#but i can totally see sentinel doing shit like this

[fran4flan]

This is so dark. I love it.

Someone is envious of Prima beauty

I imagined how Sentinel kill Prima Prime, who is the most handsome and first son of Primus

[thereadingaddic7]

It's a bit of a funny and sad mix, how much of a Lohrak around Dume's neck the Vahki are. Certainly Dume is meant to be flawed as a Turaga, a somewhat suspicious character and cranky old man who think Matoran these days need to learn to respect their elders, but ultimately he's a good guy who'd give his life for the cause while spitting in the face of whatever killed him (see him telling Vezok, Avak and Reidak to go do something anatomically improbable when they try to extort him with a Kanohi Dragon). And given how important Metru Nui is, and how dangerous the outside world was, yeah Metru Nui does need some sort of standing army/police force to ensure that shit like the Barraki rebellion or the Matoran Civil War doesn't threaten to kill Mata Nui and doom the MU to drift endlessly through space, but holy shit the Vahki are so insanely bad at it, it's hard to think he'd sign off on it.

As an army they're pretty okay, they're very mobile with two modes of walking and one flight mode, their equipment is also extremely good offensively (mind control, seeing through your targets eyes, you hurt yourself in your confusion, etc), as well as a Kanoka disc launcher for more direct combat, and they're smart enough to think tactically, all without risking any Matoran/Toa/Turaga in combat (and that's without getting into the elite versions). But for Police work... well, they're okay for a Police State where you don't have to give a shit about what your citizenry thinks, their borderline psychotic nature means they're very effective at terrorizing a population into compliance even before bringing in the Brain Hacking they can do, and they are supposed to be the Police for Makuta!Dume's Police State...

They just also happened to be the Police for Regular!Dume's (Police(?)) State, which is a really bad look for someone who's supposed to be Not Actually A Villain. Based on what we see of them, the Kralhi that preceded the Vahki were probably much better at police duties (given that after being driven out of the city by Matoran who tried to "shut them down" they were totally willing to aid and protect Mavrah without issue they clearly don't share the Vahki's abusive nature) without having to take a number of Matoran away from work to do the police work instead (and thus potentially imperil Mata Nui and the MU as a whole by having them not do the necessary work in his brain). If the issue with them was that they left Matoran too weak to do their job after being policed, then maybe all the Kralhi needed was an equipment overhaul rather than being completely scrapped?

I don't know, Dume is meant to be Flawed but Good, but historically he's just made such a baffling decision with the Metru Nui's police forces, spurred on largely I think by Out-Of-Universe needs than because it made sense in-universe, he kind of ended up accidentally being the BIONICLE equivalent of Sentinel Prime, but because it mostly happened off screen it's easy enough for the story to sweep that under the rug. A lore hungry fandom on the other hand is not so easy to shake and I'm left trying to come up with a reason why he'd agree to the Vahki beyond the incredibly unsatisfying "he doesn't really care about the Matoran" or "he didn't think it through" and variants thereof answers.

[mariaxman]

PIETRO MAXIMOFF X READER

Resume: you made a bet with Jean, when you’d ask Peter out he’d turn you down. Easy made 50 bucks, right! Exept he beats you to the punch..

A/N: I really love this, I love the cliché of kissing in a Ferris wheel sm AHHH:33!!

Charles Xavier’s school for Gifted Youngsters, Westchester,1974.

The summer breeze hit your skin like a bird’s feather, soft and gentle, as you stood outside of the institute. A year ago, a man from the future named Logan came and knocked on the door, claiming he needed the professor to save the world from ‘sentinels’, some anti-mutant, killer robots. You were 15 at the time, already having mastered your mutation, came along with them to give a hand. That, is when you met Peter. As requested you had to break out Magneto from the pentagon, and Logan ‘knew a guy’. He was JUST your type. Sure, he was a kleptomaniac and all, but god was he handsome, and a charming in his own very-weird-way. Though, it didn’t last long, as he went home the moment you stepped out the pentagon, Magneto in hand . You never forgot the handsome speedster, even ten whole years later. Sure, it was kind pathetic. But hey! Can you blame a gal? He was flirting with you the whole time AND WINKED AT YOU WHEN YOU EMBARKED THE JET BACK, of course you fell for him!

Charles Xavier’s school for Gifted Youngsters, Westchester, 1983

You never thought you’d ever see him again. Like, ever. But hey, fate works in a strange way. One second you were standing next to Beast as Havok wrecked shit, the next you landed surprisingly gently on the grass outside as the Institute blew up. You were dizzy and felt like you were about to blow chunks. Nevertheless, you stood back up on shaky legs and just stared at the mansion with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, not even noticing the speedster standing riiiighht next to you, staring intensely. Until he said a simple ‘hey’ and you yelped embarrassingly loud for a qualified X-woman. Atleast he laughed! Then you were kidnapped by.. what was their name? Oh well, then you escaped, fought apocalypse, Charles lost his hair, which is VERY pertinent, I know. And, well, you were back at the mansion soon enough, students were sat outside on lawn, huddled up as, mind you, it was totally broken down and needed SERIOUS repair. Which leads us to here, you and your friends(who are literally all teens which is.. yeah) went to the mall to pass time and buy new clothes after losing all of the old ones in the explosion, an activity you loved doing with Jean and Jubilee.. until now. You were browsing a store with said girls, grabbing a top, you held it infront of you.

‘’Is this cute?’’

You ask Jubilee, the top was simple in itself, a baby blue tank top with an embroidered yellow lightning bolt. It kinda reminded you of Peter..

‘’Yeah, that is really cute, BUT-‘’

Jubs says and snatches the top, putting it in your basket

‘’WHEN are you gonna make your move on Peter?!’’

The girls asks eagerly. Your cheeks immediately burn up in embarrassment

‘’make a move on him? W-what are you talking about?!’’

you chuckle nervously, looking away at the clothing racks. Jean chuckles from behind you, which startles you, just a little bit

‘’Come on now, Y/N. You definitely love him, you did since… 1973! C’mon!’’

The redhead exclaims, in the middle of the store, catching a lot more attention than your liking. Goddam telepath. You didn’t know what to say, really. You definitely wanted to date him, more than anything! But you just felt like Peter didn’t feel the same

‘’Okay, okay! Y’know what? I’ll tell him tonight, at the fair! But I bet you 50 bucks he doesn’t even like me a little bit!’’

You say as you walk to the cashier. Jean shoots Jubilee a look. ‘HE IS LITERALLY HEAD OVER HEELS FOR HER, GUESS IM WINNING 50 BUCKS’ she tells the other girl telepathically, which makes her vibrate with a giggle.

Now, at the fair, you were scared shitless. You made a promise, you gotta keep it now, huh? You’re sure Peter‘ll be sweet if he rejects you, yeah! You sigh, snapped out your thoughts when Jean and Jubilee dragged you to an attraction, giggling the whole way, which left Scott and Peter alone. The former elbows Pietro in the ribs, hard

‘’So, when are you finally gonna ask her out?’’

Scott teases, that irritated smirk on his face

‘’What? Pssfghhsss- what are you talkin’ bout?’’

the silver-haired man plays dumb, shoving his hands in the pocket of his silver jacket

‘’C’mon, dude. I know you like her— you’re literally staring her as we speak!’’

Oh, yeah, he was… it wasn’t his fault you were so gorgeous, for Christ sake! You were literally his dream girl come true, can you blame him?

‘’Okay, yeah, maybe I do like her a little. But she has great taste in music and a bitchin’ haircut! And.. pretty eyes’’

He mumbles the last part as he watched you settle in right between Jean and Jubs in the attraction, laughing your head off at something Jubilee said. God were you pretty

‘’Dude, I see the world trough a red visor and even I can see it’s definitely more than ‘liking’’’

Scott huffs, crossing his arms and looking ahead

‘’You should win her a prize, y’know, a plushie’’

The brunette shrugs. Yeah, he was right, he should

‘’Mh.. maybe I will’’

Peter grins. A few minutes later, the ride end and you stumble out with the other two, using Jubilee as support as you giggle, totally dizzy and giddy

‘’You’re not gonna throw up, are you?’’

Jubs quizzes and you shake your head no. Phew, that’d be embarrassing. You all continue walking as a group until Jean drags Scott over to the game booths. Scott grin in Peter’s direction in a ‘you go dude!’ Fashion. Jubilee catches on and lean closer to you

‘’I’m gonna go grab us a coke, okay’’

She pats your back and speed walks away before you can even turn around, leaving you with Peter. An awkward silence fall between you two until he speaks up

‘’hey, princess, want me to win you a prize? I’m pretty damn good at that game over there’’

He grins in his usual boyish manne— PRINCESS?? That was new, wow, why did that make butterfly flutter in your stomach..

You nod quickly with flushed cheeks and follow him when he grabs your hand and drags you to the booth. The game was easy, pop 10 balloons in one go and win a plushie. Easy enough. Peter walks up and pays the bored worker, who just hands him the 10 darts with a poker face. Shit job, huh. Surprisingly, he didn’t use his mutation. Which is pretty good considering the setting. He picks up a dart and shoot. POP, one balloon down. POP, two. POP. POP. POP. POP. POP. POP. POP. POP. Yay! Free plushie, considering-all-the-ones-you-had-got-Fucking-cremated! You giggle and jump on the ball of you feet as Pietro gets handed the big stuffed snow leopard plush. He turns to you and hands it over

‘’There you go, N/N’’

He grins when you hug him tightly

‘’Thank you Pietro!’’

You pull back and turn around when you hear your name, running over to Jubilee with two bottles of coke in hand. She raises an eyebrow at you then look over at Peter, giving him a proud thumbs up and a wink of approval. Which— to him — was a little perculiar, but honestly… you wouldn’t expect less from a girl name jubilation. Jean and Scott arrived back themselves a few minutes later, empty handed. Scott shrugged, his excuse being that his visor was at fault. Though Jean whispered that he just sucked ass at the games. You continued walking around the park, going on rides, when 23:00 hit. Many people left but you decided to do one more ride, the Ferris wheel. You still had an hour before it closed, so why not? You all went in the line, and when it was your turn, the teen boy there let Jubilee, Scott and Jean in a carrier, but told you to wait for the next one because the people limit was 3. So now, you were stuck, alone with Peter. Your crush for the past TEN FUCKING YEARS! Great. You took a quiet, deep breath and slipped in the carrier next to Peter, setting your plushie on the seat across from you both.

‘’Hey’’

The speedster jokes, grinning ear to ear. You smile back, resting your chin on your knees

‘’Hi’’

You look to your right when the Ferris wheel starts moving. You had the view on the lake beside the fair, where fireworks’ll be lit in a few minutes

‘’So, enjoyed your night, N/N?’’

He asks, cocking his head to the side

‘’Yeah, I loved it. Thanks for winning me a plushie too’’

You grin at him, full teeth, eyes scrunched and lit by the moonlight

‘’Hey, nothing less for my favorite friend’’

You laugh and continue talking, the wheel slowly moving your carrier up and up until it stops, right at the top. As if planned, fireworks goes off and you shoot around, smile as wide as your eyes as you stare out the glass at the colorful beam of light, reflecting on your face. But Peter’s stuck, stuck staring at you in awe. You looked absolutely gorgeous. He couldn’t look away, not that he wanted to

‘’It’s so.. Beautiful!’’

You chirp in amazement

‘’ Yeah.. gorgeous, even’’

Peter mumbled, still very much looking at you. You turn to look at him with a crooked grin and a raised eyebrow

‘’You good, dud—!’’ Peter cut you off by grabbing your cheeks and leaping foward, pressing his lips to your so gently. You froze, arms to your side until you brain fully apprehended what happened. Peter kissed you… PETER KISSED YOU!! You melt against him, arms coming up to rest your hands on his gently, smiling into the kiss. You were content, stretch that, you were ecstatic! Even when he pulled away, and.. whooped, huh. Strange way to react to your first kiss with a girl.. why did you find that cute? You laughed aloud, along with him. He swept you in a one armed hug

‘’That was the best decision I’ve made ALL NIGHT, woo’’

He chuckled and squeezed you against his lovingly, silence falling between the two of you until the end of the ride.

When you stepped out you were greeted by your three friends waiting for you, Jean grinned and looked over at Jubilee, who’s jaw dropped. You glance at Peter to find a lipstick mark over his lip. You snort and quickly join the girls while Pietro joins Scott, who’s deliberately holding back laughter, much to Peter’s confusion. As you’re walking out the fair, Jean leans in and whispers;

‘’You owe me 50 bucks’’

[littlelightbolt]

TF ONE:

That one cave scene after they see the betrayal first hand has me thinking.

Did Alpha trion just have bad judgement?????

Alpha trion ngl is a little double standard here tho I think in the movie. He truly was the key factor in how events unfolded.

Like his brothers and sister were murdered AND their planet is NOW under slavery as he seen from the gang's appearance so understandably he wants to kill sentinel.

That's why he was silent when Megs was all I WANNA KILL HIM.

He willingly chose to give megs a t-cog giving them all access to WEAPONS to achieve their perceived goal.

Even if they themselves didn't know their potential at the time.

Was that intentional by Alpha?????? I think yess totally. Who's best interest was prioritised tho.

In the beginning, Megs was alpha T's champion. Was this a reluctant decision I dk.

By the end of movie, Meg's DOES kill sentinel. He's achieved Alpha's objective.

But Orion accidentally being collateral gets him in the good graces of Alpha trion???? - becomes prime. If my train of thought is somewhat true, Like Alpha wanted to kill sentinel too, what do you meannn show mercy and you get prize. I can see why Megs would be pissed.

Did Megs feel he was fooled by Alpha?? Being fooled into loosing his best friend. Mabye that why he Soo angry?? Orion fr was too passive.

I wished his dialogue would have been more challenging to D-16's. That would have been great dialogue mabye, we would be able to see the push and pull CLEARLY between them. Their inner turmoils, their inner thoughts - What the stunned silence can't show us. does show how they feel but for the audience we don't benefit much other then seeing this as an OH shit Moment.

At the end of things, Alpha is winning out. Alpha is getting his main goal achieved, getting the trash out (sentinel) so his people can deal with the Quints (the bigger problem) instead.

What I'm trying to ask is How MUCH did Alpha know about the events of past and future in this universe. - as a prime he has powers but to what extent. Did he have his covenant???

Now Orion is his champion going into the future.

This brings into question their planetary war-like culture.

Alpha is no stranger to death and violence. As, it is already implied that the primes of old were battle trained. Their main way of dealing with things is through conflict. They are at war with the Quints.

Alpha saw them as a means to the end, it's just unfortunate that they will eventually bring the planet that alpha entrusted to them to ruins.

With the first gen of TFs being like that, does that mean that all other TFs that emerge from vector sigma or however their sparks are ignited later were made to have battle protocols inbedded to their programming????

Cause my one gripe with the movie is kinda they blurred the lines of violence.

I was like wth they suddenly have black belts in combat??????? SINCE when did they learn???

Self defense, okay... But still a weak answer.

Bee and elita have literally killed/ SHOT mech's DEAD. Orion has bashed the heads in of multiple officers or high guard. And yet he was like noooooo don't kill sentinel.

Guess hindsight really is a bitch to people huh, he made his stance too late. Beautifully TRAGIC.

It just seemed very shallow. Like killing lowly henchmen is OKaY but now it comes to a figurehead and be like NOoOOOOO don kill.

I don think Orion had a chance to clearly understand or see what Sentinel had physically done to Megs. (That permanent scar)

When I watched to movie, I was sooo confused honestly about the whiplash turnaround between them.

But now, I think I have a better understanding of Megs fr fr. OP being the dreamer just sadly couldn't dream for the both of them.😢😢

[mychlapci]

For cybertronians, both carriers and sires produce energon for sparklings. Since the Megamag divorce happened when Sentinel and Optimus were still at the age where they needed refined energon from their parents, they had to get it from Ultra Magnus. Problem was though, Magnus is not doing a carrier's job, it's demeaning of him to be seen with sparklings on his pouches in public all the time. Sentinel and Optimus are bottle fed babies when Magnus pumps his energon alone. They have an awful time with it at first, being unresponsive to the cold bottle put in their tiny servos versus being snuggled up by their mama to drink from the nozzle, but it was bottle or starve so they had to eat.

Optimus and Sentinel grow up, Optimus is on the repair team, and he gets very clingy to Ratchet. He's so fixated on their cranky old medic, he has the worst staring problem in the wash racks as he tries not to get caught watching Ratchet removing his heavy duty plating to clean his pouches. Eventually they get to earth, the stasis thing happens, they wake back up, Optimus gets killed and revived, TFA rundown. The thing is though, when Optimus is revived his systems are still bouncing back from the shock of being brought back from a snuffed spark. His tanks are sensitive and he's having a horrible time keeping his energon down.

Ratchet basically has to manhandle the prime to medbay. His big fussy sparkling of a boss is resisting the help he needs, and Ratchet isn't playing around with him. He gets Optimus into the med berth and pops off his plating to let his breast free, which makes Prime stop struggling instantly. Ratchet sees it as a good sign, so he keeps pushing his luck. He sits Prime up a little, but the damn mech is still bigger than him so Ratchet has to straddle his lap. Now that they're practically panel to panel, Ratchet can pull Optimus' helm down and press his nozzle to his lips. Optimus is a little lost at first, it had been so long since he had this opportunity, but his reflexes kicked in. He snuggled his face into Ratchet's breast and drank away while the medic pet his helm. It was so good to have fuel that wouldn't cramp his tanks, and in his milk drunk haziness he could make out Ratchet say "There you go kid, that's a good boy."

Might come back to this later, but I think Sentinel's lack of breastfeeding comfort comes out in how he treats the jet twins. He's got Magnus' view of sire and carrier relationships, he's the big mech and he's not feeding the bots he made out of his pouches. He wasn't allowed to have milk from the tap, and look how he turned out! Turns out that encouragement actually just makes the twins pin him down and drink from him like they would offline any second so they would not turn out like him -🌱

NOOO they weren’t breastfed as babies, that explains so much about Optimus and Sentinel. I bet that Ultra Magnus had them put on formula the moment he could, immediately turning off his energon production so it’s once again a choice between the bottle or starving. I think this should mean Optimus and Sentinel both are just really weird around boobs. Optimus gets flustered and stares. Sentinel gets flustered and pretends to be grossed out by them.

oh yes absolutely, post-resurrection Optimus needs milkies to keep functioning :) Ratchet has him on a whole feeding schedule, and Optimus is always very eager to suckle on his pouches. He’s like a big sparkling when Ratchet whips out his titties, it’s almost sad. Ratchet can tell Optimus didn’t get a lot of motherly bonding as a sparkling…

Sentinel would totally think that the experience of not being breastfed made him tougher and stronger or some shit like that. When the jettwins brave up and ask to feed from him because the fuel they’re fed makes them sick (post re-frame system jitters i guess) Sentinel scolds them for being needy and weak just like Ultra Magnus used to scold him and Optimus. They get their milkies anyways though :) and i bet it feels kind of weirdly good for Sentinel, who would never admit that.

[yallemagne]

So I finished the first season of X-Men: The Animated Series of course. Highlights?

Episode 1 & 2: Night of the Sentinels

Jubilee's father really fuckin sold her out huh? And holy shit the fucking sentinels. Dog, why did you MAKE THEM SO BIG. I had expected like that they started small and got bigger ones when the X-Men were revealed, but no, without even alerting the nation that they were making these robots, they sent a giant ass robot into a mall to capture one teenager.

Me pointing out "huh Morph is getting a lot of moments here, I like it" followed by them immediately dying. Like damn. They really did that. No wonder the creators backed out of having Thunderbird be in Morph's role, that would have just been insulting. Especially since he probably wouldn't have been brought back.

"Tell Cyclops... I made him a convertible."

Cyclops refuses to apologize for leaving without Morph and Beast but instead offers Logan an opportunity for revenge. It's so them. These petty bastards.

Episode 3: Enter Magneto

Beast... you're so silly. So, Beast refuses a rescue by Magneto (he's imprisoned) because "I'm awaiting a fair trial that will prove my innocence"... girl. You are a giant blue man. So, yeah, another case where Magneto was right.

Sabretooth is such a fake-ass bitch, I love it. So, he shows up at the trial causing a ruckus and gets injured and the X-Men take him in and start treating him like their pathetic little meow meow. This couldn't possibly go wrong.

"Come on, they're gonna kill him!" "Good." *turns around* "WHAT?"

"He's a threat." "He was near death." "Not near enough."

They just keep giving Wolverine all the best lines.

Episode 4: Deadly Reunions

Sabretooth, my poor little meow meow... all you did was a few itty bitty kitty murders... That's what Charles is saying at the start of this episode.

Xavier truly does try to get to the root of Sabretooth's anger with some super therapy, but alas, Sabretooth is just That Bitch. We do know that a competent telepath can temper his anger though, just look at Birdy.

They leave Jubilee alone with him acknowledging full well "this man is more dangerous than Wolverine... have fun babysitting!" He's restrained in a chair growling "let me at 'em" as Senator Kelly is being racist on TV and Jubilee very kindly turns it off and he's like "sowwy I'm twying to be a good boy... 😿" So of course Jubilee sees his restraints are hurting his wrists and releases him to help. Hahahaha. Oh girl.

If this were a show being produced today, I could totally see Sabretooth being accepted by the X-Men because "daww look he's angry just like you Wolverine" being drawn out into a longer arc where he actually gains their trust so it creates a genuine rift in the team... but also maybe he's not that patient for a scheme like that.

(also I know the show probably isn't going with the continuity that they're blood-related, but Wolverine telling them Sabretooth is nothing but trouble and getting hit with "but he's just like you 🥺" is very brother-coded okay?? Anyone who has a terrible older brother can relate.)

"Alright you egg-sucking piece of gutter trash. You always liked pushing around people smaller than you. WELL, I'M SMALLER! TRY PUSHING ME!!" << that's some little brother dialogue.

(… Morph would have listened to Wolverine about Sabretooth. Morph knows the Deep Lore.)

Episode 5: Captive Hearts

Callisto saw Cyclops and immediately said "I'm gonna make him my trophy husband", and while that is a valid reaction, no means no, hun.

They literally establish Storm as the Morlock's future Moses basically with her promising to come back for them when the time is right and they feel safe to breech the surface. And then they gave Magneto that role in '97. Ugh. He has the nerve to say Xavier just left them down there when it was in fact Storm that respected their right to self-determination.

Episode 6: Cold Vengeance

I love every time I see Sabretooth, he's just so silly-looking. No wonder everyone else imprinted on him like "hehe silly orange kitty" he's so BIG. He's incredibly top-heavy, just look at his bazongas.

We got through this with no sacrifice of Inuit life but a sombre sentiment that they'll be abandoning the old ways rather than rebuilding their homes.

Episode 7: Slave Island

Jubilee and Gambit have a nice little dynamic. He's the first person Jubilee used her powers to protect and she does it multiple times. I imagine he's like her cool older brother with street smarts.

No wonder Gambit was suspicious of Genosha in '97. Can't really trust that all is well when the foundation of that place was quite literally built with slavery.

This just makes Magneto's "tsk tsk Charles didn't use his wealth and resources to ship a load of UNWILLING Morlocks to Genosha for their own good" comment in '97 all the more frustrating. Man can be a dumbass.

Anyway--- CABLE CABLE CABLE. My silly little big boy.

Episode 8: The Unstoppable Juggernaut

Juggernaut is such a funny guy. I feel like usually, the big guys don't get to be the wise-cracking type, so this piece of shit was fun to watch.

Also just love Colossus, he's perfect.

Episode 9: The Cure

It's hard to feel bad for Warren when he's literally rich and funding a project that can be easily weaponized to hurt mutants. Sure, he was tricked and wasn't actually funding his "cure", but it would have been awful even if he got what he wanted. Just wear one of those collars for the rest of your life, jackass.

HOW IS NO ONE CHECKING IN ON THIS RESEARCH?? This experimentation on human beings is taking place with no government interference???

Pyro and Avalanche are fucking don't even try to convince me otherwise. Pyro, I don't care where you are from, I'm gonna be so weird about you calling every man you meet “darling”.

Episode 10: Come the Apocalypse

The public will see literally any villain and be like "A RENEGADE MUTANT!!" Like yeah sure I think Apocalypse technically is a mutant?? But like they really just profile all criminals as mutants.

Again, not sorry for you, rich boy.

Poor Rogue, having to absorb all these men's damage.

Episode 11 & 12: Days of Future Past

Bishop is a fucking traitor holy shit. Sure he gets better but damn. Girly was really like "The face-eating jaguars would never eat my face." and then was immediately told he was no longer needed.

"Someone... or something has come back through the time portal." "CHECK PLEASE! TIME PORTAL?"

"You kids better behave yourselves; I'm staying behind to babysit."

"Okay, ROUND BOY. Let's dance."

Wolverine has all the best lines.

Wonder why Mystique specifically chose to impersonate Gambit for the assassination. Perhaps he seemed the most likely? Perhaps a grudge against him for his relationship with Rogue?

Episode 13: The Final Decision

I'm so fucking disappointed that the fate of mutantkind lies in the hands of Senator Kelly because, dog, I wanna shoot him.

When you make a giant racist robot factory and even the giant racist robot factory is smart enough to recognize that mutant rights are human rights and so it resolves to protect humanity by replacing it with robots. Fucking dumbasses.

Honestly makes you wonder what the fuck Trask thought he was doing coming back in the new series. He knew that starting up another Master Mold would inevitably lead to the robots replacing politicians' brains with computers and he DID IT AGAIN ANYWAY.

Seeing Chuck and Magnus working together always warms my heart. And then they go right back to being enemies.

That Mister Sinister teaser at the end was... I'm not gonna say it.

[moonlight-tmd]

I despise Sentinel so in this post i'm gonna be shit talking him.

So we all know Sentinel is not the best mech- he's quite terrible really; he's egoistical, selfish and a total jerk to everyone below him. He's known to be rude and blaming shit on others- just like he blamed the Archa-7 incident on Optimus even tho he was in charge of the operation.

Optimus- he never liked Sentinel, the only reason he stuck by him was because of Elita. Sentinel wanted to have Elita as a sparkmate so he pretended to be the good bot, but Elita chose Optimus who was also interested in her. The two got together right before the incident. Optimus never said it but he believes Sentinel sabotaged their mission so they don't get to be together...

He wasn't any better when he was handed duty at the military training camp that Bulkhead and Bee ended up in. The little yellow mini reminded him so much of his failed love interest he couldn't help but connect all the things Elita hurt him with and punish the mini for them. Bee was constantly on the worst kinds of chores the soldiers in training were supposed to do, not only that but he also made sure to talk down on him as much as possible to make sure he drops the sad and soft attitude and toughens up to be cold like him. And it seemed to work... until the little pimple decided to stick with the other bigger pimple name Bulkhead and started "fighting back". They both caused trouble and annoyed Sentinel to the limits, on top of that he found of that one of the other officers there has arrested one of his favorites, Wasp, under the accusation of him being a Decepticon Spy. And it was from Bee's and some other bot's prompting. He never bothered to get into details but it was enough to kick him out the first chance he caused trouble- even if it wasn't even his fault.

He wasn't surprised to see the failure of a friend Optimus have him on board of the repair crew. He didn't believe when said failure called on the emrgency line telling they have found the artifact the Cybertron's forces were looking for centuries now since it disappeared. He wasn't concerned when they were reported missing along with the Decepticon ship's signal next to theirs. He actually didn't want to bother looking himself but was put on that duty anyway.

Meanwhile Team Prime has ended up on Earth and spend good couple years just minding their business with Sari in peace before the 'cons showed up. Of course, only few months later the dread of Sentinel Prime has seeped down to the planet and Sari got to experience it first hand, although with Optimus and others there it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

So Sentinel and his crew (Jazz and Jettwins, sometimes Blurr and Longarm join in) have the ship circle the Earth's atmosphere in order to prevent any more Decepticons from coming there. Meanwhile Team Prime is weighted down with the responsibility of collecting and protecting the Allspark Shards, since they were doing a good job before the Elite Guard showed up. In rare cases do the Elite Guard actually come down to fight along them. It's most oftem Jazz who has to remind Sentinel that this is a repair crew and they don't have proper weaponry to fight so they kinda NEED to be down there.

Going back to Team Prime- Bumblebee is not having a good time since Sentinel came to earth. he thought he's finally found a piece of the universe he can call home but of course, this stupid awful person had to come and ruin it all. Bulkhead is not happy either, especially since he knows what Bumblebee went thru- he knew little of Bumblebee's past and sparklinghood but that little information he did know was enough to send his Spark to the deepest end of sadness. He sworn to protect his little buddy, the promise was set in stone when they became Amicas right after the horrible Wasp has somehow gotten on Earth just few weeks after Sentinel and tried to replace Bee.

...But that didn't stop Sentinel from what he did.

Optimus was painfully aware of the similarities between Elita and Bumblebee, he might have accidentally reffered to him as Elita when they are arguing but he never thought of him as some Elita-clone like Sentinel. He was aware of how badly Sentinel treats Bee- the mech was awfully open about it, in fact.

I imagine that at one point, Bee would actually fight back to his abuse when somehow they were left alone... only for Sentinel's final string to snap and he physically beat Bee up as punishment for standing up to him. He even threatened to put him in stockades for good few stellar cycles for every bit of slag he's done over the course of his live if Bee ever told anyone that it was him that did it. For once, Bee cooperated with him, but it was out of fear...

Bulkhead knew something was wrong, Bumblebee was activating the bond duller very often and wouldn't tell him why. Ratchet also was suspicious because the scout seemed to come back from patrols or fun rides covered in dents and damages. But he always blamed it on his clumsyness or that he had a crash while skating. Bee might be a stubborn bot and a good actor, but he is also very gullible. Especially when the one lying to him is someone he fears or trusts...

But all that illusion of "everything is okay" was broken after one fight with Megatron and his minions. Both Team Prime and Elite Guard has failed to defeat Decepticons and now Megatron had some very risky tech in his servos. Sentinel was furious, yelling at the worthless low ranks that they couldn't do something as simple as this. Jazz and Optimus tried their best to diffuse the situation but that only made Sentinel more angry, the Jettwins hid behind the others in fear of what Sentinel might do. Then Bumblebee spoke up... it was a grave mistake.

Sentinel had knocked him down and started throwing relentless punches and grabbing every bit of the mini possible just to rip it off. it was Bulkhead who grabbed and threw the vile mech off of his buddy before throwing punches himself. He actually did more damage to Sentinel than what damages he gave Bee- said yellow bot was shaking on the ground, energon spilling on his vision from the ripped off horn wound, it was only seconds before he passed out because his stress levels shot out of the scale.

Sentinel was put in arrest and Bee in medbay for monitoring after they both got fixed with the key. It was then that Ratchet brought up the topic of Bee's wounds to the rest of the group; He had notices few times where Bee came back with visible wounds and was made to sit in medbay for Ratchet to fix him. Despite what Bee said had happened he knew those were the wounds one would get from a brawl. While looking over Bee he notices few of said wounds still healing in places where he didn't fix him, the progress of each one told him he must have gotten beaten up repeatedly at different times.

Bulkhead did notice Bee sometimes having dents when he came back to base, always having the bond duller on prior to it. But he always saw a dent on him whenever he saw the scout with...

"That fragger..." Bulkhead hissed, having connected the dots already. Pure rage boiled in his system as he turned to walk out of medbay. "It was Sentinel."

Sari was sitting beside Bee and Prowl while Optimus and Ratchet tried to calm the giant down and stop him from going to Sentinel who was held somewhere in the plant and under other Guards' watch.

"Sentinel always hated Bee's guts from the moment he saw him! He always tried to make him as miserable as possible- he was almost worse than Wasp!" Bulkhead argued while the two older mechs blocked his path. "I understand tha-" Optimus tried to reason but it was no use, Bulkhead only got more mad and shouted back at him.

"NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!" None of them ever saw the big bot so angry, so steaming with rage. "If it wasn't for me, Bee wouldn't even be here!!"

They knew how much hurt and abuse Bee had endured during boot camp, Bee, with a bit of Bulk's prompting, has told them himself way before this incident. With that knowledge and what Bulkhead said just now... only one assumption could be made.

"I don't care if you kick me out or whatever- I'm not gonna let it past him! The fragger stepped far over the line." Bulkhead pushed past them both, only to be physically stopped by Ratchet's magnets just by the medbay shutter. Somehow he was persuaded to stay by Bee's side in the end...

When Bee woke up he was gently questioned by Optimus and others. Bulkhead never spoke a word, only gently nudging Bee into telling more thru their amica bond. They couldn't believe Sentinel did all that to him right under their scent sensors. They never knew how Sentinel kept his job for so long despite being morally a criminal, this- this was whole chapters of Elite Guard Code broken. Even if he was effective on field the way he commanded everything was horrible, Optimus has made a whole few-essays-worth of material on him to report.

Bee felt so awful, not only did he get tricked into yet another abuse situation he also made himself look like he doesn't trust his friends enough to tell them. He could only apologize while they comforted him.

Bulkhead came to Bee's room alone later that night, those 2 had yet to talk about what happened...

"Please, don't ever think you can't tell me anything that's bothering you. We made a promise, and I'm gonna stick to it for as long as I live." Bulkhead said after Bee had launched into the trail of apologies once again. Bee had cried himself to recharge while Bulkhead held him in a hug, the big bot refused to leave his side that night.

Bulkhead was willing to kill Sentinel in order to protect Bee and didn't care about the consequences. It showed how deep their friendship goes... Also the fact Bumblebee was suicidal at some point of his life made them even more worried about him in the first place knowing he most often hides his personal issues.

Sentinel's life was literally crumbling after this one- every bit of harrassment, torment and wrong-doing was put up against him and it didn't seem he wasn't getting out of this one. Optimus' rank has been restored and he was offered to lead the Elite Guard fleet instead of Sentinel, which he surprisingly refused. He was better with what he had now, which was the little family-like team of repair bots. Jazz and the rest of Sentinel's team were put under Optimus' charge to help out until further notice.

Bumblebee may been a little brat at times but he had a Spark of gold- despite what Sentinel (and Wasp) did to him, he felt bad for making them suffer in return. The others kept telling him they did this to themselves and that he shouldn't feel bad for it.

I fucking hate this massive chin guy. Also protec lil bean Bee! yes!

[kaycode1999]

Haii!! I was wondering if I could get a transformers matchup? Decepticon or autobot, either is fine.

I am genderfluid (they/them) and bisexual. I have short curly black hair with brown/hazel (idk I've been told I have both?) eyes. I'm pale, 5'3 and on the more chubby side. I wear glasses because I'm blind and can't see shit.

I have dyslexia and probably autism but I haven't got tested so Idk. Math has always been very hard for me to understand it in do great in subjects like history.

I am very introverted and tend to avoid social interactions, and I tend to be very judgemental and once I don't like you, I don't like you and will probably never like you. I can be spiteful but id never be outwardly rude of shit talk someone because I tend to freeze up during confrontation but I don't let anyone walk on me, i stand my ground and pick my battles wisely. Im very quiet and have been told I am a great listener and would make a good therapist. While in school I would go weeks without saying a single word but then when I got home it was like I couldn't shut up. Speaking in a public setting is genuinely terrifying to me and it feels like my mouth and glued shut whenever I try to. I am very connected to the environment and its creatures, and feel like I'm able to trust and get along with other animals better then I am people. My one big goal in life is to start a farm/animal rescue. Some of my favorite animals are alligators and crocodiles, and I could probably spill facts about them for hours if someone let me. I tend to be very protective of my things and schedule and get upset when people disrupt or move things. I have a spot for everything and if something isn't in it's spot or gets rearranged somewhere else I get anxious. I collect a lot of things and grow attached to them quickly. I am immensely independent because I am afraid of asking for help. I know exactly what i want and what i need, and I'll manage to do anything to get it. Humor and laughter is a key part of me and what i seek in life. But also trust and loyalty, those are all qualities i possess and seek in others. I tend to overthink sometimes and get paranoid about people leaving me.

My hobbies include art, I like to draw silly little doodles of things. video games, two or my favorite games are doom and silent hill 2. And I enjoyed caring for and spending time with my pets, which I have a lot of. 4 dog, 3 cats, 4 betta fish, 8 chickens, a wild turtle that lives in my backyard, and a bearded dragon. Im planning on getting a Jacksons chameleon and some goats when I have the space.

I match you with

D-16/Megatron ( TF One)

He definitely thinks your glasses make you look adorable

He is kind of in the middle of introverted and extroverted. He’s extroverted around people he’s comfortable with but not so much with strangers

That’s to say he understands being introverted and totally gets avoiding certain social interactions

He also enjoys history, specifically relating to the primes *megatronus*

He also is on the judgemental side

As we saw, once he turns on someone (Ex. Sentinel and Orion/Optimus). He does not go back

He appreciates that you don’t let anyone walk all over you

You’re assertive and calculating and that is why he is initially drawn to you

I think he understands and appreciates your quiet nature

He comes to rely on you to listen to what he’s feeling or thinking. You’re also his confidant so he will discuss things with you and truly values your input

He is very sensitive to your public speaking anxiety. He will do everything he can to keep from causing you anxiety, and he will make sure you know it’s ok if you can’t speak in public. No pressure, and he will personally terminate anyone who would try to force that on you

He definitely agrees about liking the environment and its creatures better than other people

Especially in the aftermath of the movie he would much rather have a farm and animals away from other people than to be around others specifically the bots in Iacon

You can go on about whatever, you’re there to listen to him and he’s there to listen to you

Also, he will definitely get/have made any alligator and crocodile memorabilia for you because he knows you’ll enjoy it

I think he understands about the being protective of your schedule and things. He is too, possibly to a lesser extent but he understands it is serious and does his best to not affect any of that

He respects your independence and the fact that you know what you want

He also shares that he will do whatever to get what he wants

Especially after becoming Megatron, he’s not so laughing or humorous anymore- but if you make jokes around him you’ll see the slightest smirk make its way onto his face. And if he hears you laugh he will always end up smiling

You both need someone who is trustworthy and loyal

Especially after losing the only friend he ever had he also understands the paranoia about losing someone you care about very well.

You are as close as can be and inseparable because of this

[lord-squiggletits]

Another funny thing about weird Decepticon stans trying to pretend that the Autobots were just as bad as them is that, in IDW1, the Autobots literally did not exist until Orion Pax stormed the Senate and delivered a speech claiming "Autobot" as a new label to mean "autonomous." Whereas all of the colonization during the Golden Age happened during Nova Prime's time a couple million years prior.

And during the war, the Decepticons were literally cyberforming planets they killed and had established something called the Interstellar Constellate at some point. And Megatron said in Chaos Theory that his plan for his Decepticon empire if/when he defeated the Autobots was to rebuild and cyberform planets to create a Decepticon empire where mechanical beings reign supreme.

Like, the BEST ARGUMENT you can make is that since Optimus is a Prime, he technically inherits the problematic nature of the Primacy's history of colonization, but I think that even that argument is pretty thin considering that Optimus was always pro-organic to the point of valuing their lives equally to Cybertronians, which is something that even a lot of Autobots fail to do. Compared to other members of his species, Optimus is literally a radical in terms of his stance that organic life = Cybertronian life, but go off I guess lmao.

You can even see that during the time of Sentinel's Senate, there was an engraving on the wall that said "freedom is the right of all civilized beings", showing that Optimus at some point took that phrase and changed it to underline the fact that freedom is a universal right for ALL beings.

Also, again for IDW1 specifically, a lot of anti-Optimus people clearly don't even know the timeline of events in that story. OP spent a good chunk of the story working against the Senate with things like

Storming the Senate on Megatron's behalf to deliver an angry speech against government corruption

Working with Senator Shockwave undercover to investigate Proteus being suspicious, uncovering a conspiracy to frame the Decepticons for a terrorist attack, and risking his team to prevent it

Going on the run and doing secret operations like saving hotspots from being attacked by Sentinel's forces

(For bonus points, he even saved Drift from dying either by drug overdose or being beaten to death by some thugs and called an emergency transport for him to Ratchet's clinic)

The regime change happens because Sentinel Prime is killed BY MEGATRON who at that point had already become a gladiator criminal underworld. By the time Orion is back in Iacon acting as Zeta's head of security/general/etc, Megatron is already well on the path of corruption and senseless violence doing things like arranging illegal weapon trafficking (shown in Optimus Prime) and forcing Rumble and Frenzy to get frame reformats to fit Megatron's tactical needs (Megatron Origin). Apparently Optimus doesn't deserve to have facts about his backstory and difficult contexts around his decisions be observed by this fandom though lmao.

If you take IDW1 out of context and go "OP worked for the regime!" then yeah of course it looks bad, and yes he did do that. But a lot of people also neglect to mention 1. the anti-government actions he DID take 2. the fact that by the time OP started fighting against Megatron, he had already become super evil and 3. because Megatron was super evil, Orion couldn't just desert Zeta's government and be like, "oh yeah I'll totally be able to talk Megatron out of doing terrorism and violence just on my own" especially since in this continuity they barely fuckin' knew each other before OP became a Prime. There's so much shit around OP being a cop and the ways he did or didn't succeed in trying to change the planet for the better, but none of that is addressed when people just go "oh he's a cop and the Autobots are colonizers" like ????? Stop it.

Stop taking this shit out of context and stop cherrypicking evidence to make one side look good and the other side look bad lmao.

[pfhwrittes]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @391780

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

13 (until i pull my head out of my arse and crosspost the rest of my little drabbles)

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

22,705

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i've published some call of duty fics and i'm scribbling away at a passenger (2024) fic

4. top five fics by kudos

the aftermath, sentinel, theft and exhibition, "romance" in the age of technology and fill me, feel me.

5. do you respond to comments?

i try! i'm terrified of my emails so i only notice i have comments if i actively check my ao3 inbox though

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmm, probably creeping normality

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

definitely chasing this bittersweet feeling

8. do you get hate on fics?

nope! which is probably a combination of not being a very prolific writer and the fact that my ao3 is locked down (and has been for a while) so only logged in members can see my fics

9. do you write smut?

yes >:)

10. craziest crossover:

i don't really have any crossovers...?

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge and i hope it never happens

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but it would be very nice if someone ever did!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

does it count if i don't really "write" as much as yell ideas at my favourite people and cause them to despair? but as a more serious answer, i've never co-written a fic but i do have a long standing original work that i'm sort of co-writing with my friend jay (jay if you ever see this, i promise i'll come back to it. i love you)

14. all time favorite ship?

it's been a long time since i engaged with anything to do with marvel aside from liking the odd gifset but stevebucky will always be my number one. always.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

look it might take me years, the fandom may have moved on or shrunk down to me and three other people, but i will finish my fucking wips

16. what are your writing strengths?

i've been told i have a way of setting the tone within a few sentences and dragging you all along for a quick literary romp. i'm rather proud of that!

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

i can't describe stuff for shit. and action sequences. god, i struggle with action sequences

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

i have 0 confidence in my ability to communicate dialogue in another language. otherwise, fairly indifferent to reading dialogue in another language but that's probably because my other language skills are either so degraded (french, danish) or so juvenile (welsh) that i can't actually point out any "flaws" if i come across them

19. first fandom you wrote in?

cod modern warfare (if we ignore the notebooks i would scribble in for his dark materials)

20. favorite fic you've written?

it's a solid tie between chasing this bittersweet feeling, "romance" in the age of technology and Room 28

no pressure tags for: anyone that wants to share, is currently mildly sleep deprived, or has more than 100 unread emails

[hismercytomyjustice]

X-Men ‘97 spoilers below the cut

I am halfway through the finale. Me and my husband had to pause it because we both got so fucking mad lmaooo.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very good.

But…

GO FUCKING FUCK YOURSELF CHARLES LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

Oh my god I CANNOT STAND HIM

I get his appeal as a “good guy” character, but it’s like…if you’re constantly gonna make him do the worst fucking shit to other people, he can’t keep parading around the moral high ground

Just seeing them all be like “omg I can’t believe Magneto did that to Wolverine, he’s so evil!”

CAN Y’ALL STOP FOR ONE GODDAMN SECOND AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE FACT THAT WAS ALL HE FUCKING DID TO HIM

HE COULD HAVE CRUNCHED HIM LIKE A FUCKING SODA CAN BUT HE DIDN’T

I’m not saying that makes Magneto the good guy, obvs what he did was still fucked up (even if I was cheering given the circumstances)

But like. They constantly act like Magneto is evil incarnate in this show. Because he refuses to play nice with the non-mutants who have yet to show a single redeeming quality???

Bruh went through the Holocaust and watched it all happen again in Genosha and they immediately act like he’s being unreasonable?

I’d say, all things considered, HE’S BEING PRETTY FUCKING REASONABLE

What the fuck was he supposed to do about the Prime Sentinels? Just stand back and watch them wipe every mutant off the face of the map???

And yet they’re like “omg Magneto has declared war on humanity”

EXCUSE ME WHAT

W H A T

The people who have fucking tried to genocide y’all at every opportunity?

What the EVER LOVING FUCK was he supposed to do to stop the Prime Sentinel rampage???

It feels very trolley problem-esque

Like, yeah he was gonna fuck off to space after, but I DON’T FUCKING BLAME HIM???

And them being like “how dare you turn our friends against us”

Excuse me, did he fucking mind control them???

Oh, wait, no that’s Charles’s whole schtick

And Charles being like “don’t make me force you to fix the earth”

BITCH YOU ARE LITERALLY ALREADY TRYING TO FORCE HIM

FORCING HIM TO “CONSENT” IS NOT NOT FORCING HIM??????

and then having the GALL to be like “oh, Magnus, you’re like my brother, I’m here to save you”

E X C U S E M E

PARDONNEZ-MOI????!!!!

And everyone being like “oh it’s justified Charles just liquified his brain because he hurt Wolverine”

WOLVERINE TRIED TO MURDER HIM

WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO

Y’ALL ROLLED UP WITH THE INTENTION OF MIND CONTROLLING OR MURDERING MAGNETO

AND NOW YOU’RE UPSET THAT HE FOUGHT BACK??????

The way Charles uses his powers throughout the show constantly rubs me the wrong way. Especially because no one is ever like “hey, maybe don’t invade someone’s mind, steal their secrets, make them relive their batshit trauma, and bend them to your will?”

NOPE, THAT’S ALL A-OKAY IN THEIR BOOKS

Mr. Sinister kidnapping Jean and cloning her to control her? How fucking dare he!

Charles doing PRETTY MUCH THE SAME FUCKING THING EVERY FIVE SECONDS WITH MAGNETO?

Nah, totally justified, Magneto is the bad guy, remember?

I just

CANNOT

Now I gotta finish the episode but I don’t think my opinion is gonna change

[florianniss]

Trouble with Angels

It works. They believe him. Makes his dad’s lame ass excuse of working late instead of going to his game and his mom’s sudden migraine totally worth it.

Steve gets into the car on Saturday morning and drives to town. He walks into the video rental place feeling confident he’s going to nail it. He does, of course, and the manager gets him set on the schedule working weekends.

It sucks kinda, because he’s losing his only free days. But, like Robin said, at least he isn’t stuck at home with his parents.

Steve notices the initials ‘RB’ on most of the weekends he’s assigned to, which he sincerely hopes means he’ll be working with her. He knows shit about movies, never has time to go to the theater. He’s always at practice, or a game, or –

That’s when he’s slammed sideways with a scathingly brilliant idea, one Hayley Mills would be proud of.

He hasn’t thought it through, not really. But he’s here now and there’s no going back, because he’s made his decision. The parking lot is full, providing good cover as Steve plots the best way to break in.

Kids come and go through two entrances, the front, and the side. The doors don’t seem to be locked, which is a good thing. All he has to do it just pretend he lives there and –

Someone comes out, alone, and Steve has this moment of absolute kismet as he recognizes who it is.

“Dustin!” he calls out, plan tucked safely under his arm, heart pounding wildly in his chest.

The seventh grader looks over as Steve strides across the lot, breaks into the biggest shit-eating grin, and opens his arms wide.

“Hair-ington,” and Steve just knows how he’s spelling it. They do their fist bump, baseball bat greeting, and then Dustin hugs the literal stuffing out of him,

“How are you, buddy?” Steve wheezes, thinking the kid has grown in both height and strength.

“Better now that you’ve stopped being a dickhead.”

Steve steps back, nods his head in agreement. “Yeah, I know. I just haven’t had time to say hi yet.”

“Whatever,” and Dustin is already over it. “Man, that was a good game, huh? I didn’t see the whole thing, but I heard all about it!”

Steve thinks Dustin hasn’t changed much after all from that kid he used to babysit during the summer. He kinda misses his nerdy jokes and brainy games. But there’s no time for that; Steve is on a mission.

“Hey, can you get me inside? There’s someone I need to –” What does Steve need to do, really?

“What?” Dustin laughs. “Get you inside? Dude, the doors aren’t guarded by some Sentinel of Doom. Just go in.”

Steve blinks and wonders if maybe Eddie was telling him a tale, and then reality sinks its fist into his gut. They’re only not allowing Eddie visitors.

“Cool,” Steve says, covering it up with a smile. “Can you do me a favor and show me where Eddie Munson’s room is?”

Dustin’s face morphs from one of surprised happiness to utter awe. “You know Eddie Munson? ”

“Uh, yeah?”

Dustin tackles him with yet another hug. “Can you get me his autograph?”

Steve’s this close to losing it, laughing and making the kid who worships him feel like garbage. But he drops the videos and both spill out of their protective cases onto the sidewalk.

“Hey!” Dustin shouts, like a hamster on a wheel, and changes the subject. “I wanted to see Space Camp! But my mom wouldn’t let us go to anything PG this summer.”

Steve just picked whatever off the shelf, hadn’t even paid attention. He looks at the rating on the other movie and gets this spine-tingling idea.

He takes the case and hands the other one over; it’s rated PG-13. “Here. Use this to hide it. Don’t let them catch you watching it, though. I need that back on Monday morning, or I’ll lose the job I just got at the Video store. You hear me?”

Dustin takes it like he’s being handed the Holy Grail. “Thanks! I will, I promise.”

Steve follows him inside the unlocked side entrance and feels his knees go a little funny, exciting. All this breaking the law is strangely exhilarating.

Dustin stops outside a closed door and presses his ear to it. “He’s definitely in there. Thanks for the movie! See you later.” And he turns and hauls ass, presumably to his room where he’ll be hunkering down to revel in his treasure.

Steve takes a deep breath and prepares to knock, but the music coming from inside is loud and he wonders if Eddie will even hear it.

He turns the knob and slowly opens the door.

Eddie’s there, all right, seated at the edge of a bed with his head hanging low. He’s wearing a ball cap with headphones on top, listening to something pretty heavy, as loud as it will go. There’s no indication he even notices Steve entering, but Steve sees there’s something wrong. And he doesn’t want to startle his friend.

With the door closed, Steve steals inside and sits cross-legged on the floor before Eddie. He’s rocking back and forth, drumming his fingers against his thighs. Like he’s trying to get lost in the music, like he’s trying to forget.

He notices Steve and stands with a jerk, tossing his headphones and Walkman onto the bed behind him, a look of horror on his face.

“What are you doing here?” he shouts, upset. Steve scrambles to his feet and regrets his life choices for a split second, until he realizes Eddie is hurting.

“Came to see you, dumbass. You didn’t show at the dance, and I was worried.”

The terror and pain completely deflate and Eddie bows his head. “Oh.”

Steve feels awkward now that he’s here. Eddie’s response to his surprise doesn’t feel right.

“I — I brought you —“

And that’s when Steve sees it, really sees it. “Oh, my god. The bastards did it!”

His hair. They cut his fucking hair. His beautiful, luxurious long hair.

Eddie pulls the cap low over his eyes and shrugs. “‘S no big deal.”

But Steve knows it is, rips the hat off Eddie’s head and feels eruptive anger building inside. “What the fuck, dude?”

It’s all one length to his chin, like they just took the knot at the back and chopped it off.

Eddie tries to take the hat back, but Steve won’t let him.  He’s pissed. “Fucking bastards!”

Eddie looks up and his eyes are — what are they? Not sad, definitely not angry. They’re meek and shy and, god damn, it’s Bambi standing in front of him.

Steve melts and all the disgust and hatred for the people who did this does too. He takes a deep breath and feels like the world’s biggest cad. “I – it’s not that bad.”

“Fuck you,” Eddie spits, without anger. The sides of his hair hide his face, almost the same length now as his bangs.

Something inside Steve hurts. “No, really. It just needs a little product.”

Eddie snorts. “And what, you can fix it?”

Steve gets another one of those twinges of regret, and he knows precisely what to do. “Sure do. You got anything?”

Eddie looks at him like he’s lost his fucking marbles, and then he realizes Steve isn’t playing around. “Serious?”

Steve nods fervently, looks around the bareness of the room. Sees the closet, slightly open, clothes spilling out. The dresser is in the same condition, heaped high with Eddie’s various jean jackets. There isn’t any bathroom, but there’s a towel slung over the only chair at a desk that clearly isn’t used for studying.

“Here,” Steve says, snatching the towel and slapping it around Eddie’s shoulders. “Go wash.”

Eddie blinks exactly like a deer in the headlights, and Steve pushes him toward the door. “Go.”

His friend moves hesitantly, looking back over his shoulder and gladly taking the cap as Steve hands it back. He moves slowly down the hallway, presumably to the showers, and Steve returns to the room to sit on the bed where Eddie had been.

The room is trashed, and not just in the usual way. It’s as if someone purposefully dumped everything out and threw it against the wall. Steve imagines Eddie, in a fit of rage over his haircut, taking it out on inanimate objects, and it makes him angry too.

Then he thinks of Eddie sitting in this very spot, consoling himself with music. Hiding from the world, from Steve; the real reason he didn’t show up at the dance. And Steve feels lousy.

Eddie returns with his head wrapped in the turban towel as he had done at the beach. He closes the door and avoids Steve’s eyes.

“Product?” Steve asks, his resolve wavering now that Eddie’s standing there, looking meek.

“Yeah,” he says and opens his closet. There’s stuff hanging up, so he didn’t completely gut the joint, and as he digs in the mess and comes up with a fucking bucket, Steve feels a surge of pride.

He’s got good stuff; Prell shampoo and some fancy conditioner, Dep hair gel and fucking Aqua Net hair spray. There’s a big-toothed comb and a black pick, and those little black scrunchies that Eddie uses so religiously.

Used religiously.

Eddie sits on the floor with his back to the bed, and Steve takes the towel off to get a good look at what’s left of Eddie’s hair.

It’s curly, curlier than normal. Freshly washed, smelling clean and looking good enough to fucking eat, Steve’s stomach does a little dance as he realizes he’s going to get to finally touch Eddie’s hair.

Steve goes for the big comb and contemplates where to begin when Eddie opens his mouth and blows Steve’s mind. “Don’t be gentle. I can take it.”

There’s a moment where he whites out and remembers a porno mag he saw once at a friend’s house. A guy, his hand fisted in some chick’s long, curly blonde hair, with his massive dick in her mouth and fucking her throat with what looked like reckless abandon. Her eyes were watering and she was drooling, and –

Fuck. Steve’s gone hard with Eddie sitting between his legs.

Steve’s gentle because he can’t help it; it’s a religious experience, combing Eddie’s hair. He starts at the top by his temple, leaning forward and not caring that his shirt is getting wet. That Eddie rests his elbows on Steve’s knees. That they’re in Eddie’s room and he shouldn’t be here, and they could get in a load of trouble.

The first time the teeth catch and Eddie’s neck snaps back, Steve feels a little closer to god. “Sorry.”

“‘S’OK.”

With the tangles sorted, Steve unscrews the lid of the gel and works its stickiness between his palms. He smooths the sides back, then runs his fingers through it. He reloads the gel and does the top, and then the back, scrunching up the curls and thinking he’s died and gone to heaven.

But when Eddie’s neck goes slack and he’s practically asleep in Steve’s lap, and he can’t use any more gel or it will get too heavy, but he doesn’t want to stop –

“OK. Done. And, uh, I brought a movie,” Steve tries, finishing by smoothing the stray hairs behind Eddie’s ears, being careful not to catch the earrings he’s never fucking noticed before now. “Haven’t seen it yet.”

“Oh?” Eddie’s answer is a little delayed, like he’s drunk, like he’s fucked out on MJ and can’t be bothered to care. “Which one?”

Steve’s painfully hard inside his jeans, and he so wants Eddie to lean back a little further and press into his zipper. “Uh, Big Trouble in Little China?”

“That’s a good one,” Eddie purrs, taking in a deep breath and relaxing even more into Steve’s lap. He’s literally millimeters from touching Steve’s dick.

“W - what? You’ve seen it?”

Eddie chuckles, actually chuckles. It vibrates up his back and Steve can feel it where his knees are digging into Eddie’s ribs.

“Yeah, I mean. All summer long I snuck into the movie theater, watched from behind the curtains. I think I saw everything that was worth seeing.”

Steve’s Big Plan suddenly isn’t as great as it seemed, and as Eddie leans forward to get to his feet, there’s a blank emptiness inside his chest.

“Be right back,” he says, striding across the room and throwing the closet wide. There’s a mirror, and Eddie turns his head so Steve can see his reflection too.

Damn, he’s fucking hot. Like Ralph Macchio hot.

“Shit,” Eddie rasps, admiring Steve’s handiwork with disbelief. “Not bad.”

Steve is having a full-on sexual crisis.

Eddie rummages through the closet again and comes out with a VCR hefted against his chest, cables dangling like massive spider legs. He turns with the world’s biggest smile and Steve’s heart does this fluttery thing.

“Stole this from the RA. They’ve been looking for it for weeks, haven’t figured out where it went.” Eddie laughs softly, evilly. “Nobody without a machine in their room can watch anything.”

He sets it on the desk that isn’t being used for anything but a small TV and snakes through the cords. Steve wipes the quickly drying gel from his hands on the still-wet towel to keep from imagining things by staring at Eddie’s ass.

“You stick it in, I’ll get the door.”

If Eddie hears Steve’s squeak, he doesn’t show it. He busies himself by dragging the bookshelf that looks like someone knocked over in front of the door. And Steve realizes something else.

“There’s no lock?”

“Nope,” Eddie straightens up and makes a move to flip his hair, realizes it is no longer there, and grabs the video off the floor. He tosses it to Steve like he didn’t just reveal the saddest damn thing in the world. “Don’t trust me not to lock myself in, I guess.”

Eddie sits on the floor again facing the TV and watches Steve struggle to get the tape out of the case. He keeps his mouth shut, though, doesn’t tease Steve when he fumbles and puts it in backward, waits quietly as Steve fast-forwards over the previews.

They sit side by side propped up against the bed, Steve on the closet side so he can hide inside if anyone comes.

Steve barely watches the movie. He’s too busy watching Eddie rub his thumb over his own knee, too invested in how Eddie smells, how his voice sounds when he tells Steve, “Oh, this is a good part.”

They take a pee break halfway through. Eddie makes sure the hallway is clear, the bathroom is empty. He waits outside while Steve does his best to not touch himself; it’s painful, so painful.

But Eddie is his friend, and Steve is not fucking this thing up.

Just as predicted, the RA shows up and knocks on Eddie’s door.

“Just a second,” he shouts, slamming the ball cap on his head, backward, while Steve scrambles up on the floor. He hides in the closet, bumping his knee on the doorframe. Eddie shoves a load of clothes on top to cover him up and closes the door.

Steve holds his breath against the sharp waves of pain as whoever it is talking in a muffled voice to Eddie, praying they don’t check inside. It strikes him as funny, hiding in the closet, a space that smells entirely like Eddie, a whirlwind of a tornado of Eddie’s possessions dumped on top of him. The metaphor for his life is fucking complete.

Eddie’s smiling as he helps Steve come out of the closet.

“I think I’ve found my new favorite thing to do,” he grins, yanking off his cap and tossing it to the floor. “Wanna come by tomorrow and do it again?”

Steve allows himself to be pulled from the space, collapses back on the floor next to Eddie. They’re a little closer this time, in proximity and in friendship. And Steve knows what he’s going to be doing every weekend after work for the rest of the year.

“Just make sure you bring a movie I haven’t seen next time, OK?”

Chapter 4 on AO3

[nakimochiku]

that fic meme

How many works do you have on AO3?: 142

What’s your total AO3 word count?: 408,786 (ooh. Not bad?)

What fandoms do you write for?: all. Hell baby i write for fandoms im not even IN. But at the moment, mdzs.

What are your top five fics by kudos: All this time I was just waiting for you (moon knight), These Violent Delights (moon knight), That a Ghost should be so practical (Hamilton), I don’t want anyone else (when i think about you)(moon knight), what we hate in others (we see in ourselves)(attack on titan)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?: i do cause i actually just really really wanna talk to people!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?: probably I Call The Shots(snk), everyone died. Or Keep Pushing (snk), everyone is GOING to die.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?: probably Found a Place to Rest my Head (saiyuki), cause no one dies and they adopt kids.

Do you get hate on fics?: on this one particular Hannibal fic

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?: All kinds. Partial to anything with any kinda dirty talk/praise kink. Literally cant write smut without that featured. After that, a lot of D/s tones.

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?: I’ve actually never written a crossover?! Like at most ive written “ y characters in x universe” like. Typical hogwarts au or some shit. Craziest of those i’ve written was a sentinel/guide au for spn.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?: probably not and im not sure id care even if i did.

Have you ever had a fic translated?: Yep!

 Have you ever co-written a fic before?: Nothing that ever got published. Mostly shooting shit with friends.

 What’s your all-time favorite ship?: Impossible to answer. Changes on every rewatch even of old favs. But i can tell you my ship dynamic! Rivals to friends to lovers. Gimme some rivals to ship ANY day.

What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?: This University Au for moon knight that is sitting half finished in my Docs is fucking haunting me.

 What are your writing strengths?: Putting my whole pussy into whatever it is i’m writing. Also, imagery and extended metaphors.

What are your writing weaknesses?: Cohesion. The ideas are there but smoothing them together is so tough!

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?: I wish i could do it because it adds a flavour of authenticity to the fic but… i also know i hate reading it, and if i can suspend my disbelief and IMAGINE the character is speaking a different language when im told they are, thats enough.

First fandom you wrote for?: Technically Yugioh, but never posted. So Officially, Naruto.

Fave fic you’ve written?: impossible question BUT gun to my head for an answer, i think i did a DAMN GOOD job on Artemis Agrotera (the walking dead). Some A+ imagery and extended metaphors there.

tagging any mutuals who haven’t done this yet. But also specifically @first-renegade

[thatsmytrunks]

Fred Wood’s Game of the Year 2022 List

Here’s an organized list of my games of the year, 2022. The rules are simple: I must have completed the meat of the game for the first time in 2022. Release date doesn't matter to me. Nothing matters. Time is made up. We’re posting this on Tumblr in 2023. Nothing could possibly matter anymore.

Chaos;Head NOAH

I adore the Steins;Gate series and have picked up and supported every english release of every Science;Adventure visual novel that has released since. Chaos;Head NOAH is the first game that has completely disappointed me, and I’m not totally sure who’s fault that is. From what I understand the localization team on this release did some work to try and make the game more palatable to unfamiliar audiences, trying to make the main character less of a piece of shit than in the original release. Well, they failed. He sucks bad, and I’m not sure I can endure revisiting it again to find the other endings/routes, no matter how much better they make the story.

AI The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative

AI The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative is a sequel to AI The Somnium files, and is not as good. It tries to do some really wild things with its narrative and mostly succeeds, but they tried to make the game stand alone for folks who didn’t pick up the original, and I think that fear made it much less impactful. The inclusion of an Easy Mode for folks who want to binge the story and not deal as much with the clever puzzles made it much more pleasant for this dummy to enjoy.

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (Nintendo Switch)

In 2019 13 Sentinels dropped on PS4 and I tried to play it and kept thinking “I wish I could play this on a handheld”, so I never finished it. This year I did, and while I was not as in love with it as all the folks in 2019 who extolled its virtues, I will say this is a very wild game that tells a wild story using a wild structure that seems incomprehensible until it clicks. And I think it clicks really, really well.

AI The Somnium Files

This game was the first new big drop from the creator of The Nonary Games series. I first played it a little on Switch when it first came out thanks to a review code, but the graphics were so bad and the beginning was so slow that I put it down and never picked it back up. When the sequel, Nirvana Initiatve came out, and friends started speaking so highly about it, I gave the original another try, this time on XBox Series X via GamePass. Instead of being a garbled mess, it was a gorgeous video game that held a great series of mysteries with a cast of characters I learned to love. The only mark against the game is it’s a bit hard. The puzzles in the game are based on dream logic, and dream logic is pretty subjective, so I kept failing and getting frustrated. The sequel mitigates this with lots of difficulty options and making it easier to retry. For this one I mitigated the difficulty by using a walkthrough when I got stuck. The game’s a real 9/10, though, highly recommended.

Undertale: No Mercy

Undertale came out in 2015, and here in 2022/2023 I’m working for Toby Fox on Deltarune, so take everything I have to say with a healthy amount of bias.

I played Undertale in 2015 the week it came out for a few minutes and thought it was cool and didn’t pick it back up until Thanksgiving. By that point the game had absolutely changed the internet forever and it was getting real hard not to get spoiled, so I played the game like I think most uninformed players do. I loaded up the game, thought it was neat, killed the really nice goat lady, learned that I did not have to kill goat mom, restarted the game, got a “pacifist ending”, then got a “true pacifist ending”. I had always heard about the other major route, but never really thought it would be my bag.

This year, after having talked to a lot of people and being pretty bad at the Undertale and Deltarune danmaku bullet patterns, I wanted to go and see the rest of what one of my favorite games of all time had to offer. I did it on a couple of Live Streams where I struggeled a lot, but ultimately won the battle against a true hero. I pushed on to give the friendly skeleton fight a few honest tries, before giving up and resorting to cheat engine.

Just like everyone else has said over the last seven years, it’s amazing how Toby was able to tell another very powerful and very memorable story by reusing places, characters, and battles. It’s wild how the most famous track in the game takes place in a battle that most players will never experience on their own. It reminds me of how the best part of Drakengard is hidden away after having to do a bunch of really horrible and actively unfun things, but that wild alternate route resulted in NieR.

I will probably never beat the friendly skeleton battle at the end of the game legitimately. I don’t have the kind of reflexes and memory to learn every single one of the attacks and pull them off, but having gotten there on my own and trying it a few times, I sure as hell understand and appreciate it.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Many years ago I played a game that told the story of a man named Stanley. While The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is not quite a sequel (though it also very much is), it was wonderful to revisit one of my favorite indie games of all time with a fresh coat of paint on modern consoles. The new stuff was wonderfully meta and hilarious, and there was enough of it to justify the double dip. The extra nice thing was playing it with my wife this time, so I got to see bits of the game through fresh eyes.

Sonic Frontiers

Who would have thought that Breath of the Wild meets Death Stranding would make for a surprisingly competent open world Sonic the Hedgehog video game. I really liked running around each of the “open zones”, pulling off tricks and goin’ fast. The combat was repetitive, and the bosses weren’t terribly fun, but the moment to moment controlling the blue attitude man felt really great. Also the game has simultaneously some of the best music in the series (the early cyber zones) and the absolute worst (every single boss battle, don’t @ me).

Sonic Origins

I was so excited in 2021 when they announced that the Christian Whitehead ports of Sonic 1 2 and CD were coming to modern platforms, as well as some sort of re-release of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. What we got was a very buggy mess of these games that had some really glaring issues that made it impossible to recommend, especially at its $40-$45 price tag.

Now with a little bit of time and a few sales, the game can be found for around $20 with its most glaring bugs patched out. Now we have a modern version of the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog games I grew up with, they have widescreen, and they have the ability to retry special stages. They also have fully and wonderfully animated sequences between each game connecting them to one another, and a full 4K upscale of each of the Sonic CD animations with tremendous care and attention.

This year I beat Sonic 1,2,CD, and 3K 100% with all chaos emeralds (something I’d never done in CD), and it was an absolute delight. And playing on the Switch OLED in handheld mode is an absolute delight. If you’re playing on PC, there’s wonderful mods that replace all the music in the game with uncompressed versions of all the original music, there’s fixes for small issues with the dropdash, and there’s a nice and quick fix to remove the weird bilinear filter on the games. It’s easy to recommend for me, now.

This would probably have been higher up my list if not for the miserable state it released in and the $40 price tag.

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors is a game that deserves to be game of the year on someone’s list, but isn’t quite on mine. I love incremental power fantasy roguelikes like Risk of Rain, and at first blush, this seemed to be the idle game version of that. Functionally you can move freely around a big open space, your character will attack every couple of seconds, and a horde of enemies comes at you. The first few minutes of the first few games are pretty boring, but as time goes on you kill enemies, gain xp, and start to build up your character with buffs and new weapons, making you an incredibly powerful killing machine by the end of your run, which at the start is capped at 30 minutes. I spent 30 hours with this game in the first two weeks of playing it, and it was a wildly powerful tool for making time disappear. I’d boot it up, unlock a bunch of new characters and perks, and then say “yeah, one more game”. As I sit here writing this on a 13 hour flight on Tokyo, I’m excited to say I’m going to use its magical time erasing capability to make this trip all the faster.

Also the game’s less than five bucks which is insane for how much fun I’ve had with it.

Judgment

Judgment is an open world beat ‘em up RPG in the vein of Yakuza by the creators of Yakuza taking place in the town of Kamurocho from the Yakuza series. You play as a private detective who is disgraced for getting a murderer acquitted who was then quickly re-arrested for the crime of super murdering his girlfriend. The story of Judgment isn’t about that case, but you can sure as hell bet you’re going to be relitigating that case while you solve a rash of cases involving a serial killer referred to as the mole (for some reason I never fully understood). I picked up Judgment when it came out on PS4, again when it came out on Stadia while I was on vacation away from home, and then again on XBox Series X when I decided I wanted to see the graphics much better. Each time I’d start the game, get to the arcade, play some Virtua Fighter and the claw machines, and then forget to pick it back up.

This year they finally released Judgment and Lost Judgment (the sequel I have yet to finish) on PC via Steam. It was a perfect release for me to enjoy on my very nice computer and TV, then pop over to the Steam Deck and play the side missions that Studio Ryu Ga Gotoku is so known for.

Judgment is somewhere firmly planted in my top 3 Yakuza games, and I mean that with the absolute highest possible praise. It’s a great game and a wonderful introduction to this studio’s work. Y’all should play it.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

The Witch Queen is the latest expansion in Destiny 2, and is likely the best one we’ve gotten. There are all sorts of incremental improvements to the game’s economy and the loot pool, but the biggest and most exciting change was the addition of a “Legendary” difficulty for the game’s campaign, which made it a challenge for once, like the Halo series Bungie was known for. It felt like a real accomplishment finishing this game’s story, and the legitimate twist at the end of the game is spectacular. 

It’s more Destiny and I like Destiny and they did this Destiny really well so it goes on the list.

Inscryption

I played Inscryption in January of 2022 so I really don’t remember it very well – which is exciting as hell because I’d love to replay it. It starts as a pretty simple and very fun card game with some creepy stuff that expands into a different kind of card game with other kinds of creepy stuff, and eventually tells a really cool and wild story. Telling you much about that story would spoil it, so I’ll shut up here and just say that Inscryption is spectacular.

Neon White

Soundtrack of the Year winner Neon White is a first person platforming shooter where you have cards that are guns but also special abilities. I adored the world of Neon White and most of its characters, though it’s hard to go wrong with a protagonist voiced by Steve Blum doing his best Spike Spiegel recap. Most of the story fails to land, but the gameplay, soundtrack, and replayability made it a hell of a game. I hope they make a silly expansion for it, because I just want more.

Dicey Dungeons

Dicey Dungeons has been on my game of the year list before, but this is its final resting place. This year they ported Dicey Dungeons as well as all its many bonus chapters to iOS and Android, and there’s no better place to play it. Dicey Dungeons is a card-based deck builder where you have skills that requrie different numerical requirements that you meet using dice. It’s got many characters to play as, many tweaked versions of the game, and an incredible soundtrack by Chipzel. It’s a must buy.

Elden Ring

Oh, Elden Ring. The only reasons you're not my Game of the Year is because I'm not good enough to meet your challenges. I was playing the game my way -- offline, single player, with an ultrawide hack and a 120fps patch, without looking up any guides and without watching videos about how to build out my character effectively. This means that before I could get into the dope castle area, I had to defeat the Draconic Sentinel, and no matter how many times I got ‘em down to a sliver of health, they’d ruin me.

The sense of exploration in Elden Ring is unparalleled. I went down an elevator that just kept going and going, then came out to an underground cavern that was so big that it had a sky. I went through a portal in a chest that dumped me into a battle with a dude straight out of Shadow of the Colossus overlooking a massive castle town. I went to hell, I think. Every time I went to some new place, I was blown away. Each place felt unique and compelling, and I just wanted to explore every nook and cranny.

I think I’m going to go back to Elden Ring, but I need time. Hopefully when I do there will be some sort of official PC patch that completely gets rid of the baffling stuttering issues I was having on a 3090. Hopefully they’ve embraced an unlocked framerate and don’t require me to go use tools that would get me banned from playing the multiplayer experience to get the most out of my time with it. And hopefully I’ll have a controller that can withstand the few times I quit the game in furious anger. I really do want to see all that Elden Ring has to offer, because I know that it’s a lot.

Fortnite

Fortnite went from a joke of a game that was never coming out to a game that ripped off a popular new video game to one of the biggest gaming sensations in the world. In 2021 when matchmaking for Halo Infinite broke, the folks I was playing that with pivoted to Fortnite. While Halo Infinite's back and better than ever -- we're still playing Fortnite. Gunplay has gotten better, the sandbox has grown immensely, and they introduced a No Build mode which removes the pesky ability to build fortifications -- something I'm bad at and refuse to get good at. I've had so much unironic fun playing Fortnite with friends, won many, many games (and lost many many more), and I've spent money on cosmetics. There's something incredible about John Cena riding in on a boar with a cape on his back, dropping a dude with a shotgun, and then doing Gangnam Style in front of him while he bleeds out.

Also, as of writing, they just added a bunch of incredible visual tech from Unreal Engine 5.1 which has made the game become a baffling technological showcase.

EarthBound

Have you heard of this one? Way back in 1995 my friend Thomas and I went to the local Blockbuster and rented a game with a huge box for the SNES. It was a weird and wild RPG about a kid who got chosen by a bee to go and save the world from some sort of weird existential threat. I did not understand it back then, but I thought it was fascinating. I didn't have a SNES nor the money to rent the game again, so I didn't play it again.

In 2012 at the Portland Retro Game Expo I was across from a booth selling a complete in box copy of the game in poor condition for $250. Someone wrote the name Shawn Rogers (probably a person named Shawn Rogers) on the front of the box, destroying its value. I spent the money on it, excited to finally have enough money to own this fascinating game I'd tried emulating a couple times since, and called myself a real EarthBound fan. Later that year I brought an SNES with the game to my friend Levi's house and played it for 3 hours. It was rad, and I decided that I should finish Mother before I finally gave EarthBound its due, and so I did in a weekend long live stream. I burned out while playing EarthBound when I got to Fourside for the first time, and decided to call it quits.

In 2021 I picked up a dirt cheap XBox Series S right before a trip to my inlaws in Arkansas, and got RetroArch running on it. I had initially intended to play Halo Infinite (my 2021 game of the year), but the input latency on the TV made it impossible to play the game -- so I tried a fresh playthrough of EarthBound using the "New Controls" hack. I ended up having a lot of free time during that trip, so I divided it up between Destiny 2 via Stadia on my phone and revisiting this aging RPG.

EarthBound is magnificent and deserves all the praise it gets. It has heart, it's earnest, it's weird, it's quirky, and it's not afraid. The story of the young chosen one Ness is simple and unoriginal, but the characters, places, and troubles you get into are unforgettable. The last two hours of that game (The Place and The Final Boss) are filled with some of the most memorable imagery and soundscape in a video game. I don't want to spoil anything for those who really don't know about it, because it's really special.

I'm so glad the game's finally out on Switch as part of Nintendo Switch Online, because the barrier to entry is now just subscribing to a $20 a year plan on a console that most gamers have. There's other ways of playing it that don't cost $250 for a boxed copy (or the $2800 they go for now, sheesh), so I'd really recommend it. It's the second best game I played this year.

Tunic

Tunic's the best game of 2022, and one of the best games I've played in a long time. It's one of those kind of games where if you try to explain what makes it good, you ruin it for someone who hasn't played it. So let me dance around that.

Tunic is a game that looks like a Zelda game, has combat like a Dark Souls game, and has another layer to it. Over the course of the game you learn that if you do one thing it unlocks a whole new ability, or you learn to read a symbol that opens a whole bunch of new opportunities, and culminates in the biggest "I can't believe they did this, that they'd expect someone to figure that out, and I can't believe I figured that out" moment I've ever had with a piece of interactive media. Really just a triumph all around.

The game is hard as nails, sometimes downright unfair, but the game's completely guilt-less accessibility options (infinite stamina, invincibility) make the hardest fights possible and trivial, while letting you get back to the big brain moments. Also it's on XBox Game Pass, which lowers the barrier to entry to an outrageous extent.

Tunic's my game of the year because of how it made my brain feel, and nothing comes close.

Games I didn't finish that deserve to be played:

LIVE A LIVE

When LIVE A LIVE got announced, we had a team meeting where everyone talked about how good and important LIVE A LIVE is, and two people suggested I started on the prehistoric storyline. That was probably a mistake for me, as it was really slow and not very fun, but also had the mega hit Megalomania for the end boss of that chapter. I started up the ninja’s storyline and was much more into it, but I think I might wait for the inevitable PC port. The loading times on switch were attrocious, and that HD2D style would look much better in HD.

Cursed to Golf

The folks at Chuhai Games are new friends to me, and Cursed to Golf is a fantastic golf-based rougelike that they’ve made. It’s incredibly fun and the story is goofy and wonderful and I need to find more time to play it.

Lost Judgment

Lemme be honest, the story in Lost Judgment so far is a snooze fest. All this stuff in the highschool is starting to burn me out, but I’ve been told that it gets much better. So I’m gonna stick with it. Not every game can be as good as Judgment was, anyways.

Picross 3D

Every year or two I delete my Picross 3D save file and start from scratch. I love me some nonograms, and taking them to an extra dimension is a delight. It’s criminal that we’ve only gotten two of these games, and none of them on the Switch. There are some perfectly acceptable clones out there on Steam and Mobile, but none of them match the charm of the Picross 3D series from Nintendo.

[nfumbewalk]

Graveyard Thoughts

My gramps, the Norwegian. Born in Butte, Montana to Tonyus and Jessie Barstad. He was a Sergeant/cook in the Army - in da rear wit da gear. Not a fighter nor a hero. He turned into a drunk. Military does that. Brother was too for a while.

Yeah, so I'm thinking about my favorite graveyards. How peaceful and how pretty they are. The only places I'll stay in during the summertime heat and be totally unfazed and comfy. Summer evenings are perfect. The roses fill the air with their scent while the unfortunate cottonwood balls make my nose and eyes itch - but I care naught! Its too beautiful not to linger in the grass and talk to my honey.

There's nothing like the atmosphere of a graveyard when your OPEN. By open, I mean in several ways. Being open to hanging out there without anyone's or your judgement. Being open and accepting of the muertos and the Death Energy that is present. Being open to the possibilities of what can occur in a graveyard. Being open to facing fears you may have of graveyards. Being open to new experiences in graveyards. And being open to new gifts that you may receive in a graveyard.

So these things here explain quite a bit about what being on a necromantic path entails (tons of graveyard work) but lots of ppl get stuck on fears and judgement. Two reasons why this path doesn't work for many ppl.

There is absolutely NO "shadow work" on necromantic paths that I know of, otherwise my friend, the late, Leilah Wendell would have surely wrote about it. That's all psychological garbage written by Jung that has nada to do with real shadows/wraiths - otherwise known as muertos!

An old enemy of mine (now non-existent to me), said passionately that "you don't need to hang out in graveyards to work with the dead" (muertos). Well, no, you don't, but many of us Necro folks just naturally like graveyards. And we don't have to don black clothing either! I'll be damned! I love black. Why? Because I cannot keep other colors clean! I'm serious! Plus it is figure flattering. 😉 I don't like most gothic music, just old shit. I prefer The Rolling Stones. True fan since birth. It is Keith Richards birthday today. He's fugging ancient but he's my favorite Stone. 😘

Anyways, back to Paint It, Black. Lol. Ppl don't realize the power of graveyards. Some even say they're dead!! Not true. Rodolfo told me that he sometimes acts like a sentinel at his grave, though not for long periods. He told me there's some sick and evil ppl buried there.

There's more bikers like him. Lol. But no, some very bad ppl. He has also seen weird stuff too. Guess there were some odd occult happenings that used to take place on the old country road that leads to the graveyard. Tom told me about it since he knows the history around here. I only know Portland. Hellhole. Glad I'm gone.

Great graveyards up there though. My favorite is Lone Fir, where my mom and grandma are interred. And a very old graveyard in old North Portland called Columbian, where I used to see a muerto from the Spanish-American War. Located his faded grave. Before I knew about his involvement in the war (I knew he was military because of his uniform), I found his uniform and dated it myself, using books! That was before the internet existed. Circa mid-1995.

Hope my post ain't boring. Just getting my story out there furiously. I know my writing is read, even if I don't get notes.

To start closing this post...I really have a passion and almost wicked zeal for things that are death related. It started when I was only 4-years-old. It was my first memory of seeing Janet Leigh being murdered in the shower by Anthony Perkins. I fell in love with everything.

The shrill string music, the knife slashing and the blood going down the drain...at my young age, I knew I wanted to see more! Weird and morbid, yes. But death is me. Always has been. Am I psycho? No. Since I've been this way most of my life, I've had few friends. Why? No one has ever met my interests. I have few friends now but I'm not lonely either. I have my Twin Flame - and we've been together for 21 years come the 26th this month.

Suppose I'm rambling. Very tired. L8R.

M.M. 💖💀💖

[mychlapci]

Alright it’s time to get freaky about Sentinel.

I want to make him my wife. He’s the absolute worst and a total aft, but just imagine. Bending him until he breaks. Training him until he’s an obedient little slut.

It starts off with him pushing back and scoffing at every attempt to correct his bad behavior, but then you offer the right rewards… He wants power, so you promise to give it to him. If he behaves, if he just indulges you a little bit, he’ll be praised for it and can have his fun dominating you in return.

But first he’s gotta get on his knees for you. He tries to look smug, claiming this isn’t gonna be a regular thing. But he’s lying to himself. He doesn’t even realize when it’s shifted from him submitting so he can get rewarded to now submitting because that is his reward.

By the time his himbo processor has caught up to him, he’s already halfway trained. Responses to certain phrases are practically automatic and he finds himself getting distracted by the thought of pleasing you just to get a taste of praise.

Eventually he’s the perfect housewife. He doesn’t go out anymore because he’s gotta get all the housework done by the time you’re home or he won’t get any attention, and he couldn’t stand that.

When you do return, he’s already waiting, eager to assist in whatever way you request. Imagine him trying extra hard to please you and as a reward you bring home another mech for him. Someone bigger and stronger who will absolutely ruin his valve.

You don’t have to tell him twice. Soon he’s on his hands and knees being fucked hard and fast, whining and moaning around the massive spike filling him. He looks pathetic, and you make sure he knows it before stealing some wet kisses as he moans into your mouth.

You get to sit back and relax, doing whatever you feel like and admiring his incoherent babbling. Sure fucking him is fun, and you could fuck him in a mirror to see his reactions. But there’s just something about making him put on a show like this that satisfies a lust for control.

To think he was once a power hungry jerk who rarely took you seriously. Now he’s getting fragged into oblivion, begging to be bred so he can be the perfect wife for you, working around the house barefoot and pregnant.

Now that would be a pretty picture.

hoooly shit. yes. we need to make sentinel undergo some wifeication. i can fix him (<- make the perfect little housewife out of him)

At first it’s a game that he’s convinced he has the upper hand in. He gets on his knees, plays semi-nice, thinks about how he’s going to make you pay him back for the vile things you’re doing to his spike and valve… 

By the time he realizes the footing is never going to switch, it’s far too late. Every time you come home, Sentinel already has his hands on the counter and his hips popping out, obediently waiting for your spike. Far enough into his training he knows better than to complain about you taking your time, so he bites his tongue, though you could argue that his clicking the latch on his locked panels desperately can be counted as Sentinel being pushy. Sometimes you fuck him, sometimes you just make him suck you off. At first he’d ignore it, lying to himself how he doesn’t need to feel a spike in his valve everyday. Then later he’d get angry and bitchy about it, but that behaviour could cost up to a month without a spike in his valve, so he just obediently sucks, a hint of resentment in his eyes, and he hopes that next day you’ll give him what he needs…

When he’s being a very good wife he gets a toy in his valve while you’re gone, but he’s not allowed to play with himself, because you know otherwise he’d forget his chores, and by telling him that you basically ensure he never does play with himself. Because Sentinel is not some slut who can’t handle a few hours without having his valve fucked, he’s not. (the sopping wet mess his valve turns into when you come home begs to differ…)

mhmmm Bringing in a bigger mech to fuck him. Sentinel with his hips in the air and head pushed to the floor, and he doesn’t even have to be told to keep his mouth shut and take it. You remind the guy to not finish inside, not even when Sentinel starts begging for it. That’s going to be your job, once he’s thoroughly fucked out and covered in a stranger’s transfluid, you fuck him, finish inside, and make him thank you for it. All of his previous smugness, all his goading and dickish remarks are now fucked out of him, and he shakily thanks you without even thinking about it, giving no struggle.

Sentinel growing a pretty little baby-bump over time, and now he absolutely cannot go outside, not looking like this, but that’s not a problem for you. Or him, for that matter. He enjoys having his pregnant belly propped up on the kitchen counter while getting fucked, loves having it rubbed from behind, loves putting a hand on the underside to hold it up when it gets too heavy. You come home everyday to a clean house and a pregnant wife <3