#but that's because they predate the main storyline

[kaurwreck]

There's a pattern in bsd of two climaxes: the first, which is resolved by either Chuuya or Kunikida and Dazai, and the second, which is (i) more thematically comprehensive and (ii) resolved by Akutagawa and Atsushi. For examples, see: 55 Minutes, the Guild arc, Dead Apple, and the Cannibalism arc.

The most recent chapter and the anime s5 finale both indicate this arc's climax is following that same pattern, so I'm bewildered by the seeming presumption that Dazai is going to have to "fix" what's happened or that Atsushi is a placeholder until Dazai can reach them from France.

[susansontag]

my guide to lesbian anime both canonic and subtextual

(won’t include every lesbian anime ever, this is a personal list)

the canonic-gay section:

revolutionary girl utena

nothing before or since has ever done it like this. trigger warnings for everything imaginable. loads of homosexuals in this one. gender commentary, fairytale allusions, a lot of kids who are having a hard time growing up and moving beyond their pasts. sword lesbians.

flip flappers

the problematic favourite, in that there’s at least one uncomfortable sexualised shot each episode (roughly speaking; some have none and one has even more, unfortunately), so be warned. but at its heart flipflap is about repressed cocona going on adventures with outgoing and expressive papika, and their exploration of various fantastical lands/inner worlds of people they meet. hugely inventive and pretty, and a core thread is cocona discovering she’s gay.

aoi hana (‘sweet blue flowers’)

the comfort lesbian show, with not a romantic relationship at its heart, but a friendship between two childhood friends who meet again, both of whom are gay (though only one realises this during the show’s run, as it’s based on a manga). one of them dates an upperclassman at her school, and there’s various gay and bi side characters. it’s just very wholesome, lovingly animated, sweet and sometimes painful stuff.

bloom into you

I controversially do not care that much for bloom into you, but as the best, high-production, non-skeevy yuri show in years - that is based on a manga by a woman - it’s worth mentioning. late-bloomer girl dreams of romance, though has never felt it, and finds affinity with a girl who similarly is disinclined to date. that is, until said girl says she fancies her. genuinely moving exploration of developing gay identity at times, only downside is my personal disinterest in the black haired girl. some weird ‘heightened’ moments that feel inauthentic and titillating do arise, but it’s very few - to the point where some would disagree with me on my reading of it, I’d imagine.

sailor moon

the bits which the lesbians are in, etc. it’s a classic. I haven’t watched all of it myself because I don’t care much nor do I have nostalgia for sailor moon, but it’s one of the most notable examples of a butch/masc lesbian in anime, so that’s nice.

o maidens in your savage season

nerdy teenage girls who are part of a literature club make it their quest to discover sex and dating, in various ways (unfortunately, not all of them dealt with well… teacher/student foolery that is fortunately abandoned before it gets worse but is nonetheless handled with mixed results, imo). mostly though it’s hilarious, sweet, silly, and there’s a gay girl in it, but I won’t spoil which one. adults predating on children is also handled much, much better in another of the show’s storylines, and I do appreciate it for trying to tackle that difficult subject matter.

oniisama e (‘dear brother’)

an oldie, based off a shoujo manga by one of the greatest (riyoko ikeda). there’s a central relationship to root for (better articulated in the manga), but it’s mostly just what if we were messy depressed lesbians at an all-girls school and we were also melodramatic and mean as hell.

revue starlight

what if we were at an all-girls dramatic arts school and engaged in utena-like duels to become the top performer? main implicitly gay couple with canonic side gay couples. it’s quite cute. also worth watching if you like takarazuka in any way (prestigious all-female japanese theatre troupe), because the main conceit of the school is very much based on that idea.

the gay-themes section:

sound! euphonium (season one)

in which director naoko yamada’s awesome legacy of writing lesbians and then saying “who’s to say though, ha ha” continued (she did it already with a side character in tamako market). this one is known as the gaybait to end all gaybait, but hear me out: the first, and best, season, is not only a fantastic self-contained story with many great characters and plot points, but it’s main character is undoubtedly lesbian-coded and even has a love interest you can argue about. frankly I think she’s gay-coded throughout the whole show (even when she dates a guy for two minutes), but this feels very “I wanted to focus on this compelling relationship between two female characters but the adaptation’s success meant we had to revert back to the source material in later seasons”. what we got from this is perhaps my favourite lesbian anime of all-time, following utena.

a place further than the universe

this show is about four girls who join an expedition to antarctica, and what if I told you they’re all great, believable dorky teenage characters, and they exist in a well-written and thematically satisfying show… and there’s nice lesbian implication between one of our adult female protagonists and her old (deceased; not a spoiler) friend who was the main teen girl’s mother. there’s some sad here, obviously.

puella magi madoka magica

the well-known, much beloved deconstruction of the magical girl genre is also pretty gay, as it happens (so gay in fact it started a trend of gay-coded pink+black magical girls). it’s not a particular favourite of mine, but it’s visually one of the most notable anime productions ever, so it’s well worth seeing just for that.

NANA

the 2000s manga+show about the two twenty-year-olds who meet on a train and discover they’re both called nana is also pretty gay! to the point where there are heated fandom debates about nana komatsu’s (pink one) possibly being a lesbian. they both have many relationships with guys, but it’s their bond that forms the heart of the show, and the bisexuality (or, who knows, homosexuality) of the leads is pretty undeniable. to the point where you’ll get blasted on the nana subreddit if you try and suggest otherwise.

the wild-card section:

keep your hands off eizouken!

this is a show about three oddball girls who start a club to create anime, but have to pose as the film club instead for various reasons. it’s not even subtextually gay, I just personally think that all three of the leads are gay and the whole thing feels like a very female-centred creative endeavour. hugely fun watch, and very high production values. you wouldn’t regret seeing it.

skip & loafer

these two you see here are side characters. this show is actually about mitsumi, the greatest female protagonist of this kind of shoujo-esque slice of life show, who moves from the countryside to tokyo for high school. here she meets many a misfit, including the pretty blonde and the nerd girl who have undeniable chemistry and form one of the most popular pairings in the show. it’s just a good time.

chihayafuru

I’d get in trouble for this, because the primary romance factor in the show is a famed heterosexual love triangle with chihaya at its centre and her two male childhood friends at the side. but go with me on this. chihaya is oblivious to romance and feminine socialisation, she is obsessed with a card game and with her equally dorky dark-haired rival… she’s anime’s greatest autistic lesbian lead. and you get more than what you pay for, because the two boys I mentioned? a lot of gay stuff going on there too.

the big-screen-cinematic section:

the adolescence of utena

revolutionary girl returns in the sequel of a lifetime, slightly older (sixteen, say) and gayer than ever, to escape this place with the love of her life. cue the impromptu dance sequence (with stars and rose petals)!

liz and the blue bird

the naoko yamada directed gay cinematic universe continues with a gorgeous film starring two of the side characters from sound! euphonium’s second season (not necessary to watch beforehand). that means it has plausible deniability whilst being so crazily gay it’s almost some kind of joke. this is a highly detailed, laser-focused character study of two girls in their high school band club and their ever more strained relationship. yamada never misses.

the summer

this is korean! it’s about two girls who meet at school and start dating in secret, what happens as they grow up and move to seoul, and how their relationship changes and strains when met with the conservatism of contemporary korean society. it was sweet and like aoi hana above for japanese girls, felt pretty frank to the experiences I’d imagine young korean lesbians might have.

puella magi madoka magica: rebellion

if you’re a fan of the show, you probably don’t talk about this movie. sure, it’s a visual feat, sure, it’s insanely entertaining, but it’s also frustrating and upsetting and potentially undermines the neatness of the original as a perfectly-crafted story. BUT. kyouko/sayaka becomes all but canon in it, and everything else aside, that’s all that really matters. but you should definitely watch the show beforehand.

[tinydefector]

TINY-DEFECTOR WORK MASTERLIST

RULES BELOW ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

REQUEST & ASK OPEN

Please feed me request they are keeping me sane.

information

1. I WRITE M/M GENDER NEUTRAL READERS OR CANON CHARACTERS I WILL WRITE TRANS MALE.

I am not a Fem writer

2. have the right to not do request if I don't want to.

3. I get a large number of requests, and sometimes they get lost in my inbox.

4. Every three months I will do an inbox clear out. And will save what I'm working on into my drafts.

5. I write as a hobby to keep myself busy.

it's been a long while since i've written on tumblr. I lost my last account, but I'm hoping to get back into writing fics or oneshots again. Mainly going to be Writing Transformers.

What I write for:

Transformers - Bumblebee

Transformers- ROTB

Transformers Prime

Transformers Gen 1

Transformers Mtmte, IDW

Transformers Skybound

Transformers Earthspark

Transformers One

Character list and links below ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Requests & ask Rules:

I don't tend to close my request unless I get over 30+ of them.

- 1 character per request if you want a longish one shot fic.

- you can make requests for multiples with scenarios but but I tend to keep them short with a few headcannons added in.

- Specify if you want a continuation of a previous fic.

- I will do both human and Cybertronian and occasionally Experimental monster readers.

-if requesting Cybertronian for smut, they have both a valve and spike as I write all Cybertronians with both parts, all cybertronian characters I write have both parts. (I will accept request with the fem bots, I just don't write Fem readers)

- your more than welcome to ask for NSFW, SFW, Angst, fluff and all sorts. I'm pretty chill. All Smut and NSFW content is marked with #valveplug

I write: gender neutral, or Male characters, (I'm not good nor do I like writing fem character, I'm a guy, if I do get fem readers I'm going to write them as gender neutral)

I will do:

- Scenarios

- Yandere and possessive.

- family content

-disabilities (to the best of my knowledge)

- Fluff/Angst

- fearplay, mouthplay

-Vore: soft vore/ light vore (may experiment, but very light)

- NSFW, kink:

and Dub-con/ consensual Non-con

size kink 

skin fetish 

hair pulling 

Scent/ smell/ pheromones

Sex pollen/perfume.

silk and ribbon play

cum inflation 

breeding

pet play

Predator/prey

(On occasions will write Alpha/Omega/Beta, I write it rather differently to the classic AOB. But I will only write it on very rare occasions)

vore

fluid play and consumption (paint, energon, oil, cum, spit, lubricant,)

spiking warming

Heart and spark syncing 

new spike and Valve modifications to test on their human lover

(Just ask pretty much)

-Pregnancy

- death request are alright just keep it civil I won't go into details on the deaths.

- The AUs:

First Contact PotatooftheLand

Tasty AU of @callsign-relic

Energy fluid AU - (my silly energy drink transfluid ones)

Human effects series - (either characters for the main storyline or smut request spin off's just be specified)

Sparkeater AU

Human pet

Merformers

Wings of Primus AU

Domestic Cybertron AU

I will NOT do:

-Incest

-Pedophilia

- Self harm

-Minors (exceptions if they are children of the Bots and reader but only exception)

- Don't get angry if I'm not willing to write fem characters, I'm a guy, and I tend to stick with trans content, M/M, or gender neutral, but I'm leanent but respect my boundaries.

Slightly iffy:

- death of parents (I recently lost my mother in an accident so please be aware I that things one's sometimes I won't do due to my own feelings on these fics, while other time I may because it gives me comfort)

I enjoy making silly little one shots or even just sweet little things. I will eventually do up a master list for links once I make more stuff. (Pretty much anything you can think of up that alley I'm more than happy to do)

If you want a request of one who's not on the list, please submit it. These are just all the ones I can remember off the top of my head, people enjoy.

Ps I love writing silly little things too outside of the fics and even enjoy making art to go along with them when I feel up to drawing.

So nothing is too silly ask away over all the strange little things you want to know.

__________

All my art so far:

Tiny art dump

Art dump 2

My little spot for art

Art others have made off fics

_________

Works series

Marine Centre- Merformers Au

Human effects list

Transfluid headcannon

human and Cybertronian biology works

Rut cycle Masterlist

Kinktober 2024

______________________

Character list and links:

Arcee

Beachcomber

Blaster

Blurr

Brainstorm

Breakdown

Bumblebee

Bulkhead

Cyclonus

Drift

First aid

Ironhide

Jazz

Knockout

Megatron

Mirage

Optimus Prime

Perceptor

Pharma

Prowl

Ratchet

Rodimus

Rung

Starscream

Skyfire

Skywarp

Skids

Swerve

Soundwave

Shockwave

Swindle

Tailgate

Tarn

Tarantulas

Thundercracker

Ultra Magnus

Whirl

[chameleon66]

Hazbin Hotel Baxter theories

Introduction

As many Hazbin hotel fans have been patiently waiting for season two to be released, Vivizepop gave us a sneak peak at an unfinished scene at the San Diego comic con that’s going to be in season two.

And in that scene we are introduced to a new character, Baxter. Baxter actually used to be part of the main cast for Hazbin hotel (Back in the Zoophobia days) before his role in the show was given to Sir Pentious. So in this post I’m going to discuss some possible theories for what Baxter’s role in the series might be, how his prescenes will affect the rest of the cast and the storyline, and what we know about him so far.

Chapter #1 Who’s Baxter?

In the clip we are shown that Baxter is a scientist who came to the hotel not looking for redemption but to study the idea of redemption, he claims that he doesn’t believe redemption is actually a thing that can happen so that’s why he came to the hotel.

Baxter first appeared in the Hazbin Hotel Pilot, however only his silhouette was shown. Then in the season one, episode two Radio Killed the Video Star we see him on one of Vox’s screens. Keep this clip in mind because we’re gonna come back to it later. Then we see him Cameo again in the Season one finale, the show must go on. Where he is watching the news about how the extermination was canceled. So his character is yet to be formally introduced to us but that doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about him.

According to the Hazbin Hotel Wiki, we have some information that has been revealed through posts, livestreams and others I’m pretty sure fans just made up, so take some of these with a grain of salt. Also keep some of them in mind because we’re gonna be coming back to them a little later.

Baxter appears to be an Angler fish sinner since he has a very dark and muted color palette with the occasional pop of bright colors like teal, yellow, or red which are commonly seen on ocean predators who live in deep parts of the ocean. Also according to Faustisse Baxter also has an underbite referencing another trait that’s common among Angler fish. Baxter also has fish like finns on the sides of his head and an esca (That thing Angler fish have on their head that light’s up to attract their prey). Like what was seen in Finding Nemo. One theory I’ve heard a few times is that Baxter might be trans since in real life, only female Angler fish have an esca. I would like to see this because 1. It seems like it would be good representation for the transgender community and 2. It would really add some depth to his character.

I’m not sure how high the chances are that Baxter is actually Trandsgender or if we’ll even get it confirmed within the show or by one of the cast or crew members but regardless I think it is a good concept for his character that may happen. I mean we already got one canonically confirmed within the Hellaverse. When in Hazbin Hotel’s sister show, Helluva boss, we were introduced to Sallie Mae, Millie’s older sister.

Fans first guessed she was transgender when they noticed her horns. In Imps in Helluva Boss, males have black and white horns with equal sized bands of each color while the females have black horns with smaller white bands but Sallie’s horns are of that of male variety so that was what first made fans believed she was a transgender women, Then in June of this year to celebrate pride month they released this piece of merchandise with the whole cast and decked out in pride flags which confirmed many of the characters sexualities. One of which being Sallie Mae who in that art was confirmed to be not only a lesbian but also Transgender. So the point here is since they already got one character who is confirmed to be transgender, another one probably isn’t out of the question. Ok back to Baxter.

Baxter was previously said to have died on the titanic however this was later changed because Vivzie didn’t want any real life events tied to characters death (especially tragic one to avoid coming off as insensitive), so it’s now said that Baxter died in a large boat that sank in the 1910s and officially the main cause of death was drowning which probably contributed to his aquatic demon sinner form.

It said on the wiki Baxter likes Science, Laboratories, and mad science experiments. But he dislikes being touched, this could imply he’s touch averse, touch starved, or maybe he just isn't comfortable with physical contact. It’s yet to be confirmed if he will have a laboratory in the hotel but I think he might just turn his room into one when he stays at the hotel. Personality wise Baxter’s personality is said to still be in development but Vivize likens him to the character Myron Reducto from the show Hervey Birdman in his mannerisms. He is screechy, neurotic, fidgety, anti-social “gremlin” and an all-round mess. He is introverted and wanted nothing to do with anyone preferring to do science alone in peace. I have a feeling that as soon as we are introduced to Baxter in the show he’s gonna automatically become a fan favorite, he just has all of the traits. Now we’ve gotten to know Baxter a little bit better it’s time to discuss him and what he’s gonna bring to the series.

Chapter #2 Charlie and Baxter

Charlie is ecstatic to have another guest staying at the hotel but she is definitely still trying to heal from losing Sir Pentious in the battle. Because it’s pretty clear she’s kind of labeling Baxter as a replacement for Sir Pentious due to them having shared characteristics, such as being Inventors/Scientists, having very old school styles of dressing, having quite similar mannerisms/ hand gestures while talking to people, and they honestly kind of sound similar too. (But that may be just a me thing)

Charlie has also made this clear because even after Baxter tells Charlie his name she continues to call him Pentious, albeit by accident but the point still stands. This could become a plot point where Charlie continues to treat Baxter like he’s Sir Pentious and this makes Baxter upset until he most likely snaps at her and she’s forced to finally deal with her grief over losing Sir Pentious. Which Charlie may be trying to hide because she wants to be a strong leader for everyone else during this difficult and confusing time but while she’s allowing everyone to dump their feelings and problems onto her while she’s continuously being forced to hold her tongue and play therapist for everyone. Husk really was right there. “Princess, is a bleeding heart who wants to solve everyone else’s problems except her own.” - Husk, Season one, episode four, Masquerade.

I mean, don’t get me wrong here. No one in the hotel is completely okay. They’re all got problems, trauma, and insecurities. But trying to help others improve themselves and get through hard times is no excuse for Charlie to be neglecting her own needs. And I think that with Baxter joining the crew at the hotel, it’s really going to bring Charlie’s problems to light.

Chapter #3 Sir Pentious and Baxter’s connection

We also learn in the clip he has a connection to Sir Pentious somehow, as when Charlie mentions him in the sneak peek clip, He says that he’s nothing like him and calls him “A pompous snake”. This means the two sinners knew each other, that feels likely since both of them are Inventors/Scientists who died around similar times.

I have seen this one idea floating around the internet that Baxter was actually the one who helped Pentious create his Egg Boiz which would make since Baxter called himself a mad scientist and in a lot of cases mad scientists try and create life through their experiments and we’ve seen that Baxter actually has a bag will crab eyes and legs which is pretty likely he created. And it feels unlikely Pentious would have created the Egg Boiz on his own because he had always been portrayed working with machinery and steampunk kind of equipment; we've never seen him create anything living, so that means he at the very least probably had some help creating his henchmen. It’s also confirmed in the Finale that at least one of the Egg Boiz still remains in Hell after the battle in which Sir Pentious and what seems to be many of the Egg Boiz died in too. So maybe that remaining Egg Boi will recognize Baxter and spill some information about him to the rest of the cast. Since it has been shown they have a habit of spilling information they weren’t supposed to, as we saw in the season one, episode three, Scrambled Eggs.

An idea I had was that Sir Pentious and Baxter were rivals that maybe used to be lab partners but then had a falling out for whatever reason. It was confirmed we would see more of Sir Pentious’s past so that could mean we could see what the connection is between him and Baxter. Another idea here is that after Baxter hits his limit of Charlie constantly making him the replacement for Sir Pentious he reveals what happened between him and Sir Pentious in some kind of dramatic flashback or maybe even a musical number (Now that would be fun to watch).

Chapter #4 Baxter’s love interest?

Another character in Hazbin hotel I think will become close with Baxter is Nifty. I’ve seen a few posts online where Baxter and Nifty are being shipped together. Personally I think the Ship is very cute, but since we haven’t seen much of Baxter yet there isn’t much ground for a relationship to be built on. But There is some evidence out there to suggest that Nifty and Baxter might have a romantic relationship with each other within the show.

Back in the pilot days of Hazbin Hotel Vivziepop used to draw Nifty and Baxter together during livestreams and in one she even drew them sharing a milkshake together with Nifty not so subtly staring at Baxter. Keep in mind before Baxter was going to have Sir Pentious’s role in the series and Nifty during the episode Pentious was introduced in was infatuated by him but by the end of the episode she’s over him because she learns he’s not “A bad boy”. Throughout the show Nifty has been shown to have a thing for bad boys. Baxter is much more rebellious than Sir Pentious ever was and with Nifty’s track record it wouldn’t surprise me if she was attracted to him.

Baxter on the other hand would probably be a little less cheerful towards Nifty, since he’s not very social and prefers to be on his own. Nifty however couldn’t be more different in that sense. She’s shown to enjoy being in the company of people regardless of who she’s with in most circumstances. I can see a sort of HuskerDust dynamic here, with Nifty constantly bugging Baxter to try and get his attention while Baxter is just annoyed with her continuous antics.

However that being said, I think Baxter and Nifty could actually make a great match. Because while they are very different from each other they also have things in common. Like both enjoying doing experiments though Baxter’s are probably less chaotic and more scientific, they both are labeled as “Gremlins”, and appearance wise they are both two of the shortest members of the cast. I honestly can see a sort of scenario where Nifty as a show of her affection towards Baxter giving him some kind of dead insects or animal that she killed maybe and instead of getting grossed or weirded out like everyone else does with her, he’d be curious and ask her if she’d be okay if he did some kind of experiment on it and then she’d just get all excited and gleefully follow him to his lab to watch him work. Maybe I need to write this later as a short Fanfic, would you guys be interested in seeing that? Let me know.

Anyway, Nifty and Baxter have the potential to have a very cool dynamic whether as a couple or as just friends and it also gives us some potential to see Nifty developed more since so far in the show she’s been only portrayed as the maniac maid in the hotel and as comic relief which works great but I think some depth to her character could make her that much better. Some dynamics/Tropes I could see them having included. Opposites attract, We’re not so different after all, Pure looking (But super shady) x Scary looking (But is actually a softie), Chaotic baddie x Sweet baddie, Energetic x Serious, and Mad scientist duo.

Chapter #5 Alastor and Baxter

Of course we’re talking about Alastor here. It wouldn’t be A Hazbin Hotel analysis/theory if we didn’t talk about Alastor. Alastor is a fan favorite within the fandom and it’s not hard to see why, he’s entertaining, funny, and has a lot of mystery about him. Something for everyone within the fandom to enjoy. I has been said we’re going to see more of Alastor’s past in season two which I think is going to give us more insight into his intentions, because right now it’s clear he’s playing a bigger game than he’s letting on but he also has his own little deal that he’s not letting anyone else no about and if you mention it bad things happen. Just ask Husk. (Play the scene here)

Alastor in the finale loses his fight to Adam and afterwards has a mental breakdown where he’s singing in riddles and not giving us exact answers because of course not they don’t wanna make things too easy for us to figure out. Alastor is clearly shaken up and is now definitely looking to speed things up in his plan and break his contract with whoever’s leash he’s on. But he also is still going to have to keep up appearances by helping Charlie with the hotel and keeping his listeners convinced he’s the almighty radio demon. And Baxter might just be involved in his plan, either as an ally or as an hindrance depending on which way everything goes in. Let’s break it down.

Alastor likes to have control with what’s going around him including with the people, that’s one of the main reasons he makes deals with people, to ensure he’s the one with the power. With the arrival of a new face in the hotel Alastor is probably eager to see what he can get out of Baxter. Since that’s something Alastor does with people too, he doesn’t just keep someone around for nothing, most times it’s either to get something from them or just to keep up appearance as a “Nice guy”

One of my speculations comes from a moment in the finale. When Alastor’s staff breaks in his fight with Adam, then we see him have his solo in the finale song and his staff is still shown to be broken. Then he comes in at the end of the song he doesn’t have it with him. Now we aren’t exactly how Alastor’s staff works in the pilot its shown to be alive which I’m not sure is still a thing but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Alastor probably can’t fix it on his own since if he could’ve he probably would have before he returned to the main group to wrap up the song. So maybe after Alastor realizes that Baxter is quite intelligent, he goes to him to see if Baxter could possibly repair his staff for him, which Baxter might do as part of a deal they make for whatever hopefully plot relevant reason, because Alastor threatened him to do so, or maybe just out of mutual respect.

Because I think Baxter and Alastor might become relatively close with each other. I’m not saying they’ll be friends but they might come to some kind of partnership or alliance for both of their benefits. It could start with Nifty telling Alastor about Baxter (Since it’s been shown the two are actually kind of close with each other, though with Alastor it could be all fake) which could bring Alastor to the idea to make use of having Baxter around the hotel but then Alastor come to realize he actually doesn’t mind Baxter as much as everyone else in the hotel. Think about it, everyone in the hotel wants to become closer with each other and Alastor is usually having none of it. Since he likes to keep his cards close to his chest as they say. Especially with more bubbly and cheerful characters like Charlie, Nifty, and Frank around the hotel always trying to get closer to Alastor and figure him out. Even with less cheery characters like Angel, Husk, and Vaggie they all are kind of trying to figure Alastor out and get a read on him. I can imagine Alastor getting sick of all this but of course not directly saying it to any of them under most circumstances to keep up appearances with characters who he has trust with.

Alastor might find Baxter to be a refreshing change since he’s said to be very introverted and prefers to work alone. Baxter reads to me as the kind of guy who won’t bother you as long as you don’t bother him, Alastor could find this nice and see that Baxter has the potential to be a good ally. But at the same time, Alastor could also view Baxter as a threat to his plan and try to bring Baxter down in whatever way he can. Which brings me to my next speculation.

Chapter #6 Why did Baxter come to the Hotel?

Everyone in the hotel came to the hotel for a reason whether they claim something different or otherwise. Vaggie is there to support her girlfriend, Lucifer is there to support his daughter, Angel Dust claims to be staying there so he had somewhere to live where he didn’t have to pay rent but to me he’s there to try and redeem himself so he can try and break his contract with Valintino, Husk and Nifty came because of Alastor, and Alastor claimed to come there for the entertainment and to help Charlie succeed, though no one there is completely buying that story. Baxter claimed that he came to the hotel to study redemption but I’m not going to take that claim at face value because there is some evidence to push that Baxter isn’t there just to experiment with the idea of redemption but to also hide from something or rather someone.

We’ve been told that the Vees are going to be major antagonists in season two, we aren’t sure what they’re plan is but it’s clear they’ve now got their heads in the game. Now here’s the big speculation that I’m honestly surprised hasn’t been talked about more. What if Baxter used to work for the vees, specifically Vox. Now at first this might feel like a stretch but if you take a step back then it actually makes sense within the show. Remember that clip from season one episode two I wanted you to remember for later, well now it's time to discuss it.

In the clip of Vox spying on everyone we see Baxter on one of Vox’s screen and he appears to be in a place very similar to The Vee’s meeting place which we see in the same episode, now there’s no way to confirm it’s the Vee’s meeting place but you can't deny the similar wall coloring and the how similar the chairs look. Baxter also seems to fit the bill for a person who’d work for Vox because he has the dark and muted base colors with the brighter blue and red accents on him. Much like Vox and his other employees that we’ve seen. Baxter is also a sinner based on an aquatic life which also fits with Vox’s theme since we’ve seen Vox’s employees such as one that appears to be his assistant and he has a tail which looks similar to that of an axolotl or maybe a sting rays, either way it definitely looks like some kind of aquatic animal’s tail to me. This also fits with Vox because in his lair he has a giant tank where he has several of what look to be sharks but maybe some Hell mutation of them. To me it wouldn’t be to far fetched if maybe Baxter used to work as part of the science department at Vox tech, we haven’t heard of him doing much tech related work but that could be because we haven’t been introduced to him yet officially in the show and he very well may be versatile in his work with science.

Ok let’s entertain the idea that Bxter used to work for Vox and by extension the other Vees. What would that mean for the sake of the plot and storyline? It could be like the other case where the Vees sent sir Pentious to the hotel to act as a man on the inside to gather information on Alastor. But this doesn’t feel very likely to me. 1. Because the Vees probably wouldn’t be dumb enough to try doing the same thing twice, 2. The writer’s of the show probably wouldn’t be as uncreative to reuse the same idea twice for very similar characters. So why else would Baxter be at the hotel in this hypothetical scenario where he used to work for the Vees? Maybe it will help if we first try and figure out why Baxter no longer works for the Vees.

Because we can already rule out that Vox fired him, because let’s be real here. If the Vox wanted to fire Baxter he would use real fire, that and/or Baxter wouldn’t make it out alive. Since They themselves have said to shoot the lowest earners among their employees. So it’s likely the Vees didn’t willingly let Baxter go. It’s also pretty much known that The Vee’s own their Employees souls like all overlords, It’s pretty likely that if Baxter did work for Vox at some point then Vox would have owned his soul too. And if Vox has the same style as Valintino then he would have his employees sign a contract that confirms they own their soul or something along those lines. Maybe Vox just didn’t read his own terms and conditions and Baxter found a loophole somewhere in his contract that broke his deal with Vox setting him free. This doesn’t feel out of character for Vox because unlike Alastor he isn’t always looking at the bigger picture, rather he just tunnel visions onto one single thing and then the rest of the details just fly under his radar.

Baxter's motivation for breaking his contract with Vox isn’t too hard to figure out either, it’s pretty clear the Vee’s aren’t the best people and treat their employees horribly so it’d probably push Baxter to his breaking point and make him want to be free from them. What happened could be that after Sir Pentious and Baxter had their falling out, Baxter began to fall on hard times and when Vox found him and wanted to hire he probably immediately took the chance not knowing the risks of doing so. It’s a pretty common tactic among Overlords in Hell like people in real life to target people when they are most desperate or in vulnerable positions because they’re more likely to agree to whatever you want them to.

Now obviously the Vee’s (More specifically Vox) probably wouldn’t like that Baxter tricked them out of his contract so they’d probably want to get him back or eliminate him entirely to eliminate the risk of him telling the press about how horribly they treat the people who work for them or just how bad they are in general, which the only reason their current employees probably don’t do that is because they’re bound by contract. But Baxter isn’t, not anymore at least. So let’s say Baxter is now on the run, he’d definitely need somewhere else to stay and that’s why Baxter really came to the Hotel, think about it. There are a lot of powerful people in the hotel like Charlie, Alastor and even Lucifer himself so by putting himself next to some of the most powerful people in Hell now makes him have a protective wall around him because now that he’s a resident at the hotel everyone else is now obligated to protect him from the Vees. And as we learned from Angel dust he doesn’t even have to pay them to live there.

But now this creates another problem for Baxter, now that he’s living in the same place Sir Pentious used to live and we know how things went for Sir Pentious. Imagine what would happen if someone. Anyone in the hotel found out he had ties to the Vees, even if he uses the past tense it’ll look all too suspicious especially after what happened with Sir Pentious, the people at the hotel know that the Vees are known to do this kind of thing. But Baxter now doesn't work for them anymore in this scenario. Which he can use to try and convince the others they're wrong but it’s not guaranteed to work. Especially taking into account one specific character. I’ll give you a hint, his name starts with an A and ends with a Lastor. In case you don’t get it, that’s Alastor.

Chapter #7 The betrayal?

Now there’s a lot of Potential in this scenario if Alastor finds out Baxter used to work for Vees and by extension Vox. Since they’re rivals and while Alastor wasn’t very phased when Vox tried to pull this trick the first time, imagine it the second time after all of the events that happened. Alastor realizing he’s not the most powerful piece on the board and he can be bested, Alastor taking a liking to Baxter and asking him to repair his staff for him. Even if it wasn't at the front of his head, Alastor was likely building a connection to Baxter and maybe even a little trust. But now that he finds out about Baxter’s past with working for Vox, his enemy. Alastor is automatically going to assume that this a part in some grand scheme from Vox to takeover and possibly even end him. And after that confidence hit he took from Adam he’s going to be feeling extra defensive about himself and his safety.

Baxter would either be kicked out of the hotel or at the very least put on some kind of parol or house arrest in the hotel and since no one would really be sure if they can trust him. Meanwhile Nifty can be forced away from Baxter by Alastor because he wants to protect her, again we are not sure if Alastor genuinely cares for Nifty or she is just another pawn in his game. But either way Alastor could want as little to do with Baxter as a way to protect himself and his own plan, whatever that may be. And what do you know? You’ve got yourself a good old star crossed lovers story between Nifty and Baxter. This literally writes itself.

Chapter 8 The conclusion

To wrap this all up, I want to say that Baxter has the potential to be a key character in Hazbin hotel and whether or not any of my predictions, theories, or analyses come true. I’m sure Baxter is going to be a great addition to the cast of Hazbin Hotel.

Chapter #9 Bonus stuff

Wow, you’re still reading. I’m impressed. I was convinced no one would read this whole thing because of how long it is. So Thank you for reading my weird jumble of thoughts related to one of my biggest current hyperfixations. And now as a reward for making it this far, I give to you some random headcanons about Baxter that I just came up with or found on tumblr or other online platforms with but couldn’t find a way to fit into my predictions/theories. Enjoy.

Baxter headcanons

- Introverted as hell; mostly because he finds people confusing and hard to deal with, or people will find him off putting or weird and make fun of him for really just being himself. So for him it’s just easier to be on his own and maybe kind of lonely then have to put up with people he finds annoying.

- He has built up an immunity to several different types of poison and drugs while testing various concoctions of his and now enjoys the taste of some.

- If you’re nice and respectful towards him there is a much higher chance of him saying yes to doing something for you (Maybe why he agreed to help Alastor fix his staff).

- His hearing is a little impaired due to all of the explosions he’s been in from his experiments.

- Was most likely sent to Hell because he had no value for life and is willing to cross a lot of moral gray areas in his experiments.

- By extension of that, due to his analytical views and unsympathetic mindset, when asked what his favorite color is he’ll say “Morally gray” just because he finds other people’s reactions humorous.

- Would probably try to use the other residents of the hotel as test subject for his experiments before probably being stopped by Vaggie, the only person in the hotel who’d let him do experiments on would probably be Nifty (Because she’s got the hots for him and she’s a tiny bit psychotic).

- Whenever he gets an idea or realizes something his esca lights up (Like the old visualization or a light bulb lighting up above someone’s head when they get an idea).

- He also uses his esca as a headlight for when he’s reading or working.

- Does not understand the appeal of Angel Dust’s movies because of how there’s literally no characters, plot, or storyline established throughout any of them and he’s a Demisexual (I do not see this sexuality used enough in characters).

- Baxter doesn’t like drinking alcohol because he hates the feeling of his head not being on straight.

- He has developed something of a sixth sense for when someone’s about to touch something in his lab and will just say “Don’t touch that” with the most monotone voice to whoever is in his lab.

- Baxters crab carry on bag we saw in the teaser clip is named Clemmy.

- Sometimes lisps his Hs when talking because of the sounds anglerfish make. (I actually listened to a recording of anglerfish sounds before and they legitimately sound like underwater zombies)

-After going through various posts on Tumblr I have given the ship name, NeedleFish to Baxter x Nifty. (Credit to dolliezilla)

- Nifty calls him fishy as a term of endearment.

- Baxter has the worst vision without his glasses that he made for himself (Real angler fish are blind). Without his glasses he’ll bump into every and anything or anyone, cannot read anything, and he’ll trip over any obvious obstacle in his way.

- He’s a manners boy, he always calls everyone mister/miss, asks permission to leave the dinner table, and says “Please” and “Thank you” all the time.

-Baxter learned morse code when he was alive and since he’s pretty sure no one else in the hotel knows morse code, sometimes during group conversations he’ll tap his finger on some kind of surface and make comments about whoever he’s with. (But then later on Alastor figures out he does this and teaches himself morse code so he can translate what he’s saying, and honestly he just finds Baxter’s analyses of everyone to be hilarious).

Author’s note: So it's been a longtime since I’ve posted something this long and for that I am the sorriest. I’ve been going through a tough time lately and I didn;t have any motivation for a long while to write anything more than incorrect quotes. I promise I will upload a new Fanfic soon, but please let me know what you think of my theories/predictions/analysis and feel free to correct me anywhere if I made a mistake or to add your own thoughts into this one sided conversation. Thank you guys for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day/night/anything else.

[leonawriter]

I just got reminded of my feelings about Makoto by looking at choices, and thinking about how out of all the Phantom Thieves, she's my least favourite. How I'll actively choose her last. Which is - well, originally I was thinking "that's not something people would want to read, though, is it?" but then I remembered that I'd been asked to share my thoughts on her, and how I'd (re)write her.

So. Makoto.

I'm going to start out with the things I dislike about her, and address them as best I'm able, along with what I'd like to have seen instead.

The first thing that comes to my mind is a rather broad aspect, which is that even after she becomes a Phantom Thief and embraces her own rebellion, she has a bad habit of assuming that everyone should fit her own view of "a successful life" and that she's doing nothing wrong by helping others achieve that. This kinda seeps into everything else, and informs her failings.

The small - and not all bad - way that this shows through is in the way that she pushes everyone on the team to keep their grades up. She effectively acts as someone to remind them to study, who reminds them of how important their schoolwork is, and also how important not slacking off is when they're trying to keep a low profile.

The good part of this is that yes, most of them DO need this! They're not good at remembering to!

The bad part is... she only knows her own way of studying. So we end up frequently seeing scenes that have study sessions ending with Ann, Ryuji, or others going "I haven't been able to learn anything." And of course they haven't! They have different learning styles, and different needs. Ryuji especially is ADHD. This also kinda says to me how she's not as effective as the Student Council President as she wants to be - because she isn't flexible, and can't see her fellow students' individual needs.

I think that what would have been cool would have been if, after awakening her Persona and starting to hang out with the Thieves more often, there was a main storyline b-plot with her actively trying to learn how to connect with her peers not just with arcade games, but by talking to them about things that would actually help them learn better, which would be things that she could actively pass along to the teachers and would improve the school. If she paid attention to the study habits of her friends even, she'd be able to say "this works better for people like Ryuji, this works better for people like Ann..." and that, too, would be an improvement.

Or, alternatively, that could be a replacement for her canon confidant, which is... less than ideal.

Talking of her confidant... hm! A lot to talk about!

For one thing, when I was going through that story the first time, I thought that it would match the theme of the game if the guy Makoto's new friend was dating wasn't actually one of the bad ones, and that Makoto was making assumptions about people based on her own preconceived notions of them, but that... was hardly the case.

Like, yeah, that's an issue that could be brought up as a real problem, and there is a difference between those guys taking advantage of girls and a woman getting taken advantage of, but... there IS a certain irony and double standard that Akechi's mother was portrayed as a sex worker who committed suicide, and how the men are only allowed to be predators, not victims themselves. It could've just been one. And maybe this is just me! And it's kind of an aside to the point.

But yeah, we have her basically interfering with her new friend's life choices, and that's... another example of "everyone should do what Makoto thinks is best" in a way, and the game's storyline/script proves her right. It would have been great if something had proved her wrong, and forced her to think about her prejudices and assumptions!

Moving on, and I'm gonna quickly point out how she treats Futaba. Makoto trying to get Futaba to respond in a more neurotypical way and (basically) Just Stop Being So Autistic is painful. Thing is? Makoto as she is at this point? I wouldn't expect her to be any different. She's still learning. What I'd like would be if she could learn over the course of the story to just... accept people as they are more. Because yes, this is another point for "everyone has to be the way that Makoto thinks makes a successful member of society." But given how much trouble she has interacting with others, I do have to wonder - how much of this is what her sister drilled into her?

Perhaps, even, we could have had Makoto bonding with Futaba in later scenes over how neither of them really understand how to make friends or fit in with society, just in different ways. That'd be nice.

The funny thing is?

If you add up her canon traits - everything that falls under the umbrella of "people should act and conduct themselves in a manner that fits what Makoto thinks is best" - then unfortunately, you DO end up with the perfect kind of person who'd want to apply for a job with the police, whose JOB it is to ensure that everyone plays by the rules, and becomes a "good, functioning member of society," effectively.

This does not oppose her place in the Phantom Thieves, because the ones that the Phantom Thieves target are people who the law should be bringing to justice anyway, but because of the corruption, is not. The reason the theme of rebellion even exists at all is because the law isn't doing its job. If the law was doing its job, if people were good and kind to each other as they're supposed to be, then the Phantom Thieves wouldn't be needed. (This isn't me criticising the game for saying this. I actually agree.)

But being a cop isn't the way to go about creating change when she should know damn well by the point she says that she wants that profession in her confidant, and it's her own attitude that prevents her from seeing that.

If, however, there were all of these relatively minor changes to her writing?

If she was forced to see that her assumptions can be wrong, that she isn't always right about how the world should be and how people should act? If she learned to be flexible in helping others study and also in realising that some people just need to exist in their own way, and that's not bad?

Then she'd already be partway to becoming some kind of social worker, who'd be able to make an actual change in the world, and even if it's not on the big scale that she was thinking about, it'd still mean the world to whichever kids or adults she was able to help.

If she could find the temperance to learn a balance between "understanding how the law works" and "knowing that it does not always work in the favour of the people she wants to help" then she would be SUCH a better character.

And- like I said. All it would take would be a few minor changes.

Also as a disclaimer: I'm well aware that a big part of why she's written the way she is, as well as why she's so damn popular, is because she really is that goody two shoes character that has a veneer of rebellion without actually going the distance, so - especially in Japan, where she was created - that makes her more marketable.

As well, the game goes to great lengths to state how badly corrupted the police are, and I wouldn't be surprised if Makoto wanting to be a "good" police officer is its way of evening that out so that the game isn't seen as "too anti-establishment/police" when that would harm sales, or potentially get it to not be made at all.

[hazelnut-u-out]

Something that’s always bothered me is the presentation of the infamous ‘Mr. Jellybean’ scene in Meeseeks and Destroy versus the Planetina plotline in A Rickconvenient Mort.

(TW for grooming)

On first watch, we know Mr. Jellybean is terrible. In my opinion, I always thought they handled that whole plotline rather well. It wasn’t played for laughs or made light of, we see the emotional effect on Morty, they don’t attempt to make the predator sympathetic, and we see Rick step up as ‘Grandpa’ for one of the first times ever— to kill a pedophile, no less. Pretty strong morality alignment on that one.

Suddenly, though, when the predator is no longer an older man, but an older woman, it’s… shitty, sure, but not explicitly wrong.

On my first watch, I thought A Rickconvenient Mort was pretty blatantly a statement piece on grooming. Planetina follows textbook grooming tactics, including lovebombing, isolation, manipulation, and gaslighting. She plays into the classic ‘very mature young man.' We even have Beth as a voice of reason, finally stepping up to the plate to protect her son after what seems to be years of emotional neglect. We watch that very neglect backfire on her concern and push Morty further into this relationship. I initially thought it was a play on grooming the viewer, as well, because of the way it’s told essentially from Morty’s ‘puppy love’/‘first love’ point of view and leaves you feeling just the right amount of unsettled after the ending.

So, you could imagine my surprise when I realized that not everyone (in fact, less people than I had expected) initially clocked Planetina as a sketchy/predatory character.

So, I did what any great journalist would do— rewatched. And rewatched. And rewatched.

I wanted to form a nuanced opinion, but I came out on the other side wondering why we never got a moment with Planetina that clearly shows us she’s a condemnable character in the relationship with Morty and not just because of her methods of activism.

I think we’re actually supposed to agree with Morty in this scene, which was not my first reaction.

The age difference is obviously something they intended to be a main plot point for this storyline, as well. The explicit references to it (Morty's age, in particular) were put there for a reason, from the beginning of the episode all the way to the climax.

In a lot of ways, it makes sense to assume that maybe they didn't want to explicitly state it was wrong (though, they do through Beth, in my opinion).

That would explain why so much of A Rickconvenient Mort is set up using textbook grooming tactics; why we never see Planetina outright condemned, but see Morty emotionally destroyed and confused; why we’re (arguably) supposed to agree with Morty over Beth; why we follow Planetina all the way up to when her facetious face of peace and ambivalence crumbles.

Of course, I’m not trying to assume anything, but it does make me wonder what leads someone to write a character in this way— and even promote her as a character at times (like this post, which is captioned 'Tag your Planetina').

Then again, maybe my initial interpretation was correct and all of this was the result of a conscious choice to write and direct an episode from the point of view of Morty as a victim. I mean, it wouldn’t be too far off to assume something like that as we’ve seen them do it time and time again, just with Rick as the abuser. Think of Mortynight Run, The Vat of Acid Episode, and the new infamous episodes: A Rick in King Mortur’s Mort & Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation, just to name a few.

Maybe A Rickconvenient Mort is another one of the episodes intended to show Morty’s perspective and frame his loss of innocence as he views it, not as adults/outsiders view it.

It could be a cool contrast between how Rick protects Morty from these sorts of situations versus how Beth does.

(Disclaimer: I’m NOT saying that there aren’t different types of abuse and different appearances to abusers/predators! I just feel like both of these types of abuse/assault can be explicitly depicted as wrong.)

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

10, 13, & 15 for Daegred :)

10. What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?

The actual storyline isn't developed yet but Daegred as a character changes very little, actually. His species, the Ra'zac, are described as narrow-minded in canon and his father's upbringing left him with a set of rock-hard principles, so I don't think it's even possible for him to change much. His story is more about his struggle as the last member of a highly social species who struggles to find company that would accept him due to his nature as humanity's predator. Tragedy is inevitable here. There are plenty moments in his life when he finds a place he feels he might be able to settle at only to get rejected again. I don't know how the story ends yet, but he does find Tama, Qursuk and Fanghur who stick with him for most of the story. And there will be a period when he learns of the Helgrind cult and will have to deal with the temptation of a group of people who would accept and love (and even worship) him vs everything he has been taught by his father

13. Do you have a voice claim for the character? What do you imagine the character sounds like?

for that I would first need to pick a voice claim for his dad, because, since I hc the Ra'zac achieve human speech through mimicry, Daegred sounds exactly like his dad. He's 16 and sounds like a man in his 40s lol

His voice also has a sort of an odd "filter" that's similar to the slight voice distortion in talking ravens

15. Have you ever made a moodboard for them?

yes :)

[northwest-cryptid]

Wait a second... does Mabinogi's ecosystem even make logical sense?

Okay listen, I know that technically speaking "nothing dies in Erinn" but you and I both know that's a load of shit. Animals "knocked unconscious" literally drop meat. We see foxes hunting chickens, we see wolves hunting sheep. I understand that a lot of this violence is explained through the lore of Fomors and such. However that being said it doesn't make sense. If animals were just becoming aggressive why don't they attack anything else?

Now you could say that it's as simple as the fact that other things aren't around. If we're looking purely at Tir that much is true, there are only Chicken near the Foxes, there's only Sheep and Dogs near the Wolves. Though if we look at Dunbarton we see an array of wildlife from Wisps, Bears, and even Imps, to Chicken, Rats, Cows, and Foxes. Yet the food chain seems to be completely undisturbed by this. We don't see the Spiders hunting the Sheep, we don't see the Wolves hunting the Cows, we don't see anything fighting the Bears or vice versa. These animals may be aggressive due to plot reasons but I think that logic is faulty. I think they're pulling a fast one on us, because we can actually examine a very specific food chain in action here.

By that same token, if we do look at how Mabinogi's ecosystem actually works, does it make any sense? Sure on the surface it absolutely does. Foxes hunting Chickens? That's true to life, and we could say the same for Wolves and Sheep. That being said however, we need to consider an important aspect of any ecosystem; that being that there's an established balance.

Yes we do actually see the Chicken and Sheep and Dogs fighting back against their predators. However that only accounts for mainly the natural animal life. If we expand that to Wisps, Imps, Kobolds, Skeletons, Trolls, Ogres, and various other overworld life forms who venture up out of dungeons or even just live on the surface of Erinn. How are these populations kept in check? They don't have any natural predators... other than... no wait- it can't be.

Were we summoned here to keep balance?

No I'm serious, there are no natural predators for most of the life that could be considered a "monster" by conventional means. With even most of the more "monstrous" animal life having no real competition in the food chain. Bears, Snakes, Spiders, Coyotes, etc; they don't get attacked randomly. The only natural means of keeping them in check would be either a lack of food or their prey animals killing them off.

We have heard stories, and even see in some cases that the humanoid races of Erinn do fight these creatures. Whether venturing into dungeons or simply defending the overworld. We don't get to see this naturally happen, but we hear about it and see it in quests and during the main storyline. I feel like it's safe to say that people in this world do fight these creatures, BUT only defensively. In most if not all cases of this it's a defensive measure; the sole exception I can think of being during dungeon runs. There's no natural predator of these monsters. Nothing that outright aggressively hunts them for food or sustainable material reason. Which means when these populations aren't wildly out of control and these creatures aren't being pushed out of their natural habitat and fighting for space on the overworld; they're not having their numbers kept in balance.

Though, there's good reason for this, these people are mortals; not all of them are strong enough. Not all of them have a knack for picking up new skills, learning and improving quickly; becoming strong enough to reliably and efficiently fight these beings. The Milletian is actually renown for these traits, held in high regard for not just our combat prowess, but our ability to pick up new skills and techniques quickly; and master them seemingly overnight without much issue.

Were we in fact really brought here to simply uphold the balance? Taught to fight and kill so that we could become the natural predator of the monsters that roam the world? Were we conditioned by not only the gods, but the people of Erinn to become a natural part of the ecosystem in order to stop the rampant over population of monsters?! ARE WE NOTHING BUT PAWNS IN A LARGER SCHEME?! IS THE TRUE WAR BEING FOUGHT VIA ECOLOGICAL WARFARE?!

Sorry I got a little carried away there. Seriously though I think we were brought to Erinn to become an apex predator with no rival; only when we did too good of a job the gods realized we could surpass even them. This prompted Morrighan to need us dead because we became so good at what we do, we became a predator to the very thing that felt otherwise untouchable. This is why the gods continue to challenge us, some of them wish to hone our skills through the tribulations thrown our way; others wish us dead for the threat we now pose to them. There are those among them who believe we need to become stronger, to bring balance to the ecosystem of the gods; the predator at the very top of the food chain. Meanwhile there are those who fear what would happen if we attain that power; and we have shown numerous times to already have that power without needing to become a god to obtain it.

On even a more mundane scale, consider how we're basically conditioned by the people of Erinn to partake in the life skills. Everything from weaving to blacksmithing has us traveling into dangerous areas that surround us with these monsters. A lot of the materials we need are dropped directly by these monsters, we've been given an incentive to fight; to kill without regard for population numbers or ecological impact. We don't think of it as anything more than gathering the materials we need to craft- what exactly is it we're crafting again? Oh that's right... weapons, armor; tools meant to make us better at killing.

So what happens when a predator is out of control and can't be stopped? Well if we look at a simulated situation in which we have a natural ecosystem and introduce an apex predator with no superior in the food chain; we will find that eventually they will kill off every other living thing until going extinct themselves due to having no natural food source left. Of course the gods want us dead, we're an invasive species that grew far too quickly and is out of control; Morrighan specifically likely feels personally responsible. She loves human and thinks they're special, right; and it makes sense that she would bring us to Erinn to fight for them. The problem is, looking back at that simulation, we could easily observe a situation in which entire populations go extinct due to demand outpacing population growth. If more and more Milletians come through the soulstream and begin hunting the foxes, wolves, bears, and spiders for materials, experience, drops, etc. At what point does Tir lose it's natural life? At what point does the sheep, dog, and chicken population grow out of hand because we upset the ecosystem. Does the price of chicken and eggs drop due to the over production? Do we stop breeding sheep dogs to protect our herd since there are no longer wolves? Does this effect the grazing habits of the sheep who would grow in number to the point they could turn the grassy hills of Northern Tir Chonaill into barren dirt mounds? At what point does Tir become a failing town. Would they have to migrate south to Dunbarton? Would people lose their jobs? Would the economy be in shambles because of the changes in the ecosystem?

If we think about just how powerful the Milletian really is, even in the early game; we begin to see an interesting pattern. The biggest contribution to Mabinogi's ecosystem, the one thing keeping it in check; the one thing that ACTUALLY keeps the balance?

Boredom.

We can see a sort of bell curve in the interaction between specific animal and monster species and the Milletian as they go along their journey. Early on the Milletian may wipe out fields of foxes, wolves, and spiders; but once they become powerful enough to begin fighting Bears and Wisps most of the other lifeforms are safe; they're simply not worth it. The Milletian would likely find it boring or even pointless to expend the effort to fight a wolf or spider that isn't outright attacking them, again going back to acting on self defense rather than predatory hunting. This could be said about almost every creature that exists outside of the dungeons, but even specifically for those that exist almost exclusively within dungeons.

As we examine a power increase in the Milletian, pushing them higher up on the food chain; we also see that they ignore the life that falls too far below them. No longer concerned about the creatures who couldn't put a dent in their armor, or would only take a single blow from their weapon of choice. There comes a point when spending the energy, durability, ammo, or even just time; on fighting something becomes a cost that isn't worth whatever the Milletian would gain. It's why the Milletian seeks out bigger and tougher prey animals/monsters. It's why they inevitably will end up hunting the gods, and it's exactly why the gods want us dead.

[thebreakfastgenie]

I have a “ West Wing” question for you. I know you’ve been critical of Donna’s season 6 story line, but I had a thought. Do you think part of her resentment was about the fact that she was in love with Josh, and he hadn’t made a move? I guess just don’t think her anger towards him was 100% professional. I think there was some personal mixed in there too.

Yes, I very much think it was! I actually think that arc makes the most sense if you frame at as Donna actually wanting a "promotion" to Josh's girlfriend, but because neither one of them is capable of talking about their feelings like adults and instead use their professional relationship as a proxy for the romantic relationship they both want, it manifests as her seeking a promotion at work. That's juicy and delicious!

My main issue with that storyline is the narrative framing; the show, via various other characters, acts as if Donna is objectively overqualified for her current position and Josh has done her a disservice by not promoting her sooner. This does not make sense! Donna's entire resumé is working for Josh, she has no formal education and no formal qualifications that predate him. Executive assistant is also a position that some people spend their entire careers in. No one says Carol or Bonnie or Ginger is overqualified for their jobs, which they've had just as long as Donna, and Carol at least is seen doing similarly substantive work for CJ as Donna does for Josh.

I think it's a good character choice for Donna to decide she doesn't want to spend her entire career as an assistant, but there really isn't a career path for her within the White House and it isn't reasonable to expect one. If the storyline were Donna wanting to leave to get into more direct political work and asking Josh for a reference and Josh freaking out about it, leading Donna to go to Will who hired her without it because he has his own issues going on with Josh, I would like that! The ingredients are all there, it's just the execution. If I were a happier person I would focus more on the "Donna wants Josh to make a move" part, but my lot in life is to be miserable about how much better I think season 6 could have been.

Also while I am sympathetic to Donna wanting Josh to make a move, I think their relationship is often shown in an unfairly one-sided way. Bradley Whitford will go on about Josh being "emotionally constipated," but Donna isn't honest about her feelings either. They're both unwilling to do anything about the fact that they're in love with each other, that's what makes it so fun!

[firstil]

Fio Nearig Eilach! 🌲

[ ID: An edit of a vintage photograph that shows a landscape in autumn. There are orange and yellow trees in the foreground, a large blue body of water in the midground, and a mountain range in the background. End ID ]

What is Firstil?

FIRSTIL is a xenofiction/animal fantasy worldbuild that has been in development since February of 2024. In a setting inspired by Acadia National Park and the surrounding northern Maine wilderness, the species featured in the saga are primarily accurate to real life environments and there are many options as to what a character can be.

Those in Firstil do not live in a single organized society, but they share a common language and a nature-based religion. Even then, both of these factors have countless branches that change based on the animal in question— the Common Tongue (also known as Rabble) was constructed many lifetimes after each species had their own language, and each species will have different beliefs and worship their own specific deities. There are also a set of ancient “laws” in place known to everyone in the land, but again, they may not mean the same to a mouse as they do to a hawk.

Because it is the wilderness and survival is of utmost importance to many, there is no guarantee for constant peace. Predator must hunt prey, territories are fiercely protected, wars and betrayals have been had. And yet, despite it all, the animals of Firstil try to work together, trading materials and talents and sharing age-old truces. It’s not a perfect place by any means, but this way of life is yet to crumble into dust.

Who are the characters?

Firstil contains more than one story arc and with it many different characters that might not belong to the same time periods or contexts. Because of this, and the fact that the story is still very much in production, it would be difficult to introduce them in this one post. Posts about the characters will be made under the tag “ firstil ; characters ” with further divided tags under their respective names.

So far there is: a raven, a pheasant, a puffin, a raccoon, a moose, a mourning dove, a saw-whet owl, seagulls, cats (from the nearby town), and plans for turkeys, a great blue heron, a porcupine, bats, a marten, a black bear, beavers, a mouse, and a turtle. Plus some possible farm animals like chickens and cows!

Can we make our own characters for Firstil?

Absolutely! Character guidelines will be made and posted on this blog eventually.

Will there be a Firstil RP?

It is very possible. If so, it will be multi-formatted and hosted on Discord and Toyhouse. Most likely a sandbox environment with encouragement for personal plots and suggestions for a collective storyline to follow. I’d love to make it a TTRPG setting someday and do some sort of campaign with a few people as well!

What are your future plans for Firstil?

I would love to make it a book series, officially published or not. I have already written little scenes here and there and I have decently solid ideas for a first book. I can’t guarantee a release date or anything like that because there’s still a lot to develop and it isn’t the only story project I am working on. However, I am very passionate about what I have. I’d like to keep this blog updated as much as possible and I do plan to make a website ASAP.

Who is the author?

Hi! My name is Autumn Langtree (they/them). I am a non-binary, autistic artist & writer in my early 20s. I’ve loved xenofiction and have been making stories related to the genre for as long as I can remember. Firstil is inspired by many titles and my own experience living in New England.

My visual art can be found on @taxiedermist. I also have an instagram under the same username and a toyhouse account under the name limulidae.

[damianbugs]

Tw: Antisemitism

court of owls was such an interesting concept cause like, i very much like the fact that owls are bats predators but, the story itself reads like some antisemitic conspiracy theory, it's so bad, the whole secret society thing and the fact that they kidnap children to turn them into talons, like yikes.

and having the court of owls be responsible for major crimes in gotham (death of dick's parents and the death of the wayne parents) feels like such a copout.

like: no the corruption of gotham isn't due to its capitalist nature and its exploitation of the middle and lower classes which in turn makes them sometimes turn to a life of crime, no it's actually because bird people want gotham to flop for....reasons not given?

it's such a stupid antisemitic concept and the fact that it's in gotham knights is just so :/

i have always hated the court of owls, even before i became aware of its antisemitic and problematic implications. back then it always felt like a lazy and cheat device to end the story and it often times felt lacklustre (for the reasons you have explained), especially with how it changes very important deaths in gotham.

bruce's parents being killed by a completely normal guy and found themselves victims to an unfortunate and completely avoidable situation, makes batman's entire code and premise SO interesting. he works to prevent and to protect people from what can be (to him) fixed in gotham.

dick's parents being killed by tony zucco, who worked for maroni, develops gothams history in a way that is SO MUCH BETTER than anything the court of owls did. how gotham is routed in old money and organised crime (or it was, less so much now), that works as a long chain that gets innocent people caught in the crossfire. it's why i particularly dislike the very popular au of talon!dick, or any court of owls!batfam aus.

so even before we get to talk about how the entire concept is offensive and wrong, its already a terrible idea. it was so disappointing to see it be the main storyline in Gotham Knights, but the actual plot of that game leaves a lot to be desired as it is. talia and the owls was my biggest complaint about it. i really need people to forget about it and stop using it in all their projects!!!

in theory i suppose a secret cult in gotham COULD work, and it has before. there are many well done stories about it, but to me, the court of owls is not one of those stories. it has no direction or motive beside the very basic one of ultimate control. boring! as you said, i would appreciate a story focused on class inequalities and corruption in a way that leaves space for actual resolution or at least nuanced storytelling.

its a bit on the nose but 'batman: the cult' and 'batman: legends of the dark knight: conspiracy (#86-88)' are much better alternative read, or the slightly less on the nose but kind of still on topic 'batman & dracula' trilogy. be warned they, unsurprisingly, tackle some very heavy and mature themes!

[theartloca]

Eeee I love your mermen! I love that they don't have a human skin tone and that their upper halves have the same brilliant patterns and colors that seamlessly caery over from their tail, making them look like a cohesive being as opposed to a "half-and-half" with a clear split between humanoid and fish.

I was just wondering about if you have any headcanons about them. Do they live nomadically or do they have underwater settlements? Can they breathe air and survive on land, and how long can they be out of water? Can they get legs and assume a humanoid "land form" or do they permanently have a tail by default? Can they speak human languages?

fgsdfgnsdfgjdfgsdfgksd

First of all, thank you so much for the compliments! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ I'm glad that you like my mermen art that much :')

I do have a couple of headcanons but I haven't developed a full story or made any character background yet hehehe, although it is something that I would like to do soon! I've always imagined potential storylines with them as main characters :D

Putting that aside, I have a pretty solid idea about their biology and social structure. They behave in a way similar to their fish counterpart (I often use real fish species to create mermen designs); this means that they vary in size, there are predators and preys and they can form shoals/communities or live alone depending on the species. Their sexuality also mimics the patterns of some fish species but they are, in their majority, hermaphrodites or have the hability of change their biological gender depending on the situation.

I guess there could be some small settlements, specially around reef barriers but I picture them having a pretty nomadic life. They cannot breath above the water but they can hold their breaths for a somewhat long period of time, let's say half an hour, it also depends on the physical condition of the merman. They do not have a humanoid form in my universe hahaha! It would be fun tho... I might do some art about it, who knows 🐟

As for their language, they have their own system. It is nothing like any human dialect and it works diferently because... well, water XD. They use mostly echoes and noises. They also write and draw hyeroglyphs :)

I think that summs up everything pretty well! (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ

[lokiinmediasideblog]

On "Lady Loki" PSA: You mean Loki being Femme?

“Lady Loki” is NOT Loki being genderfluid. The name is a mixture of “Lady Sif” (because Sif’s title is “Lady” like “Lord”) and “Loki” because Loki stole Sif’s body after Ragnarok ensued, and trapped her in a dying old lady’s body. Loki first shows up possessing Sif’s body in Thor Vol. 3 # 5 back in 2007. Loki continued to use male pronouns in Sif’s body, but just gets misgendered by everyone else. And as much as I love aspects of Loki’s characterization in that era, having that plotline in this political climate would be awful, incredibly damaging, and way more problematic than anything the Loki show gets accused of. I need people to know what the fuck they’re talking about before they refer to wanting "Lady Loki" in the Loki show because this is what you're talking about.

I will be open and say I am not a fan of much of the majority of Thor comics. They are fucking annoying and read like some Gary Stu male fantasy because they’re always going off about how Thor is the fucking best and his plot armor makes him the only and best choice to be Asgard’s ruler despite there being other characters with similar qualities in Asgard but Thor’s “just better”. The misogyny is off the charts in these with all the ridiculously and impractically scantily clad “warrior” women that all want to fuck Thor and have little personality past that. I also loathe the “Loki’s just evil” crap. My fascination with them is more like gawking and wanting to be pissed off. Plus, I find pre-reincarnation Marvel comics!Loki to be a fascinating study of a Comics Code Authority/Hayes code era villain (and I kinda root for him because the narrative annoys me). He’s up there with all the Disney villains despite not originally being Disney.

In those pre-reincarnation comics that often piss me off, Loki is meant to evoke disgust and to “disturb” through his failure to be the epitome of manliness. Marvel has tried to distance themselves from that once they had their “Are we the baddies?” epiphany by retconning Asgard to be more progressive. It kinda annoys me because panels exist where they’re being queerphobic to Loki. To me, it’d feel more organic if Asgard was shown going through societal change rather than “We have always been progressive, what the fuck are you talking about?” But that's just me.

I remember when Loki was about to come out as bisexual in the comics on 2013 after becoming very popular largely due to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki (Young Avengers #13 where he flirts with Prodigy, followed by Agent of Asgard revealing he's a genderfluid shapeshifter in 2014), queer organizations expressed concern over the whole “queer-coded villain á la Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.” If you are not familiar with Buffalo Bill, he is the main antagonist from Thomas Harris’s very copagandic and transphobic book, Silence of The Lambs, the book with Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins who plays MCU!Odin lol) where he’s like “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. T-sss-tsss-tss.”

Buffalo Bill is said to not be a “real transgender”, whatever the fuck that means especially with all the policing around bodily autonomy, and some statistic about how transgenders are the least likely to be violent is shoehorned in, but everything about the character ends up being a queerphobic trope. The “difference” is that Jame Gumb “thinks” he wants to be a woman but doesn’t actually want to be (the transphobia in this book is off the charts).

I am glad Loki has gotten redemption arcs of sorts, because a lot of the tropes employed on comics!Loki just pissed me off. And I am glad MCU!Loki never went through the transphobic possession storyline in the name of being "comics-accurate".

The easiest way to represent genderfluidity in the MCU with a casting choice that predates Loki's coming out in comics would be through dialogue in the magic-less TVA. Have Loki say that her pronouns are she/her while looking the same because people can't shapeshift in real life.

I think if they ever adapt the Agent of Asgard thing (with a new actor), the casted actor should be genderqueer. Tom Hiddleston gets a pass because Loki was not genderqueer yet when he was casted and in 3 movies already (and he was playing the pre-JiM (2011) Loki), but the new one should be.

[vladstocker]

A dream of mine:

A blade movie or comic storyline located on Amazonia, with Capelobo as the main antagonist, predator style.

Capelobo can be classified as a brazilian vampire, due to his habit of sticking his tongue on the prey's heads and drinking blood from their brains.

Some legends also associate him with werewolves.

A tactical team like predator would be nice too. Also similar to blade 2.

My cast for some of the soldiers/vampire hunters:

Zoe Bell as the operation leader (survives and can show up on sequels).

Marco Pigossi as a brazilian operative (can survive or don't).

Suyane Moreira as brazilian operative ( survives and maybe show up on sequels)

Josh Helman as another operative (dies in a epic way).

Shannon Berry as another operative (just because i want to see her in more big projects, if she dies, i cry 🥺).

[luna-the-bard]

this is an oc x canon lore dump, you've been warned

-> Act II

Just for organization purposes, I'm calling this Act I. I'll add links to other parts as (and if) i write them. Anyways let's hope Tumblr can fit 11 pages of text into one post! :)c

General lore:

Te’rra is a small planet that stopped participating in Big Space Politics about a century ago. Due to this, its existence has been forgotten by most.

It doesn't help that the planet is in the middle of fucking nowhere

It’s fine they chillin

The society populating the planet are called terraninans, and they are an avian species - humanoids with feathered wings and tails, and some other features like blue skin, striking, cat-like eyes, or elaborate skin patterns that are unique to each individual, akin to birthmarks.

Here’s a couple examples:

Note that the Head Priestess (pic. 1) lacks wings, which is normally not the case for the species. Lower image shows more patterning on parts of the body that aren’t the face (mainly arms).

Fun fact: this species is entirely female! This is not relevant to the story tho, so I won’t dwell on it.

The life expectancy of a terranian is somewhere around 1k years. There are old folk still alive who remember Te’rra before it isolated itself from the rest of the world.

Te’rra has pretty high levels of technological progress. However, culturally they put a large emphasis on co-existing with the ecosystem, which makes their technology rather different from what you would normally expect. There is a very developed culture of artisanry, with most goods being produced by individual masters or small guilds.

Main storyline:

Skeets is a relatively young terranian huntress. She is part of a small, about 10-person, hunting group - a common occurrence for her city, as they are located on the edge of a vast jungle. 

She is neither a newbie nor a master of her craft; her position is more akin to a promising junior - not quite ready to lead her own hunting group, but experienced enough to hold a certain amount of weight and respect among her peers.

Hunting groups normally alternate between staying close to the city and going further out into the jungle to balance out their impact on the flora/fauna. Skeets’s group has recently started going further out, as more experienced hunters.

Meanwhile, there is a Space Pirate ship that happened to be passing the planet - a rare occurrence, considering there were no trade routes nearby and ships of any sort were almost never seen in this sector of the galaxy. The Space Pirates were likely taking such an unusual route to avoid a police or military patrol; the reason is really not that important. Identically, it doesn’t matter why exactly the Space Pirates decided to take a closer look at the little blue planet before them, because the impact is the same nonetheless: the small hunting group that ventured a bit too far from the city catches their attention.

Skeets and her group were actually sent to investigate a disturbance in the ecosystem - because of course the Space Pirates have made quite a ruckus, scaring away the local wildlife. What was a result of their ship’s landing got mistakenly interpreted by the city’s lookout post as a sign of a large predator, which would have to be warded off to avoid causing damage to the area.

Unfortunately for everyone, it was not, in fact, a giant blue dino-chicken. 

The Space Pirates decide that “exotic” humanoids would fetch a good price on the black market - especially considering no one has seen their kind for almost a century, and most have forgotten what they look like. This leads to an ambush and the subsequent capture of Skeets’s hunting group.

Having got what they need and not wanting to attract more attention, the Pirates promptly take off; they’re gone from the planet before anyone has time to react. 

—-

Unfortunately for everyone. But especially the Pirates. The ship experiences an engine malfunction, forcing the Pirates to land on a desolate planet that has long been abandoned by civilization; in hopes of either fixing the engine or finding parts to fix it, the Pirates with their precious cargo have to descend into the deteriorated catacombs under the planet’s surface (as the surface itself is inhospitable). They make their home in an empty room that is still structurally sound and fairly close to the surface. It even has some of the basic technology still functioning, likely from an emergency power source (they attempt to locate it, but to no avail). The room only has one entrance, so it’s easy to guard; this was not the last reason on the list of priorities. The bunch of terranians are placed in that room for the same purpose - easy to make sure nothing gets in… or gets out.

Now, you were probably wondering why this circumstance is especially unlucky for the Pirates. As it turns out, the catacombs aren’t as desolate as they appeared. 

As the Pirates find out from their own experience, deeper in the catacombs dwells the apex predator of this planet; whether it’s a result of a genetic mutation or a creature native to the ecosystem is unclear. But the monster is at the top of the food chain for a reason; it’s fast, its spider-like lower body giving it the ability to climb walls and dwell on ceilings. Its limbs have a poison canal underneath each claw, making even minor wounds lethal - the only difference is that this death is much more slow and painful than getting mauled. The creature has a humanoid upper body, but there is nothing human about it: a demethor would be prettier; those at least lack rows of sharp, curved teeth and even more prominent fangs. Its mouth and skin can secrete a slimy substance saturated with its poison; it leaves a wet trail on the walls of tunnels it frequents most.

Not able to retreat back to the surface, and desperately needing to find resources to fix their ship, the Pirates are forced to witness their crewmates being plucked one by one each time they venture out into the planet’s depths; those who manage to escape are subjects to the unsightly fate of being slowly consumed by the poison. The creature knows these catacombs far better than the Pirates do; it calls them its home. The only reason Skeets and her kin are in relative safety is due to the lack of worthy prey closer to the surface - the spider-like abomination has no interest in rodents and other small animals that scurry along the industrial pipes. Terranians see the state in which the Pirates return from their missions; watch their numbers grow smaller and smaller. The ruins are cold, unwelcoming. While the Pirates have to deal with injuries and worry about their resources running low, their captives are faced with a survival issue of a different kind: none of them are suited for the climate. Te’rra is a warm planet. The temperature in the jungle never drops past zero or even close to it; it has no winter.  Hunters almost never have to go into freezing areas, and when they do, they are heavily equipped - a complete opposite of Skeets and her team, who were dressed very lightly. 

For most, it starts as a cold. The average body temperature of a terranian is slightly above human; it runs around 38-39 ℃, and being constantly exposed to the chilly, humid air of the catacombs is taking its toll on each of the ten captives. Colds grow into acute bronchitis; Skeets, who has been secretly sneaking out to look for resources, develops pneumonia.  Before it gets bad, she continues toying with fate: having a much smaller build than Space Pirates, she can fit into tight maintenance corridors and dried-out pipes. Those on guarding duty are delirious from poison, and sneaking out gets less and less challenging with time. Once, early on, she gets lucky and finds a sealed first-aid box - most of the things there expired long ago, but rubbing alcohol and bandages are still safe to use. She brings them back to mend some minor wounds received during the pirate ambush (they were so, so lucky to avoid any serious injuries). Later on, however, her condition worsens too much for her to continue. At this point, everyone is sick, and Skeets and some of her teammates are rapidly declining. The Pirate numbers are so small there is only one of them guarding the door; and even he is near-comatose from wounds and poison. The Pirates decide to take their chances and send out a distress signal - it’s better to get arrested by some Federation patrol than become food for the monster that lives below. Although, the Pirates hoped that the signal would attract a less armed, civilian ship - so they could kill the unsuspecting crew and get off this planet.

Fortunately for everyone but the Pirates themselves :)c the distress signal is received by a lone gunship that happened to be passing through the area. The gunship that, of course, belongs to the universe’s best bounty hunter - Samus Aran.

To no one’s surprise, Samus traverses the catacombs with ease. This is far from the first time she’s had to navigate a labyrinth of rooms and ruins. There is so little left of the Pirates that Samus almost gets suspicious of how… unchallenging it is to defeat them. Then she finds out the reason behind the Pirates’ weakness; whether or not she kills the arachnid creature is unknown. On her way back up, Samus finds one last Pirate - on the brink of death, guarding the entrance to a room. Compared to being slowly digested from the inside, death by Samus’s hand is almost an act of mercy for him.

However, instead of an ammo stash or a navigation room, Samus finds a bunch of very sickly-looking blue humanoids. The readings from her suit indicate that, although their species is not in her database, they clearly require medical attention - even more so since Samus doesn’t know that terranians have an above average body temperature, so to her their state is not much better than the Pirate’s. 

Luckily, the room is close enough to the surface for Samus to be able to contact A.D.A.M. without having to re-emerge. She sends out a request to the Federation - although, really, it’s much more like a firm order, - to direct a rescue vessel their way; she includes just the necessary minimum of information in her message - that there are about ten individuals, species unknown, in need of immediate medical attention; the coordinates of the planet; the instructions on where to safely enter the catacombs.

She does have to leave the terranians briefly, to clear out the path for medical personnel - the last thing she wants is them getting hurt by the local wildlife. She returns quickly, however, making sure that everyone is still there and that no one has declined to the state of comatose (luckily, things are not that dire).

—

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the ship the Galactic Federation sends is not an emergency vehicle. Or even a military patrol vessel. Or anyone directly affiliated with the Federation.

Because, simply put, the Federation officials are cheapskates. 

Why spend money and resources on sending a warship somewhere, when they could just find some cruiser that was the closest to the disclosed location? Paying a random merchant ship is much cheaper than paying for all that fuel.

So, the ship that enters the planet’s atmosphere is not full of paramedics; in fact, there are only two doctors on board, the minimum legal requirement for a small merchant ship like theirs.

Samus has to cast her frustration aside and work with what she’s got. Terranians get evacuated from the catacombs; some on their own two feet, some - on a stretcher, being too weak from fever to properly walk. In case of the latter, the doctors have to make several trips - there’s only one stretcher (they never needed more). When they descend into the catacombs the third time, Samus, who has to accompany the doctors for safety reasons (she already cleared out the path, but it’s better to be safe than sorry), decides that she doesn’t want to do this a fourth time. There are only two terranians left that still needed to be carried to the merchant ship. One of them is being carefully placed onto the stretcher by the medical personnel. The other has spent the entire time that Samus has been there huddled alone in the furthest corner of the room. 

At this point in time it should be obvious to you that the one in the corner is Skeets. The reason she’s distanced herself from others as much as possible is because she is sick. More than others - her pneumonia worsened violently due to her frequently exposing herself to the cold of the tunnels. She was doing her best to not pass it onto others - somewhat successfully, I must note - the other three terranians who were in a similar state suffered from acute bronchitis, not pneumonia.

Not willing to make another trip through the catacombs, Samus simply picks the little avian up - her suit is enough to avoid the biohazard, she is in no danger of getting sick. In a different setting having both her hands - arms? - full would compromise the crew’s safety, but having made close to five trips down and back, Samus knows that there is nothing dangerous left on their path. So she simply trails behind the medics and their stretcher until they’re back on the surface.

No one wants to stay there longer than necessary - the atmosphere is mildly toxic, and it is not recommended to be out in the open for more than a couple hours - the toxins would accumulate in the body. Thus, the two doctors situate their new passengers as fast as they can - and this is where the first issue arises.

In the best traditions of fictional tropes, they are one bed short. 

It’s a small merchant ship. They’ve done what they could. Took in as many people as safety regulations allowed - and even if they could take in one more, their medical bay was simply not equipped for handling this large of a number of people. They would simply not have enough medication.

The nearest multispecies hospital is a week away from this desolate planet. It would just be futile to try and accommodate everyone - someone would inevitably decline beyond what they could heal in that timeframe.

Samus, on the other hand.

Surely, in her line of work, she had to be as self-sufficient as possible and equip her gunship with top-quality medical equipment and supplies?

Judging by the size of it, she can take in one more person no problem. So do you really have a choice, Samus Aran? Are you going to let someone unfamiliar into your personal space because she desperately needs your help, or are you going to refuse and have that on your conscience for the rest of your life when, inevitably, someone dies?

If you don’t know the answer to this, you don’t know Samus, lol.

The second issue surfaces right before Samus is about to bring Skeets over to her ship. 

None among the present know what species they just rescued. There is an apparent language barrier. Skeets, barely even conscious from fever, is still able to see what’s happening -  and draw her own conclusions.

The Pirates disappeared.

There are new, unfamiliar people, and they took all of her kin into their ship - she can’t understand a word they’re saying, and thus their intentions are unknown.

Sure, there are what seem to be medics - but is that really a sign that they are coming to their rescue?

After all, someone who illegally buys sentient creatures to show off their wealth would want their new exotic decor to be in good, presentable shape.

It doesn’t help that she, alone, is not joining her group. No, she is held firmly by someone else - the same person that first entered their shelter. Tall. Imposing. Armed.

Perhaps the mystery byer only wanted nine specimens. Or could afford just this many.

It’s not unusual to divide the product and sell it to several highest bidders, is it?

Samus is almost taken by surprise when the frail, sickly creature in her arms tries to struggle free. Almost. For someone with her reflexes, however, this is more of an annoyance than anything - all she has to do is adjust her grip so that the alien doesn’t accidentally hurt herself.

It is rather uncomfortable, however, when someone you’re carrying is frantically flapping her wings and trying to wriggle out of your grasp. It is also even more annoying when said someone is desperately scratching at your suit - this doesn’t leave so much as a scratch, the powersuit is so much more durable than claws, but the prospect of it is still… irritating. 

Skeets doesn’t stop thrashing around after her first failed attempt to break free. She has to do something, she has no choice - how could she just let someone separate her and her kin? They were all she had left; they depended on her. They could be facing a fate far more terrible than starving to death in abandoned catacombs.

So she scratched. And she kicked and she flapped her wings and she tried everything she could to get away, get back to her group - to her people, whom she may never see again - until she could do it no longer. Until her body harshly reminded her that she was ill; that adrenaline alone is not enough to fight someone far stronger than you.

And so Skeets cried.

She wasn’t trying to accomplish anything with her tears. They weren’t a tool, or a message, or anything intentional at all - they were tears of frustration; tears of powerlessness; tears of anger and tears of giving up; they were the kind of tears that you simply have to cry, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

She did not expect her carrier to stop.

Samus was beyond capable. She was The Ultimate Protector, she was a top-class bounty huntress, she was an unmatched warrior; she’s been on the brink of death and came back, she has saved entire planets and, on the larger scale, the galaxy as a whole, she knew how to survive and get through the most hostile of environments, and then save the universe on top of that.

She had no idea what to do with feelings.

Even less so when she had no ability to verbally communicate. Samus understood that she had to do something, it has become apparent that the girl in her arms was in intense distress, and she couldn’t put it off until they’re at her ship anymore. Sure, she could just ignore the issue and keep walking to her ship, but that would likely only create more problems - ones she would have to deal with until she can find a way to communicate what she was doing. (Which would take weeks; she’d have to identify the girl’s species of find someone who could identify it, then find a translator or at least a textbook on their language, learn said language, all the while potentially fighting off a scared avian who she’s supposed to be treating so she wouldn’t die on her before they got to a hospital - it was clearly a better course of action to solve the problem now).

Regardless of how much Samus would like to get back to her ship and get this whole ordeal over with, she walks back to the merchants. The two doctors are standing at the entrance ramp, talking - no, gesturing, - to one of the rescued aliens. This must be one of the less sick ones - even so, one of the medics has her arm over his shoulder, supporting her weight. The other is holding up a small screen; when Samus gets closer, she can see that the screen is actually a drawing pad filled with doodles. The doodles are… ugly, but readable, and Samus takes note of this being a working form of communication - at least the alien seems a lot more calm and composed than the one currently shivering in her arms. Samus mirrors one of the doctors, carefully lowering her burden so she can stand - still, however, firmly holding her so she doesn’t fall. Even so, the girl can barely stand - but at the moment this was far less important than making sure she can get an explanation of what’s happening. 

It works - even without the help of the crude drawing of nine beds and ten stick figures (no offense to the doctor), the other person immediately starts talking in an unfamiliar language, the avian that Samus is holding answering in a hoarse, strained voice. Samus pretends her and the medic’s arms aren’t in the way when the two aliens awkwardly hug and put their foreheads together. She even ignores the fact that that’s a biohazard - honestly, she just wants to get outta here.

Which she eventually gets to do; finally being able to carry the exhausted alien girl to her ship, get her bed set up with medical equipment (she has to dig out an oxygen can), and leaving the planet. 

Samus charts a course to the nearest hospital and prepares an array of medications - from fever reducers to cough suppressants to an IV (all of the aliens are malnourished and dehydrated after spending a month in the ruins; the Space Pirates didn’t exactly provide them with a five-star buffet, if you know what I mean).

She makes peace with the fact that she’s going to sleep in her pilot’s chair for the next week, since her bed is taken; one thing that kind of compensates for this is the opportunity to research a species she’s never seen before. Samus is a nerd at heart (if Prime logs are any indication), so diving head-first into research is a nice way to spend her time while she has to care for her passenger. Besides, she’ll have to at least try to learn her language. Out of necessity, of course, simply to be able to communicate - this is what she tells herself, but we all know it’s not the only reason, haha.

Now, some closing notes for Act I: 

This storyline takes place after Fusion, but before Dread (closer to Fusion in the timeline). 

Samus definitely saw something vaguely resembling her suit in the doctor’s doodles. It was lopsided and had her arm cannon on the wrong side

The terranian they were communicating with is the leader of the hunting group; Skeets sees her as a mentor figure

Due to being a solely female species, terranians don’t really have a concept of gender. They don’t even have words for it (or men lmao) - when they need to describe a male specimen (like some insect or mammal that inhabits the jungle) they just say something like “non-female” or “opposite” or some other word (I’m still working on a better term for it bc I came up with this literally just now) (also this is completely unrelated to the storyline, just a fun lore fact)

This ship was born before I even knew what metroid was. A friend of mine was infodumping about it, and I thought: Hey, most people probably ship this Samus gal with other humans or themselves; looks to me like she needs a cute alien wife

And so Skeets was made. Literally because I decided to be Not Like Other Girls™ . You're welcome people✌️

-> Act II

[cuppajj]

#2 Day of asking random ahh questions to the blogs I follow

Do you have any transformers ocs that are just...there. it's just been there, not being interacted or done about by you for a long time or like you've created them but you haven't done anything to them yet? If yeah, could you explain about them, even for a bit? While I have many neglected ocs myself, I love to give them attention from time to time to show that I still care for them yk? XD

Oh yeah, quite a few. But most of them are side characters to the main story of more main ocs - for example, Wicket, Vix, Phi, and Jubilon are all side characters in Drill’s storyline, but I haven’t worked on them that much because I’m not at the point where I’ve started thinking about them in terms of story and character development, aside from how they contribute to Drill’s. It’s like this for Aftertouch for both Drill’s and Scotta’s stories, and Glare’s old team for his story. I haven’t thought of them that much in all but their relevance to other oc stories, so it’s not like they’re neglected, they’re just in progress.

For ocs who I truly haven’t done anything with: Xenophin, Cullsiren, Blocks, Blitzlove, and Chillypuff, off the top of my head. I still think about them quite a bit, but I have either no ideas for stories yet, or I’m blanking out on what their stories will be. But for some info on each:

Xenophin is an MTO who can hear the dead cybertronians his metal is made from, and so he spends his time listening to them and writing their life stories. He's a librarian and a follower of Mortilus.

Cullsiren is a victory OC who serves as the medic for Deathsaurus's crew, and has an unrequited crush on him. In IDW, she's the warworld's CMO.

Blocks is just a guy, they're a vehicon who loves stacking things, they're the Nemesis's #1 stockpiler

Chillypuff is an ex-Autobot who camped out on earth through the remainder of the war, who also likes to relic hunt. She watches over a large pack of seals, warding off predators and hunting for food.

Blitzlove is the most frustrating because she was the first oc I made after Drill and yet I haven't done much with her. It's mostly because I've been struggling to think of a full story for her, including personality and goals. All I have is her lore, which is that she's an ancient cityspeaker from a lost cybertronian colony who lost her memories and was put in the body of a minibot. Someday I'll get to her though, but I'm thinking of giving her a complete overhaul