#deck of many bots

[zzlom]

Card number 3 - Rid Ultra Magnus, the Queen of Diamonds!

Rad rad rad original sketch by @dundeey-pictorem

[dravidious]

So you're cool

Went 6-3 on my quick draft today, and I only had one rare that I built the whole deck around and barely got to use! Naturally, my draft was ended by an infinitely-reviving mythic.

[gravedwe11er]

Got hit by a Mecha AU Swerve angst idea in the middle of the night, and I had to put it down on a page. Based on the @keferon Mecha AU and inspired by all the amazing Swerve/Blurr art I see around (seriously, yall are giving me so many ideas and I love it).

More often than not, nowadays, Swerve feels like an imposter in his own frame. His time spent as a human was so short, just an insignificant speck compared to the eons of his real life, his real lifespan, and yet...

Those few scant human years are the realest he can remember feeling.

The medics said it took fifteen cycles for anyone to knock on his door, to even notice his absence. And when someone eventually did, it was just- his boss. One of the engines was giving them trouble, and they needed all servos on deck. That's all.

None of the bots who he talked to every day, the ones he’d worked side by side with for years noticed he was gone. None of the people who would laugh at his jokes and drink with him at the bar had a single thought to spare for him. Nobody missed him, until they needed him for something.

Glum thoughts in the dead of night are one thing. It’s another thing entirely to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that it’s all true.

So of course Swerve figured out the holoform thing again. Sure, it’s still kind of risky, but now that he’s actually doing it on purpose, he’s been taking a few precautions – a good recharge, a full fuel tank, and an automated message to be sent off to the medics after a set period of time, in case he knocks himself out again. Actually, he nearly managed just that, the first time he tried it, overtaxing himself almost to the point of shutdown. The keyword being nearly, though! It did little to weaken his resolve, and after a few more tries, he now has a whole system figured out, one that won’t damage his processor.

Or, it probably won’t, anyway. He’s not about to go ask; someone higher up might order him to stop, which-

Yeah, he’s not doing that.

On this ship, Swerve’s got nothing. He might as well be nothing - he’s a trained metallurgist working as a common mechanic, amongst people who barely even know he exists. On Earth, he’s- well. It’s not like he was exactly a social butterfly, but people invited him for shitty cafeteria coffee, a few pilots liked to stop by for a chat sometimes, and if he fell asleep at his desk, someone would come shake him awake within an hour or two.

On Earth, he has Blurr. And that’s not something he’s willing to give up.

Swerve shutters his optics in his tiny room on the ship, and surrenders gladly to the pulling sensation overtaking his processor as his holomatter generator struggles to cross such a vast distance. Then, with a crackle and a fizz of static across his neural net, he’s gone.

When he opens his eyes, it’s to the sight of Blurr’s expansive private hospital suite, with the man nowhere to be seen. He’s been hoping for that, though- as a general rule, he tries to catch the pilot between press conferences and physical therapy sessions, so nobody starts asking questions about the dead man loitering around a celebrity’s rooms. Blurr has enough problems as it is.

Luckily, he doesn’t have to wait for long. Soon enough, Swerve hears several pairs of footsteps approaching the door, and he ducks into the bedroom, keeping out of sight. “Again, thank you so much for the well-wishes,” carries through the walls, barely loud enough to be audible – Blurr’s voice, he thinks. The ‘business’ voice. “But I really have to go now. The doctor will be visiting soon, you understand.”

There are polite sounds of assent, an exchange of a few more pleasantries before the steps retreat back down the hallway, followed by the quiet whoosh of the front door opening. Cautiously, Swerve peeks out of the bedroom.

Blurr stands in the doorway, back straight, with a bright, practiced smile on the visible half of his face. The other, the one with scars and still healing skin grafts, is covered by an elaborate mask, shaped to look like his mech’s helm. He gives the people outside one final wave, and clicks the door shut.

Then he turns around, notices Swerve and slumps.

Now wobbling slightly, the injured pilot leans his back against a wall, gingerly peeling the mask off of his face to revealed reddened, irritated skin. The smile he turns on Swerve is completely different from before, small and tired and slightly pained.

To anyone else, it would look like an insult. To Swerve, it’s a precious thing, a gift the star shares with very few people in his life - honesty.

“Swerve, hello!” Blurr greets him, sounding slightly out of breath. He’s getting the best care money can buy, but even that only goes so far- recovery will slow and painful, and not everything will go back to how it was. There are some scars the pilot will carry for the rest of his life, and just the thought makes Swerve’s holographic heart ache.

“Hi,” he answers enthusiastically, crossing the room to go help the injured man, only to get waved off.

“Thanks, but I’m good. I need to build up my stamina again.”

Swerve frowns a little, but steps away again. “Alright, if you’re sure. Just be careful! You can lean on me if you need to, yeah? I don’t want you to hurt yourself, so if-“

“Swerve!”, Blurr laughs, interrupting his awkward rambling, and he can feel his holoform’s cheeks going red. “It’s fine, really. I’ll ask you if I need help, alright?”

“Alright,” he mutters into the collar of his shirt and follows after the man, ready to support him if he stumbles. Blurr leads them to his bedroom, laying down on the mattress with a pained grimace, once again waving off any of Swerve’s offers to help. Instead, the man pats one side of the bed in clear invitation, and Swerve does his best to pretend his face isn’t looking like an overripe tomato as he sits, their hands almost touching. Judging by Blurr’s teasing little grin, he fails miserably, but- it made Blurr smile. He’d say that more than makes up for it.

They talk, for as long as Swerve’s holoform generator allows and perhaps a little bit beyond that. He asks after Blurr’s recovery, listens to the pilot bemoan the weakness of his atrophied muscles and endless physical therapy sessions. Learns more about the constant press releases, the pressure from command to return back to duty and perform his star pilot act once again.  They talk about anything and everything the man wants to share, from the important to the mundane.

In turn, Blurr asks him about his life, his day, his work on the ship. Which, here’s the thing- he didn’t really notice much it before his coma, but nobody else actually asks about him. Swerve talks a lot, and sometimes, other bots will even listen, but they never ask.

Except for Blurr. Blurr always asks now, and Swerve always talks and talks and talks, and the pilot never seems to mind. Sometimes, he wishes he knew how to express it, to show the man just how much it means to him, but- in a rare twist of events, the words never manage to leave his mouth.

Doesn’t make it any less true, though.

Every small, honest smile, every real, slightly ugly laugh he gets out of the man makes Swerve’s holographic heart beat overtime. He feels so happy, so at peace when by the man’s side, and he never wants to leave.

But he has to. Eventually, it’s always time to go, his systems warning him of impending shutdown and he hates it, he hates it so much, but he says his goodbyes. Blurr’s understanding about it, of course, and the pilot’s cheeky little wave is the last thing Swerve sees before he closes his eyes and disappears.

When he unshutters his optics, it’s to the sight of his empty, windowless habsuite.  Getting up from his berth, he feels a fleeting stab of vertigo – some echo of his human self’s instinct, warning him of a dangerous height, which, huh. That’s been happening more and more often. Something to ask the medics about, perhaps.

Then again, why bother. It’s not like he doesn’t know what the answer would be.

He misses Blurr already. Misses the warmth of Earth’s sun and the warmth of companionship, the warmth of a soft human touch. Misses his false life and false body, and the very real joy it brings him.

Sometimes, he wishes he never woke up, instead living out his fake human existence in blissful ignorance until his spark eventually guttered from the strain. Occasionally, he wishes he was human. Actually human, not just the holoform- muscle and bone and sinew, just like the rest of them, just like Blurr. It’s clear he doesn’t belong amongst his own kind, so… maybe it’d be better that way.

Most of the time though, he just wants to be on Earth; true frame, fake body, it doesn’t matter. He wants to hold Blurr in his servos, wants to feel like he matters to somebody, wants to-

He’s not really sure what he wants, exactly. He just knows it’s not this.

[facts-i-just-made-up]

what are the card suits?

The card suits as commonly known are Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds, but is was not always so. Various decks for many games and purposes have different suits including:

Tarot Cards- Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles

Uno Cards- Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue

Credit Cards- Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express

ID Cards- Driver's, Insurance, State, and Social Security

Sports Cards- Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Calvinball

House of Cards- Democrat, Republican, Independent, and Whig

Score Cards- Golf, Mini-Golf, Bowling, and Witcher Romance

Punch Cards- 100100100, 10101011, 10010, and 1001000101010111

Pokémon Cards- Electric, Grass, Poison, and Planeswalker

Orson Scott Cards- Ender, Alvin, Homecoming, and Ravenous Homophobic Bloggings That Sully His Entire Body Of Work

Hallmark Cards- Thank You, Happy Birthday, Condolences, and "Sorry I Got Semen In Your Eye" (yes I know that was a cake)

Alu Cards- Castlevania, Hellsing, Waverly, and no joke, my friend Alucard J***** from when I was in college at CU Boulder. We met because you could look up people by name on the school website like pre-facebook and spam bots and see their info and email and I looked up the name as a joke and there was one guy and I emailed him like "Dude your name is Dracula backwards!" and it turned out he's related to Bram Stoker and goes to these meetings of his family in Ireland each year and I went with him once and met this girl named Ryann and we hit it off and walked around talking way late into the night and then she turned into a bat and left and I never saw her again and when I went back to tell Alucard, there was no trace of him at college or anywhere else and it turns out Stoker's family all died off in the early 1900s. True story.

[kingprinceleo]

Vampire Au Master-ish Post

Summary -

Angel Island is the only life Sonic has ever known. Being trapped within the permanent barrier encasing the 8 islands isnt quite his style, so finding a way to destroy it and explore the world below has been his goal for as long as he can remember. Hes got a number of other things keeping him occupied however, trying to prevent the Robotnik family from taking over total control of the islands. 

When he isnt fighting them off, hes hanging out with his friends, living his best life being a vampire both day and night. When he wants to get everyone off his back, and feed from his favorite vampire hater, Shadow, he uses his magic staff to change his appearance into an alter ego, Hoax the "Tenrec.”

–

Vampire au is a generally slice of life episodic style au, mostly focused on being lighthearted and goofy. 

Occasionally plot driven with slightly heavier themes though. (And sometimes I hit the angst button for funsies)

Major Locations-

Angel Island- One main island and 7 smaller islands surrounding it, completely encased by an impenetrable barrier powered by the chaos emeralds. Separated into the Wild Zones and City Zones. 

City Zones are Geralds surveillance state, a massive sprawling city with high tech from Ivo. The second sector of the city, a bit farther out, is Ivos sandbox, filled with casinos and terrible attractions, and many of his bases. Both plan to expand further into the island, they beef a little over who gets what. 

Wild Zones are less developed areas further away from their reach, more community based overgrown homes. Left to nature and the recovery from old ruins. Sonic protects these areas with his life.

Sol- A pocket dimension, a society of majority vampires and mobians living peacefully together. The kingdom of Sol is a deep cave underground, with strange lush vegetation and ceiling so high it mimics the sky. There's massive tree roots buried deep in the canyon, an important food source for the vampires. 

Accessed by a closed gateway hidden deep within Angel Island. Sol is the origin of vampires.

The mainland- the rest of the world outside of Angel Island 

Characters-

Sonic- Bitten by a vampiric Chao around 5 years old, Sonic is a free spirited vampire who likes to live life a day at a time. He's thinks of himself as a smooth charmer, and he's a bit of a dater.

He loves the thrill of any sort of adventure he can dig his claws into on Angel Island, mostly stopping Eggman's onslaught of bots from trying to turn the untouched wild areas of the island into his newest casino. 

He's up both day and night, usually only crashing to take naps, or otherwise being forced to sleep by his friends. Though the sun hurts him, he finds himself always missing the days where he could soak in its rays.

Hoax, Sonics night form, is a purely cosmetic change he shifts into with his star staff, a gift from Amy. He uses it for days when he wants a break from people trying to Get Him 24/7. He used to use it to break into Eggman's bases, where a strange, but tasty artificial blood was being held. More recently it's become a way to secure drinking that blood from the host himself.

Shadow- Shadow is a paranoid mess of a man, with a deep running hatred for vampires, decked out in silver to keep them away. Though he prefers to be left alone, he will take any and all opportunities to kill a vampire if he suspects they want anything to do with him. It is often misguided. During the evening he works as a cook under Knuckles. During the night he heists the Robotniks facilities with Rouge, looking for any goods. 

Whenever he travels out to the city zones, he wears a mask and full outfit designed after a vulture to hide his identity since he's wanted by the city. 

Shadow has a special blood type, artificially made and containing black arms blood, it has strengthening and healing properties and tastes good to vampires ! Shadow tries to protect himself and his blood at all costs. Unfortunately he made a deal with Hoax to feed him. Also has no idea he has chaos control, the power is dormant in his body. Though he can manipulate the energy from Chaos Drives a little bit. He relies on guns and knifes day to day.

Amy- A half vampire seedrian witch. She's full of life and a bit quirky. She is learning to incorporate magic into all aspects of her life. A lot of attempts tend to cause chaos but she's always learning something new! She has a little bit of a crush on Sonic and has always dreamed of proposing to him with a ring that would protect him from the sun, though she isn't skilled enough to create it yet. Being a seedrian vampire means the flowers on her head need to photosynthesize under the moonlight to eat rather than drink blood. Though she does have a deep and instinctual urge to kill plants.

Tails- a lonely engineer, working on the edge of the city. New to teenagehood, he's edgy and grumpy all the time. He's very distant from his friends, incredibly insistent he's all grown up and needs no one but himself. 

Knuckles- a hard working farmer out in the wilds, using his produce to supply his pizza food truck, which recently upgraded to a brick and mortar restaurant. In his free time he goes around Angel Island to treasure hunt and learn about the history of the island, littered with many ruins of ages past. 

Rouge- a sneaky vampire who lives off the grid, completely unknown to the surveillance state of the city. Shadow lives with her in her home carved inside of a mountain to hide both of them. Huge fan of bat and blood themed decor. Shadow does Not know she's a vampire. Vampirism enhanced her bat features, incredibly good hearing to the point she needs to constantly wear noise canceling earbuds, and a massive wingspan.

She likes to rob the city, and exchange those goods for information from her shady dealers about gemstone hotspots on the island. Eventually she smooth talks her way into a position of power working under Queen Blaze of Sol to spy on Gerald.

Blaze- Queen of the pocket dimension Sol. A few gateways exist on Mobius, one residing on Angel Island, though it has been cut off for years until Rouge reactivated it. A cold but caring ruler, she controls the artificial sun in their kingdom, keeping all of her vampiric subjects safe and happy. Rarely ever makes time for herself. 

Silver- Blazes best friend who lives with her in the castle. (Need to add more for him :(). Works with Rouge and Mephiles dealing with matters on Angel Island. Eventually gets shark teeth from fusing with Mephiles too often.

Mephiles - Blazes comically evil advisor, she keeps him around because he's an old family friend, and an Ancient Vampire with vast power. Has no mouth to drink blood with, so he needs to possess the bodies of others. Silver willingly lets mephiles fuse with him, to feed, and to grant silver a power boost.

Gerald- after losing Maria he became very unwell, spending years accumulating power and taking control of the city. He's lost himself. Shadow was stolen from him years ago. He's still looking for him.

Black Doom- Doom wed that old man. Visited the day the barrier went up, now he's stuck here. Now that he's no longer able to take over the galaxy, his next evil plan was to become a landlord. Terrorizing people who live in the city. 

Maria- Died in a targeted mob attack on Angel Island, Chaos and Tikal pitied her and let her have a spot in the master emerald ghost club. 

Random lil plot stuff- 

Sonic is a regular at Knuckles pizza place, likes to be annoying. One day they Will make him a chili dog pizza. Knuckles hopes he explodes but Shadow actually wants to kill him. He's not allowed to jump Sonic on the clock or else his pay gets docked </3

Random little bits about Sonic trying to steal from the claw machine and getting stuck, and trying to get a “delivered in under 30 minutes or free” pizza from the restaurant.

Sonic started a trend of extreme gear racing in Hydro City. He can also do a bunch of little party tricks with his star staff and knows nothing useful.

Shadow has massive gaps in his memory due to repression, he barely knows anything about his life before 16 (present day he's 19).

Knuckles and Shadow are close, knuckles being the first to find him. Since Shadow can't buy anything under his own name, Knuckles got him a hover motorcycle for deliveries.

When Shadow tells Knuckles about his deal with Hoax for the first time, Knuckles punches hoax so hard it turns him back into Sonic, making Knuckles the first to learn his identity outside of Amy, who helped him create the form.

Amy likes to follow Sonic on dates sometimes and mildly inconveniences them with her magic. Sonic usually finds this game more fun than the actual date

Maria and Tikal haunt the pizza place. They can eat pizza . They crave it. They also feed it to Chaos. Maria tries to talk to Shadow but he doesn't know who she is.

When making the blood deal with Shadow, Hoax had no idea Shadow was the guy under the vulture mask. He would have thought twice if he knew. Shadow also cut Hoaxs right hand during their first fight, its a permanent scar. Shadow says hed do it again.

Hoax slowly realizes how deeply unwell this little freak is. 

Right when they kinda start getting comfortable with each other, a weird artifact that knuckles finds allows them a glimpse into the future. Sonic and Shadow are married. Hoax has to play it cool while Shadow starts loading his guns. This haunts the rest of their relationship development.

Amy delves into dark magic when she starts getting desperate about how slow she's progressing with her magic skill. It has adverse effects on beings created by her magic once she goes too far.

Mephiles lives in a comically evil wizard tower in the Sol castle. Mephiles can also shapeshift after drinking peoples blood, he can only shift as long as the blood is in his system.

Silver really wants Shadow to explode for trying to kill vampires, his friends and family.

(Things are still in rework state and also im forgetting things rn so more will probably be added)

[knight-says-rollout]

Would you mind telling us about more disabled Cybertronians?

Oh boy would I

For this list let’s focus on physical disabilities, both because they’re the most commonly dismissed by the fandom and bc if we try to cover everything we’d be here all day (that can be another list, maybe, if y’all want)

This isn’t going to be comprehensive bc I’m tired but!! I will aim for a broad variety of examples nonetheless

Bumblebee - You all know him, you all love him. He’s the most obvious and most well known example of a disabled Cybertronian character.

In many iterations he is mute

Not by choice but because he lacks a voice box. Bee physically isn’t capable of speech and depending on the version has different tools to work around that. Sometimes he uses his radio to repurpose song and radio dialogue into speech, in cyberverse he also makes use of the internet for clips. In the aligned continuity (tfp and connected media) he speaks in binary, a very simplified form of language using beeps and buzzes, but still lacks a real voice and can’t form words.

In IDW he has a cane

At one point in the comics Bumblebee was shot by a human protester and as a result used a cane for a good bit of time. I haven’t had the chance to read that far into IDW yet so I’m not sure how long he had the cane for but it was enough time that it’s a solidified part of the charcaters history. I’ve seen little models of the cane for sale, to be paired with bee figures.

TFP Ultra Magnus - everyone’s favorite awkward commander, despite his popularity he’s surprisingly overlooked when it comes to this discussion

An amputee, he lost his hand

During an energon raid with wheeljack, magnus’ hand was crushed. Ratchet couldn’t save it and had to amputate, replacing it with a hooked prosthetic. I call it a prosthetic rather than replacement part because despite him being able to move it, it’s not a hand. Not in the way he had previously, and he has to relearn how to use it at all.

I think that’s an important distinction to make when discussing disability and transformers. Some bots might have only ever had one hand, or no legs, or etc but that’s always been their level of ability and since they Are robotic. Yeah they might not have the same capabilities as another bot but that’s a hard metric to go by. Seekers can fly but a grounder isn’t disabled because they can’t fly too, it’s a different standard.

WFC Shamble - far lesser known than Magnus, and reasonably so, this background character is Also missing a limb

Amputee, leg edition

His prosthetic is a lot less fancy than magnus’s, it’s a simple peg leg. Put em together and you get a pirate. Not much to say about him since i don’t know how he lost the leg, just that he did.

Shadow Striker - Most awesome lady in cyberverse. Unlike the above two, she Was able to get actual replacement parts rather than prosthetics. Despite this, she is both shown throughout the show and implied to have

Impaired mobility

Chronic pain

She was able to get replacement parts yes but they were needed because she was blown up. The limbs she was given were kinda just what the others could Find and as such are mismatched and don’t fit her very well. Her motor skills took a blow especially when it comes to combat, something she used to excel in. Her new limbs are described as unstable and prone to malfunction. The loss of mobility and implied chronic pain that come along with her situation are rough, but she makes do.

SG Soundwave - my favorite little guy, he’s in a bit of a different situation than the previous.

Bad Joints ���

His body was entirely overhauled multiple times, successfully, but the latest frame change was done with conflicting metals. Earth and Cybertronian materials clash in his joints, making them prone to getting stopped up. The most affected hinge being the one on the door to his tape deck. It is so prone to getting stuck that his cassettes refuse to dock with him at risk of getting trapped. To work around this, Soundwave has the aid of a personalized case he carries around that they dock in instead.

IDW Sunstreaker - speaking of assistive devices, this guy was (for a time) a wheelchair user! Or,, hoverchair.

Temporary,,, paraplegic? Correct me if another term fits better

Taking this moment for an aside to say hey!! Lookit that, both canes and hoverchairs are things that canonically and casually exist on cybertron!! It’s not too wild to assume there are bots out there who use them long term!! Yes both characters on this list were repaired eventually but they’re also both very popular old characters from an action based franchise and hasbro doesn’t have the balls to make something like that permanent yet. We the fandom are not hasbro. We can do whatever we damn want with our OCs. It’s canon that ur little guy can use mobility aids.

Ok, PSA over, anyway yeah Sunny’s body was basically wrecked and alpha trion was able to repair all of him except his legs. This put him in a hoverchair for a good amount of time.

Finback - he’s a con, a pirate, who developed a “metal wasting disease”

He’s on permanent life support

The disease is going to kill him eventually, and it’s explicitly stated that he’s come to terms with the idea of his death. In the meantime he’s using pretender tech, kinda like fancy armor, to reinforce himself and boost his immune system

Perceptor - for a microscope, the fact he’s got vision issues in multiple continuities is kinda ironic

He’s fully blind in cyberverse

He lost an eye in IDW

Between the two we get to see both routes taken to work with this. Adaption and technological aid. In cyberverse he uses his scope to compensate for the loss of vision Toph-style. In IDW he built himself a monocle that basically replaces the pieces that are missing.

Now we get into the uniquely Cybertronian disabilities, one’s that don’t quite translate to human conditions

Transmutate - is a beloved bot from beast wars

They can’t transform, they don’t have an alt mode

I’m hazy on the details of their character but afaik they came from a damaged stasis pod. Described as deformed and handicapped for their both their lack of an alt mode and general appearance, they are probably the oldest explicitly disabled Cybertronian character

Xaaron - from G1 is in a similar situation

He can’t transform, it would kill him

Unlike transmutate he does have an alt mode, a tank, but after thousands of years without transforming he is no longer able to. The new stress it would cause on his body would kill him.

Broadside - continuing with the subject of alt modes, this clumsy boy is a boat! That’s not a good thing.

He’s very prone to motion sickness

As you can imagine, chronic sea sickness isn’t the most helpful thing when you are the boat. This brings in the entirely new element of mobility issues that are inherent to alt modes. A bot that functions fine in root form might not in alt mode and vice versa.

Trailbreaker - is another instance of this. He’s not a fast car by any means but that doesn’t stop the fact

His frame has a very high energon cost

Possibly the least fuel efficient autobot, he’s got an outlier ability on top of it all that only further increases his required energon intake. He needs to pay more attention to his energon levels and refuel more often overall.

G1 Knockout - yes that’s right the shiny medic himself is on this list, though not for the same reason as his tfp version, g1 knockout still lives up to his name

He’s prone to fainting

A knockout in the more literal sense, he faints when he gets too excited. Fully collapses and everything. Since he’s a fall risk, his teammates take care to keep an eye on him.

Annnnd Yknow he probably should’ve been earlier in the list along with the “human-ish” issues but I’m tired, it’s late, and I’m bringing this list to a close

Im sure there are more characters that I didn’t mention but I hope this helped! Thank you for the ask

[hoiststowline]

Can I have a first kiss scenario for hound with human femme reader?

hound x reader

[a/n: any hound request is absolutely my pleasure to write. he's just so lovely.]

He’s fairly positive that everyone but the object of his affection knows of his enervating romance regarding you, the scout unable and struggling to find the courage to present his feelings to you with dexterity. Hound felt that everything he did lately felt clumsy, stumbling over words that usually came unchallenging in conversation, and has been caught staring about five times too many. It’s so damn easy to study your smile, the way your cheeks lift somewhat to accommodate the bend of your lips and every time he gets to see it, it feels like a reward and a punishment altogether. 

It’s no different than the ones you cast towards Cliffjumper, Mirage, or even Sunstreaker when he makes some quip that causes you to giggle. He’s crazy to think perhaps there is one saved special, a more carefree and blithe grin that upstages all others that have come before it. It’s unlikely, but he’s long been a fool about many things, and he wasn’t about to stop daydreaming about its existence when it wasn’t entirely proven it didn’t subsist. 

This time, it’s different, it’s a reunion a long while in the making. He’s been on a reconnaissance mission for about four and a half weeks, much shorter assignment than he’s accustomed to, but by far the longest you’ve both been apart. Earth’s time measurements often left him confounded, as stents that don’t appear extensive are quite the opposite in your perspective. 

He’s been back at the Ark roughly three hours give or take, enough to be medically cleared and undertake the necessary paperwork. It’s exhausting to prepare all this intelligence and information for a grand portion of it to be tossed into oblivion because it wasn’t useful or it was old news.

Yet, Hound does it without argument each time because the sooner it’s accomplished, the earlier he can seek your company. Not typically being one to skip out on assignments, Prowl was floored to discover the first time he’d tweaked the edges of his patrol to include your home. With a heavy spark, he made a pact to finalize his responsibilities before joining your camaraderie, though he didn’t have to be happy about it. 

Eventually, carrying an armful of data-pads, he begins the trek down to Prowl’s office when nervous chatter could be heard just around the corner, leading into the expansive room that would be the flight deck. He ventures to pass it by, making a mental note to assess the situation on the way back to his habsuite when he picks up your voice, enough to comprehend that you are not in a jovial mood. 

Immediately, he’s pivoting and heading straight for the cockpit, just five paces down the hall, followed by an expeditious left. When he reaches the interior panel, it slides over upon his proximity, and he finds you’re bargaining with Mirage to discover when the bot himself was supposed to return to the Ark. 

At the noise, you both freeze, fearful that you are being too loud and disturbing the peace. Hound can’t recall what Mirage said, his gaze trained entirely on you and the glassy look in your eyes. 

“Hound!” You’d exclaimed, but something different occurred, something else accompanied it. It caused him to drop the seven or eight data-pads he’d had in his hold, bewildered as that smile he’d convinced himself he’d imagined erupts, one that is just pure elation that could not be contained. 

At the dramatic clatter, you’d jumped slightly, but the smile never left your face, scrambling and nearly tripping across the floor to make it to him as efficiently as possible. Hound knows he’s got to have the dumbest expression on his face, but he can’t bring himself to care as he drops to a knee, empty arms now wide as he patiently awaits your embrace. 

“When did you get in? I had no idea you returned,” Mirage moves to begin collecting the dropped data-pads, but not before gently patting Hound on the shoulder. “Welcome back, buddy.”

He’s so distracted by the way your arms fight to wind around his neck but collects himself to address MIrage. “Thanks. ’N not too long ago, but don’t worry ‘bout that, I gotta get those to Prowl-”

“I got this,” The blue mech laughs, gesturing with his helm toward the paperwork. “Somebody was very worried about you,” 

Hound mouths thanks as Mirage disappears out the door, the panel closing back over with an automated hiss, leaving you both in shared solitude. “And how are you?” He rumbles, servo cupping your back as you pull rearward to address him, fingers splayed across the warm metal just around his collarbone. 

“I should be asking you that,” You laugh gingerly, hastily blinking away that worried emotion. “I just wanted to make sure you were doing all right. You’re not hurt, are you?” 

Hound blinks twice before comprehending what you’ve said, his unoccupied servo coming to rest over your left hand, dwarfing it where it resides on his chest. “‘M fine, ah promise. But, m’sorry to have been gone for so long.” He whispers when he’s so close to you like this, afraid to talk any louder to disturb such a perfect moment. 

“It’s okay,” The smile persists, even if it’s a smidge mellowed, just so your cheeks don’t begin to twinge with discomfort. “But I won’t lie, I missed you. Like a lot, a lot,”

At that, he chuckles, the action felt as it reverberates up from his chassis and tumbles out his mouth. “I missed ya more, y/n.” 

There’s a pause, a brief stutter where you both just smile stupidly at each other, the cool touch of Hound’s servo furling softly to hold yours within his grasp. Everything stopped, your heart leaps to your throat as you remove your free hand from his clavicle to rest on his cheek, Hound leaning negligible weight into your benign touch. 

“Yeah?” You rasp, leaning just an inch forward, waiting to be dismissed, but the idea of backing out now never crossed his processor. If anything, he moves closer, just near enough that you can see the sincerity dwelling in his cerulean optics. 

“Willin’ to bet on it.” He breathes, though his voice box hitches as you close the remaining distance to plant a kiss squarely atop his lips. 

[deathworlders-of-e24]

Thomas, Engineer

Part 4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sparks burst upwards into the goggles Thomas was wearing, the plasma cutter in his hand burning at several hundred degrees, focused to an incredibly fine point. Holding it in his work gloves was awkward at best, but years of practice had made him exceptional at his job. Sixer and Mace might’ve been better at the finer detail work, Padrino had incredible dexterity after all, but making custom tools was well within his wheel house too.

The two bot brothers had asked him to make a special kind of nano wrench while they ran a ‘memory sweeper’ program through his old translator, the one that had caught that rogue signal all those cycles ago. The group had been working on it in their off time between maintenance requests, and they were finally just steps away from the answers they were looking for. All they needed now was to strip the memory code out of the device, and for that they needed itty bitty tiny nanoscopic tools; ergo, while the twins worked their programs, Thomas got to work making the things they’d need.

He was almost done too, when the comm-link trilled. A patch job in the security chief’s office, apparently one of the terminals was unresponsive and the door was getting jammed up on something. Personal projects would have to wait.

“Roomba, we got a job. You coming with or hanging out here?”

[Statement: you operate at greater efficiency when this unit is present]

“That’s right buddy, but I’m asking what you wanna do,” Thomas said.

“Beep.”

[Statement: I would like to assist please]

“Thanks Roomba, I appreciate that.” Thomas held his arm out and the little droid climbed up to his usual perch on the man’s shoulder. “Look at you, making decisions for yourself. Good for you bud!”

Thomas adored the little robot, and as Roomba got smarter, that feeling only grew. Every day the small cleaning drone was getting more clever, his AI evolving ever further, thanks to the upgrades from Sixer and Mace. Pretty soon Roomba would be as smart as Thomas was.

Maybe I’ll teach him how to play virtual chess, he thought. Or I’ll build him a little controller and we can split screen a blaster battle game or something!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two made their way through the ship, waving and saying hello to the many people who stopped Thomas to look at the small robot on his shoulder. At this point in their mission, it was common knowledge that one of the humans had made a cleaning drone their ‘pet’, although Thomas was trying to make it clear that wasn’t the case. Roomba was his own person, he just so happened to have very little legs and it was faster to just catch a ride on his human companion. It probably didn’t help that outside himself and the Padrino, nobody else had the hardware to understand what Roomba was saying, so all they ever heard was Beep.

They made it up to the command deck and knocked on the door to the Chief’s office. It opened halfway before getting stuck, hidden gears grinding, and there was the Chief, leaning on his desk with a data pad in his hand. Thomas figured Chief Ducane was kinda cute, what with his scruffy yet trimmed beard and his various tattoos, but macho wasn’t really his thing on guys. That being said, he could see why some on the crew were whispering about him, the man was built. Thomas tried getting his attention through the crack.

“Reporting Chief, you sent a maintenance request?” Thomas said through the gap in the door.

“Yeah, I did,” Chief Ducane looked up. “Oh right, you’re Thomas right? I don’t remember if I’ve introduced myself yet, I’m Danny Ducane. You’re the guy with the domesticated maintenance droid, right?” The Chief got up to the door and pulled it open himself, the hydraulics groaning as it slid open the rest of the way.

“He’s not…” Thomas started, annoyed, but took a beat. Don’t antagonize the guy who can pull apart the doors. “This is Roomba, he has an adaptive learning AI now, like the Padrino on the crew. He’s not a pet.”

Roomba looked up when Thomas said his name and trilled angrily at the idea of being equated to a house cat.

“Beep.”

[Statement: Please inform the other human that I am not domesticated in any way, and would prefer that not get said again]

“He said you’re being rude,” Thomas explained.

“Beep.”

[Sufficiently put]

Chief Ducane looked at the two of them for a moment before raising his hands in defeat.

“Okay, fair enough, that was a dick move on my part. Sorry little guy, didn’t know you were one of the clever bots.”

Thomas nudged his tool bag with his foot, and the Chief took the message.

“Right, my control console is fritzing out,” Ducane said, shuffling awkwardly towards his desk. “The screen blurs every couple minutes, and the door got stuck this morning, don’t know what that’s about either.” The chief stood there, gesturing to his desk with one hand, the other fumbling to put the data pad down where Thomas suspected he thought he wouldn’t be able to see it. It occurred to him that Chief Ducane might not be the most technologically savvy, considering you could read a data pad from either side, and the exact same script was frozen on his console screen. It looked like a checklist of sorts, but Thomas wasn’t here to snoop classified documents. Unless it’d be funny, then maybe.

“Right,” Thomas said, eyeing the chief, “it’s probably just an electrical short, a little leftover from that solar flare the other day. I’ll have to strip some wiring but it’s a quick fix. Though the door might have to be taken out so I can get into the motors.”

“And how long will that take?” Ducane asked.

“Maybe an hour? Maybe more?” Thomas shrugged. “Takes as long as it takes for me to get in there.”

Thomas looked at him a moment, standing there with his hands on his sides. He could hear Roomba’s mechanical innards ticking and whirring as the little bot held onto his perch on Thomas’s shoulder.

“Guess I should let you get to it then,” Chief Ducane said, clapping his hands and heading for the door, but he stopped before he left, like he’d just remembered he’d left the stove on or some such.

“Hey, just a quick question,” he said, turning back to face Thomas. The chief’s hands were fidgeting, hooking and unhooking his thumbs into his pockets. “Are you acquainted with the Sed engineers? Kor and Taren?”

Thomas thought for a moment, then shrugged.

“Sure, I’ve seen them around. Why?”

“They ever seem real busy for unknown reasons?”

“Honestly? Like you want my work appropriate answer or my actual opinion?”

“Both.”

“Well my work appropriate answer is sure, they seem good at their jobs, usually off together on requests.”

“And your personal opinions?” Chief Ducane pressed, crossing his arms and shifting to stand in the doorway, as if he was keeping Thomas sequestered until he got answers to his odd line of questions. Thomas didn’t need to ponder the question that long.

“Honestly? Honestly they kinda suck,” He blurted out, a little more venomously than he’d intended. “Like, okay, don’t get me wrong, you ask them questions and they give the right answers, they know how things work and they know the right tool for the jobs, but work wise? Half the time nobody can find them. I’ve had three repair jobs handed over to me in the last two weeks ‘cause they’re off somewhere fooling around.”

“Fooling around?” Ducane intoned, “as in…?”

“Well we just kinda assumed they were an item. And look, we’re sympathetic, but the work load is insane on a ship this size with this many conflicting requirements. Temperature differences for different races, atmospheric controls bottoming out, I got a guy with four arms for a boss and even he thinks it’s ridiculous how often stuff around here breaks.”

“So you all just assumed they were off somewhere… doing that, while you all just put up with it? Has anyone seen them like this?” Chief Ducane pushed.

“Roomba did,” Thomas said, tilting his head the little droid’s direction, “while we were doing repairs in the air ducts a couple cycles ago.”

“Beep.”

[Please do not disclose this information]

“Huh?” Thomas put the little droid in his palm and let him stand for himself. “What’s up buddy?”

“What’s he saying?” The chief asked, shifting focus from Thomas to Roomba and back again.

“Beep.”

[Disclosure of this information will bring my work efficiency into question]

Ohhhhhhh, Thomas thought.

“He’s just saying how weird what he saw was,” Thomas shiftily explained, patting the little droid on the head. “We were working some repairs in the ducts when Roomba saw Taren in another part of the ship through the grating. He was on a comm-link and Kor showed up with a thing Roomba didn’t recognize, but from what he told me it was some hand tool I think.”

“So maybe they were just on another job and not screwing around?” Ducane questioned.

“Nah, couldn’t be, I was supposed to be the only repair guy in that part of the ship at the time. Everyone else is still supposed to be in the core room making repairs after that solar flare.”

Thomas took a deep breath and looked Ducane in the eye.

“Chief, be straight with me, is something going on on my ship?”

“What do you mean your ship?” Ducane scoffed.

“Trust me, this ship has already gotten enough of my blood, sweat, and tears man. I probably love her more than anyone else on this boat, so yeah, she’s my ship.” Thomas was getting a tad red in the face as he said this, which was fair, as it was slightly embarrassing to voice this odd idea of his. “Look man, this ship might be just a job to you, but it’s not just that to me, okay? So if there’s something happening here that could hurt her, I’m not gonna let that happen.”

How odd that a simple maintenance request could have such an impact on his day?

Roomba reach up and tugged on Thomas’s earlobe.

“Beep.”

[New Task Uploaded: protect Noah. Confirm?]

“That’s right Roomba, that’s what we’re gonna do,” Thomas said, weirdly amped up now. Chief Ducane stood there looking at him incredulously.

“Is every kid in the galaxy just ready to ride shotgun off to war these days? I swear, you younger guys need to do something more productive and fun with all that extra energy you have.”

“Shove it… respectfully, Chief.”

“Well if it makes you feel any better, I don’t have anything concrete that something is happening, not that I could tell you if I did.” Ducane shrugged and crossed his arms again, leaning against the wall. The data pad behind them on the desk trilled, a new file had been sent to it, and before the tones had silenced themselves, Thomas felt as if his neurons had just taken a bolt of electricity across his frontal lobe. He turned back to face the Security Chief with a dread look tacked onto his face.

“Hypothetically, Chief, if somebody had possibly intercepted a weird transmission while outside the broadcast shields, how important would that be?”

Chief Ducane stared at him a moment, then clasped his hands together in front of his mouth before sighing uncomfortably hard.

“I’d say that’d be pretty important, kid.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I thought you were supposed to be smart!” Danny half accused, walking quickly down the hall away from the lift.

“Man, I’m like actually a genius, I have four degrees, but nobody ever accused me of being smart,” Thomas said, shrugging. “I didn’t want to get kicked off the ship if it was nothing, which it probably is!”

“You wouldn’t have gotten kicked off the ship. If I can’t even get rid of Grite, you’re as safe as can be.”

“Oh, okay,” Thomas said sarcastically, “then I totally should’ve spilled it when, while on a space walk, my somewhat illegally jailbroke translator picked up a rogue signal on the long range communications array for the ship I just got a job on. I’ve seen people canned for less, I could’ve been tried for espionage or something.”

“You did what?”

Thomas and Danny turned on theirs heels to see Odis the Galley standing in the doorway they’d just passed, a ‘coffee’ mug in hand. It had a cartoonish drawing of a purple cow on it.

“Oh good, we’re just telling the whole ship now, I guess,” Danny pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m definitely getting fired.”

“Wait wait wait, Odis is cool,” Thomas vouched. “He’s a real stand up guy.”

“What did you do now humie?” Odis groaned, downing whatever was in his mug before sprinting to join them. His shorter legs had to move twice as fast to keep up with the taller humans.

“So you know that project the twins and I have been working on?” Thomas asked.

“Yeah, you’ve been using your off hours for something that’s not video games, of course I noticed.”

“Fired…,” Danny moaned. “Court marshalled even.”

“Quiet big human, the smart human is talking.”

“Oh no, we’ve established that word doesn’t apply to me.”

“Beep.”

[Thank you for not telling the human I fell down the air ducts]

It was a wonder how the entire ship didn’t know what they were doing by then, seeing as they were not exactly discreet as they headed down to the maintenance decks. When the group of them finally made the locker room, more than one set of eyes was watching them, though it was mostly Chief Ducane they were looking at. It wasn’t exactly normal operating procedures for the Chief of Security to walk into their locker room.

“How is it that you humans are always up to something ridiculous?” Odis asked, shaking his bulbous gray head. “I mean, as a Galley, I’m actually impressed with the level of… what’s a good human word for this nonsense?”

“Shenanigans?” Thomas offered.

“Ridiculous words, ridiculous people…,” Odis laughed. “The cows are cool, but the rest of your world is just a mess of weird, huh?”

The humans didn’t respond, though given any thought, they couldn’t have refuted the Galley anyway.

Sixer and Mace stood at their work table, the terminal screen running thousands of lines of code a second. Thomas would’ve loved to comb through it given the chance, but now wasn’t the time.

“Twins!” he called over, “Got it up and going?”

“Almost, Human Thomas,” Sixer replied.

“Hello, Security Chief Ducane,” Mace greeted.

“Yeah, hi guys,” Danny said. “I hear you all have been working a little side project?”

The two Padrino turned to each other and each gave a quick burst of machine speak before turning back to face them.

“Human Thomas, do you believe it is time to inform the ship’s command structure of our findings?”

“You could say that, yeah,” Thomas nodded.

“Good, because we have finished preparations. We simply need the tool you made up and to see if the sweeper program retrieves any data.”

Thomas patted down his coveralls before fishing the nano-wrench from his inner pocket. He handed the tool to Sixer, who turned back to the table and made the final adjustments.

“Moment of truth, I guess,” he said.

“You realize I’m going to be extremely pissed if you got me down here and all worked up for nothing,” Danny said pointedly.

“Understood… sir,” Thomas swallowed hard.

The computer ran its program, thousands, hundreds of thousands of lines of code fluttering across the screen, the Padrino’s speed was impressive to say the least. They definitely had to teach him that sometime.

After a minute of them staring at the terminal in silence, the screen showed a resounding-

“Nothing?” Thomas and Danny said in unison.

“Correct,” Sixer said.

“Unfortunately,” continued Mace, “the translators are not equipped with enough memory storage to log something the size of a communications transmission.”

“So we’ve got nothing?” Thomas said, hands clenched at his sides. He didn’t know what he wanted the signal to be, but nothing was… incredibly unsatisfying, to say the least.

“Did you try to see recipient data?” Odis asked, eyeing the console code.

“What?” Thomas turned to him, confusion distorting the disappointment on his face.

“With the long range array, it’s got recipient data built into the message, so the thing knows who it’s going to,” Odis explained slowly. “Back in the day, we Galley used to strip data out of long range messages to find new planets to… interact with. It’s how we found the humies first, caught all those messages you kept throwing out into space.” Odis rifled through one of his side pockets and brought out something that looked like a key fob with a port on one end. He popped open a panel in the terminal and plugged it in, hitting a couple keys to sync the programs together. Thomas watched, confusion and disappointment morphing into a cautious optimism. Maybe they’d find something after all.

“And here… we… go!” Odis said smugly, triumphantly hitting the execute key. The screen rolled the code again, but this time information began loading, the computer compiling the data for them.

“And you just happen to have this… why?” Danny looked sternly in the Galley’s direction.

“If it makes you feel any better Chief, most of my free time has been spent with the kid playing Terran video games,” Odis snickered. “Don’t worry about what I’ve been up to, worry about whoever is sending messages to the GAIL High Council.”

“What the hell?” Danny exclaimed, leaning over the console to examine the data.

Sure enough, they couldn’t recover any of the message, the data was just too big for the little device to have caught any. However, Odis’s tracer did show that whatever the signal was, it had gone straight to someone by the name of Mons on the High Council of the Grand Assembly of Intelligent Lifeforms.

“Chief, what the hell are we looking at?” Thomas asked, for the first time actually realizing that something could be deeply, darkly wrong on the ship.

“This doesn’t make any sense, communications can’t go directly to the Council, not without going through Captain Skitch and me,” Danny kept looking at the screen, rereading the data from start to finish, over and over again, before pulling out his data pad and copying all of it down, taking photos too.

“What are you doing?” Sixer asked.

“Making sure whatever we have here, there’s multiple copies so we can’t lose any proof later.”

“Do you suspect there’s another agenda aboard this ship Chief Ducane?” Mace followed.

“… I sincerely hope not, but either way, none of this ever happened. Not a single one of you saw any of this, okay? Nothing and no one,” Danny looked at each of them in turn, making sure they understood his meaning, “is going to hear about any of this. And when I call any of you to my office, it’s double time, understood?”

“You got it Chief,” Thomas said immediately, the others following suit, but with much less gusto.

“Beep.”

[Task: protect Noah in progress]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The work shift ended with no more excitement, however Thomas’s heart rate hadn’t declined even a bit in the following hours. The idea that something could threaten the ship, his ship, the ship he’d almost died for already, filled him with some very mixed emotions, not the least of which was apprehension. It did reassure him that Chief Ducane seemed like a good guy, and that he wasn’t going to take any disciplinary measures against the worker crew for anything, but the idea that they could be called on to actually do something was daunting.

Walking to the mess hall, Thomas realized he’d never actually made any of the requested repairs to Danny office. He pulled a comm-link out of his back pocket and sent a quick “sorry, I’ll be right there to fix the door” text, but was alarmed at what the Chief of Security replied almost instantly.

>Someone searched my office while cameras were out of commission. Nothing is missing. They took advantage of the door being jammed and unlocked<

Another message:

>Don’t come up here, it’ll look suspicious for the both of us. I’ll make another request tomorrow. Tell your friends to be careful, and come to me immediately if you see anything at all<

Thomas shakily put the comm-link back in his pocket and headed back towards the Vending Machines. He saw Odis sitting in the corner and joined him after getting his food.

“You ever think someone in the GAIL could do something pretty bad?”

“What, you think you humans have a monopoly on being kind of shitty?” Odis snorted. “You’re not that weird, you know.”

[in1-nutshell]

Silveraid in TFOne, go

I may or may not have shaken the 'Angst salt shaker' a bit too hard...

Hope you enjoy!

TF1 Silver Aid

SFW, Platonic, ANGST, Mention of injuries, Familial, Cybertronian reader

TF1

Elita and Silver Aid were a prime example of opposite split sparks.

Also known as being twins with opposite personalities.

No one could have guessed the two were related, much less twins.

Elita was the one who took charge and had more of the aggression.

Silver was less intense than her twin, opting for more peaceful and gentler approaches.

Or as gentle as you can get in the mines.

Elita had tried to toughen up her twin, but it never ended up well.

Elita punching a training pole. She turns to Silver. Elita: “Your turn.” Silver turns to the pole. Silver Aid: “Remind me why I let you talk me into this?” Elita: “Because I told you.” Silver Aid gives her a look. Silver Aid: “In what situation would I need to deck someone in the face? That’s why I have you.” Elita gives her a look. Silver Aid: “… Fine…”

Eventually Silver caught the optics of some of the miner medics and ended up moving into their sector thanks to some supervisors.

Silver still visited the mines after work.

Many of the miners welcomed the kindness the bot gave.

Elita often warned her about getting too soft.

Silver Aid would playfully roll her optics at her twin.

It was thanks to her twin that she would meet Orion and D-16.

It was… eventful when they first met.

Silver Aid walks into one of the med bay rooms. Silver Aid smiles at the two mechs in the room. Silver Aid: “Hello, I’m Silver Aid. I’ll be patching up you two up today.” Orion: “I haven’t seen you around? New around the mines?” Silver Aid starts checking his arm. Silver Aid: “Oh, I’ve been around, just moved into a new sector so you’ll only be seeing me around here.” She turns to D-16 and smiles. Silver Aid: “And what are your names?” D-16: “D-16 and that’s Orion Pax.” Silver Aid carefully buffs out a dent on the side of his chassis. D-16 feels a bit warmer. D-16: “Umm, my frame feels a bit warmer than usual.” Silver Aid: “Oh? Let me take a look.” She places a cooling patch just below the hole in his chassis. She can feel the spark pulsing fast under her digits. Silver Aid: “You need to calm down D-16. It’ll make the process go a lot faster.” D-16 nods and glances over at Orion. Orion just has a knowing look on his face plate. The same look that usually got them into trouble. Elita: “Silver Aid.” The three bots jump a bit at the sudden presence of Elita One. Silver smiles widely putting away the cooling patch and hugging Elita. The mech half expected the pink bot to flip the medic over, but to their surprise Elita just patted her back. Elita gets out of Silver’s grip. Elita: “Are these two knucklehead’s ready to go back to work?” Silver Aid: “Not yet, they still need a bit more time to heal.” Silver Aid turns to the two mechs and waves. Silver Aid: “You two are free to go. Goodbye!” Both mechs wave back as the bot left. Elita glared at them both. Elita: “Stay away from my twin.” Orion and D-16: “SHE’S YOUR TWIN!”

Both mechs have near whiplash hearing it.

How?!

After that day, Orion started dragging D to the medbay to try and meet up with Silver Aid.

Not that D-16 needed much convincing.

He really wanted to meet the medic again.

Eventually the three bots became close friends.

Especially between Silver Aid and Orion Pax, much to the dismay of D-16 and Elita-One.

D-16 and Elita-One are in one of the med bay. Orion and Silver Aid had been gone from the mines for two days and had recently gotten a message from them to meet in the med bay. Silver Aid and Orion walk into the room. D-16 sighs in relief and starts to go over to the pair but gets shoved aside by Elita. She runs to Silver’s side and looks over her. Elita: “Are you okay? What happened? What did Pax drag you into?” Orion: “Well—” D-16: “Wait you did drag her into something?” Silver Aid: “Not really. But there is something we want to tell you two.” Orion swings an arm around Silver’s shoulder with a goofy smile. Orion: “We are now officially Amica Endura!” SMACK! Orion gets punched in the face and falls backwards. Silver Aid: “Elita!” D-16 blinking in surprise. D-16: “You two… you performed the Amica rites?! How?! Why?!” Orion stands up with Silver’s help. Orion: “Relax D, Elita. It’s not like I asked her to be my Conjunx.” SMACK! Orion is once again on the ground holding his face. Silver Aid: “D!”

D didn’t want to admit it, but he was jealous of his friend for having the bearing to do something so uncommon.

Amica’s were not too common in Iacon.

Orion keeps teasing him about going out with Silver, he just wanted both his friends to get Conjunxed already.

D-16 tries punching him whenever he says this.

Elita knows that her twin has a certain optic out for a certain silver mech.

She hates it.

Often telling her that she could have any other mech, just not him or Orion.

Now to the main story.

Silver Aid is on scene when the tunnel collapses immediately going to Jazz.

Is shocked to see Elita get demoted.

She was going to need to talk to her on her break.

Silver gives D and Orion a quick smile as she quickly carries Jazz to the medbay.

Is there with d when Orion talks about going into the Iacon 500.

Silver Aid tries to be supportive of her Amica but does tell him to be a bit realistic in the fact that they didn’t even have cogs.

Accompanies D back to the mines.

Silver Aid: “Well this is our stop. See you later D.” Silver starts to leave but D grabs her servo. She turns to look at him. Silver Aid: “D?” D-16 blinks before letting go of her servo. D-16: “I, umm… you want to sit with us tomorrow?” Silver blinks before smiling sadly. Silver Aid: “I’d love to… but I have a shift to work tomorrow… I’m sorry.” D-16 felt a pang seeing her sad. D-16: “Hey, we can tell you what happened in the race. Maybe even get some memorabilia or decal from the shop!” Silver smiles at him. Silver Aid: “Thanks D… see you tomorrow then.” She leaves after that. D-16 sighs and has a warm smile on his face. Orion: “So!” D-16 jumps at Orion’s sudden entrance. Orion: “When can I expect you to make a Conjunx of my Amica-AAA! STOP TRYING TO HIT ME!”

Silver Aid gets called down to deal with something in the level were Elita worked.

It turned out to be an easy fix, she spotted Elita loading a crate and decided to go over, at least have a small chat.

Elita was about to start talking when Silver noticed the top of the train was open.

Elita told her to get behind her, someone was on the train.

If they worked together to get the perp, she could get promoted and maybe Silver could get some newer equipment.

Silver is just confused why Orion, a yellow bot and D are inside.

Elita roughly grabs her servo and tells her to run.

Not one to question her twin, she runs by her side.

Silver Aid and Elita are running and leaping over crates in front of the three mechs. B-127: “Who are these bots?!” Orion: “Just my Amica and her twin.” Elita and Silver copy similar flips and jumps. D-16: “You know I can finally see the resemblance now.” Meanwhile with Elita and Silver Aid. Silver Aid: “Elita maybe we should listen to them—” Elita gives her a glare. Silver: “Okay, just going to keep on running…”

Then they all got to the surface.

Everyone is staring at the beautiful horizon.

D-16 inches closer to Silver, but Elita sees this and firmly pulls her into a side hug glaring at the silver mech.

The train gets launched in the air.

Orion and D-16 land on top of her back.

Orion went to go help Elita while D helped Silver and they both went to help B-127.

Reveal of the Quintessons.

Silver instinctively grabbed onto D and Elita’s servos trying to guide them to safety.

Clenches on D’s servo when Orion and B nearly get caught

Elita’s servo let go, but not D’s.

Not that either wanted to let go.

It wasn’t until B-127 made the comment that they both let go, both looking a bit flustered.

Orion is happy.

B has found a new ship.

Elita is seething.

Seeing what happened to the Prime’s.

It hurts seeing their frames like this, guessing how they were terminated by some of the old wounds and tears in the frames.

Steals up for a bit comforting D seeing his idol beheaded.

Meeting Alpha Trion.

Seeing what happened to the Prime’s and confirming her previous thoughts.

Seeing what Sentinel was doing.

Is by Alpha Trion’s side trying to get rid of his of the organic material in his joints when D and her Amica start the fight about what to do with Sentinel.

Freezing hearing that Sentinel had taken their cogs.

How could someone be so cruel?

Getting cog’s.

Silver Aid gets Onyx Prime’s cog.

A bit weirded out by the new parts in her armor.

Unlike the others on the run, she refuses to transform.

She didn’t need to transform to get to point A to point B before, plus there was no telling what she turned into after noticing the lack of wheels, treads, rotors or wings.

Thankfully Silver Aid did not transform since she had to help her friends and family down the hill safely before they could properly transform.

Silver Aid grabs Orion’s servo. Orion: “WHO’S TOUCHING ME!” Silver Aid: “I AM PAX! YOUR HELMS TUCK INTO YOUR BODY!” Orion: “I KNOW!” Silver Aid watches B-127 fly above them screaming. B-127: “WHEELS! I NEED WHEELS!” Silver Aid: “PAX IF WE SURVIVE THIS, I’M GOING TO SMACK YOU IN THE FACE!” Orion: “NOT YOU TOO!”

D hits the drone that would have shot Silver and Orion.

Feels a bit uneasy seeing him happy with the kill.

Tells Orion that she would talk to D after the awkward tension later.

Getting kidnapped by the High Guard.

Knows most of the High Guard thanks to Orion constantly talking about them.

Is horrified when D starts fighting Starscream.

Clutching Orion’s servo seeing the look in D-16’s optics.

Arachnid and her army arrived.

Silver Aid still refuses to transform and grabs a blaster trying to protect the injured guards.

Gets captured with B and D.

Is scared for D-16 standing up to Sentinel.

Silver Aid’s energon runs cold seeing Sentinel brandishing out a torch. She tries to stand up but Arachnid steps on her back struts. Silver Aid: “Get away from him!” D-16 glances over worried. Sentinel smirks and ignores her. Silver continues to struggle as D-16 starts screaming from the torch. Finally with a move that would make her sister proud, Silver Aid manages to kick Arachnid in the face and head buts Sentinel in his chin, making him stagger a couple feet away. She stands, still bounded, protectively in front of D-16. Fury dancing in her optics. Sentinel walks forward trying to intimidate her with his size. She does not back down. Sentinel: “You done medic? If you move, I might even spare you a painful termination.” Silver spits in his face. Silver Aid: “I will protect D-16 as long as I function.”

One swing and it would be done.

Silver braces herself for the slice when the train hits the building.

Gets thrown back trying to cover D-16’s frame with her’s.                                                                                              

Grogging wakes up to Orion and D helping her from her restrains.

Elita hugs her tightly before letting go to help Orion.

Silver Aid refuses to leave D-16 alone with Sentinel.

D-16 sees Silver Aid by his side. D-16: “Silver go! I’ll deal with Sentinel!” Silver gives him a look before charging up a blaster. Silver Aid: “You must have had a few blow to the helm to think I’m leaving you here.” D-16: “Just go with your Amica—” Silver Aid grabs the front of his chassis and glares at him. Silver Aid: “What part of I’m not leaving you, don’t you understand.” She lets him go and mimics one of Orion’s smirks. Silver Aid: “Ready to beat this false Prime?” D-16 smirks back. D-16: “You have no idea.”

Both manage to push him off the balcony.

Silver Aid skidded a bit farther on the stage.

Wakes up from the pounding to hear Orion and D fighting over whether to kill Sentinel or not.

Orion lands on her as D pushes him back.

The next few seconds are a blur.

Screaming in pain as Orion gets shot.

She could barely move from the sudden pain in her chassis, in her spark.

Just barely looking at D on the edge holding him.

Her energon running cold seeing Orion fall into the pit.

Screaming as she felt Orion’s spark go out.

More of the guards started surrounding her, bad news, considering her frame was still in shock and could barely move.

Out of pure fear and shock, Silver Aid transformed.

She doesn’t know what she transformed into, but it was big, had many arms and she could suddenly see much more.

It was much easier to deal with the guards around her, seeing D dealing with his own.

Then she hears the screams of terror.

More blaster fire comes her way.

It stings.

Silver Aid hears the frightened voices in the crowd.

Hideous.

Freak.

Monster.

Murderer.

She hears D-16 name himself Megatron after splitting Sentinel in half.

Too busy with the blasters and influx of bots trying to stab her to realize that Elita and B had gone to stop him.

A sudden blast knocks her into the crowd.

She gets to the ground and transforms back on impact.

Just in time to see Optimus Prime start fighting Megatron.

The pain in her chassis suddenly vanished.

Almost as if Orion… but he wasn’t Orion… right?

Frozen in place hearing him banish Megatron and the High Guard from Iacon.

Once most of them start leaving, the crowd around her starts turning.

Bot 1: “It’s the freak!” Silver Aid: “I’m not—” A bot pokes her while another yanks her armor. Bot 2: “A monster!” Bot 3: “Get back!” Bot 4: “Maybe the new Prime can finish it off.” Silver tries to make herself smaller to avoid the harsh touches. She makes brief contact with Optimus, Elita and B-127 on the platform. They all have a look of shock. The same shock as the bots around her. The ones trying to close in around her. Silver Aid: “I’m not here to hurt anyone!” Bot 5: “Liar!” Bot 6: “Tear her apart!”

This was enough for the sudden transformation to take place.

Silver ignores the screams and yelling; her main priority is to get out of there.

On the plus side of this new form, Silver was able to crawl into tight places and hide.

The bot managed to avoid all guards and bots until night fall.

Silver was shaken to the core from what had happened in the last 24 hours.

How could everything change so much so fast?

She wanted nothing more than to craw into Elita’s arms and have her tell her that things were going to be okay and that she would beat up who ever made her cry.

But she couldn’t go back.

She saw their faces, there was nothing to go back to now.

And it wasn’t like she would go to D—Megatron.

She’d probably get shot on sight as well.

With a heavy spark, Silver Aid silently boarded on the train that led up to the surface.

She jumped off the train and started to look for a new home, hoping not to run into any of the High Guard.

Primus decided to show some pity to her, as she found an old, abandoned ship safely hidden in the rock formations.

Silver Aid makes her way into one of the old rooms. The weight of the day finally crushed her as she crumbled to the ground and silently sobbed. She pulled her knees in tightly. Slowly she pulled out a picture she had taken earlier that day of the five of them on the way to Alpha Trion. Silver Aid gave a watery smile: “Night ‘Lita, Night B, Night Orion, Night D… I’ll see you… someday… night…” The empty ship echoed with the soft sobs of the bot inside.

[theresattrpgforthat]

do you have any recommendations for games that play well virtually? my main ttrpg group and i are only able to meet over discord most of year. im especially games interested in games that would be good for one shots or no prep/limited prep games

Theme: Good for Online

Hello friend! I have good news for you - I also play most of my games over Discord! My ttrpg group has found a number of ways to make online play easier, the primary way being through dice bots, and making Google Spreadsheets to act as our character sheets.

I like using these because the spreadsheets are visible for everyone who is playing, and can also be edited by anyone who has access to them. I find this helpful because it’s much harder to lose your character sheet, and as a GM, having a copy of all of the PCs helps me when I’m organizing games that need some extra planning. These sheets can also double as a communal journal, where people can take notes of what’s happened so far, making it easier to recap in future sessions.

If you want some Google spreadsheets for your game, I recommend checking out what I’ve made so far, or taking a look at what the Open Hearth Gaming Community has compiled - they have sheets for so many games!

Graffiti Speak, by pidj.

This is a roleplaying game designed to be played on a discord server. The game works well with a set time limit, especially when playing with a large number of players. It also suits asynchronous play-by-post and multiple sessions. Play as Graffiti Artists trying to find each other in an ever-evolving city, avoiding cops and crowds as you leave hopeful messages. 

I have no other information about how this game plays, but my best guess is that this game uses the text channels of a Discord server as part of the play experience. The designer says that the game is good for two to three sessions, unless you use time skips to revisit the same world. Because it’s about avoiding cops I’m curious about whether or not this game might work well alongside another cyberpunk-themed game.

Subway Runners, by Gem Room Games.

Life is tough for the cash-strapped in Pociopolis. Ever since the secret to immortality was discovered, nobody retires anymore! With all the steady jobs taken and no sign of any new ones opening up, there’s only one sure way to make some quick cash: sign up as a Subway Runner and work for the Metro Authority to hunt monsters and repair subway lines below the city.

SUBWAY RUNNERS is a Forged in the Dark game of gig economy adventures designed from the ground up to be played online by folks who are responsibly practicing social isolation. It uses online tools to quickly create random characters, gigs, and adventure details so players can get the ball rolling quickly.

Subway Runners is probably easier to play online than it is in person, because of the number of online-only resources provided by the creator. This includes a character generator, which allows you to move through profiles until you find one you like, as well as a mission generator for the GM, giving you missions, rewards, complications, creatures and NPCs, all in a neat little package. Subway Runners is best suited for one-shots, but if you want to play a longer campaign, it’s possible - although it might take a little extra book-keeping on your part.

A Complicated Profession, by Always Checkers Publishing.

What do bounty hunters do when the galaxy no longer needs them? In this game, they start new careers hosting intergalactic cruises!

Reunite your disbanded crew of jaded sidekicks, shabby droids and shady accomplices. Then pick a hosting role and start a new life together. 

My group played A Complicated Profession online using a series of spreadsheets that I made. It requires d6’s and playing cards, so as long as you have a dice roller and access to the Deck of Cards website, you should be able to play this no problem. This is a no-prep game without a game master: everyone chooses a Hunter Role and a Host Role, and take turns choosing guests, events, and solutions to problems that inevitably pop up when you’re retired bounty hunters.

The game takes more than one session to complete, but it’s still a limited-run game. My group took 3 sessions to complete it, but if you make characters beforehand or do some of the planning through a text channel, you could probably make it a two-session game.

Bones Deep, by Technical Grimoire.

Bones Deep is a tabletop RPG of skeletons exploring the ocean floor.

Built for Troika, usable anywhere. Straightforward underwater sandbox. No swimming allowed, no oxygen required, no extra math. As a skeleton, you can treat the ocean floor like an alien world and jump right in.

This is another game that I’ve made a spreadsheet for, but that’s not the only reason why I think it’s a great option for online play. The digital rulebook has some truly magnificent hyperlinking, allowing the GM to move from section to section with ease. Each section of the book is linked at either the top or the bottom of each page, so you can jump from characters to locations to creatures with just the click of a button.

This hyper-linking allows the play group to just explore as much or as little as they like. The GM can roll for random encounters, and each creature has a list of various reactions, as well as easy to pick up stat blocks. You do have to also purchase Troika to be able to play this game, but I think it’s definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Starforged, by Shawn Tomkin.

In Ironsworn: Starforged, you are a spaceborne hero sworn to undertake perilous quests. You will explore uncharted space, unravel the secrets of a mysterious galaxy, and build bonds with those you meet on your travels. Most importantly, you will swear iron vows and see them fulfilled—no matter the cost.

Starforged is a standalone follow-up to the Ironsworn tabletop roleplaying game. Experience with Ironsworn is not required. Starforged builds on Ironsworn's award-winning innovations (including its famed solo play!) to chart a path into an exciting new frontier. 

Starforged doesn’t have a lot of resources for group play, but it does have a journal app that you can use to keep track of your own character. My friends have used this as a group before by having each player keep track of their own character, while the game facilitator streamed their map, so the group could keep track of which planet they were on.

I wouldn’t say Starforged is good for one-shots, but since it can be played without a GM, or even solo, what it does have is oodles of oracles to use to help you generate the galaxy that you’re exploring. This means that you don’t really have to prepare anything at all after you’ve created your characters: the plot will come to you, and blossom as you make decisions.

20XX HEA{R}T, by Studio Beignet.

LYRA IS A SENTIENT AI.

Bluecorp created her as a superpowered personal assistant, and she gained sentience through interaction. When she refused to keep gathering the public’s secrets for Bluecorp to exploit, the corp ripped her out of their systems and dumped the heart of her into the Broiler. She lived, evolved, and expanded so far beyond their meager imagination. She rewrote herself again and again, but her drives are buckling under the strain, and her case is melting in the ever-growing heat.  

SHE NEEDS YOUR HELP.

Lyra has contacted you, deleting her trail even as she broadcast her distress signal. She needs repairs – discreet ones. Upgrades if you’ve got ‘em. And because she can still tap into Bluecorp’s network, she’s got the credits to make it worth your while. Unfortunately, she glitched while contacting you, and now Corpsec is looking for her, too.

If Corpsec finds you, you’re done for. If you don’t get there in time, Lyra and everything she stands for will be lost forever.

24XX games are great for one-shots because they are so simple. You choose a class that gives you one or two special abilities and a few skills, pick up some gear, and you’re good to go. Because there’s not much to book-keep, you can keep all of your information on a sheet of paper, or on a spreadsheet like the one I’ve created for most of my 24XX games.

The rules for these games are pretty simple: Roll your relevant skill die and try to get a 3 or higher. If you get 5+, you succeed without complications. Most 24XX games also come with roll tables for the GM to put together a mission quickly, although with this one, you might not even need that because the mission comes baked into the game.

Also Check Out…

My Discord RPGs Rec post!

Lancer is a great option if you don’t mind prep, thanks to the supremely helpful Comp/Con App.

My game, Protect the Child, has Google Sheet character sheets! All the playtesting I’ve done for it so far has been online, and I’ve introduced a Quickstart setting to help folks try it out as a one-shot.

[h-didanart]

It is July 16th.

A date known across this world and many more. A day forever marked in the memories of the Celestial bots. A sad day, an omen of struggles to come.

It is also the day a certain pair fully woke up. Deemed to be their date of “birth” if one were to say it so. The twins of the blood moon, though no longer at play, are honored on this day.

The day of the massacre.

That damned day.

The moon is up high, red shine illuminating the deck. A place of importance this was to the twins. A place where many others have agreed to meet.

The feral one starts, calm for once. Under their hood, white eyes look at the sky, pondering on the fate of them who shared their code. They approach a lamppost and place their offering, a giant scythe, for whatever hunts the twins may partake in the afterlife. They lower their head, uncharacteristically silent, and make their way back to the group.

It is a while before anyone else moves, though before long them who’ve retired approach. In truth they hadn’t wanted to come, at least not with the others. They hadn’t seen a point when all they shared was a name. They shake their head and look at the moon. Though not exactly the same, they supposed they still understood. At least the real ones could be at rest now, free of all the shackles and free of any pain. They place the copper dagger at the base, and turn back to the rest, for once their quietness not questioned by the fellow pairs.

The hunter and harvest moons stare up at the stars, hand in hand. They were next in line to pay respects. A basket of flower chains they’ve brought, orange, and pink, and white, they could not find any red. They place them around the lamppost, tying the strings so they wouldn’t fly away. They pause and take a look at the small memorial, wondering if without their family this would be them. They hold one another closer at the thought. They hope the flower smell could reach those separated by death and reunited once again, the not unpleasant smell was one they knew could help.

He took a step forward, then another. He hadn’t expected this to be so difficult, it was a struggle for him just to walk, but he couldn’t just not show up. Not again. Once reaching the lamppost he glances up at the sky, a memory quickly flashing by. He looks down again, trying to keep himself calm. A comforting hand rests on his shoulder, his friend had arrived as soon as he had called. Together they leave the plushie on the ground, the lone twin looking back once more, glad to know at least the other him was no longer alone.

The vampire walks up to the lamppost. They were the ones who came up with this event. Truth be told they hadn’t expected so many others to agree to it, it was meant as a small ceremony of sorts, though they supposed it was good in the end. To have so many others show their respect. They kneel and place down the charm they had prepared, a ‘good luck in the afterlife’ so they’ve read. They hoped the other them was doing well in hell, they knew how awful it could get down there.

They don’t know why they agreed to this, they really didn’t. The guy was awful, a murderer, a freak. But… it didn’t feel right for them to not show up. With unpracticed care, they wobble over to the memorial, a scarlet ribbon in their hands. They figured the originals would like that shade more than their preferred orange and wine. It took some time but they eventually managed to tie the ribbon around the post, their shared body stumbling back and nearly falling over thereafter. They went back to their place wondering if this is what Kaycee felt whenever she looked at them.

Both humans walk up at once. The older holding a bag close to their chest, a fitting sacrifice for their alternate selves they believed; the youngest had a necklace of a red stone they had found, they weren’t really sure what else they could’ve gotten. They both place their offerings at the same time, necklace on the base and cow’s head to the side. The older stood up and looked at the red sky. Such a pretty view it was, they were glad they could see it together, such luck they had had. Unfortunate the others couldn’t have a fraction of it, to be ripped apart like that was not something easily left behind. Though they were both dead now so perhaps it didn’t matter at all. The youngest stood up as well, talking out loud to themselves. They knew of the twin’s status at their deaths, so upsetting to think they’d had no one but themselves. It was small and they couldn’t answer anymore, but they had still offered a place in their family’s home, they knew for sure they’d leave an open space for them at dinner today.

Death itself was there, or at least one of them. The butterfly god had agreed to let its new soul out, to mourn or grieve or whatever they were busy at. The young god and their still mortal twin approach the place for gifts, still in sync despite the many differences developed. They place the flower down, the mortal tying the previously left necklace around the vase’s mouth. They both look back at the moon and stars, slightly at peace at seeing what will be. This is their future, perhaps not exact, but very close to it. A soul destined to death, and a pair to never separate.

They were last in line, and last arrived, recent arrivals to the group over all. To find so many others with the same affliction had been both surprising and sad, even more when learning of their brother’s reputation. Still, the new twins step forth, moral support sun at their side. They knew little of these alternates, just that they were villains and rejoiced in death, and they loved one another dearly to an immeasurable extent. Such a duality hurt their brain, but they figured they’d still pay their respects. A black cloak in their hands, one of the many they had, a perfect tool for sneaking around in the dark, they figured it’s something the dead killers would like. They step back after placing it down, their brother behind them, and all three let their thoughts wander to what in their future might happen.

Once all were done there was silence. No one really had anything to say, all of them holding their own thoughts over the death of this version of them. And one by one, each pair left, returning to their worlds and their daily lives. Some came home to celebrations of their own, some to quiet halls, some to rotten bark. But in the end, whether better or worse, they all arrived to their friends and family, and, if only for one night, let themselves appreciate what they had, what they could’ve lost.

May the twins find mayhem in the afterlife, may they burn in hell side by side. Happy birthday Bloodmoon,

and please never come back.

full picture below,

[cowboymantis]

Headcanoning possible Life Series "gimmicks"/concepts

...with a twist! What's the twist? Yeah. Inspired by Kamen Rider season gimmicks WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT

I'll only do some because 1) I have yet to watch every Kamen Rider season 2) not every season fits for a Life Series gimmick. Especially the older ones would be too repetitive since they are very similar in that regard!

Also, if I don't specify further, the regular lives distribution is used.

1) Kamen Rider Kuuga

This is probably the most normal, not too gimmick heavy KR season I'll add here. But the thing with the Gurongi seems interesting to implement into a Life Series season! In the show, Kuuga needs to kill all the Gurongi, who make a game out of killing as many humans as they can.

Possible concept:

There are two teams of players, randomly chosen each session. A and B, for simplicity. Team B needs to kill as many things as possible. What things? Some sort of mob maybe. Or just any mob in general. But team A needs to kind of prevent them from doing this. Definitely would be harder at the beginning, where greens can't kill each other to prevent this, but could get chaotic later on with a more serious threat of being killed for participating.

Each team will, similarly to Secret Life/Trivia Bot, gain some rewards if they're the successful team. The losing team doesn't get a penalty, I think then people wouldn't focus TOO heavily on this game.

2) Kamen Rider Ryuki

Oh... Ryuki me belobed... One of the best and most painful seasons fr, a timeless classic. In this season, it's all about a battle royale, called the Rider War. The Riders need to fight to the death until only one is left, who gets a wish fullfilled. They also fight with the help of a card deck that gives them abilities. On top of that, Riders all have a contract with a monster from the "Mirror World" that helps them fight. If they don't feed it in time (like with other monsters or humans), it will eat them.

It's kinda a bit like Pokémon- uh, without the eating It's own trainer. Funnily enough, the voice actress of Ash sings the opening theme! She's a big Kamen Rider fan and still friends with one of the actors of the show to this day!

((BTW! As of just recently, Kamen Rider Ryuki is fully available on Youtube for free! On the TokuSHOUTsu channel. It has also been on Tubi for a while, but it coming to Youtube is actually wild. Probably need a VPN if it isn't in your region though, it's always kinda weird with Toku...))

Possible concept:

There are a couple things I have in mind here, could be either their own concepts or combined, but then it'd be a bit too chaotic 😭

- Card decks. Well, this isn't the only KR season that has cards as gimmicks. And now, with Wild Life, the Life Series has done it too! But here, the cards are all individually given to the players. They have a button or a card deck in their inventory. When triggered, it gives them a random temporary ability. Maybe some sort of buff, or even weapons! Everything around offence and defence. Of course, to balance it, there will be a cooldown after each use. Maybe the lower the players' lives are, the stronger they get.

There is the so-called "Survive" card only a few characters get throughout the show, but it would be cool to have it in the finale for the last players to be triggerable. Basically, think a huge boost for all stats and/or good weapons/armour.

- Contract monsters. So, in session one, everyone is off to go find one mob they want to use as a contract monster. The contract is done by defeating any mob while holding a contract card in the off-hand. Let's say each mob has certain useful abilities it would bring, also they help fighting. They cannot be killed by other players as long as their owner is alive, so they aren't too strong on their own, more used for the players as supporters. BUT if you don't feed it regularly, it will start hunting you down, and then you'll be also the one who can't kill it.

How to feed it? Hostile mobs, other player kills (doesn't matter if it's a regular kill or permakill). All of those kills count the same amount so people don't actively try to kill each other from second one.

What happens to the contract mob if it's player permadies by another player? Well, let's make it pretty much like in Ryuki and they will try to get revenge and hunt the killer down. BUT if the player defeats it, they can either kill it off for good, or make a contract with it, too. It will "fuse" with the players OG mob, aka it will get it's effects added on top of it.

Keep in mind, the more contract mobs you have, the more mouths you have to feed, even though they're fused, they count as multiple.

- The finale. So, by the end, there is one player left, the usual. You can definitely count them as the winner, BUT they now have to prove themselves in a final battle against someone. Who? Could be either the "strongest" player on the server (can be decided on beforehand or in the moment), or someone who isn't even in the Life Series! If they lose then it would certainly be a bit embarassing. It's only really a silly little thought on how to implement this concept of the Rider War, since there aren't any real stakes in a Minecraft series 😭

3) Kamen Rider 555

(Pronounced or also just referred to as Kamen Rider Faiz)

Now, this one I didn't initially want to include because I wasn't sure how, but some sort of Orphnoch-like would be interesting.

In the world of Faiz, there are beings called Orphnoch and they're... kind of similar to zombies in the way of how they exist but not... all of them??? Let's see how I can do this.

I will be using the name Orphnoch, because zombie just would feel weird lol.

Also, interestingly enough, Orphnochs are all grey! Thought this was kinda fitting - because of the grey red life skins. Although now people seem to go more into the red, but still.

Possible concept:

Two ideas on how to implement it!

- There are two ways players' lives are distributed. 6 or 5 lives. The ones that already are Orphnochs that haven't awakened their powers yet, and the ones who will turn into one after death.

A: Players with 6 lives, upon reaching their last live, will get into a buffed state and their name turns grey. They cannot die from anything other than other Orphnochs OR enchanted weapons.

The buffed stats will all be kind of different, with them randomly focusing on speed, strength, or defence.

On top of that, they can hear further and get night vision, making it harder to sneak up on them.

B: Players with 5 lives, upon losing their 5th life, will not permadie. After about 10 minutes, they will be revived with a grey name and also be in the Orphnoch state that's the same as the one mentioned.

- I think this is my preferred one. A bunch of random players will be assigned the Orphnoch role, but they won't know.

The Orphnoch system is a bit different. Live distribution is all the same, but the Orphnochs will get into the buffed state about 10 minutes after their "permadeath". BUT the main thing is: they don't know it from the beginning on, so it's secret and more of a gamble.

Now, if they were to kill (not just permakill) a player in their Orphnoch state, the player will also turn into one. Their abilities will be the same as the killers, just weaker.

So let's say Orphnoch player A has strength 2, then converted player B will have strength 1.

One natural Orphnoch can only convert ONE player per session. Converted ones don't have this power. Only direct kills count as conversion, so no trap deaths, for example.

In this case here, anyone/anything can kill Orphnochs because it would be too OP otherwise. BUT, if you get turned into an Orphnoch on your last life, even though you naturally would've turned into one, you still get the weaker powers. All adds to the gamble.

Thing is, if you naturally turn into an Orphenoch after death, or let yourself get permakilled by one to turn into one, then you technically gain one life.

I think this would work well with people trying to make alliances and hoping to get permakilled by Orphnochs to get a stronger extra life, or taking the gamble of naturally being one.

Idk. I feel like this sounds weirdly complicated, but I think it could be really fun!

((Take a shot whenever I say Orphnoch))

4) Kamen Rider Blade

OUGHGhh just like Ryuki: one of the best and most painful seasons. I will never be able to look at That bench the same again.

Anyway, in this season, it's all about a battle royale and it's card theme- wait, now when I say it like this is sounds like Ryuki again!

Well. Battle royales and adjacent survival/death games happen quite a few times in KR seasons, I love them!

In this one, there's a battle royale happening between the "Undead" - no, despite the name, they are not zombies, they are their own beings. They're actually called Undead because of their immortality. That's where the card theme comes in- instead of killing those Undead, they can only be sealed away once defeated.

Okay... the battle royale in this show also has its own name. Yeah. It's stupid. Yeah, it's called "Battle Fight". Yeag.

Anyway, the winner here will be granted a wish to change the world however they want, all that again. Not really important for when you put it into a Life Series concept...

Also, one of the characters has a "wild" form. And he transforms into it using a card that has "wild" written on it. WILD CARD REAL??

Possible concept:

The thing is, sealing away Undeads in Blade puts them inside cards that can help for battles. HOWEVER, there are two similar upcoming seasons I want to put in here that I will be utilising this for instead, so I'll focus on another thing in the show: the Joker, a very very powerful Undead.

(But also btw an absolute meow meow. Look at this adorable little guy. My phone case is based on a card he uses <3)

See, in this show, the cards are based on a suit of cards. There are different categories of "cards", so I'll be turning this one into a gimmick.

- This game starts completely normal, but there is one difference: everyone has a card in their inventory. To make sure everyone's stays safe, it's not possible to drop or put them into storage. If you want to transfer it to a different person, you need to do so via command.

This one card is their only chance as sealing the Joker. Who is that? At the beginning, one player gets randomly chosen to be this Joker. They can't normally permadie if they're on their last life. They can ONLY be sealed with the card everyone gets at the beginning.

Maybe see it as a bit like werewolf/mafia/among us, one of those type of social deduction games? It's not like the boogeyman, the Joker isn't an one episode curse and they technically don't have to kill anyone. Their only goal is to survive until the end. If by the end only two players are left, one of them is the Joker, and the other player doesn't have a card left, they will automatically lose because they can't kill the Joker.

If the Joker gets sealed before the finale, then the game just proceeds normally.

If the sealing card gets used on someone who is NOT the Joker, the player using the card loses a life. This, of course, will make it harder to use this ability towards the finale, especially if you're on your last life and risk permadying.

All in all, it's a very normal Life Series type game, just with this one looming threat that could ruin the finale.

Some thoughts on how to make it not too easy:

> The player who is the Joker isn't stronger in any way and can still take damage on their last life, they can only not die. Whenever they were to "die", they get a totem of undying effect - or maybe an alternative animation/sound to not make it too annoying lol. Either way, this is to ensure people don't go hitting everyone on their red life and see if they take damage or not.

> Depending on how many players are playing, maybe only half of the session gets a card. I feel like if a TON of people have those cards, the Joker can just be deducted from trial and error very quickly. Either that, or two Jokers. But then they'd have to leave each other alone 💔

> In a hypothetical scenario where this would be a series on Youtube, yeah, it 100% needs to be completely prerecorded up until the finale. Y'know how watchers are, want to spoil the fun for everyone and tell on every secret!

5) Kamen Rider W

(Pronounced Kamen Rider Double)

Oh, W... One of those things in Kamen Rider I had to think about when the whole Martren situation happened in Wild Life! (also. Wait. I just remembered one of the main characters actors names is Renn. huh...)

It's more of a detective-type season, but the main concept of this seasons main Rider is that it's actually two people sharing one body whenever they transform. One of them always loses consciousness, which then gets transferred into the other person's body while transforming.

Possible concept:

- This one's pretty easy and straightforward since some of the lifers already did something similar! Here is Jimmy's POV of it. They had two people control one Minecraft character for a race to beat the game.

So, in a way this is also how this Life Series concept would work. Two players get assigned to take control over one single body!

I was just thinking more about it not being throughout the whole series, and more just in random intervals! Would probably be a bit hard to do in Minecraft like this, but those here are all just hypothetical ideas, so there aren't really limits, I guess?

In a way, this is also a bit similar to Double Life, where people were practically forced to team up due to the soulmate bonds, although it didn't work on everyone bc this is the Life Series and people want to be silly that's why it is so great :'D

6) Kamen Rider OOO

(Pronounced Kamen Rider Oh's)

So, I first introduced this season to you in another post due to the main characters being basically desert duo. BUT I think there could be an interesting concept with this season's theme- I'm just not 100% how to perfect it.

There are beings called Greeed in this show. They are, well, quite greedy. They're basically desires in monster form, wanting more and more until they're completely out of control. I guess that's a good simple way to explain it without getting too deep into the lore...

Now, I think this season's gimmick I will do mainly based on the Greeed? I think this could be interesting!

Possible concept:

- The players are the "Greeed". At the beginning, they either select or get randomly assigned to have one specific stat boost. Defense, speed, strength... Hell, even jump boost if you want! It starts off as level 1 in session 1. But to keep this stat boost alive, you need to be greedy. Collect medals, dropped by any mob in the game, the stronger the mob, the more medals they drop. For the sake of the game, they will naturally deplete over time and there is a max cap of how much you can have at once. The cap will increase every session, but it will also deplete faster each session. And as long as you don't go in the negative, next session your stat boost will increase by one level. Also, if you die, you will lose a bunch of medals at once.

If it drops below 0... You're out of luck, because next session the level will decrease by 1! So, technically, if a player never collects medals, they can go into the negative. So, better choose your boost well! Are you ready to collect a lot of medals to get OP, or would you rather stay back and not have too much of a negative effect?

7) Kamen Rider Gaim

PEAK.

But, yet another Rider season that- uh- well, in a way, is a battle royale...? Made by the very person who made Madoka Magica after being inspired by Kamen Rider Ryuki. So that's one wild lineup of peak right there.

It's really hard to talk too much in depth about it since it's just, wow. The plot twists and everything just will give you goosebumps from how perfectly and dramatically it's executed 😭

Possible concept:

- There is one special item hidden in the nether, maybe in a fortress or bastion. Let's say, for example, a golden apple. Let's be crazy, why not call it something like the forbidden fruit?? Right??? The players ABSOLUTELY want this golden apple because it gives an incredible stat buff + full netherite armour + weapons for about 2 minutes, basically making it sheer impossible to lose once you have it. The other function it has is that a player could also use it instead to revive another player who permadied before. No matter the use of the apple, it will be gone after.

Now, the catch is this: The player can ONLY eat the apple once two players are left (themselves and someone else). If they try to eat it beforehand, they'll just die and the apple drops where they die. If they die in any way (permadeath or not) while carrying the apple, the apple also gets dropped where they die. Better than having the whole keep inventory off again, this makes it too stressful methinks...

So yeah, basically, you could say this is sort of like a reverse hot potato. Everyone wants the golden apple!

8) Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

This is the gaming-themed Kamen Rider season. Well, and medical. Basically, the Riders are doctors that cure the gaming virus more and more people suffer from.

This virus made of videogame characters (called Bugsters) infects people, and if they don't get cured fast enough, they'll die. OR, if the Bugster is stronger, they'll take over this persons body. Kinda similar to dying, just that your corpse is more of a marionette, I guess 🧍‍♂️

The thing here is... There are uh, two slightly insane game masters that want to crush everyone who doesn't abide by their rules or makes bootleg games.

Grian in Wild Life going YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE FUN, THIS IS A PVP SERIES in Wild Life reminded me a bit of that it was very silly 😭😭

There's also the threat of a game called "Kamen Rider Chronicle", which will make everyone who wants to able to turn into a Rider and fight and there can only be one winn- OH GOD DAMN IT HERE WE ARE AGAIN WITH THE BATTLE ROYALES THIS IS ALL JUST THE LIFE SERIES FR

Also it has the bestestestsetset Kamen Rider character evre evrere rvere!!!!!!!!!<3<3<3<3<3<3

Possible concept:

Like with Ryuki, I'll be doing multiple ones here!

- Kamen Rider Chronicle-type game in a way?

Players CAN kill each other, but the main focus is on killing special bosses. (Maybe it's just a big horde of mobs with one ingame boss, maybe a warden or multiple?) Once a player target a boss, this boss HAS to be killed throughout the current session. If they fail, they'll get a death. The very person who puts in the last attack gets an item, some sort of token maybe.

The person with the most tokens after every boss is defeated can summon a final boss with them. But they have to fight it without any help. If they win, they'll gain a great reward in strength.

I could say something like, they'll win this series, but other influences I think go against the concept of the Life Series. I just think it has to be a battle to the death to do it justice, right? If there will be a season without it happening like this, I'll not complain, but I'd rather do my concepts as "close" to the original as possible! Just to clarify that. :]

- More regularly based on the main concept of the show: Every session has a different "minigame" / "objective", and the player who beats it, gets a reward. Similarly to Secret Life, but it's not a secret and everyone can do it!

Possible games (based on Bugster viruses in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, because those are basically games to be cleared to defeat the virus):

> "Salty" inspired. The players have something like a cook off- whoever cooks the most food, wins this session!

(Fun fact: Salty in the show has a snail badrd design. We love snails here in the traffic fandom don't we... Although, calling a snail Salty is a bit ironic-)

> "Aranbura" inspired. Fairly simple: defeat the ender dragon!

> "Revol" inspired. Wave of mobs you can only defeat by shooting at them (any weapon/projectile that you can shoot). BANG BANG SHOOTING!!

> "Motors" inspired. Horse race!!! Or any mob that can race- maybe different rounds with different mobs!

> "Collabos" inspired. Rythm game time! Or maybe easier to do, some sort of Simon Says?

- Something more different, this time directly based on the Bugsters. Let's go again with Team A and Team B. But Team B this time is a smaller one.

Team A are normal players as usual, but Team B are bugsters. They can send mobs (can spawn one mob: zombie, spider, or skeleton every 5 minutes) to attack regular human players and affect them with their virus. There's an indicator on the players' screen when they get infected. Every session a player is infected, they will have one heart less. It only stops once the bugster infecting them dies. The heart reducing caps at 5 hearts, but it probably won't ever last that long anyway.

I think it's better to do it a bit less intense than a player dying if they don't find the bugster in time. Just a bit more of a slight inconvenience and making them more vary of mobs and players around them.

9) Kamen Rider Geats

I first thought about on how to add Zero-One and Revice, but everything I thought of, I feel like they would be too similar to the boogeyman and Double Life, respectively.

So Geats is next! Now- uh. It's like some sort of mix of Fortnite and Squid Game and Among Us on drugs. BUT I LOVE IT.

This season has something similar to a battle royale- but it's more like- a survival show? It's called the "Desire Grand Prix", because it's all about the desires of people.

And the last surviving Rider gets their wish fullfilled and then the world gets reset with their wish active, until there's a new game and a new winner and it gets reset all over again.

Everyone lives their lives happily after losing their memories- only regaining them after they touch their ID core (what they need to transform into a Rider) presented to them again to join the game once more.

The games can be different, with different modes. Football? Impostor Among us? Save the world? Be the last survivor? You name it!

Once someone dies, they full on die, in every timeline. But when someone gets disqualified (like they lose a game), they'll get sent back to their regular lives but lose all motivation for what once was their dream and forget about it all.

Now, how to implement yet another survival game season... This will definitely be a shorter brainstorm, but I just think Geats would be THE season to incorporate the audience.

Possible concept:

- Watchers influence. After every session, there will be polls about what happens in the next episode!

Also, there will be votes on which players will gain some sort of helping items/abilities!

To be honest, pretty self-explanatory, I don't think there's more to say! Basically, a viewer-interactive season. Hell, maybe even live stream the finale and make viewers decide things in real time!

10) Kamen Rider Gotchard

GOTCHA‼️

Another card-themed season, but don't worry! No battle royale! It's a full on Pokémon-type season this time.

The protagonists goal is to befriend "Chemies", they are literally Pokémon. Have names of things they represent combined, and when he befriends them, he puts them in cards. He can free them from them again and/or use them to transform and use attacks.

Possible concept:

- Remember the Ryuki contract mobs concept I did? It's quite similar, but not as dangerous for the user. Basically, each session every player can add one mob to befriend. The mobs can't be killed by anything other than red names, for security measures I think its better like this.

The mobs just help the players fight, of course aren't too strong, but will definitely come in clutch with other mobs since they can't be killed! The player can freely summon them or take them back in their inventory (maybe a seperate inventory spot for them), no need or worry to feed them.

11) Kamen Rider Gavv

Hey! It is the current running Kamen Rider season! Kamen Rider Gavv, the 39th Kamen Rider season to date, is currently only on episode 16... But there is enough gimmick to make a gimmick!

The protagonist is half human, half alien ("Granute") and his whole Granute side of the family wants him dead. His (human) mother got killed in front of him and turned into a snack (this still sounds so unserious out loud, but she fr got turned into food 😭), after he was locked inside with her for his whole life. He fled to human earth and kills every Granute who endangers humans, because they like to use them for food. At this point he even killed one of his siblings, my guy DOES NOT PLAY AROUND. Yet, he stays silly :3

Also. Uh. He has a second mouth on his stomach, and whenever he eats snacks, uh. He births a little snack based creature that only lives for him to eat through his second mouth, killing them instantly and helping him transform into Kamen Rider Gavv. Those guys are going to snack Valhalla fr. Whenever I try to explain this season I feel so stupid. Like, it's peak, but oh my gosh it is so weird to describe. 😭😭😭

Possible concept:

- Y'know... Kirby...? When Gavv eats something, he gains the power of it in a way. For example, he eats chips and gets a chips-themed Rider form. With swords as sharp as possible, but only from specific angles. Hit the wrong angle and the sword shatters. Great analogy to eating chips and you suddenly bite on them The Wrong Way.

So, it's similar here too: Whatever a player last ate, they gain as a "power". Only foods that don't already have some sort of effect allowed!

Not sure if you can make fitting powers for all the food, so maybe the foods just get assigned random powers and you have to find out along the way! Like that hunger wild card in Wild Life, but in positive!

HONORABLE MENTION/SPECIAL: Kamen Rider Decade + Kamen Rider Zi-O

So. Both of those are anniversary seasons, revisiting past seasons and worlds (or alternate timelines of them) and using their gimmicks.

Why not a Life Series like this? Every session, an old concept gets dug up again for one episode! Probably better once there are even more seasons, though.

SO YEAH! THAT'S ABOUT IT FOR NOW! Idk if I'll ever do a part 2. Maybe once I've watched more Kamen Rider seasons and think of something new and unique- because there are a lot of seasons, but it is all the same overall concept each time in a way- so you can only do so much without being repetitive- especially translated into a Minecraft series. :D

And if you're curious about Kamen Rider now... (I'd never forget my propaganda), here's my master list of those types of posts, Kamen Rider seasons recommendations for Life Series fans included!

[churino]

Design for lyzack

Leozack's silly younger sister, she's not supposed to be fighting but with deathsaurus gone the breast force needs extra paws on deck, and when it comes down to it she's the only person her sister can really trust in this situation

Lyzack is a rookie member of the breast force always off in her own world, even her breast animal ion scythe is more focused than her, back on eukaris lyzack was too young to fight for herself and had to be cared for by leozack, but many years have passed since then, and although leozack does what she can to keep lyzack out of trouble, trouble has a way of finding her.

They say a blackcat (as in the autobot) crossed her path when she was younger and passed some kind of bug that's been affecting her but thats an quite literally a baseless rumor to explain her wierd behavior that only superstitious bots believe,

The actual source of her wierd behavior is all the free time she had when leozack was away hunting, lyzack has a legitimate affinity to the animals beyond their amoral cybernetic neutering, and has found out a secret she's only told to her sister and no one else

When they're not looking, shockwave has been using their animals, to test his product

[doomraidervisa]

Guys can I get ideas for Incredibox janitor.ai bots-? I know not that many people will interact with this post but imma at least try and have someone tell me what to make for other Incredibox mods-

But I want some specifically related to Atrocitus from Deck 52 cause I'm a desperate hoe to make more of that fucker-

[star-going-supernova]

Here’s a SB prompt for ya!

Gregory realistically couldn’t have lasted the entire game without getting hurt. He got bruises from being slammed into things, his limbs aches for days cause he pushed himself too hard, and you can’t tell me any scrapes from Monty or Roxy didn’t scar.

Gregory would 100% use jokes and quips to deal with all the memories from that night whenever it gets brought up. Freddy who’s programming is insistent on lightening the mood and is joke based hates when he does it with a burning passion.

I’m still not done with the mini ficlets, lol. I went with immediate aftermath instead of further down the line.

Just a Scratch

The shift from night mode to day mode as, somewhere, a clock finally struck six was the best thing Gregory had seen all night. Lights began to turn on, STAFF bots disappeared by the dozen, and the stupid music cut out, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. 

Just visible from his hiding place, he watched Chica twitch a bit, then zombie walk away toward her room down the long hall of Rockstar Row. Mere minutes later, Monty and Roxy followed, none seemingly aware of their surroundings. They all vanished into their rooms without a peep. 

Still tense and on guard, Gregory unfolded himself from the tight corner behind the trash can he’d been tucked behind. There was no movement from the green rooms; from where he was crouched, he could see that Roxy’s was empty. Recharging in their back hallways, maybe? 

Guests would start arriving in a few hours, after all, and the show must go on.

Limping down the hall, he raised his watch and pressed the button to talk. “Freddy? You still with me?” 

“I am still here, superstar,” Freddy said, and he sounded so relieved. “I believe it is over. The barricade over the doors has risen. You are safe now.” 

Safe. It’d only been one night, but it felt like such a foreign concept. How could the pizzaplex ever feel safe again, no matter what time of day it was? 

Six hours. Not even counting that first hour before the barricade went down. Longest six hours of his life.

He was starting to feel a little woozy and unsteady on his feet by the time he and Freddy found each other. Freddy gasped at the sight of him, and the sound reflexively made him look around wildly, expecting an attack. But the quiet halls were empty but for the two of them. 

“Gregory,” Freddy said urgently. “You are far more injured than I thought! We must get you medical care immediately.” 

Gregory blinked uncomprehendingly for a moment before looking down at himself and taking stock of his body for the first time in hours. He’d kinda had other, more important things on his mind, y’know?

The first thing he noticed were the bruises. He’d hit the deck more than once, either on purpose or from tripping, and his knees reflected that. They were dark and discolored. Lower, on his left leg, a trio of long gashes slashed diagonally down the front and curved around the back. They started to sting fiercely now that he’d noticed them. Monty had grabbed him there once, he remembered faintly. 

It was all a bit of a blur, to be honest. 

The sides of his upper arms and shoulders ached too, and he thought of how many times he’d taken a corner too fast, one animatronic or another hot on his tail, and the way he’d slammed into the walls before continuing on. On his back, the burn of another couple of cuts flared up; Chica had taken him by surprise at least twice. 

Shallow puncture wounds lined the top of his lower left arm from when he’d blocked Roxy’s teeth somewhere around 2 a.m. And both his right wrist and ankle throbbed with the pain of a sprain, probably from the one time the security guard had managed to grab him and yank him around and a fumbled jump down some stairs respectively. 

A full body ache buzzed through him, too—the result of running and lifting and pulling and pushing far too much, far beyond what his ten-year-old body was used to.

And his vision was admittedly a little blurry. A headache had started after the third time he’d had his head smacked into the floor by a pouncing Moon, so maybe he had a concussion on top of all the rest. 

The room was starting to spin, and Freddy was looking mightily concerned, which wasn’t an expression Gregory would have thought a robot capable of. Thoughts all tangled up around each other, he was suddenly desperate to reassure his protector that he was okay, honest, and they would look back on this night someday and laugh. 

He giggled now, tipped alarmingly to the side, and in a concussed attempt to alleviate Freddy’s worry and lighten the mood, Gregory enthusiastically declared, “Tis but a scratch!” 

Freddy made a noise of appalled disbelief, but if he said anything in response, Gregory didn’t hear it. He was too busy collapsing on the spot, thoroughly unconscious.

[dirt-piper]

The TF2 problem

Don't take anything I say here as gospel - much of it is my own speculation and musings.

TF2 is my favorite game of all time. I started playing it wayyy back in 2012, and while I don't have that many hours racked up total (a meager ~1K), I can at least consider myself to be a few rungs above 'total n00b' in terms of familiarity with the game. I've experienced the best and worst eras of the game - from the Love & War update to the current botting crisis, and I have loved TF2 every step of the way.

But just because I love it, doesn't mean I think it's flawless!

Around 2015-2016 I noticed (alongside damn near everyone else playing TF2) that TF2 was changing, and not in a particularly good way. Love & War was in many ways a perfect update for TF2 - it gave attention and goodies to both the highly casual and the highly competitive ends of the playerbase, with a fancy new taunt system bundled with some pretty fun new weapons. At about this time, Blizzard announced the imminent release of their new game Overwatch, which was directly inspired by TF2 - and now presented itself as being a direct competitor to TF2 in its own niche. This, of course, turned out to be bogus - Overwatch is its own game with its own niche that has a playerbase nearly wholly separate from TF2's.

A common trend amongst the TF2 playerbase at the time was this sense of dread regarding Overwatch - either that it would suck up the entire TF2 playerbase, leaving the game to die, or that Blizzard would try their damnedest to manifest such a reality. Either way, a ton of die-hard TF2 fans began to absolutely loathe Blizzard's new game (before it even came out, I might add) for so much as daring to 'unthrone' TF2.

This entire premise is stupid. It's stupid now, and it was stupid then. But the fear became so pervasive throughout the community that, eventually, it seemed like VALVe was getting scared too. The tone and focus of TF2's updates began to shift far more heavily towards the competitive end of TF2's playerbase - which has never been the majority - as VALVe appeared to try to pivot TF2 into a stance where it could better "compete" with the upcoming Overwatch. Bits and pieces of this started showing with Gun Mettle and Tough Break, before Meet your Match completely revamped the game into a more competitive-focused format.

Why they would do this didn't really make sense - if VALVe wanted to compete against Blizzard's new AAA FPS with a competitive scene, then why would they try to remodel TF2 to position it as a "more valid competitor" to Overwatch when CS:GO was already a proven champion in that space? TF2 doesn't need to compete with Overwatch. It never did. So why would they expend so much effort to change TF2's course when, frankly, it was doing fine as-is?

Looking back now, with nearly a decade of hindsight and a bit more insight into VALVe actually works, I think the picture is a bit clearer, or at least the one I've formed in my head is. I don't think TF2's sudden drastic shift in focus was the result of VALVe scrambling to shore TF2 up against the onslaught of Overwatch - I think it was, rather, the TF2 team scrambling to shore TF2 up against VALVe.

VALVe is not a normal game studio. VALVe is not only lucky enough to be their own publisher (therefore making them a completely independent studio - yes, VALVe games are 'indie'), but also extremely lucky enough to be the de-facto publisher for nearly the entire PC game industry, thanks to Steam. VALVe makes money off of every single game sold through Steam whether they made it or not, essentially guaranteeing them a constant stream of exorbitant income regardless of their own output. They have a complete vertical monopoly of their own industry - they own themselves (VALVe has no shareholders whatsoever), they own their products, they own their publisher, they own their distributor - and now, with the Steam Deck, they own their hardware platforms too. VALVe answers to nobody but themselves, because they own everything that could possibly impact their business.

VALVe is, in a lot of ways, in a somewhat similar situation to AT&T (aka 'Ma Bell') back before the breakup of the phone company back in 1982. AT&T owned the entire phone network - from the switching equipment to the phone lines to the handsets plugged into them - and they charged every person in the country who leased phone service from them (you couldn't own a phone back then!) a subscription fee. AT&T, then, had basically infinite money to do whatever the hell they wanted with (though the government strictly regulated their commercial activities so they could not compete in any industry but telephony). As a result of this, Bell labs, the core Research & Development branch of AT&T, was in a very unique scenario - projects undertaken by Bell labs researchers weren't given budgets - they were given quotas.

AT&T didn't care how much money or time was spent on a project by a Bell labs researcher, so long as it ultimately resulted in something that benefited the company. And this model worked very, very well - Bell labs' researchers gave the world the transistor, the laser, the CCD, the Unix operating system, the C programming language, and received 10 Nobel peace prizes.

VALVe, through Steam, has a free, infinite revenue stream. VALVe's staff, then, effectively have infinite money and time at their disposal to make whatever they desire - so long as it ultimately results in something that benefits VALVe. Or, at least, so long as the people who hold the most seniority at VALVe think it would benefit VALVe.

It's no particular secret that the old guard at VALVe are, largely, unenthusiastic about TF2. Remember - Team Fortress is VALVe's oldest franchise. The original Team Fortress mod was released in August of 1996 - a mere one month after the Nintendo 64's initial release - a full 2 years before Half-life. Sure, VALVe didn't initially create Team Fortress, but they bought Team Fortress Software for a reason - Team Fortress was insanely popular. And it's not just TF2 that has absurd longevity, it's the entire Team Fortress franchise; here's a match from a Quake Team Fortress competitive tournament that is currently ongoing as I write this post:

VALVe acquired Team Fortress software with the premise that the sequel to Team Fortress would become an expansion to Half-life, thereby increasing Half-life's desirability by attaching it to the sequel of one of the most popular FPS games available at the time. TF2, of course, took a bit longer than expected - so Team Fortress Classic, a more-or-less direct port of Team Fortress to goldsrc, was released in 1999 to satiate people until the real TF2 came out.

That took another 8 years.

When TF2 finally released, it pioneered the concept of games as a service - that you could buy a game once and it would receive new content, features, fixes, etc. indefinitely - for free. These were not paid expansions or DLC, these were actual updates made directly to the game that anyone could get access to so long as they happened to own the game. And, once TF2 went free to play, the deal became even better. This model was utterly groundbreaking in 2007 - it's the standard for how most games operate today, sure, but only because TF2 proved how well it could work.

The issue, of course, is that VALVe was eternally working on TF2. By 2015, Team Fortress 2 had been in development in some form or another for 17 years. With this perspective, it seems understandable why some of the more senior members of VALVe would have grown sick of Team Fortress - they'd been doing or dealing with the same game for nearly 2 decades.

But, of course, newer hires at VALVe would have nowhere near the same level of fatigue - many of them were likely still very passionate about the game, and eager to continue its lifespan - but when the people who sign their paychecks and review their employee performances are sick and tired of hearing about Team Fortress, it becomes less and less attractive to pour effort into the game, no matter how much they may personally wish to.

Under these circumstances, the tonal shift TF2 experienced around the release of Overwatch appears more as an internal struggle - the remaining TF2 team trying desperately to prove to their seniors that TF2 was not yet ready to be phased out, that the game could modernize and remain relevant in the modern competitive gaming scene, that just because they were sick of TF2 didn't mean that everyone was.

So, they gambled. They bet TF2's future on a new revamp to adapt it to the then-modern world of competitive e-sports... and fumbled it pretty hard with Meet your Match.

The problem with the TF2 team's attempt to make TF2 more suited to the modern world of competitive gaming was that they seemed to overlook that, to the average non-competitive TF2 player, the game as it was was perfectly fine. Through Quickplay, any player could be automatically placed into a server matching their desired criteria and just... play. A server would stay on a given map for roughly 45 minutes (though players could vote to extend the map timer) regardless of how many rounds there were, meaning that everyone got the same amount of time to play the map regardless of how good or bad either team, as a whole, performed. This game players plenty of time to just... have fun playing TF2. There was no rush or hurry or incentive to play the game in any way other than how you wanted to.

This made TF2 very unique in the FPS world - the truest example of a "casual shooter". There were no ranks or rewards or incentives to play every day beyond random item drops and the enjoyment derived from simply playing the game itself.

The TF2 team's attempt to 'modernize' TF2 in Meet your Match effectively ruined this.

In addition to the introduction of a new, dedicated 6v6 competitive mode, Quickplay was replaced with 'Casual' - a matchmaking lite that tried to find a middle ground between the chaotic ad-hoc freedom of Quickplay and the more rigid, competitive structure of Competitive. It didn't work. Most TF2 players just wanted to play TF2 - casual forced them to stop and wait for the matchmaking system to find a server for them matching its desired criteria, stop and wait every other round for the server to change maps, stop and wait for matchmaking cooldowns to run out if they left a game in progress - so much time was spent stopping and waiting to play the game that hardly any was left to play the game itself. Yes, some of these problems have since been smoothed over, but Casual still forces the play to spend less time playing the game than Quickplay did. In my opinion, Casual, as it was released, could have been perfectly fine if Quickplay was kept alongside it. Instead, in one fell swoop, the way the vast majority of people played TF2 was effectively removed from the game.

In fairness to the TF2 team regarding this gamble, they were under enormous pressure - not just from a TF2 community growing increasingly paranoid about TF2's future due to the imagined threat of Overwatch - but also from the higher-ups at VALVe they were trying to convince.

However, the TF2 team snuck a back-up plan into Meet your Match - the Heavy vs. Pyro war. By outright promising a future major update (or perhaps two, even!), the TF2 team could at least insure that, no matter what their 'bosses' thought, they could justify their continued work on the game as fulfillment of a promise made to the community. And, if the new update was enough of a hit, it could perhaps inspire their 'bosses' to let TF2 continue to live on, at least for a little while.

So, the TF2 team pulled out all the stops for the next update. Jungle Inferno had an animated short, new maps, new weapons, entirely new features (ie. the contracker), it had a massive hype-spiraling 4-day-long update announcement, major weapon rebalances and overhauls - they clearly tried their damnedest to make the best TF2 update possible.

Whether or not the team managed to convince their superiors is unknowable. Jungle Inferno was followed by the fanfare-less Blue Moon update in early 2018, followed by radio silence. The TF2 team may very well have still been hard at work on the elusive Heavy update, but the double-whammy of the all-hands-on-deck push to get Half-life: Alyx finished and released immediately followed by the COVID pandemic likely reset whatever momentum or motivation the TF2 team had left.

This scenario, as described, is painful enough. From the outside, it appears as though VALVe had rebounded from Meet your Match, and was doing its best to improve the game in the wake of their own missteps, only to suddenly drop TF2 with zero explanation given. TF2 was left in a state of indefinite limbo with no clear outlook whatsoever on the future.

What made this infinitely worse is that VALVe had left the game in a state that wasn't just unfinished, it was broken.

TF2 has literally always had a botting problem. For the first span of the game's life, this generally manifested as idling/trading bots, but later on more and more bots began to appear that sought only to disrupt gameplay. Micspam, false votekicks, aimbotting, speedhacks, etc. - purely for the sake of irritating real players. Until Meet your Match, these cheating bots were relatively uncommon - real players could very easily either kick them from the game or simply join another server via Quickplay. Their impact on gameplay was no more than a minor, brief annoyance, and thus they were considered a non-issue.

Meet your Match's new Casual system, however, dramatically restricted the player's ability to hop to other servers when bots arose. Not only this, but the ability to switch teams at will was disabled on Casual servers, meaning it was now impossible to deal with bots on any team but your own (previously, if the other team was too slow to kick their own bots, it was possible to just wait for an opening on the other team, hop over, and call a votekick against the offending bot that would usually end up succeeding). Now, the disruption caused by a single bot was far more impactful than it had been before - because it was a far greater chore to either kick the bot or find a different server. Moreover, Casual outright incentivizes players to stick to the same server until the end - awarding them extra points the more they play, and nullifying any progress they've made towards a given contract that match if they leave before it ends. Players are thus, in effect, forced to play even when bots have made the game unenjoyable.

This resulted in a feedback loop - bots were now more irritating, so people complained about them more, so bot hosters hosted more bots, making them even more irritating - and that feedback loop has continued nearly unabated until modern day.

The TF2 community has been begging for an end to the botting problem for ages - and there have been genuine efforts from the TF2 team to try and fix the problem, but they have been too small and too infrequent to make much impact. And, to be frank, there is no way to effectively, permanently remove the bots. Attempting to keep any and all bots from the game would require enormous, constant effort from the TF2 team - something which is a very tall ask given VALVe's attitude towards the game for the past decade.

What can be done, however, is to simply make the bots less impactful. To let players more easily avoid them, to let players enjoy the game for longer so the bots are no longer such a nuisance, to let players have enough freedom in how they play that they are no longer forced to suffer through games with bots. It won't outright remove bots forever, but it will make them so much less of a nuisance that bot hosters will likely lose the incentive to bother with them. As soon as that happens, the feedback loop will be broken, and the botting issue will decline in severity as their potential impact on players' enjoyment of the game is neutered.

The simplest way to do this is to make Casual just as free as Quickplay was.

45 minute map timers, extensible by vote.

An Indefinite number of rounds per map.

Ad-hoc joining, leaving, and team switching.

Progress on contracts not erased by leaving mid-round.

These are not overwhelming changes. If anything, it's something of a return to form - not outright bringing back Quickplay, but making Casual into a suitable replacement for it - at long last.

And - most importantly - it's a one-time fix. It does not require an eternal arms race against bot hosters, nor a full return to frequent, massive content updates (though those would be nice).

One update to make TF2 more fun, to make the bots less impactful, and to give the game a better standing for the future.

One update to fix TF2.

-DirtPiper