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knight-says-rollout · 1 year ago

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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

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kingprinceleo · 21 days ago

Text

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)

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic au #vampire au

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in1-nutshell · 19 days ago

Note

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.

#transformers x reader #maccadam #bot buddy #transformers one x platonic reader #transformers one x reader #transformers one #silver aid #tf1 silver aid

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theresattrpgforthat · 9 months ago

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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.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #online games

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h-didanart · 4 months ago

Text

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,

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star-going-supernova · 9 months ago

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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.

#i answered a thing #anonymous #fnaf security breach #fnaf fic #star's stories #life and times of star

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dirt-piper · 6 months ago

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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:

youtube

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

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brooklynisher · 4 months ago

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Short Fanfiction Time

Because I am incapable of writing long ones apparently.

Had a long conversation about Spine angst and how it affects his relationship with his siblings and that's what this is.

Do not be fooled though! This fic is quite lighthearted despite the what it's about.

Here's the link, but you can read the full story under the cut!

Summary: Zer0 notices that The Spine seems uncomfortable whenever he's around. He looks towards Rabbit to explain what the problem is.

Annoying Little Brother

After Hatchworth left the band to pursue his career in gold-fishing, Rabbit and The Spine were left in the dark. That’s one more robot to leave their old life behind in the pursuit of something greater. And though Rabbit and The Spine are always proud of their siblings for chasing their dreams, it doesn’t exactly feel great to be left behind as the “old life”. Not to mention that they cannot have a band of just two robots! They’re already so familiar with their three-robot dynamic. How could they adjust now?

Luckily a young robot was able to step in. Many years ago, Peter Walter VI accidentally discovered a robot originally used for war deep down in the basement. When he was discovered, he joined the band for a brief moment before pursuing a solo career. However, the success of his solo career was short-lived. He ended up going bankrupt and found himself coming back home. But now that he’s back, he’s more than happy to rejoin the band of his siblings! Especially now that they’re one robot short. Will he bring peace to the minds of his new bandmates?

"No Zer0! Now you just got paint all over your clothes!" Rabbit whined.

It seems not.

"You dip the figure into the paint. Y-y-y-you don't dump the paint onto the figure!"

"I don't get it!" Zer0 protested.

"Rabbit, I've never done this before. I'm trying really hard to do it right but-"

"What even is that? Is that an alligator?" Rabbit interrupted.

"No! It's a-"

"Rabbit?" Another voice calls down the halls.

Before Zer0 could explain his clay creation, Rabbit shifts her attention to her other brother's voice.

"Spine?" She calls back.

The Spine enters the room looking quite different than usual. The bots had gotten familiar with The Spine's tendency to overdress when he's not on stage, but to see him all decked out in cowboy attire is… different.

"Hey, Rabbit, I was wondering if you- oh. Zer0, I- I didn't know you were in here." The Spine's mood seemed to slightly dampen at the sight of Zer0.

"How couldn't you with all his whining?" Rabbit teases.

Zer0 lets out an embarrassed yet offended puff of steam.

"Oh. Well... Is everything alright over here?" The Spine asks.

Rabbit, sensing that The Spine's motives have changed, tries to coerce some honesty out of him.

"Oh, w-w-w-we're just messing around! It's fine. But what about you huh? Whatcha doing over here?"

"I just wanted to see if..." His voice fades.

The Spine seems to be a little uncomfortable as he speaks.

"Well... Never mind." He sighs.

With that, he takes his leave.

Rabbit nearly gets up in an attempt to stop him but she stays put, simply groaning in defeat.

"Annoying..." She mutters.

Rabbit returns to the original task at hand which was making clay figures with Zer0. Zer0 however, seems to be a bit put off by his older brother's behavior. He stares at the doorway trying to figure out what was so strange about what just happened. Spine walked in dressed like a cowboy, he was confused about Zer0's presence, he wanted to talk about something with Rabbit, but he left before he could say it. He left when he realized Zer0 was there…

"Hey, Rabbit?" Zer0 asks.

"Yes, Zer0?" Rabbit responds.

Zer0 paused. He couldn't help but feel like he was about to ask an inappropriate question, but he wanted answers.

"Do you think The Spine... doesn't like me?"

Rabbit tilts her head in genuine confusion.

"What? No! What makes you think that?"

"Well... You saw how he was acting when he saw me. He got upset and left. You don't think it's because I'm a new member, do you? Or maybe he's mad that I left you guys behind for that solo career... or maybe-"

"Zer0!" Rabbit stops him early.

"Calm down! He isn’t-isn’t mad at you."

Despite Rabbit’s efforts to keep Zer0’s mind from making this worse, he still seems to be overthinking this.

"But he always acts like this Rabbit! Every time I'm around, he gets uncomfortable and he always tries to hang out with you, but never with me! I know I'm new and needed in the band and all but I don't feel like he wants me to be here… And I think-”

"No! Zer0 he... The whole reason he came here in the first place was because he wanted to play cowboys! He’s not-" Rabbit starts

"With you. Not with me. Because he hates me, I get it." Zer0 interrupts failing to hide his stubbornness.

"Oh come on Zer0 it’s not because he hates you! N-n-n-not at all! It’s because… Well… “

Rabbit pauses for a second contemplating if she should dig this deep. Zer0 raises an eyebrow.

“Honestly? He's afraid of you Zer0." She reveals.

That stops Zer0 in his tracks.

“Afraid of me? Is it because of-”

“‘Afraid’s a strong word’ Okay okay. I get it, but the point is, it’s not because of y-you.”

Rabbit’s tone has gotten rather serious compared to how she usually is. Zer0 can be rather stubborn when he’s all worked up. And although there can be something endearing about his stubbornness, it’s quite a challenge to deal with when it’s about a serious topic. During moments like these, Rabbit finds it easiest to shut down any attempts at pushing his worries further.

“Spine’s just not used to this.” She continues.

“Used to… what?”

“Used to behaving like… well… a brother. Or more himself I suppose”

Rabbit leans towards Zer0, standing up a little as to intimidate him.

“Listen-listen, I’m going to tell you a secret. Alright? You cannot tell anyone, especially-ly-ly The Spine, that I told you this. Can you keep it?”

Rabbit can be scary at times, but usually, it’s in a silly way, much like how many people find clowns to be scary. But this time, it’s different. It’s as if she’s threatening him without words. Even though Rabbit herself isn’t known for her ability to keep secrets, whatever it is she tells Zer0, he has to keep it between them.

“Yes ma’am.” He responds unintentionally showing a bit of fear.

“Good.”

The lights go out. Suddenly, Rabbit’s entire face glows up as a flashlight shines on her from underneath. Was this a bit dramatic for the tale she was going to tell? Absolutely, but she could figure out people fast, and although Zer0 was new, she knew this was exactly what he needed to understand this secret.

“You see Zer0, Spine grew up very different from the rest of us. Unlike us, The Spine was designed to be perfect. Perfect in every way. Such an impossible goal. But Pappy Walter believed he could achieve it.”

As she speaks, she walks around the dark room, still facing Zer0. Zer0 follows her as needed.

“He tried his hardest, but no matter how hard he tried, something always went wrong. There was always something that The Spine did or said that needed to be fixed. So he kept trying and trying and one day…”

Rabbit flicks the side of her head to create a dinging noise.

“The Spine figured it out. If it was his behavior that was the problem, then it’s up to him to fix it. And so he did. He taught himself how to appear to be perfect.”

She takes a step towards Zer0.

“And you know what perfection means right?” She asks towering over him.

“Wh-what does it mean Rabbit?” He responds, shaking a little.

“That means no whining.”

“Ah!”

“No crying.”

“AH!”

“And no playing.”

“AHHHHHH!!! TURN IT OFF RABBIT TURN IT OFF!” Zer0 screams as if this is a movie.

Rabbit chuckles a little before turning off the flashlight, which only induces more screaming from Zer0. She walks over to the doorway, now covered with a tarp, and flicks the light switch back on. Zer0’s screaming subsides.

“How… how did you know all of that?” Zer0 asks.

“I know everything. I’m the oldest.”

“Oh.” Zer0 looks away for a second before another question finds him.

“But… wait...” Zer0 starts.

“What does The Spine being perfect have to do with him being afraid of me?”

“You see Zer0, The Spine has a bit of a hard shell.”

“Aren’t all of us made of metal?”

“Not literally.”

“Oh.”

“But I’ve managed to break through it in recent years. He’s getting comfortable with me. And-and I’ve managed to actually get him to let his guard down around me. To be imp-p-perfect with me!”

“But it’s just you?” Zer0 asks.

“Exactly! That’s why he was uncomfortable when he saw you! He was wearing his cowboy outfit! Y-y-you caught him playing pretend!”

“Ohhhhh…” Zer0 pauses before coming to a realization.

“Oh, well he probably feels terrible now! Oh no, he definitely doesn’t want me around now! I should-” Zer0 begins to stand up.

“No! No!” Rabbit interferes. “Spine NEEDS you around Zer0!”

“What? Really?” Zer0 asks feeling genuinely surprised.

“Yes! Even beyond-ond all that band stuff. Spine’s gonna need a lotta help before he could ever learn to be himself”

She sits herself and Zer0 back down.

“There’s a lot of things Spine doesn’t understand because of his perfectionism. He d-d-doesn’t understand how to enjoy himself, how to be honest with himself, or even how to be an actual brother!”

She grabs his shoulders.

“And with everyone else out and about doing their own things, you’re the only little brother out there who can teach him how to be a big brother!”

Zer0 looks perplexed.

“Rabbit… do you think I’m a good little brother?” He asks.

“You’re the perfect little brother!” She exclaims.

“But, you’re always yelling at me for being dumb and-”

“EXACTLY! The Spine needs an annoying younger brother to yell at and an annoying older sister to dunk on him and we need to love him through all of that! Th-th-th-then he will know the true meaning of being a brother!”

Zer0 was now getting excited at the prospect of being an annoying little brother.

“Yeah… Yeah! If Spine needs an annoying yet loveable little brother, then that’s just what I’ll do! I’ll be the most annoying most lovable little brother in the world! I don’t even have to try!”

“That’s the spirit!”

Rabbit pats Zer0’s back. Before looking towards the doorway.

“You know… I think Spine has a lovely red coat that can use some decor-decorating… If you catch my drift…” Rabbit winks.

“Ohhoho... we’re gonna turn Spine’s coat into party banners…”

Rabbit pauses for a second.

“That… Actually, you know what? I like that idea better. Let’s do it!”

Zer0 and Rabbit go on to destroy a perfectly good coat out of love for their brother. Perhaps Zer0 is exactly what the band needs to bring peace to their minds after all. Even if he needs to vandalize a few things with Rabbit to do so.

#focused heavily on character portrayal here I think #this is about Spine angst but Rabbit and Zer0 play a bigger role in this than he does #Also hi Zer0 fans #Ik yall are starved over there #don't you worry #spg angst #<- mentioned #more silly than angsty #steam powered giraffe #spg #the spine spg #rabbit spg #zer0 spg #spg fanfic #writing #my stuff

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kalahannikolai · 4 months ago

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This is a bit overdue for posting on Tumblr, but behold! The Superior Soundwave! Alongside him my designs for Laserbeak, Rumble & Frenzy, and Ravage. Soundwave's alt mode is a cybertronian aircraft, and his assets are very musically based. He is a clever engineer and a brilliant communications officer; Megatron's most stalwart supporter, Soundwave was his second-in-command for the Decepticon rebellion.

Lore and backstory under the cut!

In the days of Sentinel's rule, when his conclave and the overarching Senate controlled the fate of every cybertronian, Soundwave's own origins were notably mundane. Originally a minor clerk in a communications facility, the being that would one day be called Soundwave had been one of many bots whose forms were minutely controlled. He was built to man a communications array alongside many other such limited bots. But while some found either joy or simple indifference to their work, Soundwave dreamt of more.

He would spend his free time perusing the streets of Bitrex. It was among Cybertron's smaller cities, but he enjoyed the calm and simplicity that it brought. It was here that Soundwave met the likes of Jazz—introducing himself as "Sounder" at first, unwilling to give Jazz a designation—and the pair quickly caught on like a wildfire and became good friends. Jazz's free spirit and unwillingness to tie himself down inspired Soundwave, who envied his freedom and admired his dedication to it. The two spent much of Soundwave's free time together. In this time, they would culminate a shared enjoyment of music and even begin a musical career together.

A journey that would suddenly gain great traction for them both, as the people of Bitrex came to greatly enjoy their performances.

Before too long, Jazz and Soundwave's musical venture would become almost too much. While Jazz had little responsibilities to slow him down, Soundwave struggled regularly to make time for their music and his work at the communications array. He would even suffer poor performance reports and harsh criticisms from his superiors. But one day, as a superior shouted with reckless abandon in Soundwave's then unmasked face, the con would snap and bring the so-called "superior" to his knees. Soundwave turned in his resignation then and there, and left without ever looking back.

To his luck, none of the officials that oversaw his work knew of his personal life at all. So little care for the lives of their workers allowed him to essentially disappear. To avoid being found and dragged back, Soundwave not only visored and masked his face but commissioned drastic alterations to his form. A normally illegal procedure under Sentinel Prime's rule, but the city of Bitrex was not one normally cared about by his Senate nor his Conclave. Furthermore, so beloved by its citizens was Soundwave that the augmentors of Bitrex gladly helped one half of their favorite musical duo realize his true potential.

Before long, Soundwave would find companions in the form of four smaller beings; Laserbeak, Ravage, and the brothers Rumble & Frenzy. Pseudo-mini-con beings, the four cassettes had been deemed obsolete and set to be scrapped and salvaged. Soundwave worked with some of the shadier types of Bitrex to get them rescued, and the four gladly became his closests companions. This newfound friendship would result in Soundwave's last but most cherished alterations; a cassette deck in his chest, hidden behind his waveform chest plate.

All but a celebrity of Bitrex now, the mysterious "Soundwave" made his re-debut alongside Jazz as they took their music on the road.

While the pair were close, Soundwave would still find time for himself; a desire that Jazz always respected and utilized to go on his own solo ventures. Soundwave would curiously check out the gladiatorial arena of Kaon, wherein a fateful meeting would take place. He would witness the furious might of the Pits' greatest champions, as he watched the likes of Jetfire, Arcee, and Megatron rule as a Triumvirate of Kaon from its lowest depth. But Megatron himself would most catch Soundwave's visor, and eventually the two would meet and have long, intense discussions about the state of Cybertron's society and people.

They would both be in adamant agreement that the harsh control Sentinel enforced over the very bodies of his people had to end.

Together, the two would eventually spearhead the formation of the Decepticon Rebellion against Sentinel's regime. Soundwave would successful enlist Jazz, who gladly joined a cause that would liberate their people from the injustices they suffered. But whereas Jazz would remain within their territories that couldn't fend for themselves, Soundwave would part from his musical companion to always stand by Megatron's side. This would ultimately lead him to be just as complicit in the Decepticons' crimes as he was. For while he never liked the dark direction their fight took, his faith in Megatron would blind his reason.

But when Megatron realized the error of his ways and chose to step down, Soundwave was as honored as he was accepting of his lord's choice to deem him his successor. Now with the reigns of command in hand, Soundwave steered them back to a path of righteous fury and away from the bloodlust they'd been misled into.

In the cyberkin world of Fódlan, Soundwave would find himself amidst a quagmire of chaos. His calm and reasonable leadership of the Decepticons would eventually be usurped. But Soundwave would never forget what they were once meant to do, and he waits in the fringes of the lands outside of Fódlan and waits for his time. Soundwave still awaits Byleth's return and call, for he knows she and Megatron both will be vital to the world's peace...

#Soundwave #Cyber Emblem #my art #transformers #fire emblem #fire emblem: three houses #fusion au #three houses #decepticons

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catiecat1320 · 14 days ago

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Sonadowtober Prompt 21: Reincarnation

For one of my AUs, Echoes

The reincarnates do use different names!! Relevant ones are: Synth - Sonic Echo - Shadow Ami (Amaryllis) - Amy And EGGMAN (Endo-Genetic Graft: Main Alternate Network) is an AI with the original Eggman's mind

Additional context in AO3 endnotes :)

Read Below🔽

Synth smashes through the last robot, cheering as sparks fly and its digital screen flickers out. “Score! I think I win this one, Echo.”

The black hedgehog rolls his eyes, flicking his bangs out of his face. “It’s not a competition. Be serious for a moment. I don’t think this is everything EGGMAN has up its sleeve.”

“Psh,” Synth scoffs. “That computer has nothing against us.” He ignores the way Echo shakes his head, blowing a raspberry at the nearest camera before opening his communicator. “Ami! We’re done!”

“That’s great! Just give us a second to wrap things up—” She’s interrupted by a sudden tilt of the shuttle, throwing everyone and everything not tethered off balance. Synth slammed into the nearest railing with a yelp, barely managing to roll aside as the bot he just crushed slid off the side to meet the sky.

If it stopped at that, they would’ve been fine, but…

The entire ship lurched the other way, gaining speed until it flipped over entirely, leaving Synth dangling precariously on the railing lest he fall off. “W-what in Chaos was that?!”

“I don’t know!” Ami’s voice came through, crackled with static. “Are you all alright out there?”

“I…”

I am, he meant to say. But it’s then the realization dawns on him that it hadn’t just been him on the deck.

“Echo?”

The hedgehog is nowhere to be seen. Not as lucky as Synth to have grabbed on before their surprise roll, he’d likely been dumped on a trip through the atmosphere.

…an one-way trip.

“Echo!”

A sinking feeling of deja vu hits him like a truck.

“Not again…” Synth breathes, shallow, panicked, “not again…” He combs the sky below for any sight of Echo. How hard is it to see—?

Black, but a spot in a sea of blue and white.

Ignoring the concerned voices from his communicator, he lets go without a second thought.

By the time he’s freefalling, it’s too late to think about how stupid that was, so he zones in on his target. The more he focuses, however, the more other things overtake his vision.

Funny how things worked, huh? Days spent watching his friends regain their past lives one by one, his lost far beyond him despite many attempts, and it takes this to kickstart it.

Not black among blue, but gold. A mere dot in space, but it grows, into a star, fading, backlit by the marbled Earth… horror floods his veins as he dives, reaching out with a hand that wasn’t his, at a hedgehog he does not recognize, only to receive a serene smile and be waved away.

He feels a sadness like he’s never felt, deep and hollowing, and even worse is the suffocating failure—

Synth slams into Echo, knocking the breath out of both of them as he wraps his arms around the other and flips them around from the force of impact. For a moment it’s just gasping and the ringing in his ears that Synth hears.

Memories from a life past fade into the back of his head, but the dread lingers. He attempts to remedy that by cuddling as close to the other hedgehog as he and the gravity pulling at them would allow.

“...Synth? Synth?”

“Mmph.” Synth buries his face in the crook of Echo’s neck, his heart beating far more rapidly than he would like. He hoped the other hedgehog couldn’t feel it. Which was likely impossible.

Eventually he pulls away with a broken laugh. “Sorry. I… uh…”

No longer hugging each other, the two hedgehogs link hands and fall back to a stomach-down position, the extra surface area helping slow their descent as much as possible.

Echo mouths something, unheard with the wind filling both their ears. When Synth doesn’t respond, he says it again, then again. “Are you okay?”

That’s sure a question. Synth doesn’t have an answer for that. “I… suppose?”

Too quiet to hear as well, evident in the other’s still concerned face. He speaks louder. “As okay as I can be while falling to my death!”

Echo cringes and squeezes his eyes shut, threatening to snap a few joints in Synth’s hands as he tightens his grip.

Fear.

Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned falling to their deaths. Synth’s thrown back to gold and black and blue again. “It’ll be okay, Shadow!”

Echo’s second name falls out of his mouth before he can stop himself. But it does the trick of catching the black hedgehog’s attention, and in the moment that he looks up, Synth sees someone else in that familiar face.

“You never use…” Echo trails off to something incomprehensible, the wind whipping in their quills carrying away his words before Synth could hear. But it’s something of surprise, if his expression was anything to go by.

“It’s ironic, isn’t it?! The first thing I remember is you!” The beginning of a smile graces Echo’s face at that, but it’s immediately replaced by shock as a cyan glow envelopes the both of them and stops them mid-fall.

“Silver!” They jinx. The white hedgehog is far from amused, locking eyes with Synth.

“Why in Chaos would you jump?!”

“You jumped? Off the shuttle?” Echo stares at the increasingly sheepish hedgehog. “You jumped?!”

“Look—”

“Good Gaia, Synth, how stupid are you?! You could’ve died!”

“You could’ve died too!”

“And how was jumping after me supposed to help?”

“Can you two cut out the flirting for a moment?” Silver interrupts, deadpan, making both flush with embarrassment. “They still need help up there.”

“Right, right!” Synth jumps at the opportunity to change the topic. “Let’s go!”

#sonadowtober #sonadowtober 2024 #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonadow #reincarnation #oneshot #sonic au #Echoes AU #writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #cross posted on ao3 #CatieCatWorks

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in1-nutshell · 3 months ago

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Can i request a longer version of my nutshell request of wobbles getting bullied and it gets so bad that wobbles stops leaving their habsuite and ambulon and first get worried about them so they go to check on them and learn about the bullying

And I want to see a bunch of pissed off medics

Justice for Wobbles!

Hope you enjoy!

Wobbles and the Bullies

SFW, Platonic, Angst, Bullying (we don't stand bullies. Justice for Wobbles), Hinted Romance, Cybertronian

MTMTE

Wobbles was pretty used to teasing they got.

It went hand in hand with their clumsiness.

Some of the teasing, they often found themselves laughing alongside.

But then there were some that words meant to hurt them.

And hurt badly.

They never knew why bots decided that bullying them was a good idea.

As far as they knew, they hadn’t done anything to hurt them.

Why did they hurt them then?

Wobbles had accepted a long time ago that there simply were bots who chose to hurt others and they wouldn’t change.

A small part of them did hope that now living on the Lost Light things would change.

Sadly, luck never seemed to be on their side.

Buddy hobbling into Swerve’s after a long day. Buddy: “Hey Swerve! The usual if you please.” Swerve gives them their drink and a bright smile. Swerve: “How many dents you got on your servo this time?” Wobbles looks down at their right servo. Wobbles: “20 on this one and… wow, just 5 on the left one. Never happened before.” Swerve: “That’s gotta be a new record, right?” Wobbles: “Yep! Can’t wait to tell First Aid and—” Swerve: “And Ambulon?” Wobbles: “And Ambulon… and Ratchet and Velocity of course!” Swerve shakes his helm before going across the bar to pass some drinks. A bot ‘bumps’ into them making them spill half of their drink. Random bot: “Oops, my bad. Maybe if you didn’t have those banged up digits maybe you would have caught the rest of your drink.” Wobbles: “But I still—” The bot slaps their cube onto their lap. Random bot: “Look at you! Making more messes for bots to clean up after.” The bot gets close to Wobbles audial: “Pathetic.” The bot walks away disappearing into the crowd. Wobbles sighs tiredly, silently lamenting the loss of their drink. SLAM! Wobbles nearly falls out of their seat if a clawed servo hadn’t steadied them at the last moment. Whirl: “Relax, Wiggles it’s just me.” Wobbles puts on the best smile they could. Wobbles: “Hi Whirl! You just got out of the brig?” Whirl: “Yeah, just got out after the whole ‘graffiti in the classroom and ceiling’ thing.” He narrows his optic a bit. Whirl: “What was the deal with rando bot over there?” Wobbles: “Nothing important.” Whirl looks at their drenched lap. Whirl: “Nothing?” Wobbles smiles: “How about I buy you a drink? A celebration for you getting out of the brig?” Whirl swings an arm around Wobbles shoulder. Whirl: “Now you’re speaking my language!”

This wasn’t the first time one of Wobbles friends had become suspicious of the group of bots being around them and disappearing the next.

But Wobbles tries to always reassure that there was nothing to worry about.

The last thing they wanted was to make a bigger mess of this whole thing.

No matter how bad some of the interactions got.

Wobbles was hobbling down the hall after an ‘interesting’ altercation with the group of bots. CLANK! Wobbles: “Of course…” Wobbles looked down at their fallen arm. They groan a bit they reach down and grabbed it. Wobbles: “This day couldn’t possibly—” Ratchet and First Aid walked around the corner behind Wobbles. Ratchet: “Wobbles!” Wobbles freezes and quickly puts on a smile. Wobbles under their breath: “Smile Wobbles, they don’t need the extra load… Hey Ratchet! First Aid! Fancy meeting you here.” First Aid was already by Wobbles side looking at the damage with Ratchet. First Aid: “Geez, Wobs, what happened? You get into a fight?” Wobbles: “Oh you know, I was battling my worst enemy, the lower decks stairs.” Ratchet gives them a suspicious look. Ratchet: “Those stairs are behind us.” Wobbles gulps quietly: “Oh? Must have hit my helm harder this time. Umm, do you mind—AID!” First Aid had picked Wobbles, piggyback style. Ratchet had their arm in his servos. Wobbles: “I can still walk—” CLANK! Wobbles closes their optics. Wobbles: “Don’t tell me… the right pede?” First Aid: “Left one.” Wobbles: “Dang it! Maybe I’ll get it right next time.” First Aid and Ratchet share the same worried look before walking down to the med bay.

Things were getting worse the more time passed.

They wanted to reach out, but the thoughts of them being a burden stopped them in their tracks.

Their friends already had so much on their plates, surely, they could take this one.

So, Wobbles decided to try a different tactic, slow withdrawal.

They couldn’t stay in their habsuite all day at once, it would send all the alarms in the medics’ heads and then they’d start banging at their door.

No, Wobbles had to carefully plan this.

Soon thereafter, they started getting out of their habsuite later each day.

Only a few minutes at a time.

So far, their plan was working.

The interactions were becoming less and less each day.

Just as long as they didn’t slip up, everything should be okay.

As said before, luck never seemed to side Wobbles.

The group’s collective braincells had figured out their new schedule and it now seemed that there was a bot around every corner of the ship.

At least they didn’t do it in larger crowds.

But in the emptier halls, it was another story.

Their plan was ruined.

Now Plan B.

Total lock down.

They didn’t care if someone tried to barge down their door anymore.

Everything hurt and hurt badly.

The next day… Ambulon looking at the clock in the med bay. First Aid also looking at the clock. Velocity looking at the pair. Velocity: “What are you two looking at?” First Aid: “Wobbles hasn’t shown up yet.” Velocity: “They haven’t?” Ambulon: “They usually come around this time.” Velocity: "Maybe they are having a lucky day?” Ambulon: “Maybe…” An hour later… Ratchet walks in to see most of his staff looking at the clock. Ratchet: “What are all of you doing?” Velocity: “Wobbles hasn’t come in yet.” Ratchet raises an optic. Ratchet: “… That’s…” First Aid: “Strange? Out of character? Should I continue?” First Aid stands up and heads to the door. Velocity: “First Aid, where are you going?” First Aid: “To see where is my Amica.” Ratchet holds his shoulder. Ratchet: “We still have a job to do First Aid. I know you want to go see Wobbles, but right now there’s an influx of patients that are coming in.” Ambulon: “How do you know that?” Ratchet: “Rodimus set up a slip and slide in one of the halls. If Wobbles doesn’t show up from that, then we go.”

Many bots soon began filing into the med bay.

None were Wobbles.

The medics even asked around if they had seen Wobbles.

The bots were even more surprised hearing that Wobbles wasn’t living in the medbay.

Ratchet could see the energy shift between his staff the more bots said that they hadn’t seen Wobbles.

Eventually the line of patients had stopped, Ratchet turned to First Aid and Ambulon and told them to go and find Wobbles.

First Aid was out of the room before Ratchet finished his sentence.

Ambulon followed closely behind.

The first place they went was straight to Wobbles habsuite.

When they got there, Wobbles door was covered with awful graffiti with some… questionable language.

Both mechs heard soft cries.

First Aid is at the door. First Aid: “Wobbles? Wobs, its me.” Wobbles in a chocked sob: “Go away!” First Aid: “Wobbles I need you to open the door. The locks not working, and we can’t get in.” More sobbing sounds were heard. Ambulon turns to First Aid. Ambulon: “Let me try.” First Aid nods and steps back. Ambulon: “Wobbles? Wobbles it’s me, Ambulon.” Wobbles cries a bit harder. Ambulon: “Are you hurt?” Wobbles only responds in more cries. Ambulon: “Wobbles… Wobbles can you please talk to me? Even a little bit?” Wobbles: “… A-Ambulon…” Ambulon: “Yes?” Wobbles: “…It hu-hurts Ambulon. Ev-everything hurts…” Ambulon places his servo on the door. A smaller sob is heard. Ambulon: “Wobbles. I want you to listen closely now. Are you listening?” The cries quiet a bit. Ambulon: “I’m right here. Your Amica is right here. We are not going anywhere or leaving you.” First Aid: “And we are going to do everything we can to make sure you’re okay Wobs.” Wobbles: “…You’re not going to leave?” Ambulon: “Never.” Click!

Wobbles slowly opens the door.

They weren’t expecting Ambulon to scoop them into a tight hug.

First Aid looks them over, finding harsh dents on their frame and a mess of their more sensitive wires.

Wobbles starts sobbing and pouring out apologies and accidentally slips about the mechs who had been bullying them for the past months.

Ambulon just latches onto them gently rubbing circles on their back.

First Aid wants nothing more than to deck the monster who did this to his Amica, but right now they needed serious medical attention.

Both medics help carry Wobbles to the medbay.

Ratchet tells the pair that he and Velocity would handle Wobbles when they get there.

Their feelings could cloud their judgement and hinder their work.

There was some protest from the pair, but deep down, they knew they would have slipped up with something.

The last thing Wobbles needed was more pain with their sensitive wiring in a bunch.

Its later while Wobbles is sleeping from the medicine that Ambulon and First Aid tell Ratchet and Velocity who had done this to Wobbles.

Unbeknownst to them, there was someone else eavesdropping on the conversation.

First Aid knocking furiously at Ultra Magnus’s door. Magnus opens it a bit surprised to see the medic. Magnus: “First Aid—” The medic pushes into his office. Magnus: “—come in.” First Aid: “Some bots on this ship have been bullying Wobbles! They have said horrible things to them and physically harmed them!” Magnus’s optics widen. Magnus: “Is that so?” First Aid: “You could ask Wobbles yourself, but they are currently knocked out from all the medicine pumping through their frame.” Magnus narrows his optics a bit. Magnus: “Do you have the names of the bots convicted?” First Aid: “Not yet…” Magnus: “Well, until you can get the names, there isn’t much we can—” THUNK! Whirl from outside the office: “Yo Mags! Open up!” Magnus groans and opens the door. Magnus: “Whirl how many times—Primus what did you do!?” Whirl had a couple of beaten bots groaning on the ground. Whirl: “Well, I just so happened to solve your little problem with Wobbles!” First Aid looking at the bots: “Whirl how did you—” Whirl: “Just happened to be walking past the medbay when I ‘overheard’ that little talk about who beat up Wobbles and just so happened to know who the ‘prime suspects’ were.” Whirl kicks one of them in the shin. Whirl: “They didn’t come nicely so a roughen them up a bit and here we are!” First Aid: “Whirl… if what you say is true about these bots being the bullies… I will pay for your drinks for the next two months.”

It didn’t take long for the bots to confess to bullying.

It may have slightly accelerated with Whirl threatening them in private.

When Wobbles eventually gets the clean bill of health from Ratchet, First Aid practically drags them to go see Rung.

Wobbles hesitate a bit but with Ambulon chiming in, they were soon sitting in front of Rung talking about what the bullies did.

It wasn’t an easy process by all means.

First Aid slept in their habsuite for nearly a month fearing that the bots would get Wobbles in their sleep.

And Ambulon now quadrupled checked them for any injury as soon as they stepped into the medbay.

Wobbles did talk to the pair about boundaries, which they soon respected and let loose.

But that didn’t stop almost the entire medical staff from walking with them for an entire week.

#transformers x reader #maccadam #bot buddy #mtmte x reader #mtmte x platonic reader #wobbles

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theresattrpgforthat · 1 year ago

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Hey so I’m a uni student IE very poor and I really like GMless games so I wondering if there is any free or pay what you feel like GM less games? Bonus points for either cute animal type games, world building or superpowers game.

THEME: Free/Cheap GM-Less Games

Hello friend, I think I have a really awesome collection of games for you to try out. I tried to focus on lighthearted games that fit at least one of your themes. All of these games are either free or pay-what-you-want!

Rats in Space, by Jay Writes.

The year is 2392. A colony of rats have found themselves stowed away on the Endeavor, a cruise-class luxury spaceship. They live in the lower decks, nibbling on wires, stealing the engineer’s lunches, fighting off pest-bots. It’s a simple life. One day, a member of the colony discovered something: Velindian Cheese, the most treasured kind of cheese to all rats in the sector, hidden in the ship’s Kitchen. The colony got together, and they have decided: they must get that cheese!

Rats in Space is a one-page GM-less TTRPG where you and your friends take on the role of Rats on a spaceship. Your mission is to get the Cheese that's hidden away in the ship's kitchen. A silly game with psychic rats, robot cats, and depressed space captains.

This is a goofy little game with a simple enough premise: get the Cheese. You set your little rats up with stats, and then roll on the Inspiration table to determine what obstacles are standing in the way. Conquer three obstacles and you’ll get your hand on a little cheesy snack! However, if you lose your collective morale, you are forced to panic and scatter - and no Cheese for you. Rats in Space is great for light-hearted hi-jinx, and is very very cute.

Class Protector, by Chloe Sutherland.

Strange things happen in your high school. Horrors lurk in the dark, unnoticed by most in the school. Fortunately, there’s one person who always seems to be in the right place at the right time. She’ll deny it but all the gossip ties back to her and the unexplainable powers she seems to wield.

You are not the Chosen One. You are everyone else.

A simple GM-less game using a deck of cards. Act as the students of a high school secretly under threat from the supernatural, develop the Class Protector and her mysterious power through their rumours, then discover which theories were correct.

Class Protector is a game of high school bystanders creating a superhero through myths and rumours. You’ll take turns drawing cards and using prompts to help you figure out who exactly your protector is and what she can do. During the final round, you’ll witness her fight with the Big Bad, and determine how many rumours are actually true - and whether you survive. If you like a game with suspense, told from a unique point of view, you might like this game.

The Guides of MechaFauna Valley, by BESW.

“THE GUIDES OF MECHAFAUNA” by B. West is a game made for children, by a young park ranger barely out of childhood themself. I reproduce it here as I found it: photocopied on a sheaf of mint and salmon office paper, the pasted-on images sometimes almost illegible. But the game is playable and the glimpse of my friend’s future childhood is captivating.

This game is described as a cooperative, feel-good card-using roleplaying game. It is a game about a caravan of travellers making their way through a national park populated by mechanical beasts. As guides, you are responsible for ensuring that the caravan makes it through safely without endangering the local wildlife. The game expects all players to play a Valley Guide, but there is also a character sheet that is available for the group to use together: The Valley Voice. This game is currently still in beta, so it looks like another character sheet is in the works!

While there are still pieces missing, this is already a 20-page game with a hefty oracle full of prompts. If you like a game about exploration and adventure, but without the pressure of character endangerment, you’ll probably like this game.

Star-Spawned, by Penguin King Games. (@prokopetz)

One unearthly night, a ray of colourless light descended from the stars, and under its warping radiance, creatures unlike any the world has ever seen were born. They do not know the world, and they do not know themselves. Unfortunately for the world, they're quick learners!

Star-Spawned is a GMless, oneshot-oriented tabletop RPG in which you don't know what your own traits do when play begins. The names of each group's stats are randomly generated using morpheme chaining, and characters are created while having absolutely no idea what they mean; figuring that out forms the greater part of play.

Star-Spawned is a world-building game in that you discover the world as you discover yourselves. Players generate Facets and assign ratings to them without knowing what those facets do beforehand, and then experiment with their use as they play. Players will take turns describing what they want to do, and when one character takes the spotlight, the rest of the table provides the setting details. You finish the game when you have a definition for each facet on your Discovery sheet.

This game has a lot of breadth, and can explore a lot of different settings and kinds of adventure, and the place where you start will probably determine a lot about the tone of your game. If you enjoy randomness and figuring out a mystery together, you might like Star-Spawned.

Wonderfall Reinvigorated, by J.C. Pereira.

In this violence free, diceless and GMless game, you play as curious kids who are living in a hotel and secretly transform into pets. Your goal is to reinvigorate Wonderfall by befriending the leaving villagers and guiding the sparse visitors, to make this town habitable again. Uncover truths while growing up in this outlandish town.

This is an exploration game more than anything else. Players each create a town secret, and use drawing references to build the Hotel and its surrounding locations. You draw cards to help determine the kinds of locations that you’ll visit. The game comes with a bunch of random tables for character creation, locations, secrets, NPC information and more. You’ll draw cards from the Destiny deck every time you need to overcome a challenge, and use Aces to represent their hobbies that will help them solve problems.

I like the ways this game gives your characters adventure without resorting to violence to solve their problems. I think this game has a lot of potential to tell Studio Ghibli-like stories, so if you like that genre, you might like this game.

RPG From the Other Side, by stuffed tern.

a wizard has transformed one of your bandmates into a large raccoonyou’re going on a quest to change them backbefore they forget who they arethe band’s all coming with you (yes, even the raccoon) the power of music is on your side. you will see this through.

RPG FROM THE OTHER SIDE is a one-page TTRPG for one or more friends embarking on a quest of music and mayhem.

The text mentions a GM, but GM-less play is possible with players doing collaborative storytelling, or using a system such as Trophy.

This is a simple one-page rpg with a humorous premise - you’re trying to turn your raccoon band-mate back into their human self. Setup includes determining your goal, your characters, and your special weapon or ability. Your characters have a resource called Stardust, which gives you d6s to roll in challenging situations. You can spend Stardust to lend aid to a teammate, or lose it when you take harm, but you can also gain it back if you give up a memory that you cherish.

There aren’t any prompts to help guide your play after the initial setup, so this game is best suited for a group that is comfortable with a lot of improv.

2 Month Magical Girl, by Dondougo.

In 2 Month Magical Girl, you play as ordinary magical girls. Your days are relatively ordinary, as you study and hang out at school. At night you hit the town, as well as the various malicious magical beings that prowl it. You make memories, you make friends, and the next day you wake up and do it all again!

But something's changed, and things are getting weirder by the day. Illegible symbols are appearing everywhere, the weather is stuck in a cloudy haze. What's even weirder is that your magical powers seem to be hiding something from you. As if they're trying to keep you from understanding the truth behind what's really going on.

With time running out, you're left wondering what else is being hidden from you and what it all means. What will you do when the truth is finally revealed?

This is the chunkiest game on this list, with 98 pages of rules, lore and character options. There are 5 playbooks to choose from, making character creation relatively simple to follow, and a font of roll tables to help facilitate GM-less play. Definitely worth checking out!

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #gm-less games

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