#ariel & the culture

[mydairpercabeth]

i’m sorry but Percy being the token white boy of camp half blood will forever be hilarious to ME

[brincessreniassance]

[ghost-37]

"For the Wealth of Africa lies neither in the vast gold reserves in the soil beneath, nor in the lush green forests, but in the beauty of it's people. For being African is a form of wealth in itself. "

[kay9leo]

Breaking In - Modern AU

Sebastain: We have to be quiet in order to successfully break into the restricted section

MC: *Nod head* Got it

Also MC: *Hums Mission Impossible Theme while sneaking around*: dun dun dun-dun dun dun dun-dun

Sebastain: What are you doing? We're supposed to be quiet! What are you even humming? >=(

MC: *blinks* Wow. I know my friends tell me I'm behind on movies, but you seriously never seen Mission Impossible or heard it's theme song? 0.0

Sebastain: *A pureblood who's never been to the muggle world before* What's a movie?🤨

MC: *muggleborn or halfblood MC whose right eye is twitching*😶😐🫤

[lets-try-some-writing]

Getting more information on what the femmes do was very exciting (idk if that's the right word) but if it's not a spoiler I would love to hear more about the process when a femme finishes the preparations

(And it makes sense, find someone insignificant and reuse them to make someone new, someone potentially more useful)

The Grim Dark Archives: Statement #007 Cold Forged

[Statement taken from [Redacted] on [Redacted: Sensitive data] regarding femmes and what they do to their chosen subjects. Concerns have been rising after [Redacted] made it clear that Arcee can latch onto humans just as easily as she can another Cybertronian. Personnel working at the Autobot base have begun attempting to go on strike in an effort to escape.

I can't say I blame them, but [Redacted] was called to explain the process that femmes put their targets through to hopefully give us some answers. I suspect the higher ups just want enough information to weave a half baked like for the staff, but the information is vital nonetheless. The more we know, the better a chance we have of fighting back if need be.

Statement begins.]

══════════════════

Femmes... yeah, I've known a few over the course of my life. Elita was one real piece of work. She wanted Orion when she was still Ariel, and she threw a fit when the Archives got him before she could. She wanted Optimus as well once she found out he had been Orion at some point. She nearly got him too. I think the only reason Optimus managed to get out of her clutches was because of his rather murderous tendencies. I don't know if he meant to or not, but he allowed Elita to try and claim him and then watched on as her abilities backfired.

There is a reason femmes only target the weak. If their will cannot overcome the will of the target, their abilities will kill them instead... and in a rather brutal fashion.

It was a shame. Elita, when she wasn't enthralled with her targets, was a good femme. She treated her cold forged well and was a brilliant tactician. She actually kept Optimus in line for a long time. She ensured he couldn't do anything nearly as extreme as what he does now. That's the good thing about femmes. They are good and kind to their targets. They fill the void in the bot's life that no other could have ever hoped to fill. It is a peaceful end for a mech that would otherwise be cast away by society. Elita was the companion Optimus needed, a level helmed and gentle being who served as his equalizer when his plans demanded more pain than required. I appreciated her for that, especially when I served as as a special agent-

Ignore that remark. No. Ignore it.

Do you understand me Witwicky? You will ignore that remark.

[Note: [Redacted] expressed a severe violent reaction the moment I made it clear that I had no intention of adhering to his wishes. He only calmed when he watched me scratch it from the records. Of course I added back the redacted information following the conversation, but [Redacted] has things he wants to hide it seems.]

Good.

As I was saying, Elita was a fantastic person. Femmes are more than capable of being normal members of society when they are tended to. In fact, they are even worshipped in some circles and given the lowly members of society so that they may be remade. But Elita aimed too high, she went beyond the bounds set by the rules of femmes. She tried to go after a mech who was too strong, and for that reason, she fell.

Femmes are of the line of Solus Prime, the first femme created by Primus. At least that's what the Primacy will tell you. I'm not all that sure on the theological stuff, but there are records pointing to the fact that Solus existed. Because of that, I am willing to pin the femmes existence back to her. I don't know all the details about the first femme. That's the kind of thing you'd need to ask Orion about. He always loved talking about the theological details of history. He always got so passionate about it...

Sometimes... I forget Orion isn't here to answer anymore. I mean, he is, but he also isn't. But that's beside the point. This isn't my forte. Sorry, its just seeing Optimus so often after so many millennia, it can bring back old memories yanno? I will get back on topic.

No one knows what makes a newspark become a femme. In fact, there are no signs at all until the newspark sheds their second armor set. They behave just like every other Cybertronian, and then sometime in their early adolescence, they start following a specific individual around. Usually their first target is someone very old or very young, the weak of society or those without enough knowledge to fight back. Once the femme has picked, that's when the Council steps in and slaps a sticker on them to denote what they are. The poor target is cut off from everyone and left to the femme. Why? Because the first target is always the one who suffers the most.

Femmes are highly territorial. They will never aid one another unless both their targets are in danger and cooperating is in their best interest. So every young femme is on her own, left to figure things out as she ages. For young femmes, they will pick their victims apart. There is no peace to be found as they sink their connectors into their target to try and tear apart their CNA and remake it. The process kills the target without fail. A more experienced femme knows that she must follow a ritual, a process of sorts. She must know her target, she must care for her target, and only once her target is open to her... only then can she dig her claws in and remake them.

Yes, yes I am getting to the actual process now. Calm down. I swear you fleshies are just as impatient as Cyberfelines sometimes.

First she will get to know her target and release a chemical, a pheromone as your kind call it. This chemical causes the target to become calm, more trusting, and it also weakens their immune system. It has some benefits, such as increased processor function and heightened senses, but all this comes at the cost of increasing weakness. Not to mention the increase in processor activity is largely so that the femme may attract her target's attention and push them into seeing her in a light that best fits what role she is aiming to fulfill until the time for harvest arrives.

Around a vorn into her work, the femme will start to introduce her coils, her touches if you will. She will start to touch her target as often as she can, and it is through this that small injectors in her digits will begin to input a specially made protomatter into her target. The target will feel no pain since the injections are so small. But over months, years, vorns... slowly her target will start to think less, feel less, until at last they start to collapse.

Femmes are not needlessly cruel in their efforts. She will be very gentle with her target in their dying cycles. When they begin to forget, she will remind them of the things they lost. She will help them fuel, she will take them places they enjoy, and she will allow them ample time to deal with their lingering affairs. Any living relatives will not be compensated, but that is because she sees her work as the greatest compensation any being could possibly receive. She is remolding the worthless into something greater, and for that reason she is both compelled to her work just as much as she heralds it as something sacred. It is her nature to be gentle in this stage, for by that point, her target will be carrying the beginnings of her cold forged, her perfect creation.

There is no set time for it, but at some point in this final stage, the femme will continue her injections of protomatter and her quiet indoctrination until finally, her target shatters. This can take various forms, usually some type of explosion or contortion of the frame, but the end result is always the same. The target dies, and from their corpse, a new being emerges. Much like a newspark, it emerges without armor, but unlike the newsparks from the Well, it will come forth with memory and a mission.

We call these things the Cold Forged. They are beings that completely lack emotion. Or perhaps the ability to empathize. It is hard to tell with them. They all seem to take sick glee in watching others squirm. But anyway, the Cold Forged have a purpose that their femme gave them, and most often, they do not care to reveal it. Those that have felt like giving up data have often been given a mission that amounts to a concept, a thought or ideal. The most common mission these beings receive is by far the most terrifying.

Perfection.

They are given one concept, and they live out their entire lives embodying and striving to reach it. The Cold Forged are Cybertronian by every single stretch of the word, but they are not... like us. Does that make sense? My kind do not really do the empathy thing. But they have SOMETHING. The Cold Forged don't even have that. They are true machines.

You know what's so funny about this whole thing?

The femmes don't even care about their Cold Forged. They make them, and then they move along to the next target. The Cold Forged are the closest any Cybertronian has to actually having a biological creation, and the femmes don't care!

[Note: [Redacted] laughed for a rather long time following this statement. He seemed to be... unstable while speaking on this matter.]

Sorry about that.

It's just, it feels so clinical to me even millennia after learning about the process. These femmes go through so much effort just to make a creature that they then throw away. Elita was a rare exception in this regard. She liked to keep tabs on her Cold Forged, and I think one of hers even ended up with the Elite Guard. Her missions to her Cold Forged were always super specialized too.

Yeah. Femmes. Cold Forged. It's a hot mess I tell you.

Jack will be fine. Arcee will care for him as best she knows how until his dying day. That much you can be sure of.

══════════════════

[Statement end.

I am unsure how to feel about all this. Every detail I gather about these aliens tells me that there is something deeply wrong with them. I have my theories, but considering [Redacted]'s disposition and what info we have on everyone else, I think I can say that this race has been altered somehow. If [Redacted] is able to comprehend empathy, there must be others.

They are capable of feeling and being reasonable, but there is some factor that changes things for them. I shouldn't get involved...

But I want to know. I want to figure this mess out. I am just one man, but if I can put some pieces together, then perhaps there is something we can do to fix this. If nothing else, I want to understand these aliens. I want to know why.

Why start a war? Why do all this? And why in God's name would they shatter in such a way culturally? There must be an answer, and I have a sinking feeling that the only ones who can give me answers are going to be very dangerous.

Agent Witwicky signing off.

Recording ends.]

[tabney2023]

Halle Bailey, Disney's The Little Mermaid (2023)

[thenamesblurrito]

ask dump fourteen(? pretty sure it's fourteen)

haven't done this in a long time! for new followers, this is all questions about SNAP, my magical girl tf fan canon

lore topics this time are: pollution, spambots, the Onyx Triptych's powers, v-tubing, Depression era food, squishing Optimus, monoformers, Rodimus's flames as a shield, hero transformations, and Ariel vs boar

uhhhh probably pretty similar to what creates pollution here on Earth, just with different effects since it's not an organic ecosystem? "adapted to it" is kind of impossible to answer though, considering how many forms of "pollution" there can be. strip mining, pumping liquids or gas, and excessive drilling will end up dumping a lot of dirt and byproduct into the surrounding area, only it's less likely to be toxic. more like covering the area in rubble, runoff, or mudslides than "pollution", bc heavy metals are the norm there, and leaving large valleys, caves, or empty cavities in the crust that may make the area unsafe to navigate. one of the usual bad effects is accidentally or on purpose diverting the flow of energon in the area, or even damaging hotspots and leylines. on Earth this would be the equivalent of damming/draining a river, messing up the water table, removing citywide plumbing, or cutting power for weeks/months with no fix. their landfills aren't pollutants so much as they are recycling on a planetary level

airborne pollution is less of an issue, not bc they don't have a lot of "pollutants" in their atmosphere but bc the mixture of gasses is less important to their ecosystem than it is to ours. they've got weather control stations scattered around Cybertron (first ask here) and some of that work is air purification/atmospheric preservation. fine grit and dust can have negative effects, in the same way volcanic ash getting into machinery or blanketing roads can be detrimental, and they often have issues with heavy precipitation causing floods, so those are the usual culprits for airborne elements

probably the thing most widely considered to be pollution is rust, even tho it's a perfectly natural part of Cybertron's ecosystem. the Rust Sea is like that naturally and should be like that, but the harsh effects of rust still give it a cultural connotation of a polluted wasteland. huge patches of rust, oxidization, or other enbrittlement outside of the Rust Sea can be a sign of environmental degradation which may be caused by pollution, but not necessarily. the other big one is organic material, often fungi, molds, or bacteria that have adapted to live on metals or plastics and form big colonies that outstrip the ecological balance of the area to the point of "pollution". this can happen with invasive species from Eukaris or Caminus as well. actually speaking of which, Eukaris as a technoorganic ecosystem and Caminus with some native organic flora would be more susceptible to the kinds of pollution we're familiar with than other planets

GOD. FROID REALLY WOULD, THE LOSER AHFHGKF. i'm taking this ask as an online suspicious ad/random phone call asking for ur credit card info type of scam and not just any situation of someone lying

first of all, Soundwave and minicons would be the scammers, of course. uhhh Rodimus is p easy to dupe if it's about the right thing or if he's not paying attention. Windblade has her moments of naivety which would make her a potential scam target if her cityspeaking didn't often give her a heads up. Chromia WILL click on ragebait just constantly and really needs to invest in an adblocker for this reason. Hellscream, if he spent his time on a computer, may get suckered by beauty scams and consider buying into an MLM. Ariel can be convinced that she broke some rule or another fairly easily, but the trouble is that can't be used to scare her into participating with a scam bc she thinks breaking rules is a fun pastime

Orion is susceptible to begging and playing nice by ppl irl like Sentinel but not rly online scam stuff. Minimus would accidentally pick up the phone for an insurance scammer and then spend the next hour lecturing them about how this is not how anything works and here is every single law and procedure about it. Blitzwing would accidentally pick up the phone for an insurance scammer, realize it, and then scream and pretend to die in a car crash to freak them out. Makeshift would probably do the same

as for non heroes: Oil Slick has definitely gotten his credit card info stolen like, seven times. TG unironically believes in MLMs. Swindle is an even bigger scammer than Soundwave

could not locate the post this is quoting rip. i'm certain i mentioned this somewhere as a one off but i cannot for the life of me find it so! lemme just say it all here

the Onyx Triptych mask is primarily an othersight related relic, which is sorta a catch all term for any kind of vision-like extrasensory perception like Drift, Soundwave, Cyclonus, etc. each of the three masks can hone in on different things. Mournsong sees the trails of sparks moving thru life to death ala sunrise to sunset, and can see them going to/existing in the Well. Predator sees into those sparks, into the person they are, what they have done, the ripples they have left, and so on, and then track them that way like a bloodhound. Farsight sees… potential? or metaphors made real? or places and times and realities that aren’t this one shaped by the concept of people, in a confusing and dazzling display of Everything that (probably) means Nothing. it doesn’t matter which face Triptych is wearing at the moment, those visions are technically available to him all at once, the masks each are focusing tools that block out a “spectrum” of othersight so he can pick the right thing to look at

the way he sees sparks, dead or alive, isn’t like seeing ghosts! Drift sees them as people, faces and frames and echoes of who they were and what they did. Triptych sees literal sparks, zooming around like comets, leaving afterimages looping back and forth wherever they go like infinite comet tails. kind of like looking at a long exposure photo with those long light trails! and it’s just sight, it’s not interaction really, unlike Drift who can “feel” the ghosts in a way that lets him speak with them if they’re strong enough to sense him back. Triptych uses his othersight more to hunt down living people (or at least, the living ppl with sparks he manages to identify in all that visual noise. they’re just balls of light, they don’t come with name tags!) bc he can see where they’ve been + what they might be doing + what kind of creature they are no matter the distance. it’s handy when he shows up late to the monster of the week and has to track down the other cons

the experience of being Triptych is basically the visual equivalent of this song, and explains why he’s so… like that. even tho Blitzwing tries rly hard to be a chill guy and manages his triple fracture pretty well, it all goes out the window when he powers up and leans into the crazy. this is uhhh kind of detrimental to his mental health, and he knows it, but who said teenagers make wise decisions???

re: the ghost interview thing, that’s more likely to be a Deadlock moment, since his form of othersight and empathy is much more fitting. comparatively, he can’t actually see into the afterlife like Triptych can tho!

i mean... i guess? something about my brain means i hate watching videos that aren't movies/documentaries (and sometimes even then) so streamers and youtube in general aren't my forte. i'd imagine generating a virtual avatar for a mech is a lot quicker and the use of it a lot smoother, especially via object interface, so yeah sure! i know nothing about the world of v-tubing tho so that's kind of all i can comment on?

i missed "era" the first time i read this and really went geez what depressed person is making peanut filled onions in the depths of their apathy???

it's probably going to be just the staples of iron (and other metals) and energon in various forms, most conveniently a silted shake, and if they're lucky enough to live anywhere edible cyberflora grow, some supplemental fruits/veggies. they can mix up the form and presentation for personal preference, like crystal energon vs liquefied fuel, etc, but that's always going to be the cheapest and most necessary things to eat that are easy to acquire. heck, plenty of people who aren't poor or suffering a depression economy live exclusively off silted shakes just for efficiency

uhhh if i'm going for realism, no he couldn't survive being squashed literally flat bc that would destroy his body and rupture his spark (not that Optimus dying is a big deal tbh)

if i'm going for a funnie cartoon logic gag which would definitely fit in this magical girl anime genre, then sure! Pancake Prime roll out!

the most relevant analogue to monoformers in SNAP would be Mutacons, an actual frametype like triple-changers. people who have lost the ability to transform due to injury or the like (ala Terminus and his loss of mobility) aren't really called monoformers, they're just called disabled. or some other less savory terms, depending on if the speaker is a bigot, i suppose

considering functionism is all about sorting people according to both useful body types and social connections, people who are unable to transform get the short end of the stick by a big margin. if their function doesn't require transformation, if their support network is solid, etc, then they will probably be okay, but it won't be fun. and there isn't really a "monoformer movement" here either, for a variety of reasons. maybe surgically removing the t-cog was something that occurred in the past, maybe voluntarily or maybe at the command of a despot, idk, but it's not a thing currently

oh sure. depends on the speed/material of the projectile, but Rodimus could certainly spew enough flame to burn something away or at least change trajectory with the heat/wind/pressure. for some examples, if it's like uhh... Cheetor at top speed? no way, some fire isn't going to do anything to someone moving that fast. if it's Optimus barrelling thru in truck mode? mmmm probably not going actually stop him, it's just fire and not an actual explosion or physical force that could push Optimus back, but the heat would do some damage and the light may sour his aim. bullets? i'm actually not sure about this one, he could definitely get it hot enough that bullets melt midair but the splatter of molten metal may not be great either. nets or other capture gear thrown by Enforcers? oh sure that's a piece of cake to burn off

huh, i hadn't even thought of this before... i think they could absolutely go from kid root mode to hero alt mode, or vice versa/whatever combination thereof. considering their hero forms are, technically, straight up different bodies that they manifest and inhabit when powering up, the root and alt modes of both aren't necessarily linked (and aren't even equivalent for folks like Blackarachnia or Deadlock who become triple-changer heroes, or Makeshift who has no alt mode)

(post this is referring to)

she's kind of hardcore so she would actually try going up against a beryllium boar! would she win? debatable. her odds are much better now that she can become Elita 1. assuming she could successfully slaughter a boar, she may not know exactly what to do from there, as she's more on the violence side than the culinary skills side, but she would at least be able to stomach killing/processing/eating an animal!

[shadowwolf78336]

Representation matters. I hate how people take stories from one culture change the physical characteristics and call it representation of another. Dark skinned Ariel, Santa, or Snow White is not proper representation of other cultures. These are still European stories . Moana, Raya, Mulan; these are proper representation of other cultures. They are stories from other cultures. I would rather see REAL cultural stories from other places than just Europran stories coloured in differently trying to pass as different. How is it true representation if the stories are not even theirs? Do we really want little ones to grow up and think European culture matters and everything else does not? Or that everyone is represented by European culture and nothing else?

[popculturebaby]

John Tucker Must Die (2006) ✨

[m4ggotm0ld]

as a poc ((ofc not speaking for all non quite ppl)) blackwashing isn’t real, yall are just racist

my reasoning is that white people haven’t lacked representation, white people havent been stripped of their culture, rights, language, or belief at any point in history, and white people haven’t had their representation removed in film (cough cough marvel)

“But what about when it’s done to Asians!!” I’ve known plenty of Asian people that dark + blasian ppl exist

grow the tf up you’re not oppressed, stop acting like you are

[medusa1597]

listening to a podcast about sontag and the guest just talked about liberation vs. emancipation as if those were 2 different concepts 🙏 real money laundering academic publishing house moment

[kierancaz]

I hate people who tell me “if you think you won’t like it just don’t watch it” like WOW you are a GENIUS how would the world go on without you and that glorious big brain of yours ???

Like SHUT THE FUCK UP SHUT UP SHUT UP if you tell me that after you just saw a whole rant I left talking about how live actions make it seem like animation is not a valid medium for telling adult stories and how they usually end up butchering the og material and you tell me “just don’t watch it” I am literally hoping that you burn in hell.

There was vid on tiktok, some guy updating us on the cast and what’s going on with the How To Train Your Dragon live action, so I left a string of comments talking about how I had been really hoping this movie was going to be cancelled because I’m tired of the live action remakes of already beautiful movies and that even with most of the voice acting cast returning to reprise their roles and the director who directed the 3 og films coming back, I still don’t have high hopes for this movie.

I said that I loved the og films since I was literally 5 and that this will never measure up. And with the track record we have for live action remakes I think that’s a valid feeling to have. I said that not everything needs to be live action and I hate that it’s such a big thing in the industry right now because it makes it look like they don’t appreciate animation as a important medium that can tell adult and children’s stories and the live actions are never able to recapture the magic that was the og movie and Disney has proved that to us over and over again.

AND THEN TWO FUCKING DUMBASSES REPLY TO ME TELLING ME TO JUST NOT WATCH IT ????

I know, that not everyone is on the same level. People have different interest, not everyone cares about the movies and shows and books they consume. Not everyone cares about whatever is going on in the film industry if it doesn’t pertain to their favorite actors. But how do you read my comments and then just tell me the solution is for me to just not watch the movie ???? Like of FUCKING COURSE I’m going to watch the movie when it comes out. And I’m going to watch it because I care about the series? I’m going to watch it because this series is important to me and even with my low expectations I’m still holding out a little bit hope that this movie will manage to pull a Cinderella and add something to the original that it didn’t have before (even though I think that will be really hard considering the og is amazing and I don’t really think you can add something to make it even better).

So yah. If you read this and decide to tell me “don’t watch the movie” just know I am going to snipe you after you lay down and discover that I put shit in your pillow.

[ordainedlongago]

Danny DeVito as ursula from the Little mermaid would have been amazing. Not because "lmao man in dress" but because he would have absolutely killed the roll.

[tabney2023]

India Amarteifio (Queen Charlotte) & Halle Bailey (Princess Ariel)

[el-enjoyado]

[breitzbachbea]

"Maybe I am divine retribuition!"

"You don't believe that yourself, do you?"

"Yes, but otherwise, what am I? A breaker of the oath. Not so nice, is it?"