#dw christmas quartet

[xinnamonbun]

*SLAMS HAND ON DESK*

OPINION ON RUDIE, GINGER, COAL, AND BOBETTE PLEASE

*SLAMS WINTER GLOVES ON YOUR HANDS*

I LOVE THEM A LOOOOOT!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Thoughts: Bobette!

I was definitely not expecting anyone to be a main, but it was a welcome surprise! It's also very fun that she happens to be the only toon with two five-star stats at the moment. Also I'm not completely sure if this is true but I heard that she's the new fastest twisted, which is as cool as it is scar... Her abilities, especially if the winter aura one, are very unique and very ✨❄️aesthetic❄️✨

Headcannons: Bobette!

She is pan! 💖💛💙

She's a cubby gal :) She has no problems with this fact, she loves this fact, it makes her more huggable (she is correct)

She has quite a bit of knitting experience, and unless proven otherwise, she taught Shelly how to sew during one winter :3

She is the type of person who will effortlessly lift up their humongous dog, spin around, and in a baby voice saying how cute and innocent their little baby girl is, while Coal is giving you a death stare (but Bobette is right, she is a babygirl)

She used to be a glitter ornament, but since it's been so long since they've been maintained by a human eventually most if not all of it slowly removed, she doesn't mind too much but it's a subtle reminder how long they've been forgotten by the world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Thoughts: Ginger...

Oh...my...god... I LOVE HER!!!!!!! SHE'S SOSOSOSOSOS PRETTTY AHHHHH- Okay but besides that I LOVE the detail that she can make the prettiest looking pastry you've ever SEEN, and yet can't make anything that has more flavor than bread. I'M NOT TRYING TO BE MEAN TO MY BABY GIRL THAT'S JUST WHAT THE GAME SAYS- She is an artiste, not a professional baker, that's her cuz's job... SPEAKING OF COUSINS. HELLO???? I DIDN'T KNOW WE COULD GET ANY MORE CANONICAL FAMILIAL RELATIONSHIPS BESIDES SCRAPS AND GOOB, OMG?!?! I don't think they even have an interaction yet, but I already LOVE THEM!!! Together they are a vibe a true TRUE vibe, and they both pull it off EXPONENTIALLY WELL.

Headcannons: Ginger...

She is a demiromantic lesbian ❤️🧡🤍💝💜

She has occasionally made crafts with Scraps and Goob, and the craft siblings are still impressed with how beautifully she can make things despite the fact that she isn't here all that much...

Since the place she usually remains is so cold, she actually doesn't need to fix up her frosting all that often. She needs to touch it up once a year, usually when she's visiting the rest of the toons since that's when it starts to get a bit mushier again, but after she's touched it up, in certain years fully replaced it, she can go back to not needing to worry about it until at least next year

Ginger occasionally likes to put baking related accessories on herself, likes trying out different colors, different flavors, sometimes even different frosting shapes! Unfortunately though, like most toons, she can change up her style for a bit but there's this weird part of her that feels like she's doing something wrong by being different from what she was supposed to be at all, even if it's as harmless as an extra gumball on her dress... Weird.

Her and Cosmo Bake all the time! Er- well, when she's there. They usually end up being some of the best meals of the year, between Cosmo's excellence when it comes to flavor, texture, and understanding the balance to make everything work together, and Ginger's natural talent to flawlessly, impressively, and rapidly come up and make some absolutely delectable and gorgeous designs for each and every single food, from the turkey to each cookie, and the care that both of them have for the craft, it ends up being a delectable, delicious, and extremely desirable meals that every Toon looks forward too every year. Even Shrimpo!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Thoughts: Rudie?

In all honesty, I didn't like Rudie at first. The fact that he was literally just a reindeer with a very shiny nose wasn't very appealing. And my problem wasn't really that I viewed him as a Rudolph rip off, it was more so it just wasn't the same kind of creative that all the other toons were, that was just an animal. But after some consideration I think I've grown to like him a bit more, I still stand by the fact that his design could have been more creative, maybe a combination between a Rudolph and some kind of object to make him a bit closer to most toons, but ultimately his design is still cute. And as much as I found the design uncreative, I don't think this poor little guy deserve to get bullied so much :( Because ultimately he's so cute, and he's just a happy little fella :)

Headcannons: Rudie?

He is bi with preference for men 💖💜💙

Rudie just likes running around, he likes being fast! It is quite common to see him pacing around on the floor until you walk up to him and spark a conversation. (Just like me for real for real-)

Rudie always wished he had jingle bells on him, he really likes to play with them and he really likes the sound that they make. He figures that it's probably a good thing that they weren't a part of his design since that would have made the eventual Twisted situation much worse for him, but he's still ends up wishing a bit too often that he just had a little something to fiddle with. Especially since he can't fiddle with a lot of other fine motor stuff because of his lack of fingers, jingle bells are easy since any movement, tap, wiggle, causes them to make some sound. (Again, just like me for real for real)

Rudie isn't precisely the... Most focused. He's not brain dead he just ends up zoning out A LOT. And if he's not zoning out, then he's zoning in way to much on something specific, like the little white particles that came down anytime him and the rest of the quartet would visit, or the slightest imperfections of the wrapped presents that somehow made them even prettier, or the intricate detailing on the floor and wondering how far it goes beneath the floorboards, or if there's just dirt right below it. (At this point diagnose him... Oh wait there's a hand cannons I can diagnose him! Yeah he has ADHD.)

Rudie is actually kinda scared of the dark, and despite the fact he always had a light. He never really told anyone besides the rest of the Christmas Quartet and Toodles. He made Toodles feel better about being scared of the dark since unlike most toons that told her there was nothing to fear in the dark, he told her that the dark can be scary. Even if you have people by your side to support you, that can help guide you, it's okay to still be scared. It's just up to you if you let that being scared stop you, or if you acknowledge it and continue on anyways. He made Toodles feel less alone. She always wants to be so helpful, to prove that just because she's the only kid in gardenview that doesn't make her useless, so anytime she was scared she felt like she was doing something wrong. But Rudie made her feel less wrong... If only he could be here more often.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Thoughts: Coal.

Headcannons: Coal.

Her and Pebble play together a lot, even if that playing is just pebble running around her. Dandy and Bobette find this ADORABLE.

Originally Coal used to chew through Bobette's sweaters all the time, and no matter what Bobette did it seems like she'd never stopped. Then Bobette decided to gift Coal a SUPER thick blanket that she could chew on all she wanted. Coal loved it and to this day she sleeps with it still giving it little nibbles all over.

She makes a lot of grumble noises, and most of the time they sound very aggressive. However usually they're quite harmless, from her wanting food, to just being a little warm. Bobette can tell the difference between every single one. No one else knows how she does it.

If Coal stares at you for a very long time, she probably wants you to Pet her, however to most toons it just looks like she's staring you down trying to murder you with her eyes. But after some...years, of Bobette telling them that she just wants pets they started listening, and in return got some very happy grumbles. :)

Toodles was unfortunately afraid of her a little bit, even though Coal never really doesn't ment any harm. Toodles knew that Coal is a good coal dog but her grumbles and eyes scared her. Every year she slowly got better at interacting with her, but she was still a bit distant from Coal. Then one time when a blackout happened in the middle of the night and she started sniffling, it happened to be winter so coal came into her room and stayed right next to her. Toodles was scared at first but then it ended up making her feel safer because Coal could protect her from the monsters in the dark. Bobette looking for her dog and Rodger going to wake Toodles up found both of them sleeping in the bed next to each other, with Toodles hugging her (with her plushie in between). They decided to let them sleep a little longer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Thoughts: Christmas Quartet :DDDD

They're all cutie patooties and all of their designs are very VERY nice to look at. I also love the fact that they seem so interconnected with other toons especially because I figured they would make them as separate as possible. They're their own special unit, and I'm going to be sad when the event is over :(

Headcannons: Christmas Quartet :DDDD

Originally after gardenview shut down all of the power to the place was cut off, and of course this was terrifying to pretty much all of the toons. Eventually Vee and Dandy were able to fix it, and produce more power, but blackouts even then we're still very common. Turns out the month-long power outage was pretty bad news for the Christmas quartet.

The company found their existence to be inappropriate any other time besides Christmas, but they ended up being so popular that they knew they still needed to add them to gardenview. So their solution was to have their toons, but make it so when it wasn't the season the Christmas quartet would get VERY sleepy and basically knock out for 10 or 11 months. They'd also be put in a cold room during this time period to keep them preserved, and at a comfortable temperature for them.

Since everything shut down the end of June, it was HOT, around the hottest time of the year! So they woke up pretty soon after the outage because they were too hot to sleep. They weren't used to being in anything that wasn't snow and when it wasn't Christmas our Christmas quartet were kept in a cold room, so they were NOT equipped to handle heat.

The toons try to help as much as they could. Giving them ice (that then melted), making cold desserts (that then melted), at one point even putting Coal in the fridge, wasn't as cold as it usually was but it still had a bit left. (That then no longer was cold, and was just room temperature which was higher than usual because again, June) eventually the power finally came back on but even then the frequent blackouts proved to be quite the issue. Eventually a bunch of the smartest toons came together and made a backup energy source that was connected to the cold room. Anytime a blackout happened, ichor powered fans would automatically turn on, and turn back off once the power was back.

Finally the Christmas quartet could be at a comfortable temperature again and go back to their practically year long sleep. In a way they were relieved but like every year, they had to leave the rest of the toons again. And unlike every year they knew that they were never going to see people again... Nothing was ever going to be normal again. And having this realization with the rest of the toons was...hard. But despite that anytime they came back for Christmas, was the time of Hope. It made everyone feel a little less alone. And they needed to feel less alone.

[emerulynn]

where is my intergalactic road trip with the holy quartet @/cartoon network

Uh the descriptions of each pic down below (aka I shower you with my headcanons)

1. They have a sleepover and snuggle also Gwen did all of their nails. Also this is a wip i intend to color in but who knows when so im posting it anw

2. Christmas gifts (?) tbh idk I just want to draw cat-themed clothing and accessories on these two

3. This one is Rook being all 'oh silly Ben the cold does not bother me the climate on Revonnah is quite extreme you see' and then he stepped outside and fucking died but dw Ben lent him a scarf (Actually the scarf was for Rook but Ben was being "tf i can't give him a scarf that's sap" and this opportunity came along and he was like "uh yknow what keep it, I don't use it much anw". Rook kinda guessed it was for him because the scarf was not green or sth but he kept quiet lolz)

Btw Ben is standing on a box or the perch here bc he's obviously not that tall

I kinda messed around with the trio’s design a bit since i want them to be like 18-20 here

[sternerstufftoys]

Let’s get dangerous!

It is the year 1988... ...Jamaica surprises the world by competing in the Winter Olympics bobsleigh event... ...Comic Relief is formed, surprising the world by not being utterly shit for the first few years... ... and in the Transformers, sales begin to wane, causing certain bots to turn to drink...

In my head 1988 stands as the last Good Year for the Transformers franchise, but in reality the cracks were very visible. Toy robots turning into toy cars just wasn't the draw it had been four years previously, the cartoon had stalled in the US, Turtles were being Teenage Mutant Heroes/Ninjas... life moves on, y'know? But bless Hasbro for trying every last little trick to keep them robots in disguise relevant. 1988 gave rise to a ton of gimmicks, with the belief that if you throw enough crap at the wall, something is sure to stick.

First up, Powermasters! I actually remember my reaction to learning about the Powermaster gimmick. Yes, they come with nebulons. No, they don't become anything useful like guns or heads. In fact, they won't even transform without first plugging the nebulons in. Er, what? I could already transform my Chromedome without needing to unlock anything. Surely making things less convenient was a step back? Yeah, I never actually got any Powermasters. It was probably for the best.

But then you get Dreadwind and Darkwing... who were nonetheless absolute stars. Not going to sugarcoat this, I absolutely loved their appearances in the Marvel comic as a kid and I love them still. I love that the pair gatecrashed a story whose only purpose was to show off Quickswitch as a badass and stole the show by getting drunk in a corner and complaining. I love that they fought The Dead Body of Starscream!!!* I love that they formed a quartet of down-on-their luck hoodlums and despite attaching themselves more powerful allies, never really caught a break. I love especially that in the wraparound cover for a Christmas issue, the two were seen having drinks at the Autobot Christmas party, because fuck the war, there's drinks.

And good-looking a design though Dreadwind had, Darkwing was always the cool-looking one, and continues to be in the Power of the Primes version of his toy. Only now he's a combiner as well as a Powermaster, so... this is going to get a little messy. He takes as his base the Aerialbot Air Raid mould, and at a quick glance the alt modes do look a bit similar, but in reality this is only a remould from the waist down. Pretty much every part north of the border is new, and it makes for an astonishingly good robot mode. Pleasingly there's no generic-o rifle that adorned the majority of Combiner Wars figures, instead DW gets a pair of pistols to do some quality gunslinging with. And hoo boy are those ever 1988's colours in high definition, with bright blue, teal and purple putting every good shell suit to shame.

He also makes for a great combiner. I'm not just saying that, he really does make for a smashing arm for any Decepticon Goliath, with his wings making for a fantastic splayed-out crest on one shoulder. Jet mode is good enough, but can't help disguise the great big block of robot kibble underneath. It's a problem shared with every single Aerialbot though, so I'd not want to lay this solely at Darkwing's feet.

And Powermaster gimmicks? Well, yeah. But they're not good. You can't just slap a Nebulon into an existing CW body type and expect it to work, sadly. There just isn't room with the combiner peg already filling up the chest. So instead, all the PotP deluxes had to first put on an ill-fitting baby carrier (sorry, Prime armour) before slapping the Nebulon (sorry, Prime Master) into that. And of course, the Prime armour is also the combiner fist, because of course it is. And of course, there's no mechanical integration, just the knowledge that putting Megatronus into Darkwing's papoose meant he could now "accelerate the extinction cycle of entire planets" yeah yeah whatever. It's like you never met Darkwing. He wouldn't want to do any of that. Just give him some spare change so he can go sit in the pub with his equally miserable mate. They can play darts if they like. In fact, when I become editor on IDW's comics, expect every issue to just be those two down the pub getting sloshed. Every month. Forever.

*honest to god, that image of Starscream's dessicated corpse wandering around burned itself into my infant brain.

[cacchieressa]

Last night, instead of writing, I spent a good portion of my evening tracking down two of my very favorite Regency romances, including what I think is the first one I ever read: A Convenient Bride by Betty Henrichs, which I only found because I remembered that distinctive green band across the top of the cover, since I couldn't remember the author's name (she doesn't seem to have written a whole lot else that I'd have read) and kept trying to google "a marriage of convenience" and "a convenient marriage" both of which bring up way too many books that weren't what I was looking for. However, once I found The Spinster and the Rake by Anne Stuart (available now on kindle from a different publisher or possibly self-published?), I was on the right track, because it was from the same series/publisher, and then it was just a matter of finding a list of all the Candlelight Regencies and recognizing the cover/blurb. *g* So I ordered a used paperback copy for $3.50 since that one is not available as an ebook, and hopefully the suck fairy hasn't visited either too much. I know that I tended to shy away from the more rapey types of romances - probably Vidal in Devil's Cub is the worst hero in my favorites, but it's been a while so we'll see, I guess. So I was telling @thatgirlnevershutsup about this and she was saying that she'd read a lot of contemporary romance but not much in the way of Regencies, and I was like, Regencies are almost the only type of (published) romance I read! And she asked me for recs, and I typed this up this morning off the top of my head, so I figured I'd share it here as well. Obligatory disclaimer: these are obviously books I've read and enjoyed, though some not for years so they could be terrible/rapey etc. and I just don't remember it. Georgette Heyer: Heyer is the progenitor of the genre as we know it today, so I definitely recommend checking her out to see how we got to where we are today (I mean, obviously Jane Austen is a huge influence, but she was more concerned about satirizing the society she lived in, rather than the madcap romance/happily ever after business that is genre romance). Some of her books are hilarious in addition to being romantic. There's no sex here (and sometimes even the romance is hard to detect) but they are all enjoyable, with some caveats about classism, sexism, and antisemitism. These Old Shades Devil's Cub – this is my very favorite, even though its hero (and its classism) has not aged well at all The Grand Sophy – this is also great but beware the antisemitism The Talisman Ring Cotillion Black Sheep Carla Kelly: Kelly's books are less concerned with fantasies about dukes and more concerned with damaged people falling in love and learning to be there for each other Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand – this one is my favorite of hers, but all the ones I've listed here are great reads imo Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career Miss Billings Treads the Boards Marian's Christmas Wish With This Ring Mrs. McVinnie's London Season The Wedding Journey Miss Whittier Makes a List One Good Turn Anita Mills: Scandal Bound – another all-time favorite – as with Devil's Cub, we have a runaway road trip that doesn't go quite the way either the hero or the heroine planned. Jo Beverly: Jo Beverly has written a metric fuckton of romance novels, and I've read and loved a lot of them, but these are the two that came to mind when I thought of her name, though I haven't read either in forever... Deidre & Don Juan Emily & the Dark Angel Mary Balogh: Again, you can't swing a cat in a bookstore without hitting a Mary Balogh romance, and some work more than others – these are just the most recent of hers that I've read and enjoyed. She can be very melodramatic and hit-or-miss for me, but a lot of people love her books. This series is more modern than traditional regency, iirc: The Bedwyns series Tessa Dare: These are more modern regencies – the sex is on the page and often premarital – and while some of the books work for me more than others, I've been enjoying both series a lot. Spindle Cove series Castles Ever After series Julia Quinn: Again, more modern, more sex, this series marries off a whole family of siblings, one book at a time. The Bridgertons series and its spinoff series, The Smythe-Smith quartet (I've only read the first two so far, but they've been fun) Loretta Chase: Chase has also written a ton of romances, so this is just scratching the surface, but I enjoyed both series a lot. The Dressmakers series The Carsington Brothers series I thought that was a good list to start with. Feel free to add your own recs!

(xpost from dw)