's not actually about making the art better, except incidentally. It's usually about showing that you are better. It's demonstrating your competence and your higher standards and your skills, and more importantly it's overwriting the proof that you were once less than perfect. If people look at your old work and think that's all you're capable of, they'll be judging you poorly!

If that's the motivator, it's a very unhelpful one. You can't control for being harshly or incorrectly judged. It's a fruitless effort to stave off potentially upsetting outdated criticism, and it's not even going to work. Fear of critique is an unreliable and untrustworthy motivator.

If it really is about making the art itself better, perfecting your magnum opus with your newly leveled-up skills, that's a little more solid. But from where I'm standing, it's always better to use those skills to make something new instead of polishing something old. The older, unpolished work has already acquired its audience that finds it appealing for reasons that might never occur to you. Trying to bury or overwrite it just deprives that audience of the thing they like, and maybe makes them feel bad for having liked it in the first place. Also, usually when you look back on the older work, you'll conclude that the problem is everything and it'll need to be torn down and started from scratch. I know when I revisited the first three chapters of the comic, when I let my critic brain spin up, it wasn't shading or lineart I wanted to fix - it was panel composition, overall pacing, the entire structure of the chapters as a whole. I would've had to make them all over again to be happy with them, and they wouldn't be the same story by the end.

I've been thinking a lot about the Discworld through this lens lately. It ended up over 40 books long, but everyone agrees that the first two are not what you should start with, because they're the worst ones. They're entirely parodic, purely referential of at-the-time major fantasy series, and borderline mean-spirited in places. If you haven't read Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Dragonriders of Pern, you're not gonna understand like a full 50% of The Colour Of Magic.

It's clear that when he started in on them, Pratchett was entirely focused on taking the piss out of a genre he found mostly shallow and unimpressive. But the Discworld wouldn't leave his head, and everything he made fun of he clearly eventually found himself overthinking. He'd make little one-off jokes in the early books about Dwarves having no women and a hundred words for gold, and then twenty books later he'd have a Dwarf gender revolution make waves across the Disc, and then he'd write Thud!, a book that delves deeper into the nuances of Dwarf societal structure than Tolkien ever did.

If you look for them, there are continuity errors everywhere in Discworld. In his introductory book, Carrot defused a dwarf bar full of rowdy brawlers by guilting them all into writing to their poor lonely mothers back home. Shortly thereafter, Carrot will be outraged at the mere concept of an openly female dwarf. Pratchett even eventually wrote Thief of Time, a book that loosely explains that the Disc makes no sense because history has been broken and put back together incorrectly twice, and therefore any continuity errors are because of that.

He's the writer. He could've gone back and fixed it, edited the reprints to be less disruptively discontinuous with the later books. Instead he continuously moved forward and allowed the world he made to grow without cutting it off from its roots. And because he didn't bury his older, far worse work, we have the privilege of following the Disc's evolution from the very start, and seeing how this shallow, stock fantasy world parody became something incredibly rich and complex without ever pretending like its early installments never happened.

Anyway, that's why I think it's better to move forward. You make more good stuff that way.

[bluerosefox]

Friendships Between Realms (YJ and Danny Shenanigans Being Peek Friendship)

So the 90s YJ group got into a lot of shenanigans tbh. Like a lot and mostly without their mentors knowledge. And whenever I think of YJ I think of the Core 4 (mainly cause Tim is my fav, and the Core 4 is just so amazing together) anyways I honestly wouldn't put it past them if they had accidentally summoned or were being sacrificed by some cult, or meet Danny who accidentally fell into their world via a random portal in someway. (In this DC and Phantom universes are not on the same world, fyi)

Like Danny, still new to being a hero but getting the hang of it, meets them, learns some things from them, and actually gets along with them to the point that when he has to leave Robin gives him a communication device to keep in touch (and Robin Tim would, despite being the second most paranoid of the Bats this boy lies to Batman to his face and had hidden an entire Batmoblie cost in the Batarang budget and keeps it with YJ) and Danny does.

It's nice to have hero friends who understand the struggle of balancing hero and normal lives. Don't get him wrong Danny loves Tucker, Sam and Jazz but sometimes they just don't... fully get it. The danger, the stress, the anxiety, the relief when things are solved or saved, etc etc that comes with being a hero or at least try to be one. They don't understand the urge he gets at like 3 am to go patrol Amity Park just to make sure everything is safe. YJ on the other hand does.

He talks to them about his problems and they help out and Danny in turn helps them out too when he can. Like they needed help with Secret, call up Danny see if he knows what kind of ghost she is (he turned to Clockwork and Frostbite in that case) and Danny in turn talked to them about Dan (they told him about them having to face their own future evil self to at one point). Danny talks to Conner when Dani came into the picture, he wants to make sure he doesn't screw up like Superman did towards his clone's feelings and self worth. Etc etc.

Point is, despite being dimensions and Realms apart, YJ and Phantom are friends and have been in touch. He's friends with all the YJ at the time and keeps in touch with them all but is very close with the Core 4. (Danny was the one that reassured Tim when Bruce was thought to be dead. Couldn't find his soul or ghost in the Realms and Clockwork was being 1000% more crypticd about Batman when Danny had asked if he was lost in time, Danny (or CW) couldn't do much to help due to certain rules but Danny could tell Tim "He isn't dead. Just lost. You're not insane Rob I promise."

So imagine a few years later, DCverse is under heavy near world ending supernatural danger and it gets to the point someone in JLD suggests they may have to summon the Ghost King in order to stop it (maybe its an old ancient ghost/spirit someone foolishly unleased). Of course there are some that strongly advise not to, that summoning him would spell the end of everything, but someone else points out they're already close to that edge they already got no other choice.

So they try and it fails and everyone is confused.

Bart, because of course it's gonna be Bart, returns from helping evacuations takes one look at the summoning circle and says.

"Why are you using those outdated sigals and symbols? That'd like trying to call an out of service number." Bart says before he speed texts Tim, Conner, and Cassie to come over.

Tim, RR, takes one look at the circle and asks who they were trying to summon. When told they were trying to get the Ghost King, him and the Core 4 look at each other before Tim pulls out his communicator and texts Danny.

It takes less than a few minutes before RR tells Impulse that Danny was cool with the summoning and to bring him in. Impulse nods and quickly runs around and changes the old summoning circle around with new symbols and sigals. Then RR turns to most of the JLD members and says sternly.

"You all better not memorize this, this is Phantom's personal summoning line and he only wants friends to know it. He gave us permission."

And with Superboy (Conner) and Wonder Girl agreeing with nods.

Before any of the JL or the JLD could really ask or even interrogate what that meant Impulse was done with the preparation. the Summoning circle was changed around with constellations and other signs of stars, there was a bag of fresh burgers and three milkshakes in the middle of it, and under it was a stylized symbol of a D and a P.

Its Impulse who starts the... chant and raises his hands up. (its actually the dumbest song anyone can think of. Danny wanted it to be funny and the Core 4 totally encouraged it) the candles shift from red to green fire, the star symbols start glowing before flying around on the floor in a circle like shooting stars, the area starts feeling like a cold winter wind beginning to blow, and the stylized symbol is glowing green before...

Danny pops up in his Ghost King form (flaming crown, galaxy cape, looking more ghostly than human but still a teen), finishing up the song and laughing. When he spots his friends he's grinning and waving hello to them, all of them greeting him back.

The JL are confused as heck but noticed how shell-shocked most if not all the members of JLD as their staring at what has to be the Ghost King...

Basically. I want Danny to be one of the people/things the 90s YJ did/meet during their insane shenanigans that most of their mentors most likely didn't know about. They all kept in touch and if they knew, and were later invited to the coronation, of Danny becoming the new Ghost King and later needs to bring out the big guns against a supernatural entity and stuns everyone else that they have a friend in a very high place well... yeah.

[ask-lab-rats]

can we see the designs? (If this has already been shown please link it because I wanna see em all)

Here are the ref pages I used. I made them before I actually started posting here so their a little outdated. Mostly non-canon now

As an added bonus: they're babies in the small pics

[yanmuffins]

Glad you getting better muffin! I just wanted to ask if you could show the style of clothes that teen!vampire!reader wore and when she become adult after and before the biting thing please?

context &. context.

anon i love you. i hope your crops are watered and your harvest is bountiful. i'm really excited that i get to talk about this!! disclaimer: i know a lot of people aren't too keen on inserts being too characterized or specific, but i hope everyone will enjoy her fashion style! i promise it's relevant and i had a lot of fun with it.

so. where do i even begin with this post?

it all begins, of course, with vampire! reader's coming to the wayne manor as a child and the circumnsances behind it. that was a huge shift in her life. she was very little when it happened, long before damian could even dream of being concieved. media was going insane over this bastard wayne child that appeared out of nowhere, hoping to catch a glimpse of her to stamp on next day's newspaper and magazines. and as guarded as she was from the public eye, public appearances were inevitable, even if they were minimal at the time. so it was very important for her to dress and behave very proper and put-together.

but damage control wasn't the only, or even the biggest reason she was dressed like that. we have already established vampire! reader's fashion sense was greatly influenced by alfred, yes (and it still kind of is) — but also the new (fancy, upper-class) environment she found herself in. alfred mostly dressed her in whatever he thought was fitting for a wayne child, and although his choices might have been a bit outdated, no words of complaint were uttered. little vampire! reader's outfits were the least of bruce's problems at the time.

but all in all, it was alfred wanting to welcome her into the family and make her legitimate, providing the best of the best, donning her in the best fabrics from the best seamstresses and the best boutiques. he would show her old pictures of her grandmother, martha wayne, how she dressed, would show her the jewelry that were her heirlooms, and let her take a look at martha's old clothes that she could use once she was old enough, if she so desired.

now reader's fashion choices walk hand in hand with her upbringing, with the education she recieved. she takes being a "proper wayne lady" very seriously. it was a choice of mine to only have vampire! reader wear darker, more somber colors. it overall fits thr wayne/gotham aesthetic as well as emphasizes her upbriging, her blending in to the point of not being noticed. darker colors are also heavily associated with vampires, so there's that too!

onto the outfits. now, teen! vampire! reader is a bit more laid-back and experimental than her child self. but... not really. she begins to coordinate her own outfits without alfred's help, but his influence is far too ingrained in her brain for her to truly distance herself from it. she has certain luxury brands she will and will not buy from, seamstresses she contacts when she wants a piece custom-made.

the excessive formality of her childhood outfits dwindles, but doesn't completely disappear. it gives place to looser silhouettes, a pop of a brighter, non-muted color here and there, a shorter (gasp!) skirt if she's feeling daring, cashmere cardigans and (gasp!) a pair of sneakers here and there. she will go for more formal outfits here and there, but they have a certain joviality to them. the mary-jane shoes are still there, and so are the ballet flats, but now they're joined by loafers and oxfords. of course we have the fancier, tailored fits, with the tweed jackets and such, but they're mostly reserved for fitting occasions. heavy on the usage of long black/grey skirts, usage of pants or shorter bottoms pretty much non-existent.

this is somehwere around the time she convinces bruce to ditch the homeschooling and let her attend high school.

now, as vampire! reader reaches adulthood, the laid-backness of her outfits take a backseat. she leans onto more mature options, martha wayne and alfred's influence back with more force as she adds plenty of her grandmother's belongings into her own wardrobe. with some adjustments, that iconic black dress martha wayne wore to that charity ball fits bruce wayne's daughter like a glove at yet another charity event at the manor. and so many 50's-inspired outfits. her skirts are long, pleated or circle/swing for a more voluminous look with the help of some peticoats. full of neat gathers. usually plain dark or grey in color, but sometimes there's a plaid or a pied-de-poule to add a bit of fun to the outfit.

and that's when she starts wearing martha wayne's jewelry, too, so vampire! reader is getting fancy old money points not just for wearing expensive designer items like they cost $99 cents, but also because a lot of her wardrobe has extremely valuable, genuine vintage pieces that she inherited from a family member.

(can you tell i'm having fun leaning into the nepo-baby aspect of this? because i am. this reader is emotionally neglected but broke she is not.)

here you don't really have the loose sillhouette anymore. there's a lot of things reminiscent of her teenage phase, but now we have puffy skirts with a snatched waist — but nothing too form-fitting, either! no such thing as pencil skirts in her wardrobe, elegant as they may be. sometimes you might get an off-shoulder moment, but that's about it. we have a lot of fur (from martha's wardrobe), wool, velvet, etc.

(most of these are for fancier occasions!!)

but although she wears a lot of vintage or vintage-inspired outfits, there are fits that very much modern. get this: vampire! reader wears pants. jeans, mostly, and not very often, now that she's gone to college, but still. ironically, the sneakers are pretty much out, with designer slingback heels taking their place. designer heels, in general. lots of bags.

vampire! reader also... kinda flirts with the color red here and there, before being turned into a vampire. just a little pop of red here and there, maybe it's a more daring choice of dress she wore. just eyeing the color red sheepishly one time or another. hehe.

and, of course, her style of dressing is very much related to her upbringing. shaped by it, actually. she does enjoy the way she dresses, but i do think it portrays well the overly-posh, demure and modest image she maintains even uncounciously. always safe and never daring (as in she will stick with the outfits she deems proper/appropriate and will not deviate from them, at least not too much), always aiming to honor the family name.

but! onto the more modern outfits that i put together myself:

these are outfits vampire! reader wears on a daily basis! at this point she goes out a bit more often, to go to class, go shopping, a stop by a nice restaurant for lunch…

now here's some more references that i found on pinterest:

now you must be asking yourself: what about haute couture? does vampire! reader purchase those gorgeous, straight-out-of-a-dream dresses? and the answer is no. not often, at least. again, she keeps a very muted, elegant, somber style with no room for sequins, rhinestones, intricate or unconventional designs, anything too flashy in general. in those occasions she’s invited to fashion weeks she might stare at some of them longingly, desperate to find a plain enough dress she can wear to one of those few public appearances in she’s allowed to make. this is all before vampire! reader... well, being turned into a vampire. but i will say that the changes start some time before her transformation. her gradual changes and ultimate style as a vampire are still a work in progress, i'll admit. but.

dresses get more fitted, at first. the necklines get lower. skirts get a tiny bit shorter. the outfits more playful, more risqué, more assymetrical. there are corsets, deep red and green velvet, delicate laces, sleeveless tops with no white blouse underneath. it's cunty, that's all. and honestly? this is once again vampire! reader being influenced, this time by her sire, as she goes out with them into the night. the confidence isn't really there, lots of outfits she hasn't really picked and isn’t comfortable wearing.

(jason, duke and damian are first to notice it, and it makes a few alarms go off in their heads.)

i have some references and inspo, lots of them from 90's and early 2000's fits. she’ll lean more into haute couture then.

but i’m still deciding on vampire! reader’s style once she gets turned. this is the overall gist of it, though. a femme fatale kinda vibe — sexier, cuntier and absolutely powerful once that confidence kicks in and she starts wearing what she wants.

so that’s it for now I guess?? thank you for the ask anon, this was super fun!! ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡と

[bekolxeram]

Unfortunately, I don't have the means to donate this time, (Stupid expensive health issues🙄) but I'd still like to express my gratitude to Bucktommy and this fandom for the occasion.

Not that my life has ever been sunshine and rainbows, but 2024 has been particularly difficult for me. I started the year the sickest I've been for years, then one of my uncles passed away in February. He was 88. He had been slowly succumbing to dementia for quite some time, so almost everyone agreed a cardiac arrest was a blessing in disguise.

I wasn't close with him, but my mother was, and naturally, I had to spend pretty much the entire March accompanying her to all sorts of traditional ceremonies for the dead. All my uncle's children, my cousins, came back from abroad as well. They enjoyed hanging out with me back when I was a toddler, but then I slowly grew up into this weird, moody kid of few words, and we kind of drifted apart from there.

Family reunions were never awkward despite my gloomy existence though, they had their fun aunt who never ran out of things to talk about. To them, my mother's the life of the party and an exemplary woman, who went through tragedies in life but still manages to come out stronger on the other side, who unfortunately had to re-enter the workforce later in life to support her physically ill husband and her mentally ill teenage daughter.

What they don't know, is that while she's a fun aunt, she's not a fun mother. She was dealing with the stress and frustration so well because she always had an outlet at home. Someone she had total ownership over, officialized by a piece of birth certificate. Someone she could do whatever she'd like to, emotionally and physically, because in my culture, it's simply an alternative, maybe outdated method of parenting, not a crime.

I've had time to process my messy relationship with my mother, I've come to (mostly) accept it for what it is. Watching my cousins all rushing over to my mother with open arms to console her, watching my cousins' children playing around, having fun with her, while my existence was barely acknowledged, was actually more triggering than I expected. It acted as a sobering reminding that not only do I have merely a handful of friends since I left church, I in fact don't have any family left either. They're all my mother's family, not mine.

It was probably the most lonely and isolating experience in my life. It's like I was trapped inside of my head, my head that was gradually turning into a bottomless pit of nothingness.

Then Tommy Kinard drove through cross town traffic just to clear the air in person. He expressed how much he wanted to be a part of a family. Then he took his shot and got the boy in the end.

I just felt... understood. Watching Bucktommy's story play out on screen gave me some rare moments of joy and much needed hope. I felt like if Tommy could find happiness later in life, maybe it wasn't too late for me either.

If you've had experience with depression, you'd know how sometimes getting out of bed, brushing your teeth feels like an uphill battle already. Motivation is precious and hard to come by. I was so motivated creatively by Bucktommy and people in the fandom who resonated with the story just like me, that I wrote series of posts analyzing every scene in S7, I learned how to make gifs to illustrate the humor I found in all of us, I figured out how to edit video especially for my vision of a Brad-nado, I even wrote and posted my first fanfic ever.

And I just love how we refuse to give up hope, even after the breakup. We cried, we whined, then we doubled our effort writing fix-it fics, continuing their story on our own terms. Now, we even manage to raise thousands of dollars for charities in 24 hours in the name of love.

Sorry for the wall of text all about myself, I hope I don't come across as a self-absorbed jerk. I always thought I would never make it to 30, it started feeling like a real possibility in March. What happened instead was that my 30th birthday came and go because I was too busy screaming about Buck batting his eyelashes at Tommy when he was receiving a medal.

I'm sitting here, typing this out, looking back at my 2024 at the end of the year, only because Bucktommy happened and I had the pleasure to cross path with you all. I know, it's stupid, it's just a TV show, but I can't really imagine how my life would turn out if I never had Bucktommy, where I would be right, or even if I would still be at all.

So, thank you, for making life worth living for me again.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

hi! can i request ken x (male) reader who’s from texas and breaking ken’s idea of the patriarchy (mostly the realities of cowboy life lol) thank you!!

"Now what're you supposed to be, a cowboy or somethin'? Because it looks like you're goin' to a fashion show upstate."

Blinking owlishly, Ken spun around on his heels, coming face-to-face with you. He looked at your clothing up and down, noting you had a hat similar to his, along with ripped jeans, cowboy boots, and a buttoned plaid shirt.

His eyebrows furrowed with confusion, not seeing an apparent difference.

Nevertheless, he realized you were another human male who was trying to talk to him, and he was excited! This was his big chance to learn more about the patriarchy of the Real World!

But he didn't wanna let his eagerness show too much, so he leaned against a nearby pillar, keeping the books tucked against his side.

"Nah, I ain't goin' to no fashion show....partner..." He made a poor attempt at mimicking your accent, which he noted was heavily Southern, and it took all your willpower not to laugh your ass off.

Yet you couldn't help chuckling anyways, which made the blond pout as he adjusted the brim of his hat. "Awh I'm only teasin'." You shook your head. "I will say it does fit ya pretty good. Haven't seen anything like that back in Texas."

"...oh really? Thanks!" He put a big smile back on, trying to sound cool and casual. "Sounds like a fun place. I'm just here..seeing what this world's all about...getting accustomed to the patriarchy. Man, I wish Barbie told me about-"

"Hold on..." You stopped him in his tracks, being perplexed by several things he just said. "What about the patriarchy? You act as though it's a lifestyle-"

"Is it not? Because I see it all around us!" He spread his arms out. "It's incredible! Everything's backwards but yet...I'm just amazed! This world caters to us men!" Then he stepped closer, showing you the books in his hands depicting studies of horses and patriarchy, a sparkle in his eye. "Look, these books have already taught me so much!"

You blinked, taking one of them and frowning as you recognized the barcode as being from the school your cousin attended. "Ya realize you stole these from a school library, right-?"

"Back in Barbieland, we Kens had none of this stuff!!" He ignored your remark, yanking the book from your hands as he continued to babble on and on and how "awesome" the patriarchy is while pointing to a nearby horse statue.

He's acting as though this was the first time he's ever heard of it, firmly believing that it's all about men and horses.

That would've convinced you that this guy was either insane or living under a rock all his life....had he not mentioned "Barbieland", "Barbie", and "Ken".

'As in...the dolls my little cousins played with?' You pondered. 'Well it would certainly explain the outlandish outfit..and how it doesn't look like any lights are on upstairs...'

"So.." You cleared your throat, he was quick to shut up and let you continue, blinking as you offered your hand. "Before I forget...the name's [y/n]. A pleasure to meet ya."

He studied your gesture intensely, before putting forth his manliest handshake possible, his eyes lighting up when you laughed and complimented his strong grip. "And I'm Ken, the pleasure's all mine."

"Yeah, I figured."

"Well, [y/n]. You seem to embody everything a human man is, so...you got any advice for a fellow man who only just recently learned of all these great luxuries?" He raised an eyebrow.

You thought about it for a few moments, letting his hand go as your gaze went back to the books tucked under his arm. "Yeah, uh..for one, ya seem to be holdin' onto this "idea" that patriarchy's all about the horses. I hate to break it to ya....but it ain't that simple."

"....wait, it's not..?" He blinked in bewilderment, looking to the books and frowning. "Are you sure? Because these books told me-"

"They're outdated an' used for history projects at school. They don't accurately showcase modern cowboy culture, which is what ya seem to be enthralled with."

"...these don't???" His voice became higher-pitched, becoming utterly devastated that he was lied to. "But if it's not about horses..then...then what about the statues, hm? And those officers riding them?!"

"Ken..in this world anybody can ride a horse if they wanted to. You just happen to see more guys than gals doin' it."

"Oh..."

"Look, it's true that more men are in charge of stuff here in LA, but the patriarchy is really just a messy system that harms both sides." You frowned slightly. "It ain't somethin' I'd wanna idolize."

"...but why?"

You sighed, unsure of how you could possibly dumb it down for him even further. "'cuz it's turned some of my own friends and family into vile dirtbags who think the world owes them everything. I'd hate to see ya fall down that same pipeline."

He nodded in slight understanding, but seemed rather sad as he hugged the books to his chest, feeling like his dreams were shattered just as he began to realize them..

"I thought it was just like Barbieland..."

"Ya'll got a matriarchy there?"

"...I guess..? They write all the constitutions and stuff."

"And...how do they treat ya?"

"Like we're accessories." Ken huffed, eyebrows knitted together in frustration. "They aren't terrible, but...I only have a good day when Barbie looks at me..which...hasn't been happening lately. I was thinking if I could show her the cool horses and stuff...she'll see me differently. See me for the man I can be."

You never expected for this conversation to derail into you trying to resolve a doll's identity crisis, but it's clear he was holding onto the misconception that the "Real World" was just opposite of Barbieland--where men had it all here and ruled without flaw.

That was far from the truth.

"Now changin' yourself for a lady isn't what ya wanna do, son." You patted his shoulder, causing him to look up at you in astonishment. "You're good enough as you are. But I take it that deep down...ya just care about the horses?"

He nodded again.

"Then..how about instead of reading this misleading garbage--" You tapped the binder of one of the books "--ya talk to someone who's lived the authentic cowboy life? Somebody with experience?"

Looking all around, he seemed confused for a moment, before his gaze returned to yours. "Like....you?"

"Yup."

"Isn't being a man and wearing this not enough?"

"It's a wee bit more complicated than that. It's hard work. But if you're interested in that sort of life, I can tell ya all about it." You offered, smiling as you watched the grin return to his face.

"I'd love that. Now if I don't need these stupid books, then I'll just--" He went to toss the stack into the nearest trash bin, but you were quick to intervene.

"Hey, hey, hey! Ya can't just throw away school property like that!"

"...but you just called this "garbage"."

"It's a figure of speech, Ken." Sighing, you just shook your head, taking the books off his hands. "You'll learn a lot about that here. Let's just go return these and I'll tell ya all about my life back in Texas. Whatever ya wanna know, I'll do my best to answer."

Ken's eyes shimmered at the prospect of hanging out with another guy..like all the other humans he's seen. That's all he truly wanted, really--just to bond with someone and not be in some aggressive rivalry unlike what he had with the other Kens.

He's lucky he ran into you.

"Can I ask something now?"

"Sure..if it's less than ten words." You humored him.

"Do..you..own..horses..? That's four." He grinned, counting on his fingers just to be sure of it.

"I do. Poor things couldn't take the dry heat of Texas, so they came along with me in a truck. I'll show ya pictures after we return these books."

Ken nodded eagerly, unable to hide his excitement as he followed you back to the library, ready to learn more about your culture.

[bonny-kookoo]

I freaking adore 'Unstable'. 😵‍💫🩷

Can we get a Drabble where Mc is knitting small little animals (like a dinosaur) and they are all over the ship? Or JK has one attached to him? And of course he denies being soft for her and liking the small plushies😮‍💨

-> Masterlist

They're hanging everywhere at this point.

At first you worried that Jungkook might get annoyed with them- but he doesn't seem too bothered as long as you keep them in places he doesn't need to work at. So you hang the different knitted little animals on the screws at the large windows, or on hooks originally meant for coats. Jungkook has mentioned that the ship was originally property of an entire crew- but it got too old, most of the software and parts long outdated, so the crew sold it to be scrapped.

Jungkook bought it a few years later, and repaired it mostly by himself.

"What's this one?" He asks you, as you finish another little animal in your lap. It takes you a moment to realize that he's genuinely talking to you- something he only recently started to do more often.

".. a goat." You croak out, voice still horribly scratchy and painful to use. It causes his eyes to warm up quite a bit, as he sighs, reaching for something near his chair, before he waves you closer.

You do so, taking the little grey-ish goat with you. It's a round shape, and the horns are a little crooked, but you're quite proud of your progress. It's not that hard to learn for you.

Jungkooks hands kind of clumsily sit you down on his thigh before he shakes the inhaler Yoongi gave him, before he puts it to your lips. "Breathe in." He commands, and you do- flinching still a bit when the inhaler clicks and releases the medicine. "Hold it." He tells you next, removing the plastic device before he looks at you for a moment.

You've risked your life to help him get his ship fixed, and he's not sure if you did it for yourself, or him. You're human, after all. And humans sometimes do odd things for no reason at all.

"..good job." He mumbles, as you take it as a signal to finally breath again. You cough a bit, before you can clear your throat, medicine already soothing quite a lot as you watch him take the little knitted animal from your hand.

And then, he rips the little loop apart, much to your wide eyes. You're horrified at the prospect of him being this evil for no reason to tear apart your hard work-

But instead, he uses the two ends of the little loop to tie it onto the Keychain with all his different types of keys and keycards.

He didn't break it. He wants to keep it.

"Gotta get you some other colors." He mumbles nonchalantly, leaning back in his seat, not urging you to get up from his leg at all. "Grey's boring." He huffs, watching the main control display for anything out of the ordinary.

And somehow, this little act of softness of his makes you feel bold. So you swing your legs over his other leg as well, and lean against his chest, waiting for his reaction, but all you get is his hand on your waist, arm keeping you secure as you decide to rest a little more-

Noticing just how warm he is.

[cruyuu]

Now, that JJK is over, what do you think are Yuuji and Sukuna’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why? What do you love about their dynamic? Since when that you start shipping them? What are your favorite headcanons of them? What is your fav SukuIta (canon) moment? Do you have any fav ships (from any fandom) that the dyanamic remind you of their ship? Sorry if I ask too much....

Hi anon!

What do you think are Yuuji and Sukuna’s greatest personality strengths and weaknesses? Why?

Yuuji's strength is that he's the most compassionate person ever and that he's able to empathize with anyone, no matter what they had done. This, however, is also what I would call his weakness (a savior complex).

Yuuji needs to realize that not all people need saving or to "be better". Sometimes, they just love being the way that they are. Sukuna is the greatest example of this.

As for Sukuna- His isolation is both his strength and weakness. Strength mostly because he's totally independent and doesn't need anyone (as he had said himself). When I say "his weakness is isolation", I do mean specifically "isolation from Yuuji", because Sukuna had never paid anyone else that much mind like he did to Yuuji. All it took to spark that "hate" (interest) was the idea that he's more of a cage than a vessel, btw, which... really says something about Sukuna (that he's a fake idgaf-er).

What Sukuna fails to realize is that everyone gets lonely and longs to find someone who understands them rather than pities, envies or whatever else. Just someone who understands.

Why have you started shipping them? + Since when do you ship them?

To me, chemistry is important more so than if the characters look hot. If two characters do not have an engaging (or unique) dynamic, or if they barely even interact with each other, they'll be boring and hence I won't really invest myself into them to ship them. I hate overrated ships. Sometimes I do get behind them but only if I grow to love those characters first, but I usually attach myself to ships that have an interesting story behind them.

As for "why them really?", I already talked about it here in greater depth (although this answer of mine is a bit outdated considering a lot has happened since then). All in all, these two have a very interesting dynamic in canon and there's just something delicious about them being obsessed with each other so much so that it overshadows everything in their lives. Also; the lying, saying one thing and doing the other, the fact that they started off as complete opposites yet ended up becoming the same... and a lot, lot more.

I started shipping them right at the beginning of the story. My obsession solidified itself further at the end of the Culling Games arc, when Sukuna switched vessels.

What do you love about their dynamic?

You have two "people" who are complete opposites and are enemies. Yet... these two enemies seem to understand and read each other better than all others do. You're conveniently shown that throughout the story- just how much these two do belong together. Yet because they're enemies, they bicker and fight and will never admit it out loud. What's there not to love about two people who are in deep, deep denial that they care about each other because no one else can compare to their other? They will never admit that "that other" checks all the boxes to what they're looking for tho.

It leads to hilarious (contradictions) moments such as:

Sukuna calling Yuuji boring one minute then turning around and saying he improved a lot (with glee). ???

Yuuji ignoring Sukuna at the beginning of the story only to drop the most mind-blowing romantic confession of "being together forever" in 268. ???

Sukuna- who btw hates Yuuji- indulging him as they go through memories together. They also dance! ???

Sukuna apparently losing all that intelligence he once possessed and being in close range to Yuuji despite the fact that he claims to himself that his punches need to be avoided. ???

Yuuji "I will never be like you, Sukuna" cannibalized his half-brothers which is... clearly a Sukuna thing. ???

Since we're on that matter tho, he specifically did it to (and I quote): "Kill that creep." Why is he confessing he can live with him and asking him to come back to him again and again? Does that mean he lied to Choso back then?? Lied to all sorcerers?? ???

Mahito and Sukuna are the same. They're both terrible curses that live to cause suffering and who had also mocked him. They need to die. Mahito nearly meets a brutal death with stone-faced Yuuji chasing after him yet Sukuna... gets cradled lovingly? Gets paraded around Sendai? Gets "Let's try again"? Gets to dance with Yuuji who's happily smiling? ???

And more things. I have to re-read jjk and make an actual list lol

What are your favorite headcanons of them?

Oh, I have a lot of them.

That they cook together, that Yuuji buys Sukuna flowers which he says he'll throw away (but never does) and that Sukuna secretly writes Haiku to Yuuji.

What is your fav SukuIta (canon) moment?

Shinjuku battle 1v1 where Sukuna learns Yuuji can use Shrine is still my #1, but I recently started appreciating the divorce a.k.a the moment where Sukuna awakens in Megumi's body, saying "Remember that I said we'll see something interesting, brat?" and the fight that follows. Considering we know now how jjk ends, it's just... so confusing lol Yuuji's anger feels more like it was because he left him rather than because he overtook his friend's body.

Do you have any fav ships (from any fandom) that the dynamic remind you of skit?

Hannigram from Hannibal and Dracula and Agatha from BBC's Dracula. Like I said I'm a sucker for ships where the characters have back-and-forths, tease each other and behave like everything except like enemies (in the latter's case).

[oltammefru]

IS4 is coming out soon so I'll post some things about IS4 I've heard from CN players. Some of these are probably outdated and no longer true. Also fair warning that these things are very D15 IS4 skewed because the people who told me these are D15 players.:

Endings are actually consistent (although I've been told double ending is decently hard?).

The primary enemy gimmick of the theme is absurd mobility, so good slows and immobilizing effects are very good.

There's no more +res at higher difficulties and casters are a lot better than they are in IS3. They're still generally one of the weaker classes though, since they are now living in Reed's (flame) shadow instead. Mostima is still goated.

It actually plays like a roguelike in that there's so much more room to pick operators based on what collectibles you get rather than the optimal picks still mostly being the same regardless of relics (in earlier ISes.)

Boss 2 is an anomalously easy boss one and is generally considered to be easier than Boss 1. One person in particular told me that D15 Ending 2 Boss 2 is easier than IS2 normal mode phantom (just comparing boss to boss, the side enemies in the IS4 D15 ending 2 stage are definitely harder.) I'm not sure if I quite agree with that statement but it seems quite reasonable (you can stall this boss with 1 defender 1 medic at D15.)

One of the endings requires picking up a collectible which affects (by which i mean increases) the enemy spawns for every subsequent map. I think is a really neat way of doing an ending collectible but also like holy fuck that's an impressive amount of work done for like just one ending.

With how foldartals work it's much easier to avoid specific hard stages since you can actively change the layout of the map to some degree, although the hardest stages in is4 are somewhat harder than in is3. (this was said before expansion 2 I'm not sure if that's still true.)

Cuora has a fair argument as a top 10 operator at d15 and actual defensive defenders are really strong in the gamemode in general. (I think this one might be outdated.) Horn is not terrible but definitely a lot worse. Jessicalter has a reputation as an incredibly versatile unit that synergies with a ton of otherwise generally not that great collectibles.

Pre-expansion 2 D15 IS4 is generally considered to be a lot easier than D15 IS3. CN players complained hard enough about all of this that they added alternate (which is to say, harder) versions of all the bosses The ending 1 boss also seems to be widely disliked among D15 players (mostly for being boring. I very much see where they're coming from this boss does not seem very good and I'm already expecting to not like it.)

There's a lot more variety in the starts you can play. Someone played Carnelian start in one of the CN IS4 tournaments. I've been told about someone playing Hoederer start and having it be reasonably ok.

Taking advantage of the new investment system is sort of annoying since normal gameplay generally involves taking out way more than you put in and you so should play IS4 with MAA to fill your investment if you care about that.

Between how anti-interference index works and how much much stronger shops are, it's way easier to get to a critical mass of really good collectibles. There's a video on bilibili of someone getting 103 collectibles.

Healers are far far more important in IS4 than IS3 (in which they were barely even necessary). As far as a specific focus on healing goes, Eyjalter is considered the best healing option despite IS4 being very elemental damage light. (which I think says a lot about her, that she's far far better than IS4 than IS3, this is because she isn't actually an elemental healer and her ability to elemental heal is a relatively small part of her kit, despite what her "subclass" might say.)

The IS4 analogue of the rejections system provides team wide debuffs instead of individual ones.

Surtr finally manages to be a good unit. Qiubai is one of the best guards. Popukar is the best 3 star guard. Beagle is generally the best 3 star defender. Dorothy is very good.

The ending badges on each of the squads have multiple variants, the highest one requires at least D10. Post expansion this goes up to D12.

Deep investigation still doesn't have difficulty select. Maybe can we get it by IS6 or IS7.

Reed2 is generally the best starter before expansion, Degenbrecher after. Lava/Spot/Kroos is a pretty good start team that I think does everything f1 leakless except 1 or 2 emergencies.

Early rushes are more prominent, especially in contrast to IS3 where opening never really requires vanguards (with the exception of like 2 stages total.)

Hope is way way way way more plentiful than any of the previous ISes.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Would I be the asshole if I refused to go on a trip?

A family friend has a 6 year old who is in a harry potter phase. I used to have the phase, I grew up, I found stuff out, now I'm not a fan, but I still own some fan stuff from the time (the books, a wand, a card game). They're covered in dust now, so I didn't mind gifting them to him. After all, it was ages ago. The friend recently started vagualy talking about a trip to London (we're czech) to the HP museum for his upcoming birthday, and asked me whether I'd be up for joining them, as she doesn't speak english well and considering my past love for the series, she thinks I'd be the perfect person to go with them and translate. I've also already visited London, unlike her, so the thinks I have some valuable experience. She offers to mostly pay for it and promises me some great stuff, she's pretty much begging me to do it.

The thing is, I'm not a big fan of JKR, for publicly known reasons, and I'd hate to support her or her work in any way. My country is very outdated when it comes to queer people, same sex marriage isn't even legalised, let alone some ultra great rights for trans folks. I'm a teenager and I'm not even trans, if I spoke to the friend or my mom about it, they wouldn't support or respect my choice and call me out on overreacting. They for sure just wouldn't understand. The friend is always there for me, I love her a lot and it feels ungrateful to dissapoint her over the one thing she's asking from me. And I love London, I'd absolutely love to see it again, god knows when I get such an opportunity, but this feels wrong. Or I could try to make up a false excuse? Am I being an asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[qoldenskies]

Oooo kickback is so interesting!! Im so curious about Splinter especially :0 why was he kicked out of his family, and why did you choose to give him dercums out of everything?

dercum's disease is what my mom has,,, its incredibly rare and has NO treatment, some painkillers dont even work. it causes really sudden weight gain and excruciating chronic pain; i really think it like. unfortunately made sense for splinter's brand of issues, its something i have experience with via a family member and its a pretty good equivalent to the mutation.

and i also think it sets up the premise well, it got worse around the time when they were luckily old enough to work but he's ALREADY been saddled with chronic pain before this point + the usual depression and trauma is staying, which explains the kind of similar family dynamic to canon. realistically now in order to leave the house his best bet would be a mobility device like a wheelchair, but for one i dont think he would considered himself "disabled enough" to need it because he can still walk, which is a terrible perspective to have but they're all a little fucked up like that. the internalized ableism demon has a hold of everyone in this fuckass family

^^^ and also he does not have the money for it, and would be unable to find a proper diagnosis; from what i've seen, there is ONE specialist in the US for dercum's disease, and that would just be to get a diagnosis, there is NO TREATMENT. and said specialist lives in arizona.

as for his family, piebald's the cousin i mentioned because i wanted to include her, she's quite a bit older (probably in her late 20s now) and babysat them before splinter moved across the country, so she's surprisingly present in their lives. lmao mostly through like, facebook correspondence and shit but she'll be relevant! with the rest of 'em i think it was mostly just caused by him not getting along with his guardian kind of like in canon, it was a mix of slacking off (maybe he dropped out? itd be interesting if he projected both that pain onto leo who's following in his steps, and donnie who he can live vicariously through because he regrets not going to college, even if he doesn't want to hurt either of them) + he was queer in the 80s, which is an explanation of its own. it just makes sense to make him really engrossed in queer culture .... something about him ..... he's a little outdated though (said with love)

with a really rare disease, no family to financially depend on, one of kids dropping out of school because of untreated issues he KNEW ABOUT but couldn't do anything about, one being uninterested in college, and the other one skipping it completely to focus on really basic work just to keep them alive, its. tough. it just unfortunately makes sense that a lot of this would go on donnie's shoulders; and while splinter is trying, so so so hard, there's a small part of him that's urging him a little too hard to stay on track about the future.

I MADE THIS AU LITERALLY YESTERDAY I DONT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED EITHER

[drifloonz]

Haiiii, can you write a little one-shot or smth about Steven meeting someone online while playing video games and he maybe just starts to get attached to this online persona and then he finds out they're going to his town for vacation and he just

loses his mind

hi guys im actually replying to age old asks for once Can YOU BELIEVE IT !?!? [ i cant either ]

i got inspiration to write although probably temporary so YAYYY

anyways remember that one persona 3 social link . What if it was good and also not weird and groom-y and also Steven Was There. thats basically the gist of it

steven x reader ( meeting via online games )

_____

♡ steven wasn't one to go outside much. especially nowadays. this is something he knew intimately- mostly because he lives in his own body, as much as he wished he didn't on most days.

♡ so, when he isn't rotting in bed, and on the rare days he has energy to actually do anything, an old tucked away hobby slowly emerges in his long self-isolation.

♡ the computer still works. it's honestly a surprise, he hasn't checked the thing probably... since then. he was on it just before it happened. arceus. it was so long ago now.

♡ either way, with a bit of frustration he gets it set back up again. he played more on consoles, but... pcs have less limits. he could at least distract himself from his endless self-induced misery.

♡ and for some reason, his internets still running. he doesn't pay the bill - that was usually what [̸̻̂ ̸̻̿Ṁ̶̢̈ Į̵̼͊͒ Ḳ̸̛̀ È̶̖̋ ̸̡͊ͅ]̷͍̠͊̔ did. he doesn't pay much attention to why though- just assumes nobody ever wants to even slightly touch anything related to him. some part of him takes a pride in being feared by most of kanto. an old part of him, seated deep in his mind feels awful about it. absolutely awful.

♡ anyways, these are headcanons about steven and you meeting eachother through some online games remember when it was about that. yea . anyways.

♡ it's all he does nowaday if he ever has energy to do literally anything. his computer - a clunky desktop - is a real outdated model. but how would he even get a new one? so, he sticks to what he has. one day if he ever finds a way to, having a much more modern sort of laptop would be nice. a good distraction.

♡ whatever he's playing is probably outdated, old, for lack of a better term archaic. he honestly prefers it that way- leaves him room to breath, able to be not overwhelmed by swarms of people who could possibly find him, talk to him - talking to people scares him. he'd have to process... a lot of things if he did. smaller communities to deal with. more homey. he can interact whenever he wishes. people aren't in his face unless he wants them to be. it's nice.

♡ plus, it's a little nostalgic. he used to mess around lightly with these sorts of games. internet isnt a common thing to have, especially not in pallet of all places- but, as time passed, the tech improved. not that he has any of it other than an outdated pc model. hell, he might still have to use some AOL type of thing.

♡ it's nice. he misses playing them, so he tries to make it a thing he does on some sort of schedule, when he doesn't feel miserable. when he wants to award himself for not giving up entirely on his life yet. despite basically already doing that given the isolation, but ... it's a slow step forward either way.

♡ he only talks in the chat to ask questions. mostly because the internet is serviceable, but slow and inconsistent- googling things is not a learned skill of his. asking help isnt something he likes to do ( hell, look at him after he lost miki - although it's a bit different when everyone looks at you like a miserable stray animal ), especially given he doesnt like talking ever, but its kind of his only option that makes sense. plus, people don't actually know him... that's a plus.

♡ and, there's a specific player that talks to him a lot. helps him through things. is overly helpful. it's almost annoying. ... well, moreso overwhelming. it's hard to know what he properly feels when he hasn't been socialized in a while- everythings like that, especially with this person.

♡ he warms up to it slowly though. they are pretty helpful. it's nice. sometimes they'll give him free weapons or armor too. not extraordinarily overpowered, but enough to let him drift by the earlier game, which he appreciates. he says he'll find a way to pay them back someday.

♡ weeks into months into more months of keeping up a schedule. part of him barely cares about the game anymore. he's gotten a lot of progress, not much to do other than grind in these old games at this point.

♡ he knows a lot of things about you at this point. favorite color, your pokemon, what you like to do, your hobbies... he didn't offer much in ways of conversation, but he's always been a very good listener, according to people who he used to know back then.

♡ you're a very passionate person. it kind of draws him in. he tries to be more open with himself in turn, although still being very closed off and secretive due to just the nature of. well. everything about his situation. he doesn't lie about basically only sleeping and doing this all day though.

♡ they said that it sounded sad, but they knew how it felt, being in a similar ( although not nearly as extreme ) situation. he simply agreed.

♡ part of him knows he comes back not for the game, but just to see you. this part of him will never be willingly acknowledged by him.

♡ ... that is until during one of their talks about real life ( more often once steven had stopped being able to really engage with the game in any interesting way, usually he'd just lend an ear and maybe reply a few times in between... small, but short conversations. they had heart to them, able to talk about their life, interests, and struggles passionately. he admired that. ) they mentioned going to kanto.

♡ this makes him go insane even though he knows it really, really shouldn't. they would never even see him. nobody even knows he exists, practically. nobody even remembers he exists either. but.. part of him wants to see someone. someone he kind of knows, even if not all too deeply, it's still some form of personal connection. more than he's had in ages, and genuine, too.

♡ but the idea of seeing someone he met on the internet scares him far more than it has any right to. and also saying that he also lives there and wants to see them would be weird. extraordinarily weird. stranger danger.

♡ still, he has to mention it right ... ?

♡ blankly, he just replies something along the lines of "oh. i live there."

♡ the conversation coasts by pretty quickly from there, steven just kind of dissociating the way through as the person on the other side of the screen says they didnt know he was kantonian, getting excited themselves seemingly about the prospect of 'maybe seeing him in passing at the shop' as a joke. that sentence terrifies him and also makes him feel other things he doesn't want to process.

♡ he does not have the heart to tell them he would never be seen dead in public nowadays. outside of a few... rare, specific instances. when he was younger after everything, mostly. everything he did back then was for her. it isn't now because he gave up. he knows she isn't really there, won't really be back properly ever.

♡ good fucking god this is depressing just thinking about it. why does this person like him so much? he's just... sad.

♡ in his dissociative haze, he blinks 3 times. looks back at the screen. something along the lines of "well, if you wanted to see me you could've just said so ;P" . it's very cute. and also terrifying to his very unsocialized mind.

♡ oh my god. he scrolls up the messagelog just a bit. did he reply "that'd be nice" to the shop thing???? what the fuck is wrong with him. he must've been on autopilot. it's. .. not a lie, but, this is a lot for him.

♡ still he answers truthfully.

♡ and here he is. a week or so later awkwardly lying in bed, knowing this- stranger feels both right AND wrong to call them. he does like them, but, he doesn't... know them. not in real life. he knows what goes on in their real life, but is that enough?

♡ they did tell him pretty personal things. he listened to them when no one else seemingly would. fuck. he doesn't want to let them down. but also maybe it'd be better if they didn't meet? he's not a good rolemodel. not anymore. very unkempt as a person too. he did at least try to clean himself up a bit before this. he looks the same as usual, just a bit .. more organized.

♡ is it clear he barely has any experience with talking to other people online because he was raised in a very small town and had a lot of people around him, because. Yea.

♡ what if he ruins everything. what if he ruins another thing he had because of how he is. what if they immediately get scared and run off? he is abnormally tall, and, last he checked most normal people get scared of him immediately.

♡ this anxiety is not helping him. it's... one person. he doesn't want to ruin it. but if he keeps his cool, maybe it'll be fine? he's trying really really hard to be composed about all of it on the surface.

♡ they agreed to meet. not at his house. although it's where he lives ( or moreso rots away ) and does anything, forcing himself to go outside to at least meet them at a route or a street or on some... bench, would probably be preferable. plus, not that many people. ( 'never seen dead in public', huh steven? it's funny now. this person does things to him. it's... honestly nice. to want to see someone so badly. even if it doesn't go well, it's more of an experience then the mindnumbing isolation. )

♡ he gets on his usual attire, despite the odd looks from others he might get for it,

♡ and so, he goes.

____

thank you for requesting ^_^ enjoy the cliffhanger and Imagine whatever u want in ur hearts desire . the rare inspo to write hit me ig lol - wispy

[crabbytime]

Actually fuck it y'all get my tfa ocs too because I forgot to post them but I love them dearly (yes my ref style is inconsistent but I refuse to make it consistent)

Mini bios!

Deadweight- An Autobot defector and medic who hoards spare parts, junk, and whatever they've graverobbed. After having their conjux executed during the war for becoming a Decepticon spy and losing their entire team to a wayward alien parasite, they completely lost all joy or hope and switched sides. They don't express any sort of emotion and just let things happen, but they're as honest as they come (though it's mostly due to lacking the energy to lie). This can be detrimental if you're on the operating table, but otherwise it makes others know exactly where they stand with Deadweight. Due to their size, they tend to be used by other Decepticons as a weapon. The compartment on their back is akin to a mobility aid since it's mandatory for them to transform, and they occasionally use it for support when their leg injury acts up. The compartment also acts as a personal infinite pocket dimension, perfect for hoarding their collection! Their alt-mode is a hearse.

Diama- After the Allspark was shot out into space, the Autobot High Command wanted to find a way to create new Cybertronians without wasting too many resources. Thus, Perceptor started a new project that began and ended with Diama. Their goal was to create a completely artificial 'bot that wouldn't need too many resources to run on, and could even survive without energon. What they got was Diama. She was invented with the possibility of failure in mind, so she was made quite compact and with individual parts that combined to make her body in case they needed repair. Since they weren't sure if she'd be scrapped or not, they made her alt-mode something practical they could use were she to be shut down so their resources weren't wasted. A magnet. Her body emits a natural magnetism she has to keep low so she doesn't stick to the metal architecture of Cybertron. This also means she's fairly liable to fall apart at the slightest bit of force. Because she's completely artificial, she has no personality, the reason Ultra Magnus cancelled the project, as he deemed the sacrifice of personality too great a cost in exchange for progress. Though, because her personality is AI, her behavior is influenced by those around her, so her data keeps having to be fixed and reset by her handlers. The only reason she still "lives" is because they have her go around doing maintenance work for situations normal bots can't quite do. Perceptor likes to keep her around as his walking flashdrive.

Throwback- An unaligned amnesiac the Autobot High Command took in after finding his mangled body post-explosion. Nobody knows where he came from or what he is, considering his entire infrastructure was archaic by their standards, yet he had a spark. They had to completely recreate his outer shell while keeping his bare-bones intact, both to study and to not accidentally kill him. The damage he sustained gave him a large amount of damage on his processor and joints, but they couldn't be fixed due to his anatomy being incredibly outdated and unknown to the Autobots. Because of this, Throwback has an incredibly difficult time absorbing new information, which is incredibly frustrating for him and everyone else. He acts out as a result of that and his situation, pushing his already brash personality to its limits. He's incredibly loud and rude but turns tail at the first sign of conflict. His alt mode is a boomerang, but only his top half can turn into it, leaving his legs to their own devices. Because he keeps trying to escape his confinement, they've paired Diama with him so she can use her magnetism to pull him back when he runs.

Evolutia- Has earned the nickname "mommy issues" in my friend group and for good reason. She's as old as Alpha Trion and has both the experience and knowledge to back it up. Having lived through so many conflicts, she's gotten a distaste for it, and instead busied herself with off-planet work and exploration. Knowledge was always something she sought and she was willing to do anything to figure things out. However, an accident left her T-Cog destroyed and rendered her unable to transform. This didn't stop her, however, as she continued her research regardless. There she found that her body, though it could no longer transform, could instead shapeshift and meld to match the environments she was in. This ability was unnatural and made her fellow Cybertronians afraid of her, so she ran off before they could experiment on her. As this occurred during the Decepticon conflict, she ended up switching sides just to learn how they functioned and to study their anatomy. It was there that she took Shockwave under her wing, taking notice of his own shapeshifting abilities. She mentored him in this and various sciences in hopes that he'd use this for Cybertron's benefit, but became disgusted by him and ended up abandoning both him and the cause. She lived alone in space for countless millennia, stopping by other planets and stealing resources for her own purposes. She's even the basis for a variety of myths, legends, and rumors across countless planets as a result, thanks to her ever-changing appearance. There was always just one question she could never answer, the secret to life and existence, and she aimed to find out one way or another. So, she began building constructs to try and recreate Cybertronian anatomy using her vast knowledge of the subject. When this didn't work, she began harvesting honorable sparks from still-living bots from the shadows in order to pass their noble traits onto her new generation. She was the one to first create Throwback, not that he remembers, and she has countless other constructs wandering around the cosmos. She's incredibly patient and motherly, but once she's disappointed, you're essentially dead to her. She does not have nostalgia in the slightest and has no problem with switching her opinions around at the drop of a hat with no hesitation. Her highest priority is Cybertron's future and evolution, and she will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. Before her T-Cog was destroyed, she turned into a moon rover.

This turned into a massive infodump but I love them a lot. All of them have more info on my Toyhouse! I'm not sure how the algorithm works on this site so idk if I'm allowed to link it but my username is also Crabbytime!

[tickfleato]

tell us more about the greys i'm so intrigued

WEHEHE ok so i DO have a slightly outdated post about them here! it's accurate about their biology but not 100% on culture and i've since retconned their average height to be a little shorter, though i kept enen's height the same so i didn't have to redraw their ref and because it's really funny if they're a chilchuck situation.

long ass reply under the cut

Anyway. the greys (in my setting) are by far the oldest spacefaring sophonts, and in fact their original homeworld has been uninhabitable and lifeless for hundreds of years. the majority of their population belongs to the imperial culture (which... i should come up with a better name for What empire it is... but it's hard to come up with grey names for things due to their lack of vocal language), which is highly conformist and is the main reason that despite their advanced genetic engineering capabilities they all look pretty much the same.

for most of the empire and most people in it, life is pretty good. they are largely post-scarcity, having access to large mining operations on uninhabitable planets and producing most materials from bio-machines. people are required to work jobs but generally one is given plenty of choice as to what they want to do in life and it's ok to change. basic rights (sustenance, shelter, etc) are guaranteed.

however... there are absolutely people who fall through the cracks, and their society stands on some unethical columns. imperial society is deeply ableist towards anyone who cannot or does not want to be 'fixed'. this mostly applies to mental illnesses & cognitive disabilities, as well as telepathy-related disabilities (enen, for instance, has the equivalent of a bad speech impediment due to what amounts to brain damage, on top of difficult-to-treat PTSD and alien contamination of the mind).

and now of course we get to OVERSEERS!!

i explained it a bit already but they're essentially their equivalent of AI. whether you want to actually consider it AI or not is wobbly. they're fully made out of meat like all grey tech, and their core minds & brain matter are grown artificially, but a significant chunk of their computing power and the source of much of their personalities and memories while still growing come from a hivemind of grey bodies. and well, you might wonder how they get enough people to agree to subsume their consciousness to a hivemind...

coercion! it is nominally a volunteer position but in practice it happens to:

people with certain incurable mental illnesses or severe distress that can't be fixed (whether forcibly or not) as becoming part of the whole usually makes those issues irrelevant to the overseer itself. enen would technically be in this position but for plot reasons they aren't allowed to volunteer.

certain types of criminals that are too far gone for re-educate. this is carefully arranged so that they don't 'infect' overseers and no individual OS is allowed to get more than one at a time so that they don't form a 'clump'

people who were mentally damaged in some way from botched re-ed, therapy, etc. this is sometimes done on purpose when there's a shortage of volunteers but it's rare and illegal

a certain number of greys are grown with the intention of becoming seers when they hit adulthood, to make sure that quotas are filled when there aren't enough volunteers

also there sometimes are genuine volunteers who aren't going into it just because they've been made to believe it's their only option :) but that's relatively uncommon, most people think it's kind of scary

NOW OF COURSE there are other greys that aren't part of this society, and they all have varying customs and views and government and etc. they are all considered "fringe" cultures by the core. by and large they don't have access to all the tech that the core has, but some transhumanist (trans...greyist?) groups have their own technological advances.

heights for the anatomically standard greys are outdated

the empire currently (approximately for the past century or so) has a hands-off approach to interspecies meddling, and doesn't colonize inhabited planets, but they have in the past. their attitude towards other greys, though, is uh... well, it varies, but there are some sticky situations.

it's worst and stickiest when it comes to the claymin.

the claymin are descended from transhumanist/post-flesh greys, but are considered by all parties to be a separate species... sort of. they have access to the same genetic tech as the empire and can reproduce on their own as opposed to solely growing through exiles like other post-flesh groups, and have completely different anatomy as their true bodies have been engineered down to basically just a brain, referred to as the core, which can be put in various modular constructed bodies.

they are, however, mysteriously exempt from the 'hands off other sophonts' rule that the empire has. when enen was a combat mech pilot, this is who they were fighting.

i'll leave off there... for now. i can elaborate on some of the other groups later :3 hope you liked reading all that

[stardust-arcade]

Everyone seems to be chilling. Blackstar coming in from his shift at Fall fest. The Arcade of course getting a tad more quiet. Mostly cuz everyone knows they will be closing soon except for some theater performances. Resulting in the larger arcade and other areas being fenced off with dividers, or closing their doors. But loudly through the song speakers comes an intercom announcement.

Animatronic employees of the arcade. We ask that you go towards the front entrance.

Black Star who of course had just gotten there. Grumbles as he stops in his movements. Looking around before spotting a human employee. Derek. Who seems just as pissed about life. Other than the standard arcade employee clothing. He has a little pin that says animatronic handler. Which really just means he's a peacekeeper between the animatronics, and certain customers. But unfortunately no one has thought of a better name.

Black Star: What are you calling everybody to the front for?

Derek: New fella. That's all I know.

Black Star: And I'm assuming you're only here because you're forced to?

Derek: Ha! You guessed it. I would rather wait for a radio call then sit out here. But I got to do those outdated shenanigans. I don't even think handlers need to do these types of introductions anymore, It's stupid.

Black Star: I can agree with you there. We're going to reintroduce ourselves later anyways with those morning announcement things.

Derek: I suppose it's because not everybody will be there for the mornings. People still think you animatronics are scary and a fight between you guys is scarier. I have a feeling once we figure out what police are going to do if a scuffle breaks out, I'll be out of a job.

Black Star: Hahaha! I suppose that is true. Not that I think any of you can do anything nowadays.

Derek: Yep. I'm not gonna jump in between you fellas to save your skins. Especially when mine would be gone!

Black Star: Yah. I suppose it's similar to that sort of police presence thing.

Derek: I suppose so. Wish the police could do it for me though.

Black Star: Yah. Well here comes the rest.

The others start to show up at the entrance. Most of them with faces of disgruntlement. Although sun seems to have thrown on a smile. Moon appears rather shy. Eclipse as always is curious. Nova is of course separated from the group. Holding a dastardly smile and proper position the entire time though.

Planet: What did you call us out here for? I-

Derek: A new friend. Look I don't like it either planet, So can you just deal with it for today.

Planet: Meerrggg!

Eclipse: New friend!?

Derek: Yes new friend, if they show up anytime soon. They were already late, They told me they would be here!

Sun: Oh I'm sure it's fine Derek. Let them take their time. New places are always scary.

Derek: You be in my position then.

Sun: No.

Derek: Ha. Ha. Such a nice guy.

Finally the front door is open. Everyone looking towards the entrance with intrigue. Except for Derek and Blackstar.

Misty: Um Helo. I am hoping this is the right arcade. This is stardust Arcade right?

Derek: This is stardust arcade. You are misty right?

Misty: And I assume you are Derek. Dear God I'm so happy we finally found this place.

Derek: How did you even lose this place? It's the only faz location in miles.

Black Star: Except for Fall fest.

Derek: Yeah but that things obviously not an arcade.

Comet: Well actually. Misty here was just searching arcade. And apparently you have quite a bit of competition!

Next to Misty comes in another animatronic. They are nearly the same size as her. Which is a bit shorter than the average human. They're entirety of their pallet seems a bit pale. Being mostly white, pink, purple and blue pale colors. Except for their face which is a dazzling bright blue. They look nothing like the other DCAs. Much more resembling some sort of dinosaur or cartoonistic lizard. Their face being the only thing that sells them as a DCA looking type. They're double sets of rays spinning briefly as they observe everyone around them. Some spinier rays, That seem to be held on a wire sway stiffly behind them.

Misty: Yes, well, um. Let these introductions out of the way before I make this any worse. This is comet. His family sent him away to get a job, and he wants to work at the roller rink here.

Comet: Yep! And it's grand to meet you all!

Derek: Yep. Great to meet you too. This is Sun, Moon, Planet, Eclipse, and Nova. Blackstar also lives here but he's not an employee anymore. You'll also be seeing this red fella with a vest on. He's Blood Moon. He's only here cuz this place is a shitshow, And these guys are at each other's necks.

Sun: Language!

Derek: I'm not on the daycare, And all the customers are in the theater watching Scooby-Doo.

Eclipse: No, They wanted princess bride.

Derek: ... There's no kids in there though right?

Eclipse: They picked the movie.

Derek: Dear God I hope those parents realize what the fuck they're doing.

Sun: Language!!

Derek: Leave me alone Sun, dear God. Whatever. Say hi to each other, so I can go back to eat nachos in the office!

Misty: But shouldn't we stick around to make sure they're all okay?

Derek: That's an old dumb rule, and every animatronic here agrees with me. So can you guys please-

Nova: Hello I am Nova. Nice to meet you comet.

Comet: Oh! Well it's nice to meet you Dr mysterious.

Nova: Don't call me that. Anyways I'll see you later, or never, I don't really care.

Comet: Well, a, goodbye... He doesn't seem nice.

Planet: He isn't. Don't trust him. I'm Planet by the way. I mostly run the arcade. As long as you don't piss me off we'll be fine.

Comet: How do I piss you off?

Planet: Are you really going to ask that question?

Sun: Trust me, buddy. You don't want to piss her off. I'm Sun by the way! Your friendly daycare attendant! I am so happy to meet you!

Comet: Well nice to meet you too Sun! Although could I refer to you as Sundrop or daytime or something. My parents got the same name.

Sun: Oh... Yah! How about you refer to me as sunlight?

Comet: Works for me. I'm assuming your moon.

Moon: Yes. I am Moon. Although if you need to call me something like moonlight that's fine.

Comet: Thank ya. It just feels weird. I'm assuming you also run the daycare?

Moon: Yes. Although it is more so my side employment. I am mainly the one that you will be seeing at parts and service.

Comet: Ah! A techno man I see! Well, I'll be sure to greet you both in all the places I see ya!

Black Star: Yah. Like Derek said I'm Black Star. I used to work in the theater. My brother Eclipse has taken that over fully though.

Eclipse: Yah! I'm Eclipse! Hello new friend!

Comet: Well hello there clips! You seem like quite a fun fellow!

Eclipse: I am fun!

Comet: Well that's nice to know. And black stars your brother right?

Eclipse: Yes! Bestest brother!

Comet: Sure sounds like it! But he don't work here no more?

Eclipse: No. But we still play later!

Black Star: Yah. I work at this amusement park a little ways away. Currently working as a mechanic.

Comet: Ah! I suppose it's a wonderful dream job!

Sun: He actually should probably stay to the theater. Being old AI and all. Surprised they haven't put him in one of the scare attractions.

Black Star: Oh fuck off.

Comet: Ohhh. Some rivalry it seems. I suppose this is the tearing each other apart thing.

Moon: It's just some disagreements that we're trying to, see eye to eye on.

Comet: Ha! Yah! I think it's the silliest thing. Those AI prejudices are stupid. I mean I'm a new and my mom and dad are just old ones. Does that make me better than them? I don't think so. They can sure play a record better than I can.

Sun: Well that's an interesting... History.

Planet: You losing your smile~.

Eclipse: New friends stay with us!? Yes? Yes!

Comet: I'm not picking nobody's side. I'm supposed to be friends with everyone, not some group. I still want to play though! Got a wicked arcade.

Planet: Yes. It is quite a collection.

Moon: Where are you working again?

Comet: I'm working at roller rink! Although I'll be playing my DJ too.

Black Star: DJ?

Planet: Oh they're going to finally put someone in that booth? I always wondered if anyone was going to use those.

Comet: Oh are you telling me the soundboard's been abandoned!? No, no, that can't do! I bet it's all wackified by misuse.

Moon: Well I'm sure we can show you where the DJ station is and the roller rink. It's right across from the theater.

Eclipse: Your closest to me!

Comet: It appears I am buddy! Perhaps I can sneak into a show or two when I got down time.

Eclipse: Yes! I like that idea.

Black Star: Well. I suppose let's give you the tour.

Derek: And there's my cue to leave. I'm enjoying my nachos. If planet starts punching this shit out of him give me a call. I'll use my laser eyes on her.

Misty: Wait, Wait, aren't we supposed to do something more? Stay with them for the tour?

Derek: You know what Misty. How about you chill with me in the office. I got some real training to give you.

Misty: But the others?-

Derek: Eclipse!

Eclipse: Yes?

Derek: Hold planet back if she starts getting pissed.

Eclipse: Ok!

Derek: Their, potential situation solved.

Misty: But what if he gets angry?!

Derek: Black Stars right there. Plus Eclipse doesn't tear anyone apart. He just chases them off the property. They'll be fine. Now come on shy. Let me tell you how robots really want to be treated.

Comet: Bye Misty!... I give kudos to the Derek guy, I like him.

Black Star: Yeah he's great.

Sun: For some of you.

Moon: Sun just because you don't like the fact that Derek swears like a sailor, and doesn't give a shit about the world. Doesn't mean you have a good reason to hate him.

Sun: Moon, I'm giving you a pass.

Planet: Let's just get this tour over.

Comet: Agreed! You all making this sour. Let's have some fun!

Eclipse: Yah!

Planet: ..... Bets on what his programmed age is?

Black Star: Upper teens?

Moon: He's probably just a playful adult.

Sun: I'm guessing 16.

Planet: I'm thinking he's probably the same age as eclipse. Whatever age they are.

Black Star: Well let's just pray that they make each other better instead of destructive.

Sun: That is one thing we can all agree to.